Avatar: The Last Airbender first premiered on February 21, 2005, on Nickelodeon. It became the highest-rated animated TV series in its demographic on the first episode premiere. The first airing of the series finale had 5.6 million viewers tuning in. As of July 2022, ATLA has a 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
This series franchise has produced a prequel novel series, ongoing comics, a sequel animated series, and a live-action film. Netflix is producing a live-action remake of ATLA and an animated Zuko film has been confirmed. Though fans wanted an MMORPG console game first, it seems that the ATLA console game will be an RPG.
10 Ty Lee
Ty Lee, voiced by Olivia Hack, became Princess Azula and Mai’s friend when they all met at school. Ty Lee runs away to join the circus tired of being around her six identical sisters. Azula recruits her to join her as she hunts down her family fugitives.
Ty Lee is extremely agile which she uses during her hand-to-hand fights. She also uses her chi-blocking abilities to paralyze her opponents and render skilled benders without the use of their bending for a while. Ty Lee was also very loyal to Azula but turned against her when Mai stood up to her when Prince Zuko needed to escape.
9 Mai
Mai, voiced by Cricket Lee, was friends with Azula and Ty Lee and has a crush on Zuko. Azula recruited her after recruiting Ty Lee. She had her first run-in with Avatar Aang and his friends in the city of Omashu before traveling with Azula and Ty Lee.
Mai has excellent agility, speed, and reflexes, and is an expert markswoman. She’s able to throw hand arrows and shuriken knives with deadly accuracy. However, when Azula threatens to kill Zuko, Mai betrays Azula ensuring Zuko lives and escapes. Her and Ty Lee’s betrayal begin to unravel Azula’s mental state.
8 Fire Lord Ozai
Fire Lord Ozai ruled the Fire Nation at the end of the Hundred Years War and sought to rule the world. He planned on using Sozin’s Comet to deliver a final blow to the Earth Kingdom. However, Aang is able to energybend and take away his firebending powers finally ending the war.
Ozai is rumored to be one of the most powerful firebenders in the world. Though he has the entire Fire Nation army doing his bidding, Ozai himself doesn’t make much of an appearance in the show. Azula presents more of an ongoing and immediate threat than Ozai to Team Avatar.
7 Uncle Iroh
Iroh, voiced by Mako Iwamatsu and Greg Baldwin, is also known as the Dragon of the West because of his ability to breathe fire. He was the eldest son of Fire Lord Azulon and was supposed to be his successor. However, the loss of his only son was a devastating blow and his younger brother ascended the throne.
Iroh was a wise and calming influence on his nephew Zuko. Studying different elemental benders, his knowledge and respect for each grew, and he was even able to create his technique for redirecting lightning because of it. His advice helped Zuko, but he also offered sage advice to people in Team Avatar.
6 Sokka
Sokka, voiced by Jack DeSena, is Katara’s sarcastic older brother who takes his role as protector very seriously. At the beginning of the show, he’s sexist, immature, and abrasive, with bender envy and little combat skill. By the end, he’s become a master swordsman, a great warrior and strategist, and an effective leader.
Sokka’s comedic antics and wit throughout the show bring much-needed relief and balance to the group. Since he’s the only nonbender in the group, he fills in needed roles to help Aang as much as he can. Sokka’s creativity, intelligence, and adaptability helped him come up with many ideas to try and problem-solve obstacles the group faced.
5 Princess Azula
Azula, voiced by Grey DeLisle, is Zuko’s younger sister. Born a princess and said to be a firebending prodigy at a young age, Azula became narcissistic, overly confident, manipulative, and cruel. She was the main antagonist towards Team Avatar and Zuko and Iroh in seasons 2 and 3.
Azula has incredible firebending abilities (which are showcased in her blue flames and ability to create and redirect lightning), shows masterful skill in hand-to-hand combat, high intelligence, and is a cunning strategist. Had Katara not been able to revive Aang, she would’ve succeeded in killing the Avatar and ending the Avatar cycle. Which makes her more dangerous than her father, however, her character didn’t have a character arc as interesting as her brother’s.
4 Katara
Katara, voiced by Mae Whitman, uses her waterbending in anger and accidentally uncovers Aang and Appa who were frozen in ice. As soon as she realized Aang was the Avatar, she believed that it was his destiny to end the war and became a key member of Team Avatar.
Katara eventually became a master waterbender, a skilled healer, and a bloodbender. She accompanied Zuko during Sozin’s Comet to help him defeat his sister. Had it not been for Katara’s healing abilities and quick thinking using water with magical properties to revive Aang, he would’ve died, and broken the Avatar cycle.
3 Prince Zuko
Zuko, voiced by Dante Basco, is banished from the Fire Nation and tasked with finding the Avatar in order to restore his honor. During his travels, he’s accompanied by his uncle who tries to reason with him. Though he manages to capture and rescue Aang more than once, he eventually decides to help Aang and begins teaching him how to firebend.
Zuko is one of the most conflicted and damaged souls with a great character arc in the show. He tirelessly pursues Aang and his companions, his anger fueling him for most of the series. He also shows his masterful skill with swords in several combats. Zuko goes through intense inner turmoil before he turns against his father. His character offered many shocking moments and one of the greatest bending battles in the show’s entirety.
2 Toph Beifong
Toph Beifong, voiced by Jesse Flower, was born into a wealthy Earth kingdom family. Because she was born blind, her overprotective parents kept her existence secret from the world. When she was five, she ran away and hid in a badgermole cave. Here, she learned how to earth bend and learned to “see” using vibrations she sensed through her feet.
Toph agrees to help train Aang as a way to finally experience the freedom she never had at home. She is one of the most powerful earthbenders of her time, so powerful that she invents metalbending and even learns how to sandbend. A brutally honest and loyal friend and master earthbender, Toph quickly became a very important addition to the team at 12 years old.
1 Avatar Aang
Aang, voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen, was an air nomad from the Southern Air Temple. He excelled at airbending and became a master by age 12 earning his tattoos as well. Shortly after, Aang was told he was the Avatar, four years early, because the monks believed a war was coming. Unfortunately, this proved too much for Aang, and he ran away with his sky bison Appa. They were caught in a storm and Aang saved them from drowning by freezing them both, accidentally staying frozen for 100 years. Once out of the ice, Aang is still biologically and mentally 12 when he learns the terrible things that have happened in the world because the Avatar vanished.
Though Aang could access the Avatar state and connect with all the past Avatars, he still needed to master the remaining three outside the Avatar state. He was able to learn how to use the remaining three in under a year making him the first to become a fully realized Avatar so quickly and so young. Aang was also the first known Avatar to learn how to seismic sense and redirect lightning. He is one of the very few Avatars to learn how to energybend and do it successfully, and was able to meet with every original source of the different bending arts. Especially impressive for a 12-year-old indeed.
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