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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Avatar: The Last Airbender

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00:02 / 20.10.07

Who will Aang's Firebending tutor be?
Place your bets!

Gen Fong. Already taught him,so is willing,but in hiding and on the wrong side of the FN border - 15 to 1.

Iroh. Odds-on favourite. About to stage a jailbreak any day now,and has trained extensively. Known to have experience of the spirit world and sympathy for the Avatar's role,if not his cause. Potential for further backstory is high. And there's nothing like being branded a traitor and thrown in prison to motivate someone to switch sides - 5 to 1.

Zuko. Wouldn't think he has the backbone to switch sides (or even choose sides) after Azula's little double-bind gambit,and he's not the best firebender. However,you can always count upon him to do the unexpected. He's a dark horse through and through - 8 to 1.

Banzai!

01:41 / 21.10.07

Episode 5: Watery fun all round as the Zukoniks take to the beach and the Aang Gang go swimming...again.

Good Idea - Ty Lee in a bikini.
Bad Idea - Azula's grandmothers in bikinis. Dingle-dangle-eurgh.

I love how they're playing that 'ominous moment' sound during such critical times as 'going to the beach' and 'netball strategy' to poke fun at the Zukoniks' behaviour compared with that of the other,non-psycho people.

Oh my god,I can't watch — she's being taught to how to talk to boys. Azula...acting civil to an inferior. The universe won't be able to bear the contradiction.
This could be the start of her humanisation;sometimes,it's not enough to be feared — you start wanting to be liked. Then again,this is Azula,evil mastermind extraordinaire. Proposing an evil alliance to a boy you've only just met is not a surefire dating strategy and may scare off potential suitors.

Breakups,backstory and fireside chat leading to further backstory for Ty and Mai,then everyone making up by trashing the party?

I approve

.

The bit where Aang is attacked by Zuko's assassin is almost secondary.

It doesn't even matter that the reason they were sent to the island was utterly contrived. When it's this awesome,I can overlook anything.

19:43 / 22.10.07

Then again,this is Azula,evil mastermind extraordinaire.

Exactly. Teaching Aang puts him in a position of knowing only the things about firebending that she chooses for him to know.

20:11 / 22.10.07

I think it likely that Azula will become Aang's teacher, meaning to use him as a catspaw to dethrone the ire Lord and seize power herself. It'll go wrong, of course.

The beach episode is perhaps the worst 22 minutes of TV I've ever seen—all tell and no show, a desperate attempt to paint some backstory onto some colorless characters. And although the show's never really been about coherent world-building, all the anachronistic crap—the volleyball, the recent "dance party"—just throws me out of the story. I'm just waiting for Archie and Jughead to show up.

It's really about padding the show out to a full three seasons, of course. The episodic nature of it is really starting to chafe—you can sense the creators wanting to just cut to the big arc, but they need to keep the pace controlled, so they're gonna resort to blatant filler like this.

The feature films will have a more satisfying bang/buck ratio, I hope. Cos I'm really starting to lose my patience.

Lagrange's Nightmare

14:17 / 23.10.07

Yeah got to agree there. Sokka's Master was a great episode, but the beach one just seemed like such a waste. When a show only comes on for 20 odd minutes once a week it can't contain that much filler. Still things should pick up as the season moves on.

I had naively assumed Iroh would be the fire-bending tutor but the Azula plot certainly is plausible. The question then goes to what Iroh's plans are, is he going to go after the fire lord himself?

15:07 / 23.10.07

Mr. Fear is on the level.

I've not seen any episodes of S3 thus far, and am jealous. But judging from the trailer, it seems there's a lot of double-crossing, lone-wolfing, and hard-hearted confrontations being used as punctuation. Aang will probably walk out on the rest of his team, and into Azula. Aang versus Ozai, then Aang versus Azula, then Zuko versus Azula, then full stop.

Iroh is the mystery man.

05:12 / 24.10.07

It's really about padding the show out to a full three seasons, of course. The episodic nature of it is really starting to chafe—you can sense the creators wanting to just cut to the big arc, but they need to keep the pace controlled, so they're gonna resort to blatant filler like this.

The boiling should be getting started with the upcoming episode about Roku and Sozin, fingers crossed. And the Black Sun invasion is very near on the horizon as well.

The fact he doesn't have a firebending teacher at this point kind of infuriates the hell out of me. But there is 15 more to go. A lot can happen. But I'm with ya, Jack. Feels like my patience is being toyed with the last few episodes.

00:05 / 28.10.07

Episode 6: They've changed the title! "Avatar: The Legend of Aang" :surprised:

Non-spoilery,since all three of you might not have seen this yet. ;-)

Sozen! Roku! Best...friends? I'm not buyin' it. I've seen it,and I'm still not buying it. Besides,they couldn't have been all that close if Sozen left him to that ('impressive thing at the end' - Spoiler Ed.),and I wasn't seeing enough of the evolution of his character to make it seem believable. So many questions,and not all of them due to the plot.

First time we hear Iroh's new voice actor,and it's a good enough effort not to be jarring,though he sounds younger (because he is

).

Nickelodeon,would it really hurt the viewing figures to use more complex words once in a while? When climactic scenes are made 'understandable',it starts to sound like a bad animé dub.

I,too,feel like my patience is being tried here. This wants to evolve,but it is destined/forced to stay episodic and simplistic.

Side note — what happened to Aang's parents? Were they killed by the Fire Nation (quite likely)? If so,why aren't they shown or mentioned? And is it possible that the extermination was coming to the temple even as he was being told he was the Avatar?

Lagrange's Nightmare

00:35 / 28.10.07

Razor Wind, do you watch this on tv or through torrents? I was lead to believe 'legend of Aang' was the traditional UK title for the show. Incidentally the UK (I think) was treated to four episodes of avatar this week and episodes 6,7,8 and 9 can now be found.

00:59 / 28.10.07

I was led to believe 'legend of Aang' was the traditional UK title for the show.
:lightbulb: Aaaah. Yes,through torrents. Did we really get episodes before America?

(checks sites)
Seems so. And I can't download any more because we're close to hitting our d/l limit. Fsck.

19:34 / 29.10.07

After the episode aired the housemate and I were trying to figure out the family tree. As far as we could guess Iroh is a direct descendant of Roku and, with the backstory of this episode, it explained why he might be more inclined to side with the Avatar, considering how his grandfather faired.

19:47 / 29.10.07

Nice try. But it's been established that Iroh is Fire Lord Ozai's brother, and himself former crown prince and heir to the throne; that would prooooooooo-bably mean that Roku would be Zuko's great-grandfather on his mother's side.

16:13 / 01.11.07

So I got a chance over the weekend to see the remaining episodes leading up to the Black Sun ep... and man the sheer volume of waste and filler is kind of bothersome. Hope it all really does get wrapped up in 10 episodes. 'Cause they've run the clock down on the first half.

At this point (and the Black Sun episode could turn things completely on its ear, I'll freely admit)... NOTHING's moved an inch since the close of the 2nd season.

17:22 / 01.11.07

You see filler,I see part of the cartoon. It's only filler if I don't enjoy it. :-)

NOTHING's moved an inch since the close of the 2nd season.
What do you mean by 'moving'? Advancing the plot? Because I get the feeling they're saving themselves for a huge action-filled finale,just like a lot of other series that have had grand conflicts.

It is disappointing to see it get bogged down in the process of advancing the plot. Earth was concise,balanced and nimble; Fire seems to be concentrating on one thing — the war — and simply dragging the rest of the elements we like along for later use.

No real time to make thought on the episodes;do it later when I've got some.

23:45 / 02.11.07

Episode 7: Toph gets more screentime,which is a Good Thing,but this supplies virtually none of your RDA of plot. On the other hand,it does have her and Katara mudwrestling...and Katara bathing...ooh...
Sorry.

Basically,they're out of money,so Toph uses her Earthbending to win rigged games. Cue montage (watch what she does in the test-your-strength game).

Also cue Katara acting like everyone's mother,heartfelt overheard conversations where she discovers what she really means to the gang and getting both of them caught by the authorities,then Sparky Sparky Boom Man,when she tries to be bad to prove she's fun and perky to Toph.

Followed by Katara using her...well,I won't spoil the only real surprise in the episode. Suffice to say,they escape and Sparky Sparky Boom Man/Combustion Man is christened. Then brought down by a stealth pebble.

Best line:"What's with you people? I'm BLIND!"

01:13 / 03.11.07

It begs an obvious question, though; Sparky's got a metal arm and a metal leg, yeah? And Toph is a newly-minted metal-bender, right?

Do you see an obvious course of action here?

13:21 / 03.11.07

"Stop hitting yourself!"?

13:54 / 03.11.07

I was thinking more along the lines of "Holy smokes, I've suddenly lost half me limbs—that's going to play hell with the whole 'relentless pursuit' thing that is my trademark"—but yours works, too.

23:06 / 06.11.07

"Heads,shoulders,knees and toes,knees and toes..."

15:10 / 07.11.07

Doesn't Toph need to lay her hands on the metal to bend it?

Also curious what other people's thoughts on the Puppetmaster episode are.

16:39 / 07.11.07

I thought Avatar has been spinning its wheels a bit, making some happy go lucky episodes to pad out the season. That said, The Puppetmaster ep was genuinely creepy to me, with a great ending. I liked the extrapolation of bending, and there were some great visuals, such as sucking all the water out of the flowers at once.

22:15 / 10.11.07

Agree. Genuinely creepy,and Katara being forced to use bloodbending was heartbreaking. She can't unlearn it;even though you could see it went against her very nature to force someone to act against their will,at some time she's going to have to use that knowledge.

And the old bitch knew that.

The bastard :-(.

22:35 / 12.11.07

Skipping 8,since it actually received some comments. Katara's good at telling stories around the campfire — even I had chills.

Episode 9:When things get dull,childish or dreary,I have to keep telling myself that they aren't making this solely for us. How,then,do I explain the Dragonball dream sequences? Hilarious,though,especially mirroring them to the progression of that series. :-)

Your A-plot for this evening is: "Aang gets stressed over the invasion and has nightmares,so the others try to help him calm down. They fail,so he decides to stay awake. Cue bad trips."

B-side: "Zuko gets to be a prince."

I kind of shared Aang's anxieties,because there's good cause for him to be worried. But apart from that there's no plot progression here — we too are waiting for the invasion.

There's win to be found in this one,so I can't complain:
"There's one more thing we could try — acupuncture!" *shing*
A confession and kiss,which... was just a hallucination after all. I can't believe they had the audacity to use that;I'm even a little annoyed that they didn't keep it. Then again,they are heading into battle. No-one wants a Last Kiss...
Samurai Apa duelling Usagi Yojimbo Momo. Four-sword style!
Zuko finally,finally getting a bit of a clue.

Quote:"Chakras! Chakras! Everybody loves chakras!"

16:56 / 13.11.07

After re-watching those last four episodes with friends, I could probably retract my filler comment. They are fluffy but they're probably the cotton candy before the meat and gristle that will be the remainder of the season.

I'm just still bothered by the fact major plot points and strings that have been foreshadowed to move since the end of Season 2 haven't really progressed or hinted at progressing.

Zuko's final change to good, of course, comes immediately to mind. We were baited all through Season 2 that Zuko would reach a moral impasse and see the light, only to have that jerked away at the last minute. And the emo angst is getting old, at this point.

Aang's firebending teacher also has yet to be staked out.

19:28 / 15.11.07

Does anyone know where I can, hurum, acquire season 2 of this wonderful, wonderful show?

05:34 / 16.11.07

Most, if not all of the Season 2 episodes are easily found on Veoh. They're also easily rentable or bought in the Book 2 DVD collection.

Speaking of Veoh.... if you honestly cannot wait for the slow arrival of the Black Sun episodes... *cough*

311 is the absolute best episode of the new season. It was undeniably worth all the wheel-spinning of the prior 9.

18:35 / 18.11.07

11 has Toph being the metalbendin',rock-blasting hardass she was meant to be. There is no bad here

.

P.S. There was a picture of a grown-up Toph,and another of the whole cast,drawn by (I think) rufftoon. Be damned if I can find it. Can anyone help?

23:08 / 18.11.07

You're not looking for this and this are you?

23:27 / 18.11.07

Nnnoo...but that's good too! They were full-colour,drawn by the same person and looked like they'd been lifted straight from the studios,they were that authentic. Wish I'd thought to save them.
From what I could remember of the artist's comments she was/they were supposed to be 30 or something.

02:11 / 19.11.07

RazorWind, some of the Avatar stuff on that page is fantastic. My life won't feel complete until I have a tiny Appa.

00:10 / 23.12.07

For me,The Day of Black Sun didn't live up fully to the hype,despite the goodness. Episode 12,however,has nothing to live up to,has none of the burden of concluding the arc plot. Perhaps that's why it has delivered the best episode of the new series - it's a new beginning. This is Zuko's episode.

Surprises galore. Surprise no. 1: The Western Air Temple. Where it's situated is amazing. It also reminded me that we have some skilled animators working on this series. Could simply be the higher-quality copy,but it looked beautiful. The character shading was really prominent,the shadows continually consistent with a single diffuse light source (yes I notice these things).

Surprise No. 2: Zuko standing before the Gaang admitting every mistake he's made in trying to capture the Avatar,acting every inch the clumsy,inexperienced teenager and making it seem completely realistic. Then accidentally hurting the only person who stood in his corner. I empathise,man. Fuckups like that happen far too often.

Surprise No. 3: Humour,how I've missed you. Example - Flashback to freshly-burned Zuko starting his search at the WAT. Grim,singleminded. Then we cut back to present day facepalm as he realises how much of a dick he was then. Subtle,but I loved it.

Final Surprise: Katara can be menacing. 0_0

Comical,serious,dramatic,kick arse...THIS is my Avatar \o/.

Quote:"Why am I so bad at being good??!"

02:57 / 23.12.07

I hate you. Continental US doesn't get this until some time in January.

11:37 / 23.12.07

Downloooaaad...joinnn usss...

20:54 / 07.01.08

Episode 13 is out. Torrenting now.

I do not get it. We Euros are getting an American series before you lot. Do they have a reason for delaying the showings in their country of origin?

18:32 / 08.01.08

Say, if you were new to this torrent fad, and you wanted to download Book 3's episode, which site would you recomend?

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