The Siege of the North

Water, earth, fire, air. This is what Avatar Podcast. Welcome back to Yip Yip Hooray and Avatar Podcast. It's me, Jordan.

It's me, Katie.

And it's Troy.

Alright, guys, this is it. This was the moment I've been waiting for since we started. This is the season one finale trilogy package of episodes with the gang getting to the Northern Water Tribe. Again, I think I said this in our first episode. This was the episode that got me hooked onto Avatar, and is the reason why, as a almost 30-year-old man, I am doing a podcast with my wife about it.

This was the episode?

Well, I mean, not like oh yeah, 100%.

Was this the first one you saw?

It was the first one I really paid attention to.

You're like, oh my god. Okay, I can't even talk about it.

No, yeah, I watched I watched the season one finale and I was blown away. I was I was hooked immediately. Because someone dies? There's a high body count in that. Yeah. Okay, we'll get back to that. That was uh that was a moment.

This was the awesome battle that fortune teller was talking about.

A great battle between the forces of good and evil.

But what about my love life? Or what did he say? It was like whatever.

Is anything about love in there?

Are we going for this?

Let's just get right into it. Okay, we started off with chapter 18, The Waterbending Master, where we are introduced to a waterbending master. We are introduced to Master Paku, who's just a great A jerk.

Yeah. Well, you want to talk about him? Okay, Troy. So what was your take on the waterbat water The Waterbath? The water bending Master Paku. Paku?

Paku. Paku. Almost makes you want to say Pikachu. Almost. Master Paku, he wasn't my cup of tea. He's just old school. I have not been this annoyed and angry with a cartoon character for a really long time.

Oh, Master Paku really rubbed you the wrong way?

Oh man, I if I was Katara and Ang, I would have slapped him twice. Why?

Just because he was a grump, or because he was a sexist? Or because he was grandgrand's ex?

Why not all three?

We're really compounding the reasons why Paku's on your list.

It's just it was clear to me, it was even though there could be a chance of the Fire Nation attacking them, there's the Avatar, and then there's another girl who wants to also be a waterbending warrior, and he says it's not our customs to teach women. Um it felt more selfish to me than it did he was looking out for the greater good of others.

Yeah, that we don't really get a reason why outside of cultural traditions that women aren't allowed to be to be warriors.

But there's a lot of that, you know, there it's like this is just the way it's done, it's the way it's always been, and the w that's the way it'll always will be until I die. Well, until I mean, women used to not be able to vote. And it wasn't because a bunch of men were like, you know what? I think women should vote.

It's because women were like, hey, why can't we vote? And then they got out there and fought for that right. So, same, same. But my question is like, we're katara, like they have their little battle, and then they find out that's like, what, you're with grandgrand, blah blah blah. And then afterwards it's like, okay.

So does she get to learn because she like kicks his ass? Or is it because like she's his ex-fiance granddaughter?

I think that was definitely uh the catalyst moment for Master Paku, like being reminded of his love and having that kind of melt his cold heart. But you you get these moments with Paku and Grand Grand when we first meet her, Kana, excuse me, her god-given name. They're just kind of grumpy, kind of sour individuals, and then maybe just kind of bitter because love that was lost.

Well, Grand Grand took off, so I don't know.

Yeah, which maybe regret, regret.

Strong figure out which culture has arranged marriages and has a lot of accustoms to where women can't do this, women can't do that. I mean, that would definitely put a rift in any culture, as we've seen throughout the years.

Well, especially like more traditional cultures and at older points in history, it was like, oh, this is my dowry. I'm raising this fat hog for a man when he marries my daughter.

Yeah. And again, as a man, you know, it's like As a white man, Troy. You know, aren't you aware of history with women being kind of second-class citizens?

Yes. I was actually just in a train of thought as to was America ever in that custom where women had arranged marriages? I can't remember a time when we did. That's what I'm trying to figure out which culture.

People would marry for status, and I mean because America is such a such a new nation, you can't really establish that sort of like correlation between the two. Maybe with native tribes, but I'm not sure because when the white men came, they eradicated them, and so there's no history.

Mm-hmm. So that's why that's what made that episode very sensitive and quite unusually intense for a uh kid's show. But I think it's start trying to prove itself is not just a kid's show, it's trying to educate everybody culturally on what's going on in the rest of the world.

And that was a big point in these series of episodes, the importance of culture and balance and what it brings, even though we see that with culture, when you get into more traditional values that sometimes those cultures should change. But there was such an emphasis on the importance of that and the importance that brings to like the fabric of the world, all these differences that people have.

I've I really want to stick on the the Paku being sexist thing, or just like the water tribe being really sexist. I mean, I've watched this, like we've said, like 700 times. And it's never really hit me as hard, like the sexism part of like Katara being barred from being taught to be a water warrior.

Water warrior until this episode hit me the hardest. I think just because as I've gotten older, I've uh recognized my privilege more, and I've just uh I could really empathize with the fact that the thing that Katara wanted the most, she wasn't able to do because of this thing she had no control over being a woman.

Right, right. And it didn't matter what her skill set was, and it was just based on yeah, just being a woman. But I don't know, like too sexist and traditional. You're like, alright, whatever. But I mean, bonus. Hopefully she picks something up in like her healers class. I mean again, it was kind of a somber moment when she looked around and just saw these little girls that could also that were forced into becoming healers.

It's kind of like back in the US, the military, you know, if you were a woman and you wanted to be in the military, you could be a nurse. You know, you couldn't be on the front lines.

It's just that that stereotype that a woman can't be fierce and can't be strong and independent. She has to be nurturing and motherly and to be a good idea. Submissive. Submissive, definitely. So it was it was an interesting moment for Katara to walk in and see all these children who are being influ who who would be influenced by Katara by being one, someone who was from a sister tribe, so she was already really interesting and very exotic, and looking up to her because she was older, traveling with the Avatar, like Katara automatically becomes like this role model for these girls.

And then we turn around and she wants to kick Paku's ass, and all the kids are like cheering for her. It was a great moment.

Yeah.

And so I kind of think that Katara comes in and spurs this positive change for the Northern Water Tribe initially uh as a selfish reason, selfish enough, and then hopefully gives all these other kids and all these little girls an opportunity to do something more with their life or have more options. And I think that's definitely a big thing with equality with the world and equity is that having more options.

Right. That it's like you get to choose what you want your life to be.

Instead of like, oh, if you're a person of color, if you're this gender, like your your options in life and your paths in life become very limited, and to open up those paths becomes so much more difficult. I understand as a white male, almost 30 years old, I have pretty much unlimited possibilities.

Which is really, really sad, and I really hope that and even though this is a kid's show or whatever, I hope young people are watching it and they see that someone like Katara, who is technically a person of color and a woman who is fierce, who's strong, who's brave, who's independent, and they can take that into the real world, and I think that's where the strength of this show comes from.

Troy.

Yeah, I uh 110% agree with you, Jordan. I feel unfortunately, I don't know how smart we are as a nation, but if we all try to follow by the example that Paku shows, you know, we are definitely not tapping into the greater resources that we have of working as a nation together. And it's a very subtle thing they did in the episode.

I don't know how many people will pick up on this, but the second that Aang said, fine, I'll train with Master Pap with Mr. Poop Head, and then he decides Master Paku Yeah, keep going, keep going. So Master Paku you know refuses to train Katara. Katara walks away to do the healing class, Aang reluctantly trains underneath him, but then at night they said, Hey, he'll train me and I'll train Katara.

And that really hit me uh because I once again it was just a good example, is there's more than one way to train somebody, and I've had to I've had to do that a lot with uh my current job. Some of the guys that have been there for decades refuse to train some of the newer people just because they're so burnt out that I've had to sort of watch them and then train new people, and it's it's I've right I've got several Master Pakus at my workplace.

Did I just sabotage his name again?

No, it's okay. It's an interesting thing, like you you distill that information that you're getting in that situation. So like Aang has learned firsthand from Master Paku the correct way to do all these things. Maybe he's picking them up really well, maybe he's not, and then teaching Katara, and so Katara's getting this like second-hand training, or maybe if she was getting it from a master herself one-on-one, she'd be getting a much more thorough version of it, but she's forced to have it with Aang.

But then Paku goes off, he is so upset. And I don't know, I think do you think Paku is in the in the right with his reaction?

Well, I mean, it's like a power trip, and I think a lot of um situations where you're oppressing someone, I mean that's all it is. It's like I have power, and I said I said no, and even though you won it, it doesn't yeah, it's just having maintaining control and having power over people.

To add to that, on top of Master Paku not only refusing to teach Katara, but being angry with Aang with teaching her and saying he how he disrespected the master. Fun fact, I learned this a few years ago in Tai Chi, that only the monarchs, the high society people could train in kung fu and all that stuff.

But the peasants were not allowed to train. They had to work every day. And so what they would do is they would go out to the rice patties and they would train with their tools, similar moves to kung fu, and I think that eventually became known as Tai Chi. So that's why some martial arts masters say that Kung Fu isn't everything, because they've learned how to use tools as weapons.

Uh, who knew that martial arts was such a thing reserved only for the rich and powerful at one point in history, and then they were able to uh to dilute it again, and but turn into a completely different form to the point where a young girl in China had an arranged marriage but refused to marry this guy for whatever reason.

I think he was just rich and powerful and not a very good person at heart, and she says, Fine, if I beat you in a fight, you have to call up the marriage. So they both trained for a week, and he came at her with Kung Fu. She came at him not with Tai Chi, but with Wing Chun, which is all about close quarters, and she was able to win, and the marriage was called off, and I don't know the rest of that story, but there is just so much that the show touches on.

It's like there are people in other cultures that have had to prove themselves in one way or another.

So uh with that, were you picking up on any specific moves in these episodes?

Waterbenders, without a doubt, it's it's all over the internet. They are they do moves from Tai Chi, and there's a move when you start Tai Chi, the first eight moves you learn, it's called the Eight Form. And the last move in is called Grasping the Peacock's Tail. And I think I talked about it a couple podcasts ago.

But these uh waterbenders, as they were greeting Aang, Katara, and Sok into their uh water tribe, they all performed Grasping the Peacock's Tail, and they were able to manipulate the water into a beautiful way. And I picked up right on that for sure.

Yeah, I think that's really really special that the show is able to do that so well. Uh shifting gears a little bit. So the first time we see Zuko and Iroh in Waterbending Master, it's Music Night on the Ship.

My favorite night.

And you hear Mako sing. I mean, Mako is the the voice actor for Iro. Apparently, how it goes with the stories of the show is that Mike and Brian, the creators, they really loved Mako's voice and they loved hearing him sing. And so they keep they kept pitching songs for him. And Mako would always go, Oh, not another song, you guys.

Except he didn't sound like that at all because you know he was like Not another I can't even that was really good.

Mako?

Not a song.

Uh and so they they kept pitching him songs, and so they that's where his four seasons of love or whatever it was comes in.

Yeah, I was into it. Okay, wait. Like backing up, backing up, backing up. Uh, the beginning of this, where we see the Northern Water tribe and it's like majestic, magnificent. Can we talk about that versus like the Southern Tribe?

Oh, they're just destroyed. The Southern Water Tribe is terrible.

Like, what is happening?

No, yeah, we can compare it. The first episode, you're in the Southern Water Tribe, they're basically living in igloos. Right.

Yes, they are. You know, they're I don't know what happened there. It's like the Northern Water Tribe was like the bigger gang, and then somehow I'm getting is that the Southern Water Tribe just kind of broke off because they did not agree with the customs.

That's 100% true. I don't know if it's because of the customs, but yeah, the Southern Water Tribe was originally part of the Northern Water Tribe. I'm assuming at that point was just called the Water Tribe.

unknown Right.

They defected and created their own water tribe in the South Pole. Clearly took zero resources with them.

So speaking as a completely new person to this show, did the creators find inspiration creating both tribes thinking that before they created the show, thinking that they believed that people lived at both the North Pole and the South Pole? I believe so. To defect and keep the world in balance.

Ooh, I do like that.

If only we had them on the show, we could ask them.

Michael Dante DiMartino, because you're listening to this podcast right now, could you please come on the air? I'll wait. Nope. That's okay.

Okay, you could send us an email. Okay. Also, it gets really intense where commander, no.

Admiral Zhao.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Decides Choi. Admiral Zhoo.

Commander Choi.

He decides he's gonna take like Zuko's crew and the cook.

unknown And the cook.

Uh, okay, and Zuko almost dies. Gets blown out of the water.

Well, out of the ship, into the water, whatever. Did you think that Zuko was was done for?

I just thought, how the heck could a fire like that kill the kid? That's just weak. Like you thought that was an awful way to kill him off. I almost feel like he created half that fire just to because he can create fire out of nothing. So if you know your ship's about to get exploded, I'm betting that he made some sort of like fire force field around him as he was getting blasted out of the ship.

Like, I don't think those cuts and scrapes came from the fire itself. I think he might have hit a few parts of the ship on the way down to the ocean. Oh my god.

Yeah, maybe. He was like, oh yeah, he's like, let's do this even bigger.

Pirate's bird saved his life in a way.

Oh, definitely. Maybe the bird took Dazuko.

Hmm. Well, you know.

Okay, so those pirates, right? You know, the one who's like, that's good gold. That's totally the co-creator. That's Brian Kanitsko. That's one of the guys who created it. He's he voices the scrawny little pirate.

That was a good acting right there.

I'm gonna say I don't know if that's my favorite character.

He did admit that his voice acting's not quite uh up to par.

I imagine he's just in the studio just biting a coin, literally just like, hmm, that's some good coin.

Well, okay, so Brian Kanitsko, he does a lot of the reference visuals for the animation. So oftentimes in animation you need a point of reference of someone doing something for the animators to see and be like, okay, this is what you want me to do. So Brian very often would be recorded doing whatever he wanted the characters to do in the show, and so there's there's some footage.

I think he's trying to be Sokka and Aang, and so they show him like pretty much doing exactly what gets animated, and Brian's like acting it all out. It's what I want to do. So, Brian, because I know that you're listening to this, could I please come work with you? I'll wait. Thank you, Brian.

Great. Alright. Anyone else? Waterbending master?

Yeah, I got some more. Okay, listen up. So when they uh when Katara goes in and she starts learning uh healing from Yagoda, as I think is her name, the woman who recognized her as Grand Grand's granddaughter. Grandgranette. So she is a the voice actor of Yagoda, is apparently the voice actress for Smurfett.

I'll hold for applause.

Hmm. Do you know who Smurfett is, Troy?

I you know, I don't think I ever watched five seconds of that show. She's the girl Smurf!

Yeah. No, no, no. I mean We saw a okay, so when we were I'm mildly impressed.

When we were in Brussels, there was a a Smurfett like pixelated thing, like attached to a statue. I think it was supposed to be graffiti, but it was pretty cool. It was beautiful. Smurfs are from Belgium.

Cool story.

Okay, also when they were in the healing tent, the dummy, when they healed it, it kind of lit up. Those are apparently acupressure points. Yes, they were another example of Avatar pulling from the real world to enrich its fantasy world.

unknown Yeah.

Okay, more things about the water bending master. So magical acupuncture. Ooh. How would that be? I mean, you could just like bend the water on you? Or how do you think that would work?

So another fun fact, Katie, my mother, like to You guys are brother and sister?

Moving on. Are you Sokka and Katara? Does that make me Aang?

Hmm.

Or does that make me Zuko Troy?

Hmm.

Indeed.

I think it makes you Apa. K Troy.

Well, Mom likes to go and she likes to see these different doctors, and a lot of them are known for touching the right pressure points at the right time. And I feel like, yeah, that's exactly what this show is practicing. I think that's what mom likes to talk about. What these doctors do, it was just more in a more magical way.

That was not a very good talking point, but the benefits of alternative healing.

Okay, a couple more things about this episode. Nothing to do with healing. Let's do this. I love how little Aang does in this episode. I think he probably has like three lines of dialogue.

No, he's like messing around. It's like he sucks at waterbending.

He's just kind of a rant. Yes, that's the number one thing that pissed me off about you know Master Pikachu.

Master Pikachu.

Oh, yeah, because Trey was like, oh yeah, uh, Aang's like a horrible student.

Down on Aang. And so that's one thing me and Master Paku had in common. We were being Paku.

Master Paku.

Master. Master Paku. He uh no, he was just like, he's like, like, I'm sure Aang's mastered the waterbedding skills already. Maybe he can teach you Katara and just being the student I knew he would be. Just whatever.

But he made that suite like snowman or snowsuit.

That's the next episode, guys. We're not there yet.

That would be kind of useful in a place like Telamuk where it never snows. Like rarely. Oh. Shall we go on to the next episode?

I think we should move on. But real quick, okay, so because uh women are not allowed to be taught waterbending, technically Katara is the only female waterbender on Earth right now, if we believe Master Paku. Yeah, well Master Pikachu. Master Pikachu.

Okay, time to move on.

And then, friends, we see the entire fleet of the Fire Nation Navy. It might not be the entire fleet, it might be a very small portion. Whatever. The waterbending master ends with we see the fleet, they all light their engines up, polluting the air, fade out. See that the episode is written by Michael Dante DiMartino.

Are you listening? And then we fade out, credits roll, we go to the next episode. Boom. Book. One finale, Siege of the North. Wow, it was quite the lead up.

Okay. Thank you. Um, can we also talk about how everyone in the Fire Nation? Maybe not everyone, but I feel like there was a lot of top knots.

And where?

On the Fire crew ship.

I did not notice that. Okay, I did. Did you like them?

I'm like, yeah, everyone's got like man buns. Because I guess there's no females.

No, probably not. Also, we assume that the show is ahead of its time. Again, if we're featuring man buns pretty heavily in 2005.

True that. I feel like a lot of Chinese people from way back in the day had top knots. Mm-hmm.

Were you there? Oh, I wish I was. Alright, episode begins, and then immediately I don't want to rag on Dr. Movie anymore.

No, I was gonna say it.

For the first time ever, Katie recognizes the difference in quality in animation.

I know, and you know it's bad when I'm like, oh god, like they had like this crazy eye and just face thing going on. There was just odd faces, and it was really distracting for me. See, Troy, yeah, you're doing this face, like you weren't affected, because right, you're a first timer, and apparently this is my third time.

Oh, and you remembered. Try having it be the like 14th time you've watched it. It just becomes more and more noticeable. Mike and Brian, if you're listening, can we get like a remaster where you contract Studio Murr and just have them remaster everything that Dr. Movie did? All the JM animation is perfectly fine.

You can leave that. Friends, can we start a Kickstarter to remaster this beloved series? It'd only be like 30 episodes.

It's true. It would really make it a lot better.

Can I just point out that Jordan's got a superpower and it's the fact that he can watch uh the same show 14 times at least and still have the same reactions that I do. I find that incredible. I probably have an imbalance.

He is incredible.

Aww. Okay, we find out the siege is happening because Yue and Sokka take off.

Yeah, on APA, kind of having like a romantic magical ride.

And I know that Troy's favorite yip-yip came in jet from Sokka. Yep. Yep. It was so smooth. It was buttery, velvety, red lobster smooth.

Yes. I look to my left and I see Jordan just taking aback, and I was like, that's your favorite yip-yip in the whole series.

Absolutely. Nope, I can't think of a better one. That one tops. And we're only a third of the way through the show.

Okay, also, okay, but do you have something else to say?

I do. So, did you two notice the difference of the moon between Waterbending Masters and Siege of the North? I'll take that as a resounding no. So in Waterbending Master, there's a crescent moon for most of the show. And then in Siege of the North, we find out that the full moon is happening.

Mm-hmm.

Airgo, several days, if not a couple weeks, have passed.

Did you pick up on that? Did you feel like weeks had passed? No, not me, Troy.

Sorry, I just completely just went. It all went to the book.

Think about that moon.

Wow, just really wasn't listening.

The first episode we watched, small moon. Second episode we watched, full moon.

And that doesn't happen one day and then the next.

Maybe it happens like that on this world.

No. Troy, what's the moon cycle?

He's not an astrologist, Katie.

Troy, when you go outside, the moon changes a little bit every night.

Yes.

Sometimes it's a full moon. Sometimes it's a half moon.

Oh no, I was thinking I'm caught me off guard big time because I thought you meant like we were talking about we were just talking about graphics and designs. I was like, so the moon was a little bit better quality than it was. And this episode, in the next episode, it was even better quality.

I was like, yeah, the clouds looked a little bit more clearer. No, the moon definitely dipped in quality in this episode because Dr. Movie.

Okay, gotta keep up.

So Jordan's aware of the moon, uh the the way the moon is, and I yes, I could tell that I was totally on the Yeah, I guess it looks a little crisper. No, it looks a little worse in quality, like, good job, Doctor Movie, you know, just the moon.

So apparently some time has passed between the last episode and this one. I never knew that, never really recognized it until this run-through again. It just plays like it's the next day.

Yeah.

It might even be the same day because we end the last episode with starting training, and this episode starts, and here's Katara, she's mastered everything in the last 15 minutes.

Right, and just schooling all the boys.

Which tracks. I mean, Katara's pretty good.

Well, when you got the focus of Bruce Lee, you can master anything in a matter of days.

Okay. So moving on, so they're on OPA, they're flying.

They notice that the there we have a callback to the first episode where we see Soot and Snow mixed, and so it's a good bookend for the series, for the season.

Oh, and then Aang goes and tries to stop that one the one ship, which he was the first ship that's like launching an attack. Mm-hmm. And then you see the whole fleet, and so then Aang tries to stop it and blah blah blah. But can we talk about how Appa, I feel like most of the time, is the MVP? Like he comes and saves the day constantly.

Like, what if he they didn't have Appa?

Nothing would happen. They would the series the Aang would still be in the Southern Water Tribe.

Yeah, for sure.

We'd have 20 episodes of him Penguin Sliding. Yeah, Oppa is the MVP, and he does that great moment where the dude with the hammers is like attacking Aang, and then Appa just picks him up, clearly with a lot of force, because Oppa breaks that chain. I know, there's a lot of chains too. And then just tosses him overboard.

Okay, so that moment for Aang, what was that like for you to have Aang be so motivated to go after them?

I mean, it was believable for me that he was ready to defend the water tribe and wanted to I feel like his intentions are good constantly. Like he wants to help people and he wants to do his best, but he hasn't put in the work to really do what is expected of him as the avatar. And so Yeah, I think that you just see his struggle with not being as good as he wants to be.

That definitely comes out in this episode, especially when he comes back and Yue is like, Why didn't you do it all? And he's like, I'm just one kid. And yeah, then he curls up into a ball, kind of like, Oh my gosh, am I gonna be the reason that two civilizations are destroyed?

Right, and like just super deflated.

But when he takes off, I think Aang is so motivated to finally redeem himself because for the entire series so far, he's probably carried that guilt and that burden of knowing that he let his people down. And I think he's been distracted enough for the whole series up to this point to not really be aware of the danger that the Fire Nation poses, except for on small small vignettes that we've seen.

Now there's a full-scale assault on an entire culture.

Mm-hmm.

Right, and like to have that visual I think it's the first time that the war gets real for Aang.

Yeah, just there's another inconsistency with the show. He gets taken by the Fire Nation in the last three episodes because General Zhao decides Admiral Zhao! Not General, Admiral.

Now.

Okay. He was never a general, friends. Oh. Oh, that's right, because he's navy.

It's only my third time.

At this point, Aang's gotta know what the Fire Nation is capable of when they put him in a fortress just to keep him from getting out. I mean, that wasn't the fact that that didn't wake him up to train a little bit harder, it's like, again, just a kid.

That's true. I mean, he needs to wait until you're like hours away from the water tribe being eradicated from to finally like get it together. So when we finally like feel the weight of the fact that the Fire Navy is approaching, the chief of the Northern Water Tribe calls everyone together and asks for volunteers to fight, and then he says some of these faces will disappear from the water tribe forever.

We get flashes of Princess Yue, Master Paku, and some Rando we have not been introduced to yet, which turns out to be the person that Yue's betrothed to. Why did we flash to him? This rando.

I don't know, it takes Sokka down.

Yeah, but we don't know who he is. It's just some face. It's just a dude. It totally takes me out of that moment. I no longer feel any sort of tension.

Oh. Because we haven't met him yet. Yeah, no, that was weird. No, it was weird. Yeah.

I don't think we got a sequence right. Something is missing.

Yeah.

And again, Dr. Movie, when we do the remaster Kickstarter. Yeah, we're not zooming in on him. Why? That it just ruined that whole scene for me. What was that guy's name? Han? It was Han. Han. Who's a terrible character?

And Yeah, no, he's the worst.

I think the whole Han character was probably a little ill-thought out, and it takes a lot of the tension away from when we find out Yue is engaged to another person. At least make I think the drama could have been increased if it was like a better person or if we had been introduced to this character early on, and that's like another kind of plot twisty reveal, kind of like how Paku turns out to be Kana's betrothed.

Like I think they should have introduced his type of character earlier.

Let's uh talk about Han's uh MVP moment when he goes and gets on to the Fire Nation ship where Admiral Zhao is on, and right before he's about to attack or set back, I can't remember which one it was. Here comes Han to save the day, and just gets pushed right off the ship.

Yeah, poor guy. Disappeared from the Northern Water Tribe forever.

Yes, he did.

So this episode, like we finally get uh another moment of Zuko and Katara battling it out.

Wait, wait. After Zuko leaves, because he's been like hanging out secretly on the ship.

Surprise, Zuko's alive!

Right. He didn't get blown to Smitherines, and then he has there's like the sweet moment of Uncle, who talks about his son.

I love that moment. Well, you what was that like for you, Troy? Did you know that Uncle because Uncle confesses that he lost his son and he thinks of Zuko as his own.

Did you hear that? I did hear that.

I thought it was like a really beautiful moment, and it it shows a lot of why Iroh's been doing what he's been doing in this show so far, and finally is what is spoken, what's kind of been unsaid this whole time, that Iro's been this father figure to guide Zuko and to guide him hopefully on a better path.

Yes, I want to hear. What did you think?

I thought they both did the part excellent. I think that you can really feel for Iroh and his motives behind helping Zuko. I kind of guessed it, because even though he's Uncle Iroh he treat he seems to know how to treat a young man with respect or like his son. So when he said I when I lost my son, I was like, Yeah, totally saw that coming.

What threw me off of Iroh was just how much fun that dude's been to watch since since the very beginning of the season. The fact that he lost his son, no surprise to me. I don't have much to say about that. I've I've never been in that situation, and I don't know that many people who have been in that situation, but it was just really nice for us to it was a really nice reveal.

It was nice to put even more humanness into Iroh.

I think it shows that Iroh is such a multifaceted character, and also that Iroh, at this point in his life, as an older man, has kind of been ruled by loss at this point. We get mention a s a couple times of his dramatic failure when he was trying to siege the Earth Kingdom capital of Bossingse, and then we find out he's lost his son.

So we have these things that have maybe changed him fundamentally for who he is. We find out a lot about Iroh's character in this episode. Well, in this in this finale, we also find out that he has some ties to the spirit world.

Right. That they're like, oh yeah, I hear that you've been there before.

unknown Okay.

We we don't know why he went. Did he go to like try to find his son? Like save his son's soul.

He is, you know, tired of war, to be honest. I mean, just look at the guy. That is so rude. Just because look at him. He just likes to eat. He likes to eat, he likes to drink, he likes to party.

You don't know, he likes to drink tea. There's like very little calories depending on what he's putting into that tea.

Exactly.

No one's saying this is about calories.

But we're saying Iroh likes to have a good time. And he loves music now.

He's just like, let somebody else fight a war. I'm just I want to enjoy life. Dang it. And here comes Zuko and he's like, like, Zuko got punished for something that wasn't exactly his fault. And I think Iroh is very aligned with Zuko, and it just makes him a perfect duo. Iroh doesn't want to help Zuko out too much due to Zuko's pride, and it's just been awesome watching him support him, and you just find out real fast that Zuko and Iroh are not the real villains of the show.

They've just been trying to catch the avatar, not trying to kill him, not trying to kill any of them. They've just been trying to capture him.

Yeah, no, no, I think this this season finale, you definitely like the curtain finally rises that hey, these two aren't bad guys, really.

Right. And it's just not to change subjects too much, but I it was interesting. It was more like when they went through that cave, it was it brought me back to the uh cartoon episodes of Bugs Bunny being being chased after by Elmer Fudd. Wait, who what cave?

The cave that He's zooming ahead. No, no, no. Gotta go back.

So Zuko takes off. I loved okay, Zuko had like some amount of serenity to him when he was leaving Iroh. Like he felt like he was finally like there was some calmness to him. Maybe those are the injuries talking.

Yeah, yeah. No, it was kind of like the blue spirit, but but better. Like he had an awakening.

Oh yeah, no, he was like ninja stealth, like running around. And then we get that sweet moment with the seal turtles.

Where he's like, oh. Be quiet! He's talking to the seals.

And then he like shoves past him. And they start going again. That felt like a Mel Brooks moment.

And then he takes a dip, goes, goes down.

Like, no promise that he's coming up on the other end.

He's got motivation.

He definitely has motivation. As Sokka once said, if we know anything about Zuko, is that he doesn't give up.

Mm-hmm. Okay, so then Aang meditates, makes it to the spirit world, right?

We assume. He goes into the Avatar state. He's glowing. Right. He's like, what's wrong with him?

Okay, so Zuko makes it. And then he and Katara have this moment. And it kind of just this awesome little sparring.

Oh, and I love when it dawns on Zuko that Katara's actually gonna be a force to reckon with after she like traps him in like a sphere of ice, and he's like, You little peasant, you found a master. That's great. That was a great scene, and it was really satisfying to watch Katara kick Zuko's butt, like just relentlessly.

Like he had no chance. Were you feeling sparks flying, Troy? We know you ship Zutara.

Oh, they told it was totally a fight, like two of them in shipped. Oh man.

Uh yeah, so then Zuko steals Aang's body. I'm like, how much does he weigh? He's just like packing him around. Okay, Aang probably doesn't weigh that much. Okay, it's true. He's mostly air. But he's like going through the blizzard.

But we zoom out. Zuko's had to have hiked up that whole like switchback on the side of that mountain. Right.

No, I think Zuko's super buff.

Hmm. You're one of those people who are like really into Zuko.

No.

Oh yeah.

No.

You're like smiling. Okay, you can't see. Katie has the biggest Cheshire grin on her face. She's sweating a little.

It's hot in here. But anyway.

I mean, it could be the fire from Zuko.

Try a way in. Once he was carrying the Avatar over his back through that mountain. He has a name. Dang. Yeah. When he's carrying Aang over the mountain, I just had in my mind, like, okay, you caught Aang. Now what? Yep. Right. Like, what's your plan now?

It's to the blizzard.

I'm gonna hide out in this cave forever. Okay, so we've obviously skipped ahead to the next episode. I'm gonna put a pin in that. Really quick. We talk about like Zhao is so committed to eradicating the water tribe. What's driving him? What's his motivational force?

I feel like he's just he just wants to be. I feel like we want power, right? It's like who's the baddest? It's me. Yeah. No, he's got an attitude that I don't like.

But then there's a lot of foreshadowing on what his plan is, which is really nefarious. Okay, with this, what threat does the water tribe pose to the fire nation?

I think the the threat is that anyone who's not the fire nation is a threat. Because who's to say they can't ban everybody, all the peasants together and have an uprising?

Are there any like real-world parallels to that? Yes, there are. I think it's it's interesting because the water tribe, as far as we know, have just been kind of keeping to themselves. They're the complete opposite in terms of fire. They are the natural enemy to fire. So I don't know why they would wage a war on the home turf, besides Zhao, like kind of having a belief that he has like a secret weapon in his back pocket.

It seems pretty foolish.

I just feel like they were like, okay, this is our opportunity. We have a feeling where we, you know, that Aang hasn't completed his training. He's still kind of a weakling, that they could sneak attack.

I wonder also if like part of the reason that they would attack the water tribe is if you wipe out this culture, then if you kill Aang, he can't be reborn into the water tribe, because that's how the w the cycle goes, like after air is water, and then earth and fire. So he wouldn't have a place to be born into.

So maybe they're betting on the fact that it would end the avatar cycle and the threat of the avatar would be gone.

I mean, do you actually think they're thinking this through?

Well, I don't know. What we know of the Fire Lord is that he's insane.

Lon Zhao is also insane.

Okay, so we're finally in the season two finale. We're back to Jam animation, rocking it as usual. And when we start the episode for Aang, he ends up in the spirit world, and so we're finally in the spirit world for the first time. And it's not what I was expecting. It's definitely like kind of creepy, kind of marshy, sepia-toned.

Yeah, no, definitely a little creepy. And like the Grumpy Monkey.

Grumpy Monkey, voiced by, any guesses, someone famous. Troy's gonna know it. You're gonna know it, but you're not gonna name his name.

God, he sounds like the same guy that voiced the monkey off of the Lion King.

Really?

I have no idea. It's Mark Hamill, guys. It's the Skywalker.

Dang it! I was gonna say it's gonna go to somebody. Dang it!

It's Mark Camill! He's the baboon! Uh and I think and I think it was Mark Hamill because they probably were like, oh, we're bringing in Mark Hamill to voice uh cameo for Fire Lord Ozai at the end. Hey, Mark, you want to do this other character? He's like, Okay, yeah, sure. I'll be this Indian-influenced baboon who's got a grumpy issue.

Mm-hmm.

So we end up in the spirit world. Roku's in the water, chilling, as Aang's reflection, and then we need to find out who the ocean and the moon spirit are. And so Roku's like, dude, I don't know. I've been dead for like a hundred and some odd years. Like, I haven't figured it out yet. How about you go to Ko, the face dealer?

Figure it out yourself, man. Come on, Roku. Why don't you go ask?

Yeah, I don't know. It was like freaky. The freaky little Little?

Well, what do you call it? You're talking about Ko?

Yeah. He's huge.

He's a giant centipede monster crab.

No, I'm not into him. But I'm happy that Aang could, you know, keep a straight face, because I definitely would not be able to do that.

As like those creepy monsters are coming at you. He's got his like little crab legs. Ko would taste delicious with some garlic butter. That is sick. So Ko's lair is really interesting. It's like this big creepy tree. And it's maybe guarded by maybe hanging around like a giant fox spirit. Did you notice that giant fox trotting around the background?

No. It was huge. Okay, well I'll show you some pictures. Guys, there's a huge fox. It looks gigantic, like several stories tall.

Hmm.

I don't know why Aang didn't befriend him.

Wait, in the cave?

Outside the cave.

Hmm.

Yeah, we'll back it up. We'll look at it. Troy, what was what was Ko like for you?

A disappointment.

Why?

When they first start off with, um, I don't know, he's he he can help you, but you must not make any facial expressions. I'm like, great, we made it all this way just to talk to friend of me that you can't make any facial expressions around. And the wisdom he gave Aang, I was like, really? I don't know.

I just Ko was a huge letdown for me personally.

But I think with you have these omniscient, super wise, super ancient beings, and if you have like unlimited wisdom and knowledge for living for an eternity, I think you probably wouldn't really care about mortals and you probably would go about interacting with them in like a different way. Like, make this worth my time or I'm gonna take your face.

I think is where that comes from with Co.

Mm. And it's just something I don't relate to. Poor Ko.

We see a lot of faces with Ko. I don't know. Do things come to him, or does Ko like hang out like in the world of the mortals and like stealing faces? I don't know.

I don't want to think about him anymore. Mike Nightmares.

I bet Ko has a richer story than we expect. The creators, Mike and Brian, they were quoted famo infamously of saying that Ko would return again in the series. He never comes back. But Co was supposed to c there were ideas floated around for him to have another role. I don't know what that would have been.

I would have loved to have seen it because he's creepy and fantastic. But we find out that Ko has stolen the face of a previous incarnation's love, which is totally nefarious. It's very evil. Yeah, I don't know. It's pretty dark. And then one of the faces that Ko sorry, I'm stuck on Ko. I know. Because he's delicious.

Also, I'm pretty sure they eat something that looks exactly like Ko in The Lion King. I think Poomba like bites a centipede in half and his arms are all right.

That's where they got the idea.

So Ko, like one of the faces that comes at Aang, looks kind of like the blue spirit. Did you notice that? Like the blue faced, like no, Ko's awesome. Love Ko. And he does like that kind of sexual dance when he's like Twi and La. Push and pull. Oh yeah. Yin and Yong.

Were you surprised that that's like like the fish where the ocean and moon spirits?

Mm. I I like the fact that I recognize the fish as yin and yang. Once I saw black and white circling one another, I was like, oh yeah, that's that's yin yang. I recognize the symbol. Then they go, oh that's that's the sun and the moon. Ocean and the moon. Ocean and the moon. I was like, it's like, okay, that's interesting.

Okay, real quick. So I know from my knowledge of being around in the 90s that yin and yang, yin and yang were very popular things. I don't know much about them except except for they come from Taoism, correct? Yes. What tell me tell me about a little about yin and yang.

Uh I can't tell you a whole lot actually.

Besides from being on necklaces in 1994.

Yeah, it was about balance, man.

But I remember like growing up, people were like, yeah, it's like there's a little bit of light in the darkness and a little bit of dark in the light.

Hmm. It probably depends who you ask.

That's true.

But yeah, I think that is kind of the idea, right?

Yes. For every cause there's an effect, and I think they definitely need each other to balance out. Um yeah, I actually don't have that much to say about yin-yin yang.

Okay, what do you have to say about this episode?

It definitely was good.

Yeah, it was. Wow, it was definitely good. Man, you heard it.

There's so many themes of balance in this show, and I think that's it really got hit on the head in this episode where you see that, like what Troy just said, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. We need the moon, so to keep the balance of the ocean, to keep you know, there's all these things like tie into each other, and if you eliminate something, you cause this ripple effect, and you can say that about all sorts of things in our world.

Okay, so we find Zuko, he's in the cave, Aang wakes up, kicks his butt, flies out.

Right. And then, you know, Katara and Zuko have one more, and where Katara says, Trust me, Zuko, it won't be much of a match.

I think Katara's gotten pretty feisty in these past few episodes. That's the best. She's definitely gained a lot of confidence, and I love seeing that come out in her character.

Also, I like that Aang decided to not leave Zuko there to die in the snow. I mean, I think that's telling of his character.

And it's also telling of Sokka's character where Sokka's fed up with like being gunned down by Zuko.

Right.

So Sokka's just like at the breaking point with him. Katara is quiet because she wants a piece of that. Kind of like Katie. And then we I think it's a great- What about Troy?

He might. You want a piece of that?

I do. So Zuko's scars. If we if we go by the fact that this has taken place like several days or a few weeks later, his scars are like his injuries on his face haven't healed.

Yeah.

Which must have been pretty bad.

Yeah.

And then Zuko has this like moment of therapy hanging out with Aang in the cave where he's like, he finally gets that moment from the blue spirit that we wanted where Aang kinda is confiding into Zuko wanting to start a dialogue. Zuko responds with a fist of fire. And then we have like Aang can't hear him.

Zuko might know that. And then Zuko's like spilling his guts.

I know.

Talking about his sister.

I always just love that about when we get to learn more about Zuko.

How like dysfunctional and multi-layered he is.

Yes.

Yes. Well, I'm just I'm glad that I think it was either the podcast before this one or the last one before that. I said I can't wait to meet Zuko's sister if he does have a sister. And he started talking about a sister, and I was like, yes, I guessed one thing right.

He has a sister. She wasn't the blue spirit. She doesn't want to save Aang today. Okay, also Zuko should have learned from 101 Dalmatians to cover up your tracks. I was a little peeved that they made such a big deal in the last episode about not moving Aang's body because his spirit needs to get make it back there.

And then when he returns from the spirit world, he just like jettisens off to his body. It seemed kind of weak.

But I was feeling like the spirits Like Haybai was sending him. Right. It was like, this is go time. We don't have time to mess around. This is an emergency.

That's true. I do feel like the spirits were very aware of what was happening, as Ko has stated. Also, there's a rumor that the last face we see of Ko, coming back to Ko, uh, was in fact Iroh's son Luten. There's like some some rumor going on that maybe Ko stole his face and killed Iroh's son. Oh, God.

But we don't know. That's never been confirmed.

Okay, let's zip ahead. Where it gets really dark, literally.

Yeah, we find out that Zhao is going to go ahead with his plan to destroy the moon spirit. And throw the world into chaos? I don't know what his plan was there.

No, it was super crazy.

Troy? Again, it was like, yeah, now that you destroyed the moon spirit, now what? I was the uh He killed the fish.

Yeah. Straight up. The Moon Spirit.

After being told specifically by Iroh to not I know.

Shows what a little respect you have for Iroh.

I think in general I'm a little bit lukewarm about this episode just because I'm like watching the these top guys from the Fire Nation finally reach their goals, and then they're just like, huza! I'm like, okay, now what?

Well, now what? You have a reaction from the good guys.

Yes, but it was just more like I don't know.

At the top of our podcast, you said the episodes were awesome. Now you're like feeling lukewarm. I think, are you overwhelmed by the amount of awesomeness that you just experienced? I'm beyond overwhelmed.

Maybe. It might be a lot to take in.

I because these episodes are in a lot of ways, they're way different than what we've seen before.

And they're way heavier. And there's it's very layered, and and yeah, like you say, it's it is more than just a kid's show. And so when you really I mean, we're not giving you any time to process. Yeah, to process. I mean it's like we watch these and then we start recording. Maybe you need to maybe you need to start watching it at home so you can think about it.

And then come in hot. Yeah. So Zhao destroys the moon spirit. No one's happy. Iroh goes to town on those Fire Nation goons.

So they had a Yoda moment.

It was definitely kind of a Yoda moment. You have this, like, you know, our old wise mentor. Okay.

Call back to seriously, Star Wars, Attack the Clones, where please never invoke that name. No, I know, but I gotta. Where the main bad guy is trying to get away and Yoda whips out his lightsaber like nothing, and then just jumps on the guy. That's what I reminded me of. Straight up.

Straight up.

But I think after as soon as Zhao kills the moon spirit, he takes off. Like he I think it dawns on him like what he's done, but instead of like owning up to it, he just pieces out.

Well, I think it's like a moment of clarity because it's like, you know, before you do something and it's all this This rush? Yeah, and you're like, okay, it's like we're you're uh like this tunnel vision of trying to accomplish a goal, and then once you do, you're like, whoa, wait a minute, and thinking about the repercussions of that.

He gets definitely blinded by his own ambition and his own legacy.

So then we are for people for the fans that are really paying attention, by far Aang's best trainer has been the firebending master. Cause he was the one who warned Aang that his best student was Admiral Zhao. He didn't say Zhao, I don't think. Oh, you mean Zhang Zhang? Yes. You know, Admiral Zhao, he's just got this, he's he's got a take over the world mentality.

And now that he's officially taken over the world in his mind, he's like, oh god, now what? Instead of expanding the Fire Nation, he's realized he's actually enclosed everything and put it in total darkness. And I love that he he realized his mistake. He didn't learn from it, but I think.

I do think he realized that it was a bad call and peaced out. And then Zuko like tails him. And Zuko, when they have their first battle in the episode three, Zuko warns Zhao that the next time they fight, he won't hold back. And then Zuko, like, he's coming in hot on Zhao, and Zhao's not really putting up much of a fight.

Like, I think Zuko's gonna take him out. And then instead of letting Zhao like go to his doom when the spirit of the ocean like takes him, Zuko tries to save him. And I think that was another a parallel to Aang, where you have like your greatest enemy in like mortal danger, and instead of letting them meet their fate, like you try to intervene and save them, and then Zhao accepted his fate, which was a terrible moment.

Like he thought about it and he was like, Oh, maybe I'll reach out, but then that was maybe he felt that was a would be a sign of weakness, and he didn't want to be weak towards Zuko. And took his hand back, and yeah, I can see that. I mean, I'm not gonna miss him that much. Okay.

Poor Zhao.

Okay, no, poor Sokka. Okay, let's talk about that.

Okay, let's talk about Yue. We get introduced to the princess of the water tribe, and Sokka comes in hot. He really wants to woo this girl. Not knowing that she's a princess, but just being taken by her. Maybe it was that silver hair.

Mm-hmm.

But we find out that Yue has this really layered, very backstory-rich history where we find out that she was probably stillborn, and then the spirits gave her life. Maybe the spirits knew that one day that these the spirits, the moon and the ocean spirit would be in danger, and so it was kind of like insurance, giving their some life force to this girl.

But yeah, it comes into the fact that I think these episodes dealt with destiny quite a bit. Like Yue felt in her heart, I bet, for her entire existence, felt that her destiny was to one day like give back this gift she was given. Zhao thinks it's his destiny to destroy the entire water tribes. Aang's been told it's his destiny to keep the world in balance, and he's accepting that destiny.

And we have Zuka, whose destiny is to regain his honor and to capture the Avatar. It's not on full force toward the end, but Yeah. It's just interesting that we we have a lot of that. And so Sokka gets his first real heartbreak of the series.

Oh no, I feel like first love. Okay, what was your opinion of Yue?

She uh was a woman. She was a good one.

She's a sixteen-year-old, okay.

She's of marrying age. Oh man. No, she was a good uh addition to the show. They c she definitely had a a lot more uh potential for the rest of the series, is just too bad, but it was also very necessary that she had to sacrifice herself and the two episodes that we see her in. Three three episodes that we see her in.

The head writer on the show, Aaron, I think his last name is pronounced Ehaz? Ehayes. Aaron Ehaze. Uh he approached Mike and Brian when they found out they were doing this character, and he was so adamant that she have silver hair or white hair because she was associated with the moon. He was not super forthright with many of his opinions on the show, but when it came to that, he was like, guys, guys, you have to do this.

And Mike and Brian were like, Yeah, man, okay, yeah, yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, it's nice. It was a great call. But you know what's interesting about her like sacrificing herself is like nobody asked her to necessarily.

Iroh just kind of spurs it, but you you know she's thinking it.

Right. But at the end of the day, like it wasn't like dad approached her, anybody was encouraging her necessarily to do it, and it was her choice to to sacrifice herself. But I guess it's true. Iroh did have some influence.

But I think that's kind of Iro's gig is that he he knows the right answer, but he's going to let them make the decision.

So yeah, definitely like a bittersweet ending for me, because it's like poor Sokka, who's just, you know, yeah, sometimes he just kind of draws the short straw.

It's a really beautiful moment though, when they like share their last kiss, and then she comes back as the moon spirit, and then she's gone. And then the moon comes back, and then there's like hope in the world again. But before we get to that moment where Yue says, Oh, it's it's over, there's no more hope, and then Aang, like, we shift to him, he's gone avatar state.

He like is glowing and he says, No, it's not over. I got chills, I was like tearing up at that moment.

No, I was too. Troy, were you affected at all?

Um, yes. It's not over till he says it's over. But you know, and he he did the whole it's no, it's not over. I was like, Oh, this is the part where he uses all four elements. Mmm. And that's where the show was like Have you looked up cheats?

Have you read about the show? No. Any spoilers? No. I'd like to point out just to air Troy's dirty laundry. Sometimes Troy's interested in something, and instead of watching it, he just reads the synopsis of something.

Well, I thought the whole point of the show was he's learning all four elements throughout the show.

Hey, I just had to make sure because I just want to encourage you to stay strong.

Because everything becomes so easy to him, so when he says, No, it's not over, I'm like, oh snap. You know, he's gonna use the fire, he's gonna use the earth, he's gonna use the air, he's gonna use the water, and just go Super Saiyan on the Fire Nation. But instead. Do you think that was a better move what ended up happening?

I would have liked to see my version, but I Oh, Troy. Sorry. Okay, so He doesn't even know how to move the Earth. No offense to the creators of the show.

I think me. I think Who asked you? The no, it's not over, and then Aang standing in the pond, and then the fish glows, and Aang glows, and then Aang gets sucked into the pond. Oh man, it was like game over for me. I was like shivering. I was, I don't know, man.

Man, and it's like his 14th time.

No it's so good. I woke up this morning and I looked over to Katie and I was like, I'm so excited to watch this.

It's true. He's been pretty jazzed all day.

I mean, it's what it was my my gateway drug, man. Man.

Yeah, no, I think it's a really special moment. And then as soon as the moon comes back, you know, then Aang and the spirit go back. And it's like, okay, we can like chill now.

Right, balance is returned. Like, I don't need but you know if the moon had been gone, like that Oh yeah, all those ships would have been gone. I think the ocean spirit was gonna march to the Fire Nation and like lay siege, like sink the nation.

So they made Aang come back up as Godzilla.

So funny you say that, the creators, uh, they affectionately call Aang's thing that he transforms to into Koizilla. Oh, interesting. So Koizilla. But that moment when Koizilla like comes up for the first time, this like being of like light and water, and you see like Aang in the middle, and Aang raises its arms, and then the Koizilla raises its arms, like I am your god, like bow down before me.

Yeah, and they do.

Yeah, the water, all the water tribe people, like respectful. They're bowing to it. I thought that was like a really powerful, beautiful moment. And then if you're not bowing down to Koisilla, he's taking you out and just merciless.

Yeah.

Old Testament style. It was amazing.

Well, this is it. So we're almost done talking about the last episode of season one. It ends with kind of a cliffhanger, Troy. What is that?

We find out that Prince Zuko has, in fact, a sister who is a prodigy of the Fire Nation. That she's got a special mission.

What do you think her mission's gonna be?

To capture. They don't wanna kill him. That's too much work for the Fire Nation. They made it all very clear. They're like, no, no, don't kill him. He'll just come back as one of them. We'll just capture him.

And we know what happened last time. We got Godzilla on our tails.

Koizilla on our tails. Koizilla. So it's like some of the do so the so the sisters are gonna do a better job of capturing him? I don't know.

Did you just put a question mark? Did you question the fact that she would be able to achieve it because of her womanhood, Troy? No, I'm like, you're just like Master Paku.

I could Master Pikachu, man. But no, I just I just there's no doubt she could capture him. Like, but is that it? Again, like that's what Zuko did. He just captures the the avatar.

Well, he hasn't successfully done it. Oh, he successfully did it alright. Well, I mean you captured him. I mean you could say that they they captured Zuko. Right, I guess. Ah, sucker.

Yes.

Well, now that you've completed season one, how does it feel?

It feels exhilarating.

Is it what you thought?

Yes.

It is what you thought?

It is what I thought.

This this season has been what you thought it would be.

Yes. For the most part, yes. How about you, Katie?

No, it's better every time.

It literally is.

I mean, it is a really great and dynamic show. And yeah, if you're listening to this, you probably already know that.

Yeah, Mike and Brian. You guys know.

You know.

Yeah, no, the only episode that didn't go the way I thought it was gonna go was the season finale. That was the only thing I was like, I was like, hmm, interesting.

How did you expect the finale to go? Besides from bending all the elements like Goku. Which Goku does.

Yes, he does.

Don't at me.

I don't know. I felt like they could easily have thrown Katara down there to fend off a bit more fire benders or Fire Nation people. She could have been healing the people that were getting hurt. It felt like they underutilized every character in the season finale.

So it sounds like what you were expecting was maybe like a full-on, like kind of war movie where you see like all the front lines happening. Where I think the characters were where they needed to be, which was like just assisting Aang in his mission. Yes. And to do that, they were doing something bigger, which was staying with Yue and Iroh at the pond and like finding the answers to help that.

Also, back to Koizilla. Moon comes back, Koisilla decides it's time to be done. Puts Aang back, and kind of grabs his head. I feel like Aang passed out. I don't think Aang was in charge.

Yeah, I don't think he was really aware of what was going on. Okay, also, what's the group's opinion of Iroh? Are they like, oh cool, Iroh's here? They're like, oh god, Iroh's here.

I think they're all pretty cool with him. I think they didn't have a choice.

Or they're like, they're like, oh god, what's up with your nephew?

I don't know. I don't well that's the best part about Iroh I don't think he has any really any quarrels with anybody. I was thinking about on my on my drive to here. Uncle Iroh has never voiced his opinion of the Avatar, his real opinion. That's true. Yeah, but he's like guilty by association. He's guilty by association, but he doesn't really care about the Avatar.

He's just trying to make his nephew happy because his nephew's like a son to him. And I don't think anybody else there has any quarrels with the uncle just because he really's he really hasn't made any real advances on the team.

But how does Aang and the gang know that Iroh is that way? They just know that he's there with Zuko every time Zuko's trying to like capture Aang.

I mean, I would definitely be on edge around Iroh if I were them.

Right. How do they know they can trust him?

I think they find out they can trust him because of what Iroh says to Zhao in that moment of like pleading with him to not do this, and Iroh shows like so much fire. Uh it's a very passionate exchange that he gives, and it's like one of my favorite that Iroh does. Uh, and I think that was probably enough for them not to not to be fearful.

It was kind of like the enemy of my enemies, my friend.

Right. Okay. You ready for season two? Are you excited for season two?

I'm curious for season two.

So book two is called Earth. What do you think is gonna happen?

Hmm. I'm curious to see what new masters Aang will be meeting. Because so far, those guys, basically, whenever he meets a master, the kind the whole paradigm of the show kind of shifts just a little bit. That's true. And he kind of grows up just a little bit more. He learns a little bit more knowledge from every master he comes across.

Even if he hasn't mastered the skill, either he grows a little bit more maturity, Katara learns the skill a little bit better, and Soccer has another little adventure. So I'm I'm curious to see what masters of elements they bring in season two. If they bring in Amy.

Nice.

Katie, what are you looking forward to?

Same.

No, season two is is gonna be a trip.

I'm just I'm excited to watch it again.

Me too.

Can't talk about it. Okay.

Yeah, Troy.

See you in season two.

So we're probably gonna take a week between publishing this episode and our next one just to give give it a little space to breathe. Let let Troy process Koizilla and the the crushing blow of not having Aang bend all four elements. Uh big shout out to everyone who's been listening so far. We have um more listeners than I expected, and I expected about three.

So you've surpassed my expectations. I appreciate it. Apparently, like I think 20% of all of our listeners are in Germany. So Guten Tag! Deutschland! Danke. Wow. Well, I said hello and you said thank you, so I don't know. So thank you guys so much for listening and supporting us. We really appreciate it.

Follow us on Instagram. We just made one YippyPoray Podcast. You can check us out. No special characters. Yeah, it's a pretty exciting Instagram, so. I've posted five times. Hashtag. So again, thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure to actively watch this show and get so much more out of it for for me who's had it be a part of my life for half of my life, which is uh something to think about.

I'm gonna celebrate my birthday on Saturday, and I'm going to turn 30 years old.

Yep, yep.

Yep, yep. Maybe I'll hit the Avatar State. Who knows?

Oh god.

Give you a piece of that zoco. That's why John Malkovich doesn't like listening to his own voice. He says he sounds like a crack addict when he talks.

Well, have you listened to John Malkovich?

I'm watching a show that stars him.

Being John Malkovich? Yes. Starring John Malkovich as John Malkovich with people being John Malkovich.

Oh my god. And then there's Space Force, where he plays like second command to Steve Carell.

And there's Space Jam starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.

The Siege of the North

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