I’ll never understand people who trash Zuko in the finale for using firebending to try and push Aang to train more. They treat Aang like he’s some poor little meow-meow or like an actual 12 year old when he’s quite literally the mf powerful Avatar who can defeat Zuko with EASE. Like he ain’t in danger and is fine lol. It’s just Zuko pushing him, or at least that’s how I saw it-

Look, if Aang can be a pacifist while doing back-breaking moves on his opponents, Aang can take a little tough love from Zuko. Aang actually is the one who ends the fight by blasting Zuko through the roof.

Also, Zuko didn't know that the gaang decided to wait to fight Ozai because nobody told him, and once the gaang do talk to Zuko they understand his actions and agree with him.

It's just people trying to cancel Zuko for something that's resolved within less than half an episode in canon. And mostly, it comes from people who have no defense against some of the things Aang does that are never resolved in canon *cough cough the EIP kiss* or when Azula does...literally everything she did in canon that she was never sorry for.

Late night Zuko redraw from Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 3 'Sozin's Comet'

I wanted to draw a full fledged digital illustration redraw but was too tired so I went with a B/W sketch with blue shadows.

Aang: All life is sacred. I cannot, and will not, compromise my values. I mustn't take even just one life. Even if it's a monster's life, my philosophy – my culture's philosophy – is to avoid taking life at all costs. As much as you'll try to drill it in me, it's not who I am. I'm not going to kill the a single living creature, not even the Fire Lord.

Meanwhile, Sokka:

i'm literally insane about the last agni kai and the lightning scene(s). i swear i've rewatched it 10+ times since my last rewatch of the show (which was my first watch in years) and like. azula sees katara come into view from behind. zuko doesn't. he follows azula's gaze and sees katara and is immediately horrified. he doesn't even think or hesitate because he doesn't have time and for once he doesn't have to look back at azula to figure out what she's doing because he knows what she's doing and he won't let it happen. time dwindling into slow motion as a haunting score plays? and zuko literally yelling out "no!" because that lightning absolutely cannot hit katara. as soon as he sees it there's no chance of that ever happening. and then katara watching in horror as the lightning flashes against features in what is probably one of the most hauntingly beautiful animated moments of the show? zuko hitting the ground still convulsing with lightning and katara crying out "zuko!" and immediately trying to run to him before azula attacks again? and the next scene we cut back to with them, zuko is groaning weakly and trying to lift himself up, and we see katara literally gasp in surprise as she realizes he's still alive (i'm sobbing because i do quite literally think she thought he was dead) and immediately tries to run to him again, nevermind that she knows azula is still there, and the hand katara uses for healing is already doused in water as she reaches for him. but then azula starts attacking again. and zuko, despite literally being in so much pain that he can't stand and can barely even move at all without whimpering, still tries to reach for the spot where he can see azula attacking katara. katara is forced to hide from azula's attacks. and as azula is mocking "zuzu, you don't look so good" down to zuko, the perspective shot is such that you can SEE that katara is also looking at where he lies prone in the distance, surrounded by flame (probably wondering how much time they have before it really is too late) before looking back up at azula and realizing she needs to defeat her as quickly and handily as possible so katara can get to zuko. obviously katara would have done this anyway (the whole reason they were THERE was to halt the continued cycle of the imperialist regime of the fire nation), but the scene is specifically framed as katara trying to figure out how to stop azula so the obstacle to her getting to zuko is no longer in the way. katara's defeat of azula was epic and deserves its own post. but then after making sure azula is securely chained, she runs to zuko, looks at him with such immense sadness and horror and fear as she hears him in so much pain, tenderly turns him over so she can get a good look at the wound. and she cups his head? briefly but so gently? so that he won't hit it as she turns him over? and when she tries to heal him you can tell she is so genuinely unsure if it will even work, and so relieved that she starts crying tears of joy when she sees it has (at least enough to keep him alive and somewhat lessen his pain.) they thank each other (and you can tell it's still really hard for zuko to talk and his eyes are barely open but he thanks her anyways i'm.) and she thanks him back and!!! when he starts to try to sit up she makes a little surprised face and then immediately helps him to do so (and puts a tender hand to his chest while she does!!!) and obviously that last shot of them standing together is also one of emotional support, but katara's hand on his back is also partly because i still think (and certainly katara still thinks) trying to walk/stand on his own would be a bad idea, so it's definitely not happening.

Sozin's Comet aired Exactly 15 Years Ago!

Happy 15th Birthday to the Epic Conclusion of Avatar: The Last Airbender

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here's some more i guess i didn't know you guys would like these so much

yeee

ye ah

I know she is distressed in all of these but she is just so pretty

The only advice Aang doesn’t take is Yangchen’s

Something that struck my while re-watching Aang’s discussions with the four past Avatar’s is that when he take’s Ozai’s bending away he is technically following all of their last words of advice except, ironically, his fellow Air Nomad Avatar.  

Roku: You must be decisive.  Aang is so firmly committed to not kill Ozai in cold blood that he pulls himself out of the Avatar State.  The Lion Turtle also warns him that in order to successfully bend another’s energy “your own spirit must be unbendable.”  Aang was firm and committed to his decision to find another way.

Kyoshi: Only justice will bring peace.  Justice isn’t inherently a death sentence.  Justice means consequences for one’s action in a punishment proportional to the crime.  Ozai did need to be punished after all of the pain and suffering he inflicted on countless people and threatening the balance of the world itself.  And he was.  All things considered, what is a more fitting punishment for someone as self-absorbed and power hungry as Ozai:  Dying in battle, going down in history as such a powerful warrior that it took the Avatar (channeling every past Avatar) to best him or having to live out the rest of his natural life without his status and bending (the two things he valued most) and watching as all that his cruelty and imperialism created was systematically dismantled?  Also a point I can’t take credit for this interpretation and don’t remember where I read it from but fully agree with: making the choice he does Aang proves that the Air Nomad culture and values were not destroyed.  Going back to the crimes of Ozai’s forefathers, Sozin’s legacy is proven to have failed to truly eradicate the Air Nomads and ultimately it is their philosophy of peace that wins the day over rage and violence.

Kuruk: You must actively shape your own destiny and the destiny of the world.  Similar to the point about decisiveness- Aang makes his own choice.  He doesn’t passively accept what literally everyone is telling him the only possible outcome is.  Instead, even as he seeks advice he insists on his own autonomy, recognizing that whatever action he takes will change the course of the world and its destiny.  He very much took an active role in deciding how that battle ended and what came after.

Now finally we have Yangchen.  While, in context, yes all of the Avatars felt they were telling Aang to kill Ozai they all choose phasing that as illustrated above is actually open to wider interpretation and still holds true with what Aang actually does.  Yang Chen is perhaps the most direct in her advice:  Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.  The one thing Aang does not do is compromise his own spiritual beliefs and identity.  He finds a way that upholds his responsibility as Avatar to restore the balance, prevents the destruction of the Earth Kingdom, and mete out justice for past crimes all while still honoring the beliefs he was raised on and holds so dear.

It always amuses me when people call the Lion-Turtle's appearance "convenient" or something similar.

Yep, it sure is convenient that an omnipotent, all-knowing being would appear to the One Who Is the Mystical Bridge right before he faces his Ultimate Test in the Final Days of the World. Sure is neat that the most ancient and colossal creature on the planet would choose to summon the boy who will stand in the path of the man about to burn the forests*. As ships of steel and smoke drift into the sky so they may rain fire in the blazing wake of a centennial calamity, it's impossible to comprehend why the Last Guardian of Nature Itself would choose to approach the battlefield.

Truly, questioning this plausibility of this chapter proves that you have progressed beyond childish acceptance of cartoon fairytales, and are now capable of seeing where the author's hand provided unearned aid. That's literary comprehension.

Lol read a post claiming that Azula was chained by her neck and accusing (the show, I guess) of misogyny for it, except you can clearly see that Azula was chained by her hands (and that's not what misogyny is, in any case. Stop that *uses fly swatter*)

But that got me thinking about another parallel/foil between Azula, Zuko and Katara.

Zuko offering his hands as a prisoner to show he's sorry for what he's done and Katara not accepting it because she wants him to prove on equal footing that he's sincere (zutara x that richard siken poem, i take off my hands and i give them to you but you don't want them, so i take them back but i put them on the wrong way, the wrong wrists) vs Katara chaining Azula's hands to stop her from hurting others.

Anyway, hands are important. Hands that hurt, hands that heal.

Hands that protect others from pain.

Trust is for fools

Inktober 2022 Day 5 - Flame

In The Boy in the Iceberg, Zuko rejects the true firebending for the Fire Nation's distorted version of it. Their version of firebending is pure destruction, because the Fire Nation values aggression.

In Zuko Alone, Zuko is faced with the reality that something was wrong with his upringing. He was given a knife as a child, and that's wrong. A child shouldn't be involved in violence and agression.

In The Day of Black Sun Pt 2, Zuko recognizes the Fire Nation's indoctrination and that this ideology is wrong. No violence involving children is justified. And the Fire Nation's agression wasn't justified as well.

In The Firebending Masters, Zuko is blessed with a vision about the meaning of firebending, thus unlearning the Fire Nation's destructive firebending, and replaces it with firebending based on life.

In The Southern Raiders, Zuko sees first hand that those who can be deserving of vioelnce aren't boogeymen. Thus, he can see that at times, even violence towards people who deserve it, isn't a solution to heartache.

In Sozin's Comet, Zuko is confronted by the truth that the ultimate boogeyman, Azula, is human too. Now, he can fully release black and white notions and view the world from objective lenses, not from aggression.

Ozai: Well, if it isn’t the Avatar.

Aang: But it is me.

Ozai: No, it’s an expression-

Aang: Your villain tricks won’t work on me!

Avatar The Last Airbender

Sozin’s Comet, Part 4

As the two main characters, Katara and Aang’s series-long arcs come together in the finale as they face their enemies: Azula and Ozai.

Katara vs Azula:

After Azula broke the Agni Kai she made with Zuko, Katara was forced to fight her, dodging fire and lightning while hopelessly looking for any means to defeat the comet-powered firebender on her home turf.

Finally Katara baits Azula into approaching her close enough to freeze her over the drains. However, Azula moves to lightning bend Katara once more. In a split second, Katara bends the water and freezes both herself and Azula before the lightning sparks. Not only is this a testament to her speed, mobility and precision as a fighter, but it also shows how risky this move was as she was so close to being electrocuted and losing her life in an effort to subdue Azula.

[Azula is about to shoot lightning at her when Katara freezes them both with the water under the grate.] - Transcript:Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang

Aang vs Ozai:

Similarly, Aang has spent majority of the final battle running from Ozai as he tried to find a way to get close enough to him to take his bending away.

In the beginning, Aang gets the opportunity to take Ozai’s life by redirecting lightning, but chooses not to. Instead, Aang subjects himself to ~ 20 minutes of almost getting burnt alive just because he didn’t want to end Ozai.

A chance encounter with a rock physically unblocks Aang’s avatar state and he pins Ozai down before coming out of the avatar state on his own. Again, another opportunity where he could have ended Ozai but chooses not to. As Ozai berates Aang’s people for the last time, Aang holds him in place to take his bending away. There was absolutely no way he could’ve known for certain that this would work or that he could even do it successfully until he did it for the first time here.

[Aang remembering.] To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable or you will be corrupted and destroyed. - Transcript:Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang

To summarize, both Katara and Aang risked their own lives to spare the lives of their enemies. Just as Aang’s journey to the final battle builds up this moral dilemma of how he would end the war, so too, episodes like the Puppetmaster and the Southern Raiders introduce a similar theme for Katara where is she faced with the temptation of enacting extreme violence in the name of justice and vengeance.

In a show about child soldiers, the main theme I picked up from ATLA was “How does one win a war without losing oneself?” The protagonists, Katara and Aang, are both challenged with this at different points in the series and finally defeat the firelords of the nation that decimated their cultures without forsaking their personal beliefs and morals in the process.

The Crossroads of Destiny

Azula betrays Long Feng and assumes leadership of the Dai Li. While Team Avatar attempts to stop her, Zuko, after some deliberation over the consequences of his actions, betrays his uncle's trust and chooses to attack the Avatar. Aang is killed by Azula while in the Avatar State, but Iroh intervenes and gives his friends enough time to escape. With the Earth King overthrown, Ba Sing Se falls to the Fire Nation. Katara uses the spirit water to revive Aang.

Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang

Ozai accidentally unlocks Aang's chakra, causing him to enter the Avatar State. The Order of the White Lotus successfully liberates Ba Sing Se, while Sokka and Toph manage to disable all of the airships. Katara defeats Azula and heals Zuko's injuries. Aang in the Avatar State easily overwhelms Ozai, yet still refuses to kill him. He uses an ancient form of bending, known as energybending, to strip Ozai of his firebending powers, keeping true to his beliefs and defeating the Phoenix King without taking his life. Newly appointed Fire Lord Zuko declares the War over, with Aang and his friends celebrating together. Aang and Katara share a romantic kiss on the balcony as the series draws to an end.

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