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That was the biggest pile of horseshit I've seen in a while. Amon's identity, his method of taking bending away, the "fight" with him, Korra's airbending and Avatar State, all of it. Nothing was done well. In fact, it's ruined the entire season for me. I was forgiving its faults before (among them the godawful shipping), but with none of it paying off in the end, the entire thing has collapsed on itself in my eyes.

I did expect her to restore bending by the end, so I'm not disappointed by that I guess. And what Tarrlok did was actually pretty badass, despite my dislike of what led up to it.

The next season needs new writers, period, because the ones for this season had their heads up their asses.

 

I agree, I also expected it to happen someway or another and the

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tarlokk doublekill

was done well in my opinion. But the rest of it sucked so hard.

 

Wow DLP, what's with all the hate? Yeah its a cop out but damn still a good series. Sometimes I think DLP is too cynical and jaded for its own good. :s

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Bumi looks awesome, Aang did puberty right, Katara is lovely, Lin is my idol, Korra is kung-fu action glowey-eyed Jebus, Mako came to his senses, Naga is awesome, Tarrlok has my respect and Yakone is a dick.

And OMG THAT POLARBEARDOG JUST METALBENDED!!!

 

I think it's because people have been thinking of this show as a young adult one, rather than a children's show. They were expecting a no holds barred beatdown on Amon when Korra finally unlocked the Avatar state, but it's not that type of show. It never has been.

Look back over the series and tell me that wanton destruction from the Avatar was ever going to be a theme. It's been obvious since the first episode, really. It doesn't help that DLP as a whole is a forum that idolises badass motherfuckers wrecking shit.

 

When Aang went into the Avatar State, shit blew up. Not to mention it activated when he was in danger or extremely angry (which happened several noteworthy times to Korra in this season), not when he was... uh, "really sad." Why wouldn't I expect similar here?

And you're conveniently forgetting all the other strikes against it.

 

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Disappointed that the loss of bending conflict was resolved in all of 5 minutes. I would have liked to see Korra struggle with only Airbending for a bit, and then spend a few episodes next season to work out the kinks per se. As it stands now, everything seems resolved.

IrohMan was awesome and Lieutenant Lightning always loses out.

No explanation of Amon/Noatak's motives and ability to remove bending, but the resolution was well done. I was surprised that Nick showed what blatantly seemed like a murder-suicide.

Naga goes beast mode as usual.

Bumi was amazing for all of the two seconds we got to see him.

Asami left by the wayside, not good.

All that said, surprised more people haven't pointed out how Mako was seriously bad ass this episode. Not just resisting bloodbending, but lightning-bending with no motion at the same time. Even Ozai, who was probably the fastest lightning bender in the original series, had to make a quick circular motion to do his bending. Mako just needed to point his fingers and concentrate.

 

When Aang spent half of the series finale whining about how he couldn't kill the firelord and left his friends to fight alone, I was pissed too. Then when the deus ex-machina of spirit bending was added half way through the series finale I was even more pissed, but you know what? Then I realized it was a fucking kids show.

If you want a show where the plot is flawlessly brilliant, the endings and characters are full of destructive badassery and there aren't retarded happy endings, then don't watch a show that airs on nickelodeon.

I liked this show and had almost none of the complaints in this thread, because I went into this expecting a kids show. It seems all of you who are complaining, didn't.

 

Bad writing is bad writing.

 

I think this thread needs some more levity.

In light of the new information from the season finale, this gif takes on a whole new meaning.



But yeah let's stop squabbling and just appreciate the fucking show okay?

 

Just as a little point I might note its not actually definite what happened on the boat. If they choose to the writers can get away with saying he survived as nothing was explicitly shown and its clear he was aware.

 

I wasn't particularly enthused about the show in the beginning, but it grew on me.

Tarrlok is a good villain - he wants to protect republic city, but is entirely too ruthless in carrying it out (against the equalists). He obviously does think that benders are superior - and this makes absolute sense given the kind of upbringing Yakone favoured.

And Amon: I think it would have been interesting for the writers to play Amon straight - a sincere equalist. The series never resolved the whole benders v. muggles issue; the equalists did have a point inasmuch as Republic City does seem to favour benders, while benders themselves don't hesitate to use their powers to get their way. Something for next season?

That said, Amon's identity fits like a glove. To echo Howdy, his ability to resist Tarrlok's bloodbending now makes a lot more sense. Further, the main villain having ulterior motives does make the series more interesting; it also ties with the series' dominant theme of legacies.

Korra and Tenzin both try to live up to Aang's; Lin with her mother's; Amon and Tarrlok with Yakone's; there's also General Iroh for both hsi grandfather and his namesake; and there's the awesome Bumi. Obviously, characters make or break a series; the writers made the characters sufficiently different for them to be interesting, while also having them retain identifiable characteristics from the last generation, so that we the audience can enjoy a bit of nostalgia.

The suicide-murder was awesome. I honestly think that the whole series was essentially carried by Amon and Tarrlok. Take away those two, and there's not much that makes the series more than a pale shadow of the original ATLA.

The Avatar State cum bending restoration was an asspull, but as others have pointed out, there's only so much grim-dark the writers can reconcile with what is, at the end of the day, a kid's show.

Also, the bending got better towards the end.

I enjoyed the series, and the first few episodes proved deceptive. People need to remember that ATLA really came into its own only in Season 2. There's only so much a 12 episode season can contain; here's looking foward to the next Book.

 

I just realised something. Amon's plan was bullshit from the very start, and his declaration that he'd get rid of Airbending forever is especially so.

Picture him winning. He's eliminated bending in its entirety, all over the world. Then people have children. Noatok and Tarlokk were born after Yakone lost his bending, and inherited his ability to bloodbend without the full moon. So how exactly was taking away Tenzin's family's airbending going to get rid of it forever if the kids could become airbenders themselves? Then expand that to cover every single child of every bender in the world.

It couldn't work, given that he was just one man. There was no way he could have eliminated bending over the long term.

 

Eh, chalk it up to not understanding genetics, I suppose. Even if he should have, given that he has bending. He didn't strike me as particularly sane anyway.

 

I'm sorry but the two finales don't compare. The conflict in Aang's struggle with his beliefs and his duty was compelling, and the "deus ex machina" of his soul bending wasn't nearly as bad as this bloodbending bullshit. He fought and beat down Ozai before he took away his bending.

You can't even compare the bender on bender action in the Korra/Mako vs Amon fight to the Ozai vs Aang fight. They actually fought. This finale had Korra throw out like half a dozen shots and that's it. On top of that, the Azula vs Zuko/Katara, Toph/Sokka/Suki vs Skyships, and Lotus vs Ba Sing Se were much more entertaining side battles than of the ones in this finale (save perhaps Iroh vs airplanes, but that was killed with his line at the end).

And after rewatching The Tale of Iroh, I know my hopes were too high for the series. No character will ever compete with the original Iroh, but this season finale was still disappointing.

 

So it turns out that the second season got the go ahead well AFTER the entire first season was scripted and halfway into production. Mike and Bryan could have changed things, but I suppose it would have been difficult.

I can now mostly forgive the terribleness that was the finale.

 

Exactly. I'm not sure what could be qualified as your lowest moment, if not the few seconds before your imminent death.

 

My reaction, precisely.

True story: Sometimes I forget how old I am, then someone refers to Hook as a childhood memory. :cry:

I know, right? I love it... Love. It.

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I had a feeling that what would eventually happen would be Korra losing her bending, experiencing a spiritual awakening and subsequently regaining her abilities, and from there it would only be a short while before she was able to restore others' bending, as well.

I became even more sure of this when it was revealed that Amon was a blood bender (which made a lot of sense to me - it seemed an obvious way to mess with someone's abilities, but in a way that could eventually be fixed by the Avatar, if not another blood bender), and she lost everything but air bending.

I just didn't think it would all happen in the last two minutes of the season.

And, Mako throwing over Asami like that...

Honestly, other than that last point, I can't really complain about this show. Oh, other than the farting fucktard. :facepalm

The production values/animation are top notch, the character design was great (Other than the farting fucktard), the action scenes were well done, and they got away with about as much 'mature content' as they could in a cartoon airing on a children's network.

From the very first episode, I was amused by one thing in particular: Those of you familiar with the early days of television (and, no, I wasn't around for that, but I've seen enough reruns), will know that no one said the word "pregnant" on TV. They used the mildest euphemisms they could manage, "with child" for instance, and god forbid you ever allude to how that "child" got in there.

Married couples weren't even shown in the same bed and, in fact, were shown to have separate beds.

The only cartoons were shown in prime time, and you wouldn't have seen any teenagers kissing in them. Heck, even Disney films usually save any kissing for the very end.

I guess that one of the reasons -other than the high quality of Korra, in general- that the show put a smile on my face, is how far cartoons have come in all this time.

Team Korra was knocking that kissing out in the first half of the season, and every other episode thereafter. Pema arrives a few minutes into the first episode not only looking ready to pop, but refers to herself as "pregnant". She's shown to share a bed with her husband. *gasp*

Not that unusual in this day and age, true, but it's not something that ends up in many cartoons, and I guess it just tickles me when I look at it in the context of the history of cartoons and TV in general.

Some of the good guys have bad parents, some of the good parents had bad kids, some of the bad guys are sort of good, some of the bad guys think they're good guys but they're just evil, the girl who is supposed to be a spiritual leader is hotheaded and impatient. Shades of gray are welcome here.

There's no ridiculously canned dialogue being churned out of an assembly line shit-factory just to get it done, because there's no selling the viewers or their intelligence short, or thinking they can't sit through a few minutes of cerebral scenes, just because the target audience is children.

Also, Korra is a hard-bodied goddess; Asami is a smart, skilled, classic beauty, and five-time winner of Republic City Weekly's sexiest hair award; and Lin "Iron Maiden" Beifong is the daughter of Toph, Peter Parker, and Bruce Wayne... without him ever taking off the bat-suit.

Oh, and fuck your cabbages!

Really, I believe the main reason Avatar is so popular is quite simply because it IS one of the best cartoons to have come out of the U.S. in a long time... whether it knocked the last few minutes of the season closer out of the park or not. Of course, because expectations are so high, any shortcomings will be perceived as more disappointing.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me it's the most downloaded U.S. cartoon that doesn't have a fandom largely fueled by pony fetishism.

It's just nice to see that there are a few great examples of animated entertainment that we don't have to import from the creative folks in Land of The Rising Sun.