Avatar: The Last AirbenderLooking closer at the animated series that follows Avatar Aang, the only person who can use all four bending arts: earthbending, waterbending, airbending, and firebending.
Vote up the best points about "The Siege Of The North".
Both parts of "The Siege of the North" still remain as two of the best episodes in the whole ATLA franchise, and it's not just because Zhao pulled a Despicable Me move. There's so much depth in every scene and tons of deep character development that rewatching it never fails to stir up emotions and philosophical thoughts, so at the risk of inducing an existential crisis within you, here are just some of the random realizations fans have had about the finale through the years.Â
I am constantly struck by the beautiful imagery and animation in this show. When Zhao kills the moon spirit, I love love love that everything goes grayscale but the bending. Spirit monster Aang and Zuko and Zhao's firefight are the only sources of color for this segment, which I think makes the moment all the more powerful. Are there any other instances of color play like this in the show that I'm not remembering?
Edit: Yue's eyes are also blue during this when no one else's have color.
The thing about Uncle Iroh is that his wisdom is not “cookie fortune”, but things we know he learnt the hard way. There is his personal story and suffering behind the things he says:
“You know, Prince Zuko, destiny is a funny thing. You never know how things are going to work out. But if you keep an open mind and an open heart, I promise you will find your own destiny someday.”
When he says this, we know that once he too misunderstood his destiny thinking he had to conquer Ba Sing Se - and that cost him everything - his son, his throne, his standing in the Fire Nation.
This is why when Zuko tries to make up “proverbs” that sound like his uncle it just comes out as total nonsense. “Clouds have two sides, a dark and light. And a silver lining in between. It’s like a silver sandwich. So… when life seems hard… take a bite out of the silver sandwich.”
But when he gives advice that is backed up by his own experience, his own truth, even if it’s not totally eloquent, it hits home.
And Sokka accepts it, because he knows that there is Zuko’s entire life to back this up - his hopeless search for the Avatar, every time he goes up to fight against Azula, every time he thought he was doing the right thing and it backfired. He knows this so strongly, that it’s in fact Sokka who says this about Zuko in the end of Book 1:
After the Siege of the North, Iroh and Zuko are able to make it out of the North Pole on a raft. Now, the last time we see them, they’re both pretty close to the inner sanctum of the NWT. Actually, the episode cuts directly from Zuko on the bridge to Pakku. Iroh and Zuko definitely have the skills to get out on their own, but…
What if Pakku, White Lotus Member, helped the Grand Lotus and his nephew get out unscathed? In a similar way to how Iroh and Zuko escape in The Desert?
I've been paying more attention to the musical score this time around. When Iroh and Zuko are escaping on their makeshift raft at the end of part 2, Iroh subtly goes, “I’m surprised you’re not at this moment trying to capture the avatar.” He makes a face only the audience can see. He’s so ready for Zuko to begin his transformation. And as we get a close up of Zuko staring up at the sky, the infamous fire nation motif sounds altered, uncertain, like it’s trying to resolve to a brighter major chord. They’re telling us he has a long way to go but he’ll get there. That's my take anyway.
One glaring thing about this episode is that Aang certainly caused the (in-combat) death of scores of Fire Nation soldiers in this episode while in the Avatar State, and then the show only makes cursory references to it. Considering that Aang struggles so much with the decision of whether to kill Ozai, someone arguably much more deserving of death, I would have figured that Aang would have much more lasting guilt over what happened. It would have been a really interesting direction to take his character, but it gets sorta swept under the rug after one more episode.
In season 2 when Aang visits Guru Pathik, Pathik tells him that by opening all of his chakras, he’ll be able to go in and out of the Avatar state at will, and be in full control the entire time. This implies that in all his previous uses of the Avatar state, he was not in control of his actions, and therefore those deaths weren’t really his fault. That’s why he refused to kill Ozai in the Avatar state, because he had the option to stop himself that time
As a smaller but really appreciated detail: when the moon spirit is removed from the pond, the ocean spirit start swimming erratically, signifying a lack of balance and harmony.
