Avatar Recap: Book 3, Chapter 9
We're just one episode away from the Day of Black Sun and Team Aang is getting ready to invade the Fire Nation. They find the spot where they plan to meet in the income Water Tribe fleet. It's 4 days before the invasion and they have some time to sit, relax, and do some last minute planning. But knowing the big day is so close, Aang starts to get anxious and bad dreams invade his attempts to sleep.
Aang tries to get some sleep on the first night, but he is immediately haunted by a dream where he confronts the Fire Lord, but has forgotten his pants. I kinda like how they start out the nightmares with the traditional "oops, no pants" theme, as I didn't really expect that from this show at all. The over-the-top anime parody animation style for his dream was fantastic. Each time he had one of his silly nightmares, he was dressed up differently. The first outfit seemed very Goku to me. The second one with the collar halfway up the face and tall hair seemed very familiar, but I'm not sure if it was supposed to be specifically referencing an anime character, or if it was just kinda generically anime-ish. And the final one felt like something out of a Jet-Li movie.
The dreams, of course, freak Aang out quite a bit, making him feel like he's not ready to face the Fire Lord. From the very beginning, Aang has had doubts about his powers and his ability to do his duty as the Avatar. It's no surprise that the feeling hits him again, and this time like a ton of bricks, right before they are set to invade and defeat ol' Ozai himself. Being pestered by these disturbing visions at night, Aang decides he'd do better to just avoid them all together by not sleeping. And he also figures he'll get a bit more training in as well. The problem is that sleep deprivation tends to make one a little loopy.
Aang's friends try to help him relax through various methods. Not surprisingly, Katara's approach is through yoga. Seeing as waterbending is based on Tai Chi, it seems very appropriate that she'd be into yoga. They try a couple of stretches, surrounded by steam in a natural hot spring. But the heat only serves to remind Aang of fire and makes him stressed out some more. Sokka, for some reason, still has his fake beard with him and has conducts a session of therapy with Aang, though he seems even less effective than Dr. Sbaitso. And Toph tries some earthbending-style shiatsu massage, using a bed of rocks to try to pound away Aang's stress. I personally would have enjoyed that, but it's too jarring for Aang.
After about 3 days without sleep, Aang really starts to go nuts and is having waking dreams and hallucinations. His most recent attempt at sleep brings him a very disturbing nightmare, rather than just silly. Toph without any eyes, Katara being consumed by flame, himself being stuck under a frozen lake with Zuko looking down on him, finally finishing it all off with Sozin's comet striking the earth and covering the world in fire.
More convinced than ever that he's not ready, Aang starts going a bit crazy while training. He has his pasta Fire Lord portrait from back in The Headband stuck to a tree and is attacking it. Eventually, in the best scene of the episode, Momo and Appa start talking to him, disagreeing on how he should prepare for the final battle. They end up (in Aang's mind) having an epic duel with Momo looking suspiciously like Usagi Yojimbo.
Meanwhile, over in the B story, Zuko seems to be enjoying the royal treatment. Not having to walk anywhere if he doesn't want to, having servants cater to his every whim, and spending his days with Mai. But all is not well. First, he believes he has been forgotten when an important war meeting is called. He finds out later that his father won't start without him. Happy to be included, but worried about what happened at the last war meeting he attended, Zuko shows up and behaves like the prince he is expected to be. But far from bringing him happiness, Zuko feels like he's not being true to himself and is showing visible signs of concern that this life of royalty is not for him.
In the end, Aang is finally able to get a nice night of sleep when his friends make a big comfy woolly bed from the wool of all the koala-sheep around and reassure him that they have faith in his abilities and believe that he will be able to defeat the Fire Lord. Awwww, how sweet.
But in two weeks, we'll see if they're right...
What say you?!