korranews:
Aangβs Map of the World:Β early Avatar world map concept art revealed for the first time!
Today Bryan Konietzko revealed these early world of Avatar concepts on his Instagram (1, 2), showing Aangβs personal map featuring his favorite animals around the world! Thereβs a rough draft and then the version included in the famous βseries bibleβ pitched to Nickelodeon. Itβs extremely cute.
Thereβs actually a lot of cool series development stuff hidden away here too, notably:
- theΒ βEarth Nationβ in the early draft became theΒ βEarth Kingdomβ as we know it in the later one
- the Air Temples were referred to asΒ βAir Temple Southβ,Β βAir Temple Eastβ, etc. rather thanΒ βSouthern Air Templeβ etc.
- Aang still had his futuristic staff at this stage, indicating that at this point in development he was probably still from one thousand years ago rather than one hundred, from an ancient technologically-advanced civilization
- as early as this,Β βsomethingβ was hiding in the central Earth Kingdomβs West Lake, a plotline that would come to fruition in Book Two: Earth, Chapter Twelve: The Serpentβs Pass. Dat continuity.
One of the things that didnβt make it into the show can be seen just to the left of the Si Wong Desert: AangβsΒ βfavorite inchworm lives in a log here.β Bryan actually singled this one out, sayingΒ βI wish that inchworm had made it into the showβ¦πβ, and considering he foundΒ this map while packing to move to Netflixβs offices for the new live action ATLA seriesβ¦ we may just be getting that inchworm yetβ¦
Anyway, this was just really cool to see because it was always one big thing absent from the ATLA artbook, so yay! If youβre into this, we also got some early Republic City concept art a few months ago.Β πΊοΈ