



"What would a boy know of destiny? If a fish lives its whole life in this river, does he know the river's destiny? No! Only that it runs on and on out of his control! He may follow where it flows, but he cannot see the end. He cannot imagine the ocean."









I'll just dive into this amazing episode. Screw introductions, I wrap up everything in the conclusion anyway. Hope you enjoy the read!





Who could that be? I don't know why, but this was the first time I noticed this masked fellow, and he appears several times before we actually meet him. I guess he really was that sneaky in my memory!









So we saw Katara heal herself this episode... what about healing other people? I'm glad the writers cleared that up before moving on with the story.





Classic Sokka. Two fishhooks, one thumb. What could go wrong?

Poster for the fire dance festival:Aang, Jeong Jeong, Chey, and the Blue Spirit are all wanted by the fire nation:Where'd Appa go? I'm serious, one second he's in the frame, the next he vanishes!This is the first time we see the fire nation being festive:This just works... made me laugh.Fire flakes, yum! Interestingly, the only other time we see fire flakes in ATLA is during a circus (similar festive atmosphere) in Book 2,Yeah, that's right. The writers create parallels not only in the individual episodes or within a book, butThere's a LOT more where that came from.The children's puppet play at the festival was disturbing. The kids cheered when the Firelord puppet killed the earth bender... Straight propaganda and brainwashing. Having this inside look at the fire nation serves to shape our thoughts and expectations of them. I don't know about you, but it gets my mind racing on how else they misinform and control their people. I'm sure it's not unlike other communist and dictatorship countries like North Korea.Too busy trying to be the hero, Aang unintentionally reveals himself as the Avatar in spectacular fashion:A mysterious hooded man whom we've seen a few times already helps Aang and company escape the festival. Thankfully the bison whistle comes in clutch... As a matter of fact, a bison whistle plays a key part in, you guessed it, Book 2. Not a spoiler, just something to note and appreciate. All of these parallels just dawned on me, and I've never heard anyone else talk about them."I serve a man." Chey continues, "He's [Jeong Jeong] the first person ever to leave the army and live. I'm the second, but you don't get to be a legend for that."Although I haven't read it myself, I've heard that this episode is extremely reminiscent of the book. Apparently Jeong Jeong is the embodiment of Kurtz, the European administrator sent to the Congo to "conquer" the territory from the "African savagery," but ends up becoming one of the natives through his choices to put their welfare over the welfare of the British trading companies. Zhao represents the people who want to assert fire's dominance over every one else-- what Kurtz used to be before he became "enlightened." In essence, it is a parable story of the dangers of people who strive solely to dominate over others, regardless of the cost. I'm sure there would be a lot to discuss here, and a lot of parallels to pick out, but I know nothing of the book. But I think it's fantastic that we can draw parallels between Avatar and great works of literature such as this.Meet Lin Yee, the leader of the isolated and primitive tribe in which Chey and Master Jeong Jeong reside. It was stated that Chey was ordered not to search for the Avatar, but he did anyway.Admiral Zhao caught wind of the festival incident and is now onto the Avatar's trail.According to Chey, Jeong Jeong could tell Aang hadn't mastered water or earth just by the way he walked! A few times now, Aang has been told that he needs to learn the elements in order, but he hasn't received an explanation. Why is the order in which Aang learns the elements so important?Jeong Jeong: "Before learning firebending, you must learn water and earth. Water is cool and soothing, earth is steady and stable. But fire, fire is alive; it breathes, it grows. Without the bender, a rock will not throw itself! But fire will spread and destroy everything in its path if one does not have the will to control it." Wow... if that doesn't answer the question, I don't know what will.This next part is without a doubt my favorite part of the episode:Avatar Roku takes over Aang's body and orders the deserter to teach him firebending. "I have mastered the elements a thousand times in a thousand lifetimes. Now, I must do it once again." The music, the atmosphere, the symbolism of the burning tree (religious, and a foreshadowing of Zhao burning down the forest), Jeong Jeong's fear... everything about this scene is perfect.Now on to the training. Let me just say that I love the dynamic between Aang, the cocky, impatient student, and Jeong Jeong the wise master. "CONCENTRATE!""Even that oaf knows to concentrate on what he's doing!" LMAO! Poor Sokka.Jeong Jeong: "Feel the heat of the sun. It is the greatest source of fire, yet it is in complete balance with nature." So true! It's important to realize that every element depends on balance."Power in firebending comes from the breath," says the deserter. The source of firebending is the sun, but the breath is required to release the energy. It's just firebending basics. Uncle Iroh teaches Zuko this exact same thing many times throughout Book 1, and it's essential to Zuko's development as a firebender.Unsurprisingly, this basic training makes Aang extremely bored and restless. On first glance, one may think this to be extremely immature and disrespectful of Aang. But let's think about it. Aang has less than a year to master all the elements, a task that should take a decade or more. He simply doesn't have the time to learn firebending in a traditional way. We know he's naturally gifted and that he learned waterbending quickly. Is it such a horrible thing to try to speed through firebending training? Well, we know it doesn't work out that way, but Aang's approach is completely understandable.However, the deserter was right. This was simply not the time for Aang to learn firebending."I had a pupil once..." explains Jeong Jeong:WHAT?! ZHAO? Oh boy, things are reallyThe villagers throw spears at Zhao, and get a fiery response. Apparently there was a very similar scenario in, when Marlow's crew attacked the natives while traveling up the Congo River. Asserting their "superiority" over the wilderness showed where the true evil and savagery lay:I love this transition. Remember that parallel to Iroh? I guess every enlightened man loves his tea:"Learn restraint, or risk destroying yourself and everyone you love." Jeong Jeong's views on the burden of Fire show how easy it would be for someone to lose control. How easy it would be to control others. With great power comes great responsibility.sheds light on how the fire nation easily became so powerful and corrupt. The answer lies in the nature of the element itself.It is moments like these that make me realize how beautiful ATLA really is:Be the leaf:Aang learns first-hand how dangerous fire can be:Right after Aang accidentally burned Katara, Sokka tackled him to the ground. Yeah, they are like family, but you NEVER mess with Katara. Sokka means business.This was a cool reveal of Katara's healing abilities. As you can imagine, it'll come in handy A LOT down the road:After Jeong Jeong observes Katara healing herself, he comes over to sit and talk more about the elements, which leads to one of my favorite quotes from the episode: "Water brings healing and life. But fire brings only destruction and pain. It forces those of us burdened with its care to walk a razors edge between humanity and savagery. Eventually... we are torn apart."Enough philosophy, am I right? (Hint: NO, THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH) But I guess playtime is over anyway... We finally get to see how much of a badass the deserter is. Beautiful animation:Aang tells Katara how sorry he is for burning her, and that he'll never firebend again. Aang's experience with fire in this episode plays such a big role in his decisions and actions down the line. This helped shape his outlook on the Avatar, his duties, and life in general. With this in mind, I'd say thatis easily one of the most essential episodes in Book 1. There's so much to unpack and digest.Back to Jeong Jeong. As he's surrounded by Zhao's men, he warns Zhao to not challenge the Avatar.Zhao retorts: "I think I can handle a child.""I have never seen such raw power," Jeong Jeong says.The deserter creates a fire shield to block the incoming attacks, then escapes into the woods. Pay attention to this nifty trick...Jeong Jeong was right--Zhao had no self control. It was sad to see the forest burn down because of Zhao's carelessness.Aang yells, "I don't know why, but I thought you'd be better than Zuko!" Damn, I thought Aang took a vow to never firebend again? That was one of the sickest burns in the whole show! 💥😜Congratulations, Zhao. You succeeded in destroying all of your boats! "Have a nice walk home!"is an excellent episode that draws many parallels with great literature such as, and classic movies such as. If we're talking about this stuff in the same sentence as Avatar, we know we've got something special.I think this episode nails the classic impatient student/enlightened master story, because there is so much depth to the motivations of each character. Aang isn't just learning to learn, he MUST learn firebending before Sozin's Comet arrives, or the world will perish. He has a right to be impatient! As if things couldn't get any worse, he ends the episode with a vow to NEVER firebend again. Jeong Jeong isn't just a hermit living in the woods to seek enlightenment. No, he was once a fire nation general himself, but became sickened by his actions and the atrocities of the fire nation, and sought inner peace in the wilderness. He became a legend, and was worshipped in an almost diety-like way by his followers (Chey was among them). I can't possibly do this episode justice by talking about it!Ranking among my favorite episodes of Book 1,is definitely one to rewatch, analyze, and discuss.I rate9 out of 10 flaming candles.Thank you so much for reading, and until next time, peace...