The Northern Air Temple


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Writer: Elizabeth Welch Ehasz

Director: Dave Filoni

Guest Stars: Daniel Samonas (Teo), Rene Auberjonois (The Mechanist), Kristoffer Tabori (War Minister Qin), Clyde Kastatsu (Storyteller)

Overview
''Aang discovers Earth Kingdom civilians have taken over one of the air temples. They are outcasts constantly threatened by the Fire Nation to provide them with new war machines. With help from Aang and his friends, they fend off the Fire Nation and save the temple.''

Synopsis
Team Avatar is listening to a story, about flying people, high in the mountains. Aang suspects that they might be airbenders, and the kids decide to investigate. Upon arrival, they find not Airbenders, but an Earth Kingdom colony led by an eccentric inventor and his paraplegic son. The inventor has defiled the ancient landmarks with technological "improvements," similar in style to the Industrial Revolution. Aang is at first disheartened by the many changes to the temple, though he develops a degree of respect for The Mechanist's son, Teo. Sokka begins to work with the Mechanist, and helps come up with ways to detect natural gas leaks through use of rotten eggs. Sokka also aids the Mechanist in designing a war balloon.

This state of relative happiness was not to last. Aang notices that the Temple is being destroyed by machines, pipes, and gadgets. Upset and hopeless, He asks Teo if there are any parts of the temple still intact. Teo proceeds to show him an Air chamber, and asks Aang to open it. "I've always wanted to know what was in there". Aang first refuses, but later, opens the gate with Airbending to discover that the Mechanist had found or created another way in and was using the room to store monstrous weapons of war, like self-propelled war wagons and attack balloons, all destined for use by the enemy.

Later, Aang confronts the Mechanist and demands to know when the Fire Nation would come for their weapons. The mechanist explains that their village was attacked by the fire nation, and they fled into the mountains, and discovered the Norther Air temple. Once they began to colonize, the Fire Nation looked to colonize it as well. The mechanist begged, and War Minister Qin compromised that they could live here if they supplied weapons to the fire nation each month.

After his speech,the Mechanist rushes into his office, followed by Aang and Teo. A bell rings, and the mechanist warns Aang to hide. Aang refuses, and the Minister of War rises up from a makeshift elevator. He demands him weapons, and at last notices Aang. Aang closes the door and traps the minister. Aang tells him that the deal is off and slaps him in the face with an airbending move. War Minister Qin states "the destruction of this temple would be on your head".



The fire nation begins to arrive, using special grappling tanks to climb the steep cliffs. Soldiers march along the mountain paths, wreaking havoc in the colony. The team is in despair on what to do. However, Aang realizes that they have something the Fire Nation don't have: air power. Sokka and the Mechanist plan how to improve the war balloon and how to fight back the Fire Nation using their gliders and the prototype war balloon. Sokka states that there are four different types of bombs; smoke, slime, fire and...stink. The machinist states, "Never underestimate the power of stink!"

The gliders fight with courage, but the Fire Nation tanks overwhelms them. Every time Aang flips them over, the cockpits also flip. Teo states that the tanks have a water balancing system. This inspires Katara to use waterbending to fight them, but there are too many. Appa arrives and retrieves Aang and Katara out of the battlefield. Out of explosives, the people lose hope, but the war balloon appears. The Fire Nation doesn't attack it, seeing the Fire Nation emblem. Sokka drops several slime bombs, but that doesn't stop the advancing army.

Ultimately, Sokka, in a desperate maneuver, throws the balloon's hot air engine into a crack with explosive gas emanating from it. The resulting explosion crushes the invaders. Deprived of power, the balloon consequently dropped into the Fire Nation campgrounds. Qin and his soldiers find it, saying "This defeat is the gateway to many victories" as firebenders inflate the balloon.

Series Continuity

 * On the desk in The Mechanist's office are plans for the Fire Nation Drill that was seen in The Drill.
 * The captured war balloon is the prototype for the war balloons that were used by the Fire Nation in "The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse".
 * Sokka's rotten egg smell idea is based on a real life practice of adding a distinctive smell to gas which is naturally odorless, allowing for easy discovery of leaks.
 * This episode marks the first appearance of the steampunk elements that will later become a substantial part of the Avatar story.