Avatar Day

Cast

Koko

Jillian Henry

Scary Prisoner

Jason Miller

Thug/Old Man

Zachary Throne

Summary

Aang and the gang discover an Earth Kingdom town that celebrates “Avatar Day”. They find that "Avatar Day" is not a celebration of the avatar or the return of the avatar but of hatred towards the avatar. Now Aang and the gang try to fix the problem and give Avatar Day a true meaning of the avatar and what the avatar does...

Episode Synopsis

Template:Spoiler Momo sees a spider that has made a web in Sokka's mouth, due to the fact that he was sleeping with his mouth open. The lemur grabs the spider and ends up waking up Sokka, who yells at Momo in response and ends up waking up Katara and Aang. His outburst ends up attracting the attention of a group of Fire Nation soldiers, including a YuYan archer and Bomb expert, who end up surrounding them.

The Fire Nation soldier sticks his blade into the stump were Katara's scroll and Aang's staff were, but Katara uses her waterbending while Aang outsmarts the archers to get their things back. Aang and the gang take off on Appa, but Sokka soon realizes he left his boomerang behind and tells Aang to turn around so he can go to get it. Katara thinks its a bad idea, but Sokka adamantly refuses to listen to her because she and Aang both had "enough" time to get their belongings back, yet now she is saying that he cannot get his.

Once in an Earth Kingdom village, the three teenagers learn of "Avatar Day" from a parade with giant floats that are made to look like Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang. Aang and the gang think the festival is to honour the Avatar, but soon realize the extent of the anti-Avatar sentiment from a man torches the three floats and the people begin to chant "Down with the Avatar!" Katara uses her waterbending to put out the fire.

Aang reveals his identity as the Avatar only to be arrested. While in his jail cell, the village's major explains to him that Avatar Day was formed after Avatar Kyoshi killed the village's leader, Chin the Great. To prove Aang's (or rather, Kyoshi's) innocence, Sokka and Katara search the village and return to Kyoshi Island to find evidence that says otherwise. They find out that according to islanders of Kyoshi, she was there founding the island at the very time she supposedly murdered Chin the Great.

Unfortunately, the evidence is useless because trials are held on the basis of the two parties each telling their story. Using only the two stories, the jury decides who is innocent and who is guilty; for this case, the village mayor serves as both prosecution and jury. Meanwhile, Aang, still in his jail cell, has become somewhat friendly with the other prisoners. One of them offers him advice about girls (that is, Katara), which Aang will consider using in the future.

During Aang's trial, after hearing the village major's story and Aang's...short and horrible story (since he could not remember the evidence that Sokka and Katara found), he is found guilty by the village. Refusing to give up, Sokka and Katara have Aang dress up in Kyoshi's old uniform in hopes that maybe she would show up and tell the village what really happened that day.

Surprisingly, Kyoshi does appear and manifests herself through Aang's body (like how Avatar Rouku did once). She tells the village that she did kill Chin the Great (or "Conqueror," as she calls him), but it was for a good reason. Chin was conquering neighboring lands, and came to the peninsula where Kyoshi's people lived. Since Chin would not leave them alone, Kyonshi forced the issue by breaking the entire peninsula off from the mainland, pushing it away to form the island later named after her. Kyoshi disabled his many armies and cast them aside an instant, leaving Chin with nothing. His conquest denied, Chin stomped his foot in anger... but because he was standing at the edge of a cliff, the ground broke off from under his feet and he fell to his death. While Kyoshi admits she was responsible for Chin's death, Kyoshi and the other islanders then celebrated the founding of what would be called Kyoshi Island---thus explaining how the Avatar managed to bring about Chin's death and the island's founding on the same evening.

Once Kyoshi's spirit disappears, leaving only Aang, the village still found him guilty, since Kyoshi admitted to killing Chin. To determine his sentence, the village mayor brings out the "torture wheel", which Aang spin. It lands on "boiled in oil", but before the sentence can be carried out, Fire Nation soldiers arrive to attack the village. Aang defeats them; for saving the village, the mayor decides to change Avatar Day to honour rather than hate the Avatar for Aang's deeds.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh are still living in poverty. Unsatisfied, Zuko becomes the Blue Spirit and steals from villagers and rich travellers - while making sure Iroh does not see. Worried about where Zuko is getting these new items, Iroh tells Zuko that money does not matter and "in the darkest time, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength." Listening to his uncle literally, Zuko decides to travel alone.

Trivia

• The scrolls that the Fire Nation soldier blocked from Katara were the scrolls that Aang recieved from Master Pakku in The Avatar State.
• We learn how Kyoshi Island was created.
• Prince Zuko and Iroh separate from each other.
• We learn that Suki and the other female warriors have left to fight in the war.
• Sokka and Katara go to Kyoshi Island again. The first time was in The Warriors of Kyoshi.
• Sokka acts like Sherlock Holmes trying to discover evidence for Aang's case.
• Sokka seems to be interested in Suki - while being in Kyoshi Island, he asks where she is.
• Sokka says "this is by far the worst town we've ever been to."
• Avatar Kyoshi has dialogue for the first time, making her and Avatar Roku the only past lives of Aang so far to appear in present timeline as separate entities.
• Avatar Kyoshi has the largest feet of all the previous avatars and that she appears to be a giant.
• The judge of the court seems to be modeled exactly as the Emporer's Advisor in Mulan.
• This is the second time we see the man that appears to foam at the mouth whenever he sees or hears about Aang; in fact he foams at the mouth once again in this episode, he was first seen in The Warriors of Kyoshi.
• The story of Chin being bereft of all his power and armies by Kyoshi may be related to the tale of how Japan was divinely saved from conquest by Kubla Khan thanks to a divine wind (kamikaze) that blew the army away. Chin's short height is also similar to leaders like Napoleon Bonapart.