What are Azula's motives pertaining to Zuko? Is she just fucking with him or does she honestly see Zuko as essential to the execution of her plan? Does she want him close so that she can control him? Or, knowing Zuko's weaknesses, is she setting him up for a final, catastrophic failure in order to bolster her own…

Christ, this show has mastered the art of composing deeply unsettling shots without a trace of explicit violence. That overhead view of Katara on the ground is right up there with Longshot nocking the arrow in "Lake Laogai."

I like your reading, but I still cringe at that line every time.

I think the fact that Zuko essentially loses Iroh here is of critical importance both for emotional and moral reasons. And in that sense, Iroh's choices are as important as Zuko's. Until the past few episodes, the conflict between Ozai an Iroh's moral systems and desires for Zuko have only ever been implicit. Until…

MILD SPOILERS

I'm a lifetime resident of Texas (Galveston, Dallas and Austin), and I just do not enjoy Houston. I have family there, but I hate going to visit them because of the traffic and the goddamn humidity. It's like a fucking armpit. Austin had more days over 100 this year, but Houston is somehow more miserable in my…

My sister and her husband went there for their anniversary and said it fucking rocked. I'm too poor to even think about going there at the moment, but maybe once I land a real job…

I do hope they visit some of the restaurants in Dallas. I'd love to see them do something with Rise. That place is fucking amazing.

I KNEW they looked familiar. The Schlegel's went to my high school. We did not hang out. I was a power nerd who drove a 10 year old Nissan.

I grew up in Preston Hollow, and most of my friends from private school lived either in Highland Park or the richer parts of Plano/Frisco. It really is that boring. I moved to Austin in an attempt to make myself more interesting.

Yes indeed. Hannah Arendt writes about it too.

SPOILERS

Nice catch on the use of the honorific, which, I think, pops up during that climactic speech. And when he's describing the nature of Zuko's fugue state, there's some reference to him become "the beautiful prince you were always meant to be."

Yes, you're absolutely correct that he said that, but even Roku seemed pretty suspicious about his plans and unequivocal in his condemnation of them. I think Sozin was sincere, but through Roku we are supposed to infer that Sozin is rationalizing an act that can't be justified, one step in a process of self-deception…

Indeed. Or if one has been in graduate school for too long.

(SPOILERS, SORT OF)

Which part got you hot and bothered? Was it the social darwinism?

I think this is an oversimplification of the matter. OF COURSE the war is about imperialism and the acquisition of power and resources, but in the minds of the imperialists, its is NEVER just about that. Virtuous narratives are always summoned in order to justify it, and those involved in spinning the narratives very…

Yeah, I think Iroh during Season 1 is thinking in terms of Fire Nation solutions to Fire Nation problems. 

Oh, and also, he shoots a giant-ass fire ball at Aang during the second episode (technically still the pilot), which only really makes sense to me if the writers hadn't quite figured out where the character was going.