Nightmares and Daydreams

"Nightmares and Daydreams" is the ninth episode of season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 49th of the overall series. It debuted on November 16, 2007.

Overview
''The invasion is four days away, and Aang begins to feel nervous about confronting the Fire Lord. Feeling that he is unprepared, he trains constantly and his anxiety caused him a string of nightmares, whereas his lack of sleep results in mad daydreams. After three straight days, it takes the collaboration of Sokka, Toph, and Katara to get him to finally sleep and feel confident about facing the Fire Lord. Meanwhile, Zuko learns about an upcoming war meeting. However, what he learns leaves him uncertain of what he must do.''

Synopsis
The gang arrives on the Black Cliffs, which is where the invasion force will meet up. Aang is stressed about the invasion being only four days away and that night he has a nightmare, in which he comes face to face with the Fire Lord, only to be told by him that he forgot to bring his pants. Meanwhile, Prince Zuko is enjoying his life of royalty and making the most of it while his relationship with Mai goes well.



After staying awake training for the past twenty-four hours, Aang tries to get some sleep, only to have another nightmare; this time he forgets to study for a math test administered by Ozai. He wakes up and starts walking around some koala-sheep, Katara also gets up and asks him to try to get some sleep. As this happens, Mai tells Zuko that there is a war meeting coming up, and he says that he was not invited, leading him to think that his father doesn't want him there.

Aang has another nightmare in which Ozai tells him that he has overslept and missed the invasion, riding atop a flying, fire-breathing cow-hippo no less. As he wakes up, he starts going crazy from the lack of sleep, and says that he’s unraveling. Katara, Toph and Sokka all try to help Aang using different methods. Katara tries yoga in an artificial hot spring, and when she asks how he feels, he says that he feels hot, as if he's in the Fire Lord's palace and he's shooting fireballs at him, making him panic. Katara says that maybe he should talk his problems out. Sokka dons his beard and mustache from "The Headband" and tries to be a psychiatrist, talking to Aang about his feelings on confronting Ozai. When Aang simply asks how to calm himself, Sokka suggests that he should scream into a koala-sheep (which he says is a pillow); the koala-sheep's response to Aang doing this was "baah!" This does not make Aang feel better. Meanwhile Zuko confronts Azula about the war meeting, asking why she got invited and he didn’t. She says that he didn’t get an invitation because it’s obvious he’s supposed to be there, and goes on to tell him to stop acting like a child and go to the meeting. He says he won’t go.

Next, Toph tries her method on Aang, giving him a brutal massage using log-shaped pieces of earth and Earthbending to create hard vibrations. When this fails, she offers acupuncture with a boarcupine. Aang, terrified of the idea, runs away screaming.



That night the gang asks Aang if he’s okay. Aang says that maybe he feels a bit better. They all go to sleep, but Aang has another, more frightening nightmare, this time a jumbled montage, consisting of snap images, expressing Aang's fear and stress over the upcoming battle. He wakes up and because of the stress, he states that he won’t sleep until the invasion. The next day, Aang, now very tired from lack of sleep, daydreams about professing his love for Katara, and passionately kissing her, calling her his "forever girl." He lies to her about it afterward, saying that he was daydreaming of what it is like living underwater. He spars against the noodle Ozai he made in "The Headband" and begins to hallucinate.

Meanwhile, Zuko is told by a servant that everyone is waiting for him at the meeting, and he realizes that his father does want him there. Aang, on the other hand, is not doing so great, and as he tries to train, he starts hearing Momo talk, and then Appa. He then starts seeing them fight samurai-style, as koala sheep cheer them on. As well, he sees Guru Pathik with six arms floating on a cloud with two bowls of onion and banana juice singing about chakras. He also sees many more illusions.

After the meeting, Zuko tells Mai that his father treated him like his right-hand man. However, he confesses that although he acted like the perfect prince, he was not being himself.

Aang, now completely exhausted, wanders around the campsite and stumbles across what he takes to be a bed of clouds. He immediately dismisses it as another hallucination. His friends inform him that the bed of wool is indeed real and they spent hours working on it, so he could sleep.



Aang continues to insist he is not ready, but Katara and the rest of the gang encourage him, with Katara saying that he has been training for this since the day they met, and that he is ready. Aang finally calms down and falls asleep. He has one last dream in which he appears before the Fire Lord. Ozai says that he forgot his pants but Aang merely smiles and says that it is in fact the Fire Lord who has forgotten his pants. Ozai covers himself, embarrassed that his "royal parts are showing." Aang, with his nerves gone, can now rest for the invasion.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * John O'Bryan


 * Directed by:
 * Ethan Spaulding


 * Starring:
 * Zach Tyler Eisen - Aang
 * Mae Whitman - Katara
 * Jack DeSena - Sokka
 * Jessie Flower - Toph
 * Dante Basco - Prince Zuko
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Appa/Momo


 * Also Starring:
 * Mark Hamill - Firelord
 * Grey DeLisle - Azula
 * Cricket Leigh - Mai
 * Brian George - Guru Pathik (last appearance)


 * Additional Voices:
 * Dee Bradley Baker

Series continuity

 * Sokka's "Wang Fire beard" (previously seen in "The Headband" and "The Runaway") is seen once again when he dresses up as a therapist.
 * The Ozai portrait Aang uses for target practice is the one he made out of noodles in "The Headband".
 * When Mai asked Zuko why would he want to even go to the war meeting, telling him to remember how the last one ended, she was referring to Zuko's banishment, the details of which were revealed in "The Storm".
 * This is the second episode when Team Avatar struggles to get sleep. The other one is "The Chase".
 * The purpose of the war meeting Zuko attends is revealed in "Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King", in which Ozai reveals his plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom with the power of Sozin's Comet, leading Zuko to defy his father and help the Avatar.

Trivia

 * The animal that Toph tries to use on Aang for acupuncture is actually a baby boarcupine. This is the same animal that Appa fought in "Appa's Lost Days".
 * In Aang's first dream, he is seen dressed similar to Goku from the Dragon Ball series, in orange clothes with a belt and large, spiky dark hair.
 * The rug Aang uses to cover himself has the Air Nomad's insignia on it.
 * In his second dream, Aang appears as fashioned similar to Vash the Stampede. This is characterized by the ear piercings, hair style, high collar coat and chain-belt contraption that holds up his pants.
 * In Aang's final dream, his appearance strangely mirrors that of Ozai, most noticeably in his hair style.
 * In Aang's hallucination where Momo and Appa have a sword battle, Momo is dressed like the comic book character Usagi Yojimbo.
 * During Momo and Appa's duel in Aang's hallucination, the duel was similar to Obi-wan Kenobi's and General Grievous' duel in Star Wars: Episode III, mainly due to Appa using four swords at once, possibly reminiscent of Grievous' famous style in which he uses four lightsabers.
 * Guru Pathik's six-armed appearance is a reference to Hindu deities such as Ganesha or Kali, who are usually depicted as having six arms. (Guru Pathik's accent and manner of dress are typical of Indian Hindu holy men. India is also the origin of Hinduism.)
 * When Zuko passed the gate to go to Mai's house, one of the fans behind him was wearing an outfit like Toph's.
 * At the beginning of the episode, Aang has a flower in his mouth which is similar to the wheat or twig Jet usually has in his mouth.
 * In Aang's daydream when Momo and Appa are having a showdown, Momo looks similar to Jinno from Afro Samurai (the katana positions and the kimono design).
 * Like many of the fights in Avatar, the fights in this episode (notably with Appa and Momo), are influenced heavily from multiple anime and video games. Ozai's Bowser-like appearance and Momo and Appa's fight reflect the anime Samurai Champloo, with Cowboy Bebop and FLCL heavily influencing the show. Examples include some of the motions and actions of Aang, which are reflective of Naota from FLCL.
 * That being said, this episode also gives homages to several movies such as The Lord of the Rings, The Ring, The Grudge, A Nightmare on Elm Street and several other fantasy and dream-related movies.
 * Likewise, the "Forever Girl" line Aang speaks is referring to the generic endings of most romantic comedies in theaters.
 * This is the third episode in which Aang is afflicted with nightmares, the other two being The Storm and The Avatar State.
 * When Toph told Aang to go to sleep, her Chibi head is from the Avatar "Bending Battle" (except her headband's color is changed to match its color in Season 3, rather than Season 2 version portrayed in that Avatar short).
 * The suit that Zuko wears when he goes to visit Mai is called a qipao.
 * In the dreams Ozai has the same voice as he normally does but Aang doesn't know what his voice sounds like until the final episode.
 * When Aang punches a tree in this episode with his fist, resulting in all the leaves falling off, Sokka and Toph look to see what the commotion is about. However, Toph's head is turned away from Aang when she "looks" at him, though her ears were probably still positioned so she could better hear what was going on.
 * The voices Dee Bradly Baker uses for Momo and Appa in this episode are similar to the voices he uses for Spidermonkey and Cannonbolt from Ben 10: Alien Force.

Goofs

 * During Aang's therapy session with Sokka, Sokka's eyebrows are quite noticeably thicker, as if a part of the Wang Fire costume, yet they remain the same color as his normal eyebrows.
 * During Aang's first "romantic" daydream of Katara, she is wearing shoes. She is barefoot, however, both when Aang dips her and when he snaps back to reality.
 * While Sokka is making the armor for Appa, the arrow over the head can first be seen to show three circles on it, possibly representing the Airbending symbol, but during the invasion the circles are not seen.
 * When Aang's bed was first introduced, it was composed of one circle. Later, when Aang was checking the bed, it was two circles. After his dream, while he was lying on the bed, the bed was reduced to one circle again.
 * Throughout this episode, Aang's arrow tattoo on his forehead is noticeably longer than usual. The tip of the arrow is below or even with his eyebrows. If this was true, Aang wouldn't be able to wear the headband without hiding his eyebrows or showing the tip of the arrow as seen throughout Book 3. This mistake happens in many Book 3 episodes.

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