Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,510
edits
Avatar: The Last Airbender/Tropes A-H: Difference between revisions
Avatar: The Last Airbender/Tropes A-H (view source)
Revision as of 23:47, 18 March 2024
, 1 month ago→A
No edit summary |
(→A) |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
== A ==
* [[Abnormal Limb Rotation Range]]: Wan Shi Tong.
* [[The Abridged Series]]: "The Ember Island Players" is a rare, possibly unique, canonical abridged series.
Line 16 ⟶ 17:
* [[Action Girl]]: More often than not, any A and B character who has two X chromosomes is an action girl.
* [[Actor Allusion]]:
** The 'four elements' wizard in the first episode of Book 2: Earth is based directly on Akiro, Mako's early role in the movie ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]''.
** When Piandao tells Sokka to think of the sword as "a part of your own body", it may come to the mind of certain viewers that his voice actor, Robert Patrick, has also played a character in [[Terminator]] who actually has swords as a part of his body.
** In the episode Ember Island Players, Actor Zuko is voiced by the older brother of Dante Basco, the voice of the real Zuko.
* [[Adaptational Personality Adjustment]]: Discussed in-universe when the Gaang sees "The Ember Island Players". Aang complains that the bald woman portraying him shows a mischievous Avatar that can't resist playing jokes on his friends. Katara becomes prone to tears, Sokka is obsessed with food, Iroh is a [[Lazy Bum]] and so forth. Zuko, despite his protests to the contrary, is probably the ''most'' accurate in the Ember Island show, as he is dark and brooding and goes, "How can you say that?!" dramatically. Katara smirks when the actor proves her point.
* [[Adaptational Weakling]]: happens in-universe during "The Boy in the Iceberg," the play that the Ember Island Players perform that the Gaang watch incognito. Ember Island-Aang goes from a cheerful badass to a mischievous "bald woman" in Toph's words, Katara becomes an [[Inelegant Blubbering]] [[Soapbox Sadie]] that goes on about hope, Sokka loses his leader skills in favor of an obsession with food, Iroh is a [[Lazy Bum]] who wants to lie around and eat cake, and Zuko becomes a whining teenager who gets his ass kicked by the Blue Spirit. (Funnily enough, Zuko in-universe ''is'' the Blue Spirit who actually teamed up with Aang to break the latter out of General Zhao's custody, leading to a hilarious [[Reaction Shot]] when they see the Ember Island reenactment). Suki and Toph are the only ones who avoid this, owing to Suki not having any onscreen lines that we see, and Toph being reimagined as a giant male wrestler that uses echolocation to see and earthbend. The end of the episode deconstructs this, however; owing to the playwright's sources -- the Cabbage Merchant-- and the audience -- a brainwashed Fire Nation that believes in the rights to colonize the world-- the Gaang realizes that they're not being seen as the heroes but as the villains. The play also ends with Azula killing Zuko and Ozai killing Aang, and the audience ''cheers'' about children being murdered onscreen as well as siblings fighting to the death.
* [[Adjective Animal Alehouse]]: Iroh's tea shop, The Jasmine Dragon.
* [[Adorkable]]: Zuko. It's especially noticeable in the second half of the third season, but he shows signs of it before then. One of his Crowning Moments of Dork is his date with Jin in Season 2.
Line 49 ⟶ 52:
** Occasionally [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] throughout the series, and then ''fully'' subverted as the third season goes on and we meet the citizens of the Fire Nation; Aang even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the subversion at the end of "The Avatar and the Fire Lord": "Everyone is capable of great good and great evil." {{spoiler|And then there's [[Good Powers, Bad People|Hama]], the southern Waterbender who subverts [[Always Lawful Good]].}}
* [[Always Save the Girl]]: Aang decides saving Katara is more important than {{spoiler|finishing opening the chakras for the Avatar state}}, which was something that Iroh fully agreed with.
* [[Amazon Admirer]]:
** At first, Sokka makes a bad first impression on Kyoshi Warrior leader Suki when saying there's no way a bunch of female warriors could have defeated him in an ambush. Then after Suki tosses him on his ass a few times, Sokka humbles himself before her to ask for proper combat lessons. It's not until season two that Sokka realizes he has feelings for her, while dealing with PTSD from losing Yue and becoming terrified that Suki will die in front of him the way that Yue did. When Suki does the gruntwork to take a prison warden hostage in season three, Sokka has a lovestruck look at how awesome she is.
** Zuko admits that part of his attraction to Mai, in addition to them being childhood friends, is that he loves how she fights. He also loves when she breaks her usually stoic exterior to express her true feelings.
** Gender-inverted when Ty Lee develops a [[Villainous Crush]] on Sokka. This happens after Appa saves a sleep-deprived Katara and Sokka from Ty Lee and Mai, and when Sokka kept fighting to the bitter end to protect his little sister. As Ty Lee and Mai wash up on the other side of the river, Ty Lee asks Mai if she thinks that Sokka is cute.
** Subverted when Azula tries to hit on guys in "The Beach". She is certainly attractive, and Chan even kisses her when they talk in the privacy of his family's balcony, but her lack of social skills scare guys away from her.
* [[Amazon Brigade]]: The Kyoshi Warriors.
* [[Ambiguously Bi]]: Ty Lee shows unusual interest in Azula, which goes almost to the point of obsession. On Ember Island, several boys took interest in Ty Lee on the beach, to which she was completely oblivious and preferred the company of Azula. She also had a brief interest she took in Sokka.
Line 61 ⟶ 69:
** The Avatar Extras get into it too. At the end of "The Chase", when the Gaang plus Zuko all attack Azula, it says, "This is the first time we've seen all four elements attacking at once." A beat later, it adds, "...Plus Sokka."
* [[Angrish]]: Sokka's reaction towards Toph waking him up in "Bitter Work." After considering the sleepless marathon he had to go through in the previous episode, his frustration is well justified here. The Avatar Extras note that the writers did have actual dialog for Sokka, but the voice actor improvised the grumbled angrish instead.
*
*
* [[Animation Bump]]: The [[Grand Finale]] has a few shots of a higher quality, though the series itself is already unusually at a higher quality than most Korean studios.
* [[Animesque]]: Asian setting, multi-national cast, art style similar to [[Cowboy Bebop]], face faults, etc.
Line 73 ⟶ 81:
* [[Apologetic Attacker]]: "Sorry, we just need to see the Earth King!"
** Katara in "The Puppetmaster" {{spoiler|when Hama manipulates Sokka and Aang into attacking her.}}
* [[Apotheosis]]: Princess Yue sacrifices her life to revive the Moon Spirit since it gave her a portion of its life. When the Moon Spirit was vivified, she became the new Moon Spirit.
* [[Arc Words]]: "I must regain my honor." There are story sequences built around this phrase for Zuko, Aang, and Sokka ("the Boiling Rock")
** "Destiny" is another major theme, seeing as the show is primarily influenced by Eastern Philosophy. It ends up applying to every single character, and together their stories send the message that while you always have a destiny, you are the only one who can choose to follow it.
Line 122 ⟶ 131:
* [[Aura Vision]]: Ty Lee has the ability to see other people's auras. Hers is pink and Mai's is gray. No word on the other characters, though.
** Although, this could just be her... ''[[Cloudcuckoolander|unique]]'' way of talking about their moods or personalities.
* [[Averse Adept]]: Aang has this attitude about being the Avatar and having the Avatar State in the first episode. When he goes into the Avatar State he can kick ass, but season two reveals that he has nightmares about the chaos he causes while out of control. He also tells Katara that he didn't reveal to her or Sokka at first that he was the Avatar who went missing a hundred years ago because he never wanted this role. (It's justified when his friends stopped playing with him when he was revealed to be the reincarnation of Roku, and the monks planned to separate him from his mentor and father figure Gyatso, believing that Gyatso would not be able to train Aang sufficiently.) Part of Aang's [[Character Development]] is balancing his will to become the savior the world needs with his desire to stay a kid.
* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: I believe it goes, {{spoiler|"ALL HAIL FIRE LORD ZUKO!"}}
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: The couples all get their moments.
Line 127 ⟶ 137:
*** Followed by [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Toph punching him in the shoulder for being a sap]].
* [[Axe Crazy]]: Azula. There is a [http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/04/real-deal-season-two.html review] in which she is referred to as "the most terrifying 14-year old girl you will encounter in any medium."
== B ==
* [[Back for the Finale]]: {{spoiler|June, Iroh, Pakku, Jeong Jeong, Bumi, Piandao, Mai, Ty Lee, and a number of other characters for minor appearances.}}
** While not quite the Finale, Day of the Black Sun has an equally impressive list of minor characters return
Line 269 ⟶ 281:
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Sokka, on several occasions, particularly during the first half of the series. Sokka actually displays considerable growth over the course of the show, something few Butt Monkeys in other shows ever get to do.
* [[By Wall That Is Holey]]: the Earth Kingdom's trademark disc projectiles with square holes in them (based on Chinese coins) turn out to be rather impractical, particularly in "The Avatar State".
== C ==
* [[Cable Car Action Sequence]]: The escape scene in "The Boiling Rock, Part 2" is an extended one of these.
* [[Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards]]: Azula brings back Dai Li agents from the Earth Kingdom and they serve as her own personal elite squad of guards.
Line 352 ⟶ 366:
* [[Chirping Crickets]]: Sometimes with a cough, but mostly with animal sounds - a duck in "The Fortuneteller", [[It Makes Sense in Context|a defrosting frog]] in "The Blue Spirit" and a badger-toad in "The Western Air Temple", among others.
** Played straight in "Tales of Ba Sing Se" at the end of the [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Haiku Rap Battle]].
* [[Chosen Family]]: The Gaang: we have an orphan Airbender that realizes he lost his family a hundred years ago, two Water tribe members that lost their mother while having a father at war, a runaway Earth Kingdom noble that hates her family limiting her, and later on, a Kyoshi Warrior leader with her fellow Warriors imprisoned and separated.
* [[The Chosen One]]: Aang, although the reincarnation system makes it a bit muddled whether he's chosen or just following all his lives.
** Katara was destined to be Aang's waterbending master. She always believed the Avatar would return and she released him from the iceberg. Gran Gran told her that their destinies "are now intertwined."
Line 433 ⟶ 448:
** Also happens in "Imprisoned": Fire Nation troops walk around menacingly as the Gaang sleeps, the troops then knock on a door... which is opened by Haru.
* [[Cute Bruiser]]: Toph. While not physically strong, she has a [[Boisterous Bruiser]] personality, shatters boulders with casual ease and is usually the go-to team member for sheer brute force.
== D ==
* [[Daddy's Little Villain]]: Azula.
* [[Dance Line]]: in "The Headband", Aang is trying to teach some Fire Nation kids how to relax and have fun and does this at his secret dance party.
Line 519 ⟶ 536:
* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]: Jet. See article.
* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Both Zuko and Jet prefer dual wielding style (and of course, they end up in a [[A Worldwide Punomenon|dual-wielding duel]] in one episode).
* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: Tons of them.▼
== E ==
** Guru Pathik makes a short appearance in 'Appa's Lost Days' well before meeting Aang. Hakoda also appears in the same episode, but only for a few seconds.
** Also, Azula is seen in the Storm flashback of how Zuko got his scar.
Line 592 ⟶ 611:
** For the first two thirds of Season 3, Aang actually ''had'' hair (having been too busy being unconscious to shave, and determining it made a good way to disguise his head tat while sneaking around in the Fire Nation afterward).
* [[Eyes of Gold]]: The Fire Nation people.
== F ==
* [[Face Palm]]: "Why's your forehead all red?"
* [[The Faceless]]: Fire Lord Ozai in Books 1 and 2.
Line 675 ⟶ 696:
* [[Full Boar Action]]: Appa's battle against the [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Boarquepine]] in "Appa's Lost Days".
* [[Full-Contact Magic]]: Bending is something between this and [[Supernatural Martial Arts]].
== G ==
* [[Gadgeteer Genius]] / [[Engineer Exploited For Evil]]: The Mechanist from "The Northern Air Temple" {{spoiler|and "Day of Black Sun"}} is a classic lift right out of the [[Steampunk]] genre, a highly eccentric genius with steam and mechanisms {{spoiler|who reluctantly lends his talents to making weapons for the Fire Nation when they threaten his home and people.}}
** Sokka also shows some signs of inventive talent while at the temple {{spoiler|and the submarines from "Day of Black Sun" were also his idea}}, and his father invented the "stink and sink" mine.
Line 680 ⟶ 703:
** Hei Bei is a localized example. After the Fire Nation burned down an entire (assumably ancient) forest, the guardian spirit flies into a rage and terrorizes the (innocent) population of the countryside {{spoiler|until the Aang shows it the acorns that will regrow the forest in time.}}
** For all intents and purposes, this is generally what the Avatar's job ''is,'' and even then it's only when it gets ''that'' bad.
* [[Generational Trauma]]: ''ATLA'' practically runs on this trope. A hundred years ago, Avatar Roku's death provided a window of opportunity for the Fire Nation to launch global colonialization on the other kingdoms, under the guise of "improving" them. While the instigator Firelord Sozin had good intentions initially, he realized too late that wiping out all the Airbenders in search of Aang was not going to win him any brownie points or spiritual karma. Each generation of his descendants became worse than the last, with Azulon willing to murder his grandchildren to make a point, and Ozai showing no compunctions about scarring his fourteen-year-old son in front of an Agni Kai audience when said son refused to fight him. It's no wonder that Zuko is a [[Jerkass]] after suffering that, and {{spoiler|his redemption only starts in season 3 when his imprisoned uncle gives him scrolls of Sozin's diaries, that show where his great-great-grandfather went wrong}}.
** ''[[Legend of Korra]]'' continues this with the new blood:
*** Avatar Aang was a good person, a cheerful guy, and a doting father, but Tenzin felt immense pressure from Aang since they were the last two Airbenders in existence. Aang couldn't forget that he was the only survivor of the Airbender clans, having found many skeletons where he expected to find friends, and passed that anxiety onto his only airbending child. Kya and Bumi felt that they were ignored in favor of Tenzin, and both resented their little brother while still showing they would protect him with their life.
*** Firelord Izumi and her son General Iroh bear the emotional scars of what their ancestors did. Iroh leads fleets to protect the innocent while knowing the implications of declaring war. Izumi herself refuses to launch preemptive strikes against Kuvira in Season 4, pointing out that decisions like that led to the Fire Nation destroying entire cultures.
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Sokka
* [[Genki Girl]]: Ty Lee is eternally energetic, cheerful, and randomly walks around on her hands. In one episode, she even tries teaching a bear to do the same.
Line 721 ⟶ 748:
** AKA [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|Eurasia]].
* [[Grand Finale]]
* [[Great Wall]]: The wall around Ba Sing Se. Although Ba Sing Se is officially a city, it is actually large enough to contain nearly a quarter of the entire Earth Kingdom -- between its outer and inner walls is enough farmland to make this nation-sized city self-sufficient, as well as ''a small mountain chain and a substantial <s>lake</s> inland sea''. Its walls are ''so'' massive that they are considered a geological feature and are depicted ''in scale'' on world maps. Its gates can only be opened with earth-bending, and the only time it was actually penetrated, it was because there was a [[The Mole|mole]] on the inside helping the invaders. How General Iroh actually ''besieged'' Ba Sing Se ''effectively'' for 600 days is unimaginable.
* [[The Great White North]]: The Water Tribes.
* [[Grapes of Luxury]]: Azula gives this a try while in power.
Line 731 ⟶ 759:
*** Except Zuko, who takes out a few Earth Kingdom soldiers without bending in "Zuko Alone" not to mention his escapades as the Blue Spirit
*** Coinciding with the above statement, although Muggles Smash, Benders Shoot ''is'' the better descriptor. In terms of the Gaang this really only applies to Katara who is not at all versed in hand to hand combat and really is at a bad disadvantage when she can't bend or has no water to draw from. Generally however, the more talented benders seem to be rather capable at handing out beatdowns or at least getting by without their element; Zuko [as noted above), Aang (a rarity, but can go on a really good dodging defensive), and Iroh for sure and ''highly possible'' for Azula and Toph.
* [[Hair Decorations]]▼
== H ==
▲* [[Hair Decorations]]{{context}}
* [[Halloween Episode]]: "The Puppetmaster" was obviously meant to be one, and was first aired a few days before Halloween.
* [[Hands-On Approach]]: Katara teaches Aang the Octopus form this way.
Line 738 ⟶ 768:
* [[Hard Work Hardly Works]]: Subverted. It looks as though Aang learns waterbending faster than Katara (which would at least be justified by being the avatar), but when Katara and Aang get an actual instructor instead of relying on self-teaching and the scroll, Katara masters it even faster than Aang. Furthermore, Aang has trouble with earthbending since that [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|is the counter to air]]. Of course Aang is shown goofing off during the waterbending lessons.
** For the brief moments we view Iroh in his prison cell, you gradually see him transform from a badass sack of lard into a even more badass chissled bodybuilder. This also parallel's Sokka's sword training.
* [[Harsh Life Revelation Aesop]]:
** "The Western Air Temple": As Zuko himself acknowledges, a simple apology for all of his terrible actions won't undo the harm he has caused to others. He has to show that he is sorry, and fails miserably at his first attempt because the Gaang brings up a [[List of Transgressions]]. (It doesn't help that he lets slip that he sent the Combustion Man assassin after the Gaang to make sure the Avatar was dead.) Even when the Gaang lets him join under probation after he helps fight off Combustion Man to call off the assassination, it takes several episodes for him to bond with them and show he truly has changed.
** "The Southern Raiders": Zuko delivers it to Aang when the latter begs Katara not to give into a need for vengeance when Zuko, in an attempt to redeem himself to Katara, offers to help track down her mother's killer. Aang brings up [[He Who Fights Monsters]] using an analogy about a two-headed snake that keeps biting itself and getting poisoned. Zuko says nice moral, but they aren't in Airbending school, rather in the real world. Indeed, Aang acknowledges that Katara needs to find the man who killed her mother for closure, and says he trusts that she will do the right thing. Katara ends up not taking the man's life, but the quest does give her closure over the trauma.
** The [[Series Finale]] deals with Aang's moral quandary as the Gaang, Zuko included, tell him that he has to kill Emperor Ozai, the Firelord, before he burns the Earth Kingdom to the ground. Aang is a [[Technical Pacifist]] who follows [[Thou Shall Not Kill]] teachings; he still has nightmares about the Avatar State going on a rampage in the book one finale when he was out of control. He protests that there has to be another way, pointing out that Ozai is a monster but he is still a human being, one who wasn't born evil. Eventually, his angst leads him to finding a mysterious island where his past selves tell him that no matter what he decides, he cannot hesitate. Aang does find a solution -- to strip Ozai of his bending-- and finds he has to commit wholly to it or he will die in the process.
* [[Heavy Mithril]]: Parodied. When the gang is shopping for weapons, Aang puts on a massive, gaudy suit of armor. [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] and and [[Epic Riff]] are heard.
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: The series provides two examples of this in Jet and Hama, two individuals whose hatred of the Fire Nation blinded them to the point where they could no longer distinguish between friend and foe. Hama was even worse than Jet, because he at least tried to justify it as [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|doing the right thing]] by making sacrifices, and he did redeem himself [[Redemption Equals Death|in the end]]. Hama was treated so badly that she targeted anyone within reach, mostly civilians. Both of them served as a warning to Sokka and Katara about what they could become if they continued to hold on to their own prejudice and anger.
Line 770 ⟶ 804:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Split Trope Lists]]▼
[[Category:{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]
▲[[Category:Split Trope Lists]]
| |||