The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion


 * This article is about an episode, for the event, see Day of Black Sun. For the battle, see Invasion of the Fire Nation

Writer: Michael Dante DiMartino

Director: Giancarlo Volpe

Guest Stars: Carlos Alazraqui (Tho, Due), Rene Auberjonois (The Mechanist), William H. Bassett (Huu), Michael Dow (Haru), Mick Foley (The Boulder), Serena Williams (Ming), Kevin Michael Richardson (Tyro, The Hippo), André Sogliuzzo (Hakoda), Mitch Holleman (The Duke), Sterling Young (Pipsqueak)

Overview
''On the day of the solar eclipse, the invasion begins. Hakoda returns with several people whom the group has met during their adventures. They successfully infiltrate the Fire Nation capital as the invasion force breaks through many security barriers. Upon reaching the Fire Lord's palace, the eclipse begins, but Aang finds no one home.''

Synopsis
On the morning of the invasion, Aang cheerfully greets everyone. Katara notes he seems well rested. Aang confidently believes he can face the Fire Lord. Toph asks Aang if he's going to use the Avatar State against him, but Aang explains that his seventh chakra was locked when Azula struck him with lightning, so he can't use it.

A fleet of Southern Water Tribe ships appear on the horizon undercover in a wall of mist. Together with Toph, Aang creates some makeshift docks in the cove. Sokka and Katara greets his father Hakoda and asks whether he was able to bring the people he requested for the invasion. He did, but he's unsure about some of them, in particular the Foggy Swamp Tribe waterbenders, who he wish would put some pants on. Emerging off one of the boats, Huu declares mystically that pants are an illusion, as is death. Due believes a beach rock he sees is some sort of Fire Nation trap.

Off of another ship, Haru greets Katara, sporting a newly grown mustache. She hugs him and Tyro thanks her for helping them find their courage when they were imprisoned by the Fire Nation. Toph senses The Hippo and The Boulder approaching, and prepares to fight them. They instead tell her they're done with the Earthbending tournament and want to help fight for the Earth Kindgom.

There is a small explosion on one of the ships, and everyone rushes to see what happened. The The Mechanist, Teo, Pipsqueak and The Duke emerge. The Mechanist was working on a new type of bomb using peanut sauce, but it proved to be a failure. Pipsqueak and The Duke remark the bombs are destructive and delicious. Teo gives Aang a gift, a brand new glider staff that contains a secret snack compartment.

At the Fire Nation prison, General Poon continues to taunt the imprisoned Iroh. Ming, a young female guard who is kind to Iroh, appears with his breakfast and snuck in some jade tea for him. After the other guard leaves, Iroh expresses his gratitude to her for the kindness.



Everyone gathers to hear the invasion plan, Sokka attempts to brief the force about the invasion, but is so nervous he trips. He gets more and more anxious until he begins to tell the entire story of how he met Aang. Hakoda takes over for him and confidently rallies the small army. He explains the plan to storm the beach and reach the palace before the eclipse. That way, when the eclipse begins, they can take on the Firebenders that guard the palace, and Aang can defeat the Fire Lord while he is powerless. After that they will have control over the Fire Nation capital, and the war will be over. Everyone cheers and prepares to depart, Appa wears armor and Aang shaves his head. Sokka, who is embarrassed of his behavior earlier, is reassured by Aang that he will have a chance to prove himself out on the battlefield.

The invasion force heads to the Great Gates of Azulon. Under the cover of mist that Katara and the Swamp Benders, as they approach the gates, an alarm goes off and a large net rises from both sides of the gate, blocking the path. As the net catches fire, groups of Firebenders infiltrate the ships and are shocked to discover that they are all empty. The invasion force pass the gate in submarine-like ships propelled by waterbending. Unfortunately, the subs have a limited air supply so they have to resurface before they reach the beach.

Ming once again visits Iroh with his supper, sneaking in extra rice. Iroh reveals to Ming that her moments of kindness have made his imprisonment bearable. He also comments that she looks ill and insists that she should go home. When she insists that she is fine, Iroh starkly explains that it would be better if she were not present that afternoon, at which Ming appears to understand.



After resurfacing, the gang gets together one final time to wish each other good luck before parting ways. Aang and Katara say goodbye in private. Katara reveals she is proud of how much Aang has grown since they first met. Aang, realizing how big this day is and that there's a chance that he may not survive, kisses Katara, then confidently snaps out his glider and flies away to face the Fire Lord, leaving Katara blushing. Katara then hops on Appa and creates a bubble around his head so that they can breathe underwater; Appa then dives into the water as they commence their attack

Zuko is shown sitting in front of a painting of his mother, promising aloud that he will do what is right. After mentally apologizing to Mai and leaving her a note in her bedroom, he gets ready to leave.

After the subs evade capture at a gate armed with harpoon gun type weapons, they finally arrive at the beach near the capital. New caterpillar-like tanks powered by Earthbenders are released from the subs and face off against Fire Nation tanks, as ground fighting ensues, followed by other warriors, benders and eight supply trucks. The Earthbender tanks are highly resilient and easily defeat the Fire Nation guards.



After noticing a threat from towers shooting missiles, Katara, Sokka, and Hakoda attack them with Appa. While Katara and Sokka take out one tower, Hakoda destroys another one, but is injured in the process. Katara and Sokka take their father a short distance from the battle. Katara attempts to heal Hakoda, but he is still unable to join the battle anytime soon. Sokka pledges to his father and sister that he will lead the battle in his father's place and flies off on Appa. He lands among the troops, which have been split up in mild disarray. He reorganizes them into wedge formation and orders them to charge up to the palace.

As the invasion breaches the wall of the capital city, things are looking well. However, when Aang enters the capital city, he finds it completely deserted of people. When he reaches the Fire Lord's throne room in the palace, Ozai is nowhere to be found. In anguish, Aang falls to his knees and yells "Fire Lord Ozai, where are you?!"

Series Continuity

 * In The Runaway, Sokka tells Toph he was planning to make armor for Appa, which he completes for the invasion.
 * Toph gave Sokka money in The Runaway to buy expensive atlases, which are used to explain the invasion plan.

Trivia

 * While Aang flies on the glider fashioned by the Mechanist, he turns the handle that drops food into his mouth. The food appears to be liechi nuts, the ones that grow into liechi fruit, which contain a little white seed on the inside, the actually edible part. In that scene, Aang just eats the nuts, shell and all.
 * During this episode, Aang wasn't shown to have any problems with killing the Fire Lord, but in the finale, he was shown to be severely conflicted about it. However it is probable that he did not think he would have to kill Ozai, given the fact Ozai would be powerless at the time, merely defeat him and force the end of the war.
 * It is interesting that The Mechanist was attempting to make peanut-sauce bombs, as peanuts are actually an ingredient in dynamite.
 * Katara's hair was redesigned for this episode. This would be her hairstyle onwards.
 * With the arrival of numerous old acquaintances of the group, many previous episodes are referenced.

Goofs

 * Ming brings White Jade tea to Iroh's cell as an act of kindness, but in the episode The Cave of Two Lovers it's established that White Jade is poisonous and if ingested fatal without treatment. In that episode Iroh confuses the White Jade bush with White Dragon and develops rashes and must be treated.
 * When Hakoda is reassuring a nervous Sokka about speaking in front of everyone, Sokka has his sword on his back, but when Sokka is picking up his dropped scrolls after tripping, his sword is missing.
 * During Sokka's speech when he says, "Let me start at the beginning," his sword and sheath are on his back. When the camera zooms out, however, they're both gone. Then when Hakoda asks Sokka to take a break, his sword reappears.
 * During the invasion, after Hakoda disarms a Firenation soldier, he is holding the two spears with the blades facing in toward his body, but in the next frame the blades are facing out.
 * Before the invasion, when they surface for air in the submarines, it is shown that after Aang kisses Katara, she hops onto Appa and creates a bubble around him. He then takes off with Katara still on his neck, but in the scene where they first show the inside of the submarine, Katara is one of the Waterbenders moving the submarine. However, it's possible she just switched positions with another Waterbender.