Book 2: Return to Omashu / The Swamp / Avatar Day

Just kidding; Omashu has been occupied by the Fire Nation.

Aang, Katara and Sokka head to Omashu to ask King Bumi to teach Aang earthbending, only to discover upon their arrival that the city has fallen to the Fire Nation. 

Meanwhile, Azula decides to get rid of the royal procession and assemble a small, elite team of fighters to capture Zuko and Iroh. 

Aang refuses to move on from Omashu until he knows that Bumi is safe. But how to sneak in?

.

When they're apprehended by guards enforcing curfew, they have Sokka fake a deadly illness to get out of it. Aang surmises that they must be keeping Bumi somewhere he can't Earthbend, somewhere made of metal. It's so funny how quickly these statements became obsolete in the Avatar world.


One of the people Azula will enlist to help her hunt down the fugitives is Mai;

Forced into a mindset of indifference because of her social climbing parents, she hates everything, which was a 2017 mood. I still like her, though, Mainly because when La Resistance tries to attack her and her family the governors of Fire Nation occupied Omashu, when Aang saves them, Mai thinks he is part of the resistance and immediately whips out throwing knives.

One of the many things LoK failed at is not letting us know what happened to her. 

I hate to jump the gun here, but it's rather up in the air if she marries Zuko and is mother of Izumi, the female Fire Lord in Legend of Korra. The comics that bridge the gap between the two series, one of them focuses prominently on her and her family. Mai is still quite serious but she is firmly on the side of good in those. 

The other girl? A happy go lucky acrobat named Ty Lee, who I mentioned earlier. One of six (or seven) identical girls who ran away to join the circus.

We know even less about Ty Lee in LoK.

There's something to be said that she is one of the few people who, while afraid of Azula, outright says that she doesn't want to do something the princess tells her before....events in Book 3.

Of course, she gets roped into it because, well, Azula is sadistic.

Back in Omashu, La Resistance has rescued the Gaang from Mai's onslaught and explain how Bumi surrendered the city when the Fire Nation came calling. Aang encourages them to leave and survive,
and they work to fake illness once again...


Aang doesn't find Bumi, but he does find Flopsy...and the governor's son and Mai's brother, Tom-Tom.

Well, he finds Momo.

The leader of the Resistance points out that Tom Tom is probably going to grow to help terrorize the world as a member of the Fire Nation, and from a prestigious family at that. Either way, the governor thinks they kidnapped him, and will trade him for Bumi.

The trade probably would have gone off without a hitch...if Azula had not arrived, who pointed "Well, letting everyone leave was a dumbass move."

During the tradeoff, she also points out that trading a King for an infant is another stupid move, and Mai goes along with it, leaving her brother in the hands of, for all she knows, is the enemy.

 I like the fight here, each side has competent non-benders and super-competent benders.

Aang reveals his identity as he takes to the skies and tries to rescue Bumi, who tells him....that he can't train him in Earthbending, a discipline that's all about listening and waiting for the right time to strike.

And he simply isn't the right teacher for Aang.

Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Well, now the Trio of Dangerous Ladies are after the Gaang. So, not great! By the way, Tom-Tom is back safely with his parents, if you cared.

---

"Time is an illusion, and so is death."

The Gaang visits a mysterious swamp, where they see illusions of the people they want to find the most.

Katara sees her mother, Kya.

Sokka sees Yue in her Moon Spirit! Form

You didn't protect me.

And Aang sees a mysterious girl.

That's kind of the basis for the episode, still not really sure what lesson it was trying to get across. It should be "No one is ever really gone," but Aang doesn't know the girl until relatively soon.

Then again, said girl will say a line that goes "Do you believe that? That friendships can remain between lifetimes?"

There's really amazing sound design and editing though.

---

Avatar Day is not about an Avatar named Day, but about a yearly ritual where members of an Earth Nation town hate the Avatar for killing the founder of their land hundreds of years ago, and now Aang is set to be held trial for his past life, with Sokka and Katara going to gather evidence to prove his/her/their innocence.

At least they acknowledged more than just Aang.

Well, no one is universally popular. It's also funny how no one noticed the person in their midst not dressed in Earth Kingdom colors, but also wearing the same outfit as the current Avatar.

Also, Zuko is stealing food under his Blue Spirit guise.

They treat Aang like a ... mythological boogeyman, saying he will kill them with his 'awesome Avatar powers!'

It's a very Kangaroo-Court kind of trial, but Sokka is more than willing to play detective!

Clue #1: The statue of Chin the Great and the temple of Kyoshi were made of the same stone, so it's unlikely she could have done the crime.

I don't quite get how that means it's impossible, but whatever, Sokka and Katara head back to Kyoshi Island. By the way, Suki is off to fight the war.

Clue #2: The shoes in Kyoshi's Shrine are far bigger than the footprint at the murder site on Chin Island.

Clue #3: Kyoshi was creating an entire fucking island on this day, three hundred and seventy years ago, at sunset, and was probably not killing anyone.

But all of that is moot for two reasons; One, the Mayor doesn't care at all, and Aang fumbles through the evidence Katara and Sokka found. You'll see reason two later.

But for now, they call upon Kyoshi herself...

He only had himself to blame.

Who says "I killed Chin the Conqueror.", as he was expanding his awful empire to all corners of the Earth Kingdom, except Ba Sing Se.

So, Kyoshi admits to the "crime". In reality, Chin fell off of a collapsing cliff edge. Frankly, the bigger crime should be not stopping Chin sooner. You're the Avatar, the world is your responsibility, especially your homeland I would imagine. There's a lot of talk of "Aang, in this life or another, would never do something like kill someone!" which is kind of silly, sometimes people just have to be removed.

Instead of being burned in a pot of oil, the mayor (Who I am very sure is James Hong) tells him to rid the town of Rough Rhinos, a gang that showed up to be a bunch of assholes in the name of the Fire Lord.

I know we saw them earlier, but are they a small band of mercenaries hired by Ozai? 

And that's about it, the lesson being "people you idolized in history like Chin the 'Great' were probably conquerors, but that didn't stop people in the village when they learned the truth." Basically, who cares if your fave is problematic!