Avatar finale, very briefly

[kate_nepveu]

SteelyKid kindly slept long enough tonight to let us watch the Avatar finale on DVD, but she is going to wake any moment, so, SPOILERS:

1. Zuko's mother?! (This does not seem like a good sequel hook to me, honestly.)

2. Anyone have good Azula redemption fic? (I buy what happened to her, but thought it was overdone. Still, leaves open interesting possibilities.)

3. Go, old guys (alas, no old gals). Go, Katara and Suki and Sokka and Toph.

4. I have always refused to believe anything romantic WRT Aang, so la la la la ending I can't hear you whatever.

More later, probably.

Comments

[msagara.livejournal.com]

4. I have always refused to believe anything romantic WRT Aang, so la la la la ending I can't hear you whatever.

So glad you said this because the ending wrt to that is vaguely squicky to me.

[kate_nepveu]

All I have to say is: thirteen years old!

[msagara.livejournal.com]

It wasn't as much that for me as the object of his affections -- because so much of her role in group is as Older Sister. I assume at thirteen that he has crushes that he takes seriously; it's just that I can't imagine the other half of it taking it seriously in the same way because, well. Older Sister.

[cvantien.livejournal.com]

She takes prophecies very seriously though and Aunt Whatsherface told her she would marry a powerful bender. There aren't many benders more powerful than Katara at this point.

[thormation.livejournal.com]

Well, Katara and Aang need to start getting busy then. The Avatar cycle will end four Avatars from now unless Aang spawns future airbenders.

Technically--for the good of the world--he should spread his Airbender genes among as many potential mothers as humanly possible.

(But then again "technically" Zuko shouldn't be able to kick a boulder in half, for just one example.)

[kate_nepveu]

Well, yes, if the 13-years-old thing weren't such a block for me, there would be that, and the ickiness of treating romance/Katara as a reward for the victor (I hate artificial pair-off endings--see also Gran-Gran/Water-bending master--hello, she ran away because she *didn't* love him!), and probably another level or two more . . .

[thormation.livejournal.com]

I realize that the show was aimed for a younger audience that would not be as critical of such things, due to lack of interest/experience, but the whole Aang/Katara romance thing was very frustrating from the get-go.

First, she seems oblivious that he's been pining after her since he first laid eyes on her. Then, after he does finally get up the nerve to kiss her, (*and* she shows conflicted feelings!) they don't remark on it -- or act like it even happened -- for about 10 episodes! No awkwardness, no worried glances, no aborted attempts to bring the issue up -- nothing. Then there's the whole lame "I'm confused" encounter, just to show that the writers hadn't completely forgotten about it, which could have been used to give the audience some insight as to what Katara might have been feeling on the issue, but didn't. And then the whole mess is capped off by the wordless kiss on the porch, which told us nothing except that Katara was apparently not confused any more.

If Katara had been a more poorly developed character whose other thoughts and feelings had not been so well-developed and explored, then this handling of the "romance" wouldn't be so galling. As it was, the Sokka/Suki relationship--a sketchy ramshackle contrivance of questionable purpose and motivation--felt about fifty times more natural and organic than the Aang/Katara pairing.

(Which reminds me, I predicted back when you were in the middle of Season 1 that Sokka would grow on you as he grew more nuanced. Was I right, or did he just remain annoying until the end?)

[kate_nepveu]

Sokka was still somewhat annoying--the gloating over the prone Ozai was just AWFUL--but I did get to like him, too.

[thormation.livejournal.com]

The creators have said "No sequel", but have hinted that they might not be done with the universe.

Azula went nutso a little quickly for my taste as well. A little more foreshadowing would have served things better.

My major mental disconnect with the young characters' ages was 90% solved by just considering them to all be 2 years older than their stated ages. It much better fit with the way they looked, acted, and spoke.

And Aang's top chakra was blocked forever . . . or until he conveniently fell backwards onto his wound *just* the right way? Yeah, that could have been handled better too.

[kate_nepveu]

Yes about the chakra. Also there were very natural places for Zuko to allude to Ozai's scorched-earth plan before the finale, so not mentioning it before then made it feel very abrupt.

And I'm not sure what I think about the lion-turtle thing, but that also could've used more foreshadowing/development.