The boy in the iceberg.
One hundred years ago, the Fire Nation launched an attack on the rest of the world. Only the Avatar, master of all four elemental powers, could stop them, but he vanished. Now, a pair of teenagers in the Southern Water Tribe village find a young boy frozen in the ice.
Episodes adapted from the original series:
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The original show opened with narration from Katara explaining the Fire Nation conflict, how the Avatar had vanished and how the men of the Southern Water Tribe left for war. It then started with Sokka and Katara on a canoe where they end up finding Aang. Further information is revealed throughout the series, which forms the basis of the first half of this episode. The opening narration focuses on explaining the nature of the bending arts, the Avatar and the different nations, with Sokka and Katara not showing up until the second half.
- Earth Kingdom soldiers had infiltrated and stolen written proof of the Fire Nation's target for war, along with one captured soldier being brought before Sozin himself and subsequently killed. It explains Fire Lord Sozin baited them with fake plans to attack the Earth Kingdom to distract the other nations from their actual target... the Air Nomads.
- The massacre at the Southern Air Temple is shown in-full here, and it's just as horrifying as you'd expect it to be. Sozin's army quickly overwhelms the Air Nomads and torches them all, with Gyatso being the last man standing as he fights to protect the children. Tragically (and inevitably), neither he nor the children survive.
- The Air Nomads had primarily gathered at the Southern Air Temple for a festival celebrating the comet. The Purge of the Air Nomads was exceptionally swift because they had grouped up for something that gave the Firebenders the power to overwhelm them.
- Adapted Out:
- Since Sokka's objection to Katara waterbending is the much more pragmatic reason of wanting to hide it so the Fire Nation soldiers don't come around again (as opposed to being curtly dismissive of bending gobbledygook in the animated series), Katara doesn't get incensed and give Sokka an earful while inadvertently icebending the iceberg open, and Aang's iceberg more spontaneously cracks open.
- Aang and Katara do not go penguin-sledding.
- While Aang and Katara do explore the abandoned Fire Nation ship, they don't trip any mechanisms since the ship is long gutted, and Zuko's already on his way since he'd seen the skyward beam of light.
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Downplayed. Aang is not aware he's the Avatar from the start, as he isn't told as such until the night of the siege, and therefore isn't excluded by the other Air Nomad kids for that reason. The following episodes do show that the other kids did exclude him for different reasons however (accidentally blowing other nomads off of a ledge while training due to his exceptional airbending powers and them being scared to train with him).
- Adaptational Diversity: In the original show, the Air Nomad council was exclusively malenote , while here there's at least one woman in their number.
- Some girls are also seen amongst the Water Tribe children Sokka is trying to train, as opposed to the animated versions, which were all boys.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Other than revealing the circumstances of being frozen in the iceberg, in the cartoon Aang's first use of the Avatar State was during the battle on Zuko's ship and implying its' use as a subconscious Super Mode. The show changes it to when Aang unleashes it out of grief at the Southern Air Temple, which was the second time it appeared in the original series.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Since Sokka's sexism is excised in this version, the chain of events that lead to him and Katara stumbling on Aang's iceberg is just sailing into a sudden floe, rather than Katara blowing her stack at him.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Very downplayed in regards to Zuko's arrival at the village. In the source material, he has his ship ram the village's ice wall in a clear act of aggression from the very beginning. Here, however, he initially just walks up to the gate and makes no attempt to enter before giving the residents his ultimatum.
- Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. In the original series, there was an implication that Gyatso had a Last Stand in the original series with a whole pile of skeletons wearing Fire Nation armor in the room he died in. Here, Gyatso is still Defiant to the End and puts up a pretty good fight against the soldiers, but isn't able to finish them off before Sozin himself steps in and ends Gyatso's life.
- Bait-and-Switch: As Katara is admonishing Sokka's conscience about leaving Aang in Zuko's clutches, Sokka stomps back inside the village walls, with a grim expression on his face. Katara gets more frustrated with Sokka's cynicism... but then Sokka starts listing off duties and expectations to his acting second-in-command as to what he needs to do in the immediate future to secure the village, leaving his subordinate in command. Katara cottons on and figures out he's actually agreeing with her judgement that they owe Aang a rescue.
- Batman Gambit: The episode begins with a pair of earthbenders stealing from the Fire Nation capitol, supposedly an outlay of Sozin's plans to invade the Earth Kingdoms. Only Sozin admits that this is a distraction so all eyes will be on the Earth Kingdom, and not the Air Nomads.
- Canon Foreigner: Amongst Sokka and Katara’s villagers is a boy about the same age as Sokka. He ends up being left in charge when Sokka and Katara decide to go rescue Aang.
- Do Not Go Gentle: The Air Nomads may be pacifists, but they do put up a fight against the sudden Fire Nation attack. Gyatso especially, and Sozin admits that were it not for the comet, he would've won.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: The Earth Nation soldier realizes that Sozin wanted them to know of his plans to organize all forces by the Earth borders...and leave the Air Nomads unguarded. "We're not the real target."
- Frontline General: The one thing that can be said about Sozin, he at least leads from the front.
- Gilligan Cut: Sokka swears there's nothing that can make him get on Appa. Cut to Appa flying off with Sokka on-board, screaming his head off.
- Honor Before Reason: Zuko had the superior numbers, but he still got baited into a one-on-one duel against Sokka because the latter attacked his pride. He also argued to his men that there would be no honor in just crushing the village with superior numbers. Once Aang and the other boys interfered to protect Sokka however, he calls for his men to even the playing field, at which point Aang is forced to surrender.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The Fire Nation launch their attack on the Southern Air Temple on the night of an important Air Nomad festival, precisely because it's when there's the largest gathering of them in one place. Making things more bitterly ironic, said festival was celebrating the arrival of the same comet that boosts the power of Firebenders, another reason Sozin attacked that night.
- Men of Sherwood: The village kids Sokka has been training aren't too impressive a sight, but do manage to use their weapons and training to delay the Fire Nation without suffering any casualties (although that probably would have changed if Aang hadn't given himself up).
- Missed Him by That Much: If Sozin had attacked the Southern Air Temple just a few hours or even minutes earlier, he'd have got Aang.
- Mythology Gag: Kanna gives the majority of original Katara's opening monologue as exposition to Aang.
- No Kill like Overkill: When it's pointed out they have no idea who among the Air Nomads could be the new Avatar, Sozin's solution is simple. "Which is why we have to kill them all."
- Obi-Wan Moment: Gyatso dies trying to save the young air benders.
- Pursued Protagonist: The episode (and series) begin with an Earth Kingdom spy being chased through a Fire Nation street and delaying pursuers with his powers as he gives stolen war plans to a comrade to take to the Earth King before staying behind to Hold the Line. He is captured, taunted about how the plans were fakes that the Fire Nation wanted the Earth King to have, and then murdered.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Subverted. It looks like Sokka doesn’t care about saving Aang after the boy surrendered himself to Zuko. However, he actually does and was focused on getting someone else to watch over the village in his stead.
