Hama is a perfect villain. Tragic but twisted beyond redemption. A victim of the way life played out for her and of her own anger. It does break my heart and i love Katara’s reaction to unlocking this new ability. A child so pure and hopeful forced to violate another person’s body in the most disturbing and painful way is just driven to tears. Fuck i love this show.
Hama was an innocent person who was captured, imprisoned, and treated like a monster rather than a human being. The irony is her experiences changed her so much that when she finally escaped, she had BECOME a monster, one that went on to capture and imprison innocent people as if they weren't human beings. She BECAME the very thing she once fought and despised. You can see that even in the way she thinks and talks "THEY" did this to me, "WE have to fight THESE PEOPLE however we can." This is how Ozai's military regime views the world, us vs. them, dehumanizing anyone outside of their group, acting like their evil is justified in order to "win this war." When regular people like Katara and her friends realized what she was doing they were horrified and immediately realized she was a menace that needed to be stopped. There was a time Hama would have had the conscience to see that too, but she discarded such things long ago.
@@haku8135That's why math is so important. I didn't know this young woman with hair loops was gran-gran first time watching, but I surely know it couldn't be the mother of 14 yo Katara 60! years ago 😅
@@slanetroyard92 I must have been getting candy, Cause I watched this episode for the first time at like age 25. Blew my mind. Don't even ask me how I understood episode 16 without watching this one. No clue.
there's a moment in the fight where hama blasts katara with water and katara stands her ground and blocks, like an earthbender would, instead of pushing and pulling the water around her, like a waterbender would. like iroh says in bitter work, it's combining the techniques of your own bending with another that makes you a true master
Perhaps that speaks to the philosophical disagreement between Katara and Hama as well. Hama is in a twisted way fighting like a traditional waterbender, using the opponent's strength against them, redirection, manipulation, and sabotage, to the point where Hama is literally possessing her "enemies" like a demon and forcing them to fight each other. I think Katara was so digusted by discovering the real Hama, that she chose to fight in a style distinct from Hama, like an earthbender, standing her ground, refusing to yield or run, facing her opponent head on.
Katara seems to be really good at the philosophy of taking other bending techniques [SPOLIERS FOR FINALE (they have already finished on Patreon, so not worried in that regard)] pretty sure Katara's final move in the big fight is based on firebending's "breath of fire" that we see Zuko use to keep himself warm on several occasions.
One interesting aspect of this episode that goes mostly unnoticed is how much bigger and greater the southern water tribe was before the Fire Nation took all of their water benders. Maintaining a city made of ice without water benders is most definitely too great of a task.
They've grown a lot in legend of Korra, my guess is there are more villages but they spread out and hid in a number of smaller villages when they had no benders to protect them.
@@DaDunge The Southern Water Tribe has always been the Southern Water Tribes and the North was always the Northern Water Tribes as well I believe. Throughout the war, all the Northern Tribes banded together and had an isolation policy which protected them. The Southern Tribe was always much more scattered throughout their history and in the comics taking place after the show, it talks about all the other villages and introduces twin girls that are somewhere between 8-10 that are waterbenders as well but they've always kept it hidden. If I remember correctly there are a couple other southern waterbender still out there alive as well as I remember a man who survived the raids to went into exile to protect the tribes and a young boy who's mother is a pirate or something. Katara was known as the last southern waterbender due to some specific things that are mentioned in the show later in this season but I won't go into it so as to not spoil it for our reactors.
Yes! Equating blood bending to the unforgivable curses is how i feel. So many people write off katara's conflict and consider it a power boost, but it's also so ethically wrong
I get that, but I consider how it can help people such as stopping someone from bleeding out or something similar but yeah it has more potential to be abused. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if bloodbending was already known to both the tribes prior to the war but the south forgot about it due to their culture and heritage being destroyed and the north tightly regulating it and keeping knowledge of it hidden and the south probably did the same before all the raids. Due to the long history of the avatar world, I just kind of imagine some waterbender had to of stumbled upon it before this time period. Then again, it takes a really powerful waterbender to do it and metalbending wasn't discovered until Toph with Earth so I don't know.
I know from Kyoshi's novels that she at least learns a waterbending healing technique to lower a wounded person's body temperature so low as to slow down their heart rate just shy of stopping it. It's very cool
The girl at the front of the villagers watching Hama get taken captive was not Katara's mom; it was Kanna, her and Sokka's Gran Gran. She and Hama were close friends. Kya and her friend Nini weren't even alive when Hama was taken captive. She says that it was "sixty years ago." That is, unless we want to imagine Katara and Sokka were born to a 60-65 year old woman. In that case, Hakoda must _really_ be into cougars.
I'm now wondering about something I'd never thought about : what's the proportion of waterbenders in a normal Water tribe population ? Even if the water tribe we see in the beginning of the show is represented as smaller than it is, how big is it when Katara is born ? Do benders tend to have more bender children than non-benders do, explaining why she's the only one of her generation ? Were any other benders around before her mom died in the last raid ? That would mean there are younger Southern benders than Hama, possibly imprisoned in these same prisons. I need to go read the comics to see if they addressed that, I'd imagine one of Zuko's first acts of government would have been to free them, meaning Katara would have known other Southern benders, and rebuilt the Southern bending culture with them.
Katara when stopping hama, and arched her water attack, she used an earth bender stance. Then used water and air to twist the water to flip her. She is using different attacks and stances and forms from other nations.
Yes! The look on Hama's face when she does that is so perfect! She's never fought a waterbender using an earthbender technique! She was expecting Katara to try to deflect or turn Hama's attack back on her. Instead, she blocked it like a boss!
I think they portrayed the deep scars of war really good in this one. First victims of war then becoming war criminals themselves. Happens all the time. Also Hama's line with "brothers and sisters" makes so much sense and that's why Katara trusted her blindly: they're from a tribe culture and like Iroh said while describing the other nations to Zuko, they usually feel a deep connection to each other, like relatives. Ironically Sokka stands a bit out here due to his more pragmatic nature 😅
And because all the other airbenders are eliminated, Aang will never experience what happens when he trusts his own people blindly, even when they’re corrupted. Katara can relate to Aang on what it’s like to lose family, but Aang will never relate to Katara on how it feels to be tricked by her own kin.
A great episode, Blood Bending is crazy! When I was younger, and for a long time, I always thought the Fire Nation imprisoning waterbenders was a Nickelodeon kid thing. As in, they can't say they just killed them or anything(even though that's exactly what happened with the Airbenders). But relatively recently, I realized that it 100% makes sense. The Fire Nation was assuming the Avatar(Aang) was dead and was reborn as a Waterbender. It was the smart move to capture, imprison, and keep them alive for as long as possible. That's great writing and great worldbuilding.
This third season is the reason why ATLA is universally acclaimed - it just keeps getting better and better and better every single episode, every single season. Chad, I highly recommend you have them watch the four-episode show finale as a single feature-length movie, because it basically is one.
Can't fully blame Hama for what she did and kind of understand the motivation here. I love the explanation especially after katara says "i don't know if i want that kind of power" she replies "the choice is not yours. the power exist". i think very cool line and fully explains the motivation here.
Imagine meeting someone with your background and offering to teach you an art that you love. Then having them pervert it and forcing you to pervert it yourself.
This episode is the perfect example of how unhealed trauma can lead to vengeful anger. It happens more often than not that former victims end up becoming abusers
I’ve been waiting for Maple to be vindicated for her blood bending comment since the BEGINNING of this reaction series, so happy you got what you wanted, even though it’s so sick and twisted LOL
Maple's arc is complete. LOL I remember when she basically called it so long ago and I was so thrilled for her. haha it's a terrific episode, one of the best in the series. A spooky tale that amounts to quite a bit of growth for Katara's character, showing her that reaching the apex of even waterbending has a price to paid, and demands responsibility. And plus it's just such a cool way to build onto the lore of waterbending. I love how every element, when mastered to a certain degree, becomes incredibly dangerous to the point of either killing the user - or demands such a level of cruelty to discover that it can straight up make you a monster. I'd say more, but then I'd be talking about Legend of Korra and I don't want to hurt the chances of you guys going in blind to that.
Did you noticed that the move that scared Hama when Katara stood and blocked the water was actually an earth bender technique. Hama had never seen anything like that before and that was what scared her.
Hama is such a great character, I honestly don't blame her for what she's done. She also shares a lot of similarities to Jet. Both were soooo dramatically traumatized by the fire nation that they're were unable to move on. Jet lost both his parents and his home, and he himself wasn't even a bender. Hama was captured and imprisoned with the intent of slowly withering away until death. The only reason Kya was killed was because Hama was able to escape, and they didn't want that to happen again. Did Hama and Jet go too far in their quest for revenge? Absolutely But I can't say I blame them, ESPECIALLY Hama!!!
@hopejaworski9097 I do and don't at the same time. Sozin killed the air nomads who didn't have soldiers in the first place. Thousands of men, women, and children just slaughtered out of fear. It's all Sozins' fault at the end of the day. Wanting to share your nations prosperity with others isn't a bad thing, but all he REALLY wanted to do was take over the world and claim it for the fire nation.
It's a global war so targeting civilians is to be expected. If the fire nation only loses soldiers in the war then they have the population to try again. Unlike the Earth kingdom.
It hurts my heart every time I see Katara make the choice to do that. And, to your point of how much they do in such a short runtime: The Tale of Iroh is 4m15s and look how much they did in just that segment.
Host: Kitara is so powerful Everyone that knew Kitara hadn't met Hama yet: Just you wait.... This was always one of my favorite episodes. Hama is just this crazy talented bender that created a new form of bending due to her captivity, much like Toph. I also love how they made the "blood" bending a moral issue and not just some ultimate power. I also like how Hama used Sokka and Aang against each other to force Kitara to use the technique or watch her friends die. Hama doing one last thing to protect her tribe...by passing down the technique to another Southern water tribe bender. The "blood" bending would be a "checkmate" situation from everyone but Aang...and even Aang would need to go into the Avatar state to get past that.
Probably the best written episode of the series. I love how the story unfolds. It's crazy they fit so much in less than 30 minutes. This was one of the episodes I was most looking forward to the reaction video of.
In the writer's room, bloodbending was jokingly referred to as the "Why are you hitting yourself" technique. It was changed because of how terrifying it is.
This is DEFINITELY on my Top 10 Favourite A TLA episodes. Bloodbending would be really good style but it can be used for good and bad. Hama learned to survive, I don’t fault her at all. Her bitterness and taking the people into the mountain was the taking it far part. Although, I see her pain n hurt, in the midst of war. It’s kill or be killed. She chose to kill. She’s badass in my book. Twisted.
I've seen multiple reactors watch this series and these girls always have the best takes, theories, comedic and emotional commentary. I cant wait for the end and see what they do next
It's refreshing to see reactors who feel the weight of what Katara learning bloodbending. Most just get hyped about her powering up, but that shit was against her will. Being forced to take away someones will with her ability is the exact opposite of what the team are trying to do
I love Hama. She's such a realistic villain. I think it's easy to stand on a high horse and judge her, but I don't know many people who would come out healthy and mentally sound from years of unjust imprisonment, torture, starvation, filth (not like they let them bathe), and watching your kin slowly die until your only companions are rats. Katara and Sokka lost a lot due to the war, but not on the same scale as Hama. It makes perfect sense that Hama came to be who she is, I just wish she took out her pain and anger on actual soldiers of the fire nation and not innocent civilians. Also, Hama is not Nini lol. Hama is much older than their mother. Hama is the around the same age as their grandma.
Hama reminds me a lot of Jet. Immediately forms a connection with Katara, seeks revenge against the fire nation, terrorizes a town of civilians for it. Also, this episode kind of confirms for me that Katara is the best waterbender in the whole franchise. She learned bloodbending within MINUTES just by learning its possible.
So we talked about pulling knowledge from different sources, the reason why Hama was so shocked at Katara blocking her water strike is because that was actually an earthbending move, to stand your ground. Hama was expecting a classic waterbending move which redirected the water but instead, Katara did the opposite which threw Hama off.
It's more than likely that Hama is the reason Katara and Sokka's mom died. Up until she escaped, the fire nation was content with taking waterbenders prisoner but after Hama they decided it wasn't worth the risk to keep them alive
I just love this episode because it’s the first time we’ve seen an evil water bender we’d never had a water villain before this and now we’ve seen the possibility for great evil in each of the extant nations.
I am SO glad this wasn’t spoiled for you, I remember combing the comments on the video where you mentioned blood bending just to make sure no one did any “hint hint, wink wink your question with be answered” kinda shit
This is one of my favorite episodes of the series. Bloodbending is such a dark thing, it's something you think of as a possibility but then when you actually see it it's like OMG they actually went there with it. This is a great episode to include with Halloween episode binging. Great reaction to a great episode!
I get that the first thought when you learn that Hama's from the water tribe is usually "oh, it's Nini", but the second thought should probably be "wait, Katara and Sokka's mom isn't an old lady" :P
So I know I’m probably late to this, but I’ll go ahead and say this this episode in a way was pretty much a bittersweet. What Hama did was yeah kind of dirty and what she did to Kotara, but at the same time there is some good that came out of it. She now knows how to bend water from air and from every living thing including blood bending so in a way sea learner that there is a dark side to water bending which includes blood bending so in a way this was nothing more than a bittersweet episode. Wow there was some good that came out of it. There is some bad that came out of it that’s why in the legend of Korra, we find out that of course it was forbidden. Either way this just goes to show that water bending is probably one of the most powerful bindings, if not more powerful than any other bending aside from fire, earth and air bending.
I cry almost every time I watch this episode. And thanks to reaction channels I've seen it like 20 times. There are 3 episodes that always make me cry. The next one is only a few eps away.
Reminds me of... "...There are two kinds of villains... "There's the soldier kind that fights you with their body...and then there's the arch villain kind...that fights you with their mind..." - Mrs. Price/Elijah Price, "Unbreakable"
Waterbender vs Waterbender fights are insanely creative and we see them so rarely. This one is so incredibly creative and really shows off the versatility of the element of water.
I mean its a very interesting circumstance. Listen to what Hama said. She suffered extreme trauma being the last water bender survivor after watching her tribe members one after the other be captured or die. *SIXTY YEARS* That trauma doesn't just disappear and everything is fine. Katara is unofficially carrying ALL of that tribes legacy. Katara IMO learned techniques to improve her mastery of water bending in this episode, it just wasn't in the manner she probably liked.
You guys were discussing bending liquid in people's bodies so long ago thinking it would never happen and yet everyone watching was just thinking about this episode.
Whats really scary is ehat you could do with blood bending had this not been a kids show, imagine turning someone's blood to steam or freezing it, or turning it to ice spikes, or ecen ripping the blood out of a person, like hama did to those flowers. If you are willing you could even use your own blood as a weapon.
One of my favorite episodes. I really dig water bending the most. Blood bending could be used for good, but a darker path, you could rule the world. Muahahahahaha! ...... 😅 Anyways, I enjoyed this as a scary episode. I love it shows dp the Halloween episodes like this. Pure spooky, but all has a meaning and lesson behind it.
I actually knew a person who slept like Sokka was sleeping. He was someone who has Sleep Apnia (just like I do) and his snoring was bad enough, but he was never in the same place for more than an hour at a time. He'd start by being at his bunk, then he'd be on the floor leaning on his bunk, then 5 feet away, then across the room. It was obviously clear he was NOT having a restful sleep. I would hear him stuggling like he was in a fight or something. I even suggested he go to the emergency room and see a doctor to get in touch with the clinic that deals with sleep disorders. Imagine "goin" to sleep in your bed and waking up across the room.
Imagine youre the firelord and youre like "oh yeah i have wiped out all southern waterbenders" and then there's just two of them on your shore fighting an agbi kai
Hama is the only known southern waterbender in existence besides Katara, and was the last known waterbender in the village until Katara was born. That was almost 50 years without a waterbender at the South Pole.
My question to everyone who watches this episode is a simple, "How would you feel if this were an HBO show where we followed Hama through all of this?" Would it change how you view her? Do you think you'd kinda support her a little more? Be more understanding? Less? I think of how people view Arya Stark and The Punisher and stories of vengeance and wonder if they would see Hama the same way?
Wouldn't change a damn thing. Hama was still an evil witch. Suffering in life isn't an excuse to make others suffer. Just because Hama was tortured gives her no right to inflict torture on innocent Fire Nation villagers who have no correlation with the military.
Katara may seem like she hates all the fire nation but she’s willing to help those in need, including fire nation citizens. I mean the meteor, the pollution and this crazy tragic blood bender. There’s only the ones that hurt others that she hates
All I can imagine is, what if hama went back to the southern water tribe, or like the north, and taught this to others. It would make the north and south terrifying
I remember you predicted blood bending 😏. You said something about air. I will remember that 10:24 a cat owl 🦉. A cowl 😅😂😂😊. Now imagine if a water bender decides to freeze your blood 😮
Hama is a perfect villain. Tragic but twisted beyond redemption. A victim of the way life played out for her and of her own anger. It does break my heart and i love Katara’s reaction to unlocking this new ability. A child so pure and hopeful forced to violate another person’s body in the most disturbing and painful way is just driven to tears. Fuck i love this show.
I agree with everything except for her being beyond redemption. Nobody is beyond redemption in my opinion.
Hama was an innocent person who was captured, imprisoned, and treated like a monster rather than a human being. The irony is her experiences changed her so much that when she finally escaped, she had BECOME a monster, one that went on to capture and imprison innocent people as if they weren't human beings. She BECAME the very thing she once fought and despised. You can see that even in the way she thinks and talks "THEY" did this to me, "WE have to fight THESE PEOPLE however we can." This is how Ozai's military regime views the world, us vs. them, dehumanizing anyone outside of their group, acting like their evil is justified in order to "win this war." When regular people like Katara and her friends realized what she was doing they were horrified and immediately realized she was a menace that needed to be stopped. There was a time Hama would have had the conscience to see that too, but she discarded such things long ago.
I think Katara cry for hamma
She could do that to me
same goes to jet, fortunately he turns good before his death
It’s insane that they called both the possibility of metal bending and blood bending within the first handful of episodes, by name even.
Combustion bending too
The woman looking at hama when she was taken was actually katara and sokkas' grandma.
After she ran from the northern water tribe
@@haku8135That's why math is so important. I didn't know this young woman with hair loops was gran-gran first time watching, but I surely know it couldn't be the mother of 14 yo Katara 60! years ago 😅
Really? I've never heard other people say that, most seem to think its Gran Gran@@haku8135
@@haku8135 She would have to be older then Gran, because that's ship from the start, which was there since Gran-Gran was little...
what on southern water tribe's weed you smoking?
This was literally the Halloween episode back in the day when the show was aired the first time. 🎃🎃🎃
Holy crap I forgot about that!
I remember that day. If you weren't getting candy or at a party chances are you were watching this episode.
@@slanetroyard92 I must have been getting candy, Cause I watched this episode for the first time at like age 25. Blew my mind. Don't even ask me how I understood episode 16 without watching this one. No clue.
there's a moment in the fight where hama blasts katara with water and katara stands her ground and blocks, like an earthbender would, instead of pushing and pulling the water around her, like a waterbender would. like iroh says in bitter work, it's combining the techniques of your own bending with another that makes you a true master
Perhaps that speaks to the philosophical disagreement between Katara and Hama as well. Hama is in a twisted way fighting like a traditional waterbender, using the opponent's strength against them, redirection, manipulation, and sabotage, to the point where Hama is literally possessing her "enemies" like a demon and forcing them to fight each other. I think Katara was so digusted by discovering the real Hama, that she chose to fight in a style distinct from Hama, like an earthbender, standing her ground, refusing to yield or run, facing her opponent head on.
Katara seems to be really good at the philosophy of taking other bending techniques [SPOLIERS FOR FINALE (they have already finished on Patreon, so not worried in that regard)] pretty sure Katara's final move in the big fight is based on firebending's "breath of fire" that we see Zuko use to keep himself warm on several occasions.
Right after Katara & Toph had a bonding episode as well.1000 points for characterization
No, he said, "it is the combination of four elements in one person that makes the Avatar so powerful".
@@windygrass9807and he said to Zuko "and it can make you more powerful too." It can strengthen any bender.
One interesting aspect of this episode that goes mostly unnoticed is how much bigger and greater the southern water tribe was before the Fire Nation took all of their water benders.
Maintaining a city made of ice without water benders is most definitely too great of a task.
Yeah, it is something to note
They've grown a lot in legend of Korra, my guess is there are more villages but they spread out and hid in a number of smaller villages when they had no benders to protect them.
@@DaDunge The Southern Water Tribe has always been the Southern Water Tribes and the North was always the Northern Water Tribes as well I believe. Throughout the war, all the Northern Tribes banded together and had an isolation policy which protected them. The Southern Tribe was always much more scattered throughout their history and in the comics taking place after the show, it talks about all the other villages and introduces twin girls that are somewhere between 8-10 that are waterbenders as well but they've always kept it hidden. If I remember correctly there are a couple other southern waterbender still out there alive as well as I remember a man who survived the raids to went into exile to protect the tribes and a young boy who's mother is a pirate or something. Katara was known as the last southern waterbender due to some specific things that are mentioned in the show later in this season but I won't go into it so as to not spoil it for our reactors.
Yes! Equating blood bending to the unforgivable curses is how i feel. So many people write off katara's conflict and consider it a power boost, but it's also so ethically wrong
I get that, but I consider how it can help people such as stopping someone from bleeding out or something similar but yeah it has more potential to be abused. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if bloodbending was already known to both the tribes prior to the war but the south forgot about it due to their culture and heritage being destroyed and the north tightly regulating it and keeping knowledge of it hidden and the south probably did the same before all the raids. Due to the long history of the avatar world, I just kind of imagine some waterbender had to of stumbled upon it before this time period. Then again, it takes a really powerful waterbender to do it and metalbending wasn't discovered until Toph with Earth so I don't know.
I know from Kyoshi's novels that she at least learns a waterbending healing technique to lower a wounded person's body temperature so low as to slow down their heart rate just shy of stopping it. It's very cool
This is basically why professor X imposes a long list of rules on every telepath in the X-Mansion.
The Imperious curse.
Katara: Learning my heritage would mean everything to me!
Hama: Here's some evil I made up lol
The girl at the front of the villagers watching Hama get taken captive was not Katara's mom; it was Kanna, her and Sokka's Gran Gran. She and Hama were close friends.
Kya and her friend Nini weren't even alive when Hama was taken captive. She says that it was "sixty years ago." That is, unless we want to imagine Katara and Sokka were born to a 60-65 year old woman. In that case, Hakoda must _really_ be into cougars.
Every reviewer forgets this Story takes place over 150 years when including flashbacks. Longer if you count Kyoshi.
I'm now wondering about something I'd never thought about : what's the proportion of waterbenders in a normal Water tribe population ? Even if the water tribe we see in the beginning of the show is represented as smaller than it is, how big is it when Katara is born ? Do benders tend to have more bender children than non-benders do, explaining why she's the only one of her generation ? Were any other benders around before her mom died in the last raid ? That would mean there are younger Southern benders than Hama, possibly imprisoned in these same prisons.
I need to go read the comics to see if they addressed that, I'd imagine one of Zuko's first acts of government would have been to free them, meaning Katara would have known other Southern benders, and rebuilt the Southern bending culture with them.
Literally my favorite episode in the series.
BIG call. It's definitely a standout in an absolutely jam packed season 🙌🏼
same
One of my favorites for sure.
Literally or figuratively?
It's a contender 😮
Katara when stopping hama, and arched her water attack, she used an earth bender stance. Then used water and air to twist the water to flip her.
She is using different attacks and stances and forms from other nations.
Yes! The look on Hama's face when she does that is so perfect! She's never fought a waterbender using an earthbender technique! She was expecting Katara to try to deflect or turn Hama's attack back on her. Instead, she blocked it like a boss!
"air"? What air?
I think they portrayed the deep scars of war really good in this one. First victims of war then becoming war criminals themselves. Happens all the time. Also Hama's line with "brothers and sisters" makes so much sense and that's why Katara trusted her blindly: they're from a tribe culture and like Iroh said while describing the other nations to Zuko, they usually feel a deep connection to each other, like relatives. Ironically Sokka stands a bit out here due to his more pragmatic nature 😅
And because all the other airbenders are eliminated, Aang will never experience what happens when he trusts his own people blindly, even when they’re corrupted. Katara can relate to Aang on what it’s like to lose family, but Aang will never relate to Katara on how it feels to be tricked by her own kin.
This episode, in combination with 'The Southern Raiders', is such good storytelling for Katara. Love it
A great episode, Blood Bending is crazy! When I was younger, and for a long time, I always thought the Fire Nation imprisoning waterbenders was a Nickelodeon kid thing. As in, they can't say they just killed them or anything(even though that's exactly what happened with the Airbenders). But relatively recently, I realized that it 100% makes sense. The Fire Nation was assuming the Avatar(Aang) was dead and was reborn as a Waterbender. It was the smart move to capture, imprison, and keep them alive for as long as possible. That's great writing and great worldbuilding.
This third season is the reason why ATLA is universally acclaimed - it just keeps getting better and better and better every single episode, every single season. Chad, I highly recommend you have them watch the four-episode show finale as a single feature-length movie, because it basically is one.
Can't fully blame Hama for what she did and kind of understand the motivation here. I love the explanation especially after katara says "i don't know if i want that kind of power" she replies "the choice is not yours. the power exist". i think very cool line and fully explains the motivation here.
Imagine meeting someone with your background and offering to teach you an art that you love. Then having them pervert it and forcing you to pervert it yourself.
This episode is the perfect example of how unhealed trauma can lead to vengeful anger. It happens more often than not that former victims end up becoming abusers
I’ve been waiting for Maple to be vindicated for her blood bending comment since the BEGINNING of this reaction series, so happy you got what you wanted, even though it’s so sick and twisted LOL
Hama: "It was *SIXTY* years ago when the raids started."
Every Reactor seeing Gran Gran: "Is that Katara's mom?"
Everyone's initial thought must be Hakota going after them cougars
Maple's arc is complete. LOL I remember when she basically called it so long ago and I was so thrilled for her. haha it's a terrific episode, one of the best in the series. A spooky tale that amounts to quite a bit of growth for Katara's character, showing her that reaching the apex of even waterbending has a price to paid, and demands responsibility.
And plus it's just such a cool way to build onto the lore of waterbending. I love how every element, when mastered to a certain degree, becomes incredibly dangerous to the point of either killing the user - or demands such a level of cruelty to discover that it can straight up make you a monster.
I'd say more, but then I'd be talking about Legend of Korra and I don't want to hurt the chances of you guys going in blind to that.
I've been looking forward to this episode ever since Maple predicted blood bending way back in season 1!
By the way Hama is the reason why kattaras mothers was killed and not captured. Firebenders didn't want to risk again capturing Southern waterbenders
how many reactions i’ve watched and this is the first time i’ve seen the reactors fully understanding kataras revulsion and despair at the end 😭
Did you noticed that the move that scared Hama when Katara stood and blocked the water was actually an earth bender technique. Hama had never seen anything like that before and that was what scared her.
Welcome to the infamous Halloween episode.
Hama is such a great character, I honestly don't blame her for what she's done.
She also shares a lot of similarities to Jet. Both were soooo dramatically traumatized by the fire nation that they're were unable to move on. Jet lost both his parents and his home, and he himself wasn't even a bender. Hama was captured and imprisoned with the intent of slowly withering away until death. The only reason Kya was killed was because Hama was able to escape, and they didn't want that to happen again.
Did Hama and Jet go too far in their quest for revenge? Absolutely
But I can't say I blame them, ESPECIALLY Hama!!!
I do blame her for targeting civilians instead of actual soldiers.
"We're not taking prisoners this time"
@hopejaworski9097 I do and don't at the same time. Sozin killed the air nomads who didn't have soldiers in the first place. Thousands of men, women, and children just slaughtered out of fear.
It's all Sozins' fault at the end of the day. Wanting to share your nations prosperity with others isn't a bad thing, but all he REALLY wanted to do was take over the world and claim it for the fire nation.
@@pinicius Hama is the reason they're not taking prisoners.
It's a global war so targeting civilians is to be expected. If the fire nation only loses soldiers in the war then they have the population to try again. Unlike the Earth kingdom.
It hurts my heart every time I see Katara make the choice to do that.
And, to your point of how much they do in such a short runtime: The Tale of Iroh is 4m15s and look how much they did in just that segment.
Host: Kitara is so powerful
Everyone that knew Kitara hadn't met Hama yet: Just you wait....
This was always one of my favorite episodes. Hama is just this crazy talented bender that created a new form of bending due to her captivity, much like Toph. I also love how they made the "blood" bending a moral issue and not just some ultimate power. I also like how Hama used Sokka and Aang against each other to force Kitara to use the technique or watch her friends die. Hama doing one last thing to protect her tribe...by passing down the technique to another Southern water tribe bender.
The "blood" bending would be a "checkmate" situation from everyone but Aang...and even Aang would need to go into the Avatar state to get past that.
Probably the best written episode of the series. I love how the story unfolds. It's crazy they fit so much in less than 30 minutes. This was one of the episodes I was most looking forward to the reaction video of.
In the writer's room, bloodbending was jokingly referred to as the "Why are you hitting yourself" technique.
It was changed because of how terrifying it is.
This is DEFINITELY on my Top 10 Favourite A TLA episodes. Bloodbending would be really good style but it can be used for good and bad. Hama learned to survive, I don’t fault her at all. Her bitterness and taking the people into the mountain was the taking it far part. Although, I see her pain n hurt, in the midst of war. It’s kill or be killed. She chose to kill. She’s badass in my book. Twisted.
I've seen multiple reactors watch this series and these girls always have the best takes, theories, comedic and emotional commentary. I cant wait for the end and see what they do next
funnylilgalreacts is another channel who has been super enjoyable to watch and has great takes too. She’s on season 2 right now
@@dylanholman3 Did she upload the Season 2 premiere yet ?
@@kingjames6948 not on RUclips. She’s four episodes ahead on her Patreon though. It’ll probably be on RUclips in the next couple days.
@@dylanholman3 Oh ok thanks
Honestly my favorite episode it's sick soo AWESOME can't wait for you guys to watch it your gonna love it.
Arianna would be gorgeous as Fire Nation Katara... and I can honestly see Maple in any ATLA cosplay looking just as
I've been excited for y'all to watch this episode ever since Maple mentioned blood bending forever ago.
It's refreshing to see reactors who feel the weight of what Katara learning bloodbending. Most just get hyped about her powering up, but that shit was against her will. Being forced to take away someones will with her ability is the exact opposite of what the team are trying to do
I love Hama. She's such a realistic villain. I think it's easy to stand on a high horse and judge her, but I don't know many people who would come out healthy and mentally sound from years of unjust imprisonment, torture, starvation, filth (not like they let them bathe), and watching your kin slowly die until your only companions are rats. Katara and Sokka lost a lot due to the war, but not on the same scale as Hama. It makes perfect sense that Hama came to be who she is, I just wish she took out her pain and anger on actual soldiers of the fire nation and not innocent civilians.
Also, Hama is not Nini lol. Hama is much older than their mother. Hama is the around the same age as their grandma.
When the old lady says "Congratulations, Katara," I usually cry.
I never thought of bloodbending as one of the unforgivable curses. That just adds to the creep factor.
Hama reminds me a lot of Jet. Immediately forms a connection with Katara, seeks revenge against the fire nation, terrorizes a town of civilians for it.
Also, this episode kind of confirms for me that Katara is the best waterbender in the whole franchise. She learned bloodbending within MINUTES just by learning its possible.
I'm so excited for this
Yes.... it all payed off at the end.
Fellows, thank you for your contribution to keeping our collective mouths shut about this technique.
Everyone that starts watching ATLA: but we have water in our bodies, can a waterbender control us? Like bloodbending?
Us: 😶😏
I love how they both are holding apa stuffed animals
So we talked about pulling knowledge from different sources, the reason why Hama was so shocked at Katara blocking her water strike is because that was actually an earthbending move, to stand your ground. Hama was expecting a classic waterbending move which redirected the water but instead, Katara did the opposite which threw Hama off.
It's more than likely that Hama is the reason Katara and Sokka's mom died. Up until she escaped, the fire nation was content with taking waterbenders prisoner but after Hama they decided it wasn't worth the risk to keep them alive
Yes.
That head of cabbage looked like Gran Gran. 😉
I just love this episode because it’s the first time we’ve seen an evil water bender we’d never had a water villain before this and now we’ve seen the possibility for great evil in each of the extant nations.
I am SO glad this wasn’t spoiled for you, I remember combing the comments on the video where you mentioned blood bending just to make sure no one did any “hint hint, wink wink your question with be answered” kinda shit
This is one of my favorite episodes of the series. Bloodbending is such a dark thing, it's something you think of as a possibility but then when you actually see it it's like OMG they actually went there with it. This is a great episode to include with Halloween episode binging.
Great reaction to a great episode!
I get that the first thought when you learn that Hama's from the water tribe is usually "oh, it's Nini", but the second thought should probably be "wait, Katara and Sokka's mom isn't an old lady" :P
A couple of stories that I remember growing up. one was "Mary, I want my liver back" and the other one is "people lick hands too".
So I know I’m probably late to this, but I’ll go ahead and say this this episode in a way was pretty much a bittersweet. What Hama did was yeah kind of dirty and what she did to Kotara, but at the same time there is some good that came out of it. She now knows how to bend water from air and from every living thing including blood bending so in a way sea learner that there is a dark side to water bending which includes blood bending so in a way this was nothing more than a bittersweet episode. Wow there was some good that came out of it. There is some bad that came out of it that’s why in the legend of Korra, we find out that of course it was forbidden. Either way this just goes to show that water bending is probably one of the most powerful bindings, if not more powerful than any other bending aside from fire, earth and air bending.
Fun fact about the voice actress of Hama, she's the same voice actor of Dot from the Animaniacs lol
I cry almost every time I watch this episode. And thanks to reaction channels I've seen it like 20 times.
There are 3 episodes that always make me cry. The next one is only a few eps away.
Reminds me of...
"...There are two kinds of villains...
"There's the soldier kind that fights you with their body...and then there's the arch villain kind...that fights you with their mind..."
- Mrs. Price/Elijah Price, "Unbreakable"
Waterbender vs Waterbender fights are insanely creative and we see them so rarely. This one is so incredibly creative and really shows off the versatility of the element of water.
I mean its a very interesting circumstance. Listen to what Hama said. She suffered extreme trauma being the last water bender survivor after watching her tribe members one after the other be captured or die. *SIXTY YEARS* That trauma doesn't just disappear and everything is fine. Katara is unofficially carrying ALL of that tribes legacy.
Katara IMO learned techniques to improve her mastery of water bending in this episode, it just wasn't in the manner she probably liked.
Hama acquired this quaint inn years ago when its former owner mysteriously disappeared
Can’t get enough of your reactions 😭 the rest of this season is going to bring you to tears
The Gaang truly rocked those Fire Nation outfits.
Hama isn't Nini. She was taken *sixty* years ago, so that lady with the hair loops is Kanna, the "Gran-gran", and not Kya, Katara's mother.
6:29 that's gran gran. This took place 60 years ago when hanma and the kids grandmother were young and the raids started.
You guys were discussing bending liquid in people's bodies so long ago thinking it would never happen and yet everyone watching was just thinking about this episode.
The great thing about this series is that it shows there is no black and white.
The good guys can be bad, and the bad guys can be good
I can't even that you predicted blood bending in book 2 already.
This episode always scares me so bad but it is so good!
The catowl always gets me ITS A MEOWL 😂❤
11:20 Hama uncontrolled walking after she bloodbending people is making this scene creepier
Been waiting so long for Maple to get to this one!
When you got Tress MacNeille in to voice a guest character, you know it's going to be a great time
Whats really scary is ehat you could do with blood bending had this not been a kids show, imagine turning someone's blood to steam or freezing it, or turning it to ice spikes, or ecen ripping the blood out of a person, like hama did to those flowers.
If you are willing you could even use your own blood as a weapon.
I think hama was katara's grandma's friend
3:47 Fun fact: Katara isn't talking about Hama here, she's talking about the cabbage
Once I had mastered the rats, I was ready for the men. .....Seeing witches break out of prison rocks my world.
One of my favorite episodes. I really dig water bending the most. Blood bending could be used for good, but a darker path, you could rule the world. Muahahahahaha! ...... 😅
Anyways, I enjoyed this as a scary episode. I love it shows dp the Halloween episodes like this. Pure spooky, but all has a meaning and lesson behind it.
Oh man . Can’t wait for more tears 🥲
Might be my favorite episode.
I’ve been waiting for this
Maple did predict this back in the 1st season 😂
Been waiting for this reaction
Its not Katara's mom in the flashback, but it is their grandmother Gran Gran. You can see the same necklace she's wearing is the one Katara wears
I actually knew a person who slept like Sokka was sleeping. He was someone who has Sleep Apnia (just like I do) and his snoring was bad enough, but he was never in the same place for more than an hour at a time. He'd start by being at his bunk, then he'd be on the floor leaning on his bunk, then 5 feet away, then across the room. It was obviously clear he was NOT having a restful sleep. I would hear him stuggling like he was in a fight or something. I even suggested he go to the emergency room and see a doctor to get in touch with the clinic that deals with sleep disorders. Imagine "goin" to sleep in your bed and waking up across the room.
IIRC, the girl Hama sees before she's taken is implied to be Gran Gran
They did good guessing the sub bending types early on.
Imagine youre the firelord and youre like "oh yeah i have wiped out all southern waterbenders" and then there's just two of them on your shore fighting an agbi kai
I’ve been waiting for this since maple guessed
Hama is the only known southern waterbender in existence besides Katara, and was the last known waterbender in the village until Katara was born.
That was almost 50 years without a waterbender at the South Pole.
My question to everyone who watches this episode is a simple, "How would you feel if this were an HBO show where we followed Hama through all of this?" Would it change how you view her? Do you think you'd kinda support her a little more? Be more understanding? Less?
I think of how people view Arya Stark and The Punisher and stories of vengeance and wonder if they would see Hama the same way?
Wouldn't change a damn thing. Hama was still an evil witch. Suffering in life isn't an excuse to make others suffer. Just because Hama was tortured gives her no right to inflict torture on innocent Fire Nation villagers who have no correlation with the military.
This is my favourite episode in the whole series
Katara may seem like she hates all the fire nation but she’s willing to help those in need, including fire nation citizens. I mean the meteor, the pollution and this crazy tragic blood bender. There’s only the ones that hurt others that she hates
One of my favorite episodes from the book 3❤
All I can imagine is, what if hama went back to the southern water tribe, or like the north, and taught this to others. It would make the north and south terrifying
I've been waiting for this since "wouldn't it be morbid if water benders..."
I remember you predicted blood bending 😏.
You said something about air. I will remember that
10:24 a cat owl 🦉. A cowl 😅😂😂😊. Now imagine if a water bender decides to freeze your blood 😮
"What that one children's story?"
"Hansel and Grettle"
you guys are in such sync
Hama sounds like Arnold’s grandma from Hey Arnold
Because of the Year that Hama backstory happens, the person that resembles Katara is not her mother, but Gran-Gran
Great episode!
no thats katara's grandma watching while hama is taken