The Seaon Finale, Did it fall short?

It's something I always wondered. When I first watched it, it was awesome, but the four episode finale as I looked into it further seemed like there were parts that made it seem less awesome.

One thing that I kept going back to was Azula and Zuko's fight. They were evenly match and Zuko should had rightfully been the victor, I honestly don't know why they had to have Katara beat her. It doesn't make as much sense as Zuko being the one to finally best his sister. In the end, she still finished him off like she usually did.

What did Azula really do to Katara to make it more justified than the years of torment and crap that Zuko went through, with Azula always besting him and backstabbing him.

I honestly felt that even Sokka's airship attack, even though it wasn't as plot driven or with key crucial enemies, was more amazing to watch than the AngiKai was.

I have some other reasons why it felt incomplete, but I'll leave them for a later post.

Yeah, I felt it was unsatisfying for a number of reasons:

1. The finale just sort of happened...there was nothing really from previous episodes that came back later into the story like the other finales usually do. I mean, yeah there was some but for the most part it wasn't really as connected to the rest of the season as the other finales were to their seasons.

2. Zuko's mom. heck yes i will bring this up again. this was the stupidest thing to be left out. this was built up since season 2 and it didnt even have an ending. yeah, they said how they wanted to bring that in at a later time with other stories/whatever but are you honestly going to trust Nick to let you continue the story of Avatar after they already treated the series? lucky for them, Nick is giving them more Avatar leeway but the odds of it happening were slim in my opinion. meaning, Zuko's mom should have been concluded.

3. as you said, Katara coming in at the end of the Azula battle. what was the point of this? why does she have to come in on it? it made no sense story wise.

4. the lack of Iroh. this is mostly all of season 3's problem. yeah, i get how maybe the didn't want to put him in it much because the voice actor passed but...it ended up hurting the story in my opinion. he was a major character who suddenly disappeared for the most part.

5. i dont think they needed to have the 'taking away bending' bit for Aang to not kill the firelord. that just made Aang way too powerful in my opinion. the only thing i can see with this is it might be the reason why the anti-bending revolution starts in the next show: because Aang can now take bending away from anyone. this could cause problems in the future. but as of now, i dont think it was necessary and i think it made the ending a little too perfect.

6. why wasn't Iroh at Zuko's coronation? he should have been there: he's Zuko's father for goodness sakes (father figure, whatever). after having all this development between the two, how does he not show up to one of the most important events in Zuko's life? makes NO sense.

and that's all i have to say at the moment.

You look into things way too much. Iroh not being there for Zuko is not really a strong enough point to make the season finale fall short. That is like chicken poo to me lol.

I also didn't say the entire third season fell short, that's what I'm getting from your #4. In fact most of the episodes were amazing and equally compared to how much I loved season 2. I think I liked season 1 the least, although it still had its awesome moments.

I mean the Boiling Rock was just awesome...anyway Zuko's mom thing was kind of meh to me. I really didn't care all that much, because it's not like we ever really got to see her in the series. We've only seen her in flashbacks, which are basically overly glorified memory flashbacks of Zuko's, so it would somewhat be awkward having that reunion thing. I don't know how they would successfully pull it off, which would please the majority.

The bending thing was because Nick doesn't allow deaths. If you read up about it, they were forced to redo the part where Jet dies, so that it is an off screen thing. The only hint we get is from Toph, who says he is lying. Although there are way too many people who overanalyzed that to ridiculous parts.

The whole bending thing didn't necessarily bother me as much as Zuko's fight. Not even does he get the satisfaction of being the one to finish her, but he doesn't get his mother either lol. Stupid Katara, she sucked so bad throughout the whole series.

Also Aang almost died from using that bending thing himself, so I doubt he's going to use it wilynily on ever bender and their brother.

Zuko and Iroh were also my favorite characters in the series. that's why i nit picked with those things such as Iroh not being there. i mean, i dont think i would care as much if they weren't my favorites but they were. i really liked their relationship so, to me, the season finale falls short if it doesn't include something like that. especially since everyone else was at the ceremony.

i did think season 3 fell short but i know this is about only the finale. what i meant with Iroh not being around is that, because he wasn't around for most of season 3, the finale fell short because now all of a sudden he's become important again. and then he doesn't show up at the ceremony. it just felt really out of character to me. but that was just me.

in terms of Zuko's mom, okay if you're not going to have a reunion but then DON'T build it up to a reunion. that was my issue. they should have never her brought her back into the story in season three with the possibility of her being alive if there was no reunion. they built the expectations so now they have to deliver. and they didnt. so it fell short. in my opinion of course :)

with Ozai's 'death', i meant, they didn't have to kill him but i dont think they needed the bending transfer thing. i mean, the boiling rock is able to hold a whole bunch of firebenders, i dont see why Aang couldn't just defeat Ozai the good old fashion way and then put him in jail with him still bending. Azula goes to a mental institution apparently....and from my understanding she doesnt lose her bending...so i dont get why they couldnt do the same with Ozai.

with Zuko's battle, especially since the Agni Kai was so PRETTY. i mean, i dont know about anyone else but i remember watching part of it at a camp-esque thing and thinking 'oh man, this looks so pretty' the colors were amazing XD. and the music reminded me of Titanic for some reason....so yeah, the battle was nicely done in my opinion but then it gets screwed over when Katara has to fight Azula.

and i found Katara to be tolerable in season 1, somewhat annoying in season 2, and then really annoying in season 3 lol. she got progressively worse with me XD. and don't even get me started with her and Sokka's...whatever that was in the Painted Lady episode.

Wait what? You thought Sokka was intolerable as well? As a character Sokka was one of my favorites along with Aang throughout the entire series. Toph hogged the light too much in the second season if you ask me. She was like a one man/woman army, boring!

Even if Aang was to beat Ozai the old fashioned way, his ass would have to be brutally kicked, which is why I think they just choose to keep it kid friendly.

no, what im saying is i hated how they portrayed Sokka in The Painted Lady episode to make Katara look like a saint. it annoyed me.

like, if i remember correctly, Sokka is opposed to helping the Fire Nation village in order to keep things on schedule. Katara poses as the Painted Lady and helps them. then Sokka and Katara get into a fight and then Sokka finally sees the error of his ways and agrees to help Katara help the village.

really? the guy that went back in season one and saved an entire village from being drowned, regardless if they were Fire Nation or not, is suddenly going to not give a damn about another village to keep 'on schedule'? im sorry but that was bull. and it takes Katara with another one of her motivational speeches to change Sokka's mind?

that, to me, was ridiculous and it made Sokka look bad for no reason. i can understand character faults but not when you're trying to make Katara look like a saint. AGAIN. how many motivational speeches does she have to give in this show?

so yeah, i hated that episode. it made Sokka look heartless for a good 20 or so minutes when he's not. and it only emphasized the annoying parts of Katara's character which it wasn't trying to do.

and that's my thing with the Painted Lady. i could be off because i havent seen the episode in a long time but that's what i thought of it when i first watched it.

and this is why i miss the 90s when you could easily have gotten away with Ozai and Aang beating the crap out of each other and no one would have cared XD.

There still are a lot of shows that keep to the old fashioned thrashings, like the original Ben10 for example. That's another show I really like, I mean a person who can change into a series of super powered aliens with different skills, that's just awesome and it was really executed well.

Painted Lady was horrible on so many different levels and it wasn't just the way they perceived Sokka either. Sokka really didn't see her view, after her lengthy speech. I don't know, I don't remember her giving a speech, but I'll take your word for it.

It was more that even though he didn't agree with what she was doing, he couldn't just let her go and do it alone and get hurt or killed, because than he would feel responsible as he was the older sibling. Remember when Hakoda and the other warriors left? He entrusted the entire village in his sons hands, so Sokka took that responsibility seriously.

The only part I really liked about that episode was Sokka and Aang's nightmare sound effects.

The problem with Katara is that her character only works well due to the other characters around her, whereas most of them can stand their own ground as a character without the others (does that make sense?)

So when she got an episode fully dedicated to just herself, it was very lacking. I mean think about it, episodes that were entirely about Sokka and Toph during the filler season 3 and even 2 were very intriguing weren't they? But when it came time for Katara's filler episodes they just sucked.

she only kind of gives a speech. it's where she says that stupid line "I will never turn my back on the people who need me!"

yeah, that sounded cool in the trailers but when the actual episode came for her to say that...it sucked lol

and yet, even though Sokka was completely in the right, the episode portrayed him as the 'wrong' one. and Katara was 'right'. that bit of information annoys me even more XD

that's because Katara is a Mary Sue. and this is why i am against the 'Mary Sue' labels in general...especially in the avatar section when there's one walking around in the original show. she can't stand on her own because they don't focus on her faults enough. her major faults and when they do, they make her faults seem 'good' or 'not as bad as they should be'. like, it took them until the end of season 3 to make fun and point out the fact that she gives motivational speeches WAY too much. they should have pointed this out a while ago...actually, it should have been after the painted lady episode lol. then, she's too 'motherly' but they only add this in with Toph and then Sokka goes on to defend Katara. which isnt even that bad of a fault but they make it a 'semi' fault.

you know what? she's just a goody-goody with stupid faults. that's her problem. and when they tried to give her the 'big' fault of wanting to kill the guy who killed her mom, it was just so random and made no sense in my opinion. i dont get why people liked that episode.

I liked that episode because of Sokka's romance tent lol. Wasn't that the episode with the airship attack to? That was pretty badass in the beginning.

I won't say I didn't like Katara, but she wasn't that bad in the first two seasons...it wasn't until the third where she just PMSed everywhere. I loved the whole cast during season 2, it was just diverse and great. Even season three in the very beginning was amazing, minus The Painted Lady.

I don't want to say that Katara was a full blown Sue, because Azula took that title even further, but she did have the pieces of one.

I've never seen you tear a hole in any series before lol, this series can't be worst than Twilight.

yeah i LOVED the romance tent scene. that was funny XD. and the airship attack was awesome.

and i loved Avatar. it's just i didn't like season 3 too much. it was kind of disappointing.

don't even compare Avatar to Twilight because Twilight is an explosion waiting to happen. especially that thing (i won't even consider it a novel) known as Breaking Dawn. my goodness, i can tear that thing to pieces. it's probably one of the worst things ive ever read in my life and the main reason why i came to hate the series aside from the stupid fanbase.

I thought you really liked the Twilight series before the movie came about.

i really liked the Twilight series until Breaking Dawn came out. Breaking Dawn came out around the same time the new Twilight fans came around because of the movies.

Oh yeah, this is another thing that upset me about the finale, Sokka losing his boomerang. I didn't care as much about the sword as the boomerang falling and becoming lost. I don't know, I just really liked the boomerang, and all the adventures it went through with Sokka, made me feel like it was part of the character cast, even if it wasn't able to talk or was alive.

i hate it when any of the characters lose something important and it doesn't come back. XD

I thought I was one of the few who grew to like the iconic items that characters have, to the point where its one of the characters itself.

no, i like them too lol. but i think that's partially because i know if i lost one of my most valuable possessions, id want it back. so, the fact that characters dont get it back annoys me XD.

Well I see it more as an old reliable pair of shoes. Sure they're not bright and shiny, but they've shared the hardships and suffering that the characters had to endure as well.