The Best Filler Episodes of ATLA: Book 1 (script)

Intro:

Some of the best episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender… are the filler episodes. Given it came out in an era before streaming, before the current model of binge watching and full season drops, Avatar was designed from the ground up to tell its long-running story through largely self-contained episodes.

This balance of episodic and long-running storytelling not only allowed the show a lot of freedom in the kinds of stories it wanted to tell, but to do so while still working towards the characters’ long-term goals.

By being a globetrotting adventure in which Aang must master all four elements, where our protagonists have to stop the Fire Nation from conquering the rest of the world, we’re then given an incredibly generous formula where we can go almost anywhere and still have our stories feel relevant.

And because the show is able to remain episodic, you still get 22-minute, tightly paced episodes that tell their own stories with satisfying conclusions. It’s not just one story strung across 20 episodes: it is 20 individual stories (depending on how you count two-parters) that all work together to tell one larger story.

Pretty much any casual viewer can sit down, get what they need to know from Katara’s opening monologue and the “previously on” segments, and then enjoy the show, even if they’ve never seen an episode of Avatar before. And I think it’s important to emphasize just how vital that is to Avatar’s success: its accessibility.

Truth be told, it’s hard to even define what a filler episode of Avatar looks like. Sure, you could say it’s one that doesn’t have them fighting Zuko or other Fire Nation soldiers, or that doesn’t focus directly on Aang’s training, but what about little character beats? What about important aspects of worldbuilding? Should we even bother trying to decipher what’s filler and what’s not?

Cuz truth be told, to call an episode of Avatar filler really is a misunderstanding of what these kinds of stories can do. Filler often gets a bad rep since audiences have come to expect every episode to advance the plot directly in some way at any cost, but filler episodes can provide much-needed levity, while also giving characters room to just… exist. And that’s important if you want your audience to get to know and love them.

But for the sake of today’s video, we’re gonna talk about some of my favorite “filler” episodes of Avatar, specifically Book 1. I was initially gonna cover the whole series in this video, but since I love myself, I’m gonna show myself mercy and keep it as brief as I can (even though this bitch loves long form).

I’m gonna keep my definition of filler loose since, honestly, I think it’s a waste of time to get into the nitty gritty of that. So instead, my general rule will be that it’s more focused on a specific story chained to a specific town or city the Gaang’s currently in, or if it’s more character focused.

The Warriors of Kyoshi (B1, C4):

As the first proper stop on the Gaang’s road trip to the North Pole, this episode establishes the formula we can come to expect from this season: they arrive in an Earth Kingdom town, get to know the locals, uncover some conflict, and save the day before heading to their next destination. Perfect for lighthearted shenanigans, with our main trio, along with Appa and Momo, as our constant anchors to interact with a revolving door of supporting characters.

Fun fact: I love these fan-made maps of the Gaang’s journeys across the series. And as you can see, they’re constantly heading north during Book 1, mostly sticking to the western coasts of the Earth Kingdom. Proof they are indeed working towards their eventual goal of reaching the Northern Water Tribe every episode… weirdly except for “The Great Divide”? Huh.

Anyhow, these first three episodes following “The Southern Air Temple” slowly acquaint us to the Earth Kingdom: first with Kyoshi Island, which is attached to a previous Avatar and is full of nonbenders; then Omashu, to introduce us to earthbending; and then to Haru’s village, so we can see what happens to an Earth Kingdom village when it’s conquered by the Fire Nation.

They’re all great, but I think “The Warriors of Kyoshi” is my personal favorite for how laid back it feels compared to the others. Which makes sense, given it’s the first of the bunch, and has to lighten our spirits after Aang learning about the fate of his people last episode. This is why tone matters, children.

Kyoshi Island is dedicated to the eponymous Earth Avatar, a previous incarnation before Roku. We don’t learn much about Kyoshi herself (and won’t ‘til another filler episode next season), but it’s less about her and more about making this feel like a welcoming place for Aang and the others to vibe for a minute.

Aang’s entire reason for coming here was to ride the elephant koi, not only establishing the fantastical nature of this world, and giving us a bit of childish fun, but also because Aang wants to show off to Katara. This entire episode explores his need for her attention, while also exploring his pendulum swift in how he approaches being the Avatar.

Since this place is named for Kyoshi, the villagers take to Aang quite quickly, especially the kids. Before, Aang was running away from his duties as the Avatar, but now he’s using this as a means of getting validation while trying to make Katara jealous. It’s an interesting pendulum swift given both of them involve him somehow shirking his responsibilities for his own desires.

Also, I just really appreciate the fact that reincarnation transcends gender. Like, Aang was a woman, and has been men, women, and those who lieth betwixt across the eons, and everyone’s chill about it, and I love that. The Kyoshi Warriors too challenge Sokka’s preconceptions about women, and his frankly sexist attitudes grown from the Water Tribe’s societal views.

The Northern Water Tribe is arguably far more misogynistic and patriarchal, refusing to let women use their waterbending for combat, but the Southern Tribe definitely isn’t free of this. Sokka had to learn these comments from somewhere. But the narrative consistently shuts down Sokka’s sexism, with Katara and later Suki proving him wrong every time he makes an ass of himself.

Sokka is allowed to have a massive flaw in his sexism, without the narrative endorsing or just permitting that sexism. Instead, the narrative challenges him, forcing him to reflect and grow as a person. He apologizes to Suki on his hands and knees, dons the Kyoshi Warrior uniform, and learns directly from her. Now this is some positive masculinity, and Sokka is our king.

And it does all of this too while embracing the femininity of the Kyoshi Warriors. How they use their enemies’ strength against them, and Suki’s final comment about being both a warrior and a girl. YOU CAN BE BOTH, DAMMIT. Once again, this is the kind of story we desperately need in the 2020s, both adults and kids.

The Waterbending Scroll (B1, C9):

Katara is a messy queen, and I love her. While she is kind, compassionate, and maternal, she’s also passionate, self-righteous, and very, very prone to anger. If you cross her line, it’s on sight. She’ll slit your throat with a water whip and it’ll be over for you. It’s nice to have a leading female character be allowed to indulge in these aspects that female characters often aren’t, given women in general are given way more flack for flaws that men get a pass on.

While perusing a pirate ship’s goods, Katara comes across an authentic waterbending scroll, presumably stolen from a waterbender. She, in turns, steals the scroll, much to Sokka’s annoyance after they escape the pirates. Personally, I’m on Katara’s side. Not only is this in the name of both Aang and Katara learning waterbending, but she’s right on the pirates having stolen it in the first place.

Still, the narrative does acknowledge Katara had a selfish motivation for this, mostly through Sokka. When Aang takes quickly to waterbending and starts giving Katara tips, Katara blows up at him, making him cry, and making me feel like I need to leave the room immediately. She apologizes, but I absolutely love the fact Katara was allowed a moment to blow up like this.

Of course she would! Waterbending is incredibly important to her, given it’s an important part of her culture, and she’s the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. Doesn’t excuse her acting this way towards Aang, but it makes her incredibly compelling. Especially when she sneaks out at night to practice alone, resulting in her being captured by Zuko and the pirates.

Ultimately, it all culminates in Aang and Katara using their newfound waterbending skills together to save themselves, which feels like a nice resolution after the earlier conflict. It gives Katara more complexity than just being the mom of the group.

The Fortuneteller (B1, C14):

This episode often gets overlooked as quite basic. Ya know, “Don’t believe in superstition and tall tales.” But personally, I think it goes a bit deeper than that, and it’s more mature than it’s given credit for. And naturally, I’m a big fan.

To me, this is an episode about how people often over-rely on external sources, which they expect to make the big choices in their lives for them. And in turn, it’s about how people can take fate into their own hands.

Katara is easily an example of the former. She keeps going back to Aunt Wu for fortunes, whether it be about the man she’s going to marry, or whether she should eat a mango or papaya… even though she hates papaya. Even when she already knows her own answer, she thinks Aunt Wu would know better. Even Aunt Wu is completely over her overreliance.

Sokka, meanwhile, is the voice of logic and reason, and the resident skeptic. He doesn’t believe in magic or superstitions. He even dismisses Katara’s waterbending early on, referring to it as “magic”: something far-fetched, impractical, and even unreal. While his constant frustration with the townspeople’s blind faith in Aunt Wu’s fortunes is definitely relatable, to me, it feels like the real problem is less the fortunes and the guidance, and more that these people take that guidance as dictation.

That kinda gets proven when the Gaang saves the town from the volcano. Yes, Aunt Wu’s prediction of the town’s safety was technically accurate, but only because Aang and the others convinced them to step up and protect themselves, initiated by them literally changing the clouds Aunt Wu reads with their waterbending. They literally took fate into their own hands.

And this is something Aunt Wu commends. A superficial reading would dismiss her as just a grifter; one of those fake psychics who take advantage of gullible, grieving people through methods like cold reading, or generic guesses. But Aunt Wu doesn’t do this. She doesn’t even charge her patrons, leading me to believe she’s quite earnest. And after all, we’ve seen that the supernatural does in fact exist in the Avatar world, so why would fortunes be far fetched?

Really, I think this episode is about finding your own way to go about life. If you think fortunes are stupid as shit, fine. If you like the guidance they bring you, then no harm, no foul. What matters is that it’s you making these decisions. That you’re not just following the words of another person blindly, lest you find yourself going to bed in a lake of lava.

Also, I’m a fan of Aang being super nonchalant when Aunt Wu is terrified by the chicken bones foretelling his destiny. Like, “Yeah, I know I’m the Avatar who’s gonna save the world. Now get onto the girl I like pretty please.”

The Deserter (B1, C16):

Given the role of the Fire Nation as the series’ antagonists, it would’ve been easy for the show to portray fire as an inherently evil element. However, the show is quick to debunk that from the jump, even with Aang’s initial disbelief in the war. He’s had friends in the Fire Nation, after all, like Kuzon.

This episode really digs into that preconception. Aang tries to skip two elements ahead to learn firebending from Jeong Jeong, against Jeong Jeong’s wishes. Aang is impatient, not just wanting to skip over water and earth, but also to skip to throwing fireballs instead of learning about fire as an element.

Mastering an element is more than just bending it. You have to learn the philosophy behind it, and work through your connection to it given your current outlook on life. It’s why he struggles so much with earthbending at first. Aang doesn’t understand that, which is why he underestimates the control that fire controls, inadvertently burning Katara.

This is a moment that haunts Aang for the rest of the series. He doesn’t even want to learn firebending after this, afraid he’ll hurt Katara or someone else again. Another example of characters being allowed to make horrible, hurtful mistakes, then grow from them. We love to see it. Oh, and it lets Katara discover her healing abilities. So whoops, guess this is more than just a filler episode, ain’t it?

In any case, Aang’s newfound fear parallels Jeong Jeong’s self-hatred, given he’s seen the barbarism and cruelty propagated by the Fire Nation in their war. He’s come to see fire as an inherently evil, destructive element, envying Katara’s waterbending, which he views as inherently good and healing… oh, if only he could see the way Hama would show the dark side of waterbending later.

And really, that’s it. Every element has good and bad to it, and is capable of good and evil. The Fire Nation’s brand of firebending is a corrupted, bastardized version of the true firebending given to them by the dragons, whom they hunted to the point of near extinction. Fire as an element is about life, passion, and energy, but all the current empire cares about is using it for cutting down their enemies.

In the end, Aang isn’t ready to use firebending to defeat Zhao. Instead, he uses his wit, turning Zhao’s fury-fueled firebending against him to destroy his own ships. It shows Zhao’s folly in fueling his bending through his anger and cruelty, using him as a proxy for the current state of the Fire Nation. This would also come in handy when Aang and Zuko would discover the true nature of firebending in Book 3.

The Northern Air Temple (B1, C17):

As the last pit stop on the Gaang’s journey to the Northern Water Tribe, this episode mirrors the Southern Air Temple episode. Whereas that episode had a quiet, abandoned temple for Aang to discover what happened to his people, this one shows a temple that’s been inhabited by new residents, interrogating how we should preserve the past while empathizing with people in need trying to establish a safe present.

The temple has been inhabited by the Mechanist and his people, who lost their homes to the Fire Nation. They found refuge here, the Mechanist using his skills to convert the temple to suit their needs, and even creating devices that mimic the gliders of the Air Nomads who once lived here. The Mechanist actually takes many notes form the way the Air Nomads did things for his devices.

However, while these people have found a home here, it hasn’t been without disruption. Much of the original architecture is now covered in industrial pipes and contraptions, smokestacks letting off black clouds from the temple towers. We even meet the Mechanist as he’s destroying part of an area full of Air Nomad statues to install a bathroom.

Aang is understandably upset. With the Air Nomads gone, these temples are the last relics of their culture, and seeing one be so thoroughly changed and even desecrated, it makes perfect sense that Aang would take this as a deep insult. And then you have the Mechanist being blackmailed into building war machines for the Fire Nation.

Yes, he’s helping the very people who hurt both his people and the Air Nomads, but he did so under direct threat, and when presented with a means of fighting back through the Gaang, helps them in driving back the Fire Nation.

There’s absolutely a discussion to be had here about whether the Mechanist’s people had to so thoroughly alter the temple in order to make this place their home. How they could’ve respected the relics of a destroyed people’s culture. But I do ultimately appreciate Aang’s takeaway with the metaphor of the hermit crab.

These people made this empty shell their home, and hopefully now, will be more kind towards its past… well, at least under Legend of Korra, when it seems they’ve decided to move house. And it’s probably a good thing they did, considering what Ghazan was about to do to it. Northern Air Temple just cannot catch a goddamn break.

I do wish the episode acknowledged Aang’s feelings being justified, though. I think in trying to get us onboard with the Mechanist’s people living here, we’re asked to dismiss a lot of the genuine destruction of the culture of this temple.

Aang has to compromise in finding peace in these people living here, but the Mechanist and his people aren’t asked to reach their own compromise of respecting the culture and history of the temple while adapting it to suit their needs. I think that little shift would’ve done a lot in making this episode feel a bit less… one-sided, all progress is good progress.

Oh, sidenote: absolutely love Sokka’s nerd engineering side getting to come out here. His unexpected friendship with the Mechanist genuinely gives me life, especially when they wind up inventing the hot air balloon. Too bad the Fire Nation decided to ruin that one too.

Conclusion & Outro:

So there ya go. My favorite filler episodes from Avatar Book 1. I’ll be doing the same for the other seasons as well, but I think these ones are interesting, given Book 1 is all about introducing you to these characters, and this world.

That inadvertently provides a lot of freedom as the show experiments with the kinds of stories it wants to tell while it’s finding its feet. And in the process, sure, maybe you get some episodes you’re not as fond of, but you also get really interesting ones with surprisingly deep insights.