Battle for the Northern Air Temple


 * This article is about the event. For the location, see Northern Air Temple. For the episode, see "The Northern Air Temple".

The Battle for the Northern Air Temple was an assault by Fire Nation forces on Aang, Sokka, Katara and the Earth Kingdom refugees living in the Northern Air Temple.

The Fire Nation attacked with a large force of soldiers and tundra tanks, advancing up the steep mountain where the Northern Air Temple sits. Aang and the refugees attempted to repel the assault with aerial attacks using gliders and bombs that the mechanist created. The Fire Nation was eventually defeated by an explosion of natural gas that Sokka and the mechanist caused.

The Battle for the Northern Air Temple was a victory for Aang, his friends, and the refugees as the Fire Nation did not attempt to attack the temple again. It also marked the significance of air power and its vitality in battle, something that the Fire Nation would put into practice later in the War.

History
Little is known of the Northern Air Temple and the battle that destroyed the original Air Nomads there. Early in the War, when Fire Lord Sozin started wiping out the Air Nomads, the temples were all left empty.

Some years prior to the beginning of the series, Earth Kingdom refugees found the Northern Air Temple while searching for a safe haven. With the help from the mechanist, they turned the temple into a livable place to an non-Air Nomad population. He was even able to unlock the temple's Air Sanctuary, supposedly to be unlocked only via airbending.

As the refugees prospered in peace in the Northern Air Temple, they were again discovered by the Fire Nation. The mechanist was forced by the Fire Nation's War Minister, Qin, into a secret deal: the Fire Nation would spare the temple and would not attack as long as the mechanist designed weapons, vehicles and equipment to help the Fire Nation in the War. The mechanist complied with the Fire Nation for years and stored all the inventions of war in the Air Sanctuary.

Battle
When Aang and his group arrived and eventually uncovered the mechanist's collusion, the deal was put in jeopardy and subsequently broken.



War Minister Qin was turned away angrily by Aang and he subsequently declared that there would be an assault on the Northern Air Temple. Aang and his friends urged the mechanist and the refugees to defend themselves. They decide to pilot the gliders that the mechanist invented and launch an aerial defense of the temple using using smoke, fire, slime, and stink bombs.

During the initial assault, the Fire Nation attacked with hundreds of soldiers and at least a dozen Fire Nation Tanks, which were perfect for the mountainous terrain. While the refugees easily repelled a large numbers of foot troops, the tanks were virtually unstoppable, and Aang and Katara were only successful in disabling a few.



As waves of Fire Nation forces continued to march toward the Northern Air Temple, the refugees began to run out of bombs. Fire Nation tanks began to scale the temple cliffs without resistance. As Fire Nation forces approached to the final advance, Sokka and the mechanist used a hot air balloon prototype in hopes of destroying the tanks. When the slime bombs didn't work, they dumped the balloon's furnace as a last-ditch effort into a crevasse where an enormous amount of natural gas was seeping out. This caused an explosion that blew the tanks off the cliffs and cut off the Fire Nation's only route to the temple, securing the Fire Nation's defeat.

Aftermath
The victory over the Fire Nation ensured that the refugees would be safe from the Fire Nation Armies, and it gave them and Aang's group a badly-needed morale boost in their struggle to end the War. Despite losing the battle, Fire Nation forces were able to recover the tattered remains of the balloon, which was produced in massive numbers in the Fire Nation, and its technology was adapted to create massive airships. These airships later secured the Fire Nation's victory during the invasion on the Day of Black Sun the following summer. These airships would also play a major role in Fire Lord Ozai's plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom during the arrival of Sozin's Comet. They also supposedly stole the mechanist's plans for the drill, which was to be used in what was an ultimately failed attempt by the Fire Nation to conquer Ba Sing Se.