Overanalyzing Avatar on the set up episode, The Earth King. TWO EPISODES AHEAD ON PATREON: / overanalyzing TWITTER: / overanalyzinga #overanalyzingavatar #atla #avatarthelastairbender
Yooooo, leave me a comment and a like, if you do, I'll think you're pretty sick with it. Also it helps me out a lot, but mostly the "thinking you're pretty sick with it" thing.
And there’s another layer to it, too; when a similar chime sounds later, when Azula speaks to the Earth King about trusting the people closest to you, Mai & Ty Lee side-eye each other from behind Azula- the one place she can’t see them.
Another pretty dark thing in this episode that not only does the Earth King show he was unaware of the war, he’s unaware of the air bender genocide. Most people in the Avatar world during the series recognize Aang because they know the latest one should be an air bender. However, the Earth King doesn’t think of Aang as the Avatar, just a regular air bender to him until he is told so.
Wait, it actually makes sense for him to assume that Sokka is the Avatar since he doesn't know about Aang's vanishing (and being frozen in ice for 100 years) and would think the next Avatar had been born in one of the water tribes.
@@TuanAnhNguyen-qp6uc I disagree, if he was basing it on Water Tribe, then why not point to Katara who was waterbending in the room. If he knew about Air bender genocide, then he should question how it happened due to the Fire Nation, thus knowing about the war.
@@kirtandesai6510 the point about Katara, it could be that what little information he did hear about the avatar was that they were male. So thinking its the water tribe guy isn’t unreasonable. For the point about knowing about the war, the avatar living to roughly a hundred years (give or take a few), then being reborn into the water tribe wouldn’t require any knowledge about the war or genocide, just the avatar cycle.
But air nomads were known to frequent the Earth Kingdom and even revered by some, so the sudden total radio silence about them must’ve been deafening… unless he was fed fabricated stories.
@@agustinfranco0 My guess is they they were originally animating Aang in that spot, but decided to put Toph there instead. Then they missed the tattoo when cleaning up the shot.
usually the drawing/animation work is sourced out to different companies in low pay countries and i guess if you are not the one drawing painting the entirety of a scene alone it can happen that you loose track of what exactly you are painting in each individual shot. same goes for the sword continuity error: one painter gets told we need another scene with the sword being carried after the drop scene was done by a different painter and he recycles a part of the static background on which they paint the animated characters that happens to include the dropped sword. he doesnt know that this sword is the one he is supposed to paint being carried because he doesnt know the whole scene and isnt paid enough to really care
That can be explained away because he's using it as a bending tool, which puts less wear on it. Notice how he never does it until he learns earth bending.
True, he is using it as a bending conduit, but that doesnt deny the fact that he was smackin the hell outta those rocks. I knew it happened and was waiting real impatiently for this episode
@@ac3ofangels897 uh it kinda does deny that he’s smacking them though lol. He splits the rock with earthbending and then uses his staff to blow them apart, it doesn’t really touch it.
I was pretty deep into Scientology when I was a kid. I had been born in it. My whole family was dedicated to it. Discovering as an adult the truth of things, looking at their secret texts thanks to the internet. Realizing my whole spiritual identity was a lie, and worse, that my family still believed it, and that I'd be destroying them internally by revealing what I knew.... it crushed me. I became ill for a period of three days after reading those pages. I was in the military at the time and literally had a doctor visit me, and tell me I had a serious fever and was taken to Walter Reed for monitoring and fluids. This is a legit phenomenon.
Yes it is very real. What you experienced was a paradigm shift. Here is the definition: "an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way. Before I continue I am not a medical professional but I do have some ideas why something like this could cause physical illness: Having such a (sudden) major change in the way of thinking has side effects. Your brain literally has to reorganise itself and that causes immense levels of stress and it needs a lot of energy. The body works best at around 38°C (average body temperature is 35.5-37°C and the danger point of protein clumping is 41°C) so getting a fever seems likely. With this your body forces you to rest so it can properly understand these completly new and different ideas and make some changes in the brain. You had a worse reaction than Zuko because his paradigm shift was more gradual than yours (Song, Lee, Jin and now letting go of the blue spirit mask) which happend probably over the span of a few months and his body had time to process these experiences. You got hit with all the information at once which is a huge thing, so your bodys reaction was considerably worse. I belive we have not enough information on this topic in general and how it affects the body so most of this is either speculation or a half-knowlegable guess
I have a similar experience with coming out of young-earth creationism/fundamentalist Christianity. I don't think I was ever physically ill, but it was a dramatic shift in my way of thinking about the world and I immediately spent the following weeks learning as much about science that I could. We were discouraged from learning facts about the world because science/reality does not fit with a magical creator God belief system, so I soaked all the info in as much as I could. It was extremely freeing when I finally lost the fear of Hell that constantly plagued me for a decade by that point (age 18).
Agreed about the paradigm shift. I recently tried tackling my childhood trauma, I essentially revealed my true self to my best friend of 10 years, told her everything I truly believe of myself, the failure of what I'm not, the words I put in other people's mouths to reinforce that belief, the immense internalized toxic shame. The way I was taught to operate was "being myself is a sin, and I should be punished for it. Having/showing emotions means you're weak, not a man, you're not worthy of life. You have no worth, so live your life in service of others, everyone else who has significantly more worth than you, if you don't, you have no point in being alive." Because I believed my true self was such a sin, revealing it to my best friend, a woman, directly conflicted with everything I was taught to ever be as a man, as a person. The following day I woke up sick as if hung over and had crazy dreams for weeks challenging the new path I'm trying to walk by trying to force me into the old path, that it made logical sense and what I was doing was defying logic. It's wacky. Gradual or sudden. But least it means we're on the right track to questioning things and bettering ourselves 🫂
@@Bored0720i went true a similar process, though more gradual and from a less extreme position. Glad to know others walk the same path, I believe it will be better for you!
"This is the weirdest split-second mistake in Avatar-Toph gets an airbender tattoo" Are we sure the animators didn't accidentally put an airbender tattoo on Zuko too, only for the writers to decide to roll with it?
Bosco 'randomly' likes aang because he did all those tricks for him at the party. Not sure if you mentioned that, was only half paying attention tbh. But I'll rewatch later so more views.
8:37 the characters say “最黑暗的一天” meaning “The Darkest Day,” so I think Sokka came up with The Day of Black Sun on his own. he is pretty good at naming stuff like with Sparky Sparky Boom Man.
@@holdencovington151 well now we need a third Chinese linguists to confirm your confirmation of the translation then we need a fourth and so on and so forth till the end of time
Yeah, the whole text is "培治龍年七月九日、烈火國最黑暗的一天", which means (according to Google), "the ninth day of the seventh month of the Year of the Dragon, the darkest day in the Fire Nation".
For me season two is almost just as good as season three the final episode of season three put it as my favorite although the entire sale I think it’s a masterpiece
9:20 Hakoda actually got name-dropped way back in 'Bato of the Water Tribe' When Bato introduces Sokka and Katara to the abbey sisters, he says "Superior, these are Hakoda's children"
1:35 Those aren't Dai Lee agents, those are the palace guard/regular soldiers, the Dai Lee wear long robes and probably have more important things to be doing than guarding the palace. 10:55 I actually really like this dream sequence, Zuko has been obsessing over the avatar for literal years, nearly every action he's taken since he was burned has been directly related to the avatar, so in his fever, his brain is just like: "You want the avatar? Here you go!" It's like when you're super stressed out studying for a big test and then in the days leading up to it, you dream about taking it but something goes wrong and you wake up freaked out that you missed it or flunked or some similar catastrophe. Then you are absolutely relieved to find that things are normal when you wake up, even if "normal" means you still have a big test coming up.
I’m a little disappointed that Iroh’s speech to Zuko about the rough metamorphosis wasn’t addressed. Iroh has been in that position: the prince who brought shame on his country for showing compassion when aggression was expected. Iroh lost his throne and had to spend a lifetime reconciling and watching his sibling rule with no compassion. I’m surprised that the parallels between Iroh and Zuko weren’t mentioned here
Little nitpick: you said that they were "dominating the Dai Li" when, in fact, those are the king's guards who probably have no idea what's going on or who those kids are. The reason they're apologizing is because the guards are just doing their job.
The entire battle was one of my favorite moments in the show's entirety, but watching toph bend an entire staircase before they start goin up the elevator is for some reason really badass to me.
It's a huge display of power, with both the raw amount of material moved and the precision of control to line up all the individual steps as a flat surface. But by adding the concentration phase before doing so, they make sure not to cheapen it and give themselves an out if they need Toph unable to pull off something similar in the future.
The dream also represents the conflict of his great grandfathers at war within him. The red dragon is that of his maternal great grandfather Roku and the Blue is the color of his paternal great grandfather Firelord Sozin’s dragon (as shown in “The Avatar and the Fire Lord). The color blue repeatedly comes up to represent dark parts of what drives Zuko notably as the blue spirit. I think this connection was in no way an accident
I feel like that explanation also kind of explains his second dream, seeing how roku was his great grandfather it's possible his dream was saying how he is in some way closer to Aang than he realizes
If we remember Jeong Jeong's PTSS rant about fire bringing only destruction... Letting it out of control, able to burn the leave by giving it too much fuel or oxygen... We have a forest burned down, only for new life to grow. Sometimes it is needed for change. And the will to change is represented in Sozin. A destructive change, good will in heart but terrible when come to fruition and spiraled out of control. A full on war just because he wanted to initially "share" Fire Nation prosperity. Let a fire out of control and it shall consume all. Sozin had a blue dragon, Sozin unleashed a 100 year war upon the world. Try and keep that fire in check too much and it shall extinguish. Roku had a red dragon and was set in the old ways, witholding change. Is it by chance that his death was suffocation, like a fire with oxygen? The duality of the Fire Nation is a theme in the show. It is resembled in the blue and red dragon, Sozin and Roku... And finally, Zuko and Azula. Both the siblings are the legacy and heirs to Sozin and Roku. In both of them runs their blood. Is it too much to assume that these two are the second chance of the Fire Nation? For does one not need the two dragons to see the true meaning of Firebending? Like the great masters showed Aang and Zuko? There's some Yin Yang stuff going on here and even though I'm far from being an expert. I believe Azula too, still has a role to play to help Zuko rule the post-war Fire Nation. I do not think of the red and blue representing good and evil but more something along the lines of trying to balance both and keep that healthy balance in check. Perhaps the dual swords quote Zuko has, is also a reference? Do not think of it as two separate things. Ahem, now to the memes, regarding the feverdream (the following is a joke btw): Zuko was just having some kind of twisted, Freudian nightmare where his subconcious made Azula play the role of temptress. Either it's some kind of sister complex he developed due to his abnormal, abusive childhood or it's because Azula starts looking a bit like Ursa and Zuko has Oedipal tendencies. I mean... Have his subconcious make his little sister play the role of a devilish temptress who knows exactly what he truly desires breathe "It's time to retire soon, my lord" into his ears, like some concubine calling her feudal master to bed, make her say with silky voice how he should "Give in to it." And "Relax." And I'm like... Bruh, what the heck? This isn't the first time I'm catching these weird vibes here... But I guess that's just me, no? "The only way we win is together." Gulp*
@@sifuhotman1300 Considering the fire nation is sorta-kinda Japan makes it weirder. "You do want to reclaim your honor and your throne, don't you onii-chan?"
The moment in the dream with the two dragons also very closely mirrors the moment in the next episode where Iroh and Azula are both physically there, on opposite sides of Zuko in the shot, trying to manipulate him with very similar methods to those used by the dragons here.
I interpreted the dream somewhat more literally - Iroh tells him to wake up, the way you tell and unconscious/dying person to wake up. As in "don't die". And Azula tells him to fall asleep. As in, well... "die". At least, that's what it sounded like on the surface. It's obviously still symbolic, in the sense that you described, for Zuko's struggle at large.
yeah i agree. even as a kid i thought it was supposed to foreshadow how azula isn't on his side and would betray him after luring him back to the fire nation and iroh is telling zuko "no she'll kill you don't think she won't"
I always took it to mean that Azula wants him to stop thinking for himself and becoming his own person. She wants him to be the good little fire prince who believes and does what he's told, which would both make him easier to manipulate and also eventually drain away all of his personality and spirit. Meanwhile, Iroh's dragon is telling him to wake up and not be fooled
Also, in the line of the dream represending dying or not, the way the trone swallows him at the end symbolizes the way Azula en Ozai comsumed Zuko and his vision on how to be the ‘perfect’ son. And how it felt when his mother left, leaving him without the safe heaven she created for him.
I used to HATE the zuko plot of this episode because, well I was a kid and the whole "Inner conflict causing physical sickness" was just too abstract for me. Now, many years later, I've gained a huuuge appreciation for Zuko's character arc, and this episode is a major turning point for Zuko. His whole perspective on his life changes right here.
As I've seen others noting, in TLA, the greatest benders borrow from other bending styles, like Iroh drawing lightning redirection from waterbending. It makes sense that the Greatest Earthbender in the World (TM) would follow this tradition.
@@EthanMallonee I was about to comment about the fact that that'd make her basically like Goku, but you can't discredit the fact that she was the sole inventor of metalbending.
The moment where Aang just blocks and shatters the huge boulders is one of my favourites. No fancy way to dodge them, just pure earth-bending stubbornness: "we are going to see the earth king"
The gang fighting to get to the earth King is just so wholesome. 3 people kids plus Sokka destroy an complete army with ease. This was the first time you really saw how powerful they are as a team
@@superguy9834 because wholesome can be used to mean any adjective and fits perfectly in any context. Its totally not overused to shit and totally hasn’t lost its meaning entirely
@@_Stormfather Storms, is that the Stormfather? Always good to see another Cosmere reader..... Unless you just happen to be named Stormfather and you've never actually read them
@@_Stormfather I've gotten three of my friends to read the Cosmere! One finished era one of Mistborn and is about to get AoL and they read all of Stormlight and Warbreaker. Another read all of Stormlight and finished The Final Empire last night. Another is on Oathbringer in Stormlight
@@benjaminwhitehead4050 very nice. Next you have to get them to read the Wheel of Time (and avoid at all costs the horror that Amazon is going to put out)
You know it only now occurs to me that the Gaang pulling Long Fang out of grace and getting in with the Earth King is what we led to the fall of Ba Sing Se in the first place. If they had simply left like Toph and Katara wanted to, Azula never would have got in and even if she had she likely wouldn't have been able to wrench control of the Dai Lee away from Long Fang, at least not the way that she did.
I just love watching the gang be such an absolute fucking unit as they storm the palace in the beginning. We've seen them all struggle a lot so far, even in victory, and it's nice to finally see them just utterly dominate a situation like this. And it really makes you step back and say "Wow, they've all gotten way more badass since we first met them" (except for Toph who was already this badass from her first scene).
I think some of Zuko's first dream might've been literal as well, he was dying from the fever and if he stayed in the dream his body would've accepted his choice and given up. Azula wants him to stay in the dream and 'sleep' (can't really have a character just say "die!" in a kid's show) while Iroh is taking care of him and hoping he wakes up. He knows what Azula is like and after their fight is possibly even scared of her at this point to the point he thinks she might actually kill him so she's the symbol of his death. He also knows that Iroh cares about him and has always wanted what's best for him despite their disagreements so he is the choice to continue living.
Even if it wasn't a kids show, "sleep" or "let go" works better in the context than "die". "Die" would be an order while it's meant to be like an urging.
I have always interpreted the dream as a tad more literal. When Azulagagon says "sleep", I think think she means die. When Iroragon says "go, leave now" I think he means "run for your fucking life!". I think this is Zuko having a kind of vision of the future. If he had gone back to the fire nation and stayed on the path his father had laid out for him, he would have become firelord, he would have gotten everything he ever wanted. Then, Azula would have assassinated him and taken the throne for herself. The path that Zuko's father put him on wasn't just foolish, it would have doomed him.
One interesting thing I saw during the raid on the palace sequence when the gang is riding their “earth elevator” up the stairs it looks like appa is flying to keep his back legs up since he cannot fit on the whole platform. (That and I’m sure supporting him would not be super easy for toph and aang as strong benders as they are). Edit: grammar
That's an interesting question, if earth benders are lifting some percentage of the weight of the earth they bend. That stone slab would weigh many times what Appa would.
10:20, if katara here didn’t let sokka go,and went herself instead, aang would’ve unlocked "god mode" because he would not get the vision of her in jail, thus not leaving the guru
I love the moment when Iroh is washing Zuko's face, Iroh's hand + cloth cover his scar as he says, "You will become the beautiful prince you were always meant to be."
Zuko making a life altering decision that goes against everything he's believed in for the last few years could be incredibly stressful. I know when I was under an extreme amount of stress I actually felt terribly physically ill, probably had nightmares, I never remember my dreams too much, but I can absolutely believe the mental conflict stressing him out can be hard on his body too
Other bears high on the "clutch" scale include Wojtek carrying artillery shells and Beorn single-handedly reversing the tide of the Battle of Five Armies.
It actually looks like two of the badger mole statues hit after the initial impact since the shrapnel is still very much in the shape of two badger moles, but it looks like only one made contact. It might be a perspective thing.
@@robmckennie4203 he sometimes just gets shit flat out wrong like howre you gon call it over analyzing avatar n then completely miss things that clearly happen
I love that during the earth elevator scene you can see appa's legs hanging off the edge as his tail is flapping down in semi-flight as if to somewhat lighten his own weight from holding down the whole thing. They could have just made the platform bigger but no someone decided to leave it out and purposely animate something extra.
2:52 so one thing you might notice is that this isn't the last time one of the Gaang bends like their element like another element; Katara bends water with an earthbending move in her fight against the bloodbender, Zuko uses an airbending kick in the final Agni Kai and although I can't recall a specific instance I'm very confident that Aang does it at some point as well. On further review, Roku similarly bends elements like other elements during his battle against the volcano, as does Kyoshi when she creates her island. In fact, during the volcano battle both Roku and Sozin used a move reminiscent of lightning redirection (which is lightningbending with waterbending techniques) to control the movement of volcanic gases. It all goes back to what Iroh said about taking wisdom from many sources; most benders only ever learn to bend their element in the style of their element, which limits their potential. While opportunities to learn the other styles are uncommon and using the techniques of other elements probably requires a great deal of skill, it greatly increases what they are capable of. You can see the advantage this versatility provides when they 1v1 other benders of their own element; for example, when Katara bent water with an earthbending move, the bloodbender just stood there dumbstruck, having no idea what to do next. As I see it, the Avatar isn't the world's greatest bender not just because of their raw power or being able to bend every element, but also because they can bend every element like any element.
I think they use these other bending styles because they might get more comfortable mixing all the styles until find a style to use their own bending and I have a headcanon that Aang before Ozai figth taugth Zuko a thing or two about his fighting style
Also ties in with the bit from the next episode about the illusion of separation and that there are no separate nations and even the elements, makes sense that bending elements in a style not associated with it should still work as long as you have the right attitude for it and a deep understanding of how it works.
Zuko's second dream of having Aang's face I think has double meaning. 1) That capturing Aang has become an obsession. 2) Clever foreshadowing that Aang is Zuko's great grandpa in a past life.
One really subtle thing is that Toph uses a different hand position when revealing the entrance to the Dai Lee base than she did last episode. They really cared to reanimate that despite really not needing to.
Plot twist, one of the Kioshi warriors is actually fire lord ozai! He has come to ba sing se to say his catchphrase, "NO ONE CAN SURPRISE THE FIRE LORD!"
@@sinancothebest It references the version of Ozai that Aang dreamt from right before the Day of Black Sun operation. He says that exact line. So the op mashed that up with the twist reveal of Azula being the Kioshi warrior greeting the Earth King.
@@sinancothebest During the episode in Book 1 where the Gaang meet Jeong-jeong, they visit a fire nation city during a festival, where there is a puppet show featuring puppet-Ozai saying "Nobody can surprise the Firelord!" followed by him breathing fire on an earth kingdom guard.
In the dream sequence, the two dragons also represent the same dragons that Sozin and Roku had (Azula = Sozin’s blue dragon, Iroh = Roku’s red dragon), visually showcasing that duality struggle that Zuko is dealing with inside. This idea is also strengthened later on when Iroh tells Zuko that both of them are his great grandfathers.
Well, to be fair, the ability to earthbend is one of the biggest reasons that the Earth kingdom hasn't advanced technologically as the Fire nation has.
@@chuzzle44 yes, earth bending always worked better for them, until Fire nation technology got good enough to work even better, in some respects. So yeah I agree earth bending has probably kept them from advancing.
@@chuzzle44 I wouldn't say the Earth Kingdom is less advanced. Like, they outright have trains and elevators and stuff. The Fire Nation is better at metalworking, but their machinery is still fueled by bending just as much as an Earth Kingdom train.
I'm impressed with how fleshed out Zuko's scenes are. It's not all about Avatar, it's a story of a lost prince too with No where to go. Imagine if Avatar began from Zuko's perspective.
I always took the two dragons to be the most literal part of Zuko's fever dream. The Azula-dragon wants him to abandon his metamorphosis and sleep (i.e. die), while the Iroh-dragon is urging him to push through this stage and to the other side. The rest of the symbolism I'm totally with you on - path set out for him vs. path he chooses for himself, etc. But maybe that's just because at the time I also assumed that Ursa was dead, and that Azula and Zuko had assumed the same.
One of the things I think about a lot is how in the Wild Wild West episode the "two halves of a whole" also applies to Zuko and Aang's stories. So Zuko seeing himself as Aang ties into the beat. I really relate to that moment. Big transitions can make us loose ourselves we feel (and fear) we can be anyone, even our enemies
I really hope he mentions how the earthking tells azula about the day of black sun invasion and later when he finds out that they were imposters he never mentions to the gang that he told the imposters about the invasion plan . Felt like a really weird detail to leave out before your just screwed off and travelled the world.
You completely blew my mind when you pointed out the brief moment where Toph had an airbender tattoo. I've seen the show so many times and never once noticed that
8:55 Also, Aang forgot that Toph is blind, otherwise he wouldn't have passed it to her in the first place. It seems like Aang and Sokka just constantly forget that Toph is blind.
When I saw that cliffhanger as a kid, WOW. What a moment. When my child brain placed the sting with Azula's eyes, that may have been the first time I put two and two together by myself
I thought Zuko’s dream was more straightforward. He thinks his mom is dead at this point in the show (won’t learn otherwise until day of black sun). Sleeping like mother means to die, by being lulled by your trusted family. Zuko is realizing even if he becomes firelord his family can’t be trusted.
I would say Azula's dragon is the side of Zuko that he wants back - being loved and accepted, then gaining the throne. Iroh represents the other side of Zuko, the one that saw the effects of the war (in Zuko Alone). He's projecting his own subconscious onto the 2 people he also subconsciously knows fit it best - Azula is a metaphor for the Fire Nation, and what he thinks is best (based on how he was raised), and Iroh is a metaphor for better oneself.
"It's a dream, so it's open to interpretation" It's a dream in a character's head, entirely written and coordinated by people with the purpose of driving narrative and explore characters and their relationships with themselves and people around them. It's even more open to interpretation than you implied. Not because of dreams, but because of storywriting.
I think the interpretation he meant was because dreams meanings are often vague as is the dream in this episode, so there are multiple ways to interpret that writing
@@aidanallen1976 I'm just saying the fact that it didn't come from an actual dream changes, or at least widens the perspectives from which an interpretation can be done, so "it's a dream, so it's up to interpretation" is a bit of an understatement
6:10 - I agree that the dream was about him confronting his "dual personalities". I would like to add the possibility that the "blue spirit" ("desperate" as you put it in an earlier video) side of him is a part the blue dragon inside his dream. Colors are fun!
One thing that I wish you had mentioned is that in this episode Aang uses his staff as a tool / catalyst for earthbending, like a lot, and I think (?) it's the only time in the series that he does that for an element besides air. I just think that's really cool and I wish they did that more. Actually it reminds me of something you mentioned in the Zuko Alone analysis, where Zuko briefly uses his swords to firebend, and Gow uses his hammers. Big fan of benders using weapons and tools to enhance their bending and I think Aang being able to use his staff to bend more than one element (cause yknow, he's like, the avatar) was a really awesome and underutilized idea
Actually ya, back in "the deserter" when they say "no one can surprise the fire lord!" He was right. No did ever surprise him and when they try to ambush him he knew about it.
One of my favorite episodes in the whole show, honestly. After half a season of trying to *get* to this setup, it’s almost cathartic in itself to see the gang finally get a chance to advance their plan.
The end of book 2 has always been my favorite. Yeah, book 3 has some absolutely stellar moments, like the day of black sun, the sun warriors, etc but the ba sing se arc is the peak of what Avatar is really about.
The dream sequence is the future situation he will be in. He never sided with iroh. Even in the dream he was consumed by the throne, and when he had those same dragons in his ear in real life he was once again consumed by the throne. Dream zuko may have wanted to side with iroh but the throne and Azula consume him despite his will. His arc is so incredibly put together. I can’t even imagine how he feels during the next episode. He probably would’ve sided with iroh had there been no pressure. When it was just irohs dragon with him he felt no pressure and was content with their lives. As soon as the pressure from Azula comes he’s consumed again. Just like the dream.
I love how this episode all goes so well for gaang, and then in the last minutes it all goes downhill, Toph is captured, Long Fang is revealed to still be a threat, and Azula arrives.
You know what I like to think? After Zuko became firelord, he went through inventories as a way of learning what the nation had (since as a ruler, he'd need to know these things) and noticed a strange saddle in the inventory of that travelling circus and investigated, then returned it to Aang. Because that's just as much an air nomad heirloom as anything Aang's been wearing or keeping with him
And just like that I am caught up and have to wait for the next one. Great stuff as always. I've rewatched the show so many times but most of the things you point out are still new to me. How did you even notice that frame of Toph with the airbender tattoo???
2:46 the blue ball in sokka's club just disappears mid-scene, it's also super inconsistent throughout the episode, sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not
This episode is amazing, I love just watching the team unleashing all their frustrations on the earth king defenses, because of how impatient they grow
Addicted to this series. Not the first time "Hakoda" is name dropped. That would be in "Bato off the Water Tribe" when he introduces Sokka and Katara at the abbey.
earthbending is so great this episode, also ang breaking the bolder is just so much cooler with the hand gester he makes, is shows that hes bending and not just doing ooga booga fist attack
When I rewatched the series last week or so, I repeated that moment a couple of times. The way Aang turns the boulder into dust I just screaming "Fun's over. You shouldn't have messed with the avatar."
@@kaksspl "funs over you shouldn't have messes with the avatar" that just made the scene so much cooler. Also his face expression only changes slightly and he looks so much more ready to f stuff up
I love that in the episode, City of Walls and Secrets, you can see Aang gained favor with Bosco by bending those colored liqour bubbles around him. That moment played into this episode by Bosco licking and going up to Aang in the throne room. Normal bear definitely saved them from getting thrown into jail.
When the gang are going up the stairs, you can see Appa flying slightly to lift himself up, probably to make it easier for toph and aang. its a nice touch