10/26/20 - Book 2: Chapters 5-8
Book 2: Earth
Part 2 - Or Why I’ve Never Subscribed to Gender Roles
One of the joys of this project is reflecting on the lessons Avatar taught me at a very early age.
ATLA is simply brimming with strong, complex female characters - from the first episode, Katara - untrained - shatters an iceberg with her waterbending (while decrying the nonsense of sexism no less). The women of ATLA run a gamut of different personality types, ages, and alignments, and all of them are in their own way aspirational. These episodes showcase quite a few.
I do not keep quiet about my adoration for Avatar Kyoshi - a minor character who had enough popularity to garner her own novel series. Fierce, unyielding, and decisive, Kyoshi is a pillar of confidence and strength. She is exemplary of what an Avatar can achieve at the height of their power.
Toph is both a tomboy and differently abled. In addition to her unique Daredevil-esque earthbending, Toph’s gender expression is a complete rejection of soft, passive, “traditional” femininity in favor of expression that embraces her strength and her element.
In contrast, Ursa is something of an idealized mother archetype. She is soft, kind, but firm where she needs to be - she is remembered by Zuko with rose-colored glasses. However, it is implied in “Zuko Alone” and later confirmed that Ursa played her part in the mysterious ascension of our main villain, her husband, Fire Lord Ozai.
Finally - to this day, Azula terrifies me. Azula is cool, collected, calculating, and lethally precise. She is a weapon of the Fire Nation honed to impeccable perfection and is ruthlessly terrifying for it. She can easily hold her own against any bender in the show.
Women can be warriors. Girls can be tough. Women can have secrets.
Girls can be scary.
All of these characters and more defy traditional roles for female characters, and I applaud Bryke and their team for making this strong diverse array of women such a focal point of their story.
Avatar taught me that you can be more than what the world wants or expects you to be; embracing your truest self is more important than confining yourself within a societal box.
On the note of subverting expectations - these episodes are in a league of their own compared to other children’s television - so without further prelude, let’s dive in.
2.5 - Avatar Day
Register of Cool Minor Character - The Rough Rhinos: So, komodo-rhinos are the standard cavalry beasts of the Fire Nation Army; so it completely checks out that we get a badass special forces unit of like, Hawkeye-level “Fire Nation Avengers” to hunt down not just the Gaang, but Zuko and Iroh as well (down the road). They consist of:
Col. Mongke - The mustachioed firebender
Kahchi - The Santa Claus-looking one who wields a guan dao - a heavy bladed pole weapon.
Ogodei - The dark-skinned (notable as Fire Nationals are all ostensibly Japanese-coded) war-bolo-wielder
Vachir - The former Yuyan Archer
Yeh-Lu - The masked explosives expert
It is a bit frightening just how cheerful the shop owner is when he invites the kids to the Avatar Day Festival - considering it’s effectively a dressed up hate mob.
Meanwhile with the firebenders: we see the follow-through of the return of the Blue Spirit - Zuko becoming a discount Robin Hood.
Chin Village and it’s founder Chin the Great likely get their namesake from Qin Shi Huangdi - the first Emperor of China in the 3rd century BCE.
Speaking of Chinese staples of pop culture - veteran Chinese-American actor James Hong portrays the snooty, absurd Mayor Tong in this episode. At time of writing, Hong has 440 acting credits dating back to the 1950s - a few of his most well known roles (to millennials) include David Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China (1986); Mr. Ping, the adoptive duck father of Po in Kung-Fu Panda (2008); and guest starring in Seinfeld as the maitre d’ of the eponymous “Chinese Restaurant” episode.
I want a one-shot comic about Sokka’s investigation of the Missing Seal Jerky.
It is repeatedly mentioned that Kyoshi and Chin’s confrontation occurred precisely 370 years before this episode. That puts the event 270 years before Sozin’s attacks on the Air Temples, and that makes Kyoshi only 42 at the time of the encounter.
Elephant rats occupy the prison where Aang is kept. They will make a creepy return when we deal with another prisoner in Book 3.
The first half of Book 2 has a lot of revisited locations from Book 1 - Katara and Sokka’s return to Kyoshi Island sees the return of Foaming Mouth Guy and the island’s leader, Oyaji.
The relics kept in Kyoshi’s shrine include her boots, her kimono, her fans, and her headdress, as well as the painting, “The Birth of Kyoshi.”
“Everyone loved Chin the Great because he was soooo great. Then the Avatar showed up and killed him! ...And that’s how it happened.”
Is the irony lost on the citizenry that the Avatar would simply be reborn if they went through with this farce and killed Aang anyway?
Iroh has a ton of great lines in this episode:
“To be honest with you, the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes in a porcelain pot or a tin cup.”
“There is a simple honor in poverty.”
“You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself.”
Just… the entire sequence of Kyoshi’s “confession” is one of the Top 5 most badass scenes across the whole show. It is one of the rare examples the audience gets of a fully-realized Avatar using the full extent of their power, and Kyoshi uses it to tear a whole-ass island off the mainland of the Earth Kingdom. Unquestionable legend.
“On that day, we split from the mainland.” **Cue chills, every time**
“I created Kyoshi Island so my people could be safe from invaders.” - Kyoshi said Fuck Imperialists.
I adore the Chin bailiff's croaky voice.
As a kid I don’t think I realized until this episode (during the Gaang’s fight with the Rough Rhinos) that Kyoshi’s fans are metal.
“Unfried dough! May we eat it, and be reminded of how on this day the Avatar was not boiled in oil.” **Cheers**
“...This is by far the worst town we’ve ever been to.”
2.6 - The Blind Bandit
This episode is set in and around the town of Gaoling - obviously notable to the audience as Toph’s hometown. Gaoling appears again as a significant location in both the Kyoshi novels and the Korra comics.
“Hey kids… you like throwing rocks?” - @ Master Yu, what is this ad campaign.
Master Yu and his academy are a satire of “strip mall dojos” where the objective is more a cash grab and getting kids out of the house over actual training. Both Bryan Konietzko and Sifu Kisu (the show’s martial arts consultant) have a particular disdain for the “belt system” of this brand of martial arts education.
The Earth Rumble Tournament is held in a literally underground arena on the outskirts of Gaoling. The tournament is apparently popular enough to continue into Avatar Korra’s time, as we see a brief glimpse of Korra participating in what is implied to be an Earth Rumble fight in the opening episodes of Book 4 of the sequel show.
Register of Cool Minor Character - Earth Rumble Contestants: Bryke and the team seem to have really appreciated the opportunity to do some WWE parody in their ancient Asian fantasy world. In addition to Toph and the Boulder (a riff on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), the participants in the tournament include;
Fire Nation Man - The token “Evil Foreigner” (i.e. The Iron Sheik)
The Big Bad Hippo - Inspired by Andre the Giant
The Gecko - (Rey Mysterio)
The Gopher - A reference to a rare non-hybrid animal
The Headhunter - (“The Ultimate Warrior” of the WWE)
“This is just gonna be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other, isn’t it?” “That’s what I paid for!” - Sokka’s devolution into a rabid earthbending fan in this ep is delightful.
Toph’s seismic sense is just so masterfully portrayed in the animation - like, we the audience basically understand her abilities before she explains them outright.
I also forgot that Toph workshops her famous “Twinkle Toes” nickname - the first time she spars with Aang, she calls him “The Fancy Dancer.”
“Water Triiiibe”
The Beifongs have become one of the more significant families in the Avatar mythos. The patriarch and matriarch seen in this episode are Lao and Poppy Beifong respectively. Toph’s descendents are featured players in The Legend of Korra, and her ancestors are supporting characters in the Kyoshi novels.
The fact that Lao and Poppy just move past Aang and Toph’s sparring at dinner is a testament to rich people manners trumping common sense.
What holds Toph back from leaving is her connection to her parents… toxic family relationships can take many forms, and in Toph’s case, just because she’s pampered and well taken care of, doesn’t mean her parents aren’t stifling her.
Fast forwarding to the standoff at the arena: “My daughter is blind! She is blind and tiny and helpless and fragile! She cannot help you!” “Yes, I can.” Never before or since has there been such a bad b*tch.
To that end - “Wait! ….They’re mine.”
Toph’s unique earthbending style is based off of the real life Chu Gar style Southern Praying Mantis kung fu. Her signature palms-up-facing-her stance is a staple of the style, and according to Bryke, Mantis style was legendarily created by a blind woman!
Lao and Poppy’s instinctive defensiveness of their daughter is understandable; but it is even more understandable that her strict parents doubling-down on smothering her is what finally pushes her into running away.
With so much show between this episode and the finale, it's easy to forget that Toph’s daywear is actually her “Blind Bandit” ensemble.
With the revelation that Lao did not in fact do a full 180 on “protecting” Toph, we have the creation of Odd Couple bounty hunter duo - Master Yu and Xin Fu.
2.7 - Zuko Alone
Zuko as the Man with No Name lets go.
In the opening scenes of this episode, Zuko travels through a battlefield strewn with giant stone coins; Bryke have confirmed that this is the same battlefield where Wan, the very first Avatar died… 10,000 years ago. I for one think that’s a stretch - especially considering how, as seen in “The Avatar State,” earth coins are still an active component of the Earth Kingdom arsenal.
I totally forgot we get a glimpse of Ying and Than in this ep - the couple at the campfire that Zuko almost robs before seeing Ying is pregnant..
Dice-rolling in the world of Avatar features “spider-snake eyes” - referencing a pair of fives. We (thankfully) never see this abomination onscreen.
The earthbending hammer-bro is named Gow - I think it’s notable both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation have soldiers who dual-wield hammers.
Zuko becomes a mysterious, emo role model to the young miscreant Lee; Lee’s family includes his father Gansu, his mother Sela, and his brother Sensu, off fighting in the war.
Keeping with the heavy Western themes of this episode, Lee’s family raises a collection of pig-hybrids, including the moo-sow (cow+pig); the picken (pig+chicken); the pigster (pig+rooster); and the wooly pig (pig+sheep).
I appreciate Gansu as the “humble old man” archetype; he doesn’t pass judgement on Zuko and chastises his son for prying - “A man’s past is his business.”
Ursa is… a complicated Avatar character to say the least. In this episode she is presented as an emotional anchor Zuko is destined to lose.
In Zuko and Ursa’s scene at the pond we get our first appearance of turtle-ducks! Easily top five hybrid animals across the show.
We additionally get a great visual look at Zuko’s halcyon days in the palace before his banishment.
Azula was a manipulator even at a young age (in these flashbacks, set around Ozai’s ascension as Fire Lord, Zuko is about 11 and Azula is about 9).
Also in these flashbacks we get a rare glimpse of Iroh in his prime - accompanied by Imperial Firebenders at the breach his forces made in the walls of Ba Sing Se. He chuckles at the notion of “burning [the city] to the ground”; it really speaks to how much Lu Ten’s death changed him to see him transition from jovial field commander to sage.
Even at this time though, Azula dubs Iroh “his royal tea-loving kookiness”
It is a nice bit of storytelling that Zuko is reminded of Lu Ten’s fate when Lee’s family learns about Sensu.
“Read the inscription.” “Made in Earth Kingdom…” “...The other one.”
At time of writing there is no canonical information about Lu Ten’s mother/Iroh’s wife.
Ursa on Azula: “What is wrong with that child?”
This episode marks only the fourth onscreen appearance of Ozai; and even in flashback the animators are coy about showing his face - we still get that great Mark Hammil voice acting though.
In the audience with Fire Lord Azulon, Azula: a.) is still only generating red firebending - she has not developed her unique skill yet; b.) she directs a blast of fire directly at Azulon’s pagoda, foreshadowing the old man’s fate.
It’s surreal to hear the looming big bad of the entire show referred to as “Prince” Ozai.
So, I’ll hold off on exploring the details of Azulon’s death for the sake of those who haven’t read The Promise; but suffice to say, before Ursa’s intervention, Ozai had every intention of killing his son. I think on some level, Zuko is aware of this, and I cannot begin to wrap my head around how traumatic that is for him, and how dark that is for a kid’s show.
Zuko leaves the farm after the family gets the news about Sensu - he has taken a break to rest by a riverside when the story cuts back to the present and Sela finds him.
“You’re not soldiers. You’re bullies.” - Even without his swords drawn, Zuko manages to dispatch all of Gow’s enforcers save the earthbender himself.
It is likewise impressive how Zuko is briefly able to hold his own against Gow without resorting to his bending.
“He’s got a left sword, don’t he?”
Ursa’s late-night goodbye to Zuko before she flees the palace is just as haunting for the audience as it is to Zuko I think.
“No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.”
Zuko revealing his bending and resuming the duel with both his firebending and his swords is properly chilling. There are firebenders who outclass Zuko, sure, but using all the tools at his disposal, he is undeniably formidable.
The heel turn of everyone in the town - “No, I hate you!” - upon the revelation of Zuko’s true identity is still quietly heartbreaking.
The more I reflect, the more I realize just how nightmarish Zuko’s flashbacks in this episode are; the score just underlines how horrific Ozai’s ascension to the throne is.
“Zuko Alone” was written by Elizabeth Welch Ehasz; writer of a handful of fan favorite episodes and (now) ex-wife of Avatar head writer Aaron Ehasz.
2.8 - The Chase
From the title card, the audience is introduced to the pounding drum leitmotif that will come to symbolize Azula’s tank-train.
Aang explicitly acknowledges that the seasons have changed to spring in the opening; for all the focus on Sozin’s Comet arrival at “summer’s end,” there is rare reference to the precise chronological placement of episodes outside the solstices and “The Library.”.
With the introduction of Toph to the party, the audience is again reminded of the day-to-day difficulties the kids face as moving targets in wartime.
Seeing as how it is the only one we see, I can envision the tank train as a prototype developed by War Minister Qin in tandem with the Drill seen later in the season.
There was apparently an inside joke among the crew that Lo and Li drove the tank; however according to the junior grade “The Tale of Azula” book, the princess herself pilots the vehicle.
“Sugar queen?” “I’M COMPLETELY CALM!” - Katara’s breakdowns in this episode are darkly hilarious.
This is the first episode the audience (and the Gaang) really have to reckon with Appa’s limitations as a (living) beast of burden. We’ll circle back to this idea later in the Book.
“Just some angry freak with a ponytail who’s tracked us all over the world.” “What’s wrong with ponytails, ponytail?” “This, is a warrior’s wolf tail.”
“I can feel it with my own two feet.” - Props to Bryke and the writers for continuously finding tasteful, yet humorous ways to remind us of Toph’s blindness.
This episode has some of the best “ugly” character stills - Sokka’s “I CAN STILL FIGHT!” face is a masterpiece.
Azula’s skill with lightning is apparently such that she can fire off bolts from mongoose-lizard-back.
I was wrong - Katara explicitly acknowledges Azula’s “crazy blue firebending” in this episode.
Toph’s minor earthbending of Sokka out of her way as she storms off is a nice sight gag.
Keeping track of the gang’s flight - Toph leaves the Gaang at the party’s fourth campsite this episode.
Azula’s Team, or as a Sokka calls them, a squad of “dangerous ladies.”
Toph’s encounter with Iroh is one of the better, overlooked elements of this episode - I think everything else is just kinda overshadowed by the ghost town showdown.
“Clumps! They’re clumps!” - Ty Lee is the best.
In the latter half of the episode, the scenes are lit in a more sunset/evening shading that just looks gorgeous.
Their fight is great, but Ty Lee and Mai notably and pretty easily defeat Katara and Sokka without much effort.
Also the mongoose-lizards water-stepping is another solid visual gag.
“You can laugh, it’s funny.” - God, Azula rules.
“There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. Not that I love you, I just met you!” - Iroh, in fact, also rules.
“Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life’s true delights.” - <3
In their The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly standoff, Azula notably strikes at Zuko before Aang.
When they run into the collapsing building - Aang catches Azula off-guard in the floorless room; she’s able to regain her balance - Zuko rushes in and crashes to the ground floor.
This episode exemplifies the principle expounded by Jeong Jeong - that fire grows and lives on its own without its bender’s control; when Azula corners Aang she lights the building ablaze - but once she releases control of the fire the flames noticeably change from blue to red.
Azula actually holds her own pretty well against Zuko, Aang, Katara, and Sokka before Queen Toph rolls in.
I hardly need to tell you the Gaang, Zuko and Iroh cornering Azula is an awesome, then heartbreaking scene - as noted by fans, this is the first time all four elements are united onscreen against one enemy.
Zuko’s strangled “LEAVE!” when Katara tries to help Iroh hurts.
The episode appropriately ends with the main group escaping to a mountaintop to finally get some well-earned sleep.
History & Culture Corner: Four Nations Currency
Money is a recurrent motif in this collection of episodes - the Earth Rumble prize purse, Zuko’s personal poverty as he travels alone - so this week I am going to briefly address the different coinage of the Four Nations and their real world inspirations.
Earth Kingdom money is by far the most prevalent throughout the show, operating in the form of circular gold, silver, and copper coinage. These coins are similar to the currency used in pre-Qin dynasty China. On rarer occasions, gold ingots are used for larger amounts (i.e. the bounty Lao Beifong puts on Toph); these ingots resemble an ancient Chinese ingot currency called yuanbao (lit. valuable treasure).
Fire Nation currency (mostly seen in Book 3) are also organized in units of gold, silver, and copper pieces - their coins however are much more angular, and feature the Fire Nation emblem stamped on them. These coins resemble historical coinage used in the Chinese Warring States period. In universe, the modern Fire Nation financial system was overhauled and reestablished by the respected bookkeeping Fire Nation Avatar, Szeto.
Water Tribe currency, as briefly seen in “Avatar Day” does not have a distinct real world counterpart. As the smallest nation at the time of the series, the thick blue coins of the Water Tribe are a rarer currency, but still accepted in some parts of the Earth Kingdom.
While not explicitly stated, it seems that pre-war Air Nomads did not have their own unit of currency - their economy being based around small-scale trade and bartering.
Finally, in the time between Airbender and The Legend of Korra, the more modern paper currency of the yuan is introduced - “yuan” is an informal name for the basic unit of modern Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese currency.
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Alright! Another week down - looking forward, in next week’s batch of episodes, we get crash courses in earthbending and “lightning-bending,”; we meet a giant terrifying owl spirit, and we learn the Secret of the Fire Nation...
Looking forward to it - until then, be well, be safe, and may the Force be with you,
- JMC