Yip Yip Hooray! An Avatar Podcast

Welcome back to Yip Yip Hooray! Before our gang moves on to Book Two, they are joined by their goddaughter Allison, who is just now experiencing the show for the first time. She tells us Book One definitely needed more female representation and we discover she is probably crushing on Zuko. Also, what better way to return from a two-week hiatus than to watch one of the worst movies of all time? In honor of the 10th anniversary of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" (2010), Katie and Jordan are joined by his brother Kaden to revisit a weird experience the brothers had going to the movie in another town on opening day. The cashier definitely set a receipt on fire declaring himself a firebender. Jordan deduces Zhao knew who the Blue Spirit was because he recognized Zuko's luscious lips. Katie is unimpressed by the slow-motion bending. And all three of us are very excited for a future live action take on the Avatar universe avoids a white savior narrative and a whitewashed catastrophe. Enjoy!  

Today we break down Chapters 15: Bato of the Water Tribe, 16: The Deserter, and 17: The Northern Air Temple. Troy announces his dislike of the title of "Bato", while Jordan is disturbed by how tall Bato is and his belief in the Spirit of the Water Bear. Katie loves that June calls Zuko and Iroh "Angry Boy" and "Uncle Lazy". Jordan is unconvinced an abbey could exist in the Avatar universe. Everyone loves Jeong Jeong's proverbs, especially Katie who announces she is particularly drawn to "Grumpy-Insightful-Wisdom-Men", whatever that means. Troy rocks underwear hands.

Uncle Iroh hits the tub and we talk about the amazing adventure the loincloth-clad Dragon of the West goes on. We realize Zuko's indomitable spirit leads him into shenanigans. Katie argues the plausibility of feet-firebending which upsets Jordan. Will things ever be the same? Speaking of bending, Troy makes a case for "spirit" being a fifth element -- but we all know the true fifth element is love. C'mon, guys. This episode, we cover Chapter 7: Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World and Chapter 8: Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku. Too many colons in that sentence: colonbending.

Katie's brother Troy becomes a convert to the wonders of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Troy announces Uncle Iroh (a.k.a. Uncle Fire) is his favorite character because he too spent time as a mentor to aspiring martial artists when he taught Taekwondo (as a first degree black belt). The gang discusses the various real-world styles of martial arts the television show draws inspiration from. Troy announces Aang would be the worst student and Zuko would probably be like Bruce Lee in class. This episode covers Chapters 4-6 and contains spoilers for those episodes. Also, MY CABBAGES!

Our adventure begins! Jordan gets immediate goosies as soon as the opening credits begin and Jessica has no idea what he is talking about, but makes a pass about the uncanny familiarity between the Avatar and Captain Planet - but who is heart? 
Our first official episode is a marathon of Chapters 1-3: The Boy in the Iceberg, The Avatar Returns, and The Southern Air Temple (poor Gyatso).
Katie admits she is a Disney girl and Jessica tells us about some ungodly orange shag couch she had as a child and was probably property of Nickelodeon.
Regardless, we can all agree that swooning occurred talking about Dante Basco.

Katie and Jordan prepare Jessica for the adventure of a lifetime as she begins Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time. She somehow knows more about The Legend of Korra and we establish that Jordan is the top of the Food Pyramid and, we guess, Jessica is the noodles and grains at our foundation? Nobody agreed to that metaphor.
Also, Jessica compared Aang to Caillou (1997), so that happened.