Avatar: The Last Airbender & Korra (SPOILERS)

[Zealkin]

BTW lieutenant and Amon were definitely lovers, it was implied yo. No one can convince me otherwise!!!!!!

 

[Tennyo]

Mustache guy definitely had very strong feels.

I actually felt rather bad for him.

 

[Zealkin]

Yeah, I hope they go more in depth about the bender non-bender thing though, because it's definitely not over. Lieutenant and the equalists all thought Amon was just like them, and it turns out he was just another bender manipulating them all along, like benders always have

Oh and now that Mako's out of the way, I can ship Iroh II and Asami to my hearts content <3

 

[Tennyo]

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Thanks for the spoiler tags gaiz.

 

[Shademp]

I shed a tear. It was a big tear.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

i cried

Spoiler

when asami called her dad horrible i just have a lot of bad father and asami feels i don't know how to handle things

 

[Theozilla]

I'm not sure if this is my favorite of the four Avatar finales, but I think it was definitely the most emotional. I kinda like that the whole thing almost felt sorta low key.

While Bolin did not have any super emotionally charged face off with any one, he still showed some great progress on how he learning to handle being by himself, while still retaining his humor and optimistic outlook.

I liked that Mako's and Asami's break-up was very civil and neither made a huge scene and both recognized while they no longer have romantic feelings for each, they still care very deeply for one another. Emily Guendelsberger (of the A.V. Club http://www.avclub.com/articles/skeletons-in-the-closetendgame,81693/) expressed part of my thoughts on the whole love triangle really well:

I&#8217;m curious what they&#8217;ll do with Korra and Mako next season&#8212;stable relationships are notoriously boring to watch, as are the repetitive fights of &#8220;fiery&#8221; ones. If I can take the parallel history of Tenzin, Beifong, and Pema to mean that the big message here is &#8220;sometimes people break up, and it&#8217;s sad but not the end of the world,&#8221; with a side order of &#8220;if your boyfriend appears to be checking out another girl, it&#8217;s his fault, not hers&#8221;&#8212;that&#8217;s actually satisfying as a rare voice of reason in entertainment intended for youth and adult markets.

Asami facing her father was very heart-wrenching as well, and made me notice that both A:TLA and LoK have done many variations of "terrible father" (to be sure, all of them are very well done).

Mako and Iroh both did some really awesome Firebending as well, Mako's lightning-bending while being bloodbended was especially awesome too. Amon succeeding (at least temporarily) in taking 3/4's of Korra's bending was pretty surprising and awesome as well.

I have no regrets in admitting that I kinda "pterodactyl screeched" at Korra's and Mako's kiss at the end.

And I demand we see more Bumi (and Kya) in Season 2, the man looks awesome (to bad it appears he is not Iroh's father, oh well).

The Amon/Tarrlok dynamic was incredibly moving, especially their suicide (although it would not be inconceivable for Bryke to bring them back in season 2, I doubt it). I had the theory that Amon was Yakone's other son and Tarrlok's brother all the way back at episode 9, I loved how they went with the idea that while Amon/Noatak was a bender, he really did want to rid the world of bending because of how his father made him view bending as something that people abuse and oppress others with and it would be better if no one had any power at all. I at first thought that Tarrlok was just going to electrocute Noatak/Amon, the suicide really surprised me. I like that Tarrlok realized that they were doing the exact same thing their father did by running away to start a new life, and that he realized it would have been fruitless. So he ended it all. Amon's/Noatak's tears that possibly indicated that he knew of his brother's intention all along was also really amazing. Just powerful stuff. Can't believe Nickelodeon let Bryke get away with that.

And seeing spirit Aang was good too. People might complain that the Avatar restoring bending is too Deus Ex Machina but since Amon wasn't really taking bending away perse, I also didn't mind it (And it is really no more DEM than the Lion Turtle in A:TLA) Again, the scenes were so emotionally resonant that it lessened a lot of the flaws for me. This was a nice stand alone season. I'm exited to see what season 2 holds and pray the wait isn't too long.
Also this interpretation of Korra's cliff-scene and her tear falling over the edge, from Emily Guendelsberger is really interesting, and perhaps shows how Bryke might have snuck in and under-the-radar protagonist contemplating suicide.

Korra vs. her spiritual block / Korra vs. lack of identity outside of Avatar

Resolution: Highly satisfying, if you read it this one particular way
At first, I had &#8220;not so much&#8221; written down for resolution on both of these, as there isn&#8217;t a ton of obvious cause-and-effect in why Aang showed up like a god from the machine to restore Korra&#8217;s bending&#8212;other than the lame excuse of &#8220;You looked sad.&#8221;

But watching the end again, this way of reading the last five minutes popped into my head, and it makes more and more sense the more I think about it. Korra&#8217;s lack of identity and her block were actually the same thing, and they&#8217;re both resolved in a kind of great under-the-censor&#8217;s-radar way.

Korra&#8217;s just found out the best healer in the world can&#8217;t do anything for her. Her last hope to hang onto the identity she&#8217;s had since childhood is gone. Mako tells her he loves her; she tells him to go away, that she&#8217;s &#8220;not the Avatar anymore.&#8221; Her misery calls back to the dream she had in &#8220;The Voice In The Night,&#8221; where her own subconscious&#8212;dressed as scary Amon&#8212;tells her &#8220;Once I take your bending away, you will be nothing.&#8221; Korra goes out to a cliff, and walks up to the very, very edge&#8212;she&#8217;s close enough that from her looking-down POV we see a tear actually falling all the way down the side of the cliff, which means her head is leaning out over the drop.

I can&#8217;t think of a reason to use that specific shot unless it&#8217;s to imply that she went up there to throw herself off the cliff.

Supporting this theory: When she pulls back, sits down, decides to keep living as a person who isn&#8217;t inherently special, and starts thinking for real about what that means&#8212;that&#8217;s the instant Aang finally shows up to declare &#8220;You have finally connected with your spiritual self!&#8221; This all feels like fan-wanking, but the alternate explanation seems to be &#8220;He showed up then because she was&#8230; continuing to be sad? And that continuing sadness somehow resolved her spiritual block?&#8221; That&#8217;s unsatisfying, unearned, and also doesn&#8217;t really make a lot of sense. The more I think about the oddness of that POV shot, Aang&#8217;s timing, and, most importantly, how not okay Nickelodeon would be with showing a hero contemplating suicide, the more sense it makes to consider the final-final battle of the season as completely internal&#8212;and pretty damn dark.

Since Avatar: The Last Airbender ended its second season with its heroes getting schooled and running away, it didn&#8217;t seem obvious that the writers would end Korra&#8217;s first season on an up or down note. It&#8217;s almost greedy to go for an ending with both the &#8220;Whoa!&#8221; of The Empire Strikes Back and the &#8220;Yay!&#8221; of Star Wars. It&#8217;s also risky, as that sort of &#8220;J/K, they&#8217;re fine,&#8221; can feel unearned and detract from the weight of what came before; further, people try it often enough that it&#8217;s usually pretty easy to see right through the Empire Strikes Back ending. The Legend Of Korra handled the switcheroo ending about as well as you can: I found it plausible that the writers would leave her de-powered going into the second season; and, if you read that scene on the cliff as a big deal, Korra and Lin getting their powers back feels earned.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I liked that Mako's and Asami's break-up was very civil and neither made a huge scene and both recognized while they no longer have romantic feelings for each, they still care very deeply for one another.

that was a breakup? i think if i said 'hey no matter what happens to you you will always be important to me' to my boyfriend he would probably... still think we're dating. idk. i assume that had to have been the breakup scene because there was no other interaction between them but it was just. :|

also mako has no idea how to follow instructions even his own. GIVE KORRA SOME ROOM TO BREATHE. *grabs korra and puts her on dog while touching her face* MAKO DON'T COME NEAR ME I NEED TO THINK. *goes anyways* MAKO STAY IN THE HOUSE. *never stays in the house*

 

[Carlie]

Theozilla -

Spoiler

You know I was thinking exactly that when she walked to the edge of the cliff. It gave me the feeling that I was seeing someone broken that had lost her identity and was contemplating to end it. When she backed off I thought it was probably going to be the moment that she connected to her spiritual side and past avatars and active the avatar state.

Aki - I especially love how Mako had to face repercussions for his actions..oh wait. If you're a dick to girls, cheat, lie and don't exactly apologize for your action or face any real consequences for them you'll still get the girl in the end because the story said so.

 

[Elisa Maza]

Yeah, I hope they go more in depth about the bender non-bender thing though, because it's definitely not over. Lieutenant and the equalists all thought Amon was just like them, and it turns out he was just another bender manipulating them all along, like benders always have

That's what I think the second season will be about. Amon may be gone, but the Equalists truly believed in this goal. Definitely, the movement won't die.

And I finally saw the finale: feels. Lots of them. It wasn't epic, because the whole premise wasn't epic: it was a city and its problems.

Will write more later, but for now, I want to share with you my favourite scene:

HECK YEAH, BUMI!!!!!!!!

 

[Zee]

that season finale

Spoiler

was really boring wow

 

[Theozilla]

This describes the fandom well. Heck it is probably one of the few scenes in the finale that the fandom had nearly universal "feels" on.

Also a cool Tarrlok-Noatak/Amon death mash-up with Of Mice And Men.
http://razingreality.tumblr.com/post/25747595440/clearly-we-dont-own-korra-or-the-of-mice-and-men

 

[Zealkin]

Thanks for the spoiler tags gaiz.

In our defense, the whole thread has a spoiler tag on it. Saturday is freak out day afterall lol

 

[Zealkin]

I don't care if people bitch about the show, I really don't. It's flawed, it's not perfect. I still find it enjoyable. I don't care if you criticize the show. But to say that it was nothing? That is was trash just because you didn't like certain things? Um okay. If you don't like the show don't watch it, don't call people morons for liking it and not criticizing it or defending it or just enjoying it in general. The fandom needs to take a chill pill. This shiz is cray.

Ever since the show came out people have been making parallels because some people want ATLA back. They wanted everything to play out how they wanted and when it didn't omg bryke sucks horrible writing what were they thinking...geezuz tumblr is annoying.

 

[Theozilla]

I still can't get over the fact that Bryke was able to get Nickelodeon to approve of a explicit murder-suicide on a show that is rated Y-7. I have not been able think of another Western Animated TV show that has one in it (that was treated seriously, South Park has done one, albeit it was treated as violent comedy).

 

[Theozilla]

I am curious about people's personal reactions to Amon/Noatak's ambiguity in the finale.
In the end, despite having his backstory revealed, Amon is still veery ambiguously evil to the extreme. Was Tarrlok right in saying that Amon genuinely believed in his rhetoric, despite being a bender himself, or did his use of bloodbending send him over the edge, and he was only interested in obtaining power?
Was the tear he cried right before Tarrlok ignited the fuel tank of the boat they were riding in acknowledgement and acceptance of what Tarrlok was about to do, or simply him recalling a fond memory?

I personally view it in the former lens for both questions, but I'll concede that both views have credible support.

 

[Zealkin]

It's the fact that they're open to that kind of analysis that makes them deep, and developed despite the ambiguity that surrounds them. I don't think Amon would be Amon if every detail was spelled out for the viewer.

 

[Tennyo]

I still can't get over the fact that Bryke was able to get Nickelodeon to approve of a explicit murder-suicide on a show that is rated Y-7. I have not been able think of another Western Animated TV show that has one in it (that was treated seriously, South Park has done one, albeit it was treated as violent comedy).

I don't think South Park really counts, though.

 

[Theozilla]

I don't think South Park really counts, though.

I still had to count as being a Western Animation product, but you're right that it doesn't really count because it is an adult comedy show.

 

[Theozilla]

It's the fact that they're open to that kind of analysis that makes them deep, and developed despite the ambiguity that surrounds them. I don't think Amon would be Amon if every detail was spelled out for the viewer.

Of course, I was just curious if anyone reacted strongly in one direction or another.

 

[Zealkin]

Yeah I see your point

I saw it more as him accepting that they were finished, this was their endgame too. They accepted it and finally changed in a way that went against their father and his teachings. They were free to make that choice.
I feel like if Noatak really wanted to prevent it he could, but he didn't he just let it happen, he was done with it all too i think.

 

[Tennyo]

I have a question about Amon for you guys.

Spoiler

Now that we know who he is, and what he looks like, and his real name, and his backstory, and that the scars on his face were fake, do you still feel the same way about him that you did before?

My main reason for liking Amon as much as I did was because I thought he was creepy. But now he's suddenly some bishi that fangirls are fawning over all over Tumblr. And I'm just like...the magic is gone...

He was better when he was a mystery, imho. :/

But even still, I did like his and Tarlock's backstory, and I did like the way the episode ended with Tarlock blowing up the boat, and Amon shedding that tear over being called by his own name by his brother and such.

And also a question about the Airbender family

Spoiler

How the flip did they get themselves caught?!

 

[Theozilla]

I have a question about Amon for you guys.

Spoiler

Now that we know who he is, and what he looks like, and his real name, and his backstory, and that the scars on his face were fake, do you still feel the same way about him that you did before?

My main reason for liking Amon as much as I did was because I thought he was creepy. But now he's suddenly some bishi that fangirls are fawning over all over Tumblr. And I'm just like...the magic is gone...

He was better when he was a mystery, imho. :/

But even still, I did like his and Tarlock's backstory, and I did like the way the episode ended with Tarlock blowing up the boat, and Amon shedding that tear over being called by his own name by his brother and such.

And also a question about the Airbender family

Spoiler

How the flip did they get themselves caught?!

I can sorta understand missing the loss of mystique, but the mystery of his identity was built up so much over the course of the show (which is partially why it was so enjoyable) I don't know if they could have pulled of a satisfactory finale that kept him suspended in the same amount of secrecy that he started with in the first few episodes. IMO like with many mystery novels part of enjoying a mystery is eventually having it (mostly) solved.

 

[Tennyo]

Maybe you're right. I guess I was expecting something a lot more extravagant than

Spoiler

Water/blood bending

But at least there are some good lulz coming out of this.