#the waterbending scroll

[zukosdualdao]

back on my “katara is not a prodigy” crusade because a big part of the POINT of her conflict with aang in this episode is how naturally he picks up what took her months to learn. he (correctly) points out that she didn’t have anyone to teach her, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s not something that comes naturally to her right away, but rather her dedication and persistence that ultimately informs her skill.

[oneatlatime]

The Waterbending Scroll

We start this post off with the unnerving DVD art for this disc:

I call this look "nothing but bangs"

My collection of wallpapers is ever-growing.

Makes sense that Aang would be stressed. Objectively speaking, trusting the salvation of the world to a twelve year old who is at best going to have a beginner's understanding of three out of four of his superpowers is a bad idea! It's just about the worst possible idea. Too bad it's apparently the only one that will work. Sokka even points out (with delightful sarcasm) how nonsensical the whole thing is, but does anyone have any better ideas?

Appa living the dream.

Iroh has big dumbass energy here. He'd have to be deluded to genuinely think that getting a game tile is more important than capturing the avatar, which makes me think that he's not that keen on capturing the avatar after all.

"I'm lucky to have such an understanding nephew" immediately after Zuko breathes actual fire. Which I did not know he could do. I will say, plenty of wilful misinterpretation and misreading of reactions is necessary when dealing with teenagers. Once again making me think that Iroh has been looking after (wrangling) Zuko for a while.

I take it back, this is Appa living the dream.

Katara's tendency to baby Aang coming back to bite her in the long run. Raise your hand if you didn't see that coming.

Good thing they were practising bending water, not fire or earth. I guess you can be sloppy with water and air, but the other two?

A blep! An Appa blep!

And there go the supplies. What was that I was saying about it's a good thing he wasn't practising the more harmful elements?

Guy on the left has only one arm and one eye. Either the guy on the right is tiny or that's a giantess.

Water tribe scam artist?

So after setting up that they have basically zero money, the first thing Aang & company do is go trinket shopping. That's peak teenage behaviour.

"You guys are pirates!" Took you long enough.

All of these pirates have such great designs. I want the lead pirate's hat.

KAtara you DIDN'T.

Cabbage Guy! Hi Cabbage Guy! Unlike in Omashu, that actually is malicious destruction of cabbages.

I think there are three pirates shown here, but I originally thought that the legs high up belonged to the guy in the grey shirt, which would have been bad. They're facing entirely the wrong direction.

A badass line. Too bad about the pose.

Confirmed: a modern Katara would totally be that girl at the mall stealing earrings from Claire's.

Aang says that those pirates were terrible, but they actually weren't until they discovered that their scroll had been stolen. They behaved like merchants until Katara gave them a reason to behave like pirates.

This is going to be an episode where the problems are self-inflicted, isn't it?

No! Stealing a scroll from pirates isn't great! You've already got the fire nation on your tail, and at least they want Aang alive. Now you've got pirates too. You think they have a no killing code?

I am 100% with Sokka on this one. They're going to be at the North Pole in a few weeks anyway. They can both learn all the forms they want to there, with actual living teachers as a bonus.

I was right. Incoming problems of Katara's own making. Also the pirates could tell that Katara was water tribe. Further weight to my theory that the fire nation has a high incidence of colour blindness. Or fashion blindness.

And now we get selfish, jealous Katara as well as thief Katara. Sokka 100% in the right again: she is only interested in teaching herself, to the point where she's happy to endanger herself, her brother, and the goddamn Avatar to get hold of a lesson plan.

Add bitch to jealous, selfish, thief. You made Aang all sniffly. Somehow I think her scroll resolution is not going to stick.

Zuko using his brain again. Good reasoning. And right - they are on the water.

Nooooooooo. You are better than this. Girl stop it!

Zuko pulling out his best panto villain act. Also the colouration of his scar in the night scenes is odd. It's almost lilac.

He's technically right. Zuko did not steal that necklace. Unlike Katara, who does steal things.

Sokka 100% right for the third (fourth?) time this episode. It IS just a matter of time before Katara gets them all into trouble. That time is now.

Do you think if Sokka had kept his mouth shut, they wouldn't have kidnapped him? Was that a pity kidnap?

Yes it completely is her fault! No 'kind of' about it!

Sokka's brain and motormouth saving the day. I feel like that's a running theme.

This fight is cool. Seems like, if you know what you're doing, a bunch of nonbenders can fight firebenders on even footing.

A lot of convenient rope sawing going on.

This is a classic gag but it's funny every time.

Sokka fulfilling his quota of required minimum number of beatings per episode. I swear there must have been a rule in the writers' room that no episode may be considered complete until such time as Sokka has concussion damage.

Also it kind of feels off that Aang & company defeat the pirates so easily while on the pirate ship. They had to run away from them in the market, and these guys go toe to toe with firebenders. Don't you think they would do well when fighting on their own turf?

Is this from Top Gun? I haven't seen Top Gun, but this feels Top Gun-ish.

Second episode in a row that they owe their lives to Appa.

Zuko's "My Boat!" was near-operatic.

I'm calling it: Iroh is deliberately obstructing the hunt for the avatar and deliberately undermining Zuko.

Honestly, reasonable reaction from Zuko. Actually a bit of an under reaction. I would have saved the breathing fire for here.

Did the parrot lizard drown? Last I saw he was stuck in the flag on the mast, and he isn't floating down the river afterwards with the rest of the pirates.

Katara is right to apologise to Aang. But she should have apologised to Sokka too.

Katara finishes off this episode by learning literally the opposite of the lesson she should have learned. The lesson should be: stealing can be justifiable (she does have more claim to that scroll than the pirates do), but not in cases where it endangers yourself or others. The lesson Katara takes is: stealing is wrong, unless it's stealing from literally the most dangerous people you can find.

Final Thoughts

This episode was frustrating. Katara was a colossal idiot, who turned into a selfish thieving idiot, who turned into a self-centred thieving idiot with no sense of self-preservation or concern for her friend's and brother's life, and then she took a hard left into being a bitch as well.

Now, I remember being a teenager. I had my bitch moments too. But when someone rightly called me on them, I stopped. I think Katara's portrayal in this episode is a very realistic depiction of a certain kind of teenage girl. My problem is two-fold: a) I couldn't stand that kind of teenage girl, and b) Katara just keeps going. Sokka calls her out for her behaviour, she keeps going. She freaks out at Aang and makes him all sniffly, she has a two second long attack of conscience and then she keeps going anyway. She gets captured by a combined force of fire nation and pirates, the two biggest threats they've faced so far, and she just keeps going. And the joke that ends the episode shows that she's learned nothing.

I think I've said before (probably when I was talking about imprisoned) that Katara seems like she's used to having Sokka do her thinking and planning for her. I think this episode shows that too. Katar thought of herself, and herself only for 90% of this episode. That's not something Sokka does. I think that, being the only waterbender in the whole south pole, Katara is used to, if not being spoiled, then certainly being the centre of attention. And Sokka is used to looking after her and cleaning up after her plans (the literal cleaning seems to have been Katara's job), which means that he's way more used to thinking of the big picture, and Katara has never had to think beyond herself and her wants and needs. She wants the scroll, she takes it, fully aware that it will get them in trouble (why else was she pushing to get them off the pirate ship so fast? Vibes are off? No Katara, you're off). Sokka's immediate reaction to finding out she took the scroll is to bring up how much danger she has put them ALL in. Sokka sees big picture; Katara sees Katara.

Katara is lucky too that Zuko is apparently the kind of firebender that believes in non violence, and that these pirates are the Disney version. They had her tied to a tree all night and she apparently spent a considerable portion of that time spouting defiance. I'm wondering if Katara knows what genre of story she's in. Or maybe she's just that naive?

I was wondering if they would eventually touch on power/skill imbalances within our main cast, and I'm glad they did. In a way, Sokka has it easier than Katara, because as a non-bender, he's never going to get compared to Aang by himself or others. Plus, he's just not the kind of person who would do that. He's got that weird teenage boy contradictory combination of big ego + low self-esteem, so he's going to talk a big game (see Warriors of Kyoshi) but he's never going to think of himself as being in the same league as Katara. Katara, on the other hand, absolutely would at some point end up in competition with the only other bender she's ever met, even if they bend different elements. I'm glad they touched on it, but if this is the way they touch on it, I'll be very happy if they never touch on it again.

I did not know firebenders could breathe fire. Is the skin in their throat fireproof? And their nose? I bet they have crazy spice tolerance.

Something deeper is going on with Iroh. That goofy old man act is just that - an act. Kind of mean to string Zuko along like that though.

Sokka shines as the voice of reason over and over in this episode. Too bad no one listens to him at any point. Sokka is grounded in a way Aang and Katara aren't. They would be screwed without him.

The self-inflicted nature of this episode's plot is realistic, but annoying. What Katara did this episode is absolutely something an idealistic yet selfish teenage girl with anger issues would do. Especially so when you consider her in context - this may be the first waterbending artifact she's ever seen. But consider: if Katara hadn't stolen from the pirates, the pirates wouldn't have been after them, the pirates wouldn't have discussed a water tribe girl and a bald monk in front of Zuko, who was in such a rush to get back to avatar hunting that he likely wouldn't have asked a ship of pirates if they had seen the Avatar, which means Zuko & crew wouldn't have been after Aang either. Aang & company would have been down one waterbending scroll, but also down not one, but two enemies on their tail. Of course it all worked out in the end; this is a kids' show, but this plot is an entirely self-inflicted (Katara-inflicted) problem. Imprisoned was one of those too, come to think of it.

Aang has a rather lax policy on theft for someone who's supposed to be a mystical peace-bringer.

And I really do want the lead pirate's hat.

[bestepisode]

Vote on more episodes here!

Find the full list of round 2 polls here.

[stardust948]

[The Waterbending Scroll deleted scene]

Aang, leaving the ship: Katara! You'll never believe... huh?!

(He finds that Katara isn't there, and there is a photo that shows her tied to a tree)

Aang: Oh no!

(His phone rings, and he picks up)

Book 1 Zuko: Avatar. Bet you didn't expect to hear from me again. You've probably already guessed it, but someone very close to you--

Aang: Not now, Zuko! Katara's gone missing!

Book 1 Zuko: --Has gone missing recently- what the fu-?! HE HUNG UP ON ME!

[aboutiroh]

Sorry for making you decide. I should've said "favorite" instead of top 5. My faves are "Zuko Alone", "The Firebending Masters", "The Chase", and "The Drill". I really like your blog.

No need to apologize! I just love being dramatic.

Those are some great picks. I think all of them would have made it onto a top 10, if that had been your question. The Drill especially is so underrated!

[bakedbeanchan]

The Gaang take another vacation at the library

[animation-cartoon-fan-writings]

Chapter 6 of Book 1: Beautiful Ghosts is up now!!

Summary: Katara starts to try and teach Aang waterbending and gets jealous. Also, she steals a waterbending scroll from from some pirates.

Here’s an excerpt:

Once they got back to the river where they had set up camp, Aang began grumbling about the pirates from the market. “I used to look up to pirates, but those guys were terrible” he complains. Katara didn’t know whether Pirates were all fine and good over 100 years ago or that Aang just never interacted with actual Pirates up to this point, but it didn’t matter once they knew what she did. “I know, Aang. That’s why I took this” she says, holding out the Waterbending scroll with a devilish grin plastered across her face. Both Aang and Sokka react to this with shock.

“Why, no wonder those guys were trying to hack us up! You stole their Waterbending scroll!” Sokka scolds his sister. “Sokka, how do you think they got it? They probably stole it from a Waterbender,” Katara argues. “It doesn’t matter. You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes,” he continues to scold her.

“These aren’t stupid. These are real waterbending forms. Plus, you know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending,” she tries to point out to him. “Ugh, whatever” he sighs, leaving to go do hell-knows-what.

Sokka had always managed to get under Katara’s skin by mocking and discrediting either her abilities as a waterbender or the entire practice of waterbending as a whole. But she had hoped that he would cut her some slack when the fate of the world literally depended on it, but nope . Even with that in mind, Sokka still made it clear that, to him, Waterbending was stupid and pointless. As she and Aang began to go over the scroll together, she wondered what it would take for her brother to actually understand.

To read more, here’s the link

Please leave a comment, kudos, bookmark, and subscribe! Thank you

[ididgettomeetyou]

cont

previous

[hinamie]

i mean he's got all the outfits now might as well show them off

bonus:

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[d8tl55c]

they are dancing.

rendered again a lil different in minecraft /artmap bc i can't use normal art programs lately ig

[yourhighness6]

Have you appreciated her yet today? Because you should.

[ididgettomeetyou]

cont

previous

[agendertoph]

Can I just say that rewatching "The Waterbending Scroll" as a 24 yr old, legit 12 yrs after I first watched it, was such a crazy experience bcus, so like the thing is that I'd dropped off zutara some years ago now, not bcus of any thing in particular, just that I'd drifted from the general atla fandom over the years, but still thought about the ship fondly from time to time

so anyways like. so I get to the ep on my rewatch n I'm thinking "oh hey! isn't this the ep w the pirates and Zuko and Katara? that's nice :D" but bro omg I wasn't prepared

bro I wasn't prepared at ALLL BRO LIKE!??!?!? "I'll save you from the pirates" HE SAID HE'D SAVE HER FROM THE PIRATES?!?!??!

AND THEN!!! When Katara's tied to the tree, we see Zuko smiling for like the first time ever, n like yeah ok he's trying to get in on her good side by appealing to her emotionally open nature, but vnkjnvjksdf omg he smiled for her?!?!??!

AND JUST THE REVEAL THAT HE HAS HER NECKLACE?!?!? Like we knew he had her necklace since "Imprisoned" but omg to see it being offered to her as a broker piece, like yeah of course he's going to taunt her w it, but also like!??!?! the fact he CHOSE to reveal he has her necklace LIKE THIS!??!?! LIKE HE'S PUTTING IT ON HER?!?!?! LIKE WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH A WATER TRIBE BETROTHAL NECKLACE?!?!?!??!

oh my GOODNESS, God almighty, bro. bro!!! oh my God, u never really stop being 12 yrs old at heart, huh? this ep had me blushing n squeeing n kicking my feet like I had done so 12 years ago

aaa!!!

[rifari2037]

5. What are your thoughts on “The Waterbending Scroll”?

Well, I'm not good at meta, I'm bad to see detail, and I'm struggle to explain what I mean in English, but I do have thought about Waterbending Scroll episode, especially about Zuko and Katara, because I am Zutara stand. 🌊🔥

"I'll save you from the pirates"

Zuko never had any intention to hurting Katara and Sokka, he just wanted to capture the Avatar. He didn't seem to want the pirates to hurt her either, so he said that to warned, but also intimidated her.

Many people start shipping Zutara because of this line and I can understand why. I mean, instead of being intimidating, he sounded like he was flirting with her. 😏

And look at this! If someone had never watched ATLA, then seeing this without context, I'm sure at first glance they would think this was a romantic scene. A male character puts a necklace on a female character with such a gesture, who would think they were enemies?

And isn't it strange that Zuko thought he could trade the Avatar for a necklace? Even the pirates said that necklace was just a garbage? Unless somehow he knew that the necklace was very important to her. I don't think he realised it was betrothal necklace, although he seemed to have a feeling that the necklace was very valuable.

And some anti said Zuko stole the necklace to tracked them, but Zuko was honest when he said, "I didn't steal it". He literally found it!

Also, as an enemy, Zuko was being a little too kind to Katara, wasn't he? He didn't threaten to burn Katara's necklace like he did to the pirates.

Bonus : I really love Zuko's laugh in this episode. I never saw my boy looks so happy like that 😄

[whoareyousaidthecaterpillar]

This is such a pretty scene and I don't feel like I did it justice. I tried out some new techniques for lifting paint and I'm not sure I did them right... My tiny Appa makes me happy though!

Watercolor on paper, 5"x7"

[zukosdualdao]

#significant.... NOT that zuko is ever gonna let himself analyze what this means about his morals and moreover #the morals of the people around him - ESPECIALLY his father. he'll absolutely threaten this again without a thought via @elphabicone

perfect tags are perfect. zuko ends the agni kai by once again being Full of Bluster and declaring that he won't hold back if zhao ever gets in his way again, despite the fact he literally one moment ago did not follow through on a previous threat. throughout book one, he is still overtly aggressive and trying so hard to be The Villain (without, of course, thinking of what he's doing as trying to be the Villain.) in five episodes he will try to intimidate and manipulate katara by clearly imitating ozai. it is legitimately harmful behavior, and zuko is wrong for doing it. he's also so bad at it, though, being a much more blunt and straight-forward person by nature. in the siege of the north part two, he will attack zhao (after zhao tries to have him killed and aang escapes from him again), clearly the aggressor in the fight (even though it's well-deserved on zhao's part IMHO), only to.... offer zhao a hand when he's in the ocean spirit's grasp. like... he could've used that to actively push zhao further into the spirit's grasp and defeat him once and for all. but he didn't even have to. he could've also just neutrally, passively watched zhao's downfall. no one in the audience would've blamed him for this, honestly, zhao sucks. but instead he? reaches out a hand? and like... he is still not quite ready to start Growing and Changing as significantly as he needs to. i don't know how much, if any, self-reflection he does about these experiences, other than finally admitting that he is tired. in more ways than one. but it's such a continued cycle with him, god. he has so much bluster. he does not have the stomach to follow through on many of his threats, though.

not even just about killing. he legitimately hates zhao. he cannot bring himself to scar him in the way he was scarred, no matter what he says. and also, he will not be doing self-reflection about this in regard to himself, his moral code, his country, or his father. book one zuko is a parody of himself. (and i love that about him. to be clear.)

the fact that zuko blusters and threatens to give zhao a scar “to match” his own when zhao is being a jerk about it and then not only does zuko not kill zhao, he doesn’t actually burn him at all despite his threats… significant