The Earth King
As always, commentary off.
No. Sokka. No. Stop. This is your stupidest idea yet. I want to LEAVE Ba Sing Se.
Sokka. Listen to your sister. And your other sister.
Toph embodying my will manifested on screen.
What makes you think the Earth King is going to listen to four teens and their fluffy dog? When I put it that way, this is Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo plus Momo. Does that make Momo Scrappy Doo?
We're going back to Ba Sing Se. Great. Yay. I'm so excited.
It is rapidly becoming apparent that Sokka has lost his mind.
Surface to air rocks is funny. I'll give it to them, that's good.
This fight scene music is fantastic.
Aang took a level in badass at some point without my noticing.
I know these hats are inspired by real historical hats, and so I really shouldn't make fun, but these look like the lovechild of a toilet brush and a feather duster.
This fight is majority Toph and Katara. RIP the egos of these several hundred Earth Kingdom soldiers.
Please ensure your fluffy little butt is securely stored in the overhead bins before takeoff.
There's no way these guys are still alive. This is what was done to Jet, doubled. They dead.
The girl who doesn't even want to be here is doing all the work. Typical.
My congratulations to Toph, Katara, and Aang for demolishing an army without breaking a sweat. If only season 1 Katara could see you guys now.
I said in my previous write up that Zuko doing something good always comes back to bite him. I didn't mean it this literally. Did he have to take the jug out with him, or was that for the drama?
Good job guys!
Soka steals my job and points out the fulfillment of the Beat Up Sokka quota.
His earthiness has an interesting set of priorities.
So... is this episode just going to be talking?
He brainwashed your friend? Did you miss that he killed him too?
I said in my last write up that Long Feng was Avatar's first competent villain, but the tone he takes with the Earth King is so unsubtle that I'm thinking of rescinding that claim. Unless the King is so dumb that subtlety isn't required?
Toothprints. Sokka the idea guy coming in clutch. Too bad his brain wasn't engaged at the start of the episode.
Appa is a herbivore. Confirmed. Although he should have fangs for aesthetic reasons. Fanged Appa would be metal.
This king is a confusing mixture of endearing and infuriating.
No mere fever will prevent me from doing mundane actions in the most dramatic way possible!
Way back in the 90s there was a print ad for Chevy trucks that I remember seeing in magazines. It had a shirtless guy in jeans sitting on the bed of his truck in a field, pouring a bucket of water over himself. It was kind of at sunset and had a very late summer vibe. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw Zuko's bucket shenanigans in this scene, at which point I was abruptly -ABRUPTLY- reminded of how much time little me spent staring at that ad.
OH MY GOD. The King doesn't know about trains!!! BLASPHEMY.
Huh. So the King isn't stupid, he's just horrifically naive.
Positive attitude Sokka is kind of frightening. I do not like.
If I told this King that I had a bunch of puppies in my windowless van, he would totally fall for it. So much about the Earth Kingdom suddenly makes sense.
That one guard is having a doozy of a day.
Did the King just show a smidge of self-awareness? Wasn't expecting that.
Who is this? I have no idea who this is. I didn't realise how integral the scar was to the character's design. Give it back.
Yikes. A bunch of shmymbolism. I suck epically at decoding shmymbolism unless it's really spoon fed to me, so I'm not even going to try to understand this dream beyond 'poor guy has a really bad fever.'
Has anyone seen the Spencer Tracy movie Father of the Bride? There's a bit where he has a dream that the floor on the way to the altar does pretty much exactly this. Hungry floors must be a common dream experience.
Pretty.
If the King is really this completely ignorant of the war, who's been directing the army?
It's pretty neat that Sokka is the spokesperson of Team Avatar, and that no one disputes that.
Aang says "there's a comet coming this summer," but I heard "comic" and I know they made tie in comics for the show, so I was like "ooh a crossover episode!"
"You're already vulnerable. The Fire Nation won't stop until the Southern Water Tribe falls. You can either sit back and wait for that to happen, or take the offensive, and give yourself a fighting chance." -Sokka's dad speaking to the men of the Southern Water Tribe, while his son listens perhaps a bit too closely.
If the King really was completely in the dark about the war, how does he even know who the General is? Did Long Feng have the power to keep the General from mentioning the war?
"Your majesty I'm General How, head of the Council of Five."
"What's that?"
"It's in charge of your army."
"Right. And what's the army up to these days?"
...
" ...I planted a lovely tomato garden this year."
I love that earthbenders don't wear shoes, and that it's culturally normal. Makes an intriguing visual contrast to their fancy duds.
I have GOT to know what Mushi the teamaker's secret file says.
Toph can't read guys.
Sokka, Katara, I get it. You miss home too. But how would anyone at all from your tribe know to send a message for you to Ba Sing Se? Last time you all touched base, you were headed to the Northern Water Tribe. And those guys sent you off to Omashu, not Ba Sing Se.
Nitpick time! Katara starts reading the text of this letter out loud before she unrolls it.
Katara's voice acting while she's reading the letter is sweet. She's so excited.
Iroh. Priorities. Tea can wait.
"Huh? What's happening?"
"You huffed a bit too much cave slime under Lake Laogai. Just ride it out."
This vase is lit like a main character.
"You're going through a metamorphosis my nephew." Iroh, he's a bit too old for that talk. Hang on I just realised that Zuko went through puberty on that ship. I bet that was rough.
I don't trust this. This news is all too good.
Aang referring to them all as "the family" hurts a little bit.
It is unbearably sweet to let Sokka go see their dad while Katara helps the Earth Kingdom plan, but Katara sucks at planning. Then again, the Earth Kingdom sucks in general, so maybe having a sucky planner will be a net improvement?
Either way it's good little sister content.
But there are six Kyoshi warriors. I counted in Appa's Lost Days.
Oh they didn't
Attack hug!
Airbender Zuko is a very effective jumpscare. Don't blame him for freaking out.
You know it's bad when finding the scar intact comes as a relief.
Nope. Don't trust it.
Fuck this guy.
Long Feng even eats rocks maliciously.
Fuck these guys.
Oh they did. Fuck these guys.
Final Thoughts
And just like that, it all went to shit. Or it will.
I was braced to be annoyed by how conveniently quickly the Earth King got with the program, but it actually fits well into the rest of the episode. Instead of a thing that goes improbably well, it's the one thing that goes right in episode filled with set up for everything falling apart. That bothers me less.
This episode was actually fun. At least until the end. It was mostly talking and Zuko on a bad trip. But it was win after win for everyone but my Ba Sing Se hating self, and it's always good to see your favourites having a good day. But! I have a glimmer of hope! So long as Sokka and Aang aren't completely written out until they return to Ba Sing Se, at some point I'll get some episodes outside of the city. And I have Appa back, so things aren't too bad in the grand scheme of things. I wonder that Appa wasn't upset at having all his people back for five minutes then having them split up again.
I do not like positive thinking Sokka, and I especially don't like that I have no idea where he came from. That point wasn't set up at all. I want my baby cynic back.
If letting Appa go was enough to trigger Zuko's morality crisis to the point of physical illness, why didn't letting Aang go in The Blue Spirit, or choosing to chase after Iroh rather than the Gaang in The Winter Solstice Part 1, cause a similar illness? What is different about this time?
Toph was once again the voice of reason in this episode, or rather my personal audience insert. Although it did surprise me how excited she was to see her mom. I thought that sending bounty hunters after their own daughter was kind of unforgivable, but either Toph doesn't know, or she's a more forgiving person than I am.
I realise now that this should have occurred to me when I watched Appa's Lost Days, but what idiot didn't take the Danger Ladies into custody when the Drill was stopped? btw I keep calling them the PowerPuff Girls in my head.
This episode was simultaneously a finale to a lot of threads and an introduction to a lot more. It was a chance to breathe between crossing the finish line of the 'find Appa' quest and starting the 'season finale' quest. It was also structured backwards. The big fight was like six minutes in. The 'what are we doing this episode?' was one of the last scenes. But it still works. I'll be interested to see what I think of this one when I rewatch it. It was such an info dump that I wonder if my opinion of it will be different once I watch it with all of the relevant facts known to me already. Either I'll appreciate the episode's other parts like the comedy, or I'll be bored. We'll see.
Two episodes left this season! I don't think I'll be getting to those before next year. See you all in 2024! (time needs to slow way down)
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