Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 3, Episode 18

[hymnia]

I’m finally on the home stretch, with the first part of the four-part finale. Yay!

Comments

caught by the sound of her own name ...

[angua9]

This is a very interesting/insightful discussion of the Avatar finale. I wasn't familiar with all those tidbits from the commentary (or maybe I forgot them, not sure).

Of course I followed your link and read all the discussion on my own post, and of course it made me think of the series I've read/watched/loved since then and whether they have an overarching theme. I seem to have returned to my original stance of Theme is Hard because I'm having difficulty with it, or maybe I'm just lazier now than I was three years ago

Re: caught by the sound of her own name ...

[hymnia]

But Korra, that one bothers me a lot. Do you know what its theme is?

I'm probably not the best person to ask, since I was pretty disappointed in it. I love the first three episodes or so, but the show started to gradually go downhill for me, and by the time we got to the climax, I was feeling very meh about it. (Although I'm still hopeful that later seasons will improve!) Anyway, that probably affects my ability to pick out the theme. I can't resist at least trying, though! I've cataloged in my mind the elements that might indicate what the theme is:

• Korra's problem with airbending and the spiritual side of being the Avatar
  
• The bender vs. non-bender division in Republic City and similar issues of privilege/status (think Mako and Bolin's backstory vs. Asami’s)
  
• Asami's conflict with her father
  
• Korra’s early conflicts with Lin and Tenzin
  
• The love quandrangle
  
• What it means for a character to lose their bending
  
• Tarlock and Amon's history/mistakes (I think a lot of times you can pick out a pretty good idea of the theme by looking at what