From the South Pole Iceberg to the Republic City Portal: Part Thirty Three

ATLA Book Two: Earth

Chapter Fifteen: Tales of Ba Sing Se

In which Iroh’s tale makes everyone cry. A lot.

Once again, Book Two: Earth brings us a high point of the show in the form of “The Tales of Ba Sing Se”. It is, of course, most notable for its unique structure, being presented as a series of vignettes that do little to advance the main plot of the series, instead showing a series of uneventful days the main cast spend in Ba Sing Se. The uneventful nature of the story is important because it helps build a sense of the time the cast spend in Ba Sing Se, for the first time in the series being properly rooted in one location instead of traversing the Avatar world. Moreover, the rooted nature of the story gets at the heart of what makes the Avatar franchise: the way it is willing to spend quiet moments with its characters, making each of them distinct and unique. As a result, it seems best to break down my analysis of this episode into each individual tale, exploring what each one tells us about its titular character(s).

The Tale of Katara and Toph

The series’ focus on female friendship has become increasingly prominent throughout this season, with the relationship of these two characters being the main example of this, and so this tale makes perfect sense, considering where the characters are at this point in the series. The vignette works as an exploration of their friendship, highlighting how they get along in spite of their incredibly obvious differences.

These differences are on display from the beginning, with the early juxtaposition of Toph and Katara’s morning routines highlighting Toph’s “tomboy” characterisation and Katara’s  more feminine nature. In spite of these differences, Katara persuades Toph to go on a girl’s day out at a spa: she is determined to be friends with Toph in spite of their superficial differences.

The things the girls share in common become more apparent when Toph starts to enjoy the day. This enjoyment comes first on Toph’s terms, as she freaks out the staff by making the “alien” face with her mudbending, which Katara laughs along with: the two girls share a sense of fun and humour. Then she begins to enjoy the day on Katara’s terms, enjoying relaxing in the sauna, and actually liking how she feels after having some make up put on: while Toph is most comfortable not conforming to gender roles, she is happy exploring her more feminine side, especially in the company of a girl like Katara.

This bonding pays off in the tale’s final scene, where Katara and Toph send a group of mean spirited girls down the river after they insult Toph: in spite of their differences, Katara and Toph’s friendship is strog because they have each other’s back, and wouldn’t let anyone hurt the other. They also offer one another mutual support, with Katara’s comforting of Toph being noticeably maternal. She doesn’t question Toph’s not entirely true claim that she doesn’t care what other people think, instead expressing admiration for Toph’s attitude and quietly giving her the boost in confidence she needs anyway. In showing this maternal edge to their relationship the show acknowledges that Katara is older and in some ways more self-assured than Toph, who in some ways is incredibly confident in her abilities, but also frequently masks her insecurities (in this case around her appearance) with false displays of bravado. While they are different people, Toph and Katara balance one another out and support each other in a relationship that improves the show vastly.

The Tale of Iroh

This is the tale that everyone talks about, and as a result it can be somewhat surprising that it is placed right at the start of the episode, a structural point that speaks to the true nature of this vignette. It is not placed as the big emotional gut punch at the end of the episode, but is instead framed as just another story, highlighting the way Lu Ten’s death affects Iroh. Iroh’s grief for his son is a constant part of his character that informs everything he has become, but it is not something big and flashy that is drawn out in high-stakes parts of the story for angsty and overdramatic moments. Instead, it is a quiet grief, constantly in the background if the story.

So, why is this tale such a famous part of the show? Largely because it’s so impeccably written ad structured. Iroh helping the group of young boys run from the man whose window they break provides the emotional set up: we see how he would have been with young Lu Ten, laying the groundwork for the emotional reveal. Similarly, his helping the mugger who’s down on his luck shows how Iroh’s loss has turned him into the kind of man who wants to help people to atone for his failure to help his son. Meanwhile, his shopping in the market place lays out the plot elements necessary to peel away the layers to reveal he is celebrating his son’s birthday. The first time we hear him sing “brave soldier boy”, meanwhile, serves as emotional and plot set up, as it is used to show him comforting a crying boy, once again highlighting his paternal nature, while also setting the key element of the final gut punch in the tale, namely, the song’s reprise.

Ultimately, what this tale really gets at is the nature of Iroh as a character, highlighting the way his development works. From the moment we met him, Iroh was a character who has mostly changed his ways and been through most of his redemption story before the series begins, so he doesn’t change that much. What makes him a dynamic character is the way the audience’s understanding of him changes: we are first introduced to him as a comic relief character who balances out Zuko’s angst, but by this point in the series, we know enough about him to see the depth, shades of grey, and tragedy that informs his story.

The Tale of Aang

As with Iroh, the help Aang provides here reflects the grief that is currently driving him at this point in the series, namely his grief for Appa. He begins the tale looking through the Zoo, sad at the confinement of the animals, quite possibly having come to the zoo because he was looking for, or thinking of, Appa. It is particularly notable that before “Appa’s Lost Days”, the two characters most connected to Appa (Momo and Aang) have taes that heavily evoke his absence. As a result, helping the animals can be read as Aang trying to make up for the fact that, at the moment, there is nothing he can do to help his bison.

The juxtaposition of the animals in the zoo at the start of the tale compared to the enclosure at the end also draws out a key theme of the season, as we once again explore the mistreatment of animals by humanity: they are deeply unhappy in their cramped conditions at the start of the tale, and are clearly much more comfortable in the enclosure at the end. Once again, the series takes the time to emphasize the needs of animals and the need for humanity to respect for nature, setting up the themes of the next episode.

The Tale of Sokka

As with Iroh, Sokka gets a tale that really breaks down how he works as a character. In this case, the tale does this breakdown through the perspective of the comic relief aspect of his character.

The first thing worth noting is that Sokka is prompted into action after being called an “oaf”, providing a hint of the insecurity that will drive his actions in “Sokka’s Master”. The woman leading the Haiku class only sees him as a blundering comic relief character, so Sokka responds by seeking to prove he is worth more, only doing so because he fears that he is just comic relief, and isn’t worth anything else.

This insecurity is a part of Sokka even though he demonstrably is much more than a comic relief character. He’s the inventive, intelligent member of the Gaang who organises and plans for the group and improvises ideas to help fight back where his status as a non-bender limits his combat abilities. And his ability to improvise is in evidence here as he adapts to the haikiu-battle, creating poems on the spot. In this instance, his ingenuity combines with the comic relief aspect of his character, allow him to be a funny in a showboating way that is very different to main source of humour for his character, namely his everyman frustration at the fantastical elements of the Avatar world. As a result, the tale shows how the comic side of his character extends from the serious parts of his characterisation.

However, his showboating comedy is punctured with the “That’s one syllable too many” joke, returning him to the “everyman frustration” humour that drives his character. This is a fitting reflection of the fact that Sokka is still driven by his insecurities at this point in the show: Book Three will finally see him making peace with the person he is, but that’s a little way off for now.

The Tale of Zuko

Let’s look behind the scenes of the show for the first time. This tale is Katie Mattila’s first writing credit, and while she’s only a minor creative figure for the show, her contribution to the series is interesting. She is the only writer from this episode to write more scripts for the franchise, and is also the only person who wasn’t a staff writer to write more than one script for ATLA. She’s also the only non staff writer from ATLA to go on to write for LOK, where she was, for what it’s worth, the only female writer to contribute a full script, with writing credits for three episodes from Books three and four of the sequel series.

Mattila contributes a sweet and thoughtful vignette that explores Zuko as a romantic figure for the first real time in the series, as we see him go on a date with an Earth Kingdom girl. And it’s a date that successfully expands the things the show can do with his character, breaking down the angsty, brooding side of his character to get at the dorkier, funnier side of him. This dorkier side, which we have seen before comes out in full by setting his overdramatic angst against the mundane, and from his extreme discomfort with the ordinary. In a way, this humour is a reversal of the “ordinary man’s frustration with the fantastical” humour provided by Sokka, making this the perfect vignette to follow on from and contrast to Sokka’s tale.

The ending of the tale, where leaves the date because, in his words “it’s complicated”, shows that Zuko’s backstory means he is still closed off from being someone who can fit into an ordinary life. But notably, this is a moment of progress for Zuko, being the first time he appreciates an aspect of this life, ending the tale by admitting to Iroh that he had a nice time.

The Tale of Momo

It may seem strange that this is the tale that concludes the episode, focussing as it does on Momo, the least fleshed out character in the ensemble of “The Last Airbender”. However, this positioning within the episode makes sense when we consider what is to come. “The Tale of Momo” is placed at the end of the episode to lead into “Appa’s Lost Days”, with Momo searching for Appa before finding the footprint that will be a key plot point in the next episode.  As a result, this tale is the natural conclusion to the episode, leading into the next story.

Thematically, it is also the perfect lead in to the next episode. We explore animal agency in the most direct way the series has managed so far, as Momo is the subject of his own story, rather than an object in the Gaang’s narrative. We get to see Momo’s perspective on the loss of Appa: he is sad to have lost his friend, searching for him every time he sees a sign of Appa. We understand how he sees predatory animals, first running from the cats that try to eat him, before helping rescue them from the humans who want to capture and cook them: this tale becomes a story about animals banding together and saving one another from the threat humanity poses.

Animal Agency, environmentalism, and interconnectedness are themes that run through the season, and are all woven together in this tale. This provides the ideal set up for the equally experimental “Appa’s lost days”, which will take these themes and explore them at even greater length. Book Two: Earth is rapidly moving towards its endgame.

End of Part Thirty Three.

From the South Pole Iceberg to the Republic City Portal: Part Thirty One

ATLA Book Two: Earth

Chapter Thirteen: The Drill

In which Iroh loses some tea, some Earthbenders throw some rocks at Aang, and Mai refuses to go down a slurry pipe.

The parody recap of this episode in “The Ember Island Players” has a point. This is not a bad episode, but it is slightly boring: that drill takes forever to reach the wall. As a result, the central conflict lacks a little drive, but ultimately, it speaks to the confidence levels the show has reached by this point that this is an ordinary episode of the show. It’s still filled with the interesting themes, solid action and great character moments that are the show’s bread and butter by this point.

Zuko and Iroh’s and Iroh’s B plot reflects the episode’s central problem. It is a plot that, like the drill itself, lays some important groundwork for episodes, but for the most part spins its wheels without seeming to go anywhere much. It sets out Jet’s suspicions of Zuko and Iroh’s nationality, but doesn’t push that beyond a couple of suspicious glances and his brief insistence to Longshot and Smeller Bee that Zuko is hiding his true identity. Furthermore, while Zuko’s reasoning for not joining the Freedom Fighters makes sense for his character, is also not a moment that received any real set up. For all that ATLA is often described as being a show with a lot of (often brilliant) padding, this is one of those rare times a plot doesn’t really tie into the episode’s wider themes, or significantly advance said storyline or our understanding of the characters.

Better served by her role in this episode is Azula whose role as a villain is expanded significantly. Interestingly, her attack on Ba Sing Se has nothing to do with her original task for Ozai, which was just to hunt down Zuko and Iroh, or for her revised task of hunting down Aang. However, showing her taking on a key role in the war on the Earth Kingdom doesn’t feel inconsistent with her previous characterisation, but instead adds to the list of things she is capable of doing, and shows she has other concerns as a villain. It further highlights the way she has Zhao’s role, but is a better villain for the part: Zhao had a personal rivalry with Zuko while hunting down Aang in Book One, but he also took part in the Fire Nation’s wider military campaign, waging war on the North Pole. As a result, Azula’s parallel role to Zhao shows how the show has grown since Book One: even a relatively ordinary episode demonstrates improvements on the lesser aspects of Book One (In this case that Book’s main villain).

Speaking of Zhao’s siege on the North Pole, it is worth looking at this episode’s portrayal of Ba Sing Se: as in “The Siege of the North”, we see the Gaang defending a major capital city from a Fire Nation siege. It’s a story that marks the end of the “Travel to Ba Sing Se” segment of season, being the only episode with officials from Ba Sing Se presented as straightforward allies to the Gaang: after this, we will be exploring the corruption in the power structures of Ba Sing Se. With that said, though, the military commander’s instruction to throw rocks at Aang and Azula could be seen as foreshadowing the way the people in charge of the Earth Kingdom repeatedly obstruct his attempts to help them throughout the Ba Sing Se arc. Finally, the Gaang and the Ba Sing Se army’s counter to the Fire Nation’s attack seems to open up a conflict between technology and tradition that runs throughout the episode.

The dualism between technology and tradition is set up in the early scenes, as the commander of Ba Sing Se’s army proudly declares that the city he is defending is unconquerable, while the captain of the drill’s crew assures Azula that they are certain to win, as the drill is a triumph of modern engineering. And so, for the first few minutes of the episode, we see ordinary military benders try to take down the drill, in a simple cash between tradition and modernity. However, the traditional Earthbending Style, used by Bumi and Toph, is not what’s used by the Earthbending army: they use the effective form of Earthbending that has become typical of Earthbenders from the show’s present: their style is direct, rooted, and powerful, but it lacks the, patience, listening, and improvisation of Toph and Bumi’s styles. The dualism of the initial conflict has been troubled by the style of the Earthbenders taking part in it, whose fighting style is rooted in the modern.

The dualistic conflict is then completely broken down when the Earthbenders are taken down by Ty Lee, who doesn’t represent the technology of the Drill at all. Being a non-bender, she doesn’t have a traditional style of fighting, but her chi-blocking is rooted in a core understanding of the spiritual nature of chi, and the connection of bodily pressure points to the spiritual side of bending. Indeed, the way she methodically dismantles her opponents is reminiscent of Toph’s style of Earthbending.

From one non bender to another, as Sokka becomes the next key figure in the episode’s conflict. Sokka constructs the plan to dismantle the drill from the inside, leading to some nice character moments that showcase the more spontaneous and quick thinking side to his ingenuity, as well as a nice lampshading of his role as the “Ideas guy”. Most significantly, the plan comes from Ty Lee’s fighting method, which as has already been noted, loosely resembles the tactic’s of Toph’s Earthbending

Sokka’s plan is refined by Aang, who decides to utilise Toph’s earthbending instructions about using a series of small blows to lead up to a bigger blow: a decision that ties in to, and builds nicely from, Iroh’s speech about learning from other nations, and makes explicit the way most of the key fighters in this episode use Earthbending tactics. Aang only saves himself in his confrontation with Azula with the help of some last – minute Earthbending. This explication captures the heart of what this episode has been about: breaking down the nature of Earthbending, and showing the way members of other nations can learn. Aang, Sokka, and Ty Lee are from the Air Nation, the Water Tribe, and the Fire Nation respectively, and all three utilise Earthbending techniques better than all bar one of the Earthbenders seen in this episode.

And that Earthbender is Toph, one of the few Earthbenders who does have an understanding of the element’s traditions and true nature. We duly see her slowing up the drill with the strength of her bending, but it is notable that tradition on its own cannot halt the progress represented by the Drill. In an episode that further shows the way the nations are linked, we get her and Katara bending the slurry together to fight off Ty Lee together, further demonstrating the way all nations are linked to the elements, and people, of the other nations. And in an episode that is heavily engaged in laying the groundwork for the statement that “Separation is an illusion” in “The Guru”, there’s also some vital foreshadowing Toph refuses to go on the metal drill, and Aang makes the statement “what I’d give to be a metalbender”, setting up Toph’s metalbending in that episode. And that theme of interconnectedness is ultimately the key to the resolution: tradition cannot stop progress just as progress cannot erase tradition, but the Gaang coming together and understanding one another’s true natures can save the city.

And so, an episode that starts out by presenting a binary conflict ultimately dismantles that binary divide as methodically as the Gaang dismantle the titular drill. What starts out as a battle between technological warfare and traditional Earthbending ultimately sees the Fire Nation, who represent technology employing a mix of traditional and modern methods to dismantle the Earthbenders who no longer understand the tradtion of their native element. These events lead to the Gaang, a group who connect the nations together, saving the day with that true understanding of Earthbending. Modern technology mixes with, and leads to a better understanding of, tradition. For all the flaws I laid out at the start of this essay, the drill’s methodical nature allows it to set out its themes and argument carefully, so that we better understand how the idea set out in “The Swamp” that “everything is connected” works. As we further our understanding of the way separation is an illusion, we move one step further to “The Guru”.

End of Part Thirty One.

From the South Pole Iceberg to the Republic City Portal: Part Thirty

ATLA Book Two: Earth

Chapter Twelve: The Serpent’s Pass

In which Longshot is understanding and silent, Iroh wears a funny hat, and Sokka, Suki, and The Moon form the most sensible love triangle in the franchise.

“It’s a long, long way to Ba Sing Se” are the words Iroh sang back in “The Swamp”, words that established a key narrative for the season: the meandering, diverging, and parallel journeys of the main cast towards the Earth Kingdom Capital. And that narrative plays out most clearly in this episode, with the parallel plot structure helping us see the Gaang and Zuko travelling along different parts of the Serpent’s Pass to get to different parts of Ba Sing Se. Aang is looking to meet the King to discuss the War, while also searching for Appa, whereas Zuko is looking to hide in plain sight as a refugee amongst the ordinary citizen. The parallel in the direction they are travelling highlights the different places they are at in their journeys: the Gaang are concerned with the larger fate of the war, and are working with those highest up in society. By contrast, Zuko has been brought lower in social standing than he has ever been, taking on the guise of a refugee and losing all of the things that identify him as a royal heir to the throne to avoid being pursued.

It is first worth focussing on Zuko’s plot, which sees him join up with Jet and his Gaang. There’s some nice fleshing out of Smeller Bee and Longshot, an effect achieved by cutting Pipsqueak and the Duke out of the freedom fighters. As a result, there is room for a little more focus on those two characters, as we get hints of Smeller Bee’s insecurity and Longshot’s silent support of her. “You always know what to say” is a funny line, but also hints at a genuine and supportive friendship between the two characters.

Zuko’s part in this plot sees him trying to get fairer food for the passengers, although not for solely philanthropic reasons. His anger at having to eat scraps like a commoner at the start of the episode, and the shame and self-hate with which he acknowledges his status as a refugee shows that Zuko is doing this to increase his sense of self-worth, to stop feeling like an (in his eyes) ordinary, insignificant person, not because he’s angry at inequality. And the dynamic between him and Jet is an interesting one: Zuko is experiencing the plight of those who were born in a lower class than him, while Jet is seeking to redeem his past mistakes by doing freedom fighting right, leaving a lot of potential in a possible teaming up of the two characters. But while Zuko says “lately I’ve realised it’s not always best to be alone”, he doesn’t want Jet’s companionship, and he represents everything Jet despises: they meet at a point where their narratives are almost on the same course, but they are inevitably drawn into conflict. No wonder people ship it.

These tensions and parallels become even clearer over the course of Zuko, Jet and Iroh’s dinnertime conversation: in an episode where the importance of keeping hope is the key theme, they are all hoping for redemption. Iroh seeks to redeem himself now he realises his approach to fighting in the war was wrong, Jet does so because he realises he let his hatred of the Fire Nation turn him into what he hated, and Zuko because there’s still a part of him that hopes his honour can be restored in the eyes of his nation. All three hope to find that redemption in Ba sing Se, but Iroh will not find that redemption on this visit to the City, Jet will but with tragic consequences, and Zuko will find what he is looking for, only to discover what he hopes for is not the redemption he needs.

This episode is also the heart of the arc that sees the main cast travel to Ba Sing Se, an arc that makes up the core of the middle act of Book Two ( an act that runs from “The chase” through to “The Drill”). It is an arc that is introduced in “The Library”, and is most obvious in this episode and “The Desert”, both of which focus in detail on the Gaang travels and the direction they are heading. It is the first time since Book One that multiple episodes in a show have been driven by the main characters heading towards a specific location, and is another way of highlighting Appa’s importance, and the magnitude of his disappearance. A focus on travel is not used for worldbuilding and showing the size of the Avatar world as it was in Book One, but for character work, for showing the effect losing Appa has on Aang and the rest of the Gaang. This effect is shown through the way the others are nervous about discussing the way losing Appa changes their ability to travel around Aang, the way Aang refuses to be mollycoddled, and has shut himself down emotionally, the key internal conflict he needs to overcome in this episode.

Also interesting is the episode’s use of Toph. We see her making use of her status as a Beifong, showing her discomfort in water, as well as seeing the first example of her little crush on Sokka making an appearance. The latter is a funny moment with Suki that quietly dismisses the “all women are catty” trope, as Suki lets the moment slide, and Toph is more embarrassed than jealous. These moments also highlight the way Book two is constantly giving her character focus: this isn’t an episode where she is a particularly central character, but the show is constantly looking for a way of expanding on her character, or finding new and interesting things to do with her abilities in the scenes she does get.

The role of Suki and the (unseen) Kyoshi Warriors is also worth noting, as it has changed since their first appearance. They are now travelling the world seeking to help wherever they can, having been inspired by the Gaang to stop separating themselves from the war and to start helping the world, becoming less insular in their focus and in their way of engaging with the war: they may not approve of joining fighting, but they will help in nonviolent ways wherever they can.

Both Toph and Suki’s roles in this episode reflect the improved roles for female characters throughout this season. In fact, here seems as good a place as any to lay out the case for my argument that Book two is better in this regard than Book Three, where Toph’s arc is much less prominent (basically dropped after “The Runaway”) and Suki is more Sokka’s love interest than anything else. In Suki’s case, her duty as a Kyoshi Warrior not explored in the way it is here, even though she becomes a more prominent member of the main cast (which is still a good thing in and of itself). Book Three still finds plenty of time for good moments for female characters like Suki and Toph, and has particularly strong material for Katara and Azula, but on the whole, I’d argue Book Two is the ATLA book where the writers put in the most effort into giving complex material or as much character depth as possible to all its female characters. Smeller Bee’s part in this episode is also indicative of this: the writers flesh her out from someone who is just a character design and a little banter with other members of Jet’s crew to being a character who we know little about, but can see the wants and insecurities of. Also, the “That’s because I’m a Girl!” scene, as well as being a significant character moment for her, draws attention to the increased number of female characters the season has shown in the wake of Book One (I do wonder how many viewers assumed, Like Iroh, that she was male first time around). After Book one gave strong material for Katara but had very few female characters surrounding her, there are a greater number of female members of the main cast. Furthermore, the show now has more background characters and one off characters of note who are women or girls, and all are treated with respect and are given depth of character by the writers.

Suki’s scenes with Sokka also add to his running characterisation for this season. His grief for and guilt over Yue’s death manifest themselves throughout this episode, a grief that gets in the way of his and Suki’s romance just as it starts, the most literal example of this is the shot of Sokka and Suki almost, but not quite, kissing, with the moon in between them. Ultimately, Suki reminds Sokka that she can look after herself by saving Toph, and in doing so, arguably helps him realise Yue’s death wasn’t something to blame himself for: it was a choice Yue made to save her people. It’s a subtle note, but it could be argued that this character note retroactively increases the agency Yue had in her death while decreasing the emphasis on Sokka’s man pain, lessening the extent to which her death was a fridging.

Sokka and Suki’s plotline culminates in the delightful reveal that Suki came to protect Sokka, and that even though this and their opening up to one another allows them to be together, Suki has duties beyond Sokka, is still committed to her work with the Kyoshi warriors. They are able to work through the difficulties of Sokka’s grief to start a relationship, but are also allowed to have things going on independently of one another: it’s a satisfying dynamic for a relationship, and another example of the show’s refreshing and improving attitude to gender dynamics that appears in this episode.

Aang and Katara’s sees her encouraging him to open up about his grief for Appa. As in “The Warriors of Kyoshi”, there are loose parallels between Katara and Aang’s plotline and Suki and Sokka’s, with a particularly blatant example of this being the late night scene next to Suki and Sokka’s almost-kiss where Katara almost, but doesn’t succeed in getting Aang to open up emotionally, and he rejects her offer of a hug: in this episode, both Suki and Katara struggle to get Sokka and Aang to open up about their grief.

This plot comes to a head in the birthing scene. Sokka’s freak-out and Katara’s calm handling of the situation is a lovely character moment, as well as being a remarkably frank and honest handling of childbirth for a nickelodeon cartoon. With that said, it seems to have been a remarkably clean birth, though, and there is something incredibly unsubtle about “Hope” being the parent’s name choice for new born baby hope, and the birth of a new born baby softening Aang’s heart is perhaps a little cliché, but the aforementioned frankness of most of the sequence and the fact that the scene fits a character like Aang helps the episode get away with it.

So Aang rediscovers his sense of hope. Just as Suki and Sokka acknowledge their feelings for one another, Aang opens up to Katara, accepting her message of hope and acknowledging his feelings for her. In doing so, he accepts those feelings are a good thing, even if they can lead to the kind of hurt he feels after losing Appa. Love and hope are worth the risk of grief and pain.

And oh yeah, there’s a giant drill at the end of this one. We’ll get to that next time.

End of Part Thirty.