(L) Avatar: The Last Airbender

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Kazu

Theres water everywhere in the plants, in your body, remember katara used her sweat to break through that jail cell

and Earth is everywhere iirc Toph rose earth from beneath the sea in that one episode when they brang that family to Ba sing se

Meaning they can earth and waterbenders could spam too.

The only weakness for Earthbenders is if they are in the sky and just floating around.

[roriconfan]

^ The only weakness for Airbeneders is if they are thrown in the vacuum of space where there is no air and they would die out of lack of breathing or space radiation. One wonders how Sozen even managed to defeat them (they never show us). Also, one would wonder why it was so hard for the Airbenders to just flee on their airbisons. The fire nation had no zepelins back then and I doubt arrows or fire attacks reach so high. It is also very hard to imagine the Fire nation performing a surprise attack of millions of soldiers in all air temples at the same time, during when nobody noticed anything.

On another notice, Appa is the big loser of the story. Aang may be the last airbender but can still get it on with Katara (or in theory with any other human girl ... or boy XD ). What will poor Appa do? Marry Momo?

Also, poor Toph. She is the only main character still single by the end of the show.

And seriously, bloodbending ended up being a filler episode.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

One wonders how Sozen even managed to defeat them (they never show us).

Sozin's comet. They told us.

[roriconfan]

Yeah, I forgot that. Probably because it did shit in helping them the second time around. I mean Soka blew up an entire armada of super powerful zepelins, armed with superpowerful warriors, Katara defeats Azula, a character she could hardly catch up with in normal mode and then there is the Fire Lord himself ... but I guess all 4 elements excuse his defeat.

... But not the Energybending easy way out.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Yeah, I forgot that. Probably because it did shit in helping them the second time around. I mean Soka blew up an entire armada of super powerful zepelins, armed with superpowerful warriors, Katara defeats Azula, a character she could hardly catch up with in normal mode and then there is the Fire Lord himself ... but I guess all 4 elements excuse his defeat.

... But not the Energybending easy way out.

Which just goes to show it all depends on how that power is used. To be fair to the super powered warriors on the Zelepins, they can't go and use their massive fire power indoors in an extremely explosive flying machine, because that would be a really bad idea. And he had the help of a metal bender that did most of the fighting. And it was an ambush. Most of them barely even got a chance to use their firebending.

And actually Katara can do just fine against Azula in normal mode. At the end of the second season, she was actually gaining the upper hand against her. Plus Azula was just a little bit unstable at the time.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Also, poor Toph. She is the only main character still single by the end of the show.

To be honest, they are all young, so shipping isn't really the point. Sokka and Suki I understand (they are in that age range), but the whole Aang/Katara thing kinda made me feel weird.

And seriously, bloodbending ended up being a filler episode.

Not really filler, considering it's used later when Katara goes after the guy who killed her mother, and could also come up again in the sequel. And logically speaking, it makes sense, considering the human body is majorly made up of water.

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Yeah, I forgot that. Probably because it did shit in helping them the second time around. I mean Soka blew up an entire armada of super powerful zepelins, armed with superpowerful warriors, Katara defeats Azula, a character she could hardly catch up with in normal mode and then there is the Fire Lord himself ... but I guess all 4 elements excuse his defeat.

... But not the Energybending easy way out.

I agree with Haak, mostly. And I don't see Energybending as the easy way out, since Aang had to risk everything to do it, and it's a natural, logical follow on to all the other bending. Pretty much everything else can be bent, so why not energy itself? Seems natural for the avatar.

[Arabesque]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Not really filler, considering it's used later when Katara goes after the guy who killed her mother, and could also come up again in the sequel. And logically speaking, it makes sense, considering the human body is majorly made up of water.

Just to add to this, but aside form the limitations (can only be used during a full moon) bloodbending itself and its usage was very questionable ethically. Katara herself was very hard pushed to use it, and when she did she broke down over how she controlled them like puppets. Aside from the episode where she wanted revenge for the death of her mother, she looked like she wanted to avoid using such a vile technique.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I agree with Haak, mostly. And I don't see Energybending as the easy way out, since Aang had to risk everything to do it, and it's a natural, logical follow on to all the other bending. Pretty much everything else can be bent, so why not energy itself? Seems natural for the avatar.

While I don't think it was the easy way out, I would've liked had they attempted to foreshadow it a fair bit before the final episode. It really came out as a WTF moment at first, despite being perfectly logical in universe.

[ellifeedn]

^ How exactly do you foreshadow a technique that practically no one, not even the previous Avatar incarnations (the ones presented in the show anyway), had knowledge of? To be fair, there was some foreshadowing that I can think of that comes from the Guru episode.

[einhorn303]

I take issue with calling the bloodbending episode a "filler episode." Even if it's not related to the main plot, it's still one of the best episodes of the entire 3rd season. Just like Sokka's Master.

Also, I love how most of the bending techniques have a "power up" version that gets discovered later in the show:

Waterbending ---> Bloodbending
Firebending - Lightningbending
Earthbending ---> Metalbending

Maybe Aang's "Energybending" against the Firemaster is an advanced form of Airbending, since the circulation of the air in body is heavily related to the life force in Eastern thought. Like with chi and such.

[Arabesque]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

^ How exactly do you foreshadow a technique that practically no one, not even the previous Avatar incarnations (the ones presented in the show anyway), had knowledge of? To be fair, there was some foreshadowing that I can think of that comes from the Guru episode.

I like how your two points contradict each other

Let me clarify myself: I wanted to see the technique in actual usage or at least referenced before the final episode. Yes, if you go back and watch the show, you can pick up hints about how everything connects into each other and how the elements come into one source etc. But the actual technique came into play thanks to the Lion Turtle briefly before the final fight. That I didn't like, as something such as the Avatar State was explained and shown previously, hell even the other elements such as water and fire had their branched techniques (lighting, plant) before going into their specifics.

Originally Posted by einhorn303

I take issue with calling the bloodbending episode a "filler episode." Even if it's not related to the main plot, it's still one of the best episodes of the entire 3rd season. Just like Sokka's Master.

I agree that the bloodbending episode was good, but I wouldn't say it's the best out of the entire season.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Arabesque

Just to add to this, but aside form the limitations (can only be used during a full moon) bloodbending itself and its usage was very questionable ethically. Katara herself was very hard pushed to use it, and when she did she broke down over how she controlled them like puppets. Aside from the episode where she wanted revenge for the death of her mother, she looked like she wanted to avoid using such a vile technique.

Yeah, it wasn't exactly bloodbending by itself; but rather the context of it. How a prisoner can become just as bad as the people they fight, and the role it played in the growth of Katara as a character. She was obviously freaked out about it and didn't want to use it, nor become like the old woman. But she did end up using it when her anger was peaked.

While I don't think it was the easy way out, I would've liked had they attempted to foreshadow it a fair bit before the final episode. It really came out as a WTF moment at first, despite being perfectly logical in universe.

Would have probably been nice. But I see it as an outgrowth of Aang as a person. He really didn't want to kill, and wanted to find an alternate path. It drove him and tortured him, and led him to find the lion-turtle that taught him. It was a nice touch to show that Aang wasn't merely the avatar, but his own person.

Of course, the other reasoning is because the creators couldn't go as dark as they wanted, due to it being aired on a kid's network. I know they had planned for darker things in a few instances, but I'm not sure if the actual death of Ozai was one of them. Hence, they had to resolve it without killing him.

And yeah, Aang's tattoos and monk philosophies, and chakra training he went through, all hinting at how energies flow and bind things together. So it was a subtle setup. It could have been better, but I'm not one who thinks it was a complete asspull, because in hindsight, they did give hints.

[roriconfan]

Are airbender tatoos being drawn on an air nomad when he'she is still little or are they born with them? We sure see they are not natural bald people. And airbisons' tatoos, they are natural, right?

[wandering-dreamer]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Are airbender tatoos being drawn on an air nomad when he'she is still little or are they born with them? We sure see they are not natural bald people. And airbisons' tatoos, they are natural, right?

Airbison tattoos are natural and, as I recall, an airbender gets the full set of tattoos after they master airbending and create a new move (which Aang did really early on, think he created that air scooter thing).

[Arabesque]

Sort of surprised no one posted about this yet.

Dark Horse will publish tie-in series between The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra

Dark Horse will create all-new Airbender stories that will be published as digest-style original graphic novels—conveniently sized paperback collections—in early 2012. Picking up where the season three finale left off, this new series will follow the further adventures of Aang and his friends, as they help to rebuild a world torn apart by 100 years of war.

“We had a great experience collaborating with Dark Horse on Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Art of the Animated Series,” series co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino said. “We are excited to work closely with them once again to bring the further adventures of Avatar Aang and his friends to the comic world.”

So hyped

[roriconfan]

^ And what history teaches us about expanding on a successful franchise?

Plus, Aang is now a demigod; what challenge can possibly still be a... challenge? Demons from hell? Aliens? Extra dimensional mutants? Robots from the future? All that are boring if it is no longer a journey or self-acknowledgement. I mean, Aang can take on deities; what will the rest do; train at Energy bending as well while he is mastering Kaio Ken x20? This will no longer be Avatar; it will be a pointless DBZ rip off.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Plus, Aang is now a demigod; what challenge can possibly still be a... challenge? Demons from hell? Aliens? Extra dimensional mutants? Robots from the future? All that are boring if it is no longer a journey or self-acknowledgement. I mean, Aang can take on deities; what will the rest do; train at Energy bending as well while he is mastering Kaio Ken x20? This will no longer be Avatar; it will be a pointless DBZ rip off.

It's probably gonna be a "relieving" series where there will not be as much combat as we got in the previous season, just sorta a comical series bent on restoring everything to what it was supposed to be? That's what it looks like to me.

[wandering-dreamer]

I saw bits of these comics once (at least if they're the comics I'm thinking of, some of them only got published in Germany and I think these are them) and they did look like comedic little stories. Plus, if the creators really wanted them too, they could use them to tie up a few loose ends between the series and even help set the stage for Korra.
Either way I'm pumped, can't wait for the samples on free comic book day!

[Haak]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Plus, Aang is now a demigod; what challenge can possibly still be a... challenge? Demons from hell? Aliens? Extra dimensional mutants? Robots from the future? All that are boring if it is no longer a journey or self-acknowledgement. I mean, Aang can take on deities; what will the rest do; train at Energy bending as well while he is mastering Kaio Ken x20? This will no longer be Avatar; it will be a pointless DBZ rip off.

Rebuilding a world torn apart by war will be a pretty big challenge...

[roriconfan]

^ Hi, I'm the Avatar. You know, the guy who saved you all from being burned alive and can topple mountains with a wink? I would like you to stop fighting or I will have to wink.

Too barbaric? Ok, let's try something even easier.
Hey guys, these fellows here are not listening to the Avatar. What a bunch of asses! Don't support their cause.

[Haak]

Rebuilding. Not fighting.