The Swamp
Random thing I spotted in the opening credits: this Roku (?) silhouette is doing a spinning blade move with airbending, that Azula did with her blue fire while riding the mail system in Return to Omashu. I guess that despite the bending styles being based on different martial arts, borrowing is allowed.
A snippet of blue spirit music plays when that cart carrying the masks passes by. Maybe one second of showtime but the writers and track team put in the effort anyway.
I'm still mad at Zuko for stealing that lady's bird horse, but I'm happy to see that they're looking after it. It even has a blanky.
Those bangs would have done numbers in 2008.
So I'm wishing death on sword guy. Apart from the whole trying to cut off Iroh's feet thing, he can't even do up his shirt right. Zero redeeming features.
I wish I knew how to make gifs to show this, but the way that the diffused lightsource is reflecting off the water peaking through the vegetation of the swamp is incredibly realistic.
Is the sharpening stone the one that usually sits in the indent on the other side of the blade? It would be pretty cool to have a knife with a built in sharpener like that.
Sokka's got a point. How do you "land" on a swamp? Appa will need to break out his sea bison skills.
TIL swamps don't take no for an answer.
HOW are they still ALIVE?!?!
AcTuAlLy Aang it's "where ARE Appa and Momo?"
As someone who has literally had leeches on my elbow, this is not funny.
Also this episode's beat up Sokka quota has already been filled by a tornado, a swamp, and a vampire slug. And we're only 4 minutes in. I feel like this is going to be a rough episode for him.
Look I get that there is no solid land in this swamp, but they could at least move out of the fetid leech-infested water onto a tree root.
Shibari Appa. I ahd to google that.
Momo is a good friend.
Could you imagine what Apppa smells like after landing in the swamp water?
Poor Momo's like "dude. I JUST freed you."
Not everyone can airbend Aang. Some of us would have no option but to cut our way out of the swamp, niceness be damned.
You ever just go FWOMP?
I'm loving these little Appa & Momo scenes.
Did this episode air on Halloween originally? It's really leaning in to the spooky.
And now Appa gets to be a good friend. I love the ear twitch. Have I talked about how cute Appa's ears are?
King of the jungle Appa.
New fear unlocked. Never swimming in seaweed again.
Also kudos to them for sleeping sitting up. I can't do that.
It's neat how all three of their fighting styles are equally effective at freeing them from the vines. No bending superiority here!
How did Cletus and Brandine figure that Appa has six legs from this trail?
No comment. Just thought you'd all appreciate a picture of bowl cut Appa using an alligator as a toothbrush.
Pretty. Swamp wisteria.
This swamp is a dick.
This jumpscare got me. Also, swamp is now a double dick.
And Aang sees some rando. I was expecting Gyatso. Maybe being the avatar makes you immune to swamp dickishness?
If Cletus saw a lemoo at a travelling show once, does that mean that Momo is not the last of his species? Because I've been worrying about that.
This is a pretty cool use of waterbending. Although I don't think 'outboard motor with high manoeuvrability' is a recognised martial arts move.
All the background art in this episode is subtle but very detailed. Another episode I'll be watching on a better quality screen than my little laptop, which makes everything into a green-grey blur.
Sokka was looking for his friends.
Katara was looking for her friends.
Aang was chasing tail.
Tea party Sokka rocking a midi skirt and thigh high leather boots.
Have to give it to Sokka; they have all been huffing a lot of swamp gas recently. Hallucinating people you think of often after huffing god knows what is a more believable explanation than sentient, dickish swamp. Or it would be, if this wasn't a world where things like the avatar exist.
Looks like I was right about this being a beat up Sokka episode. The number of times swampy has thrown him to the ground, I'm surprised he's still getting up. Also, I think Sokka's voice actor was paid by the scream this episode.
Anyone remember the Absorbaloth?
Are these guys narrating NYOOM noises?
I have to commend the manoeuvrability of these boats.
Not to self: do not piss off a waterbender. They are human deli slicers.
"He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us, a lot." Season 1 in a nutshell.
I applaud this guy's efficiency for styling his hair into a hat.
You guys are really going to go with this guy to a secondary location like 15 seconds after he stopped trying to kill you? Every so often I forget that the Gaang are teens or younger, then something comes along that really reminds me.
Nitpick! Are his socks made out of mud?
This guy has grey eyes like Aang does 50% of the time. I swear Aang has brown eyes in at least half the episodes so far.
More delicious reflections. I wish I could gif this too.
I love the lesson here. The swamp guy's speech about interconnectedness is good, made twice as good by the delivery. Excellent choice of voice actor. Also the bit about the people we've lost still being there hits hard.
A power this useful had better come up again.
Can someone who knows music better than I do tell me if Cletus is on beat? I think not.
New reaction shot!
Why does Sokka repeat "Hugh" so skeptically? What's the joke here?
"He don't eat no bugs. That's people food." This is the kind of stuff I love the most in this show. These seemingly inconsequential, throwaway worldbuilding comments that instantly double the depth of the universe of the show. Every time I get a glimpse of normal people living non-war-torn normal lives I love it.
Scenes like this. PEAK avatar.
That swamp just bitchslapped a bird.
I'd forgotten that Zuko and Iroh were in this episode.
Zuko is well on his way to being forgiven for stealing the horse bird.
Have to wonder why he had a spare set of black clothes lying around though.
Final Thoughts
This episode may well be my new favourite. I like if for the same reasons that I liked Bato of the Water Tribe: it shows us what comparatively normal life is like. Here's a random group of people that might not even know about the war. Looking at them gives us a glimpse of what Aang's pre-war world must have been like, and what the post-war world everyone is fighting to create could be like. It's both nostalgia and hope in one place.
I love that Sokka is still stubbornly anti-supernatural even after travelling for months with the human incarnation of a spirit, being kidnapped by a giant monster panda, and having his crush turn into the moon. Not to mention mega fishman Aang. Although, in a world where the existence of spirits is a scientifically observable fact, isn't believing in the supernatural actually the logical viewpoint?
Apart from that awesome deli slicer waterbending move, Katara did surprisingly little this episode. I think Momo and Appa had more to do.
Spekaing of, I loved having a little side adventure with Momo and Appa. There's enough personality in the animation and voicing of those two characters that they can easily carry dialogue-free scenes. Avatar should do a dialogue free episode with just Appa and Momo going on an adventure. I love their interspecies friendship.
The whole 'we're all connected' thing could have rung hollow if the writers hadn't taken the time to painfully personalise that message for two thirds of the Gaang. In today's arguably too-connected world (thanks internet) the lesson seems obvious, but in a pre-industrial world that's a century into a global war, I bet the connectedness of things is unknown, forgotten, or actively suppressed.
The incredibly short bookends with Zuko and Iroh were (I'm guessing) to establish that Zuko has taken a vigilante turn and that Iroh is inhumanly patient. Neither of those is a surprise. Honestly, if I found myself in that situation, I would react more like Zuko than Iroh. Guess that means I'm a work in progress.
The Storm last season showed that while Aang had a lot to learn, Zuko had a lot to unlearn. Instead of just unlearning incorrect things, it looks like the show is taking it a step farther and progressively stripping Zuko of everything. Zuko isn't one to sit idly by though, so he's fighting back by clinging to harmful things like his pride and learning things he arguably shouldn't, like how to commit theft of bird horses. Although I have no moral objection to stealing that jerk's swords.
This episode didn't have a beat up Sokka quota; it had a beat up everyone quota, physically and sometimes mentally too. Kind of surprised there weren't even bruises. And poor Sokka. The first cut is the deepest.
I'll definitely be rewatching this one.
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