0:19

Hello, friends, benders

0:21

and non benders alike. Welcome

0:24

to Braving the Elements, Nickelodeon's

0:26

brand new podcast about all things

0:28

Avatar Verse. I'm Janet Varney,

0:31

I am Dante Bosco, and we're

0:33

so thrilled to be here together to celebrate

0:35

this amazing world that Might de

0:37

Martino and Brian Conetsco created sixteen

0:40

years ago, a world, might i add,

0:42

that continues to grow even as

0:44

we record this first episode of

0:46

the podcast. So exciting, right, Butty

0:49

totally. We are bringing

0:51

this podcast out to the fans.

0:54

But even before, way before this

0:56

podcast existed, as you mentioned, we

0:58

have the whole world of Last Airbender, We have

1:00

the whole world of a legend of Cora that

1:02

includes you know, video games, graphic

1:05

novels, comic books. We

1:07

are so excited to be a part of that and

1:09

to really try to be this kind

1:11

of source for all things Avatar

1:14

Verse. We're going to try to be. We're going to try to

1:16

be that. Not only will we be doing

1:18

recaps and discussions about

1:21

all of the episodes were starting this first

1:23

season, of course with Last Airbender

1:25

Book one and of which

1:27

you play a giant part, my dear

1:30

Zuko. But we'll also have a bunch of episodes

1:32

where we do just talk to cast

1:34

from the show, creators of the show, directors,

1:37

writers. We're going to get in there

1:39

and basically we're going to work

1:41

every connection we have to

1:44

get as many behind the scenes folks

1:47

for you guys who are listening as

1:49

we can right Yes,

1:51

a deep dive jump in. I can't

1:53

wait to catch up with some old friends, you

1:56

know. And also, this whole world is

1:58

marinated now for over decade five years for

2:00

some of us in the first show to see

2:02

where lies you know? What? What

2:04

is life after? What is this meant to you?

2:07

What are the crazy stories? Because I know I've had crazy

2:09

stories with fans and not just fans,

2:12

people within our industry. How important

2:14

this show has become to so many people.

2:16

I just can't wait to get into it with some folks

2:18

and catch up and catch up with a lot of friends I haven't

2:20

seen since the Avatar universe. It's

2:22

gonna be so good. It's gonna be so good. There's so much to talk

2:24

about. But before we dive deeper

2:27

into the show itself and start talking

2:29

about episode one of Avatar,

2:31

The Last Airbender, I do want to spend just

2:33

a few more minutes talking about us

2:35

a little bit. You know, there are folks listening

2:37

who probably only know us as the

2:39

fire Lord, Prince Zuko and Cora if

2:42

they've watched both series. But you

2:44

have so much in your career

2:46

beyond that, and I would love

2:49

for you to just, you know, talk a little bit about

2:51

it. I mean, you're a multi threat, right,

2:53

and you've been doing this since you were tiny, you

2:55

know, always talked about my stub, always talking to me and my

2:57

my brothers, might be me me and my family because we all came to la

2:59

together over already five years ago as

3:01

a breakdancing group called the Street

3:04

Freaks, and my name was Popping

3:06

Fresh because I pop

3:08

lock and I was fresh

3:10

and this is the pioneering day of the hip hop. But that

3:12

led into my whole acting career, comeing to

3:15

l A and studying acting, and then

3:17

from acting producing theater

3:19

like yourself, and then led to writing

3:22

and then ultimately producing films

3:24

also and directing, directing

3:26

my first feature. Yeah, we run the whole gambit,

3:28

Barne. I think me and you are both kind of renaissance

3:31

men and women of of Hollywood.

3:34

And now I'm going to add podcaster

3:36

to my resume and podcaster.

3:39

Varney, you're a veteran podcaster.

3:41

You're actually one of the first people that I personally knew that had

3:44

a podcast as I started listening to podcasts.

3:46

And of course I'm talking about j V Club. I've

3:48

been on the show, which I honored to be a

3:50

part of that. But yeah, you're you've been a

3:52

podcaster. Yeah, I've been doing the JV Club,

3:54

which is a free podcast where I talk about people's

3:56

teenage years with them. And I

3:58

love your episode because obviously

4:01

you were doing stuff that not all teenaged

4:04

gentlemen can say they were doing,

4:06

like being in certain movies

4:08

of certain Rufio's, etcetera. Um,

4:11

that was sort of the latter part of I think that the

4:13

age range that we were talking about, but you

4:15

were playing this sort of rebellious teenage

4:17

boys. We have this perfect like synchronicity

4:20

of talking about a fake teenage boy

4:23

or real teenage boy talented a k

4:25

A. You. I love Jamie Clik because it's you know,

4:27

obvious, it's your initials, but

4:30

it's also junior Varsity. It's like what we're

4:32

doing in junior varsity of our life.

4:35

Such a charming and cool podcast. Well,

4:37

thank you so much, my buddy, and very

4:39

few people realize the j V Club means

4:42

two things. So I want to give you a major shout

4:44

out for calling that out right now, self

4:48

evident. That's why you're amazing. I

4:50

love podcasting. I've been doing it. I've been doing

4:52

that show for nine years, have been doing a show

4:54

called Voyage to the Stars, which is an improvised

4:56

space comedy podcast for three years.

4:59

And getting to kind of bring

5:01

my podcast background into

5:04

Braving the Elements and getting to do

5:06

this with you feels like such a

5:08

perfect marriage for me of

5:11

these different things I've done, right, I've produced comedy,

5:13

I produced a comedy festival, and I act

5:15

and do podcasting, and then and then I was also

5:18

a voice in this Avatar verse. So

5:20

it's like my favorite things coming together. Well,

5:22

thank you for you know, bringing

5:24

me into this whole podcast universe.

5:26

It's my pleasure. And you know, I'm gonna bring you back to Sketch

5:29

Fest as many times as possible because it's so

5:31

fun to have you up there at that dang thing greatest

5:33

funnest adventures in the Bay Area

5:36

at the beginning of every year, the funniest people

5:38

doing funny things. I just trying to fit in when I'm up

5:40

there. Yeah, and then of course, like I've had

5:42

the immense privilege of of

5:44

playing Cora for for four seasons of

5:46

the show, and I know we'll talk way more about

5:49

that stuff when we move into

5:51

the seasons of the Legend of Cora. For me,

5:53

right now, this is all about the

5:56

avatar who's known as aang

5:59

and t Avatar, which includes Zuko.

6:02

But I'm I'm so so happy to

6:04

be here and uh and I can't

6:06

wait to to really just dig in. And

6:08

we're gonna become experts. Yeah, we're gonna become experts.

6:10

I like to think of us as the O G Crew. You

6:13

know, you guys come, you guys saved the world later on, but

6:15

we you know, we we saved it

6:17

first, So we're gonna the first saving of the adventure.

6:19

I salute you. I've been I've been to knee, I

6:21

curtsy, I bow. Yeah, I

6:23

do it all. And

6:26

and now if you could indulge me,

6:28

I would love to talk a little bit about

6:30

your experience being Zuko. Mike and

6:32

Brian didn't sit down with you and say,

6:34

all right, this is who Zuko is, but this is where

6:36

he's going. This is gonna be here,

6:39

no arc discussion at all.

6:44

I feel like your performances in these

6:46

first episodes are so strong, and

6:48

there's stuff you don't even know about yourself, so that

6:50

must have been that's just great acting.

6:52

My friend and I remember auditioning for Zuko

6:55

and I mean they're like, you're auditioning

6:58

for Zucho and at Nickelodeon Studios and

7:00

literally they're all on in the booth behind the glass and I'm like,

7:02

this guy's name is Zuko, like like Danny

7:05

Zuka from And

7:07

then I get the picture of the guy. He's

7:09

doing a kick and he's wearing his

7:12

armor, and he has his ponytail,

7:14

and he's bald and he has his massive

7:16

scar on his face, and I'm just like, who's

7:18

this guy? What is going on here? What

7:21

is this dude? And mind you, I'm pretty new

7:23

to voice acting at this time. I don't know. Had

7:25

you done a lot of voice acting before you started, Cora,

7:28

No, I hadn't. I was like you. I was

7:30

mostly on camera stuff and I

7:33

never thought I would get the part. Ever. I

7:35

mean, I was just honored to honor

7:38

is just honored to even be considered

7:40

because I didn't have a ton of experience.

7:42

I connected with the character because, you

7:44

know, especially at that time in my life, I was going through

7:46

a lot of stuff. And then also when I got

7:48

to work with the late Great Maco who originally

7:51

played General I Row and then he was replaced

7:53

by Greg Baldwin after his passing. But

7:56

Marco had played my father or my

7:58

uncle several times throughout my

8:00

career on screen, so we already had

8:02

a really beautiful relationship and

8:04

it was always good to see him week after week and just

8:07

catch up to him. He's like my he's like my uncle, like in

8:09

real life, you know, and someone throughout

8:11

my career. I think the first time I work with Whim, I was twelve

8:13

years old, and throughout

8:15

my career, throughout me becoming, you know,

8:18

a young actor and upcoming actor, he would always give

8:20

me advice and look at my career. And he's

8:22

just one of those prolific, you know, Asian American

8:24

actors that we all looked up to because he's had

8:26

such a great career, has done so many great things. And so

8:29

that was a very easy relationship for

8:31

me to have with with Marco and get

8:33

get a kick at him doing some of the scenes.

8:36

And when you're in the moment of doing

8:38

things. A lot of times as actors, you're not really

8:40

thinking any foresight. You don't even know if the show

8:42

is gonna get picked up. You were doing the

8:44

first few episodes. In the back

8:46

of my mind, I'm like, this is not even a

8:48

Nickelodeon style show to

8:50

me, Like, this is not SpongeBob or cat

8:53

Dog or Dora. This is something

8:56

else. And I'm like, I don't even know if this is gonna really really

8:58

work with anybody.

9:00

I think the Nickelodeon's used to hearing

9:03

that, because I think we all ever, you know, everybody

9:05

kind of went okay, all right,

9:07

okay, Nickelodeon, you're trying something new,

9:10

Okay, this is cool, and

9:13

so especially this first season, like I have no

9:15

no, no true memory of planning

9:18

anything. It was just what was my

9:20

kind of my goal in

9:22

the scene? Was my goal in this episode?

9:25

Whereas I at, I knew Marco all right,

9:27

and then I knew I wanted to go capture this kid, and

9:29

I thought, you know, I keep missing him. I

9:31

was like, am I wily coyote? Like, what's

9:33

going on here? I can't catch this road runner

9:35

dude? Ever, what's happening, So

9:39

let's some Why don't we take a little break so

9:42

that we can get into recapping

9:45

episode one, The Boy in the Iceberg. Long

9:54

ago, the four nations lived together

9:57

in harmony, done everything,

10:00

then attacked. Okay,

10:03

we are back, my friend. This is a

10:06

tall order, it's a big undertaking. You ready

10:08

to start recapping episode one? I

10:10

am ready. I mean, let's let's begin

10:12

the adventure. Here we go, Season

10:15

one, Book one Water, Episode

10:17

one, The Boy in the Iceberg, written

10:20

of course by Mike DeMartino and

10:22

Brian knets Go, brilliant, brilliant,

10:24

brilliant, and directed by the great Dave

10:26

Filoni. Now, trying to describe

10:29

the first episode of Avatar

10:31

Last Airbender with just a couple of sentences

10:34

is kind of impossible, because I'll tell you

10:36

right now, a lot happens. If

10:38

we wanted to just do a very very quick summary

10:41

of the episode, and I do mean quick,

10:44

we could just say something like, on a

10:46

fishing excursion, a brother and sister

10:48

from the south Pool Water Tribe find a

10:50

strange boy and his air

10:52

bison within an iceberg, and once

10:54

released, the boy brings adventure

10:57

and danger to all around

11:00

him. I mean, listen that I that

11:01

I that's a very basic that's pretty

11:03

quick and concise. Well, there's

11:05

a lot I missed. There's a lot I missed. There's

11:08

just so much going on in

11:10

this this first episode, and even within

11:12

like the first five minutes of the show,

11:14

right, I mean, we get our introduction where

11:16

all of a sudden you have this amazing

11:19

animation and this immediate like

11:22

little nutshell explanation

11:24

that we hear from qatara Um

11:26

the Great May Whitman saying

11:29

giving the whole sort of like hey, this is what

11:31

you're diving into, right Welcome

11:33

into our world. You're coming into this

11:35

world where this has happened. This is where

11:37

we are with things. These are the four nations,

11:40

this is the way it's divided up.

11:42

This you know there was there's there's this one person

11:44

who's tasks with kind of keeping balance

11:46

between all of these these different

11:48

groups, and he's disappeared and no

11:51

one knows where he is. And I think he's going to come back

11:53

some day because right now there's a big war happening

11:55

and there's a nation that's trying to take over everything. And

11:57

anyway, welcome to the show. And you're like whoa,

11:59

whoa, whoa whoa, I gotta watch

12:01

that just that like four times. I

12:03

know. Let's start with the opening. It's

12:06

brilliantly written and brilliantly

12:09

animated. I mean, you you see this world,

12:12

the tone. All of a sudden, I

12:15

don't know what you're doing. The original kids

12:17

that are like probably twelve their

12:19

team coming home from school and

12:21

they're turning on Nickelodeon. Immediately

12:24

you are portaled into another world.

12:26

I mean, that's not brilliant that that opening

12:28

is. I mean, I've been to cons where I'll

12:31

come out and someone will say a line and the whole

12:33

room says the whole monologue

12:36

together, and you're like

12:38

that. I mean, that's it's become like you that

12:41

energy totally like we grew up with,

12:43

like the Brady Bunch theme, the

12:45

Fresh princibil Air theme. It's like

12:47

it's like become I mean not

12:49

in the comedy sense, but in that way where everyone

12:52

knows every word and every knows every beat

12:55

of that opening and it's you know, of course

12:57

it's said at the beginning of every episode,

12:59

so it's just and

13:01

it's brilliantly done, and like you said

13:04

that, it's so perfect. Yeah. I

13:06

love that comparison because I never thought

13:08

of it as sort of a song, and it

13:10

doesn't surprise me at all that you know, you're

13:12

a musician and you and and you

13:14

do spoken word, and so

13:17

that really is kind of even more of

13:19

a bridge between this idea of an opening

13:21

theme like music, you know, in this case,

13:23

this opening song is spoken word and

13:25

it is it's these it's lyrics, it's this

13:27

way in. It's just almost an incantation.

13:30

This is the thing that you click your little red

13:32

magic shoes, you know, together, and

13:34

that transports you into

13:36

this world. Is this are these opening

13:38

words and they lay out what

13:41

is going on? And it's May Whitman's

13:43

voice. And may May Whitman, unlike

13:46

us, is a pro legendary

13:48

voiceover actor. She was

13:50

it is from a tiny, tiny,

13:53

tiny child

13:55

and comes from a line her parents are voice

13:57

actor like. She knows what she's

14:00

doing. So we continue on. We have

14:02

this amazing introduction, you know, then there's

14:04

just like and I'm not going to describe shot for shot

14:06

the show because we will be here all night, but um,

14:09

you know, even just this like sweeping, you

14:12

know, it's again, it's like epic, epic, epic.

14:14

I can't stop saying the word epic, but this sweeping

14:16

view of you know, you're in the sky and

14:19

it's almost like you're in a helicopter. In these

14:21

days, I guess it will be a drone, but you're flying

14:23

over the expanse of this Arctic

14:26

sea and then and so you're you

14:28

get this kind of bird's eye view, and then you come

14:30

down and you settle on

14:33

this who we find out to be a brother

14:35

and sister from a South Pole Water

14:37

tribe, and and they are

14:40

fishing, they're looking for fish. You know, we already

14:42

know that the men in the tribe have gone

14:45

to try to help in the Earth Kingdom

14:47

as the Fire Nation is waging

14:49

war and and looking for this sort of world

14:52

domination. And I know we'll talk about

14:54

this in later seasons, but I always think it's

14:56

important to remember the difference between sort

14:59

of the ruling class of a

15:01

nation versus everyone else in

15:03

it. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think many

15:05

people have already watched the whole series. But you know, the difference

15:08

between what you experience of a

15:10

land and a village within a nation, where

15:12

the leaders may have a different priority,

15:14

does not necessarily extend to the

15:16

people who live inside of it, and I think this show

15:19

is is definitely going to go there, but we don't know that

15:21

when we start, right, all we know is this fire nation

15:24

wants to be in charge of everybody

15:26

and everything all the time. And

15:29

this this little tiny tribe has

15:31

lost all of the men warriors

15:34

to that endeavor, and all that's left

15:36

are these two the two oldest kids are

15:38

Qatara and Soccer, And it's like, Okay,

15:41

what are you gonna do? How are you going to help? How are you going to get the

15:43

tribe through? It's already heavier than any other

15:45

cartoon out there at its time, and

15:48

by like ten tons, like we're talking

15:50

about possible

15:52

genocide, ruling

15:55

class oppression topped

15:57

with you know, like you said, you

16:00

come in and you have these David leanesque

16:02

Doctor Shivago snowy landscapes,

16:06

you know, and you're like, where what

16:08

are we doing? Like what's going on right

16:10

now? But within this kind of like heavy

16:12

drama that you because the tone the music is

16:15

orchestrated in this very like I said, David

16:17

lean is kind of way even Star Wars like has

16:19

this, Like really we keep saying epic, we probably

16:22

have to put a dollar in the jar every time we gotta

16:24

say epic, epic, epic, epic, epic, epic, epic,

16:26

epic epic, But then it'll

16:28

flip tones and all of a sudden there will be this brother's

16:31

sister banter is so great and funny

16:33

from the top, from like the second line, like

16:36

the third lines, like every time you play with magic

16:38

water, I get wet and

16:41

we get it immediately. This

16:43

show, you know, like you said, we have these

16:45

these icy world and then they juxtaposed

16:47

it to all of a sudden, this fire nation

16:50

ship and a whole another world,

16:52

and it becomes I mean, it becomes like Game

16:55

of Thrones before Game of Thrones. You

16:57

know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's because it's another way of saying

16:59

at you managed to skip out on saying it. I

17:02

didn't say it though, I didn't say it, but I said, yet,

17:04

we're going to grow our universe of words. We

17:09

know Qatara has some sort of power

17:11

to manipulate water, but maybe she doesn't quite

17:14

know how it works. Yet. We know that

17:16

Soccer does not have that power, right because

17:18

when he gets wet when she manipulates

17:20

the water, she says to him, I'm not the

17:22

one who makes muscles at myself every time

17:25

I see my reflection in the water. So some

17:27

people have some people don't have it. If some people

17:29

have, some people don't have it. And he even says, oh,

17:31

so you have this power that is specific

17:34

to the history of our tribe, but

17:36

you know, you don't know how to use it because there's nobody else

17:39

has it. We sort of get a sprinkling of that

17:41

really early on, and then while they're arguing,

17:43

all of a sudden we realize that these

17:46

two are in the rapids.

17:48

And your first thought is, wait

17:50

a minute, I don't feel like there are

17:53

river rapids, uh, necessarily

17:55

in this Arctic climate. I

17:58

wonder what caused that iceberg

18:00

rapids? Exactly, there's no iceberg

18:03

rapids, but the two of them are fighting.

18:06

Huh. I wonder if that has anything to

18:09

do with it. And then sure

18:11

enough, once things kind of come

18:13

to a head, and you know, they both sort of like flop

18:16

off, and you know, Katar hits the ground with a thud and

18:18

everything kind of calms down again. But then

18:20

we see right away as she riles everything

18:22

back up, everything gets crazy

18:25

again, and that is how we

18:27

end up with this image

18:30

of what is this thing that is like

18:32

rising up out of the ocean. Should we be

18:34

terrified, She'll be excited. What is it? Soccer?

18:37

Very like resistant, like let's not do

18:39

this, let's not do this. And qataras

18:42

hitting the iceberg and it cracks open.

18:44

She sees she sees the boy in the ice and

18:46

there's a beam, right she She's like, we need

18:48

to get him out. Yeah, there's a beam. And it's the title

18:51

of the episode. It's the boy in

18:53

the ice. But they forgot to say the boy

18:55

in the ice with another big animal. At

18:58

least he doesn't alone for that that

19:01

long exactly. So we see

19:03

the beam. We meet Zuko, and right away it's

19:05

like this guy has one priority. It seems

19:07

like, right he's actually the opposite.

19:10

Now that I watch it again, you know, you

19:12

see the band for the brother and sister.

19:14

Ultimately you see and then you see us other teenage

19:17

kid around the same age with a whole different personality,

19:19

with a whole Those guys are so kind of like happy,

19:22

go lucky, even though they have pain and strife

19:24

in their life. Because I believe Guitar already

19:26

expressed that we've lost all the men out of our tribe,

19:29

like you're the only one left trying to play warrior,

19:31

and so you you're understanding the situation,

19:34

but there's still the lightness of their their

19:37

their energy in the piece, right. And

19:39

then you you juxtaposed to this other kid,

19:42

and this other kid is like the weight

19:45

of the world is on my damn

19:47

shoulders all the time, all

19:49

the time, and and you

19:51

and and really are like, well, who's this guy? Like, what what's

19:53

he doing? What? Why? Why is he so mad?

19:56

Was he so and he has this? And then also

19:58

the introduction of General Iro,

20:01

which is one of the most beloved characters

20:03

in the whole show and one of my favorite characters.

20:06

It's such just ease character

20:08

that comes in and just

20:10

plays every every moment like

20:13

it's just perfect. I mean even watching

20:15

again, written perfectly animated,

20:18

perfectly performed perfectly by Maco

20:21

and uh, just great

20:23

timing. I don't know, it's just one of those perfect

20:26

Every now and then there's like a perfect character

20:28

that is written and put out there in

20:30

Hollywood, and I feel like General Iro

20:33

is like one of those characters. I totally

20:35

agree, And you don't, I mean, talk about a relationship

20:38

that evolves and that you don't really know,

20:40

even just within the little because we do go,

20:43

of course back and forth between this

20:45

sort of Zugo world and the Qatar

20:49

and Socco worlds, and we bring in

20:51

our avatar of course, but even within the

20:53

kind of jumping back and forth, just

20:56

the amount that we see about Zuko

20:59

and IRA's relations and ship it

21:01

expands so much. Yeah,

21:03

I mean, where we get to with Iro

21:06

is a whole another you know, mind

21:08

blowing experienced letter on. But at this

21:10

point he's like almost like a doting

21:12

uncle over you know, this kid

21:16

with power. We don't know if it's a rich kid, and we don't

21:18

know if he's just like a royalty kid.

21:21

And and the uncle's you know, he's like Zukos

21:23

like I think the avatar is there. He's like, don't get

21:25

your hopes up high. You know, he's very the

21:28

maid in in in Shan

21:31

in Roman Juliet, like he has just

21:36

take a breath, don't take life too seriously.

21:38

It's don't be disappointed again. You know, you're

21:40

always about this and don't need to be about this. And

21:43

and that's when we feel the relationship

21:45

is at first, And then of course it grows and

21:48

goes to different places from there. Yeah. Absolutely,

21:50

And then meanwhile we're back. When we when we pop back

21:53

with Qatar and Soccer and we see the blow

21:55

you know, the snow blowing

21:57

away. We see the boy kind of come

21:59

out. She's Quatar has broken him out of

22:02

the iceberg and he appears and he's

22:04

got the glowing eyes and we don't know what

22:06

that means yet. He's glowing. His eyes

22:09

are glowing. That seems like there's something on his body

22:11

that's glowing. What's happening. It's kind

22:13

of scary arrow. He's

22:15

bald. There's some kind of blue arrow business happening.

22:18

Soccer is like whoa, whoa, and Qatar

22:20

just instinctively immediately is is

22:24

she's not worried, and he sort of tumbles into her arms.

22:26

And that's kind of when we get our first taste

22:28

of uh angst crush on Qatara

22:31

of the Kutang

22:34

Ship. The Katang Ship makes itself

22:37

known the

22:39

debut debus. It

22:42

definitely debuts. Oh, by the

22:44

way, this is kind of a fun tidbit. If

22:46

you have the art book for the first

22:49

sort of like art book that encompasses the whole series

22:51

of Last Airbender, you may already

22:53

know that Mike and Brian wanted to they

22:56

actually wanted that kind of nucleus

22:58

as they call it. They wanted that ang and Opa

23:00

in the iceberg to kind of be slowly

23:03

rotating, almost like a planet, sort

23:05

of rotating inside in

23:07

the air bubble inside of the iceberg. But

23:09

it was just too hard to animate. And that's

23:11

the kind of thing where you see all of the animation

23:13

that goes into this show and you go,

23:16

that's where the line had to be drawn. I want to get

23:18

into it in this podcast because I have no sense

23:20

of what's too hard to animate, what's easy?

23:23

You know what I mean? Was it hard back

23:25

then? You think it's easier to animate that now? You

23:27

think they would have animated that now? I

23:29

mean probably, But some of the hand drawn stuff

23:32

that you know, this these shows have such

23:34

an amazing combination of hand

23:36

drawn and computer when they needed

23:39

it. Um but it's

23:41

you know, the richness of the design

23:44

and and I mean, it's just it's just amazing.

23:46

And we'll get into that this season for sure. Yeah,

23:48

there's a feeling about watching the show again now is

23:50

like h and again this is fifteen

23:53

years ago, right, the original episodes, and it was probably

23:56

a year sixteen, so a few years

23:58

before that. The show just draw got

24:00

their license and there you go. It's

24:02

almost as legal. It's almost legal. But it's

24:05

it has a timeless feel to the show. The

24:07

way that they drew it and the way the characters

24:09

are in the way everything is. You can't

24:11

really put you can't say all this

24:13

is a two show or

24:16

you know, it doesn't feel like it just feels like a timeless

24:19

show. And that's that's a great feeling about

24:21

the show. I couldn't agree more. Now,

24:24

let's be honest, buddy, we would not be talking Avatar

24:27

verse if we didn't talk about the animals.

24:30

Yes, all the wonderful animal

24:33

kingdom and slightly

24:35

different than our animal kingdom in this world. You

24:37

know, it's a I mean

24:39

hybrid animals, I guess, or or how

24:42

do you see them? I think that's

24:44

a perfect way of describing it. Although we

24:47

actually have kind of a special way

24:49

we want to keep track of all the animals we

24:51

meet this season. I'll

24:53

tell you a little bit more about it in just a second. Okay,

25:01

as promised, Now it's time for a

25:03

special segment we are

25:05

calling animal crossing. That's

25:08

right, animal crossing. You know what, It's

25:10

only fair that we get to use that name, because the Avatar

25:12

Verse truly has been crossing

25:15

animals since episode one, right,

25:17

yes, before before the popular game. We were

25:20

crossing animals far before that. What game.

25:22

I don't even know what you're talking about. We don't know we're talking about.

25:24

All I know is uh

25:27

D Bradley Baker's sounds should be

25:29

somewhere around us right now, all the different

25:32

sounds that makes for all the different animals.

25:34

I couldn't agree more so.

25:37

Animal crossing is our way of

25:39

checking in on and keeping track of

25:41

all of the amazing hybrid animals

25:44

on the show. So in episode one,

25:46

of course, we meet Apa.

25:49

We know app as an air bison. They'd never

25:51

expressly say it in the show, but

25:53

the creators revealed that it's a bison

25:55

manatee combo. That's

25:58

the inspiration is is the way a man t

26:00

swims through water is the way

26:02

that that Apa flies through the

26:05

sky. And we see when

26:07

the beam shoots up out of the iceberg,

26:09

we see uh those tiger seals.

26:12

They look like they're part tiger

26:14

parts seal. That's pretty self explanatory. And then

26:16

we have those those penguin otter otter

26:19

penguins. I am looking at a manatee

26:21

right now. I just looked it up Varney, because

26:23

I was unaware exactly what manatee looked

26:25

like. I've heard about them, I know, I know, but then I said, oh,

26:27

that's the man And actually, the

26:30

way this manatee is pictured

26:32

here floating across the water is

26:35

very much Appa esque floating

26:38

across that the classic shots

26:40

of oppa kind of relaxed floating across

26:42

the sky. Is the manatee best,

26:45

the manatee silhouette. Because Brian

26:47

absolutely loves manatees. Who can

26:49

blame him? I mean, who would have know

26:51

him? Manatees are so charming.

26:54

I got to swim not with

26:56

one, but like man was swimming,

26:59

and then their habit to also be a manatee

27:01

in the Gulf of Mexico. Where were you

27:03

swimming in Florida like a

27:05

million years ago? And there's

27:09

manatees there, and they're so slow moving

27:11

and gentle and sweet that people

27:14

that they like bump up against little small

27:16

boats and stuff, and so you have to be

27:18

careful because they're just these like gentle

27:20

sweets. How big pretty

27:23

big? I mean I want to say it's like hippo size.

27:25

That's big. Yeah, they're really big.

27:28

They kind of slump over. They kind of got

27:30

bad posture for a a

27:32

water animal. They slouch.

27:35

I don't know how good your posture has to be if you're

27:37

a water animal. I don't know how where I

27:39

did your weight list. You should have no posture

27:41

problems. That's a good that's actually a really good

27:43

point. Okay,

27:47

we got to get back into our official recap

27:50

of the boy in the iceberg. By

27:52

the time anks come out and Natur has got

27:54

him in her arms, Soccer is

27:56

like, all right, I'm out, Like I'm done. I

27:59

just want to go back to Saul's too crazy for me. I

28:01

can't wrap my head around it. I gotta get out

28:03

of here. Realizes wait, where's

28:05

our boat? I have no way of doing that, and so Ang offers

28:08

to fly guitar on soccer back to their village um

28:11

and Soccer says no, Guitar

28:13

says yes. Ultimately, Soccer ends up

28:15

grumpily sitting on opposite back,

28:18

and everybody's like, oh, here we go, Here

28:20

we go, Here we go. The fly bison and

28:23

gives his first ever yep yep at

28:25

least that we hear, and then he

28:28

sort of flies and then flops into

28:30

the water, not unlike a manity

28:32

and sort of swims them back

28:35

wet bison. Yeah. First of all,

28:37

that boat that they have is not very

28:40

impressive. All right, it's a it's a canoe.

28:42

Yeah, it's a two man canoe in

28:45

the Arctic ocean. Like, that's not the

28:47

boat I'd want to be in ever, in

28:49

that surrounding. That's not that

28:52

this fancy fire nation ship. I'll

28:55

be at a crummy one that got like leftover.

28:58

So you took some leftover. I mean, I got not

29:00

the best one. I don't got the newest one off the lot.

29:02

But I gotta, you know, I gotta ride, you know

29:04

what I'm saying. I mean, Zuko is rolling

29:07

like I have a I got people working on the ship.

29:10

I got like a cook, I got all kinds

29:12

of stuff going on. I got people making tea from

29:14

my uncle. Think about that ship and

29:16

the wall of that village angry.

29:20

But we'll get to that. We'll get to that happened.

29:24

Things happened? How dare

29:26

you? How dare you?

29:31

It's the process. Everyone's in their process. Everyone's

29:33

in their process. And then they have this little

29:35

boat. They have this little damn boat

29:38

trying to you know, canoe around. They

29:40

have a paddle. What are we talking about? Soccer?

29:43

Soccer? Listen. They're doing the best they can.

29:45

They're doing the best they can and they can't. At that

29:47

point, they hadn't even caught a fish. So I think

29:50

the adventure they're having with with Ang already

29:52

might be now they're hungry, but it's

29:55

a little bit more of an adventure than they

29:57

were having. Thing is they got for coats

29:59

on Varney. They got fur coats on because they are

30:01

water tribe, and they got these nice, really nice fur

30:03

coats. But like Ang got like maybe

30:06

a linen like linen

30:08

clothes on you. If listen, if you're

30:10

an airbender, you need to wear something light

30:13

and airy and you're it's gonna be cold.

30:15

Bro, he seems okay. I don't know what's happened. Maybe

30:17

he's He does seem okay, but he needs

30:20

some more layers. APA got that first,

30:22

so he's fine. He's absolutely

30:25

fine. Oh, they both sneeze a fair amount.

30:27

So I guess when you when you come out of

30:29

an iceberg, turns out you do get a sneeze. That's

30:32

how he revealed himself as an airbender.

30:34

Remember, they said, what's your name? He says he's trying to say ang

30:36

and he's and he's a chew and then he flies

30:38

ten feet and comes down the side. Another very

30:41

funny, comical, you know,

30:43

physical comedy moment. And that's

30:45

his reveal of being an airbender. Is it as funny

30:48

as soccer getting covered with snot because

30:52

that also happens when soccer.

30:57

Soccer is like a Nickelodeon moment, because that's

30:59

some green line, right, that takes us back to

31:01

classic O G Nickelodeon

31:04

double Dare. And

31:07

so you were bragging on your ship, Zuko

31:10

ship, this is where we really here, right. The first

31:12

time that Zuka says like this is about my honor,

31:15

whether or not. When I was like, you know, your

31:17

father and your grandfather have looked for the avatar. They

31:19

failed. Why do you think you would be any different? What

31:22

does Zuka say in a natural

31:24

I must capture the avatar and

31:27

regain my honor. That's the first the

31:29

first episode he drops on ors on the line,

31:31

I gotta do this my honors online. And then

31:33

he calls the avatar a coward and you're

31:36

like, you know, what if you think that the hero

31:38

of the world has been hiding for a hundred years it's

31:40

fair for him to think he could be a coward,

31:42

right, I mean, it's kind of fair. No, we don't know

31:45

what this avatar has as much as

31:47

we know he's been hiding. But

31:49

what's crazy? We were talking about performing

31:51

this character. We were so in it, just

31:53

doing these lines and doing these scenes. By

31:56

the time I found it, I got popular

31:58

and we started doing cons and people were like joking

32:01

about honor and tell me to write honor on pictures.

32:03

I was like why, Like what what

32:06

do you want me to write? And they're like, right, can

32:08

you write for your honor? And I'm like, what

32:11

is going on? Like do I need someone

32:14

needs to explain this to me? I had

32:16

no clue until a fan gave like

32:18

shot me over a YouTube video where

32:20

it just had me saying honor like a thousand times,

32:22

and I was like, oh, it never

32:25

occurred to me that I said honor that

32:27

many damn times. It wasn't

32:29

funny to Zuko, and it was not funny

32:31

to Zuko. It was it's not It was not

32:34

funny to Zuko, So I guess it's a good

32:36

It's a good point. As an actor, you're not thinking about

32:38

the jokes outside you phrase

32:41

you're thinking about that. It wasn't about cash phrase.

32:44

Yeah, I was thinking about regame my damn

32:46

honor. That's right, that's right, and

32:49

never getting it. I'm never getting it. We'll

32:51

see. Oh. I am so

32:54

excited that you said we'll see,

32:56

because that was like the perfect

32:59

foreshadow of what's to come. And

33:02

it reminds me of another official

33:05

Braving the Elements segment that

33:07

we are going to be revisiting a lot this

33:09

season. It is something we are calling

33:12

the foreshadow Report. Not

33:18

to be confused with spoiler alert, right, not to

33:20

be it's not spoiler alert. No spoiler alerts

33:22

here and will be the foreshadow reporters

33:25

for the Foreshadowing News

33:27

Network sometimes to see what it

33:30

may possibly come up, even though we know you guys know

33:32

exactly what already happened. They already

33:34

know, Varney, I know. It's it's

33:36

just kind of a way of showing you

33:38

that we love and respect you, and we assume

33:41

you've probably already seen the show. Yet. Our

33:43

intention is not to spoil

33:45

things for newcomers to the Avatar

33:48

Verse. It's just so hard not to not to project

33:50

ahead, because so much intense great stuff

33:52

happens in this world, so

33:55

when we catch ourselves doing any spoiler alerts

33:57

people, lets you know, yeah,

33:59

well try to catch ourselves so that we don't do

34:02

all the spoilers. So

34:07

then we're back with Qatar and Soccer and Ang and Qatara.

34:10

Once she knows that he's an airbender,

34:12

she she does sort of kind

34:14

of casually. As they're on oppics back

34:16

heading for the village, she does

34:19

ask him, you know, do you have you ever

34:21

met the avatar? You know he was an airbender? You

34:23

were frozen in this ice? You know, have you heard about

34:25

him? And Ang really

34:28

gets uncomfortable and just flat

34:31

outlies, right, He just absolutely lies

34:33

and says, oh, yeah, I know. I I didn't

34:35

really, you know, I don't know him, heard

34:37

about him, or about him. He's an imperfect

34:40

avatar, right, He's an imperfect hero. And by the way,

34:43

anybody who is listening to say that, who either

34:45

is mad at Cora or thinks she's of an axious,

34:47

I know, I've known that. I'm saying that

34:50

Ang is an imperfect avatar and he is

34:52

way more perfect than Cora. So I'm

34:54

with you, my friends, I'm with you. Don't beat

34:56

me up. I'm with you. One the thing is I

34:58

think no one understood that would

35:00

know that the Avatar would be a boy, right,

35:03

even as an audience. I mean, now we know the whole

35:05

story we're watching, we know. On the inside, I think I'm

35:08

trying I was trying to put myself into the to

35:10

the head of someone watching this for the first time

35:13

when it's like this, you

35:16

know, I don't think anyone

35:18

thinks about it, like I think we all

35:20

didn't know that was he was actually the Avatar

35:23

to lead wrong, just he's just a kid that

35:25

kind of get stuck in some ice. Possibly, I

35:27

don't know. No, I think that's a great point, and

35:29

I think it speaks to the recurring

35:32

theme that we have in this

35:34

episode and that we have all through this

35:37

series, which is, uh, they

35:39

are just kids, right. I mean, he

35:41

is just a kid. He's also the Avatar, but

35:44

he's still a kid. And how do we balance

35:46

because I think a lot of young people, um

35:49

can relate to the idea of feeling like things

35:51

hit you that you maybe don't feel ready

35:54

for, and what do we do with that

35:56

if we are kids still, how

35:58

do we balance right, being this

36:01

this young person who just kind of still wants

36:03

to be a kid, but circumstances put something

36:06

in our in our way, in our lives that

36:08

we have to cope with and we have to deal with and find a

36:10

way to to We have to be grown

36:12

up about that, but also not lose our childhood.

36:15

And that's big stuff, I know, but I think this show

36:17

tackles it and the stuff we'll be talking about through the season

36:20

of the podcast. I agree. I think

36:22

one of the reasons why the show has scaled again

36:24

throughout this last year is that put

36:28

in specific point whereas

36:30

you know that that old concept of the kids

36:32

will lead us, the kids will save us, and

36:35

we saw it in countless marches

36:37

and protests countless you know,

36:39

the young girl talking about environmentalism, about

36:41

saving the planet. It's not the adults leading

36:44

us, It's it's the kids that are gonna

36:46

save us. And I think this kind

36:48

of show resonates that that message

36:50

and not even the message that reality. I

36:52

love you so much right now, I like, I'm choked up.

36:55

I'm so glad you brought it back to this

36:57

just this last year, and one of the reason

37:00

why when the show came out on Netflix, it just like soared

37:03

through even more popularity than it already

37:05

had. I think I love everything you said. I don't want

37:07

to expound on it because you said it brilliantly perfectly,

37:10

and you're my friend and I'm proud. Okay, so

37:15

thank you. So

37:17

then A has a nightmare, right, and I

37:20

like to think that part of that is guilt because he did

37:22

not tell Qatar at the truth, but also trauma.

37:25

This kid has really gone through it. He's been

37:27

he doesn't even know. Plus you can find out later

37:29

he's hiding. He is kind of hiding. He

37:31

kind of is a coward. I mean, I'm not just being Zuko

37:34

now, but I'm being Zuko a little

37:36

bit. Like weird homies and everything we've become

37:38

home with me. No, that a lot, but I guess

37:40

what I have my faults. This young dude

37:43

also coward ran from his responsibilities.

37:46

We find that out later on. We'll not we'll

37:48

get there. But I'm saying I could not

37:50

imagine doing anything other than me

37:53

being like, I mean, this might not be

37:55

for me. I guess I'm just gonna go with off of

37:57

and like do some flying around and

38:00

maybe eventually I'll get around to being the avatar.

38:02

Cut to a hundred years later, putting

38:05

your head under the covers. It's

38:07

intimidating to say

38:09

the least. Now, I still

38:12

I finally got burned in the face. You could do some

38:14

savings in the world. It's

38:16

spoiler alert. So we

38:19

find out even more in the Nightmare right

38:21

again, this is the first episode

38:23

of this show, and we find out even more. He's

38:26

got his nightmare state. We see him

38:29

in the storm with APA. He

38:31

gets separated from APA. They both tumble into

38:33

the water, and this very

38:35

interesting thing happens, which is that it appears

38:38

that and loses consciousness, right, I mean,

38:40

his eyes closed, he goes limp. His

38:43

underwater posture is not great. To go

38:45

back to your point, he's floating down.

38:49

It's like, I say, floating down does

38:51

that really work? I feel like floating means

38:53

that you're going up or you're staying in the same place, but down.

38:58

Well, then that's right.

39:00

He was not swimming, thank you. My friend was

39:03

swimming. And he does not appear to be conscious,

39:05

and yet all of a sudden his

39:08

eyes open, he's

39:11

he's got the glow and suddenly

39:14

this what's

39:16

happening? And then you

39:19

know, ultimately we figure out that he

39:22

made this air bubble around himself. Um,

39:24

but that plants a very early

39:27

seed of the question of what

39:30

is this thing that happens to him? Is it him?

39:32

Is it him consciously making the decision to do

39:35

that, or just something older and

39:37

and and connected to something in the past

39:40

kind of switch on on his behalf.

39:42

And we don't find that out in this episode,

39:45

right right, but we do see it

39:48

being the first I guess avatar state. We

39:50

don't know see avatar state, but it's the first avatar

39:52

state in the show. I mean when we see

39:55

him, he's got glowing eyes when he comes

39:57

up from the from

40:00

the ice, but we don't know how that

40:02

happened or what that means at all. We don't

40:04

see it. Turn to your point. Song

40:08

wakes up from his nightmare. He's in a tent. He's in the Southern

40:10

Water tribe, soccer and guitars

40:13

tribe. He meets Grand grand I love Grand grand

40:16

He shows off his air bending right,

40:19

and all the little kids are all the little

40:21

kids love him. He's like he's a part

40:23

trick guy. He magic,

40:26

especially because it seems like soccer is so and

40:29

we see this coming up in the episode

40:31

two. He is like drilling these kids,

40:34

you know he is. He is trying to keep these kids

40:36

safe, but he is having to talk

40:38

to them like their soldiers, and they're these these tiny

40:40

kids, and so Ang comes along and he's

40:42

super fun. He's trying to make warriors

40:44

out of these children. I know, I know,

40:47

which is hilarious and also heartbreaking because

40:50

you see why it matters when

40:52

a certain person ship does a certain something

40:54

that I'm too mad to even talking. I know, I

40:57

know, I know, I

40:59

know. This is the deal. As

41:01

heavy as that is and as funny as this show

41:04

is, it does again

41:06

mark on things that go on in the world, kids

41:09

having to become soldiers. I mean, the

41:12

show touches on so many things that happened globally,

41:15

but in this very light way of of but really

41:18

it's still it's still in the show and really

41:20

kind of bringing things to light, which

41:22

is an amazing part of the show. Still, Oh

41:24

see, that is so brilliantly said. In fact,

41:27

I think we need to take a break to let that

41:29

sink in or float in.

41:32

I don't know, it could be a new saying, right,

41:36

So we'll take a break and then we'll come back to talk about

41:38

the last part of the Boy in the Iceberg.

41:50

No Power and fire Bending

41:52

comes from the breath, not

41:54

the muscles. The

41:56

breath becomes energy in the

41:59

body. The energy extends

42:01

past your limbs, them becomes Okay,

42:06

so let's talk about the last part of the

42:08

Boy in the Iceberg. We finally made it

42:10

to the last third, the last

42:13

that's act three. You're so smart, you

42:15

use big words like act Let's start it

42:17

from the scene where we see we teased

42:19

it a little bit earlier, but we see Zuko practicing

42:22

his fire bending. That's pretty

42:24

powerful stuff. That's an amazing kind

42:27

of whoa, whoa. It's like whoa, whoa, whoa. I almost

42:29

added leaning back from the screen the first time I saw

42:31

it, like, whoa, that's different than the air bending and water beending.

42:33

What's happening totally. Yeah,

42:35

we see the water bending and the air bending early

42:38

in the episode. Then you see this fireband,

42:40

which is immediately has a different feel

42:42

to it. I mean, the colors of the

42:45

world, it feels like the whole tone changes,

42:48

the music is different. Obviously,

42:51

his angst, he's angry, I mean

42:53

he's he's fire bending with a different

42:56

intention than anything

42:58

than the the wistfulness

43:00

of what Qatara is doing or

43:03

trying to attempt to do. With the water or the fun

43:05

airiness that that ang is just

43:08

effortlessly you know, making the kids laugh

43:10

and doing airbending stuff. No,

43:12

this kid is like trying to destroy

43:14

things. Start to understanding his pathology.

43:17

Is already talking about this avatar. He's kind

43:20

of obsessed with this thing. You kind of start

43:22

getting a feel of I don't know if you really

43:24

seem being banished yet, but you get

43:27

feel that there's some kind of riff in

43:29

his world and what he's trying to do. Um.

43:32

But you also get the sense that he's a teenage

43:34

kid that's kind of not

43:36

all good at the moment. But he's

43:39

a firebender and he has power. Absolutely,

43:42

he's clearly I mean, I think it's clear that

43:45

he's very like that he's powerful

43:47

whether or not he's home to that craft. And of course

43:49

we hear Uncle Iro say, you

43:52

know you're you're doing You're coming at this

43:54

not from exactly the right place, and these are

43:56

the things you have to perfect. Like even in this

43:58

scene, you know when he's fighting

44:01

the soldiers, right, he's just practicing against

44:03

these soldiers. It you don't

44:05

get the sense that his anger is not

44:08

malicious or sadistic, do you know what I

44:10

mean in the way that he's not smirking

44:12

to himself as he hits a

44:15

fireball and knocks the soldier over. It's

44:17

clear that seems like he's looking

44:19

in the big picture. He's looking long past this

44:22

moment of knocking a soldier over their collateral

44:24

damage, right. I mean, that's kind of the feeling at

44:27

the feeling that he's enjoying it. He's just like,

44:29

I gotta get this right so that the thing I actually

44:31

care about can happen and I can do it right.

44:34

It's not about I want to hurt you. I want to

44:36

hurt you back here, I also want you to

44:38

be hurting. It's not that, right, It's more utilitarian

44:41

than not that. But but he's still a jerk.

44:43

I mean, we still a jerk. Like

44:47

I've been I've studied martial arts growing

44:49

up, and I've been on sets in action

44:52

scenes with stuntman and we've

44:54

all gone through the paces with

44:56

all these guys, and you know, the guy who's strong,

44:59

who's just been a like, why are you hitting

45:01

everybody so damn hard? Bro? Like,

45:04

yes, you understand that we're

45:06

not at war right now, like I'm

45:08

we're practicing, you know, practicing,

45:11

Yes, And

45:15

says Zuko. Yeah, granted

45:18

he has all that stuff going on, he's still he's

45:20

a jerk. Like you, dude, Yeah,

45:22

you may have long term perspective,

45:25

but you're also hurting people that are like working

45:27

for you. I'm working with you right

45:29

now. And you know, it's not like I wro is

45:32

such a good guy that

45:34

he's like, hey, you're hurting those guys. It's

45:37

not really that he's aloof about it. He's

45:39

a little aloof his His response is more

45:41

just like, Okay, well we'll

45:44

do it, but we're gonna do it at my pace, because for

45:46

someone to eat my roast duck. Right, So he's

45:49

he's with Zuko, he's kind of

45:51

his foil, but he's not like laying

45:53

down the line. He's still a man of privilege.

45:55

He's still a man of privilege. Great

45:58

point to both people of privilege

46:00

in that world, whether banished

46:02

or not. It's seen and

46:05

spoiler alert later on the story, we get

46:07

to see some of that breakdown, especially with Iro

46:10

and Zuko. But yeah, they're they're

46:13

there are people of privilege in the world, and they act in

46:15

a privileged kind of way in the things that they're

46:17

doing, even on the ship.

46:20

Practicing and studying with other people.

46:22

They're like not treating anybody really that

46:25

kindly genius, very very very

46:27

good point. Um. So then

46:29

we go back to to Socco. We see Soccer,

46:31

like we were talking about before, we we tease this out

46:33

that that we see him trying to talk

46:36

to these little boys about warfare

46:38

until they all have to pee and leave, and Ang

46:41

is hilarious, so cute

46:43

and uh, and Soccer just keeps getting kind of more and more

46:45

frustrated as they see that.

46:48

The kids are enjoying being with Hang Like

46:50

you said, you know, he's the he's the fun one, right,

46:52

He's fun, he's the avatar, and he doesn't know

46:55

anything about a war. He's very

46:57

naive. Where he's

46:59

a naive he's twelve, How does he right

47:01

now? Twelve and twelve? Yeah,

47:05

but he doesn't even know there's a war. And so because like this can't

47:07

even be real, Like he can't be serious that he doesn't

47:09

know there's a war. That's our whole our whole life is

47:11

affected, the whole world is

47:13

affected by this war. How could he essentially

47:16

there they're in a post

47:18

apocalyptic world at the moment, like

47:20

in their world, you know, like post

47:23

whatever, especially for the Airbenders, which

47:27

Wenna like to talk about, and they haven't revealed

47:29

you, but there's no more of them. I

47:31

mean, he's it's called Avatar, the last Airbend.

47:33

You want to talk about pathos like you brought up.

47:35

You want to talk about heavy stuff. It's

47:37

right in the title, the Last Airbender. That

47:40

can't be good. That can't be good

47:42

when you're the last one. The

47:44

last Manatee is a sad manateee.

47:47

M I don't ever want them

47:49

to be a last manatee. They're too sweet and cute.

47:52

So I'm just having this aha moment that I

47:55

you see something new every time you watch the show,

47:57

if you watch an episode over and over, and for

48:00

some reason, this last time I watched it, what really

48:02

stood out to me was this kind

48:04

of cool parallel between Iro

48:07

and Ang and then a similar

48:09

parallel between Zuko and

48:12

Soccer. Because I Wro and Ang

48:14

angs like, I'm just about having fun. Come on,

48:17

this is fun, this is whimsical. Let's not think about

48:19

war. And you know you

48:22

have uh Iro sort of doing

48:24

a bit of the same thing. Right, He's like, relax,

48:26

we'll get there. You may not even find the

48:28

advatary maybe maybe you can't even beat

48:31

him. Let's have some row stuck and play a game.

48:33

And then meanwhile, here you have this parallel

48:36

between these two characters who are so diametrically

48:38

opposed, right, especially

48:41

for what happens when Zuko crashes

48:43

a ship thing, which which is like

48:45

Soccer is like, come on, come on, come on, we gotta

48:47

get ready, and Zuko is also going,

48:50

come on, come on, come on, we gotta get ready. So there's

48:52

really kind of a cool parallel there with two very

48:54

different characters. That's

48:56

very true. And it's so, I mean, like, we

48:59

don't even know how cool Iro is at this moment.

49:01

He's just like this blundering uncle that

49:04

does not take anything seriously, which is

49:06

I mean he gets so, I mean, Soccer is taking thing seriously, but he's

49:08

still blundering around. But I mean, we

49:10

just don't even know how cool uncle Iro

49:13

actually is. Wait

49:16

you'll see, you'll see. So Soccer's Soccer

49:18

is in his frustrated place as already

49:20

obsessed with getting on some penguins,

49:24

and uh, he's he just

49:26

takes off and and then Katara ends

49:28

up joining him. This is the opportunity

49:30

for Qatara to ask ang, will

49:33

he teach her to water bend? What does

49:35

he say? He says, no, I mean

49:38

he's not a water bender. He doesn't know he

49:41

can't. He's like, I'm a I bend air. I

49:44

can bend that water with air. How

49:46

about how about that? At least he's a bender.

49:49

Though, at least he's a bender. I mean, what else

49:51

she got because

49:53

at this point we don't know he's the

49:55

avatar yet. So I mean, he actually

49:57

can bend water, but we don't

49:59

know that. No one knows that. That's right, We don't

50:01

even know what bending is this moment

50:04

really touche touche,

50:07

But we do know that there is there's

50:09

no one else around her that can bend. So

50:11

basically nobody that hold Damn tribe, it's only

50:14

like fifteen a that tribe,

50:16

that Southern Watern tribe is

50:19

very small, isn't a village. I

50:21

mean it's it's very tiny, and

50:24

so nobody Graham, Graham can't bend

50:26

nothing, can't bend a freaking

50:29

thimble of water. Nope, she

50:32

might be able a thimble. Come on, Graham, Gad,

50:36

you might be able to bend that just by blowing on it.

50:38

But I guess that's basically air bending. So never

50:40

mind, you know, I could probably bend a thimble.

50:42

I'm blowing. Yeah,

50:45

she's got this is her best this is her best bet. And

50:48

Angs like, I can't. I don't know how to

50:50

do that. But what about

50:52

you brought it up, Dante, what about the Northern Water Tribe.

50:54

She's like, oh, we haven't. I haven't had any we haven't had any contact

50:57

with them. We have not been in touch

50:59

with the water, the Northern Water Tribe. And he's

51:01

like, I'm gonna hooku. Yeah exactly.

51:04

That's like people from l A going, I've never been in New

51:06

York. What are they doing in New York?

51:08

On New York? They're killing the game out there. Well,

51:10

I've never been there, and the

51:13

anger is like, guess what, I'm

51:15

from Chicago, the Windy City, but me

51:17

and New York is cool. So basically, I'm

51:19

gonna take you from down South

51:22

to New York some I'm gonna share with the bright lights, big

51:24

City's right, that's right.

51:26

So we see this bond for me between Ang and

51:28

Katara, and so they're hanging there,

51:30

sliding, they're sliding, they're having a flirtations

51:33

and flirtations contant

51:36

things from I mean, maybe Ang

51:39

sees it as a flirtation. I don't

51:41

know if Katara would say that she's flirting

51:43

within I don't know if she sees contang yet

51:46

I will say I will back

51:49

up by saying I don't. I feel strongly

51:51

that she does not realize there was a Katag. She

51:53

doesn't realize. She's like this is had a twelve year old boy looking

51:55

at me with big guys like they didn't even know

51:57

he's had. I guess that's this kind of is

52:00

where they figure out that how old he is? Right? She does that,

52:02

you're exactly right. This is the time when

52:04

they come across this shipwrecked Fire

52:06

Navy ship, which we find out has been

52:09

sort of this thing that's been haunting

52:11

her tribe for generations because it represents

52:14

everything that has gone wrong with

52:16

the Fire Nation and what they've tried to do. The

52:19

Fire Nation Navy traveled all

52:21

over the Seven Seas, or however

52:24

many seas there are in the Avatar verse. Maybe

52:27

four seasons, four elements. I don't know how many

52:29

season are, but guess what. My ship

52:32

was all over that place. I was cruising around

52:34

for days, weeks, looking,

52:38

searching, and that smoke they're pumping

52:40

out of their ships. Does not seem good for the

52:42

environment. I'll go on record, I don't

52:44

know what kind of cold they're burning. I don't

52:46

know fossil

52:50

fuel. I don't know what kind

52:52

of call a jerk would burn. I

52:57

mean definitely coal burning ships. Yeah,

52:59

and so Ang wants to explore the ship, and

53:01

guitarist says, no, this is a really bad idea.

53:04

Could be you booby trapped. And he says, if you want to

53:06

be a bender, you have to let go over your fear, which

53:08

is a great theory. It's

53:11

a great like, Oh, that's so cool. You're

53:14

calling her a whip. Yeah.

53:17

He kind of was hitting it with like a little Han

53:20

solo Indiana Jones kind of charm, like,

53:22

well, if you want to be a hero, then let's go be a

53:24

hero. That's right, you

53:27

got the right stuff for what. And then for that moment

53:29

you're like, yeah, come on, let's go do this.

53:31

Who wouldn't he You can't say no, you can't

53:33

say booby traps, moobe trap? What

53:35

are the chances it's not going to be booby trapped? Oh,

53:38

it's been sitting there for years. It's been sitting

53:40

there for freaking fifty years since whenever

53:43

it invaded. And yet but

53:45

guess what it's we've

53:48

seen those movies. Those booby traps lasts

53:50

a long time. Yeah, we saw lou Indiana

53:52

Jones. You said it. There's all kinds of stuff that you could

53:55

trigger the debt, that stuff like a trip wire.

53:57

If that lasts forever, don't you worry it's gonna last

53:59

forever? I um. And they're so scientifically

54:01

advanced in those cultures. I mean, they got stuff

54:03

doing stuff that I didn't. How

54:06

do they create that back in the days before electricity,

54:08

I don't know. It's so cool. It really makes me

54:10

wish that I had skills to do anything

54:13

with my hands, and I do your Cora,

54:16

you have all the skills all run into one. If

54:19

only that were true. I do also want to point

54:21

out, and this is something I'd love for the fans

54:23

to respond to, in that moment

54:25

when they're in the ship and you see all these awesome

54:27

cinematic angles where they're you know, they

54:30

come in, you see them like you're looking down on them

54:32

or you're looking at them as they go through the guts

54:35

of this metal ship. There are these two little

54:37

critters who very quickly scampered

54:39

by their white and I don't know what hybrid

54:41

animals those are, but I would love

54:43

to be educated by our

54:45

friends the Phantom. Uh what are

54:48

those little guys? Because they screwed by so fast

54:50

I can't tell. So that's my that's my

54:52

I'm I'm dying to know. I don't I don't remember.

54:54

I gonna go back and look. It happens real fast. But

54:57

as I am obsessed with animal crossing

55:00

as we call it in this in this show, I do want

55:02

to know what they are, and I'm a crossing. So they

55:05

do set a booby trap off

55:07

the The beam of light goes

55:10

crazy, sends up everything

55:15

everybody, and so now Zuko

55:17

set like he already saw

55:19

one beam of light. Now he's got like the fire

55:22

Nation ship booby trap beam of light. That's

55:24

like, hey, I know what's

55:26

going down. The Avatar has

55:28

returned. So it triggers the It triggers

55:31

the the alert and now

55:34

it's only a matter of time right before in

55:36

fact, Zuko sees he's got

55:38

his his I was gonna say spy glass,

55:41

right, he's guys, telescope, He's got spyglass. I love

55:43

that he is a spy glass. He has a spy glass.

55:45

He's on a ship. He got a spy glass.

55:48

I mean, where else would you need

55:51

one of those things? Only if you're on a ship?

55:53

And guess what, we got one.

55:57

And then

56:00

all of a sudden is like bam. He's like, the

56:02

avatar is bad. Let's

56:05

go wake my uncle, tell

56:07

him I found the avatar.

56:10

And then that's when his uncle's like, calm down, Zuco because

56:12

he can see them, right, is that he can see their little

56:15

so because they get trapped in the ship. But then

56:17

ang Air bends them up to the top

56:19

of the ship through a hole in the ceiling, so he can see He

56:21

can literally not just see the beam,

56:23

but he can actually see the figures of and I'm

56:26

I'm holding up my hands like I'm playing with tiny

56:28

stalls. But he can see the little figures

56:31

walking up there. He's like and to your point, he's

56:33

like, I got you. I imagine It's like you

56:35

know when you drive to Vegas and you're coming

56:37

over that hill, that last hill heading into Vegas

56:39

and you see the light of the luxur

56:42

casino the pyramid and there's like

56:44

a beam of lights twing and you're like avatars

56:46

over there. You guys. I know, I don't know many things,

56:50

but I know we need to go where that lights

56:52

at because maybe I'm gonna win

56:54

some money there. I was gonna say I thought was

56:56

a genius marketing technique on

56:58

behalf of the luxe Or. That's

57:00

like a very that's like, that's

57:02

pretty like um egotistical

57:04

in a way that it's like very confident to be like, hey,

57:07

we're gonna shoot a beam of light in the air that

57:09

is more remarkable than anything else

57:12

you will see from a distance at this place. Why

57:14

wouldn't you want to go there? Why wouldn't

57:16

you think like, well, that's got to be the place to be. That's

57:19

some that's some genius marketing on their part, unless

57:22

you're an avatar was trying to hide from a bad guy, in which

57:25

case probably not great to be in that

57:27

pyramid. But that's that's what I felt

57:29

what was happening for Zuko, like

57:32

the luxor is that way big

57:36

money, big money, big money, big

57:38

money, big money, big money. That's

57:41

right, And of course the episode ends with it

57:44

to be continued dot dot

57:46

dot. Yeah, it's a major cliffhanger,

57:48

which is great. All of a sudden, the

57:50

audience were like we're in. I'm in. I

57:53

don't know what's going on, but I'm in so good, it's

57:55

so so, so well crafted. We

57:57

finished recapping the first episode,

58:00

The Boy in the Iceberg. We made it

58:03

to the first one, Barney, we made it to the first episode.

58:05

That's very threatening. I'm now I'm scared that we're

58:07

not going to make it through many Moore. That was very

58:10

intimidating, and I'm

58:13

just saying, you know, I'm just gonna pat ourselves

58:15

on the back. We made it to the first one. And

58:18

now that we have kind of the

58:20

big picture of what happens in the episode,

58:22

let's just take a moment to talk about another regular

58:25

segment we're going to have in Braving the Elements.

58:27

It's going to be our official

58:30

m VB moment v B

58:33

m v B, right, most Valuable

58:35

Bending moment. I am the greatest

58:37

earth Thender in the world, exactly

58:40

right. And so we talked before and we kind

58:42

of already figured out who we believe wins

58:44

this episode. Right, Well, I mean it's

58:46

it's it's without question Qatar, right,

58:49

Katara finding Ang

58:52

and I mean, actually it's even an

58:54

accidental bend. She's not even really made her

58:56

bend without even trying. She becomes

58:59

the key to the entire show. It's actually

59:01

the m v B of the entire show if

59:03

you think about it. And honorable

59:06

mention goes to Soccer because Socca actually

59:10

pisces her off bend

59:12

accidentally. I'm very

59:14

glad you said that, my friend,

59:17

because we also

59:19

have the envy NB

59:23

moment every episode because

59:25

we love, love love our non benders

59:28

in the Avatar verse as well. Okay,

59:30

so we're gonna have our most valuable

59:32

non bending moment each episode two

59:35

and I think you call it out right here

59:37

this time. Who gets our most

59:40

valuable non bending moment? The Great

59:42

Water Tribe member Socca.

59:46

You know, he hits a statue for just

59:48

emotion bending his sister accidental

59:51

water bending the Avatar

59:54

out of the block of ice. That's

59:56

right. We'd have no show. We'd have no we'd have no

59:58

podcasts, we have no series, we have nothing. We

1:00:01

start the whole series off in this whole m

1:00:03

v B and mv n B with

1:00:06

the actual m vbs

1:00:08

of the whole entire series.

1:00:11

I mean, where do we go from here? Where do we go from here?

1:00:13

I'll tell you what I believe, foreshadow

1:00:16

report that we will find some other valuable

1:00:19

bending moments from people who are not necessarily

1:00:22

Qatara, and I believe we will have some very important

1:00:24

non bending moments for people who are not Soccer. But I

1:00:26

agree with you that they hands down

1:00:29

win this episode and set

1:00:31

the tone for the entire show and to your point, kind

1:00:33

of make the entire story possible at all. I'm

1:00:36

a bet that Soccer has a lot of m v n

1:00:38

b s throughout this podcast.

1:00:40

I'm just gonna bet up from I cannot bet against not

1:00:44

bet against you for

1:00:46

most non bending moments Soccer,

1:00:49

to quote you earlier in this episode, we'll

1:00:51

see, yes

1:00:54

we will. And

1:00:56

then the last thing I want to talk

1:00:59

about with you, my friend, is I think

1:01:01

one of the things that we need to make sure to do every

1:01:03

episode of Braving the Elements is

1:01:06

to reflect back on kind of

1:01:08

the big picture life lessons that we

1:01:10

take away from each episode. Because

1:01:12

I'm sure we both agree that the avatar versus

1:01:15

has a lot of layers, so there

1:01:17

are small moments that are funny moments, we

1:01:20

also have big life lessons

1:01:22

stuff that we can take away from these

1:01:24

episodes. I think the number one big

1:01:26

one is the one that you brought up so brilliantly,

1:01:28

which is this idea of the kids children

1:01:31

being our future and how how

1:01:34

it's difficult to be a child, but also

1:01:36

sometimes their greatest hope lies

1:01:39

there. Um. I love that. So

1:01:41

I say, that's our big lesson learned for this episode,

1:01:45

big lesson learned, and we're foreshadow

1:01:47

alerting that these kids are you know,

1:01:49

it's it's a it's a it's a coming of age

1:01:51

story and they're gonna especially Qatar

1:01:53

and Soccer, will be kind of going

1:01:55

through through one of the points of kind

1:01:57

of the coming of age very shortly. Wow,

1:02:00

that takes us to the end of our very first episode.

1:02:02

I'm so happy that we

1:02:05

get to do this together. It just I got

1:02:07

so excited thinking about all the episodes we have

1:02:10

to come and um, I want to thank

1:02:12

you for being here, my buddy, because

1:02:14

this is awesome and you give me a reason to

1:02:16

see you all the time since we can't do cons no

1:02:19

varne. I'm so excited. Um, I'm

1:02:21

excited that you and I are going to become

1:02:23

Avatar last Airbender experts.

1:02:26

Yea connoisseurs if you I

1:02:28

mean, not only are we voice

1:02:30

talent with a lot of help with a

1:02:32

lot of help. Well, I think a lot of a

1:02:35

lot of the fandom out there is going to appreciate that we're

1:02:37

finally gonna understand the

1:02:39

show that we're on, which

1:02:41

is great. So I'm looking forward to it. All

1:02:44

right, everyone, we will talk to you next time on

1:02:46

Braving the Elements. New episodes

1:02:48

out every Tuesday, but to celebrate

1:02:51

our premier week, we are going to drop

1:02:53

our next episode this Friday. A

1:02:56

conversation with Mike DiMartino and

1:02:58

Brian Canets Go. Yeah, the Eights

1:03:00

of this Avatar Verse find

1:03:02

it wherever you listen to podcasts. Yes,

1:03:06

great, great tandem, especially the Firebenders

1:03:09

and the Fire Nation shot

1:03:11

about Fire Nation so

1:03:15

and everybody else. You guys are cool to really Bosco,

1:03:17

you want to alienate all the other nations, really

1:03:21

Fire Nation and all the Firebenders out

1:03:23

there, because I know they appreciate it, you

1:03:25

know. Yeah, a

1:03:27

lot of the series, but there's some nice people in the Fire Nation.

1:03:30

I don't disagree.