AND he’s expecting a message with the map to his location. It’s not enough that this is the first member of the Southern Water Tribe that our heroes have encountered (and the first one we’ve seen in the series): he’s also a friend of their father. They have no idea whether he’s dead or alive.Īnd then suddenly, out of the blue, enters Bato of the Water Tribe, and one of those very men who left to fight the war. The war rages on, and Katara and Sokka haven’t seen their father in years. If you recall from the very first episode, their father, along with all the other men in the Southern Water Tribe, left their home to help defeat the Fire Nation. In this case, Katara and Sokka are offered the chance to see their father again. Still, they did their best to make the audience believe that such a split could happen under the right circumstances. In hindsight, perhaps it was a little naïve to believe that DiMartino, Konietzko and company ever seriously considered splitting up our heroes before the first season had even ended. The big dramatic question mark of the episode: will the gang (Aang, Katara, Sokka) split up? Will the bond they forged over the course of fourteen episodes be broken by a set of unfortunate circumstances? How could the story possibly proceed from there? “Bato of the Water Tribe,” while not the best display of this balance, nonetheless provides a quintessential example. That’s a difficult balance to maintain even in a live-action series. The closer the worldbuilding ties into the plot, the better the episode. Except for a few lapses into egregiously self-reflexive humor (“The Ember Island Players”), the Avatar universe unfolds and expands gracefully alongside the main narrative, sprinkling new information about the story world that perfectly compliments the dramatic needs of the given episode. Was Avatar’s narrative ingenuity merely novelty, or did it consistently sharpen our understanding of the Avatar universe and how it affected Aang’s journey? How could you not marvel at the sheer audacity of it all? Avatar, being inspired by anime and young adult fantasy novels (especially the Harry Potter series), was conceived from the start as a sprawling epic that would stretch for three seasons, complete with elaborate world-building, intricate and overlapping plotlines, and an episode-to-episode continuity that most kids’ show wouldn’t even attempt. Typically, most American animated children’s programs were designed as caricatures of sitcoms and action serials-which hasn’t changed much over the years except now the cartoons are more sophisticated and self-aware. To call Avatar: the Last Airbender an ambitious show would be an understatement. Retrospective: Chapter Fifteen: “Bato of the Water Tribe”
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