Recap / Avatar The Last Airbender 2024 S 1 E 6 Masks

The Blue Spirit holds Aang hostage.

As Aang tries to find a way to rescue his friends, he must contend with a bounty hunter, Zhao, and Zuko all attempting to capture him.

Episodes adapted from the original series:

• "The Winter Solstice, Part 1: The Spirit World"
• "The Winter Solstice, Part 2: Avatar Roku"
• "The Storm"
• "The Blue Spirit"
• "Bato of the Water Tribe"

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Tropes:

• Actionized Adaptation: The Agni Kai between Zuko and Ozai actually goes ahead here, though not before Zuko begs for his father's forgiveness before the fight starts. Heck it only starts at all because Ozai wouldn't take no for an answer. As you might imagine, the fight is pretty one-sided, with Ozai in full control of the situation. The one opening to deal damage Zuko finds, he is unwilling to hurt his own father, which the Fire Lord uses as an example of Love Is a Weakness toward his own son, and then burns him.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When Aang blows air at Zhao, the latter's scribe is unable to hide his amusement.
• Adaptation Distillation: This episode is a mix of events from "The Spirit World", "Avatar Roku", "The Storm", "The Blue Spirit", "Bato of the Water Tribe" and "The Siege of the North, Part 2".
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Aang and Zuko get a longer conversation after escaping the Fire Nation fortress, bonding over calligraphy. Unfortunately, Aang accidentally hits Zuko right in the trauma and sets him off.
  • Zuko's backstory is greatly expanded upon, revealing that Zuko's ship crew is actually the 41st Division, reassigned by Ozai himself to serve as a constant reminder of Zuko's compassion for him and the soldiers that led to his banishment.
• Adaptation Deviation: The fortress Zhao imprisons Aang in is chosen not just because it's simply where the Yu-Yan Archers are at, but also because it's an impenetrable stronghold that, according to Iroh, has held off entire armies.
• Adaptational Context Change: The fiasco in the war room is considerably different here. Originally it was set off by Zuko suddenly speaking out of turn, which Ozai took as an insult. Here, after Zuko gets insulted by the same general who made the suggestion, Zuko grumbles that it's a "terrible plan", which grabs Ozai's attention. Instead of the offense being taken from Zuko speaking out without permission, Ozai is offended by Zuko publicly criticizing the strategy and the military, which he takes as an offense against himself.
• Adaptational Diversity: Two of the generals at the fateful war meeting are women instead of all being exclusively men as they were in the original show.
• Adaptational Mundanity: Roku's first spiritual appearance is this, as he and Aang just chat thanks to the enemy Fire Sages being taken out by June. No awesome volcano lava-bending here.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original show, Azula smirked as Zuko's face was mutilated. Here, she does no such thing.
• Age Lift: General Bujing is slightly younger here than his animated counterpart was.
• Anger Born of Worry: When Zuko returns to his ship, Iroh is clearly relieved to see Zuko is alright, but also upset that Zuko left and didn’t contact him during his absence.
• Awful Wedded Life: A glimpse into what things must've been like between Ozai and Ursa when he sneeringly refers to her as "soft", and that her influence has rubbed off on Zuko.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Zuko and Aang are hiding from Zhao’s soldiers, Aang decides to ask him a personal question. It’s set up like he’s about to ask about Zuko’s scar, but he actually asks him about what material he uses for his calligraphy brush.
• Be Yourself: Aang tries giving Zuko this advice, that he shouldn't try to be heir just because it's what everyone expects of him, before admitting as the Avatar he's not got room to talk.
• Blatant Lies:
  • In the first flashback, a much more naïve Zuko mentions his father apparently welcomes different opinions at his war meetings. Iroh wisely suggests Zuko does not test that.
  • When Zuko returns to his ship to find his crew genuinely bowing to him, Iroh just claims they must've missed him at music night.
• Book Ends: The episode begins with Jee blisteringly outlining why Zuko's crew do not consider him their prince. At the end, having learned what Zuko has done for them, Jee addresses him as their prince.
• Brick Joke: Continuing on from last episode, June flirts with Iroh again.
• Call-Back: To "Warriors". Roku punches a few holes in Kyoshi's lecture to Aang from that episode, saying she's always been one of the more serious Avatars.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Blue Spirit's swords, which are dropped when he's hit by an arrow.
• Close-Call Haircut: The Yu-Yan Archers demonstrate their incredible aim by shooting off Iroh's topknot.
• Composite Character: There's no indication that the soldiers Zuko was exiled for speaking in defense of and his crew had any connection in both the cartoon and the film. Here, they are one and the same.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Jee at the beginning of the episode is torn between obeying Zuko, who despite being a Mean Boss is his prince and immediate superior, and the orders of Zhao, who outranks him and answers to the Fire Lord. No matter which one he obeys, he's technically disobeying someone and he knows it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Zuko actually did put up a fight against Ozai in the Agni Kai, rather than trying to beg off. It... didn't help, as might be expected of a teenager fighting against a grown man, with said grown man being one of the strongest Firebenders in the world.
• Defiant Captive: As Zhao gloats at Aang about the miserable existence he’ll have as a prisoner of the Fire Nation, the Avatar gets so angry that he blows a massive gust of wind at Zhao, knocking the admiral into Aang’s cell door.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In the flashback to just after Zuko's Agni Kai, Iroh tries desperately to lighten the mood with some jokes. Zuko just remains utterly silent.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ozai sees compassion as a sign of weakness, which is why he became very pissed at Zuko for refusing to sacrifice 41st Division, and also mentions that him refusing to fight, or even second-guessing his own attacks on him in their Agni Kai duel, is what he considers a sign of weakness. Believing Zuko to be the result of a sheltered life, Ozai banishes him from the Fire Nation with the Impossible Task of capturing the Avatar being his only chance of returning home. Ozai believed that the harsh, outside world will erode Zuko's compassion away and to further humiliate his son, he reassigned the 41st Division to be his crew as a reminder of his banishment. While Zuko may have come dangerously close to losing his compassion, Ozai is proven wrong when Iroh told the full story to Lieutenant Jee and the crew, causing them to hail the injured Zuko with respect and honor he never got from his father.
• Evil Gloating: Zhao tells Zuko exactly where he's taking Aang just to rub it in his face that there's nothing Zuko can do to reclaim Aang.
• False Reassurance: Zhao reassures Aang that he won’t be killed, not because he’s merciful, but because Aang being reincarnated would lead to another long search. So he will live... though not well.
• Informed Attribute: Zigzagged with the Yu-Yan Archers. Zhao recites the legend about their notorious accuracy near word-for-word, but since the lengthy chase with Aang doesn't happen, they don't get the chance to demonstrate it, and merely have the (still decently impressive) displays of shooting off Iroh's topknot, and landing a headshot on Zuko from a distance.
• Internal Reveal: Lieutenant Jee, and by extension the rest of the crew of Zuko's ship, learn the origin of Zuko's scar and just why they have been assigned to serve under him.
• I Owe You My Life: Not outright stated, but the crew learn they were supposed to be assigned as diversionary tactics had Zuko not spoken up, and that by being reassigned to a pointless job they've hated, he actually saved them. Suddenly they become a lot more respectful toward him.
• Jerkass: The general who kick-starts Zuko's banishment takes the time after Zuko's been made a fool of in front of the war council by taking the time to rub Zuko's inexperience in his face.
• Last-Second Word Swap: When Zuko returns, Iroh chides him for being absent, saying that it's worrying for people who... care about such things.
• Mood Whiplash: The first meeting between Aang and Roku has the former Avatar seeming even more stern and serious than his own predecessor... until he tells Aang it's customary to meet another Avatar by hopping on one foot. He's just messing with Aang.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Roku has an issue with friends, and suggests Aang might be a bit more cautious about his, but doesn't elaborate further. Viewers of the original series can guess as to why he's saying this.
  • Roku has a totem of the Mother of Faces, aka Koh's mother, whom he has taken from the Face-Stealer. The Mother of Faces is a very important spirit in Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search, namely being responsible for Ursa's disappearance, ironically Roku's granddaughter.
  • Zuko and Aang are hiding from Zhao's forces, and while bonding with each other, it's storming outside their hideout, nodding to "The Storm" which centered heavily around Aang and Zuko's tragic backstories.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Roku mentions the Avatar also has to function as a diplomat as well as warrior, and mentions he tried at that and failed in some way that really haunts him.
  • Implied in a conversation between two Fire Nation soldiers in advance of the "we have captured the Avatar" party.
    Sentry: Gonna be some night, huh?
    Soldier: Let's hope there's less firespitting than Ahn's birthday.
    Sentry: My eyebrows only just grew back.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: June and Nyla manage to swim across the ocean to the Fire Sage temple, incapacitate the sages, grab Aang and swim back to the Earth Kingdom before he can recover. Now there's a persistent bounty hunter.
• Only in It for the Money: June outlines her credo to Aang; she couldn't care less about any sides of the war, or what happens, so long as she gets money.
• Punch-Clock Villains: The guards working the supplies for the Fire Nation fortress aren't cackling lunatics or unhinged fanatics. They're just regular folk.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: After seeing Zuko refusing to take the shot at him, Ozai immediately defeats his son and then proceeds to scar his left eye as punishment for this mercy.
  Fire Lord Ozai: Compassion is a sign of weakness.
• The Reveal: In a departure from both the cartoon and the film, we learn that Zuko's crew are the very same soldiers he was exiled in defense of.
• Secret-Keeper: While putting away Zuko’s belongings, Iroh discovers the cracked Blue Spirit mask. Rather than confront his weary nephew on his secret activities, he chooses to put the mask away silently.
• Serious Business: Calligraphy. Zuko tells Aang the reason for his exceptionally neat handwriting is that he had to practice his brush-strokes two hundred times before he was allowed to practice bending. And of course, being Zuko, that's exactly what he did. It's not made clear if this absolutely typical for the Fire Nation, or just Ozai being his usual self.
• Stealing the Credit: Zhao cries far and wide about how he "captured the Avatar," conveniently skipping the part about how Zuko was the one who caught him, and Zhao's men stole him.
• Verbal Backspace: Roku tells Aang that he can ask him about anything, until Aang says he needs info about Koh. Roku immediately says anything but Koh.
• Virtue Is Weakness: "Compassion is a sign of weakness." This is what Zuko replies to Aang when the latter talks about compassion and friendship. Later, in a flashback, it's revealed that Zuko learned these words from Ozai, who berated him for showing mercy to his opponent rather than hurt him, even if said-opponent was his own father.
• Wham Line: After Ozai declared Zuko to be banished, he gave him a crew with a line that would shock the Lieutenant Jee and the others years later.
  Fire Lord Ozai: And since you're so concerned about the 41st Division, take them with you as your crew.
  (3 years later)
  Lieutenant Jee: The forty-? We're the 41st!
  Iroh: And you're all alive because of my nephew's sacrifice.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • During their Agni Kai, Zuko actually did have a clean shot at Ozai, and hesitated because it was his father. For his trouble, he gets his face burned and then gets banished on an impossible Snipe Hunt. So when Aang brings up the concept of friendship, that's why Zuko goes berserk.
  • When Zuko gets shot in the head by the Yu-Yan archer, Aang momentarily considers just leaving him behind, but then thinks better of it and takes him to safety.
• When He Smiles: When Zuko and Aang talk about calligraphy, Zuko cracks a small smile.
• With Due Respect: Jee use the phrase before telling Iroh exactly what he thinks of Zuko.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Despite Gyatso's promise in the previous episode, when Aang gets back to his hut in the Spirit World, it's empty.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Zuko technically does manage to capture Aang, thanks to hiring June, but before long Zhao shows up and takes Aang from him with the intent on taking the credit for himself, forcing Zuko to break into a Fire Nation fortress to bust Aang out.