AWKWARD ZOMBIE

No consequences? Look beyond what happened in front of your faces. The benders were outclassed in almost every way by machinery. How far are they from weapons of mass destruction? Can even a fully realized Avatar keep the balance in a world that is rapidly taking to such violent use of technology?

And Korra learning to heal with Spirit Bending was foretold. Who the hell would develop a technique that takes away another technique before those techniques would ever exist? "In the time before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves." Spirit Bending had to have other applications than Being-A-Dick Bending.

When the Water Spirit was killed, Water Bending stopped working. If bending was taken from the Avatar, my concern was that all bending would stop working. I do wonder if Amon's technique was actually the same as Aang's now, or if he emulated it.

What happens to the Lieutenant? Does he still believe in Equalism? Do other followers? Will Korra heal all Benders? Or will she be pressured to keep it from criminals? What about the Wolfbats? Should it now be her responsibility to deBend criminals? Is that going too far?

I agree with Omni. There was an escalation of war machines in the first series, but a lot of it was made by one side without the benefit of sharing knowledge (like how Sokka was able to help invent the air blimp for firebenders). As the tech advanced on one side, the other side had to come up with better ways to combat them. Toph was able to stop the fire nation because she developed metalbending, which was something the fire nation never had to worry about (they even put earthbender prisoners in metal prisons). However, Toph had to make good use of who to teach metalbending to. Making a school and eventually setting metalbending as the bending police officers use helps prevent her knowledge from being abused, but what would happen if a metalbender went rogue? You saw how much Lin fucked up the stolen police blimps, and that can't be the only major thing made of metal in this day and age (imagine if buildings have metal skeletons). But now, in the era of peace, with the 3 nations (since Air Nomads really don't count and don't contribute much to science) cooperating, tech has gotten to the level where they can make mechas out of platinum to defend against most bending, so non-benders are as much of a threat as benders. Who's to say that in the vacuum of Amon, someone who TRULY believed in the equalist movement takes his place? Sure, they can't rid the world of benders in the way he could, but they could force them out of the city and force the council to do something about it, which leads to further conflicts.

Even more than that, how are benders going to feel after all of this? Are they going to hate non-benders for what happened? Blame them for being tricked by Amon? How do they feel about how the council got captured, or that Korra allowed the city that she was supposed to protect fall?

And that's not even considering how the other nations feel about what happened, especially since the United Forces had to be send in to clean up the mess. Will other nations not trust non-benders in case a rebellion starts?

I love how I'm much more interested in this than everything I've managed to learn in my 10th grade World History AP class.

Avatar, World History Class.

In what year did Firelord Souzin defeat the air nomad armies?

As relatively well thought-out as this post was I can't help but disagree. A few minutes' worth of meditating in order to see memories from a single time and place hardly seems to count as "connecting to her spirituality" sufficient to pull off a feat as monumental and unprecedented as what happened, especially considering the complete lack of familiarity with anything concerning the Avatar state or anything beforehand. Compare that with Aang who had to run around the world to special locations, wait for solstices, train with gurus, etc. to achieve similar results. There may be differences in their circumstances sufficient to explain the discrepancy but at best we're left to blind speculation in the wake of a fairly weak finale.

Don't get me wrong, the rest of the series was still fuckawesome and I'm looking to see if they can improve but they really dropped the ball here in my opinion. I'm also pop flyin' about the Tarlokk ending. Noatok's actions seemed horribly out of character and I would've been rustled if Tarlokk just went along with it.

You don't realize this, but I left as lot of room when I said "much more interested". I absolutely hated my 10th grade World History AP class.



To be fair, Aang's initial episode in the avatar state was brought on by an extremely stressful situation (northern water tribe was royally getting their asses kicked, the moon god was just killed, Katara was next etc.) and while it wasn't nearly as stressful for Korra in my opinion it still counts. Now for the record, I'm talking about when Amon had taken her bending, and was about to take Mako's bending. With that said, I can believe that she'd suddenly understand air bending from that episode, though it would've fit better had she gone in the avatar state right there, met Aang, and he give her bending back right there. That moment where she "learned" air bending was 10x more stressful, and thus warranting of the avatar state than the "OMG BENDING ANGST!" that happened with the water tribe. Then again, the ending would've been completely screwed up. The boat scene wouldn't have been as emotional, and there wouldn't have been a valid way to get Lin's bending back, which of course means she wouldn't have.

aww cockapooples I forgot to set everything up in the edit button...

Man I was actually really let down by the finale.

I mean, I know it was written to close up any loose ends because they didn't know if there was going to be a season 2 or not but that doesn't keep me from being disappointed.

I think Korra's ability to Airbend wasn't directly connected to stress. She was so naturally good at the other three elements that it dominated the way she fought. Take a boxer and tie down his arms and he'll learn to kick. She could finally airbend, because she couldn't do anything else.

In regards to the Avatar State, Aaang's first experience was when he fell into the water during his escape from his home. Half drowned, nearly dead, feeling betrayed by the adults who were separating him from Monk Gyatso. He was at his lowest. Korra had a somewhat happier upbringing as the Avatar. She discovered it early in life and made it a part of her identity. "I'm the Avatar!! You gotta deal with it!!" as compared to Aang's "Because I never wanted to be." Korra was at her lowest when she lost the thing that made up her identity.

Feeling angst might not access the spiritual, necessarily. Aang said we are open to the greatest change and that what that change would be might vary from person to person. It allowed Korra to change her way of thinking. In her case it was reaching for spiritual strength. In Aang it was reaching for the power he never wanted.

I'm pop flyin' with this ending. Everything was properly foreshadowed and honestly a pop flyin' ending isn't the end of the world, especially not when it makes sense.

Tarrlok's last scene though was a HUGE "Did they really just...in a KID'S show?!" moment though. But a very, very well done moment that I think redeemed him. Which I really didn't think possible.

Let's see the gross half of your face. C'mon. Let's see the gross half of your face. That nose better be piggy!!

well that ending had like five different kinds of closure

Pretty much exactly what I was gonna respond with, but I would've done worse trying to do so :I

In any case, I find people's claims of a deus ex machina occurring to be completely unfounded. I find everything that happened to be within the realm of plausibility of the show, and while it could perhaps have been handled better, no art is perfect, and I can forgive any storytelling/plot shortcomings in favour of thoroughly enjoying everything else done right.

Tarrlok. You are no longer the greatest dick in this show. The honor now belongs to Hiroshi Sato.

What's with Avatar and terrible fathers?
-Lao Beifong
-Ozai
-Yakone
-Hiroshi Sato

Any that I missed?

But Tarrlok is still a dick.
EDIT: V Noted and added