Avatar the Last Airbender ripped my story off!!

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I'm so pissed right now I could break a wall with my fist but damn it I'm not to do something stupid so ill just rant here. I said years ago that I suffered a crazy injury from a car crash that messed up my body and left me weakened; I'm practically past my prime and no where near what I used to be back 2.5 years ago before the injury, let alone what I would have been by now had I never been hindered nor injured and badly setback in my martial arts dreams. The rehab and physical therapy I've been doing these several years were mental hell since the very passion and source of life for me was blocked from me, and to prevent myself from going insane I tried to use my free time left crippled and not doing martial arts to become an author; I thought hey, given how much free time I have imagine if I dedicate all of that to writing my very own story, a story that suffuses my musings of the world as well as painted by themes and ideas inspired by my own.

I immediately began writing anything that came to mind, and after years of tinkering and just experimenting with writing my story evolved and took on a life of its own, branching out from different ideas after each epiphany like spiraling fractals. After years of dedicating my mind and thinking to the creation and sustenance of this story, a story that was my masterpiece, my magnum opus, I began to feel confident in it as an expressive and very grand piece of work, a story with a compelling plot, grandiose in scale that combines the complex psychology of the players while straddling complex geopolitical themes; this story would be enlightening on multiple scales and even be meta enough to tackle the differing themes as emergent properties of the different scales the story deals with, from the individual to the family to the nation and the larger international community at large. I felt this story to be ambitious, and had hopes it would be a unique story unlike anything that's ever been seen. As I'm so engrossed in self adulating what I thought would be a breakthrough story I drift away into what I considered to be the greatest series of all time, Avatar the Last Airbender, and am truly enthralled and amazed by just how awesome this series is. As I analyze this series more I began to understand the plot of this series and how it uses an international war as a framing device to explore the different complex stories of its ensemble while making very powerful universal themes that touch upon the human condition across multiple scales, individual all the way to nation. As I'm engrossed in cogitation mulling over this masterpiece, my thoughts are made aware of a disturbing realization: Avatar the Last Airbender (which I will abbreviate as ATLA for now) is literally the same as my story and even took my story's ideas and implementation to its logical conclusion!!

Obviously I know ATLA came out in 2005 when I was little and obviously the creators never ripped my story off, but it feels so frustrating to watch ATLA and realize my groundbreaking story and themes and even subplots were done by ATLA 1st.

In my story the main cast are freedom fighters in a war against an occupying power whose wars and ambition are explicitly described using fire symbolism and motifs. Oh look, in ATLA the Fire Nation is the imperial power that is against the cast.

In my story the nations used to live together in harmony until war ravaged the world and threw the world into instability. Oh look, ATLA begins every episode with "long ago the 4 nations lived together in harmony, then everything changed when the fire nation attacked"

In my story one of the main characters named Carbano, probably the most important character in my story after the actual protagonist, had a duty as the leader of his invaded land to stop the invasion. Said character, owing to his peaceful nature and lack of strong fortitude, ran away and led to the swift takeover of his people and the occupation that sets the backdrop for my story. Hey in ATLA the last Airbender and main character Aang, owing to his peaceful upbringing as an Airbender and his intrinsic nature to run and evade rather than stand one's ground, decided to run away when he became Avatar which led to the world being plunged into war.

As a result of Carbano's cowardice he is plagued with guilt and tormented by rancor that leaves him desperate to redeem his mistake and regain his peace and sanity; as a result of what he did the entire royal family of which he is an heir to is wiped out making him the only survivor of the massacre. As a result of Aang running away as Avatar all the airbenders are wiped out making Aang the last airbender; this adds a strong component to Aang's character arc where he is tormented by the guilt that his people needed him and by running away everyone of his people was wiped out, making his character's arc about regaining his honor and rectifying the mistake that he made.

Before the invasion happened the land of Carbano was a prosperous and peaceful land untouched by war whose people were immersed into the arts, music, and the epicurean pursuits as well as the belief that conflict can be resolved without having to resort to zero sum methods but by interchangeable relations that benefit everyone. The Airbenders were a prosperous people who abhorred all manner of violence, were happy and cheerful and very play fun and free spirited.

The martial arts of Carbano's people relied on sticks and staffs not meant for killing but disarming and neutralizing, as well as a fighting style that uses the enemy's strength against himself. The Airbenders used staffs for flying as well as an evasive fighting style that involved beating the opponent by wearing him out and make him defeat himself.

Fire has a dual nature in my story, being represented as a source of vitality and life while also when taken to an extreme ambition and even destruction. ATLA goes over the nature of fire as both a life source but also potential destruction when not controlled.

My story has a secret society of wise and enlightened members of enemy nations who cling on to the true history and ideals of the ancient saints whose descendants became the differing great nations at war. In ATLA we see that there are bands of enlightened fire nation sages who adhere to the ideals of the avatar in opposition to the fire nation throne and we even have a secret society called the white lotus the transcends the division of the 4 nations and believe in taking the metaphorical fruits of all the nations for true enlightenment and balance.

There are a million other similarities and ideas almost identical that were completely by coincidence, so many more that given how long this thread is already I would be way too tedious to mention the rest. It frustrates me now because what was supposed to be my own niche idea and work come to life has already been mostly done, with even some of the important themes and writing ideas taken to their logical conclusion much better in Avatar than in my story. Now there is no point anymore in even writing this story when it's already been done by Avatar. Here I thought I can make the most out of my time out of commission due to a debilitating injury, only to find out the story I worked so hard on is just a slightly different version of ATLA.

Jesus Christ what are the actual odds of that happening by sheer coincidence, like is there any unique idea that hasn't been done before already or is every great idea taken? I don't know if I should continue with my authorial pursuits or just find a new venture, this revelation has been very trying and leaves me wondering what to do next.

Continue continue! I also have a story idea that is cliche as hell in my mind though no attempts of writing it has been made since years! Mine is about two sisters who have been sold as slaves and then the older sister sacrifices the younger for power and through hard work and questionable acts becomes one of the "nine" who are super powerful oracles that are neither good nor evil but is constantly burdened by her sacrifice of her weaker sister and has a dark past and so on..
I have no idea of the structure of the universe and other characters at all though as opposed to you lmao and am too lazy to ever start considering the details
But still, if you enjoy writing and creating a universe with all its details i don't see why you shouldn't continue, if only for your own enjoyment.

Truth be told your story seems interesting. At least to my knowledge it hasn't been done before by a 2005 Nickelodeon TV show

I find it happens quite often. I might think of a new invention and then find out that someone else has thought of the same thing. It happens so often that I tend to skip steps. If I need something new, I first search to see if someone else has invented and built it and put it up for sale. I then purchase the item without going through the hassle.

As an example, my dog has a bad habit of eating dog beds. He just tears them apart. I buy a new one and its trashed within a few minutes. Repair it and its trashed again. So I think maybe I should build a dog bed out of kevlar. I search the internet. Someone already makes it. So I order it on the spot.

I lay it down as "Great Minds Think Alike".

Great minds think alike, but lucky great minds patent their ideas before other great minds that later come upon the same idea.

Overall ATLA story, on it's basis, is not very original and been done million of times; it's on execution that the show shine on.

Every story involving waring nations and magical powers is going to greatly resemble each other. Especially of the magical/anime sort so don't let it get you down. In fact you can even go a bit further and say every GOOD story will resemble each other.

For instance.

Absconding on responsibility for the easy way out is basically Simba in the Lion King which also ripped off Hamlet.



Power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely as the saying goes. Therefor any magical power is going to come with a lot of temptation because magical powers in a fiction represent wisdom and wisdom is power -- but power corrupts.

You see this playout in Star Wars a lot with the Force and it's also a common theme in super hero plots where power just goes to the head of the wielder and they accrue all manners of vices.

There is really nothing new under the sun.



In a lot of stories it's often hubris which kills the villain so this is nothing new either.

Now what matters is putting on a unique flavor and spin to the themes you're working with.

Storytelling isn't about being clever it's about being wise and most of wisdom is merely rediscovering what others have already discovered. Hence you shouldn't worry about being clever or unique, but working with ideas and themes that are true is where the meat and fat is.