OH GOD IT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED. In celebration of reaching the final episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, let’s all have a giant party and watch all four parts of “Sozin’s Comet” at the same time. The Avatar liveblog WILL SURELY BE THE BEST PARTY YOU ATTEND ON THE INTERNET THIS MONTH.
I am legit sad this is ending. 🙁
(I know I am using images from the Invasion of the Black Sun, but that’s because I refuse to Google image search this episode. NO SPOILERS.)
The Avatar series finale liveblog will occur at 11:00am PDT on July 9th, 2011. Please consult a world clock to learn what time this is relative to you!
If this is your very first liveblog on Mark Watches, the rules are very simple. At precisely 11:ooam PDT, start your DVD/Netflix/other means copy of “Sozin’s Comet.” Use the comments as your own personal space to comment the hell out of the episode. Think of it as an online chat room of sorts! Except we are all unified in MIND-BLOWING AWESOMENESS.
ABOUT SYNCHING ISSUES: Only Netflix skips all three of the intros/’Previously On…’ segments. So in order to stay in sync, the lovely Echinodermata gave this simple way for us to keep on track!
We will be synching with the WHITE TITLE CARDS for this. So, at 11am, we’ll all press play from THIS screen, though obviously with the right card:
Given that each part is about 25 minutes long, here’s the schedule. At the time listed, we will press play from the white title card denoting that chapter, skipping the opening credits if you are not watching via Netflix:
Chapter 1: 11:00am PDT
Chapter 2: 11:30am PDT
Chapter 3: 12:00pm PDT
Chapter 4: 12:30pm PDT
This will allow 4-5 minutes of episode switching, potty breaks, tea gatherings, and foraging of potato babies.
I will post a review of the series finale on Monday, July 11th at my normal time. And then stuff will happen. You’ll see. For now, that’s the set schedule. (PS: I’ll post the details for the A Very Potter Sequel liveblog tomorrow morning. That takes place at the same time this upcoming Sunday!)
Happy watching! Can’t wait to party with all of you!
"Where. Is. My. Mother." Whyyyyyyyyyyy does the series have to end??? 🙁 🙁 🙁
Love Sokka's painting. And yes- Momo is a master painter.
At the time… I hated that they ended with the Aang/Katara kiss… I preferred them relationship less (at least for now). But…. In re-watching….. I'm kind of glad they tied it up and finished that story.
I like that they tied up the storyline, but every time I see that end kiss, I remember that they're 12 and get very uncomfortable.
Exactly my thoughts.
a) They're 13/15 by the end of the series
b) The both of them took down two war mongering tyrants at great risk to themselves and their family. They're old enough to go to war, but not old enough to make out with each other? That makes no sense.
It's the US. Kids can play games where they tear opponents apart in a shower of blood, but god forbid there's any sexuality.
Exactly. I consider them kissing to be far more age-appropriate than most of the things they went through on the show.
Agreed. I don't mind the Kataang thing, but seeing them suck face like that? EEEEEEWWWWWWW. I think that the kiss should have been more age-appropriate.
I'm not sex-negative. If they were 15 or 16, I would have been seeing that or more. But… little kids making out is kind of gross.
But by that logic, little kids should not be fighting people 20-30 years their senior, running around the world unchaperoned, leading armies, etc. But these aren't little kids. I love how all of the former is totally okay and no one EWWWWWs at that but Aang and Katara kissing is like OMG! EW! Especially since kissing is probably more age-appropriate than leading an army into battle.
Bravo Elle, bravo. The dissonance between this complaint and the people demanding Aang should have returned with Ozai's head on a pike is disorienting (esp. the overlap).
The. End.
Chills.
And Sadness.
But happiness from getting to experience such a great series.
And it can't be said enough… but that music is (was :'( ) wonderful
What??? My Netflix cut off the end credits 🙁 I wanted to listen to the pretty music…. 🙁
Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ9UjyPA4Ls
=)
Since I missed this, I am going to watch the finale on my own time and read every one of these comments.
Also, Mark Watches ATLA IS OVER!!! 🙁 SAD FACE. Mark, when it comes on PLEASE WATCH KORRA.
I'll let Captain America sum up Aang's stance in the finale
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/0xjBm.jpg">
And Aang did so. Like a boss.
It's over X***(
And now for some spirit oasis healing fan art!
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100521165… http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhlv9nKFJt1qhaw… http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs32/i/2008/204/6/2/Av…
>That first pic
GAANG JR ART, FUCK YEAH
The last picture makes me want to see this family in a sitcom! (Before the tragedies begin)
More Gaang Jr! http://images.wikia.com/gaangjr/images/c/c8/Hayod… http://images.wikia.com/gaangjr/images/5/51/Never…
Now that the live blog is so very over, having missed it and all, I'll say it here instead of the actual review:
I love everything about the Avatar The Last Airbender finale…
Except for the Lion Turtle and Spiritbending.
🙁
Now let me prefaces this: It's not that I hate that Aang took Ozai down without killing him, though when I first saw the finale, I did hate it.
Now that years have gone by and I've calmed down, I realize it works better than killing him.
Plus, you know, Nickelodeon. Kids show. Etc.
No, what I hate about the whole thing is how Deus Ex Machina the whole Lion Turtle reveal is.
I'm sorry, but that was not foreshadowed well. Sure there were a couple mentions of it in places during the series, but they were too subtle with them.
And they should have foreshadowed the Spiritbending better somehow, because it just comes RIGHT OUT OF NOWHERE.
I hate doing this, because aside from that, I absolutely ADORE everything about this finale and the whole show, but this one plot point just gets me so worked up.
So yeah. I have all the love in the world for AtLA, except for that damn Giant Lion Turtle From Nowhere. If they'd foreshadowed it just a bit better, this series would pretty much be my favorite thing in the whole world, but as it stands, I'd give it a 9 out of 10.
And that frustrates the hell out of me.
I completely agree with you – it does seem like sparing Ozai was a last-minute network-induced swerve (reminding us all that no matter how complex, no matter how sophisticated, ATLA was and may still be considered a "kid's show"). It's all the more bewildering when you consider that ATLA uses death in very meaningful ways throughout the series:
Season 1 has the drowning of Zhao – a poetically-just climax to the Siege of the North Pole, where he's killed by the spirit he provoked.
Season 2 has Jet's death as a motivator for Team Avatar – that's literally the last moment any of them are willing to avoid a direct confrontation with Long Feng. Afterwards, they're completely dedicated to exposing him.
(Though not seen directly, you also have the specter of Lu Ten's death hovering over Iroh.)
And then we have Season 3, where the only major death occurs in flashback: Kya's murder is finally revealed, and it leads to further character development for Katara.
But you basically have two archvillains (Ozai and Azula) who have, for three seasons now, been responsible for some outright evil acts. And much like Yon Rha in "The Southern Raiders", the attitude seems to be that it's better to leave them alive because they'll suffer more in the long term (though, if that is true, isn't it more humane to kill them than prolong their misery?)
Which leads us to Energybending, a completely contrived plot device that literally pops up at the last minute to provide a convenient out. Aang's never in any real danger, the technique isn't shown to have any lasting side-effects on him, he doesn't have to pay any price for doing something that's beyond any previous Avatar (seriously, did anyone believe for a second that Ozai's spirit or energy or whatever would actually win? Please.) it's just a way for him to do exactly what Yangchen warned him against: put his own needs before those of the world.
Ultimately, if the endgame was to strip Ozai of his powers, I guess I would've preferred something that had actually been established in the series beforehand: chi-blocking, or manipulating chakras with airbending, or something. It's the one part of the finale that irritates me, because it's the only moment where the creators sabotage their own dramatic momentum for the sake of the medium.
it does seem like sparing Ozai was a last-minute network-induced swerve
Except that Bryke always planned for Aang to depower Ozai in the end, even before they had the method.
And rather than complaining about Energybending being an easy out for Aang, I prefer to think of the implications, such as "Is this how the Avatar spirit was first created?" and "Can Aang use Energybending to give people bending powers and make new airbenders?"
If that's the case, could someone explain to me what was going on during the Invasion? Because Aang doesn't look at all concerned about taking human life when he breaks down the door to the Firelord's throne room. If depowering Ozai was always the plan, why does it only come up at the last minute and not when Aang first thought he was going to face the Big Bad?
As I said in the other post, Aang didn't think that far ahead. He probably thought that he could defeat and capture Ozai during the eclipse.
And no matter what you think, you can read the creators' words themselves. Even before they'd created all the characters, they had decided that the series would end with Ozai depowered.
…You know what, that is an excellent point.
I don't see how energybending is that much of a DEM. Aang had Ozai beat already. If you take energybending out, Ozai still loses and Aang still wins.
I like Energybending for the possibilities it opens up, both in backstory and for the future.
Aang's never going to be able to create a new Air Nomad society with just his offspring, after all.And it's even worse when you consider that season three had more than its share of filler episodes. It was mostly good filler, but still, you're telling me that a dance party was more important than properly setting up the method to take down the main villain?
But he didn't use energybending to take down Ozai. Aang had already won using techniques he'd used before.
Maybe you would have preferred the foreshadowing from the original opening, which had a lion turtle statue in the background behind Aang? Personally, I think that would've been overkill.
And energy bending wasn't the ass-pull people make it out to be. Aang is more spiritually in-tune, he could feel energies like in "the Swamp," and there is a 1000 years of Avatars behind Aang. It would stand to reason that the Avatar state develops with each Avatar. Also, back in the second season Avatar State episode, the nightmare!Aang made that same chopping motion. It scared him and he didn't want to be that person. He knew then that it wasn't right. And that same chopping motion was in the finale when Ozai had been restrained.
I like the Lion Turtle. I like the energy bending. If death to Ozai was so necessary, why didn't Fire Lord Zuko order his father's execution. But even Zuko couldn't kill him. He thought Aang should do it and then tried to pawn the task off on Iroh.
I liked the Lion Turtle too. I just wish the sound editing on him was done better. I still can barely understand a word he says during the flashbacks to his conversation with Aang.
If my head-canon theory is correct and Energybending can also be used to give someone the bending gift, then it also makes sense that Aang was the one to learn it, as Aang is the only Avatar we know of so far to be dealing with the extermination of an entire nation and all its benders. Aang needs the technique to fully restore balance, and he happened to first use it when decisively ending the war.
I definitely don't think that Ozai needed to die. Chin the Conquerer died at Avatar Kyoshi's hand (sorta…), and his people still made him out to be a martyr murdered by the Avatar. If Aang had killed Ozai all alone in the middle of the Earth Kingdom, the same thing would've happened with Ozai. With him alive, everyone else can judge Ozai, and his own people are more likely to remember how he sent them off to die in the war than as their glorious leader.
I would agree. It was not a total ass-pull. ( I like that phrase, btw.) Guru Pathik's first meeting with Appa showed that there was so much more to the world of Avatar – he "read" his energy, figured out where Aang was, and somehow instilled that knowledge into Appa! Hue at the swamp also seemed to have some sort of enhanced abilities. Sure, I think it would have been nice to allude to these things more, but I feel like too much foreshadowing on this count could have made the finale way to predictable. Personally, I love the way it was done.
Not killing Ozai wasn't my favourite solution either, but Energybending wasn't a Deux Ex Machina. If it had won the fight for Aang or Aang would have won the fight with it I would agree, but it didn't. It just gave him a solution to remove the threat of Ozai permanently without killing him. Throwing him into a watercell, tightly locked might have done the same thing, but less sure (someone could always bust him out).
Now the small rock that unlocked Aangs Chakra, that was a Deux Ex Machina stone.
The fact that it was there, or the fact that it unlocked it?
Because the second is adequately explained by the Previously On segment. Aang glows in the Avatar State because the avatars send their energy through him. Katara says there's a bunch of energy twisted up in the area of his scar.
The fact that the rock was in the right place at the right time? Sheer dumb luck. But pointy rocks are all over the place, and he could have slammed into countless walls. It only takes a matter of time. Like that whole "monkeys on typewriters" thing.