History Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSouthernRaiders

* BrokenAesop:
** The intended message, as stated by Aang and supported by WordOfGod in the DVD commentary, was that violence isn't the answer to your problems and that forgiving your enemy is the first step towards healing from trauma. However, Katara herself rebukes Aang, pointing out that she didn't forgive him, and she never will.
** Zuko's own actions may be viewed as this. He offers to help Katara find her mother's killer so that she would forgive him for his previous betrayal. In short, Zuko is helping Katara enact her vengeance on someone else so that she will forgive him, despite the fact Zuko himself is the one advocating revenge as the better resolution.

* BittersweetEnding: While she spares him, Katara admits she will ''never'' forgive Yon Rha, meaning her pain will never entirely go away. On the other hand, the episode's adventure helps her finally forgive Zuko, now that she can heal from her past scars. Meanwhile, Zuko wonders that if violence isn't the answer, then how will Aang face Ozai?

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: On one hand, Aang warns Katara that revenge will destroy her personally if she pursues it. He cites how he went berserk with the Avatar State on learning that the Fire Nation had wiped out his family and killed his friend Gyatso, and regrets how destructive he became. On the other hand, Zuko does not sugarcoat how unrealistic it is to forgive a murderer, ''especially'' when the murderer in question kills a loved one in cold blood, and he'd know because grew up under a mass murderer. In the end, Katara accepts both points. She decides to not allow revenge to consume her and not kill Yon Rha because she knows that it won't bring her mother back; at the same time, she doesn't forgive Yon Rha (and makes it clear she will ''never'' forgive him) because he still murdered her mother.

* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Katara snaps at Sokka for seemingly not being upset at their mother's death, telling him he didn't love her the way she did. While Sokka doesn't argue it directly, we see that's far from the truth. Sokka processes moments and grief very differently. When he tells Zuko what happened that day, Sokka says it's one he doesn't like to remember, showing he isn't any less traumatized than Katara was.

* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Maybe not by herself, but same thing. Aang may be opposed to Katara's quest for vengeance. Nonetheless, he relents and allows Katara to use Appa for it, seeing she needs to face her mother's killer in order to find closure.

* AnAesop:
** Seeking closure for someone who killed a loved one is not a uniform process. While some people can process grief by focusing on their living loved ones, others need answers about why it happened and a chance of righting a wrong. And even then, such a confrontation is only the first step to healing.
** Refusing to let go of anger can cause a person to unintentionally hurt others. Throughout the episode, Katara lashes out at Aang and Sokka, who are trying to help, and at Zuko, who, despite everything he's done to her, is not responsible for her mother's death. She also bloodbends the wrong person. By the end of the episode, Katara is still not ready to forgive Yon Rha, but acknowledges that she is ready to forgive Zuko.

* ThisIsReality: Aang tries to reason Katara not to pursue revenge using an allegory about handling a [[MakesSenseInContext two-headed rat viper]]. Zuko has this to say:

* AnAesop: Seeking closure for someone who killed a loved one is not a uniform process. While some people can process grief by focusing on their living loved ones, others need answers about why it happened and a chance of righting a wrong. And even then, such a confrontation is only the first step to healing.

* ImpossibleTask: When Zuko asks Katara what he can do to make up his earlier betrayal to her, she gives him two options: recapture Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King, or bring her mother back to life. He decides to TakeAThirdOption and figures out what really is bothering her-- her mother's death-- to give Katara closure.

* KickTheDog: It's one thing for Katara to be venomous towards Zuko, but it's another thing when she accuses Sokka of ''not loving their mother'' when he objects to her searching for their mother's murderer in clear revenge. [[BreakTheCutie Sokka was clearly hurt that she would make such a wild accusation]].

** Aang references "The Desert" when he tells Katara he knows better than anyone what it's like to be consumed with grief and vengeance at losing a loved one.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: On one hand, Aang warns Katara that revenge will destroy her personally if she pursues it. He cites how he went berserk with the Avatar State on learning that the Fire Nation had wiped out his family and killed his friend Gyatso, and regrets how destructive he became. On the other hand, Zuko does not sugarcoat how unrealistic it is to forgive a murderer, ''especially'' when the murderer in question kills a loved one in cold blood. In the end, Katara accepts both points. She decides to not allow revenge to consume her and not kill Yon Rha because she knows that it won't bring her mother back; at the same time, she doesn't forgive Yon Rha (and makes it clear she will ''never'' forgive him) because he still murdered her mother.

* EveryoneHasStandards: From the very beginning, Sokka has hated the Fire Nation. Even around the start of the third season, he says he and the Gaang are now in enemy territory. However, he sees no benefit in getting revenge on Yon Rha, even though the man killed his and Katara's mother.

* DirtyCoward: Yon Rha's current title as a "miserable wretch" could be accredited to being paranoid enough over his environment to blow any random people within five feet of him without warning, but he definitely is ''not'' the PsychoForHire Katara expected him to be. He drops the "giving the would-be assassins what's coming to them" act immediately when Zuko threatens him even though by all intents and purposes the latter is just a random citizen, starting offering up his belongings and then his ''mother'' when a now-recognizable Katara takes the lead in the confrontation. In the end, the latter coolly addresses this behavior just before she can impale him, hammering it home that he's NotWorthKilling.

* DirtyCoward: Yon Rha, and how! Oh sure, he's all high and mighty when he has a helpless (non-bending) Water Tribe mother at his mercy to murder, and he has no problem acting mean and nasty towards the scared eight-year-old Katara at the time. But when faced with that "same little girl" older, angrier ''and'' at the peak of her water-bending prowess, he's sprawled out on the ground begging for mercy. Not to mention he offers up his own elderly (if [[AssholeVictim abusive]]) mother to save his own skin.
* DisturbedDoves: These alert Aang to the first of the incoming bombs.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* CallToAgriculture: Subverted by Yon Rha, who is living a miserable life with a shrew of a mother.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: {{lampshaded}} when Azula gets knocked into an apparently-bottomless pit: "She's not gonna make it," Zuko exclaims in equal parts apprehension and relief. She then uses a BladeBrake against a cliff wall and saves herself; "Of course she did," Zuko says in equal parts disbelief and relief.

** The full moon is in display when Zuko and Azula fly to the Southern Raiders ship, foreshadowing Katara being able to bloodbend.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** No Aang, Katara can ''never'' forgive her mother's murderer.
** Azula, despite losing Mai and Ty Lee, clearly wants to destroy Zuko and Team Avatar, so she followed them to the Western Air Temple.

** From her behavior in this episode, it's clear that Azula is beginning to lose it. For one, she's sporting a manic grin instead of her usual smirk and is acting openly emotional instead of cold and collected. Her fighting has also become sloppier; she uses her fists to swing her fire around instead of two fingers to concentrate the blasts like she's done before.