The pirates weren't incompetent, they were shown fighting equally with Zuko and his soldiers. The captain even fought 1 on 1 with Zuko who can firebend.
Seeing the progression is awesome :) your reactions are very invested :) (by the way I always notice and I am unsure if it's not supposed to be mentioned but are your eyes 2 different colours?)
I love ATLA, but I really don't like the writing of this episode. It could've been really interesting to explore the idea of a 100 year war leading to a very conservative culture that limits the roles of women in the war. Instead we got a really over the top "women=bad" character in Paku that completely 180s by the end of the episode. I think it would've been much more interesting if Paku, who recognizes the abilities of Katara, argues against the tribes customs because he can see the utility of training her. And the origin of the custom of not letting women fight would be one based out of fear of extinction, like what happened to the air nomads. I just think that that would fit so much better with the worldbuilding of the show.
I'm glad you weren't a writer for the show back then. Master Paakku didn't 180 degree his stance, which is his entire culture background. He just made an exception. He also doesn't hate women, that's just the reactors and viewers projecting their own political and cultural views on him. Not everything needs to be a thing to solve and the war is not over for a sole man to flip the entire Northnern tribe traditions and hierarchical structure just for "feelz good" type of writing. I think the fact that there's stuff happening in the Fire nation subplot that is soon to overlap with our heroes is what makes your idea a bad one for pacing issues.
@@Afreshio Whether or not you consider it hate, Paku very clearly enjoys talking down to Katara. The comment "go back to the healing huts with the other women where you belong" is a very intentionally demeaning comment. And if his entire cultural background was so important, it felt like he was pretty quick to just throw that away for Katara's sake once he saw the necklace and got lectured by Katara about how bad their customs are. Why is Paku allowed to make an exception for Katara if the northern water tribe really had such stringent customs? Did the tribe get rid of the custom forbidding it? Or are they allowing Paku to make an exception for some reason? The show doesn't properly address this.
The misogyny doesn't come from a place of malice. Like most real-world places that don't let women fight, it's from a place of concern and safety (being able to bear and foster the next gen). Ofc, Katara needed to learn and Pakku is a smug asshole but traditions often have good reasons to exist. One thing i wish the show and live action did was expand on the societal aspect. Both made it seem like it was just Pakku making that decision. I would've expected pushback from the community when pakku agreed to teach Katara.
this is still a flawed mindset, if you want the women to be safe they can learn to defend themselves. even without that women should still be allowed the choice because duhh
@@antoniomaruge8218 Well, in real-life, women are generally not as physically strong as men, which isn't conducive to warfare. Having cramps once a month is also not great for warfare and having men and women together in a high-stress environment inevitably leads to complications. Women getting SA'd in the military is not uncommon. Bending does remove the physical strength factor as having more muscle mass doesn't improve the amount of element you can use. Doesn't really remove the other reasons why women didn't historically fight as soldiers much. No nations in ATLA really have a significant number of female soldiers. In the Fire Nation, we see women in domestic forces, which indicates more a lack of manpower than equality. Azula and company being the exception. The Kyoshi Warriors are about the only other significant female military group, but they're relegated to a similar duty of guarding domestic refugees. Of course, not allowing women to waterbend at all makes no sense. Even having a tradition of making them specialize in healing shouldn't preclude them from learning any combative waterbending. It's helpful for your healers to be able to defend themselves a little.
@excessiveclownery4375 there's a reason why they survived the 100 year war. It's not perfect, but it works for them. Putting women at that risk could endanger the future of the tribe. Especially, when you consider how the south got raided and every water bender killed.
This episode for the gang part is badly written. The lesson of the episode is that nepotism is the solution against sexism. Aang is an hypocritical who wants Pakku's lesson but don't want to obey his rules so instead of searching a new master, he disrespect his master by breaking his rules despite being a guest (if in the real world, people goes to country with zero rights for women and disregard the rules, they will be at best expelled, at worst killed and when you go to someone else place or home, you have to obey his rules even if you don't like them or you don't go). Katara is right to fight the sexism but she basically forced Pakku against his will to being her master until the deus ex machina collar resolved everything. The forced marriage is also badly showed because it's only about the woman (Katara's grandma and Yue) point of view as if all the men in those marriages were not forced to be with women they don't like instead of the love of their life (if it was explained that young men could choose their future bride but not the opposite, it will be more understandable) while there's most of the time two victims in those forced marriages.
Not every current political societal issue needs to be solves in an episode. The episode was masterfully done. There was hope for change and that's what this was about. Solving everything in an episode would've been stupid. Aang going out of his way to teach her best friend and love interest is on character. And he knows he isn't gonna get killed. Also not the first time he puts himself in danger for something that he considers important, like when he was on a trial which was a kangoroo court for something a past life of him did to some town's hero. This was way less risky. The collar isn't something that was invented in this episode and connects both tribes and characters which is nice. Could've been better but the duel was resolved the right way, which is Katara's loosing. If she was strong enough to defeat a master water bender then isn't that a plothole and shitty writing? There's lots of stuff they could've delved more but it's just two episodes and lots of things happening. As a writer you gotta prioritize.
@@Afreshio I don't talk about societal issue being resolved in one or multiple episode but this one is clearly badly resolved narratively but the writters solved the issue in one episode so it's clearly stupid. Being risky or not is not an issue as Pakku already give him the choice of being or not being his student and never forced Aang. Aang made his choice and instead of being true to what he believes and find another teacher, he chose to be a coward and an hypocritical by learning with Pakku while disrespecting his rules by backstabbing him. Aang showed multiple times in the serie that he is a courageous kid who fight for what is right but on this case, he clearly wasn't and had to be criticize for that. When you fight for something that matters, you had to do it in the right or you will diminish the worth of your fight and the power to convince your opponents. I have no problem with Katara fight but this battle didn't change anything to Pakku or the tribe's mindset and was only there to put the necklace in pakku's hands. I judge his episode harshly because Avatar is a great show and as everything great, we must judge it with high standards and unfortunately for these episoden the idea was great but the way to do it was badly fleshed out but that doesn't diminish the show greatness and only showed that some episodes missed the point.
Forced marriages are worse for women because they become part of their husband's family. Women usually have to leave their hometown. There is just way more at stake for women. Since Avatar is based on asian culture, it makes even more sense to focus on women. My grandmas were forced into marriage when they were still 16-17. They were taken out of school. Most of my aunts had arranged marriages too. They all have many horror stories about the struggle of being a "bride" of a family. In Asian cultures, women have to serve their in-laws and some even move in into their husband's parents. Yes, you have to respect the culture of the place you're visiting, but it is ok to stand up to shitty traditions. Most sexist cultures in the modern world aren't as extreme as expelling or killing you for not obeying. I am a non-muslim woman with a muslim family, and I understand Katara's frustration so well. Whenever I visit my hometown, even the way I sit may be seen as "improper" for a woman and cause tension. Not to even mention the way I speak or dress. It is especially infruating seeing all my male cousins being able to be themselves. They don't have to completely change the way they act, talk, dress just because they are visiting a different city(not even country). And it is especially infruating when you get told you have to "adapt" to the place you're visiting when you decide to speak up
I really live the Katara v Pakku fight bc it really showcases just how much of a prodigy Katara is. Up until this point she's been self-taught and its only been about a month (maybe less??) since the first ep where she could barely hold a string of water. The fact that she was able to put up a fight against a master waterbender for that long is incredible
I think the show makes it pretty clear that she is no prodigy but she worked very hard to achieve this level as opposed to Aang who got everything easy from day one but had little to no dedication and thus he is lagging behind.
@@thesunisup_ I disagree. While I do agree with you that she put in the work to learn, the absolute speed in which she does it shows her natural talent. The whole fight she was basically playing it by ear with her own skills
@@thesunisup_ She 100% has some natural talent. It doesn't make sense that she can become a master waterbender in like a month training without some natural talent. She also learns bloodbending pretty instantly (in a somewhat bs way), so can't say it was all hard work.
@@pantrymonster I mean she has talent, no doubt, but prodigy is a stretch. “Prodigy” implies you already have a disposition to pick up the skill easily which wasn’t the case for Katara at all.
Pakku had become a bitter old man because he held up the traditions. And, the cost was his life as a husband and father. So, he clings to that decision even as he hates the tradition and himself. Then, here comes this outspoken girl that even looks like his lost love. Even the chief/king asks if they expect him to order Pakku to teach Aang. I think that means not even the leader really cares about this silly tradition. But, he won't force it because it takes the heat off him, and he has to work with Pakku everyday going forward. Finally, Pakku is directly confronted with his past when he sees the necklace. With some off screen contemplation he realizes how stupid he's been all these years, and he has few years left. Traditions are nothing more than new decisions that your ancestors made some time ago. Good ones should endure. Bad ones should be changed. This one needs to change.
You've completely misread Pakku. He doesn't hate women, he's following outdated traditions. Are you really sexist for following the rules of a civilization you've been born into and grew up in?
Hes not necessarily sexist for following the rules, he onviously didnt come up with them, he's sexist because the way he follows the rules is demeaning. Regardless of the cultural rule, pakku literally told katara to "get back in the healing huts with the other women" while being snarky and an asshole about it. Like duh the culture is the main problem, but acting like pakku wasn't being sexist is an insane take lmao
4 месяца назад
I dont think pakku hates women he implied it was a law
One would argue that the lesson he learned is that rigid customs and culture robs him of opportunity. Following traditions lost him a wife, and would have lost him a powerful student in Katara. At least, that's the point Katara indirectly made when she referenced why her grandmother left.
Ok, but why are they acting like Pakku made the rule "women cant fight"? It was literally a thing from before he was born and was ingrained in him. Also Katara basically came to this man and said "fuck your culture" yeah thats a good way to get someone to help you. Like not saying he's right, obviously he's not, but he's literally just following the rules that everyone in the northern tribe follows. Also Zuko didnt let anything happen. He got blown up, survived and Iroh was probably "like we could use this to our advantage"
