Avatar: The Finale

The Core The Anime Forum
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For those who don’t know, Avatar: The Last Airbender just concluded its 3-season run; the last few episodes were collected and aired as two animated movies. (I wouldn’t blame you for not noticing, since A:TLA has been on repeats for months. I have no idea what the problem was, since this is one of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows. Production problems, I guess.)

So anyway: Was the finale good? (Warning: contains spoilers)

Well, for one thing, they tied up almost all the loose ends in the series. I think the fact that nearly every powerful, wise man in the series turned out to be a member of the Society of the White Lotus (which was actually a secret benevolent organization) was a bit of a stretch, but I can live it. And it was good seeing them in action together, especially Iroh.

I wasn’t too happy with the way they solved Aang’s “Kill the Firelord” conundrum. A giant turtle just gives him the power to take away a bender’s magic? Talk about a Deus ex Machina. Though I’m glad Aang did not have to resort to killing; while realistic (and argued for pretty well, even by Aang’s previous Avatar selves) this is ultimately a kid’s show, and showing murder as the ultimate answer would have been wrong.

The villains going crazy at the end (the Firelord, by deciding to just wipe out the Earth Kingdom, and Azula, literally losing it over being abandoned by her friends) took something away from them in my eyes; I expected a little better planning from them. Still, everybody literally had a part to play in the victory, not just the Avatar, and that was very well handled.

There is one plotline that slipped by, however, that I REALLY wanted to see resolved. I don’t know if it was shown in an episode I missed, but I still don’t know what happened on the night the Firelord’s father died and Zuko’s mother disappeared. It was hinted it was something important, but I never saw it expanded upon again (except that Zuko asks his father where his mother is, which means she could be alive.)

I feel kinda sad now. I’ve come to like Avatar, it’s characters, surprises and balance between humor and pathos. Truly, this was one of the best animated series ever made on this side of the World (and better than many Animes I can think of) and I’ll miss not having regular access to it anymore. Though we’ll probably see animated movies later (and I hear a LIVE ACTION movie is in the planning too) so this might not be the last we see of The Avatar.

Opinions?

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First off, the pedant in me feels obligated to point out that Avatar isn’t anime. cough

But anyway. All in all, it was a suitably epic sendoff for the story. It was a bit disquieting to watch Azula - not exactly a paragon of stability as it is - slowly become unraveled. It was handled really well, especially for what is ostensibly a kids’ show.

And I really hope I’m not the only one who got a bit misty-eyed at Zuko and Iroh’s reuinion. <_<;

As an aside, there’s a rumor going about that they’re going to go ahead and make another season or two, with a new story. Nothing has been confirmed or denied as far as I know.

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I’ve posted threads on non-Japanese animated series here before and the Mod said it was OK. Besides, of all the current American cartoons Avatar was definitely the one with the most Anime influences.

Continuing Avatar would make sense, the fans still want more and the producers can make more $$ out of it. But the story was meant as a definite three-part animated novel (and kudos that they pulled that off) so another season would go against its spirit. Perhaps a sequel series, taking place a few years later, would work -though they did that with Ben 10 and I hated the result, all the original fun is missing. I trust that the ATLA writers could pull it off, however. And we still need to find out what happened to Zuko’s mother…

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Avatar’s been on such a screwy release schedule that this completely slipped pass my notice. I must acquire them and watch - Avatar has been a really great ride. It’s immensely satisfying to finally see an American show with a linear, completed storyline.

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RPT: The Final movie will be aired again today, possibly twice, and I’m sure they’ll air it again soon. So you can still catch it! :slight_smile:

As for possible sequels, from the mouth of one of the show’s co-creators:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=133106

Wait, the movie will be directed by M. Shyamalan?? He of Sixth Sense/Signs (in)fame?? God, I hope it doesn’t up having a “shocking twist” in the end!

“I see Bending people…” :hahaha;

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From the turtle ducks conversation, it is implied that Ursa killed Ozai’s father to prevent Zuko from being killed. Murder among the royalty doesn’t make for good PR so they kept it quiet. On The Day of Black Sun I think Ozai just said Usra was banished for her actions which is why Zuko came back to him at the end.

Continuing Avatar would make sense, the fans still want more and the producers can make more $$ out of it.

The way Nick handled this show last season makes me feel very dubious to how much they really care about it.

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I didn’t see it coming at all and it was definately creepy. I agree that it was well handled. One other thing that I thought was handeled well was how powerful the firebenders were with the comet. Katara was usually evenly matched with Azula, but with the comet she was no match. The way that she dealt with Azula was very cool though.

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I saw all the Avatar episodes(they re-aired every single one from 2-5 on each day of the Countdown) and have to say it did alot better then the recent western anime shows I’ve seen(IE:new Speed Racer, Ben 10: Alien Force, Transformers Animated, etc, etc.)

Azula going off the deep end I saw coming when I saw a few episodes showing various pieces of her insanity. Ozai I expected to be a lot more sane(and he was, compared to Azula).

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“Sane compared to Azula” really isn’t saying much. :hahaha;

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Meh, everyone is sane compared to her.

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Saw this the other day, and must admit i truly loved how they ended everything. i just can’t believe it is actually over, part of me doesn’t want it to be over, since there were so many good things about this show.

Oh and Crono, you weren’t the only one to get all misty-eyed at their reunion. Such a touching moment, really showing just how much Iroh cared for Zuko.

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Azula’s sudden slip into insanity within a day was too Hamlet-ish for me. I think it was done out of convenience to tie up her storyline. If she didn’t go crazy I’m sure she would have escaped and popped up in a later sequel or movie special.

Ozai always chose to rule by fear. I could believe his plan to destroy the Earth kingdom wasn’t just insanity but also motivated by an urge to show who had the power.

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I did think Azula had mental problems, ever since that flashback to her childhood. You can see she was already sadistic and domineering, and didn’t seem to care about her brother or mother at all. No normal child is like that unless he or she has serious problems.

Similarly, Ozai was pretty much the standard villain until, overcome with power (physical and symbolical) he called himself the Ruler of the World before the conquest was complete, and decided on the side of genocide as a solution to the war (really: what good is it to conquer a destroyed land?) He crossed the sanity line for me there. He may not have snapped like Azula, but there was no reasoning with him either.

You know, the series made a very good point on how all the characters’ personalities were the results of their life’s experiences. Even Aang was reluctant to kill because, unlike all the preceding Avatars, he was raised as (the equivalent of) a Buddhist monk, and was taught to respect all life. Kudos to the writers for such solid characterization. :slight_smile:

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Wil, Azula was your typical serial killer in the making. She had psychosis, bad childhood(mother hated her) and a expedient ideal of human life. If she hadn’t been caught, who knows how many could have died eventually.

Ozai was Avatar’s version of Hitler. If you look at it, in the beginning it wasn’t nearly as bad. But by the Black Sun event, the people were enslaved left and right and treated like shiat by most Fire Nation people. Then he decided the Final Solution was mass suicide. Another similarity was the self-crowning. Not with Hitler though, but with Mussulini, the leader of Italy at the time of World War II. Mussulini declared himself the next Roman Emperor and that he was going to revive the Roman Empire and rule the world.

So, in the end, Azula was just about criminally insane and Ozai was a Hitler/Mussulini mix. XD

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Leareth: Azula’s mother cared about her; her image in the mirror said so (which was most likely just a hallucination, but even so, that was Azula’s mind admitting a truth she didn’t want to accept.) Though likely her mother preferred Zuko (and given Azula’s personality, can you blame her?)

mass suicide
Err, I think you mean mass murder.

But in general, I agree with you.

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Hmm, I don’t remember the mirror part, but I do remember that in one episode Azula admits that her mother considered her a monster.

Yeah, I meant mass murder.

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It was during the part where Azula cuts her own hair haphazardly in front of a mirror. She sees her mother reflected there and talks to her (but we never see if she REALLY is there or is just another sign of Azula’s deterioration. It could’ve been a ghost, too.) Anyway, Azula thinking her mother considered her a monster was what she thought she believed. Really, Azula was convinced that only two people in the world cared for her- Mai and Tai Lee. Being betrayed by them was what finally drove her totally paranoid.

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Seriously. Have you been watching the show? There’s nothing sudden about Azula’s insanity. If nothing else (and that’s a pretty big IF) she’s always been an utter sociopath.

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I do believe the conversation with her mother was all in her head. After all we only see her in the mirror, and went the shot pulls away after Azula smashed it, she wasn’t there. And would have thought they would have showed her, if she had really been there.

Still could be a spirit or something, since we only have Azula’s word that their mother was banished, and not actually killed.

But yeah, Azula really did seem somewhat unstable during the ‘Beach’ episode, and after being betrayed by her two best (only) friends, I can see why she finally snapped.

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I saw Azula is the “I’m always right” villian of a “Chaotic Evil” nature, though her upbringing taught to use fear as a mean to control. But the events at Burning Rock unhinge her ideals, causing her maddness.

As for Oozai, he was just a megalomanic dicator of a “Lawful Evil” nature, kinda like the Emperor of FF2 or Vayne of FFXII.

Leareth45: For the record, Hitler kinda fits more with “chaotic evil”, as he had a complete disregard for human life.