ATLA Book One: Water
Chapter Ten: Jet
In which Momo eats a
berry, Longshot is stoic and silent, and some cabbages are destroyed.
“Jet” is the second big Katara episode in a row, as the
story focuses heavily on her crush on the titular freedom fighter. However, unlike “The
Waterbending Scroll”, it is an episode that gives plenty of material for all of
the Gaang, being just as much Sokka’s episode as it is his sister’s, while
throwing some interesting character notes for Aang into the mix.
As with Haru, Katara bonds with Jet over family lost in the
war, but the focus on their relationship isn’t really on the way that they bond:
their losses are really the only connection between the two characters that the
episode establishes, and that connection is only touched on with one brief
exchange of dialogue. Technically, Sokka and Jet talk just as much about losing
their loved ones, though that exchange is part of a moral debate about hurting
and robbing the old Fire Nation man, rather than a way of establishing a romantic
connection. Really, “Imprisoned” explored Katara’s connection with her love
interest in a far deeper way than “Jet”.
What’s really important for Katara and Jet’s relationship in
this episode is the way Jet’s betrayal of Katara’s trust is presented. It is a
romance largely told through Katara’s point of view: with the scene where Jet
carries Katara to the hideout being a prime example: the romantic lighting for
that scene is clearly framed as Katara’s view of the situation. That isn’t to
say Jet doesn’t genuinely like Katara, as he seems to want her to side with
him, and seems to admire her skills, but the episode does frame the romance
through Katara’s perspective, as this is a story about her being let down by a
boy she likes. The way Jet tricks her into aiding his attempted destruction of
the village is particularly cruel, but also an important character note: he appeals
to Katara’s idealism, which Aang sides with, by claiming innocent lives are at
risk. And not for the first time, this idealism is placed in opposition to
Sokka’s pragmatism, with Sokka wanting to leave Jet and the freedom fighters before
getting caught up in their mess, even though he has seen the harm Jet will do
to innocent people. The climactic confrontation between Katara and Jet sees her
trust in Jet broken Jet down, as she is left unable to believe he would flood a
village of innocents, before she symbolically freezes Jet, rejecting him with
the powers that are crucial to her, and that she has grown more confident in
over the course of the episode.
Also significant is the way the episode ignores any potential
love triangle between Katara, Jet, and Aang, even though Aang’s crush on Katara
has been evident since the first episode, and this sort of story would usually
be the kind where his feelings for Katara are made explicit. There are,
incidentally, some cute bonding moments for Katara and Aang, such as the two of
them waterbending together, but Aang is, for this episode, not shown as being even
slightly jealous of Jet. He is given
some moments of jealously when Jet returns in season two, yet even that jealousy
is pointedly underplayed. Instead of fighting Jet over his love interest, Aang
repeatedly compliments and admires Jet, admiring his fighting skills and
hideout, until the true horror of Jet’s plans are revealed. Even then, Aang
refuses to fight Jet for his glider, trying to take the glider back without
hurting Jet, an approach to fighting a morally grey antagonist that highlights
Aang’s pacifistic nature.
The portrayal of Jet is also an example of the show once
again adding nuance to hundred year war. Jet’s Earth Kingdom based freedom
fighters attack innocent civilians from the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation,
showing villainous and innocent characters can exist on all sides of the
conflict. Ultimately Jet’s black and white approach to the war is what leads to
his downfall: Aang’s lack of desire to hurt him and Jet’s heroic rescue of the
Gaang help frame Jet as a person with good intentions, only for his past loss
at the hands of the Fire Nation to cloud his ability to judge a situation
correctly. As the audience is taken further into the story, the hundred year
war becomes an increasingly complex and morally grey conflict, in spite of what
Jet thinks.
As Aang doesn’t come into conflict with Jet, that role is
left open for someone else, and the person given that role is Sokka. As well as
being a Katara story, “Jet” is a Sokka episode, a story about Sokka trying to
be a leader, and clashing with Jet, who is, superficially, far better suited to
leading. At this point, it is worth pointing out that there is no clear leader
in the Gaang: even though he’s the Avatar, Aang is not in charge in the way
Korra clearly leads the Krew, for example. Instead, key decisions and organisation
of various important missions are consistently shared out equally among the
Gaang. However, by trying to be a better leader Sokka takes on the narrative
position Aang would usually be placed in for this kind of episode: he is
undermined by Jet in the fight, is suspicious of and hostile towards Jet from
the moment they meet, and is accused (fairly) of being jealous of Jet’s
leadership qualities. He even ends the episode flying Appa.
However, ultimately the episode show’s Sokka’s leadership
qualities winning through over Jet’s: he learns at the start of the episode
that you cannot lead by making decisions without listening to those beneath
you, a thing he tells the Duke and Pipsqueak Jet still has to learn. And ultimately,
the resolution demonstrates Sokka’s cleverness and intuition: the episode is,
after all, about “Sokka’s Instincts” in a big way. It also demonstrates his
empathy a side of Sokka that is not often explored, as he is usually portrayed
as the pragmatist when there is a moral dilemma (and as I mentioned before,
that pragmatism is once again in evidence here, forming a part of his clash
with Katara). His pity for the man from the Fire Nation is the key to the episode’s
resolution, and at the end of the episode, he condemns Jet for not protecting
innocent people. Not for the first time, Sokka’s strength as a character lies
in the fact that he is a far more capable and complex character than both the
other characters and the audience initially assume.
“Jet”, then, is an episode that is notable for the kind of
story it isn’t, the kind of story it rejects. Switching the usual narrative
roles of Sokka and Aang key to how this episode works, as it stops the story
from being a stereotypical sexist narrative about two boys competing over a
girl, with the “nice guy” hero being shown to be in the right and the girl
being shown to be a silly fool for falling for the asshole, because in this
kind of story, all girls love jerks. Instead, it becomes a story about the
clash of ideals between Jet and Sokka, a clash that adds welcome nuance and complexity
to the show’s portrayal of war, a story that fleshes out the show’s “comedy
sidekick” character with some excellent material, and about Katara’s first
relationship going wrong, and her coming out of that situation more confident
in herself. It replaces a bad, clichéd narrative with something far more interesting
and valuable.
End of Part Nine.
No comments:
Post a Comment