Overanalyzing Avatar: Zuko Alone

right off the bat the jingle for this episode is a twist on the fire nation theme instead of the usual booming notes the last two are replaced with higher pitched ones that end in an upward inflection it's kind of the same upward inflection a sentence that ends in a question has which is appropriate this whole episode centers around zuko reckoning with his past and reckoning with the questions that the fire nation has left him with okay i want to take the time to talk about this the illusion of time having passed zuko only left iro two episodes ago now but last episode the blind bandit we didn't see any zuko or iro at all which means in the viewer's mind an indeterminate amount of time has passed which eases us into the fact that zuko is on the road and nearly starving at this point remember back in game of thrones when journeys would take multiple episodes to complete like the night's watch going up north to take the fight to the wildlings that took three or four episodes for them just to really get anywhere but we are also keeping up with them every episode on the other hand in season 4 of the same show davos floats the idea of going to braavos literally across the ocean to stannis then we don't see them for the next episode but then the following episode they're arriving in braavos a trip that should have taken weeks by boat but the viewer doesn't really mind because we've spent time away from the characters time has passed for us since we've seen them so naturally in our heads time has passed for them as well that's why in later seasons of game of thrones it felt so weird when characters seemingly started teleporting around from place to place and ignoring the time travel takes avatar uses the same principle here zuko was here and now he's here we don't know how or why but we accept it because all of this was in between then and now all right i've rambled enough i just think that's a really cool technique i've always thought of this bridge as some kind of symbolism something as simple as a bridge an easy path for crossing the ravine still has a challenge for zuko the world is still fighting him at every pass his path literally falls out from under him a lot like a search for the avatar has so they're cooking this meat right but they're holding it up off the fire with twigs how are these twigs catching fire exactly [Music] this is strong moment too up to this point this episode not a single word has been spoken but the story is already being told obviously zuko is nearly delirious from exhaustion thirst and hunger to the point where he'll gladly fight and steal other people's food but no amount of his own pain would make him cross this line i really love wordless character moments where the writers really just let the actions speak for themselves come on spider snake eyes spider snake eyes eh i guess that means he wants either two ones or two fours how many legs you reckon those things have never mind turns out spider snakes have 10 eyes just do the classic calculation of adding both animals eyes counts together yeah that's how they usually do it that's why turtle ducks have four eyes also i want to talk about this the illusion of egg being wiped off this guy's head time in this shot this guy has egg in his head but a few cuts later he does not you see in game of thrones i'm gonna have to talk about this at some point so this episode obviously has its influences from classic western movies like countless clint eastwood films and especially the movie shane from the 60s it's a classic formula a hard quiet man with a mysterious past rolls into a small frontier town and after wanting to stay out of the conflict things are made personal when somebody's close to was threatened and he solves it the only way he knows how to with violence the writers really wear these influences on their sleeves and it's really cool that they can fit this kind of quiet personal story into such a fantastical world i'll take you to my house and feed your ostrich horse for you how do you eat this is why i said inconclusive evidence of normal pig shear this thing down boom that looks like a proper normal pig no way to tell [Music] you a friend of lee's wait whoa whoa wait what the [ __ ] this thing has six limbs four legs and two wings this is the closest related thing we ever see with sky bison you're a friend of lee's there's a million lays weird continuity on lee's dad having his hand on lee's shoulder he doesn't hear but then in the very next shot he does stuff like that isn't the biggest deal but it still makes things feel a little choppy does this guy have a name i'm uh this is really funny zukul already has a cover name he's been using which is lee but lee's dad just mentioned that his son's name was lee suzuku was like [ __ ] uh i can't say lee cause that'd be pretty weird supper's going to be ready soon would you like to stay i can't i should be moving on gansu could use some help on the barn why don't you two work for a while and then we'll eat this is like an extremely socially aware and socially adept play from lee's mom right she really put together that zuko would be all right with eating if he worked for it in that same vein though i love that zuko won't eat unless he works for it he refuses to be given anything he'll steal and take but he won't be handed anything his pride is still too strong for that and like he said in the north pole i've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong it's made me who i am man zuko was not a natural born roofer what's this nine bent nails for one shingle i know we previously lived as a prince and i guess arrow didn't see the need to teach zuko any roofing while they were out on the high seas still though i feel like a smart guy like zuko could probably put it together a little better than this in these shots it seems like there's a little pond over here but if i'm gonna believe these shots of the conversation they just had this pawn is right where the house should be sitting so this kid's teeth continuity is even worse than gyanzo's in some scenes his only two teeth are nearly at the corners of his mouth but here they're pretty close to the middle anyway i have a theory that he actually never grows his teeth back in and that he's in a time loop and he actually grows up to be the hipaa hey mom wanna see how azula feeds turtle ducks oh my god for some reason i always thought zuko just threw like a loaf of bread at this turtle duck probably because ursa just fed one but no that's like a proper rock dude of course though because it's this episode we can read into even a small action like that zuko has been living with his father favoring azula for years at this point so it makes sense that somewhere in the back of his young mind that acting more like azula will make him better and probably gain him more love from his father but he would naturally want to test these actions out in a safer place with his mom and thankfully she tells him to cut that [ __ ] out now that's what moms are like if you mess with their babies they're gonna invite you back i know i'm not the first one to point this out but this little scene exactly mirrors the entire zuko backstory in this episode azulan and ozai threaten zuko's life so ursa the mother turtle duck bites them back can you make zuko play with us we need equal teams to play a game i am not cartwheeling they were actually doing cartwheels into backward handsprings [ __ ] ty lee did a double back flip off of it that's highly technical zuko you under-appreciating ass i got half a mind to come over we are brother and sister it's important for us to spend time together don't you think so mom i really hate cute younger but still creepily manipulative azula i gotta go take a shower try to knock the apple off the other person's head like this [Music] i like that in this shot you can actually see the apples start to blacken around the top they didn't really have to do that but they did it see i told you it would work so wait azula saw may blush and in that instance she thought i'm gonna monitor mom and i'm making zuko play with us then i'm gonna put an apple on may's head then i'm gonna light that apple on fire and then zuko will naturally [ __ ] linebacker tackle me into the fountain and fall on top of her i mean it's a classic strategy everyone knows that one i can't believe you fell for it honestly if the city is as magnificent as its wall passing say must be something to behold i hope you all may see it someday if we don't burn it to the ground first cool to see a younger and clearly much different uncle ira i feel like this kind of primes the viewer for some heavy [ __ ] about to go down that's not the uncle arrow we know and love so clearly something has to go deeply wrong to change them that much and when something like that happens it's usually an entire family that's affected this is an interesting little detail though zuko gets a knife and azula gets a doll iron this time period is different for sure but is he so different that he doesn't know azula would hate this gift maybe but also maybe it's some kind of his wisdom through these gifts i always took it as if he sent zuko a knife because you know he's a little soft and he's gotta toughen up if he's gonna make it in this family on the complete other hand ira probably noticed that azula's a little psychopath in the making and maybe she could stand to be more of a child than she is azula described him like this his royal tea loving kookiness so he's not a completely different man and i really feel that's what he's going for you're holding them all wrong [Music] keep in mind these are dual swords two halves of a single weapon don't think of them as separate because they're not they're just two different parts of the same hole oh god okay there's so much symbolism the swords have zuko's face and divide his scarred and unscarred halves that are two halves of his hole whether he likes it or not zuka was still ruled by that day and is filled with rage and hatred because of it but we followed him we've seen the other side his goodness that perseveres through it all no matter how much he wants to be heartless like azula his unscared half is still there don't think of them as separate because they're not they're just two different parts of the same hole it's a full moon it can't be a full moon every time guys okay this could technically be taking place on the same day that the blind bandit did fine but that's still like four episodes in a row of the full moon do these guys only do things once a month just thought someone ought to tell you your son's battalion got captured you boys hear what the fire nation did with their last group of earth kingdom prisoners dress them up in fire nation uniforms and put them on the front line unarmed way i heard it now that's a proper war crime are those people still talking about how ira was a war criminal man if this is true you gotta get whoever ordered that and put his head on the spike not ira why bother rooting around in the mud with these pigs just for a split second here we get to actually see zuko and azula having fun together it's nice to see that azula wasn't a total monster back then even though this episode would really have you believe that i love this [ __ ] dude up until now zuko's flashbacks aren't really connected to the overall story it just so happens he's thinking about these past events but now this event lines up with his cousin dying he's among a family who may have just lost a son for good so it makes this flashback hit all the harder for not just him but the audience too this family is the stand-in for his family or maybe what he wished his family was and lieutenant is lee's big brother and my dad goes will you stay no i need to move on here i want you to have this and this even speaks how zuko sees his own troubles in this random earth kingdom family now he sees himself in lee he wants to fill that role that uncle ira was trying to fill by sending him that knife he wants lee to be strong in the face of this hardship just like zuko had to be strong in the face of his own hardships in zuko's eyes he probably has more in common with lee right now than he ever had in common with song it means uncle's a quitter and a loser what are you talking about uncle's not a quitter oh yes he is he found out his son died and he just fell apart a real general would stay and burn busting say to the ground not lose the battle and come home crying what is azula's problem anyway i get the idea that ursa took a liking to zuko and ozai to azula but like jesus i feel like azula is a little overtuned in this episode i think it would have been cool to see the seeds of what she becomes and maybe only have a moment where she's actually horrible once or twice but no this entire episode she is already the worst kind of person not saying that that thing doesn't actually happen i'm just saying it doesn't make for a very interesting look at the zula's childhood if she's just always been the way she is now you ever notice this kick-ass dragon design behind the fire lord's throne because i didn't until like my latest watch through don't know how i missed that really guys you're gonna show ozai's face but leave him without any features in the background it would be fine if zuko and ursa also didn't have any features but they're literally at the same distance from the camera really weird choice to make oziah's slenderman here what i do like is that azulus fire isn't blue here it's just the natural orange color of any other fire we don't need anyone to tell us she gradually achieved blue fire we can fill in the blanks i just wish they took this kind of approach with her attitude as well we can see that she's a prodigy here and what she grows into in the same way we could have made her feel only a little cold calculating and detached and we could have filled in the blanks in that respect as well but i am here father and my children are alive say what it is you want father revoke ira's birthright this scene really shows the corruption that has followed in sosan's wake and how it only amplifies through the generations it all started with sosan trying to share his people's prosperity with the world and now it's devolved into this a brother trying to undermine his brother for the throne but here we have a zulon who's the middle ground of these two ideas who still tries to enforce some twisted form of honor for his firstborn son you must know the pain of losing a firstborn son by sacrificing your own by inflicting this punishment on ozai and by extension zuka it's cool to think about how sosan's family has devolved from his first ideas of greatness i'm only telling you for your own good i know maybe you could find a nice earth kingdom family to adopt you it's like wouldn't this be so much more interesting if azula told zuko about this and was kind of concerned or maybe she didn't really know what to feel then maybe she leaves the room and has a little smile on her face or something the kind of smile where she's not even sure why she's smiling but she's still smiling like i get it dude azula's an awful terrible person i really get it at this point but it's starting to feel cartoonish in this scene you have to help it's lee the thugs from town came back as soon as gansu left when they ordered us to give them food lee pulled a knife on them i don't even know where he got a knife i like this subtle little look away that zuko does when the idea of the knife is brought out just tiny little motions like that make us seem feel so much more alive i know we barely know you but i'll get your son back let's go ever notice how in this shot it's actually a little blurry until zuko steps up closer in frame i'm not sure what they were going for there also holy [ __ ] zuko looks cool this is zuko's best hairstyle in my humble opinion actually [ __ ] that i'm egotistic about it fight me man that makes zuko so cool so many times we've seen him fighting for for a lack of a better term the bad guys but we've seen the good in him and we've seen what he's dealt with and despite these guys wearing earth kingdom colors they're the bad guys finally we can totally side with zuko like we've been wanting to this is the first time we can actually cheer for zuko i mean unless you're one of those weird people who want the bad guys to win and he's not getting rag dog for once and they make him look so cool look at him he doesn't even draw his swords till he gets to the boss fight this fight is the culmination of everything a viewer wants to see from zuko they want to see him kick ass they want to see him be the good guy they want to see him win and that's why this fight hits so hard it hits every note everyone wants it to i kind of wish bending with weapons was explored more actually we don't really ever get to see it since aang loses his damn staff all the time look out behind you i mean of course he's behind him he just turned his back to him if you listen closely here you can hear footsteps and ursa even looks over her shoulder i wonder who that is it's probably just that ursa just killed a zoolon though and has to get the hell out of her dodge before anyone finds her and those footsteps are just here so she can hurry along no matter how things may seem to change never forget who you are who who are you my name is zuko son of ursa and firelord ozai prince of the fire nation and heir to the throne this is honestly one of the most tragic moments in the whole show and i don't think i've ever really heard anyone talk about it zuko has his flashback of his mom begging him to never forget who he is but zuko doesn't understand what she means zuko misinterprets these words to mean remember who he is now son of the fire lord prideful hateful what his father wants him to be but not who he actually is at this point in the story zuko is still so twisted up inside about who he is so this is a flailing desperate attempt to fit his mother's words to what he has convinced himself he is and always has been don't believe me here's a line from just before he betrays the fire nation and joins during the meeting i was the perfect prince the son my father wanted but i wasn't me at this point in the story zuko understands what his mother meant with those words but right now this isn't triumphant this is sad not a step closer it's yours you should have it no i hate you i think this is a strong moment as well some people say that lee and his mother should have been more accepting but i don't think so zuko is the prince of the nation that just took their son and brother away and who knows maybe they're husband and father too zuko's more evil to these people than these corrupt guards everywhere and despite his good deeds he has to live with that this episode pays homage to old westerns and a lot of those movies ended more bitter than sweet where's mom no one knows oh and last night grandpa passed away not funny azula you're sick and i want my knife back now huh who's going to make me mom i [ __ ] get it okay azul is a head case she's impossibly hateable even as a child jesus we could use some subtlety guys you're usually so good at that azula fire lord to our nation for 23 years 23 years you say oh wait until we get to the avatar in the fire lord i'm gonna have some [ __ ] to say about that we lay you to rest as was your dying wish you are now succeeded by your second son i know i went on at length about game of thrones at the start of this video but this is some game of thrones [ __ ] right here wait hold on the town earned itself once they found out who zuko was you might get away with saying these two are just holding farming stuff but this guy's mean mugging zugel with a rock in hand and yeah and on the iconic shot the lone cowboy rides into the sunset his job complete but he is no happier than he was when he started this episode's phenomenal one of the best episodes there is no doubt this tops a lot of people's favorite episodes list and for good reason pretty much everything works in this episode and the tone is so much different than your average episode of avatar i can probably count how many jokes or gags are in this episode on one hand it takes itself very seriously and does the job really well like i said it finally gives zuko the wins the audience wanted to see but it steals the glory of those wins from him which leaves the ending more sad than happy the flashback stuff for me at least is the weaker half of the episode it's good that we get to see more of zuko's backstory and his mom and see how her caring nature frames the goodness we see inside of zuko but like i mentioned i see how over-the-top azula is as a pretty considerable downside the other half of the story incredible you want to know why westerns dominated the theaters back in the day it's because these kind of stories are enthralling and the idea to fit zuko's backstory into a classic western that mirrors the elements of that backstory it's genius dude it's [ __ ] genius i gotta stop i could go on about this forever okay patrons if you want to see the next two episodes of over analyzing avatar they're available on patreon for just a few bucks biggest shadows of all go to fritz sullivan who was actually born a puppet but then became a real boy through sheer force of will just got offered a job for some reason who has the incredible superpower of being able to travel through time at the rate of one second per second keegan scott who was the only man on the face of the planet that is classified by the us government as dangerous in all situations and skylos who was actually born a real boy but became a puppet through sheer force of will other huge shout outs go to be my valentine code cannot derek cornwell dj jack stew mutual aid garmer glintlock mana nicholas abbott fleckler glass super sniper and thiago nacimento next up is the chase which is like you gotta follow up an episode as good as this with something and you know what the chase does a pretty good job we'll see you next time

Channel: Overanalyzing Avatar

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Keywords: overanalyzing avatar, avatar video essay, zuko alone, overanalyzing zuko alone, zuko, overanalyzing avatar zuko alone, react to avatar, react to avatar the last airbender, react to zuko alone, zuko alone video essay, avatar the last airbender video essay, avatar netflix, netflix avatar, netflix avatar the last airbender, avatar studios, netflix avatar review, avatar netflix trailer, avatar studios trailer, minecraft, avatar minecraft

Id: bK9fIDJyduk

Length: 19min 24sec (1164 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021