After re-reading the graphic novel sequel "The Search" to Avatar: The Last Airbender a while ago, I noticed something off about the timeline and ages of the characters. It was a bit hard trying to put together a coherent timeline when ATLA isn't very precise about when things happen, but here's what I've gathered. I chose Aang's year of birth as year zero to compare it to all the other events.
And now we get to the observations I made:
- Sozin was apparently over 70 years old when he had his first child. That's certainly not impossible, but still quite jarring considering his imperialistic nature. Either that, or he had a whole bunch of kids before Azulon, all of whom died.
- Azulon was 55 when he had Ozai.
- Ozai and Sozin were never alive at the same time.
- Sozin spent 12 years preparing for the coming of the comet.
- Ozai is apparently in his fifties in ATLA, to which I say: good job man! Quite well preserved for his age, don't you think?
- Azulon also lived apparently for over 100 hundred years.
- This is perhaps the most jarring one: Roku died almost 70 years before his granddaughter, Ursa, was born. This is where I think the creators having Azulon be Sozin's direct son instead of grandson really messes the timeline up. That, or the Fire Nation has very strange customs about fathering children at the age of 70.
I don't know how much discussion there's to be had here, but I wanted to throw this out there. It seems the creators weren't very concerned about specific timelines, ages or years when creating the show, which makes mentioning specific ages in the comics mess the timeline up a whole bunch.
So what do you think? Did I miss something important? Do you think the creators really had an "Oops!" with the timeline and the history of the world? Have you read "The Search"? Why am i asking, of course you have.
Right?
-70 Sozin and Roku are born. This is a mere wild guess, since neither characters' ages are ever mentioned specifically. But the episode "The Avatar and the Firelord" shows that they were close to equal in age, and shared the same birthday. My guess is they couldn't have been more than a year, at the very maximum, two, apart in age.
0 Roku dies due to volcanic gases and Aang is born. The same episode shows that when Roku died, he and Sozin were both already old men. Sozin even had liver spots for crying out loud. I thought in comparison to all other events on this list, 70 was a reasonable guess about his age when he died.
5 Azulon is born. I have the library edition of "The Search", where there are notes and sketches about the characters, and it says he's eighty-five in the flashback scenes in the comic where he shows up.
12 Sozin's comet, Aang's escape and the genocide of the air nomads. This all has to have taken place within one year, considering Aang's age in the series, the war lasting for a hundred years and it not having begun when Aang escaped, and the return of the comet a hundred years later.
30 Sozin dies. I thought this was a reasonable guess, since Azula says in "The Avatar and the Firelord" that Sozin was "ancient" when he died, and 102 is pretty ancient by any standards.
60 Ozai is born. In the notes of "The Search" it says Ozai was thirty when he married Ursa (Zuko's mother).
69 Ursa is born. In the same note it says she was 21 years old when they married.
90 Ozai marries Ursa
96 Zuko is born. This was the most time I was willing to bet passed between Ozai and Ursa's marriage and the birth of their firstborn. As Azulon specifically sought Ursa out to form a strong bloodline, I don't think either Ozai or Azulon were particularly patient about having children. Plus Zuko is 16 in the series, so he couldn't have been born earlier.
97 Azula is born. Being a year younger than Zuko, this is her year of birth.
106
112 Sozin's comet and Aang's return, and the end of the 100-year war. This too takes place during one year, as Zhao says in episode 113 "The Blue Spirit": "This is the year Sozin's comet returns."
113 The Search takes place, a little over one year after the events of ATLA.
0 Roku dies due to volcanic gases and Aang is born. The same episode shows that when Roku died, he and Sozin were both already old men. Sozin even had liver spots for crying out loud. I thought in comparison to all other events on this list, 70 was a reasonable guess about his age when he died.
5 Azulon is born. I have the library edition of "The Search", where there are notes and sketches about the characters, and it says he's eighty-five in the flashback scenes in the comic where he shows up.
12 Sozin's comet, Aang's escape and the genocide of the air nomads. This all has to have taken place within one year, considering Aang's age in the series, the war lasting for a hundred years and it not having begun when Aang escaped, and the return of the comet a hundred years later.
30 Sozin dies. I thought this was a reasonable guess, since Azula says in "The Avatar and the Firelord" that Sozin was "ancient" when he died, and 102 is pretty ancient by any standards.
60 Ozai is born. In the notes of "The Search" it says Ozai was thirty when he married Ursa (Zuko's mother).
69 Ursa is born. In the same note it says she was 21 years old when they married.
90 Ozai marries Ursa
96 Zuko is born. This was the most time I was willing to bet passed between Ozai and Ursa's marriage and the birth of their firstborn. As Azulon specifically sought Ursa out to form a strong bloodline, I don't think either Ozai or Azulon were particularly patient about having children. Plus Zuko is 16 in the series, so he couldn't have been born earlier.
97 Azula is born. Being a year younger than Zuko, this is her year of birth.
106
Ursa leaves the Fire Nation in exile, and Azulon dies by the poison she concocted. This couldn't have been earlier, as she says in "The Search" that she and her love from her youth have been married for "almost five years now" in the present. Given they wandered in Forgetful valley for a while, I thought 7 years might have been a close enough guess.
112 Sozin's comet and Aang's return, and the end of the 100-year war. This too takes place during one year, as Zhao says in episode 113 "The Blue Spirit": "This is the year Sozin's comet returns."
113 The Search takes place, a little over one year after the events of ATLA.
- Sozin was apparently over 70 years old when he had his first child. That's certainly not impossible, but still quite jarring considering his imperialistic nature. Either that, or he had a whole bunch of kids before Azulon, all of whom died.
- Azulon was 55 when he had Ozai.
- Ozai and Sozin were never alive at the same time.
- Sozin spent 12 years preparing for the coming of the comet.
- Ozai is apparently in his fifties in ATLA, to which I say: good job man! Quite well preserved for his age, don't you think?
- Azulon also lived apparently for over 100 hundred years.
Ursa is only forty-three when they find her in "The Search"
- This is perhaps the most jarring one: Roku died almost 70 years before his granddaughter, Ursa, was born. This is where I think the creators having Azulon be Sozin's direct son instead of grandson really messes the timeline up. That, or the Fire Nation has very strange customs about fathering children at the age of 70.
I don't know how much discussion there's to be had here, but I wanted to throw this out there. It seems the creators weren't very concerned about specific timelines, ages or years when creating the show, which makes mentioning specific ages in the comics mess the timeline up a whole bunch.
So what do you think? Did I miss something important? Do you think the creators really had an "Oops!" with the timeline and the history of the world? Have you read "The Search"? Why am i asking, of course you have.
Right?
