Mark Watches ‘Avatar’: S01E18 – The Waterbending Master

In the eighteenth episode of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Team Avatar finally arrives at the North Pole and discovers the Northern Water Tribe, where both Aang and Katara find difficulty in learning under the water bending master there. While Sokka begins to fall in love, the Fire Nation prepares for an invasion to capture the Avatar once and for all. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Avatar.

I have to say this first because I almost peed myself due to how excited I was:

WE FINALLY GOT TO SEE MUSIC NIGHT ON PRINCE ZUKO’S SHIP.

Oh my god, could Uncle Iroh sing songs to me forever. I think that because I constantly demanded to see such a thing, this scene sent me into a euphoric state of happiness. And strangely? Still not the best scene in this episode.

I’m starting to see the grander scope for season one, now that I’m just short of the ending. I didn’t really think about the fact that Team Avatar have been traveling a really long time, so it was about time that they came upon the Northern Water Tribe. A lot of this first season now feels like an extended game of chess, where we get background on the characters and the writers assemble the pawns into their places for the final confrontation. So, on top of being the ultimate set-up for this showdown, the writers also give us a powerful story about Katara’s fight against gender discrimination. AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL.

“The Waterbending Master” gives us our first look at the Northern Air Temple, which is not disappointing in the slightest. Despite being localized in only one small spot on the globe, it’s here that we see (and later hear about) how powerful the water benders are at the north pole. We get a glimpse at first as they attack Appa and Team Avatar, believing them to be enemies, but it’s not long before they realize who their travelers are.

I was slack-jawed as Appa slowly swam into the temple, guided by the Water Tribe ships, and we saw just how magnificent and elaborate this water temple is. Saying it’s gorgeous would deny both the function and practicality of the design, and I’m short on words to describe the place. It’s massive and seems so all-encompassing. There are so many simply unbelievable entrances that require water bending to work and…holy shit, THIS IS AMAZING. THIS IS WORTH WAITING AN ENTIRE SEASON FOR.

Like “Bato of the Water Tribe,” it was great seeing Sokka and Katara get a chance to feel at home among their people, despite that everyone in the water tribe is a stranger to them. I liked that they all wore very similar jackets, suggesting that despite the two tribes have such varying cultures in specific terms, there are things that they do share. In that sense, though, a large part of “The Waterbending Master” deals with how Katara’s water tribe differentiates on a particular point: what gender role she should abide by.

I don’t want to comment too much in a personal way on that specific plot point, since I’m a dude and I’d much rather read the thoughts of women on this, but I just imagined….if I was watching this as a young girl and this episode just showed me that you could be a girl and be aggressive and tough and that did not make you any less of a girl….my god. My god. This was on Nickelodeon!!! Millions of people watched this, and Katara is SUCH A BAD ASS for refusing to accept that she is not worthy of being taught.

In the same breath, I rather enjoyed that Aang stuck up for Katara, refusing to be taught himself, but then he stepped aside and let her fight the battle herself when it came down to it. I was initially a tad worried that he might step in and that might have sent the message that a girl needs a boy to finish her battles, but Katara does this all by herself.

Just amazing.

But, as usual, I can’t resist jumping ahead in order to freak out about this show. I PROMISE I WILL GET BETTER AT THIS SOME DAY. For now, though, I just couldn’t help feeling so excited and amazed that a mainstream television show so explicitly carried a message as powerful as this.

Anyway, this is also the first episode that is also blatantly serial in nature, as only one real plot is resolved at all. Simultaneous to Katara’s fight against Master Pakku, we have Sokka’s growing crush on a local princess, Princess Yue. (I LOVE HER HAIR BY THE WAY.) Sokka has this adorable sense of self-worth that causes him to stumble (literally and figuratively) as he tries to win the affection of the gorgeous princess. I think he imagines that he is a suave ladies man, but we see here that he’s much clumsy about it. Of course, my heart instantly relates to such things because I am that stereotypical awkward dude when I have a crush on someone. Suddenly, my humor or wit and my coordination decides to take a vacation at the mere hope that I might be physically or emotionally attracted to someone. Why does that happen, by the way? Science has explained virtually everything ever already, so is there a reason why some of us become bumbling fools when we’re faced with the prospect of an awesome person?

It’s just really awesome to me that this plot, while it has a serious ending, is not as heavy or deep as the other two stories in “The Waterbending Master.” I commented before that I actually enjoy all this relationship stuff that’s popping up on the show, because we can’t forget that these people have entire lives and personalities that have much more depth than beating the Fire Nation. It suggests that these things are not mutually exclusive. That’s an important message to me! I don’t like when people imply (or outright state) the idea that our lives only should have one real focus in them. And maybe this is only something a few of us experience, but their can be this bizarre prescriptivism online about what we should be doing with our lives, that we should be focusing on only one passion and everything else needs to take a backseat or else we’re too “distracted” or “unfocused” or “not committed enough.”

I mean, even on a personal level, I had someone send me a message on my Tumblr (anonymously, of course, ARE YOU SURPRISED) that I ended up deleting because the anger it inspired in me was not worth my time. But someone said they didn’t like how silly I was on Tumblr, that they came to that site in the hopes it would just be a continuation of what I do on Mark Reads and Mark Watches. I mean…first of all, I am pretty fucking silly on this site. Shit, I opened this review praising Uncle Iroh’s singing over everything else. But it speaks to a larger issue that I sometimes have with fandom, where any story that deviates from the main mythology is useless and pointless and a waste of time. While I’m perfectly fine with people who dislike those kind of turns (as I’m not partial to them all the time myself), I don’t like the weird shaming that comes along with it.

That goes along with the Tumblr thing I brought up. I didn’t have a space to talk about all of the far-less-serious things in my life or to tell stories that weren’t about the TRULY AWFUL SHIT that has happened to me and…well, I needed that. It was a chance to let my guard down or not over-analyze things. And why should I have to focus on only one thing? Why can’t I do both?

It’s a fun thing to see Avatar do, to be serious and silly in almost the same breath, to show us that serious issues are not cancelled out by having fun or experiencing a crush or falling in love or eating bugs while flying because haters gonna hate. (I expect a GIF of this soon.)

Of everything in “The Waterbending Master,” though, I was most fascinated by where Iroh and Zuko’s story is heading. Having figured out that Aang is in the North Pole, Admiral Zhao decides that it is best not to rush into the Northern Water Temple to attack, instead choosing to make a more calculated effort. In doing so, he assembles as many Fire Nation soldiers as possible, which includes stealing all of Prince Zuko’s crew aside from Uncle Iroh. Man, I’m sorry, there is literally nothing to like about Zhao. Which I’m perfectly fine with, as there needs to be some sort of identifiable villain amongst this bunch, and he suits that role fine. But I’m at a point, especially after this episode, where I hope the earth benders open up the earth and it eats him sometime. It probably won’t be until season three, but still. CHRIST, JUST STOP EXISTING.

I didn’t think that there was even the most remote chance that Prince Zuko had actually perished when Zhao had the pirates from “The Waterbending Scroll” torch the entire ship with Zuko on board. Still, this was our sign that Zhao means business, a huge moment of SHIT IS GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY REAL FROM HERE ON OUT. Like…this was an attempted assassination plot and the show did not try to sugarcoat it at all. Zhao tried to have Zuko killed!

I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I was completely shocked that not only did Zuko survive, but his uncle organized him to be aboard the same ship as him so that they can take the Avatar away from Zhao.

Oh god, I am seriously unprepared.

Now, about the finale: I know that it was all aired at once, but I’m going to be evil and split them into separate reviews. I have not seen them at the time I am writing this, but I kind of want to give them a proper amount of attention and NO ONE WANTS TO READ SIX THOUSAND WORDS IN ONE REVIEW. Which I would probably do, so…oh gosh, I just realized that, yet again, I’ve split up a finale over the weekend. HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING.

Either way, that’s more Avatar reviews for all of you? That’s a good thing AMIRITE.

THOUGHTS

• My god, the story of where Katara’s necklace comes from is HEARTBREAKING. What a huge moment not only for the greater story, but for Katara herself.
• I didn’t talk about it and it deserves to be mentioned: I absolutely love Katara’s transformation in terms of her bending ability, as anger and passion mix to show us how truly talented she is. That is so fantastic, y’all.
• There are few things that bring me more joy than Iroh being most upset that he lost the cook on his ship. Bless that man forever.
• So Sokka’s story with Princess Yue is entirely unresolved. Since it appears that Team Avatar will actually stay in one place past a single episode (the first time ever!), I wonder what else we’re going to see from Princess Yue, as I’d like to see her story developed further as well.
• Oh my god SOKKA’S CARVED FISH. My god, I want one.
• UGH ZHAO FIGURED OUT THAT ZUKO WAS THE BLUE SPIRIT. DAMN IT.
• I will now refer to all people I don’t like as Master Poophead. Thanks, Aang.
• That little dance Sokka does when he claims he’ll carry everyone on his back…seriously, it’s the small moments like that that make me appreciate the show.
• I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE SEASON ONE FINALE!!!!