Avatar: The Last Airbender information

Aang, and his friends in their quest to save the world from the ruthless Fire Nation. The series is written in the form of a book series, with each episode serving as a "chapter" and each individual season as a "book."

Originally slated to begin airing November 2004, Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted on TV on February 21, 2005. The show is also available on DVD or for download at the iTunes Store and Xbox Live Marketplace. Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are the creators and executive producers of the series. The show receives high ratings in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside its intended 6-to-11-year-old demographic. Avatar: The Last Airbender is popular with both audiences and critics, garnering 4.4 million viewers on its best-rated showing.

Creation of Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender is co-created/produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California. It is animated in South Korea. The first episode of Avatar was created six years following its original conception, a period much longer than the norm for animated shows.

According to co-creator Bryan Konietzko, the concept of the program was initially conceived when he took an old sketch of his—a balding, middle-aged man—and turned the character into a child. Bryan then did a drawing in which the boy was shepherding bison through the sky. At the time, Mike DiMartino was studying a documentary about explorers who were trapped in the South Pole. The various aspects all seemed to gradually come together. The two thought:

The co-creators proceeded to successfully pitch the idea to Nickelodeon VP and executive producer Eric Coleman just two weeks later.

While it was originally set to premiere in November 2004, the first episode of Avatar aired in February 2005. Following the conclusion of the first season of Avatar, Nickelodeon promptly ordered a second twenty-episode season that premiered on March 17, 2006, and concluded on December 1. The third season began on September 21, 2007.

In an interview with Steve Fritz for the Beckett Unofficial Pokemon Collector magazine, Bryan Koneietzko confirmed that Nickelodean has signed on for an additional three seasons, meaning that if all seasons are produced, Avatar would have a run of at least six seasons total. However, both he and co-creator Mike DiMartino have repeatedly also confirmed that there will be no season four nor other additional seasonal arcs to their current storyline. Although the co-creators do go on to state that they have other plans in regards to the continuation of their expanded universe.

Avatar: The Last Airbender World

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world, home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called "Benders" have the ability to manipulate their native element. These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and elemental mysticism. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into an unborn baby native in the next of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air. While legend holds that the Avatar must master the elements in order, starting with their native element, this can sometimes be compromised when the situation requires it. Learning to bend the element opposite one's native element is extremely difficult because opposing Bending arts are based on opposing fighting styles and doctrines. Firebending and Waterbending are opposites as are Earthbending and Airbending.

The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him or her, called the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism that empowers the Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars. When the state is reached, the current Avatar will be able to wield the combined power of all past lives. When the Avatar enters this state, his or her eyes and mouth, and tattoos in the case of an Airbender, begin to glow. The glow is the representation of all the Avatar's previous incarnations focusing their energy through his or her body. However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.

Through the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order. The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.

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