Line #39 Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePuppetMaster


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_puppetmaster.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:333:Katara is introduced to bloodbending.]]
3
4	->''"You've got to keep an open mind, Katara. There's water in places you never think about."''
5	-->-- '''Hama'''
6
7	Still traveling through the Fire Nation in disguise, our heroes take shelter in a forest for the night. However, a kindly old woman named Hama discovers them and invites them to her inn, warning the group of the mysterious disappearances in the woods. Something seems decidedly odd about Hama, however, leading the Gaang to investigate - and Hama's dark secret is revealed. She's from the Southern Water Tribe.
8
9	She explains how she was a little girl when the war was relatively new, and she spent her early life in the Southern Water Tribe as a waterbender fighting to defend it. The Fire Nation had been fearful of the Avatar's rebirth into the Southern Water Tribe, so they sent raiding ships to capture the waterbenders, taking them away and leaving them in horrible prisoner-of-war camps, with virtually no water to bend or space to move. Hama broke out long ago, and has spent the rest of her life as a normal Fire Nation citizen, trying to forget her painful imprisonment.
10
11	Overjoyed at being waterbenders from the same tribe, Hama and Katara immediately bond, and Hama agrees to teach Katara, as she knows how dangerous it can be for a waterbender in strange lands. Hama knows techniques to pull water out of the surrounding environment, like out of plants and from water vapor in the air, and she gladly shows these techniques to Katara.
12
13	However, something is still out there in the woods, making people disappear on nights of the full moon, and the rest of the Gaang investigates what must surely be a Spirit World-related phenomenon, even though there seems to be nothing to upset the spirits in such a beautiful town. Then they come across a hidden cave under the mountain, where the vanished Fire Nation citizens have been imprisoned - controlled by their own bodies during the full moon, like some puppetmaster was manipulating them.
14
15	The Gaang then discovers Hama's even ''darker'' secret - she is the one who's been imprisoning the townspeople. Her use-the-water-in-the-environment tricks came from developing bloodbending, a disturbing kind of waterbending that uses the full-moon power boost to allow a waterbender to control the water in human blood. Hama used this ability in her breakout, and now uses it to get revenge on the nation that treated her so badly. She's become twisted by her obsession, and she wants Katara to follow in her footsteps. Katara naturally refuses, so Hama forces her hand by using bloodbending against her, Aang, and Sokka. Katara can use her own waterbending to resist Hama, but Aang and Sokka aren't so lucky. Katara is forced to use Hama's technique against her, and although Hama is captured and the day is saved, Katara can't easily escape Hama's last words to her:
16	-->'''Hama''': My work is done. Congratulations, Katara. You're a bloodbender.
17	----
18	!!Tropes:
19
20	* AintTooProudToBeg: As Hama tosses her around and forces her to learn bloodbending, Katara begs her to stop. Hama just gives an EvilLaugh.
21	* AloneWithThePsycho: Katara ends up alone with Hama, who reveals herself to be evil, while Aang and Sokka figure out the truth in their own time. Their attempt to come and rescue Katara [[NiceJobBreakingItHero doesn't work out as planned]].
22	* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Katara tries to refuse to learn bloodbending; seconds after she says no, Hama immobilizes her and starts making her body perform the movements. Hama even lampshades that she ought to have thought of her response better.
23	* ApologeticAttacker: Katara, Sokka, and Aang repeatedly apologize to each other when Hama uses bloodbending to force the boys to fight her.
24	* AscendedFridgeHorror: This episode explores the nasty implication of waterbending when water can be found in all living things, which was foreshadowed by Katara using her sweat to waterbend her and Toph out of prison in the previous episode.
25	* BadSamaritan: Hama turns out to be a not-so-friendly caretaker.
26	* BaitTheDog: Katara is thrilled to find a woman like her in the Fire Nation of all places: a Southern tribe waterbender who was a war prisoner and casualty. Hama in turn treats her and the kids kindly, housing them for free in her inn and cooking traditional water tribe dishes. Then the others find out that Hama have been kidnapping the villagers who had nothing to do with her imprisonment. Hama then reveals that she intends to teach Bloodbending to Katara, and won't take "no" for an answer.
27	* TheBadGuyWins: Hama may be defeated, the villagers freed, but she's passed down Bloodbending to Katara, and that's what she ''really'' cares about.
28	* {{Bathos}}: The way Hama concludes her scary GhostStory with an innocent question about serving more tea.
29	-->"When the moon turns full, people walk in and they don't come out. ({{Beat}}) Who wants more tea?"
30	* BarefootCaptives: As shown in Hama's flashback, imprisoned waterbenders are dressed only in rags and bare feet.
31	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Inverted; Hama initially is nice to the Gaang because she overheard that Katara and Sokka were Southern Water Tribe natives, and that Katara was a waterbender like her. She quickly reveals that she is [[FauxAffablyEvil not so nice]] when Katara refuses to learn from her.
32	* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Hama started out as a girl who fought to protect her people, but then became obsessed with vengeance after being imprisoned in awful conditions.
33	* BerateAndSwitch: Hama when Katara suggests using her charm on a vendor.
34	-->'''Hama:''' You would have me use my feminine charms to take advantage of that poor man? [{{Beat}}] I think you and I are going to get along swimmingly.
35	* BigNo: Katara yells "No!" when Hama tries to have Aang impaled on Sokka's sword.
36	* BittersweetEnding: With more emphasis on "bitter"; Hama finally gets imprisoned, ending her long, ''long'' reign of terror for good... but [[TheBadGuyWins she still gets her way]] when Katara unwillingly learns bloodbending to save Sokka and Aang.
37	* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Hama claims that she must imprison the villagers to pay back the Fire Nation for imprisoning her in turn. The villagers for the most part don't seem to realize what the soldiers do, but they are largely innocent of the more heinous crimes that Hama suffered.
38	* BodyHorror: Bloodbending is this in its rawest form, stripping the victim of their will to control their body and reduced to watching in horror as their own limbs are twisted and contorted against their will. And this theoretically just the [[AndIMustScream start of what such a bending art can do]].
39	* CallingYourAttacks: A rare JustifiedTrope in that neither Sokka nor Aang actually ''want'' to hit Katara.
40	* TheCameo: Kanna, Katara and Sokka's grandmother, can be seen in Hama's flashback.
41	* CassandraTruth: Subverted. When Toph says that she can hear people screaming under the Earth, no one has the opportunity to tell her it may be from hearing Katara's ghost story because Hama interrupts and introduces herself. Later at the inn, Hama confirms that people do disappear during the full moon, and Team Avatar investigates. Toph is vindicated when an old man, Ding, tells them he was nearly compelled to walk into a cave; the screams were coming from within the mountain.
42	* CerebusRetcon: That humorous moment way back in Season One when Katara introduced Aang to "the entire village" - a tiny cluster of elderly, children and few adults? Becomes considerably less so as we now learn [[GenocideSurvivor why]] there's so little of them left now.
43	* ChekhovsSkill: Toph can make a facsimile key out of earth or metal to pick locks. She uses it to open Hama's treasure chest. It's used to help free Hama's prisoners and she goes with them to get help.
44	* ComicalNapDrool: Sokka complains that the inn is creepy and he doesn't know if he'll be able to sleep there. [[DescriptionCut One cut later]], he's sound asleep, with an impressive amount of drool soaking the pillow next to his mouth.
45	* CommonalityConnection: Sokka slowly starts to warm up to Hama when she reveals she's from the Southern Water Tribe and has made a traditional meal for him and the Gaang. Katara in the meantime is thrilled to meet a fellow waterbender who knows the Southern Tribe's native bending style.
46	* ContinuityNod:
47	** Hama mentions that ocean kumquats taste a lot like sea prunes when they're stewed long enough. Aang immediately cringes, remembering how he hated sea prunes so much in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderBatoOfTheWaterTribe Bato of the Water Tribe]]".
48	** In the flashback sequence, [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSiegeOfTheNorthPart1 black snow]] is the harbinger of the Fire Nation's initial attack on a polar Water Tribe, and we see Hama and other benders trapping the [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoyInTheIceberg Fire Nation ship]].
49	** Sokka [[BerserkButton flips out]] when Toph suggests that the [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSiegeOfTheNorthPart2 Moon Spirit]] might be vengeful.
50	* CreepyDoll: When the Gaang finds the Fire Nation puppets, they're a little freaked out. Aang even voices how creepy it looks.
51	* DarkerAndEdgier: In comparison to other episodes, this one is the darkest of the bunch. It discusses POW camps and shows people being controlled by a dark form of Waterbending.
52	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Katara, on realizing that Hama is the kidnapper and wants to teach her an unethical form of bending, immediately declares that she will never learn it. Cue Hama using bloodbending to immobilize her and force her to learn the movements. Hama lampshades that Katara shouldn't have declared herself so openly.
53	* DieOrFly: Downplayed - Katara has to either learn bloodbending or watch as Hama uses it to make Sokka kill Aang.
54	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
55	** Hama is quite civil to the children, initially. She also forgives them for prying around her house, albeit since it allows her, Katara, and Sokka to bond over their Water Tribe roots. While her kindly demeanor is a mask, it seems she wasn't lying about the latter part.
56	** The Fire Nation wouldn't murder their prisoners, for what little that counts. Hama describes how instead the waterbenders were chained up and given only enough water to live.
57	* EvilCounterpart: Hama is this to Katara. They have been greatly affected by the Fire Nation attacking their home and losing people that they care about. Both sought revenge against the Fire Nation for what they did. However, Hama was consumed by her lust for revenge and became a twisted person who punished innocent civilians for what others had done, while Katara only attacks those who deserve it and never raises a hand on innocent civilians, even when they are Fire Nation.
58	* EvilLaugh: Hama does this repeatedly after the reveal.
59	* EvilMentor: Hama becomes Katara's. She helps Katara learn new techniques about Waterbending, including her improvised method called Bloodbending. However, when Katara refuses to perform Bloodbending, Hama forces her to learn it under the threat of Aang getting hurt by Sokka.
60	* EvilOldFolks: Hama. She's about the same age as Katara and Sokka's grandmother and she is an evil old woman who invented a new type of bending, which allows the user to control another person against their will. She forces Katara to learn this technique in order to pass on some twisted legacy.
61	* FailedASpotCheck: Hama pretty much outs Katara as a waterbender in front of a bunch of Fire Nation villagers and none of them seem to notice. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Maybe they were just grateful to be freed]].
62	* FallenHero: Hama. She used to be a defender of the Southern Water Tribe, but being imprisoned and isolated for a decade did a number on her morals.
63	* FauxAffablyEvil: Hama is quite nice to the Gaang, giving them a place to stay and cooking them a large meal with traditional Water Tribe dishes. Once she reveals her true colors, she becomes a sadistic monster who revels in using bloodbending to torture her victims.
64	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Katara says that Hama reminds her of her grandmother. It is revealed shortly after that Hama is from the Southern Water Tribe.
65	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
66	** While snooping around Hama's house, the Gaang find a bunch of Fire Nation puppets in a closet. Foreshadowing both the captured Fire Nation citizens found later and Hama's ability to Bloodbend people.
67	** Hama's dangerous true nature is foreshadowed with her normal Waterbending - she pulls the water from flowers, instantly killing them (showing how little she cares for harming innocent life), and she at one point freezes water at the tips of her fingers to form deadly sharp icicles.
68	* GenocideSurvivor: Hama reveals to the Gaang that she's a waterbender from the South Pole and explains how she escaped the Fire Nation's attempt to wipe out her kind. Katara is initially ecstatic to meet another waterbender from her tribe for the first time and wishes to learn the traditional southern style of waterbending from her...until Hama reveals her sinister intentions.
69	* GhostStory: The episode opens with Sokka and Katara telling these. Katara's story was based on a real event that happened to her mother when she was a child.
70	* GilliganCut: Sokka concludes that he cannot fall asleep thanks to Hama's nightmare fuel. Cut to him fast asleep [[ComicalNapDrool drooling on his pillow]].
71	* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Katara points her finger at Hama when telling her she won't let her terrorize the town. Cue Hama using her bloodbending to twist Katara's arm.
72	* HypocriticalHumor: Katara opposes trying to see what's in Hama's treasure chest to respect her privacy; but as soon as Toph cracks the lock, she's the most eager to see what it is.
73	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Hama grows to enjoy doing to innocent Fire Nation citizens what her Fire Nation jailers did to her.
74	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Old Man Ding claims he is not that old. Cue him struggling to pick up a wooden board.
75	* InstantExpert: Katara learns Bloodbending overnight, albeit unwillingly, while it took Hama a few full-moons.
76	* TheJailer: Hama keeps Fire Nation villagers imprisoned underneath the mountain.
77	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Downplayed. After many, ''many'' years of terrorizing a village, Hana finally gets arrested at the very end--but not before teaching Katara bloodbending.
78	* KubrickStare: Hama pulls one off after she is revealed as the person behind the mysterious disappearances.
79	* {{Lunacy}}: As an advanced form of Waterbending, Bloodbending can only be performed during the full moon.
80	* MarionetteMaster: Hama can control people through bloodbending.
81	* MarionetteMotion: Anyone under the influence of bloodbending moves like a jerky puppet.
82	* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Subverted with Hama. She puts on a facade of being a kindly, if kooky, innkeeper who has a tragic backstory of being tortured by the Fire Nation. And then it's revealed she's imprisoning civilians...
83	* MisplacedRetribution: Hama takes out her pain of being imprisoned for decades out on civilian villagers.
84	* MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours: Katara proclaims her bending is stronger than Hama's -- and it is.
85	* NecessarilyEvil: As disturbing as bloodbending is, Hama using it on the guard to escape captivity. Unfortunately she responds to the trauma by being willfully evil by imprisoning innocent citizens.
86	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Katara figured out on her own that Hama was the one causing the disappearances and overpowers Hama's bloodbending with her own skills and power. But Aang and Sokka don't know this and think they have to save her from Hama - and unlike Katara, they can't resist the bloodbending. Cue Hama using them as puppets and Katara needing to use bloodbending to save them.
87	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Hama's first waterbending lesson is to teach Katara how to draw water from everywhere around her, and how she can gain a lot of power by using the plants around her. Katara laments that the plants die as a result, but Hama tells her that in battle you have to use all the resources you have. Guess what Katara uses in the climactic battle against Hama? Subverted in the way that that's what she wanted.
88	* NightmareRetardant: InUniverse, Sokka's attempts at making up ghost stories are... laughable at best.
89	* NothingIsScarier: Toph claims that she heard people screaming, implying that Hama is torturing her victims. The specifics are never explained.
90	* OhCrap: During Hama's duel with Katara, the two are evenly matched until Hama throws three trees worth of water at Katara, who blocks it perfectly ''with an earthbending stance''. She is so shocked that she doesn't even see Katara's followup, which is to hit her upper body and legs to knock her over.
91	* OminousMusicBoxTune: Plays when the Gaang breaks into the attic and opens the treasure chest.
92	* OminousOwl: As if to hammer home the whole Halloween episode theme, there's a shot of a cat-owl in a tree.
93	* ThePowerOfBlood: Bloodbending is the art of controlling people's actions through the blood in their veins.
94	* ProperlyParanoid: Sokka's instinct is that Hama is hiding something, though at first the Gaang is led to believe that she was hiding her Water Tribe roots.
95	* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Hama was captured by the Fire Nation while trying to defend her home. She spent the next months if not years or possible even decades locked in a prison cell and was bound during water breaks. One night, she had a startling revelation: all people and animals are mostly composed of water. She learned to waterbend the blood of the rats that crawled on her cell before moving onto the guards. After escaping from her cell, she stayed in the Fire Nation and rounded up citizens, Bloodbending them to the mountain and locking them up. While her reason behind this is understandable, she forced Katara to learn this ability in order to save Aang. While being dragged away and while Katara was crying, Hama laughed evilly at her success.
96	* RedHerring:
97	** Sokka takes offense on Yue's behalf when it's suggested that maybe the moon spirit is behind disappearances. When they investigate, Aang and Toph conclude that it can't be anything to do with Yue because the moon doesn't make people walk into caves.
98	** Sokka is led to believe that Hama's big secret is that she is a Southern Water Tribe bender, and one who escaped from the Fire Nation cells. It's actually that she was bloodbending and imprisoning innocent civilians and making them disappear.
99	* RevengeBeforeReason: People within the Fire Nation aren't banned from leaving if they wish, which means potentially Hama could have left her traumatic experience behind to start a new life or join the various armies that were fighting the tyrants. Instead, she stayed in a small village and brooded about her trauma, taking it out on the civilian villagers. In addition, bloodbending could have potentially been a game-changer in the war against the Fire Nation, despite the ethical dilemma that it would pose, with how it can incapacitate people. Hama could have used her powers to sabotage the Fire Nation prisons --thus freeing any fellow waterbenders who survived-- or military efforts if she were unable to go to the Northern or Southern Water Tribe to pass on what she learned. Instead, she imprisons unimportant and relatively innocent civilians and has only one student, Katara. All in all, she doesn't leave much of an impact with her desire for revenge.
100	* SmallRoleBigImpact: Hama invents bloodbending, and ''somehow'' is able to pass it on so that by the time [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra's generation comes about]], it is used as a terrifyingly effective weapon against benders.
101	* TailorMadePrison: Keeping in line with [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderImprisoned the Fire Nation's M.O.]], the Southern waterbenders like Hama were imprisoned in a special compound designed specifically to deprive them of their bending element. No liquid water was allowed inside except when the prisoners were bound hand-and-foot for necessary hydration, they were locked in suspended cages to keep them away from groundwater, and the air was kept dry with ventilation. Unfortunately, they had no means of removing ''all moisture, period'', while still staffing the prison with warm bodies, which Hama eventually exploited to escape.
102	* TearsOfFear: A terrified Katara starts crying when Hama takes control of her body with bloodbending.
103	* VisualPun: After Team Avatar is told to talk to Old Man Ding, the first shot is of him placing a nail - [[http://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/42491053251/you-couldnt-resist-could-you-only-one-man Ding]] ''means'' nail.
104	* VictoryIsBoring: Implied. Hama has escaped from the Fire Nation cells but she spends her life taking out her pain on villagers who had nothing to do with her imprisonment. She looks much happier when she's caught and returned to jail because she has passed on her legacy.
105	* VillainHasAPoint:
106	** Hama makes a good point that in battle you have to use all the resources you have, and a waterbender should know how to draw water from the surrounding flora in case they are cornered. Quite ironically, Katara learns this lesson and uses it against her in the climax.
107	** To rally Katara to her side, Hama points out that the Fire Nation unjustly imprisoned her and killed Katara's mother. Both are legitimate points, though Katara retorts that blood bending isn't the right way to go about it.
108	* WeCanRuleTogether: Hama makes a version of this speech when she explains to Katara how she escaped prison. She points out that together they could avenge the Southern Water Tribe's waterbenders, who were exterminated slowly and painfully. When Katara refuses, Hama blood-bends her and keeps her from fighting back.
109	* WhamLine: When Hama catches the gang with her comb. Cue a VertigoEffect on Sokka and Katara.
110	-->'''Hama:''' It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I owned from growing up '''in the Southern water tribe'''.
111	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The fates of Hama's fellow captured waterbenders are unknown.
112	* XanatosSpeedChess: Hama is stymied in her efforts when Katara manages to resist her bloodbending and gains the upper hand in their fight. Then Aang and Sokka appear, giving Hama more PeoplePuppets to use. Katara was going to master the Bloodbending either willingly or under duress to save her friends.
113	* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Katara feels this way when Hama congratulates her on becoming a bloodbender to the point that she breaks down crying.
114	-->'''Hama:''' Congratulations, Katara. You're a bloodbender.

Context Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePuppetMaster