#avatar cycle

[zuzus-ponytail]

once aang masters the avatar state, he channels previous avatars just for the lols.

kyoshi pops up for suki’s birthday. and spars with her and toph. probably ends up adopting toph (she’s wanted to do that since the blind bandit episode)

szeto and sokka harmonise the fire lord anthem.

iroh v kuruk pai sho. the game lasts three days and no, they haven’t slept at all.

roku wanders around the palace gardens sighing. he feeds the turtle ducks with zuko and azula.

katara pesters yangchen for all the dirty details on kavik. she and sokka have girl talk with wan.

[teeth317]

Can you see the depression in his eyes

Also WHY TF IS THIS MF SO HARD TO DRAW

[zoeysdamn]

||Avatar the last airbender tarot | The World | the Avatar cycle||

[click for better quality!]

[Other cards of the ATLA tarot can be found here and on my Instagram art account]

[DO NOT REPOST OR REUSE WITHOUT LEGAL AND EXPLICIT AUTHORIZATION]

The World is considered to be the end of the journey of the major arcanas. To me, it’s somehow similar to the concept of the Avatar cycle, so I wanted to draw several of them. The choice of the composition was the most difficult: I had several ideas, but barely the skills or place on the card to choose them. So I settled on something more easy, and I included Korra. If we started the tarot with Aang, then it’s only logical to give the card meaning the end of the journey to the next Avatar (plus, I really loved TLOK, don’t hit me)

[imthepunchlord]

If AtLA did get that season 4 the writers wanted, I kinda wonder if they would've revealed the origins of the Avatar and what they would've done; as LoK's take on the spirits and the origins of the Avatar and bending felt disconnected from what AtLA previously set up (at least for me).

As I never got the original show's answer, it led to me pondering it and I had a thought I felt makes more sense.

Based on AtLA and how spirits were, I thought that the Avatar originally started as a powerful spirit that was tied to nature, and had a fondness for humanity and how they connected to nature, strong enough that they developed bending. And similar to La and Tui, they mortalized themselves in human form to be amongst other humans, only they had the unique ability to bend all four elements.

And between being a powerful spirit that's tied to people and the four elements, and the devotion to be there for people, the Avatar Cycle just came to be upon the first death and the first birth, this spirit always becoming reborn in a new elemental nation, to grow up amongst the people it naturally cared for, having a new life to live, to have new experiences, and forming new friendships while also finding old friendships that will last lifetimes. And given the spiritual origins, can also work off the unique role the Avatar has between the spirit realm and the material realm.

I feel this thought makes more sense for the origins of Avatar and working more off AtLA's set up of spirits and the origins of bending.

And while I would vote the actual spirit be left a mystery, IF it had to be specified on what it was, I probably would've voted they were a lion turtle. Like, even in AtLA, they're set up as incredibly mystical and spiritual, and able to manipulate energy itself, and I think the creators even had the idea that people used to live on their backs before LoK confirmed it, confirming they did have a close connection to people.

Everything about them is kinda set up to be like, a precursor to the Avatar. Mindful, it's not a requirement, but that could be a potential reason why the lion turtle arose to help Aang in his time of need, how they sensed Aang was lost and in need of guidance and advise, the Avatar potentially was the soul of a lion turtle, and playing off the lion aspect, they are sociable and work as a team.

It's not a stretch to think a spirit tied to lions are open to helping another.

Either way, this is a thought I wanted to share as an alternative to LoK's answer for the Avatar origins as I just wasn't all that crazy about it.

[lostboiking30]

Random thought about Korra’s responsibility ending the Avatar cycle.

IT WASN’T HER FAULT. She was a teenager that was manipulated by a family member who was also a world leader and was also apart of a secret terrorist group that she trusted not to lead her astray. He used her to start a civil war and open the spirit portals so HE could release 10,000 years of darkness on the world. Once Korra realized her role in the plan she tried to correct the actions that led to the conflict that Unalaq had planned probably for years. We saw how conniving he was when he convinced his father-The Chief of the Northern Water Tribe- to exile Tonraq for treason.

Let’s also not forget that Unalaq and Vaatu tried to kill Korra by crushing her in the ground and that they literally ripped Raava from Korra’s body THROUGH HER MOUTH (which was probably excruciatingly painful) and beat Raava within an inch of her life while Korra could do nothing except watch because the avatar spirit was forcibly removed from her.

Korra didn’t end the Avatar cycle. Unavaatu did. And even though when I first watched Book 2 I disliked it as much as everyone else, I guess I just realized today why it grinds my gears. (Also I appreciate book 2 more than I did when it first aired)

Saying it’s Korra’s fault that the avatar cycle ended is vicious victim blaming especially when you consider that only months before this fight she tried to end her life because Amon took her bending.

All of Korra’s villains stole pieces of her identity and essence which is why no matter how cool conceptually her villains are, I will never say I like them or support them. The emotional scars they all left Korra broke her. So for anyone to say that it was her fault is not only wrong, it’s cruel.

Especially since Korra *DID* blame herself for every perceived failure she had including the ending of the avatar cycle.

Losing the Avatar cycle wasn’t shown in a positive light. It was grieved and situated as a plot device to start over because just like in real life, sometimes we lose everything and have to move forward with whatever pieces we have and forge our own way.

The fandom is so ridiculous about Korra and the reasons they don’t like her. Especially since the main reason people don’t like her is because she isn’t Aang.

[mah-o-daryaa]

For a show that's progressive, one-of-a-kind, ground-breaking for its time, and relies on "Show, don't Tell" a lot throughout the series, it bugs me how ATLA (or, more specifically, Bryke) preferred to tell the audience that Aang is a master airbender without showing us why. I mean, Toph, Zuko, Azula, and Katara are all shown practicing and improving their mastery in bending (although Katara has become rather overpowered), so why can't Aang have the same treatment?

Yes, Aang may be a child prodigy, and he did get airbending tattoos from inventing the air scooter, but I personally think that inventing an airbending technique (which demonstrates impressive ability and skill) is a way to gain the arrows prematurely, but isn't a requirement. Nothing in the show ever suggests just how far he's mastered his native element, let alone the other three. In the beginning of Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King (3:18), Aang says he thinks he still needs to practice his firebending more (which in hindsight makes sense, as he's just started relearning it from the dragons five episodes ago), and Toph notes that his earthbending could use more work too. Right off the bat, Aang is two elements away from complete mastery of all four, but later on he's seen practicing waterbending with Katara, implying he hasn't mastered it either.

We don't even see Aang practicing his airbending by himself post-iceberg, preferring to show off to random girls (like in Kyoshi Island). He just learns the elements, but doesn't really learn the philosophies behind each element. In this regard, he makes Kuruk and Roku look venerated in contrast. (To be fair to Aang, he had a specific deadline to master the four elements before Sozin's Comet that no other Avatar besides Wan had to deal with, but couldn't he try to make an effort to learn from the other nations?) Additionally, compared to Tenzin and Zaheer, Aang doesn't stand a chance against either of them (even though Tenzin is his son, but since Tenzin wasn't the Avatar, he could focus on upholding the Air Nomad culture and legacy). Even Jinora could go toe-to-toe with him at similar ages. He isn't really that impressive in any of the elements, to be honest; we've seen what a master of any specific element can do in both ATLA and LOK, as well as in the novels.

The main thing people often get wrong is that mastery isn't a final goal; it's a specific mindset. As in Pai Sho, what separates true masters from everyone else is that true masters always look for improvement in their strategy or skills. That's why Aang isn't a real master of the four elements: He always takes the easy way out, never trying to better himself or improve what he can already do.

I think this quote from Zaheer perfectly sums up what I've been saying: When you base your expectations on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality. Even though it stems from his anarchist beliefs, it is genuinely one of the more insightful pieces of wisdom in the franchise because it promotes progress, a constant theme in life. Toph was able to invent metalbending because she wanted to "see" a reality where she could be recognized for her own talent in spite of her blindness; Zuko could learn firebending from the dragons because he could see a reality where he would regain his honor and fight alongside the Avatar, and so on. By contrast, Aang only takes things from surface-level, not putting any effort into understanding the true meaning of being the Avatar.

Speaking of Pai Sho, guess which Avatar constantly improved his/her abilities? Kuruk. Unlike Aang, Kuruk readily asked his companions, Jianzhu, Hei-Ran, and Kelsang, to continue teaching him, ever after he mastered the four elements that he was required to do, saying they would all benefit from the experience (the "true master" quote I mentioned above was actually said by him). Not only that, it was even inverted; sometimes they taught Kuruk, other times he taught them (which technically makes him the first known Avatar to teach bending to others). He was right, as during their lifetimes, they were the most powerful benders of their respective elements in the world!

Kuruk also had an intuitive connection to each of the four bending philosophies, which to this day remains unrivaled by any other Avatar, and was also one of the first people to suggest the idea that the four elements are connected (homeboy's literally a younger Water Tribe Avatar version of proto-Iroh, I'm honestly not going to be surprised if Iroh actually learned his belief from Kuruk during the former's visits to the Spirit World over tea and Pai Sho matches). If you ask me, Mone, learning the cultures and philosophies of the four nations is way more important than mastering the four elements, because the Avatar isn't just the bridge between the four nations; he/she is also the symbol of a unified world, and the franchise is saying that only one Avatar even bothered to do that? In my opinion, if we go by this rule, that easily cements Kuruk as the greatest Avatar in history!

Aang, on the other hand, never does this. Instead, he puts the Air Nomads on a high pedestal (which in turn causes him to place Katara on a high pedestal), and doesn't respect or learn from other nations' philosophies. He openly disrespects SWT culture and actively makes sure Tenzin doesn't have any exposure to the culture that Tenzin still belongs too, and worse, he pushes his own culture on other people's throats (remember the time he forced a homeless couple to "give up on hope because it's a big waste of time"? Or the time he forced Katara to not murder Yon Rha?) and values his own nation and values above the rest of the world (like the time he refused to kill Firelord Ozai because "all life is sacred", even though he has actually killed before, but if he doesn't kill Ozai, the latter's going to burn the entire Earth Kingdom to the ground!). That doesn't sound like something the Avatar is allowed to do, but Aang gets away with it anyway because ... hero?

There's actually another Avatar who focused on his/her own nation above the rest of the world. Avatar Szeto, Yangchen's predecessor, became a government official in his homeland, the Fire Nation. Under his tenure, the Fire Nation transformed from a fragmented, disaster-stricken state to the centralized, technologically-advanced nation we know of today. Unfortunately, this led him to neglect the other nations and, shortly after his death, the four nations were caught in a political event known as the Platinum Affair, which Yangchen had to deal with, eventually kick-starting the cycle of the current Avatar fixing their past lives' mistakes, while leaving problems for their future selves to fix. This problem might have even led to the growing ambition of Firelords Zoryu and Sozin as dictators, with the latter starting the Hundred Years War.

Aang not only valued his own nation's values above the others, he also forced said values on his non-Air Nomad companions; signed anti-miscegenation laws and tried to forcefully deport Fire Nationals from the colonies to return the land to the Earth Kingdom, even though they had already blended in with Earth Kingdom citizens, didn't wan to be separated from their families, and Zuko perceived the citizens of mixed heritage as his own subjects; refused to let his family practice SWT culture, even though his children could benefit from being members of both cultures, not just one or the other, and set an example for mixed-race families around the world; refused to teach Kya and Bumi Air Nomad culture because he thought they weren't airbenders and therefore "not real Air Nomads", even though they were just as Air Nomad as Tenzin was, if not more; and forced Tenzin to uphold the legacy of an entire nation on his shoulders. The fact that this was all written by complete accident is the cherry on top, representing just how badly Bryke screwed up.

... On a completely unrelated note, The Other Side of Paradise by Glass Animals (which is also one of my favorite songs) is definitely a Kuruk song. The last third of the song in particular sums up his tragic journey as the Avatar so well, and I always think of him while listening to it.

[joeylivesinspace]

wait wait let me be neurodivergent for a second

so the avatar cycle goes “water, earth, fire, air”, right?

like each full cycle starts with water, ends with air

but does avatar wan count as a fire avatar since he learned fire first?

if that were the case, since he’s the first avatar, the cycle would actually begin with fire and end with earth, right?

WHICH IS IT?!!!?!!?!

[tooth317]

Fire: Changes / does severe damage to the world and has all their achievements greatly overshadowed by how much they disrupted the balance.

Air: Has to work to try and rectify the mistakes of the fire avatar and fixing the greater issues of the world but neglects the smaller cracks. Despite their shortcomings their remembered favourably.

Water: looks up to air and wants replicate their success but has to correct for the now severe cracks air left. No matter how hard they try or how much they sacrifice they're remembered poorly and ultimately throw the world into more chaos.

Earth: Is cursed by the legacy water left and has to fix all the problems all their predecessors left them to return true balance to the world.

Fire: Changes and does severe damage to the world...

[thejourneyofwan-fanproject]

One day I will finish this 😅

[ladyabaniko]

https://www.zerochan.net/2439956

[jethroholy]

Was the fire nation essentially trying to “speed run” to the fire nation avatar during the 100 year war?

Stick with me here, please. I have not heard this theory before. So my thoughts are as follows. If you look at the timeline of avatar you notice that the fire nation started its raids on the southern water tribe roughly 10-20 years after the air nomad genocide. We can use grangran and Hama as indicators for this as they were present during that time. The raids had the fire nation kidnap, not kill, only waterbenders. Then moved them into cells. Then suddenly they stopped when katara was roughly 5 or so. Now some say it’s because Hama escaped. That could be a factor but Hama escaped when she was roughly 30. Years prior to the raids end. My theory is that they were going after the next avatar in the cycle, a southern water tribe member.

After the fire nation thought they got the water avatar they would have moved to the next element in the cycle, Earth. They started rounding up earthbenders and putting them in metal prisons. Something at the time they couldn’t bend. They were, like with the waterbenders, keeping them alive. Now to me the one prison we saw looked old. So they were probably doing this roughly halfway through the war. And we can guess that the one we saw wasn’t the only prison there was.

Now onto the final bit. Once they got to the fire nation avatar, then what? Who’s going to teach them the other 3 elements? Remember how they kept all these people alive? The fire nation also had sky bison hidden away, whether that was known to the fire lord or not we don’t know… Regardless, once they got back to fire in the cycle they had an ample supply of water, earth, and airbenders.

[aangsfrogs]

I AM FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

I have always wondered what they would do in the air temples once they got more avatars than the spiral. But today on Facebook I saw this post.

I NEVER considered this. The airbenders were the most spiritually connected people out of the four nations. It’s 100% possible they had folks who predicted the future via spirit shenanigans or access the spirit world to visit a spirit that knew the future.

They predicted that there would only be 10,000 Avatars in this cycle. They knew! Korra was just unfortunate enough to be the 10,000th and there for the last avatar in that cycle. Just because it’s the end of that avatar cycle doesn’t mean it’s the end of the avatar and that there won’t be anymore. She is the Won of the new cycle.

It’s another example of life and death. Something ending and beginning anew.

Something the airbenders talked about.

So once the cycle was over they’d probably make a brand new giant ass temple for the next cycle!

[theeladymystic]

So I pulled out an old FanFic I wrote four years ago and decided to continue it. (The POWER of people commenting on older fics at work!) Link to story on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25475605?view_full_work=true

It's my take on the Avatar!Zuko troupe. My muse was wondering how many Avatars I could cram between Aang and Zuko. And when I got back to working on it I wanted a visual of the line of Avatar's behind Zuko... So.. I made this.

NOTE: I didn't draw any of this. All images (but one) should be show concept or production art taken off the internet. Yes, I just used images of Aang and Katara at different ages for Nuklik and Bhutapa. I just wanted bodies, I wasn't particular with actually figuring looks. Aaoka's image is fanart by artist Stone '12, I left their signature under her foot. I didn't know how to find them and reach them for permissions. If you can connect us, It'd be appreciated!

[avatar-legends-confessionblog]

I hate that the show straight up says Azula killed Aang at the end of book 2

How the FUCK does the avatar not pass on to the next person despite them saying the next avatar is born the second the last one dies

https://youtu.be/cs95gaAK7io?feature=shared

Roku: “If you are killed in the Avatar state the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the avatar will cease to exist”

[potatounicoorn]

I loved how she went "it's Korra time" and Korrad all over the place🙏🙏

More random versions, because you can never have enough Korra

[lovelyladylavie]

ANOTHER SUDDEN REALIZATION ABOUT AVATAR

The Avatar Cycle is in the order of the four states of matter, but as their molocules decrease in speed/activity:

We know Fire was first, as it was Wan's element. Fire is plasma, the highest-activity state of matter.

Then is Air, which can control any kind of gases, which is next most-active.

Then Water, which is a slower state of matter. Water can control any liquid. Mud, polluted water, and even perfume (which are mostly alcohols, if I'm correct?).

Finally Earth, which has the least activity in its molocules.

I think its in this pattern to represent a calming of the people who use them. Like a deep breath moving slowly.

Which begs the question: would a dark avatar move in the opposite order?