Mark Watches ‘Avatar’: S01E03 – The Southern Air Temple

In the third episode of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka, Katara, and Aang head to the Southern Air Temple so Aang can reunite with his family and continue training. What they discover there is both heartbreaking and terrifying. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar.

Despite that this episode is not perfect, the way that the story is organized in “The Southern Air Temple” shows why I think this show is more than just a cartoon. (And why I will probably grow to enjoy it.) It wasn’t until the final five minutes that I literally struck my forehead with my palm, realizing the very title of the show gave away the plot of this particular episode. Maybe I was distracted by the events on screen to the point that something so terribly obvious hadn’t leapt out at me, but the adventure that Katara, Sokka, and Aang were on was entirely fascinating to me.

Before I launch into that, I do have admit that the plot lines between Iroh, Zuko, and the newly-introduced Zhao is not my cup of tea. Yet. Well, wait, let me qualify that. I think I liked the Southern Air Temple scenes so much that every time it switched perspective, my brain yelled at the episode NO GO BACK I NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Plus, it’s dudely dudes being all dudely and masculine to prove their honor and ewwww. lol my masculinity issues LET ME SHOW YOU THEM. But I jest. I think the show does the battle/fight/man-off between Zhao and Zuko surprisingly well, but it’s not until the end of the fight that I feel it’s going to go somewhere more captivating than where it starts off. The truth is that the Zhao/Zuko storyline kind of feels a bit familiar. (I’m avoiding the word “cliche” for the time being.) But it does two things that are fantastic:

1) I cheer for Zuko over Zhao and then I realize I’m technically rooting for a villain at the same time I’m rooting for the good guys, just in two different contexts. And that’s pretty neat.

2) Watching Iroh and Zuko grow closer is ADORABLE and opens up a totally new story: Will Zuko take on more of his uncle’s personality traits and ideas and, in turn, lose some of his aggressive behavior? Will this turn into a story where Iroh/Zuko break off from the Firebenders to be on the side of the Avatar??? HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE.

OK, so let’s just talk about the Avatar. I mean Aang. I mean WOW THIS PLOT IS SO AWESOME. Once Aang reveals that they’re headed for the Southern Air Temple to meet up with his family/tribe, Katara vocalizes what all of us are probably thinking: THIS IS PROBABLY A BAD IDEA. A lot can change over the course of a hundred years, and Katara and Sokka become worried that Aang will be heartbroken and disappointed to discover that there are no Airbenders left. And look….IT’S RIGHT THERE IN THE TITLE OF THE SHOW. THE LAST AIRBENDER. So clearly he has to be the last one or else the title of this show is a dirty goddamn lie. Nickelodeon won’t lie to children, will they? WILL THEY?

This is what I love about this episode and why not spoiling me is ABSOLUTELY KEY: For at least 15 minutes of this episode, I believed that Aang would find SOMEBODY left alive in the Southern Air Temple, even more so once we got the flashback concerning Monk Gyatso. For only being on the third episode and for being a show aimed at kids, I was kind of surprised how…tense this all was. The Southern Air Temple itself is not disappointing in the slightest; as they pass through the Patola Mountain Range and begin to head upwards to the temple, Aang makes a good point. How could Firebenders make it to a temple so high in the sky?

When the Temple appears into view, it’s such a wonderful spectacle to witness.

The animation provides a grandiose sense of scale and size to the place, and I loved that there was a long, jagged path up to the temple itself. We get to see an airball court (WHICH LOOKS LIKE AN AMAZING GAME, LET ME TELL YOU) and the location where the flying bison would feed. (OH MY GOD, THERE USED TO BE MORE THAN ONE APPA, BRB DYING). All of this not only gives us a portrait of how massive the Airbender world was, but it conversely creates a sharp pain of loneliness for Aang and the viewer. Here’s this amazing, gorgeous temple that is completely empty. The size of it makes the loneliness so much worse.

But Aang’s sense of hope is so infectious! Maybe that’s why I still clung to the thought that there could be just one Airbender left. Aang’s flashback to Monk Gyatso certainly didn’t help, as we got a glimpse of what the Southern Air Temple used to be like. Gyatso himself starts off as what seems like a stereotype of the wise master, but the man’s sense of humor breaks with that preconceived notion. Also: TONS OF FLYING BISON what the hell.

When the group finally reaches the door of the temple and Aang unlocks it using Airbending (seriously, this universe is just plain cool, you guys), this episode becomes SO FANTASTIC SO QUICKLY. I was on the edge of my seat during this entire scene, so unbearably curious as to what the temple itself would contain. Did I guess that it would be a bunch of statues that represented all of Aang’s past lives? NO, I DID NOT. It wasn’t at all disappointing that there were no people left in the Southern Air Temple because what the writers provide instead is just so creepy and fascinating. As the three of them begin to explore this strange and unsettling arrangement of statues in the grounds, Katara points out that they’re lined up in a specific pattern: The Avatar cycle. (Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Which is some brilliant foreshadowing, considering we’re starting this off with Aang as an Airbender and we know he’s moving on to Water.)

Adding another mysterious dose to the mythology of the show, Aang recognizes the last statue in the spiral, Avatar Roku, Well…maybe recognize is the wrong word? He just knows, man. He knows because technically, that’s himself. The Avatar is passed along in various incarnations in the order of the Avatar cycle. So, as I understand it, the Avatar has always been around in this alternate world? From the beginning? Where did all these people come from and how did they get their powers? OBVIOUSLY DO NOT ANSWER THIS, but man, this show just keeps giving me MORE QUESTIONS I WANT ANSWERS FROM. Ugh, I don’t think I have ever regretted doing a show in this manner so quickly. I NEED TO KNOW ALL THE THINGS.

I’m glad the lemur scene exists to break up the growing weirdness of the Temple (NOT THAT I DISLIKE IT) because so much of this episode is NOT FUNNY AT ALL. And lemurs are cute! I enjoy cute things! But it’s such a jarring contrast to the scene before and after it and that makes the effect of Aang’s transformation SCARY AS HELL. Chasing after the lemur with a goofy smile on his face, Aang discovers a room full of the bodies of Fire Nation soldiers, with Monk Gyatso’s corpse propped up by itself in the center. If Aang was going to find out about the destruction of his people here at the Southern Air Temple, this was certainly the absolute worst way to do it. Heartbroken and enraged by the sight of his mentor, the knowledge that his people are completely gone, that he’s the final Airbender left, Aang is pushed into a rage, transforming to the Avatar state with glowing eyes and arrow markings, an air sphere violently throwing Sokka out of the way. I’m glad that we’re this early into the series and they’re already dealing with the terrifying power that the Avatar possesses. I don’t think the writers are going to ignore this dichotomy between Aang’s personality and the violent qualities of the Avatar, either, and I look forward to seeing that develop. Interesting as well is the fact that when Aang passes into the Avatar State, it notifies all four nations that the Avatar has returned, so it is no longer a secret that he exists, which is also pushing the plot forward a lot quicker than I expected. THIS IS QUITE EXCITING.

So, we’ve got a fascinating plot, some nice character parallels, some unorthodox storytelling…yet I’m drawn to the characters the most. Katara brings Aang out of the Avatar State by accepting him as part of her family along with Sokka, and I love the message it sends, that people can struggle with life and themselves and still have people who aren’t even related to them backing them up as their family. They don’t need blood relations to have that sort of support system, and if kids are watching this and understanding that friendship can be a powerful thing, then I certainly want to give the creators a few million high fives.

THOUGHTS

• A full note must be devoted to Uncle Iroh, who RULES THIS WHOLE EPISODE. Is this a man after my own heart? Surely there is no one who better understands the brilliance of tea more than him? my body is ready, Iroh.
• “Did you really mean that, Uncle?” “Of course. I told you Ginseng tea was my favorite.”
• “I’m just a simple guy with simple needs!” I am surprisingly not irritated in the slightest with Sokka. Something about his constant anger is so endearing to me. I can’t figure it out yet.
• Ok, so they outright acknowledge that Aang survived in an iceberg for 100 years, and yet no one asks the obvious: HOW DID AANG NOT AGE?
• “Firebenders! Nobody make a sound.” “You’re making a sound!”
• Ok, am I seriously this forgetful or did they explain what Zuko did to get banished? I don’t think they did yet.
• Ugh, Katara and Sokka’s mother died. 🙁 🙁 🙁
• THIS SHOW IS SO NEAT.