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frith_in_thornsBook 1 (Water), Episodes 3: The Southern Air Temple & 4: The Warriors of Kyoshi
In which there are flashbacks, giant fish, duels, and various attitudes about losing. And Team Avatar aquires a flying lemur.
Zuko: But uncle, I want a flying lemur too! >:(
The Southern Air Temple
This show really doesn't pull its punches with the whole "this is a war, and a lot of people have died", does it? I think you can really see this episode solidifying for Katara that she has to look after Aang now. And I love how Sokka is able to switch so fast between apparently taking nothing seriously and acting like a fantastic big brother to both Katara and Aang.
Also, the world-design and art in this show is gorgeous.
In Zuko-story, we get great glimmers of Iroh's awesomeness-that-he-hides, Zuko's backstory, and Zhao's lack of control. This show is really good at parcelling out these sorts of things, rather than giving them via info-dump. And I really love Iroh's discipline and how he does truly believe in things like courtesy and honour, even to people who have shown that they don't respect those qualities themselves.
The Warriors of Kyoshi
So, a lot of my thoughts about this episode could be summarised by shouting SUKI SUKI SUKI over and over...
And I'm going to blatently steal from Joel's comment last week: "One thing I like about Sokka is his willingness to learn from his mistakes. His great character flaw is he makes assumptions about people - being female, being Fire Nation, etc. But his great strength as a character is that when he is proven wrong he accepts it." And it's really hard to go back to face someone whom you've insulted and who has utterly humiliated you, admit that you were wrong, and ask to be forgiven and taught.
Another related thing: I love how, at the end, when Sokka says to Suki he should have treated her as a warrior, not as a girl, she points out that she wants to be treated as both. Female-ness isn't a label she's trying to take off by being a warrior. This show is so very feminist and I love it.
COMMENTING RULES
1. No character bashing, please.
2. No future episode spoilers in the spoiler-free thread (and comments containing them will be hidden), but expect to find them in others! If you're talking about massive plot twists it's nice to put a spoiler warning in the header, but it's not required.
3. Spoilers for Legend of Korra are also fair game everywhere except the spoiler-free thread; again, labelling them is friendly.
4. Feel free to illustrate your squee with caps. And gifs!
SPOILER-FREE THREAD (Only on LJ; let me know if I need to add one to the DW post too.)
In which there are flashbacks, giant fish, duels, and various attitudes about losing. And Team Avatar aquires a flying lemur.
The Southern Air Temple
This show really doesn't pull its punches with the whole "this is a war, and a lot of people have died", does it? I think you can really see this episode solidifying for Katara that she has to look after Aang now. And I love how Sokka is able to switch so fast between apparently taking nothing seriously and acting like a fantastic big brother to both Katara and Aang.
Also, the world-design and art in this show is gorgeous.
In Zuko-story, we get great glimmers of Iroh's awesomeness-that-he-hides, Zuko's backstory, and Zhao's lack of control. This show is really good at parcelling out these sorts of things, rather than giving them via info-dump. And I really love Iroh's discipline and how he does truly believe in things like courtesy and honour, even to people who have shown that they don't respect those qualities themselves.
The Warriors of Kyoshi
So, a lot of my thoughts about this episode could be summarised by shouting SUKI SUKI SUKI over and over...
And I'm going to blatently steal from Joel's comment last week: "One thing I like about Sokka is his willingness to learn from his mistakes. His great character flaw is he makes assumptions about people - being female, being Fire Nation, etc. But his great strength as a character is that when he is proven wrong he accepts it." And it's really hard to go back to face someone whom you've insulted and who has utterly humiliated you, admit that you were wrong, and ask to be forgiven and taught.
Another related thing: I love how, at the end, when Sokka says to Suki he should have treated her as a warrior, not as a girl, she points out that she wants to be treated as both. Female-ness isn't a label she's trying to take off by being a warrior. This show is so very feminist and I love it.
COMMENTING RULES
1. No character bashing, please.
2. No future episode spoilers in the spoiler-free thread (and comments containing them will be hidden), but expect to find them in others! If you're talking about massive plot twists it's nice to put a spoiler warning in the header, but it's not required.
3. Spoilers for Legend of Korra are also fair game everywhere except the spoiler-free thread; again, labelling them is friendly.
4. Feel free to illustrate your squee with caps. And gifs!
SPOILER-FREE THREAD (Only on LJ; let me know if I need to add one to the DW post too.)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-13 08:07 pm (UTC)I - rewatching, every time, Iroh breaks my heart again, and Zuko breaks my heart again.
YES this show is feminist; YES I cannot even with how feminist it is, and how Suki demands respect and Sokka finally gets it -- and the nuance that's pulled out by it being Suki who makes him get it, rather than his-sister-the-weird-bender, and how much it obviously fucked him up to be left In Charge Of The Village, and how his father clearly did that to help him feel he had a place, that he was helping, and how it worked - but also how heavily it weighed on him and distorted his ability to cope with interacting with people as equals, and how it does break his heart to leave the South Pole, but also what it means for him - even as he enters war zones - to be only responsible for himself, and for a group of friends who are able to stand alone, who do not always need defending.