Thanks for tuning in to my seventh of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S1E6: Imprisoned.
After several meandering filler episodes, the show slowly starts to pivot more towards plot. We learn about the Avatar’s role as the “great bridge between man and spirits,” and we watch him flail about ineffectually trying to stop the black and white spirit, Hei Bai, from wreaking havoc on Senlin Village. When Sokka gets kidnapped by the spirit, Aang accidentally finds himself in the eponymous "Spirit World,” which seems to just mean that he embodies a blue, translucent spirit that can’t be observed by normal people, he can’t use his bending, and he’s able to interact with other spirits.
Well, really just one — the spirit of Avatar Roku’s dragon, Fang, wants a word with Aang. He brings Aang to a shrine on an island in the Fire Nation, where a statue of Roku awaits. In a vision, Aang understands that if he can come here on the Winter Solstice (when “the natural world and the Spirit World grow closer and closer until the line between them is blurred completely”), he will be able to contact Roku’s spirit.
In Zuko’s B-plot, Iroh gets kidnapped by a squadron of earthbenders and his nephew needs to rescue him. We don’t really get any plot developments here, but we learn more about the relationship between Prince Zuko and his uncle. Probably the most important scene is when Zuko is tracking his uncle on his rhino, and spots Appa flying overhead. He’s clearly tempted to change course, but ultimately in a nice moment of character development he decides that rescuing Iroh is more important.
Zuko’s choice proves that his good tendencies can override his singleminded quest to hunt the Avatar (representing his indoctrination into the honor culture of the Fire Nation). It also sheds light on how much Iroh means to him, as a surrogate father figure for Zuko. In typical Avatar fashion, he arrives just in time, and for the first time we get to see Iroh fight — he doesn’t even firebend, opting instead to use his chains as a boulder-shattering whip and a lasso. His earlier attempts to escape are clever, too.
The resolution of the episode aligns with that of The Southern Air Temple, in that it’s about moving forward after a great tragedy (in this case, the destruction of Hei Bai’s forest by the Fire Nation). Aang is able to soothe the spirit by giving him an acorn that Katara found, which represents the preservation of hope and the possibility of rebirth. As the character who most closely represents holding onto hope, Katara explains the message well:
These acorns are everywhere, Aang. That means the forest will grow back! Every one of these will be a tall oak tree someday, and all the birds and animals that lived here will come back.
At that, Hei Bai transforms back into his fuzzy panda form and releases the captured villagers. It’s a sweet ending, but it doesn’t really have the emotional weight of The Southern Air Temple. Ultimately, this episode is mostly focused on moving the plot along and setting up the next episode (it’s the first of a two-parter).
See you tomorrow for Episode 8: Avatar Roku! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
Hei Bai literally means “black white” in Chinese.
“Well, spirit, uh… I hereby ask you to leave this village in peace. Okay, well, I guess that’s settled then.”
This is the first episode where we meet the ubiquitous ostrich horse, which doesn’t actually look all that horselike but is a common cavalry and draft animal in the Avatar world.
Fang’s design takes cues from both Chinese and Western dragons. His mane and serpentine body are typically Chinese, but the added wings are a Western touch.
Iroh can see Fang fly by in the Spirit World! So far he’s the only character besides Aang who seems to have that ability.
We learn a bit more about Iroh’s backstory here, too: during his time as a general, he unsuccessfully laid siege to the city of Ba Sing Se for six hundred days.
“You were trapped in the Spirit World for 24 hours! How are you feeling?” “Like I seriously need to use the bathroom.”
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
The concept of the Spirit World is left fuzzy and the showrunners will sometimes exploit this to break laws of physics and continuity. In this episode, the Spirit World seems to exist in basically the same physical space as the real world. Later in the season, when Aang seeks out the spirit Koh, it is depicted as a totally alien place. The only explanation for the discrepancy here is the line about the blurring between the natural and spirit worlds near the solstice.
Zhao later tells Iroh, “I've heard rumors of your journey into the Spirit World.” We don’t ever definitely learn why Iroh can see into the Spirit World, but there’s a partially-confirmed fan theory that he traveled there to seek his late son, Lu Ten.
