Zuko has no shoes, Zuko needs no shoes! Cloaks on the other hand are a necessity.
I just noticed that Zuko never bothers putting on shoes when he goes to the Dragonbone Catacombs to do as Uncle’s letter asks.
Note: while it could be a show of respect, we do not see Zuko take his shoes off, put them back on, or even just a pair of lone shoes left behind at the door. As for quiet: He does wear shoes as the Blue Spirit. Personal theory is that he either forgot, or didn’t care.
The Hidden Message
The Fire (Nation’s) Sages’ secret history
is hidden in the Dragonbone Catacombs
烈火国诸贤秘史
藏于龙骨墓窟中
The Scroll from Uncle reads:
你须知道曾祖死后
它会显示你的命运
You need to know what happened after your great-grandfather’s death,
it can show (you) your fate/destiny
What is interesting is the pronoun choice: 你
你 (ni) means ‘informal you’, which, since Zuko is the crown prince, would be utterly inappropriate for anyone but family to use.
If anyone but Uncle (e.g. a fire sage, or a servant) had written this, the correct address would be: 殿下 (dian xia) or 王爷 (wang ye) 'Your Highness’ or, at the very least, 您 (nin) (formal, polite address for superiors, like the German “Sie” or the French “Vous”.
Fun fact: 尔 (er) is the equivalent archaic 'thou’ and
亲 (qin) is on the way (at least online) to replace '您‘。
How would they refer to themselves: Instead of “I” 我 (wo):
Ozai:
朕 (zhen) - I, the Emperor
寡人 (gua ren) - I, the ruler of a Kingdom
Zuko and Azula:
儿臣 (er chen) - I, your child and subject
Uncle:
本将军 (ben jiang jun) - I, the General
The Rock Formation Aang fights Combustionman in is -rather fitting for the Fire Nation- an old lava flow, not a karst formation like the Wulong forest from the final battle with Ozai.
Just compare the lava trees in Hawaii on the left to the karst forest in Yunnan on the right.
Karst stone forest are created by erosion, while lava trees are created by volcanic eruptions.
There’s a whole park full of lava trees in Hawaii: The Lava Tree State Monument
Sparky Sparky Boom Man aka Combustion Man controls his bending via his ‘third eye’.
The third eye (also known as the inner eye) refers to a dharmic spiritual tradition (e.g. in Hinduism) where the third eye also known as ajna chakra. The anja chakra stands for 'command’ or 'summoning’. It is located around the middle of the forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows. The third eye is often associated with religious visions, clairvoyance, the ability to observe chakras and auras, precognition, and out-of-body experiences.
Fun fact: Some animals (like bullfrogs) have a non-spiritual version of a third eye called parietal eye.
Image source: One
Ember Island Beach Foot Volleyball
The game we see them play on the beach on Ember Island seems to be a combination of several volleyball variations:
The players not only use their hands, but also their feet and knees to play.
Volleyball was invented in 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts (USA),by William G. Morgan. Current abrev. rules: A player on one of the teams begins a ‘rally’ by serving the ball (tossing or releasing it and then hitting it with a hand or arm), from behind the back boundary line of the court, over the net, and into the receiving team’s court.
Beach Volleyball originated in California and Hawaii. Other than the obvious i.e. played on sand/a beach, there are rule differences to volleyball. Including smaller teams.
Sepak takraw or Buka Ball is a game popular in e.g. Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines and Indonesia (and many more). The earliest historical mention of the game is from a 15th century's Malay historical text, “Sejarah Melayu” (Malay Annals).
In this game rattan ball is kicked by the players, only allowing them to use their feet, knee, chest and head to touch the ball.
Footvolley is a game that was invented in Brazil, by Octavio de Moraes, in 1965 as a means to get around the football ban at the time. Footvolley combines the field rules of beach volleyball with the ball-touch rules of football (soccer).
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Zuko got Mai what looks like shaved ice
The history of frozen desserts goes back a lot longer than I originally thought.
Note: I do not agree with claiming a food was invented somewhere because there is a first written record, unless said record states the invention, and even then it does not rule out the prior existence in other places. Many things got invented more than once. It especially silly to claim that the certain foods did not exist prior to historic mention since we’ve cooked food long before we could write e.g. no one would argue that humanity had not baked bread before we have the first written document stating so.
Frozen desserts through time
First historic mentions of frozen desserts are the Roman Emperor Nero (37 - 68 CE) having snow brought down from the mountains so he could have a dessert made from snow, honey and fruit.
A first historic mention of ‘artificially’ creating frozen desserts in summer is from China, from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE).
Side note:
Several websites mention the invention of ice cream by King Tang of the Shang dynasty (1600 BCE). This is NOT true. They are confusing KING Tang with Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE)..
What we see Zuko drop on Mai looks like shaved ice.
Shaved ice is a large family of ice-based dessert made of fine shavings of ice or finely crushed ice and sweet condiments or syrups. Usually, the syrup is added after the ice has been frozen and shaved—typically at the point of sale.
A first historic mention of shaved ice comes from Japan during the Heian Period (794 - 1185 CE)
These days shaved ice is a popular dessert all throughout Asia and is known under many different names:
Note: This list is taken from the wiki article about shaved ice.
Thailand - Namkhaeng Sai
China and Taiwan - Baobing
Japan - Kakigori
Hawaii - Shave ice
Korea - Patbingsu
Philippines - Halo halo
Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia - Ais/Es kacang/ Ice
The Wall hangings in Li and Lo’s beach house show traditional Thai patterns
This is an amazing Thai Art blog, do check it out! They explain Thai art way better than I ever could :D
This is also really cool: The Thailand National Knowledge Base
The Swords the Fire Nation guards have are a kind of Chinese broad sword called Dadao
Based on agricultural knives, dadao have broad blades generally between two and three feet long, long hilts meant for “hand and a half” or two-handed use, and generally a weight-forward balance. Some were made for military use, but they were most commonly associated with civilian militias or revolutionaries. While not a particularly sophisticated sword, the weight and balance of the dadao gave it considerable slashing and chopping power, making it an effective close combat weapon for untrained troops.
Interesting to know:
The dadao was used by Chinese troops in the Second Sino-Japanese War. (WWII)
The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 2, 1945), called so after the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1941.
More about Chinese swords: Click me!
Ember Island
Enjoy the pretty. This is several screenshots put together.
I already did an entry about how Fire Nation architecture is based a fair bit on Thai architecture: Here.
