Avatar: The Last Airbender Book Two “Chapter Eighteen: The Earth King”

Zuko spends most of this episode in a coma of some kind because, apparently, he’s at war with himself over his decisions to either take up Iroh’s example and be a better person or follow the one he’s been on all his life to get his honor back and with it his position in his father’s court.

That’s a cool plot line, but that is all I want to say about that right now.

Instead, let’s look at what happens when things start to go right.  After weeks of being put off, Aang has Appa back, and between Katara, himself, and Toph, they should be able to force themselves in to see the Earth King.  Sokka can spend his time checking rooms in the palace because, well, he can’t move large elements on his own.

Now, this here episode, with the season finale coming soon–heck, Netflix combined the last two into one long episode from the looks of things–that should set us up for however everything goes down in the end, and when the Earth King finally speaks, I learned exactly why he wasn’t concerned his country  was at war with the Fire Nation for the past century.

In short, he didn’t know.  No one told him.  And from there, it doesn’t take Aang and his friends too much effort to prove Long Feng hasn’t been entirely honest with the king, starting with showing the king where Appa bit Feng on the leg and ending with the Fire Nation drill still sticking out of the hole it made in the wall.

So, really, Long Feng gets arrested and the kids learn Feng was withholding information from all of them.  Aang got an invite to the Eastern Air Temple to learn from the guru Appa met up there.  Toph got a letter from her mom saying she’s in town and understands her daughter, finally.  And Sokka and Katara got intelligence that their father was nearby.  Katara offers to stay being in Ba Sing Se to help the king mobilize for the upcoming eclipse while Sokka, Toph, and Aang go about their business, and there’s even word Suki and her warriors are in town to help.  It sure looks like everything is looking up for the Aang Gang.

And if you’ve watched any television, you know that this is far too early in the series for the good guys to start winning, so there are some catches.

Toph’s letter was written by those guys following her for her parents’ bounty, and she’s captured.

Suki didn’t come into town.  It’s Azula and her two friends disguised as Kyoshi warriors.

And Long Feng is still running the Dai Li from his prison cell.

Yeah, I may still not get Long Feng’s long game, but he plays it far too well to let something like a little prison time slow him down.