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Avatar: The Last Airbender "The Great Divide"

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  • Accidental Aesop: Lying through your teeth is an acceptable and effective way to resolve deeply ingrained disputes. Doubly so when the cause of the fight is truly unknown to modern descendants ready to escalate into pointless violence.
  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: This episode almost manages to be a deep, non-partisan commentary on tribalism, how easy it is to get sucked into it, how keeping two sides apart isn't enough to stop them hating each other, and how being no worse than "the other side" doesn't mean you're on the right side.
  • Anvilicious: You shouldn't let old grudges fester.
  • Awesome Art: For all its faults, the animation remains top-notch; for some, the animated sequences detailing the stories of Wei Jin and Jin Wei may also deserve a mention.
  • Easily Forgiven: It's hard to believe that the two tribes would immediately drop their century-long grudge just from hearing Aang's side of the story. You'd think at least some members would suspect he's lying and remain uneasy about cooperating with the other tribe, especially since his explanation is completely ridiculous and he admits to his teammates that he did make the whole thing up.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: The Canyon Guide; for bonus points, he's voiced by Leonard Stone, who played the father of Violet in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
  • Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The episode’s treatment of feuds between Gan Jin and the Zhang would be less light-hearted with The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi, which showed their rivalry being longer and deadlier than their accounts of orbs. Even worse, Kyoshi being part of Aang’s past avatars meant that he would be aware of the deeper roots to their feud. This is not to mention Jianzhu—a Gan Jin tribe member— would become Kyoshi's antagonist, which put his patience to keep both of their tribes alive in a different light.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Team Avatar is left to escort refugees of the war to the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, which could've held higher potential if the tribes in question had anything to offer regarding the larger and more desperate effort to defeat the Fire Nation, and could've shown the greater consequences of the global conflict. Instead, the reason for their ancient feud has no bearing on the war raging behind them.

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