Once when the gaang visits the Fire Nation, they’re all just on the side of too tipsy when Zuko leans in with the most grave expression imaginable.
“Aang,” Zuko says, “This has been… haunting me…. Why did your friends need to suck on those frogs?”
And Aang just gasps, and does not explain the frogs, because he has suddenly remembered that Miyuki is still wanted by the Fire Nation and that just won’t do. So Aang demands that Zuko pardon Miyuki for her crimes, which then gets the rest of the gaang to dogpile on and also demand justice for Miyuki.
Zuko is willing to hear him out.
…Zuko is significantly less willing to hear him out when Aang mentions that Miyuki is a cat.
(Zuko finds it difficult to believe that a cat is legitimately wanted by the Fire Nation)
But because they are all the worst, he relents and they all drunkenly stumble down to go find the records of Miyuki’s crimes and write her up a pardon, much to the chagrin of the night-shift archivist.
Zuko, staring blankly at Miyuki’s rap sheet:
The gaang:
Zuko:
Zuko: I don’t …. I don’t think I can pardon this…
Sokka: It can’t be that bad! Let me see-
Sokka:
Zuko: You see what I mean?
Toph: Is anyone going to tell me what it says or am I just going to have to wait in suspense?
[ID: meme panel of two red buttons, with a gloved white hand trying to decide which one to press. the left red button is labelled, “Pardon Cat (War Criminal)” while the other red button is labelled “Never unlock frog backstory”. the second panel is an image of a furiously sweating man mopping his brow with a cloth, agonising over his decision. the man is captioned as “Firelord Zuko”. /end ID.]
The image transcription after toph says her bit about not being able to see is evidence that accessibility done well can not only preserve the original joke without watering it down, but take the joke to news heights. In this informal essay i will
