ATLA Marathon: "The Day of Black Sun"

 

Happy Avatar Day! Today marks the 20th anniversary of the show's premiere on Nickelodeon, which led to me doing these reviews in the first place. Of course, had to give this episode its own post, as it's a two-parter and a major part of the story, which we've been building up to since the last season. This post will contain major spoilers.

Part One: The Invasion

The day of Black Sun has arrived, and Hakoda has reached the rendezvous after locating a number of the party's allies from around the world: the Foggy Swamp waterbenders from "The Swamp", Haru and Tyro from "Imprisoned", The Boulder and Big Bad Hippo from "The Blind Bandit", Pipsqueak and The Duke from "Jet", and the Mechanist and Teo from "The Northern Air Temple". As Aang leaves to confront the Fire Lord directly, the rest of the invasion force carry out their assault. Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh seem to be making their own plans, with Zuko removing his prince's headpiece and leaving a letter for Mai while Iroh tells a sympathetic prison guard to take the day off.

Most of this episode is dedicated to the initial assault, and everyone gets their moments to shine. There is a great amount of imagination stemming from the Mechanist's war machines combined with bending. For example, Sokka had him design submarines powered by waterbending so they could bypass the Fire Nation's coastal defences. They even have "torpedoes"; explosives encased in ice so the waterbenders could launch them. When they land, they deploy their own tanks to counter the Fire Nation's, with Katara using Appa to provide close air support and Huw gathering seaweed to assume his swamp monster form.

Once again, Sokka gets his moment to shine. He flubs his speech at the beginning, resulting in Hakoda taking charge. But when Hakoda gets injured, Sokka shows he does have what it takes to lead. He even uses his space sword to slice a spear lengthways.

Unfortunately, Aang's objectives are hampered when he reaches the palace and discovers it to be completely deserted.

Part Two: The Eclipse

Here's when the invasion goes tits up.

As Aang returns to the beachhead to report his findings, Sokka realises that the Fire Lord knew about the eclipse from the beginning, but realises he won't have left the city. He goes with Toph and Aang to find a secret bunker in the mountains, while Hakoda and Katara join Bato in pressing on the palace.

Unfortunately, it's a false positive. They reach the bunker but only find Azula waiting for them. Toph can't tell when she's lying, and she retained the services of the Dai Li, who aren't affected by the eclipse. Hell, Azula's still a tough opponent even without her firebending. When Sokka realises she's stalling them for time, she successfully baits him by revealing that she captured Suki. 

As the eclipse wears off, the party decides to cut their losses. But when they return to the invasion force, the Fire Nation deploys a fleet of zeppelins which bomb their ships. Hakoda sends Team Avatar away on Appa, while the rest of the invasion force surrenders. It's such a poignant moment as the party has to leave, with everything they built and prepared for just gone.

While all that's going on, Zuko meets with Ozai and calls him out for being a horrible father and a tyrant. It's an incredible scene, and a reminder of how it's important to stand up to abusive family members, including parents. During their discussion, Zuko announces his intention to defect from the Fire Nation and help Aang. It turns out that baiting people runs in the family, as Ozai stalls Zuko by revealing that he was ordered by Fire Lord Azulon to kill his own son to teach him a lesson. To protect him, Ursa colluded with Ozai to poison the Fire Lord so he'd inherit the throne. With that, Ozai attempts to shoot Zuko with lightning, but he uses Iroh's technique to redirect it. Zuko leaves, but discovers that Iroh has already broken out of prison.

The episode ends with Team Avatar fleeing the Fire Nation, while Zuko follows close behind.

It would be six months before the show revealed what happened next, but I'll talk about that tomorrow.