I'm not confusing them. My point wasn't that Aang already had the chakra blocked and was able to bend, but that there are two options in that situation:

1. That Aang had the chakras all blocked before he went there, since he opened them when he was there. If this is the case, blocking the chakras has no effect on bending/the chakras are already blocked except in the very spiritually aware.
2. That, in a way similar to the Guru's metaphor, the chakras are not blocked but 'clogged' like algae slowing the flow of water between different pools. If this was the case, then opening them (which Aang did to the 6th chakra) should increase his awareness with his body, and allow him to, as you put it, visualize, control, and guide energy more efficiently or effectively.

But nowhere does it show Aang suddenly becoming stronger as a result of opening this chakra. Opening the seventh and final chakra does allow him to enter the avatar state, but besides that he gains no bending strength at all.

For the sixth chakra to be the control valve for bending, it would have to have a base setting of either 'open' or 'half-open' for benders. But it can't have a base setting of 'open' or else Aang wouldn't have needed special spiritual training to open them. And if it had a base setting of 'half-open' then it follows that actually opening it fully would increase a bender's strength. Which it didn't, from what I saw in the episode.

My last post was stating mostly that 'if all the chakras affect it, he didn't show it, and if only the 6th affects it, he still doesn't show it'

 

So yeah, Iroh is Zuko's grandson, which gives more credence to the voice.

 

Big spoilers for ep 10 but it's just so good I had to share it. Btw there's an avatar subreddit, r/thelastairbender, that's got lots of great fanart, memes and theories so go check it out.

 

I shed a tear at what happened to Amon.

Spoiler

It was a pretty tragic ending to the most badass villain I've seen in awhile. Being killed by his own brother and he knew what Tarlock was doing too.

 

Hahahahhaha, Murder-suicide. How does this retain a Y-7 rating?

 

Can we spoiler tag everything until we've all seen it? Also, PM me where you watched it?

 

And me if you would be so kind.

 

Y'know, I could swear all the episodes are available for watching here:
http://www.nick.com/videos/playlist/legend-of-korra-season-one-full-episodes-playlist.html

 

That only goes up to 10.
http://www.animeplus.tv/avatar-the-legend-of-korra-episode-11
is available here
now that I've seen the spoilers I know there is another as well, but I don't know where
edit: Nevermind, some of the videos are full, but some are half.

 

http://www.gogoanime.com/avatar-the-legend-of-korra-episode-12

Site has all episodes to the best of my knowledge.

 

Spoiler

Loved Bumi for the 3 seconds he was on.

 

That was probably the most bullshit end to an avatar story arc to date.

Y U NO KOH THE FACE-STEALER, AMON?

Spoiler

Honestly, when he pulled off that mask and showed me the scar I was like "AGHHHHHHHHHH YES! YES! HE CAN CHANGE HIS FACE!!!! IT'S KOH!"

But then it was makeup.

And Korra lost her bending for what... a day? Zero conflict there. Oh and of course she can restore everyone else's bending, nullifying the losses of every episode previous.

Bullshit I say.

 

Spoiler

I think it was pretty obvious they were going to have Korra be able to restore peoples bending.

It is still a kids show, despite it appealing to everyone.

 

That...happened.

Spoiler

This felt like a cop-out ending. Korra didn't gain Avatar State until she lost her bending and broke down crying? Why the hell not any point earlier? Aang certainly had it far before his 'lowest point'. She spontaneously learns Air-Bending and saves the day, despite losing all other bending. Are Air-benders immune or something? Then she gains the ability to restore all bending, gives Lin hers back, and gets the reaction with all the emotion of someone who got passed the stuffing at Thanksgiving. Her love-interest confesses, and hugs and kisses all around. She gets acknowledged as Avatar, everyone's happy.

The only way I can explain this is that they completed this season before they got the green-light for Season Five. There's no other reason for everything to be wrapped up this neatly.

I will admit, I liked the reveal about Amon's past and the resolution of how to write him off. It was a bit cheap, but the murder-suicide was a pretty cool ending.

 

Spoiler

I don't understand why he used makeup. Why not actually give himself a scar? He could easily stick a torch in his face and then heal it himself and let it scar. He planned on wearing a goddamn mask for his whole life anyway. And why was there no final battle?
Let me just knock you out of this building. Oh, I've ruined all the effort you put into the equalist campaign and your identity is no longer secret? Better run away or I'll beat you up with my newly learned airbending. Just feels like Amon turned out to be a little pussy bitch. Really just hated the entire episode. I like the corny jokes that are a part of the series, but when Iroh said "Thanks Aang" or whatever, I wanted to punch the screen. Seriously an awful ending to the series.

 

Spoiler

Yeah... but I was expecting the destruction of Amon at the end of season 2 or something. And while I am upset about Amon being infinitely less interesting than I expected him to be and his subsequent kicking of the bucket, it was this patched-up 5 minute happy ending that really ticked me off. Compared to rest of the brilliantly-plotted season, it was rushed and didn't feel genuine.

Imagine if after Amon took Korra's bending he had removed his mask a second time and a different face lay beneath it. And then it could have flashed through a dozen different faces. How awesome would that have been? He could have been Noatak AND the boy who lost his family to firebenders, along with a host of others whose face he'd stolen.

Korra could have then spent an entire season trying to regain her bending, while simultaneously trying to fight of Koh.

So much wasted potential. Also, there was nothing there to keep us interested in the next season. No question marks. In ATLA, at the end of book 1, we still had the looming threat of the war with the fire nation.

But here? Nothing.

End rant.

 

Honestly I agree with you for the most part.

Spoiler

When Amon was about to take Mako's bending that's when I was sure Korra would open the Avatar state, since Aang used it before to break blood bending I assumed it would work the same, and she would push Amon away. Then the second season would have been regaining republic city and trying to undermine Amon. Though having Amon be koh the face stealer would have been awesome as fuck. If this weren't being shown to kids as well it would have been cool to see him take Mako's face as well. Something for Korra to try and get back next season, if it were somehow possible.

 

*sigh*

You know, it's starting to look like the Avatar writers just don't know how to end a series (since this was supposed to be a 1-season show).