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Avatar: The Last Airbender - Who Is Avatar Kuruk?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

By Jillian Unrau

Published Apr 7, 2024

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Where Did Avatar Kuruk Come From?

What Did Kuruk Do As The Avatar?

Kuruk's Legacy

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a franchise that focuses mainly on two Avatars - Aang and Korra, the protagonists of their respective shows. However, the other Avatars that came before them are important to the story as well. They inform the decisions that Aang and Korra make because they are their past lives, and they are able to have a connection with those past Avatars.

Some of the past Avatars, like Roku or Kyoshi, get a lot of focus on them from the series and the fandom. However, there are other Avatars that had interesting lives as well that don't get quite as much mention in the series proper. One such character is Kuruk, the Avatar who came in between Yangchen and Kyoshi. Kuruk had an impact on the world, much like every Avatar did, but where did he come from, and why exactly was he important enough to mention in the show?

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Who Is Avatar Yangchen?

Yangchen was one of the more beloved Avatars, and brought a lot of peace to the world during her life.

Where Did Avatar Kuruk Come From?

Kuruk was born in the Northern Water Tribe just after Avatar Yangchen died, as was tradition for the Avatar. He excelled at earthbending, but had what was considered an improper technique (as his form was too loose), and the only person who agreed with Kuruk's style was a fellow student named Jianzhu. The two soon had a close friendship, and Jianzhu would accompany him on later adventures.

Kuruk was a very powerful bender who hoped to carry on the legacy of the Avatar before him, Yangchen, who was known for bringing a period of peace to the world. However, he would have an encounter with a dark spirit that would quickly dash his hopes, and cement what his specific legacy as the Avatar would become.

What Did Kuruk Do As The Avatar?

Kuruk had a confrontation with the Heartwalker of Yaoping in the Spirit World, and after defeating the dark spirit, he fell into a deep depression. It was determined that fighting dark spirits would take a toll on Kuruk and damage his own spirit. More spirits were crossing over into the mortal realm, and to prevent anyone else from experiencing the same darkness that he had, Kuruk chose to fight these spirits over and over on his own. He ended one of the more intense dark spirit invasions by battling against and weakening a powerful dark spirit, Father Glowworm.

Kuruk became so focused on defeating spirits that he neglected the other duties he was supposed to uphold as the Avatar. Because of his weakened psychological state, he spent his free time pursuing a more hedonistic lifestyle to try and relieve the pain he was feeling in his spirit. This was unusual, as Avatars are typically dedicated to their roles and aren't supposed to become distracted in that way.

Kuruk had incurred the wrath of the spirits because of his constant conflicts against them, as well as for his lifestyle choices, and he was made to pay for them by losing someone very close to him. Ummi, his fiancée, was taken by Koh the Face Stealer, an ancient spirit. Kuruk wanted to kill Koh after this, but realized that killing him would also mean killing the love of his life, so he was unable to go through with it.

Kuruk's Legacy

Kuruk died incredibly young, at the age of 33, due to his life force being drained by the sickness set upon him by the dark spirits. He had focused so much on these spirits and on his own desires that he hadn't actually done much to solve the mortal world's problems, and this led to many upheavals and a huge amount of conflict among the four nations in the period after his death.

Kuruk was perceived as an Avatar that had failed, particularly because he followed Yangchen, and she had brought a period of peace to the nations that was essentially reversed by Kuruk's actions. Of course, most of the general public was unaware of the sacrifices he had made and the loneliness he had endured and simply wrote him off as an Avatar who did nothing (even though he spent so much time staving off the dark spirits from the mortal world). This, at least, yielded some positive results, as very few spirit attacks occurred after Kuruk's death.