Hello Avatar Fans, Airspeed Prime here with another Synopsis post. You have probably seen my post summarising every episode of Avatar The Last Airbender here and my summary of The Lost Adventures here, to add to our Avatar Story resources section this post will summarise the story of The Promise Part 1 from Dark Horse Comics which I have reviewed here. Obviously I will not be posting any scans, this post is mainly to help out those who either have not yet gotten the book yet/cannot get it or just for people looking for a basic run down.  

Avatar The Last Airbender The Promise Part 1

Published By: Dark Horse Comics Written By: Gene Luen Yang Art and Cover By: Team Gurihiru, Pencils and Inks by Sasaki, Colours By Kawano Letters By: Michael Heisler (Letterers need love two, their dark arts of Kerning and Tracking are under-appreciated !)   Setting: First part is just before the end of 321 Avatar Aang Part 1 onto just afterwards, second Part is one year on from there. Synopsis/ We start with narration from Katara, she says the narration from the start of every episode (after episode 1) and then continues on from After “Aang would save the world” , “And you know what ? I was Right” she then tells of how Aang beat Ozai and how Zuko became Fire Lord we then start our story as she says how King Kuei, Aang and Zuko promised to bring harmony back to the 4 nations. In the Earth Kings Palace in Ba Sing Se, Kuei, Aang, Zuko, Toph, Sokka and Katara look at a map showing all the Fire Nation colonies. Kuei mentions how the colonies are like a scar on the Earth Kingdom, Zuko is determined to help Aang move the people from the colonies back to the Fire Nation. Sokka give this movement it’s name – The Harmony Restoration Movement. Kuei plans an event to announce the movement, but before that Aang and friends go to the Jasmine Dragon. Aang walks out to the balcony and is followed by Katara, there they both Kiss passionately , showing how much they mean to each other, but are interrupted when Sokka comes out to ask Aang something. Sokka is shocked to see his little sister and best friend kissing, Aang is embarrassed while Katara is more annoyed with Sokka rudely interrupting them. Sokka tells Katara not to give him “Oogies” any more. The group of friends then decide to go for a rid on Appa before the ceremony starts. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Suki and Momo take a fun ride on Appa as fireworks explode to celebrate the announcement. Zuko is oddly not having fun and Aang asks him about it, Zuko reveals he went to see his father in prison and now has a favour to ask of Aang. He asks Aang to promise to kill him if he ever starts to become like his father, Ozai. Zuko explains that the world needs a safety net, just in case, and Aang as the Avatar needs to be that net. Aang does not want to agree to this as Zuko is his friend, he looks to Katara who immediately nods for her boyfriend to agree to the Promise. The Story now moves to a year later. In the Fire Nation Royal Palace, Fire Lord Zuko suddenly wakes up having heard something near him. His guards assure him that everything is fine, but Zuko, on edge reveals that in the past year there have already been 5 assassination attempts against him, suddenly the two guards are knocked out by an unseen assailant. Zuko moves to defend himself as the assassin  reveals herself, she tries to hit Zuko with her Meteor Hammer, but after a brief fight he manages to corner her and reveal her identity and why she has attacked him. The girl reveals her name is Kori and that she is the daughter of the mayor of Yu Dao, the oldest Fire Nation colony, she has attacked him because she does not want Zuko and Aang to remove her and her family from their home with the Harmony Restoration Movement. Zuko and two of his guards escort Kori back to Yu Dao, her father is delighted to see her back. Zuko reveals to Mayor Morishitta that Kori tried to kill him, he begs forgiveness. Kori then speaks up saying that the movement will just destroy Yu Dao, Zuko replies that it is only meant to bring Peace to the world. The Mayor now speaks up too, he reveals that he and his family have lived in Yu Dao for more than 100 years and they have as much right to be there as anyone. Zuko argues that as Fire Nation citizens they should live in the Fire Nation, the mayor then tells Zuko that Ozai would never let The Avatar and The Earth King bully him into such a bad decision, this mention of his father causes Zuko to remember the meeting he had with his father a year ago. We now get the second half of the meeting from 321 In response to Zuko asking where his mother is, Ozai asks for Zuko to bring him some tea and that perhaps then he could give Zuko advice on how to be a Fire Lord and perhaps Ursa will come up. Zuko goes to leave, knowing Ozai is toying with him. Ozai asks Zuko if he thinks being Fire Lord will be easy, that the pressure will change him and that only he has the advice to help him. He puts doubt in Zuko’s mind and as Zuko leaves says “You’ll be back. And I’ll be here waiting for you. SON.” knowing that these two things only he knows and Zuko wants to know will eventually bring his son back. Back in the present. Zuko furious that Morishitta brought up his father pushes him up against a wall roaring at him that “I’M NOT MY FATHER!”, Mayor Morishitta continues saying that no he is not, but that Ozai was never a coward or a traitor, Zuko is both furious and shocked to hear this. Off the coast of the Fire Nation, Aang, Sokka and Katara are helping to ferry colonials from the colonies back to the Fire Nation. Mayor Nishi reveals that many of the families in the colonies are young and have many of their roots in the Earth Kingdom, Aang focused on returning them to their home land does not really take this on board. When they arrive at the Fire Nation a soldier reveals that Zuko has withdrawn support of The Harmony Restoration Movement and that the people have to go back to the Earth Kindgom. This reveal leaves Aang and Friends Shocked. At the Beifong Metalbending Academy in the Earth Kingdom, Toph is trying to teach her distracted Students, they notice something happening down by the city gates. They figure out that something is happening in Yu Dao, then Toph hears Appa flying overhead and leaves her students to meet up with her friends. Toph uses Earthbending to launch herself from the ground on to Appa, scaring everyone on board. They are delighted to see Toph after almost a year apart, but the focus turns to Aang who is in meditation over Zuko’s sudden change of mind. Aang has connected with the Spirit of Avatar Roku about what he may have to do, remembering the Promise, Roku regrets not ending his own friends Sozin as if he did the War would never have started and Aang cannot make a similar mistake. Aang decides to talk to Zuko in Yu Dao. Appa lands outside Yu Dao and they find a mass of protesters outside led by Smellerbee, Loongshot and Sneers. They all want the Fire Nation colonies out of the Earth Kingdom. Smellerbee thinks Aang and friends are here to fight Zuko and his guards, but Aang just wants to talk. The gates are heavily guarded so Aang and Katara together glide over the gates into Yu Dao having called each other “Sweetie”. The guards demand that Aang and Katar leave saying that Zuko is allowing no one in. Aang politely asks to talk to Zuko, but the guard starts to attack Aang. Aang just defends as the other guards start attacking, his clothes are set on fire. Katara sees this and begins to fight back to defend her boyfriend, she uses Ice and Water to immobilise them. Zuko arrives and tries to stop Katara from fighting, he is hurting her arm. Aang demands he let her go as the soldiers attacked them first, Zuko does not so Aang Airbends Zuko off Katara, he firebends back. Aang begins to get angry saying that it is clear Zuko has forgotten what they fought together for and as he enters the defence mechanism Avatar State thinks it may be time to fulfil his promise, Zuko is terrified as Katara attempts to calm Aang down. She walks towards him and looks into his eyes, calming him down, Aang begins to apologise as Zuko says that they all need to calm down and talk. This makes Aang furious as that is what they came there for in the first place as Zuko realises the bad misunderstanding. Zuko then guides Aang and Katara on a tour through Yu Dao. He explains to them just how old of a colony Yu Dao is, older than Aang and that it is one of the richest cities in the world too. Katara notes that the Fire Nation are still the more wealthy in this two nation colony, Zuko counters that they are still better off than they have ever been. Aang says that him betraying the movement is just going to start another war, Zuko then reveals what changed his mind. We flash back to the second half of his confrontation with Kori and her Family. Zuko orders Morishitta be arrested, as they move in to grab him a pillar of earth shoots out of the ground between them. The pillar came from his Wife who is an Earthbender, she then reveals that Kori is an Earthbender too. She speaks up again saying that while she is an Earthbender she considers herself a Fire Nation citizen and wants to protect her people. This causes Zuko to stay in Yu Dao to learn more. We go back to the present. Zuko reveals that he changed his mind because he had forgotten about his people, and he feels as if the movement is disrespectful to The Fire Nation as a whole. Aang reminds Zuko that he did not defeat the Fire Nation, they defeated the Fire Lord. It is here we get Aang and Zuko’s sides of the argument: Zuko does not want to remove people from lives they have spent years building, while Aang believes that Harmony can only be reached once no nation occupies another. Each under pressure from one party Zuko from his people and Aang from the protesters. Katara stays out of the argument, but looks back at Kori and her multicultural family and sees an idea. She proposes that Yu Dao be an exception, before she can explain further Zuko says that all colonies should be exceptions, Aang knows that that would make peace impossible as there are just too many colonies to let that slide. They all decide that they need to talk and include King Kuei in the next discussion. Outside the gates the protesters are getting angry at why the talks are taking so long, Sokka tries to calm the crowd down, but just gets rocks thrown at him.Toph then makes a podium of earth and roars at the crowd to settle down or they will have to deal with her, they calm down and then Sokka threatens them with his boomerang, a man makes fun of it and gets a boomerang in the face for his troubles. Aang and Katara arrive back and reveal they are going to have a big discussion with King Kuei, Smellerbee is getting impatient and gives them a deadline of 3 days to get rid of the colonies or else they will sort it out themselves. Sokka, Katara, Aang and Toph leave on Appa. Aang thanks Katara for not letting him do anything rash while in the Avatar state and they hug, Sokka gets “Oogies” again and Katara gets angry at Sokka for being such an idiot about their relationship. Zuko has returned to the Fire Nation Royal Palace, Mai finds Zuko and asks why he left for Yu Dao without telling her, she tells him that she is his girlfriend and that he can tell her these things, Mai tries to calm the stressed out Zuko down and reveals that she has gotten Zuko some new bodyguards – The Kyoshi Warriors including Suki and Ty Lee. Zuko tries to sleep, but once again wakes up, he informs the Kyoshi Warriors that everything is Ok and that he is just getting some water. He actually gets some tea and goes to see Ozai again, “… I need Your Advice….FATHER” and the book ends with Ozai about to drink some tea with an evil grin on his face, things have gone exactly as he thought they would. I hope this Synopsis has been helpful, I will be doing one for Part 2 and 3 as well as every episode of Korra as they come out. Check out the Story Synopsis section of the site for summaries of other Avatar stories. http://avatarthelastairbenderonline.com/category/avatar-story-synopsis/