In this unaired pilot, Zuko is hunting the Avatar and his friends, Sokka and Kya. While the trio makes their escape, thanks to a sea serpent Deus ex Machina, they're out of food and it's lunchtime. Sokka goes missing trying to find their lunch; as Kya and Aang find out, the island where they're resting is a Fire Nation outpost. Though Kya warns Aang that he's too valuable as the Avatar to help, Aang insists.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Accidental Hero: Thanks to Momo, Sokka ends up finding the food they were carrying and drags it with them. Aang sincerely thanks him as Sokka carries the basket.
- Bad Boss: Zuko threatens to make his men swim "home" in their armor, again. Some look visibly resigned.
- Berserk Button: Zuko becomes frustrated with Sokka's berating, ESPECIALLY when he refers to him as "Scar Boy", and two soldiers take note and step aside.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Zuko really doesn't luck out here. He tries to chase the Avatar, only to encounter an angry sea serpent. Then Aang comes and makes fools out of his men, knocks him off the statue head, and smashes him into a wall.
- Combat Pragmatist: Unlike his later Honor Before Reason stance in the proper series, Zuko smirks when Aang tries to challenge him to a one-on-one fight. He refuses to meet Aang's challenge and sets soldiers on him.
- Distressed Dude: Sokka ends up getting captured by Fire Nation soldiers, prompting a rescue mission from Aang and Kya.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Not suprising, since it was only a pilot:
- The outfits range from subtly different — Aang's monk clothes have a slightly different design — to obviously different, such as the Fire Nation's armor and the Earthbender's clothes from the opening.
- Aang is far more cocky and sure of himself then his canon counterpart, and is actually eager for a fight.Aang: (Surrounded by guards) What's the matter Zuko? Can't handle me alone?Zuko: You want your friends? Come and get them.Aang: (smirks) If you insist.
- Zuko is accompanied by a messenger hawk — which according to commentary was going to be Momo's arch-nemesis — and Uncle Iroh is neither seen nor mentioned.
- Katara is called Kya and is more motherly and overprotective of Aang, much to his consternation. She also is taking lessons from him in bending and knot-tying. Kya also hates flying on the air staff.
- The Avatar State works differently here — Aang triggers it deliberately by throwing himself off the statue he and Zuko were fighting on. It also works more as a brief Status Buff than the almighty Super Mode it is in the show; it boosts Aang's airbending a bit, but that's it. Aang also doesn't appear to lose control of himself as he does throughout most of the series.
- Ironic Echo: "You're flying with the Avatar, start acting like it!"
- Know Your Vines: Fruits, rather. Sokka tries some berries experimentally. Then he makes a face. Before he can spit them out, however, Fire Nation soldiers come and capture him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Zuko defeated the giant sea serpent that tried to eat him, bringing the head to the Fire Nation outpost. More awesome is he defeated the monster alone, showing he's a One-Man Army.
- Oh, Crap!: When Sokka calls Zuko "Scar Boy", the two soldiers holding him step aside.
- One-Man Army: Zuko apparently killed the massive sea snake by himself — which really brings up the question of how the hell the heroes are supposed to be a threat to him, as that's a level of firebending not seen in the show proper until the finale.
- Recycled Animation: Some of the more impressive scenes in the pilot were eventually reused for the TV series. For instance:
- Zuko at one point uses a winch as a makeshift zipline to get to Aang on top of some scaffolding, a feat his sister does almost beat-for-beat in "Return To Omashu."
- An extended scene of Momo being chased by Zuko's messenger hawk was reused in "The Waterbending Scroll" when Momo is chased by a pirate's iguana parrot.
- The freeze-frame gag where Aang flies into view just when Zuko was asking where he is was given a spiritual successor in "The King Of Omashu," where we get a freeze-frame of Aang, Sokka and Katara barreling through an encampment of Earth Kingdom soldiers just as they were being told to "be prepared for anything."
- Save the Villain: After he knocks Zuko off the statue while in the Avatar State, Aang quickly jumps off and catches Zuko before he hits the ground.
- She's Not My Girlfriend: Gender inverted with Aang and Kya. Kya denies that Aang is her boyfriend much to Aang's disappointment.
- Standard Female Grab Area: A variant; rather than tie up Kya as they did with Sokka, the guards just hold her arms in a tight grip.
- You Will Be Spared: When he manages to knock Aang down, Zuko orders him to surrender. He then says if Aang does, his father will go easy on the Avatar.
