Writer:	Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Director:	Giancarlo Volpe
Star:	Jessie Flower (Toph),  Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang),  Jack DeSena (Sokka),  Mae Whitman (Katara),  Olivia Hack (Ty Lee),  Makoto Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh),  Grey DeLisle (Princess Azula),  Dante Basco (Prince Zuko),  Cricket Leigh (Mai),  Dee Bradley Baker (Appa/Momo/Various Others)
Guest Star:	Nika Frost (Smellerbee),  Kristoffer Tabori (War Minister),  Barry Dennen (General Sung),  Karen Maruyama (Bureaucrat),  Brian Tochi (Than),  Kim Mai Guest (Ying),  Crawford Wilson (Jet)

Military Debut: Terra Team (edit) Character Debuts: General Sung (edit) Achievements: Avatar director Giancarlo Volpe was nominated for and won the 2006 Annie Award in the category "Directing in an Animated Television Production" at the 34th Annual Annie Awards for his work on this episode. (edit) Jet invites Zuko to join the Freedom Fighters. (edit) Aang uses all the elements that he has "mastered" in this TV Movie in his fight with Azula. (edit)

Aang: Everyone inside that wall...the whole world...is counting on us.
Sokka: The whole world minus the Fire Nation, that is. (edit) Jet: What do you think, Longshot?
(Longshot, mute, looks back expressionlessly)
Jet: I can respect that. (edit) Sokka: Toph, Come on!
Toph: No way am I going in that metal monster. I can't bend in there. I'll try to slow it down out here.
Sokka: Okay, good luck. (edit) Customs Lady: So, Mr. Lee, and Mr.....umm Mushy, is it?
Iroh: It's pronounced Moo-shee.
Customs Lady: You telling me how to do my job?
Iroh: Uh, no no no. (speaking charmingly) But may I just say that you're like a flower in bloom, your beauty intoxicating.
Customs Lady: You're pretty easy on the eyes yourself handsome. (makes cat-claw gesture) Raorrr. Welcome to Ba Sing Se.
Zuko: I'm gonna forget I saw that. (edit) General Sung (smiling): It is an honor to welcome you to the outer wall young Avatar, but your help is not needed.
Aang: Not needed?
General Sung (smugly): Not needed. I have the situation under control. I assure you the Fire Nation cannot penetrate this wall. Many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded.
Toph: What about the Dragon of the West? He got in.
General Sung (startled): Well... uh... technically yes. But he was quickly expunged. (more confidently) Nevertheless, that is why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It’s the impenetrable city. They don’t call it Na Sing Se. (belly laughs, then becomes serious) That means penetrable city.
Toph: Yeah, thanks for the tour, but we still got the drill problem.
General Sung (pacing back to look out over wastes): Not for long. To stop it, I’ve sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terra Team.
Sokka (thoughtfully): That’s a good group name, very catchy. (edit)

When Ty Lee is fighting the earthbenders, she jumps to amazing heights. She may be a great acrobat, but only airbenders can jump that high. (edit) When Azula jumps off the edge of the drill, she falls a long way. Azula may be good, but she's not immortal, and that fall should've broken bones. (edit) When Aang is being held against the wall by Azula and about to be blasted by lightning, the camera zooms into his opened eye, which is brown. But in numerous other episodes we see that his eye color is steel gray. (edit) How could Azula possibly stop herself from sliding down the side of the drill? As we see before the slurry is extremely slippery, and she was halfway down when she stopped herself. Moreover, there's no way she could climb up. (edit) Toph didn't even need to make the dust cover since the gaang was already hidden in a ditch and Toph could have just made a tunnel from there. (edit)

The drill conquest could be compared to the Greeks trying to defeat Troy with the Trojan Horse. Both wars lasted a considerable amount of time and both had kingdoms behind a wall. (edit) Once inside the drill, Sokka states that while he was the "idea guy", Aang and Katara were the "chop things up with waterbending guys." This alludes toward the possibility that Katara's name is derived from the word katar, which are Indian arm swords, as Sokka expresses chopping motions with his arms while delivering the statement. (edit) The method for moving the the stone cars of Ba Sing Se's monorail system is similar to that of the locomotion of the stone "cars" on The Flintstones. (edit) The train station where Jet, Smellerbee, Longshot, Zuko, and Iroh came to to go to Ba Sing Se is similar to the Grand Central
Station in New York City. (edit) The sheer size and architechture of Ba Sing Se's outer wall is very much similar to that of The Great Wall of China, which was one of the locations Avatar co-creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko visited during their trip to China the year before.
(edit)