The Boy in the Iceberg

This is episode 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender

First aired: 2/21/2005

Written by: Michael Dante Dimartino, Bryan Konietzko Additional Writing: Aaron Ehasz, Peter Goldfinger, Josh Stolberg Directed by: Dave Filoni

Voices provided by:

Aang: Mitchel Musso

Katara: Mae Whitman

Sokka: Jack DeSena

Prince Zuko: Dante Basco

Uncle Iroh: Mako

Gran Gran: Melendy Britt

Appa: Dee Bradley Baker

Location: In the frigid South Pole.

In this episode we start in the south pole and we are introduced to two of our main characters Sokka and Katara, two siblings that often rival.

They are fishing in a small canoe, before water currents pick up and they end up dodging iceflows. The boat is destroyed when it is crushed between two icepacks, but Sokka and Katara jump onto another icefloe just in time. A sibling rivalry begins when Sokka makes a non-girl-friendly comment. Quickly, Katara replies with a well-thought out comeback and starts to lose her temper.

As Katara rages, she ends up violently waterbending without realizing it, and soon she quickly destroyed an iceberg. Soon after that a new iceberg comes up from below the water, which has the shape of a giant orb that has a strange blue glow in it. Seeing the form of a person inside the iceburg, Katara begins chopping away at it with a water tribe club, eventually breaking it and realeasing a large amount of air. And a very bright light that attracts unwelcome visitors...

A teenager who has been hunting the Avatar for two years sees the bright light that is emmited from the iceberg. His name is Prince Zuko. With him, is his Uncle General Iroh. He orders his ships to head toward the South Pole.

After Katara breaks through the ice, a young boy who appears to be an airbender, a race that has been gone for the duration of the war.

Of course, Sokka has to be pointing a spear at the boy. Whether it was the fact that he had been frozen for one hundred years, or passed out by the fact that Sokka was holding a spear at him, he falls out,and into Katara's arms. She lays him down on the ice, and tries to help him. Then Sokka pokes him in the head with the blunt side of his spear.

The mysterious boy opens his eyes to see Katara staring at him with deep blue eyes. He immediatly falls in love, and quickly becomes fully alert, asking Katara to go "Penguin Sledding" with him. after sneezing and going high into the air he says his name is Aang.

When he climbs back into the "crater," he says something about "Appa." Appa is a very large flying bison. It takes a moment for Aang to waken him, and then the group gets on Appa's saddle. Sokka does not believe that Appa can fly. Aang cries "Yip-Yip!", causing Appa to leap into the air, and come crashing right back down on the water, turning into a boat-like transportation device.

Then, 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? "Oh, I was smiling?"

After a brief check-in with Prince Zuko and his uncle, Katara asks if Aang knew the Avatar. He replies with the fact (fiction...) that he knew him, but that he doesn't know where he is. (He's the Avatar, and he knows that.)

He dreams about the storm that he and Appa had encountered while they were near the South Pole. Kind of a strange place for the Avatar, eh? Anyway, he re-lives in the dream how he and Appa were brought under the waves, and how Aang created the iceberg. It's that cool part in the dreamy black, white and glowy blue colours.

Aang wakes up in a tent in the South Pole, when Katara walks in. He quickly gets dressed, with Katara watching (hey, I thought this was a kids' show!). She looks at the arrow markings running along his body, and then when he's completely dressed, pulls him into the village. Then introduces him.

"Aang, this is the entire village."

"The entire village, Aang."

The village acts surprised to see the airbender.

The village hasn't seen an airbender in a hundred years, thinking they were extinct. Then, Sokka wonders why Aang always carries his staff around, realizing it's not sharp enough to stab anybody. Aang shows them how he flies with it.

Then he crashes into Sokka's watch tower.

Gran-Gran (Katara's grandmother) is wondering if Aang may be a threat. Of course, Katara wants him to stay, and says that he could teach them so much. They glance over at Aang, to see him showing off to the toddlers' how he can stick his tongue to his staff.

Prince Zuko practices his firebending techniques, with Uncle Iroh as his mentor. Zuko gets impatient (what else?) and asks for his Uncle to teach him advanced moves. Iroh is not happy with the fact he does not want to learn his basics, but agrees. Right after he finishes his roast duck.

Sokka begins to teach the younger boys, lecturing them about how they are the warriors of this tribe. Until one of them says he needs to pee.

Sokka is mad at Aang for distracting the "warriors" and begins to throw a fit, but when Aang sees a Penguin, he tries to capture one, but to no avail. Until Katara teaches him the art of catching penguins.

Then Aang and Karara go penguin sledding until they get to the abandoned fire navy ship.

Aang wants to go in and explore, but Katara is wary. She has been told never to go onto the fire navy ship, but Aang convinces her otherwise. As they explore, Aang ends up realizing he was stuck in the iceberg for 100 years. Then, at the perfect moment, a booby trap is set off, sending off a flare. Aang saves Katara by airbending out of the ship, but Prince Zuko has found the Avatar now. And his hiding place.

-- Recap by Koikitten

content credit:
 * distant horizon

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