Why The Library is Book 2's MOST UNDERRATED Episode - Avatar The Last Airbender

Today at the Mystery Shack, we return to the world of Avatar The Last Airbender to look at what is definitely, undeniably, and 100% not up to personal preference, the most underrated episode of Book 2 - The Library.

Second Channel : @KorotoTV
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Further reading & links:
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LEMMiNO - Cipher
CC BY-SA 4.0
LEMMiNO – Nocturnal
CC BY-SA 4.0
LEMMiNO – Siberian
CC BY-SA 4.0
@amburdo6206 - Maris Walking

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Timecodes
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00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Quest for Knowledge
04:29 - The Library
05:33 - Ancient Wisdom
08:55 - Knowledge is Power
13:24 - Burning History
15:23 - Forgotten Arts & SO MUCH Story Potential
20:35 - A Price to be Paid
25:52 - How to write a compelling conflict….without conflict
27:50 - Outro

#avatarthelastairbender

[deandredukes]

*”I’d like to spend my vacation at the library”*

Sokka

[yurkdawg]

I always took "he who knows 10, 000 things" as a nod to 10, 000 being the largest number in ancient Chinese...they used the same term/symbol for 10, 000 as they did for "[near] infinite." For centuries the most common chant for the population to cry out for any new dynasty was "10, 000 years!" Which essentially was the same as declaring that their dynasty will live "forever."

Another example: The Forbidden Ciry (ancient palace in Beijing) supposedly has 9, 999 rooms because only heaven can be infinite with 10, 000.

BUT to our modern western sense (not even Western, just modern anything) - 10, 000 no longer is all that big a number, and certainly not close to "infinite." Thus Wan calling himself "he who knows 10, 000 things" in his ancient mind is like gloating that he knows practically everything, but to us viewers (and probably even team Avatar) it is ironically funny because that is not at all that big a number anymore and is instead suggesting that he is pretty ignorant compared to a modern middle-schooled educated student.

It's simply brilliant! (Lol how often do I say that about this show?! 😉)

[GameTimeNLL]

The "problem" with this episode for me is that when avatar was on tv, it was ALWAYS this episode. I have seen this episode about 30 times in my live. So everytime im at this particular episode again when rewatching it always feels like a chore. Until im actually watching it, then its just fk great. The whole eclipse etc. Its awesome.

[pointystories]

I loved that episode!

The Owl was amazing and the twist of it extending it's neck with the line 'You already know too much!' was surprisingly scary. Both the characters and I did not expect death to be the punishment of defiance against this spirit!

[marvinandremutesasira]

Loved this episode so much I memorised each line in it. Still think about how deep it is. The messages are so deep it's an iceberg of it's own

[firecrakcer]

Aang absolutely loosing it and going ballistic on the sand benders is a scene that gave me chills every single time I watch it. And I don't get chills from anything. It's such a hard hitting scene.

[waynehenry]

Leave it to Koroto to overanalyze "he who knows ten thousand things" as 10, 000 individual words rather than just "words"


...but go ahead 'n cook. I love it 🤣🤣

[almas]

Wan Shi Tong had been one of my favorite characters in the entire show, right next to Zuko.
Even as a 7-year-old, I completely understood where he was coming from, and felt really sorry for how thee gang mistreated him...

Also, I've always found it weird that Aang chose to blame Toph for Appa being gone. I think it would've made more sense to blame it on Sokka, who both angered the Spirit, causing the library to sink, AND was the one to convince the group to stay down there a lot longer that they needed to

[rhusk]

"I worked for Ozai, he's a fraud" 😭

[Shashu_the_little_Voidling]

Actually, in Chinese "10.000 things" is a metaphorical way of saying "all of the things" or "a great shitload of things"

[bronkobjama]

21:05 I showed my ex this show are she always got very creeped out by spirit designs. She hated koh and heibai and when won shi tong transforms into his more menacing state she had the same sort of reaction

[Jonioy]

you can take the example with toph one step farther. sands shifts, vibrations dont go through it well, so it requires you to feel even the smallest amount of vibratiom. say if you are feeling something on the other side of the planet? like her in her ult age.

[karsten]

*I think this is more general since I haven’t watched Avatar in decades, so I don’t remember what they say or how they act. I just watched half of the video writing this*

They don’t have to respond to situations the same way you would. Just because you think a certain action is appropriate doesn’t mean that others will come to the same conclusion. Their values and priorities might be different from yours. For them, accepting and living a good life, even under occupation, might be more important than fighting—unless it’s a gen*cide than fighting would be good.

Even if everyone has the same knowledge, they will still act differently because everyone has grown up differently, leading to different views on what matters and what doesn’t.

[Jan]

14:00 This did and also still does happen with art, not because of the Ideology reason that they are bad, but only because they want to make more Money. The first Films ever made where Burned because the Studios wanted to make money with new films. Now they are lost for ever. Same also is happening with games now, many games do get destroyed because Publishers want to sell new games. That is also why there is the Initiative Stop Killing Games, so that they do not suffer the same fate as films.

[exequielgaleano]

Super thanks for this video and your awesome content in general!!! 😁 The way everything crafted in the episode is undermined by probably the biggest loss in the show makes me feel like you have a really great point about the importance of the episode. I mean, I totally get why being able to appreciate everything you've talked about by simply watching the episode can be difficult when, as a kid, a part of me pretty much wanted to go punch the creators of the series for what they had just done. Not only that, they also kept capitalizing on that loss by repeatedly poking at the wound over and over during the saeson. So, reading the title of the video I was like "yeah, maybe...", mostly because my memory of it is quite defined by the very end of the episode. All this to say, thanks again for putting this together so that we can all take some time to appreciate such a great work of storytelling by making a superb work of content creating yourself!!! 🙌🙌🙌

[RedEveTillDawn]

I agree!! Then next is The Dessert which is my absolute favorite Katara episode.

[anthonymort]

I like the idea of him rediscovering it

[leomathguy]

"Welcome to the internet" lyrics really sound like about the library

[Auxiliar]

Small tangent but I HATED that the library had info on lighting redirection

[MineVex]

The One who knows ten thousand things is an expression.

In taoism, ten-thousand things refers to all of creation. In essence, Wan Shi Tong is calling himself all knowing.