The surreal nature of Aang's daydreams threaten to overwhelm him.
"During the meeting, I was the perfect prince. The son my father wanted. But I wasn't me."
— Zuko has a realization long in coming
The invasion is four days away, and Aang begins to feel nervous about confronting the Fire-Lord. Feeling that he is unprepared, he trains constantly and loses sleep, causing him to hallucinate and have nightmares. After three straight days of insomnia and increasingly bizarre Mushroom Sambas, it takes the collaboration of Sokka, Toph, and Katara to get him to finally sleep and feel confident about facing Fire Lord Ozai.
Meanwhile, back at the Fire Nation Capital, Zuko has trouble re-adjusting to his old life. Despite Mai's best efforts to calm him down, he can't shake the feeling that the Avatar is alive, his father still doesn't trust him, and that something is just wrong. He almost misses a war meeting because he thinks Ozai doesn't want him there, but eventually attends when it turns out that Ozai was actually waiting for him. However, something in the meeting hits him hard and finally drives in the realization that he's been working towards since the start of the show- his path was not honorable, and he didn't really want Ozai's approval.
Tropes:
- Advice Backfire: Sokka's attempts to reassure Aang do not go well:Sokka: Of course you're stressed; you've gotta fight the Fire Lord: the baddest man on the planet! And you'd better win, or we're all done for...Katara: Sokka! That's not helping!
- Anime Hair: Aang in his dreams.
- Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: Happens within the episode. Aang briefly hallucinates that Momo is able to talk - then returns to his normal chattering. Then Appa shows up, standing on two legs and talking to Momo, and Momo talking back to him. Then Momo puts on a robe, Appa puts on samurai armor, and they engage in a sword fight. When Aang's hallucinations end, they're back to normal animals.
- Anxiety Dreams: Aang, of course. He spends the whole episode having weird and frightening nightmares due to the approaching invasion of the Fire Nation during the Solar Eclipse. The results leave him a nervous wreck as he suffers from sleep deprivation.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Parodied.Dream!Ozai: Really? How do you plan on doing that when you're not even wearing pants?
- Audible Sharpness: Momo's sword makes this noise.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Zuko got his wish to attend the war meeting with Ozai alright, but something happens in it to reconsider his position.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: When Aang demands more practice and asks Katara to hit him, she refuses. Then Toph is about to volunteer until Sokka gives her a nudge.
- Big Damn Kiss: Subverted. Aang finally tells Katara that he loves her and kisses her, thus letting her kiss him back. But as they get ready to make out some more...Katara's voice asks Aang what he was doing, and he looks up to see her standing there. It was merely a Daydream Surprise.
- Big "NO!": Dream!Ozai in Aang's last dream.
- Breather Episode: A lighthearted bit of sleep deprivation comedy before the very dramatic Day of Black Sun.
- The Cameo: Guru Pathik reappears as one of Aang's hallucinations, with six arms, and singing about how chakras are delicious.
- Catapult Nightmare: Aang, when waking from his last nightmare, complete with scream.
- Chekhov's Gun: The content of the war meeting go unrevealed for this episode, though whatever it is prompts Zuko to finally have a Heel Realization. The audience finds out what went on during the finale, and boy howdy is it a doozy.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: At least on one occasion. Katara tries to help Aang cleanse his mind with a sauna treatment. But the mugginess and heat just makes his mind wander back to the invasion, reminding him of his anxiety.
- Conjoined Eyes: The koala sheep in Aang’s most ridiculous dream are drawn in a more cartoony style complete with conjoined eyes.
- Continuity Nod: Aang attacks a tree stump with a picture of Fire Lord Ozai attached to it. It's the picture of Ozai that Aang made from noodles in "The Headband".
- David vs. Goliath:
- Aang dreams that Ozai is a towering giant while he is normal-sized.
- Aang hallucinates a battle between Momo the small lemur and Appa the giant bison.
- Daydream Surprise: A sleep-deprived Aang finally breaks down and confesses his love for Katara, only for it to turn out to be a daydream/hallucination.
- Disney Acid Sequence: All of Aang's dream sequences, but ESPECIALLY the battle between Appa and Momo.
- Dream Episode: Aang finds himself too stressed to sleep, and gets sleep-deprived. Then, he starts hallucinating surreal stuff like dancing rocks, or Team Pets Appa and Momo talking and walking like humans.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Aang spends all episode trying to sleep, but is not able to because he feels unprepared for the upcoming battle. Once his friends give him some reassurance, he finally gets a good night's sleep.
- Everybody Hates Mathmetics: In Aang’s second nightmare, Ozai manages to defeat Aang by springing a math test onto him.
- Evil Is Hammy: Mark Hamill is clearly enjoying himself playing Dream!Ozai in all his glory.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Aang develops them due to his sleep deprivation.
- Fangirl: Not surprisingly, Zuko now has in-universe ones trying to get his attention (and possibly other things) when he steps outside the palace. One of these manages to get close, before being dragged off by the guards.
- Fat Bastard: The Fire Lord is imagined as a portly man in Aang’s first few nightmares.
- Foil: Aang and Zuko in the ensuing 4 days. Zuko is living a wonderful life most would dream about, waited on hand and foot with nothing at stake. Aang is ragged from sleep deprivation and worrying himself sick, sweating the details of the upcoming invasion. Each one comes to the opposite conclusion about their respective lives. Aang realizes he has nothing to be afraid of as long as he has his friends, and sleeps well. However, Zuko's mind is not at ease, as he starts to realize what's the matter with his care-free life.
- Foreshadowing:
- The war meeting that Zuko attends has a very strong impact on him that will play out in the final episode.
- Zuko being nice to his servants as he goes about his morning, and them not minding one bit serving him demonstrates the desirable and positive qualities of a ruler, making it rather apparent things are set up for him to be the next Fire Lord.
- Freudian Couch: There's a scene where Aang is lying in the grass with his head rested on a sheep and Sokka talking to him like a shrink.
- Funny Background Event: When the Gaang makes Aang a bed for him to sleep on, there are some naked koala-sheep next to Sokka.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:Katara: Aang, I know you're trying to help, but you really need to get a grip.
- Grapes of Luxury: The Fire Lord has them in Aang's first nightmare.
- Heel Realization: Whatever happened during that war meeting, when Zuko comes back he's finally done trying to convince himself that being the obedient prince is what he wants or that the choices he made in that pursuit were the right ones.
- Homage: The outfits Aang wears during his dreams are not a reference to a specific Anime, but in the style of Shōnen Demographic main character wardrobes in general.
- Hope Spot: Zuko's war meeting is a real indication that he may truly be returning to the royal life he had in the first place and worked for years to try and get back. Coming back from the meeting he finds that it didn't give him the satisfaction he was expecting — quite the opposite.
- Innocuously Important Episode: The A-plot is Aang having a Sleep Deprivation Samba due to anxiety over the coming invasion causing nightmares. The B-plot focuses on Zuko and Mai cuddling adorably... and Zuko attending an offscreen war meeting wherein something happens that will have a large effect on the finale, and which provokes Zuko's Heel Realization.
- The Insomniac: Aang, and the lack of sleep makes him crazy.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Azula pointing out that Zuko wasn't formally invited to the meeting because, as prince and heir to the throne, he's just expected to be there. She doesn't mind tweaking him by saying she was invited, but she ends up being right about him being needlessly paranoid.
- Miserable Massage: Toph’s method of helping Aang relax is making him lay on a bed of rocks and stomp on the ground to massage his entire body. Naturally, Aang is in incredible pain, resulting in Toph stopping.
- Mood Whiplash: While most of Aang's nightmares are played as comedy, some of them are actually pretty dang frightening. Not to mention the snapback after the aforementioned Kataang Ship Tease.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Aang's most humiliating nightmare. In his final dream, he turns it around on Dream!Ozai.
- No, You: In Aang's final Ozai dream, the giant Ozai figure tries to tell Aang he isn't wearing pants (again), but Aang turns it on him and says that Ozai's the one not wearing pants, much to his horror.Dream!Ozai: My royal parts are showing!
- Overly Long Gag: Aang tries delaying his sleep by slowly wishing good night to his friends, one by one. Toph puts the kibosh on that when he starts dragging it out too long.
- Pet the Dog: Mai tries to be supportive of Zuko after he gets out of his meeting, which is more concern than she's shown to anybody up to that point. She even smiles.
- Potty Emergency: How Aang predicts Toph drinking water would bring about a loss in their battle in one of his dreams.
- Properly Paranoid: Given his history, Zuko expects not being invited to the meeting to be some kind of trick or setback at his expense. Subverted in that he's completely wrong. They even waited for him to show up before starting the meeting.
- Real Dreams are Weirder: All of Aang's dreams, as well as his hallucinations. There's such things as Ozai the giant Villainous Glutton, Aang as an anime Shout-Out, giant eyes opening up in the air, Aang suddenly not wearing pants, Ozai taunting Aang about missing his math test (causing Aang to fall into a giant abacus), Momo being a giant attempting to grab Aang and Appa, Toph not having eyes, there being a random ocean under the Fire Lord's palace, Appa and Momo talking, Appa and Momo swordfighting while sheep cheer them on, and a six-armed Guru Pathik sitting on a cloud and singing about how everyone loves chakras, not to mention the lines of rocks that act like snakes.
- Recurring Dreams: Aang is repeatedly dreaming of facing the Fire Lord and failing to defeat him.
- Road Trip Across the Street: Zuko takes a palanquin to Mai's house, which is just across the street from the palace. Granted, he tried to be nonchalant and just walk over, but his servants insisted otherwise.
- Ship Tease: Aang to Katara - "Baby, you're my forever girl."
- Shout-Out:
- Sokka refers to Fire Lord Ozai as "the baddest man on the planet", which was the tagline for Mike Tyson during his prime.
- The three get-ups Aang wears in his Fire Lord dreams are homages to Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, and wuxia films.
- In Aang's dreams Ozai's setup looks remarkably similar to Aku's from Samurai Jack. It's a cave filled with fire and a ledge in the center, and Ozai himself is so big you cannot see his legs.
- Aang's daydream of Momo fighting Appa has the former dressed as Miyamoto Usagi.
- Shown Their Work: While the audience have already seen Ozai's face, Aang and the others have not, barring only a portrait Aang got in "The Headband". Aang's dreams show the first dream version of the Fire Lord as hammy and sinister. Others come pretty close.
- His voice though, is similar to Hamill's, despite the Gaang having never heard him yet.
- Sleep Deprivation: Aang is unable to sleep due to stress over the impending attack on the Fire Nation, which causes him to have Anxiety Dreams.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: One of Aang's nightmares is Ozai waking him up to tell him he slept through the invasion.
- Suddenly Voiced: When Aang hallucinates them talking, Dee Bradley Baker (who normally does the animal noises) gets to demonstrate what Momo and Appa would sound like if they could actually talk.
- Too Important to Walk: The Fire Nation Royals. Leads to a Road Trip Across the Street for Zuko.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- Aang's reaction to finding out his Ship Tease example was another dream.
- Zuko finally attending the war meeting, and realizing something that made him wish he didn't go.
- Young and in Charge: The closer Aang gets to a pivotal battle that his friends expect to determine the course of the war, the more he feels the pressure and panics. Said pressure centers around the fact that, as Avatar, he has the huge responsibility of bringing balance to the world. While the approaching attack on the Fire Nation is a group effort, Aang will need to defeat the Fire Lord to restore a balance thrown off 100 years ago. That's a lot to put on a child.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Zuko feels ashamed agreeing with whatever Ozai's planned for the Hundred Year War.
- Your Size May Vary: When Momo and Appa have at each other, it's a David Versus Goliath matchup... but instead of a David the size of a small cat against a Goliath the size of a bus, it's closer to a human-sized David fighting a Goliath the size of a pickup truck. Of course, none of it is actually happening, and that was obvious long before character sizes started getting fudged.
