yukinoomoni | A Reason for Season Three (Part Two)

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A Reason for Season Three (Part Two)

Continuing on with the Filler Meta.

Filler Episode #2: 303: The Painted Lady

Probably considered one of the worst - if not the worst - episodes of all time next to "The Great Divide" (FUCK YOU, I LOVED The Great Divide), The Painted Lady has a huge rap for being the most annoying and stupidest waste of time and the biggest offender for filler fodder.

To which I say, "No, you're fucking wrong. Sit down and I'll tell you why."

So we begin to find our heroes floating along upon Appa in a disgusting river of death. Aang furthers this by swimming around in it and dripping it onto the saddle like a dickwad (although it is pretty funny). The very obvious is pointed out: This lake is polluted. Another point is spoken: We're fucking hungry.

So the kids decide to pretend to be colonials and stop at the nearest town for some grub. This results in the introduction to the most annoying character ever.

Aaaaaargh this guy is so fucking annoying even I have trouble standing him. He is singlehandedly the most useless character in the whole episode, and I won't disagree with the people who scream that he is pointless and a waste of ink and voice-acting.

That being said, one annoying waste of space does not make an entire episode pointless, guys. Sorry, buy it really doesn't. (Although he does give them a great cover, since he's the one that assumes that they're colonials.)

So along the way the Gaang discover that there's a huge honking factory in the middle of the place, which is the reason for the pollution.

This gives us a hint about how the Fire Nation builds things and, more importantly, just how ruthless they are to build their machines and the like in order to stay the top power in the world. The Fire Nation is clearly in its own industrial revolution, and it doesn't care how much this effects others around them.

And it does:

A lot.

Katara gets hit pretty hard by this. It hurts her to see so many people left bereft and suffering, but she also knows that they're on a schedule and she also sort of knows that, well, they're the enemy; who cares about this village, since it's in the middle of the place they've come to, in a way, destroy? It's these feelings that lead Katara to what she does.

This specially becomes clear when Sokka states his apathy for the town's welfare, being a bit of a dick but also being a self-preserver.

So in the end, they set out to get what they came for: foods. From this POS:

UGH FUCKING ANNOYANCE.

Once they get their questionable food, they camp out for the night off-shore. Much bickering ensues: Katara fights on behalf of saving the town, whereas Sokka fights for them keeping to his schedule. Toph and Aang remain ambivalent, so it's Sokka that wins since he screams the loudest.

Cut to morning. We assume that the night has been pretty damned quiet, only to be exchanged with this:

Yes, it looks as if Appa has been hitting the bad berries, and he's had an overdose of fail. Because of this, the Gaang decide to stay another day and determine whether or not Appa will either shake it off or if the town has some medicine. Back to the town they go...

Upon arrival, it's clear that something fishy (lol) is going on, since everyone seems happy and not bent on melting in a puddle of sob. (Note Katara's suspicious grin of happy.) So, of course, they head over to the idiot to see what's up.

Ugh, Katara and Sokka, I agree.

It's from this idiot, however, that Katara learns that the town has a personal deity, known as the Painted Lady. The townspeople seem pretty confident that she'll save them, despite being pretty lazy previously.

Sokka brings up the good point that the town probably shouldn't be depending on the Painted Lady to get them out of their problems, and that they should do it themselves, but Katara rebukes him, stating that there's nothing wrong with a little belief. I'm on Sokka's side, but Katara's heart is in the right place.

They find out from Dumbass that the town doesn't have any medicine, which is why everyone is so sick. The factory hoards it for themselves and as a result no one is getting better.

Sokka doesn't care. He decides to enjoy the wonders of genetic mutation.

Later that night, we're privy to a montage of healing:

Turns out that Katara's been having a few late-night liaisons.

So, as you can imagine, the kids return to the town and find that the place is even more festive due to Katara's incognito healing.

Katara becomes her own fangirl, but the obvious is eventually pointed out: with the factory still polluting the place, the people are going to end up sick again eventually. The solution is only temporary, and - even though they don't know it - once Katara is gone, it'll end.

This is an interesting point, because it brings up something rather mature for a kids' show: How much faith can you place in faith? How much can you depend on the deity you believe in? And in the end, should you always be so dependent?

Katara, being the good person she is, tries to convince her friends that they had to stop the factory. But after much mocking and silliness, she is turned down.

The Gaang stays one more night. Katara decides that, on her own, she will be the one to destroy the factory.

Buuuuuuuuuut it doesn't end up that way.

Katara's party gets crashed by Aang, who chases her around the town trying to catch up with her. All he wants is to have a chat with a spirit, but Katara wants him to get the hell away so she can do this and not get into shit with her friends. Eventually, she's busted, because frankly, Katara can't act for shit:

Aang, being Aang, wants a reason why she's sneaking around like a felon, and Katara gives it to him: Fuck you guys, I want to save these people. But Aang, being Aang, finds it awesome that she's being a vigilante, and offers to help blow up the factory with her.

Yeah. Like that.

However, on their way back, it's clear that they've been busted. Sokka not only found Katara's feebly-stuffed sleepingbag, he also discovered the means for Appa's "sickness":

Classy.

A fight results, and in the midst of Sokka being a jerk and Katara telling him he's a jerk, the Fire Nation workers from the factory head on out to penalise the town for what they think is theft and destruction at their hands. Katara is properly dismayed, and while Sokka t first protests, Katara brow-beats him into submitting. Why?

Because Katara wants to help others, but Sokka wants to help Katara. This is a very wonderful character point: it shows the sibling love that the two have, and how that love keeps them together, even through really weird endeavours.

What follows is an insane pantomime of Katara as the Painted Lady going in and seeking revenge for the soldiers disturbing the town and accusing them (falsely) of theft. I still can't get over how prickest these assholes are, because these are the morons that won't even help this town, yet without the town there probably wouldn't be a factory or workers to power it.

In any case, the Gaang scare off the morons, Katara is outed as the Painted Lady, and she spouts the Moral of the Story and comes clean. But she also reminds the townspeople of the bare-boned fact: You can't depend on someone else to save you. You have to do it for yourself.

Their first point of order? Clean up the lake:

Afterward, there's this really great scene between Katara and, it's revealed, the real Painted Lady, who probably couldn't help because of how filthy her lake was.

The point is, this fucking episode isn't fucking filler. Why? Because even though Doc exists, it still has a huge point to it: The Fire Nation are pricks to their own people. It's not just other nations they're bastards to. Their quest for power and need to stay head puts their own people at risk, and this is huge. It allows the viewer to have a kind of sympathy for those in the Fire Nation who has Ozai's foot up their asses just like the rest of the world. It's not the greatest or most epic episode, but it does have a point. So shut the fuck up about it.

Next Up: Filler Episode #3: The Beach.

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*applauds*

I can't believe people call "filler" on two episodes that give us so much insight to what a fucking mess the Fire Nation is. That this is why the world needs the Avatar, why the Gaang is planning their invasion, why Zuko is having second thoughts about being Ozai's perfect son.

I think the only thing certain people (aka Zootards) get from this episode is ZOMG KATARA AND ZUKO BOTH HAVE SECRET IDENTITIES PAINTED LADY/BLUE SPIRIT SOOOO HAWT.

(I do agree about Doc being annoying, though.)

When I first saw this episode, I was floored by it. I couldn't believe how bad the Fire Nation was, and how purposely oblivious the rest of the nation was at the turmoil. It was just...argh!

Aw, man, are you serious? I shudder to think of the myriad of fics out there that have the two of them traipsing around the Fire Nation incognito and then having hot sex in costume. And I know they exist, Sara. Don't try to protect me.

Doc is really annoying, bu he doesn't make an episode useless. Even I know that =D

Seriously. I thought he was awesome how Katara finally DID something about it.

Yes, they are. And yes, Spirit/Lady fics DO exist. Kink meme requests, smutty art, 1sentence...really, the only thing those two identities had in common was working together with Aang. XD

Awww I liked Doc! <3 I also love this episode.

Again, a good insight into the Fire Nation. Plus, I like the point you made about faith.

I didn't like this episode as much as others myself, but I didn't consider it filler at all. The reason I didn't like it was because of how stupid the villagers on the lake were. I loved secret devious katara. :D

Dig this entry/series :3

Honestly, I dont know how people expect them to , like, you know..get worldbuilding in. What, is Azula supposed to make some offhand comment about feeding live kittens into a factory in order to get the state of the lower class fire nation types around?

I suspect that's how M Night will handle it...

But apparently, yes.

It's not my favourite episode, but it still has merit. And lol, your icon.

I just made a whole load of icons XD finally broke down and got more userpics.

http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=dustwing feel free to steal any of 'em you like, though there's not much zuko/mai in there since I'm going for a theme.

It waaas gonna be all FN clothes..but..well...the first casualty of battle=plan XP

Oh god that one, lmao. I keep imagining them both screaming "NO U" over and over again.

VERY nice icons, btw. What's your theme?

It was just gonna be FN!Aang..then it was just Aang, but then Katara crept in. And then Toph crept in. And Sokka was like "WTF, Where's the love? It's not like I have some of the best facial expressions in the series or anything.."

XP

So I guess it's just the Gaang at this point, plus one for Pissed!Mai. Whatever, if I could get more icon slots, I'd totally stray farther XP XP

I, too, am having problems cutting down when it comes to icons.

sarajayechan just gave me two months, so it's even worse now.

Hahah XD yuuup. I just noticed the Ouran ones, teehee :3 I didnt think I'd like that series, but, it was worth watching.

I remember my sole reason for watching this show was because the lead female protagonist had boyshort hair. I'm not joking. Haruhi's hair is what got me started.

And then I read the manga first and loved it. And then I watched the show and loved it more. I'm still reading the manga.

Yeah a friend reccomended the show to me due to comedic value, and I dug Haruhi's tomboy thing so I stuck with it :) I went back and read themanga afterwards up to as far as they had gotten this ..uh...january..but I felt like the plot at that point was just kinda stretching out how long they could go before there was a solid confession/shiptease-a-palooza. I hear things have gotten interesting lately though :)

We-ell, it's not too much different, although Tamaki is becoming less stupid. Although there is this scary Haruhi-doppelganger wandering around that is pretty much Tamaki's dream-Haruhi. It scares the shit out of me =O

....yeah we've stepped into soap territory there XP

Truly. The last two episodes of the series were like that. I always skip them >.>;

When did you start doing this stuff?

Today!

I appreciate the comment about the Painted Lady being paralyzed by the pollution, because the thing that always bugged me about this episode was wondering whether she would actually get off her duff and help the villagers like she was supposed to after the Gaang left.

This essay is also related to something that I see in fanfic a lot which I think is inaccurate--the idea that absolutely everyone in the FN will hate Zuko for ending the war and depriving them of their chance for glory. Maybe most of the aristocracy would feel that way, but I think that attitude would be a lot less common among "the peasants." I think the new Fire Lord has a chance to build some real support among common people, especially since they are doing most of the work in the war effort and are getting very little out of it. (And the support of the masses does count for something, even in a very hierarchical society like the FN.)

Exactly. The average people of the Fire Nation far outnumber those who are getting fat off of the war, and if the people who are merely misguided are shown another way, things are bound to be better.

It's why, to me, political intrigue fic gets old after a while.

Thank you! This was a great post. I'm so sick of TV Tropes and nearly everyone accusing the first half of season 3 containing mostly fillers, when that's hardly the case. Doc was really annoying, but most of the episode was pretty good in terms of world building. Your icon is awesome, btw! Oh, Sokka!

Edited 2010-07-11 07:14 (UTC)

Good post! I've never had a problem with this episode (other than Mr. Annoying, of course).

OK, to be fair, I was ok with Doc for a little while, and then I wanted to punch him.

And wtf is wrong with you? The Great Divide? Really?

*dies from your icon*

YES THE GREAT DIVIDE. I LOVED IT. IT'S FUCKING FUNNY SHIT.

I ALWAYS GET STUCK WATCHING IT BECAUSE IT'S PART OF OUR MARATHON. -_-

Er hi random person dropping in. How did I find your meta? Uh, not sure. Much avatar-related clicking. But I feel moved to comment nonetheless! Because I have STRONG FEELINGS wrt 'The Painted Lady'.

First of all, love this defense of season three. I think people forget how much of a sinister blank the Fire Nation was through the first two seasons - much as it's important that we finally see Ozai's face, we needed to see the day to day life of the Fire Nation. And if 'The Headband' shows us indoctrinated middle-class kids, seeing the oppressed peasantry being all downtrodden was equally important. Yay worldbuilding. Plus, giving each of the gaang (and the Fire kids) an episode of their own after 'The Awakening' really nailed the group dynamic - the better to totally shake it up with the post DOBS Zuko-field-trips.

Having said that ... man is this episode possibly my least favourite. Even more so than 'The Great Divide', which at least gave us Katara totally crushing on naughty-bad-liar-Aang.

It's bad, I would argue, in some of the same ways as 'The Great Divide' - both of them revolve around some really tired kid's cartoon tropes, healing-tribal-conflict and healing-environmental-woes respectively. Because Avatar is awesome, it subverts our expectations at the end of 'The Great Divide' with Aang's 'or you could call it lying ...' gotcha (not that this really makes up for the rest of it being subpar). The same thing kinda happens in 'The Painted Lady' with Sokka being proved more or less right about how do-gooding invites reprisals, not to mention Aang and Katara totally spending their first date blowing shit up.

But ... in the end, 'The Painted Lady' succumbs to the tedium of plucky-kids-curing-pollution. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that it's the 'Katara episode', and Katara is probably the most conventionally kid's-cartoon-worthy character out of the gaang: she's the archetypal brave, headstrong, compassionate modern heroine. Because this is Avatar, she's awesome, but jam her into a familiar pollution-bad plot and ... nothing very exciting happens.

I guess the writers felt they needed to underline this version of Katara so that no-one was too freaked out by the crazy bloodbending-mother-issues-revenge-arc (ie, when Katara gets interesting) later in the season, and the worldbuilding was great, but was it worth a whole episode?

The only other interesting thing about 'The Painted Lady' that you haven't already covered, for my money, was the Painted Lady herself, and how her role - or lack of one - seems to reflect the way the spirit world becomes less and less prominent throughout the series. The first season is full of Miyazaki-esque spirit world shenanigans, but in the final season the Painted Lady is the only full-on spirit to appear, and as you point out she's a victim of steampunk pollution. Sure, there's the Lion Turtle in the finale, but he's importantly *not* a spirit - in fact, he's more of a little world himself. Which is appropriate for Aang coming into his own as Avatar Aang, but which also makes 'The Painted Lady' kinda bittersweet - because although the Lady herself is pretty clearly free to operate once the lake is cleaned, season three as a whole seems to be suggesting that as history marches onward into the steampunky future, the spirit world recedes. Which is such an interesting idea it is wasted on an episode which *also contains Doc*.

Ok, so I'm bitter about the lack of Maiko buildup and COURTLY INTRIGUE that I was looking forward to in season three, but I get that Avatar is TV Y-7. I guess I'm mostly pissed that all the actual 7 year-old girls who identify with Katara didn't get a fantastically amazing episode devoted to her, a la 'Sokka's Master'. Just one which was eh, decent.

Also, fucking Doc. Argh.

It's hard to love this episode - I will be honest. But it still has its points.

Your entire comment is interesting, but I have to focus on the specific part that alludes to Korra and the world she will be living in - namely, the possible lack of Spirits. I wonder about that. I wonder if the industrialisation of the world automatically means that the spirits of the world would automatically be vanished, or somehow - in some way - they would learn to coexist. I hope it's the later, because the idea of the Avatar world being without its spiritual side is sad to me.

I wouldn't have minded (in fact, I would have preferred) that the episode with Katara and Hama hadn't been so miserable for Katara, and that her moment to shine was in a backwater river town with Doc. But I also wonder if that was intentionally - indeed, maybe it was a sort of way to show both sides of Katara, that ever-good and champion side, in addition to the dark and out-of-control side (which we later see in Southern Raiders). Hmm...

Oh, I totally agree rtw to the spirit world: I really hope Korra isn't set in a world where the spirits are completely cut off. Though actually, given that I think it's meant to involve some kind of conflict between benders and non-benders, I do wonder if there will some conflict between the more mystical side of the Avatar world and developing technology.

And yes, I think 'The Painted Lady' was very much designed to showcase Katara at her best, before we got her being forced into learning bloodbending with Hama. I just don't think they did a great job of it.

Ahem, same anonymous as above. Sorry! Forgot to mention my other peeve about this episode: wow do Sokka and Katara look really white in some of the shots. I remember noticing it when I first saw season three (see also Sokka in 'The Boiling Rock'). It's a fairly subjective thing, I guess, but a pity given that season three was otherwise the season where everyone was hot and everything was amazingly gorgeous.

In short (heh) they should totally have cut all the Doc scenes and used the time for, um, flashbacks to that between-season Maiko comic. Or something.

Ok, that was cathartic. Thanks again!

Not gonna lie, they really do look a lot lighter than usual. I'd like to think that it's the lighting, but I'm more realistic and will state that it was probably the colourists of the episodes.

I'm suspecting a Maiko fan in you, anon. I, too, would have liked more Maiko development, despite how - for some reason - I still feel it isn't as needed as most people say (I came into the fandom late, so thus I was never privy to the between-season comics that everyone else was. However, when I saw the first episode of the third season in which Mai and Zuko kiss, I wasn't surprised. I can't explain it, but I wasn't surprised at all - happy, but not surprised.), but more would have been nice (heart-shaped rock storyline PLEASE).

Yeah, I reckon the colourists messed up - it's definitely enough to be distracting. And hell yeah, go Maiko! I too arrived late to the fandom (late as in earlier this year...), but I'd been expecting Maiko since the *significant glance* when Mai hears Zuko's name in her first episode. I liked the idea of it (and was *completely boggled* to find the internet so full of Zutara), but I was still a bit dumbfounded it happened so quickly. The comic is also super sweet (and online: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2090336.html), so I wish they could've worked it in somehow, much as I appreciate the desire to drop us into the third season at the moment Aang wakes up and get the show on the road without any lingering in Ba Sing Se.

Despite this mistake, I'm actually impressed by the lack of colouring and model continuity errors that the show has.

I never understood - and never will understand - the skint love for Maiko. I know that Zutara is "hot" and all, but Maiko is, too, and it's wonderful and silly and hilarious. I'll never understand the hate.

I would have liked more Maiko screentime, but at the same time, I still find myself accepting it. I would have liked more especially close to the finale - that is where I find the development sorely lacking - but also understand how impossible it was to add it.

Oh, for sure the animation and character designs are amazing in general, and season three in particular was a step up consistency-wise.

And, yes, the Maiko-hate is baffling. I mean, when I was watching the first season I could guess some people would be into Zuko and Katara (that scene in the Waterbending Scroll where he is incredibly skeevy...), but as soon as Mai appeared I was like, hey, a truly excellent girl for Zuko. And then she got a whole season to be deadpan and awesome on her own merits! Aaand then, when I dipped into internet fandom... Yeah. So glad I missed all that!

And Maiko is dorkily hilarious and touching once it gets going - I've just gone through all your posts on 'The Beach', which is one of my absolute favourites, so your greatest hits collection was a total joy. Yeah, the dialogue was a bit stiff, but even that comes with the 80s-teen-drama territory, right? Plus, *so* much love for the fact that it's Zuko who shows the most skin out of the couple. And Mai is even taller than him in some shots! Heh.

Oddly enough, I was pretty satisfied with Maiko reaching its culmination with Mai's epic display of badass in 'The Boiling Rock'. I would have liked more, for sure - and more Mai in general - but I actually found the resolution of their relationship much more smoothly handled than the final couple of beats of Kataang, where the only prelude to Katara *finally* moving in for the big kiss is her glance of realisation during the coronation.

Anyway, this has drifted pretty far from 'The Painted Lady'. Which I feel much calmer about now, so thanks! How can one truly hate an episode in which Sokka is really *enthused* by the idea of eating a two-headed fish?

I loved The Beach, corny 80's stuff included. I just think it's so great that they're acting like teenagers for once. It's so rare.

Agreeing with you here on pretty much everything. And now I'm wondering why you're anon =3

Lol oh god that fish glshsklh lmao (see icon).

Yeeah I should probably suck it up and commit to an internet identity already. If I do I'll come back here! Yay for sanity in Avatar fandom!

Oh, Sokka...

But once you do that, you'll never be free =P

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A Reason for Season Three (Part Two)

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