Sokka (petulantly): I'm not one to complain, but can't Appa fly any higher? (Hes clearly tired. He glides lower, his feet brushes the water.)
Aang: I have an idea, why don't we all get on your back and you can fly us to the North Pole?
Sokka: I'd love to! Climb on everyone (he wiggles his butt at everyone), Sokka's ready for takeoff!
(Momo and lala jump up on Sokka in response to his invitation.)
_: sometimes I wonder where you got your brains from. mom and dad were smart, right?
Katara: Look, we're all just a little tired and cranky because we've been flying for two days straight.
Sokka: And for what? We can't even find the Northern Water Tribe. There's nothing up here.
(Suddenly a noise is heard up ahead. Ice is moving rapidly towards Appa. Aang screams and pulls Appa's reigns to starboard. Appa banks right and avoids the ice, but almost tips his passengers off the saddle, who hang on for dear life. Appa then banks left as another jet of ice erupts out of the waves, but this one slams into Appa's underside, who drops in an uncontrolled spin into the water. Out of the icebergs several ornate wooden skiffs come to surround Appa. They are manned by people in water tribe garb.)
Katara: They're waterbenders! We found the Water Tribe!
_: finally
Appa swimming in formation with the Water Tribe boats. Aang gets up and points ahead.
Aang: There it is!
(Cut to a view of an ice wall with towers and turrets.)
Katara: The Northern Water Tribe...
Sokka: We're finally here...
_: its beautiful, and this is just the outside...
Katara: I can't believe how many waterbenders live up here!
Aang: We'll find a master to teach us, no problem!
_: why do i get the feeling only one of us will
Katara: This place is beautiful.
Sokka (looking dreamily at the girl as he boat moves away): Yeh, she is.
_: someones got a crush
later at the cities plaza
Chief Arnook (standing to address the crowd): Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother and sisters from the Southern Tribe, and they have brought with them someone very special, someone whom many of us believed disappeared from the world until now. The Avatar! (The crowd cheers.) We also celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday. (the beautiful girl with the white hair, flanked by two attendants, walking up to the table. They all bow, smiling.) Princess Yue is now of marrying age.
(Sokka looks at her with wide eyes.)
Princess Yue: Thank you, father. May the great Ocean and Moon Spirits watch over us during these troubled times.
Chief Arnook: Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!
(The Chief motions towards three men who now stand on the dais in front of the fountain opposite the dignitaries' table. The center man is clearly the eldest with a bald head, but long white hair on the sides of his head and down his back. The begin waterbending water from three enormous amphorae in front of them. The crowd begins to cheer. Aang _ and Katara who look at each in utter delight while they clap. As the waterbending show continues, Sokka stuffing his face full of food. A figure walks behind him and sits down next to him. It is Princess Yue. He gulps his mouthful and tries to strike a cool pose next to her.)
Sokka: Hi, there. Sokka, Southern Water Tribe.
Princess Yue (smiling and bowing slightly): Very nice to meet you.
Sokka (after a brief pause, trying desperately to strike up a conversation): So... uh... you're a Princess! (She nods and smiles) You know, back in my tribe, I'm kinda like a Prince myself!
Katara: Ha! Prince of what?
_: cuz last time I checked you are dependant of others and...
Sokka (angry): A lot of things! Uh, do you mind? I'm trying to have a conversation here!
Katara (with a mock bow): our apologies, Prince Sokka.
Sokka (turning back to Yue and trying to recover): So it looks like I'm gonna be in town for awhile. I'm thinking maybe we could...(then lamely) do an activity together?
Princess Yue: Do an "activity"?
(Sokka, sweating, pauses then stuffs his mouth with some stuff on the table. _ and Katara clearly enjoying their brother's lame attempt at courting.)
Katara: Very smooth.
_: almost as smooth as the ice we found aang in
(Cut to a long shot of the plaza fountain. In front of it stand the Chief, Master Pakku and Aang.)
Chief Arnook: Master Pakku, meet your newest student, the Avatar.
(Aang bows.)
Master Pakku: Just because you're destined to save the world, don't expect any special treatment.
Aang (trying to ignore this): My friend and I can't wait to start training with you - after we relax for a couple days.
Master Pakku: If you want to relax, then I suggest visiting a tropical island. If not, I'll see you both at sunrise. Good night.
(Master Pakku walks away, Chief Arnook shrugs.
the next day
Katara: I've waited for this day my whole life! I finally get to learn from a real waterbending master!
_: oh so i who bended like an experienced 7 year bender at 3 isnt considered a master?
Katara: i meant a known master, by others, your the best bender i know.
_: (chuckles) im the only bender you know
Master Pakku manipulating a blob of water.
Aang: Good morning, Master Pakku!
Master Pakku (dropping the water blob with a grimace): No, please, march right in, I'm not concentrating or anything.
Aang: Uhh... these are my friends, _ and Katara, the ones I told you about?
(they bow while Aang introduces them. Master Pakku looks over at them as if they were bugs.)
Master Pakku (creating an ice chair for him to sit down in): I'm sorry. I think there's been a misunderstanding. You didn't tell me your friend was a girl. In our tribe, it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending.
Katara: What do you mean you won't teach me? (Walking up to Pakku) I didn't travel across the entire world so you could tell me "no"!
Master Pakku: No.
Katara (hands on her hips): But there must be other female waterbenders in your tribe!
Master Pakku: Here the women learn from Yugoda to use their waterbending to heal. I'm sure she would be happy to take you as her student despite your bad attitude.
Katara: I don't want to heal, I want to fight!
Master Pakku: I can see that. But our tribe has customs, rules.
Katara: Well your rules stink!
Aang: Yeh! They're not fair. If you won't teach Katara, then -
_: aang what are you doing
Master Pakku (standing up): Then what?
Aang: Then I won't learn from you!
(Aang turns and begins to walk away.)
Master Pakku: Well have fun teaching yourself. I'm sure you'll do a great job.
Katara: Wait! (To Pakku) Aang didn't mean that.
(_ runs over to Aang's retreating figure and grabs him by the shoulder to stop him.)
_: You can't risk your training for me or kat. You have to learn from Master Pakku. Even if he is a big jerk.
Master Pakku: Why don't we get started then.
in the city
Katara: Um, hi. Are you Yagoda?
Yugoda: Are you here for the healing lesson?
(Katara surveys the room. The students are all girls who look younger than she. Katara looks at the ground glumly.)
Katara (walking forward and sitting down): I guess we are.
Yugoda: Welcome! Welcome!
(Cut to Aang moving around a blob of water while Master Pakku, sitting cross-legged with a bowl of steaming soup in front him, gives instruction. Aang looks unhappy and sullen.)
Master Pakku: You're moving the water around, but you're not feeling the push and pull.
Aang (through gritted teeth): I'm trying!
Master Pakku (lifting the soup and sucking out some food from it): Maybe that move is too advanced for you. Why don't you try an easier one?
(Aang throws the water to the ground in frustration. Cut back to an exterior shot of the healer's building, then cut to the inner chamber. The young girls are taking the dummy out on its stretcher, leaving Katara _ and Yugoda. Katara walks over to her teacher.)
Katara: Thanks for the lesson.
Yugoda: So, who's the lucky boy?
Katara: Huh?
_: what are you taking about
Yugoda (pointing at her neck): Your betrothal necklace. You're getting married, right?
Katara (smiling): No, I don't think I'm ready for that yet. My grandmother gave my mother this necklace, and my mother passed it down to me.
Yugoda (looking closely at the necklace): I recognize this carving! I don't know why I didn't realize sooner! You're the spitting image of Kana!
_ (starting backwards in surprise): Wait, how do you know our Gran-Gran's name?
Yugoda: When I was about your age I was friends with Kana. She was born here, in the Northern Tribe.
Katara (looking away): She never told us.
Yugoda: Your grandmother had an arranged marriage with a young waterbender. He carved that necklace for her.
Katara: If Gran-Gran was engaged, why did she leave?
Yugoda: I don't know. That's always been a mystery to me. She left without saying goodbye.
_: 'why do i get the feeling i know why she left'
where the 4 are staying
Katara: How's warrior training going?
(In response Sokka kicks a bag on the floor in anger, falls to his knees, and then flops on the bag, using it as a pillow.)
Aang/_: That bad?
Sokka: No, it's Princess Yue. I don't get it. One minute she wants to go out with me and the next she's telling me to get lost! (Pause.) So how's waterbending training?
(Katara flops onto her sleeping bag, depressed. Her hood flops over her head.)
Aang: Master Poophead won't teach her because she's a girl.
_: this places culture stinks im glad i dont live here, there culture is sexist
Sokka: Why don't you just teach her, Aang?
Katara (raising her head with a smile): Why didn't I think of that? (Getting up.) At night, you can teach whatever moves you learned from Master Pakku. That way you have someone to practice with and I get to learn waterbending. Everyone's happy!
Sokka: I'm not happy.
_: But you're never happy.
Katara: Come on, Aang.
(She leaves, Aang in tow. Sokka remains lying down, a sour expression on his face. Momo chitters at him,
_: poor aang.
sokka: _ your a girl right?
_: (raises her eyebrow) last time i checked, yeh.
sokka: ok ok i didnt phrase that right, but i mean, well what i meant was
_: you want girl advice for help with yue. shoot
sokka: well she says she want to hang out but then she tell me to eave her alone. why would a girl do that?
_: well how she looked at you at the feast when you to had that odd conversation, she seem pleased and found your behavior dorky, but cute. so its not that she isnt into you.
sokka: your 12, can you give a younger youth versions of advice, its like your 36
_: wel im 1/3 of that age. but fine. point is she likes you. but i have a feeling it has something to do with her fathers introduction of her at the feast. remember when he mentioned it was her 16th birthday?
sokka: yeah, so?
_: he said she was of marrying age. which is probably a big part of all of this
sokka: im not following
_: URG! shes probably stuck in an arranged marriage
sokka: oh
_: talk to her
sokka: do you think i should
_: im a 36 year old in a 12 year olds body, how can my advice be wrong. (she smiles)
sokka: (laughs) yeah your right, thanks.
then cut to an overhead shot of Katara and Aang at a canal. They are on some sort of ledge or small plaza that ends with steps that go down into the canal water. The camera pans down as Aang raises a whip of water out of the canal.)
Aang: Master Pakku said this move is all about sinking and floating.
(He sends the water over to Katara who starts to bend it.)
Katara: I got it!
(The water begins to whip around her very fast, then up and out of the frame entirely. Cut to Aang, holding the sides of his head in excitement.)
Aang: That was amazing!
Katara: That wasn't me.
Master Pakku standing on the bridge above him. He has the water Katara had been bending. He freezes it and breaks into pieces in a shower of icicles that embed themselves in the bridge before him.)
Aang: I... I was just showing Katara a few moves.
Master Pakku: You have disrespected me, my teachings, and my entire culture.
Aang: I'm sorry, I -
Master Pakku: You are no longer welcome as my student.
(He turns and walks away, leaving an astonished Aang and Katara.
Chief Arnook: What do you want me to do? Force Master Pakku to take Aang back as his student?
Katara: Yes - please!
Chief Arnook: I suspect he might change his mind if you swallow your pride and apologize to him.
The idea is hateful to her and it shows. _ has close the same expression, Her eyes moves to Aang and she turns to look at him. She turns, back, clearly unhappy.)
Katara: Fine.
(Cut back to Master Pakku, who smiles smugly.)
Master Pakku: I'm waiting, little girl.
before katara can even force herself to, _ steps in
_: No! No way am is she apologizing to a sour old man like you!
(A she speaks, cracks open in the floor beneath her as her waterbending abilities begin to get out of control. She ends up by pointing directly at Master Pakku, her finger almost in his face. At the conclusion of her statement, the massive water pots at either end of the dais.)
Aang: Uh, _...
_ (a look of challenge on her face): I'll be outside - if you're man enough to fight me! for my sister and i's right to be taught by you!
Princess Yue draws breath in surprise as the men stiffen.
Aang: I'm sure she didn't mean that.
Sokka: Yeh, I think she did.
katara: knowing _ when it comes to waterbending ohhhh yeah. and I'll be there to support her! no wonder my gran gran left the north pole and her arranged marriage years ago! your culture rules stink!
Sokka: Are you crazy, _? You're not gonna win this fight!
_ (taking off her coat and throwing it at Sokka, hitting him in the face): thanks for the support. but ive been a genius bender since 3, i can handle that old prune.
Aang: You don't have to do this for me. I can find another teacher.
_: I'm not doing it for you! im doing this for katara, and other girls who wish to fight! Someone needs to slap some sense into that guy!
Katara: So, you decided to show up? (He walks past her.) Aren't you gonna fight?
Master Pakku (without turning): Go back to the healing huts with the other women where you and your sister belong.
(Insanely angry, _ draws a water whip out of the ground and whips Pakku on the back on the neck. He stops.)
Master Pakku (turning to face her): Fine. You want to learn to fight so bad, study closely!
Master Pakku grabs most of the water in each and bends it around himself. she gracefully dodges the water. She stands, now perhaps ten feet from Pakku. He bends the water in a wall around both of them. It spins faster and faster creating a whirlpool effect.)
Master Pakku (mockingly): Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you!
(The whirlpool constricts, but _ takes the water out of his control, he went wide eyed then got bact to reality. she sent all the water at him, he dodged it in a second to spare. The errant wall of water hits Sokka and blows him out of them frame with an exclamation of "OW!" Cut to a view from behind Master Pakku as _ runs at him with a water whip. He raises a ramp of ice in front of her which she slides up and then back flips off, landing neatly on the guardrail of the citadel steps behind him. Pakku liquefies the ramp and throws it at her while catching her feet in ice. but it didnt even hit her, she bent it back at him 2 as big he nearly fell.
Katara: You can't knock me down!
(The crowd behind her cheers.)
Aang: Go Katara!
katara: that's my sister! show him who's boss!
Pakku raises a sheet of ice between him and the raging girl. _ liquefies the ice as she reaches it and throws several blows at Pakku, one of which narrowly misses his face, heuses water to push her into another large source of water. but takes control of his water again and uses it to surf, she sends him a mocking childish grin. and the crowd cheers. _ then raises a circular pedestal of ice out of the fountain pool and begins to shoot slivers of the top of the pedestal at Pakku. Cut to Pakku who breaks them as they arrive with swift Tai Chi movements. The last one however narrowly passes to the left side of his face. Pakku can see his own reflection in the passing sheet of ice - it is both surprised and dismayed. When it is gone, he turns back to Katara with a bewildered and, perhaps, somewhat impressed look on his face. _, who is bending a stream of water around her which she throws at Pakku, who catches it and begins to twirl it around him. _ runs at him again, the wave washes over her. Cut to a close of Aang and Sokka, who await in stunned anticipation of the outcome. when the wave goes over to show a drenched _, all you see is a teepee shaped ice, then lowered to show a dry and an harmed nor tired _. She makes a motion and the segmented pillars of ice behind Pakku collapse, narrowly missing him.)
Master Pakku: Well, I'm impressed. You are an excellent waterbender.
Katara: im going easy, ive taken 35 fire nation soldiers in 2 minutes, that was weeks ago. i could do much more but i dont feel like waisting my energy on a sexist old prune. (the time of jet) But you still won't teach me or my sister, will you?
Master Pakku: No.
(With a cry of effort, Katara takes over. Katara raises water near her feet, freezes it, and send it in a rolling wave along the floor to Pakku, who is raised up on a pillar of ice when the wave reaches him. He liquefies the base of the ice column and begins to flow forward on it, like an iceberg riding along a river. Katara has raised her own stream of water and knocks him off his iceberg, but Pakku grabs Katara's water and freezes it in an arc around her with he slides around. As he exits the arc he knocks her down, her necklace falling to ice near her. Cut to a close shot of Katara, breathing heavily, her long black hair now loose around her. Pakku raising a huge column of water out of one of the pools, making a whirlpool out of it in the air and then freezing it into shards the whirlpool disintegrates. Cut back to Katara now standing in front of Pakku, but the shards land closely all around her. She is trapped. She struggles in vain against her prison of ice, her hands and arms unable to move.)
Master Pakku (walking towards her): This fight is over.
Katara: Come back here! I'm not finished yet!
Master Pakku: Yes, you are.
(He stops in surprise, picking up the necklace.)
Master Pakku (in wonder): This is my necklace!
Katara: No it's not, it's mine! Give it back!
Master Pakku: I made this sixty years ago - for the love of my life. (Katara's ice prison liquefies because of _) For Kana.
Katara/_: our Gran-Gran was supposed to marry you?
Master Pakku (still holding the necklace, sadly): I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged. I thought we would have a long, happy life together. I loved her.
Katara: But she didn't love you, did she?
_: It was an arranged marriage.
(Cut to a shot of Yue and Sokka. The Princess' eyes water and Katara's pronouncement.)
Katara (walking up to Pakku): Gran-Gran wouldn't let your tribe's stupid customs run her life. That's why she left. It must have taken a lot of courage.
_: i knew it, she didnt want to be forced to marry someone and she hated how "boys only do this girls only do that" she wanted to find her own love. and thats what she did, she went to the south pole, got married, had mom, and mom had us. she would of died on the inside if she got with you by force. she was happy she left. its hard to live a life with someone, when you know there is someone else you'd rather be with. and im sure theres someone here going through the same thing but wants t be with someone else. (looks at yue)
(Cut back to Yue and Sokka. She begins to cry openly and runs away. The shot expands to show Aang and Chief Arnook next to Sokka.)
Aang: Go get her.
(Sokka runs after her. Cut to a night shot of the city. Yue stand alone on the same bridge as before. A tear streams down her face as she hears footsteps approaching.)
Princess Yue: What do you want from me?
Sokka: Nothing. I just want you to know, I think you're beautiful... and, I never thought a girl like you would even notice a guy like me.
Princess Yue: You don't understand.
Sokka: No, no, see, that's the thing. I think I do understand now. You're a princess, and I... I'm just a southern peasant.
Princess Yue: No, Sokka...
Sokka: It's okay. You don't have to say anything. (Turning to leave) I'll see ya around, okay?
(She grabs him and kisses him.)
Sokka: Okay, now I'm really confused! Happy - but confused!
(He holds her hands in his.)
Princess Yue: I do like you! A lot. But, we can't be together - and not for the reason you think. It's because... (she pulls down the collar of her coat to reveal a necklace) ...I'm engaged. I'm sorry!
(She runs away. Fade to a morning shot of the plaza at the base of the citadel. The ruined pillars of ice are visible in the background from the battle the day before between Katara and Pakku. Near the steps, several students, including Aang, stand before Master Pakku. Aang is waterbending around a ball of water. He throws the ball of water o.c. after a few motions.)
Master Pakku: Not bad! Not bad! Heheh! Keep practicing and maybe you'll get it by the time you're my age!
(Aang looks momentarily unhappy, but then turns with a smile at the sound of footsteps behind him. _ and katara running to the group.)
Aang: Hey _!
(the girls bow to Pakku.)
Master Pakku (icily): What do you think you're doing? It's past sunrise. (Smiling) You're late.
Aang: Good to see ya here.
_ (smiling): You too.
little did the 3 kids know, a young man, waching in the distance
?: ___