Honestly, once the gang landed in Ba Sing Se, my next episode hype instantly deflated. It’s just such a terrible setting all around. Did wonders for Zuko though. Sorta.
Just to make things clear, the primary villain of this arc is Long Feng, but I will constantly refer to him as Luthor because that’s what he freaking sounds like.
Day 8
The first episode explains everything Appa went through since his capture.
After the sandbenders caught Appa, they hoisted him off to some kind of beetle-themed traders, and they in turn sold Appa off to…
Yep.
At some traveling Fire Nation circus, Appa is trained by a cruel Firebender, and the trauma is strong enough to make Appa fearful of fire.
Appa eventually manages to escape, then wanders around the desert looking for stuff to eat.
He returns to the site of the library, but it has already sunk, and he has nothing left to go on.
Interestingly, we actually get Appa flashbacks this episode.
The Kiyoshi Warriors, apparently bored with security detail at the bay, happen upon Appa and break his shackles, then promise to help him find Aang.
Unfortunately, Azula’s Angels arrive to screw everything the fuck up.
The Kiyoshi Warriors hold Azula’s Angels off just long enough for Appa to make his escape. The next time he lands, it’s at an Air Temple where a solitary monk has been waiting for the Avatar.
A fully rested Appa makes his way to Ba Sing Se and follows the sound of a bison whistle… but the person blowing the whistle is Earth Luthor.
And that’s how Appa was captured.
Next episode, Aang has flyers for Appa made.
After putting some flyers up, Aang goes and does the lazy thing and just drops his flyers while gliding, paying no mind to Ba Sing Se’s litter laws. And one of those flyers just happens to land in the hands of Zuko, who I guess is still harboring a grudge against the Avatar for not giving himself up so Zuko’s daddy will love him.
Meanwhile, Joo Dee is still alive.
Joo Dee tells them they can’t be posting up fliers everywhere without a permit. Also, she didn’t die or get fired or anything. Just took a trip to Lake Laogai. This turns out to be important later.
Meanwhile, Luthor doesn’t want the Avatar to have his flying bison because reasons.
Zuko makes it obvious to Iroh that he’s still obsessed with the Avatar, but Iroh tells him to leave that business in the past. Zuko is unconvinced.
Unexpectedly, Jet shows up in front of Katara, offering to help her find Appa. Katara isn’t in the trusting mood today.
Toph senses that he’s telling the truth, and Jet leads them all to a warehouse where Appa was held. The custodian there tells them Appa was taken to Whale Tail Island, way back in the South Water Tribe region. It’s too far away to reach without Appa, so they have to give up. But then the rest of Jet’s crew shows up and asks what happened to him after he was arrested. Jet has no idea what they’re talking about. Toph senses they are BOTH telling the truth, and Sokka somehow hits it out of the park by accusing Jet of being hypnotized.
This of course means the old custodian was in on it, proving once more that old men are not to be trusted.
Using a combination of Katara’s healing skills and good old fashioned trauma, Jet recalls that he was taken to a secret base underwater. The Squad remembers Joo Dee talk about Lake Laogai, and they figure it must be under there.
Strangely enough, this is the ONLY close-up shot of Toph’s feet in the entire disc, and there were PLENTY of opportunities.
Turns out, the base beneath Lake Laogai is a Dai Li facility where all kinds of freaky stuff goes on. It also seems a whole bunch of local girls are being hypnotized to be Joo Dees.
The squad find a huge room, but it’s not where Appa’s held. The Blue Spirit manages to find Appa first, but Iroh is right behind him and urges Zuko not to be bound by the destiny his father gave him, but rather to look inside and figure out what he wants to do and why.
Meanwhile, the large room is actually an ambush for the Squad, and Luthor uses a hypnotic trigger to turn Jet against Aang. What finally snaps Jet out of his attack is his desire to be a Freedom Fighter, and he turns his blades against Luthor, only to get completely crushed. Well, not literally.
Katara tries to heal him, but he’s too far gone to save.
The Squad, sans Jet, manages to escape the underground hideout, but are surrounded by Dai Li agents. They are rescued by Appa, whom Zuko apparently decided to save, but refrained from taking the credit for.
Luthor is easily disposed of when Appa chomps his leg and tosses him aside like a ragdoll.
Zuko still feels conflicted about letting the bison go, but he follows Iroh’s advice and starts to let go of his grudge, even tossing away his Blue Spirit mask.
Next episode, with Luthor defeated, the Squad decides to STORM THE PALACE.
Meanwhile, Zuko’s inner struggle is literally making him sick. Weird.
The Squad makes it to the Earth King and accuses Luthor of all the shit he’s done, including hiding the existence of an ongoing 100-year war with the Fire Nation from the king, and while they do catch him in a lie, it’s going to take a lot of convincing. The Dai Li has already cleared out their underwater base, but the giant Fire Nation drill outside the outer walls is still there. The king commands the Dai Li to arrest Luthor, which they do, but they give knowing glances to show that they are still loyal to Luthor for no fucking reason.
Meanwhile, Zuko is having pleasant dreams.
Zhou Yu Zuko wakes up from his dream and goes to wash his face, then looks at his reflection to see…
And it turns out THAT was a dream.
Meanwhile, an investigation of Luthor’s room reveals multiple letters that cause the Squad to go their separate ways: an letter for Aang by a Guru that can teach him to control his Avatar State, information on Sokka and Katara’s father, and a letter from Toph’s mother saying she’s in Ba Sing Se. Unexpectedly, only one of these is a trap.
Sokka goes to see his father while Katara stays in Ba Sing Se. They also receive word that the Kyoshi Warriors have arrived. Which is of course a lie since we know what Azula did to them. I mean, I guess they never SHOWED Azula win, but it should be obvious.
Yep, they’re actually Azula’s Angels in disguise.
Aang’s Avatar State training consists of opening up chakras and conquering his fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusions, and earthly attachments. He kinda holds on to those earthly attachments though.
Meanwhile, Toph breaks free of her metal prison by inventing metalbending, since, y’know, metal is earth. I would think that would have been obvious.
Zuko awakens from his sleep a refreshed new man willing to live a peaceful life serving tea in Ba Sing Se. Unfortunately, Katara takes a tea break and sees Iroh and Zuko running the shop. She freaks and rushes to the palace to warn the king, but she ends up telling Azula instead and gets stomped.
And we close out with Iroh revealing that their tea house has been invited to serve tea at the palace. Things are looking u- yeah, it’s a trap, isn’t it?
During Aang’s training, he got a vision of Katara in danger, so he abandons it Empire Strikes Back style to rescue her. Along the way, he picks up Sokka and Toph.
The tea invitation was, yep, a trap. Iroh tries his best to open up a path and shows everyone why he’s known as the Dragon of the West.
However, Zuko stays behind to challenge Azula, but instead he gets surrounded by Dai Li and captured. Why Dai Li? Because Azula pretended to have their cover blown, then forged a deal with Luthor: she helps him capture the throne, and he hand her over the Avatar.
With everything now in place, Luthor decides to do what Luthor does and doublecross Azula. Azula one-ups him by showing that the Dai Li are loyal to her now, making it official that Luthor is a complete and utter joke.
Iroh is forced to seek out the Avatar and get his help to rescue both Katara and Zuko, as well as reveal a plot by the Dai Li to overthrow the king.
Speaking of Katara and Zuko, they’re sharing the same crystal prison. Katara chews him out until presumably he tells her his life story. Then she brings out some mystic water Pakku gave her and offers to heal his scar.
But Aang suddenly appears, preventing Zuko from getting his scar healed and tying Sokka’s harem counter.
They escape together, but Azula shows up to block their way and tries to persuade Zuko to join her.
Somehow, it works.
The resulting fight is naturally one of the best so far and features Katara fighting evenly with Azula, at least until Zuko interferes. Aang, realizing they’re in trouble, follows the guru’s final lesson to unlock his Avatar State.
It turns out to be completely worthless, as Azula oneshots him with a lightning bolt mid trance.
I guess all that talk about the Avatar State putting him at his most vulnerable was true.
The Squad is forced to retreat along with the Earth King, and they mourn the loss of Aang… except oh hey, Katara didn’t waste that water on Zuko.
Azula and Zuko are triumphant, though Zuko still regrets his decision. Azula promises him that their father will welcome him, but Zuko isn’t exactly convinced, and neither should anyone else.
That’s the end of Book 2.
Really confusing all over the place. Luthor’s plot made no sense whatsoever. If he wanted power, all he had to do was make allies with Aang rather than dick him around. There was literally nothing to gain by him capturing Appa, and if he just introduced himself as in charge of war operations, he could have had a winning strategy against the Fire Nation and convinced everyone that matters that he’s a great leader. But nope. Evils.
As for Azula, I am completely confounded by her motivations, especially in getting Zuko. If she isn’t using him as a pawn in some grand scheme to overthrow the Firelord and take the throne for herself, then her goal is just to be a bitch to everyone in the world, and she’s doing a fine job of it.
I am so, SO, SO glad to be done with Ba Sing Se. It was just a wasted setting marred with a half-assed coup storyline that we’ve seen a hundred times before, and I would expect Avatar to at least do something fresh with it, but if anything it’s implemented even worse than normal.
The idea that the entire city (which is freaking huge compared to every other place the Squad has been to) is either left in the dark or intimidated into silence regarding the war is ridiculous. How the hell was the Earth King never aware of a 100-year war?! Was he raised only by Luthor since birth? Was the previous Earth King also left int he dark? And if so, does this mean keeping the King inept is something Luthor didn’t come up with but was something the Dai Li had in place even before him? It’s all just really, really, facepalming stupid, and I am done. DONE.
But I am looking forward to seeing where the series goes from here. I wasn’t really hyped for these episodes, but now that we’re out of Ba Sing Se, I’m interested again.