I made today’s title card when I was halfway through with the watchthrough.  Throughout the second set of four episodes, I was worried I might have jumped the gun.

It took a while for the series to get going, but hey, it got going.  Even the stupid joke cues got cut way down.  There are a few recurring elements that are somewhat annoying, but hopefully I’ll get to show why they end up being entertaining anyway.

Day 3

For no particular reason, the gang stops by the Earth Kingdom.

They decide to put Aang into a disguise before he heads in, which is… I dunno, an okay but totally unnecessary idea.

As Sokka points out, Aang is technically 112 years old, so it’s at least a little fitting.

And of course, Aang reveals the real reason he’s here.  Back in the day, he had a friend named Bumi who taught him that the parcel delivery chutes in Omashu city can be used as funslides.

Predictably, Aang gets Sokka and Katara to go sliding with him.

They promptly get arrested.

The three get sent to the king of Omashu for their punishment.  He seems to notice something special about Aang, and anyone with a brain should be able to tell that he’s Bumi.  In fact, the king’s name is never revealed until the end, which only makes it even more obvious he’s Bumi.  But whatever, let’s just play along.

The King decides to hold a feast for the three rather than throw them in a dungeon.

The King throws a chicken leg at Aang, but he stops the chicken in midair, proving to the king that he’s an Airbender / the Avatar.  He gets that a lot.

Anyway, the King has Katara and Sokka trapped by a couple of crystal rings that slowly imprison their entire bodies, and tells Aang that he must clear three deadly challenges if he wants to save them.

Aang beats the first two easily.  Then the third test is a one-on-one duel.  And Aang gets to pick his opponent.

He decides to avoid fighting either of the mercenary-looking folk and challenges the king.

Bad choice.

Turns out the king is one of the strongest Earthbenders around, and for once, Aang doesn’t completely curbstomp his opponent in one move.

But he does win, so whatever.  Aang clears all three challenges, but he must answer one question before his friends are freed: “What is my name?”

Well, duh.

So Aang and Bumi are reunited and have a fun slide together.  Good feels all around.

Next episode, the trio continue traveling through the Earth Kingdom and encounter an Earthbender.

The gang tries to befriend him, but he runs off.  They meet him again in the nearest village though, and get in trouble for mentioning he’s an Earthbender.  Turns out, the village is under Fire Nation control, and any and all Earthbenders are sent off somewhere.  Presumably to their deaths.

The young Earthbender’s name is Haru, and he practices his Earthbending in secret because it makes him feel closer to his father, who was captured by Fire Nation.

Despite the fact that Earthbenders are captured on sight, Katara tells Haru to use his Earthbending skills to save an old man from a collapsed mine.

So the ungrateful old man totally snitches on Haru, and the Fire Nation takes him away in midnight.

Since Katara’s kinda at fault here, she decides to get herself captured by doing a fake Earthbending trick.  That way, Sokka and Aang can follow her to find out where the other Earthbenders are being held and free them.

Turns out, the Earthbenders are being held on an offshore rig made entirely out of metal and surrounded by water.  Even worse, the rig is controlled by the most ruthless warden in the Fire Nation: George Takei.

Apparently, a substance made out of materials found in the earth doesn’t count as earth, so the Earthbenders can’t just… bend it.  Perhaps if they had some kind of metal man that specialized in bending metal.

Turns out, Haru’s father is there, just as respected as ever, but totally without a desire to cause trouble.  Katara delivers a speech about the Earthbenders and tries to organize a rebellion, but… nah, no one cares.  When Aang and Sokka arrive to free Haru and Katara, Katara refuses to leave until her rebellion succeeds.

So they decide to come up with a plan that shoots up all the coal in the core of the rig to the surface, so the Earthbenders can bend the coal.

Wait.

So, metal doesn’t count as earth, but coal does?  Do plants and mushrooms count as earth too?  Shroombending.  Get it done.

Anyway, Haru and his father step forward, and the rebellion goes as planned (finally), and poor George Takei gets overthrown.

However, in the ensuing struggle, Katara somehow loses her necklace, a memory of her mother who was killed by the Fire Nation.  But hey, at least someone finds it.

Next episode, the gang arrives in a small village haunted by a spirit beat that wrecks their shit every night.  But since he’s the Avatar, surely he can do something about it.  This is because the Avatar is supposed to be a link between the living world and the spirit world, which actually kinda makes sense considering he’s apparently the only person that reincarnates.

Meanwhile, Zuko’s uncle, General Iroh, totally wants to relax in some hot springs and inappropriately asks if his nephew wants to join him.  He does not.

Iroh spends entirely too much time in the spring and ends up getting captured by Earthbenders.

Turns out, Iroh is infamous for leading a failed 600-day siege against the Earth Kingdom capitol of Ba Sing Se.  Which kinda makes him Fire Hitler.  How about that.

Since I want to get this out of the way, Iroh uses his cunning to leave clues that lead Zuko to him.  Zuko saves the day and beats the Firebenders, and they’re off on their way.  Woohoo?

Meanwhile, spirit beast.

Aang is completely ineffective against the spirit, and Sokka tries to save Aang, only to get totally captured.  Aang pursues, only to have the spirit and Sokka disappear.  But then Aang reawakens in a spirit form, completely unable to interact with the living.

While he’s wandering around, a huge ghost dragon shows up and freaks him out.

The dragon can’t talk, but it just taps its tail on Aang’s head, and Aang sees visions of what he needs to see.  Turns out the Dragon was the previous Avatar, Roku’s pet-thing.  There’s also something about a comet and a crescent-shaped isle.  He learns that the start of the winter solstice is when he will be able to talk with Roku for guidance, but before that, he needs to save Sokka.

Now armed with some experience in the spirit world, Aang returns and has a chat with the spirit beast, who turns out to be a guardian panda that’s just upset over the destruction of the forest.

Was not expecting that.

Anyway, the spirit beast is calmed, Sokka is saved, and Aang tells everyone they need to go to the Fire Nation to he can talk to Roku.

Okay then.

Oh, and Zuko arrives in the village and beats some folk up to learn where the Avatar is going.  Which leads me to wonder just how many other places Zuko hit up right after the group left.

Next episode, Zuko pursues the gang into the Fire Nation.  Turns out, Zuko is totally banished from the Fire Nation and considered a traitor, so he’d be breaking the law by entering.  He decides to hell with that because AVATAAAAAAAAR!

That guy from the third episode orders his border patrol to bombard the Avatar with catapult fire, not giving a damn if Zuko gets hit because fuck him.

The gang makes it through the blockade, and Zuko follows.  The Commander decides to allow him to pass so he can follow Zuko to the Avatar.

Meanwhile, the gang arrives on the crescent island and are greeted by fire sages that aren’t very helpful at all.  Except for one guy that leads our heroes to the chamber.  One problem.  The chamber can only be opened by five Firebenders using their powers simultaneously.

Sokka decides to use gunpowder to cheat their way in.

The ploy doesn’t work, but Katara decides to trick the sages into thinking it did work so they would open the door for them.  Her plan works.  But unfortunately, Zuko arrives in what can only be explained as highly unlikely speed, and the gang gets tied up.  But, Zuko being Zuko, he can do absolutely nothing to stop Aang from entering, and the summoning of Roku prevents the Firebenders from reopening the chamber.

Then the commander arrives and has Zuko tied up.  What a fun party!

Aang finally meets with Roku and learns that the comet he saw was a comet that gives Firebenders a massive powerup.  It is this comet that allowed the Fire Nation to start their war 100 years ago, and this comet will return in the coming summer (basically half a year from now), powering up the Firebenders and allowing them to end the war.  Unless the Avatar can do something about it.

Before his time is up, Roku possesses Aang to clear a path for his friends to escape.  And by clear a path, I mean summon a shitload of fire and destroy the entire temple.  Hey, whatever works.  And Zuko takes the opportunity to escape as well.

In the next episode, Aang is worried that he won’t have enough time to become a true Avatar to stop the Fire Nation before the comet arrives.  So Katara tries to help him out by teaching him some Waterbending.

Turns out he’s a natural.  Naturally.

Wait wait wait wait…  So if it was just that easy for him to get started in the art of Waterbending… didn’t you have a childhood friend who’s one of the greatest living Earthbenders?  Why didn’t you spend some time learning Earthbending from him?

So yeah, Aang’s adeptness at Waterbending pisses Katara off.  Luckily, she has a chance to turn that around (but not really) when they notice a pirate merchant has a Waterbending scroll for sale.

Aang unsuccessfully attempts to haggle the scroll down, and they leave empty-handed.  But then the pirates chase them down, forcing them to flee.  But why?  Probably because Katara totally stole that scroll.

So Katara starts to study the scroll but has some difficulty learning the Water Whip technique.  Aang gets it on his first try and tries to teach her, but she gets all pissy and yells at him.

Katara apologizes and says she’ll give up on the scroll for now.  Except she totally doesn’t and goes practicing at night.  Too bad Zuko stopped by the same port and overheard the pirates talking about the stolen scroll and the people responsible.  So they go searching and find Katara alone.

So uh… Zuko takes the scroll and offers to return Katara’s necklace to her if she sells out Aang.  Which is, uh… kinda really stupid.  Obviously, Katara doesn’t go for it.  But Aang and Sokka get captured by the pirates anyway, until they turn the pirates against Zuko by telling them Aang is worth way more than the scroll they want back.  They escape in the ensuing brawl by hijacking the pirate ship… and the pirates follow suit by hijacking the Fire Nation ship.

Pirates.

I was about to say… what happened to those martial arts he learned back in Kiyoshi Island?  Can he only fight if he’s dressed up like a woman?

Anyway, as expected, the Pirates fail.  But then the ships go over a waterfall, though Aang’s group is saved by Appa.

Next episode, the gang goes through a forest and happen upon a Fire Nation camp, but they’re saved by a group of young freedom fighters led by the charismatic Jet.

Katara immediately takes a liking to him, and Aang totally gives no fucks.

Everyone is cool with Jet’s gang, at least until Sokka isn’t cool with him.  He joins Jet on a scouting mission and witnesses Jet beat up on an old man.

Sokka stops Jet from going too far, since he’s an old man even if he is Fire Nation.  I guess Sokka is uncomfortable with another guy out-Sokka-ing Sokka.

Jet defends his actions to Katara by explaining the old man was an assassin and had a blade with a hidden poison vial in its hilt.  While this is total BS… old men are not to be trusted.

Sokka decides to leave the hideout and happens upon Jet’s plan to destroy a nearby dam, causing it to flood a village and drive the Fire Nation out.  I mean, sure, it’ll kill everyone else as well, but KILLIN’ FIRE NATION, YO!  Before he has a chance to warn Aang and Katara, he gets caught.

Aang and Katara fall for Jet’s plan and help him fill up the reservoir, but then they head to the dam and discover his plan and are understandably disgusted.  Unexpectedly, it’s Katara who delivers the finishing blow by freezing Jet.

However, it’s too late, as the dam is blown up, and the village flooded.

However, turns out Sokka managed to escape and warn everyone in the village.  At first they don’t believe him, but the old man vouches for him, and the village is evacuated.  Huh.  Is it weird that the nicest old man so far is from the Fire Nation?

And so, the day is saved.  But whatever happened to Jet and his gang?  Perhaps they were captured and put to death for their crimes.  I’d like that.  I’d like that a lot.

In the next episode…

Alright, so the gang arrives in a place called The Great Divide, which is NOT a conveniently thematically named and designed location.  Aang, as the Avatar, is tasked to get two warring clans to put aside their differences and work together to cross the Great Divide to escape from the Fire Nation.

It seems the clans’ feud dates back 100 years ago over a sacred orb carried by Jin Wei for the clan’s redemption ritual.  Depending on which side you talk to, the other clan’s Wei Jin either beat up Jin Wei and stole the orb, or retrieved the orb on Jin Wei’s behalf and was unjustly imprisoned.

Since I didn’t care much for this episode, I’ll just skip to the end, where Aang brings everyone to safety and reveals that he knew Wei Jin and Jin Wei and the two were actually twin brothers.  The redemption ritual was just a ball game, and Wei Jin’s imprisonment was just time spent in the penalty box.

BULLSHIT.  Logically there’s no fucking way such a scenario would have developed into this clan feud.

I was about to curse the writers for this until Aang revealed that, yes, his story was completely made up, and he never knew Wei Jin or Jin Wei.  He’s just lucky they bought the story.

Personally, I would’ve gone with Wei Jin and Jin Wei turning out to be the same person.  I don’t think that would have explained the clan feud any better, but it’s better than the fake game.

Next episode is a strange double-flashback with a lame-ass framing story.  Basically, Iroh and some old lady predict a storm is on the way.  Zuko doesn’t give a crap because he wants the Avatar.  The old lady’s husband calls bullshit and hires Sokka to replace her on his fishing run.  The old man learns that Aang is the Avatar and blames him for turning his back on the world 100 years ago, and Aang runs away.

Turns out, Aang was alienated by his friends once he became the Avatar, and he overheard some elder monks say Gyatso and Aang need to be separated for the good of the world.  Aang curses his fate and runs away, resulting in his shipwreck and encasing himself in ice.  So basically, he really did turn his back on the world.  But he’s here now to make things better, I guess.

As for Zuko, he gets the better backstory.

He wants to be part of a war meeting, and he gets the opportunity.  Unfortunately, he disagrees with a general’s plan to send in a squad of fresh cadets as sacrificial bait to lure in an elite army of Earthbenders.  His disrespect causes him to be forced to a duel, but not against the general, but his father the Fire Lord.

Zuko refuses to fight the Fire Lord, and gets the side of his face burned off for his trouble.  And then he gets banished for his cowardice.

Glad to see the Mishima Family Method of Parenting lives on in the Fire nation.

Once the storm hits, Aang goes off to save Sokka, and Zuko puts his quest to capture the Avatar on hold to save some crewmembers.

The old man offers Aang a fish for saving his life, and he doesn’t give Sokka the money he owes him.  You just can’t trust old men.

Well, that’s it for today.  Covered almost two full discs.  With any luck, I’ll cover two more tomorrow, meaning I’ll be done with Book 1.

I hope we all learned a little something about old men.