The Southern Raiders

In the words of Hatorri Hanzo , "Revenge is never a straight line, it is a forest, and like a forest it is easy to lose your way, to get lost, forget where you came in." This is one of my favorite episodes of the show and in general. This is a Katara story and it's probably my favorite for one from of my favorite characters.

I really like how the whole episode is sort of a revenge/ manhunt thriller, not just is it interesting in seeing both Katara and Zuko working together, but both of them are mainly playing detective roles as we see them go from one place to another getting answers to traces the perpetrator responsible for the death of Katara's mom. We even get a glimpse of the perpetrator and he's just someone I just plain hate. You really understand where he comes from but it's no excuse, wrong is wrong and you pay the consequences one way or the other.

Katara was just at her emotional best in this episode. Really like a little of the animation on Katara where we see her eyes it's obviously she hasn't slept much but are also deep ongoing pain and stone cold hardened; this just shows how restless she truly is, won't stop for nothing and no one until her mission is complete. But also shows sweet kind Katara has checked out and The Punisher has checked in.

You really feels heavy pathos for Katara, there is a deep layered suspense where you really want Katara to succeed in her hunt but you don't' know what the end result is going to be and how she'll feel about it. Katara has every right to feel what she feels, to me the path to vengeance is a choice whatever happens happens. But also, the thing about revenge isn't a matter of whether you shouldn't, but whether you should.

In the tide of Vengeance, it always moves either way.

Rating: 4 stars.

This episode has always been a tense and dark experience for this show, as Katara is consummed by vengance as she searches for justice for what happened to her mother!

I really loved the bond she and Zuko forms doing this episode, as he has always been the face of her hatred towards the fire nation, in her eyes!

Katara really manages to go down a dark path, as she uses blooodbending! Something disturbs even Zuko, who grew up with Azula and Ozai!

The finale Confrontation delivers surpreme intensity and stunning animation! It makes this journey of hatred come together in a satisfying way!

In the end I loved the message about forgivness being the hardest part! Revenge is easy, forgivness is impossible.

Not only will I say that this is the best episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I will say that this is one of the greatest episodes of any TV show that I have ever seen. It's definitely up there with the likes of Breaking Bad's Ozymandias.

First, right off the bat, Mae Whitman delivered an absolutely stunning performance as Katara in this episode. She captured every single emotion that Katara felt throughout the episode perfectly, from young Katara's fear, to present day Katara's anger and grief. This is a show that has a lot of stand out performances, but Mae Whitman throughout this entire episode takes the cake, no doubt.

Animation wise, this is also one of the best, but Avatar never really had a problem in this regard, all of its episodes are beautifully animated. To me though, this one stands out from some of the others.

The writing was fantastic. This episode was written by Elizabeth Welch Ehasz (the wife of series head writer Aaron Ehasz), who has written some of Avatar's best episodes, such as The Avatar and the Firelord, Zuko Alone, and Appa's Lost Days. But by God does this one stand far and above the rest. How Katara's character was handled this episode was what made it so incredible to watch. It's odd to see the usually caring and compassionate group mother become so hell bent on revenge and letting her anger and hatred consume her to the point where she goes down this dark path, but it never once feels out of character. All of it is quite in character for her, and we've seen bits and pieces of this behavior appear in previous episodes, but this is the one where it all just comes pouring out, and boy it is great, but also hard, to watch.

Similarly, the direction, handled by Joaquim Dos Santos, was masterful. He only started working as a director for the series come Season 3, but he quickly established himself as one of the series' best directors. Some of the shots in this episode are just so memorable. It was especially focused on Katara, using a lot of close ups on her, and in those shots, you can really see the pain in her eyes. Eyes that are usually so heartfelt and filled with hope are replaced with a desire for revenge.

And the culmination of all of this is in the episode's climactic scene, which is easily one of the best scenes in the series. In this scene, Katara proves herself to be so incredibly strong, not just through her bending prowess, but in her final decision. It's beyond amazing that a kids show can be this thought provoking and deep, especially with the episode's final message. This episode is truly a masterpiece.