There are thousands of years of history in Avatar: the Last Airbender prior to our introduction to the beloved animated series. The Chronicles of the Avatar series of novels looks to build upon this world by following the exploits of Avatars that came before Aang, the main protagonist of the show.
The latest book, The Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku, delves deeper into the life of Roku, Aang’s predecessor. It takes place in the period of his life when he is first selected to be the Avatar. From there, we follow his first mission in the role and learn insight about his complicated relationship with best friend and future Fire Lord, Sozin.
Randy Ribay is the author guiding Roku’s journey, and he’s perhaps best known for his YA work Patron Saints of Nothing. Recently, AIPT sat down with Ribay to discuss the new novel, including his fandom with the franchise, incorporating his culture into the world, and much more.
AIPT: You have a new book coming out entitled, The Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku. Avatar: the Last Airbender has a very passionate fanbase. Can you describe your personal connection to the franchise? Many people were introduced to it during the initial run of the animated series, but you were exposed to it a little later in your life.
Randy Ribay: I think I was finishing college when the original series came out so I never caught it when it first aired. But it was one of those things over time people whose tastes I really respected kept recommending it over and over and over again. It wasn’t streaming anywhere for a long time. I was too lazy to go out and buy the DVDs or the Blu-rays.
In 2020 when it dropped on Netflix, I finally got a chance to watch this show that everybody’s been telling me to watch. I started streaming it pretty closely after it dropped in 2020. Fell in love with it immediately. On Twitter, I had made a thread where I was reacting and analyzing each episode as I watched it because I really enjoyed the show and what it was doing with storytelling.
AIPT: Since we’re talking Avatar: the Last Airbender, which element would you want be a master of?
Ribay: I don’t know if you remember this, a few years ago, or maybe several years ago now, there was one of those personality tests going around. This is a very scientific one and compares you to all these fictional characters. It gives you this huge list to which ones you are most like based on your responses. Mine was actually Aang as my number one. At that time, I hadn’t watched it so I didn’t know anything about Aang. But all that to say, I think Air would be the one I philosophically align with the most.
AIPT: So your scientific survey was very accurate and valid?
Ribay: I think so. Definitely.
Courtesy of author.
AIPT: Can you describe how you initially came onto this project. You mentioned live Tweeting while watching the episodes. Did that go viral and the publishers find it or is it because you are an award winning author?
Ribay: It didn’t go viral but I think it made its rounds a little bit. It wasn’t until years later that they reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in continuing the series. They were familiar with my writing, my work in the YA world, and then they knew I was an Avatar fan from that thread that somebody on the team had seen. They reached out and asked if I was interested in doing it. I was like, Yeah.! This is a dream project for me.
AIPT: You mentioned they reached out to you about continuing the project. The Reckoning of Roku is the fifth installment to The Chronicles of the Avatar series, but the first four were written by F.C. Yee. How did you feel being the next writer carrying that torch. Granted, they are divided by the featured Avatar, and you’re not necessarily directly picking up where Yee left of.
Ribay: Each story is a duology. You have two books about Kyoshi. You have two books about Yangchen. Then I’m picking up with Roku so it’s not a direct continuation. But it was pretty intimidating. I read F.C. Yee’s books. I loved Kyoshi. I loved Yangchen.
I was really interested in doing something with it but also bring my own voice and my own flavor to it. I could have tried to imitate F.C. Yee, but I think the more genuine thing, the thing that’s more fun for people to read, is if I’m bringing my self to the project.
There are definitely things I learned from him in terms of world building, in terms of character, in terms of writing fight scenes. It’s pretty nerve-racking that here’s these books that so many people love and that I love. And try to write and follow in the footsteps. It’s an honor but also pretty intimidating.
AIPT: It’s understandable, right? You read his, but if they wanted Yee to continue the story, they would have asked him to write in his voice. I think they came to you for your distinct voice in YA.
Ribay: I don’t think it was a matter of them not asking F.C. Yee. I think he just wanted to step out. Take a break from it.
AIPT: Roku and other characters in the book have been introduced elsewhere, but you have the chance to fill in the details and their backstory. How did you see these characters and how did you want to convey that to the readers?
Ribay: Sometimes people will be, why are you writing that story? We already know what happens with Roku or whatever. I think writers are really interested in the how more so than the ending. We get the flashbacks of Roku and Sozen when they’re around 16, then we get glimpses of them throughout the years all the way to the end of their lives.
It’s really interesting for me to think about we know point A and we know point Z. How did they get from there to there? What happens in that gap? I’m writing a very concentrated period of time just a few months after Roku is first named as Avatar.
To me, it was really approaching this idea of Roku as somebody who is, first of all, is very very privileged. He is a nobleman. He grew up best friends to the prince of the Fire Nation. He is completely in contrast to Kyoshi, who would be the Avatar that preceded him, who grew up an orphan and poor as a servant.
I was thinking about how that would impact him to go from this life of privilege to this life of immense responsibility that maybe he didn’t want. Certainly wasn’t expecting. Trying to figure out how he deals with viewing himself as the Avatar shifting his identity from being a member of the Fire Nation. Best friends with Sozin. That was my approach with Roku.
I also gave a lot of thought to Sozin. I knew if I’m writing the story of Roku, I also need to write a story of Sozin. You can’t talk about Roku without talking about Sozin, That was a little tricky though because in the episode “The Avatar and the Fire Lord,” you get this little thing at the end from Sozin that they didn’t see each other for 12 years. I had to work around that a little bit and still figure out a way to bring him into the story and really delve into their dynamics.
For Sozin, I was thinking of this guy who suddenly lost his best friend. His friend he grew up with. He probably can’t trust a lot of people given his position that everybody wants something from him because he’s the prince. Here’s this one person that he’s really close to that he trusted, is suddenly taken away to begin his training. Thinking about Sozin as somebody who is experiencing that loss, that friendship that he relied on.
AIPT: I think you’re pretty accustomed to writing your own stories but With The Reckoning of Roku, it’s someone else’s IP so you’re playing in their sandbox. What was the collaborative process working with Paramount. Were you given a lot of freedom to pursue your story? Did they have particular beats or plots they wanted covered? Michael Dante DiMartino helped advise Yee on the earlier books. Did he do the same here?
Ribay: It was a really interesting process. The only thing they really told me was they wanted me to write about Roku. Beyond that, they left it up to me to come up with ideas. At each stage of the process, they would give me feedback on those ideas.
It starts with the story concepts. I pitched them a couple story concepts. They picked one and gave me feedback on it. I met with Mike and with Bryan (Konietzko), with the rest of the team, editor at Abrams, Paramount, Avatar Studios. They gave me feedback on that and then I went and drafted the outline. I submitted that outline, the same crew gave me feedback on that outline. I took that feedback. I revised the outline and did the same thing and then I draft it. Then I got feedback on the draft from the team.
Ideas were generally coming from me, but they were giving me feedback, thumbs up/thumbs down along the way for different things. And also sometimes supply ideas to help me fill in gaps or help me if I was struggling with something. So it was really interesting.
Usually, writing is pretty solitary. Even if you’re creating your own stuff, there still usually somebody giving you feedback along the way. If I’m writing my own book, my own story, I’m still getting feedback from an editor along the way. But it’s not usually feedback from that many people, and it’s also feedback that’s usually given toward the tail end. I do everything myself generally and then I get feedback and work on it rather than each step of the way.
It’s an interesting process to me. Also thinking about what I’m writing is a small piece in this larger world. Sometimes the feedback would be that’s a cool idea, but stay away from it because we’re working on something else that has to do with that.
Courtesy of Harry N. Abrams.
AIPT: Avatar, the Last Airbender draws heavily on Asian influences to build its world. One aspect I enjoyed in The Reckoning of Roku were the references to Filipino culture, whether if it’s in the names of things, the food. You even include the amin/mano gesture. What did it mean to you to share your culture and have it now part of the Avatar universe?
Ribay: It meant a lot. First of all, when I watched the series, you can map real world cultures onto each nation. Philippines would totally be Fire Nation because you have volcanoes and a lot of Japanese stuff so it’s probably really close to the Philippines. I always thought if the Philippines existed in this world, then they would definitely be Fire Nation.
When they were like, you are writing Roku, oh man, I want to put some Filipinos in Avatar. I want to make it canon. They were really encouraging about that too. This is my idea, I want to bring this part of myself into the story and into the world, and they were like, yeah, go for it. That makes a lot of sense to us.
I was really grateful for the opportunity to do that. Being able to work it into the story. Work it into some of the characters, some of the cultural stuff. Sprinkle in some Filipino cultural stuff in the Fire Nation in general. If you read it, I don’t say balut, but I make reference to a fertilized…
AIPT: It’s not necessarily a fertilized duck egg, but it’s something else.
Ribay: A fertilized turtle duck egg. Try to sprinkle that in there. This is a fun Easter egg so I named one of the previous Avatars in the room with the statues, I named her Avatar Zalir, and Zalir is an anagram for Rizal. Also, a lot of what the islanders are wearing are based on indigenous clothing.
AIPT: I just want to leave on this. We talked about the duality of the other stories in the line. They included two books. Following that pattern, can we expect you to return with another Roku story?
Ribay: Nothing to announce yet.
AIPT: Fair enough. If they did ask you back, what would you want to explore more now that you’ve got your hands dirty with Roku now?
Ribay: I would want to take the story to a different part of the world. This one is very concentrated on that island. One of the great things about Avatar is the world that they’ve created so I would want to go to a completely different part of the world.
Thinking about Roku, at the end of this book he’s accepted his identity as Avatar, which I think is really still the beginning of the journey, that acceptance. I am the Avatar. The interesting thing to explore from there is, you’ve accepted the Avatar.
Now, how do you be a good Avatar? How do you get to that point? When we see Roku later, he is very powerful. He hands Sozin’s ass to him on a silver platter in two seconds. How does he get to that point is still an interesting thing to explore.
Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Reckoning of Roku is out now.
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