Summary
It has its share of nifty action sequences and impressive VFX, but the premiere of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is content to be a relatively sedate reintroduction to the world after a couple of years away.
Since the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is fairly complex and dense at the best of times, it’s probably only right that Season 2 starts with a bit of a mythological refresher after a couple of years off the air. Katara’s voiceover fills in the salient points of the previous season — which, to be fair, we’ve already done — and reminds us of where the finale left things. In short: The Fire Nation is bad, Aang still needs to master earth and fire bending, and a lot of hormonal young-adult character dynamics are starting to kick in. Welcome to Episode 1, “Somewhere Safe”, which takes place in multiple locations that aren’t very safe at all.
On the Road Again
Following on from the finale, Aang, Katara, and Sokka, along with a few Kyoshi Warriors, including Suki, are leading a bunch of Earth Nation refugees away from endless pursuit by the Fire Nation. This is a good excuse to let everyone know that the fight choreography and VFX remain rather impressive; in the case of the latter, they’re even improved, the success of the first season having presumably expanded the budget a little.
Multiple dynamics are also at play here. Aang is grappling with his responsibilities as a leader, despite technically not being much older than most of the refugees. He’s still working on his waterbending under Katara’s tutelage, but he’s reluctant to enter the Avatar State and harness the breadth of his powers until he has mastered the remaining elements, which increasingly feels like it’s quite far away. And Sokka is basically fainting with lust every time Suki goes near him, but he’s too shy to meet her forthrightness halfway.
Serpent’s Pass
The stand-out action sequence comes when Aang and Katara lead the gang through Serpent’s Pass, which is so-called not just because the path is very winding but also because there’s a giant mythical serpent that guards the place, rendered in rather impressively detailed CGI.
Aang and Katara are able to use their waterbending powers to get the refugees across a body of water and then to fight off the serpent. To prove they’re the good guys, they also heal it after the battle, something the Fire Nation would never do, but this isn’t a franchise necessarily known for its moral complexity. It’s nonetheless very satisfying to see how the bending is presented in this sequence, which is really cool visually. It occurs to me that this is the kind of set-piece that most shows would build a finale around, but here it’s just a premiere pit stop, which probably speaks to why this franchise is so popular.
A Change in Direction
Notably, Aang is looking for an earthbending teacher, and he’s adamant about it being his old pal Bumi, who remains locked up in a metal tower in Omashu. Aang breaks in, looking to pull off a quick prison escape, but Bumi is reluctant to leave, which is precisely why he surrendered in the first place. He helpfully gives Aang a quick primer on the concept of jing, which is the in-universe term for how one internally and externally directs their energy. Positive jing corresponds to attacking and advancing; negative jing corresponds to retreating and evading. However, there is also neutral jing, which corresponds to waiting and listening, which is integral to mastery of earthbending. Whoever teaches Aang to do it will have to be a master in neutral jing — but it won’t be Bumi.
About midway through Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, Episode 1, Aang realises that it might not be anyone, since there are more pressing matters to deal with, such as Sozin’s Comet. This is the celestial body that Sozin used to wipe out all the airbenders other than Aang, and as Sai helpfully explains, when it reaches its apsis closest to the planet, it’ll increase the power of all firebenders by an order of magnitude. This is, needless to say, bad news, so Aang decides that the best course of action is to take the Earth Nation refugees to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, to enlist the help of the Earth King and his armies. The search for a teacher will have to wait.
Going Underground
Azula also has her sights set on Ba Sing Se, albeit for different reasons. Despite the kingdom being impossibly difficult to topple given its walled defenses, she has devised a plan to strike from below using her earthbending prisoners. From there, she can neutralize the Earth King. It’s a solid enough plan to earn some compliments from her father, but not enough for him to put her in charge of the actual mission. Instead, that privilege is granted to General Tran, even though he’s very explicit — privately, for his own sake — about doing everything in Azula’s honour.
Ozai has another job for Azula, which is to locate Zuko, who is hiding out on a farm with Iroh and not enjoying his new circumstances one iota. Azula is not inclined to do this, at least not in the way Ozai wants, so she turns to her sycophantic compatriots, Mai and Ty Lee. After testing their loyalty by asking them to fight to the death, she believes she can trust them enough to reveal her plan to bring Zuko to them by going after the Avatar himself.
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