The Tales of Ba Sing Se

Writer: Gary Scheppke, Katie Mattila, Lisa Wahlander, Justin Ridge, Giancarlo Volpe, Lauren MacMullan, Andrew Huebner, Joann Estoesta

Director: Ethan Spaulding

Guest Stars: James Sie (Cabbage Merchant), Melinda Clarke (Madame Macmu-Ling), Andy Morris (Kenji), Marcella Lentz-Pope (Jin), Quinton Flynn (Tycho)

Overview
''The Tales of Ba Sing Se is a set of vignettes about each of the main characters' adventures in Ba Sing Se, providing a glimpse of their personalities and private lives. Katara and Toph have a girls day out; Iroh helps people in town before celebrating the birthday of his dead son; Aang helps a zookeeper build a new zoo; Sokka accidentally ends up in a poetry club; Zuko goes out on a date; Momo looks through Ba Sing Se for Appa.''

The Tale of Toph and Katara


The story opens at the location of the gang's house in Ba Sing Se, the whole group busily cleaning themselves up for the day aside from Toph, who has yet to wake up. When Katara wakes her, Toph presents herself with her hair a mess and her body covered in dust, considering herself ready. Katara suggests they have a "Girl's Day Out" and takes her to the Fancy Lady Day Spa. Toph agrees, as long as they don't touch her feet. This is a denied request, and Toph sends one of the attendants through the wall during a pedicure. The girls then take a mud bath where Toph uses her Earthbending to make creepy faces with the mud and scare away the attendant. The two then relax in a sauna, using their bending to both to toss hot rocks and water in a central pit to make steam.

The girls leave the sauna now with make-up on their faces. Toph comments that while she does not usually do fancy things, it's not something she dislikes. As they cross a bridge, three older girls poke fun of Toph's makeup. Toph is upset by these remarks, and Katara tries to urge her to ignore them. Toph, however, laughs back at the girls and then Earthbends the ground from under them, sending them into the water below. Katara finishes with her own parting shot by washing the girls downstream with a large wave.

Katara tries to console Toph as they continue walking on. Toph claims that because she is blind, she does not have to worry so much about personal appearance or the approval of others, but the words of the girls still hurt her all the same, and she sheds a few tears. Katara compliments that Toph is not only confident and self-assured, but also pretty. Toph proclaims she would like to return the favor but has no idea what Katara looks like. Katara laughs at this, and the story ends with Toph giving her a friendly (yet hard) punch on the arm.

The Tale of Iroh


While strolling through a market, Iroh stops and buys a few things at a street stand. Iroh purchases a picnic basket and when the owner asks, Iroh claims that it is for a special occasion. He then aids the shopkeeper by helping a Moon Flower bloom by moving it closer to the shade. Continuing his walk, he sees a small boy crying and his mother struggling to calm him. Iroh borrows a liuqin from a nearby shop and sings a song to the weeping child. The song tells the tale of a young soldier boy marching home from war. The boy stops crying as Iroh sings to him, and he then proceeds to thank Iroh by pulling his beard and laughing.

In a small street alley, Iroh watches some boys play a variation of soccer that employs Earthbending. The ball ricochets off a rock and crashes through a window. He tells them that it is always best to admit your mistakes in order to restore honor. However, the owner appears in the window, massive in size, and he retracts his comments and tells them to run. After running down an alley, he is threatened at knifepoint by a mugger. Unconcerned for his own safety, Iroh tells the mugger that his stance makes him weak to attacks and proves it by knocking him down and stealing his dagger. Iroh corrects the man's stance and comments that he does not look like a criminal. The man admits that he is confused with his life right now and has turned to crime. Iroh and the man share some tea as Iroh suggests that the man would become a good masseur. The man comments that no one has ever believed in him, to which Iroh comments that help from others can be a great blessing. (Iroh gave the same wisdom to Toph in the episode "The Chase.")

Iroh comes to rest upon a hill with a large tree. He sets up some rocks and pulls out materials from the basket he purchased earlier. The special occasion it is needed for is a memorial for Lu Ten's birthday (the son Iroh lost in the war). Iroh places a cloth out upon the ground along with a picture of Lu Ten. He then lights two incense sticks and places them in a holder. Iroh says happy birthday to the image and confesses that he wished he could have helped his own son, as he had helped those along his way, and as his death helped him become a better person. Iroh then starts singing the song he had played earlier for the crying boy, though this time, it is broken up by tears as Iroh mourns Lu Ten's death. The song Iroh sings is called "Leaves From the Vine".

This segment of the episode ends with a dedication to Mako Iwamatsu, Iroh's voice actor, who passed away on July 21, 2006, after a long battle with esophageal cancer. Greg Baldwin took over the role of Uncle Iroh for the remainder of the series.

The Tale of Aang


Flying high over Ba Sing Se, Aang lands at a small zoo looking for Appa. Looking around, he sees a wide variety of animals, all of whom are miserable in their small cages. Many of them are also partially starved and hungry. The Zookeeper tells Aang that the zoo is no longer receiving funding from the Dai Li because it is no longer popular with the children. However in a circle of troubles, nobody comes to the zoo because it does not receive the funding and is quite filthy (one of the cages shows an animal lying near multiple piles of feces). The Keeper would like nothing more than to let his animals run wild in open spaces. Aang suggests moving the animals to an open area just outside the city.

The animals prove much more difficult to control than Aang originally thought and they end up running wild over the city, terrorizing the citizenry. Hog-monkeys destroy a shop, various animals attack the citizens, and the Cabbage Merchant has his cabbages eaten by a Rabbiroo. After trying to restore order, Aang pulls out his Bison Whistle and blows a huge burst of air through it using Airbending. He then hops on an air scooter as the animals run after him.

Meanwhile, the Zookeeper frantically tries to get the guards to open the gate. They refuse until they see the oncoming stampede. Once the gates are open, Aang reaches the other side and hops on his air-scooter again. Using his Earthbending, he creates a wall around the animals. He continues to Earthbend paths, secluded areas, and habitat accessories. The children and their families come flocking to the new Zoo, and the Zookeeper thanks Aang for his help. The Zookeeper tells Aang he should have a job with animals. However, the zoo animals weren't the only creatures that followed the sound of the whistle, as many cats, dogs and cat-dogs are also inside the animal pens. After that, the Zookeeper decides that Aang should stick to saving people.

The Tale of Sokka


In the peaceful city, Sokka is outside his element of war and battle. His boomerang has become a toy as he walks through the city. Sokka finds a haiku class full of pretty girls. While peeking through the window, enjoying the show, he is shoved from behind by an Ostrich Horse and winds up inside. While explaining the window to the girls, he accidentally rhymes in haiku ("They call me Sokka / that is, in the Water Tribe / I am not an oaf."). The instructor becomes upset with the intrusion and disruption of the class. She is also disgusted with the commonplace message his haiku presents and presents the rules of haiku to him in a much more formal tone. Sokka soon gets into a contest with the teacher, both of which speak only in haiku. After each of Sokka's, the girls in the class break into giggling. After several bouts, with Sokka comically winning each one, he eventually messes up and adds an extra syllable to the final line, causing the class to become silent and hard-faced. After counting the syllables and realizing his mistake, a very large guard throws him out of the class back on to the street. Sokka changed his mind about liking poetry in the end.

The Tale of Zuko


Working at the teahouse, Zuko is worried that a young girl has made him out as being from the Fire Nation. When he tells Iroh about it, Iroh realized that the girl, Jin, simply has a crush on Zuko. This is quickly proven correct when Jin comes to the counter and asks him out after paying. Iroh quickly accepts on his nephew's behalf. They meet after sundown outside the shop.

Zuko leaves the shop, polished in nice clothes and slicked hair that took Iroh ten minutes to fashion. Jin, however, messes it up before they leave. Zuko, not used to something as mundane as a date, is more than a little nervous and makes a few missteps, but Jin seems to take it in stride. She asks Zuko about his life, which causes Zuko to make up a story that he and Iroh were part of a traveling circus before they came to Ba Sing Se. Jin asks him what he performed as, but she stops him, because she wanted to guess. When Jin guesses "juggling," Zuko flows with it. With encouragement from Jin, Zuko starts and gets himself covered in food claiming a lack of practice as the problem.

After their awkward dinner, Jin pulls Zuko off to one of her favorite parts of the city, the Firelight Fountain. At night, the fountain is usually lit by lanterns in the evening and causes the water to sparkle. But when they get there, the lanterns are all dark and unlit. Sensing her disappointment, Zuko tells Jin to close her eyes. Then, making sure no one else is around to watch, he quietly lights all the lanterns with his Firebending. Jin and Zuko stare into the fountain and Jin reaches out and holds Zuko's hand. Slyly, Jin tries to give Zuko a kiss, but as she tries, Zuko holds up a coupon for a free tea between them and gives it to her. Nonplussed, she tells Zuko to close his eyes so she could present her gift to him. She then kisses him lightly and briefly. Zuko gives her a brief kiss in return, but quickly breaks away and leaves. When Jin asks him why, he simply says that it's complicated and heads back to the teahouse.

Back at his apartment, Iroh's query about the night is answered only by a slamming of the doors to Zuko's room. But Zuko opens the door slightly afterwards and tells him it was nice, and then gently slides the door closed.

The Tale of Momo


Momo dreams that he and Appa are eating moon peaches from a tree so high it reaches over the clouds. When he starts awake at a clap of thunder, he instinctively hides in Sokka's bag. When he emerges, there is a tuft of Appa's hair on his head from inside the bag. Smelling it, Momo realized that the fur is Appa's. Seeing an Appa-like shadow on the ground, he wraps the fur around his wrist and takes off after it, only to find a lone cloud. A similar sighting only turns out to be a cherry tree.

Disappointed, Momo decides to continue searching the city for Appa. Unfortunately, he soon draws the attention of a trio of Pygmy Pumas, which see him as a potential meal. Momo tries to escape, but the cats work together to try to bring him down, momentarily trapping him in a box until he seizes an opportunity to escape. Momo's "escape" only succeeds in landing him amid a crowd of people watching a street artist with a pair of dancing monkeys; the man seizes Momo, outfits him with a hat and jacket, and places him with the monkeys, making an amusing trio of small dancing primates. The three cats eventually chase Momo out of the performers' circle and pin him to the ground, but all four of them suddenly find themselves captured.

The four animals are brought to a butcher, and the man that captured them begins haggling with the owner. The highly intelligent Momo frees by using his opposable thumb to twist the skull key that unlocks his cage, then starts to run off. However, seeing the three mournful pumas and feeling sympathy, he frees them from their cages, and all four run off on the rooftops. As the four new devoted friends sit on a rooftop snuggling, one of the pumas removes the fur that had been used to bind Momo's legs, and the three run off down an alley. The cats stop and place the fur in a large three-toed footprint in the street —which, in fact, was made by Appa. Momo notices the print as he lands in it. He curls on top of the tuft of fur and falls asleep, again thinking of his beloved companion, as rain starts to fall.

Goofs

 * When Toph and Katara visit the spa, Toph reads the spa sign. Even if she used her Seismic Sense Toph can't read, but it's possible Katara read it to her earlier.
 * When Iroh disarms the mugger the dagger is blade up in Iroh's hand, but in the close up it is blade down. Then before the mugger hits the ground it's blade up again. In the final frame it is blade down before Iroh skillfully spins it blade up.
 * While Aang and the zoo animals are rushing toward the city gate, an elephant's trumpet is heard, though none of the animals shown even vaguely resembles an elephant. (Admittedly, one animal that has the head of a mandrill [a large baboon with brilliant blue and red patches of skin on its face] appears to be a large quadruped—at least as large as Appa—that could be related to an elephant.)
 * The baby Rabiroos' eyes change from yellow as they reveal themselves to black in the close up.
 * As Zuko slams the doors to his room a crack near the left handle disappears and when he opens it to speak to Iroh the doors turn white.

Trivia

 * An uncredited Greg Baldwin provides a solitary line of dialogue for Iroh during the character's tale.
 * When Iroh sings to the crying boy to calm him down, the boy's doll is an Earth Kingdom soldier.
 * "The Tale of Iroh" was dedicated to the late Mako, who passed away due to esophageal cancer.
 * The hill where Iroh sets the altar for his son is the same hill shown in a flashback at the beginning of the episode "Bitter Work."
 * The man who lived inside the house whose window was destroyed by the kids in "the Tale of Iroh" appears to be gigantic, as he appears larger than the window where the ball just flew into.
 * This is the last episode featuring the Cabbage Merchant, but he is mentioned in The Ember Island Players.
 * This is the only episode Sokka is seen with facial hair, aside from the few times he wears the "Wang Fire" beard in season three.
 * This is the first time Aang is seen shaving his head.
 * Sokka's final haiku ("pronounced with an 'okka' ") is a reference to the song "Humpty Dance" by the hip-hop group Digital Underground.
 * "The Tale of Momo" is the only tale in this episode about an animal.
 * "The Tale of Toph and Katara" is the only tale in the episode which focuses on two characters.

Истории Ба Синг Се