(Because, er, we wouldn’t have a rival for our antagonist. Zhao makes a fine point about the team searching for the Avatar – why should the fate of the world hang in the balance of a surly teenager with daddy issues? – and takes the responsibility of hunting him off of Zuko’s hands, which he doesn’t respond to well, challenging Zhao to an Agni Kai.įrom Iroh’s warnings to Zuko, we can understand that an Agni Kai is how he got his freakish eye scar, but from whom? Turns out an Agni Kai is a duel between two fire benders, seemingly to the death, something that Zuko turns away from, deciding to not kill Zhao at the last moment. Except, minutes later, Zuko’s crew reveal that the Avatar himself attacked the ship. Zhao interrogates him on whether or not the Avatar may be alive, causing Zuko to lie, saying that he knows nothing of the Avatar being alive. He tells them of the Fire Lord/Zuko’s father and his plans to win the conflict, which Zuko believes will fail, calling his father a “fool”. They quickly run into Commander Zhao (voiced by Jason Isaacs!), an important member of the Fire Nation army, who invites them for a drink. The ‘cost of war’, indeed.Īs for the B-story, Zuko, Iroh and the Fire Nation warship stop off at a harbour for repairs following Aang’s attack from the previous episode. Aang knows it, you really can tell, but his denial of it is what makes it really powerful to watch. The fact that an entire race was exterminated by one nation is a big thing to take on in a cartoon. There’s a lot to deal with in this story. They leave Aang’s former home soon after, with Aang taking one last glance at his home. As the lemur eats a moon peach, Aang calls him Momo – Japanese for “peach”, trivia fans! – and adopts him as another member of their group. He truly is the world’s last airbender.Īs our explorers are about to leave, Aang wonders how exactly he will communicate with Avatar Roku, but Katara tells him he will find a way – my guess is through hallucinations or flashbacks, really – before being interrupted by the lemur from earlier, who brings a starving Sokka food. This works, but Aang has stopped his denials. Meanwhile, Katara and Sokka work on calming Aang down, claiming that they are his new family and that no harm will come to him. In all of this tomfoolery, Aang stumbles upon Gyatso’s skeleton, surrounded by Fire Nation bodies, the final proof that the Fire Nation did trigger a genocide of the Airbenders. This means that Aang is the reincarnation of Avatar Roku, a Firebender, one of the first signs that the Fire Nation aren’t always the bad guys…Īnd then, lemur! Sokka, hungry as ever, chases the lemur – one of the last inhabitants of the Air Temple – while Aang chases after him as protection. So, of course, the gang heads for the sanctuary, where we are introduced to the reincarnation cycle of the Avatars via a number of statues, all of whom have come from the four nations. (Hmmm…) He also says that within the Air Temple’s sanctuary, a spirit will guide him in his journey. In a flashback, we are introduced to Monk Gyatso, Aang’s cheerful-looking mentor, who says that Aang should have been told he would be Avatar at age sixteen, not age twelve as he was. Katara lightly warns Aang that the Fire Nation may have wiped out the Airbenders, but Aang works around denying this with his regular positive stance, claiming that the Fire Nation would have never made it to the Air Temples without the use of a flying bison. (I wonder how exactly you play this game? It makes about as much sense as Quiddich!) Of course, a hundred years have passed, leaving very little of Aang’s (first) youth there: no monks, no flying bisons, really only empty temples and a disused airball court. With Katara and Sokka in tow, Aang returns to the Southern Air Temple, his old stomping grounds from a century ago to see what his home has turned into. The pilot hinted at the consequences of a wartime society lacking male role models, but it never became the main focus – there was penguin sledding and lots of other fun to have! In episode three, The Southern Air Temple, the cost of the hundred-year war becomes the main focus.
The big part of that is “consequences of warfare”, and it’s something that Avatar explores thoroughly throughout its three seasons.
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