erm Our love for Avatar knows no bounds, so we’re spending 30 days celebrating various aspects of both shows because why not?
*If you haven’t seen The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra yet, well, please do yourself a favour and get on that. We will be talking about majorly spoilery things (not in this one, but sooner or later we will), and it would be a shame if glancing at one of our posts got in the way of your perfect enjoyment of watching some of the greatest television ever. Ever. EVER. We do not exaggerate. You need to watch this show. Once you do, you won’t even understand how you got by as a person who’d never watched Avatar before. It happened to both of us, it will happen to you. Go forth and live your best life.*
With all of that said, here’s the first of our 30 days’ worth of Avatar love.
Week 1: Friends of the Avatar
Day 1: Katara
Day 2: Sokka, Bolin, and Mako
Day 3: Toph
Day 1: we start a bit small with Katara’s magical ability to sell whatever stupid fake name her compatriots come up with in the moment.
All screenshots from Avatar Spirit.
In Book One, while Katara’s water bending is still nothing special, her major skill of making obviously fake names seem believable is already fully developed.
In “The King of Omashu,” Aang gets carried away because he’s disguised as an old man using Appa’s shed fur and comes up with an elaborate pseudonym.
“Name’s Bonzu… Pippin…paddleopsicopolis… the third!”
Now this surly guard would surely have turned the Gaang away if not for Katara stepping up immediately with a most natural, “Hi. June Pippinpaddleopsicopolis.”
The guard says, (more or less), “Well that sells that. Enjoy Omashu.”
In “City of Walls and Secrets,” Katara gets to make up pseudonyms of her own for herself and Toph when Long Feng of the Dai Lee won’t leave them alone. She comes up with “Kwa Mai” for herself and “Dum” for Toph, and apart from getting her hair pulled by an irritable Toph, she’s pretty much sold it.
If Aang or Sokka had been around to make up the names Long Feng would definitely have ended the game much sooner than he did – although we’re sure he knew from the start who these two ladies really were. You can’t pull one over on Long Feng… unless you’re Azula.
Still, Katara made it easier for him to play along, because Long Feng just couldn’t stomach a “Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the third.”
Finally Katara once again is called upon to wow us with her acting skills in Book Three’s, “The Headband.” She and Sokka pose as Aang’s concerned and disappointed parents when he enrolls in a Fire Nation school and accidentally beats up a bully using diversionary air bending techniques (as you do).
By now you’d think they’d have learned to let Katara take the lead but Sokka’s having so much fun that he SUPER GLUED THE BEARD AND MUSTACHE TO HIS FACE.
The Headmaster says, “Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs…?”
Sokka: “Fire. Wang Fire. This is my wife, Sapphire.”
And without missing a beat, Katara says, “Sapphire Fire. Nice to meet you.”
The Headmaster seems a little annoyed by their last name but up against Katara’s amazing “selling the stupid fake names” skills, he doesn’t stand a chance.
So apparently some excellent people have created transcripts of the episodes online which proved very useful for this post. Here is the one for “The Headband” but simply google the word “transcript” and any episode title you like and the information is at your perfectionist fingertips! Thanks, excellent people at the Avatar Wiki!
