I was reading that Korra had become a fully realized avatar because she entered the avatar state. Which is bull cause Aang's been entering the avatar state since what the second episode.

I agree with Iroh's va not working. It was actually distracting during the episode cause it didn't feel like Zuko's voice should have been coming out of his mouth. Dante should have adjusted his voice to make it sound a bit older.

Ah I see. True. If they start off season2 with her mastering airbeding and the avatar state at will, it will be 'cheap'. I do hope they either do some time skip of a a couple of years or they show her over a few eps trying to master both. The way this season ended, it felt very much like it was to be a series finale with how she seemed to master the avatar state.

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Okay, firstly I stopped posting on TV.com months ago, so this is are-introductorypost for me (not like anyone cares but meh). I did not start posting again to bash Korra, cause I will be in a few, I'm back because there is a new Teen Titans so coming out and I want to express my thoughts on that (which will be a thousand times more negative) but I just saw the finale because I was watching it On Demand so I figured I'd post my thoughts. Now, I don't hate the show, in fact up until "Skeletons In The Closest", I liked it better than the first series or at least was on the fence about which I liked better. There was so much good with this show, and though it did have some problems, it wasn't anything I couldn't ignore. I remember watching "Turning The Tides" and telling my brother during it "Can you believe we still have two more left" because of how awesome and epic it was. Lin was unbelievably awesome, that was just a fantastic episode but for me everything came done at the hour finale. Just setting up that I don't actually hate the show. Now for anyone who reads this, because it will be a long read so I doubt it, feel to debate me, because I don't mind that. Also, I won't be putting in my opinion in the following paragraphs because it's obvious that this is just my opinion. I'm just going to be going until a lot of detail to why I feel he why I do.

One of my biggest problems . . . Amon. They butchered Amon, and I'm not just talking about the fact that he turned out to be a bender or even Tarrlok's brother. With the later, that doesn't really matter to me though I don't love, and with the former I didn't like that idea but I was definitely aware that it could happen. So, I was surprised, I was more disappointed. To me, that and his backstory, that was enough to ruin a percent of his awesomeness and his main appeal. Now the backstory, I could of liked it I suppose if they told it better (hate the name though, but that's not important enough to mention in non-parenthesis). I mean, let'sgo back to A:TLA, remember Zuko Alone? In that episode, we weren't told inblatantexposition about all that, we saw the scenes of it, we saw the characters actually interact and talk to each other, we got to see the development that came from that story because we didn't have Zuko sum it up, we got to invest into the story because we saw it. They could've done the same thing here, but instead they just had Tarrlok tell us everything, and very rarely did they even have the characters, like Amon talk, and really show the difference or development that the training had on him. I mean I don't particularly care for the backstory as is, but the way the presented it didn't allow me to feel any investment into it, it didn't actually present me with natural character development that reasonably presents asatisfyingexplanation to why Amon is the way he is. Sure, Tarrlok told us why but is that's really a good way to have it go by? Let's look back at another A:TLA episode, The Storm. the stories were done closer to the style of this one, having people explain the story but it was done much better here because it still allowed us to feel some natural development due to having those story tellers as either explanation of what the flashback was showing us or setting up the small-medium length snippet of the past we were about to say and for the fact of it building off stuff discussed in previous installments (Zuko's entire reason for wanting to capture the avatar, his scar, Monk Gyatso, etc.). Those were done well and allowed me to actual invest and easily understand the characters motives just from actually watching. As another side note to the backstory, I can't be the only one who felt the revelation that Tarrlok and Amon are brother was at least a bit contrived? I mean yeah, besides the disappointment that the next works out of Tarrlok's words were going to be Amon is a bender, I immediately thought to how in Out Of The Past Aang's message wasn't just concerning Tarrlok but that doesn't really help all too much. It still felt contrived to me, but to be fair, I guess there wasn't a whole lot more they could've done to avoid that reaction from me.

But I'm not done here, I want to ask, why did we need to learn about Amon in the first place? Like really, he debuted as an enigmaand I don't see what's wrong with keeping him that way. It's not like the Avatar series hasn't left us with unanswered questions, heck they don't really give a concrete reason to why Tarrlok and Amon can blood bend without a full moon in the first place. Yeah yeah, there dad can but then the next question is obviously "Well, how can Zukone blood bend without a full moon?" and they never bother to answer that. And if your thought at this point is something along the lines of "They don't have to" then you can at least see my point about Amon. If it was your thought was instead something along the lines of "Don't know but it ticks me off" you'll probably won't get my point about Amon. If your thought was "Um, just because the Full Moon isn't visible doesn't mean it isn't there, so I'll take a risk and say that's probably a big factor to the how" then well, I guess respect. Well, I got off topic there, but my point is I don't see how it would've hurt Amon if his backstory wasn't revealed. We obviously don't have to buy into the spirit thing, considering cases like Combustion Man, I wouldn't of had any trouble believing that Amon was doing something with chi-blocking. I wouldn't of even minded if we never saw his face. The thing is, sometimes characters being enigma's work. Like in Teen Titans, Red X is on of the series most popular character, and that's definitely in part due to the lack of knowledge we actually know about him. We don't even know who he is besides Red X (Well, some fans will tell you Jason Todd) and I could see the same thing working with Amon. And if you weren't a fan of the comics, Slade could count as another positive example of staying an enigma, at least he was for me (though I'm familiar with the comics now). Now, that's not to say adding a backstory is a bad idea, I'm just stating I don't see the reason why we needed to have one and that I wouldn't of minded him just staying more of a mystery.

Anyway, about Amon being a bender, I was never too fond of that idea. I was aware that they might do it, but I preferred they didn't. He quickly became my favorite villain in Avatar history and a big part of that was because he wasn't a bender. It was so refreshing and it made him being the leader of the Equalists more genuine (though that's because of a problem I'll get to in a bit) and brought up a lot of good posts. However, the way he actually turned out to be, ruined thegenuinenessof it, and part of what made his character so awesome. What I mean is, it ruined a lot of the points he had, because he did have quite a bit of legitimate points, because he just turned out to be a hypocrite. Now, if he was only using bending to de-bend people, that would be a different story but that's obviously not the case. I will say the idea of him subtly blood-bending people to change their aim to miss him is actually a pretty cool idea (I'm not sure it's outright confirmed he did that though) but it still makes him a hypocrite. It's like that Pokemon game Nerd Alert talked about. How the bad guy actually had a lot of legitimate points about Pokemon Trainers and the Pokemon's rights; so they had him do random acts of evil to remind people he's evil (kicking a Pokemon was the example they gave). That's what it felt like to me anyway, and it's definitely something they didn't need to do. My point here, is that while I wasn't fond of the idea of Amon being a bender, had they done it differently, it could've been awesome. The character still could've retained most of those characteristics that made him so interesting, at least the whole Equalist portion. And blood bending being able to de-bend does make sense. But with him they bombed big time.

In a slightpositivenote, I don't see any problem with how people discovered he was a bender. As someone who almost drown, you don't really think things through, you just want to live. However, as a final note on Amon, I do think the fact that the scar was just paint is incredibly lame and devalues his awesomeness a bit as well. Which reminds me, Korra and Mako's plan to reveal Amon's origins was freakin' stupid. Like really, to the Equalist, the Avatar is the symbol of all that's wrong with the world, and Amon is the solution . . . why did she think they'd believe her? See had absolutely no evidence to provide, did she really expect them to just take her word for it?Also, had did Amon capture Tenzin's & his family? I mean, that's a total plot hole, they obviously escaped, no way around it. Sorry but just having Korra lampshade it doesn't make it acceptable.

As for other problems, and yes, it wasn't just Amon. The relationship drama was terrible. I really just didn't buy into it, but then again, I was never a Korra/Mako shipper so that didn't help. I really can't go into to many details, it just didn't really work for me, didn't click, felt a bit unnatural, it just didn't work. Oh, and the way Mako treat Asami, and this isn't really just relegated to the finale, was just bad. As was that whole relationship, it was so underdeveloped. Speaking of underdeveloped, Iroh definitely was. The dude was awesome, but they didn't really feature him enough to really have a character. Granted, it was odd enough to hear Zuko, I mean would it of killed him to change it up a bit? Actually the same voice, while a bit distracting, isn't really a complaint for me because it's a great voice and it was nice to hear.

Finally though, perhaps my biggest problem was the ending. It was felt rushed, contrived, and really ended in a manner that doesn't entice me to watch the next season. I really can't say I care about what happen next since pretty much everything was resolved, most of them resolved poorly and rushed too. This isn't to say I won't watch next season, and don't worry, I doubt I'll be on here again to play negative nelly (although once again, I loved the first ten). But seriously, Aang just shows up and pretty much fixes all the damage Amon's done (via giving Korra the power to give everyone their bending back)? Lame.So no, I didn't like the final two episodes.

However, now I'll be discussing what I did like about the finale. That's right, there are positives, I didn't hate the thing completely. So this paragraph will be dedicated to the good stuff. As I stated previously, Iroh was awesome, so his action scenes were a pleasure to watch, albeit not as good as in previous episodes. Bolin was in top form in the finale, loved his line about Korra finally learning air bending. When Korra did learn air bending, was a decent moment. It would've moresatisfyingif they focused on her training for more than just the first two episodes, but I did enjoy it just because it made perfect sense that she would be able to air bend even though Amon took her bending (since she couldn't do it before). In a way though, it's also a negative since it was something they should of developed, but eh, I've complained enough. Mako had one of the most awesome moments in the entire series when he zapped Amon. Even though at this point I stopped caring about Mako (that happened in Out Of The Past), he still manage to impress me and really get me excited in the finale again. That was a really cool moment. Naga was made of epic in the finale. Finally, the last scene with Amon and Tarrlok. Now, for all the bashing I did concerning Amon's character, that scene was incredible. It doesn't necessarily make up but it did calm my angry down. The reason I love that scene doesn't really have to do with Amon anyway, it's because of Tarrlok. That was a perfect send-off for the character, and having Amon shed a tear was actually a great touch. It didn't touch me but I totally get why it would of.

Okay, I've ranted for long enough . . .

Hey everybody!

Like BundyX75 I have a rather extensive opinion on the season's final.

The good news is: I put it in video form...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWT-aguEOI