• 110 "Jet"

A band of guerrilla fighters, led by the rogue Jet, rescue Aang, Katara, and Sokka from a small group of Fire Nation soldiers. Jet invites the team back to the Freedom Fighters' hideout, where the group plots out its attacks. Sokka has suspicions about Jet, however, which leads the young rebel to tempt Sokka with missions. His plan fails, making Sokka more skeptical of Jet's motives. Aang and Katara decide to help Jet "save" a nearby Earth Kingdom town, but Jet's real intent is to drown the village, willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent civilians to destroy the Fire Nation garrison there. However, Sokka manages to evacuate the city, Earth and Fire alike, in time to avoid Jet's plot.

• 111 "The Great Divide"

The next destination the gang stumbles into is the Great Divide, the world's largest canyon. The group starts bickering, so Aang decides to put his Avatar skills to the test. He successfully solves their minor disputes, but Aang tries to put his skills to practical use, when two Earth Kingdom tribes, who have been in a feud for 100 years, need to cross the canyon together. Aang sends Appa across with most needy people of the two tribes, and, with the help of a knowledgeable earthbender, guides the rest across the vast, dry landscape. In the end, Aang is able to end the feud, and the two tribes travel together to the capital city of Ba Sing Se.

• 112 "The Storm"

The group is in need of money, so Sokka decides to help out a fisherman who is willing to pay him to help him on his next fishing trip, even though a storm seems imminent. The fisherman recognizes Aang as the Avatar "who turned his back on the world". Aang runs away in guilt, but Katara manages to track him down. Aang reveals to Katara that the monks at the Southern Air Temple wanted to send him away to the Eastern Air Temple to separate him from Monk Gyatso, the only person who cared about Aang as a person instead of as the Avatar. This led Aang to run away from home and (eventually) seal himself in the iceberg. Meanwhile on Zuko's ship, Zuko's own crew begin to question his leadership, until Iroh enlightens them on how the prince was scarred in a duel, and was then banished from the Fire Nation, by his own father.

10 is my favourite so far. It's probably the first episode as far as I remember which starts to blur those solid FIRE NATION IS EVIL and EVERYONE ELSE IS GOOD lines the series established before. It also proves Sokka to be invaluable to the team despite his lack of bending. His moral compass is probably the straightest out of everyone in the gaang, and he's pretty good at making the most of a situation. It's that different skillset Danni mentioned a while back.

11 is kinda ehhhhh, it feels a bit fillery, but yeah the Aang lying thing is great. The main woman in one of the tribes reminds me of Moira. NO SUPRISE.

12 is better overall but man it is ever flashback city. Piles the development on though.

I think one reason I was never a huge fan of Avatar was how frequent the 'filler-y' episodes were. But at the same time, without those episodes, the world-building wouldn't be so clearly hammered into our heads (e.g. what other people think of Aang being gone for so long, as was shown in ep. 12). Same with showcasing personality - e.g. Sokka's morality in ep. 11 like Buns mentioned - and with character developments. So some of the later 'shocking' stuff and the 'better' episodes later (those terms are subjective/imo, of course) wouldn't be as good as they are if not for taking time with development... through fillers. Though I guess they could be less... filler-y? idk haha.

I don't watch much TV series at all, except maybe four or five shows? So I'm never sure what to make of fillers sometimes, except they're ~really~ annoying and pointless in some video games lolol. *glares at Disgaea D2*

Hey Tae, I remember back during the fights in Vandrell that Selan had a thought about how people would call her succubus and stuff when they got confused about her magic, so I hope you don't mind me having Iliana do just that!