Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! Today marks the 6 year anniversary of this blog, and with it comes a new Avatar review, and it also marks the last season of Avatar I have yet to cover. So, without further ado, let's dive into Avatar Book 3: Fire!
After the invasion of Ba Sing Se, The Earth Kingdom is in shatters and The Fire Nation's grip on the word grows tighter. Aang and the rest of Team Avatar must hide and navigate their way through The Fire Nation in preparation for the invasion on the Day of Black Sun,
With the majority of the book taking place in The Fire Nation, a lot of it focuses on the land's culture, from the schooling of the children to the prison where many criminals go to the very origins of firebending itself. With some exceptions, the Fire Nation for most of the series has been portrayed as an evil place, so seeing it be fleshed out as this place that is capable of change with the right leader is great.
If I were to point a flaw of Book 3, it's that the first half of it, is a little on the slower side. That's not saying it was bad. There's some great episodes in the first half such as "The Avatar and The FireLord", and "The Puppeteer" but compared to the episodes from "The Day of Black Sun" onward, episodes that are at a consistent high quality, the first half is a little slower, choosing more to focus on character with the main plot kind of hanging out in the background.
Speaking of character focus we have to mention our favorite scarred firebender Zuko who in Book 3 finally has everything he wants: his dad respects him, his place on the throne is restored and his people love him. However he's as unhappy as he's ever been. He's at turmoil with himself with the decisions he's made throughout the series and it all comes to ahead in the aforementioned "Day of Black Sun" two-parter. His moments in those episodes and everything that follows feel so satisfactory and earned considering everything he's gone through in the show. It truly is one of the best character arcs in any television show.
And it isn't just Zuko, all of the main characters get some time to shine this book and are allowed to resolve their characters arcs. Sokka takes up swordsmanship in this book, Toph gets to open up a little more to the team and talk about her parents and Katara gets resolution in regards to the death of her mother. We even get a little time to learn more about the villains. This on top of returning characters and plot threads from the previous 2 books really does a fantastic job of wrapping things up in the show.
Now we're getting into super spoiler territory.
On the topic of wrapping things up, there's the four part finale. It's great, super engaging, and they really go all out in terms of fights and animation. But, I do have one minor gripe with the finale and it's with the fight between Aang and Ozai. Now the main conflict for Aang in this fight is that in order to save the world, he has to kill Ozai, which heavily goes against he stands for. The fight ends with Aang not killing Ozai but taking his bending away to keep him from harming anyone else. I actually love this ending: Aang, despite everyone telling him otherwise, stays true to his beliefs and finds another way to stop the Fire Lord. I just wish the way he stopped Ozai was set up earlier than it was so it doesn't come off as a last second asspull.
Honestly, it's small potatoes compared to what is overall a really good final season. Book 3 of Avatar, , delivers a solid, very satisfactory conclusion that neatly ties up every character's arc and nearly every plot thread. And while I personally don't think it reaches the heights of it's second season, it still is a good final season to what is a amazing show. One that is still cherished and beloved 15 years later; and one that few have been able to replicate. If you somehow haven't seen Avatar, The Last Airbender yet, watch it. It's all on Netflix now, you have no excuses.
And with that, I have fully reviewed Both Avatar shows, but that doesn't mean my coverage of the Avatar franchise is over yet. There's still plenty of comics I've never read and there's gonna be a live action series...god help us all...
But that's for next year, tomorrow is October and that means a certain mystery team is making their return here on the blog. So I've got some work to do.
Til Next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation.
Take Care...
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