Team Avatar with Bumi, the king of Omashu.
Aang is brought into the palace to meet the crazy old king of Omashu, who turns out to be an old friend from 100 years past. Katara and Sokka must make their way through a mysterious tunnel system underneath Omashu, while Zuko fights to free his uncle from imprisonment.Episodes adapted from the original series:
Tropes:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- 100 years of war has certainly taken its toll on King Bumi, as he's absolutely furious at Aang for disappearing while his kingdom suffered for a century. It’s clear that Bumi's "games" are his way of punishing his old friend, instead of simply being for amusement and a lesson to Aang in creative thinking for the battles ahead. He eventually regains his hope for Aang when the latter gives him his stone whistle he uses to call Appa, the same stone Bumi carved a hundred years ago, and has kept it ever since.
- Iroh became disillusioned with the war after the death of his son, but the episode piles on Iroh's regret by having him be confronted by an Earth Kingdom soldier who blames the Dragon of the West for killing his brother. While Iroh doesn't betray his emotions towards the soldier, it's made clear that he had considered the lives he had taken during the siege and deeply regrets that along with his son's death.
- In the original series, Zuko seemed saddened when he heard of Lu Ten's death but we didn't really learn much about their relationship. Here, Lu Ten is explicitly stated to have been Zuko's Big Brother Mentor and he is almost as devastated as Iroh at the funeral.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Chong and his hippie crew show up a season early this time around, pointing the way for Sokka and Katara as they enter the secret tunnel. And yes, they still sing the song.
- Adaptational Sexuality: The lovers Oma and Shu were a heterosexual couple in the animated series. Here, they're both women.
- Adaptation Distillation: This episode combines the events of "The King of Omashu", "The Cave of Two Lovers", and "The Spirit World (The Winter Solstice, Part 1)", with the ending of "Jet" mixed in.
- Adaptation Expansion: A new flashback takes place during Lu Ten's funeral, with Ozai and Zuko comforting the mourning Iroh in different ways: Ozai honors Lu Ten as a loyal soldier, while Zuko honors him as a beloved cousin.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Zuko manages to get info on where Iroh's gone by disguising himself as a nervous young recruit and wandering into the Omashu prison cells and pretending he's facing potential trouble for screwing up.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why Iroh has stayed with Zuko so long and believes he can never repay his debt to him is because on the day of his son's funeral, while others either mocked him for abandoning the siege of Ba Sing Se or merely stated that Lu Ten died in glory, Zuko was the only one who empathized with Iroh's loss and stood by him throughout the funeral. As such when it’s Zuko's time to leave the capital, Iroh doesn't hesitate to follow him.
- Beneath the Mask: The guard's angry questions clearly hit home with Iroh, but he just gives the man a serious Death Glare. It's only once the man's moved away Iroh's pain shows.
- Big Damn Heroes: Katara and Sokka arrive at the palace just in time to intervene Aang and Bumi's duel, right as Bumi is giving Aang a Sadistic Choice. Sokka helps save Bumi by tackling him out of the way, allowing Aang to save himself and spare his old friend's life.
- Big "NO!": Aang shouts one when Bumi tries to push him into making a Sadistic Choice.
- Bullying a Dragon: Jet, in full With Us or Against Us mode, tries attacking Katara. She freezes him to the nearest wall and leaves him there.
- Camera Abuse: When it first shows up, the badger-mole roars and sprays drool all over the camera.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Discussed by Katara while she and Sokka are in the tunnels about Jet; while she is appalled by his actions, she also understands where he's coming from, what with a hundred year long war having that effect on people.
- Death by Adaptation: In the original series, Shu was the one who died. Here, Oma was the one to die.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Fire Nation's warrior-culture mentality is on display with Lu Ten's funeral, where the condolences Iroh gets are how proud he should be that his son died a glorious hero of the Fire Nation, rather than sorrow for the fact his son is dead.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite how Bumi treated Aang throughout the episode, Aang still views him as his friend and is willing to go down the mail chutes with him. Bumi just lost his hope, and Aang knew he needed to rekindle it
- Everyone Has Standards: The guards transporting Iroh mysteriously "disappear" when they stop to water their ostrich-horses, allowing the lead guard a chance to vent, but when it looks like he's going to summarily execute Iroh, they rush in to stop him.
- Gender Flip: Shu was a man in the animated series but is a woman here.
- Good Is Not Nice:
- As Iroh explains to Aang, the Earth Kingdom has grown bitter in their war against the Fire Nation, and their soldiers are "not kind to their fallen foes". They even occasionally send their prisoners to labor camps, where they are never heard from again.
- Bumi is bitter from all the responsibilities the war has caused him and puts Aang through "challenges" as a way to chew him out for disappearing when the world needed him most and showing him the rough burdens of being the Avatar. He eventually mellows out when Aang shows him the rock he gave him a hundred years ago, reminding him of their friendship and gives the embittered king newfound hope that the war will finally come to an end.
- Implausible Deniability: Sai tries to insist the secret tunnels do not exist, but Teo points out he said he'd been down there, unless that was another lie.
- Innocently Insensitive: Aang, who so far hasn't had a great experience of Zuko, speaks ill of him while he and Iroh are locked up, nor does he realize when Iroh's speaking of lost loved ones he's doing so from very personal experience.
- It's Personal: The lead guard escorting Iroh is from Ba Sing Se, and his brother was killed during Iroh's siege, so he's got a great deal of personal grievance to lay out on the Dragon of the West.
- Kick the Dog:
- Among other acts of petty spite, the guard punches Iroh in the stomach for talking, then later offers Iroh some water, only to then immediately pour out the entire pitcher. After all, firebenders don't need water, right?
- Being stuck underground causes Katara and Sokka to argue some more, and it gets pretty vicious.
- Lampshade Hanging: Aang (unlike his animated counterpart) is astonished that Bumi is still alive after 100 years and wonders how exactly that's possible. Bumi shrugs it off as "living clean, healthy diet, and [good or bad] luck".
- Laugh with Me!: Bumi's court obligingly laugh along with his awful, awful puns, as opposed to Chirping Crickets.
- Leitmotif: The famous "Leaves from the Vine (Little Soldier Boy)" serves as one for Iroh, particularly during his flashbacks.
- Mugged for Disguise: Zuko ambushes an Omashu soldier to steal his uniform and get back inside the city.
- Mythology Gag:
- While Flopsy doesn't make an appearance, two statues of his likeness are visible when Aang's brought before Bumi.
- As they explore the tunnels, Sokka gets a hunch, or possibly an instinct. "Jet" has a small Running Gag regarding Sokka's instincts, but as in that episode he proves on the beam... eventually.
- Aang and Bumi's story ends exactly as it did in the original episode, with the two going for a wild ride on a delivery cart (and subsequently destroying the Cabbage Merchant's produce).
- Nobody's That Dumb: Chong and the hippies may hang out near the secret tunnels, but even they're not stupid enough to actually go into them.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: The Filipino dub leaves Chong vocalizing unchanged.
- No Sympathy: Two of the attendees at Lu Ten's funeral call Iroh a coward for quitting the Siege of Ba Sing Se, which would be despicable enough, but they do it knowing Iroh can hear them. Even Ozai didn’t say something like this.
- Not His Sled: In "The Cave of Two Lovers", Aang and Katara determined 'love is brightest in the dark' meant the fluorescent crystals lining the cave ceiling. Here, the crystals prove useless, as the badger-moles and their tunnelling means the route is constantly changing. The 'love' refers to the badger-moles themselves.
- Obfuscating Stupidity : During the feast with Bumi and his court, Bumi pretends to not remember that Aang is a vegetarian and offers him two dishes, one with meat and the other without meat. Aang realizes this after making his selection and wonders if Bumi was testing him.
- Sadistic Choice:
- Zuko has to make one when he reaches the prison and realizes that Iroh and Aang have been taken to two different places and he likely can't get both. In the end, he chooses to save his uncle over his chance of reclaiming his honor.
- Bumi tries to impose one on Aang; save himself from being crushed by a rock, or save Bumi. Sokka and Katara's timely arrival allows them to Take a Third Option.
- Shaped Like Itself: Asked just what they're doing in a cave, the hippies can only respond that they're doing what they're doing.
- Smarter Than You Look: Badger-moles are capable of understanding human speech easily. When Sokka decides to ask them if they can dig a tunnel up to the palace, it immediately does just that.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Iroh, at his son's funeral, is just blankly staring into nothingness.
- Too Important to Walk: Bumi gets around by using his earthbending to move his throne around on top of a sphere wheel. The fact he doesn't need to make any physical movement to do this should be a hint as to his abilities.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Iroh never retaliates to the lead guard's hostility, and when Zuko rescues him holds his nephew off from attacking. The guard responds by trying to kill Iroh anyway.
- Was It Really Worth It?: The guard asks Iroh this about the siege of Ba Sing Se, and while he doesn't give a direct answer, it's pretty damn clear that Iroh knows it absolutely was not.
- Waxing Lyrical: In true snarky Sokka style, he suggests among other things in the tunnels that "all you need is love" and "love makes the world go 'round".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Katara just leaves Jet frozen to a cart, and that's the last he's seen in the episode.
