Mini Review #110: Avatar: The Last Airbender 1x4/1x5 "Into the Dark" and "Spirited Away" (Patreon)

Spoilers for the episodes:

Two more Avatar episodes today with both of them being good and one of them being my favourite of the show so far! Starting with "Into the Dark": this was a fun episode with some really great character moments, especially for Katara and Sokka. There was a lot that was changed and re-worked in this episode from the cartoon but I will be putting that aside because as I say in most of the other reviews, I don't want to compare this to the cartoon too much. The Bumi and Aang plot line was really fun and had some great moments. I felt like some of the tension with Bumi was taken away with him revealing himself to Aang right at the start however, there were some changes made to his character which I did actually fund myself liking. His outlook and mthod of teaching Aang that sacrifices need to be made was interesting and it makes sense that a more jaded version of Bumi would feel the need to display just how hard choice is in war. Katara and Sokka found themselves in the secret tunnels (YES LET'S GO THEY ARE IN THE EPISODE WITH THE HIPPIES AND THE SONG OH YEAH) and it was in these tunnels that it felt like they worked on a few of their grievances with each other. Finally, the Zuko Iroh stuff was the best it has been this episode and seeing the show fill in the cracks of the cartoon such as iroh's sons funeral or the day Zuko leaves the fire nation with Iroh brought a few tears to my eyes.

"Spirited Away" was my favourite episode of the season so far. Again, this one felt like it was 10 seconds long but it had so much character development in it. Again, the episode changed a lot from the cartoon as well as adding things from future seasons into this episode (and the Legend of Korra!). That being said, I didn't mind these changes and seeing the gang find themselves in the fog of lost souls was really cool. Watching the invasion of the southern water tribe and seeing Katara's mother being burned alive was horrifying and Sokka's disappointment from not being good enough for his dad was sad to see. My issue with this though was Sokka's dad, he just did not feel like the leader and mentor he should be. Besides that, we also got some closure for Aang as he got to talk to an old friend and discuss the genocide. Kho the face stealer (is that how you spell it) looked SO SCARY and will be in my nightmares forever. Finally, JUNE BABY YEAH and she looked so good!! I think this was the episode that I finally connected with the characters and separated them from the cartoon. I saw Sokka, Katara, and Aang especially in this episode as their own characters and not imitations of others. And lemme tell you, I am so excited for the next one!!!