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Avatar: The Last Airbender "The Southern Raiders"

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  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Considering that the intended message fell flat, another way to interpret it is that once you take revenge, you'll eventually become comfortable with killing over justifications. Aang mentioning Jet to Katara lends credence to this, since Jet was all too willing to possibly kill an innocent old man, and outright kill an entire village with a flood that won't discriminate between soldier or civilian. Aang's apprehension towards Katara wasn't entirely because he thought Katara would be like Yon Rha, but because he was seriously worried that once Katara had her way, she would've hardened herself into killing comfortably.
  • Broken Aesop: The intended message, as stated by Aang and supported by Word of God 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.
  • Broken Base: The general consensus is that considering the complexity of the issue made it hard for it to be portrayed perfect, one group of fans think that it came about as close as you realistically can and cite this as one of the best episodes as a result. Another group agrees while it's a great episode in its own right, the difficulty was too much to be handled in one episode.
  • Fridge Horror:
    • Who told the Fire Nation that there was one more Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe? Yon Rha did seem to know exactly who to ask, although he doesn't seem to have considered the possibility of her lying.
    • Why is Katara so much more traumatized by Kya's death than Sokka? Sokka was fighting elsewhere when Hakoda and Katara found Kya's body. Sokka wouldn't have seen her until someone was able to cover her up. Katara wasn't so lucky.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Yon Rha truly crosses it when he offers to let Katara kill his mother to satisfy her revenge. Before this, the scene was set up to make the viewers think he may have repented of the evil he had done, but making this offer proves that he still thinks he did nothing wrong and doesn't deserve punishment. Though it should be noted that Zuko, who reformed, supported Ozai being killed, albeit if only because he literally could not think of another way to defeat him.
  • Never Live It Down: There exists a Vocal Minority of fans who will never forgive Katara for telling Sokka that he didn't love their mother the way she did. Not helping matters is that she never apologized for this. While it's true that what Katara said was pretty mean, it's human as she was consumed by negative emotions. The lack of forgiveness these fans have for this glosses over the fact that Zuko has had many more such moments like this with Iroh and that, throughout the series, Katara has been a supportive sister to Sokka to the point where he sees her as a mother figure.
  • Older Than They Think: Katara's arc and Zuko's role in this story look very similar to fellow Waterbender and Firebender Gi's and Wheeler's in the Captain Planet episode "Teers in the Hood."

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