Avatar: The Last Airbender – Page 3 – Enneagram and Encaustic

The Avatar State

I have one early complaint, detailed below, but mostly this is a great season opener. Questions are answered that may have dragged down future episodes. We have a clean slate now.

ONE

Fog. A dream. Aang sees himself in his first Avatar State at the Southern Air Temple. Avi Aang attacks Dream Aang. Now the Ocean Spirit Aang attacks him. He startles awake. They’re still at the Northern Water Kingdom.

TWO

Master Poku gives Katara a parting gift, a water-filled amulet from the spirit oasis. He gifts Aang a box of water bending scrolls. And for Sokka? A pat on the shoulder, lol. Our team leaves on Appa. Eventually, Aang will learn earth bending from King Bumi. They must stop first at another Earth Kingdom destination.

Iroh, after three weeks floating on a piece of driftwood, gets a massage. Meanwhile, Zuko recognizes that it’s his three year banishment anniversary. “I want it all back,” he says.

THREE

A Fire Nation ship. Everyone onboard bows as a canopied chair is carried forward. Azula steps out. (That grating voice!) She gives a speech about the shame that’s been brought on the royal family. When the captain tells her they can’t dock until the tides turn, she terrorizes him.

Book One: Water

Now that the first season of Avatar has been Enneagram reviewed, let’s look at the entire arc.

ONE

The first episode is basically the season’s One. It’s so funny to think of a time when I knew nothing about bending or the Avatar cycle. The showrunners did a good job establishing everything clearly, and our three characters are distinct and engaging. And Appa! Don’t forget our good boi! Because the believability of the Avatar is so strong, I forget how easy they made the worldbuilding of this IP look.

TWO

And episode two is basically the season’s Two. The Avatar has been missing for one hundred years, leaving the world vulnerable to the Fire Nation. Aang is now ready to tackle his destiny, go North and learn the other bending disciplines, but . . . first there’s a laundry list of distractions. Also in this section is a Zuko vs. Aang battle. How these guys will manage their relationship is definitely part of the Trouble.

THREE

The world has two Air Temples. At the Three they visit the Southern one. Aang confronts a lot of pain here, and in Zuko’s storyline Commander Zhao is introduced and even battles an agni kai against him. Everyone’s wounds are here, and the Air Temple is the visual.

The Siege of the North

As with the two episodes that began this season, these last two episodes should be looked at as one overarching Enneagram. Since they have the same title, let’s roll them into one post rather than break them apart. They mesh very nicely. Good structure when they’re looked at holistically.

PART ONE

ONE

We’re in the very shiny and beautiful Northern Water Kingdom. Dueling in Master Pakku’s class, Katara defeats everyone else and wins Pakku’s praise. Cut to Aang, kicked back in class, who bends snow onto himself, becoming a snowman. Serious vs. Silly.

TWO

Sokka takes Yue for a glorious ride on Appa. Just as they’re about to kiss, ash starts raining around them. Back at class, Aang stops his antics to notice the falling soot mixing with snow. From his vantage point on Appa, Sokka looks out and sees the armada. Fire Nation, a lot of them.

At the flagship, Admiral Zhao brags to Iroh of his great upcoming victory. He also tosses in a dig about Iroh’s loss at Ba Sing Se. As magnanimous as always, Iroh takes the hit, then finds Zuko and tells him to be ready.

The Water City rings the alarm. As Sokka parts from Yue, she says she can’t see him anymore. She likes him too much, and she has her duty to her people.

THREE

The Water Tribe Elder gives his speech to the troops, calling on the spirits of Ocean and Moon to assist them.

The Waterbending Master

Sound storytelling structure. I have only one critique at the end of the breakdown.

ONE

The team flies on a very tired Appa, who can barely keep out of the icy ocean below them. Just as they say they can’t find the Northern Water Tribe, spikes of ice knock them into the water and boats surround them.

TWO

Admiral Zhao knows where the Avatar is headed. This is no little Earth Village, he says. He’ll need a massive invasion force for the Northern Water Kingdom.

Water benders escort our team on Appa into their city. Thick ice walls and multiple gates, removed by bending, surround the compound. It’s a stunning place: canals, decorative bridges, tiers of buildings, all made of ice and compacted snow.

THREE

Sokka notices a beautiful, white-haired young woman in a gondola.

The Northern Air Temple

This is a tricky episode.

ONE

Our team listens to a tale told around a campfire. It’s about “airwalkers”, people who laugh at gravity. Aang loves this. It’s an air bender story! The bard passes around a hat for tips.

TWO

Aang mentions that this story describes events from a hundred years ago. Nope, just last week, the bard says.

THREE

Appa flies the team up to the Air Temple. As they fly, Sokka carves a piece of wood, although we don’t know what the sculpture is.

The Deserter

ONE

The team is at a crossroads kiosk. A nearby village advertizes a Fire Nation festival.

TWO

On the backside of the board are wanted posters. The most prominent is of Aang, but he isn’t worried. The festival seems a great opportunity for him to find a fire bending teacher. They’ll attend and wear disguises.

THREE

Another wanted poster is of the Blue Spirit. That’s a fun detail. We get a push-in, though, on the third wanted poster: an unknown person with two vertical scars running through his eye area.

Bato of the Water Tribe

ONE

We’re near some body of water, and our team finds a whale tooth knife. Sokka has a memory of such a weapon.

TWO

It’s a Water Tribe knife. He starts tracking. At the shore they find a boat. It’s one of ours — Dad was here!

Meanwhile, Iroh is having tea with Zuko. A peaceful moment. Crash! A beast, a shirshu named Nyla, and her handler, June, seek a stowaway on Zuko’s ship. To Zuko’s surprise he is actually harboring someone. Nyla’s tongue whips out and paralyzes the man.

Back at camp, Appa and the team sleep.

THREE

Sokka has a memory of when he was probably ten years old as he says goodbye to his father. He’s crying, he wants to go with them, but he’s too young.

The Fortune-Teller

ONE

Typical One: where is our team camping? We have a lake with fish.

TWO

However, Sokka can catch nothing because Aang has taken the fishing line and used it to weave a necklace for Katara. The lack of line is not the Two; survival is not the point of this episode. It’s the lovey gift, unasked for.

THREE

And here we have a stylized vision of a glowing Katara wearing the necklace. Sokka says, “Smoochy, smoochy,” and Katara says they’re just good friends. Each of these elements is not the Three (they’re more part of the Trouble). It’s the notion that one of the team cares in a way that isn’t reciprocated.

The Blue Spirit

ONE

Fire Nation ships dock at a fortress location.

TWO

It’s Commander Zhao. He’s here for these legendary archers. When he’s denied, a message conveniently arrives that promotes him. What was a request is now an order, and the archers are his.

We see a face, a blue mask, watching this exchange.

THREE

Now we get to our team at camp. Sokka is sick with a fever. His hallucinations are, of course, funny. As we often see in this show, Sokka is the Three. Katara, tending him, starts to cough. Aang needs to find some medicine for both of them now.

The Storm

ONE

The episode opens with Aang’s dream. The animation is in an altered style; we can tell right away that something’s not normal. Aang happily flying on Appa, with Katara on a overlarge Momo and Sokka using the air glider, is actually disturbing. The state of the world is unsettling. Aang’s mind is not at peace.

And I find this One unsettling. I don’t care that it’s weird. I’m bothered by how random the beat feels. This is too much information, too many feelings for us and them, for a One.

TWO

Part of the dream is a threatening cloud and a memory of the water bubble Aang made in the Avatar State. This aligns with the Eight. Now we have a solid beat.

THREE

And then we’re in confusion again. I don’t think there’s a Three. Katara asks if Aang’s okay and we see their campsite. This is normally how this show hits the One: establish their location. They’ve reversed the One and Three, subverted our expectations, in order to emphasize the uneasy feeling. I understand this intention, but I don’t think they’ve succeeded with it.

The next moment is a Sokka bit, which has been a go-to Three/Six for this series, but it doesn’t align with anything later.