12/21/20 - Book 2: Chapters 17-20
Book 2: Earth
Part 5 - The Fire Nation Strikes Back
2020 - on top of everything else that it has been - happens to be the 40th anniversary of the release of the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back.
When writing the original Star Wars movies, George Lucas was well-documented for drawing from Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the classical heroic monomyth. In the faces of now famous characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi we get the archetypical “everyman,” princess, and wise old man, respectively.
In a typical three-act structure narrative (as detailed in Campbell), the second act is when the protagonist faces a series of trials on the way to their goal, and by the end of the second act, they suffer a setback that places them at their “lowest point.” In The Empire Strikes Back, this is after Luke receives some devastating news about his parentage, and Leia loses Han Solo to the clutches of Boba Fett.
In the macro-narrative of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the conclusion of Book 2 is also where Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph reach a lowest point; in fact the season finale of “The Guru” and “The Crossroads of Destiny” is something between an homage and a remix of the story beats of Empire.
Firstly, we have Aang’s training with Guru Pathik - an ancient wise man who teaches our main character how to better master his abilities in isolation from the main party - echoing Luke’s training with Yoda on Dagobah. Likewise, Aang is forced to cut his training short after he has a vision of Katara in danger, and rushes off to rescue her in Ba Sing Se, much like how Luke leaves Dagobah to rescue Han and Leia.
Nextly - on the note of Katara - through her perspective we experience a double parallel to the reveal of Vader at the table - enemies in the safe haven; first when she unwittingly discovers Zuko and Iroh at the teashop and again when tries to alert the Kyoshi Warriors of Zuko’s presence only to be captured by Azula’s Team.
The last big connection is the physical maiming of our main protagonist at the climax of this chapter of the story. Luke of course loses his hand after Vader’s revelation; Aang is shot through the heart and dies. His death is, admittedly, undone rather quickly but I commend Bryke and the creative team for pushing the envelope of letting their villain (mind you, a fourteen year old girl) kill their protagonist, however briefly.
I don’t bring up these similarities to make Avatar seem like a ripoff by any stretch; in case it wasn’t obvious, as a Star Wars fan I like to explore the parallels. However in studying the similarities between these stories we can also more sharply see where they diverge.
While Empire’s protagonists and antagonists are all very cut and dry, Avatar has the nuance to explore more morally grey characters like Prince Zuko and Long Feng. Where the original Star Wars film featured only one female lead in the form of Leia, ATLA features an array of strong, capable, young women on both sides of the story. Lastly, while Empire sees its conflicted lead (Lando) make the right choice and support the rebels in the end, Avatar actually lets Zuko fail his test of character and fall under the wing of his manipulative sister and the end of the season.
In a lot of ways, there is “nothing new under the sun” when it comes to storytelling; but I think it is interesting to study how different stories can influence one another and play off each other.
Now after that long preamble, let us dive into the final episodes of Book 2.
2.17 - Lake Laogai
The Dai Li’s leitmotif is right up there with Azula’s as the most chilling in the series.
The man who “poaches” Iroh and Zuko away from their first tea shop is Quon - a wealthy Ba Sing Se merchant and entrepreneur. He is notable for creating the city’s first trans-wall food delivery system, and for being a prominent food aficionado. Iroh is good enough to name a tea blend after him (the “Ba Sing Quon”) as thanks for the younger man bankrolling the Jasmine Dragon.
This episode features the return of the first Joo Dee (Joo Dee Prime?); Aang’s outburst at her after being “absolutely forbidden” from hanging posters to find Appa is completely justified, considering everything he’s been through, but it’s hard not to feel for a woman so used and abused by Long Feng’s political engine.
“Yeah! Let’s break some rules!” **Demolishes wing of house**
“The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai.” - Long Feng has reduced the true power of the Earth King to a trigger phrase.
To the note of Feng’s cunning, he is (unlike most of the show’s villains) cautious enough to try and avoid an out and out fight with the Avatar.
“There is nothing wrong with a life of peace and prosperity. I suggest you think about what it is that you want from your life, and why.” - Iroh
I appreciate that Katara immediately pops off when she sees Jet. We’ve seen Aang work through his anger this season - I think this is the most furious we’ve ever seen Katara.
This episode debuts Toph’s ability as a “truth-seer,” able to detect lies through sensing others’ heightened heart-rate through the earth.
I remember how my heart just sank as a kid when it was “revealed” that Appa was on Whaletail Island - the Gaang had already been through so much slogging without Appa, Katara’s estimate of “weeks” just sounded excruciating.
“Shuffle on, I get you. No more need for Old Sweepy…”
When Toph reads that both Jet and Smellerbee are telling the truth, Sokka deduces that Jet has been brainwashed - is that a well-understood concept in the Four Nations?
Zuko harasses and captures a Dai Li agent to learn the location of Lake Laogai - notable because the way the Dai Li fires off his rock gloves at Zuko seems to be lethal? Like you can use deadly force for getting run into - geez.
It is revealed in flashback that Col. Mongke of the Rough Rhinos is the one that burned down Jet’s home village.
A nice bit of visual storytelling is Katara’s glowing healing water triggering Jet’s memories of Lake Laogai.
The lake and it’s underground complex are located within Ba Sing Se’s Agrarian Zone, outside the Lower Ring.
To the note of Long Feng elevating the stakes of the show, Long Feng declares Team Avatar “enemies of the state,” upon confronting them in the complex. That is heavy for an all-ages show.
Iroh’s confrontation with Zuko is a brief but brilliant moment of characterization - Iroh truly forcing Zuko to confront his failings and his aims in one potently charged scene.
“It’s time for you to look inward and start asking yourself the big questions. Who are you? And what do you want?”
Avatar is the rare children’s show that shows onscreen deaths;for all his faults, Jet was killed at sixteen.
This is also the last we see of Longshot and Smellerbee in the show.
The dramatic roller coaster of the Dai Li standoff on the shore and the triumphant return of Appa is another quick, emotionally charged sequence.
“I missed you buddy.”
We close on Zuko discarding his Blue Spirit mask. The mask itself is implied to be a standard stock character mask in Four Nations theater - Zuko’s original mask was inherited from Ursa, and his replacement (this mask) was implied to be stolen from a vendor in “The Swamp.”
2.18 - The Earth King
“One good hour after weeks of trouble isn’t much of a role.” “We can build on it…”
Like, actually good, wholesome advice - on the other hand:
“I don’t trust the new positive Sokka. Long Feng brainwashed you didn’t he!?”
Per continuity, I appreciate the characters (namely Toph) acknowledge Appa lost his saddle during his ordeal with the sandbenders
Team Avatar’s infiltration of the Earth King’s palace is a great action set piece showcasing how far our characters have come in their skill sets - it’s full of cool little moments - Katara’s massive water whip, Toph flattening the stairs.
After four episodes of obfuscating (and two months of broadcasting time) the audience and the cast finally meet the 52nd Earth King, Kuei.
Kuei initially mistakes Sokka for the Avatar; it is possible that within Long Feng’s massive constructed narrative to control the King, Feng indicated that the Avatar cycle had progressed unhindered, and that the current Avatar was Water Tribe.
How did I not know Kuei was voiced by Phil LaMarr?? That man is a vocal chameleon (title characters of Samurai Jack and Static Shock and dozens of other projects besides).
On the note of Feng - he labels Team Avatar an “anarchist cell” for the King. This is not dumbed down language for a family show.
Meanwhile Zuko is sweating out his fever brought on by his massive internal paradigm shift to help the Avatar. As a kid I read this as overdramatic, but emotions are generated by chemicals in your body so who’s to say emotional turmoil can’t bring about physical unrest?
Kuei bears significant resemblance to Puyi, the last emperor of China (fl. 1908-1912; 1917-1917) in a number of ways - like Kuei, bound within the walls of his palace, Puyi was isolated for years inside China’s Forbidden City palace complex.
Furthermore, both men wore spectacles, and were at certain points in their lives effectively puppet rulers.
It speaks to the fantastical scale of the Outer Wall that even the remains of the massive Fire Nation Drill dwarf are dwarfed by it.
“Well it’s imported of course. You know you can’t trust domestic machinery.”
“Arrest Long Feng!” sounds like the first unilateral action Kuei has taken in years.
The massive badgermole backdrop behind the Earth Kingdom throne is a “Sipjangsaengdo” (lit. Image of Ten Symbols of Longevity) a type of screen feature common to royal palaces of Korea, symbolizing the wish for a long life for the king.
“What I thought was a great metropolis was merely a city of fools. And that makes me the king fool.” - Kuei is naive but he’s not unintelligent - I think he grasps the stakes of the situation as well as he can.
Sokka refers to the day of the solar eclipse as “The Day of Black Sun” for the first time in this ep.
“You are going through a metamorphosis my nephew. It will not be a pleasant experience, but when you come out of it, you will be the beautiful prince you were always meant to be.”
Aang’s invitation to visit Pathik offers resolution to his struggles with the Avatar State, reaching all the way back to the start of the season. Sokka and Katara’s chance to see their father harkens all the way back to the beginning of the show.
After all this time, the remaining gang doesn’t know about Toph’s status as a runaway - I’m not sure that’s ever addressed this season?
Again re: maturity - Long Feng’s scene in prison with one of his Dai Li agents would fit nicely in an episode of Game of Thrones.
Presumably, Xin Fu and Yu rented a house in the Upper Ring just to capture Toph.
“We are the Earth King’s humble servants.” - Still gives me chills all these years later.
2.19 - The Guru
I forgot we open the finale on Iroh’s jook. Jook - aka “congee” is an East Asian rice porridge.
Chameleon Bay is the mouth of a river that leads into the interior Earth Kingdom and is located on the far eastern part of the continent. Chameleon Bay Port is where Avatar Kyoshi first met her to-be allies, the Flying Opera Company.
Sokka carries his longing well, but his reunion with his father is so heartwarming.
It is on Sokka’s careless vouch that Kuei feels comfortable revealing the eclipse invasion plan to the “Kyoshi Warriors.”
Re: timeline - General How puts this episode two months out from the Day of Black Sun. In airing order there was nearly a year between these episodes (Dec. 1st 2006) and the invasion (Nov. 30th 2007).
This is hands down one of my favorite episodes of the series for Gyatso’s teachings alone. His message of achieving inner peace before trying to affect peace in the world is a powerful one I have taken to heart.
Gyatso’s trademark onion-banana juice is based off of a meal a friend of Bryan Konietzko’s ate at a yoga retreat.
“Even you can’t bend metal.” **Looks at the camera**
The sequences largely speak for themselves, but I simply adore the chakra lessons; and I appreciate I got to learn about them here before I recognized them as an internet meme.
The Earth Chakra (the Muladhara, aka The Root Chakra, located at the base of the spine) represents one’s foundation. In Gyatso’s words, “It deals with survival and is blocked by fear.” When it is open, we feel able to stand on our own two feet and withstand challenges.
Each chakra has a corresponding color along the ROYGBIV spectrum, and that color overlays Aang’s thoughts as he meditates.
Additionally, I am a far cry from an expert in Tantric or Hindu spirituality. My reflections are very baseline knowledge and I defer to experts who know more. I am the basic white boy’s Intro to chakras and nothing more.
The Water Chakra (The Swadhisthana, aka the Sacral Chakra, located in the lower abdomen) tunes with emotions. “It deals with pleasure, and is blocked by guilt.” When it is open we are in tune with our emotions.
Iroh and the Jasmine Dragon - “Follow your passion… and life will reward you.”
The Fire Chakra (The Manipura, aka the Solar Plexus Chakra) deals with self-confidence and self-esteem. “It deals with willpower, and is blocked by shame. When it is open, we feel confident and in-control of our lives.
The Air Chakra (The Anahata, aka the Heart Chakra) bridges the material lower chakras and the spiritual upper chakras. “It deals with love, and is blocked by grief.” An open air chakra allows for deeper compassion and empathy.
The Sound Chakra (The Vishuddha, aka the Throat Chakra) controls our ability to communicate. “It deals with truth and is blocked by lies.” An open sound chakra allows for clear and honest communication.
The Light Chakra (The Ajna, aka the Third Eye Chakra) manages our ability to intuit the bigger picture and hidden connections. “It deals with insight, and is blocked by illusion.”
“We are all parts of the same whole.”
The Thought Chakra (The Sahasrara, aka the Crown Chakra) is the most abstract to me, In Pathik’s words it “deals with pure cosmic energy, and is blocked by earthly attachment.” For Aang, this means communion with a higher consciousness - his Avatar spirit - but I struggle to reconcile what this actually means beyond the abstract for normal humans.
Interpreting Aang’s spiritual experience in the abstract, it is possible to interpret activating the Avatar state as the temporary release of earthly attachment to perform acts more important than yourself, the individual.
When Katara is incapacited by the disguised Ty Lee, her waterskin pours out like a gut wound bleeding out on the floor. Artful if grim imagery.
As mentioned before, Aang's abandonment of his training to save his friends strongly echoes Luke’s departure to Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back.
This is the last time Pathik is seen in-person onscreen.
Toph’s crude discovery of metalbending is, obviously, an awesome subplot - why has it taken so long to discover? It took the patience and desperation of a blind earthbending prodigy to pull off.
“I’m going to be stuck in here forever, with you, aren’t it?” - Bryke confirmed in an interview that Xin Fu and Yu don’t in fact die in their metal cage predicament.
“Why do you think I trusted you to look after our tribe when I left?”
Azula’s meeting with Long Feng in his cell is another Game of Thrones scene.
2.20 - The Crossroads of Destiny
Azula coordinates the Coup of Ba Sing Se from the Royal Palace’s statue storage room. Also she only gets it for one episode but Azula’s dressed down Earth Kingdom ensemble is a fit.
“Destiny is a funny thing.” “It sure is Uncle.” - The last we get to see of Happy Zuko…
Iroh and Zuko are confronted by Azula at the Royal Tea Palace.
“They’re earthbenders, but they have a killer instinct that’s so firebender.”
Iroh goes from tea guru to living weapon on a dime; the reveal for his namesake as Dragon of the West with his fire breath, using lightning to break out of the building - king.
As many a tumblr gif maker can tell you - you can see Zuko taking Iroh’s lesson of drawing from the other elements to heart when he uses a very waterbending/tai chi-esque firebending strike against Azula before being captured.
The age of streaming allows us to appreciate freeze frames more - Toph’s dorky reaction to Iroh showing up at their doorstep is excellent.
As the name would imply, the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se mark the original settlements of the area. The light crystals mined from these caverns are the same as those used for light sources throughout the Earth Kingdom.
Ah yes, Katara and Zuko’s conversation in the catacombs - the scene that launched 1,000 Zutara fics.
Their descent to the catacombs is the most time Aang gets to spend with Iroh during the original show; and sadly, it’s some of the last performance we get from Mako Iwamatsu as Iroh. He gets some great final lines though.
“So, Toph thinks you give pretty good advice, and great tea.” “The key to both is proper aging.”
“Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.”
“Sometimes, life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place.”
Azula’s final confrontation with Long Feng is one of her best scenes in the show and just radiates waves of BDE.
“But I know, and you know. Well?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You were never even a player.”
I think it’s a testament to the high she’s riding from conquering the Earth Kingdom in hours that leads Azula to let Zuko “choose,” to join her or not. Had he not had had a crisis of confidence, I’m confident she bit off more than she could chew against Aang and Katara this time.
The final two on two battle in the catacombs is one of the best action sequences in the show and a gold standard for a season finale. I hold it up there with Thrones at its peak.
Azula’s hair grows into a motif for her mental state over the course of the show - her violent anger at “one hair out of place” in her full debut, her fury at Katara for slicing at her bangs with a water strike here, and then her unbound hair during her unraveling in Book 3.
There is a distinct moment when Katara had Azula beaten (having trapped Azula in water whips) - before Zuko intervenes.
The score for this whole sequence slaps, but the pause, then the drumbeats as jet-propelled Azula charges a crystal-armored Aang - perfection.
Sokka doesn’t comment on Toph’s newfound metalbending abilities and I find that both rude and unlikely.
It’s a family show. You know they can’t kill off the title character - but look at me and tell me you aren’t shocked Nick let Bryke go there.
Katara’s cradling of Aang’s… well it’s technically a corpse for a few minutes here; her pose holding Aang’s collapsed body is reminiscent of the Christian pieta, a favorite subject of Christian artistry depicting Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus Christ.
Of course it was the device needed to save Aang - all these years later I wonder if the spirit water would’ve worked on Zuko’s scar.
“You’ve restored your own honor.”
“The Earth Kingdom has fallen.” - And now ladies and gents, we are at our lowest point.
History & Culture Corner: The Forbidden City
The massive complex of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace is drawn from the real-life Forbidden City palace in Beijing, China. The Forbidden City is one of the most iconic buildings in the world and carries much too rich a history to be done justice in the closing of a blog post, but I can provide some brief bullet points for the history and composition of this iconic landmark.
Construction of the Forbidden City began in 1406 and lasted until 1420, seeing a sum of more than a million workers contribute to the construction of the new seat of the Chinese Empire. Across the Ming and Qing dynasties (1420-1924), the palace was the seat of 24 Chinese emperors; after the eviction of the last emperor, Puyi, in a coup, the Forbidden City was converted into a museum in 1925.
The palace complex is composed of 980 buildings enclosed on a compound of 178 acres bounded by its iconic, 26ft tall walls. Among the notable structures of the complex are the Meridian Gate - the southern and most prominent gate to the palace interior, replicated in Avatar as the outer gate to the Earth Palace. In the complex’s Outer Court lie the massive Hall of Supreme Harmony (used for enthronement and wedding ceremonies); and its counterparts, the Halls of Central Harmony and Preserving Harmony.
Within the Inner Court lies the Palace of Heavenly Purity, housing the Emperor’s audience hall and council chambers. Together with its counterparts, the Hall of Union and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (we just don’t do overwrought names like this anymore!) these halls compose the heart of the Inner Court.
The Forbidden City has been damaged repeatedly during conflicts of the modern age, such as the 1933 Japanese Invasion of China, and the Chineses Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Nonetheless the majority of the complex has remained intact, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. A sixteen-year restoration project is currently underway to repair all buildings in the Forbidden City to their pre-1912 prime.
The imposing name of the complex is derived from the fact that entry to the palace was barred without direct permission from the Chinese emperor. In modern times the complex is referred to in Chinese as “The Former Palace” or “The Palace Museum.”
- -
Were I not already behind my self-imposed schedule, I would love to research the Forbidden City in more depth. Monument to imperialism that it is, it is also one of the most ornate and unique collections of art and architecture in the world. I’d love to go there someday in a post-pandemic world.
Well with this post I’ve wrapped my reflections on Book 2: Earth. I’ve decided to take January off and take that time to rest and recover from what has been a thus far exhausting holiday season. I’ll be returning for Book 3 starting Monday, February 1st.
Looking forward to it! Until then, be well, be safe, and may the Force be with you,
- JMC