Avatar the Last Airbender The Search Review
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00:00Avatar The Last Airbender The Search
00:04It starts off the most highly anticipated arc of the series since its conclusion by showing us just a guy we don't know in a faded flashback trying to recite lines from a play,
00:15only to get startled by a mask-wearing woman who happens to be Zuko's mom.
00:19It's charming to see her have a fun side after all.
00:23She calls him her boyfriend and he fortunately doesn't take offense to her insult.
00:28One of them says that only with their face hidden could they be together.
00:32He proposes and it's unnecessarily written to reveal that when she was little she acted like his childhood bully.
00:39First Mei and now him.
00:41What is it with this toxic trend?
00:44Good thing she doesn't act as bad as this anymore, so now it's fine.
00:48But the fact remains, there's better people to date than your childhood bully.
00:53How did he begin loving her after she hit him?
00:57It's so nice of her to agree to marry him without a ring.
01:01It finally shows the present day where a guy says blah blah in front of a council because the writer didn't feel like giving him dialogue,
01:10and Sokka lampshades how boring he is.
01:13How did he forget that this guy's here to lecture on ancient theories of government?
01:18It's nice that the lecture guy is so focused on reciting his lecture that he doesn't seem to care that people are talking during it at full volume.
01:26Katara lampshades their misbehavior, and Aang says sorry, and Sokka calls her boring and gets a snowball thrown at himself.
01:35Zuko hears the word family and asks the professor to repeat, causing him to amusingly whisper that he's still a teenager after all, which made this kind of funny.
01:46He says family is a small country, and a country is a large family,
01:51and in treating his own family with dignity, a ruler learns how to govern his nation with dignity.
01:57Clearly it's not fair because not everyone's gonna have a family that deserves dignity.
02:02Of course there's no dignity in being trapped in a prisoner asylum, but it's for the best if Ozai and Azula are kept there,
02:09and it's not like he didn't try to be polite to them before that.
02:13So this makes Zuko feel bad.
02:16Then there's another flashback where Ursa sees her mom sadly say she loves her,
02:21and Ursa gets told by the Fire Lord that she has to marry his son Ozai to yield a bloodline of great power.
02:27According to the Fire Sages who conveniently know this,
02:31either because they know what causes people to be capable of being a great bender by nature,
02:36or they can see the future, but not enough to know where Aang is.
02:41It even mattering who Ozai marries reveals that there is the genetic component to what makes people benders,
02:48which makes far more sense than the nonsense that the show is going with that even a pair of twins could potentially have only one of them with magic,
02:56with the excuse that the most spiritual people are benders, whatever that even means.
03:01Which is the reason why all Air Nation people are benders,
03:05meaning that if your surrounding culture is spiritual, you can end up being able to use magic even if you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
03:12But how would you describe villains like Ozai and Azula as spiritual?
03:17So this retcon makes actual sense, though it makes the twins impossible.
03:22And sadly, there's gonna be a comic after this that also has,
03:26well I don't know if they're twins, maybe they're just sisters that happen to be the same height as each other by coincidence,
03:33but if they are twins, it makes it even stupider that one's a bender and that one is the evil one.
03:41You'd think only good people would be benders.
03:44In the Avatar world, what does spiritual even mean?
03:47Because it's not like only people who want to worship the spirits, who I guess are the gods of the Avatar world, are benders.
03:55Because we don't see benders constantly worshipping at a shrine for the spirits,
04:01let alone worshipping gods, who can actually be religious in a world like the Avatar world.
04:08By the way, why is he having her only have children with one of his sons,
04:13considering that Ozai is not first in line for the throne anyways?
04:17I assume Aira has taken, but nothing would stop the Fire Lord from doing what he wants, even Aira saying no.
04:24He could still have her have a baby with Aira first, and then Ozai as a backup plan.
04:30He could have her date both of them at once.
04:33That'd be the common sense idea.
04:36No matter where Aira is at this point, he could get her to him for a bit eventually.
04:42I don't know how anyone noticed that Zuko is more upbeat than usual.
04:46He doesn't look happy.
04:48Zuko has Azula in front of Ozai and brings her tea,
04:52and she bites the plate and she calls him out on expecting her to drink tea in an undignified way because she can't use her arms.
05:00Tai Chi blocks her, and he says that's unnecessary because she's restrained, even though firebenders can breathe fire.
05:07When I saw her bite the plate, at first I thought she was breathing fire.
05:12Nothing would stop her from doing that.
05:14So I have to assume that the only reason Aang didn't also remove her bending just in case
05:19is that he thinks it's a terrible thing to do and only did it to Ozai because he's the king,
05:23considering how much the removal of bending is demonized in The Legend of Korra.
05:27Zuko gets told to leave Azula alone with him.
05:30Then the next flashback scene is a complete waste of time.
05:34We already figured that Ikim would be mad about his girlfriend being kidnapped.
05:39I know the point is to show that he can be brave too, but what's the point of showing that?
05:45Instead of him blatantly wasting time trying to order around the Fire Lord, why doesn't he ask to come with her?
05:53Oh, I guess even though Ozai doesn't even love Ursa, he'd still be jealous of her kissing someone else
05:58and be too petty to let it go on, even though literally all he needs her for is breeding stock.
06:03He doesn't have to keep her in this castle as a wife.
06:06He could have a maid raise the kids as a mother and send her home when he's done with her.
06:10And he hated her positive influence on his kids growing up, but he doesn't know he will yet.
06:16It's cool to see Ikim throw a flaming fake sword prop.
06:20Conveniently, he tells her to tell him that marrying Ozai is what she actually wants to make him go home.
06:27So she says she joyfully accepted his proposal to protect him.
06:31What did he expect? That he could overcome the will of the Fire Lord?
06:36He has a point that she wouldn't belong anymore if she went with him, and therefore neither would he.
06:41But if he really loves her, he should have just offered to go with her, lying that he's just her friend.
06:47And then Ozai wouldn't know that there's any reason to keep him from her.
06:50She even thinks to lie that he's just her friend.
06:53So I have to just assume that the reason she didn't have him come along with her is that she thought Ozai would be so petty that if he ever caught them kissing, they'd be severely punished.
07:02Even though Ozai doesn't even need to tell people that Ursus is his wife.
07:06He could just admit to everyone what he needed her for for the good of the royalty, and then get a different woman to kiss.
07:12He could get any woman he wanted.
07:14Then he wouldn't have to care that she's kissing someone else, because he could kiss his girlfriend too.
07:19It's too bad Ikam revealed that he was her boyfriend, and so he wouldn't believe Ursa if she lied about it.
07:27This whole conflict only arose because everyone involved didn't think at all.
07:32Speaking of that, Zuko somehow insists on escorting Azula home on his own, even though he's told by his bodyguard that the chi-blocking's gonna wear off soon.
07:41It's normal for Zuko to make stupid decisions because of his ego thanks to the inferiority complex he grew up with.
07:48It was always predictable that she'd find a way to become dangerous even now.
07:52He says mercifully that he wants her to stay in the palace in her old room because she'd be more comfortable there.
07:58Which I do prefer to the overly dark concept of her being in the Nuthouse.
08:03And even so, she'll be guarded every minute.
08:06It's still too big of a risk for someone he knows wants to be the real Fire Lord.
08:11But it was knowledgeable enough to know that right after the chi-blocking wears off, she's flexible enough to get her arm out of the straitjacket and fire lightning that misses to get away from him.
08:21She must have always planned on doing a handstand to get his fire to break her chain.
08:26How else could she get her legs free?
08:28So she finally escapes from him.
08:30Then there's a flashback that's got no dialogue to go by faster.
08:34Iken was upset and ran away to live a life alone for a long time and eventually met his spirit.
08:40Most people don't run away to live in the woods just because their girlfriend vanished.
08:46It should have been explained that he thought the Fire Lord would have him hunted down out of jealousy.
08:52Zuko gets a guard to tell him where Azula went and is clever enough to check something for warmth to find out where she went.
08:59To the other side of a porch tree, it's a secret passageway that leads to one of the many secret chambers.
09:05She finds his mom's letters that are the key to finding her.
09:08She destroys one out of sadism.
09:11Good thing Ozai didn't destroy them out of sadism.
09:15She says she'll tell him what was in those letters on one condition.
09:19She couldn't have read all of them that fast.
09:22She must have already read them as a kid.
09:25The fact that she knows about them means it doesn't really matter if the letters still exist or not.
09:29She could still tell him about them.
09:32Then there's a flashback that exists to explain why Zuko doesn't seem to know any maternal grandparents.
09:39Ozai forbid Ursa from having any ties to her past so she can entirely devote herself to her family.
09:45So she's not allowed to mention her family or town ever again.
09:49It's just him doing this for the evils.
09:51There's no logical reason you wouldn't let her parents live with him.
09:55That way it could keep her devoted to being a mother anyways.
09:59She could have suggested it before this.
10:01What would have been more believable is if her parents used to be allowed to live with them.
10:05But they were sent home because they had the same positive influence on Zuko of being good people.
10:10Which she already hated with Ursa.
10:12So it could still be explained away without this.
10:15And it doesn't matter that it was written wrong instead because it's just one minor scene.
10:19Aang thanks Zuko for inviting him to his home because they've been out of touch for a week.
10:24Meanwhile they didn't mind going a year without talking to Toph because she's not polite.
10:29Toph had to stay at the academy because now that people have seen her metalbenders in action, everybody wants to be a metalbender.
10:35Including the police.
10:37Zuko tells his friends he's going to look for his mother in her hometown and leave Aira to the throne in the meantime.
10:44Somehow Aang and Katara are dumb enough to wonder why he's asking his best friends to join him.
10:50It's really to protect him from Azula.
10:52But because they're his friends was a good enough excuse.
10:56Azula goes out from behind the curtain.
10:59Which I have to assume is specifically to scare his friends into trying to knock her out.
11:03Because there's no reason for her to do that other than sadism.
11:07Suki and Santa hug and it's explained that Azula is going with them unrestrained.
11:13And his friends lampshade how dangerous that is.
11:16Aira wants Zuko to get peace for himself and wants that for Azula too.
11:21Too bad she'll always be evil.
11:23So sympathizing with her and trying to make us do that is pointless.
11:27And Zuko says they'll need to take turns keeping an eye on Azula.
11:31Sokka makes a mistake for no reason of threatening her with the boomerang.
11:35So she zaps him which eventually gets him to act humble.
11:38Aira relatively calls his new castle dreary and can't believe he used to want to rule it.
11:44And is asked by someone what she could do to make him feel better.
11:48He declares it's a national tea appreciation day.
11:52Which is good for a lot of people.
11:54And gives someone tea that sadly I don't get to see if he turned out to enjoy.
11:58Aang says it's even better than old times because now he can kiss Katara.
12:02And she finds it sweet and lets him.
12:05I don't know why Azula doesn't specify who she's talking about when she asks them her paranoid question.
12:11I just have to assume she thinks Urza got the team to fight her.
12:15I don't blame her.
12:16Zuko says he doesn't want to go to the town in the middle of the night like bandits.
12:21Aang starts glaring because he can feel a spirit in his face.
12:25And Sokka jokes around.
12:28I know this is a reference to the fact that the spirit will appear later in the story.
12:32But it's completely pointless padding to write that.
12:36Aang sees the spirit.
12:38And Azula plans on leaving without them.
12:40Zuko thinks she's too high up.
12:43Even though firebenders can fly.
12:45And I never got told that they couldn't fly if they were too high up.
12:49So he's just overprotective of her because she's paranoid now.
12:53Even though being paranoid usually makes you do stuff to get yourself more safe.
12:57Aang glides down to catch her.
12:59And he should have known she'd burn a hole in its escape.
13:03Azula hears a hallucination of Urza warning her she's only hurting herself.
13:07And look as concerned as her real mother would be.
13:10Because she's a personification of the rational part of her mind trying to reason with her.
13:15Giving her a truth she doesn't want to hear.
13:18She accuses her of telling Zuko to lock her up.
13:20Even though the whole goal of this trip is for Zuko to find her.
13:24She says Urza's afraid of her power.
13:27Which she would have been.
13:29Azula and Serge are a lot alike.
13:31And I wish her hallucinations were this sweet.
13:34Azula is told she is confused.
13:36And pulls out a piece of paper that she thinks would let her take the throne.
13:40And she plans to kill her to stop her perceived plotting.
13:44Her imagination bought Katara the time to freeze her.
13:47Zuko wonders if Aang's alright.
13:49And everyone around her sees the spirit.
13:52Then we see Urza write a letter to hide.
13:54And Zuko tells her he's too scared to sleep because he had a nightmare about Azula.
13:59So we get to see her show him affection and tell him to sleep in her bed.
14:02And gives the letter to an old lady she trusts.
14:05But she's too cowardly to mail it.
14:07And instead it turns out Ozai was always telling her to file those to wait for him.
14:11What, did she think there would be spies that would see her mail it?
14:15All she'd have to do is look around and see that there aren't any spies.
14:19It wasn't necessary to establish that she couldn't even mail letters to her loved ones successfully.
14:25It's needlessly cruel.
14:27I don't know why I read it as being needlessly cruel.
14:30Gave her Ecom.
14:32The coward says the letter reveals a secret about the prince that scares Ozai.
14:38Aang eventually talks to the spirit politely apologizing for disturbing him.
14:42But he still wants to fight.
14:44So apparently only let him talk because he wanted to hear what he had to say.
14:48Eventually Appa attacks the spirit and eventually sends flying spirits at them.
14:53Azula tells Zuko to let her help fight them.
14:56Because Aang's too scared to fight spirits.
14:59Azula's released to save them.
15:02And it's lampshaded later that she's still unbound.
15:05Even though Azula was saving herself, not just them.
15:08Eventually Sokka puts a blanket over Katara and eventually says that he doesn't mind her mistreating him because she's his sister.
15:15Which causes Zuko to ask for a blanket and thank him for it and give one to Azula.
15:20Because of this he finds a letter from his mom that insists that Zuko isn't Ozai's son.
15:26But the tickle show establishes that he keeps being in the royalty anyways.
15:31It's always a waste of time to see Azula hallucinate because she'll never listen to her advice that she'd get a better life if she stopped acting scary.
15:39Nothing but predictable stuff happens after this.
15:42And it'd be boring to talk about every panel when there's nothing to say.
15:46Eventually we see Azula burn a flower for not being as pretty as the others.
15:50And her mother scolds her and tells her to go to her room.
15:53Even though nothing would make her do that because Ozai isn't on her side.
15:57She asks Zuko if he was alright causing Ozai to be resentful of her influence.
16:02And he decides to go to an archer of Bronstam and hire him to kill Ikem because sadism.
16:07Eventually Zuko has to deal with Azula.
16:10And he eventually grabs her.
16:12She wonders why he didn't burn the letter.
16:14The fires get put out.
16:16And eventually we see Azula explain that one of her teachers was impossibly stupid.
16:21And Zuko is told to shut up for acting like Azula was wrong when she's the better bender.
16:26Which he'd know.
16:28Zuko's given an abusive rant that explains why he said something in the show.
16:32And we get to see his mother tell Ozai off for it.
16:35Ozai gets told Ikem couldn't be found for months because he went to a dangerous forest.
16:40Ozai's only motivated by sadism.
16:42So he punishes them for being unable to do what he wants even though there was no way anyone could.
16:48Eventually Ozai reminds Urza that she isn't allowed to make contact with anyone from her past.
16:54Which makes it completely pointless to include a scene where he first explained that to her.
16:59And she says she knew that he was intercepting his letters.
17:03He lets her think that he got rid of Ikem.
17:06Then we see Zuko disguise himself.
17:09Which is smart.
17:10Aang should have known he needed a hat to have a proper disguise.
17:14Why didn't they bring a wig?
17:16They eventually find out the town's putting on the play from the start of the arc.
17:21It's sweet to see Zuko remind Azula of their childhood fun together and her happily join in.
17:27And realistically they're told to stay quiet.
17:30Zuko asks about Urza and they get startled by someone.
17:33And they eventually meet the director who is inexplicably wearing a mask like he was in the play.
17:39He eventually invites them all to his house for info on her.
17:42And Zuko thanks him and Katara compliments the director's home in front of his wife.
17:48Zuko sweetly agrees to see the doll of a little girl called Ki.
17:52She's shown as capable of failure instead of a Mary Sue right away because she failed to give her doll a good new haircut.
17:59Which reminds Zuko of his sister.
18:01Who tries to intimidate her for fun because she's just like Ozai.
18:05The man kisses his wife on the cheek.
18:08And reveals that Sanka was smart enough to say that the group is a bunch of drama historians.
18:13The director gives the heroes a bunch of exposition that's boring because we were already told it in a better way.
18:19It's revealed that Ikim ran off to a valley where people go to forget their lives.
18:24Because it's a world full of spirits.
18:26And Ki's mom says Urza went to the same place.
18:30Zuko thanks him and Ki hopes she'll see him again.
18:34Azula thinks the happiness of that family must have been fake because she's paranoid and her parents hated each other.
18:41Aang apologizes to Zuko.
18:43And doesn't want Zuko to find Ikim and hopes he was lost to history.
18:47Zuko says Azula took back the letter.
18:50He cares more about finding out who he really is than leading his country.
18:54Urza in a flashback hears Azula confess to her that Ozai is planning to kill her son.
19:00So eventually, to save her son, Urza tells Ozai to give him an untraceable poison she conveniently knows how to make for no reason so that it could get thrown in exchange for Zuko's life.
19:11But what's stopping him from killing him anyways?
19:14I guess she assumes that if she simply runs off with Zuko without saying this, he'll send people after the two of them to kill them.
19:22Because Zulan wouldn't believe him if he just lied to him that Zuko was killed without any sort of proof.
19:28Fortunately, it's explained that she knows how to do this because conveniently, her mother was an herbalist.
19:34And so she conveniently learned from her when most people don't learn from their parents' jobs.
19:40So in alternate universes where a mother wasn't an herbalist, things went by very differently.
19:46He tells her to give him the poison and then leave the capital city forever because he doesn't trust her not to poison him too.
19:53Since he thinks everyone's like him.
19:56And that's the only reason because if he had a brain, he'd know that if she was like that, she would've already done it.
20:03I mean, it's kind of common sense. I mean, it is the smart thing to do.
20:07Because he's abusive.
20:09Getting rid of Ozai would benefit and protect her kids too.
20:13She should've known he wouldn't let her take both children.
20:16Because he needs heirs.
20:20She should've said to him that when they're adults, Zuko will go back to him to be the heir.
20:26Because then he wouldn't have a reason to care because she'd be taking his kids off his hands for him.
20:31And they'd still get to be his heirs.
20:34She could've explained that she'd want Zuko to be the Fire Lord because she thinks he'd be a great one.
20:39This could've been resolved if they were smarter.
20:42He doesn't think Zuko would leave the country how he would anyways.
20:46He one day realized he'd rather have someone like him in charge than Zuko.
20:49So what good damn is he?
20:51If he let her leave with Zuko, they could just say that Zuko died.
20:56And have an excuse to have Zula be his heir.
21:00So we see her kiss her kids and hug Zuko.
21:03Eventually the heroes go to Forgetful Valley.
21:06And there's a joke because Aang didn't find this out because he's the Avatar.
21:10He did it because of a sign.
21:12Azula's warned that if she tries blasting her way through, the fire would spread to the whole forest.
21:18Eventually Aang assumes he would benefit from following a random animal which conveniently leads him to the lake.
21:24Azula sees her mother in the lake and takes a fit.
21:27And her bending causes them to get threatened by flowers that shatter like ice.
21:32So Katara figures out there's a waterbender using nature against them.
21:36Something that already happened in the show.
21:39Azula protects Sokka so that she can keep taking advantage of him for protection.
21:44Aang frees Zuko from plants pinning him to a tree.
21:48Katara takes control of the plants and tells people to show themselves.
21:52There's a flashback where Rizzo goes up to a kid asking to see some people she knew and gets told they're gone.
21:59Making it especially pointless that we saw a scene that explained why Zuko doesn't know his grandparents because we would've been told why here.
22:07And yeah, it's needlessly cruel of her to not have her parents around anymore. There's no reason to write that whatsoever.
22:14Eventually the director Noren asks her out.
22:17It's explained that the waterbender freaked out at the heroes because she thought a forest animal was disturbing the pool.
22:23Which has to remain undisturbed like the others in the forest.
22:27She explains that her brother here used to borrow people's stuff to prove he could.
22:32Which makes sure he won't care as much that he got his face disfigured one day.
22:36The waterbender went to a library and found out about a convenient spirit that could give people new faces.
22:42It makes sense since there was a spirit in the show that could steal faces.
22:47I don't know why they ever had a single failed attempt to make it to the Forgetful Valley.
22:51The heroes made it here effortlessly.
22:54For some reason the reason her brother hasn't eaten is that ever since his injury he's caught between life and death.
23:01So he doesn't do much of anything now.
23:03That's confusing and unnecessary.
23:05It turns out the spirit's nearby when face-like patterns appear.
23:09Because the spirit likes to show off.
23:12While that's also confusing and unnecessary, it's interesting enough to be worth it.
23:16The woman complains that she always seems to be at the wrong pool when the spirit goes to drink from one of them.
23:22But there's only four pools.
23:25There's no way that she would've never seen the spirit in all of these years.
23:29All she'd have to do is stay here long enough.
23:32Aang plans to help her and Azula gets impatient to find her mother instead.
23:36She assumes Ursus sent these two to slow her down, freaks out,
23:40and Aang astral projects into the spirit world and his spirit gives him a ride because he's the avatar.
23:45So he sees him as a fellow spirit.
23:48Eventually he tells the wolf to drink from another pool and accidentally ends up riding it,
23:52which offends the owner of the wolf, the Mother of Faces.
23:57Eventually, the fighting between the siblings gets stopped by talking,
24:02and Ursus says Noren's name is the same name as the dragon Emperor's name from her play from the arc Start.
24:08He tells her he knows her name already and almost scares her away.
24:12He shares a memory with her that Ikum had too, and she ends up recognizing him.
24:18Good for her.
24:20The Mother of Faces says she's a nice person and grants one favor to a mortal every season.
24:25If she was a really nice person, she wouldn't mind being asked for favors a lot,
24:30because it doesn't seem like she has anything better to do.
24:33Aang asks for two favors and she refuses.
24:36Kindness yet right.
24:38Talk about convoluted drama.
24:40If she's nice enough to do a favor for one person, she'd do it for two.
24:45Zuko decides to let the waterbender talk to the spirit.
24:50Coming to the rescue of the main characters, Azula interrupts her to get information from the spirit.
24:55She reveals that Ursa asked her for a new face, and to test her sincerity, she asks her for a plain face.
25:02But that's not really a plain face.
25:05Why were we shown the flashback where Noren was recognized by Ursa before this point?
25:11Azula disappears, and Zuko and Sokka decide to leave with one saying thanks.
25:16The spirit really deserves to be tied up with water here, but should know better than to annoy her.
25:22She could either wait a season for her brother's cure, or do this and potentially guarantee that she'll never help her.
25:29Eventually, the story shows me Ikim telling Ursa that it's too painful to stay in the prop warehouse because of old memories.
25:36So he went to Forgetful Valley and came home as a different person.
25:40And the whole reason he ran away was because he missed Ursa,
25:43so it sure is convenient that he didn't decide to forget about Ursa.
25:47He advised her to get a new face for protection.
25:50Ursa thinks that with a new face, she would be able to at least see her kids again.
25:55Ikim warns her that only getting to see a glimpse of her kids every so often as they grow up isn't much of a life.
26:01She says she can't stop wondering how they're doing, and naturally hates it.
26:06Aang goes after the spirit who rants because she thinks it's already offensive that people ask for new faces
26:11when she takes the credit for their real ones, rather than science being responsible.
26:17She hypocritically accuses Aang of being the selfish one because she's the childish one.
26:23It's a great concept, but if she's completely unlikable,
26:26that's just begging for fans to insist that she's the disappointing concept
26:31and call her an unnecessary part of the long-awaited story.
26:35The flashback has Ursa be with Ikim for a while and reveal that she can't even try to bring her kids to her town
26:41because she'd be endangering everyone there.
26:43He should know that. Azula wouldn't keep quiet.
26:47She explains to the spirits that her pain comes from memories.
26:51How convenient that the spirit can sense pain, causing her to ask her this question.
26:57The spirit could have easily been written to say right away that she could also give her amnesia.
27:02This is why Ikim remembered her.
27:04He didn't ask her for amnesia as well.
27:07Naturally, the spirit who was nice enough to grant her a favor was willing to let her keep her memory of Ikim.
27:13Thankfully, she's written to say she's horrible,
27:15which lampshades the fact that some people would hate her for getting herself to forget her kids.
27:20But she just did something smart.
27:23This is the thing that's controversial about the arc.
27:25No one expected Zuko's mother to have done this, and it wasn't necessary.
27:31But I can understand why it was written.
27:33The writer wanted to be nice to Ursa.
27:35So as someone who read a lot worse stories, I'm fine with this.
27:40Zuko finds out his mother's just fine.
27:42He says a shortcut to her house from Mizu worked.
27:46He tells Sokka to stay outside to keep an eye out for Azula.
27:50Norn had a feeling he'd return, and Ki hugs Zuko, calling them best friends already,
27:55desperate for a big brother.
27:57She invites him to dinner, with him being shy and trying to say no at first.
28:02He's impressed that they eat dinner together every night.
28:05He asks her if she's happy.
28:07She agrees, and he smiles, causing him to say he's bothered them enough.
28:12Norn mans up and urges Zuko to tell her the truth because it's the right thing to do.
28:17Why didn't he just do this in the first place now that Ozai's not a threat anymore?
28:21And everyone thinks Azula's locked up too.
28:23If he'd just told them the truth right away, the arc wouldn't have happened.
28:28I mean, the whole reason he lied about who he was was to avoid being mobbed,
28:32but he's not gonna be mobbed in someone's house,
28:34so there's no point in keeping the lie up at that point.
28:37Eventually, Katara waterbends to protect Mizu, who refuses to leave the forest.
28:43This means there's enough time for her brother to lose his mask,
28:46causing Aang to find out that her brother was the victim of Kau,
28:49and offhandedly mention that he's met Kau the face stealer,
28:52causing the spirit to admit that's her son.
28:55The woman could've easily told the heroes right away that he lost his face.
28:59She had no reason to lie to the Avatar that his face was disfigured instead of taken.
29:04If she gave him this info, he could've said he met Kau the second the spirit felt like leaving,
29:10and we'd lose a ton of the padding that makes this exciting.
29:14Aang could've taken off his mask in front of the spirit immediately.
29:18Aang finds out that Kau's been stealing faces for all of history
29:21because he misses his estranged mother so much.
29:24So all of the face stealing is her fault for being too selfish and irresponsible to reunite with him.
29:30And Kau's a jerk, so he deserves to be characterized like this.
29:34And for someone as arbitrary as him, I'm glad he's fleshed out a little.
29:38Aang says the Avatar spared Kau despite what he did to his girlfriend.
29:43I guess Aang's saying this to make the spirit like him,
29:46because he should know that spirits are immune to bending, so of course he didn't kill Kau.
29:51The spirit puts her hand on the guy's head, and returns his face and personality.
29:56Aang thanks the spirit, and says that he needed her help to restore two relationships,
30:01one between a mother and her son.
30:04It's smart of him to say this to try to encourage her to help,
30:07by comparing it to her own estranged relationship.
30:11It turns out reality ensued because Norrin immediately recognized Zuko from his scar.
30:16And yet nobody recognized his scar in all the time he was wandering the Earth Kingdom going by the name Li.
30:22So while I thought people should recognize the scar right after he disguised himself,
30:26it's because of the show that I dismissed that.
30:29Eartha didn't even know she had a different name before.
30:32I have to assume that when she wondered why she got amnesia,
30:35he said,
30:36you tripped and hit your head.
30:38Eventually, when he says he's Ikem, and Zuko says he belongs here with his father,
30:43Ikem says he couldn't be his father.
30:46Eventually, Azula bursts through the roof and sends Zuko away with fire,
30:50and the story conveniently pretends fire is a solid object.
30:54Azula takes it personally that her mother had a new kid when she was gone,
30:58which makes Protoman and Archie comparable to Azula here.
31:02So maybe it makes sense that some people hated Flynn using the fan theory that he's just a jealous child,
31:07because that's how bad it makes him look.
31:10A boomerang hits Azula in the head,
31:13and this is sort of satisfying because she capped on arresting it,
31:16but misses the point by not showing the impact.
31:19Azula's not knocked out by this, though.
31:22A later comic will have someone get knocked out by this.
31:26Azula threatens her mother,
31:28who says she's sorry she didn't love her enough if she's right about her accusations.
31:33I'm glad she got to say this to her,
31:35so there is something of substance to come out of Azula seeing her mother.
31:39Even if it was too forgettable.
31:42She tears up, and Zuko grabs her arm,
31:45so I guess he didn't see her tears,
31:47or he didn't think that would cause her to change her mind.
31:50And she sends fire at him,
31:52which could be just a spike for grabbing her.
31:55He tells Azula he can redirect her lightning anywhere.
31:58Somehow she grabs the idiot ball and tries using lightning on him anyways,
32:02so she gets hit with it.
32:04She tries to talk some sense into Zuko at long last,
32:07saying that if she gets what she wants,
32:09he'll be free of a throne he never wanted,
32:11and she'll be free of the nagging in her head.
32:14But why would he be free of that because she got rid of her?
32:17It's like how Surge thinks she'd stop being miserable if she got rid of Sonic,
32:21even though she hallucinated someone else,
32:23despite being separated from him.
32:26Azula wants Zuko to admit that he needs her to be free.
32:29He admits that he always knew the throne was his destiny,
32:32and that she's still his sister.
32:35She gets upset and can't handle hearing that for some reason,
32:39even though she's not able to feel guilty,
32:42and runs away.
32:44Her tearing up earlier would make sense if she felt guilty,
32:47but if that was the case, she wouldn't be able to throw lightning at Zuko,
32:50so she's pretty confusing.
32:52Her family follows her and finds the spirit,
32:55who is conveniently nice enough to come here,
32:57even though she made a big hissy fit out of the idea of being expected to grant two favors.
33:02Again, it makes sense because she's trying to repair her relationship with the mother and her son.
33:07Considering that she was offended at the idea of someone asking her for a new face
33:11because she's responsible for people's faces,
33:14it makes sense that she would jump at the chance to return someone's face
33:17to the way she originally made it,
33:19because she values that because she prefers that original face.
33:24She agrees to get her memories back.
33:26In any case, Azula dropped the letter for Zuko on purpose.
33:30While this is surprising because Azula is evil,
33:33you really would have to drop a letter on purpose.
33:36Katara kisses his cheek and says the reason she loves him is his optimism.
33:41Eventually, Urza apologizes to Zuko for not loving him enough,
33:46lampshading,
33:48what kind of mother forgets her son?
33:51He reassures her and she calls him handsome and shows him respect.
33:55He gives her a letter and gets told that she had lied.
33:58The story could have easily shown us this much earlier.
34:01It already had tension after all.
34:04Urza already knew Zuko was his real son
34:07because he had spies track her every move for months before they were married.
34:11I assume he means for 10 months.
34:14Otherwise, this means nothing.
34:16She says that she only lied in her letter
34:19because she wanted to see if he was reading her letters and hurt him
34:22and wishes that Ikim really was Zuko's dad.
34:25Why did she say maybe?
34:27Why did she make more than one letter if she knew they weren't being mailed?
34:31She gets told that every time he abuses them,
34:34he'll just be fulfilling his mother's wish.
34:37Urza says there's so much she wants to tell her son
34:40and he tells her he wants to hear all of it.
34:43This low-paced but interesting arc by Gene Yang
34:46was about Zuko finally tracking down his mother
34:49because of the letters she wrote to her ex-boyfriend she could have easily not had
34:53even though she knew that they weren't being mailed after the first few times
34:58so it was lucky that Izulo even knew about them
35:01so that she could start this arc.
35:04And he finds her in the first issue.
35:07But her new husband doesn't simply give Zuko the necessary information right away
35:12because for no reason he thought Urza would be taken away from him if he did
35:16when Zuko showed no sign of being like that.
35:20A better excuse for keeping the secret would be that he was worried she would be mad at him
35:24for keeping a huge secret about her from her for years.
35:27He even kept her real name from her.
35:29That sounds familiar.
35:31But she doesn't care because they're in love.
35:34If Katara can be insecure and paranoid that her boyfriend would leave her for fangirls,
35:38it'd be just as believable for him to think Urza would leave him if he told the truth right away.
35:43And I can assume that he didn't explain this
35:46because he didn't want to get the idea in her head
35:49and get her turned on him when she wouldn't have been otherwise.
35:53So it still makes sense that the arc happened.
35:56What's controversial about the arc is that Urza gave up her memories of her kids to feel better
36:02even though she lampshades it herself twice
36:05because it's not what fans expected and makes her look bad.
36:08She's thoroughly sympathetic in nearly every other way though.
36:12And I forgive it because while it is an excuse to make money off two more issues than they needed to have,
36:17it was worth it because it made life easier on Urza.
36:21She hated remembering that because she couldn't be with them.
36:24So it's mean to her to think she should have been suffering.
36:27I'd gladly take something being less depressing.
36:30Being mad at her would make sense if it weren't for the spirit conveniently deciding to return her memories in vain
36:35so she wouldn't have to keep living with the consequence of her decision.
36:39Despite her tantrum being expected to help someone more than once,
36:43why'd she help anyone if she's the type to only want to help once a season?
36:48You'd think she would want to help more than just one person a season then.
36:52It's not like it's too complicated to understand so it's not literally convoluted.
36:57It makes sense that they had more stuff to it than they had to
37:01because they really did have to because it would have been a pretty boring story
37:05If literally all it was about was Urza did get found by the search parties,
37:10then Zuko himself wouldn't have had to go search for her.
37:13So there wouldn't have really been an interesting plot there.
37:16It makes sense that they made a whole arc of that
37:19because a story that boring isn't really what people would want.
37:22And nobody would want to feel like him finding his mother was just an afterthought.
37:26Appa can fly really fast so it's not enough for her to be really far away from him.
37:31It would have been pretty boring to have a whole story arc about just Appa flying ahead.
37:36A lot of the story was taken up by padding because of the spirit throwing a tantrum,
37:40which could have easily been avoided because the waterbender had no excuse
37:43to not explain that her brother lost his face
37:46because then the spirit would have been told about that right away.
37:50And in general, the arc was slower paced than it should be because of this padding.
37:54It's good compared to the last arc.
37:56In terms of the plot events though, it's forgettable
38:00because there was only a few things that were memorable before I came back to this to review it.
38:05What Ursa did to herself, and the fact that a spirit throwing a tantrum for some bit.
38:11Almost none of the flashbacks are a waste of time, so that's a miracle.
38:16But it's ironic that in a story arc about Zuko searching for his mother,
38:19the actual searching for his mother is done in one issue.
38:23I love that there was a happy ending for that waterbender and Zuko,
38:26and that Azula willingly decided to leave her mother alone from now on.
38:29The fact that she chose to run away and apparently didn't return to try to fight her again is nice by Azula's standards.
38:36But for all I know, it'll be established that she was planning to return and Ursa moved after this,
38:41so we'd never know if she was actually planning to return to kill her.
38:45If she didn't move, then we would actually know for sure that she did change her mind.
38:49Unlike an episode of the show, this really didn't have much happen in it.
38:55So I was a bit thankful to see conflict from Azula and the waterbender,
38:58because it made for visually interesting panels.
39:01But they still didn't matter to the plot, just happening to stretch things out and look cool.
39:06So I still felt impatient with them and skimmed through their dialogue,
39:09because nothing that happened besides what ended and started the conflict mattered enough for me to mention.
39:15But it was entertaining and never had lasting consequences, so it's worth it.