Avatar the Last Airbender

One of my favorite cartoon series aired on Nickelodeon was Avatar the Last Airbender. The series takes place in a world that is dominated by eastern cultures; namely the Chinese represented by the Earth Kingdom, the Japanese and Meso-Americans represented by the Fire Nation, the Tibetans and India by the air Nation, and the Inuit (Eskimos) and Pacific Islanders by the Water Tribes.

Each tribe is also closely in tune with an element, and certain individuals have the power to bend the elements. These individuals are called benders, and there is one for each element. Practitioners have also managed to create special techniques that have allowed them to perform feats such as metal, crystal, sand, lightning, plant, and blood bending. In order to ensure peace and spiritual balance on this world, the gods imbued an individual known as the Avatar with the power of the four elements. It is the avatar's duty to keep the world in balance, both between the people and world of the spirits.

The Avatar has been re-incarnated throughout the centuries, and within each life time is a strongly aligned to one of the four elements (water, earth, fire, or air). The current Avatar is a young boy named Ang of the Air nation. Previously Avatar Roku failed to stop his brother, who was ruler of the Fire Nation, into starting a war with the rest of the world. Thus the reason for the current state of things.

Since the Fire Nation has been left unchecked it has began a campaign to dominate the world. There first order of business was to destroy the Air Nation, for it was known that the next Avatar would be born unto them. From there they attack the Southern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom. The Earth Kingdom was a large nation and the only competition they had. However, the Earth Kingdom managed to fend off many of the attack and only losing a number of outlying settlements to the Fire Nation. forces.