ATLA Book One: Water
Chapters Nineteen and Twenty: The Siege of the North
Parts One and Two
In Which Hai Bai has
an argument with a sarcastic monkey spirit, Koh may or may not give me
nightmares, and Aang stares at two coy fish.
In the last two posts, we’ve discussed how Book One’s beginning and ending mirror each other, an effect that is oddly suitable for a Season titled “Water”, itself an element that, when still, produces a reflection. “The Siege of the North” completes this mirroring structure: the season began with a two part story where the Southern Water Tribe was invaded by a Fire Nation ship, and this two part story ends the season with a Fire Nation fleet invading the Northern Water tribe. This is also the first time this blog has focused on two episodes at once since the opening two parter, but it is worth acknowledging that the two parts have very distinct focuses.
Part One largely focusses on the Fire nation’s military
invasion, and the water tribe’s defence against that invasion. The first part
of the invasion focused on is the looming sense of dread inspired by the soot-blackened
snow, snow that is recognised with particular pain by Sokka and Katara: Sokka’s
gentle “oh no…” being a particularly telling moment that will be expanded upon
later. The looming dread gives way to relentless work for Aang, who
increasingly feels the weight fighting the Fire Nation puts on him as the
battle goes on. He starts out determined to make a difference, but is weighed
down by the impossible pressure being the Avatar puts on him: his protest that
he’s “just one kid” bringing us back to the lost youth explored in “The Storm”,
and recalling his admission that he never wanted to be the Avatar in “The
Avatar Returns”. Particularly telling is the fact that Aang sees himself as
being alone, just “one” boy fighting an entire nation: Aang needs the support
of those who love him, and needs to accept that support.
Not for the first time, Zuko’s position parallels Aang, as
we see how much he relies on the person who loves him most: Iroh. Iroh and Zuko
get two scenes that bookend Zuko’s appearance in the episode, the first being
Iroh’s goodbye to Zuko as Zuko chases down Aang alone. Iroh’s admission to Zuko
that “Ever since I lost my son […] I think of you as my own” in particular
highlights the similarities between Zuko and Aang. Zuko is uncomfortable with
Iroh’s affection, requesting that Iroh doesn’t say it, and doesn’t want to
accept love, clearly not being sure how to respond to Iroh’s feelings: arguably,
Zuko feels unworthy of love.
So Zuko is on his own throughout this story, with no more
support from his crew, merely using his own resources to chase down Aang. He
gets as close to capturing Aang as he has done so far, but it nearly costs him
his life, as he only survives thanks to the Aang taking pity on him.
Interestingly, Zuko has a similar moment of pity for Zhao, but it is a pity
that the general refuses, a moment that arguably leaves him even more rejected
and alone. Certainly, Zuko is left exhausted at end of the episode, as he
collapses on the raft, finally taking his uncle’s tentative advice without
hesitation, and resting. It could be seen as a moment of progress for Zuko, a
moment where he finally accepts his uncle’s help, but given the nature of his
arc and where we know he is going at the end of Book Two, I’d read it
differently: he seems to have given in in completely, and because there is no
other option, he goes along with his uncle’s request, and abandons his hunt for
Aang, at least for now.
Iroh’s position throughout this story is particularly
interesting, as we see him working as Zhao’s second in command. He has remained
relatively neutral in all conflicts so far, and is clearly on a redemption arc,
just like his nephew. Here, however, he is the closest he’s come to being in
the position of a villain, helping lead a large scale military raid on a major
nation. It is, of course clear that even here he is only working as an insider
to support Zuko, with the reveal that Zuko survived his attempted assassination
at the end of the last episode making it clear Iroh is not doing this for Zhao
or the Fire Nation. But at the same time, Iroh seems to feel some sense of
sympathy towards Zhao, because he can see a man setting himself up for a great
failure by attempting to invade and defeat a powerful city and military
stronghold, something that reminds him of his own failure at Ba Sing Se. It is
an attempt to humanise Zhao through Iroh’s eyes, but arguably succeeds more at
making Iroh a more interesting character than it does Zhao.
Also important is Zuko and Katara’s battle and subsequent
rematch in the second part of the story, which gives Katara a genuinely
significant victory in the finale’s battle, a moment that was needed seeing as
her defining moment of badass so far involved losing to Paku, a great moment,
to be sure, but one that the show needed to move forward from. She doesn’t just
get to land a few successful hits on faceless extras before being captured or
needing rescue, she wipes the floor with a major villain to get poetic justice
for Zuko catching her off her guard, and in doing so rescues Aang while he is
in peril. This is, of course something Katara manages on multiple occasions
throughout the series: Aang wouldn’t be alive to defeat the Ozai if it wasn’t
for Katara, and that chance for Katara to have a significant heroic impact on
the series takes a significant leap forward here.
The battle between Zuko and Katara also brings into focus a
key theme of the episode: the opposition of fire and water. Zuko’s line “You
rise with the moon, I rise with the sun” is particularly demonstrative of that
theme: there is a natural balance between fire and water, with one giving way
to the other as day turns to night, a push and pull between the two elements
that parallels the push and pull between the moon and the ocean spirits. It’s a
vital parallel that holds the story together, as Zuko and Katara’s fight is
linked to both the plot surrounding the fire nation’s raid, and the plot
surrounding the moon and ocean spirits. The binary opposition of fire and water
becomes the bridge that links the military focussed first half of the story to
the spiritually driven second part.
That second part of the story quickly takes us to the spirit
world, where we explore the spiritual themes set up in the first part of the
story. As was the case in “The Spirit World” there is a push to showing the
general weirdness and alien nature of the world of spirits, as we explore the
spirit world in greater detail than before, seeing a world that runs in
parallel to the material one, but is driven by a completely different set of
concerns. We see spirits without a moral compass, in particular, the monkey
spirit, who has no time for Aang and his human concerns, although Hai Bai’s
helpfulness contrasts to this, with a role that neatly mirrors his role in “The
Spirit World”: after dragging Aang into the world of the spirits in “The Spirit
world”, Hai Bai guides him out of that world in this episode. While the monkey
spirit highlights the continued separation between the spiritual world and the
material one, Hai Bai’s assistance shows that the gap between humans and
spirits can be bridged, although it is a gap that will not truly be questioned
until after Aang’s time.
Mention of a time in the Avatar after Aang leads neatly into
the scenes with Koh, which are greatly concerned not just with the story at
hand, but the stories of the Avatar world’s past, and of its future. The
sequence represents a rare moment where the series leans heavily into horror
movie trappings, with Koh genuinely being the stuff of nightmares: “Show no
fear, show no emotion at all” is a rule that is as terrifying and challenging
as Doctor Who’s “Don’t Blink” for the Weeping Angels, and represents something
of a metafictional challenge to the viewers to be as emotionless as Aang, lest
Koh steal their face. But aside from being probably the scariest thing the
franchise has ever done, the sequence gives an intriguing glimpse into Aang’s
past and future, both through the hints of a past Avatar’s lost love and Koh’s
claim to Aang that they will meet again. The line “we’ll meet again”, is a line
that is never paid off in the series, but makes sense if we accept it as a part
of a way of portraying the strangeness of the spirit world: like the other
spirits, Koh also shares a worldview that isn’t human, looking at Aang not in
terms of his human form, but the Avatar Spirit that Koh knows he will meet
again in a later lifetime.
We also say goodbye to Zhao in this episode, and in spite of
his problems as a villain, he gets a rather strong ending, for my money. “I
will be… Zhao the moonslayer” is a moment that works really well for Zhao,
largely due to the sheer audacity of its scale. He’s never worked when they
attempt to ground him in human motivations, such as pulling rank on other
soldiers, or when presented as a reckless former student, but leaning full tilt
into inhuman madness works brilliantly for him, as the show accepts he isn’t
exactly a multi-faceted character, and focuses on doing a simple cliché well.
He doesn’t really want to kill the moon spirit because he mistakenly thinks it
will cause a valuable military advantage, but because he wants to become the
terrifying legend that caused a cataclysmic event. It helps that Jason Isaacs
underplays the moment, not taking the monomaniacal raving too far, letting the
audacity of the moment speak for itself. Zhao’s actions further extend the opposition
of Fire and Water in the story, as he wipes out the source of waterbending and
spirituality in the Water Tribe with a violent act of firebending.
Zhao’s actions also lead to a repositioning of Iroh within
the series, with Iroh’s attempt to stop Zhao representing his most clearly
heroic move so far. Iroh has occupied a morally neutral stance throughout most
of the first book, but his attack on Zhao represents the first time he chooses
to attack a major fire Nation Villain. Ozai’s declaration that Iroh is a
traitor is particularly telling: it is now obvious to the villains of the show,
as well as the audience, that Iroh is not on their side, but is working to take
them down.
The death of the moon spirit results in Aang fighting off the
fire navy in the Avatar state by combining with the ocean spirit. It is Aang’s
climactic hero moment on which to end the season, a moment that parallels his
the powerful act of waterbending he uses in the Avatar state to stop Zuko in “The
Avatar returns”. Most telling is his response to Yue’s despair of “No. It’s not
over”: Aang’s defining heroic act in the first book is his refusal to accept
the world being thrown into chaos.
But the day isn’t just saved by Aang: it is also saved by Yue
and her connection to the moon spirit. Disappointingly, the sequence is a slight
fridging for the sake of Sokka and Yue’s father, who get a brief scene of
shared man pain together at the end where they grieve for Yue. It is arguably a
softened fridging, as she has agency to make a heroic sacrifice, and the moment
partially completes her arc, rather than cutting it short, but only partially.
Her link to the moon spirit isn’t woven into her arc from the beginning, but
introduced at random a few moments before her sacrifice: the closeness of her
description of her birth and sacrifice make her death feel like a narrative
necessity, rather than a completion of her character arc. Even here, however,
the “transcends to a higher plane of being” trope invoked for her death softens
the use of the fridging trope: her consciousness is allowed to live on
throughout the series, and her character still remains a part of the show, as
we’re shown later in the series that her consciousness lives on in the moon
spirit. And ultimately, Yue’s sacrifice is one of the powerful heroic moments
of the finale: Aang fights off the Fire nation fleet, but she restores spiritual
balance to the world. There are many positive aspects to the way Yue is
written, but with a slight lean into harmful tropes: a summary that is not so
different to Book one’s treatment of its female characters as a whole, which
has been good, but still needs working on.
But ultimately, Katara is the show’s biggest legacy for
improving the representation of female characters in genre fiction, and she
ends the season by becoming Aang’s teacher. Her arc has run in parallel or
slightly behind Aang, but she is now capable of being his waterbending master,
becoming the first of Aang’s peers to take on the role of being his teacher
instead of the traditional mentor figure of Paku. The transition from Paku to
Katara is necessary because of the division between the South and the North
that we have witnessed throughout these last three episodes, a division Paku
has chosen to bridge. Because of Paku’s decision, Aang’s teacher goes from
being a privileged Northern master to his friend, the Southern peasant girl who
has fought to become one of the most skilled waterbenders in the world. The
season’s arc is ultimately her journey, the story of Aang taking her to the
North Pole to become a waterbending master, which she becomes to the point
where she is capable of training the most powerful bender in the world, a
genuinely empowering and hopeful message.
End of Part Eighteen
and Book One.
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