25 Things Even True Fans Completely Missed In Avatar: The Last Airbender
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There are a lot of things hiding within the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We at TheGamer have uncovered them.
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When Avatar: The Last Airbender was released in early 2005, the entire American cartoon industry was put on notice. Avatar: The Last Airbender set a new standard for kid’s shows, and has been praised as one of the best kid’s cartoons, if not one of the best shows period, ever made. The story, setting, characters, themes, action, and animation were so amazing and creative that nothing like it had ever been seen before or since (besides its sequel The Legend of Korra). Dubbed as “the first American anime,” the creators took inspiration from martial arts, philosophy, Kung Fu movies, yoga, and of course, Japanese anime, to create an almost perfect television show with a lasting legacy.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was so popular that it even had multiple spin-offs, including a comic book series set right after the events of the finale of the television show, a sequel set 70 years after the events of the first show titled The Legend of Korra, about a new Avatar, and even a live-action movie by M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense fame (that we don’t EVER talk about).
It stands to reason then, that such a popular and influential television show would have some pretty big secrets. In this list we will be looking at them all. We will look at every kind of secret we couldn’t possibly think about, and maybe just a fun fact or two that even the most die-hard fans among you didn’t know. Let’s get to it!
25 No Zuko?
It’s hard to believe now, but the character of Zuko was actually one of the very last characters that was written into the show. The main villain of the series was planned to be the evil Fire Lord Ozai, but the writers realized that they needed a different villain who could actually chase Avatar Aang. Fire Lord Ozai would be confined to his throne room, so he wouldn’t really be able to fight Aang one-on-one.
Zuko has been described as one of the most in-depth characters ever written.
Luckily, the writers realized they needed a more immediate threat than the Fire Lord. So Zuko, the Fire Prince, was born. Zuko is one of the most complex and in-depth characters we have ever seen in any show. Can you imagine how disturbing it would have been for him to not exist?
24 Bye Bye, Family Guy
One very interesting secret about one of the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Michael Dante DiMartino, is that he actually left a job working on Family Guy to work on his new show! Family Guy is an American animated show that is centered around the Griffin family, Peter, Lois, their children Chris, Meg, and Stewie, and their talking dog Brian. Family Guy is seen as a more adult show, with racy humor that comes in the form of cutaway gags.
It’s hard to believe one of the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender worked on a show like Family Guy.
Family Guy is a very popular show in its own right, however it is targeted for a much different audience than Avatar: The Last Airbender. Luckily, the type of gags that are featured in Family Guy didn’t make their way to the kid’s show!
23 My Cabbages!
One of the most popular characters in the entire series isn’t even a main character. He’s actually not even close to being a main character! The character I’m talking about, is of course the Cabbage Merchant. This background character was only planned to be in a single episode, but the fans’ response to him was so great. The writers found him so humorous that he became a recurring character in the show.
The Cabbage Merchant was so popular that he can be seen in each city during the show.
Another interesting secret you may have missed is that in the sequel, The Legend of Korra, the Cabbage Merchant is honored with a statue. He is the only main character to have such an honor in Republic City, the main city in the show.
22 The Re-cast Main Character
One potentially disturbing secret about Avatar: The Last Airbender has to do with the voice actor who originally played Uncle Iroh, the uncle of Prince Zuko. The voice actor was Mako Iwamatsu, a long established Japanese actor who had been active since 1959. Mako passed away partway through recording his lines for Uncle Iroh during the second season of the show.
The writers then had to recast the role for Uncle Iroh, which went to actor Greg Baldwin for the third season.
The writers even named one of the main characters in the sequel, The Legend of Korra, after Mako as a tribute to the voice actor. His work on Avatar: The Last Airbender won’t be forgotten for a long time, as Uncle Iroh is one of the most popular characters on the show.
21 Not Related
One of the most iconic characters in the entire series is Uncle Iroh, Prince Zuko’s wise mentor. Throughout the show, Uncle Iroh gives Zuko a lot of advice on how to become a good person. He is ultimately responsible for Zuko’s character development through each season.
Zuko and Iroh’s relationship is much more interesting because they are family.
Originally, the writers did not plan on Iroh to be Zuko’s uncle. He was just going to be another older Firebender who was a mentor to Zuko. I believe their relationship would not have been as fun to watch had they not been related. Writing Iroh as Zuko’s uncle was definitely a stroke of genius that made the character of Uncle Iroh even more iconic.The show would have been much worse off had Iroh just been a standard mentor.
20 Old Age
One interesting secret in Avatar: The Last Airbender that most fans probably didn’t notice is that only a handful of characters have their age specifically stated during the show. These characters are Aang, who is 112 years old, Zuko who is 16 years old, Yue who is 16 years old, Toph who is 12 years old, Tom-Tom who is 2 years old, and Mai, who is said to be 15 years older than her brother Tom-Tom, which makes her 17 years old.
We also know that at least two other characters besides Aang are over 100 years old!
There’s Bumi, who was alive with Aang over 100 years ago. There’s also Guru Pathik, who guided Aang when he was trying to enter the Avatar State. There are also hints during the show that Fire Lord Sozin, Avatar Kyoshi, and Avatar Kuruk had lived over 100 years as well.
19 Hinting At Future Characters
One interesting secret of Avatar: The Last Airbender is that during the opening credits, there is a scene where dark figures are shown practicing the various forms of elemental bending that is featured in the show. These dark figures are actually characters that will appear in later episodes!
Alluding to future characters this way is very unique.
The Waterbender who is shown is Master Pakku. The Earthbender who is shown is Sud, who was Avatar Roku’s Earthbending teacher. He was also an early design choice for the character of Toph. The Firebender who is shown is Princess Azula, Zuko’s evil sister. The Airbender who is shown is Aang. And finally, the one who is shown bending all the elements is Avatar Roku. Most of these characters were not even featured in the show until later seasons.
18 1000 Years In The Future
During early development of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the setting of the show was going to be very different from what we are familiar with now. Instead of the show being an alternate reality type setting, it was planned for the plot to take place thousands of years into the future!
It would be pretty disturbing to think of the show as taking place years into our own future.
Luckily for fans, that decision was scrapped. It was decided that the show would basically just be an alternate reality version of the world. I’m glad this was the case, as I feel like having the plot take place thousands of years into the future would have cheapened the show a bit. It would have made it less unique than it is.
17 Spider Cats? Ew!
One of the aspects of Avatar: The Last Airbender that I always found a bit disturbing is the amount of hybridized animals present in the show. Instead of each animal being their own species, as is the case in the real world, in the Avatar world, each animal is a hybrid of two different animals.
The implications of this could be seen as deeply disturbing.
Examples of these animals include badgermoles, eel hounds, iguana parrots, goat dogs, koala sheep, lion turtles, platypus bears, wolfbats, tiger seals, tiger monkeys, squirrel toads, turkey ducks, spider cats, polar bear dogs, and more. How did these animals come to be? Why are they all hybrids? Thinking about these questions can be pretty disturbing, but they made the universe of the show that much more interesting.
16 It Took How Long?
One secret of the inner workings of Avatar: The Last Airbender that many people don’t know, is that each episode took a considerable time to make. The average time it took an episode of the show to be completed, from the time when the writers began writing the script to when it was finally ready to air, took about nine months.
That’s a lot of time to work on a 23 minute long television episode!
If they had worked on a single episode at a time, it would have taken the series a long time to finish. There were 61 episodes, if each one took 9 months, it would’ve taken 549 months, or around 45 years, to complete the series. Luckily the producers worked on many episodes at one time.
15 The Patriot
An interesting secret is that the character of Admiral Zhao was based on a character from another movie. He was based on the character of Colonel William Tavington from the movie, The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson. The producers of the show asked the casting director to find an actor that could portray a character exactly like in the movie.
Luckily, the casting director was able to find Jason Isaacs.
Jason Isaacs was the actor who actually portrayed Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot! The Patriot is about a farmer whose son’s life is ended by the Colonel during the American Revolution. Talk about a disturbing character on which to be based! Casting the actor who played the Colonel William Tavington was a great decision, as it made Admiral Zhao seem that much more disturbed and evil.
14 The Unusual Suspects
A pretty disturbing secret about Avatar: The Last Airbender when you really think about it is that Momo and Appa actually appear in more episodes than Prince Zuko! I bet you didn’t realize that one! To be exact, the characters who appear in the most episodes are Aang, Katara, and Sokka, who all appear in every episode except one. The episode the main gang doesn’t appear in is episode 27, titled Zuko Alone.
Zuko only appears in 48 of the 61 episodes of the show.
Momo appears in 56 episodes, Appa appears in 54 episodes, Uncle Iroh appears in 39 episodes, and Toph appears in 36 episodes. The most frequent recurring character is Prince Zuko’s sister Azula, who appears in 22 episodes. I definitely thought all of these characters appeared in more episodes than that.
13 No Last Names
Did you know that in the entire series, none of the characters have a last name? The only character to have a last name is Toph, whose last name is stated to be Bei Fong. Instead of last names, the characters are only known based on what nation they come from. For instance, Katara is known as Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, and Zuko is known as Zuko of the Fire Nation.
Why is Toph the only character to have a last name?
It’s stated in the show that Toph’s family is very well-to-do, wealthy, and well known in the world of Avatar. Maybe because her family is so important, they were awarded with a last name. It does seem odd however, that none of the other characters have last names, especially the royal Fire Nation family.
12 To The Moon
In the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of the most memorable moments comes when Sokka’s first true love, Yue, becomes the Moon Spirit and ascends into the sky (that’s rough, buddy). However, it’s pretty disturbing to think that this moment was pretty heavily foreshadowed in the show.
Yue’s name can be translated as the Chinese word for Moon.
When you look back on that fact, this moment in the show seems pretty obvious. Her name is literally Moon! Not only that, but the name of Sokka’s second love Suki, can also be translated as the Japanese word for Moon. It’s almost like the writers were mocking the fact that his first love literally became the moon. Sorry about that one, Sokka.
11 The Firebending Ritual
One of the Fire Nation’s most iconic rituals in Avatar: The Last Airbender is called the Agni Kai. The Agni Kai is basically a Firebending duel between to master Firebenders. Prince Zuko is famous for having fought his own father, Fire Lord Ozai, in one of these duels, which is how he obtained the giant scar on his face that makes him so distinctive.
It’s pretty strange to think about a father almost burning his own son’s face off.
Agni is the Sanskrit work for fire, and Kai can be translated as the Japanese word for meeting. So the literal translation of Agni Kai can be deciphered as “Fire Meeting.” It’s a pretty barbaric ritual to include in a kid’s show. If I was a Firebender I would definitely try to avoid it at all costs.
10 Strong As A Rock
It’s hard to even fathom now, given how popular her character is, but Toph was originally going to be a male character! As stated earlier in this article, during the opening of each episode there are a few dark figures that can be seen bending the various elements. Toph was planned to be the male Earthbender from the opening. Now that’s a disturbing secret!
Toph’s character is so interesting because she is a young, strong female.
If the writers had stuck to their original plan, I believe the character of Toph would probably not have been as popular as she is today. Having another boring, strong male type character would have been more of the same. Turning Toph into a young 12-year-old blind girl was definitely a much better decision.
9 There Is No War In Ba Sing Se
Probably the most disturbing secret in the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series has to do with Lake Laogai. In the show, Lake Laogai is where the secret Earth Kingdom police known as the Dai Li, would take political prisoners to re-educate them. Basically it was where people were brainwashed into believing there was no war in Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom capital.
Lake Laogai actually has a basis in reality.
Laogai is short for Laodong Gaizo, which was the name of the Chinese political prison camps in which many Chinese people were imprisoned in the 1960s. Laodong Gaizo means “reform through labor.” It was thought that the Chinese people sent there would reform their ways by performing backbreaking labor. That’s a dark reference to include in a kid’s show.
8 American Dragon
Did you know that two of the main voice actors on Avatar: The Last Airbender worked together on another popular animated show? Dante Basco, the voice of Prince Zuko (and also Rufio in Hook) and Mae Whitman, the voice of Katara, worked on the show American Dragon: Jake Long during the same year that Avatar: The Last Airbender first premiered.
It’s not uncommon for voice actors to work together on multiple projects.
American Dragon: Jake Long is a show about a teenage slacker who is given the ability to transform into a magical dragon to protect all the mythical creatures that secretly reside on the planet. The show was very popular. It even received some pretty good reviews from fans and critics alike. That’s a fun fact!
7 The Movie That Must Not Be Named
So earlier in this article I mentioned a live-action movie version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I said we should NEVER talk about it. I’m about to break that rule. In season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is an episode where the heroes sit in on a Fire Nation play. It portrays their journey up to that point. The main characters react to the play negatively, saying it was terrible. But they say the effects were decent.
This reaction would perfectly predict the critical reaction to the live-action movie.
Critics believed the live-action movie lost all of the heart of the original television series. But they said that the special effects were actually pretty good. The movie has since been panned by fans and critics alike. It is considered one of the worst movies ever made. That’s disturbing.
6 Hello, Ms. Brady
A lighter secret that occurs in Avatar: The Last Airbender is during a scene in which one of Princess Azula’s hench-women, Ty Lee, states that she has six other sisters in her family. This has been described as a reference to The Brady Bunch, as the voice actress of Ty Lee, Olivia Hack, portrayed Cindy Brady in the iconic classic films based on the television show.
Writers love putting in small references to other works of art and media in their own stories.
In The Brady Bunch, Cindy Brady is the youngest child in a huge family, which makes sense why the character that she portrays in Avatar: The Last Airbender, would find herself in such a similar situation. I just love finding fun secrets like that!
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/things-fans-missed-avatar-airbender-facts/