The Promise: The Omnibus (Parts 1-3)

The Promise is a 2012 graphic novel that directly follows the events of the acclaimed animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. This book is a collaboration between Gene Luen Yang, a graphic novelist best known for 2006’s American Born Chinese, the two creators of the Avatar series, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and Gurihiru, a distinguished Japanese illustration studio. In it, Avatar Aang and his friends set out to heal the world in the aftermath of the Hundred Year War but are faced with many sociopolitical challenges while trying to do so. The Promise was originally published as three separate issues, all released in 2012, and was subsequently compiled into one compendium in 2013.

This guide refers to the 2013 hardcover edition of the text, with annotations by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, graphic violence, and death. In particular, the text deals with issues of colonialism, cultural appropriation, and genocide.

Plot Summary

Following Aang’s defeat of Fire Lord Ozai and the subsequent end of the Hundred Year War, Zuko becomes the new Fire Lord. Together with the Earth King Kuei, Team Avatar (Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Suki, and Toph) begins creating a plan to restore harmony to the world. Kuei is concerned about the Fire Nation colonies that remain in the Earth Kingdom, comparing them to a painful scar. Zuko agrees to order Fire Nation citizens to leave the colonies as part of what the group calls the “Harmony Restoration Movement.” Later, when celebrating the end of the war, Zuko asks Aang to promise that he will kill him if he ever becomes as evil as his father. Aang is hesitant to agree to such a request, since Zuko is his friend, but eventually makes the promise.

A year later, the Harmony Restoration Movement is underway, and Zuko has received lots of political backlash from Fire Nation citizens for his participation in it. He has survived five assassination attempts and grows more and more paranoid about his safety. One night at the royal palace, another would-be assassin ambushes him, Kori Morishita, the daughter of the mayor of Yu Dao, the oldest Fire Nation Colony in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko goes to Yu Dao to confront the mayor about his daughter’s assassination attempt. Once there, however, he learns that the Fire Nation colonials, who have lived in Yu Dao for generations, feel betrayed by his order that all Fire Nation citizens must leave the Earth Kingdom. The Morishita family is comprised of both Fire and Earth benders, and they are culturally distinct from those who live in the Fire Nation mainland. Without consulting Aang or Kuei, Zuko summarily withdraws his support for the Harmony Restoration Movement.

When they learn of Zuko’s policy reversal, the rest of Team Avatar feel shocked and betrayed. Aang becomes worried that he will have to fulfill the promise he made to Zuko, convinced that Zuko would only change his mind about the Harmony Restoration Movement if he was becoming evil and power hungry like his father Ozai. They meet Zuko in Yu Dao, where he tells them that he thinks it would be wrong to evict Fire Nation citizens from Yu Dao, since they are integrated members of the community and do not know another home. Aang disagrees with Zuko but flies back to the Earth King’s palace to try to arrange a meeting between the two leaders.

Zuko and Aang share a dream in which they look down from a cliff upon a battle between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation armies. Standing behind them are the spirits of Avatar Roku and Zuko’s father Ozai; Ozai urges Zuko to embrace total power, and Roku urges Aang to fulfill the promise and kill Zuko. Feeling lost, Zuko tells Aang to kill him, but just as Aang is about to do it, Zuko sees the spirit of his mother, Ursa, standing behind Roku. The dream ends abruptly before anything else can happen.

Meanwhile, the Earth King decides that he will send his army to Yu Dao to forcibly remove the Fire Nation colonists, even though Aang and Katara urge him to consider a peaceful solution first. Afraid for the safety of Yu Dao’s residents, Aang and Katara fly to the city to warn firebenders of the fast-approaching danger. A force led by Kori, called the Yu Dao Resistance, insists on staying and fighting the Earth Army and asks for Aang’s help. Zuko prepares to send his army to defend the Fire Nation residents of Yu Dao.

Sokka and Toph are escorted to Yu Dao by Suki, and there, they discover Zuko and his army marching toward the outer walls. The Freedom Fighters and the Earth King’s army also arrive outside the city. Despite Aang’s attempts to convince everyone to seek a peaceful solution, a battle ensues. Katara pulls Aang aside and tells him that he needs to consider what permanently separating the four nations would mean for their relationship. Aang uses earthbending to build himself a small fort and begins meditating.

In the spirit world, Aang meets with Avatar Roku, who remains insistent that Aang should keep his promise and kill Zuko. He reveals to Aang that Zuko is his great-grandson and that offering this advice is painful to him, but he knows that the well-being of the world must be prioritized over his family’s well-being. Roku concludes that Aang needs to “contemplate the world” (200). Meanwhile, Katara notices that the Earth King is hiding from the battle by floating above it in a war balloon. She goes up to meet him there and convinces him that he needs to stop hiding and see how his decisions affect everyday people. Aang breaks free of his earthen fort in the avatar state and grabs Zuko from the battle. Katara drags the Earth King to meet them within the city.

Aang tells the Earth King that he has contemplated the world and realized that it has fundamentally changed since the start of the war. Zuko is shocked as he realizes that he might have been right and that Aang doesn’t plan to kill him. He collapses in exhaustion. Later, Aang returns for a final conversation with Roku, which concludes with him permanently destroying their spiritual connection. Inside the Jade Dragon, Aang and Zuko reconcile, and Zuko apologizes to Aang for asking him to make the promise. They both agree that Yu Dao cannot remain Fire Nation territory, but its multicultural state should be preserved. Iroh suggests that Zuko’s vision of Ursa in his shared dream with Aang might be a hint as to how to solve some of Zuko’s problems. Zuko sets out to find her. Aang begins training his fan club in Air Nomad culture and philosophy, renaming them the Air Acolytes.