Book 1, Chapter 10: Jet

Ruuuuffffiiiiiooooooo!

In Jet, all the characters introduced are reminiscent of The Lost Boys gang from the Peter Pan inspired movie Hook. Interestingly, Zuko's voice actor, Dante Basco, is actually Rufio from that same movie! I have a feeling the writers wanted to create a nod towards that, because there's no way that's merely a coincidence!

Unfortunately the first few minutes of Jet are kind of boring, so I'll start with Jet and his merry gang after they ambush the fire nation camp. 

I love the humor in this show:

The Duke says, "Jet, these barrels are filled with blasting jelly."

"That's a great score," Jet replies.

Pipsqueak says, "And these boxes are filled with jelly candy!"

"Also good... Let's not get those mixed up."

This system of catwalks and treehouses is where Jet and his gang live. Not bad!

Jet is a very smooth character. Although he seems likable and confident, he revels in manipulating people. This is first hinted at during the storytelling in this scene.

Katara's eagerness to trust Jet is one of her flaws (and also Aang's). I also forgot to mention: In the previous episode (The Waterbending Scroll) Katara became very jealous of Aang's bending ability, which directly led to their capture. We're all human, even our heroes, so I find it extremely compelling when shows expose character flaws of seemingly perfect "good guys." It's too easy to play into that trope.

I love the trick Sokka employs here. Because he's not a bender, he has to rely on his knowledge and instinct to get by. It's ultimately his natural warrior instinct that saved the town. That's what makes him such a great character.

Just a cool screenshot. There aren't many of those this episode:

For me, the highlight of this episode was the ending fight between Aang and Jet. This is the first time we've seen a non-bender go toe-to-toe with Aang, and I really enjoyed seeing Jet's aggressive fighting style. Whereas benders focus on the movement of their body like a dance, Jet uses his swords as an extension of his body. His weapons are specifically tailored for his environment; they are swords ending in hooks so he can swing from the trees! Very cool weapon design!

Neat cyclone move:

I love how the old man vouched for Sokka in this sepia flashback scene.

You'll notice that everything comes around within each episode. No scene or line is wasted.

"No Jet, you became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people."

Moral of the story? You can't always rely on instinct to guide you:

Conclusion: I think Jet is a decent episode. The fight between Aang and Jet was cool. I appreciated the character development Sokka received, as this is one of the few episodes where he's mostly serious and saves the day.

Here's my problem with the episode: Jet's hatred for the fire nation is way too extreme to be rational or believable. He was willing to kill a bunch of innocent people just to "rid the valley of the fire nation?!" As demonstrated at the fire nation camp, they were masters of sneaking and ambushing. Why would they have to blow up the dam to take out a few fire benders? Jet would have to be psychotic. I understood him beating up the old man because of his hatred for the fire nation, but the writers took it too far.

AND GET THAT $#!% OUT OF JET'S MOUTH!!!

I give Jet a 6.5 out of 10 jelly candies. Or is that blasting jelly?

The next time we meet will be at the Great Divide! So exciting! 😝
...honestly, I wish we could just fly over it...