Living in a Legacy [ON INDEFINITE HIATUS]

Introduction

Hi! So, if you're reading this, you probably either like Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra (very likely)... or you just like reading my writing (not very likely, XD). If the latter is true, and you haven't watched either show, fear not, because I am going to provide you with the information you need... I think. And if you have watched them both (and again, and again, because they're both great shows!!) then you can also read this part, if you'd like a recap, and also something about the characters. 

Recap: So, the gist of Avatar: the Last Airbender is that there is a cycle of Avatars, and Aang, a twelve-year-old boy, is the current incarnation of the Avatar. He lives in the four nations and is an air nomad. The next Avatar would be Water, the next Earth, and then Fire, and then back to Air, and so on and so forth. It's a cycle, like I said. The Avatar is the only one with the power to master all four elements, but doing so takes time and many, many years of training. 

Now, in the Four Nations, there are different styles of bending. Waterbending, which is from the Water Tribes, a nation inspired by the Intuit people, is the manipulation of already existing water. With training, you can draw water from the air, from living creatures, and, if you are powerful enough, learn the incredibly creepy and, might I add, outlawed in Legend of Korra, bloodbending. It's super creepy and unnatural to watch, in my opinion, but is a subset of waterbending and is when you manipulate the water in someone's blood to control their movements, like puppet. 

Earthbending originates from the Earth Kingdom, which is the main nation that the Fire Nation is at war with. Earthbenders can manipulate existing earth, like rocks, and I believe that sandbending is a subset of it. Lavabending, an exceptionally rare talent, is also a subset, and metalbending, another subset of Earthbending and originated by Toph Beifong, is the manipulation of metal. The Earth Kingdom was constantly under the tyrannical rule of Fire Lord Ozai (or, as my brother and I refer to him: Sith Lord Ozai, because of his Sith lighting--Star Wars fan, anyone?) doing the Hundred Year war, a war that literally lasted, well, one hundred years and split the nations apart. 

Firebending is from the Fire Nation, which, during the Hundred Year war, was under the dictatorship of Ozai and kinda tried to conquer the world because he was a little power-hungry and crazy, if you ask me. But anyway, firebending is super rad and the manipulation of fire and heat. A subset of that is lightning bending, when you can control electricity. (Side note: firebenders' fire is typically red, like fire, but Azula, Zuko's sister, has blue fire.) A powerful enough bender can channel lightning, like Zuko, but only the truly talented and powerful can actually manipulate it, like Mako from Legend of Korra. 

And last but not least, Airbending, Aang, the current Avatar's first element that he mastered, is from the Air Nation. Crazy Fire Lord Ozai managed to completely wipe out the Air Nomads while Aang was trapped in an ice berg for a hundred years, so he was super shocked when he found out they were dead--and desolate, and sad. (He was trapped in an iceberg because he went out int the ocean during a crazy storm and almost drowned but froze himself in ab block of ice to save himself. He went out into the storm because he was running away, since he had literally just been told, at age 12, that he had to save the world, and that he was the Avatar.) Airbending is the manipulation of air, and typically used to deflect. Air Nomads usually dislike confrontation and attacking without provocation, but occasionally dire circumstances call for desperate measures and they will attack. When an Air Nomad masters Airbending through passing a series of rigorous tests, they are given a blue arrow tattoo from their head to the rest of their body to symbolize it. (Airbender are also vegetarians and ride Sky Bison. Aang's is named Appa. He also has a money-lemur named Momo.)

Okay, moving on. During Avatar, Aang was found by Water Tribe siblings Katara and Sokka--Katara is a Waterbender, Sokka is not, but uses a boomerang. Toph refers to him as "Captain Boomerang" occasionally. They went around the world so he could master the elements and met a lot of interesting people, including Toph, the world's most powerful Earthbender. Through the majority of the series Zuko, a banished Prince from the Fire Nation (horrible father, right? Yeah, it's Ozai.) and his amazingly wise Uncle Iroh journey to regain his honor, and Zuko thinks it's hunting and killing Aang. But at the end, they all join forces and Aang takes away Ozai's bending, because, yeah, he can do that--and then they save the world and end the Hundred Years' War. Yay!