The Boy in the Iceberg

2005, the year Avatar came out. That was one heck of a year

Events

Hurricane Katrina hits the Southern United States

Pope John Paul II passed away

YouTube first launches

Eris and its satellite Dysnomia are discovered

The trial of Saddam Hussein begins

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (designed to explore Mars) is launched

The Live 8 concert

Movie releases

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fantastic Four

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

Brokeback Mountain

Walk the Line

March of the Penguins

Television shows

Lost (second part of Season 1 and first part of Season 2)

Two and a Half Men (Season 3)

Dancing with the Stars (Season 1)

Scrubs (Season 4)

Doctor Who series 1 (debut of reboot with the only season with the Ninth Doctor)

Books

Twilight

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson)

Children at War

Wild Ducks Flying Backward

Songs

"Photograph" Nickelback

"We Belong Together" Mariah Carey

“Lose Control” Missy Elliot

"Don't Lie" The Black Eyed Peas

"Pon de Replay" Rihanna

Video games

Guitar Hero

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06

Mario Party Advance

season 1 zuko appreciation,,

In "The Boy in the Iceberg," Katara becomes frustrated with Sokka's sexist behavior and loses control of her waterbending, which leads to the iceberg breaking. This event would set the rest of the Avatarverse timeline in motion. If Aang hadn't escaped the iceberg, he wouldn't have been able to defeat Fire Lord Ozai. Also, the Avatar would never have returned, as Aang wouldn't have technically died. None of the events in TLoK or ATLA would have happened.

However, it was Sokka's actions that caused Katara to react in this way, making him the true catalyst for everything that happened in ATLA and TLoK. It is also why I hate that Netflix removed his initial sexism.

I have wanted to do an Avatar the Last Airbender review for a long time, but never found a spot where I could do a full review. This site gives me the chance to do exactly that! Fair warning, I am no review expert, so to put it simply, these reviews will be simple reviews, explaining my overall opinion on each episode and how I would rate it. So let us begin the journey!

The Boy in the Iceberg is a wonderful introduction to most of our main characters in the Avatar series (one of which comes a couple of episodes from now and the other in season 2). Aang is seen as a goofball and is hard at times to take serious, but the episode hints at a dark past that Aang is both trying to forget as well as trying to hide from the others. Katara is a kind spirited female of the Southern Water tribe as well as the only water bender left in her village. She is also the first one to show Aang kindness and compassion (especially during his realization to having been frozen in the iceberg for 100 years). Sokka is seen as many things (arrogant, sexist, egotistical, etc), though he is also caring and protective of his village as well. This is shown with how he reacts to seeing Aang for the first time, as well as how he feels in letting Aang travel to their village, worried he may be a Fire Nation spy. Then you have Appa, the loveable and huggable flying bison!

Then you have Zuko, the Fire Nation Prince who is out hunting the Avatar to regain his honor that he lost. He must seek out the Avatar to also be welcomed back home. Zuko is a hotheaded teen who is easy to anger and will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. He is followed by his uncle, Iroh, who is a fun loving individual who seems way to carefree but shows plenty of wisdom, patience, and skill as he tries his best to teach Zuko the ways of firebending while also attempting to help him reach his goal and his full potential.

This episode takes its time introducing these characters to the audience and using the episode to build up to the next episode. There are no major fights in this episode, which is perfectly fine. An intro episode should not rush into anything. This episode gives us plenty of laughs and fun moments (penguin sledding looks to be a ton of fun!) while also giving us hints to moments that will come later on in the show (Aang's dream).

Our younger characters are all seen as immature, but that is the perfect set up to give us great character development in future episodes. Older characters like Iroh and "Gran-Gran" are the perfect examples of individuals who have matured since they have lived for so long and seen so many things, including dealing with the war.

Honestly, the episode is good enough as an intro, but even better when the episode is played back to back with episode 2, like it did when it first came out. Overall though, the episode does its job correctly in introducing us to our main cast and giving us plenty of fun moments in the episode, as well as plenty to look forward to in the near future.

I will be reviewing an episode for each post. There will be 5 ratings, which are:

Excellent: for episodes I consider to be just absolutely phenomenal. Everything about it was top notch and beautifully executed. Only the best of the best will get this rating.

Great: Not quite as good as excellent episodes, but still very damn good. I enjoyed the hell out of it and it’s an epic episode that deserves praise.

Good: I enjoyed it, I had a good time watching it and I would come back to it. Not anything awesome or anything like that, but it was a really solid episode.

Meh: It was fine, I may have disliked some things about it, but it’s an ok episode that didn’t do anything that bad. Nothing much to say here.

Bad: (Very few episodes, if any, will receive this rating since it’s avatar. However I’m keeping the rating just in case.) I did not enjoy this episode, I didn’t like my experience with the episode, and I wouldn’t come back to it anytime soon.

With that out of the way, please remember that this is my opinion, if you disagree with my opinions then that’s fine, and you are free to express it down in the comment section. However, you should keep it civil.

Anyway, let’s get the first episode of book 1 reviewed.

Episode one: The Boy in the Ice berg:

This was a very nice way to introduce the show. Right off the bat, you can see the excellent animation and visuals of the show.

Every character was enjoyable here, Sokka was really funny, Aang was lovable, Iroh was decently funny and likable, I really enjoyed Aang‘s interactions with the kids of the tribe, and the penguin sledding scene was fun to watch. Also, the flashback dream Aang had was a really cool scene as well.

The highlight of this episode to me however, is the whole entire abandoned fire nation ship part. All of that part of the episode was really entertaining. The dark atmosphere, to Aang learning how long he’s been in the iceberg, to the Booby trap scene, I just really enjoyed this part of the episode.

Overall, this was a great way to start the show. The characters were really good, it establishes everything well, it has very entertaining moments and scenes, and it was a very well made beginning to this phenomenal show.

Rating for this episode: Great

Well that’s it for this review. I hope you found some enjoyment from reading this, and I hope you’re around to read the review of The Avatar Returns, which should come out tomorrow. Can’t promise anything though.

Anyways, Peace.

Just curious as a new member of this community; what are y'all's least fav and fav episodes of the original avatar series?

My least fav (tw ahead) is actually the first episode of the entire series.

Sure its entirely essential to the arc of atla but couldn't the have done a better job?? The way they introduced the characters was incredibly obvious that that was their motive; they dialogue is mm pretty rough; and to top it all off the comic relief that sokka and aang provide in a legendary demeanor throughout most of the subsequent episodes is nearly as bad as meelos farts.

Now onto my fav

The first part of sozins comet (the phoenix king): in the midst of the anxiety leading up to the final battle, the rather stupidly hilarious remarks of many characters are honestly some of the best in the entire show (ITS SUKI). and the whole [all except zuko laughing] in the subtitles is just like summing up the entire show. the reason i didnt say the WHOLE of the last episode is the fact that, simply, the whole energybending concept was sudden, rushed, and sloppy. also the fact that aang has (presumably) killed dozens of faceless, nameless fire nation soldiers by shoving them to their deaths as they sink, armor-clad, into the ocean and most of the last episode is his conflict with killing ozai.

On that happy note, i ask you, what are yours? ;D

If the eyes of the statues of the previous avatars glowed when Aang went into the avatar state in the Southern Air Temple, why didn't they glow for the hundred years he was in it?

Happy 16th anniversary, Avatar!

THE BOY IN THE ICEBURG

1x1

Sokka and Katara, two siblings living in the South Pole, discover the Avatar, trapped in an iceberg. After they free him, she discovers that he is an airbender and they both take him to their home village in the Southern Water Tribe Meanwhile, his unfreezing made a giant beam in the sky and the attention of the Fire Nation's banished prince, Zuko. Who wants to capture him.