The four Avatar relics

[conspiracytheorist]

Hey all,

Does anyone remember the flashback in "The Storm" where the monks are telling Aang about his destiny as the Avatar? They lay out four toys in front of him, and tell him that, "You chose them from among thousands of toys, Aang. The toys you picked were the four Avatar relics. These items belonged to Avatars past. Your own past lives." (avatarspirit.net)

Here's a link to a picture of these four toys:
screenshots.avatarspiritmedia.net/112/030.jpg

My question here is twofold:

1) If these toys are relics, that means that they are quite rare, surviving from a time long passed. If that's the case, is it unreasonable to say that each of the four nations have identical copies, to help identify the next Avatar whenever he or she is born into their respective nation, or are the Air Nomads the only nation in possession of these relics?

2) Would replicas of these toys even fulfill the purpose that they did for Aang? Did Aang simply choose them because they looked familiar? Or are there bits and pieces of his past lives still clinging to these relics?

Just wanted to hear some opinions here.

[SpiritWolf]

I would think that the relics are passed from nation to nation so they can identify the new avatar. I suppose they could have replicas but the item wouldn't have any connection to the avatar. The new avatar chooses the toys because they belonged to him/her in a past life.

[attonbitus]

My guess is that the relics are still in the vault of the southern air temple. I mean they FN didn't get in and wreck all the avatar statues and I bet the monks would have kept them there.

I would guess relics would work just as well since the chances of a little kid breaking them would still be pretty high.

[Darryl]

Hmm...
I know how we can find the next Avatar..

Take someone who looks like Ta Min / Katara / Umi.
Place that girl infront of every boy in the water tribe.
But..maybe all the boys would like that girl..

Either that, or if the next Avatar is born into a girl's body,
Or born into a swamp-bender...

..We're screwed

[gryphonz]

Dunno about how they managed to preserve the relics, but I think it's been mentioned before that

Turtle - Water
Pinwheel - Air
Monkey - Earth
Drum - Fire

[watergirl]

I think each of the Nations have there own relics.

[zooxy]

I say these toys will fulfill the purpose that they did for Aangy.And Aangy din't simply choose them because they familiar. And there are bits and pieces of his past lives still clinging to these toys.
P.S if they could be found Aangy could turn into past Air Avatars!!!!
And if you havn't seen "Avatar day" Aangy turned into Kyoshi so we know its not impossible.
P.S.S ing makes me

watergirl said:

I think each of the Nations have there own relics.

I agree with you watergirl. ;D ;D

double post edited

[writer]

Don't double post


Most of the his has been said but avatar relics could have been replicated.

[kiffer]

I always assumed that they were just toy versions of the relics... But, that doesnt seem a very good way to tell if a child is the new avatar... Maybe if every avatar had a strange birth mark in the same place... Or something... Or came out of the womb glowing like in the avatar state for a few seconds... But choosing toys? Uh... Whatever...

[nandireya]

The different nations probably also have different ways of identifying the Avatar.

[attonbitus]

The relic id thing is actually a take on how the Tibetan monks identify the next Dali Lama

[Cyt37]

gryphonz said:

Dunno about how they managed to preserve the relics, but I think it's been mentioned before that

Turtle - Water
Pinwheel - Air
Monkey - Earth
Drum - Fire

I think that
Monkey - Fire
Drum - Earth

You have a great theory here.

[Alleluia]

Maybe those are just the relics of the Airbender Avatars? Though the pinwheel is clearly air themed, the drum also has the airbending symbol on it, albeit in fire-ish colors. The turtle and the monkey? Got no idea.

Could be turtle=water tribes and monkey(hogmonkey???)=eath kingdom. Or possibly, its a nod to mythology about the turtle that carries the universe on its back and the monkey king.

Or the past airbending avatars have always been as nuts over animals as Aang has. *shrugs* lol