6.9/10. This is a pretty stock story. I was rolling my eyes at Jet from the minute he swung down from the trees as a cutrate Peter Pan with his collection of Lost Boys. There's a fairly hackneyed arc for Sokka where Katara and Aang make fun of him for "trusting his instincts" and leading them into trouble, then of course it's his instincts that save the day when the two of them get hoodwinked by Jet. It's done well enough, even if the bits with Jet flirting with Katara while plays Cassandra about how bad a dude Jet is and no one will believe him feels especially hacky.
Still, the backgrounds and setting of the episode was particularly gorgeous, with the fall colors and vibrant reds contrasting nicely with Aang's robes and Jet's autumn-hued clothing. Their fight up in the trees was a pretty cool setpiece as well, though again the stuttering animation takes some of the oopmh out of it. And I have to admit, I bought into the fake out at the end, and was ready to applaud the show for having the moxie to show the bad guys winning. Still, Sokka managing to Xander it up and find an unorthodox solution by following his instincts, Zeppo-style, is a nice bit of redemption for him despite the stock nature of the conflict.
My only other complaint is that there's something very interesting about the idea of a young adult who's lost his parents due to the Fire Nation's brutality, and is willing to inflict the same level of brutality on the Fire Nation, civilians and all to get his revenge and protect his band of brothers. Instead, the entire focus for Jet is on his ability to smoothtalk and manipulate others, eventually painting him as a fairly one-note villain. There's some thematic depth to the idea behind the character that the episode barely scratches the surface of.
Overall, this one feels like something of a placeholder episode, meant to give a little more depth to Sokka but ending up giving him a stock arc with a pretty obvious trajectory. But it's not without it's charms and it has some quality design work, so it's close to passing grade.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-11-19T05:34:33Z
6.9/10. This is a pretty stock story. I was rolling my eyes at Jet from the minute he swung down from the trees as a cutrate Peter Pan with his collection of Lost Boys. There's a fairly hackneyed arc for Sokka where Katara and Aang make fun of him for "trusting his instincts" and leading them into trouble, then of course it's his instincts that save the day when the two of them get hoodwinked by Jet. It's done well enough, even if the bits with Jet flirting with Katara while plays Cassandra about how bad a dude Jet is and no one will believe him feels especially hacky.
Still, the backgrounds and setting of the episode was particularly gorgeous, with the fall colors and vibrant reds contrasting nicely with Aang's robes and Jet's autumn-hued clothing. Their fight up in the trees was a pretty cool setpiece as well, though again the stuttering animation takes some of the oopmh out of it. And I have to admit, I bought into the fake out at the end, and was ready to applaud the show for having the moxie to show the bad guys winning. Still, Sokka managing to Xander it up and find an unorthodox solution by following his instincts, Zeppo-style, is a nice bit of redemption for him despite the stock nature of the conflict.
My only other complaint is that there's something very interesting about the idea of a young adult who's lost his parents due to the Fire Nation's brutality, and is willing to inflict the same level of brutality on the Fire Nation, civilians and all to get his revenge and protect his band of brothers. Instead, the entire focus for Jet is on his ability to smoothtalk and manipulate others, eventually painting him as a fairly one-note villain. There's some thematic depth to the idea behind the character that the episode barely scratches the surface of.
Overall, this one feels like something of a placeholder episode, meant to give a little more depth to Sokka but ending up giving him a stock arc with a pretty obvious trajectory. But it's not without it's charms and it has some quality design work, so it's close to passing grade.