Avatar: The Last Airbender was released on Netflix on February 22, 2024, and as expected it became the talking point among fans on social media all around the world. Avatar: The Last Airbender is the live-action remake of an iconic anime series. Avatar: The Last Airbender is another Netflix attempt to bring a live-action version of the iconic anime series. Before this Netflix had banked big upon One Piece and it became a major success, therefore, the American streaming giant renewed it for season 2. Talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender has been receiving mixed reviews from fans on social media. While anime lovers are slamming the creators for tweaking and botching up iconic cartoon series, those who haven't watched are lavishing praise on Netflix for bringing such an action-packed adventurous series. Since you have landed on this page, True Scoop News assumes that you have already watched Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix and are confused about the mention of four elements in the series while there are a total of five elements in reality. Below is Avatar: The Last Airbender four elements explained-
Why there are only four elements in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Before talking about elements let's understand Avatar: The Last Airbender's storyline in brief. Avatar: The Last Airbender is an adventure series with action sequences injected into it. The story revolves around the realms of four elements- earth, water, fire, and air. The fire realm led by Fire Lord Ozai starts a war against every other realm to rule eternity. The fire realm can only be stopped by an Avatar who can master every element. An Airbender named Aang who is just 13 turns out to be the Avatar.
Now talking about elements, it is said that everything in nature is made up of five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. Knowledge of the five elements allows the yogi to understand the laws of nature and to use yoga to attain greater health, power, knowledge, wisdom, and happiness.
However, this is not the case in The Last Airbender. As per a report that quoted Bryan Konietzko in the book Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series, it was mostly due to simplicity, and the fact that the Five Phases philosophy is not the only element-based philosophy that exists in ancient Chinese culture. Konietzko was quoted saying, "People often assume the "four-element theory"... we brought to bending is exclusive to ancient Greece, and that in ancient China only a "five-element theory was used"… in our research we found the four-element theory was prevalent in ancient cultures all over the world, including ancient Buddhist teachings. While the five-element theory is interesting in its own right, we were attracted to the universality of the four simple elements."
This is the major reason why the makers of Avatar: The Last Airbender has showcased only four realms or four elements realm.
Talking about The Last Airbender's characters guide, Gordon Cormier plays Avatar Aang, Kiawentiio plays Katara, Ian Ousley plays Sokka, Dallas Liu plays Prince Zuko, Paul Sun-Hyung plays Iroh, Daniel Dae Kim plays Fire Lord Ozai, Elizabeth Yu plays Princess Azula, Maria Zhang plays Suki and more in the leading roles.
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