Hey Youtubers, It's Charlie this is going to be my Last Airbender
Episode 4 video: The Warriors of Kyoshi
It's the weekend, and it wouldn't be the weekend without cartoons
So naturally, I thought it was time to post a new one
There's also a really cool Avatar related event coming up
So, Gallery, Nucleus, on March 7, is going to be doing a Nickoloden sponsored Legend of Korra, Last Airbender art exhibit
Mike and Bryan are going to be there
Tickets are $5 at the door
You don't have to make any reservations, but you can't buy tickets in advance
You just have to show up, come in line, and it's first come first serve
The art's going to be there until March 21st
So even if you can't make it the night Mike and Bryan are going to be there
you could still go see the artwork
The last day that it's open, Mike and Bryan are also going to do a Q and A panel
that's also first come, first serve
It's in the Los Angeles area, so if you're within driving distance of Gallery Nucleus
I'd recommend that you check it out
It's going to be one of the rare opportunities to actually meet Mike and Bryan outside of a convention
Okay, so moving on to Episode 4 business
I thought I'd mention just a few behind the scenes facts, like a few Easter Eggs about the episode upfront
The fighting style of the Kyoshi Warriors is based on ninjutsu
taking your opponent's force and using it against them
In case you're not Beatles fans, or you're not old enough to remember
The scene where Aang is running around in and out of frame-the montage-is based on Hard Day's Night
the music video that the Beatles made
Even thought it sounds a little silly, I'll say careful for spoilers from the episode
So moving in on Top Five moments
Number 5: Welcome to Kyoshi Island
So if you look at the map of the Avatar world
Kyoshi Island is right here-it's part of the Earth Kingdom
It's main utility is being a fishing fort
It was the place Avatar Kyoshi was born, but it's not named Kyoshi Island just because she was born there
The Kuvira-so to speak- of her time was named Chin the Conqueror
He was trying to conquer the Earth Kindgom too
In order to stop him, Kyoshi earthbent the peninsula of her hometown away from the mainland
And thus it became Kyoshi Island
It's a good example of how powerful the Avatar can be
It's like Korra eating the full blast from the Spirit Vine Gun
You have bending, you have super-bending-you have super awesome benders like Azula-and then you have the God-level bending of the Avatar
It's a little unclear why Aang wanted to stop over
He-he started to lose focus, see shiny objects. gets distracted very easily
So you could argue he stopped because he wanted to ride the giant Koi-he just remembers them from his time
Or you could argue it's an Avatar thing
And his previous life as Avatar Kyoshi
is what's drawing him to the island unconsciously
Sometimes there are those moments in episodes where Aang is like
"I think I remember this froma previous life"
But I bet that goes on all the time unconsciously
You always wonder what goes on in people's heads
It's a little easier to spell that out in a comic book or a book with a thought bubble
Whenever it's animated like this
Whenver it's visual on screen
You just have to fill their heads with thoughts that you think that they're thinking
So I do imagine when Aang sees a lot of places
he's thinking about them through the context of his previous lives
even if he's not realising it
Number 4: Meet the Kyoshi Warriors
As the name implies, the Kyoshi Warriors were an order
born by Avatar Kyoshi
She saw some women being mistreated by men
So she formed the order as a response to that
It all went down way before she separated the peninsula
form the mainland-so it was before it became Kyoshi Island
The reason they continue to dress like her is because they want to honour their memory
And you didn't need any special background to join them
you could have come from any discipline
you could be a fisherwoman, you could be a housewife, anything
Even though there's a lot of missing data on all the Avatars, I'd say of all the ones we do know about
Avatar Kyoshi was the most proactive
She formed the Kyoshi Warriors, formed Kyoshi Island
And she formed the Dai Li, even though that kinda went sideways
We don't blame her for that
Number 3: Meet Suki-Newest member of Team Avatar-unofficially
I wouldn't say Suki officially joined Team Avatar till much later
This was like her soft introduction to the group
I know that everyone was really bummed that she didn't appear on Legend of Korra
But just look a the comics, that's what the comics are for
Next to Katara, she's the next strong female to be introduced in the series
Even though this is Last Airbender-so it's mostly focused on Aang-male protagonist
All the women are still really strong
I felt kinda bad for Sokka in this episode
because they kinda use him to show how women can be that strong
Gender roles-generally a really touchy subject
no matter how you address it
Obviously they take the comedy route
So Sokka totally works well in that context
And I totally get why they had to make him sound so dumb
Of all the cringe worthy scenes though
I'd say the one where he first goes to try and train with them
like hey, I'm looking to work out-probably my favourite
And if you are a little put off at how Sokka goes a so nuts in this espidoe
I mean, you have to remember, they're like middle school aged
And it's usually weirder
When a middle school kid-like someone who's 11, 12, 13
is really mature, that's weird
usually you'd expect them to be really inappropriate
They don't really get into it in this episode
But Kyoshi Warriors, one of their big skills
Is Chi-Blocking, which totally carried forward into Legend of Korra
Obviously, there are a lot of people all of the world who practice Chi-Blocking
So you get Amon's Chi-Blockers and their awesome costumes
I can't imagine that they stole that from the Kyoshi Warriors
Number 2: Surfer Aang Rides the Unagi
This was almost like another beach episode, inside another episode
It does feel like there were a lot of those in Avatar
Like it wouldn't be a new season or a new book on Avatar
Without them being on the beach doing something fun
The first time in the episode, the Unagi's just teased-you don't even know it's called the Unagi
It's just a giant fish with a giant fin sticking out, so you're just left to wonder what's underneath the surface
And Aang, running across the water, trying to get away
Just like Korra in book 3, trying to run from the Sand Shark
If you thought about it, he could run on water if he was airbending his feet
just like a little bit
Although in this context, it looks more like Roadrunner/Buggs Bunny territory
Later on in the episode, I totally believe that the Avatar could form some sort of
low level spiritual connection with other animals
So I don't think it's too crazy that he could get the Unagi to breathe water all over the town
It's just one of those things they don't have a lot of time to explain in a 22 minute episode
And my Number 1 Moment: Aang learns what happens when you derp your mission as the Avatar
There is a price to be paid for stepping off the path
Aang doesn't realise what's going on until he flies over the town and sees it burning
But, yeah, when you get distracted, this is what happens
It's a good reminder why this series didn't do too many side episodes
Almost the entire Kyoshi Island episode is them getting sidetracked
It can be a little frustrating, especially when you know what the endpoint of the series is and you know what Aang has to do
It's like why are you spending so much time over here when you need to learn how to waterbend?
But it's really like these sidetracked moments
where they just argue about their relationshipy stuff
or Aang tries to impress Katara, where their personalities come out
So you do need these-it helps the audience (us) form connections with the characters
just because they're human moments-they're things we'd totally do
I would totally try to ride a Koi to impress a girl-I mean, who wouldn't?
Zuko's barely in the episode
He's just there to remind you that there's this other plot going on
But all in all, some great fight scenes
great firebender versus Kyoshi Warriors scenes
It's a good way to show off what good warriors they are
Yes, Zuko is able to take them down really easily-but you have to remmeber
Of all the young characters, he's one of the few who have been extensively trained in combat
Aang is very powerful, but he is not been trained in combat the way Zuko has
And the funny thing is is that the episode ends with Aang getting the big payoff
You know, he gets the affection from Katara that he craves so much
That was probably the whole reason for him stopping
Is that he just wanted that hug from Katara
Yes, Kyoshi Island is a really important place with some really important characters that they needed to introduce
So this episode was necessary for them to go there
But do you think, that if Aang
Was able to get that hug from Katara
If he would have thought twice about stopping
I do feel like half of the crazy stuff that Aang does to get attention is just to get attention from Katara
Not everyone else
Just the girl he has a super doper crush on
And I forgot to mention it at the beginning part, but another really
cool thing from this episode is use of Avatar maps
It might sound funny, but all the funny cartoon-y maps from Legend of Korra
Are meant to honour the really cartoon-y maps of Last Airbender
I imagine Mike and Bryan envisioned really complex, amazing-looking maps
But it ended up looking like this
so when it came time to animate Legend of Korra
It was just like "Hey, why don't we have fun with this and make it like Last Airbender"
Favourite map sequence from either of the series though, is from Korra Book 3
Whenever they're first looking for Airbenders in the Earth Kingdom
I think the only real thumbs down I had in this episode was Sokka
being such a derp, but I understand why they did it that way
The funny thing, when you think about it, in the beginning
He had this really cringe worthy line where he says
Man are more for the fighting
Is that later in the episode, he ends up looking like a pretty pretty woman
If there's any other really fun stuff that you guys loved, be sure to put it in the comments
I'll post my episode 5 video next week so be sure to subscribe to get that
I'm a little happy that Game of Thrones is coming back because it's a little more fantasy
Avatar's a little more fantasy, the genres really match up
So we can have Cartoons on Saturdays, with Legend of Korra, Last Airbender
And then on Sundays, we can have dragons with HBO, Game of Thrones stuff
In case you haven't seen it, you can click right here for my Game of Thrones trailer and you can click right here
For all my other Last Airbender videos
Thank you so much for watching, let's all high-five, I'll see you all tomorrow