I was wondering if it was Ozai or Iroh, makes me question if Ozai actually ever was a loving Father to his children then if that memory wasn't even him.
At the beginning of this season, the good guys were pretending to be Fire Nation on a stolen ship, serving under Admiral Chan. They got caught when the Fire Nation soldier said "Sir, Admiral Chan has been on leave for two months at Ember Island". Now we meet a guy named Chan, on Ember Island, who says his father is an admiral.
@@benspiller Yeah, I didn't notice it the first time I watched the show, but I love all these little background details that make the world feel more lived in :)
Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes. All the previous episodes showed Azula's successes and how perfect she is. Even Zuko's line: "Azula was born lucky; I was lucky to be born." After this episode: Azula: "My mother thought I was a monster." She’s only 14. That’s very deep. And honestly, let’s analyze Azula’s "luck" from a psychological perspective: Every memory Zuko had of his mother was always negative when looking at Azula’s relationship with their mother. "What's wrong with this child?" Azula showcasing her skills, and Ursa remained silent. She was not happy about her child's success. In every memory, there was a clear favoritism towards Zuko and literal alienation of Azula. Her relationship with Iroh was also bad. Uncle gave a chance to Zuko, but he never gave Azula a chance. Her relationship with her brother is a disaster. Sorry, but an excited child saying, "Dad’s going to kill you" to her brother sums up their relationship. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the first cause of this conflict was jealousy over their mother's love. But that's speculation. Then there’s Ozai. If we look at what he said about Azula, there’s an explanation for why Azula is the way she is. Ozai accepted Azula not because she was his daughter but because of her natural talent. She’s a tool, so it’s no wonder she can only fight and can’t form any kind of relationships. She literally doesn't know what love or friendship is. But hey, Mai and Ty Lee... Well they didn't return because of their friendship. Mai was fed up with her current life and just took the chance. Ty Lee was literally forced. The truth is that there was no one to help Azula. Her friends left her, and the only family member left was her father, who is the worst person. That’s not luck; that’s a tragedy. For Zuko, there was always a chance, and everyone gave him a chance and helped him-even Katara (enemy) offered to help him twice. Literally no one offered to help Azula. Everyone abandoned her or treated her as an "enemy" even if she wasn’t. These are the effects. Azula believes that others see her as a monster, so she even began to sees herself as a monster - she accepted this and it clearly hurts her. So the brutal truth is: Azula is alone but doesn’t even know she’s alone, she thinks her father cares about her, because she doesn't know what it means to truly care about someone. She wants to be loved but at the same time she doesn't know it. Just think about what would happen if Azula realized that she is treated as a tool and learned what it truly means to care for someone. But again the question is who? (Personally, I believe that the best help in this case would come from Toph, because Azula saying she is a monster shows that she doesn't know her own worth as a person. Then, it would be crucial to explain what it means to care for others, and here I would choose either Zuko or Katara.)
This whole episode made me feel so bad for Azula, seeing how she's been so broken by her Father that she can't form relationships and how complex the relationship with her Mother is, it honestly makes me want a redemption arc for her. As you said she's only valued by her Father because she's useful and because he's made her into a tool, if anything Azula is one of Ozai's greatest successes so to truly defeat this guy, I'd love if they fix Azula and truly take away everything that Ozai has accomplished.
The assassin is a combustion bender, which is a specialised firebender - he focuses the fire energy in a single point and releases all the energy in a small burst.
Also, yes, Azula doesn't have an "off switch" because she doesn't even know how to behave in a casual situation. She was brought up in war, with her family leading the war. She never really learnt how to be normal, or social.
Honestly, this episode made me feel really bad for Azula 😂 Her scenes may have been funny but it's also so sad that the way she's been raised has robbed her of the ability to be 'normal' and just interact with people.
The EYE is a tattoo. If I remember correctly the tattoo is placed where this fire bender focuses his fire bending. Not every fire-bender uses the same techniques. The best example I can give is Toph’s earth- bending is based mainly on her feet and and what she can focus on through touch. This guy honed a technique that focuses his fire-bending through a small point on his forehead.
Thank you so much for this, have recorded his next appearance and still thought it was a hole but it makes so much sense thinking about it, all Fire Benders 'create' fire out of thin air and it's mainly been around their hands but Iroh has even used his mouth, so this dude has figured out how to move the location of the fire from his hands to his forehead, Insane!!
Loved that scene so much, a mini-group therapy session with the antagonists of the show was perfect at developing Mai and Ty Lee and just getting more emphasis on what's going on with Zuko and Azula. Azula's 'stuff' has never really been touched on like this and I think this is why this scene has become so memorable to me.
I always took Azula's smirk as her realizing it's the first time she's seeing Zuko have an emotional breakdown, hence her joining in on asking what he hates most.
This episode was the first introduction of Sparky Sparky boom man or as he's also known combustion man, who if you remember from earlier is the guy that Zucco hired to get rid of the avatar, well he's finally made good on his promise and is now doing it Which is something that Suco isn't aware of right now, but combustion man is interesting because yes he can blow things up with his mind hence the name, it is some sort of spiritual thing but it's a type of fire bending and only very powerful people can get that it's like a third eye wear they can concentrate all of their fire and exploded out and explosives but it's also a dangerous Powered to have because it can turn in Woods on himself he could end up blowing himself up or just one hit to the face and he's taken out so well he can do a lot of damage to other people they can also do a lot of damage to him as well, which is something to remember for later episodes.
Absolutely love this guy! The sound design alone is astonishing and the way the creators have reimagined Fire Bending is just so creative, even if he's trying to assassinate Aang I can't wait to see more of him 😂
This episode is a lot of peoples favourite I think, but something you need to keep in mind is that Azula firstly is only 14 years old and secondly due to the way she was raised her father trained her to be like the perfect little soldier and although when it comes to her versus Zucco although he always had his mum and uncles love which helped make him a little bit more kinder and a little bit more natural in these sort of situations you can tell that he's also very awkward, but Azula is just absolutely psycho because her father is psycho and that's the way he raised her although he would punish Zo because he was a bad fire bender or a bad war, you have to imagine that he also punished as well it's just not as often seen because she was always his favourite, but this upbringing definitely impacted their interactions with other people their age and the fact that they don't know how to be anything other than warriors and fighters which is really sad, like this is one of the episodes where I think a lot of people learn a lot more about Azula and you start to kind of feel sorry for her in this episode just a little bit. As you see how war has really affected her and her family, along with how it's somewhat affected her friends as well and her interactions with them, even her mother, she was her father's favourite Suzuko was his mother's favourite and he always wanted his father's approval and the way his father treated him always massively affected him but you can see in this episode that although Azula jokes about how her mother thought she was a monster and just plays it all off laugh you can tell that deep down what her mother really thought about her did affect her and the way she saw how her mother looked at her versus how her mother really felt you can tell that deep down she is hurting and, we do see in later episodes how much her mother's words affect her and it's made clear that her mother did love her it's just that Azula's perception of how her mother felt is whopped by both her father and the way that her mother treated Zo, so both kids were affected by the parent who didn't give them as much attention, Zo with his father and Azula with her mum, which again I just think shows how families can be affected by war and how the way people are raised can affect so many different things about their behaviour and how they interact in social situations like this. Azul are being raised to be the perfect warrior both helped her when fighting but also hindered her regular life and mental growth when it comes to interactions with others etc, which really is pretty sad when you think about it.
This whole episode made me think so differently about Azul and made me feel so bad for her, she definitely stole the spotlight for me in this one with how it highlighted how she can't interact with other people because of how she was raised. Makes me wonder what life she could have had without Ozai's influence, what person was lost to this world because Ozai punished all the goodness out of her. Also, this does make Ozai feel more villainous, Azula for me was the strongest villain in the show so far and I was wondering how they were going to deal with Ozai stepping in but this made it clear that Ozai didn't just create Azula and her villainy but also destroyed the person she could have been.
Remember, Firebending comes from the breath. Perhaps "explosion bending" is an extension of Firebending that just requires more breath. The fire doesn't have to come from an actual hole/orifice, since regular benders can do it with their hands/feet. Obviously it's hard to understand how it works, but I'm sure it all comes down to bending their own energy, or chi, like all bending types.
That style of bending was so cool!! The way they animated his breath makes so much more sense now cause the dude literally did a stomach vacuum to get as much air in as possible and expelled it as an explosion. Wouldn't mind either way at this point if he's got a whole in his head or he can control how the air is expelled, the level of awesomeness this guy gives off just makes up for it 😂😂
We usually get Princess Azula, but here she is just Azula, no title, no innate power, just another face in the crowd, she is not use to this in the palace everyone is willing to do stuff for her in whatever way she says it, not here so was like seeing a fish trying to walk out of the water. The "Beach" episode is a trait of anime where the characters go to X beach to relax and usually is a filler episode with no important stuff, ATLA creators took that and flip it on its feet 😂Ty Lee style. the campfire scene is so good we are told why Ty Lee is like that, we get a reason for Mai been all stoic or bland, Zuko saying he doesn't know what is right or wrong is so good, he had the opportunity to redeem and ALMOST took it and now he got what he has years searching but it doesn't feel right, he might be wondering if he picked the "wrong choice" or in other words he doesn't know if he did the right thing ps. combustion bending, as is refer in the show, is not explain in the series but its implied is firebending secret technic 1 of 4 of my favorites episodes this season (excluding the finale) next one is a little lore heavy so you might need a pen and paper 😂
Azula was so great to watch in this episode and I actually started to feel bad for her 😢 just seeing how broken she is in these sitautions where she can't interact with people went to show how much her Father messed her up. Loved how this episode started off filler-y and turned out so great and impactful in the end! The Campfire scene was absoltuely amazing!! Loved how much it fleshed out Mai and Ty Lee nd made the Antagonists actaully feel like a group similar to Aang's side, Zuko's state of confusion is so heartbreaking with him getting everything he's ever wanted and now not knowing what is right or wrong but it does make me happy that he's so conflicted cause it means there's hope for him to change. The Combustion bending is so cool, love that there's not much on it cause now I can just speculate on how it originated 😂
2:55 I'm positive they mixed up Katara and Toph's lines there. We know Toph's seismic awareness is crazy but surely not enough to tell Aang's tattoos are exposed while he floats in the water. Also Katara bringing it up the earth logistics instead of Toph and being the more carefree of the two sounds off.
Toph probably just made the assumption that he was under-clothed because they were in a lake and he would most likely have gone swimming; Katara pointed out the walls because Toph's feet were submerged so she wouldn't be able to sense them...
Love this episode. It starts as a bit of fan service filler and then it turns into the Breakfast Club, and they don't allow us to forget they are both the bad guys and a random bunch of dramatic teens. I think Toph telling Aang to cover his tattoos is a writing error, though. How would she even know he has them?
Loved this episode so much for how it lulls you into thinking it's filler only to nuts with the character development at the end, did wonders for all the antagonists! Honestly, I love that Toph's line was a writing error 😂 It's always nice when there's a harmless little mistake in something like this.
That memory with one man and two kids it's actually Iroh lifting baby Zuko, while Lu Ten is building the sand castle 😢
I was wondering if it was Ozai or Iroh, makes me question if Ozai actually ever was a loving Father to his children then if that memory wasn't even him.
At the beginning of this season, the good guys were pretending to be Fire Nation on a stolen ship, serving under Admiral Chan. They got caught when the Fire Nation soldier said "Sir, Admiral Chan has been on leave for two months at Ember Island". Now we meet a guy named Chan, on Ember Island, who says his father is an admiral.
That's such a cool tie in 😂
@@benspiller Yeah, I didn't notice it the first time I watched the show, but I love all these little background details that make the world feel more lived in :)
"Wouldn't mind if they set the place on fire."
That aged well.
😂😂
Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes. All the previous episodes showed Azula's successes and how perfect she is.
Even Zuko's line: "Azula was born lucky; I was lucky to be born."
After this episode:
Azula: "My mother thought I was a monster." She’s only 14. That’s very deep.
And honestly, let’s analyze Azula’s "luck" from a psychological perspective:
Every memory Zuko had of his mother was always negative when looking at Azula’s relationship with their mother.
"What's wrong with this child?"
Azula showcasing her skills, and Ursa remained silent. She was not happy about her child's success.
In every memory, there was a clear favoritism towards Zuko and literal alienation of Azula.
Her relationship with Iroh was also bad. Uncle gave a chance to Zuko, but he never gave Azula a chance.
Her relationship with her brother is a disaster. Sorry, but an excited child saying, "Dad’s going to kill you" to her brother sums up their relationship. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the first cause of this conflict was jealousy over their mother's love. But that's speculation.
Then there’s Ozai. If we look at what he said about Azula, there’s an explanation for why Azula is the way she is. Ozai accepted Azula not because she was his daughter but because of her natural talent. She’s a tool, so it’s no wonder she can only fight and can’t form any kind of relationships. She literally doesn't know what love or friendship is.
But hey, Mai and Ty Lee... Well they didn't return because of their friendship.
Mai was fed up with her current life and just took the chance.
Ty Lee was literally forced.
The truth is that there was no one to help Azula.
Her friends left her, and the only family member left was her father, who is the worst person. That’s not luck; that’s a tragedy.
For Zuko, there was always a chance, and everyone gave him a chance and helped him-even Katara (enemy) offered to help him twice.
Literally no one offered to help Azula. Everyone abandoned her or treated her as an "enemy" even if she wasn’t.
These are the effects. Azula believes that others see her as a monster, so she even began to sees herself as a monster - she accepted this and it clearly hurts her.
So the brutal truth is: Azula is alone but doesn’t even know she’s alone, she thinks her father cares about her, because she doesn't know what it means to truly care about someone. She wants to be loved but at the same time she doesn't know it.
Just think about what would happen if Azula realized that she is treated as a tool and learned what it truly means to care for someone.
But again the question is who?
(Personally, I believe that the best help in this case would come from Toph, because Azula saying she is a monster shows that she doesn't know her own worth as a person.
Then, it would be crucial to explain what it means to care for others, and here I would choose either Zuko or Katara.)
This whole episode made me feel so bad for Azula, seeing how she's been so broken by her Father that she can't form relationships and how complex the relationship with her Mother is, it honestly makes me want a redemption arc for her. As you said she's only valued by her Father because she's useful and because he's made her into a tool, if anything Azula is one of Ozai's greatest successes so to truly defeat this guy, I'd love if they fix Azula and truly take away everything that Ozai has accomplished.
The assassin is a combustion bender, which is a specialised firebender - he focuses the fire energy in a single point and releases all the energy in a small burst.
Also, yes, Azula doesn't have an "off switch" because she doesn't even know how to behave in a casual situation. She was brought up in war, with her family leading the war. She never really learnt how to be normal, or social.
Honestly, this episode made me feel really bad for Azula 😂 Her scenes may have been funny but it's also so sad that the way she's been raised has robbed her of the ability to be 'normal' and just interact with people.
7:26 Azula's "masterfull" people-skills at work. Such a classic moment for her.
😂😂 That scene hurt to watch!!
shes a people person
The EYE is a tattoo. If I remember correctly the tattoo is placed where this fire bender focuses his fire bending. Not every fire-bender uses the same techniques. The best example I can give is Toph’s earth- bending is based mainly on her feet and and what she can focus on through touch. This guy honed a technique that focuses his fire-bending through a small point on his forehead.
Thank you so much for this, have recorded his next appearance and still thought it was a hole but it makes so much sense thinking about it, all Fire Benders 'create' fire out of thin air and it's mainly been around their hands but Iroh has even used his mouth, so this dude has figured out how to move the location of the fire from his hands to his forehead, Insane!!
I love this episode for so many reasons.
The campfire scene is one of my favourite moments in the show.
100% my favorite underdog ep of the season. "I'm angry at myself!" always gives me chills.
Loved that scene so much, a mini-group therapy session with the antagonists of the show was perfect at developing Mai and Ty Lee and just getting more emphasis on what's going on with Zuko and Azula. Azula's 'stuff' has never really been touched on like this and I think this is why this scene has become so memorable to me.
Zuko was out of line there but you have to appreciate the 1-inch push across the room 🤣
Oh absolutley, the 1-inch punch was insane!!
I always took Azula's smirk as her realizing it's the first time she's seeing Zuko have an emotional breakdown, hence her joining in on asking what he hates most.
True, could have just been her enjoying her brother's pain instead of having a bigger plan up her sleeve.
I love the intense music while Azula is trying to flirt. It's hilarious
Everything about that scene was amazing 😂😂 The way they animated her too was just so awkward!
This episode was the first introduction of Sparky Sparky boom man or as he's also known combustion man, who if you remember from earlier is the guy that Zucco hired to get rid of the avatar, well he's finally made good on his promise and is now doing it Which is something that Suco isn't aware of right now, but combustion man is interesting because yes he can blow things up with his mind hence the name, it is some sort of spiritual thing but it's a type of fire bending and only very powerful people can get that it's like a third eye wear they can concentrate all of their fire and exploded out and explosives but it's also a dangerous Powered to have because it can turn in Woods on himself he could end up blowing himself up or just one hit to the face and he's taken out so well he can do a lot of damage to other people they can also do a lot of damage to him as well, which is something to remember for later episodes.
Absolutely love this guy! The sound design alone is astonishing and the way the creators have reimagined Fire Bending is just so creative, even if he's trying to assassinate Aang I can't wait to see more of him 😂
This episode is a lot of peoples favourite I think, but something you need to keep in mind is that Azula firstly is only 14 years old and secondly due to the way she was raised her father trained her to be like the perfect little soldier and although when it comes to her versus Zucco although he always had his mum and uncles love which helped make him a little bit more kinder and a little bit more natural in these sort of situations you can tell that he's also very awkward, but Azula is just absolutely psycho because her father is psycho and that's the way he raised her although he would punish Zo because he was a bad fire bender or a bad war, you have to imagine that he also punished as well it's just not as often seen because she was always his favourite, but this upbringing definitely impacted their interactions with other people their age and the fact that they don't know how to be anything other than warriors and fighters which is really sad, like this is one of the episodes where I think a lot of people learn a lot more about Azula and you start to kind of feel sorry for her in this episode just a little bit. As you see how war has really affected her and her family, along with how it's somewhat affected her friends as well and her interactions with them, even her mother, she was her father's favourite Suzuko was his mother's favourite and he always wanted his father's approval and the way his father treated him always massively affected him but you can see in this episode that although Azula jokes about how her mother thought she was a monster and just plays it all off laugh you can tell that deep down what her mother really thought about her did affect her and the way she saw how her mother looked at her versus how her mother really felt you can tell that deep down she is hurting and, we do see in later episodes how much her mother's words affect her and it's made clear that her mother did love her it's just that Azula's perception of how her mother felt is whopped by both her father and the way that her mother treated Zo, so both kids were affected by the parent who didn't give them as much attention, Zo with his father and Azula with her mum, which again I just think shows how families can be affected by war and how the way people are raised can affect so many different things about their behaviour and how they interact in social situations like this. Azul are being raised to be the perfect warrior both helped her when fighting but also hindered her regular life and mental growth when it comes to interactions with others etc, which really is pretty sad when you think about it.
This whole episode made me think so differently about Azul and made me feel so bad for her, she definitely stole the spotlight for me in this one with how it highlighted how she can't interact with other people because of how she was raised. Makes me wonder what life she could have had without Ozai's influence, what person was lost to this world because Ozai punished all the goodness out of her.
Also, this does make Ozai feel more villainous, Azula for me was the strongest villain in the show so far and I was wondering how they were going to deal with Ozai stepping in but this made it clear that Ozai didn't just create Azula and her villainy but also destroyed the person she could have been.
Remember, Firebending comes from the breath. Perhaps "explosion bending" is an extension of Firebending that just requires more breath. The fire doesn't have to come from an actual hole/orifice, since regular benders can do it with their hands/feet. Obviously it's hard to understand how it works, but I'm sure it all comes down to bending their own energy, or chi, like all bending types.
That style of bending was so cool!! The way they animated his breath makes so much more sense now cause the dude literally did a stomach vacuum to get as much air in as possible and expelled it as an explosion. Wouldn't mind either way at this point if he's got a whole in his head or he can control how the air is expelled, the level of awesomeness this guy gives off just makes up for it 😂😂
We usually get Princess Azula, but here she is just Azula, no title, no innate power, just another face in the crowd, she is not use to this in the palace everyone is willing to do stuff for her in whatever way she says it, not here so was like seeing a fish trying to walk out of the water.
The "Beach" episode is a trait of anime where the characters go to X beach to relax and usually is a filler episode with no important stuff, ATLA creators took that and flip it on its feet 😂Ty Lee style.
the campfire scene is so good we are told why Ty Lee is like that, we get a reason for Mai been all stoic or bland, Zuko saying he doesn't know what is right or wrong is so good, he had the opportunity to redeem and ALMOST took it and now he got what he has years searching but it doesn't feel right, he might be wondering if he picked the "wrong choice" or in other words he doesn't know if he did the right thing
ps. combustion bending, as is refer in the show, is not explain in the series but its implied is firebending secret technic
1 of 4 of my favorites episodes this season (excluding the finale) next one is a little lore heavy so you might need a pen and paper 😂
Azula was so great to watch in this episode and I actually started to feel bad for her 😢 just seeing how broken she is in these sitautions where she can't interact with people went to show how much her Father messed her up.
Loved how this episode started off filler-y and turned out so great and impactful in the end!
The Campfire scene was absoltuely amazing!! Loved how much it fleshed out Mai and Ty Lee nd made the Antagonists actaully feel like a group similar to Aang's side, Zuko's state of confusion is so heartbreaking with him getting everything he's ever wanted and now not knowing what is right or wrong but it does make me happy that he's so conflicted cause it means there's hope for him to change.
The Combustion bending is so cool, love that there's not much on it cause now I can just speculate on how it originated 😂
14:02 This whole scene (arguably) what "makes" this episode.
Absolutely!! It did so much for every character and I'm still processing everything it accomplished.
2:55 I'm positive they mixed up Katara and Toph's lines there. We know Toph's seismic awareness is crazy but surely not enough to tell Aang's tattoos are exposed while he floats in the water. Also Katara bringing it up the earth logistics instead of Toph and being the more carefree of the two sounds off.
Toph probably just made the assumption that he was under-clothed because they were in a lake and he would most likely have gone swimming; Katara pointed out the walls because Toph's feet were submerged so she wouldn't be able to sense them...
@@calistodorren There are ways for Toph to know without seeing but I still think those lines sound like they're in reverse xD
That'd probably explain it 😂😂 Found it so funny that Toph could tell about the Tatoo but it makes so much sense if it was a line mix-up.
@@benspiller I don't really have confirmation it was a mix-up though. It just my opinion, but I think it's likely.
I am excited for the next episode
Love this episode. It starts as a bit of fan service filler and then it turns into the Breakfast Club, and they don't allow us to forget they are both the bad guys and a random bunch of dramatic teens. I think Toph telling Aang to cover his tattoos is a writing error, though. How would she even know he has them?
Loved this episode so much for how it lulls you into thinking it's filler only to nuts with the character development at the end, did wonders for all the antagonists! Honestly, I love that Toph's line was a writing error 😂 It's always nice when there's a harmless little mistake in something like this.
9:24 It's course, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.
😂😂 Anakin would hate this place!