Kyoshi (character)
# Kyoshi (character)

Kyoshi is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and the protagonist of the novels The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by Jennifer Hale in the original series as well as in the sequel series, The Legend Of Korra. In addition to this, Yvonne Chapman will portray the character in the upcoming Netflix live-action adaptation of the same name.

Kyoshi was the earthbender Avatar two generations before Aang, who is the protagonist of the original series. She is considered the largest Avatar in height and the longest-living human in the Avatar universe, dying at the age of 230. She was not recognized as the Avatar until the age of 16, instead her friend Yun was crowned the Avatar. When the truth came out, Kyoshi faced foes such as Earth Kingdom ruler Jianzhu, Chin the Conqueror and dark spirit Father Glowworm, who possessed her old friend Yun. After her death, Kyoshi continued to appear as a spirit to help guide future Avatars Aang and Korra.

## Appearances

### The Rise of Kyoshi (2019)

At the age of six, Kyoshi was left by her parents on the streets of Yokoya. A year later, Kyoshi came across Jianzhu and airbender Kelsang. Determined to find the next Avatar after Avatar Kuruk, Kelsang asked Kyoshi if she would like to take part in a test to see if she was the Avatar. Believing this was a lie, Kyoshi stole a toy once belonging to a previous Avatar and ran, leading to the pair falsely identifying an Earth Kingdom boy, named Yun, as the Avatar. Kelsang continually visited Kyoshi in Yagoda, eventually getting her a job at the Avatar's mansion, eventually becoming friends with Yun and his bodyguard, Rangi. On a mission to the South Pole, Kyoshi saves Yun using the Avatar State, leaving the identity of the Avatar a mystery. Jianzhu took Kyoshi and Yun to meet with dark spirit Father Glowworm, who determines Kyoshi is the Avatar. Determined to train a perfect Avatar, Jianzhu leaves Yun to die at the hands of Father Glowworm and murders Kelsang in front of Kyoshi. Using the Avatar State, Kyoshi returns to the mansion, where she and Rangi escape into the inner Earth Kingdom.

Kyoshi and Rangi join the Flying Opera Company, a group of outlaws that use a disguise as a theater troupe to commit their crimes. The company is revealed to have been started by Kyoshi's parents, Hark and Jesa, and when Kyoshi reveals herself as the Avatar, the remaining four members of the group agree to teach her the four elements. Infamous assassin Lao Ge teaches her in spirituality, Rangi teaches her firebending, Kirima teaches her waterbending, and Wong and Lek teach her earthbending. During one of the group's crimes, Lao Ge tells Kyoshi to kill corrupt governor Te Sihung. Kyoshi refuses to go ahead with the act, instead threatening him into becoming a better officer. The Flying Opera Company accidentally releases one of Te's prisoners, deranged rebel leader Xu Ping An. Challenging him to a lei tai duel, Kyoshi enters the Avatar State and kills Xu. In the aftermath of the duel, Jianzhu finds Kyoshi and attacks the company, kidnapping Rangi and inadvertently killing Lek. Kyoshi confronts Jianzhu in Qinchao Village where the two engage in a duel. Although evenly matched at first, Yun reappears and kills Jianzhu before leaving. Kyoshi flees the town and the company split up so that Kyoshi and Rangi can announce Kyoshi is the Avatar to the world, starting with the Southern Air Temple.

### The Shadow of Kyoshi (2020)

Kyoshi learns that Jianzhu left all of his lands and wealth to her in the case of his death. After revealing her true identity to the Air Nomads, Kyoshi begins her Avatar duties, using her manipulation and bending abilities to root out corruption in the Earth Kingdom. Kyoshi and Rangi begin to date, and an airbender Jinpa is assigned to her, by the Southern Air Temple Council of Elders, to be her personal secretary. Kyoshi begins to hate performing Avatar duties, due to her using tactics she learnt from Jianzhu. Kyoshi travelled to the Fire Nation to meet with Chancellor Dairin, but during a festival in the nation, Yun arrives and assassinates Lu Beifong. Kyoshi eventually figures out Yun has been possessed by Father Glowworm. Hei-Ran, Rangi's mother, advises Kyoshi to seek out Nyahitha, an old friend of Avatar Kuruk who was aware of his quest to hunt down dark spirits. Kyoshi and Rangi meet with Nyahitha in North Chung-Ling, who tells Kyoshi that he cannot help find Yun but can help Kyoshi communicate with Kuruk. Seeing a battle break out between two Fire Nation clans, Kyoshi tries to intervene, but realizes the battle is just a distraction to stop her from saving Hei-Ran from Yun. Hei-Ran is badly injured in the battle and Yun escapes.

Kyoshi discovers Yun is working with the Saowon clan, now owned by Lady Huazo. Kyoshi then makes a plan to force a confession from Huazo and kidnaps her before she was due to depart Shuhon Island. Kyoshi interrogates Huazo and nearly kills her, but after receiving a vision from Kuruk, she lets Huazo go. When Kyoshi returns to the palace, a copy of Yun arrives and confesses he was working with the Saowon clan. In exchange for finding and arresting the real Yun, Kyoshi demand the Saowon clan and the copy of Yun be spared from death. After nearly drowning in sea water, Kyoshi meets with Kuruk and learns about his past and how his life was cut short in his quest to free the world from dark spirits. After spending a month learning healing martial arts, Kyoshi, Rangi and the rest of the Flying Opera Company confront Yun in the Avatar mansion, where Kyoshi uses waterbending to freeze Yun's heart and blood, killing him.

Kyoshi and Rangi hold a funeral for Yun in Yakoya. At that moment, Kyoshi is led by a fox to a forest spring, where she meets the spirit of Avatar Yangchen who explains her own shortcomings and tells Kyoshi what she did was the right thing, as every Avatar has to make the decisions right for them. The fox then becomes Kyoshi's animal guide. Kyoshi continued to perform her Avatar duties with not much popularity due to her friends being criminals and her stance of homosexuality. She did not hide her bisexuality, and helped train young women how to fight and protect themselves. This group eventually became the Kyoshi warriors.

### Avatar: The Last Airbender

**Book Two: Earth (2006)**

When Avatar Roku is explaining to Aang what the Avatar State is, Aang sees a vision of Kyoshi entering the Avatar State and moving two large lion turtle statues with earthbending.

In the episode "Avatar Day", Aang is arrested for crimes Kyoshi is accused of doing when she was alive, in particularly murdering the leader of Chin Village, named Chin. On the day of Aang's trial, Kyoshi manifests herself into Aang's body and admits she killed Chin as he was attempting to conquer the entire Earth Kingdom ruthlessly. She also explains how she used her bending to separate a block of land from Chin Village, which eventually became Kyoshi Island.

**Book Three: Fire (2007-2008)**

Kyoshi appears during the four-part series finale to counsel Aang on whether he should kill Firelord Ozai. Kyoshi recalls how she was forced to take action and kill Chin the Conqueror, and advises Aang to act swiftly claiming that "only justice will bring peace around." Aang then mutters to himself that he knew she should not have asked Kyoshi.

### The Legend of Korra

**Book One: Air (2012)**

By the beginning of the series, Republic City is a prominent city in the Avatar world. The main bridge in the city is called 'Kyoshi Bridge' named after Kyoshi. Kyoshi's spirit appears alongside the other Avatars when Aang uses energybending to give Korra her bending back in the season 1 finale.

**Book Two: Spirits (2013)**

When Avatar Korra loses her memory after being attacked by a dark spirit, Kyoshi, alongside Aang, Roku and Kuruk, tries to get Korra who remember who she is by sending her to the original Avatar, Wan. In the penultimate episode of the season, Unalaq, fused with the dark spirit Vaatu, severs Korra's connection to her past lives and destroys Kyoshi's spirit along with the rest of the Avatars. Even after Korra reconnects with light spirit Raava, she confirms she still cannot connect with the previous Avatars.

### In other media

**Games**

Kyoshi appears in the video game Escape from the Spirit World, which is canon to the events of the Avatar universe. In the game, after Aang has been struck by lightning, he visits Kyoshi in the spirit world, who apologizes for her actions in Chin Village and tells Aang how after she killed Chin, the people started to throw riots and protests against the current Earth King. In order to maintain peace in the Earth Kingdom, Kyoshi established an elite group of earthbenders named the Dai Li. Aang recognizes this name as the group responsible for brainwashing people in Ba Sing Se during his visit there. Kyoshi explains that all actions have consequences, whether positive or negative.

**Graphic novels**

Kyoshi appears as a spirit in the graphic novel Suki, Alone, which is considered canon to the events of the Avatar universe. Taking place between "Appa's Lost Days" and "The Boiling Rock", Kyoshi appears to Suki while she is imprisoned and tells her not to give up hope as her friends had not abandoned her before vanishing.

## Creation and conception

In a concept piece for the episode, Kyoshi was originally meant to stand after Kuruk, which would have made her a waterbending Avatar rather than an earthbending one. In an interview from 2019, creator Michael Dante DiMartino said he always knew Kyoshi was bisexual, and they decided to include that detail in The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars and later in The Rise of Kyoshi.

### Bending the elements

As the Avatar, Kyoshi is capable of bending all all four elements (earth, fire, air and water), however in the original show she is only seen bending earth and air. In The Rise of Kyoshi, Kyoshi had trouble bending small quantities of earth and only learned to bend fire, air and water after venturing into the Avatar State for the first time.

* Earthbending: Kyoshi's native element based on the Chinese martial art Hung Ga and is the element of substance. During her youth, Kyoshi was only able to bend large amounts of earth and lacked precision with her bending. After her training with the Flying Opera Company, Kyoshi was able to control her earthbending, while still maintaining her raw strength. Kyoshi eventually went on to bend dust and glass.
* Firebending: Taught to Kyoshi by Rangi, this element is based of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and Xing Yi Quan and is the element of power. Kyoshi was talented at firebending, her first firebending move being the breath of fire after Jianzhu left Yun for dead.
* Airbending: This element is based of Baguazhang and is the element of freedom. It uses negative jing compared to earthbending which uses neutral jing. This makes the two elements opposites. Despite not having a master to learn from, Kyoshi eventually mastered airbending and used it for fight several Fire Nation guards in The Shadow of Kyoshi.
* Waterbending: Taught to Kyoshi by Kirima, this element is based of Tai chi and is the element of change. Kyoshi has displayed raw strength with waterbending when she froze Lady Huazo's ship in a giant tidal wave, or when she froze the heart and blood of her enemies. Kyoshi can also heal people using water, as well as slow every process in the body down as well to heal.
