Episode by episode | Avatar: The Last Airbender s1 e6

Avatar: The Last Airbender returns to form in episode six; if Warriors of Kyoshi was Sokka’s episode this episode (Imprisoned) is Katara’s. Although not hitting the peaks of episodes 3 and 4 this episode is of the quality I associate with the series. The humour remains solid and consistent, the characters are charming and the animation is a lot nicer than it was in the last episode. Introduced to the show is another minor character: Haru. Haru’s mother is quickly introduced alongside the situation the village is in under the occupation of the Fire nation. This sets the stage for the rest of the episode.

Earthbending is a punishable form of potential resistance against the occupying fire nation troops and as such Haru is quickly imprisoned after rescuing an old man trapped under rubble. Katara who felt responsible for having urged Haru to earthbend the man to safety subsequently gets herself arrested to rescue him. The rig upon which the prison is based is built entirely out of metal and the design is excellent, the series has always been good at making oppressive metal constructions and the art team does a great job with the colouring and texturing. Here Haru’s father is also introduced and after Katara fails to convince the earthbenders to rebel, even if they cannot bend, the team develop a plan.

The culmination of this plan results in blowing a load of coal out to the prisoners, adapting a plan developed earlier that allowed, with some help from Aang, Katara to appear to be earthbending. After this a fight ensues with the earthbenders swiftly defeating the firebenders. Unfortunately the fight itself is a touch underwhelming; one has the feeling that the plan for the fight was constrained by the time and money the team could put into its production. Rather than cleverly playing with the potential of a fight in which the earthbender’s ammunition is flammable the episode only briefly acknowledges it and moves on; a little disappointing, but the fighting was not the focus of the episode. 

In the final scene we get what was really missing from the formula in the last episode and to some small extent in this one as well; Zuko’s return is teased when he picks up the necklace that Katara lost during the fight. A touch jammed in perhaps as a cliff-hanger, but no less enjoyable for it: Zuko is for me the most complex character in the show and his ambitiously long three season character arc is but one of the elements that sets the show above all the others I watched as a kid as well as above many of the shows I enjoy today. It’s always good to see more Zuko.

There’s not a lot more to this episode; it’s quite simple and doesn’t go too hard on the darker material it had to work with. It certainly explores corruption and oppression and develops characters within the confines of such circumstances, but it doesn’t say anything unexpected or new and it doesn’t really need to, the episode is a good one, even if it doesn’t quite have the magic that episodes like the 3^rd and 4^th in the first series do. It’s always nice to see a show that’s comfortable putting the “main” or title character into the background the way this episode does; something the show as a whole is quite good at throughout all of the series.

Episode by episode | Avatar: The Last Airbender s1 e3

Episode 3 rounds off the introductory episodes and does so in a big way, this episode might just be my favourite amongst the whole series, with a distinctly dark tone and quite a heavy mood thematically. This is probably the episode where Aang is at his most vulnerable; in no other episode does it feel quite so apparent that Aang has suffered a terrible loss and our first real hints at Zuko’s past combine to form the ultimate promise for what the rest of the show could (and eventually would) become.  This, for me, is the singular episode that best encapsulates Avatar: The Last Airbender as more than just a nicely animated kid’s show; but rather a tale with an epic scope and huge ambitions that it delivers upon in a way few shows do. If you can’t tell already this was the episode that got me into the series as a kid and it remains an excellent episode now nearly 10 years later.

The episode opens with Aang excited to return home again. Katara however warns him not to get his hopes up as a lot can change in 100 years, although this does little to dampen his enthusiasm. In the next scene Zuko has taken his ship in for repairs after his last run-in with the Avatar and warns his uncle not to mention this incident as other Fire nation troops may get in his way should they know the avatar is alive. Introduced is Commander Zhao, an ambitious member of the fire nation military who seeks the glory of capturing the Avatar for himself. With this set up we immediately have promise of two story lines; Aang confronting the realities of war and fate of his people and Zuko confronting a figure of authority who lies in his path.

Now the episode cuts back to Aang and company where Katara is again trying to warn Aang that the fire nation may have killed his people as they did her mother, while Aang insists it to be impossible for the fire nation to have found the temple without sky bison. With that they arrive at the southern air temple, and we get a first taste for some of the truly exceptional backdrops the series boasts; with a beautiful set of eastern styled towers adorning the top of a steep mountain. Katara and Aang react accordingly with awe and wonder for the former; happiness and some mix of hesitation and relief for the latter.

 

Returning to Zuko and Iroh we begin to understand Zhao’s suspicions of Zuko, as well as Zuko’s problems with authority; again accompanied by an allusion to his father. As Zuko attempts to leave Zhao receives word that Zuko had the avatar in custody prior to his escape and now can justify holding Zuko and his uncle against their will. Returning to the southern water temple Aang is disappointed by how empty it is and Sokka quickly tries to cheer up Aang by playing airball with him. In doing so Sokka discovers a fire nation helmet and Katara calls Aang over before thinking better of it and hiding it beneath some snow. It’s nice to see this sort of characterisation in any medium, but particularly so early on; Katara is protective of Aang and finds she can’t bring herself to hurt him like that. This scene is a great little example of how human the characters feel, as well as how the show runners treat their audience with respect; portraying complex (for a child) emotions and characters in a genre typically overrun with simplified plots, characters and dialogue. The audience; primarily kids, aren’t looked down upon, and that made a big difference to me as a kid who was sick of patronizingly simple children’s shows.

The next scene features a flash back to Aang’s time with Monk Giatso; Aang’s mentor and friend. The whole scene is tinged with a warm yellow and Giatso is instantly likeable; showing elements of a father figure, a spiritual guide and most importantly a friend and equal; Giatso embodies Aang’s pleasant memories of his time at the temple. Going on as Aang remembers that he was to meet someone to help him realise his potential as Avatar, the scene follows Aang, Katara and Sokka as they reach the air temple sanctuary. Opening the door through a display of Air bending we see one of the minor issues with the series and how it has aged; the blending of hand drawn and CGI animation that even then looked a little clunky, but now looks noticeably ill-fitting with the rest of the show’s animation.

Following a brief interlude featuring Zuko and another of Iroh’s tea jokes, we return to Aang and co. entering the sanctuary. Lit from the open doorway in a cold, blueish hue, the scene takes a more sombre tone, opening with a low bell as a sound cue and panning away from the group to reveal rows of statues following a spiral pattern. The background and environment artists really show their skill in this sequence between the dramatic blue lighting, to the detail on the statues themselves, the rows of statues seem inspired by the Terracotta warriors and the tone of the scene certainly makes them feel equally important. Katara quickly notices that they’re lined up in a pattern, with the subject of the statue hailing from Air nomads, Water tribes, Earth kingdom and Fire nation in that order; an order which Aang recognises as the avatar cycle, from which comes the realisation that these statues were made of Aang’s past lives. Coming to a stop at the centremost statue Aang finds that he recognises the figure as that of Roku, the avatar before him. Enter a lemur who sparks a chase between a starving Sokka and a joyous Aang. I love the music they use for this sequence and as it was first used during the penguin sledding sequence I’ll refer to it as the penguin sledding song in future (or not, because that’s a terrible name), but regardless the music is fantastic in this little scene as Aang quickly pulls ahead of Sokka.

Again the action cuts back to Zuko, but this time the scene is quite significant; Zuko challenges Zhao with the claim that he will capture the Avatar which Zhao laughs at, provoking Zuko into challenging him to an Agni Kai or firebending duel. As Zhao leaves the tent he jibes that it’s a shame Zuko’s father won’t see the humiliation Zhao aims to bestow upon him. With Zhao now gone Iroh warns Zuko that he must remember what happened the last time he duelled a master; as this line plays out the camera pans from the right side of Zuko’s face to his scarred left and stopping there as Zuko declares “I will never forget.” Thus the setup for Zuko’s feud with Zhao is established, alongside a few further allusions to Zuko’s relationship with his father and how desperate he is to reclaim his father’s approval. With the closure of this scene the setup is complete for what in my eyes is the single best fight sequence (although not the best set-piece) in the whole show.

Cutting back to Aang, we re-join him as he enter a building the Lemur has just entered. With a somewhat clunky fade-out the penguin sledding song ends and a darker tune begins. Aang pulls aside a second curtain within the building to find the remains of a collection of fire benders surrounding the robed skeleton of an airbender whom Aang recognises as having been Giatso. Aang falling to his knees and crying after learning of the death of his friend and mentor is a powerful and tragic scene; one I remembered as being quite upsetting as a child, as it still is, and as Sokka enters and attempts to comfort Aang his sadness quickly turns to anger, sparking the glowing eyes and tattoos that we saw previously as Aang emerged from the Iceberg and when he used waterbending against Zuko in the previous episode. As his eyes begin to glow so to do the eyes of the statues in the sanctuary and in other temples in the other nations and seeing this Katara rushes back towards where she saw Aang run knowing something is wrong. Katara, after learning what happened from Sokka, then goes to try to calm Aang down.

 

Returning now to Zuko and the Agni kai begins. As Zuko’s initial attacks do little to Zhao and he quickly gains the upper hand, closing in on Zuko. Zuko; now on the ground and with Zhao’s impending final strike coming in, quickly spins, knocking Zhao off his balance and subsequently continues to force the now off balance Zhao back with some simple steps and blasts of flame from his feet; eventually culminating in knocking Zhao over and leaving Zuko as victor as he chooses to spare Zhao. As Zuko turns to leave Zhao makes to strike his unguarded back which Iroh quickly prevents, labelling Zhao as disgraceful in defeat and praising his nephew for having, even in exile, more honour than Zhao. Heavily grounded in real world martial arts the fight feels natural despite the fire they conjure out of thin air and it feels almost like watching a sport; with shifts in advantage and momentum, shifts that are matched to the music set behind it which is equally fantastic. The people responsible for the fight choreography for this scene deserve a special mention for this phenomenal fight.

Cutting back now to Katara as she tries to calm Aang down, I’m struck immediately by the lighting; previously cold blues and warm yellows, now the scene is lit by a strong violet light. Katara succeeds in calming Aang down by assuring him that he has a family in Sokka and Katara now, even if his past friends are now gone. I love the roles the characters play here; Katara playing as the emotional support for the hero rather than the other way around as is so often the case (one of many examples of the way the show expertly handles gender and gender roles as well as crafts a story with somewhat atypical characters, i.e. the fairly feminine Aang, the strong willed Katara and the intelligent and physically less capable Sokka, which all represent minor inversions of the character archetypes you might normally expect to see). Book-ending Aang’s story is the return of the lemur who offers food to Sokka and is named Momo by Aang.

For me the third episode is all about the fulfilment of the needs of its characters; Sokka gets his food, Zuko gains acceptance from someone who isn’t his father, Katara finds a way to balance her kindness with what she needs to do and Aang faces the reality that all of his friends and family are gone. For each of these characters there is some struggle involved in the search; and the outcome for each person isn’t necessarily what they desired or expected. 

This run-through of the third episode is far too long, but there is such an immense amount of key themes and character developments to unpack here that I thought it best to pay extra attention to this episode. For me it reminds me quite strongly of the third episode of Breaking Bad in that it stands as the moment when the series’ first establishes itself as what it has the potential to be, and for me, in both of these series, the realisation of the potential and balance of the various elements that make up the show is a truly exciting thing. I cannot stress enough how fantastic this episode is; utterly brilliant through and through.

Episode by episode | Avatar: The Last Airbender s1 e2

The second episode begins with a much more sombre tone; beginning where the last episode left off; with Aang and Katara returning to the southern water tribe beneath the flare they just set off. Upon returning Sokka accuses Aang of deliberately signalling the fire nation and subsequently declares him banished.

With Aang gone the story comes back to Sokka, preparing the tribe for the impending attack on the village and we see the first of a multitude of jokes that develop punchlines based on lines or scenes in the first episode where Sokka pre-emptively tells his would-be-warriors "and no potty breaks!"; playing off a line in the first episode. This gag is done quite well and Sokka's voice actor, Jack Desena is showing his talent really well here; indeed while all of the other actors have felt a touch inconsistent, Sokka is able to go to a variety of different moods and tones without feeling like a different character.

The tone switches for Sokka very quickly; going from a light-hearted gag to a preparation for a battle; Sokka dons his face paint and takes up his spear and boomerang, while Zuko is putting on his armour and helmet. With this scene we get some good direction cues and well framed shots; Sokka framed mostly from above (making him look smaller or weaker) and Zuko framed face on or from below (making him look larger or stronger) and these framing choices come to a great end with Sokka standing atop the wall around his tribe that crumbles as Zuko's ship comes ploughing through. Ending with Sokka having to stumble backwards from the ruined remains of his wall as the landing ramp of the ship falls to the ground, the scene nicely balances the dark implications of a military force coming into a village of mostly young and elderly with the enjoyable and lighter elements that keep the series appropriate for younger audiences.

Enter Zuko in his first true interaction with the main characters of the series; after dismissing Sokka from the situation he threatens the villagers with fire asking after the Avatar whom he still believes is an old man. Sokka briefly gets his own back thanks to a returning boomerang but is quickly subdued again, until Aang returns, sweeping Zuko off of his feet. If I’m honest, this sequence feels a little strangely paced; particularly so when Aang agrees to be captured by Zuko providing he doesn’t hurt anyone else almost immediately. The balance between Zuko’s likeable and villainous character traits here also feel a bit off, Zuko seems a much more standard villain and lacks somewhat the finesse that defines his character later in the series.

Following Aang’s capture Katara and Sokka quickly set off to free him, with a blessing from Gran-Gran to leave they set off on Appa. Quickly we cut back to Zuko discussing Aang’s upbringing and revealing that he was raised by Monks and not his father as Zuko was. Although not quite as awkward as it could have been the delivery feels a bit stiff and the ease with which Aang subsequently escapes from Zuko’s guards feels rushed. The episode veers back towards the right direction with Aang running back into the ship to get his staff. Here we cut back to Sokka and Katara on top off a swimming Appa. Sokka lists a bunch of words sarcastically trying to get Appa to fly; ascend, elevate, soar and eventually stumbles into Yip Yip with which Appa begins to fly. It’s a nice little gag playing off of Sokka’s cynicism while also feeling natural to his character. It’s a sort of balanced humour the rest of the episode has lacked, often feeling too juvenile for the subject matter.

Back on the ship we have our first taste of different bending styles; air revelling in evasion and using the environment and fire as fuelled by strength and direct attacks. With this sequence we see Aang dodge and avoid while the firebenders attack front on, culminating in Aang falling off the edge of the ship, returning with glowing eyes and tattoos and washing the firebenders into the water with a powerful display of waterbending after which Katara, Sokka and Aang escape on Appa. 

Aside from a brief achievement in waterbending, Katara doesn’t get much airtime this episode and I get the feeling that this episode was the hook meant to draw the attention of a younger male audience; focusing more on fight sequences and Zuko than on the overarching story line.  Of course it's also just the second episode, so there's that too.

For me the second episode is a touch disappointing although its failings are quite understandable given how deft a touch one needs to balance out the tone of the show as they do later in the series. Thankfully the third episode makes up for the second in a huge way.