Book 1, Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple

Welcome back! Before I begin, I'd like to recommend this outstanding video essay I found on Youtube. Its main focus is this specific episode and how it respects its audience. Please, please, watch it, as it'll serve as the perfect introduction/companion piece for my blog! Avatar: The Last Airbender - respecting your audience. It contains no spoilers for future episodes.

Now that you've watched the video, let's dive in to The Southern Air Temple!

This is the ONLY EPISODE in the entire series that does not feature a plain white background on the title card. Instead, it depicts a beautiful sunrise! Why did the creators do this? Is it symbolism for the beginning of a new day, a new turn in Aang's destiny? Now the entire world knows the Avatar has returned and there's no turning back now! Is it symbolizing Zuko's win in the Agni Kai, where he triumphed against a master firebender by applying his Uncle's teachings on the basic forms? His rising in confidence and skill? Is it all of the above, or possibly something else entirely?  Who knows, but it's a fact that this episode is extremely important for lore and character development.    

Taken just a few moments after the title card, this painting is famous for showing up a lot among Avatar fan pages and YouTube music. I think it's easy to see why.

After the Gaang wake up to start their journey to the Southern Air Temple, we cut to Zuko and Iroh arriving at the harbor for repairs. We are introduced to Commander Zhao, and it's obvious from Zuko and Uncle's actions that they have a strong distaste for him.

The dialogue is amazing in every scene they're in. I don't know much about screenwriting, but damn if this isn't some stellar work. The dialogue is biting and riveting, builds tension while flowing effortlessly, and most importantly develops and sculpts the characters. Not a sentence is wasted.
I especially love the perspective-shifting technique used when Zhao asks, "Join me for a drink?" While he's asking the question, the entire perspective rotates from a front view to a side view in order to include Zuko's slightly worried expression. Brilliant.

Feast your eyes on the Southern Air Temple and the Patola Mountain Range! Scenes like this are reason enough to watch ATLA.

Zhao: "...and by year's end, the earth kingdom capitol will be under our rule. The Firelord will finally claim victory in this war." (the foresight and planning this show had...) The fire nation is the red horseshoe-shaped string of islands in the left-center of the map. The sprawling earth kingdom takes up the entire right half of the map in yellow. The water tribes live on the north and south poles. And the Air nomads lived in the 4 air temples (north, south, east, west). The air nomads were unique in that they didn't really own any land. They just built the temples in largely inaccessible places and never messed with the other nations.

The earth capitol is the giant circle in the northeast corner. The circle represents the giant wall that surrounds the city, and it is in fact this very wall that has thwarted the fire nation's attempts at invading it.

When Zhao asks Zuko about his search for the Avatar, Zuko lies and says he hasn't had any luck. Then Zhao asks, "Did you really expect to? The Avatar died a hundred years ago, along with the rest of the air benders." WOAH HOLD ON. So far, we were hopeful that Aang might find some airbenders, despite Katara's warnings. But before the Gaang even explores the temple, Zhao confirms they were all killed. RIP. We're on episode 3 of a Nickelodeon children's show (quote quote), yet we're dealing with the genocide of an entire race of people... Cool!

Do you see it? 😳

Now back to the temple grounds, Sokka spots a firebender helmet. Katara decides to quickly bend snow in order to hide it from Aang. In response, Sokka softly says, "You know you can't protect him forever." It's apparent that Katara has developed motherly instincts from stepping up for her tribe. In the first episode, I forgot to add this quote as Katara was penguin sledding: "I haven't done this since I was a kid!" Aang replies, "You are a kid!" In this subtle way, we are shown that Katara's childhood is long gone; she no longer thinks herself a kid.

This flashback of Aang and his guardian Monk Gyatso is probably my favorite scene in the episode. Later on, I'll talk about how Gyatso's sage advice wonderfully ties together all of the presented themes.

We are shown a distraught Aang soon after the monks told him of his true identity as the Avatar. He was still holding on to his childhood friends and his dreams of a normal, peaceful life. What if he wasn't ready? What kind of changes would happen to him? Aang didn't allow the possibility of a positive change to enter his mind, a mistake that I'm sure we're all guilty of. Dwelling on either the past or the future can bog us down. Here, Gyatso offers some wisdom that we all should apply to our lives. "We must not concern ourselves with what was, we must act on what is."

"Your aim has improved greatly my young pupil."

 😢

(Yes, a lot of Avatar lore was dropped in the statue room, but I'm going to skip over that part. I'd like to refrain from all Avatar State discussion right now, because I feel the show does a great job of answering these questions in due time. I can expound on that much later in the series.)

Zhao to Zuko: "You're just a banished prince. No home. No allies. Your own father doesn't even want you... In his eyes, you are a disgrace to the fire nation."  Woah.

This is the first time thus far in which Zuko is portrayed in a sympathetic light. We've come to think of him as a simple Antagonist so far, just chasing the Avatar for glory and honor. Here we get some hints that there's much more to this character, as well as his relationship with his family and nation. 

Parallel: Prince Zuko was banished from the fire nation to hunt the Avatar. But wait... wasn't there someone else who was just banished? In the beginning of the last episode, Sokka pointed his finger at Aang and exclaimed, "The foreigner is banished from our village!"

Now back to the conversation with Zuko and Zhao:
In a sudden burst of rage, Zuko challenges Zhao to an Agni Kai, a fight, usually to the death, for honor. Unique to the fire nation, it really fits their aggressive and dominating mentality.

Iroh: "Prince Zuko, have you forgotten what happened the last time you dueled a master?"
Zuko: "I will never forget."
I absolutely love how the camera pans from his normal side to his scarred side as he's talking. So well done.
And do I have to mention again how compelling the dialogue is? It accomplishes so much with so little time.

Now back to the Southern Air Temple... Aang just saw Monk Gyatso's skeleton surrounded by dozens of firebenders. Gyatso didn't go down without a valiant fight, but man, what a horrifying sight.  This violently triggers Aang into entering the Avatar State, which in turn sets off a chain reaction of amazing lights in every temple around the world. If you were wondering why his previous venture into the Avatar State didn't trigger the event, it's because of Aang's current vicinity to the statue room and air temple (a very spiritual place).

The following screenshot is incredible. The priest's green clothing and the round disks with squares in the middle are trademarks of the earth kingdom. The decoratively distinct water tribe and fire nation temples are also shown in this sequence.

I very much enjoyed watching Zuko and Zhao's Agni Kai. Although this may not be the most exciting or action-heavy fight, I feel it has some of the most visually clear and striking choreography in the series. Far and above anything else I've seen in a cartoon or anime for sure.

During the fight, Uncle Iroh tells Zuko, "Remember your firebending basics, Prince Zuko. They are your greatest weapons. Break his root!" This ties back to when Iroh gave Zuko the speech on firebending basics in episode 1. Zuko won this fight by breaking Zhao's tie to the ground (root) and using a series of blows to keep him off balance. I love when everything ties together. :)

I thought it interesting that Zuko's spinning, root-breaking maneuver was shown three times for extra emphasis, with the final two times shown in slow-motion. It must be pretty important... 😜 Fantastic stuff!

Southern Air Temple: Aang's about to blow Sokka and Katara off the mountain! He feels so much rage, anger, and sadness at Gyatso's death; Gyatso was truly like a father to him. Aang can't cope with what's happened to him, and what terrible situation he has been thrown in. Except for Appa, he literally lost everyone he had ever loved. I could never imagine going through what Aang experienced... Indescribable loss and pain.

Thankfully, Katara comes to the rescue, and here's the kicker, by mirroring what Gyatso said to him 100 years ago. Through the tornado of rage, confusion, and sorrow, Katara yells at Aang to calm down. "Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Sokka and I, we're your family now."

"We must not concern ourselves with what was, we must act on what is."

Appa, Momo, and Aang are the only surviving remnants of a once-great civilization. Through them, the airbending legacy must live on. "We're all that's left of this place. We have to stick together."

Although many of you may know this, "Momo" means peach in Japanese. Avatar Aang names his lemur for the peach he steals from Sokka at the end this episode! How cute!

Conclusion: The Southern Air Temple is a fantastic episode. I must admit, however, that I didn't recognize its greatness until my third and now fourth viewings.

See, this is one of the episodes that made me want to start this blog because of how under-appreciated I felt it was. One of my goals is to help fans and newcomers appreciate the depth and planning that went into this show. So if I helped open your eyes to this episode's brilliance, please let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

I rate The Southern Air Temple a 9/10.

Adieu, adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow...