Avatar-canon questions

[feral_shrew]

I'm missing a critical episode or two in the second season of Avatar. I've picked up most of the pieces, but a few details would help a ton for a story challenge if anyone knows the answers. I'll try finding the right transcripts later, but if all else fails I'll let people correct me on canon-flubs later

Comments

[arrayepl]

Well I'm not sure if it's really the same mask. The season one mask was probably destroyed when Zukos ship was blown up by the pirates. In the episode the Swamp Zuko stole the mask from a cart festooned with masks for sale.
After this Zuko began to steal as a Blue Spirit.

Second question I must pass.

Third one is easy. In the first episode of season two - the Avatar Day - same one when Azula tried to trick Zuko to come home.

[feral_shrew]

Thank you so much! I thought the season one mask would be gone (unless Zuko somehow had it with him while busy breaking into the Northern Water Kingdom), but I also missed the bit where he stole a new mask. (Relative geography is a crapshoot, but if somebody had a great idea, cool, saves me the trouble of finagling where on earth the complex goes. I think I have a way around that anyway.)

Those details alone make plotting feel a lot smoother, now that I'm not trying to find things in some episode somewhere. I came into the series very, very late. I saw Boiling Rock Part II first, and it was probably a rerun, but it was very quickly one of the few things I would watch with my brother.

[arrayepl]

If you need more info about the episodes go there: http://www.avatarspiritmedia.net/transcripts.php

[feral_shrew]

I love that site! I've used quite a few transcripts, but don't have time to read all of them just yet. Maybe it can be a spring break project.

[beboots]

As for #2... here is a fan map that shows Ba Sing Se. Lake Laogai is in the Lower Ring. (Incidentally, Ba Sing Se is so huge it's like 2/3 the size of the entire Fire Nation)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs33/f/2008/236/7/6/Avatar__World_Map_by_AlisaChristopher.jpg

Granted, that's a fan map, but it agrees with official maps out there... most of which are far too small. :P http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1280&bih=685&q=avatar+the+last+airbender+world+map&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=

[deleonjh]

This map agrees with yours:

http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Map_of_the_Avatar_World

Apparently the name Laogai "is an abbreviation for Laodong Gaizao, 勞動改造, which means "reform through labor," and refers to the use of prison labor in the People's Republic of China. The Laogai were a series of work camps where opponents of Chairman Mao were sent. "

You learn all kinds of things from the Avatar Wiki.

[feral_shrew]

I love history-details, and many, many thanks for the maps. It makes my story work way better than I thought, which means the big challenge is getting it down to 5,000 words. (Nobody said there can't be sequels?)

[feral_shrew]

I /love/ maps. There's just something extra-fantasy about having a proper map so you know where you are and what kind of environment you have. (That's what I need for Temeraire, my grasp of British geography is immensely basic. I can point out a few cities on a map, and can tell between Scotland and Wales, but my only proper geography course covered Africa and the Middle East. That social studies teacher was funny, really smart, and absolutely horrid with drawing maps. She had these wavery rectangles, so we had to picture the right part instead.)

[avocado_love]

A note about the mask... it was shown as for sale in early season 2 in the background on a merchant cart. So it's totally possible the first was destroyed with the ship and the second was stolen from the merchant -- meaning that there's probably a lot more around.

[feral_shrew]

I guessed there would be more than one of that mask, and that Zuko didn't steal some one-of-a-kind artifact. I don't think it's explained where Zuko ended up with the (first) mask, but I can picture him grabbing the first thing that didn't look like it belonged in Fire Nation.