I didn't expect much, this was clearly a filler so my hopes couldn't be crushed this time. I still didn't like this episode.
I thought that the writers would try and be...
imaginative and have the Painted Lady be the spirit of Katara's mother or a renegade, random Waterbender,
anything other than Katara just trying to help so she becomes a hot superhero! As soon as I saw Katara's desire to help the poor town I knew that she was the Painted Lady and all my hopes for this episode were crushed. Behold Katara's even cooler new outfit!
Helping others is good but this just made me gag. "Look everyone, see how great Katara is!? She's pretty, strong,
and kind; so kind that she won the hearts of the FN people!"
Katara was so... MEAN! Yeah-yeah-yeah she was trying to help the suffering FN people but she was making it appear that Appa was ill (and possibly actually hurting Appa since he was lying on his side and breathing heavily),
lying to her friends, and being mean to her brother to do what she wanted and no one really criticizes her for it. She rushes into destroying the factory without thinking about the results but
Sokka is the one who is blamed for the angry factory people heading for the village.
Sheesh, if they develop Katara anymore she'll
explode from all the awesome little tidbits they tack onto her.
Sokka wasn't
that selfish; Katara was treating Sokka like he was being a villain. So Sokka didn't want to help- even though his obsession with having a schedule where they do
NOTHING is pretty stupid, but he is right that they cannot stop to help everyone. The creators totally ruined Sokka and worshiped Katara by showing us that Sokka was wrong and that you can and should help every single poor person you come across because if you don't then you're selfish... I'm being too critical, but the way Sokka was portrayed was terrible!
The two have a brief spat and then Sokka apologizes for his "selfish" ways and they hug.
Toph... TOPH IS BACK! Sure she didn't DO anything like Katara, Sokka, or Aang did, but she actually
talked and acted like herself! I was squealing with joy!
But poor Aang, he became Toph in this episode and was just THERE. Aside from him chasing the Painted Lady and bending at the end, he just commented and bended, though he certainly did more than Toph did in the previous episodes.
And of course, the random FN baddie was a hot headed Firebender... remember the bully from the previous episode, he was a Firebender too; so was the animal trainer who abused Appa and so was Colonel Mongke and even the Warden. Fire Lord Ozai, Admiral Zhao, Princess Azula, Iroh before he became good, and Zuko (he's still technically a baddie). I sense bending prejudice in Avatar land.
The episode has the worst pacing I've seen yet. How the hell did Katara learn of the Painted Lady? Where did she get those clothes? Is it humanly possible for people to overcome betrayal with a few not so dramatic or inspiring words from the sibling of the one who betrayed your trust? Why did this all happen so fast? Season 3 has terrible pacing; I remember being satisfied with season 1's pacing, I would have liked expansion but I was content. I felt that season 2 could have expanded some episodes but I could get over it, but season 3 is killing me.
The ending was stupid. The crazy nutter notices Katara's smudged makeup so they know she isn't a real spirit, the people take back all their gratitude towards Katara because she's a Waterbender- like the EK people's reaction to Zuko in "Zuko Alone"- except that the people accept Katara just because of Sokka's very few and not very inspiring words. Oh well, it's a better ending than in "The Great Divide" by far.
And worst of all, Momo is disappearing!
At least they didn't try to squeeze in Zuko, his assassin, or Azula and company. Imagine how random this episode would have been if they had to squeeze in more of Zuko's angst and love scenes (I would have choked to death with the saintly goodness
AND cheesy love dialogue).
Over all, this episode sucked. Admittedly, it might have been pretty cool if it was longer. But it was hard to really get a Blue Spirit feel for the Painted Lady since she only was shown helping the people once (not including when KATARA destroyed the factory). The Painted Lady did not have a superhero feel at all.
But I'm being to critical again, but this episode was just so random. It didn't do a good job in showing Katara's good side who wants to help people... wait a minute, didn't they do that in "Imprisoned" only with Earthbender being opressed by the FN?