The Boy in the Iceberg


 * This article is about the episode. For the play by the same name, see The Boy in the Iceberg (Play).

Writer: ‎Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko

Director: Dave Filoni

Guest Star: Melendy Britt (Gran Gran)

Overview
''While fishing, Sokka and Katara discover Aang and his flying bison Appa trapped in an iceberg. After freeing him, they discover that Aang is an Airbender, a race of people that were believed to have died out long ago. Meanwhile, Zuko, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation, is patrolling the seas in search of the Avatar, the only person who can stop the Fire Nation from winning the war. While exploring an abandoned Fire Nation ship, Katara tells Aang about the war, which has been going on for the past 100 years. They accidentally set off a trap, alerting Zuko to the village.''

Introduction
Long ago, the legendary Avatar kept the world and its four nations at peace with each other. However, the Avatar disappeared one hundred years ago, and hasn't been seen since. During that time, the tyrannical Fire Nation used the opportunity to wage war with the other three nations, seeking to conquer them. People began to lose hope that the Avatar would ever return and bring peace back to the world. Even the Southern Water Tribe, located in the distant south pole sea, has been affected by the Fire Nation's war. The men of the tribe all sailed abroad to fight, leaving behind the women and children. Sokka and his younger sister Katara are the oldest of the tribe's children in the south pole.

Synopsis
The two siblings Katara and Sokka are out fishing in a small canoe. Katara practices Waterbending as Sokka prepares to spear a fish. The water hovers over, and is popped by Sokka's spear, which startles the fish way. Sokka immediately scolds Katara, saying that what he is doing is much more important. The sea currents pick up speed, and the boat is crushed between two icebergs, leaving Sokka and Katara stranded in the middle of the sea on a floating chunk of ice. Sokka blames Katara for the mess, which causes her to lose her temper and they begin arguing.



As Katara rages, she ends up violently Waterbending without realizing it, and soon she quickly cracks and shatters an iceberg, revealing a giant glowing orb of ice. Seeing the form of a person inside the ice, Katara thinks the person needs help, and begins chopping away at it with a Sokka's club. The ice breaks, and releases a bright column of light into the sky.

Prince Zuko, a Fire Nation teenager who has been hunting the long lost Avatar for two years, sees the bright light from his ship. With him is his Uncle Iroh. He orders his ship to head toward the light, believing perhaps the light came from the Avatar.

After Katara breaks through the ice, she finds the person was a young boy with strange arrow-like marks on his head and hands. Sokka is skeptical, and points his spear at the boy. The boy falls out and into Katara's arms. She lays him down and tries to help him. Sokka pokes the boy in the head with the blunt side of his spear, still skeptical, but Katara shoos him away.

The mysterious boy drowsily opens his eyes to see Katara staring at him with deep blue eyes. He quickly becomes fully alert, cheerfully asking Katara if she wants to go Penguin Sledding with him. The boy introduces himself as Aang and sneezes, sending him high into the air, but he slowly drifts back down again unharmed. Katara realises that he must be an Airbender.



Aang climbs back into the ice to find Appa, a very large flying-bison. It takes a moment for Aang to wake him, and then the group gets on Appa's saddle so Aang can fly them back to the Southern Water Tribe. Sokka refuses to believe that Appa can fly. Aang cries "Yip-Yip!", causing Appa to leap into the air, but he comes crashing right back down into the water and starts swimming. Aang figures Appa's still too tired to fly just yet. Aang turns around and stares at Katara with a huge smile on his face, causing her to ask, "Why are you smiling at me like that?", to which he replies "Oh, I was smiling?". Katara says the last Avatar was supposed to be an Air Nomad, and asks if Aang knew him at all. Aang awkwardly states that he knew people that knew the Avatar, but did not know the actual Avatar himself.

Later, Aang has a dream about a storm that he and Appa had encountered while they were near the South Pole. He re-lives in the dream how he and Appa were brought under the waves by the intense wind and rain, and how Aang started glowing and created the orb of ice that surrounded him. He is jolted awake, finding himself in a tent in the Southern Water Tribe, right when Katara walks in. He quickly gets dressed, with Katara watching. She notices the arrow markings running along his body, and then when he's completely dressed, pulls him into the village to introduce him to everyone else.

Everyone acts surprised to see an Airbender, as no one has seen an Air Nomad in a hundred years, thinking they must have become extinct. Sokka wonders why Aang always carries a staff around, realizing it's not sharp enough to stab anybody, and Aang shows them how he uses Airbending to fly with it. Aang ends up accidentally crashing into Sokka's poorly-constructed watch tower.



Gran Gran, the grandmother of Katara and Sokka, is wondering if Aang may be a threat to the tribe. Katara wants him to stay, believing he could teach the village so many good things. They happen to glance over at Aang, who is showing off to the village toddlers how he can stick his tongue to his staff.

On the Fire Nation ship, Prince Zuko is practicing his Firebending techniques, with Uncle Iroh as his mentor. Zuko becomes impatient and asks for his uncle to teach him advanced moves, but Iroh demands he master the basic's.

Sokka begins to teach the young boys, lecturing them about how they are the warriors of this tribe, until one of them says innocently they need to pee. Sokka gets mad at Aang for distracting his "warriors" with fun and peeing on an igloo and throws a fit. When Aang sees a penguin, he gets excited and tries to capture it, but it's too fast and slippery. Katara approaches and teaches him the "fine art" of catching penguins.

Aang and Katara go penguin sledding, having a fun time until they accidentally slide near an old abandoned Fire Navy ship. Aang wants to go in and explore it, but Katara is wary. She has been told never to go onto the Fire Navy ship, but Aang convinces her otherwise. As they explore the ship, Aang wonders why a Fire Nation ship was so far from its home. Katara realizes Aang has no knowledge of the war at all, as he was trapped in the iceberg for one hundred years. They accidentally set off a booby trap in the ship, sending off a flare into the sky. Aang saves Katara by Airbending out of the ship. But Prince Zuko has seen the flare and Aang escaping from the ship, and Zuko believes he has found the long lost Avatar at last.

Trivia

 * This episode is the only one to feature a different and extended Opening Sequence.
 * Though this is the first episode of the series, the Avatar Series Pilot was created before this, but was never aired on television.
 * Sokka said he might have "Midnight Sun Madness" because during wintertime in the South Pole, there's more hours of sunlight in the day, due to the southern hemisphere facing toward the sun.
 * The abandoned Fire Navy ship seen in this episode is the same one Hama and the other Waterbenders were shown uprooting decades before the start of the series in the episode "The Puppetmaster".

Goofs

 * During the scene where Zuko is trying to get Iroh to teach him an advanced set of firebending moves, Zuko's belt is momentarily silver instead of the usual gold.
 * When Appa sneezes onto Sokka, there is snot all over Sokka's shirt and face. In the next frame, the snot on his shirt disappears.
 * In the beginning of Aang's dream, he is on Appa's saddle, but in the next moment he is seen on Appa's head with the reins in his hands.
 * When Sokka and Katara first see Aang in the iceberg, there is nothing in the water between them, but in the next frame there are many floating icebergs in the water.
 * When Aang is letting the kids use Appa's tail as a slide, the first scene shows his tail propped up on Sokka's spear. The next scene shows Appa a few feet away, with his tail on the ground. In the scene after that, Appa's tail returns to atop the spear.