SECRET OF THE FIRE NATION WAS AWESOME!!!

[naru]

*SPOILERS* (If you didn't see it)























Well the drill was incredible not what I expected, and almost too amazingly high tech for the show but yet it works anyways and it was pretty cool, we get to see some excellent bending as well Aang showed alot more usage of his Avatar skill and Katara actually seemed like a master Waterbender

[rairii]

Well, for starters, I totally support Toki/Soph, take your pick. I mean, hello. They kissed. Well, on accident, but...
Omigosh, the baby was so cute. =3
Suki sounds different to me somehow, yet the same... Enough for me to recognize her the moment she started talking.
I love Jet. More than ever. I suppose I've been a fangirl ever since the preview for "Jet" aired, but the psychoticness never ends and he just keeps getting awesomer and awesomer.
Umm... Iroh is awesome as ever, Zuko as well, with the mad thief-skillz.
And I'd like to say something went wrong during the animation/writing. >> Because Azula's fire is too blue, and too un-precise to be lightening. So... It's not lightening. The end. << I don't care how many people/characters call it so, I'm sticking by my thoughts.
So, in conclusion, it was a bit of a let-down episode for me, after a two-month wait, but it did really brighten my day. So, hah. ^^

[ashuku]

Spoilers Yo











I was very disappointed, that was a very weak special in my opinion. It was alot better than Fury of Aang, but still didn't feel "good". I mean, sure, it had its moments, but it just wasn't epic enough for a decent special. And the secret was just a drill? A bit disappointing on my end. The action scenes were great, and the character development was top knotch, but for a fire nation assault on the capital city of the Earth Nation, it fell way under the bar set by "Siege of the North."

[chamir]

Though I do luv me sum o' tha' Furh Nachon steampunk. Mmhm. I gotta agree with Ashuku good characterization but poor (lookin') military assault on the FN's part though not as much as the general defending the outer wall. Surely he could've thought up of something other than throw rocks at them. For some reason it felt like a monster-of-the-week affair.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Were they hiding a small army somewhere in that thing? I'd at least have a few thousand following behind that thing to start up a proper beachhead once the wall was penetrated. And I probably attempt to drill somewhere near a crowded housing area. Mass panic and block wide fires to slow down the defenders. But that may be jus' me >=D

Wonder if there'll be a plot device of the hole still being there. I'm also wonderin' what there next silly lil plain will be. *Scoffs* Probably some silly balloon or some such nonsense. =P

[sanzoku]

Well the hole is obviously going to be fixed i mean they are not stupid well they kinda are but still the plan for the fire nation i doubt it is going to be any good well it will be but it will have a weakness(i will finish this reply later)

[naru]

chamir said:

Though I do luv me sum o' tha' Furh Nachon steampunk. Mmhm. I gotta agree with Ashuku good characterization but poor (lookin') military assault on the FN's part though not as much as the general defending the outer wall. Surely he could've thought up of something other than throw rocks at them. For some reason it felt like a monster-of-the-week affair.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Were they hiding a small army somewhere in that thing? I'd at least have a few thousand following behind that thing to start up a proper beachhead once the wall was penetrated. And I probably attempt to drill somewhere near a crowded housing area. Mass panic and block wide fires to slow down the defenders. But that may be jus' me >=D

Wonder if there'll be a plot device of the hole still being there. I'm also wonderin' what there next silly lil plain will be. *Scoffs* Probably some silly balloon or some such nonsense. =P

I can understand why It was a bit of a letdown to you after 2 whole months since after all there is only so much they can put in an episode (on the brightside over the rest of the season we will see tons of Ba Seng Se and Earth Kingdom culture), and if there was an army inside there that survived the whole blowing up uf the thing then they couldnt get in since the hole was plugged by the stupid freakin drill. I just wanna know what happens next. When this is all over im gonna sit on my butt and watch each season of avatar 1 a day like a movie. This show has huge plot potential but is limited by half an hour episodes if Avatar had hour long episodes they could add so many more juicy details but it would also cause problems. My final verdict is this tv movie lived up to the requirments for a 2 episode special

[daxia]

Did any one else start whistling and cat-calling when Sokka and Suki started swapping spit?


..........................................






yeah, that's just me. Oh, and I KNEW Smellerbee was female! HAH!

[aden]

If nothing else, this episode boasted some of the most amazing bending throughout the entire series. I mean, the battle in the Serpent's Pass, Katara freezing the steam around that engineer, Azula's awesomje firebending, and even Aang's use of the rock glove all kicked a$$.

I also got a kick out of several of the smaller things. Like Iroh charming that ticket lady and Zuko going "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that..." Also, i found it hilarious how even the slightest nod or expression from Longshot was able to be extrapolated into a deep, philosophical meaning by Jet and Smellerbee... Not to mention a lot of the Toph/Sokka interactions.

"Hey! Thanks for saving my life, Toph! No problem, Sokka!"

;D

However, as cool as the drill was, I'm hard-pressed to think that that was the best the Fire Nation could come up with. I would have imagined they'd use the War Balloons to ferry soldiers over the walls like they foreshadowed in The Northern Air Temple. Or at least blow the wall up with some kind of new explosive chemical a la The Two Towers! A single Drill with only a small envoy of tanks seemed like a pretty feeble attempt to penetrate the Outer Wall.

Anywho... Overall I liked both episodes. The first had some good character development (Sokka and Suki are kinda like a long-distance couple, Aang learned not to shut out his emotions, and his feelings about Katara and vice versa are now out in the open). While the second episode sated my thirst for some serious bending action (Ty Lee pwned the Hell out of the Terra Team! Azula vs Aang was probably the coolest fight of the series, and Katara and Toph both showed some serious skillz as well).

It was well worth the wait, IMO, though I still think there was room for improvement.


P.S. I'm starting to get annoyed by all the cowardly/incompetant Earth Kingdom Generals... How the HELL did they last a 100 years of war if all their commanders are this pathetic!?

[naru]

HEY maybe the drill was some kind of distraction....screw that I already know they wont be penetrating the wall this season at least I really expected to see some more resistance from the Earth kingdom and I have to agree these Earth Generals are pathetic *grumbles something about his oc general being better* plus to make these high ranks dont you think they would have to have a high level of bending and/or strategy skills. These guys are idiots and hardly good soldiers as for this Long Feng guy shown in the preview for the next episode I think he is a total traitor, you know the whole evil advisor it shows up everywhere. ANYWAY back to the topic of a pathetic attempt. It would have worked if Aang wasn't there for sure that general couldn't have done ANYTHING about it hes a coward. They just would have drilled through the wall and unloaded all the soldiers/ employees you could call them






BTW you may notice Iroh has difficulties identifying the gender of children notice he called the little baby hansome (though he can have an excuse for that since it would be harder to tell when you just see a little plump face)

[chamir]

If that drill was a distraction then it's a pretty biiiiiigggg and useless distraction. I don' wanna think about the amount of cash that went into that! [Gundam reference] They could teach the Zeons a thing or two about wasting money on useless and aided side projects. [/Gundam reference]

And my verdict is still out on Azula's crony-friends and they're going through a whole platoon which is between 25 and 50 guys (depending on what structure they're going by).

Man, you wonder how the EK lasted so long with guys like these. It's like a regular wuxia movie where the government is amazingly corrupt and/or incompetent and the heroes are the only effective ones--- wait wait nevermind that's pretty much any show.

And yeah I was catcalling too at Sokka x Soph which didn't help later on as I was seeing wwwaaaayyyy too much innuendo with the second half. Ah, the male mind. *slaps self*

[aden]

Yeah, with the sheer size amount of sophistication in that drill, there's no way it was intended to just be a distraction. Given the level of technology in Avatar, it must have been under construction since Iroh's initial failure to capture Ba Seng Sei. In all good military sense, you don't waste that much time and resources on something you don't expect to work.

And even though I'm surprised there weren't that many soldiers guarding the wall, I suppose when you think about the sheer size of it it makes sense. The wall is enourmous and seems to surround a city that's almost the size of an entire country. They can't have a sizeable force along the entire wall, and it would take time to rally any large defending force from the surrounding wall or the city itself. And, as slow as the drill seemed, I'm thinking that if it started making its way toward the wall from the previous night it could have punched through the wall before any force large enough to stop it arrived.

[rairii]

Eh, I've probably been reading into the Farsala Trilogy too much, and thus getting my daily quota of Persian war tactics, but I sense betrayal in high places, whether it be bribing, or a voluntary change of loyalty
Frankly, I think Bai Seng Sei will fall, though probably not now, later in the season, and it may not be because of my whack theory, but rather mad skillz on the Fire Nation's part.

Either that or I'm insane.

Possibly both. Take your pick.

[shizuka]

aden said:

Yeah, with the sheer size amount of sophistication in that drill, there's no way it was intended to just be a distraction. Given the level of technology in Avatar, it must have been under construction since Iroh's initial failure to capture Ba Seng Sei. In all good military sense, you don't waste that much time and resources on something you don't expect to work.

And even though I'm surprised there weren't that many soldiers guarding the wall, I suppose when you think about the sheer size of it it makes sense. The wall is enourmous and seems to surround a city that's almost the size of an entire country. They can't have a sizeable force along the entire wall, and it would take time to rally any large defending force from the surrounding wall or the city itself. And, as slow as the drill seemed, I'm thinking that if it started making its way toward the wall from the previous night it could have punched through the wall before any force large enough to stop it arrived.

I think that, rather then a decoy, the drill was only just the first option. The Fire Nation may very well use the balloons later. Can't go through it, might as well go over it.

Also, they kept saying they were penetrating the outer wall. Is there an inner wall around the city itself?

[ayame]

I really liked SotFN. I don't know if it is because it rocked hard, or because it was a lot better than FoA. But, either way, I enjoyed it, so yeah. ;D

Random Notes and favorite things (Spoilers, obviously):















- Sokka's such a playa. Fo' sho *shot*
- Katara getting all pwn-y on Ty-Lee. It's nice to see Katara be vicious every now and then. XD
- Longshot. I love how everyone can understand him with just one look.
- Iroh flirting with the ticket lady and Zuko being embarassed. Poor guy.
- Azula versus Aang was pretty awesome.
- character development= love
- return of Jet and Suki!!!
- The waterbending scene in the Serpent's Pass. That was very well done.
- Toph's sarcasm. Makes me like her even more.

[jp]

I wasn't to impressed by the episode, but then again the main problem with it, was that it was too short. We hardly saw anything of zuko and iroh, we barely know anything new from Jet. Suki didn't matter much for the story, they just met again and she kissed sokka. Then again, they got a limited time for each episode too.

Aang shutting his emotions out was nice, but very short. They could have make it last waaay longer and make Aang believe it was the air nomand way, "detachment of earthly possessions". His grief over Appa did come from attachment to him. Now it looked more like inconstant character. But maybe they'll go deeper into this in later episodes.

The drill was okay, but come on, how can you expect it not to be stopped? Ba Seng Se has one large army. If you had hundred of those drills it might have been effective, one whole in the wall, I don't think you can lead an army through that.

The earth kingdom generals have been discussed enough already, so I won't start on that.

One thing I was wondering about, is Iroh the dragon of the west? If so, I'm getting more and more curious about the story about the siege on Ba seng Se.