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attackfishCommentators: Michael Dante DiMartino, series co-creator, Bryan Konietzko, series co-creator, and Tim Hedrick, episode writer.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Hi, this is Bryan Konietzko, co-creator, co-executive producer, and art director of Avatar.
TIM HEDRICK: Hi, I’m Tim Hedrick and I am a writer on Avatar, and I wrote this episode.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: And this is Mike DiMartino. I’m the other co-creator and executive producer of Avatar. And uh, so Tim is joining us here today. Tim has written such classic episodes, Avatar episodes, such as “The Deserter”.
TIM HEDRICK: Uh huh, that was a classic.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. “The Swamp”.
TIM HEDRICK: Another one. All the hits.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Uh, the first episode, I believe the first episode that we were, where we arrived in Ba Sing Se.
TIM HEDRICK: That’s right.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: After the… 2.14.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: And then this gem.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Kind of which is linked to 2.14, in the conspiracy theory.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, it’s kind of the end of that storyline.
TIM HEDRICK: And we see more of the lovely Jet.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. I feel like you can never get enough of Jet.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Until you do, and then he’s all done.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Yeah. Yeah so this is kind of an important episode to, uh, kind of, uh, wrap up the whole Jet storyline that we uh, kind of started in season one and continued in Ba Sing Se in season two.
TIM HEDRICK: And we see more of the Dai Li. I don’t know if you guys hit on this, but the Dai Li were named after the secret police of Chiang Kai Shek.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh.
TIM HEDRICK: So, and they are the secret police of Ba Sing Se. So that history of oppression lives on in Avatar.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh here’s, here’s a good… [Referring to a shot of Sokka’s terrible Appa sketches] These drawings of Appa are done by another writer, John O’Bryan.
TIM HEDRICK: My office mate!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. So John became the official artist of Sokka’s style.
TIM HEDRICK: I’ve been encouraging him to sell those at ComiCon.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
TIM HEDRICK: I don’t know if he’s going to do it or not.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think people would totally be into that.
TIM HEDRICK: I know I would bid on them.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to the beautiful professional Appa poster Ang and Katara have printed.] I did the other Appa poster.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You mean the one that is…
TIM HEDRICK: The one that looks like Appa?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah. Although I did not write the Chinese. That was S. L. Lee. What’s amazing is that John was able to tap into like seven different children’s styles.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter] He does.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: They’re all like accurately, authentically a child’s drawing, but like seven different children.
TIM HEDRICK: That is like, that’s exactly what it’s like sharing an office with John, it’s like seven different children.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So this was also the, you know, we needed an episode where finally Zuko, uh, finds out that uh, Aang is in the city and he’s close, he’s been trying to have this normal life, you know, trying to accept that, you know, settling down in Ba Sing Se, and then, uh…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Although he’s pretty conflicted about it, and this sort of…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This sort of spurs him to…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, this, I… This begins the Zuko becoming a happy tea maker arc
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: That ends tragically for him.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
PAO: What's going on here? Are you trying to poach my tea maker?
QUON: Sorry Pao, that's business for you, am I right?
PAO: Mushie, if you stay, I will make you Assistant Manager. Wait, Senior Assistant manager.]
TIM HEDRICK: And it gives you an inside look on the tea business, which I think is important for kids to know.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Franchise.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, have you talked about Avatar franchising like this? Opening some tea shops, maybe?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Uh…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Mike and I, we’re looking into it.
TIM HEDRICK: Starbucks can’t handle it all.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I just think that… Was Pao reacting to the hot teapot he just dropped in his hand?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think it was a combination of he burned his hands, and he was just upset that Iroh got taken away from him.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Not until this moment… Iroh’s a pretty considerate guy, but that was a pretty inconsiderate way to hand a teapot to someone.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So I want to say, this episode was directed by Lauren MacMullan, another great director on our team of Avatar folks, and uh, animation directed by Director Kim, uh of MOI Animation
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Kim Sang Jin.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, this was great, it was really exciting to see the Ba Sing Se designs come to life, because it’s an awesome looking city.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, it definitely feels like a real place.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The concept of the rings really worked out well with like a different architectural style and sort of a different level of, like a class system realized in the architecture. [Referring to Joo Dee] That’s based on Miken Wong, our production manager.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Who’s just this moment…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Wait, line producer? Line producer. Sorry Miken. Yes, we based… Miken is always happy, even when she’s telling you the show’s in trouble, or…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You’re behind schedule.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You’re behind schedule.
TIM HEDRICK: Any bad news with a smile.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: We love Miken. Mike and I worked with Miken starting like eight… Well for me about eight years ago, Mike about ten years ago. We’ve been working together on various shows around town.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: We can't wait around to get permission for everything.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And she’s still happy. So we had her do some acting references, the video footage.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: We don't care about the rules, and we're not asking permission! We're finding Appa on our own and you should just stay out of our way!]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I love this moment too, where Aang freaks out. I think Kenji, Kenji Ono, our storyboard artist, did some great drawings of the storyboard, and the animators took that and ran with it.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: I don't care. From now on we do whatever it takes to find Appa.
TOPH: Yeah! Let’s break some rules!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to Toph blasting a hole through the side of the guesthouse] And I think this moment just came out of the storyboard meeting.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: What’s funny is they blew a hole in the building, but they use the door still. We just had this idea that… I think in the script, she broke a pot, or just like a vase, but we were just like, uh, let’s have her blow half the house apart. And then when you see it in a subsequent episode, there’s like scaffolding.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They’re trying to fix it up.
TIM HEDRICK: I did want to mention that next door to them in the house, was a neighbor named Pong…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Yes.
TIM HEDRICK: That I put into many scripts in Ba Sing Se, that just… He never made it in.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well we saw him, we did see him in the first episode where they’re in Ba Sing Se.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh that’s right, they kind of talked to him very briefly.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Sokka talks to him, but uh…
TIM HEDRICK: At one point, didn’t he end up in the prison?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, yeah!
TIM HEDRICK: He was in the prison, and oh, the Dai Li was tracking him, they grabbed him out of his house, he had a whole backstory.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah. He was like a major character, and then…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: No offense Tim, but I don’t miss him.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah well, I think I might be the only one who has a hankering for more Pong.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So the idea was that this green fire, not sure if we touched on this, is that usually we just use, uh, in the Earth Kingdom, we use these phosphorescent crystals for a light source. Um, they don’t use fire that much, sort of a prejudice against firebenders and whatnot. Um, but we had, we had this idea that I don’t know, there was some rare crystal that was um, I don’t know, that was possibly fused with some gaseous substance and it could, it could burn. It’s like a really long lasting artificial log, or something.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And it has a green flame, because it, the gaseous releases.
TIM HEDRICK: But I imagine it being very fragrant as well.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It is, it’s like a…
TIM HEDRICK: It’s got a great scent.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Potpourri.
TIM HEDRICK: Evergreen.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, it’s uh, lime-mint is what it is.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: I suggest you think about what it is that you want for your life, and why.]
TIM HEDRICK: That’s some classic Uncle advice.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So Tim when you do write a script, and you know often there’s like a long gap before you see the final, you know, product…
TIM HEDRICK: Uh huh.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Are you ever surprised at the end, you’re like, I had no idea that was going to come out like that?
TIM HEDRICK: Yes. All the time. Almost always, there’s something in there, that’s… Usually there are always some visual jokes.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: That aren’t in the script. [Referring to Toph gluing the poster to the wall back to front] Although this was in the script, when she puts it on backwards. But I mean, yeah, especially like battle scenes, you never really know how the blocking is going to work out, and…
BRYAN KONIETZKO and MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Right.
TIM HEDRICK: When you see it in the end… This has a great fight scene in it. But all that, all that stuff is always amazing to see for the first time.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I think I can help you.]
TIM HEDRICK: And there’s our man.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, so this is the first time Katara has seen jet since uh, season one, when he broke her heart.
TIM HEDRICK: Yes.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So to speak.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: Tell it to some other girl, Jet.]
TIM HEDRICK: They had a loving relationship.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to Katara throwing ice daggers at Jet] This is a woman scorned right here.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I don’t want to fight you! I’m here to help]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I really… What I like about Jet’s character is like, he was… He’s always been kind of… troubled, you know?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: He’s, he’s, he’s, he had good intentions, but kind of went about the wrong way to, to, to, solve problems, I guess.
TIM HEDRICK: Ooh, yeah Jet has the kind of classic on the edge between good and evil, he means to fight the Fire Nation, but he goes too far, and it raises questions about you know, the difference between the freedom fighters and terrorists, and… There’s some really deep thematic stuff that goes on with Jet.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I swear, I've changed. I was a troubled person, and I let my anger get out of control. But I don't even have the gang now. I've put all that behind me.
KATARA: You're lying!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Jet was designed by Ryu Ki Hyun. He’s a great animator and designer we met at JM animation, and uh, we just loved his drawings, and um, and when episode 1.10 came into production, we, we gave him the assignment of designing Jet and the whole gang of freedom fighters.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: We're not letting you out of out sight!]
TIM HEDRICK: This, right, this is the first time we see Toph with her lie detecting abilities.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes! This is the …
TIM HEDRICK: Heartbeat.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The idea that she sees with the vibration, so she can sense… She’s kind of like a polygraph. She can sense a change in… If everything’s quiet enough, and she’s concentrating, she can sense it. The change in someone’s heartbeat and kind of bio rhythms.
TIM HEDRICK: Here comes Old Sweepy.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yes, this is a reoccurring theme in uh, Tim’s scripts.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Tim is great at writing old men.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Old blowhards.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh the old men!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And they use like, instead of saying the army, they like, [Imitating Old Sweepy] Army makes the stuff there! You know, they jump right into the sentence.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
OLD SWEEPY: Guess for a zoo or such, though could be the meat’d be good.]
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, I think he comes straight from New Palestine, Indiana. There’s some of my roots expressing themselves in film here.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: Far. Very far. Here it is. It's near the South Pole almost all the way back home.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Also Whaletail Island was named after that specific island on the map, right?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: That’s right.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You guys were looking at it and…
TIM HEDRICK: It looked like a whale’s tale.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Although no one in the Avatar world would know that, like would they?
TIM HEDRICK: Well…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They have whales, right?
TIM HEDRICK: You know, Avatars have been flying around for years.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I guess somebody made that map and saw…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They probably have uh, bison-whales, I don’t know. Or something.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: They’ve got whales. I take it back.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I'll come with you.
KATARA: We don't need you help.
JET: Why won't you trust me?
KATARA: Gee, I wonder?
TOPH: Was this guy your boyfriend or something?
KATARA: What? No!
TOPH: I can tell you're lying!]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Toph…
TIM HEDRICK: Paying off her power with a joke.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: I love that.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Don't worry, on the way back, we'll be flying!
TOPH: We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se. Worst city ever!]
TIM HEDRICK: That’s a great comment on this show, that our city is the worst!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore.
JET: I don't.
SMELLERBEE: We were so worried. How did you get away from the Dai Li?
KATARA: Dai Li!?]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I think that what’s kind of cool about Ba Sing Se is that we set it up as this like Shangri-La, great place that the kids really wanted to get to, and all their problems would be solved once they got there, and they get there and they discover this crazy conspiracy, and like dark underside to the Earth Kingdom, which is cool.
TIM HEDRICK: Just continuing the line of disappointments that the characters get. All the time, it never works out for these guys.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well, yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: That, that goes along with, you know, we tend not to play people just like, good verses evil. And as the multifaceted nature of politics, and…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes.
TIM HEDRICK: Well the great thing about Ba Sing Se is that they see themselves as this Shangri-La, this perfect society, and everything’s on total lockdown. But they just can’t keep a lid on the war anymore.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: Out of my way, skinny.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This sequence came out really cool, with the Blue Spirit.
TIM HEDRICK: Blue Spirit!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He’s back! There you see a nice detail of how the Dai Li can remotely control these little stone hands. It’s like a puppet master.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I just like the idea that Zuko is in his apartment, stitching up this little Blue Spirit stuffed mask.
BRYAN KONIETZKO and TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He’s pretty good with the crafts.
TIM HEDRICK: He’s quite a seamstress.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He found one backstage at an opera. That’s it, because the Blue Spirit mask is an opera, like a Chinese opera mask for like a wizard.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: Maybe Katara could kiss him. That should bring something back.
KATARA: Maybe you should kiss him, Sokka.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You see a little Aang jealousy here.
TIM HEDRICK: For the shippers.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He doesn’t like that. Here’s a good…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, now we’re getting to the whole brainwashing of Jet.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Great sound design by Ben Wynn there, when Sokka sticks the hay into his mouth.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, he did some great stuff here when Jet goes into his, his kind of tripped out mind thing here. This kind of surreal sound design and stuff, which is really cool.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You see a little, uh…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh right! This was the big moment where we reveal the Rough Rhinos were behind the uh, destruction of Jet’s town when he was a kid.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The idea was that the Rough Rhinos sort of were the, the group that would go in first, before the army would come, and they would sort of raze the village, and set it on fire, and just kind of cause mayhem.
TIM HEDRICK: In addition to their singing performances, which they take on the road.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Of course, yes. They usually sing first, then, then raze the villages.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: They took me to a headquarters under the water, like a lake.
SOKKA: Wait! Remember what Joo Dee said? She said she went on vacation to Lake Laogai.]
TIM HEDRICK: And we were talking before that Laogai means prison in Chinese, and so it’s essentially Prison Lake.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: A little on the nose.
TIM HEDRICK: Yes, it’s going to take some of the surprise out of it for the fans in the Asian…
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: So where's this secret headquarters?
JET: Under the lake I think.
TOPH: There's a tunnel right there near the shore.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Toph, always handy for some underground sight.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So I was really happy with a lot of the background designs and paintings for this, uh, kind of catacomb-like space. I have a really cool book that shows, uh, empty spaces in Paris, and they have these like catacomb sewer systems, that look a lot like these. We used those as inspirations.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JOO DEES: I'm Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is one of my favorite sequences in Avatar.
TIM HEDRICK: It’s kind of Stepford Wives-esque, scene where they’re all being brainwashed.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The Joo Dee factory.
TIM HEDRICK: There are plenty of Joo Dees to go around.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So here we see the phosphorescent crystals, um, that we normally use, um. We kept them kind of a cool color, keep it creepy.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, that was, that was one of my favorite kind of cuts, too, that we’ve done in the show, just the mislead of, think it’s the kids, aw, it’s the Blue Spirit.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, and this is, how long has Appa been gone? For like six episodes I think now.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: The end of ten.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to the fight between the Dai Li and the Gaang and Jet under Lake Laogai] This is a great uh, sequence, action sequence, storyboarded by Joaquim Dos Santos, uh, who later became a director on Avatar, after Lauren left. One of my favorite action sequences.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. It’s definitely a challenge I think to board multiple people fighting, and keeping it clear what’s going on. You know if you have one on one, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult, but I think much harder to keep track of a bunch of different characters all fighting at the same time. There’s some great moments of seeing the Dai Li grabbing people, and creating these rock pillars, and running up the walls, and all this stuff. It’s very, very exciting.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a shot of Toph fighting the Dai Li, atop and between columns of rock that the Dai Li have thrown at her] This shot’s one of my favorites, right here. The symmetry of Toph taking out the…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, it’s great.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, and the great idea that Toph can’t see the fists always flying at her.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Right.
TIM HEDRICK: You know, because they’re flying through the air. [Referring to a shot of Jet knocking away a rock with his hook swords] That’s some excellent hook sword action.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, she knows the line of action. She can feel someone strike at her, but yeah, it might be hard for her to time, time the fist in the air. [Referring to the straight, narrow, tunnel room with water pipes in the walls and crystal lights lining the floor] This room came out really well.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: All right Avatar, you've caused me enough problems.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Clancy Brown, fantastic voice actor, does Long Feng.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: You do have Appa. Tell me where he is!
LONG FENG: Agree to exit the city now, and I'll waive all charges against you and allow you to leave with your lost pet.
JET: You're in no position to bargain.
LONG FENG: Am I not?]
TIM HEDRICK: And now Jet turns into the ultimate weapon!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Jet, The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Cool little sound design there on the word Laogai. The little echos. [Referring to a scene change to Appa pounding the ground with his chained legs] I love that, that animation of Appa is like, some of the best, because you just really feel his weight, and like how big he is, in the…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Very cool.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is difficult to do in TV sometimes.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: So, the Blue Spirit. I wonder who could be behind that mask?]
TIM HEDRICK: This is… Uncle just drops kind of the ultimate Uncle speech on Zuko here, to just kind of break him.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It’s a great one. Very emotional. Usually Uncle stays kind of calm, but every once in a while…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, he can’t, can’t keep it in anymore.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Like 1.20 when he’s like yelling at Zhao, you know, I really like when he gets, when he gets excited.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: You never think these things through!]
TIM HEDRICK: You know he’s serious.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And great acting by Mako, who, uh, unfortunately passed away, uh, last year.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: I would have figured something out!
IROH: No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would have frozen to death!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Did just a great job bringing Uncle to life. And Zuko’s teen angst and stubbornness.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah. [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He knows these things, he just doesn’t want to let them through. He’s hung up on his ego.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: I have to do this!
IROH: I'm begging you Prince Zuko!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Really wants his father’s approval, even though he’s kind of torn with what he thinks about his father.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are you? And what do you want?]
TIM HEDRICK: It makes you think that maybe if Zuko had a pet like Appa to love, then maybe he would have been softened.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Maybe.
TIM HEDRICK: As a child.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I think they’ve scentifically proven that having pets…
TIM HEDRICK: It’s very therapeutic.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Very therapeutic.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: You don't have to do this!
LONG FENG: I’m afraid he no longer has a choice.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I really like the you know, just the tragedy of what happens to Jet here.
TIM HEDRICK: Jet’s internal battle is just like…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You know he doesn’t want to be doing this, but...
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Jet, I'm your friend! Look inside your heart!
LONG FENG: Do your duty Jet.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is a great little sequence that Mike and Jeff Adams, the editer, pulled together.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: He can't make you do this! You're a Freedom Fighter.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Flashback!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to a shot of Katara blushing in Jet’s arms in the flashback] Good times with Katara.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh man.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Do it. Do it now!]
TIM HEDRICK: [Referring to Jet’s death] This sequence got scripted I think like ten to twelve different times.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You’re right, it did. I mean, the… Originally…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I mean maybe we shouldn’t.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: There was a different version we had.
TIM HEDRICK: There were many different ways…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I like how it came out.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, no, no, I think this is definitely the best way that makes Long Feng…
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Foolish boy. You've chosen your own demise.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Very villainous.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I’m happy with the storyboarding sequence too. I think it, uh, really came together.
TIM HEDRICK: And this is Toph’s big lie detector payoff, coming up.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: She sees through Jet’s heroic downplay of his predicament.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SMELLERBEE: You guys go find Appa. We'll take care of Jet.
KATARA: We're not going to leave you.
LONGSHOT: There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: The first time!
TIM HEDRICK: Longshot speaks.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yep.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: First time and last time.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: Don't worry Katara, I'll be fine.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So many people are wondering, why didn’t Katara use the spirit water at this point.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter] That’s a great question.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: It’s a good thing she didn’t, because…
TIM HEDRICK: She was… saving it.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think she tested it. She tested the water. She knew she couldn’t help him.
TIM HEDRICK: Spirit water is for series regulars only.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well it’s, it’s also that we determined that spirit water, you got to have some sort of spiritual connection to the Spirit World, or something like that to really.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I guess it’s that Aang was the Avatar.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Had she used it on a normal person, it probably wouldn’t have worked.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think it was the fact that… It would just be like regular water.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, the fact that Aang was the avatar…
TIM HEDRICK: But could she have used it for Zuko plastic surgery?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You know, but the idea behind that is that it wouldn’t change the look of the scar.
TIM HEDRICK: By the way, I did some ADR on this part of the episode.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh really?
TIM HEDRICK: So you get to hear me and John O’Bryan yelling as uh.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh you were…
TIM HEDRICK: As Dai Li.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Oh you are? [Referring to Momo flying up out of the box the Dai Li built to hold the gaang] That’s a great shot there.
TIM HEDRICK: See if you can pick out which one’s me.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh, here’s the big moment, everyone’s been waiting for.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Whoohoo!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Appa!]
TIM HEDRICK: I’m tearing up.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Whee, Appa came back! Yeah, after we, you know, we kind of messed with the audience a few times, where you think Appa’s going to come back, and then he doesn’t, and…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a Dai Li scream] I, that was you!
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, that’s us, right!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Got it.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So I think this is very, very satisfying reuniting.
TIM HEDRICK: Long Feng gets his comeuppance.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a closeup of Appa snarling at Long Feng] That’s a great shot. Telephoto. You see, Long Feng did start to earthbend there, but Appa intercepted him. I like how quiet it is when he skips across the water.
TIM HEDRICK: It’s very peaceful, like maybe Appa would just be doing that on a sunny day by himself.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: Just skipping people across the pond.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So Long Feng’s foot is not inside that shoe. It’s just the shoe. [Referring to Appa grunting and closing his eyes when Aang hugs him] That’s a sweet moment.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Aww!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a shot of Katara looking sadly out over the water] And then Katara’s mourning here.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to a shot of everybody leaning in for a group hug on Appa] They’re all a family again.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Zuko at this crossroads.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I like this little tag. I think in the animatic, he had, we, we didn’t have this little end scene and we added it afterwards, because I think it wasn’t totally clear that we knew that Zuko was the one who freed Appa or not.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Because if you showed it, that would take away the surprise of, of Appa showing up.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah. I love that last shot too, of…
TIM HEDRICK: The Blue Spirit is he gone for good?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, pretty much.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: All right. Once again we want to thank everyone who has worked really hard on this show to make it awesome! Thanks Tim for an awesome script…
TIM HEDRICK: Great, thanks for having me there!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah
TIM HEDRICK: It was a lot of fun.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Thanks for that yell in the end of the episode. I think that was the…
TIM HEDRICK: It kind of sealed the deal, didn’t it?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It did.
TIM HEDRICK: I think it was the dramatic juice that this episode needed.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Because you wrote that guy’s yell.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Something about writing it and then voicing it.
TIM HEDRICK: It, in the script it said parenthesis, yells in all caps, end parenthesis, and I got the…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: But you knew his motivation, I think.
TIM HEDRICK: I did. He was scared.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Laughter] Synergy. See you next time.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Hi, this is Bryan Konietzko, co-creator, co-executive producer, and art director of Avatar.
TIM HEDRICK: Hi, I’m Tim Hedrick and I am a writer on Avatar, and I wrote this episode.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: And this is Mike DiMartino. I’m the other co-creator and executive producer of Avatar. And uh, so Tim is joining us here today. Tim has written such classic episodes, Avatar episodes, such as “The Deserter”.
TIM HEDRICK: Uh huh, that was a classic.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. “The Swamp”.
TIM HEDRICK: Another one. All the hits.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Uh, the first episode, I believe the first episode that we were, where we arrived in Ba Sing Se.
TIM HEDRICK: That’s right.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: After the… 2.14.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: And then this gem.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Kind of which is linked to 2.14, in the conspiracy theory.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, it’s kind of the end of that storyline.
TIM HEDRICK: And we see more of the lovely Jet.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. I feel like you can never get enough of Jet.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Until you do, and then he’s all done.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Yeah. Yeah so this is kind of an important episode to, uh, kind of, uh, wrap up the whole Jet storyline that we uh, kind of started in season one and continued in Ba Sing Se in season two.
TIM HEDRICK: And we see more of the Dai Li. I don’t know if you guys hit on this, but the Dai Li were named after the secret police of Chiang Kai Shek.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh.
TIM HEDRICK: So, and they are the secret police of Ba Sing Se. So that history of oppression lives on in Avatar.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh here’s, here’s a good… [Referring to a shot of Sokka’s terrible Appa sketches] These drawings of Appa are done by another writer, John O’Bryan.
TIM HEDRICK: My office mate!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. So John became the official artist of Sokka’s style.
TIM HEDRICK: I’ve been encouraging him to sell those at ComiCon.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
TIM HEDRICK: I don’t know if he’s going to do it or not.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think people would totally be into that.
TIM HEDRICK: I know I would bid on them.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to the beautiful professional Appa poster Ang and Katara have printed.] I did the other Appa poster.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You mean the one that is…
TIM HEDRICK: The one that looks like Appa?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah. Although I did not write the Chinese. That was S. L. Lee. What’s amazing is that John was able to tap into like seven different children’s styles.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter] He does.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: They’re all like accurately, authentically a child’s drawing, but like seven different children.
TIM HEDRICK: That is like, that’s exactly what it’s like sharing an office with John, it’s like seven different children.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So this was also the, you know, we needed an episode where finally Zuko, uh, finds out that uh, Aang is in the city and he’s close, he’s been trying to have this normal life, you know, trying to accept that, you know, settling down in Ba Sing Se, and then, uh…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Although he’s pretty conflicted about it, and this sort of…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This sort of spurs him to…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, this, I… This begins the Zuko becoming a happy tea maker arc
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: That ends tragically for him.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
PAO: What's going on here? Are you trying to poach my tea maker?
QUON: Sorry Pao, that's business for you, am I right?
PAO: Mushie, if you stay, I will make you Assistant Manager. Wait, Senior Assistant manager.]
TIM HEDRICK: And it gives you an inside look on the tea business, which I think is important for kids to know.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Franchise.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, have you talked about Avatar franchising like this? Opening some tea shops, maybe?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Uh…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Mike and I, we’re looking into it.
TIM HEDRICK: Starbucks can’t handle it all.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I just think that… Was Pao reacting to the hot teapot he just dropped in his hand?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think it was a combination of he burned his hands, and he was just upset that Iroh got taken away from him.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Not until this moment… Iroh’s a pretty considerate guy, but that was a pretty inconsiderate way to hand a teapot to someone.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So I want to say, this episode was directed by Lauren MacMullan, another great director on our team of Avatar folks, and uh, animation directed by Director Kim, uh of MOI Animation
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Kim Sang Jin.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, this was great, it was really exciting to see the Ba Sing Se designs come to life, because it’s an awesome looking city.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, it definitely feels like a real place.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The concept of the rings really worked out well with like a different architectural style and sort of a different level of, like a class system realized in the architecture. [Referring to Joo Dee] That’s based on Miken Wong, our production manager.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Who’s just this moment…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Wait, line producer? Line producer. Sorry Miken. Yes, we based… Miken is always happy, even when she’s telling you the show’s in trouble, or…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You’re behind schedule.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You’re behind schedule.
TIM HEDRICK: Any bad news with a smile.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: We love Miken. Mike and I worked with Miken starting like eight… Well for me about eight years ago, Mike about ten years ago. We’ve been working together on various shows around town.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: We can't wait around to get permission for everything.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And she’s still happy. So we had her do some acting references, the video footage.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: We don't care about the rules, and we're not asking permission! We're finding Appa on our own and you should just stay out of our way!]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I love this moment too, where Aang freaks out. I think Kenji, Kenji Ono, our storyboard artist, did some great drawings of the storyboard, and the animators took that and ran with it.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: I don't care. From now on we do whatever it takes to find Appa.
TOPH: Yeah! Let’s break some rules!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to Toph blasting a hole through the side of the guesthouse] And I think this moment just came out of the storyboard meeting.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: What’s funny is they blew a hole in the building, but they use the door still. We just had this idea that… I think in the script, she broke a pot, or just like a vase, but we were just like, uh, let’s have her blow half the house apart. And then when you see it in a subsequent episode, there’s like scaffolding.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They’re trying to fix it up.
TIM HEDRICK: I did want to mention that next door to them in the house, was a neighbor named Pong…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Yes.
TIM HEDRICK: That I put into many scripts in Ba Sing Se, that just… He never made it in.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well we saw him, we did see him in the first episode where they’re in Ba Sing Se.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh that’s right, they kind of talked to him very briefly.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Sokka talks to him, but uh…
TIM HEDRICK: At one point, didn’t he end up in the prison?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, yeah!
TIM HEDRICK: He was in the prison, and oh, the Dai Li was tracking him, they grabbed him out of his house, he had a whole backstory.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah. He was like a major character, and then…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: No offense Tim, but I don’t miss him.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah well, I think I might be the only one who has a hankering for more Pong.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So the idea was that this green fire, not sure if we touched on this, is that usually we just use, uh, in the Earth Kingdom, we use these phosphorescent crystals for a light source. Um, they don’t use fire that much, sort of a prejudice against firebenders and whatnot. Um, but we had, we had this idea that I don’t know, there was some rare crystal that was um, I don’t know, that was possibly fused with some gaseous substance and it could, it could burn. It’s like a really long lasting artificial log, or something.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And it has a green flame, because it, the gaseous releases.
TIM HEDRICK: But I imagine it being very fragrant as well.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It is, it’s like a…
TIM HEDRICK: It’s got a great scent.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Potpourri.
TIM HEDRICK: Evergreen.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, it’s uh, lime-mint is what it is.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: I suggest you think about what it is that you want for your life, and why.]
TIM HEDRICK: That’s some classic Uncle advice.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So Tim when you do write a script, and you know often there’s like a long gap before you see the final, you know, product…
TIM HEDRICK: Uh huh.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Are you ever surprised at the end, you’re like, I had no idea that was going to come out like that?
TIM HEDRICK: Yes. All the time. Almost always, there’s something in there, that’s… Usually there are always some visual jokes.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: That aren’t in the script. [Referring to Toph gluing the poster to the wall back to front] Although this was in the script, when she puts it on backwards. But I mean, yeah, especially like battle scenes, you never really know how the blocking is going to work out, and…
BRYAN KONIETZKO and MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Right.
TIM HEDRICK: When you see it in the end… This has a great fight scene in it. But all that, all that stuff is always amazing to see for the first time.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I think I can help you.]
TIM HEDRICK: And there’s our man.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, so this is the first time Katara has seen jet since uh, season one, when he broke her heart.
TIM HEDRICK: Yes.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So to speak.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: Tell it to some other girl, Jet.]
TIM HEDRICK: They had a loving relationship.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to Katara throwing ice daggers at Jet] This is a woman scorned right here.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I don’t want to fight you! I’m here to help]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I really… What I like about Jet’s character is like, he was… He’s always been kind of… troubled, you know?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: He’s, he’s, he’s, he had good intentions, but kind of went about the wrong way to, to, to, solve problems, I guess.
TIM HEDRICK: Ooh, yeah Jet has the kind of classic on the edge between good and evil, he means to fight the Fire Nation, but he goes too far, and it raises questions about you know, the difference between the freedom fighters and terrorists, and… There’s some really deep thematic stuff that goes on with Jet.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I swear, I've changed. I was a troubled person, and I let my anger get out of control. But I don't even have the gang now. I've put all that behind me.
KATARA: You're lying!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Jet was designed by Ryu Ki Hyun. He’s a great animator and designer we met at JM animation, and uh, we just loved his drawings, and um, and when episode 1.10 came into production, we, we gave him the assignment of designing Jet and the whole gang of freedom fighters.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: We're not letting you out of out sight!]
TIM HEDRICK: This, right, this is the first time we see Toph with her lie detecting abilities.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes! This is the …
TIM HEDRICK: Heartbeat.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The idea that she sees with the vibration, so she can sense… She’s kind of like a polygraph. She can sense a change in… If everything’s quiet enough, and she’s concentrating, she can sense it. The change in someone’s heartbeat and kind of bio rhythms.
TIM HEDRICK: Here comes Old Sweepy.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yes, this is a reoccurring theme in uh, Tim’s scripts.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Tim is great at writing old men.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Old blowhards.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh the old men!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And they use like, instead of saying the army, they like, [Imitating Old Sweepy] Army makes the stuff there! You know, they jump right into the sentence.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
OLD SWEEPY: Guess for a zoo or such, though could be the meat’d be good.]
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, I think he comes straight from New Palestine, Indiana. There’s some of my roots expressing themselves in film here.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: Far. Very far. Here it is. It's near the South Pole almost all the way back home.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Also Whaletail Island was named after that specific island on the map, right?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: That’s right.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You guys were looking at it and…
TIM HEDRICK: It looked like a whale’s tale.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Although no one in the Avatar world would know that, like would they?
TIM HEDRICK: Well…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They have whales, right?
TIM HEDRICK: You know, Avatars have been flying around for years.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I guess somebody made that map and saw…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: They probably have uh, bison-whales, I don’t know. Or something.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: They’ve got whales. I take it back.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: I'll come with you.
KATARA: We don't need you help.
JET: Why won't you trust me?
KATARA: Gee, I wonder?
TOPH: Was this guy your boyfriend or something?
KATARA: What? No!
TOPH: I can tell you're lying!]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Toph…
TIM HEDRICK: Paying off her power with a joke.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: I love that.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Don't worry, on the way back, we'll be flying!
TOPH: We're finally leaving Ba Sing Se. Worst city ever!]
TIM HEDRICK: That’s a great comment on this show, that our city is the worst!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
KATARA: I thought you said you didn't have your gang anymore.
JET: I don't.
SMELLERBEE: We were so worried. How did you get away from the Dai Li?
KATARA: Dai Li!?]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I think that what’s kind of cool about Ba Sing Se is that we set it up as this like Shangri-La, great place that the kids really wanted to get to, and all their problems would be solved once they got there, and they get there and they discover this crazy conspiracy, and like dark underside to the Earth Kingdom, which is cool.
TIM HEDRICK: Just continuing the line of disappointments that the characters get. All the time, it never works out for these guys.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well, yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: That, that goes along with, you know, we tend not to play people just like, good verses evil. And as the multifaceted nature of politics, and…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes.
TIM HEDRICK: Well the great thing about Ba Sing Se is that they see themselves as this Shangri-La, this perfect society, and everything’s on total lockdown. But they just can’t keep a lid on the war anymore.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: Out of my way, skinny.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This sequence came out really cool, with the Blue Spirit.
TIM HEDRICK: Blue Spirit!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He’s back! There you see a nice detail of how the Dai Li can remotely control these little stone hands. It’s like a puppet master.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I just like the idea that Zuko is in his apartment, stitching up this little Blue Spirit stuffed mask.
BRYAN KONIETZKO and TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He’s pretty good with the crafts.
TIM HEDRICK: He’s quite a seamstress.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He found one backstage at an opera. That’s it, because the Blue Spirit mask is an opera, like a Chinese opera mask for like a wizard.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: Maybe Katara could kiss him. That should bring something back.
KATARA: Maybe you should kiss him, Sokka.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You see a little Aang jealousy here.
TIM HEDRICK: For the shippers.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He doesn’t like that. Here’s a good…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, now we’re getting to the whole brainwashing of Jet.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Great sound design by Ben Wynn there, when Sokka sticks the hay into his mouth.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, he did some great stuff here when Jet goes into his, his kind of tripped out mind thing here. This kind of surreal sound design and stuff, which is really cool.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You see a little, uh…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh right! This was the big moment where we reveal the Rough Rhinos were behind the uh, destruction of Jet’s town when he was a kid.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The idea was that the Rough Rhinos sort of were the, the group that would go in first, before the army would come, and they would sort of raze the village, and set it on fire, and just kind of cause mayhem.
TIM HEDRICK: In addition to their singing performances, which they take on the road.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Of course, yes. They usually sing first, then, then raze the villages.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: They took me to a headquarters under the water, like a lake.
SOKKA: Wait! Remember what Joo Dee said? She said she went on vacation to Lake Laogai.]
TIM HEDRICK: And we were talking before that Laogai means prison in Chinese, and so it’s essentially Prison Lake.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: A little on the nose.
TIM HEDRICK: Yes, it’s going to take some of the surprise out of it for the fans in the Asian…
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SOKKA: So where's this secret headquarters?
JET: Under the lake I think.
TOPH: There's a tunnel right there near the shore.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Toph, always handy for some underground sight.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So I was really happy with a lot of the background designs and paintings for this, uh, kind of catacomb-like space. I have a really cool book that shows, uh, empty spaces in Paris, and they have these like catacomb sewer systems, that look a lot like these. We used those as inspirations.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JOO DEES: I'm Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is one of my favorite sequences in Avatar.
TIM HEDRICK: It’s kind of Stepford Wives-esque, scene where they’re all being brainwashed.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: The Joo Dee factory.
TIM HEDRICK: There are plenty of Joo Dees to go around.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So here we see the phosphorescent crystals, um, that we normally use, um. We kept them kind of a cool color, keep it creepy.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, that was, that was one of my favorite kind of cuts, too, that we’ve done in the show, just the mislead of, think it’s the kids, aw, it’s the Blue Spirit.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, and this is, how long has Appa been gone? For like six episodes I think now.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: The end of ten.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to the fight between the Dai Li and the Gaang and Jet under Lake Laogai] This is a great uh, sequence, action sequence, storyboarded by Joaquim Dos Santos, uh, who later became a director on Avatar, after Lauren left. One of my favorite action sequences.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yes. It’s definitely a challenge I think to board multiple people fighting, and keeping it clear what’s going on. You know if you have one on one, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult, but I think much harder to keep track of a bunch of different characters all fighting at the same time. There’s some great moments of seeing the Dai Li grabbing people, and creating these rock pillars, and running up the walls, and all this stuff. It’s very, very exciting.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a shot of Toph fighting the Dai Li, atop and between columns of rock that the Dai Li have thrown at her] This shot’s one of my favorites, right here. The symmetry of Toph taking out the…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, it’s great.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, and the great idea that Toph can’t see the fists always flying at her.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Right.
TIM HEDRICK: You know, because they’re flying through the air. [Referring to a shot of Jet knocking away a rock with his hook swords] That’s some excellent hook sword action.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, she knows the line of action. She can feel someone strike at her, but yeah, it might be hard for her to time, time the fist in the air. [Referring to the straight, narrow, tunnel room with water pipes in the walls and crystal lights lining the floor] This room came out really well.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: All right Avatar, you've caused me enough problems.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Clancy Brown, fantastic voice actor, does Long Feng.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: You do have Appa. Tell me where he is!
LONG FENG: Agree to exit the city now, and I'll waive all charges against you and allow you to leave with your lost pet.
JET: You're in no position to bargain.
LONG FENG: Am I not?]
TIM HEDRICK: And now Jet turns into the ultimate weapon!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Jet, The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Cool little sound design there on the word Laogai. The little echos. [Referring to a scene change to Appa pounding the ground with his chained legs] I love that, that animation of Appa is like, some of the best, because you just really feel his weight, and like how big he is, in the…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Very cool.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is difficult to do in TV sometimes.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: So, the Blue Spirit. I wonder who could be behind that mask?]
TIM HEDRICK: This is… Uncle just drops kind of the ultimate Uncle speech on Zuko here, to just kind of break him.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It’s a great one. Very emotional. Usually Uncle stays kind of calm, but every once in a while…
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, he can’t, can’t keep it in anymore.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Like 1.20 when he’s like yelling at Zhao, you know, I really like when he gets, when he gets excited.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: You never think these things through!]
TIM HEDRICK: You know he’s serious.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: And great acting by Mako, who, uh, unfortunately passed away, uh, last year.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: I would have figured something out!
IROH: No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would have frozen to death!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Did just a great job bringing Uncle to life. And Zuko’s teen angst and stubbornness.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah. [Laughter]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: He knows these things, he just doesn’t want to let them through. He’s hung up on his ego.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
ZUKO: I have to do this!
IROH: I'm begging you Prince Zuko!]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Really wants his father’s approval, even though he’s kind of torn with what he thinks about his father.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
IROH: begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are you? And what do you want?]
TIM HEDRICK: It makes you think that maybe if Zuko had a pet like Appa to love, then maybe he would have been softened.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Laughter] Maybe.
TIM HEDRICK: As a child.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I think they’ve scentifically proven that having pets…
TIM HEDRICK: It’s very therapeutic.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Very therapeutic.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: You don't have to do this!
LONG FENG: I’m afraid he no longer has a choice.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I really like the you know, just the tragedy of what happens to Jet here.
TIM HEDRICK: Jet’s internal battle is just like…
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You know he doesn’t want to be doing this, but...
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Jet, I'm your friend! Look inside your heart!
LONG FENG: Do your duty Jet.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: This is a great little sequence that Mike and Jeff Adams, the editer, pulled together.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: He can't make you do this! You're a Freedom Fighter.]
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Flashback!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to a shot of Katara blushing in Jet’s arms in the flashback] Good times with Katara.
TIM HEDRICK: Oh man.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Do it. Do it now!]
TIM HEDRICK: [Referring to Jet’s death] This sequence got scripted I think like ten to twelve different times.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: You’re right, it did. I mean, the… Originally…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I mean maybe we shouldn’t.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: There was a different version we had.
TIM HEDRICK: There were many different ways…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I like how it came out.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, no, no, I think this is definitely the best way that makes Long Feng…
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
LONG FENG: Foolish boy. You've chosen your own demise.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Very villainous.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I’m happy with the storyboarding sequence too. I think it, uh, really came together.
TIM HEDRICK: And this is Toph’s big lie detector payoff, coming up.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: She sees through Jet’s heroic downplay of his predicament.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
SMELLERBEE: You guys go find Appa. We'll take care of Jet.
KATARA: We're not going to leave you.
LONGSHOT: There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: The first time!
TIM HEDRICK: Longshot speaks.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yep.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: First time and last time.
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
JET: Don't worry Katara, I'll be fine.]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So many people are wondering, why didn’t Katara use the spirit water at this point.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter] That’s a great question.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: It’s a good thing she didn’t, because…
TIM HEDRICK: She was… saving it.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think she tested it. She tested the water. She knew she couldn’t help him.
TIM HEDRICK: Spirit water is for series regulars only.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Well it’s, it’s also that we determined that spirit water, you got to have some sort of spiritual connection to the Spirit World, or something like that to really.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: I guess it’s that Aang was the Avatar.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Had she used it on a normal person, it probably wouldn’t have worked.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I think it was the fact that… It would just be like regular water.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Yeah, the fact that Aang was the avatar…
TIM HEDRICK: But could she have used it for Zuko plastic surgery?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: You know, but the idea behind that is that it wouldn’t change the look of the scar.
TIM HEDRICK: By the way, I did some ADR on this part of the episode.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh really?
TIM HEDRICK: So you get to hear me and John O’Bryan yelling as uh.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh you were…
TIM HEDRICK: As Dai Li.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Oh you are? [Referring to Momo flying up out of the box the Dai Li built to hold the gaang] That’s a great shot there.
TIM HEDRICK: See if you can pick out which one’s me.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Oh, here’s the big moment, everyone’s been waiting for.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Whoohoo!
[Interjection of dialogue from the show:
AANG: Appa!]
TIM HEDRICK: I’m tearing up.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Whee, Appa came back! Yeah, after we, you know, we kind of messed with the audience a few times, where you think Appa’s going to come back, and then he doesn’t, and…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a Dai Li scream] I, that was you!
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah, that’s us, right!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Got it.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: So I think this is very, very satisfying reuniting.
TIM HEDRICK: Long Feng gets his comeuppance.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a closeup of Appa snarling at Long Feng] That’s a great shot. Telephoto. You see, Long Feng did start to earthbend there, but Appa intercepted him. I like how quiet it is when he skips across the water.
TIM HEDRICK: It’s very peaceful, like maybe Appa would just be doing that on a sunny day by himself.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah.
TIM HEDRICK: Just skipping people across the pond.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: So Long Feng’s foot is not inside that shoe. It’s just the shoe. [Referring to Appa grunting and closing his eyes when Aang hugs him] That’s a sweet moment.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Aww!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Referring to a shot of Katara looking sadly out over the water] And then Katara’s mourning here.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: [Referring to a shot of everybody leaning in for a group hug on Appa] They’re all a family again.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Zuko at this crossroads.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: I like this little tag. I think in the animatic, he had, we, we didn’t have this little end scene and we added it afterwards, because I think it wasn’t totally clear that we knew that Zuko was the one who freed Appa or not.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Because if you showed it, that would take away the surprise of, of Appa showing up.
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah. I love that last shot too, of…
TIM HEDRICK: The Blue Spirit is he gone for good?
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah, pretty much.
TIM HEDRICK: [Laughter]
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: All right. Once again we want to thank everyone who has worked really hard on this show to make it awesome! Thanks Tim for an awesome script…
TIM HEDRICK: Great, thanks for having me there!
MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO: Yeah
TIM HEDRICK: It was a lot of fun.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Thanks for that yell in the end of the episode. I think that was the…
TIM HEDRICK: It kind of sealed the deal, didn’t it?
BRYAN KONIETZKO: It did.
TIM HEDRICK: I think it was the dramatic juice that this episode needed.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Because you wrote that guy’s yell.
TIM HEDRICK: Yeah!
BRYAN KONIETZKO: Something about writing it and then voicing it.
TIM HEDRICK: It, in the script it said parenthesis, yells in all caps, end parenthesis, and I got the…
BRYAN KONIETZKO: But you knew his motivation, I think.
TIM HEDRICK: I did. He was scared.
BRYAN KONIETZKO: [Laughter] Synergy. See you next time.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-23 11:47 pm (UTC)