Man, I love that intro so much. It's so short and sweet,
but it just gets your into action. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome
to a very special Avatar the Last Airbender review GV episode. Just the two
of us today. I am the Airbender Kirkland Patzer, and who am I
here with? I'm the fire Bender Taylor Field. Got the two Benders,
no Water Benders, no Earthbenders. But maybe next season if the show gets
it. But yeah, we are here if you couldn't guess already for the
Avatar the Last Airbender Season one review. We're recapping every episode, all eight
of them. The big Netflix series that dropped for me. Most are not
most, but much anticipated series. I've been really looking forward to this ever
since they first announced that they were doing these live action projects with The Last
Airbender. But before we get into all that stuff, we'll get a little
plug away here. We got a ton of stuff cooking right now in the
GV sphere. It's a very special week. It's the Dune two. I
don't think it's called Dune two. I guess Dune Part two release week.
So I'm very looking forward to that. I was chatting with some people at
work today. I'm just I'm getting so in the vibe Shane. I plan
we're gonna rewatch the first movie Wednesday and then go see it of course Thursday,
and it's the odd week where her work schedule aligns that she can actually
join us for that movie. I feel like she hasn't been a part of
the last few ones, so very much looking forward for her being there and
for Dune two. But yeah, oh that's why I mentioned that, because
we're plugging away, So that's gonna be a Dune review that evening, and
then we planned on releasing the next Halo episode on the Friday, I believe
if the schedule makes sense to me. And what else do we got?
We just did Twilight retro. I've heard a lot of murmurs just in my
own sphere people really like in that episode. It's probably because it's just such
a talk a bull talk about a bowl movie. I'm gonna make up that
word. I kind of like that, so that one was really fun to
talk about. We got the Mad Max retros going on, We've got the
Planet of the Apes retros going on, a lot of just a lot of
stuff going on. We got a Team Beach movie coming s bubs. If
you're listening to this, it's finally going to be coming your way. What
else? What else? My? Oh yeah, side Quest Stil and I
just did a fantastic side Quest episode yesterday that was lots of fun breaking down
the big Elden Ring DLC release. What else? I was talking about hell
Divers on there. I absolutely love that game. Cannot wait to play with
some friends and uh, all right, did I get it all? Yeah?
I mean I'm just looking at her. Look like you're looking at your
files right now. It looks like you have a filing cabinet and you're like
going through this color. Okay, there you are the color schedule, highly
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make sure to go check that out. That link will be in description
below or above wherever you find the description. Without further ado, let's just
jump right into it now before we get into the episode itself, Taylor,
I want to just kind of prad your brain because throughout the years of the
podcast, I feel like you, out of everyone, have definitely just been
able to speak to the last Airbender Avatar, and I should I should just
preface by saying anytime I mentioned Avatar tonight has nothing to do with James Cameron
version. That happened a couple of times that happened. Yeah, It's like,
what, I didn't watch this Netflix show. I'm here for the wrong
review. I was talking to a couple of coworkers today and I'm like,
oh, man, I was watching Avatar in on the weekend. They're like,
oh, you really like today, like The Way of Water. That
one, I'm like, oh no, no, not the James Cameron one,
like The Last Airbender. But yeah, just like throughout the years,
I feel like every time I brought it up, You've definitely shown that you've
had history and experience with it. But I feel like I've never known fully
what your history is with it. Do you rewatch the show often? Did
you watch it as a kid that you just have a lot of nostalgia for
it? Or you play the games, and I know there's a handful of
games out there. I've not played the games I have, believe it,
or not only gone through these series one time. I hate that I have.
I wish that to this a few more times, because this is it
is a great show. I don't remember what motivated me to get into it,
because I'm personally I'm not much of a an anime fan. There's a
few that I've I've seen. Oh there's one, I can't remember what it's
called, but punch Man, that's a big bit of that I haven't seen
all. Dragon Ball is another very classic. I haven't seen dragon Ball.
Pokemon counts as an anime, I'm pretty sure that's true. Definitely love Pokemon
and you you. I went back and we watched some of the anime old
classic ones. But there's another one too, I can't remember. It's like
these people live in the ground and there's these monsters that are above ground,
and they go up above ground and they build like these giant mechs, and
the mex get to be like size of like tossing galaxies. Wow, there
is probably no less than like a thousand Mech animes out there. Like Gundams.
There's like a thousand different Gundam shows, I feel, so maybe it
was one of those. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I'm
not sure. I love anime, but I definitely have not seen enough of
it. I have my limits. But as far as Avatar Last Airbender goes,
this one, it just I jibed with it. I love the anime.
I thought it was great. I love the characters and I love the
storylines. And so when I watched Book one, I was just so hooked
on it. And this is a time when everything was already released, so
I was just able to binge through it on streaming, and I binged through
it hard. I was needing more and more and more, and I was
loving it. I was really really loving it and loving to see Ang's development
as a character, and just to see all the other characters kind of transition
to and their development and their growth and the warriors was awesome. So now
I don't remember if I saw the movie before or after. That's the only
thing I want to say. I saw it the movie before because I kind
of was digging the movie, and then when I saw this show, I
understood the the comparisons of why this movie was so flawed. They've skipped over
so much character development for our for our main leads, and they's just skirted
over so many different, uh different things that just happened in that first book.
It was quite a shame just to go from point A to point B
when or sorry, point A to point Z without going through all the other
letters of the alphabet. Very much a shame. But there are still some
great scenes that I really like in that M Night Shyamalan adaptation. But it's
just overall, it's it falls short when we get to this show. Oh
my goodness, am I allowed to go into that? Are you? Should
I either get my thoughts? Or should I wait? Uh? Yeah,
you go ahead. Your overall thoughts. I won't gate keep you there.
I I want I want more episodes. I genuinely just could not stop at
one episode. I kept wanting to watch more. I was just totally absorbed
into this story. I think it was great, and I have to step
back and look at this from an unbiased perspective here because I realized, as
a fan that knows the lore and the and loves Halo, I'm shitting all
over that show. But then this comes in. This is a breadth of
fresh air. I love it. But then I see a lot of people
that really like the or like the Last Avatar Airbender, last fuck Avatar,
the last the Last Wave of Water is what they And I'm excited to know
what your opinion is and what Chae's opinion is the show, because most people
I'm seeing online that are fans of this franchise are not jiving with the show,
and I think, Okay, this is the same thing applying to Halo.
I love Halo, but I'm not driving with the show. I don't
have much of a baseline in the lore and the history of Avatars, so
it makes sense why someone with Halo doesn't have much engagement with the whole history
and the lore would click in with hating it, they would like the show,
and I feel like it's the same context. If that makes sense.
Is why where I stand with this show, and I feel like it am
I am I justified to like this show because from what I could remember,
I feel like they hit so much any of those story beats on point.
Well, there's definitely some questionable things with the acting. I think all the
kid actors are great. I think some of the adults and the not the
adults, but the older, older people, the elders and stuff are maybe
a little bit over the top, a little quirky, but maybe they're just
supposed to be that way. But overall, I'm I'm just very very happy
with the show. I want more and I hope we get that season two
because this show is my favorite thing on Netflix in a long time. So
nice, I praise Yeah, So quick history with Me and the Last Airbender.
I remember when this show like first aired on like Cartoon Network or or
no I would have been I guess Nickelodeon is who did it, so I
don't think we had a Nickelodeon channel in Canada, but it was like YTV
or something. But I just remember like seeing those early trailers for it and
just being like, oh my god, I like I gotta check this out.
And as it usually went with like me watching those weekly cartoons as a
kid, I was like so on it until I wasn't and then I like
missed an episode and then you try and like watch them, but you like
it's like previously on and then you like miss the whole episode. It's just
like I don't even want to watch this anymore. So I just kind of
like stopped after I feel like five episodes as a kid. But then,
yeah, I think early when Shane and I started dating, she had watched
it and just really loved it. So we rewatched it together and I absolutely
love that show so much. It is definitely one of my guilty pleasures show.
I guess it's not even really guilty pleasure because the quality is actually like
really good. It is just a really good show that I love to watch,
and we rewatch it quite often, I think Shane more than me.
But it definitely falls into the almost like The Office or something where it's just
a show that you can just always throw on and you'll you'll just always like
you know what you're getting and you know that it'll be a good time.
It's almost to the point that I've maybe seen it too much, so like
when you get to a certain episode, it's just like, oh my god,
I've seen this so many times. But I mean it's it's just such
a fantastic show. I love it so much. I love the world that
they built, and just for all those reasons when when they were making all
these announcements that they're planning on doing these adaptation shows and just expanding further upon
the universe. Because when they were talking about that, they weren't just talking
about this show on Netflix, like I believe, they were talking about like
when aang and Crew is like older, like so it's basically what takes place
after the events of the show. Another movie was in there. I think
it was a Kiyoshi movie too, which is really exciting. That's the the
Earth Avatar that aang In interacts with in the show and in the cartoon.
But I yeah, I absolutely love it so much. I love all the
characters and cast, so like this one was one going into it that like
I had expectations. It's pretty much like you with Halo, Like I know
what the story is, so like impress me. That's kind of like my
mindset going into it, though, Like I I definitely was expecting it to
be better than The Night Movie because I think at the time, just because
I had seen that movie like as a kid before, I like really dove
into seeing the show to its entirety. I didn't remember it being so bad,
Like I remember being let down that it was so short. I guess,
like it really doesn't tell much of the story. But then of course
I like rewatched it a couple of years ago. It's just like, wow,
this is this is truly atrocious with what they do and it's like a
memeable movie now, just with the way that they mispronounced names and the over
the top like movements that they do and then they like toss like a little
pebble. It's just like this this just has none of the magic that that
that Avatar has for me and like The Last Airbender has for me. And
it's funny. You're just talking about like some anime history, and the thing
with anime is like that's Japanese cartoons, right, so like it's pretty much
cartoons that are like from Japan and this is actually from North America. So
like it's just been an ongoing like thing. I've seen a lot of memes
on it where it's basically the scene from when Anakin is being denied the rank
of Master and it, but it showed it was like a bunch of like
animes like on the council and it's like like the really top tier ones,
and it's like you can be on this council, but we don't. We
don't give you the title of anime because it's like it's still a cartoon.
I guess which is I mean that anime or that that memes. Sorry always
gets me. That's a good one. But yeah, going into this show,
I already mentioned like what my kind of expectations were for it being better
than m Night, but I didn't see any possibility that it was going to
be obviously to the level or if not better than what the cartoon was.
And I I'm definitely right in that matter, At least for myself, I
think that this is like a pretty damn well made show. The CGI looks
quite good for like the creatures and the effects that they show. There's there's
still those moments when there's someone like on a ship and it's daylight, you
have that like weird glare. That's just it's so obvious that they're not actually
like out in water. I really just I really hate when CGI like like
they're just trying to like pass that I guess. And it's usually always these
daylight settings when they have like a lot of sun on them. It just
looks so bad to me. And that happened a few times and throughout this
season I found me kind of getting pulled away from it. But like anytime
that they're doing the effects and stuff, and that's something that just this show,
like Triumphs the m Night one like tenfold is like the actual air bending
or fire bending, like those effects to me, they look so good and
like they really they really I think do a service to like what the original
show was, Like, like it really feels epic when they are doing the
banding. Apa looks so incredible the detail they have like on his fur and
everything and just like his I don't know, just this whole facial features,
like like they just did such a great job with him. And even when
like a character is like hugging him, sometimes that can look less real just
because they're blending like a CGI creature with a real person I still thought that
looked quite good. Not impeccable by any means, but like, I still
think it was it was very good compared to what it could have looked like.
Momo was really cute and it looked really good as well. And so
like, this show had a big budget too, if I'm not mistaken,
it's like twenty million dollars an episode, which is insane, absolutely crazy.
And it has not been confirmed that we are getting a season two or three
from if I'm not mistaken it It's really dependent kind of on what the reception
of it is. But and this is something I was talking to Shay with
when we just are sorry just today, when we were finishing up the season,
I was just like, like, would you want a next another season
because we were kind of just like giving our deep dive thoughts on the show
in that little talk that we had, and she'd hear and I both very
much agree that we do want to see another season. I think it's just
such a great thing adapting the story like in today's age, because I feel
like there is a lot of people out there that have not experienced the show
of the Last Airbener and that story. And although if I like if I
met someone brand new that's never seen anything about The Last Airbender, I think
I would still and Shae agree with me here that, like we would recommend
the original just because there is certain story things that they kind of gloss over
in this adaptation, or maybe certain characters that are just done differently and in
my opinion, better in the animated show. But the thing is with the
animated show, like it's obviously so much longer than what this eight episode part
is, so you have more time to kind of dive into those stories.
But I still think this is a well made show. I think some of
the acting falls a little short for me in some instances, although for the
most part, I do like the cast. I think like the main cast
like Sokka, Katara and Aang, I actually really like the casting for them.
I think Socca, I don't know how or where they found this guy,
but like he just seems like he was plucked out of like a out
of like a car, out of the cartoon, essentially out of a comic
book. Like he just his mannerisms and is just his everything about him,
like his facial features, Like he just totally looks like Socca. So I
was really really impressed with that Qatara. I think she really grew on me.
I didn't love her initially at first, but definitely grew on me.
And then Aang. I mean, like, we'll dive further into the characters
when we get into spoilers and stuff, but I still think that he at
least had the look and certain mannerisms of Aang. But yeah, I'm kind
of diving too deep right now. It's it's hard not to talk about everything
though in your your overalls. But for where was I going with that?
Oh? The music I was really impressed with. I thought they did a
great job at just incorporating some of like the original songs and styles with like
a fresh take on it. You kind of froze there til you scared me.
I thought I was alone. I'm like, oh no, here we
go. But yeah, like, I think there is a lot of great
things from the show that they did well. But yeah, I don't know.
I don't want to say too much because I feel like there's a lot
of to unpack, especially if someone's listening to that's never experienced the story.
I think overall, though, I would definitely recommend this show to someone out
there if you've never experienced a show, I think start with the cartoon.
But that's just my opinion. If you just want like a little gloss over
of the story for a shorter, just a short experience, I think this
show is like it does do a good enough job at hitting the main points
to tell that story. I think you could definitely watch this one. But
in my opinion, I would watch the cartoon first. But what about you,
would you recommend it? Oh, you know what, I might?
I dare say I probably would. I feel like the cartoon, there's so
many extra episodes in there, welly everything. Of course there's filler, but
everything really does add to the development of those characters. And I feel like
at my in my day and age, it's tricky, and that's probably one
of the reasons why I haven't been able to go back and get into the
show again, and and we watch it, I just need more time to
go on such a journey. And I feel like this was just a great,
less than eight hours, concise, wonderful immersion back into this world.
And I think this would be a great way thing to introduce to other people
that want to get into this franchise. I was curious because when you mentioned
the actor that played Soccer, I was wondering what else he was in.
He was actually in thirteen Reasons. Oh really yeah, like season one.
I can't I don't want to risk going back and like looking at it because
when I went on the IMDb, that's when my froze and oh always seems
to freeze my computer. But yeah, we'll say season one, why not?
There you go? Nice. I don't know, do you want to
just dive into the spoilery type thing and then the show? Yeah, let's
dive in. I one thing I want to mention because you you said that
there's just confusion about surrounding like Avatar, way Water all that an actor who
played Commander Commander Joao Ken posting this right long Ken Lung, I believe he
thought that he was going to be in an actual James Cameron Avatar. Yeah,
you just wanted to be a blue person and you know, being General
Joao Okay, yeah, so yeah, he thought, uh, he thought
he was additioning for James Cameron's Avatar and then it turns out like, oh
this is her was her last Airbender. So that made me laugh. That's
hilarious. Uh, do you know what else that guy was from he was
in uh Lost if you ever watch that show, was he really? Okay?
Then that's there's a few people that have that are in here that we're
in Lost, because even fire fire Lord OZI, yeah that's uh Gin I
think it is his name. Mm hmmm. So yeah, it blows my
mind actual big Lost fans who ever made the show. Yeah, but there's
a there's a few big names. I don't want to say not big names.
Maybe it's disrespectful, but to me, the names, Yeah, there's
some names, and like Madison kept putting them out too. But I mean
obviously we got Uncle iiro that actor you recognized them from the candalorium U that's
right. And then Amber mid Thunder. I totally was not expecting her to
be in here, okay, So okay, so she was u A right,
yes, yeah, okay, because I I knew that I recognized her
from somewhere. I think the hair kind of threw me off because I was
just like, man, that's a that's a wig and a half right there.
That's uh, that's cool. I didn't realize it was her. Yeah,
I was dropping me nuts, like I've seen you before. And something
else what did I see? Who are your TV? And you had,
like, I hope I'm saying his last name right, Danny Putty from Community
ahbed oh, yeah that's right. Yeahs the mechanist. But yeah, there's
some great names in here there you are, maybe not big names, but
there their names, great names. Uh. Okay, maybe we'll take our
first ad break here and then we'll we'll probably just go episode episode by episode,
go along that way. But yeah, we'll be back. All right,
we are back episode one Aang. What do you think about this episode,
Taylor? It tells us that the Little Origin it's I mean, it
starts differently than the animated show starts, And I mean, I'll try to
not be that guy that just picks away at the comparisons from the cartoon to
to this version, because I feel like that could get dried pretty pretty quickly.
But yeah, it starts a little bit differently where instead of just starting
with our our heroes Sokka and Katara finding Aang in the ice, it it
it actually starts like with the flashback of Aang with with the homies and the
air Nomads. And how do you like that whole dynamic of just seeing Ang
with the other Airbenders, and we get a lot of Gyatsu in this or
gyatso I think it's Gatsu in this episode and kind of throughout the whole season
too. Maybe not a lot throughout the season, but definitely in this episode.
He's pretty relevant here. But how do you like the start of that?
Man, I'm if you know me as a Star Wars fan, you
know that I have a weak spot for Order sixty six, and this is
like very similar. Actually, oh yeah, comparison, this is totally that
Order sixty six. So when you have they are no mads, just celebrating
the Comet Festival. Everything's just looking peaches and cream. It's gonna be a
great time, and thinking, man, you guys are God, You're about
to be You're able to be baked. This bird's baked. So I think
starting off was great. I think it really helps people understand more what's going
on. Of course, the animated show, just as you said, it
just dives into aang being discovered and I totally forgot that's how it actually started
in the animated series. But yeah, I think this is great for someone
that's not familiar with the show. They tune in and they think Okay,
this is we get to see everything going on here. They don't really do
much of a job at relaying why the Firebenders waited for the comment, and
I maybe you can answer me this because I got kind of confused. I
thought that Firebenders could not conjure fire on their own, even in the animated
series. Am I getting that back? No, they can. It's they
can, Okay, So it was only in the movie that they couldn't.
God, I can't even remember that, so yeah, yeah, I guess
you're right. I don't remember that all. So the big thing with susan
comment is that their power is just like times ten in those moments, like
they're just totally fired up from the comment itself. So yeah, like once
every hundred years, I think they say, like Susan's comment will just be
in the air, and that's just when they're at their peak, and that's
why they're able to just really use those moments to take over some of the
other regions. So it's like that special moon when you have water Benders just
exactly. Yeah, okay, no, exactly. That's good to know that.
So yeah, because I think that that makes sense, then as you're
watching it, you can kind of see that, but I think the intro,
I think it's great. I think it sets the tone for the show.
I can't remember if that's where I tear it up or if I tear
it up after the fact, but there's definitely a few moments that made me
feel the emotion. And I think it was this episode when I can't remember
what was the what was there sixty six? From that moment you're like,
yeah, what was the name of his Masteryatsu Gatsu? So when Gatsu is
like Aang, like I'll always be your friend, all that kind of stuff,
Like, oh, that was just hitting me so hard. I love
that. But I thought it was really really well done when Aang leaves and
then yeah, just the the fire Benders jumping in and just fucking going to
town on all the air Nomads because like all of them came all the other
air temples to be here and they're just being all being annihilated and fuck,
like, I don't know why you wouldn't get the kids out, like not
even the younglings survived, Like it's just absolutely brutal. So it's funny.
It's funny that you brought up order sixty six because they never realized like how
close that is, especially when like and I looked it up, it's actually
yachtso so I apologize anyone out there, but he's like guardian like basically the
young Wings like in the Temple, and then they break through and it's just
like, well, fuck, this isn't gonna end well. And then of
course, like later on the episode when Aang travels back there, you just
have like Yatsu's corpse. Luckily they didn't pan over it all the little young
Leen corpses that I'm sure would have been close by, but yeah, pretty
pretty vicious while the start to that, because I they don't exactly show all
of that, like I believe in the animated series of like the full on
Invasion, it's just it's just like, yeah, then the fire Fire Nation
invaded and just fucked them up. But I like they showed a lot more
than I was kind of expecting them to, especially just that's how the show
started, and I just pulled it up to confirm. But it actually doesn't
start with the air Nomads. It starts like with the Fire Kingdom and just
kind of showing like the fire Lord I guess, which would have been sozen
at the time. I believe, so yeah, and it was like the
earth Spenders trying to get the plans out right, because yeah, it was
all, uh, what's the term called, my goodness, it was a
setup. They wanted them to think that the attack was going to be the
Fire king or the Earth Kingdom, but exactly it was not. That it
was a ruse one. Yeah, so Fire Nation big aggressors across the board
and in the entire series. But but yeah, so yeah, so they
have the air Nomads getting Mrked. Yeah, so parishes. He has a
heroic sacrifice to try and save the the other ones, doesn't really save anyone.
And I mean, like this this kind of motivation for Aang to leave
here, this is another deviation from the original that I kinda I kind of
didn't love it, because the big point of Aang leaving in the anime show
is that he like he's told that he's the Avatar and he has to just
go do his training and he's just like super upset with it, and he's
like a Braddy child where he's like, no, I don't want to do
it, and then he just like gets on APPA and fucks off, and
it's just like a in my opinion. It's just a great like early character
moment because it just like by the end of the series, it's just you
see that progression and growth that he has. But it makes sense that he's
like I don't know, ten to eleven years old, and like that's how
someone like that would react. But and here it's just like I need time
to think. He just seems like he's going to the corner store to get
a pack of smokes or something. He's just like stressed out. He's like,
ah, I gotta get out of here, and like it, like
I think that's something that I don't know why you wouldn't do like the little
kid freak out. Like it's not like they changed what he did, like
does right, Like he still leaves, but it's just like maybe it's a
small thing, but to me, it's actually like really big. And I
feel like throughout this entire review, actually there'll be certain character kind of motivations
that just they might be minor, but they bug me so much because I
have so much attachment to these characters and I really feel like certain moments like
that can really help just flesh out their story and like show their growth and
where they came from and so yeah, so that little thing kind of bothered
me a little bit because it just seemed weak, like a weak reason for
him to just get separated from his crew and then like the second he leaves,
it's just like the fire Nations there, it's just like, well,
that's kind of lucky I guess for the fire Nations or unlucky I guess,
because their whole point was to define ing and take out the Avatar there.
I wasn't sure if they thought that the Avatar was born yet yeah, or
I don't know if they just thought they were assuming that the Avatar would be
there and they would just happen to just kill one of them. I just
thought their plan seems sloppy on that front, that they didn't analyze the situation
determined Okay, this is who the Avatar is. We're gonna target all of
them, but particularly this person. It was like, Okay, we're just
gonna annihilate all of them and then spend the next one hundred years trying to
find the Avatar just as we missed them. Like it's just it's a it's
a bold plan. It really is a bold plan. It is strange and
like this is something I'm a little bit fuzzy with in my memory of just
kind of what their total plan was like, because technically, if they would
have murdered the Avatar, it would have just gone to the next in line,
which would have been the Water Kingdom at that point. So like was
their point their plan to just go straight there next and like just genocide all
that the water Benders? Or do they think that the Avatar would just cease
to exist if there is no Airbender because no one could would be able to
teach that that that just that way of bending, I guess, and they
probably talked about that in the show, but I do not remember. I
don't remember either. I just I just kind of took it with face value
and thought that, okay, this, uh you you would in any of
the Airbend or the Avatar. So it's not going to continue the next cycle.
But it makes sense. Yeah, if an Avatar dies, then that's
that's just what happens in the long scheme of things. It's interesting because if
Aang didn't go through like the hundred year weight, like, how that would
have affected the line, Like kra I've ever been well, actually, it's
I'm glad you brought that up because Shay sent me this interesting theory. I
don't know if it's a fan theory. I don't know if there's much weight
to it, but some people theorize that Ua, which of course Amber mid
Thunder you just you just laid out she was actually like destined to be the
next avatar in line because if you think about it, if avatar Aang didn't
get frozen, like he would have lived till somewhere around one hundred, I
would imagine like ninety something die and then right at that time is like kind
of in line when u a would have been born, just like tracking her
age because she's a little bit older than Aang would have been I think in
the show, but like still somewhat in that range. Really really interesting though,
because like she is a very significant child, like just a child of
destiny in the sense that well, actually in this show they kind of change
what's happens with her, but like she in the animated show, she like
becomes the moon. Oh no, actually that did happen. Yeah, never
mind, Well, I guess she does become the moon, but she says
the moon spirit, right, Yeah, so she like sacrifices herself sort of
to like become the new Moon spirit. But like they're just theorizing that because
that was like her destiny. If Aang would have not been frozen, like
that would have been her destiny, like like she still was like a child
of significant significance. But when I when I heard that, I'm like,
damn, I kinda I kind of like that theory. I feel like that
could make sense. So in my mind, that's kind of what would have
happened. But yeah, and then we wouldn't have got Cora, right,
because then Ua would have been the avatar for one hundred years, and then
after that it would have been, oh my gosh, where are we in
the line. It would been the Earth Earth Kingdom, and so yeah,
there you go. It's interesting because you have a super bad mic in the
chat. But he mentions here that they're trying to kill all water benders too.
Okay, yeah, so I guess that does make sense that they were
trying to just put a stopper to it. But they obviously decimated the southern
tribes of waterbenders, but they didn't make much headway with the Northern water tribe
no. And I believe that's just because it's always been seen as this like
major fortress. Like even fire Lord or Ozi admits that, like it's kind
of useless trying to do a front frontal attack. It's like the Walls of
Troy at that point, like it's just so so big. But I don't
know, the Fire Kingdom has some crazy firepower, and I guess that would
have just been their motivation across the board to just kind of get rid of
all the benders that like, like if they got rid of all the water
Benders, all the Airbenders eventually got the Earth Benders, like they probably would
have been just start to subjugate the fire Benders, Like it would have just
been like that everthing where like the fire Lord is just trying to like cease
all of that. That's that's my thought on that at least, But uh
yeah, back to the episode. So yeah, Aang gets frozen and then
wakes up one hundred years later to call her Cora, Katara, and Sokka,
and for the most part, like I feel like all the Southern Water
Tribe stuff, like it's pretty pretty nice and close to what the show is.
And right away I just fell in love with Socca because of just his
like mannerisms he's he's this guy that his his dad left and he just kind
of put him in charge, and he's always like he's always putting up like
a tough outer shell, but like he is like a damaged child because of
his father just completely ditching him. And I I think they do a good
job with with him and just trying to be like that that controlling brother to
Katara, just like trying to play on that like his word is law.
I think they could have leaned into it a little bit farther on. Just
again, this is something that like they should have shown him to be more
of a dick so that later on like when he when he isn't a dy
it's just that growth. But uh, this one didn't bother me as what
as much because I think the casting is just so great and his lines are
so good. When he says certain words, it sounds exactly like the voice
actor. So I'm really really happy with that. And yeah, the origins
of Qatar here when she's struggling to kind of learn how to water bend but
also keep it on the hush hush. But everything with the water tribe really
worked for me. I will say though, the Grandma character man she must
have got to this. She must be going to the same dentist as U
fucking Boba Fete, because like she's got she's got some she's got some wild,
wild teeth going. They look they look great, but they just totally
stood out to be in the show. It just seemed like some more vinear
actions. But I don't know if you notice that or if I'm just being
ridiculous. Okay, no, I did. Yeah, it's the it's all
that water bending that they do there and just really clean those teeth. It's
like they got floor right in the water Man. Yeah. No, I
I liked. I liked seeing uh Sokka and Katara. I think that they
fit the roles the actors and actress. They both fit the role really really
well of their their characters that portraying. And I liked uh their their discovery
of Aang. I really really liked that, and I liked Yeah. I
just liked how their their chemistry is unfolding between between all of them. I
think it's great. And while Socca definitely has that kind of jerk mindset,
it's definitely fleshed out more in later episodes, which I like. It's not
just immediate you kind of you see the compassion that he has in their respect
for his sister. You see the fear that he has too of trying to
protect the village, and I mean fear, Like they dive into that in
one of the episodes. Was really really cool between our characters. But uh,
yeah, no, I think they're doing a fantastic job so far.
Yeah, we get introduced to Zuko here. Uh probably like top two or
three favorite character of all time for me in the show, Like like he
eh, it's probabrobably number one. Honestly, I like, I think Zuko
is the best written character in the animated series. I don't love this.
I don't love this version of it though, I I will say I the
actor like I think he's I think he's pretty good. But in my mind,
it's just it's just not Zuko. Maybe I'm being a little bit too
nippicky. Maybe I need a little bit more time like going forward, because
like at this stage of the show, this is when it's like he is
the most peak evil, Like he's just a total asshole and just wants to
fucking kill the avatar and like murder, well, I guess bring the avatar
to his father, but like murder anyone that gets in his way. And
in my opinion, I feel like with Zuko and actually like all of the
Fire uh the Fire Family, I'll call them, like o Zi and Azula,
like all those characters to me personally don't feel evil enough. I don't
know if I'm alone in that in that that category, But for Zuko specifically,
he just kind of comes off like a whiny brat and he's just like
I just I want the Avatar, like like we only get the Avatar.
Where is in my in my way of thinking, like he really needs to
be a lot angrier and just fiery, like like just anytime like one of
his guards like tells him bad news, like he's just willing to like fucking
throw a fire up all at them, Like he is just so angry all
the time. And to like, again, that's something that is just such
a great character moment because where he kind of ends up, he goes on
like the greatest journey out of every character I think in the show. So
one of the best anti heroes like ever in my opinion, he's just so
well written and right now in season one, like I think there's still moments
that that really hit well, especially just moments between him and Iro, because
again, that's like one of the best duos in that show by far,
and I really like, I really like the casting of Iro. Actually,
I think he's really great. But for Zuko, I'm not there yet,
even after watching the finale. It's just like, I think they're gonna need
to do some more work to really make me fall for this character with which
is a bummer because that is like my favorite character in the show. But
that's another one that, like, I have such high expectations for that character
because I hold him so near and dear to my heart that it would have
been tough to meet that And they're just kind of going in a different direction.
And with Ozi, like he he definitely seems more of a father figure
to certain characters, even though he's like supposed to be portrayed as his asshole.
He just seems a lot softer than what fire Lord Ozi is in the
animated show. And Azula is like probably one of the most evil characters like
written, so I think that she doesn't get anywhere near to that caliber.
So I just think specifically for those characters, I know they're not really like
in this episode's mostly to Zuko. But I wanted to mention that because that
that's one of my kind of biggest grievances I think with the show as a
whole so far. But what do you think on on Zuko? And Yeah,
I mean I quite like Zuko, I really really do. I think
you make you make some great points. His transition is development as a character.
It's just crazy, and I love where he gets in the closing arc
of this series. I totally forgot that Dev Patel plays Zuko in the movie.
I did not know that it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Yeah,
I just think I'm really driving with the Zuko and from what I remember from
the show, I mean, I feel like the comparison is pretty good,
but I don't have much foundation to make such a bold claim. You are
right. He's very angry. He's just all about getting the avatar. I
think his flaws are maybe balanced because I love the I love the actor playing
Uncle Iro, and I just love the character of Uncle Iro, always wanting
to try the foods, try the teas and everything like that. He's just
such a good balanced character and he's probably my favorite character in the show,
to be honest, I love uncle Iro. He's just fantastic and I guess
I mean, we'll talk about it in later episodes. But there's some really
good developments between the two characters. Again, more scenes that I was crying
at because of just the two characters, and I love their relationship and how
their relationship is just so strong and just growing. And yeah, the one
thing I do hate is just seeing how Zuko is just shitting on his crew
and just like the crew is trying to be helpful and he's just like command,
what was Lieutenant Lee I think is his second in command and he just
shits on him. Like Lee could come at him and be like, oh
I I found the avatar. I captured him for you, and then Zuko
would be like, you fucking more on that I'm supposed to capture the avatar.
Like he just shits on him for everything that he does, which is
a shame. But I think Zuko is is good. I like him in
the show. The damn shame. It's funny you mentioned dev Betel, so
I had to google and look it up and yeah, you're You're definitely right
and something else that like just blew my mind because we just did the Twilight
retro and Jasper or Jasper that character. He was also in the live action
movie as Sokker. I'll share my screen are no way, Yeah, there
he is, but we're just watching. We're still watching time. We're on
the third movie, so this is crazy. Yeah, no, that's that's
good stuff there. Yeah. In the comments super Bad, Mike said,
yeah, I feel like the character they adapted weakest from the animated show is
Zuko kind of rushed his big character arc too much? Yeah, I can.
I completely agree, And I mean the arc I think is so good
because it does take very long to get there, and even when he's like
making like inching towards that kind of like better side, like he still kind
of falters because he is just such a damage or damaged I guess that's not
really the word I was looking for. He's a flawed character. There you
go, that's better to say. But yeah, anything else on this episode,
like we get like APA's there, we get Iro interactions. Of course,
he's always dropping his like philosophical ideals. I mean it is funny that
he like he still kind of is dropping those, and at this point in
time, Zuko wants nothing to do with it. He's just kind of annoyed
with him. So they do show that to to an extent there. But
yeah, overall though, I think it's a I thought it was a pretty
good first episode. It's the longest episode two, right, isn't like an
hour and a half? I thought, uh hour and three minutes, just
just slightly over an hour? O. Yeah, okay, moving on to
episode two Warriors this one, yeah, we get introduced the Kyoshi Warriors.
Warriors, the Warriors Warrios dare what'd you think of this episode? This is
something I know that a lot of people are pissed off that was not included
in the movie. I love going to Kyoshi Island. I really like seeing
Sokka's first kind of love interest take shape here and now remind me too in
later books. What was her name? What is the Koshi Warriors name?
Oh, Suki Suki. Yeah? Doesn't she join the crew later? Yes?
She does later on, so they like basically get their Avengers squad lyter
on where a bunch of people join them. So she's she's a part of
the crew. And yeah, it's it's interesting because you mentioned like the first
flame that soccer really deals with. And never mind, I was gonna say
a bunch of other things, but I guess it's kind of well, actually,
no, it happens in the show. So that's like the quick meetup
with like Soccer and and Suki there, and they definitely have the chemistry but
just kind of like going in different pathways so that so they live on it.
And then I felt like in the animated show they did like a lot
more emphasis on like Soccer and Ua, which they do. They do kind
of get close, but maybe it's just because there's more time for them to
kind of interact in the animated show. But like it seems like that is
like his his ride or die type lady, even though she's like betrothed to
another gentleman. Like they just have this like for forbidden love type thing going
on, and it feels like a lot more of an impactful relationship, at
least to me in the animated show. And then she has the really tough
sacrifice, which of course is heartbreaking for Socca. So he's just like losing
ladies left and right. You know. Eventually Suki comes back around and then
he finds his lady again, which is which is fantastic. But yeah,
Mike, I like how much hornier they made Socca and Suki in this version.
It's very true actually, because I feel like they have this like,
oh I kind of find that person attractive or like kind of like their vibe.
But in this one, they're like ray just fucking take each other's robes
off. I feel like in those like training sessions, like they're just all
over each other, grab each other by the hips. It's like, Wow,
they're they're really going for it here on Netflix. Even though I think
the show's still rated just like PG. Okay, it says fourteen A,
but I feel like it's mostly show people alive in the show. I guess,
so, yeah, they're the like like super Mike said earlier, I
gotta give them credit for burning people a lot like showing them burning people alive.
And I guess they say ass every once in a while. But I
think it's just because the show to me is like a kid's cartoon. It
always just kind of seems not so intense and m m. Even if this
is rated fourteen eight, I feel like there might be darker moments in the
animated show How Weird that seems mostly just with How Evil. I think some
of the fire, Yeah, the Fire Benders kind of are specifically with Ozi
and Zuko and kind of what they're able to do there. It's it's maybe
more of a feel thing because they don't show people just burn it alive like
they do in this one. But yeah, yeah, I think, I
mean, I agree with that. The tension between uh Suki and Sokka.
I think that there's definitely there's definitely chemistry there, and I love their scenes
together. I thought it was great she just kept sneaking up on him,
putting a bell on her. I think that was that was a funny line
of dialogue. But I'm glad to see that just the representation of the character
was. It's just felt really, really wonderful. If there's one con on
Madison's behalf is that when they're training and then Suki like turns away and just
takes a cloth and does one face wipe and all her makeup is gone.
Oh I know. That was so funny because it seems like throughout the show,
like I feel like they could be swimming in the ocean and like that
makeup does not come off, like that is their war paint. It will
not come off until they want it to. And then she's just like it's
like completely clean. It's like, wow, that's a very effective makeup remover.
Oh. Absolutely, yeah. Seeing the dynamic tube that she has with
their mom, that was that was cool. I get these are things that
I can't remember in the animated shows, so yeah, forgive me, but
I just I like seeing I like seeing that development. I like seeing that
Suki just wants to grow as a character and get out into the world and
face facts. And then they have to deal with Commander Shao. I think
this is when he first kind of went out to see what's what. I
don't know if he knew that the avatar was a thing yet. I think
he suspected something was off because of what Zuko was requested. I think at
this point Zuko approached him, so we need to see all these charts and
rumors everything like that report to us, and then Zouta took it upon himself
to go and investigate Kyoshi island. I think against Zuko's knowledge. I can't
remember if they say that he like saw something or or like herd murmurs that
the avatar is something like that, but he definitely had like something that he
was sniffing out, like like it wasn't just a blind check, I don't
think by any means. But but yeah, so for me, I I
love just the whole Kyoshi Island aspect. I love the Kyoshi Warriors. I
love Kyoshi as a character. Shay Bought. I think it's called the It's
not the Legend of Kyoshi, but it's something along those lines, like it's
a book series about Kyoshi and just kind of her time being the Avatar.
Very fascinating character. But for yeah, like I thought the casting of Suki
was really good too. I thought she had a lot of great just charisma
and some great chemistry with Socca, something that kind of again, kind of
a minor thing possibly, but in my opinion, I think it's kind of
a it's still kind of minor. But in this version, they made Sokka
a lot less like sexist than he is in the early portions of the show.
He really is just like a man is the warrior, and like Katar,
you have no business being being a warrior. And it's kind of funny
that, like by the end of this season she interacts with the character that's
kind of basically that. So I don't really know why they took that away.
From SOCCA. Maybe they thought that he wouldn't be as legal of a
character, but again, that's another thing that like just shows great character development
that like later on he like flips one eighty and is just completely not like
that at all. So I personally I would have liked it being in there
a little bit more, although it's not as crucial as some of the other
things like Zuko. And the reason why I bring that up here is because
like initially Soka is just like Kyoshi Warriors, like are kidding me? Wear
makeup? Like that's ridiculous, Like there's no way that you could be even
on like my level, let alone whatever, And then he gets humbled really
quickly by just their their savbiness. And I mean, like in the show
too, like he does do kind of the training because it's like, well,
if you're such a tough ask im to do our training method, and
of course Zuki just kind of wipes the floor with him there, and like
early on it's kind of shown that he's already kind of like rethinking his ways.
So I just kind of wish that they had that in that first episode,
even if he kind of comes over it or overcomes it rather in episode
two, Like, I still would have liked that because it would have shown
a little bit more growth there for the character. Maybe they have other plans
in mind for a growth with the character there. But again, like it's
nothing too major, but I still think it is nice to see something like
that transferred over. But for the the rest, Oh, actually something that
made me laugh so hard here is clearly aang is just like he's someone that
does like he doesn't. He doesn't fit in I think with the rest of
the crowd, Like he definitely stands out of this, just like air nomad
looking dude with an arrow on his head, Like he definitely seems like he's
from out of town. And like right away the Kyoshi people or I guess
Suki's mother, like the leader of the Kyoshi Island. It's just like we
don't let outsiders here, and they kind of like relay all the information.
She's like, I'm the avatar and she's like, Okay, you can stay,
but for forty eight hours and then you're gone. And I was just
like Jesus Christ, why is this such like an intense moment, Like I
get it, she's trying to defend her people, and I mean the fire
benders do end up going there, so maybe she was on the right path,
but it just seemed very unwelcoming in the sense of like he's there to
kind of see the Kyoshi shrine and like get more attached to the avatar ways,
and it feels like it should be a big moment. Maybe people across
the board are just really skeptical because the avatar has been missing for one hundred
years, Like maybe they have no reason to think that this person could be
the avatar made that's why they have the guard so much. But it just
kind of seemed funny because they they were already kind of socializing with like people
on the island. It's not like they're clearly fire benders or something where it's
like you need to leave right now. So I just found that moment kind
of funny. But across the border, like I do actually quite like this
episode. I I didn't love the whole Aang being taken over by Kyoshi element
to it, Like I know what they're going for, but I just think
the execution of it, when it like literally just turned into Kyoshi, I
didn't. I didn't love that so much. I would have just rather maybe
Aang doing crazy shit with the like in the avatar mode and then maybe have
like Kyoshi above him so the viewer can see that he's like clearly possessed.
But like, were people there just thinking that Kyoshi was fucking back from the
dead And yes, his mom was like tripping out, so that was kind
of strange to me. But for the most part, like I liked all
the interactions, and I mentioned in the early portion before we got into spoilers,
just like, man, this this show can look damn great at times.
And I think that the costume design across the board looked phenomenal. They
looked so good. They looked like it was really just a real version of
what they made like the animated series on and the Kyoshi Warrior like makeup.
It looked it looked perfect. So they did such a great job with all
that attention to detail there, So definitely give some credit there. Yeah,
looked fantastic. I'm definitely on the other side where I love seeing Koshi takeover
Sang and just go to town. I just I can imagine the fire Benders.
They're there thinking like okay, like we're looking for an avatar, and
all of a sudden, this like master a pure fucking master just dishes in
all four elements, like putting him in the water, like fire going in
there, like it's just like man, like I shiitt my pants. That
was just fucking terrifying, and they didn't they just got out of there.
But it's not like there's any other time where it's like holy crap, like
Commander Jao, like Kyoshi's there, like the actual avatar, Like we just
saw them use all four elements, like what the fuck is going on?
Like deaf Con five, like like this is this is danger, danger danger,
But they just kind of was like, yeah, we got our ass
kicked and and that's that. And like no one ever really speaks upon that
they saw Kiyoshi, which I just kind of think is strange. But that
is strange. I feel like like if fits too with Commander Jao just saying
like Okay, I want to have special privileges. I want to I want
to make a good appearance to fire Lord Ozi, and so why would you
mention something like that? But I totally agree. I mean, this is
deaf Con five, like a dead avatar just appeared and it was just annihilating
our whole troop. Just bonkers. But yeah, yeah, anything else in
this episode or do you keep moving? I don't think so. I think
that's that's everything. Okay, maybe well take another ad break here and then
we'll jump into episode three. All right, we are back. Episode three
Omashu. Yeah are I actually didn't pull up the description for this. News
of the Trader puts the trio at odds in Omashu, where a mechanist,
machinist whatever it is uh and revels with the charming leader muddled their plans to
protect the Earth Kingdom. So Omashu to me is definitely one of the most
iconic locations in the entire series. It's it's like a big central hub in
the Earth Kingdom. I think it's their capital. I think they mentioned it's
also just kind of this impenetrable fortress that the Fire Kingdom can never take on.
Here. A lot of stuff goes on in this episode. We obviously
get more interactions with Jao as well as Zuko and Iro. I believe this
is when they kind of make their unhappy alliance of is that what happens in
this episode? I can't. I feel like again, when you binge watch
these episodes, they kind of all blend together, but I'm pretty sure that's
where they have started. They started the alliance in the previous episode, but
I think, oh no, maybe you're right, Yeah, yeah, maybe
it is this one because he's like I got assets or like contacts inside a
mas shoe, right, yeah, yeah, you're right. So okay,
Yeah, so that's how they sneak in for sure. Super bad Mic in
the comments points for embracing the cabbage man meme. I was waiting for it.
I expected it to happen, and yeah, they have it in there.
That's if you can't remember Taylor in the In the show, there's a
reoccurring joke of this man with his cabbages and he's just always always getting his
cabbages fucked up. There's a cart that gets squished so many times and he
just needs those cabbages. Or he's trying to get into an omashu and they
won't allow him because of his cabbages are like are infested with worms or what
is and you can't get in. You just he's just trying to sell his
cabbages. But the poor guy. So I do like that they brought that
in there for for the meme for sure. What else in here? We
get we get Jet and his little hooligan crew. I forget. I don't
think they have like a name for the crew. But there's a character that
I feel like I didn't necessarily need in the show. Like I think if
they were to take anyone out, it could have been Jet, And in
hindsight, I think that would have been the better choice, because I don't
think there's like anything really going on with his character. He's introduced as this
handsome man that's given twinkly eyes to Katara. I guess he gets them into
a mashu, so that that's something, But right away he's just like a
bad guy. And then and then he confronts Katara and he's pissed off at
her, and then she just kind of fucks him up, and probably won't
see that character again, Like if we get a season two, I would
kind of be surprised if he does come back. He is a character that
every once in a while will kind of come back into the show. But
it just seemed like his whole his whole arc of being kind of this complicated
character that you kind of want to like, but he kind of goes on
the wrong side of the morals because his whole motivation in a nutshell is that,
like his people have just been completely screwed over by the Fire Kingdom,
so he's gonna go to like extreme measures to just like fuck them up.
And it doesn't matter if he's like taking out anyone that is a fire Bender,
whether they're like innocent or not, like he just they're the enemy to
him. So it's kind of a complicated character in that sense. But in
here, they don't really give him a lot of I don't know, just
a lot of like good guy points where you feel like you're rooting for him.
Like all he really does that's positive is like get our crew into the
city, and then from that point on, in my opinion, he's just
kind of an asshole. So I didn't really love the inclusion of Jet.
I mean, they had a handsome guy play him, so it's kind of
fun to have Katara, you know, being infatuated by him, but like
right away, all of that like emotion is just gone because she just realized
that he's a piece of shit and she doesn't want anything to do with him.
So I kind of thought they wasted that character in my opinion. But
how do you feel in Jet? Yeah, this was a complete arc that
I really forgot about, and I feel like the characters not coming back.
I feel like it's definitely a one and done, especially where we get to
at the end of the season with the fate of Amashu. I don't see
this as character really doing much. But yeah, yeah, I think they
did a good job at kind of derailing the viewer because I think, as
a person that's not well informed on this story, you're going to see the
turn of what happens with Jet and just how close they came to actually just
fucking assassinating the Earth King, which is a fucking horrible plan. This is
brutal, But yeah, I think he served the purpose, and they kind
of they run into this wall with Katara and Socca a little bit because there's
this dynamic where Sokka is is connected with the Mechanists and then Qatar is connected
with Jet, and you have these two unwinding narratives where both of them are
technically bad, but Jets well, I guess Jet would be much more worse
of the two, but both the characters are trying to defend their point and
say like, oh no, they're right, and you see Soccer really being
a jerk at this point of the story, and you see Katar just being
kind of like put down and whatnot. But she she gets in the same
situation again. I think it's when they're going through the tunnels and they deal
with the the badgerom mole. There's a point where I think Kaitar is saying
something to him and Sokka just reiterates like, oh, you're just being such
a like a child or a kid or whatever. Stop acting like one.
And this is so this is just kind of like the bassline for how he
sees her this dynamic, and I feel like it's it's unfortunate because I quite
like Katara and I but it adds to it adds to Sokka being that that
jerk character. I don't think we see Soccer really have any further interaction with
with Jet after the fact. I think, uh, because how does it
go. Qataras with Jet and they see the spy and then they go to
the Jets hidden camp and then you get to see this is when Katara adds
the water bottle kind of thing, the water skin flask yeah to her to
her person, so she always has water with her, which is great.
And then that's when Jet confronts her one more time and totally gets just fucked
up. Or maybe that was after Sorry, that was after the assassination failed.
Yeah, yeah, and so he's like calling her out and yeah he
she just like what's he gonna do? He's gonna fucking kill her? Like
just very weird interaction it is. Yeah, he's got no nothing he could
do. I mentioned uh, I called him commander, I've called him general,
admiral whatever the hell he is Joao. I think I think it's admiral
jo This is a character that, like, don't I don't really like this
character throughout the show, Like he kind of just is a piece of shit
character. He's kind of going against every character that you're rooting for throughout the
show. Again, like I don't really like this casting for him. We
were mentioning that we've seen this guy in a couple other things, but I
don't think this is a great casting for it. And maybe I'm just wrong
into reading this character, but this is another thing that I kind of kind
of brings down my overall enjoyment of like some of the Fire Kingdom people is
that I just don't think they're evil enough. And Jiao just kind of comes
off like a complete buffoon. A lot of the times he's not he's not
stupid a lot of the like a lot of the times with his plans or
whatnot. But I just think that like the way that he's trying to be
deceptive, he's just this like it's like a friend that like isn't really a
friend of the friend group, but like you can't really get rid of him.
So he's just like, hey, guys, what are we doing this
weekend? And like it's just like fuck joo, like no, like like
we have our own stuff going on, but he just always kind of wants
to be in it, and like that's kind of how I feel like they're
playing him. And maybe that is what he's like in the animated series,
but I just I remember him a little bit differently, a lot more of
like a a lot more of like a like a warrior type type character and
like a like a general that makes these military moves, and this guy just
kind of feels like a bit of a goofball And maybe I'm alone there,
but this is just another casting that I really don't love. And you know,
by by the end of the show, I am I am glad that
he's he's perished and moving forward if we get another season. But yeah,
here we get a Zula, of course, the great evil Prince Princess Zula.
This character I really love in the show because she is or sorry in
the animated show, because she is just like pure evil incarnate and like you
just expect her to do the most like fucked up things at least in a
kid show that they can get away with, and she just feels kind of
soft throughout this whole show, like she just she kind of seems like,
I don't know, not evil enough, and don't love the casting. Nothing
really against the actress, but I just don't think the way that they're maybe
writing the character, or maybe it is the actress, the way that that
she's portraying it, I'm just not really vibing with. And same thing goes
with May and Tylee her her friends. They don't really have a lot going
on in the entire show actually so far in this season, but especially for
Azula that that was like a character I was really interested in the seeing just
kind of how they were gonna be because she is just so evil and like
just her like the way that she talks. It just seems like a stereotypical
like evil lady, and I don't think that comes across anytime in this in
this season. How do you feel on Zuko's sister, I would agree I
don't feel like she's much of a threat. I remember her. I remember
her on the show being terrifying, just absolutely ruthless and just having something to
prove, which made her even more dangerous. And I felt like in the
show she was just older as well. This just she feels very much like
a kid here. She feels just kind of like high schooling with her two
lady friends as well, And I don't feel like their talks really do anything
for the character, like oh, he already knows you're the best and yaha,
YadA, YadA YadA, and yeah, I'm not. I like seeing
her try to prove herself and they eventually get to the point where she does
like lightning bending, but even then, I don't feel like she really worked
her way to get to that point. I feel like there's so much more
between Ozi and her that I'd like to have seen, but yeah, I
don't remember. I don't remember how much connection she really has with him in
the cartoon. I think I just rose like him. Yeah, I think
I just remember him just giving her orders and she just go out and do
it, and she was just fucking ruthless. It's interesting because in this version
it seems like they're they're making it seem that like Zuko is like Ozai a
lot of expectations for Zuko and like really wants him to be like kind of
his replacement, and like maybe that is the motivation. But in the animated
show, it's very much like Zuko like you're so worthless, like get away
from me, and it's like really all about Azula because Azula is just so
I guess more aligned with Ozi because they're just super evil and like she is
just like perfection, Like she's able to do like the blue lightning firebind,
which is just such a like an impossible technique. It just shows how refined
her skill is and like really seems like she is the favorite in that sense,
Whereas like they talk about the mother a couple of times in this but
Zuko very much had like a closer relationship with the mother, and then the
mother was like almost scared of Azula because she was just like evil and like
it's kind of fucked up if your own mother kind of says that to you,
And that's kind of a character or sorry, like a defining moment for
that character of Zula because she's just she was never able to kind of get
along with her mom because her mom like saw her as this evil character.
So makes it interesting in that sense. But in this show, it very
much seems that like Ozi still kind of wants Zuko to come back, and
like the throne is always gonna be Zuko's Zuko's Zu. I don't know why
that sounded weird when I said that, but and for a Zula, she
just kind of seemed like annoyed with her dad, where like I don't know,
that's just not really what I expect from that character. And I know
we're jumping ahead, but like the moment when she does do like the blue
lightning uh fire bend, like she's just like I don't even I don't even
care, Like I don't even wanna, I don't even wanna fight for you
dad, Like this is just just I don't know, like it it just
I think the way that they're they wrote the character, I'm just not really
liking too much. But yeah, and then for ty Lee, I mean
superbat mic. In the comments, he said, not a great introduction for
her friends. They can really fuck people up in the animated show. Completely
agree, and he also said should have kept them, say for season two,
and I also agree there because they really don't have anything going on here.
In this episode, you have Azula just showing what a perfect warrior she
is, Like she's she's basically Robin Hood in it. Right, she's like
splitting arrows with her with a bow and arrow, which is kind of funny
because they never use that like ever, at least Azula doesn't, so she's
shooting that. And then like those characters are always kind of like her cheerleaders
and yeah, and as you mentioned, like they're kind of saying like,
oh, like you know, like whatever they said to her, whatever the
line I can't even paraphrase. I just completely forgot it, but like just
boosting up her confidence and she's like, yeah, you're right. But like
in the show, it would have seen or sorry, in the animated show
would have seened more like obviously, like why would you even suggest that,
Like it kind of goes without saying, and like she always kind of talks
down to them because she is just this like tyrannical type individual, whereas how
and I think that's maybe why she seems more mature in the animated show versus
this where it kind of seems like those are just like her school friends and
like they just always chat and hang out, which I guess they kind of
are on the animated show, but because she's just so in like a commanding
type role position in the hierarchy of the nation, but also in that friend
group, it's just kind of told differently. And yeah, they I was
waiting for like Tylee to do some crazy moves because she is like incredibly op
Actually she is able to like basically hit pressure points on people's bodies so they
like can't bend at all, Like she can just completely counterbenders, which is
crazy. And she's super super agile, like she can just dodge people,
but I don't think that happens at any point. And May is crazy with
like these throwing knives, like she's just incredibly accurate, and I think she
throws like one maybe in this episode, but that's kind of it. So
I agree with he's super mad mic. I think that they should have just
not even wasted the time of showing them there and kept kept them for another
season, but who knows, maybe in season two they don't even do much.
They definitely do more in like as the seasons go on in the animated
show, so hopefully it kind of goes that route. But yeah, because
they are interesting characters for sure. Okay, do we meet Boomy in this
episode? I can't remember. I don't think so it might be next episode
episode. Okay, so I guess we see him being assassinated like the Assessa
attempt. Yeah, so I guess we didn't talk about like the machinists and
his father. I didn't really care for it. I mean, they're giving
like us, like a little bit more insight of just kind of how corrupt
Omashu kind of is because you have that one person kind of building things for
the fire Nation, right, and that's just kind of how how things are
running. Like I guess it's necessary to show how corrupt it is, but
I don't know it. I don't like I I just didn't really get much
from those interactions and all, like the one on one dialogue there. For
me personally, I didn't really care for it. Comparing it to like the
Enemage show when they get to Mashu. It's almost like a it's almost like
an Illuminati type thing is going on like that, Like they just have like
some crazy like conspiracy type theorist where everybody's saying that like the city's corrupt,
but like if you say that, like you just get kind of taken out
like behind the scenes, and it's like it's really like a Kloak and Dagger
type way that they handle that whole city, and they don't really have that
at all at any point in the show. So I was a little bit
let down with that, especially being that it is just such an iconic location.
I was wanting a lot more from that city, and it looks great
from Afar. I think when they're on like the city streets again, like
you get kind of like that cgi green green screen effect that takes me out
of it a little bit there, But it didn't really care for the machinist.
Yeah, I think there wasn't a lot really jiving. Like I again,
I like the actor and I like the sentiment there of his motivations,
but yeah, I just feel like this was probably where things started to get
a little bit filler. So it wasn't it wasn't anything that was really blowing
my mind. The character was there, and we see the dynamic and that
fatherly role that he's sort of playing adoptive fatherly role to Sokka, which helps
Socca kind of understand a little bit more. But yeah, I mean it's
it's pretty basic. Yeah, all right, anything else in this episode,
I don't think so. All right? Moving on episode four, Into the
Dark, Okay, so yeah, into the Dark expanding some more Omashue things.
I actually think this is where it's revealed that the machine, the mechanist
was kind of helping out the Fire Nation. So I might have got ahead
of myself in the previous episode. But yeah, the big thing here is
that Aang gets taken to the Earth King, very very kooky character in the
animated series, I would say, maybe even a little bit more so than
this. I think it works because it's a cartoon and you can have crazy
characters like that doing crazy things looking crazy. They tried it here, probably
might have worked for some people, really didn't work for me. I was
just really annoyed by boomy here. I don't know. I don't know.
They've taken characters out of the show like tof which is a major core member
of the team. She's not even in this entire season. I thought there's
that wrong. I thought it was earlier because she interacts with the the Moles
I believe, which is actually in this episode. So maybe they splice things
together. I don't know. I could google it quick too, while well
one of us is talking. But because I feel like you're right, but
just with certain scenes that happen, okay Superman Mike says, she comes in
season two. Interesting. Okay, wow, I was completely wrong. Then
maybe they interact again with with moles because wow, that's just shocking to me
because I totally thought she was there with them in Omashu. But uh,
there you go. Nonetheless, I'm not as well versus I thought. But
for well, she she was surprised too, Like we both thought Toffs should
have been there in in the certain scenes, especially with the moles. But
uh, but I won't even talk about that character. She's she's she's great.
I love tof big tough enjoy over here. But yeah, for what
was I even talking about the Oh yeah, Boomy, I just just a
koogie character and they were trying to capture that and for me it didn't work.
But what about you, Yeah, I I feel like it was just
the makeup on him that wasn't working for me. I liked how quirky he
was, I think, and I remember how quirky he was in the cartoon,
and ultimately, at his core as a character, he's just what was
that happy little boy that was best friends with Aang has transitioned into a cold
war torn, weary, powerful earth bender that just has had to make some
very drastic decisions. And I like that they allude to that too when he's
talking about when you have this amount of food, do you choose to feed
the orphanage or do you feed the soldiers? And not just in this one
scenario, but multiple scenarios, multiple cities all over the place, and it
makes sense why he's just kind of gone kind of insane, and so I
like that there's a lot of depth to this character at the same time that's
kind of hidden behind how quirky he is, And as the episode progresses,
we see how maybe less and less quirky he kind of becomes and more serious
and more in pain he is, and how he's just really trying to prove
to Aang that from Ang's point of view, I mean, he he definitely
fucked up, But I mean, he would have died otherwise if he didn't.
So it's it's a tricky kind of scenario to look at, but no
one else sees it that way. Everyone else has resentment towards him, and
resentment to resentment towards the avatar as a symbol. That symbol has been morphed
and turned into something negative from when it should be something positive. And so
Boomy's definitely a character that sees it that way and is trying to instill like
and you can't always have it your way. There's real consequences in life,
and it's either you die or you let me die, which is just a
fucked up thing to do this kid, But thankfully we have our compatriots join
in and save the day. Yeah, but his again, it's just the
makeup. Most that just kind of I wasn't working with me and I forgot.
When he pulls his clothes off, he's just fucking freaded. I think
that's such an anime thing, where like an old like grizzled character is just
like a barely walk and then was time for war. He just like he's
just fucking shredded, Like he never misses the gym. He's there six hours
a day. You bring up a couple of good points of just maybe Boomy
striking like there the realities of life kind of on aang there, especially,
Like it hits really hard knowing that, like this is the innocent kid that
aang used to hang out with all these times, and here he is just
getting beaten down by the fire nation like on his walls and just kind of
dealing with politics and war all time every day, Like it would definitely wear
on someone. Now that being said, I still think maybe they made Boomy
like a little bit meaner than they than they should have, because the whole
point and super Bad Mike brings us like a good point up that he says
they missed the mark revealing his identity so early on in the animated show.
It's a secret until the end of the episode. And he's exactly right.
It's a big like big deal of aang Get being taken to the Earth King
not knowing who this individual is and like if he if he lays out everything
that you just basically said, like just all these like war things, like
the whole who do you give food to? Like all that line, like
there's some great like moral dilemma ethical type questions that's kind of posed there.
And then uh like and then when when he's saying that, like he's basically
fight for his life against the Earth King, like that's like a holy fuck,
this is there's a big moment here. And then later on it like
at the end it's revealed that that's Boomy the whole time, Like it's just
like a holy shit moment. And then and then from that then on they're
like best buds again, and they're like they're not really suss of each other,
but right away he's just like, oh, I'm Boomy, But like
from that point on, he's still just like super suss with him. Maybe
you can make the argument that like because he is just such a crackpot,
like he he doesn't really he truly maybe thinks that he's like hallucinating Aang,
and like he like there's no way that that's that's actually Aang. I don't
know. I just didn't love the way that they handled it. And Boomy
is a character who is very wacky in the in the animated show, but
he's still just such a loyal and like great friend to Aang even even when
he finds, like even hundreds of years later, like he still just remembers
those moments of being a close friend with NG and nothing can really change that.
But I don't know, you just kind of seemed like an asshole at
times unnecessarily so for me, I didn't love how that went, But you
did bring up some a couple of good points that I kind of looked past.
What else happened here? We got, Oh yeah, so the Secret
Tunnel whole thing, Man Avatar, Last Airvender. They have some great original
songs in it, like great theme music as well, but just some great
songs that characters sing in it. And we kept joking, like there's a
song in the animated show. It's just it's called Secret Tunnel, and they
actually brought it to the live action version and we were both just so happy
with it. It's such a just annoying song, but it just pops in
our head differences. Well, we'll just be singing it secret Tunnel, Secret
Tunnel, Secret, secret, secret Tunnel, like it like it's just like
such a stupid song, but it like it's I don't know, it's just
hilarious. And then when you have Sokka and Katara just like going down this
like dark, dank tunnel and there's just these like fucking hula hoopers singing and
dancing around a fire, just vibing and just like having a great time.
I feel like there's there's a lot of those type character like side characters actually
throughout the animated show of just they're just kind of random, but like just
super joyous and happy and they just kind of sing random songs or just say
really funny things to our characters. And the fact that they had those in
here, super Bad Mic, super bad Mike brought up the like cabbage Man,
Like I am glad that they at least brought in some of those things
because although it's such a minor thing, especially to the overall story, like
I personally, I feel like it just it uplifts the whole experience because that's
stuff that's from Last Airbender, and like they truly brought it in here.
And I was just so happy when they were going down and you just hear
the music initially and then they end off with the Secret Tunnel verse that was
just that was super great. Like it's super like personal obviously to like shan
I for that one, but I'm very happy that they had that in there,
and it definitely boosted the episode as a whole. For that. That's
why it's good to have those types of things. And I think as of
a long time loyal fan, you appreciate that attention to detail that they throw
in there because well, it does not have any overarching effect on the characters
or the narrative. It's just it's there and you could appreciate it. So
it's kind of like like Boba Fett using a seismic charge when he just had
no reason to in the Mandalorian. It's one of those little quality of life
kind of things that I can appreciate. And I mean that totally went over
my head. The cabbage thing I definitely I recall, but this this secret
tunnel like went over my head. I did not recall that, but I
appreciated the guys in there just singing and like the hippie the just the hippies
in this world. That's just I was driving with it. But the tunnels,
now, I'm trying to remember how the story goes. So this was
another avatar that had a love a lover here and they came here. Was
this just earth beenders that that was just different tribes. I don't remember how
I was explained here, and of course I don't really one hundred percent remember
how it happened before. But I believe it was actually like an Earth Nation
member, like not necessarily a maybe it was a bender. But and then
I can't remember. I should I really should have should have rewatched this portion
because I actually don't remember how the story went. I'm pretty sure it was
like two either too, almost like a Romey and Juliet situation. Maybe Superman
Micha will correct me here really quick, but it's just like a Romeo Juliet
type situation, whether they're in the same tribe or or nation, like like
Earthbenders or Firebenders like something like that was just kind of keeping their levelway.
But that's something that like again, like that whole episode is a filler episode
in the animated show. I do like that they brought it in here because
it's just an interesting kind of origin story for the city of a Omashu,
because it is just such a big, big citadel across the whole nation of
the Earth Kingdom. I like the overall effects two of them going through the
tunnels and it's just glowing up and yeah, and then I've obviously tied in
with the the Moles, the badger Moles, the original Earth Benders. We
didn't talk about that too much, but like Avatar, like this world,
they do they do. They have some great character like creatures, just like
how Star Wars has some very iconic creatures. I think especially avatars are just
kind of funny because they usually just combine like two different creatures together, like
a badger mole. I think they have owl bears at some point in the
legend of Korra. Her companion is it's a it's a dog mixed with a
polar bear. And then of course Aang has Apa, the the flying bison
you know, which don't really know what he's mixed up with, but he's
mostly a bison. And what is what is a momo? Just like uh
a z a boom a fo. He's a zaboomafoo, maybe mixed with a
flying squirrel something like that, but definitely mostly zaboomafoo in there. That's that
was his father's genes. I'm trying to remember anything else with this episode,
but I can't think of anything. Uh, you have Iro battling those like
Earth Kingdom people, there's like that one forget forget his name, but they
like capture him or something, and they like find out that he's Fire Nations
and he's like he's being super aggressive with him, and then IRA's doing like
the very stoic reaction to it all. And then by the end, like
that whole interaction I did not need at all, Like, I guess you're
giving a little bit more insight into the character and just kind of truly what
Iro is, uh you know, like he is just so much more than
what's on the surface they call the Dragon of the West or whatever it is,
but like throughout the whole show, he is like probably the most wholesome
character. Oh okay, there you go, supermand Mike. We get IRA's
backstory with his son there, which is a big emotional, big emotional moment.
I think in both shows. For sure, Personally Animated did it a
little bit better, but I still think it's important to show that here because
maybe it shows like why he is so kind hearted, like he is able
to kind of see things in a different light. For that reason, they
had the iconic song. I think it's like leaves on the Ground or something
like that. That song is from the animated series, and it's it's a
song that he sings when he's at the memorial of his son. It's just
a really, really, really touching moment. This is something that I forgot
how this scene plays out in the animated show, but this is for me.
I was tearing up and just a wreck watching this because everyone else was
just like, oh, your son, your son will be remembered, iiro
YadA, YadA, YadA, the same routine. And I thought this was
also retroactively great for Zuko just to see this because he's given the same bullshit
line. But then he stops. He turns around and he gives his o
Caleiro's sons like a graduation medal back to him, and he just says some
really really kind words and you just see a tear come down Uncle Iro's face
and he hasn't said anything throughout the whole funeral. He's just been completely silent,
and you just see the tear come down, and Zuko just immediately sits
next to him and thinking, man, oh, this is just just hitting
me in the fields right now. Oh this is so good. And that's
really an opening too into into Zuko so far, because He's just still been
an ass this whole entire time, but this little bit of an opening now
allows us to see that he does have that soft side to him, and
it's it gets even better when it transitions into like you see his first war
Council meeting, which we'll talk about and mm hmm. So the forty fifth
for sorry, forty first Legion. It's so similar to Star Wars what I
called the three to zero first all the parallels. Okay, uh, moving
on if you're any Episode five, uh, Spirited Away, quick little recap.
When the group lands in the Spirit World for a rescue mission, they
come face to face with dangerous threats, painful memories, a mysterious entity.
This episode, if I'm not mistaken, kind of combines a couple of different
episodes from the animated series, especially like the whole I think it's called co
like that creature that appears at the end, probably the scariest like creature that's
implemented in the entire animated show, and they did a phenomenal job I think
of showing it here. The look looked exactly like it, and the like
the animation of when it switches faces is so terrifying. It's so terrifying in
the show, like or so I keep saying that in the animated show,
and it's even more scary here because it's like real faces, real people talking,
and just when it's like the pov of like Aang looking at it,
and the whole ideas that like Aang can't react, and I'm just like,
how the fuck does anyone not react to this thing just getting right in your
face and switching faces and fucking with your brain. But I kind of jumped
to the end there, But yeah, Aang does his his deep meditation to
get into the spirit world. But I guess they all kind of go into
the spirit world. Hey, in this they all do. Yeah, they're
all. They're all in there just like reliving. They're very frightful, fearful,
uh, memories of the past. Right. And I was kind of
confused how because like Aang was able to snap out of it because he's obviously
the avatar, but then he was also able to go into this other state
of being what was his name, Master Gatsos gets so, Yeah, so
he was able to communicate with Gatso And I wasn't sure if that was like
co playing a trick, but no, that seemed like a genuine thing.
Getso was actually communicating with him and telling about Co and and all that stuff.
But yeah, Co was terrifying. That brief moment when Aang snaps out
of it and he's in Coe's cave. Then he like runs out and Co's
just like chasing after him, and it was just terrifying and absolutely terrifying creature.
And even though when it I think it was the end of this episode
where it talks they're talking about co feeding and you see like the people cocooned
and like CO just goes up there and essentially pretty much terrifying creature. I
love seeing just all the spirit world. It was very cool though, just
and this is when we get to see Princess Yue her first kind of like
retroact retrospective I guess because we learned it later, but this is her as
the white tailed Fox kind of talking with with Sokka. That's right. Yeah,
the spirit world stuff, Like they have some interesting camera like work,
I guess to show that it's kind of like the spirit realm. That stuff
didn't really work for me, but like it, it didn't take me out
of it too much. Like it it got the point across that they're not
in the regular world anymore. I like any time a show kind of gets
into the mind trippiness aspect of something like that, just playing with the mental
psyche of our characters. And I mean, they definitely got that point across,
so I'll credit them there. We got to meet June for the first
time. That's the female bounty hunter with Nyla, which is like one of
the most terrifying mounts in the show. Just I don't even know what that
is. I guess it's like a mole the way that it just like sniffs
the ground and really just badass looking character. You don't get too much into
into her character in the Enemy series, but I always just thought she was
a cool bounty hunter with just a great look. And another again, like
the costume design like is just so phenemenal on the show, and like she
truly just looked like she was plucked right out of the animated series. So
part of me credit to the team there. What else, Oh, we
get the the owl creature, which is actually and this is where I'm saying,
like it feels like they combined a bunch of different episodes for this episode
because they had, Yeah, the librarian is his name in that one,
and they have to go to this like great library later on. I believe
it's in a like a future season episode because I remember talk being there in
that moment, but just a cool creature. And when they were shown here,
I was just kind of thrown off that we're seeing him so early.
But yeah, and then I got distracted because I was reading Super Bad.
Mike said that was voiced by the great George Takai, which I did not
even realize. Did you hear that? No? I did not know that.
Actually, Okay, yeah, I thought I saw him cast it in
here, So that's sweet. Interesting. Well he voiced in the yeah,
I guess not, was it? It was in the animated show that he
voices him. I guess both because it like he's on the IMDb for the
episode. And speaking of actually, I like just pulled up the characters and
there's so many like big names actually that like voice in the animated series,
Like you got the great and powerful Mark Hamill as the fire Lord Ozi.
I mean, he's done like a thousand if like bare minimum voice acting in
his days. You have Ron Pearlman as fire Lord Susan uh Oh that's good.
Clancy Brown as long Thing, who was kind of an antagonist character in
Omashu so we didn't with him there, and a couple other ones that I
remember seeing well, I guess George ja Kai for sure. But yeah,
always surprising when when you when you see like just someone like Ron Pearlman,
like, is he doing a lot of voice acting? I didn't think so,
but I mean he is in Halo, he did that? Who's he
in Halo? Admiral Stanford? He pops up in Halo two and Halo three.
Okay, I can't even remember that. Interesting yep. I don't know
why. I thought my brain would just it would just snap as as yeah,
no, exactly, that's my that's my Ron Pearlman. And then I
guess later on you have the great moment between Goatso and Aang. Very touching
moment, especially when I don't know if it's this episode when he goes back
to try and find Goatso again and he's not there, but just a really
again kind of to your jerky moment because it's really really strong friend and like
just just a great kind of mentor that Aang had that he'll never get to
see again. And although it's been hundreds of years, like aang, you
know, just saw him in his mind like hours ago. It seemed,
well, I guess at this point it's been a few days, but still
like that's really recent to just lose someone that's so significant in your life.
And I I quite like that whole scene. I think initially I was just
waiting for like the mind trippiness to like kick in or something like. I
kind of thought it was like a mind trick. And then in the YACHTSU
was gonna change or something in the co like, I don't know why that
was gonna happen, but I was. I was on edge, even though
it was just like a very humble scene all in all. So yeah,
I like that moment. It's also just like the lighting. It's almost if
they're like in heaven. It's just like super bright and warm. They got
that summer, that summer lens on it seems. So I did like that
moment for sure. Other than that, I don't really have too much more
say on this episode. Yeah, I don't think have anything else either.
I think that that covers it rady. Then uh, okay, moving on,
Maybe we'll take another ad break overdue for one, and then we'll keep
on going to episode six, we'll rear back and we are back. So
I actually just close the episodes like a newb Okay episode six masks this this
episode. It's funny because this is kind of like the climax of the of
the live action m Night movie, right when you have Jao that captures Aang
and they're in like that fortress area, and then you have Zuko wearing like
the blue Spirit mask that comes in and grabs him. And if if I
remember that correctly, that's like basically the final scenes of that entire movie.
I've only seen that movie, I guess twice, but it's been a it's
been a lot of year. I don't even remember that in Okay movie.
I remember, Oh, I don't remember. I don't remember that in the
movie. Yeah, like the final scenes. I just remember the Northern Water
Tribe being like the pull back half. Okay, maybe maybe I misremembory then,
uh, nonetheless that we're not talking about that movie right now. We're
talking about we're talking about this one. And yeah, I I always loved
when Zuko would be like doing the good guy thing, even if it is
his own motivation. I love when he dons the blue mask. He does
it quite a few times actually throughout the quite a few times, a handful
of times throughout the animated series, and UH kind of let down that,
like his his identity is like revealed so quickly, and like Jiao just kind
of knows right away that that it's Zuko, like he does the plan and
gets aang out of there. But I was pretty let down that it wasn't
just like, oh, the Blue Spirit took aang away like right away.
It seems that they just kind of know him, and then later on the
season. Maybe you can correct me here, but like I'm pretty sure Jao
finds off or finds out off screen, like it's not even like a scene
that happens, and that's like completely that's just so crazy to me. I
don't know, it seems like a big moment because you have this this to
the Fire Nation's eyes, like an enemy that's helping the Airbender, but you
don't know that it's it's one of your own, let alone, like the
Crown prints. I just think that's such an interesting dynamic and the fact that
it's just, oh, yeah, Zuko because we found out his blades are
similar like it, Like it's just kind of cheesy in my mind, and
like Zuko never even uses blades like normally, So I don't know, it
just kind of bugged me there. But the overall action in this episode was
really good. You have the I forget what they're called, but like the
Special Archers, the you you something Archers, I forget their names, but
you you yan there you go with you on Archers. But uh, what
do you think about this episode? Taylor? Yeah? I I feel like
this is a starting point for Zuko to be kind of turning over and and
the like ground zero for him becoming that character we see in the in the
later books. And I really like that a lot. And so I agree
with you the downside of Commander Zoo just figuring out who Zuko was, this
blue spirit and learning off scream and then it just turns into like oh because
you think like Lieutenant Lee also for a second like betrays Zuko. But like
this the boat blows up and this fucking murders like Prince Zuko, which is
pretty crazy. And I don't I don't think it was this episode. Yeah
it was. It was the finale episode, but like Zao has some fucking
crazy motivations for for and goals too for what he's trying. Ambitions, he's
got of like way up there for what he wants to do, Like it's
like already calling himself fire lord. He's like when I'm fire Lord, it's
like whoa, okay, buddy saying this to Uncle Iro, like come on,
man, like, what are you implying as is his brother. Yeah,
it's just just crazy, just crazy. I think this is the episode
where Uncle Iro reveals to the forty first Legion about Zuko's sacrifice. Yes,
I thing it is, Yeah, so you have you have And I love
that. I really really like that. I don't remember if it's from the
animated show, but basically, like Lieutenant Lee and all them, they're just
shitting all over Zuko. They hate him so much. But you learned that
Zuko did not want to see this whole division of men just get absolutely sacrificed
and calls out his dad's plans and and everything like oh it's it's stupid plan,
stupid. And at the end when Uncle Iro reveals that little transition about
how this is the forty first Legion that's with Zuko, he took them as
his his troop when he went into exile. I love that so much.
Again, it's just another thing that adds to to Zuko as a character.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just totally driving with it. No,
you're totally right. That's something that I don't remember being a thing in
the anime series, so I that's not a mistake, and I'm pretty sure
it's new to this live action version. Like the whole forty first thing,
it's mostly just Zuko kind of speaks out of turn in the council meeting and
then that's when he just gets like has to go do the agne Kai.
I think it's called the one on one duel, which again like because it's
young fiery Zuko in those like in the in the animated show, he's like,
okay, yeah, this is perfect, Like I'm ready to show my
strength against this like general, who in his mind is like an inferior to
him because he's the fire Lord's son. Like he he it's not even like
he can do this, like all of this is owed to him, like
he just needs his time to shine. And then when it goes down to
it, he's ready to go. He like turns around and then it's just
fire lord Ozi standing there and he's just like yeah, exactly, and like
he's just like shocked that he has to fight his father. And I mean
the duel was all right in the show again, like the effects do look
good and whatever. The actor I forget his name, but the guy that
does OZI, man, he was looking shredded in this for sure, But
I I don't know, like I think. I think it's just Ozi seemed
a little bit nicer than I was expecting. Like obviously he burns his son's
eye, like that is an intense moment, but the follow up to that,
when he's like visiting him in his sick bed and he's like, oh
yeah, the doctor said he you're gonna be fine, like it's a sign
of good, good health, good jeans, and it just I don't know,
I didn't like that stuff. And I'm probably just pulling my own biases
from the animated show, but it just seemed like like, oh, like
Zuko is just dead to Ozi from that point, like if you can't even
stand up here, and like you're being pathetic by like bowing to me on
this like agne kaye duel, Like you just get the fuck out of the
Fire Kingdom, and so the duel itself had some good stuff in there,
but I think the overall situation, I didn't love the telling of it.
I did like Iro like kind of being obviously the more father figure to Zuko
in those moments, like he was trying to talk down Ozi and kind of
being like that one character that kind of can do that because like everyone else
sees him as the king or fire Lord rather and Iro. I mean,
he is the fire Lord, but Iro is still his brother, so you
can kind of have that one on one with him. But yeah, the
whole forty first thing, I think it was all right. I didn't love
it. I didn't need it or I didn't love it. I didn't need
it. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. Just kind of
yeah, it was all right. I kind of I kind of laughed at
the beginning when and General Jiao like gets orders that he's just the guy running
the show now, and then the forty first legion is like obeying his command.
The second Jao leaves, Zuka's just like bold move but he's like,
okay, now, just revert your orders. It's like, uh, I
can't do that, sir. And then like what would happen? He just
like turns the wheel and then like Xiao is just like why is the ship
moving? And then like goes back to the room that he was literally just
in like ten seconds ago. It was just kind of a funny secrets of
events in my opinion. But yeah, the flashback scene, it is a
necessary scene to have in the show because you need to obviously show why Zuko
got banished, why he has this scar, why he his father is just
kind of yeah, like banished him from the kingdom, and why he has
Iro with him, right, Like, like you do have to explain those
things to the viewers, so I understand why they have it here. Obviously,
personally I would take the animated version more, but I still think it
was all right. I uh, I think that you're right. I think
piler OSEI is definitely a little bit more, a little bit more on the
nicer side here, especially when after he just kicks his son's ass, he
just goes and he's like, oh, son, you know, oh you're
right, you're good, jeans, you're resting up and all that kind of
stuff. Just it's a little weird, Like I don't know how any dag
just walk in go play god Sha saw it after this very weird, like
I couldn't imagine my daughter me just like giving her a switch Joy con And
just putting up Smash Bros. And just fucking annihilating her right now. And
it's just what a what a horrible thing to do. But at the end
of the day, Zuko did get the upper hand on him, but he
held back, and I love that. I love seeing these little things with
Zuko. And then Iro was just fucking pleading with him, and and then
he couldn't even watch as Ozai just melts his face, which is just yeah,
that general was just laughing high but I mean, oh yeah, this
is a piece of shit. Such a piece of shit. Yeah, especially
like even in the war room when like Ozi like asks Zuko what he would
do and he just kind of fumbles his words, like when he's like countered,
and then the other general like has his plan. And then after the
war like council happens, like before Zuko says that the plan st he like
goes up to him. He's like, oh, he can't learn anything,
or he can't learn everything in the book, say young Prince, and he's
just like being a dick just to be a dick, like fuck he he
he should have been agnefied with with Zuko. Zuko he hopefully would have fucked
him up, but oh, he absolutely would have. I can only imagine
like Ozai just after Zuko leaves the room, goes up to the general like,
Okay, I'm gonna take over your Agnekai. No, I really want
to do it. I really want to do it. O no, no,
no, only I can fuck up my son. So yeah, I
kind of already mentioned it. But Zuko comes in as the Blue Spirit and
takes on or takes on, takes out my gosh, takes Aang out of
captivity, takes an arrow to the face and gets kind of just knocked out,
and then Aang of course saves him, and all that is very true
to the to the original version, which I liked. I thought, just
I don't know, the overall action I thought looked pretty pretty good for for
what it was trying to deliver. I personally like my favorite part of this
portion of the story of this episode is when like the aftermath, I guess,
when Zuko and Aang kind of just have a moment to talk and it's
just such a great moment because this is like the one thing that can kind
of help Zuko in his situation, like this can bring his honor back,
take bringing this character back. But then when he's kind of in a situation
that like he doesn't have his his crew with him, he doesn't have a
way to like really capture Ang here, like there's kind of to chat,
and you just realize the similarities that these two characters have. It ends with
the same It pretty much ends the same way that Aang asked him like if
one hundred years ago, like would they have been able to be friends?
And it's just such a great like parallel I think to just war like in
general, like even even in real life, like there's just so many instances
where people are fighting for like multiple sides. But like if you take the
war aspect away and they just like grew up in a in a younger time
maybe and we're able to just interact not as soldiers, like would they be
friends, Like probably more so often than not, just because there's a lot
more I think things in common that people have the as opposed to differences,
And that's just true across the board. And I think this like cartoon show,
this kids show just just such a great way of portraying that in the
little line there, and of course this is the early stage of Zuko,
so he doesn't have time to really let those emotions in, so he just
responds with a fire blast and it's kind of the end of that interaction.
But it's a It's a phenomenal scene in the animated series, and I think
they did a good job at relaying that in the live action version as well.
M Yeah, I agree. I like seeing them kind of just have
this this common ground with the calligraphy brush all that kind of stuff. It
was just it was nice and calming to see that, and it just as
a testament to Ang's character just how he's great at people ing. He's so
good at working his way and finding that doorway into someone and just really connecting
with them. And again, I like that that's just a you it's is
it not necessarily even like an avatar trait, but it's just like it's it's
a person trade. And you come to learn with Aang and him talking to
the different avatars that while they all are the Avatar, and they all share
a piece of the past Avatar in them, they are not all the same,
they're their own people where you see. I think at this point we've
obviously seen the Fire Avatar and how he's just he's full of joyokes and Roku
not yeah, Roku, He's full of jokes and everything like that, and
just really I think he was definitely a good a good example for ag because
Kyoshi Kyoshi's wonderful, but very much as he as she told Aang, like
you need to be merciless and and all that kind of stuff. And then
we get to the water the Water Tribes avatar later on. But mm hmm,
yeah, I can't remember I was going with this. I'll just jump
in there on the Roku thing because I forgot to mention him. I love
Roku in the animated series. This is something that because Roku is like the
most recent Avatar, like it's the one that died right before Ang. In
the animated series, Aang actually finds him like dialoguing with him quite a bit.
I think it's just because anytime he kind of meditates, he goes in
that average avatar form and then he like he's able to just kind of go
into the spear realm and like converse with Roku and he's just such a great
like mentor kind of Toang and not necessarily telling him what to do, but
just giving him a different way of looking at at things maybe is a good
way to put it. And he definitely has that like more joyous appeal to
him. So I think this version like he's a little bit kookier, like
like when he when he's like stand on one leg, hop on one leg,
or whatever the hell he says, like he's just kind of fucking with
Aang. I mean, it's kind of cheesy, but they are getting the
point across that he is, like there is other fire Benders that aren't just
like tyrants, right because up until this point, like that's all you really
see, and Roku was just a very kind of joyous individual. Obviously he
had to make tough choices in his time, but I like that interaction.
I guess to show that personally, I would want maybe more of those Roku
isms, but the I don't know. I think Roku's like super fake beard
was kind of pulling me out of it too. There's certain characters in here
that just it's so obvious they're like wearing like a special beard or something like
I think fire Lord Sousan actually had that effect. Like in the very first
episode, his beard just looked like it was about to fall off at any
moment if the glue got a little bit too warm. But yeah, so
Roku's in there. I think we kind of covered all the main points on
the episode. Yeah, there's an Azula thing that happens. I think it's
more so just her reaction to the the Agney Kai and yeah, yeah,
she's like smiling, like but like even then, I feel like it's it's
kind of like held back, like this is kind of fucked up, but
like I'm kind of liking it a little bit. Whereas again, like my
Azula would have just been like fucking kill him. Ohz, I like this
is perfect, Like just get rid of that weekly Yeah, exactly walking in
Phoenix and Gladiator. Okay, so if we have nothing else, we're gonna
keep moving on to the penultimate episode, Episode seven, The North. I
don't know why I said it like that. I guess we're I just feel
like Game of Thrones whenever I say that or in the North, the largest
fire the North has ever seen. Our heroes finally get to the Northern Water
tribe, which is in my opinion, just a really cool design for a
location to get Like I kind of made the Troy comparisons earlier, but it
kind of feels like that just penetrable fortress. It's cool too, because it
seems like for our heroes up until this point, everywhere that they've kind of
landed, they've had to just run away, like really quickly, Like they're
always kind of running away from the threat of the fire Lord and his lackeys.
But this is obviously like an ally that they're going to another Water tribe.
It's cool that our Southern Water tribe members meet up with their Northern Tribe
members for the first time, like all that stuff just in general, like
for the story, I think it's really interesting to have and I I thought
they did a good job with with the Northern Northern Tribe. I thought it
looked really great. They had some some act like I think his name is
Paku, like the super sexist like Waterbender teacher, like the Master. Yeah,
man, I swear to got like like I was mentioning Sokka, seems
like he's plucked out of the comic book, Like this guy looks like he's
the exact same from from the animated series. So I was very impressed with
that, and he's pretty much the exact same character, Like he is a
master and he is kind of open to training Qatar, I guess, but
like he just he says that women have no place on the on the battlefield,
and I mean in the next episode, it kind of leads to a
funny moment in my opinion. Maybe we'll get there when we get there,
But yeah, what do you think about seeing this version of the Northern Water
tribe? Yeah, I thought it was just cool to see this fortified,
powerful water nation here and just what they're capable of. I really really loves
seeing the dilemma of Qatar trying to deal with the fact that, Okay,
they're not allowed to actually fight here, which is just bonkers that they were
willing to, sorry you said, Packu, Master Packu was willing to hold
onto these old ancient ideals that they're literally about to be fucking annihilated, Like
we got all these water banners, but no, you can't fight. You
just stay stay back, like ma'am, get them out onto the field.
Stop benching all of your your op fighters here. And I think this is
a great period where you get to see Qatar really shime they're calling her Master
now. But I feel like this at this rate of the show, you
don't necessarily see you see her getting better and better and better. But I
feel like at the same time, it did feel like it was accelerated with
what she was able to do against Master Packu, like she fucking dished it
out. She was doing really really good in that quick little duel, and
I feel like that's something we haven't really been able to see her grow with.
For most of the episodes. We see her control like one little bit
of water and she splashes it on people. But I wanted I was hoping
that they would either slow it down or they would keep us a little bit
more visual representation of her actually creating like her ice discs and just firing them
off. And I love how she was seeing how Earthbenders were doing things and
she was creating and modifying it in our water bending sense. That's one of
my favorite things is when you can see the Bendors take from something else and
modified in their own element. I think that's really, really, really special.
But so Guitar was really just she shined from me a lot in this.
In this I've got these two episodes here, but yeah, Ang just
really trying to figure things out, and then we get Princess Ua. That's
she kind of takes more or less like the front seat here and deals with
with Socca. Socca has a lot more attention here and just kind of being
embraced as well being a warrior. Everyone just praising them basically, Soaka is
getting to call battle tactics and teach them a little bit more about what's going
on with the Fire Nation, and I think that's represented as well with the
fact that they are there are very much like isolated in this little little location
here, even though it's a big northern Water tribe city, they haven't really
been connected with the outside world. I think that's why you have Paku being
very enforcing of these ancient ideals, and you have them being unaware what the
Fire Nation is packing. And they've alluded to the fact that they've been attacked
a few times, but I don't even think the Water the Fire Nation has
actually attacked them yet. I think they've just kind of let them be up
here. So yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh, I kind of lost
my train of thought as you're going episode six the mass No, what else
do we get here? Uh? I guess just adding on to what you're
saying, like and like tying into how I mentioned like them coming here and
like actually seeing an ally is just a big moment because they have gone through
a lot of things, and as you laid out, they are kind of
being recognized for that, which is really cool. Obviously, Qatar kind of
gets put on the side because of just how she's perceived because of because of
the fact that she's just a female water bender, Like that's just not really
a thing that's recognized in a warrior aspect for Master Poku and and team,
But yeah, it is, what is Sokka. I mean, I love
just seeing Socca interact with you a because I think just the actor again,
like he's probably like my favorite casting I think in the show, Like he's
just so great and the way that he just has a very obviously he's just
like falling in love with like Ua right away. But when she's like explaining
the fact of like what she is, he's just he's so dumbfound in the
sense of like it doesn't even make sense and he's just like maybe so infactuated
by her. But like it doesn't matter if she's fucking saying hate speech to
him like like he's just like in love with her. Obviously that's not what
happens, but yeah, I I I quite like their interactions. And we
also have Avatar Aang interact with Avatar Kuruk I believe is his name, the
the water Avatar. I think in general, just like these these interactions,
they just hit so much more in the animated way, I think. I
think whenever they do in the the live action like dream sequence realm where it's
just kind of fuzzy and it looks like a dream but like, I don't
know, it's just it seems kind of cheesy in my mind and it doesn't
have the same effect that it probably should have. But yeah, he's he's
dishing out some some knowledge there. Something actually that I forgot to mention earlier
on that I think is a really big thing that maybe brings down some of
my overall enjoyment of this season is one like this is supposed to be chapter
one, right like season one chapter one. So now chapter one is just
titled water as if our avatar and this period is going to be learning all
about water and how to fucking water bend. Ang does not water bend once
in this entire season, which I just think is egregious. Like I like,
I'm not saying he has to be doing what Katar is doing, but
the fact that Katara isn't at any like point, just like as she's trying
to learn on her own, which we do see her do in some of
the earlier episodes Aang like like he's just not even there, like like it
like and maybe this is something that you can, uh maybe have more of
that stuff in like some of the filler episodes that like the Cartoon has.
But I still think it's such an important part of like Avatar Aang becoming the
Avatar, of learning these different aspects and and really how to like control different
elements, and the fact that they don't at any point, like not at
any point in the show does he do anything related to water. Well,
I guess at the very end when he just like morphs into the the water
spirit the chaos spirit from uh yeah, no exactly, no exactly. I
I think that's that's whack and and something that I really didn't think about actually
as I was going along with it, but then by by the finale and
when Shane and I were just kind of stewing on it. She she was
like mentioning that how he doesn't water bend once, and I'm like, oh
yeah, Like that's strange, Like is next season going to be book one
point five like more water like? Because at the end, Katar mentions that
like now she's kind of a master, which is kind of funny, like
she's been waterbending for how long? But now I guess she's a master.
She developed quickly, I guess, but she's mentioned how she could teach aang
Like I don't know, Like that's kind of a journey, and like is
it just gonna happen between seasons, Like is he just gonna be popping in
being able to do all these water things? I hope not, because I
really like to see that progression of the character. And like I think,
really if they do as easy too, they're just gonna move on to Earth,
right, Like they're just gonna keep moving on with the story. That's
where we're gonna be getting tough and all the other Earth aspects, and that's
where ag should be learning the Earth bending. So I just think they felt
really hard with that aspect that they just chose to not do that another thing
just since I'm going since since I'm going with it. Another thing that Shane
I were kind of discussing the end of it was something with Aang that just
makes him such a joyous and likable character is his just like love for the
world and he's just so like happy, go lucky and so curious, Like
he really is just a little kid that's just discovering the world, and he's
he's just so warm and welcoming to like everyone that he comes across. He
just I feel like everyone that he interacts with, he just changes their life
for the better, doesn't matter if it's it's Zuko or like Socca or anyone
like that. Like like that he really is just such a joy and also
just so curious and wanting to investigate the rest of the world. And they
don't really in my opinion, hit that at all with Aang at any point
of this show. It seems like he's really more actually Dower like because he's
lost Yiazzo, he's lost all the Airbenders and it's really just like peril that
they're they're running from. And maybe that is just due to the fact that
it's an eight episode series that it like we don't have time to really have
him just being joyful and like playing around with Apa or Momo and and just
like having those downtimes. It's really just going from point A to point B
because it's wartime. We have to get here because it's the next strategic location,
which they do in the animated show. But it just feels like the
journeys longer because they have more breaks along the way. So that is like
again like something that is a pretty pretty big con. Actually, I feel
like unfortunately my cons in the show are like the bigger character stuff that like
really makes the show special. In my mind. The world building is extremely
important and another thing that I absolutely love, and I do think that this
show is doing at least a good job at But yeah, my fire people
are not angry enough, Boomy is too angry, and aang is not curious
enough and not super happy go lucky. So I think, again, it's
not really tied to this episode, but I just kind of forgot to mention
that earlier, and I would be a miss if I didn't mention those.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I just think that these characters overall
are I mean, they're doing it for me. I have not seen the
animated show for quite some time. So it's hard for me to make that
comparison, but from what I've seen, I'm enjoying that the characters are being
portrayed the way they are. I think you're right though, at least we
talked about it already with Zuko being a little bit more on the angrier side,
like a Kylo Wrenn kind of character. But yeah, I think where
the characters are getting to at this point. You mentioned again Aang not having
waterbending as a as a skill down pat right now. That's upsetting because I
think it was even like three episodes in Katara was having a conversation with him
where she was practicing with her grandmother's waterbending scrolls in the river and Ang comes
up and just compliments her, and she just basically says like, oh,
you know, we could practice together, and he just kind of shuts her
down and doesn't want to. And I get that he's going through this inner
turmoil and he's trying to come to that point where's he's the Avatar. He's
got to rise up to the title and the mantle of being this. But
yeah, it's just funny how he's just really not wanting to water bend.
He's a great airbender, and I love seeing all those fight scenes, but
he'd just be able to do so much more, and that's something they did
in the movie too. At this point, he's actually like, he does
practice water bending in the movie, and he becomes very proficient at water bending
at the end of the movie. But yeah, they don't showcase that here
at all, which is very weird because I I was half expecting him to
to have been able to do a little bit and being controlled by the giant
Kaiju Godzilla creatures, I don't see that as counting as water bending because everyone
the whole time is saying, oh, that's no longer aang anymore. It's
the not the Moon's spirit, the other spirit looking for its she she moved.
Yeah, yeah, but that that was cool though I knew. I
knew that there's gonna be some kind of sequence where he's just fucks up the
fire Nation and that whole fleet. Like, man, how many fire Benders
got killed? There was like thousands that just got fucking decimated. Kaiju moment.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, there's a lot of murders that
happened there. But hey, it's not Avatarang, right, it's they kept
saying that that's not any anymore. I'm curious what it was, Like,
what's what's that report look like? They? Oh, the Airbender turned into
Master Kyoshi then turned into a giant water lizard and just fucked up your whole
fleet. But then I guess we get to see the fall out of that,
because it was like, is made aware that they attack Phail and he's
like, oh, that was never the target. It's like this guy's just
gaslighting. Am I using that? Right? Is he gaslighting people or misdirecting
people? Yeah? Both both working? Yeah, no one especially just like
if Zuko thought sacrificing the forty first Legion was fucked? What about this?
This is like the whole Fire Nation armada, Like they do not have a
navy anymore, but they have Amashu, Like wow, is that worth it?
But uh, yeah, what else happened in episode seven? Here?
Oh this is where we have That's fine, that's fine, it leads into
it. That's just the character stuff. Right here we have Azula do the
like perform like the lightning fire bending, which is so iconic to her character.
It is cool that it's in there, I think, just because I'm
not liking what the character is so far in this show. I the scene
didn't do too much for me? Is yeah, I don't know, it
was all right? What else? I really don't have too much else to
add. I think we actually see Katara with some of the Waterbender healers in
this episode as well, which is cool because that's that's like a really big
character thing for Katara, Like she's she becomes well, she like masters water
bending, so she becomes just an excellent healer later on and even into the
Legend of Korra, like her character is actually still alive in that series and
she is no is just like obviously a legend amongst legends and like just this
really renowned healer. So it was cool them showing that off because I know
that's a really big part of water bending. And I guess this is also
where they kind of dive into some more of the origins and just what kind
of gives the water benders their powers, right, like the spirit of the
moon as well as the water and how it's just like a thing in flux
like Yin and Young Yin and Young Yin and Yang. So I do like
how all that was explained, because it's just really integral for the water Benders,
but I think we're ready to move on. Maybe we'll take our final
ad break here and then we'll dive into last episode as well as our overall
thoughts and then yeah, okay, here we are together in the End of
All Things, episode eight Legends. This is obviously the big climactic moment.
And actually before I get to the episode, something crossed my mind as I
was watching this episode where I'm like, I feel like I haven't seen a
finale like this that's just like like a full action for the finale, like
like especially going through lately for like some of these Marvel shows that we've been
reviewing, like it seems like the penultimate episode is like kind of the battle
scene. Maybe I guess the finale, I guess Secret Vasion kind of had
that, but it just seemed like watching this Netflix series, it felt like
a different formula that we were watching. So I do appreciate the show for
that aspect. It seemed like something fresh. But that was just a thought
that happened, as was with this episode, because this episode is pretty much
all action. It's almost like a helm's deep battle going on. You have
a battle that starts in the daytime, it ends in the nighttime, there's
a wall that crumbles, there's a tragic murder that happens on a sea creature.
But overall, like, just for my overall thoughts, I thought this
definitely delivered for the action at least, I thought all of the cinematicness of
this episode, like the budget was really showing here in a positive sense.
Like I thought all of the like the flaming trebuchets that the fire people were
firing into the this the citadel was just all that looked so great. I'm
such a sucker for Like, I'm like that type of artillery and just like
the more medievally type war scenes, And I thought this just fully delivered and
definitely like I would prefer this battle over the animated actually, like it just
looks so top notch and they did a really good job. Yeah, it
looked absolutely beautiful. I think, uh, I think this is set pieces
really really shined here, and just the whole the whole invasion was really really
awesome. I totally agree. It's just such a cool thing to to take
it and see and you just have the the fire Nation just lugging their fireballs
out and the water benders are like conjuring out water spouts that are just like
s and dousing out the fire. It's just such a cool tactical engagement.
And yeah, you got at this point, Admiral Admiral shoo, yes,
thank you Shao, who's just got this sinister plot like I'm just gonna get
I'm gonna get that fish and I'm gonna shank it and I like fish right
there. Yeah, so that was that was crazy. And then that's when
it really starts to get into some monologuing because he's talking to Iro like,
uh, once I I kill this spirit, then uh, this is gonna
happen, like I I He's he's talking about how he is the power he
could wipe out all of the water benders, like kill them, or he
could just take away their power, and he's opting for the power killing that.
And then IRA's like, oh, even fire Lord Ozi knows that this
is you don't meddle with the spirit world. And He's like, oh,
OZI lacks vision when I'm fire Lord and all that he was the Flame of
the West or whatever he is. It's like this guy his asporicians and he's
a pretty shitty fire better he's got nothing going for him. The fact like
he just happened to come across this this great tactic and he has a little
hot air balloon until just fucking like sneak in which the fact no one saw
him flying up in this little like above the battle. I don't know,
I feel like caught him. It's a stretch, it is, yeah,
for Jiao and company. It just seemed weird because like Jiao isn't very an
intimidating guy in my opinion, and the fact that he's like leading his own
like boarding party there is just kind of I don't know, it seemed like
an abnormal thing. Like I very much treat him as a character that even
if he is like a leader, he's like he's in his ship like like
on like you know, like ten ten ships back from the front lines,
like he's just waiting for it all the finish up and then he's gonna go,
uh you know, go, I guess to the palace afterwards when all
the war fighting is done. So especially just for how this version of the
character is kind of being portrayed, he doesn't really seem like a like an
antimut like like even what you mentioned, like he's he's not very imposing with
his fire bending. He just doesn't have a lot of weapons going for him,
and yeah, it definitely is questionable when the the hotter balloon goes over
over the mountains there. So of course, like you have him with Iro
and then you have part of me the like the whole Zuko aspect too,
right like he's going kind of behind enemy lines. He's still is motivated for
his initial plan. He still plans on kidnapping the Avatar and taking him back
to the fire Lord to reclaim his his honor. So a lot of kind
of moving pieces in this in this finale because you have Katara who rallies together.
This is the scene that kind of made me chuckle because it's like war
is up on them and then uh, Paku gets confronted by Katara and she's
like you gotta let us fight, like we're all ready to go. And
then he's like and she's like look at them. And then he turns over
and there's just like literally like like fifty women just like standing there like staring
at him, and I'm like, like there's a fuck. Like there's like
bombs going off all around them, like flaming trebichets of just like molten Rock
are just landing beside people and they're all just like staring at Poc. They're
like rady waiting to get the green light to just help in the battle.
Like it just seemed so corny in that scene. I don't know it.
I don't know if you felt that same way, but I literally laughed when
she's like look at them all and there's just like like it's literally like the
Helm's deep battle and you just have like a group of people just standing there
waiting like can we help, can we help? Like what do we do?
I don't know what to do. We just stand out and ask for
a permission. At that point, you give us the fact like get in
there, like just get on the fucking line and start throwing some water bombs
down. Like, Yeah, it seemed very strange of a scene. You
have Ku Kuruk Avatar Kurak kind of confront aang I guess, and reiterate the
whole point of like you know, some sacrifices, where are ultimate whatever the
helly line says. It just mostly says like you're gonna have to make a
difficult choice at some point, which like by the end of it. I
know, I'm kind of jumping ahead, but like, is it really a
sacrifice if like at the end he's just kind of fine, and like all
he really did was like powered up his mech. I guess it wasn't fully
known if he was going to survive for it, So maybe there is that
aspect, But I just always thought it was funny how they're like, you're
gonna have to have the ultimate sacrifice, like even if it costs you your
life, and all he does is just gets super powered, taking on this
kaiju and just fucking up millions of seem like millions of fire people. Yeah,
and then afterwards he's fine. Yeah, there wasn't much. I mean,
the only one that really lost something was Sokka with Princess u A.
I mean that's right, the waters u A as well, But I mean
Aang didn't really lose much. He still has his friends and and that's that's
all good. I mean, maybe he almost lost Momo, but thankfully Princess
Yue was able to save. Yeah, that was I don't think that's a
thing that happens at all in the animated series. And if I recall correctly
that this is one that Shanea were trying to remember as we were watching it,
but I'm pretty sure Zuko actually gets like fucked up somehow, and then
it's like a big moment because Katara actually saves him and like like heals Zuko,
and then Zuko's kind of down and out and then somehow he escapes on
like the blimp and like gets out of there. But or maybe it's like
the team Avatar gets on Apa and like like leaves after the fact, and
then that's when Zuko's kind of pursuing them again on the blimp. But yeah,
they chose to have Momo like sacrifice himself for a little child, which
now, like I've just seen this happen so many times where like something's falling
and there's just one fucking dumb kid that's just standing there staring at it,
like Willem Dafoe in that meme, and then someone has to come out and
just knock him out of the way. I was not expecting Momo to do
it by any means. And as soon as like Momos got hit and was
like limp under that rock, I'm like, Wow, what a decision to
just kill off Momo in the first season, Like what the fuck that is
shocking. But No, u A takes momos near corpse with Sokka and takes
some like the ancient pools where the Twin Spirits are, and yeah, I
don't know. I guess I liked the moment that they save Momo. I'd
like the whole location and I'll just keep going to with like Ira gets there
with Shao Jao Knife's the spirit. I'm kind of just fast forwarding here,
but we get this really really epic just fucking like imagery. I guess when
when he scoops the fish out of the water and initially and like the moon
just goes blood red. Oh man, I like I got like chills in
that moment, and like this is where, although I do have my issues
with this show, I definitely will rewatch this for like a scene like this
final episode where like the overall battle, I just thought it was so pleasing
on the eyes, but when it goes like blood red in that moment,
it's just so intense and it just feels like there is truly like blood in
the water pun intended, and uh, it's it's just really really intense,
like they're like they're losing hope in those moments like the one imagery of the
moon on their side is just totally taken out, and and then like fast
forward to that when Jiao actually kills the fish, and then you like the
moon just starts like basically disappearing, and it's it's almost like it's fluctuating from
like a black and white to like getting colored backs, which yeah, so
cool, just great, great visuals in that, and that whole kind of
ends in sequence, I thought was so amazing. And then of course we
were mentioning like the Kaiju effect, and holy fuck, like that looked so
good as well. Like, I was just so impressed with all the visuals
in those scenes in an era that you know, it's not always consistent that
we get great visuals. I thought this episode thoroughly deserved the praise for for
just how good it is absolutely visualizing, not visualizing. The visuals that were
displayed here were great. I totally agreed the way that they cinematically had that
black and white transition into the color a little bit and back. It's just
it was so cool just to see that and just so scary, and I
can only imagine that all these water benders their power just gets cut off in
this situation, and I just you'd probably feel like so naked, just like,
oh my god, my shit's not working, like what the fuck do
I do? You can't shit, it's not Yeah, but I was totally
jabbing with it. It just it felt like you said, hopeless. It
felt totally like this everything was coming apart, and Ang was just I mean,
not helping out here. And that's that's that's something too that I feel
like Master Paku. Maybe it was the previous episode, but he's with the
other like leader of the water tribe and they're deferring, like what do you
think Avatar and he's like, you know, I haven't learned how to water
bend yet or do any other elements, and then they just turn away and
walk out, like well it seems we can't count on the avatar. So
that was shitty, But yeah, he does bounce back. Like again,
his his plan at this point, like he's he's great at using air bending,
but his plan for the most part is just get possessed by other powerful
beings and just let them do the dirty work. And I was kind of
hoping to see him at the end of the season take on more responsibility and
kind of control his power and take that first step. Does that have to
go jump off the deepen into becoming more of a mature character, but just
take that first initial step towards that path. That would have been something I
would have liked to have seen, that would have been a little bit more
rewarding. Yeah, but yeah, we're getting there. Yeah, for sure.
We also get the duel between Katara and Zuko here. I thought I
thought it was a good looking sequence. Again, like just the whole fire
bending, Like they did a really good job at translating that from the animated
version to this. I thought it looked really good and really just seeing kind
of the mastered Katara in these moments, like she really was popping off and
just kind of like destroying Zuko, which is pretty embarrassing for Zuko that's just
been training his whole life and she's been really doing it for like what like
a week if that up until this point. So I think like the like
looking at the the what would you call like the chronological order of events,
like just that aspect, like it kind of is foggy with with how expertise
she kind of is. But it's kind of tough getting from episode one to
episode eight, and like just not having her really do too much behind the
scenes of like working on her craft to where she is. Yeah, we
get the Uh. The Jiao confrontation with Zuko. I really liked when Ira
was trying to stop Zuko and just saying like he's a small man that's gonna
have a small end like it. It was like, really, I don't
know, just like really put that in perspective that like this is such a
minor like confrontation that Zuko needs to go with and personally, like I was
kind of hoping Zuko would just listen to Iro in those moments, but maybe
they're trying to show that he still is this this young child that still has
a lot to learn. And he just fucking he threw a fireball at Jao
and we finally see Jao do some fire bending. I mean, I guess
he was doing all right. Zuko kind of like had the upper hand on
him and then turned his back and then Iro saved him, uh and just
just charreed his body. And just what a way to end. I've always
like kind of been like wondering like like do they have like resistance to fire
because they're fire benders, like if someone shoots you with a fireballs have the
exact same effect. I guess so because he looked pretty damn charred in the
uh in the water. But uh yeah, so after that, what else
do we get? Oh? Yeah, so like the Possession thing, great
visuals looked fantastic. Something that I haven't mentioned yet is I think the avatar
form looks absolutely killer in this. It's it's pretty much pulled exactly from the
uh like the animated series. It looks so good and translated into the live
action form. I did. I did kind of, I don't know,
have some hesitations, and Aang is going for like the Ultimate Sacrifice, goes
avatar form and he just starts like talking to them and it's like this really
weird, like almost mister Sinister type voice that he has, and he like
he's not saying anything like too scary or medicine, but just the voice that
they had on him. I was just like, this is this is taking
me out of it. I don't know why. It's just like little kind
Aang is talking like a fucking monster here. I did not care for that.
I feel like I did not need him to speak at all, and
if he did, maybe like habits, so he's like speaking in their mind
or something like like you don't have to have this like super effect on his
voice, and I hope that's something they don't really keep moving. Yeah,
it makes me think of this is the end? Jonah Hill does it?
Jake apologize to anyone that doesn't get that reference. Okay, like what else
do we got here? We got just I guess the Kayju pop off.
Okay, this is actually something that Shape pointed out that definitely broke some of
the immersion. Is the moon is down right, like the spirit is dead.
No one can water bend in the entire world where we're thinking right now,
And then Ue is like, sokka, I love like what could have
been? You know, like I'm gonna go sacrifice myself now and you're gonna
stay here, and she fucking water bends his feet like just icicles to the
ground so that he can't leave. And I'm just like, huh, Like
I didn't really think about that until Shape pointed out, but like she really
shouldn't be able to water bend in that moment, right, Like that's a
major plot hole. She's got the uh when you think about it, she's
got the part of the spirit of the Moon spirit in her right, So
I think that that kind of gives her the ability to still do that.
I mean, I won't argue with it, because like that's probably how they
would explain it, is that, but like I don't think they ever mentioned
that she even is a water bender. But again, you could probably counter
with like, well, she's the moon spirit. So they do because she's
making like the desserts earlier in the kitchen right doing her water bending stuff.
Okay, so she is a yogurt or like scream or whatever. Yeah,
okay, so we'll just we'll just say it's because she's the Moon spirit and
call it a day. There. So okay, it's again like it's it's
a minor thing. But just in that moment she said it, and right
away it was like, oh yeah, that that really shouldn't work at all,
but yeah, you have that that spirit, and oh man, just
that moment made me think of any animated series and in a future season when
I think it's like Zuko or something is like asking Sokka about like a lady
or something and he mentions like, yeah, I had a lady, but
then she turned into the moon and he's like that's rough man. Sorry,
Like he just says like it's like, man, yeah, I can't really
want up you there, Like you probably have the worst luck with girls out
of anyone, because yeah, like he finally had his like one love right
like she was loving him, he was loving her even though she's betrothed,
like they're gonna make it work, and then she just turned into the moon.
That doesn't happen often to anyone. But yeah, good stuff. Uh
anything else on the Battle of the North that I missed or something else you
wanted to mention? Oh, I can't think of anything. Yeah, I
really can't. H Okay, Yeah, I think that's it. So after
that, they win the battle and then it goes I don't even know if
it rolls credits, and no, it doesn't roll credits. It just kind
of goes black. And then it's like a pre post credits, a pre
credit screen scene. My gosh, it's getting late, but you have fire
Lord Ozi interacting with the fire Steer and they're kind of just getting us ready
to know that Susan's comment is coming back around for round two and yeah,
he's just gotten nefarious plans. It. I don't know, like I again,
like I knew this was gonna happen. I thought it was a good
little send off, just to give people that are maybe unaware of what's going
to be happening, like Okay, yeah, the threats are still real.
Oh, I forgot to mention Azula also takes over Omashu. You did mention
that they took a Mashu. But the big point there is Azula was the
leader there. I don't know, I'm not really scared of Azula right now
in the show, so I didn't react too much from it. But that
is definitely a thing that happened and a big thing going into season two because
when our team Avatar go back to Amashu, like in the animated version,
like this reveal doesn't happen like it's revealed to us through the eyes of the
Avatar when he when he arrives to Amashu, it's just like completely taken over,
and it's like, oh, diamn, that's that's not good. So
something to lead into again, Like I don't think there's any being or there's
been any confirmation on season two yet. I heard that it was pretty much
based on reception of the show and kind of what people think twenty million an
episode is a damn high price point. But Titi Field, would you be
wanting to see a season two? I think you kind of already answered that
early on with your initial thoughts, but you can expand absolutely would love to
see a season two. I think the show is it's fantastic. I love
seeing the representation of the characters and live action. I just think that it's
so much going on, and if we get that season two, the budget's
going to go up, because you know, twenty million, forty million episode
episode, yeah, sixty million episode season three. Yeah. I think that
there's still so much that we have to explore and so much we need to
do. And I just think that this is I understand that they're apprehensive and
they wanted to just put their feelers out and test and see the reception of
this season, and I think that it's I think for the most part,
it's definitely positive, and I think that they'll probably see we'll probably see a
second season. I read this is discussing or sourced Collider, and I think
I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I just saw a few people
talking about it that Netflix might add a multiversal element in future seasons of the
Avatar Last Airbender series. I don't know if this is true, if it's
just complete bullshit. It might be bullshit, but it's just something I saw,
and I thought, that's kind of cool to have different forms of Aang
being able to communicate with him, so not just past avatars, but other
versions of him his avatar self. And then I think I saw that there's
some speculation that maybe like a table read is going on for a season two.
So again, nothing's confirmed, but some things there, some things might
be in the way, but I just thought that that'd be a weird multiversal
kind of thing to add in there. I mean, I don't need to
see that. I think that's definitely a whole new game changer. I think
that the show should just stick to its source material. That's what I'm enjoying.
I don't need them to kind of go off and do their own original
ideas. I've seen how that works out with their shows and Hayley don't like.
Yeah, yeah, but I think I think this show is great,
and my overall rating would probably be I'd probably go like a I mean,
I'm riding off of a high, so I'm gonna try and refrain from giving
it that nine out of ten. I'm gonna go in eight out of ten
because there are somethings that are rushed, and there are certain things with like
the older actors and whatnot that I'm not super driving with. But I mean,
fire Lord Ozi, Uncle i Ro and an Ang Katara suck. All
those characters, I'm loving them. I think they're great, really really driving
with them. And again, this show's brought me to tears, So I'm
I'm loving it. Nice. Yeah, I'm I'm very very glad that you're
loving it, because that's I don't know, I think even though I'm I'm
not like I definitely was bringing up some negatives for the show for me personally,
I am just glad that this is the thing. Again, like it's
just bringing more ten into the overall world of Avatar Last Airbender. I think
it's it's one of those shows that not enough people really know about, and
I like, I truly think this is one of the best worlds that they
kind of created with just the whole lore, how it works, the fact
that there's just these four different nations and they all just are very unique because
of their own elements and the one avatar that kind of unifies them or that's
at least how they're supposed to be. So at a lot of great stuff
and a lot of just great stories that you can pull, not even like
using the source material, Like you could do so many what ifs with with
something like this, right, Like what if OZI was the avatar and it's
like an evil type story? Like that is so interesting to me. I'm
not saying, you know, like forget we can expect a what if series,
but there's so much potential that you can do with these types of stories
and even just moving forward, Like we obviously know the story of Kora,
but like we could do one after that, right, Like like there's like
the show, like it's so easy to kind of just keep telling these stories.
Maybe not so easy to tell a good story, but definitely easy to
keep running with it. And Yeah, I'm just glad that it's, you
know, twenty twenty four and we were like new Avatar contents out. It's
it's great overalls for the show. I definitely definitely had a good time going
through it. I I think it was fun to just kind of see a
different take on the story that I know and love. I think there's some
fantastic casting for these characters, like the like the like the main crew.
I can't wait to see if we do get season two, which I'm kind
of with you, I I would expect to get a season two. I
think i'd be pretty surprised if we don't get it. I can't wait to
see who they cast for Tough like that that that's a really great character.
She's super just like sarcastic and kind of an asshole, but like she's she's
just so fantastic. I love tof so she would be really great to have
because like she has great interactions with like Socca too, like they just kind
of butt heads all the time, and I don't know, I just really
want to see more of that dynamic with someone like Socca. But I love
the casting for or Aang, Sokka, and Qatara, even though for someone
like Aang, like I wanted more of that joyfulness, Like I still think,
uh, the kid that was playing him did a good job, especially
comparing it to you know, the other live action version that I had,
And I don't even put it like on that actor that played that role.
It's just like so awfully written all around for The m Night Movie. But
but here, Yeah, I thought though the world building was good, the
CGI was good in my opinion, some of the cast he was good,
like all the the audio effects too. Didn't mention it, but like the
end credits. They have like the same end credits that the show has,
and it's just these like drums that go and it just gets so like height.
I don't know, I just love that the audio effect. I love
the graphics for like this, like the episodes that would come in that looked
really cool. All the costume designs was beautiful. All of those aspects really
made me like want more, even though I might have had issues with some
of like the main pillars that I love about the show, like like the
complicated carearacters of Zuko or just how evil I think the Fire Nation people should
be like Azula and fire Lord Ozi. But I definitely want more. I
definitely want more of this of this show. And yeah, if the next
season drops, like I'll probably just binge it with Shay and and I love
this series so much, and uh yeah, I definitely am. I'm definitely
happy with what we got. I think it could have been millions of times
worse and and like if it was just another m night thing, like I
think Avatar would have just been dead on the water, like that would just
be the end of this for like twenty years. If that maybe just stick
to animated going forward. But I think there is definitely potential with us and
just curious what happens with those budgets, because twenty millions an episode is crazy
to me, Like I don't even know if that's really high for a show,
Like I don't know what the budgets for shows are these days on the
top of my head, but that seems very high. I see million budget
totally. Yeah, that's a movie, not even right, Like Madam Webb
was eighty million I think for the budget for that and like that made nickels
and dimes. Yeah, jesus, I know it's it's crazy, like one
hundred and sixty mili. That's like it's not a massive one, but that's
that's large. That is that's pretty significant. Yeah, uh for a number.
Rating kind of tough on this one because I think I don't know,
like I think I would be six six and a half, which like is
seems low, but like it I don't know, Like I I think it's
worthy like I'm thinking back to like Rings of Power, and I think I
gave that show like a six and a half, maybe maybe a seven,
just because I love the world that they brought us, but because it's just
I like, I'm very much in my own like kind of almost head cannon,
and like what I pull from the show, not necessarily headcan is a
way to stay it, but just the source material is I think of it
a certain way in my mind. If it isn't told that way, I
kind of think of it lesser. But I don't know if maybe it was
six and a half for this show, just because especially like the finale,
man, like I want to like rewatch that now, Like that is just
such a beautifully well constructed finale for the action and everything. They did a
great job with that. So yeah, I think I'm happy with that.
My gosh, I need some water, a lot of talking to it a
long episode. But thank you so much for joining me with this tailor.
I'm so glad that you watched this with me and I didn't have to do
a solo review. But yeah, I mean we plugged everything at the beginning.
You know where to find us, and we'll see you next time.