Avatar S2E18: "The Earth King"
Avatar S2E18: "The Earth King"
Short-lived victory for Team Avatar | Grade: B
Thanks for tuning in to my thirty-eighth of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S2E17: Lake Laogai.
This is the rare episode which is mostly triumph for Team Avatar, following on the heels of their victory in Lake Laogai. Our heroes are so often unlucky, so it’s nice to see things going right for a change, and to see the characters acknowledge their changing fortunes. Even Sokka is trying on a new positive attitude.
The most dramatic and memorable part of this episode is definitely the Gaang’s storming of the Earth Palace, where a whole battalion of hostile guards await them. It’s an opportunity for Aang, Katara, and Toph to show off what powerful benders and fighters they’ve grown into. Aang crashes down from the sky to kick off their offensive, taking out nearly one hundred men with a massive earth wave similar to the one he employed in the first episode of this season — but this time, he’s not even in the Avatar State!
As usual, Toph really shines in the battle, blocking tons of incoming rocks with an earthen window wiper. But her most incredible move is when she turns the giant palace staircase into a giant slide, sending the charging guards careening down. “Sorry!” they tell the tumbling men. “We’re actually on your guys’ side!”
When they finally reach the Earth King’s chambers, Long Feng is ready to cast them as usurpers and enemies. We finally meet the king himself, a lanky man sporting pince-nez glasses and accompanied by his bear Bosco. In the limited time we spend with him, he’s portrayed as thoughtful but naive, and proud but not haughty. Notably, he’s never left the palace in his entire life, which helps explain why he could be deceived by Long Feng for so long.
There’s a lot of over-convenient incompetence in this episode, both from the palace guards and Long Feng himself, who ultimately does a very unconvincing job of lying to the Earth King for a guy who’s been doing it for decades. The Avatar’s reputation precedes him, so the king is willing to hear Aang out. It’s ultimately the ruined remains of the Fire Nation drill that provide proof to convince the Earth King of the secret war, and Long Feng is arrested by his own Dai Li.
Over in Zukoland, the prince has fallen symbolically ill after his righteous actions in Lake Laogai. As Uncle Iroh explains:
What you did beneath that lake. It was in such conflict with your image of yourself that you are now at war within your own mind and body. …
You are going through a metamorphosis, my nephew. It will not be a pleasant experience, but when you come out of it, you will be the beautiful prince you were always meant to be.
It’s interesting that Iroh chooses to emphasize Zuko’s identity as a prince here. Perhaps he’s trying to tell his nephew that he can still claim his destiny even while rejecting the tyranny of the morally adrift Fire Nation.
Drifting in and out of sleep, Zuko has somewhat tropey visions of Iroh and Azula, manifested as dragons, playing angel and devil on his shoulder while his mother cries out for help. He also sees himself in the mirror with Aang’s shaved head and tattoos. The dreamlike visions incorporate many of the core elements that concern Zuko, but we don’t sit with them long enough to really delve into his psyche at the level of, say, The Sopranos’ Funhouse (a high bar). Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see for the result of his metamorphosis. Will we finally get the “good Zuko” that the show seems to have been teasing all season?
At the end of the episode, Team Avatar decides splits up, with each member having their own mission. Aang will travel to the Eastern Air Temple to meet Guru Pathik from Appa’s Lost Days, whose letter offers to help him control the Avatar State. Sokka will find his father, whose fleet has been spotted nearby. Toph’s mother is apparently in town, looking for her. And Katara will remain to help the Earth Kingdom forces plan an invasion on the day of the solar eclipse.
Ultimately, though it’s a cheerful one for our heroes, The Earth King is hindered as an episode that mostly serves to clean up loose ends after last episode’s climax and set up for the finale. At the end, Sokka pronounces, “everything is gonna work out perfectly. From now on and forever.”
Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the audience, the laws of TV demand that he's wrong. The cliffhanging ending minutes remind us of that, giving us three new threads that could viciously unfurl. The Dai Li declare they’re still loyal to the imprisoned Long Feng. Toph’s meeting is a trap and she’s captured by her father’s bounty hunters, Xin Fu and Master Yu. And perhaps most ominously, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee arrive in disguise as the Kyoshi Warriors after fighting them two episodes back. They’re greeted as the Earth King’s honored guests.
Spare observations
Those two massive badgermole statues are the largest thing we’ve seen anyone throw with earthbending so far. The previous record holder was Bumi who threw that huge chunk of his arena at Aang all the way back in S1E5: The King of Omashu!
Oops! When Team Avatar storms the palace, Sokka is shown holding his club that the sandbenders discarded after stealing Appa.
Pretty good gag in the throne room: the Gaang reacts to good, bad, and so-so news.
“Looks like Long Feng is long gone! Ahh, yeah, I've been waiting to use that one.”
Aang seems about to profess his love for Katara, but he’s interrupted by Sokka.
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
The Earth King’s name is Kuei, but this is never explicitly revealed in the series.
A bit more background on Long Feng: he rose up from humble origins as the son of a merchant. Eventually, he was able to amass political power within the Dai Li. When the previous Earth King died, Kuei was only four years old. Long Feng installed himself as the young king’s regent and effectively became the true ruler of Ba Sing Se.
“You can’t arrest me! You all need me more than you know!” In some sense, Long Feng might be right about this. By deposing the Grand Secretariat, the Gaang has created a power vacuum in Ba Sing Se. And how are they handling the situation? By leaving the city.
Zuko’s vision where he sits between Iroh and Azula reflects his greater dilemma about his destiny, but it also more immediately foreshadows the scene in The Crossroads of Destiny where his two relatives each try to convince him to pledge allegiance to their side.
Zuko’s vision where he looks like Aang might be foreshadowing his secret ancestry from Avatar Roku, revealed in The Avatar and the Firelord.
Katara’s offer to let Sokka see their father is a kind sisterly gesture. But it also foreshadows the feelings of abandonment that she harbors towards him and eventually voices in The Awakening.