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Book of Air: Episode 2 “The Avatar Returns”


 

It's ass-kicking time!

Best Line:  “Dig the ship out and follow them!  As soon as you’re done with that.”

The second episode doesn’t let up the pace at all.  We find that Aang and Katara have set off a trap that alerts the Fire Nation to their presence.  Aang is brought before the village, where they decide he’s too much trouble and kick him the hell out.  The first time I saw this episode, I was surprised at the Shirley Jackson nature of this scene.  In children’s adventure stories, I’m used to kindness from villagers who teach moral lessons about not abandoning people when they screw up.  Avatar takes a slightly more adult approach when the villagers stop just short of stringing Aang up by his non-existent short and curlies.

The rest of the episode gives us our first good look at the Fire Nation in action, as well as Zuko, the series main villain(hero).  When the Fire Nation ships pull up to the village, the scene is a giant steel monstrosity spilling black smoke into the sky destroying the pristine and simple beauty of the village.  Literally.  The ship just plows right through half of the village.  This introduces yet another prevailing theme of the series and it’s follow-up The Legend of Korra.  Science and Industry in the absence of a guiding philosophy leads to ruin.  We’ll talk more about that in later episodes.

When the ship stops, out pops Zuko, who immediately kicks Sokka’s ass (we also get the see Sokka’s awesome warpaint one of the few times its shown).  Another running theme is Sokka getting his ass kicked whenever he uses brawn over brains.  The show is constantly working on many levels – if you notice, Zuko is dressed in traditional Fire Nation gear, while Sokka is wearing traditional Water Tribe regalia.  At this point in the series, the Fire Nation crushes the Water Tribe without any trouble as Zuko easily defeats Sokka.  Things only change when the Avatar shows up and is truly acknowledged AS the Avatar.  Another metaphor for the entire story stuffed into a cool 30 second fight scene.  These writers are brilliant and I want to absorb them like Spock’s brain.  We also see the theme of kharma played out here.  In the first episode, we see Sokka poke Aang with this spear.  This episode Sokka gets poked by Zuko with that same spear.  Finally Zuko is poked with the spear himself.  Poke by the spear, get poked by the spear.

Zuko is possibly the series most complex character.  On some level he is just a kid that really wants to go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters, but in that same way that all teenagers are.  He is Anakin Skywalker before Lucas fucked the whole thing up.  Basically, the confused anti-hero we all want to be as teenagers, complete with the cool burn scar.

The story of Avatar is as much the story of Zuko as it is of Aang.  Both of them struggle with the same problems of the acceptance of their own power, and the struggle to become adults in a confusing world.  One hides from his responsibility by goofing off and indulging in play, the other hides by deliberately focusing and single-mindedly pursuing an unattainable goal.  Aang is the school nice-guy jock, and Zuko is the nerdy rebel.  Flip sides of the same coin.  Keep in mind that Zuko’s true goal is NOT to destroy the Avatar – it’s to regain his honor and worth in the eyes of his father.  He simply has fixated on Aang as the way to do that.

Guiding Zuko along his path is his Uncle Iroh, who is probably the coolest character on the show.  He’s played for laughs most often, but the guy is more badass than Bruce Willis with no shoes on Christmas.  Iroh is the writers way of inserting baldly stated philosophy and moral teachings into the show.  He is sort of the Kilgore Trout of the Avatar universe, and like Kurt Vonnegut is able to breathe fire.

This episode also really introduces the Avatar State.  We saw it before with Aang’s glowy eyes when he came out of the ice, but in this episode he completely loses his shit and decides he can use a tsunami like a baseball bat.  The Avatar State is a place of ultimate power and focus that Aang enters when he’s desperate or highly emotional, wherein he loses control of his thinking and destroys everything around him.  If that doesn’t sound like a 12 year old I don’t know what does.  I waged a few paths of destruction at that age, and I can’t haidouken shit.  It’s the ultimate expression of what we would all do if we could at that age, when our hormones are pounding away and we have no good method of self-expression.  BOOMDESTROY!  Luckily most of us grow out of that, and if we don’t we get a reality TV show.

The episode ends with the kids flying away on Appa, truly on their own in a world at war.  They know they have no help coming, and they need to find a way to manage on their own.  Pretty much like everyone who’s ever left home.

 


1 Comment on Book of Air: Episode 2 “The Avatar Returns”

  1. Syhd

    It’s interesting. Your read of Aang and Zuko are almost completely opposite mine. I’d never have considered Aang a jock, especially considering his background. Aang is a highly enthusiastic if naive optimist and peacemaker who happens to have the most amazing cosmic power in this world to indulge his carefree manner. My initial impression of Zuko was a stock villain who uses his personal power and position, and the might of the Fire Nation, to pursue Aang relentlessly, well beyond sensibility and reason because of some driving force in his background (much like Crais pursues Crichton unreasonably in Farscape). I didn’t see much nerdy or rebellious in Zuko since he doesn’t question why he’s following his father’s will without question.

    I like the analogy of the Fire Nation ship on the Water Tribe village as science without philosophy; that’s good. And yes, the fact that the battle only lasts 30 seconds, unlike other anime, because there’s an actual story to tell… this helped endear the series to me.

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