As we get ready to say goodbye to Aang and the Gaang this Sunday, let’s take a look back at all of the ways we’ve laughed and cried with the Rewatchable crew these past eight months.Thirty-one weeks/podcasts later, these are the top 12 highlights of Rewatchable’s Avatar: The Last Airbender cycle.
Episode 66 – 1×01, 1×02 — ‘Everything Changed’: Brittany mistakes Zuko’s scar for warrior paint.
Oh, we were once so young and naive! While watching the pilot, Brittany assumed that the giant red blob on Zuko’s face was just a Fire Nation Prince’s aesthetic hipster accessory. Fast forward 30 episodes, and she now realizes that this essential element of Zuko’s DARK AND HAUNTED BACKSTORY is the foundation that #Zutara5Eva drams are built on.
Episode 67 — 1×03, 1×04 — ‘Not a Euphemism’: The debut of Ariana’s infamous ‘ATLA’ synopses.
Always obnoxious and occasionally delightful, the chapter synopses get down to the NITTY GRITTY of what each ATLA chapter is really about.
Episode 67: The first synopsis (where Ariana literally could not remember any of the characters’ names and instead gave them Harry Potter alter egos).
Episode 95: The final synopsis (because everything always is about #Zutara5Eva).
Episode 68 — 1×05, 1×06 — ‘Punbending’: Brittany meets Bumi.
And the saga of true love begins…
Episode 70 — 1×09, 1×10 — ‘Grand Theft Avatar’: #Zutara5Eva is born.
After EXTENSIVE teasing from Michal, Donya, and Mitch, Karen spots the first glimpses of Zutara’s beautiful beginnings in “The Waterbending Scroll.” All of the newbies would go on to champion #Zutara5Eva until the very bitter end, lamenting the greatest love story never told. Like the classy violinists playing on the Titanic, we are proud to go down with our ship.
Episode 72 — 1×13, 1×14 — ‘Attack of the Newbies’: The introduction of Karen’s iTunes incentives.
We’ve been teasing our iTunes “incentives” on Rewatchable since back in our VMars days, but in the spur of her 2 a.m. doc-writing haze, Ariana decided it would be LAUGH OUT LOUD HILARIOUS to call out our fearless leader Karen as the bestower of our gratitude. The joke really wasn’t that funny, but somehow the theme kind of stuck, and we’ve been forcing Karen to pimp herself out in the name of iTunes reviews ever since.
The original Karen’s incentive started out pretty mild:
“ALL FIVE STAR REVIEWS GET A BEAUTIFUL GUMBALL NECKLACE HANDMADE BY KAREN.” — Episode 72
They were occasionally violent…
“If you rate us 5 stars on iTunes Karen will give you an Earth Nation dagger she won after murdering thousands of innocent people.” — Episode 79
Sometimes downright creepy…
“If you give us 5 stars, Karen will let you witness the birth of her first born child so you can be renewed with Hope.” — Episode 81
But mostly, they were sexy…
“If you rate us 5 stars then Karen will shave her hair into a little angst ponytail, and then cut it off, and then grow it out again to an appropriately side-swept bangs sexy length, and then eye-bang you in a cave (with some light petting.)” — Episode 85
But this one is probably the most “KAREN”:
“If you rate us 5 stars then Karen will snuggle you against her bosom in a warm, motherly embrace.” — Episode 89
Who WOULDN’T want all of that?
FYI: Brittany’s compiled a collection of all of Karen’s iTunes incentives over on our Rewatchable Tumblr!
Episode 73 — 1×15, 1×16 — ‘Homeboy’s Man Challenge’: Brittany reads Ariana’s fake listener feedback, ‘Ode to Katara.’
After weeks of listening to the Rewatchable crew hate on Katara, Ariana felt the need to speak up for Team Avatar’s lovably annoying Group Mom. (***To be honest, I didn’t even care that much about Katara as a character at this point, I just felt like I needed to take a stand for WOMANHOOD.***) Ariana wasn’t on this episode, so Brittany agreed to read/rap the monologue in her Beyonce voice, but best of all was how LONG it took everyone other than Brittany to realize that this ridiculous Katara poem wasn’t ACTUAL listener feedback.
Episode 75 — 1×19, 1×20 — ‘Moon Problems’: Mitch is dubbed the ‘Lazy Avatar.’
Oh, Mitchel Clow. Infamous on Rewatchable for spoiling events that shouldn’t even be considered spoilers, in the season 1 finale episode, Mitch declared that he would only want to travel around the world on a hairy bison if Appa came equipped with wi-fi (so he could binge watch Netflix on the go). Throughout the rest of the ATLA rewatch, Mitch’s Lazy Avatar became the go-to example for what the Gaang’s path of least resistance could be.
Episode 78 — 2×05, 2×06 — ‘Trail of Trials’: The Boulder makes a special appearance on ‘Rewatchable’ courtesy of Caitlin.
A fan favorite on the podcast, The Boulder would continue to make occasional guest appearances throughout ATLA’s cycle run, each one met with even more anticipation than the last. We’ll always hold a special place in our heart, though, for the first time Caitlin busted out her spot-on The Boulder impression.
Episode 79 — 2×07, 2×08 — ‘Bendercist’: Natalie vents about Katara.
People on this podcast obviously have a lot of feelings regarding Katara, and it’s made for some of our most memorable moments. After holding it in for one and a half seasons, Natalie finally let her Katara rage hang out loud and proud. One of our most controversial fandom opinions made on the show, the listener response to Natalie’s anti-Katara stance has been some of the most divided we’ve ever had. While some Internet bots continue to yell at Natalie for being a madame fussy britches, others have applauded her for finally SPEAKING FOR THE PEOPLE and voicing the cooped up feelings they’ve always had.
Episode 83 — 2×15, 2×16 — ‘Everyone is dead’: Michal convinces the Newbies that Dead Suki is dead.
In a move that can only really be described as “evil,” Michal convinced all of the Rewatchable newbies that Suki’s fight with Azula ended in her ambiguous, but certain doom. Karen, Brittany and Ariana would go on to believe for the next one and a half seasons that Dead Suki was dead. Thus, her reemergence in season 3 brought about complicated, bittersweet feelings, as the newbies decided that much like Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor, though we once missed Ben Affleck, we had already moved on to #Tokka.
Episode 86 — 3×01 — ‘Career Avatar’: Everyone agrees that Azula’s sensual bedroom dance for Zuzu was creepy-seksi.
Because it is. Both creepy and sexy, we mean.
#TheBeach
Hashtags have become kind of a thing on Rewatchable, but #TheBeach will always have a special place in our hearts as the secret and illusive goal the newbies anticipated as the answer to all of our mysterious questions.
Some of our other frequent favorites include:
#TeamSokkasSchedule
#forevergirl
#SokkasDeadGirlfriends
#hairbending
#tearbending
#friendshipbending
and of course, #Zutara5Eva.