Avatar 2x15: Tales of Ba Sing Se
Sep. 30th, 2006 06:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockSince the episode is divided into miniature tales, it seems fitting to break up the reviews by the given titles.
The Tale of Toph & Katara
Predictable, but cute. We haven't seen much friendship between these two, and it was nice to see them bonding. I'm also amused that Toph's hair is even worse than mine in the morning-- she looked like a feral child. The spa maid's attempts to scrape her foot callouses were great. And the best thing about this skit is that I'm pretty sure Toph is going to go back to her normal attitudes the next day anyway.
The Tale of Iroh
Oh, this is splendid. I figured right away that Iroh's was going to have less of a 'plot' than Toph and Katara's tale, and would be more of a 'one day in the life of' thing. And what a day he had! He cheers up babies, talks criminals into living a better life, passes sage advice to neighborhood children, takes picnics, and helps the flowers grow. As if we needed more reasons to love his character. I liked that they tied the anniversary of Iroh's late son with a tribute to Mako, Iroh's recently past Oscar-winning voice actor. Unfortunately, because of the audio on the comp I'm at right now, I couldn't tell if they'd switched voice actors on us yet. It didn't sound like it, but who knows when these were recorded. Mako could have already finished through the season before he passed.
The Tale of Aang
Poor Aang. Poor absent appa. Poor armadillo tiger. (ARMADILLO TIGER! HA!)
Aang let all the animals loose! Foolish but good-hearted. Just like a boy his age.
Heh. The shot of Aang in front of the animal mob looked like it was plucked right out of Ranma 1/2.
The Tale of Sokka
Haha. AHHAHAHAHA.
The Tale of Zuko
She has a crush and he thinks it's about them being itty bitty international fugitives. >D
Oh god! The hair! My eyes! They doth burn in agony! Not the part, never the part!
...and Iroh did it. Of course he did.
"How do you like the city so far?"
"It's okay."
"What do you do for fun?"
"Nothing."
::Rashaka dies:: He is like, the worst date ever. This is probably why I've never really written "first date" fics for Zuko & Katara.
But he's trying. Once he realizes that he's being an ass. The fact that he realized it on his own is a step up for him.
"Close your eyes, and don't peek." Oh Zuko. I'm proud that you're showing iniative, but I'm sad that you're being so stupid. You could just do something smaller, maybe, to impress her?
Aah, the hair swish of bravery. I know it well.
Poor kid. I guess the hypothetical bet about him being a virgin while living as royalty is settled for good now-- that was probably his first kiss. And he can't even enjoy that because of his own angst. Boy needs to lighten up. Hm...Iroh called him Prince Zuko again; how long has it been since he's done that?
The Tale of Momo
Momo gets his own tale! ...He's dreaming of Appa, how sweet.
Yes Momo! Go Momo! Go search hi and lo for your true love!
I actually feel kinda sad for the little guy.
No! Nobody captures Momo!
....Ahhh, and here we have a very strange mirror of episode 1x13. So... the lemur is Aang and the threat alley panthers are Zuko? Odd, but it works.
Sad ending. Good thing to end the episode on, though.
I like that while this episode was mostly cheerful filler, it did let some of the more solemn undercurrents shine through.:
-Toph is not always as confident as she appears.
-Sokka's troubles really *are* mostly self-inflicted.
-Iroh may appear happy, but a part of him is heartbroken still, even after 7-8 years. Which, in the span of one's life, isn't that much time at all.
-Aang is foolish, but he makes up for it by being resourceful. He misses Appa dearly.
-Zuko is not a total hermit, but basic youth activities like dating and puppy love are as alien and difficult for him as channeling lightning. Even if he looks content, inside he's still a fucking mess.
-Appa is gone, and Momo misses him. Momo also has Aang-like powers of friend-making.
I'm a little disappointed we didn't see Jet, though. He neither had a tale, nor did any of the characters meet him. I'm dying of curiosity to see what he's like after the brainwashing.
All in all, a good episode. Filler, but decent quality filler. We didn't really learn anything new (which is what separates shows like FMA from shows like Avatar... in FMA even the filler has a plot purpose somehow, though you might not see it for a long time), but it was still nice to have more personal looks at each character. I liked the structural style of the episode as well.
Now I'm off to go look at the after-effects, see if![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
katara_zuko exploded. (EDIT: It didn't.) And then I have to finally, maybe, write some more for Our Cartography.
The Tale of Toph & Katara
Predictable, but cute. We haven't seen much friendship between these two, and it was nice to see them bonding. I'm also amused that Toph's hair is even worse than mine in the morning-- she looked like a feral child. The spa maid's attempts to scrape her foot callouses were great. And the best thing about this skit is that I'm pretty sure Toph is going to go back to her normal attitudes the next day anyway.
The Tale of Iroh
Oh, this is splendid. I figured right away that Iroh's was going to have less of a 'plot' than Toph and Katara's tale, and would be more of a 'one day in the life of' thing. And what a day he had! He cheers up babies, talks criminals into living a better life, passes sage advice to neighborhood children, takes picnics, and helps the flowers grow. As if we needed more reasons to love his character. I liked that they tied the anniversary of Iroh's late son with a tribute to Mako, Iroh's recently past Oscar-winning voice actor. Unfortunately, because of the audio on the comp I'm at right now, I couldn't tell if they'd switched voice actors on us yet. It didn't sound like it, but who knows when these were recorded. Mako could have already finished through the season before he passed.
The Tale of Aang
Poor Aang. Poor absent appa. Poor armadillo tiger. (ARMADILLO TIGER! HA!)
Aang let all the animals loose! Foolish but good-hearted. Just like a boy his age.
Heh. The shot of Aang in front of the animal mob looked like it was plucked right out of Ranma 1/2.
The Tale of Sokka
Haha. AHHAHAHAHA.
The Tale of Zuko
She has a crush and he thinks it's about them being itty bitty international fugitives. >D
Oh god! The hair! My eyes! They doth burn in agony! Not the part, never the part!
...and Iroh did it. Of course he did.
"How do you like the city so far?"
"It's okay."
"What do you do for fun?"
"Nothing."
::Rashaka dies:: He is like, the worst date ever. This is probably why I've never really written "first date" fics for Zuko & Katara.
But he's trying. Once he realizes that he's being an ass. The fact that he realized it on his own is a step up for him.
"Close your eyes, and don't peek." Oh Zuko. I'm proud that you're showing iniative, but I'm sad that you're being so stupid. You could just do something smaller, maybe, to impress her?
Aah, the hair swish of bravery. I know it well.
Poor kid. I guess the hypothetical bet about him being a virgin while living as royalty is settled for good now-- that was probably his first kiss. And he can't even enjoy that because of his own angst. Boy needs to lighten up. Hm...Iroh called him Prince Zuko again; how long has it been since he's done that?
The Tale of Momo
Momo gets his own tale! ...He's dreaming of Appa, how sweet.
Yes Momo! Go Momo! Go search hi and lo for your true love!
I actually feel kinda sad for the little guy.
No! Nobody captures Momo!
....Ahhh, and here we have a very strange mirror of episode 1x13. So... the lemur is Aang and the threat alley panthers are Zuko? Odd, but it works.
Sad ending. Good thing to end the episode on, though.
I like that while this episode was mostly cheerful filler, it did let some of the more solemn undercurrents shine through.:
-Toph is not always as confident as she appears.
-Sokka's troubles really *are* mostly self-inflicted.
-Iroh may appear happy, but a part of him is heartbroken still, even after 7-8 years. Which, in the span of one's life, isn't that much time at all.
-Aang is foolish, but he makes up for it by being resourceful. He misses Appa dearly.
-Zuko is not a total hermit, but basic youth activities like dating and puppy love are as alien and difficult for him as channeling lightning. Even if he looks content, inside he's still a fucking mess.
-Appa is gone, and Momo misses him. Momo also has Aang-like powers of friend-making.
I'm a little disappointed we didn't see Jet, though. He neither had a tale, nor did any of the characters meet him. I'm dying of curiosity to see what he's like after the brainwashing.
All in all, a good episode. Filler, but decent quality filler. We didn't really learn anything new (which is what separates shows like FMA from shows like Avatar... in FMA even the filler has a plot purpose somehow, though you might not see it for a long time), but it was still nice to have more personal looks at each character. I liked the structural style of the episode as well.
Now I'm off to go look at the after-effects, see if
katara_zuko exploded. (EDIT: It didn't.) And then I have to finally, maybe, write some more for Our Cartography.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-01 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-01 05:30 pm (UTC)so not even semi or remotely canon. yet.
Date: 2006-10-02 04:57 pm (UTC)Re: so not even semi or remotely canon. yet.
Date: 2006-10-02 11:45 pm (UTC)Sometimes a few members might have thought that there was canon, if they misread people's reactions and jumped to conclusions.
Re: so not even semi or remotely canon. yet.
Date: 2006-10-04 01:29 pm (UTC)