Katara breaks Aang out of the iceberg.
"Some people believe that the Avatar was never reincarnated into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. But I still haven't lost hope."
"The Boy in the Iceberg'" is the premiere episode of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender. It introduces the viewers to the world of Avatar, the concept of bending, and the main characters of the first season.
While fishing, Sokka and Katara discover Aang and his ten-ton, six-legged sky bison Appa icebound floating on the sea. After freeing them, they discover that Aang is an Airbender from the Air Nomads, a race of people assumed to have died out a hundred years before. When he goes with them to the water tribe, he doesn't reveal that he is the Avatar that has the ability to bend all four elements. The Avatar is reincarnated generation after generation and would be the only one who could prevent the Fire Nation from conquering all the nations, which is why the Fire Nation exterminated the Air Nomads, Aang's people. Meanwhile, Zuko, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation, is patrolling the seas in search of the Avatar. While exploring an abandoned Fire Nation ship, Katara tells Aang about the war that had been going on for the past hundred years. They accidentally set off a light beam in the ship, which alerts Zuko to the village.
Tropes:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: A variant of this is used, with Sokka referring to Katara as his "flying sister" after Aang introduces Appa to them. Katara wasn't amused.
- As You Know: The beginning has Katara and Sokka yelling at one another, Katara starting on Sokka for calling waterbending magic, allowing him to recite previous times that she's corrected him on this fact, for the audience's benefit.
- Bait-and-Switch: Aang is originally believed to be dying when he asks Katara to come closer. Turns out, he only wanted to invite her to go penguin sliding.
- Bathroom Control: When Sokka is teaching the rest of the village's kids to stay strong against members of the Fire Nation, one boy suddenly exclaims that he has to pee, and Sokka declares that there's no time for that. The boy insists that he has to go real bad, so Sokka sighs in annoyance and asks if anyone else needs to go. Everyone else raises their hands (much to his dismay).
- Contrived Coincidence: Zuko happens to be looking for the Avatar at the South Pole the same day he wakes up from a century-long sleep.
- Covered in Gunge: Appa sneezes on Sokka, covering him in mucus.
- Description Cut:Sokka: In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing! For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?
(The camera shifts positions to reveal that Sokka was talking to six uninterested boys.)
Village boy: (waving his hand) I gotta pee!- Also, Katara's gushing over Aang presumably being filled with knowledge and wisdom. Cue Tongue on the Flagpole.
- Durable Deathtrap: The booby traps on the old Fire Nation ship are still in pristine condition when Aang and Katara trigger the mechanism.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Check the very sinister Death Glare that Iroh shoots Zuko early on, a far cry from the nigh-perpetually good-natured old man that he is for the rest of the series, especially towards his nephew.
- Despite being Mix-and-Match Critters, the "penguins" are simply called that by Aang, and Momo and Appa are a lemur and bison respectively, albeit flying ones. Going forward, most of the world's creatures are referred to by double names, with only one or two exceptions.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Katara inadvertently breaks open an iceberg during an angry rant to Sokka about having to look after everything— and a moment later rushes to rescue an unknown boy, establishing her as a Team Mom, naturally heroic, and more powerful than she realizes.
- Sokka complains about being splashed with Katara's "magic spirit" water, but the moment that things get dangerous, protects her with his own body, establishing him as a Butt-Monkey and Deadpan Snarker, but also a protective big brother.
- Flash Back: The dream sequence; the pictures that we see in Katara's narration may also count.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Zuko's seems to quite clearly be an evil one.
- Harmless Freezing: Lampshaded by Sokka when he asks how Aang survived in the ice. The latter has no answer to this.
- Honour Before Reason: Zuko is chasing around the South Pole, looking for someone who hasn't been seen for over a century, just over his honor.
- Human Popsicle: How Aang manages to stay unaged and trapped for a century.
- Insistent Terminology:Katara: It's not magic, it's Waterbending!
- I Resemble That Remark!:Zuko: I don't need any calming tea!
- Last of His Kind: Aang, but also Appa (the last sky-bison) and Katara (the last water-bender left in her tribe).
- Late to the Tragedy: Aang slept a hundred years, missing the beginning of the war.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The penguins, which have otter-like whiskers and four flippers.
- Mood Whiplash: Aang's proclamation after being found in the ice. Followed seconds later by Sokka jabbing him in the head with a stick.
- Myth Prologue: The first episode begins with Katara telling the audience about the Avatar, a powerful individual who kept the peace between the four Elemental Nations, but vanished when war broke out. Since then war has been going on for a hundred years. Of course, who should Katara and her brother then find but the Avatar? A condensed version of this story becomes the show's Opening Narration in subsequent episodes.
- Older Than He Looks: As Aang says, "Do I look like a one-hundred-and-twelve-year-old man to you?"
- The Pig-Pen: Katara's biggest gripe when Sokka sets her off? Having to clean his dirty socks.Katara: Have you smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you— NOT PLEASANT!
- Pillar of Light: Zuko's keen enough to know that it's worth a look.
- Potty Emergency: A Running Gag with the little ones.
- Rage Breaking Point: One sexist comment from Sokka causes Katara to flip at him. Thanks to her latent waterbending ability, she unknowingly breaks Aang free from his icy hibernation, officially starting the series proper.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Katara delivers this to Sokka after she hits her Rage Breaking Point, stating that she had taken all the responsibility while Sokka was "playing soldier" since their mother died.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Aang, the Avatar, The Master of All Four Elements, the only one who can restore balance to the world; sealed inside an iceberg at the South Pole for a century.
- Super-Speed: Aang can use the wind to speed himself up when he wants to. Like, for example, when he sees a penguin.
- Tempting Fate: Aang insisting on checking out the Fire Nation ship. The first of MANY for the Gaang.
- Title Drop:Zuko: The sages tell us that the Avatar is the last Airbender.
- Toilet Humor: After Aang walks out of the igloo bathroom."Wow! Everything freezes in there!"
- Tongue on the Flagpole: Done with Aang's glider staff.
- Troll: When Zuko pressures him into teaching firebending, Iroh reluctantly agrees... he'll get started right after he finishes the roast duck that he just happened to have at hand.
- Your Other Left: Predictably, Sokka doesn't heed his sister's warnings and goes right...Katara: (to Sokka) Watch out! Go left! Go left! (their canoe crashes) You call that left?
