'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Season 1 Episode 7 Review
Image Source: Superhero Hype
In the process of these reviews, I’ve brought up the condensing of the plot and timeline of the season, due to budgetary reasons and episode count. It’s worked on the whole, there have been some misses, but I find the climate of such short seasons ultimately detrimental, and we see the effects of that as you near the end of a story. Things should start to wrap up, and if there is going to be more after (sequels, second seasons, etc.), some small setup for that. The penultimate episode of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender does that, but by doing so, it highlights some of the shortcomings of the restraints placed on the season length and decisions made along the way.
Aang and his friends have finally arrived at the Northern Water Tribe and are welcomed with a feast. Sokka becomes smitten by the Northern leader’s daughter, Yue, Katara realizes her northern cousins are misogynistic, shuffling her off to the healing houses with the other female waterbenders when she wants to help fight the approaching Fire Nation fleet. Aang seeks more guidance from another Avatar, this time the waterbender Kuruk, and comes away disappointed (he’s not the only one) again. Zuko survives an assassination attempt by Zhao as Zhao leads the fleet north to take down the Northern Water Tribe once and for all. Finally, Azula stands her ground to her father and shows him she’s ready to go and accomplish his goals.
RELATED:
Master Pakku takes on Katara.
Image Source: One Esports
That was nice to see. So far, we’ve been seeing only snippets of Azula here and there, mostly training, and trying to show her father she’s a capable warrior. She wants Zuko’s inheritance, and she’s fiercely driven to get it, at any cost. When Iroh talks about someone smarter being behind things, and they cut to Azula, who then demonstrates the extent of her power by bending lightning, it is great. Then, when she tells her father to let her loose, it sets up the second season, where she really shines in the original. I thought this was all well done, and well paced throughout the season. It leaves more room in season two for her personality to come through, now that we know her motivation.
The drawback to the shortened season format is becoming apparent now, too. There are two main points where this becomes evident. The first is Aang’s training. We have seen nothing of his waterbending training, and I don’t even know if he’s done any. There’s no reason I can think of outside of budgetary issues and doing VFX. It’s also probably why we don’t see much of Appa or Momo in the season too. (VFX artists are overworked as well, so I’m not frustrated with them. These are executive decisions, as usual).
It could have received the Azula treatment, little bits here and there. There’s a great scene in the original where Katara is trying to practice her movements, and Aang just does it like it’s nothing. Something like that, little bits of that throughout the season, would have gone a lot further for developing Aang’s journey, and his relationship with Katara, which has been a little dry, knowing where they end up.
Sokka has a thing for Yue.
Image Source: One Esports
Then, when he goes to Kuruk for advice, we get the same thing again that he’s received all season long: bitter and rigid avatars. It’s a little jarring, to be honest. They present the Avatar as more of a warrior than anything else. While the Avatar is indeed someone who has to fight to protect the world, there’s a great deal of philosophy and spirituality to the role that none of them really conveys except maybe Roku. I get that the writers were trying to portray Aang as this naïve kid who is trying to find an easy way to do his Avatar duties and that there’s a darker tone to the live-action show, but Aang is still a kid, and the lack of understanding there by the avatars is disappointing.
I also begin to question the decision for him to visit the different types of avatars. What was the purpose of that? He’s not, outwardly, done any other bending, and they all master the four elements, so looking back on that, I wonder exactly what was the point, when they could have stuck with one as a sort of guide.
Again these points come up now because we’re almost done with the season, and we look for conclusions to the things we’ve seen along the way. There are plenty of points that do this, like Zhao, whom Ken Leung has done a great job playing. The skeevy, sniveling, calculating opportunist that Zhao is comes across fantastically (we can forget that weird little Howard Dean moment he had in the last episode where he celebrates capturing the Avatar) as his scheming has come to fruition and he thinks he’s got everyone beat. Katara and Sokka’s growth has wrapped up nicely as well, though that’s another area that could have been served by just a little more time.
Rating: 7/10
READ NEXT:
Source(s): Netflix
Latest News
Featured
