How Old Aang, Katara & Sokka Originally Were In Avatar (& Reasons for changes)

Aang, Katara, and Sokka were initially younger in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they aged up at Nickelodeon’s request.

Throughout the run of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang and the rest of Team Avatar were either pre-teens or teenagers, but they were supposed to be younger. The notion that Avatar: The Last Airbender is only for children since it is animated is completely false. There is a level of comprehension about a person’s role in the world and how their actions have consequences, even if they can’t comprehend them at the moment.

All of the adult themes that were present in Avatar: The Last Airbender’s story and characterizations were carried over to The Legend of Korra in the third season. It’s why so many people mistakenly believe the original series’ key characters are considerably older than they are. Given all they’d been through, they should have been in their late teens or early twenties, but instead, they were just out of high school (if they were in the real world, that is).

Aang, Katara, and Sokka were originally a little younger, according to series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series, but they were aged-up during development due to a note they received from Eric Coleman, the head of development at Nickelodeon at the time, who said they weren’t looking for coming-of-age stories. So, when the episode first aired, Aang was 10 years old, Katara was 12 years old, and Sokka was 13 years old.

Even though they were still young, Aang’s age of 12 and Katara’s age of 14 made their young love seem more plausible and acceptable than if they were 10 and 12 years old, respectively. The same can be said about the relationship between Sokka and Suki, which had plenty of adult-themed clues during the previous season. Plus, because Sokka was 16 at the time, he was able to take on a greater leadership position than he would have if he had remained 13; in that case, he wouldn’t have been any more responsible than Aang had been in season 1.

Although the characters’ ages don’t have as much of an impact on the story or their personalities in an animated series like Avatar: The Last Airbender – unlike in live-action – there’s still an acceptable reason for aging up Aang, Katara, and Sokka. It’s probable that if the writers and producers were all younger, they wouldn’t have been as open to the series’ more mature topics as they were in the final form. Finally, Nickelodeon’s proposal to make them older paid off, allowing Avatar: The Last Airbender to be a success and Legend of Korra to feature even older characters.

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