Lots of animated shows come and go, but few manage to establish themselves as cultural touchstones. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of those few shows, and since its debut, it has managed to spiral outwards into a powerful multimedia franchise. The Legend of Korra has become a beloved successor to Avatar: The Last Airbender, while comic books about Team Avatar's further adventures continue to come out. Avatar looks like it'll continue expanding thanks to the formation of Avatar Studios, a new group led by the original show's creators. Avatar Studios is reportedly collaborating on several video games based on Avatar: The Last Airbender's world, and hopefully these games are only the first of many.
Avatar Studios is supposedly helping some studios develop an Avatar RPG and MMORPG, but there's a very different style of game that Avatar Studios should look into: LEGO. Traveller's Tales has a long history of making LEGO video games that retell the stories of major IPs like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord of the Rings. While Avatar: The Last Airbender only has a limited relationship with physical LEGO products, the show itself seems perfect for a licensed LEGO game, thanks to its balanced tone, memorable world, and the power of bending.
LEGO Avatar's Gameplay Potential
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, many people have the remarkable power to control one of four elements, and sometimes even a subtype of that element. That immediately makes Avatar much more plausible as a LEGO game. Lots of Traveller's Tales' LEGO games have brick piles and objects that only certain characters can interact with; in a lot of LEGO Star Wars games, for instance, only Sith can build with or break certain dark bricks. LEGO Avatar: The Last Airbender could have all kinds of unique building puzzles that channel elemental bending in the same way. Waterbenders could build unique objects out of ice using water, metal objects could be indestructible to everyone but metalbenders, and so on.
Avatar is also well-suited to make use of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's innovations. The Skywalker Saga famously has a huge overworld composed of many planets; while LEGO Avatar might have a slightly smaller world, its four nations are full of memorable locations from the shows that could all be woven together into an overworld that players can traverse with the help of Appa or a Fire Nation blimp. The Skywalker Saga also introduces RPG-like skill trees and complex combat mechanics to Traveller's Tales' LEGO series, both of which LEGO Avatar could make use of, letting players learn new bending techniques before leaping into high-stakes battles with Fire Nation soldiers and other villains from The Last Airbender.
A New Look for LEGO
Beyond Avatar: The Last Airbender's lore, the show also has a tone that seems like a perfect fit for a LEGO game. Traveller's Tales usually features more lighthearted and family-friendly retellings of famous IPs in its LEGO games, although The Skywalker Saga seems to balance jokes with memorable, moving Star Wars moments. As a show full of both comedy and drama, Avatar: The Last Airbender provides perfect source material for a LEGO game, allowing Traveller's Tales to find clever retellings of Avatar's jokes while preserving some of the show's most iconic and serious story beats.
The biggest thing standing in the way of a LEGO Avatar game is likely the show's limited connection to LEGO itself; there have only been two LEGO sets for Avatar: The Last Airbender to date. Traveller's Tales would have to make up designs for a lot of minifigures and Avatar creatures. Still, in the end, it would likely be worth the effort. Avatar: The Last Airbender is resurgent right now, thanks to Avatar Studios' growing list of projects, and LEGO games are growing too because of The Skywalker Saga. There's never been a better time to combine LEGO with Avatar.
An Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG and MMORPG are reportedly in development.
