cerusee: a white redheaded girl in a classroom sitting by the window chewing on a pencil and looking bored (stunning)
[personal profile] cerusee
Wow, that was awesome! I wish more of my favorite TV shows had managed to end with that much punch (and in such a timely fashion). Good call, devoting four or five times the normal length to it--it gave them the room they needed to spread out, without needing to break the show up into discrete units. Spoilery stuff under the cuts.


Stuff I liked:

--Despite the canon Zuko/Mai Katara/Aang pairings at the end, Zutara shippers--of which I am casually one; I like it in a well-written fic and enjoy the copious text and subtext supporting it in the show proper--really have nothing to complain about. Everything that makes Zutara exciting and sexy and plausible got a healthy dose of reinforcement with the dramatic, teary Zuko-Katara tag-teaming of Azula. They're all young, nobody's married or having babies or shown to be dying at an advanced age by the side of their loved one--all in all, it's a pretty fic-friendly ending. Although I doubt that was the explicit intent, I appreciate it, because it usually leads to better fanfic. :D

--Aang's spiritual journey pre-fight. It gave the show good grounding, and infused the final battle with a sense of mythology.

--Phoenix King Ozai, gettin' his butt whupped by a flying gyroscope. Hilarious, but nice.

--Zuko holding his ground against crazy Azula and only going down when he saved Katara from horrible fiery death. Nice! Katara's clever and rather spectacular strategy against crazy Azula. Nice! Toph and Sokka and Suki all being cool and kicking ass, and Sokka and Toph's scary, pathos-filled near-death experience. Nice! Happy ending while everybody visits in the Earth Kingdom: nice! By the way, ye GODS, Zuko is hot. He actually looks fantastic in those fancy green Earth Kingdom robes. Yum.

--Also, as someone who discreetly ships grown-up Toph and Zuko, I loved the early bit with Toph declaring that she should get to go search for Aang with Zuko, because everybody else got to have a life-changing field trip with Zuko, and now it was her turn. Someone's got a cruuuuuuush! Or not, depending on how you look at it. But between that and the conversation they had in The Ember Island Players, I feel I am not totally nuts in liking the idea. Remember, there's nothing in the finale to contradict it as a future event. Mwa-ha-ha-ha.


Stuff I did not so much like:

--Azula going crazy so fast--they could have built up to this better, or given her paranoia more grounding by playing up the natural court scheming and intrigue that would probably actually occur with the sudden transition of power. Still, although it was rushed and too forced, this IS where I expect Azula would have ended up in the long run (except that she'd be killing people rather than banishing them. The banishing people thing is very obviously the stand-in for execution, because this is a children's show and the content is already very intense for that). She was never just ruthless; she was always ruthless, sadistic, utterly sociopathic and manipulated people with fear, and they did drop hints here and there about her becoming outright unbalanced, as a step beyond merely mean and ambitious.

--Zuko and Iroh's tearful reunion lacked zazz. I blame the overall lack of Iroh on the unfortunate absence of Mako--I suppose we should be glad they didn't kill off Iroh outright when Mako passed away, but I can't help but feel that he was originally intended to have a bigger part in this season and in the finale, and it showed. Also, where was Iroh at Zuko's coronation? It does not ring true that Iroh would be absent, even if he was making a point of not damaging the credibility of Zuko's claim to the throne.

--WHERE IS ZUKO'S MOM? For the love of god, how could they have Zuko ask that question of his father right before the end and not tell us the answer? Is this going to be addressed in a sequel or something? Is there going to be a sequel? Not touching on it at all, I could kinda see--it would just remain one of the disturbing mysteries of the second season, gnawing at you with the dark possibilities--but to have Zuko ask and then not tell us the answer? Boo.

on 2008-07-26 12:25 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] mikkeneko.livejournal.com
The banishing people thing is very obviously the stand-in for execution, because this is a children's show and the content is already very intense for that

I always figured that the banishing people thing would only be done for the first day of her coronation. After that, off with their heads. :D Assuming there was anyone left in the palace by that point at all.

September 2012

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23 242526272829
30      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 12:33 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios