Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a world split into four nations, each tied to an element: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads. Some people, called benders, can control their nation's element. Only the Avatar can master all four. A century before the story begins, the Fire Nation launched a war of conquest and wiped out the Air Nomads, and the Avatar vanished. Then two Water Tribe siblings find a boy frozen in an iceberg.
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created the series for Nickelodeon. It ran for three seasons, called Books (Water, Earth and Fire), from 2005 to 2008. It drew on East Asian and Indigenous cultures for its nations, used real martial arts as the basis for each bending style, and told a single complete story. Because the world is organised by nation, this guide groups the characters the same way, after an introduction to Team Avatar.
- Creators
- Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
- Network
- Nickelodeon
- Run
- 2005–2008, three Books
- Episodes
- 61
- Sequel
- The Legend of Korra (2012–2014)
The four bending arts
Each nation's bending is based on a martial art and has its own philosophy. Knowing them helps explain the characters, since how a person bends usually says something about who they are.
| Element | Nation | Martial art basis | Philosophy | Sub-skills in the show |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Water Tribes | Tai chi | Adaptability, flow, redirecting force | Healing, bloodbending |
| Earth | Earth Kingdom | Hung Gar | Patience, endurance, standing firm | Metalbending, seismic sense |
| Fire | Fire Nation | Northern Shaolin | Drive, will, energy | Lightning generation and redirection |
| Air | Air Nomads | Baguazhang | Freedom, evasion, non-violence | Flight with a glider staff |
Team Avatar
The heroes come from three different nations, and that's the point: they're a small picture of the united world they're fighting for. Each is also the one who teaches Aang their element, except Sokka, who teaches everyone else to think.
Aang
The Avatar · Airbender
Aang is a twelve-year-old Air Nomad monk who ran away when he learned he was the Avatar, got caught in a storm and froze himself in an iceberg for a hundred years. He wakes to find his people gone and the world at war. He's playful and kind, and the weight of his responsibility sits awkwardly on a kid who just wants to ride penguins. His refusal to kill, even the Fire Lord, drives the show's final moral question.
- Voice
- Zach Tyler Eisen
Katara
Waterbender · Healer
Katara is the only waterbender left in the Southern Water Tribe, and she discovers Aang in the iceberg. She's compassionate and fierce, and she lost her mother to a Fire Nation raid when she was small. She teaches herself much of her bending before mastering it in the North, becomes a gifted healer, and is Aang's waterbending teacher. She's also the team's conscience, and her anger is as real as her kindness.
- Voice
- Mae Whitman
Sokka
Warrior · Strategist
Sokka is Katara's older brother and the only non-bender in the group. He starts out as a sarcastic, slightly sexist teenager armed with a boomerang. He grows into the team's planner, an inventor and a skilled swordsman, and he's the comic lead along the way. He loses Princess Yue in season one and later falls for Suki, and his arc is a strong argument that you don't need powers to matter.
- Voice
- Jack DeSena
Toph Beifong
Earthbender · Inventor of metalbending
Toph is a blind twelve-year-old from a wealthy family who keep her hidden because they think she's helpless. In reality she's an underground earthbending champion who "sees" through vibrations in the ground. She runs away to teach Aang, and during the series she becomes the first person ever to bend metal. She's blunt, competitive and funny, and she softens just enough to let the others in.
- Voice
- Jessie Flower
Zuko
Banished prince · Firebender
Zuko is the exiled crown prince of the Fire Nation. His father burned his face and banished him, saying he could only return with the Avatar. He spends two seasons hunting Aang, convinced that capturing him will restore his honour. Slowly, with Iroh's patience, he learns that his father's approval isn't worth having. He eventually joins Team Avatar as Aang's firebending teacher and ends the series as Fire Lord.
- Voice
- Dante Basco
Appa and Momo
Sky bison and winged lemur
Appa is Aang's six-legged flying sky bison and the team's transport. Momo is a winged lemur Aang adopts at the Southern Air Temple. Both are among the last of their kinds, and Appa's capture in season two gets one of the series' saddest episodes.
- Voice
- Dee Bradley Baker
Fire Nation
The Fire Nation is the aggressor in the war, but the show keeps separating the nation from its rulers. Its royal family is the centre of the drama, and its most important characters are the ones who question what they've been taught.
Iroh
Dragon of the West · Zuko's uncle
Iroh is a retired general and Zuko's uncle who joins him in exile. He seems like a gentle old man who cares mostly about tea and Pai Sho. He was once the Fire Nation's greatest commander, and the loss of his son, Lu Ten, during a siege changed him. He's the show's moral centre, offering Zuko patience and wisdom without ever forcing him to change. He's also a firebending master who invented a way to redirect lightning, and a leader of the secret Order of the White Lotus.
- Voice
- Mako (Books 1–2), Greg Baldwin (Book 3)
Azula
Princess · Firebending prodigy
Azula is Zuko's younger sister and the favourite child of their father. She's a firebending prodigy who produces blue flame and lightning, and an expert manipulator who controls people through fear. For most of the show she's the most dangerous person in it. In the final episodes, as her friends and father fail her, she comes apart, and the show treats that collapse with unexpected sympathy.
- Voice
- Grey DeLisle
Fire Lord Ozai
Ruler of the Fire Nation
Ozai is the ruler of the Fire Nation and the series' final villain. He's kept mostly offscreen until season three, and the show defines him by what he's done: scarring his own son, grooming his daughter as a weapon and planning to burn the Earth Kingdom using the power of a comet. He has no redeeming side, which makes Aang's choice about how to defeat him so hard.
- Voice
- Mark Hamill
Mai
Knife-thrower · Zuko's girlfriend
Mai is one of Azula's two friends, a deadpan noble's daughter with expert aim and hidden blades. She seems bored by everything, a result of a childhood where she was told to be seen and not heard. Her relationship with Zuko gives her a reason to care. Her decision to defy Azula for him at the Boiling Rock prison is a big moment for a character who rarely shows feeling.
- Voice
- Cricket Leigh
Ty Lee
Acrobat · Chi-blocker
Ty Lee is Azula's other friend: bubbly, acrobatic and able to disable benders by striking pressure points. She joined a circus to stand out from her six identical sisters. She follows Azula out of fear more than loyalty, and when she finally picks a side, it isn't Azula's.
- Voice
- Olivia Hack
Admiral Zhao
Fire Nation commander
Zhao is an ambitious, arrogant naval officer and the main villain of Book One. He mocks Zuko, hunts the Avatar for glory, and attacks the Northern Water Tribe by killing the Moon Spirit. His hubris gets the ending it deserves.
- Voice
- Jason Isaacs
Avatar Roku
Aang's previous life
Roku was the Avatar before Aang, born in the Fire Nation. He was best friends with Fire Lord Sozin, Ozai's grandfather, and failed to stop Sozin's ambitions in time. He guides Aang through visions, and his story shows how the war began.
- Voice
- James Garrett
Combustion Man
Assassin
An assassin hired by Zuko to kill Aang, who can fire explosions from a third eye tattooed on his forehead. He barely speaks, which makes him one of the scariest threats in the series.
The Water Tribes
There are two Water Tribes at opposite poles. The Southern Tribe, Katara and Sokka's home, has been gutted by Fire Nation raids. The Northern Tribe is larger and more traditional, and it still had its waterbenders when the story begins.
Princess Yue
Princess of the Northern Water Tribe
Yue is the daughter of the Northern chief, saved as a baby by the Moon Spirit. She and Sokka fall for each other quickly, and in the Book One finale she gives up her life to become the moon. It's the first real loss the show asks its young audience to carry.
Master Pakku
Northern waterbending master
Pakku is a stern teacher who refuses to train Katara because Northern tradition bars women from combat bending. Katara challenges him to a duel and changes his mind. He was once engaged to her grandmother, Kanna, which shifts his attitude quickly.
Hakoda
Chief of the Southern Water Tribe
Hakoda is Katara and Sokka's father, who left to fight in the war when they were young. His reunion with his children in Book Three is quiet and moving, and he helps lead the invasion of the Fire Nation.
Hama
Bloodbender
Hama is an elderly Southern waterbender who was captured by the Fire Nation and developed bloodbending, controlling the water inside people, to escape. She teaches it to Katara against her will. Her episode, "The Puppetmaster", is one of the darkest in the show.
The Earth Kingdom
The Earth Kingdom is huge and varied, from farming villages to the walled capital Ba Sing Se. Many of its most memorable characters aren't benders at all.
Suki
Leader of the Kyoshi Warriors
Suki leads the Kyoshi Warriors, a group of fighters who use fans and swords and wear face paint in honour of a past Avatar. She defeats Sokka in their first meeting and teaches him to fight. She's captured in Book Two, escapes the Boiling Rock with Sokka in Book Three, and proves herself as capable as any bender.
- Voice
- Jennie Kwan
King Bumi
King of Omashu
Bumi is Aang's childhood friend, now a cackling, eccentric old king and a very powerful earthbender. He tests Aang with nonsense challenges and later liberates his city single-handedly. He's proof that age and silliness aren't weakness.
- Voice
- André Sogliuzzo
Jet
Freedom fighter
Jet is a charismatic rebel whose family was killed by the Fire Nation. He leads a gang of orphans and is willing to hurt civilians to strike back. He shows the team that fighting the Fire Nation doesn't automatically make you good, and his story ends in Ba Sing Se.
- Voice
- Crawford Wilson
Long Feng
Head of the Dai Li
Long Feng is the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, who controls the city through the secret police and keeps its own king ignorant of the war. He's a bureaucratic villain, not a warrior, until Azula outmanoeuvres him.
The Cabbage Merchant
Unlucky vendor
A small-time trader whose cabbage cart is destroyed every time Team Avatar passes through. It's one of the show's most famous running jokes. He even gets a mention in the sequel.
The Air Nomads
The Air Nomads were peaceful monks who lived in four temples at the edges of the world. Sozin's army wiped them out a century before the series, so they appear mostly in flashbacks, statues and visions.
Monk Gyatso
Aang's mentor
Gyatso was Aang's guardian and teacher at the Southern Air Temple, and his closest family. The other monks wanted to separate them so Aang could focus on his duties, which is part of why Aang ran away. Aang finds Gyatso's remains in the first season, and that discovery sets off one of his most frightening Avatar State episodes.
Guru Pathik
Spiritual teacher
Pathik is a hermit and friend of Gyatso who teaches Aang to unlock his chakras so he can control the Avatar State. The final chakra asks Aang to let go of his attachment to Katara, a choice he can't bring himself to make.
Voice cast
| Character | Voice actor | Bending |
|---|---|---|
| Aang | Zach Tyler Eisen | All four (Avatar) |
| Katara | Mae Whitman | Water |
| Sokka | Jack DeSena | None |
| Toph Beifong | Jessie Flower | Earth, metal |
| Zuko | Dante Basco | Fire |
| Iroh | Mako / Greg Baldwin | Fire |
| Azula | Grey DeLisle | Fire, lightning |
| Fire Lord Ozai | Mark Hamill | Fire, lightning |
| Mai | Cricket Leigh | None |
| Ty Lee | Olivia Hack | None (chi-blocking) |
| Suki | Jennie Kwan | None |
| Admiral Zhao | Jason Isaacs | Fire |
| Appa, Momo | Dee Bradley Baker | Appa can airbend |
All Avatar character names A–Z
A
- Aang — Air Nomads
- Admiral Zhao — Fire Nation
- Appa — sky bison
- Azula — Fire Nation
B–G
- Bumi — Earth Kingdom
- Cabbage Merchant — Earth Kingdom
- Combustion Man — Fire Nation
- Guru Pathik — Air Nomads
- Gyatso — Air Nomads
H–J
- Hakoda — Southern Water Tribe
- Hama — Southern Water Tribe
- Iroh — Fire Nation
- Jet — Earth Kingdom
K–M
- Kanna — Southern Water Tribe
- Katara — Southern Water Tribe
- Long Feng — Earth Kingdom
- Mai — Fire Nation
- Momo — winged lemur
O–R
- Ozai — Fire Nation
- Pakku — Northern Water Tribe
- Roku — Fire Nation, past Avatar
S–Z
- Sokka — Southern Water Tribe
- Sozin — Fire Nation
- Suki — Earth Kingdom
- Toph Beifong — Earth Kingdom
- Ty Lee — Fire Nation
- Ursa — Fire Nation
- Yue — Northern Water Tribe
- Zuko — Fire Nation
Themes: what the characters are about
Avatar is a war story told from the point of view of children, and it's mostly about how people break free of what they were raised to be:
- Zuko is the clearest case, and one of the most cited redemption arcs in animation. His conflict with Azula is also among TV's great sibling rivalries.
- Aang has to choose between his people's values and what everyone tells him the world needs.
- Toph, Mai and Ty Lee each escape families that tried to define them.
- Iroh has already made the journey Zuko is on, which is why he's so patient.
The show's blend of found family and moral weight runs through later series like The Owl House and Steven Universe. It's also one of Nickelodeon's most enduring casts.
Watch order
- Book One: Water — the journey north; a slower start, but the last third is excellent.
- Book Two: Earth — Toph joins, the story moves to Ba Sing Se, and the show hits its stride.
- Book Three: Fire — the invasion and the four-part finale, "Sozin's Comet".
- The Legend of Korra — the sequel series, set roughly seventy years later.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the main characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Team Avatar: Aang, the twelve-year-old Avatar and last airbender; Katara, a waterbender; her brother Sokka, a non-bending warrior; and Toph, a blind earthbender. Prince Zuko, his uncle Iroh and his sister Azula make up the main Fire Nation cast.
Who is the strongest character in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Aang in the Avatar State is the most powerful being in the show. Among regular benders, the usual picks are Azula and Ozai for firebending, Iroh for his skill and experience, and Toph, who invents metalbending. Fans argue endlessly about the exact order.
Does Zuko become good?
Yes. His turn from Aang's pursuer to his firebending teacher is the show's best-known arc. He makes his final choice in season three, joins Team Avatar, and becomes Fire Lord at the end of the series.
Who voices Iroh?
Mako Iwamatsu voiced Iroh for the first two seasons. After his death in 2006, Greg Baldwin took over for season three, matching Mako's performance closely.
How old are the main characters?
At the start of the series Aang is twelve (not counting the hundred years he spent frozen), Katara is fourteen, Sokka is fifteen, Toph is twelve, Zuko is sixteen and Azula is fourteen.
Is The Legend of Korra a sequel?
Yes. The Legend of Korra (2012–2014) is set about seventy years later and follows the next Avatar, Korra. Adult versions or descendants of many original characters appear, including Katara, Zuko, Toph's daughters and Aang's children.