The Beach

This episode is better than I expected, unlike most of beach episode in anime where fanservice is front center, it's not only about a beach vacation with hot girls or funny games. I mean it has these things, but what impressed me most were the conversations and characters. This episode took us away from the Gang and concentrated on Azula's team (Azula, Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko) we consider as bad guys but they expressed other aspects as teenagers instead doing bad things. We witness and hear about their struggles and past they have been through, which have shaped them into the people they are now, maybe we come to sympathize with the characters. Rather than focusing on dramatic battles or major plot developments, this episode serves as a reflective pause - a moment of connection and mutual understanding among the characters.

This episode is surrounded by some of the greatest television in history and is significantly overshadowed by the other episodes of this season (not to say that it would be a good episode otherwise). It's almost like this episode was going to be entirely filler but the writers decided that people wouldn't like that so they had zuko trauma dump in the middle. The only thing giving this episode any stars is the scene in which the gaang discovers combustion man and some of zuko's trauma dumping dialogue.

My first issue is with mai, who sucks the life out of every frame she is in. And i get that that is the intent of her character, but it's actually depressing. And, as someone who usually enjoys zuko as a character, he is also disgustingly obtuse in this episode. Even for him (and seemingly out of the blue). And his relationship with mai disgusts me btw. I can't believe that a kids show portrays "love" this way. I can't understand what the intent was of azula's behavior in this episode. Are the writers trying to make the viewer like her or hate her even more? Ty lee is annoying but the writers also had to acknowledge that so they gave her a random "tragic" backstory.

Overall, this episode just kind of sucks. Some of zuko's dialogue is heat though so it gets a few stars, but still worse than average.

This is one of the weakest episodes of avatar! The story just slows down to a hult and gets replaced with our fire nation antagonists....playing volleyball, kissing and teen high school party movie cliches! And even focusing on a bit on zuko and that one girl who's relationship I never even cared about. Plus throughout the episode the characters are so mean-spirited I mean I get their fire nation but to get that for a full episode?! And then sure we still get tiny scenes of our main gang (aang and others) but honestly not enough. The only redeemable parts here are with Zuko where you can see more of his feelings shine. And there are some good ideas here but execution is everything. So if tales of ba sing se is an example of how you can do an amazing filler episode this is an example of a bad one....

ATLA is at its best when it isn't spelling things out for the audience, allowing the world-building and established characterization to create special moments organically. This is one of the only episodes where I felt the show actually strayed from that.

Almost everything about the "airing of grievances" scene on the beach under the moonlight felt completely contrived. The dialogue was stilted and ham-fisted, which in my opinion ruined what could've been a genuinely powerful moment that would've added even more depth to our antagonists.

The nearly wordless scene immediately preceding it was more what I've come to expect from the show. Zuko looks back fondly on childhood memories made with his family on the island. It was subtle and poignant, adding to Zuko's inner turmoil by illustrating the difficulty he finds in justifying the positive nostalgia he feels while recalling times spent with a family that he is completely emotionally detached from in the present. The whiplash I got moving from that scene to one where each character spells out letter-by-letter the reasons why they each adopted their respective personas robbed me of any hope I had of being emotionally invested in the rest of the episode. It left a sour aftertaste, with all the makings of a classic ATLA characterization masterclass being squandered in pitiful fashion.

That being said, there are still nuggets of merit to be found here. Azula was delightful and sharp as ever. Her self-awareness added a "meta" dimension to the comedy of the episode that cut through a lot of the cheesier bits. The superficiality of Mai and Zuko's relationship lends serious credibility to Zuko's disillusionment with the present, where he's still wholly unsatisfied despite attaining everything he believes he's ever desired. We also get the introduction of a threatening secondary antagonist to add a bit of urgency to Team Avatar's invasion plan.

For the most part, the episode successfully leans into the cheesiness of the coming-of-age 80's dramedy (vis-á-vis "The Breakfast Club") aesthetic. Thus, it's still an overall fun watch. But in my opinion, the emotional climax wasn't executed nearly as well. That singular scene was one of the only moments of true cognitive dissonance I experienced watching the show, which I suppose is a testament to its overall brilliance. Regardless, that scene alone makes this one of the weaker episodes of the series for me.

Episode 5 of the Avatar: The Last Airbender, series 3 Book of Fire. Shows the 4 antagonists (Ty Lee, Mai, Azula, Zuko), on a forced holiday to a beach island called Ember Island. Where this episode shines is that it gives the audience the an understanding of who and what the antagonists are. Where the series has focuses on the protagonists, it gives the audience depth to the antagonist's' characters. What has made the characters the way they are. It seems slightly slow at first, the protagonists run into a hit-man from hell which can blow things up with his mind (better than it sounds). Not the best episode in my opinion, but the touching and insightful scene at the end gives it a 7 out of 10.