Importance of the Day of Black Sun Explained & Writing Meaningful Defeat - Avatar The Last Airbender

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• MA

  @marcuslove8753 · 3 years ago

  I really liked this episode because it showed the gaang looking at what was essentially a shortcut. For sokka, he wasn’t ready to be a leader and jumped into the role only for his father to take over, katara believing that this would be the end of the war, and even aang not having to master the elements as the enemy would be left powerless. None were ready for the war, still in need of growth and maturation, but when presented with an “easy way” they immediately took it. These episodes showed to me that the easy way isn’t always the best way and not to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak

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• CU

  @cube_cup · 3 years ago

  Another genius part is the return of impactful minor characters. The northern air temple, the swamp dudes and other friends. This is usually only done at the conclusion.<br><br>The fact that it&apos;s only the gaang taking on Ozai is a huge and meaningful contrast. These are mainly personal battles, and they always had been. This also makes their loss at the day of black sun initially hit hard but retroactively feel proper. It makes the real ending feel like it always should have been the real ending (ignoring the lion turtle part).<br>I wonder how much of it was planned and how much falls into place in hindsight.

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• BB

  @bbittercoffee · 5 years ago

  I just love how Zuko could&apos;ve killed his father with his own lightning, but doesn&apos;t and states that the Avatar was fated to do it, that scene is burned into my brain and I love it.

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• SP

  @speedy01247 · 5 years ago

  Day of black sun is on par with the actual ending of the series, it&apos;s so good.

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• WH

  @WhimsicalTankTop · 3 years ago

  You kinda had to not be paying attention to zuko in the first half of book 3 to think he was enjoying being back home, the show made it very clear that he couldn&apos;t stand it and that zuko was going to leave it behind on his own terms

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• XD

  @xdefenderx · 4 years ago

  It&apos;s great how this episode was able to give Zuko another chance to step as a hero, in spite of joining Azula in defeating Aang and his friends in Ba Sing Se.

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• SE

  @sean_mccadden · 3 years ago

  Avatar did this so well as opposed to other shows by softly showing how the fire nation was just more well planned from their experience with war as opposed to other shows where the hero loses because of straight up incompetence like a lot of CW hero shows do or just an unrealistic set up like the later seasons of Walking Dead. I love that about Avatar because it made you feel a part of it. You felt the loss whole heartedly instead of just being pissed off by lazy writing.

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• NO

  @nonoxnana6672 · 3 years ago

  I feel like I had doubts ever since Azula found out about the eclipse plan. There&apos;s no way they were going to succeed with the Fire Nation having prepared beforehand.

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• DA

  @Dafawfulizer · 3 years ago

  One other brilliant aspects of this episode is how much sense the failure actually makes in-universe. The show spends so much time prepping for this battle and priming the audience for a victory, that it gets the audience to ignore the massive, glaring flaw with Sokka&apos;s plan. The fire nation would obviously know about the eclipse and be extra prepared for it. Avatar or not, it would be the perfect moment to attempt an uprising, so they&apos;d likely be on higher alert than almost any other day. Both the audience and the characters are so distracted by how perfect of an opportunity the day of black sun is, that they don&apos;t consider the bad guys realize that too.

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• OB

  @obseed3041 · 3 years ago

  I also love this episode because this is one, if not the only, episode where the show actually showed how powerful the fire lord is (at least before the final fight). He only needed a glimpse of the sun to be able to whip up fucking lightning in an instant.

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• AL

  @alpacaofthemountain8760 · 3 years ago

  It speaks of confidant writing, and that the writers trust their audience. It&apos;s also a good lesson to the kids watching that defeat happens

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• AN

  @Anemoia_of_Speyer · 3 years ago

  Looking back, the plan had a critically underbaked issue: what happens after the fire lord is gone? They didn’t have a Zuko - a rightful heir to the throne - to step in at the time. They would have created a huge power vacuum that would snap close and a lot of upset soldiers still loyal to the fire lord

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