The Great Divide (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

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Avatar: The Last Airbender episode
"The Great Divide"
Zhang leader fighting with Gan Jin leader
Book	One: Water
Chapter	Eleven
Episode #	Eleven
Prod. code	111
Airdate	May 20, 2005
Writer(s)	John O'Bryan
Director	Giancarlo Volpe
Guest star(s)	Scott Menville (Gan Jin Scout) Rene Auberjonois (Gan Jin Leader) Roberta Farkas (Zhang Leader) Leonard Stone (Canyon Guide)

Previous episode
"Jet"
Next episode
"The Storm"

"The Great Divide" is an episode from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which airs on Nickelodeon. It is the eleventh episode of the first season of the series.

While on their way to the North Pole, Aang and his friends arrive at a giant canyon where two groups are bickering over who should get to go across. Aang decides to let his flying bison transport the old and sick across the canyon while he walks across with the two groups to ensure they don’t fight one another. However, he soon learns that the two tribes have been feuding for one hundred years and they both believe their actions are justified, but when the predators inside the canyon start to come out, Aang is stuck trying to defend both tribes from each other and the vicious wildlife.

[edit] Episode synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with Katara and Sokka arguing over their campsite. Aang ends the fight, and then Momo and Appa fight over a piece of food, which Aang also resolves and begins bragging about his ability to solve problems as the Avatar. Aang and his friends must cross the largest canyon in the world, and are planning to fly across on Appa. Just before they leave, a man runs up to them and starts yelling that they better not leave with the guide because he was there first. He is holding a spot for the rest of his tribe (the Gan Jin) until they can arrive. While waiting, another tribe (the Zhang) arrives, a tribe that the man claims has been an enemy of his tribe for 100 years. The Gan Jin tribe arrives, and we can see that this tribe is neat and prim and proper, while the Zhang tribe is dirty and barbaric. The canyon guide, an Earthbender, arrives, and both tribes get into an argument over who gets to go first, the Zhangs say that they should because they have sick people, the Gan Jins say that they should because they have old people. Aang reaches a compromise and suggests that Appa carry their sick and elderly across, while the two tribes travel together across the canyon.

The canyon guide warns them not to take any food into the canyon, as it will attract dangerous predators. After he has broken a rock shelf so that potential Fire Nation soldiers cannot follow them, a Canyon Crawler attacks. Aang and his friends fend it off, but the guide's arms are broken, which means he can't earthbend and there is no going back. Both tribes argue some more and finally split up. We learn that both tribes brought food into the canyon because they believed that the other tribe must have brought it in, so why should they go hungry while the other tribe eats? Katara and Sokka each learn one side of the story of the feuding tribes. The Gan Jins tell Katara that the forefather of their tribe, Gin Wei, was attacked while transporting the sacred orb during their redemption ritual and robbed by a thief, Wei Gin, from the Zhangs. The Zhangs tell Sokka that their ancestor, Wei Gin, saw Gin Wei passed out on the ground and was returning the sacred orb to Gin Wei's tribe when they wrongfully imprisoned him for 20 years.

They reach the end of the canyon, where they argue some more and prepare to fight and end the feud once and for all. Aang becomes angry and uses Airbending to stop the fight, but in the process reveals the food from both tribes and attracts many Canyon Crawlers. By working together and throwing bags over the Crawlers' heads while the Crawlers are distracted with food, everyone is able to ride them up the wall and out of the canyon. Aang, upon hearing the names of the two tribes' ancestors, reveals that he knew them, and that they were twins. He says that when they were 8, they played a game called "Redemption." Gin Wei was running with the ball when he fell, and Wei Gin picked it up and started running to the other end of the field when he stepped out of bounds and was put in the penalty box for two minutes. Finally, the tribes make up and continue their journey to the Earthbender capital together. Aang then reveals to his friends that he made up the whole thing.

[edit] Notes

The canyon appears similar to the Grand Canyon and/or the Fish River Canyon.
The canyon guide bears a striking resemblance to Aang's disguise in "The King of Omashu."
"Zhang" (脏, zāng) means dirty in Mandarin Chinese while "Gan Jin" (干净, gānjìng) means clean.^{[citation needed]}
Since both sides can agree that the Gan Jin's forefather, Gin Wei, was supposed to deliver the sacred orb, his name can be written as 解衛 (jiè wèi) which translates as 'to transport under guard.' Since no one can agree whether Zhang's forefather, Wei Gin, was there to help or steal, his name can be written as 偉解 (wěi jiě) which translates as 'great divide.'
According to Aang, Appa has five stomachs.
The situation between the two tribes provides an example of a Rashomon effect, in which multiple individuals who are witnesses to an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it, commonly used in episodes of television programs. The concept was popularized by Akira Kurosawa's 1950's film Rashomon, in which a crime witnessed by four individuals is described in four mutually contradictory ways.