Wow, I can't believe the highest rated episode ended up being one of the worst of the season. This season hasn't been that good, but I didn't expect it to become this bad. The first 4 episodes were really solid and I was digging the show. Then came episode 5 which was absolutely awful. Thankfully, the show made up for it with the best episode, "and the winner is." The reason I really liked it is because the equalists actually posed a threat and there were real stakes. And that's the problem with the second half of the season. The stakes have absolutely vanished, and it's not exciting anymore. Amon went from a mysterious and intimidating villain to not being threatening at all. However, despite all these problems, I was still enjoying the show. And then the finale happened...
Oh my god this episode has so many problems that I can't even count them. First of all, Naga breaking the secondary characters out of prison. Come on, how many conveniences can this show have? How come both times they have been thrown in prison, someone just gets them out immediately? This just completely reduces the stakes, and it makes them being in prison completely pointless. I would be fine with them escaping if they had to use their wits to get out, but instead their escape feels totally unearned.
Next we have korra's "plan" to expose Amon. Now, I actually liked the twist that Amon is a bloodbender and he's tarrlok's brother, however it's what they do with the twist that I'm disappointed with. For some reason, we are expected to believe that korra exposing Amon as a bender will make everyone join her side. This is just silly. The equalists are fighting for a cause they believe is right. It shouldn't matter if the leader happens to be a bender himself, even though they are anti-bending. Who the leader is shouldn't determine their whole ideology, and it will certainly not make Amon's supporters side with Korra. When that guy said "the avatar was telling the truth!" I cringed so hard. As if that makes Amon's ideology any less correct.
When Amon had Tenzin and the kids held captive I was starting to get interested. I was wondering how Korra would get out of this situation and save them. Would she have to sacrifice herself? Would there be an emotional moment? Nope! She just fights her way out and frees Tenzin and the others. This part was so baffling that I almost couldn't believe it. Korra is literally in a room full of Amon and his supporters and she is somehow able to free her friends and escape. This was just way too easy, everything went perfectly.
Asami fights her dad, but she is such an underdeveloped character that I couldn't care less about her relationship with her father. The emotional impact was just nonexistent. The awful CGI robots just made it even worse.
Then we get the fight between Korra and Mako vs Amon. This was definitely Amon at his most intimidating, I'll admit his bloodbending was pretty cool. If only his defeat wasn't so lame. Korra's bending is taken away, which was unexpected and cool in the moment, but was ultimately pointless. Somehow she is suddenly able to airbend? Like this was given no explanation at all and we're expected to think this is "cool." It's not epic, or cool, it's lazy. The writers needed a way to "surprise" us after making us think that korra had lost. At this point Amon does the smart thing and decides to leave. Yeah man, I would leave too after seeing how much plot armor Korra has lol. Here's my question though. What happened to all of Amon's supporters? Are we really expected to believe they would all join Korra's side? Like we're supposed to think Amon has lost, but he really hasn't. All Korra can do now is airbend, so can Amon just, I don't know, bloodbend her again? He's clearly more powerful than her, so idk why he tells Tarrlok he "lost the fight."
Amon leaving with Tarrlok was kind of cool I guess, and while Tarrlok killing himself and Amon was shocking, it doesn't really make sense why he did it. Why couldn't he have just lived a new life with his brother? I feel like an idiot for not knowing Tarrlok's motivation at all, but I'm blaming the writers for not giving him enough development.
Then we get to arguably the worst part of the episode. Korra's bending is unable to be restored, which is supposed to be sad for some reason? Am I the only one who would've loved season 2 to be Korra airbending the whole time? It would've given a new spin to her character, and plus she wouldn't be as overpowered anymore. I guess since this series is called "avatar" it wouldn't make sense for the protagonist to only have one element, but idk I think it could've been cool... Instead we get one of the dumbest scenes in the whole show. Aang appears for some reason and restores Korra's bending just like that. This moment was clearly fanservice trying to disguise the laughable writing. Isn't Korra supposed to be challenged as the avatar like Aang was? How come she doesn't face any consequences for her failures? She just earns her powers back after like 5 minutes, wow she has learned and grown so much!!! It's even worse cause there was sad music playing earlier when we were supposed to think she had permanently lost her powers.
Then Korra and Mako confess their love for each other which was just weird rather than sweet. Isn't Mako in a relationship with Asami? Why are we supposed to be cheering in this moment? It sucks cause Asami was being really jealous earlier, but this scene proves her right. I don't know man... I hope this strange love triangle gets fixed next season.
Finally, we get to by far the worst part of the episode. Korra is able to bring back everyone's powers just like that! This is so unbelievably stupid. So this huge supposed "threat" of Amon actually all meant nothing. If people are just able to bring back bending, why was Amon led on to some powerful threatening villain? The fact that Korra can undo all of the villain's actions just makes this whole season feel pointless. All of those goofy and melodramatic scenes where horror music played as people's bending were taken away is all for nothing. Nothing scary about that, writers! And yet you played horror music in all these scenes, acting like having your bending taken away is worse than death. The lack of self-awareness makes me think that these writers genuinely think Amon's ideology is evil, and that we were supposed to disagree with all of his beliefs. The truth is, Amon had a point. If they had explored the differing viewpoints of pro-bending vs anti-bending with more nuance, instead of painting it as black and white, this season would've been so much better. The equalists' ideology is by far the most interesting aspect of the show, and I wish we had more of this social commentary. Nope, instead Amon is reduced to an EBIL bad guy! He can bloodbend! He so ebil! And yet he's not even threatening at all... reduced to a joke of a villain. In fact, this entire episode is a joke. I would give it a 3 but at least I was entertained. Plus the guy who voices zuko swinging on the statue on Aang was extremely badass. Unironically the best scene of the episode. This was just such a bad finale, it took absolutely zero risks and played everything safe. I'll give it a 4/10, I hope season 2 is better...
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