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| Saturday, October 3, 2009 07:53 PM |
| (Last updated on Saturday, October 3, 2009 08:04 PM) | | On the Viewer - Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book Three, Volume Four) |
 by Fëanor |
Beware! There are many spoilers below. Read this post only if you've already seen the entire series, or you intend to never watch the series (boo!), or you hate surprises.
"The South Raiders"
Man, they can't have peace for more than a few seconds! They're all together and it looks like a beautiful morning, and then all the sudden they're being bombed. And now they have to split up again! Suck.
Zuko's maybe trying a little too hard to prove himself. But Katara's still not accepting him. To placate her, Zuko tells her he can help her take revenge on the man who took her mother from her. Time for the two of them to go on a deadly ninja revenge mission together!
Katara uses bloodbending on the man she thinks took her mother. But it's the wrong guy. The man she wants is retired and living a crappy life with his mother, a shrewish old woman. It's true, he did kill Katara's mother; she was protecting her daughter, and claimed she was the last waterbender. He tells Katara, take my mother, that would be fair! Ha! But Katara realizes he's just a pathetic, empty, old man and cannot kill him. She will never forgive him, but she finds she can now forgive Zuko.
Zuko: "You were right about what Katara needed. Violence wasn't the answer."
Aang: "It never is."
Zuko: "Then I have a question for you: what are you going to do when you face my father?"
Ouch. That is a very good question.
The plot of this episode is pretty tired - hero character wants revenge, other hero character protests that revenge is wrong, ultimately hero makes the right choice and does not kill his/her enemy. But the show tells this old story in a powerful way, with humor and insight.
"The Ember Island Players"
This is one of the first episodes of this show I ever saw! It pretty much convinced me to go back and watch the rest of the series.
The gang has come to Zuko's old family house on Ember Island. As the "previously on" scenes remind us, Ember Island is where you go to learn the truth about yourself. There's a play being put on about the adventures of Aang and friends, so of course they have to go see it. The play turns out to be a hilarious postmodern satire of Avatar itself; all of the major events of the show so far are recreated in the silliest manner possible. Aang is played by a woman who prances about like Peter Pan. Sokka just talks about food all the time, and Katara is constantly crying and making speeches about hope. Each of the characters is horrified by how they themselves are portrayed, but laugh about the others. Toph is the only one really having fun. The Toph on stage is a giant, buff guy who can "see" things by screaming really loud. Hilarious!
Zuko: "Did Jet just... die?"
Sokka: "You know, it was really unclear."
Heh. More meta-commentary.
The play suggests a relationship between Zuko and Katara, and play-Katara says she thinks of Aang as a brother. The real Aang can't take this and walks out. For Zuko, the play just takes all the mistakes he's made in his life and throws them back in his face. Toph makes him feel a bit better about it, though. A kid tells him his costume's good, but his scar's on the wrong side. Pfft.
Sokka gives the guy playing him advice and better jokes to tell. And he actually uses them! Heh.
Aang talks to Katara about their relationship, and it doesn't go well. When Aang comes back in, Sokka gets him up to speed on what he missed. Heh. Like he doesn't know.
The play gets to the present time and then keeps going, imagining the final confrontation between the gang and the Fire Lord. But of course this is a Fire Nation play, so it imagines them all losing and dying. It's just a bit upsetting to our heroes! They all agree the play was horrible, but Sokka points out the effects were decent.
Great episode! A brilliant self-examination of the show, which forces the characters to also examine themselves, their past, and their future.
"Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King"
The gang takes a break and has a beach party. Aang makes an impressive sand sculpture of Appa, but Toph one-ups him with a ridiculously accurate and intricate model of the Ba Sing Se, which even includes a tiny version of the Earth King and his pet bear! Zuko decides it's time to remind Aang this is no time to be playing around and attacks him.
Sokka: "Zuko's gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it! ... Oh, and he's attacking Aang."
Turns out Aang has been planning to hold off on attacking the Fire Lord until after the return of Sozin's comet. But Zuko reveals that this would be a terrible mistake. When the comet comes, the Fire Lord plans to completely destroy the Earth Kingdom. But that's all right! They'll all fight him together! Team Avatar is back!
Katara: "Get over here, Zuko! Being part of the group means being part of group hugs." Momo and Appa also fly in to be part of the hug. Heh.
Ooh, Zuko's going to teach Aang how to redirect lightning!
Time for a training exercise: attack the Melon Lord! The Melon Lord will be played by Toph, who is perhaps enjoying her role a little too much. She's laughing evilly and everything.
Aang can't get used to the idea that he has to kill the Fire Lord. It goes against everything he is.
Aang heads out in a trance towards a mysterious island that has appeared nearby. Only Momo follows him.
The others split up to find Aang. Toph: "I'm going with Zuko! What? Everybody else went on a life-changing field trip with Zuko; now it's my turn!" Things don't turn out the way she hopes, though, and they can't find Aang.
When they notice Momo is also missing, Sokka says, "Oh no! I knew it was only a matter of time. Appa ate Momo!" He climbs into Appa's mouth. Heh.
Ozai declares Azula the new Fire Lord and makes himself the Phoenix King - supreme ruler of the world. Woah.
Meanwhile, in order to track Aang, Zuko turns to an old friend: June, the lady with the giant vole/mole thing that can track his scent across the world. Fun!
Exciting episode! It's getting tense and down to the wire now.
"Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters"
Unfortunately, June's animal can't find Aang, which means he's not in the world! The only other person they can think of who could help them defeat the Fire Lord is Iroh, so off they go to find him! Yay! At Ba Sing Se they find him amongst a bunch of old friends - masters they've met along their travels who are all part of the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society that transcends the borders of the different nations.
Meanwhile, Aang is communing with his earlier selves to find out what to do. But all of them seem to be confirming his worst fears: he must kill the Fire Lord.
Bumi: "Someone's missing from your group. Someone important. Where's Momo??"
Bumi reveals how he finally escaped from his imprisonment - he waited for the eclipse and then took back the whole city all by himself. He's so crazy and awesome.
Ugh! One of the earlier Avatars mentions Koh the face-stealer again. That thing is truly horrifying.
Avatar: "Selfless duty calls upon you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world." That's deep. They're all agreed: Aang must give up his pacifism to kill the Fire Lord.
The scene where Zuko meets Iroh again and they reconcile is really deeply moving and wonderfully done. Iroh says Zuko must be King and take the throne of the Fire Nation from his father. Only someone who has made the mistakes he's made and found his own path can be the new King.
Iroh realizes his destiny was not to conquer Ba Sing Se for the Fire Nation, but to take it back from the Fire Nation! He's very wise, and helps them all see what they have to do today.
The giant, mysterious island Aang has been riding is actually a huge lion turtle. It gives him some rather cryptic wisdom, then says, "Wait for him. He will come," and takes off.
Extremely grand and epic! Everything we've seen throughout the series is being brought back to be reexamined and put to bed as we move toward the final confrontation. Very well done.
"Sozin's Comet, Part 3: Into the Inferno"
Katara and Zuko race to take on Fire Lord Azula, while Toph, Suki, and Sokka leap on board the airship fleet.
Azula's just banishing everybody today, isn't she? You'd think she'd want to keep the few people who are still loyal to her close by.
Toph is so bad-ass. She broke the metal door down, then rolled onto it and turned it into a metal suit for herself to wear. Then she beat the crap out of all the firebenders running the ship. Now they they've taken over the airship, Sokka orders the entire crew to the bomb bay for hotcakes and sweet cream. "We have a very special birthday to celebrate." There's a hilarious conversation between the soldiers, then Sokka dumps them all in the water. I love how this show can successfully slip comedy into the middle of even the most tense drama.
Azula is incredibly paranoid and crazy now. Guess all those betrayals really took their toll on her!
The Order of the White Lotus is so bad-ass. The way they sweep into Ba Sing Se and blow the Fire Nation soldiers away is a thing to behold.
Aang easily dispatches of the Fire Lord's airship. Time for the showdown. Hoo boy.
Yes! Go, go Sokka! He rams one airship into the others, destroying almost the entire fleet! But he lost Suki.
Time for Zuko and Katara to finally take out Azula. But Zuko makes his same old mistake and falls for one of Azula's taunts: she challenges him to a duel - just the two of them, so Katara can't help him. But this time, with Azula as crazy and messed up as she is, he might be able to take her.
Man, this episode is made up almost entirely of insane bad-ass action!
Aang can't make the killing blow. He redirects the lightning out into the sky instead of back at Ozai. Damn it, Aang!!
The fight between Zuko and Azula is made more intense and powerful by the moving soundtrack.
Argh! What a brutal ending. It looks like Azula got the better of Zuko, forcing him to take a lightning blast by firing it at Katara. And Aang is cornered and getting blasted by the Fire Lord.
"Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang"
Holy crap, Sokka is a bad-ass, what with the boomerang and the sword. It looked really bad for our heroes there for a second, but now Suki's back! Yay!
Aang's Avatar state is suddenly activated by his old wound being struck. I guess that unblocked his chakras or something? Whether this is a good thing or not is yet to be seen. He's creating a sphere composed of all four elements.
Iroh burns the Fire Nation flag off of the Earth Kingdom capital. Destiny fulfilled!
Katara does an excellent job of capturing and chaining up Azula.
Aang clearly has the advantage over the Fire Lord now. But can he keep it? Nope. In the end, Aang simply cannot finish him. But he finds another way. He bends not the elements, but the energy within the Fire Lord, like the lion turtle told him. He took away Ozai's firebending. Holy crap! That's awesome. He raises the waters to put out the fires, then lets them recede. The comet has passed. The danger is over. Excellent.
Aww, Zuko and May are back together. In fact, it's time for everybody to get back together. Circus girl is even going to get to join the Kyoshi Warriors!
The Fire Lord and the Avatar: friends again, like they were ages ago, before everything went wrong. Very cool.
And finally, at long last, Aang and Katara are together. *sniff*
Weird: they leave something unresolved. Zuko asks the Fire Lord where his mother is, but we don't get to hear the answer, and it never comes up again. Are we to assume Ozai told him where the grave was? Or that she's still alive and Zuko will find her some day? It seems odd that we're just left hanging on that.
Still, that's just one small complaint. Otherwise this was an unbelievably exciting, action-packed, insightful, deeply moving conclusion to a great, great series. Excellent work all around! |
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