#and yeah i was thinking of that scene from ATLA where Aang accidentally burns Katara

[chocomd]

ATLA rewatch thoughts, Book 1 (eps 15, 16)

I really, truly love the episodes where Aang acts on his emotions, even when doing so is unwise. (Same for Katara, as well as Zuko later on, when his redemption arc is well underway.) These instances give his character a lot of depth because they reveal his vulnerability, fears, and desires in a way that’s impossible to do otherwise. And if you know me, I love digging deep into what makes a character tick 😌

15) Bato of the Water Tribe: There are so many things going on in this episode! This also happens to be one of my faves from Book 1. Ahhh I love Sokka’s arc here!! “Being a man is knowing where you're needed the most.” The flashbacks of Sokka missing his dad and feeling left behind and left out when the older boys and men go off to war. 🥺😭 Then the Gaang runs into Bato, who fills Hakoda’s shoes in taking Sokka ice dodging, the Water Tribe rite of passage for men. Sokka longs to see his dad so much that he gets angry at Aang for hiding the map (and rightfully so). But when he hears the howl of a wolf that was separated from the pack, he realizes where he’s needed the most - which is at Aang’s side in his journey to learn the elements. Sokka isn’t just Aang’s family - Aang is his family, too 🥺 And yes!!! Sokka finally understands what Hakoda said about what it means to be a man!

And now, the main reason I love this episode so much...for the first time, we see Aang struggle with being an outsider in a world where he doesn’t belong. Without Sokka and Katara, Aang is utterly alone. When the Water Tribe siblings and Bato reunite, they are so excited to see each other since all of them have been separated from the rest of the tribe, that they unintentionally ignore Aang. He tries to be understanding and happy for them, but he’s also a kid who just lost his home and his entire people. Maybe the Water Tribe characters could be more welcoming and inclusive to Aang, but they’re understandably too caught up in their own emotions of missing their home and each other. Aang’s grief and fear of being really, truly alone rise up so desperately strong that he hides the map to Hakoda’s location, and he lies about it until his conscience won’t allow him to hide the truth anymore. Did Aang mess up? For sure. Was he terrified of losing the only people in the world who were family to him? Absolutely. I genuinely love this episode for this insight into Aang’s profound sense of loneliness and loss.

Ok now for some not-so-heavy thoughts...omg June is so cool??? Also the fight scenes with Aang vs Zuko and Appa vs shirshu were so much fun!! (Appa fighting!!! Yeah don’t mess with a sky bison mhmm)

16) The Deserter: So much of this episode was about patience, discipline, and restraint vs impatience, recklessness, and looking for shortcuts. You see this contrast in Jeong Jeong vs Zhao, but also in Jeong Jeong vs Aang. The main point of this episode seems to be that firebending (and learning things that are worth learning) must be mastered through discipline and hard work, but I think there’s more to it than that. Discipline and restraint are important, and that’s the lesson that Aang needs to learn at this point in his journey, But he needs something beyond that to truly master firebending. That’s because Jeong Jeong is part of the generation that has destroyed so much of the world with fire in the FN’s mission of conquest. He can only see fire as a force of destruction that requires great restraint to properly control. But ultimately, that isn’t the lesson that Aang needs to learn. He needs to learn from a teacher who sees fire as more than just a dangerous, all-consuming force - the original firebenders, the dragons themselves (and from Zuko, who learns this truth together with Aang). But he doesn’t know this yet, of course. So as awesome as Jeong Jeong is, he is not the right firebending teacher for Aang.

Aang gets a lot of criticism in this episode for being reckless with fire and accidentally burning Katara. I see him as a kid who is excited and impatient to learn something new, because finding a firebending teacher who actually will teach him is a one-in-a-million opportunity (and because he’s on a timeline). Aang is also someone who sees fire much differently from the rest of the world. He comes from a world with no war, where fire was not a force of destruction and death. He doesn’t have the same fear or caution of fire that we see in Katara, Sokka, and Jeong Jeong. At this point, he still sees firebending as something he can do cool tricks with - until he loses control and burns Katara. Now the full weight of what firebending means in this world hangs heavy on his conscience, to the point where he can barely summon a flame until he learns the true meaning of firebending in Book 3.

By the way, Jeong Jeong is freaking amazing and I loved the scene with Roku and Aang is such a smartass 😂

[snowshinobi]

I wonder if Kyojuro ever got caught up in the moment during training and pulled out a sick sword move that scared the hell outta Senjuro. Singed the sleeve of Senjuro's white haori, shocked the kid to tears. Kyojuro immediately drops the blade and wraps Senjuro in a hug and later he patches up the haori himself (canon seamster Kyo my beloved), but it weighs on him. Senjuro's a little extra jumpy around him for the next few days and it shatters Kyojuro's heart.

I just keep thinking about that regeneration technique Kyojuro rather unorthodoxly teaches Tanjiro in the very moment he needs it. I wonder how much of the training Tanjiro got builds on what Kyojuro gave his lil brother. Kyo's teaching is no less chaotic now than before, he just kinda be that way, but that emphasis on healing ... came from somewhere.

Fighting on behalf of the weak includes sewing injuries back up. It's about playing defense too, not just offense. I bet that regeneration technique is the next thing Kyojuro showed his brother how to do. "I hope you never need it. I'll make sure you never have to use it because of something I did. But I think learning this will make you feel better." And then Kyojuro slices his palm open WHICH MAKES SENJURO SCREAM but hearing Kyojuro breathe deep as the mark closes up does make Senjuro feel better. A lot better.

[sokkastyles]

I have many thoughts about the scene where Zuko burns Toph and how the show parallels it with Aang burning Katara, and how this is used as set up for Zuko becoming Aang's firebending teacher and them both bonding over learning the true meaning of fire in The Firebending Masters, which is great, and I've posted before about how Zuko works as someone who can teach Aang how to deal with the dangers of fire because he's both hurt others and been hurt by fire, but also I'm thinking about how those two very different situations show Zuko and Aang's differing relationship with fire - which of course is a metaphor for their relationship with violence.

I've also written before on this in relation to Aang treating firebending as a game early on in the series, and I think the show kind of muddles this by treating Zuko accidentally burning Toph as the result of recklessness. Which it is, and Zuko, especially early Zuko, was reckless with his firebending (particularly when he burned Suki's village) - but it's not the same kind of recklessness as Aang accidentally burning Katara because he isn't mindful enough of the danger.

Zuko knows very well the pain that fire can cause. But villain Zuko lashes out at others because he's in pain. The way he reacts to Toph when she comes upon him alone in The Western Air Temple is very similar to the way he reacts to Katara offering to help after Iroh is burned in The Chase, or even when Aang asks him if he thinks they might have been friends in The Blue Spirit, with a mindless blast of fire, an alarm to stay back. It's very obviously a defensive reaction. It's "hurt them before they hurt me," which is also very clearly a trauma reaction to his father burning him.

Zuko wonders after Toph runs away why he's so bad at being good, but the reason here is not because he doesn't know how to be good, it's because he's scared and he doesn't know how to trust and be vulnerable with others. Which also makes it difficult to deal with other people's vulnerability. He reacts to accidentally hurting Toph because he was scared by yelling at her, which scares her and ends in them both being scared and hurt.

Zuko isn't the only person who has to learn to trust here, though, because the gaang also has to learn to trust Zuko. Toph initially does not want to tell the gaang that Zuko was the one who burned her because she does trust him but doesn't trust them to believe it was an accident. Sokka and Aang are immediately distrustful of Zuko but then, interestingly, it's Katara who casts doubt on the idea that Zuko is really as devious as they think he is:

Sokka: Yeah, get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner, then we'll jump him and really make him our prisoner. He'll never suspect it! [Aang and Sokka carry Toph away.]

Katara: [Following. Sarcastically.] You are a master of surprise, Sokka ...

Sokka's plan is inherently ridiculous, but the humor comes mostly from dramatic irony. We know that Zuko was being sincere when he offered himself as a prisoner, and we also know that he didn't mean to burn Toph. So Katara's sarcastic reaction to Sokka implies that on some level, she knows that Zuko was being sincere, too. Which follows from how she's the first to react angrily to Zuko when he offers himself before. She doesn't want to trust Zuko, but a surrendering Zuko is someone who is putting himself in a position of trust, and because Katara did trust Zuko once, she knows that he is sincere but worries that he can't be trusted to stick to that sincerity.

There's a lot here from both sides about how it's easier to react defensively than to put your trust in others, which is making yourself vulnerable to hurt. Aang says he hates to resort to violence but Zuko is too dangerous to leave alone. A story less interested in redemption would have validated this reaction and made this a catalyst for Zuko to slide back into villainy as the heroes conclude that he can't be trusted with rehabilitation. Atla does something really unique and nuanced here that I've rarely seen done before by letting the characters talk it out and acknowledge where their hurt is coming from, but not in a way that comes across as naive or preachy.