The King of Omashu
This episode kinda plays out like an adaptation of Rumplestiltskin. We also see the introduction of the best running gags in animation.
Aang's third proposed diversion is to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, where his "mad genius" friend Bumi lived a hundred years ago. He shows Sokka and Katara the mail chute system, which Bumi used as a giant slide, but they get arrested after destroying a cabbage merchant's cart. They're brought before the eccentric king of Omashu, who deduces that Aang is the Avatar and puts him through a series of deadly challenges. To ensure Aang's compliance, he gives Sokka and Katara rings made of "creeping crystal" which slowly encase them.
This episode has some great slapstick as our friends ride the mail delivery system and cause no shortage of destruction (even if it's a little traditional in places, such as breaking a freshly decorated vase). This is followed by some tense moments as Aang takes the tests and has to come up with some creative solutions to solve them. The king's also fun to watch, even though he's presented as an antagonist. My favourite moment is when Aang has to pick an opponent for a gladiatorial contest as part of his final challenge. Presented with two rough-looking fighters, he picks the king, who turns out to be surprisingly brawny for his age and a powerful earthbender.
Now, I'm gonna have to spoil things: after completing the challenges, Aang is told that he has to guess the king's name, because as he puts it, "what's the point of a test if you don't learn anything?" Try asking that to the exam boards, mate. Anyway, based on the nature of the challenges, Aang realises that the king is his old friend Bumi. To be honest, it was kind of obvious when the king first appeared.
Nevertheless, it's a fun episode and helps establish Aang's quest for the series; learn the elements and defeat Fire Lord Ozai.
Imprisoned
Looking back, this episode is quite powerful.
While camping in the woods, our friends encounter Haru, an earthbender who is forced to practice his ability in secret after Fire Nation occupied his village and arrested all known benders (including Haru's father Tyro). Katara bonds with Haru over their shared experience of losing a parent to the Fire Nation, and she convinces him to use his eathbending to free an old man from a tunnel collapse in the nearby mine. Unfortunately, the old man promptly rats Haru out to the Fire Nation, resulting in his arrest. Katara opts to set things right by getting herself arrested for earthbending.
The episode does a great job at showing the effects of the Fire Nation's colonialism and imperialism. Not only have they banned earthbending in Haru's village, but they also extort protection money from the local shopkeepers like Haru's mother. The captured earthbenders are imprisoned on a giant offshore shipyard made out of metal, which they can't bend. This serves to break their spirits as they can't fight back. It also provides a brilliant perfomance from George Takei as the delightfully hammy warden. He's having a blast with it.
We also get to see an early example of Sokka's ingenuity. While it's Katara who comes up with the idea to get herself arrested for earthbending, it's Sokka who devises the scheme to pull it off. This provides some humour in the execution, with the siblings' deliberatley bad acting as they argue in front of a patrol, Aang being late to his cue, and the Fire Nation soldiers initially believing that Momo is earthbending. On top of that, we see how Katara will always look out for those in need as she tries to inspire an uprising amongst the captured earthbenders. It leads to a fantastic battle sequence after Sokka puts another idea to good use.
Before I go, I'd like to address an elephant in the room. I'm not going to discuss the live-action movie during this marathon, but I am going to make an exception here because of how infamous the events of this episode became when they were put to film. Mainly how the earthbenders were imprisoned in a giant quarry. Think about that.
Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow for "The Winter Solstice", which is a two-part episode.
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