Mark Watches ‘Avatar: S01E07 – The Winter Solstice Part I: The Spirit World

In the seventh episode of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang is asked to help rid an Earth Nation village of a destructive spirit that is kidnapping villagers, but his lack of knowledge about what an Avatar actually does gets in the way. Meanwhile, Uncle Iroh gets into a dangerous position all because he takes a nap. In a hot tub. Basically. If you’re intrigued, then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar.

HOLY GOD, WHAT AN EPISODE. Amazing, fantastic story-telling, gorgeous coloring, and a gigantic advancement of the show’s mythology, all in just twenty-four minutes. I hadn’t commented on it before, but I have to say that I love how serialized this is. I don’t think I anticipated that I’d be watching an animated serial on a kids’ network and thoroughly enjoying it, but so many of the cartoons I watched growing up were only loosely grouped together. They’d have an overarching mythology or canon, but you could easily miss any number of episodes and not feel out of place. If you’d stuck me in front of “Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World,” I would have been fairly confused.

I know I’ve spoken about my love of serialized fiction, but not in the context of a show for such a younger audience. I can only hope that Avatar inspires a similar desire to find more stories told in this method, because there’s something inherently rewarding in the medium. I hate saying that it’s almost an elitist form of storytelling, since the world implies a nasty sense of superiority, but being able to watch or read something that demands so much more of your attention is terribly exciting to me. I seek out things that are difficult to consume in terms of media, because I want to be challenged. It’s why I’ve gravitated to a band like The Dillinger Escape Plan or enjoy David Lynch (sometimes, not all the time) or Michael Haneke, or why House of Leaves seemed to be as close to book porn as I could possibly get. (Oh my god, I have to do this: Please give House of Leaves a chance. What a REWARDING book.)

I don’t want to suggest that Avatar is an inherently complicated or difficult-to-understand show, as even in this two-parter, we see how they can simplify a complex story into an easy-to-digest format. Now that is a feat in and of itself, and the writing deserves to be praised in this case.

Right from the beginning of “Winter Solstice Part 1,” the writers go for the uncomfortable: we see, again, the effects that the Fire Nation have wrought upon the Earth Nation, in this case reducing what was probably a lush and vibrant forest to nothing but a charred scar upon the earth. Katara, ever the hopeful dreamer, manages to fine a few acorns littering the ground, and she uses these to confront (and assuage) Aang’s guilt.

It’s actually fairly sad to me that Aang feels so personally responsible for disappearing for 100 years when the world appears to have needed him the most. I still don’t know why Aang sealed himself and Appa into a glacier, and I’m not even sure I’ll find out. Regardless of that, the show is still willing to deal with that awkward reality: Aang disappeared and for 100 years, the world was without the Avatar. Katara knows that despite any inherent meaning to this, Aang cannot allow himself to feel that he’s ruined the world, because no matter how long he disappeared, it’s still the Fire Nation’s fault that this forest has been decimated. She makes sure he knows that the accountability does not rest on his shoulders. That’s the fault of the Fire Nation. Even then, the forest has a great chance of rebirth, and the metaphor of the acorn is something I think we’ll see again in the future. The seeds are here for beauty and peace. That means that all hope is not necessarily lost.

When a local earth bender makes contact with the trio, asking for help, Aang also has to deal with another unfortunate reality of his situation: he was frozen in ice for so long, and no one was around to teach him exactly what he is supposed to do as the Avatar. It’s easy to see how hard it is for Aang to bullshit this anymore, as he accepts to help in a situation that is completely and utterly over his head. The spirit world? Aang can battle people in the physical realm, but how do you fight a spirit?

Simultaneous to this, this episode is also the first time we get to spend a lot of time with Uncle Iroh, which, in my book, already makes this episode better than most. Look, he’s the best character. He loves tea and napping. Doesn’t that basically describe our Saviour? That sounds like the recipe for world peace, if you ask me. Though…ok, I have to admit that his napping SORT OF gets him in trouble in this story. When Zuko demands that they head out immediately to continue searching for the Avatar, Iroh is pretty content in his self-heated earth pool. SELF. HEATED. What a BAMF. I seriously feel like Iroh enjoys trolling his nephew as much as possible in his own way, and we get to watch him do that right after Zuko insists they leave right away. Oh, he does it entirely naked. Can I just grow up to be Iroh? I’d like that. That’s what I’d like to be when I grow up.

But yes, I have to admit that Iroh’s extended nap gets him caught by a trio of earth benders. It’s a bit strange to see Iroh with his guard down like this, but I won’t complain if we get to spend more time with him. On top of this, this predicament gives the writers a chance to do something interesting, which we saw briefly before, that inspires an unusual sensation: I end up cheering for the bad guys.

I’ll get there. I have to talk about something. Cartoons aren’t generally creepy for me. That’s not to say that they can’t be, but I don’t think I’ve seen much outside of comics and graphic novels that’s unsettled me. I never watched much anime either, so most of what I watch that’s animated has always been comedic. And yet….the Hei Bai. That first image of it, standing behind Aang….OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL. IT HAS AN EXTRA SET OF ARMS. I actually had to pause the episode because it creeped me out so much. I find this hilarious because it’s later revealed to be the spirit of a FUCKING PANDA BEAR and how the hell something so cute ended up being mortifying to me is just MAGICAL. Bless this show.

When Sokka ran out to assist Aang, who clearly has no idea what he’s doing with the Hei Bai, I instantly thought, SOKKA IS GOING TO GET CAPTURED. I knew then that what would make this interesting was seeing where Sokka got taken. Once the chase started and we got to the scene where Aang dramatically reaches out his hand to grab Sokka, I assumed that Aang would miss or manage to grab him at the last second. They lock hands and I felt relieved AND THEN SOKKA AND THE HEI BAI DISAPPEAR. What?!?!?!? WHAT?!?!?!?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. WHAT THE. WHAT IS THIS SUPERNATURAL SORCERY. Oh man, this twist only gets weirder and weirder, as Aang returns to the earth bender village, defeated and dejected because he failed his mission, discovering that no one can see him. Or hear him. I’m guessing that by touching Sokka when the Hei Bai switched to the Spirit World, Aang came along with them. WHICH OPENS UP A HUGE NEW SET OF POSSIBILITIES FOR THIS SHOW. There’s a world of spirits??? And a person can pass in between those two worlds? Oh, this show just catapulted into the POTENTIALLY THE BEST THING EVER level for me.

As Aang wonders what on earth he is supposed to do as a spirit that cannot interact with the real world, he’s approached by a frightening dragon spirit that proves to be not-so-frightening, as it’s Avatar Roku’s spirit animal. What I love about this plot is not only that it’s left unanswered by the episode’s end, but it also answers a lot of questions I had. How exactly was Aang supposed to communicate with an Avatar who was dead? And what exactly was Roku supposed to tell Aang?

Through Roku’s dragon, Aang is privy to a set of images that help him understand what is going on, and we can easily substitute ourselves, as the audience, into this situation. Somewhere, on a crescent-shaped island, there’s a statue of Avatar Roku, and there is a small window of time when they can communicate: the moment the Winter Solstice starts. And then there’s a comet? What the hell is that comet about? (Seriously, please do not answer that. There are a few of you who think it’s awesome to answer my rhetorical, just-thinking-out-loud questions, and you should really NOT do that. THANK YOU.) I don’t understand how the comet factors into the story at large. Isn’t this all about the Avatar bringing harmony back to the world?

But these questions are clearly not meant to be answered now. Seriously, this is why I love serialized fiction. It inherently makes you want to keep going just out of curiosity alone.

Back to Iroh! Never underestimate Uncle Iroh, my friends, because not only does he always have a back-up plan, but that back-up plan is a thousand times more crafty than you will ever be. We see the first seeds of his escape when he feigns falling asleep (WHICH IS ENTIRELY BELIEVABLE, BY THE WAY, since the man absolutely adores sleep) in order to leave behind a sandal for Prince Zuko to find.

We learn that Iroh’s captors are taking him to Ba Sing Se, a place where Iroh laid siege for 600 days straight. I’m assuming this is an Earth Nation place, since earth benders capture him. As the group moves towards this ultimate location, a really confusing thing happens: Iroh is able to see Aang riding on the back of Roku’s dragon. Even though they’re spirits. WHAT. No one in the real world seems to be able to see these specific spiritual forms, so what’s so special about Iroh? Why does this vision of the dragon inspire Iroh to trick his captors yet again with an escape attempt? Also, his escape attempt, while failed, is so brilliant. He literally ROLLS OFF OF A CLIFF TO ESCAPE. My god, this man is my hero. MOVE OVER, HAGRID, YOU’RE BEING REPLACED. Just kidding, you can both be my manly, unassuming heroes.

I was kind of surprised when the narrative switched back to Aang, who gets taken back to his physical body and learns why the spirit is attacking the village, and Aang doesn’t seem to explain much to Katara. I mean….HE JUST ENTERED THE SPRIT WORLD. Ok, it’s totally possible that this happened offscreen, but had I transferred to the world of  spirits, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have kept my mouth shut about it. But I’m much more childishly irritating than Aang is, so there’s that. It was nice that Katara’s hopeful message in the beginning is re-used when Aang confronts the terrifying Hei Bai, who in turn becomes hopeful and changes back into a panda. No, seriously, what inspires a panda to become the most terrifying animated creature I’ve ever seen? Oh, that’s right, the utter destruction of their natural habitat. Pretty sure that’s the best environmentalist message ever.

So…cheering on the “villains.” I put that in quotation marks because I don’t even know how to refer to Uncle Iroh and Prince Zuko anymore. And that’s an amazing thing to experience in a show that drew such clear lines of villainry and heroism in the pilot episode. Why did I want Iroh and Zuko to escape from the earth benders even though they’re just going to go after Aang and his friends. I FEEL SO CONFLICTED. Omg this show.

But after all this, after one of the most interesting and exciting episodes yet, there’s still one grand reveal: Aang knows how to get to the crescent island to speak with Avatar Roku! Oh joy!

OH YEAH IT’S IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIRE NATION.

Thank you, cliffhanger.

THOUGHTS

• Uncle Iroh is the Dragon of the West? I need to know why he’s called that. And soon.
• Best small moment in the whole episode…the look on Sokka’s face when he says, “Yeah, we’re all gonna get eaten by a spirit monster.” PERFECTION.
• “I found a way to contact Roku’s spirit!” “That’s great.” “Creepy, but great.”
• So this is the first time the concept of an animal guide is explicitly mentioned. I’ll take a flying bison, first of all, but if not….oh god. I don’t even know. Maybe a baby raccoon.