Dear Abbey

Water, earth, fire, air. This is what we This is Yippy Hoora Avatar Podcast. Alright, welcome back to Yip Yip Hooray and Avatar Podcast. I'm Jordan.

And I'm Katie.

And I'm Troy.

And Bretzel, our dog, was in here, but we decided that she kept going in circles, showing us the toy bone that she has, and so we evicted her.

Just moments ago.

She really wanted to play, and when she wants to play, she puts her mouth on your arm, which is a charming quality. And so now she's been evicted.

She has been kicked out of the tribe, but The tribe has spoken. Oh god, is that wait Yeah, that is a Survivor reference. I was like, yeah, yeah, but then you lost it. How is it?

Ayoyoy. And then Jeff Propes is like, my mother had the biggest crush on the host of Survivor. Like, he was probably really close to being my stepdad at some point.

Isn't he kind of just like a little guy?

He might not be that sure, but he's got these dimples that my mom are really into. So, fellas, if you're interested in my mother.

And you got dimples.

I can give you a number.

Troy.

I have no idea what you're talking about. Troy, what's your take on dimples? Love 'em? Leave 'em? Um, indifferent. Well, you have a dimple.

I feel like I'm same. I'm not like, ooh, dimples. Like, do you have one? I guess.

Kinda? I don't know. I'm trying to show off. I'm trying to show off a dimple. I think I have a right dimple.

See, I'm not sure. A dimple versus a smile line.

Well, a dimple, like if you have real dimples like Mr. Jeff Propes, they're like these big indents in your cheeks, and you're like, oh, look at me.

They're like little pockets.

You could put like a little button on them.

unknown Hmm.

Okay. Moving on.

So today's episode, we just got done watching chapter 15, Bottle of the Water Tribe. Chapter 16, The Deserter. Mmm, dessert. And then chapter 17, Northern Air Temple. We are sprinting to the finish. We are almost to the season one finale, which is insane.

Is it? Because again, it's kind of like my first time.

How is this for you, this batch overall?

This batch, like what we just watched?

They're all unrelated. Like none of these episodes are thematically similar.

Yeah, but there was really good moments in all of them. But yeah, did I walk away being like, ah, so good?

Let's get into it. So, Botto of the Water Tribe, we are introduced to Botto of the Water Tribe.

Wow. A blast from the past.

So we find out that Botto was one of the men who went off with Sak and Katara's father, who we meet for the very first time in this episode. I wasn't convinced the way they meet Botto, like they're they find his ship, and then they decide to make camp, and then all of a sudden Botto shows up like old bandaged.

She's like, Here, let's go inside. And you're like, Where we're by the ocean. Where are you?

Yeah, yeah. And then he's like, Oh, let's go to the Abbey, and like these women all take care of me.

And wait, can we dive into the Abbey really quick? We are in the world of Avatar. We have the Earth Kingdom, the Southern and Northern Water Tribes, the Air Nomads who have been eradicated, and then we have the Fire Nation. Somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, there's an abbey with nuns or mothers or whatever making perfume.

Are they Christian? Is there some other religion we should be aware of that deserves an abbey? Shouldn't an abbey be dedicated to like the Avatar or like the spirits of this world? I feel like we're not quite in a position to have an abbey in the world of Avatar.

I agree. But I mean, that's just how how we roll. Let's like force our religion on someplace it doesn't belong.

Well, then where did it come from? Or is there like another, is there a fit, is it the spirits? The spirits game? They're like, no, no, no, we got this other thing we want to talk to you about.

Troy's not invested.

I'm not sold that an abbey could exist in this world because what we've been taught so far is that everything is very spirit-based, and then you have the different nations with their own sets of beliefs. We've never been introduced to any sort of other type of belief that would deserve an abbey. We've seen like temples.

No, I don't know.

What's the ab what do they do? I mean, what's it- why is it there?

Well, for something, but we'll never get those answers. They were just there to take care of Bato.

To make the perfume. They were there to service the plot. And with the plot, we meet June, the bounty hunter, and her sheershoe, the giant scary monster, which was making dinosaur noises.

Yeah, that thing's intense.

Troy, what was your opinion of the sheershoe, the monster thing?

This whole episode, for one, it threw me off when it was, you know, Bato the Water Tribe. Why wasn't it called the Water Warrior? That would have really got my attention better. Also, yeah, the monks with the perfume. What are the odds that that they're monks or nuns and that there's an abbey? What are the odds of the uncle finding the kids?

What are the odds of the perfume throwing off the scent of June and her monster? Her monster, especially. Like, there's so many things, it's like, what are the odds? The odds are extremely high.

It was a very convenient episode.

So that's what made this episode like almost like no credibility to me. It was just more like everything just happened to be such a coincidence. It was too much of a coincidence for me. It was an enjoyable episode, but it was more like everything was pretty random, and they just happened to tie it all up in the last five minutes, which I thought is pretty good writing in itself.

I mean, they did take it take uh a bunch of separate themes and kind of like scramble it up into uh alphabet soup, and then Yeah, you're right, Troy. Everything kind of wraps up neatly in the end.

There was just too many elements in one episode.

Well, that's fitting because on your notes, I look over and Troy's just written out the entire alphabet several times. I'm like, what does that mean? Was it accurate?

You know, I should have looked, but Which alphabet did he write out? Did he write out the Roman alphabet or was he deviating and doing the Avatar alphabet?

Well, Jordan, I went to Talmak High School, so I wrote the only alphabet I was ever taught, the English alphabet. Okay.

So wait, quick question, you two. What is the number of different letters in the alphabet? How many are there?

A, B, C, D, E. Twenty-four.

Twenty-six! Aww.

Okay. That was a good quiz. What are you saying?

Here I go. This episode, something I enjoyed was Aang kind of being pushed aside, getting in trouble, like messing with the ceremonial like animal skins, and they're like, uh, Aang. And he's just being all angsty. And so I'm like, yeah, push him to the sun.

And Botto's Botto's not like not sold on Aang. He's like, yeah, you're the Avatar. It doesn't really make a big deal about it. I don't know if the Water Warriors have heard that the Avatar's back. Do they get messages? I mean, Botto's like, oh, hey, it's you. Cool.

Yeah, no, it's not like that big of a deal. Like, oh, our savior's here.

And we're not, we're assuming Grand Grand is not writing anybody. I don't think Grand's keeping in contact with Sak and Katar's dad.

No. And that's okay. And then a great quote from June is when she's like, oh great, the angry boy and the like Uncle Lazy.

Oh man. So June, uh, her character, she was based off of another person that the creators, Mike and Brian, know, and she was um a post-production supervisor on Avatar The Last Airbender. And the Sheershoe's uh name is Nyla, which is actually that woman's dog or her dog at some point. So they name that that way.

I read also that the tattoos that June has is also the same as the woman they based her on. Like she has those tattoos. I don't know. Apparently it was a really good friend. I wish that I had been a good friend to Mike and Brian, and they could have written me in as a character.

Yeah, that would have been nice.

What would I have been?

Appa.

I would have like I would have been Appa? Like it would have been my face on a Sky Bison body, or would I have just been another Sky Bison?

Uh, just another Sky Bison.

Another thing with June, her shearshoe is a combination of three animals. What three animals are they?

Dog. Cat.

Dog cat. Dog cat mouse. Bull. A bull? Bull.

Dog. I want to say bat.

Bulldog bat.

Okay.

Cougar. Bulldog cougar. Okay, you guys.

Wait, wait, there is the tongue, so we're missing a special species in there somewhere.

Yeah, what's the what's the secret sauce there? Scorpion. The scorpions have tongues?

What?

No.

No. Snake.

Alright, so a shearshoe is a tunnel.

It's a covenant.

Beep, beep, pick me, pick me. Pterodactyl. The three animals that the shearshoe is based off of is one, a wolf. Two, a mole. Oh god. Three, giant anteater.

Okay. Well, Troy. You and me. Uh high five and I can because he's got underwear hands.

Friends at home. Uh Troy has been getting his little fingers onto things, so Katie decided to wrap his hands in underwear.

Yeah, so he can't mess around and touch the cords and stuff.

So Troyes have my underwear.

That was kind of weird. No.

Well, it's now it's now Troy's underwear, so Troy's wearing his own underwear on his hands.

Right, which was a gift from Jordan.

I have given my brother-in-law the gift of underwear. Thank you. You're welcome, Troy.

So.

June was arm wrestling Ryu from Street Fighter. I don't know if anyone noticed that.

Oh, no.

And then Troy and I brought it full circle when you were gone, Katie, and we played Super Smash Brothers, and Troy played as Ryu.

Because you knew he was in that episode?

No, because I saw Jordan playing him the round before. Oh, and so I saw Ryu, and I decided to give him a try, and I was very impressed.

Wow.

So Botto of the Water Tribe, I know that we talked about the Great Divide and how great of an episode that was, Troy. On iTunes, they have Botto of the Water Tribe as the lowest rated episode in Avatar the Last Airbender.

Really? I thought it was the Great Divide.

That was IMDB. This is iTunes. Who knows what's next? Wow. My friend Josh. Josh, if you're listening, what did you rate this? What's the lowest episode that you have rated? Okay, also, a fact about this episode: uh, this is the first time Appa uh is involved in a fight. And I think he did pretty well against the Sheershoe.

Like, Appa is pretty scrappy.

Well, I took some notes about how like Appa was taking a beating from the tongue monster.

But Appa is the best. He just he he gets up, he keeps fighting, and the tongue monster just keeps lashing him. I think June at one point, like, hits Appa with her whip, which I know rude.

No, she's intense. Well, also in this episode, I feel like it was like that not my favorite moment. Just because it's hard to watch when you know Aang gets the mail and then doesn't when to deliver it, that has the map to their dad, and it's tough. I wouldn't say this is the worst episode. God, you guys.

I think that's just more like, oh, the other episodes are pretty good. But that moment for Aang when he receives the mail and then deserves.

I mean, this is worse than like meeting Boomy.

Oh, but you meet Boomy out of it. And cabbages.

Okay.

Alright. So that yeah, that moment where Aang gets the map and he just crinkles it up and puts it in his shirt. He's like, I mean, I understand where Aang's coming from. Like, he has just now found a family again, and he's thrown into this world that's so unfamiliar, and he is very, very close to losing the only people that he considers family at this moment.

So he's about to be left alone with Apa and Momo to go to the Northern Water Tribe.

Yeah. Then Bato, after they make it through that crazy coming of age, sail the ship through the ice dodging. Yeah, yeah.

Which Botto is so irresponsible in that moment. He's like, yeah, yeah, let's do this. I know that I'm from, you know, the Southern Water Tribe where we have ice, but I've seen some really hard rocks that have been here for thousands of years, and we could probably navigate through those. I don't think Botto took the boat through there to check the course.

No, he was just putting his little faith and trust in them, and I think that's good.

Something I really dislike about Botto, really quick, is that he's enormous compared to the kids. Like when he shows up, Sok and Katara like barely come up to his chest. Botto has gotta be like eight or nine feet tall. He is yowing.

Well, maybe he is.

I don't know. So what do we think? Do we think that Botto is overtly large, or do we think Sokka and Katara are fairly small?

I think they're small.

You think they're small? They're 14 and 15. Sokka should be bigger.

Well, you saw what they were eating.

Sea prunes. Well, what did Botto eat? Another guy?

Well, who knows? He's been probably eating fish. Okay. But after they make it through, then he marks them like Sokka's like Mark of the Wise, and Katara gets Mark of the Brave, and then Mark of the Trusted, and then Aang has his like breakdown confession. That was a good moment. It was a good moment.

Uh that was a hard moment for me. Troy. Did you care?

Uh, honestly, the Bato episode is a hard one for me to comment on just because there was just too many uh inconsistencies. It had a lot of great moments, some of the greatest moments I've seen in the show so far. Uncle Iroh never disappoints with his sense of humor. He had me gut laughing. But other than that, the rest of the episode was just so inconsistent.

I'm like, what are the odds of any of this lining up the way it is?

Very good. Back to that moment where Aang becomes Mark of the Trusted, when Botto is prefacing what he's doing with the kids, he says, by the spirit of the water bear. Do you know what the water bear is?

No.

It's a microanimal. It's like this little puffy, you've probably seen it. It looks it looks like a microorganism of APA. It's like this microscopic little like water creature. And so when he said wa spirit of the water bear, the only image I had was this nasty little uh little creature. I think they're called tardigrades?

Tardigrades? Tardigrades? Scientists, weigh in. How's my pronunciation? They're goofy, and I couldn't take that line seriously. Do your research, writers.

Okay. My other favorite part of this episode is like during this intense battle, Uncle Iroh's just like testing out the perfumes, like just totally checked out.

Which is definitely another moment of Iroh maybe not supporting Zuko in his primary mission of capturing the Avatar. I think Iroh probably could have stepped up if he was really serious about it. Troy, what do you think about that?

Iroh has seen so much combat, you can just tell he's wary. He's just he's he's definitely checked out. I mean, if you don't have any if you can't take your nephew's adventure too seriously, you're just there just to sort of like help him when he really, really needs the help.

And Iro's like, Zuko, you don't need me right now.

He's like, Zuko, you're not trying to take over a city. You're trying to find another young man you're the same age as you. Like, I'll come along with you on your village on your journey, but I will play my games the whole way there. Oh, Iro. And that's what makes him perfect for the show. Like, Uncle Iroh is definitely he's right there.

So, Uncle Iroh when they were uh creating creating his character, he was originally not envisioned to be Zuko's uncle. He was just supposed to be the the sifu, the teacher to this angsty prince. And then eventually the head writer on the series was like, Okay, what if we have an uncle who is trying to just enjoy his retirement and then gets forced out of it to like deal with his punk nephew?

And that's the way my neighbor is, actually. I have a neighbor that's a lot like Uncle Iroh, just not as funny.

Does he ever offer you tea?

No, but he's offered me tools.

Which, you know, Iro offers us all tools.

Yes, he does.

With that, the creators of the show they intentionally kept Zuko and Aang being in direct conflict apart for most of the series. Have you noticed that? Like, they're always in each other's business, but there's it's very rare that they actually get into conflict. And this is one of like the few times we actually see Zuko and Aang fight.

Yes.

unknown Yeah.

And I really enjoyed the moment where we're on the building, we're on the rooftop, we turn around, Zuko is like charging at Aang racing on this rooftop, and he's got like this form that he's holding. He's like shooting fire at Aang, Aang dodges because that's what Aang does. But then Aang turns around, and I don't know if you caught this, he uses the exact same technique that Zuko did, the same form, but it's air, and so he gets Zuko with that.

And I think that was a really interesting moment of showing that air and fire are very similar and very connected, but they're still opposites. You have air, which is a passive, more uh gentle bending discipline, and you have fire, which has been painted at this point as uh the aggressor, the the dangerous one.

And so I think it was a really good, a good show that maybe Zuko and Aang aren't that different. No, they're definitely proving that. Let's talk about Appa and his diet. We see Appa eating some hay. We go. Yeah. Aang like bends like a pile of hay over to Appa. How much does Appa have to eat to fly?

Half a ton.

I mean that where are they getting that? Is he grazing as they go?

Right. Is he stealing feed?

How are they stealing feed? How do they get money?

Exactly. Yeah, no, there's definitely some uh what? Plot holes. There's some plot holes.

I mean, just like general, like as an adult, you're like, how are you doing this?

Or is he like a camel slash bear? Ooh. Just eating as much as he can, storing it up inside of his uh big humpback, and then giving the nutrients. Maybe he eats a lot and then it slowly releases over time. Ooh. That's the more active he is, the more he uses, but uh but the way he moves, I would imagine his metabolism moves slower.

That's probably true. He's not maybe exuding that much energy. No.

So it's pretty easy to fly, you think?

He just kinda like He always has his eye on uh Aang and Saka and Guitara, and he does not do much. He just flies around, helps them get from point A to point B, and then when they're in trouble, he's at their aid.

So it's a good thing he ate that hay so he could beat up the Shearshu. Okay, Troy, this one is more of a question for you. Similar to the question about Apa, I mean, do you think that it takes a lot of energy to bend the elements?

I think it'd be wise to think of bending the elements as the same as performing martial arts, really. I mean, I've seen so much Taekwondo, Tai Chi, different disciplines. Yes, I'd say everybody needs that's everybody needs to be on a good balanced uh nutrition plan of carbs.

So uh how exhausted do you think Aang and Zuko were after their fight?

Well, you saw them. They were they were dragging pretty badly, so they needed to replenish. They I hope they're on top of their water. Yeah.

Yeah, no, no, yeah. You never see them really re f refueling.

You just see them sleeping a lot, but you never see them eating.

I mean, Aang did scarf down some sea prunes, so hopefully he's feeling pretty good.

Also in this episode, Aang gets Katara's necklace back.

Which is a huge moment! I mean, she hasn't had that since like episode like six or something.

And I think on top of just kind of being homesick and like having this opportunity to be in you know, so close to being reunited with your with your dad, and yeah, that was good for me, Troy.

Yeah, it was a very pleasant moment to watch.

We saw Sokka and Katara's dad for the first time. Did he live up to expectation?

Well, I've already seen him. Troy.

Are you asking if Sokka's lived up to his dad's expectations?

Do you think you lived up to like the expectation you might have had for what Sokka and Katara's father should have been?

Yes. Um I really did not know what to expect. I didn't even realize their dad was still alive.

And he's alive. Well, I mean, we're not positive he's still alive.

But I gotta tell you, I'd say for the choices that they're making compared to the choices that they could be making, I'd say he couldn't help but be proud of them. And I'm proud of them too.

Yeah, good job. Good job.

It was a good selfless moment of Katara and Sokka to put their their personal needs aside for the needs of Aang in the world.

Yeah.

unknown Okay.

Alright, next episode we have the deserter, and we meet a firebender who's actually probably a good guy. We meet Zhang Zhang, the deserter, who was a high-ranking general or admiral, or something.

Well, we meet Che first.

We definitely meet Che. How is Che for you? Do you remember Che?

I mean like he seemed familiar, but I really couldn't remember like what part he played. I was like, oh yeah. And his voice was really familiar.

He sounded like Matthew Broderick and.

Inspector Fire.

Doo doo.

So Zhang Zhang was based off of the uh the president of Doctor Movie, which coincidentally did not animate that episode. Doctor Movie is the one I have a some beef with? I've got some beef with Doctor Movie. So Zhangjong's based on the princi the the principle. Based off of the president of that animation company and Mike and Brian, the creators, they always joked about how uh this guy looked like a bond villain.

And so I don't know if he actually has like a scar on his face. His name's uh I'll probably butcher the name, but O Sung Hyun uh is his name, and so they they used his likeness to be Zhang Zhang, the deserter.

Wow.

So it's our take on that.

Okay, Trey, you go first. What did you think about the deserter?

You go first. I don't want to butcher the name Zhangzhang. Zhangzhang. Thank you. Let's all practice. Zhangzhang. He reminds me more of uh Mr. Miyagi than he does of a Bond villain.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, they just talk about how the the guy they base him off of, he looked like a Bond villain. But right.

But uh, you know, in in some ways, Zhang Zhang's got just as many proverbs as Uncle Fire does. Um this episode uh really made me it helped me remember that any martial art that you do, it is definitely a discipline. It takes a lot of concentration to do anything worth doing in martial arts. You know, you cannot just uh this episode actually gave me a lot of flashbacks to all the impatient students I've had over the years, and how they just want to get right to the kicking and the punching and breaking the boards, and I'm just I I always had to tell them like, you're not ready.

And they'd like, prove it. So I'd hold up a board for them, and they could not break it.

Hmm.

And so uh no, Zhang Jong was just he was a just a good character to just bring me back to those days, and just a good reminder, like anything worth doing is gonna be hard and takes a a lot of time.

No, I really appreciated Zhang Zhang's like his method that he went about teaching Aang how Zhang Zhang we're told is uh so knowledgeable and knows his way around just the human condition that he could tell just by watching Aang walk into camp that he wasn't ready to learn firebending. He could just sense that he wasn't he wasn't prepared.

Yeah, that was great. It's like, get out.

Fun fact, Aang actually kinda not really, but at the same time did. Uh Bruce Lee, when he first started training for uh with Ipman and Wing Chun, he walked right into the studio and Itman was gave him the same look like either you're not ready or you're far too ready and you're gonna hurt some people.

Oh wow. And Bruce Lee was like, I'm ready to hurt people. Oh man, Bruce. So that's what that also reminded me of Aang's walk.

So in this episode, were you picking up I mean, did you identify any martial arts styles the when Zhang Zhang was teaching?

The very first lesson was to squat, breathe, and feel the sun. Well, in Tai Chi, it's the same thing. You have your feet shoulder width apart, bend your knees just slightly, to have your uh uh balance, uh center of balance. You breathe in, you breathe out, you feel the sun. If it's sunny outside, and uh then you may begin your form.

Yeah, like I said, this uh The Deserter is probably one of the better episodes. I'm willing to bet you it was probably ranked pretty high in on iTunes and IMBD. IMDB. IMDB. It just it it really compliments the culture of martial arts. There was no inconsistencies in this episode.

It was a really tight episode. It was uh it's an award-winning episode. It won an Annie Award for storyboarding in 2005. The woman who was the storyboarder, but she was also the director, Lauren McMullen, she won an award in 2005 for that. And in the art book, they break down like the storyboards that they was that they were doing.

And it was they identified when Aang first meets Zhang Zhang and he walks in and Zhang Zheng has his back to him, and Aang still wants to approach Zhang Zhang. But that leads into a really great moment of Zhang Zhang talking about destiny and how how you can possibly know about the destiny of the world when you've only lived in a really small portion of it.

I thought that was a really powerful moment from Zhang Zhang. Yeah, he's really wise, this disillusioned character. I think probably has some self-hatred going on about firebending. I think he probably. I mean, clearly he's he's a master firebender, but he probably feels like there's no place for him in the world now.

Admiral Zhao. Zhao. Thank you. Oh, thank God. Admiral Zhao was a student who I think Zhang Zhang wanted to be his protege, but he turned out to be he had very uh gosh, this show has a lot of parallels to Star Wars. Jump uh Admiral Zhao ended up becoming a Darth Vader-like character, you know, and I think it was incredible that Aang took the little training he had and he was able to use that against such a powerful uh Darth Vader-like character, and he knew he noticed the guy had no restrain, and Aang was able to outwit Admiral Zhao, and I thought that was brilliant writing.

I did appreciate how this episode really taught the importance of restraint, and just because you are capable of doing something, maybe you shouldn't do it.

You guys, you haven't talked about the fire festival.

That festival was ridiculous. Okay, what what did you take away from the fire festival, Katie?

Uh, that we should all wear masks and I don't know, have a fire dragon. I don't know.

In the art book, they talk about how they wanted to show how the Fire Nation wasn't just a militaristic society, how they had some rich cultural heritage. So we are placed into an Earth Kingdom or a Fire Nation colony in the Earth Kingdom. So it's a Fire Nation outpost. We learn more about colonialism and how they're able to still celebrate like their home culture here.

There was a moment in the art book where they talk about the one of those establishing shots of the festival and how you can see the Fire Nation, like Fire Nation architecture mixed in with like the Earth Kingdom architecture that we've seen. So the surrounding buildings are kind of the more square Earth Kingdom stuff that we've come to see, and then the more like Japanese, kind of Chinese kind of wavy architecture that we have.

If I took any architecture classes, I could probably tell you the art style in which they are designed. But the storyboarders and the concept artists they tried to show and convey that this is actually some colonialism at work here.

Uh, and then we got the sweet fireworks as they got out of there.

Okay, but back to the that fire festival really quick. In the the art book, they talk about how that magician guy, he apparently has a ton of backstory. Like they have an unnecessary amount of information about that character. His name is apparently Malu. He comes from a family of magicians in the Fire Nation, and Taming of the Dragon was the magic trick that made him famous.

So again, I'm sorry that he wasn't the one who ended up teaching Aang firebending. Yeah.

Well, I think Aang was upset about that too.

I just think Aang was kind of bummed. He was really interested in learning firebending in this episode, which I thought was really uh an interesting character choice for him.

I think it made sense to me in that moment, because he was, you know, we already know he's impatient and like he's just ready to master everything and doesn't really want to put in the work. Because I think a lot of stuff has come easy to him, you know, and so for things to to not or for him to actually have to put in the work isn't what he's used to.

I think I can relate to Aang in that way. I'm just like, oh yeah, I got this. I can learn this really quick. And then you're like, you're in out of your head instantly. You're like, oh, that was a terrible idea.

Right. And being able to like persevere and like keep going and not just give up. And for him, he doesn't really have that luxury to just walk away, even though he says he's never gonna firebend again.

Which do you believe he's never going to firebend again, Troy?

Oh, he's totally firebending again. He's got no choice. Um snap. You're the Avatar son. He uh he Donna, this him walking to the to the Fire Festival, for one, it took me by shock that they do celebrate their culture the way they do. I thought they were just all like a Spartan-like culture. They all they cared about was putting things on fire, and just that's all they wanted to do.

I mean, because yeah, that's what we've been shown so far. And the only sense of culture that we've gotten from the Fire Nation to this point is Iroh and having Music Night on the ship.

Yes, and Aang's gotta make much better emotional intellectual decisions. I mean, any every one of his choices just kind of annoys me at this point.

Oh, poor Aang. I love that the ridiculousness of him just like putting his shirt over his head is the acceptable uh disguise to go into this festival.

Well, they got limited resources.

But I love their cloaks, like that really dramatic moment where they're just like pulling on their hoods and then here's Aang pulling a shirt up. Yeah, well. And then that moment where they have the masks and that great physical humor of looking at Sokka wearing the happy mask, Aang wearing the sad mask.

We take off Sokka's mask, he's frowning underneath, you take off Aang's, he's stoked underneath, and you switch them. That was really great for me.

Okay, can we go back to when Commander Zhao Zhao and Aang were fighting and I love that moment. Well, I guess it's more of like a one-way. But right, and Aang's like kind of just like making fun of him and really trying to get him all flustered and irritated. But my favorite part was when he said, I don't know why, but I thought you'd be better than Zuko.

And what a way to just really like stoke the fire of this, you know, middle-aged admiral who's probably fought for everything in his life to be compared to this twerp of a kid that he's kind of antagonizing at this point. But I love that we finally see some real growth from Aang, that he's able to kind of center himself, understand his opponent, and know exactly what he needs to do to kind of turn, turn the tides in his favor, with still being passive.

And I think that's really great that we have this main character of the show who isn't going to use aggression necessarily against his opponents. He's going to be calm and collected and try to outwit them. And I think that is a great trait of Aang's.

Well, and also in this episode, yeah, because Aang's so anxious to bend fire and he wants to play with fire, he wants to do the magic trick. Wants to play with fire, yeah. Alright, and that's it. And because we already know he's this immature little boy. Okay. Yeah, and then burns Katara because he's just, you know, you're playing with fire and you don't have any control and you haven't really learned anything about it.

Yeah, and then he's just gonna like shoot it off to his friends, and I don't know if he was just overthinking like well where that was going to go, or if he anticipated on Katara like being able to protect herself, but yeah, it happened so fast, and all of a sudden, like, here's Aang burning his best friend, basically.

That's a really unc it was a really uncomfortable scene.

It was a good physical joke for sure. Playing with fire. Joke? Playing with fire. He was literally playing with fire, and his friends got hurt in the process.

No, and like Sokka, like I feel like Sokka's gonna take him down. Like, you burn my sister.

I love that. It was a great it was a great moment for Sokka. But then I I think Aang, like, dropped the ball on you know the aftercare for Katara. Like he just lets her run off on his own, and Aang is probably just in shock that he even did that.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, not exactly. There's been multiple moments that Aang has dropped the ball. But but through that, we find out that Katara has these healing abilities. Troy, what do you think about that?

Uh the healing abilities really caught me by surprise. Yeah, no, they could really be good. They could really be put to good use for sure. I I don't really have much to add to that other than the healing capability really does add um more to Katara's personality.

It gives her a another tool in her arsenal that she didn't know she had. At first I wasn't sold on how she earned that power, but then I started thinking about it more, and I was like, well, I guess if you like just experience this burn and you're like, how do I like help myself? I need to like soothe this in some way.

So she puts it in the in the water for the calming, soothing effects of it, and then feels like that that power kind of activating in her.

And uh Zhang Zhang Zhang even said it himself, he goes, Oh, very few waterbenders ha ha uh possess this capability. And so with her natural focus, it I'm sure it was not too hard.

Right, so maybe Katara is actually she's genetically predisposed to be like a great bender. So maybe we have like some foreshadowing there of what she might become. But there, yeah, there's that moment too where Zhang Zhang is like talking about the importance of the other elements, and I think he is playing down the importance of fire or what it can represent.

I think, like I said earlier, I think he only sees fire as like death and destruction, and so he is so disillusioned. So he's yeah, he's an interesting character to bring in where you're trying to learn maybe to sympathize with fire more, but Zhang Zhang is kind of like, no, they're crazy. We probably should just eradicate the firebenders.

Yeah. Right. And he's just kind of feeling really probably a lot of remorse for all the destruction and I think Zhang Zheng really.

Yeah, Zhang Zheng can maybe represent the ability of characters to grow and to change. And yeah, Zhang Zhang's probably responsible for a lot of the chaos in the world being a high-ranking admiral or general. And so he's an older guy, he probably held that position for a long time, and he's probably he's probably done some things that he regrets.

Okay. Northern Air Temple.

Not my favorite. Not my favorite, the Northern Air Temple.

Yeah, does Northern Air Temple rank higher than Bato?

Apparently. So, Northern Air Temple, part of it, the creators weren't sold on the the architecture that they created for the Southern Air Temple. They were never really impressed with what they were able to create, and so they put a lot of effort into the Northern Air Temple design. Like they made sure they wanted it to be dramatic and kind of breathtaking.

The uh surrounding landscape was inspired by Brian Konitsko. He went on a snowboarding tour to Whistler and noticed there were these like dark mountains kind of capped with the white snow, and so he thought that contrast was really interesting. Thinking about it, you guys have been to Whistler.

We have.

We have, yes.

What do you remember about Whistler?

Uh I watched movies the entire time we were there. You did? Yep. I uh the films were great. Yeah, no, I uh I got some pretty random stories about it, so that's a different No, we went like zipling through the trees. Yes.

Anyway.

I remember Whistler was really beautiful, but yeah, we were just kids when we went, so I mean, I was yeah, I guess I was watching too many movies actually because I don't remember much about it.

You weren't picking up on the contrasting dark mountains with the the white snow?

No.

So the Northern Air Temple in the lore of this world, it's designed as a place for young air nomads to go to train. And Aang makes some mention about how the Sky Bison Polo competition was there, which I think was kind of a weird joke. It was like, why are we talking about polo? What is this job? What is this like thing that we're doing?

Male memories. Memories.

That's true. I appreciate in this episode that we're we really get to know and and empathize with characters with this with disabilities. We meet Teo, who is in a wheelchair from an accident uh when he was a toddler or an infant, and then we meet his father, whose name is the Mechanist. I mean, we never get like a name for him, but he's missing three fingers because of knife sharpening or whatever the joke is.

He's like missing his eyebrows, he's this absent-minded professor character who's just creating all these really wonderful things. Do you think that they should have destroyed this temple to make a home for themselves?

That's a complicated one to answer. Yes and no.

Well, it's interesting in this episode because I feel like it was just that r friendly friendly reminder that there's no more airbenders, like that Aang really is the last. And yeah, obviously, if you're not an airbender, and that's what this temple is being used for, and right, how can you make it work for you?

And this what did you say his name is the dad?

The mechanist.

Right. You know, he didn't know if anybody was coming back. It's this abandoned building.

From his dialogue, it almost seems like the mechanist didn't even know that the Aeronomads were people. Like he was he didn't even have any sort of concept of of this tribe of people.

Right, but I mean, how many people here don't know about different cultures or races? I mean, it's so easy to just be disconnected and you don't really know, and it's like, oh well, here's this this lovely heritage site we're just gonna destroy because.

Who was the mechanist based off of? I'm not sure. He he has to be like a cross between Nicola Tesla, Albert Einstein, or some other person. He just has a strong resemblance to a historical figure. I just can't put my finger on it.

I mean the hair was definitely Einstein-esque, like kind of like wild.

He's just kind of The invention like the hair was inspired by Ain looked like it was inspired by Einstein. It looked like his inventions were inspired by Einstein have Oh yeah. Yes. He had the whole stash and wild hair going on. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Also, his eye circle thing was apparently s not supposed to be a monocle, you know, like the red circle that he has. They designed it to be like he had like this scar, like this burn from like a steam-powered telescope was supposed to be the line in the script, but the animators accidentally created a monocle, and so when they watched it, they're like, what the alright.

It's a monocle. They made for a great character trait. I was like, wow, this dude's he's been doing some stuff.

So what do we think about the fact that he is knowingly uh providing the Fire Nation with uh weapons of war.

I mean, I can understand his conflict of interest between him and the Fire Nation. I want to look at what alternatives he had. It probably didn't have any. So there that fact, I understand the son can be angry at him, but the son could actually think for a minute, he couldn't actually be that angry at his dad.

His dad did not have a choice, dad had to provide. So, yeah, there there was no alternative until he saw Aang.

Yeah. No, it's a bittersweet moment of yeah, when people really don't have any options. And it's like, well, do you want to live or or not?

And Or do you want a home or not? Yeah.

Right, and they have the backstory is that they already have gone through so much struggle with like surviving a flood or whatever, and like taking refuge in this this abandoned temple and making it work for them. And yeah, Katie, uh, they're you're right. Like, if you're in this site, the whole world's at war.

Like, the last thing you're really worried about is preserving a historical site, especially when you can create a home for your people that are displaced.

But my only thing is um about the mech about the mechanist and the fire nation, him ha forcing them to make all their weapons for them. I'm surprised he didn't make weapons that would explode on them in the battlefield, or I'm surprised they didn't make more booby traps.

Definitely.

Like he didn't pull like the like that is one little alternative that I can think of. Like he couldn't have made it like a little bit harder of a passageway for the Fire Nation to get up there. Uh, I don't know, with how much thought he put into all his creations, you would think he would think of a way to repel the Fire Nation.

But clearly, like, just an absent-minded professor, maybe not all there mentally. I mean, you don't get the vibe that he's necessarily going to go out of his way to prevent that. Like he I think his character was like, I'll just do whatever you want. It's gonna protect me and my family. So you don't get the sense that he's really a freedom fighter until Aang shows up.

Even when Aang is there, he's like, Whoa, Aang, like settle down. Like, we got this covered, man.

Well, right, and Aang is so passionate about it's like he's very unimpressed when he comes to the temple. Yes. And and yeah, he's kind of looking for this, like instigating this change, and it's like it's it's like payback for all this pain that he he has on his heart for what the Fire Nation did. And okay, something nice about this episode is I feel like it was one of those moments where we can see Sokka and he's able to show his like skill set.

Yes.

Which is always nice, where it's like Sokka can be more than just comic relief.

Yeah. And a crack shot with the boomerang. Yeah, no, Sokka's intelligence is shown off pretty well, and he has like a good mind for like engineering and kind of uh creative thinking and problem solving. And so he's a good foil for the mechanist, where the mechanist is just like, I'm gonna build these like crazy contraptions, and Sokka's like, let's take a moment and think about how we can improve this or make it better.

Yeah. Can we talk about how not all the soldiers in the Fire Nation army are firebenders? Like, I think only the the only firebenders were the ones in the tanks.

Well, they're probably needed on the front lines, and not everyone in the fire nation are firebenders.

I know, but it just it's disturbing that so many people of, you know, I don't know if there's like a draft or anything in the Fire Nation, but they're also trying to like take over the whole world. So colonialism, they're mad men.

I liked at the end of the episode and I feel like just Aang finds this acceptance and can finally accept the new crew that's living in the Air Temple, and he's I think he can just be at peace with that.

Because it's not their fault that his people aren't living there anymore and they're making the best of a bad situation. And I think it's another instance of Aang coming into a village or a town and instilling those people with hope about the future. I mean, these people are now they're f actively fighting back and have made a vow to fight back against the Fire Nation if they come back.

And so he is starting to create create more hope in the world. Something I don't like about this episode, and I think it's just something that goes along with the series, is I don't like the use of CGI, the computer generated images. I don't like the tanks. I don't think it blends very well with the series.

Because the series is so beautiful, and then you have these like clunky, kind of you know, funky looking tanks hanging out. Even the door that Aang Airbent opened, like that was CG. I was like, get out of here.

See, I can't even tell. Which I don't want to know how to tell because I don't want to be like you in that way. Like I can just watch it and be like, okay, we're watching some little cartoon.

I like Korra. Like, there's so much, there's so much more CG in Korra. Like any machine is CG. And I you could probably dig into it and be like, okay, what does that mean though? And I'm not gonna because the industrialization and how they make it CG just really bothers me. It just rubs me the wrong way.

I mean, I don't feel like we're watching Avatar for the amazing animation.

Uh half of them. Anything from JM animation is pretty amazing.

Yeah, but that's not why we're watching it.

Oh, that's true. We're watching because it's a wonderful show.

The best thing about this this show for me is I don't care about the CGI. I know the animation bothers me. You know, uh the only the guess the best thing about this episode for me was I was very relieved to find out that not all Fire Nation warriors are firebenders. I was like, oh, some of them can just wield spears.

That makes less work for Aang. No.

Alright, kids, let's give these some yips. Bato of the water tribe, how many yips we've given?

Ten.

Oh, stop. Don't do that for the sea prunes. Five. I'll also give Bato five. Five yips.

Bato, the episode as a whole would have been four, but with Uncle Iroh makes it a six.

Dang. Iro can bring two points up.

He's really into Uncle.

How ma how about the deserter?

I'm doing a six point five. What?

Troy? Eight. Eight.

Okay, maybe seven.

No, no, it's okay. You don't have to change your opinion because. It's just I really enjoyed Zhang Zhang's like beliefs in listening to him. And he's very he is absolutely humorless, but he she shared a lot of wisdom and a lot of good insight to the Fire Nation. And the fact it's beautiful. Go jam animation.

I love grumpy, uh what? Grumpy protagonists? No, grumpy old man.

Insightful wisdom man. Yeah, I can't.

Grumpy insightful wisdom man. Okay. Me too. Moving on. How about Northern Air Temple? How many yips you give in Troy?

Five. Easy. Yeah.

Five.

Five. I don't know, the yip rates are ratings are difficult.

I know. I don't know. For me, the the temple was easily like below the Bato episode.

Oh, poor Bato. I know there's there's no Zuko and Iroh in that episode. No.

No, and it's like these these three episodes that we just watched definitely aren't the best. But they're not the worst. And we do continue the story and we make some progress.

We're slowly making our way north. The next three episodes. I know that like it's only the last two episodes are considered the season finale, but because these next three are all thematically uh similar, I'm gonna call the next three episodes the season finale. And they're so good.

Hear that, Troy?

So good. So so good. So does anybody have any grievances they'd like to share about the series so far?

Let's hear him, Troy.

I was just gonna say, uh, we were talking about, you know, character development. It's uh Aang gets no grievances from me ever. He's just he's the main character. He's always expected to be growing himself with every episode. So any any uh episode where he just makes a careless decision just to get his way, I'm like, well, that brought that episode down a hip.

Right, but it's still like you she see that character growth with Aang, which is really important for your protagonist to actively be growing in in the episodes. I've addressed my grievance, which was the CG in in the show.

I have no grievance. Grievance.

Wait, I'm gonna back it up. Let's talk about Bottle of the Water Tribe. I I know that was played for laughs when Zuko leans over to Iroh and he's like, Uncle, I didn't see you get hit with the sheer shoe, like with the tongue. Oh, yeah. And Iro like wakes up and he's like, Shh, and he's like, laying there with the paralyzed June was maybe a little too close to home in today's.

Yeah, no, inappropriate.

A little too me too.

Um okay, yeah. My biggest grievance with that episode was like literally it should have been renamed the Water Warrior, not Bata from the Water Tribe. That's the lamest name for an episode for this entire series.

But that's his name, and that's his where he's from.

But that's just a clear giveaway. That's a spoiler in the title. I'm like, call it the water warrior, and then you got my attention.

Well, I don't know. You meet Botto within the first like five minutes. He doesn't really do much. What happens? I mean, I don't know, Bato's kind of boring.

Okay.

My also another grievance is I think Katar and Sokka should be taller. Also, if we're thinking about it, Iroh would also only come up to about Bato's chest.

Maybe his shin.

A tiny little Iroh. Or giant bato. I don't know.

Probably giant. I have no nothing else.

Alright, I am really excited for the next three episodes, if I've already addressed anything, any uh theories about how this finale's gonna play out, Troy.

Is there an element that we haven't seen Aang manipulate a whole lot?

He has not done any Earth.

So he's gonna really struggle with the Earth element, and he's gonna give up on all hope. In the finale?

In the season one finale?

In the season one finale, he's gonna give up on the whole thing. Because he can't earth bend? Because he can't earth bend.

Well, he's trying and he's never gonna firebend again.

And I feel like at some point he's gonna he's gonna be like, I have to do it all or nothing, and that's what's gonna be like the icing on top of the finale.

How do we feel about uh shipping Zuko and Katara at the moment for you, Troy?

Ooh, love triangle?

Well, I mean, there was there was that little like, oh, give Zuko a kiss for me. Like, because we were like, oh, Zuko wanted me to give you this, the necklace.

We played, we played that up a little too long, which definitely feels like Katara's not opposed to it.

Yeah, no, she should keep her options open.

Yeah, I appreciate about that guitar.

She's gonna come down between Zuko and Aang for Katara, that's for sure. That's what I'm shipping right now. I just can't choose between two of them. She can't go wrong with either one.

Also, are we assuming that Iroh is currently single? Is his wife somewhere? Because Aunt Wu, when we met her in Bato at the Water Tribe, was like, hey, they're handsome. And Iroh gives her not even a second more of attention. He's like, I don't I know.

But it was great. Where it's like the only, you know, there's only one big question left. One big mystery. Yeah, yeah.

Wants to look keep it a surprise.

Which was nice.

Which what did that mean to you? He's gonna save that for the season one finale. What was the big mystery that Ira's waiting for?

Obviously, when he dies.

Oh my god! You don't know that was the big surprise.

Maybe that was it. Maybe it was like, oh, like there's only one big mystery left in his life.

Maybe the big mystery is is the avatar gonna bring balance back to the world? Is my crazy brother, who's voiced by Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker. Fun fact. Yeah, Fire Lord Ozai is Luke Skywalker. Maybe he's like, oh, is the big surprise is he gonna take over the rest of the world?

Okay, that doesn't surprise me, actually. He's yeah, one of the better voice actors of our generation.

Yeah, hear that, Mark?

Our generation.

Alright, kids. So until next time, we're gonna be uh Yipping. We're gonna be yipping.

We're gonna be yipping around these parts.

Alright, let's go. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Yep, yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Like going out to the world. Troy's like, okay.

Troy's gone out of the world, he's got uh two, maybe two small underpants wrapped around it. You look like a boxer.

No, they're size medium.

Size medium, but they're too large. I just play in Ryu.

No, he said they're too small.

No, I'm two, as in T-O-O, too large. Not TWO too large.

No, I thought he said a medium is gonna be too small.

English is too small. Wait, the medium is too small? What? The medium's too small?

How big is your waist? Dude, ever since I started working at the creamery, my waist has gotten a little fatter.

Okay.

I tucked in my t shirts just so my belly hairs don't get pinched by my by my belly. Your belly hairs? Belly hairs. Me belly hairs.

So I don't know if that's you putting on weight. I think you're going through puberty, Troy. No, my second puberty or my third.

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