#The Storm
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“The Storm” by Rachel Hawkins ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5 Stars Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. It comes out today! All opinions are my own. I risked it all on “The Storm”! Not really, but seriously, I read “The Villa” by two years ago and very much didn’t like it, but the synopsis of this one made me want to try it. I live on the Gulf Coast and as a child, oftentimes, we vacationed in places like St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama. Y’all, I felt the souvenir shop mentioned in the first chapter in my bones. This mystery/thriller was enjoyable even though I figured out one of the major twists about 10% of the way through. I flew through this pretty fast for what I consider my normal. As someone who has been through my share of hurricanes, most of the hurricane stuff felt true-to-life and the tension really ratcheted it up as the storm was approaching in a way that felt really familiar. If it’s helpful, I didn’t like “The Villa” because of the unhealthy, toxic relationships and I HATED the end.
Hi everyone! I’m so sorry I’ve been so inactive lately, more art is coming I promise! I’m actually working on a small comic in regards to Gummi. But I wanted to explain where I’ve been. As I’m sure some of you have personally experienced, there has been some crazy bananas weather rolling through the Midwest. Yours truly also happens to reside in some of the areas that were hit. We had crazy enough wind that our power was out for a while and the next round is winding up to hit here soon. Thankfully, my household wasn’t hit particularly hard the first time. Fingers crossed for this second round!
Effie’s Trinkets Out Greer and Robert on the bed (1982) by Nan Goldin The Storm (1880) by Pierre-Auguste Cot Freedom in presentation comes at the expense of agency. The inherent intimacy of the sheer female “demands” male presence… During escape, during rest… It’s too much beauty for the wild brain to interpret through filters of politeness. What does this do to women’s role in anti-system movements?
Rewatch of “The Storm” So. This is, in all likelihood, probably going to be one of the longest rewatch posts yet—so it’s going under a cut. There’s a real shitload of symbolism packed into this one really awesome episode. The episode opens with Aang having a terrible dream, where he is in flying on Appa through a storm (symbolism!!!) and hears the voices of his loved ones insisting “we need you, Aang.” Monk Gyatso appears and asks Aang why he disappeared one hundred years ago right before the genocide. The whole scene calls to mind the imagery that will be present throughout the episode, tugs at the heartstrings, and sets up the question that will haunt Aang’s side of the narrative: what, exactly, happened the night he was frozen in an iceberg? Aang wakes up and confesses that he had a bad dream. Katara expresses concern and suggests they go buy more food at the market. Then she climbs onto Appa by walking up his tail, which I’m going to include a screencap of because I find it hilarious: [ID: Screencap from the Avatar episode, “The Storm,” showing Katara walking up Appa’s tail. Appa’s rear end, tail, and two of his legs are visible on screen. Sokka kneels on the saddle in a position where he would be facing Katara if he looked up. Behind them is a tan rocky slope and a forest. End ID.] The beginning of the episode shows us a bright blue sky and a clear, undisturbed ocean. Anyone who has so much as glanced at the episode’s title will know better what is in store—and this is emphasized when certain characters like the fisherman’s wife and Iroh predict a storm only to be rebuffed by others (the fisherman and Zuko). It’s a form of dramatic irony that will eventually pay off in the climax, AND it symbolizes that the issues that plague our dual main characters (Aang and Zuko) have not yet come to the forefront. This is, in more ways than one, the “calm before the storm.” Meanwhile, Zuko declares that “the safety of the crew doesn’t matter.” Lieutenant Jee objects to this, and Zuko responds by attempting to fight him. All the while, Iroh is heavily apologetic and separates them (I guarantee you there would have been a mutiny at least a year ago if Iroh wasn’t there). This is an excellent rewatch bonus because this whole scene is totally recontextualized by the episode’s eventual revelations. A first time watcher sees Zuko being a spoiled brat. Anyone who has already seen the episode, however, recognizes that Zuko has already been burned (literally!) after caring about ordinary soldiers, and now he’s trying to bury that compassion and mirror Ozai; hence, “you’ll learn some respect or I’ll teach it to you.” Another rewatch bonus can be seen in Iroh’s expression when Jee is chastising Zuko for being disrespectful and a spoiled brat who doesn’t care about anyone: [ID: Screencap of Iroh from the Avatar episode, “The Storm.” His teeth are bared and his eyebrows knit together in a cringing expression. His right hand is outstretched, as though he can stop the conversation he is listening to. Behind him you can see a metal tower of the ship. End ID.] A rewatcher is cringing right alongside him; we know exactly who Jee’s words are reminding Zuko of, and we also know that Jee is wrong—that Zuko does care about people, deep down, even if he’s trying with all his might to destroy that feeling. (I’d also like to point out that the fact that Jee and the others feel comfortable voicing these concerns in such a direct way shows us that they aren’t really afraid of him. Try to imagine Azula’s crew from “The Avatar State” saying the same things. I dare you.) Back with our heroes, a fisherman blames Aang for abandoning the world. Katara stands up to defend him, but Aang—once again—runs away. Katara follows him to a dark cave. By the time she arrives, the rain is already in full force. Aang reluctantly shares his story about what happened leading up to his disappearance—even though he fears that this will make Katara see him in a worse light. Over on the ship, Jee and the other crew members are drinking and complaining about Zuko’s brattiness. Iroh steps in but doesn’t criticize them for their complaints. Instead, he offers to explain the context behind Zuko’s rude behavior in hopes that the crew will, perhaps, think better of him. The meat of this episode lies in the twin flashback plotlines, each told by a different narrator. I do think it’s notable that Aang has reached the point where he can share his own story, but Zuko’s story is told not by him but by Iroh—because Zuko would absolutely not feel comfortable talking about what happened at this point in time. And each story makes each character more complex in different directions: the story Aang tells reveals a hidden mistake in himself while the story Iroh tells reveals redeeming qualities in Zuko. Let’s start with Aang’s story. To give us strength, here’s a screencap I like. Check out Appa’s expression. [ID: Screencap from the Avatar episode, “The Storm” of Aang telling Katara about his backstory. Aang sits crosslegged on the left side of a blazing fire. He looks down, eyes closed; Momo is sleeping in his lap. On the right of the fire is Katara, who kneels with her hands folded on her lap, leaning in toward Aang as she listens. Behind them Appa lies down on the stone floor. They are in a cave. End ID.] Aang is happily playing with the Air Scooter he invented when he is called before a group of monks and told he is the Avatar. They warn him that they have told him at such a young age because they see danger on the horizon. “Storm clouds are gathering,” as Gyatso puts it in yet another reference to the symbolic title of the episode. After learning that he is the Avatar, Aang’s life changes immediately. His friends kick him out of the sport they made using the technique he invented. The other monks pressure him to spend less time having fun with Gyatso and more time focusing on his Avatar duties. (Side note: Gyatso plays Pai Sho; I wonder if he was involved in the proto-White Lotus?) Aang feels dejected and anxious. The final straw comes when Aang overhears the monks planning to forcibly separate Aang from his guardian. Aang runs away in the midst of a storm—too late to hear Gyatso’s promise that they would not be separated. It’s a tragic moment, but it’s also a callback to the similar storm raging outside in the present. Aang lashes out for a moment but quickly catches himself. He confesses that he feels responsible for the Air Nomad Genocide and the Hundred Years’ War. Katara assures him that it was “meant to be this way” because “[he] give[s] people hope.” Now. Onto Zuko. To give us strength, let’s have a pic of young idealistic Zuko. See, he’s smiling! [ID: Screencap of Iroh and Zuko from a flashback in the Avatar episode, “The Storm.” Iroh can be seen only from the back and the shot is over-the-shoulder. Zuko is younger, around thirteen; he is unscarred and has a full head of hair which is held in a ponytail. He has a cowlick and he looks up at Iroh with a big smile on his face. In the background, you can see a Fire Nation soldier standing guard with a visor over his face; his hands are in fists. The scene takes place in a poorly lit room in the Fire Nation palace. End ID.] (Yes, I will be collecting screencaps of smiling Zuko. No, you cannot stop me. It happens so rarely it must be memorialized.) Now, if you’ve seen this episode, you know that this dorky little thirteen-year-old is about to get himself into some capital-s Shit. Even for first time watchers, that much is obvious—just look at his face!—but it’s heightened when you know exactly what goes down. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion. Anyway…so Zuko wants to get into a war meeting (it’s funny but not at all surprising that 13-year-old Zuko is apparently too young for war meetings but 14-year-old Azula is welcome inside them; fuck you Ozai) and voices some very reasonable reservations about a general’s plan to use new recruits as bait. (I do like how Iroh specifically makes sure to point out that Zuko was right when he shares the whole affair to the crew. His objections were sound, and it also tells us that his bluster about the crew’s lives not mattering isn’t just Zuko being a brat; it’s a front he’s put up because his experiences have driven him to believe that compassion is a weakness.) Ozai objects to this “disrespect.” He tells Zuko that an Agni Kai is in order. Zuko assumes he will be fighting the general whose plan he opposed, so he agrees. But instead he has to fight his father, because the whole thing was inside the Firelord’s war room. I don’t think I need to specify what happens next, other than to say that Ozai is probably the worst parental figure I have ever seen in all my fiction consumption—and I’ve seen some pretty bad ones. Iroh’s story ends with the fateful words, “the Avatar gives Zuko hope.” This is a deliberate callback and a reversal of Katara’s earlier words to Aang, and sends a message that Zuko is not so different from Team Avatar. That scene where Zuko is meditating and then we see a shot of young, scarless Zuko melting into current Zuko is perfect but I don’t know how to do gifs so I will just trust that you all know what I’m referring to. A bit of action is injected back into the narrative when the fisherman’s wife runs into the cave where Aang and Katara are and informs them that the storm has become a typhoon and they must hurry to save the fisherman and Sokka. The following sequence is as you might expect, but I’d like to draw special attention to two parts. First, when Zuko saves a crew member from falling to his death. This demonstrates to us that regardless of how he might act on the surface, Zuko hasn’t lost his inner compassion. He might talk a big game about how the crew don’t matter, but in the end he instinctively chooses to risk his own life to safe them. Cementing this is his ultimate decision not to go after the Avatar but rather to get the ship and the crew to safety. Second, when Appa ends up under the water. It is shot almost identically to the flashback scenes of Aang encasing himself in the iceberg. But this time, Aang simply forms a bubble around Appa and guides them out of the water. He confronts his past in direct parallel and chooses to take a new path. He won’t worry about what might-have-been anymore, just focus on what he can do now. Appa erupts out of the water just as Zuko’s ship reaches the eye of the storm, and our two boys exchange a look: [First ID: Screencap of Aang looking over his shoulder as he flies Appa. Appa’s white fur can be seen underneath him. Aang’s expression is a slight frown and a glance from the corner of his eyes; he is looking at Zuko. Behind him is the dark sky. End ID.] [Second ID: A birdseye-view screencap of Zuko standing on the deck of his ship and looking up at the camera. He is looking at Aang. His legs are spread wide and his arms are at his sides. The ship is made of dark metal. Beyond it is the ocean, temporarily still and cast in dark colors. End ID.] They might be enemies and near opposites in personality, but at the end of the day, Aang and Zuko have a lot in common. These are two boys who have suffered immense loss, who were forced to grow up too fast. Two boys who cannot go home. The storm ends, and so does the episode, but the parallels have only begun.
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