He tells them of the Fire Lord/Zuko’s father and his plans to win the conflict, which Zuko believes will fail, calling his father a “fool”. They quickly run into Commander Zhao (voiced by Jason Isaacs!), an important member of the Fire Nation army, who invites them for a drink. The ‘cost of war’, indeed.Īs for the B-story, Zuko, Iroh and the Fire Nation warship stop off at a harbour for repairs following Aang’s attack from the previous episode. Aang knows it, you really can tell, but his denial of it is what makes it really powerful to watch. The fact that an entire race was exterminated by one nation is a big thing to take on in a cartoon. There’s a lot to deal with in this story. They leave Aang’s former home soon after, with Aang taking one last glance at his home. As the lemur eats a moon peach, Aang calls him Momo – Japanese for “peach”, trivia fans! – and adopts him as another member of their group. He truly is the world’s last airbender.Īs our explorers are about to leave, Aang wonders how exactly he will communicate with Avatar Roku, but Katara tells him he will find a way – my guess is through hallucinations or flashbacks, really – before being interrupted by the lemur from earlier, who brings a starving Sokka food. This works, but Aang has stopped his denials. Meanwhile, Katara and Sokka work on calming Aang down, claiming that they are his new family and that no harm will come to him. Katara lightly warns Aang that the Fire Nation may have wiped out the Airbenders, but Aang works around denying this with his regular positive stance, claiming that the Fire Nation would have never made it to the Air Temples without the use of a flying bison. (I wonder how exactly you play this game? It makes about as much sense as Quiddich!) Of course, a hundred years have passed, leaving very little of Aang’s (first) youth there: no monks, no flying bisons, really only empty temples and a disused airball court. With Katara and Sokka in tow, Aang returns to the Southern Air Temple, his old stomping grounds from a century ago to see what his home has turned into. The pilot hinted at the consequences of a wartime society lacking male role models, but it never became the main focus – there was penguin sledding and lots of other fun to have! In episode three, The Southern Air Temple, the cost of the hundred-year war becomes the main focus. The big part of that is “consequences of warfare”, and it’s something that Avatar explores thoroughly throughout its three seasons.