If this seems longwinded, it's because…

If this seems longwinded, it's because I wrote it while watching the show so you get all my feels--

This Episode Can be Summed Up:
1.Shi heads to the Endless Cave to get the Devouring Sword.  He intends to sacrifice himself.
2.Ka Suo learns of Shi's mission and goes to save him.
3.The Fire King is so successful in his attack that he finally corners the royal family.  He forces the Ice King and Queen to watch as their children die and are turned into ash by him.  The Ice King swears revenge.
4.Shi fails to obtain the Devouring Sword.  Ka Suo shows up to save him.
5.The Ice King is defeated after an epic fight by the Fire King.  
6.the Fire King and his people arrive at the Endless Cave to intercept Ka Suo, whom he has vowed to slowly kill in front of the Ice king.
7.Aslan--the lion--shows up and buys Shi, the General, and Ka Suo time to escape.
8.Ka Suo, Shi, and the General arrive in the city and learn the sad truth, that their brothers and sisters are all dead.
Long Version: 

Shi and Ka Suo meet just before he sets out on his mission to claim the God Devouring Sword. The writers are clearly setting up for a rift between the two as the amount of emphasis placed on how close the two is emphasized left and right: in a poignant scene Ka Suo gifts his little brother with a rare ice flute.  He shows him a leaf.  Whoever blows on the leaf can know where the flute holder is--(HOW CAN THEY BE CASUALLY CHATTING WHEN PEOPLE ARE DYING LEfT AND right???)

Meanwhile Li Luo (Victoria) is cornered by fire nation soldiers.  She has no weapon and so she tells them that she can lead them to a secret entrance into the ice castle in return if they spare her (she is clearly buying time).

Shii enters the cave and we learn that even though the ice veil is melting the tribe is unaffected because they created sacred jewelry from wisdom prayer beads of some ancestor.  The fire nation however seems to know of this (can I say that the people in the fire nation all seem to be a million times better looking than the ice tribe, who seem to be super weak?).  We, the audience, are shown flashes of the fire king laughing manically as the two nations battle it out (can I just say that he knows how to rock a perm?).  The cheesiness is laugh out loud funny; I strongly recommend people to watch this on Viki just to see the viewer comments....

So much of this episode is difficult to really explain because alot of it is the same scenes repeated: essentially the ice nation is falling apart beneath the ice attack and they are sort of dealing with it.  

Ka Suo wishes to remain and assist his people who are dying but he has been ordered to leave immediately and find the magical 6 leaf crystal which can save the ice veil.  He is the final hope of his people.  We also learn that Shi is essentially viewed as an expendable person compared to Ka Suo (probably a combination of him being half mermaid and having no magic)

Ka Suo runs off to aid Shi when he learns of his mission so off to the Endless Cave he goes.  The Endless Cave it seems is filled with death vines (OMG sorry the Ice Tribe is just really pathetically weak)(Fire King soo hot wonder why he hates the Ice King so much).

The Ice King's remaining children/soldiers are held under a deadly enchantment by the Fire King which could cause them to turn into smoke.  The Ice King finally says (basically) come at me bro and begs him to leave his children alone.  He agrees, if they swear loyalty to him and kill the Ice King (their dad)(he's so bad).

>>>why all the hate?  I wish I knew the meaning behind this conflict>>>

the fire nation is brutal, asking them to kill their wives, they ask the hottest royal ice son, Zhu Gong, to kill his wife--she swears allegiance to the fire king and once free tries to kill the fire king but fails and this condemns them all to death------the Ice King apologizes as his children die in front of him and the Ice King swears to destroy the fire nation (the death scene was really dramatic and slow mo, like watching 300 in fact a lot of this drama seems to be influenced by it)

MEANWHILE Shi finds the sword (why the HELL did they hide it so far away? its an ice weapon so only ice people should be able to use it right?)  the Ice King finally intervenes to save his Queen (I feel bad for her!)

AS the two begin a fight that is like a dance the sounds their swords make is so painful it causes others to collapse.  The emperor of the ice nation seems to get owned.

Shi meanwhile frees the god sword which seems to have an evil spirit of its own (now I know why it was sealed).  He bargains with the sword who wants to know his greatest fear, which seems to be losing his brother (these two are so close it is almost sickening I kind of want them to hate one another).  

Huo Yi appears to have defeated the ice king and now will rule the 3 realms.  And the devouring sword wants to devour Shi's spirit. Ka Suo shows up in the nick of time and tells general Ke Tou to take his brother away.  He orders him to defy the orders of the emperor, which are to protect Ka Suo at all costs.  Ka Suo decides to be the 'sacrifice'. (this guy needs to have some faults he's too good right now).

They fail to get the devouring sword and flee for their lives.  The fire king swears to slowly kill Ka Suo in front of his defeated father.  He wants his men to capture him and send him to the Endless Cave to capture alive.
 Just as they leave the cave they are met by the best of the best of the fire tribe.  Including the king.

BUT ASLAN SHOWS UP buys them time.  And he fights bravely, but alas is slain.  And why is the fire king so hott?

Basically the entire ice kingdom is being destroyed.  All of Ka Suo's and Shi's buddies are being pinned up like Jesus to die, it is like full scale genocide.  Ka Suo and Shi learn that their brothers and sisters are all dead.  

Review:
The CGI scenery is beautiful but the execution of the battle scenes is fall on the floor funny.  I have an appreciation for bad stuff but others might be unable to watch (its like watching Power Rangers a little).  The drama is over the top funny but some of the plot inconsistencies might frustrate a viewer because there is little to no explanation as to WHY the Ice nation is so weak and WHY it shows so much restraint since they clearly explained that even if the Ice Veil is under threat they still have power.  There is an implication that the reason for this feud is linked to the Ice King's second wife who the Fire King seems to be in love with but it isn't fully explained and it seems they were always rivals.  

I have never watched a show where someone let their children die so easily.  The fight scene is like watching something out of DBZ or Sailor Moon.  Just very over the top dramatic.  I love it.  I gave the show a 7.5 because it is entertaining, dramatic, and interesting but it gets docked points for cheesy scenes, bad acting, predictability and forcing things to happen for the sake of plot advancement without a lot of explanation ex. the Ice King is SO WEAK.

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