A few thoughts on Avatar...

[gargoylekitty]

So, if you haven't guessed it yet, Azula is my favorite character. Why? Well, I like the crazy badasses. Demona, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Shego(not really crazy but definately badass), so on and so forth. The runner-ups would have to be Toph and Ty Lee. Toph because she's just made of win. Short blind little kid who can not only take out whole battlilions but is also creates her own type of bending. Ty Lee because she's just plain fun. Nothing can really seem to get her down and despite her naive nature she's a completely fierce fighter. From there I'd probably place Suki, Iroh, Jun, Aang and a few others on the same level with Katara and Zuko on the lower teir. I swear it doesn't have anything to do with them being the ones to take Azula down either, which I will get to in a moment, but more that they just come across as boring to me. While the Emerald Island Players seemed overdone in their portrayals of the characters, they nailed how I see Katara and Zuko. One's all 'baaaaawww, feelings' and the other is all 'baaaawww, honor!' with little room for much else. 

Now, about the finale...

It was okay though I honestly didn't care for it. No, it's not that Azula went crazy and lost. You know from nearly the moment you meet Azula that she's already a bit nuts and it wouldn't take much to do her in, surprising how it was getting what she wanted that did it, so I don't have a problem with that. It's more the lack of closure. Aang stops the firelord without killing him, no surprise, and he gets locked away. Everyone's happy and the world is on it's way to being put back together. Yet the last we see of Azula is her breakdown and defeat. Her freaking out, bound and crying. What happens to her? Is she locked away? Seeing as her insanity is a clear product of her upbringing is there any possible help for her? Or does her apparent loyalty to her father automatically condemn her? It makes me sad to think of the follow up to her breakdown is being locked in a dark and dingy cell for the rest of time making any hope of her ever functioning properly impossible.
 
And what about Ty Lee? Despite Boiling Rock I think they could still be friends. She just doesn't seem one to completely abandon a friend in need, her stopping Azula to save Mai being proof enough of that. Sure, she has a new group to be apart of though I don't see her leaving behind someone she's known most her life because of it. Although I admit this part of my rant might just be sparked by my like of Tyzula speaking. Such a cute pairing.

Though it's not just the lack of follow up on Azula that left me cold to the ending. A few of my more minor issues include Zuko's inquiring of his father. 'Where's my mother?!' and then it cuts off completely. Next scene with Zuko has no mention of this being answered and he's pretty happy. Wtf. Why even include that? I also have to say I hate ending it on a kiss with happy feelings all around. The cliche has me facepalming hard. Ugh. The final battle was also horrible. While the art was brilliant in the fight between Azula, Zuko, and Katara, the main battle with Aang and Ozai was lacking. It had a horribly plain feeling to it and the darker lines used on Aang shortly before and while in the avatar state were a bad choice. I understand trying to visually make this scrawny kid seem more powerful is hard though thickening of the lines and simplifying some of the visuals takes away from it. Did we also need the whole 'rings of each of the elements' circling Aang in the end? The whole 'master of four element's thing wasn't pressed enough that we need to see it? Blah.

Oh well, can't win them all and in all honesty the majority of the show more than makes up for the ending. The animation is brilliantly done with the artists actually studying martial artists to develop the different styles of bending and with no cut corners. The story is fairly solid doing a good job of creating it's own world complete with history, tradition, and lore. The characters are varied and with more than enough slash possibilities to make the fandom happy. A+ work. 

So why the hell do I always seem to get interested in these things towards or after the end of it all? Sure it means I can watch it all in a short period of time, which I did, though it also means people are more over talking about it. Oh well, at least with this it didn't end too horrifically long ago and there's still a movie coming up to keep the spark running.