(no subject)
So I guess about a year after it actually premiered, I finally watched the end of Avatar. My (incredibly late and irrelevant) thoughts after the cut.
I was pretty underwhelmed, really. I'll start off with the things I didn't like.
-The fight scenes are, oddly enough, the weakest part. I praised Avatar early on for having great, consistent fight scenes that were like martial arts fights where people could augment their attacks with the elements. Well, the fight scenes in the finally toss all that out the window. It's like they tried their damnedest to make the fight scenes as different and ridiculous as possible. Instead of great martial arts battles, we get wacky superpower fights. You've got the Fire Lord zooming around like he's a fucking jet airplane and Aang turning into a ball of elemental doom that tosses him around like a rag doll yet never actually injures him. As I was watching the battle, I just kept thinking "This is fucking stupid" while the Fire Lord was flying around with fire shooting out of his feet and Aang was chasing him.
-The old guy teamup that I'd waited so long for was pretty cool, but their scenes also sort of devolved into wacky superpower fights. Restraint got tossed out the window and we've got Bumi literally moving entire buildings with ease, Pakku creating tsunamis, and Jeong-Jeong flying around and nuking everything. If benders can do this kind of bullshit, why even bother with the martial arts aspects? Every fight should devolve into DBZ-esque "who can shoot the bigger blast of x element" contests (which is literally what happens for half the Zuko vs. Azula fight). This kind of stuff would seem okay in a superhero show, but not one that has had carefully thought-out and beautiful fights in the past.
-Spirit bending is a fucking atrocity. Rather than forcing the main character to make a difficult moral decision, we get a deus ex machina that we've never heard of before that scene that solves everything. Aang literally sprouts a new power on the spot that has never been alluded to in the past.
Now, for things I liked:
-Azula's descent into madness was pretty chilling. I only wish it'd been given more time instead of her going absolutely bugfuck nuts in a single episode. Still, the scene where she talks to her mother in the mirror is great.
-One of the scenes that impressed me the most actually had nothing to do with the main characters. It's the scene where Sokka gets all the soldiers on the airship to congregate in the bomb bay, and two of them start making small talk. It almost reminded me of the Monarch's henchman in Venture Bros. It's a pretty great comedic moment.
-Mark Hamill is, as always, a great villain. He sounds a bit too much like the Joker at times, though. All he needed to do was laugh maniacally. Also, lol at that supervillain costume Ozai was wearing.
All in all, it's okay, but it will not go down as one of my favorite finales of all time.
I was pretty underwhelmed, really. I'll start off with the things I didn't like.
-The fight scenes are, oddly enough, the weakest part. I praised Avatar early on for having great, consistent fight scenes that were like martial arts fights where people could augment their attacks with the elements. Well, the fight scenes in the finally toss all that out the window. It's like they tried their damnedest to make the fight scenes as different and ridiculous as possible. Instead of great martial arts battles, we get wacky superpower fights. You've got the Fire Lord zooming around like he's a fucking jet airplane and Aang turning into a ball of elemental doom that tosses him around like a rag doll yet never actually injures him. As I was watching the battle, I just kept thinking "This is fucking stupid" while the Fire Lord was flying around with fire shooting out of his feet and Aang was chasing him.
-The old guy teamup that I'd waited so long for was pretty cool, but their scenes also sort of devolved into wacky superpower fights. Restraint got tossed out the window and we've got Bumi literally moving entire buildings with ease, Pakku creating tsunamis, and Jeong-Jeong flying around and nuking everything. If benders can do this kind of bullshit, why even bother with the martial arts aspects? Every fight should devolve into DBZ-esque "who can shoot the bigger blast of x element" contests (which is literally what happens for half the Zuko vs. Azula fight). This kind of stuff would seem okay in a superhero show, but not one that has had carefully thought-out and beautiful fights in the past.
-Spirit bending is a fucking atrocity. Rather than forcing the main character to make a difficult moral decision, we get a deus ex machina that we've never heard of before that scene that solves everything. Aang literally sprouts a new power on the spot that has never been alluded to in the past.
Now, for things I liked:
-Azula's descent into madness was pretty chilling. I only wish it'd been given more time instead of her going absolutely bugfuck nuts in a single episode. Still, the scene where she talks to her mother in the mirror is great.
-One of the scenes that impressed me the most actually had nothing to do with the main characters. It's the scene where Sokka gets all the soldiers on the airship to congregate in the bomb bay, and two of them start making small talk. It almost reminded me of the Monarch's henchman in Venture Bros. It's a pretty great comedic moment.
-Mark Hamill is, as always, a great villain. He sounds a bit too much like the Joker at times, though. All he needed to do was laugh maniacally. Also, lol at that supervillain costume Ozai was wearing.
All in all, it's okay, but it will not go down as one of my favorite finales of all time.