Not Everything is Black and White

Hi guys. We just wanted to come on here before we start our podcast to discuss the current events and something that's been going on and just finally hopefully there is some change coming.

Our hearts are sick. There is a lot of unrest and confusion and sadness following the unnecessary and disturbing deaths of Ahmad Aubrey, Brianna Taylor, and George Floyd. But Katie and I uh support the movement Black Lives Matter, and our hearts are with our black and brown brothers and sisters.

Water.

Earth. Fire. Air. This is what were you saying?

This is Yip Yip!

Hooray! An Avatar Podcast.

Troy, what's the name of this podcast?

You got uh Yip Yip Hooray, another Avatar Podcast. Close.

Why do you say that monotone? Yep, yep, hooray. An avatar podcast. Avatar? Avire.

I was gonna say Sakas. Yep, yep. Yep, yep. Yep, yep. There's a lot of venom in his voice.

Yeah, he was kind of ticked.

Alright, cats.

Welcome to the midnight hour.

Welcome back, everybody, to Yip, Yip, Hooray, an Avatar podcast. I'm your host, Jordan.

I'm Katie.

And I'm Troy.

Hey, everybody. Uh so this is the first time we've recorded in a couple months. Many things have happened, one of which is global pandemic.

Uh, do you hear you even remember watching Avatar like months ago?

I do. I mean, try to be like the child who like has to go months without watching it when it like goes on like season hiatus. So, I mean, this is you just had like a early hiatus before we even picked up any traction.

Okay, so what episode is this?

This episode of the podcast, this is the fourth full episode. Excellent. How cool is that? And on today's episode, we're going to be discussing, dissecting, probably deviating from episodes uh The Waterbending Scroll, Jet, and The Great Divide. Fun fact about The Great Divide, it's the worst episode.

Okay, Jordan has never let me watch this episode because he's a little hater.

And so, third time in, Katie finally gotta watch The Great Divide. But with the caveat that for today's like mini binge that we did, she had to watch it first.

Okay. And you know what? I didn't hate it. What? I mean, I wasn't like, yeah, it was like the Great Divide! The best, but it wasn't. I mean, I feel like we you've let me watch worse episodes.

Now, wait a second. That is some spice being thrown. Well, let's just get into it. Okay, let's talk about Great Divide. Troy, tell me a little bit about your impression of the Great Divide.

It was uh just nice to see another episode where there was numerous tribes that also did not like the Fire Nation. In my mind, it actually did progress the show, but it wasn't focused on the elements as to what kind of impression everybody has on the Fire Nation. That's what I got from it. Like, they are jerks.

People feel the rippling effect of their actions, and you can feel this from them. Even if that meant even if it was just as small as these two tribes just butting heads over a little thing.

So maybe we're just like expanding the scope of the world that maybe more people than just the water tribe and random sects of the Earth Kingdom don't like the Fire Nation. Exactly.

Well, and there was a great quote where Aang's trying to like bring peace, where he says harsh words won't solve problems, action will, which is great. Like in so many ways you could apply that to real life. Uh, and then it backfires against him.

Which led to uh arguably one of the best parts of that episode where we just have like this this sword battle that happens, which leads to the Ganjin and the Zhang tribe like losing pieces of their hair. Like the beard pops off and the hair bun flies off.

Just one.

Yeah. It was insects.

Well, I thought you were gonna say where they feed the little insects, what are they called? Canyon.

Canyon crawlers!

No, but they feed them, which that whole scenario, those giant freaky monsters.

Aang's like, okay, do what I do. I'm going to use my agility to like saddle up the canyon crawler, and then we're gonna put a bag over its mouth full of food to ride it up. And Aang says, and I quote, we're gonna ride this out of this hole.

Is that what he didn't say out of here?

No, he said riding out of this hole is what he said. I don't know. Let's ride on out of this hole.

Okay. No, and so then they make it to the top, and then they don't like they set them free, throw the food over, but they don't take the bags off. I'm like, come on, you guys.

They're going to starve to death down there. All those canyon crawlers, the entire population is going to starve.

Yeah, well, nature's not kind. Oh.

And you know what? Man is the worst.

Yeah, we are the most dangerous animal.

You know, that guy, he didn't want to be part of the food chain.

If I made to those canyon crawlers, they have something that I that's a really big pet peeve of mine, especially with cartoon shows. 18 Eyes. No matter how intense it got, you never really saw those canyon crawl canyon crawlers get like a dents in their shell from any of the rocks or any of the hits they were taking.

They got some pretty good hits.

I would argue that was because uh the Canyon Crawler had an insectoid type body. Probably an exoskeleton can take a hit pretty well.

Yeah, no, it's freaky.

But they're they're in a canyon. There's rocks everywhere. I'm like, there's no scratches, they were all coming out of their holes nice, shiny, clean.

Yeah, they have a very, very uh stringent hygiene plan, the Canyon Crawlers. Gotcha.

Okay, but I think what I liked about it, I guess, is I feel like it's still it's irrelevant. And what I took away is it's easy to blame others for our problems, you know, or is like the two tribes having their little back and forth. Right. And then and then they all change their tune, and they're like, you hear a different story where Aang like makes up his little lie about, you know, it's like, well, this is really what happened.

They're like, oh, okay, it's not so bad. We can get along now. And I just anyway.

Definitely that idea that a misconception uh leads to to hate, and these cultures who have this misconception based off of whatever story they've led themselves to believe. Whether or not it's true, they've taken it as their truth, and so they use it as fuel to hate on the other tribe. Kind of just ridiculous.

Right. I mean, yeah, that applies to so much, and so. Anyway, so yeah, it wasn't the best episode, but I feel like there were some nice messages.

A couple other things about this episode, The Great Divide. It has the lowest rating on IMDB, if that's important to you, out of all 61 episodes. It's not. It might be to Zombie Ball.

unknown Oh, okay. I thought that was trying that important.

It was also uh one of those episodes that really sh it really dives deep into the personalities of both Sokka and Katara. Took me a second to remember their names. I'm sorry.

But you did it! I'm proud of you.

Yes. And it I don't know, it was a really good episode. And the fact that Jordan made a point to tell us that it was his least favorite episode, it was sort of like reverse psychology for Katie Knight.

Oh, totally.

It made us it made us focus that much harder on the episode. You're like, oh, where's the good in this?

Well, no, when your expectations are so low. But that's how we go to the movies now. We're like, okay, expectations, like this is not gonna be a good movie. And then that's always better.

My expectations were so high, I was kind of like let down.

Winter Soldier is one of the top three Marvel movies, Troy.

It is, I know.

You you agree to that now?

Oh no, but he was just so hyped. And it can still be a good movie, but you're like, yeah, when you It's a political thriller, it's so good.

I was overly hyped about that, and I was underly hyped about this episode.

I'm gonna underly hype you the rest of the show.

So Troy liked The Great Divide more than Winter.

Okay. More uh more about this episode. It was done by um Doctor Movie or DR Movie. I'm not sure. No one's ever said this to me before. I don't know how what you say. Uh it's one of the two, and then it split off into three animation studios who worked on Avatar The Last Airbender. Doctor Movie, like anytime that they animate, it just really bothers me.

I know it probably doesn't mean much to you guys, but I studied anim. I studied animation for a little while in college. And I just I have such an eye for detail. I mean, the Doctor movie, it's just it's so pedestrian compared to JM animation, which would go on to um they would be Studio Murr that animated all of Legend of Korra minus a little bit of it.

Um JM Animation, they did, I think 31 or maybe 32 of the 61 episodes. So they did half of it, and those episodes are so much better. There's just such a nice cinematic quality about it, the shots are better, it really elevates everything. I mean, even the writing, if it's if it's done by John O'Brien, who I have mixed feelings about as a writer on Avatar The Last Airbender, he wrote The Great Divide, but then he also wrote like the Waterbending Scroll, and the Waterbending Scroll was done with JM animation, and then Great Divide was Doctor Movie.

And even though it's the same writer, the difference between the two is significant. Like the waterbending scroll is so much better, they do such a good job, just the facial expressions, everything about it. At one point during The Great Divide, I think Aang's eyes were like kind of wandering to the side when he's telling a story.

Everybody looked funky. It was not visually pleasing.

Exactly.

Okay.

So little tirade aside, that's my that's my animation.

Your grievance. Okay. Troy, you have anything to say about this?

I got about the animation? The uh no, the only grievance I have is I just I don't know where my expectations for the show land, so every episode is exceeding my expectations.

Good.

Blowing them out of the water. And Uncle Fire makes uh every episode so worth it. I I kinda miss him every episode.

Yeah, you feel it when when Zuko and Iroh aren't there, like in the Great Divide, no Zuko and Iro to kind of contrast the the subpart A story that's going on.

Had they been there, the IMDB, whatever rating would be through the roof.

Because who knows what Zuko and Iro would have been doing.

They would have been, it would have been their idea to put the bags on the Iro would have had another proverb for those canon crawlers.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so going on to the next episode, waterbending scroll. I always forget how good this episode is. There's so much about it. You get the pirates, you get Katara and Aang like starting to become student and pupil with waterbending.

You see Aang dropping trow to go swimming, and Katara's like, whoa, remember we're here to like waterbend, and he's like, oh yeah, and pulls up his pants.

It's like very like whoa. How was that for you watching 12-year-old Aang get into his skivys? I always want to close my eyes. Like, I don't want to see that. No, Aang is constantly ready to go for a swim. I think Aang spends way more time in his underwear than any other character. He is very body positive.

That's right. Good for him.

No, that that episode's great. There's just a lot of really good character work that happens in that. I think you you've this is the first episode when you start to see Katara kind of grow into a more three-dimensional character with depth. She starts to make decisions that aren't goody two-shoes, very motherly.

Like she straight up steals the water bending scroll. You see her a loser cool with Aang, gets kind of snarky about it. And I love seeing that be added to her character.

Right. And then she can also like apologize and like, oh my bad. You know, yeah, it's really nice to see. And then I also appreciate every time we get Uncle Iroh and Zuko, and just like that dynamic, and when he's, I don't know, Zuko's freaking out because like Iroh wants to go.

Find his white lotus tie.

Yeah, yeah, do the little detour, and he has this little issue, and Iro's like, oh, like, I'm so lucky, I've such an understanding nephew. And he's like, as Zuko's like shooting fire and smoke's filling everything.

Also, which raises the question firebenders, can they withstand smoke?

Hmm. See?

Does it bother their lungs?

I mean, yeah. What's the lung cancer?

Uh yeah, what is well amongst which population we're talking about? I don't know if earthbenders are like smoking cigs or anything.

Okay, also, remember when Soc is giving an Opa a bath, like cleaning between his toes and not in his underwear. No. Oppa's just like spread eagle and tongues hanging out. He looks so happy. I don't know if you guys picked up on that.

Okay, real quick sidebar on the Zuko or Zuko Iroh conversation that we had. I wish that a part of me wishes I had watched Avatar the Last Airbender for the first time as an adult. Because as a young hormonal teenager trying to figure his life out, I couldn't appreciate Zuko and Iroh. I think every time I got tense when they came on screen, so I was like, oh, I'm I'm tired.

You could relate. No! You could relate to Iroh. You're like, I'm Zuko. I'm just so mad, and they're just old people wanting to have a good time. No, just they I had this black and white view that these people were after a goal in contrast to the hero, so I couldn't root for them. Like I couldn't watch the show and be happy with any progress that like Iroh made.

I couldn't even like you know, I was it was like a weird confliction. It was like, oh, like this guy has really good positive traits, but I don't think I should like him.

Right. You know he's bad, and so you're like, I don't want to even listen to you.

Like I don't I I want less screen time. Which I think these three episodes really start to build that that gray area of the series, like things aren't just like you're evil, your pure good, jumping ahead a little bit in jet. Like you have these methods where he just sees the world in such a black and white thing, clouded by war, like you're Fire Nation, you're evil, I want to destroy you and eradicate you.

Kind of like how the no no matter the cost. Yeah.

So that's uh I think I just really appreciate that uh the show does such a good job of fleshing out Zuko and Iroh's characters. Like, even though Zuko's such a jerk, I mean, even objectively watching it, like you're like, oh, I I see where he's coming from. I mean, you got some intense values.

Right, and where he tells Katara it's like he's gotta do this to restore his honor, and no, it's it's great, and I think like and again, you can just apply that to real life. That just it's things aren't so black and white, like they're good and they're bad, and and that's it.

Yeah, and I would uh contradict what Jordan just says about Zuko being such a jerk. I have not seen him be terrible yet, but he's actually more businesslike than I thought he was originally.

Just put him in a suit.

Just put him in a suit, you know, cut off that ponytail.

Oh, Troy, you're so down on the ponytail. You talked about Troy or Troy, Troy's ponytail. You talked about Zuko's ponytail, and you you said something about Anakin Skywalker and then walked away.

What was that point? So, and what was it? The second or first movie?

Cologne Wars, Phantom Menace.

Must have been. It was when he still had a ponytail.

Like his Padawan like a rat tail.

Oh yeah, Padawan, little rat tail going on. And then we watched, what was it, the third movie?

Revenge of the Sith.

Thank you. And he's suddenly the ponytail's all gone. He just thinks he's just I don't know, he just thinks so much higher of himself. Well, in the animated series, when Yoda's promoting Anakin from Padawan to night, he cuts off the ponytail.

Do you mean like the the CG, like the CG, the Clone Wars animated series, or like the traditionally animated?

The traditionally animated. Okay.

Just like shorts that are like only a few minutes long.

And so they're so good. And the the show did me a solid by Saka getting into a fight with the pirates, I think it was, and they grabbed him by the ponytail, and they're right. They're right, come here, ponytail. I tell you, the the ponytail's like they kind of get in the way. I mean, when you really think about it.

And Troy, uh Troy's been growing out his hair for some time. Uh Troy currently has a Zuko length uh ponytail right now. Shaved his head, it's bald. It's uh you look you look like a prince.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say militant, but okay.

Also militant.

Yes.

Uh so fun fact, I uh didn't cut my hair for about three years, and I had a pretty uh pretty powerful man bun going on there.

So powerful. Uh at some point it just started to droop, and so it was like, you know, it was like droopy man bun, and that was not okay.

No, no, it was all good. So in contrast to Zuko, he's got the ponytail, he's clean shaven, but you know, Zuko, he's got that fire in him, you know? You can tell that he's he's a guy, he's just a dude. Me, on the other hand, if I was clean shaven, I have a very cherubic face. I don't age, I'm much like Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid.

Yes.

Uh when I had my man bun, I would often get mistaken as a woman, which was really fun walking around uh like downtown Portland holding hands with Katie and a car full of boys, be like, hey ladies, what's going on tonight?

Isn't it fun to be cat called?

Yeah.

Okay.

Back back to the water bending scroll.

Yes. Uh also, so many good things. When Katara's trying to figure out how to water whip or whatever, whips Momo.

He's the real victim here.

I know. Uh it's so good.

And it's it's really fun to watch watch this like serious progression happening with their abilities, as opposed to other kids' shows or even animated shows, when they deal with I need to get more I need to get more powerful, I need to gain strength. You often don't see like the hard work that goes into that.

Where here you see like the main characters Aang, notwithstanding, you see the main characters struggling to progress in their abilities. Like you watch as Katara struggles this whole episode, and only at the very end does she manage to get the water whip and like smack someone in the face. Aang's a prodigy, he's the avatar, whatever.

Also, Aang still isn't growing that much for me.

No, because the Avatar. You know, he gets there. Just not yet.

Also, the waterbetting scroll, Troy announced has the best cameo of the series so far. Can you remember that? What happened?

Oh man, what was that cameo?

There was a a little old man with a cart. Jessica's face.

Oh yes, the cabbage man. Cabbage Man Champions Man makes an appearance at the perfect time.

My cabbages! And then everyone gracefully avoids the cabbages for Aang to turn around and just rocket the whole cart backwards. Yeah. Ridiculous. Okay, also in that episode, there's a little bit of a discrepancy with some storytelling. Uh Sokka announces that they're about out of all the money that King Boomy gave them in Omashu, King Boomy didn't give them Jack.

Uh that money came from uh the village that they saved in the winter solstice episode. They gave them the provisions. But yeah, give King Boomy the credit because he's royalty. Is he? I don't know.

I don't know if he knows.

Under what domain does King Boomy reign? Just Omashu? Does he have like a little does he have like a governorship?

I mean, maybe.

I don't know.

Uh when Sokka said something about how he's not good enough to kidnap. And then gets kidnapped. Oh man.

Okay, again, this episode, I had there was some really good laugh out loud.

We were laughing so much.

To the point of tears, man. I was definitely just laughing, having a great time. So good.

Uh, some more fun facts about the episode. Um, earring pirate, who kind of talked like this with your curiosity.

Yeah, what are those? I don't know, but we have them.

So that pirate, he's based off of a friend that the creators had made in Seoul in South Korea, and he became like, I don't know if he worked for an animation studio. I think so. They he became like their karaoke buddy, and so they like modeled this character like exactly after this guy. Like in the in the concept art book, like they have a picture of Earring Pirate holding a microphone.

It's wonderful. But then the the the guy they modeled that after would go on to become a supervising director for uh book three of Avatar. So there we go. Cabbages, so good. The con like the the climax of the fight scene was amazing with like the uh the smoke bombs going off. There's so much happening, like there was just knives everywhere, like there was some great physical comedy happening.

Like when Sokka's like trying to caterpillar his way out, and then a knife like flies out in front of him and he like saws it off, and then Aang's like, Sokka, where are you? Blows all the smoke out, and there's that great moment where you just see like all the bad guys around, sucks it back in, and he's like, get out of here!

Yes.

Oh, also that we finally see that Zuko has Katara's necklace from her mother.

Because we saw him pick it up and imprisoned at the very end of the episode.

Mm-hmm. But he still still doesn't have it.

Yes, and it was, I don't know why, in those moments where he's literally flashing her necklace in front of her own face. It's hyper serious versus hyper sensitive, and I have a prediction that those two might get shipped.

So you were shipping Aang and Katara in the first episode. Accidentally. Accidentally shipping. Yes. So now you're feeling like so in the in the fandom, right? It's called Zutara. Are you shipping Zutara?

I am shipping Zutara.

Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying they're gonna get together?

It would take a pretty big plot twist to not have Zutara at this point.

Wait, wait, wait. So you're saying that all the crumbs are laid out for Zuko and Katara.

I think it's hard to get with the bad guy ponytail.

It's not that I want him to. It's just like it.

The way he felt the sparks.

The way the creators, the writers, the animators have set that moment up, it's for anybody that's just really paying attention to those two. It the way they look at each other, it's like she really wants to do the right thing. And he really wants to do it his way. And I just think they they have that.

That similar character trait. I was like, well, that's a good way to get shipped.

She's like, you're so wrong for me, but maybe so good.

Okay, moving on. Bison whistle.

So good. Do you have any fun facts about that? Uh, just the fact that it's awesome. And it worked. And can you imagine, like, with Aang's airbending ability, how loud he can make that high-pitched whistle go? Like, APA could probably be on the opposite side of the planet and be like, oh, Aang's in trouble.

Get in the call.

And it was just like a great scene at the end of waterbending scrolls, like Aang Katara working together to stop the boat, and then Zuko's like, let's just ram them. But I don't think. Wait, who rammed it? Was it just the boat was Right.

I don't know if anybody was on the ship at that point.

The pirates were on the ship. Were they? And so when they rammed it, and I did not see that ship go over the cliff, I was like, plot hole. Yep. For me.

I did.

Okay, I did not.

Okay, also, um, bison whistle. Awesome. So, Troy, you recognize some Tai Chi moves in this episode.

Yes. In the episode, I'm pretty sure it's the water scrolling episode.

Water scrolling. That's what happens when you're wet and you're on your phone. Good ones. Yes. Water scrolling.

So they they literally utilized a move in Tai Chi called pushing the boat down the river. And they literally they took a step back, they brought their arms back, and they took a step forward and they pushed their arms out. I mean, and the way that's applied is if you deflect someone's uh attack and then you push them away.

Wait, so is Tai Chi like you actually like use that to like as a defensive maneuver?

I've had Tai Chi been you I've had Tai Chi used on me. Can I come at you?

Tai Chi been used against me.

I've had Tai Chi used against me. Thank you.

Did they push the boat?

Actually, they did. They pushed me down.

Down into the river?

Yes, and I decided to not like that instructor anymore.

Oh no.

He was literally using me as a good example, so I was like, get out of here.

Troy, you are a good example. Can we talk about how they use the technique pushing the boat to push the boat?

So, and this what sets up one of the best lines in the series thus far. Katara asks Aang for his help because the pirates or the Fire Nation, one of the two, left their boat unattended. They're trying to get away from the fight, and so they go up behind the boat and they used that method, pushing the boat down the stream.

And any Tai Chi expert would be like, that that's good form. That's what I saw. It was great form. No wonder they got that boat into the river. Which led to Uncle Iroh coming in between the two fighters saying, Are you too busy fighting? You cannot see your own ship setting sail. And I just thought that was a very profound proverb.

It wasn't meant to be, but it's so clever. It's the yeah, that was a great form in their move, great plan, led by a great proverb by Uncle Iroh.

So I used to, like, in my my inner circles of Avatar fandom, I would like give the writer John O'Brien a hard time, be like, uh God, another John O'Brien episode. I've just peeked. Oh my god. I was down on John O'Brien. John, if you're listening.

John, you should be on the podcast to be like, what?

What is your deal, Jordan? Plus, you don't even have to call me Jordan. You ruined my life, man. Oh, dude. I didn't like I didn't like attack him. Sending out those negative vibes. It was just like it was just amongst friends, like in like dorm rooms and stuff. Some bad PRA. John. I'm sorry. What are you doing now?

You want to come on? You want to be a guest host?

Okay, so you saw like it was one of his episodes and you were down.

I was down on it. I was like, I don't want to watch waterbending scroll. But he did a really good job. It was really tight writing. There was so many clever points and clever callbacks. The proverb scene, amazing, especially at the end where Iro's like, maybe it should be a proverb. Really quick, I made a note.

At the beginning of the episode, we're watching with subtitles. They go to the port city, they're walking around, the kids are like wide-eyed checking things out, and then you have this frickin' weirdo standing outside his shop yelling, Who's brave enough to look in this bag?

Yeah, what's wrong with that?

What's in the bag? Well, no one was brave enough. I was brave enough. I want to see. Brian, Mike, John O'Brien, can you please send me an email to yip yiphooray podcast at gmail.com because we can only get Gmail where it's a very low budget. Can you please tell me what was in the bag? I promise I'm brave enough.

Next episode. Next episode, Jet! We take a bit of a turn. The episode isn't as haha hilarious.

Definitely not. It's a way more of a series vibe.

It's a little hoo-hoo serious.

But sweet treehouse.

Okay, so that treehouse, the uh the director of that episode was Dave Fallone. Dave Falloni would go on from Avatar the Last Airbender to um co-create uh Star Wars The Clone Wars. Not the traditionally animated one that you talked about, Troy, but the CG one that just wrapped up its final season on Disney Plus.

So he worked on this and he did a lot of the concept art for it. In the concept art, he described Jet's uh tree treehouse hideout as uh Ewok, quote unquote. Oh do you know why? No. I don't know, they're in the forest, and he's a big Star Wars nerd. That's all I got.

Because of Pi Squeak, that's why.

Pipsqueak, who's probably in his forties. Who's kind of delightful.

Pipsqueak looks like he'd be modeled after Jabaca. You think my name is funny? Me too. Smash.

Okay. Troy, let's get your take on this episode. Hot take. Hot takes for Troy.

I thought at first Jet was very impressive. I fell victim to it. And then the more I studied his character, the animators did a superb job. JM animation. JM animation. Shout out to you guys. You made Jet a very trustworthy character at first. And then I s I started counting how many side glances he was giving the main characters, and I go, oh, this dude's planning a terrorist attack.

Yeah, no, Jet, his methods are a little questionable, but he comes from a good place. Like he wants to protect the Earth Kingdom and his people, but he's obviously become disillusioned by that.

Can't you say that about like every crooked person out there? It's like, well, you know, there was good intentions at first.

Now, would you characterize Jet as a straight-up villain? Or how how would you classify Jet?

No, I don't you know, it's again, he's kind of a a gray area where obviously you understand Okay, here it is. It's it's children's soldiers fueled by anger. And it's really sad, you know, really, and just and it's good that our team of three was able to hopefully talk some sense into him and that he's frozen up against the tree and he can think about his actions.

I mean, I think they did try their best to get through to Jet when Katara's like really upset and she's like just kicking him down with all that water. She's like, why Jet, why'd you do it?

She's disappointed in him, but also herself for letting falling for it.

But instead of Jet like coming clean with why he was doing what he was doing, like he everyone knew why he was doing what he was doing. So there was no point to have a line of dialogue. Instead, he just does his bird call to trigger a long shot to shoot an arrow to blow up the blasting jelly. So I mean he just he's he's set in his convictions and he's going to do what he knows to be good.

Right. You know, and that's it is what it is.

So the episode starts off with Sokka trying to be the boss. He's trying to be the leader.

Oh no, no, he's not trying. He is the leader.

He's got the man voice.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is a great, like, uh, it's terrible for children, especially little girls, be watching, to be like, oh, so he's got the man voice, so that makes him the automatic leader. So what Sokka needed was like a Han solo type character like Jet to come around and be like, Yeah, this is what happens when you talk low and you own, you know, and you are the leader of other people, even if they don't know what you're doing, they just follow you very blindly.

Okay, Jet would be like a like bad Han Solo.

Like if it in a new hill, terrible Han Solo, correct. But he had that Han solo that roguish charm that persona going on, and we had to have Jet come on this show in order to see Sokka come to his senses for the greater good. This show does an excellent job. It does an excellent job picking the victims.

Because in this episode, uh the Fire Nation, as terrible as they are, they were still the victims in this episode.

So because they gained no ground in the episode. Right.

Jet had no mercy for the Fire Nation because he's he sees no mercy from them. But he was also going to victimize a ton of women and children. And so he made Sokka learn what it really means to be a leader. And it's not about the voice, it's more about how many people can your actions save. And that's what blew my mind with this episode.

The fact that they thought he was a spy and they the fact they didn't imprison him, but Sokka earlier decided to save the old man from jet, terrible Han Solo, again.

And no, Sokka had a ton of growth. Uh, you see him become more confident with uh his convictions, and even though Sokka isn't always right, he's quick to admit them that he's wrong. And Sokka never he takes his job seriously, but he's not so self-serious, which is a good trait.

Yeah, and it was very rewarding to see Sokka step up and he saved the day.

And Sokka, like, yeah, he he moved away from that um just straight up comic relief character. Now you can see Sokka kind of developing, like he's he's gaining more skills, he's gaining those leadership qualities.

Getting better with the boomerang.

So good with the boomerang. And in the Great Divide, as terrible as it is, Sokka had some pretty good boomerang skills. Yeah, I really heard that.

And as good as Jet is with his uh voice and the way he says things, Sokka once again stole steals the show. He's had enough of Jet. And as Jet says one more final remark, Sokka goes, Yip, yip. Oh, so good.

It was a great ending. The disdain in his voice. Yes.

Also, it was great that like Sokka was never fooled by Jet and like the picture he was painting and just had a level head the whole time. Didn't get caught up in also a trait of a good leader.

No, it's compared to episode one, Sokka has almost come full circle with emotional growth.

Oh man, we're only halfway through season one. Just wait, what's gonna happen to Sokka? He might just become a full-fledged man. But like not deep voice man, like some BDE.

He'll go further, he'll grow that man bun.

No way, you never overgrow a man bun. Okay, what do we think about uh when everyone's kind of like picking on Sokka's instincts and then Katara's like, it's just because you've never kissed a girl. Seemed a little random. I didn't like it. Was it petty sibling jabs?

I think part of it is that's a thing that I hope that we're moving away from just as a society. Just like those types of, you know, what's a man and what's a woman, and it's like manna, blah blah blah. And like that, you need those types of things to to grow up. It's like, oh, if you haven't kissed a girl, then you know, you have you haven't lived or you haven't, I don't know.

Like I can't trust your maturity because you haven't like reached that threshold.

Right. It's like these all these weird false like achievements. And I think that's why just people feel all this self like this pressure. It's like, well, I gotta and now I'm really going. No, no. It's like it's like, oh, you know, it's like I'm not I need to shave my legs, and that's what's gonna make me grow up, or I need to She's talking about me.

I need to shoot a gun, or I need to I don't know. It's like you like there's these little things that you have to do in order to, I don't know, to feel grown and to feel a certain self-respect and respect from others. Yeah, it was just kind of weird for me. I was like, you know.

So even though it was a throwaway line, like the the implications of what Katara said was pretty toxic.

Yeah, it was just kind of unfortunate because I just think that that behavior isn't my favorite personally.

Yeah, no, it's that's what puts this show on its own different level. This show is very, very aware of the expectations that society puts on all of us, and it's going like, no, we're going this route. And it's uh yeah, when she said that, that was definitely a terrible line. But I think I think it's what they call a filler line.

They had to say something just like Yeah, like, oh, we need a joke here, like what can we say?

We gotta We gotta get Sokka worked out. We gotta embarrass Sokka just a little bit, just to kill some time.

Right, because for Sokka, like he he that's been his identity for so long, is he has to be the man, even though he he his self-confidence isn't that he's the man, but he's been told that he's the man and tells himself that he has to be that to fill the gap in the Southern Water Tribe where all the men are gone.

Also throwing shade at like instincts because I like That's definitely you, you're a Sokka's instincts. I am totally like pro like follow your gut instincts, and so I was proud of Sokka. I'm like, yeah, stick to it.

No, great Sokka episode. Again, Aang doesn't really do much, he's just kind of he's going along with what's happening. He's kind of being sold by jets. I don't think Aang cares.

I think that Aang is following Katara and that she trusts him, so then he trusts Jet by default, where it's like, well, sorry, Sokka.

And so hopefully this is an episode where Aang starts to learn to trust Sokka more.

And trust himself more, and like from hopefully that he is having those his own instincts to follow.

So did you notice that there was a complete absence of Zuko and Iro in this episode? Yeah. Did they feel missed to you? Yes. Oh, they did. See, I I know because I didn't even really because you had the the A story was so strong, and you get the antagonism from Jet. Like, I I don't think you would have needed Zuko and Iroh I don't know what they could have added.

Right. That it probably would have taken away somewhat.

Zuko and Jet meet, man, that'd be a FIRE nice matchmate in heaven. Oh yeah.

You think you think Guitar and Zuko have sparks. Just went Ice Ship Juko.

I mean, can you imagine the proverbs that Uncle Iroh and Pipsky would be slinging at each other? Oh my god.

So good. You think my name is funny. Okay, so real quick, uh, let's rate these episodes with some yips. The Great Divide. How many yips you given? Ten. Ten yips? No, you did not give ten yips to the great divide. Are we still rating? Are we still yipping? I mean, I'm gonna yip just because we've been doing it.

Okay. Six yips. Dang. I'm giving it one. I'm just yipping. Five yips? I'm I'm saddling up that bison. I'm riding it to the one. I gave Kimovamashu three yips, and I think that's that probably didn't deserve three yips. Probably deserved like a four, maybe.

Well, that's true. Well, see, I th I thought there was a stronger message.

But had you watched the Great Divide after you watched Water Bending, Scroll, and Jet, maybe you would have a different thing. Because there's so much progression, there's so much character progression. So now I think um the Great Divide kind of stalls the whole series because after you watch the Water Bending, Scroll, and Jet, you have expectations of what the show can be at its best.

And then the Great Divide is what the show is at its worst. And so you get this momentum from those two episodes that you wouldn't have had if you had the Great Divide right after that.

Right. But I mean that just goes to show about the throwaway episodes and just kind of And the importance of a shorter season.

Troy, how many yes we given? Six. Dude!

Might have been a seven killing me! Might have been a seven if I'd seen Uncle Iroh. Might have been a seven if those uh canyon crawlers actually had some few scratches on their shells, made it more believable.

Iro's. I'm gonna say if they got their bags removed.

Oh bags. Are you gonna write to PETA? Yeah. Maybe. No. Okay, water bending scroll. How many yips? Yep, yep. Eight. I also give it eight. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Eight points two. Eight point two. Wow. The the haas that were in the room. I mean, I wish that you guys, if you're listening.

We should have recorded. So if you guys are listening, yeah, if you were here, it was really funny. There's a lot of laughs.

If you're listening, if you're here, you are here.

I'd give you a snack. Okay, Jet, how many yips? Five. Five for Jet? Jet's such a good episode.

Seven. You gave Jet a lower yip than the great divide. You know what? There's no judgment.

No, there's no judgment. I just want some clarity.

Yes, just because Just because Just because let him yip vote.

You can yip. Jet got a fight because they overdid it on the side glances. I just I don't really care much. Like they were trying so dang hard to make him to make him such a cool character. I'm like, no, he he lost it after the second side glance.

So it's getting a low score because he's mad at Jed.

Alright, we'll let it.

The character had a good entrance, but then he just kind of fizzled out.

But what about Sokka's yip yip at the end? Yip yip. That should up it.

No, without that yip-yip, it'd be a four.

But the episode entirely, it's so good. Like you learn more about war and like What's your vote? It gets eight. Eight yips. But because it's it's eight, but not in a haha. It's eight because there's so much effort went into the episode to like show all these. I mean, just think about it. Like you have all these characters that they had to make, and they gave them all, imbued them all with like personality.

Personality, individuality. Totally. It's not like Suki where it's like a bunch of little clones.

It's like they all were having different look, like Jad just, I don't know, halfway through the episode, I kind of figured out how it was gonna end. Let's make it a bad episode. But with the Great Divide, I had no idea how they were gonna solve that. How do they how do they how do you solve a conflict between two tribes?

You make one of the main characters lie. That's unheard of for a hero.

That's no, and that's not good for Aang, and it goes against his character.

Aang is uh And that's what makes it a good episode. Alright. And you should not have poo-pooed the episode in the first place. The reverse psychology, man.

Well, like our favorite episode says, harsh words won't solve problems. Action will.

So are you telling Troy and me to fight?

I just need you to bring it down. You wanna hug it? And we're just gonna be able to do it. He's saying hug it out.

Yeah, he's saying hug it out. Yeah, that's all we need. Okay, kids. I'm the avatar. You are. You would make a great avatar. Let's move on. What tribe would you be born into if you were the avatar? A new breed. A new breed. Avatar cold. She just needs an arrow on her forehead. Yeah.

That's all she's missing. That's all you ever need. And an APA. Where is Rat Soul?

Oh, yeah. So while um Oh, since the pandemic. Since the pandemic, uh Katie and I were having pillow talk one night and just talked about how, you know what? We could totally get a dog right now. Like, we're not traveling. That would be so much fun.

I went to sleep. I woke up. Jordan had found a dog.

Craigslist dog. And like 12 hours later.

We had a dog.

And I haven't had a dog since I was like eight. And I'm 15 now.

You have more heart than me. I told my wife right off the bat, we are not having pets and we're not having kids, so congratulations.

Laid down the law.

I did.

Did that create a great divide?

No. It actually created a nice little bond. I mean. Yes. That means I can pay more attention to everybody else's pets than kids.

That's true. We can.

And she hasn't used those Tai Chi moves on you?

She's never pushed the boat. What'd you say to me about a dog, Troy? Push the boat. So yeah, we got a dog. Her name is Bretzel. She's a German Shepherd. Katie came up with the new name. Bretzel was not responding to her old name. Jordan wanted to keep it German Deutschland.

And Bretzel, which is not, if you're German, you're like, what are you talking about?

It's Britzel. Sorry, Germans, listeners. I don't know your language.

It's those soft pretzels we all love to eat.

We all love to put on our face and take a nap.

Anyway.

So she's a great dog. She's had a long, long history. We're maybe her sixth home. She's only like three and a half, close to four. Had a lot of puppies, maybe was used as a puppy machine. We're not quite sure. But she maybe has a neurological issue, was maybe dumped off as a stray in like the streets of Lebanon, Oregon, which is not close to the Oregon coast.

So we picked her up a couple hours away. And now we've been loving on her for a couple months now and really trying to teach her some things. Wish us luck.

Captain's gotta teach stuff. And so I call your uh your adoption your home for your for Britzole. I give that 10 yip-yips.

Well, on that note, that heartwarming note, we will talk to you later, kids. Uh the next set of episodes are really strong, and I would just like to remind you that from now on, from here till we get to the series finale, it's just a ride, man.

Oh yeah? Got see? It's like my first time. I'm like, Yeah, what's gonna happen? I don't even remember. This is great.

It's gonna be like the Winter Soldier. All over again.

Okay, Troy, lower all expectations. Right.

It's never gonna be as great as the said the next three episodes are like the Great Divide.

They're all like the Great Divide. They're worse. They're worse than the Great Divide. Actually, you the Canyon Crawlers end up becoming main characters.

They become the Avatar.

Yeah, that's the sequel series, Canyon Crawler.

I don't know why I expected you to say like they're just gonna start dancing.

They do that too. You gotta wait for episode 17. Actually, the seas the season finale of book one is actually you find out Canyon Crawlers are the original waterbenders. Spoiler. It's crazy. Okay, real quick. So since we've recorded our last podcast uh episode with Troy, we've gone live. The the podcast can now be found on Spotify, Apple, Apple Podcasts, slash iTunes, I don't know what you call that.

A ton of others, podcast addicts, whatever you want. I've tried really hard along with Katie to get this uh out and about. Please listen along. Uh, this has been a lot of fun to make, but having more listeners makes it more worthwhile and energizes us. On our Buzz Sprout, where we're hosting it. It shows uh me listener locations, which is really creepy.

And so I know like I super awesome. I can pinpoint friends that I know live in a specific a very specific town, specifically in Europe. I see one and I'm like, huh. I can't believe they've watched one episode.

I think we could say they watched one episode.

Listened with their ears. We have one in uh Indiana, South Bend, Indiana, which I assume is uh previous presidential candidate, uh Mayor Pete Buddig. So, Mayor Pete, thank you for listening. Yeah, hey. Hey, Mayor Pete. And guys, if you want to uh chime in, send us an email with uh your opinion of these episodes, where you think the show's gonna go.

If you're a newbie, we'd love to hear uh your theories. Air your grievances so far up to this point of anything that you think about with the show. I was like, with the show or with us. You could air your grievances with us too. It's fine. I I'm like just steamrolling everybody. Uh so send us your uh emails because we still do that here in the Lord's year of 2020.

Our email address, like I said earlier, is yip yiphooraypodcast at gmail.com. No special characters, just yip yiphooraypodcast at gmail.com. I can even give you some.

You got that, Troy? Yip yiphooraypodcast at gmail.com.

I already forgot. Sorry.

Send me five dollars.

Okay.

All right, uh, Troy, where do you think the show's gonna go from here?

Oh, from what I've seen, who knows what's gonna happen and who's Canyon crawlers. Who's gonna progress? Those Canyon crawlers better make another cameo, especially with Uncle Iro.

Is that what you want to have happen?

No, what I want to see is Jet come across with Zuko. The two of them line duke it out over Katara. Oh, we're back to that. And then Sokka has to teach both those boys how to be a real leader.

How to be a real man, you mean?

And then he gives the boomerang over to Katara and says, you deal with this. You're the real leader.

Nice. Alright, well we'll just have to see what happens. And uh until next time, kids, grab your Canyon crawler and give a hearty yip yep. Yep, yep.

Yep, yep. How close do you want me? Here?

Here?

How close do you want me? How close do you want me? How close do you want me? How close do you want me? Okay. Put your arms around me, Jordan. Bump bum. Okay.

Here we go. Warm embrace. Warm embrace. Do you feel it? Let's hear it.

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