redbrunja | "How Do You Expect To Defeat The Fire Lord Without Pants!"

Okay, so I just mainlined Avatar episodes 3x04 through 3x11, (seven episodes in one night, woot!) and I need to go through chronologically and share my reactions, but first I need to get this out.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

Oh, Zuko.

*bows before the awesomeness that is the Fire Prince*

*flails*

(See, sometimes threatening a character works! Yes, Zuko, you WILL get to carry Katara barefoot across hot, molten lava while she quotes ambiguous myths at you and is distracting! Because you have EARNED IT. - and I promise this won’t sound as saccharine as it sounds in the summery.)

*flails harder*

I'm almost incoherent right now. This was perfect - this was everything I could possibly have hoped for, and never in a million years thought I would ever see - he untangled his family from the Fire Nation, and stood up to his father.

"I'm going to find Uncle and beg his forgiveness."

I have never loved you more.

And now! Now it looks like he's going to be joining up with the Avatar and teaching him firebending! Words cannot even express how happy this makes me. I'm just *vibrates with happiness*

*forces self to take deep breaths*

(While I was watching this, I kept glancing at the clock, terrified that there was going to be a last minute cliff that would involve Zuko dying, because that is the kind of cruelty that I expect from writers, but no. He’s alive. HE’S ALIVE AND IN CONTROL OF THIS DESTINY!)

Okay, let's take this in a more logical order, shall we?

"Sokka's Master"

While the realist in me goes 'there is no way you can master the sword in a day,' I greatly enjoyed Sokka getting a chance to shine, and seeing how creative and clever he is. I really, really like this boy, and I love how he's just as powerful as every other member of the team, but doesn't always think so.

The one downside is that I really miss his boomerang.

Also, this episode is reason 2,754 that Iroh is awesome.

You and Sydney Bristow need to chat about how unbreakable and awesome you are.

And in my head, at this point, Iroh’s to-do list is ‘Get out. Get tea. Give my nephew the smack he deserves.’

I can't wait to see how the lotus tiles circle around. (And how impressed was I that the hot air ballons made a comeback in the finale?)

"The Beach"

This episode almost make me like Azula. I mean, how vicious and cutthroat she was with the volleyball was cute when it was, you know, a game.

But god, I am so sick of the Mei/Zuko relationship. To quote Jennifer Crusie, "There's a small contrast problem. They have none." You've got one emo, well-bred fire nation youth and another emo, well-bred fire nation youth. It's just... it's so frustrating to watch, mainly because this is Zuko at his most pod!Prince. (And I thought this was annoying when he was doing it with Iroh. That at least had the advantage of Iroh - who just makes everything better.) Plus, they have this boring dynamic - there are no sparks. Either Zuko's being nice and Mei's being her gothic, haughty self, or Mei's being nice and it's just sliding off Zuko's impenetrable shield of gloom.

One reason that I think I really like Katara/Zuko is that they are nothing but contrast (I mean the Fire/Water and Sun/Moon imagery is just screaming at us) with enough similarities deep down that you know they could actually like and respect each other, and you know that they would get under each other's skins. Mei and Zuko just seem to slide against each other without penetrating the other's defenses. (Shut up. If I could come up with a metaphor that didn't sound dirty, I would.)

So this episode was great regarding what we get to find out about the 'villains' however, I found the final tell-all a little... hard to swallow. For a minute, when Azula started clapping, I though she had manipulated it all the get Zuko to realize he was pissed at himself, but then that wasn't the case, and I was quite disappointed.

Also, they taunted me with the idea that Zuko and Mei were going to break up, and then retraced it. I was so disappointed.

Plus, when they draw Zuko and Mei together, they make Zuko's hair this weird black/brown shade to make Mei's look darker.

"The Avatar & The Firelord"

I don't have much to say about this beyond 'yay, backstory.' I love the idea of Zuko being the great-grandson of the last Avatar.

Which makes Katara, in a past life, his grandmother and Aang his grandfather. I have no idea where I'm going with this, but it makes me giggle.

And also, I really wished we had seen past-Katara actually do something besides be pretty. I was thinking she was going to be another firebender, but, while it’s still possible, they never showed it.

"The Runaway"

Great, fantastic episode. I wanted to point out how much I loved two strong, independent women having difficulties with each other that are completely unrelated to a man. It was just their personalities and issues bouncing off each other, and that scene with Katara in the water (god, she's a little hottie, isn't she?) made my heart squeeze. I love what Sokka said about not remembering his mother’s face, and seeing Katara’s when he thinks of his mother. I mean... what else can you say, beside 'awwww.'

"The Puppetmaster"

Katara gets all the best fight scenes.

What was great about this episode is that I've wondered before about using blood (hadn't thought about the idea of manipulating people like puppets though) and I adored that Katara did use it when her back was against the wall.

I just adore how the old women won even as she lost, as did Katara.

Although, this was one of the episodes where the fact that they don't really kill people (Suki is fucking well alive) really lessens the impact - I was fine with them skimming over what the Fire Nation prison was like, but I really felt keeping the villagers alive was a bit of a cop-out.

"Nightmares and Daydreams"

It was a nice choice to got for a comedic episode before the big show down, and I think everyone has been at that anxiety-dream can't-rest place before.

Was I the only one going 'Katara, just screw him already - a couple of orgasms and he'll be out like a light'? *crickets chirp*

Also, the bits with Zuko were excruciating to watch the first time - I keep hoping that it was his daydreams, only it wasn't. I was very much in a 'what the hell, you just found out backstory about the Avatar and the Fire Lord and you're entertaining your dull as dishwater girlfriend?' At this point, I was ready to disown him in my heart.

"Day of Black Sun"

What is there to say?

Katara didn't have enough to do, first off.

The lack of Kiyoshi warriors, even if Suki was absent, was really obvious.

Seriously, the swamp people come back but not the awesome chick fighters?

I really liked how they set up the trap - nothing like clever villains, although I'm back to hating Azula with the passion of a thousand fiery suns.

And here is why Suki is not dead: first, we are told that Azula can lie without getting caught. Second, she said that Suki had been her PRISONER. Which means, that after the fight we see, she was still alive. Third, Azula never says Suki's dead - she just said that Suki had given up hope on Sokka (which, you just know has broken his heart into a thousand pieces.) Plus, Azula said that Suki was her favorite, which totally made me think of the man who tried to brainwash Sydney. "You were my favorite. You never broke."

(*pst* smiliaraaq - I have a plotbunny that requires an alias for Suki - would you mind if I used 'Soo'? Because that has attached itself as another name for her in my head.)

So Suki's totally alive.

Either a.) still locked in a Fire Nation prison, and despairing of rescue but knowing that she has to get herself out or

b.) she's already escaped, and is wounded and recovering, or back at Kiyoshi island, or... the possibilities are endless.

But back to Zuko.

I... words fail me. You know when you want something to happen, but you think short of fanfic it never will? And then it does? The only way that conversation could have been better is if first Zuko had broken his uncle out wearing the Blue Spirit mask.

But I can't even complain about that, because Zuko is following his uncle's path and I... *waves hand inarticulately*

He mastered lightning! He was composed enough to say his piece and walk away!

And there is a post I should write about the Fire Nation as the US, but I am too in love right now to want to drag real world metaphors into this show.

I need post-DoBS Zuko/Katara fic now.

Thank you, wondrous writers, for giving me set up that can be turned to smut! (Because, seriously, I have been worrying that puzzle over throughout the serious.)

*glees*

*glees harder*

*glees harder still and goes to turn off the heater, because my body temp is high enough, thanks.*

Man, what am I going to do with my time now?

Oh, right. Studying for finals.

Or I could, you know, write fanfic.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hm, true . . . but why go to all the trouble of containing the waterbenders? As near as I can tell, this was about 50 years back, and they didn't seem to make any use of the ones they had. It's not like they went through training to break their wills and put them to work on ships or something; they were just kept there.

Actually, there was a note in the latest magazine, semi-joking, that the title might be changed to "Avatar: One of the last few airbenders"

Well, for now that 'last' seems accurate. I wonder if the bending is genetically linked, or if you could get some weird mish-mash of genes that would have an airbender born in the earth kingdom or a waterbender born in the Fire Nation.

Yeah. We'll have to wait and see. The bending is pretty clearly genetically linked; otherwise, you'd see Earth Kingdom citizens fighting back with fire or something.

Very good point.

Yeah, it's definitely got some genetic linkage, but not in any sort of readily predictable way -- we've seen cases like Sokka and Katara where you have both a bending and non-bending sibling, and both Kat and Haru are clearly cases where bending kids have one non-bender parent. Isn't there even an episode back in S1 or S2 where there are a couple of identical Earth Kingdom twins where only one is a bender? So it seems like there's some weird hand-wavey spiritual aspect as well that's never been entirely explained. They've also never really addressed what happens if you've got intermarriage between nations (and c'mon, in a hundred years of war and occupation of large parts of the Earth Kingdom, you know there's gotta be at LEAST some Fire/Earth marriages going on; and the clothing styles and eye colors and geographical location of Kiyoshi Island make me think there's maybe been a little Water Tribe influence there at some point...) Some fan-writers have gone for mixed-bending skills but that strikes me as dangerously Sue/Stu-ish, and sort of dilutes the uniqueness of the Avatar being able to master all the styles. My personal fanon is that such kids would only have one bending skill, but you might have siblings taking after different sides of their parentage.

I meant more in the sense of the type of bending being limited to what nation you're from; to bend or not to bend is another question entirely.

Your take on it is entirely reasonable. Though I think we'll have to wait and see what canon has to say about mixed marriages.

So Katara's mother was a bender? I didn't know that.

And I refuse to believe that there ISN'T rampant intermarrying going on - or at least sexin' because that is just what happens with cultures meet, even (especially) when it's because of the war.

With you on multi-benders getting a little to gilding-the-lily. It's more likely that if you have two benders of different types having a kid, and the kid was a bender, on type would be dominate but the 'extra' would give the kid either a.) a bit of a power boost b.) give them a slight edge with a complimentary element, like an earthbender would be able to bend magma, which is practically fire but has enough earth for it to work, or a waterbender who can do a bit of manipulation of air, nothing like being able to bend 2 elements, but a definate added edge.

And yeah, I could easily see a household with two bender children of different types (but dinner time is FUN.)

Oh geeze, I really seem to remember her making some comments about her mom, but it's all vague enough that I can't seem to Google up anything -- I really need to rewatch the first two seasons, too! It does make more sense that she'd have been on the front lines if she was fighting, at least, since for all that the Southern Tribes didn't have any problems with women bending, they don't seem to have any non-bending female warriors...

And the way the Gaang managed to pass off their quirks of appearance or misused slang as their being "colonials" really fits -- bits of the Earth Kingdom have been occupied for so long that there just have to have been intermarriages, and the FN equivalent of army/diplo-brats who were born and raised outside of their parents' home country...

I always got the feeling that her mother died when their village was attacked.

And you're right, it's very odd that NEITHER of the water tribes have women fighting (that I can recall.) I wonder how much better the South was for Gran-Gran, or if she was trading the frying pan for the fire.

And I LOVED the colonials bit. Perfect cover, and it makes so, so much sense.

Well, in the Hama flashbacks at least we see female Southern Tribe benders fighting -- so it may be a bit of a watered-down (ha) version of the gender-role divisions from the parent Northern Tribe; they've loosened up enough to let women waterbend and fight as well as heal, but the non-bending warriors are all male. And even back in the Earth Kingdom, we've seen a few female benders fighting on the coal rig, but those were for all we know just civilian villagers like Haru's family -- except for the non-bending Kiyoshi warriors, the only times we've seen Earth Kingdom uniformed troops, bending or non-bending, they've all been male. So this may just be another little touch of them showing cultural differences between the countries, or even within far-flung parts of the same country...

As for Gran-Gran Kanna, well, the Southern Tribe was definitely a lot less socially rigid in some ways -- the biggest one being the lack of arranged marriages, and that's what she ran off to get away from in the first place.

Oh, you're right! *headdesk* I should have remembered that.

You're right, they've probably loosed the gender divisions but not to the extent that the other kingdoms have.

And lack of arranged marriages would big difference. Sorry I was apparently blanking on everything that happened after season one. *blushes*

"How Do You Expect To Defeat The Fire Lord Without Pants!"

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