Avatar



The Avatar is the Spirit of the Planet and master of all four elemental bending disciplines (Airbending, Waterbending, Earthbending and Firebending), whose task it is to keep balance among the four nations of the world. The Avatar is also a link between the human world and the Spirit World. Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to maintain harmony in the world.

At any time there is only a single Avatar, who is the spirit of the world incarnated into human form. When the Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit is reincarnated into a newborn, who becomes the next Avatar.

Each nation has a method of recognizing the new Avatar. Among the Air Nomads, this involved presenting all infants with a selection of toys to play with, and watching for a child that selected four specific toys that had belonged to past Avatars. Traditionally, the child is told of their identity as the Avatar on their sixteenth birthday (although the current Avatar, Aang, was told much earlier than this because of Fire Nation aggression).

Avatar Cycle
The reincarnations of the Avatar are controlled by the Avatar Cycle of the elements: water follows air, earth follows water, fire follows earth, air follows fire. The cycle is based of the passage of the four seasons (water is winter, earth is spring, fire is summer and air is autumn).

When an Avatar dies, the next Avatar will be born into the next nation in the Avatar Cycle (for example, Avatar Kyoshi from the Earth Kingdom was followed by Avatar Roku from the Fire Nation).

The Avatar Cycle also determines the order in which each Avatar must learn the four bending disciplines. The Avatar begins by mastery of his or her native elements (so an Avatar born into the Water Tribe would first learn Waterbending). The Avatar then goes on to learn the three remaining bending disciplines in the order of the cycle (the Water Tribe Avatar would learn first Waterbending, then Earthbending, then Firebending, and finally Airbending, in that order).

Known Avatars
The most recent Avatars (in the order of current to oldest) are:


 * Avatar Aang (Air Nomads, Southern Air Temple) 988 (112YA) - Present
 * Avatar Roku (Fire Nation, Roku's Island) 918 (182YA) - 988 (112YA)
 * Avatar Kyoshi (Earth Kingdom, now Kyoshi Island) 688 (412YA) - 918 (182YA)
 * Avatar Kuruk (Water Tribe, Northern Water Tribe) Unknown - 688 (412YA)
 * Avatar Yangchen (Air Nomads)

Speculation

 * If Aang truly is the last Airbender, then the cycle will be broken. If Aang dies before having a child (whether that child being an Airbender or just carrying the trait), then after the Avatar reincarnates through the Water, Earth, and Fire Nations, there will be no one in the Air Nation for the spirit to choose.
 * Not only that, but if the Fire Nation succeeds in destroying each nation, the Avatar spirit can not choose any Avatar in any nation but Fire.
 * Even if the Avatar is reborn into the next nation no airbender will be able to teach them airbending.

The Avatar State


The Avatar State is a defense mechanism, in which an Avatar may freely access the knowledge and powers of all previous Avatars. This provides the Avatar with great powers, as well as mastery over all four elements (even if the Avatar has not yet learned all four bending disciplines). It was by entering the Avatar State that Aang was able to freeze himself and Appa into an iceberg for 100 years, by using a combination of Airbending and Waterbending. While in the Avatar State, the Avatar's eyes glow (as do their arrow tattoos in the case of Avatars from the Air Nomads).

It is possible for an Avatar to control the Avatar State, as Roku and Kyoshi have demonstrated in numerous flashbacks, but this requires great spiritual discipline and concentration (Guru Pathik attempted to teach Aang to control the Avatar State by helping him clear his chakras). More often, however, the Avatar State is activated by danger or emotional turmoil. In "The Southern Air Temple", Aang inadvertently enters the Avatar State when he discovers that his friend and teacher, Monk Gyatso, was killed by Fire Nation soldiers; in "The Avatar State", Aang entered the Avatar State when General Fong placed Katara in danger.

It is possible for an Avatar to channel a specific previous incarnation while in the Avatar State. When this happens, the Avatar briefly takes on the appearance and voice of that previous incarnation. Aang has done this on several occasions, channeling Roku in "Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku" and "The Deserter", and Kyoshi in "Avatar Day".



Since the Avatar State draws its power from the Knowlege and skills of all the past Avatars therefore it is safe to assume that for each succeding Avatar the Avatar State becomes an even more powerful tool.

Spiritual Link-up
The Avatar State also allows an Avatar to join with certain spirits. This was demonstrated in the episode "The Siege of the North, Part 2", when Aang enters the Avatar State in order to aid the frantic Ocean Spirit. Both Aang in his Avatar State and the Ocean Spirit combine their abilities to defend the Northern Water Tribe after all Waterbenders are rendered defenseless.

This is the second time we hear Aang speak in the State, the first being when he met with Roku during the Winter Solstice. His voice sounds like a cross between a few different voices at once, the main two being his normal, and a deeper, somewhat demonic sounding version.

Weakness of the Avatar State
While Aang is pretty much invincible in the Avatar State, having a millennium of bending experience which can surpass an army of benders many times over, there is one grave weakness. If someone does manage to kill Aang while he is in the Avatar State, the cycle will be permanently broken, and the Avatar will not reincarnate (learned from Roku in the episode "The Avatar State").



Known Times the Avatar State Was Used

 * 100 years previously, Aang used it to save himself and Appa from their fall into the ocean. Both were sealed into an ice encrusted air pocket that eventually froze into an iceberg.


 * Aang used it in the episode "The Avatar Returns" to escape another fall into the ocean and to stop Zuko. He Waterbends a water spout in the form of a twister.


 * In the episode "The Southern Air Temple", Aang falls into it the State after witnessing the skeleton of his former mentor and foster father Monk Gyatso. He airbends a small hurricane in his emotional distress.


 * In the episode "Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku", Aang meets Avatar Roku in the fire temple. Roku helped him and friends escape by directly taking over Aang's body and activating the volcano underneath the temple.


 * In the episode "The Storm", Aang enters the state after saving Sokka and a fisherman, rounding up everyone that fell into the ocean and pulling them out of the water into the calmness of the storm's eye.


 * In the episode "The Siege of the North, Part 2", Aang combines power with the spirit of the Ocean, Tui, after all Waterbenders are rendered powerless.


 * In the episode "The Avatar State", Aang enters the Avatar State when the Earthbending General, uses Earthbending to bury Katara underground to force Aang into the Avatar State. He uses airbending to knock the general to the floor, rises into the air on a tornado, and crashes down to the earth, releasing a powerful earthbending attack on the general, his guards, and his fortress. A small air sphere surrounds Aang before the spirit of Avatar Roku takes him to the Spirit World to explain to him about the true nature of the Avatar State.


 * In the episode "Avatar Day", we see Avatar Kyoshi enter the Avatar State in a flashback. In the Avatar State, Kyoshi splits her home land from the mainland creating Kyoshi Island.


 * In the episode "The Desert", Aang enters the Avatar State while confronting Appa's kidnappers (a group of Sandbenders). A large air sphere surrounds him, lifting him up into the air, but is brought down by Katara, who grabs his arm and embraces him.


 * In the episode "The Crossroads of Destiny", Aang finally is willing to give up Katara to open the last chakra and willingly go into the Avatar State, but he is soon struck by lighting from Princess Azula.


 * In the episode "The Avatar and the Fire Lord", the Avatar State is used many times by Avatar Roku. In flashbacks, Avatar Roku uses the Avatar State twice, first in a battle with Fire Lord Sozin, then as an attempt to stop a volcanic eruption, which ends up killing him.

Meditation


Aang does not enter the Avatar State during meditation and harmony with the spirits around him. But his tatoos and eyes do glow in the same way. In this method, he visits the spirit world with his own spirit, leaving his body a defenseless shell in the real world. An example of this was seen in "The Siege of the North, Part 1".

Known Times Aang used Meditation to enter the Spirit world

 * In the episode "Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World", Aang is accidentally trapped in the Spirit World while chasing after a rampaging beast. The beast (later found to be an angry forest spirit) changed worlds at sunrise nearing the winter solstice, and Aang was too close when it happened.


 * In the episode "The Siege of the North, Part 1", Aang meditates into the spirit world to find a way to save the North Pole.


 * In the episode "The Swamp", Aang meditates at the center of the Swamp, and locates Appa and Momo by connecting with the whole swamp.


 * In the episode "The Avatar and the Fire Lord", Aang meditates on Avatar Roku's home Island to meet him in the Spirit world