‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Season 2 Episode 6 Recap – They’re Children, After All

It’s easy to forget that Aang’s a kid, sometimes. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of those hero’s journey fantasy stories that thrust youngsters into the deep end pretty quickly, so they generally have to act like adults even when they’re not, and any reminders to the contrary are usually annoying. Season 2 hasn’t given Aang much time to act child-like, so when Episode 6 opens with him reacting to Appa being snatched by being aggressive towards and blameful of Toph, you can see his immaturity shining through.

In that context, Aang’s inability to control the Avatar State reads differently, one of those classic “great power, great responsibility” motifs filtered through the lens of a giant temper tantrum. It gives “The Parable of the Two Dragons” a slightly different tone than previous episodes this season. It makes Aang… kind of annoying, honestly, even if you can understand where he’s coming from. That’s kind of a big deal for a show that is built around him, but there’s plenty else going on besides.

Through the Front Door

After a bit of deliberation, not helped along by Aang’s mood, the gang finally comes up with a plan for breaching the royal residence — hiding in the giant wine casks so that they can simply be carried inside with an escort by General Sung. The palace must have laughably bad security, since despite Sung being escorted away to speak to Long Feng, and the casks being delivered to different parts of the palace, the gang is able to regroup and get direct access to King Kuei himself.

Kuei is blissfully ignorant about… everything, really. He’s a mild-mannered botanist type who finds it easier to deny reality than confront it, but then again, he doesn’t get much in the way of reality, since Long Feng deliberately keeps it from him. Luckily, it doesn’t take much to sway him; Katara waterbends a plant back to life, and he’s all ears. And the evidence is compelling.

Unfortunately, though, so is Long Feng. He arrives after privately intimidating General Sung with threats to her daughter, and basically uses everything that the kids have been up to thus far — including the fact that they’re kids — to imply that they’re lying. Sung has no choice but to agree with him, out of fear. But the laundry list of transgressions, from Zei’s death to the riot in the Fire Nation camp to Katara’s moonlighting as a vigilante and Toph’s parents being traitors, doesn’t exactly sound great when it’s read aloud. You can tell that Kuei is a little bit suspicious of Long Feng and Sung and the information that his been kept from him, though.

The Parable of the Two Dragons

It’s interesting that Long Feng draws attention to the fact that Aang and the others are children, since this is also what Azula says to Long Feng himself when she’s dismissing the idea that he could use the Avatar to destroy the Fire Nation’s army. And he sees her point. Azula offers up the names of those conspiring against him — which is how he knows to lean on General Sung — in exchange for the Avatar, and it’s nice to see Long Feng having met his match, even if his match is also less than ideal for the good guys.

It’s Azula who relays the titular parable of the two dragons to Mai and Ty Lee. It’s a story about twin dragons, one giant and greedy, and the other small and vulnerable, who were eventually driven to kill one another after living their lives as enemies instead of learning to share. Ty Lee knows the story, but says her mother always explained it as a parable about the value of sharing. Not Azula, though. To her, it’s a cautionary tale about killing your enemies before it’s too late, which is precisely why she’s determined to kill Zuko.

Ozai has a lot to answer for.

The White Lotus

Speaking of Zuko, despite some bad dreams about the abuses of his father and sister and the loss of his mother, he’s faring better than ever. He has finally realised what his purpose is. He might have lost his job thanks to missing a few straight shifts due to moonlighting, but he asks Iroh to get him a job at the coffee shop. He also reveals his vigilantism to his uncle, and more importantly, his justifications for doing it. He just wants to help people.

This, in turn, inspires Iroh, who presents himself to the White Lotus, the secret order of collaborators comprising some of the disillusioned Fire Nation soldiers who were targeted during the riot, some of whom were once under Iroh’s command, and offers his services. This is significant, since it’s an official face turn for Zuko and Iroh both.

Camp Avatar Is Split

Thanks to Long Feng’s tactical manipulations, he manages to turn Aang and all of his friends against one another. They were, after all, each keeping secrets from the other, and with Long Feng having exposed everything in front of the king, it’s now all out in the open. Aang’s bad mood makes him blameful of everyone other than himself, which only makes the arguments worse, leading to every character going off in their separate directions.

Katara dons her Painted Lady outfit and stumbles straight into a trap laid by the Dai Li. Zuko comes to her rescue, but both end up being arrested. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee lure Sokka to them — he thinks he’s going to see Suki — and kidnap him. Toph goes to see her mother, and Aang, suddenly alone, is bereft.

However, thanks to his earthbending, he thinks he can feel Appa’s location through the floor.