Avatar: The Last Airbender/WMG/Just for Fun

The Avatar universe is the world after the Needles are pulled in Mother 3, and generally continues the Earthbound series
It's a natural world that seems a bit too small, and the main heroes are kids, as fits earlier installments of the Earth Bound series. The hybrid animals are Chimeras. The bending disciplines are what PSI becomes -- PSI Fire and Thunder -> Firebending; PSI Freeze -> Waterbending; Psi Ground -> Earthbending, for example, with PSI Love being the basic power of Energybending. Remember that various Chimeras had PSI as well, which is how humans could relearn it from the animals. And Firebending even comes from dragons! The Spirit World is Magicant. This may suggest that Sozin's comet has something to do with Giygas.

Prince Zuko is the reincarnation of Rufio.
When Rufio died, he wished to have a father like Peter. However, it should be noted that while Peter did genuinely love his children, he was never exactly easy on Jack. To Rufio's credit, he and Jack are never seen talking or anything, so he probably didn't know this. To Rufio, Peter was the model of a great father because of loyalty and bravery in battle.

He was reincarnated as Zuko, who had a very harsh father, but also a loving mother and uncle, as per his wishes as well as karma for his noble death. He was born into a royal family because of Rufio's apparent thirst for power. Everything bad that happened to Zuko was karma for the wrong he'd done to Peter as Rufio, and Zuko's ultimate happy ending was because despite his demeanor, he was essentially a good soul.

Both boys appear to be deputy leaders for their respective groups, with Rufio taking the lead when Peter left, and Zuko doing the same in the final in Aang's absence. Both boys are rebellious and are the 'act now think later if I survive' type. Both also are hotheaded, born warriors, and proud to the point of arrogance. Most noticeably, they fill similar roles in their respective show/movie, as they start out being somewhat antagonistic, though never really villeins, but later become valuable allies to the hero.

Might be something of an inside joke that they are portrayed by the same actor.
 * Who the heck is "Rufio"?
 * Leader of the Lost Boys after Peter Pan goes to earth to grow up and marry Wendy's daughter in Hook.
 * ... Who is also played by Dante Basco, in case you didn't catch that.

The Avatar world is the Pokémon world in the distant past.

 * Everyone's Asian, there are various animal species with elemental powers (like the badgermoles and sky bison), and "regular" animals are known of but extremely rare. Give it a couple of thousand years and the high levels of mutation and metamorphosis Pokemon are so famous for, and for the populace to largely forget about the bending teachings, and you'll have the Pokemon world.
 * Related theory: Ash is the current "modern-day" Avatar, although nobody is aware of this.
 * So Pikachu is related to Appa and Momo? Well, Momo might be. But there are other examples, like the Hog Monkeys/Mankey, Komodo/Rhydon, Pentapus/Octillery, Unagi/Gyarados, etc.
 * The only ones that didn't forget were the psyshics, that, somehow or another, have soulbending techniques... Sort of.
 * Obviously, the creature from the Serpent's Pass is Rayquaza.
 * It would explain a whole lot
 * It would definitely explain the giant magicarp that live near Kyoshi Island...
 * I think Red is a much better equivalent for the Avatar. He catches all the Pokemon and is a Pokemon master, and actually defeats and disbands team Rocket.

Alternatively, the Avatar World is the Naruto world in the distant past.
Perhaps Bending is basically a primordial version of Hand-Seals, and redirecting chakra in a more general manner than the over-specialized Seals.
 * Let's take this further. At one point after the events of Naruto, a nuclear war devastated the world, leading to Fist of the North Star. Kenshiro and various others use knowledge of chakras and pressure points to kill their enemies with a few well-placed jabs. The radiation caused massive mutation, leading to all the Mix and Match Critters and weird animals seen in Avatar. Ty Lee practises a martial art descended from that used by Kenshiro, but either she prefers to use non-lethal attacks, or knowledge of hokuto shin ken has been lost.
 * The Uchiha clan are the descendants of Aang. Previous generations, unique in their ability to manipulate the air, took the symbol of a fan (uchiwa) as their family emblem and name.
 * Wouldn't it make more sense if the Land of Wind where Aang's descendants. One of the descendants just happened to be raised by Sandbenders. And also all of the named nations in Naruto could be traced back to one of the four elements. Water, Rain and Waves would obviously be Waterbenders, Fire and Lightning would be Firebenders, Wind and Sound would be Airbenders and Earth would be Earthbenders. Thus the Uchiha clan would be descendants of the Firebenders.
 * Have you seen Naruto's map? It looks nothing like Japan, has several dozen countries, islands and so forth on it. Short of the Avatar world being a Dyson Sphere, there's no way to add one to the other without some weird justification.
 * The avatar world could be millions of year in the past of the naruto one. Continental drift is always an option.
 * Have you seen Naruto's map? It looks nothing like Japan, has several dozen countries, islands and so forth on it. Short of the Avatar world being a Dyson Sphere, there's no way to add one to the other without some weird justification.
 * The avatar world could be millions of year in the past of the naruto one. Continental drift is always an option.

It's far clearer that the Avatar world takes place somewhere in the galaxy of Macross.
Where else did those hippo-cows on Macross Frontier come from?
 * Please don't say that... the thought of Firebender Zentraedi is just too awesome and terrifying for mortal minds to handle.

Alternately, Jade Empire is the future of Avatar.
The Jade Empire is a successful Fire Nation some years after it conquered the world. The main character is the reincarnated Avatar: he/she can learn a number of magical styles that are directly linked to the elements, and is responsible for restoring balance to the world. Note that the protagonist of the game is working with the Water Dragon, and that in general Jade Empire follows a lot of the same character archetypes as Avatar does.
 * Or Avatar is the future. Jade Empire is set at the tail end of the transition between spirit bending and element bending mentioned by the Lion Turtle, with elements just beginning to come to the fore. Over the next few hundred years, the Jade Empire conquers the world, its culture washing away all others. However, elemental segregation eventually grows so strong that the Jade Empire splits into four elemental nations.
 * Warren Peace from Sky High is descended from Firebenders, possibly even the royal house of the Fire Nation. He's not ethnically Asian but speaks at least some Cantonese, his powers seem to work identically to firebending, and he sort of looks like Zuko.
 * If we follow that logic, then that would mean that Terra from Teen Titans is a descendant from the Earthbenders.
 * And that the Loch Ness Monster is really an eelhound.

The Avatar World is our world in the very, very distant future.
After an unspecified apocalypse, a large percentage of our world's population was wiped out, leaving many species of artificially hybridized animals, and very diverse groups of human survivors, behind. Humanity's most ancient religious relics, particularly those of the Hindu and Buddhist variety, were left behind. The descendants of these survivors followed these old ways, praying for a savior to lead them...and their prayers were eventually answered. This editor only wishes she was the first of many fanficcers to come up with this theory.
 * Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Perhaps we found a way to harness the elements, made it compact, and then made it inherent to the human condition. The "Learning from the moon, the bison, the dragon, and the badgermole" is a metaphor for how technology is inspired by nature.

Jade Empire is the distant past of Avatar
The parallels are quite close, really. Minor spoilers for ‘’Jade Empire’’ follow.

The player kills the Water Dragon at the end, so that she can be reborn into the world and to re-establish the natural order. The Celestial Bureaucracy decides to remove the water aspect of her domain in her rebirth. She was originally attacked solely to end the drought, so they figure she'll be less likely to be attacked if her sole dominion is over spirits. She is reborn as the Giant Lion Turtle, the one Aang meets at the end of the series (obviously involving a sex change, but somehow I don't think that Gods care about such things)

The player is a Spirit Monk, and retains all of those handy powers. Like Spirit Binding. Which sounds suspiciously like something that Aang did at the end of the series: attacking the spirit of another. That's right: the player from JE founds a new order of what we come to call Energybenders.

With the new Spirit Monk order replacing the Order of the Lotus/Lotus Assassins, the Jade Empire sweeps across the world, absorbing all others into themselves. Eventually, the empire grows decadant and corrupt. As the four forms of bending start appearing in the world, the empire's Spirit Monks are able to absorb their bending. In the process, they go insane (remember the Lion Turtle's warning: your spirit must be unbendable or you will be corrupt. Somehow, I doubt all energybenders had unbendable spirits). This threatens the new order of the world.

So the Giant Lion Turtle decides to kill off her old order. To do so, she brings together 4 benders, one of each element, and Energybends their spirits into a single entity: the first Avatar. She then binds the Avatar spirit to the world, so that it will be reincarnated with full access to its past incarnations. The Avatar destroys the Jade Empire, kills off all of the Spirit Monks, destroys the knowledge of Energybending (except perhaps what lies in Wan Si Tong's library), and brings about the Time of the Avatar.

Azula is a former/future incarnation of Mandy from The Grim Adventures Of Billy and Mandy.

 * Mandy has all the deviousness and ambition of her counterpart, but the general lack of subtlety and tact that comes from both being an eleven-year-old child and living in a Crapsack World. However, when she gets older, starts reading Macchiavelli's The Prince, and learns to rein in that dazzling smile of hers, all that will change...
 * Further supported by both being voiced by Grey DeLisle. Everybody who knows the type of roles she plays understands why.
 * Alternately, Azula is an older version of Megan from Drake And Josh who took a level in badass.

Zuko and Azula are alternate versions of Simon and River Tam from Firefly.
Think about it. Simon/Zuko is talented (Zuko's a good bender and absolutely amazing with Dao blades; Simon is a "gifted" doctor who finished med school early), but not nearly as talented as their prodigal and insane little sisters. Both Simon and Zuko are introduced as antagonists (though Simon becomes a protagonist much quicker than Zuko does). Both of them are estranged from their parents (in both cases, leaving after a disagreement with their respective fathers) and both Simon and Zuko are fugitives from a government that is supported by their families. Simon and Zuko all come from a much more wealthy and politically prestigious background than the people they end up becoming "family" with (Simon and the crew of Serenity and Zuko and the gAang). Both pairs of siblings grew up in the middle of a war in which their families were on the side that is looked on as evil. The sibling pairs exist in heavily Asian-influenced universes.

Azula and River are both geniuses (quite obvious with River, Azula is a master strategizer who understood complex battle plans at the age of eight), but both are also talented physically (obviously with Azula, being capable of bending lightning and producing blue flame, River in the movie is shown to have Ninja Skillz© plus she's an amazing dancer). And neither Azula nor River is adverse to killing people.

...Also, both Simon and Zuko are terrible at talking to girls.
 * I love you.
 * And Ty Lee is an alternate version of Kaylee! She's just as cheery as Kaylee and like Kaylee choosing to befriend and support River, she appears to be closer with Azula than most others.
 * Iroh is totally an alternate version of Shepard Book. Wise and spiritual with a dark past.

Long Feng is The Master.
He managed to manipulate the people of Ba Sing Se into making him the de facto ruler and killed Iroh's (a.k.a. The Doctor's) son (see above).

Ozai is The The Valeyard.
Azulon had two sons Iroh and Ozai (R!Iroh and R!Ozai), sometime after R!Ozai's marriage to Ursa he and R!Iroh went on a journey to find the Avatar. While on this journey their ship was attacked and sunk by the The Valeyard and they were left for dead. Afterward, The Valeyard used a modified chameleon arch to change his appearance to that of R!Ozai (V!Ozai) and "returns" to the Fire Nation to report R!Iroh's death. Meanwhile, R!Iroh had washed up on the shores of the South Pole and was being nursed back health by Kya. Later, The Doctor, having used the chameleon arch to hide from some foe, is deposited on Ember Island where he is found by someone (probably Azulon or his wife) who concludes he is actually Iroh suffering from amnesia and returns him (D!Iroh) to the capital.

The Giant Lion Turtle grows up to be Australia/New Zealand
The Giant Lion Turtle isn't fully grown, despite its obvious age, and considering that its inclusion is most likely a nod to the myths of the world being carried on the back of a giant turtle, this one has a ways to go yet. Besides, it IS a giant moving island with accompanying background music reminiscent of that crazy didjeridu (look it up). Most likely of the two, it will become New Zealand because it has no desert on it, the animals don't seem absurdly vicious, and Maori are considered "Polynesian" (which fits into the Pan-Asian theme with a bit of a stretch) and Australian Aboriginals are not.
 * Given that the Sun Warriors appear to be pre-Columbian Mesoamericans, it's not that big a stretch to assume EITHER group could populate Lion Turtle Island.

The Giant Lion Turtle grows up to be Discworld.
Discworld is, after all, on a turtle. Think about it for a minute.
 * And Ba Sing Se will become Ankh-Morpork...

Combustion Man was a former Flame Alchemist who wound up in the Avatar world after an experience with the gate.
Combustion Man has very similar abilities to Roy Mustang. So he could have been a former Flame Alcemist who was cruel and power hungry. His desire for power led him to opening the gate, and he lost his arm and his tounge as his price. Something went wrong and he wound up in the Avatar universe, and became an assassin for hire, after crafting a crude Automail arm for himself.
 * Actually, I thought that the exact moment that I saw him! And the eye is his transmutation circle!

There will be a sequel OVA movie, it will be Darker and Edgier to appeal to the now-more-aged fans, and will involve Aang as the Big Bad
Here is the setup: Some ten years after the end of the series, and things haven't gotten much better. Think about it - you have a hundred years of war and genocide primarily between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, though the Water Tribes and Air Nomads are obviously not exempt. Realistically, Zuko and Aang will have to deal with reparations to the Earth Kingdom and the removal of millions of Fire Nation colonists from the Earth Kingdom's borders, all while many Fire Nation rebels from the former Ozai-loyal ranks will want to usurp power from Zuko and either re-establish Ozai or themselves to power, and many Earth Kingdom civilians and much of the military will want the ruin/destruction of the Fire Nation and its colonies for its trespasses over the past one-hundred years.

Aang will have gotten a rude awakening that his defeating Fire Lord Ozai didn't do jack shit to actually fix things, especially not immediately. At the same time, while he and Katara will have probably had a few kids, all will be Waterbenders like their mother. Again, reality starts to hit the now disillusioned Avatar that, while he isn't the LAST Avatar, the cycle will end with the next Waterbender Avatar, since there will no longer be an Airbender to reincarnate into, and the cycle will end. After that, who's to say that something like the Fire Nation War will not happen again, and this time no-one can help? He finally bemoans his fate, and believes that there would be no problems like these if people could only think like the Airbenders did, free of their earthly problems.

Aang attempts to intervene in a battle between Earth Kingdom discontents who are trying to drive out/destroy members of a Fire Nation colony, while the Colonists refuse to leave their home of generations. They do not listen to his pleas, and even after he mass Energybends several of the front lines to try and stop them, they only momentarily stop, then pick up whatever weapons they can find and continue attacking. Finally, in a fit of rage and frustration, Aang enters the Avatar State and Energybends both armies, knocking many of them out.

When Aang's reinforcements arrive, they cart off the ranks two armies, but Aang notices something: as one of the prisoners thrashes about, he sees a bucket filled with water start to shake for no reason, and finally, the water splashes out of the bucket. Seeing this, Aang rushes back to the Fire Nation. There, he goes to Ozai, saying he will still find a way for Ozai to benefit the world. Ordering the guards away, Aang begins to Energybend Ozai, apparently somewhat painfully.

This all leads to Aang finally perfecting his Elementbending technique, becomes a Well Intentioned Extremist, and begins to handle the rebellions, insurgeancies, and guerilla wars by forcefully turning the combatants into Airbenders - both to stop the wars and to ensure the existance of future Avatars, since Aang still staunchly refuses to kill. Of course, word gets back to Zuko, Katara, Toph (now the Earth Queen since Bumi has passed on and no one had the cahones to tell her "no"), and Sokka (the new chieftan of the Water Tribe), as well as the remaining White Lotus members about Aang's crimes.

They corner him in a battle and confront him about this, but can't convince him to stop. In the same moment, an Earth Kingdom insurgeant who Aang had Elementbended into an Airbender spots Zuko and, thirsty for revenge, shoots him with an arrow. Seeing his friend fall, apparently dead, Aang goes full One Winged Angel, and the Gaang's only option is to take him down. This ultimately ends with Katara Bloodbending Aang to stop him, but he doesn't release from the Avatar state. After trying everything, and as she's losing her grip on him, she tearfully embraces him and gently Bloodbends his heart to a stop.

To avert a full Downer Ending, the movie ends a few years later, with Zuko still alive, though bearing the scar from the arrow, the guerilla battles having all but ended, and a final scene of Katara calling the kids to come inside - the last and youngest being paler, round-faced child Airbending a ball.

This troper is a Zeta Gundam fan - does it show?
 * You mentioned the waterbender after Aang being the last avatar...why? The Avatar would have two more re-incarnations after that. The Avatar Cycle is water>Earth>Fire>Air>Water>Etc>Etc.
 * While not with that specific plot, I could easily see an OVA being made if the film is a success. (Which it likely will be, even if it's crap. Never underestimate the power of a Super Bowl ad.)

If Quentin Tarantino had gotten the director's chair instead of M. Night Shyamalan...
The movie would be a lot bloodier, Katara would have been the Avatar instead, and Toph would have shown up a movie early to fill his foot fetish quota.
 * Okay, with the new series being announced, with the Water Tribesgirl being the new Avatar, one-third of this theory is Hilarious in Hindsight.

4-5 Elephants are going to move onto the Lion Turtle.
And they are going to balance a giant disc on their backs.
 * Hippo elephants.
 * And a snake. (There's a snake, right?)
 * No, the elephants on the turtle with the giant disc are from Discworld. There's no snake, and I don't remember their resembling hippos.
 * There's no snake on the Discworld itself, but there has been another one mentioned (By Tethys, IIRC) which did have a world serpent.
 * The elephants and turtles are much, much older than Discworld. Jormungandr is from Midgard, which is in the roots of Yggdrasil, a completely different mythos. And here, it's turtles all the way down.
 * By the same token, the Lion-Turtle is Great A'Tuin's son. Or something.

Spark rocks are the raw material for making yellow Elements.
In Chrono Cross, Elements are items that allow one to do a specific technique (such as hurling a bolt of lighting at an opponent) regardless of whether one would be able to use that technique without that Element. In other words they give one limited ability to bend materials they normally wouldn't be able to (e.g. Katara (or even Sokka) could use an ElectroJolt to attack a foe via Lightningbending, but would be unable to use it for normal Firebending). In particular, yellow Elements include Lightingbending and Earthbending.

The Elements are forged at (and one presumes using materials from) places called power spots the Fighting Cliffs in the Earth Kingdom are such a spot.

This does not necessarily mean that Avatar: The Last Airbender and Chrono Cross (and by extension Chrono Trigger) take place on the same planet they may merely have the same resources.

Kuruk is Ash's father.
This should be obvious given the above theories that all Avatars are related via time travel and that Ash is the Avatar, and the theory that Ash's father really got around.

Every member of the Fire Nation actually escaped from a musical. Zhao is actually Javert, Zuko is Erik, Juang-Juang (or however you spell it) is Valjean, etc.

 * Incidentally, thinking of Zuko as Erik makes watching Phantom of the Opera a lot more entertaining...
 * Sounds good, but - for us who are musical-illiterate - more examples are needed. Especially in reference to Firelords Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin; Avatar Roku; Prince Iroh; Ursa; and, of course, the legendary Azula.
 * Aang would fit perfectly as Ren from Fooootloose, given their free-spirited natures and masculine passion for dancing. Don't believe me? Watch "The Headband."
 * Legendary Azula? Just look up "The Madness of King Scar" from The Lion King on Broadway.

During Zuko's Awesome Moment of Crowning, he talked about "ushering in a new era of peace". Months later, President Obama used the exact same line during his inauguration.
Therefore, they are related.
 * Now that you mention it; This one had a thought during, like, season 2 that the fire nation was America and the war symbolized the war in Iraq/all those times we felt the need to spread democracy onto other countries. And after the above mentioned CMOA and The Avatar and the Fire Lord, that's all I can think about.
 * America is hardly the only country to use the excuse of "spreading our ideals to the less fortunate" or some other form of manifest destiny to invade other nations. Crack open a history book--that's been around since man organized into big, powerful civilizations. This troper isn't American and is no fan of their actions last few years, but shoehorning every recent "big power invades something" story into the American invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan is just silly. If it must be symbolic, then it would be more of a shot against great powers pushing around not-so-powerful nations in general rather than any specific (or recent) incident.
 * This just shows how the Fire Nation won the war and fufilled the objectives of Sozen. Fire Nation tech will be instermental in rebuilding the Earth Kingdom and it will be adopted by the Water Tribes and reborn Air Nomads in less then a generation. This is what Sozen claimed to want. The Avatar wasn't meant to beat the Fire Nation, just the Fire Lord
 * Either that,, or President Obama watches Avatar.
 * That would be so badass. I don't even particularly like, or agree with, President Obama, but if he watches Avatar... Wow.
 * He does have young kids. It's totally plausible that he's been exposed to a good cartoon - and one featuring a nonwhite cast, at that.
 * Obama is a nerd, he watches Star Trek and collect Spiderman and Conan The Barbarian comics. As a nerd he would easily like the show.
 * Wait, what? This troper thought the whole thing was about how China treats Tibet.
 * lolwut?

Princess Yue is actually one of Princess Serenity's incarnations
It would explain she sacrificing herself for the others. And damn, Moon Spirit!
 * Nah, I personally think she's got something to do with Phoenix.

The whole Last Airbender, Spiritbending, and different sorts of incidents led to...
The separation of the remaining populaces into the countries found in History books, and, in afterlife, the creation of Soul Society. Also, thinking about Soi Fon being a blindness-cured Toph makes me giggle. Through these 2000+ years, the elemental bending merged with spiritbending, and all of those that were non-benders couldn't see spirits anymore. It means that Ichigo could be the next Avatar, because he could control all the spiritual-based factions (if the half-demon theory was true), and that Sokka is (currently) Kenpachi Zaraki. I'd love to write such fanfiction, but I'm already with too much in the planning.

Aang is the Kwisatz Haderach.
He can see both his male and female past lives and is arguably the ultimate being.
 * Many places at once, eh? It certainly explains why he can travel so fast.
 * Also, Aang and Katara are precursors to Paul and Chani.

The main threat facing the world after the end of Avatar is the roving unemployed soldiers and leftover Fire Nation superweapons

 * And the White Lotus Society is evolving into a behind the scenes shadowy group to control the culture and information of the world.
 * If Aang and Katara have triplets...

After the war is over, Hakoda and Ursa hook up
After the war, Ursa comes out of hiding/Zuko finds her. She's managed to hear all about what has happened during her husband's reign, and reqests that their marraige be annulled by the Firelord he obliges. Meanwhile Hakoda has come to the Firenation because he is representing the Southern watertribe in reguards to reperations and new treaties. Hakoda and Ursa meet by accident, and fall for each other. Zuko and Sokka complain, but in the end they (and Kya) approve.

Neither Firebending nor Sozin's Comet are natural occurrences.
As noted before a comet shouldn't power up Firebenders, as it is ice and rock, and when it enters the atmosphere it does not actually light on fire. Originally, before the Avatar, before bending itself perhaps, there was only going to be three types of bending: Earth, Water, and Air.

Then the 'comet' swung around for the first time. Either it was mis-aimed and got hooked into an elliptical orbit, or the spirits, sensing the evil within it, diverted it. However, parts of the 'comet' fell off and infected the world. Fearing this the pieces were dumped into volcanos. Sensing the power of the world, when the 'comet' came by on its second swing it started to meddle, infusing some of it's power and intent into the people near parts of its body. Again, it was repelled and sent off it's orbit, but too late, because the power had already taken root, and particles of its body was spread into the atmosphere.

Firebenders were included into the cycle in an attempt to balance the world, and the Airbenders became all gung-ho about philosophy and doing the right thing in an attempt to cleanse this, but Sozin found out about the 'comet' and called it down, drawing it into a hundred year orbit.

That's right, Sozin is Azayla, and the Comet is Lavos.
 * Alternatively, the comet is the Chaos Comet.

Bloodbending is related to Blood Magic from Dragon Age.
Okay, this is really a stretch, but I can't help but notice that the Blood Magic ability "Blood Control" acts exactly like Bloodbending in this show. Which in hindsight makes Bloodbending even scarier. If the target had a few cuts on his or her body could a skilled Bloodbender rip out their blood in the same manner as "Blood Wound"?
 * Probably. Also, a Bloodbender should be able to cause atherosclerosis by ponding the blood or thrombosis by forming blood clots. Doing this inside your heart should also be possible, causing severe heart attacks. Considering the fact that most waterbenders can turn water into gas or ice, bloodbenders should also be able to freeze or vaporize the water in your blood. Also, the water in your blood is not the only water that exists in your body. Nightmare Fuel.
 * * Shudders* And just think of the ramifications of bloodbending into the Octopus Form.

The world of Avatar is an ancient region of Dragon Age.
The power of the benders is based upon their connection to the Spirit World, which is actually the Fade. Their magic is straightforward and elemental because the four nations have yet to unify and and form the Circle. The Avatar is inhabited by benevolent spirits of the fade, who allow his/her spirit to persist and inhabit a new body every generation. Some of the very powerful benders like Ozai are corrupt or evil because they have become Abominations. The Fire Nation will eventually become the Tevinter Imperium. This explains why there are no Darkspawn, as the Golden city has yet to be tainted. The spirits of Avatar are the Old Gods that were worshiped before the Chantry came to be.
 * Even better, the Fire Nation IS the Tevinter Imperium. After attempting to kill the spirit of the moon, General Zhao taints the Ocean Spirit. Eventually a Blight forms in which the spirit became an Archdemon.

The entire series takes place in Never Land.
Did anybody else notice that besides Zuko's Important Haircut and Aang growing hair, none of the characters age? Making Aang Peter Pan, Zuko Captain Hook, Katara Wendy, Sokka would be one (or both) of Wendy's little brothers, and Toph Tinkerbell. Not that is Zuko = Captain Hook, this means Iroh = Smee.
 * This only makes sense for the first half of Season 1. If at all.
 * The reason they don't age is because the entire series takes place over the course of less than a year. The first season takes place during Winter, the second during Spring, and the third during Summer.
 * Ten months, according to Word of God.
 * They do age, it's just subtle, and not in your face. Katara's hair slowly grows, and in the epsiode "Tales of Ba Sing Se," we see Sokka shaving his thinly growing moustache.
 * But Captain Hook's ugly!
 * Tell that to Jason Isaacs.

The island from Lost is actually a lion turtle.
'Nuff said.

The Mechanist is a Time Lord
In the Whoverse, it has been shown Time Lords can opt to turn human as a last resort to hide themselves. Using a Chameleon Arch rewrites their biology to becoming human in all ways and generates a false persona complete with fake memories, whilst keeping their original Gallifreyian (read: alien) "essence" contained in a pocket watch. Nobody is the wiser, lest of all the former Time Lord, and unless circumstances allow the pocket watch to be opened (restoring/resetting the Time Lord self) a Time Lord could live out the rest of his/her life without ever remembering or reverting to the life he or she once knew. With the Hundred Year War going on, nobody would question another lost and homeless Earth Kingdom refugee. Of course, some things can't be kept hidden - a knack for technology and inventions, for example, that show up in dreams...
 * The Mechanist was a Time Lord. He fell through the Rift/Void/what have you into the Avatar world, crashed his Tardis beyond repair, and decided to just live as a human instead of trying to get back home - which I'm willing to bet was in the middle of the infamous last Great Time War. Fast forward twenty years and you get the events of "The Northern Air Temple".

Avatar takes place on one of the splinter worlds in The Runelords.
An unbalancing of Fire allowing it to gain dominance over the other Elements and try to conquer the world? I can't be the only one who sees connections and similarities between the two, especially with the massive-multiversal nature of The Runelords.

Avatar is set in the Warcraft Expanded Universe.
Bending is just another form of shamanistic magic, and both the Avatar Cycle and the Guardian of Tirisfal are mechanisms set in motion by the Makers to ensure the protection and balance of each of their respective worlds. Since arcane or shadow magic isn't really practiced in the Avatar world (maybe Energybending and/or Bloodbending qualify as these), the world where Avatar takes place hasn't been noticed by the Burning Legion...yet.

Flying bison are actually a created race, designed to allow a weakly godlike entity to better influence the world.
Hexapodia is the key insight.

Spongebob SquarePants is the original water bender.
Moon, shmoon. He invented it.
 * Confirmed by awesome.
 * Not Spongebob himself, but Mermaid Man.

Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, Etc are Koh's children
You're welcome.
 * Yes, that baseless, unsupported, and poorly capitalized idea is terrifying.
 * ... I LIKE YOU!!

The Super Mario Bros are Firebenders.
Think about it; They can generate fire from their hands almost out of nowhere, and Luigi even had the power of lighting in Superstar Saga. Further evidence is, the "Fire Lilies" that appeared in one episode. I really think that's no coincidence, along with the fact that they look a little like the Super Mario World fire flower design.

Gene Simmons from KISS is a Fire Bender.
At least in this troper's fantasy world.

Kohl's is run by koh, and in, say 2 years, he will use the mirrors in the store to steal our faces.
The worlds face will soon be his. * shudders*

Toph wasn't born blind. As a result, she has a certain knack at playing pinball.
When Toph was old enough to walk around, she stumbled into her parents' bedroom while they were "having fun". The Beifongs, being the overprotective parents they are, ordered her to forget this ever happened. The incident traumatized Toph so much that her brain deactivated her sense of sight to prevent Toph from seeing anything like that in the future. The Beifongs realized that the whole "shock your kid blind" thing would reflect poorly on their parenting, and so started telling other people that the child was born blind. The evidence for this case may seem tenuous, but there is one item that verifies this WMG: the Who's rock opera, Tommy. Because the Who are just that awesome, they foresaw the plot of ATLA in the late 60's, and wrote an opera about the show's premier badass. Prepare to be amazed at the similarities between the story of Toph and Tommmy: The only event prophesied by Tommy yet to occur in the ATLA universe is for a cult of personality to build around "the Pinball Wizard", aka "the Blind Bandit". Perhaps the upcoming sequel series will shine a light onto this matter... unless the prophecy is really all about Tom-Tom!
 * The names "Toph" and "Tommy" are similar. We can attribute any difference to two factors. First, it is likely Pete Townshend made an error translating the Chinese character for Toph to English. It is likely he ended up with Tom instead. This leads into the second point, which is that Tom was modified to Tommy for musical purposes, e.g. fitting the meter of a song.
 * The lyrical contents of the song "Amazing Journey", a track on Tommy correlate to Toph's story of how she learned to Earthbend. In short, Tommy, though his senses are impaired, begins to experience events in is life as music, and is lead on his life story by a tall stranger in glittery robes. Replace "music" with earthbending and "tall stranger in glittery robes" with hideous mole creature, and you have Toph's orignal story. Either one of the above points, translation errors or an artistic license, can account for the discrepancies.
 * The last point is more speculative than the previous two, but possible. In all the scams Toph and friends ran on Fire Nation citizens in Season 3, it is likely that one of them was playing pinball for cash. Toph simply had to earth/metalbend the pinball and she could reach an unbeatable score. It just makes sense.
 * This is supported by the fact that in the chibi-ized short, Bending Battle, Toph turned a cliff into a pinball machine and used Sokka as the ball.

The opposite side of the Avatar planet is Alera.
Bending and crafting are just different ways of doing the same thing; bending is simply a different way to harness and control furies - probably less taxing on the body but wih less powerful manifestations. Woodbending is possible, but no one has found an animal/spirit to teach them how to woodbend. The powers of the High Lords and Citizens who can control more than one fury discipline is due to some sort of genetic ability that gives them something similar to the Avatar's power. Of course, this means that at some point the Avatar world is going to have to deal with the Vord....
 * Building on this, the Moon and the Ocean spirits are Great Furies - note that in Captain's Fury Isana says that the ocean is all one vast fury. Since all waterbenders draw their power from the Moon, they're all crafting from one vast fury. The Sun is probably another fury, and Sozin's Comet is another that the Fire Nation has learned the harness and claim.
 * Well this explains why no one ever tries to sail from the Earth Kingdom's east coast to the Fire Nation's west coast or vice versa by going around the planet. Every attempt ran into blood bending wolfmen or animal bending neanderthals and never returned to tell anyone about them.
 * It might be less than nobody was taught about wood- and metalbending, and more that none of them are using their full powers so they think they're just very good sword/knife-users or archers. The swamp-dwelling woodbender and Toph have basically made Achievements in Ignorance.
 * The Yu-Yan Archers get their Improbable Aiming Skills from being woodbenders. Piandao is a metalbender. And by extension...Sokka is a metalbender too! Toph is quite clearly a High Lord-tier crafter, being able to bend metal and earth, and Zuko, being a master swordsman, may also be a High Lord-tier metal and firecrafter.
 * Another connection.  is an artificial version of the Avatar Spirit.   was created by gathering pieces from every corner of the continent in one place, creating a new Avatar Spirit specifically for that continent.   gives the current First Lord access to extreme power, but with drawbacks attached like the Avatar State.

Fullmetal Alchemist takes place on the other side of the planet.
The Avatar is the spirit of the planet (or "world") incarnate. This would make the Avatar the incarnation of Truth. Bending is simply another form of alchemy that doesn't require "circles". Instead they use chakras and chi as their own private circle and matrix (like Izumi explained). Remember the seperation of the four elements is an illusion, and once people learn that (and the periodic table) the people of the Four Nations will have the most powerful alchemy in the world.
 * But Aang's way too nice to be anything like Truth, if anyone's Truth, it's probably Koh

Fist of the North Star!
They take place in the same universe... Because it's cool.

The opposite side of the world is the world where The Runelords takes place.
They're basically the same setting, just one is based on Eastern Philosophy and one is based on Western.

Yue is somehow connected to Light Yagami
Both Yue and Light (Raito)'s names are written with the Chinese character for "Moon". Coincidence? Probably, but it's still fun to speculate.

There are duckbunnies in the Avatar world.
Because there must be. Let's just hope they're neither native to nor a popular import into the Fire Nation capital...

Agent 47 is cloned from Aang.
They're both bald, they've both got tattos on their heads. It's all so obvious.

Avatar Kyoshi is the Chuck Norris of the Avatar World.
How can she not be?! She MOVED A ISLAND!!!
 * Nah dude, she didn't move the island she CREATED it.
 * By severing a land protrusion from a mainland. A "peninsulectomy" if you will. Seems appropriate that it was done by a woman...

Avatar Kyoshi was an experimental female Space Marine Primarch
When the baby Primarchs were scattered around the universe, Kyoshi wound up on the Avatar world, where the Avatar spirit decided that she made a good potential vessel. Whether due to the Emperor losing interest or some supernatural factor blocking his access, Kyoshi spent her entire life on her adopted homeworld. Kyoshi grew up tall, strong, and badass, and lived a long, eventful life as a warrior and leader. Since the Emperor never followed up on her, she has no Space Marine legion, but the Kyoshi Warriors could be seen as a rough equivalent. (Kabuki Marines?)
 * And the Emperor couldn't psychically check up on Kyoshi because the Spirit World had seceded from the rest of the Warp because its inhabitants got sick of the grimdark. Since the Warp is a plane of emotion and psychic energy given form, and the Avatar world, for all its troubles, is an ultimately more hopeful and on average less murder-happy place, it makes sense that their corner of the Immaterium would be less mind-searingly hostile. (Although certainly not without its dangers.)

== Energybending is a deception of the Devil and directly responsible for the restless energy within the Gate of Truth that was capable of being pulled out as a homunculus using a simple slave's blood. == The Lion Turtle reintroduced this power to Aang as the only way to defeat Ozai without killing him. But what the Lion Turtle didn't know, or at least neglected to tell Aang, was that every time this power is used to castrate someone's spirit energy and leave them unable to bend, the energy goes directly into the Gate of Truth through the Avatar spirit. This power was never meant to be used or learned by an Avatar. Aang being taught it as a last result when all his desperate sudden pacifism is an infiltration from Satan, who at this point exists as just an insidious psychic force, as part of an Evil Plan in order to eventually obtain a physical form somewhere with corrupt heads and oblivious lemmings whose souls he could manipulate and prey on to augment his own power and begin his long-running plan to overthrow God himself. (Whether the Lion Turtle was a vessel of Satan or an Unwitting Pawn himself is still unclear.) Likely, Aang and successive Avatars will be none the wiser and just keep on Energybending people's abilities away in order to quell future uprisings with as little death to influential persons as possible, only making the restless Devil-energy within the gate that much more potent without even realizing this exists. Thus, Aang has literally no idea that he and the Lion Turtle who taught him this power are directly responsible for allowing the birth of Father''.
 * But there is no Satan/Devil figure in Avatarland. It has largely eastern philosophies, so there's no "Satan" per se. There can be demons, evil spirits like Koh, but there's no all-encompassing lord of evil. Also, this Troper sees no evidence that the Fullmetal Alchemist and the A:TLA world are the same one.

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is yet another plane of Magic the Gathering Dominia.
If that's the case, then:
 * Airbenders are blue/white.
 * Actually, they make more sense as White/Green, given their philosophy and the fact that Green has air spells.
 * Firebenders are mostly red/white, with some of the royal family over the last century or so being black/red.
 * Pure firebending can also be Red/Green, since Green is the colour of life.
 * Earthbenders are red.
 * Maybe with a splash of Green.
 * Waterbenders are blue.
 * Add Green for healing and plant growing, and Black for bloodbending.
 * All spirits are at least partly green.
 * The Avatar is all five colors, possibly minus black but probably not.

The first airbender wasn't human.
It was a spirit-wizard.

Azula is reincarnated as Joffrey.
Complete monster minus the chance for redemption. But remember Tyrion, a sort of Iroh, not wanting the prince to discover fire. A link, I see.

feilds?

Benders get their powers from the force
Actually force variations, each child when born either has jedi powers or doesn't and as they grow their surroundings soak into their jedi ability caisng them to be able to control certain elements. The avatar can manipulate all forms of matter due to his/her past jedi lives.

Some of the Freedom Fighters eventually left and found their way to Grandma Lokai's Earth Orphanage (see comic "Divided We Fall").
...And possibly vice versa in the past (which may mean some of the kids in the picture who aren't met might have become Freedom Fighters since that picture was made).

The Avatar World will eventually become Gallifrey.
At some time in the future, Sozin's Comet, which turns out to not be a comet at all, will be pulled into a more stable orbit, and either The Fire Nation will conquer the world and become Timebenders or be stopped from conquering the world and overthrown and replaced by a renegade Fire Nation sect (The first Timebenders) who will eventually move on from the spirtualism the world is currently in, taking their first step toward becoming the Time Lords. It being The Fire Nation both explains why orange is the predominant color in Gallifreyan formal wear (And to a lesser extent their headgear) and partially explains their advanced technology level (Even at the beginning of the war, the Fire Nation had metal ships. And they have friggin' tanks.) The predominance of Timebending in the world will eventually leave other forms of bending forgotten, particularly once TARDI Ses (The Timebender animal guide) are fully domesticated (TARDI Ses are stated to be grown rather than built) and tweaked/manipulated/improved/bred to travel in space and travel much longer distances in time. The untended schism is not actually a single place on Gallifrey, but several: some of the most significant temples in the four nations. The Time Lords became what they are from exposure to the untended schism(s). The original Avatar was simply the only (Or, if you want to make things even more confusing, first) person in the world to have parents who had the opportunity to concieve him within one of the temples. His reincarnation is simply a form of regeneration, but because there isn't a TARDIS to assist his regeneration, he's forced to become a baby and retains few memories. The Order of the White Lotus (Or a similar organization) are responsible for moving the new baby-Avatar to the next nation in the cycle. Also, if the avatar world is temporally unstable, it explains some of the travel time discrepencies. And I don't recall it ever being stated the people on the Avatar planet don't have two hearts.

The siege of Ba Sing Se was foiled by Nerissa.
Kandrakar has a no-intervention policy unless a world is royally screwing up itself or threathening others. At the start of the War the Fire Nation wasn't too much of a danger due the losses in the Air Nomads genocide (come on, tell me that, when faced with a genocidal army, no Airbender managed to think about sucking air from the enemies' lungs, at least in the attempt to cover for childred being evaquated) and Aang still being around, so Kandrakar didn't choose a set of Guardians to stop the Fire Nation because a strong offensive from the Earth Kingdom or Aang returning on the scene and entering Avatar State upon learning about the genocide would have done the deal (the Water Tribes are not included because the Southern and Swamp ones were too weak and the Northern one was already isolationist).

As we know, Aang remained in the ice for a long time, and the Earth Kingdom failed to launch its offensive long enough for the Fire Nation to recover from its losses and turn the tide of the war due a combination of industrial superiority and enemy infighting, thus prompting the Oracle to choose a set of Guardians well ahead of time (the comic makes clear they were supposed to be chosen in time to fight Phobos fifty years later, around the time Will and co. were in fact chosen), with a quintet of Earth humans being chosen due their resemblance with ATLA humans and being from the world that will be on the frontlines when Phobos resurfaces.

The sudden apparition of a group of five overpowered Benders including a Waterbender, an Airbender flying on her own power (Yan Lin), a two-element Bender (Kadma: in W.I.T.C.H. plants fall under Earth, in ATLA some plants fall under Water and the others are not-bendable) and two Firebenders (Nerissa's energy projection looking more like Firebending than anything else) fighting the Fire Nation gave the Earth Kingdom some much needed breathing space, especially with Iroh's siege sucking up manpower. Then Iroh did the impossible and breached the Outer Wall, causing the chance for Ba Sing Se to fall and cause the Fire Nation to still win the war, getting the attention of the Guardians, with Nerissa plaguing the sleeps of the troops before leading the garrison in a counter-attack. In which Nerissa could have well targeted Lu Ten to break Iroh's spirit, and the siege with it.

With Iroh's spirit broken, a good chunk of its army busy defending itself from Ba Sing Se's garrison and the morale at the lowest point ever, the Fire Nation was ripe for surrender if the Guardians attacked the capital... But before that could happen, the Oracle noticed Nerissa's addiction to the power of the Heart, and when he passed it to Cassidy Nerissa murdered her and her group broke up.
 * That would make a great crossover fic, though it does make the Oracle look sort of dickish. Unless Nerissa winning the war would have made things worse by her taking over the Fire Nation and continuing the war. Face it, she's a lot smarter than Ozai was and her mentoring Azula... scary stuff.
 * That or he feared that she'd go mad if left with the Heart. According to Kadma (at least in the comic), the Oracle had been late, not wrong. Coupled with the fact that the Heart must be willingly given, it's probable that Nerissa herself was noticing she was growing too attached to the Heart and allowed him to give it to Cassidy, with both of them not expecting her withdrawal to get her completely mad. Now that I think about it, it's possible that either Kadma or Halinor had warned them it could have happened but hadn't been listened...

The World of Avatar is the Earth of WITCH in the ancient past, with Xin Jing as the final Avatar and the Spirit World as the location of Kandrakar
After all, Xin Jing was specifically called the Nymph of Elements, and all of her appearances shows her surrounded by a blue aura. After she became the Heart and whatever threath prompted the creation of Kandrakar, much knowledge was lost (apparently not even the Oracle knows exactly who created Kandrakar) and the spirits lost their personality, thus explaining the various differences in setting.
 * In addition, every Keeper is a potential Guardian of one element, chosen every time following the Avatar Cycle (Water --> Earth --> Fire --> Air --> Water). There is a similar situation in canon: Cassidy had replaced Nerissa and was the Guardian of Water (at least in the cartoon. The comic never stated her or Halinor's Element), and her successor Will was shown to be a potential Guardian of the Earth (aside the fact that Will is the third most stubborn character in the series after Kadma and Cornelia, both Guardians of the Earth, in one It Was All A Dream special where Cornelia had quit being a Guardian we see that Will took Cornelia's place as the Guardian of the Earth, with Orube becoming the new Keeper). Will's successor would be a potential Guardian of Fire, while Nerissa was most probably a potential Guardian of Water (when Taranee went on strike and Orube filled in she received no elemental power, working with her training, innate abilities and Fridge Logic about the Guardians' wings).

The Cabbage Merchant is a History Monk
Did you know that the battle of Omashu, in which the city was burnt to the ground, King Bumi was slain, and the Earth Kingdom Military was crushed, did not happen, because King Bumi Surrendered? And did you know that King Bumi surrendered because he got out of his bed on the wrong side? And did you know that that when King awakened facing the right side of his bed, he heard a cry of "My Cabbages!" from the window, and rolled over in that direction? Did you know that the order of the White Lotus, which was instrumental in the defeat of countless tyrants, was founded because Master Gee's train was delayed? And did you know that when Master Gee's train was ten miles from the station, the driver saw a elderly man carting cabbages across the tracks? Did you know that General Iroh did not take Ba Sing Se because he was stunned by his Son's death in the heat of battle? And did you know that the messenger bearing the news of Lu Ten's death was not killed by a Earthbender because the Earthbender was struck on the head by a Cabbage in the midst of bending?