The Avatar and the Fire Lord

"The Avatar and the Fire Lord" is the sixth episode of season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 46th of the overall series. It debuted on October 26, 2007.

Overview
''After Aang receives a vision from Roku and Zuko receives a letter from Iroh, they each learn about the relationship between Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin; their childhood friendship, falling out, and Sozin's eventual betrayal of Roku to his death. Zuko discovers that Roku is his maternal great-grandfather. Iroh explains to Zuko that the legacy of the struggle between Roku and Zuko's paternal great-grandfather, Sozin, lives on as the struggle between good and evil within Zuko himself. ''

Synopsis
Aang is visited in a dream by Roku, who tells him it is time he learned about his past life's history with Fire Lord Sozin. Roku tells Aang to travel to his old home, a deserted volcanic island, during the summer solstice. Upon arriving, Toph senses there is an entire village buried beneath the volcanic ash of the island's shore. As the solstice begins, Aang meditates and meets Roku in the Spirit World.

At the Fire Nation palace, Prince Zuko is awoken by the noise of someone outside his room door. He rushes out to see who it was and finds a scroll sitting on the floor, telling him he must find out about his great-grandfather's death in order to understand his own destiny.

Zuko visits a portrait gallery of the past Fire Lords the next day, and is greeted by his sister Azula. He asks her if she knows how their great-grandfather Fire Lord Sozin died, and she tells him he died peacefully in his sleep. Zuko mulls over the mysterious message to himself, unsure of what it means. In frustration he throws the parchment over a lamp and discovers a hidden message in the note, telling him to go to the Dragon Bone Catacombs to find the secret history. After eluding Fire Sages, Zuko infiltrates the catacombs and finds "The Final Testament of Fire Lord Sozin", an autobiographical record of his life.



As Zuko reads the record, Roku shows Aang a flashback of his youth, showing him practicing his Firebending with then-Crown Prince Sozin. Roku and Sozin were best friends. They even shared the same birthday, which they celebrated together. On their sixteenth birthday, Roku's identity as the Avatar was revealed by the Fire Sages. The two friends were forced to separate as Roku had to leave the Fire Nation to master the other three elements. Before leaving, Sozin gave Roku a gift: the hair ornament customarily worn by the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. Roku wore it ever since.

Roku began his journey at the Southern Air Temple, training to master Airbending. There he became friends with young Gyatso, a fact that surprises and delights young Aang. Roku tells Aang that some friendships are so strong they can transcend lifetimes.



After several years mastering Airbending, Roku traveled to the Northern Water Tribe where he learned Waterbending. Though it was challenging to learn his natural opposite, after several years Roku mastered it as well. Roku journeyed to the Earth Kingdom, where he mastered the last remaining element with an Earthbender named Sud before becoming a fully realized Avatar. After the twelve years of training, Roku had returned to the Fire Nation. His old friend Sozin had become the Fire Lord, and greeted him warmly. Roku married his childhood sweetheart, Ta Min, with Sozin as his best man. During the wedding, Sozin took Roku aside and remarked that the Fire Nation was going through a period of great prosperity. With him as the Fire Lord and Roku as the Avatar, he believed the two of them could spread the Fire Nation's influence and create a prospering empire. Roku was greatly disturbed by this, telling Sozin that the Four Nations are meant to be kept separate and to abandon such thoughts.



Many years later, Roku discovered that Sozin had ignored his request and invaded the Earth Kingdom. Roku confronted Sozin and demanded he cease the expansion. Enraged, Sozin attacked Roku with a powerful display of Firebending. Roku quickly disabled him and used the Avatar State to destroy the palace. He starkly warns Sozin he is sparing his life in recognition of their past friendship, but warns if he oversteps his boundaries again Roku will not hesitate to eliminate him.

Twenty-five years later, Roku's Island was consumed in a volcanic eruption. Roku helped his island's villagers escape safely and tried to contain the eruption, but without success. So massive was the eruption that Sozin could see and feel it from a hundred miles away. Sozin flew to the island on his blue dragon to assist his old friend, and the two worked together to try and quell the volcano.



Their effort appeared successful, yet the poisonous gas from the volcano overwhelmed Roku and caused him to collapse to the ground. He called to Sozin for help, but Sozin realized the elimination of the Avatar would make all his future plans for the Fire Nation suddenly possible. He flew away on his dragon, leaving Roku to die from the torrent of volcanic ash. Shortly afterward, as Roku exhaled his last breath, Avatar Aang was born to the Air Nomads.

Zuko finishes reading Sozin's testament, which explains Sozin attacked the Air Nomads to eliminate the next Avatar, but the Avatar managed to escape somehow. Sozin spent the rest of his life searching fruitlessly to find the Fire Nation's greatest threat: "The Last Airbender". Zuko is disappointed by the ending, still not understanding how it concerns him.

Zuko goes to the Fire Nation jail tower and bursts angrily into Iroh's cell. He accuses Iroh of having sent him the message and demands the point, as the testament did not even reveal anything significant about Sozin's death. Iroh explains that the message did not refer to his father's grandfather, Sozin, but to his mother's grandfather, revealed to be Avatar Roku. Zuko is alarmed by this, and Iroh further explains that their combined heritage is the reason Zuko is still conflicted over his destiny; whether he should destroy or assist the Avatar. Iroh gives Zuko the lost Crown Prince's ornamental hairpiece, telling Zuko he alone has the power to redeem their family and the sins of Fire Nation by restoring balance to the world.



Awakening from his vision with Roku, Aang tells his friends the story. He believes Roku was trying to tell him that any person is capable of great good or great evil, and that every person should be treated as though they are worth giving a chance for redemption. Toph wonders if friendships can really transcend lifetimes, Aang and Katara hold her hand to assure her. Yet Sokka is skeptical, saying there's no real scientific proof. Annoyed, Katara demands he just hold hands with the rest of them, which he quickly does.

Series Continuity

 * This is the last episode in the series in which Aang enters the Spirit World.
 * In this episode, Iroh presents Zuko with the Crown Prince Headpiece, but Zuko is never seen wearing it in the series.
 * When Katara asks if the Spirit World has bathrooms, Sokka says it doesn't. This is a reference to the episode, Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World, when Sokka was transported to the Spirit World and on returning, desperately needed to use the bathroom.
 * In "The Awakening", Avatar Roku appears before Aang and tells him that Aang had inherited his mistakes. Here we finally learn what mistakes Roku had made.
 * In this episode, Roku refers to his training in the other elements as "bitter work." In the episode "Bitter Work," Aang struggles to master his opposing element, though the phrase is never actually mentioned.
 * In this episode it is revealed Roku died attempting to save his home village from a volcanic eruption. Aang also battled a volcano in order to save a village in the episode, The Fortuneteller, and despite not yet being a fully-realized Avatar, like Roku, he succeeded. However, the eruption Roku fought to control was much greater than the one Aang faced.
 * It is revealed that the original Fire Nation Throne Room was a much more welcoming and light-filled space; however, after Roku destroyed it, Sozin had it rebuilt in the much darker and more imposing form seen in the main series.
 * In the flashback where Roku Waterbends his Waterbending teacher through the Northern Water Tribe city, it can be seen that the large ice wall that currently defends the city did not exist over a century ago. Clearly, it was built in response to the Fire Nation's imperialist war.
 * This episode marks the consequences of allowing loyalty and past ties conflict with the duty of the Avatar. This situation was similar to Kyoshi's willingness to defy the Earth King and instead of crush the rebellion she established the Dai Li, the only difference being Kyoshi allowed duty to win over loyalty.

Character Revelations

 * It is revealed that Roku was Zuko's maternal great-grandfather.
 * By extension, Zuko realizes that he's spiritually related to Aang.

Goofs

 * When the scene cuts to Aang and the gang on the cliff at Roku's island, Aang is seen standing up. Then when the view zooms in, Aang is sitting down, cross-legged.
 * When Aang gets on to Fang in the Spirit World, in the shot of him squatting in the real world, his tattoos are not glowing.
 * When the Fire Sages bow down to the young Roku, Aang and Avatar Roku aren't in the crowd. Then when everyone is bowing, Aang and Avatar Roku appear on the right.
 * At the end of the episode, after Aang has told the gang about Roku and Sozin, Sokka's sword is missing, but the strap on his chest is still there. In the next frame his sword is shown on his back, then when they all hold hands, both the strap and the sword are missing.
 * When Avatar Roku goes into the Avatar State and begins to blow a hole in the other side of the volcano, his teeth are the same color as his skin. Though, in the previous frame, his teeth are white.
 * At the end of the episode, when Aang, Toph, Katara and Sokka are holding hands, their backs are to the sea. In the final frame, they are facing the sea and in the opposite order.
 * When Roku enters the palace to confront Sozin, his beard is greying. After Sozin attacks and he rises from behind Sozin, the beard is solid black. It reverts back to greying when Roku enters the Avatar State.

Trivia

 * When Roku and his wife are fleeing the eruption, the ash and magma appear to have already destroyed their village, so it is unclear why Roku stayed since everyone was already off the island. Although as Roku tried to stop the volcano's eruption, it is possible that he stayed because all the villagers were still near enough to the island to be in danger.
 * If the visions of Roku's training in this episode are an example of usual Avatar training customs, it seems that while training in each of the other elements, Avatars will wear the standard clothing of that nation but return to their own when they have mastered all the elements.
 * When the Eastern Air Temple in seen burning the sky seems to be orange. This is due to the comet. The orange sky is seen later in Sozin's Comet.
 * It is questionable how Sozin had established colonies on Earth Kingdom territory, with the Earth Kingdom not attacking back. It is possible that the Earth King handed these over, so as to not start a war. This may be a reference to World war II. When Germany began conquering nearby nations, the surrounding uninvolved nations thought it better to appease the Germans by giving them the lands that they wanted rather than attack, hoping they would stop afterwards thus avoiding the need for military force and a war.
 * This is the first chapter in Book 3 that Iroh speaks. Iroh's long period without dialogue is believed by some to be related to the death of Iroh's Book 1 and Book 2 voice actor, Mako, but on the DVD commentary, the creators had previously planned to have Iroh silent for the first few episodes.
 * Roku said, during his wedding-flashback, that as the Avatar, you get noticed by the ladies. Aang got this same advice from the other prisoners during his jail-time in "Avatar Day".
 * In this episode, Roku gave Aang the time of the year to meet him at his homeland, during the Summer Solstice. This mirrors the episode "Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku", when Aang had the chance to talk to him during the Winter Solstice at his temple. The Spirit World and the real world are closest at the solstices.
 * Fire Lord Sozin justifies the invasion of the other nations as sharing wealth, a concept derived from Japanese Imperialism. In World War II, the Japanese Empire used an ideological construct, "Dai Toa Kyoeikan" ("The Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere") to justify invading China and conquering the South Pacific, just as the Fire Nation has invaded the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes.
 * The story of Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin is similar to the story of the Archbishop Thomas Becket and King Henry II in that two friends are both elevated to positions of authority, one in the spiritual/religious sense with the other gaining political and military authority; as their friendship is eventually placed at odds with their responsibilities to their respective spheres.
 * During Roku's wedding, guests in blue and green clothing can be seen, representing the openness of the four nations before the war.
 * It's unknown how Sozin knew that the Avatar wasn't in any of the Air Temples that he destroyed. It may have been because he knew about the Avatar State, and suspected that because none of the monks entered it, he presumed that the Avatar had not been there at the time. Also, the monks may have been interrogated and told Sozin that Aang was not there during the attack.
 * The relationship between Roku and Sozin (Going from friend to enemy), is opposite to Aang's and Zuko's relationship (Going from enemy to friend). Also Zuko and Aang were friends mainly after Zuko became Fire Lord and Sozin and Roku before.
 * Roku's wife, Ta Min, makes her first and sole appearance in this episode.
 * This episode is alternatively titled "The Avatar and the Firelord" on iTunes and the DVD.
 * The stance and motion that Fire Lord Sozin uses to sink and redirect the volcano's heat energy directly mirrors the form that Iroh and Zuko use to channel and redirect the energy from lightning.

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