Avatar: The Last Airbender has once again proved itself worthy of viewing by many cartoon fans, especially after the recently aired new episode, "The Warriors of Kyoshi." This particular episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender originally aired on Friday, March
4th, 2005.
Aang, Katara, and Sokka continue on their journey to the north pole so they can try and find other waterbenders, but decide to take another quick rest stop on an island, which the audience will later know as Kyoshi Island. Aang finds some large fish like creatures, known as Elephant Koi near the island, and tries to ride them since he had considerable time to do so, and supposedly, Appa, his flying bison, needed a bit of rest from traveling anyways. Aang almost gets into a bit of trouble while riding one of the Elephant Koi, as he is chased by a huge finned creature, known as the Unagi. The creature does not actually emerge completely out of the water until the near end of the episode. After Aang manages to escape from sudden danger, Sokka suggests they leave the island, until suddenly a group of warriors come out of no where and ambush them. Aang, Katara, and Sokka are tied up and blindfolded, and tied to a post that almost centers the village that is home to this warrior group. The warrior group accused them of being spies for the fire nation tribe, but Aang immediately lets the warriors and the tribe know through airbending action that he is the Avatar.
Word begins to pass on from the citizens living on Kyoshi Island to other locations that the Avatar is on location, and someone leaks out information to Prince Zuko, causing Zuko to set forth a path towards Kyoshi Island to capture the Avatar.
Meanwhile, Aang is slowly beginning to get in over his head because of the people of Kyoshi Island giving him, Katara and Sokka special treatment. Katara is slightly bothered with Aang’s lack of focus on serious matters such as the fire nation possibly finding them and his recent showboating with some of the girls of Kyoshi Island. Sokka does his own thing as he observes the female warrior group in training. After claiming he was the best warrior in his
village, Sokka underestimates the fighting skill of one of the female warriors, and later asks the leader of the group to train him, and apologizes for his past stereotypical gender remarks towards them.
Later in time, Prince Zuko and his crew land on Kyoshi Island, searching for the Avatar and all the while trying to fight off the warriors of the island. Aang once again confronts Prince Zuko face to face using airbending techniques. After he observes the fires and destruction of most of the village, he gathers with Katara and Sokka to escape the village so Prince Zuko would not do further harm to the village.
While Katara, Sokka, and Aang fly on Appa, away from the village and from the Island, Aang jumps off of Appa and into the water, and suddenly tames the giant creature, Unagi, just enough to where Aang makes him spit water over the village to stop most of the fires, and to soak the fire nation army.
First, Sokka’s actions really surprised me in this episode. Its almost likely that Sokka will be a character that will grow in maturity and will become a little more easy going as the show goes on. Apologizing to the Kyoshi warriors for his behavior was a very big step. The confrontation between Aang and Katara was truly a first, but all part of a growing friendship, and learning how to manage with one another.
This was yet another great episode, with some type of consistency on the amount of action and characters. It was nice to see another tribe still in action, and to for the first time see what would happen when others in the region come in contact with the Avatar. Although Aang did seem to get a little prideful in this episode, future episodes could dictate that he’ll either grow
out of it as the show goes on, or he’ll continue to have that childlike behavior in his character remain consistent to keep interest on the storyline and the show in itself.