Hello, friends, venders and non vendors alike. Welcome to Braving the Elements, Nickelodeon's podcast about all things Avatar Verse. I'm Janet Varney, and as I like to call him, the Fire Nation's Dante Bosco is still out on a project, and of course we miss him. We love him, we wish we were here. By the way, everybody, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the big news that just almost broke the Internet. Okay, here's what Avatar fans. Hold onto your hair loops, because we're getting not one, not too but three movies from Avatar Studios. That's right, We're getting three more installments of Avatar Verse Magic. Huge congrats to director Lauren Montgomery, who's tapped to lead on the first of the three movies as director. Okay, I am so thrilled to be joined again by my friend otherwise known as the prefect Or, which we coined last season of Braving the Elements when we realized that we could go to Hector Navarro for just about anything Avatar Verse related and he would have the same level of enthusiasm and probably more knowledge than we ourselves would, and so it was such a no brainer to have him back as early as possible for season two. Perfect or how are you my friend? No pressure, no pressure. I'm so happy to be here. I missed Dante. It's one of my favorite things to get to come and hang out with you guys, and I love talking about all things Avatar, and this episode especially is one of my favorites. So I'm so happy to be here. I'm so glad that worked out. I had a good feeling. So you have also been doing, of course, the SpongeBob bench Pants podcast. I had the tremendous on or of doing a couple of episodes with you on that podcast. You're doing such an amazing job, no surprise, there so much fun. How's it been going. How's Frankie tell me everything? It has been going so great. You know what, SpongeBob is a pretty good show. I don't know if we talked about that before. Darn good. It's pretty good. Turns out if you watch it and then talk about it. We've been having some fantastic conversations and interviews with people. We just talked to a now paramount executive, but a at the time Nickelodeon executive who was in the room actually hearing the famous legendary pitch for SpongeBob SquarePants by Stephen Hillenberg. Eric Coleman. We just talked to him and it was like Erik on our show. Yeah, exactly, it all happened. The timing of Avatar and SpongeBob was like he was there. That man shepherded a couple of real big deal project Nickelodeon. He's such a creative, you know, he's such an executive who you wouldn't think. You're like, oh, you should be like running the world. What's happening. It's amazing. Yeah, Oh, I'm so glad you talked to him. It was wonderful, just really like inspirational. And Eric was bringing up the best takeaways from the pitch because that legendary pitch Stephen Stephen Hillenburgh was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and there was like a theme song and there was a conch shell that you could like hold up to your ear and hear the theme and like all these amazing yeah flourishes and all this great stuff. And Eric kept saying, listen, I want to take away to be that shouldn't be what every pitch should be the reason the pitch was so great. Was because the characters are so great, because that foundation was so great, you know, so, but just like awesome and so cool to talk to people who were there, Janet, just like every time I get to hang out with you, because I'm like, oh yeah, it's Cora, Hi, Cora Hi. We met many years ago under that same circumstance, and I love it. I am so excited that that podcast is happening, doing well, and that there's so much to dig into. Thank you, they'll listen. I don't wish for Frankie to be gone, but you know, coming for you. If I even even whisper that he's not available, I would be like, excuse me, hello, I'm calling on an old fashioned phone. I'm calling on a conch shell. Uh. Well, I want to just bring us up to kind of where we are here. Early in season two of Braving the Elements, we didn't do an episode last week. Last week we talked to Olivia hack A k A ty Lee, which was a wonderful conversation and I'm such a fan of hers, for this particular show and so many other things that she's done. It was a blast, but it did take us a little bit off track of where we are in book two. So our last Avatar episode was returned to Omashu, where we had the disturbing discovery that the Fire Nation had essentially taken over and was holding Boomy prisoner. And not only that, but when the episode ends, un characteristically of Avatar, Boomy is still a prisoner. Right yeah, he's just like, sorry, I'm not your guy right now. Believe it or not. There's probably someone else out there who should be teaching you Earthbending, and you know, we know Boomy, we love Boomy. Were like, well, wait a minute, this is such a weird bait and switch. Where is he going? Who is who could possibly be a better Earthbender and better Earthbending teacher and master than Boomy? I don't know of anyone. So frankly, I'm very worried about where this season is going. You know, it's pretty good. You're in for a treat. You're in for a treat, Janet. So let's talk about the episode we're recapping today, the Swamp. In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, Folks we think are gone, but the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death. I mean some goofy stuff in this episode, some heavy stuff in this episode. You're so right to love this episode. It's a real gem. Do you want to kind of give us the of big picture look at what this episode brings to us as fans? Yes, I would love to, And then I'll very quickly say what it brought to me personally. But first, here is the synopsis in case anybody needs a little refresher. Here's what happens. A tornado brings Team Avatar down into a strange swamp, where the gang is immediately split up. Ang, Qatara, and Socca all experience mysterious visions, while Apa and Momo must run for their lives from some hungry hunters. When Ang and Qatara and Socca are finally reunited, they're attacked by a swamp monster or is it a monster? Is there more to this swamp than meets the eye? Meanwhile, here's the b plot. Zuko and Iro try to stay under the radar in an Earth Kingdom village, but Zuko's patients is wearing thin wonderful synopsis. I just want to say real quick at I think I remember the first time I watched this episode because I had a couple of takeaways, but my main takeaway was that I loved the way that water bending was explored in this It felt like such a fresh I mean, we know all the manners of bending now when you've seen the shows, when you've explored the different worlds in the Avatar Verse, but like to get that early season one, season two, little by little exploration, you know, oh what about this or what about this kind of bending? Okay, what about a riff on this kind of bending? It was so cool and it made me kind of solidify. I'm like, I think I love water bending the most, and this episode is one of the kind of little pieces of proof one of the reasons I love it. The second thing I want to say too is rewatching this episode in preparation for today. The message is beautiful, Like I removed Janet and I and I'm sitting here as an adult in my thirties, and I'm like, huh, I really needed to hear this today. I feel like I've been having a good couple of weeks, you know, but just life is happening and I'm hearing this message and I'm going thanks. Thanks everybody who worked on this I needed to hear this today. Awesome. There's been so much of that, especially with just what the last couple of years have brought there. All of these episodes, there seems like there's at least one moment where you really do have this. It settles deeper somewhere inside you, and you go, boy, I I really needed to hear that, and I did not know that I needed to hear it. Yeah. Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I am very happy to say that this episode was written by Tim Headrick. Of course we had him on last season. He's such a great sense of humor. One of my favorite funny moments in probably the entirety of this series happens twice in this particular episode. I love it so much and it feels so so so Tim to me. This episode was also was directed by the phenomenal John Carlo Volpe and has a couple of really really fun guest stars. William H. Bassett is our swamp monster. We have carl us I was Rocky, who you know from every other cartoon ever, And we have Joe Alaski and all of our regulars and some other voices that you will hear more from in future episodes and ones that we know and love and miss from past episodes. I also will say a tree with a lot of roots connecting a lot of things. Avatar, huh, this was really a lot sooner than other things with the named avatar who had trees can anyway, it's it's just crazy. Let me just say, I see you. That's all I'll say. I see you to my friend. Thank you. Okay, Yeah, I love this episode two. I love everything you said about it. And I love this idea of the sort of accidental vision quest to That's something that we're going to dig into as well. In the pacing of this show phenomenal because it starts and I'm like, Okay, this is gonna be this kind of adventure, you know, the gang gets lost, and then it's just comedy, and then it's horror, and then it's it's, like you said, an accidental vision quest and then it ends and then I feel better about my existence on this planet. What a cartoons every genre. Okay, let's get into it. Why don't you take us in what's happening in the early part of the episode, my friend you got it? So it opens up Zuko and Iro are trying to stay low, maybe too low, and Zuko's eyes in an earth Kingdom village, Iro is comfortably begging for spare change in the great tradition of humble living and Buddhist principles. Might we add as Zuko just does not like any single part of this. Iro shows what you can get done with kindness and not just ordering people around, which I think is a great lesson for Zuko obviously, and I like the part where Iro complements a girl on her smile. Then a brash man offers a coin for some entertainment. Into Zuko's horror. Uncle Iro sings this little song. So the song that I sings, It's a long long way to Bosting, say right. It was inspired by the World War One marching song It's a long way to Tipperary and uh, because they wanted to have Iro with, you know, sort of make a good marching song for his troops. And here it is, it's a long long way to Boshing, say. But the girls in the city they look so pretty. And yes, the guy's a jerk. But Iro is unperturbed. He's unbothered. It does not get under his skin at all. But Zoko, on the other hand, we'll see how it gets under his skin. I also want to point out something I don't remember this great detail, but in this scene, as we're setting this up, we get the establishing shot of them sitting on the street. A cart rolls by. Blue Spirit mask was on the cart or something, the Blue Spirit car. Yeah beautiful, yeah, yeah, yeah, a little bit of maybe foreshadowing, But I just loved that midground detail. I'm so glad you caught that. That's a real searing me the details moment, especially since I'm wearing a Blue Spirit shirt even as we speak. I also love somehow just the way Maco sings where they look so pretty. I love that it's like pretty, it's not pretty, it's pretty, very very satisfying. Meanwhile, when we start out with Zoogo and I Row, we're like, okay, cool, where Steam Avatar? What's going on there? We see Apa soaring through the sky. The gang is passing over some kind of landscape below. It seems like Angg is almost kind of hypnotically drawn to it, and in fact, without even realizing it, he's sort of taking down Apa towards the WOMP, and you know, everybody's kind of like, what are you doing? Where are we going? Why are we descending towards this? And he's like, I don't, An says, he kind of feels like he's been called to it. Socca is usual very skeptical, but Ang sort of thinks back to Boomy's advice to sort of wait and listen. Could that have been a harbinger of wait that Maybe that's what he meant. Maybe this is the moment he talking about, Maybe I just need to kind of wait and listen and see how the spars out. And they're descending deeper and deeper, but everybody else is kind of feeling like this does not feel great, so and kind of backs off of that instinct and they decided to leave it behind. But before they can, this like Olive Green tornado, huge, huge tornado appears out of nowhere and immediately just sort of sweeps directly towards them. It seems like they're targeting Team Avatar, and before you know what, they are just flung into these kind of murky depths of the swamp. Which how does that boat Probably not well, we don't know, no, But for the story, it's excellent because what instry, what that? What that is going on? It also leads to some top choice Appa and Momo moments which we're gonna get to. But the thing that happens next is Appa and Momo are nowhere to be seen. We are with Qatara, Socca, and Ang. They are standing in Waiste deep water. Socca acquires an elbow leach, which is big, by the huge. I love this universe because the great creatives behind the Avatar verse or like this animal, we combine with this animal, but sometimes they're just like big, make it big. So who has to get it? Of course? Of course, yep, that's the comedy rule. It's always that guy who gets it. So this tornado that took him down is gone, and then we go to Apa and he is suspended mid air by vines of this swamp. Momo is still with him and helpfully sort of choose the vines until they kind of snap and then Apa falls. He plummets down, makes a huge splash. But then as soon as he's freed and and he tries to take off again, he gets tangled up again, which I thought was a wonderful choice to really visually just show us how these characters are thinking and how this area is not set up for Appa he does not like the swamp, and we get it. He is like like claustrophobic, needs the air, needs the open, you know, sky, and this is just worst case scenario for him. Um. Then we cut back to Socca is also hacking away at the vines carelessly while Qatar and asked him to be a little kinder to the swamp. Maybe you should listen to a something about this place feels alive, alive, alive, alive, live. And then Janet, we have this very horror movie style moment where we actually see the gang from behind. Someone or something is watching them. We can see through their point of view through a curtain of vines or something. We don't know exactly what's going on, but it definitively reminded me of the Evil Dead movies. Super scary. Well, listen, you're so right me. You mentioned it earlier. You really this is some real genre bending that happens in this episode, and that is such a classic horror movie moment when you're like, oh, no, I'm seeing this from the point of view of something that our friends can't see. Turn around, don't it around. I don't know what I want you to do, but this is super scary. So we're gonna see how that bears not just bend water on this show, they bend genres genres. So back with Apa, I mean, he's given up, he's exhausted. He's this huge beast. He can't seem to outsmart these vines. Momo can only chew so many so fast, and Momo is like, okay, cool, I get that you're tired. I don't want to be here. So Indie Bradley Baker's inimitable way, he manages to communicate so much with just sounds. It's clear that he wants to get out of there and that this sky bison is his way out, so he's trying to blow the bison whistle. It does nothing but irritate him. And over with Guitaraska and angg I mean they are just plodding through the night and they're trying to find Appa and Momo. You know, we have a sense from seeing up above that this is a very big place and they were dropped into who knows where, so it feels kind of futile and that they could be anywhere, but you know they're going to keep trying to find them. Soccer's attitude not doing him any favors as he's attacked by flying insects. Sort of seems to get plagued by this like stinky swamp gas, which I guess they all are forced to smell, but somehow feels like Soccer's fault um. And then here we go, we teased it out. Tim Hedrick, the writer brings one of my favorite comedy moments from book Too and maybe the entire series, the screaming bird. The plump, cute, open throated, what human screaming bird kind of Simpson's esque again in a way that I absolutely love. Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here. I think we should build a fire. It's very, very funny. So we get that break in the tension, and then Soccer's continuing to just sort of he's cutting stuff down, he's swiping it stuff, he's hitting it stuff, he's clapping bugs. There's a bright bug that he swats that that sort of ends up illuminating ing, and then we see a bunch of other glowing eyes around them. The trio is officially freaked out, and then we get to see what's going on with Opa Momo again. What's happening over there? Well, if I may Janet I would love to because I'm in the presence of a comedy genius here, Janet Varney. I need to go back just a hair, and I would love to try to unpack the comedy moment that is one of your favorites. I would love to ask you if you can scientifically I'm not the perfector you're the perfector now, if you can scientifically try to explain why that is so funny, I would love to hear your take on that. Yeah, I mean I think that if I remember correctly, the context is sort of like could this get any creepier? Is everything super creepy here? And to see this very plump, very cute like this little beak, it's very snub nose like little short beak. Uh. Whatever sound you think is going to come out When we say screaming, we don't mean like it's a d. Bradley Baker level, Like this animal does exist in real life, but he has created this magical sound to go along with it. It sounds like a person screaming, and it is so over the top and it's such an unexpected sound to come out of that animal that it is beyond absurd. And and also it's the stillness. It's like, here's the bird. It opens its beak, a horrible scream comes out, and then it closes its mouth and that's it. It lives in its own little beautiful bubble. Right do you agree? Have I hit it on the head hopefully? I think you nailed it. I think that there's also reminded me of those videos of screaming goats, which I still don't believe are real. I still I'm like, I need to see it in person. I need to see it with my own eyes, because the goats that scream and then they're filmed sounds so human. And you described it perfectly, Janet. It just sounds like a guy. I don't want to do it and blow out the ears of everybody listening. But it's also like a little bit of of a release almost. That's what's so funny about it. It's oh, nobody is d Bradley Baker except de Bradley Baker, but correct, anybody can voice this bird, you know. It's like when you listen to the great Biz Marquis singing you got what I need. It's a great song because Biz is singing in a voice that we all have. We can do that. We can all conde. So here's this biz markee bird that's like, oh, that's just a guy screaming. They just got a guy off of Olive Avenue in Burbank and they were like, can you come into the studio and record this place? Huh, what do you need? Can you come in here? We got to find out who it is because it's probably you know what I mean, like, it's probably still D. We got to find out who it is. We have a mission. And because I love it so much, you know, I had to try to find out who is that screaming bird. I asked him Hedrick. He thinks it's probably D. And then I asked D and he definitely remembers the critter and he says, if he remembers it, there's a really really strong chance that he did it. But he listened to it a few times and he thinks he did it. But then there were sound effects added after the fact. So is the current theory on that one. Thank you for breaking down that comedy moment for me, so my extreme pleasure. Back to the show. We're back with Apa and Momo, and Apa is conked out while Momo is tormented by all of the incredibly loud and strange sounds of the swamp that we were just describing. Finally, Apa wakes up and out roars them all eliciting silence. Another great comedy moment of just a really cute moment. It's great. Go back to the kids. The kids are sleeping back to back, is suddenly a series of vines wraps around them. Talk about horror movie. They're dragged apart from each other, Kataras fending them off. Is she fog bending? What's happening? Ang manages to get away, but his friends are nowhere in sight or nowhere within earshot. Yeah, what do you think about that guitar a moment because you were talking about that all the ways in which we see water being used, and that's one of those scenes where you kind of have to look carefully because clearly she's slicing through the vines with something, but you hear the sound of water. You're like, wait a minute, there's missed everywhere. I guess missed his water. What's happening? This is very cool? I love it. I love it. It's like the first time I watched The Incredibles and you can't choose which character has the coolest powers, and then Frozen shows up and you're like, oh, he's the coolest. Oh, but he wouldn't work everywhere because he's got to make ice. But then it just it's based on the moisture in the air when you learn that in the movie. So then when he's in a burning building and there's no moisture, you're like, oh, no, he can't use his powers anyway. I love that thinking about these kinds of powers at that level, but it's still not my favorite bending. I mean, we'll get to it later, but I just get to it. I love what Qatara does later, it's so super cool. But yeah, this is definitely the beginning of that. And I will add that I don't know, Hector, if you've had perfect or I should say, if you have been too full on kind of rainforest. But I went to one in Hawaii on the Big Island, and it was the loudest natural place I've ever been. It sounded like I was in the middle of a city. There were frogs that were so so loud it was like too loud. I mean, it was wonderful, but you could not live in that space. And it totally reminds me of Momo trying to sleep and wondering how Apa is even sleeping at all or seems to be sleeping. Because it was the cacophony of different sounds and different creatures and animals that are alive and wanting to make themselves heard in a rain forest is mind blowing. It was so cool, and to be honest, I could have used a oppa in that moment to go Okay. So now all of a sudden we're faced with these Hello, what's this? What's going on? Now? We see two men in green loincloths and what looked like lily pad berets lily pad hats. Who are they? What's happening? They have found OPA's footprints. They're very excited to catch dinner, and they have very kind of traditionally understood as maybe like backwoods small communities voices. Um. You know, it's funny because I thought that the show made a really kind of an interesting bold choice because typically the accent I associate with kind of hanging out in the swamp and kind of being from swampy regions is I think the classic one that everybody thinks of, which is like, hey are you doing? What are you doing? In my swamp, get out of here, forget about it. So the fact that this show didn't do that voice, I was like, bold move. I mean, that's not just me, right, that's everybody's. Actually, I have to say, I don't know if it's just you, but I disagree because whenever I think about a swamp, I think of someone saying, hello, welcome to the swamp. This is where I swamp as you could tell someone accent. Yeah yeah, Georgia. That's like, yeah, well South Carolina is yeah, I've heard that too. Yeah. So again, kudos to the Avatar team. This is m v P Carlos as Rocky, who does double duty. He voices both of these characters. I did not know that until I looked up the credits and I was like, both, Yeah, they're just playing with each other. These two characters are so so great back and forth. So, yeah, Carlos doing an awesome, completely unheard of swamp accent. Shout out to Carlos. That's right. And now we know that somebody has seen evidence of Appa and is very interested in perhaps eating Appa. So we're extremely nervous as we then see Apa and Momo slashing through that swamp. They are accosted by a cat gator, a catfish alligator. I gotta say, as scary as it was, I think I might still prefer it to a straight up alligator. It still was cuter to me. I know it's subjective, but it was cuter than a conventional alligator. Its teeth seemed a little less pointy, its nose was a little cuter. And you know, the good news is is that even with something as as fierce and as predatorial as a cat gat nobody's a match for the fierceness of Apa Momo. Once again, we have these gentle, lovely creatures who continue to blow us away with how incredibly fierce they can be when they need to be. Thank goodness, just awesome. And again it's like, I'm not Carlos Alos Rocky, I'm not these guys. You know, I'm not a voice actor because if it were me, I would have been in the booth and I would have been like, Hey, we're trying to get some dinner over here. Wait up, what are you doing? Come on? What? Hey, what the heck do I sorry, totally absolutely what I would have done. So you know, again, I'm not a voice actor. That's why, Alright, so now we got to check in on our buddies. We're all separated from each other. Right, here's where it starts to get. Here's how you know it's a good Avatar episode because they all get a little sad. So Katara is wandering through the swamp. She's calling out for anybody who might be able to hear and help. And now things are getting sad and a little weird and very interesting because she sees a figure in the distance. Is it her mom? The music swells. Katara runs towards her, shedding tears of joy, which is just like heartbreaking because you know that it's not. And mere seconds she sees this figure turned into like a swamp tree trunk sticking out of the water, which was a really great design, really cool. But what the heck is going on in this place? So go over to Socca. Socca is up to his old tricks, slashing and swiping. Then he too has a vision it's you a in her moon goddess form, which again is like, oh, that's so sad. Come on, we just finished season one. And it gets worse, right because at least you're like, well, he's getting to at least see her like he's sort of having his qutar a hopeful moment, and then it's even worse than her just not being there for a second. Right what happens because she accuses him, saying you didn't protect me, which is like the most heartbreaking thing that a hero character has to deal with anytime they feel like they failed a loved one, they feel like they weren't there for somebody. You a this is just a trick of the light swamp gas. I hit my head running away last I'm going crazy. It's so so sad. And then she's gone, and then we're with Ang who suddenly sees a giggling figure and a flying pig who both spirit away moments after and catches sight of him. He tries to get to the figure every time she appears, but she's just all over the place. He cannot seem to reach her. I love Avatar the Last Airbender because it is such a rewarding show on rewatch viewings, so it's so fun as an Avatar fan to watch this episode. But I'm pretty sure I also remember just being really invested in the mystery the first time I watched it, So it works on multiple levels. It works on multiple levels. I'm very excited that you said spirit away. It feels like a real shout out to spirited away, if an unintentional one, but there it was. Now we go back to Apa and Momo. They're facing off with the guys that we saw earlier. So they have been paste. These guys have caught up to them, and worse, they're not alone, and their enthusiasm to eat Appa has now extended over to poor Momo, who may or may not taste like powsom chicken. Uh and uh. Of course we have to have the joke of like you think everything tastes like powsom chicken because it tastes like chicken. Is a kind of old school meme, a verbal meme of the world. That's right, And one of the guys tries to and this is a great moment too. We have one of our Carlos voiced characters trying to soothe the creatures by reassuring him, no, no, just stay calm, we're just fixing to eight you. And the animals take off the chases on we see that. Shall we call them swamp benders because we definitely now see that they are propelling their boats by their own moves. The moves are extremely cool again, a new form of bending that have their our own new movements that we haven't seen before. Some great music that starts up from our friend Jeremy Zuckerman, really really great music. We have a little mouth harp in there. And I think this is probably a good time to to point out that I know you and I are both we love, love, love our art of Avatar books. I know my friend has it with him. You know I've got it with me too, Buddy. I think we're both just very lucky. There's more than one issue of this book. What if there was only one? We have to like share custody of it. Um, he gets it Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. So if you if you have the book, you will find out that they are modeled after Doug Tennapel from Cat Scratch which is Nickelodeon show, and Carlos Ramos from the Exes, which was a Nickelodeon show I watched and absolutely loved. So that is such a fun inside scoop, right, this idea of different animators at Nickelodeon creating this sort of like ugly brawl and rivalry in which nothing bad happens, except that they draw each other on their shows in their own styles. All right, what's going on with the rest of the team Avatar? Alright, so we come back over to Ang, who's still chasing this mysterious yet very familiar Janet figure until he Qatar and Soccer are suddenly reunited, and that they literally tumble into each other and then down a giant trunk, they recap their experiences, they fill each other in. Soccer thinks that their visions were all in their minds, where they all lead here to the center of the swamp. Ang think so, So there's this kind of back and forth, you know, Soccer scoffing at that he likes to think of everything is being having a scientific explanation, and Ang is obviously tapped into the Avatar spirit world, so he knows that the world is more than what we can see. And then a giant swamp monster rises out of the water, scaring the Pooh bad of them and worse, they are trapped like that for an entire commercial break, unless us you're watching it on Paramount Plus, in which case it just rolls right through that. But let's see what happens after we take a break. Of our own? Shall we dare you leave them hanging with that swamp monster? How dare you, travelers? How many times has this happened to you? When you're bedding down for a nice rest on your way through the swamp, give yourself a gift of silence with Momos patented earblugs made of delightfully sucked woven air bison hair. These earblugs were made by and four lemurs, but we'll also fit human ears. Momos patented earblugs patent pending. All right, we're back. We gotta get our kiddos out of this situation. But before we get into what happens, let's just talk about the swamp thing, because it's design is so cool. I didn't think this the first time I saw it because I did not have an awareness of who grew it was. But since knowing Guardians of the Galaxy many years hence and doing these rewatches, there is a kind of groutous to this swamp thing character which is very very cool. And so it has these kind of thick vines that appear to make up its body, and then this very cool kind of wooden mask type thing as its face, and it kind of reminds me of No Face too. Uh No Face of course from the wonderful movie Miyazaki movie Spirited Away. Like this idea of this sort of very scary creature with just this blank inexpressive solid mask of a classic comedy drama mask, you know, of the Jim Carrey the mask mask. You're right, it does look like the Jim Carrey mask. Maybe if any of us puts that mask on, will become a swamp monster. Let's find out. Yeah, exactly, We've got to track that masked out. So this swamp monster definitely into grabbing Soccer. It's grabbing him, it's tossing ang about. But is it a match for Qatara's water bending skills? Is this one of the moments that you love so much about Qatara's water bending because it seems like it's a pretty fair fight, right, Yeah, So she does fight it. The creature unfortunately still ends up kind of sending her soaring through the sky. It's smothering Socca and then over with Appa. He and Mom are still trying to outrun those swamp benders and at some point the thing that happens in stuff where you're like someone's on a horse or someone's on a thing and the thing goes under a trunk or a branch and you're like no, no, no, no no, And then Appa goes under it and moment gets thrown backwards and there is a sack just waiting open for him to fly into get closed up. They've got him, so he's in the sact with the Hunters, then back over with our other heroes and creates a last of twisting air kind of mimicking that tornado that we saw at the beginning. Qatar as water bending as they sort of form this huge hole in the monster, which does free up Soccer and let's talk of us. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, because that's when she starts to create these kind of amazing slicing water arcs that are chopping the monster up faster than it can recover. And even in that moment, we think we see something inside. Is that a person behind all those mines? It looks like it is. I love this water bending moment so hard. It is so cool and makes me love water bending maybe the most. And uh Qatara is just consistently like the most amazing and talented and cool character for me, and I love everybody else too, but just the way that the slicing water was animated is so great and so cool, and it feels I mean, this is a show I'm watching on my TV screen. I'm in my room him it's dry, but it feels like everything's wet, the vines getting sliced, you know, it just feels like I'm in there. And that's credit to the animation, the sound design, the colors, everything about it is just gorge gorge. I love it. I love it. I love it. So when the characters think that they see a guy in there, Ang doesn't understand what the heck is going on. As soon as they get to this guy, why did you call me here? If you just wanted to kill us? What? I didn't call you here? And explains the feeling of being called down into the swamp. He's the Avatar and just like that, bygones are bygones and the man leads him back to his home. He pretty much immediately he's like, you're the Avatar, come with me, like immediately. I love that. It's like this incredible Avengers a one priority card like you flash on the Avatar and just like an unlimited access you know, to anything, so he leads him back to his home. Soccer uses the oportunity to point out how unmagical and unmistic this is all turned out to be. It's a water bender in the swamp, That's what it was. But even the swamp monster water bender himself objects, this is a sacred place. He reached enlightenment right under this tree right there. So it's this wonderful It's a moment that proves both are correct, Both points of view are right, which is balance, which is what the shows about, which is where the themes are. Oh my goodness, this is why we bring in the prefector Yeah. And you know, when this man likens the swamp and it's connectedness to itself to kind of you know, not only is the swamp like this where everything is connected to everything else, but the whole world is like that. And even Ang, who has a profound understanding and sense and willingness and openness to these ideas, even he's a little surprised to hear someone make that league and wide sweeping of a statement. The whole world is like this, And he goes on to say some just wonderfully beautiful classic avatar verse brilliance which is echoing the writings of so many people through the centuries. We are all living together. I'm gonna get choked up every time. I'm glad to hear this. You can like walk me through because if like Varney how crying, I'm like Hector, he would he would. That sounded just like Dante, that we're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots, and we are all branches of the same tree. We have the bigger picture. This whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread out and sink and take root and then spread some more, one big living organism, just like the entire world. And so Qatara says, well, if you have all of this knowledge about this place, can you exp plane to us why we saw the things that we saw? And he says in the swamp again, they're totally different. But it also reminds me a little bit of the swamps of sadness in the Never Ending Story, where the swamp kind of represents this place where we started to feel all of those feelings right for the heaviness and losing the things we love. And he says in the swamp. We see those that we love and we think we've lost, but we haven't. I cannot believe. I do this every single but we haven't. We are still connected to them. And he says time is an illusion and so is death, and I love that so much. Does that even mean? What he's saying is the most profound and beautiful aspect of existence, which is if you think that you've lost someone, all you have to do is think about them, and they're not lost. And that's the human experience. And I remember years ago I was having lunch with a friend and I think we were talking about death, as you do, and she said something to me that has stuck with me. She said, dying cannot be cannot be the worst thing that happens to you, because it has happened to everyone. And that made me feel so connected and so okay, you know, And there's been so many movies and TV shows that have explored that. You know, my favorite movie of all time is The Iron Giant. I don't know if I have a I have a little giant right here behind me. Let's just have a cry fest. Janet, here we go both the part where he where the giant says where he's a superman, because here's Garth who's like, you could be anybody you want to be, and he is a superman. But the part that I love in that film, there's so many things to just pull from that movie that are just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. But there's a part where they see a deer that has been shot by a hunter and later him and the Giant, the little Boy and the Giant are talking about this, and Hogarth, with his infinite little boy wisdom, says, it's not wrong to die. It's okay, but it's wrong to kill. Like he's explaining to the Giant, it wasn't the deer's fault. That's what happened to the deer. It's okay, it'll happen to everybody. And then if that's too depressing, that film has a beautiful message as well, which is the Giant asks him will you die, and he goes, well, yeah, someday, and then he goes I die, And then Hogarth thinks about it and he goes, well, you're made a metal, but you think about things and you feel things, so it means you have a soul. And my mom says that souls don't die. They kind of go on forever, and whether you believe that or not, it's the most beautiful truth. There's a truth in there that you know, it's okay to have these kinds of conversations and messages in stories for kids. We've all had to learn about this stuff as we grow up. But it's also about you can learn about this stuff in a beautiful way to get a young person to understand like it's okay, It's okay, you know. And all of those things are swirling around in my head as I'm watching this episode, Janet, Like I said, I'm like I needed to hear this. I thought I was having a pretty good couple of weeks, but I maybe I was a little sadder than I thought. And this puts me in a nice place. And now knowing that you know, you're choking up just thinking about it, it makes me so so so happy that number one, the show exists. Number two, that you exist, Janet. Number three, you're it. You were on the sequel show to this, like that you were somebody. You're such a beautiful soul and they found you and you're a part of this whole thing that you can go back and still talk about these early episodes, and I think you so understand what they were going for and the effect that it has on us is like undeniable. So Janet, you're the best you give. I love to try to recover, like look at and then is giving me all the time. He's giving me all this time to bounce back and be like super tough and cool and then everything that comes out of your mouth cool tough stuff. Okay, Determinator, remember Terminator to when he no, you don't understand, you're slimming around way, you're slipping, You're okay, okay football remember and Rudy when you let him feel Let Rudy he said, please, this is for you, and then he up little, he did a little tackle. It's nothing else. We always have Obi wank no no, no, no, al right, he's coming back, wants coming back. It's okay, you's coming back. If time is an illusion, if time is an illusion, because we know that who Ang saw was not someone that he loves and Mrs we don't know who he was and doesn't know who this person is. So he has his own experience where he has to sort of go okay, well, using those same principles that this very wise person has just dropped on us. If time is an illusion, maybe this is someone I am going to meet, and this is exciting. It bodes well for the future. And now we gotta find Apa and Momo, right, So how are we going to do that? Well, luckily we have the Avatar with us, and he has very quickly come to grasp the understanding about the connectedness of the swamp. He uses that connectedness to ask the trees, like what's going on my friends? Where I can't see what's happening? And he gets that flash and he knows Apa and Momo are in trouble and they have got to go right right, So we cut to the guys who have captured Apa and Momo. They're feeling pretty good. They're singing in another instant classic. Here's the clip the river bed Vishna killed him dead, tolls the hogs in the water to keep them eaters. Then Team Avatar cuts in literally. They save Oppa and Momo and ultimately joined the tribe for food and a fireside. Katara bonds with them over water bending. They're all eating fish and bugs. Socca is still trying to explain away all the mysticism we give one more look at Janet's favorite comedic moment in the entire Avatar versus the Screaming Bird. It's a great button. And then suddenly we have the rare Avatar tag at the end of the show. We're back at the Earth Kingdom village. A man is running for his life. He's being chased by the character on your T shirt, the Blue Spirit, and it was awesome, awesome little tag at the end. So yeah, it's another case in which the point of this episode is not for them to have a law drawn out conversation with the swamp Monster to find out more about why this guy was attacking them, and oh, there's the Avatar and let me tell you my whole life story. It's not about that, nor is it about these swamp benders wanting to kill an eat Momo. And remember Soccer also wanted to eat Momo at the beginning. So you know, people have to get over that, and it happens very quickly in that you know, they're not villains. These guys are not villains. There's not going to be this drawn out conflict as soon as they find out like, oh, you don't want us to eat these guys. These are your buddies. They're like, Okay, we're sorry. We didn't know what we didn't know. You know, we didn't have the information that we have now. And it's no harm, no foul. Everybody's still okay. Everybody's safe. There's plenty of bugs for us to eat. In this moment of forgiveness. My thinking of a swamp people accent, I expected somebody to say he forget about and no problem. I say, hey, you're all right, right, yeah, you know that's exactly right, And I mean, listen, we'll talk about opening up a very cool next moment. It's like, oh, Zuko, I don't know if this is a good idea, Like he just couldn't resist. He's got those swords, now he's got his mask. Where is that going to lead us? And we will not fight out until next episode? Yeah? I love watching the show episode by episode, almost like one a day or man one a week, which is crazy. But if there's a better example of as soon as an episode ends and you just hit play on the next one, I can't think of it because what a tag? Yes, could not agree more so that's the end of the episode. I guess we should talk about some of these critters. We've got some good animal crossings happening. We have that very giant leech, who I guess is just kind of a really giant brand new to the world, creepy leach. We've got our cat gator. We've got some real big bugs that are giving some protein to our friends. We've got some various fish, and of course, of course we have our screaming bird. Big shout out to the screaming bird. I tried to look up on the internet who did the voice, can't find it anywhere, So you're gonna have to do some behind the scenes digging, Janet. I think it's usually means I think this will be something that is like the best kept secret or every somebody will know and I'll ask you why I can Brian, and they'll be like, huh, I don't know. It might have been me Like they just have no they've done so many things since they've been working so hard. They were doing a fifty thousand things that nobody remembers. That said. Well, I don't think I'm not going to ask, because I totally will. Yes. Either way, it's a win win because if you find out that it was d it's like hilarious. The guy can not only do the animals that sound like animals, but the animals that sound like people. But then if it's anybody else other than be hilarious, it's also amazing. Yeah, anybody else in the cast or any of the creators or anybody working on the show. So yeah, as soon as you find out, that's gonna be great, great, I gotta do that. Let's get into most valuable bending and non bending moments perfect or your thoughts. We've spoken a lot about some pretty impressive water bending this episode. I don't want to take too many, but a little honorable mention is I love whenever we see the ang airball from like the intro, and he actually used it against the swamp monster and moving around. So I love the air ball, but I gotta go with those water slices. Water slices m v P Most valuable, m v B most valuable bending of the episode. I'm completely comfortable with that. Love those water slices, And shout out also to the swamp benders for how we discover to your salient point earlier, those new types of and ways of ben ending elements that maybe we walked away from season one feeling like, yeah, I got this, I get how it all works. You know, there's there's more in store, there's a war to be seen. So I agree with that. I love it. Folks. If you have different ideas about most valuable bending in this episode, would love to hear from you on social media. Hit us up, let us know. And how about the most valuable none bending moment in the episode? I want to give this one to Momo. Okay, though it made it was not that well thought through because it meant that ap I was going to plumb it very quickly. Yes, I always will give credit due to animals who I'm like, hey, it's pretty smart. You didn't think it through. You don't know about physics, you don't know about how the rest of the world, you know. But little moments where animals can do that to get to that point where like, oh, we have to let me get through this um Like if a dog unlatches a cage or something that they're in, but then the next step is I don't know where to go from it, like I'm too high up or something. Hey give that dog some credit if you the latch part, Like yeah, so Momo, MVP just kind of throughout trying to help Appa, even with the whistle for motivation. Really really was he was thinking on his feet. He was thinking on his feet. While I love and respect that choice. That's the sort of more actionable like taking action, kind of quick thinking most valuable mom bending, but maybe another deeper or sort of more about the concept that's presented, which is not bending from our swamp bender and our swamp monster bender, who is the person who lets us know that time is an illusion and so is death. Um, I can't really call it bending, but it is definitely a really it's a truth bom statement. It's a truth bombs most valuable truth bomb is what that is m v TV because I can't believe we said it now like three or four times in this podcast that there's a line in this cartoon show for children that says time is an illusion and so is death. Anyway, next week on Avatar, the last the game gets into another little scrap you know what. I love it, but it fits. It fits, And we were making silly voices and jokes during this, but also we teared up and we cried thinking about the truth of it. So not too many shows can do this. Man pretty incredible, pretty incredible. I couldn't agree more. It's just another one of those episodes where we pick up this huge truth bomb and take it along with us, and it is definitely going to come into play in future episodes, and it's brilliant. I love it. I absolutely loved going through this episode with you, as I would love going through any episode with you. But you have taken the considerable staying of Dante being on location out and made this a spectacularly fun experience for me. Hector Navarro, you're the best. Adore you. Thank you for joining us. We can find you on social media at Hector is Me. That's both places, yeah, Instagram and Twitter Hector is Funny, which is very true. Folks. For some weird reason, you are listening to this episode and you have not heard the episodes that Hector was on last season. Of course, you can grab all of your Braving the Elements episodes from our first season anywhere you get podcasts. You can certainly jump on board the SpongeBob binge Pants podcast and if you want to catch up on episodes of After the Lost Airbender, I mean, you can do it a lot of different places. Hector. You mentioned that it's a commercial free, a preparabout plus not the worst place to go, so that's an option as well. I hope that you will come back. I will say, I feel confident that I can cajole you back onto this podcast in a future episodes any time. Janet, this was so much fun. It was also a much needed little mini therapy Sash. So thank you, my friend. You're wonderful and thanks everybody for having me on the show. It was my absolute pleasure. Thanks, thanks everybody. See you next week. All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to Avatar Braving the Element, and hey, make sure to subscribe, follow, leave us a review. All of that really helps the podcast so much. Next week, on Braving the Elements, we're finally going to sort of answer the question what bending is best. It changes all the time. We're featuring four Avatar super fans, each representing one of the elements to participate in our inaugural best Bending Battle. You can follow me on social media at the j V Club on Instagram and at Janet Varney on Twitter. Will see you next Tuesday on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.