{"id":386,"date":"2011-06-02T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=386"},"modified":"2011-06-02T13:05:22","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T20:05:22","slug":"mark-watches-avatar-s02e10-the-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/06\/mark-watches-avatar-s02e10-the-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Avatar’: S02E10 – The Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender<\/em>, the group takes time to give themselves a bit of personal fun by granting each member a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mini-vacation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d On Katara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vacation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sokka learns of a place that might grant him information he needs to help defeat the Fire Nation. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Avatar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There seriously is no stopping from here on out, is there?<\/p>\n

What started out was one of the sillier episodes I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen so far quickly became HEAD-MELTINGLY RIDICULOUS and then ended on THE WORST CLIFFHANGER YET. And now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting the feeling that I really should just strap myself in at this point, because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no possible way all of this is going to be resolved quickly and in a way to allow us to take a break from the chaos.<\/p>\n

I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of the point of what happens here in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Library.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Team Avatar has largely been in GO GO GO GO GO mode for an absurd length of time, only stopping to rest. The timeline that remains before Sozin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Comet arrives is shortening rapidly, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s completely understandable that they really haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had time to take pause. Given recent events, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also entirely understandable that these kids deserve<\/em> even the slightest break from the reality of the war with the Fire Nation. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m assuming the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trip\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that opens the episode is Aang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice, as he takes them to a location where groundhogs respond obediently to notes that Aang plays on his flute. (Side note: Are these groundhogs the first truly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d creature we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen so far? They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not a hybrid like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to.)<\/p>\n

For all of Katara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practicality, I was impressed that it was Sokka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence that they stop monkeying around and try to find \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intelligence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the Fire Nation. And he certainly brings up a good point: once Aang masters all four elements, what exactly are they supposed to do after that? How can they defeat Fire Lord Ozai if no one knows where he lives?<\/p>\n

As they promise to search for Sokka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intelligence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after<\/em> they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done their little vacations, Katara uses Aang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s map to find the place she wants to go for her trip. She chooses the Misty Palms Oasis and I am still a bit shocked that everyone forgets that Aang\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past happened 100 YEARS AGO<\/strong>. So when he says he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been somewhere, that was precisely a century earlier<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of this that they discover that Misty Palms is hardly the oasis that the name promises. Still, it proves not to be a complete bust, since through a complete accident Team Avatar comes into contact with Professor Zei, an anthropologist at Ba Sing Sei University. (There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that city again. When are we finally going to see what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inside of it?) Professor Zei is a man consumed with the quest for expanding his horizons, a seeker of knowledge in all its forms, genuinely interested in the world around him. Naturally, meeting the only remaining air bender excites him to no end, and he prances around Aang, treating him like a rare specimen in a lab instead of…well, Aang.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so good-natured, as I imagine his form of interest could have gotten irritating, but the man has such innocent intentions that he proves to be utterly harmless. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refreshing to meet someone who shares a curiosity and respect of the world like Uncle Iroh does, yet doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resemble that man at all. Being an anthropologist, he applies an academic approach to the way he assimilates information from the world into his brain, almost like he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a catalogue in his mind.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this specific catalogue that Sokka is interested in, as he questions Professor Zei as to whether he knows much about the Fire Nation or possesses a map of some sort. Zei doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, but he does<\/em> have a map of all of his expeditions out in the desert to find the Knowledge Spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s library, which is possibly the best bet to learn more information about the Fire Nation itself. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sokka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best opportunity and, in a moment that feels like it was lifted right out of an after school specially, he dramatically declares that his vacation spot will be the library<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wise choice, my friend.<\/p>\n

Professor Zei continues to be overly excited by everything, though I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame his reaction to seeing Appa, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be far, far worse. This was also our first introduction to sand benders! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never even considered that this was a type of bending that could actually happen, but sand is<\/em> part of the earth, so it totally makes sense. A group of sand benders is standing around Appa, clearly interested in him, but Professor Zei shoos them off. (OMG FORESHADOWING THAT I DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN CATCH.)<\/p>\n

As the journey in the air to locate the library of the Knowledge Spirit continues to stretch on and on, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear exactly why Professor Zei could never find it. The desert expanse seems to stretch on forever, and with no clear landmarks, how are you supposed to know where you are? Sokka, however, is the first to spot something<\/em> in that desert that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a sand dune: a small tower jutting out of the ground. When they head over to it and it seems about as nondescript and pointless as possible, they watch, mystified, as a fox literally scales the vertical wall of the tower<\/em> and waltzes right into a window while carrying a scroll in its mouth. Surely, this must be the handsome foxes Professor Zei spoke of earlier, no?<\/p>\n

The group splits up at this point. Aang keeps his promise to Appa and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make him come underground again, and Toph remains outside because books hold little interest to her, since she cannot read them. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t initially get why the writers were splitting them up, but…ok, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to that.<\/p>\n

Inside the massive, gorgeous structure that is the library, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not long before the Knowledge Spirit, named Wan Shi Tong, appears before Team Avatar. At first, I nearly peed myself because I thought that was Koh again, but Wan Shi Tong appears in the form of a giant owl. The writers introduce a really fascinating moral quandary here: Wan Shi Tong is resistant towards letting these four peruse the library because, time and time again, humans have shown that they will use knowledge to harm or oppress other humans, and Wan Shi Tong initially refuses to let them stay. (AND HOW FUCKING AMAZING IS IT THAT THEY CONFIRM THAT ADMIRAL ZHAO WENT TO THIS LIBRARY TO LEARN ABOUT THE WATER AND MOON SPIRITS??!?!?!) Sokka, in perhaps his most poorly told lie yet, promises the Knowledge Spirt that he will not do such a thing, even asking Aang to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vouch\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for him as the Avatar. As a condition to allowing them to use the library, Wan Shi Tong asks for each person to offer a gift to the library, but heavily insinuates that this promise is not<\/em> to be broken.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of what I wish<\/em> this episode explored a bit more. Team Avatar believe that what they are doing is an exception to the rule, and you can tell by the way that Sokka operates in the library that he knows he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bending the truth in order to justify what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing. We all know that defeating the Fire Nation at this point is a necessity, as the loss of life and freedom is astronomical at this point. We also know that whatever information Team Avatar can<\/em> find in the library might very well assist them in a much-needed victory. So how do you get around the fact that Wan Shi Tong is very correct about why these people are currently in his library? How can you blame his complete anger when he discovers what Sokka has done?<\/p>\n

This is made all the more complicated when Sokka discovers an old, burnt parchment with a date and a brief mention of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153darkest day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Fire Nation. Convinced that this is the key he needs for his plan, Sokka directs the rest of the group to where the Fire Nation books\/info is held, only to discover that fire benders have already been there and destroyed all of the evidence. (How does that<\/em> work? At what point did they arrive in a way that Wan Shi Tong allowed them to enter that hall and burn it down? I mean, surely there are some Fire Nation heads stuffed on a mantle somewhere in that library because of it.)<\/p>\n

After one of the scholar foxes gets the attention of the group, it leads them all to a planetarium, providing us with one of the cooler scenes in all of season two. That planetarium is absolutely mystical, an unexpected journey to a place I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not thought existed in the Avatar <\/em>world, though, in hindsight, it makes sense that someone<\/em> would have studied the stars. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in this planetarium that Sokka learns that the darkest day for the Fire Nation is a literal<\/em> description: that specific date was a solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

AND OH MY GOD THAT IS AMAZING<\/strong>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a direct parallel to Zhao learning about how to invoke a lunar<\/em> eclipse from the end of season one, and even further<\/em> builds into the complicated moral system this story addresses. THE FIRE NATION HAS A WEAKNESS L;ASDJ F;A SAKDFJ\u00c2\u00a0 AS;FUW 8A;KFSDJ A;AIDSF :J *(D^^5^D7F8<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to Sokka and his desire to vocalize nearly everything that pops into his brain, Wan Shi Tong appears, knowing that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been betrayed, and in a moment of cathartic rage, the Knowledge Spirit begins to sink the whole library<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at this point that I understood why<\/em> the writers separated Toph from the rest of the group. Outside, she is faced with a most impossible situation. She realizes that the tower is sinking into the sand, but even a powerful earth bender like her is not well-versed in art of sand bending, explaining why she was talking to Appa earlier about how the sand made her vision \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fuzzy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As she does her best to dig deep into the sand for support, a horrifying reality becomes apparent: the sand benders from earlier are rapidly coming closer to where Appa and Toph are, and we know the inevitable.<\/p>\n

They are going to steal Appa.<\/p>\n

Back inside the library, Team Avatar rushes away from the planetarium in an attempt to escape the now-angered Wan Shi Tong, but Sokka hesitates. The knowledge of the Fire Nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weakness is good information, but he knows it is not enough. He needs a date<\/em> for that knowledge to be actionable, and so he tells Aang to come with him back<\/em> to the planetarium as Zei, Momo, and Katara flee from the furious Knowledge Spirit.<\/p>\n

As the situation outside the library becomes even more hopeless, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given a moment of clarity in the planetarium as Sokka and Aang determine the correct date of the next solar eclipse, which is thankfully before<\/em> the date that Sozin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Comet will plunge into earth. But even armed with this game-changing information, they have no idea how horrific their trip to the library has proved to be. Toph is now aware that people have arrived and are trying to kidnap Appa, but the decision she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presented with is simply too unbearable: does she remove her grasp on the tower, allowing it to sink and bury alive her newfound friends? Or does she continue to hold on, saving them, but inevitably allowing Appa to be stolen away to certain danger? In this moment, the writers have put Toph, the most certain individual of the entire group, in the most horrifically uncertain situation imaginable. There are no good choices given to her. Whatever she chooses to do, she will definitely fail at saving someone. And thus, she chooses to allow Appa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kidnapping in order to save her friends, and when Team Avatar escapes (predictably leaving Professor Zei behind), we can see the anguish in her face. This has broken her. She made a choice that was probably the least<\/em> worse of the two, but neither one was particularly enjoyable to her.<\/p>\n

My only hope is that in the coming episode, Aang, who is SUPREMELY HEARTBROKEN here at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Library,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d does not excoriate Toph for the awful decision she had to make. I hope that Toph realizes that she did what she thought was best, that she was presented with an impossibility, and that Team Avatar appreciates her for saving their lives.<\/p>\n

But fucking hell, you all. Shit just got so real.<\/em><\/p>\n

THOUGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n