The lady asked Zuko to do some work to appease his pride. He wouldn't take charity, but him doing some roofing work for it would make him feel he earned it and it. It was a nice thing she did :)
20:39 The soldier Gao asked "who are you?" Zuko remembered his mother's parting words 20:07 "No matter how things may seem to change, never forget *who you are*." What Zuko thought she meant was 20:42 "Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne!" But what she actually meant was 16:48 "That's *who you are*, Zuko, someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard."
I think both are correct. Zuko can be true to himself while also still being proud o his culture and who he is. He cannot be a good leader of the Fire Nation if he views his culture negatively.
@@adamvialpando106 I think that was less about culture and more about status... If you listen to what he said, it has little to do with being Fire Nation... He was talking about the royal family...
yes Azula already had psychopathic tendencies as a child, but remember that children generally repeat what they hear from their parents. And if it wasn't from Zukos mother, well you can guess who she's parroting.
Kids tend to emulate the parent they receive more positive feedback from. Azula was a prodigy in battle, and from what we know of Ozai at that point, he likely value physical strength. Azula receiving more approval from her father would likely lead her to emulate other aspects of his personality, such as the opportunistic tendencies and lack of empathy we see him display in this episode.
Yeah at first I was right where Angela is now I thought Azula was pure evil it wasn't until I was older that I realized she has a mental illness and her father is making it worse
Zuko's "Azula always lies" line is something I feel not many reactors think about considering the transition from young Zuko to old Zuko and shows the trauma Azula has on Zuko so seeing you react to that line specifically was nice to see
what's most interesting to me is that i think it's pretty clear that azula *doesn't* always lie. rather, she always says whatever is most to her own advantage. she speaks without regard for truth, concerned only about possible outcomes.
44:42 It's helpful to remember that Azula, unlike Zuko, is tracking the Avatar with the support and backing of the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation. She has a lot more resources at her disposal. Granted, there are limits. They are going through the Earth Kingdom - which is still enemy territory - but Azula can call on support troops and equipment that Zuko never could.
It should also be mentioned that a significant amount of territory of the Earth Kingdom is under full military occupation, getting access to those resources is not that hard when the supply chain is very much active and functioning.
[SPOILERS] Also, I love Zuko... But Azula is simply more capable. She is, like Ozai said, a prodigy. She probably is a genius... Only her ambition, and her temperament, impede her. Something Zuko is, at this point, working out. Talent vs Discipline and work. You can go in life with a head start, but in the end, if you only count on it, you'll be left behind... Which sums up a good part of the difference in skill between Zuko and Azula. Azula never really progress. Zuko went from barely capable firebender as a child, towards someone who can compete with her... To a true master of firebending.
@@gerardlacroix6015 dont discount Zuko's sheer tenacity. Look at what he accomplished with little more resources than his uncle and a Honda Civic of a warship. Imagine how effective he couldve been with proper resources. Azula is the more skilled child.....in the things Ozai deemed worthy. Zuko is an accomplished swordsman and survivalist and has a will of iron. Ozai easily couldve had Zuko act as his personal assassin. The problem is that Ozai at the end of the day values firebending. And, Zuko got to where he was with minimal personal support. He had his mom, and later Iroh. For most of the series thats it.
I think there’s some confusion here. You saw Azula shoot lightning, and then blue flame, and thought the blue flame was lightning. Then someone told you she shoots blue flame, not lightning, but now you think her lightning is also blue flame. To clarify, it’s both; Azula shoots both lightning and blue flame. If the visual is confusing, she has to wind up for the lightning, with electricity crackling around her, while the blue flame is just normal firebending for her.
It happens in like a split second, but you can see Iroh break his focus for a second when he notices his new friend is with the avatar, and Azula used that moment to strike a distracting blow. So many intricate details in this show.
I think there is a slight misunderstanding: Azula IS able to create lightning. Most of the time she "just" bends blue fire though. The lightning is more like her "power-move".
@@ch33les99 Exactly, that's why Iroh and Ursa and Zuko and everybody else with direct access to Ozai and the Fire Nation propaganda is also a sadistic psycho. Wait...
I think it was mostly how the parents attention was split,Azula got more of the bad stuff from Ozai and trying to get his approval by being like him since she was distant from her mother
It's very subtle subtext, but the reason they offer manual labor to Zuko is because Zuko is too prideful to take hand-outs / charity. They were willing to let him stay for free, but when Zuko shows reluctance the wife notices his pride and offers him a job to fix the roof.
Zuko Alone is one of my favorite episodes of any series to exist. Not to get super personal or corny but when I was watching this show as a kid my mom wasn’t in my life, so I always felt a more personal connection toward Katara and Zuko’s pain, but this episode in particular is when I truly started rooting for Zuko. Even now at 21 years old watching this can bring tears to my eyes, especially knowing the way things in my life have changed, now I have coffee with my mother almost every morning lol
@@greatman5885 in some sects, Jesus is considered to be one and the same with God, so Mother Mary is in some ways God's mother. Not saying it's right or wrong but I believe that's what the commenter was referring to.
Easy to forget that Zuko and Iroh fought like 5 earth bender soldiers at once. Iroh was mostly naked and its super easy to be distracted by that example of the peak male body like that. 😂
'Zuko Alone' shows the first time Zuko tried to be a good guy... and he's punished for it. One of the most daring lessons of this show is that sometimes doing what is right harms you, but you must do it anyway. In 'The Chase', if you zoom in at the moment everyone attacked Azula, you can see she manually deflected Sokka's boomerang, and afterwards shielded herself against the elements; she only managed to hurt Iroh because he was distracted due to noticing Toph amongst the Gaang.
Zuko was hurting so much when Iroh got hurt, Zuko was probably also blaming himself quite a lot, so, a really tough barrier for him to lower and let the others help. I think.
Azula was Ozai’s favorite, thus she spent more time with him and trying to live up to his expectations and learned her “compassion” from him. I imagine most of the things she says in that flashback are actually things she’s heard Ozai say and since he’s the parent she has the biggest connection to so she takes it as fact. At least, that’s my interpretation of everything she says. Kids like to repeat things their parents say as fact after all. But since Ozai didn’t want anything to do with Zuko, he got to spend more time with his mom. That’s the main difference between the siblings.
Something small I love about this episode, and this season as a whole, is how it shows both the good and the bad of the Earth Kingdom. Like with Chin the Conqueror a few episodes ago or that general in the premiere and now these soldiers we learn that just because someone is on the "good guys" side it doesn't make them good. It's rare for a show aimed at kids from the early 2000s to show such nuance.
**Azula does her Zuko impression** **Angela laughs** Angela: That's not funny. Azula: You can laugh. It's funny. The timing on all that could not have been more perfect.
These videos are the highlight of my week, especially while starting the most insanely stressful job. It was hilarious when you were crying and you were like they can’t just have this music playing at the end hahaha
Ursa was obviously an excellent mom to Zuko, but I like how you picked up on the fact that we never see her being warm or motherly to Azula. Obviously much of that is self inflicted, because Azula was a little terror and needed discipline and obviously her father wasn't going to do it. What else could Ursa do but try to contain her daughter however she could? But you know as a child Azula saw her mom being kind to Zuko and stern with her and resented it. In the long run it probably only drove Azula to seek her father's approval more, and as we can see what Ozai touches he breaks. Azula never really got the opportunity to be anything but a monster (again, mostly self inflicted, but still sad).
But still even if azuka was really bad and being a brat she is a child and ursa is and adult you can't really blame the child her and all of azulss behavior comes from ozai ursa must have known its ozais fault but never talked to her about it just scolds her One example when zuko throws bread at the turtle ducks ursa doesn't scolds him rather asks him why and explains him why it was wrong we see azula act out very wrong many times but ursa just scolds her not explaining or asking why she's saying or behaving like that imagine hiw ursa would have responded to azula throwing bread at the turtle duck she would scold her again its pretty clear that zuko was ursas apple while azula was ozais
@@OrdinaryCritic yes she is 🤣🐐 I love that she is complex as a female character she's well written not like other female characters who are like very emotional and empathetic she's different which makes her as a character really interesting
@@azulabluewarrior I mean, it's also further explained in the comic books that Ozai physically separated Ursa from Azula for much of Azula's childhood, so she never had much of a chance to raise Azula in that same way she raised Zuko.
I love how Sokka is throwing his boomerang at Azula here. It might not have been intentional, but to me it show that he does not see himself as someone less compared to all these powerful benders. Even though Toph making fun of him earlier. Just a couple of months ago he got backhanded by Zuko, and now he's fighting on par with some of the most powerful out there.
I think Zuko Alone was an exceptional episode at showing to the viewers his sense of honour and justice without the baggage of his quest to capture the Avatar. For viewers who hadn't seen it before, I think the episode gave them that first glimpse that he is actually a good guy, just born to the wrong side of a war. It however showed how any potential redemption is going to be difficult since prejudice goes both ways, with how the villagers rejected him despite what he'd done simply for being who he is.
It's worth noting that when Azula was pretending to surrender, she could have chosen to sneak attack any of them. She could have attacked Zuko again, or Aang who had been her target throughout the entire episode. No, she made a tactical decision. The biggest threat of the entire group was Iroh.
Well, also Iroh was distracted after noticing Toph with the group. Everyone else had their focus on Azula, but Azula took advantage of Iroh splitting his focus
I heard someone say that Iroh is the only person who is perfectly balanced as a character. It's symbolized through his love of tea. To make tea you need all four elements. you need water, fire to boil it and herbs from the earth, and air to breathe in its scent. It's the shows way of showing how he brings balance and harmony to everything Iroh touches. That's why I love Iroh's character so much.
Okay but can we talk about how freakishly good Zuko is at just about everything he does besides firebending? He humbles a whole Earth kingdom security watch in this episode, most of them without even bending. He's also an expert with the dual broadswords, skilled at parkour, and a competent sailor. He can break metal chains with a mere kick, he can hold his breath for several minutes in freezing arctic waters, he infiltrated a major Fire Nation stronghold and broke out again, he broke into the most sacred hallow of the Northern Water Tribe, and he carried another person through a whole damn blizzard by sheer force of willpower. He's survived ambushes and assassination attempts, and he can reliably hold his own against a true master airbender in combat. He even plays the tsungi horn! And hell, he's not even *bad* at firebending; he beat Zhao in a duel, and we know Zhao was well-respected by his peers. And yet, Zuko's convinced that he's an underdog. His father treated him like trash, simply because he's a less talented firebender than Azula.
Starting this series out, I don't imagine any viewer felt they needed a tragic Zuko Western. But as it turns out, we did need that. Also, props to the family father for being the best background character ever. And also, it takes five expert benders, plus Sokka, to fight Azula to a standstill. She's crazy.
I would argue she was brought to a stand still before Iroh actually joined... and 3 of those benders were sleep deprived but yeah... she's utterly broken the power scale at this point, so has her team honestly.
See, one reason I love Uncle Iroh is because not everyone who tragically loses their beloved son chooses to see their own faults be kind and good to others. Especially when they’ve been raised in a nation that’s been conquering for 100 years. I love how patient and caring Iroh is towards Zuko. Also love the moment between Toph and Iroh! It’s so sweet!
I swear, it's almost like you had this show figured out already or the show somehow got someone exactly like you to write out what they want for the progress of the show. You're so insightful.
Zuko's mom story is only availlable in the manga/book but there is also video on youtube of people reading the story by showing the picture of the manga for people who want to know without reading.
seeing young Azula and hearing Ursa say "What is wrong with that child?" after reading the newly-released Azula in the Spirit Temple, man...just hit me in the feels.
Zuko Alone is a beautifully tragic episode, and it also teaches both Zuko and the viewer an important lesson. Redemption can't be achieved with one grand gesture. You can earn it, but you really have to work for it. You can't fix everything you've done wrong in your life by doing one thing right, a message that media is all too guilty of sending all the time.
I also like how it shows us that even if you do seek to redeem yourself, the people you hurt may not forgive you. You could turn your life around and become a saint, and the people you hurt still would not owe you forgiveness.
The fight in the ghost town is my favorite fight in the whole series. Zuko v Aang v Azula, toph coming back, Iroh teaming up with them. The part where Aang, Azula, and Zuko rush into that house is such a great way to characterize everyone with some quick action. The fight has a freakin mexican standoff for God's sake it's so bad ass.
I typically skip intros for reactors who watch ATLA for the first time because it's always so brief or a recap of what I already know but I'm always looking forward to yours and the analysis / outro afterwards! Even if you're just midway in the series you really pick up on character and plot points which just enriches the watching experience for me! Plus I love you always siding with Zuko now ♡
6:53 While I guess it's debatable whether the character is _completely_ evil, Mark Hamill voiced what is still for me the definitive version of Batman's most iconic villains: the Joker. From Batman: The Animated Series through all of the DC Animated Universe, the Batman: Arkham _____ games and more.
Even in the last couple years, Mark Hamill has voiced an evil ice wizard pirate named Shiver Jack in the Disney kid's show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Clearly, after being the heroic paragon Luke Skywalker, he's decided to cackle maniacally for the rest of his life.
I have been WAITING for you to get to these episodes. Some of my favorites in the whole series When Zuko doesn't let Katara heal iroh, I always took as he's afraid and trying to protect iroh rather than pride. Katara and the gaang have always been enemies and his only supportive father figure is injured. I think he was too scared to let himself trust Katara
Something that I like to keep in mind regarding "What is wrong with Azula?" is that, while some of her personality is likely genetic predisposition (as is her aptitude for firebending), every single quality about her that we as the viewer dislike has more or less been actively encouraged and rewarded by Ozai - something that the show has already alluded to. It's entirely possible that Azula would still be mean, cruel, and manipulative even if Ozai was removed from the equation, but I truly believe that she wouldn't be as terrible if Ozai was actually a good father and role model. It obviously doesn't excuse her actions (at least, not entirely), but it makes it easier to understand why she is the way she is.
So some puzzle pieces you might have missed; At the beginning of the episode, Ursa shows Zuko a lesson about the lengths mothers go to protect their children. Later she enters the room right after Azula tells Zuko that the Fire lord wants to get rid of him as punishment. That night, Ursa comes to Zuko in the middle of the night to encourage him, and then disappears completely. The Firelord is found dead that morning. They paint a pretty clear picture of what happened.
Unfortunately Ursa's story isn't covered in the animation, but it is told in a great graphic novel that takes place after the series. You should definitely pick it up, it's really good.
I just realised that whatever Azula says, Ozai either repeats or validates soon after. Thing this is proof of the amount of time he spent poisoning her mind and converting her into the perfect tool and pawn. Very interesting. I also wonder if he used her to spy around the palace.
I might be reading too deep into it but I think the boys father doesn't wanna dig into Zuko's past because of his scar. He probably thinks he's an Earth Kingdom soldier who deserted. Ironically the scar his father gave him gives him the perfect cover to fit in with Earth Kingdom people. But also according to current psychology some people become sociopaths or psychopaths via trauma but sometimes they were just born that way. Usually its trauma but Azula is an example of a true blue psycho. Born and bred.
Either an Earth Kingdom soldier who deserted, or an Earth Kingdom citizen who lost his family to the war, perhaps the sole survivor of a fire nation attack. Both things someone wouldn't want to talk about, for obvious reasons. Yes, the scar gives him the perfect cover since it's pretty recognizable that it was caused by a fire attack to the face. I believe it's why Jet recognized a kindred spirit, or so he thought, when he met Zuko later.
I'm so glad you picked up the big sister- little sister energy from Toph and Katara, since that's what the creators were going for exactly. Even right down to low brow insults that go a bit too far, like the " Stars sure are beautiful, too bad you can't SEE them" is a double oof.
One thing to keep in mind is the vast majority of the world in this Universe is the Earth Kingdom. The land is huge, Aang, Katara, and Sokka spent most of last season in the Earth Kingdom as they traveled to the North Pole.
The more interested you got in Zuko, the more I was waiting for the 'Zuko Alone' episode! A tip about Azula, while her lighting and blue fire can sometimes be visually similar the sound is always distinct. So that can be a way for you to tell the two apart.
I love the whole wandering Ronin thing they had going on in Zuko Alone. The Fire Nation already has a very heavily Japanese inspired aesthetic and culture, and making Zuko a Ronin type character for that episode was so good. Loved the western/samurai movie vibe of it too.
8:20 Never thought about it before but I think these earth bending circles are the remains of a battlefield from before the earth kingdom retreated to Ba Sing Se.
My favorite piece of character building in the show, is when Zuko is knocked out by the earth bender thug, and he flashes back to his mom, who tells him to never forget who he is. What i think she means, is that Zuko is inherently a good person, but in Zuko's mind, he instantly reverts to firebending, and declaring that he's prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne. He's forever chasing his fathers approval.
Wow, never thought of that. Also I think it is important for him to not be ashamed of being fire nation prince. It's easy to start blaming yourself for the sufferings your country brought to another one. But being from fire nation and even being the heir to the throne doesn't necessarily mean being bad or supporting what firelords have done. I think for Zuko it's more like accepting the facts. He's a firebender and he's the heir to the throne.
Agreed. His mom also said "that's who you are, Zuko, someone who keeps fighting, even though it's hard" at 16:48. I think she was more specifically referring to that.
Toph also being blind is a huge reason as to why she coulnd't help do most of the things they want help with. Although asking her nicely to build a fire pit of sorts with stone seating doesn't seem unreasonable.
21:18 sociopathic tendencies, mostly. I think Ozai saw himself more in Azula than he did in Zuko and, well, quite literally fanned the flames. I don't know how confirmed it is, but I kinda got the feeling that Azula liked dad's praise over mom's scolding and went to him more.
I don't think it's pride that's causing Zuko to refuse help. He doesn't know Aang and the gang like we do, in his mind they are still enemies. I think he is just genuinly afraid to trust anyone.
Toph's earthbending mastery is implied when Master Yu called her the 'greatest earthbender he's ever seen'. I think there's an element of giftedness in her abilities that gives her an advantage against most earthbending masters too
So, that whole "I have to WAIT for the next episode???" feeling? That may happen a few times before the end of the series. Also, you may want to have the tissues ready at some points. Sometimes happy tears, sometimes sad tears. Not every episode, but this series is very good at tugging at certain emotions!
Now I'm all excited for Bitter Work and the following run, from Blind Bandit on to the finale this season is unrelentingly great. Zuko Alone is the best episode possibly of the series. I'm so exited for us ;)
Funny little detail. When everyone shoots their bending attack at Azula, if you slow down the scene you'll notice a boomerang flying in😂!! Sokka is the 🐐.
You know what, I’ve become to appreciate the squabbles and disagreement they have. They are children, traveling the world all alone. It gives the whole thing more realism. Their behaviors matches so well with their age.
The Blind Bandit followed by Zuko Alone is one of the great one-two-punches in television history. Edit: Not to discount The Chase, which is a fantastic episode in its own right. (And hell, the next episode after this one is one of my favorites of the entire series. Maybe it's easier just to acknowledge that this stretch of Season 2 is absolutely incredible all around.)
@@chrisbergsten1429I always say to people that starting from The Blind Bandit, the show basically never slows down again, at least in Season 2. Banger after banger after banger of an episode without fail. Seriously, if you look at the episode list after The Blind Bandit, sure enough it's basically all of the best episodes in Season 2 back to back to back 😁
The question about what happened to Azulon is tricky to answer in terms of spoilers. It's more explicitly stated later, but it's all shown in the episode. Also, if you go back to "The Storm" Azula was in the flashback where Zuko's face was burned. Iroh looked away, she just stared and smirked.
The reason they git him to do work before food is so he wouldnt refuse if thwy just offered food zukos pride would have him refuse nut by making it a exchange instead it made zuko less likely to refuse
Zuko Alone is one of my fav episodes in the whole series because as we can see in this ep, Zuko is doing what he thinks is right by trying to do something good. In the flashback, Zuko tried to please his father and grandfather by showcasing his firebending skills, ofc they got mad bc Zuko isn't a prodigy. Then we have Zuko using firebending to save Lee from those eatrth kingdom thugs, and ppl still get mad and treat zuko as if he's an outcast. Basically, no matter what zuko does, ppl who will always get mad or are afraid of him.
You still seem confused about Azula's bending. She can do two different things: 1. she can shoot lightning, but this is an attack that takes a while to do, she can't just do it out of nowhere. And 2. she can do standard firebending, but her flames have blue color. You are trying to mix these into one, but these are two completely different types of attacks. Watch her fighting more closely and you will see the difference.
7:00 "I don't think Mark Hamill would play a completely evil person" The thing that he is most famous for after Star Wars is voicing the Joker for years.
Im so excited to see your reactions for the rest of this season. Several episodes in this season are just absolutely incredible, and I know you're going to love them
I love your videos, I watched ATLA when it was first on TV and its been awhile since I rewatched it but its fun to see someone else react to it. As for Zuko's mom, we don't learn what happened to her in the show, but there are comics that tell her story
While I consider the seasons of Avatar to get better as the series progresses, Season 2 has some of the best episode segues, Zuko Alone and The Chase being among them. I'm never going to get tired of saying it - Azula is probably one of the most efficient and terrifying antagonists I've ever seen in a series. She's devilishly smart and capable. Why is Azula evil as a child? There is something to ALWAYS remember when watching this series, especially when making certain decisions... they are kids. All of them. Zuko, Azula, Sokka, Katara, Aang (well, he's technically 112 years old, but he spent 100 frozen) Toph, and not to forget Ty Lee and Mai. Zuko is the oldest, and is (I think) 16 years old. Zuko and Azula are children born in the war. While Zuko was strongly influenced by his mother Ursa, a compassionate woman, Azula was mainly influenced by Ozai, who was the opposite. At the beginning of the video you commented something to the effect that you didn't know why the group would go to Ba Sing Se. Just wait. The good thing is that there is no war in Ba Sing Se.
So, while this gets fleshed out a little bit in a later episode, there are enough clues just in this one to piece together the broad strokes of what happened. 1) The first flashback with Ursa at the turtleduck pond has her teach Zuko a lesson about the lengths that mothers will go to protect their children. 2) Her name is "Ursa", meaning "Bear." As in "momma bear." 3) When Ozai asks to be made the new heir, Fire Lord Azulon is furious at the very idea and swears that Ozai will be severely punished for even asking. 4) Azula tells Zuko that Azulon ordered his death in order to punish Ozai. Zuko ASSUMES that this was a lie. 5) Ursa comes in and drags Azula off to "have a talk." 6) The next time she sees him, Ursa sneaks into his room in the middle of the night to say goodbye forever, and she specifically tells him that everything she's DONE was to protect him. 7) The next morning, Ursa is missing and Azulon is dead. 8) It is claimed that Azulon's final wish was making Ozai his heir, even though we JUST saw that the very idea made Azulon furious. So what can we piece together here? Basically, it is heavily implied that Azula was actually telling the truth when she claimed that the Fire Lord had ordered Ozai to kill Zuko. When Ursa drags her off to have a talk, Azula tells her about it, and Ursa acts on this information. Whatever she did, Azulon ended up dead that very night, she claimed to Zuko that what she'd done was to protect him, and Ozai ended up claiming the throne on a false premise. Basically, this was some hard-core Game of Thrones level political backstabbing and bloodshed, but seen through the eyes of a child who didn't understand what was happening, and through the eyes of a teenager who's starting to piece it together. Also, fun fact about Zuko's character here: When Zuko is giving the kid a lesson in using his dual dao swords, he tells him "Don't think of them as separate, because they're not. They are two halves of the same whole." This is actually a subtle commentary on Zuko himself. Don't think of the angry teenager and the sweet, kind boy who loved his mother as separate, because they're not. They are ALSO two halves of the same whole. Zuko himself hasn't realized that yet, but he's heading in that direction.
"She was a child. She was a child. She was a child. But I don't know why." I always assumed that she became a child in the usual way. Okay, I know that isn't what you meant, but it still made me laugh.
The writers and directors of Avatar are masters of "show, don't tell". Within moments of our introduction to Iroh we learned not only who Iroh is, but that the Fire Nation is not completely evil. In Zuko's actions here we see that, even in desperation, he is inherently honorable and is developing sympathy for lives other than his own. The entire cast showed us who they were through their actions, within seconds, without anyone having to say it.
Always look forward to watching these; seeing someone enjoying this series for the first time, a series I've enjoyed time and time again, always makes my heart soar. I'm extremely involved because of your insights into the series and curious to see how you see the events of Book 3!
There’s a really great video on the psychology of Azula on Hello Future Me’s RUclips channel, great watch but there are whole season spoilers so heads up
I doubt she’ll see my response but I heavily second this recommendation and I hope she watches it after the series. Hell I would actually find a reaction to it entertaining. That video is just amazing.
One thing that not a lot of people bring up about this show is that they don't portray the Earth Kingdom as the helpless and pure victims, but as a nation with its own internal contradictions and problems, they are all people, and people are as good as they are fucked up. Also, this is very much a headcanon of mine, but I have the feeling the dad of that kid knew who Zuko was all along.
that's what I like about Korra either. Solid and realistic political conflicts (especially s4 which was built on s3) as much as I don't like many things about Korra the complexity and depth was always there
It’s difficult to know how the father would have reacted since he wasn’t there, but it’s very possible (not certain of course) that his own reaction would not be as negative… Both courses could have gone either way believably.
This isn't a spoiler, just wanted to correct this point: It's sort of implied from the dialogue that Ursa had some part to play in Ozai's rise to power, and Azulon's death. Her saying "Everything I've done, I've done to protect you" to Zuko, after we're told that Fire Lord Azulon ordered Ozai to kill Zuko is implying that Ursa killed him to save Zuko's life. Not Azula, who would instead probably celebrate if Zuko were gone lol.
If you're interested in finding out about the psychology of Zuko and Azula then there are two videos by the channel 'Hello Future Me' that I'd highly recommend. Just wait until you finish the series first, otherwise there will be spoilers. Also, they might be hard to watch because of the subject matter, so just a heads up there. If you can watch them though, they're really enlightening.
![Zuko Alone | AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER [2x7 & 2x8] (REACTION)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_e0CRKQNhBM/mqdefault.jpg)
The lady asked Zuko to do some work to appease his pride. He wouldn't take charity, but him doing some roofing work for it would make him feel he earned it and it. It was a nice thing she did :)
Super nice considering how bad he was at it
Also shows how sensible and cunning that couple was... I wonder what kind of history they have.
@@Thelaretus if you read the book or watch the movie Shane you can get a good idea because this resembles that story a great deal
@@vincegamer Noted!
@@vincegamer Oh wow, I didn't even think of the connection to _Shane._ It's been YEARS since I've watched that movie, I should rewatch it.
20:39
The soldier Gao asked "who are you?"
Zuko remembered his mother's parting words 20:07 "No matter how things may seem to change, never forget *who you are*."
What Zuko thought she meant was 20:42 "Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne!"
But what she actually meant was 16:48 "That's *who you are*, Zuko, someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard."
I think both are correct. Zuko can be true to himself while also still being proud o his culture and who he is. He cannot be a good leader of the Fire Nation if he views his culture negatively.
@@adamvialpando106
I think that was less about culture and more about status...
If you listen to what he said, it has little to do with being Fire Nation...
He was talking about the royal family...
@@The5armdamput33 Because that is who he is. He cannot run from it. He has to embrace it. Both sides of him are important.
great point
@@adamvialpando106"Do not think of them as separate, because they aren't. They are two halves of the same whole."
yes Azula already had psychopathic tendencies as a child, but remember that children generally repeat what they hear from their parents. And if it wasn't from Zukos mother, well you can guess who she's parroting.
Also, knowing that her mother thinks she's a monster didn't help her get any better. That's also why she hates Zuko so much.
Kids tend to emulate the parent they receive more positive feedback from. Azula was a prodigy in battle, and from what we know of Ozai at that point, he likely value physical strength. Azula receiving more approval from her father would likely lead her to emulate other aspects of his personality, such as the opportunistic tendencies and lack of empathy we see him display in this episode.
Yeah at first I was right where Angela is now I thought Azula was pure evil it wasn't until I was older that I realized she has a mental illness and her father is making it worse
@@kryptonianguest1903 shh that hasn't been revealed yet
@@lordfoul6259 Are you sure? I thought that was this episode.
10:30 I love the touch that Zuko is terrible at nailing things because he's a prince and obviously has never swung a hammer.
Zuko's "Azula always lies" line is something I feel not many reactors think about considering the transition from young Zuko to old Zuko and shows the trauma Azula has on Zuko so seeing you react to that line specifically was nice to see
what's most interesting to me is that i think it's pretty clear that azula *doesn't* always lie. rather, she always says whatever is most to her own advantage. she speaks without regard for truth, concerned only about possible outcomes.
Zuko alone is one of my all time favorite episodes of any show
I’ve been looking forward to Zuko Alone. Now we’re just waiting for, “that episode.”
I have several favorites but the number 1 is Zuko. His story from the beginning to the end of this series is interesting.
You mean "pair of episodes", right? I can't wait either.
It's the only episode in the entire series that doesn't have Aang in it.
@@McBeelzebub Those two episodes are back to back too...
44:42 It's helpful to remember that Azula, unlike Zuko, is tracking the Avatar with the support and backing of the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation. She has a lot more resources at her disposal. Granted, there are limits. They are going through the Earth Kingdom - which is still enemy territory - but Azula can call on support troops and equipment that Zuko never could.
It should also be mentioned that a significant amount of territory of the Earth Kingdom is under full military occupation, getting access to those resources is not that hard when the supply chain is very much active and functioning.
We also learn later that there are fire nation colonies in the earth kingdom. So supplies could easily go through those.
unlike Zuko, Azula is better in troops managing, she use fear to do it but still better than Zuko at this point
[SPOILERS]
Also, I love Zuko... But Azula is simply more capable. She is, like Ozai said, a prodigy. She probably is a genius... Only her ambition, and her temperament, impede her. Something Zuko is, at this point, working out. Talent vs Discipline and work. You can go in life with a head start, but in the end, if you only count on it, you'll be left behind... Which sums up a good part of the difference in skill between Zuko and Azula.
Azula never really progress. Zuko went from barely capable firebender as a child, towards someone who can compete with her... To a true master of firebending.
@@gerardlacroix6015 dont discount Zuko's sheer tenacity. Look at what he accomplished with little more resources than his uncle and a Honda Civic of a warship. Imagine how effective he couldve been with proper resources. Azula is the more skilled child.....in the things Ozai deemed worthy. Zuko is an accomplished swordsman and survivalist and has a will of iron. Ozai easily couldve had Zuko act as his personal assassin. The problem is that Ozai at the end of the day values firebending. And, Zuko got to where he was with minimal personal support. He had his mom, and later Iroh. For most of the series thats it.
I think there’s some confusion here. You saw Azula shoot lightning, and then blue flame, and thought the blue flame was lightning. Then someone told you she shoots blue flame, not lightning, but now you think her lightning is also blue flame. To clarify, it’s both; Azula shoots both lightning and blue flame. If the visual is confusing, she has to wind up for the lightning, with electricity crackling around her, while the blue flame is just normal firebending for her.
It happens in like a split second, but you can see Iroh break his focus for a second when he notices his new friend is with the avatar, and Azula used that moment to strike a distracting blow. So many intricate details in this show.
Yeah, a great observation!
“Mark Hamill wouldn’t voice someone completely evil!”
30 years of playing The Joker means nothing, apparently 😂
Got me dying over here when I heard that 😂
I thought the same thing. I don't know if she knows or anyone has told her that he has been enjoying that role for years.
Well, btw Joker is not someone completely evil)
@@Appleman291 I beg you to find an instance where he’s not.
@@Appleman291he is wtf😂
I think there is a slight misunderstanding: Azula IS able to create lightning. Most of the time she "just" bends blue fire though. The lightning is more like her "power-move".
She needs to fill up her ult bar first.
Between Suki, Yue, and Ty Lee, Sokka's game proved to be effective in every current country of this world.
Toph 😏
@@Taiga-16That's right, Toph forms a crush on Sokka as well.
Opal would have loved him too
Last episode when you said Zuko needs to be alone and work in a field to see how normal people struggle...I was like wow that's what's gonna happen. 😂
Same.
Azulon: You must know the same pain of losing your first born son!
Ozai: Yeah ok sure
I love how in the intro she says no one is truly evil only to immediately be shown Azula being just as psychotic as kid as she was now lol
😂
Yeah but to be fair a good amount of that is due to Ozais parenting and general fire nation propaganda
@@ch33les99 Exactly, that's why Iroh and Ursa and Zuko and everybody else with direct access to Ozai and the Fire Nation propaganda is also a sadistic psycho. Wait...
I think it was mostly how the parents attention was split,Azula got more of the bad stuff from Ozai and trying to get his approval by being like him since she was distant from her mother
@@TheCryptofHorrors-DerCryptaxisThat is very true! Explains why Zuko took after his mother. Daddy’s girl and momma’s boy
It's very subtle subtext, but the reason they offer manual labor to Zuko is because Zuko is too prideful to take hand-outs / charity. They were willing to let him stay for free, but when Zuko shows reluctance the wife notices his pride and offers him a job to fix the roof.
Zuko Alone is one of my favorite episodes of any series to exist.
Not to get super personal or corny but when I was watching this show as a kid my mom wasn’t in my life, so I always felt a more personal connection toward Katara and Zuko’s pain, but this episode in particular is when I truly started rooting for Zuko. Even now at 21 years old watching this can bring tears to my eyes, especially knowing the way things in my life have changed, now I have coffee with my mother almost every morning lol
You are lucky to have her. Cherish every moment.
A mother is a treasure so beautiful that even God got one for himself.
I'm 50. And this episode . this SERIES still affects me. My children love it; and I expect my grandchildren (if any) will love it as well
@@ThelaretusGod doesn't have a mother...
@@greatman5885 in some sects, Jesus is considered to be one and the same with God, so Mother Mary is in some ways God's mother. Not saying it's right or wrong but I believe that's what the commenter was referring to.
Easy to forget that Zuko and Iroh fought like 5 earth bender soldiers at once. Iroh was mostly naked and its super easy to be distracted by that example of the peak male body like that. 😂
'Zuko Alone' shows the first time Zuko tried to be a good guy... and he's punished for it. One of the most daring lessons of this show is that sometimes doing what is right harms you, but you must do it anyway.
In 'The Chase', if you zoom in at the moment everyone attacked Azula, you can see she manually deflected Sokka's boomerang, and afterwards shielded herself against the elements; she only managed to hurt Iroh because he was distracted due to noticing Toph amongst the Gaang.
Zuko was hurting so much when Iroh got hurt, Zuko was probably also blaming himself quite a lot, so, a really tough barrier for him to lower and let the others help. I think.
Your reactions to this series have been top notch!
Or rather Toph notch!
Azula was Ozai’s favorite, thus she spent more time with him and trying to live up to his expectations and learned her “compassion” from him. I imagine most of the things she says in that flashback are actually things she’s heard Ozai say and since he’s the parent she has the biggest connection to so she takes it as fact. At least, that’s my interpretation of everything she says. Kids like to repeat things their parents say as fact after all. But since Ozai didn’t want anything to do with Zuko, he got to spend more time with his mom. That’s the main difference between the siblings.
Something small I love about this episode, and this season as a whole, is how it shows both the good and the bad of the Earth Kingdom. Like with Chin the Conqueror a few episodes ago or that general in the premiere and now these soldiers we learn that just because someone is on the "good guys" side it doesn't make them good. It's rare for a show aimed at kids from the early 2000s to show such nuance.
**Azula does her Zuko impression**
**Angela laughs**
Angela: That's not funny.
Azula: You can laugh. It's funny.
The timing on all that could not have been more perfect.
Sokka's whole "Nice try but no." had me cracking up hard when I first watched this series as a kid and it still does today.
Katara's "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!!!" Gets me every time 🤣
Same 😅 everytime!
These videos are the highlight of my week, especially while starting the most insanely stressful job. It was hilarious when you were crying and you were like they can’t just have this music playing at the end hahaha
I get it. Same with stressful job 😭
same
Ursa was obviously an excellent mom to Zuko, but I like how you picked up on the fact that we never see her being warm or motherly to Azula. Obviously much of that is self inflicted, because Azula was a little terror and needed discipline and obviously her father wasn't going to do it. What else could Ursa do but try to contain her daughter however she could? But you know as a child Azula saw her mom being kind to Zuko and stern with her and resented it. In the long run it probably only drove Azula to seek her father's approval more, and as we can see what Ozai touches he breaks. Azula never really got the opportunity to be anything but a monster (again, mostly self inflicted, but still sad).
But still even if azuka was really bad and being a brat she is a child and ursa is and adult you can't really blame the child her and all of azulss behavior comes from ozai ursa must have known its ozais fault but never talked to her about it just scolds her
One example when zuko throws bread at the turtle ducks ursa doesn't scolds him rather asks him why and explains him why it was wrong we see azula act out very wrong many times but ursa just scolds her not explaining or asking why she's saying or behaving like that imagine hiw ursa would have responded to azula throwing bread at the turtle duck she would scold her again its pretty clear that zuko was ursas apple while azula was ozais
Azuka is a very complex character, keeps all her trauma to herself. Azulss is goat tho.
@@OrdinaryCritic yes she is 🤣🐐 I love that she is complex as a female character she's well written not like other female characters who are like very emotional and empathetic she's different which makes her as a character really interesting
@@azulabluewarrior I mean, it's also further explained in the comic books that Ozai physically separated Ursa from Azula for much of Azula's childhood, so she never had much of a chance to raise Azula in that same way she raised Zuko.
@@jasonschuler2256 no we never see ozai separating ursa and ozai
I love how Sokka is throwing his boomerang at Azula here. It might not have been intentional, but to me it show that he does not see himself as someone less compared to all these powerful benders. Even though Toph making fun of him earlier.
Just a couple of months ago he got backhanded by Zuko, and now he's fighting on par with some of the most powerful out there.
In the episode "Zuko Alone", Azula wasn't lying. She was telling Zuko the truth.
But since she usually always lies zuko cant tell which is a truth or a lie
Spoiler Alert
I think Zuko Alone was an exceptional episode at showing to the viewers his sense of honour and justice without the baggage of his quest to capture the Avatar. For viewers who hadn't seen it before, I think the episode gave them that first glimpse that he is actually a good guy, just born to the wrong side of a war. It however showed how any potential redemption is going to be difficult since prejudice goes both ways, with how the villagers rejected him despite what he'd done simply for being who he is.
It's worth noting that when Azula was pretending to surrender, she could have chosen to sneak attack any of them. She could have attacked Zuko again, or Aang who had been her target throughout the entire episode. No, she made a tactical decision. The biggest threat of the entire group was Iroh.
Well, also Iroh was distracted after noticing Toph with the group. Everyone else had their focus on Azula, but Azula took advantage of Iroh splitting his focus
^^^ What they said. She didn't think Iroh was the biggest threat, necessarily. She just waited for the first opening she could see and exploit..
@@jasonschuler2256 Oh no. He was. He could have stopped her if he caught her.
I heard someone say that Iroh is the only person who is perfectly balanced as a character. It's symbolized through his love of tea. To make tea you need all four elements. you need water, fire to boil it and herbs from the earth, and air to breathe in its scent. It's the shows way of showing how he brings balance and harmony to everything Iroh touches. That's why I love Iroh's character so much.
Okay but can we talk about how freakishly good Zuko is at just about everything he does besides firebending? He humbles a whole Earth kingdom security watch in this episode, most of them without even bending. He's also an expert with the dual broadswords, skilled at parkour, and a competent sailor. He can break metal chains with a mere kick, he can hold his breath for several minutes in freezing arctic waters, he infiltrated a major Fire Nation stronghold and broke out again, he broke into the most sacred hallow of the Northern Water Tribe, and he carried another person through a whole damn blizzard by sheer force of willpower. He's survived ambushes and assassination attempts, and he can reliably hold his own against a true master airbender in combat. He even plays the tsungi horn! And hell, he's not even *bad* at firebending; he beat Zhao in a duel, and we know Zhao was well-respected by his peers.
And yet, Zuko's convinced that he's an underdog. His father treated him like trash, simply because he's a less talented firebender than Azula.
He is not great at hammering nails, though. But he tries.
@@Elwingish Hit the nail on the head with that one. He didn't.
Yep. His carpentry sucks
@@ElwingishHe’s stubborn enough to nail it, if he really wanted to.
@@ElwingishHe's great for someone who probably never had to do any manual labour in his life.
Starting this series out, I don't imagine any viewer felt they needed a tragic Zuko Western. But as it turns out, we did need that.
Also, props to the family father for being the best background character ever.
And also, it takes five expert benders, plus Sokka, to fight Azula to a standstill. She's crazy.
I would argue she was brought to a stand still before Iroh actually joined... and 3 of those benders were sleep deprived but yeah... she's utterly broken the power scale at this point, so has her team honestly.
4 expert Benders plus an Avatar.
@@dragonrune6800 Well, an Avatar who has only mastered one element at that point.
7:00 "I don't think Mark Hammil would do a completely evil person."
We all laugh in our best Joker voices. 🃏
See, one reason I love Uncle Iroh is because not everyone who tragically loses their beloved son chooses to see their own faults be kind and good to others. Especially when they’ve been raised in a nation that’s been conquering for 100 years. I love how patient and caring Iroh is towards Zuko.
Also love the moment between Toph and Iroh! It’s so sweet!
I swear, it's almost like you had this show figured out already or the show somehow got someone exactly like you to write out what they want for the progress of the show. You're so insightful.
Zuko's mom story is only availlable in the manga/book but there is also video on youtube of people reading the story by showing the picture of the manga for people who want to know without reading.
seeing young Azula and hearing Ursa say "What is wrong with that child?" after reading the newly-released Azula in the Spirit Temple, man...just hit me in the feels.
Zuko Alone is a beautifully tragic episode, and it also teaches both Zuko and the viewer an important lesson. Redemption can't be achieved with one grand gesture. You can earn it, but you really have to work for it. You can't fix everything you've done wrong in your life by doing one thing right, a message that media is all too guilty of sending all the time.
I also like how it shows us that even if you do seek to redeem yourself, the people you hurt may not forgive you. You could turn your life around and become a saint, and the people you hurt still would not owe you forgiveness.
37:23 ; the line "LEAVE!" delivered by Dante Basco was SO guy wrenching. It kills me every time I hear it. There's so much emotion in that one word...
Your reactions to Azula’s pre-mature creepiness are priceless!!! I was thinking and feeling the exact same thing!! 😂😅🤣
The fight in the ghost town is my favorite fight in the whole series. Zuko v Aang v Azula, toph coming back, Iroh teaming up with them. The part where Aang, Azula, and Zuko rush into that house is such a great way to characterize everyone with some quick action. The fight has a freakin mexican standoff for God's sake it's so bad ass.
I typically skip intros for reactors who watch ATLA for the first time because it's always so brief or a recap of what I already know but I'm always looking forward to yours and the analysis / outro afterwards! Even if you're just midway in the series you really pick up on character and plot points which just enriches the watching experience for me! Plus I love you always siding with Zuko now ♡
6:53 While I guess it's debatable whether the character is _completely_ evil, Mark Hamill voiced what is still for me the definitive version of Batman's most iconic villains: the Joker. From Batman: The Animated Series through all of the DC Animated Universe, the Batman: Arkham _____ games and more.
I was thinking the same thing. That man has been enjoying playing the voice of one the most deranged villain of all comic books.
He also isn't exactly heroic in Kingsmen
I thought the same.
not sure if it was a spoof or a villian but he played "THE COCKKNOCKER" in Jay and Silent bob strike back
Even in the last couple years, Mark Hamill has voiced an evil ice wizard pirate named Shiver Jack in the Disney kid's show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Clearly, after being the heroic paragon Luke Skywalker, he's decided to cackle maniacally for the rest of his life.
Tea between my two favorite characters in the series! Such a great scene.
I have been WAITING for you to get to these episodes. Some of my favorites in the whole series
When Zuko doesn't let Katara heal iroh, I always took as he's afraid and trying to protect iroh rather than pride. Katara and the gaang have always been enemies and his only supportive father figure is injured. I think he was too scared to let himself trust Katara
He also isn't even aware she can heal. That said, he probably would have done the same thing anyways.
how is this comment 7 days old if she just posted it
@@DBoone123good question ahaha I think yt is drunk
My guess is it was a Patreon exclusive for a week and that's when they commented on it.@@DBoone123
yt members see episodes earlier@@DBoone123
Something that I like to keep in mind regarding "What is wrong with Azula?" is that, while some of her personality is likely genetic predisposition (as is her aptitude for firebending), every single quality about her that we as the viewer dislike has more or less been actively encouraged and rewarded by Ozai - something that the show has already alluded to.
It's entirely possible that Azula would still be mean, cruel, and manipulative even if Ozai was removed from the equation, but I truly believe that she wouldn't be as terrible if Ozai was actually a good father and role model.
It obviously doesn't excuse her actions (at least, not entirely), but it makes it easier to understand why she is the way she is.
So some puzzle pieces you might have missed;
At the beginning of the episode, Ursa shows Zuko a lesson about the lengths mothers go to protect their children.
Later she enters the room right after Azula tells Zuko that the Fire lord wants to get rid of him as punishment.
That night, Ursa comes to Zuko in the middle of the night to encourage him, and then disappears completely.
The Firelord is found dead that morning.
They paint a pretty clear picture of what happened.
Unfortunately Ursa's story isn't covered in the animation, but it is told in a great graphic novel that takes place after the series. You should definitely pick it up, it's really good.
Came here to say this.
I just realised that whatever Azula says, Ozai either repeats or validates soon after. Thing this is proof of the amount of time he spent poisoning her mind and converting her into the perfect tool and pawn. Very interesting. I also wonder if he used her to spy around the palace.
I might be reading too deep into it but I think the boys father doesn't wanna dig into Zuko's past because of his scar. He probably thinks he's an Earth Kingdom soldier who deserted. Ironically the scar his father gave him gives him the perfect cover to fit in with Earth Kingdom people. But also according to current psychology some people become sociopaths or psychopaths via trauma but sometimes they were just born that way. Usually its trauma but Azula is an example of a true blue psycho. Born and bred.
Either an Earth Kingdom soldier who deserted, or an Earth Kingdom citizen who lost his family to the war, perhaps the sole survivor of a fire nation attack. Both things someone wouldn't want to talk about, for obvious reasons. Yes, the scar gives him the perfect cover since it's pretty recognizable that it was caused by a fire attack to the face.
I believe it's why Jet recognized a kindred spirit, or so he thought, when he met Zuko later.
According to current psychology, sociopath and psychopath aren't diagnosable conditions, actually
"I could have watched at least a half hour more of that."
I say that every time I re-watch the show.
Zuko's arc, is one of my favorite of any series ever. Can't wait for you to see where it goes.
I'm so glad you picked up the big sister- little sister energy from Toph and Katara, since that's what the creators were going for exactly. Even right down to low brow insults that go a bit too far, like the " Stars sure are beautiful, too bad you can't SEE them" is a double oof.
One thing to keep in mind is the vast majority of the world in this Universe is the Earth Kingdom. The land is huge, Aang, Katara, and Sokka spent most of last season in the Earth Kingdom as they traveled to the North Pole.
The more interested you got in Zuko, the more I was waiting for the 'Zuko Alone' episode!
A tip about Azula, while her lighting and blue fire can sometimes be visually similar the sound is always distinct. So that can be a way for you to tell the two apart.
I love the whole wandering Ronin thing they had going on in Zuko Alone. The Fire Nation already has a very heavily Japanese inspired aesthetic and culture, and making Zuko a Ronin type character for that episode was so good. Loved the western/samurai movie vibe of it too.
8:20 Never thought about it before but I think these earth bending circles are the remains of a battlefield from before the earth kingdom retreated to Ba Sing Se.
My favorite piece of character building in the show, is when Zuko is knocked out by the earth bender thug, and he flashes back to his mom, who tells him to never forget who he is. What i think she means, is that Zuko is inherently a good person, but in Zuko's mind, he instantly reverts to firebending, and declaring that he's prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne. He's forever chasing his fathers approval.
Wow, never thought of that.
Also I think it is important for him to not be ashamed of being fire nation prince. It's easy to start blaming yourself for the sufferings your country brought to another one. But being from fire nation and even being the heir to the throne doesn't necessarily mean being bad or supporting what firelords have done. I think for Zuko it's more like accepting the facts. He's a firebender and he's the heir to the throne.
ooh nice, that's a good point. Zuko's pride is a big part of his character.@@xencmo4346
Agreed. His mom also said "that's who you are, Zuko, someone who keeps fighting, even though it's hard" at 16:48. I think she was more specifically referring to that.
Toph also being blind is a huge reason as to why she coulnd't help do most of the things they want help with. Although asking her nicely to build a fire pit of sorts with stone seating doesn't seem unreasonable.
21:18 sociopathic tendencies, mostly. I think Ozai saw himself more in Azula than he did in Zuko and, well, quite literally fanned the flames. I don't know how confirmed it is, but I kinda got the feeling that Azula liked dad's praise over mom's scolding and went to him more.
I don't think it's pride that's causing Zuko to refuse help. He doesn't know Aang and the gang like we do, in his mind they are still enemies. I think he is just genuinly afraid to trust anyone.
Toph's earthbending mastery is implied when Master Yu called her the 'greatest earthbender he's ever seen'. I think there's an element of giftedness in her abilities that gives her an advantage against most earthbending masters too
It goes back to who she learned from
Toph and Iroh are two of my favorite characters in Avatar, and them sitting over tea, chatting? I adore that scene so much.
25:06 lmaoThis will always be one of my favorite lines in the whole show, Katara being an absolute savage.
Zuko and Uncle iroh both having similar but different journeys 😢😂
So, that whole "I have to WAIT for the next episode???" feeling? That may happen a few times before the end of the series.
Also, you may want to have the tissues ready at some points.
Sometimes happy tears, sometimes sad tears. Not every episode, but this series is very good at tugging at certain emotions!
2x7 is considered one of the best episodes. It's also the only episode that doesn't have the main 5
Now I'm all excited for Bitter Work and the following run, from Blind Bandit on to the finale this season is unrelentingly great. Zuko Alone is the best episode possibly of the series. I'm so exited for us ;)
Funny little detail. When everyone shoots their bending attack at Azula, if you slow down the scene you'll notice a boomerang flying in😂!! Sokka is the 🐐.
You know what, I’ve become to appreciate the squabbles and disagreement they have. They are children, traveling the world all alone. It gives the whole thing more realism. Their behaviors matches so well with their age.
The Blind Bandit followed by Zuko Alone is one of the great one-two-punches in television history.
Edit: Not to discount The Chase, which is a fantastic episode in its own right. (And hell, the next episode after this one is one of my favorites of the entire series. Maybe it's easier just to acknowledge that this stretch of Season 2 is absolutely incredible all around.)
@@chrisbergsten1429I always say to people that starting from The Blind Bandit, the show basically never slows down again, at least in Season 2. Banger after banger after banger of an episode without fail. Seriously, if you look at the episode list after The Blind Bandit, sure enough it's basically all of the best episodes in Season 2 back to back to back 😁
The question about what happened to Azulon is tricky to answer in terms of spoilers. It's more explicitly stated later, but it's all shown in the episode.
Also, if you go back to "The Storm" Azula was in the flashback where Zuko's face was burned. Iroh looked away, she just stared and smirked.
Episode 8 and she's already "Poor Appa"
She ain't ready
Shush
What a great weekend, watching my favorite episode on season 2 after back from work
Same
The reason they git him to do work before food is so he wouldnt refuse if thwy just offered food zukos pride would have him refuse nut by making it a exchange instead it made zuko less likely to refuse
Classic tale of Zuko being a momma’s boy and Azula being a daddy’s girl
Zuko Alone is one of my fav episodes in the whole series because as we can see in this ep, Zuko is doing what he thinks is right by trying to do something good. In the flashback, Zuko tried to please his father and grandfather by showcasing his firebending skills, ofc they got mad bc Zuko isn't a prodigy. Then we have Zuko using firebending to save Lee from those eatrth kingdom thugs, and ppl still get mad and treat zuko as if he's an outcast. Basically, no matter what zuko does, ppl who will always get mad or are afraid of him.
You still seem confused about Azula's bending. She can do two different things: 1. she can shoot lightning, but this is an attack that takes a while to do, she can't just do it out of nowhere. And 2. she can do standard firebending, but her flames have blue color. You are trying to mix these into one, but these are two completely different types of attacks. Watch her fighting more closely and you will see the difference.
Zuko's solo story will continue like this, and U will love it.
He will have one of the best /complicated story ark
“I don’t think Mark Hamill would play an evil person,”
Bruh the literal joker you kidding? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
24:35 “Look her sugar queen…” Oh man for a sec I thought she was gonna call sugar something else. 🤣
7:00 "I don't think Mark Hamill would play a completely evil person"
The thing that he is most famous for after Star Wars is voicing the Joker for years.
Im so excited to see your reactions for the rest of this season. Several episodes in this season are just absolutely incredible, and I know you're going to love them
I love your videos, I watched ATLA when it was first on TV and its been awhile since I rewatched it but its fun to see someone else react to it.
As for Zuko's mom, we don't learn what happened to her in the show, but there are comics that tell her story
While I consider the seasons of Avatar to get better as the series progresses, Season 2 has some of the best episode segues, Zuko Alone and The Chase being among them.
I'm never going to get tired of saying it - Azula is probably one of the most efficient and terrifying antagonists I've ever seen in a series. She's devilishly smart and capable.
Why is Azula evil as a child? There is something to ALWAYS remember when watching this series, especially when making certain decisions... they are kids. All of them. Zuko, Azula, Sokka, Katara, Aang (well, he's technically 112 years old, but he spent 100 frozen) Toph, and not to forget Ty Lee and Mai.
Zuko is the oldest, and is (I think) 16 years old. Zuko and Azula are children born in the war. While Zuko was strongly influenced by his mother Ursa, a compassionate woman, Azula was mainly influenced by Ozai, who was the opposite.
At the beginning of the video you commented something to the effect that you didn't know why the group would go to Ba Sing Se. Just wait.
The good thing is that there is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Azula calling Zuko zuzu is just such a great way to give azula that obnoxious little sister energy. I love it
"I don't think Mark Hamill would do someone completely evil..." The Joker.
Episode title: Zuko alone. Lilgal: "Hands down the best episode of the show, I don't need to see the rest. Great finale that was" 🤣
So, while this gets fleshed out a little bit in a later episode, there are enough clues just in this one to piece together the broad strokes of what happened.
1) The first flashback with Ursa at the turtleduck pond has her teach Zuko a lesson about the lengths that mothers will go to protect their children.
2) Her name is "Ursa", meaning "Bear." As in "momma bear."
3) When Ozai asks to be made the new heir, Fire Lord Azulon is furious at the very idea and swears that Ozai will be severely punished for even asking.
4) Azula tells Zuko that Azulon ordered his death in order to punish Ozai. Zuko ASSUMES that this was a lie.
5) Ursa comes in and drags Azula off to "have a talk."
6) The next time she sees him, Ursa sneaks into his room in the middle of the night to say goodbye forever, and she specifically tells him that everything she's DONE was to protect him.
7) The next morning, Ursa is missing and Azulon is dead.
8) It is claimed that Azulon's final wish was making Ozai his heir, even though we JUST saw that the very idea made Azulon furious.
So what can we piece together here? Basically, it is heavily implied that Azula was actually telling the truth when she claimed that the Fire Lord had ordered Ozai to kill Zuko. When Ursa drags her off to have a talk, Azula tells her about it, and Ursa acts on this information. Whatever she did, Azulon ended up dead that very night, she claimed to Zuko that what she'd done was to protect him, and Ozai ended up claiming the throne on a false premise. Basically, this was some hard-core Game of Thrones level political backstabbing and bloodshed, but seen through the eyes of a child who didn't understand what was happening, and through the eyes of a teenager who's starting to piece it together.
Also, fun fact about Zuko's character here: When Zuko is giving the kid a lesson in using his dual dao swords, he tells him "Don't think of them as separate, because they're not. They are two halves of the same whole." This is actually a subtle commentary on Zuko himself. Don't think of the angry teenager and the sweet, kind boy who loved his mother as separate, because they're not. They are ALSO two halves of the same whole. Zuko himself hasn't realized that yet, but he's heading in that direction.
"She was a child. She was a child. She was a child. But I don't know why."
I always assumed that she became a child in the usual way.
Okay, I know that isn't what you meant, but it still made me laugh.
The writers and directors of Avatar are masters of "show, don't tell". Within moments of our introduction to Iroh we learned not only who Iroh is, but that the Fire Nation is not completely evil. In Zuko's actions here we see that, even in desperation, he is inherently honorable and is developing sympathy for lives other than his own. The entire cast showed us who they were through their actions, within seconds, without anyone having to say it.
Always look forward to watching these; seeing someone enjoying this series for the first time, a series I've enjoyed time and time again, always makes my heart soar. I'm extremely involved because of your insights into the series and curious to see how you see the events of Book 3!
There’s a really great video on the psychology of Azula on Hello Future Me’s RUclips channel, great watch but there are whole season spoilers so heads up
I doubt she’ll see my response but I heavily second this recommendation and I hope she watches it after the series. Hell I would actually find a reaction to it entertaining.
That video is just amazing.
One thing that not a lot of people bring up about this show is that they don't portray the Earth Kingdom as the helpless and pure victims, but as a nation with its own internal contradictions and problems, they are all people, and people are as good as they are fucked up.
Also, this is very much a headcanon of mine, but I have the feeling the dad of that kid knew who Zuko was all along.
that's what I like about Korra either. Solid and realistic political conflicts (especially s4 which was built on s3) as much as I don't like many things about Korra the complexity and depth was always there
It’s difficult to know how the father would have reacted since he wasn’t there, but it’s very possible (not certain of course) that his own reaction would not be as negative… Both courses could have gone either way believably.
This isn't a spoiler, just wanted to correct this point: It's sort of implied from the dialogue that Ursa had some part to play in Ozai's rise to power, and Azulon's death. Her saying "Everything I've done, I've done to protect you" to Zuko, after we're told that Fire Lord Azulon ordered Ozai to kill Zuko is implying that Ursa killed him to save Zuko's life. Not Azula, who would instead probably celebrate if Zuko were gone lol.
If you're interested in finding out about the psychology of Zuko and Azula then there are two videos by the channel 'Hello Future Me' that I'd highly recommend. Just wait until you finish the series first, otherwise there will be spoilers. Also, they might be hard to watch because of the subject matter, so just a heads up there. If you can watch them though, they're really enlightening.
I support this recommendation!!!
"Mark Hamill wouldn't play a totally evil character"...
*Joker laugh emanating from the darkness*