In the sixteenth episode of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we flashback to discover what happened to Appa when he was abducted by sand benders. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar.
Seriously? The writers of this show just gave an entire episode to a character who cannot speak words. My god, this is so wonderful. And it’s made even better by the fact that I have been begging for an Appa-centric episode since THE BEGINNING OF TIME.
All right, obviously I’m exaggerating, but this episode filled in a story that I figured wouldn’t be that complicated or nuance. I suppose I just believed what we’d been told: that the sand benders had sold Appa to traders and that he was being held in Ba Sing Se. The end?
Oh, how wrong I was.
Again, and I’ll probably say it a few times during this review, but the sheer power of “Appa’s Lost Days†comes from the fact that there is so little dialogue. Everything is provided from the reactions of others and from the gestures and growls of Appa as he struggles. We learn right off the bat that Toph did hear Ghashiun tell the other sand benders to put a muzzle on Appa, and we also learn just how hard Appa fought to escape from his captors. The sand benders are disappointed to learn that Appa is carrying no valuables (OH NO SOKKA’S SWORD), so they decide to make a profit by selling him to Earth Kingdom merchants. What’s great is how often every stranger that comes across Appa who has a negative intent completely misjudges how strong and powerful this flying bison is. The first of those are the merchants who buy Appa from the sand benders. We learn that Appa actually heard Aang send out his call on the bison whistle and nearly escaped, had it not been for the spitting darts.
I’d say that it would be a disservice to Appa, though, to assume this is all about physicality. Appa is strong, sure, but a lot of what drives him is his love for his friends, especially for Aang, and it’s his constant motivation to return to those he loves. But before he finds them, he has to go through a terrifying and traumatic journey.
The earth bending merchants sell Appa to a fire bending animal trainer who treats his acquisitions in a way that reflects the meaning of that word: as objects. Appa is merely a wild beast to be trained to entertain others. In the process of training, this trainer uses his firebending as a threat and a rather painful one, I imagine, and I think it creates a new factor that’s kind of frightening. Throughout the course of “Appa’s Lost Days,†we find out how much fire comes to scare Appa. Well…um…..isn’t there going to be a quite a lot of fire in the near future? Like….in Book Three? Or when Aang has to learn fire? OH GOD SO MUCH TRAUMA COMING FOR APPA 🙁 🙁 🙁
But throughout all of this, Appa keeps returning to Aang. The first time, he does this to a nameless boy who shows Appa affection when he helps him with a bale of hay that he couldn’t suck into his mouth. (No, really, it is that simple. And he already did it with melons!!!! WHY DON’T I HAVE THIS POWER). While the boy will always interpret Appa’s interest as a personal one, Appa cannot help but see this young child as his loving friend. A part of that is obviously because Appa misses Aang and here is a young boy who is showing him the same wonder, adoration, and respect. But what Appa goes through at this circus involves a whole lot of shame and humiliation. He’s treated not as the wonderful, majestic flying bison that he is, but an act of entertainment. He’s painted up to be….I don’t know what Appa is supposed to look like. A clown? Either way, he exists for this trainer’s entire benefit and that’s it. And here’s this kid who reminds him of the fact that there are other people who love him and would never treat him like this at all.
This inspires him to escape, but things don’t look for Appa in any sense at all. He returns to the spot where the Library is supposed to be, but finds it empty. (And I might be reading a bit too much into this, but I liked what seemed to be a visual parallel between Appa in the crater where the Library once stood and Momo’s final moment in “Tales of Ba Sing Se†when he fell asleep in a recess of the earth made by Appa’s paw.) From here on out, it’s one complication after another: lack of water; thorns on the tongue; buzzard wasps chasing him; dehydration; exhaustion.
Appa eventually collapses at a nearby farm, drinking and eating whatever he can find, and we get the first flashback to Appa’s past and yet another scene that makes me want to break out in tears. Appa’s comfort comes from the memory of the day that Aang chose Appa when he was a child himself, and I cannot handle how ridiculously cute baby flying bison are. But it’s a depressing memory because Appa recalls Aang saying they’ll be together forever, and now they are not. The promise has been broken because of thieves, and far away, we learn that Aang has been having the exact same dream.
Seriously, please stop crushing my heart, Avatar.
And a lot of this episode does exactly that, and one of the main ways is by showing us how Appa crosses paths with characters we know and gets frightfully close to being saved. For me, this makes his journey all the more tragic. He is awoken by the owners of the farm he crashes at and the owner’s torch causes him to flee once more, where we see him pass over the ship Iroh and Zuko are on while traveling to Ba Sing Se (I do like that Iroh doesn’t wake Zuko to show him the Avatar might be nearby. So….Iroh is totally on Team Avatar’s side RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT.)
Still unable to catch a break, Appa tries to fall asleep again in a different forest (this sorta feels like “The Chase,†doesn’t it?), but is woken up again by a….boar? With spines? Oh god, I don’t know the official name, but I do not that I weep for Appa. Tired, exhausted, covered in spines, he is not having good luck on his journey to find Aang. Thankfully, some familiar faces show up the next morning, as Suki and the Kyoshi warriors come up Appa hiding in the root of a tree. Of course, this seems victorious: Appa has been find! And by good people! But at this point, because of all the abuse he’s suffered, he’s reluctant to trust anyone, even someone like Suki. How is this going to affect the future when Appa is finally reunited with Aang? (I should say if, but there’s no way this show will continue to keep them apart much longer. Right? Right????)
Like nearly everything in “Appa’s Lost Days,†NOTHING GOES HIS WAY. Because just as Suki seems to win over Appa and they clean him up, THE DANGEROUS LADIES ARRIVE. (Oh god, I love their nickname so much.) (Also, in terms of continuity, the three of them are headed to meet up with the drill, right?)
The fight is fantastic, as most are in this series, but I was surprised how it was cut in mid-action essentially. I mean, that’s not a terrible thing at all, since this story is focused on Appa. We’ve just never seen this happen before; as Azula and Suki continue the battle, Appa makes yet another escape. It’s an endless cycle of absurdity at this point, and it made me miss Aang more than ever. Poor Appa. 🙁
(Ok, who is that water bender Appa passes over? OH GOD WHAT IF IT IS SOKKA’S AND KATARA’S FATHER I don’t remember what he looks like because it’s been awhile since I’ve seen him but omg don’t spoil this for me.)
The final place that Appa visits before heading to Ba Sing Se (where I’d assumed he was the whole time!) is the Eastern Air Temple. It’s just as rundown as the others, the same solitary and lonely place devoid of the life and magic that used to inhabit it. Completely lost in the world, it’s the only thing that provides any sort of familiarity to him. We flashback briefly to the days when Appa knew he was happy, playing with his brothers and sisters, and SERIOUSLY MY HEART CANNOT HANDLE THIS.
And what I thought would just be an interesting and entertaining episode like “Tales of Ba Sing Se,†one that would just fill in the narrative blanks for us, instead turns into WHAT THE HOLY HELL IS GOING ON. Appa finds a living person at the Eastern Air Temple. That sentence alone is enough to make my head explode. Frightened and unwilling to trust this stranger, Appa growls at him, and he introduces himself as Guru Pathik. What he proceeds to do is constantly say things that make no sense to me. Guru first states that Appa is not who he was expecting, later adding that he expected both Aang and Appa at the same time.
When Appa reluctantly falls asleep after hours of the same routine, the Guru approaches Appa and begins to…read him? He does this odd thing where he touches Appa and is able to tell so much about him with just that one action. He tells Appa he knows how difficult his journey has been, and how much trust he’s lost. Yet, the Guru insists that in some way, this was supposed to happen. He had a vision of Aang and Appa years before, and that he was waiting here for them.
WHAT???? Who the hell is this man and what is his part in the story?
We don’t get to find out much of anything else at this point, but we once again see that strange interconnected link between Aang and Appa, utilizing that weird whitish line of energy. And in an instant, with a message from the Guru attached to his horn, Appa knows exactly where Aang is.
But this episode couldn’t end on a happy note, could it??? In a rush to find his partner, his best friend, Appa flies furiously to Ba Sing Se, and it’s very shortly upon arriving inside the walls that he hears his familiar whistle. But the Dai Li come back into the story, and we find that Long Feng has been behind this, and in an instant, Appa has been captured and moved under the ground.
GODDAMN IT. Ugh, what is going on with the Dai Li. Please don’t hurt Appa. 🙁
THOUGHTS
- Why do sizzle-crisps sound so tasty?
- “You’re so colorful it’s making me nauseous.†OH, MAI.
- “Who are you, the Avatar’s fangirls?†[Pause] “Oh, I get it! Good one, Azula!â€
