*Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 Episode 1*

The episode opens with an earthbender escaping from Fire Nation guards with what seems to be a secret scroll in his hands. He can get the scroll to his partner before staying behind to fight the Fire Nation guards with his earth-bending. Eventually, he is captured and brought upon Fire Lord Sozin (Hiro Kanagawa), the leader of the Fire Nation. Lord Ozai explains how he does not care for the airbenders, instead, he is worried about the Avatar revealing himself, which is why he orders his troops to kill all the airbenders. 

At the Southern Air Temple, audiences are introduced to Aang (Gordon Cormier), a 12-year-old airbender. Aang is told by Monk Gyatso (Lim Kay Siu) that he needs to help the other children prepare the temple for the great Comet festival. Gyatso and the other monks of the temple gather together to talk about Aang.  In this meeting, they discuss the fact that Aang is the next Avatar, and although he is young, he has to leave immediately and go to the other nations to learn the other bending styles. After this meeting, Gyatso meets with Aang once again, this time telling Aang how he is the next Avatar and how he has to leave. Aang is upset by the news because he does not want to leave, nor does he want the power and responsibility that come with being the Avatar.

That same night, Aang goes out flying with his flying bison, Appa, after he is unable to sleep due to the news he received from Gyatso. While Aang and Appa are out flying, the Fire Nation attacks the Southern Air Temple, killing every single airbender and destroying the temple in the process. As Aang tries to make his way back to the temple, he and Appa encounter a strong storm in the ocean causing a wave to hit both of them, drowning them to the bottom of the ocean.

Sometime later,  audiences are introduced to Katara (Kaiwentiio Tarbel) as she tries to waterbend in a cave. Outside of this cave is a small water village hidden in the snow. This village is now led by Katara’s older brother, Sokka (Ian Ousley) after their father died. Both Sokka and Katara go out fishing together, when all of a sudden, the water current picks up taking them and the boat into the inside of a cave. Inside this cave they encounter an ice orb; neither Katara nor Sokka know what the orb is. The ice orb breaks open, letting Aang out of the orb, and releasing a beam of light into the sky. Katara and Sokka bring Aang back to the village on their boat since he is still unconscious.

At the same time, a Fire Nation ship is seen with Zuko (Dallas James Liu) leading the troops. The ship is headed towards the water village. Zuko sees the light emitted from the orb and heads in that direction because he believes that is where the Avatar is. While talking to Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), Zuko explains that it is his destiny to bring the avatar back to the Fire Nation and take his place as the heir to the Fire Lord. Aang wakes up inside the water village, the village grandma explains to Aang that because the Avatar disappeared, the Fire Nation marched in and took control of the nation, killing all the airbenders in the process. The grandma also reveals that because Aang doesn’t know any of this, then it means he disappeared 100 years ago during the storm, meaning Aang is now the last airbender.

The Fire Nation appears at the village gates ready to attack in their search for the Avatar. Sokka challenges Zuko to a one-on-one fight. Zuko accepts and ends up beating Sokka with his firebending. As Zuko is about to kill Sokka, Aang shows up and fights Zuko and the Fire Nation soldiers with his airbending. In the end, Aang turns himself in to ensure the safety of the water village and is taken to the Fire Nation ship. Sokka and Katara decide to ride Appa to go and break Aang out of the prison. Aang can escape the prison with his airbending, hops on Appa with Sokka and Katara and they all fly away from the Fire Nation. 

The three of them fly back to the Southern Air Temple, Aang’s home. They all see the rubble and destruction from the night that the Fire Nation attacked, and Aang sees the burnt body of Gyatso at the temple. Seeing his home and Gyatso’s body makes Aang angry and his avatar powers take over, destroying the building around him. Episode one ends with Zuko “fueled by rage” drawing a picture of Aang to remember what he looks like.

 This first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender perfectly introduces the audience to this world and its characters in a very swift manner. The acting is good throughout the episode with the real standouts being Gordon Cormier as Aang and Kaiwentiio Tarbel as Katara. Both of them bring such innocence and lightheartedness to their respective characters while also portraying layers of emotions. On the other hand, Dallas James Liu leaves a lot to be desired from his performance as Zuko, sometimes seeming more annoying than intimidating. The VFX for the show is great for the most part, especially during the element-bending sequences, but it does falter a bit on a couple of the set pieces. The writing from Micheal Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko was fantastic in this episode. It was emotionally impacting from the very start, and the dialogue felt natural and real within this world.

Overall Episode 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great action-packed episode of television, while also serving as a fantastic introduction for audiences into the world of Avatar.

Rating: 7.5/10