House of R - Top 10 ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Animated Moments

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

Mal and Jo are back to discuss their top 10 moments from the ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ animated show as they get ready for Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation. They go character by character, revealing their picks for their favorite moments for each—with a smuggle or two, as always. Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech. today. I must find the Avatar to restore my honor. I'm the Avatar, silly, here to spread joy and fun. Zoko, you have to look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. My name's tough, because it sounds like tough, and that's just what I am. Hey everybody, Avatar Kiyoshi here. Listen, Avatar, I can join your group or I can do something unspeakably horrible. to you and your friends. Your choice.

I guess I'm not that good at impersonations. Into the House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. Joining me today. She's the momo to my oppa. The Agni to my Kai. It's Mallory Rubin. Hey, Mallory, how you doing?

Joe, life happens wherever you are. Whether you make it or not. We're here with that pearl of wisdom for Mallory Rubin. We're here to talk about something you have. Well, obviously. We're here to talk about something I absolutely, absolutely love. So in honor of IRO,

pour yourself a steaming mug of tea, get some noodles, set up the pie show board. We're here to talk about Avatar, the last, Airbender. There's a new Netflix series, an eight-episode series

coming out next week. We're not talking about that yet. We're here to talk about the animated series. series that it is based on, Avatar of the Last Airbender, three seasons of television that Mallory and I just watched

in a whirlwind in preparation for the new live action show. And we're here to count down our top 10 asterisk with a smuggle or two moments, character moments. As sort of a primer, it's a little different from other primers we've done.

I will get to that a bit in the spoiler warning. For some program reminders. Next week, Mallory and Ben will be covering the Bad Batch premiere. Yes. Mallory, how excited are you for the Bad Batch to return for the Bad Babies? I can't wait. I love the Bad Batch.

I love Clone Force 99. Seeing Ventris pop up in the trailer for season three was one of the joys of my recent life. So I'm looking forward to rewatching the first couple of seasons in anticipation. And I can't wait. We're getting a three-episode premiere. Love a meaty Bad Batch premiere. love saying meaty to you at the top of the pod. It's all happening.

Can't wait to chat with Ben about it. Next week, let's say like late Wednesday as the goal-ish. You can not set your watch by it. Okay. Also, over on the ring or verse, if you haven't already, please do yourself a solid and listen to the Midnight Boys.

Poo-Pew! Give their instant reactions to Madam Webb. If the social media teases from the team weren't enough to let you know that a banger was in store for you, let me just promise you. Just nothing but gold for the boys on the cinematic masterpiece, Madam Webb. Also, next week, Button Match will be here with a Final Fantasy Party draft with Ben, Matt, Rob Mahoney, Justin Charity.

What a team up. Incredible team for that pod. And then Midnight Boys will be back with their live action avatar season reactions on Friday, 23rd. So right after the new season drops. And then Mallory and I will be back for a deep dive the following Monday. So the new Avatar season will drop. You'll have all weekend to watch it. And then Mallory and I will be back on Monday to give our thoughts on the live action adaptation.

Mallory, so much meaty, juicy, content. Not to mention, we're about to enter the club for Dune. The club with Dune and the bad babies is right around the corner. You bring in the popcorn bucket into the club? I mean, obviously. But only behind the like in the private velvet robe section. Okay. It's not for public consumption.

You definitely need a private space for a time with the popcorn bucket. For the fucket bucket. All right. Listen, Mallory. How can folks keep track of all the content we got coming? Thanks for asking. Yeah. You're welcome.

I'd recommend following the pod on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Follow the house of our. Follow the ring or verse. Follow them all. Hit that follow button. If you're like, I want to track beyond what's popping up in my podcast feed, check out the Ringerverse on the social media platform of your choosing. The Ringerverse is on Instagram.

The Ringerverse is on Twitter. The Ringerverse is on TikTok. And you can send us your emails. You can send us your emails to the always open house of our inbox, hobbits and dragons at gmail.com. If you, like my husband, were rendered speechless by the recent V-Day Quigrant, episode. We broke Adam? He thought it was great. He was like, even for you guys, this was really something. Oh, no. I was like, oh, boy, was it? But he seemed very entertained. So, you know,

check out that pod if you haven't yet. And then stay tuned for all that awaits. My beloved turtle ducks, we've gathered you here today for an interesting little experiment that we're doing, something a little new for us. So we want to issue a kind of complicated spoiler warning. So we're here to talk about three seasons of an animated show. Any of our moments could come from any of those three seasons. So if you've seen all those three seasons of television, either recently or in the past or whatever, you should be fine. The upcoming live action show is based, is repeating some of the beats from the season because it's just like an adaptation. It's remaking it. So it's possible if you've never seen the animated and you're going to live

action fresh, you might hear some sequences, some scenes in this moment's episode that you might then see in the live action version. So in terms of like what you want in terms of a primer, we're not really priming you so much as like celebrating what has come before. Yes, an excuse to revisit, to re-watch and revisit and celebrate our favorite moments from one of our favorite shows. And so it's a more perilous spoiler warning than for other moments episodes, perhaps. Some of them have been like this as well. But, you know, I'll tip my hand.

I've got stuff coming all the way to the season three finale. So we're going to be talking about what happens in Avatar, The Last Airbender, the animated series. I definitely have been doing this. Okay, so we've each picked a moment. We don't know what our moments are,

as per usual with our moments pod. Love to surprise. So we will surprise each other. We might have picked the same moments. I'm just convinced we have a ton of crossover. I genuinely don't know. What's your prediction? How many do you think will be the same?

Or at least very similar. At least two. At least two. You think it's going to be like half. You think it's going to be like five. My guess heading in would have been four. The way Carlos reacted though. Carlos's reaction because Carlos knows what we each picked.

I'm wondering if it's more than that. Wow. You think we went 10 for 10? No, no way. If we had just done, no. No way. But if we had just done top 10 Avatar moments, I think there would have been actually weirdly perhaps more variance. But structuring it around characters. I wonder if that increased the likelihood of some similar picks. But we'll see. Maybe it's just one. Maybe it's just one. Who knows what we're doing? We picked 10 characters. Probably the 10 characters you're thinking of when you think of characters from Avatar. No. Otter penguins. That's what the pot is. Ten turtle lions.

Ten characters plus an intermission, plus whatever Mallory has decided to smuggle in here. I don't know. She might have five from Momo. I don't know. We're going to find out together. But we're counting them down. It's not like we're counting up to the best one. We decided to do this in reverse alphabetical order. That's Zucco to Ang. So this is not in order of importance. This is just characters in reverse alphabetical. medical order, starting with Zucco, ending with Ang, and all the people in between. So that is what we're doing here today. I'm really, really excited for this. I had such a good time rewatching Avatar.

It's such a good time picking these moments to celebrate these characters that we love so much. Should we get started? Let's do it. Let's dive in. Okay. Zuko. Zucco. Starting with the best.

Mallory Rubin. My favorite. let's just say once more on the spoiler warning front that we will be talking about things all the way to the end of the series. My very first moment today comes from the series finale. Yeah, should we, just in case people are listening to this as a primer, because people are wild and wacky and do weird things,

and I've never seen any Avatar the last year of Bender before. Should we like say something about these characters as we go through them? Who is Prince Zucco? And what does the show mean to you? Let's pan back even further for just a hot second. What a great point. Why do you love Avatar the Last... We're so excited to talk about our moments

because these moments have brought us such joy. We zoom past our huge. Let's climb up on up a saddle and set the table. Set that aerial table. What does Avatar the Last Airbender the animated series mean to you, Joanna Robinson? I'm so glad you asked you. And which kind of bending would you want to be able to be able to do. to do. Water. Easy. How about you?

So that you could bloodbend? Yes, obviously. But like you can bend so many things. There's water in so many things. So yes, I would be a water bender. Though maybe a north bender if I could lava bend. That would, that lava bending is pretty interesting. Speaking of lava bending, which was a bending skill introduced in Legends of Cora. Great show. Legends of Cora was my start. I got Pauble with me. Right here. I do. I've always got Pobo with me in my heart. Legends of Cora was my first.

I watched that before I watched Avatar the Lestererbender, and it was because pals of mine, Dave Gonzalez, Matt Patches, and David Hardware were doing a Legends of Cora podcast, and after season one, they're like, should we have a woman on this show about a female avatar?

So then they asked me to join it. I never watched it, so I hastily binged the first season and then caught up and joined them. So you can, Republic City Dispatch is the name of that show. And it's a wild experience that I watched all of that because there's reference, there's so many references in Cora that I didn't understand because I hadn't seen Avatar. It's really bonkers that I just go and watch Avatar to Last Air Bender, but I did it. And so, and then I watched it once I had finished Cora. And then I've rewatched Cora since and gone back and forth. And I've rewatched Avatar more than Cora. I love Cora. I have such a special place in my heart for Cora, but I've rewatched Avatar multiple times. I watched it twice through. during the pandemic. One's just for myself

and then another as part of like a watch-along let's all feel less alone like situation in the pandemic where we were watching two a day at lunchtime. Like everyone was like working from home took a lunch break

to watch two episodes of Avatar together. It was really cute. I love this show. It's so special. It's so beautiful, inventive, funny, heartbreaking,

got-wrenching, like elegant in its construction of its seasons. and sophisticated in its character arcs. I just, I think this show is singular in its appeal across generations. Like, there's plenty of things that old and young enjoy, but the way it's like pitch towards kids and then simmered in the background has this

like very, very nuanced spirituality concepts and character development. I think it's an incredible, incredible achievement. Mallory Rubin, what's your avatar experience? Team water bending as well. Easy call. I love this show so much. I'm a newer Avatar fan than you. It was one of my very, very, very first COVID watches.

So like spring 2020, had a moment today where I was like, that's four years ago already. Wow. That's actually not that recent. that's half a decade. A lot to process. But I, this was something that I was watching with the Jason's, Concepciona Manzukas.

We would text about it as we would watch the episodes and it was like one of those early things sharing a thing that you were just, okay, I need something to be happy about today much like you're describing, talking about it with your friends. And I loved it so much. Adam loved it so much. We loved it so much that we, I mean, we blew through the three Avatar Cs. and went right into Quora. Absolutely adored that as well. I think that it is difficult to describe and stand by the description of anything

as, like, truly a perfect creation. But I think the three seasons of Avatar The Last Airbender are as close as it gets. The execution against the intention, I love your point about the structure. There's a tightness to it. It's so fun. Like doing this, I did my rewatch ahead of this pod in a week and a half, which like, I think

we've both done more intense things than that, but also, you know, it's a lot of episodes in a short span of time. But there was something about it that left me in a state of awe. The pay, when you can appreciate the pacing and the tightness and the intentionality and the the payoffs, the richness and the reward of the shared journey that the characters are experienced to get together and the individual arcs inside of it. That's one of the reasons I loved when you suggested that we break this pod down by character. It allows us to really celebrate, I think, both of those things because there will be these connections and through lines

why we're picking something for one character. What does that say about the larger quest? But everybody has their room for individual growth inside of this shared thing. And neither of those things could happen without the other. It is such a beautiful celebration of connection and found family and the embrace of who you are and who you want to try to be and surrounding yourself with people who allow that to happen for you and allow you to discover the things that you need so that you can make that happen for yourself. I think it's a beautiful message. It's something that everybody can find something to enjoy inside of. And in addition to that,

and some of the best redemption arcs, some of the most astonishing arcs overall, some of the most beautiful bonds, some of the most anguish-inducing, heart-shattering moments. We've got laughs. We've got humor. We've got Momo and Appa.

I think too truly the icons of our time. I mean, all of the creatures in Avatar and Cora are wonderful. I will say now, and you will hear me say it again today, that I think Mo Mo is unrivaled. I really do. Momo is just, like, supreme to me. Everything he did on the rewatch, I could barely stand.

It was so cute. Momo's phenomenal. My heart belongs to Pa'bu just because I think I met Paabu first. As you know, a forever love. A Babu obsessive. I was going to say enthusiast, but that didn't seem strong enough. Love him so much. It's just a beautiful show.

I can't wait to talk about it. I'm really excited for just like getting to revisit the story and share it together. I hope that people who come to the Netflix show and are introduced to the world for the first time, feel the impulse to go back to the animated series and watch it and spend time in that world. I love visiting it. I love being in the Four Nations. I love being with our benders. I guess I shouldn't spoil my entire list by saying who all of my favorite. characters are and why, so I'll wait on that. But some really, like, genuine all-timers for me

in this show. Yeah. The last thing I want to say, and then I'm going to, like, premise it more broadly for folks who haven't seen it, is incredible inventive action, because you've got firebending, air bending, earthbending, water bending. These are people who can manipulate the elements. And it ramps up even more in Cora. Cora is mind-blowing for the action sequences that are in and just like the inventive, the invention behind what would happen if a metal bender met a sandbender or something, you know, like something like that. It's just like it's really, really good. Here's the premise of the show. In case you don't know, we got this far you don't know. Long ago, stop, you've heard this before. The four nations lived together in harmony.

Then everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the avatar, master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed, and a girl named Katara and a boy named Saka, discover the new avatar, an airbender named Ang. And although his air bending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But Katara believes that Ang can save the world. So it's Ang, his pals, and the deadly fire nation is sort of the premise of what we're talking about today. Speaking of Fire Nation and enemies and found family, Prince, Zuko, one of the best, maybe the best character arcs of all time. I think it's, his arc is seriously in the running for number one ever, like with apologies to Anakin and all of our other reformed baddies. Zucco is my favorite character.

All of my Momo comments aside, and I might as well say this now because he's going to be involved in the moment that I've picked. Iro, a close second for me. The Zucco-Iro relationship is my favorite part of the Avatar experience. I assume this is something that we share.

This is definitely the same moment. And I love them both so much. I love all of the relationships that Zucco gets to forge over the course of the show, particularly the second half of the third season. just an immensely rewarding thing to see. But it is difficult for me to separate my feelings about Avatar the Last Airbender, a series from my feelings about this particular moment

between Prince Zuko and Uncle Iro from, again, you've been warned on the spoiler front, the series finale. Carlos, can you play it? Uncle, I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me. me. But I want you to know. I am so, so sorry, uncle. I am so sorry and ashamed of what I did. I don't know how I can ever make it up to you, but I... How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me. I was never angry with you. I was sad because I was afraid you lost your way.

I did lose my way. But you found it again. And you did it by yourself. And I'm so happy you found your way here. It wasn't that hard, uncle. You have a pretty strong scent. Teapending. This is the perfect moment.

This is, of course, also my moment. Yes. I know it. My prediction was that we would have the same for Zucco and Iro. I felt, I mean, we'll see. Maybe we won't. Iro obviously is the same. Yes.

Yeah, I feel like I felt like this were locks. And so that if there's anything beyond that, we're suddenly like a three or four shared moments. Who can say? Sozen's comment, the four-part finale. And here it is, the heart of the entire series inside of this finale, Joe. Think of where we are right now as TV viewers

and how we sometimes feel about fineries and then think about this. That's what I mean about like... The intentionality that you mentioned, the elegance that I mentioned, like, it just all feels so perfect, And you and I agree that you don't always have to know exactly where you're going on a TV show to make a masterpiece. There are plenty of TV shows that are masterpieces where they were making up as a go along.

That's called writing, folks, look it up. But this and, and I know that there are things that they changed and added and tweaked on Avatar. They didn't have the whole thing mapped out. But this as like, we're going to do water, earth fire. It's going to come down to Ang versus Ozai. all that sort of stuff is just like Zuko on an arc. That's unbelievable.

I think that Zucco was the hardest character for me, even though this is clearly the pick, and I don't know that I ever would have talked myself into any other pick. He was also the hardest character for me to make my selection for because for most of the other, some characters say I was like, this is the one, this is easy.

Some I was like, I'm deciding between two or three things. Zucco, I had a short list of no fewer than 25 things. I'm serious. Like it was just that he is, Every minute with him is, it's like a state of rapture to watch him develop and learn and grow. And so you could pick anything along the way, right? I mean, you could get into season two and the options are suddenly there in abundance from his date to the whole. I think Zuko alone is a gorgeous episode.

It's one of my favorite episodes. A masterpiece. Absolutely beautiful. Moving to season three, the beach might be coming up again later today. I won't say too much about it now. incredible episodes, some great Zuko and that. Every season three side quest, right? His episode with Ang, his episode with Saka, his episode of Katara, building toward an iconic top moment when she's like, everybody else had a life change. Where's my? She was right. And she's just like trying to like

gnatur away to him her life story. And he's like, we really have some other stuff. I know you're a tough child. I don't have time for this. Incredible. So then why of all of those choices and there are 20 others that we could just, you know, off the dome rip off. Why this? That emotional payoff between these two characters inside of the most intense and fulfilling relationship to watch evolve and develop, in part because of what we were talking about earlier,

the individual arcs are supreme. The shared arc is supreme. They heighten each other. They can't exist without each other. And that's my favorite thing about this, is Iro saying, you know, you found it again, you did it by yourself. This is a through line that Iro emphasizes to Zuko.

Made me think of like, again, that intentionality would go back to season two, episode five. One of my other favorite moments between the two of them, Iro's saying to Zucco, you must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. that is the meaning of inner strength. And I love that moment, and I love how it sets the stage for this payoff

in the finale, this culmination of their bond and the gifts that they have given to each other. Hope is something you give yourself, that is the meaning of inner strength. There's a beauty to that. There's a power in that. And also, it's not completely true, right? That's the magical thing about their relationship.

Is Zuko is able to find that in himself because of what Iro helped him unlock. It's just absolutely wonderful. And he doesn't get there. Iro is primary and very important. He doesn't get there also without like everyone else, the whole, the whole fam, all the friends who made along the way. My only asterisk on this scene,

the only thing, the only reason I thought about maybe not picking the scene is the one asterisk on the exquisite nature that is Avatar the Last Airbender, is that the wonderful voice actor who voiced Iro in the first two season, Mako passed away before the third season. So Greg Baldwin does a great job with Iro, but Iro is largely silent in the third season, I think, because they're like, we don't want to push this. Like, the original voice actor was so cherished and was so wonderful. So that was something that they had to sort of accommodate. And so my one thought was like, well, this isn't, it is Iro, but it's not quite exactly Iro.

So is this the moment I want to pick? And the other moment that I was thinking of was another Iro-Zuko moment in the, I know you and I both love the season two finale. When Ira says, sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel. But if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place, right? And he's talking to Zuko about the choices he has to make in that finale, everything that's happening.

And also earlier, earlier, I mean, this isn't Iro's moment. This is Zucco's moment. But like all these things that Iro constantly says to Zucco, right? Like if you look for the dark, that's all you see. Like all these things are so important to counterprogram. Zucco has been both disfigured, burnt by his father and cast out by his father. Has a horrible murderous relationship with his sister. So it's like, it's that question of like, which we talked about in our cover of Percy Jackson, you're not your parent, right?

You don't have to be Ozai in order to be something. You can be something else. And here, let me pattern a different kind of way to be a firebender, a different kind of strength to have, compassion, all of these things that Zucco eventually finds. it's so important to me. Also, I almost picked, why am I so bad at being good? Because it's an incredible, incredible Zikaubha. Absolutely great one.

The tracing back his scar, his Agni Kai, his banishment, his obsessive pursuit of the avatar in the first place. Like, what was the thing that he did that led to all of that? it was like stand up for other people, right? And so the source of that wound, literal and emotional being, oh, I tried to do something like right and good and was cast out from my life and my family.

The worst thing that's happened to be, my life happened. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, by the people who were supposed to love and protect and nurture me. Yeah. And so of course there is a process and a path and a span of time

over which Zuko has to learn to not only forgive himself, but believe that the things that Ira is telling him, which as we'll talk about when we get to Iro, were the hard won lessons for him as well, are true and can be true, because the proof of his life to that point is the opposite. And so it shouldn't be an easy thing for him to just say, I don't need to restore my honor. I don't need to try to work my way back into my old life, even with this beautiful person there by his side. every day saying take a sip of tea and let yourself off the hook a little bit. When Zuko is in that state of fever and Iro is saying this is your body and your soul at war

with itself. Like it's such an incredible, the ability for Iro to consistently espouse the wisdom not only of the show and the spirit of the show, but if something truly elemental about like the I don't mean to sound too intense here, but like the human experience. And for Zuku to be the recipient and then ultimately the beneficiary of so much of that is,

it's the kind of thing where you say like, oh, Zucco's Ark is so rare. It's such a supreme execution of a thing that we cherish because we don't rarely seen it's like, even though we've seen so many, so many in theory comps and corollaries. And it's like because there's,

there's no one like, Iro out there. And that's what I love about it. Again, that message, if you found it, you did it by yourself. Yes, Zuko had to learn to forgive himself. He had to learn the master's episode, the SideQuest with Ang and Zucco is so great, like that moment where, again, it builds toward IRO and learning that he had been there, that he had decided to make sure nobody could find those dragons.

And like the way that every step Zucco takes and the strength he has to build to take those steps on his own, that little sand bill, it's always there. even if he's not quite yet literally holding it in his hand. It's just beautiful. I love it. The backstory of young Zuko and his mom, which, as you mentioned, we get in the Zuko Alone episode,

which is generally one of the best episodes of television ever, Zuko alone. And then the chase, like it pairs with the chase, which comes right after it, so good. But to your point about Iro, again, we're not in the Iro section necessarily, but like that idea of like stop,

relax, drink some tea, take a steam bath with me, whatever it is. We're not going to talk much at all about the live action adaptation for Netflix. But I think one of the alarm bells that went off for people in some interviews was this idea of like, we aren't taking side quests, we aren't pausing, we aren't doing silly things where go, go, go. Because they're doing eight one-hour episodes versus 22, half-hour episodes in a season. so I understand the timeline is different. But those moments of relaxation, especially as encouraged by Iro and then experienced by Zucco when they have to pause in Earth Kingdom and learn what is life if I'm not chasing the avatar?

What is life if I am not trying to be my father? Who am I? What can I be? What could I be? Also, the best part about this character arc is that it is not that there are backslides. And that's what makes this. But that's what makes this so much better than other sort of imitation, other versions of it. Because that's just human nature.

This is an argument I would make with Thrones all the time when Jamie Lee's Briannon goes back to Circe. And like, I didn't like how it was executed, but I kind of liked the backslide. because that's just so human. It feels true to the character. It feels so human. So the fact that like Zuko will listen to Iro, get on a certain path, be tempted by Katara in whatever way you want to describe that, you know, like be tempted to, you know, just be a guy who runs a tea shop and then be drawn back in by Azula, by Ozai,

by his family, by his conditioning is what makes the. ultimate breaking free of that, that much more satisfying that he was able to break free of it because we've already seen what a stranglehold it has on him. Yeah. Have to get the thing you think you want to realize that you don't want it. Zuko, my guy. Love it. All right.

Number nine? On the list, alphabetically. Miss Toth Bay Fong. Should we take our shoes off for this one? Just really Should we see with our feet? Take into the earth. Speaking about intentionality, again,

Toff is a good example of this. Originally, Toffus was to be a male character. Bolin is sort of the model for what Taft was supposed to look like if you've seen Bolin from Guitarah, or there's an earthbender in the opening credits and that's sort of supposed to be Toff. But the headwriter was like, what if we make her, what if we make Toff a little girl?

and one of the creators was like, no. And then eventually was like, can you imagine Toff not as Toff? Season 2 enters the fray in season 2, voiced by Jesse Flowers, who previously voiced the character of Meng. So I love that. They're like, we like this voice actress. Why don't we use her again? Why don't we make Toff this small girl but the biggest badass you've ever seen? I love Toff.

wonderful character. The Blind Bandit. Blind Bandit. I mean, think of a world where the boulders and team boomerang instead. Should we do the rest of the pod as the boulder? Maybe. The boulder is ready for the next clip, Carlos. Let's hear my tough moment.

The sixth pool of energy is the light chakra located in the center of the forehead. It deals with insight. and is blocked by illusion. The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same. Like the four nations. Yes, we are all one people, but we live as if divided. We're all connected.

Everything is connected. That's right. even the separation of the four elements is an illusion. If you open your mind, you will see that all the elements are one, four parts of the same whole. Even metal is just a part of earth that has been purified and refined. You rule. This is my initial pick before I changed my mind. But this is what I almost, that's what I almost picked, yeah.

Oh, man. We might have more overlap than we, than we. you think then. Because this is one of my last candidates for overlap. This is not my, my clip and we'll play my clip. But if we almost had it here, maybe we have it in a lot of other places.

I mean, she discovers metal bending. I know. It's a pretty big deal. It's tough. So, so cool. So this is from season two,

episode 18, The Guru. And you're hearing Eng and the guru speaking. And then you start to hear that kind of mystical sound and we are seeing, cutting into these visuals of Taf feeling the metal. This is a cage, a metal cage that Taf is being transported in as a prisoner, back to the Earth Kingdom, away from Team Avatar in this new life.

Again, we will just repeat that Taf invents metal bending in this moment. we hear this beautiful idea that the guru is sharing with Ang, this idea of the separation as an illusion, metal is just a part of earth. And so part of why I picked this moment is because I think that is a beautiful idea and a beautiful message more broadly. The way that this manifests for Taf, not only bringing, in essence, new magic into the world,

which is no small thing, it is like so many of the great strokes in Avatar, a cool plot development, a cool addition to the lore and the mythology, a cool expansion of the world that cannot happen outside of an understanding of an evolution for a character. This is about Taf not accepting the life

that other people insist she lead. This is about Taf not in many respects, feeling like she has to be bound by her circumstance. right? That's not me. She's so aria-coded. Oh, man. That's not me.

Just, ooh, it takes me back there, Joe. The, growing up, this rich kid in the earth kingdom who's blind and whose parents don't understand who she is, recognize who she is.

And then when it is brought to their attention at last, don't want to allow her to be that. And this kind of very charming and again, I think true-to-life learning curve that she and the group have as they acclimate toward each other. Not the same routine exactly. They've got some different thoughts on upkeep of the camp. But Toff's arc overall in this moment and in many others, before she was with the gang, when she's with the gang, is a quite literally.

and figuratively, like, learning to see in a different way. Remaking the world, whether it's through metal bending or a decision you make about how you want to spend your time and who you want to surround yourself with, about how to remake the world as you see fit. Shape the world, quite literally, that you want to live in. Taf is like a very fun character, a character with a lot of punch and pizzazz and zest, often gets off the zingers. but there is an emotional heft to Toff's arc that you really feel in an instant like this. That's my pick.

And what's yours? Carlos, we play my clip, please. The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young, blind girl. Sounds to me like you're scared Boulder. The Boulder's over his conflicted feelings, and now he's ready to bury you in a rock a latch.

Whenever you're ready, the pebble. It's on. And still the champion, the blind bandit. How did she do that? She waited and listened. Metal bending is such a badass moment for Tuff.

But I wanted to talk about her on a sort of like more meta. how you write a story, uh, crossroads. And this idea of, you've got our golden trio, uh, if you prefer,

of Aang and Saka and Katara, and the precariousness of adding another element to that cocktail that we are, been enjoying so much for so long. And you, your character has to be phenomenal to come in and just win us over and just like, we immediately want more of this character. And so this is not technically Toph's intro.

Ang gets glimpsed her in the swamp before we get. But this is like her real intro. And it is immediately so iconic. The Boulder is hilarious. The spin on the rock, of course, hilarious. But like her taunting him the way the animation style changes to show us how Toph used the world through like, you know, slight echo location kind of thing, the vibrations in the ground.

And the fact that Aang is in need of an earth-bending master, we thought it would be boomy. It's not boomy. It's tough. And to your point, then the oil and water integration into the camp, the Katara versus Toff fighting that happens, all of that,

the wisdom she gets once again from IRO to figure out, I was, when I was thinking about Lee's character arcs, and I was thinking about Toff, and I was like, does Toff not, Toff is so herself, does she not, you know, and if you watch Cora, an older version of Toff shows up in Cora, and she's still freaking Taf, okay? So is she not a character on an arc? Because she's so, like, adamantly,

like a unmovable piece of rock herself the whole time. But no, to your point, this, like, learning how, to be, she is such a rugged individual. So her task is to learn how to be part of a team and how to, and she's so afraid of looking like she is frail or dependent in some way because she can't see that she, this is, and this is Ira's wisdom to her in season two, that she is afraid to take anyone's helpless, less they think she's helpless. And so she acts so spiky and angry about everything.

And her blending with the group. Another moment that I almost put in was her trying to hold the library up and save Appa at the same time. And she just can't do it. And it's just like. Pain. So painful. Anguish.

But she saves. But she saves. I mean, we'll talk about Office and more, but she saves everyone in that library by herself. And then, like, holding up, building up. Yeah, fuck you. Yeah, fuck you.

You didn't try hard enough. Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, tough Bay fun. Oh, man. It's a, it's a great point, Joe, about the arc, the arc question, because I'm sort of thinking about this in real time as you pose that. And so many of our other core characters come to us. in an active state of attempting to process their pain and their trauma and their loss.

And Taf is a little, it's a little bit inverted. I mean, obviously the separation from her home and her family is a wound. But she's like the, I've got this figured out character and it takes her so long. It's at the end of the series when everybody else has started to work through all of that and got into this more complete sense of self that she's finally allowing herself to live inside of that pain? It's interesting.

It's a little bit flipped. Her little crush on Saka. I mean, who among us, you know? Yeah. It's a wolf's, it's a warrior's wolf's tail. There's a version of this show that has a lot more of the Suki sneaking into Saka's tents

in the dead of night. Yeah. It's just an iconic moment that maybe we'll come up when we get to our next character. Speaking of, should we go to the Kyoshi warrior herself, Suki. I love, I love Suki. I love Suki more and why every time I rewatch the show. Tell me why. I don't know.

I just like, well, my clip has a lot to do with it. Okay, you want to go first? Yeah, maybe I'll go first. Maybe we have the same moment. This is it. Carlos? This could be our most important mission yet. Give him some space.

Abba, it's me. Suki, I'm a friend. I want to help you. You're hurt. We can help you feel better. And we can help you find Aang. I kept in that clip at the end so you could just hear happy Appa licking Suki and appreciation. Is this your clip as well?

This is your moment? So perhaps shockingly, it's not. It is my smuggle for Suki. I wanted to pick this one. I kind of forced myself not to because I have something else from this episode. Maybe so do I, but that's okay. Appa's last day is one of the best episodes of television ever. The other thing is, while I have something else from this episode, I actually, I love that

episode. It is a masterpiece. I actually find it like almost too painful to watch. Well, I wanted to add this to your pain. That's so sad. I wanted to add this to your pain. Okay, so in case you don't know, Appa is a sky bison who is a cherished, Campanion of Ang was frozen in iceberg with Ang for 100 years.

You know, carries our team all around the Four Nations, loyal, wonderful, cuddly, shed sometimes, doesn't smell go when he's wet, et cetera, et cetera, is the best. Get stolen, is lost. And this is the, well, we're not in the Oppa section, so I'll try to keep it brief. But I just want to say this. Opah gets stolen from the team.

That episode aired on July 14th. Season two had a break in the middle of it. Crawl. Lost days does not air until October 13th. Not okay. So to go from July 14th to October 13th. And there are several episodes that happen in between, but there was also a long hiatus, during which Eng is absolutely despondent and despairing over having lost Appa.

And we don't know where Appa is. We don't see. So we see all of it in one episode, again, is probably. going to come up again later. We'll talk about it. But there's so many horrible moments for op in that episode, so many misconnections, so many, all this sort of stuff, and just the absolute relief you feel when you're like, oh my God, Suki is here and she will fix this. And Appa goes from dirty and like riddled with arrows and fearful and angry and chains on to like happy and clean and licking Sukki, because you're just like, you can count on the Kyoshi Warriors and you can

count on Sukki. They're just hyper, hyper-competent people. And so I just like, I've never felt more viscerally relieved in my life than when I saw that Sukki was about to take care of Apah. No better person to find Apah in that moment except for, you know, and perhaps. And nothing to endear us to somebody more. more than seeing that they would care for Papa.

Care for an animal. Seriously. That's why I wanted to pick it because it tells us so much about the quality of Sukki's heart and the worthiness of Suu Kyi's a person that she's someone on Appa trust, but also that she's someone who takes the time

to stop and help and heal. This might be our most important mission yet, is what she says to her fellow Kiyoshi warriors. I agree. The Kiyoshi, first of all, I love Avatar Kiyoshi. The Kiyoshi fit, 10 of 10. Fan fighting, wonderful.

Also, great taste in boyfriends. I love Saka. I love that Suki's like, yeah, that's the guy for me. Yeah. What do you want to say about? Speaking of Saka. I talked myself out of that moment. I'm thrilled that you picked it.

It was my smuggle. I think from that episode I have one pick and two smuggles. So that episode is present in my list in three ways. I was growing anxious. says I built my list about, I generally am fine with like, hey, if we're doing 10 things, seven can be from one episode. I just lean in. I was feeling a little light on two things that I love.

Season one and soccer. And humor, which is often one and the same, right? I had the exact same. I was like, where's my season one representation? Where's my humor? Exactly. Which is partially why my tough clip was from season two. but I was like, we have to have some light fun moments.

It's part of it. Okay. Well, we've got some more fun coming here. We've got some season one. This is from the Warriors of Kiyoshi, season one, episode four. Let's laugh. And let's hear our guy Saka get absolutely dunked on. Sorry, ladies, didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson.

I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout. Well, you're in the right place. Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know you were friends with the avatar. It's all right. I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception. I should hope so. A big, strong man like you, we wouldn't stand a chance. True, but don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village. Wow. Best warrior, huh? In your whole village. Maybe you'd be kind enough to give us a little demonstration.

Oh, well, I mean, I... Come on, girls. Wouldn't you like him to show us some moves? iconic moment for two iconic characters and a wonderful eventual couple. My two smuggles for Suki were your pick and what I mentioned a few minutes ago, sneaking into the tent for a little late night action, it thwarted by Succo, who's there for a brooding chat instead. But this first episode with Suki and with Suki and Suki and Suki and Saka together and with the Kiyoshi Warriors is so delicious.

We learn so much about how characters are going to play off of each other, how we're going to glimpse something essential in mere minutes of story about a mission, a purpose, a history, a uniting principle. This is such a badass introduction.

for such a badass character, Suki is so confident, Suki is so comfortably in command of every aspect of this interaction. Annihulating Saka, while he is very firmly still in his... I've got some things to learn. Again, we'll have a character on an arc.

I'm on my own arc. I'm on my own arc. Yeah. Pays of that arc. And one of the things that I really love about this, in addition to Souki so clearly knowing who she is is that that doesn't have to then

feel like the only thing. I'm tough, I'm strong. There's room for love and romance and all of those other things. They don't have to be mutually exclusive and Suki is a great character for reminding us of that, which I really cherish.

And the fact that Saka then, like, it's genuinely like, you know, he dresses up as a Kyoshi warrior to practice with her. It's genuinely like kind of sexy and great. And it's what, like, a note that I made in my rewatch this time is I was like, it's episode four and Sukki's already here. Like I wrote that on my notes. I was just like, we're so quick to the Kyoshi warriors right away, you know? So, yeah.

And the fact that she comes back, like she could have easily been a one and done character. as plenty of other great characters are, but she comes back. She comes so important in the end game. And she saves Alpha. I love you, Suki. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business.

They keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimphaya, Guselcomab taken by Injection. is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,

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Tap this ad to learn more about trimfaya, including important safety information. Some things work better together, like NARZ's soft matte complete concealer and radiant creamy concealer. Soft matte complete concealer erases and blurs imperfections with full coverage. Then, radiant creamy concealer evens and brightens with a luxurious texture and radiant finish. Two concealers, one flawless look. Perfect for a no foundation base. Nars, better together. Visit Sephora to shop now. All right, that brings us to our guys, Saka, Mal.

Do you want to go first? Sure. Let's do it. Love Saka. Love chatting about Saka. Can't wait to chat about Saka. This was, here was my journey with selecting my Saka moment. This was at once one of the easiest picks I made for the whole list. I was like, I know what I want my Saka moment to be. then I had a long period of reflection

because I picked a very serious moment, an intense moment, for I think the character that we often collectively celebrate as the source of humor on the show, one of the sources of humor on the show, just a constant, charming, boisterous presence. We got a little bit of a heavy one coming here, and so I'm trying to work through that, but you know what?

It feels appropriate to me because Saka, as we've noted, is a character on an arc. Let's hear one of the things he's working through on that arc. The worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love. Boo-hoo, poor heroes. What's your problem?

You haven't even touched your smoke sea slug. It's just all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff, like putting out forest fires and flying around and making other stuff fly around. I can't fly around, okay? I can't do anything. That's not true. No one can read a map like you.

I can't read at all. Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time? I mean, look at Katara's hair, right? What's up with that? What? What's wrong with my hair? Nothing. I was just trying to... Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is, each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm not.

I'm just the guy in the group who's regular. I love it. Great pick. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular. What would that feel like? What would that be like to be the guy in the group who's regular? And of course, that's not true. And that's part of what everybody rallies around Saka to help reinforce.

And part of his journey is embracing that, that being special, can manifest in a number of different ways beyond just bending an element. But the reason that I ultimately, like, I knew I wanted to pick this and then I stood by my decision to pick it is one of my favorite moments in the entire series for one of my favorite characters.

I think the fact that it feels like almost a little bit contrary to how we think of Saka typically behaving is why I love it. Because the show makes so much room for its characters to be vulnerable and to feel and express something that is maybe distinct from what we would expect or with other characters who surround them would expect.

Like the bravado, giving way to this lament and this insecurity, it just hits so, so hard. You would always wonder if you were Saka if you were enough. Like if it was enough to be the guy who could read the map. and come up with the strategy and make people laugh. And of course it is, right? Because like, really, actually, that's the magic as making other people happy.

But to see Saka then go. This episode, I should say, is this is from, didn't say what this is from. This is from season three, episode four, Saka's master. And to see Saka then go, seek out a master of his own, training of his own,

weapon forging of his own, forging not only a sword, but a fucking space sword. And we love a space sword here at that. House of R, the growth that we can just cherish on display when he greets that master with humility and this humbleness and his pursuit of worthiness, like, worthiness, can he feel worthy? Can he bring himself to feel worthy? And then forges quite literally and learns to embrace a different kind of strength, like strength

in a different form. I just think is beautiful. And there are a lot of Saka zingers that absolutely kill me. I think he's hysterical. He makes me laugh and he brings me joy. But this moment like fills me with a level of you, it's the kind of thing where you watch a show or you're reading a book. It's the best feeling, right? And you're like, this is what it would feel like if I knew this person in my life, right?

Like to watch them learn something like this about themselves. What a beautiful thing that would be. So I just, I love this episode and I love this moment for Saka. I love what it means for him. says about him, and I love what it shows us about the show's desire to make everybody full and round. That's my pick. I love this because I went on the exact opposite journey.

When I was writing down my moments, I was like, Saka, Saka's master easily. Like, that's got to be it. It's got to, that's the Saka episode. And I, and then a part of me was like, well, and you picked a really, you. picked a great part for that episode. I was thinking, like, the conversation that he has with his master as he's forging his space sword or learning how to do that, I was like, well, we covered that on the magical weapons episode.

We did Saka's master. We did his space sword. But you picked another moment for that episode, and I love that. And I went on the exact opposite journey where I was like, I want to celebrate Saka's humor. I think it's really fun. It's like both sides of his character. Both are important.

And he contains multitudes. So this is one of my favorite Saka moments from season two. Okay, karma person or thing, whoever's in charge of this stuff. If I can just get out of this situation alive, I will give up meat and sarcasm. Okay? Ow! That's all I got. It's pretty much my whole identity.

Saka, the meat, and sarcasm guy. But I'm willing to be Saka, the veggies and straight talk, fellow. Deal? Ang! Thank goodness! Have you got any meat? This is an episode of bitter work where Ang is first trying to learn earth-bending from Toff,

and Toff and Katara and Ang are sort of trapped in a little, like, Toff and Katara disagreeing about how to teach Ang's. So that's the A plot. Saka's entire B plot is Saka is stuck in a hole, a crevice, if you will. And there's a cute critter. You hate a crevice. I hate a crevice. There's a cute craters, but it's just like, Salk has just stuck in a crevice the entire episode.

That's it. Um, and I think about it all the time and I think it's so funny. And I'm like, it takes a really special character where your entire stories, you're just stuck in a hole by yourself. I mean, there's a little, there's a little critter, but it's a nonverbal critter. Darling, darling, darling, but like, and it's still just genuinely hilarious to me. And it kind of touched on what you're talking about where it's like, even then, and in that whole in that stuck in that crevasse he's like all i have to offer is me it means sarcasm that's all i am um but no he's so much more obviously um i saka like suki is a character that i appreciate

more every time i rewatch the show uh how he grows in the strategy his relationship with his dad everything you know his his his regret flashbacks to tidy saka all of that is just like his falling in love with ua I almost put the poetry slam from Tales of Earth Kingdom in there because Saka rhymes with Oka. I'm going to rock you. Like, it's just great stuff from our guy. Love some. Talented fellow.

Yeah. Great one. Great pick. I love that one. I'm going to go first on this next one. Again, we're going to reverse out of the border. So that I can just make way for your O2. I'm going to grab a prop.

Okay. Need them with me. Need our little. Potentially the hardest one to find an audio clip for. It's a challenge, Joanna. So I sort of kowtowed to a moment that could be more than just chittering. We're here to talk about Momo, precious Momo, who's currently sitting on Mallory's shoulder. And this is my moment from season two.

Lord Momo of the Momo dynasty, your momoness. It's hard to describe what's happening, but basically like, Ang and Sucker are like fucking around and pretending to be like nobles or whatever, and they're like wearing drapes. And Momo just like, wears this blanket as if it's this like beautiful, like robe with a train and just like walks regally by with his chin up. And it's so funny.

And there's so many silent, not even just like, chittering aside, because the chittering aside, because the chittering is often funny. Yeah. There's so many, like, just silent visual gags with Momo. You know, like a little hand reaching up to grab a piece of food or whatever it is. Like, Momo's constantly, like, doing something in the background. So bless the animators for just, like, always remembering Mo Mo Mo Mo Mo could be doing something funny.

They know who the star is. Yeah, definitely. All right. Do you want to play any Mo Mo Mo Mo Clips or just start talking about him first? What do you want? Oh, boy. Great question. Yeah, let's hear my clips.

I have two Mo Mo Mo Clips. I couldn't know myself. They're both from, again, the series finale, Susan's Comet. They're from different moments in the finale, but they're linked conceptually. Let's hear them both. Hey, Momo. I don't suppose you know what I should do.

Someone's missing from your group. Someone very important. Where's Momo? Oh, priorities in order. That, but, but. moment when he leans in, he's like, where's Momo is in the running for most important moment in the history of television TV?

I'm so sad. What this means is that I cleared out cactus juice because I was so sure you were doing cactus juice? We have an intermission coming. Okay, great. We have an intermission coming. I was like, we can't go through Saka and Mo Mo Mo

and not do cactus juice. Don't think I miss use the intermission. Okay, good. All right. Back to Mo Mo Mo. Don't think I miss the opportunity to talk about Momo outside. of the Momo section.

Great. My sweet little lemur. Yeah. What can I say about Momo? Momo is a cat. It's obvious. So, Mo Mo Mo like curled up on Saka's chest.

Yeah. Curls up for a nap, always just there. The thing that I love about Momo, I think, okay. Compose my thoughts right now. Mallors, like, don't worry, Joe.

The longest I'm going to go is for Zuko, but it might be for both. I actually like, I can't bring myself to formal coherent sentence right now because I love him so much, which is just a wild thing to be confronting in real time. Okay. I'll explain click wheel why I love Momo and then I'll talk about why I pick this moment. So I think that, again, it speaks to the deployment of MoMo that you're citing, the way that MoMo is always present, always there on a shoulder or on a chest or on a hip. there in the back of the scene,

they're nibbling on a vegetable or fruit that somebody has dropped. He is embedded into the fabric of the story. There is like a recognition in MoMA's presence of what it means to forge a bond with an animal, like to love a pet and have them love you. I think that the particular deployment of MoMo is, and I mean this is,

sincerely a historic achievement. He is, the number of times that he makes me laugh or he makes me like coo and say, oh, he's so precious. Grogo is like, oh no. Grogo was literally watching me over my shoulder, like, glaring at me. Room in my heart. I can grow my ears. My ears can be that big, too, if you need them to me.

Momo is funny. He is full of personality. He is always tracking and following genuinely what is happening. There are some moments, including in this sequence that I've selected, where someone's like, you can't really talk, but it's like, can't he? Like, he is participating in the conversation. He is participating in the quest. He always knows where he's needed emotionally or literally. I love him.

She's an icon and a legend. and a king. Except for the clip that I almost included was when Katara and Saka are sick and Ang is gone and she's trying to get water for Momo and he brings her literally everything else on the planet but water. And the best one is the last thing he does is put a crown on her head. Yeah. Maybe he knows best.

Like are we sure that Momo doesn't know best, right? Are we sure? I don't know. Are sure that she needed the crown over hydration? Maybe. Maybe. I mean, they ended up sucking on the frozen frogs and they were fucking fine. Okay?

They were fine eventually. And Momo kept him guessing and kept him laughing. He kept him alert and with it, which is really what they needed. I think that a lot of Mo Mo Mo's best moments you said, it's like hard to pick a clip. They're like the faces, the expressions, the way that whole perch, I love the way he like sleeps like with his face in the ground, his tush in the air. It's just so darling. Why did I pick what I picked? Okay, because the humor, the charm, I love it all.

This is about, I could not mean this more earnestly. I'm serious. Love and devotion. This is about like the gift of true companionship when Eng is absolutely lost, like, quite literally. No one else can find him, right? Spiritually lost, emotionally lost. He does not know what to do.

He does not know how to reconcile this conflict inside of him on the precipice of his great challenge. And there's only one member of Team Avatar who's with him on that spiritual quest, that trip to the Lion Turtle before facing down Ozai. And it's Momo. He's the one who comes to Eng to see if Ang is okay. He's the one who Ang allows,

because Ang had separated himself, had sought solitude and separated himself from the group, and Momo's the one that Ang allows to go with him. And Momo's there every minute after. And I just think like, I feel like that's what Halo would do for me. You know? And he's the one with me.

Do you wish Halo could fly and just sort of like settle on your shoulder and, you know? I think Halo's perfect the way he is. Of course, obviously. But just sort of like, what if, you know? What if Halo edition? What if Halo could fly and just like perch on your shoulder? What if Halo could get fucking smashed in the just wasted in the desert on cactus juice with Saka? It's an interesting thought experiment.

So that's my Mo Moa Pick. I think he's the best. And I love that the show loves him and loves how much he means to everybody who has had the genuine fortune of being in his presence. Okay, we shall return to Mo Mo. But let's take a brief pause from Momo before Mallory brings Momo. back into the mix. I put together the structure for this episode. We collaborate on it, but I was just sort of like, let's do characters, let's do

reverse alphabetical, let's do an intermission. Why is there an intermission here? Literally only for this reason. And it goes a little something like this. There's an old story about a secret pass right through the mountains. Is this real or a legend? Oh, it's a real legend. And it's as old as earth bending itself.

Lovers forbidden from one another. A war divides their people. And a mountain divides them apart. Carolta path to be together. Yeah, I forget the next couple lines, but then it goes. Secret tunnel, secret tunnel through the mountains. Secret, secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel. You know Mallory Rubin.

I mean, I was like, there's no way I can do top-dead moments without doing Secret Tunnel. As you know, I love a musical moment. You do. You love an Ocean Vista. You love a musical moment. You hate a crevice. I hate a crevice. It's canon.

As you and I were discussing this a couple days ago when we were talking about things we love about Avatar. And something we agreed is we were like, we wish there were more songs. We wish the songs were longer. Like there's a, you know, like, Iro sings a couple different jams. These freaking hippies that they meet. And also, I just love, like, I love when they meet the hippies or when they meet the, like, swamp hicks or like, you know, just like all the like sort of modern-esque characters

that are sort of woven into this world. But I love these fucking hippies. I love the other song that they sing in this episode when they're in the going through the tunnels. I love how much Saka hates them. It's just, and this is just like an all-time banger. Just an incredible song. Secret Tunnel.

Great pick. It's why the intermission exists. Okay. Why don't you sing us a few bars? Nope. All right. Wow. Not taking the, not today, Rubin.

Not taking the bait. All right. The streak ends here. We got de club. We got chewy impression. We got, we were on a, we were on a, for a while there. Two lovers.

There we go. For bidding from one another. A war divides their people. Fabulous. You're welcome. Stornin. A stornin. I sound probably deeply up key.

One should not sing with headphones on. That's why in all the music videos, they've got one off their ears so that they can hear themselves in their off key. So don't sing with the cans on your. You're on your ear. Okay. Intermission for Mallory Rubin. Let me quickly say before we get to my intermission, I need to.

I can't move forward. I didn't save my momo smuggle. I'll keep it to 10 seconds. My Momo smuggle, which I can't believe I forgot to mention, was Momo searching for Hapa, which again, that's one of my smuggles from that Oppas Law Stay stretch. Too painful for me to actually make my pick. But again, devotion. Moma was out there on the streets trying to find Appa

getting down into the paw print. Looking for his pal, beautiful moment. Okay. I also almost picked, we should say, Dee Bradley Baker, who voices both Appa and Momo is an absolute, you know, king of voice acting. I almost picked the dream sequence where like Appa and Momo talked to each other,

but it felt like a cheat. But I was like, well, that would make a clip. Anyway, which of your intermission? Okay. Do you want to keep talking about Mama? Both of my intermission, I picked two. I couldn't help it. I'm sorry.

Both of them involves Saka. One of them involves Momo. We're on Momo. Let's maybe start with that one. And then we can do my second one. Is there any more water? This is the last of it. Everyone can have a little drink.

Mallory has done an impression in this moment, like, no fewer than five times the last like two weeks. You killed us all! This is a dude. I think genuinely iconic stretch of the show. Saka and Momo are high out of their minds. Zooted. Absolutely. On cactus juice.

They went for the refreshment when everyone else was parched. They made a bold decision. Did it pay off? I think that depends on how you personally relate to recreational drug use of whether you think this was a good way to make it through the desert. I think it looks like they had a great time. Katara literally like slapped the cactus out of top pan. She's like, no, we're not doing that.

Can you imagine Tara having to, if all three of them were suited out of their mind? Oh, man. This is just so funny to me. The way, the thing of, of course, you can't hear in the clip, is Momo just diving, diving like an Olympian.

Their pupils have swallowed their eyes entirely. This absolutely kills me. Also, as they continue to drag Soca behind them, He has a firm hold on Momo's tail and is driving Momo through this guy. I have only, either one or two, I've only ever seen one or two cameos as gifts from people. And one of them was Jack DeSina, who voices Saka. I have a cameo from him where he talks about cactus juice. And it's just like one of my dearest possession.

That actually sounds really, really special. Very special to me. Let's now hear my second intermission pick, which is, and I know I've said about a few other things. This is one of my favorite moments in the show. And that was true when I said it in real time. There are two actual favorite moments. One of them is coming later and one of them is this. This is actually genuinely one of my two favorite moments in the entire show.

And so I had to put it here. Let's hear it. I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us? That's hard. It wasn't that hard. Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?

Well, I did have a girlfriend. May. That gloomy girl who sighs a lot? Yeah. Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it. My first girlfriend turned into the moon. That's rough, buddy.

There it is. That's rough, buddy. My first girlfriend turned into the moon. That's rough. Rough Buddy. That's Rough Buddy is my single favorite moment in the show, I think. If I had to pick, like, the top five most famous Avatar Last Air Bender moments, it's That's Rough Buddy, Secret Tuttle's on there, Yip Yep, Yip is on there. And I don't know, there are two others, I'm sure. But, like, that's Rough Buddy is like, I'm so glad.

Definitely the thing I quote the most without question from the show. I'm so glad you put this on here. Neither of us were willing to pick that for our soccer or Zico moment. But it had to be here. Smuggled it on intermission. All right, coming out of intermission. full of cactus juice, your girlfriend's turned into the moon and secret tunnels. We are headed to my babe, Katara. I love Katara. May Whitman, another voice acting queen. Katara is it tough?

It would be so easy for Katara to be like a bit of a drag, a bit of a drip. Like there's like so many ways this character could have gone wrong. But May Whitman just infuses her and the animators infuse her. and views her with so much like, there's the compassion, there's the emotion, there's the caricature that's in the Ember Island players' version of Katara. And then there's like

the real girl Katara who like flirts with Jet and you know, gets mad at Toff and like all the things that she does that are so real and human gets dazzled by a fortune teller. Like all the

things that Katara does that are so human and real. And then she's Who among us? And then she's crazy powerful. Speaking of which, let's just go ahead and play my guitar moment. Don't hurt your friends,

Katara. And don't let them hurt each other. You're going to be locked away forever. My work is done. Congratulations, Katara. You're a bloodbender. Okay, iconic voice acting work from that woman as well. Katar can fucking bloodbend and it is so scary.

And she does it again later when she's a Zuku on her little vengeance mission before she figures out that that's the wrong guy. She's been bloodbending the wrong guy. But bloodbending is so scary. And Qatar doesn't care. It's just not what you want to have happen. But Katar doesn't hear to protect Eng and things. Saka, who have been, like, you know, manipulated to sort of, on a crash collision course of death with

each other, and this is all she can do to stop it is to bloodbend the woman who is controlling them. And we have, like, met her as a healer, as a gentle, like, all this sort of stuff. And then she fucking bloodbends. And it's so cool and so scary. And she's so powerful. And I just love Katara. It looks banging in a Fire Nation fit. just is she is that girl.

She's that babe. Power ranking of the Katara ships. Zuko, Ang, Haru, Jet. Give me your power ranking. I don't love Jet. I'm not like a big Jet fan. So I would actually go Zuko Haruang Jet is my ranking. Zuko number one, obviously.

Zuko, my... It's Zucco by a comfortable margin. And then I also have Haru at number two. Yeah. Yeah. I was so glad when we would... got the little shout out like at the very end like we did from top like did you do it thing i was like thank you we were all thinking it great stuff similarly and the ember island

players speaking of jet when they like talk about did jet die i don't know that was really unclear of jet guitara guitar a character i love as well i am really glad that that was the moment you picked I, that was my runner up. I had a lot, I have a lot of smuggles for guitar. I had a lot of contenders for guitar. That was one of the ones I was most drawn to picking, bloodbending, as you referenced, the pursuit of her mother's killer on the side quest with Zuko was something I was considering. It was strongly considering the season two finale, Zuko Katara moment, as you know,

which you know I love when this guy who has been hunting them. She offers to heal. Like, what an incredible moment for her character. and of course then the like bitter resentment that she carries as he is trying to work his way back into their good graces. But I didn't pick any of that. This is my second moment, my only other moment, from season one.

Let's hear it. Are you crazy, Katara? You're not going to win this fight. I know. I don't care. You don't have to do this for me. I can find another teacher. I'm not doing it for you.

Someone needs to slap some sense into that guy. So you decided to show up. Aren't you going to fight? Go back to the healing huts with the other women where you belong. Fine. You want to learn to fight so bad? Study closely. Don't worry.

I'm not going to hurt you. Go Katara. You can't knock me down. I fucking love the scene. Talk. Look for grand pramp. I have some learning. and growing to do.

We never stop learning and growing, as says Paku. This is from the water bending master, season one, episode 18. And this is just an incredible moment for Katara

and an incredible embrace of everything that the show cares about and thinks about, but also like when we were talking earlier about the shared journey

and the individual journey, I really think of this moment for Katara as like emblematic of, of how I think about the show's ability to navigate that balance because so much, I mean, so much of the show, but certainly so much of season one is, like,

oriented around Aang and his quest. And, of course, one of the cool tricks of the show is that every pursuit of some great master to teach Aang Bending ends up with one of the other kids as his instructor. And, like, they have to get to the point where they either think they could be trusted with that, or are worthy of that or are capable of that. And Qatar is a prodigy.

Katara, the last waterbender from the Southern Water tribe, Katara who has this like grief and loss losing her mother when she was young. This, I love when the coat of their father is back in their lives. And instead of just being purely happy and grateful, Katara is like, how could you leave? There's so much richness there. She's such a rewarding and nuanced and. layered character. And this scene is incredible because she kicks ass, and that's awesome, and fuck the patriarchy. Like, all of that, yes. But you can't knock me down. Like, there are a lot

of shows where your mission is to help the other character, to help the chosen one, get where they need to be. And you never get a chance to say something like that out loud. Like, you never get a chance to be the one who proves that to yourself and to other people. And Katara does. And it's, awesome. And so it's like so affirming for her and for all of us who are invested in her to see that. And that's the beauty of three seasons of nearly 20 episodes in each season, give or take, a few episodes. Room to Breathe and room for all of these characters to have their own moments and journeys. It's not just like one mission focused, our hero focused, et cetera. Like all the characters feel like, it feels like a true ensemble because of moments like this,

because of the bloodbending moments later. And what I love about Katara, too, is that we always see her. She's always training. She's always curious. She's always working to grow stronger and better at what she does. And I just love her. She's so powerful. She fucking bloodbends.

She's a badass. All right. Next on the list, someone we've spent a lot of time with. I feel so confident that we have the exact same clip. I don't know how it could be anything else. Right? Get your tear bending ready. Here we are for Uncle Iro. Happy birthday, my son. If only I could have helped you. Leaves from the vine falling so slow like frazzled tiny shells drifting in the form. Little soldier boy

Come marching home Brave soldier boy Comes marching home I have chills So you know Mako as we said passed away before he did season three So this is like you know one of the last things like he did Imagine

doing one of the most powerful best things ever, like right at the end of your life, this incredible performance. Uncle Iro lost his son in the siege of Basingse, and is singing a song to him to celebrate his birthday, season two. It is devastating, a devastating, beautiful. I cry every time I hear this song moment.

I'm so sorry if you were listening on like operating heavy machinery listening this podcast and we just like blindsided you with Lees from the Vine. I'm so sorry. But we got to be who we are. So yeah. Anything else you want to say about? It had to be this. This is actually genuinely my favorite woman in the show.

And I think a lot of people feel that way about it. It is so beautiful. This is from season two, episode 14, The Tales of Bosting Say, which is in a great. incredible episode. It's the series of vignettes, this time, everyone is here. What are they doing? What are their days like? And I think, I mean, this obviously is the moment. It's the hammer moment of the series in many ways. But everything in Uncle Iro's vignette that leads up to it is gorgeous. He helps at the shop with the moonflower. He sings to the little kid, this song. Like, think of what this song must mean to him if he is singing this to, um,

honor his son, and he gives that to another family. He guides the little soccer benders, right? It gives them some wisdom. He stops to help the, the would-be thief think about the choices that he's making. This is a great moment because he says to him, while it's always best to believe in oneself, a little help from others can be a great blessing, which is such an important, this is the other buttress to what he keeps telling Zuko about needing to be able to find that inner strength and that hope inside of yourself. Like this is that acknowledgement that, yeah,

it's best to believe in yourself, but you have to have help too. Very similar to that season two tough advice as well. Yeah. Exactly. And like the fact that we build toward this moment where he is grieving his charge, child who he has lost,

and then we think about everything we just saw where this is one of the saddest days of his life. This is his dead son's birthday. And he spends every minute of his day until that sunset sharing his generosity with other people. What a beautiful portrait of a beautiful soul. And that's just who his character is.

He's just like constantly giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, to have this private window into his grief into this moment that he needs to take for himself to, I mean, but also it's for his son to celebrate his son because he's direct addresses him in the moment. Iro also something to love, I mean, he's so level. He's so easy to love. So lovable. But one of the best running bits is how often people underestimate him. This is the Dragon of the West. He could breathe fire. There's a great season three body transformation that he does in prison. Incredible moment. He got shredded. But people call him like, yeah, people call him fat and old and lazy and like all this stuff and a fool. And he is the most emotionally intelligent, an incredibly proficient fighter. But that's not what's important to him. He'd rather have a cup of tea and like have music night on the boat with you and like whatever it is. He knows he's got his prayer. He's absolutely in order.

Like, he gets it. He's figured it out. It's such a great point because, like, I think that is the thing, the kindness, the compassion. The thing that I love most about him is that he is a character who has come to understand what is important because of what he lost. And the fact that, like, we learn, you know, his son's death, you mentioned the siege of Basing Say, like, this is considered IRO's great failure, this failed siege. And to think of, like, how those things are linked, right?

his son falling at that moment. And then everything that we can glean about how that transformed his life, right? How that transformed what he thought was important. When he says, if only I could have helped you, I mean, it's absolutely agonizing. But it also just tells us everything we need to know about why he's trying so hard to help Zucco. You know, and then we think back to like a moment toward the end of season one where he tells Zucco after Zhao's attack that he thinks of him as his own and has ever since he lost his son. Like the way that all of those stitches together. And then, you know, just the music, the song is

beautiful. The tears streaming down Irosace are beautiful. The setting is beautiful. When we just hear those chords even before the lyrics, I mean, it is like, it's so supremely moving. It is beautiful. That is something I haven't said yet. But Jeremy Zuckerman, who composed the music for, I mean, just the score outside of like the fun little like ditties that are here and there. And I think he can, I could be wrong. It might, they might have gotten someone else to compose the actual songs. But, but the score, like the Avatar love theme, you know, the opening theme. There's just like, it's a, he's a beautiful composer.

He did incredible work on Cora as well. Just like he's, he's a huge part of the show, why it works. All right, we're in the final three. We're in all A's in reverse alphabet, Or it's just A's all the way down from here. Number three. Azula. We're staying in Fire Nation with Azula.

I love the way that Ira says her name. Like, Atzula. Azula, who we only meet at the very end of season one, but is then a fixture of our hearts. And with love and respect to May and Tiley, I'm so sorry, they're not here. We didn't have time for them, but they're here in spirit. I love them so much. What do you want to say? about Azula.

Our favorite maniac. Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, man. Truly, truly, truly, truly deranged character. One of the things I love about Azula is that so often, until the end game, Azula is on it. Azula is a head.

Azula is right. Azula has the read of the board and the room and has outwitted and outsmarted people. It's not just that Azula is unhinged or cruel or in pursuit of power. It's that she's better at doing it than everybody else. And so that really heightens how much we fear her. She's incredibly entertaining. There are a lot of moments that we could have picked. We could have the same one.

You could be shocked by my pick. I don't know. Let's find out. Okay, I'm going to go with mine first. just because it reflects to me the most relatable Azula moment because who among us haven't cut our own banks in a moment? This is tough. All right, hair, it's time to face your doom.

What a shame. You always had such beautiful hair. What are you doing here? I didn't want to miss my own daughter's coronation. Don't pretend to act. I know what you really think of me. You think I'm a monster. I think you're confused.

All your life you've used fear to control people, like your friends May and Tiley. Well, what choice do I have? Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way. Even you fear me. No, I love you, Azula. I do.

Yeah, so Azula, an absolute psychopath the whole time, really unraveling here. Cut of your own bangs, unevenly. My poor girl. It's a real girlhood moment for her. And in case you aren't familiar with the show, the other voice was the voice of her dead mother. So she's imagining her mother there with her. And not, I'm sorry, her absent mother.

She's imagining her mother there with her. And the fact that, like, in her imagination there's this, like, unrelenting compassion, but she can't receive it. is even more tragic to me than like if her actual mother had been there offering these words. Like she can imagine her mother saying it and it's still like she can't believe. Like she came up with it and she can't believe it and she can't absorb it. Like Logan Roy, I would lay a lot of Azula's behavior at those size of feet. You think he ever said to Zula and Zuka, you're not serious people? People? Yeah, I bet he did. Oh, I bet he did.

Yeah, she can lightning bend from the jump. She's so scary. She's so hot. Incredible voice acting performance. Like, odd, bizarre choices in line deliveries and all of them iconic. Yeah. Keeps you on your toes. Yeah. For sure. Great pick. That's a great clip. The way that Azula unravels at the end is actually, on the one hand, we've been I'm reading for it the whole time. And on the other hand, it is actually shocking to witness. That's a, that's a great thing.

Someone who's been like so perfect and so together the whole time. You ready for your clip? Let's do it. Those boys won't leave me alone. I guess they all just like me too much. Come on, Tiley. You can't be this ignorant. What are you talking about?

Those boys only like you because you make it so easy for them. You're not a challenge. You're a tease. It's not like they actually care who you are. Okay. Hey, calm down. I didn't mean what I said. Look, maybe I just said it because I was a little jealous. You're jealous of me? But you're the most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world. Well, you're right about all those things. But for some reason, when I meet boys, they act as if I'm going to do something horrible to them.

But you probably would do something horrible to them. Oh, my God. I love her. I love that episode. I'm so bad it's represented here. I had to have Season 3, Episode 5 The Beach on my list. It's like an episode of the O.C. Essentially.

Yeah. Empire Island, here we come. This is genuinely a this is just kids being kids for an episode, right? The battle for the future

and the soul, the four nations, let's all go hang out at the beach house. And it's incredible. It's like this brief respite, this momentary return to normalcy to the extent that any of the characters can allow themselves to lean into the idea of normalcy for even an instant. I picked this because I think

this contains every aspect of Zoola that we expect to see and then one that we are very rarely allowed to glimpse. And that's why I love that brew so much to use along with Meaty, my second most frequently used word. Brew. hilarity is on display here. Like, well, you're right about how you're right about that is iconic and hilarious. And just exceptional. It's like chef's kiss. Brilliant.

Her cruelty is on display here. Tiley, I do feel sad that I got Tiley in here, but not May. I feel bummed about that. Shout out. May was referenced. May was referenced in the intermission. Zucco talks about her. Yeah.

This is an unbelievably fucked up thing to say to one of your two closest friends. Somebody who you pulled out of her preferred and chosen life to stick to your side. And then we get mixed with the humor and the cruelty, the viciousness, this incredibly rare. Yeah. Vulnerability. little bit of vulnerability and humanity and insecurity. And this winds up being, our clips I think work really well together because this winds up being such a central thing to have understood about her before we witness her downfall. What happens when somebody who doesn't think they need anyone else or that anyone else is worthy of them pushes everyone in their life away?

They wither. They cut their own banks simply. They win on so does the hair do. Bottom of the barrel, cutting their own bangs. I've done it. I've done it. It's not a great look. Yeah.

I love that you picked this. This is so good. Yeah, and shout out May and Tiley. I love the episode where Azula grabs them from their lives. And May willing, happy to go because she's so bored at Omaschoo. But Tiley genuinely having the time of her. Life of the Circus. Loves the circus.

It's so funny. Azulia maniac. All right. Final two. Yeah. Some might say two of the most important characters in the entire show. At least one of them is, and it may not be the one you think. Oh, boy.

We heard about Momo. We haven't heard about OPA. Yep, yep. Yep, yep. Do you want to go first? Love APA. I think Alpha's great. I love APA.

I don't necessarily have the same completely unhinged speech prepared. Obviously that one was not prepared either, real off the cuff stuff. I think APA is an absolute gemstone and a jewel. Appa, like Momo, is present in every key sequence. I have picked a moment where Appa is separate or from an episode where Appa is separate

because that separation is a source of such anguish for us and the characters that it helps to, not that we needed it codified, but it helps to cement a thing that we knew to be true, which is, Apa is a part of this family. APA is a part of the soul and heartbeat of Team Avatar. And so I have picked a moment, perhaps unsurprisingly, though it pains me to revisit this sequence,

as previously mentioned on this very podcast. A moment from season two episode 15, Appa's lost days, but I did not pick a moment because it's too painful. Have I mentioned that? From his present day circumstance. I picked a flashback moment that we got inside of that stretch

Joanna would you please play my clip choose well a sky bison is a companion for life

I guess this means we'll always be together I'm weeping okay so there are a couple reasons I picked this one let's just

say it and get it down on the record the thing you can't hear is a championship caliber win for team red apple at the moment every ounce of restraint and willpower I had to not text you about this 500 times over the last week and a half and wait till this podcast to mention this they find each other via preferred red apple this is part of. of the wand choosing the wizard and the wizard choosing the wand. This is part of the Sky Bison, Airbender, Dragon Rider moment. Red Apple, what a time. Love it. It's so cute to see this flashback

and to see Baby Ang and Baby Appa. And yes, sure, a century passed while they were frozen in the ice. But this reminds us in a moment where they are apart and it's painting them to be a part, how their lives really started together. Their experience started together. And we think about how much they have been through that we have gotten to watch, but then we think about how much they shared even before that. And then this idea that they are lifelong companions, that they are one being in some respects.

Like, Appa isn't literally Aang's demons. the way that like pan is liars, but there's like a quality to it, right? Where they have forged, you know. Yeah. Should we get, should we get, should we get, should we get a airbed hair? Head turtips? Hmm. Maybe not like, on our heads, but like, I don't know. The list of matching, the list of matching tattoos is growing longer by the day.

I'm not moving off the, the seat does not like to be restricted. Yeah, I agree. I think it makes sense for us. We both want a wave. We do. What I think, what I think is. is that the waves should look different. They will.

I think we would pick different style waves. Yeah, because you like your minimalist, and I like the big, broad, colorful strokes. Yeah, I love it. Okay. My clip for Apa. Yeah. My clip is also from Appa's last days.

But this is the triumphant return. This is the gang is cornered, looks bad for them. Momo starts chittering excitedly, takes off into the sky. And out of nowhere, out of the clear blue nothing, clear blue yonder, if you prefer, comes Appa to save the day. So you're going to hear a lot of growling and wishing and that's what you're hearing.

And then there's some, don't worry, there are some words in this clip. Okay. I can handle you by myself. I missed you, buddy. It's the way Ang says, I missed you, but he's just like launched himself onto Appa's like head. So, sweet. He's like,

Missed you, buddy. He's just, like, sinking into his fur. And Opa, like,

you know, grunts and growls in response of very much, like, I missed you, too. Weeping,

sobbing, absolutely. But also, right before that, Opa comes down, this guy's like, I can hit you, blah.

And then he just, like, bats that guy into the ocean with his tail, and he, like, skips like a stone

out into the water. It's so good. Great pick. Beautiful. Appa, um, It makes sense to me, as painful as it is for them to be separated from APA, it makes sense in a way for them to be grounded during the Earth season, right? They are stuck.

They're stranded on the ground on the air season, and they're stranded on the ground in the air season, and they have to figure it out on their feet. But this is something not, I mean, set your watches by it. I'm about to reference the television series lost. Maybe I have a hook. Daniel Day Kim is in the new Avatar series, Ozai. I can't wait. Takes his shirt off at one point. It's great.

Okay. I should hope so. I mean, Ozi is like, canonically, I'm taking my shirt off character. I just want everyone to, like, remember how old Daniel Dikim is when you see him take off his shirt and just like ask yourself how. Okay. The idea of separation and reunion, which is something that Lost played like a fiddle all the time. So, like, you can't, you can't really feel how tight that. bond and tight that connection is until you like stretch it apart, not to the breaking point,

but just keep those two apart for so long. Painful, horrible, awful, devastating. And then they snap back together and you're like, never to be parted again, never ever to be parted again. And certainly never to be taken for granted, like what they mean to each other. Yeah. Also, how convenient was to have an airbus. Maybe everyone will just, Saka, maybe you'll remember that more when you complain about how Appa smells. Can't Appa go any faster? I also like when Opah is like sleepy in the sky

and can't keep going and it's just sort of like slowly defendants. Sad. I just want to snuggle up against one of his paws. There are so many great Apahos. That's a wonderful pick. I'm glad you picked that one.

Did you have like other real contenders? The one I was most like, dare I pick this? I love when he licks Zuko. Like, he's the first to recognize that Zucco has really transformed and changed. And of course, it's literally because Zuko sprung him, right? Apa is recalling what Zuko did for him. But it also gives us that, like, animal intuition.

You know, your pets know sometimes before you do and can see something true inside of someone. I love that moment. That's great. Last one on least, we come to the. the titular avatar. On the out of him, if you're in the M. Night Chomalan movie, you might say Ong.

We say Ang, because we know what the fuck we're talking about. Ang is maybe not the most interesting character inside his own story. But I still absolutely love him. And that blend of like goofiness and seriousness and how much growth we do see from him.

He doesn't deserve Katara, but he deserves nice things. Zuko and Katara, we ship it. One of our listeners was pointing out that if we, like, don't support Ang and Katara, then we're killing Tenzin. Because Tenzin is their kid, and then Tenzin wouldn't exist. And I'm like, no, Tenzin wouldn't find a way anyway. Tenzin and Boomy, they would all find a way. We'd all be there.

Okay. I'm just going to go ahead and my clip is from the literal series finale. I don't know if your clip is. Mine's not. Because I had multiple other series finale clips. But also I have another one that I'm really fond of. So I'm excited to hear yours. Okay.

This is just like literally the end result of the final battle. Ang has been agonizing over. He does not want to kill Ozai, but how does he stop Ozai? He does not want to be a murderer. Bear in mind that like they definitely murder a ton of people as they make their way to this end, final destination. This is classic Batman. Man-ship. Like, I don't know.

I'm not killing anyone. Like, wait, you're not? All the people that you dropped from Great Heights? Do you think they were fine? So, murdered a bunch of random soldiers, but does not want to murder Daddy O's eye. It's feeling very conflicted about it. So it comes up with this other, this is the other solution. So this is just the end of the final battle between, which is an all-timer, like, incredible action sequence.

Unbelievable. Just incredible. arresting and astonishing. To bend an old spirit must be unbendable destroy. What did you do to me? I took away your firebending. You can't use it to hurt or threaten

anyone else ever again. Once again, shout out the score. Incredible stuff. Also visually, again, this is a real visual moment because you're seeing like beams of light coming out of eye sockets and mouths and stuff like that. And also the, this idea that like he's almost full

devoured by the bad light and then, you know, the blue light of goodness shines back through and we win. And Mark Hamill can never firebend again or hurt anyone. That is Mark Campbell's voices, Firelord Ozai, because you didn't know. Ang, he found a way and he got the girl, even though we didn't want it. Even though he shouldn't have. You ready for one of my hot takes on the series? Yeah.

this is a crueler thing to do to someone than killing them. I know, it's kind of funny. Now, it is the thing that Fire Lord Ozai deserves. Yeah. Without question. Sorry, King at this point. But in terms of Aang reconciling his inner conflict, robbing somebody of the source of their identity is, I would say something that you'd want to, like, work through too. I've always found this to be a fascinating choice.

I think it's an incredible scene. Great thing. One of the best series finale is of all time. It's perfect. It's perfect. Perfect. Should we hear your clip? Yeah. Mine is from the end of season two. Not the end of season three. Let's hear it. The thought chakra is located at the crown of the head. It deals with pure cosmic energy and is blocked by earthly attachment. Meditate on what attaches you to this world. Let all of those attachments go.

Let them flow down the river, forgotten. What? Why would I let go of Katara? I... I love her. Learn to let her go. Or you cannot let the pure cosmic energy flow in from the universe. Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara? How could it be a bad thing that I feel an attachment to her? Three chakras ago, that was a good thing.

You must learn to let go. Have we mentioned yet that Dave Faloni worked on this show? Can you tell? I have picked the Star Wars moment. Yes, of course. That's what I have done. Perhaps unsurprisingly. This is from season two, episode 18,

which is the two-part of the guru and the crossroads of destiny. This is from the guru. This is such a Star Wars-coded sequence for Aang. of course, this idea that we hear in this clip of attachment, the teacher seeing it as a risk, a thing to be avoided, a warning to be heated, the chosen one seeing it as the tether, the necessity, the heart of it all,

the reason to do it in the first place. What we're not hearing in the clip, but the ensuing sequence is that as Eng enters this state again, he sees this vision of Katara in peril, we just get Degaba. Like we get, Luke deciding to leave to go save Hanalea,

Ang deciding to flee, to go save his friend, embracing that attachment rather than feeling like he has to reject it. Now, Eng has a journey with this. I love what that tells us about Ang in that moment, right? but I love that it's not simple and tidy. It's something that he has to really weigh and grapple with from this point onward and assess,

like, will I be able to be the thing that the world needs me to be? And as Ang is seeking to understand how to pursue that final quest in the clip you picked and what choices he is prepared to make, what feels right to him, what kind of avatar, but also what kind of person he wants to be, like a moment like this is so central. to Eng, who is trying to understand what everyone else needs from him, figuring out who he has to be for himself

and for the people that he loves. And we get elsewhere in the four-part finale, like one of the sequences that leads up to the moment you picked when Ang is on the Lion Turtle Island with Shoutout Moma once again, had to mention him one more time. And he's talking about this idea like this. He's going into the Spirit State to commune with Avatar after Avatar, basically just looking for the answer

that he wants, right? He's looking for some confirmation bias. Not feeling what Kyoshi is offering up, right? He's got to keep looking. And he ends up chatting with Avatar Yang Chen. The lesson from the Monk Sang says is that he had to detach himself. And what he hears in return here in response is, but the avatar can never do it because your sole duty is to the world. And so he finds this like permission in essence, but also this clarity that he needed. The thing I want to be connected to the world, to be connected to people around me, isn't actually in conflict with the thing I'm trying to be and the person that I'm trying to become. It's what that can unlock that for me. And so that moment with the guru and

Ang and Katara builds toward this final breakthrough coming out of the lion turtle stretch, the tap on the forehead, moving toward that showdown with Ozai. And it's a little bit of It makes us love Ang, it makes me love Ang as a person, not just as the avatar, not just as a weapon, not just as a great hope for somebody else. But as a being who cares and loves and do we wish Qatar ended up with a go? We do. And that's okay. But it is important for Ang to want these things. That's the triumph of Ang is like how much of a kid he is, how much of a human he is.

Flamio hot man. Like, come on. He's just like, it's just a kid. Great stuff. Before we go, I want to mention one PS to the Golden Trio episode that we did. Was that this week? It's been a long week. Yeah.

Was that this week? I think it was Monday. Wasn't it? But it's only Thursday. That was four days ago? I can't believe it. Nine pods ago? I don't know.

Holy shit. Our pal Daphne reached out to me on this subject. Then we got a great email about it. In addition to the Golden Trio, there's a grouping trope called the five-band, the five-man band. And I'm just going to quickly buzz through this and we're going to be done for the day. These are the members of the five-man banned. This email comes from JJ. Number one, leader.

Number one, leader protagonist's hero, the central hero of the story who has to embark on the hero's journey, and is the central focus of the plot and the central viewpoint of the audience. Ang. Number two, the lancor, the literary foil of the hero protagonist who also provides a secondary reflection point for the other characters outside the protagonist. Zuko. The heart, the emotional center of the group and story, the caretaker, the peacekeeper, and moderator of the story. oftentimes they are the moral compass of the group and have the strongest sense of right and wrong. Katara.

The smart guy, the man with the plan, the strategist, the thinker, the brains, the one prepared for any situation, even if it will never come up, or if their preparedness is useless. Oftentimes the one with less physical power, but the one essential to the group success. Saka.

Last one on least, the big guy. The powerhouse, the one to us do the impossible physically, the one who holds the line, the strong one, the one in charge of the heavy lifting, the only thing they don't carry. is the plot tough. There it is. Let's get my mom and op-a in there and then I'm with it.

So this has been our love letter to the characters in the world of Avatar, the Last Air Bender. We absolutely love a perfect show. And we look forward to with hope and maybe a kernel of trepidation to the Netflix adaptation to see how it fits in our understanding of this story. Mal, anything else you want to say about this world? About Mo Mo. I had just an absolutely wonderful time talking about this with you. This made me really happy. I loved it.

And I can't wait to keep hopefully talking about it in a positive way. Enjoyed about it soon. We'll see. But this was a thrill, truly. Thank you. Thanks to Momo, always. Thanks to Momo. Thanks to Molly Rubin.

Thanks to Carla Sherry. Thank you, Arjuna Raqapal, thanks to Jomey Adirond. Thanks to anyone else. You might have helped us with this episode. Who's to say? Zatara for Life, we will see you soon. Bye!