Zutara or Kataang?

Small update: Dongbu Feng, the number one insider source for everything Avatar, just changed skins. The header is awesome, and more up to date as far as the gAang is concerned. Check them out here.

Since there’s an apparent lack of any breaking Avatar news (insert cries of withdrawal-oriented wrath here), I am left with very little things to post. Thank heavens that some of the people who worked on the series can’t get enough of it; these folks continue the Avatarded tradition by creating unofficial spin-offs and related fanart.

One such example is Johanne Matte. She worked on (at least) the last season of Avatar, as well as some of the Avatar comics in the Nickelodeon magazine. This woman loved Avatar so much that she came up with the Avatar: Alternate Universe and the Water Tribe chronicles, two storylines that could be found on her Livejournal (the username’s rufftoon).

The Water Tribe chronicles follows the adventures of a reformed Amdiral Zhao after his little excursion with the spirit of the ocean at the end of season one. It’s a fun little ongoing series, so while the main series is on an indefinite hiatus, let Johanne Matte and the Avatar Water Tribe quell your Avatar withdrawal syndrome. You can check her out here.

It isn’t enough that they’re withholding the new episodes of Avatar from us. Now, Nickelodeon has to whet our appetites even more with this:

That’s the cover for what appears to be the paperback edition of Avatar’s final arc. Entitled - as you can plainly read - “Sozin’s Comet: The Final Battle,” the cover of this yet to be released book features a fully realized Aang, bending all four elements in what appears to be the Avatar state.

Again, the artist’s rendition of Aang in this cover gives him an amazingly sculpted physique that would seem weird for an 11 - 12 year-old. While we know that he can finally bend all four elements, no matter how basically,the photo gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come, which is technically a superpowered Aang.

The curious bit is Aang’s Avatar state. Does this mean that he’ll regain control over his seventh chakra sometime in the last remaining episodes, in time to duke it out with Ozai?

Okay, I haven’t posted here for some time. And the sad thing is, there’s hardly any Avatar-related news whatsoever. The Boiling Rock hasn’t even aired yet, and YTV - the premiere source for the latest Avatar episodes after The Day of Black Sun has been airing reruns, and even that little rumor about the Argentinian premiere turned out to be a fluke.

So the only thing we’ve got going for us, my fellow avatards, are the future episode titles.

So far, we’ve got eight more episodes to go before the series finally ends. Four of those make up the final, two-hour finale wherein we’ve been promised an epic battle between Aang and firelord Ozai. Pretty much anything can happen in these last four episodes, but two things are clear: Avatar will end, and Aang will battle Ozai.

Which leaves very little room for speculation, since you’ve technically got four episodes left before everything virtually wraps up. And how much can happen in four episodes?

A lot, apparently.

All titles of all four episodes have been released by Dongbufeng.net, which is more or less the unofficial mouthpiece of Nickelodeon in everything Avatar. The titles are as follows:

• The Boiling Rock, part 1
• The Boiling Rock, Part 2
• The Southern Raiders
• The Ember Island Players

The first two titles I discussed earlier. The third title, The Southern Raiders, raises a point of interest since it heavily implies that it will have something to do with the southern water tribe - and the last time we heard about the southern water tribe was in passing when Master Pakku left the gAang in episode one of book two. This could also help to build up to the “epic battle” at the end of the series, because I doubt that the Fire Nation is going down without a big fight.

The last title, however, somewhat kills the tension built up by The Southern Raiders. In fact, even after Dongbufeng released The Ember Island Players‘ title several days ago, people had a difficult time believing that it was true, so much so that DB.net moderator Jake had to post an official statement that attested to it’s veracity.

The problem is, the title sounds so fake, it’s painful. The only exposure we had to Ember Island was during The Beach, and that hardly counted for anything other than fanservice. What about Ember Island? Why is it so important that you had to make an entire episode about it - and give it a silly-sounding name to boot? Who are the so-called players?? Have the gods of Nickelodeon / Avatar: The Last Airbender truly have gone bonkers?

Plenty of people are of the opinion that this episode will most probably be a filler episode, and with all the disbelief at such an awfully lackluster title, it wouldn’t be surprising. Of course, we’d have to actually watch it to find out what it really is about, but I wouldn’t be surprised if throngs of avatards start watching The Ember Island Players with a grain of salt.

Since there hasn’t really been any news regarding The Boiling Rock, people have delved into speculation. There’re a lot of burning questions that have yet to be answered, even this late in the series, and it’s kept people scrambling for possible explanations (it hasn’t kept them from coming up with the silliest theories either, such as the Purple Dragon Theory - look it up).

The most obvious topic is what in the name of all that is good and pretty is the boiling rock? There have been rumours of a prison surrounded by a boiling lake (think Alcatraz, except with a more fiery theme), while a more far-fetched theory about an island surrounded by lava has also surfaced. The prison angle has incited hare-brained theories about rescue operations conducted by the gaang, with an equally large number of prospective rescuees, ranging from the MIA Suki / Kyoshi warriors, the main invasion force during the Day of Black Sun arc, and - this is rather unlikely - the imprisonment of Zuko.

Of course, there’s another speculation thread going on regarding the mysterious Order of the White Lotus. Everybody wants to see Iroh in action, now that he’s all buffed up and built like a fire-breathing tank.

Here’s my take on The Boiling Rock;

1. It’s going to involve a hot springs of sorts. Volcanic islands usually entail hot springs. I don’t know how the gaang’s going to make their way there, though.

2. Zuko captured might be a reality. It’s a good plot device, and it could get the gaang - at least, Sokka and Katara - to warm up to ole’ Zuzu.

3. We might see some of the prisoners, but not all of them. I don’t think we’re going to see any prison breaks happening. Suki might be set free during the course of Zuzu’s reclamation, but that’s liable to be it.

What do you think is going to happen?

I’ve got a couple of exciting things today. One is pretty much breaking news, while the other’s pretty much old hat.

The first, old-hat news is this:

It’s the third video collection from Book 3 of the Avatar series. The collection will include episodes 311 to 315 of the season, and will be available on the sixth of May, 2008. The cover’s pretty interesting, isn’t it? In the episode The Firebending Masters, Aang finally manages to control a bit of firebending, with Zuko as his master (or sufi Hotman, as the avatar calls him). The firebending Aang looks a little bit muscular, though. So does Zuko. The artist must have a thing for musculature.

The second news has something to do with the upcoming Kids’ Choice Awards. The past two seasons of AtLA have won a series of awards for the innovativeness of the show, but so far, the third season has been void of any widespread recognition.

Fans - well, DongbuFeng, mostly - are celebrating the fact that in the upcoming Kids’ Choice Awards, Avatar has been nominated for an award. Not just any award, too - AtLA will be going head to head with shows like Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons and Ed, Edd and Eddy for the prestigous position of Favorite Cartoon. More info here.

Online voting (for Americans) begins online at March 3, so all you American avatards, chip in a bit for the show!

. . . will be premiering in Spanish?

That’s the latest gossip from the DongbuFeng chatbox, anyway. The Argentinian telecast of Avatar: the Last Airbender’s already gotten to episode 314 (or 313, if you consider Day of Black Sun as a singular chapter) the previous week.

Of course, Canada’s own YTV network aired The Firebending Masters a couple of weeks ago, and so far, we’ve had nothing but reruns. So the same thing might happen for the Argentines.

But what if it does air in Argentina?

I’d imagine that while a lot of fans would celebrate the event, the joy’d be half-baked. Because really, how many people can understand the Spanish language?

And by “we,” I mean me.

I don’t know why, but I’m really really compulsive when it comes to keeping up to date on the newest things about Avatar. Back before season three began, I was dying from the AWS (Avatar withdrawal syndrome for you non-avatards), and I couldn’t wait for that magical date when “The Awakening” first aired.

The days after the trailer for season three was presented at the San Diego Comic Convention were plenty excruciating, too. It hurt seeing the Aang-with-hair and Combustion Man (back then, we didn’t know who he was, huh?) scenes and images without having anything more than a one-minute trailer to rely on. It was painful seeing the start of what would become the two-part “Day of Black Sun” arc, without knowing that it was only a fight that would take place in the middle of the bloody season (and here everybody thought it was from the finale!). It sucked having all that Avatar goodness to look forward to, but not having any new media to satiate your withdrawal with.

It was then that I began stalking the forums of Dongbu Feng, AvatarSpirit, and Distant Horizon, as well as the Deviant Art and Livejournal accounts of Giancarlo Volpe (award-winning Avatar director) and Johanne Matte (Avatar artist). And to this day, I remain up to date on when the next episode of Avatar will be airing, and where one could find it.

I’ll probably be ranting about the lull in season 3 episodes until “The Boiling Rock: part 1″ hits the screens. I’ll also make sure to post most of the grapevine gossip regarding the as-yet to be released episodes here. Til next time!

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