Hey Youtubers, It's Charlie
So this week we continue our re-watch of Avatar the Last Airbender
with Episode 3: The Southern Air Temple
One of my favourite early Avatar episodes
Just because we get to see scary Aang, and Agni Kai
So here we go
If you're brand new here, we're re-watching all the Last Airbender episodes
And I'm just doing a weekly Avatar giveaway
Details at the end of the video
Careful for spoilers; I know, it's silly to say that, but let's start with Top Five Moments
Number 5: Team Aang, Family Car Trip
So now that they've gotten away from Zuko, safely, and the fire nation soldiers
Aang has gone full-blown Disneyland crazy
It's like Sokka's the sleepy dad
who promised he'd take little kid Aang to Disneyland on his one weekend off from his ice-fishing job
All he cares about is getting another hour of sleep
But Aang just starts poking the hell out of him
In his sleeping bag
then Katara's like the mom, trying to calm him down
"Maybe Disneyland won't be as awesome as you remembered it"
"Just try not to drink too much Red Bull and Mountain Bull before we get there"
This plays out like almost every single family car trip I ever went on
except I have a little brother and a little sister
So my scenario was more like after Toph and Zuko showed up
then it got a little more crowded on top of Appa
And just to be clear, no, I never drank Mountain Dew and Red Bull as a child
that's disgusting
Number 4: Meet Commander Zhao
I'd say out of all the last Airbender villains, Zhao's one of my favourites
Him showing up makes Zuko start seeming more sympathetic
you know, not that it's clear from their first interaction here
Zuko's still in super bro mode
But Zhao trying to shut him down immediately does make you forget that Zuko almost
Just tried to destroy a village of innocent people
Yeah, he almost went super dark
It also kind helps that they have imagery of all these other fire nation ships in the background
Like, if you thought Zuko was bad
Just you wait
There's that really familiar phrase "Out of the pot and into the frying pan"
It's pretty applicable given the fire nation overtones and the Agni Kai
And the fact that Zuko almost does gets cooked in that fight
Most of you already know that Jason Isaacs is the vioce actor
Bryan and Mike said that Zhao's character, specifically, was based on
Jason's villain character, from the Patriot. That's an old Mel Gibson movie
During that he plays a British imperialist character
just reaving and raping his way across colonial America
Most of you probably know him way better as Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter
So usually when I talk about Zhao, and Jason Issacs, I talk about Harry Potter stuff
His character in the Patriot was way worse that Lucius Malfoy
But that movie is one of the longest movie ever
It's interminable
So unless you want to torture yourself
Just stick with Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films
So the Zhao-Zuko stuff provides all the dramatic tension
At least until Aang finds out that all his friends are dead
For the most part the episode bounces back between the really fun and really dramatic stuff
Which is one of the reasons why I really like Last Airbender episodes
They just do a really good job of being both really funny
And really dramatic at the same time
Like going back and forth between one and the other seamlessly
I think the last season of Korra
Was way heavier on drama
So I always walked away from those episodes feeling really emotionally drained
So, if you want to feel better about yourself
I think Last Airbender, is a better tea to drink
Number 3: Zhao explains the Fire Nations' Grand Plan
There's so much going on in this Zuko-Zhao storyline
But it also serves as this giant info dump
On the future of the Fire Nations' Plan
And it shines a light on Zuko's father
Fire Lord Ozai
It's a good reminder that
No matter how bad Zhao seems
He's just following the orders of the Fire Lord
Or the orders as he interprets them
You get a lot of that with Minions
They're given specific orders, but then they go off-book
And that's usually where things go bad
The big reminder here, I think, is that map
Does this not remind you of Kuvira staring at the map during Korra last year
Bryan and Mike have always done a good job at invoking
Last Airbender imagery in Korra episodes
So now that we're re-watching the old stuff
Try to pick out familiar Korra scenes
That's like one of the biggest things I do when I re-watch big anthology series
It's really fun
Usually the first time when you watch something you're more focused on the plot,
And like what's going on with the characters on the surface level so you miss
like little background visual details
Number 2: Aang at the Southern Air Temple
So they finally arrive, and Aang takes them on the Grand Tour
The Air-Ball court, nice reminder from Meelo playing with the new airbenders
In Korra book 3
And how they turned that whole back mountain slope into a crazy obstacle course
I still want to go-I want a vacation at the Southern Air Temple
Even though now...it's still probably being rebuilt
Just the idea that Airbenders
Which on the surface, seem like such a zen group of people have a game they would play
It's so much fun
Like Aang is a child
of course he's going to be playing games all of the time
Sometimes you look at the adult characters and forget that
Maybe that's why the Korra characters spent less time doing fun stuff
Just because they're all in their early twenties by the time the series ended
And all the Aang team members were way, way, younger
I'd say, you know, of the Southern Air Temple locations
The Hall of Avatar Statues--Probably my favourite place
Opening the door here; so much fun
It actually kind reminds me of Harry Potter
with the Chamber of Secrets
Just using magic to open doors
I guess you could also consider it like opening Dumbledore's door
See how many times you can say that fast
"Dumbledore's Door"
At some point, I would like to names and histories for all these Avatars
We really only know about a handful of them
I know all of you were wondering, after the Southern Air Temple was destroyed in Legend of Korra
If there was a Hall of Avatar Statues
In one of the other Temples
Like Air Temple Island
That-that remains to be seen
I do think that there are statues in other temples
Just taking a step back, I feel that Studio Amir's job
Animating the Southern Air Temple in Legend of Korra
Did it much more justice
than the animation on Last Airbender
Obviously it's a very different animation studio
So you can't compare quite as much
And I don't want to judge Last Airbender based on Legend of Korra
But if you want a really, trippy, beautiful exploration of that place
Just watch the Book 3 episodes
Moving on, we meet Momo
His relationship with the winged lemurs is actually a lot like the Sky Bison in Legend of Korra
Momo's supposed to be the only one to survive the genocide
But by the time we get to Korra
Meelo is commanding an army of winged lemurs
So, somewhere else in the world, there's some thriving colony
I know a lot of people were confused about the sky bison in Korra
where they all came from
Bryan and Mike explained that
this island here, in Book 2
served as kinda a sanctuary
where they were bred in seclusion during the 100 year war
Aang loses his shit and goes into the Avatar state
when he finds Gyatso's skeleton
And it hits him that he bailed, when they needed him the most
It's a nice emotional touchstone for the character
It's a big call to action
Even though all that still did not stop him from still being a little kid
after recommitting himself to training in the other elements
Like, he's rededicated himself to his purpose but he still finds time to have fun
And, my Number 1 Moment: Zuko vs Zhao in Agni Kai
So they don't take it as far as you'd think they would
because it's a Nickelodeon show, I mean, it's for children
But Agni Kai, always felt to me, like it was meant to be a duel to the death
Thunder Dome rules: Two people enter, one person leaves
The way they use it in the series is much more like a non-lethal fight of honour
But it's still used as a stand in for trial by combat
Like when one character challenges the word of another
So, if you were say, accused of something
you could probably bluff your way into an Agni Kai with your accuser
And if you won, you might be allowed to walk away
I guess that would depend on the severity of your crime
Zuko defeating Zhao, is just a nice reminder that
even though he's this cast away character, he's still very powerful, very important
It's also a really good example of turning someone who initially, seemed like a really simple villain
into a much more sympathetic anti-hero
despite the fact that he's still gunning for Aang
He still has that murder-y look on his face
Here's my big question for you guys:
What did you like more in the episode?
Did you like the Southern Air Temple stuff
Or did you like Agni Kai better
I mean, I feel like Agni Kai was where all the action was
But they definitely paid off a lot of the lore of the Southern Air Temple in Legend of Korra
So here's just some cool behind-the-scenes facts from the episode
So when the writers were first working on Momo's character
they thought about presenting him as the reincarnation of Gyatso the Monk
But they ultimately decided against it
Momo's name actually derives from the Japanese term for peach
So after Momo steals the fruit from Sokka
It's like Aang names him based on the fruit
Then the term Agni Kai is actually Bengali for Fire Quarrel
And Combustion Man's name actually derives from his time in Agni Kai fight
Like he was so good, so quick, because of his ability
That they named him Combustion Man because he blew fights up
Just overall, the episode's great
I don't have any significant thumbs down
It's just--an amazing example of a story that
moves the plot forward in a really big way
giving us, you know, a really big road map for the series:
like what's going on with the Fire Nation,
What Aang's going to be doing;
It generates a ton of new lore for the series,
via the Southern Air Temple as well as the Agni Kai stuff
And it turns the villain--Zuko right here--into an Anti-Hero
So the give-away's continuing, it's just a $20 Amazon gift card
I pick a random subscriber from the comments
All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber, and leave a comment, nice and simple
Congratulations to this weeks' winner, YoungNation
Just message me on my channel so I can get your contact info. Thank You
So I'm going to try and post my episode 4 video this weekend
Be sure to subscribe to get it if you're just finding me for the first time
I've also enabled fan subs
with Youtube, I'm testing out a new feature for them
So if you want, you can submit subtitles in your own native language on this video
There are details on the facepalm video that I posted so I'll add a link to that in the description
So while you guys are waiting for more Avatar videos, you can click here for my facepalm video that I posted
It has the schedule for the rest of this week as well as details on the fansubs
And you can click right here for last week's Avatar video
So thanks so much for watching, So I'll see you guys tonight. High Fives