Avatar Day

''This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the event itself.''

Writer: John O'Bryan

Director: Lauren MacMullan

Guest Stars: James Sie (Oyaji), Jason Miller (Scary Prisoner), Malachi Throne (Colonel Mongke), Jillian Henry (Koko), Byron McKittrick (Foaming Mouth Guy), James Hong (Mayor Tong), Jennifer Hale (Avatar Kyoshi)

Synopsis
Momo spots a spider that has made a web in Sokka's mouth, due to the fact that he was sleeping with his mouth open. The lemur grabs the spider and ends up waking up Sokka, who yells at Momo in response and who in turn ends up waking Katara and Aang. His outburst attracts the attention of a mounted Fire Nation military unit known as The Rough Rhinos, who surround them.

In their attempt to leave quickly, the trio instantly realize that they each left a precious possession behind at the camp: Katara's Waterbending scroll, Aang's staff, and Sokka's boomerang. Katara and Aang take advantage of their bending abilities and retrieve their desired possessions while Sokka is the only who is unable to retrieve his. He feels angry that the two spent the time to get their possessions back despite the danger and did not spare time for his. Katara simply confirms the fact.

Once in an Earth Kingdom village (Chin Village), the three kids learn of "Avatar Day." They watch a parade with giant floats that are made to look like Avatar Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang. The trio at first believed that the festival is honoring the Avatar, but then a man torches the three floats to the loud approval of the village, who chant, "Down with the Avatar!"

Aang reveals himself as the Avatar, only to be arrested. While in his jail cell, the village's mayor explains to him that "Avatar Day" was formed after Avatar Kyoshi killed the village's leader, Chin the Great. To prove Aang's (or rather, Kyoshi's) innocence, Sokka and Katara search the village and return to Kyoshi Island to find evidence that says otherwise. They find out that according to islanders of Kyoshi, she was there founding the island at the very time she supposedly murdered Chin the Great.

Unfortunately, the evidence is useless because in these trials, the opposing sides only tell what they believe happened. Using only the two stories, the jury decides who is innocent and who is guilty; for this case, the village mayor serves as both prosecution and jury. Meanwhile, Aang, still in his jail cell, has become somewhat friendly with the other prisoners. One of them offers him advice about girls (that is, Katara).

During Aang's trial, after hearing Mayor Tong's story and Aang's vague version, he is found guilty. Refusing to give up, Sokka and Katara have Aang dress up in Kyoshi's old uniform.

Surprisingly, Kyoshi manifests herself through Aang's body (like how Avatar Roku did). She announces to the village that she did indeed kill Chin the Great (or "Conqueror," as she calls him), but it was for a good cause. Chin was conquering neighboring lands and was planning on conquering Kyoshi's village, so to protect her people she went to confront Chin's army alone, coming face to face with the (surprisingly short) warlord. But instead of fighting, Kyoshi broke the entire peninsula off from the mainland, pushing it away to form Kyoshi Island. In the process, Kyoshi's airbending scattered Chin's army. Chin cried out in frustration, but because he was now standing on a weak overhang at the edge of a cliff, the ground broke off from under his feet and he fell to his death.

Once Kyoshi's spirit disappears, the village brings out a wheel for Aang to spin to determine his punishment. It lands on "boiled in oil," but before the sentence can be carried out, the Fire Nation bandits from earlier arrive to take over the village. Fearing for his safety, the mayor quickly changes the punishment to community service, and pleads with Aang to defeat the warriors and save the village. The trio engages the warriors in battle and is successful in driving them away, Sokka regaining his boomerang during the battle (saying, "Boomerang! You DO always come back!"). In an act of thanks, the mayor decides that in the future, Avatars will be honored on "Avatar Day." Since Aang was not boiled in oil on this day, the celebration will involve eating effigies of the Avatar made from uncooked dough.

When all is said and done, Sokka comments that Chin Village is "by far the worst town we've ever been to".

Meanwhile, ashamed of the position that he is now in, Zuko disguises himself as the Blue Spirit to steal from the wealthy. Worried about how Zuko is taking to the situation, Iroh tells Zuko, "In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength." and capturing the Avatar will not improve their situation. After thinking about what his uncle said, Zuko decides to travel alone.

Translations

 * A lantern during the scene where the gang is watching the parade has the character 酒 on it, meaning "Liquor".
 * The ancient Chinese scripts carved on the lower part of the statue is 秦帝, which means "Chin - The King". He is named after Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, which is the derivation of the English name of the country.
 * The writing on the "Birth of Kyoshi" painting reads 降世神通虛子今日拓創虛子島 愿吾民文化永絕於世界暴政, which roughly translates as "On this day, Avatar Kyoshi splits from the mainland and creates Kyoshi Island. Hope our citizens' culture will be isolated from the tyranny of the world forever."

Continuity

 * When attacked by the Rough Rhinos and each one realizes they forgot something, Katara shouts "My scrolls!" even though it was in fact given to Aang in the episode "The Avatar State".


 * One of the town's pieces of evidence was a footprint that was later shown to be Chin the Conqueror's. However, aside from the fact that the print has survived for 300 years, when Chin fell off the cliff a large segment (including the portion with the footprint) fell off with him, so the footprint shouldn't still be there.

Trivia

 * Even though she confesses, in the flashback it shows that Kyoshi did not actually kill Chin the Conqueror, she merely caused the conditions which led to him falling off the cliff.
 * This is the last episode without Toph.