ATLA - 303 - The Painted Lady
Oct. 5th, 2007 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retro_eidasIt was interesting to see the effects of some parts of Fire Nation, hopelessly neglected. Either because the elites just can't be bothered or the war effort is taking all the attention from any sort of humanitarian efforts. Of course, "the [war] factory" didn't seem to fussed to throw any hand-outs at all to that poor village, so I suppose I'm leaning to that first option. I really do wonder if Zuko - when that idiot comes to his senses - finally vamooses the cozy confines of the palace and sees a village like this one if he'll still be all-too-willing to hide behind his wall of ignorance, hiding his uncertainty and crushing down his conscience.... or if that boy who spoke up in his father's war room to stand up for his people being wronged will emerge again (as it should)? I really really do hope Zuko sees a village like this one, full of his own people who he and his family should be making an attempt to look out for, and realizes just how little luster being the ruling body (and it's war obsession) has when it ignores it's own starved and sick. Let them eat cake, indeed.
Well, I suppose Zuko and Katara would have something to jaw about the next time they get stuck in a cave together. Their penchant for costumes and vigilantism. But, yeah, poisoning Appa as a stalling tactic? Yikes. Poor, poor Appa. Carries these bastards around thanklessly and he gets poisoned by an over-zealous waterbender with a Robin Hood complex. *sighs*
Fire Nation have jet skis? I didn't realize they could make steam engines so small? If there is anything to the theories that this world is evolving into one slowly rendering bending a dying art (as I've suspected with the airbender genocide, I get an impression the firebenders may be following suit)? I'd take it technological advancement is what is going to eventually unite the non-benders of the world, but also possibly in war against the benders sometime in the future? What I could suspect a sequel about if there was ever going to be one (another 100 years down the road and we see the descendants of the current cast of characters?). BUT! I digress.
Is it just me, or did Katara look older in the Painted Lady get-up?
And yes, the anvilly reminder of prejudice of the nations despite do-gooding (and a village terrorized by it's own military/'protectors' is still going to be loyal to the mindset - and betray it's savior when it happens to coincide with the face of the nation's 'enemy' - of their nation that military serves, despite the terror)... something should probably be done about that. Oh Aang, that task is indeed laid out before you, isn't it? Although the Fire Nation village was ultimately much kinder to Katara than the Earth Kingdom village had been to Zuko. However, Katara did have back-up. She has friends. And here I go veering off on a tangent and rambling about Zuko even if this ep wasn't about him (but can't help it considering how much this story ticked the "Zuko Alone" boxes). Friends Zuko didn't have in "Zuko Alone" having abandoned his uncle for his (Zuko) Aloneness. He's abandoned his uncle again, to surround himself with people he thought / believes to be friends, but it's all bullshit, isn't it? One is sitting there waiting for just how wrong he's going to be proven choosing them over his uncle and Katara and Aang, but hopefully it won't be too late for him. Hopefully. *sighs* Maybe one day he'll have back-up, but the boy has got to redeem himself / earn it first.
Of course, we can see the jarring difference in outcomes in "Zuko Alone" and in this ep and also likely there's the key in that difference. One person alone may be able to save one village, but with friends - and a balancing force, represented by Sokka in this case - all of them can unite to work together to take something once broken and polluted and make it new and thriving again. That Fire Nation village = the world Aang needs to save and, at the end, what it could be if Aang succeeds in his Avatar destiny. Also that it's Fire Nation he also needs to save, just as much as the rest of the world. The Fire Nation is suffering from this war as well (if it isn't stifled and blinded by propaganda, like other parts of the world, it's tormented, sick and dying).
Jesus, Sokka really is the daddy of the group, isn't he?
And Toph? Still win. In every ep. She had a bit more to say in this one! YAYZ!
I did like this episode and I do like it better than some of the earlier Katara eps ("Imprisoned", to name one), but I've kind of been feeling these early eps of S3 have been dragging a bit. I realize this is likely the calm before the storm and they're probably saving the real meat of the season for midseason and onwards, but... dammit! I want to get back to the plot already. *sighs* At least ATLA filler is and always will be better than the likes of, say, Naruto. *cringes*
Well, I suppose Zuko and Katara would have something to jaw about the next time they get stuck in a cave together. Their penchant for costumes and vigilantism. But, yeah, poisoning Appa as a stalling tactic? Yikes. Poor, poor Appa. Carries these bastards around thanklessly and he gets poisoned by an over-zealous waterbender with a Robin Hood complex. *sighs*
Fire Nation have jet skis? I didn't realize they could make steam engines so small? If there is anything to the theories that this world is evolving into one slowly rendering bending a dying art (as I've suspected with the airbender genocide, I get an impression the firebenders may be following suit)? I'd take it technological advancement is what is going to eventually unite the non-benders of the world, but also possibly in war against the benders sometime in the future? What I could suspect a sequel about if there was ever going to be one (another 100 years down the road and we see the descendants of the current cast of characters?). BUT! I digress.
Is it just me, or did Katara look older in the Painted Lady get-up?
And yes, the anvilly reminder of prejudice of the nations despite do-gooding (and a village terrorized by it's own military/'protectors' is still going to be loyal to the mindset - and betray it's savior when it happens to coincide with the face of the nation's 'enemy' - of their nation that military serves, despite the terror)... something should probably be done about that. Oh Aang, that task is indeed laid out before you, isn't it? Although the Fire Nation village was ultimately much kinder to Katara than the Earth Kingdom village had been to Zuko. However, Katara did have back-up. She has friends. And here I go veering off on a tangent and rambling about Zuko even if this ep wasn't about him (but can't help it considering how much this story ticked the "Zuko Alone" boxes). Friends Zuko didn't have in "Zuko Alone" having abandoned his uncle for his (Zuko) Aloneness. He's abandoned his uncle again, to surround himself with people he thought / believes to be friends, but it's all bullshit, isn't it? One is sitting there waiting for just how wrong he's going to be proven choosing them over his uncle and Katara and Aang, but hopefully it won't be too late for him. Hopefully. *sighs* Maybe one day he'll have back-up, but the boy has got to redeem himself / earn it first.
Of course, we can see the jarring difference in outcomes in "Zuko Alone" and in this ep and also likely there's the key in that difference. One person alone may be able to save one village, but with friends - and a balancing force, represented by Sokka in this case - all of them can unite to work together to take something once broken and polluted and make it new and thriving again. That Fire Nation village = the world Aang needs to save and, at the end, what it could be if Aang succeeds in his Avatar destiny. Also that it's Fire Nation he also needs to save, just as much as the rest of the world. The Fire Nation is suffering from this war as well (if it isn't stifled and blinded by propaganda, like other parts of the world, it's tormented, sick and dying).
Jesus, Sokka really is the daddy of the group, isn't he?
And Toph? Still win. In every ep. She had a bit more to say in this one! YAYZ!
I did like this episode and I do like it better than some of the earlier Katara eps ("Imprisoned", to name one), but I've kind of been feeling these early eps of S3 have been dragging a bit. I realize this is likely the calm before the storm and they're probably saving the real meat of the season for midseason and onwards, but... dammit! I want to get back to the plot already. *sighs* At least ATLA filler is and always will be better than the likes of, say, Naruto. *cringes*
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Date: 2007-10-07 10:00 pm (UTC)I'm not sure it bothered me all that much (desperate times, as they say), but it was quite a stupid move that had virtually no thinking through and no plan. I could really feel Sokka's frustrations at having to put up with this lot for as long as he has. One might wonder when that boy is going to crack. He lost not one but two loves now after all, there's only so much compartmentalizing a person can do and he's still so young.
Yes. Oddly enough, Zuko looks younger, have you noticed? He was hard and worn looking in season 1, and softer as he continued his soul-searching journey. In his last scene speaking to uncle in the prison, he looked scared and hopeless which made him look vulnerable.
And he is so very vulnerable right now to that dark side of himself (embodied in Azula, aka, the blue dragon), to the point he can't see the dishonor / cowardliness in hiring an assassin (to kill a child, even if he is the Avatar) and the consequences of his sister's seductive lies. He can't see the wrong he's done to his uncle, even if some part of him realizes the wrong.
Honestly, I'm not sure I will enjoy this show if he continues on the downward spiral and doesn't pull himself back out. What would be the point of last season's arch?
Wouldn't make much sense for him to stay where and how he is, would it? Especially considering the Earth Book, as you say. Thus why I'm fairly confident he won't stay where he is and the minute he's ready to own up to the wrong he knows, deep down, he's committed, he's going to get the hell away from where he is and, hopefully, into a less self-destructive environment. Preferably after making peace with and having his uncle by his side.
I'm confused about Aang and the Avatar state at this point. Aang can't enter the Avatar state unless he successfully lets go his Earthly attachments. I don't see that happening yet, just the opposite. I suppose the shippiness right now is meant to set up Aang's eventually disengagement, but we'll see.
Yeah, I tend to go back and forth on the shippy issues and the ramifications of Avatar State. I'm certain if any set of writers could make it all work, it would be these writers, but then... looking at how easily Aang was interacting with those Fire Nation girls? I can't honestly say anymore that if Aang lost Katara in that way he'd be irrevocably broken from the experience and wouldn't go on. The kid is young and if it came to him losing Katara (either because she ultimately doesn't feel for him that way, she loves another and/or it's for the greater good), I don't see that ruining him. However, that's not to say he won't end up with her either. Katara definitively returning his affections now, it really is anyone's guess at this point.
Assuming they have at least one strong Firebender on their side, they could achieve the same thing that happened in The Chase: the combined force of bending 4 elements forced Azula to retreat, when they couldn't have done it individually.
Considering how they don't have a firebender or any firebenders on their side - I'd presume - by The Day of Black Sun? I'd take it that's going to be a reason, at least symbolically, why the good guys are inevitably going to fail. Granted, it's a dramatic issue and you can't have the main nemesis ousted midseries (as there's no way all the character and dangling plot developments are all going to be wrapped up by that time. Namely that whole comet thing yet to come), but as this show relies heavily on things like balance and United We Stand, Divided We Fall, blah di blah? They've got to have a firebender on their side, at least one.... and considering Zuko (and Iroh) are the most important, developed firebenders of the story? Zuko particularly important as he's a peer (children = hope of the future / a better world. As illustrated most recently in "The Headband" rave in the cave with the Fire Nation kids). I do think there is going to be a HUGE shake-up post-Day of Black Sun which is going to change everything.