I don't know what possessed me to choose “The Tales of Ba Sing Se,” the 15th episode of season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, as my One Perfect Episode. I was not emotionally prepared for this rewatch. It takes a strength few still can boast this deep into a global catastrophe.
In some ways ATLA is the perfect show for where the world is today: lives uprooted by massive trauma; struggles to find ways of healing on the fly; acknowledgement of what’s been lost; fear of what might yet come; the mundane problems that can’t be ignored just because the world seems to be ending. For most of the series the main characters—Aang, the Avatar; Katara and Sokka of the Water Tribe; blind earthbending master Toph; Fire Nation traitor Zuko and his Uncle Iroh; their winged lemur Momo and sky bison Appa—travel from village to village as refugees, encountering others who have been impacted by the war that the Fire Nation began 100 years ago. There are pockets of civilization the war hasn’t touched at all—the meme “There is no war in Ba Sing Se” came from a line in the episode just before this one—but there are also entire nations that have been wiped off the map. The Avatar and his companions bounce from extreme to extreme and everything in between.
That’s what makes the show great, its ability to address serious trauma in a digestible manner, and “The Tales of Ba Sing Se” is so perfect because of how well it encapsulates this. The episode consists of six short vignettes, each following a different character or group as they hide out in Ba Sing Se, the largest city and capital of the Earth Kingdom, the last great power standing up to the Fire Nation.
The first vignette follows Toph and Katara as they enjoy a rare girls' day out. They pamper themselves, taking a much-deserved break from the pain of recent events. There isn’t a lot that these two have in common, and they often butt heads throughout the series, but here we see them supporting each other and enjoying a day together. It’s a warm and cozy opening to the episode.
The second vignette, and certainly the most emotional, follows Uncle Iroh as he prepares for a picnic. After purchasing a basket, he sings a song for a crying child on the street, counsels a group of kids who’ve broken a window, and gives advice to a mugger who tries to rob him. He spends most of the day helping others and doesn't make it to his picnic until the sun begins to set. It’s only then that we learn what the “special occasion” is that warrants the picnic: the anniversary of his son’s death. "Happy birthday, my son,” he says as he lays out a small shrine. “If only I could have helped you." He once again sings the sweet tune that stopped the young child crying earlier in the day:
Leaves from the vine falling so slow
Like fragile tiny shells drifting in the foam
LIttle soldier boy come marching home
Brave soldier boy comes marching home
Except this time Iroh himself is crying. As the sun sets fully and the vignette ends, the phrase “In honor of Mako” appears. (Mako, the actor who provided the voice of Uncle Iroh for seasons one and two, died midway through the airing of season two.)
The third vignette, "The Tale of Aang," depicts the Avatar searching for his lost sky bison Appa. He visits a sad, underfunded zoo and offers to lead the animals outside the city walls where there is more space for them to run around. Of course they all escape, and he spends most of the mini-episode trying to wrangle them all again. Eventually he manages to earthbend an outdoor safari park for the animals, and the new zoo is an instant success. The vignette typifies Aang’s propensity to get distracted, always running off to help others, sometimes even in the middle of a mission.
"The Tale of Sokka" is my favorite. Sokka, the show’s main source of comic relief, stumbles upon a poetry reading while out for an evening stroll. After accidentally reciting a poem, he finds himself engaged in a haiku battle. He wins the battle but gets kicked out of the venue for ending his victory haiku with a six-syllable line. Of the six vignettes, these middle two are the lightest and work really well to balance out the episode’s emotional weight.
In "The Tale of Zuko," Jin, a customer at Uncle Iroh’s tea shop, has a crush on Zuko! She asks him out! It’s very cute! He's clearly on edge, though, nervous about being outed as Fire Nation—and also a bit awkward around a pretty girl, of course. Jin is charming and undeterred and takes Zuko to her favorite spot in the city, a firelight fountain. Unfortunately the lanterns aren't lit, so Zuko secretly lights them for her with his firebending skills. It's very romantic, and they almost kiss, but Zuko chickens out and offers her a tea coupon instead. Jin takes the reins and kisses him, a rare moment of tenderness in Zuko’s life. Clearly flustered, he rushes off, and he seems angry when he returns home, but in the end he tells his uncle that he had a nice night.
In the final vignette, "The Tale of Momo," Aang’s winged lemur Momo dreams about Appa, Aang’s missing sky bison, and goes looking for him. Momo sees Appa in the clouds and in fluffy trees. He's chased through the streets by wild pygmy pumas and conscripted into a dancing monkey show but then is caught by a poacher and sold to a butcher. Momo manages to escape, and even though they tried to eat him, he frees the pygmy pumas, too, who then lead him to the place where Appa was kidnapped. Momo, sad at having not found his friend, falls asleep in the rain in the midst of Appa's huge footprint.
It occurs to me now that the above might seem more than a little confusing and/or insane to someone who has never seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, while anyone who has seen the show probably already knows it’s a perfect episode. Whether you have or you haven’t, though, there are some objectively impressive details about this episode worth noting. Most incredible to me is the fact that all six vignettes—full stories with new characters, unique plot lines, and emotional depth—take place in the same 24-minute episode. What also blows me away every time I watch it is that it works equally well as a standalone episode, a “filler” between episodes with more plot motion, and as a bridge between story arcs. Toph and Katara have struggled to connect with each other in the past, but it’s crucial that they find ways to get beyond their differences. Uncle Iroh, formerly a major player in the Fire Nation’s military and royal family, left it all behind after the death of his son, something he rarely discusses. Aang is the Avatar, so everything he does is important for the show, but Sokka is often overlooked, being one of the few main characters without any elemental powers. He still has a rich character, though, and a strong personality. Zuko’s redemptive arc is one of the few in television that is truly earned, but it’s heartbreakingly clear that his friends—and the viewer—forgive him long before he forgives himself. The final vignette is arguably the most impressive: the show’s creators don’t need dialogue to tell a compelling story of grief and friendship. They don’t even need human characters!
Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most complete television shows ever created, and if not the best animated show ever, certainly in the absolute highest tier. “The Tales of Ba Sing Se” takes everything that is magical and amazing about the show and distills each element into its own little story. It’s beautiful. I have Uncle Iroh’s song stuck in my head now. I hate it. I’m going to be crying all week.
Brian McGackin is the author of BROETRY (Quirk Books, 2011) and IN CASE OF DEATH (Not a Cult, 2018). He has a BA from Emerson College in Something Completely Unrelated To His Life Right Now and a Masters in Poetry from USC. He lives in Los Angeles, where he enjoys Guinness, soccer, sonnets, and comic books.