History Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderSozinsCometPart3IntoTheInferno

** The White Lotus attack on Ba Sing Se is one for Iroh in terms of his character arc. It was Iroh's original siege of the Earth Kingdom capital and the death of his son Tu Lan that began his reformation prior to Book One. Now, that journey has literally and thematically brought Iroh right back to Ba Sing Se to attack it again -- but this time to ''liberate'' the city rather than to conquer it.

''[[caption-width-right:333:Their powers enhanced by the comet, Zuko and Azula engage in an Agni Kai for the right to be Fire Lord.]]''

->'''Azula:''' I’m sorry it has to end this way, ''brother''.\\
'''Zuko:''' No, you’re not.

* EvilIsHammy: After three seasons of being a SoftSpokenSadist, Firelord Ozai goes full '''[[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Unlimited Powah]]''' with his comet enhanced firebending.

* PunchClockVillain: The crew of the airships behave this way. When Sokka (pretending to be the captain) invites them for a birthday celebration, we get a brief scene of the crew meeting each other and wondering whose birthday it is before they're promptly dropped into the ocean.

* VillainHasAPoint: Azula, despite being on a VillainousBreakdown, when banishing the Dai Li, justifies it by pointing out how they betrayed Long Feng to join her. While she's definitely paranoid, she has a point. If the Dai Li was willing to betray their long time leader who, until Azula's infiltration, had their absolute loyalty, even after Earth King Kuei ordered his arrest, who's to say they wouldn't eventually turn on her, too?

'''Zuko:''' No, you are not.

* UncannyValley: Hallucination!Ursa has this vibe, despite it being minor. Justified that it's Azula imagining her mother coming to curse her.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Azula, when banishing the Dai Li, justifies it by pointing out how they betrayed Long Feng to join her. While she's definitely paranoid, she has a point. If the Dai Li was willing to betray their long time leader who, until Azula's infiltration, had their absolute loyalty, even after Earth King Kuei ordered his arrest, who's to say they wouldn't eventually turn on her, too?

* WorfHadTheFlu: Having cut ties with his abusive father, trained with the Sun Warriors, and found his path in training Aang and befriending the rest of Team Avatar, Zuko is more mentally and emotionally centered than he's ever been in his life. Azula, by contrast, is in the middle of a nervous breakdown, following the betrayal of two of her closest friends/allies/"pawns". Zuko lampshades this before their Agni Kai, saying that for some reason, he's sure he can take Azula by himself as she's ''off''.

* OhCrap: Ozai's face screams this when he sees Aang channeling his lightning and looking like he's going to redirect it at him.

* PlayingTheHeartstrings: The Agni Kai opens with a very somber string piece before it cuts away. When it cuts back, the audio is muffled as a piece of SadBattleMusic plays over it all.

* RealityEnsues:
** Cutting your hair with scissors (even if it's just your bangs) doesn't look as stylish as you'd expect. Fittingly, Azula tries to cut her bangs, but it only makes her look more [[VillainousBreakdown deranged]]. Also, the reason she cuts her own hair in the first place is that she's frustrated because she can't instantly make a perfect bun--as a princess, she's likely never done her own hair in her life, but by this point it looks like her banishment spree has taken out every single attendant. Turns out, your employees provide valuable services and getting rid of them all on the day of an important event is a bad idea.
** Despite his innate strength and talent, without the Avatar State, Aang is still a ''kid'', who only started learning how to bend anything but air ''this year''. Ozai, in contrast, has lots of experience and is amped up by the comet in the bargain. The first half of the fight thus goes about the way you'd expect a grown man trying to murder a child to go--Aang's stuck on the defensive, and after he doesn't take his chance to kill Ozai, he doesn't get another opening.

-->'''Azula''': You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be: '''Agni Kai'''!\\
Zuko: [[BringIt ...You're on]].

* WorfHadTheFlu: Having cut ties with his abusive father, trained with the Sun Warriors, and found his path in training Aang and befriending the rest of Team Avatar, Zuko is more mentally and emotionally centered than he's ever been in his life. Azula, by contrast, is in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Zuko lampshades this before their Agni Kai, saying that for some reason, he's sure he can take Azula by himself as she's ''off''.

->''"I’m sorry it has to end this way, ''brother''."''\\
''"No, you’re not."''

Azula's mental stability, undermined by the betrayal of her childhood friends at the Boiling Rock, begins to deteriorate as her coronation as Fire lord approaches. Zuko and Katara confront her right when she is about to be crowned Firelord, but Azula challenges her brother to an Agni Kai. Zuko, although initially winning, is gravely injured when Azula throws lightning at Katara which he dives in the way of. Aang duels Ozai without result, still unwilling to kill him. Sokka, Toph, and Suki attempt to halt the Airship fleet but are soon separated, while the Order of the White Lotus battles for Ba Sing Se's freedom.

!!Tropes:

* [[CarFu Airship Fu]]: How Sokka takes out most of Ozai's air fleet.

** It is also utilized when Zuko taunts Azula to use lightning-bending. She does, and the animation slows down when she realizes that Zuko can redirect it...but ''Katara'' can't. Cue BigNo and TakingTheBullet.

** During Zuko's lightning redirection training, Iroh warns Zuko not to channel the lightning through the heart which happens when he redirects Azula's shot at Katara.
** The fight between Zuko and Azula is also a culmination of what Zuko learned from his journey. He even uses Zhao's hand motions to dissipate one of Azula's attacks, and even Azula's own massive fireblast from the episode "Crossroads of Destiny" to deflect another one.

* CruelMercy: Azula shows forgiving mercy towards her servant for a minor mistake....by banishing the poor girl. However, bear in mind that this is a relatively lenient sentence when compared to her original intent to have the girl punished for ''treason''.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Azula banishes her servant for giving her cherry without the pit taken out. She also fires the Dai Li for taking 5 minutes to reach her.

-->'''Ozai:''' You're weak, just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world ... [[ItsAllAboutMe in ''my'' world!]] Prepare to join them. [[PrepareToDie Prepare to DIE!]]

-->'''Aang:''' Please, listen to me. We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you're doing.
-->'''Ozai''': You are right. I ''do'' have the power. I have all the power in the '''[[IncendiaryExponent WOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRLLD]]!!!'''
* GrapesOfLuxury: Azula tries this out at the beginning of the episode, though with cherries instead of grapes. Finding a pit in one cherry leads to her paranoia and slip into insanity.

* IJustWantToBeLoved: It's strongly implied that Azula felt unloved by her mother because of how she was raised. She also feels betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee who may have unintentionally triggered Azula's downward spiral.
* ImportantHaircut: Azula decides to cut her bangs which underscores her SanitySlippage.

* InterestingSituationDuel: Zuko Vs. Azula are two firebenders under the influence of Sozin's Comet; so we end up getting quite a spectacle of cerulean and crimson fire throughout their Agni Kai.

-->'''Zuko:''' No lightning today? What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it?
--> '''Azula:''' Oh, I'll show you ''lightning''!

* KillingIntent: Played straight. Azula takes a potshot at Katara with lightning, but knowing full well that Zuko would jump in front of the shot with little reaction time and thus get badly hurt (if not killed) by the shot. It looks like it's an attempt to kill Katara, but it was a ploy to get at Zuko whose defenses she couldn't crack in the fight.

* MeaningfulEcho: Sokka suggests using an "Airship Slice" to take out the airship fleet, echoing both his suggestion that Aang use an "Airbending Slice" to break out of jail in the episode "Avatar Day" and his cheering on of Aang moments earlier.

* SanitySlippage: Azula continues on this path from the previous two parts, after losing her partners in crime in earlier episodes due to her actions, as well as seen as being betrayed by Ozai. She fires people for trivial reasoning, such as firing a servant for finding a pit in a cherry she was eating (which the poor girl has no control over!) gets her exiled, as does the Dai Li after taking 5 minutes to arrive at Azula (though her concerns are more about treachery, as they were all traitors to the Earth King, so her reasoning is at least understandable). When she's trying to prepare herself for her coronation to become Fire Lord, she has a conversation with Ursa, which the later wide shot reveals that Ursa was never there.

* TrapDoor: Sokka tricks the crew of a Firebender Zeppelin to gather in the bomb bay. He then opens the bay shaft and the crew drops hundreds of meters down into SoftWater.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Earth Kingdom's army is ''nowhere in sight'' anywhere in the battle for Ba Sing Se. Considering that ongoing rebellions by the Earthbenders had caused Ozai enough grief to prompt his plan to raze the continent, their absence here is baffling.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The Fire Nation soldiers in the ship Sokka takes command of has a bunch of them act like PunchClockVillains, with one pair conversing in how they've never met up in the very large ship, and seem genuinely friendly with each other. When Sokka says it's someones birthday as the reason they're all in one gathering, one of the soldiers even shows delight that the captain remembered, only to be unceremoniously dumped into the ocean.

* RealityEnsues: Cutting your hair with scissors (even if it's just your bangs) doesn't look as stylish as you'd expect. Fittingly, Azula tries to cut her bangs, but it only makes her look more [[VillainousBreakdown deranged]].

* BlueOrangeContrast: Zuko's Orange vs. Azula's Blue Fire during their Agni Kai.

* AGodAmI: Ozai is really power-tripping.
-->'''Ozai''': I have all the power in the '''[[IncendiaryExponent WOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRLLD]]!!!'''

* {{ShoutOut}}: The nickname of [[ComicBook/SuicideSquad "Captain Boomerang"]] gets briefly used here by Toph to describe Sokka.

* SanitySlippage: Azula continues on this path from the previous two parts, after losing her partners in crime in earlier episodes due to her actions, as well as seen as being betrayed by Ozai. She fires people for trivial reasoning, such as firing a servant for finding a pip in a berry (which the poor girl has no control over!) gets her exiled, as does the Dai Li after taking 5 minutes to arrive at Azula (though her concerns are more about treachery, as they were all traitors to the Earth King, so her reasoning is at least understandable). When she's trying to prepare herself for her coronation to become Fire Lord, she has a conversation with Ursa, which the later wide shot reveals that Ursa was never there.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: The Fire Nation soldiers in the ship Sokka takes command of has a bunch of them act like PunchClockVillains, with one pair conversing in how they've never met up in the very large ship, and seem genuinely friendly with each other. When Captain!Sokka mentions it's someones birthday as the reason they're all in one gathering, one of the soldiers even shows delight (under a mask!) that the captain remembered, only to be unceremoniously dumped into the ocean.

* CruelMercy: Azula shows forgiving mercy towards her servant for a minor mistake. ...by banishing the poor girl. However, bear in mind that this is a relatively lenient sentence when compared to her original intent to have the girl punished for ''treason''.

* RealityEnsues: Cutting your hair with scissors (even if it's just your bangs) doesn't look as stylish as you'd expect. Fittingly, Azula tries to cut her bangs, but it only makes her look more.... [[VillainousBreakdown deranged]]...

* SanitySlippage: Azula. When she's trying to prepare herself for her coronation, she has a conversation with Ursa... even though a shot reveals that Ursa was never there.
* SceneryGorn: The comet enhanced firebending is used to make some of the most horrifically beautiful and eye-catching visuals in the series.

* ShooOutTheClowns: Eventually {{lampshaded}} by Aang, who tells his silly lemur friend to leave just before engaging the Fire Lord in a battle for the destiny of the planet.

* LimpAndLivid: After Katara chains her up, Azula can't do much but scream angrily and flop around. Also does MarionetteMotion.

* KubrickStare: Azula. A lot.
* LimpAndLivid: Azula. Also does MarionetteMotion.

* TakingTheBullet: Zuko takes a lightning bolt for Katara from Azula.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Having cut ties with his abusive father, trained with the Sun Warriors, and found his path in training Aang and befriending the rest of Team Avatar, Zuko is more mentally and emotionally centered than he's ever been in his life. Azula, by contrast, is in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

* BigNo: Zuko, when Azula attempts to strike Katara with lightning.
* BulletTime
* CallBack: During Zuko's lightning redirection training, Iroh warns Zuko not to channel the lightning through the heart which happens when he redirects Azula's shot at Katara.

* CometOfDoom: Sozin's Comet.

* FutileHandReach: Sokka and Suki, when their airship breaks apart and separates them.

* MidairCollision: "'''''AIRSHIP SLICE!'''''"

* PunchClockVillain: The crew of the airships behave this way.

* SlasherSmile: Azula. Ozai too.

** Zuko baiting Azula for a lightning strike isn't this; but it became this when he realized that Katara was in shooting distance.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Having cut ties with his abusive father and trained with the Sun Warriors, Zuko is more mentally and emotionally centered than he's ever been in his life. Azula, by contrast, is in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Having cut ties with his abusive father and trained with the Sun Warriors, Zuko is more mentally and emotionally centred than he's ever been in his life. Azula, by contrast, is in the middle of a nervous breakdown.