The Southern Raiders

''This article is about the episode. If you're looking for a group by the same name, see Southern Raiders''

Writer: Elizabeth Welch Ehasz

Director: Joaquim dos Santos

Guest Stars: Tim Dang (Yon Rha), Grey DeLisle (Azula, Kya), André Sogliuzzo (Hakoda), Jennie Kwan (Suki)

Synopsis
Aang and friends, including the newly joined Suki, Hakoda and Chit Sang are sleeping in the Western Air Temple. The sun rises and Aang awakes in time to see a bomb being thrown at them. Aang deflects it using airbending, and the others wake up as the bomb explodes harmlessly in the air. Several Fire Nation Airships rise out of the mist below and begin barraging the temple with more bombs.

Aang airbends the large temple doors closed to protect the others. Zuko pushes Katara out of the way of a falling rock, but instead of thanking him she demands he get off her. Toph and Haru Earthbend a tunnel into the wall so everyone can escape safely. Aang notices Zuko looking out at the airships. Zuko tells Aang that he will hold them off and runs towards the ships and finds Azula atop one waiting for him. She nearly blasts him off the temple with firebending, but Zuko uses a crumbling pillar to try to jump onto her airship. He misses, hitting the side of the ship and falls into the misty abyss below. Appa refuses to go into the tunnel with the others as the temple is continuously bombarded. Sokka decides they need to split up; Aang, Katara, Toph, Suki, Momo and he fly out of the temple while everybody else escapes through the tunnel. Toph earthbends a shield to protect them from incoming bombs.



As they fly away they see Zuko rise out of the mist on another airship. He jumps onto Azula's ship and they do battle. Aang and the others barely manage to evade attacks by Fire Nation soldiers on the other airships. Zuko and Azula seem evenly matched, but their close range firebending causes a large explosion that blasts them both off the ship.

Aang swoops Appa down to save Zuko, and Azula uses firebending to propel herself to the cliffside and halt to a stop using her hairpin. They camp out near an uninhabited beach and Aang thinks it's like old times. Zuko cracks a joke about how he could chase Aang around and try to capture him if he really wants it to feel like old times again. Everyone laughs but Katara. Sokka proposes a toast to Zuko for saving them from Azula, and everyone except Katara cheers. Zuko is thankful and says he doesn't deserve it. Katara agrees and storms off. Zuko follows her wondering what her problem is.



He tries to talk with Katara, saying that everyone trusts him now except her. Katara yells at him, saying that she was the first one to trust him in Ba Sing Se but he betrayed her trust. Zuko asks what he could do to make her forgive him, and she angrily tells him to reconquer Ba Sing Se or bring her mother back. She then walks off, leaving Zuko alone.

He goes to talk to Sokka, who was expecting Suki to visit him instead, but is comically interrupted by Zuko. Zuko asks Sokka to tell him about his mother, as he thinks Katara is taking anger out over her mother's death on him. Sokka tells Zuko that the Fire Nation attacked their village several years ago when they were kids. But the attack was short and the invaders soon retreated. At that time, they discovered their mother was gone. Zuko asks what flag the ships were hoisting, and Sokka describes it as Sea Ravens, which Zuko recognizes as the symbol of the Southern Raiders. He thanks Sokka, who then pushes him out of the tent and says that he thought Zuko would never leave. After rubbing his hands, he peeks outside and calls to Suki only to find that Zuko had only taken a few steps away from the tent.



The following morning, Zuko tells Katara that he knows who killed her mother and that he can help her find him. Aang tries to dissuade her when he finds out, saying revenge is never the answer. However, in her rage Katara does not listen and even says that Sokka didn't love their mother the way she did. Nonetheless, Aang allows her and Zuko to take Appa. They go to a guiding outpost that serves as a coordination station for the entire Fire Navy. They sneak in and send a guard out by waterbending ink on her. They discover that the Southern Raiders are currently stationed at Whale Tail Island. On the way, Katara remembers her perception of when she lost her mother.

Upon spotting the black snow, the eight-year-old Katara went to look for her mother, but found her mother, Kya, being questioned by a Fire Nation soldier. Kya tells Katara to go outside and get her father. She complies and goes to get Hakoda but by the time they reached the igloo, the Fire Nation soldier was gone and Kya killed. Zuko comments that Kya was very brave, and Katara holds her mother's necklace and agrees.

Later, Zuko spots the Southern Raiders. He tells Katara, who was resting. They dive using Katara's Waterbending and emerge on the other side of the Ship. In a swift and powerful display of Waterbending powered by the full moon, Katara sends the crew overboard. The two make their way to the bridge to capture the captain, whom she subdues with Bloodbending. After realizing it's not the man who killed her mother, Zuko interrogates the captain, and they learn that the last commander, Yon Rha, retired 4 years ago and is living with his ill-tempered mother.



Yon Rha is sent by his mother to get fresh tomato-carrots. On the way back it begins to rain, and he feels he's being watched (and is, by Katara and Zuko). Certain that he's being followed, Yon Rha swivels around, shooting a blast of fire at a nearby bush, but is ambushed. Katara threatens him to remember her, which Yon Rha does, and he tells her the whole truth of what happened that day.

A source had told him of the existence of one last Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe, which Kya pretended to be to save the village and her daughter. Upon hearing that Kya is the waterbender, Yon Rha decided not to take her prisoner, but to kill her. Enraged, Katara reveals herself to him as the last true Waterbender. She waterbends the rain, turning it into icicles that fly at Yon Rha. However, she stops the assault at the last second and releases her control over the icicles, which turn to harmless water. Yon Rha pleads for his life, even offering his mother to make things even. Seeing how weak and pathetic he is, Katara decides not to kill him.



Later, Katara is waiting on a dock on Ember Island for the rest of the group to arrive on Appa. Aang has a talk with Katara about how she did the right thing by forgiving. She replies she could never forgive Yon Rha, but she was finally willing to forgive Zuko and hugs him warmly before leaving. Zuko tells Aang that he was right about Katara, and Aang reaffirms that violence is never the answer. Zuko asks Aang then what he will do once he must face the Fire Lord.

Series Continuity

 * This is the first and only time in the series when we have seen Kya's face and heard her voice.
 * Kya, the mother of Sokka and Katara, was killed by trying to protect Katara, which was the target of the Southern Raiders, since she is the last Waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe.
 * This is the first and only time Katara is seen using Bloodbending since "The Puppetmaster".
 * This is the first time Zuko has mentioned Aang's and Katara's names out loud.
 * Though some people believe Katara used Bloodbending without a full moon, this is incorrect, due to the moon being full during the episode, which barely spanned three days, while moon phases last a week.
 * This is the first time Jet has been mentioned on screen since "Lake Laogai".
 * Whale Tail Island was first mentioned in "Lake Laogai", as a place where Appa would have been taken to after being bought in the black market.
 * In The Boy in the Iceberg, Katara sarcastically remarks that Aang has to be a spy for the Fire Navy, just because of the "evil look in his eye", a possible comparison with Yon Rha.
 * In the end of "The Western Air Temple", Zuko had his own room in the temple, but in this episode, he is shown to sleep in a sleeping bag along with others in the balcony section of the temple.
 * This is the second time that someone pushes Katara out of the way of falling rocks, first being Aang in "The Cave of Two Lovers".
 * Aang mentions in the episode that Katara sounds like Jet, even though she sounds a little more like Hama due to her thirst for revenge and her use of Bloodbending in the episode.
 * As seen in Lake Laogai and The Western Air Temple, Katara tends to hold grudges on people who hurt or betrayed her.
 * Aang: "Is it your turn to go on a field trip with Zuko?" This is a direct reference to the previous three episodes, in which Aang and Sokka both went on individual journeys with Zuko, which inevitably ended with the two bonding.

Trivia

 * Katara and Sokka's mother's name is Kya, which was Katara's name in the unaired pilot.
 * There is an animation error shortly after Yon Rha's flashback. Zuko's entire face is visible immediately after the sequence, however, when Katara bends the rain, Zuko is seen pulling down his face mask (which was already lowered).
 * In this episode, we can already begin to see Azula's sanity unraveling.
 * In the beginning of the episode, Sokka's hair is loose. However, after Katara catches Zuko on Appa, you can briefly see Sokka's topknot in. Then it is out again.
 * This is one of the few times we see Katara almost harm someone out of rage.
 * Zuko says "We weren't behind the bush", though Yon Rha Firebended at a tree.
 * When Suki denies going to see Sokka and coolly waves her arms before leaving, her rope belt is missing.