The thing about volcanos is that they are extremely destructive, launching rocks 20+miles away and fumes spreading 100+ miles. Plus, Roku was old, and he said he spent 25 years living in peace, so he was likely out of shape. I've also seen theories that he was trying to prevent a tsunami. If enough lava/debris hits the water at the same time, the displacement will cause a hug wave. I think this theory stands up since we can see him directing the lava away from where everyone just left.
Aang was born roughly a week after 70 year old Roku died, he would live through the remainder of Sozin's Life (12+ years) and get frozen shortly before the birth of Azulon (Iroh + Ozai Father), if Sozin hadn't killed the Air-nomads then Aang would have grown up as Avatar adviser to Fire Lord Azulon, he would also have been witness to the birth of Iroh and Ozai, possibly Zuko and Azula. that would've made the current Avatar a waterbender instead of Aang himself, a point I brought up in discussion about the Earth King confusing Sokka for being the Avatar. This would also then replace Legend of Korra w/ an Earth Avatar...
It's honestly so cool how Aang's 'accident' had such a massive effect on history. Love how much this show goes in-depth about how much the absence of such an important world figure affects everything. This whole episode added so much more to all of it with Zuko and Azula and to think of their connection to Aang is so weird. Makes you wonder so much about what would have happened if he survived the Attack on the Air Nation and didn't get frozen, would he have been able to stop the war, could he have guided Zuko and Azula down better paths, and of course, Iroh should have become Fire Lord.
I think Roku fighting the volcano was more because he wanted to make sure EVERYONE was save and we see a lot of boats but he can't know if everyone made it to safety so he holds on as long as he can but when he was retrieving he got caught by a gyser with toxic gas.
Okay, I can buy that but I wish we got to at least see the people he was trying to protect rather than the people safe on the boat, makes his fight come off as weird when we have to question what he's fighting for. At the end of the day though it's a minor thing and he's bending was incredible to watch.
Best way to explain that conflict is it was step away from dictatorship. With the Fire Nation enjoying peace, Sozin believed the world would enjoy it too if they all became part of the Fire Nation. People refused, so Sozin would have them join by forced occupation.
Wish they focused a bit more on the refusal, it would have backed up the idea of Sozin being fully evil rather than being guided by spreading peace, the minute someone doesn't want it and he disregards their choice would have been such a powerful scene.
6:05 You might have missed it but Roku and Sozin shared a birthday, that’s what they were doing at the celebration. I’m with you, I never understood why Roku didn’t leave the volcano earlier.
That explains what they were doing but the coincidence of their meeting is still insane, was Roku a Nobel or something or was he a commoner who just happened to run into the Prince of the Fire Nation one day and find out they share a birthday. Thank you 😂😂 Wish they at least showed a reason for him staying like maybe there were some people still trying to escape otherwise it just looks like he's fighting to save stuff of very little value compared to his life.
I think I might have mentioned in a previous episode that Zuko's parents had an arranged marriage. 14:50 That's pretty much why: to merge the bloodlines and create a stronger one.
Oh so Ozai or his parents full-on knew Ursa's lineage and just decided to experiment and see what that power could produce, kind of explains why Azula's fire ended up blue and why Zuko is so much different from his sister and Ozai even with all he's been through.
7:31 Funny you mention that, because Sud was made from a scrapped design of Aang's original earth master before they made Toph; he's also the earthbender from the intro...
Sozin's either telling himself, Roku, or both of them a lie to make Fire Nation colonization more palatable. It's possible Sozin really believes that the other nations would benefit from Fire Nation advancement (White Man's Burden anyone?), but it's also likely that Sozin really doesn't have a problem with it, but knows that it's dead in the water without Roku and he won't go for it so making it sound like it's for the other Nation's own good is a way to get Roku on board. I don't think Sozin's a bad guy. He's ambitious and greedy, but not evil. I took some classes on this, but it's been a while so I might not be remembering quite correctly, but the Fire Nation is definitely influenced by Japan. During the build up to WW2, Japan basically saw that there was going to be spheres of influence on the globe. They figured that if there was going to be a country 'in charge' of Asia, Japan should be the one to do it, and that started a lot of atrocious assaults against their neighbors (lots of war crimes and really awful behaviour in general), but Japan also needed the expansion because they're a relatively small island nation with low resources. The Fire Nation really seems to be mimicking Japan during this era, and while you can't defend any of the garbage Japan did, the motivation isn't really good/evil. I'm pretty sure Roku doesn't leave because he doesn't know that the other islanders are safe. We do because we see the boats, but he couldn't have known. Odds are that Sozin didn't know either. He legit came to help; opportunity just gave him a opening to get something he wants (kind of mirroring Zuko at the end of season 2). The Avatar's being shown to be normal struggling humans is really nice. I've not really got into extra Avatar material, but I think it's been implied, or flat out stated, that Avatars favoring their home nation or personal interests has resulted in some major conflicts historically, and it's not really an uncommon problem.
This episode was amazing but having two episodes to explore this I think would have been much better, there was so much stuff in this that I'm conflicted over as it just didn't get enough time. Sozin is so interesting here and his motivation could have been fleshed out more, I can totally see him lying to Roku to get his plan moving but it's just as likely that he's delusional in thinking he's benefiting the world. I love the inspiration from Japan in this era and it's another aspect of this I'd love to get more focus on, was the Fire Nation actually at peace or was it struggling and Sozin wanted to bring in more resources through a horrible means. The whole volcano thing I think suffered as well, knowing now that Roku was thinking not everyone was safe explains it but during the episode, we get to see everyone is fine which just leads to confusion. Had no idea the Avatar's attachment to their birth nation lead to conflict, thought that was just a cool thing to keep them grounded 😂 Guess it's far more problematic than I thought!
Always feel like Roku's fate was sealed the moment his response to Sozin's first wrongful action was to destroy his kingdom, embarrass and threaten him. Destruction in response to anger from family was too much of a escalation for the situation to ever return from.
Good point, that scene definitely set Sozin on the path of no return, I feel though that the action may have been justified since Sozin had colonised but I guess we didn't get much detail on it other than buildings and flags.
I love this episode because it shows how we can all have both good and bad inside of us, this is something I've been trying to hin earlier but didn't want to give away any spoilers, but I feel like this realisation Zucco has about who his grandfather really was, helps highlight two things, first of all it shows the connection between him and Aang and help explain some things we saw in previous episodes, as well as shows that we all have light and darkness inside of us, which reminds me of the quote from serious black in the order of the Phoenix when he tells Harry Potter how we all have both light and dark inside of us and it's the part we choose to act on that makes us who we are, this is also true for the world of avatar, in Isola's case it's more about her upbringing but because Zuko was lucky enough to have people in his life like Iro helping to guide him or put him on the right path, although he got a little messed up along the way, as he explains in the beach episode how he doesn't know right from wrong anymore, I feel like this episode helps explain a lot of things and is important for his growth, as now he has to choose whether he wants to go on the light or dark path, he still has a long way to go and still has a lot of choices to make, but I feel like this episode is very important for him as well as very important for Aang and they both really are to the story, we've seen the two of them be put side-by-side before and other episodes showing how similar they are but I feel like this is the episode where you really find out why they're so connected, I also think this helps explain a lot of of the other dreams we saw Zo having in previous episodes as well, as he struggles to grapple with his choices and decisions, being pulled from light to dark unsure of what to do. This also shows us how anyone can be good or bad and it's not just about how you raised it it's also about the choices you make, we see this with other nations and other characters, war can affect you in many different ways, in the case of the fire nation it's the royal family and their soldiers etc, who are the real threats, we see this throughout season three as the gang journey through the fire nation, how a lot of it is just the same as in the other nation, there's just so much propaganda and so many people sheltered from the rest of the world, that they like Zucco, don't Fino right from wrong, I feel like this also has to do with war and how it can affect you and the choices you make, there are a lot of very important things highlighted in this episode and this is why this is the episode I've been waiting for you to react to, because I think it really does highlight a lot of important themes that we've seen throughout the show as well as the connection between different characters and why that connection is so strong and why it is so important for the overall story of the show, it also truly tells us why Zo is the way he is and why he is so important, the show might be called avatar the last Airbender, but Zucco is just as important as Aang and we've seen this throughout other episodes where their storylines have been intertwined and even more so now, this is the time where now has to make a choice on what part he wants to act on light or dark good or bad and he still has a long way to go, I feel like this is the first step towards who he is and who he's meant to be as it does a great job of highlighting his inner struggle he's had throughout the entirety of the show.
This episode was absolutely amazing at everything it touched on, Zuko's part in all this has to be my favourite, his whole character has been defined by his family and lineage, seeing what his Father was and what his Grand Father and what he needs to become to get there approval has been his entire thing, to find his destiny and honour by following in the footsteps of his family. It's this core part of his character that made it so difficult for him to choose to do good, Iroh may be family but he isn't immediate, making his connection to Zuko strained and Zuko would value Ozai's approval over Iroh's. Now that he knows he's lineage also involves someone of great good rather than evil it not only personifies his internal conflict but also gives Zuko options to follow. Instead of following his Father's path, he could follow his mothers. I hope this allows Zuko to understand his conflict better s I imagine before this it would be simply impossible to picture himself as good but now that he knows he comes from good he can picture his future and choices like them.
But the summer solstice was yesterday! Also, didn't you have some sort of coincidental timing with the winter solstice back in season 1? xD I was rewatching the show with my father who had never seen the show, and we coincidentally watched the winter solstice episode on the winter solstice 😂
I don't think they do a good job explaining Sozins change honestly. Imo, Sozin got obsessed with the idea that him and the Avatar are connected. Best friends since childhood, shared birthday, he is supposed to rule a country and Roku is supposed to, in some sense, be the worlds authority. That's why he was so confident to basically just tell Roku "We should rule the world together", and ofc Roku refused.
This episode needed to be way longer or at least the story should have taken two episodes, seems like so much needed more detail and now you say it it makes so much more sense, Sozin was so deluded because he thought it was fate or destiny to rule the world because of the coincidence of his connection to the Avatar.
@@benspiller Yeah, it needed at least 2 episodes. Or they could've introduced some parts of this backstory before. This is why Zuko alone episode doesn't feel like it needed to be way longer - we were already given a lot of Zukos background, like in the Storm episode.
Spreading prosperity is standard imperialist rhetoric. We used it in the UK. We weren't invading other countries and stealing their resources. We were bringing them the good word of god and civilization.
I still hear this crap from some people who are alive today... trying to justify everything that happened, saying we (in the effected countries) should be thanking the British Empire for everything they did for us... They were the ones who were uncivil. Who calls raping women, killing innocent people, burning down villages, and wiping out cultures "civilised"? Never made sense to me that those are the kinds of people who look down on others as "barbaric". People who try to justify that today are crazy, and likely very indoctrinated, biased, nationalists.
True, this show does such a good job at displaying how the antagonists operate, to see that the War started because the Fire Lord thought he was putting good out into the world makes you wonder what could have happened if that was redirected and could have actually done good with that desire.
Wish they had made two eps out of this. The conflict is interesting but is too much for just one ep and feels rushed. They did a good job to fit everything in one ep but I feel like this story needed more time. Well, there'll be a Roku novel so...
Excatly this!!! I feel like there was so much missed in this episode and it's clear that this conflict involved so much and spanned their entire lives, way too much to fit into just one episode but the writers still did an incredible job. A Roku novel sounds amazing and I hope it fills in everything!
I'm not sure the war came from a good place. Sharing prosperity sounds like bullshit to me. I think it went to his head and he was just making excuses.
That's a good point, from what I understood Sozin thought his nation had peace and saw the rest of the world without it and wanted 'help'. It definitely could have been his ego blinding him but I feel like that would have been better demonstrated by showing off what's going on in the world, are the Fire Nation actually at peace? Is there anything actually wrong with the other Nations? I think the writers of the show leave it kind of ambiguous since we don't get to see what Sozin was talking about but either way, it shows the man was completely deluded.
@@benspiller There's more info about the state of the world in the Kyoshi novels but yeah I agree we are still missing info and this demanded more eps. It's a shame.
