Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar:The Legend of Korra exist within a story that spans seven seasons of television. It's a magical world filled with humans who can wield elements as tools to enhance or defend their lives. There's only one being who can wield all four elements of water, earth, fire, and wind: The Avatar. The world relies on the Avatar to mediate between the human and spirit worlds but also keep peace between the four nations.
The first Avatar audiences meet is Aang, the last airbender. Before him, there were 181 Avatars with rich histories and intricate challenges they needed to overcome. After Aang came Korra, a member of the Southern Water Tribe who exhibited skill with three of the four elements while still a toddler. However, the timeline for Avatar doesn't only highlight Aang and Korra's lifetimes because the world existed before them and kept spinning long after their stories. Before Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender premieres, take a look at the timeline of events.
Before The Air Nomad Genocide
10,000 years before the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the first Avatar walked the planet. Wan didn't become the first Avatar naturally, as the spirits didn't create the Avatar with the creation of the world. At first, spirits, humans, and Lion Turtles coexisted. However, it was the task of the Lion Turtles to protect humanity. Because of this, humans typically lived on the shells of gargantuan Lion Turtles, but when they inevitably ventured beyond the safety of the shell, the Lion Turtles granted them the ability to bend the elements. Only for the duration of their journey beyond the shell, though.
Wan used firebending for self-serving needs, forcing a Lion Turtle to banish him from its turtle shell and into the spirit wilds where it was dangerous because of malevolent spirits. Spirits managed to trick Wan into freeing Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos. Luckily, Wan merged with Raava, the spirit of light and peace, and defeated Vaatu. Raava's bond with Wan became permanent, turning him into the first Avatar. With his newfound power, Wan sealed the portals to the spirit world to keep humanity safe.
Air Nomad Genocide
Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Thousands of years would pass after Avatar Wan's existence. The Four Nations would take form and the cycle of the Avatar would be well-documented. This was the key to the Fire Nation's attack. Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku were good friends, but Roku wouldn't allow Sozin to "share the success" of the Fire Nation by expanding its borders into other nations. This put a wedge between the friends that led to decades of zero communication between the two. Roku's adamant stance against Sozin's plans kept the Fire Lord from enacting them. But then an opportunity presented itself.
When the volcano on Roku's home island erupted, the Avatar lept to action to save the island's inhabitants. Sozin also came to his friend's aid. However, when Roku found himself trapped in the eruption, Sozin realized that without Roku around, he could follow through with his vision for global domination, and he allowed the Avatar to perish. Hundreds of miles away, a young Air Nomad, the next Avatar by the name of Aang, was born.
Sozin knew the reincarnation cycle would make an Air Nomad the next Avatar. If he had any hope for his plans to come to fruition, he needed to prevent the next Avatar from emerging. At the very least, it would buy him time to establish Fire Nation colonies around the world. The only solution he saw was the obliteration of all Air Nomads. Just before the Fire Nation attacked the next Avatar's home, the boy suspected of being the Avatar left on his air bison, Appa, which ultimately saved his life. Unfortunately, he would become the last surviving airbender.
Aang Emerges
After Aang fled the Southern Air Temple, he and Appa found themselves caught in a life-threatening storm. The severity of the storm triggered the Avatar state within Aang, allowing him to encase himself and Appa in an iceberg that would keep the duo frozen but alive for the next 100 years. Without knowing where the Avatar was, but knowing the next Avatar would be a waterbender, the Fire Nation subjected the Southern Water Tribe to a century of torment. While out practicing her waterbending skills, a young woman named Katar discovered Aang and Appa and freed them from their ice prison.
Aang found himself in a world completely different from the one he knew. This confused him for a bit because he thought he was in the ice for no more than a month. When he learned the world had been without its Avatar for 100 years, the weight of responsibility barreled down on him more than when he first fled the air temple. This would initiate the beginning of Aang's training to become the Avatar. As he traveled across the world to master the four elements, he learned many lessons while making new friends and meeting old ones.
Aang struggled with earthbending for a while, but his ally Toph, a blind earthbending master, eventually got through to him. Mastering firebending was the real challenge, as every firebender wanted to kill the airbender. His teacher in firebending came from the most unlikely of people: Prince Zuko, the one person who was overzealous in his pursuit of the Avatar. Zuko eventually joined forces with Aang and the others and taught Aang everything he needed to know about firebending.
This prepared the Avatar for his final encounter with Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko's authoritarian father. Aang's battle with Ozai would take every lesson he learned as the presence of Sozin's comet amplified the Fire Lord's powers, making him a more formidable opponent unlike any Aang had previously faced. Before the encounter, Aang visited a Lion Turtle who taught him the secrets of energybending. This technique allowed Aang, when things didn't look to be going in his favor, to strip Ozai of his bending abilities. This ushered in the first period of peace the world had seen in over 100 years as it ended the 100-Year War.
After Aang
After the 100-year war, the world saw a relatively peaceful period. Aang and Katara would get married years after the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, and they would raise their family of airbenders. The nations of the world would go on to form the United Republic of Nations along with Republic City as its capital. Toph formally introduced metalbending as a discipline for earthbenders to practice. Peace never lasts, unfortunately.
When a waterbending crime lord by the name of Yakone terrorized Republic City with his bloodbending abilities, Aang was forced to take action. Aang stripped Yakone of his abilities just as he did to Ozai years prior. Yakone attempted to exact his revenge against Aang by training his two sons in bloodbending. Unfortunately for Yakone, his son Noatak didn't want to take part in his revenge plot and fled his home, putting an end to Yakone's revenge tour. 40 years later, the events of Legend of Korra would take place.
In a rapidly advancing world, Korra would learn that being the Avatar has changed since the time of Aang. Unlike the time of Aang and the previous Avatars, there was a gap between benders and non-benders where those without bending abilities felt like benders saw themselves as superior. On top of fighting Amon and his group of Equalists, Korra had to bridge the gap between benders and non-benders on top of bridging the spirit and physical world. Besides Amon, Korra would go on to quell threats by the spirit of darkness and chaos Vaatu, the Red Lotus, and the metalbender Kuvira. Each encounter delivered a new conflict for Korra to solve.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world.
- Release Date
- February 21, 2005
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Studio
- Nickelodeon Animation Studio
- Creator
- Michael Dante DiMartino
- Number of Episodes
- 61
- Network
- Nickelodeon
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
