Avatar: The Last Airbender/Aang

Aang
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Actor	Zach Tyler Eisen
First Appearance	1x01 - The Boy in the Iceberg
Last Appearance	—
Series Billing	Series: First Billing
Episode Count	17
Notable Episodes	—

Basic Information

Aang is a hero—a 12-year-old hero who likes to stir up trouble. Raised by Airbender monks in a temple hidden in the mountains, Aang is the last Airbender and the only known survivor of the Air Nomads. It's Aang's destiny as the Avatar to master all four elements—Air, Water, Earth and Fire. But he'd rather search for adventure than save the world. Though he's very spiritual, Aang doesn't like being known as the mythical Avatar or being the center of attention, he just wants to be a normal kid. Aang loves animals, especially his giant flying bison, Appa, and his pet winged-lemur, Momo. He's quick to take detours along his journey, much to the dismay of Katara and Sokka, and he's a master of getting himself into sticky situations. Luckily for all three of them—and the rest of the world—he's pretty good at getting out of them too.

Character History

Aang was raised at the Southern Air Temple, not far from the South Pole. When he was young, he and the other young Airbender monks were brought to the Eastern Air Temple to choose an air bison companion. He was chosen by Appa, and the two became constant companions. They appear to have traveled extensively, as Aang was friends with Bumy of the Earth Kingdom city Omashu, and he also claims to have had Fire Nation friends.

The monks at the Air Temple knew he was the Avatar from an early age, as the toys he chose to play with were the ones belonging to the previous Airbender Avatar. Though the fact that he was the Avatar was not supposed to be revealed to him until he turned 16, the monks began training him early to prepare for the looming war with the Fire Nation. When the other children at the temple learned Aang was the Avatar, they began to ostracize him, believing that Aang's innate Avatar abilities would provide an unfair advantage in any games they played. This combined with the fact that the older monks wanted Aang to train constantly, alienated Aang and made him regret that he was the Avatar. The final straw came when the monks began to feel that Aang was becoming too close to Monk Gyatso, an elder who treated Aang like a normal kid. The monks planned to send Aang to the Eastern Air Temple, but Aang found out and made plans to run away before they could do so. Unfortunately, while flying on Appa near the South Pole, a storm brewed and the two of them were driven into the water. To save them, Aang went into the Avatar State and froze himself and Appa in a block of ice.

One-hundred years later, Aang was found by Katara and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. They brought him back to their village, unfortunately also incurring the wrath of the Fire Nation and Prince Zuko. After Aang agreed to leave on the Fire Nation boat to spare the village further strife, Sokka, Katara, and the rest of the village realized that he was a good person who deserved their help. The siblings decided to rescue Aang, and after that, to accompany him to the North Pole so he could learn Waterbending from the benders there.

The three kids traveled through the Earth Kingdom for the next few months, with Katara passing on some of her own Waterbending knowledge to Aang as they traveled. They were constantly pursued by Prince Zuko, who believed that capturing Aang was the key to restoring his own honor.

Quotes

• Prince Zuko: I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating... you're just a child!
  Aang: Well, you're just a teenager.
• Katara: Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?
  Aang: Because I never wanted to be.