The Northern Pod Temple

Innovation, betrayal, and tanks—this episode proves “filler” doesn’t mean forgettable.

In this episode of Avatar State Radio, Kev and Mike soar into The Northern Air Temple, where the Gaang stumbles upon a community of gliders, steam-powered inventions, and one of the earliest moments of disability representation in animated TV. Right from the start, it’s clear this episode was ahead of its time: Taeo’s character is celebrated not for what he lacks, but for how he thrives. His daredevil gliding skills even impress Aang… at least until some Temple disrespect sends our favorite airbender into a spiral.

Things only get more complicated when Aang and Taeo discover that the temple’s been opened before, and Taeo’s dad is secretly building weapons for the Fire Nation. Understandably, that doesn’t sit well with Taeo, Aang, and the rest, and it leads to one of the most chaotic battles of Book One. Sokka gets a surprising moment to shine here, tapping into his inner engineer and helping devise both a war balloon and a perfectly timed gas leak bomb. Mike’s still wondering when we’ll get The Last Sky Bison spinoff, while Kev is out here quoting, “Show that bald kid how it’s done!”

As the episode wraps, Aang comes to accept that change is part of life, even for the Air Temples. The new inhabitants may not be Air Nomads, but they’ve made the temple their home in their own way. Of course, just when things seem settled, the Fire Nation gets their hands on a shiny new war balloon—and we all know that’s not going to end well.

Plus: Mike’s Trivia, Dani Pudi gets a shoutout, and we all agree—this episode might not move the main plot much, but it still hits.

Find Mike

Tellest.com | Twitter @tellest | Facebook @tellestbooks | Twitch @ThatTellestGuy | Etsy | Patreon

Find Kev

ThatNerdyKev.com | Starbird Media, LLC | Everything is Awesome | Get 'Em Next Year | @ThatNerdyKev on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Twitch

Find Avatar State Radio

AvatarStateRadio.com | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Amazon

Our intro music is The Voyage by Audionautix, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://audionautix.com/