Avatar: The Last Airbender - 1x10 "Jet" FULL REACTION
Added 2021-02-24 23:53:32 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
Comments
I love that while Jet is obviously the antagonist in this episode, he isn't like a maniacal "yes... Kill them ALL!" - mustache twirling bad guy. He legitimately thinks that what he is doing is the right thing, consequences be damned. It's a brand of radicalism that only comes from that sort of bubbled off seclusion Liam was talking about. Jet isn't evil. He's a tragically conditioned sociopath. ....and, you know: a 16 year old child. The whole group are kids. Children who have been surviving on their own and forced to deal with these horrific life-changing events, without any balanced nuance or context outside of the world that they had to create for themselves. It's the Lord of the Flies set up. Of course they are going to be radicalized. It's also interesting that, although they *are* initially enamored with Jet's idealism and carefree aggressiveness, we end up seeing the Avatar team as the "adults" again in the culminating events of this episode. Sokka from the begining, but Aang and Katara too, as soon as they learn about the plan to flood the settlement. As Sokka centric as this episode was, Katara also had a nice little growing-up/self awareness arc in this episode as well.
Rj
2021-02-25 19:34:20 +0000 UTCI think this ep would have greatly benefited from another 5-10 minutes of runtime. Jet is a very understandable character when you think it all the way through, but I'm not sure the episode itself did a great job portraying that nuance. A few different things could have used more time, namely Jet's motivation and psychology, Katara's fascination with him, and the Freedom Fighters' willingness to blindly follow Jet's lead and commit atrocities (which is an interesting reflection of Fire Nation soldiers, who are technically doing the exact same thing). And I think destroying an empty village or destroying a village full of Fire Nation colonists would have been a more engaging moral dilemma. I think the population was a mix of Fire and Earth nationalities, since the old man was there, but I mean it's insane that Jet was mad that Sokka saved a bunch of Earth Kingdom lives without even preventing the bombing from happening. He accomplished his dam goal! That said, the ideas at play here are really valuable and interesting and are what stick with me looking back on the episode, not the pacing issues. I don't greatly enjoy watching it, but I do really like thinking about it.
KT
2021-02-25 07:03:54 +0000 UTCSome great observations. First of all, very interesting that you A) call the Freedom Fighters the Lost Boys in the episode, and B) say that Jet looks a bit like Zuko, given that Zuko is literally voiced by the leader of the Lost Boys in “Hook”. I only found this episode OK. Mainly for the Sokka and Katara development. Some previous episodes might show his goofier side (“he’s an earth bender, right? Rocky!”) , but he can also be more sensible while Katara can be a bit more naive and swept up in her emotions. Katara is very caring with good moral fiber and will stand up for her beliefs, but she can be a bit naive and get wrapped up in her emotions as you’ve seen in a couple of episodes so far. My main issue is Jet. He’s not written with a whole lot of dimension to him. The whole thing with the dagger seemed kind of flimsy to me, like he was made out to be so obviously a bad guy that the “reveal” later seemed predictable. Also, just writing him as turning out to be a terrorist who doesn’t care about the innocents caught in the middle seemed like a bit of a cliche. I know they only have 20 something minutes, but I felt like they could have added a little more to make him more fleshed out.
Arnold Kim
2021-02-25 03:44:36 +0000 UTC
