Thoughts on season finales: Avatar and Doctor Who
Two completely unrelated shows that I happened to catch up on recently: (spoilers, obviously)
Avatar
I only started watching the series earlier this year on much recommendation, and the finale didn't contain anything you couldn't have predicted, but it did the job as decently as it needed to. My favourite part of the series is going to remain season two (right up to the last episode or so which included one too many "I'm sorry, WHAT?" moments to hang together as well as I could have hoped), and sadly the series never quite made it back to that high again. Still, I remain very impressed by the animation quality, the amount of thought they put into the feel and philosophy behind each bending style and most of the overall storytelling, and I'd be hard pressed to come up with a series that does a better job of making the gender of the various characters more completely irrelevant to how much arse they are deemed qualified to kick. If more cartoon makers learned from this example, American children's TV would be a less miserable place.
That said, if I never have to see an extended scene of a twelve-year-old boy making out with a fourteen-year-old girl again, my life will be happier for it. Possibly this makes me mildly hypocritical, given I'm perfectly happy to ship the CCS-verse Sakura/Syaoran or Kodocha's Sana/Hayama to bits, but somehow... no, there is a difference. Firstly, no age gap. Secondly, no snogging, and what there was in what I've seen of Kodacha remained safely in the 'uncomfortable, for the LOLs, and/or fast enough not to seem so important' category, while Sakura/Syaoran were very much just 'most important person' to each other in the fluffiest, most harmless manner imaginable. Thirdly, neither member of the pairing has such an incredibly strong motherly or older sisterly vibe with the other one. Any pairing with anything approaching a parent/child or mentor/student theme to it is a hard sell to me at the best of times, if not an outright insta-squick, and that's even when one of the members isn't a pre-teen.
If Katara/Aang had been left as a one-sided crush with hints it might grow into something more in the future when they're old enough that a two-year age gap means nothing to anyone, I would've had no problem with it. I just could've really done without all that kissing, kthx.
Otherwise, the point still stands - other western cartoon-makers could learn a lot from a series like Avatar.
Doctor Who
In short: it was fantastic! But if they do not find a way to give Donna all her memories back within a season or two (and, for preference, reunite her with her tall, handsome stuttering guy from the library episodes), I am going to be a sadder fangirl. After what they just did with Rose, they have a whole heap of precedent to live up to here!
Every Doctor Who finale for the last three years running has been so full of epic wow that I come out of it secretly hoping they don't try to top it next season, because I cannot picture how it's going to be possible. Back in '06 it was Daleks versus Cybermen, which was an automatic geek-out moment, then in '07 we got the Master and traveling to the end of the universe and back again, which was even more of an emotional roller coaster if anything, so news that this year's finale was going to be just as big if not bigger had me a little worried. I couldn't think what they could possibly have left for this one.
This is because it had not occurred to me just how many extra companions Doctor Who and its assorted spinoffs have accumulated since the beginning of its new run. Nor had I realised quite how awesome the giant TARDIS orgy family gathering at the end could possibly be. It was the sort of moment that will make the whole episode even if there's nothing much else going for it - which, not incidently, there was.
And those Doctor-Donna scenes? Did not go on long enough! I loved Rose and I loved Martha, but I think this season has made Donna my favourite companion yet, and those scenes found a way to make her even more awesome. The whole finale was packed with moments like that - completely gratuitous perhaps, but no less fun for it. Doctor Who will always be, at heart, a cheesy sort of show where a bit of technobabble can be used to create a spontaneous Doctor clone at a moment's notice or whatever else they've decided they need, but it's the best kind of cheese there is.
If R.T.Davies is leaving after this, he has gone out on a high.
I could've done without the Daleks this time though. I mean, I love the Daleks, but we had them in season one and again in season two, and in that seriously uninspired episode in season three, so this time it was just a bit, "what, Daleks again?" For which matter, there wasn't much in the finale that couldn't have worked just as well with a different villain in place.
And they damn well better find an excuse to bring Donna back!
One final note that actually applies to both finales: in character though it was for both parties, I do sometimes get a bit tired of the angst over how immoral it is to kill someone (or multiple someones) who is, without a sliver of doubt, a remorseless mass-murderer and will undoubtably go on doing his remorseless mass-murder thing if left to his own devices. Perhaps especially where events keep having to be organised so that the villain is conveniently taken out by falling off a cliff or something, leaving the hero free from blame. It's just a little too easy to sympathise with a Doctor-clone who's willing to press the 'exterminate Daleks' button as opposed to the one who would have rather let them live despite knowing perfectly well some other race is only going to get it instead if they're not taken care of. It's also awfully hard to feel Aang's new access to the 'ban bending' pressure point was so very important when much the same result could have been achieved by disabling the guy and chaining him up for the rest of his life (which is exactly what they did to both him and Azula in the end), and yet no-one else even bothers to suggest that option to Aang earlier on.
My favourite scene from the Avatar finale, without a doubt, was in the second part when Aang's asking all the previous Avatar's for advice about how to deal with the Fire Lord (The unanimous answer, ultimately ignored though it was: No, seriously, just kill the dude and get it over with!), and gets to Avatar Kiyoshi along the way:
Aang: But you didn't really kill [the evil conquering overlord she was fighting]. Technically he fell to his own doom because he was too stubborn to get out of the way.
Kiyoshi: Personally I don't really see the difference.
Considering she did personally create that cliff he fell off practically right under his feet and made it perfectly clear she would've finished the job some other way if it became necessary, she has a point there. I can only wish more heroes could see it her way.
Avatar
I only started watching the series earlier this year on much recommendation, and the finale didn't contain anything you couldn't have predicted, but it did the job as decently as it needed to. My favourite part of the series is going to remain season two (right up to the last episode or so which included one too many "I'm sorry, WHAT?" moments to hang together as well as I could have hoped), and sadly the series never quite made it back to that high again. Still, I remain very impressed by the animation quality, the amount of thought they put into the feel and philosophy behind each bending style and most of the overall storytelling, and I'd be hard pressed to come up with a series that does a better job of making the gender of the various characters more completely irrelevant to how much arse they are deemed qualified to kick. If more cartoon makers learned from this example, American children's TV would be a less miserable place.
That said, if I never have to see an extended scene of a twelve-year-old boy making out with a fourteen-year-old girl again, my life will be happier for it. Possibly this makes me mildly hypocritical, given I'm perfectly happy to ship the CCS-verse Sakura/Syaoran or Kodocha's Sana/Hayama to bits, but somehow... no, there is a difference. Firstly, no age gap. Secondly, no snogging, and what there was in what I've seen of Kodacha remained safely in the 'uncomfortable, for the LOLs, and/or fast enough not to seem so important' category, while Sakura/Syaoran were very much just 'most important person' to each other in the fluffiest, most harmless manner imaginable. Thirdly, neither member of the pairing has such an incredibly strong motherly or older sisterly vibe with the other one. Any pairing with anything approaching a parent/child or mentor/student theme to it is a hard sell to me at the best of times, if not an outright insta-squick, and that's even when one of the members isn't a pre-teen.
If Katara/Aang had been left as a one-sided crush with hints it might grow into something more in the future when they're old enough that a two-year age gap means nothing to anyone, I would've had no problem with it. I just could've really done without all that kissing, kthx.
Otherwise, the point still stands - other western cartoon-makers could learn a lot from a series like Avatar.
Doctor Who
In short: it was fantastic! But if they do not find a way to give Donna all her memories back within a season or two (and, for preference, reunite her with her tall, handsome stuttering guy from the library episodes), I am going to be a sadder fangirl. After what they just did with Rose, they have a whole heap of precedent to live up to here!
Every Doctor Who finale for the last three years running has been so full of epic wow that I come out of it secretly hoping they don't try to top it next season, because I cannot picture how it's going to be possible. Back in '06 it was Daleks versus Cybermen, which was an automatic geek-out moment, then in '07 we got the Master and traveling to the end of the universe and back again, which was even more of an emotional roller coaster if anything, so news that this year's finale was going to be just as big if not bigger had me a little worried. I couldn't think what they could possibly have left for this one.
This is because it had not occurred to me just how many extra companions Doctor Who and its assorted spinoffs have accumulated since the beginning of its new run. Nor had I realised quite how awesome the giant TARDIS orgy family gathering at the end could possibly be. It was the sort of moment that will make the whole episode even if there's nothing much else going for it - which, not incidently, there was.
And those Doctor-Donna scenes? Did not go on long enough! I loved Rose and I loved Martha, but I think this season has made Donna my favourite companion yet, and those scenes found a way to make her even more awesome. The whole finale was packed with moments like that - completely gratuitous perhaps, but no less fun for it. Doctor Who will always be, at heart, a cheesy sort of show where a bit of technobabble can be used to create a spontaneous Doctor clone at a moment's notice or whatever else they've decided they need, but it's the best kind of cheese there is.
If R.T.Davies is leaving after this, he has gone out on a high.
I could've done without the Daleks this time though. I mean, I love the Daleks, but we had them in season one and again in season two, and in that seriously uninspired episode in season three, so this time it was just a bit, "what, Daleks again?" For which matter, there wasn't much in the finale that couldn't have worked just as well with a different villain in place.
And they damn well better find an excuse to bring Donna back!
One final note that actually applies to both finales: in character though it was for both parties, I do sometimes get a bit tired of the angst over how immoral it is to kill someone (or multiple someones) who is, without a sliver of doubt, a remorseless mass-murderer and will undoubtably go on doing his remorseless mass-murder thing if left to his own devices. Perhaps especially where events keep having to be organised so that the villain is conveniently taken out by falling off a cliff or something, leaving the hero free from blame. It's just a little too easy to sympathise with a Doctor-clone who's willing to press the 'exterminate Daleks' button as opposed to the one who would have rather let them live despite knowing perfectly well some other race is only going to get it instead if they're not taken care of. It's also awfully hard to feel Aang's new access to the 'ban bending' pressure point was so very important when much the same result could have been achieved by disabling the guy and chaining him up for the rest of his life (which is exactly what they did to both him and Azula in the end), and yet no-one else even bothers to suggest that option to Aang earlier on.
My favourite scene from the Avatar finale, without a doubt, was in the second part when Aang's asking all the previous Avatar's for advice about how to deal with the Fire Lord (The unanimous answer, ultimately ignored though it was: No, seriously, just kill the dude and get it over with!), and gets to Avatar Kiyoshi along the way:
Aang: But you didn't really kill [the evil conquering overlord she was fighting]. Technically he fell to his own doom because he was too stubborn to get out of the way.
Kiyoshi: Personally I don't really see the difference.
Considering she did personally create that cliff he fell off practically right under his feet and made it perfectly clear she would've finished the job some other way if it became necessary, she has a point there. I can only wish more heroes could see it her way.