Okay, i just got out of the coma that the epicness sent me into. I know, I'm a bit late, but time to discuss

Lets start with my favorite subject - Azula:

I think that this episode has made it clear beyond all doubt what Azula's problem is - she has become obsessed with Zuko. When you look at it from Axzula's point of view, it's actually fairly easy to see why she might see Zuko as the source of all her problems. Right from the begining, Zuko has been the one thing standing in te way of almost everything Azula wants:

-Azula is convinced that her mother loved Zuko more than her. She probably feels that if Zuko hadn't been around, her mother would have liked her more.

-Once Ozai became firelord, Zuko was the heir to throne simply because he was older than her. If Zuko hadn't been around, she would have been the clear heir to the throne right from the start.

-The one kink in Azula's brilliant victory in DoBS was Zuko defecting to the other side, basically cancelling out her great triumph.

-Azula almost certainly blames Zuko for Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal at the Boiling Rock. Thanks to Zuko, she lost her only friends.

Whenever a person is going through a time of great stress, their natural instinct is to find somone to blame all their troubles on. Azula most likely now sees Zuko as the root source of all her problems, and no doubt imagines that if he dies, the other problems will right themselves. I think that people are going a little over the top suggesting that she's going to go full-out crazy, rather she will become more and more obsessed with taking out Zuko, to the exclusion of everything else.

The fight they had in this episode pretty much confirmed that they are being set up as opponents who are dead evenly matched in skill. As well as the fact that they both seem immune to eachothers attacks, when you think about it, they have equal skills to counter eachother in everything:

-Zuko's original firebending techniques vs Azula's enhanced blue fire (I think that the two flames are equally powerful now).

-Azula's acrobatics, hand-to-hand combat skills, and implied skill with shruikens vs Zuko's broadsword ninja skills.

-Zuko's practical smartness vs Azula's tactical genius and manipulative abilities.

-Azula's ability to create lightning vs Zuko's ability to redirect it.

-Zuko's new commitment to righting the wrongs of his ancestors vs Azula's insanity and obsession with killing her brother.

-Zuko's advantage of being a good guy vs Azula's proven history of beating the good guys.

The only question is, who will win the final battle? With their skills so evenly matched, it seems likely that the winner will be the who can somehow outsmart the other. Outsmarting people is Azula's speciality. No matter what happens, I have little doubt that their battle will be easily as epic as Aang and Ozai's (okay, mabye not, but it will be for me).

Okay, Azula/Zuko rant over. Let's move on to the actual episode:

I absolutley loved it. Everything from the humor (much less than normal, but it made up for it by being way, way funnier than normal ) to the fighting to the storyline and character developement went so far beyond perfect that I really don't know what to say except that it easily measures up against the Day of Black Sun and the Boiling Rock.

Anyone who might be disappointed that Katara didn't impale Yun Ra should remember that the whole point of this episode was (I think) Katara learning how to forgive Zuko. In order to do so, she had to find some way to make peace with the tragic events of her past, and as much as we might have liked it to, this meant that the object of all her hate and anger had to have mercy shown towards it.

I also loved Aang's role in this episode. Anyone who might have entertained illusions that he is still just an immature little kid has got to be eating their words right now. Whoever it was that brought up how similar his role in helping Katara was to Katara's role in helping him in "The Desert" was dead right.

The ending was perfect too. Zuko's question "What are you going to do when you face my father?" and Aang's shocked reaction was the perfect way to finish it.

All in all, no matter what people might have said about the first half of season three, the second half has proven itself to be so epic that the very word "epic" cannot even begin to describe it.

All I can say is that SilverFlames was wrong. Pyschopass was indeed correct about the word "hype" needing to be redefined, at least for me, and (I am fairly sure) all the avatar fans out there who have seen this episode for what it was: EPIC WIN!!!!

Okay, i just got out of the coma that the epicness sent me into. I know, I'm a bit late, but time to discuss

Lets start with my favorite subject - Azula:

I think that this episode has made it clear beyond all doubt what Azula's problem is - she has become obsessed with Zuko. When you look at it from Axzula's point of view, it's actually fairly easy to see why she might see Zuko as the source of all her problems. Right from the begining, Zuko has been the one thing standing in te way of almost everything Azula wants:

-Azula is convinced that her mother loved Zuko more than her. She probably feels that if Zuko hadn't been around, her mother would have liked her more.

-Once Ozai became firelord, Zuko was the heir to throne simply because he was older than her. If Zuko hadn't been around, she would have been the clear heir to the throne right from the start.

-The one kink in Azula's brilliant victory in DoBS was Zuko defecting to the other side, basically cancelling out her great triumph.

-Azula almost certainly blames Zuko for Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal at the Boiling Rock. Thanks to Zuko, she lost her only friends.

Whenever a person is going through a time of great stress, their natural instinct is to find somone to blame all their troubles on. Azula most likely now sees Zuko as the root source of all her problems, and no doubt imagines that if he dies, the other problems will right themselves. I think that people are going a little over the top suggesting that she's going to go full-out crazy, rather she will become more and more obsessed with taking out Zuko, to the exclusion of everything else.

The fight they had in this episode pretty much confirmed that they are being set up as opponents who are dead evenly matched in skill. As well as the fact that they both seem immune to eachothers attacks, when you think about it, they have equal skills to counter eachother in everything:

-Zuko's original firebending techniques vs Azula's enhanced blue fire (I think that the two flames are equally powerful now).

-Azula's acrobatics, hand-to-hand combat skills, and implied skill with shruikens vs Zuko's broadsword ninja skills.

-Zuko's practical smartness vs Azula's tactical genius and manipulative abilities.

-Azula's ability to create lightning vs Zuko's ability to redirect it.

-Zuko's new commitment to righting the wrongs of his ancestors vs Azula's insanity and obsession with killing her brother.

-Zuko's advantage of being a good guy vs Azula's proven history of beating the good guys.

The only question is, who will win the final battle? With their skills so evenly matched, it seems likely that the winner will be the who can somehow outsmart the other. Outsmarting people is Azula's speciality. No matter what happens, I have little doubt that their battle will be easily as epic as Aang and Ozai's (okay, mabye not, but it will be for me).

Okay, Azula/Zuko rant over. Let's move on to the actual episode:

I absolutley loved it. Everything from the humor (much less than normal, but it made up for it by being way, way funnier than normal ) to the fighting to the storyline and character developement went so far beyond perfect that I really don't know what to say except that it easily measures up against the Day of Black Sun and the Boiling Rock.

Anyone who might be disappointed that Katara didn't impale Yun Ra should remember that the whole point of this episode was (I think) Katara learning how to forgive Zuko. In order to do so, she had to find some way to make peace with the tragic events of her past, and as much as we might have liked it to, this meant that the object of all her hate and anger had to have mercy shown towards it.

I also loved Aang's role in this episode. Anyone who might have entertained illusions that he is still just an immature little kid has got to be eating their words right now. Whoever it was that brought up how similar his role in helping Katara was to Katara's role in helping him in "The Desert" was dead right.

The ending was perfect too. Zuko's question "What are you going to do when you face my father?" and Aang's shocked reaction was the perfect way to finish it.

All in all, no matter what people might have said about the first half of season three, the second half has proven itself to be so epic that the very word "epic" cannot even begin to describe it.

All I can say is that SilverFlames was wrong. Pyschopass was indeed correct about the word "hype" needing to be redefined, at least for me, and (I am fairly sure) all the avatar fans out there who have seen this episode for what it was: EPIC WIN!!!!