Looks cool… let’s keep flying!

Book 1: Water

Chapter 11

The Great Divide

WHAT HAPPENED?

Aang and company come to the Great Divide, a massive canyon that can only be crossed by an earthbending guide. However, when the guide gets hurt, the team volunteers to lead two feuding groups across the canyon away from the Fire Nation. The feud gets so intense that it puts all their lives at risk, and they only survive by working together.

WHAT TO TAKE AWAY

I should start by saying that this is my least favorite episode of the season. The fact is that it doesn’t matter in the bigger scope of the show in its three seasons. Sokka and Katara fight about how to set up camp, and this works as a parallel to the feud between the Gan Jin tribe and the Jaang tribe. Here is the rundown:

Katara likes being prepared by putting up the a tarp over the tent in case it rains. The Gan Kin share this sentiment.

Sokka doesn’t use the tarp because it’s the dry season and the tarp could be used as a blanket. The Jaangs think similarly.

But I couldn’t help thinking about how convenient it is that both tribes mirror their arguments. One tribe is clean and well-kept while the other is dirty and disheveled, and the cause of their feud is totally weird. To top it off, both sides tell the story of how their feud began differently. This speaks to a realistic issue when two parties are at odds. As time goes on, details are exaggerated and things are forgotten to the point where it’s hard to say how the feud started.

Surprise!

This is extra irritating when Aang solves their feud with a dumb lie, and the two tribes just accept each other. Well, it wasn’t just the lie, but their willingness to work together to get out of the canyon. Speaking of, both tribes brought food into the canyon, which attracted the canyon crawlers. This shows that both tribes don’t have a leg to stand on since they are both susceptible to being human. It shows that both tribes need to see that they’re really not that different. And they both justify their actions to Sokka and Katara, despite being told not to for their own safety.

I really have to sneeze…

Of course, it bites them in the butt, and by working together, they settled their differences somewhat. But the whole thing seems really silly and it doesn’t matter when we find out that Aang’s story was bologna. It just cheapens the lesson about working together and seeing each other’s differences as strengths.

And am I the only one that was confused as to why Aang didn’t ask the earthbending guide for some tips on bending form or technique? He doesn’t have much time and it seems like they are wasting a lot of it helping others. I’m not saying that the Avatar shouldn’t help people, but Aang JUST learned his objective and he actually has a deadline to complete it. This is another reason that learning the bending disciplines in a certain order bugs me. There is no specific reason given as to why the Avatar has to learn the bending disciplines in order of their original tribe. But if that IS the case, I would rather see Aang and Katara train using the waterbending scroll they acquired a few episodes ago. They went through the trouble of stealing it from pirates and risked a run-in with Zuko. How about we actually use it instead of never mentioning it again until the next season?

Another interesting part of this episode is that both tribes take the word of a 12-year old stranger about a 100 year conflict. It’s not like they have history books that can set the record straight, but isn’t it a bit wrong that this episode is just another problem of the week? At least other filler episodes up to this point added some character development, story development, or something else other than a problem of the week with stereotypical opposite-side-of-the-spectrum tribes that are never seen again. We get it! We should put the past behind us, but this is one episode that I could have done without seeing.

Now that the Avatar has united two groups, how can they unite the world? Tune in next time as Aang faces his guilt on the horizon of The Storm.

If you want to discuss this show, stop by our dedicated discussion thread on this show!