[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_beach.png]]
[[caption-width-right:333:Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and Zuko bond after wreaking havoc on Chan's house.]]

->'''Zuko:''' I'M ANGRY AT MYSELF!
->'''Azula:''' ''My own mother...thought I was a monster...''

A fairly typical BeachEpisode, except for the fact that it's the ''villains'' that we get to know better: Zuko, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee retreat to the royal beach house on Ember Island for a well-earned vacation. The four attempt to socialize with other Fire Nation teenagers, with decidedly mixed results, and then end with the traditional heart-to-heart around a beach bonfire. In the secondary plot, Combustion Man attacks the Gaang for the first time.
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!!Tropes:

* ADayInTheLimelight: Usually, Team Avatar gets the A-plot and the Fire Nation characters the B-plot. In this episode, it's the other way around.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Who are you angry at?" After much prodding, Zuko answers with the above quote.
* BeachEpisode: The episode ''is'' called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Beach]], and features Zuko, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai all enjoying a nice vacation.
* BerateAndSwitch: Ty Lee gives Azula advice for picking up guys:
-->'''Ty Lee''': If you want a boy to like you, just look at him and smile a lot, and laugh at everything he says, even if it's not funny!\\
'''Azula''': That sounds shallow and stupid. Let's try it!
* BrainBleach: Zuko, and the audience, have this reaction to the FanDisservice mentioned below.
* BreatherEpisode: This episode serves as one for the Fire Nation teens, as rather than see them fight or scheme, we get to see them actually relax and socialize (or try to at least).
* CerebusRetcon: The episode is this for Azula; especially later in the series. What starts off as funny becomes harsher in hindsight as all of her cruelty and her inability to socialize normally paints the image of a [[TragicVillain woman who literally cannot fathom any way to be loved or respected for who she is; taking up the mantle of a monster because that's what she believes her mother thought of her as.]]
* CampfireCharacterExploration: The fire team discusses their flaws around a nightly campfire.
* ChekhovsSkill: Aang using rock armor, from his training with Toph to fend off the Combustion Man.
* CouldSayItBut: Both Mai and Azula's revelations about what hurt them come out in this format.
* CoverInnocentEyesAndEars: Mai covers Zuko's eyes when Lo and Li reveal themselves in their bathing suits.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Zuko comes off as one when he shoves a guy several meters into a wall (and breaking a vase) for talking to Mai.
* CurbStompBattle: The Combustion Man's attacks allow him to easily counter anything Aang and his friends throw at him and force them to run instead of fighting him.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Chan was somewhat of a jerk to Zuko and Azula, but did that really justify them trashing his house and possibly burning it down?
* DissonantSerenity: The villains, as depicted in the final panel (and on this page). Keep in mind that that's a ''Fire navy admiral's'' house that's going up in flames behind them.
* DisturbedDoves: Zuko calls some just by taking off his shirt. [[MundaneMadeAwesome For a Kuai Ball Game.]]
* DontExplainTheJoke: Azula's cringeworthy attempt to compliment Chan on how "sharp" his clothes are ends with her doing this.
-->'''Azula''': That's a sharp outfit, Chan. Careful, you could puncture the hull of an ''Empire''-class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea. ''[{{beat}}]'' Because -- it's so sharp!
* DudeMagnet: Ty Lee, to her surprise. She starts attracting a couple of guys' attention at the beach itself, but she finds herself surrounded by several guys at Chan's party. When they start asking her which one she likes, she knocks them out and cartwheels away.
* DutchAngle: Azula gets a romantic moment and even a kiss from Chan, but then she suddenly begins ranting about she and Chan will make the most powerful couple in the entire world. The "camera" quickly shifts to a skewed angle to demonstrate the sudden MoodWhiplash of her rant.
* DysfunctionJunction: Turns out the fire team is four pretty screwed-up teenagers, and that makes them who they are.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Mai is revealed to be this. Her ordinary outfit is so concealing that it takes changing into her beach outfit to show how how pale she is.
* EmotionsVsStoicism: Zuko and Mai's fight is basically this trope. Zuko is all emotion and he lets his temper and impulses get away from him. Mai is all stoicism to the point where she doesn't care about anything and can't express any emotion. Eventually they come to understand each other, with Zuko learning to think more calmly and rationally and Mai learning to be more free to express her feelings.
* EpicFail: Azula manages to get a kiss, but her attempt to seal the deal afterwards is a spectacular example of this. Her earlier attempts at flirting were likewise fairly atrocious.
* EstrogenBrigade: Zuko has in-universe fangirls here.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Mai, whose apathetic demeanor doesn't rub well with Ty Lee's bubbly and optimistic personality, tells Zuko to lay off her when he verbally attacks her over it (ironically in an attempt to defend Mai).
** Azula, of all people, feels bad for making Ty Lee cry and apologizes to her.
* EvilIsPetty: Azula destroys a sand castle built by kids on the beach. And Chan's house, after he rejects her.
* FanDisservice: Lo and Li in their bathing suits. It's bad enough that Mai covers Zuko's eyes.
* {{Fanservice}}: Quite a lot.
* FavorsForTheSexy: Ty Lee gleefully milks this trope for all its worth.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: Zuko sends Ruon-Jian flying across the room with just a palm strike.
* FreezeFrameBonus: During Zuko's flashback to his time on Ember Island as a child, you'll see him playing with another boy and an adult man, most likely Lu-ten and Iroh.
* FreudianExcuse: All four of the fire team tell theirs.
** Ty Lee grew up with six sisters, all of whom look the same, and she felt as though she had no identity. So to help her establish an identity, she ran off and joined the circus, which she admitted in "Return to Omashu" made her really happy.
** Mai and Azula both deny that they have one, before going into it. Mai grew up as the only daughter of a rich Fire Nation family and lived by very strict rules (sitting still, behaving, and not speaking unless spoken to) for the sake of her father's political career. Because of her family's strictness, she grew up not expressing herself or interacting that much with kids her age. Azula's is more subtle as she acts like her life was perfect, but she seems to focus on how her mother thought she was a monster. While she admits it was true, Azula was still hurt by how her mother saw her.
** Mai also calls out Zuko on his, pointing out that even though, yes, his life has been pretty terrible, it doesn't excuse how he's been acting. Though in Zuko's case, he believes that most of the problems in his life are resolved, but he's still just as moody and conflicted as ever, if not more so. In fact, angsting about his father's approval doesn't even come into it, and he realizes his anger comes from something else.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: A rather innocent character like Ty Lee cannot fathom what kind of [[BigScrewedUpFamily troubled home life]] would drive Zuko to throw his family photo into the campfire. She even tries to claim she knows Zuko wouldn't do this, to which he [[LampshadeHanging refutes]] [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech it]] with how she's so caught up in her own little world of optimism and cheeriness that she fails to recognize what kind of lives other people lead.
* HairTriggerTemper: Zuko's temper, never that great at the best of times, is even worse than usual in this episode, compounded by his internal angst, feeling snubbed by Ozai in getting sent to Ember Island, to Mai's attitude. Towards the end he finally gets called out for his constant flaring up at the slightest provocation.
* HuddleShot: Used when Azula gathers her team to beat the opposition at a game of kuai ball.
* IdiotCrows: A dove version flaps by Chan's head after he's stunned by one of Azula's pickup lines.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Played with. Azula doesn't really want to be normal, since she usually ''loves'' the attention and praise she gets from being Princess, but she doesn't tell Chan and Ruan-Jian who she and Zuko are out of a sudden intrigue to see what it's like to be normal.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Ty Lee is one of a family of ''seven'' sisters, all of whom [[UncannyFamilyResemblance look a lot like her]]. It's not hard to see why she wants to stand out.
* IllTakeThatAsACompliment[=/=]InsultBackfire: Affected at first, Ty Lee tearfully rebukes Zuko calling her a "circus freak" and says she considers it to be a compliment due to her previous living a life of no identity.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ty Lee warns Zuko that being constantly angry is bad for his skin. She realizes a second too late that this is a really stupid thing to say to a guy whose own ''father'' burned '''''a big chunk of his face'''''.
* InstantArmor: Aang uses the assemble-rocks trick he learned from Toph whilst dealing with Combustion Man.
* IWasQuiteALooker: Li and Lo provide the page image, posing in front of a painting of them in their youth..
* ItsAllJunk: Ty Lee is pretty shocked that Zuko would throw his family portrait into the fire like mere kindling. From where Zuko stands, however, it's a symbolic acknowledgment that his childhood isn't worth looking back on.
* JerkassHasAPoint: It may have been [[KickTheDog mean-spirited]] for Zuko to snap at Ty Lee when she tried to sympathize that she "knew him", but he's not completely wrong to say she's [[InnocentlyInsensitive oblivious to other people's lives]].
* KickTheDog: There is a ''lot'' of mean-spirited and spiteful lashing out in this episode as the fire team's suppressed emotional baggage comes up.
** Before that Azula makes her presence on the beach known by stomping some kids' sand-castle.
** Azula gets rather nasty at Ty Lee and says that the boys she was surrounded by don't actually like her, prompting Ty Lee to cry. This one is so harsh that for once, Azula actually ''apologizes''.
* KingIncognito: To blend in with the other kids, Azula and the other never reveal their real names or status. Even at the end, [[TrashTheSet while trashing Chan's house]], they still don't.
* LargeHam: Azula is in particularly fine form this episode. Like Jack [=DeSena=] was during ''The Desert'', Grey De Lisle seems to be having a great time in this episode.
* LiteralMinded: When Azula hears the words "from dusk 'till dawn", she takes it to mean the party really lasts that long.
* LittleNo: Asked if it's his father that he's so angry about, Zuko says "No!" in a startled, pleading way - he's so desperate for Ozai's approval that being angry at him is unthinkable.
* MandatoryLine: Sokka gets exactly one line of dialogue today.
* MiseryPoker: The Fire nation group each take turns voicing their respective FreudianExcuse in response to some criticism from the others. There's not much of a contest, as the girls' stories of various forms of emotional abuse and neglect can't really compete with Ozai [[TheUnfavorite emotionally abusing]] ''and'' permanently disfiguring Zuko.
* MoodWhiplash: We go from the Fire kids and their attempts to have a normal day at the beach to the Gaang nearly getting blown to pieces by Combustion Man, to the Fire kids trying to fit in at a party, to them somberly dwelling on their issues... to them busting up the house the party's at for fun.
* MrFanservice: Zuko's shirtless scene makes all the nearby girls blush and giggle.
* MsFanservice: Ty Lee seems to delight in being such in this episode. So much so that the others accuse her of being an AttentionWhore. She does get overwhelmed at one point when a group of boys try to pressure her into choosing one as her favorite.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Combustion Man intercepts a letter to the Firelord revealing that the Avatar is still alive (and his general location). As dangerous as the hitman is, things would have been vastly worse otherwise.
* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Although it's really more like "No Guy Wants TheSociopath"; it's not Azula's fighting skills that scare the boys off, it's the fact she's SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining and her malicious persona shines through, making her come off as creepy, menacing and awkward all at the same time.
-->'''Azula''': For some reason, when I meet boys, they act as if I'm going to do something horrible to them.\\
'''Ty Lee''': [[DumbassHasAPoint But you probably ''would'' do something horrible to them...]]
* NoSocialSkills: Azula. She has an amazing capacity to lead, to subvert loyalties, to understand other people and sway their opinions and is overall a master of manipulation... but normal social interactions are ''utterly'' beyond her. Although she refuses to admit it, she is quite insecure about it as well.
* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: The two Fire Nation guards are bored with their job and one exclaims that nothing happens. Cue the Avatar coming down the waterfall.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Azula shows this big-time. Mai is a lesser example.
* NotSoStoic: Azula looks genuinely sad when asking Zuko if he's mad at her. She already knows he is - for manipulating him into betraying Iroh and serving as her scapegoat - but knows it's not the source of his brooding.
* OhCrap: When the Gaang notices the scary hitman with metal limbs who can shoot fire ''with his mind''.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Azula is most unlike her manipulative self in this episode.
** She actually feels guilty when she makes Ty Lee cry and apologizes to her for it. Ty Lee's reaction is that Azula never apologizes for her actions.
** Normally, Azula is fine with pressing Zuko's buttons and taunting him about his insecurities. She finds him brooding in their old summer home, and her expression changes. Azula, rather than mocking her brother, gently leads him away, saying this place doesn't have good memories. Zuko is too angry to notice.
** A more minor one comes from Mai, who is notoriously reserved in her emotions. When confronted on why she's so unfeeling, she ''finally'' lashes out, screaming at ''Azula'' of all people to leave her alone. On top of that, she sounds genuinely hurt during her constant arguments with Zuko, finding his worsening anger to be too much even for her to bear.
* ParasolOfPrettiness: Mai takes one to the beach with her (and has Zuko to carry it).
* PetTheDog: Azula apologizes for accidentally upsetting Ty Lee in this episode, and even brings Zuko back from their family's former home when he wanders off. She also is surprisingly mild about it when she asks Zuko if she's the one he's angry at, as if the prospect is actually upsetting to her.
* RuleOfSymbolism: During the campfire scene, Zuko takes his family's portrait and tosses into the fire without a second thought. It's a powerful representation of how disillusioned he is with pretending [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family]] is perfect, or even normal. Interestingly enough, Azula doesn't stop him from doing it either, though one could make the argument ''she'' realized that years ago.
* SarcasticClapping: Azula does this when Zuko and Mai make up, before sarcastically congratulating them all on their "performances" of their sob stories. However, by this point it's quite clear that she's using her sarcasm as a defense mechanism.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Combustion Man. He manages to find the exact location of Aang and his friends and attempts to kill them.
* SherlockScan: Azula notices that one of the kuai ball players hesitates with her left foot, and suspects it's due to an old injury that weakens her left side in the game. Whether or not she's right is unclear, as the game is such a CurbStompBattle it doesn't make much difference whether they exploit that weakness.
* ShirtlessScene: Zuko gets one with DisturbedDoves.
* ShoutOut: Everyone asking Zuko what's really bothering him is similar to the one in ''Film/TheBreakfastClub''.
* {{Squee}}: Zuko's [[EatingTheEyeCandy fangirls]] during his ShirtlessScene.
* StepfordSnarker: Both Azula and Mai are revealed to be this.
* StunnedSilence[=/=]SweatDrop: After Azula announces her plan with Chan to become "the strongest couple in the entire world." [[http://piandao.org/screencaps/ep45/ep45-762.png He doesn't seem that enthused]].
* TheTease: Azula calls Ty Lee this.
* TheReveal: At a campfire, the group vent about their past. Ty Lee initially joined the circus to escape her previous life, where she had virtually no identity of her own due to being one of many identical sisters. Mai's EmoTeen attitude is due to her strict political life. Zuko remains frustrated even after being welcomed back to the Fire Nation. And Azula reveals that her and Zuko's mom sees her as a "monster".
* TemptingFate: Katara assures Toph that there are walls all around their swimming pool so no one would see Aang's tattoos. Cue Aang going down the waterfall and being noticed by the Fire Nation guards.
* TrashTheSet: The Fire kids trash Chan's beach house at the end of the episode.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Chan got his name from an Avatar writer, [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2352830/ May Chan]].
* TookALevelInJerkass: Ozai used to be a good father (or at least passable) during Zuko's flashbacks at the beach.
* TwistedEchoCut: When Lo and Li shout "Time to hit the beach!" the scene cuts to the Gaang taking a swim.
* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Azula's reaction to winning a game of kuai ball. It's obvious that despite being a brilliant commander, she can't turn that mindset ''off''.
-->'''Azula''': YES! We have defeated you for ALL TIME! You shall never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation. ''[{{beat}}]'' Well, that was fun.
* UnwantedHarem: Not unwanted at first, but Ty Lee's admirers fighting for her attention soon start to make her nervous to the point she ''knocks them all out'' to have some peace.
* VillainEpisode: The A-plot of this episode centers on Zuko, Azula, and her minions.
* VillainsOutShopping: Although it's a wonder how nobody appeared to know that Zuko and Azula were the prince and princess of the Fire Nation. Maybe it's down to having no television or tabloids, and official paintings of royals are often [[AdaptationalAttractiveness highly idealized]].
* WalkingSwimsuitScene: From almost every girl at the beach, particularly Azula and Ty Lee. Fans who got a tour of the studio claimed to have seen concept art of the swimsuits that were far more revealing, [[CensorDecoy possibly as a ploy]] to get the Nickelodeon execs to accept these still fairly daring designs instead.
* WastedBeauty: This episode perfectly demonstrates why Azula is this. She gets called by Ty Lee the "most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world" a statement she [[ProudBeauty acknowledges.]] But when it came a time Chan gets attracted to her and gains interest, she then repulsed him with her WeCanRuleTogether quote below, which then leaves him in one of the most iconic StunnedSilence moment and quickly excuses himself.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Azula suggests this to Chan. As a pickup line.
-->'''Azula''': Together, you and I will be the strongest couple in the entire world!
* WomanScorned: The end result of the party. Once the four of them have been kicked out, Azula decides after the events of the campfire to get revenge on the kids.
* YouMonster: Azula thinks that her own mother thought of her as one.
-->'''Azula''': [[AtLeastIAdmitIt She was right, of course]], but it still hurt.
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