timepiececlock

3x14

Zuko is such an Iroh fanboy. And he is so awkward.. apparently his tea-making skills improved somewhat since season 2.

Sokka: "Why are you so paranoid?" Uh... think of who you're talking to here. Only sibling of Soulless Monster Princess #1.

"You caught me. Happy now?"
"I'm never happy."
HAHAHAHAAAAAA! Contender for the best Zuko line of season 3. I love DB's reading of it. Also, good animation for this Appa climb surprise.

Sokka & Zuko buddy adventure! "Pretty clouds." / "Yeah. Fluffy."

"I couldn't drag her into it." I wonder if we'll get to see what was in that letter?

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon."
"That's rough buddy." Zuko's total blank-faced acceptance of this as FACT makes that line. HEHEHEE. Also... budddy? Hee.

This night mist animation is SWEET.

"So this time I'm playing it by ear." I really, really like Zuko and Sokka conversation patterns. Win, win, win. Also, niiiice continuity and old-ep references in the script.

Super background painting. Also, yay for female guards and soldiers. And...TOMATOES! Looking at their mess table, that looks like tomato slices on top of rolls. I said two years ago that they had tomatoes! That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

"It's like a silver sandwich." This 'I Want To Be Like Uncle' Zuko is the best. thing. ever.

Flashing pink heart eyes? Cheeky, writers. You haven't done cheek in a while.

Now Zuko's actually completely under arrest? That plan did nothing except make it worse.

"You kinda burned down my village."
*every other cast member raises their hand and says 'Us too!' and 'Yep, he crashed into our village with a tanker!' *
"Nice to see you again." Smooth.

I don't think they'd let Zuko work like a regular unsupervised prisoner.

I like this erudite prisoner.

I love firebreathing-in-the-cell Zuko. I love every time the benders *breathe* fire. It can't be this easy, though.

Hakoda's looking pretty hot in the prison rags red. ::two thumbs up::

3x15

Chit-seng? How do you spell that?

Ouch, punch to the chair.

Sokka: "He's on our side now."
Hakoda: "Pull the other one, it has bells on."

"Come on Zuko, we all know that's a lie." SWEET ENTRANCE! Oh I do like her when they give her good material.

"The warden's my uncle you idiot." My reaction too.

"This isn't about you, this is about the fire nation."
"Thanks Zuko, that makes me feel all better." We really, really needed this conversation. I'm glad they're not skimping it.

"Save it? You're betraying your country." Technically, that's totally true. She's got you there.

"That's why we're going to start a prison riot!" Aaah, it runs in the family. Like sister like brother.

"Because I'm a people person." Oh... THAT. I saw someone make a "people person" crack for Azula earlier, now I see where they got it.

::guard release conversation:: You know, Sokka's a "people person" too. As twisted wrong as the Azula/Sokka pairing is, they do have similar instincts for talking a good lie.

I love this riot-starting method. Poor guy getting tossed.

Ouch, locking her in. Not going to endear her to you. Probably safer for her, though.

"I think your girlfriend's taking care of it." YAY SUKI. TAKE THAT HOSTAGE.

Nice animation here, with her head-running parkours climbing sequence.

Nice jump.

Blue fire jetpack flying? AWESOME. I suppose that explains Azula's aerodynamic gym moves ever since she was introduced.

GONDOLA FIGHT. I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW. ...how can there be no female action figures, when we have characters like Suki, Ty Lee, and Azula? And Katara and Mai too.

I adore the bright blue-to-red contrast of this setting and their costumes. It's pretty to look at.

"Goodbye Zuko." That's cold. Remember what I said? Soulless Monster Princess #1.

"Saving the jerk who dumped me." Way to be classy, Mai.

"I never expected this from you." Gee, that's kinda what happens when you treat your friends like property. Shitty property.

"I guess you don't know people as well as you think you do." Well, that's been one of my problems with Mai's character since the beginning. Though I do understand why they kept her ambiguous for so long. I don't like that tactic because it keeps me from investing in the character, but I get why they wanted the mystery.

"I love Zuko more than I fear you." Good for you, Mai. It's nice to see some personality from her, though I wish we'd gotten more earlier this season, and that it wasn't tied so much on Zuko. Still, classy.

Apparently Azula's not used to people denying her things.

YAY TY LEE!!! I was so not spoiled for that. Also, did I mention I still ship those two for femmeslash? BECAUSE I DO. Seriously, though, that makes me feel like I can be safe liking Ty Lee too. Also... Azula's going to be PISSED. She just found out that a) Mai is loyal to Zuko and b) Ty Lee is loyal to Mai. This is what happens when you treat your friends like shit.

I am really surprised, because I thought the beach hug from the NYCC trailer would be part of this episode. I guess that's in the future. Cool. Now I can freely speculate on the circumstances!

I also had someone say that Mai literally joined them in this episode and ran off with them, but clearly that's an exaggeration. I like this ending better because it keeps Ty Lee and Mai together. I think it's important they're united, more important even than having Mai with Zuko. Mai and Ty Lee have been united in the context of story from the beginning, and no matter who dates who I want them to stay side by side until the end of the show. They're a unit in the eyes of the audience.

There is a nice little contained character arc in these two episodes. The principle characters (Sokka, Zuko) start in one place, things happen, and in the final scene return to the original place. But now their perceptions are different and each has changed substantially in one aspect or another.
They are literally back where they started, but they're different because of everything that happened in between. It's more deliberate than the vague overall "come full circle" thing that we saw with Zuko arriving at the Western Air Temple, which I wouldn't call an arc, because it wasn't a contained storyline.

Overall, I loved it. Very fun, very dramatic, can't wait to rewatch it. A lot happened and yet, in some ways, not that much happened at all. But the changes will have lasting effects on the characters involved, even if some of the differences aren't noticeable right now.

Edit to add, 3 hours later: I'm like like the last person on the planet to realize that "Boiling Rock" = "The Rock" like the Alcatraz movie. How lame is that? And I freaking grew up in San Jose. It took months after the title of the episode and 3 hours after actually watching it to realize this.