Summary
- In "Avatar: The Last Airbender," the Avatar serves as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds, tasked with bringing balance to all nations.
- Famous past Avatars like Roku, Kyoshi, and Kurk play a crucial role in shaping the world's destiny alongside the main character, Aang.
- Each Avatar has a unique lifespan and story, from Kuruk's tragic search for his lost love to Aang's emergence from a century-long slumber to fulfill his destiny.
While Avatar: The Last Airbender, Nickelodeon's acclaimed animated series focuses on the titular Aang, it also prominently features many past Avatars. The Avatar is the one person in the Four Nations in the franchise who has access to all four categories of bending. They are tasked with a connection to the physical and spiritual worlds and the duty to bring balance to the world around them. The original series focuses on Aang, only twelve years old. He has a connection to the Avatars who have come before him though, able to learn from their experience.
Fans became familiar with figures like Roku, Kyoshi, and Kurk through the seasons. And, of course, fans met a new Avatar in viewers learn of Aang's fate: due to his years in ice, he lived a shorter life with his peers. For those readers wondering how long the other Avatars lived, there's a wide range of ages among the Avatars.
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Kyoshi
Originally An Earthbender
Kyoshi is iconic for many reasons: she is an incredible female Avatar who showed no remorse or fear in the face of her enemies. She also happened to create an island with her earthbending abilities and inspire a long line of Kyoshi warriors who follow in her footsteps. She was the tallest Avatar with the biggest foot size. Kyoshi lived the longest of any known Avatar (and human!) in the universe at 230 years old.
Kyoshi's life was truly legendary. She is such a fan favorite, in fact, that she landed a spin-off book series by author F.C. Yee. The YA books, which take place nearly 400 years before the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, focus on Kyoshi's younger years and rise to become the fiercest and longest-living Avatar. Kyoshi is one of the first past Avatars that Aang is able to connect with in both the animated and live-action series.
Wan
The First Avatar
Wan was the very first Avatar and his saga was featured in the two-part episode of The Legend of Korra, "Beginnings." Fans have deemed it a favorite special across both series. In Wan's day there were lionturtles that carried whole cities on their backs and performed bending themselves. It was Wan who asked a lionturtle for firebending abilities to help his people. When he was eventually banished by his people, he was allowed to keep his firebending skill, and he eventually sought out the other lionturtles to learn the other three kinds of bending.
Wan truly became the first Avatar, however, when meeting with Raava and merging with the spirt. Wan was 20 years old when he merged with Raava. When Wan died, this final breath went into starting the Avatar Cycle. He was then reincarnated. He was elderly when he died, and he ed on the battlefield. Wan lived to be 160 years old.
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Yangchen
Originally An Airbender
Yangchen was a peaceful, able airbender. She believed in living out sacrificial, serving duties as the Avatar, and was an opposing voice for Aang against the stronger-willed opinions of other Avatars. While the others might have advocated for aggressive actions, she advocated for negotiation. She lived in such peace, in fact, that there were no wars in her lifetime, which is an impressive feat considering the lives of the other known (and named) Avatars.
Her life did not meet a terrible demise like her successors, Kuruk, or Roku. Yangchen lived to 155 years, one of the longest-lived Avatars and humans. This can probably be attributed to the world peace she achieved, and her respected status as a saint and her own personal nirvana. If Kyoshi is one of the most feared Avatars, then Yangchen is one of the most respected Avatars.
Aang
The Last Airbender
At 12, Aang ran away, encased himself in ice, and eluded the world for 100 years. He was afraid of the responsibility of being the Avatar, and hadn't even undergone training when he instinctively entered the Avatar state and preserved himself in ice. He survived the genocide of his people and a raging war during this time. But in the end, this 100-year period caught up to him. When he emerged from the ice at 12, Aang had to fast-track his training to help save the world from Firelord Ozai and restore balance to the world.
Sadly, Aang died at 66 years old, because the effects of 10 decades in the iceberg had a lasting impact. Technically, one could say he started the series at 112 years old and thus lived an additional 54 years on top of that. He made huge strides in his time as Avatar and had a lasting legacy.
Roku
Originally A Firebender
Roku appears to Aang as an older man when Aang seeks counsel, with long white hair and beard. But in Book 3 of The Last Airbender, fans get to see him as a young man alongside his best friend Sozin. At this age, he is young and awkward, but meets the love of his life and grows up. Unfortunately, it is due to Sozin that Roku meets his untimely death.
At 70 years old, seemingly young for an Avatar, Roku tries to prevent the destructive overflow of a volcano and ultimately gives his life to protect others. Thus, he appears in this form to Aang as he guides the young Avatar through his duties, and it is his most recognizable age to viewers. It does seem that the past Avatars are able to choose the age at which they appear to the present Avatar though as Aang appears to Korra as a younger man.
Kuruk
Originally A Waterbender
Of the Avatars named in the original animated series, Avatar Kuruk died the youngest at only 33 years old. His story is among the most tragic, as well. On his wedding day, his betrothed was sucked into the Spirit World. Each year, on the anniversary of this day, he ventured into the realm to retrieve her. He spent the rest of his life searching for her.
Famously, Koh stole her face, a story that gets even more explanation in the live-action Netflix adaptation. There, it's revealed that Kuruk also spends so much time in the Spirit World because he's keeping darker spirits at bay. Kuruk encounters Aang during the animated show while his spirit is trapped searching for her. In his final moments, Kuruk urged his friends to be part of the search for the next Avatar (who would eventually be Kyoshi). He was committed to his role to the very end.
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Korra
Originally A Waterbender
Audiences met Korra, the headstrong Avatar following Aang, at 17 years old, though the series did flashback to younger ages occasionally. The Legend of Korra picked up 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. She was significantly older than Aang was at the start of her program, and her story crossed over three years by the end of its run. In the canonical comic series, she is 21. The end of her story is unknown.
This difference in age really had an impact on how the Avatars turned out. Aang, as a young boy, fled his Avatar duties, while Korra learned of her true identity young enough that she embraced the role and was masterfully trained. Even an elderly Katara had a part to play in her training.
While these are the only named Avatars with known ages, there are hundreds more Avatars that would have come before Aang and Korra, and it's likely their ages and experience differed greatly in the Avatar franchise.
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Avatar: The Last Airbender
9/10- Release Date
- 2005 - 2008-00-00
- Showrunner
- Michael Dante DiMartino
- Directors
- Dave Filoni
Cast
Mako
WHERE TO WATCH
StreamingBUYAvatar: The Last Airbender is an Animated Fantasy and Adventure series that appeared on Nickelodeon and was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The series featured voices from Zach Tyler Eisen, Jack DeSena, Dante Basco, and Mae Whitman. The premise follows a young boy named Aang, an Air Bender who is set to be the next Avatar, master of all elements, in a bit to unite the nations together and bring peace.
- Writers
- Michael Dante DiMartino
- Seasons
- 3
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The Legend of Korra
- Release Date
- 2012 - 2014-00-00
- Showrunner
- Bryan Konietzko
- Directors
- Joaquim Dos Santos
Cast
Janet Varney
P.J. Byrne
WHERE TO WATCH
StreamingBUYThis spinoff of Avatar: The Last Airbender follows the titular Korra, the new generation's Avatar and reincarnation of Aang. As an Avatar, Korra can bend all four elements, and the show follows her adventure through the difficulties in a rapidly growing world.
- Writers
- Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
- Seasons
- 4
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