Though its final episode aired more than a dozen years ago, Nickelodeon’s beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender continues to enjoy an enduring legacy. The acclaimed animated series boasts a large, dedicated fan base, in addition to a variety of related media including a sequel series, comic books, video games, and a hotly anticipated live-action Netflix adaptation. There was a live-action film at some point, but a lot of fans are reticent to confirm its existence.
One more recent addition to the Avatar franchise has been the game Pai Sho. Already familiar to Airbender fans from its appearance in the TV series, the game has since taken on a life of its own, and is now available for real world fans to play in multiple different iterations.
Pai Sho is a previously fictional board game from the Avatar universe. Originally introduced in Season One as Uncle Iroh’s favorite pastime, the game becomes steadily more important as the series goes on. The seemingly innocuous game piece Iroh goes to great lengths to replace, a white lotus tile, becomes a recurrent motif throughout the series and, without spoiling anything for the uninitiated, plays a key role in Avatar's finale.
How ATLA's Pai Sho Evolved Into A Real Game
Though the game, as depicted in the original series, bears resemblance to several real games — namely Go, Xiangqi, Chinese Checkers, and Pai Gow, from which it likely derives its name — Pai Sho was not formalized into a proper board game until several years after Avatar’s finale. While Avatar: The Last Airbender series co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created the game for the TV show, they did not fully flesh out the concept aside from a handful of rules that directly related to specific episodes, such as Pai Sho’s use in gambling in Season Two.
As stated by The Legend of Korra director Ian Graham in a behind-the-scenes featurette for his episode “The Stakeout,” the rules of Pai Sho were eventually formalized by Nickelodeon in the form of an online game. This led to the creation of an actual rulebook, which was used internally by one of the episode storyboard artists to draw scenes revolving around the game.
Though Nickelodeon’s version of Pai Sho is no longer hosted on their website, fan interest in the game remains strong. An entire subreddit dedicated to the game, /r/paisho, was created in April 2013, followed by the International Pai Sho Association, or IPSA, in February 2017. IPSA offers several Pai Sho-related resources on its website, including official rules, video tutorials, and guides for making one’s own game set. The organization eventually hosted the first official Pai Sho tournament online.
These days, the most popular variation of Pai Sho available to fans is known as Skud Pai Sho, a fan-made amalgamation of the various versions and community-created rules that have sprung up over the years. The game can be played online or purchased as a physical set from The Garden Gate, a website dedicated to the various iterations of Pai Sho. The site is run by the creator of Skud Pai Sho, and includes information on multiple different Pai Sho-inspired games, including a link to an archive of the original Nickelodeon game.
Whether fans choose to purchase their own beautiful handmade set, play online at The Garden Gate, or simply watch Iroh play on Netflix, Pai Sho is available for Avatar: The Last Airbender fans to enjoy in a variety of iterations. Just be sure to take a look at the rulebook before giving it a go — rule bending is not an accepted practice, not even for the Avatar.
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Original source: ScreenRant.
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