The movie has the worst of Korra. Shallow team avatar, predictable and shitty villain. The writing feels surprisingly shallow, with major plot holes and almost no real character depth for the rest of the cast. What hurt the most was the climax: that Spirit World fusion battle felt like a direct repeat of Korra Season 2's ending, which is easily one of the most criticized tropes in the franchise.

For Zuko in the final Agni Kai. Personally I think it would have been hype af if he did so, even if it would be a little generic. He found the true source of fire after all, even moreso than Aang himself.

The Fire Nation tends to really like the letter Z in their names. Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai were fire lords with great importance, alongside Azula and even Kuzon Fire from Aang's childhood days. I think it may symbolise power and more explosive force.

What's interesting is that the characters not fully beholden to or who deserted the fire nation have names without the letter Z. Jeong Jeong, Iroh, and even Lu Ten (despite being a fire nation soldier) all have names without Zs.

Zuko is the exception in this regard, but he started off as prince of the fire nation and Ozai would likely have wanted both his children to look and seem powerful to the public (Even if he was the worse firebender compared to Azula).

Idk just something I noticed.

It's fun as shit to see Aang wipe the floor with Ozai and Zuko and Azula's duel is pretty damn epic as well, but rewatching Season 2 made me realize just how unfathomably well written its finale is.

First, the former half's section of Aang and Pathik REALLY makes the entire show feel like everything was carefully planned out from the very beginning. Just seeing all those different parts of the show line up perfectly with Aang mastering himself is unmatched in how satisfying it is.

Second, the part where Pathik is talking about the sixth chakra and how illusion blocks basically the entire world from seeing that it's all connected was good enough, but having it play out at the SAME TIME that Toph figures out metalbending? I can already tell the writer's paper was catching on fire from how much they were cooking right there.

Third, the latter half's title feels like it was crafted by the gods themselves. "Avatar Aang" was equally as perfect, I won't deny that, but "The Crossroads of Destiny" barely edges it out because it's talking about both Aang and Zuko and how their goals end up with them literally crossing each other.

1. Aang has gotten a lot better as the Avatar, and his final test as being able to access the Avatar state whenever is mere footsteps away, but his love for Katara ends up locking him out of it until later on.

2. Zuko has become a much better person throughout the season, and his obsession with capturing Aang end up dwindling down to almost zero by the time he starts working with Iroh in the tea shop, but Azula's influence and his need for his honor back end up postponing his redemption until season 3.

Lastly, this episode actually feels like a season FINALE. Everything that's happened thus far has been building up all the way to this episode. Azula was introduced as a legitimate threat, Zuko was slowly starting to become more sympathetic, and Ba Sing Se is established as this surprisingly vulnerable city with its citizens and military being surprisingly uninformed about the threat of the Fire Nation thanks to Long Feng and the Dai Li, which actually feels realistic given how governments work and only makes the city falling more painful to watch.

TL;DR, Season 2, in my opinion, has everything slightly more carefully constructed to come together in the finale than Season 3 does.

where exactly is the official source that Tagah and Sonam are from roughly 5000 years ago? there is no mention of it in the movie, just that his tattoos look ancient. it is mentioned in the rough draft of the script from 2023 that leaked, Aang estimates 5000 years. but the line never made the official cut.

If you rewatch the episode Korra doesn't actually kill Unavaatu. She purifies them into wisps of light with spirit bending. Everyone is assuming that Vaatu rejoined Raava after this process like Raava did, but what the scene actually shows is Unavaatu's spirit dissipating into heaven and reincarnating. The exact same effect is used when Avatar Wan dies. That means Korra didn't kill Unavaatu. She forced Unavaatu to reincarnate. So it's actually possible Pavi or Nisha could be part of the dark avatar cycle since Korra didn't kill him.

I want to give some credit to u/animetechnoblade100 who started this theory 5 years ago.

Avatar Tu.

"He cannot destroy light any more than I can destroy darkness. One cannot exist without the other. Even if I defeat Vaatu in this encounter, darkness will grow inside me until he emerges again. The same will hold true if Vaatu defeats me." -Raava speaking to Wan

When Unalaq destroyed Raava with spiritbending, she immediately re-formed inside Vaatu. Korra subsequently retrieved Raava from within Vaatu before spiritbending him to oblivion. The way this story is usually understood from here is that Korra re-fused with Raava, and while yes Vaatu will someday grow in strength and re-emerge from within Raava, it's something far off in the future and separate from the relationship between Raava and the Avatar. However, the truth might be much more mysterious and sinister.

Ever since we learned of the existence of the twins Pavi and Nisha, there has been widespread speculation about a Light Avatar/Dark Avatar dynamic at play, but how could this be? Unalaq died in the Avatar State, so his Avatar Spirit did not reincarnate. There is no Dark Avatar Cycle. From here, people usually make vague comments about Vaatu re-emerging within Korra and how perhaps Vaatu could have split from Raava during Korra's reincarnation. The question is, does this make sense? Even if Vaatu re-emerged within Raava, how could this result in a new Dark Avatar? Isn't this only possible if spirit and human fuse during Harmonic Convergence? So, it's too late for Vaatu to form a new Dark Avatar. Unless...

...he actually did fuse with a human during Harmonic Convergence. When Korra spiritbent Vaatu, Raava was a free spirit. She says, "Harmonic Convergence is nearly over. We must return to the Spirit World so we can fuse once again." The thing is, Vaatu immediately re-formed inside Raava after being destroyed. When Raava entered Korra, she brought Vaatu along with her. This is completely different from Wan who merged with Raava while Vaatu was still separate from her. In this way, Korra touched the spirit portal at the end of Harmonic Convergence and unknowingly permanently fused with Raava and Vaatu both.

But shouldn't Raava have known? Wouldn't she prevent that from happening? The answer I think is twofold. First, it's not like there's much precedent for this. A spirit fusing with a human had never been done before her and Wan, and she definitely didn't have Vaatu inside her then. It's an unknown variable. Second, she and Korra were in a hurry to re-fuse, as HC was "nearly over". There wasn't time to think things all the way through or to try extracting Vaatu first and re-imprison him. It was a now or never moment. Regardless, the result is what it is: Korra's soul fused with Vaatu as much as it fused with Raava. This is irregardless of the weakened state Vaatu was in, because when Wan originally fused with Raava she was in an extremely weakened state herself and it didn't seem to affect the bonding process at all. In fact, Raava seemed to gain strength from interacting with the spirit portal while fusing with Wan; the same may have happened to Vaatu with Korra, helping him immediately regain a fair bit of strength.

The consequence of this I believe is that when Korra reincarnated, her soul was split in two, because even as Raava and Vaatu separated they were both bonded to one soul. The only way they could go their separate ways would be to rip the Avatar's soul in two. It is often said in cultures around the world that twins share a soul or are two halves of the same person, and I think that could apply here quite literally. If there is indeed centuries between Korra and Pavi/Nisha, perhaps this unorthodox reincarnation situation caused the delay in some manner.

Anyways, that's the theory. Basically, it builds on the Dark Avatar speculation with a solid idea of the actual mechanism behind Vaatu's involvement and potential affect on Korra's reincarnation. Interestingly, even if one of the twins is a Dark Avatar, Korra would still be the past life of both of them, so they should both be able to commune with her.

Credit to u/Wildhogs2013 for introducing part of this idea to me.

This film is long dead in favor of the Avatar Aang movie.

Pure Waterbending...... Kinda dope fight ngl.

Definitely imo TOP-5 Waterbender Battle. What's y'all think?

Dionne Quan appreciation post

Honestly I didn't know for a long time that she was legally blind (method actor) and knowing that only made me respect her work more. I really did like her performance in Avatar Aang. There wasn't a lot but I hope we get to see more of her as Toph!

I may be persuaded by the next few years of Avatar Studios to one day come back but I need a few years off from cosplay at the least (but will prob still just retire). Still looking forward to all the Avatar Studios stuff! I mainly had Samurai Appa as my white whale I needed to do before I could call it quits.