meganbmoore | Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 3, episodes 8-9

Wow. They really just let their inner genre fans run loose, didn’t they?

I suspect episode 8 was meant to be a Halloween episode, what with the episode starting with everyone telling horror stories around the fire. I wonder if her mother’s friend was an abducted waterbender?

I’ve been spoiled for the bloodbending for some time. I admit, I’m not overly comfortable with it, simply because I’m not comfortable with most powers that allow one person to rob another of free will-mentally, physically, or both-especially when it’s to let someone else impose their will upon that person. I have difficulty not equating those kinds of abilities with rape. (This may explain why Emma Frost is the only telepath I can think of who I’ve ever genuinely loved, because it was never a “nice” power with her, the way it was with other telepaths.) Which is why Katara breaking down and crying when she realizes that she did that to someone makes moresense to me than any other reaction could have.

I do, however, think that’s it’s a very logical power to add to earthbending, and I even thought of it with season 1, though I never expected the show to go there at the time. As Hama pointed out, there’s water in everything, so if you can control water, then you can control anything. Given how she and Katara were taking the water from trees and plants, I’m surprised Hama never tried to do the same to a person. Though I suspect that has to do with the 8-12-year-old target audience. I liked that the whole episode was essentially Hama trying to corrupt Katara, and failing until she almost kills Aang. Though I wonder why she was keeping her captives alive, and what she was planning to do with them.

As such-and because of the rather familiar looking puppets she had-I have decided that it was all a ploy to draw Aang and co. out when they made it to the Fire Nation so that she could train Katara, and that she’s part of The League of Super Cool Old People along with Iroh and Sokka’s master.

Episode 9 was essentially proof that Aang should never be sleep deprived again. Ever. I loved how all his dreams were so old samurai movie/shounen, and then the last one where he beat Ozai was so wuxia. And the dream where he confessed to Katara was AWKWARD. Kind cute, but AWKWARD. But thankfully meant to be.

Also, flying hippo. I can’t remember if we’ve seen one of those before in the series, though I do recognize the shounen reference. (Houshin Engi, a manga where I really liked the anime and first few volumes, but am having trouble reading more.)

Meanwhile, Zuko has everything he ever wanted-fame, adoration, his father’s approval, a girlfriend, etc.-but isn’t happy. Probably because Iroh spent three years subtly making him see all the problems with that. Except the girlfriend bit. I suspect Iroh would encourage that part. Also, Mai has very weird ideas about how to cheer Zuko up. Then again, it’s kind of his own fault for being rather enthusiastic about showing her how fun it can be to order servants around. (They both need to not get too used to that.) Also, I don’t think cheering people up is her strong point in general. Or his. Next time one feels moody, they should just go find someone to beat up. It worked in The Beach.

Still no boomerang. Still no Suki. No Iroh.