I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, but the way energybending was introduced, and the very existence of energybending completely ruins the bending system, so I had to make a video about it
@JoelMcCary nah. He tossed people off a cliff and sent an avalanche. Sure they didn't die. But they definitely aren't living well. It's either that or put him in a prison like Iroh or the boiling rock
@@xJayhawkFANxidk man there’s a bunch of lion turtle stuff sprinkled in the series. Off my head I can remember the lion turtle statues at piandao’s estate but there are several more throughout the show
The thing that pisses me off the most about the finale is that Appa was able to fly from Ember Island across the near entireties of the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom to Ba Sing Se in one day including a side quest to find June, when in season 1 it took Appa a whole day just to cross the channel between the two coasts. And then the next morning a lizard is able to run and swim across the entire globe to the fire nation capital in a few hours. The grand sense of scale of the world that had been established in the first 2 seasons was reduced to feeling like sprinting across a video game map for a final boss mission lol. I know, very insignificant detail, but that’s the hill I’m dying on
Agree. That bothered me the most too. Like the journey to find the other water tribe took several weeks to fly and was basically the plot throughout the first season. Thats the scale of the world.
Agree. I know that part of the reason for why the Gaang's journey across the world in earlier seasons was that they were essentially sightseeing and exploring instead of just making a beeline, but it does still diminish the scale of their world in how fast certain distances were able to be crossed. Like if I do a road trip from LA to NYC, it would take significantly less time if I only stopped for gas, meals, and hotel stays at night than if I also stopped to visit national parks, museums, theme parks, or other various tourist attractions along the way. But even then, a certain time frame would still be impossible. Like, even if I only wanted to cross the distance and I didn't give a crap about visiting anything else in between, and I just laser focused on getting from one point to to the other, I still couldn't complete the trip in say, just a couple of hours, unless I broke the sound barrier with my car multiple times over, lol.
I suppose I'm a centrist. I'm fine with Aang not killing Ozai, but it had to be a solution that Aang himself forged. Instead of something that fell on his lap. When every main character in the series learns something new, it's because of their own resolve Their own desperation. Their own knowledge. That's all I wanted for Aang.
THIS. A huge ongoing theme of the show is that being trapped or threatened leads to innovation. Sweatbending, bloodbending, metalbending, even Katara using healing for the first time without being taught, all came out of desperation. Aang having his cosmic pathway blocked and having to find a way to deal with that, combined with the lessons he’d learned along the way and most importantly driven by the intense determination and focus that his need to not kill as a solution provided, could have led him to discover, or rediscover, energybending - a power which honestly isn’t all that world-breaking if only the Avatar can do it. I read the lion turtle out of nowhere as less a deus ex machina than a clumsy shortcut substitute for story beats they’d run out of time to elaborate on. And having Aang just ice Ozai at the end strikes me as kinda anime edgelord-y, honestly. “No matter how powerful you are and how much you try and how wrong it seems to you, sometimes you just gotta put a MFer in the ground. So kids, listen to your elders and kill who they tell you to.”
@@muddlewait8844or Aang could just break his arms . In fact Aang in the book 3 was at his worst . In the end, he litteraly lost all the argument against the past avatar , had no solution about the problem, the lion gave him the perfect technique and in the end he was an avatar mode by total luck and thus the other avatar won for him
I rarely see people actually criticize this show, so seeing someone talk about stuff that I myself also had problems with was such a joy to listen to. Amazing video, and I’m shocked this isn’t more popular. Keep up the good work. 🎉
The show is so good in other areas such as story, character development, world building, character arcs, that people can forgive other mistskes. Energy bending is a deus ex machina, yes. But the show is so solid in every other aspect that people can overlook it because no show is flawless. But Avatar comes as close as you can get.
If I’m being honest the avatar fanbase is flawed because they view every criticism as hating and kind of circle jerk around the series. Like I love Avatar and I do view it as a masterpiece, but people have an extraordinarh bias about the series.
I once heard that the writers wanted to add Wan's story in the original show, but it didn't fit in anywhere, supposedly. To be frank, it still didn't fit in well in Korra, and just hijacked the second season... But this was the perfect spot to have fit it in. It would have made the second season of Korra not be a retcon of bending itself. Aang calls the previous Avatars for advice, they all tell him to kill Ozai. Aang is unhappy and starts calling Avatars even further and further back, they all tell him to kill Ozai. Finally, Aang reaches even further back, to this strange young man who tells him how back in his day, the world was so dangerous that humans had to live on lion turtles just to survive. And that there were no benders or avatars, instead, the elements were borrowed "gifts" from the lion turtles. And that borrowed gifts are simply just that, "borrowed". It would perfectly set up the idea of being able to take bending away and would have made "Origins" in season 2 of Korra much more earned.
This right here. It almost makes it seem like we got Wan's story in Korra to make up for/compensating for the end of ATLA being like this. In fact all of the enjoyment I got from watching were just the homages they paid to the original show
I like this idea too. I think killing ozai accomplishes very little, still having a blood thirsty nation now with a martyr. Taking away his bending was the right call, but they way they went about it is poor. This sounds alot better, good idea.
Avatar Wan is one of the worst things Korra retconned into the continuity. It flies in the face of "The Avatar is a mystical entity who is the manifestation of the World's Energy" and turns all of that into "Oh yeah it's Jesus and Satan and just some asshole who was the first Avatar but was also a selfish spoiled jerk". Ruins the mysticism of the setting. Avatar Wan is the biggest reason I hate Korra.
They’re actually missing a fundamental point the show was trying to get across with energy bending: often times in life were faced with seemingly only two choices. This is a false dichotomy. Often a third or more choices will reveal themselves to those who search. In the show aang was seemingly given two choices: forsake his values and save the world, or maintain his values and let the world fall to ruin. He searched for a 3rd option and was rewarded for it
@@kinesissado9636 That's the thing though, he didn't search. He literally sleepwalked into a magical powerup that not only wasn't setup, but also has implications that threaten one of this show's greatest strengths, its powerscaling
@@kindbrute4640 but didn’t he consult all his past lives to try to find an answer? Sure he slept walk to the lion turtle, but he asked the lion turtle if he had an answer. It may not have been a scholarly search but it was a spiritual one
@@kinesissado9636 This answer would hold water if the answer to his search was also spiritual. Instead a physical being arrives, hands him a never before seen magic power, and that spiritual search is ended but not concluded. For lack of a better word, it's unsatisfactory
@@kinesissado9636 Not always a false dichotomy, no; sometimes there are only two choices. The Deus Ex Machina insertion here was a terrible decision on the part of the writers.
And that's fine. The only problem is that Aang and The team didn't discover it themselves. It was just handed to Them by a random Guy that appeared from nowhere.
Yea obviously in fact having aang discover that alongside the audience is actually really cool cause it really does feel like an actual lost art "kinda like how we discovered about the eclipse blocking fire bending thingy or the moon spirits" the problem is that those were handled masterfully this was not But I gotta say the lion turtle looked absolutely horrifying and out of place which is great as it gave off an "incomprehensible ancient being" vibes so points for that
But his main argument is that it came out of nowhere at a convenient time without saying it was destiny AND that it doesn’t match the magic system because qi is something everyone has and if you don’t you’re dead
Yeah, I think they decided they didn’t want to show Aang killing Ozai in front of their audience. So they felt like they needed to create some kind of cop-out. I think it would make more sense for ONLY the lion turtles to possess the ability to energy-bend. Or just never making energy-bending a thing at all. I don’t understand why they didn’t just have Aang learn the ability to chi-block like Ty-Lee. Except Aang, being the Avatar, can seal off chi pathways permanently. Like how you can plug up leaky holes with concrete or cement or something. And that’s what he does to Ozai.
Something similar did happen in LoK so your point is valid. But I think we'd need a few more episodes on Aang learning chi blocking. So he'd have to either find a master or free Ty-Lee (Along with Mai and the other Kyoshi Warriors) from the boiling rock. To be honest, Chi blocking does feel like a melee technique Aang would pick up on too.
Chi blocking isn't a permanent solution. Maybe if they give him the red lotus treatment. Also what's wrong with energybending. It's the original and the purest form of bending. It's a cop out because of how it's introduced, not because it's lore breaking.
@@clintonjefferson6494 Except Legend of Korra shows it can be permanent with the use of bending (specifically Amon using Blood Bending to permanently alter the flow of chi, thus removing bending from people until Korra used Energy Bending to repair the flow of chi).
@@revenge3265 blood bending is not chi blocking even though the effect is the same. Even if aang learned blood bending, he couldn't use it without the full moon.
It was so stupid to have Aang say “Violence is never the answer”, after using and then have him continue to use violence and is fine with his friends using violence as well. Also suddenly making him care about murdering someone even though up until that point he didn’t care for the wellbeing of his enemies except maybe Zuko. It’s really hypocritical.
Yeah, there's a few specific episodes were Aang pretty much has to kill people. Sure, it's mainly off-screen deaths in that enemies are being pushed off a mountain or falling off a cliffside, but it still shows that Aang has killed before even if he didn't make himself aware of it.
how I would fix it. during the lybrarie episode have someone take a scroll with energy bending. and leave it as a background element until anag losses his the avatar state. and then have him practice it to try to get it back but it never works. then have a spirt lion tertle help him but it still not work. then during the final battle when he is about to loss instead of a rock awaking it have him despeterly defending using all the elements and when almost overpowered by the fire lord, have him shoot out a laser beam. have the fight play out but now instead of it coming out of no where he was been working on regaining the avatar state through book 3. and at the end have him figure out that if he can give himself his avatar state back he can take away others with it in revers. so then he can take away the bending. he could also use this power to make new air nomards at the end of the show from the refuges. this helps the new air nomads be more conected to actions instead of spirt dus ex some other small changes I would let everyone healing (make the water so it quicker but also let it be done through something like hema tattoos or acuputor ect )chi block and use internal energy bending to let non benders bend in the presses of benders of momentarally create some other power think rouge and leach from xmen or haki from one peice . so the next show focuses on these technics being using by non benders to better set up and slightly fix korra but that has to many issues to address with one change to energy bending
There a probably atleast a dozen better ways to handle Ozai than just aang killing that DONT require a deus ex machina You can have the villain die as a result of their own machinations, even have Aang try to save him from an imminent death, like falling into the ocean and drowning, getting crushed by a rockslide, or an explosion from one of the blimps, but the firelord rejects his aid choosing to preserve his honor in death (Seeing as "honor" is a big deal in the fire nations culture) You can have Aang's spiritual conflict be more literal than abstract, where the two are put in a position where they are forced to use their words to battle ideaology, really get down to the roots of the firelords motivation, humanize him and have Aang present an emotional revolution that breaks his resolve to fight You can have Aang spare him and walk away, only for Ozai to lash out for a cheap lightning attack but have a third party save the day, like Zuko or Iroh, they could redirect the lightning back at him and damage his nerves rendering him mostly paralyzed from the neck down. theres SO many better decisions that dont require a cop-out or a character assassination.
They can’t do the first option because they already did that with Admiral Zhao and it would be repetitive. Second option is good and practical, but frankly boring for a cartoon. Next. Third option is good I guess but who would do it? Every other character had such amazing stories going on in that moment. I think Aang blocking Ozai’s chi Tai Li style would’ve been best but nobody taught him how to do that so it wouldn’t fit either.
@@smileydog5941 Yeah and if we continued this logic the lightning scenario wouldn't work because Zuko already did that for Kitara when they fought Azula, I THOUGHT it was already strongly implied that *_other things_* would need to be changed and moved around as a result for a more satisfying resolution to the overall narrative- without the need for a twenty paragraph text wall meticulously rearranging the entire Avatar timeline, considering ALL of this is just mere hypotheticals being made with 20 years of hindsight for a childrens cartoon, but I guess I over relied on the 'benefit of the doubt' ... _that was my bad._ No I am sorry to say I am not going to be outlining anymore theoretical scenarios, but you did help illustrate my point that better solutions to the Ozai dillemna do infact exist, even if they were wasted earlier in the series, and for that I sincerely thank you.
I'll just put this out there. Have him being injured by Azula force him to meditate on managing his chi so to gain a foothold in blood-bending, healing, lightning redirection and chi blocking. Have him still be angry enough that he tries to restrain himself during the fight with Ozai only to be set off by the taunts of genocide (and also because Ozai tried to swipe his head off, kind friggin weird how little Avatar Aang seemed to care in that moment but w/e) Have Aang create the ultimate method of chi blocking by combining his knowledge of manipulating chi with the power of the Avatar State. There, now it all fits.
Personally, I don't see why Aang couldn't just cripple Ozai and bind his mouth until Sozin's Comet ended. I also still like the idea of using spirit chi blocking, which would be an enhanced, more permanent form of regular chi blocking. There's also bloodbending, but that would need more setup with Aang learning it
Yeah you’re right it should’ve been mentioned at least once or twice about how it’s some “ancient mythical creature with divine knowledge” or whatever so it seems a lot less random
They showed at least a handful of depictions of lion turtles throughout the show. I know I wondered why those were important enough to put in there. The issue for a lot of people is that they didn't see it, so they didn't care about it. And since no one in the show brought attention to it, people think it came out of nowhere.
Energy bending is so bad of a consept that Legend of Korra use it to say that bending was originally zapped into you by a diety instead of practicing martial arts and studying nature.
Bending from the start was not something you could just learn, you needed have the power to do it first which is inherited, and then you could improve your abilities by studying martial arts and nature. Having it zapped into them was a pretty good explanation for the first benders considering how all benders after them got it from the genes of the original benders.
Nowhere in the original series gives off the impression you only need to study nature and martial arts to get Bending... Otherwise everyone with enough dedication would be Avatars and there would be no such thing as non-bending fighters Ty Lee. In the original series, literally the only thing known about Bending is that it is somewhat inherited/genetic based, some people are straight up just naturally more powerful (not as in the best fighter, but as in actual POWER), and that sometimes people simply aren't born with the ability to Bend. TLOK does not break any established rules regarding the origins of Bending and is in fact the only actual explanation for why it exists. It also gives an explanation for why non-benders exist, because not everyone was given Bending before humans lost contact with the Lion Turtles. Due to Bending's genetic ties and basic rules of biology, any Bender with an ancestor that was a non-bender, has a chance for their children to be non-benders. If you're gonna critique TLOK, actually use valid points.
This is just a false statement. Non benders are proof gang studying nature/original benders and martial arts aren’t enough to be a bender. You must be born with it, or in TLOK, bending originates from the lion turtles who are implied to be older than the concepts of light and darkness itself
Well his tattoos couldn’t have started glowing before meeting the turtle bc he couldn’t go into the avatar state anymore. The last time he did before against ozai was at the end of book 2 when Azusa shot him. 7:54
Phenomenal video. It was well thought out and put together amazingly I completely agree with everything you said the only thing I don’t agree with is ur idea for the ending. Aang was the last air nomad he is the only representative of his entire culture. Killing ozai would not only be ending the air nomads as a whole but proving ozai right. He thought the air nomads way of living was weak and for that deserved to die. Aang killing him would be a rejection of everything he was taught and embracing ozais twisted world view. The avatars duty is to protect the balance of the world this would including the air nomads which also means aang. Yancheng could ditch her teachings because she wasn’t the last airbender her people’s culture would live on regardless of her decisions.
Aang killing ozai isn't destroying his culture or "Proving ozai right" it's doing his damn job, what it means to achieve balance is to get rid of elements that disrupt equilibrium. Aang exactly living the way of a monk when he's getting down with Katara and raising his kids with her, cause that's NOT how the monks did it. Aang's responsibility is to the world as he is the incarnation of it (before the retcon). So he should be required to do what's needed for the world to thrive.
@@TrueReverse74 Then Aang would be no better than pre-season 3 Zuko, Who let others around him force a specific destiny onto him that fundamentally clashed with who he truly was. Somehow everyone in the "he should've killed Ozai" camp forgets or ignores the aspect of the show that directly preaches against that. Aang's responsibility as the Avatar is to STOP a threat to the equilibrium of the world, not specifically to kill it. Just as how Zuko's responsibility as the new Fire Lord isn't to be inherently ruthless and willing to sacrifice anyone to ensure the hegemony of his nation, like Ozai would have raised him to be had he not been banished. Both characters had risen up to their destined roles and titles, while rejecting the "expected" characteristics of those roles that would've compromised the people living behind them. Aang saying "F U" to the world's dogmatic belief that the avatar must kill, is the exact same as Zuko saying "F U" to his father and the Fire Nation General's notion that the lives of the new recruits have no value outside of bait. Yet only the latter gets praised...
i feel like your only justification for your proposed new ending is that it would make for a better sequel show (which likely wouldn't even be about aang in this hypothetical regardless). you forget to acknowledge at all what that means for the ending of this show, the finale of the arcs, and what that says to the audience? while yes, aang taking ozai's bending away is contrived, it provided a necessary closure to a theme that was woven between all the stories and dynamics for three seasons: shape your own destiny. it's almost antithetical to have it be the opposite of zuko's arc. i see where you're coming from, i really do. but in no way does aang killing ozai feel fulfilling to the character or as an ending to an up until that point 10/10 show.
problem is the lion turtle spits on that concept. he didnt shape his own destiny, it was shaped for him by a deus ex machina. takes away the agency and struggle aang had. and honestly, but hipocritical of aan "violence is never the answer" ok tell that to every person you have fought throughout the series, i would love to see those fights again with aang not using violence to defend himself. like fuck off show. they didnt want to kill ozai cuz it would be bad for the kiddies, but could have come up with a million ways for him to be removed from the picture that didnt include a massive plot contrivance.
Imagine this. Aang discovers that all bending’s were connected through energy when they visit the giant tree in the swamp. Later, when visiting the library tower he finds out about the beings that can directly Manipulate chi flows,lion turtles. It’s kinda like chi blocking, but twisting and destroying the streams that chi goes into. Not destroying the chi, but destroying the ability to use it. Finally, when fighting Ozai he intentionally leads him towards the sea. Then, you find out that one of the swamp people who can use the tree in the swamp; spoke or communicated in some way to the lion turtle, told him about the deeds of Ozai, and if he found the turtle, it would surely be killed. The turtle, now convinced, stayed at the bay of the sea, then we get this scene of Aang kicking Ozai towards the turtle, restraining him with water bending, while the turtle takes his bending away. Okay, I have to admit that I am not the best story teller, but I believe that this ending would make total sense, and would be better than the one we have now. You can probably find flaws, and if you do please inform me so we could brainstorm a better ending, but I just think that this ending *might* work
I agree it would kinda fix the energy bending problem, but it also robs aang of solving the problem as the avatar, if you get what I mean. Ozai has been set up for the 1v1 for a long time, a d to just ally oop him too someone else to solve is kinda lame. BUT this would have fixed korra hopefully 😂😂
it makes sense at a purely surface level, but think about the avatar's role in the story. they are supposed to solve the problems themselves. they alone can correct the balance of the universe. to have the lion turtle solve aang's problem for him wouldn't make sense for that.
I kinda think the same thing about that old monk that taught him about chakras. It was sorta random, and didn't really have much effect on the rest of the story. They probably could've left it out and it wouldn't have changed anything
Yeah but that would leave out the opportunity to teach kids about Chakra points and energy flow. Everything is energy. You and I are energy. If you don't sleep or eat well or are stressed you will be "low energy".
If we're going to lean into the spiritual aspect of the show so much in the end it would be fitting if Ozai was sent to the spirit world by Aang through a one time use power given by the turtle, this one time use could also just be a very restricted use ability(it can only be done at X place, only under X circumstances, only if he's weak enough in spirit, etc.) If we attribute the powerup to the Turtle doing some weird spirit stuff the issue really resolves itself, you could do some exposition beforehand explaining that Ozai needs to meet X criteria to be sent there and the entire fight is Aang trying to meet those conditions, furthermore we could see conflict between Aang and the Avatar state, whenever Aang enters the avatar state(say he does it multiple times out of desperation to save his life) he would try his hardest to fight to regain control before he accidentally kills Ozai, which would explain later how he mastered the avatar state being able to overpower the will of THOUSANDS of avatars in order to respect the teachings he was taught by the Monks and his own values, it would speaks volumes on how strong his spirit/will/mind is. Spirits have no reason to take sides in human conflict though, so instead we could use other means such as Aang giving up something for a favour to appease the turtle(even though he isnt a spirit i dont think), this favour could've been a cliffhanger too and the only mention of it is Aang being distraught at what he had to give up in order to save the world. Im leaning towards the inability to have kids, meaning air bending is actually gone, except for the avatar being able to theoretically use it, Korra would have SO MUCH plot for it to explore, what direction should they take it in? Aftermath of 100 years of war? Ozai now roaming around in the spirit world somehow still causing trouble in the physical world? The extinction of all airbending? Sending Ozai to the spirit world would still let him reappear in the comics, if we let Iroh teach spirituality nonsense to Zuko I think it would be interesting to see Zuko encounter many of the same spirits Aang did and would let us see the dichotomy of how their respective characters behave under such circumstances especially since Zuko was struggling to much at the times he went to talk to Ozai. OR if we assume that Zuko is not able to enter the spirit world, he goes to the fire sages with Iroh in order to perform some ritual to summon a particular denizen of the spirit world, namely Ozai. Now we could set up the scene where Zuko and Ozai have a moment to talk to eachother but insert X reason to make it so he can do it only for X amount of time and every X time period.
Another issue I had with the energybending ability is how the lion turtle just GAVE it to Aang. He didn't even technically teach Aang how to do it. He just explained how it was something that used to be done before people bended the elements. And then he zaps Aang and suddenly, Aang now has this powerful and super-secret ancient ability that will allow him to resolve his moral dilemma perfectly without having to make any compromises. A better execution of the introduction of a new ability was the concept of controlling the Avatar State. One problem Aang had earlier in the series was that he could only enter the Avatar State when he himself or someone he cared about deeply enough was in a near death experience or life threatening danger. This was a nice way of balancing the Avatar State so that Aang couldn't just rely on the Avatar State to get out of not having mastered the other elements by essentially letting old, dead avatars fight his battles for him. But to get around this, the show introduced this idea that opening ones chakras and harnessing the resulting increased ease of flow with their chi would allow an avatar to enter and leave the Avatar State at will more easily. And this still avoided the problem of giving Aang something to use that would allow him to easily bypass the need to master the other elements sufficiently enough because he would have to meditate deeply enough and intensely enough that he could enter some sort of flow state with his mind that was required to get the Avatar State going, which isn't exactly something one can normally do in the middle of a fight with hostile and dangerous opponents. After all, they're not just going to patiently and politely wait for Aang to enter the level of flow state needed to unlock his most OP ability, so it would be a challenge to actually get to use it in a fight and it would therefore not be a cop out of having to still work on improving his ability to bend the other elements. Additionally, the chakra thing didn't require as much introduction because it wasn't an entire new ability in the sense that it worked within the framework of how chi works in the Avatar World, instead of being some sort of supernatural ability that broke the normal rules of how chi works in the Avatar World. But if you're going to introduce a completely new ability that overrides the current system of your fictional world, then you are required to give it more introduction for how it can be possible, as you will otherwise end up creating a deus ex machina. All this being said, the reason for mentioning how the chakra opening meditations was an example of a better way to introduce a new ability is that it involves not only setting the need for it, but also providing an explanation for how it works that fits within the framework of their system (Guru Pathik spends time teaching Aang the ins and outs of these meditations). The lion turtle literally just gives Aang the power without explaining how to use it, but Aang is able to improv how to use it in the middle of his fight with Ozai. Otherwise, if you just introduce a need for an ability, but provide nothing else, you just have a cop out. Also, while it might be dark, I think it would have made the show a little deeper and richer in meaning if Aang had to resort to killing Ozai as the solution to this problem instead of the approach of introducing energybending better (ie - introducing it earlier). You could discuss moral arguments like, "sometimes you have to do something bad to prevent something much worse from happening," or "sometimes, a culture survives better by adapting itself to deal with unforeseen circumstances instead of clinging dogmatically to its ideals, values, or teachings," etc. In the second example, Aang could perhaps learn a lesson that moral principles have a limit to where adhering beyond that limit becomes counterproductive or less moral than continuing to adhere to it at that point. Like, refusing to take a life even though it could prevent the deaths of many others is arguably worse than just simply taking that life to prevent such harm. Anyway, I agree that the energybending deus ex machina was the only significant flaw in the series and that the series would have been pretty much perfect without it.
imagine all avatars have the ability to energy bend from birth and the lion turtles simply have to teach it to them. it would make this feel more earned and even fix the part of Korra where problem also occurs
@watema3381 honestly my biggest problem was how unnecessary the permaneny destruction of the previous avatars was. easy fix. book 2, the avatars are blocked off, book 3 korra struggles without their advise and book 4 she spends the time that would have been spent talking with Toph to re-establish her connection with the avatars, and the issue with the poison could simply have been that su and lin were able to successfully cure Korra on their first try. the reason Korra would be so weakened would just be something like her spirit being weak or smth, and the problems just compounded because of the poison. that wouldn't change book 4 at all since I don't see what the avatars could have provided her. fixed one of the major issues without screwing over any of the potential future avatars or upsetting the fans. also Bolin was terrible, annoying and stupid and they should've realised that
"The pacifist should let the last of his culture die by killing the bad guy in a kids' show." I'm sorry, but as much of a Deus ex Machina as Energybending is, killing Ozai is literally not an option for Aang. Not from a writing perspective, or a character perspective, or a network perspective.
My personal preferred ending would have been the one where physics got involved. Like how Aang decided to fly through a cloud early on in the show, and discovered it was mostly water. Well, how does fire exist? It needs oxygen to survive. Aang could have starved Ozai of oxygen, simply eliminated his ability to firebend. The show established multiple times that firebending comes from the breath. Now, would it have been pretty bleak for Aang to choke the life out of Fire Lord Ozai? Yes. But it wouldn’t have needed to be permanent-just enough to cause him to lose consciousness and then to imprison his hands with earthbending. Would it have ended Ozai as a threat? No, that would have had to be a combined effort of the four nations. Aang didn’t need energy bending, he just needed insight into the relationship between the four elements.
I genuinely think Ozai is kinda average as a firebender. He is considered the "strongest firebender in the world" because he is the Firelord, and he has an army to command, is like saying the most powerful man in the world, he is not powerful because he is a man, he is a powerful man because he is a king.
@@remiremsar5946he literally is the most powerful and best firebender. He flies with fire like a guided rocket and can redirect firebeams after shooting them
@@divoulos5758 He flies with fire like a guided rocket DURING THE COMET, he can redirect fire beams... like any other motherfucking firebender we have seen so far, Ozai ain't special.
@@SecretMagician You mean like Azula being able to bend right after the eclipse ended? You mean like any firebender being able to bend again after the eclipse ended?
The concept of bone bending is cool but never got around to be in the show or comics but there’s shadow bending it’s weird how can there be Shadow bending and energy bending and even like spirt bending it’s such a cop out as well and it could explain the way that old guy fixed his back it genuinely doesn’t make sense it would explain how that magicaly happened.
I like the rewrite up until the point of Aang straight up killing Ozai in the end. Aang, as the last airbender, killing Ozai would be him, in a way, rejecting the morals instilled in him from his former monks teachings. Maybe instead, during the scenes where Ozai running away from Aang in his avatar state, Aang forces Ozai to hide in a cave or mountain or maybe Aang pushes Ozai through the mountain into a cave. Either way, the layout of the cave would could have a lake in it with maybe some frogs or insects scattering around inside. In the cave Aang brings Ozai to his knees and is about to deliver the final blow but, like in the show, stops claiming that no matter what he won't take a life, depsite Ozai calling him weak for not properly utilizing his full power. However, Aang then tells Ozai that even though he won't kill him, he also can't let Ozai hurt the people Aang cares for to which Aang then says that he will trap Ozai in the mountain to be his new home, prison and tomb. Ozai, in a bid of desperation, lunges at Aang only to be met with a blast of air or fire (payback for Zuko) forcing Ozai into the cave as Aang then proceeds to close the only entrance, leaving Ozai there for the rest of his days. This would not only solve both problems but keep Aang's character fully intact. In addition, it would be a another nod to eastern mythology like how Buddha sealed the Monkey King.
@@robertbeisert3315 Gyatso was outnumbered thus he had no choice, but Aang had the clear advantage in that fight so I doubt he would resort to murder when its been established that he'd choose peace over violence
I agree that the energy bending and the lion turtle could’ve been set up better, but in the end I think a co-op of the sort was the only way the show could’ve fulfilled Aang’s arc in a thematically satisfying way. Which wouldn’t be killing Ozai
The whole ending was a deus ex machina - even Aang getting the avatar state back only happened because... why? He hit his back on a rock? Sounds fake but ok
@coolfungamerz6447 You mean to say that most if not all stories aren't reliant on a particular set of circumstances going in a certain way to achieve the ending outcome?
Ok the rock beund shaped that particular way hitting that exact spot is a little 🙄 but what else could happen? He was going to die lmfao and if we talk about avatar state being a chi thing aswell wouldn't hitting the same spot unblock the block? Idk 🤷♂️
Considering that he’s literally merged with the most powerful spirit and the fact that chi is big part of the world energy bending is definitely not a cop out.
AAALL OF THIS. But what I hate more is when I do say I dislike energybending and the back-rock-thing or the sudden lionturtle (among many other more little things), I get sometimes a, "You just hate Aang," and/or, "So you wanted a 12 yr old to murder someone, huh." And literally neither, but in frustration I have replied, "I do hate Aang," and/or "Yes." Bc how do I get so misunderstood when saying that the turtle thing was kinda crap as it canonly is? Things can be flawed and criticized while also being one of the best and beloved things, too.
The best ending would be Aang sacrificing his own ethics for the sake of the world, and using blood bending to damage Ozai’s brain to cripple him permanently. Thus you can get around the whole issue of showing an execution on a children’s show.
I disagree with your alternate ending. I don’t think Aang should kill at all. Utilitarian morality should not be the lesson here. If the one life to save everyone was a baby, what then? I don’t know the solution, but Ozai should not be killed by Aang
@@samikhan-js5lj I'm not pro death penalty or anything like that, but for what we can see in this universe, there is no way the guy could just be incarcerated to prevent him to do more bad things to other people. So, it would be fair if Aang decided to kill him, even though it went against his moral code. What would Aang value more? His morals or the life of other people? That's why I think the discussion is different from killing an innocent baby
@@juromori thinking from a utilitarian pov that decision makes sense, but Aang is just not that way. It’s not whether his morals are above human life, but his morals ARE human life. To transgress even once would be to essentially throw out the entire belief. And yes there’s no way to incarcerate Ozai and that’s the problem Aang has to face. Normally people with beliefs like Aang are big proponents of rehabilitation, and Ozai could be rehabilitated, but he needs to be incarcerated and stopped first, which is the issue, and I don’t really have an answer for Aang. But I do believe anyone can be rehabilitated , and if that possibility is real, then ending any life is wrong because you are ending a life that could potentially bring goodness.
10:51 bro even japan knows that’s objectively untrue. Even Miyazaki knew that. People always say only Japanese people can make anime and if someone from the west makes anime, no matter how correctly or on point they are with it, since they’re not Japanese, what they made doesn’t qualify as anime. It’s not only objectively wrong, but incredibly racist. The fact is Miyazaki of JAPAN defined anime as a subtype of animation defined by overexpressionism. That’s his words, not mine. That’s exactly what avatar is, so it’s factually an anime, cry about it. I’m so tired of seeing this brain dead take. Especially since even Japan know you don’t need to be Japanese to make anime.
There is also lightning bending and redirecting. That is also a foundation to energy bending in the story, as well as the really spiritual way fire bending is shown by the old masters.
Here’s my thing with energy bending, if it really were to work wouldn’t Aang have taken the flow of Ozai’s chi out of his body and into his own? The chi can’t just disappear. If energy bending were to make sense, then Aang should have the power of Ozai’s fire bending to augment his own because Ozai’s chi flowed into his own body. The energy needs somewhere to go. The ability to bend energy would become the most coveted, sought after ability by any person, because through it they could become an incredibly powerful bender. Therefore, the method would need to be kept a secret. Only Aang and Ozai knew exactly how it happened, but people would be curious.
A good way to introduce idea of “taking bending away” would be Aang combining “chi blocking” with his knowledge of chackras blocking his full potential. To create a “chi block” in Ozai to block his bending. Those two powers are explored and known to Aang. So he could come up with an idea like this. No energy bending needed
He could've used blood control while in avatar state to force Ozai to yield and remain immobilized, doesn't matter how strong his fire was, he wouldn't be able to use it if he can't move at all.
I don’t really mind the energy bending as a world breaking point because I see the lion turtles as being sort of above the rest of the spirits depicted previously, closer to almost godhood than just being spirits. Because of that I can believe they have different privileges to reality than other creatures and I think that’s kind of cool to glimpse at on rare occasions in a fantasy show like this. My main issue is how clumsy it feels and it’s all rushed at the end, like if their power was alluded to in S2 or if we had a longer arc revolving around Aang & the lion turtle in S3 It would feel much less like a deus ex machina. The whole show has themes of nonviolence, identity and growth so I think Aang starting off as a pacifist & finding his own way to not kill the bad guy while still growing and maturing as a character is the entire point of the show, hell even Aang finding this ability through meditation and his connection to the spiritual world absolutely fits, it’s the execution of ‘and then random turtle shows up and fixes Aangs 3 season long problem’ that feels more like a let down
Not only did you critique the lion turtle in great setail(i just thought too easy and too convinient making it an effortless plot point) but you even offered a solution that could have more interesting stories to follow up while still touching on deep themes as well too. Watching the show 7 times isn't for show and you seem to have a great understanding of the avatar universe's worldbuilding and themes as well. Keep up the great work
I agree it reminds me of people complaining that episode 6 reused the Death Star or that the Ewoks helped take down the empire. Absolutely pointless and doesn’t even detract from the movie. Why complain?
it felt like aang was supposed to set aside his personal beliefs for the sake of the world as the avatar. Like that was the sacrifice he had to make for being the avatar.
The full definition, at least as best as I could find, "Deus ex machina is a Latin phrase that refers to a plot device where an unexpected and unlikely event suddenly resolves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story. The phrase literally translates to "god from the machine", and originated in ancient Greek and Roman drama. In these productions, a crane called a mechane would lower an actor playing a god or goddess onto the stage to resolve the plot. The device was used as early as the 5th century BC, and playwrights like Euripides made frequent use of it" it sheds more light upon the issues at hand. I'd like to point out this is one of those "critic tropes" like the Mary Sue that is almost understood and often quoted. This is how I begin my rebuttal, and despite the complex argument provided I think that the creator has missed some point in the writing. I think the confusion starts with how well built the story of Avatar is and how this spiritual element woven into the character of the avatar and Ang is like most things spiritual in theory, there but beyond our understanding and influential in the world despite our lack of perception. So Ang through his whole journey has battled with his avoidance with the responsibility as the avatar, first acting childish because he is a kid and wanted to live life, but that was partially a facade as he didn't want to kill anyone(a responsibility he knew he would have to do if he finally propperly accepted being the Avatar.) Even learning that past air bender avatars had taken life appalled him, one might argue that trying to solve problems without killing people is a major theme of the show. Almost always death has consequences. its idealistic, but it can be in a world that actually has a spiritual element that is fully incorporated into the world. Remember when Kittiara(sp?) found the man that was responsible for her mother's fate??? leaving him alive was the worst punishment and she easily could have offed him..... this will come back. The dragons in the show, the mole things that taught the earth bender are two examples of things that we kinda knew about but didn't until they became crucial to the plot. In this case it isn't ang playing and tripping through his spiritual powers but this is the kind of thing in writing that leads to the god showing up being lowered by the mechane. Is it different than the dragon/sun tribal scene, kinda but it had a little extra spiritual components as it is like the power is directly given to ang, not taught, but granted by a revered almost mythilogical being..... kinda like dragons were starting to become after they were thought extinct. Basically The Turtles werent teachers of any of the four forms..... they were different but necessary to the process in some fashion(that we didn't learn more about till later and learning that information didn't help that story either so yeah) The final problem with your hypothesis is Ang had defeated the firelord by the time he used the punishment. It was only the solution to his own personal quest, not the resolution of the story. Remember the avatar state gives zero freaks over murder, so they easily could have done that. Ang sacrificed everything during his quest, finding a new family and finding a solution are the payoff to everything he already lost. by the time the "god" had any affect the story was already resolved. Azula was defeated and the throne was going to be claimed by Zuko, the fire nations attack had failed and the fire lord if nothing else could be contained in a way to never bother anyone..... but we got a special extra egg at the end. The entire nation of air benders, DEAD. Ang father figure and teacher, DEAD verifiably with a found corpse(and the chad deff took out those fire benders in a lethal way, air nomads are only as non leathal as they need to be) The Air nomad society DEAD and temples desecrated by others, serving as a place to create the Firebenders greatest weapons of war(I love Airships.... maybe its living in Akron Ohio where the goodyear blimp armada still does its thing) The world set into unending war for a hundred years due to Angs absence, yeah lots of people on Ang's conscience there. In fact, one of the only things about Ang that make him redeemable after all the death that is his fault is first his innocence, but after he looses that its his ethical compass, and that gets to stay in tact. The story gets to focus for a moment on all those little quotes from daddy uncle about peace and life. The ultimate punishment of powerlessness get bestowed upon the megalomaniac. The war gets to end. It's hope and justice that get to win, not destruction and revenge. It's a plot element that changes the ending to a point where it fits the philosophy of the show, not bring about the ending because gods know best, or there is no solution..... it's clever and four seasons in the making. And also yeah, lets not talk about Korra......
@revenge3265 I'm up and down on Korra. Overall, I think the show was fantastic, but suffered from its shakey ground from being a show never knowing how long it would last. The plots feel artificially forced, and through lines that might have taken multiple seasons in the first show are crammed into just a few episodes with less time devoted to them. The problems become complex because of how the plots become oversimplified. The world building is still complex and beautiful, especially if you look at the comics and expanded media leading up to Republic city. That being said, there are SO many of these problems that each can fill their own videos trying to break them down and the why and how they happened. The most important part is I enjoyed the show, and if you did as well thats awesome.
In the world of Avatar it’s not about planning, preparing or cheating. Everyone is connected pushed together by fate. Aang encounters the lionturtle because that was always how it was supposed to go. “Today, destiny is our friend. I know it.” -Iroh
Hard disagree. "If you have a difficult moral dilemma, you can just rely on fate to drop the answer in your lap instead of having to put any effort on your part to figure out a solution."
Pretty sure an entire episode "the fortuneteller" is about shaping your own destiny and that you can't rely on a metaphorical "fate" to guide you through life.
Your potential thus far is here in Avatar: the Last Airbender videos... not whatever I just saw on your channel with random Pikachu sounds and noises... Narration skills are on par and your arguments are excellent. Potential, potential, potential. Subscribed for your future success!
What is your beef with Korra? Also, it would not be ideal at all for Aang to kill Ozai. Part of what made Aang so lovable were his idealist principles that NEVER gave up. As you said, they should have given the Lion Turtles more of a presence in the world-building for the sake of emphasizing how significant in the lore they are- almost mythologizing them- so that when we DO end up seeing one, the idea that Aang is given a cheat code to do exactly what he wanted isn't all that unbelievable. Or make energy-bending more of a double-edged sword somehow. Maybe reducing the wielder's lifespan significantly. This would explain why he died prematurely as opposed to the iceberg having accelerated his aging.
Or they could have given Disney villain esk death,when right after he restrained him and refuse to kill, instead of doing the energy bending stuff he just dodge and Ozai falls in the spikes cliffs bellow, so Ozai death its his own undoing ....
It was a Goober, but it should’ve existed from the start. Just make it a rare bending technique that only the most determined and capable Avatars could learn.
I love how your channel has short random content, and then you show up with this 20 minute well articulated critique of a great show like Avatar. Idk if you’ve done this before, but it sounds like you’ve done this forever. Well done sir
Your finale doesn't go all the way in my opinion (but it points in the right direction). Reducing the act of killing Ozai to a numbers game (taking one life to save millions) doesn't give a proper answer to the dilemma Aang is faced with. Would Aang take the same stance if Ozai was about killing just another person? Would he take one life to save one life? This is why the lion turtle explaining to Aang that killing Ozai is for the better good seems redundant. This is basically what his friends and the other Avatars have already told him. Aang himself must be aware of this. The problem here is not that killing Ozai is not justified, or that Aang doesn't understand this, but the fact that this decision contradicts Aang’s deepest beliefs as an air nomad. If Aang kills Ozai, then he can no longer be an air nomad (remember he is the last of his kind). To put it another way, Aang knows what needs to be done, but he just can’t bring himself to do it. In order to give a conclusive ending for this show there was to be an answer to this dilemma. That Aang must kill Ozai to save the world is clear. But for this to be meaningful Aang should renounce everything he believes in to do the right thing. This is the true ethical answer to the dilemma he is faced with. Aang is not killing Ozai because he wants to protect his loved ones, or because it is the easy way out, but plainly because it is the right thing to do. This reading of the finale would also bring Aang’s character arc to a proper conclusion, as he finally accepts his role as the avatar, despite what it costs him (renouncing to being an air nomad). However, doing the right thing is not always easy, and here for Aang it is not only very hard, but a life changing decision. After killing Ozai he just can't go back to who he was. The last air nomad would be gone. This is why the show has to make a great point in justifying why Aang would renounce everything to kill the fire lord. Personally, I feel like the show has been building up to Aang making this decision, but that would make for another discussion.
I'm pretty sure the original owner would have had avatar aang kill the fire lord, but to make it moe kid/teen friendly they found a new solution that definitely worked. It was an unpredictable end to the saga.
Energybending is cool, if they put more of a spotlight on the whole "energy" concept that final season and made him meet the turtle earlier (maybe during the time he's at sea idk) then I think the ending would have been perfect. Still loved it though
I just finished the show and i didnt view aang to be sleepwalking when that happened. I thought he was so stressed out that he wanted to escape and be alone.
Aang just randomly meeting the ancient Sea Turtle Lion was way too convenient. It was very odd for the answer just to appear at this point was a big example of Deus ex-Machina. Aang, the main hero, killing Ozai probably wouldn't be done on a kids show could've been done on a different network maybe. Perhaps they could've had someone like: the Guru, Monk Gyatso, or Ty Lee teach Aang about energy bending. Have Aang perhaps go to the Spirit world where he reunites with Monk Gyatso
I thunk Aang should have killed Ozai. I think he should have realized then. His responsibility to the world outweighed his responsibility to self. And after killing him, he exiled himself. Then the ending of the series could mirror the beginning of the series in the beginning. He disappeared because he was trying to run away from his responsibility. But at the end he disappeared because he. Fulfilled his responsibility. The world was ravaged and built-in his absence. He has no right to lead and rebuild it in his presence. It is on them to rebuild and heal with the knowledge of the mistakes that they made and experienced. Kitara can decide to join him in exile if you wish. (Though to be fair, Aang has definitely killed people in the series)
Ehh idk I agree but don’t. I don’t think it messes up the entire bending system and it’s supposed to be forgotten art and the lion turtles. I like energy bending and think it’s a great feature. They just needed to set it up more. Not much but more. They should’ve hinted more about lion turtles in the library episode and given us more details throughout the show that way it’s still a shock but it has value and the viewer would’ve remembered details about it. You’re solution is fine with the first half but the whole point is it still goes against aang character to kill and I don’t think killing him is a good solution regardless. But other than that great video
Every time I watch the series finale I always feel that the energy bending was really cheap but in the end I just don't think about it too much cause everything else was just so great.
The healing abilities of waterbenders were actually introduced in the episode "The Deserter." When Katara instictively put her hands in water to heal her burns. When we reach the Northern Water tribe is the first time we get a little bit more insight. There are actually three occasions in which energy bending is forweshadowed. Although you can argue (and I'd most likely agree), that these moments are a bit too vague. 1-When Aang touches one of the roots of the tree to find where Appa and Momo are within the Swamp. Given the words of the man who talked about the tree and the fact that Aang says, "everything is connected." The implication is that this ability was spiritual. 2-Guru Patik was able to understand Appa's sentiments, even though he's an animal, doesn't talk, and he had never communicated this nonverbally, because up to that point Appa just growled at him until falling asleep. Furthermore, the Guru was able to locate Aang and transfer this knowledge to Appa because of their spiritual connection. 3-The entire plot of opening the chakras. Is entirely mystical, and the objective is to ultimately make Aang ascend and reach cosmic power to control the Avatar State at will. Extra-The concept of the Avatar being a bridge between the spiritual and the physical worlds was already planting seeds for concepts and ideas such as energy bending. Now. I completely agree that the way they introduced it IS a deus ex machina, and that they made too many long jumps in the scale of power of said ability. I'd prefer it to stay more so like the previous examples (finding people and animals that you developed a deep connection with, being able to read emotions, and using ritualistic and psychological methods to reach enlightenment and with that, more power). Instead, they leaped from taking powers away to energy lasers. Ultimately, I don't think it is a bad concept. I just think they made a poor introduction for it, and then they completely went nuclear with the progression of the concept.
Yeah, definitely feel like if they put more of a spotlight on it in the last season and had say Aang meat the lionturtle a bit earlier, there would have been a good space for energybending to be fully introduced. But honestly...the real co-out was the rock that allowed Aang to re-enter the avatar state, that was just off for no real reason.
5:30 i agree with you about everything else, but sleepwalking can be affected by wat you see, hear or feel while sleep walking. If you see someone sleep walking, you can kind of have a conversation with the sleeper, hand the sleeper stuff, or show the sleeper stuff, which can cause the sleeper to do different things.
Yeah. Yeah. Literally came up outta nowhere in the finale episodes so Aang to save the day without having to compromise his anti-killing rule. He didn't even seek this out himself or have to do some kind of test or training to learn it. He just wandered off in the night because of spirit/Avatar stuff, sat around having his viewpoint told off by his past lives, woke up the next day to see the "island" was moving, and then got his Deus Ex Machina power up before facing Ozai. At least the rock nonsense triggering the Avatar State was foreshadowed earlier by him saying that injury sealed it, so you should've guessed something was going to happen with it to unseal it. No such foreshadowing happened for Energybending, as it was JUST there to be an out for Aang's moral dilemma. Sad thing is the comics chapters about that one Fire Nation colony handled the "Pick A Side" Dilemma better by having both fighting parties actually go to the colony and see that both the Earth Kingdom residents and Fire Nation colonists are getting along, choosing to build on that and form what'd become Republic City rather than fighting another war over custody of the place. It's a NATURAL development that solves the dilemma in a way that doesn't involve siding with either extreme.
Frankly what they should have done if they wanted someone’s bending to 'permanently' be remove, included chi bending, and keep it coherent with the rules of the world is to make the technique more like Chi Cealing, with the user forcing their own Chi though the targets body, clogging up their chi pathways and preventing them from using bending. This would also explain how Amon used blood bending to 'remove' a benders ability. Then again, that's just my interpretation of could have worked. And I Understand how the techniques inclusion at all sort of breaks the rules of the world.
They could have just had Aang shoot a firewave at a restrained Ozai while the camera pans out or switches to the next scene. It would be ironic too, firelord being defeated by fire. And it wouldn't upset the censors. Aang killed people before in this show
Here to say that I have always been telling people this. Without listening to your video yet, I just want to say this was a way to cheat us out of Aang having to grow up and kill the Firelord.
I like the critical discussion, so firstly let me say nice video breakdown. However, i disagree with the thought that energy bending breaks the bending system. The concept the elements come from a shared origin is consistent across multiple beliefs of real world 4/5 element philosophies. Example, Greek philosophy talks about the 4 elements coming from a singular origin called "arche". From it the other elements are born. Similar concepts exist within the 4/5 element structure in eastern philosophies as well. Some philosophers even believed that "arche" was one of the 4 elements and debated whether all the elements came from a singular element (water, or fire, or air, etc.) The idea that a primordial being understands that shared origin of the elements, and knows how to bend it, does not break the system at all. Secondly, I think people hear deus ex machima and equate it to "bad" regardless of the thematic positives it potentially can bring when done right. Aang killing Ozai would shatter the theme of shaping your own destiny in opposition to following anothers. This was talked about when Zuko finds Appa at Lake Laogai about choosing his destiny, again when Iroh says it was wise to chose love over power at the end of season 2, and again foreshadowed when *all* the Avatars were telling Aang killing Ozai was the only way, despite half of the last season showing Aang battling with this idea. I agree the convenience of a lion turtle washing up and giving Aang the answer could've been exucated better. But the resulting resolution itself leads to a more satisfying thematic conclusion in the sense that Aang found another way in taking down the Pheonix king, despite the destiny everyone around him pushed onto him. But it does lose points for the concvenience of the solution just washing up at his doorstep. In conclusion I disagree energy bending breaks the bending system and that Aang shouldve killed ozai. But dont take it the wrong way this was a great video discussion and breakdown. (I dont think difference in opinion warrants a bad video in my eyes)
If i could quickly put together an ending on the spot? After the argument with Sokka, about the baby picture, in Aangs frustration he wanders the compound finding a spot where he meditates and talks to his past lives (happens same as on the lion turtle). Each tells him to kill Ozai. Chagringed Aang continues to wander the house stumbling upon a locked chest in Ozais quarters. Because it seems like Ozais personal possession, Aang breaks it open out of curiosity. In it are old scrolls and pictures. Some of old firebending war tactics, rare firebending scrolls, biographies of past fire lords, a family picture both of his family and the one he grew up with, but lastly there are scrolls dedicated to avatar knowledge. One of them has curious ancient text on lion turtles. As Aang opens them he learns about the theorized history of lion turtles and their ability to bend energy. As the text seemed myth, Ozai himself thought little of it, but Aang sees this as a last hope. Aang pockets the scroll, goes to the beach and meditates, pleading for an avatar who knows about the lion turtles and energy bending. One of the earliest firebending Avatars (not Wan) appears detailing even in his life the lion turtles are commonly known as legend. However, he knows they're real as he himself met one after a shipwreck during his avatar training. It was located in a naturally stormy part of the ocean as to why it was never found, and that the location is about a days journey from their current location. The avater diaries his journey, how the lion turtle and himself talked about philosophy and spirituality. Energy bending was a topic but he never learned. His time on the turtle was a mere 2 days but it was an enlightening experience. Telling Aang the sector he shipwrecked, he also says the journey will be dangerous causing Aang to go alone (No momo this time). Still night he sneaks off leaving a letter to the group saying not to worry, he will return to face his destiny but there is something he must do. He flies until the break of dawn which quickly turns to a gloomy storm. Unable to maintain flight he crashes into the ocean and wakes up dazed on an island. He quickly realizes that this is the lion turtle and swims to ask it for help. It gives him wisdom about balance, everythings connected, spiritual mumbo jumbo. Then aang asks about the bending of energy. For this it could explore another eastern philosophy about energy/balance. The lion turtle says mastery of energy bending can take centuries to understand the true connected nature of all things. But this doesn't deter aang and we're left on a cliffhanger of a determined Aang training, explaining "he will give all he has to learn, even if its only 1 thing that will help he won't give up". Fastforward and everything happens like the show. The only difference is now when Aang takes away Ozais bending, not only is the thematic role fullfilled, but through action, determination, and even some luck, Aang through his own actions struggled and fought to create his own destiny.
Energy bending also mirrors what's commonly considered "The 5th element" which is Ether or Space. I believe it was always planned to be in the show in some way shape or form.
@@izzyDbuzzin The action is there, the setup is superior for sure, but not only do you skip over the training/personal development we've gotten for every other element Aang has had to learn, but you tease your main character sacrificing something to compensate for this absurdly fortunate tiding and never follow up.
Completely agree. The only issue, maybe, is that if aang takes a life he pretty much ends airbending culture - or corrupts it forever. This would have been a great idea if fleshed out (like an airnomad who kills or becomes an avatar has to separate themselves from the rest of the airnomads?). Another thing is that the comet would have amplified aang’s firebending as much as it amplified ozai’s. So on paper aang could just completely own Ozai in a fight, perhaps beating him so badly that, even left unharmed, ozai knows he can’t surpass the avatar. Aang could have a nice little speech about ozai being right to go after him as a baby and a child, but now he’s a fully realised avatar and no single bender will ever come close to defeating him.
i agree that energy-bending is a deus ex-machina, or a cop-out, or whatever you'd like to call it. its introduction was sloppy, and while i don't think it breaks the rules of the world, it feels incredibly disconnected from the bending system at large. that being said, i love its inclusion in the show, and aang choosing to spare ozai is, in my eyes, a perfect ending. avatar is well renowned for its bending system, and for good reason. it has a set of concrete rules, but allows for infinite creativity inside of them, inviting the audience to experiment with it in their heads, an effect even more poignant with a younger audience. but despite this, i think we can all agree that avatar's true greatness and legacy comes from its rich and complex characters, who have stayed relevant and influential 15 years after their conception. while energy-bending may be a crack in the bending system, it's a final layer of polish on aang's character arc, the deeper themes in the show, and a beautiful final message for the audience. while we like to joke about the scenes where aang demolishes enemy forces, aang has always treated any actual (plot relevant) conflict with pacifism, and complete respect for life. given this, is it really a fitting end to aang's character arc for him to compromise his ideals, and take a life he never wanted to take? throughout the entire series, aang has matured while maintaining his childlike, incredibly optimistic morality, and having him abandon this for the biggest conflict in the show would be a sharp left turn for his character. it'd be just as sloppy and disconnected from his arc as energy-bending is from the overall magic system. now obviously, what the lion turtle said in your ending rewrite would ring true in a real life scenario, but this isn't a real life scenario. and in real life, we can't bend the forces of nature to our will. but what we can change is our own outlook, our own actions, or as the lion turtle says, "the energy within ourselves." this line is one of my favorite lines in the show. at the end of this whimsical, fantastical journey, we're summoned back to reality, and reminded that the only thing we'll ever be able to bend is ourselves, which is a beautiful final message to the audience. in real life, we can't solve a dispute by bending rocks at someone's face, but we can change their mind. at least, as long as our ideals and motives don't falter, the way aang's don't when he's energy-bending ozai. and in real life, we can't kill a tyrant using the avatar state, but we can remove them of their power. much like how aang removes ozai's bending, the tools of his destruction. (this part of the finale rings even truer for u.s. citizens, where election is the only way to legally enact political change.) so yes, energy-bending doesn't make sense in the magic system. but it's perfect for the characters, it's fitting for the themes, and it's a wonderful piece of philosophy to leave the audience with.
"given this, is it really a fitting end to aang's character arc for him to compromise his ideals, and take a life he never wanted to take?" Definitely! It shows Aang finally growing up and leaving behind his absurdly naive and childish views. What a great coming of age conclusion!
5:31 to be fair I kind of thought that the Lion Turtle was just kinda controlling Aang's unconscious body. Like people don't randomly sleep walk in this show, someone was doing something to him Although of course, it could have been interesting to see Aang see the mysterious "island" in the middle of the night and be like "huh what's that" and go check it out only to realize that after exploring it that he far away from his friends
Yes to your points. The Lion Turtle and energy bending is out of nowhere and contrived. I also noticed that energy bending is far and away, a more violent and painful fate to Ozai than simply killing him. Fire bending is like breathing to a fire bender. Imagine spending the next 40 years with a pillow over your face, unable to die. I know it's a kid's show, and obviously we can't have children murdering adults on screen. But for those who are thinking about the ramifications of what Aang did, energy bending is worse, much worse.
Tbh I like the idea of Aang pushing past everyone telling him to kill Ozai by finding a workaround but I agree it wasn't handled the best way. I think a better method would be going the route you took with Aang talking to past avatars and finding out about the Lion Turtle from them, but instead of the Lion Turtle telling him he has to kill Ozai too, it stays neutral and asks Aang how he knows about him. Aang mentions the avatar who told him. The Lion Turtle ponders, maybe thinking of his history with that avatar before saying he cannot bestow a power upon Aang to give him what he desires, but can bestow wisdom of the past. The Lion Turtle gives Aang his memories of the avatar that told him about the Lion Turtle, namely the one time they met. There, perhaps that Avatar is talking about Chi pathways, and memories of Aang's training with Pathik resurface in his mind. Aang isn't sure about what to do, but leaves the Lion Turtle and thanks him for his wisdom. Fast forward through the fight and when Aang does his seismic sense and immobilizes Ozai, he realizes what he can do. The scene plays out about the same except when Ozai asks what Aang did to him, I like that he instead says he permanently sealed off his chi paths instead of "taking away his bending." It makes the scene feel more connected to the verse cause honestly I think Energybending is a really dumb name that doesn't help with it sounding half baked as an idea. I think that it should have just been referred to as the sealing of Chi or something similar Edit: I realize that the avatar referring Aang to the Lion Turtle only to be given memories of that avatar is sort of redundant but my main takeaway is that instilling the idea of Chi being the answer is the ultimate goal here. Getting Aang to think about Chi pathways and how they work, only to finally come to the conclusion that he can seal off Ozai's Chi paths is the idea I had in mind.
While it feels like an asspull, I have nothing wrong with how it was laid out. Another word for energy bending is spirit and they’ve been talking about spirituality throughout the whole show. Aang was even able to use what can be known as energy bending to find his earth bending master. What’s the real asspull is how an all powerful all knowing island sized entity gets hunted to extinction
Finally! Like you said, this show was almost perfect… ALMOST. The way it ended never sat well with me, and it was a very uncomfortable position. On the one hand, I liked how the show came up with a creative solution to stopping Ozai without killing him. But on the other hand, the way they introduced it felt so out of left field that it was unbelievable and took me completely out of the story. The worst part is that they have demonstrated the capability to have woven the lore of the lion turtles and energy bending much earlier in the series, but this execution felt rushed and improvised.
I feel like these arguments always come down to either wanting Aang to kill Ozai or not. Everyone can have their opinion of that, but personally, while I do believe that it’s important for children’s media to tackle more mature subject material like Avatar did, Aang killing Ozai in the end would have been bleak and ill fitting for the show that it actually was. And the energy bending wasn’t a problem, the only part of the end that actually felt contrived upon first watch and subsequent viewings was the Avatar state rock.
I agree, it is a cop out. But it might also be one of those things where they ran out of time. You're only contracted for so many episodes ect... And I think they could've had 1 or 2 more episodes with the lion turtle. We really just don't know the politics of this
what if the Lion Turtle said "bro just crush his arms and legs"
I mean it works
Too bad aang is a pacifist
@@encouraginglyauthentic43 exactly he's a pacifist it wouldn't kill ozai
Probably
@JoelMcCary nah. He tossed people off a cliff and sent an avalanche.
Sure they didn't die. But they definitely aren't living well.
It's either that or put him in a prison like Iroh or the boiling rock
@@JoelMcCary Now that I think about it, has he been called a pacifist in world?
Because technically a pacifist is against all types of violence.
The real Deus Ex Machina is Aang activating the Avatar State by getting poked in the back by a pointy rock
I always kinda viewed these things as destiny fulfilling itself
@@FlorianWendelborn a core message of the show is you shape your own destiny though
I think it was supposed to be like a pressure point thing. You're right though, they don't go on to explain it at all
@@donalddonald348 That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count
@@donalddonald348 In the words of Uncle Iroh: "Today destiny is our friend. I know it."
The library epsiode was a perfect opportunity to foreshadowe it but they didn't. I wish not killing ozai was brought up earlier
Agreed. I hate that it only became a dilemma the last few episodes of the series.
Wasn’t there a scroll with a lion turtle and a man that aang sees in the library?
@@shn1804Just because it showed a picture of a lion turtledoesn't mean it's foreshadowing lion turtle to swoop in and save the day.
@@xJayhawkFANxidk man there’s a bunch of lion turtle stuff sprinkled in the series. Off my head I can remember the lion turtle statues at piandao’s estate but there are several more throughout the show
@@aleatheltrashcan478forshadowing the lion turtle does not, in any way, forshadow energy bending
The thing that pisses me off the most about the finale is that Appa was able to fly from Ember Island across the near entireties of the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom to Ba Sing Se in one day including a side quest to find June, when in season 1 it took Appa a whole day just to cross the channel between the two coasts. And then the next morning a lizard is able to run and swim across the entire globe to the fire nation capital in a few hours. The grand sense of scale of the world that had been established in the first 2 seasons was reduced to feeling like sprinting across a video game map for a final boss mission lol. I know, very insignificant detail, but that’s the hill I’m dying on
Agree. That bothered me the most too. Like the journey to find the other water tribe took several weeks to fly and was basically the plot throughout the first season. Thats the scale of the world.
Agree. I know that part of the reason for why the Gaang's journey across the world in earlier seasons was that they were essentially sightseeing and exploring instead of just making a beeline, but it does still diminish the scale of their world in how fast certain distances were able to be crossed.
Like if I do a road trip from LA to NYC, it would take significantly less time if I only stopped for gas, meals, and hotel stays at night than if I also stopped to visit national parks, museums, theme parks, or other various tourist attractions along the way. But even then, a certain time frame would still be impossible. Like, even if I only wanted to cross the distance and I didn't give a crap about visiting anything else in between, and I just laser focused on getting from one point to to the other, I still couldn't complete the trip in say, just a couple of hours, unless I broke the sound barrier with my car multiple times over, lol.
Who cares stop analyzing those little details
too bro
@@destinygames5778it’s bad writing. Cope
I suppose I'm a centrist. I'm fine with Aang not killing Ozai, but it had to be a solution that Aang himself forged. Instead of something that fell on his lap.
When every main character in the series learns something new, it's because of their own resolve Their own desperation. Their own knowledge.
That's all I wanted for Aang.
THIS. A huge ongoing theme of the show is that being trapped or threatened leads to innovation. Sweatbending, bloodbending, metalbending, even Katara using healing for the first time without being taught, all came out of desperation. Aang having his cosmic pathway blocked and having to find a way to deal with that, combined with the lessons he’d learned along the way and most importantly driven by the intense determination and focus that his need to not kill as a solution provided, could have led him to discover, or rediscover, energybending - a power which honestly isn’t all that world-breaking if only the Avatar can do it. I read the lion turtle out of nowhere as less a deus ex machina than a clumsy shortcut substitute for story beats they’d run out of time to elaborate on.
And having Aang just ice Ozai at the end strikes me as kinda anime edgelord-y, honestly. “No matter how powerful you are and how much you try and how wrong it seems to you, sometimes you just gotta put a MFer in the ground. So kids, listen to your elders and kill who they tell you to.”
@@muddlewait8844I disagree with that last part. I'm gonna kill you now to stop this philosophy from spreading
Except Katara. She just learns everything when it's convenient.
@@gordonneverdiesnot . Katara only had a power by pure convenience when it was the bloodbending
@@muddlewait8844or Aang could just break his arms . In fact Aang in the book 3 was at his worst . In the end, he litteraly lost all the argument against the past avatar , had no solution about the problem, the lion gave him the perfect technique and in the end he was an avatar mode by total luck and thus the other avatar won for him
I rarely see people actually criticize this show, so seeing someone talk about stuff that I myself also had problems with was such a joy to listen to. Amazing video, and I’m shocked this isn’t more popular. Keep up the good work. 🎉
Yeah, the only usual criticisms is the romance
The show is so good in other areas such as story, character development, world building, character arcs, that people can forgive other mistskes. Energy bending is a deus ex machina, yes. But the show is so solid in every other aspect that people can overlook it because no show is flawless. But Avatar comes as close as you can get.
If I’m being honest the avatar fanbase is flawed because they view every criticism as hating and kind of circle jerk around the series. Like I love Avatar and I do view it as a masterpiece, but people have an extraordinarh bias about the series.
That's cap. This show deserves no criticism at all. It is perfect every single second of every episode
Is this your first time on the internet? Energy bending has been bitched about for a long time.
I once heard that the writers wanted to add Wan's story in the original show, but it didn't fit in anywhere, supposedly. To be frank, it still didn't fit in well in Korra, and just hijacked the second season... But this was the perfect spot to have fit it in. It would have made the second season of Korra not be a retcon of bending itself.
Aang calls the previous Avatars for advice, they all tell him to kill Ozai.
Aang is unhappy and starts calling Avatars even further and further back, they all tell him to kill Ozai.
Finally, Aang reaches even further back, to this strange young man who tells him how back in his day, the world was so dangerous that humans had to live on lion turtles just to survive. And that there were no benders or avatars, instead, the elements were borrowed "gifts" from the lion turtles. And that borrowed gifts are simply just that, "borrowed".
It would perfectly set up the idea of being able to take bending away and would have made "Origins" in season 2 of Korra much more earned.
This right here. It almost makes it seem like we got Wan's story in Korra to make up for/compensating for the end of ATLA being like this. In fact all of the enjoyment I got from watching were just the homages they paid to the original show
Avatar Wan ruined bending entirely so no, it doesn't fit anywhere besides a garbage can
I like this idea too. I think killing ozai accomplishes very little, still having a blood thirsty nation now with a martyr. Taking away his bending was the right call, but they way they went about it is poor. This sounds alot better, good idea.
Wasn't a fan of Wan's story. Or at least not how they portrayed him becoming the Avatar.
Avatar Wan is one of the worst things Korra retconned into the continuity. It flies in the face of "The Avatar is a mystical entity who is the manifestation of the World's Energy" and turns all of that into "Oh yeah it's Jesus and Satan and just some asshole who was the first Avatar but was also a selfish spoiled jerk".
Ruins the mysticism of the setting. Avatar Wan is the biggest reason I hate Korra.
Very valid critique, i couldn’t put my finger as to why the lion turtle bit felt funny, but you’ve vocalized it eloquently. Hats off.
They’re actually missing a fundamental point the show was trying to get across with energy bending: often times in life were faced with seemingly only two choices. This is a false dichotomy. Often a third or more choices will reveal themselves to those who search. In the show aang was seemingly given two choices: forsake his values and save the world, or maintain his values and let the world fall to ruin. He searched for a 3rd option and was rewarded for it
@@kinesissado9636 That's the thing though, he didn't search. He literally sleepwalked into a magical powerup that not only wasn't setup, but also has implications that threaten one of this show's greatest strengths, its powerscaling
@@kindbrute4640 but didn’t he consult all his past lives to try to find an answer? Sure he slept walk to the lion turtle, but he asked the lion turtle if he had an answer. It may not have been a scholarly search but it was a spiritual one
@@kinesissado9636 This answer would hold water if the answer to his search was also spiritual. Instead a physical being arrives, hands him a never before seen magic power, and that spiritual search is ended but not concluded. For lack of a better word, it's unsatisfactory
@@kinesissado9636 Not always a false dichotomy, no; sometimes there are only two choices. The Deus Ex Machina insertion here was a terrible decision on the part of the writers.
i think it makes sense that we didn’t know about it, since nobody in the show knows about it, it’s a forgotten art
And that's fine. The only problem is that Aang and The team didn't discover it themselves. It was just handed to Them by a random Guy that appeared from nowhere.
Sure, it can be a forgotten art. But the way it was introduced at practically the last possible minute was kinda poor.
Well isnt that convenient
Yea obviously in fact having aang discover that alongside the audience is actually really cool cause it really does feel like an actual lost art "kinda like how we discovered about the eclipse blocking fire bending thingy or the moon spirits" the problem is that those were handled masterfully this was not
But I gotta say the lion turtle looked absolutely horrifying and out of place which is great as it gave off an "incomprehensible ancient being" vibes so points for that
But his main argument is that it came out of nowhere at a convenient time without saying it was destiny AND that it doesn’t match the magic system because qi is something everyone has and if you don’t you’re dead
Yeah, I think they decided they didn’t want to show Aang killing Ozai in front of their audience. So they felt like they needed to create some kind of cop-out. I think it would make more sense for ONLY the lion turtles to possess the ability to energy-bend. Or just never making energy-bending a thing at all. I don’t understand why they didn’t just have Aang learn the ability to chi-block like Ty-Lee. Except Aang, being the Avatar, can seal off chi pathways permanently. Like how you can plug up leaky holes with concrete or cement or something. And that’s what he does to Ozai.
Something similar did happen in LoK so your point is valid. But I think we'd need a few more episodes on Aang learning chi blocking. So he'd have to either find a master or free Ty-Lee (Along with Mai and the other Kyoshi Warriors) from the boiling rock.
To be honest, Chi blocking does feel like a melee technique Aang would pick up on too.
Chi blocking isn't a permanent solution. Maybe if they give him the red lotus treatment. Also what's wrong with energybending. It's the original and the purest form of bending. It's a cop out because of how it's introduced, not because it's lore breaking.
@@clintonjefferson6494 Except Legend of Korra shows it can be permanent with the use of bending (specifically Amon using Blood Bending to permanently alter the flow of chi, thus removing bending from people until Korra used Energy Bending to repair the flow of chi).
@@revenge3265 blood bending is not chi blocking even though the effect is the same. Even if aang learned blood bending, he couldn't use it without the full moon.
@@clintonjefferson6494no one said Blood bending is chi blocking, but Chi blocking can be achieved with Blood bending
Your ending is legit bro, don’t feel bad about it
It was so stupid to have Aang say “Violence is never the answer”, after using and then have him continue to use violence and is fine with his friends using violence as well. Also suddenly making him care about murdering someone even though up until that point he didn’t care for the wellbeing of his enemies except maybe Zuko. It’s really hypocritical.
The reading comprehension devil got to you. Poor soul
Yeah, there's a few specific episodes were Aang pretty much has to kill people. Sure, it's mainly off-screen deaths in that enemies are being pushed off a mountain or falling off a cliffside, but it still shows that Aang has killed before even if he didn't make himself aware of it.
Preach, brother!
Honestly I love you idea. ESPECIALLY since Monk Gyatso was willing to take lives when it wad necessary.
how I would fix it.
during the lybrarie episode have someone take a scroll with energy bending. and leave it as a background element until anag losses his the avatar state. and then have him practice it to try to get it back but it never works. then have a spirt lion tertle help him but it still not work. then during the final battle when he is about to loss instead of a rock awaking it have him despeterly defending using all the elements and when almost overpowered by the fire lord, have him shoot out a laser beam. have the fight play out but now instead of it coming out of no where he was been working on regaining the avatar state through book 3. and at the end have him figure out that if he can give himself his avatar state back he can take away others with it in revers. so then he can take away the bending. he could also use this power to make new air nomards at the end of the show from the refuges. this helps the new air nomads be more conected to actions instead of spirt dus ex
some other small changes I would let everyone healing (make the water so it quicker but also let it be done through something like hema tattoos or acuputor ect )chi block and use internal energy bending to let non benders bend in the presses of benders of momentarally create some other power think rouge and leach from xmen or haki from one peice . so the next show focuses on these technics being using by non benders to better set up and slightly fix korra but that has to many issues to address with one change to energy bending
The freedom fighters part got me laughing 0:28
There a probably atleast a dozen better ways to handle Ozai than just aang killing that DONT require a deus ex machina
You can have the villain die as a result of their own machinations, even have Aang try to save him from an imminent death, like falling into the ocean and drowning, getting crushed by a rockslide, or an explosion from one of the blimps, but the firelord rejects his aid choosing to preserve his honor in death (Seeing as "honor" is a big deal in the fire nations culture)
You can have Aang's spiritual conflict be more literal than abstract, where the two are put in a position where they are forced to use their words to battle ideaology, really get down to the roots of the firelords motivation, humanize him and have Aang present an emotional revolution that breaks his resolve to fight
You can have Aang spare him and walk away, only for Ozai to lash out for a cheap lightning attack but have a third party save the day, like Zuko or Iroh, they could redirect the lightning back at him and damage his nerves rendering him mostly paralyzed from the neck down.
theres SO many better decisions that dont require a cop-out or a character assassination.
This ^ Someone also said chi blocking which could another solution
Womp womp
you're cooking with that third option 👀
They can’t do the first option because they already did that with Admiral Zhao and it would be repetitive.
Second option is good and practical, but frankly boring for a cartoon. Next.
Third option is good I guess but who would do it? Every other character had such amazing stories going on in that moment.
I think Aang blocking Ozai’s chi Tai Li style would’ve been best but nobody taught him how to do that so it wouldn’t fit either.
@@smileydog5941 Yeah and if we continued this logic the lightning scenario wouldn't work because Zuko already did that for Kitara when they fought Azula, I THOUGHT it was already strongly implied that *_other things_* would need to be changed and moved around as a result for a more satisfying resolution to the overall narrative- without the need for a twenty paragraph text wall meticulously rearranging the entire Avatar timeline, considering ALL of this is just mere hypotheticals being made with 20 years of hindsight for a childrens cartoon, but I guess I over relied on the 'benefit of the doubt' ... _that was my bad._
No I am sorry to say I am not going to be outlining anymore theoretical scenarios, but you did help illustrate my point that better solutions to the Ozai dillemna do infact exist, even if they were wasted earlier in the series, and for that I sincerely thank you.
I'll just put this out there.
Have him being injured by Azula force him to meditate on managing his chi so to gain a foothold in blood-bending, healing, lightning redirection and chi blocking.
Have him still be angry enough that he tries to restrain himself during the fight with Ozai only to be set off by the taunts of genocide (and also because Ozai tried to swipe his head off, kind friggin weird how little Avatar Aang seemed to care in that moment but w/e)
Have Aang create the ultimate method of chi blocking by combining his knowledge of manipulating chi with the power of the Avatar State.
There, now it all fits.
Personally, I don't see why Aang couldn't just cripple Ozai and bind his mouth until Sozin's Comet ended. I also still like the idea of using spirit chi blocking, which would be an enhanced, more permanent form of regular chi blocking. There's also bloodbending, but that would need more setup with Aang learning it
Yeah you’re right it should’ve been mentioned at least once or twice about how it’s some “ancient mythical creature with divine knowledge” or whatever so it seems a lot less random
I think it was foreshadowed the tinyest bit with the amount of lion turtle imagery in the background but that could very well be anything else
It actually was. It appared in a few episodes, but mostly in the background. Piandao also mentions them
They showed at least a handful of depictions of lion turtles throughout the show. I know I wondered why those were important enough to put in there. The issue for a lot of people is that they didn't see it, so they didn't care about it. And since no one in the show brought attention to it, people think it came out of nowhere.
Energy bending is so bad of a consept that Legend of Korra use it to say that bending was originally zapped into you by a diety instead of practicing martial arts and studying nature.
Bending from the start was not something you could just learn, you needed have the power to do it first which is inherited, and then you could improve your abilities by studying martial arts and nature.
Having it zapped into them was a pretty good explanation for the first benders considering how all benders after them got it from the genes of the original benders.
No one learned bending by just practising or studying. You are born with it or you aren't. This is the case even in ATLA
Nowhere in the original series gives off the impression you only need to study nature and martial arts to get Bending... Otherwise everyone with enough dedication would be Avatars and there would be no such thing as non-bending fighters Ty Lee. In the original series, literally the only thing known about Bending is that it is somewhat inherited/genetic based, some people are straight up just naturally more powerful (not as in the best fighter, but as in actual POWER), and that sometimes people simply aren't born with the ability to Bend. TLOK does not break any established rules regarding the origins of Bending and is in fact the only actual explanation for why it exists. It also gives an explanation for why non-benders exist, because not everyone was given Bending before humans lost contact with the Lion Turtles. Due to Bending's genetic ties and basic rules of biology, any Bender with an ancestor that was a non-bender, has a chance for their children to be non-benders. If you're gonna critique TLOK, actually use valid points.
This is just a false statement. Non benders are proof gang studying nature/original benders and martial arts aren’t enough to be a bender. You must be born with it, or in TLOK, bending originates from the lion turtles who are implied to be older than the concepts of light and darkness itself
It ruined it further thanks to that added nonsense
Well his tattoos couldn’t have started glowing before meeting the turtle bc he couldn’t go into the avatar state anymore. The last time he did before against ozai was at the end of book 2 when Azusa shot him. 7:54
What about when he crossed over into the spirit world to meet and talk to Roku in The Avatar and the Fire Lord?
Phenomenal video. It was well thought out and put together amazingly I completely agree with everything you said the only thing I don’t agree with is ur idea for the ending. Aang was the last air nomad he is the only representative of his entire culture. Killing ozai would not only be ending the air nomads as a whole but proving ozai right. He thought the air nomads way of living was weak and for that deserved to die. Aang killing him would be a rejection of everything he was taught and embracing ozais twisted world view. The avatars duty is to protect the balance of the world this would including the air nomads which also means aang. Yancheng could ditch her teachings because she wasn’t the last airbender her people’s culture would live on regardless of her decisions.
One of the best comments here
You're well thought out and put together
yangchen literally told aang to do it lmfao. and what do you mean "prove ozai right"? thats completely incoherent
Aang killing ozai isn't destroying his culture or "Proving ozai right" it's doing his damn job, what it means to achieve balance is to get rid of elements that disrupt equilibrium. Aang exactly living the way of a monk when he's getting down with Katara and raising his kids with her, cause that's NOT how the monks did it. Aang's responsibility is to the world as he is the incarnation of it (before the retcon). So he should be required to do what's needed for the world to thrive.
@@TrueReverse74 Then Aang would be no better than pre-season 3 Zuko, Who let others around him force a specific destiny onto him that fundamentally clashed with who he truly was. Somehow everyone in the "he should've killed Ozai" camp forgets or ignores the aspect of the show that directly preaches against that. Aang's responsibility as the Avatar is to STOP a threat to the equilibrium of the world, not specifically to kill it. Just as how Zuko's responsibility as the new Fire Lord isn't to be inherently ruthless and willing to sacrifice anyone to ensure the hegemony of his nation, like Ozai would have raised him to be had he not been banished. Both characters had risen up to their destined roles and titles, while rejecting the "expected" characteristics of those roles that would've compromised the people living behind them. Aang saying "F U" to the world's dogmatic belief that the avatar must kill, is the exact same as Zuko saying "F U" to his father and the Fire Nation General's notion that the lives of the new recruits have no value outside of bait. Yet only the latter gets praised...
I hated the way he defeats Ozai. It feels like such a violation to take something like that from someone. Death would be more humane.
i feel like your only justification for your proposed new ending is that it would make for a better sequel show (which likely wouldn't even be about aang in this hypothetical regardless). you forget to acknowledge at all what that means for the ending of this show, the finale of the arcs, and what that says to the audience? while yes, aang taking ozai's bending away is contrived, it provided a necessary closure to a theme that was woven between all the stories and dynamics for three seasons: shape your own destiny. it's almost antithetical to have it be the opposite of zuko's arc.
i see where you're coming from, i really do. but in no way does aang killing ozai feel fulfilling to the character or as an ending to an up until that point 10/10 show.
problem is the lion turtle spits on that concept. he didnt shape his own destiny, it was shaped for him by a deus ex machina. takes away the agency and struggle aang had. and honestly, but hipocritical of aan "violence is never the answer" ok tell that to every person you have fought throughout the series, i would love to see those fights again with aang not using violence to defend himself. like fuck off show. they didnt want to kill ozai cuz it would be bad for the kiddies, but could have come up with a million ways for him to be removed from the picture that didnt include a massive plot contrivance.
Imagine this.
Aang discovers that all bending’s were connected through energy when they visit the giant tree in the swamp. Later, when visiting the library tower he finds out about the beings that can directly Manipulate chi flows,lion turtles. It’s kinda like chi blocking, but twisting and destroying the streams that chi goes into. Not destroying the chi, but destroying the ability to use it. Finally, when fighting Ozai he intentionally leads him towards the sea. Then, you find out that one of the swamp people who can use the tree in the swamp; spoke or communicated in some way to the lion turtle, told him about the deeds of Ozai, and if he found the turtle, it would surely be killed. The turtle, now convinced, stayed at the bay of the sea, then we get this scene of Aang kicking Ozai towards the turtle, restraining him with water bending, while the turtle takes his bending away.
Okay, I have to admit that I am not the best story teller, but I believe that this ending would make total sense, and would be better than the one we have now. You can probably find flaws, and if you do please inform me so we could brainstorm a better ending, but I just think that this ending *might* work
Flawed but better and pretty good ending
I agree it would kinda fix the energy bending problem, but it also robs aang of solving the problem as the avatar, if you get what I mean. Ozai has been set up for the 1v1 for a long time, a d to just ally oop him too someone else to solve is kinda lame. BUT this would have fixed korra hopefully 😂😂
@@fatdinosaurfood8059 ty
it makes sense at a purely surface level, but think about the avatar's role in the story. they are supposed to solve the problems themselves. they alone can correct the balance of the universe. to have the lion turtle solve aang's problem for him wouldn't make sense for that.
@@flopdeop135 true, it’s the best I got. Want to try to see if you can make a better one bc i’am drawing blank 😓
I kinda think the same thing about that old monk that taught him about chakras. It was sorta random, and didn't really have much effect on the rest of the story. They probably could've left it out and it wouldn't have changed anything
Yeah but that would leave out the opportunity to teach kids about Chakra points and energy flow. Everything is energy. You and I are energy. If you don't sleep or eat well or are stressed you will be "low energy".
@@nathanstafford8412 are you serious?
If we're going to lean into the spiritual aspect of the show so much in the end it would be fitting if Ozai was sent to the spirit world by Aang through a one time use power given by the turtle, this one time use could also just be a very restricted use ability(it can only be done at X place, only under X circumstances, only if he's weak enough in spirit, etc.)
If we attribute the powerup to the Turtle doing some weird spirit stuff the issue really resolves itself, you could do some exposition beforehand explaining that Ozai needs to meet X criteria to be sent there and the entire fight is Aang trying to meet those conditions, furthermore we could see conflict between Aang and the Avatar state, whenever Aang enters the avatar state(say he does it multiple times out of desperation to save his life) he would try his hardest to fight to regain control before he accidentally kills Ozai, which would explain later how he mastered the avatar state being able to overpower the will of THOUSANDS of avatars in order to respect the teachings he was taught by the Monks and his own values, it would speaks volumes on how strong his spirit/will/mind is. Spirits have no reason to take sides in human conflict though, so instead we could use other means such as Aang giving up something for a favour to appease the turtle(even though he isnt a spirit i dont think), this favour could've been a cliffhanger too and the only mention of it is Aang being distraught at what he had to give up in order to save the world. Im leaning towards the inability to have kids, meaning air bending is actually gone, except for the avatar being able to theoretically use it, Korra would have SO MUCH plot for it to explore, what direction should they take it in? Aftermath of 100 years of war? Ozai now roaming around in the spirit world somehow still causing trouble in the physical world? The extinction of all airbending?
Sending Ozai to the spirit world would still let him reappear in the comics, if we let Iroh teach spirituality nonsense to Zuko I think it would be interesting to see Zuko encounter many of the same spirits Aang did and would let us see the dichotomy of how their respective characters behave under such circumstances especially since Zuko was struggling to much at the times he went to talk to Ozai. OR if we assume that Zuko is not able to enter the spirit world, he goes to the fire sages with Iroh in order to perform some ritual to summon a particular denizen of the spirit world, namely Ozai. Now we could set up the scene where Zuko and Ozai have a moment to talk to eachother but insert X reason to make it so he can do it only for X amount of time and every X time period.
Another issue I had with the energybending ability is how the lion turtle just GAVE it to Aang. He didn't even technically teach Aang how to do it. He just explained how it was something that used to be done before people bended the elements. And then he zaps Aang and suddenly, Aang now has this powerful and super-secret ancient ability that will allow him to resolve his moral dilemma perfectly without having to make any compromises.
A better execution of the introduction of a new ability was the concept of controlling the Avatar State. One problem Aang had earlier in the series was that he could only enter the Avatar State when he himself or someone he cared about deeply enough was in a near death experience or life threatening danger. This was a nice way of balancing the Avatar State so that Aang couldn't just rely on the Avatar State to get out of not having mastered the other elements by essentially letting old, dead avatars fight his battles for him.
But to get around this, the show introduced this idea that opening ones chakras and harnessing the resulting increased ease of flow with their chi would allow an avatar to enter and leave the Avatar State at will more easily. And this still avoided the problem of giving Aang something to use that would allow him to easily bypass the need to master the other elements sufficiently enough because he would have to meditate deeply enough and intensely enough that he could enter some sort of flow state with his mind that was required to get the Avatar State going, which isn't exactly something one can normally do in the middle of a fight with hostile and dangerous opponents. After all, they're not just going to patiently and politely wait for Aang to enter the level of flow state needed to unlock his most OP ability, so it would be a challenge to actually get to use it in a fight and it would therefore not be a cop out of having to still work on improving his ability to bend the other elements.
Additionally, the chakra thing didn't require as much introduction because it wasn't an entire new ability in the sense that it worked within the framework of how chi works in the Avatar World, instead of being some sort of supernatural ability that broke the normal rules of how chi works in the Avatar World. But if you're going to introduce a completely new ability that overrides the current system of your fictional world, then you are required to give it more introduction for how it can be possible, as you will otherwise end up creating a deus ex machina.
All this being said, the reason for mentioning how the chakra opening meditations was an example of a better way to introduce a new ability is that it involves not only setting the need for it, but also providing an explanation for how it works that fits within the framework of their system (Guru Pathik spends time teaching Aang the ins and outs of these meditations). The lion turtle literally just gives Aang the power without explaining how to use it, but Aang is able to improv how to use it in the middle of his fight with Ozai. Otherwise, if you just introduce a need for an ability, but provide nothing else, you just have a cop out.
Also, while it might be dark, I think it would have made the show a little deeper and richer in meaning if Aang had to resort to killing Ozai as the solution to this problem instead of the approach of introducing energybending better (ie - introducing it earlier). You could discuss moral arguments like, "sometimes you have to do something bad to prevent something much worse from happening," or "sometimes, a culture survives better by adapting itself to deal with unforeseen circumstances instead of clinging dogmatically to its ideals, values, or teachings," etc. In the second example, Aang could perhaps learn a lesson that moral principles have a limit to where adhering beyond that limit becomes counterproductive or less moral than continuing to adhere to it at that point. Like, refusing to take a life even though it could prevent the deaths of many others is arguably worse than just simply taking that life to prevent such harm.
Anyway, I agree that the energybending deus ex machina was the only significant flaw in the series and that the series would have been pretty much perfect without it.
imagine all avatars have the ability to energy bend from birth and the lion turtles simply have to teach it to them. it would make this feel more earned and even fix the part of Korra where problem also occurs
@@flopdeop135 TLOK is unfixable in my eyes
@@watema3381TLOK is pretty easily fixable in my eyes
@watema3381 honestly my biggest problem was how unnecessary the permaneny destruction of the previous avatars was. easy fix. book 2, the avatars are blocked off, book 3 korra struggles without their advise and book 4 she spends the time that would have been spent talking with Toph to re-establish her connection with the avatars, and the issue with the poison could simply have been that su and lin were able to successfully cure Korra on their first try. the reason Korra would be so weakened would just be something like her spirit being weak or smth, and the problems just compounded because of the poison. that wouldn't change book 4 at all since I don't see what the avatars could have provided her. fixed one of the major issues without screwing over any of the potential future avatars or upsetting the fans.
also Bolin was terrible, annoying and stupid and they should've realised that
"The pacifist should let the last of his culture die by killing the bad guy in a kids' show."
I'm sorry, but as much of a Deus ex Machina as Energybending is, killing Ozai is literally not an option for Aang. Not from a writing perspective, or a character perspective, or a network perspective.
Yeah even as a kid I was like "oh okay then. That was easy"
My personal preferred ending would have been the one where physics got involved. Like how Aang decided to fly through a cloud early on in the show, and discovered it was mostly water. Well, how does fire exist? It needs oxygen to survive. Aang could have starved Ozai of oxygen, simply eliminated his ability to firebend. The show established multiple times that firebending comes from the breath. Now, would it have been pretty bleak for Aang to choke the life out of Fire Lord Ozai? Yes. But it wouldn’t have needed to be permanent-just enough to cause him to lose consciousness and then to imprison his hands with earthbending. Would it have ended Ozai as a threat? No, that would have had to be a combined effort of the four nations. Aang didn’t need energy bending, he just needed insight into the relationship between the four elements.
I genuinely think Ozai is kinda average as a firebender. He is considered the "strongest firebender in the world" because he is the Firelord, and he has an army to command, is like saying the most powerful man in the world, he is not powerful because he is a man, he is a powerful man because he is a king.
@@remiremsar5946he literally is the most powerful and best firebender. He flies with fire like a guided rocket and can redirect firebeams after shooting them
@@divoulos5758 He flies with fire like a guided rocket DURING THE COMET, he can redirect fire beams... like any other motherfucking firebender we have seen so far, Ozai ain't special.
@remiremsar5946, what about him lightning bending within a second of the eclipse ending?
@@SecretMagician You mean like Azula being able to bend right after the eclipse ended? You mean like any firebender being able to bend again after the eclipse ended?
Virgin "Energybending was a Cop-Out"
Chad "It matches the themes of power and humanity, so who cares"
Maybe so... But it sure as heck looked cool.
You sure as heck look cool
Watching the show at .75x speed makes the pacing feel like samurai jack, I actually love it
The concept of bone bending is cool but never got around to be in the show or comics but there’s shadow bending it’s weird how can there be Shadow bending and energy bending and even like spirt bending it’s such a cop out as well and it could explain the way that old guy fixed his back it genuinely doesn’t make sense it would explain how that magicaly happened.
Bonebending was actually considered for the novels but didn’t make it in because they don’t want to overshadow bloodbending
@@FortVenturesIt can't overshadow it, you just do some shadow bending
According to Mr.Lionturle, Energy bending is the original form of bending. So ...
You're the original form of energy bending
I like the rewrite up until the point of Aang straight up killing Ozai in the end. Aang, as the last airbender, killing Ozai would be him, in a way, rejecting the morals instilled in him from his former monks teachings. Maybe instead, during the scenes where Ozai running away from Aang in his avatar state, Aang forces Ozai to hide in a cave or mountain or maybe Aang pushes Ozai through the mountain into a cave. Either way, the layout of the cave would could have a lake in it with maybe some frogs or insects scattering around inside. In the cave Aang brings Ozai to his knees and is about to deliver the final blow but, like in the show, stops claiming that no matter what he won't take a life, depsite Ozai calling him weak for not properly utilizing his full power. However, Aang then tells Ozai that even though he won't kill him, he also can't let Ozai hurt the people Aang cares for to which Aang then says that he will trap Ozai in the mountain to be his new home, prison and tomb. Ozai, in a bid of desperation, lunges at Aang only to be met with a blast of air or fire (payback for Zuko) forcing Ozai into the cave as Aang then proceeds to close the only entrance, leaving Ozai there for the rest of his days. This would not only solve both problems but keep Aang's character fully intact. In addition, it would be a another nod to eastern mythology like how Buddha sealed the Monkey King.
Did all those firebenders around Gyatso just collapse from remorse or something?
@@robertbeisert3315 Gyatso was outnumbered thus he had no choice, but Aang had the clear advantage in that fight so I doubt he would resort to murder when its been established that he'd choose peace over violence
@@robertbeisert3315 I understood that reference!
ang: I'm a ic pacifist, I don't kill important characters, i only kill countless soldiers off screen (the death is off screen, not the act)
Yeah true, very big plot convenience. Aang never has to figure out if killing or sparing Ozai is the true answer, he finds a 3rd way out
I agree that the energy bending and the lion turtle could’ve been set up better, but in the end I think a co-op of the sort was the only way the show could’ve fulfilled Aang’s arc in a thematically satisfying way. Which wouldn’t be killing Ozai
You could've been set up better
It would have been a lot more satisfying to me see Aaang have to admit his pacifistic morality is stupid and naive and then have him kill Ozai.
The whole ending was a deus ex machina - even Aang getting the avatar state back only happened because... why? He hit his back on a rock? Sounds fake but ok
If you're upset about coincidental events then I'd suggest not engaging with any plot of anything else ever.
@@CryoJnik…that’s just not how it works
@coolfungamerz6447 You mean to say that most if not all stories aren't reliant on a particular set of circumstances going in a certain way to achieve the ending outcome?
Ok the rock beund shaped that particular way hitting that exact spot is a little 🙄 but what else could happen? He was going to die lmfao and if we talk about avatar state being a chi thing aswell wouldn't hitting the same spot unblock the block? Idk 🤷♂️
@@CryoJnik there should be basis for something happening. i think they just ran out of time and had to write in a quicker fix
Considering that he’s literally merged with the most powerful spirit and the fact that chi is big part of the world energy bending is definitely not a cop out.
at the time we didnt know that, and it feels like the rava shit was an afterthought rather that preordained.
Trigun actually had a similar narrative point where the main wouldnt kill
You're a similar narrative point
AAALL OF THIS. But what I hate more is when I do say I dislike energybending and the back-rock-thing or the sudden lionturtle (among many other more little things), I get sometimes a, "You just hate Aang," and/or, "So you wanted a 12 yr old to murder someone, huh." And literally neither, but in frustration I have replied, "I do hate Aang," and/or "Yes." Bc how do I get so misunderstood when saying that the turtle thing was kinda crap as it canonly is? Things can be flawed and criticized while also being one of the best and beloved things, too.
The best ending would be Aang sacrificing his own ethics for the sake of the world, and using blood bending to damage Ozai’s brain to cripple him permanently. Thus you can get around the whole issue of showing an execution on a children’s show.
I disagree with your alternate ending. I don’t think Aang should kill at all. Utilitarian morality should not be the lesson here. If the one life to save everyone was a baby, what then? I don’t know the solution, but Ozai should not be killed by Aang
But it's not a baby, it's a genocidal emperor. Isn't that a bit different?
@@juromori that’s the thing, he values all life equally sacred. So no, there is no difference to him
@@samikhan-js5lj I'm not pro death penalty or anything like that, but for what we can see in this universe, there is no way the guy could just be incarcerated to prevent him to do more bad things to other people. So, it would be fair if Aang decided to kill him, even though it went against his moral code. What would Aang value more? His morals or the life of other people? That's why I think the discussion is different from killing an innocent baby
@@juromori thinking from a utilitarian pov that decision makes sense, but Aang is just not that way. It’s not whether his morals are above human life, but his morals ARE human life. To transgress even once would be to essentially throw out the entire belief. And yes there’s no way to incarcerate Ozai and that’s the problem Aang has to face. Normally people with beliefs like Aang are big proponents of rehabilitation, and Ozai could be rehabilitated, but he needs to be incarcerated and stopped first, which is the issue, and I don’t really have an answer for Aang. But I do believe anyone can be rehabilitated , and if that possibility is real, then ending any life is wrong because you are ending a life that could potentially bring goodness.
The issue is Aang did kill people
Unless there are “cut scenes” where he goes out of his way to save people in frozen water or falling from cliffs
10:51 bro even japan knows that’s objectively untrue. Even Miyazaki knew that. People always say only Japanese people can make anime and if someone from the west makes anime, no matter how correctly or on point they are with it, since they’re not Japanese, what they made doesn’t qualify as anime. It’s not only objectively wrong, but incredibly racist.
The fact is Miyazaki of JAPAN defined anime as a subtype of animation defined by overexpressionism. That’s his words, not mine. That’s exactly what avatar is, so it’s factually an anime, cry about it. I’m so tired of seeing this brain dead take. Especially since even Japan know you don’t need to be Japanese to make anime.
Tequila isn’t tequila unless it was made in Mexico and champagne is not champagne unless it was made in France
There is also lightning bending and redirecting. That is also a foundation to energy bending in the story, as well as the really spiritual way fire bending is shown by the old masters.
Here’s my thing with energy bending, if it really were to work wouldn’t Aang have taken the flow of Ozai’s chi out of his body and into his own? The chi can’t just disappear. If energy bending were to make sense, then Aang should have the power of Ozai’s fire bending to augment his own because Ozai’s chi flowed into his own body. The energy needs somewhere to go.
The ability to bend energy would become the most coveted, sought after ability by any person, because through it they could become an incredibly powerful bender. Therefore, the method would need to be kept a secret. Only Aang and Ozai knew exactly how it happened, but people would be curious.
A good way to introduce idea of “taking bending away” would be Aang combining “chi blocking” with his knowledge of chackras blocking his full potential.
To create a “chi block” in Ozai to block his bending.
Those two powers are explored and known to Aang. So he could come up with an idea like this.
No energy bending needed
He could've used blood control while in avatar state to force Ozai to yield and remain immobilized, doesn't matter how strong his fire was, he wouldn't be able to use it if he can't move at all.
I don’t really mind the energy bending as a world breaking point because I see the lion turtles as being sort of above the rest of the spirits depicted previously, closer to almost godhood than just being spirits. Because of that I can believe they have different privileges to reality than other creatures and I think that’s kind of cool to glimpse at on rare occasions in a fantasy show like this.
My main issue is how clumsy it feels and it’s all rushed at the end, like if their power was alluded to in S2 or if we had a longer arc revolving around Aang & the lion turtle in S3 It would feel much less like a deus ex machina.
The whole show has themes of nonviolence, identity and growth so I think Aang starting off as a pacifist & finding his own way to not kill the bad guy while still growing and maturing as a character is the entire point of the show, hell even Aang finding this ability through meditation and his connection to the spiritual world absolutely fits, it’s the execution of ‘and then random turtle shows up and fixes Aangs 3 season long problem’ that feels more like a let down
Not only did you critique the lion turtle in great setail(i just thought too easy and too convinient making it an effortless plot point) but you even offered a solution that could have more interesting stories to follow up while still touching on deep themes as well too.
Watching the show 7 times isn't for show and you seem to have a great understanding of the avatar universe's worldbuilding and themes as well. Keep up the great work
I know you didn’t just say Jet was forgettable, I must be hearing things
It wouldve been better if Aang were contacted by the first avatar and brought to the spirit world to learn energy bending
I was really disappointed in the ending. For a show so subtle and so consistent it came as a surprise how contrived and blown out of proportion it was
I hundred percent agree with this person.
I was fine with it. Largely because I'm not the type of person who thinks Deus Ex Machina automatically = bad.
I agree it reminds me of people complaining that episode 6 reused the Death Star or that the Ewoks helped take down the empire. Absolutely pointless and doesn’t even detract from the movie. Why complain?
it felt like aang was supposed to set aside his personal beliefs for the sake of the world as the avatar. Like that was the sacrifice he had to make for being the avatar.
You're supposed to set aside your beliefs for the world and be the Avatar
The full definition, at least as best as I could find, "Deus ex machina is a Latin phrase that refers to a plot device where an unexpected and unlikely event suddenly resolves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story. The phrase literally translates to "god from the machine", and originated in ancient Greek and Roman drama. In these productions, a crane called a mechane would lower an actor playing a god or goddess onto the stage to resolve the plot. The device was used as early as the 5th century BC, and playwrights like Euripides made frequent use of it" it sheds more light upon the issues at hand. I'd like to point out this is one of those "critic tropes" like the Mary Sue that is almost understood and often quoted. This is how I begin my rebuttal, and despite the complex argument provided I think that the creator has missed some point in the writing. I think the confusion starts with how well built the story of Avatar is and how this spiritual element woven into the character of the avatar and Ang is like most things spiritual in theory, there but beyond our understanding and influential in the world despite our lack of perception.
So Ang through his whole journey has battled with his avoidance with the responsibility as the avatar, first acting childish because he is a kid and wanted to live life, but that was partially a facade as he didn't want to kill anyone(a responsibility he knew he would have to do if he finally propperly accepted being the Avatar.) Even learning that past air bender avatars had taken life appalled him, one might argue that trying to solve problems without killing people is a major theme of the show. Almost always death has consequences. its idealistic, but it can be in a world that actually has a spiritual element that is fully incorporated into the world. Remember when Kittiara(sp?) found the man that was responsible for her mother's fate??? leaving him alive was the worst punishment and she easily could have offed him..... this will come back.
The dragons in the show, the mole things that taught the earth bender are two examples of things that we kinda knew about but didn't until they became crucial to the plot. In this case it isn't ang playing and tripping through his spiritual powers but this is the kind of thing in writing that leads to the god showing up being lowered by the mechane. Is it different than the dragon/sun tribal scene, kinda but it had a little extra spiritual components as it is like the power is directly given to ang, not taught, but granted by a revered almost mythilogical being..... kinda like dragons were starting to become after they were thought extinct. Basically The Turtles werent teachers of any of the four forms..... they were different but necessary to the process in some fashion(that we didn't learn more about till later and learning that information didn't help that story either so yeah)
The final problem with your hypothesis is Ang had defeated the firelord by the time he used the punishment. It was only the solution to his own personal quest, not the resolution of the story. Remember the avatar state gives zero freaks over murder, so they easily could have done that. Ang sacrificed everything during his quest, finding a new family and finding a solution are the payoff to everything he already lost. by the time the "god" had any affect the story was already resolved. Azula was defeated and the throne was going to be claimed by Zuko, the fire nations attack had failed and the fire lord if nothing else could be contained in a way to never bother anyone..... but we got a special extra egg at the end. The entire nation of air benders, DEAD. Ang father figure and teacher, DEAD verifiably with a found corpse(and the chad deff took out those fire benders in a lethal way, air nomads are only as non leathal as they need to be) The Air nomad society DEAD and temples desecrated by others, serving as a place to create the Firebenders greatest weapons of war(I love Airships.... maybe its living in Akron Ohio where the goodyear blimp armada still does its thing) The world set into unending war for a hundred years due to Angs absence, yeah lots of people on Ang's conscience there. In fact, one of the only things about Ang that make him redeemable after all the death that is his fault is first his innocence, but after he looses that its his ethical compass, and that gets to stay in tact.
The story gets to focus for a moment on all those little quotes from daddy uncle about peace and life. The ultimate punishment of powerlessness get bestowed upon the megalomaniac. The war gets to end. It's hope and justice that get to win, not destruction and revenge. It's a plot element that changes the ending to a point where it fits the philosophy of the show, not bring about the ending because gods know best, or there is no solution..... it's clever and four seasons in the making.
And also yeah, lets not talk about Korra......
thank you whoever actually read all that or at least enough to like it?
Korra is awesome, so let's
@revenge3265 I'm up and down on Korra. Overall, I think the show was fantastic, but suffered from its shakey ground from being a show never knowing how long it would last. The plots feel artificially forced, and through lines that might have taken multiple seasons in the first show are crammed into just a few episodes with less time devoted to them. The problems become complex because of how the plots become oversimplified. The world building is still complex and beautiful, especially if you look at the comics and expanded media leading up to Republic city. That being said, there are SO many of these problems that each can fill their own videos trying to break them down and the why and how they happened. The most important part is I enjoyed the show, and if you did as well thats awesome.
A 5 paragraph essay?
@TheRealHerbaSchmurba yeah I "too long didn't read" often.... but its a serious response to at least most of the points brought up in the video essay
In the world of Avatar it’s not about planning, preparing or cheating. Everyone is connected pushed together by fate. Aang encounters the lionturtle because that was always how it was supposed to go.
“Today, destiny is our friend. I know it.” -Iroh
yessss 🩷
Hard disagree.
"If you have a difficult moral dilemma, you can just rely on fate to drop the answer in your lap instead of having to put any effort on your part to figure out a solution."
@@johnwalker1058 Aang was stuck in ice for 100 year until he met Katara… you’re telling me that’s not fate? how else would he have gotten out?
Pretty sure an entire episode "the fortuneteller" is about shaping your own destiny and that you can't rely on a metaphorical "fate" to guide you through life.
@@lectroeel6290 everything the fortune teller said ended up being true and sokka was just a negative nancy in that episode.
Your potential thus far is here in Avatar: the Last Airbender videos... not whatever I just saw on your channel with random Pikachu sounds and noises... Narration skills are on par and your arguments are excellent. Potential, potential, potential. Subscribed for your future success!
What is your beef with Korra? Also, it would not be ideal at all for Aang to kill Ozai. Part of what made Aang so lovable were his idealist principles that NEVER gave up. As you said, they should have given the Lion Turtles more of a presence in the world-building for the sake of emphasizing how significant in the lore they are- almost mythologizing them- so that when we DO end up seeing one, the idea that Aang is given a cheat code to do exactly what he wanted isn't all that unbelievable. Or make energy-bending more of a double-edged sword somehow. Maybe reducing the wielder's lifespan significantly. This would explain why he died prematurely as opposed to the iceberg having accelerated his aging.
Or they could have given Disney villain esk death,when right after he restrained him and refuse to kill, instead of doing the energy bending stuff he just dodge and Ozai falls in the spikes cliffs bellow, so Ozai death its his own undoing ....
It was a Goober, but it should’ve existed from the start. Just make it a rare bending technique that only the most determined and capable Avatars could learn.
I love how your channel has short random content, and then you show up with this 20 minute well articulated critique of a great show like Avatar. Idk if you’ve done this before, but it sounds like you’ve done this forever. Well done sir
Your finale doesn't go all the way in my opinion (but it points in the right direction).
Reducing the act of killing Ozai to a numbers game (taking one life to save millions) doesn't give a proper answer to the dilemma Aang is faced with. Would Aang take the same stance if Ozai was about killing just another person? Would he take one life to save one life? This is why the lion turtle explaining to Aang that killing Ozai is for the better good seems redundant. This is basically what his friends and the other Avatars have already told him. Aang himself must be aware of this. The problem here is not that killing Ozai is not justified, or that Aang doesn't understand this, but the fact that this decision contradicts Aang’s deepest beliefs as an air nomad. If Aang kills Ozai, then he can no longer be an air nomad (remember he is the last of his kind). To put it another way, Aang knows what needs to be done, but he just can’t bring himself to do it.
In order to give a conclusive ending for this show there was to be an answer to this dilemma. That Aang must kill Ozai to save the world is clear. But for this to be meaningful Aang should renounce everything he believes in to do the right thing. This is the true ethical answer to the dilemma he is faced with. Aang is not killing Ozai because he wants to protect his loved ones, or because it is the easy way out, but plainly because it is the right thing to do. This reading of the finale would also bring Aang’s character arc to a proper conclusion, as he finally accepts his role as the avatar, despite what it costs him (renouncing to being an air nomad).
However, doing the right thing is not always easy, and here for Aang it is not only very hard, but a life changing decision. After killing Ozai he just can't go back to who he was. The last air nomad would be gone. This is why the show has to make a great point in justifying why Aang would renounce everything to kill the fire lord. Personally, I feel like the show has been building up to Aang making this decision, but that would make for another discussion.
You don't go all the way in in my opinion.
Thankyou for spoiler warning
I’ll be back
Avatar is not an anime. Fully agreed.
I'm pretty sure the original owner would have had avatar aang kill the fire lord, but to make it moe kid/teen friendly they found a new solution that definitely worked. It was an unpredictable end to the saga.
Energybending is cool, if they put more of a spotlight on the whole "energy" concept that final season and made him meet the turtle earlier (maybe during the time he's at sea idk) then I think the ending would have been perfect. Still loved it though
I just finished the show and i didnt view aang to be sleepwalking when that happened. I thought he was so stressed out that he wanted to escape and be alone.
Aang just randomly meeting the ancient Sea Turtle Lion was way too convenient. It was very odd for the answer just to appear at this point was a big example of Deus ex-Machina. Aang, the main hero, killing Ozai probably wouldn't be done on a kids show could've been done on a different network maybe. Perhaps they could've had someone like: the Guru, Monk Gyatso, or Ty Lee teach Aang about energy bending. Have Aang perhaps go to the Spirit world where he reunites with Monk Gyatso
I thunk Aang should have killed Ozai. I think he should have realized then. His responsibility to the world outweighed his responsibility to self. And after killing him, he exiled himself. Then the ending of the series could mirror the beginning of the series in the beginning. He disappeared because he was trying to run away from his responsibility. But at the end he disappeared because he. Fulfilled his responsibility. The world was ravaged and built-in his absence. He has no right to lead and rebuild it in his presence. It is on them to rebuild and heal with the knowledge of the mistakes that they made and experienced. Kitara can decide to join him in exile if you wish. (Though to be fair, Aang has definitely killed people in the series)
Ehh idk I agree but don’t. I don’t think it messes up the entire bending system and it’s supposed to be forgotten art and the lion turtles. I like energy bending and think it’s a great feature. They just needed to set it up more. Not much but more. They should’ve hinted more about lion turtles in the library episode and given us more details throughout the show that way it’s still a shock but it has value and the viewer would’ve remembered details about it. You’re solution is fine with the first half but the whole point is it still goes against aang character to kill and I don’t think killing him is a good solution regardless. But other than that great video
Every time I watch the series finale I always feel that the energy bending was really cheap but in the end I just don't think about it too much cause everything else was just so great.
Avatar The Last Airbender was the best tv show I’ve every watched
E;R called this out like a decade ago.
The healing abilities of waterbenders were actually introduced in the episode "The Deserter." When Katara instictively put her hands in water to heal her burns. When we reach the Northern Water tribe is the first time we get a little bit more insight.
There are actually three occasions in which energy bending is forweshadowed. Although you can argue (and I'd most likely agree), that these moments are a bit too vague.
1-When Aang touches one of the roots of the tree to find where Appa and Momo are within the Swamp. Given the words of the man who talked about the tree and the fact that Aang says, "everything is connected." The implication is that this ability was spiritual.
2-Guru Patik was able to understand Appa's sentiments, even though he's an animal, doesn't talk, and he had never communicated this nonverbally, because up to that point Appa just growled at him until falling asleep.
Furthermore, the Guru was able to locate Aang and transfer this knowledge to Appa because of their spiritual connection.
3-The entire plot of opening the chakras. Is entirely mystical, and the objective is to ultimately make Aang ascend and reach cosmic power to control the Avatar State at will.
Extra-The concept of the Avatar being a bridge between the spiritual and the physical worlds was already planting seeds for concepts and ideas such as energy bending.
Now. I completely agree that the way they introduced it IS a deus ex machina, and that they made too many long jumps in the scale of power of said ability. I'd prefer it to stay more so like the previous examples (finding people and animals that you developed a deep connection with, being able to read emotions, and using ritualistic and psychological methods to reach enlightenment and with that, more power).
Instead, they leaped from taking powers away to energy lasers.
Ultimately, I don't think it is a bad concept. I just think they made a poor introduction for it, and then they completely went nuclear with the progression of the concept.
Yeah, definitely feel like if they put more of a spotlight on it in the last season and had say Aang meat the lionturtle a bit earlier, there would have been a good space for energybending to be fully introduced.
But honestly...the real co-out was the rock that allowed Aang to re-enter the avatar state, that was just off for no real reason.
5:30 i agree with you about everything else, but sleepwalking can be affected by wat you see, hear or feel while sleep walking. If you see someone sleep walking, you can kind of have a conversation with the sleeper, hand the sleeper stuff, or show the sleeper stuff, which can cause the sleeper to do different things.
Yeah. Yeah. Literally came up outta nowhere in the finale episodes so Aang to save the day without having to compromise his anti-killing rule. He didn't even seek this out himself or have to do some kind of test or training to learn it. He just wandered off in the night because of spirit/Avatar stuff, sat around having his viewpoint told off by his past lives, woke up the next day to see the "island" was moving, and then got his Deus Ex Machina power up before facing Ozai. At least the rock nonsense triggering the Avatar State was foreshadowed earlier by him saying that injury sealed it, so you should've guessed something was going to happen with it to unseal it. No such foreshadowing happened for Energybending, as it was JUST there to be an out for Aang's moral dilemma.
Sad thing is the comics chapters about that one Fire Nation colony handled the "Pick A Side" Dilemma better by having both fighting parties actually go to the colony and see that both the Earth Kingdom residents and Fire Nation colonists are getting along, choosing to build on that and form what'd become Republic City rather than fighting another war over custody of the place. It's a NATURAL development that solves the dilemma in a way that doesn't involve siding with either extreme.
you: "you cant use that which is already failing, to heal the thing that needs to be fixed"
gojo sensei (before the slash): "hold my beer"
Frankly what they should have done if they wanted someone’s bending to 'permanently' be remove, included chi bending, and keep it coherent with the rules of the world is to make the technique more like Chi Cealing, with the user forcing their own Chi though the targets body, clogging up their chi pathways and preventing them from using bending. This would also explain how Amon used blood bending to 'remove' a benders ability.
Then again, that's just my interpretation of could have worked. And I
Understand how the techniques inclusion at all sort of breaks the rules of the world.
I'm pretty sure Energybending is already Chibending
They could have just had Aang shoot a firewave at a restrained Ozai while the camera pans out or switches to the next scene. It would be ironic too, firelord being defeated by fire. And it wouldn't upset the censors. Aang killed people before in this show
Why you acting like blood bending is not the real problem here.
Here to say that I have always been telling people this. Without listening to your video yet, I just want to say this was a way to cheat us out of Aang having to grow up and kill the Firelord.
Because it was established before on the lion turtle episode by definition it was not a "Deus ex machina". Contrived can be argued but not a cop out.
Still need to finish this show tbh. Solid video tho, good editing, clean VO, reasonable arguments. Get yourself a better png tho.
I like the critical discussion, so firstly let me say nice video breakdown.
However, i disagree with the thought that energy bending breaks the bending system. The concept the elements come from a shared origin is consistent across multiple beliefs of real world 4/5 element philosophies.
Example, Greek philosophy talks about the 4 elements coming from a singular origin called "arche". From it the other elements are born. Similar concepts exist within the 4/5 element structure in eastern philosophies as well.
Some philosophers even believed that "arche" was one of the 4 elements and debated whether all the elements came from a singular element (water, or fire, or air, etc.) The idea that a primordial being understands that shared origin of the elements, and knows how to bend it, does not break the system at all.
Secondly, I think people hear deus ex machima and equate it to "bad" regardless of the thematic positives it potentially can bring when done right. Aang killing Ozai would shatter the theme of shaping your own destiny in opposition to following anothers. This was talked about when Zuko finds Appa at Lake Laogai about choosing his destiny, again when Iroh says it was wise to chose love over power at the end of season 2, and again foreshadowed when *all* the Avatars were telling Aang killing Ozai was the only way, despite half of the last season showing Aang battling with this idea.
I agree the convenience of a lion turtle washing up and giving Aang the answer could've been exucated better. But the resulting resolution itself leads to a more satisfying thematic conclusion in the sense that Aang found another way in taking down the Pheonix king, despite the destiny everyone around him pushed onto him. But it does lose points for the concvenience of the solution just washing up at his doorstep.
In conclusion I disagree energy bending breaks the bending system and that Aang shouldve killed ozai. But dont take it the wrong way this was a great video discussion and breakdown. (I dont think difference in opinion warrants a bad video in my eyes)
If i could quickly put together an ending on the spot?
After the argument with Sokka, about the baby picture, in Aangs frustration he wanders the compound finding a spot where he meditates and talks to his past lives (happens same as on the lion turtle). Each tells him to kill Ozai. Chagringed Aang continues to wander the house stumbling upon a locked chest in Ozais quarters. Because it seems like Ozais personal possession, Aang breaks it open out of curiosity. In it are old scrolls and pictures. Some of old firebending war tactics, rare firebending scrolls, biographies of past fire lords, a family picture both of his family and the one he grew up with, but lastly there are scrolls dedicated to avatar knowledge. One of them has curious ancient text on lion turtles. As Aang opens them he learns about the theorized history of lion turtles and their ability to bend energy. As the text seemed myth, Ozai himself thought little of it, but Aang sees this as a last hope.
Aang pockets the scroll, goes to the beach and meditates, pleading for an avatar who knows about the lion turtles and energy bending. One of the earliest firebending Avatars (not Wan) appears detailing even in his life the lion turtles are commonly known as legend. However, he knows they're real as he himself met one after a shipwreck during his avatar training. It was located in a naturally stormy part of the ocean as to why it was never found, and that the location is about a days journey from their current location. The avater diaries his journey, how the lion turtle and himself talked about philosophy and spirituality. Energy bending was a topic but he never learned. His time on the turtle was a mere 2 days but it was an enlightening experience. Telling Aang the sector he shipwrecked, he also says the journey will be dangerous causing Aang to go alone (No momo this time). Still night he sneaks off leaving a letter to the group saying not to worry, he will return to face his destiny but there is something he must do. He flies until the break of dawn which quickly turns to a gloomy storm. Unable to maintain flight he crashes into the ocean and wakes up dazed on an island.
He quickly realizes that this is the lion turtle and swims to ask it for help. It gives him wisdom about balance, everythings connected, spiritual mumbo jumbo. Then aang asks about the bending of energy. For this it could explore another eastern philosophy about energy/balance. The lion turtle says mastery of energy bending can take centuries to understand the true connected nature of all things. But this doesn't deter aang and we're left on a cliffhanger of a determined Aang training, explaining "he will give all he has to learn, even if its only 1 thing that will help he won't give up".
Fastforward and everything happens like the show. The only difference is now when Aang takes away Ozais bending, not only is the thematic role fullfilled, but through action, determination, and even some luck, Aang through his own actions struggled and fought to create his own destiny.
Energy bending also mirrors what's commonly considered "The 5th element" which is Ether or Space. I believe it was always planned to be in the show in some way shape or form.
@@izzyDbuzzinbravo. Great rewrite. I always felt the showrunners struggled to find a satisfying conclusion but had atleast a clear vison.
@@izzyDbuzzin The action is there, the setup is superior for sure, but not only do you skip over the training/personal development we've gotten for every other element Aang has had to learn, but you tease your main character sacrificing something to compensate for this absurdly fortunate tiding and never follow up.
@@laststrike4411 please do elaborate. I want to improve on my improv and writing. I genuinely don't understand what you mean
Completely agree. The only issue, maybe, is that if aang takes a life he pretty much ends airbending culture - or corrupts it forever. This would have been a great idea if fleshed out (like an airnomad who kills or becomes an avatar has to separate themselves from the rest of the airnomads?). Another thing is that the comet would have amplified aang’s firebending as much as it amplified ozai’s. So on paper aang could just completely own Ozai in a fight, perhaps beating him so badly that, even left unharmed, ozai knows he can’t surpass the avatar. Aang could have a nice little speech about ozai being right to go after him as a baby and a child, but now he’s a fully realised avatar and no single bender will ever come close to defeating him.
Isn't that a good thing? Airbending culture was literally too naive to survive.
i agree that energy-bending is a deus ex-machina, or a cop-out, or whatever you'd like to call it. its introduction was sloppy, and while i don't think it breaks the rules of the world, it feels incredibly disconnected from the bending system at large. that being said, i love its inclusion in the show, and aang choosing to spare ozai is, in my eyes, a perfect ending.
avatar is well renowned for its bending system, and for good reason. it has a set of concrete rules, but allows for infinite creativity inside of them, inviting the audience to experiment with it in their heads, an effect even more poignant with a younger audience. but despite this, i think we can all agree that avatar's true greatness and legacy comes from its rich and complex characters, who have stayed relevant and influential 15 years after their conception. while energy-bending may be a crack in the bending system, it's a final layer of polish on aang's character arc, the deeper themes in the show, and a beautiful final message for the audience.
while we like to joke about the scenes where aang demolishes enemy forces, aang has always treated any actual (plot relevant) conflict with pacifism, and complete respect for life. given this, is it really a fitting end to aang's character arc for him to compromise his ideals, and take a life he never wanted to take? throughout the entire series, aang has matured while maintaining his childlike, incredibly optimistic morality, and having him abandon this for the biggest conflict in the show would be a sharp left turn for his character. it'd be just as sloppy and disconnected from his arc as energy-bending is from the overall magic system.
now obviously, what the lion turtle said in your ending rewrite would ring true in a real life scenario, but this isn't a real life scenario. and in real life, we can't bend the forces of nature to our will. but what we can change is our own outlook, our own actions, or as the lion turtle says, "the energy within ourselves." this line is one of my favorite lines in the show. at the end of this whimsical, fantastical journey, we're summoned back to reality, and reminded that the only thing we'll ever be able to bend is ourselves, which is a beautiful final message to the audience. in real life, we can't solve a dispute by bending rocks at someone's face, but we can change their mind. at least, as long as our ideals and motives don't falter, the way aang's don't when he's energy-bending ozai. and in real life, we can't kill a tyrant using the avatar state, but we can remove them of their power. much like how aang removes ozai's bending, the tools of his destruction. (this part of the finale rings even truer for u.s. citizens, where election is the only way to legally enact political change.)
so yes, energy-bending doesn't make sense in the magic system. but it's perfect for the characters, it's fitting for the themes, and it's a wonderful piece of philosophy to leave the audience with.
"given this, is it really a fitting end to aang's character arc for him to compromise his ideals, and take a life he never wanted to take?" Definitely! It shows Aang finally growing up and leaving behind his absurdly naive and childish views. What a great coming of age conclusion!
avatar was such a perfect show that ppl are trying to build careers off of finding flaws no one cares about lol
5:31 to be fair I kind of thought that the Lion Turtle was just kinda controlling Aang's unconscious body. Like people don't randomly sleep walk in this show, someone was doing something to him
Although of course, it could have been interesting to see Aang see the mysterious "island" in the middle of the night and be like "huh what's that" and go check it out only to realize that after exploring it that he far away from his friends
I thought that was obvious lol.
Yes to your points. The Lion Turtle and energy bending is out of nowhere and contrived.
I also noticed that energy bending is far and away, a more violent and painful fate to Ozai than simply killing him.
Fire bending is like breathing to a fire bender. Imagine spending the next 40 years with a pillow over your face, unable to die.
I know it's a kid's show, and obviously we can't have children murdering adults on screen. But for those who are thinking about the ramifications of what Aang did, energy bending is worse, much worse.
I sincerely hope the live action Netflix adaptation will fix this issue
Tbh I like the idea of Aang pushing past everyone telling him to kill Ozai by finding a workaround but I agree it wasn't handled the best way.
I think a better method would be going the route you took with Aang talking to past avatars and finding out about the Lion Turtle from them, but instead of the Lion Turtle telling him he has to kill Ozai too, it stays neutral and asks Aang how he knows about him. Aang mentions the avatar who told him. The Lion Turtle ponders, maybe thinking of his history with that avatar before saying he cannot bestow a power upon Aang to give him what he desires, but can bestow wisdom of the past. The Lion Turtle gives Aang his memories of the avatar that told him about the Lion Turtle, namely the one time they met. There, perhaps that Avatar is talking about Chi pathways, and memories of Aang's training with Pathik resurface in his mind. Aang isn't sure about what to do, but leaves the Lion Turtle and thanks him for his wisdom. Fast forward through the fight and when Aang does his seismic sense and immobilizes Ozai, he realizes what he can do. The scene plays out about the same except when Ozai asks what Aang did to him, I like that he instead says he permanently sealed off his chi paths instead of "taking away his bending."
It makes the scene feel more connected to the verse cause honestly I think Energybending is a really dumb name that doesn't help with it sounding half baked as an idea. I think that it should have just been referred to as the sealing of Chi or something similar
Edit: I realize that the avatar referring Aang to the Lion Turtle only to be given memories of that avatar is sort of redundant but my main takeaway is that instilling the idea of Chi being the answer is the ultimate goal here. Getting Aang to think about Chi pathways and how they work, only to finally come to the conclusion that he can seal off Ozai's Chi paths is the idea I had in mind.
While it feels like an asspull, I have nothing wrong with how it was laid out. Another word for energy bending is spirit and they’ve been talking about spirituality throughout the whole show. Aang was even able to use what can be known as energy bending to find his earth bending master. What’s the real asspull is how an all powerful all knowing island sized entity gets hunted to extinction
He should have just put Ozai in an icy jail somewhere in water tribe where there's less heat so he wouldn't be able to fire bend effectively.
Finally! Like you said, this show was almost perfect… ALMOST. The way it ended never sat well with me, and it was a very uncomfortable position. On the one hand, I liked how the show came up with a creative solution to stopping Ozai without killing him. But on the other hand, the way they introduced it felt so out of left field that it was unbelievable and took me completely out of the story. The worst part is that they have demonstrated the capability to have woven the lore of the lion turtles and energy bending much earlier in the series, but this execution felt rushed and improvised.
I feel like these arguments always come down to either wanting Aang to kill Ozai or not. Everyone can have their opinion of that, but personally, while I do believe that it’s important for children’s media to tackle more mature subject material like Avatar did, Aang killing Ozai in the end would have been bleak and ill fitting for the show that it actually was. And the energy bending wasn’t a problem, the only part of the end that actually felt contrived upon first watch and subsequent viewings was the Avatar state rock.
16:35
I agree, it is a cop out. But it might also be one of those things where they ran out of time. You're only contracted for so many episodes ect... And I think they could've had 1 or 2 more episodes with the lion turtle. We really just don't know the politics of this