I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics. However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series. Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me. I will be spoiling episodes as I go along, naturally, so consider yourself warned.
Episode 11 - Skeletons in the Closest
Episode 12 - Endgame
I didn't think I'd be writing this, but here I am. I'm disappointed in the season finale. All that stuff I wrote last week about it not being a mystery box type show, about how it feels well planned, and how I don't want Ammon to be somebody with a secret identity? Yep, all of that was the opposite of how the last few episodes turned out.
Again, these two episodes feel like a set, episode 11 is a bunch of flashbacks to set up episode 12. We find out Ammon is Tarrlok's long lost brother, he's been a Water Bender this whole time, and he removes peoples powers with Blood Bending. Look, we all knew that Ammon had to be some sort of Bender, but this feels... cheap somehow? Every antagonist of the season ends up being related, it's too neat. I'm all for Ammon being a hippocrit, but I don't know, this fell really flat for me.
There's some good character stuff in these episodes. To get Korra to come out of hiding, for instance, Hiroshi calls Korra chicken. He's got a pretty solid read on her. And it almost works, but Mako talks her down. That's the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to the show. We have character growth, interaction, and it all fits together. Of course, then Mako immediately tries to kiss her. Not cool dude. There's a time and a place and that is not here or when you're still sort of with Asami? I don't know what their status is, but I don't think they do either.
Ammon has been a step ahead the whole way, and there's this overconfidence that all the Benders have. So it's not really surprising to me that Ammon has set a trap involving secret biplanes and bombing runs. I'm unsure how many people are killed here, but it's definitely a non-zero number, which again, is pretty violent for the age group I feel is the target. And I do love the biplanes, battleships, and the whole 1930s asthetic. It's a lot of fun and visually really appealing. This fight also demonstrates something that I don't think we've seen enough. Korra, due to her personality, tends to sort of default to Fire Bending, she only really has used Water Bending in the Probending Arena. I think it makes sense given her character, but it's a very clearly a mistake on her part. She is a freaking powerful water bender. I mean like that was seriously scary. When your solution to airplanes is a 100 foot tall water spout that lifts you into the air so you can spontaneously produce hundred foot tall icebergs in the path of planes, maybe you should use Water Bending a bit more often. She's never come close to this level of power with Earth or Fire.
The flashbacks to Ammon and Tarrlok's childhood are solid work. Somehow they keep managing to ramp up the creepy with Blood Bending. The scene where Ammon makes a pack of wolves dance like puppets is seriously disturbing. But it also introduces one of my problems with this episode and the next one. Suddenly we're trying to make "bad fathers" into a major theme. Ammon and Tarrlok are the way they are because their father forced them to be tools of his vengence. Asami's father is suddenly revealed to have been largely absentee and that there is a lot more resentment there than we've seen. It feels like it should have been a running theme the whole season, instead of suddenly strong on us. It's not a good twist.
The show does have a few good twists though. The first is that Ammon captured Tenzin and his family. I was seriously caught off guard by this and it was a wonderful way of raising the stakes. Then, Ammon takes Korra's Bending, which was a great twist. Her being helpless in the face of Blood Bending was not unexpected, but Ammon basically winning was really further than I thought they would go. I didn't know how they would resolve it, and the solution was both clever but also another thing about this episode that really annoyed me. Korra finally is able to Air Bend, so while Ammon took her bending at that time, since she gains Air Bending after it, she can now do that. And she does, saves the day, and Ammon runs away.
Look, I like that way of turning around her losing her Bending. That's cool, that's a great way to do it. It means only Korra, as the Avatar, could come back from losing it and it's a really nice way of resolving the problem. My problem is how she gains Air Bending. This whole season, Tenzin has been telling her Air Bending comes from calm. It's going with the wind and just sort of refocusing it. It's based on Tai-Chi. Korra's problem with Air Bending has always been portrayed as a direct result of her anger and entitlement issues. She feels she should be able to do it, so she tries to force it, which leads to her not being able to do it, which frustrates her, and makes her less able to do it. But this episodes shows that the problem was she wasn't desparate enough. Really? That's not what we've been saying. The solution to her Air Bending problem shouldn't have been getting more pissed off because Mako is in trouble; it should have been finding inner peace.
I was super hopeful at the end that this was all set up for Korra having an identity crisis. Her only being able to Air Bend means she's not the Avatar. Her whole identity, everything, is based around the fact that she was born the Avatar. Every episode this season has involved some variation on "You have to do what I say, because I'm the Avatar." And suddenly, she isn't. Wouldn't that have been really interesting to explore? Instead, she gets all her bending back right away. Maybe it was a moment of growth and season 2 will go more into it, but I was disappointed that this was resolved so quickly.
And speaking of quick, her and Mako "love" each other already. Wow, that escalated quickly.
All that said, I am excited for the next season (Book, in Avatar parlance). I hope my misgivings on these few episodes are either addressed or just a hiccup in an otherwise stellar show. I can't wait.
Stray Observations:
1. I don't have anything to expound on this with, but that ending with Tarrlok's murder/suicide of his brother Ammon was dark. And frankly, near perfect. Wow, I was stunned.
2. Naga is stupid strong, I mean she just rends steel like it's nothing.
3. Iroh can fly? Apparently he is Iroh-man.
4. Tenzin has a crazy brother, which I look forward too. More Aang family is great. Is this guy an Air Bender? Only time will tell.
5. I kinda hope next season, Asami is the "villain", after the way Mako treated her. I also hope she kicks all their asses.
6. Lin gets her powers back, yay!
7. While I agree with the who Equalist point about not being second class citizens, I don't think they've fully thought through the whole "take away all bending" idea. Isn't the technology based on bending? Like power plants are just Fire Benders hitting things with lightning, if you get rid of all of them, how far back are you setting society?
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