AWKWARD ZOMBIE

That's almost all the stuff I have ranted about. Further more I had already read it a while back and turns out it was already in my 'likes'

I agree with everything there
Holy crap the season finale made me angry

Somewhere in my heart, a small bit of hope is clinging to the fact that season 2 might be better.

I don't really have any hope. They killed it when she achieved avatar state. That and I don't believe in waiting for part 2 for something to get better.

I will always remember the finale for one thing.

The Cakebender.

I don't get the hate for her going into avatar state in the finale.
The avatar state is a last-ditch effort in order to save the Avatar from dying (Or maybe even brought on by intense emotional trauma). She had both of those towards the end. She hadn't MASTERED it like Aang tried to do and failed because he didn't want to give up everything. The only reason it (semi) happened again later was because of the whole attempted suicide thing.
She never entered the avatar state before because she had lived as sheltered of a life as an Avatar can, and never had to worry about actually dying.

Don't forget Jafaar!

The problem is that Korra was super-sad that her bending was taken away and then she accessed the Avatar state and Spirit-bending without any kind of serious spiritual or character growth. She just looked sad that her bending was taken away, and that's it. With Aang, on the other hand, it seemed like he managed to convince the Lion-Turtle to teach him about Spirit Bending because he was supremely earnest in wanting to solve things without killing anybody. And he most likely succeeded in taking Ozai's bending away because of that adamant belief that there's always another solution.

The essay points out that a lot of the show makes it seem like being a bender is "the be-all and end-all of a person’s worth". It really seemed like Korra subscribed to that world view, and if (As people presume) Korra was willing to kill herself because she lost her earth, fire, and water bending, then (to me) she's failed at being the Avatar. This is because she doesn't realize that there are tons of people in the world of Avatar who can't do any of what she could/can do and she fails to empathize with them.

Not really. She fought against Tarrlok over his suppressing the non-benders before.

The fact of the matter is, the Avatar can only be effective if they're in complete balance. Aang would not have been able to master energy bending if he didn't master the elements beforehand, and for Korra, having only one element meant that she wouldn't be a "real" avatar, and since being the avatar was her whole identity, having that taken away from her, just when she was beginning to realize what it meant for her to be the Avatar (helping people and fighting for what's right, not using it as an excuse for her actions or as a way to have celebrity status), and even after everything, she still didn't connect to her past lives, even when she needed them most. Like Aang, she connected to them when she had no one else, and that's what Aang tells her when they first meet.

The purpose of the Avatar is to grow with the world, and become closer to it. Yes, it's important for Avatars to master the 4 elements and reach spiritual balance, but they must also become more human with each reincarnation. Aang became more human by willingly giving up mastery of the Avatar state for Katara, and by doing what's right based on his own beliefs rather than what would be right for the world (As Yangchen stated that if war ever arose in her time, she'd sacrifice her beliefs to do what was best for the world). Also, a bit understated, but I think Aang eventually began to come to terms with the idea that people were people, especially once they got into the fire nation and realized that people weren't generally as terrible as they initially thought. This led to clashes with characters like Jet and Hama who felt like the only way to fight was to be as cold and ruthless as they imagined the fire nation to be.

I believe Korra learned that the world is bigger than just benders and bending (which before going to Republic City, again, was the majority of her life, even her interest in pro-bending had to do with bending) not only because she dealt with benders terrorizing non-benders, but also because she fought against people that were desperate to get out from under the metaphorical heel of the benders that essentially ran the world, and I do hope that we see some of that develop further in the future, at least as part of her world view.

The thing is, to me, I don't see how people can hate on Korra's resolution, but be peachy keen on Aang magically getting Energybending to completely work around his "do not kill" values. In Korra's sense, the major conflict of the plot was resolved without the intervention of a third party fixing everything. Korra herself worked past her block on airbending. Aang didn't appear to her in a vision and go "lol, go punch air at Amon". While connecting with Aang and her past selves and being able to fix Amon's bloodbending can seem like a "cop out", I don't see how people can still say that TLA ended well in the same breath.

Maybe if Aang came up with Energybending himself, or maybe having a chat with the first avatar would put him more in tune with the idea of the original benders, but most people have an issue with Korra based on the fact that a third party got involved to resolve the final loose threads. Which is exactly what the Lion Turtle was.

Well the thing is, The Lion Turtle only gave Aang the MEANS. It was still Aang's job to kick Ozai's booty and take away his bending and demonstrate incredible willpower in doing so, and the rest of the finale wasn't Aang flying around and bending rainbows out of his booty to end the war single-handedly. It was realistic about the fact that the conflict was not over yet and there were additional problems to solve that would take a diplomatic, human approach, and not just glowy lightshow magic until everyone is pop flyin'.

With Korra, she gets both the means and the ends in one strike with absolutely no effort on her part. All my bendings back and I can fix all of Amon's damage with a few well-placed thumbs! Glowy lightshow magic solves EVERYTHING!

I think it's all in the storytelling, really. We can TELL Aang went through a lot, physically and emotionally, in order to get to the "eureka" moment of learning energybending and, more importantly, fighting Ozai to use it. We know what Aang went though, we know the full extent of his fears, stresses, and challenges. We could see how he changed at the psychological level and it was mirrored in his actions.

For Korra, the sum total of her fears was the fear of having her bending taken away, and her being useless as a result. She is forced to deal with it, but there is no real fight to get to that point. She was given a few minutes screen time to show that she was sad, but that was it, and at the end of it, boom resolution, with seemingly no "work" or stress involved.

I don't have a big problem with the use of the Avatar State, I think it was consistent enough with the last series. My problem lies with the use of energybending and especially the first time she used Airbending. There was so much potential in that aspect of the storyline; at first, it was acknowleged that she didn't have the right mindset for Airbending since she tried to solve all her problems aggressively. But again, we were given so little development on her training after the first few episodes about it. There was promise when she used some basic forms in her pro-bending, but after that the issue was dropped. Then, in the fight with Amon, she discovered that she has Airbending... okay, no big deal... but then instead of showing that she understands the more passive, non-violent mindset, she justs blasts him with it. There's no learning that took place for her to use it. She could've used it to evade, or to redirect, or to be creative, but no. She used the same bullheadedness as before, but there was so much potential for development.

I think the important bit is that she has it now, but she can't use it right.

They actually kinda played with the notion of having the ability to bend but not the skill to do it right in the first series. Aang learns JUST A BIT of how to control fire, but burns Katara with it because he uses it, guess what, like airbending. The only real difference is that Katara got it in a situation where any bending in any style was going to save her life.

It actually paves the way for more character development in the end. They weren't going to end a small-booty 12 episode season with a really satisfying conclusion, so they more than likely changed it a bit near the end to make for a better continuation. The finale wasn't the best ever, but now Korra has two new powers that not only does she have to learn to control on a basic level, but also to master along with herself.

The thing that bothers me the most about the cop-out ending is that they actually thought that they wouldn't get another season. Did they honestly not remember how well AtLA did?

Easy way to save the ending:
Have her get the means to restore people's bending. However, don't have it restore their prowess with it.

She can still airbend as well as she was, as well as being able to bend the other elements. But she would have to relearn the other 3 as a side effect of Amon removing them.
Same with her restoration abilities. Give them to her, and have them give back the bending that Amon took, but make it so they have to relearn it. Cheif Beifong especially would have a great arc dealing with the frustration of being the woman who once led the police as their finest metalbender struggling to move a small dirt boulder.

It's still a sort of cop out, but it's loads and bounds more interesting than the actual ending, and sets up a great dynamic for a new season.

That would make for some excellent. And in the meantime while the people try to re-learn it, they can see how non-benders live day by day without magical rock-moving powers.