Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Northern Air Temple

The Northern Air Temple
Season 1, Episode 17
Airdate	November 4, 2005
Production Number	1x17
Written by	Elizabeth Welch Ehasz
Directed by	Dave Filoni
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Avatar: The Last Airbender — Season One

The Northern Air Temple is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the seventeenth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Daniel Samonas (Teo), Rene Auberjonois (Mechanist), Kristopher Tabori (Emissary), Clyde Kastatsu (Storyteller)

Plot Overview

A traveling entertainer tells Aang a story of a mysterious tribe of "airwalkers", and he becomes convinced that some of his fellow airbenders survived the Fire Nation purge. But upon reaching the northern air temple, he finds instead a group of non-benders who fly through the air with artificial gliders. Their leader is a brilliant mechanist who has harnessed the power of hot air with machines grafted onto the ruins of the ancient temple, to Sokka's delight and Aang's disapproval. He shows Sokka around his laboratory while Katara tries out the gliders and Teo, his wheelchair-bound son, tries to cheer Aang up by taking him to the central shrine of the temple. They're both horrified to discover that the shrine has been turned into a laboratory, and Teo's father is being secretly blackmailed into developing weapons for the Fire Nation.

Aang throws out the Fire Nation officer who comes to check on the mechanist's progress. Sokka helps him perfect an unfinished device - a hot air balloon - while the temple's squad of glider pilots repels the Fire Nation reprisal. However, the glider pilots, and even Aang and Katara bending with all their might, are powerless to stop the Fire Nation's armored tanks. Sokka uses the hot air balloon to set off a gas explosion and drive them off, crashing in the process but saving the temple. As Aang accepts that the inventor's clan deserves to live in the temple and respects its heritage, the Fire Nation discovers the remains of the balloon.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Fire Nation's method for invading the seemingly unreachable Air Nomad colonies is revealed: steam-powered tanks equipped with powerful grappling hooks that let them scale vertical walls. Other than ironclad ships, their penchant for steampunk was never in the spotlight before, but the Fire Nation employs relatively advanced weapons of war compared to the other powers, who rely almost entirely on bending and pre-industrial technology.

Characters

• Sokka has come a long way from the sarcastic incompetent he was in the initial episodes, displaying a keen intellect (if as little common sense as ever) and holding his own as a combat leader when the need arises.

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