ATLA - 305 - The Beach
Oct. 19th, 2007 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retro_eidasThis ep was a comedic motife throughout, but I am wondering if the comical exterior was hiding some darker themes and foreshadowing underneath. You could say it's synonymous with those flashbacks of the happier, childhood summers that are now long gone. That one's true nature cannot be hidden, no matter how normal things may seem on the surface or try to be. I'm pretty sure Iroh had a line once on the lines of, "The family is not what it seems." No, no it isn't.
This ep was a little bizarre to watch. However, I take it this ep was something of a calm before the storm. We see these people bonding to see how well these bonds hold up against the pressure of the fast approaching Day of Black Sun. As we have every ep so far in S3, we get another moment to see the human face of the aggressors, but now through some of it's key players. These characters are still, despite everything, teenagers and have teenagers' problems but ... all of this in the backdrop of Zuko's assassin viciously attacking the Avatar and friends? Giving us more insight on why these characters are the way they are, making them all a little more human, but also we're definitely not to forget the other side of what they all are... the aggressors.
I don't necessarily feel anymore sympathy for Azula than I did before. She's still "crazy and needs to go down", as Iroh so succinctly put. There was something of a tragic spin, however, as it's always a bit sad to see the origins of someone whose gone so wrong (and is, honestly, too fargone now to be saved). The megalomaniac in Azula is so thoroughly ingrained in who and what she is, she can't get away from it. Not even on a day at the beach. That she just can't be a normal teenage girl, because it's just not in her to be so.
However, they all at least got a little more development. Especially Mai (who rather needed it paired off with such a major character like Zuko). I'm still kind of irritated there was virtually no development towards the place the Mai/Zuko pairing is when we first saw it and up to now, but I can deal with it a little better than before.
I'm also glad we're all but assured a Combustion Man vs the gAang rematch. His powers are every bit as wicked cool as the trailers eluded. A gAang rematch, or maybe Zuko can get a taste of his own medicine when Azula sends that guy after his ass when he runs off after Avatar Aang (as the kid obviously has a problem with the whole discretion thing) reveals himself to be alive? Oh, you totally know this is going to happen. Karma is a bitch, ain't it Zuzu?
And as is required in all of my ATLA posts.... Toph is still majorly bad ass. She's the only one that managed to hold her ground while all the rest of them got blown away like tumbleweeds.
I am a bit of an idiot, however, as I didn't stick around and watch the trailer for next week. I stupidly flipped the channel beforehand. UGH! Anyone care to give me a recap?
This ep was a little bizarre to watch. However, I take it this ep was something of a calm before the storm. We see these people bonding to see how well these bonds hold up against the pressure of the fast approaching Day of Black Sun. As we have every ep so far in S3, we get another moment to see the human face of the aggressors, but now through some of it's key players. These characters are still, despite everything, teenagers and have teenagers' problems but ... all of this in the backdrop of Zuko's assassin viciously attacking the Avatar and friends? Giving us more insight on why these characters are the way they are, making them all a little more human, but also we're definitely not to forget the other side of what they all are... the aggressors.
I don't necessarily feel anymore sympathy for Azula than I did before. She's still "crazy and needs to go down", as Iroh so succinctly put. There was something of a tragic spin, however, as it's always a bit sad to see the origins of someone whose gone so wrong (and is, honestly, too fargone now to be saved). The megalomaniac in Azula is so thoroughly ingrained in who and what she is, she can't get away from it. Not even on a day at the beach. That she just can't be a normal teenage girl, because it's just not in her to be so.
However, they all at least got a little more development. Especially Mai (who rather needed it paired off with such a major character like Zuko). I'm still kind of irritated there was virtually no development towards the place the Mai/Zuko pairing is when we first saw it and up to now, but I can deal with it a little better than before.
I'm also glad we're all but assured a Combustion Man vs the gAang rematch. His powers are every bit as wicked cool as the trailers eluded. A gAang rematch, or maybe Zuko can get a taste of his own medicine when Azula sends that guy after his ass when he runs off after Avatar Aang (as the kid obviously has a problem with the whole discretion thing) reveals himself to be alive? Oh, you totally know this is going to happen. Karma is a bitch, ain't it Zuzu?
And as is required in all of my ATLA posts.... Toph is still majorly bad ass. She's the only one that managed to hold her ground while all the rest of them got blown away like tumbleweeds.
I am a bit of an idiot, however, as I didn't stick around and watch the trailer for next week. I stupidly flipped the channel beforehand. UGH! Anyone care to give me a recap?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 12:28 am (UTC)The episode was hilarious in parts but left me unsettled. I'm disturbed by Zuko's regression. I think it's interesting that despite the group therapy session around the campfire, the nightcap for the evening was arson and vandalism. This is not out of character for Azula and her minions, but Zuko?
He's confused... he's angry... he doesn't know right from wrong... Yay vandalism and arson! Am I to believe that all last season's character development is for naught?
I think the weird snapshot at the end with the eerily distorted images of the Gang of Four shows them looking twisted. I'd guess that's intentional to remind all of us that they may be human, but they are still the villains with a very twisted idea of right and wrong. It just bothers me to see Iroh's beloved nephew - who has good inside him - be so diminished from what he was at the end of last season. I can understand a person taking one step forward, two steps back (as Zuko did), but he's awfully far gone at this point.
Did burning the family portrait mean Zuko's resolved to forget his past and more forward? If so, his first actions don't bode well.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-22 09:44 pm (UTC)And I'm still calling Mai as a goner before all is said and done. The shock to the system Zuko (and probably Ty Lee) need to realize just how bad news Azula/her agenda is and get the hell away from her. As their force of destruction turned on their own fellow Fire Nation elite in "The Beach" (the vandalism of the Admiral's house), that same force is going to end up destroying their little Fire Brat Breakfast Club from within (just like the treachery and power-lust destroyed the royal family, symbolised in Zuko burning the family portrait). ...And I am thinking there's going to be at least one death amongst them to cement that theme and Mai looks like the most likely candidate to me.
Here I go on a crackspec roll, but I'd also bet Mai's death would tie into what I've been seeing as a budding trend early on in S3... Fire Nation (the elites loyal to Ozai/Azula, for the most part) vs the Fire Nation colonies (considered the more common of the FN, it seems, and seemingly denigrated somewhat by and possibly disenfranchised from the elites/the Motherland). Mai's father was put in charge of Omashu, if her parents find out she was murdered by Princess Azula? That would probably be a very understandable motivator in them turning against their government and using their military force to side with the rebel alliance (probably behind Zuko/Iroh, when they eventually join up with the gAang).