Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search Part 1 cover
Date March 20, 2013 (Part 1)
July 10, 2013 (Part 2)
October 30, 2013 (Part 3)[1]
Publisher Dark Horse Comics
Creative team
Writers Gene Yang
Artists Studio Gurihiru
Pencillers Chifuyu Sasaki
Inkers Chifuyu Sasaki
Letterers Comicraft
Colourists Naoko Kawano
Creators Michael Dante DiMartino
Bryan Konietzko
Chronology
Preceded by The Promise (comic)
Followed by The Rift (comic)

Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search is a graphic novel, written by Gene Yang and illustrated by Studio Gurihiru that was released in three parts throughout 2013.[1] It is a sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender and a prequel to The Legend of Korra, both of which are animated TV series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. It takes place after the events of the graphic novel Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise.[2] It is followed by a sequel, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rift.

Overview

The Search focuses on the mystery surrounding Zuko and Azula's long-lost mother, Ursa. It is to reveal the details of former Princess Azula's imprisonment in a Fire Nation mental institution and what effects the imprisonment has had on her.

The main characters are the Fire Nation family, particularly Zuko and Azula. Avatar Aang, Sokka, and Katara help the Fire Nation siblings to find their long lost mother.

Gene Yang noted that the series will focus more on the supernatural side of the Avatar world.[3]

Plot

Part One

Two unknown individuals are talking, one imploring the other to divulge "everything". The second person complies, announcing that they will start the tale from the beginning.

In a flashback, one man stands atop a stage in the Fire Nation town of Hira'a rehearsing his lines for a play. A woman startles him from behind, causing him to drop his mask. After some flirting between the couple, the woman, who turns out to be Ursa, announces with pride that she has just received the role of Dragon Empress in the play; the man jumps to his feet, ecstatic that he will finally get to kiss her before all of Hira'a. In his excitement, he puts on his mask and pleads with Ursa to practice with him. After an awkward and masked stage kiss, the man proposes marriage to his girlfriend, revealing that he has been in love with her since he was six. He asks once more to show her he truly loves her, not just in the script, and she accepts.

In the Yu Dao of the present, Team Avatar sits among an assembly of other important people concerned about the stability of the city's government. Although Aang and Sokka chat quietly amongst themselves to divert from the "boring" lecture of an Earth Kingdom scholar, Katara scolds them both and the three begin to bicker. Zuko watches them from the sidelines, ignoring the professor. Zuko snaps to attention upon hearing the scholar say the word "family" and asks him to repeat the sentence. Following a side comment about the Fire Lord's obstructive adolescence, he tells Zuko an old philosophy about how the family is akin to a small nation, and the nation to a large family. Therefore, if a ruler has a proper handling on family, he may be more prepared to govern a nation. Zuko realizes the dysfunction of his own family – his father imprisoned, his sister kept in an institution, and his mother banished, missing for years – and tells Aang of his anxiety about what this means for his own country.

Back in Hira'a of years past, Ursa bursts through the door of her house ecstatic over the proposal and anticipatory of telling her parents the news; however, her mother, Rina, is kneeling with a family heirloom headpiece on her lap and a tear in her eye. Ursa asks what is wrong and is told that her father Jinzuk is in the greenhouse with a visitor. She runs to the greenhouse to find her father with Fire Lord Azulon, who explains that the mixed bloodline of Avatar Roku's grandchild (Ursa) and his own heir will strengthen his descendants and allow them to rule the Fire Nation and the world long after his death. Cutting to the chase, Azulon introduces his son Ozai, who has a proposal for her. At Capital City Prison, Zuko stands outside of his father's cell with Suki and Ty Lee while chatting about the state of Yu Dao and Aang's plan to unite the four nations. Peeking through bars of the cell, Zuko watches Azula in her straitjacket staring at Ozai; their eyes are locked on each other, but the warriors assure Zuko that neither has said a word since they sat Azula in the cell with him. Despite Suki's disagreement, the Fire Lord enters the cell with tea for his family. Azula, unable to grab anything, bites on the tray and throws it into Zuko's chest, infuriated by how he, in her mind, expects her to lap it like an animal. Ty Lee chi blocks her against Zuko's advisement, causing Azula to rant wild-eyed at her former friend, accusing Ursa of having "gotten" to Ty Lee and made her lose her fear. Disregarding Azula's paranoia, Zuko explains that he thought the tea would add dignity; Azula persuades him to let her and their father to speak alone, with Zuko deciding that neither was any threat right now anyway. He confides to Suki that no matter how much he regrets it, they are the best chance of him finding his mother.

Ursa sits frowning in a carriage with the Fire Lord and his son, tuning out Azulon's small talk as they leave her hometown. Suddenly her fiancé, Ikem, yells from outside the carriage that he will not let Ursa, his love, be taken from him, holding theater prop swords as the only weapons he could find. Azulon orders his guards to "take care" of Ikem, but before the battle turns fatal, Ursa pleads with Ozai to make his father stop, calling Ozai her love with the idea that it might persuade him.

After Ozai stops the soldiers, Ursa runs out of the carriage and tells Ikem to go home. After Ikem says that if Ursa can tell him marrying the prince will make her happy, then he will leave her. Glancing backward to see that the royalty are watching the conversation, she lies and says she is honored by her new engagement, ordering once more that he go home. As she rides away in the carriage, Ikem stays behind and wipes tears from his eyes.

Suki and Ty Lee accompany Zuko as he walks Azula in her wheelchair back to the institution, night having fallen over the city. After dismissing the warriors, Zuko questions Azula about the conversation she had with their father, to which she responds with sarcasm. Although Zuko begins to speak about moving her to the palace, Azula suddenly brings up how after being chi blocked, one feels limp – then she tells him that after muscle control returns, for a few moments, one becomes more flexible than one ever could be before and pulls her arm from the straitjacket, generating lightning and blinding Zuko. Her brother shoots a burst of fire at her, but she uses it to her advantage and has it break the chains that bound her feet together; just as quickly, she jumps to the top of a building and escapes along the roof. Outside of Hira'a, Ikem saunters sullenly through a jungle and begins to build a shelter for himself, becoming a hermit in his despair. In his days of forest-dwelling, he grows a beard and finishes a dilapidated house. As he sits next to a bonfire, Ikem turns around one night to spot a mysterious, glowing wolf drinking water from a pond.

Back in the Fire Nation Capital, Zuko pinpoints his sister's location and accesses a secret bunker that Azula entered moments ago. He finds her rummaging through a chest of Ozai's possessions and mumbling to herself about how he had managed to break off Ursa's control and tell her the truth. She explains to Zuko that within the chest are a wealth of letters that their mother had written a few years ago. As Zuko approaches her in the hope of reading the one in her hand, she burns it to ashes, covertly sneaking the actual note behind her back and slipping it between her sash and her robe; Zuko, having been distracted by the letter going up in flames, does not see this and asks what is wrong with her, prompting her to suggest he take that question to "her", who would be happy to answer it. Gaining a clear mind once more, Azula admits through gritted teeth while squeezing the sides of her head that she wants to find Ursa too, and that she will tell him what was written in the note on one condition.

At her wedding reception, Ursa and Ozai look at her parents from afar. He tells her how lovely they are and promptly advises her to choose her last words to them well – as Fire Princess, she will have to abandon her former life and never mention Hira'a again. She must attend her duties as royalty now, since she now belongs to the Royal Family and to him. In the present, Aang, Katara, and Sokka fly to the Fire Nation Royal Palace to meet Zuko, who has summoned them all together. Iroh greets them and alerts Zuko of their arrival. After learning some news about Toph, who was unable to attend to teach at her metalbending school, Zuko proceeds to explain that he has discovered the location of his mother's hometown and hopes that going there will heed answers for his search. However, since Azula was the one who coaxed the information out of Ozai, he agreed to let her travel with him unbound; before he could relay this information to the gang, however, they saw Azula lurking in the shadows and attacked. Aang admitted that he thought the plan was ludicrous, but he agreed for the group to go with him to Hira'a and help him find his mother.

That same day, as everyone is loading his or her luggage onto Appa, Azula insults the bison and the others by telling them to bring her things onto the "shaggy beast". Zuko assures everyone that such treatment will only be temporary, but until they find Ursa, someone will have to be watching his sister at all times. Sokka volunteers for first watch and, though Zuko would prefer the job were given to the benders, he wants to show her what he is made of and tells her to get onto Appa, waving his boomerang in her face. She zaps it out of his hand with lightning, putting Team Avatar on the offensive as Aang binds her feet with earthbending and Katara encases her hand in ice. Sokka backs out of the job, suggesting someone else take it instead. As they fly away, Iroh theorizes that for the past hundred years, the Fire Nation has had too many weapons and too little tea, declaring to Suki and Ty Lee that he will instate National Tea Appreciation Day. On Appa, Sokka watches in disgust as his sister and Aang kiss in front of him. After Aang notes that instead of Toph, they have Azula for company, she questions them as to which one of them was first approached by her mother, believing that they had conspired against her with Ursa. Zuko manages to snap her from her lunatic rant before it gets out of hand, with Sokka sighing that he misses Toph.

Zuko mentions after they land that he believes Hira'a is just up ahead, but proposes that they set up camp if they cannot enter the village before sunset. Meanwhile, Aang's face contorts to an angry-looking glare; he tells the group that he is not trying to make it, but that he feels the presence of a spirit with his face. Looking below, Aang spots a wolf spirit running along the path Appa is flying. While Sokka and Katara bicker, Zuko tells Aang that there is nothing down there despite his witness to the spirit and orders Azula, who has stood herself on the ledge of the saddle, to get down. She instead jumps down so she can get to Hira'a first, but Aang catches her with the aid of his glider. She swiftly burns a hole in glider and causes the two of them to crash. Zuko tells the others to check on Aang while he chases after his sister.

Azula jumps over a stream in her escape route, but before she can get any further, she hears her mother's voice speaking from the water and sees Ursa's reflection in the current, telling Azula that she is the one hurting herself. She once again ignores this part of her hallucination and asks Ursa how she managed to make everyone close to her turn on her and take her down. She tells her mother in triumph how Ozai broke free of her hold and led her to the letter that will allow her to take the throne, but she knows she cannot do this while Ursa is always working against her, vowing to end her mother's meddling for good. Zuko interrupts Azula's confrontation with the Ursa hallucination, questioning from across the stream who she is speaking to. His sister responds that it does not concern him and that she no longer needs his help to find their mother. Katara forms ice that encases Azula's arms and torso, stopping the siblings from the impending battle. Zuko thinks there is something wrong with Aang upon noticing his countenance, but he tells Zuko that it is the wolf spirit's presence that incurs his expression. The spirit makes itself visible right after Aang says this, frightening the team and making Sokka believe they are finally respecting the power of his boomerang.

Back in the flashback, Ursa sits down at a desk and composes a letter that she hides in her robe. Afterward, she removes a family portrait from the wall of the room, looking at the masks she hid there and giving special attention to her past love's dragon mask. She covers the collection back up with the painting and answers the knock at her door to find a young Zuko afraid to go to sleep. After he explains his nightmare that featured Azula, Ursa tells him to hold onto the good dreams, not the bad ones, and tucks him in.

After she leaves her son's room, Ursa walks to another room of the palace and delivers the letter she wrote to Elua, who has delivered secret letters on Ursa's behalf in the past. Unbeknownst to the princess, however, Elua has not gotten them to Hira'a as requested, but instead has filed them for Ozai. After reading through this particular letter, Elua takes it directly to the prince, who is practicing his firebending. Upon skimming its contents, Ozai crumples the note in his hand, bewildered. In the present again, Aang orders that his friends be respectful to the wolf spirit, who he believes has to have left the Spirit World for something important. Zuko and Katara slowly realize that the markings on the spirit's fur resemble the face Aang could not help expressing. At this he tries to reason with the spirit, recognizing what the spirit may have taken offensively and apologizing for the team, but this tactic does not work and he attacks again. Katara, Sokka, and Zuko attempt to defend themselves with their weapons, but Katara and Sokka's ice and boomerang are deflected and the spirit consumes Zuko's fire. Next comes Appa who, with Momo resting on his head, lunges at the spirit and gets the upper hand when he knocks the spirit off his legs, despite Aang telling Appa to go easy.

After regaining his footing, the wolf spirit turns the tables on Team Avatar by emitting a profuse number of moth wasps from his mouth, all of which fly immediately to the members of the group and begin to cover them from head to foot, making it hard for Katara to breathe and causing Sokka to lose sight of his arm. Due to Aang's badgering, they do not hurt the spirit animals, but Azula tells Zuko that if she is set free, she will take care of the moths, mentioning her regret for having run off and breaking their deal. Zuko unbinds her from the ice and she shoots a ray of lightning in the direction opposite the one they are traveling, causing the moth wasps to fly toward the light and the wolf spirit to run and catch up with his insects.

Night has fallen and everyone has gone to sleep but Azula, who is mumbling to herself about Ursa, Zuko, and Sokka, who worries about leaving Azula's hands unbound despite the trouble she caused throughout the day. Zuko calls attention to the way Azula saved them from the moth wasps, telling Sokka that he wants to give her a chance. The two begin to talk about Sokka's relationship with Katara, how he does not become angered by the snowballs Katara throws at him all the time. Although Sokka tells him that annoying her often enough makes things even, Zuko does not understand why he takes the worse side of the bargain. When it comes to his sister, Sokka confides, he does not mind the arrangement one bit.

Looking back at his own sister, Zuko asks Sokka for a blanket and takes it to Azula. As he lays it across her body, Zuko's eyes widen upon spotting the letter Azula has hidden from him all day. He reaches for it and reads the communication between his mother and a man named Ikem. In the letter, Ursa attests to her undying love for this man and for their son Zuko, into whose eyes she looks and thinks of him. Zuko singles out one particular phrase in the letter that his mother wrote: "our son".

Part Two

The morning after Zuko took the letter from her, Azula is awoken by the touch of her mother, who asks that she give up her quest and realize her true destiny. Azula is caught off guard by this plea, grabbing Ursa's arm and telling her that she has proof that she is the rightful heir. In reality, however, it is Katara's arm that Azula takes grip on, compelling Sokka to throw his boomerang at the princess' forearm and breaking her from her hallucination. Realizing the letter is missing from her boot, Azula raises her flame-wielding hands and demands to know where her brother has gone. Zuko, as it turns out, is sitting with Aang and discussing the letter he stole from his sister. He believes that the letter confirms he is not actually Ozai's son, which to him makes perfect sense as Ozai had no qualms about banishing him and was going to kill him the night before Ursa left the palace. In his theory, it was his mother who kept Ozai from taking his life. Aang does not wish to accept any of this despite Zuko's enthusiasm, bringing to the Fire Lord's attention that if he is not Ozai's son, no one else but Azula may be the rightful heir.

Just as Aang explains his fears about this theory, Azula comes up from the backside of the cliff on which Aang and Zuko sit and slips back into her paranoia, accusing her mother of telling Zuko to steal the letter from her. She begins to shoot fire at her brother and the Avatar, deciding not to let her mother win.

In a flashback to the Royal Family's life before Ursa's banishment, a young Zuko exclaims to his mother that Azula is burning a bush. Her defense is that the bush was not as pretty as the others in the royal garden, firebending at Zuko's behind for tattling. At this, Ursa orders her daughter to her room and comforts Zuko, who wonders why she must be so cold. Ozai witnesses this squabble and, having read the letter that is in the present possessed by Zuko, believes Ursa may be favoring Zuko because he is the son of someone else. Ozai then walks down a corridor and a flight of stairs to meet with Vachir of the Yuyan Archers, ordering the soldier to kill a man named Ikem at the village of Hira'a. Although Vachir assures that his action will not trace back to the palace, Ozai wants Ikem to know it was Prince Ozai who sent the assassin.

In the present, Zuko and Aang deflect a volley of fire blasts from Azula. Worried about his friends, Aang leaves the battle to check on Sokka and Katara, Zuko insisting that he will handle Azula alone. After an intense hand-to-hand combat, Azula retrieves the letter, but before she can retreat with it, Zuko grabs her by the ankle and smacks her onto the ground, asking her why their relationship has always had to be so volatile. Instead of answering, his sister begins to scream about how Ursa was telling Zuko right now to throw her over the cliff. She suddenly stops speaking of her hallucinations to notice that Zuko has not yet burned the letter to ashes, which would have left her without evidence to prove the Zuko was not an heir to the throne at all, questioning if her brother is, in fact, on her side. Zuko shrugs this off, pleading that they work together to find their mom. Once the siblings arrive back at the campsite, Aang informs them that Azula set fire to much of the surrounding forest. Zuko tells Aang that they have come to an understanding and that they will not be fighting anymore. Sokka skeptically mentions how they have said this before and that she will surely turn and fight with them again. In the end, the team gets on Appa and begins to fly the rest of the way to Hira'a.

Once more in the flashback, Ozai, Ursa, and their children are sitting around the dinner table. Azula is discussing with her father that her firebending teacher Kunyo is a "dumb" master and does not fulfill his role adequately, prompting Ozai to send him to the colonies when he gets the chance. When Zuko defends Kunyo's firebending teaching style, Ozai becomes infuriated, scolding his son for his inexperience in the art. Ozai continues to recount how when Zuko was born, he was unsure if Zuko was a firebender and would have been content with removing him from the palace if his wife and the Fire Sages had not persuaded him to wait. "She was born lucky," Ozai says of Azula. "You were lucky to be born." Although Ursa expresses her utter disbelief at this statement, Ozai leaves the table to have an audience with a Yuyan Archer.

Ozai arrives on a balcony to find Vachir kneeling to him and sputtering his findings about Ikem's whereabouts. Although the locals of Hira'a knew that the man had retreated into a nearby forest years ago, Vachir scoured that valley for months without finding Ikem. He details how the forest itself is a predator that attacks those who enter it, believing Ikem to have died without the need for an assassin. Ozai does not accept this speculation of death and orders Vachir back to the Pohuai Stronghold where he is to tender his resignation from the Yuyan Archers where he no longer belongs. Back in the Royal Palace interior, Ozai tells the servants who are tending to Ursa to leave the room as he must speak to his wife alone. Ozai yells at her that any communication between her and anyone of her old life – "especially past infatuations" – is treason, since he told her that she would have no more contact with them. Ozai continues his speech, telling Ursa that proof of her treason is living within the palace, referring to Zuko, who he believes to be Ikem's son using the letter as his evidence for this claim, to which Ursa then reveals that her assumptions of Ozai intercepting her letters is correct. Although Ozai assures his wife that Zuko may remain in the palace, he tells her that Ikem deserved the fate that befell him, lying to her that Ikem has been killed by his command.

In the present again, the gang has landed just outside of Hira'a. Zuko warns everyone to disguise well, as a party that includes the Avatar and the Fire Lord may cause a disturbance. Katara asks why the village is considered a small town if it is so crowded, but they quickly see that a play is going on and join the audience. Upon realizing the troupe is performing Love Amongst the Dragons, Zuko and Azula reminisce on their days of watching this same play with Mother and reenacting the final scene afterward, Zuko always being the evil Water Spirit and Azula taking the role of Dragon Emperor. They are shushed by an elderly couple in front of them, infuriating Azula, but Zuko calms her down in time to watch the final kiss scene. As the crowd disperses with the play's end, Zuko asks the couple if they recognize the name Ursa. Before they can give a full answer, the man who played the Water Spirit comes from behind and takes off his mask, introducing himself as Noren and inviting them to come to his home, where they can discuss privately. At Noren's home, his wife Noriko makes small talk with Aang and Katara about their love lives while their daughter Kiyi asks Zuko and Azula if they would like to meet her doll, to which Zuko agrees despite Azula's declination. Kiyi explains that her name was such a good one that she gave it to her doll. Zuko notes its odd haircut, which prompts Kiyi to mention how she gave it that haircut and it did not turn out well. Azula mentions how instead of cutting hair from her dolls, she cut off their heads and offers to demonstrate. Meanwhile, Noren and Noriko tell the others about Ursa, who was once a famous member of the Hira'a Acting Troupe before she was taken from the village to the Fire Nation capital on "official business". The general rumor about the town is that she married into the Royal Family. When Zuko asks about Ikem, they tell him of how he fled into Forgetful Valley after Ursa left for the capital; another rumor, they mention, is that Ursa came back years later and went into the Forgetful Valley to look for her lost love. Noren worries that, if this is true, both of those individuals may not have ended up okay, as the Forgetful Valley is not an easy place in which to live.

After leaving Noren and Noriko's home, Aang apologizes to Zuko for exploding that morning, as he does not know what Zuko must be going through. Even so, he continues, they should not continue to search for Ikem for the fact that learning his whereabouts could be a detriment to his nation. Although Aang wants to burn the letter at their next chance, Zuko reveals that he returned the letter to Azula earlier that day, promising the Avatar that the number one priority right now is to find his mother, and that finding out who he is "supposed to be" will come later. Aang does not accept this response, telling Zuko that when his citizens bow to him in the throne room, they bow to what he represents, not to just him. Sokka interrupts their conversation to tell Zuko that Katara and Azula will be fighting with their bending momentarily if something is not done. Zuko confides that there is one place left to visit: Forgetful Valley. In another flashback, Zuko and Azula are arguing on Zuko's bed. Ursa overhears them and pulls Azula aside, asking her what it is that they were in such heated discussion about. She explains that she eavesdropped on Azulon scolding Ozai in the throne room. When her father asked for Iroh's birthright so soon following Lu Ten's death, Azulon ordered Ozai to feel the pain of losing his firstborn by killing Zuko. She tells Azula to go to bed and walks off down the hall in search of her husband.

Ursa finds Ozai, who tells her that he will not refuse the Fire Lord's command lest he commit treason. Unwilling to allow the murder of her son, Ursa offers that she create a colorless, odorless poison, insinuating that it be used on Azulon so Ozai can ascend the throne and Zuko can live. He agrees to this conspiracy on one condition: that she leave the city and never return, never to see her children again. In the end, Ursa accepts these terms. After creating the poison and giving it to Ozai, she goes to Azula, who is asleep, to give her a goodbye kiss, then visits Zuko's room to do the same. However, her son wakes up and asks what is going on, prompting Ursa to tell him that she has done everything to protect him and that he must not forget who he is. After this she leaves the palace grounds forever. Back in the present, the team leaves Appa at the foot of the forest upon entering Forgetful Valley. Although there does not appear to be a path, Azula simply burns through the foliage in her way, angering her traveling companions. Aang is quickly distracted, however, by an involuntary change in his facial expression, akin to when he felt the presence of the wolf spirit. Sokka points out that the nature of the forest looks like it has faces on the trees and on a flutter bat's wings. Aang chases the flutter bat and finds a lake. Although he warns his friends to be respectful as the area is unusually spiritual, Azula erupts with fury upon seeing a reflection of her mother in the water and shoots it with lightning. Just as suddenly, a barrage of hardened flowers is thrown at the team, and Katara theorizes that they have been frozen and that someone is bending the water within the plants of the jungle to attack them. To counter their offenses, she manipulates the vines into neutral and calls them out, whoever they are. Shortly after this, an elderly woman and a mask-wearing man show themselves.

In a flashback to when she has left the palace, Ursa arrives at Hira'a and asks a young girl where Jinzuk and Rina, her parents, are located, but the girl informs her that they passed away. Noren, the man who invited Team Avatar into his home, finds her crying on the stage and after some small talk realizes she is Ursa. Instead of letting her cry alone some more, he invites her into his home as well.

In Forgetful Valley, Misu, the woman who came out of the brush, apologizes for attacking as she and her brother are not used to human visitors and were fearful that the pond was being disturbed. She also mentions how there are three pools identical to it that must also remain undisturbed. When Katara asks how two people from the Northern Water Tribe are living in a Fire Nation jungle, Misu goes into their background. When they were young, Rafa's face became horribly damaged, and no healer in the North could heal him. So, she went to the library and learned about a spirit who can give faces to anyone and anything, including her brother, and sneaked into the country with him, having had to learn offensive waterbending secretly beforehand. Ever since, she has searched without success for the spirit, with Katara agreeing she would do the same for Sokka while Zuko and Azula glance away. After this, Azula asks if they know Ursa's whereabouts, but Misu tells her everything was quiet until they arrived. She continues, although the animals and trees are exhibiting signs of the spirit's presence with the faces that appear on their bodies, they do not seem to be at the correct pool of water, as the wolf spirit has not appeared and neither has the face spirit. Aang decides to enter the Spirit World in an attempt to contact the wolf spirit and make it come to the lake by which they are seated. When Azula goes off on her own, annoyed that they are stopping to help those who are irrelevant to her cause of finding Ursa, she has another breakdown, believing her mother to have sent Rafa and Misu to slow her down. Just as she shoots a blinding ray of lightning at Misu, Aang enters the Spirit World.

In spirit form, Aang meets the flutter bat again. He tells Aang to come with him and that he will lead the Avatar to what he seeks. The two land from their flight next to the wolf spirit, who Aang tries to convince to drink at the other pool of water nearer to Rafa and Misu. He looks at his earnest facial expression for a moment and begins to run away, but Aang grabs onto his side before he can get away. Upon the ride's end, a booming voice questions Aang's decision to ride the wolf spirit like it was a "beast of burden". Aang responds with his own question of her name, to which she responds that she is the Mother of Faces.

Part Three

As Aang meets the Mother of Faces in the spirit world, Azula turns on Team Avatar, Rafa and Misu and attacks the group, only for Zuko to redirect her lightning. After realizing Azula is too dangerous and unstable to remain free, Zuko, Katara and Sokka attempt to detain her, only for Aang to reawaken and to bring the Mother of Faces to speak with them. The spirit agrees to grant them one favor, to which Misu is given the privilege of asking. Before she can ask the Mother of Faces to restore Rafa's missing face, Azula steals the opportunity from them by asking the spirit where Ursa is. The Mother of Faces then reveals that Team Avatar has already met Ursa once already, for Ursa had her face and memories changed and became Noriko, hoping to forget the horrors of her past with Ozai and to protect her children. (It is also revealed through Flashbacks that Noren is Ikem, who underwent the same change to hide from Ozai's soldiers and offered the same to Ursa to help her hide.) As Azula runs off, Zuko and Sokka chase after her, intent on stopping her from causing Ikem and Ursa any harm.

As this occurs, Aang pleads with the Mother of Faces, intent on helping Rafa and Misu, only to anger her when he goes too far. The Mother of Faces then summons the animal spirits of Forgetful Valley, trying to force them to leave the Valley. In the chaos, Rafa's mask is knocked off, revealing that Rafa's face was not disfigured but instead taken by Koh, the Face Stealer, whom the Mother of Faces, reveals to be her son. Repentant, she restores Rafa's face and agrees to help Aang repair the relationship between Ursa and her children. Arriving at Noren and Noriko's house first Sokka stands guard while Zuko goes to see Noren, Noriko and Kiyi, where he explains his true identity and Ursa's, which Noren acknowledges, revealing his identity as Ikem to Zuko in turn and Noriko's identity as Ursa, since she has had her memories altered. As Ikem explains, Azula and Sokka crash through the roof as they battle. Azula then focuses her attention on Ursa, and in her psychosis accuses her mother of trying to overpower her since she was born, to which Ursa apologizes that she must not have loved Azula enough if she had turned out so badly, bringing the former princess to the edge of tears. Zuko then intervenes and fights off Azula, and explains that he has accepted his destiny as Fire Lord, and that though he and Azula may never have a good relationship, he still loves his sister. Unable to handle the fact that someone does love her, Azula flees towards Forgetful Valley despite Zuko pleading that he wants to help her, leaving the incriminating letter with Zuko.

Aang arrives with Katara shortly after, with the Mother of Faces following close behind. When the Mother of Faces asks Ursa if she wants her memories back, Ursa agrees, and restores them as well as her original face. Though Katara also fears Azula will return, both Aang and Zuko believe that her act in leaving the letter with Zuko is the beginning of a change for the better in Azula, though Sokka vehemently disagrees. Zuko then meets with his mother, who tells him that the letter was a lie. Zuko is not Ikem's son but is indeed Ozai's son, and that Ursa wrote the letter to see if he was intercepting her letters to Ikem and as a way of spiting him for his cruel behavior. As they speak, Zuko asks his mother to tell him how it all began, to which she agrees, ending the story.

Development

DiMartino and Konietzko initially pitched The Search to Nickelodeon as a 90-minute animated movie. The channel declined, choosing to expand the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series The Legend of Korra to a full 26-episode season instead.[4] This allowed the development of The Search as a graphic novel.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Dark Horse Schedules "Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Search," CLAMP and More". Crunchyroll. 13 October 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  2. ↑ http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/21-710/Avatar-The-Last-Airbender-The-Search-part-3-TPB
  3. ↑ http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=39354
  4. ↑ "‘Avatar: The Search’ was pitched as a movie by Mike DiMartino, but Nick opted for ‘Korra’ Book 2". Hypable. 25 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.