'The key to writing good lore is to convince your audience there's more than what you've written.' I forget where I heard this, but I think about it a lot
"You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified?" is in my top three quotes from this show and an absolutely beautiful and hard hitting line to come out of a series like this. I love the nuances and complexities of Wan Chi Tongs perspective as an immortal, allknowing neutral in contrast to the human point of view. It is wonderfully written, thought-provoking, philosophical theme that really impresses me
There's an akin (Skywalker) line in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from a former Jedi - due to disillusionment with the Order's dogmatic ways - said in response when his urgency to the importance of the threat of the Sith is questioned: "But don't start thinking this war - your war - is more important than any other war just because you're in it." Both of these lines are incredibly poignant, and have genuinely affected my outlook on life. Absolute full-credit to the writers for going above and beyond for what could've just been simple good vs evil stories.
I always took "he who knows 10,000 things" as a nod to 10,000 being the largest number in ancient Chinese...they used the same term/symbol for 10,000 as they did for "[near] infinite." For centuries the most common chant for the population to cry out for any new dynasty was "10,000 years!" Which essentially was the same as declaring that their dynasty will live "forever." Another example: The Forbidden Ciry (ancient palace in Beijing) supposedly has 9,999 rooms because only heaven can be infinite with 10,000. BUT to our modern western sense (not even Western, just modern anything) - 10,000 no longer is all that big a number, and certainly not close to "infinite." Thus Wan calling himself "he who knows 10,000 things" in his ancient mind is like gloating that he knows practically everything, but to us viewers (and probably even team Avatar) it is ironically funny because that is not at all that big a number anymore and is instead suggesting that he is pretty ignorant compared to a modern middle-schooled educated student. It's simply brilliant! (Lol how often do I say that about this show?! 😉)
@@Triple33ThreatThank you! I am happy to have gotten the concept correct from someone who knows much more than me. (I spent some time studying Chinese history and culture after re-falling in love with the show during COVID when I had some free time.) I am from the USA, so unfortunately living there would be difficult in this day and age, but I live for travelling and it has always been a dream of mine to at least visit China.
It's _basically_ equivalent to modern terms like "bajillion" or "gazillion". We understand that the suffix "-illion" is used for all large numbers: after "hundred" and "thousand" comes "mILLION", "bILLION"... "quadrILLION"... "decILLION", etc. So putting a meaningless root in front of it, spurring "m(ono)", "bi", "tri", "quadri", etc. in favor of "baji" or "gazi" is really just saying "meaninglessly large number". And still, the point still stands that someone *that* knowledgeable would use an *out-dated* term for how much he knows _still_ holds to the point! If he knew that much, he would know to say something like, "near limitless knowledge" or at _least_ "I have 10,000 PhDs and know, like, ten bajillion subjects." His knowledge may be vast, but much of it is outdated and obsolete (a lot like Aang if you think about it). He tries to make important decisions based on information that's no longer applicable or relevant to the modern world, but still presents himself as this source of vast, incontrovertible wisdom. ... but what else can you expect from someone who learns everything from Fox News.
@@wyattzausch4680 I'm sorry, do you just assume that everyone knows this little factoid? I doubt that the majority of Avatar's audience, especially when it first aired, knows enough about chinese colloquialisms to know that.
The "problem" with this episode for me is that when avatar was on tv, it was ALWAYS this episode. I have seen this episode about 30 times in my live. So everytime im at this particular episode again when rewatching it always feels like a chore. Until im actually watching it, then its just fk great. The whole eclipse etc. Its awesome.
@@Koroto I vaguely remember how my first episode was "Bato of the Water Tribe". I had no context for that story, dropped the series, but eventually found my way back to it again.
I loved that episode! The Owl was amazing and the twist of it extending it's neck with the line 'You already know too much!' was surprisingly scary. Both the characters and I did not expect death to be the punishment of defiance against this spirit!
Aang absolutely loosing it and going ballistic on the sand benders is a scene that gave me chills every single time I watch it. And I don't get chills from anything. It's such a hard hitting scene.
When I heard Sozin went to the library and learned about lightning generation and redirection, my initial reaction was that he intentionally didn't tell anyone in his family about the redirection in case he felt he had to use lightning against them if he needed to. As for the idea of lightning generation itself, I believe it the idea that it was thought to be exclusive to the royal family was something Sozin would say to make it sound more grand and rare than it actually was.
Honestly, I see his whole speech about how all wars were the same as his lack of knowledge. Him not caring about humanity is one thing, but the moon spirit died, and they were going to burn the entire earth kingdom, spirit forests, and all. If the war is no diffrent then any other, then how many moons did he watch die for that not no to seem significant in any way? Heck, one of the most powerful spirits got replaced by a human. The only option left is that he just knows a war is happening and nothing past that.
I agree with this. There's taking a neutral stance, and even defending it. It's another to knowing what is happening in the world and why it may destroy everything, having the knowledge and/or power to help, and doing nothing with it.
So at 12:15, I'm pretty sure that this entire episode and concept of the Library was based off the Akashic Records. It's basically an occult "library" that holds a record of every event, emotion, thought, feeling, action, etc from all of time. Its pretty interesting stuff
Wan Shi Tong had been one of my favorite characters in the entire show, right next to Zuko. Even as a 7-year-old, I completely understood where he was coming from, and felt really sorry for how thee gang mistreated him... Also, I've always found it weird that Aang chose to blame Toph for Appa being gone. I think it would've made more sense to blame it on Sokka, who both angered the Spirit, causing the library to sink, AND was the one to convince the group to stay down there a lot longer that they needed to
I see your point. Also, last time when you were angered or upset with someone did you know what to say or how to react? For example, some people will shift the blame onto others rather than the culprit who started the fight, the chain of events or the discussion. Others will point the blame onto the culprit and punish them. Hurting that person's feelings and/or reputation. Also, at Aangs' age, it makes sense, he is young, a self-starter, and strong-willed but still just a child. He is angry and shifts the blame to the wrong person. That's my thinking after I rewatched the show again nine times. 🍵😊
21:05 I showed my ex this show are she always got very creeped out by spirit designs. She hated koh and heibai and when won shi tong transforms into his more menacing state she had the same sort of reaction
you can take the example with toph one step farther. sands shifts, vibrations dont go through it well, so it requires you to feel even the smallest amount of vibratiom. say if you are feeling something on the other side of the planet? like her in her ult age.
The Library is my favorite Book 2 episode. The concept of an ancient buried mausoleum of infinite knowledge, guarded by a giant owl-snake demigod who has nothing but apathy for humanity’s conflicts and motives, is just brilliant. Tying it to Zhao’s backstory from Book 1 is also a wonderful addition.
Leave it to Koroto to overanalyze "he who knows ten thousand things" as 10,000 individual words rather than just "words" ...but go ahead 'n cook. I love it 🤣🤣
@@Koroto hahaha nah I hear you! I just saw it as he knows all math, rather than break it up to he knows algebra, geometry and calculus. Tomato, Potatoes 🤷🏿♂️
There was a moment in ATLA where i think Uncle Iroh redescovered it by accident when (if i remember correctly) he grabbed Azula's fingers as she was about to shoot Zuko and he redirected the ligthening in the sky and had a blown up face (cartoony style where he coughs up smoke) and a suprised look as if he accidentally found out he could do that.
"Wan" ("ten thousand") is used in order to mean "basically infintely many" in IRL Chinese culture(s). Kinda like hiw "forty days and forty nights" really is supposed to metaphorically mean "forever". The name "Wan" for the first Avatar is really great: he was ten thousand(ish) Avatars ago, forever ago (because hne started the new era), and is number One (the first Avatar).
This was great! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE….please do a video devoted to Uncle Iroh! He’s my favorite complex character who added so much to each person on the show! He had a profound effect on Aang, Katara, Toph, even Sokka and we all know Zuko. Nobody affected Azula. (lol). I’d love to see your take and insights on him. Thank you for doing these, I’m a parent and I often use them to teach my kids life lessons and observations and understandings about human nature and cause and effect. You work is always insightful! Please do one devoted to Iroh! Thanks!
As others have noted, in Chinese, 10,000 refers to an immense amount of something. Counting any higher than that changes the format of how the numbers are expressed. Similarly, in Greek, 10,000 was a myriad. They consideted any amount more than that not worth counting. Lastly, 10,000 is pronounced wàn, the same as the first avatar per Korra.
The one thing that bugged me, is that the owl whose name I am not going to attempt spelling broke his own logic. His hypothesis was “humans only acquire knowledge to gain advantage against other humans.” However, the presence of the professor should have proved that wrong. When the library was sinking, I would have loved if it looked like the gaang was genuinely going to fail as they are chased, but then the owl pauses or lets them go upon seeing the professor not running, learning for learning’s sake.
The Library episode is perhaps supposed to be a fictional parallel to the real historical Great Library of Alexandria. It's oftenly considerd one of great wonders of the Ancient world. Unfortunately the Library was destroyed by the Romans.
Fun fact for wan shi tong He who knows 10,000 things of course isn't isn't literal. Instead gets its influence from Eastern culture where 10,000 can be used to describe infinite. So if we were being literal it would be "he who knows infinite things" Edit: I just realised someone else commented on this exact subject and explained it way better...
14:00 This did and also still does happen with art, not because of the Ideology reason that they are bad, but only because they want to make more Money. The first Films ever made where Burned because the Studios wanted to make money with new films. Now they are lost for ever. Same also is happening with games now, many games do get destroyed because Publishers want to sell new games. That is also why there is the Initiative Stop Killing Games, so that they do not suffer the same fate as films.
This episode f's with my perception at time. Thry started with flutes...went to miaty palms...went to the library...went into the library...shit went down...they got the info...then got out....all in 23 minutes?!? Atla is also a masterclass in pace. So many episodes give me this feeling and its so weird.
*I think this is more general since I haven’t watched Avatar in decades, so I don’t remember what they say or how they act. I just watched half of the video writing this* They don’t have to respond to situations the same way you would. Just because you think a certain action is appropriate doesn’t mean that others will come to the same conclusion. Their values and priorities might be different from yours. For them, accepting and living a good life, even under occupation, might be more important than fighting-unless it’s a gen*cide than fighting would be good. Even if everyone has the same knowledge, they will still act differently because everyone has grown up differently, leading to different views on what matters and what doesn’t.
The One who knows ten thousand things is an expression. In taoism, ten-thousand things refers to all of creation. In essence, Wan Shi Tong is calling himself all knowing.
Super thanks for this video and your awesome content in general!!! 😁 The way everything crafted in the episode is undermined by probably the biggest loss in the show makes me feel like you have a really great point about the importance of the episode. I mean, I totally get why being able to appreciate everything you've talked about by simply watching the episode can be difficult when, as a kid, a part of me pretty much wanted to go punch the creators of the series for what they had just done. Not only that, they also kept capitalizing on that loss by repeatedly poking at the wound over and over during the saeson. So, reading the title of the video I was like "yeah, maybe...", mostly because my memory of it is quite defined by the very end of the episode. All this to say, thanks again for putting this together so that we can all take some time to appreciate such a great work of storytelling by making a superb work of content creating yourself!!! 🙌🙌🙌
I just casually scrolled the comments here, so if anyone else mentioned these (leaving the "10,000 things out for example), my apologies. Yes, the Northern Water Tribe was defending, on their home turf, quite literally in their element. Fair enough, I would rather them win under their merits. That said, did you not remember the unholy fleet the Fire Nation fielded to attack them? It was 120+ ships of at the very least destroyer size if I remember rightly, and the native (no pun intended) population in that entire tribe, from what was shown, was smaller than the inhabitants of said fleet, not to mention the weapons brought with them which I would imagine have made a huge dent in their defense of the main city at the worst for the offense. Between that, the supposed logistics being waged over the next few weeks I would imagine a fleet Marshalled for the long haul of, you know, a SIEGE, and the subsequent waning of the moon that affects their elemental warriors going down over said time, it could've ended very badly for the Water Tribe had it not the way it did. Which was still bad, in that even during the height of their opposition's power of the full moon, Zhao still managed to get into their inner most sanctum, to wreak the havoc he did, along with Iroh. This was an ill fated fight at one point or another is what I'm saying. As an aside: fire based Escrima forms? (yes, they spelled it wrong, at least from what I was taught) As someone who specialized in weapons, and a lover of Zuko's fire based dual broadsword play, I AM IN!
In everyone's defence, the Internet as the largest library in history has a pretty poor contents and index system these days, and is more interested in collecting your data to sell to advertisers. The desire to learn is unfortunately leached out of us with the current school system too, ironically. Also, the idea of leaving information out and not exploring and answering every part of the lore was used heavily by Tolkien: proposing himself as a historian that was translating written records, rather than as the creator of the information. The character of Tom Bombadil from the first book is an unknowable entity so powerful that the One Ring - the entire crux of the story - literally doesn't affect him. He can see Frodo when invisible; he can put it on and remain visible; and he even makes the Ring itself disappear and reappear. It means nothing to him, to the point where it's later suggested the Ring could hidden with him, until Gandalf points out he'd just forget about it and lose/disregard it. There's also two other wizards mentioned - the Blue Wizards - that went to the East of Middle-earth to combat Sauron's influence, and that's pretty much all we know about them. They might've succeeded, and made the war in the West easier; they may have fallen to join Sauron; or they may have just been defeated. It makes a fictional world far more interesting and immersive because it becomes like our own history: there's gaps and confusion. It's fun that whenever Tolkien answered letter from fans, he'd often speak in "I think"s and "to me"s, rather than saying things as an objective truth.
Sorry for a second comment. If you don't have time to respond I completely understand. I'm a few years older than you, and live in the USA. I went to school at University of Illinois as a Computer Engineering major (one of main nodes where the internet itself was even invented... although for them that was decades before even my time there.) I once told you that ethnically I am half Lithuanian. Although we have our records when my great grandparents immigrated we no longer know anyone from the homeland. I'm really curious - what exactly was the internet like from your country in your natural language back then? Was it accessable from your home? (Even here in Chicago my parents still had super slow dial up modem when I had to come home from college back then!) Was there some sort of universal "Google Translate" or were you limited to pages in your natural language? How many webpages could you even read then? Again I know your busy and these questions are so barely on-topic that I suppose it doesn't matter. I just suddenly became overwhelmed with curiousity on how similar/different life was like you back in my Baltic State roots.
Nope, as far as I know, absolutely nothing was in latvian, that's how I learned english! 😂 There probably were some government websites or email or something like that, but the only thing I remember from like 2006-2008ish was playing WoW. I honestly have no clue how I figured anything out and it's all a blur, I just kinda did stuff.💀 In terms of speeds, I think we were super lucky with internet coverage or smth because I never had any problems. To be fair though, Latvia also had some of the best broadbands speeds in the world at the time, so we might've just been a bit ahead of the curve.
@@Korotowow thanks so much for taking the time to respond! That's cool I wasn't expecting you to remember too much...but that makes total sense that this is how you learned English (and so well that no one in America would ever suspect that this was not your native language.) Now that you mention it, one of my best friends who is about your age and was born and raised in Poland (moved here about 15 years ago) also told me that the internet in Poland was how he initially learned English. (I used to assume it was because of living here, but while he is just as fluent as you, his parents barely speak a word of English. (I use Google Translate on my phone to talk to them when I visit or text.) But more interesting than learning English, I'm more fascinated (and not surprised) that Latvia would make sure to be on top of the curve on connectivity early. I mean no disrespect on equating Latvians with Lithuanians, but knowing my relatives on my Lithuanian side, communication was so important to them that they were all the first to make sure they had good high-speed connections even here in America. Thanks again for responding and for the insight to my [near]-homeland.
Ye, I've heard that people are quite split on that chapter of the novel. Feels a bit too fan-servicey and taking away a bit of flare from other characters.
@@Koroto Precisely. That was my only real gripe with the whole book. The story and messages and characters were great, but there was just so much unnecessary fan service. The book itself is good fan service. We don’t need a Koh reference in the first chapter. And that one line of lightning redirection and the fact that the show clearly stated that it was 12 years before Roku and Sozin saw each other are the only times I was even slightly upset at it. The rest just made me roll my eyes.
?!?! It may be just me but the Library imo was the single most epic & crucial episode of S2 that was not the first/final epi of the season. 'underrated' smh that said, keep up the great work
People are always confused when they find out, I only want knowledge and not money. Knowledge for the knowledge itself. Not to use it but to be a better version of myself. I want to use this knowledge to help other. But most of the people don't understand that and feel threatened by this approach. That's sad.
Yeah, i'm surprised too how people can be that dumb with tool to find info on few moves of finger. Like, you don't even need to actually search info. It's on a plate
Was anyone else waiting for the brilliant sponsorship when he discussed the internet? Also, without the internet I’d never have learned Italian, and I have a better knowledge of that than the French, Spanish, and German I was taught in school.
Underrated? This has always been one of my absolute favourites in the series. The whole desert arc is arguably the best part of the series. Imo. Outside of the ending
The book bans in America, if you can even call them that. Are restrictions on *who* can access them, due to having content in them deemed inappropriate for certain demographics. In this case, sexually explicit material in books led to said books becoming unavailable in schools for children who were nowhere near ready to tackle said subjects. The books are still commercially available, so mentioning this alongside the austrian painters party's activities is stunningly ignorant.
I really like this episode but I have to push back on the comments about Korra. The spider with the shining star on its head is very old god style, not too mention the firebird; and it’s in Korra that we are introduced to the oldest spirits, Rava and Vatuu, they’re as old world god-like as it gets. Further more, so much of the second book of Korra is full of surrealism, it has to be, it’s based almost entirely around spirits. The point of Korra though was to show true human struggle and growth. Aang was always aang and didn’t change much from the time we meet him to the battle with the Phoenix king. He became a better fighter and learned a cool trick from the lion-turtle, but that’s about it. Korra became an entirely different person, she was the Phoenix Queen, dying and being reborn in every book/season.
Just Personal oppinion. They should not tuch the spirit ark at all entirely. Bc they didnt know a hack of it. Them introduce new things while ruining all concept about it is really annoying. (+they dont know what they are building even. I cant bare it anymore when they make thos ending.)
Also just for personal grow. The team do seriously poor job. Non of cast feel like human being. They all feel like actor who do whatever the story tell them to do. They dosent build anyone with fashions in korra show. You can feel why they act like that in aang's show. But in korra they dont give that. No friends, no motive, no real conversation with respects. All they do is scold korra how bad she is. She is perfect from starts. The show just love to gaslight how its not. And made her as person who need therapy.
@@phoenixpv I'm sorry but I see both Aang's and Korra's growth (or lack thereof) quite differently. Especially considering that the entire ATLA show takes place over only 3/4 of a year or so, Aang's maturity, confidence, acceptence of his responsibility, leadership, and wisdom demonstrate a vast amount of growth and personal development. Just compare Aang's actions confidently defeating Ozai at the end to the little kid in episode 1 trapped in the iceberg after running away from responsibility, denying his identity as the Avatar, and just wanting to "go penguin sledding." Granted in many ways he stays true to his core self (such as finding a way to not Kill Ozai.) But I think the essence of true growth leaning toward self actualization includes the wisdom to know how to grow and change to compensate for deficiencies, while still retaining one's core identity and attributes to become one's best version of oneself. On the other hand, while Korra does show some growth (especially in season 3 and 4) much of the time she just loses due to her weaknesses and stubbornness, then ends up being saved at the last minute due to someone else's intervention and nullifying any true reflection or growth. (Again this admittedly mainly only applies to the first couple seasons.)
'The key to writing good lore is to convince your audience there's more than what you've written.' I forget where I heard this, but I think about it a lot
Truest true of all trues. Vignette story-telling is a whole art.
"You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified?" is in my top three quotes from this show and an absolutely beautiful and hard hitting line to come out of a series like this.
I love the nuances and complexities of Wan Chi Tongs perspective as an immortal, allknowing neutral in contrast to the human point of view. It is wonderfully written, thought-provoking, philosophical theme that really impresses me
There's an akin (Skywalker) line in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from a former Jedi - due to disillusionment with the Order's dogmatic ways - said in response when his urgency to the importance of the threat of the Sith is questioned: "But don't start thinking this war - your war - is more important than any other war just because you're in it."
Both of these lines are incredibly poignant, and have genuinely affected my outlook on life. Absolute full-credit to the writers for going above and beyond for what could've just been simple good vs evil stories.
I always took "he who knows 10,000 things" as a nod to 10,000 being the largest number in ancient Chinese...they used the same term/symbol for 10,000 as they did for "[near] infinite." For centuries the most common chant for the population to cry out for any new dynasty was "10,000 years!" Which essentially was the same as declaring that their dynasty will live "forever."
Another example: The Forbidden Ciry (ancient palace in Beijing) supposedly has 9,999 rooms because only heaven can be infinite with 10,000.
BUT to our modern western sense (not even Western, just modern anything) - 10,000 no longer is all that big a number, and certainly not close to "infinite." Thus Wan calling himself "he who knows 10,000 things" in his ancient mind is like gloating that he knows practically everything, but to us viewers (and probably even team Avatar) it is ironically funny because that is not at all that big a number anymore and is instead suggesting that he is pretty ignorant compared to a modern middle-schooled educated student.
It's simply brilliant! (Lol how often do I say that about this show?! 😉)
Thanks for such great insight! I had no idea!
I love how they incorporated different cultures into this show 😊
I came here to comment exactly this. Brilliantly written!!
Source: lived in china for several years
@@Triple33ThreatThank you! I am happy to have gotten the concept correct from someone who knows much more than me. (I spent some time studying Chinese history and culture after re-falling in love with the show during COVID when I had some free time.)
I am from the USA, so unfortunately living there would be difficult in this day and age, but I live for travelling and it has always been a dream of mine to at least visit China.
I mean, the English word myriad is used like that, and literally means 10,000.
It's _basically_ equivalent to modern terms like "bajillion" or "gazillion". We understand that the suffix "-illion" is used for all large numbers: after "hundred" and "thousand" comes "mILLION", "bILLION"... "quadrILLION"... "decILLION", etc. So putting a meaningless root in front of it, spurring "m(ono)", "bi", "tri", "quadri", etc. in favor of "baji" or "gazi" is really just saying "meaninglessly large number".
And still, the point still stands that someone *that* knowledgeable would use an *out-dated* term for how much he knows _still_ holds to the point! If he knew that much, he would know to say something like, "near limitless knowledge" or at _least_ "I have 10,000 PhDs and know, like, ten bajillion subjects."
His knowledge may be vast, but much of it is outdated and obsolete (a lot like Aang if you think about it). He tries to make important decisions based on information that's no longer applicable or relevant to the modern world, but still presents himself as this source of vast, incontrovertible wisdom.
... but what else can you expect from someone who learns everything from Fox News.
Actually, in Chinese "10.000 things" is a metaphorical way of saying "all of the things" or "a great shitload of things"
Not just Chinese/asian culture and we have modern American equivalents too like ‘a million/billion’
No shit bro he was making a joke
@@wyattzausch4680
I'm sorry, do you just assume that everyone knows this little factoid? I doubt that the majority of Avatar's audience, especially when it first aired, knows enough about chinese colloquialisms to know that.
Thank you. I’ve always wanted to know how to say “a great shitload” in Chinese
*”I’d like to spend my vacation at the library”*
Sokka
I heard this in his voice
I would rather a library then anywhere with children.
The "problem" with this episode for me is that when avatar was on tv, it was ALWAYS this episode. I have seen this episode about 30 times in my live. So everytime im at this particular episode again when rewatching it always feels like a chore. Until im actually watching it, then its just fk great. The whole eclipse etc. Its awesome.
I think we all have one of those! For me it always seemed to be Avatar Day. 😂
that was the great divide for me! granted though, it is the weakest ATLA episode regardless
@@levicoa oh yea that one is quite the stinker lmao
@@Koroto I vaguely remember how my first episode was "Bato of the Water Tribe". I had no context for that story, dropped the series, but eventually found my way back to it again.
For me, it was The Swamp” episode. It was as if this was the only episode in syndication.
I loved that episode!
The Owl was amazing and the twist of it extending it's neck with the line 'You already know too much!' was surprisingly scary. Both the characters and I did not expect death to be the punishment of defiance against this spirit!
Aang absolutely loosing it and going ballistic on the sand benders is a scene that gave me chills every single time I watch it. And I don't get chills from anything. It's such a hard hitting scene.
When I heard Sozin went to the library and learned about lightning generation and redirection, my initial reaction was that he intentionally didn't tell anyone in his family about the redirection in case he felt he had to use lightning against them if he needed to.
As for the idea of lightning generation itself, I believe it the idea that it was thought to be exclusive to the royal family was something Sozin would say to make it sound more grand and rare than it actually was.
Transition from sand to metal bending made me cry a little.
Honestly, I see his whole speech about how all wars were the same as his lack of knowledge.
Him not caring about humanity is one thing, but the moon spirit died, and they were going to burn the entire earth kingdom, spirit forests, and all.
If the war is no diffrent then any other, then how many moons did he watch die for that not no to seem significant in any way?
Heck, one of the most powerful spirits got replaced by a human. The only option left is that he just knows a war is happening and nothing past that.
I agree with this. There's taking a neutral stance, and even defending it. It's another to knowing what is happening in the world and why it may destroy everything, having the knowledge and/or power to help, and doing nothing with it.
So at 12:15, I'm pretty sure that this entire episode and concept of the Library was based off the Akashic Records. It's basically an occult "library" that holds a record of every event, emotion, thought, feeling, action, etc from all of time. Its pretty interesting stuff
I'd spend years in that library and come out not remembering the majority of the knowledge I gained 💀
Just like me fr fr 💀
In 24:35 description of Toph, you could have said "she trained and trained so she won't get blindsided again" lol
babe wake up it's Koroto time
Wan Shi Tong had been one of my favorite characters in the entire show, right next to Zuko.
Even as a 7-year-old, I completely understood where he was coming from, and felt really sorry for how thee gang mistreated him...
Also, I've always found it weird that Aang chose to blame Toph for Appa being gone. I think it would've made more sense to blame it on Sokka, who both angered the Spirit, causing the library to sink, AND was the one to convince the group to stay down there a lot longer that they needed to
I see your point. Also, last time when you were angered or upset with someone did you know what to say or how to react?
For example, some people will shift the blame onto others rather than the culprit who started the fight, the chain of events or the discussion. Others will point the blame onto the culprit and punish them. Hurting that person's feelings and/or reputation. Also, at Aangs' age, it makes sense, he is young, a self-starter, and strong-willed but still just a child. He is angry and shifts the blame to the wrong person.
That's my thinking after I rewatched the show again nine times. 🍵😊
Loved this episode so much I memorised each line in it. Still think about how deep it is. The messages are so deep it's an iceberg of it's own
Its peak
21:05 I showed my ex this show are she always got very creeped out by spirit designs. She hated koh and heibai and when won shi tong transforms into his more menacing state she had the same sort of reaction
"I worked for Ozai, he's a fraud" 😭
you can take the example with toph one step farther. sands shifts, vibrations dont go through it well, so it requires you to feel even the smallest amount of vibratiom. say if you are feeling something on the other side of the planet? like her in her ult age.
"I'm not leaving. I spent too long trying to find this place, I could spend an eternity here." - Raphael Sbarge as
Professor Zei -
The Library is my favorite Book 2 episode. The concept of an ancient buried mausoleum of infinite knowledge, guarded by a giant owl-snake demigod who has nothing but apathy for humanity’s conflicts and motives, is just brilliant. Tying it to Zhao’s backstory from Book 1 is also a wonderful addition.
Leave it to Koroto to overanalyze "he who knows ten thousand things" as 10,000 individual words rather than just "words"
...but go ahead 'n cook. I love it 🤣🤣
a word is a thing 🗿
OK BUT FOR REAL, even if you count just like different things, 10k things is STILL not a lot of things. 😂
@@Koroto hahaha nah I hear you! I just saw it as he knows all math, rather than break it up to he knows algebra, geometry and calculus.
Tomato, Potatoes 🤷🏿♂️
@@Korotois it though? Is a word a thing? What *is* knowledge?
we need vsauce on this
There was a moment in ATLA where i think Uncle Iroh redescovered it by accident when (if i remember correctly) he grabbed Azula's fingers as she was about to shoot Zuko and he redirected the ligthening in the sky and had a blown up face (cartoony style where he coughs up smoke) and a suprised look as if he accidentally found out he could do that.
"Welcome to the internet" lyrics really sound like about the library
"Ten thousand" symbolizes infinity and wholeness in Chinese culture and language, so no, you probably don't know more than Wan Shi Tong.
I do. Try me 🗿🗿🗿
(this is a joke btw, didn't know there was extra meaning behind the ten thousand thing, I thought it was just a cool title 😅)
@Koroto just throwing some trivia at you, love the avatar vids
It's the "bro why are you reading this" for 15:04 😂
"Wan" ("ten thousand") is used in order to mean "basically infintely many" in IRL Chinese culture(s). Kinda like hiw "forty days and forty nights" really is supposed to metaphorically mean "forever". The name "Wan" for the first Avatar is really great: he was ten thousand(ish) Avatars ago, forever ago (because hne started the new era), and is number One (the first Avatar).
This was great! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE….please do a video devoted to Uncle Iroh! He’s my favorite complex character who added so much to each person on the show! He had a profound effect on Aang, Katara, Toph, even Sokka and we all know Zuko. Nobody affected Azula. (lol). I’d love to see your take and insights on him. Thank you for doing these, I’m a parent and I often use them to teach my kids life lessons and observations and understandings about human nature and cause and effect. You work is always insightful! Please do one devoted to Iroh! Thanks!
As others have noted, in Chinese, 10,000 refers to an immense amount of something. Counting any higher than that changes the format of how the numbers are expressed. Similarly, in Greek, 10,000 was a myriad. They consideted any amount more than that not worth counting. Lastly, 10,000 is pronounced wàn, the same as the first avatar per Korra.
The one thing that bugged me, is that the owl whose name I am not going to attempt spelling broke his own logic. His hypothesis was “humans only acquire knowledge to gain advantage against other humans.” However, the presence of the professor should have proved that wrong.
When the library was sinking, I would have loved if it looked like the gaang was genuinely going to fail as they are chased, but then the owl pauses or lets them go upon seeing the professor not running, learning for learning’s sake.
18:56 the marketing department
The Library episode is perhaps supposed to be a fictional parallel to the real historical Great Library of Alexandria. It's oftenly considerd one of great wonders of the Ancient world. Unfortunately the Library was destroyed by the Romans.
Fun fact for wan shi tong
He who knows 10,000 things of course isn't isn't literal.
Instead gets its influence from Eastern culture where 10,000 can be used to describe infinite.
So if we were being literal it would be "he who knows infinite things"
Edit: I just realised someone else commented on this exact subject and explained it way better...
I didn't know this episode was underrated; I've never heard anything less than fantastic things about it.
I was under the impression that the "10,000" in "he who knows 10,000 things" is meant as "infinite" or "all"
THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE EVER, OMGGGGG..... SO HAPPY BECAUSE OF THIS VIDEO
14:00 This did and also still does happen with art, not because of the Ideology reason that they are bad, but only because they want to make more Money. The first Films ever made where Burned because the Studios wanted to make money with new films. Now they are lost for ever. Same also is happening with games now, many games do get destroyed because Publishers want to sell new games. That is also why there is the Initiative Stop Killing Games, so that they do not suffer the same fate as films.
You know, frieren would love to study here for a couple centuries or so
you're the perfect essay tuber
This episode f's with my perception at time. Thry started with flutes...went to miaty palms...went to the library...went into the library...shit went down...they got the info...then got out....all in 23 minutes?!? Atla is also a masterclass in pace. So many episodes give me this feeling and its so weird.
I always assumed that Iroh just spoke with Wan Shi Tong in the spirit world...
You know the library was basically meant to be a depiction of the library of Alexandria
*I think this is more general since I haven’t watched Avatar in decades, so I don’t remember what they say or how they act. I just watched half of the video writing this*
They don’t have to respond to situations the same way you would. Just because you think a certain action is appropriate doesn’t mean that others will come to the same conclusion. Their values and priorities might be different from yours. For them, accepting and living a good life, even under occupation, might be more important than fighting-unless it’s a gen*cide than fighting would be good.
Even if everyone has the same knowledge, they will still act differently because everyone has grown up differently, leading to different views on what matters and what doesn’t.
15:33, I just rewatched this episode, and I didn’t see this scene anywhere. Where is it?
5:55 to be fair with Wan Shi Tong's title, "Ten thousand things" is a Taoistic phrase used to mean all of creation.
It's funny how this episode is better if you pretend nothing was written after Avatar the Last Airbender
I think that the show in general is better if you pretend like nothing was written after avatar the last airbender
Wow I never conected thot sandbending witht her later metalbending and i fell alway out of place for me but its realy good explanation
The One who knows ten thousand things is an expression.
In taoism, ten-thousand things refers to all of creation. In essence, Wan Shi Tong is calling himself all knowing.
Super thanks for this video and your awesome content in general!!! 😁 The way everything crafted in the episode is undermined by probably the biggest loss in the show makes me feel like you have a really great point about the importance of the episode. I mean, I totally get why being able to appreciate everything you've talked about by simply watching the episode can be difficult when, as a kid, a part of me pretty much wanted to go punch the creators of the series for what they had just done. Not only that, they also kept capitalizing on that loss by repeatedly poking at the wound over and over during the saeson. So, reading the title of the video I was like "yeah, maybe...", mostly because my memory of it is quite defined by the very end of the episode. All this to say, thanks again for putting this together so that we can all take some time to appreciate such a great work of storytelling by making a superb work of content creating yourself!!! 🙌🙌🙌
Wait, Aang learned about the Lionturtles during this episode? When?
It was during the episode, the library which is season 2 episode 10 of avatar: the last Airbender. You should check it out!
@@TheAangGang I rewatched the episode, but I didn’t see that scene anywhere 🤔. Did I miss it?
@@Perhapsawiseman when Aang found them, he showed it to Katara. Maybe you weren’t paying attention because of that.
I just casually scrolled the comments here, so if anyone else mentioned these (leaving the "10,000 things out for example), my apologies.
Yes, the Northern Water Tribe was defending, on their home turf, quite literally in their element. Fair enough, I would rather them win under their merits. That said, did you not remember the unholy fleet the Fire Nation fielded to attack them? It was 120+ ships of at the very least destroyer size if I remember rightly, and the native (no pun intended) population in that entire tribe, from what was shown, was smaller than the inhabitants of said fleet, not to mention the weapons brought with them which I would imagine have made a huge dent in their defense of the main city at the worst for the offense. Between that, the supposed logistics being waged over the next few weeks I would imagine a fleet Marshalled for the long haul of, you know, a SIEGE, and the subsequent waning of the moon that affects their elemental warriors going down over said time, it could've ended very badly for the Water Tribe had it not the way it did. Which was still bad, in that even during the height of their opposition's power of the full moon, Zhao still managed to get into their inner most sanctum, to wreak the havoc he did, along with Iroh. This was an ill fated fight at one point or another is what I'm saying.
As an aside: fire based Escrima forms? (yes, they spelled it wrong, at least from what I was taught) As someone who specialized in weapons, and a lover of Zuko's fire based dual broadsword play, I AM IN!
Wanshitongs understanding of how a radio works is actually a good example of him being incredibly dumb going right with that title
Strong video!!
I want to spend my vacation… AT THE LIBRARY!!!
In everyone's defence, the Internet as the largest library in history has a pretty poor contents and index system these days, and is more interested in collecting your data to sell to advertisers. The desire to learn is unfortunately leached out of us with the current school system too, ironically.
Also, the idea of leaving information out and not exploring and answering every part of the lore was used heavily by Tolkien: proposing himself as a historian that was translating written records, rather than as the creator of the information. The character of Tom Bombadil from the first book is an unknowable entity so powerful that the One Ring - the entire crux of the story - literally doesn't affect him. He can see Frodo when invisible; he can put it on and remain visible; and he even makes the Ring itself disappear and reappear. It means nothing to him, to the point where it's later suggested the Ring could hidden with him, until Gandalf points out he'd just forget about it and lose/disregard it. There's also two other wizards mentioned - the Blue Wizards - that went to the East of Middle-earth to combat Sauron's influence, and that's pretty much all we know about them. They might've succeeded, and made the war in the West easier; they may have fallen to join Sauron; or they may have just been defeated. It makes a fictional world far more interesting and immersive because it becomes like our own history: there's gaps and confusion. It's fun that whenever Tolkien answered letter from fans, he'd often speak in "I think"s and "to me"s, rather than saying things as an objective truth.
That dog pack reference is crazy
I love this as a big lore digger and this itch my lore digging brain of this episode and love Wa Shi Tong
20:00 Ok ya this canon to me now-
I agree!! Then next is The Dessert which is my absolute favorite Katara episode.
Sorry for a second comment. If you don't have time to respond I completely understand. I'm a few years older than you, and live in the USA. I went to school at University of Illinois as a Computer Engineering major (one of main nodes where the internet itself was even invented... although for them that was decades before even my time there.) I once told you that ethnically I am half Lithuanian. Although we have our records when my great grandparents immigrated we no longer know anyone from the homeland. I'm really curious - what exactly was the internet like from your country in your natural language back then? Was it accessable from your home? (Even here in Chicago my parents still had super slow dial up modem when I had to come home from college back then!) Was there some sort of universal "Google Translate" or were you limited to pages in your natural language? How many webpages could you even read then?
Again I know your busy and these questions are so barely on-topic that I suppose it doesn't matter. I just suddenly became overwhelmed with curiousity on how similar/different life was like you back in my Baltic State roots.
Nope, as far as I know, absolutely nothing was in latvian, that's how I learned english! 😂
There probably were some government websites or email or something like that, but the only thing I remember from like 2006-2008ish was playing WoW. I honestly have no clue how I figured anything out and it's all a blur, I just kinda did stuff.💀
In terms of speeds, I think we were super lucky with internet coverage or smth because I never had any problems. To be fair though, Latvia also had some of the best broadbands speeds in the world at the time, so we might've just been a bit ahead of the curve.
@@Korotowow thanks so much for taking the time to respond! That's cool I wasn't expecting you to remember too much...but that makes total sense that this is how you learned English (and so well that no one in America would ever suspect that this was not your native language.)
Now that you mention it, one of my best friends who is about your age and was born and raised in Poland (moved here about 15 years ago) also told me that the internet in Poland was how he initially learned English. (I used to assume it was because of living here, but while he is just as fluent as you, his parents barely speak a word of English. (I use Google Translate on my phone to talk to them when I visit or text.)
But more interesting than learning English, I'm more fascinated (and not surprised) that Latvia would make sure to be on top of the curve on connectivity early. I mean no disrespect on equating Latvians with Lithuanians, but knowing my relatives on my Lithuanian side, communication was so important to them that they were all the first to make sure they had good high-speed connections even here in America.
Thanks again for responding and for the insight to my [near]-homeland.
"10000 things" in Chinese culture tends to be a poetic way of saying "everything" or at least "everything you can think of."
Yes! THANK YOU. I love this episode! This video was very much needed. I'm STILL mad NATLA left it out!
41 min ago ayyyyyyyye love this content man keep pushing it!
Will do 😤😤
Technically to truly know 1 thing undisputed is very knowledgeable. The spirit know 10,000 things hes a genius
More AttA!
6:00
I mean, if you're counting each word as a single thing. I would count the entire english language as one thing for the purpose of that name.
Small tangent but I HATED that the library had info on lighting redirection
Ye, I've heard that people are quite split on that chapter of the novel.
Feels a bit too fan-servicey and taking away a bit of flare from other characters.
@@Koroto Precisely. That was my only real gripe with the whole book. The story and messages and characters were great, but there was just so much unnecessary fan service. The book itself is good fan service. We don’t need a Koh reference in the first chapter. And that one line of lightning redirection and the fact that the show clearly stated that it was 12 years before Roku and Sozin saw each other are the only times I was even slightly upset at it. The rest just made me roll my eyes.
I love this channel
🙇♂️🙇♂️
I'm loving the one piece references! Great video
You mean like energy bending?
"He who knows 10,000 things" is a reference to Daoism. Th
The "10,000" is not literal. It essentially means "endless" "uncountable" or "complete.""
Let’s side with the matrix
Heat bending? Fire bending dragon riders
What if the 10 thousand things wore 10 thousand topics or something much more elaborate?
All of language is one thing though
Ten thousand means infinite in China
?!?!
It may be just me but the Library imo was the single most epic & crucial episode of S2 that was not the first/final epi of the season.
'underrated' smh
that said, keep up the great work
Imo S2 was best season. Change my mind
It’s more than ignorant, a lot of these characters you mention are wilfully ignorant, choosing not to consider the long term impacts
People are always confused when they find out, I only want knowledge and not money. Knowledge for the knowledge itself. Not to use it but to be a better version of myself. I want to use this knowledge to help other. But most of the people don't understand that and feel threatened by this approach.
That's sad.
"I'm glad avatar doesn't have a lot of power scalers"
I'm on avatar twt all the time and its all power scalers and its so tiring 😭
basics of animation
Bro come on you can’t make bangers back to back like this and expect me not to wanna kiss you
Yeah, i'm surprised too how people can be that dumb with tool to find info on few moves of finger. Like, you don't even need to actually search info. It's on a plate
Was anyone else waiting for the brilliant sponsorship when he discussed the internet? Also, without the internet I’d never have learned Italian, and I have a better knowledge of that than the French, Spanish, and German I was taught in school.
Lol. Me too
Kora was a good show. Don't hate
Book 3 is among my favorite things in the entire ATLA franchise. Book 1 was awesome. 4 was good. 2 was very bad imo.
I mean, I'm not chinese, not even asian, but I understood the "10.000 things" as pretty much everything. Maybe modernism is too analytical. 😅
Ibia the panda spirit is not on your tier list im afraid S tier
Underrated? This has always been one of my absolute favourites in the series. The whole desert arc is arguably the best part of the series. Imo. Outside of the ending
I still really like Korra but yea they handled spirits so poorly
The book bans in America, if you can even call them that. Are restrictions on *who* can access them, due to having content in them deemed inappropriate for certain demographics. In this case, sexually explicit material in books led to said books becoming unavailable in schools for children who were nowhere near ready to tackle said subjects.
The books are still commercially available, so mentioning this alongside the austrian painters party's activities is stunningly ignorant.
Book 2 is by far my fav
I don’t think this is an underrated eps at all tbh
I really like this episode but I have to push back on the comments about Korra. The spider with the shining star on its head is very old god style, not too mention the firebird; and it’s in Korra that we are introduced to the oldest spirits, Rava and Vatuu, they’re as old world god-like as it gets. Further more, so much of the second book of Korra is full of surrealism, it has to be, it’s based almost entirely around spirits.
The point of Korra though was to show true human struggle and growth. Aang was always aang and didn’t change much from the time we meet him to the battle with the Phoenix king. He became a better fighter and learned a cool trick from the lion-turtle, but that’s about it. Korra became an entirely different person, she was the Phoenix Queen, dying and being reborn in every book/season.
Just Personal oppinion. They should not tuch the spirit ark at all entirely.
Bc they didnt know a hack of it. Them introduce new things while ruining all concept about it is really annoying.
(+they dont know what they are building even. I cant bare it anymore when they make thos ending.)
Also just for personal grow. The team do seriously poor job.
Non of cast feel like human being. They all feel like actor who do whatever the story tell them to do.
They dosent build anyone with fashions in korra show. You can feel why they act like that in aang's show. But in korra they dont give that.
No friends, no motive, no real conversation with respects. All they do is scold korra how bad she is.
She is perfect from starts. The show just love to gaslight how its not. And made her as person who need therapy.
@@phoenixpv I'm sorry but I see both Aang's and Korra's growth (or lack thereof) quite differently.
Especially considering that the entire ATLA show takes place over only 3/4 of a year or so, Aang's maturity, confidence, acceptence of his responsibility, leadership, and wisdom demonstrate a vast amount of growth and personal development. Just compare Aang's actions confidently defeating Ozai at the end to the little kid in episode 1 trapped in the iceberg after running away from responsibility, denying his identity as the Avatar, and just wanting to "go penguin sledding." Granted in many ways he stays true to his core self (such as finding a way to not Kill Ozai.) But I think the essence of true growth leaning toward self actualization includes the wisdom to know how to grow and change to compensate for deficiencies, while still retaining one's core identity and attributes to become one's best version of oneself.
On the other hand, while Korra does show some growth (especially in season 3 and 4) much of the time she just loses due to her weaknesses and stubbornness, then ends up being saved at the last minute due to someone else's intervention and nullifying any true reflection or growth. (Again this admittedly mainly only applies to the first couple seasons.)
Good argument. So good in fact that I think I have to concede.
Dude wheres the walking dead
Pretty sure this is one of the most talked about episodes but okay..
underrated? it's my favorite
Children should play WOW in school to learn languages
Figure out how to say library