1001, 1002, 1003…

Book 1: Water

Chapter 6

Imprisoned

WHAT HAPPENED?

The group comes across a town oppressed by the Fire Nation. Earthbending is apparently forbidden, but the group comes across a boy practicing his skill in the woods. Katara encourages the boy, Haru, to use his earthbending to save an old man from a mine cave in. The old man winds up reporting the young earthbender.

The boy is imprisoned on an earthbender prison based on a metal rig in the middle of the ocean. Katara gets herself captured so she can convince the earthbenders to break out. They annex the firebenders using cole from the fires below and vow to rise up against the Fire Nation. Zuko arrives to investigate finding Katara’s necklace in the process.

WHAT TO TAKE AWAY

Haru saves the old man from being covered in debris, but the old man rats him out. The old man is a scumbag for succumbing to fear instead of keeping the secret that Haru was an earthbender. However, I’m pretty sure that he was acting out of fear of what the firebenders would do to him if they found out he’d kept the secret.

Beginning in this episode, the theme of never giving up hope is established even before the main goal of the hero is revealed. And it’s a good lesson for the kids. They could have left the old man to die, but it would have been against Katara’s character to do so. She inspired Haru to help someone in need, and it will only help her later. And if they left the old man to die in order to keep Haru safe, they might not have begun the rebellion to free the other earthbenders from the prison. Haru might not have been reunited with his father.

No one will admit it, but someone here farted.

In fact, Haru might have gotten caught anyway since he likes to practice his abilities out in the woods. The difference is that Katara wouldn’t have been there to inspire anyone to fight back, leaving Haru and Tyro to die in that prison.

As an aside, the plan they come up with to get Katara arrested is quite clever, but the execution is terrible. It’s terrible to the point where the soldiers who come across it would have realized how fake the setup was. I know it’s meant to be cute, but I can’t let this one slide.

The other nice thing about this episode is that they introduce a clever way to stop earthbending in the form of the barge prison. Out in the middle of the water, there is no earth to bend except for the coal in the furnaces. Even though metal is a refined form of earth, the ability to bend metal hasn’t been discovered yet. Although, wouldn’t someone on the barge prison have figured it out? Or were the prisoners just so devoid of hope that they wouldn’t have thought of it?

The warden seemed pretty intent on breaking their spirits so they wouldn’t even consider escaping. Perhaps this is why no one thought to use the coal from the furnace sooner.

Coffee for everyone!

When Katara found out that Haru had been taken, she went into a panic because she encouraged him to use his bending to save the old man. She viewed it as a positive at first, but then felt guilt since it got him arrested. Her guilt was so strong that she immediately resolved to get herself arrested so she could help him. She convinces Aang and Sokka to help her, but this kind of half-cocked action without a real plan reminds me of Zuko. He shares many parallels with Katara, except she wants to help people without regard for herself or her friends.

However, the clearly rehearsed dialogue between Sokka and Katara before she’s gets captured is quite hilarious. It reminds me how lame I am for examining the story and themes so closely. Then it reminds me that it’s who I am. It also reminds me that this is who Katara is and why her character is so loved.

On a side note, doesn’t the warden sound a bit like George Takei? At any rate, Zuko wasn’t in this episode save for the end when he finds Katara’s necklace. That really won’t come into play for another six episodes or so, so we’ll save that conversation for another time. Next time, the group realizes that their time is short as they approach the Winter Solstice.

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Smooth…