Avatar: The Last Airbender

False alarm. They have clearly labeled it for once, but it'll be a rerun of "Nightmares and Daydreams". Sigh.

Well, guys, apparently the DV Ds with some new episodes (The Boiling Rock parts 1 and 2) are out in the US, as well as... elsewhere, if you know what I mean. They will on TV... drumroll, please... in July. I seriously don't understand the reasoning behind Nickelodeon's schedule. Right now it seems to go like this: 1 - make fans wait a looooooong time for new episodes 2 - announce said episodes will air in July, while simultaneously releasing them on the DV Ds 3 - ???? 4 - PROFIT!*

• No, not really, since most of the fans will download the episodes instead of buying / renting the DV Ds.

Just finished watching the two episodes. Lots of Crowning Moments Of Awesome in this one. What follows, obviously, is spoileriffic. []Zuko and Sokka go to the Boiling Rock, which is a prison in the middle of a boiling lake, since they think Sokka's father might be there. They disguise as guards and check the prison, but find out that Hakoda is not there; they find Suki though. While Sokka talks to Suki Zuko is discovered and taken to the warden, who we learn is Mai's uncle. The three hatch an escape plan, but a prisoner overhears them and forces them to take him with them. Right before they put the plan into motion they overhear two guards saying that more prisoners will arrive the next day, including some war prisoners. Sokka, Zuko and Suki decide to stay, and the other prisoner takes off without them, only to be discovered halfway through the crossing of the lake. The new prisoners arrive, and Hakoda is among them. End of part one. Sokka and Hakoda think up another escape plan, and tell their plan to Zuko and Suki. Zuko is taken away to another cell, where Mai is waiting for him. Meanwhile the other prisoner is subjected to CoolAndUnusualPunishment by the warden to find out who had hatched the first escape plan. The prisoner tells the warden that somebody disguised as a guard made up the plan, but when put in front of the lined-up guards he points out a random guy instead of ratting out Sokka. Azula, however, has arrived at the prison and quickly realizes the accused guard isn't a traitor, since she "can tell; I'm a people person." Sokka releases the prisoners into the yard and they start a prison riot. Zuko uses the commotion to escape, locking Mai in a cell. The group (Zuko, Sokka, Hakoda, Suki and the other prisoner) capture the warden and, using him as an hostage, they escape by cable car, while Azula and Ty Lee give chase. They have a battle (Zuko, Sokka and Suki vs. Azula and Ty Lee) on top of the cable car until the warden gets free and yells at the guards to cut the car's cables. The guards stop the car and start sawing away at the cable. Azula and Ty Lee jump over to the opposite car, but Mai arrives and starts the car up again (best dialogue in the whole two episodes: "What are you doing?" "Saving the jerk who dumped me."). The heroes get away, and Azula gets really mad at Mai (second best line: "You're not a people person. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."). Azula's about to fry Mai with lightning, when Ty Lee hits Azula, blocking her bending powers. The two are quickly caught, and Azula tells the guards to "lock them up, where I won't have to ever see them again." Back at the eastern air temple, Hakoda is reunited with his children.]]

Awesome awesomeness.

It appears this is these are the only episodes to come out on DVD. They said it won't premiere until July 14th but they also said the show will end in July. I also think that they're airing the two hour finale all at once, so it'll probably be on July 25th, the last Friday of the month, and the DVD comes out just four days later. I only pray someone else doesn't beat them to it.

I have to say this has instantly become my favorite episode, largely because it features lots of things I enjoy a lot: humor, Sokka, and putting the Badass in Badass Normal. What I say next is in spoilers:

I know we just met him, but I already love Chin Sang. Anyone that can start a riot like that is awesome. I never disliked Mai, but now I love her. There's just too much to list: it was incredibly well done, the whole building looks awesome, Zuko and Sokka make a kickass team, Suki is absolutely awesome. FYI, holding someone upside down for very long periods of time probably doesn't count as Cool and Unusual Punishment due to the fact that it's an actual form of torture.]]

All in all pretty awesome. But one thing bugged me. Did anybody get a case of Fridge Logic when Chin Sang was being captured in the first attempt? He is a fire bender and could have burned through the rope on the bolt.

Also does anybody else predict a meltdown from Azula in the future? She did just lock up the two people who were her closest things to a friend.

Edit: Also the small talk between Zuko and Sokko on the balloon was hilarious.

Sokka: My first girlfriend turned into the moon. Zuko: That's rough buddy.

Alkthash wrote:

Hey, though I doubt that would help him much. I was wondering more how they got into the uniform room. I also noticed that Zuko and Sokka apparently lost their old clothes, as they couldn't retrieve them from the place they hid them. Also it's spelt Chit Sang (I normally wouldn't bother correcting that kind of thing, but that's a name a lot of the people will mess up and I want to try to prevent confusion before it starts)

Suki's Crowning Moment Of Awesome was so crazy awesome I had to add it to I Am Not Making This Up. Sokka and Zuko make a pretty cool duo. The Idea Guy comic relief, and Mr. Indy Ploy Berserker make nice foils for each other and have awesome fights together.

I looked up the voice actors for the warden and Chit Sang. The warden is voiced by a guy (Wade Williams) who plays another jail worker in Prison Break (Brad Bellick), but I couldn't find anything on Chit Sang's (an Ezekial Rollins) meaning he's either an unknown or it's a pseudonym.]] If you pay attention you'll also notice the music is different then usual (for one thing you can here a piano playing faintly). The guys from the Track Team said they were doing more with the music near the end, I it think it's great.

I wouldn't post any examples from these episodes until they air, simply because not everyone (especially not casual fans) watches things on DVD or the internet. That said, comments:

[]Part 1: I really liked this episode the back and forth between Sokka and Zuko was really nice and I thought it was really well paced. They didn't linger on anything they didn't have to. Also, did anyone else notice Suki looked different for last time we saw her without makeup? I think her eyes got bigger (the show has gotten more Animesque), but I'd have to go back and check.

Part 2: Frankly, I thought this episode didn't work. Everything was good up through the riot scene, and then Suki started running on heads and jumping up walls and suddenly it was like the writers had just said, "you know what? Screw it, let's just have ten minutes of our principal characters in awesome fight scenes," except they screwed up. Fight scenes lose all their dramatic tension when neither side has abilities base on anything and everyone just starts doing crazy shit. Suki can run up walls. Zuko can jump twenty or third feet to catch a gondola. Ty Lee can jump even farther without a running start. Mai/Mei can apparently beat dozens of trained warriors in full armor by throwing knives at them. Meanwhile, Sokka still sucks (even though he and Suki were on roughly even ground when they first met). The worst part though was Azula shooting lightning out of her feet like a rocket. If that's not a Narm moment, I don't know what is. What were they thinking? How does that work, anyway? Bending doesn't even have recoil! Besides, isn't the whole point to combine crazy magical powers with semi-realistic martial arts? What do they accomplish by making the martial arts less believable than the magic, besides trampling my Willing Suspension Of Disbeleif?]]

I don't know, that second episode flat out did not work for me. Next time, I hope they spend less time worrying about the Rule of Cool and more time choreographing a fight scene that's actually interesting.

Yeah a few bits of Fridge Logic, fortunately Fridge Logic (by its definition) doesn't interrupt the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. All in all, not a bad pair of episodes. []Yes, the rocket shoes effect was jarring. I suppose it makes sense, even though she probably doesn't have rocket nozzles on her soles. I don't even want to think about the physics behind that. Also, the guards seemed to not have assigned posts, otherwise why would two new guards be allowed to wander around? I would expect a strict prison to have rigid postings and assignments for the guards.[[/folder]]

Looking at the upcoming episodes, it appears that #56 is going to be a Whole Episode Flashback and #57 is going to be a Breather Episode/Recap Episode (hopefully without being a straight up Clip Show, though I'm not worried about that). Then it's four episodes of Grand Finale.

After that, it's a new story in the same universe, right? Something along those lines, as far as I know. Such a popular series will inevitably be continued in some way.

Adam850 wrote:

It seems like it would serve the purpose of a recap episode, without being a straight-up clip show. You're rightm though, it seems more like a breather episode.

By the way, I reckon it's time for Iroh to reappear.

Iroh? Well, I reckon somebody's got to make sure Mai and Ty Lee don't miss out on the finale. Though they could probably handle the escape themselves... Depending on how lenient/furious Mai's uncle's is.

Yeah, I really want Iroh to come back. Without him, the Competence Zone is just too oppressive. Lately it's seemed like everyone below 18 is an unstoppable wire-fu badass, while the adults are all lucky if they hold the right end of their spears. Did anyone else find it odd that the hardass warden went down without even a token fight? Suki wasn't even armed. Hakota and Chit Sang doing next to nothing during the big fight scene was pretty weird, too.

Duckluck wrote:

However isn't he supposed to be the leader of a tribe of warriors, not to mention the multiple mentions of his fighting? The last part is probably not good to think about too much. It was entertaining, so it served its purpose, in my eyes.

Adam850 wrote:

Aren't the spoilers getting a little silly? Can't we just say that if someone hasn't seen the most recent episode then they should expect spoilers, and be done with it? I mean, I was perfectly able to avoid this thread before I saw the episodes, and now that I've seen them I'm able to participate in the conversation. Anyway...

I was kind of wondering afterwards, whatever became of Chit Sang's best pal and girlfriend? Did he just decide they weren't worth the effort the second time around?

Anyway, I think Hakoda was staying to guard the warden simply because he was unarmed. If we assume he fights like Sokka, them he's probably not any good at unarmed combat.

Rock wrote:

Well that makes more sense. You don't need to be a good fighter to run a prison.

Just saw the two episodes. Entertaining, certainly, but I don't know...the dialogue seemed a little stilted or something. no matter. A few thoughts:

• I'd hate to see the Fire Nation's least-secure prison. That's all I'm going to say about that.
• I find myself unable to warm to Suki, despite her sudden burst of competence (what, did she learn to free-run back in her village, with all those one-storey buildings?). She just seems kind of flat, compared to pretty much every other character.
• If Mei and Ty Lee are now opposed to Azula (if not an actual HeelFaceTurn), don't we have kind of a shortage of interesting villains now?
• I like that even though sokka hasn't become a lot more 'powerful' in the Shōnen manga sense, he now has the confidence to go toe-to-toe with a beast like Azula. Also, he and Zuko make a pretty good team- I liked their little tag team choreography they had going on.

Patsy wrote:

Patsy wrote:

Second point: If I remember correctly, she hasn't has as much development as the other characters yet. (I hadn't thought her as a flat character while watching the episodes). Third point: I don't think they were really committed to the cause. They were more just helping a friend, and when the friend acts like more of a jerk than usual, they turn. Tangent said it: they're probably shifting likable characters to the winning side. Fourth point: I agree. I'm glad that he hasn't suddenly developed super physical or bending skills just so he can "catch up" with the rest of the group. I'd call these two episodes Character Focus episodes (the rest of the group were certainly Out of Focus).

[]By not opening the last chakra, Aang is unable to use the Avatar state, right? Something like that. I'm thinking: to beat Ozai, he'll need to access that power. I think he'll need to make a hard choice at some point: save his friends or beat the enemy and save the world. (This doesn't necessarily rule out Take a Third Option). Also, I can't shake the feeling that one or more Heroic Sacrifices will be needed at the end. And has Zuko equated "taking down the Fire Lord" to "killing Dad" at any point?[[/folder]]

I'll just repost what I said on the Git P forums, if you don't mind: [[spoiler: 'Twas a nice episode. Loved how Zuko called Sokka on his Indy Ploys. Totally saw the twist in the end coming, but that's no problem. "I'm never happy," hee hee. :smallbiggrin: Suki was badass. Azula going all Iron Man, not so much. Mai was as cool as ever.

I'm really hoping Hakoda and the Fire Nation Con Person ship the unnecessary kids off screen so we can get more Toph. I was shipping Toko before it made sense, I want my damn episodes. Also, going to be fun to see how losing her only friends affects Azula's blue fire, considering how one has to be so in control to use it. Finally, show Zuko the lotus tile already, ponytail! Iroh is win.]]

I think six episodes out from the end is a little late for shipping anyone who isn't obvious, but I'd be lying if I said recent events hadn't made my own unlikely ship a little more likely :Sokka/Ty Lee.]] A man can dream.

[[spoiler: I was really hoping for an "aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" shout out.

Suki's sudden ability to run up walls definately bothered me more than Azula's rocket boots, probably because it's more believable to make up new rules for existing supernatural powers than to make supposedly normal people have inexplicable supernatural powers.]]

Glooble wrote:

Also, does it seem like all anybody in the Avatar universe does while imprisioned is train to pull of a badass escape?

Tangent128 wrote:

As for the training for escape, I think it's just the people we've seen captured so far. I mean, both Iroh and Suki were self-motivated leader types, and both seem to have the intelligence to prepare for an escape (although in Iroh's case, he made the escape himself rather than waiting to be rescued). I kind of doubt the other Kyoshi Warriors, as well as those captured during the Day of Black Sun, are preparing escape plans. Finally, you've gotta take into account that there's very little to DO in prison, and pushing yourself through training can be a good way to keep your mind of things.

I don't really have an answer for Suki's sudden channeling of the spirit of parkour, though. It was awesome, so I'm fine with it.

I guess we are supposed to accept that as "really good warrior training". I suspect a lot of this analysis is because it will be a while before any new episodes, so we scrutinize what we have in front of us right now.