The Southern Raiders, review pt. 1

[jade_sabre]

So this is a copy-and-paste of the notes I took while watching it.  It's vaguely proofread, and the stuff in brackets is me explaining what I was thinking.

My next task is to compile all the comments I made over at katara_zuko tonight and put together a meaningful post...before tomorrow. HOMG TOMORROW LOOKS AWESOME TOO.

Ooooooooooooooh so excited….

OKAY HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I’M AFRAID I’M GOING TO THROW MY LAPTOFF OFF MY LAP, I’M MSO EXCITED omg.

Previously on avatar:
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Yay flashback yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Aslk;dfjals;dkfjas;ldjfa;ilejrals;kdjfa;sdkjfa;lskfjals;d

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

I freaking love these scenes

I love my ship

Best ship ever!

Funny nose Katara!

HAHAHA INNOCUSOULY SWEET OPENING MUSIC. [as compared to, say, the evil music from the "I WILL END YOUR DESTIN bit.]

Lolol thank you.

AW Teo

Aw Aang pec!

BIG LOG?LAKSDJFAL;SKDJFASL;KFJA;LIERUAL;SDFJAS

WTF

WTFLK;AJDSFL;ASJDFA;LIEORJAOMG

SRSLYALKSD;FJALSDFJAO;WIERJAL;SDKJFDAS

PLZ LKASDJF;LASKEJAL;SIDJFAS;LDFJWHAT?

OOOH

SECRUITY DOORS

ALSKDJFLAS;DKJF;LSokka hair Hot

Aaaaaaaaaw that’s horrible

Zuko!!!;ljaskdjfa;lskdfjla;sdkfj

This had so better be a dream. [guess what? it wasn't.]

Dude so not possiblkajdfl;aksdjf

Yep dream. [I believe this was in reference to the tackle-save-of-Zuko-topness, which I did not record a reaction to because I was too busy screaming IRL.]

Aw poor Appa.

Poor Katara.

Goodbye other characters!

yay Suki!!

Whoa.

This is not a dream.

Holy crap.

YAY.

I FUCKING LOVE HIM.

KATARA: HOMGWUT.

Dude that was hot.

“he’s running on pure sexy.” LOLOL THANK YOU. [I want to say that had something to do with Zuko. Malone said it, I know that much.]

Aw poor Zuko.

Ooh hair. Jun-like! [Azula]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL THANK YOU ZUKO.

Aw Katara’s not laughging I love her.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW.

I LOVE YOU KATARA.

I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU.

YAY GOOD ART. GOOD ART. [srsly one of the best parts of the episode was the art YAY YAYAYAYAYAY maybe the sucky studio is gone forever?]

Oh my God.

This is so beautiful. [the wind, and Katara and Zuko arguing, was beautiful in particular]

Oh.

My.

God.

PHJ MY GOD CANON SEX.

OH MY GOD ANON LKJDF;ASDKJFLA;SJDFASDFJ;L ALSK;DJF;LAKDJF OH LAKSDJF;ALKDJ LOL

OH MY GOD. [there was a lot of IRL screaming going on here too.]

Zuko will tell him [about Ba Sing Se] yay. [except he didn't]

I DON’T KNOW WHY I CARE but we [Zutarians!] do!!!

Yes that’s part of it.  FLASHBACK!

 

 

KATARA MOMMY?

 

HAKODA GO ASDKLF;ASDFJK CREEPY.

 

BOOMERANG!

 

Sokka’s knees are HAWT.  [how do I know this?  BECAUSE HE WAS PANTLESS WHAT]

 

I love you Zuko.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.

 

Aw man.  Katara is going to KILL PEOPLE.

 

Thank you, Aang and Katara.  Thank you.

 

THANK YOU ZUKO.  THANK YOU.  THANK YOU.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA JET YES HAHAHAH YAY YALKJDFL;AKJSD;FLKASJFDA;LS

OH MY GOD.  KATARA.  I LOVE YOU.

 

OH MY GOD.

 

I DON’T CARE AANG.

 

….oh my God.  I fucking love her.

 

Lots of wind in this episode.

 

I LOVE HER.

 

Hey, that doesn’t speak so well for Zuko does it now.  [re:  not liking to forgive people who hurt her]

 

YES.  SNEAKY NINJA.  KLAS;DJFAKLS;DF SNEAKY NINJA KATARA AND ZUKO.  YAY STORMBENDERS.

 

Hahahahah Zuko I love you.

 

Poor Aang.  Poor Aang.  I LOVE YOU SOKKA.  LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

 

PONYTAIL YAY.  [Katara’s ponytail=awesome and pretty]

 

ALSO, THAT WAS SOME SERIOUSLY HOT Zuko right there.

 

ZUKO GIVING KATARA NINJA LESSONS.

 

YAY NINJA.

 

[re:  the Southern Raider’s position orders]  It’s…a golf course?

 

….

 

Hahaha we all know what tired!Katara is like.  KATARA MOMMY!!1  VOICE!!

 

KAYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I LOVE HER.  She is so pretty.  Yay!  She got some sleep.

 

LOLOLOL KRAKEN.  [the octopus waterbending arms]

 

Wow.

 

Oh well, at least they’re not dead.  [re:  the people on the boat that Katara swept overboard NOT CARING IF THEY DIED OR NOT]

 

She’ll choose forgiveness.

 

Okay here we go…  yay defensive!Zuko!

 

Aw.  Zuko loves her.

 

OH MY GOD KATARA.  [SHE’S FUCKING BLOODBENDING WHAT]

 

Was it really that long ago?

 

Different man.

 

Zuko:  also…when the hell did you learn how to do that?  [hahaha his poor expression when she started bloodbending]

 

Dude, she’s going to the old man’s house.  Aw man.  Oh dear.  Aw man.

 

Aw man.

 

SO MUCH WIND.  WINDS OF CHANGE?

 

Holy hell Katara bloodbended someone.

 

I’m really surprised at how much Zuko is going along with this.  [note:  this occurred to me when he first started mouthing off to Aang.  Like, wtf?  Seemed forced.] 

Katara:  The monster!

Zuko:  uh…the nice old market man?

 

Way to…destroy the environment dude.

 

NICE.  TRIP WIRE YAY.

 

Oh crap.

 

They both have small eyes wtf?  Did Kana have big eyes?  [re:  Katara’s parents.  I always assumed Kaya had big eyes because Hakoda doesn’t but their children do.  I GUESS I WAS WRONG.]

 

Oh my God.  Oh my God.

 

I’m like crying.

 

Wow.

 

I’m like crying.

 

Haha I wonder if Zuko knew that was what she was going to do.  [she says, as Katara walks away from old man]

 

Yay Katara.  Zuko knew.  I feel like Zuko knew.  [she says, as Katara starts talking to Aang]

 

Holy fuck this episode is SO GORGEOUS.

 

AAAAAAAAAW Aang.  Poor Aang.  Yay Zuko.  I love her face.

 

Thanks Aang.

[I totally think that Suki was going to be thrown away with the other characters until one of the writers came across one of the animator's scrap drawings, of pantsless!Sokka with the rose in his teeth, and the writer went WE NEED THIS SCENE and lo, it was given unto them]

[SHE THROWS HER ARMS AROUND HIM TO SAY THANK YOU. THAT'S WHAT IT IS. THAT'S WHAT IT IS. *MELTS*]

Comments

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

Your reactions are freaking hilarious!!

This episode is soooooo much love!!

Now, to get technical:
They both have small eyes wtf? Did Kana have big eyes? [re: Katara’s parents. I always assumed Kaya had big eyes because Hakoda doesn’t but their children do. I GUESS I WAS WRONG.]
I think it's that whole thing where you are a more "innocent" character/younger character if you have bigger eyes and you're more evil if your eyes are smaller. Bigger eyes in animation can show more expression than littler eyes, as well.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Hahaha thanks. There are many instances, though, where I was too busy SCREAMING with joy/shock/happiness/wtfness that I didn't even have time to keyboard smash.

Dude, I watched it with my two little sisters (one of whom is a staunch Zutarian, the other I think we just converted because she's too young to know better) and Quark (staunch Kataanger, poor kid), and it was SO MUCH FUN.

Tonight I will be in enemy (i.e. Kataanger) territory...wish me luck! :-D

yeah, yeah, I get the whole big/little eye technical thing, but I was still expecting Kaya to have slightly larger eyes. Which I guess she did. ...I'm going to go look at Isaia's "Who Knows What We Will Become" pic now kthxbai.

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't even know if I saw the whole episode because of my freaking out/note taking. So when my little sis got home from work, I watched it again with her.

Saturday night I'm watching with a guy fried and all his friends. I know my friend (the only one I'll know) likes Maiko and he doesn't care one way or the other about Zutara, so that'll be interesting.

But good luck to you, definitely! I wouldn't want to be in openly hostile territory. Of course, I'm expecting tonight to be the big shipping showdown. I hope Mike and Bryan aren't just teasing us, but I don't know...

Ooh! That is such a pretty piece. That and her "What I Once Was" or whatever. ♥♥♥

P.S. I'm making Avatar tees. XD I'm going to make one that says Flameo with the fire symbol behind it and one with the Zutara symbol (the heart thing). I've got to decide which one to wear what night. I can try to piss off the guys tomorrow with the Zutara shirt, or I can just be supportive of the show in general and wear the "flameo" one. I may post pics of them on my journal later and I'll let y'all vote. XD

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

This ep is just so totally Zutaran, I cannot believe the makers will wrench the storyline around to Kataang.

Mmmmm want to see it again.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

*has totally not been replaying certain parts of it on YouTube over and over and over again in order to analyze the minute animated expressions on the characters' faces*

*also to watch Katara stop the rain. Man, that was gorgeous*

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. And I loved how the best revenge was actually leaving the South Raiders captain to his mom...and she thought she was showing mercy. Twisted, and awesome.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Yes! I thought that as soon as I saw his mother: "oh, what if Katara decides to go after her!" And then when he offers up his mother, it's like well, that wouldn't actually be such a punishment after all.

Mm. We've had some excellent discussion over at the comm about all this. I need to compile it...curse my need for money, and thus employment!

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

There were things I didn't like about this episode. It seemed like Azula's attack was just an excuse for the "kids" to get rid of the "grownups", and Katara was worried about them splitting up, but then she never said anything more about it for the rest of the episode. And Zuko seemed out of character with his new reformed self. And how did Azula find them, anyway? I guess it was just a lucky guess. And how did the "grownups" get out in the war balloon when the Fire Nation had three war balloons?

But I like Zuko's deadpan characterization. Like in the Boiling Rock episode when he said "I'm never happy", and in this episode when he walked in on Sokka.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I agree with the thing about Azula's attack--as Quark said, "And there go all the secondary characters!" Like I said, I'm pretty sure Suki only made it through because someone doodled a sexy!Sokka and they decided they needed it.

As for Zuko being OOC...I guess I'm about to write a post about that? So, get back to you on that one.

Did the SCs get out in a war balloon? I thought Haru was just going to tunnel them away. They had a firebender and an earthbender. I'm sure they were fine. :-D

Zuko is pretty much awesome, yes.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

P.S. I may be turning into a Maiko fan... the shipping in Boiling Rock was really good!!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

P.S. If by "Maiko fan" you mean "fan of a romantic relationship that is ultimately doomed because Zuko goes much more better with Katara" then you may stay on my f-list. :-D

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

But she defied Azula for him! And was cool doing it! "Saving the jerk who dumped me!" And the thing with Ty Lee was a total shock too! And the look on Zuko's face when he looked back and saw her!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but I don't think she's going to go back to him, because while she still loves him he also hurt her. A LOT. And he's never going to be able to apologize to her the way she wants him to--we've already seen that. Even if he wants her back. I just don't think it's going to happen.

Good news: I might be on AIM tonight! :-D