Top 10 ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Animated Moments
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I must find the Avatar to restore my honor. I'm the Avatar, silly! Here to spread joy and fun! Zuko, you have to look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. My name's Toph because it sounds like "tough" and that's just what I am. Hey everybody, Avatar Kyoshi 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. Welcome back into the house of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. Join me today. She's the Momo to my Appa, 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 from Mallory Rubin. We're here to talk about something we absolutely, absolutely love.

So in honor of Iroh, pour yourself a steaming mug of tea, get some noodles, set up the pie show board. We are 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 that it is based on.

Avatar 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 asterisks 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 Ventress 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 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 of Verse, if you haven't already, please do yourself a solid and listen to the Midnight Boys. Pew, pew.

Give their instant reactions to Madam Web. 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 Web. Also, next week, Button Mash will be here with a Final Fantasy party draft with Ben Matt Robinson.

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, thanks.

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're bringing 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. Yes, you definitely need a private space for a time with the popcorn bucket. For sure. For the fucking 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 podcasts. Follow the House of R.

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You can send us your emails. You can send us your emails to the always open house of our inbox, hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. If you, like my husband, were rendered speechless by the recent V-Day Quickie 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. Oh no. And then stay tuned for all that awaits. My beloved turtleducks, 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 that,

in this moments 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. Yes. An excuse to revisit, to rewatch and revisit and celebrate our favorite moments from one of our favorite shows. And so it's a, it's a more perilous spoiler warning than for other moments episodes, perhaps. So 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 would love for you to tell me a moment. 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've picked the same moments. Mallory's convinced we have a ton of crossover moments.

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 out of ten. 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 variants. But structuring it around characters, I wonder if that increased the likelihood of some similar picks. But we'll see. It'll be really interesting. Maybe it's just one. Who knows? Here's what we're doing. We picked 10 characters...

Probably the 10 characters you're thinking of when you think of characters from Avatar. 10 otter penguins. That's what the pod is. 10 turtle lions. 10 characters plus an intermission, plus whatever Mallory has decided to smuggle in here. I don't know. She might have five for 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 Zuko to Aang. So this is not in order of importance. This is just characters in reverse alphabetical order, starting with Zuko, ending with Aang, 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. I had 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. Zuko. 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...

Should we like, just in case people are listening to this as a primer, because people are wild and wacky and do weird things, and have never seen any Avatar or The Last Airbender before, should we like say something about these characters as we go through them?

Let's do it. Prince Zuko. 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 Airbender? We're so excited to talk about our moments because these moments have brought us such joy. But yeah, you're right. Let's climb up on Appa's saddle and set the table. Set that aerial table. What does Avatar The Last Airbender, the animated series, mean to you, Joanna Robinson? First to your name. I'm so glad you...

And which kind of bending would you want to be able to do? Water. Easy. How about you?

So that you could bloodbend? Yeah, obviously. But you could bend so many things. There's water in so many things. So yes, I would be a waterbender. Though maybe an earthbender if I could lava bend. Lava bending is pretty cool. Speaking of lava bending, which was a bending skill introduced in Legends of Korra. Legends of Korra was my start. I got Pabbo with me right here. I've always got Pabbo with me in my heart.

Legends of Korra was my first. I watched that before I watched Avatar The Last Airbender, and it was because pals of mine, Dave Gonzalez, Matt Patches, and David Hardawar were doing a Legends of Korra 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, and 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. Cause there's reference. There's so many references in Cora that I didn't understand. Cause I hadn't seen Avatar. It was, it's really bonkers that I just go and watch Avatar the last airbender, 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 a

More than Korra. I love Korra. I have such a special place in my heart for Korra. But I've rewatched Avatar multiple times. I watched it twice through during the pandemic. Once 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, funny.

heart-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 of

across generations. Like there's plenty of things that old and young enjoy, but the way it's like pitched towards kids and then simmered in the background has this like very, very nuanced spirituality concepts, concepts and character development. I think it's an incredible, incredible achievement. Mallory Rubin, what's your avatar experience? Team waterbending as well. Easy call.

I love this show so much. I'm a newer Avatar fan than you. It was my, 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. That's running. A lot to process. Yeah.

But I... This was something that I was watching with the Jasons, Concepcion and Manzoukas. 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 seasons and went right into Korra. 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, I

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,

It left me in a state of awe when you can appreciate the pacing and the tightness and the intentionality and the payoffs, the richness and the reward of the shared journey that the characters are experiencing 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 two truly the icons of our time. I mean, all of the creatures in Avatar and Korra are wonderful. Um,

I will say now, and you will hear me say it again today, that I think Momo 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 Pabu just because I think I met Pabu first. As you know, I also have a Pabu obsessive. I was going to say enthusiast, but that didn't seem strong enough.

Love them 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 genuine all-timers for me in this show. Yeah. The last thing I want to say, and then I'm going to premise it more broadly for folks who haven't seen it, is incredible inventive action. Because you've got firebending, airbending, earthbending, waterbending. These are people who can manipulate the elements and

And it ramps up even more in Korra. Korra is mind-blowing for the action sequences that are in Korra 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, you 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 Sokka discover the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But Katara believes that Aang can save the world. So...

It's Aang, 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 his arc is seriously in the running for this.

number one ever. Like with apologies to Anakin and all of our other reformed baddies. Zuko 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. Iroh, a close second for me. The Zuko-Iroh relationship is my favorite part of the Avatar experience. I assume this is something that we share. Yeah.

This is definitely the same moment. And I love them both so much. I love all of the relationships that Zuko 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 Iroh 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, 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.

This is the perfect moment. This is, of course, also my moment. Yes. I knew it. My prediction was that we would have the same for Zuko and Iroh. I felt, I mean, we'll see. Maybe we won't. Iroh obviously is the same. Yes. Yeah. I feel like I felt like those were locks. And so that if there's anything beyond that, we're suddenly like at three or four shared moments. Who can say? So since Comet, the four part finale.

And here it is, the heart of the entire series inside of this finale, Jo. Think of where we are right now as TV viewers and how we sometimes feel about finales 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...

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 they go along. That's called writing, folks. Look it up. But this... 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 Aang versus Ozai. All that sort of stuff is just like Zuko on an arc. That's unbelievable. I think that Zuko 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 today, I was like, this is the one. This is easy. Some, I was like, I'm deciding between two or three things. Zuko, I had a short list of no fewer than 25 things. I'm serious. Like, it was just... 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 from Great Zuko and that. Every season three side quest, right? His episode with Aang, his episode with Sokka, his episode with Katara, building toward an iconic Toph moment when she's like, everybody else had a

I've changed my mind. Where's my Jim Pazucco? And she was right. And she's just like trying to like natter away to him her life story. And he's like, we really have some other stuff. I know you're a tough child and we 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 Iroh saying, you know, you found it again.

You did it by yourself. This is a through line that Iroh 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, Iroh saying to Zuko,

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 because

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 Iroh helped him unlock. It's just absolutely wonderful.

And he doesn't get there. Iroh is primary and very important. He doesn't get there also without like everyone else.

The whole, the whole fam, all, all the friends we made along the way. My only asterisk on this scene, the only thing, the only reason I thought about maybe not picking this scene is the one asterisk on the exquisite nature that is Avatar The Last Airbender is that the wonderful voice actor who voiced Iroh in the first two seasons, Mako, passed away before the third season. So Greg Baldwin does a great job with Iroh, but Iroh is like,

largely silent in the third season, I think because they were 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 Iroh, but it's not quite exactly Iroh. So is this the moment I want to pick? And the other moment that I was thinking of was another Iroh Zuko moment in the, I know you and I both love the season two finale, but

When Iroh 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, I mean, this isn't Iroh's moment. This is Zuko's moment. But like all these things that Iroh constantly says to Zuko, right? Like,

If you look for the dark, that's all you see. Like all these things are so important to counter program. Zuko 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

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 Zuko eventually finds. It's so important to me. Also, I almost picked, why am I so bad at being good? Yeah.

Because it's an incredible, incredible Zyko moment. Absolutely great one. The tracing back his scar, his Agni Kai, his banishment, his obsessive pursuit of Avatar, 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...

I tried to do something like right and good and was cast out for my life and my family. The worst thing that's happened to me in my life happened. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, by the people who were supposed to love and protect and nurture me. And so, of course, there is a...

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 Iroh is telling him, which as we'll talk about when we get to Iroh, were 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 Iroh is saying, this is your body and your soul at war with itself. Like, it's such an incredible... The ability for Iroh to consistently espouse...

the wisdom not only of the show and the spirit of the show, but of something truly elemental about like the... I don't mean to sound too intense here, but like the human experience and for Zuko 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 zuko's arc is so it's so rare it's such a supreme execution of a thing that we we we cherish because we don't we have 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

Iroh out there. And that's what I love about it. Again, that message of you found it, you did it by yourself. Yes, Zuko had to learn to forgive himself. He had to learn the Masters episode, the side quest with Aang and Zuko is so great. Like that moment where again, it builds toward Iroh 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 Zuko takes and the strength he has to build to take those steps on his own

That little sandal, 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 genuinely one of the best episodes of television ever, Zuko Alone. I love that one. It pairs with the chase, which comes right after it. It's so good. But to your point about Iroh,

Again, we're not in the Iroh 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 Iroh and then experienced by Zuko 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 like,

That's just human nature. This is an argument I would make with Thrones all the time when Jaime leaves Brienne and goes back to Cersei. 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...

We'll listen to Iroh, get on a certain path, be tempted by Katara in whatever way you want to describe that. Be tempted to 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...

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. Next. Number nine? On the list, alphabetically, Miss Toph Bae Fong. Should we take our shoes off for this one? Just really dig into the earth. Should we see with our feet?

about intentionality again Toph is a good example of this originally Toph was supposed to be a male character um Bolin is sort of the model for what Toph was supposed to look like if you've seen Bolin from Katara or there's an earthbender in the opening credits and that's sort of supposed to be Toph um but um but the head writer was like what if we make her what if we make Toph a little girl and uh one of the creators was like no and then eventually was like can you imagine um

Not as Toph. Season two, enters the fray in season two, 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 Toph this like small girl, but the biggest badass you've ever seen? I love Toph. Wonderful character. The blind bandit. Blind bandit. I mean, think of a world where the boulders and Team Boomerang instead. Yeah.

Mallory, do you mind? 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. Come on, Metal Fudge! Woo! Toph, 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 think then. Because this was one of my last candidates for overlap. This is not 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.

So this is from season two, episode 18, The Guru. And you're hearing Aang and the Guru speaking. And then you start to hear that kind of mystical sound. And we are seeing, cutting into these visuals of Toph feeling the metal. This is a cage, a metal cage that Toph 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 Toph invents metalbending in this moment. We hear this...

beautiful idea that the guru is sharing with Aang, this idea of the separation as an illusion, metal is just a part of earth. And so part of why I picked that this moment is because I think that is a beautiful idea and a beautiful message more broadly. The way that this manifests for Toph, 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 Toph.

not accepting the life that other people insist she lead. This is about Toph, 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 takes me back there, Jo. 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. Yeah. But Toph's arc overall in this moment and in many others, before she was with the gang, when she's with the gang, is quite literally and figuratively learning to see in a different way. Remaking the world, whether it's through metalbending 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. Toph 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 Toph's arc that you really feel in an instant like this. That's my pick. What's yours? Carlos, will you 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-land. Whenever you're ready, the pebble. It's on! Oh!

Your winner and still the champion, the Blind Bandit! How did she do that? She waited and listened. Metalbending is such a badass moment for Toph, but I wanted to talk about her on a sort of like more meta, how you write a story, Crossroads.

And this idea of you've got our golden trio, if you prefer, of Aang and Sokka and Katara and the precariousness of adding another element to that cocktail that we have been enjoying so much for so long.

And 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. Aang gets glimpsed 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,

Taunting him, the way the animation style changes to show us how Toph views the world through, like, you know, slight echolocation kind of thing. The vibrations in the ground. And the fact that Aang is in need of an earthbending master. We thought it would be boomy. It's not boomy. It's Toph. And to your point, then the...

Oil and water integration into the camp, the Katara versus Toph fighting that happens, all of that, the wisdom she gets once again from Iroh to figure out. When I was thinking about these character arcs,

And I was thinking about Toph and I was like, does Toph not, Toph is so herself. Does she not, you know, and if you watch Korra, an older version of Toph shows up in Korra and she's still fricking Toph. 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... And this is Ira's wisdom to her in season two, that she's afraid to take anyone's help lest 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...

So painful. Anguish. But she saves, I mean, we'll talk about Abba some more, but she saves everyone in that library by herself. And then Aang is like, fuck you. Yeah, fuck you. Why did you save Abba? You didn't try hard enough. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, half-baked fun. Oh, man. It's a great point, Jo, 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 a active state of attempting to process their pain and their trauma and their loss. And Toph 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.

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 gotten to this more complete sense of self that she's finally allowing herself to live inside of that pain it's interesting it's it's a little bit flipped her little crush on Sokka I mean I mean who among us you know yeah

It's a wolf. 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 Sokka's tents in the dead of night. Yeah. It's an iconic moment that maybe will come up when we get to our next character. Speaking of. Yeah. Should we go to the Kyoshi warrior herself, Suki? I love Suki. I love Suki more and more every time I rewatch this 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. Carlos? This could be our most important mission yet. Give him some space. Appa, 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 in appreciation. Is this your clip as well? Is this 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. Oppa's Last Days, 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 companion of Aang, was frozen in iceberg with Aang for 100 years, you know, carries our team all around the four nations, loyal, wonderful, cuddly, sheds sometimes, doesn't smell good when he's wet, et cetera, et cetera, is the best.

gets stolen, is lost, is, 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. Oppa gets stolen from the team. That episode aired on July 14th. Season two had a break in the middle of it. Crawl. Oppa's 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 Aang is absolutely despondent and despairing over having lost Appa, and we don't know where Appa is. We don't see him. So we see all of it in one episode. Again, it's probably going to come up again later. We'll talk about it. But there's so many horrible moments for Appa in that episode, so many missed connections, so many all this sort of stuff, and just the absolute relief that

You feel when you're like, oh my god, Suki is here and she will fix this. And Appa goes from dirty and riddled with arrows and fearful and angry and chains on to happy and clean and licking Suki. Because you're just like, you can count on the Kyoshi Warriors.

And you can count on Sookie. 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 Sookie.

Suki was about to take care of Appa. No better person to find Appa in that moment except for, you know, eggs, perhaps. And nothing to endear us to somebody more than seeing that they would care for Appa. Care for an animal? Seriously. That's why I wanted to pick it because it tells us so much about the quality of Suki's heart and the worthiness of Suki as a person that she's someone that Appa trusts, but also that she's someone who takes the time to stop and help. Yeah.

And heal. This might be our most important mission yet is what she says to her fellow Kyoshi warriors. I agree. The Kyoshi, first of all, I love Avatar Kyoshi. The Kyoshi fit, 10 out of 10. Fan fighting, wonderful. Also, great taste in boyfriends. I love Sokka. I love that Suki's like, yeah, that's the guy for me. Yeah. What do you want to say about Sokka? Speaking of, 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 as I built my list about... Generally, I'm 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 Saka and humor, which is often one in the same, right? I had the exact same. I was like, where's my season one representation? Where's my humor? Which is partially why my tough clip was from season two, but I was like, we're going to, we have to have some moments. It's part of it. Okay. Well,

Well, we've got some more fun coming here. We've got some season one. This is from the Warriors of Kyoshi, season one, episode four. Let's laugh and let's hear our guy Sokka 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 alright. 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 Zuko, who's there for a brooding chat instead. But this first episode with Suki and with Suki and Sokka together and with the Kyoshi Warriors is so delicious. Like we learned so much about

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, and

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, annihilating Sokka while he is very firmly still in his...

I've got some things to learn. Again, we're on a character arc. I'm on my own arc. I'm on my own arc, yeah. Phase of that arc. And one of the things that I really love about this, in addition to Suki 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 Sokka 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...

And it's like a note that I made in my rewatch this time is I was like, it's episode four and Suki's already here. Like I wrote that in 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 Appa. I love you, Suki. Yeah.

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All right, that brings us to our guys, Sokka, Mal. Do you want to go first? Sure. Let's do it. Love Sokka. Love chatting about Sokka. Can't wait to chat about Sokka. This was... Here was my journey with selecting my Sokka 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 Sokka moment to be. Then I had a long period of reflection on...

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 Sokka, as we've noted, is a character on an arc, right?

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'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? Yeah. 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 Sokka to help people.

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 is

I think the fact that it feels like almost a little bit contrary to how we think of Sokka 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 what the 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 Sokka 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 is making other people happy. But to see Sokka then go

This episode, I should say, this is from... I didn't say what this is from. This is from season three, episode four, Sokka's Master. And to see Sokka 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 the House of R. The growth that we can just cherish on display when he greets that master with humility, right?

And this humbleness in his pursuit of 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 Sokka 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 Sokka. I love what it means for him and says about him. And I love what it shows us about the show's desire to, um,

make everybody full and round. That's my pick. I love... I love this because I went on the exact opposite journey. When I was writing down my moments, I was like, Sokka, Sokka's master, easily. Like, that's gotta be it. That's the Sokka episode. And, um...

And then a part of me was like, well, and you picked a really, you picked a great part from that episode. I was thinking like the conversations 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 Sokka's master. We did his space sword, but you picked another moment for that episode. I love that. And I went on the exact opposite journey where I was like,

I want to celebrate Sokka'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 Sokka 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? That's all I got.

It's pretty much my whole identity. Sokka, the meat and sarcasm guy. But I'm willing to be Sokka, the veggies and straight talk fellow. Deal? Aang! Goodness! Have you got any meat? This is an episode of Bitter Work where Aang is first trying to learn earthbending from Toph. And Toph and Katara and Aang are sort of like trapped in a little like

Toph and Katara disagreeing about how to teach Aang so that that's the A plot Sokka's entire B plot is Sokka 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 critter but it's just like Sokka's 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 story is you're just stuck in a hole by yourself. I mean, there's a little critter, but it's a nonverbal critter. Darling, darling little critter. Very darling critter. 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, stuck in that crevasse, he's like, all I have to offer is mean sarcasm. That's all I am. But no, he's so much more, obviously. Sokka, like Suki, is a character that I appreciate more and more every time I rewatch the show. How he grows in the strategy, his relationship with his dad, everything, you know, his regret flashbacks to tiny Sokka, all of that is just like his...

Falling in love with Yue. You know, I almost put the poetry slam from Tales of the Earth Kingdom in there because Sokka rhymes with Akka. I'm going to rock you. Like, it's just great stuff from our guy. Love Sokka. 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 in reverse alphabetical order so that I can just make way.

For your ode to... I'm going to grab a prop. Okay. Need them with me. Need our little guy with me. 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. Yeah.

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 Aang and Sokka are like fucking around and pretending to be like nobles or whatever. And they're like wearing drapes. And Momo just like...

wears his 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 is often funny yeah there's so many like just silent visual gags of 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 Momo could be doing something funny. They know who the star is. Yeah. Definitely.

All right. Do you want to play any Momo clips or just start talking about them first? What do you want? Oh, boy. Great question. Yeah, let's hear my clips. I have two Momo clips I couldn't help 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 Bobo?

Oh, priorities in order. That boomy moment when he leans in, he's like, where's Momo? Is in the running for most important moment in the history of television. 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. Okay. I was like, we can't go through Sokka and Momo and not do cactus juice. Don't think I misused the intermission. Okay, good.

Back to Momo. Don't think I missed 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 Momo curled up on Sokka's chest. Yeah. Curls up for a nap. Always just there. The thing that I love about Momo, I think, okay.

I can't compose my thoughts right now. Mallory's like, don't worry, Jordan. The longest I'm going to go is for Zuko, but it might be for- I actually can't bring myself to form a 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 picked 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, there nibbling on a vegetable or a fruit that somebody has dropped. He is...

into the fabric of the story. There is like a recognition in Momo'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 sincerely, a historic achievement. I can't say.

He, the number of times that he makes me laugh or he makes me like coo and say, oh, he's so precious. Grogu is like sweating right out. Grogu's like, oh no. Grogu is literally watching me over my shoulder, like glaring at me. Grogu is like- Room in my heart. Room in my heart for all of them. I could grow my ears. My ears can be that big too if you need them to be. Yeah.

Momo is funny. He is full of personality. He is always tracking and following genuinely what is happening. Like 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. Yeah.

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 Sokka are sick and Aang 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 part 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 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. Okay. I think that a lot of Momo'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 understanding

of true companionship when Aang 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 Aang to see if Aang is okay. He's the one who Aang allows because Aang had separated himself, had sought solitude and separated himself from the group. And Momo's the one that Aang 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 I love 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 and just wasted in the desert on cactus juice with Sokka. It's an interesting thought experiment. So that's my Momo 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 Momo. But let's take a brief pause for Momo before Mallory brings Momo back into the mix.

I put together the structure for this episode. We collaborated 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 earthbending itself. Two lovers forbidden from one another A war divides their people And a mountain divides them apart

♪ It's a real tough 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 tunnel, yeah ♪

As you know, Mallory Rubin. I mean, I was like, there's no way I can do Top 10 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. 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 Iroh sings a couple different jams. Uh, these fricking hippies that they meet. Uh, 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 characters that are sort of woven into this world. But I love these fricking hippies. I love, uh, I love the other song that they sing in this episode, uh, when they're in the, going through the tunnels. I love how much Sokka hates them. Um,

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, Ruben. Not taking the bait. All right. The streak ends here. We got the club. We got the chewy impression. We were on a tear for a while there. Yeah.

Two lovers. There we go. Forbidding for one another. A war divides their people. Fabulous. You're welcome. Astonished. Astonished. That was probably deeply off key. It was beautiful. One should not sing with headphones on. That's why in all the music videos they've got one off their ear so they can hear themselves when they're off key. So don't sing with the cans on your ear. Okay.

Intermission for Mallory Rubin. Let me quickly say before we get to my intermission, I need to, 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 Hoppa, which again, that's one of my smuggles from that, that opposite lost day stretch too painful for me to actually make my pick. But again, devotion Momo 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 king of voice acting. I almost picked the dream sequence where Appa and Momo talk 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. Okay.

Do you want to keep talking about Momo? Both of my intermission, I picked two. I couldn't help it. I'm sorry. Both of them involve Sokka. One of them involves Momo. So since 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. Oh no! You've killed us all!

Mallory has done an impression of this moment like no fewer than five times in the last, like, two weeks. This is just, I think, genuinely iconic stretch of the show. Sokka and Momo are high out of their minds. Zuded, absolutely. On Cactus Juice. They went for the refreshment when everyone else was parched. They made a bold decision to...

Did it pay off? I think that depends on how you personally relate to recreational drug use and 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 slapped the cactus out of Toph's hand. She's like, no, we're not doing that. Can you imagine Katara having to, if all three of them were zooted out of their mind? Oh, man. This is just so funny to me. The way, the thing of course you can't hear in the clip is Momo just dying. Dying.

diving like an Olympian. Their pupils have swallowed their eyes entirely. This absolutely kills me. Also, as they continue to drag Sokka behind them, he has a firm hold on Momo's tail and is dragging Momo through the sky. Oh my God.

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, uh, Jack to see who, who voices soccer. Uh, I have a cameo from him where he talks about cactus juice and it's just like, one of my, one of my dearest possessions. Absolutely. It sounds really, really special. Very special to me. Um,

Let's now hear my second intermission pick, which is, and I know I've said about a few other things today, 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? Yeah.

There it is. That's rough, buddy. My first girlfriend turned into the moon.

That's 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 The Last Airbender moments, it's That's Rough Buddy, Secret Tunnel's on there, Yip Yip is on there, and I don't know, there are two others, I'm sure. But like, That's Rough Buddy is like

It's 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 take that for our soccer or Zico moment. But it had to be here. Smuggled in 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. Mae Whitman, another voice acting queen. Katara is a tough... It would be so easy for Katara to be like,

a bit of a drag, a bit of a drip. Like there's, there's like so many ways this character could have gone wrong, but May women and just infuses her and the animators infuser was so much like, there's the compassion, there's the emotion, there's the, 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, uh,

you know, gets mad at Toph 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 crazy powerful. Speaking of which, let's just go ahead and play my Katara moment. Don't hurt your friends, Katara. And don't let them hurt each other. Oh!

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.

Katara can fucking bloodbend and it is so scary. And she does it again later when she's with Zuko on her little vengeance mission before she figures out that this is the wrong guy. She's been bloodbending the wrong guy. But bloodbending is so scary. And Katara doesn't care. You hate to see it.

It's just not what you want to have happen. But Katara does it here to protect Aang and Sokka who have been like, you know, manipulated to sort of on a crash collision course of death with each other. It's awful.

all she can do to stop it is to bloodbend the woman who is controlling them um 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 looks banging in a fire nation fit just is is she is that girl she's that babe power ranking of the katara ships

Zuko, Aang, 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, Haru, Aang, Jet is my ranking. Zuko number one, obviously. Zuko, my... It's Zuko by a comfortable margin. And then I also have Haru at number two. Yeah. I was so glad when we got the little shout out like at the very end. Like, wait, did from top? Like, did you and Haru?

I was like, thank you. We were all thinking it. Great stuff. Similarly, in the Ember Island players, speaking of Jet, when they like talk about, did Jet die? I don't know. That was really unclear. Oh, Jet. Katara. Katara. A character I love as well. I...

I'm really glad that that was the moment you picked. That was my runner up. I had a lot of smuggles for Katara. I had a lot of contenders for Katara. That was one of the ones I was most drawn to picking. Bloodbending, as you referenced, in pursuit of her mother's killer on the side quest with Zuko was something I was considering. I was strongly considering the season two finale Zuko-Katara moment, 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 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 gonna 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. You can't knock me down. Go, Katara!

Go Katara. You can't knock me down. F you, Master Paku. I fucking love this scene. Tough look for Gramp Gramp. We all have some learning and growing to do. We never stop learning and growing, as says Paku. This is from The Waterbending Master, Season 1, 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 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, uh...

tricks of the show is that every pursuit of some great master to teach ang 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 Katara 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 their father, when the code of their father's 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, uh,

are 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, 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, to grow stronger and better at what she does. And I just, just love her. She's so powerful. She fucking bloodbends. She's, she's a badass. Um,

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. Are you ready to cry? Get your tear bending ready. Here we are for Uncle Iroh. Happy birthday, my son. If only I could have helped you. Leaves from the vine.

Falling so slow, like fragile tiny shells drifting in the foam. 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 Iroh lost his son in the siege of Ba Sing Se 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. Me too. I'm so sorry if you were listening on like Operating Heavy Machinery, listening to this podcast, and we just like blindsided you with Leaves from the Vine. I'm so sorry. But we got to be who we are. So, yeah. Anything else you want to say? 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 Ba Sing Se, which is an incredible episode. It's a 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 Iroh'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 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 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 moment

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 Toph advice as well. Yeah. Exactly. And like, the fact that we build toward this moment where he is grieving for

His 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 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. Iroh also something to love. I mean, he's so level. He's so easy to love. So lovable. Yeah.

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. 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 person.

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. The simple pleasures of life. Like whatever it is. He's got his priorities...

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 Ba Sing Se. Like, this is considered Iroh'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 Zuko. You know, and then we think back to like a moment toward the end of season one where he tells Zuko 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 this stitches together and then, you know, just the music, the song is beautiful. The tears streaming down Iroh's face 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 the fun little ditties that are here and there. And I think he, I could be wrong. They might have gotten someone else to compose the actual songs, but the score, like the Avatar love theme, the

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 of words, 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 Iris says her name, like Azula, like, um,

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 Mae and Ty Lee, 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. Unhinged. Truly, truly, truly deranged character. One of the things I love about Azula is that so often, until the end game, Azula is unhinged.

Azula is ahead. 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 the

how much we fear her. She's incredibly entertaining. There are a lot of moments that we could have picked. I, 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. Um,

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. 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 proud. 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 Mei and Ty Lee. 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. Cutting 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. 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...

Roy, I would lay a lot of Azula's behavior at Ozai's feet. You think he ever said to Azula and Zuko, you're not serious people? Yeah, I bet he did. Oh, I bet he did. Um,

Um, yeah, she can lightning bend from the jump. She's so scary. She's so hot. Uh, 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. Um, the way that Azula unravels at the end is actually on the one hand, we've been writing for it the whole time. And on the other hand, it is actually shocking. Yeah.

To witness. That's a great pick. 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, Tylee. You can't be this ignorant. What are you talking about? 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, okay, calm down. I didn't mean what I said. Look, maybe I just said it because I was a little jealous. What? You were 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 glad it's represented here.

I had to have season three, episode five, The Beach on my list. It's like an episode of The O.C., essentially. Yeah, Emperor 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 Azula 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. Her hilarity is on display here. Like, well, you're right about all of that. Well, you're right about that.

Is iconic and hilarious. She's so good. And just exceptional. It's like chef's kiss. Brilliant. Her cruelty is on display here. Tylee, I do feel sad that I got Tylee in here, but not Mae. I feel bummed about that. Shout out Mae. Mae was referenced. Mae was referenced in the intermission. In Zuko Talks Matter. This isn't,

unbelievably fucked up thing to say to one of your two closest friends. Somebody who you pulled out of like 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 bangs. Simply. They wither and so does the hairdo. Bottom of the barrel. Cutting their own bangs. I've done it. I've done it. It's not a great look. I love that you picked this. It's so good. Yeah, and shout out me and Tylee. I love the episode where Azula...

grabs them from their lives and Mae willing happy to go because she's so bored at Omashu but Tylee genuinely having the time of her life at the circus loves the circus loves it it's so funny oh 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 Momo

We haven't heard about Appa. Yip, yip. Yip, yip. Do you want to go first? Love Appa. I think Appa's great. I don't necessarily have the same completely unhinged speech prepared. Obviously that one was not prepared either. Real off-the-cuff stuff.

Appa 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 Appa is a part of this family. Appa 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 the sequence as previously mentioned on this very podcast, where

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 can't believe it.

I guess this means we'll always be together. I get to 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 and it's like 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 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 Aang 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 apart, 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 demon the way that like Pan is Lyra's, but there's like a quality to it, right? Where they have the matching markings, you know? Should we get, should we get, should we get a airbender? Yeah.

Maybe not like on our heads, but like, I don't know. 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 to wave. We do. What I think 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. Okay.

My clip for Appa. 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 can hear a lot of growling and whooshing 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. Yeah! I missed you, buddy.

It's the way Aang says, I missed you, but he's just like launched himself onto Appa's like head. So sweet. He's like, I missed you, buddy. He's just like sinking into his fur. And Appa like, you know, grunts and growls in response of very much like, I missed you too. Uh,

Weeping, sobbing. Absolutely. But also right before that, Appa comes down. This guy's like, I can handle you, blah, blah, 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, it makes sense to me, as painful as it is for them to be separated from Appa, it makes sense in a way for them to be like grounded during the Earth season, right? They are stuck. They're stranded on the ground. Right.

They're flying all around in 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 Dae 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, Ozai is a canonically I'm taking my shirt off character. I just want everyone to remember how old Daniel Dae Kim is when you see him take off his shirt and just 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 it was to have an Airbus. Maybe everyone will just

Sokka, maybe you'll remember that more when you complain about how Appa smells. Can't Appa go any faster?

I also like when Appa is like sleepy in the sky and can't keep going and is just sort of like slowly defending himself. So many darling lines of sad. I just want to snuggle up against one of his paws. There are so many great Appa moves. 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...

Zuko. Like, he's the first to recognize that Zuko has really transformed and changed. And of course, it's literally because Zuko sprung him, right? Appa 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. It's great. Last but not least, we come to the titular avatar. Avatar.

If you're in the M. Night Shyamalan movie, you might say Ong. We say Aang because we know what the fuck we're talking about. He 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 don't support Aang 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 Bumi, they would 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 have 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. Aang 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 shit. 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 Ozai.

is feeling very conflicted about it. So comes up with this other, this is the other solution. So this is just the end of the final battle between, which is an old timer, like incredible action sequence. Unbelievable. Just visually arresting and astonishing. Then another's energy, your own spirit must be un, or you will be corrupted and destroyed. Oh, what? 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 fully devoured by the bad light. And then, you know, the, the blue light of goodness shines back through and, and, and we, and we win and Mark Hamill can never,

been again or heard anyone that is Mark Hamill's voice is Fire Lord Ozai in case you didn't know Aang he found a way and he got the girl even though we didn't want to even though we 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 it is the thing

that Fire Lord Ozai deserves 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 work through too. I've always found this to be a fascinating choice. I think it's an incredible scene. Perfect finale. One of the best series finales 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. Now let all of those attachments go.

Let them flow down the river, forgotten. What? Why would I let go of Katara? 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 Filoni worked on this show? Can you tell? I have picked the Star Wars moment. Yeah, of course. That's what I've done. Perhaps unsurprisingly. This is from season two, episode 18, which is the two-parter, 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 heeded, 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 Aang enters this state again, he sees this vision of Katara in peril. We just get Dagobah. Like, we get Luke deciding to leave to go save Hanaleia, Aang deciding to flee to go save his friend, embracing that attachment rather than feeling like he has to reject it. Now, Aang has a journey with this. I love what that tells us

about Aang 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 Aang 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 Aang 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 Aang is on the Lion Turtle Island with, shout out Momo once again, had to mention him one more time. Yeah.

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 Kiyoshi is offering up, right? He's got to keep looking. And he ends up chatting with Avatar Yangchen. 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 can unlock that for me. And so that moment with the guru and Aang 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 makes us love Aang. It makes me love Aang.

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 Katara had ended up with Zuko? We do. And that's okay. But it is important for Aang to want these things. That's the triumph of Aang is like how much of a kid he is, how much of a human he is.

Flamio Hotman. Like, come on. He's just like, he'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. Was it? 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. Yeah.

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 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 Band. This email comes from JJ.

Number one, leader protagonist 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. Aang. Number two, the Lancer, 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's success. Sokka.

Last but not least, the big guy, the powerhouse, the one who has to 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. You're 5'10". Let's get Momo and Appa in there and then I'm with it.

So this has been our love letter to the characters and the world of Avatar The Last Airbender. A show 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 Momo? I...

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. Enjoy it 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 Carlos Cherboga. Thanks to Arjun and Rekha Paul. Thanks to Joby Adidaron. Thanks to anyone else who might have helped us with this episode. Who's to say? Zatarra for life. We will see you soon. Bye. Bye.