You have an army? We have an Appa!

Book 1

Chapters 19 & 20

The Siege of the North

What happened?

With the Fire Nation at their doorstep, the leaders of the Northern Water Tribe do their best to plan for the coming armada. As it arrives, there is some damage done, but Zhao takes Iroh’s advice and stops the attack as the sun begins to set. Zuko leaves the ship in search of Aang, while Aang aims to visit the spirit world for wisdom and guidance in this battle. Katara and Zuko fight, but Katara is knocked out as Zuko takes Aang into blizzard. Unforunately, the Fire Nation resumes their attack at daybreak.

Aang is instructed by Roku in the spirit world to find an old spirit, Koh, who will know where to find the moon and ocean spirits. Through their tense interaction, Aang realizes that he needs to get back to the oasis to speak with the two spirits. He escapes, but his spirit lingers as he looks for his body. Katara and Sokka catch up with Zuko and knock him out to rescue Aang. They bring Zuko back with them, and confront Zhao, who intends to kill the moon spirit. Iroh confronts Zhao, too, but Zhao kills it anyway, causing the moon to disappear.

With the waterbenders powerless and the tribe nearly conquered, Aang melds with the ocean spirit and destroys the Fire Navy. Zuko and Zhao fight, but as Zuko gains the upper hand, the ocean spirit claims Zhao’s life. After the battle, Aang and the group get ready to leave, while Zuko and Iroh escape on a raft.

What to take away

It is not very clear how much time has passed since Team Avatar arrived at the Northern Water Tribe. It’s been long enough for Katara to get better at waterbending, but not long enough since Zuko has yet to heal from his injuries due to his near-death experience. Regardless, it’s good to see that Katara is being trained to master waterbending, despite the fact that the tribe forbids training women to fight.

Did the Northern Water Tribe change the rule outright or did they make an exception for Katara? We’ll never know because the show never addresses it even though the tradition had probably stood for hundreds of years.

Meanwhile, Sokka is still trying to court Princess Yue even though she reminds him that she is getting married. He continues by taking her on Appa for a ride, but gets sidetracked by the soot mixed with snow as a signifier that the Fire Navy is close. Then, Yue breaks up with Sokka, so to speak. This is fine, but I don’t feel anything for this romance. It would be one thing if more episodes focused on getting to know the culture of the tribe, Princess Yue’s personality, and why Sokka loves her so much mixed with Aang and Katara training.

However, because we spend so much time with episodes like The Warriors of Kyoshi and The Great Divide, we miss out of developments. Getting to see who Yue is, as well as how her romance with Sokka blossoms would help my ultimate disinterest in this romance that has no bearing on the plot. Just because she has some of the moon spirits’ life in her doesn’t mean that we don’t need to get to know her.

In regards to their romance, I believe that more episodes should have been devoted to spending time in the Northern Water Tribe. This way, there could be more of a reason to care about the people, and about Yue. This final, while decent, suffers from feeling rushed due to the fact that three episodes isn’t enough to properly absorb what happens in the Northern Water Tribe.

Moving on, why does the Chieftan charge Sokka with protecting Yue, but not his future son-in-law? Despite traveling with the Avatar, Sokka is still a stranger in this tribe whereas Yue’s fiancé is familiar, as well as her fiancé!

And wouldn’t it be interesting if Aang cared more about connecting with the spirits? He is the Avatar after all, right? He has been raised to be spiritual and he’s super interested in learning the bending disciplines. Shouldn’t the show focus a bit more on those aspects on his way to defeating the Fire Lord?

I thought that the encounter with Koh was very intense considering the stakes. The spirit actually rips your face off, and he lives for it! There were rumors that he would return sometime in the third season and steal Katara’s face. I’ll get more into it when we wrap things up for the series as a whole, but I thought that the scene with Koh was quite intense.

Do you have a cigarette?

As an aside, what was Zuko thinking in regards to nabbing Aang? It’s clear that he had nowhere else to go, but it goes to show how impulsive he is and how little he thinks things through. He had Aang in his grasp, but would have died in the blizzard if Katara and Sokka hadn’t found them. It’s just a general query as we get further into this series and closer to some of my favorite parts.

Crap, crap, crap, crap…

Another thing of note in this episode is when Iroh confronts Zhao. This is why I enjoy his character so much. He’s knowledgeable about many things, especially about the spirit world. However, why didn’t Iroh try to stop Zhao when he first stated his plan? It’s not like Zhao left his exposition at ‘I have a plan about the moon’. He outright confesses that he plans to kill the moon spirit, and Iroh lets him get so close to actually succeeding before actually confronting Zhao.

There has been an awakening… have you felt it?

Something that would have made it better is if Iroh spoke out against Zhao on the ship. Perhaps they could have fought, but Iroh could stand down when he realizes that he is outnumbers. Maybe Iroh is thrown into the brig only to escape and confront Zhao in the oasis with Aang. Doesn’t that sound a bit more exciting? I understand that the violence needs to be toned down a bit, but still. Come on writers!

Speaking of the moon spirit, Yue’s story about how she is connected to the spirit came way too late in this finale. It seemed to be introduced solely as a ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card when Zhao inevitably killed the moon spirit. Had Aang and the team been given more time in the Northern Water Tribe, that story could have been shared without it feeling forced. Again, we don’t get much time getting to know this character. I don’t care about her romance with Sokka, nor do I care about her death. But it doesn’t matter, I guess, because she is now the moon spirit. And in essence, she is the moon.

At any rate, after Zhao runs off, Aang melds with the ocean spirit for the only Godzilla-esque scene we will ever get in this show. That is a big shame because while Aang is trying to bring balance to the world, I believe that the spirits should get more time on screen than to just be plot devices.

I don’t have much else to say about this scene except what happens during Zuko and Zhao’s final fight. After losing to Zuko, Zhao gets grabbed by the spirit. But Zuko tries to help in a surprising turn, extending his hand to him. I don’t think Zuko could have saved him, but it shows that he is still a human being despite the fact that Zhao nearly killed him. However, Zhao is so proud that he would rather die than accept help from Zuko.

Crap, crap, crap, crap…

I wonder how this will affect Zuko’s character since the show doesn’t really explore it. After years of banishment and being scarred by his own father, even his worst enemy doesn’t accept his help. This has to be damaging to Zuko, but again, it’s not explored after this episode.

We get a funny nod to Admiral Zhao in Legend of Korra, but that’s it. Aside from The Storm, the finale could have wrapped up a lot of character arcs and had more development and growth. Instead, we get a wasted romance, a battle I didn’t care much about, and a short foray into the spirit world that amounts to nothing by the end of the episode. Then, there was a cameo at the end of the episode, but it’s not really a cameo if you weren’t paying attention during a previous episode.

Siege of the North

It seems that the Firelord has a daughter. Sure, Zuko talks about her brielfy in the episode, but we’ve never met her before. Actually, we have! It took me a while even before writing this series, but it’s the same girl that watched in glee as Zuko was mutilated by his father. His sister, Azula, is supposedly being sent after him, but we won’t find that out until the next season, but trust me when I say that her scenes are totally worth it! At any rate, the writers and animators had the foresight to subtly introduce this character in the first season and set up her arrival without the audience even realizing it!

The Storm

We’ll get more of her next season. The finale was decent for what it was, but I would have preferred it to be longer. It seemed like there were a lot of opportunities that were wasted or rushed. Here’s to hoping that Season 2 doesn’t miss any more.

Phew! We’ve reached the end of the season, folks! Thanks so much for sticking with me this long, and I promise to not disappear again. Next up will be a countdown of my favorite episodes in this season. Can you guess what they are? If not, hold your horses until next time! Flameo, hotman!

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