Can we talk about how stupid the finale was?

>They devoted an entire episode in Season 2 to explaining why they can't just have Aang go into the avatar state and stomp the firelord
That was at a time when he only knew air bending, he was still new to the elements. They didn't want him to go into the avarice state and kill himself and the avatar state. Fucking pay attention.

>dragon turtle.
Wasn't it a lion turtle? I thought it made sense bending elements and bending energy from others.

>Good thing they spent all that time "mastering" earth and first just so he could do exactly what that "crazy" earth general suggested two seasons ago.
he didn't though. Did you watch? He ALMOST did, and then rejected what the avatar-state wanted to do.
I found it interesting that he consulted the other avatars, and for the most part they were like 'sorry kid, gotta be done'. then collectively, they still wanted to finish him. and if he had, absolutely nothing bad would have happened, so they weren't wrong
it was sort of like 'this is the first child avatar there has ever been, so he did things a kid would do, and that's kind of neat, yeah?'
best we can hope for

How would you fix it, then?

>Do not repeat the sins of the fathers

Everyone in the younger group consistently broke tradition.

>Katara learned Waterbending
>Toph removed herself from the gentry
>Sokka used his head more than his strength
>Aang refused to kill
>Zuko brought peace as opposed to war

The show was a lesson about establishing new foundations to stand upon

I never understood why people were so vehemently upset with the Rock jab. Shit made sense to me. Seeing Aang grab Ozai's beard, burst out of the rubble, then bitch slap his hand away was metal as fuck.
>that wild ass airbending move
>Ozai literally got BTFO

The only problem with Avatars ending was that the lion turtles and their nature's weren't foreshadowed enough.

Other than that, it's pretty great, I can understand why it was so important for Aang to find a 'third option' between killing and sparing Ozai, it felt like a proper. balanced 'avatar' solution, but, like I said, the only real problem was that this answer was given to him out of basically nowhere.

Because it's a stupid way for the MC to get the power-up that makes him win the fight

1. Main characters battle seperately in multiple places at once. In star wars 4-6&7 it worked because the sidekicks were somehow in danger and their life depended on the result of the battle or better yet they helped at the critical moment if only to show their loyalty like han solo or Finn did as a part of their character development. In AtlA it would have been much more satisfying to see a big climax where everyone is included and get rid of side-battles that have a separate resolution. The story should have had one last battle with everyone involved at the same location, even if the last part of it was just Aang vs the fire lord after everyone else had been beaten.

2. The avatar state was a mistake to have to begin with. It messed up the theme about personal growth. The story should have been about Aang learning to fight responsibly without risking the Avatar spirit. The avatar state was a symbol of his rage in the first season and katara helped him calm down. This should have been a larger theme but it was forgotten by the end when Aang just wins because he is stronger, having sacrificed nothing.

3. It seemed that Aang would have to make a great sacrifice before the end, such as giving up his crush for Katara. But no. In star wars again, Luke decides to spare Darth Vader even if it risks his own life, and ends the cycle of revenge. Aang just finds even more weapons and beats his nemesis without having to make a difficult choice. He could have won even without his turtle bending. The fire lord could have been put to prison even without castrating him first. His powers were not what made him dangerous, it was his ambition and cruelty, and how he used his status as an emperor. The new turtle power was just there to make it easier for Aang, but the fireLord is still just as dangerous as long as there are people willing to follow him, and that was not even addressed. It's as if taking away Hitlers gun before letting him live made any difference.

Nothing wrong with not killing, how the answer to the protagonist moral dilemma came from a deus ex took points away from the climax overall.

Yes, I think it was awful that they decided to ignore the moral quandary he had and just give him a new superpower that solved his problem.
But it's a kid's show. They couldn't have him kill Ozai, and Ozai definitely couldn't have killed him.

> Aang just wins because he is stronger, having sacrificed nothing.

Except he stops the avatar state from killing Ozai, and risks his life, and potentially letting Ozai go free with his powers intact if he fails, to achieve the only solution to this fight that he thought was just.

I mean, we know he won't fail, we knew that from the start, but it's not like he just avatar states and the fight is over, Aang risks his win, his life, and the world to do what's right to him.

>how to fix the ending

Aang goes through all his past lives. He does this to the point of exhaustion. Right as he's about to collapse he finally makes it to the first avatar, who teaches him how to remove bending.

Aang's chakra is opened not by a rock but by him having some grand realization about himself and his role as avatar. He is able to complete the spiritual journey Azula interrupted.

The last four episodes were written by Bryke and it reeks of their incompetent. We all saw how awful they were without Aaron holding their hands in Korra.

From the thumbnail I thought he was holding a fudgsicle

My biggest problems with the finale:

>Aang suddenly being a bitch about not wanting to kill Ozai despite knowing he had to fight him for months
>Azula's insanity being rushed and ham fisted (also how she conveniently fires the entire Fire Nation army away from the palace so Zuko can take over the throne easily)
>Appa can suddenly go from the Fire Nation to Ba Sing-Se back and forth in two days when it took him 3 months to get from the SWT to the NWT
>white lotus sending two non-benders and a blind girl to destroy a fleet of nukes while they take a city with little to none strategic value that they could take more easily with no comet
>lion turtle not being forshadowed enough other than Aang mentioning a drawing of one in the library and how convenient it showing up was
>the fucking stupid magical chiropractor rock
>Ozai having no personality beyond evil asshole despite having an entire season to develop him
>Azula still being able to shoot lightning despite being in the middle of a mental break down
>Katara vs Azula (It's a really huge stepdown from the previous agni kai and Katara should have had her own thing to do)

That said, it was probably the best finale we could have gotten and it does a fantastic job with the nonstop spectacle and action that it makes you forget about the fuck ups in the narrative.

Well, fair enough. Aang does indeed stop beating the hell out of him for a moment when he could have killed him. Its just more heroic when you really have to pay for the choice, like losing your own powers in the process, rather than potentially risk everything. It did not seem like Aang was in much of a danger compared to many other similar heroes fighting their nemesis while hanging from the edge of a cliff with only one hand and a banana.

>the dragon turtle ex-machina that resolved Aang's moral dilemma
No not really, people just didn't actually understand the ending and they still don't to this day.

Aang was never going to Kill Ozai, the real problem was never "is aang going to kill ozai?" it was, "how is aang going to end the war?"

Aang taking away Ozai's power effectively defeats him AND takes away any chance for any supporters of Ozai's regime to come back and put him into power. It's why Azula is still alive AND still has her powers. Azula doesn't have any supporters so Aang didn't have to take away her powers.

Aang can depose anyone he needed to in the name of balance but that doesn't automatically mean peace. You see this multiple times in the Avatar's past, particularly with Kiyoshi and Roku. Both of them thought they had taken care of a problem, but it was left unchecked and eventually it turned into something awful.

Secondly, yes, without the avatar state, that 13 year old boy had no chance of winning. But that really shouldn't be a problem. If you look at it from the standpoint of how it fits into a genre, it's the perfect shounen/wushu ending. The power gets unlocked at the last moment, even if it's due to just trying harder/realizing a new truth/random blow in the right exact place.
It's not even completely bullshit that he hit his back in the exact right place and got his powers back. Earlier in the season Katara attempts to unblock the mass of chi that's preventing him from accessing the avatar state, but Aang suddenly spasms with pain so she stops. Had she continued further, she would have done what that rock did, but she didn't because she was concerned for him

They explained why Aang couldn't just win the war through the avatar state, not that he couldn't beat the firelord through the avatar state, you seem to be misguided about the purpose of that episode too. He would have still had to beat all the armies and stop all of the occupations that the fire nation had.

Would you have preferred some edgy "Aang kills Ozai, peace is restored but that shit haunts him forever" kind of deal? He might be 100+ years old, but he's still mentally a kid

But the Lion Turtle was hinted at as early as Book 2.

Now I can't unsee it.

I think a lot of the sins of the finale could have been fixed in Korra, the avatar state thing kind of was since it was explicitly how Zaheer was trying to kill Korra.

The Spirit Bending deus ex machina had a wasted opportunity to be reversed in season one of Korra. The Lion Tutle introduces it and it solves Aang's problems. In the Avatar's next lifeline it was perfect that her villain was someone who had the same deus ex machina ability and it was almost like it was karma. They could have made Amon some dark spirit created as a result of Aang's actions instead of some snowflake waterbender.

That's more of an easter egg than foreshadowing.

There was always the idea for it but they never found the right way to implement it.

> knowing he had to fight him for months
I think it's within Aangs nature not to go and think things out as fully as he should, as well as the possibility that he was just ignoring having to deal with it, like with him needing to learn firebending.

> Azula's insanity being rushed and ham fisted
It was certainly rushed, but I wouldn't call it ham-fisted, it fit with her having HUGE trust issues and a superiority complex that got worse party because Ozai didn't want to involve her in his big mission as well as planning to make her a puppet ruler of the fire nation while he became Pheonix king.

> Appa can suddenly go from the Fire Nation to Ba Sing-Se back and forth in two days
You could make the argument that it took so long to get from the south to north pole because the group didn't have a time constraint then and stopped all the time to check stuff out, but yes, they do screw around with the flight times when they're in a hurry.

> White lotus sending two non-benders and a blind girl to destroy a fleet of nukes
Something something destiny, but yeah, you could make the argument that the white lotus should have split up and gone with Aang/Zuko/Sokka+gang respectively to help out, but I understand wanting to take back Ba sing se while they could, not wanting the fire nations occupation to turtle up once Ozai got taken out and be way harder to remove as a result.

> Lion turtle not being foreshadowed
> The stupid fucking chiropractor rock
> Ozai having no personality
These are certainly actual big flaws, but overall they don't really hurt the narrative that much, just convenience for its own sake, except for the lion turtle, they really could have made that gel with the story better and it would have worked like the writers wanted it to.

> Azula still being able to shoot lightening despite being in the middle of a mental breakdown
Firebending is fueled by anger, I'm surprised anyone can do that shit properly, but regardless, she IS a prodigy.

> Katara vs Azula
IMO that fit pretty well, it was a good conclusion to Katara and Zuko's reconciliation, as well as the fact that Katara had some shit to settle with her as well.

It did user. They explained how spirits are a source of elements when they did they Moon princess arc. Now we g3t the avatar who is the bridge between spirits bending someone's spirit

>Firebending is fueled by anger, I'm surprised anyone can do that shit properly, but regardless, she IS a prodigy.

Keep in mind what Iroh said in Bitter Work:

>Iroh: "Lightning is a pure expression of firebending, without aggression. It is not fueled by rage or emotion the way other firebending is. Some call lightning the cold-blooded fire. It is precise and deadly, like Azula. To perform the technique requires peace of mind"

The key word here being "peace of mind"

Aang kills the Firelord, Zuko kills Azula.

That would be great. Growing up means the loss of illusions, and the lost of innocence.

I would have his training pay off and have him actually beat Ozai without using the Avatar State. Fucking duh.

>peace is restored
Honestly, it would've been even better if peace wasn't restored by simply killing this one guy.

>it was a good conclusion to Katara and Zuko's reconciliation, as well as the fact that Katara had some shit to settle with her as well.

They had already spent an entire episode reconciliating.

I dunno, it may just be the Zukofag in me talking but it just hurts every time I see him thrown aside like a ragdoll in the middle of the climax while ending up accomplishing nothing in the fight (especially after how fantastic the agni kai had been). I know that his character arc isn't about becoming powerful and that he already had hogged most of the series.

Yeah, the Avatar state is unfortunately terrible writing. Actually the whole idea of an Avatar being a kind of world police is terrible. It worked better when he wasn't so powerful and actually had to rely on the cooperation of people.

The whole world becomes reliant on one person to decide what's right or wrong. That makes all the nations, governments, and their armies utterly useless.

3/10 made me respond

1 person deciding on what's wrong or right doesn't make the armies useless. You still need people to enforce that right. Bush decided we needed to go to war with a wrong ideology and look at us now. Still fighting that same ideology. He only lifted his finger to sign the declaration.

I gotta admit, I was a bit disappointed we never got to see Iroh and Ozai interact.

The entire issue with avatar state was that at the time he wasn't fully actualized. It was never about not using avatar state it was about the fact that he couldn't control it without mastering all the elements.

You mean Bryke wrote that awesome Zuko versus Azula fight and wrote Sokka and Toph dominating on the airship and wrote Azula losing her sanity?

Good to know.

Meh. Killing or not killing was never the issue. Aang ran away from home and froze himself for a hundred years. In the ending he faced the consequences of that decision. Or should have. Killing oozai would have had added nothing to the climax. The dramatic question was always "Will Aang take responsibility?" And even though he sort of did by showing mercy to Oozai, the ending did not properly answer the question because it was never about "what to do about Ooza"i really. The ending should have not been about that to begin with. The antagonist should push the hero to change as dramatically as possible. Zuko gave up his title, family, girlfriend and chose to fight on the weaker side of the war, for an example. His arc was more compelling, and his battle with Azula symbolic for fighting his own past and what he could have become.

It also always bugged me that there where only 3 seasons, if you're gonna name each season after an element you gotta make fucking 4.

At least one of these should've happened.

Best way to fix that ending

If there was one more Book. I'm serious. I loved what the show did. But the one thing I noticed, even as a kid, is that the second half of Book 3 (after the eclipse) felt very rushed. Zuko barely had enough time to really develop and bond with all the characters. With Aang it would've been easier. And the whole boiling rock was GREAT. But one episode with Katara, and none with Toph. Not to mention they only found Iroh at the end of the series. I would have loved him to have joined the group. A way to even MAKE the Deus Ex Machina thing work is if Aang actually did disappear. For real. He couldn't fight Ozai because he was lost deep within the spirit world after he ran off. Hell, if Ozai basically torched the planet, the last book could be about searching for Aang, and then saving what little Ozai had left alive. It would have made for a darker ending, and more time to develop Zuko's redemption arc.

What would "Air" even have been about then?

That's the biggest problem with Ozai.

It's not that he is just a huge asshole, it's that he barely has any screentime at all. The comics made him the best character in The Promise and in The Search by simply showing more of him.

But in the actual series he has like 8 episodes of screentime (most of which are just cameos), his only scenes with Zuko after he goes back to the Fire Nation were their reunion and their goodbye.

not him, but i always figured book 4 would have been "spirits"

Autumn

So Aang fucks off into the spirit world to train with King Kai?

I agree, they never should have put in the Avatar State at all. The entire concept was plot poison from the start.

They kept coming up with excuses for why he can't just go wreck Ozai's shit with it that didn't really hold up.

>if you die in the avatar state you die forever

yeah that's not really much of a concern when being in the avatar state makes you essentially godmode. And if Aang died in any case that would be pretty much game over for the world whether the avatar cycle was still in tact or not.

When they had Azula zap him and turn it off I thought "yes, okay, this is it. this is how they're going to get around it. they realized a godmode button was a stupid idea so they disabled it, now the story can make sense from here on in."

Then they brought it back in the finale fight and I was like wtf. What was the point of any of this then?

Hey if he actually got lost in the Spirit world after he fled, it would make for another interesting season + a more forgiving use of thr Deus ex Machina, rather than just being stapled on at the end.

>You mean Bryke wrote that awesome Zuko versus Azula fight
You mean that Azula vs Katara fight.

Well I guess so.

Aang was stronger to stick to his morals when killing would have been easier, but not the moral thing to do. Taking Ozai prisoner and making him face judgement by the people he really hurt is more poetic.

Zuko not killing Azula was the right thing to do. She would have killed him in a heartbeat and so would Ozai. By not even considering killing her Zuko shows how committed he was to following Iroh's path. Azula is also to be pitied and the show stressed that well enough.

Killing for normal people is hard enough, user.
Aang isn't a soldier, he's a martial pacifist. It's part of his fundamental belief system that it's better that you die than to take the life of another.
Now, I believe the way they executed this was pure Deus Ex Machina, especially for how much they built it up.
Whether that's good or bad is up to you. I'm okay with it BECAUSE of how much they built it up. They let Aang go through the turmoil, resolve that he would not kill Ozai, train over all four elements, go through a bajillion character developments and then, and only then, give him a break as far as his personal suffering goes.
There were more interesting ways they could have handled it, no doubt (like if they alluded to Raava and all that shit as why he can take bending) but it was okay.

The Zuko vs Azula fight also happened in an episode written by bryke.

Though it hardly matters since in tv shows like these most of the episodes are written by the whole writing staff and they give the credit of the episode to only one or two of them because of guild rules.

I think Zuko was actually going to kill Azula.

How the fuck is she supposed to survive a comet-powered redirected lightning?

They literally showed that spirits are the source of bending and nature. How is it machina that when you fuck with someone's spirit that you fuck with their bending?

This.
Ozai was always using pretty solid arguments but twisting the logic at the last minute to conclude "Fire Lord = Right"
Showing his manipulative side would have been great to see in the Cartoon more, even suggesting that's where Azula gets it. His bit where he stalls Zuko during the Eclipse is great

Because the existence of it is pulled out of thin-air, That people can bend spirits at all.
Alluding to it prior, hell introducing Han earlier would have made more sense in A:TLA than in Korra honestly.

The entire premis of the avatar state is channeling spirits of old to unlock more bending. He has the ability to turn this on and turn this off.

He's told late it the story that hey friend, maybe if you used that on someone else it would limit their bending.

We literally see red vs blue take place when it happens

And how many elements do you remember Aang using in the avatar state the first few times he used it? Right, only air. Because all he knew was air. He had o learn the other elements to use them, regardless of his past lives knowing how. If the avatar state could gift him with knowledge, why does the avatar every train when he's reborn? Fact is, he COULD NOT use the other elements until he learned how.

Aang defeated Ozai without using the avatar state at all, their final clash was just Aang by himself, no past lives.

No, that's the definition of foreshadowing, how can something be an Easter egg for something that didn't exist yet? Easter eggs are references to things that do exist, not things that will come later.

>Aang refused to kill
Not killing IS the tradition of Aang, he is the only one who did not broke the tradition.

>Aang taking away Ozai's power effectively defeats him AND takes away any chance for any supporters of Ozai's regime to come back and put him into power.

Comics showed that this was not the case.
He had still enough supporters to be a threat.

>He had still enough supporters to be a threat.
Yeah, but those turned out to be incompetent retards

>And how many elements do you remember Aang using in the avatar state the first few times he used it? Right, only air. Because all he knew was air. He had o learn the other elements to use them

Even if that's true, an air-only avatar state is still good enough to beat a non-comet powered Ozai.

>He had o learn the other elements to use them
Not true at all. S1E2 he used waterbending.
S2E1 he used earthbending.

I seriously don't know what made them deem more important to give Zuko a girlfriend than to develop his relationships with Ozai and Azula while he was in the Fire Nation

He used waterbending before he learned it from Katara in the first two episode and Earthbending, Firebending or Lavabending before he met Toph.

Again the issue was that he couldn't control it. It just worked with whatever was closest. It wasn't remotely refined enough to take on the firelord during the comet.

Those firebender skeletons next to Gyatso got their somehow.
When the chips were down the Airbenders wrecked people. Aang took pacifism to a whole other level that I doubt the monks ever preached.

>They devoted an entire episode in Season 2 to explaining why they can't just have Aang go into the avatar state and stomp the firelord, and then what does he do? He goes into the avatar state and stomps the firelord.
Yeah, because before the S2 finale, he didn't have control of the Avatar stat and was on auto-pilot with no control. After the S2 finale, he knows how to control it but can't enter it because Azula fucked him up by shooting him in the back. Two very different scenarios.
His training included mastering the Avatar State and if he's in it, he still needs to know how to bend because he's not on auto-pilot, so his training was absolutely necessary.

It's funnier to imagine all the firebender skeletons all happening due to friendly fire due to everyone underestimating how big their fireballs would be due to the comet.

Oh, okay. I thought you were saying he couldn't use them at all in the avatar state unless he learned them normally beforehand.

Not really. The show very clearly elaborated that physical stimuli could effect spiritual matters. That's literally the reason Ty Lee existed.
It might have seemed convenient but Aang was getting beaten up, he had scratches and bruises all over, so why not his back? And it makes sense in the lore of the world that it would reactived his Avatar State.

>That's literally the reason Ty Lee existed.
I thought her purpose was to be a henchwomen with an unique power and to be fap bait

It can be two things!

Like I said, she IS a prodigy, and she has the cold and deadly part down flat.

>>white lotus sending two non-benders and a blind girl to destroy a fleet of nukes while they take a city with little to none strategic value that they could take more easily with no comet

This epitomizes one of the few yet large main reasons that stops ATLA from being my favorite action cartoon.

By the middle of Season 2, The Gaang had proven themselves as decent political representative and extremely capable warriors across 3 nations. Yet the show still treats them like vigilante youths most of the time. There's no reason why the wall guards couldn't help Toph hold back the drill and there's no reason why the White Lotus wouldn't back up in the assault on the blimps.

ATLA does a good job of showing believable internal development but does a poor job of showing believable external development.

It baffles me to this day why they just didn't set the Lion Turtle up in that very scene by having Mr. Owl make some vague comments about them that hinted at their special powers without giving it away.
It would have been the perfect time and place to do it and virtually all complaints regarding the Lion Turtle and Energybending would evaporate.

Aang's no kill dilemma is amplified by his status as the last airbender.
That's the conflict he has in the finale, straight from the title, it's Aang the Avatar vs Aang the Last Airbender.
For Yangchen and Gyatso it was easier for them to kill because they didn't have the entire future of the Air Nomad traditions on their shoulders. Every future generation of Airbenders would come from Aang and it was either going to be an Aang how upheld his people's most sacred vow, or one who abandoned it. That's why it's difficult for him than for Gyatso or Yangchen.

And still a threat.

It could have been worse if Azula was really on their side

I think peace of mind just makes it easier and less unpredictable or dangerous. Notice how Azula's lightning in the finale is wild and fractaling off all over the place. Ita unstable compared to regular lightning. Even compared to Ozai's lightning in the finale.

The Drill was always the worst example of hapless adult syndrome in the series

>The most elite earthbending squad gets wrecked by two non bender teenage rich girls
>Earth general hands over the defense of the outer walls to a foreign 15 year old

Not to mention how everyone over the age of 16 and under the age of 60 is completely incompetent throughout the whole series.

It should have exploded in her hands just like Zuko's did

>There's no reason why the wall guards couldn't help Toph hold back the drill and there's no reason why the White Lotus wouldn't back up in the assault on the blimps.

There is a reason and it's that it would take away the spotlight from the relevant characters.

Problem is that it makes the show look about overpowered superheroes were only certain chosen ones have the power to do anything rather than about a massive war that has been going on for a hundred years

So basically ATLA is a JRPG?

Wait....
>opens with main character being woken up
>female lead has pendant that becomes relevant to the plot later on
>all the characters are really young
>empire is bad, kingdom is good

Oh my god! It is a JRPG.

The real problem is showing an army in action is a bitch to animate and gets expensive quickly. It's not possible to have an army fighting and have the characters still get their moments to shine and look cool when you're on a TV budget.

Then they should have worked within their limitations.

Well now I wish there was an Avatar JRPG.

They did just that by always having an excuse, albeit contrived, reason for the kids never having an army to command.

The only exception to that was the eclipse invasion and even then the scenes always framed it so you only ever saw a few soldiers doing something in any given frame.

ATLA never getting great vidya will always hurt.

Oh well, I'll just go replay Jade Empire.

But I want an ATLA fighting game as well

And you can't have it.

;_;

>It's not possible to have an army fighting and have the characters still get their moments to shine and look cool when you're on a TV budget.
The assault on the Earth King's palace proved otherwise.

There's so much potential for political intrigue during Aang's era that I was genuinely sad to see it all hand-waved over by having team Avatar overpower everyone and everything.

I can't be the only one who rewatched the show recently and realized how things went to shit the moment S3 started, right?

>they leave the earth king just fuck around with his bear
>katara has convoluted emotional problems
>aang's whiny stubbornness is brought back
>reoccurring characters start hanging around in the background awkwardly
>a deadline that the gaang won't follow

Crying about Aang using the avatar state is basically crying because he didn't hold back. It would have been pointless.

The avatar state is the Avatar, every avatar. It's the spiritual power that he's allowed to use to solve big problems.

Let's also not forget that the. Firelord was relying on Sozin's comet for a HUGE power boost.

The user was asking why the gang never fought alongside an army into battle.
Full on army vs. army would eat up the budget quickly.
And I'm sure the Earth Palace scene was expensive to animate too. I doubt the budget would allow the whole series to have that much action in every single episode.

Not to mention something that made me really mad at the time.
>last time the comet came the fire nation used it to genocide the air benders
>zuko tells them they have to stop them before it comes again because the fire nation is going to try some shit
>everyone gets super mad at zuko for not telling them

WHY? What did they think was going to happen?

After playing all 3 main ATLA games, the only thing memorable from all of them was that Sokka line about filling the library with his biography: "all 28 volumes."

It's more like crying over the Avatar State being a thing to begin with. It's just a tad too op according to everybody that it shouldn't be part of the story.

This looks like the correct answer. OP forgot that at first he didn't want to use the Avatar state because he couldn't control it, then he just couldn't use the Avatar state because he was injured, and when he was healed he decided he doesn't want to kill the Fire Lord and let the resistance do its thing, then the resistance failed and Aang went after the Fire Lord.

But yeah, Spirit Bending came out of nowhere, but then again IT'S MAGIC I AIN'T GOTTA EXPLAIN SHIT.

Anyone complaining about the Avatar state doesn't understand The Avatar.

The Avatar is the one being on the planet who's main purpose is to keep order and peace. This puts the Avatar in countless life threatening situations. Roku even explains that it is a defense mechanism, to protect the Avatar in any extremely dangerous situations.

It's supposed to be OP.

Dubs confirm

Yeah Aang should of just blown the baddies head off xDD

They didn't care about defeating Ozai before the comet at that point because they thought the damage had already been done, Ozai had taken over Ba Sing Se and they thought that was pretty much the worst case scenario, that was the signal that the fire nation had 'won' in terms of the occupation, they didn't know about the war meeting and Ozai planning to go full scorched earth on the whole damn continent.

Zuko really didn't deserve to get yelled at, though it might have been better to tell the gang about the meeting anyway, gives them more of a reason they NEEDED to win, after all.

And before i go to sleep. wanna talk about shit being shat on?
Well, korra happened.

I thought the mantra of the show was "master all four elements, defeat the firelord"

not "master two elements, get pretty good with the third and be competent with the fourth, then get completely shit on by the firelord but it's okay because godmode button I had the entire time."

I'm pretty sure after the whole comet thing was revealed that Aang wouldn't be able to totally master every element in time to fight Ozai, so it was more like "try to get as close to 'mastering' the elements as you can within this time frame"

Even within that constraint Aang was a goddamn prodigy, learning all that he did in such a short amount of time.

And, in the end, it wasn't really the avatar state that won the battle, it just turned the tide, it gave Aang the chance to win if he'd kill the guy ((so did the lightening)), but he didn't want it to end like that.

Energy bending was the biggest problem with the finale simply because it wasn't foreshadowed nearly as much as it should have been, but if it had been, then that would have been a fine way for him to win.

As it is, I thought it was a testament to how hard he trained that he was able to use Toph's seismic sense perfectly to bind Ozai, even though earth was the hardest thing for him to learn.

Except that wasn't even an option for him at that point. Aang's chakras were locked and he couldn't use the avatar state at will. Also, their plan largely revolved around using the eclipse to fight the fire nation when Aang didn't need to master all the elements because fire wouldn't be available, for pretty much all of book 2.
The spirit world was a large plot point in the show and Aang fairly regularly received guidance and help from that quarter so it isn't so much a surprise he would receive one last push before the battle that would balance the world.
The chakras and their impact on bending could have been fleshed out and the idea that bending could be locked away mentioned by the guru and but not taught before Aang had to leave, and the whole thing would've been fine.

Everything you mentioned didn't happen until later in the Season. Skipping the avatar training and beating Ozai with the avatar state was suggested in the first episode of S2.

Which Aang declined because something something bad feelings something something it would be really bad if you died while in your practically unkillable state, which is bullshit because that's exactly how he ends up beating Ozai in the end anyway.

We coulda skipped everything from S2 EP2 - The Finale and it would have played out the same: Aang fights Ozai, Ozai wins, Avatar Mode Go, Aang wins.

When he let Avatar Roku take over his body at the Fire Temple and when he met Jeong Jeong he could Firebend no problem

The first two DS games are great.

This.

They were alright, the second one was better because it actually followed the plot and didn't have Haru fighting off a robot invasion force.
I wouldn't say they were great though, better than your average cartoon tie-in game at least.

....okay Wan teaching Aang spiritbending's a good idea.

I mean you could argue that everything we see in the fucked up Fire Nation in Fire characterized Ozai. Its a kingdom in his image.

I think it also sets up a different kind of Avatar, addressing the failures of his predecessors, which usually amounts to "All hell breaks loose between Avatars."

By forcing Ozai to face justice instead of just capping him Aang introduces modern ideas of holding a nation accountable for its actions into the world, that you can imprison a leader for crimes instead of just having a coup. That's a big deal.

Legend of Korra was better anyway

When he consulted the previous Avatars they seemed pretty cool with wasting dudes.

>it's been close to a decade and Cred Forums is still mad that a Nickelodeon show couldn't show an explicit murder

They even make a real direct crack about how Jet's death had to be super ambiguous

I agree that the manner in which Aang's dilemma was solved was pretty stupid, but killing Ozai would have only caused more problems in the long term. Rather than having their God-King stripped of both his rank and his power and thrown in a cell for war crimes, you'd have the Avatar martyring him at the very height of his supremacy. The political ramifications of that would ripple outwards for decades, if not centuries.

This, Ozai doesn't really need any further characterization.
For sure, the comics did a great job of explaining the way he sees the world but the cartoon had already done enough.
Ozai needed to be irredeemably evil to be the ultimate test of Aang's pacifism and the animation and Mark Hamill's performance gave Ozai a real sense of presense and intimidation. He might have been a fairly straightforward villain, but the performance behind him was enough to make him work. Very much in the same way that ATLA was a simple story that was brilliantly executed.

Lion turtles didn't solve Aang's dilema. He could literally just bury the firelord with his earthbending at that point and wait for the comet to pass. Also, he did made the choice, he just choses not to kill. Did you even watch the episode? He literally points redirected lightning to Ozai and decides not to kill him, and that is, BEFORE avatar state. So he could easily win, be just choses to go the hard way.

Also, in S02 the reason he can't just go and defeat the firelord with avatar state is because he didn't have control of it, not because it's a bad idea. Watch the damn show.

I'll dont get why people can't understand why they didn't have Aang violently killing the firelord, firstly it goes against the part of his character where he didn't want to directly kill anyone (to the extent that he was a vegetarian) so I thought it made sense that he instead followed his own path and found a way to take down the firelord without slicing his head off with a pressurised wave of air. Secondly it is a kids show, on Nickelodeon no less, they can't really show someone being executed onscreen.

I think the rock stuff was kind of dumb and the lion turtle could have been foreshadowed better, but I still think the conclusion was pretty satisfying.

But the general in season 1 says he should KILL Ozai with the avatar state, which he doesnt do.

No, the fucked up Fire Nation characterized Sozin

>It was a 10/10 show up until the end
Until you realize that the issues that forced them to hack it up in the finale were in the making from the beginning.

For instance they wrote the Avatar state as a winnow button, which gave us some cool scenes early on.... until they realized that broke tension, so they took it away.... but they wanted their Super Sayian finale so they brought it back.
None of that is ultimately justified by the story they're telling.

Aang's pacifism and his sense of responsibility were always to be at odds and building tension to his character arc... except they never had the balls to imply there was actually a correct choice between those so they just Lion Turtled it, leading in a completely unsatisfying payoff.

Aang and Katara are teased for 3 seasons with little actual development to their relationship, so they just end up together because that's how a hero's journey ends.

>I'll dont get why people can't understand why they didn't have Aang violently killing the firelord
I don't get why people think that's the actual complain here.
> found a way to take down the firelord without slicing his head off
He didn't find a way, a way found him.

Y'know I always wondered, If Aang was never going to kill Ozai, what exactly was his plan if Operation: Black Sun had actually succeeded?

Someone else probably would have done it. I mean, he had the water nation army there.

>Aang fucking lost

Pretty sure the whole reason for this scene was to show Aang would have won anyway if he hadn't found the lion turtle for a third option.

It's kind of funny though, given how far Korra, the show, took things when it came to murder.

Didn't Aang go to face Ozai by himself, also that doesn't seem like actual pacifism, "I can't kill you, but when I turn my back and this other guy does, well, these things happen"

>is that Aang fucking lost. Without the avatar state, Ozai would have killed Aang.
You're second point doesn't make much sense, considering the fact that you're forgetting about Sozin's comet. Ozai had a huge power upgrade too. You remember this scene, right?

Aang could easily take Ozai if not for Sozin's Comet.

He only got the Avatar state back from something even more out of the blue than the Lion Turtles.

Ozai had no fire during the Black Sun, he'd be really easy to apprehend.

Sozin comet was boosting Aang too, without it, nothing would have changed.

>Ozai had no fire during the Black Sun, he'd be really easy to apprehend.
Yeah, just like Azula was right?

Aang only got boosted by firebending, which he had just learned and hadn't really mastered compared to Ozai's god-tier skill level.

They should have been expecting the Dai Li.
But nobody expects the Dai Li.

>The second one, which I never really see anyone acknowledge, is that Aang fucking lost. Without the avatar state, Ozai would have killed Aang.
So, you are saying that Aang actually won? Why wouldn't the Avatar state count?

Also, missing the big point of this final is that it's important to see if there is other solutions before going tothe extreme. Most people tend to use "there is not other way" as an excuse rather than an actual reason where they have actually exhausted all the other possibilities.

Whatever his plan was, he'd have chocked. Which is why someone else wanted to be with him because no one else had a problem killing Ozai

Aside from the Roku flashback and the invasion, the first half of book 3 is the weakest bunch of episodes in the series:

>The gaang wandering around aimlessly in the Fire Nation stalling for time until the invasion
>Zuko spends most of the time in a badly done romance that adds nothing to his character, while hardly having scenes with Ozai or Azula
>Everything about the Painted Lady
>Azula gets to do nothing except spill spaghetti in the beach and tell Zuko to stop whining
>Ozai only appears in three episodes (one of which was only in Aang's sleep deprived hallucinations)
>the only episode that gives any depth to the Fire nation is thrown aside in order to have Kataang's dance party
>Sokka acts like a retard during his whole swordbending training (paints a rainbow, face signature, getting comfortable and asking for drinks) and is still told that he's gonna be the best swordsmn ever and then he never even does anything with his sword.
>Toph's entire arc in her whole episode is "you're not my mom, Katara" "I miss my mom Katara"
>an entire episode about bloodbending, yet it never pays off until LoK

And maybe this is a matter of opinion but I very much dislike the beach episode for giving Mai and Ty Lee equal campfire crying time to Zuko and Azuka when their issues are basically first world problems, also how they burn the rich kid's house and then expect us to believe that Mai and Ty Lee were good girls that were just forced to do evil by Azula and also how it feels like a wasted opportunity for not going deeper with Zuko and Azula's family issues and instead focusing more on relationship drama.

Avatar subduing Ozai with his superior bending while Ozai is powerless.

I think this guy meant to reply to you. That's pretty much the point I would have made as well.

Aang is a master of two elements, good at earthbending, and ok at Firebending.

The comet only helped his firebending. Which is probably his weakest bending.

>Why wouldn't the Avatar state count?
Chiropractor rock is one of the worst written things in fiction. It's never okay for characters to get out of a major jam by chance

So what was he going to do when he gets his power back?

That makes sense. When he went into the Avatar state finding Gyatso's skeleton and when Appa was taken he blindly exploded air and definitely would have injured/killed everyone around if Katara couldn't calm him down, but in the finale he doesn't even really hurt Ozai.

They had the Boiling Rock for that shit. Firebenders can be subdued, it's the subduing that's the hard part.

>Sozin comet was boosting Aang too
but Aang is retarded when it comes to firebending

>even more out of the blue than the Lion Turtles
>getting hit in a fight is out of the blue
>when already shown that getting hit can take away his avatar state in the first place

That's absolutely what happens.
Prior to meeting Guru Pathik, Aang had no mastery over the Avatar State. In the S2 finale, he see him entering the AS by his own volition but is shot down in the process by Azula.

When he reenters the AS during Sozin's Comet, Aang is in complete control of his actions, he's channeling the strength of his past lives rather than letting them take over.

When he wanted to enter Avatar State against Azula he was planning on sacrificing his individuality to give the Avatar State, Rava, whatever it is control permanently. Iroh thought it was a terrible idea in hindsight. By the finale he had reached a balance

>getting hit in the right place at the right moment for no other reason that you need to get your power back
>a pointy rock for some reason reverts the effect done by lightning
>when at no point before it was thought by anyone in story that he could get his power back that way (despite entire episodes deidicated to him trying to get the AS back)
>when none of the other fights Aang took part in before managed to give him his AS back
>not pure chance
Also characters getting in a jam by chance is okay, getting out of a jam by chance isn't.

I really hope you're not sincerely defending this.

>God forbid the avatar actually has to make a difficult choice.
he choses not to kill Ozai. And the lion turtles literally have no function in that finale

>Without the avatar state, Ozai would have killed Aang
it is shown Aang could have killed him. Also, your argument just looks like "he would have lost if he wasn't the avatar". Being the avatar is what this show is about. Do you honestly think it was about a 11 years old defeating an adult powered by a comet?

and that episode in S02 just explains that he must control the avatar state or he will just go berserk and kill Everyone.

>When he wanted to enter Avatar State against Azula he was planning on sacrificing his individuality to give the Avatar State, Rava, whatever it is control permanently
Where the Hell did you get that idea from?

>he was planning on sacrificing his individuality to give the Avatar State
For what it looked like it seemed more of a "stop thinking about your waifu for five seconds"

>the lion turtles literally have no function in that finale
The delusions of Avatar fans know no bounds.

Not that guy but physical stimuli having effects on chi and spiritual mumbo jumbo is literally why the show introduced Ty Lee.
Chi-blocking foreshadows and explains the functionality behind chiropractor rock massively.
You can argue about how fortunate it is but functionally, it's well within the show's lore.

>getting hit in the right place at the right moment for no other reason that you need to get your power back
that's how he lost it in the first place, getting hit on the right place at the right time. Getting hit happens a lot in fights. It's not merely 'chance', it's expected.

>a pointy rock for some reason reverts the effect done by lightning
it hits a chakra. That's how lightning was able to stop the avatar state. The same way, poking people in the right spot can stop them from bending.

>when at no point before it was thought by anyone in story that he could get his power back that way
it's the way he lost them, there is no reason to think he can't get it back the same way. If they show that poking people on other spot can stop chi-blocking and bring back bending, does that mean it's bullshit from 'out of nowhere'?

>when none of the other fights Aang took part in before managed to give him his AS back
he didn't really get in many fights after losing the avatar state. That said, the first time ever he gets in the avatar state was because he was because he was in danger, it doesn't even need to hit anything.

>Aang defeats the firelord with avatar state
>take his bending for the lolz
yeah, no function. Rewatch teh ending.

>You can argue about how fortunate it is
That's exactly my argument.

>it's the way he lost them, there is no reason to think he can't get it back the same way.
Then why didn't they try to give him the AS back that way? They literally never actually tried to "poke him in the right spot" and went on about how they didn't know how he could ever get it back.
Yes, when it is independant of the characters' actions, it is chance.

I'm pretty sure I've had this conversation with you already. It's not worth doing it again.

>they put this useless thing that resolves the moral conflict in the ending for the lulz
>this is how Avatar fans defend the show as not having bad writing

The Guru said the penalty for what he was trying to do was to lose his earthly connection with everyone. If the avatar is a bridge between people and spirits then he was learning very heavy on becoming more like a spirit if it meant a power increase.

>The Guru said the penalty for what he was trying to do was to lose his earthly connection with everyone.
Where did he say that?

Rendering your opponent impotent ain't useless.

In the episode he was in...

>resolves the moral conflict
what moral conflict? he already defeated the firelord by that time. Ozai was trapped in a rock.

>Then why didn't they try to give him the AS back that way
because they didn't think of it? none of them really knows how chi-blocking and all that stuff works.

>when it is independant of the characters' actions, it is chance
there is something called an expected result. As i said, it's not merely chance. There is a difference between the chance of a car hitting Ozai in the head in the middle of the fight, and the chance of one of them get pushed into a wall in the middle of a fight.

It's also important to note that he planned on fighting the Fire Lord at a time where the Avatar State was not necessary. He would have fucking destroyed him no problem any day besides comet day.

>permanently
Whoa, what?!

As I remember it, he just had trouble with it since he had to give up his attachment to Katara to be able to use the Avatar state at will, and he had trouble with that since he really fucking liked her.

But I don't remember anything about him becoming Avatar-stated PERMANENTLY.

He was teaching Aang how to learn to let go, not that he should never form any attachments to anyone ever.
People make the mistake of thinking that the Guru was trying to make Aang a prequel-era Jedi, that wasn't the point. 5 minutes previously, he'd just told Aang that it was a good thing that the love he had for the Air Nomads had been reborn into his love for Katara. Loving Katara is a positive thing that Pathik has no problem with, the lesson he's trying to teach Aang is that just like the Air Nomads, Katara might not be permanent and that he should be prepared to let her go in the event that she leaves his life and that he shouldn't get too hung up on these things.
He's not telling Aang that love is forbidden or that he has submit his conscience to the Avatar Spirit or anything.
That contradicts a) what he was saying about the Air Nomads love becoming his love for Katara and b) what he's told in the finale about how the Avatar should make connections to the people who inhabit the world.

>because they didn't think of it? none of them really knows how chi-blocking and all that stuff works.
But " it's the way he lost them, there is no reason to think he can't get it back the same way. If they show that poking people on other spot can stop chi-blocking and bring back bending" . Your answer is that characters are dumb?

>there is something called an expected result
Yes, I'm sure Aang expected to fall on that spot and get his powers back, since "none of them really knows how chi-blocking and all that stuff works. "
>and the chance of one of them get pushed into a wall in the middle of a fight.
...and that making him hit just the right spot to get his powers back.
Here's a comparison that works with your car analogy: if I step outside, it's likelier that I will be hit by a car than by Aang, that doesn't make it likely that I'll get hit by a car driven by my unkown till then cousin who just so happens to carry with him his newly invented "cures all injuries" magic medecine.

This topic is really the one that shows best how fans can say any bullshit to excuse poor writing.

Both of your car analogies are terrible and make my head hurt.

>Your answer is that characters are dumb
my answer is that getting it back that way is actually a rational possibility, even if they didn't thought of that. If the ending of ATLA happened in any other way, would you actually think that 'perhaps poking him there could solve it too'? no. We are only discussing it because we saw it happening in the first place, unlike the characters in the show. It's more of a "yeah, that makes sense" than a "how the hell they didn't think of it".

>I'm sure Aang expected to fall on that spot and get his powers back
he surely expected to get hit, because that's what happens in a fight. How dense are you? getting hit is normal in a fight, why getting hit on that place would trigger you? how many times did shows used the trope of "he got hit in the head and lost/got his memory back"?

>that doesn't make it likely that I'll get hit by a car driven by my unkown till then cousin who just so happens to carry with him his newly invented "cures all injuries" magic medecine.
the only difference from ATLA to that situation you propose is that there was a set up. To use your analogy: they show beforehand that said cure exist, they show that your cousin exist and is trying to hit you, and they show before that he have such a medicine. And then you're arguing that the event of getting hit and the medicine that is with him healing you is impossible.

So basically: we know avatar state exist, and we know Aang still has it and just can't access it because he was hit. We know Ozai is trying to hit Aang. Why is it some sort of asspull to Ozai to hit Aang on the place he was hit before in that fight?

>make my head hurt
sorry that we made you think.

The prior Avatars ideologies had clashed with Aang's. Making it difficult for him to resolve his own conflict with taking down Ozai.

Sure, they didn't mind because they thought, especially Kyoshi "I did what I had to do to maintain balance and peace even if it meant killing a greater or lesser known evil" and Aang further made his dilenma complex by retorting "No, there has to be another alternative then killing, it's not in me, all life is precious" as another user mentioned, Aang took the lessons the Monks taught him and turned it up to eleven.

>Do I think he should have killed him?
Yes.

>Did Bryke pull energybending out of their ass?
Yes.

However,

>Did Bryke decide a nonviolent ending would make more sense for a pacifist vegetarian monk, following in the tradition of generations of Classic Chinese Kung-fu movies that depict the protagonist finding a nonviolent solution to defeating the Big Bad?
Yes.

M80. The Black Sun only lasted for a total of fifteen minutes, if I recall. And Azula purposefully had hindered Toph, Aang, and Sokka until the eclipsed passed.

She didn't begin firebending until she felt the eclipse was over.

>Ozai needed to be irredeemably evil to be the ultimate test of Aang's pacifism and the animation and Mark Hamill's performance gave Ozai a real sense of presense and intimidation.

The problem isn't his characterization, it's his lack of screentime throughout the whole series despite being Aang's ultimate challenge and the reason for everything bad in Zuko's life.

It was a good writing choice to keep him in the shadows for the first two seasons but in book 3 he hardly appears either.

I guess it's just personal taste. I didn't feel I needed any more Ozai, I got what he was about and I recognized the threat he posed.
I think the comics did a great job of presenting him and it was really enjoyable and necessary for a deeper exploration of Zuko, but in Aang's story, ATLA, I thought the depth of Ozai we got was good.

>but in Aang's story, ATLA,
I would say that ATLA is almost as much about Zuko as it is about Aang, especially after the field trip saga.

To take down Ozai, meaning potential imprisonment. Although, I don't think Aang, while he could've stopped Ozai, wouldn't succeed:
>Aang apprehend Ozai
>Sokka persuade him to kill the fire Lord and Aang continue to refuse opting for a better solution
>Toph then said if he won't she will
>and before she can earthbend Aang whirlwind her away from Ozai
>[aang pacifisitic rant intensifies]
>the eclipse is over and right before Ozai is about to either firebend or shoot lighting
>Zuko out of nowhere and rescue Aang telling him to leave
Like how Azula stalled them from getting to Ozai. It would've worked the same without her because Aang would've stalled them trying to think of another plan. If I recollect, Sokka's plan was to get to Ozai and simply end him. In that regard, his thinking was similar to Zuko plans: he never think ahead.

If only he had been a little bit more smooth, he could have turned that into a conyugal visit.

Hakoda is also at fault in that.

And I don't think they had proper plans either for what would they do if the invasion was succesful. The Fire Nation still had the largest army and could easily regroup and take back the capital once they got back their firebending.

But I guess they were operating under the cartoon logic of "kill the leader and the army will all disappear"

Ozai in the Promise and Search was brilliant.
Ozai in Smoke and Shadow (much like the rest of the comic) sucked.

While I didn't mind Ozai, I concur with on the former. Avatar the Last Airbender is both Aang's and Zuko's story as Zuko felt like the deuteragonist.

Ozai is a good villian because of the minute screentime he received and what was shown of him weren't scoundrel, because the audience had an understanding of who Ozai was, from the flashbacks, to his present on-screentime, and to what other characters had spoken of him. Everything was used effectively.

I felt if Ozai would've received more screen time, it would've been him sitting on his thrown giving out evil soliloquies and him roaming his palace giving orders to others, or Bryke simply trying to show how evil Ozai is.

That's why I think Azula faired better as the villain, she was manipulative, cunning, smart and as Team Aang, plus Zuko and Iroh, she was normadic and kept following them. Whereas, Ozai could've potentially been stationary and contributed nothing to the story.

I thought it was a 10/10 ending tbqpfht familia.

It's nearly a perfect ending compared to the ones most action shows end up getting and even when considering how badly 3 out of the 4 LoK's finales shat the bed

I agree.
Because it was an hour and a half of all the shit I loved about ATLA amped up to 11.
Action and lore and music and comedy and romance and characters and catharsis, it's like they distill all the shit that made the show great and concentrated it. A lot of finales just wrap up the plot points and just feel like another episode, Sozin's Comet still feels like a full on spectacle for it's entire runtime.
The narrative might not be quite there but the production and filmcraft are spectacular.

>Sozin's Comet still feels like a full on spectacle for it's entire runtime.
Except for a fourth of it being nearly all a relaxed beach party.

A pretty intense beach party.
Sokka beheaded a defenseless melon-kin.

The closest that space sword came to tasting blood

That and The Orange Splat wouldn't let Aang kill him

Aang killing him was never an option.

At most Ozai would get a cartoon death where he dies due to a fuck up of his own while Aang tries to save him like in nearly every single Disney movie.

>Sozin's Comet, Part 3: Into the Inferno"
>writers: Michael Dante DiMartino &
Bryan Konietzko
>Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang
>writers: Michael Dante DiMartino &
Bryan Konietzko

It really shows, doesn't it. The finale was Korra-tier in writing. I can't believe there's actually people looking forward to their solo works. These two are a lot like Gerorge Lucas; good ideas, terrible execution. Aaron Ehasz did such a better job with the previous seasons' finales. It's such a shame they didn't just leave the series finale to him as well.

(You)

You don't understand how tv writing works, do you?

Every plot point of the series is done by the whole group of writers, The writing credit for the episode is pretty much just something that has to be done because of guild regulations.

At most the individual writer is in charge of the dialogue in the episode but everything in it is planned and done by the whole team.

The only difference between Bryke and Ehasz is that Ehasz hasn't had a job since ATLA to disappoint you yet.
No one person made ATLA what it was, it was a collaborative effort.

>Ehasz hasn't had a job since ATLA to disappoint you yet.
Zombie Futurama?

Ehh

A third option to a moral dilemma is okay, but only if that option is earned. Aang didn't earn spirit bending in the same way he earned earth or fire bending. He didn't go out seeking a teacher, convince the teacher to train him, spend weeks/months agonizing in said training, and have a side adventure or two during said training. A turtle shows up, gives him power, and Aang chooses to use that power during the final battle.

That is what should have happened.

>implying Zuko isn't Squidward

Unironically killed the entire medium of western anime for me. And I'm usually never bothered by trite endings. I mean, the show's over, who cares about the last 5 minutes?

But goddamn. This asspull must've been handcrafted to piss me off. They held all I ever wanted right in front of me and then threw it into a river.