Mark Watches ‘Avatar’: S02E18 – The Earth King

In the eighteenth episode of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the gang decides to confront the Earth King in Ba Sing Se with the information on the war with the Fire Nation, but this is easier said than done. Meanwhile, Zuko struggles with a metamorphosis of his own. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar.

Well….ok, this episode was both great and really awkward. I don’t know exactly how I feel about it? I mean, it’s certainly one hell of a set up for the two-part season finale, and the final minute or two is just……FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. I cannot deny this. But….

Ok, I feel weird talking about suspending my own belief when this is a show about an alternate earth where people can control the elements and they’re all threatened by a nation that has the capability of harnessing the power of a passing comet. I AM WELL AWARE HOW OVER THE TOP THIS IS. But part of the fun of Avatar is accepting these ideas, these magnificently weird facts of the world the writers have built. So I want to acknowledge that first before I move on to my greater point.

I’ve spoken a trillion times about how much I adore world-building and it must be said that the creators and writers of this show have done such a tremendous job creating a world within Avatar that is both familiar to us and completely foreign. They are also willing to take chances with episodes like “Appa’s Lost Days” and “Tales of Ba Sing Se” to not only spend time with the characters, but to chip away further into the layers of the Earth Kingdom.

I know that at this point in Mark Watches, I do not have to justify any sort of criticism of anything that I watch and that most of you are well aware that enjoying something doesn’t mean you can’t dislike things about it, or that when you dislike something a show does also doesn’t mean you hate the show. (Those things are always mutually exclusive and I don’t like that. I criticize the shows I love because I love them.) But this is one of those rare moments in season two where I just felt the execution of an otherwise interesting idea fell short of the expectations I have for the show at this point.

And that’s ok! I think it’s totally fine to admit that something you love can slip up or be disappointing at times. There are episodes of LOST and The X-Files that are certainly not my favorite and WE ALL KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT “FEAR HER” good god that episode.

I guess I just wanted to make sure that was obvious at this point to heed off any weirdness, but rest assured that I am deeply, deeply in love with this show and “The Earth King” will probably just be an episode I skip when I revisit the series in the future.

And that brings me to my point: I cannot believe the process that Team Avatar goes through to convince the Earth King that Long Feng is part of a conspiracy against him. It starts off rather intensely, I must say, and I love the scene of them charging back into the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se to break into the palace. It’s an interesting dynamic because Sokka and Katara are so apologetic about what they’re doing. While it certainly is funny, it is a weird thing for them to have to fight people who are technically on their side, and I’m glad that the writers acknowledge that.

From here on out, each piece that the writers throw at me…I just can’t believe it. I’m willing to accept that the Earth King would not have known the Avatar was even in Ba Sing Se. That makes sense. Long Feng would have kept that from the King. Given this (and given that Team Avatar has seen what the Dai Li was capable of), I don’t understand how they thought that anyone, let alone a man surrounded by people who have been lying to him for years, would believe a story about a mass conspiracy like that. I suppose it’s a demonstration of how hopeful and naive these kids are, but…come on. COME ON.

As they reveal this huge conspiracy to the Earth King, I get the feeling they start to realize how ridiculous this sounds, but there really isn’t much for Aang to do. He has to believe that his words mean something. But the Earth King can only believe that this is nonsense. How could his most trusted advisor be responsible for such a heinous set of actions? (Nice touch to add the line where Long Feng suggest they are an “anarchist cell.”) And thus, they are cuffed by the Dai Li and this already seems pretty impossible when Sokka comes up with the brilliant idea to expose the fact that Long Feng just told one whopper of a lie that they can actually prove. By showing the Earth King that Long Feng had seen a flying bison (and had actually been bit by Appa), surely this will be a victory for Team Avatar?

BUT NO. NOT AT ALL. Seriously, why am I so irritated by the Earth King? Am I just being a bigot to his sheltered kingdom? Because god, HE IS SO ANNOYING IN THESE EARLIER SCENES. Oh, I just discovered my advisor is lying about stealing THE AVATAR’S FLYING BISON. I suppose that I might give them some attention.

YOU FOOL. HE STOLE THE AVATAR’S SKY BISON THAT IS LIKE PUNISHABLE BY DEATH OR SOMETHING RIGHT

I am being ridiculous. I know that. ALLOW ME THIS MOMENT. I don’t get to do this often.

So Team Avatar takes the king to the first  example of the Dai Li conspiracy and OF COURSE THE TUNNEL TO LAKE LAOGAI IS NO LONGER THERE. I think I just don’t like stories where people try to prove a conspiracy to someone else because the pattern follows through the same bits every time and we’ve all seen a billion examples of this. The Earth King is naturally predisposed to his own status quo (HE’S NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE THE PALACE WHAT THE HOLY HELL HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE) and Team Avatar is looking increasingly irrational with every step they take.

I will say that there is one giant bit of sense dropped into all of this: If you want to convince a person to believe what you are saying, stick them on the back of Appa. You could tell me that I am a goblin and I’d spread the gospel on the back of that furry beast.

How they didn’t think about the Fire Nation drill IN THE VERY FIRST PLACE is beyond me, but let’s just ignore the absurdity of that as well. I was ready to pound my head into the wall if the Earth King saw that drill, with the Fire Nation insignia emblazoned on it proudly, and  had NOT believed Team Avatar. This bizarre game had gone on LONG ENOUGH FOR ME (and there was that other story going on that we’ll get to that I wished we’d spent more time on). At the very least, though, I must admit that it was a pretty rad victory of honesty for the team, one that showed them that by telling the truth and believing they were right could actually pay off in the end. AND THAT IS A GOOD MESSAGE, right?

I don’t know. Beyond disliking the trope, I just…wasn’t into the story? I don’t know if there is any other way for me to describe this. It just wasn’t my thing. In that sense, I was relieved to see Long Feng arrested and carted off by the Dai Li. And I also totally fell for what I thought was the Dai Li doing their rightful duty and obeying the king, but NOPE.

And that is something I do love about Team Avatar’s story here: they all get this deceptively happy ending in “The Earth King.” Aang gets the letter from Guru Pathik; Sokka and Katara find out their father is both alive AND nearby; and Toph gets a letter from her mother that seems to suggest that she wants to actually support her daughter. They decide to split up (OK, THAT IS A BIT OF A BAD IDEA, BUT WHATEVER), with Sokka being dropped off by Aang while he heads to see the Guru, while Toph and Katara stay behind. It’s weird how sentimental this goodbye feels and I really, really, really hope this is not a bit of foreshadowing for what happens at the end of this season, but it was nice to have them all vocalize how much they care about one another. Well, Sokka totally blocked Aang’s attempt to do this with Katara, but you get the idea. And on top of that, they received news that Suki and the Kyoshi warriors have arrived to lend a hand!

Just when I believed that we’d be sent into the finale on a remarkably positive note, the writers RAIN DOWN IMPENDING DOOM US. We learn, one after another that:

1) The Dai Li still support Long Feng, not the Earth King.

2) The letter to Toph was a trick to capture her, and Master Yu and Zin Fu have come to return her home.

3) Those Kyoshi warriors are THE DANGEROUS LADIES IN DISGUISE ffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

And yet, through all of this, I am predictably drawn to Zuko’s fascinating struggle in “The Earth King” more than anything else. Leading directly from the end of the last episode, Iroh congratulates his nephew on taking the right action with Appa, but my request to see more of Zuko’s metamorphosis is granted in the most disturbing way possible. The writers choose to manifest this in a feverish sickness, punctuated by surreal and terrifying dreams that pop up in Zuko’s mind, and to me, I can’t help but believe that I am witnessing something far more important to this whole series than the writers are initially letting on.

His first dream is not prophetic as much as it is a speculative fiction in a sense, an imaginative alternate history (future?) where Zuko was the natural heir to the throne of the Fire Nation. Two dragons appear, one with the voice of Azula, one with the voice of Iroh, and the conflict he is going through in his real life is acted out: does he give up or dies he fight what his father has “destined” him to do, even if it destroys him? All of this ends in a haunting collapse as Zuko’s mother appears to him, calling out for help, and Zuko is unable to do anything.

Iroh puts this all in context and I wonder if this is a thing that happens in the Avatar world, but he explains that releasing Appa was such an intense decision for Zuko, going against who he believed to be, that his spirit is in literal turmoil. It’s a frightening change to witness in this method, and Zuko’s second dream/hallucination is all the more shocking: He awakes and goes to wash his face and he discovers that his scar is gone, and the blue Avatar arrow is on his bald head. And I jumped up and nearly hit myself because it was so unexpected, especially since I thought it was real.

So what the hell does this mean? What sort of transition is Zuko going through? I’m now doubting any theories that I had about Zuko and I feel completely unprepared for what is going to happen with him. Still, it’s my favorite character arc of the whole show, and I’m hoping that the finale delivers more of this story to us.

THOUGHTS

• “Yeah, girls are waiting for us! Thanks, positive attitude.” Totally a reference to POSIxCORE, right?
• “Hey, if anything, this proves the conspiracy exists even more!” Oh, Sokka. You’re adorable.
• “You invade my palace, lay waste to all my guards, break down my fancy door. And you expect me to trust you?!” “He has a good point.” right
• MORE BOSCO PLEASE.