When The World Needed It The Most - A Brief Avatar: The Last Airbender Retrospective

I have to first preface this video by saying an opinion of mine that we are currently in or at least entering a golden age of Animation an age where the prestige and quality of Animation is at a general High Point relative to the errors of the past ankle Nate LED not solely by the creators but the consumers as well because there's always been a large amount of passion from those who write storyboard produce and animate cartoons after all there are plenty of more lucrative career paths for an individual with any of those skill sets but for those who consume animated media to fully understand and appreciate that effort at the level that they currently do is a relatively recent development and I cannot imagine the landscape of today existing without the cultural contribution of avatar The Last Airbender Avatar was a show that combined convincing World building deep characters with nuanced development more serious and poignant story beats and a serialized Arc structure that managed to build upon itself in a satisfying way many other shows in its ill could continue on in this trend over the next two decades and it's not so much that it's at a high bar for what animation could achieve but rather it set a high bar for what animation should achieve and the way that it achieved this is by the fact that avatar The Last Airbender respects its audience enough to show off deeper characterization and more nuanced block beats than a typical kid show often does and it did this also competently and popularly that the entire landscape of Western animation change to adapt to the shuttle it's very easy to think of television in terms of a pre and post Avatar landscape a shift in the way shows were written but most importantly a shift in the amount of respect the writing staff of these shows has for Their audience it's not as though any of the individual traits that set Avatar apart were things unique to the show however a other cartoons had serialized seasonal arcs before it other shows had used the medium to tell longer ongoing character stories other writers had devoted the same level of effort to their own world building it was a combination of all of these things coming together at the right time in front of the Right audience that gave Avatar the cultural significance that we give it today of course it's easy to sing praises of the show in a vacuum like this and act as if it was uniquely Visionary and how it told its stories but I think a better approach is to instead go through the show itself Episode by episode and to detail what these traits were and how they affected the show moving forward before this video begins in Earnest avatar The Last Airbender is a show that draws heavily from Real World cultures including things like character names location names and concept names I am far from an expert in any of these cultures and as such will likely mispronounce a lot during this video so let this be a word of warning going forwards [Music] book one water Nickelodeon approached the duo of Michael dimartino and Brian konietzko with the request that they create a series that would fit into a vacancy in their action adventure programming schedule hoping to cash in on the popularity of fantasy series like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings by creating their own franchise to capture that same demographic the duo was chosen due to their prior experience with Phil Roman on works like Invader Zim and a personal favorite of mine Mission Hill despite only having about two weeks to brainstorm they eventually came up with the world of Avatar which is where the series a strong World building comes from as the setting was envisioned before any plot developments or characterization the world itself was an accommodation or design Nickelodeon wanted an action series but refused to allow violence in it which they later defined as direct contact between combatants the bending system was something that allowed for action scenes to occur without direct fist-to-faced combat this not only meant that fight scenes could retain that coveted tvy 7 rating but that the world could then develop around this style leading to even more richness in how the world presents itself and how the philosophies of the culture is in that world view the world that surrounds them the setting draws heavily from various Asian cultures not so much as to hark into any specific civilization but to instead give a general idea that doesn't hold back to show Runners when they want to expand the world and specifically much of that inspiration came from Japanese anime down to the stylization and expressiveness of the characters despite initially asking for 13 episodes Executives were so impressed by the quality of Avatar that they expanded their initial ask to 20. this set of precedent for 20 episode Seasons giving the first three books a runtime equal to about six seasons of a Netflix era cartoons run its Premiere wrote the record for the highest rated show of its demographic and subsequent episodes managed to bring in over a million viewers on their airing dates it was clear that Nickelodeon had a smash hit on their hands but looking at numbers alone only tells part of the story to really understand the success of Avatar we need to look at each episode to see why it resonated so well book one chapter one the boy in the iceberg The Story begins with the sibling Duo of Katara and Saka a pair of water tribe members who live at the South Pole Katara is a waterbender someone who has control over the movements of water although her skills aren't fully developed her brother is the last man remaining in the Water Tribe as all the rest were sent off to war in ever to return and even then Saka is only a teenager the two stumble upon a boy Eng Frozen in an iceberg who's revealed to be an airbender able to control air currents which is an anomaly as it's long been believed that all the Airbenders had died out Saka is skeptical of the boy's Origins though Katara is more trusting and thrilled to hear that he can take her to the North Pole's water tribe where she can Master the art of water bending but elsewhere Zuko a Firebender is pursuing the avatar on an icebreaker nearby he notices the light that Ang gave off when he was freed and gives Chase ready to capture The Last Airbender 2 in his own words regain his honor the first episode of any TV show always has the most difficult job of any other episode in that it needs to balance every goal every other episode has in equal parts to sell the concept it needs to be the ideal balance of entertaining informative and thrilling sell the episode to episode value sell the value of its World building and sell the value of the build up to the finale all at once avatar The Last Airbender had the advantage of being able to debut in a two-parter this episode and the next aired back to back but the general idea still holds up and yet the boy the iceberg manages to live up to this expectation in ways that aren't immediately obvious on a First Watch the concept of bending is introduced in a pre-episode animatic built upon during the episode Itself by showing various levels of Competency as well as sharply comparing the emotional state of the characters as they perform their bending Arts Zuko is a good Firebender but not a great one Aang is talented at airbending doing it subconsciously in many of his movements such as airbending to stand himself upright at times guitarra is unskilled surprised at her own ability to lift a fish from the water but when she grows angry at Saka she begins bending much more violently this sets up something that isn't revealed to the audience in plainer terms until much later that bending the elements is an extension of the emotional state behind the Bender and this is seen further in the other two vendors were introduced to Aang's skill reflects his more Carefree nature airbending is all about letting emotions blow past you while staying flexible and yet to master all the elements ink has to later learn to master the other emotional states even in this episode his Carefree nature prevents him from being properly fearful of the abandoned fire nation vessel that later causes the villagers who took him in to get attacked by Zuko back to Zuko his bending comes from the wrong source and it lacks control but for now we have no point from which to truly make that comparison other than iro though it will be long before we truly get to learn the extent to which his backstory has reflected in his own bending abilities book 1 chapter 2. the Avatar returns for ignoring their warnings about the abandoned fire nation ship Angus exiled from the water tribe Village despite katara's pleas the Fire Nation eventually arrives interrogating the villagers for more information on Aang's whereabouts Saka tries and fails to fend them off when anger turns to defend the village but fearing collateral damage he agrees to go with Zuko as a prisoner consumed by guilt Katara and Saka pursue their friend hoping to rescue him from captivity only for the trio to reconvene in the middle of Aang's escape attempt working together they're able to overcome Zuko's forces and escape on oppa's back where they plan to take Katara to the North Pole where she might finish her water bending training this episode was originally run in tandem with the previous episode picking up immediately where the previous story left off act structure and all it was uncommon and yet refreshing for Nickelodeon properties to do this and yet still very well received by audiences what was also carried over from the previous episode was a commitment to establishing character moments these are subtle and they actively play against a few established tropes in order to show off their depth but on subsequent watch throughs it's much easier to pick out and join these moments for example Zuko lunges for Grand Grant at one moment the implication being that he's about to threaten the water tribe by holding her hostage instead he simply uses her as an example of how the Avatar might look likewise when Aang voluntarily gives himself over to the Fire Nation vessel Zuko turns around and keeps his word that none of the people of the water tribe should be heard his whole story arc is about honor that honor comes not from the Deeds we perform but how we perform those deeds and even in this early episode we see that Zuko has much more honor in his personality than he likely believes is there and of course I have to mention Saka the closest thing to an adult male that the water tribe has is his responsibility to train the next generation of Warriors which isn't going well and to defend the tribe from an attack which predictably also doesn't go well but far from running from a lopsided battle Saka Embraces his responsibility and attempts to stand up single-handedly to a fire nation ship it goes disastrously and is played off for a laugh but this courage in the face of overwhelming odds is not something that's included in the show by accident foreign book 1 chapter 3 the southern air Temple the gang that's gang with two A's and colloquially what the main group is referred to travel to the southern air Temple where Aang spent much of his childhood the temple is abandoned and Katara and Saka find evidence of Fire Nation activity there but they try to hide this from Aang concerned with how he might react to the news and his tribe was wiped out but after meeting the avatars of the past Aang stumbles upon the body of his old master and learns the truth he a truth which flings him into a rage that alerts The World At Large to his return meanwhile Zuko's ship is being repaired in a harbor controlled by Commander Zao following the events of the previous episode Zao inquires as to what caused the damage and eventually learns that Zuko's quest to capture the Avatar has actually made progress angry at the subterfuge by the Rival Commander Zuko challenges and defeats Zao in an agnikai a sort of duel used in the Fire Nation Zuko's character Arc is largely about finding honor in the right places and the way for him to achieve this is by first recognizing sources where it cannot be obtained Zuko's insistence on challenging Zao to an agnikai is reflective of his own maiming at the hands of his father the fact that he's so willing to continue this cycle of violence shows how little he's moved on from the toxic relationships of his past but it's not as though he is completely lost when given the opportunity to finish the job he refuses to strike an enemy the same way his father did to him so many years ago and despite Zao taunting this pacifism as cowardice iro intervenes to defend the honor of his nephew on her on full display by showing a brief moment of clarity in Rising above his past traumas back at the air Temple Katara and Saka attempt to Shield Ang from the truth behind his old family's demise they value his childlike innocence and showing them around and playing airball as something that they themselves has been deprived of yet aim cannot run from the truth forever as running away was arguably what caused the War to begin in the first place and fled his obligations as the Avatar a symbol of peace between nations and caused so much destruction and ruin as a result to face this overwhelming obstacle is something tough and we see from his poor reaction to the news of gyotso's passing that it's something that he's ill-prepared to handle on his own but it is made easier by splitting the burden with others in the original vision for Avatar Momo was intended to be The Reincarnation of Aang's old instructor gyatsu this is something that gets hinted at a few times during the first season but it's ultimately dropped before any more solid developments are made in that front I think that this bit of trivia ultimately speaks to a positive change Aang's character Arc is about letting go of his past and moving on from his mistakes so to have a symbol of that past follow him around as though nothing had changed would arguably weaken that message as Charming a reunion as that would have been it's ultimately for the best that we see aim develop in the direction that he does book one chapter four the Warriors of Kyoshi the gang arrives on Kyoshi Island during an Excursion where Aang intended to relax they're ambushed and knocked out by the Kyoshi Warriors an all-female group of Fighters who Revere and resemble one of the Avatar's past lives Kyoshi while on the island Aang begins to play up his return as a celebrated hero and enjoys the company of the various girls on the island as they Swoon over him though this annoys Katara who begins leaving him to his own devices meanwhile Saka is resentful over his earlier defeat at the hands of a group of girls but after a second defeat humbles him he recognizes the Warrior's strength and takes lessons from them however Aang's gloating ends up creating rumors of his whereabouts and these rumors spiral into information that lets Zuko track him down when the Fire Nation begins to besiege the city Angus forced to flee to lure the pursuers away one of the caveats of having great responsibility is that it can be used for ill just as easily as it can be used for good and in fact it's much easier to do harm with power than it is to repair that arm simply by existing in a place for too long Aang can cause destruction to follow him there to have this sort of power not only comes with the caveat that it ought to be used for good but that if it isn't then it's ostensibly a misuse of that power in the previous episode Anglers of the consequences that come with fleeing his duties as the Avatar this episode follows up on the morals taught there building on the idea that in times of crave evil inaction is morally wrong as it can be considered complacency for a much more overt message this episode takes that tried and true sexism bad moral and makes an episode out of it avatar The Last Airbender is a show for kids the lack of subtlety in how the message is given is a reminder of the target audience though graciously there was no character assassination in order to play up that sort of gender span like we commonly see in other contemporary works it shows a remarkable level of respect for the audience that they didn't dumb anything down to make the lesson basic and that they assumed kids despite their age were smarter than most other showrunners would give them credit for Suki's line at the end of the episode that she's a warrior and a girl as well please do the Nuance that Avatar gives to its characters in that nobody is just one trope this episode introduces Avatar Kyoshi as a symbol she was the Incarnation of the Avatar who preceded Roku who himself proceeded Aang her accomplishments including founding the Kyoshi Warriors and even creating the island during a duel against chin the Conqueror are all things that get built upon in later episodes and supplementary materials materials that while I'd like to cover here will ultimately be excluded from the rest of the video in order to make sure that it stays true to the title in being a brief retrospective hopefully I will get the chance to return to these topics in the future book 1 chapter 5 the king of omashu the gang head to omashu on their Journey a massive Earth Kingdom City where Aang spent time during his youth sledding down the various Stone shoots with his childhood friend boomi but when they damaged the city while trying to recreate this Pastime the king of omashu Demands recompense in the form of three trials that Aang has to complete after Katara and Saka are threatened Aang goes along with these trials in part because the king appears to be senile and liable to fits of craziness the tests culminate in a dual single combat against the foa Fang's choosing and Aang chooses the king who is revealed to be a talented earthbender after fighting to the king's satisfaction Aang is asked the king's name and reveals himself as the Avatar's childhood friend boomi and that he was testing the boy to ensure that he would be capable of the grand task of defeating the fire lord this is the first real filler episode of Avatar filler being described in the colloquial term of not advancing the plot in a meaningful way and while it's possible to argue over whether or not this or any other episode fits the definition of filler I think it's more prudent to decide whether filler is even the right label in the first place not every plot has to push the overarching story forward directly sometimes it's nice to have a few episodes purely for developing personalities or to help solidify character Dynamics if every episode pushed the plot forward the show would arguably become exhausting and I think that it's important not to keep too fasty Pace especially in a show like Avatar because fundamentally avatar The Last Airbender is a show that's not about a destination but the journey taken to that destination much of the appeal is from the characters their interactions their challenges and their growth so with this mindset there really is no such thing as a filler episode except possibly a recap episode but we'll we'll get to how Avatar does Recaps when we get there even in this episode we get other things that appeal to the fan base things like World building basically any excuse for a wide shot of a unique location ends up contributing to the overall story in a positive way and finally this episode does end up coming back in a more important way the city yohomasho itself returns in the book 2 episode aptly named returned to omashu and boomi returns in book 3 in time to partake in the finale boomi was originally intended to have the body of a frail old man in order to teach a lesson about how bending doesn't require physical strength but the show Runners change this in the end as giving an old man ABS would have been funnier and of course the Cabbage Merchant has his first appearance in this episode far from the last time we see this man's produce destroyed book one chapter six imprisoned after coming across an earth painter named Haru practicing in the woods the gang follows him to a small mining Village controlled by the Fire Nation the Fire Nation controls the village harshly outlawing any practice of bending and raising taxes to the point of suppression when Haru is arrested for using earthbending to rescue an old man from a cave-in Katara gets herself arrested as well in order to save him they're taken to a labor camp on a metal platform in the middle of a body of water where they construct Fire Nation ships under brutal conditions Katara fails to convince the Earth Kingdom citizens to rise against their oppressors until Saka and Aang arrive giving the earthwenders coal that they could win in order to fight back the prisoners Escape giving the episode a happy ending until it's revealed that Zuko has found katara's necklace keeping the trail to the Avatar alive the main method through which the Fire Nation keeps its captured territory in check is not solely through military strength but also by weakening those at their oppressing fundamentally Earth building is a technique that much of the culture of the earth nation is built upon outlawing the practice of these techniques is a means of destroying the cultural identity of the people they're oppressing a similar tactic used by conquerors throughout history in order to assimilate the people they control remove their identity so they're forced to adopt yours the other major means through which the Fire Nation exudes control is by forcing a struggle for survival the easiest way to keep a people compliant is to given the greater struggles than concern for governance Liberty Justice and self-governance are all lofty ideas worth fighting for but they're also the luxuries of people who don't have to concern themselves with ideals like bread water and shelter as far as teachable moments go this episode helps to encapsulate the role of the Avatar as a force of balance between nations aim himself does very little to actually Aid in the liberation of the prisoners sure he provides them with the Earth necessary to fight back but ultimately that Earth means very little when push comes to shove the prisoners could have simply charged the guards that they have numbered at any time it was the fact that their Spirits had been broken that prevented them providing not any physical barrier and so Katara leads by example standing up against tyranny to show that it's even possible to do so the Avatar isn't the person who's going to free the enslaved but rather the one who will encourage them to free themselves so ultimately the Avatar's role is less of a tool and more of a beacon somebody whose existence is meant to reflect balance and by extension peace and while this is easily achieved by action these actions only bring peace to the World by Leading through example of course having the whole world watching you comes with as many drawbacks as upsides as we saw in the Warriors of Kyoshi but that's part of the responsibility book one chapter seven winter solstice part one the spirit world when stopped in a burnt down forest the gang are approached by a village leader who requests the Avatar's assistance with calming a spirit named hey bye who has been attacking their Village Aang attempts to calm the creature down but cannot communicate with it made worse when it kidnaps Saka when tracking hevi he is transported into the spirit world where he meets Fang Avatar's roku's companion Fang transports him to a fire nation Temple where he's shown a vision of the winter solstice a day where Aang will be able to communicate with his past self to receive guidance Aang returns to the village with the Newfound knowledge and is able to finally calm down the Spirit by imparting knowledge given to him by Katara that the forest may have been destroyed but acorns don't burn and they'll create a new Forest where the old one once stood meanwhile Ira was kidnapped by earthbenders who wish to try him for his crimes against the Earth Kingdom in the city of bossing say the city that iro failed to take years ago but iro leaves Clues behind to help his nephew track him down and Zuko eventually catches up to the captors freeing his uncle instead of tracking the avatar very many ideas are introduced in this episode that become important later in the series most notably that of the spirit world and how it connects to the main world as the Avatar Aang's purpose serves not simply as a peacemaker between the four nations but as a bridge between the spirit and mundane this role reflecting the other and that piece is maintained through mediation this is most obviously done when Aang calms hey bye down by talking to him something he had tried to do from the very beginning rather than fight and so it's clear by this point that Aang has to learn to master all four elements not to become a skilled and Powerful fighter but so he can understand the cultural connections these elements have to their people and empathize with them his powers are less a call to strength and more of a call to empathy speaking of empathy we begin to see Zuko's true characterization signed through in this episode when he's forced to choose between pursuing his long-term goal of capturing the Avatar or saving his uncle despite what he says repeatedly throughout the show there are some things more important to him than his honor and his actions reflect that and of course actions are the much more telling aspect of who we are rather than the words we say for now it's a mere hint of where Zuko's true psyche exists but one that gets built upon in a satisfying way later this was the first episode of a two-parter that probably wasn't that necessary this episode in the following one very easily could have been listed separately as their connection is only tenuously more than the connection between any two other consecutive episodes they both take place around the same time and one picks up immediately where the previous episode left off but ultimately that's where the similarities stop book one chapter eight winter solstice part 2 Avatar Roku the gang enters the Fire Nation to visit the Temple of Avatar Roku so that Aang might communicate with him they're pursued by Zuko and forced to overcome a fire nation blockade but only barely managed to get past as does Zuko despite being a wanted Exile in the Fire Nation as the man in charge of the blockade was none other than Commander Zao who plans on using Zuko's pursuit of the Avatar to steal the glory for himself Aang makes it to Crescent Island only to learn that the fire monks there have long since forsaken their vows to the Avatar and served the Fire Nation instead but one monk still holds his vows and helps to sneak them into the main chamber with the help of a bit of Ingenuity from the others and soon Aang is able to communicate with his past self but this all happens just as Zuko and Zao arrive in the temple and surround the barricade Aang is able to escape by channeling roku's Spirit but not before he learns of sozen's comet a once in a hundred years event that signifies power for all firebenders that creates a time limit on Aang's journey to master the elements we've seen a myriad Fire Nation Soldier perform evil eggs and then get defeated in a fire and forget fashion by this point they serve as faceless villains antagonists to slow down the good guys in order to add tension to the plot but this episode throws two twists into the typical white and black morality one might expect from a kid's action adventure show first in shoe the fire monk who assist the gang in reaching Roku but this is a loyalty more to his original responsibilities rather than any particular moral opposition to the fire nation's actions though secondly we see the conflict between Zhao and Zuko indicative of an internal struggle between various forces of the Fire Nation as well as tensions between characters on a moral level it's not enough that Zuko captures the Avatar with assistance he needs to capture Aang on his own it's not about regaining his honor in the eyes of his father or serving the Fire Nation in the most efficient possible way but it's proving to himself that he still has value by not relying on others for help we also get to see Saka and katara's Ingenuity on display while the cynic and me might say that the scene involving the explosive powder only existed so the water tribe Duo had something to do in this episode it's much more likely a show of characterization in the way that the duo helps aim with his lack of quote Street smarts and problem solving Saka has a solution to activate a door that requires fire bending Katara comes up with a way to make it look like it worked the duo works together to help Ang overcome obstacles that he's given up on the right type of companions for one to have when tasked with becoming a force for peace the final point of this episode is to give further attention to the rest of the journey while we've known for the show's whole run that it's Aang's task to master the four elements to restore balance this time limit gives an overarching sense of pressure to the journey going forwards something that prevents Our Heroes from ever being able to rest comfortably until the end of the show's run book one chapter nine the water bending scroll the gang stopped by a town during one of bangs water bending lessons where they come across a pirate crew with an instructional water bending scroll the price of the scroll is too steep for them so Katara steals it hoping it will give her an edge over Aang who has been picking up a water bending faster than she did the Pirates give Chase which alerts zugo to their whereabouts as iro happened to be in the same town looking for a pie showpiece the prince teams up with the Pirates to track down the scroll only to later blackmail the crew into helping him find Aang by threatening to burn it but once Saka reveals that the Avatar is worth more than the scroll they double betray Zuko and try to take the avatar for themselves which results in a scuffle that allows the gang to escape on a stolen Fire Nation Cruiser ostensibly another filler episode but like the rest this one distinguishes Itself by focusing more on World building and characterization Aang gets his first water bending experience but that's all secondary to The Strife between himself and Katara as she resents his quick progress where she struggled in her youth Zuko progresses in his search for the gang but like every other time he's captured the Avatar so far ends up getting nowhere by the end The Real World building this episode gives us comes in a much more subtle way involving iro's White Lotus piece it appears as insignificant now but later on becomes a much greater piece of a larger overarching story involving the White Lotus organization small hints towards later developments like this helped to sell the idea that there's much more to the characters within what we initially see in them it's an interesting thing to note that zugo is willing to work with pirates in this episode when before he refused to even risk splitting the glory of capturing the Avatar with a zowl or anyone else from the Fire Nation his pride prevents him from accepting help from others but perhaps it's simply refusing help from those he believes looking down on him those who live in the nation from which he was initially disgraced since the pirate sawer in Zuko's eye beneath him there's no risk to splitting Glory with them because there's no glory to be had for the pirating type but then perhaps it's more of a sign of zugo's desperation that he's willing to stoop to the level of pirate Ally in order to accomplish his goals or perhaps there's a much more likely explanation that I'm just overthinking this though it's a good sign for the quality of a Show's writing when it invites thorough examinations of his kind even in what is again a quote filler episode book one chapter 10 jet the gang meet Jed in earthenation Freedom Fighter who leads a band of rebels who fight guerrilla warfare against fire nation troops in their land Ang and Katara are impressed Ann smitten respectively but Saka is suspicious although the other two dismiss this as jealousy Saka is eventually proven right when he Witnesses Jet's crew robbing an old man just because he's Fire Nation he tries to warn the others of Jed's true morality but they refuse to listen and Saka is soon captured when he learns of a Jet's goal to blow up a dam in order to flood a village full of Fire Nation troops regardless of the collateral damage Katara and Aang try but failed to stop his plans in time and the dam is destroyed flooding into town below but there are no casualties as Saka managed to escape and warn the village in time the old man from earlier vouching for him just as we saw during part two of the winter solstice this episode teaches in addition to the lesson learned regarding the perception of a black and white morality there are some in the Fire Nation who will do the morally righteous thing regardless of the consequence and there are those in the Nations opposing the Fire Nation who may not always act with Humanity's best interests at heart of course the Avatar's responsibility is to provide balance between the Nations not that conquer until everyone has an equally sized portion of the world and so being able to find and recognize the best and worst traits of any individual group is a necessity the Fire Nation is not all evil just as the earth water and air nations are not all good Jed is willing to destroy people's lives to rid an area of the Fire Nation but the reason he would have had this kind of mentality comes down to his own experiences with them having lost his parents to the Fire Nation he views occupation by them as a fate worse than death so dying in a flood is to Jet a better alternative to living in fire ultimately people are going to be shaped more by their experiences than the circumstances of their birth but at the same time these experiences are things that we only have a limited amount of control over to become bitter after suffering great personal loss is only natural to act on that bitterness however is something that we all have the burden of avoiding book one chapter 11 The Great Divide while stopped at a canyon named The Great Divide the gang encounter a spat between two rival tribes or who will get the privilege of being guided across the canyon as they flee the encroaching Fire Nation the ganjin tribe are clean need and a bit haughty in their attitude while the Zang are often proud albeit crude in comparison Aang agrees to go with them to mediate while oppa flies the sick and elderly across as he wants the conflict resolution experience both tribes end up attracting Canyon crawlers think giant spiders by bringing food into the canyon something they both did as they assumed the other tribe would be too irresponsible to avoid and it isn't until Aang forces them to work together to escape but they finally start putting their differences aside although it takes a lie about their Mutual history to really get them to understand that the dispute was petty in the first place and gets respect simply for being the Avatar if some random person had offered to resolve a 100 year old tension between two tribes they likely would have been dismissed or laughed at but being the Avatar comes with a level of prestige that gives people the confidence to confide their issues in a person who's expected to be a master in handling them of course Aang is a 12 year old who's only 112 on paper his mind is still very much that of a child the advantage then is that other people don't know that his lack of experience is not something that's a disadvantage as long as he can Bluff his way through the situation Aang's Prestige comes from being a symbol of peace and sometimes it's the belief in a symbol that can give people the hope to fix their problems on their own the previous episode introduced us to Jet a person who sense of morality and Justice were warped by the atrocities of the Fire Nation somebody who believed that two wrongs made a right or rather that two wrongs could at least justify each other of course this type of hatred can never drive Asia used to resolve themselves and just as Jet's version of eliminating the Fire Nation would never do any good to improving people's lives the squabble between the ganjin and Zayn tribes never do any good towards solving their Mutual threats so this episode along with the previous one show us how the fire Nations invasion is able to go unthreatened for as long as the people they're oppressing are more concerned with hurting each other than working together just looking at the fandom's perception of this episode informs us that this is one of the least liked episodes of the series and the reason why is twofold first that this is one of the few clear Filler episodes an episode that can be thrown into syndication with no concern for continuity or confusing new viewers as such Nickelodeon re-ran this episode more often than any other episode leading audiences to grow sick a bit faster than any other storyline the second reason this episode is disliked is well the same as the first this is one of the few clear Filler episodes the fact that it's able to be thrown into syndication means that it has the weakest connection to the rest of the show and for a show that relies so heavily on its continuity that can damage the way audiences view it book one chapter 12 the storm after a few nightmares about the storm that caused him to become trapped in the ice in the first place Aang tries to put his fears to rest in a market Town Excursion to restock on supplies but when he's reprimanded by an elderly fisherman for running away and leaving the world event for itself against the Fire Nation Aang flees into the mountains where he and Katara are trapped by a storm meanwhile Zuko is relentlessly hunting the Avatar which is starting to get on the nerves of his crew who believe the task isn't worth risking their lives and sails the ship directly into an oncoming storm while airing their resentments towards the principalodex iro steps in and tells the story of Zuko's banishment in a bid to win some of their loyalty back loyalty that's ultimately earned when he puts himself at risk to save one of his own crew back in the cave Eng tells Katara the story of the days where he first learned of his responsibilities as the Avatar the insecurities of not living up to the pressure and the ostracization of receiving special treatment for a status he had handed to him and whether he can live up to that ideal despite having already failed it at once but when he rescues the fishermen from before from a typhoon Aang resolves not to dwell on the mistakes of his past but on the ways he can fix those errors this is a flashback episode the framing device of the storm giving the audience a way to listen in on two different stories being told around two different fires but the surprising thing about these flashbacks is how easily they fit into what we already know about the characters so that nothing feels like a Twist to the storyline we know that Aang was running away from something when he was trapped under the ice and we know that he resented the responsibility of being the Avatar so for him to run away from a transfer away from his own life into a new one with more duties just means that he was motivated by a representation of things that we already knew about his personality likewise Zuko was a prince banished from the Fire Nation we know that he's obsessed with regaining his honor by capturing the Avatar and in this episode we learned that the two were connected in a cause and effect way the only piece missing was the fact that we saw Zuko disrespecting his father's disdain for the common Soldier and that's what caused the events to unfold the fact that we see him pushing his men to ride into a storm despite it possibly costing their lives and their safety is less a cause of him not caring for their lives but the fact that he doesn't want to care about their lives Zuko is treating his soldiers as disposable because his failure to be heartless is what got him exiled in the first place so in the end of the episode when he shows that he really does care about his men it's not so much that he's progressing into a nicer more caring person but rather that he's going back to who he was before being an episode that solely concerns itself with the past the storm also includes many references to the future of the show this is the earliest look we get at lightning bending from iro something that we later learn if only possible due to his close emotional connection to his mending abilities and of course the first look we get in Azula the look on her face as Zuko is made by the fire lord a chilling important of characterization to come book one chapter 13. the blue spirit Zao receives a promotion to Admiral and proceeds to commandeer the Yuan archers to Aid in his hunt for the Avatar now a wanted criminal in the Fire Nation anxious at zao's Competitive Edge Zuko looks for a way to ensure that Zhao doesn't end up beating him in the hunt for the Avatar Aang is on the hunt for Frozen wood frogs that can cure Katara and Saka of the fever they got from being exposed to the previous episode storm but he's captured by The yuyan Archers and taken to a Fire Nation prison where he will no longer be a threat to the fire Lord's ambitions but a masked stranger rescues him from captivity and the two flee the reach of Zell right up until the point where the stranger is knocked out by an arrow and revealed to be Zuko Aang decides not to leave his Enemy at the mercy of the Fire Nation and rescues him to return the favor this episode's primary focus is on developing the relationship between Aang and Zuko from enemies to Rivals to allies to friends so far the two have a relationship based on opposing goals although from this episode we see that their ideals aren't too far off while Zuko is theoretically only rescuing aim for selfish reasons we can also get the first few glimpses at his relationship to the Avatar is one of regrettable circumstances at least from Aang's perspective one thing that's consistent in Aang's characterization is his desire for peaceful solutions to issues he never wants to take the root of violence and prefers avoiding conflict of course a pacifist ideology of this type is something that's only true in theory putting it into practice can come across as a form of weakness especially in the face of overwhelming hatred and yet it's not something that's ever viewed by The Narrative as a fault the showrunners never portray Aang's compassion as anything less than positive and ultimately this compassion is what rubs off on tazuko becoming a much more thorough part of his personality as the series progresses Zuko sees the kindness that Aang extends towards him despite feeling as though he doesn't deserve it and he envies that ability the ability to take a positive view of the world despite all that the world has put either of them through Zuko's Taste of unconditional acceptance is the first step towards rejecting his own lifestyle in favor of a more compassionate way of living this episode draws many Inspirations from other sources such as the shot of Aang approaching the herbalist being a reference to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but most notably of all being the conversation between Aang and Zuko at the end of the episode mirroring that of Spike and Rocco at the end of Cowboy Bebop Session 8 Waltz for Venus this episode was originally planned as a season finale back when the show would have had 13 episodes per season instead of 20. it works well as a wrap-up to the first season as a whole despite not ending on a big story beat it has the first steps towards a fundamental shift in the way the audience is meant to view its characters and that's arguably the greater part of the show's appeal [Music] foreign book 1 chapter 14 the fortune teller the gang traveled to a makapu village where everybody follows the guidance of a cloud-reading fortune teller Aunt Wu Aang and Katara both receive fortunes telling them that they will soon find True Loves Aang assumes this will be Katara though guitar is more aloof to the implication Saka however is more cynical when it comes to the general idea of predicting the future and he tries to convince the town's folk underwoo's influence that their Futures are more or less in their own control he fails at this until eventually Aang and Saka discover that a volcano predicted not to destroy the village is close to eruption and they have to convince the town to evacuate but when they refuse to believe the facts in favor of the fortune Aang and Katara bend the clouds above the town to fool Wu into predicting an accurate Doom the gang recruits the help of the earthbenders of the town to dig a trench to guard their Village and the disasters averted in the end Wu learns of the manipulation and Praises Ang for his ability to take fate into his own hands I'm not much of a shipper so episodes like this don't really do much for me that said I absolutely understand the appeal to shipping as it's more or less the same thing that I do in these videos looking too far into character interactions and extrapolating on extremely limited information is not too dissimilar to extrapolating themes narrative design choices from the text itself so shipping is to me not a stretch to find the appeal of and just as a character relationship is something pieced together by several small interaction a character's dynamic in Arc are likewise pieced together in the same way just with much less fan art stories that deal with fate in the dealing of prediction often end up with pretty shoehorned finales it's one of the oldest tropes in fiction that any prediction made by a fortune teller a character tries to prevent will end up coming true in a less obvious way so much so that this is even named for Cassandra the Trojan fortune teller but far from predictability being an inherently bad thing the entertainment value of the episode comes from how it's able to execute the ideas keeping predictions just vague enough to allow for alternate interpretations is not just good storytelling but it's how real world fortune tellers usually operate analyzing people and telling them what they want to hear [Music] book one chapter 15 Bato of the water tribe the gang come across a water Navy vessel from the same Fleet that Saka and katara's father sailed in it belongs to bajo a friend of their fathers who said that he's planning on reuniting with the water Navy as soon as he receives a letter containing their whereabouts and he offers to take Katara and Saka Ang Fields have said that he might lose his friend soon and leaves to mope when he comes across the messenger with a letter in question he conceals it from his friends in a bid to keep them from leaving without him but when the subterfuge is discovered they decide to leave as they weren't planning on doing so until the Betrayal eventually though they come to their senses and plan to reconvene just in time for an assassin hired by Zuko to attack them with a massive Shear shoe large Beast whose tongue can paralyze but a bit of Ingenuity by Saka and bending from guitarra managed to rescue Aang who thanks them by returning katara's missing necklace which she lost back in chapter 6. the idea that the gang is a found family is something that's been touched upon as early as the first two episodes but this is the point in the series where that idea is really solidified as an idea that the story wants to leave in plain text Aang has lost his own family from the southern air Temple Katara and Saka have lost their families to the war even Momo and Napa are separated from their original homes due to the ongoing conflicts and because this aspect of the group has been established it's easier to build upon later in book 2 tough ends up to Anila gang after the reveal of her mistreatment by her own family and of course it's not until Zuko turns his back on his family in the Fire Nation that he's able to search for acceptance from the group as well the parallels between Aang's responsibilities and the burden shared by the Water Tribe siblings are made more evident in this episode as well Aang is reluctant to take on the role of Avatar but he accepts it anyway because the world needs him to likewise Katara and Saka both wish to reunite with their father but recognize that they're needed and aim side more every character is putting aside some sort of personal desire in order to be a part of the group doing what they need to do instead of what they want to do and fundamentally this is what it means to be in a family a familial relationship where you only take from your family members is a toxic one whether that's a parent who expects great things from their child without properly supporting them or a sibling who leeches off the others while denying that they owe anything in return the main conflict in this episode comes from Aang feeling left out Saka and katara's reminiscence on their shared memories are something that excludes Aang making him realize just how much history he doesn't share with the others and seeing them laugh and smile without him gives Credence to the idea that they're sacrificing this happiness to be with him ultimately Aang's decision to leave him behind on his journey is actually something that he does to help them out evidence that even if he was pertaining not to Aang still cared about his friends's happiness so it's not a surprise that they would end up reuniting by the episode's conclusion book one chapter 16 the deserter the gang attend a fire nation Festival in order for Aang to observe fire bending firsthand and hopefully to learn a few things as well but when he reveals himself as the Avatar it attracts the attention of a few people a follower of zhongjong the first member of the Fire Nation Army to Desert and Admiral Zhao who assembles a fleet of ships to chase the Avatar up River Aang wants to study firebending under the deserter but zhongjong refuses to teach the boy claiming that he lacks to self-control and abandon safely and will wind up like his last pupil but he relents when the spirit of Roku appears and commands him to teach the Avatar but Aang still lacks the discipline to learn properly and ends up burning Katara when he loses control of his fire seeing her hurt bang vows to never been fire again just in time for his out to show up and begin attacking zhongjong's followers the deserter disappears into the woods luring zhou's man away and Aang is left to fight the Admiral alone but when he learned that Zao was John jong's former student Aang makes the connection to uses that was a lack of restraint against him tricking the Firebender into destroying his own ships before fleeing with Saka and Katara the latter of whom learned to heal wounds with water as we've seen before the elemental bending is associated with the Motions in this case fire bending is made more powerful by the rage and that the user can feel Zuko and Zao are both shown to have a lot of anger in their actions or a righteous Fury when they fight this is the source of their strength but in this episode it's also shown to be a source of weakness without the control over your passions they can end up damaging other aspects of who you are whether it's as simple as zal burning his own ships or Zuko throwing away his happiness in pursuit of the avatar but it's not as though these emotions are viewed negatively either later in the series Zuko gives up on pursuing Aang and he loses much of his bending ability in the process and Aang's refusal to continue learning firebending can also be a type of weakness his fear of hurting somebody close to him outweighs his desire to master the elements which can ultimately spell disaster for his onsub eventually fulfilling his duty as the avatar it's not actually that surprising that Aang would give up on fire bending at this point so far we've seen a master air bending a technique which largely concerns itself with the user's ability to exist in the moment not resisting change but letting it pass over you and blow by but just as firebending can create a worst case scenario if it's usually destroying everything in their passion airbending can create a psyche of fleeing from responsibilities something Aang has already done mastering an element is about learning both the destructive and constructive traits of each element like in part 1 of winter solstice when Katara shows Aang that a forest burning down can be the start of a brand new Forest as the acorns take the place of the existing trees regular forest fires actually have a positive effect on the areas they burn through stopping undergrowth from choking out another life and giving the area greater biodiversity Aang's journey to master the four elements will inevitably result in him learning not only the strength of each one but the weaknesses as well ironically it will end up being his weaknesses and allow him to overcome future obstacles just as much as his strengths do a lesson we see the beginnings of in this episode book one chapter 17 the Northern Air Temple the gang arrive in the Northern Air Temple surprised to find it populated by people flying around they find that it's inhabited by a group of refugees including a boy named Teo who uses a flying machine similar to Aang's to get around Angus disturbed by the amount of tech filling the Halls that they've damaged the original culture there and defiled the artifact this is made worse when he meets the mechanist a great inventor who unfortunately makes weapons for the Fire Nation in exchange for the Army leaving them alone but when he's shamed for cooperating with an invading Force the gang teams up with the citizens of the temple to fight off the Fire Nation when they come to demand tribute they managed to succeed in driving the force into a retreat a victory that makes Aang realize that the Temple's new inhabitants aren't so bad as they're giving life to a place that would be empty otherwise fundamentally the reason that the fire nation was able to easily bowl over the other nations was because they had the most advanced Tech in the world the world of Avatar is a world on the cusp of what would be the equivalent of our Industrial Revolution with all of the political turmoil that followed being expressed through the fire nation's Conquest because the technology of the Fire Nation isn't just the means through which they conquer the others but also the motivation sosin wanted to effectively colonize the rest of the world to spread the greatness of its people to the rest of the World by force if he had to and it makes sense why it's the Fire Nation to do this fire is an element associated with Drive passion and change so their desire to advance the technology of this civilization makes the most sense and of course the air Nomads were the most resistant to this change their element is one of bubbly effervescent moving aside when a problem occurs and allowing it to pass over them rather than improving on the world they adapt to better utilize whatever it is they have to work with in this way the defiling of the air Temple is twofold it isn't just that old statues and monuments are being destroyed but that they're being destroyed for technological change this is something that the air no meant would be the most resistant to but is also the very reason why they were wiped out by the Fire Nation so easily in the first place they refused to adapt Aang ends up accepting this change in the end not surprising as he's just spent the last half of a season learning the ways of water bending from Katara water is the element associated with adaptation if you place water into a vessel it changes its shape to that of the vessel water is very adaptable and it's the wisdom he's learned for bending it that gives him the emotional maturity to accept that his old culture has been forcibly adapted to the Earth Kingdom's refugees Aang's moral from this episode is something he wouldn't have been able to take away in the earlier episodes of the season and it's a settlement of character development that I feel many may have overlooked [Music] book one chapter 18 the water bending master the gang finally make it to the northern water tribe where they're welcomed by the inhabitants of their sister city and Aang is finally able to begin training under a water bending Master paku but there's a hitch when paku mentions that the northern water tribe does not permit women to learn offensive water bending and mandates that Katara study healing instead this annoys her though she and Aang agreed to meet in a secret and have a tutor Katara in everything that he's learning from the master but paku catches them in a lesson and refuses to allow Aang to learn from him any longer which turns qatar's annoyance into rage and she challenges him to a duel Katara loses but during the battle paku finds katara's necklace an engagement charm he made himself for grand grand or Kana Kana had left the North Pole when she was forced to an arranged marriage with to the water bending master and remembering this is what causes paku to understand that perhaps the traditions of his tribe only bring hurt meanwhile Saka flirts with the northern princess UA and although she reciprocates the feelings she ultimately rejects him as she's already engaged and the Fire Nation proposed an assault on the city led by Admiral Zell who was forcefully commandeered Zuko's crew and hired Pirates to destroy his ship [Music] just as the previous episode had Aang learning to disregard tradition and accept new people moving into the old Air Temple this episode has paku realizing that clingings in the past is an ideology that can hurt people too the air Nomads refuse on to adapt may have contributed to their destruction at the hand of the invading Fire Nation and who's to say just how much weaker the water tribe might be because of their arbitrary refusal to accept talented waterbenders into their schools though it's not as though adaptation and changing cultural ideas is an inherently good thing either we saw in an earlier episode imprisoned how the destruction of a group's cultural identity can be used as a tool to weaken them so as always the role of the Avatar is a role of finding balance between being a force for change eliminating outdated cultural ideas and a force for stability protecting Customs that unite people it's interesting to observe how much Katara has developed and yet how much she stays the same in her very first appearance in the show Katara is denigrating Saka for his sexism when He suggests she should be staying in a more domestic role and practically bookending this season we have Katara telling off another water tribe man for his insistent that she stayed domestic and learn to heal instead of fight but while her ideals have remained unchanged her persistence in enforcing those ideals has evolved early season Katara was keeping kids safe from the Fire Nation when they first arrived at her Village staying off of the front lines now when somebody talks down to her guitar is quick to challenge them even knowing she'll lose the battle because fighting for your ideals is the only way those ideals can hold any value simply folding at the first sign of resistance means that you weren't especially convicted in the first place this episode manages to set a sufficient stage for the book One finale while still having a decent Standalone plot we get to see just how far every character has come since the beginning of the show just in time to see where that character journey is going to take them book one chapter 19 the siege of the north part one [Music] Katara and ing have both improved markedly in their water bending training with Katara even able to beat many of the other students in sparring matches Saka and UA are riding the Horizon on oppa's back when they noticed soot mixed in with the snow signs of Fire Nation activity everybody takes positions to repel The Invasion Aang taking out chips Katara defending the city and Saka giving information to a group of infiltrators but despite their best efforts they failed to make much progress so Aang seeks guidance from the spirit realm heading to a shrine in the depth of the city to meditate while Qatar guards him unwilling to let Zhao steal the glory of capturing the Avatar Zuko infiltrates the city and manages to defeat gitara during the sunrise capturing Aang in the process before he escapes into the snow the initial counter-attack against the invading Fire Nation ships doesn't go very well as Inc has so far only hitting a test with small numbers it reinforces the idea that he's not to be the sole hero who wins the day through his strength but a rallying Force to give the world the strength to win it on their own and we can see that even he knows this the solution to not being able to keep the fight isn't to fight harder or come up with some scheme but to seek wisdom finding help from the spirits I said before that Aang's role is to lead by an example so just as the water tribe seeks his help he too is expected to seek guidance in the same way and then we contrast this idea to dugo's Journey he alone tries to infiltrate the capital and manages to succeed where the entire Navy had been failing to do so Zuko holds his breath for long periods of time and uses clever controlled bending to enter the city through the ice beneath it had he gone along with the fire nation's desires he could have easily LED them to a quick Victory with his cunning and of course and Zao swallowed his own pride and allowed Zuko even a little bit of Honor in leading a stealth attack he would have won the day easily ultimately the pride of the Fire Nation is what leads them to failure while the humility of the water tribe is what grants them success it's a bit of a shame that the entire UA subplot is largely just a vehicle to make her death later on feel like more of a tragedy for a character who only appears in three episodes to die and leave an impact it helps to give her a connection to another character but at the very least it's a connection to Saka a male character ordinarily one would expect a show to split an action and romance plot between male and female characters respectively the men fight the battle while the woman stay back and be sad about it so doing the opposite while still keeping every plot engaging is actually a remarkable feat considering this episode aired in 2005. book one Chapter 20 The Siege of the north part 2. Aang navigates the spirit world seeking the moon spirit for wisdom on how to drive back the Fire Nation Invaders he learns from a face stealing Spirit named Co that the moon and ocean Spirits took mortal forms as koi fish in the North Pole the same two fish he saw while meditating Zuko tries to flee Into the Wilderness with Aang's body but fails to make it far due to a blizzard and is forced to take shelter in a cave Katara Saka and UA take APA to search for him eventually finding him inside the blizzard just as he wakes up Aang insists on saving Zuko's life and the rest of the gang Roland as they rush back to the Capitol to defend but they're too late as Zhao has captured the moon spirit and despite the police of iro slays it the Fire Nation begins to win the battle with the moon no longer a factor until UA recalls that the moon Spirit gave her life and she has the ability to give it back Aang takes the form of the ocean spirit and wipes out the fire Navy as thou is taken by a vengeful moon during a battle against Zuko ultimately the water tribe comes out Victorious though at the cost of a UA giving her life to transform into the moon that's a rough buddy I've wanted to write about the way avatar The Last Airbender uses color for a while now and this episode is a great time to make the point considering how vital saturation is in its storytelling scenes in the Fire Nation are always lit in Darker warmer colors while scenes in the water tribes use softer blues and whites so when the moon is threatened in a fire nation Victory seems inevitable the whole frame gets a red filter placed over it replaced by grayscale when the moon spirit is slain and all hope appears to be lost yet we know there's still a small sliver of Salvation simply looking at uae's eyes which retain their color through the next several scenes and while all of these connections are rather blatant the way color is applied to character also marks a subtle shift Zuko first appears wearing Fire Nation armor red and gray and black this shows his loyalty to his old home and he's constantly draped in dark red throughout the show but when he adopts the identity of the blue Spirit he wears well blue and by this episode's end he's effectively renounced his fire nation identity his allegiances being much more up in the air and what color should he be draped in but white at the end of this episode Avatar Aang transforms into a Kaiju and destroys the Fire Nation Fleet with ease it would be anticlimactic if it wasn't a transformation that had to be earned through an emotional trial of ironically not showing emotion this ends up being indicative of the way the show handles its action in general a show that purely consists of fight scenes in combat would get boring no matter the choreography there has to be a narrative behind the action every genre does this even sportsball will hire pre-game commentators to bring up rivalries in history to give their games more story Ancaster learned to handle his emotions to master the elements literally in this episode figuratively through the rest of the show and of course having the characters become stronger because they learn something will always be a more engaging story than someone training really really hard to punch a guy this episode wraps up the first book of Avatar and while The Siege is a satisfying set piece more is done to race the stakes going into The Following Season Zuko is no longer as active a threat and Zao is defeated so a new Firebender has to be set up as the next villain and it's somebody that we've seen before book two Earth book one's primary task was establishing setting in character so that audiences could be introduced to the world before it could be expanded upon much but it wasn't just the audiences who had to be sold on the show it was the network as well trying to sell to Executives the idea of a show with long character arcs nuanced explorations of morality and the realistic consequences of War all targeted to pre-teens is a grand task but rather than trying to get them to listen to reason it works better to have them listen to results it was clear by this point that avatar The Last Airbender has succeeded in its original goal of being a massive franchise for Nickelodeon it won a claim including multiple Annie awards for every season it brought in massive merchandise sales to the tune of 121 million dollars and was consistently one of the most viewed shows on the network even if it didn't quite keep that Basin syndicated reruns because there was always a bit of confusion as to how the show should be aired in reruns due to the serialized nature of the story it would be confusing to hop into a random episode if you weren't up to date so Nick experimented with airing just the Filler episodes then putting together episodes that's focused on a single character then episodes with similar themes it took some time before they finally listened to the show Runners and it went with their suggestion of Simply airing the episodes in order until they were recent then starting again at the beginning this recovered their numbers significantly but it's shocking that it wasn't the first thing they tried less baffling was the idea of branching the franchise out into more mediums Avatar was performing spectacularly as an animated series so The Logical Next Step was to hire an up-and-coming director to create a live-action adaptation of the first book the show was meant to compete with Harry Potter after all Executives at the network were optimistic about the show's future and all that needed to happen for the show to continue on gloriously was for this upcoming movie to be a Smash Hit success foreign Book 2 chapter 1 the Avatar state the gang stopped by an earth Kingdom military outpost on their way back to omashu so Aang can begin his earth-pending training while there they're greeted by General Fong who believes that Aang should forego mastering Earth and fire and simply use the Avatar state to lead a charge directly towards the fire nation capital but Aang has been having nightmares about the loss of control associated with the Avatar state that puts those closest to him in danger and is unsure whether it's wise to force a transition but knowing that every day that passes without defeating the fire lord brings more death and destruction he reluctantly agrees to let Fong force him into the Avatar state which the general ultimately does by threatening katara's life this succeeds and Angus thrown into a rage where he learns from Roku about what the Avatar State means that he channels the knowledge of all of his previous lives but also if he dies in The Avatar State the Avatar cycle is broken and there will be no more reincarnations after wiping out the military base hang ultimately decides that it's not worth it to attempt the easy way out and that he should continue mastering the elements normally elsewhere Zuko and iro are trying to recover from their loss at the North Pole when Azula returns and offers to bring them home claiming the fire lord has forgiven them but this turns out to be a trap an excuse to lure them into their own prison cells and the duo flee with the Zula labeling them as criminals a major source of conflict in avatar The Last Airbender comes less from the actions we're destined to do and instead from the consequences of those actions of course defeating the fire lord is the ultimate goal and of course using the Avatar's power to do so is the ideal way to go about this but exactly how laying harnesses his power will have ongoing effects not only in the immediate side of things but for years to come because while the Avatar state is powerful it's also just as dangerous to the user as it is to force on the opposing side Ang is just as likely to hurt Katara with it than the Fire Lord he's already burnt her once and that was with a single element and of course to simply walk into the fire nation capital and Blast Away won't do much to defeat the threat of the Fire Nation while slaying ozai might be a temporary Boon to the resistance forces simply overpowering him is just as likely to result in making the Mana martyr for his people rallying them behind his cause rather than him as a person and of course Aang is a symbol of power not power in and of itself the Avatar state is something for emergencies something to be used as a last resort and to freely enter the state would likely come with some very negative connotations so far we only see Aang glowing the way he does when he's undergoing extreme emotional turmoil since the elements are all tied to emotional stability this type of bending while powerful also means that what the Avatar represents is solid people are supposed to Rally behind Aang not live in fear of his Wrath speaking of rat this is our first proper introduction to Azula she's a master of firebending able to easily control Flames that burn so hot they appear blue and even create lightning her power comes from her emotional stability as well ironically Azula is filled with rage rage all the time if she never Mellows out then you can consider that staple if not a bit treacherous she exists as the antithesis of Aang's power Aang is somebody who insists on gaining strength for passion and empathy Azula is what happens when you forego these virtues for the pursuit of raw power much like we saw in general Fong Book 2 chapter 2. the cave of Two Lovers the gang come across a group of musical Nomads who teach them a shortcut to enter omashu created by a couple of ancient earthbenders a secret tunnel not wanting to attract any more attention from the pursuing Fire Nation they enter only for the Army to collapse the entrance behind them they press forwards hearing songs about the creation of the tunnels they were carved by the first earthbenders a couple separated by War who learned to move the Earth from giant Badger moles so that they might meet in secret but when one of the lovers failed to reunite one day the other used her powerful earth-bending to create a massive City and end the war the city taking on the names of oma and shu omashu Ang and Katara are separated from the rest of the crew and come across the tombs of the lovers where they allow love to guide the way a system of glowing crystals that reveals the real path out meanwhile Zuko and iro are on the run from the Fire Nation posing as refugees fleeing the war in an earth Kingdom Village while there they're shown firsthand the destruction caused by The Invasion and how it tears people apart in the end Zuko repays the kindness of the family that took him in by stealing their ostrich horse romance can create very powerful subplots for Action series there's a reason a romantic subplot gets shoehorned into almost every Blockbuster summer flick although it's not always something executed so well largely due to a misunderstanding of why the Trope is included in the first place you see saving the world is effectively a meaningless goal for a character to have sure the world is important and it's not hard to motivate somebody to want it saved but it's also a bluff on the part of the writers they won't actually let the world get destroyed that wouldn't be a very satisfying conclusion and it forces the story to come to an end but introducing a romantic interest for the main character can make those Stakes much more realistic it's hard to really connect with Aang in his pursuit to defeat ozai but it's easy to see why he might want guitar kept safe so by conflating a character with the World At Large the stakes of the story become much more understandable and it becomes second nature to root for the protagonist to end up happy the overall moral of this episode is something told to Saka again and again that you shouldn't get so hung up on the destination and should instead focus on the journey to get there this is the philosophy that the show is written with more than anything else defeating the fire lord and bringing balance to the world is frankly secondary to the real Point watching a group of characters grow and develop as they face challenges that are unique to them if ozai tripped and fell down the stairs off screen and the Fire Nation Army collapsed on its own that wouldn't be a very satisfying end to the series but the rest of the show leading up to that point would still be worth watching and sure the ending that we got was satisfying from a narrative standpoint in its own right but I like to entertain the thought experiment of what this series might have been remembered as if the third season ended in an Abrupt cancellation Book 2 chapter 3 return to omashu the gang discovered that omashu has been sacked conquered by the Fire Nation Katara and Saka are prepared to move on and find another earthbending Master for Aang but Aang wants to save his old friend boomi they infiltrate the city discovering it underground movement of Earth Kingdom citizens who resent that their city has been taken over and are leading an active resistance but due to being outnumbered and surrounded and convinces him to escape and reunite with the rest of the earth Kingdom so they can fight while they're stronger they fake a plague with the help of Saka and manage to leave the city undisturbed but only after accidentally kidnapping the governor's son meanwhile Azula recruits helping her hunt for Zuko and iro from Ty Lee and Bai Two Fire Nation Fighters and takes over an arranged transfer of prisoners between king boomi and the Fire Nation infant but they Renee on the offer and attack the gang instead revealing that Aang is the Avatar and adding one more Target to azula's hit list as well as means of recruiting help intermission signifies a method of Conquest that says general to her character as it is to the Fire Nation as a whole Tyler is at first hesitant to join up with her but after a few threats realizes that it wasn't a request it isn't useful to use constant showings a force in order to get your way sometimes the mere threat of continued force is enough the Fire Nation doesn't have the ability to completely subjugate all of the various Nations they control we even see them in this episode barely avoiding an assassination attempt From The Underground omashu resistance but they managed to keep control over their subjects with the implication of future subjugation you can free yourself but the Fire Nation will be back to take what's theirs so far we've barely seen Azula even use Force except as a last resort she tries to trick Zuko and iro onto her ship and she makes threats against her Captain when he says the tides aren't ideal for her Landing through this we see her capitalize on the reputation of the Fire Nation as created something as useful as any weapon a very important concept is introduced in this episode neutral Gene a means of achieving Victory by doing nothing the first real introduction of this idea we see is before the concept is introduced when boomi surrenders to the Fire Nation without so much as a battle as a king his responsibility is to his people defending in a long drawn out Siege would only lead to death and destruction as the Earth Kingdom forces are overwhelmed more and more and so by doing nothing boomi is able to keep as many of his citizens alive as possible so that they might join up with a larger force and stand a chance at the end of the episode Aang returns TomTom the baby to his fire nation parents the takeaway being that not everybody in the Fire Nation is completely Wicked many are simply going along with whatever is happening around them or are products of the environment in which they were raised we see members of the earth Kingdom resistance who are willing to sacrifice the lives of themselves and the civilians are harboring for their honor and we see the Fire Nation royalty who likely don't even realize the human cost of the war they're living in ignorance of in the end it's important to recognize innocent wherever it is book two chapter four the swamp the gangs are called to land in a swamp by a hypnotic Force end up crash landing everybody becoming separated in the ensuing confusion there they wander about in the search for each other but end up finding hallucinatory divisions instead katarasi is her mother Saka sees UA and Aang sees a girl he's never met before they reconvene and are attacked by a swamp monster who turns out to be a water vendor who can control the fluid inside of plants and Vines he teaches them that all of the swamp is connected just like all the world and introduces gang to his people a reclusive water bending tribe in the swamps the environmentalist themes of avatar The Last Airbender are so over that I honestly feel like it's a failure on my part not to have mentioned them up until now but they're nearly as important as an aspect of the narrative as balance or any of the other pseudo-religious aspects I'm pretending to understand creating a message of Environmental Protection is all well and good but It ultimately won't sell well unless you can get your target audience to understand why nature is something that's meant to be cherished in the Avatar franchise the natural world is constantly viewed as something that lives in opposition to the forces of wickedness in this world or rather that is only the wicked who would bother to disturb it the air Nomads lived in high temples where they co-existed with the creatures who lived there learning airbending from the Flying Bison the Earth kingdom was built with the aid of badger moles the first earthbenders even water bending is just something that occurred by the watu tribes observing tidal forces and the original firebenders were dragons creatures who the Fire Nation alleged had died out at their hands so of course the bad guys of the setting would be the ones to want to hunt a species to Extinction as well as the group whose arrival is heralded by soot and Ash in the swamp we see the connection between Earth and the people who live on it overtly with the Avatar's relationship to the trees being much stronger as an idealized version of a person living in harmony we're meant to see the Avatar as the ideal for when a natural relationship should look like and examples of people who best understand that kind of relationship granted we do see that relationship Through The Eyes of a group of people coded as backwards Hillbillies it goes to show that inspiration can come from any Source even those that you may not realize Aang recently learned of neutral Jing the ability to stay calm and react to the world instead of taking decisive action one way or another he believes that his earth-minning instructor is going to be somebody calm at peace with the world around them an episode like this perhapses from the idea that perhaps a typical mode of thinking about energies like jingus faulty after all tough is anything but passive book two episode five Avatar day the gang come across a village that celebrates an avatar day where Effigies of the last three avatars are burnt in a ceremony Eng publicly declares his dislike of the festival and asks why the villagers hate him to which they reply that Avatar Kyoshi killed their leader years ago Aang asked for the chance to prove his innocence and request Saka and Katara to gather the evidence evidence which proves that Kyoshi could not have been in the places she was at the time she had allegedly had been there but the justice system of the villagers doesn't care much for evidence and logic made worse when Kyoshi mantels Aang's body and confesses and Aang is sentenced to be boiled in oil instead but when assassins arrive trying to hunt the Avatar down destroying the village in the process Aang's sentence is reduced to community service the task of defeating the Invaders the game saved the town and the festival is changed to one that celebrates the Avatar instead but elsewhere in the earth Kingdom Zuko adopts the mask of the blue Spirit robbing citizens to provide for himself in iro but when iro deduces where their supplies are coming from and ask Zuko to avoid giving in to his worst urges Zuko abandons iro to continue his quest for the Avatar alone the dichotomy in this episode Between the A and B plots is I suspect a very intentional one Zuko giving in to his hatred and insecurity and abandoning the last family he has is a moment that Rings is so much worse after we've seen him very nearly achieve some sort of redemption it was clear that he was beginning to doubt his own role in the Fire Nation especially after being rescued by Aang twice and then betrayed by Azula so to see him very nearly make the right choice only to turn his back on a beloved character and regress the way that he has is heartbreaking and it needs an episode about Saka playing detective while Aang is cross-dressing to prevent total bleakness Saka is the only non-bender of the gang except maybe Momo and this is the first episode that begins to overtly play into those insecurities so far he's managed to make himself useful through his schemes and strategies as well as his level-headedness to temper the more impulsive personalities of the other characters but in this episode we begin to see that the others don't seem to Value these skills as much as they value their own of course the entire journey is about unleashing Aang's full potential as a binder and both he and Katara play vinyl roles to that so it can see Mr Osaka's role as tertiary to the main story like he's third Wheeling to the rest of the character's Dynamics Toff is introduced in the next episode rounding out the cast and giving a fuller Dynamic for Saka to play off of so this is the last episode for a while where he can really whinge about this sort of thing in a way that sets up his future arcs Aang has been spending more or less the entire Show's run trying to answer for his failings in the past and this episode shows that it's not just his failure in fleeing when the world needed him but then he has to answer for his past incarnations as well this episode shows us that self-improvement is a gradual process not something that can happen all at once even in future reincarnations Aang is attempting to improve his self-image and this is something that comes back extremely suddenly in the show's finale book two chapter six the Blind Bandit while seeking an earth-bending teacher the gang view the Earth Rumble a sort of professional bending tournament with elements of sumo and spectacle wrestling while there they see the power of the Blind Bandit a blind earthbender who despite being a young girl still manages to win with ease by detecting vibrations in the ground taking this literal interpretation of boomi's instructions to find somebody who listens to the Earth and tracks down the k-fabe of the flying Bandit a young noblewoman who lives a sheltered life due to her overprotective parents but Aang tries and fails to convince her to teach him earthbending as she doesn't want to leave her family behind at least until the duo are kidnapped for making the Earth Rumble participant look bad Toff reveals her proclivity for Earth bending to her parents while fighting off the kidnappers but rather than them seeing this and realizing she's much less fragile than they believe her father instead restricts her rights further in the end Toff runs away from home to live freely with the gang Toff wasn't originally a much different character the initial designs had her as a rough and vulgar teenage boy meant to serve as a parallel to saka's intellect and sarcasm this design is seen in the pre-episode animatics alongside the other bidding Masters but as the show was being developed the showrunners continued on with an inside joke of a little girl outpending several Masters and as it came closer and closer to tall's debut they eventually changed the character to the new design as she had grown on the writers elements of the original intention behind the character remained however including her Dynamic with Saka and her opposition to the typical personality one might expect of an expert vendor and of course this joke comes full circle in the episode The Ember Island players where top is portrayed as a muscular man the overall pacing of this episode I feel was a bit rushed and I can't help but imagine that it was at some point considered for a two-parter there are deleted segments from the episode's outline where the Earth Kingdom citizens originally claimed not to know where the Earth Rumble was being held only to later appear as background extras during the fight scenes but this was changed to a much more rushed blood where Katara simply assaults two boys for the info this on top of the fact that the boys later claimed that the bay Fong family had no daughter only for Aang to show up to their house as the Avatar later and immediately be seated at the same table as her it seems like many of the plot beats Were Meant to have more time and that they came across as Rush from the final episode considering that this is an episode where a new major character joins the gang you would expect a bit more Fanfare behind her debut I want to point this out because I don't know where else to put it but the song that plays during the first scenes with the bay fallen family is a variation on Mo Lee Hua or Jasmine flower which I only recognize because it's a Chinese theme from civilization VI it's well established that the Avatar franchise takes heavy influence from Eastern cultures and that influence goes far beyond Aesthetics expanding to the music and themes of the show as well it's not a surprise that the show commonly gets listed as anime on streaming sites because the inspiration goes so much deeper than just the character designs Book 2 chapter 7 Zuko alone hungry and tired Zuko rides into a dilapidated Earth Kingdom Town one run by bullies who use the absence of all them in a fighting age in order to steal food and supplies from the locals he's given shelter and food from a family after protecting their son Lee the bullies from before arrived to inform the family that their other son was killed while all fighting in the war and Zuko leaves only to be invited back when the mother from before informs him that Lee was captured when trying to defend the family he returns and fights the gang off revealing to the town in the process that he was a Firebender all along which draws their ire as they force him to leave again the episode is interspersed with flashbacks of Zuko's childhood where he's harassed by his sister Azula and discovers Iris to feed and disgrace his father ascending to the throne in his older brother's dead this episode draws heavy inspiration from old western films largely in the structure of a stranger wandering into a town to save the folks there from trouble the framing of the final fight scene even uses the long panning shots of outdoor stare downs one might expect to see prior to a shootout these westerns often focus on solitary anti-heroes those who have a dubious moral compass with emotional baggage yet they nevertheless do the right thing in the end the very structure of this episode then drags the point home that by this point Zuko is no longer an antagonist and antagonist is typically a character defined by their relationship to the protagonist the two being opposed to one another and having arcs that develop in tandem yet Aang's Journey has now moved so far beyond Zuko's that Zuko was able to have a standalone episode his story no longer being based fully on his relationship to the Avatar regardless of whether Zuko himself is aware of this fact the boy that Zuko mentors briefly in this episode is named Lee the same name Zuko used to disguise himself during the cave of Two Lovers Lee's family is torn apart by the invasion of the Fire Nation and Zuko himself has lost his familial connections to the conflict as well it's not a coincidence that they share the same name considering they share so much else it's also not a surprise that Zuko would want to leave them then being reminded of what it was that he's been fleeing in the first place because while Zuko claims to be searching for the Avatar in solitude the truth is that he's acknowledged his failures in this regard not so much because he failed to capture Aang but because he failed to regain his honor by discarding it in the search he abandons iro because he feels like he doesn't live up to the man's ideals just as much as he feels he shouldn't be dragged down by Ira's moral compass Zuko's ultimate goal is to achieve acceptance from a family that values power and fury despite Zuko himself only tenuously embodying those aspects he spent so long trying to become a more Furious person only for that Fury to end up hurting him and those he gets close to but far from acknowledging that he's wasted his life in pursuit of something that will make him happy he doubles down on that chase because without it who is he really book two chapter eight The Chase the gang settled in for a night when Katara and Toff get into an argument over distribution of chores Toph insists that she doesn't need to help set up because she doesn't need any help herself the argument is called off when Toff realizes they're being pursued by a fire nation tank piloted by Azula Tai Li and Vai and the Gang flies off on oppa's back the pursuit continues on and on as the gang becomes more tired and bedraggled culminating in an argument spurred on by their lack of sleep angered by the blame game tough storms off on her own but runs into iro who has been pursuing Zuko who has been pursuing the Fire Nation girls who have been pursuing the gang Aang sends a fake Trail and waits at the end of it forcing the pursuers to split up and Azula to face him alone but after a pep talk from iro Toff decides to reconvene with the rest of the gang just in time to surround and defeat Azula but not before she launches a cheap shot at iro fleeing in the ensuing confusion we've already established that Azula is a cold and ruthlessly efficient in the way that she governs and controls people and we get to see how that manifests in a combat scenario she's surrounded and understands that she can't fight her way out normally so she fakes a surrender and then attacks the weakest point of her aggressors iro is an old man and in azula's eyes a washed up failure and yet she also recognizes that azuko has enough affection for the man that he won't pursue her to attend to his wounds instead we've seen her blatant disregard for family in favor of self-preservation before so it isn't a surprise that she would attack a family member in this way this episode also establishes her pursuit of the gang is something with much greater Stakes than the previous season's Chase from Zuko because while Zuko would appear every so often to increase the stakes of an episode azula's Pursuit is something much more intimidating due to the fact that she doesn't have the same moral quandaries that can stop Zuko Zuko's weakness was his fondness for his uncle something we saw in the episode winter solstice and it was never a stretch that he might allow the gang to get away as there was something more important to it and do instead but with Azula she doesn't care who or what gets in her way she's even more well-equipped than Zuko as before the entire fire nation's military at the ready compared to a single warship piloted from exile and there are no members of the Fire Nation who stand to oppose her in the way that Zao was trying to stop Zuko before at least none who posed the same level of threat it's surprising that in the very next episode to feature her after her introduction there's already arguments that over toth's place in the group's Dynamic there's typically a bit more time to establish the non-functional dynamic between the cast before anybody points it out but here it makes it seem as though the group has been traveling together and by extension bickering for long enough that it would finally start to get on the nerves of the other members but because there's only a single episode Between the game taking off and landing at each other's throats it makes some of the characters feel a bit more unreasonable than perhaps was the intention in the end though this episode managed to get us a conversation between Toff and nairo that contained a level of maturity one would never expect to find in a conversation inside a show targeted at 11 year old and it's this sort of thing that makes Avatar such a beloved show in the first place book two chapter nine bitter work Aang finally begins his earth-bending training onto Toff but it's very slow going as he can barely grasp the fundamentals despite toss lessons on Stan sand mentality and can never manage to do much more than run away from his issues and approach from a different angle the antithesis of Earth bending he gets bummed down about his failures and runs away from fixing the issue only to eventually come across Saka who's been trapped in a sinkhole for the whole episode and needs Aang to urgently Earth Wind him out before he trampled by a saber-toothed moose lion it's not until Aang finally stands up to the Beast that Toff acknowledges that he's mastered the fundamentals and is finally ready to Earth Bend meanwhile Zuko learned lightning bending from iro in order to finally stand up to his sister each of the four Elemental bending types takes its roots from a real world style of martial arts occasionally multiple these martial arts styles are ostensibly made for self-defense but in a more literal sense their Arts to master for the sake of Mastery Kung Fu can be translated literally in a variety of ways but bitter work is the most accurate direct translation other translations go along the lines of hard work or difficult work but the general meaning is always the same martial arts are designed not to teach self-defense but mental strength and discipline they reinforce the strength that comes with waking up every morning and doing something that's hard and time consuming in the pursuit of self-improvement the mentality behind Earth bending isn't to look for clever Solutions or creative ways around a difficult problem but to directly face the task in front of you in the same sense a martial arts purpose is to build muscle not by coming up with a creative way of inflating the size of your body but by doing the same thing every day and so it's not a surprise that before 12th bothers to teach anything about earthbending she first gave them a lesson on the mentality behind earthbending and this mirrors the B plan of the episode a lesson in lightning bending from iro that also begins with a lesson on mental strength the two similar training sessions being placed back to back like this helps us to compare and contrast to two different bending Styles as well as the two different teaching styles lightning bending is something done without emotion the type of thing that only a completely detached person is able to do Azula is capable of mending lightning because she truly doesn't care for the well-being of the people she fights and earthbending is something that's the opposite rather than being completely emotionally detached Earth mending is done by completely immersing yourself in whatever Strife happens to be directly in front of you taking in the feeling but not allowing it to move you a minor yet very important distinction and of course the teaching styles of the two instructors is on display here as well iron was wise and his wisdom has come from experience as such he's able to teach Zuko about the different elements through his personal experience with each tribe on the other hand top is a prodigy she never had to learn earthbending as it was something that came naturally to her making teaching the subject difficult as it was something she never had to be taught herself as such she expressed his frustration when Aang does not immediately pick up the art and this frustration is contagious manifesting a self-doubt in Aang's mind book two chapter 10 the library the gang meets Professor Zay a scholar of anthropology who teaches them his life's work the search for the library of Juan ji Tong a knowledge Spirit lacking information on how to best assault the Fire Nation they agree to assist in the search and ultimately come across the ruins of a vast now buried Library wanjitong meets them at the front and urges them not to use the knowledge they gain in the library for ill purposes which they lie and agree to after a brief search Saka learns of The Darkest Day in Fire Nation history a historical Eclipse where they lost all their firebending Powers briefly much in the same way that the waterbenders lost their powers when Zios slew the moon spirit the research when the next eclipse will occur and make a plan to strike then but the knowledge Spirit becomes angry at their betrayal of his trust and destroys the library enraged at humankind's veracity to destruction the gang manages to escape since the professor only to learn that Oppo was kidnapped by sandbenders while Toph was busy trying to prevent the library from thinking it's interesting to see what this episode shows us about the mentality of the spirits most notably the perception of knowledge that wanchi Tong has Saka mentions that the only reason they need information on how to take down the Fire Nation is because they're attempting to take out an oppressing force and so their violence is Justified as preventative but one chitong doesn't see it that way to a spirit time is illusory so just because the Fire Nation takes over it still doesn't matter in the grander scheme of things and this then forces the audience to consider whether a fire nation Victory is even a negative thing in the long run Susan first invaded the rest of the world because he was intent on spreading the power in and history of the Fire Nation to the rest of the world the end goal being to bring the world into an era of prosperity it's possible that the world might have been better off with this sudden push towards industrialization and so we can see why an immortal Spirit wouldn't mind of course the narrative doesn't paint this threat that way in this very episode we see what the Fire Nation does with the knowledge they obtain destroying progress behind them so nobody can follow them into that greatness on their own the theory is that the Fire Nation is spreading Prosperity the reality matches up much more closely to the real world colonizing forces we've seen in our history there are a variety of factors that get explored in Greater detail later on that contribute to the idea of why the Fire Nation cannot and should not win but a spirit who embodies a single aspect knowledge would only care about the procurement of information going forward independent of the human cost of that knowledge this episode sets up the offensive Arc of the show so far most of what the Gang has done has been reactionary they fixed the fire nation's damage or flee the fire nation's Army through most of the show so far and this is the point where a strategy to fight back is finally formulated so of course this is the point where the morality of the conflict has to have attention drawn to it if you're simply defending yourself nobody will question whether the cause is just but when you go on the counter-offensive that's when you need to start asking if you're justified in the fighting that you initiate book two chapter 11 the desert [Music] without APA the gang is stranded in the desert forced to walk in order to find their way to safety Ang flies off on his own hoping to pursue his friend Saka drinks cactus juice and is too quenched to help out and Toff can't see through the sand to feel where they are so it's up to Katara alone to guide the gang out of the desert and she comes up with a plan to use the Stars to navigate to civilization they reconvene with Aang in time to find an abandoned sandbendership and navigate it to a magnetic Center where they find the group that stole APA Aang enters the Avatar State when he learns what they did to him and it takes guitar to calm him out of his Fury meanwhile iro and Zuko search for friends of arrows who aren't trying to hunt them down and he decides to reach out to a White Lotus contact for support this gives them a means of traveling to bossing say posing as refugees during the events of avatar The Last Airbender APA is implied to be the last of his kind just as Aang is the last of the Airbenders Flying Bison and Airbenders have a close relationship with each Airbender receiving a Flying Bison at an early age to become their lifelong companion so the relationship between Aang and APA has a metaphorical significance in addition to the more literal one their only other one has Aang feels just as distressed over office separation as oppa is sure to feel and he's thrown into a rage one so intense that many of his previous personality traits get ignored one of the Buzzard wasp that has attacked the gang tries to carry off Momo and Aang hunts him down rescuing His companion but even after the chase is over Aang still launches an attack knocking the bug out of the air despite no need to do so for a character who's normally a pacifist and animal lover to attack a living creature for no reason other than the fact that he's under stress shows us just how much the relationship meant to Aang we've even seen traces of this before Aang initially tries to stay out of the argument between Katara and Toff during the chase but he finally intervenes when APA isn't given the respect he deserves this episode also has some payoff for the ongoing White Lotus concept to Ira's character it's been hinted at as something deeper going on behind the scenes for a while so to see or at least hear about the white lotus's effects on the world and resources helps to set up future plot lines involving them things like this build the world so well and that they're introduced so far back helps to sell the believability of all of it in the end though this episode really is katara's time to shine each member of the gang is incapacitated somehow whether it's a physical limitation or an emotional one and she's the sole person able to keep a level head and continue to work for the group's Mutual benefit in this way we get to see the real strength of her character not a physical power but an emotional strength despite all of the setbacks she alone has the power to not give up on Hope and without her the entire group would have fallen apart multiple times book two chapter 12 the Serpent's Pass the gang make an attempt to enter the Earth Kingdom and they have to cross a lake on the border first there are two ways of going across the safe route by fairy or the dangerous Trek across a strip of land known as the Serpent's Pass they attempt to use the fairy first but when a group including a pregnant woman they befriend along the way is denied entry they decide the right thing to do is to escort them along the pass helped out with tsuki from the episode The Kyoshi Warriors joins them they managed to evade sea serpents and a fire nation blockade making it to the end of the trail and also successfully delivering the baby but when Aang reaches the top of the wall of bashing say he notices a massive fire nation drill headed for the wall in the B plot lairo and Zuko take the ferry across the water befriending jet and his freedom fighters when they raid the pantry of the ship's captain this episode originally aired as a two-parter alongside the drill in a duology titled the secret of the Fire Nation it functions as a character-centric episode to exist in contrast to the more action-oriented the drill something to lead into a miniature climax of conflict though the real reason these episodes were bundled together was a promotional stunt for a card game so the connection is tenuous but it at least works that said the connection between this episode and the next one does come up through a bit more clearly in the B plot involving Zuko and Jet the setup is all in the first episode which doesn't conclude with any real sense of finality it's for the payoff to come later Saka spends a majority of this episode trying to protect Suki from harm only to learn by the end that the only reason she tagged along was so she could protect him instead he makes an assumption based off of his past experiences and roles with it not realizing the bigger picture of what's going on the first time these two interacted Saka learned an important moral regarding tsuki's ability to protect herself and here it almost seems as though he's forgotten all of that but it's not as though his character is regressing Instead This protective streak is viewed as him being forced to move beyond the trauma of losing UA in the season one finale speaking of moving on past trauma Aang also has to accept the loss of oppa during this episode at first he lashes out in a rage against those who harmed him but then he relents and let himself go into the opposite extreme refusing to acknowledge his emotions at all of course this goes contrary to his recent earth-bending training earthbending is all about the emotional stability of accepting pain and moving straight past it rather than dwelling on or avoiding the feelings that come with that pain it's a lesson that he's partially learned in the previous few episodes but is not until here that he really has to put the emotional art to learn through his training into practice Book 2 chapter 13. the drill iro and Zuko enter the city of basing say making their way through security as refugees alongside some of Jet's crew jet tries to court Zuko into joining impressed with his abilities during the raid in the previous episode but Zuko denies his request as Jed is about to leave the duo alone he notices iro using firebending to heat up a cup of tea and begins piecing together their true identities the gang convened together to destroy the fire nation's drill injuring the machine in order to destroy it from the inside but azula's Trio make an attempt to stop them culminating in a showdown atop the drill itself where Aang defeats Azula and ruins the fire nation's plans being an action-oriented episode the drill has much less character Focus to analyze but that's not to say that there is none there's a threat through this episode where Saka gets insulted for not contributing enough despite him being acknowledged as the plans guy by the gang earlier in the episode for an episode that goes to Great Lengths to show each character's contributions it's surprising that the writers would call Osaka useless so often here it does however set up an aspect of his character that gets built upon later on speaking during the book 3 episode sako's master likewise this episode also characterizes Jet and Zuko together both of them are looking for a new life in bossing say the implication being that judge has taken his run in with the Avatar to heart and is trying to find atonement in his new role as a refugee but this is something he ultimately fails to do when he suspects that iro is a Firebender he regresses to his old ways consumed once again by the hatred that drove him to his previous Behavior this episode serves as a sort of final exam for Aang's earthbending development Arc at first it seems as though the drill is too much effort to completely dismantle but he uses his bending masteries to change the plan to focus not on destroying it but weakening it enough that it can be destroyed in another way through his lessons he's been taught that you can't evade your issues you have to tackle them head on and yet it's actually the head-on approach that's dismissed as being too slow to be viable this isn't a failure to take to heart the emotional aspect of earthbending but rather a success in incorporating that lesson with the knowledge he already has he combines the mentality of evading a direct attack with the mentality of embracing a direct attack and uses a synthesis of both Styles in order to ultimately destroy the fire nation's Ambitions to breach the wall a feat that proves his worthiness as a master of all the elements and of course this isn't just a reflection of his tactics but his personality as well as soon as Aang takes stock of the situation involving the drill he declares himself the Avatar and volunteers his help during previous episodes we've repeatedly seen Aang hiding his identity as the Avatar part of this was because he was a wanted criminal in many regions but part of it was him waiting out a situation and trying to reveal himself at the right time something that was a reflection of the parts of him that wanted to avoid conflict whenever necessary but after learning earth-pinning ideals Ang has become a more assertive person the type to recognize that sometimes the safest path to Victory is also the most direct Book 2 chapter 14 city of wolves and secrets the gang arrive in bossing say and have an agent dispatched to welcome them giving them a tour of the city showing them where they'll be staying and refusing to listen to their urgent news regarding the war the rest of the city doesn't prove helpful either as nobody seems to so much acknowledge that there's even a war going on they make a plan to sneak into a gathering so they can talk to the earth king directly but are foiled when cultural agents of the government manage to extract them from the party and sit them down to explain that there is no war in bossing say and people who think there is a war in bossing say are taken away something we see in the B plot when jet tries to confront Zuko about being a Firebender and gets taken away for some government-sponsored brainwashing if the drill was a final exam for Aang's earthbending mentality this episode introduces a new kind of conflict entirely rather than a simple problem with the head-on solution the city of Boston say is a complex Beast whose internal machinations can't be overcome with emotional strength instead the straightforward solution of trying to forego formality and directly address the king is met with a strict retaliatory gesture the real power in bossings say does not appreciate any disruptions even if it's a change for the better an Ang's failure to navigate the political complexities of the city result in a fire nation Victory not on the battlefield but in the offices that really control things because for all the combat experience Aang is getting he's yet to receive any teachings on politicking so Azula is able to outmaneuver the gang in this way taking control of the city not through a Siege or a direct battle but through an internal coup later on both Aang and Toff dislike the way the city runs itself as it goes contrary to the ideals they've internalized Aang was raised by the air Nomads a group of people who were free-spirited and only Loosely followed Authority something that appeared to be granted to People based on experience and Toff was born into nobility placed into a position where she would be skilled at navigating this sort of ordeal yet she actively rejected the Noble's life in favor of traveling with the game this was the first true big city that the Gang has ever come across where they were also considered Outsiders at the North Pole they were welcomed guests members of a sister tribe and also familiar with many of the cultural norms and way of life but in the earth Kingdom all of the gang are Outsiders except for Toff but she's also actively rejected what little Noble culture her parents ever allowed her to be exposed to so far many of the conflicts in Avatar have been straightforward in the sense that the enemy is well known or at least identifiable the Fire Nation is a known enemy the fire lord is the head of that group gent reveals himself to be working against the overall well-being of humanity despite himself believing otherwise although you can still point to him and say that he's doing wrong but this is the point where the antagonist becomes much less clear the secretary of the earth king is clearly at the center of a grand conspiracy against the common good but the solution not how to defeat this enemy is not so straightforward as a fight and it will take an altogether brand new strategy to figure out the way forward book two chapter 15. the tales of bossing say the tale of Toff and Katara disgusted by her lack of feminine appeal Katara takes Toff to a spa to be pampered despite her initial apprehension to the idea toffee's up coming around to the spa and the two Lee feeling refreshed but when a group of high society girls insults her appearance Toff and Katara worked together to give them a comeuppance and they bond over their mutual appreciation for each other the tale of Eng visits a zoo for hints on Opera's whereabouts to no success and he'll amidst the poor conditions of the animals that are left in so Aang frees the animals with the intention of giving them an open area to Rome they Stampede through the city for a while before ultimately he gets the idea to use apa's whistle to Corral them Corral them to a place where he can earthbend a better habitat for the creatures the tale of Saka Saka stumbles into a haiku lesson while ogling the girls inside and accidentally impresses them with his prose he gets into a Haiku Battle with the instructor but loses when he accidentally includes a sixth syllable getting tossed back onto the streets [Music] the tale of Zuko Zuko worries about another customer stalking him only for Ira to point out that it's merely a local girl who has developed a crush so the two begrudgingly go on a date only for Zuko to blow it as he's inexperienced in the ways of normal social interaction in the end he's able to use some firebending to salvage some sort of romance from the night only to turn away at the last second because he doesn't want her getting close to a wanted Fire Nation exile [Music] the tale of Momo Momo searches for Oppa on his own but fails to find any evidence and worse gets cornered by Street Cats yet when he and the cats are captured Momo decides to forgive them and escape with his former foes so they repay him by Leading Momo to a footprint with the same scent as his lost friend the tale of iro of course I had to include this one last iro travels the city preparing for a picnic and helping out those he encounters even a man who attempts to Rob him after improving everybody's life he retreats to a quiet Hill to celebrate a birthday the birthday of his son lieuten who he can no longer help Book 2 chapter 16. oppa's lost days the episode follows APA as he is taken by the sandbenders and sold to traders who then sell him to a circus where an abusive ring master instills in him a fear of Fire he performs for them until a boy resembling Aang encourages him to escape which he does during a performance flying back to the desert where he was before but finding no sign of Aang he wanders around aimlessly until he's rescued by The kiyoshi Warriors but they cover for his Escape when azula's Trio shows up having tracked him to their location he flies to the Eastern air Temple recognizing it as a place for Airbenders and comes across Guru fatigue a spiritual guide who helps to reunite him with Aang but just before oppa can finally reconnect with his friends he's taken by long Fang into an underground chamber despite having very limited dialogue this episode still manages to make so many callbacks to other stories that we haven't seen following the end of their introductory episode some are closer some much further for example in the umbrella the sandbenders removed from office saddlebag is the same one they received during the episode the fortune teller the sandbinder vessel that oppa destroys while he's being taken is the same one that the gang was able to recover in the desert and the circus Alpha is sold to is the same circus Tai Li used to perform in no doubt trying to find a replacement act for their retired Acrobat and it also makes a subtle reference to the Future the water tribe vessel he flies over is being ridden by hakoda the father of Saka and Katara the spiritual connection between Aang and Oppa is something that's been hinted at multiple times before a similar method of detecting each other at long distances is used during the swamp and we've even seen parallels as early as season 1 between Avatar Roku and his Dragon Fang so despite the heavily spiritual themes this episode has in what is otherwise a pretty established power system is able to expand on what characters can do in a believable Way by including subtle hints like this beforehand all ending heavily to the show's ability to get its audience to believe in the world Book 2 chapter 17 Lake Lau guy the gang continued their Search for Oppa drawing continued frustration with the dilee who are concerned that the search May interrupt their control over the city so they create a plan to use Jed who was recently brainwashed to lure them as far away from the city as possible but when the rest of his freedom fighters catch up with him and show concern the story starts to show a few holes Toph is able to use slight vibrations to tell who is lying and Saka deduces said he was brainwashed with the gang managing to reverse engineer the truth that jet and by extension oppa were taken to an underground series of caves beneath the lake Lau guy but their search has also attracted the attention of Zuko who once again adopts the bloop Spirit Persona to capture oppa before Ang can when he succeeds iro follows him and tells him that he needs to cease his pursuit of the Avatar in order to focus on what he really wants angonjet managed to reach the chamber where Apple was being held but jet is mortally Ish it was really unclear wounded in the fight against long Fang eventually it's revealed that Zuko decided to free oppa when he reunites with the gang in time for a grand rescue many of the subplots of this episode are about moving on and throwing away past grudges the gang are hesitant to trust the Gen at first even after they agree to work with him guitar still doesn't trust him it's only her Trust of toff's intuition that allows her to go along but Jen is able to earn their respect again through his actions and is able to prove that he's moved beyond the ends justify the means mentality that caused people so much harm in the first place likewise Zuko finally retires the blue spirit mask after freeing oppa upon realizing that the reason he adopted the Persona in the first place is no longer something valid he only wants to capture the Avatar to restore his honor but perhaps restoring Honor doesn't have to mean repairing it in this episode he performs one of the most honorable actions of the series freeing a chained animal to help a rifle and it does more to achieve his real goal than any amount of chasing Aang ever could have done Jed is killed in its episode I mean he's not killed just left to die his character never comes back in future episodes and a story arc where he lets the wounds of past grudges heal so he can move on and redeem himself is also fulfilled so he's killed off just not so Nickelodeon Executives were hesitant to let a character's death be shown on screen leaving his ending ambiguous this resistance to showing death on screen actually gets used to the series's advantage and that it necessitated Aang's refusal to kill being a part of his character repeatedly we're shown that it's his empathy even for his foes that sets him Above the Rest of the cast as somebody to look up to so it's interesting that a restriction would create one of the strongest aspects of his characterization one of the best ways to really show off a character's utility to a group's Dynamic is to have them missing for a few episodes in order to really show off how much of a limitation their absence is APA being lost for the better part of Eight Episodes really drives home how much of a team member he is just as much as anybody else and now that this lesson has learned his reunion with the gang feels that much more impactful book two chapter 18 the earth king after thwarting the Dai Lee the gang hopes that they can make a case against the conspiracy while they're on a victory spree they Assault The Palace directly apologetically attacking the Earth Kingdom guards and forced their way into the inner sanctum where they plead for the king to listen to reason after convincing him to investigate the matter he swayed by the remains of the drill and its Fire Nation Insignia and so the earth king arrests along Fang and pledges his support to team Avatar in their assault against the Fire Nation on the upcoming day of black Sun with the dyingly incapacitated the gang is able to find a series of intercepting letters Katara and Saka learning of their father's whereabouts tough hearing that her mother has planned to reunite and Aang's learning of Guru fatigue's residency in the Eastern air Temple they agreed to split up and things are looking good but Tom's reunion turns out to be an ambush the daily Warriors are shown to still have loyalties to Long Fang and the kiyoshi Warriors that Saka has vouched for are actually azula's group in disguise despite the emotional training Aang has been undergoing recently he still fails to detect many of the true threats to bossing say and ultimately ends up playing into its demise in an attempt to help it was the weakening of the daily but not outright destruction that ultimately led to Azula being able to use long face desperation to return to power as a weapon to take over he's been learning about taking Swift total and decisive action against threats in order to master the element of Earth bending so far but that's not quite so easy to do when there isn't a single clear threat in front of him a giant drill is easy but a giant conspiracy not so much Zuko undergoes a physical ailment in this episode purely because he did something that he felt was contradictory to his true nature the split in his mind between what he wants and what he needs forces him into a series of nightmares about losing his identity if he isn't the prince of the fire nation seeking the Avatar then what is he during this episode it seems as though he finally makes up his mind about what it is that he wants but later on in the season he ends up backing out of that Epiphany and returns to trying to restore himself to his own position beside his family but it isn't as though this Epiphany was something totally wasted Zuko eventually gets what he's been chasing for these last two seasons only to regret the choices leading up to his honor being restored and seeking Redemption through the third season if he hadn't had this crisis of identity that Arc couldn't hold the same weight and he'd simply go back to being another villain on the roster this episode's ultimate purpose is to set up the two-parter finale of the guru and The Crossroads of Destiny it starts off on a high note and maintains that tone throughout before shifting suddenly to a threatening Aura one that rather than quickly raising the stakes in an artificial way instead reveals that the previously high stakes were just as high as before and that the piece at the start of the episode was the only illusion Book 2 chapter 19 the guru Toff is being transported home by the earthbenders who have been seeking her since near the beginning of the Season confident that she won't be able to escape due to the metal cage she's placed inside of but she's able to detect impurities in the metal itself as metal is simply Earth refined with fire and bends our way out Katara learns of the fire nation's infiltration of bossing say when she comes across Zuko and Ira's new tea shop and she's thrown into the crystal Caverns alongside Zuko who was arrested in a trap set by Azula currently in the process of staging a coup of the earth Kingdom's capital city by manipulating the daily Saka seeks to prove his strength to his father but learns that it's unnecessary as his father knew he'd become strong enough to protect the village Aang meets with batik in order to learn Mastery of the Avatar State a process that involves opening a series of chakras by letting go of mistakes and faults of his past with the careful guidance of the guru he's able to open six of the seven chakras needed but the last one involves letting go of his Earthly attachments something he cannot do because he holds too much love for Katara in his heart and he gives up on completing his training in order to save her from the danger he's detected this episode has the most overt usage of the connection between emotions and bending prowess than anything in the series so far it's basically a confirmation that an aspect of the world that has up to this point only been hinted at was in fact one of the core themes all along in order to master the Avatar State it's vital that Ang learned to open chakras which are open by reaching different Milestones of emotional stability each of these Milestones plays into embracing an aspect of each bending Style's core tenant for example Aang has to learn to reject the emotion of fear to unlock the Earth chakra and Earth is the bending Style strengthened by attacking problems head on showing no fear this process leans into the emotional history of the show so far and more or less lays out all of Aang's insecurities before the audience to show him moving past everything to become the person he was meant to be but he doesn't in the end Aang refuses to accept that he has to let go of his attachment to Katara in order to fulfill his Destiny to him some things are more important than a pre-prescribed fate and he's right to do so even if the more immediate effects of this decision are negative because the rest of the chakra unlocking processes are also things that are only superficially good ideas the concept of Simply accepting that bad things happen and then moving on is not a good way to live one's life if something bad happens don't just accept it try and make sure it won't happen again and apologize to anybody you hurt clearing your head of all of your fears sounds nice but living without fear is a good way to wind up hurt by your own overconfidence ultimately Aang speaks to iro about his failure to open all the chakras and master the Avatar State showing fear that he may have damaged his ability to defeat the Fire Nation but iro in his wisdom Comforts Aang saying that any power gained through forgetting what you love is power not worth having and for a man who lost his son in a military campaign that he was leading this lesson becomes all the more poignant [Music] book two Chapter 20 The Crossroads of Destiny Aang Saka and Katara reunite in order to warn the earth king of the incoming danger but he insists there's nothing going on it isn't until iro meets up with them in order to ask for help rescuing Zuko that they begin to realize their intuition was right Saka Nang only reluctantly agreed to assist iro in order to help rescue Katara but they're too late in arriving to warn the earth king as the fake Yoshi Warriors have already infiltrated Katara and Zuko bond in their cell over what the war has taken from them and Katara begins to understand that perhaps Zuko really has changed for the better they're broken out by iro and Eng while Toph uses her new metal bending abilities to bail out herself Saka and the earth king Zuko Katara Ang and Azula meet underground for a showdown only for Zuko to betray the others and assist his sister who hits Aang with the lightning bolt right when he finally builds up the resolve to enter the Avatar state the city falls to the Fire Nation and the Gang flee with Katara using the spirit water she obtained from the North Pole to resurrect Ang the Final Chapter titles of books one and three are both names of the battles that take place surrounding the events of the plot but the final chapter of book 2 instead gets titled after an internal battle and even then not one that the primary cast is fighting in The Crossroads of Destiny is nearly said verbatim to Zuko the character who really gets to be in the spotlight for this episode because while the rest of the cast has a big important battle to fight Zuko is the one who really gets to shift the conflict in One Direction or the other Azula herself says that the dilee are only going to follow the force that appears to be coming out on top so if Zuko had turned on her and made the final 3v1 it's likely that the dilee would have collapsed without a leader longfang had recently shown his weakness in their eyes and the Earth Kingdom would have been saved all of these consequences for a single character's actions It ultimately plays to the intimidating force of azula's character Zuko has undergone two whole seasons of growth away from his past learning to make his own way in life and not let himself be controlled by others but two seasons of self-improvement pale in comparison to a lifetime of tactics in manipulation and inducing trauma and Zuko is able to be convinced to return to his starkist personality once again it comes across as though we just watched a character train themselves physically for two seasons only to get overpowered by the villain anyway fire is the element of willpower and showing azula's willpower to be this overpowering also helps to support her strength as a bender and it's not the only time she does this in this episode in The Ultimate Showdown against long Fang she mentions the Dai Lee being loyal to whoever is the most powerful purely self-interested people and all she has to do is sit down on the throne to get them to follow her ultimately this episode serves as the Act 2 low point the point in a story where everyone's at their lowest and they have the most obstacles in front of them yet Aang has spent most of the episode focusing on mastering his third element so that he might begin to plan the attack against the Fire Nation only for that training not to be enough and the Gang to lose the one Competitive Edge they thought they had it makes the struggle seem less straightforward and thus audience is more engaged to want to see how it all concludes book three fire book three is the final book of avatar The Last Airbender and it's the last act in this the react structure but more importantly than setting up the future story it exemplifies the story that the showrunners have been wanting to tell since the very beginning book 3 has the least filler of any book so far and is by far the most story focused of anything we've seen it's the antithesis of everything that Network Executives have been taught makes a successful television show and it's one of the first to play into this idea in such a successful way each book's conclusion has brought in more viewership than any other episode to that point and that readings Point has only been elevated as the show continued on to the point that the finale of The Last Airbender broke the show's viewership records with an astounding 5.6 million viewers tuning in to see and confront the fire lord so book three is the point where all the limitations have been pulled back and the showrunners were finally free to do what they've been building up to for the last two years and it's rather fitting that this culmination comes at the same time that Aang himself begins to finish out his Avatar training mastering the last of the four elements needed fire this new element comes with a whole new set of emotions to master and it isn't only Aang who has to go through these trials the audience too gives Dusty a darker element to the show in its tone and even its structure without the first two books of setup in preparation for this shift the third book easily could have come across as melodramatic or even edgy but Avatar manages to earn its emotional beats through thorough character studies that prep audiences to take in the heavier moments with the context of why those moments exist in the first place book three chapter one The Awakening awakens on a fire nation vessel confused and disoriented it takes his friends to calm him down and explain the situation they lost the battle in bossing say and the city fell but they're still planning on going along with the plan to assault the Fire Nation on the day of black sun and rather than looking at the bad side of things they're looking optimistically at the idea that the world believes Aang is dead they're aboard a fire nation vessel that they've stolen and disguised themselves to pass safely through Foreign Waters but the gang is constantly on edge as they hide from fire nation's suspicions unhappy with the situation and unhappy with the world thinking he failed again Aang runs away only to be saved by the spirit of Avatar Roku and UA they Inspire him to keep fighting and Aang gives into the idea of laying low for a while meanwhile Zuko has returned victoriously to the Fire Nation shocked that his father has admitted his pride in his son as Azula lied and claimed it was he who slew the Avatar at bossing say but knowing that Azula could never do a good deed out of the kindness of her heart he interrogates her and learns that she's doubtful of the Avatar's actual demons the primary reason Aang runs away to alert the world to his survival is because of a concept I've mentioned many times before the Avatar is a symbol of Hope a person that people of the world can look up to to know that there's at least one force still fighting for balance so for the world to assume that he's dead after the battle at bossing say would mean an era of darkness equal to the state he found the world back in back in season one with the fire nation's inevitable Victory all but a matter of time this is compounded with the fact that Angus already failed once before the war even began in the first time when he fled his responsibilities a failure which has haunted him for two seasons unsurprisingly running from his responsibilities again doesn't result in much improvement for his situation but this time he has the immediate support of his friends to help him cope with that fact not to mention Heroku reminding him that he failed as well Zuko has returned to the Fire Nation and received a positive affirmation from his father two of the three things he's always wanted in life the only hitch is that he didn't get the third capturing the Avatar and so the first two feel hollow and empty because they are Azula lied about Zuko's success because she wants to make sure that the praise she might have claimed doesn't turn into blame on the off chance that aim survived and if that turns out not to be the case she at the very least has the emotional blackmail over her brother that can turn his position of acceptance into the very shame that once motivated Zuko in the end this is not an episode about Second Chances ing has already received a second chance when he was found inside the iceberg an opportunity to undo the wrongs he's caused to the world and even then that first attempt was a second chance at correcting the mistakes of Avatar Roku who failed to stop the war in the first place Zuko too believes he's getting a second chance at his life but that's not the case either his second chance without the tea shop in passing say a second chance he jumped at a chance to let go of the insecurities had to find him for so long but when Azula destroyed that new Fresh Start he was brought back to his own life far from the one that he would want knowing now what's on the other side book 3 chapter 2 the headband hoping to no longer live in hiding the gang steals a set of Fire Nation clothes in order to blend into the society they're hiding from but since Aang's outfit is a school uniform he gets caught for playing hooky and sent to a fire nation school but far from it being a negative experience he enjoys the ability to see what life is like for the other side of the world learning their cultural ideas and their ways of life but when he discovers just how little culture they truly have in their cities he decides that the best way to reach out to the kids is by throwing a dance party a party where everyone can learn to let go of their inhibitions and live a little bit less like Fire Nation citizens and more like individuals meanwhile Zuko seeks wisdom from an imprisoned iro but iro doesn't respond to his pleas for Assurance in the end he resorts to hiring an assassin to finish the job that he couldn't to end the Avatar the previous episode has a lot of drama the rest of the season does too since we're nearing the culmination of several character arcs and story beats that comes with the implication of a much more serious tone to the narrative as well as the implication that things will get dark and fast so having an episode about Aang throwing a fun dance party is a way of preventing the show from getting too edgy for General audiences let alone 7 to 13 year olds but it isn't just the audience that needs us tearing up the Fire Nation kids living under a militaristic society's dictator likely don't get too many chances at light-hearted happiness either and so Aang's attempted giving them just a little bit of fun is a chance to make the overall tone a bit brighter even if they are citizens of a hostile Nation it's not as though their enemy combatant the children are just as much victims of the fire lord as anybody else mizuko has spent so long searching for the Avatar that he's forgotten what his plan was once he captured him his childhood was far from a peaceful one he was tormented by his sister and lived in fear of his father and yet it's that same childhood fear that he's now returned to being back in the Fire Nation comes with its own set of challenges that are distinct from the ones he's been facing so far and Zuko May soon find that he's adapted to living in the woods off of whatever he can feel that a cozy Palace like with a goth GF is weird and foreign to him he tries to seek out a return to form and the person with whom he was closest during his Halcyon Days iro but iro refuses to offer guidance to a person who refuses to listen to it one thing that gets mentioned about this episode's framing a lot that I'll add to the file is the fact that in all of the shots of Ira and Zuko in the prison iro is never shown with bars in front of his face while Zuko is consistently shown through the metal lattice the metaphor is obvious iro is spiritually free while Zuko is emotionally trapped a prisoner of his own mind which from what the show's subtext tells us is a much worse prison than any physical location can be [Music] book 3 chapter 3 The Painted Lady the gang are searching for food and come across a starving fishing Village Zhang Hui one that's been choked off by a factory polluting the river on which they had sustained themselves but the people believe in the legend of the Painted Lady a River Spirit who protects the Village from harm when Katara begins to feel Sympathy for the dejected people she disguises herself as their matron deity and begins handing out food and curing the ill and catches her going out like this and decides to help which eventually results in the duo destroying the factory that's been damaging the environment in the first place this draws the ire of the factory Foreman who visits the village to destroy it as he assumes it was the people of the village who attacked him and the Gang are forced to band together to defend the village before ultimately encouraging the people not to wait around for River spirits to protect them but to do it themselves at the end of this episode guitar Ray is revealed as the Painted Lady to the town's folk who immediately pieced together that she's actually a water bender for a moment they turn on her for being from a different Nation but Shaka cools their heads and reminds them that she saved them from oppression and that they should be grateful that anyone cares regardless of where that person is from they end up accepting that idea and are able to be convinced to clean up the river on which they live this whole interaction draws comparison to the episode Zuko alone where a foreigner assists a struggling Village and the villagers turn on the outsider when they learn the truth but while the Earth Kingdom villagers were aggressive and resentful the people of the Fire Nation were quicker to come around and accept the help which paints an interesting image of each nation's perception of Outsiders it's possible that the people of the earth kingdom are even more hostile to Outsiders due to the fact that they're in the midst of an invasion so a fire nation Royal showing up in their town in the middle of a war would rightfully be met with suspicion no matter their actual Deeds on the other hand Jang kui is part of an Empire that's invading other nations and so the actual citizens of said nations are victims rather than hostile attackers this episode's moral plays into the larger themes of avatar The Last Airbender and that it chastises the villagers who sat around waiting for a savior much in the same way that much of the world waited around for the Avatar to rescue them from Fire Nation aggression especially after Aang has suffered a crisis about the fact that to the World At Large he's a failure it's helpful to see him see this sort of message even if he fails it's not as though hope should be completely lost Aang was never supposed to defeat the forces of wickedness on his own merely to lead others to that salvation that they want another parallel made is to the book one episode imprisoned once again there's a group oppressed by the Fire Nation and once again it's Katara who tries Extreme Measures to rescue them but while Katara is motivated in the first book by her guilt over the arrest of Haru here she's motivated purely by the suffering despite her having no actual role in causing it even actively working to solve the overarching issues so despite her sense of morality staying the same throughout the show Katara still develops in terms of how much conviction those ideals have book 3 chapter 4 saka's master the gang all worked together to put out a fire started by a falling meteor except for Saka who mostly just waits around while everybody else bends self-conscious about his lack of abilities he decides to train with the swordmaster in order to have a skill that's his own despite not having much formal training the master Pian Dao takes him in anyway and Saka quickly distinguishes himself by doing everything in ways that his instructor didn't intend but far from being disappointed in his student Pian Dao is impressed by saka's Ingenuity and rewards him by allowing him to create his own sword and giving him a White Lotus title while all of this is going on the rest of the gang lasers around unsure what to do with themselves while iro reveals that he's been spending his prison time exercising while biting his time saka's insecurities about his lack of bending is a plot Point that's been set up for a while now and his martial skills and ability to pick up new topics quickly is something he's been expressing for even longer consider how after only a few days he was able to pick up the fan style of the Kyoshi Warriors or that shortly after seeing the schematics of the drill he comes up with a way to destroy it from the inside it's fitting then that after only a few hours of training he's managed to impress piano enough to be declared a future swordmaster and receives what might be an invitation to the White Lotus the White Lotus is an organization dedicated to aiding the Avatar throughout his incarnations as well as keeping and spreading knowledge through the world its role in the world is something that remains esoteric and secretive during the events of The Last Airbender and only gets elaborated on fully and later works but the general idea is still the same stay out of the spotlight and influence events subtly something that saka's been doing since the very beginning of the show so naturally it makes sense that he would be scouted as a potential member assuming that's what the gift was in the first place pandale reveals at the end of the episode that he's known the identities of the gang for a while and says that he chose to train Saka despite this because the art of Sword Mastery isn't something that's inherent to any one nation or culture in fact it's actually the combination of multiple cultures coming together to create one greater art form that truly creates an ideal fighting style another White Lotus member iro also uses his knowledge of the various Nations to improve his own bending we see in the episode bitter work that the knowledge of other elements can enhance one's own bending proficiency and perhaps this is why the fire nation's Victory is ultimately a terrible thing for the world the Fire Nation reviles any knowledge of outside cultures believing Bears to be the greatest and thus the only one worth studying and since the beginning of the Hundred Year War the Fire Nation has taken active efforts to suppress the flow of information from outside their own culture the order of the White Lotus typically tries to stay out of political Affairs unless absolutely necessary and this suppression of knowledge goes against one of their core tenants thus why they involved themselves towards the end of the book book 3 chapter 5 the beach the Fire Nation children are sent to Ember Island to enjoy the beach while ozai has a private meeting with his counselors they're encouraged to relax and learn about themselves which they do when they get hyper-competitive at volleyball and attend a regular teenager party a party that nobody there fits into as they've never had the luxury of being normal social kids when Zuko is kicked out for throwing a tantrum he returns to the family's old house and limits over how much has changed the four have a bonfire that night destroying old heirlooms while they argue over their insecurities meanwhile the gang are trying to enjoy some downtime when two Fire Nation soldiers notice Aang's tattoos and send the letter that the Avatar has returned which gets intercepted by combustion man the Assassins you go hired before and he moves in to destroy Aang only narrowly failing to do so it only gets touched upon briefly in book one but the major purpose of this episode is driving home the fact that most of the main cast of this show are teenagers teenagers denied a childhood due to the Hundred Year War these moments of respite occur seldomly and when they do are often changed with anxiety over the present and the future even Aang can't relax without accidentally revealing his existence to the Fire Nation and almost getting the gang killed and we see further consequences of these missing formative years during the party of the Fire Nation teenagers attend none of them are able to have a normal interaction with people their age Ty Lee is getting flooded with attention to the point of being overwhelmed Zuko is throwing a tantrum and getting kicked out Mai is unable to let herself have any fun and Azula is unable to move herself out of attack mode especially for a show that leans so heavily into the emotional strength aspect of its combat Arts the lack of proper maturity for any of the cast is something that's as relevant to the ongoing fight against the Fire Nation as any sort of development on the front lines I've mentioned this before but there really is no such thing as a filler episode in a franchise-like avatar the combination of strong World building strong characters and a strong plot all mean that it's impossible to have an episode that's truly Irrelevant in the grand scheme of things an episode where most of the main cast hang around at the beach would in most other franchises be an opportunity to relax and show the lighter side of things but in Avatar it's one of the purest characters in trick episode of the whole first three books initially the beach was meant to focus on the game with its a plot while the b-plot was all about the Fire Nation but as the idea developed it was clear that there was more to do with the Fire Nation teams than they initially thought and soon they became the focus of the episode with the gang only around for pacing interludes between Fire Nation plot Beats and this is to the strength of the show as a whole this episode is the first in-show exploration of the backstory of many of the Fire Nation characters with The Following episode filling in a few of the gaps and ultimately serves to flesh out the conflict even more by giving us a better understanding of the people driving both sides book 3 chapter 6 The Avatar and the fire lord Zuko has sent a letter imploring him to learn the history of his great-grandfather and so he sneaked into the archives to read about fire lord sozen and Aang has a vision and a dream telling him to meditate to learn about his past as Avatar Roku the two men were friends in their adolescent but when Roku left the Fire Nation to master the other elements sozen began plotting to invade and spread Fire Nation culture to the rest of the world upon being reunited Susan announced that plan but Roku put a stomp to it hoping to maintain balance between the four nations years later a volcanic eruption on roku's home Island was causing him Peril Peril which the fire lord capitalized on leaving his former friend to die so that there would be nobody stopping him from his invasion when Zuko confronts iro about the information asking that iro tell him the rest of the story iro points out that zuka was researching the wrong great-grandfather as his maternal great-grandfather was Avatar Roku sosin met his demise spending the final years of his life hunting for Aang to no success important of what might have happened to Zuko had Aang never actually awoke from his Iceberg this gives a sense of irony to the entire situation if Aang never woke up Zuko would still be sailing around searching for his honor but because Aang did wake up and Zuko failed to catch him he's been given a chance to return home and live the life that he's always wanted to this irony can be compared to the Future a future when Zuko gives up on Hunting gang and learns to accept him as a friend just as his great-grandfather had once befriended the Avatar before the war that hurt so many people began in this episode there's a question of if friendships can last longer than a lifetime and while it's a question about gyatzu and the Avatar's relationship it really does hearken instead to an inherited bond from the Fire Nation royalty to the avatar this episode is ultimately a look back on Avatar roku's failure to detect betrayal from his friend a failure that has led to so many years of conflict and suffering it's also a failure to convince his friend not to follow through on his dreams of Conquest if Roku hadn't abandoned sojin on those years ago and instead stuck by his side and offered wisdom could sozan have changed his mind if not his mind surely his methods and so Aang gets the idea into his head that perhaps rather than simply undoing all the harm that roku's failure caused he might instead be able to succeed where his past Incarnation failed and work with the Fire Nation instead of against it because fundamentally what was wrong about sozen's dream other than the execution his nation was undergoing an era of prosperity and technological advancement to spread that to the rest of the world must surely be a good thing and yet Roku shoots down the idea altogether instead of trying to temper it into a more pure version of the ideals Roku says that the four nations have to stay in balance as for but in season 2 Guru teaches Aang that the separation of the four is a mere illusion that even if there are four nations there are still only one people in the end the greatest failure of Roku wasn't a failure to stop sozin but a failure to guide him his real weakness was not as a warrior but as a teacher book three chapter seven The Runaway hoping to make some money Toff begins using her earthbending to run a series of scams in fire Fountain City despite qatar's reprimands about drawing unneeded attention to the group this culminates in an argument between the two about qatar's overbearing coddling when they find a wanted poster for Toff soccer pulls tough aside for a heart to heart about how qatar's motherly Tendencies helped to pull him through his rough childhood and that she should go easy on her which makes Toff admit that the motherly Tendencies actually helped the group out a lot Katara overhears this and decides to run a scam with Toff where she pretends to turn her in for the reward and then tough metal bends her way out only for it to be a trap set by Sparky Sparky's boom and no combustion man in order to use the girls as bait to capture and defeat Aang but Katara uses some Ingenuity to escape the cell and the group managed to barely escape the city in the end Toph asked Katara to help her write a letter to her parents this episode marks the end of toff's character Arc just over a full season since she was first introduced she was a person who was denied a proper childhood an introduction to social norms by the people around her something that makes her Stand Out Among a cast who were emotionally hurt by the Hundred Years War and so while everybody else will have their Arc resolved through some sort of closure that comes on the battlefield toff's closure comes from repairing her relationship with her parents overall her Arc is among the least elaborate of the main cast but rather than making her character come across as less interesting it plays to the strengths of how she's written instead Toff is an earth-bending Master at the start of the series and the reason she's so skilled at the artist because of her emotional strength so she's not a person who needs to do much looking inward to develop but instead has to look outward and focus on letting other people help her as much as she's learning to help them one other thing this episode shows off that I see so many other shows struggle with even to this day is its development of strong female characters it's far too common for writers to think strong female character and then to write a man with breasts in a ponytail it comes across less like she's strong and female and more as though she's strong despite being female Katara is a refreshing change of pace because her strength is something that's inherently feminine the gang repeatedly mentions that she's protective and motherly but also that these traits are often the only thing keeping the group together they wouldn't have survived in the desert if she wasn't there to force them along and I think it's fitting that that was an episode where she had some of the least access to her bending abilities and then in this episode she tries to neglect her more protective instinct to get along better with Toff only for it to immediately backfire the show never portrays femininity as weakness it does the opposite in fact and all of this is laid into direct contrast with the other female lead Toff and Katara are about as different as two characters could possibly be and yet are still both examples of strong female characters in a medium or even today so many writers struggle with cookie cutter examples of tropes Avatar is able to write circles around the modern media landscape book 3 chapter 8 the Puppet Master the gang are taken in by a mysterious Innkeeper named Hama who doesn't want them camping in the woods overnight as people have been disappearing during full moons they help her with the few chores but are still skeptical of her intentions so they snoop through her house and discover that she was once a member of the Southern water tribe taken during the fire nation's raids nearly 60 years ago excited to learn from a southern water bending Master Katara studies under Hama while the rest of the gang investigates the disappearances under the assumption that it's an angry Spirit doing the job but while studying under Hama Katara learns that her instructor was held in a Cell deprived of water and while there learned that there's water everywhere even inside of living creatures when the rest of the gang discovers that Hama has been blood bending people into captivity they confront her just in time for a showdown when Hama blood bins Ang and Saka guitar is forced to use the wicked art form to defend them humans are made from dust Earth full of water breathing air and making Fire And while modern medicine teaches us that we're much more complex than amalgamations of the basic four elements the synthesis between them and the fact that multiple cultures have made their own take on basic Elemental building blocks places some sort of truth behind the connectivity of everything and yet despite how closely related we are to Nature there's still a distinct difference between living beings and the rest of the world that generally shouldn't be crossed Hama bending a person's blood is viewed as an inherently Wicked act even if it's something done in the interest of escaping a prison or fighting back against those who have hurt her there's something inherent to all life that makes us more than the combination of a few different elements and blurring those lines to remove a person's autonomy is one of the worst things a person can do giving all that much more importance to the role of the Avatar as a balancing force between the elements katara's story arc is nearing the end of its development and like with the most Arc finales needs at least one last test to really prove how much a character has grown and if that growth was worth it or not this episode introduces a Despicable act set up the later episode The Southern readers which serves as guitar as a last Spotlight episode it's fitting that her character Arc begins when she wants to become a water-ending master in order to grow closer to her tribe's culture and history and now that tribe's culture and history is something that she actually has to deal with it would be a fulfillment of her art to become a blood-bending master proof that she's finally done what she's set out to do in the first place but we've seen so many character arcs that conclude with the character realizing that the thing they initially set out for wasn't what they needed or even wanted this episode does a remarkable job at setting up its dark tone and really exemplifies how Avatar is able to earn some of its more heavy-hitting moments you could easily make this plot feed come across as needlessly edgy if it wasn't carefully handled but the slow build up and strong connection to a character once is what makes the ending really work the life slowly draining out of the field of flowers and the desiccated trees hum a bends the fluid out of become analogous to the inherent evil of blood bending in terms we can immediately understand book 3 chapter 9 nightmares and Daydreams the gang arrive at the Rendezvous point for The Invasion four days early and make the last few plans before the attack begins but Aang is continuously having nightmares about the invasion itself and tries to train and practice to a Breaking Point eventually he decides to stop sleeping altogether but his fears begin turning into hallucinations and soon Aang is barely able to function despite his friends repeated attempts to help him calm his nerves he does eventually manage to fall asleep though after a pep talk from all his friends in the Fire Nation Zuko is worrying over the fact that he wasn't invited to a war council but in the end it was just a misunderstanding and he's accepted at his father's side despite his worrying being false he still feels like he's missing something as a dutiful and honorable son at the fire Lord's right hand is not who he thinks of himself as always found that the best way to prevent anxiety is with distraction being anxious usually just means that you're overthinking something that you can't currently do anything about so if you can't think about the topic at all then you can't overthink it for a while Inc has been constantly inundated with stuff to do things to think about on his journey to defeat the Fire Lord but now that those things are mostly out of the way there are no more distractions to get in the way of being nervous but it makes sense why Ang would be so nervous about the upcoming battle avatar The Last Airbender subverts the typical action concept of Victory and defeat ordinarily there's an implication that the heroes have to win every time but the villains only need to win once but this is a setting where the villains have more or less already taken over Aang is the leader of a resistance so for Aang to win an offensive Victory against the Fire Nation would mean that the show would come to an end the villains have won again and again and even the few times we see the gang in a victory it's always just a small part of a much larger conflict or a meaningless win against a grander loss somewhere else Zuko is able to experience the thrill of this constant stream of victory in his life after years of not feeling that Comfort now that he's a part of the palace culture he's given everything he's ever wanted and it comes as a shock to him Zuko is unsure whether he even deserves the things he's been Desiring for so long then it's a legitimate surprise when he actually gets to read the rewards he spent most of the episode doubting that he was ever really invited to the war council only to learn in the end that there was nothing to worry about and that this issue was all in his head but just because something is all in your head doesn't make it any less real Zuko wants to have success that he feels deserving of and that means that he has to earn it he has an easy life but he wants the bitter work and so Zuko makes the decision to leave everything behind the only honor you can possibly receive is honor that he's made for himself it's not something that can be given nor is it something that can be taken away it can only be made because hard work isn't about the result it's about the work itself if he can take credit for something that didn't happen there's no purpose to vet credit book 3 chapter 10 the day of black Sun part one The Invasion the gang reunites with many of the One-Shot characters they've gotten to know over the last two and a half seasons in order to mount their attack on the fire nation's capital the first wave of the assault goes according to plan with the submarine Saka invented being able to bypass the anti-ship measures in the bay the second phase has a hitch when hakota is injured and Saka is forced to take charge of the situation leading the second half of the invasion himself Aang goes ahead of the rest of the army prepared to fight the fire lord one-on-one during the brief window granted by the eclipse by the palace is completely empty the day of black sun is the culmination of the last full book of plotline in avatar having been introduced about halfway through the previous book and resolving at the midpoint of this one and it's a plot line that ends in a failure but a failure that feels like so much more because of how much is going into it Aang's whole character Journey has been about finding a balance of every element and so it would be thematically poor to have his Arc culminate in a battle where one of those four elements is completely missing to fight the fire lord Without fire is effectively an admission of his own failure to fully find Harmony among the different fighting styles that one of the elements is the bad element and so it has to be conquered it's not exactly something that an avatar should do Saka is given a fake out character resolution as well it seems as though he's going to fulfill his series arc when he takes his injured father's role and begins to lead the battle and yet in the next episode we see him fail to lead the charge ultimately costing Aang a few precious minutes of time that could have been spent more wisely but worse than that is the fact that he beats himself up over it instead of staying level-headed and realistic about his limitations at the end of part one it's clear that the characters are headed into a trap and yet they continue on instead of waiting for a better opportunity in the moment it's portrayed as the right thing to do to press on even though you're in a disadvantageous situation and in any other Series this sort of commitment would be rewarded but Avatar is a show that tries to show realistic consequences for this sort of untempered idealism it's nice to be optimistic But ultimately dangerous it's safe to be pessimistic but ultimately pointless avatars about finding balance and in this episode the characters lose because they forget that book three chapter 11 the day of black Sun part 2 the eclipse Aang reconvenes with the rest of the invading Army and breaks the news at the palace is empty but using toth's earthbending they're able to find a massive underground bunker that the Fire Nation Royals are using to wait out the invasion Saka Ang and Toff launch an attack but are stopped by Azula who taunts them with news of Suki's imprisonment and a few daily agents stopping the group long enough that they're forced to retreat Zuko decides to leave the Fire Nation behind and attempts to break iro out of prison only to learn that iro escaped on his own he confronts his father about the agnikai all those years ago and declares his intentions to join the Avatar and teach him the fire bending with which he's destined to defeat ozai Aang Saga and topha reconnect with the main Army where it's discovered that the fire nation has massive flying warships the same design used by the mechanist back in the Northern Air Temple which they used to destroy the submarines the attacking Force came in on in the end the children escape on oppa's back with the Avatar while the adults stay behind surrendering to the Fire Nation ozai wasn't the one who started the war and it's not as though he was the only one who could have ended the war either we've repeatedly seen that Azula is more than capable of being as ruthless as any other Fire Lord through the setting's history and it's not as though defeating ozai would have done anything but turn him into a martyr Azula is more than capable of manipulating the fire nation's people into rallying behind her should anything happen to put her in power it's not difficult to imagine the narrative weaved Through the Fire Nation the princess who ascended to the throne to avenge her father and finish her great grandfather's War so it's completely likely that this plan was doomed from the start as the issues with the Fire Nation went much deeper than a single rotten individual the whole society had to be restructured from the ground up to prevent their Conquest oriented goals but while you can't threaten the man's Empire so simply threats against the man himself are easier to do Zuko finally stands up to his father in this episode putting into words what we've been thinking for the show's entire run scarring and banishing a teenager to teach him respect isn't something that normal people do and that may be trying to seek the respect of a person who behaves that way isn't a great way to lead your life after calling ozai out Zuko turns his back on him and walks away and as he does so the fire lord taunts him in a way we've seen before it mirrors zao's taunts after the agnikai back in season one but this time there's no iro present to hold Zuko back from dishonoring himself that restraint is something that he chose on his own proof that he's become a better person by internalizing his uncle's guidance book three chapter 12 the Western Air Temple [Music] the gang hole up in the Western Air Temple where they hope to plan the next step of their attack on the fire lord despite the massive setbacks but Aang seems hesitant to return to his Old Mission and instead flies around the temple trying to distance himself from the responsibility yet again ultimately it's concluded that Aang needs a firebending teacher but since the whole Fire Nation is their enemy it seems hopeless that one will arrive until one does Zuko he begs for the group's forgiveness hoping that they'll take him in and allow him to make things right but they don't believe him and turn him away until Zuko returns and tries to stop combustion man from finishing the job Saka ends up defeating combustion man and after the harrowing fight they decide reluctantly that they don't have much of a choice other than to accept Zuko as Aang's firebending teacher as somebody whose purpose is to find balance between the different nations and different elements and can only become the Avatar in full if he Embraces even the parts of others that seem hard to view positively his past experience with firebending is that he heard Katara and then vowed to never firebind again his past experience with Zuko is that he was nearly killed multiple times by the guy and yet despite their negative history and the uncomfortable Association he might have made it's still vitally important to try and understand the other side as much as possible just because fire can burn people doesn't mean that it's inherently destructive and just because Zuko has hurt the gang in various ways doesn't mean that he's a bad person both are simply misguided and of course there's also an aspect of trying to finish the task that Roku failed at the Hundred Year War can partially Trace its Origins back to Avatar roku's failure to change the ways of a powerful member of the fire nation's royal family and so the best way to fix all the mistakes of the past is to stop repeating them but while Aang might be willing to open up to Zuko and accept him that acceptance is far from a universal idea Katara was somebody who opened up emotionally to the guy as well and yet she was still hurt by him all the same this emotional pain is something that he carries with her to a much greater extent than any physical wound after all wounds can heal but emotional pain can fester in a much more dangerous way because they can spread to other people but while Katara is unwilling to open up to him again Toff is more willing to accept Zuko than anybody else due to her knowing the pain he must be going through Toff only joined the gang by abandoning her parents and yet her story are culminated in forgiving them and reconnecting even if she wasn't fully prepared to go back to how things were before it was healthy to move on but that didn't make it any less difficult and so as a person who had to leave their family behind for the greater good Toph is able to empathize with zugo more than anyone else there and yet all of this puts team Avatar into an awkward position while it's obvious to us that Zuko is just a misguided individual in need of healthy social interaction with people who aren't toxic he's still somebody who has done a lot of awful things while forgiveness is good it should never come as a result of forgetting the misdeeds of the past Qatar is right to be wary of Zuko but still needs to compartmentalize the good from the bad book 3 chapter 13 the firebending Masters Zuko prepares to teach Aang only to learn that he's lost most of his fire bending ability so Toff suggests that they go to the original firebenders to learn Anew but since the dragons were hunted to extinction by the Fire Nation Zuko and Ang have to look in the ruins of the sun Warriors those who lived closest to them they are found by the ancient assumed dead civilization and made to be judged in front of the firebending Masters two dragons named Ron and Shaw the dragons judge the pair and teach them the origins of firebending and with this knowledge Zuko and Aang began their firebending training properly firebending is a style of bending that originates from the Sun the thing from which all life originates it's the form of change and passion the creation of something new and it's a bending style that's been severely corrupted post-season fire bending has become a tool of War something that destroys more than it creates and that sort of mentality is something that's spread alongside the other cultural ideals of the Fire Nation this is the fundamental reason behind why the fire nation's invasion is a detriment to society the Fire Nation has erased its own culture and it's coming for the rest of the world the corruption of firebending is something associated with sozen but it's something that stops with zugo in this episode he learns the original style of firebending from the original firebenders understanding that there is a constructive use of fire bending and that the power doesn't have to come from Rage and from this point in the series onward we also see a change in the way that Zuko bends before he would grunt with every thrust throwing a ton of power into his attacks and venting his frustrations through his fire but after this episode zugo stops yelling during his attacks he's much calmer and he draws fire out of the spirit of creation fighting for a better future instead of trying to erase the past we get a long callback in this episode The Revelation that iro did not hunt the last dragons to Extinction but atni instead kept their existence a secret and was judged worthy by them as a result iro is a deeply spiritual character derived from his visit to the spirit world to search for his deceased son this is why in the book one episode the winter solstice Ira was able to see Fang's Spirit flying overhead in his search for his son he instead found something better instead of mourning his son's loss he can honor his son's memory in Tales of bossing say iro is seen spreading wisdom and happiness to those around him in an act of keeping his son's Spirit Alive by letting the experience bring goodness into the world a legacy that ensures that his son's Spirit remains in the world back to this episode I have a theory that the only reason Saka was so quick to let Zuko into the group was because he had a Year's worth of insults built up for this exact moment saka's been waiting to make fun of Zuko to his face for almost a year and Zuko has been waiting to have real friends for just as long one of the first things he does after being accepted is try to make tea and then tell a story about his uncle book 3 chapter 14 the boiling Rock part one hoping to rescue hakota from Fire Nation captivity and regain his lost honor from the failed Invasion plan on the day of black Sun Saka recruits the help of Zuko to raid the boiling Rock a high security Fire Nation prison they don't find its father but they do find Suki and then formulate a plan to escape but another prisoner hears the plan and insists on going along in exchange for his silence and ends up getting the whole thing revealed to the guards made worse by the fact that sakosuki and Zuko weren't even a part of the escape attempt as they were hoping to rescue a newly transferred prisoner hakoda this is an episode about Saka trying to fix his mistakes seeking Redemption for the people who were relied on him and who he let down but the moral that we take away from it isn't so much one of penance or forgiveness but that Redemption is earned from learning from your mistakes Saka recognizes that he should have retreated from the battle when it was clear that it was a losing fight but he pressed forward anyway and in this episode he's about to make a similar mistake when he decides to stop pushing back and accept that the infiltration wasn't a total success taking a safe route out and acknowledging his failure of course we later see that he changes his mind again when his father is transferred in but the fact that he was willing not to repeat the mistakes of the day of black Sun shows that he's at least grown from them another thing this episode does is make peace between Saka and Zuko the Western Air Temple was the episode where he earned the Forgiveness of Aang The Fire bending Masters was where he learned to forgive himself this two-parter is him earning the Forgiveness of Saka by proving that he's changed that his declaration to go against its former Nation isn't some shallow thing set out of necessity but that he's willing to back his words with actions this episode is the first time he's been openly hostile against the Fire Nation since his defection he stood up to his father before but just in his words and this episode serves as a test not just to prove to Saka and the rest of the game that he's changed but to prove to himself that he's ready and willing to stand up against the atrocities that have become normal under his father's rule foreign [Music] book 3 chapter 15 The Boiling Rock part 2. hakota is transferred to the boiling Rock and Shaka formulates a new Escape Plan with him use a riot as a distraction while they take the warden hostage and escape on the same Gondola that takes prisoners in but this is complicated when Azula and her crew arrive Azula quickly piecing together that team Avatar was there and working to stop their plans while May and Zuko have a second falling out thankfully saying the prisoner who got them caught in the first episode isn't a snitch and he's able to rejoin them to start the riot that they needed the plan goes off well until Azula and Tai Lee arrive to stop the gondola all while the wire holding it up is being cut but Mai still feeling love for Zuko betrays Azula and helps the gang to escape the first half of this two-parter was all about Saka learning to accept his failure and yet in the end refusing to accept the initial failure and going back to the prison results in a happy ending for everybody it's Zuko's words to Saka that really helped to establish this point that it's not about how often you succeed but how often you fail you only need to be successful once until then keep trying again and again of course this resonates well coming from Zuko he's a character who's failed at his second chance and again at his third but the fact that he went out and tried to redeem himself again is not just the fact that he wants to prove to the world but to himself and so the lesson here builds off of saka's earlier Arc you should know when to give up on an attempt but never give up on your goals the more often you fail the more lessons you learn so try to fail as fast as possible so you can keep trying sooner this episode also gives us the first big hint to Azula and the Fire Nation as a whole's greatest weakness that fear can't replace love it's a Machiavellian sort of mentality that if a leader cannot have the love of his people then it's better to be feared by them but through it all people would gladly serve somebody they love over somebody that they fear and if they're forced to choose will side with the former and this dichotomy is reflected in the two styles of fire bending we've seen so far the style of fear is the style of Destruction that which is normalized under the rule of sozen's followers but the original fire bending style is one of creation and passion a style created from positive emotions of construction and the style that signifies Zuko's internal change book 3 chapter 16 the southern Raiders to win guitarist trust Zuko decides to give her something that will make things right the identity of the man who killed her mother she and zugo plan to travel together to hunt down the location of the Southern Raiders the group that did it and destroy their leader but Ang stops them and implores Katara not to seek revenge since that isn't necessary to move past the pain and heal from it despite their work and even Katara using blood bending they only learned that the real culprit retired years ago so they track him down and Ambush him in the street where Katara finally decides against Revenge when they return Aang is happy that she stuck to the ideals of peace and mercy but then Zuko asked if Aang is willing to show that same Mercy to ozai forgiving our enemies is hard to do to forgive a person who's causing you harm is something that takes many steps and not all of them are steps taken by the person doing the forgiveness for instance to forgive somebody they first need to be sorry or at all remorseful for their actions there should also be an assurance of some kind that it won't happen again and finally it helps to have some kind of guarantee that they'll assist in undoing the harm they've inflicted after all of this occurs it becomes much easier to forgive another person and when it's easy it's worth doing because this episode has a very nuanced moral sometimes we're giving another person isn't the right thing to do Aang preaches the virtues of forgiveness to Katara telling her not to stoop to the same level as those who have hurt her and it's still a moral victory that she refused to turn to Bloodshed in her revenge Quest but sometimes forgiveness can be a form of weakness a form of vulnerability and showing weakness to those close to us is okay being vulnerable around another person is a showing of trust but that trust has to be earned to Blood band is unforgivable as a form of inflicting harm but it's something that Katara does twice the first time is to defend Aang and Saka the second to avenge her mother and while she shows remorse both times it's not as though she truly broke any sort of impassable moral line she was protecting somebody close to her and succeeded then she was protecting herself shielding against mental anguish and while Katara very nearly gets the Vengeance she always desired she ultimately decides against it forgiveness means moving on and moving on means that she's not only stopped honoring the memory of her mother but now she's a blood vendor with nothing to show for it and Katara has honored the memory of her mother as early as the first season we've seen many of her most selfless acts be performed shortly after something reminds her of her mother so when Katara tries to make the world a better place she's doing so because of the inspiration she received from her loved one in this way the memory is kept alive so to tarnish that memory by performing a heinous act in her name would undo a lot of the goodness that she initially stood for a reputation of goodness is something Aang also wants to leave behind and yet his journey appears to be leading up to a death on his hands and what kind of reputation can that be book three chapter 17 the Ember Island players hoping for a bit of relaxation before the finale the gang watches a play that recounts the events of their Journey so far for a more thorough summary play this video back from the beginning ordinarily recap episodes are used as more of a money-saving technique than a proper means of recapping if it's up to that point though exceptions are often made for pre-finale plots of course for a person binging a show because they're say writing a video essay about it recap episodes can be a pain as their accounting events that the viewer just saw and thus feels like a waste of time so the best recap episodes are those that include a clever Twist on the way the scenes are presented and the emperor Island players is one of if not the best recap episode ever to air on television because it doesn't take the easy route of Simply retelling the events of the story with reused scenes from earlier in the run it completely revamps the scene at recounts giving a more comedic Edge to them while also expanding the world just that much more because the version of events that we did are the versions of events that the fire nation has heard of and so we can learn more about the nations of the show and how they do propaganda just by seeing their interpretation the gang are the antagonists in the Fire Nation Army version of the story and so we get to see a tale that focuses much more heavily on their bad sides and their flaws which the show runners use as an excuse to poke fun at their own work any overplayed or annoying traits of the characters are played up to the detriment of every other part of their psyche any moment where the showrunners didn't get to do exactly what they wanted to was exaggerated the showrunners can't show overt violence so here's a version of the story where the actors don't even hit each other they can't show death so they make a joke about Jed's fate being very unclear and of course the entire thing gets a bit of an ironic ring to it as the gang's reactions to the Play Mirror the audience's reaction to the live-action adaptation and finally the Fire Nation would never get 100 of the full story the identity of the blue spirit is never revealed to them and so it's not something shown in the play the finale of the war is yet to play out so we see the version that the Fire Nation hopes they'll see and of course all of the sources they have for the physical appearance of Toff conflict with reality as nobody who ever fought her wanted to admit they were beaten up by a 12 year old blind girl so they portrayed her as a buff guy instead book 3 chapter 18 sozen's comment part 1 the Phoenix King the gang is relaxing on the beach and the fire Lord's Ember Island House despite Zuko's insistence on continuing with Aang's training they're confused as to why he's so insistent on working with Aang's firebending when he reveals that the fire lord needs to be defeated before sozen's Comet as he's planning on using that date to completely Wipe Out the Earth Kingdom they continue with their training but Aang is hesitant to actually kill the fire lord as it goes against everything that he stands for and what the air monks taught him that night while meditating on the issue he's called to an island just off the shore and swims to it only for the island to disappear in the night and the rest of the gang to search fruitlessly for his whereabouts back in the Fire Nation ozai declares himself the Phoenix King and puts Azula in charge as the fire lord before leaving on his journey to destroy the resisting Earth Kingdom in this episode we see a flashback to the war council meeting that caused Zuko to turn his back on the Fire Nation for good in it his father spoke of completely wiping out the Earth's Kingdom not even pretending that the war was for the intention of spreading prosperity to the rest of the world it mirrors the original meeting that godzuko exiled that his concern for the well-being of common folk was what garnered his father's disapproval in the first place and so it's not so much that Zuko has grown into a nicer and more caring person but that he was that way all along and the love of his father he had been seeking for so long came at the cost of his idealism and what value does his father's approval have in the first place at the end of this episode ozai declares himself Phoenix King and announces his plan to destroy the Earth and fire in earlier episodes we've learned that fire however destructive is still something that can produce life a forest fire will leave behind the acorns that can grow a healthier Forest a heavy cost to a better future but it's clear from his destructive Tendencies at ozai's invasion is no longer clearing the way for anything its power for power's sake he has no desire to create a better tomorrow or even a tomorrow at all and so the love that Zuko has been seeking is a love that's not air from a man incapable of feeling that emotion and it took the support of those around him to understand what actual approval even feels like book 3 chapter 19 sozen's Comet part two the Old Masters the gang tried to track down Aang with the help of June from chapter 115 only to learn that he's not on the continent so they track down the person next most likely to defeat the Fire Lord iro has been leading the White Lotus to defeat the Fire Nation occupiers in bossing say and cannot divert his attention as it's the Avatar's job to defeat the Fire Lord anyway but he does give counsel to the rest of the game encouraging them to split up so that when Nang does return He has the support of his friends Saka Toff and tsuki make an attempt to defeat the Fire nation's Fleet before they can lay waste to the Earth Kingdom Zuko and Katara head to the fire nation capital to defeat an increasingly paranoid Azula so Zuko can declare himself Fire Lord when ozai is defeated Aang meanwhile is meditating on whether it's morally right to kill ozai and comes into conflict with his past incarnations who all tell him to take decisive action IRA and Zuko make their piece in this episode or rather it's better to say that they made peace a long time ago and this was merely the moment where they were able to say it aloud it's worth pointing out that by this point in the story The Last interaction Zuko and iro had had was in the Avatar and the fire lord where Ira revealed the Zuko's Birthright the fact that Zuko was there at all showed that he made an attempt to restore his honor and side with the Avatar but aside from that iro has no idea what his nephew has been up to for the last 12 episodes and yet he forgives him immediately anyway it was never about the actual Deeds that Zuko did it was about the decision to perform those deeds iro has no idea that Zuko met with the dragons or that he's been training Aang or that he hunted down a retired Admiral or broke prisoners out of the boiling Rock he only knows that his nephew is trying to do the right thing and that's all that's important Aang doesn't want to kill the fire lord and so he seeks spiritual guidance to see if there's a way out but everybody he asks tells him the same thing with the varying degrees of reluctance it's aim's Destiny to kill the fire lord no matter what his feelings on the matter are he has to follow his predestined path and make personal sacrifices to do so he never wanted to be the Avatar but he has to and opening the Avatar state is about freeing oneself from worldly attachments and sometimes the one attachment we cling on to the hardest is our ego book 3 chapter 20. Susan's Comet part 3 Into The Inferno Saka Toff and tsuki capture a fire nation blimp and jettisoned its crew into the ocean then they start wrecking the rest of the fleet while the firelord is distracted fighting Aang zugo and Katara arrived to fight Azula who has dismissed most of those close to her as she slunks further and further into paranoia when her brother arrives to take the throne she challenges him to an agnikai although she violates the duel when she attacks Katara with lightning and Zuko dies in the way to take the bolt himself and Aang struggles against ozai's power as a two duel during the peak of sozen's comet because despite the power he's feeling Aang still can't bring himself to go for a fatal strike Zuko ran away from the Fire Nation because he morally objected to the direction the rulers were headed in it took him sitting by the fire Lord's right side to recognize this but it also took the perspective of seeing the rest of the world too after getting everything he's ever wanted he realizes that it's not what he needed and he leaves but Azula has desired the power associated with the throne her whole life and like Zuko can't actually handle the responsibility because she's been spending her whole life plotting to take over and thus assumes everyone else would want to do the same so instead of seeing the people she rules over as her subjects she sees them instead as a sea of potential enemies because when the situation was reversed that's how she viewed power and so we see the difference between the siblings Zuko realized the corrupting abilities of power when he ascended to the side of the fire lord and found himself refusing to speak out against the atrocities Azula never saw the baddest separate from the good and now has to Grapple with the true responsibility of being the fire lord Ira says that he once saw a vision of bossing saying where he conquered the city and it was one of his greatest shames in life that he was unable to take it in his prime years but now he gets the chance to fulfill the vision he once had from the other side of the conflict he couldn't capture the city as a conqueror but he can take it back as a liberator he only had to reject the destiny he saw before it was able to come to fruition and the reason is that he's not a conqueror at heart Ira once had the chance to wipe out the last dragons in order to claim Glory but he refused the title of dragon slayer so that he might instead get the glory of being a dragon Defender and in his teachings we've seen that there's more glory in creation than destruction to create peace in Boston say is a more honorable path than creating Discord and that honor is what finally gave him the inner strength to see the city taken book three chapter 21. sozen's Comet part four Avatar Aang the order of the White Lotus succeeds in retaking bossing say Katara uses ice bending to freeze Azula and pacify her and Aang is struck during the fight against ozai in just the right way to open his last chakra and allow him to access the Avatar state but instead of using his power to kill the Fire Lord he uses it instead to remove his bending pacifying the threat without violating his personal convictions after the battle is over Zuko ascends the throne to embrace his Destiny as the new firelord with Aang by his side and the group gathers in Ira's new tea shop to celebrate their Victory and prepare for a new age of peace Aang's Destiny as the Avatar was to kill the fire lord and bring peace to the world the events of the show started because Aang refused that Destiny running away to be frozen in time for a century but by the end of the show Aang still refuses his Destiny to kill the fire lord and bring peace to the world he's once again denied his role as a conqueror and embraced his own path forward removing the bending abilities of the fire lord and allowing the road to peace to be paved by others Aang allows the future to be shaped by the people of the world assisting in maintaining that peace but not forcing it onto others the role of the Avatar is the role of an icon a means of inspiration and refusing to kill the fire lord also reinforces this idea the fire lord believed in strength Above All Else and pushed an ideology of the strong ruling the weak so to kill him would be an acknowledgment that the fire lord was correct that power should lie in the hands of the biggest army and the strongest Benders and so it's not Ang who defeats the fire lord it's nobody he takes the power away from a man who worships power and leaves him to his own weaknesses a man who symbolizes nothing it's not Zuko who defeats Azula it's Katara because political power shouldn't lie in the hands of the winner of a duel by the end of this episode Aang and Zuko have matching Lightning scars Aang has a scar on his back a strike delivered to a boy who tried to run from his Destiny and lost everything for it and Zuko has a scar on his front a strike delivered to a boy who tried to face his Destiny head-on and lost everything for it both scars were inflicted by Azula but healed by Katara but despite everything despite fleeing from their Mutual Destinies both characters ended up in a better place if Ang had gone to the Eastern air Temple and studied under Guru fatigue to master the Avatar State he would have ended up another conqueror in a long line of conflict if Zuko had listened to his father and continued unflinchingly in his quest for Aang he would have stayed by the fire lord side through a brutal military campaign without the strength to object if iro had managed to conquer bossing say he never would have been a Content ruler having lost his son to fuel a machine that creates nothing the one lesson to take from these stories is that following your destiny is pointless if you don't understand why you're doing it outro a strong commitment to characterization World building and storytelling are the things that define the Run of avatar The Last Airbender hopefully this video was enough to prove all of that I normally try to be non-biased in these video essays and point out faults when they appear but it's difficult to bring up any flaws with this show that don't come across as nitpicking it defined not just the landscape of Western animation for years to come but it also defined its audience and the way that they view that changed landscape avatar The Last Airbender finished airing in 2008 and had a target audience that was about 10 to 15 years old at the time 10 to 15 years later we see an inundation of long video essays on adult animated cartoons that all seem to be deep enough to Warrant this sort of analysis I think the generation that grew up on Avatar later went on to develop a taste for animation with deeper themes than the shallow episodic time killers that had to find mainstream animation for so many decades and this change in taste occurring on such a large scale meant that shows with this sort of appeal were finally able to get the recognition they deserve a sense of justice for the people who grew up on gargoyles Batman Tas and Samurai Jack like I said at the beginning of this video it's very easy to think of television in terms of a pre and post Avatar landscape and of course the post Avatar Generation all being in their 20s right now is why we see so many long rambling video essays on YouTube I don't like doing definite conclusions in my videos because I feel like any piece of media worth analyzing is going to say too many different things to let itself be defined by any singular interpretation Avatar managed to win recognition in the International Community winning accolades for things like its ability to show the realistic consequences of a war an introduction to heavy topics that even children were able to understand the gravity of and a positive message about things ranging from environmental concerns dehumanizing people that may be portrayed by enemies by Propaganda but more importantly than any of that it left a big impression on those who watched it whether they were children watching it as it aired or adult binge watching it over a decade later and that sense of wonder Foster had only evolved as those who made the impression Grew Older and eventually began to create worlds of their own anything from an entry in a major media property to the humblest of Daydreams the landscape of today could not exist without the cultural contribution of avatar The Last Airbender and were also much better for it that was kind of a long one I really didn't think this video would be as involved as it was but the more I re-watched and researched and rewrote the more I began to appreciate this show that I grew up watching sporadically so many memories of having avatar on in the background while playing maple story on the family computer came rushing back then I I think my next video is actually going to be a shorter one if only so I can have a bit of free time to reinstall that game and live that in Nostalgia lifestyle for a bit I kind of want to do the Legend of Korra next but there's also supposed to be like a live action remake coming out and late-ish this year I think so I might start on that video much later just so like the hype gets kind of refreshed in my mind right before it comes out I'm a little bit avatar'd out right now so I'm gonna give myself a minute before I get back into anything like this one thing that absolutely killed me when I was working on this video was like all the food anytime there'd be food on the screen it was like those Ghibli movies when they show food I mean like stir fry and dumplings rice porridge roast pork and I had more Cups of Tea than I could ever possibly count this month but all that's no different from any other month I was also like I had a bit of cactus juice too but it's not nearly as quenchy as soccer made it sounded like it was actually this close to making some onion and banana juice at one point I think maybe maybe if you like threw some oat milk or a bit of peanut butter in there ground it with kale or flax seed a bit of like nutmeg some ginger I'm imagining this is like a protein shake or something something that you know really opens up the chakras I'm still unsure what my next video is going to be about yet I usually only decide like a few days into the month and then hastily schedule a project out of that but after my last video I had basically no ideas for where to go from there like I was running out of shows but this time I have a lot more suggestions and stuff that I've been reading through and writing them down and so if you have any other shows that you want to see me cover that kind of fit in with the rest of what I've done feel free to leave a comment because that's really the best place to put the idea into my head if you if you're like really into my content or whatever YouTube will probably just keep recommending this stuff to you but you can subscribe if you don't want to leave it up to the algorithm oh man I just ask for comments and subscriptions I really have become a YouTuber

Channel: viedo gaems

Views: 149,694

Keywords: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar, Western Animation, Animation, Retrospective, Listenable

Id: FZDDog5xlW8

Length: 190min 0sec (11400 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023