#CHARACTERS IN AVATAR SERIES#
#CHARACTERS IN AVATAR TV#

Now sixteen years old, Prince Zuko has spent the last two years on an angry quest to capture Avatar Aang in order to save face with his father and regain his honor. His father punished him by brutally burning and scarring him in a duel, and banished him for his weakness and lack of respect. When a high-ranking officer suggested a plan to sacrifice some Fire Nation soldiers to gain an advantage in the war, Prince Zuko, who was fourteen at the time, vocally challenged the morality of the strategy. In fact, his father has banished him from the Fire Nation, after Zuko spoke out of turn in a war strategy meeting. His mission, however, is not simply that of a son helping his father. Prince Zuko is therefore hunting Avatar Aang in order to bring him back to the Fire Lord. Knowing very well that the Avatar will seek to defeat him, the Fire Lord wants nothing more than to capture Avatar Aang. The Fire Lord has waged war, even genocide, on the other three nations. Aang was born an air-bender, while Prince Zuko was born a fire-bender.ДЄt the beginning of the series, Prince Zuko is pursuing Avatar Aang on behalf of Prince ZukoвЂ™s father, the Fire Lord, who is the vicious ruler of the Fire Nation and a formidable fire-bender. So, an air-bender controls the flow of air as a martial art form, a water-bender controls the flow of water as a martial art form, and so on. As Wikipedia explains, вЂњEach nation has a distinct society, wherein people known as вЂbendersвЂ™ have the ability to manipulate and control the elementВ of their nation using the physical motions of martial artsвЂќ (, accessed on March 30, 2016). The Avatar is meant to accomplish this by becoming a martial arts prodigy, mastering the вЂњbendingвЂќ of all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. The Avatar is like the Dalai Lama, a continuously reincarnated person who is meant to bring peace to the four nations of the world (the Air Nomads, the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation). Aang is a twelve-year old boy who has been deemed the вЂњAvatar,вЂќ and is hence the namesake of the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. We first learn about Prince Zuko as he is hunting down the protagonist of the story, Aang. Through the relationship between nephew and uncle, Prince Zuko gradually comes to internalize his uncleвЂ™s guidance and face his inner demons, demonstrating an analytic process of transference, resistance, and working through his conflicts. ZukoвЂ™s Uncle Iroh demonstrates a psychoanalytic posture with Zuko, refraining from passing judgment while Zuko rejects his uncleвЂ™s guidance and projects his conflicts onto Uncle Iroh. They watch him fight the same inner battles over and over in a colossal repetition compulsion. As the viewers come to know Prince Zuko, they learn about the internal, unconscious conflicts that bedevil him. In the series, the primary lessons in psychoanalysis reside in the relationship between the antagonist, the young and impetuous Prince Zuko, and his uncle, the staid but clever Uncle Iroh. More surprisingly, it presents the audience with an unexpected level of character development, revealing a psychoanalytic process of unconscious conflict, repetition, and emotional resolution through relationship.

#CHARACTERS IN AVATAR SERIES#

The series wonderfully combines elements of Chinese martial arts such as kung fu and tai chi, which provide the action and excitement, with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.

#CHARACTERS IN AVATAR TV#

вЂњItвЂ™s time for you to look inward, and begin asking yourself the big questions: who are you, and what do you want?вЂќ ItвЂ™s not exactly the stuff of your average American cartoon program, but this quote captures the essence of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated TV series aimed at 6-to-11 year olds that aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008.

Characters in avatar