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matt_zimmerAvatar: The Last Airbender “The Avatar State”
Azula is an outright revolting character. She has no redeeming qualities.
Zuko and Uncle cutting their hair at the end felt significant.
I hate it whenever Aang and friends visit pure assholes who claim to be on their side but are total idiots. Mostly because Aang always takes their dumbass opinions more seriously than he ever should.
Solid premiere. ****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Cave Of Two Lovers”
I like Zuko and Uncle reasoning they should face the Earth Kingdom because death is preferable to Azula. I can totally see it.
Aang has zero game. That dopey kid is gonna be a monk for the rest of his life.
So-so episode. ***.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Return To Omashu”
Azula is a pure psychopath. Can’t stand any part of that character.
Also Bumi is still super annoying. **.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Swamp”
A dud.
This episode reminded me why I hate Sokka so much. I hated him so much I almost immediately dropped the show. The show bringing that back why is not something I'll ever thank it for.
The hillbilly "Deliverance" Waterbenders were also intolerable.
One thing I like was Zuko being pissed at how badly that passerby was treating Uncle. But see, it's a kids show, so we can't actually SEE the righteous retribution and it must be merely implied.
And the episode sucked otherwise. *.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Avatar Day”
The Avatar statues being effigies is a good twist, as was Kyoshi confessing her guilt. Very well done.
But I'm mad at Zuko for how he treated Uncle. And unfortunately, I don't believe the action sequence at the end was up to snuff.
A mixed bag this episode. ***1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Blind Bandit”
Problematic in a lot of ways.
I actually kind of dig the idea of Aang’s mystery Earthbending Master being a little blind girl he’s meeting out of linear order. But although the concept of Toph is solid, the actual premise of her debut episode (a wrestling homage) is not. Not remotely.
I think it’s definitely possible the mistaken kidnapping thing goes interesting places. But this specific episode did not.
It’s Toph’s father repeatedly calling her helpless that crosses the line for me. Yes, the show is telling us he’s wrong to do it, but it’s his freaking daughter. That should not need be any sort of messaging issue for the show. As far as I’m concerned, shit like that should just go without saying.
Even if my gripes are legit (and I think they may be) the truth is the Earthbending fight at the end was amazingly boarded. And I know this was back when that was actually a huge deal and rare. I will give it credit for that at least. **1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Zuko Alone”
Amazing episode.
Zuko is a good guy. Mostly because his mother was kind.
In the flashback, going by the letter, Uncle used to be casually evil. The death of his son really changed him.
The ending to the episode struck me as tragic. Zuko is friendless. And the flashbacks prove half of his family is made up of sociopaths.
No negative notes for this one. *****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Chase”
Strong episode with a powerful ending.
I’m thinking Aang’s friends and Zuko and Uncle make better allies than enemies. That seems to be what the series is building towards.
Toph is annoying but I liked her scene with Uncle.
Sokka may have lost his fight but the truth is he’s still an okay fighter.
The lizard horses were freaky.
I’m sensing the middle of the seasons are when this show really starts to come together. ****1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Bitter Work”
Impressive. Toph is annoying and more trouble than she is worth, but the great stuff between Zuko and Uncle floors me.
Uncle having such a well-rounded, non-prejudiced opinion about the other nations shows he’s the guy who should be put in a leadership position when this is all over. In fact, this might have already been over ages ago if he HAD inherited the throne as he was supposed to have.
I responded well to his opinion about his niece Azula too: “She’s crazy and she needs to be taken down.” I couldn’t agree more.
I dislike Toph greatly, but I hated Sokka at first too and now I tolerate him. Hopefully the same happens with her eventually. ***1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Library”
This suffered from bad writing. In fairness, a LOT of this show does, but I’m not going to let a fault slide simply because it’s consistent. That’s not how I work.
The writing problem is the conflict is stupid. Even if Sokka was going to use the knowledge he learned in the library for bad purposes, knowing how dangerous AND against that idea the owl dude was, he could have silently gathered that information and informed the others what he learned later on outside the library. Instead, he literally is loudly making battle plans in a silent library where the frightening spirit who warned them against doing just that can easily hear him.
And here is why it’s bad writing. Sokka didn’t do that because he’s stupid. It’s because if he didn’t, there’s no conflict. And having characters do unnecessarily stupid things to drive conflict is what bad writing is all about. And there is no other way to read that moment.
I did like the moment where Toph admits books do nothing for her. I was like, “Oh, yeah, she’s blind.”
Not impressed with the episode, but maybe the Appa abduction will lead interesting places. *1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Desert”
Nothing ever phases Uncle, does it?
I think we’ve just realized Aang is actually shitty in a real crisis. It’s not like this is his first crisis, but it was the worst, and the guy was totally lost. It’s worrisome, is what it is.
The bounty hunters waiting to attack Zuko and Uncle because if they went in swords drawn, other bounty hunters would see who they were after, and they’d have to fight for their prize, was good writing. The show is ALSO capable of it which is why I never forgive the bad.
Aang worries me. Every week in the main title Katara assures us Aang can save the world. After seeing this, I am not so sure. ***.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Serpent’s Pass”
Funniest bit was after the embarrassing kiss, Toph is all “Okay, you can just let me drown now.” Ya think?
I thought it was good. ****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Drill”
The fight between Aang and Azura at the end was amazing. The animation pulled out all the stops. Quite impressive, especially for 2006.
Zuko is right to be angry at Uncle. He was being reckless.
The show is currently on a roll. ****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “City Of Walls And Secrets”
The creepily smiling disposable lady host is bad enough, but the actual thing to say this city is weird and messed up is the fucking bear. Things are very wrong here.
Interesting stuff happening with Jet. This is notable because this is a character who never interests me in general.
Messed up. In a good way. ***1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Tales Of Ba Sing Se”
On one level, the episode feels very experimentational. On a realer one, it’s the most filler episode the show has every done.
Random thoughts:
Uncle makes everything and everyone better. He is such a refreshing and unusual so-called antagonist. I truly believe it’s his and Zuko’s humanity that makes this show so special. No other cartoon for kids I’ve seen suggests people on the opposing side of the conflict might not even be evil, but might actually be good. That is a wonderfully nuanced message for children. And best of all, it makes the show interesting as hell. I love that the segment was dedicated to the late Mako who had recently passed at the time.
Toph claims being blind means she doesn’t have to worry about her appearance, but those girls stung her anyways. Also should note she sounded relieved when Katara informed her she was pretty.
Momo’s final segment was hard to follow without dialogue.
Sokka’s bit is very much in the vein of a rap feud. I love that the show used haikus for that specific allegory.
Zuko is bad at dates. Even so, at the end of the night he can admit he had a good time.
Aang shaves his head. That answers that question.
A disposable episode that you could skip for the first time ever? Yeah. Is it cute though and kind of unusual? Yeah. And sort of brave for an adventure show to do an episode with no adventures present. ***1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Appa’s Last Days”
No. You know what? It is EXTREMELY difficult to watch 22 minutes of an animal being mistreated and abused. Cartoon or not, Appa’s suffering and torment is unbearable to watch. This is not entertaining to me.
That being said, the continuity in the episode is pretty amazing and I bet if I rewatched the season, I’d see it was pretty tight too.
I imagine this episode was highly regarded back in the day. I don’t like it at all. That’s me. *1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “Lake Loogai”
I love that Zuko listened to Uncle. I didn’t expect him to, which is why it was such a pleasant surprise.
The death is understated but this is still clearly Jet’s last episode. I found it interesting he wasn’t an antagonist in his final appearance.
When Toph asks Katara if Jet was her boyfriend, that’s the actual problem. They never remotely made anything official but she wouldn’t be so mad if he weren’t.
This is good stuff. ****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Earth King”
I am totally unimpressed by the Earth King. He sucks ass. He is a weak putz. You had been hoping there was actually a good reason this was all going on without him knowing anything about it. Guess what? There isn’t. The actual problem is that he sucks.
Worried about Zuko. Especially while he’s with Uncle. I hope my fears are groundless.
Sokka interrupting Aang right before he was about to confess his feelings to Katara is legit bad writing.
Didn’t care for this episode. **1/2.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Guru”
Trying to understand the Aang / Katara ship a little better.
If I have this right, it’s not unrequited, but it will likely be unconsummated for religious reasons. Gotta say, as disappointing as that sounds on paper, it’s smart because it adds an additional element of tragic sacrifice to Aang’s journey, without having to kill anybody off. This way lies The Good Hurt. Still another season left, and I could be misreading things, but as disappointing as the idea sounds, the Avatar’s potential celibacy could very well be a wellspring of great romantic drama.
This was a good turn, I think. I could be wrong, but the ship seems likelier than not to work thematically now. I’m not sure it did before this.
By the way, the Earth King is utterly useless. Dude probably can’t eat a fucking sandwich without breaking both of his legs.
Cautiously optimistic, if not necessarily about the finale, then the series itself in general. ****.
Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Crossroads Of Destiny”
I can’t imagine the show has ever been given the proper credit for Zuko’s arc. Even people who love it probably haven’t correctly articulated why it is singularly unique in not just kiddie toons, but really, all of fiction. It’s because his ultimate choices are always in question.
That episode would have played equally well if Zuko had made the right choice and joined the Avatar. Both outcomes were perfectly set up, so not only is Zuko’s fate a huge question mark for the audience. We don’t know if he’s going to do the right or wrong thing until he’s done it.
Do you truly understand how RARE that is for a fictional character? How wonderful? How the producers had to put in an INSANE amount of legwork for both scenarios to play so equally well, and the audience will never see it coming? That is a gift, not just to us as viewers, but to all of popular culture and entertainment. And I KNOW this show doesn’t get enough credit for it because if it did, I would have heard about it going in. Zuko’s path is the best thing about the series and I’m not sure other fans really understand why it is, why it resonates so much, and why it does right what practically every other fictional project does wrong with unlikely betrayals.
I have very famously (or maybe infamously) claimed that the trope of the surprise betrayal NEVER works. It hurts the characters, the show or both. Always. It makes thing worse every single time. Because TV keeps doing it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. It’s bad unearned drama.
This is the first time EVER it’s worked, and it worked for the sole reason that the show put in this huge amount of legwork ahead of time that Game Of Thrones can’t be bothered with. I still say the trope sucks and damages most shit, because most shit that does it does it because the show is lazy and that very much reflects it. But I WILL admit this trope worked just this once, and for all I know the first time ever, and so far the only time because the show was meticulous about it. I climbed out on a huge limb when I claimed that a few years ago and while the branch hasn’t broken, it’s definitely started to creak. And I have never been happier to have been proved wrong, even if it’s for this single project only.
And here is another reason it works on every level and puts shit like Game Of Thrones to shame. Zuko feels bad afterwards. He’s conflicted. He made the wrong choice now, but he COULD potentially make the right one in the future. He never did ANYTHING in that episode that was truly unforgivable or that he couldn’t come back from or redeem himself from. So even after that, his path is STILL in question! How genius is that? The fact that people aren’t talking up Zuko the same way folks talk up David Xanatos from Gargoyles tells me people don’t actually appreciate the hard work and set-up that went into that magnificent arc. I do. I call it the best thing about the show, and suggest it makes the show singularly unique in pulling off something hundreds of shows have tried and all miserably failed at.
For the record, I don’t think David Xanatos is a particularly great or unpredictable character, and I imagine he’s actually pretty easy to write for. Just have the Gargoyles beat him every time and him say at the end of every episode in a sinister voice, “I meant to do that,” and that’s 90% of the character. The true Xanatos Gambits, the famous no-lose scenarios the trope is named after are shockingly rare for that specific character’s reputation, and in fact mostly boil down to unearned bragging to sooth his own bruised ego. That’s not how an evil genius is supposed to be written. Zuko’s arc as a true Wild Card works so much better because it’s not just a dumb gimmick the creators do to trick fans into believing the project is better and smarter than it is. It’s actually this huge accomplishment that nothing else has attempted before, much less succeeded doing.
I can’t say enough good things about Zuko and what this show has done with him. *****.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 02:50 am (UTC)I don't even really remember any of the specific beats but I get chills whenever you talk about zuko and uncle so I know it made an impression on me
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 03:22 am (UTC)You and me think so much alike it's a bit spooky.
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Date: 2026-01-09 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 07:52 pm (UTC)- Yeah, it's made pretty clear unlike Zuko who took more after his mother Ursa that Azula took after they're Father Ozai and was molded into this outright monster who makes for a rather effective but yeah deplorable villain. Like there are crumbs of maybe a decent person deep DEEP down but one you'd have to do a lot of digging to get but yeah one that makes for arguably the most effective antagonist in the series. Zuko is far more interesting and has layers to him but Azula is far more one note but hey what a note she plays. This is actually the reason one of my friends at the time got back into Avatar; he's a huge fan of Azula's voice actress Grey Delisle (aka Grey Griffin now) and heard how great she was in the role and the fact that "The Blind Bandit" got Wrestler Mick Foley aka Mankind to play The Boulder (obviously a play on the Rock who I guess even by the mid 2000s was too famous to be in a Nickelodeon cartoon... yet was in Planet 51 at the end of the decade for some reason) which made him get back into the show but I still think it was more Azula being in the show now.
"I hate it whenever Aang and friends visit pure assholes who claim to be on their side but are total idiots. Mostly because Aang always takes their dumbass opinions more seriously than he ever should."
- The thing is though yeah General Fong goes to total obvious psychotic extremes about it, you do at least get where he's coming from; the Power of the Avatar State if fully unleashed would be something that if not could win the war singlehandely could take out a lot of the Fire Nation soliders in most basic battles and stop them from their conquest seemingly faster then just learning all the elements. And yeah if you are a general who sees how many soldiers are hurt or die in combat wanting a quicker solution that isn't putting your people in danger does make sense. Of course the whole point of this episode is the team realzied they needed to clear things up about the Avatar State and point out why it's not only a last result but why it's not something Aang should rely on to win his battles and it's obvious weaknesses that as you saw paid off by the finale of this season. But yeah it is made clear with Sokka taking out Fong that itw as more this one guy pushing that agenda and the others realizing "yeah that's not going to get us anywhere" thus why they don't further pursue the Gaang after this.
"Aang has zero game. That dopey kid is gonna be a monk for the rest of his life."
- Like I hinted at before albeit in spoilers as I wanted to wait for you to see this episode before saying anything, the show obviously does push the Aang/Katara relationship in a fair amount of episodes and yeah a fair amount of them are pretty cringy about it. Now granted Aang is 12 and though did travel around the world before he got frozen interacted with other ladies probably never had any meaningful connections with any like he did with Katara so hasn't really learned any "rizz" or whatever it's called now so it would make sense to show that but it also shows how romance in general is not something the series is that good at and yeah that is something found throughout this or Legend of Korra.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender “The Swamp”
A dud."
- Yeah this is generally considered one of the lesser episodes by a majority of the fanbase and I agree on that. Like it's important and I do like the battle with the swamp bender who can control plant life at the end a lot but I do not care for the messaging. Like I can ignore the swamp bender hillbillies even if yeah they are annoying and honestly Sokka here doesn't really bother me that much but I just don't like the whole "oh we are one being deep down so you need to be respectful to nature more" messaging that is super hammered in that pops up from time to time. Like the show itself does have a very enviornmental positive message but there are some eps that do push it in your face too much. And this to me is very much one of them.
"But I'm mad at Zuko for how he treated Uncle. And unfortunately, I don't believe the action sequence at the end was up to snuff."
- Zuko very much at the start of season 2o is totally loss and unsure of how to move on so though yeah him trying to part from Iroh who is rightfully pointing out "even if you got the Avatar now that wouldn't mean you'd just be welcomed in by your kingdom" is a bad move i do get where he's coming from and how he did need that break which yeah lasts as long as it needs to before they reunite. As for the end action sequence, well the main plot of "Avatar Day" is much more of a farce. The last one the team have BEFORE Toph joins and the plot really kicks up again so it is meant as this romp which includes the action beat against the Rough Rhino Raiders so it not really being as impactful is fine so long as it's funny which I personally think it is but mileage on that is going to vary.
"It’s Toph’s father repeatedly calling her helpless that crosses the line for me. Yes, the show is telling us he’s wrong to do it, but it’s his freaking daughter. That should not need be any sort of messaging issue for the show. As far as I’m concerned, shit like that should just go without saying."
- Actually there is a really important reason that goes beyond just the lesson or the fact "this guy is wrong don't act like him" to make him like that; we have to 100% be on Toph and the Gaang's side that her leaving to join him and abandoning her family is the right call not just for a sake of the world but for the sake of her and her needs level. Thus it needs to be shown how much the Bei Fongs not only do not get Toph but how in trying to protect and pretend she doesn't exist (remember the idea of this family even having a kid to general outsiders was seen as a rumor not something they even really believed in) they are restraining her on a level that is detrimental to her and even seeing her skills in person does not change that. We'll talk about the issues Toph has with her family... another time but it had to be sold right upfront because of Toph leaving to join the world and travel with the others. Like Aang didn't have anybody and at least before was a monk who had done that anyway and Sokka and Katara had permission from their grandmother due to the Avatar connection to go but there had to be a reason for Toph and to me having it be "this rich elite family are just so blind themselves to their daughter's potential they couldn't really see it so she had to leave for them" makes sense but yeah to get that through they have to throw it in as bluntly as possible.
"Impressive. Toph is annoying and more trouble than she is worth, but the great stuff between Zuko and Uncle floors me."
- Toph is a very abrasive character especially when you do not get along with her and though eventually she warmed her way to being an audience favorite I do have to remember "oh right even when I was first watching the show though loving her introduction I did think even in this one she is a bit too mean" before eventually getting more the point of this episode. Which the Sokka stuff I'm not as much a fan of but the training stuff I do really like and yeah I think I said this in "The Waterbending Scroll" in a hinting way but I do really love how unique the connection Aang has as a student with all of his elemental teachers. With Katara's she the one under him because of how quickly he gets and picks up water and how it's easy go flowing personaity really gels with him and thus she's the one who takes longer to pick it up and blow up at him. But yeah then we have earth which is this really stubborn thick element that to truly first get you have to be tough and focused which is very VERY counter to how Aang acts. So it's something he has to step up and master with Toph making it clear "no you have to stand up and be firm that's the only way you'll start mastering this" thus yeah why Aang is finally able to earth bend at the end of this learning that lesson. Admittedly it is on some levels a "lesser" episode of the season but still a really important one and again to make that clear Toph had to really whallop that factoid in which is how she handles Avatars.
"The writing problem is the conflict is stupid. Even if Sokka was going to use the knowledge he learned in the library for bad purposes, knowing how dangerous AND against that idea the owl dude was, he could have silently gathered that information and informed the others what he learned later on outside the library. Instead, he literally is loudly making battle plans in a silent library where the frightening spirit who warned them against doing just that can easily hear him."
- Okay "The Library" is one of if not my favorite episode (as I do love it's comedy, the one shot character Professor Zei's relationship with the others and how it furthers the story) so I will defend this because yeah it is clear Wan Shi Tong obviously dislikes humans and those who use that information poorly, but I don't think any of the characters thought he would go to such extremes when finding out what they were looking for. More importantly though Sokka being a loud mouth IS a part of his character and though something that he works some on over time isn't ever going to fully go away. And again like I said in season one I prefer these guys with personalities and identities more then say the Netflix series that totally stripped those away so I don't mind Sokka's more loud mouth tendancies shown here. Plus him hitting Wah Shi Tong with that book when the owl is talking about all the waterbending styles he knows going "Now that's Sokka Style, LEARN IT' is such a cool moment for his character I can't hate on how we got to it.
"Nothing ever phases Uncle, does it?"
- Remember when I teased when you were pointing out Iroh fretting so much over losing the white lotus tile was such a stupid silly thing? Well the thing is though Iroh may have his quirks and can do some stupid things (again he is human not a perfect character) the whole White Lotus wasn't just something brought up as a gag in "The Waterbending Scroll" as it is a larger part of the show as this episode hinted at making it clear we'll see more of it throughout the show.
"I think we’ve just realized Aang is actually shitty in a real crisis. It’s not like this is his first crisis, but it was the worst, and the guy was totally lost. It’s worrisome, is what it is."
- Well again he is still 12. More importantly though Appa is his ONLY friend and connection to his former life beyond just the connection an airbender has with their sky bison so I think it makes total sense to see how much losing him would effect him and makes that determination to find him again mean that much more. Though espeically with the ending that whole thing is supposed to be worrisome because shows how much a ticking clock Aang can be especially with the Avatar state and how that is something that needs to be more controlled.
"On one level, the episode feels very experimentational. On a realer one, it’s the most filler episode the show has every done."
- Eh most filler is still "The Great Divide" because that didn't tell us anything about the characters we care about and many couldn't get behind the whole moral when it was revealed Aang was just lying. This is an excuse for us to focus on our core cast as more individuals and see peaks into them we couldn't in regular episodes and honestly there is a reason a lot of people feel it's one of the best episodes. Then again most of that comes from Iroh's segment which yeah a few people like some of the others more (I do agree Momo is the weakest and yeah had a hard time following it myself on first watch) but a majority do agree it is the best. Especially for that Mako tribute. Speaking of...
"I love that the segment was dedicated to the late Mako who had recently passed at the time."
- Though Mako was able to voice a majority of Iroh in season 2 due to his tragic passing (I believe it was right after the two part "The Library"/"The Desert" which was aired as a two parter when it first debuted) because sometimes you'd need to redo an alter a line because of recuts of certain scenes you can tell in a couple of episodes they used someone else due to Mako no longer being with us. This was first actually heard in this episode as yeah the scene of the shop keeper's windo being broken and Iroh and the kids booking it was Greg Baldwin, not Mako. Like you can really tell because Mako comes right back when Iroh runs into that mugger that the voice felt off like 10 seconds right before that bit.
"I imagine this episode was highly regarded back in the day. I don’t like it at all. That’s me. *1/2."
- Oh yeah this is easily another beloved episode but I'm not going to lie I totally get that vibe of "this rubs me the wrong way just seeing Appa get tormented." Especially since it doesn't even end on a happy note but rather him still being held prisoner and that only being resolved in the next episode. I have to admit it really only personally bothers me though in the scene with the Kyoshi Warriors where Suki has to get Appa away after Azula and her passe find them. Like I get the point of the scene but man is it messed up just seeing that espeically after finally seeing some good luck on Appa him being harassed like that again does hurt.
"The death is understated but this is still clearly Jet’s last episode. I found it interesting he wasn’t an antagonist in his final appearance."
- The death is understated because they couldn't explicitly spell it out likely as much as they wanted to but yeah he is 100% dead from that is something the crew does confirm in interviews and the like.
"When Toph asks Katara if Jet was her boyfriend, that’s the actual problem. They never remotely made anything official but she wouldn’t be so mad if he weren’t."
- Well the joke is more "she did have a crush on him and probably could have seen him as a boyfriend at one point but yeah that was before realizing some of his true intentions." I should also note some people have a problem with Toph's lie sensing powers being revealed here but honestly I think it works as it was something she probably did keep to herself until trusting the others more and this was the first situation where it could be used she'd have full strength on anyway.
(Post is too long have to split it up... because I'm a blabber with these sort of things I guess).
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 07:53 pm (UTC)"I am totally unimpressed by the Earth King. He sucks ass. He is a weak putz. You had been hoping there was actually a good reason this was all going on without him knowing anything about it. Guess what? There isn’t. The actual problem is that he sucks."
- So this also ties into a point I was hinting at when you were going over season one; though yeah the Fire Nation is the big bad this series they do make it clear ALL the four nations have their issues. And a big problem with the Earth Kingdom is that it's so big there are not only a lot of conflictory leaders within it but is also cut off from a lot of the rest of the populus to just focus on itself and not worry about larger issues. Especially with how the Earth King is treated and yeah just seeing how he is and what he's like does make him seem like a lame goober but like that is sort of the point and something he himself does work on (something you don't actually see in the show that's all I'll say on that) and there is more a reason for it. Okay this isn't in the show so I feel fine with saying it here; Aang is told by Kyoshi between the events of season 2 and season 3 (It shouldn't be a spoiler Aang doesn't die at the end of season 2 and is alive next season right?) a bit of her backstory and how the Earth Kingdom used to have a very violent and cruel ruler who enforced horrible cruelties on his own people in wanting to expand the kingdom further even trying to alter their own history to be better glorify himself. Thus when stopping him and threatening him to not do such bunk again (since yeah if you saw that flashback in "Avatar Day" Kyoshi in her prime didn't take guff) she also created the Dai Lee to enforce protecting the history and rights of others that could work beyond the rule and law of the King. Of course these policies got twisted and corrupted to the point where Long Feng pretty much handles the king until yeah our Gaang come in to show the illogic of that. But there is still a rationale behind how this happened and the state of The Earth King at this point in the series.
"Sokka interrupting Aang right before he was about to confess his feelings to Katara is legit bad writing."
- Okay as much as I love Avatar and I can argue some of your points... there are moments even beyond this just being a Nicktoon it has bad bits especially for the sake of a gag. Sometimes the gag can at least be funny but yeah THIS was not one of them and yeah was cringe when I saw it nearly 20 years ago and still is.
"If I have this right, it’s not unrequited, but it will likely be unconsummated for religious reasons. Gotta say, as disappointing as that sounds on paper, it’s smart because it adds an additional element of tragic sacrifice to Aang’s journey, without having to kill anybody off. This way lies The Good Hurt. Still another season left, and I could be misreading things, but as disappointing as the idea sounds, the Avatar’s potential celibacy could very well be a wellspring of great romantic drama."
- Okay I want to clarify this now and don't worry this isn't a spoiler but rather a lot of people espeically due to how Aang phrases it in "The Crossroads of Destiny" get the WRONG lesson from what Guru Pathik is trying to hammer into Aang. The lesson isn't "The Avatar can't have romantic relationships with other partners" (which is something Shamalayan put in The last Airbender but that's just another horrid mistake from M Night's bad take on the material) but rather "when the Avatar is trying to use the power of the Avatar State they CANNOT have romantic or emotional attachments to anyone else when they want to control it fully. They need to be detathced to that and focus just on their duty lest they be consumed by feelings and be unable to use the power properly." It's you know the Yoda lesson from Empire Strikes Back about having to rise above base more selfish desires and yeah just like Empire strikes Back with Luke going out BEFORE he finished his training and thus failing, Aang did the same thing here because he let his worry about Katara fail him from mastering Avatar State powers. Because it's not like he would be in that mode 24/7 and couldn't make emotional attachements but you HAVE to be willing to throw away those connections when using that power which Aang tried doing at the end when pressed into a corner but yeah again also a mistake that's how Azula was able to take him out.
"That episode would have played equally well if Zuko had made the right choice and joined the Avatar. Both outcomes were perfectly set up, so not only is Zuko’s fate a huge question mark for the audience. We don’t know if he’s going to do the right or wrong thing until he’s done it."
- I will say as someone who was there when this first happened there were so many people against Zuko for this turn and felt it went against all his development the last two seasons but... not to spoil anything but there's a reason why Avatar The Last Airbender fans don't go "oh man Zuko was great until "The Crossroads of Destiny" and then just sucked throughout the rest of the show" because yeah this whole thing was fully thought out and made sense for the character. Like as much as Iroh loves Zuko and was trying to give him advice on what was best for him it was also clear especially on rewatch that though Zuko was trying to also do what was best for him with the tea shop that yeah his heart wasn't fully in that either and he still had that desire and need to get what he felt was his true destiny and thus try and take down Aang and the others. It fully works and yeah as much as it is a shock I have to admit when Zuko came in while Aang and katara were fighting Azula the fact he did help out his sister also didn't feel 100% artficial and had a sense of logic to it.
But that's all I'm going to say here again huge fan of Avatar really appreciate your review going over your points but again as a super fan whose seen the whole show wanting to give my own thoughts as well.
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Date: 2026-01-10 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 12:44 am (UTC)BTW you going to also do Legend of Korra season by season after finishing ATLA?
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Date: 2026-01-11 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-13 11:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-13 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-13 03:21 pm (UTC)The thing I remember most about posting on that episode in my old TZ days is saying something the show itself would prove me wrong on but not spoiling that for Matt's sake.