#rabbiroo

I just love them all.

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watchathon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a TV show every weekday, with a short blog post where I write down my thoughts as I watch. Each new thought starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so. Now that the introductions are over with, here’s my thoughts on Tales of Ba Sing Se:

THE TALE OF TOPH AND KATARA

- It’s nice to see the daily morning routine of the Gaang when they’re not traveling the world.

- “As long as they don’t touch my feet.” *immediate cut to them touching her feet in the spa*

- I like the use of bending when Toph and Katara are in the sauna. As I’ve said before, I’m just a sucker for mundane uses of powers like this.

- Another fun use of bending? Giving bullies their comeuppance.

- This scene of Katara telling Toph all the things she admires about her is so sweet. We haven’t gotten all that much interaction between these two so far (except for The Chase, where most of their time onscreen together is spent arguing), so this is nice to see.

THE TALE OF IROH

- I like the scene of Iroh singing to the kid to cheer him up. It is just a sweet moment in general, but the choice of song is also a song that will come up in a different context later, so it acts as good setup for that, as well as showing us how it would normally sound.

- This scene of Iroh giving advice to the kids about admitting to their mistakes, then changing his mind, is both wholesome and hilarious. Iroh’s spent a lot of his screen time giving advice and reciting proverbs, but even he knows that sometimes? A simple tactical retreat can be the best option.

- Iroh is the rare kind of character who could give advice to their mugger, and instead of seeming stupid or smug, he seems wise and kind, advising the mugger to follow his dreams and not be afraid to accept help from others. Heck, this one conversation probably turned that guy’s entire life around!

- This scene always puts tears in my eyes. Even before Iroh starts talking, let alone singing, the background music, the sunset in the background, and Iroh setting up that picture of Lu Ten gives you a clue of just what Iroh’s here for. 

- “If only I could have helped you.” Iroh’s been helping people for this entire story. Giving that shopkeeper advice about caring for the moonflower, calming down that kid, having a cup of tea with his mugger. 

But he was unable to help his own son when his life was on the line. To Iroh, Lu Ten was his little soldier boy, but he’ll never come marching home.

And that’s why this is the saddest moment of the whole series.

THE TALE OF AANG

- At first I thought that Aang was in the zoo looking for Appa. But, I don’t think Appa could actually fit in one of those cages...

- The rabbiroo is adorable, and I want so hard to believe that some Avatar in the entire line has had a rabbiroo for their companion (like how Aang has Appa, and Roku had that dragon).

- “Don’t worry, I’m great with animals.” Narrator: He was not that great with animals.

- I guess it never occurred to me that the Bison Whistle could work on anything other than a flying bison.

- Turtle seal, also adorable.

TALE OF SOKKA

- Never imagined Sokka would have an appreciation for poetry.

- Epic rap battles? Nah, gimme more epic haiku battles!

- I like how the subtitles on Netflix are formatted like a haiku.

- Tsk, tsk, Sokka. You would’ve been in the clear if you’d omitted the word “young”.

- I like that the haiku club has a bouncer who literally throws people out if they get it wrong.

THE TALE OF ZUKO

- Feels so weird to see Zuko all gussied up. He looks nice, though.

- Zuko’s so awkward, it’s both cute and hilarious.

- Headcanon that Zuko did actually learn juggling at some point after the series. Or even better, he actually did know how to juggle already, and actually did fail because he hadn’t practiced for a while.

- It’s really sweet that Zuko lit the lights for Jin. He just met her, might not even actually be romantically interested in her, but he was willing to risk getting caught by her or some random bystander just because it’s something nice that he could do for her.

- And even though it seemed like Zuko was prime for more angst, he still had to admit that it was a nice night.

TALE OF MOMO

- We’ve seen Aang missing Appa, but it’s interesting to see that Momo misses him just as much.

- And Momo is even conducting his own search for Appa.

- There has to be a “Momo dances for an hour” video on YouTube, right? If not, there really should be.

- I don’t know why or how, but Momo’s been seeming more expressive in this story than he ever has in the series.

- I like the return of people speaking gibberish from Momo’s perspective. It was fun the first time, just as fun now.

- Just occurred to me that if these guys did cook up Momo, then Aang would be missing both of his animal companions.

- And Momo freeing the cats (even after they chased him down) brings him good karma as they take him to a footprint that definitely belongs to Appa. IIRC this is the audience’s first confirmation that Appa is (or at least has been) inside Ba Sing Se.

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