Avatar: The Last Airbender/Characters/Team Avatar

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  • Book 1
    • 01 The Boy in the Iceberg
    • 02 The Avatar Returns
    • 03 The Southern Air Temple
    • 04 The Warriors of Kyoshi
    • 05 The King of Omashu
    • 06 Imprisoned
    • 07 The Winter Solstice Part 1
    • 08 The Winter Solstice Part 2
    • 09 The Waterbending Scroll
    • 10 Jet
    • 11 The Great Divide
    • 12 The Storm
    • 13 The Blue Spirit
    • 14 The Fortuneteller
    • 15 Bato of the Water Tribe
    • 16 The Deserter
    • 17 The Northern Air Temple
    • 18 The Water Bending Master
    • 19 The Siege of the North Part 1
    • 20 The Siege of the North Part 2
  • Book 2
    • 01 The Avatar State
    • 02 The Cave of Two Lovers
    • 03 Return to Omashu
    • 04 The Swamp
    • 05 Avatar Day
    • 06 The Blind Bandit
    • 07 Zuko Alone
    • 08 The Chase
    • 09 Bitter Work
    • 10 The Library
    • 11 The Desert
    • 12 The Serpents Pass
    • 13 The Drill
    • 14 City of Walls and Secrets
    • 15 The Tales of Ba Sing Se
    • 16 Appas Lost Days
    • 17 Lake Laogai
    • 18 The Earth King
    • 19 The Guru
    • 20 The Crossroads of Destiny
  • Book 3
    • 01 The Awakening
    • 02 The Headband
    • 03 The Painted Lady
    • 04 Sokka's Master
    • 05 The Beach
    • 06 The Avatar and the Fire Lord
    • 07 The Runaway
    • 08 The Puppet Master
    • 09 Nightmares and Daydreams
    • 10 The Day of Black Sun Part 1
    • 11 The Day of Black Sun Part 2
    • 12 The Western Air Temple
    • 13 The Firebending Masters
    • 14 The Boiling Rock Part 1
    • 15 The Boiling Rock Part 2
    • 16 The Southern Raiders
    • 17 The Ember Island Players
      • Laconic
    • 18 Sozin's Comet Part 1: The Phoenix King
    • 19 Sozin's Comet Part 2: The Old Masters
    • 20 Sozin's Comet Part 3: Into the Inferno
    • 21 Sozin's Comet Part 4: Avatar Aang
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This is Team Avatar or, going by the Fan Nickname, the Gaang.

Avatar Aang

Voiced by: Zach Tyler Eisen

"There's just too many of them. I can't fight them all... I'm just one kid."

The twelve-year-old (well, technically a hundred-and-twelve-year old) plucky Airbending boy destined to save the world. When he learned of his status as the Avatar, followed by the monks trying to take him from his teacher/father figure, he couldn't handle the pressure and ran away from home. When he was caught in a storm, he defensively used his powers to seal himself in an iceberg, which protected him for a century while the other Air Nomads were exterminated by the Fire Nation in an effort to kill him. After being freed from the iceberg by Katara and Sokka, he now must face his destiny by mastering all four elements and defeating Firelord Ozai to restore balance to the world.

---

• Achilles' Heel: While going into the Avatar State makes him the most powerful character in the series, it also makes him very vulnerable. Because the Avatar State pulls all the spirits of the former Avatars - that is, the entire spirit that is the Avatar - into one body at the same time, dying while in the state means the Avatar spirit would die, the chain of reincarnation would break, and the Avatar would cease to exist.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: In the first episode, after Sokka tells him about the Hundred Year War and Aang claims he's never heard of it, these two lines come up.

Sokka: You're kidding, right? Aang: ...PENGUIN!

• Back from the Dead: With a dose of Only Mostly Dead since Katara got to him in time.
• Badass: Practically guaranteed for any Avatar.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: With the Blue Spirit.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a 12-year-old goofball with the ability to master all four plus one elements and restore balance to the world. Not to mention that if you piss him off enough, he'll enter his Unstoppable Rage superpowered Avatar State.
  • One-Man Army
  • Tranquil Fury: When Aang enters the Avatar State, he seems perfectly serene. Unless he's in a raging fury instead.
• Bald of Awesome: Except during the first half of the third season, when he was hiding his identity.
• Battle Couple: With Katara, of course.
• Berserk Button: Do not hurt his friends, especially Katara and Appa.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He is one of the most genuinely kind, empathic, and gentle individuals in all of fiction. He can also throw hurricanes, tidal waves, and mountain ranges around like softballs.
• Break the Cutie
• Brilliant but Lazy: With the exception of Earthbending, learning the elements came fairly easy to Aang. However, he suffered from a lack of focus and discipline, thanks to his easygoing and childlike nature.
• Broken Ace: The most talented bender of his age group, but he never wanted to be the Avatar.
• Cheerful Child
• Child Mage: Mixed with Kung Fu Kid of course.
• Child Prodigy: Aang is the youngest person in Air Nomad history to have ever mastered airbending.
• The Chosen One
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Much to his allies' consternation, he's always digressing to do Sidequests rather than focusing on his training and fleeing from the Fire Nation.
• Comes Great Responsibility
• Coming of Age Story
• Cruel Mercy: To Ozai.
• Despair Event Horizon: Comes very near to it after Appa was kidnapped. He eventually got better.
• Dude in Distress: More than most, considering his ability to bend any element.
  • Badass in Distress: Played for Laughs in "Avatar Day," where Aang is wearing a heavy wooden stock. Not only does it not fit him, but he's able to casually slip out of it while chatting with the other prisoners. Note that he also does this in The Earth King by dismantling the earth-handcuffs to wave at the king.
• Elemental Powers: All four elemental powers that exist in this universe. In addition to energybending.
  • Blow You Away: Airbending, his native element.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Earthbending, though this is actually a skill he found difficult to learn. Being an Airbender, his style is all about misdirection and dodging, whereas Earthbending... isn't.
  • Making a Splash/An Ice Person: Waterbending. He was able to pick up basic moves very quickly, making Katara quite jealous.
  • Playing with Fire: Firebending. He was initially reluctant to learn this at first, thinking of fire as evil, but he was eventually able to learn that Firebending is really all about life.
  • Pure Energy[/]Soul Power: Energybending.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Energybending. Could also be argued as an Ass Pull.
• Expy: He's much more comparable to Vash the Stampede than most other kids' show heroes.
• The Fettered: Unlike Ozai, who refused to check himself with morality or compassion, Aang is extremely dedicated to his pacifist ideals and will go to great lengths to keep them.
• First Boy Wins: Of course, his only competition was Jet, and we know the end of that story...
• Friend to All Living Things: The Avatar has an innate connection to nature, and Aang is a vegetarian by choice.
• Fragile Speedster: Being born an Airbender, he is naturally this.
  • Lightning Bruiser: By the second season, Aang is this.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom
• God in Human Form: At base power, he's "merely" a talented bender housing the spirit of the planet. He falls into Physical God when the Avatar State is activated.
• God of Good: As the human form of the spirit of the world, he maintains the order between the four nations, as well as the physical and spirit worlds.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars
• Gray Eyes
• Growing Up Sucks: Played with. Aang has to rise to his responsibilities as the Avatar and leave his childhood behind early, which he never wanted. He later expresses how his feelings with Katara are complicated for him, and Avatar Roku tells him that love gets better as you get older. Furthermore, for most of the story Katara is unsure of her feelings for him, because he has a lot of growing up to do in her eyes. Rising to the challenges of growing up, and displaying selflessness and maturity, win her over in the end.
• The Hero
• The Hero Dies: Only for a few minutes, but the consequences stick with him for the rest of the series.
• Honor Before Reason: Was going to let himself be punished for a crime (that word being used loosely) Kyoshi committed two avatar cycles ago.
• Holy Child
• Hope Bringer
• Human Popsicle: Until Katara frees him.
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• I Shall Taunt You: "I don't know why, but I thought you'd be better than Zuko."
• Important Haircut: After letting his hair grow out for the first half of Season 3, he shaves his head again for the big invasion.
• Instant Expert: Aang is able to learn all the bending disciplines extremely quickly, but his lack of focus prevents him from completely mastering any except Airbending (which he started with).
  • Except for Earthbending, which is his elemental opposite of sorts for his Bending heritage and takes him uncounted days to master.
• Kidanova: He definitely shows shades of this.
• Kid Hero
• King of All Cosmos: Arguably. The Avatar spirit is the soul of the planet (or something), continually reincarnating into human bodies...and in this incarnation, it's a twelve-year-old boy with giant arrow tattoos and a penchant for riding wild animals.
• The Kirk: Often gets caught in between Sokka and Katara in season one.
• Keet: Is very energetic. He is only twelve.
• Last of His Kind
• Living Relic: Called as such by Professor Zei, though he's not as old as most examples.
• Love At First Sight: With Katara.
• Magical Boyfriend: He's an energetic, kind, generous messiah-figure that helps Katara achieve everything she ever wanted to. Everything. Getting her Waterbending training, check. Reuniting her with her father, check. Finding closure with her mother's death, check. Saving the world, check.
• Hachimaki: He has one in the third season to cover his arrow.
• Martial Pacifist
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to Toph's Masculine Girl.
• Master Of One: He excels at airbending, having invented at least one new technique for it and risen to the rank of master at a very young age. While he does master the other three elements, he never picks up the advanced techniques, such as healing, Bloodbending, Metalbending, or proper Lightningbending.
• Meaningful Name: Aang was written 安昂 , meaning "peaceful soaring" in Chinese and Vietnamese.
  • The name Aang is similar to the Malaysian and Indonesian word angin and Filipino word hangin, meaning wind. Aang is also the Inuit word for hello, which could be a reference to his friendly nature.
• The Messiah: He has a love and respect for all life, including those of his enemies.
• Messianic Archetype: Being a God in Human Form, a natural pacifist, and even temporarily dying at the end of Book 2 clearly paints him as one of these.
• Nature Spirit
• Nice Hat: He has a few that he wears over the course of the series, mostly when he needs to hide his arrow.
• Offhand Backhand: Aang does this to a rock while riding Appa.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Aang is the only one who can fight Ozai, though not for the usual reasons for this trope. Simply having just anyone defeat Ozai doesn't guarantee an end to the war, because it would result in even more war and conflict. Since Aang is The Chosen One, defeating Ozai would be an act of divine providence and a signal that he was in the right.
• Physical God: By himself he's just a God in Human Form, but if you manage to push him into the Avatar State, you've lost the fight, if not your life. Only Azula has managed to beat him while he's in it, and that's only because she sneak-attacked him in the back while he was transforming. The most generous way to describe his final fight in the Grand Finale would be as a Curb Stomp Battle.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Notes in the art book indicate that Aang is only 4 and a half feet tall, but he is still one of the most powerful benders alive.
• The Pollyanna
• Power Strain Blackout: At first, activating the Avatar state left him weak and visibly exhausted. As the series went on, this disappeared.
• Power Tattoo
• Really One Hundred And Twelve Years Old
• Reckless Pacifist: Sure, he'd never kill anyone directly, but his collateral damage record is hard to ignore.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Zuko's red (during their training).
• Refusal of the Call
• Reincarnation: Of the spirit of the planet and Roku.
• Scars Are Forever: Suffers a permanent scar on his back from being shot with lightning by Azula. He also has one on the sole of his left foot, where the lightning left his body.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Unsealed in the series premiere.
• Shirtless Scene: Frequently in Season 3. Aang has a perfectly good shirt he could be wearing... he just chooses not to.
• Simple Staff: His Weapon of Choice. When he has to improvise with a spear he even breaks off the head.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Showed interest in Katara and ONLY Katara from the moment he met her.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One
• Super Mode: The Avatar State.
  • Heroic Safe Mode: The Avatar State isn't evil, but it's not necessarily good either. It's main concerns are Aang's survival, his rage and sorrow, and maintaining balance. Aang morals and innocent bystanders are secondary considerations, at best.
  • Power Glows
  • Power Floats
  • Post Dramatic Stress Disorder
  • Sphere of Power: The trope's picture.
• She Fu: A Rare Male Example.
• Super Speed: He can give himself a boost with a tailwind, thanks to his airbending.
• Superpower Lottery: Can learn all types of bending, not just his native one. He masters the basics very quickly thanks to his millennia of experience through past lives, and has a defense mechanism that sends him into Super Mode.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: This becomes a plot point in the finale, where he's torn up by the possibility that he will have to kill Ozai for the good of the world.
• Turn the Other Cheek
• Unstoppable Rage: While in the Avatar State. He's not quite unstoppable, just insanely powerful, and dying in that state would end the Avatar reincarnation cycle.
• Walking Disaster Area: Because of the Fire Nation's Stern Chase.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: In the later half of Season 3.
• Warrior Monk
• Weapon Twirling: A Justified version, since he uses his staff to create wind attacks (or defenses) this way.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Balances this out by being a Wide-Eyed Idealist as well.

Katara

Voiced by: Mae Whitman

"I will never, EVER turn my back on people who need me!"

A compassionate girl who is the last Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe, Katara has accepted the responsibility of looking after her brother Sokka after their mother died and their father left to fight in the war. Despite her many hardships, she never lost faith that the Avatar would one day return to save the world. After finding Aang in the iceberg, Katara acts as the Team Mom while also being Aang's Waterbending teacher and love interest.

---

• Action Girl
• Adrenaline Makeover: Provides the current page image.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Inverted. Katara liked Jet for his Robin Hood persona, but was very put off after learning of his "KILL ALL THE FIRE NATION AT ALL COSTS" attitude.
• Badass
• Bad Powers, Good People: Bloodbending.
• Bare Your Midriff: Her Fire Nation attire.
• Battle Couple: With Aang.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's very reasonable and mature, and willing to give just about anybody a chance, but she can be the most ruthless member of the Gaang when she's betrayed or her friends are put in danger.
• Blood Magic
  • People Puppets
• Blue Eyes
• Bokukko: In the Japanese dub.
• Braids of Action
• Break the Cutie: Both her childhood tragedy and the betrayals of Jet and Zuko... and when Hama forced her to learn the cruel art of bloodbending.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to her own father, who asks for forgiveness and gets it.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Although her riff on "Sokka's Instincts" is pretty funny.
• Cool Big Sis: To Toph when she's not trying to be maternal. It worked in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," but not so much in "The Runaway."
• Crippling Overspecialization: A bit too reliant on waterbending when it comes to fighting, unlike many of the others who have some level of mundane martial arts skill.
• The Chick
• The Chief's Daughter: Only technically.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's normally The Comically Serious, but she's almost as witty as Sokka when she's got a good target (for instance, Sokka).
• Deuteragonist: Or Tritagonist, if you consider Zuko the Deutaragonist.
• Easily Forgiven: When she gets angry, she tends to be very cruel in her remarks, mocking Toph's blindness and telling Sokka he didn't love their mother as much as she did, for instance. Aside from the initial reactions of her target, these instances are almost never mentioned again and the characters continue on as if it hadn't happened.
• Fan Service Pack: Again, see the page picture on Adrenaline Makeover.
• Flanderization: A little. Season three paints her as The Comically Serious despite the fact that she gets several of the wittiest remarks throughout seasons one and two. It could be that she's only capable of making fun of Sokka and later Zuko.

Sokka: How do we put a lid on hot air? Katara: If only we knew...

• The Heart
• If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Him: Says this to Zuko when he first joins the Gaang.

"...then you won't have to worry about your 'destiny' anymore, because I'll make sure your destiny ends. Right then and there. Permanently."

• Instant Expert: Katara goes from being so poor at waterbending that she accidently freezes her brother to being one of the top notch waterbenders in the world (ahead of fellow Instant Expert Aang) in one season. She did this in under 4 months, while Waterbending is described as something that can take years to master.
  • Can be justified in that, being the only waterbender left in the Southern Water Tribe, she was bending out of natural talent but with no formal training, so she had potential power but no technique to channel it with. Also, Katara's personality is exactly the kind of personality that waterbenders are supposed to possess: passionate yet motherly and nurturing. If there were avatars that represented the individual elements, Katara would most definitely be the one for hers.
• The Lancer: To some extent until Zuko joins the group.
• Lunacy: Like all waterbenders, her powers are fueled by the moon.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: She's the quadratic wizard, Sokka is the linear warrior.
• Making a Splash
  • An Ice Person
  • Healing Hands
• Master of the Mixed Message
• The McCoy
• The Medic
  • Combat Medic
• Mood Swinger
• Promotion to Parent: After her mother died, Katara took on this sort of role in looking after her family.
• Rapunzel Hair
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Sokka in Season 1, Toph later on.
• Revenge: Wants revenge towards her mother's killer. She gets a chance at it, but decides it's not worth it.
• Sarashi: Part of her swimwear.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: As Aang is quick to notice when she's dressed up for a party in "City of Walls and Secrets."
• She Who Fights Monsters: She almost becomes this when she confronts the man who murdered her mother but restrains herself at the last minute, deciding to leave him to suffer in his own horrible life.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Sokka.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man
• Sour Supporter: Mid Book 3. She's really not very happy with Zuko when he tries to join the Gaang. Justified by Zuko's past in the Avatar hunting business and his betrayal at the end of Book 2.
• Stone Wall: Waterbending is mainly a defensive art, so she is mostly this.
• Teens Are Short: As indicated by the artbook Katara isn't even 5' tall yet.
• Teen Genius: When it comes to waterbending, she can master, in a very short time, techniques it takes others decades to learn.
• Team Mom: It's even Lampshaded by Toph. It's also gotten to the point where Sokka has trouble remembering his actual mother, since Katara has replaced his mental picture of motherhood.
• To Be a Master: Her goal throughout the first book is to master Waterbending, in which she succeeds.
• Took a Level in Badass
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Toph's Tomboy.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her necklace is her only memento of her deceased mother.
• Tsundere: She acts as a Type B (deredere). Oddly enough she acts like a typical type A to Zuko (hatred followed by love friendship) but he's not her love interest. Its downplayed in the third season when her real love interest, Aang, wants to start a relationship.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: If you try to hurt Aang, she'll do whatever it takes to stop you. If she even thinks you might hurt Aang, that's enough to get you a menacing death threat.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Particularly during the first season. She becomes more cynical over the course of the show.
• You Killed My Mother
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: "The Puppetmaster".

Sokka

Voiced by: Jack DeSena

"I'm just a guy with a boomerang... I didn't ask for all this flying, and magic..."

Katara's older brother, Sokka took it upon himself to protect the Southern Water Tribe. As a fairly serious non-bending warrior, Sokka is often irritated by the more mystical and nonsensical aspects of the world of Avatar. Nonetheless, Sokka makes up for it by being the team's "idea guy." And besides, where would the Gaang be without his comic relief and BOOMERANG!?

---

• Arbitrary Skepticism
  • Agent Scully: Despite the fact that he lives in a world with Avatars and spirits and magic bending, he still tries to find a scientific explanation for everything.
    • He accepts the bending and the spirits eventually, though he was freaked out when first encountering them. Still, he prefers to find a mundane way to explain happenings without trying to invoke the mystic until its involvement becomes directly evident.
• Anti-Hero: Type II.
• Badass Normal/Badass Bookworm: A talented and clever swordsman with an knack for ingenuity in both inventions and battle plans.
• Battle Boomerang
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: The guy could give Link lessons in this. The way he takes out Combustion Man is probably the best example. Unfortunately, it deserts him in the finale.
    • It DOES always come back!!
• Berserk Button: Don't insult or hurt his girlfriends. The Suki one is particularly strong, as he knew Azula was trying to provoke him, and fell for it anyway.
• Big Brother Instinct: If you harm his sister, he WILL hurt you - even if it was just an accident.
  • Don't publicly vilify her, either. Sokka will defend her actions even if he's just spent an entire episode criticizing them.
• Big Eater
• Blue Eyes
• Breakout Character: Was originally going to have a smaller role, but he's just so darn awesome they had to keep him in.
  • That and the directors really loved Jack DeSena's voice acting.
• Butt Monkey: If something unpleasant happens to anyone, odds are it's happening to Sokka. Also, his first girlfriend turned into the moon, but that particular instance makes him more of the Woobie.

Zuko: That's rough, buddy.

• The Call Put Me on Hold: The primary reason why he Took a Level in Badass.
• Carry a Big Stick: One of his main weapons is a club until he replaces it with a sword.
• The Chew Toy
• Chick Magnet: Suki, Yue, Ty Lee, Toph, and an entire class of poetry students all want a piece of him.
• Combat Pragmatist
• Companion Cube: His boomerang and later his sword, though moreso the former than the latter.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Averted. Sokka complains about everything. He's right about half the time.
• Cool Helmet: For the invasion he has a very badass wolf shaped helmet.
• Cool Sword
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade
  • Black Swords Are Better
  • Thunderbolt Iron
• Deadpan Snarker
  • Sarcastic Devotee: Primarily in Season 1 and somewhat in Season 2.

Sokka: "If I can just get out of this situation alive, I'll give up meat... and sarcasm. Okay? Ow! That's all I got. That's pretty much my whole identity: Sokka, the meat and sarcasm guy. But I'm willing to be Sokka, the veggies and straight-talk fellow. Deal?"

• Defrosting Ice King: Sokka is initially overly sarcastic and cynical, but eventually becomes a warmer character and more open-minded to the Super Natural.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: "That's called Sokka Style! Learn it!"
• Ditzy Genius
• The Engineer: In Book 3, natch.
• Failure Knight: His inability to protect Yue continued to haunt him throughout the series.
• Genre Savvy: "I'm just saying - weird stuff happens to us." (Two seconds later, a guy with a whole cob of corn sticking out of his mouth sits down between him and Toph). Also, "what if I fall asleep and something happens... and something ALWAYS happens!"
  • He was also very quick to deduce that Jet had been brainwashed.
• Guile Hero: He's very good at reading people, which he's used to the Gaang's advantage more than once. For example, he outs Aang as the Avatar in "The Waterbending Scroll" in order to play to the greed of the group of pirates who had them captured and uses the ensuing scuffle with Zuko's soldiers as a get-away plan.
• Iconic Item: See Companion Cube.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Results in Sokka taking up swordsmanship.
• Important Haircut: Grows his hair out in Season 3. Seems to be a trend with the Avatar boys, isn't it?
• Insufferable Genius
• In Touch with His Feminine Side
• It's All My Fault: His emotions caused the Gaang to miss their opportunity to confront Ozai during the Day of the Black Sun. It also results in most of the rebels being imprisoned by the Fire Nation.
• Jerkass Has a Point
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's sarcastic, pragmatic when it comes to helping strangers, and can be an Insufferable Genius. He's also fiercely loyal and protective to his friends.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Sokka is typically the most resistant when it comes to helping every Character of the Week with their problems, as he views it as a distraction from their main mission. He's also the most cynical in a group of idealists.
• Large Ham, Memetic Badass, Names to Run Away From Really Fast: WANG FIRE!
  • A rare example of a character becoming a Memetic Badass both in and out of universe.
• The Leader: A mixture of type I and type II.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: He's the linear warrior, Katara is the quadratic wizard.
• Machete Mayhem: Although he does not use it in combat often.
• Moment Killer: Butts in on Aang and Katara more than once.
• Mr. Fanservice: Like Zuko, both in and out of universe, but on a smaller scale.
• Noodle Person: He's quite tall and not at all bulky.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The realization that he is this leads to Sokka taking a level in badass.
• Playing Pictionary: He does this several times.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Properly Paranoid: Doubles with The Complainer Is Always Wrong. His suspicions of Jet and Hama are proven right.
• Real Men Eat Meat: He even labels himself "the meat and sarcasm guy" in the episode "Bitter Work".
• Real Men Wear Pink: Sokka is strong warrior, likes to eat meat, and has a way with the ladies, however he enjoys softer things like poetry and shopping. Case in point, he's once was happy that his bag he bought matches with a belt Aang won.
• Retail Therapy: In the episode Sokka's Master, Sokka feels depressingly disengaged from the action because of his inability to bend or be Badass like the rest of the Gaang. He copes with this by shopping!
• Shopping Montage: At a weapons store, but still has the demeanor of a teenaged girl with daddy's credit card.
• Show Runner: The rest of the gang can't even keep a schedule without him.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Katara.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Beginning of Season 1 only. He's quickly humbled. And then he started to take badass levels.
• The Smart Guy
  • The Strategist

Sokka: Why are you all looking at me? Aang: You're the idea guy. Sokka: So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan? That's a lot of pressure.

• The Spock: To Aang's Kirk and Katara's McCoy.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Has this mindset until he challenges Suki to a fight.
• Straw Vulcan: When they're trying to help people he's cast in this light, but subverted in "The Fortuneteller"
• Team Dad: Despite being the Plucky Comic Relief, Sokka functions as this in Katara-centric episodes. Normally Aang is the one wanting to pursue a Sidequest and Katara is trying to keep them on track. When it's her turn, Sokka turns into the Straight Man.
  • He also plays the role more seriously in the third season until Zuko joins.
• The Team Normal: Lampshaded in Book Three's fourth episode.
• Teen Genius
• Terrible Artist
• Throw the Book At Them: "That's Sokka style! Learn it!"
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the finale, he loses his sword for good when he throws it at a catwalk on a Fire Nation airship and manages to slice clean through it. What kind of rock was that meteorite made of?
• Throw It In: He was supposed to be more deadpan and serious. But his VA is a comedian, so...
• Took a Level in Badass: The poster child.
• Vocal Evolution: In the opposite direction of Katara above. Even his voice acting starts out deeper and more mature, until roughly about "The Kyoshi Warriors".
• Weak but Skilled
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Fortunately, his father is already very proud of him and he just needed to hear it.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Occasionally sounds like he's trying to fast talk the DM.

Sokka: Suki! You know about sea monsters you talk to it! Suki: Just because I live by the Unagi doesn't make me an expert! Sokka: (Picks up Momo) Oh great sea serpent, please accept this humble and tasty offering!

Toph Beifong

Voiced by: Jessie Flower

"I love fighting. I love being an Earthbender. And I'm really, really good at it."

As a child, Toph was thought of as frail due to her blindness and was kept from the outside world by her overprotective rich father. Toph found an outlet by becoming an Earthbending master, even learning to "see" by sensing vibrations in the Earth. Because of this, she was selected to be Aang's Earthbending teacher. Though she has a bit of an attitude problem out of a desire to prove her independence, she makes up for it with her blunt insight and all-around Badassery. Also the first Metalbender in history, which she's rightfully proud of. Was originally written as a boy in the early planning stages.

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• Achilles' Heel: She's very reliant on her "tremor sense" to function. Unfortunately, it isn't foolproof, and has quite a few holes in it. First, she can't sense anything in water or the air. Second, standing on anything other then solid earth will affect her "vision," making her weaker or helpless depending on circumstances. Finally, taking out her footing or injuring her feet will leave her truly blind until she recovers.
• Action Girl
• Affirmative Action Girl: The second girl in the second season.
• Anti-Hero: Type II
• Arrogant Kung Fu Chick
• Badass: Probably the biggest example in the series, tied with Azula.
  • Badass Teacher: Interquel Graphic Novel trilogy Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise reveals she opens a metalbending school after the war.
  • Badass Boast: After discovering Metalbending:

Toph: I am the greatest earthbender IN THE WORLD!

• • Little Miss Badass
• Beyond the Impossible: Invents Metalbending on the fly to escape capture. Something which an entire episode was used to show that it was impossible.
  • Probably justified. She is one of only two benders we see that uses vibrations to "see" (the other being Aang). This skill allows her to sense and manipulate the earthen defects in the metal. She may be one of the first, if not actually the first earthbender with this advantage.
• The Big Girl: Not physically, but by personality and by her elemental powers.
  • Lampshaded in "The Ember Island Players" when an actual big guy plays her in the play about written about the Gaang's adventures.
• Blinding Bangs: In the Avatar Super Deformed Shorts and some of the comics.
• Blind Weaponmaster/Handicapped Badass: Provided she's fighting on top of earth or metal, she probably has better vision than most seeing people.
• Blood Knight: She loves fighting.
• Boisterous Bruiser: "All right! Let's break some rules!" SMASH!
  • Bruiser with a Soft Center: Shows affection by punching people.
• Bokukko: Again, in the Japanese Dub.
• Child Prodigy: One of the youngest benders we see, yet she is already one of the most powerful non-Avatar Earthbenders. Also invented Metalbending on the fly while captured, which was believed to be an impossible skill. And by the finale she was able to Sandbend, despite saying that she hated sand in season 2
• Cute Bruiser
• Deadpan Snarker
• Did Toph Just Have Tea With Iroh?: Bonus points for literally having tea with him. The rest of the Gaang is quite shocked at this. Subverted in that Iroh is actually a pretty nice guy.
• Disability Superpower: Although blindness isn't a requisite for an Earthbender to use her method of "seeing," it did lead her to focus her earth senses to an unprecendented degree, allowing her to perceive things approaching or beneath her in great detail and leading in turn to her invention of Metalbending.
• Disabled Snarker
• Dishing Out Dirt: Like every Earthbender.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Justified in that because she's blind, her bare feet are her strongest connection to the world. Anything that's not solid ground (or even moderate bandaging) dampens her "vision".
  • Further justified, quite literally every Earthbender in the series goes barefoot most of the time. She just does it out of necessity rather than choice.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Definitely had shades of this during Aang's earthbending training.
• Early-Bird Cameo: First appeared in a vision Aang had, which led to him choosing her as his teacher.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She's right on the border between this and Raven Hair, Ivory Skin.
• Evil Laugh: Now and then, especially as Melon Lord.
• Extra Ore Dinary: Invented Metalbending.
• The Face: The youngest and yet the one with the most social savvy. Technically, being the Avatar, it should be Aang but Toph is usually the one doing the talking.
• Foot Focus
• Friendless Background: Due to being sheltered from the outside world by her parents, she'd never made a friend before meeting the Gaang.
• Green Eyes
• Good Is Not Nice: May be just as heroic, brave and self-sacrificing as any other member of the Gaang, still is a bit of a jerk who rarely opens up to anybody.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: A mild case, and it's kept in the background for the most part. It's most evident during "Tales Of Ba Sing Se" and whenever her Achilles' Heel is hit.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Iroh, but hey, it's Iroh.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• The Ladette: The musclebound, belching, spitting hulk that was in the play near the end of the story? That's Toph on the inside.
• Little Miss Con Artist: In "The Runaway".
• Little Miss Snarker
• Living Lie Detector: Through her 'vibration sense'.
• Lonely Rich Kid: A fact that she dealt with by joining an underground fighting tournament and mopping the floor with anyone who challenged her.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Masculine Girl to Aang's Feminine Boy.
• Mighty Glacier: Isn't especially slow, but she doesn't move around very much and is the strongest and toughest of the Gaang.
  • Glacier Waif
• Never Learned to Read: Justified by the fact that she's blind in a world without Braille.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Aang "Twinkle Toes", Katara "Sugar Queen" and "Madame Fussy Britches", and Sokka "Snoozles" -- among others.
• N-Word Privileges: Toph is allowed to make blind jokes, and gets in some awesome ones.

Toph: [on Sokka's bad drawing of Appa] It looks just like him to me. Sokka: Thank you. I worked really...[[[Beat]]]... Why do you feel the need to do that?

• One of the Boys
• The Pig Pen: A mild case. Despite eschewing most sorts of hygiene, especially where her feet are concerned, she doesn't look it unless attention is drawn to it.
  • You call it dirt, she calls it a healthy coating of earth.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: This girl is absolutely tiny being a little over 4 feet tall, but her only non-Avatar rival in Earthbending is King Bumi.
• Power Levels: Mentioned in an interview. According to Word of God, she's the strongest bender in the Gaang (though this obviously doesn't count Aang in the Avatar State).
• Rebellious Rich Guy's Daughter
• Sadistic Choice: Was forced to choose between saving Appa from Sandbenders or saving the rest of the Gaang from a collapsing building. She tried to Take a Third Option, but her Achilles' Heel was active at the time. "I'm sorry, Appa."
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money: As a member of a powerful merchant family, she flashes her gold-bordered passport and makes up something about "valets" and a "seeing-eye lemur" to get entry passes to Bao Sing Se for herself and the rest of the Gaang from a humorless border official. Unfortunately it doesn't work as well when she later tries to bluff her way into the Earth King's party without invitations.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Almost immediately we see the rough wrestler became a well dressed lady in her intro.
• Sixth Ranger
• Sonar Sight: Toph uses earthbending to see, since she's born blind.
• Sour Supporter: Sometimes.
• Spoiled Sweet: Her family is stinkin' rich and spoiled her from birth, and yet she's still pretty nice. Something of a jerk but by no means a Rich Bitch.
• Static Character: Compared to the other mains, Toph doesn't get a lot of Character Development.
  • Lampshaded in the time Aang goes missing days before Sozin's Comet arrive. When Sokka proposes to split up into groups to find him, Toph offers to go with Zuko (Since Aang, Katara, and Sokka had some Character Development when they went off somewhere with him). She gets nothing out of it.
• Street Smart: Part of why she's the Team Face: she knows how to take advantage of street situations, such as in "The Runaway." And it's more than just the street. At the custom official and for Earth King's party she's was the one doing the talking.
• The Runaway: She even has it as a nickname.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Katara's Girly Girl.
• Tsundere: She shows affection for someone by punching their arm. She's usually at her softest around Sokka but only at certain times, like she missed him but won't admit it.
• You Know I'm Blind, Right?: The rest of the Gaang (especially Sokka) tends to forget about her disability, leading to many of Toph's great one-liners.

Sokka: It's so dark in here, I can't see a thing! Toph: Oh no, what a nightmare!

• • Subverted in the finale when Sokka, Toph and Suki take over a Fire Nation airship:

Toph: Oh, sure, ask the blind girl to pilot the airship. Sokka: Actually, I was talking to Suki. Toph: Oh. That would make more sense.

• • In Sokka's defense, Toph could "see" well enough with her Disability Superpower that it's pretty easy to see how he could forget she was impaired.
  • In one episode it happens twice:

Sokka: Toph, when I was in town, I found something that you're not gonna like. [Holds up wanted poster for Toph] Toph: Well it sounds like a sheet of paper, but I'm guessing you're referring to what's on the sheet of paper. Later Katara: What's this? [Holds up the same poster] Toph: I don't know! I mean seriously, what's with you people? I'm blind!

Suki

Suki

Voiced by: Jennie Kwan

"I am a warrior, but I'm a girl, too."

Leader of Kyoshi Warriors, Suki served as an early mentor and love interest for Sokka. Although she's dedicated to her job, she does have a soft side that comes out when Sokka's around. After the Yue incident, Sokka became a bit overprotective of her even though she's probably more capable than he is. And for good reason -- after running afoul of Azula, she was presumed dead for quite some time. Fortunately, she was alive and became a permanent member of the group just in time for the final showdown.

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• Action Girl
  • Action Girlfriend
• Amazon Brigade: The Kyoshi Warriors.
• Badass Normal: To the point of Charles Atlas Superpower.
• Bare Your Midriff: Her Book 3 normal clothes.
• Battle Ballgown
• Breakout Character
• Charles Atlas Superpower
• Cool Face Paint
• Eleventh-Hour Ranger
• Exotic Weapon Supremacy
• First Girl Wins
• Guest Star Party Member
• Hot Amazon
• Lady of War: In her Kyoshi Warrior uniform.
• Le Parkour: In "The Boiling Rock," while Zuko and Sokka are trying to think up a plan, she climbs three stories and kicks all kinds of ass while doing so, and does it all in the span of about two minutes. Three minutes, tops.
• Meaningful Name: "Suki" can mean "beloved" in Japanese and is an expression of love. She's introduced primarily as a love interest.
• Ninja: "I am an elite warrior who has trained for many years in the art of stealth!"
• Old Shame: Dated Foamy Mouth Guy.
• Paper Fan of Doom: Steel fans actually.
• Pride: It's subtle, but she doesn't respond well to having her failures pointed out. When Sokka insists she admit he beat her in a sparring session, Suki forcibly bends his finger backwards and insists it was a lucky shot. After Suki mocks Team Avatar's win/loss record and Sokka responds by pointing out Azula took her captive, she flatly asks him if he's trying to get on her bad side.
• Purple Eyes: More of an indigo color.
• Second Love: Admittedly she met Sokka first, but she was the second girl he fell in love with.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Her Book 3 clothes.
• She's Back
• The Sixth Ranger
• Static Character: through no fault of her own, Suki comes off as this: she's a generic Action Girl in a series where Action Girls are not at all unusual.
• Tsundere: A very light case of this with Sokka.
• Wall Crawl

Prince Zuko

See Characters/The Fire Nation.

Appa

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Aang's pet flying bison as well as his lifelong friend and companion who was sealed in the iceberg with him when he ran away. Acts as the group's main form of transportation.

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• Action Pet: Mostly doesn't seem to do much, but he has a few Big Damn Heroes moments.
• Badass
• Big Damn Heroes: His main role.
• The Big Guy: Was essentially this for the group before Toph joined. Even (metaphorically) plays the part of being a (semi-)Sacrificial Lion, thanks to his kidnapping arc in Season 2.
• Blow You Away: He can Airbend either by breathing in or out, or by creating giant waves of wind with his large, flat tail.
• Break the Cutie: "Appa's Lost Days" practically treats him like an universal chew toy.
• Day in The Limelight: "Appa's Lost Days" again.
• Expy: Presumably of the Homage sort. With The Animesque stylings, doesn't Appa remind anyone else of Totoro?
  • Actually, he's based on the Cat Bus, because the creators had some trouble drawing a mammal with six legs.
  • Why not a bit of both? The writers did state they were fans of Studio Ghibli (more specifically, of Hayao Miyazaki).
• Gentle Giant: He really quite a soft-hearted lug when it comes down to it.
• Giant Flyer: Uses Airbending to propel himself through the sky.
• He's Back
• Horse of a Different Color
• Last of His Kind: He's the only sky bison seen throughout the entire series and is assumed to be such. Ultimately subverted in The Legend of Korra, as other sky bison herds were discovered.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Originally a bison mixed with a manatee, although the bison part mostly took over in development.
  • Possibly unintended, but its hard to ignore beaver parallels with the way he uses his tail.
• Non-Human Sidekick
• Team Pet
• Why Did It Have To Be Fire and/or Caves?

Momo

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

A flying lemur found in the ruins of the Southern Air Temple, Momo is Aang's other pet he picked up after being released from the iceberg. A close friend of Appa, he's just around for the comic relief.

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• Appropriated Appellation: Weirdly subverted. He gets his name after eating a peach. (Momo is Japanese for peach, as well as being a common name given to pets in Japan.) The creators weren't aware of that at the time and just named him that because it fit.
• Green Eyes
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A lemur and a bat.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Ridiculously Cute Critter
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Eventually Lampshaded by Aang.
  • Very much justified in that situation though, Momo could've gotten hurt.
• Team Pet
• What Could Have Been: A dropped subplot revolved around Momo being the reincarnation of Aang's mentor, Monk Gyatso.