Cultural Inspirations in Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 3 - Fire

greetings subjects have you ever shaved probably three years off your lifespan analyzing the teeny tiny details of a whole 61 episode show that's me that's me with this avatar dissection series but you know what it was fun and i learned plenty of stuff while going down research rabbit holes so again if you haven't seen my dissection of the previous two seasons please go watch them first if you can't be bothered please at least keep in mind that this video isn't meant to be a definitive guide to every single thing that inspired avatar but a fun scavenger hunt done from this perspective of a single chinese person which means the potential references i talk in detail about will also skew chinese unless i explicitly mentioned that an inspiration was cited in an official source like the avatar art book or nickelodeon's avatar extras or it's just painfully obvious the rest are strictly speculations now i'm happy to announce that this video is sponsored by surfsharkvpn if you've ever been to china then you know that you basically can't live without a vpn if you still want to access western websites like twitter instagram or even google vpns are short for virtual private networks and surfshark is one available as a desktop program browser extension or mobile app to give you a virtual ip so you can place your computer or phone as if you're somewhere else in the world this lets you access content you normally can't see because of knowing to your restrictions like if you see a youtube video that's blocked for you because this uploader has not made this video available in your country no problem just change your ip so you're somewhere else instead the reason i took this sponsorship is actually because i myself was direly in need of a good vpn and i wanted the discount for some reason i'm not sure if i got ip banned by china or something but i recently found myself unable to access a whole bunch of chinese websites like baidu which is like chinese google and laughter which is like chinese tumblr and since i frequently use those sites to look up chinese information and fan art by chinese fandoms i was pretty stressed out but then i got my surf shark discount code and i used it and all i had to do was click a button to switch my ife somewhere else and i could access those sites again and since i'm still not sure what brought these website blockages on for me and i'm paranoid i'm also using surfshark because it just encrypts your data automatically no government will be able to find my ip that easily again surf shark accounts can be used on unlimited devices so i've been using it on both my computer and my phone and it's been working out great and you can use my code too ciao to get 83 off plus three extra months for free and they have a 30-day money-back policy so there's really no harm in trying it out i'll put the link in the description below anyway let's begin book 3 episode 1 the awakening which refers to aang finally waking up weeks after getting hit by zula's lightning the gang is now hiding out on a captured fire nation ship zuko has gotten his honor back and returned to his position as crown prince the earth king set off alone i'm very concerned for his safety you know when the fire nation has taken his whole kingdom and knows he's alive and therefore will be still looking for him but at least he has bosco with him aang feels like he failed everyone at basting say so now it's him who wants to get his honor back he sneaks out alone to try and defeat ozai right away i guess meanwhile we get our first official look at ozai's face he congratulates zuko for supposedly killing aang which turns out to be a scheme by azula to avoid being blamed if aang is found out to have survived after all because she doesn't need any more honor anyway she's out here playing 3d pie show aang himself gets caught in a storm as he always seems to get when he makes an impulsive decision to change his entire destiny roku gives him a pep talk and princess yue helps calm the ocean then aang washes up on fire temple island and his friends find him he makes peace with pretending to be dead to give him a better chance at surprise during the invasion which anyway episode 2 the headband the episode inspired by footloose the gang finally gets the idea to steal some local clothes in order to blend in and so we get our season 3 designs of course everyone is still committed to staying as on brand as possible however aang doesn't realize he stole a school uniform and thus he gets forcibly brought to school according to avatar extras miss quan here has been teaching for over 40 years and one of her students was vacher the archer in the rough rhinos she looks good for being at least 60. also according to avatar extras aang is wearing the school uniform belt upside down to resemble his arrow and also this fire nation salute is supposed to look like a flame when i went to school in china you were expected to respect your teachers a lot and bow collectively before every class and from what i've heard about school in other asian countries they're pretty strict there too here this type of large bell that you strike by pushing a suspended wooden beam is frequently found outside buddhist temples also according to avatar extras anji is named after a member of the avatar staff anji and that the fire nation oath was commissioned a hundred years ago by sozen and is called the march to civilization those of you americans should recognize this as a blatant reference to the pledge of allegiance do you really have to recite that at school so creepy i think i've mentioned in my book one video how much i loved this world building moment it gave insight to how the fire nation spreads propaganda to its own citizens after all nobody wants to think that they're the baddies i think no country is entirely honest in other textbooks states writes sticks tries to do what here the two students on the left are playing more encores or horse head fiddles a mongolian instrument they sound really nice i highly recommend mongolian music especially mongolian metal bands like hangai and the who listen to it and you will no longer feel bad about getting conquered by them 700 years ago oh and i don't remember if i mentioned this but the tsungi isn't a real instrument it's an avatar original avatar extras say the dance katara and aang do in the cave is based on bhagwajang and northern xiaoling so the inspirations for airbending and firebanding and capoeira a brazilian martial art and dance combo this is one of the few moments where katara is actually looking at aang with desire this is what happens when you stop shaving your head bald but it doesn't stop me from being in denial like aang akatara ever had sex katara waterbed that sperm anyway while the dance party is hopefully having a positive influence on the fire nation kids zuko is angsting again he has gotten everything he's always wanted yet he remains confused so he goes to lash out at uncle iro it makes uncle iro very sad unfortunately the venting session is not very effective zuko ends up hiring sparky sparky boom man i mean combustion man to assassinate aang according to the art book combustion man's third eye is based on the hindu god of destruction shiva's third eye interesting fact but there's also a chinese god arlang shin with a third eye that's similar to this a lot of chinese gods have hindu influences actually i personally categorize the chinese pantheon as pre-buddhist gods which are come from indigenous chinese roots and post-buddhist gods which have a lot of buddhists and a hindu influence then it's episode 3 the painted lady avatar extras say saka's master schedule is the actual avatar production schedule shrunken down this kind of traditional fishing raft pushed by one long pole is pretty common in asia especially in tourist spots i think it may be called a sampan and this type of village built right on the water is pretty common in southeast asia here it's clearly a joke but i don't think the gang actually has the means to track time by minutes i think the fire nation might be on that tech level considering they have tanks and warships but everyone else is probably still keeping time by like the position of the sun or sticks of incense or water clocks this type of veil that katara is wearing is probably based on a chinese wei mao or a ikimegasa the japanese version they're both veil hats used by travelers to protect their faces from exposure it was especially popular for noble women to use when going out so strangers don't see their faces and i helped them avoid getting tanned it pops up a lot in wuxia media because it makes you look cool so that's probably where the avatar staff got the inspiration from and here is and gleefully destroying the factory polluting the village's river one thing i really noticed during this re-watch is that the writers put a lot of effort into showing that every nation has its good and bad the fire nation seems powerful on the outside but its commoners are actually suffering under its rapid industrialization i also really liked how they solved the problem this episode the moment they destroyed that factory the industrialists were obviously gonna punish the village for it but pretending to be the painted lady instead of outright showing themselves and using their bending made sure that the industrialists would stay away even after the gang leaves it's too bad the real painting lady doesn't seem to have any special powers to protect the village now episode 4 saka's master in which saga has his crisis about being the only non-bender in the gang which is understandable and surprising that it took season 3 for an episode like this ideally his sword training should have been a several season thing instead of a several days thing but oh katara herself only trained under paku for several days too the gang takes saka shopping to cheer him up during which she tests out several classic chinese weapons most of which i have described in my book one video but here he's using nunchucks or shranjia they're so famous that i don't think i actually need to explain them but they're a classic chinese weapon too not japanese despite its english name this is this is just a maze i tried looking it up but i couldn't find an actual weapon that looks exactly like this post in the comments if you know and this is a sai a traditional weapon from okinawa though apparently it might have evolved from the trishulas of south asia here the artbook says this armor design comes from their frustration of being asked over and over to put ang and armor for the avatar toy line i'm a fan of ultraman and transformers and yu-gi-oh and let me tell you toy companies really can dictate whole aspects of these franchises why am i into that many glorified toy commercials anyway avatar extras say these door knockers were designed after lion turtles also check out the hint of the white lotus on the doors piano is modeled after sifu kisu the martial art consultant for avatar piano itself is supposedly a type of chinese sword but it's kind of sus because i can only find information on it in english not any chinese sources what he's using to write calligraphy though is accurate to how it's traditionally done in east asia instead of a whole pot of ink you use a solid ink stone to grind out ink in a shallow pan of water the ink has a very distinct smell i remember once when i was in a biochem lab the ta kept warning us that this particular chemical i don't remember the name of it but he kept warning us that it smelled really bad turns out it smelled exactly like calligraphy ink so instead of being disgusted all those chinese students were like anyway the robes piendao and saka are wearing are called changshan or chong pao which is a kind of clothing that developed during the qing dynasty which we've seen a lot in boston say actually so this is yet another reminder to not make blanket correlations like the fire nation is japan because it has plenty of influences that aren't japanese the fire nation is not japan this concept that you should also pursue arts if you want to be a good swordsman is probably derived from the fact that swordsmanship is considered a very gentlemanly art in ancient china calligraphy landscape painting and rock gardening are all also considered stuff done by refined gentlemen too saka didn't quite excel in them in the traditional way but you know what he's here to win a war not be a gentleman also the art book says that the fire nation's volcanic landscape is more heavily inspired by iceland not japan the waterfall here is modeled after the golfos waterfall specifically finally saka graduates from his crash course with a new meteor sword and piano also leaves the gang a white lotus tile wonder if that's gonna be significant later meanwhile this is the episode where uncle ira reveals that he's been secretly working out and has gotten ripped he's in prison and he pulled this off what's your excuse mine is that my crippling depression leaves me with no energy for intense physical activity then it's episode 5 the beach according to avatar extras this volcano where aang accidentally gave away the fact that he's alive and almost got killed by combustion man was based on the volcanic crater viti in iceland meanwhile the real made of the episode is the fire nation teen villain squad being forced to take a vacation avatar exorc says the sport they're playing here isn't actually beach volleyball but an avatar original sport called quai ball modeled after the southeast asian sports sepek takraw which is like volleyball but you're not allowed to use your hands kwai also means fast in mandarin so it's basically fastball avatar extras also confirmed that this chan is the son of admiral chan the one mentioned in the season's first episode you know the one the gang was pretending to be operating under but turns out that he was actually on vacation he's also named after avatar writer mae chan after the party starts zuko shows off his crippling insecurity while zula makes a surprising apology to tai lee admitting that she's jealous that tylee can get boys attention so easily don't be jealous of zula any girl could stand outside and catch a dude's eye easier than catching a cold it's the quality of the dude that counts azula proves my point by ending up kissing chan after just a little bit of flirting and chan proves my point by being unable to handle her ambitions of world domination throw the whole man out azula next finally azula's squad has a deep heart to heart on the beach where they discuss their traumatic backstories zuko is the one who makes the biggest breakthrough as he realizes that he's still angry and that the person he's most angry at is actually himself the squad decides to let off steam by doing what they do best destroying chan's house and then they lived happily ever after until episode 6 the avatar and the fire lord another solstice comes and roku decides that this is the time to make ang find out about his lifelong drama with sozen avatar extras say roku's island is inspired by krakatoa in indonesia meanwhile zuko gets a mysterious letter telling him he needs to know how his great grandfather died because it will reveal his destiny bonus points that this letter is actually written vertically from right to left the traditional way that chinese is written this hidden message actually reads the secret history by the fire nation sages is hidden inside the dragonbone catacombs turns out roku and susan were once best friends and sozen even gave his crown prince headpiece to roku before roku left for his avatar training the headpiece was depicted pretty accurately as a symbol of elite status it fits over a top knot and then you secure it with a twen a long pin in ancient china boys had their coming of age ceremony at 20 and part of the ceremony involved tying all their hair up into a top knot for the first time and putting on one of these head pieces though that might only be for elites because commoners are supposed to just wrap their top knots in a cloth anyway that's this trivia these rules obviously don't apply in the avatar universe because sozen has all his hair up and he's only 16. during roku's wedding his bride tai min is wearing a ceremonial korean hairstyle meant for queens royal concubines and high-ranking court ladies if you've watched the korean historical drama you know what i'm talking about susan pulls roku aside and tries to convince roku to join him in taking over the world susan's justification for this has strong parallels to imperial japan and world war ii japan invaded other asian countries to create a so-called great east asian coast prosperity sphere they claimed that they just wanted to share their prosperity with the rest of asia but what they really did was a lot of resource pillaging and some of the worst human atrocities ever committed you should look it up if you don't know what i'm talking about but i'm warning you that it's very very dark in the west there's of course a lot of focus on the european front of world war ii but the asian front and the pacific theater were honestly just as intense if not more so because of the sheer number of casualties anyway roku realizes susan is up to no good but doesn't do much beyond giving him a stern warning then 25 years later the volcano near roku's home erupts and sozen leaves him to die so he can go commit the arabender genocide zuko is baffled that zozin's story ends here so he goes to ira for more answers ira reveals that roku is the real great grandfather of zuko's that his note was talking about meaning zuko is descended from both roku and sozen both great good and great evil iro also reveals that he has the crown prince head piece with him somehow did sosen dig through the ashes of oroku's village to get it back that is very petty also uncle where did you hide that headpiece to have been able to bring it into jail anyway episode 7 the runaway featuring a recurrence of the personality conflict between toff and kotara i like that it took more than one season to resolve that's realistic the specific conflict this episode is tough scamming scammers with her earthbending these roadside merchants who sometimes try to scam you are still pretty common in modern asia depending on the region of course but it's just good to learn how to say no to aggressive solicitors if you go to asia i'm bad at it so i just pretend i don't speak mandarin and i say oh katara is extremely concerned when she finds out about the scammer scamming but hold on pull the receipts who is it that said in season one that it's okay to steal if you're stealing from pirates katara except toff does go further than scamming scammers she comes up with her own scam pretending to get hit by carriages now in china we call this type of scam meaning to bump porcelain it comes from the late qing dynasty when people would pretend to be carrying an expensive vase in a busy street but of course the vase is fake and secretly made fragile beforehand then they would deliberately let a carriage run into them and break the vase then demand compensation from the carriage rider since it's more often than not a rich person in the carriage and it's easier to just pay up than deal with the angry yelling the scammer tends to get the money in modern day this has evolved into people pretending to get hit by a car or deliberately letting a car rear end them and then demanding damages they often will have an accomplice like saka to draw attention to the situation so the driver will be tempted to just pay the money and get away before a whole judgmental crowd gathers but this type of scam is so well known now that you could also make the crowd switch sides by saying no this term also applies in situations where an elderly person will fake fall and then when you go and help them up they grab you and insist you made them fall in the first place so you have to compensate them unfortunately this does happen so when you're in a country without universal healthcare of course you should lend a helping hand whenever it's needed but also take precautions so you don't get posted have your phone in your hand and start recording before you land that helping hand or something anyway toff's wanted poster says wanted fugitive authorities are offering a 1 000 gold piece reward for the capture of a 12 year old girl who pretends to be blind although she is small in stature she is extremely dangerous any information reported will be rewarded so the poster doesn't actually say they nicknamed her the runaway it just says she's a wanted fugitive the way the gang keeps forgetting that toff is blind i actually like this detail because it's pretty realistic this show never tips toes around the fact that toff is blind it lets the other characters make mistakes around her without ending up all overly apologetic as sadly she's the one who has to reassure them even though they were the ones who made the mistake which really goes to show that they treat her no differently than anyone else instead of some fragile glass flower i once heard someone argue toff isn't really disabled and i was like what you mean is that you think she's not incompetent because you equate disability with incompetence in your head which is not what you should do just because she's the greatest earthbender in the world it doesn't mean her blindness isn't still there and it doesn't still affect her after saka and toff have a touching heart to heart that's overheard by katara katara decides to pull one ultimate scam with toff to collect the bounty over top's head except it turns out that the prison is made of wood see this will not be a problem if the show had used the chinese five element system still kotara bends them out with her own sweat foreshadowing the advanced water bending in the next episode a tof defeats combustion man with a pebble foreshadowing his um explosive death in the end top decides to send her parents a letter but you know they never did explain how messenger hawks work like how do they know where to fly anyway episode 8 the puppet master also known as the episode that i cannot believe got aired on nickelodeon because man it is so dark the artbook says the mountain above hamas village was based on iceland's queen mountain fitting avatar extras say komodo sausages are made from komodo rhino meat and served at fire nation picnics and sporting events interesting five flavor soup is possibly inspired by chinese five spice a combination of five or more spices that's usually ground into a powder so you can use instantly in a dish this ship in hama's flashback if you didn't realize is the one and katara explored at the beginning of season one this episode is truly one of my favorites because the dynamic between hama and katara is so good the fire nation raids destroyed so much of katara's culture especially to deal with water bending and hama is the one person who can reconnect her and ensure that this part of their heritage won't die out you can really feel the hope that hama gives katara but unfortunately whoever hama originally was that person is long gone i don't understand why the fire nation even bothered to keep the water benders alive to do experiments honestly being held captive like this is worse than death and hama was apparently in that cage for at least 20 years no wonder she completely lost it which is a shame because if she had kept her sanity she could have been a huge help against the actual fire nation army instead of blindly taking her rage out on random villagers it still doesn't sit right with me that she got thrown back into a fire nation prison at the end though i mean she was severely abused and deprived by the fire nation for decades and she's clearly mentally ill from it too bad they don't have the concept of mental hospitals in this world anyway hama leaves katara devastated that she was forced to learn blood bending to win against hama but give it a month qatar will be using it like she was born with it then it's episode nine nightmares and daydreams also known as the most relatable episode to every student heading into final season the exams in four days this okay this is obviously a goku reference and ozai seems to be an ox king reference not the dragon ball z version but the original journey to the west version this pelican that zuko uses is carried in a really weird way usually it's easier to bear the beams on your shoulder instead of lifting it in your arms not sure if mistake or unintentional this aang look is based on vash the stampede he also naruto runs toward ozai but fun fact naruto is far from the first anime to do this type of running way back in the 80s saint sayo was doing it aang's dreams are super realistic to the kind you get about school after you leave school i've graduated for a year now and i still have recurring nightmares about missing a final exam or somehow forgetting about a class i took until the very end of the term and by what i've read online i am not the only one this is super common i swear school just collectively traumatizes us all this advice from aang is actually very valid though don't go into battle with your hair up for grabbing kids i know look i told you guys this was the most relatable episode i once had a three hour math final and a three after chem final on the same day and i was so stressed that i could not fall asleep i was i stretched myself through three sleeping pills then i went to take the exams and i swear by the time i moved on to the three-hour chem final i felt like i could read minds i did pass those courses barely anyway this is obviously inspired by hot yoga which apparently originated in japan in the 70s i have never done it and i have no desire to try i cannot stand hot environments even canada is too hot for me and this is inspired by back pounding like i don't actually know how prevalent this is across cultures but in chinese culture pounding someone's back with your fists is considered a massage kids do it for their parents and students do it for their mentors it was the only legal way i could take my anger out on my parents when i was younger the art book says this samurai momo look is inspired by miyamoto sagi while guru petit's six-armed form seems to be a reference to saraswati the hindu goddess of knowledge music art speech and learning he's holding aveena a classical indian instrument and this aang look it has a very old chinese period drama feel but i can't pinpoint a specific reference same with ozai's look in the same dream in the end unlike me before my exams aang does manage to get some sleep before episodes 10 of 11 the day of the black sun walmart la monji i mean haru has made an extremely poor fashion choice since we last saw him i pity the guys who think mustaches look good on them when they don't fun fact peanut oil can be processed into glycerol which can be then used to make nitroglycerin an ingredient in dynamite hence why the machinist tried this this guard ming is voiced by serena williams she's a big fan of the show but is she really a big fan of iro because she gave him white jt to drink that's the poisonous one the one that makes the good tea is the white dragon bush i think the staff themselves got it mixed up the writing here says the first nation royal map which is a way of saying the best nation royal map but it sounds strangely colloquial here and this one says world map this one says map of the entire nation's land and sea territories capital island map since eclipses move along a path the creators have pointed out that the eclipsed omashu actually happens at a different time than the one at the fire nation capital since they're so far apart according to the art book this asymmetrical aang outfit is inspired by shaolin monks famous last words by aang here then he went for the smooch and katara didn't hate it avatar extras say this beach landing was inspired by normandy too bad and like d-day they did not succeed still toff basically carried the gang to getting so close we are forever glad you joined the cast too toff unfortunately ozai successfully waits out the eclipse in a hidden chamber though zuko uses the opportunity to confront him and finally break free from needing his approval it's interesting that zukul and ira both say at some point that taking ozai down is the avatar's destiny not theirs even though they'd be perfectly capable of fighting him i think it's because only by having their leader defeated by the avatar can the militaristic side of the fire nation realize that what they're doing is wrong and against the world order instead of a sharing of greatness with the invasion ending up a failure the adults decide to turn themselves in so the kids can escape on appa it's a bold move i mean haven't they heard how horrible the fire nation prisons are hama was just a few episodes ago but the kids do escape with zoko trailing them and then it's episode 12 the western air temple you know appa is probably also tired from wearing all that armor the western air temple is one of my favorite settings in avatar and i'm pretty sure it is for like most people and the artbook says it was influenced by bhutanese monasteries if you don't know where bhutan is it's a small nation in the himalayas the avatar extras further say that these buildings were built upside down to harness the power of wind and that the nomads here used to hold world renowned pie show tournaments i wonder how the other contestants got here though zuko demonstrates how lucky he was to have been born royalty so he never has to apply for a job and sit through an interview saka complains about how the sucking on frozen frogs incident gave him a wartime that little dangly thing that swing in the back of my throat my head game is fireball zuko tries to join the gang but keeps messing up and getting rejected before a combustion man finds the gang and attacks them damn he's dedicated to his job the fire nation should have just hired him from the beginning the dvd commentary apparently says he kept trying to kill aang despite zuko telling him no because he wanted ozai's favor saka ends up hitting him in the third eye and making him explode himself is this the ultimate fate of all combustion benders anyway after seeing how zuko almost died trying to save him and that he truly understands how harmful fire can be to wield aang decides to take him on as a fire bending teacher the others come to terms with it too except katara oh boy especially not katara we stand her resolved though and on to episode 13 the fire bending masters turns out zuko is having bending dysfunction it's okay zuko it happens to everyone and it's not a big deal avatar extras say this episode was loosely inspired by indiana jones and that sun warrior architecture was inspired by mayan and aztec ruins but i see a little bit of southeast asian stupa influence in there too which would be a closer connection to inspiration for the modern fire nation and these statues again remind me of buddhist temple guardian statues and here's an explicit indiana jones reference i'm super confused by this glue though why glue how would it get dissolved later so the room can return to normal why won't you just immerse the egg and glue in the first place so no one can ever get to it the sun warriors looks are pretty heavily inspired by aztec and mayan people too ran and xiaomi ignite and burn in mandarin and this sequence my god gives me chills every time the sunset the way zuko and aang move with the dragons the way they end up in the dragon ball z fusion pose it's all just so great and i found it especially powerful that the ultimate knowledge to fire bending wasn't transmitted via words but beautiful visions this explains why iro couldn't enlighten zuko even though he saw the same thing because you really have to see it for yourself to understand it and so ang comes to terms with its fire bending and next up is episodes 14 and 15 the boiling rock which was of course inspired by alcatraz once an island prison near san francisco that was the most notorious prison in america it was operational for 29 years until it had to shut down in 1963 because the logistics of shipping supplies to the island over and over was was just too expensive now that zuko has chilled out with the whole honor thing everyone else is trying to regain it you know the funniest thing about this iconic my first girlfriend turned into the moon exchange is that zuko was there when it happened so this isn't him being like okay but him being like oh yeah man yeah that was rough fun fact the warden is voiced by wade williams who played the warden in the first season of prison break saka's first plan is to drift across the boiling lake in the cooler i feel like the toughest part of this plan should have been figuring out how to get the cooler out of the prison building they don't show how that was managed saka is forced to make a decision between leaving now or waiting to see if his dad shows up in the next shipment of prisoners he chooses to wait which is good because i'm pretty sure the cooler would have sank with all of them in it even if chitsang didn't mess up then hokota shows up after all along with a guy who is for some reason not trusted to wear a shirt may also shows up specifically to confront zuko for the sin of breaking up with someone via text zuko this guard saka swindles is the only one conscious of pandemic i mean prison protocols unfortunately his resolve does not persist then azula and tai lee show up and have a straight up amazing battle with the gang but i find it really funny that the prison staff were willing to cut the line while azula was still gliding on it she'd be a better hostage than the warden the one who saves the day ends up being may because she loves zuko more than she fears azula and ty lee clearly loves may more than azula because she betrays her too honestly if it weren't for these betrayals i think zircon and katara would have had a much harder time defeating azula because azula was raised with the mindset that as long as she has enough power she has the right to have anything she wants but her squad betraying her for those she sees as weaker clearly contradicts that and it broke her finally hakoda has a touching reunion with saka and katara and then it's episode 16 the southern raiders another hardcore qatar episode azulla has found the gang and attacks them forcing them to split up because the animators are too tired to animate so many characters in the main character squad despite zuko falling into place with everyone else katara understandably holds a grudge against him since she was the one personally portrayed by him once before and he really did play a big part in the fall of bossing say but when katara blames him for the death of her mother too he realizes that she is projecting her trauma onto him and he decides that the only way to resolve this is to help her resolve her lack of closure and they do with blood bending involved i do have one question though who is the snitch that said there was one last waterbender left in the south no matter what in the end qatar realizes that she can't bring herself to murder her mother's killer after all and he's probably more miserable alive anyway then we're going into the m night shyamalan the last airbender movie i mean episode 17 the ember island players this poster says the boy on the iceberg the famous earth kingdom playwright poo on tim's new work has collected information regarding the avatar from around the world from the icebergs of the south pole to the earth kingdom capital the information came from nomad singers pirates prisoners of war and vegetable merchants starring the ember island players and the playwright's portrait i know exactly which portrait it was withdrawn from tangol zhong the second husband of wuzutiyan the only female emperor in chinese history it's literally his emperor portrait redrawn with a goofier expression so i guess wizard hand's husband wrote this play speaking of wuzatin my book cover has dropped look at it it was designed by terry nimmen and illustrated by ashley mckenzie please go follow ashley on instagram and twitter she is so talented as for my book itself you can go to ironwiddle.com to find the pre-order links keep your receipt and you'll be able to show it to redeem exclusive pre-order gifts while my publisher and i decide on what they'll be but there will for sure be annotations detailing the book's historical and cultural influences so watch out for an announcement regarding pre-order gifts also if you've already pre-ordered on amazon please double check to see that you've ordered the format you want there was an issue with the hardcover version not showing up so make sure that you didn't pre-order the kindle version while what you really want is a physical copy imagine this cover on a physical copy anyway the place poster doesn't actually say surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage just vegetable merchant then the plaque here says ember island theater the art book says having an actress play aang is them roasting how most other animated shows with the young boys have women voicing them in fact nickelodeon wanted them to cast a woman at first but they insisted on casting an actual preteen boy for him here the actress playing the giant spirit monster by wearing a monster suit while everything else is miniaturized is possibly a reference to tokusatsu which is japanese for special filming but usually refers to the genre of stuff like godzilla ultraman and kamen rider the illusion of giantness is indeed created by actors of rubber suits stomping around miniature sets toff being played by a buff dude is a reference to her original design which is a buff earthbender dude i very much appreciate how the writers changed it having katara be the only girl in the group the whole time would have been too much then okay pretty sure they're making fun of the ship wars here zutara shippers specifically because these are common zutara arguments to be honest when i was little i was anti-zoutara because i was like you guys just want them to be together because they look good together but during this rewatch i caught a lot more zutara moments that made me understand the ship and i found out that katang is also not as iffy as i remembered either but if this was the episode that was supposed to convert you to katang it failed miserably actually this is the one episode that gave me the impression that ang was pressuring her if some guy had this balcony conversation with me i'd leave right then and there i mean he really said he would have gone into the avatar state over what a caricature of katara did that's like being mad about someone cheating on you in a dream i am firmly on qatar's side in this in the middle of a war is not the time to start a relationship this is why i believe the ending should have been open-ended nobody gets together it's left a mystery they're all so young anyway fun facts azula mae and ty lee are making a charlie's angel pose actor zuko is voiced by dante bosco's brother derek bosco and actress yue is voiced by suki's voice actor jenny kwan the play ends with ozai winning the war and thus the fire nation audience rejoices while the aang is left shook they decided to forget about it the way we forgot about the movie that we forgot about now at last onto the four-part finale somehow during all this time zuko never urged aang to practice harder by mentioning how ozai planned to activate the rumbling i mean scorched the whole earth kingdom zuko aang rushes to cram more last minute training in but has trouble coming to terms with how he's expected to kill ozai then at night he's drawn away by hypnotic chanting noises meanwhile ozai passes the fire lord title to azula and very dramatically unveils his new self-created title of phoenix king complete with pyrotechnics i have to say a plus presentation you're terrible ozai but you have good taste this title change reminds me of what the first emperor of china did after he conquered the seven warring states he was like now that i have conquered the world i feel like king isn't a fancy enough title for me anymore you guys got any ideas on what i should call myself instead well none of his officials had any suggestions he was happy with he was then like all right so in our legends we have the sun huang di three emperors and five sovereigns right so what if i took the huang and the d and put them together into a new title huangdi and so the emperor title that will be used for the rule over china for the next two thousand years was born he was called the first emperor despite there being people like the yellow emperor before him because the titles are different in chinese it's just translation confusion anyway while aang is wandering on the lion turtle his friends find the hot bounty hunter jun who can't track aang but manages to track down uncle iron near passing say emotional zukul ira reunion ensues i swear this line about him not being angry only sad because he was afraid that zuko had lost his way it stuck with me for years we would all be better people if we were more like uncle iron zuko asks airo to defeat ozai but iro self-aware that he was also complacent in the war some might even call him a war criminal thinks that it's not the right thing to do he wants aang to defeat ozai and zuko to become the new fire lord instead on aang's end he seeks advice from his past reincarnations but none of them give him the solution he wants he's very distraught until the lying turtle enlightens him meanwhile sozen's comet has begun meaning the gang has to fight the fire nation at literally the highest difficulty setting though the fire nation is pretty ambitious trying to scorch a whole continent with just 15 airships and also ozai standing right there on the helm of the ship wide open a very strong wind could end this whole show one episode early toff then once again carries the mission quickly taking control of an airship's control room then saka dumps out the entire crew by telling them to gather because it's someone's birthday i can't believe you remembered meanwhile azula is growing increasingly paranoid and shutting everyone out of her life because mei and tylee betrayed her i really think them doing that broke her mind because she now has no idea how to truly keep people by her side and loyal to her she used to think that her overwhelming strength could bind anyone but their actions proved otherwise they really shattered her world view though i have to say i don't like how the show connected this to actual mental illness by making her hallucinate i'm just not a fan of mentally ill villains in general mentally ill people are demonized enough and we should work to break that association why not have more mentally ill heroes who aren't violent anyway meanwhile the badass grandpas of the order of the white lotus are taking back fasting sick i believe this is where uncle ira's character arc in the show truly concluded from being complicit and war on genocide in book 1 to being passive in book 2 to actively redeeming his past war crimes at book 3 by chasing out his own countrymen out of the city he once besieged it's been a journey meanwhile ozai has started the scorching but aang has arrived to stop him ozai tries to intimidate this 12-year-old child by showing off his abs but aang is undeterred and thus their epic battle begins the fight happens in the forest of stone pillars that remind me of the mountains of zhangjiajie where james cameron's avatar took heavy inspiration from but i'm not sure if it's a direct reference eventually ozai gets the upper hand because he senses that aang is unwilling to kill him meanwhile the saddest death in the series happens as saga and toff tumble after crashing one airship into the rest of the fleet the space sword we hardly knew it as soon as season if we had more time then tsuki saved saka and top so it's all good on the other end ozai pushes aang to the brink only to accidentally shove his lightning scar against the jagged point and unlock his thought chakra this aim regains the avatar state and demonstrates why you shouldn't leave long articles of hair available for the grabbing during battles now ozai is about to lose to a child and even bends all four elements at the same time just to flex on another end zukul and azula have their very faded and very epic agnikai though azula cheats by targeting katara katara then takes on azula and uses a drain to cleverly subdue her defeated at last the only thing left for azula to do is cry bank on ang's side he moves to kill ozai but still can't deal the final blow he decides to try energy bending to take ozei's bending instead even though it could consume him in return and almost does but he succeeds in the end therefore proving that it is possible to win while sticking to his people's philosophy i didn't get this for the longest time but this is truly the most poetic thing about how this conflict ended if aang had to have killed ozai despite his air nomad beliefs he will be proving that ozai's fascist might above all philosophy is the only one that's actually useful but winning with his air nomad ways he has demonstrated to ozai and the world that no my culture and my beliefs are not useless and not weak and did not deserve to get wiped out i'm so proud of him if i had to critique anything about this fight though is that i wish aang hadn't blocked his chakra through his own will instead of by a coincidental collision with a rock something stirred up inside him as ozai taunted his people you know given more of an emotional oomph but the fight was still breathtaking and as susan's comet passes the hundred year war ends at last finally the gang reunites in the fire nation capital where zuku is about to be crowned the new fire lord mae arrives to help him dress and man it's funny because she's the one who ends up breaking up with him in the sequel comics yeah sorry guys they don't stay together and she's not the mother of azumi but aang and zuko dressed in their respective fanciest getups announced the end of the war to what appears to be fire nation nobles and freed war prisoners then we go to an epilogue type scene where everyone has gathered in arrows tea shop they're finally having fun and relaxing and then aang and katara go outside into the beautiful sunset and kiss each other and thus the end man that was alright truly one of the most incredible shows ever made even be watching this for like the sixth time and at a much older age i never felt like i couldn't take it seriously or that it's somehow possible to outgrow it's so confident in its ambitiousness you know what i mean it's so dedicated to the details even though most people watching probably won't even notice re-watching specifically with an eye at the background stuff made me especially appreciative of the thought that the staff had put in i feel like the type of media that i gravitate to the most are those technically made for children so it's very fun and imaginative but it doesn't talk down to its audience or shy away from complex themes avatar nailed this balance stunningly and so that brings us to the end of this discussion series man how long did it even take me it's april now god i don't even want to remember if i uploaded the first one to december or of january where did the time go whatever i managed to finish without dying so thank you for watching and i hope you learned something new if you want to see more videos from me like a deep dive on kung fu panda or mulan 2 please consider supporting me on patreon or tipping me on kofi on patreon you'll get updates about where i am with the videos instead of just waiting in the void and you can suggest and vote on future topics and you can join my discord server if you're of a certain tier shout out to my guardian lions benji sudoken do it out of spite felix chaplin and uriah's a also known as zazzle finally once again this video was sponsored by surfsharkvpn which you can try out with the link in the description sponsorships help creators keep making content so therefore see you next time

Channel: Xiran Jay Zhao

Views: 213,331

Rating: 4.9893498 out of 5

Keywords: avatar, ATLA, avatar the last airbender, zuko, toph, aang, katara, sokka

Id: 2v4Yn1h1Eks

Length: 43min 35sec (2615 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BasiliaChopin]

Seeing her in this sub is kind of amazeballz.

[u/Aerik]

I remember having to recite the pledge of allegience every morning in school. Through 4th grade, but after that. Actually my original elementary school was demolished and rebuilt bigger to incorporate students from another elementary school that was decomissioned for... reasons. So 5th and 6th grade were in a new school. Never did the pledge again.

[u/Dopesim]

Great. Same as all her videos so far.