[9.6/10] Now that’s more like it! So many cool moments, good action, and great character beats here.
Let’s start with the biggest of them. I was a big fan of Zuko’s confrontation with his father. I’ll admit, the actor who voices Zuko didn’t necessarily knock it out of the park, but there was so much bundled up emotion and mythos there. I love Zuko’s revelation that everything he was taught was wrong -- that the entire Fire Nation philosophy is founded on the idea that their tribe is fulsome with greatness that needs to be shared with the world, and that by banishing Zuko, Ozai inadvertently opened his eyes to the true nature and perception of the Fire Nation in the rest of the globe. It’s a powerful rebuke of not just a father to a son, but of one generation to the previous one, of the entire idea that the Fire Nation and this war are founded on.
Of course, it’s also grounded in the personal. I appreciate that in both this and the Aang-focused story, the good guys make to leave and are drawn back when taunted by something personal. The taunting way Ozai delivers information about Zuko’s mom is intriguing. It mostly just confirms a story that had already been hinted at, but it’s interesting to get that confirmation. It heightens the way AtLA is a generational story to show that Azulon really did want Zuko killed, that Ozai really would have done it, and that Zuko’s mom, the descendent of Roku, was the one who prevented it and suffered banishment as a traitor as a result. She helps to break this chain, a chain that has extended down to Azula.
That leads to the greatest moment of catharsis in the whole thing. Ozai says that Iroh has gotten to Zuko, and Zuko admits that it’s the truth. (The POV shot through the roof of the palace suggests that Iroh may have heard his nephew admit this.) That becomes true in not just Zuko’s perspective, but in his talents as well. When the eclipse ends and the firebending powers return, Ozai sends a blast of electricity as his son, but Zuko uses the technique Iroh taught him to absorb and rechannel that energy back at his father. It’s a powerful, symbolic gesture, one that symbolizes the way that the hate and poisonous mindset Ozai has inflicted on his son have been directed into something different and more powerful that Zuko will now use against his own family. That is big, big stuff and the culmination of so many threads in Zuko’s development that have been built over the past two and a half seasons.
And that’s only like, half the episode! Aang, Sokka, and Toph’s confrontation with Azula was great as well. For one thing, I really loved the series of fake outs and spills to the whole thing. Team Avatar finding the secret bunker, only to come upon Azula rather than Ozai was a semi-predictable move but a nice touch nonetheless. I’ve come around on Azula. She started out a little too snarlingly evil to me, but there’s an above it all, matter of factness to her demeanor and her brand of malevolence that I’ve come to really enjoy. It gives her a distinct character as a villain.
It also gives the show the change to a do a pretty extraordinary fight. The Dai Lee dropping back in is a nice narrative choice to create some threat/protection during the eclipse, and seeing a powerless Azula duck and dodge the group’s attacks makes her more formidable and frustrating. It leads to some well-designed sequences where Aang sends wind blasts at her and she parkours her way through the mayhem below (including a nice close shave with Sokka).
I also enjoyed the realization that Azula was just stalling them to keep them away from Ozai during the eclipse. Sokka being the one to piece it together is a nice touch, but I like even better that his pragmatism fails when Azula taunts him with the prospect of Suki, and he turns to pure, unthinking rage. The contrast provides a nice character beat for him, and a plausible reason for Team Avatar to fail in their effort, with understandable explanations.
Aang fails again. That stings, and builds up the contrast between the confidence in himself that he managed to muster and the setbacks he continually endures. He keeps trying to face his destiny and keeps stumbling, and the tears in his eyes, the quaver in his voice when he tells the assembled troops what their sacrifices mean to him, are affecting. There’s a bit of exposition and convenience in the “we’ll fight another day...that will probably happen in the series finale” stuff, but on a big picture thematic level, it works.
There’s also the bitter irony of the Machinist’s dirigibles being the thing that defeats the coalition of the willing that Hakoda has assembled. There is, again, generational symbolism in the adult warriors allowing themselves to be captured by the no-longer stymied Fire Nation soldiers, while sending their kids off to fight another day. As with Zuko, there is a strong sense of the hope that these people will be able to break the cycle that has gone on since Roku and Sozin started all of this.
That is the pain and hope bundled together as the young members of the fighting force, Team Avatar, and Zuko (who discovers that his uncle, described as a “one-man army” already escaped), all leave the site of this great battle in the hopes that they may wage another. This was a tremendous effort, one laden with meaning for everyone involved, and in many ways the culmination of so much that Aang, Sokka, and Katara started. Today, it falls short, but amid the defeat, there is the inherent hope that as Zuko did, the people of the Four Nations will reject the shackles of the Fire Nation and rise up together to stop it. It’s a down note to go out on, but the escape, for both Zuko and the Aang gang, creates possibilities for so much more.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-04-12T19:31:15Z
[9.6/10] Now that’s more like it! So many cool moments, good action, and great character beats here.
Let’s start with the biggest of them. I was a big fan of Zuko’s confrontation with his father. I’ll admit, the actor who voices Zuko didn’t necessarily knock it out of the park, but there was so much bundled up emotion and mythos there. I love Zuko’s revelation that everything he was taught was wrong -- that the entire Fire Nation philosophy is founded on the idea that their tribe is fulsome with greatness that needs to be shared with the world, and that by banishing Zuko, Ozai inadvertently opened his eyes to the true nature and perception of the Fire Nation in the rest of the globe. It’s a powerful rebuke of not just a father to a son, but of one generation to the previous one, of the entire idea that the Fire Nation and this war are founded on.
Of course, it’s also grounded in the personal. I appreciate that in both this and the Aang-focused story, the good guys make to leave and are drawn back when taunted by something personal. The taunting way Ozai delivers information about Zuko’s mom is intriguing. It mostly just confirms a story that had already been hinted at, but it’s interesting to get that confirmation. It heightens the way AtLA is a generational story to show that Azulon really did want Zuko killed, that Ozai really would have done it, and that Zuko’s mom, the descendent of Roku, was the one who prevented it and suffered banishment as a traitor as a result. She helps to break this chain, a chain that has extended down to Azula.
That leads to the greatest moment of catharsis in the whole thing. Ozai says that Iroh has gotten to Zuko, and Zuko admits that it’s the truth. (The POV shot through the roof of the palace suggests that Iroh may have heard his nephew admit this.) That becomes true in not just Zuko’s perspective, but in his talents as well. When the eclipse ends and the firebending powers return, Ozai sends a blast of electricity as his son, but Zuko uses the technique Iroh taught him to absorb and rechannel that energy back at his father. It’s a powerful, symbolic gesture, one that symbolizes the way that the hate and poisonous mindset Ozai has inflicted on his son have been directed into something different and more powerful that Zuko will now use against his own family. That is big, big stuff and the culmination of so many threads in Zuko’s development that have been built over the past two and a half seasons.
And that’s only like, half the episode! Aang, Sokka, and Toph’s confrontation with Azula was great as well. For one thing, I really loved the series of fake outs and spills to the whole thing. Team Avatar finding the secret bunker, only to come upon Azula rather than Ozai was a semi-predictable move but a nice touch nonetheless. I’ve come around on Azula. She started out a little too snarlingly evil to me, but there’s an above it all, matter of factness to her demeanor and her brand of malevolence that I’ve come to really enjoy. It gives her a distinct character as a villain.
It also gives the show the change to a do a pretty extraordinary fight. The Dai Lee dropping back in is a nice narrative choice to create some threat/protection during the eclipse, and seeing a powerless Azula duck and dodge the group’s attacks makes her more formidable and frustrating. It leads to some well-designed sequences where Aang sends wind blasts at her and she parkours her way through the mayhem below (including a nice close shave with Sokka).
I also enjoyed the realization that Azula was just stalling them to keep them away from Ozai during the eclipse. Sokka being the one to piece it together is a nice touch, but I like even better that his pragmatism fails when Azula taunts him with the prospect of Suki, and he turns to pure, unthinking rage. The contrast provides a nice character beat for him, and a plausible reason for Team Avatar to fail in their effort, with understandable explanations.
Aang fails again. That stings, and builds up the contrast between the confidence in himself that he managed to muster and the setbacks he continually endures. He keeps trying to face his destiny and keeps stumbling, and the tears in his eyes, the quaver in his voice when he tells the assembled troops what their sacrifices mean to him, are affecting. There’s a bit of exposition and convenience in the “we’ll fight another day...that will probably happen in the series finale” stuff, but on a big picture thematic level, it works.
There’s also the bitter irony of the Machinist’s dirigibles being the thing that defeats the coalition of the willing that Hakoda has assembled. There is, again, generational symbolism in the adult warriors allowing themselves to be captured by the no-longer stymied Fire Nation soldiers, while sending their kids off to fight another day. As with Zuko, there is a strong sense of the hope that these people will be able to break the cycle that has gone on since Roku and Sozin started all of this.
That is the pain and hope bundled together as the young members of the fighting force, Team Avatar, and Zuko (who discovers that his uncle, described as a “one-man army” already escaped), all leave the site of this great battle in the hopes that they may wage another. This was a tremendous effort, one laden with meaning for everyone involved, and in many ways the culmination of so much that Aang, Sokka, and Katara started. Today, it falls short, but amid the defeat, there is the inherent hope that as Zuko did, the people of the Four Nations will reject the shackles of the Fire Nation and rise up together to stop it. It’s a down note to go out on, but the escape, for both Zuko and the Aang gang, creates possibilities for so much more.