The Fury of Aang

Water, earth, fire, air. This is what we This is Yuppie. Hooray! That's our podcast.

Yeah, so uh last time, for anyone who doesn't remember, Troy decided to stand up. So this time we have uh Velcroed his seat to the chair, like the classic moment in a goofy movie. Hey, it's pretty comfy. It is comfy. The Velcro really has a nice uh cheek feel.

What part in Goofy movie?

You know, when the kids like crying and Goofy and Pete like work in JCPenney or something, taking kids' pictures at the beginning of a goofy movie.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh. And there's like family pictures, and Goofy's like having a good time, then Pete's like, hey, watch me do this, goof. And the kids like freaking out, but the mom's like frumpy. So frumpy. Like, I don't think I'd ever seen like a frumpy person in my life until I watched a goofy movie, and I truly knew what sadness looked like.

Yeah, and then so Pete then velcro's her butt to the seat, and then that's how they get the pictures.

So that's what they've done with me.

So yeah, so we have we have a goofy movie to Troy, if you will. And so, with that, hey guys, welcome back to Yip Ya Poray, an avatar podcast. This here, to my right, you can't see, I could literally say any direction, it's Katie.

Hey there.

And then across from me is some knees. Wait, there's more to the knees. Wait, there's a man. There's a man on those knees. It's Troy! Hey everybody.

And then uh there is This man with the loud, loud voice. Who'd it telling a weird story about a goofy movie?

Velcro pants.

What about pants?

And velcro pants. Velcro pants?

Prance. Who are you? Yeah, who are you? I'm the Velcro Prance. I thought you were gonna say the villain for some reason. I could be the villain. Do you want me to antagonize you two? Because you're the Velcro.

Velcro. Brush your teeth! Jordan, the ghost of Avatar's past. Dun dun dun.

Yeah, I am a past life. So this episode we tackled uh chapters 10, the library, and chapter 11, the desert. So we only did two because when they originally aired, these two episodes were packaged together as a one-day summer hit special entitled Drumroll Please, Avatar, Colonel The Fury of Aang.

Whoa.

Yeah, how do we feel about that?

I mean, I think that's fitting.

Well, not the first episode. No, but definitely we see he gets furious. So these episodes initially aired July 14th, 2006, which is a nice summer. Nice summer evening. So I remember distinctly watching this episode because I had gotten home from a summer camp, a leadership summer summer camp, because I was elected to student council that year.

Ooh.

So I came home on that Friday, and I had to make sure to get home in time so I could watch The Fury of Aang.

Starting with the Library.

Yeah, the Library.

The Fury of Aang starts with books.

Which most things do when you have Fury, it starts with books.

No, it starts with mini vacations.

Oof. Yes. Good one. And then What do we think about the mini vacations?

I mean, we could probably all learn from that. Like, I need a mini vacation.

What would you choose as your mini vacation?

Uh, going to the library.

You wouldn't take a flute out to the Badlands and play uh a sweet, sweet tune to a bunch of prairie dogs.

Mm-hmm. And that was nice.

Troy, what would your mini vacation be?

Honestly, the older I get, a libr the library is actually becoming my favorite place. It's a uh more like a in a upside pickup and they still have hoopla at the app, and I've been downloading free books off Google.

You can still go to the library. Heck yeah. That's nice.

Okay, wait. At the beginning of this episode where Aang's like, I've been training my arrow off. I mean, that was That was a great line. That was. And I've never picked up on that before.

You didn't see it like kind of like splintering off. Hmm. Okay, real quick, when he is uh serenading the prairie dogs, let's talk about how you play a flute. So Aang's got his like fingers trilling, but he only plays one note.

He doesn't know what he's doing.

He knows what he's doing, but then Sokka comes up to stop him playing, puts like his finger or a sword or something in the end of the flute, kills all the sound. That's not how instruments work.

Maybe it wasn't. It was a different kind.

A different kind of flute where all the air came out. Think about your clarinet. If you put a hole at the bottom of the belt. A clo it was probably a recorder, if we're really talking about it. That's probably true. I'm just saying I wasn't happy with how they weren't doing instruments properly.

Troy, were you happy with how they were doing instruments?

Didn't bother me at all.

Didn't you play an instrument like for a second?

I did flute back in fifth grade. That was mandatory. You did flute? Yeah, we we played we learned like a 10-second song, and that was as far as I got with that. I thought you did drums. And then I did drums in high school. Yep. I took some lessons for that, and then um, yeah. No, I I did I tried my hand at guitar, but never got the lessons for that.

So yeah, I I've tried off and on with musical instruments, but nothing stuck.

You know, guitar would be nice. I Katie and I are left-handed, and so traditionally we would have to learn backwards to learn how to play the guitar properly. And so I have a lot of friends who know how to play guitar, and I've always been like, oh, can you teach me? And they just kind of go, Oh, I have to like restring it, and I don't really want to.

Hear that, Bob?

Restring your guitar and teach me how to play. So, fun side note, I've known my sister for 27 years now, and as of recently, I found out that she's left-handed, and now I'm finding out that my brother-in-law is also left-handed. How did you- This is all news to me.

This comes up at like every family meal. They're always like, oh, you two, you're like left-handed, you gotta sit on this side of the table.

Obviously, Troy's not paying attention. Obviously not. What's your hand, Troy? Yeah, what do you claim? Right? Yeah, right. Yeah, right. No, no. Well, I'm not aware of saying yeah, left. What do you use your left hand for? Eating. Okay, you're right-handed, but you eat with your left hand. Mm-hmm. Okay, do we all think this is That's weird.

A normal right-hander thing. Oh, it's pretty damn normal, yeah.

No.

Okay, listen. I think you should identify as being amidextrous.

That's probably why 4-H was so difficult for me because I just want to eat with his hand, you guys. I wanted to like eat and drink with my left hand, so that I'd always put the knife on the left side, and then Grandma would be like, no, that's how you do it. So I found out real quick that's not the right way to do it.

I still do it to this day, sometimes I'll put the glass of water on the left side, and then grandgrand will both like just take the water and put on the right side of their mat.

Silent disappointment. Silent disappointment. So I am just as left-handed as you can be. Like you could literally cut me in half, and I would live a full and happy life on the left side of my body. I'm like, I don't know what I am. You think you're left-handed, but then I like we're playing Badminton.

Katie's like using her right hand. Ugh. And my left.

I switched. I've tried writing with both my right and my left hand. I don't like the way my right hand writes, even though it's very dominant. It's like my right hand's just so darn impatient. It's like just get her scribbled down. I don't care if it looks like like chicken scratch looks like cursive compared to my handwriting.

Whereas left hand, I'm like the guy who just can't figure it out.

Well, see, obviously Troy and I are just confused on what hands to use. Mm-hmm.

Well, it's a good thing we're talking about this handedness because in this episode, when the kids finally get to the library, they find out that one of the past avatars was left-handed. And then Aang responds with, I always knew I was special. Boom.

Mm-hmm. Boy, is it. And I felt that.

Okay, what do we feel about like the professor, Professor Jay, that they meet?

For a split second, I thought he was undercover of Fire Nation. Oh man. Stalking the Avatar. Like, that was like the perfect setup for a Fire Nation spy.

Hear that Fire Nation? If you guys want to get the bounce on the Avatar, pretend that you're a scholar.

Okay, I couldn't remember. I was like, does he turn into a bad guy?

I think he's pretty neutral.

He's just as gullible as I am. He just wants to read the next book.

I don't know if he's gullible. I think he was so blinded in his pursuit of this knowledge, which I don't know what he's gonna do anything with. He's a scholar just for himself at this point.

I think he just was passionate. And you know, when you have a goal and it was like, this is it, I don't need to go anywhere else. Life will be so disappointing if I don't. You know, there's nowhere else to go.

So Sokka gets his mini vacation, and he announces he's going to the library. Which is fantastic. After we find out Katara's mini vacation is kind of a dud. The Misty Palms Oasis.

It wasn't too bad. They got like an iced mango.

There was a dog licking the iceberg thing.

I missed that.

No, that as soon as it gets to Misty Palm's Oasis, like everything's kinda hot. The iceberg's like melty. It's not what like their map was showing. And there's like a stray dog licking it. I feel like we went to this place somewhere.

At least it wasn't a yellow glacier.

Wow. So apparently, according to the lore of the Avatar universe, uh the Misty Palm's Oasis is literally built on an underground iceberg. And so what the dog was licking was that.

Wow.

Yeah, and then you have like fruit juice guy who's like acting like he's at Cold Stone, like chopping it up and then putting in like the like the perfectly shaped ice bowls.

I know, it wasn't looking that appetizing to me. I was like, mmm. I figured what was the catch about cold stone?

Yeah, cold stone, they have a big cold stone and they like chop up your ice cream ingredients, and they Is it on a cold stone?

Because I thought it was just on a hot stone. You know, it was kind of like going to Subway, right? So you go down the line. I want some Oreos. Here's on my like plastic slab. That's what I thought it was.

Plastic slab? Cold stone. It's in the name. Yeah, yeah. No, but then they like have they like they chop it up on there and they like put it in like a bowl for it.

If you mush up your ice cream with toppings or something, yeah, yeah.

It's not like that Thai ice cream where they just like squirt it on like the really, really like the 22 degree below zero.

Okay, I just want to double check. That was the whole reason why it was called Cold Stone, because our brother Robert took me to Cold Stone one time. He goes, Hey, hey, watch this. And the dude's doing all sorts of weird tricks with the ice cream. And he goes, Yeah, if I didn't do weird tricks, I'd just be bored.

I went to Cold Stone once, and it was a friend and I, and he was in front of me, and the guy working, the cold stoner, if you will, was like, Hey, you want to catch this ice cream? And my friend went, No, thank you. And then he paid for his cold stone ice cream, and the guy was like, Okay. And he like gingerly put it in the bowl and gave it to him.

And then he looked at me and said, Hey, do you want to catch this ice cream? And I said, Yes, I do. So he threw it in the air at me, like over the glass, and I had like the little paper cup, caught it, boom. And then he gave it to me for free.

But do you think most people catch it? Like maybe it was just his throw.

Maybe his throw was bad?

Was so good.

Maybe it wasn't just throwing it in the air, he's literally aiming for your cup. He's the Michael Jordan of Coldstone.

But ladies and gentlemen, I think the takeaway here is that we've all been to Coldstone, like what?

Once?

Twice? Yeah. Because it's not that good.

Oh! Dang. If you're gonna have ice cream, have Tillamuk ice cream, you know what I'm saying?

Okay.

Moving on. Okay, Coldstone guy, he makes your fruit drink.

Yeah, yeah. But then Sokka is like bent. It almost looks like they're like chopping up potatoes or something. Like, I feel like it was a veggie, it wasn't mango. No, it wasn't.

Was it V8? It was totally vegan. Well, I mean it was probably vegan anyway, if it was mangoes. Yeah. What's in these mangoes? Man is in the mangoes. Okay. Okay, Sokka is bent on getting a map of the Fire Nation. I don't know where this has come from. He's like, okay, we gotta find map. Like he's finally realizes.

Yeah, I don't know. Sokka.

I don't know what his plan was.

We'll get a map. No Sokka at this point. He's always had like that tunnel vision. He's like, he's gotta get the Avatar on his mission. Like, I personally didn't think Sokka was off beat on this episode at all. Like he was right on his A game.

I do think Sokka was on his A game in this episode.

Which is always good when Sokka's like focused.

Yeah, no, Sokka was definitely MVP.

Okay. Well, I wouldn't say that, because they finally make it to the library. Which is awesome! Which is good. Yeah, they're like searching the desert, don't see anything, and then see this little thing.

This little spire. Which the library is apparently a mix of two different famous buildings on Earth. Any guesses?

Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal is one of them! Can't try.

What's the other one?

Uh-oh.

Uh I want to say God. Statue of Liberty. No. No. Oh, okay. Taj Mahal and Oh man, it's just there.

Tilmac cheese factory. Our house.

I seriously want to say like Burj Khalifa, but that's not even close.

It is the the tur it's in Turkey. It's the I can't pronounce this. Hegea Sophia? Hagia Sophia?

Hmm.

We need to look it up, apparently. Apparently a big, huge ornate building.

Wow.

Oh Turkey.

Check it out.

Hagia Sefia.

Okay, so we finally find it in the desert. They make it in. Anyway, going back to Sokka, not being MVP, because he was like abusing the library and stealing everything.

I mean, he was definitely like Kleptomania almost. Like, I don't think he even knew what he was putting in his bag at any point. Also brings back the bag that matches his belt. Right.

What would he've got like his merce and like putting everything in there.

I mean, Momo can sleep in it. Do you know what a merce is, Troy?

A man purse.

Okay, I just wanted to be clear. No hesitation. He knew.

Well, I was thinking like a merce, like what?

Let's break apart these words.

Yeah. I was also thinking merce would be is like the abbreviation for like merchandise. I was like, Merce, merchandise. No, it's gotta be man purse.

I also thought Mursa.

Okay, and then we meet Wan Chi Tong. Do you remember what Wanxi Tong means? What his name means. Is that the giant owl? That's the giant owl. I have no idea what the name meant.

unknown No.

No guesses? No, wait. He knows 10,000 things.

He who knows 10,000 things. Boom boom! Good job, Troy. Do we know who voices Wanxi Tong?

He sounds very familiar.

Please tell me. He's so familiar.

Wait, wait, wait.

It was not Mark Hamill again, was it? Actually, fun fact, Troy. The whole cast is Mark Hamill. Every time you hear a voice, it's just Mark Hamill. Top? Mark Hamill. Well, dude, the dude did Luke Skywalker and the Joker. Anything he does doesn't surprise me. Actually, Troy is Mark Hamill. Fun fact, everyone listening.

Okay, wait, I have to think about his voice. He's already been in the in this.

No. Give us a clue. He was in a movie starring Anne Hathaway, and you like him in that movie.

Yeah, he's like the security guard.

In Princess Diaries. Yeah. It's Joe. What?

Yeah.

Actor Elizondo. Elizando. Also in Pretty Woman is like the concierge. Oh yeah, yeah. He's so good. He's 83 right now.

Hmm.

Yeah.

What's he doing?

Well, I can't imagine he's super active, but I think he's in like a sitcom or something now, or was.

Okay, also, can I just have a moment? So when Jordan listens to me speak on whatever this is, the microphone. He says he notices this little quirk that I do is like Yes, and uh you guys probably don't hear it. No, and I just realized I went to say something and had to slang because I I edit a lot of them out.

So anyway.

So how was that for you feeling that?

Uh it's very eye-opening.

Well, that's better than me. I mean, I just got crazy eyes. I mean, luckily the audience can't see this, but whenever I go and make a point, my eyes are literally doing a 360 around the room.

Well, 180. Actually, Troy always has to go to the doctor for like some optic nerve like evaluation after this. Like 360 eyes. It's crazy.

So, Wanchi Tong, what do we think about Wanchi Tong? To be honest with you, when I first saw Washi Tong, I thought he was a guy in a owl costume.

Why would he be in a guy in an owl costume? I don't know. Fire Nation. And then the owl opens, and it's eight Fire Nation guys stacked on top of each other. We got you, Avatar! It's me, Commander Zhao!

I've been here this whole time. Yeah? Washi Tong, the man who knows 10,000 things. I mean, they could have kicked that up a notch and been like, the man, the or the man. He who's read he who's read 10,000 books.

The the owl that's full of 10,000 Fire Nations.

Doesn't 10,000 seem a little low.

Oh well, he's not that smart. Owls aren't that smart, you guys.

Well, I always thought owls were smart because of Winnie the Pooh.

Well, yeah, well, Winnie the Pooh lied to you, and also not all bears are stuffed with fluff.

Oh, don't give me that. Owls with his eyesight, he could have totally just been like ripping books apart. He could have been reading a book a day, two books a day, seriously, with how much with how well he could see.

You know that Wan Chitong has not read all those books. It's true. I think he's just hanging out with a Fire Nation. With his foxy assistants. And Sokka's like, oh, he has attractive assistance? Jeez, Sokka. Get over it. I like Wanxi Tong. Uh, I I get where he's coming from with wanting to preserve all this knowledge and history and also being wary of humans and their history of wanting to just dominate each other.

And so I think he's coming from a good place there. What did he do with all the Fire Nation who showed up and like burned down the Fire Nation wing of the library? Obviously, they all got out because Zhao like found out the knowledge about the moon and the ocean spirits from in there.

Mm-hmm.

Right, and you probably feel like he uh has a lot of regret for trusting people and letting these humans come in there and do their thing. So I guess, yeah, I have a similar opinion. Because I think he means well. I don't know, he's kind of mysterious, and this is why I thought it was a guy in an owl suit.

Just so mysterious. The way he was holding it together, I'm like, okay, I'm just waiting for somebody to just pop out of that owl chest. The way he's just like lazily just sweeping stuff away. Right. I mean it seemed a little too. I'm like, come on, Doctor Movie, put a little more in. That was that was JM animation!

How dare you!

But what you don't see when uh Wanchi Tong is actually sweeping away those things is you see the Fire Nation soldier with like a big stick operating it like it's a Muppet.

I'm seriously watching Yeah, him do that. I was like, like, come on now. Anybody can call him Alfred just how like meah Yeah, it's elegant.

And I like that he was, you know, was like, okay, humans, you don't need to be here. Gonna kick them out, and then listens to them. You know, he doesn't kick them out right away, kind of hears their story.

Sokka lying.

Right. And he decides to give them a chance and give him an opportunity.

And so I think that's why it's so like, uh, Sokka, just to abuse that and just to be stealing and But you think in like lore and mythology you have these like gods, or the in this case a spirit, who is kind of removed from like the conflict of the physical world, like where Aang is objectively trying to do something good that would be for the betterment of the world, but Wanxi Tong being this ethereal, otherworldly being, doesn't really care about the manners of humans, even though like they're on a mission to save the world from these other humans.

He just sees it in this black and white, like a brother killing a brother.

Right. Which is when, you know, when he busts them later and says, you know, something about like, do you think you're the like the first ones to justify your war? Or you know, and I think right, everyone can justify what they're doing, but it doesn't mean that it's right. That it's right or that it's more important, or yeah, because they're like, no, but we're we're the good ones and we're trying to do whatever.

It was interesting them being in that that planetarium before Wanchi Tongue busts them, but uh in in the art book, there's uh a whole s a whole bit about how this was the planetarium portion was like one of the most difficult things to uh conceptualize and to execute because there's so many like literally moving parts in that.

They break it down, there's like little crystals apparently embedded in it in the art book. It like shows these sketches and each of the round stone bits that like they rotate, each have like different characters on them. The outer circle was all like the Chinese zodiac, and then inside there's like other things.

So yeah, each year was like, oh, year of the dragon, eighth day, blah blah blah. So they find out when the next solar eclipse is happening that will affect the Fire Nation, uh, will be on the first day of the eighth. Month of superior military monkey. So that's when the eclipse is going to happen.

So the it's a really beautiful scene. Just them in there, and I'm sure it was difficult.

What'd you think about the planetarium, Troy?

This sounds so weird, but the more I think about it, I'm like Fire Nation. Reminds me reminds me of uh Omse.

Yeah, I see that.

Yeah, it's just like between the books, how much there is to learn, and then them learning about them being able to like mess with time and how it affects the sky. I'm like, that's kind of what you go to Omsey to do. You learn about how things function.

Listeners, because a very few of you are from Oregon. Omsey stands for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industries, and it's uh it's an amazing little gem that's in Portland.

Yeah, sorry I didn't mention that to our listeners. Yes, I it's a really, really well put together place. To this day they are still showing fantastic videos of how stuff works. Like a planetarium. Like a planetarium, but not by Fire Nation.

So what do we think about learning that there's gonna be a solar eclipse and that could potentially take away Firebender's power? Katie?

Well, I kind of feel like you should go first because I mean I could say something, but I've already I've already seen it.

Uh uh, no, just I just thought that was really creative writing or directing one of the two. The fact that they were able to be like, hey, so a solar eclipse could actually you know disable firebending. I that to me never would have thought of that a as a writer to put that into the show. So to let them know like they got they have that little extra shot, or they got that one shot to take care of the fire lord and the fire nation during the next solar eclipse.

I just thought that was a brilliant brilliant writing.

Yeah, because up until this point we don't really know of any weakness that the Fire Nation has. And so I think leading up to this, like we know the end game needs to be Aang defeating the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation somehow, and it's preventing them from taking over the whole world, but we've never seen anything that could actually give them a chance.

And so that we know that this thing that might happen, uh, they could take advantage of. And so what do you think's gonna happen with that?

Ooh, I'd say it's really up in the air. Uh, what's gonna happen during that solar eclipse? But I I could see it as like this that the solar eclipse is gonna be off by just a little bit, so it won't be quite an eclipse, but maybe just enough to where Ozai gets overly confident, he's thinking, ah, I'm still powerful, your solar eclipse didn't work, and then just when he's about to finish off one of the main characters, it's a full eclipse.

So you think the planetarium is gonna be incorrect with its estimation of the eclipse?

That'd be the best plot twist there is.

So you do think they're going to attempt to invade the Fire Nation on the eclipse. I'd say that's in their plans right now.

If Sokka has anything to do with it.

Who is MVP, as we all know.

Clipped out.

Yeah, stealing everything, and then Wanchi Tong turns into like a serpent owl, like his neck gets really long, he's trying to eat everybody.

Yeah, I don't know. That's like freaky, where it's like, well, sorry, you know too much. Sorry, not sorry. Yeah, okay, and outside, Oppa and Toph having their moment. Mm-hmm.

Which is so cute because we haven't really seen them interact, and so they kind of like they can kind of have a meet cute.

Yeah. It's all good until they steal Appa.

Yeah, so everything's good until Wan Chi Tong's like, I'm taking this library back, and then uh Toph's like, dude, it's sinking, doesn't hesitate. She's like, I'm gonna go stop this, which Toph is so like advanced. No, she's not, she's small in stature, but she's big in heart and courage.

Yeah, she is.

Oh god, she's so good. She's such an awesome character, and so she runs, freaking punches the spire to stop it from moving, and then is like holding it. That's awesome. I love that part.

That is like a little 10-year-old girl holding up the Statue of Liberty. She is 12. It's like a little 12-year-old, it's like a 12-year-old lady. Young lady. Blind bandit. It's like a 12-year-old young lady, blind bandit, holding up the Taj Mahal and the Haggia Sophia. The Hidea Sophia and the Statue of Liberty all in one.

Oh man. And that's how freaking strong her heart is.

Wan Chitong as a spirit is trying to take his library to the spirit world, and Toph is so strong that she can like kind of prevent that. Like, I don't quite understand that.

Thinking about had she not done that, right? Or she hadn't joined the group, right? They would have been sucked into the earth, Oppa would have been gone anyway. What would have mattered? They would have been the spirit world. I mean, right, and understandably Aang's upset that Oppa got away. But I'm like, yeah, what's she gonna do?

She was like She's like, I saved your life, man. Well, and she can't bend sand, and I feel like the group's a little tough on her.

I think Katara and Sokka are not tough on her. I think Aang definitely is. Aang doesn't seem like he's gonna be tough on her at the end of this episode because he just asks where where Appa is after you get this like super emotional moment of Toph having to make a decision on whether to save Appa or save everybody else.

Saves everybody else, and then you get this shot of her saying, I'm sorry, Appa. And it's like, oh, like heartbreak, man. Then the sandbenders come. Who the sandbenders, can we just talk about like when we first meet the sandbenders, like in the uh the Oasis, and they look rough. Like the one like spits on Sokka, smiles, has six teeth.

Yeah, I don't know.

Kind of nasty. Almost like Tusken Raiders in Star Wars.

Oh yeah, no, trade comment on it. Comment.

Definitely Tusken Raider-esque.

Oh yeah. Yeah, Sandbender! I can't believe how much the show is a parallel to Star Wars.

Because every character is Mark Hamill.

Every character's Mark Hamill. If it's not, then it's Joe. And if it's not Joe or Mark Hamill, then it's Fire Nation.

So why do you think that the Sandbenders wanted to steal Oppa so bad?

You know, he's just a lovable creature. Who wouldn't want to steal Appa?

You think they steal him because they they thought he was lovable?

No, come on.

I want to cuddle with that. Come here!

They want to cash in. Put a muzzle on him. Some exotic animal.

Yeah, super sad that they are now their dunzo. I mean, they've relied on Oppa so much in this series. So much. You don't really realize it, but they're on Oppa all the time. They're his the he is the mode of transportation.

And if I may, when they successfully took Appa away, I never thought of it, but oh my gosh. I was like, finally, I'm gonna see a very serious side of Aang since season one finale. Like, I've been enjoying how Aang's reacted to this whole episode. Not a single dumb joke. Aw, from Aang?

Yeah, he is not happy. Ooh, I'm like, my yes, keep it going. So we move into the next episode, The Desert, which is the exact middle of the series. There's 30 episodes behind it and 30 to go. Wow.

Whoa.

So.

Okay, and right out the gate, the animation looks rough. I feel like everybody almost looks drugged. Like they have like these warped faces.

Doctor movie?

Yeah. And it was just I don't know, I was like really disturbed. And then to go along with that, freaking Sokka's like tripping out on cactus juice.

I love cactus juice. That's the best. Okay, so but but the characters, like their eyes get so closed. Like Katara almost looks like she's a Cyclops.

Yeah. No, and even no, all of them were looking fugly. Super round face, like their ears are kind of funky. I almost took a picture of Sokka. This is before the cactus juice. Like his eyes were just I mean, it was it was bad.

Faces of cactus juice. So cactus juice, he is so thirsty. Sees his one hope. This large, beautiful cactus. After he drank the swamp water. Swampy. Okay, can we talk about drinking bending water? Like, that's foul. Like, she's had that all season.

No, I want to keep talking about cactus juice.

Like, do they mean to like make that some sort of like as far as I'm concerned, cactus juice is harmless, or is it actually like You are incorrect, Troy, and you would have a Sokka experience, and I'm gonna tell you why.

Troy's in the desert. Like, I think it's fine. I watched it. I watched in a show.

Sokka just had a weird reaction.

Wasn't on Man vs.

Wild was on Avatar, it's fine. Don't trust that. So, cacti myth. Many cacti are actually poisonous or contain hallucinogens, such as mescaline. Which uh will give you a similar reaction to LSD.

Really?

So we have a cactus in this house. We are now going to cut it open and we're all gonna take a little tiny shot. Maybe a cactus.

You think we have any juice in there? I don't know.

I don't know. It's not a very juicy-looking cactus.

Very small.

It was with how much with how much machinery I work with every day, not no LSD, you don't like that.

Uh-uh. I think it was hilarious that they actually like investigated this, found out that like cacti aren't good to drink. Cause Sokka pounded it. He drank that whole cactus, he and Momo.

He was thirsty.

Obviously. Oh my god.

And it was very educational for me. I'm like, oh, so cacti is, in fact, an hallucinogen.

Okay, so but the cactus juice scene, like, I quote that all the time. Like, cactus juice, it'll quench you. Nothing's quenchier. It's the quenchiest. And Sokka's like doing the worm. His head like bogs out, like Momo's done. Aang. Okay, we'll talk about Aang in a minute. But then the mushroom cloud. And he's like, maybe it's a giant mushroom.

Oh man. So funny.

I don't know. Toph wants um. Guitarist says no. But Toph knows that Sokka's tripping out.

She also wants Toph's like, get me out of here.

Giant mushroom cloud. Sponsored by the Fire Nation.

Okay, so the Desert. The Desert has a name. Did you guys pick up on the name of the desert? No.

No.

Okay, it's the Seawong Desert, which most of that's not in English. So do you know what Seawong stands for? Seaweed. Hot. Seaweed Desert. I kinda like that one. Hot Desert? Okay. Uh, Desert of the Dead, apparently. Really? And in the Avatar world, it is the hottest, driest place in the world. Wow. Wow.

Also, there's always those times in shows or movies where characters are trapped in a desert and talk about anxiety. Like, I would hate to be trapped in a desert. Sounds terrible.

Probably because we've watched enough shows.

I've watched Sahara.

Oh yeah. Nice. Okay, wait. Can we talk about Iroh and Zuko? Which where are they?

They are in the Earth Kingdom. Somewhere close. They're hanging around.

Okay.

So Iroh is Shaggy.

Yeah, yeah. He's having he's just there. And then they get caught by it as a group.

The rough rhinos. Oh yeah, and they do look rough. But they're also a very capable singing group, as we find out.

That's right.

Do you remember these characters from Avatar Day? They showed up and everyone has to like dispatch of them.

What?

They yeah, these characters show up before. And Avatar didn't.

They look familiar, but I wasn't.

Yeah, they're the rough rhinos. They're the ones who were modeled after Teddy Roosevelt.

Am I the only one who was just waiting for them to like do uh a song with Ivor Red there on the spot? Like I played like a huge prank on Zuko, like, haha, you're in trouble. Just kidding.

Time for we're gonna escort you guys back home. Let's go, Zuko. Your honors restored. Fire Nation. Can't trust them. They're everywhere.

Or I was hoping that they would have started a little song and then somebody would have cut them off and be like, no, like we gotta take you in or whatever.

Don't let Ira Ira pulls out like a little like tuning tuning free.

I was seriously waiting for that for Iro to start whip out a a banjo or something like that, just start playing along, and like the archery guy, like he I just see him just like sort of bopping to the beat, and then the main guy like, no, don't fall for it.

But you know, the guy that's like wearing the helmet, he probably has the best voice. Also, he's probably a soprano.

Well yeah. But obviously Iroh didn't disappoint when he's like means business goes for it.

Kicks like the wrecking ball and Oh yeah.

I feel like it's always a delight to see Iroh perform. You mean singing? No.

He's the only character on this show that I can think of that could be a successful musician/slash cage fighter.

Iroh, he's a Renaissance man. He really truly is. Which we find out more about Iroh in this episode when we learn more about the Order of the White Lotus. What'd you think about that, this Order of the White Lotus thing?

I just think it's fascinating that the the main way that they seem to communicate, especially with entrance words, is through Piesho.

Yeah.

And I'm just like, hmm, I wonder how many other or I wonder how many organizations in present day communicate through chess checkers or any other little board games.

Here we're on to you, Fire Nation. Yeah, we're not. Yeah, night takes rook. If you know what I mean. But it uh gives way more meaning to the that first season episode with the water bending scroll, where Uncle's like, oh, we have to go back. I lost my White Lotus tile. Ah, I remember that. White Lotus, we're bringing it back.

So what is White Lotus? Did they touch on that, or is it still just a secret organization? The Order of the White Lotus.

Yes. There are secrets of the White Order of the White Lotus. Who knocks at the garden gate? He who has tasted its fruit, eaten the fruit, and tasted its mysteries. What does that mean?

Maybe you'll find out.

Maybe I will.

Obviously, means that Iroh got through all the hazing. Oh, that's true.

So Order of the White Lotus, apparently uh we abbreviate that to Owl. I don't know. Do we? Well, I don't, but uh Avatar Extras abbreviates it to Owl.

Order of the White Locus?

White Lotus. White Lotus. The White Locust!

It's gonna eat your crops.

It's gonna ruin your day. Mm-hmm.

No, that's just interesting that that they named that, and we just had an owl in the previous episode.

Do do do do do do do do.

Maybe he's a part of the Order of the White Lotus. He might have been. So what did you think about the Order of the White Lotus scenes, Katie?

There I went. Did you hear it?

Once you hear it, you cannot unhear it. Snap crackle pop.

Yeah, I thought it was good. They make it to the desert bar.

They're literally behind our friends at this point. They're just an episode behind.

And it's nice. I feel like Uncle he goes up, he plays, they're like, uh, nice to see a pie shower, a member, whatever. Uh, and then yeah, you get to see more into that, and that this is like the secret society, and Zuko's like, what's happening here? Has no idea.

Doesn't care. Like, it's just kind of making fun of them, even though this guy's trying to like get them out of a bad situation.

Mm-hmm. Okay, Zuko. Zuko's got an attitude. And so was really happy to see that Zuko had to wait outside and he couldn't go to the members only room.

That's hilarious. But like, he's there all night standing by the or like orchid or whatever.

Yeah, that's right.

So the Order of the White Lotus, according to Avatar Extras, uh, they're a secret site a secret society across the nations. They're devoted to sharing of ancient knowledge and philosophy, and their creed is the quest for truth above all else. Order of the White Lotus. Are you a member, brother?

I was a member of an organization not too long ago, and then I recently quit.

Was it about chess? Might have been. Oh god. Pon takes bishop.

You want to talk about it?

No. That was so secretive. Was it a cult?

Are you do you need help, Troy? Oh, I ate the fruit. That was not so mysterious. I don't know what this means. No, uh I'm really nervous. What I like about these episodes are part of a cult between Iroh and his other members of the White Lotus is that I love the fact that Zuko is not uh not getting the point.

Like, there's other ways of getting your way around a war other than swords and shields and firebending. You know, Iroh's like, you need to appreciate the cryptic arts more, Prince Zuko. And I once went to the Cryptology Muse Museum in uh Maryland a few years back, and yeah, cryptology has definitely carried us through many wars.

So that's what I appreciate about this episode is really touches on how well cryptology can how helpful it can be. I feel like you're a Mason. Not yet.

Hmm.

Okay. Let's go back to our friends that are suffering in the desert.

Very angry.

Everyone's angry. They're hallucinating. Some more than others. And and yeah, I just feel like this is a moment where Katara really shines. Like she has like can be a leader and she has to rally the troops, telling everybody to get up, you know, and Aang's moping around for good reason. But yeah, that's like we're gonna get out of here and makes everybody hold hands and yeah, it's pretty cute.

But I like that in this episode it shows like how well Katara has gotten to know Aang. Like she knows how to break through to him, even if Aang isn't like necessarily like coming to, like, he's still reacting and doing kind of what she's encouraging him to do. Yeah, Katara really shines in this episode, and it's really good for her.

Because she hasn't really been taking the reins much in the previous episodes, like it's been a lot of Aang, it's been a lot of been a lot of soccer.

Troy, how is Katara for you in this episode?

I think she definitely represents like the spirit of a farmer, if you can believe that. Just tell me more. Just no matter how rough the situation gets, she just pulls puts her bootstraps on and she's like, let's do this, guys. Come on, we gotta stay together.

Are you ready for the sequel series when Katara gets a plot of land and uses her bare hands to cultivate the earth? Why not? There's an interesting like inconsistency for me in this episode because everyone's like hot, they're like experiencing symptoms of heat stroke, and then you have Aang, who's like sweaty and miserable, and he gets like everyone's like blushing at this point, they're all like red in the face.

Uh, but we've addressed like Aang has this ability with his airbending that he doesn't get cold. Like he's his airbending, like, helps regulate his temperatures. That's why he never like wore a coat and stuff in season one when they're like in cold temperatures. Can he not do it in the heat? I don't know.

It's something I noticed.

I don't think that's from the heat. I think he's just that pissed.

Well, do you think he's so mad that he gets blushy red hot cheeks like everyone else? That that's where I'm coming from.

Yeah, no, I think he's more emotion for him it's emotions. For everybody else, it's like just not being able to uh regulate their body temperatures. I agree. How else are they supposed to show that he's just mad that his bison's gone?

It is interesting to see Aang kind of lose his cool in this episode because Aang does a really good job of kind of monitoring his emotions and keeping himself balanced and in check, and he loses it in this episode. Right.

I mean, I think it really showcases just obviously Opa leaving and and being stolen as such a personal attack. It's the only thing that he has left, really.

Yeah, such a huge trigger for him, I'm sure. It's probably that moment like he uh he kind of like puts at bay all these feelings of him being gone for a hundred years and losing everyone he knows and loves. And Oppa being that only that only thing left connecting him to that old world. And so I wonder if that was what was like kind of triggering him in that moment.

And I think that it's a a really good time to to see them struggle and like what life would be like without Appa and how much harder this goal would be.

Is going to be.

Yeah, I mean, at this point, you know, everyone's headed to Boss Singsei.

Everybody. We're all heading to Boss Singsei, Troy. Alright.

Well, I don't know how our friends are gonna get there at this point, but because we find out, they find they interact with the other sandbenders.

Who are finally like they finally get humanized. Like no. It took like two ep like two full episodes for them to like see a face. And I I wonder if that was a conscious decision by the creators to be like, oh, we should probably like show that there are people under there and not monstrous Tuscan Raiders.

They're kind of handsome.

Right, but then there's like little punk son.

Guy shown.

Trying to make a quick butt.

Keeps lying to the avatar, lying to his dad. Apparently. So we need an offshoot, like a maybe a graphic novel exploring him and why he is a pathological liar. But another instance of Toph being an MVP of this team, like she can uh quickly identify that she recognizes this voice because her other senses are so heightened, and being able to be like, and she's almost like stoking the fire for Aang.

She's like, hey, that's the guy. Do you know what he said? He said, put a muzzle on Oppa.

And Aang's like, you put a muzzle on Appa! Oh yeah.

Oh, I was so happy when she was doing that, too. He's like, Yes, keep pushing the boy. I want to see how far this can go.

It is really interesting, Troy, that when the episode is over, like you expressed disappointment that Aang didn't go like total Bazingo Bonkers on the sandbenders.

Why were you disappointed that he didn't like I'm always excited when Aang has to go into the Avatar state.

But you wanted him to enact destruction onto the sandbenders? Yeah, you know, just send a little example.

What example would that have been? I was truly expecting him to just sink them all into the sand where just the heads were above the the the ground. Like literally begging for mercy. Like, I'm sure after a while they would finally dig themselves out, but that's what I was hoping for. But see, I don't that's not Aang's character.

He wouldn't do something like that. No, but he was that emotionally unstable. So then I saw Katara stand next to him and was like, oh, it's not gonna last. Alright. And then Troy was filled with disappointment.

See, Troy, where I'm coming with like that that idea that the hero should use blind rage to get revenge and bring his opponents to a point of mercy, that's total traits of like toxic heroism and that that toxic masculinity form of a of a hero. And that's things that like we grew up experiencing on like shows.

Like you see like the hero, he gets blind with rage and he destroys all of his enemies without mercy.

And I remember I saw that on Tom and Jerry. Good one.

You didn't watch uh the good ones. Which one? But just that that idea like you have to go like all Rambo, and that's like what a hero is, and that's what it takes to be right. And I think the powerful moment, the most powerful moment for me was when Katara stood while Aang was generating this huge cloud and this air bubble around him, and Katara didn't move, and Sokka and Toph and the rest of the sandbenders got out of there, and you just watch as Aang's like struggling, but Katara's standing there, and she has like this this tormented sadness about her watching Aang get into this rage, and then instead of being fearful, like she approaches Aang with love and pulls him in and hugs him.

And then I like teared up during that moment. Like you have Katara, she's crying, Aang's crying, and it's just like this this huge emotional outburst, and Aang just needs love and support in that moment, not to let him kind of get revenge.

Right, and I think that makes a lot of sense. If just like when people are when you're upset and yeah, full of rage, and obviously the easy reaction is to just go and be destructive, but if you can come at it with love and and support, yeah, just a different outcome.

Because I don't know what would have been accomplished if Aang had had buried the sandbanders up to their neck. Like what the deed had been done, APA had already been stolen. I don't know what that would have done besides feeding into this kind of instability for Aang. And I'm happy he didn't. And you don't get a sense that Aang's actually going to harm them.

He does take out his rage on destroying like the inanimate objects, like he destroys the sand sails, sailors, or whatever they're called. But he doesn't want to harm anybody. Uh and even when he's in the Avatar state, like he's not he's threatening, but he doesn't make any moves toward them. And I appreciated that about Aang.

And then it's like you don't get their side of the story. It's like, are these people really oppressed? Like, why are they out like so desperate that they have to, you know, come and steal APA to try to make some money?

And Oh, I bet the sandbenders are in a terrible position.

You know, I mean doesn't make it right, but it's just one of those those things where every action there's a reaction and if only one cheetong could have seen that.

I was just about to bring up that owl. From Fire Nation. Dang owl.

You mean that Fire Nation?

Owl. Were the Sandbenders also Fire Nation? They could have been, man. Like, at this point, I'm like everybody's undercover Fire Nation. No. His words really rang true for the majority of the series. Like, just cause you're justified in your actions doesn't make them right. So I'm thinking Katara really listened to him.

And so when she sees Aang going super supernova in his in his avatar state, she's like, no, that's not the way to do it. We're not like that. We're not like what Troy wants us to be. Which is good. Yeah, which is great.

Uh, but I am unimpressed with one thing Aang does in this episode. Like, Aang paints himself as this pacifist that never kills or does anything. But then after he rescues Momo from the buzzard wasp that had kidnapped Momo, like he he frees Momo, they're both flying. The buzzard wasp is going on about its merry day after its lunch got taken away.

It's not antagonizing Aang. And then Aang responds with shooting like a blast of air at the buzzard wasp, and then it falls to the ground. You don't know that he killed it. I'm assuming Aang killed that monster.

Right. And was that to showcase of like his mental state or like that he was in this really low place?

Yes. He is perfectly meant mentally unstable at this point, emotionally and mentally. He just wants his APA back.

Right, and he has this kind of crazy face, like crazy eyes.

I'm gonna make an example of this one right here. And of course, yeah, no. I thought his wind was not gonna reach that last bug. I thought that thing was gonna get away ski scotch-free. So when he did that, I was like, oh wow, he's got some range with his wind.

Yeah, I was just really disappointed.

It was a perfect showcase of his accuracy and his range, for in my opinion. I was just really I was let down by thing got that thing got sniped out of the air.

By them making that decision with Aang. It was like really disappointing for me that he would.

I'm sorry. Yeah, that's just he made me happy. He made me proud.

Oh, that's good, Troy. Well, we'll probably we'll assume that the buzzard wasp was Fire Nation. How about that? A couple more Fire Nation guys trapped inside that thing. Fire Nation got them flying machines.

We also didn't talk about the uh two guys hunting down Top.

Oh, Jin Fu and uh Popo, I don't know what his name was. Yeah. Yeah, those guys come back tracking the gang, which are probably a little more effective than uh Iroh and Zuko at this point. Like, they're able to track them down pretty, pretty quickly.

Probably. It's interesting that Zuko keeps running away from these guys. Zuko never seems to want to run away from any fight.

Um it could be a sign of growth from Zuko, like not wanting to like antagonize these people and cause like a bigger scene because I don't think Zuko wants to be outed as the Fire Nation prince right now. I think he saw how that went when he was on his own.

Right.

No one's impressed.

I do think he's like taking a step back and trying to pipe down.

Yeah, that is a good point, Troy. Like that's that hasn't been uh Zuka's character up to this point. So what do you think's gonna happen with these two who are trying to hunt down Toph?

I literally have no future plans for them.

You think they're gone? They're not gonna show up again?

Or I think they're gonna take her, take her home. To their home or to back to I feel like back to her.

Well, I can't say they're Fire Nation, they're obviously Earth Nation, so but I do feel like I do feel like they're gonna let down Toph's dad, who hired them. Oh no. I mean, it'll either be her or it'll be Qatar that disposes of them. If not them, they'll probably get in the way of uh Zuko's sister. Azula's gonna show up.

Yeah, we haven't seen her in a while. That's not good. I'm sure she's kind of. They're gonna be like, we got the top, and she'll be like, she's mine.

We got the tough. Why would Azula want Toph?

I don't know.

Just because. But I I do appreciate that you acknowledge that it was probably it probably if it wasn't Toph, who was gonna take him down, it was gonna be Katara. Go for the girls.

She's gonna use that swamp water, drive them away.

That swampy water. Well, they drank the swamp water. Yes, they don't have any left.

They gotta re-swamp it.

Yep, gotta re-swamp it. Alright, so we're in this position. Oppa's gone. We have all of our characters heading to Bossingsei, the Earth Kingdom Capital. Troy, predictions on what's gonna happen immediately next.

I'm actually at the point where I don't want any predictions. I just I want to lower my expectations so low.

The whole series tanks after this. The next 30 episodes, they get progressively.

I want it to just tank.

Actually, they're all kind of like the great divide, but with Mark Hamill. So it's you're gonna love it. It's gonna be great. Oh yeah. Alright, kids. So the next two episodes we're gonna watch are uh The Serpents Pass, and I'm not gonna say the name of the next episode, but they were packaged together as another two-part hour-long episode called The Secret of the Fire Nation.

Uh-uh. Oh! The secret is everyone's Fire Nation. Yep, yep, kids. We'll see you next time. Who knocks at the garden gate?

I can't stop.

Die, monster, die.

The Fury of Aang

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