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Nickelodeon (ended 2008)

Season 3: The filler season?

  • Avatar of hkulka2974

    hkulka2974

    [41]Jul 24, 2008
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    BwayJ wrote:
    I think The Beach does serve a couple of purpose aside from the obvious one (the fact that it is practically or less Combustion Man's intro episode). It introduces Ember Island and Ozai's old summer house, which is important since they constitute the Gaang's hiding place late in the book. Another important note is that it introduces us to the fact that Azula thinks her mother thinks she is a monster. This is a very important detail that sets up her breakdown in the finale and helps explain her character a little more. So even though much of the episode is technically filler, those details help make it useful for the overall story.

    never thought of it that way

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    dbcsdragon

    [42]Jul 24, 2008
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    BwayJ wrote:
    I think The Beach does serve a couple of purpose aside from the obvious one (the fact that it is practically or less Combustion Man's intro episode). It introduces Ember Island and Ozai's old summer house, which is important since they constitute the Gaang's hiding place late in the book. Another important note is that it introduces us to the fact that Azula thinks her mother thinks she is a monster. This is a very important detail that sets up her breakdown in the finale and helps explain her character a little more. So even though much of the episode is technically filler, those details help make it useful for the overall story.

    Ok, The Beach was one of my least favorite episodes in the final season but the way you put it makes it seem nessecary. But what about The Headband and The Painted Lady. I think that they are two of the most entertaining episodes of the series, but they played no important role to the overall Avatar storyline.

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  • Avatar of skye3001

    skye3001

    [43]Jul 24, 2008
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    The Headband was necessary from a psychological perspective, as it showed that the fire nation in itself isn't evil. The kids are being brainwashed. The Painted Lady was filler for me.
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  • Avatar of hkulka2974

    hkulka2974

    [44]Jul 24, 2008
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    skye3001 wrote:
    The Headband was necessary from a psychological perspective, as it showed that the fire nation in itself isn't evil. The kids are being brainwashed. The Painted Lady was filler for me.

    same here, it also showed the Gaang fitting into the FN

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  • Avatar of BwayJ

    BwayJ

    [45]Jul 25, 2008
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    skye3001 wrote:
    The Headband was necessary from a psychological perspective, as it showed that the fire nation in itself isn't evil. The kids are being brainwashed. The Painted Lady was filler for me.


    Don't forget about the scenes of Iroh in prison during "The Headband." We are shown that Zuko is conflicted about what he should do now that Azula has corrupted his homecoming in a way that could mean trouble for him once Aang resurfaces. We also see a glimpse of Iroh's sadness at seeing Zuko struggling to find the right path in that brief shot of him crying. Those scenes help make Iroh and Zuko's reunion in "The Old Masters" more touching and worth the wait.
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  • Avatar of raienbrasa

    raienbrasa

    [46]Jul 25, 2008
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    So, move DOBS up so it's sooner? Nothing said it had to be in the middle of the season. And if it's earlier, you have more time to investigate things like Ursa, Iroh Spirit World, and Azula's downfall.

    Now, a lot of the episodes before DOBS DID develop the Zuko half of the plot. But that could've taken fewer episodes, if the Gaang filler had been taken out or shortened, and replaced by Zuzu.

    Edited on 07/25/2008 8:59am
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    SlargTheGnome

    [47]Jul 25, 2008
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    What I noticed is that during the first half of the season, all the Gaang members had at least one episode devoted to them (The Awakening/The Headband for Aang, The Painted Lady/The Puppetmaster for Katara, Sokka's Master for Sokka, The Runaway for Toph). I think the point of this part of the season was to further cement the group dynamics so that we all know "Okay, there's four of them, this is what they're all like". Same with all the group bonding moments as a whole. This was kind of just one last reiteration of what the group is like so it's a bigger and more noticeable deal when Zuko finally joins.

    Just my two cents

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  • Avatar of vampys_girl

    vampys_girl

    [48]Jul 26, 2008
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    sullentoe wrote:

    I dont understand why people are calling certain episodes fillers.

    Avatar is not based on a comic, it was a planned tv show, every episode was planned to have certain dialogue info, action. etc...
    Avatar is not so planned as you think. You can see that the creators didn't have the entire story thought up. You can see it early on in the statues of the past avatars in the southern air temple, that they had not planned their past avatars except for Roku. In S3 you can see that in the puppetmaster Hama has flashbacks of the raids in the south pole and the fire nation flag is seen but it doesn't have the symbol of the southern raiders that we see in episode 316. They must have added this symboll later so that Zuko had something he could identify and help Katara find her mother's killer.
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  • Avatar of vampys_girl

    vampys_girl

    [49]Jul 26, 2008
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    skye3001 wrote:
    The Headband was necessary from a psychological perspective, as it showed that the fire nation in itself isn't evil. The kids are being brainwashed. The Painted Lady was filler for me.
    I kind of agree with you. Some people might consider 302 and 303 fillers but those episodes show us how the people in the fire nation are.In book 1 and 2 we saw only the army. In book 3 we get to see how the war affects the people in the FN and how kids are fooled to believe some things about the war that are not true. It was needed to see that not everyone in the fire nation was bad and that some people would be ok with the war ending and Zuko being fire lord but others are brainwashed to believe the war is a good thing. I did not like the Painted Lady at all even if it did showed how some people suffer in the FN. In my opinion it was the worst episode of the season.
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  • Avatar of BwayJ

    BwayJ

    [50]Jul 26, 2008
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    vampys_girl wrote:
    sullentoe wrote:

    I dont understand why people are calling certain episodes fillers.

    Avatar is not based on a comic, it was a planned tv show, every episode was planned to have certain dialogue info, action. etc...
    Avatar is not so planned as you think. You can see that the creators didn't have the entire story thought up. You can see it early on in the statues of the past avatars in the southern air temple, that they had not planned their past avatars except for Roku. In S3 you can see that in the puppetmaster Hama has flashbacks of the raids in the south pole and the fire nation flag is seen but it doesn't have the symbol of the southern raiders that we see in episode 316. They must have added this symboll later so that Zuko had something he could identify and help Katara find her mother's killer.


    The frozen ship was from one of the first raids. The Southern Raiders did not attack the Southern Tribe until five or so years before the start of the show.
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  • Avatar of doomed_soul89

    doomed_soul89

    [51]Jul 26, 2008
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    the thing is though there isn't really a main plot, i mean the main plot is angg learning to control the elements and defeat the fire lord thats it, there were alot of side plots and stuff but to be honest the character development is way more interesting then the show, and that was hilarius when zuko went into sakka's tent when him and zuki where about to well if you don't know your to young to lol
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  • Avatar of youtube_tv

    youtube_tv

    [52]Jul 26, 2008
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    well, i wouldn't say that it was a big filler season, most of the episode did contribute to the plot. some of the episodes were most shipping based i seen.
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  • Avatar of KikitheFiend

    KikitheFiend

    [53]Jul 26, 2008
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    I wouldn't call many of the episodes truly filler. There was important character development in each episode. Even if they did not necessarily advance the plot significantly, the growth the characters experienced did impact the later episodes.
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