All aboard!
Aang doesn't want Sokka and Katara hurt, so he plans to sneak off in the night. That doesn't work, and soon all three of them are on Appa, en route to the Crescent Island.
Think about this - this is actually a detour. I wish there were some more shots of the map so we can see exactly how erratically they travel.
After strong-arming the town, Zuko is in pursuit - and it's dangerous for him to be in Fire Nation territory as well, being banished. What's the worst the Fire Lord could do? Imprison him?
Probably kill him.
Also; How cool would a Iroh vs. Fire Lord Ozai battle have been? We don't get that. Sorry.
Just their luck; The Fire Nation Navy has set up a blockade...
Zhao recognizes Zuko's boat - is that a particularly obvious ship? Apparently not, no one else seems to recognize it, and doesn't stop Zhao as he tells his men to open fire, and just fuck whoever is on that boat!
It's a very cool sequence with Appa dodging fireballs, Sokka nearly falling to his doom, and Aang kicking back a fireball.
They make it past, and Zhao allows Zuko to go through unharmed.
It looks around dusk when the Gaang makes it to Crescent Island.
It's a remarkably well - kept temple for what seems to be abandoned, but of course it's not abandoned, maintained by the Fire Sages, one who calls it the Temple of the Avatar.
If you remember back in "The Avatar Returns", there's a quick segment where other temples and sages have something very mystical light up when Aang goes into the Avatar State, including this one.
They're Fire Nation first and Avatar Servants second and end up opening fire. No pun intended.
The group goes in pursuit, but one Monk remembers his duties, and helps the trio by revealing a secret passageway...that leads to a very fancy firebending door.
Pictured: Not the door. I love spiral staircases. Seem like a hassle to clean. Anyway.
It can only open with the force of a truly recognized Avatar using Firebending...or five firebenders, that's fine.
Sokka's plan to imitate firebending is a good one, but although it appears like it did, it doesn't work, and so the plan goes to fooling the Fire Sages who put party over country country over the benefit of humanity.
The traitorous Fire Sages open the door and are apprehended by our heroes, but before Aang can sneak in, he's captured by Zuko which is nothing more than a thirty second distraction where the former kicks him down the stairs before entering.
The sun is in position, and who appears except the man himself, Avatar Roku.
I'm not going to get through this rewatch without making a Roku Box joke, but today is not that day.
Roku tells Aang that Sozin's Comet helped the Fire Nation start the war a hundred years ago, and Fire Lord Ozai will use it again to finish it at summer's end when it comes back around, and that Aang has to stop him by mastering all four elements.
Aang wonders if he can't do it, and Roku says he can, "For you have done it before," but not in this short time span, right?
With the Army at the doors of the temple, Roku offers his help in defeating them to get past, and Avatar State happens, and Roku steps out (or Force Projects) in his place.
I wish a motherfucker would.
In very stunning work, he destroys the temple through fire and Lavabending, which we will not see again...until Season three of Legend of Korra.
I'm particularly fond of this one.
All of the Fire Sages are captured by Zhao, who will take them to the Fire Lord. They're probably dead.
Well!
Katara wants to teach Aang some of the Waterbending she knows.
"You'd do that for me?"
"Of course," She says, because Aang is her friend, and not what I would have said, which is "The fate of the world depends on it."
Meanwhile, Zuko is also training in the bending arts, until the ship changes course -
Iroh has lost his White Lotus tile for Pai Sho!
It's very important, and they're headed to a port.
Water gets bent, with Aang learning quickly and the seeds of jealousy growing in Katara. Aang is right though - she didn't have a good teacher to learn from!
There goes the supplies - Aang waterbended - waterbent - them down the river, so now they're in a port too! I wonder if it's the same one as the B-plot.
Aang buys a whistle in the shape of an Air Bison that acts like a dog whistle. I guess it's more of a quaint novelty in that day and age, considering there were very few of them left at this time and they were being bred by someone in hiding.
Curiously, there's actually one of the vendors dressed in orange, and since most people in this world are Color Coordinated For Your Convenience, maybe he has Air Nation ancestry. Or he just likes orange.
The three are apprehended by some pirates to browse their legally-aquired wares, and Katara finds a Waterbending Scroll they can't afford....so she steals it and they leave, but you're not supposed to know that until after the chase scene. So here you go;
Sokka chides her for stealing it, and she replies with "You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn Waterbending!"
We obviously know that she wants to learn it too, I wish they didn't couch it in this "I have to pretend I don't," language.
She's still struggling to learn the water whip, while it comes rather easy to Aang either way. This all comes so easily to him and he didn't even try before hand? Anyway, Katara gets angry and snaps at him before apologizing. It's not anyone's fault, really.
At night, Katara takes the scroll (She had given it to Aang after her outburst) to practice. I still don't get why she's painted as in the wrong for wanting to learn!
When she's grabbed by a pirate - surprise, they're still hunting them down, she finally does the whip properly to smack him in the face before being accosted by Zuko.
He will trade Katara's necklace for - what else, really - Aang's whereabouts. Because she won't give him up, Zuko takes the scroll and blackmails the pirates into looking for the gang, or else it goes up in flames.
Apparently, they really suck at finding sleeping children because Aang and Sokka wake up in the morning uncaptured for about thirty seconds before a previously-unseen pirate just shows up.
They're going to trade...until Sokka rightfully points out that having the one person who can end the war in your captivity is a lot better than a waterbending scroll.
Because the pirates renege on the deal, Zuko attacks, and the pirates are pretty competent at beating someone who shoots fire from his hands, it's pretty impressive.
For some reason, the three kids try to push the pirate boat back into the water and realize they can't, no shit, until Aang and Katara waterbend a giant wave back and forth to push the boat back into the river.
Soon the pirates steal Zuko's boat in pursuit. It's not the main giant war rig.
Sokka mentions that he doesn't know how to sail the pirates boat - it wasn't made by the Water Tribe. Of course the non-metal boats would look vastly different depending on the location. Of course!
This reminds me of those water pillars in the second act boss of Hydrocity Zone in Sonic 3.
And said boat goes over the edge of a waterfall when the Fire Nation boat crashes into it, but luckily Aang had his bison whistle, and Appa caught them out of the air.
In the end, they have the scroll, Iroh had simply misplaced his Lotus Tile, and we learn a lesson about being competitive - if it can kill you, don't do it.
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