School Time Shipping

School Time Shipping is an Avatar: The Last Airbender short, which aired on February 17, 2007. It features almost all of the main Avatar characters introduced so far and is drawn in super deformed chibi style. This story is about Aang trying to ask Katara to the Golden Dragon Dance, and he fails almost every time. This is the first time Greg Baldwin has been credited as Iroh, although the short is not part of official canon.

Synopsis

The short starts off by showing the serpent from the Serpent's Pass. Then it switches to a miniature version of the serpent in a fishtank, being fed by a bigheaded Aang. After all of the students are depicted, Roku appears in the classroom and tells the class that the most important event of their young lives, the Golden Dragon Dance, is coming up. Sokka is the first to worry over who to ask to the Golden Dragon Dance, and he looks at Suki and Yue. Suki is shown with a pink heart and the heart floats over to Sokka. Princess Yue is shown with two hearts above her head. They start to float over, but Suki grabs them, saying, "I saw him first!" (a reference to how Sokka met Suki in episode 04, and Yue met him in episode 18.) Yue responds angrily, and a large moon appears in the background with the threat of using her "moon powers".

Aang says that he already knows who he's going to ask while Yue and Suki start a catfight over Sokka in the background (complete with cat like noises), and he gazes at Katara. Then it shows Katara writing, and suddenly Jet, Haru (who doesn't talk, but sounds like a sheep) and Zuko show up with flower bouquets for her. Sokka teases Aang, saying that he has some competition there. This makes Aang so mad that it causes him to enter the Avatar State and burst through the roof.

Later in the day, when Aang tries to approach her during track, he's pushed out of the way with Haru's earthbending, who in turn is booted away by Jet, and who is then burned away with the scene ending when Zuko runs up beside her after Jet comments on her "hair loopies." At the library of Wong Shi Tong, Aang writes a note to Katara on a paper plane. When it floats in front of her, she reads it, and seems enamored over the writer, but then sees Bumi is sitting beside her. Assuming that he wrote the note, she crumples it up, and tosses it at him as she walks away.

Later on, Aang goes to see the school counselor, Iroh, who gives him some advice, accidentally giving Aang an idea as well. When school seems to be over and kids are going home, Jet appears to Katara on Appa, and asks her to the dance while making a heart with his hookswords. Right after that, Zuko appears on a Komodo Rhino, and makes a huge heart by firebending, shouting, "My heart burns for you!" Haru earthbends, constructing a huge statue of Katara. She says he's sweet, but much too sensitive for her. Ty Lee shows interest however, so Haru kicks off the head of Katara's statue and replaces it with Ty Lee's features instead. Ty Lee leaps into Haru's arms, kissing him in response. Then, up in the air shows Aang creating Chinese characters in the sky (with the help of Teo), complete with English subtitles, asking Katara to the dance. Katara tells him that she'd love to go to the dance with him, but says she's already going with someone else. Zuko, Haru and Jet suddenly stop crying in the background and instead cheer up instantly.

The Blue Spirit comes over to take her away, and as they skip into the sunset, Jet and Haru look on with Zuko, who groans, "I did not see that coming", while Katara says "What can I say? I like the quiet, mysterious type."

Notes

• This episode's title alludes to "shipping," a term in fanfiction for writing stories with romance (shipping comes from relationship). The episode seems to mostly parody various fan-theories on who Katara will wind up with on the show.

External links

• http://www.nick.com/avatarshort/ (The password is koh)