Avatar Day


 * This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the holiday 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)

Overview
''Aang and friends stumble upon a town celebrating an Anti-Avatar Day. The villagers blame the Avatar for killing their leader Chin the Great in a past life. Aang is arrested and put on trial for his crimes. Zuko disguises himself as the Blue Spirit to steal food for him and his uncle. But Iroh is not happy with what Zuko is doing, and Zuko decides to leave him. After Fire Nation soldiers attack the village, Aang is pardoned after he defeats them. The town changes the "Anti-Avatar" celebration to a pro-Avatar celebration.''

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 Avatars 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 terrifying the villagers. The village's mayor explains to him that "Avatar Day" was formed after Avatar Kyoshi killed the village's leader, Chin the Great. Aang agrees to go through a trial to clear his (or rather, Kyoshi's) name. Unfortunately, Aang was unable to pay bail so that left Sokka and Katara to investigate. Sokka and Katara then search the village and return to Kyoshi Island to find evidence that can help him. They are welcomed with cheers from the islanders (including one fan who begins to foam at the mouth), but they become disappointed when they realize Aang is not there. 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.

Suddenly, 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 "do a service to the community" by defeating the warriors and consequently saving 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.

Series Continuity

 * 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 370 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. Although it could have been a footprint left from when he walked up to that point.
 * Sokka foreshadows season three as he relates to his losing his boomerang, Aang losing his arrow and Katara losing her Hair Loopies. These things come to occur over the course of the third season. Sokka loses his boomerang in the finale (it's unknown whether he found it, or his sword again), Katara stops wearing her "loopies" not to look "Water Tribe" while undercover in the Fire Nation, and Aang is forced to grow hair and cover his arrow during the same period.
 * There is no recap to this episode. The other two episodes to have no Recap are "The Boy in the Iceberg", and "The Swamp". But it does during Avatar Extras.
 * This is the first episode in which Avatar Kyoshi is seen bending elements other than earth.

Goofs

 * When attacked by the Rough Rhinos, Sokka, Aang and Katara all forget to take something of theirs. Katara claims to have forgotten her waterbending scrolls, even though they were given to Aang in the episode "The Avatar State" by Pakku.
 * Even though Sokka had left his Boomerang behind, when Aang is first shown in prison, Sokka is pictured having it on his back.
 * Avatar Kyoshi took out one of her fans to Airbend at Chin the Conquerer, then before she split the peninsula to create Kyoshi Island, both of her fans were in her belt.
 * When the wheel of punishment lands on 'boiled in oil', the image to the right appears to be someone lying on a bed of nails. But when the mayor moves the wheel one space to the right later, the picture is 'community service'.
 * When the Rough Rhinos came to attack the village, one of them was already right by the statue of Chin. There were no sight of him coming down as well. When he cut down the statue, the statue didn't go down with the cut at all either
 * When Aang was fighting the last Rough Rhino member, he jumps over him, and then when he landed, Kyoshi's head piece landed on the ground, particularly the head piece wasn't even shown taking off at all.
 * When Zuko left on the ostrich horse in the first scene the tail is white, but in the next scene the tail was brown.

Trivia

 * When gathering evidence Sokka wears a goofy-looking hat and pipe. This is likely a reference to the detective Sherlock Holmes, a character in a popular book series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
 * 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. Though later in the finale of the show, Aang comments on the way that technically Kyoshi did not kill Chin, she blankly responds: "Personally I don't see the difference, but I assure you I would've done whatever it took to stop Chin"
 * On Kyoshi Island the man who foams at the mouth then faints after Katara and Sokka land was first featured in the episode The Warriors of Kyoshi.
 * This is the last episode prior to Toph's introduction.
 * Kyoshi island is revealed to have originally been part of a continent, but was separated and made into an island by Avatar Kyoshi, to prevent Chin the Conqueror from destroying it.
 * Zuko mentions capturing the Avatar for the first time in season two.
 * The bailiff keeps referring to Aang as "it", either unsure whether it's Kyoshi, a female, or Aang, a male, that's up for trial, or in an effort to further humiliate the Avatar, denying him humanity even in the pronoun used to address him.
 * Aang's fellow prisoners give him the advice that he has an advantage as the Avatar with the ladies. This is similar to what Roku said to Aang during Roku's wedding-flashback in The Avatar and the Fire Lord.
 * This is the only episode in Book 2 that the kids didn't mention looking for an Earthbending teacher for Aang.

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