This features a list of significant characters from the animated television programs Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino.
In The Last Airbender, a fictional universe composed of four sovereign nations, the Avatar—a being who represents the bridge between the physical and the spirit worlds—alone holds the power to master all four elemental powers, but has been missing for the past 100 years. During this absence, a war started by the Fire Nation resulted in the Air Nomads' genocide, the Southern Tribes' waterbending population near extinction, and the Earth Kingdom's extensive colonization. In The Legend of Korra, set 70 years later, Republic City, the capital of the United Republic of Nations, serves as the primary setting for the repercussions of said wars, leading to events such as the Equalization movement for non-benders, Harmonic Convergence of the spirit world, civil war in the southern polar region, and the reunification of the fractured Earth Kingdom.
Character designs were originated from a series of drawings by one of the show's creators, Bryan Konietzko. The main sketch depicted a middle-aged monk with an arrow on his head and later included a flying bison as his pet. Konietzko's partner, Michael Dante DiMartino, was interested in documentaries related to the South Pole at the time. They combined these ideas and created the concept of an "air guy" and "water guys" trapped in a snowy wasteland, with "fire guys" invading them. Additionally, the writers based the characters' different bending abilities on distinct styles of martial arts.
The characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender were designed by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the co-creators of the series. The anime-styled character art was inspired by Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and FLCL (Fooly Cooly) of Gainax. The original character conception was derived from a sketch by Bryan Konietzko that depicted a middle-aged balding man with an arrow on his head. Studios such as Studio 4°C, Production I.G, and Studio Ghibli, which produced anime-styled cartoons, were also sources of inspiration.