Unaired pilot

The Avatar Series Pilot episode is a low-budget, pre-production test episode created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko with the assistance of a Korean animation company to pitch the Avatar: The Last Airbender series to Nickelodeon, which they later accepted. The pilot episode never aired on public television, and instead appears as an extra feature on Avatar DVDs with commentary from Mike and Bryan and without the commentary on iTunes. Many elements of the pilot are dissimilar to what eventually developed into the televised series.

Synopsis
The pilot begins with Kya, later renamed Katara for the series itself, explaining the war between the nations and the absence and later discovery of the Avatar, Aang. Aang, Sokka and Kya are flying on Aang's sky bison Appa, fleeing from Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, who is pursuing them on his ship. Zuko launches fireballs to bring them down, but he accidentally angers an enormous sea serpent, which begins to attack his ship and buys Aang and his friends enough time get away safely. Zuko stares down the massive serpent and attacks.



The group lands on an island to relax. Kya tries to practice her waterbending, but she cannot control it well. Aang gives her some pointers by demonstrating the correct leg stance. Sokka is agitated that the two of them are playing around, and demands they help him look for food. Kya is reluctant to let Aang go off by himself since he is the world's last hope, so Sokka goes out to look for food alone. He finds some wild berries and eats them, but they taste bad. He is then ambushed by Fire Nation soldiers and is captured.

Alarmed that Sokka has not returned yet, Aang asks Kya to fly with him on his glider around the island to search. They manage to see the soldiers taking Sokka into a Fire Nation base for interrogation. Since Aang's the Avatar, Kya tells him to wait outside while she sneaks in to save Sokka, as Aang is too important to be captured by the Fire Nation. Irritated, Aang plays with Momo, but decides he cannot wait any longer, and flies into the base anyway.



Sokka is brought forth to Prince Zuko, who has just returned to the base with the serpent's decapitated head. Sokka insults him, calling Zuko "scar boy." Kya is captured and they are both questioned by Zuko about the whereabouts of the Avatar, but they deny anything. Zuko prepares to have the soldiers scour the island for the Avatar, but Aang flies in and shocks everyone.

Aang flies around the base, gathering everyone's attention and performing stunts and lands, surrounded by soldiers armed with spears. The soldiers throw Kya and Sokka down into a pit. Aang uses airbending to escape and taunts Zuko to take him on alone. Momo and Zuko's pet hawk fight, while Zuko pursues Aang and attacks with firebending.



They battle atop scaffolding, eventually fighting on the head of a huge, defaced Avatar statue within the base. Zuko thinks he is cornered the Avatar, but Aang jumps off the statue, enters into the Avatar State and throws Zuko off with a powerful gust of air. However, before Zuko hits the ground, Aang leaves the Avatar State and saves him from a fatal fall. Sokka, trapped in the pit with his sister, finds the situation hopeless. Kya waterbends a large container of water to fill the pit, freeing them, though they are surrounded by soldiers. Aang grabs both of them and they escape on Aang's glider.

That night, they leave the island flying on Appa. Aang falls asleep and then comically falls off Appa's head, later remarking he meant to do that.

Trivia



 * Many aspects of the pilot episode were later incorporated into the actual series itself.
 * Aang was voiced by Mitchel Musso in the pilot, but once production began the role was changed to Zachary Tyler Eisen.
 * Katara's name was at first Kya, which later needed to be changed once the actual series began for legal reasons. The name was eventually reused for Katara and Sokka's mother in the third book.
 * When the collector's edition of book one was released, a small booklet of art and commentary was included, and the creators of the show revealed why Katara's name was changed. "[H]er name was actually Kya, but when Nickelodeon's legal department vetted the name, they discovered there was already a video game character named Kya, so we had to change it." The next name they tried was Kanna, but it did not quite fit, so when co-creator Bryan Konietzko pitched the name "Katara", Kanna became the name of Sokka and Katara's Gran Gran.
 * The Fire Nation soldier armor design is significantly different from the design seen in the series. However, it did appear in "The Siege of the North, Part 1" worn by Hahn. The armor was said to have been taken from the original soldier wearing it around 15 ASC.
 * Zuko kills the serpent that appears in Serpent's Pass.
 * Zuko possessed a pet hawk, who was supposed to be Momo's "arch-nemesis", mirroring Aang and Zuko's relationship. Though Zuko's hawk did not make it into the actual series, Hawky the messenger hawk was created from the concept, and fought with Momo.
 * The concept of the Avatar State as a defense mechanism was similar, but different in that Aang would purposely put himself into danger by jumping off the statue to give him a boost of power. The creators later felt that the concept of the Avatar State needed to be more complex, and in the series gave Aang no control over it at first, as he would have to be in genuine danger.
 * In the beginning of the pilot, a statue of a lion turtle can be seen.
 * Zuko and Aang's battle on the scaffolding was again re-used, only this time Azula was fighting Aang.
 * During the scene of Kya trying to bend nearby water, Jack DeSena began improvising his lines for Sokka in the background. This also inspired the creators to make his character lean over to his comic side.
 * Aang is seen with a fold in his right trouser leg, something they later took out because "nobody could draw it".
 * In the pilot episode opening, the Northern Water Tribe seems much more like a castle than it is in the final version.
 * The opening shows us characters who could very well be prototypes of Pakku, Toph, and Azula.