The Library (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

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Avatar: The Last Airbender episode
"The Library"
The gang encounters the great spirit Wan Shi Tong
Book	Two: Earth
Chapter	Ten
Episode #	Thirty
Prod. code	210
Airdate	July 14, 2006
Writer(s)	John O'Bryan
Director	Giancarlo Volpe
Guest star(s)	Raphael Sbarge (Professor Zei) Hector Elizondo (Knowledge Spirit)

"The Library" is an episode of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which airs on Nickelodeon. It is the tenth episode of the second season of the series, and in conjunction with the next episode, The Desert, was aired as an hour-long summer TV-movie entitled "The Fury of Aang."

The kids help an anthropologist find a spirit's lost library in the middle of the desert, where Sokka hopes to discover powerful secrets to use against the Fire Nation.

[edit] Episode synopsis

Toph, Sokka, Aang, and Katara enter a cafe located within the middle of the desert.

Each of the members of Aang's group decides to take a little "mini-vacation," as a way to unwind after all the work they've done; Sokka, on the other hand, thinks the group should be working on getting intelligence on the Fire Nation, most specifically a map for when Aang must hunt down the Fire Lord. The group meets Professor Zei, who tells them he is searching for a legendary library said to be in the middle of a nearby desert; the library, said to have been created by the spirit of knowledge and his fox servants, has more valuable tomes than any other place in the world. Sokka, believing he may be able to get information on the Fire Nation there, dedicates his "vacation" to finding the place.

Using Appa to fly, the group soon finds the library, which is buried in the sand, except for its single, highest tower. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Momo and Professor Zei use a window to enter the library; Appa stays outside, of course, as does Toph, who cannot read since she is blind. Toph also mentions that, because of the desert sand, she cannot feel the vibrations in the ground as well as she normally can, making her lose her usual advantage.

When the group enters the library, they meet the spirit, Wan Shi Tong, who constructed the library; taking the form of a large owl, the spirit initially does not trust them. The spirit, apparently, dislikes the fact that humans only use knowledge to get an advantage over other humans; he brings up the last human to have discovered his library, who happened to be Admiral Zhao (Zhao mentions a library in "The Siege of the North"), and believes the group only wants to get information to help them defeat their enemies (which is, of course, true). They manage to convince the spirit to let them in, however, and each find a bit of knowledge to contribute to the library (the professor's first edition book, Katara's waterwhip waterbending scroll, Aang's wanted poster, and Sokka's butterfly knot); they then go searching for information in the many tomes.

Sokka finds a burned paper that mentions "the Fire Nation's darkest day;" it has a date but no other information. It also turns out that Zhao, before leaving, apparently destroyed every other bit of information about the Fire Nation, probably to prevent exactly what Sokka and the others are trying to do. However, a fox (one of Wan Shi Tong's animal helpers) finds the group, and leads them to a room dedicated to astronomy. There, a date can be entered on a stone wheel, which then shows the heavens on that particular date; when Sokka enters the date of "the darkest day," it shows a solar eclipse occurring. The group realizes that solar eclipses must weaken or take away their Firebending, in the same way lunar eclipses affect Waterbending; they realize they can use this information to plan an attack on the Fire Nation forces.

Soon, however, Wan Shi Tong finds out their plans, and decrees that he will no longer allow humans to misuse his beloved information; he attacks the group, while the library begins to sink, that way it will be completely underground forever. Outside, Toph begins to hold up the tower using her Earthbending, so that the others can escape; however, at the same time "Sandbenders" attack. Desert tribesmen, they travel in boat-like materials, using their Bending to travel; they come and begin to abduct Appa, while Toph finds it impossible to hold up the tower and simultaneously fight them. They make off with Appa and escape.

Inside the Library, Aang and Sokka hurriedly try to use the astronomy room to find the next date of a solar eclipse; it turns out the next one is in a few months. They plan to give this information to the Earth Kingdom armies of Ba Sing Se to help in the war. The group then quickly escapes, except for Professor Zei, who says he would rather spend eternity in the Library than see it vanish forever; the others have no choice but to leave him. They escape before the Library vanishes into the sand; however, the episode ends with Toph telling Aang that Appa has been stolen by sandbenders.

[edit] Notes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Library

• This episode and the following episode, "The Desert," were designed by the show's writers to be two distinct episodes; however, Nickelodeon aired the two episodes together as an hour-long summer TV-movie titled "The Fury of Aang."
• The Professor's map shows the library with an appearance very similar to the appearance of the Taj Mahal.
• This episode introduces a new form of Earthbending, "Sandbending," which specializes in the manipulation of sand rather than solid rock.
• The library that Admiral Zhao mentioned in "Siege of the North, Part II" is the same one that the group visits in this episode. Wan Shi Tong even indirectly mentions him while talking about how humans only want knowledge for their own selfish needs. This mention of Zhao is the only reference of him at all in Book 2.
• Wan Shi Tong or Wàn Zhī Táng (萬知堂) translate as 'He who knows ten thousands things.'
• The burnt fire nation document says 烈火國最黑暗的一天培治龍年七月九日 which translates as 'Fire Nation most darkest of day dated Cultivate Rule Dragon Year Seventh Month Ninth Day.'
• In the center of the Observatory, there is a Lunisolar calendar composed of four wheels surrounding a Yin Yang symbol with sun and moon images. The first wheel (closest to the center) has 12 months (in Chinese numerals). The second wheel has 30 days. The third wheel seems to have 16 epoch year markers or Samvatsaras. The fourth and outer wheel has years in the forms of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals in their respective year cycle. The two golden rods coming out from the center acts as a reader when looking between them. According the burnt document, the calendar is read in the order of epoch, year, month, and day.
• Most of the words written on the third wheel are illegible, but the few that aren't seem to say the following:培治, 烱裕, 坦正, 焯光, 氜武, 淳羕, 坧元, 溢文. Some of the words are no longer in use in modern Chinese.
• The date on the calendar that Sokka wrote down as being the next solar eclipse is 氜武龍年八月九日 which translates as 'Superior Military Dragon Year Eighth Month First Day' or August 1 if they start their year in January. The eclipse seems to come by during the year of the dragon which is the date here and on the document.
• The bag that Sokka carries to hold the scrolls that he managed to collect was the green bag he purchased in "The Blind Bandit".

[edit] Goofs

• The date on the Fire Nation document is clearly seen as 七月九日(July 9). However, when Sokka turns the wheels of the calendar to reflect this, the date seen through the reader is 七月十九日(July 19), a ten day difference.