Avatar: Here’s Why Aang Decided To Freeze Himself!

Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is finally here, and we on Fiction Horizon are going to be covering the series, explaining all the changes from the original animated series, as well as some crucial story elements that you might be wondering about. The live-action series did a great job of adapting some of the most memorable moments from the animated series, and in this article, we are going to discuss one of these moments: the one when Aang froze himself and Appa. How and why did he do it? Keep reading to find out what exactly happened to the young boy!

Aang froze himself after unconsciously activating the Avatar State

The story of this article doesn’t actually begin with Aang, but rather with Sozin. Sozin was a formidable Firebender and the ruler of the Fire Nation. Even though he held a lot of power, Sozin desired more. Namely, as Iroh theorized, Sozin was jealous of the Avatar’s powers. He understood that he would – regardless of how strong he became – never be as strong and as influential as the Avatar. This created a great deal of negative emotions. Knowing that he would never become an Avatar himself, Sozin tried to increase his authority in a different way: by forcibly unifying the Four Nations under his despotic rule.

At the same time as his plans became apparent, the Air Nomads discussed revealing the truth about the Avatar. Namely, the young Aang was identified as the next Avatar, but due to his age, the Air Nomads did not reveal the truth to him at the time. But, as the threat of Sozin became real, they decided that he had to be told the truth, so that he could go train and stop Sozin. His master decided to reveal the truth to him, but Aang did not take the news very well, as he realized that he would have to leave both his home, as well as his master.

That same night, moments before the Fire Nation launched their attack on the Air Nomads, Aang had a moment with Appa, his flying bison, where he told it that he did not want all that responsibility and that he simply wanted to be a normal boy and live a normal life. Deciding that he would be himself to the end, he and Appa ran away from their home while Sozin’s forces committed the genocide of the Air Nomads.

Aang and Appa survived the genocide, but they almost lost their lives nevertheless. Namely, as they were escaping, they were caught up in a major storm and crashlanded into the water below them. They would have drowned, both of them, but at that moment, Aang unconsciously activated the Avatar state and, not knowing what exactly he was doing, froze himself and Appa in the water. This saved their lives, as they would have drowned otherwise and it also explains why Aang froze himself and Appa in the series.

He was freed and defrosted a century later

So, what actually happened to Aang and Appa later? Okay, sure, they managed to escape death by drowning, but being frozen in ice doesn’t seem to be a much better alternative, does it? Well, in this case, it wasn’t just a better alternative, it actually saved Aang’s and Appa’s life, both from the storm and from the Fire Nation. Namely, Sozin thought that he had gotten all the Air Nomads, and Aang was also considered to be dead for a whole century when something strange happened.

Namely, a century later, after many things had changed, the siblings Katara and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe found Aang’s and Appa’s frozen bodies in the iceberg, and they finally freed them after a century of being frozen. Due to the ice freezing time, the two of them did not age a second, so Aang was still his 12-year-old self when he was freed from the ice. And that’s about it, as far as the ice-related story is concerned. We have told you what happened and why Aang actually froze himself and Appa in the series, as well as when and how he was freed.

And the rest is history. From that moment on, Aang began his training to become the Avatar and was finally able to bring peace to the world, even if only for a short while, thus earning his place in history.

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