Line #36 Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBlueSpirit


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_blue_spirit_surrounded.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:333:The Blue Spirit is surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers as Aang runs for the gate.]]
3
4	->''"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?"''
5	-->-- '''Aang''' to Zuko
6
7	Sokka suffers from an illness due to his exposure to the elements during the storm. When Katara begins to contract the illness as well, Aang goes to a nearby herbalist institute in hopes of finding a cure for his friends. On his way to collect the remedy the herbalist recommends, Aang is kidnapped by a group of Fire Nation Yu-Yan archers, commanded by the newly promoted Admiral Zhao. However, a masked marauder, the titular "Blue Spirit," rescues Aang from Zhao; the "Blue Spirit" is knocked unconscious during the escape, and Aang discovers that he is Prince Zuko. Aang offers him friendship, but departs when he is rebuffed.
8
9	----
10	!!Tropes in this episode include:
11
12	* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Blue Spirit cuts through the chains and shackles holding Aang with his swords.
13	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The sewers at the fortress are huge, making it easy for the Blue Spirit and Aang to escape.
14	* {{Anaphora}}: Zuko says one in a situation of despair:
15	--> Zuko: "My honor. My throne. My country. I'm about to lose it all..."
16	* ArrowCam: When the Blue Spirit is struck down by the Yu-Yan archer.
17	* BackToBackBadasses: Aang and the Blue Spirit protect each other's backs while mowing down dozens of enemy spearmen and archers.
18	* BadassNormal:
19	** The Blue Spirit outfights and outwits quite a few firebenders while freeing Aang, with nothing but his swords and a bucket of water.
20	** The Yu-Yan Archers are a ridiculously skilled group of marksmen who are able to capture the Avatar alive, without a scratch on him.
21	* BecomingTheMask: Aang hoped that Zuko would have become this. [[SubvertedTrope It didn't quite work that way.]]
22	* BittersweetEnding: Aang is rescued from Zhao, and both Sokka and Katara get better, but Aang's attempt to connect with Zuko and maybe even forge a friendship fails.
23	-->'''Sokka:''' Aang, how was your trip? Did you make any new friends?\
24	'''Aang:''' No, I don't think I did.
25	* BlahBlahBlah: What Momo hears when Katara speaks to him.
26	* BroughtDownToBadass: The Blue Spirit is actually Zuko, who just isn't using his firebending to avoid revealing his identity.
27	* CeilingCling: The Blue Spirit does this to evade the guard inside the fortress.
28	* ChirpingCrickets: Done with a [[ItMakesSenseInContext defrosting frog]].
29	* CloudCuckoolander:
30	** Sokka's illness makes him more than a little loopy.
31	** The eccentric herbalist counts as well.
32	--->'''Aang:''' ...You're insane, aren't you?\
33	'''Herbalist:''' That's ''riiiiiiight!''
34	* ColdSniper: The Yu-Yan Archers: always silent, unfazed by pressure and emotion, with [[ImprobableAimingSkills legendary accuracy]] and extremely effective.
35	* CombatPragmatist: When Aang and the Blue Spirit are cornered, Zhao gives the order to his men to leave the Avatar alive. Cue the Blue Spirit immediately holding his swords up to Aang's throat, effectively taking him hostage.
36	* ContinuityNod:
37	** Iroh playing the tsungi horn in front of the jeweled monkey statue, both bought in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWaterbendingScroll The Waterbending Scroll]]."
38	** Both Sokka and Katara get sick after surviving [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheStorm the storm]].
39	* ContrivedCoincidence: Zhao receives word of his promotion to Admiral just as he's trying to recruit the Yu-Yan Archers, allowing him to make his request an order. How lucky can a guy get? Played with, though, as there's no established reason why the original commanding officer of the archers should have outranked Zhao (though they may have been equally ranked). The writers could have given Zhao the authority from the beginning, simply by making the original CO someone lower ranked than Zhao. They created a contrived problem, and moments later presented a contrived solution.
40	* DefiantCaptive: After Zhao makes it clear that he will keep Aang alive to prevent another long search for the Avatar, Aang spitefully knocks him down by blowing a gust of wind at him.
41	* DiabolusExMachina: Katara and Sokka are sick and feverish after being out in the storm from the previous episode, and Momo and Appa are left to look after them as Aang goes out by himself to get some medicine. It predictably goes wrong and he ends up captured by the Yu-Yan Archers, necessitating the Blue Spirit's rescue.
42	* DramaticUnmask: Aang is shocked to see Zuko beneath the Blue Spirit's mask.
43	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This episode contains several relatively normal-looking animals, in contrast with the series' normal MixAndMatchCritters; Miyuki is a Persian-looking cat and Momo brings a dead mouse.
44	* EliteMooks: The Yu-Yan Archers. They take down ''the Avatar'' (albeit one that has barely begun his training) with ridiculous ease. ''Without bending''.
45	* EnemyMine: Zuko helps Aang escape from Zhao so that Zuko himself can capture the Avatar.
46	* {{Fanservice}}: Downplayed; there's a brief scene of Zuko lying in bed [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]], and while it's clear that he's ''very'' fit and muscular, too much of him is hidden by the blanket to have the scene appeal that much to the FemaleGaze.
47	* FacePalm: One of Iroh's opponents makes this expression when he makes a winning move in a game of Pai Sho.
48	* FightsLikeANormal: As the Blue Spirit, Zuko relies on his normal fighting skills in order to keep his identity a secret from Zhao, Aang, and the audience.
49	* FindTheCure: Aang goes in search of a cure for Sokka and Katara's fever.
50	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
51	** In Zhao's victory speech, he states that the Fire Nation will finally breach the "impenetrable" walls of Ba Sing Se and use Sozin's Comet to burn the Earth Kingdom capital city to the ground. This foreshadows both the Fire Nation's unsuccessful attempt to pierce the walls of Ba Sing Se with the Giant Drill, and Fire Lord Ozai's plan in the four-part SeriesFinale to use Sozin's Comet to have a fleet of airships incinerate the entire Earth Kingdom.
52	** Zuko's increasing disillusionment with the Fire Nation and eventual HeelFaceTurn is foreshadowed in this episode by how he literally turns his back on his country's flag while trying to get some sleep in his cabin.
53	* GrapplingHookPistol: Variation; the Yu-Yan Archers tie ropes to arrows, fire them as a modern character would fire a grappling-hook pistol, and use them to BuildingSwing as a testament to their immense skill at archery.
54	* IAteWhat: As their feverish delusions clear up, Sokka and Katara are disgusted when they realize that they're sucking on defrosting live frogs.
55	* InexplicableCorneredEscape: The [[{{Ninja}} Blue Spirit]] clings to the [[UndersideRide underside of a carriage]] in order to sneak into the villain's lair. At the gate, a guard comes close to check the underside and when the camera pans over to where the Blue Spirit hid, he is gone. The next shot shows him in the back of the carriage.
56	* ImprobableAimingSkills:
57	** The Yu-Yan Archers. Aside from being capable of SplittingTheArrow and {{Multishot}}ting as described below, Zhao boasts that they could shoot a fly and pierce its body without killing it.
58	** The Blue Spirit throws a knife down a long hallway in the dark and hits a horn square in its center to knock it out of a guard's hand without so much as scratching the guard.
59	* ImprovisedWeapon: The Blue Spirit successfully takes out a firebending guard by quickly dousing his fire with a ''bucket of water'' before knocking the man unconscious by kicking him off his feet and whacking him in the head with the bucket.
60	* InstantlyProvenWrong: A pair of lookouts are reading a wanted poster for Aang, which describes him as being able to create tornadoes and run faster than the wind. One of them decries it as Firelord propaganda. Cue Aang racing by faster than the wind.
61	* InsultBackfire:
62	-->'''Aang:''' ...[[YoureInsane You're insane]], aren't you?\
63	'''Herbalist:''' That's ''riiiiiiight!''
64	* IntrovertedCatPerson: The herbalist lives alone with her pet cat Miyuki after her peers left years ago.
65	* KickTheDog: After Aang's captured, Zhao asks him what it's like to be the last of his people just to rub it in.
66	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The atmospheric background music as Zuko returns to his ship turns out to be Uncle Iroh playing the tsungi horn.
67	* {{Leitmotif}}: Zuko's tsungi horn theme first appears here. In future episodes, it will play whenever Zuko switches between his normal identity and his alter ego as the Blue Spirit.
68	* MoodWhiplash:
69	** The hilarious conversation between Aang and the crazy herbalist quickly segues into an incredibly tense and creepy chase sequence where Aang is easily defeated by the Yu-Yang Archers.
70	** After a very intense escape full of action, we have a very quiet, melancholic, and even sad scene with Aang reminiscing after a long-gone friend he had, wondering if he and Zuko could've been friends in different circumstances.
71	** At the end of the episode, Aang sadly contemplating his failed attempt to befriend Zuko is contrasted with humor when Sokka and Katara realize that they have frogs in their mouths and spit them out in disgust.
72	* {{Multishot}}: During their training, a Yu-Yan Archer is shown shooting four arrows at once, each of them hitting the bulls eye of a different target.
73	* NewEraSpeech: Zhao gives one to a raving crowd.
74	-->'''Zhao:''' We are the sons and daughters of fire, the superior element! Until today only one thing stood our path to victory, the Avatar. I am here to tell you that he is now my prisoner! This is the year Sozin's Comet returns to grant us its power! This is the year the Fire Nation breaks through the walls of Ba Sing Se and burns the city to the ground!
75	* {{Ninja}}: The Blue Spirit. He sneaks into the fortress with very few guards seeing him, defeats the ones who do, then binds and gags them.
76	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Aang saves Zuko in hopes that it might somehow make them [[FireForgedFriends friends]]. All he gets for his trouble is Zuko blasting fire at him, and the likely prospect that Zuko will only continue to hunt him and his friends down.
77	* OhCrap: One poor group of Fire Nation soldiers sees Aang blast their companions off the next ladder over, then look up to see him standing right over them.
78	* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Zuko rescues Aang from the prison in order to prevent Zhao from getting the glory of capturing him.
79	* PinnedToTheWall: Aang is pinned down to a tree trunk by the archers' arrows.
80	* PragmaticVillainy: Zhao refrains from executing Aang because the boy's death will simply lead to a new Avatar emerging someday. Zuko becomes aware of this and exploits it to get out of the fortress.
81	* PuttingOnTheReich: Zhao's NewEraSpeech is practically one long homage to ''Triumph of the Will'', complete with Zhao preaching about how "fire is the superior element!" in a similar vein to the Nazi belief that the mythical Aryans were the ostensible MasterRace.
82	* RainOfArrows: Going down on Aang.
83	* RankUp: Zhao gets promoted from Commander to Admiral at the start of the episode.
84	* RewatchBonus: The Blue Spirit throwing a knife looks cool but innocuous until after watching Season 2 where you learn [[spoiler: he has a love interest who specializes in that skill. Looks like she taught him a thing or two when they were kids.]]
85	* RuleOfSymbolism: Near the end of the episode, as he lies in bed, Zuko glares at the prominent Fire Nation flag on the wall of his cabin and turns away from it as he tries to sleep. This is an almost literal metaphor for how Zuko is starting to turn his back on his country.
86	* SaveTheVillain: Aang rescues an unconscious Zuko from Zhao's soldiers.
87	* SeriesFauxnale: The show was initially only picked up for thirteen episodes by Nickelodeon, therefore the writers intentionally created a story as exciting as a season finale.
88	* ShoutOut:
89	** [[invoked]] According to the [[WordOfGod Avatar Extras]], ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'' was used as a reference for the stairs of the herbalist institute.
90	** On a similar note to the above, ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' was used as a reference for the scene of Aang jumping off the cliff to escape the Yu-Yan Archers.
91	** The scene in which Aang asks Zuko if they could have been friends if they knew each other in a previous time is almost exactly the same as Session 8 "Waltz for Venus" from ''Anime/CowboyBebop''.[[note]]In that episode, Roco asks Spike, "If I had met you earlier in my lifetime, do you think that we would've been friends?"[[/note]]
92	* SickEpisode: Sokka is feverish and ill due to the rain. Katara later contracts his sickness. The plot revolves around Aang trying to cure them.
93	* SplittingTheArrow: While the Yu-Yan Archers are shown at a firing range, one of them splits an arrow, then splits that arrow, and finally the third arrow in succession, so each is embedded in the other.
94	* StabTheScorpion: It looks like the Blue Spirit is about to kill an enchained Aang, but then it turns out that he was using his swords to cut the chains and free him instead. Plays out as a PseudoCrisis.
95	* StartsStealthilyEndsLoudly: When the sneaky escape of the Blue Spirit and Aang is foiled, they have to start an open fight with the guards.
96	* TalkingYourWayOut: Aang tries this... unsuccessfully.
97	-->'''Aang:''' Untie me, and I'll fight you right now!\
98	'''Zhao:''' Uh... no.
99	* TemptingFate: As a guard in a small lookout reads Aang's WantedPoster, he notes that the Avatar can create tornadoes and run faster than the wind. The other guard dismisses it as Fire Lord propaganda, right before seeing Aang zipping by a la Road Runner, knocking down the lookout.
100	* ThatsAnOrder: Zhao gets to do this when a messenger hawk arrives just after Colonel Shinu has denied his request to use the Yu-Yan Archers.
101	-->'''Zhao:''' News from Fire Lord Ozai... It appears I've been promoted to Admiral. My request is now an ''order''.
102	* TrickArrow: The Yu-Yan Archers use rope arrows to pursue Aang down a cliff, and a net-arrow to trap him.
103	* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: The Blue Spirit is treated as an entirely new character until the unmasking scene.
104	* UndersideRide: The Blue Spirit sneaks into the fortress by clinging to the underside of a supply cart. After the guards verify that there are no stowaways inside the cart, the Blue Spirit climbs into it just before they check underneath.
105	* VillainousRescue: Zuko kidnaps Aang from Zhao.
106	* WakingUpElsewhere: For Zuko as he awakes under a tree after being saved by Aang.
107	* WhamShot: When the Blue Spirit gets hit by an arrow and you can just barely see Zuko's scar from behind the mask.
108	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Aang was the only one to discover the Blue Spirit was Zuko and could've left him to his fate. But after a moment of hesitation, he takes Zuko with him, saving him from being discovered as the Blue Spirit ''and'' healing his wound. While Zuko has a [[UngratefulBastard funny way]] [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished of showing gratitude]], no one can deny that Zuko wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Aang.

Context Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBlueSpirit