You're in for, likely/in my opinion, the best sequence of episodes in the entirety of the Avatar universe. I'd argue that the creators won't ever fully stop the high stakes until the beginning of Book 3.
Cody forgetting a core part of what initially made Azula next level scary is gonna ruin this comment section but also I remember he thought her lighting was blue fire and then forgot she had blue fire! My man does not hold one thought about Azula's power base lol.
Don’t be angry at the owl. Our Gaang just trespassed his home, stole from him, then beat him up when he asserted his rights as the “owner” of the house. 😭
So you know how Iroh was talking about learning from the other bending styles? well, sandbenders while they didn't exactly study Airbenders they managed to apply their earthbending in a very airbendy style
The spirit owl is just that, a spirit. They aren't human, and for the most part don't involve themselves with humans. So, the war, the antagonists, the protagonist, the human world both general and specific mean nothing to them. It's a privilege to tour the library. The Aang Gang was definitely in the wrong for lying and stealing. I support them because of the information they got. But, they were in the wrong. And, the library is being relocated into the spirit world. It's not being destroyed. BTW, look at Toph. She held up an entire building and everything in it. Except for Bumi no one could do this.
Agreed. And assuming spirits all know each other, after the zhao the owl likely had a hard time with the other spirits because it his knowledge was what directly led to one of them getting offed.
While stealing from Wan Shi Tong was not a shining moment for Team Avatar, I'm especially miffed at Sokka this episode. Since he had every intention of lying to the spirit and even threw Aang's Avatar cred up as a shield which dragged everyone along with him. I know it's for the "bigger" picture but that was really uncool thing to do to your friends. Also, I'd argue if they just wrote down the info they needed instead of stealing and kept their mouths shut, they would've been able to get out in time to help Toph save Appa and Wan Shi Tong wouldn't have cared what they did with the info once they left. He was mainly mad at humans because they torched a huge portion of his collection the last time. But oh well, losing Appa is some heavy karma and is the spark for an incredible arc for the crew🤷♀️
This episode shows the great detail the series put into using different martial arts styles for each type of bending. With Toph's earth bending being different from other earth benders because she uses Southern Preying Mantis style martial arts which was originally created for the blind.
I don't really blame the owl. He doesn't care much about humans, he just knows they keep coming in and burning/stealing his books. I always took him burying the library as him taking it back to the spirit world.
The owl isn’t making a rash decision burying his library. This is the final straw of many humans abusing his knowledge. He was a generous spirit that brought his library to the mortal world to share vast knowledge to humans. He’s not happy that humans have repeatedly abused his knowledge to use against other humans rather than in a positive self improvement way. He’s also not destroying his library, he’s bringing it back to the spirit world so that it’s no longer accessible to the human world. The owl was justified in protecting his property. His quote is amazing “do you think you’re the first to believe your war was justified?” It doesn’t matter who the good guys or the bad guys are. War is war and the owl isn’t concerned with who wins because the human world isn’t that important to him. WE know that our crew are the good guys trying to save the world, but you can’t blame the Owl for his principles.
I know it's a serious scene, but Zuko saying "It keeps exploding in my face! Like everything always does!" is just TOO funny to me every time 😂 like he's completely valid in being frustrated, but he's just SUCH a diva 😭 gotta love him tho
If Azula hasnt been doing lightningbending this first half of the season, that what was she practicing in the first episode and used to injure Iroh in episode 8?
I have the art book of the series made by the creators and they said it was a mistake. In the original storyboard the hole was in her mouth and nose to breath but for some reason the animators made it in her eyes and nobody realized it until it was already aired 🤣🤣 I found it hilarious!
That was indeed Zhao Wan Shi Ton was mentioning. In the Siege of the North when he explained how he learned the Ocean and Moon Spirit's mortal forms he mentioned that he found the information in a hidden underground library and used the exact same shot as this episode.
3:28 About Toph's rock armor: The hole for her eyes was apparently a miscommunication with the animation studio. According to the storyboard, the hole was supposed to be for her mouth.
And the only character who would make sense to be barefoot in a bar is toph, so the 12 y/old was the one to pay the tax. I guess Schneider really took advantage of the fact that, for perfectly innocent plot reasons, the kid had to be barefoot. I still find it crazy that he got away with all his shit, at least the truth is known now.
15:05 Lightning generation, and lightning redirection, are 2 different abilities. During "The Storm" Iroh redirected lightning. Azula's first scene in season 2 was her practicing her lighting generation. "One hair out of place." Later that episode during that fight on the boat after the guy accidentally said "We're taking the prisoners home" Zuko and Azula are fighting using fire, but when she's about to use lightning generation on Zuko, Iroh grabs her hand and uses lightning redirection.
the fact that toph a 12 year old is holding a massive stone library with thousands of books for as long as she did is still incredible to me and is one of the many reasons that she is the greatest earthbender in the world.
29:08 This makes me so sad actually. Katara is the last Southern water bender. She had no one to pass down the knowledge of the Southern style of bending. This guy has that information but they will not be able to get it from him. So the entire Southern style of water bending that was a part of her culture is gone, she had to learn Northern style.
To everyone who has finished the show, Imagine the timeline where Zuko let Katara heal Iroh. Aang asks Zuko about who Azula is, Zuko tells Aang about her trying to arrest him. Aang says if the firelord sent his sister to arrest him then he will never be safe until Aang defeats the firelord, so Zuko should be helping them. Zuko doesn't switch sides right away obviously. But when Iroh wakes up, he sees the opportunity to convince Zuko to join forces with the gang. So imagine all of the terribly bad things that happen from this point forward, don't happen.
The owl vert scary and feel bad the president professor didn’t want to go with Aang and the others I’m going to miss him and feel bad appa was taken by the sandbenders
I have a theory. But it completely depends on how spirits work. Spirits are connected to natural phenomenon, and natural phenomenon do not change, or generate new knowledge. It is only humans who generate new knowledge through communication, competitive strategy, and educating the next generation. So, this Minor Distinction is super important to know. Is he simply the spirit of all knowledge that exists, or is he the spirit of acquiring knowledge. If he is the spirit of acquiring knowledge, and no new knowledge is generated for him to acquire, He will eventually cease to exist. If the Avatar fails to bring balance, The Fire Nation would continue to destroy environments, Anger the spirits, and the dark spirits would kill off all the humans. Not helping The Avatar is actually detrimental to his own existence.
From the fact they have their own separate world I don't think spirits are inherently connected to anything in the physical world. Wong Shi Tong isn't directly connected to knowledge, he is just the most knowledgeable being and has his library where he collects that knowledge. He also is definitely not a representation of all knowledge considering the foxes' whole purpose is collecting new pieces of knowledge. If he was the embodiment of all knowledge he wouldn't need ways to collect new bits of knowledge.
I don’t think people really appreciate how big a feat Toph holding up the spirit library is. Really take a second to look at the SCALE of the inside when they’re standing in it, then remember how much more space we never get to see based off the drawing the professor had. Like even at the tip that was pointing out was the smallest part of the structure and it DWARFED all of them including appa. Then remember that it’s FILLED to the brim with COUNTLESS books, scrolls, bookshelves, and metal contraptions like the solar map Sokka found and Toph held ALL of it up for an extended period of time by HERSELF at TWELVE. That’s my GOAT 😤👏🐐 Dang, I edit this comment to fix a typo and it removed Brigecos heart from here😭🙌💀 I regret my decision to fix my grammar 🤣
A lot of fans like to defend Wan Shi Tong, but I do think he was more in the wrong here. He doesn’t ever leave room for nuanced thinking. He just paints all humans with the same brush and doesn’t stop to consider that they might have different motivations for things. That’s not a very wise position to take. Also his philosophy seems to be “Violence for me, but not for thee.”
Hey um actually blind person here! Toph left the hole because she’s teaching a sighted person. Also much as I love her character most blind people have some level of light or shadow perception. I can even make out small amounts of color. Blindness is a spectrum
Mmm. But I do think there are some folks who have absolute blindness right? Like they generally just can't see at all. Could see Toph not being able to see anything besides with her feet
21:42 Someone pointed out to me that technically, knowing the numbers 1-10,000 would qualify as "Knowing 10,000 things," and it makes the owl sound so much less impressive lmao
@@HiddenWindshield Also, Wan Shi Tong (literally Chinese for "Knower of 10,000 things"), as an expression, means the same as calling someone a "Mister-know-it-all" in English, thus the somewhat arrogant attitude of the character.
I love how often you predict the dialogue, Not because you're being pretentious and trying to point out how predictable it is. But you're just expressing how you feel and the characters line up with that, so it just makes the dialogue relatable.
@@moe3047to be fair again, 10 and 11 were released together as a two parter. 12 and 13 came out as a two parter as well titled "secret of the firenation" Difference now is that it's no longer promoted as a two parter so it doesn't really matter it can be watched as a separate episode.
Not the feet lmao, Avatar was made when Dan Schneider worked there, so there's a lot of foot stuff in the Nickelodeon shows from that time period. It's never not weird 😂
I wish people would stop spreading this information. I don't want to think about that while I'm watching this show. How does telling people about that improve the watching experience?
This episode ALWAYS angers and disgusts me of how the owl had done! *NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF HADN'T SUNK THE LIBRARY IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!* But since he did it anyway, he _let_ those Sandbenders take Appa away! Appa's been stolen and it's all because of _that_ STUPID BIRD!!! 😡😡🤬🤬💢💢 IT'S ALL *HIS FAULT!* Anyone 100% agree with me???
No. The Owl let people into his library (assuming they contributed to it) in exchange for viewing its contents. And the last time someone was in there they stole documents that could wipe out an entire tribe and burned down a whole section of it. He was mad that people was kept using his Library to hurt people. Which is what Aang and the gang were doing. He's totally justified
No the owl has lived a long time to know that the ends doesn't justify the means. He doesn't personally know any of the kids. All he knows is that his knowledge has been abused by men for genocide like what admiral zhaou was ready to do.
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