*inhales deeply* BOY -
We open with - here's another reminder that these are just kids; Sokka returning from foraging for food and found a handful of nuts and rocks.
They spot a boy earthbending in a nearby quarry, when Katara greets him, he runs off and collapses some boulders behind them.
Haru - the boy - is not supposed to be Earthbending. In the Fire-Nation occupied village (The Gaang goes because "He had to have come from somewhere - and maybe they have a market!" Aang says), his nameless mother says that he can be captured and taken away - like they did his father months earlier.
Katara understands, sharing that she lost her mother in a Fire Nation raid. Oddly, until the very last season, I don't remember Sokka mentioning it that much. It was always a very Katara thing.
Later, when Katara and Haru, with his Earthbending, save an old man stuck in the quarry, the old bastard rats him out, and he's taken in the night.
They stage a fight, and Aang manipulates air currents to make it appear as if Katara is Earthbending so she can be arrested and rescue Haru.
I like how no one asked if Aang could make a pebble levitate or something. He may not be formally trained in it, but being the Avatar, that should be enough to stomp randomly and shoot something up, right?
Also, the guards think that Momo is Earthbending. Would they have arrested a lemur?
The prisoners are taken as labor to a coal quarry shortly off the coast, that's run by.....someone voiced by George Takei.
Besides Zuko and Iroh, I don't remember how many other characters were voiced by people of Asian descent.
He points out how the rig is entirely made of metal, and it's funny how they keep reiterating it, because in sixty years, that won't matter. Hell, next season it'll start becoming moot.
In the movie, the Earthbenders are being held inside a stone quarry and need White!Aang to spur them to action.
What a piece of shit movie.
This entire episode basically sees why Katara is a bit of a counterpart to Aang - if something is her fault, or on her shoulders, she will deal with it, no matter what. She's not running away or being uncertain. That doesn't mean she isn't naive at points - she asks Tyro, Haru's father, what they're doing to escape, and is shocked when his answer is 'Not a damn thing'.
When Aang and Sokka come to get her, Katara refuses to leave until she helps the Earthbenders escape, and the three think up a plan when Aang realizes that the Firebenders are burning coal...
He Airbends the coal to where the Earthbenders can use it, and after Inspiring Words from Katara and some Shady Insults from the Warden, they're encouraged to fight back in what is a far more interesting fight than the live action movie.
After leaving hundreds of Fire Nation soldiers to drown at sea, the prisoners take control of the boats and return home, inspired by Katara - who realizes her mother's necklace is gone.
I wonder who has it?
Ah.
Now I didn't watch this show until years after it ended, but is this where people started shipping Zutara? Probably, right?
Side note; I see Dave Filoni directed this episode. The same Dave Filoni who works on Star Wars Rebels.
Welcome to our first two-parter! It's named rather awkwardly.
Ironic that Winter Solstice is in the Water book - each element in universe corresponds to a season, and Water = Winter.
Oddly I think Earth is Spring. You'd think it'd be fall, would you? Well, I did.
Above, the group spots an ominous-looking blot on the landscape; a portion of the forest has been scorched to bare-bones earth.
Aang feels guilty, feels that he's lacking proper Avatar training because there's no one to teach him ... except Avatar Roku. But how do they contact him?
Katara points out the amount of acorns lying around, and says the forest will grow back in time. An old man comes out and asks for their help. A spirit, Hei Bai, has attacked them for the past three nights, and taken a villager.
It would be especially worse during the Solstice, as the natural and Spirit worlds grow closer. Aang is unsure, he doesn't know what he's doing, and there's no one alive who could help him. Even a hundred years ago, he could have proper guidance by three of the four nations.
Meanwhile, Iron is relaxing in a hot spring when he's captured by Earth Kingdom soldiers, who recognize him as the Dragon of the West.
Also I swear, there's one guy voicing 90% of unnamed soldiers in this show.
In the village, Sokka feels bad about having Aang face a violent spirit alone, but nothing seems to have shown up. Aang gives a rather stiff and officious speech and makes to leave, until Hei Bai finally arrives and begins to destroy things.
"It feels like someone....is trying to tell me something!"
Yep, look at Sokka...being taken by a vengeful spirit into the forest. Nice. Aang tries to reach for him as they ride across the plain of scorched earth - but Hei Bai has taken him into The Spirit World.
Somehow, Aang arrives there too! See, he's blue now!
I feel that, in these first few episodes, there was more detail in Zuko's face than the other characters. Speaking of, here's Iroh and his captors. They haven't given him any clothes besides a loincloth. They're taking him to Ba Sing Se, a large city, the largest, in the Earth Kingdom, where he once laid siege to it for a neat and tidy 600 days.
He leaves a trail for Zuko to follow after chatting the guards up...
Aang is still in the Spirit World when daybreaks, so Katara cannot see him. He cries out, "Avatar Roku, how can I talk to you?!" And because this is no longer the physical realm, his Animal Guide, Fang, pops right out of thin spirit air to deliver Aang to his master, curiously flying over Iroh, who can see them.
& There's no element-bending in the Spirit World. Or bathrooms.
You know, it never hit me until now; Dragons are possibly the least surprising animal to exist in this world. I just never thought too hard about the fact that there are dragons. They're rare, but a dragon is easier to digest than a platypus-bear.
Anyway, Fang gives a lot of information to Aang at once, so let's sum it up;
- If he goes to a Fire Sage temple in x amount of day's time, on the Solstice, at noon, he can talk to Roku for one hour about what will be Sozin's Comet
Katara flies overhead with Appa, giving up and returning to the village, but not before they're spotted by Zuko. So, where does he go? In search of the Avatar (who, by the way, has returned to the physical realm, his body resting upon a statue of the forest spirit), or in pursuit of his uncle?
Surprisingly, he goes after his uncle, and frees Iroh before his hands are crushed in retaliation for an escape attempt. They engage in battle, and due to some creative work on Iroh's behalf, all without Firebending, they're free to leave.
Hei Bai has returned to the village - still angry, and Aang attempts to read its mind, like Fang read his, realizing that this was the forest spirit, who is mad that its home, for all intents and purposes, got fucked up.
When Aang reminds it that things grow back and hands it an acorn, Hei Bai calms down, returns to being a ... regular panda, and leaves, sprouting a plot of bamboo in its wake, which the captive villagers (and Sokka) emerge from.
Aang tells them of his last minute and hasty plan - which requires them going to an island in the Fire Nation so he can talk to Roku. And it ends!
I don't want to be hasty and say this is the last kid's cartoon that gave a full story in thirty minutes - most are cut to 12 minute chunks these days - but for a first part of a first special, it somehow feels just enough. Like, part 2 really is only named that because the Solstice is the next day. It could really just be any old day, but it feels slightly bigger and more meaningful.
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