The Real Deal: Season Three

by Shaker Seraph, a shameless geek who's getting through the bad times in New York City by doing temp work, playing Dungeons & Dragons, watching lots of movies, and splitting rent with an amiable soon-to-be-ex.

[Part One; Part Two; Part Three, Part Four.]

Well, here we are, at the final installment. I'd like to thank everyone still reading these, for having the patience to follow me this far and trudge through those novella-length posts I've been putting out.

In this season, we finally get to really know the Fire Nation as a people. To Our Heroes' surprise (but hopefully not ours), they turn out to be just plain folks. Reasonably nice – even a few genuinely admirable qualities (while still patriarchal, the Fire Nation is by far the most sexually egalitarian of the surviving nations – perhaps most egalitarian, period. The Air Nomads seem to have had a kind of "separate but equal" thing going on). But every so often, we get a chilling reminder that these people, for reasons outside their control, remain the Gaang's enemies. Even so, their mission can no longer be to simply defeat the Fire Nation or liberate the lands they've captured – to truly return balance to the world, they need to save the Fire Nation, too.

The Awakening – Aang wakes up from the coma Azula blasted him into on a Fire Nation ship. Once the initial confusion is sorted out, Sokka explains that while their original plan – invade the Fire Nation with the Earth Kingdom's armies under cover of the coming eclipse – is no longer workable, they still intend to attack the Firelord directly with a smaller strikeforce.

Also in this episode, we're reminded that while Sokka had a chance to see his father last season, Katara did not. We're also reminded that she's just fourteen, and he's been gone since she was twelve, and she's had far too much to carry on her shoulders since then. It's not pretty watching her deal with her confused feelings about finally seeing her Dad again, but…once again, the kids might learn something real.

The Headband – Avatar does Footloose. For those of you too (gods help me, you're in your early twenties) young to remember this oft-imitated teen classic: a young hero enters a town where the forces of repression hold sway, bringing a taste of freedom in the form of music and (especially) dance. The original has Kevin Bacon and Sarah Jessica Parker when they were just young'uns, and a quality performance from John Lithgow as a surprisingly nuanced and sympathetic antagonist. This version has Aang accidentally infiltrating a Fire Nation school (the Gaang stole some clothes off a line so they could fit in, Aang happened to take a school uniform and got caught by the truant officer), and getting a firsthand look at the Fire Nation's cradle-to-grave propaganda program (the first question in history class is what year Firelord Sozin fought the "Air Nation's" (nonexistent) armies, and they have twelve-year-olds – twelve-year-olds! – making (admittedly quite good) pictures of the Firelord out of noodles).

In common with Footloose, there's a female character in the school who takes an immediate interest in Our Hero – and also in common with Footloose, this character has a jealous, domineering boyfriend who takes an immediate dislike to Our Hero. Unfortunately, this episode doesn't deal with this part nearly as well as it does with the propaganda aspect – or indeed, as well as the original Footloose did. The Jealous Boyfriend becomes Aang's personal enemy, and we never really deal with the fact that the girl in question doesn't seem to want him for a boyfriend – he seems to have just unilaterally declared her "his girl." Here's hoping that the friendships she made during Aang's little rebellion give her a support system to shake him off.

Oh. One last thing: it's summer in the Fire Nation, so the clothes that Katara steals…we already knew she was a lovely young woman, but I suspect this is the first time in her entire life she's been sexy.

The Painted Lady – Remember what I said at the end of my review of Imprisoned back in S1? That it wouldn't be the last time Katara would get a "hero tries to help, makes the situation worse through sheer good intentions, has to get even more involved to set everything right" storyline? Here's another one, with a nice environmentalist message (ruin the environment and it will hurt you sooner or later) to go with it.

Sokka's Master – Sokka gets tired of being less-than-useful in a party of world-class benders, so he decides to go find a swordmaster and get some training. It works, too. Thing is, it turns out that the things the others suggested as his contribution, which sounded so weak when they said them – reading maps and making jokes – are actually pretty important. Neither Aang nor Katara can figure out where they are or where they're going without him (which seems rather contrived, I must say – Aang was a world traveler eighty-four years before Sokka was even born), and Katara's efforts to fill his role as Morale Officer fall flatter'n a flounder.

Nice bit of stereotype-breaking (completely in-line with his established character, no less) at the beginning. What does Katara suggest to get her brother out of his funk? Retail therapy. And it works, too.

The Beach – A lot of shows have an episode where the characters all go on some sort of retreat together where they get to know each other better (and, not coincidentally, we get to know them better as well). This is that episode. But this is Avatar, my friends – it's our villains that we get to know better.

To tell the truth, what we learn about them in the mass-therapy session around the fire is almost secondary (almost – Azula's belief that her own mother thought she was a monster – "She was right, of course, but it still hurt" – is rather significant. Wonder why she believes that? We certainly saw no sign of it in Zuko Alone. Wonder what kind of stories Daddy's been telling his little girl?). We learn some seriously interesting things just watching them go about their non-combat lives.

What do we learn? For all the "in love since they were little kids" backstory, Zuko and Mai don't really know how to be in a relationship. He's temperamental, she's unexpressive…it's not working well for awhile, but all it takes is one fight (during which Mai demonstrates that she will not take any crap from Zuko, prince and firebender though he may be) for them to get some communication going.

I must say, I rather like how this fight plays out. It doesn't follow the standard rom-com pattern where the guy (after utterly fucking up) goes to ever more heroic and undignified lengths to earn forgiveness for his Unpardonable Sin, until he finally hits the right combination of epic achievement and self-abasement for the woman to grant it (really, it's enough to give you the idea that she doesn't actually like him, but he somehow manages to "earn" her anyway – isn't there a word for that?).

Nor does it play out in the all-too-common way that kids are liable to face in their real-life relationships: Mai isn't the one obligated to make peace, she isn't broken-heartedly yearning to get back with her hot-tempered boyfriend, and he very explicitly has no right to touch her now that she's withdrawn permission. More importantly, the show portrays her as in the right in all of this – she's not some vindictive shrew who's "punishing" Zuko or playing some kind of game: she states very clearly that she's angry, and why.

For his part, Zuko doesn't "win her back" through some Grand Romantic Gesture. He gives an explanation for his behavior (though I don't think he ever actually says the words "I'm sorry"), and he starts acting like a human being again. At which point Mai forgives him – by getting up and going to him, which somehow strikes me as a thousand times better than if their reconciliation had been shown by her simply allowing him to stay when he sat down and put his arm around her one last time. She is not a passive partner here, neither servant nor served. They're equals who had a fight, and when the issue had been dealt with at to her satisfaction, she was just as eager as (but not more than) him to get back together.

Those two crazy kids just might be okay.

We also learn that Ty Lee is an attention hog who hasn't yet mastered the fine art of properly spacing out her social engagements – she ends up using chi-blocking to escape a horde of angry boytoys who are all demanding that she make up her damn mind – and she's still terrified of Azula. At one point, Azula says something cutting to her, and she immediately bursts into loud, dramatic tears. Not because she's actually that upset, but because she knows Azula wants her to be.

As for Azula herself, we learn that she isn't very well socialized. She brings the same approach to summertime fun – beach volleyball, partygoing and boys – that she uses for world domination: military precision, loud declarations and explosions. She really doesn't know any other way to behave. Granted, Ty Lee's approach – just smile and laugh at everything he says, even if it's not funny – isn't a great idea either, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

Unfortunately, there's one sour note in all of this. The kids are staying at a beach house that belongs to Li and Lo – Azula's chaperones-slash-trainers. Upon entering, they see a picture of two attractive young ladies in a cheesecake pose. When Ty Lee asks who they are, Li and Lo strike the same pose and respond that it's them. Zuko has to cover his mouth to keep from vomiting.

Dudes. Not cool. There was no reason to go there. The joke would have worked just fine if the kids had been all goggle-eyed and stunned that the octogenarians in front of them were young once. But no, you had to take it that extra "Old Ladies sure are ugly, hyuk hyuk!" step.

The Runaway – or, to give it my own alternate title, "Bechdel's Episode." Granted, the show passes the Bechdel Test regularly, but in this episode, the boys become secondary and it's all about Toph and Katara.

It doesn't start out all that promisingly, I'll grant you. I know it was inevitable, given that one of them controls water and the other earth, but the mud-wrestling is still pretty gratuitous. Considering the ages of the participants, it isn't even that great as fanservice.

Still, once we've gotten it out of the way, we get into the meat of the episode, which is a conflict between Katara's "Team Mom" persona and Toph, who's already run away from her actual mother, and isn't interested in taking on a new one, thankyouverymuch. This conflict is portrayed with an unusual degree of nuance: Katara isn't played as a joyless prig with a blind prejudice against all things fun (she's actually worried that the scams Toph is running in nearby towns will draw too much attention, and she's absolutely right), nor is Toph a thoughtless rebel who needs to learn to appreciate The Responsible One (Katara invades her privacy in ways that wouldn't be okay if Katara was her actual Mom).

Indeed, the two actually switch places in the third act, when Toph (having been told, by Sokka, how much Katara's personality was shaped by having to hold their family together after their mother's death) is about to give up the scams, but Katara (having overheard the same conversation and wanting to prove herself capable of fun) proposes one last scam. Of course, it doesn't end well.

Which brings us to my favorite scene in this episode, a crowning moment of awesome and Katara's greatest moment of gross-out humor all in one. Our Heroines have been locked in a wooden cage, where neither of them have access to bendables…until Katara starts running in place so she can sweat out her own water. Her armpits alone give her all the arsenal she needs.

The Puppetmaster – The characters – and we – are reminded that not everyone from a "good" nation is a good person; that Hama isn't trustworthy just because she's (technically) on their side; and that she isn't your friend just because she's Water Tribe. All things we've seen before. The difference here is the way they delve into the idea that…let's call them "enhanced restraint techniques"…can turn an honorable warrior who just wanted to defend her home into a terrorist.

Too bad they just had to wrap it up in all that "witch" imagery.

Interesting side-note: it appears that the Southern Water Tribe did have woman warriors back when they had waterbenders.

Nightmares and Daydreams – Remember back in the very first installment of this series, I mentioned that the women of this show were as sexual as kids' TV would allow them to be? Well, up until this point, that's mostly meant kissing.

In this episode, Zuko is visiting Mai at her family's house in the capital city. Her parents are still in Omashu, and Zuko sends the servants to fetch Mai a fruit tart. They move around the room a bit, but spend a lot of time cuddling on the couch…then it's the next day, they're still on the couch, Zuko's hair is mussed but his clothes are the same, and Mai is pouring some tea.

Make of it what you will. Me? It's summer, they've been together a few months now, they're sixteen…I say the kids are up to some shenanigans.

Day of Black Sun – The day of the invasion comes, and it does not go well. Remember how Azula and her cohorts infiltrated the Earth Kingdom while wearing Kyoshi uniforms? Well, the Earth King, having been kept stupid by his primary adviser his whole life, didn't see any problem with telling three strangers (supposedly loyal but low-ranking subjects) his generals' top-secret invasion plans. The invasion is a catastrophic defeat that ends in capture for almost the entire force, and it's entirely to Azula's credit (although, admittedly, she needs the assistance of two Dai Li to hold off Aang, Sokka and Toph until she gets her firebending back). We also get to see some non-Azula female Fire Nation soldiers, both grunts and officers (not that that's unusual – in fact, in pretty much every episode this season where we see Fire Nation military or police, assume that there's a significant minority of women among them).

But that's not the high point of these two episodes. That comes in the second episode, in the bunker where Firelord Ozai is waiting out the eclipse. I wasn't going to spoil this scene, but what the hell. It's not like it gets any less awesome on repeated viewing (this and all other excerpts from Avatarspirit.net):

Fire Lord Ozai: Why are you here?

Zuko: I'm here to tell the truth.

Fire Lord Ozai: Telling the truth during the middle of an eclipse. This should be interesting. (Ozai waves his hand and his guards leave through doors on both sides of the chamber.)

Zuko: First of all, in Ba Sing Se, it was Azula who took down the Avatar, not me.

Fire Lord Ozai: Why would she lie to me about that?

Zuko: Because the Avatar is not dead. He survived.

Fire Lord Ozai: (alarmed) What?!

Zuko: In fact, he probably is leading this invasion. He could be on us right now.

Fire Lord Ozai: (stands up and points, furious) Get out! Get out of my sight right now if you know what's good for you.

Zuko: That's another thing. I'm not taking orders from you anymore.

Fire Lord Ozai: (seething with rage) You will obey me or this defiant breath will be your last! (Ozai begins to walk towards Zuko, until Zuko unsheathes his broadswords and brandishes them at him.)

Zuko: Think again! I am going to speak my mind and you are going to listen. (cut to a close up of Ozai as he sits back down) For so long, all I wanted was you to love me, to accept me. I thought it was my honor that I wanted but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. (points a sword at Ozai) My father, who challenged me; a 13-year-old boy to an Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child?

Fire Lord Ozai: It was to teach you respect.

Zuko: It was cruel! And it was wrong.

Fire Lord Ozai: Then you have learned nothing.

Zuko: No, I've learnt everything! And I had to learn it on my own.

Everything an abusive parent deserves to hear; everything an abused child needs to say. And like many abusers, when Ozai is faced with the possibility that his victim might escape, he turns murderous. Unfortunately for him, the lightning-redirecting technique that Zuko learned from Iroh (remember that?) allows Zuko to turn his preferred weapon back on him and escape to join the Gaang.

Just might learn something real.

Boiling Rock – With Zuko's help, Sokka breaks into the Fire Nation's greatest prison – the titular Boiling Rock, which is situated in the middle of a boiling volcanic lake – to rescue Hakoda.

While there, they find Suki, and Sokka picks the exact wrong time to be funny:

(Cut to Suki lying on her bed. The door to her cell opens, illuminating her face as her eyes looks to the door.)

Suki: (sits up and camera zooms out to show Sokka, disguised as a prison guard, standing in front of her) What is it? (sits up straight on her bed, looking at him) Did I do something wrong

Sokka: (crosses his arms) You mean you don't recognize me?

Suki: You people all look the same to me. (looks to the side)

Sokka: (cut back to Sokka who looks on smugly) Oh. Then maybe you'll recognize this.

(He purses his lips and attempts smooching sounds. Suki grabs his chin. Cut to a side view of what's happening as Suki pushes him to the door. Cut to Sokka's back slamming the door as the helmet falls off his head . He looks surprised at the sudden violence. Cut to Suki remaining in her stance as a look of relief washes over her face.)

You probably recognize the parallel to a similar scam that Suki pulled on Sokka back in Season 2's The Serpent's Pass, but it's played very, very differently here. In TSP, the humor was in Sokka's reactions: it was funny to see him collared by this girl who had him figured out too perfectly, just when he thought the Gaang's own scam had succeeded, and the tension was released when she pulled him in for a kiss.

In this version, the humor is in Sokka's joke backfiring on him and getting him knocked on his ass. Suki's reactions are not played for laughs. The creators are well aware that, when a man with every ability to escape and backup from powerful friends is grabbed and kissed by a woman he likes (albeit one who has successfully disguised herself), the threat is over. When a lone woman with no means of escape is approached by a man she doesn't know, an attempt to kiss her only escalates the threat.

Once they have that settled, Suki joins in planning the jailbreak. In fact, she salvages it at one point, when things go wrong – "Hey guys! I think your girlfriend is handling it" – and Sokka couldn't be more proud. He's not only made the connection between "girl" and "warrior", it now seems natural to him. Indeed, it's what he admires and loves in her the most (for the record, so does Hakoda: "That's some girl." "Tell me about it.").

From this point on, Suki is an official member of the Gaang. Unfortunately, she has no personal story arc to complete, nor does she have a unique role to fill. She's not even a Batman-esque idea person like Sokka – she's simply the group's other badass normal. That said, she's very, very good at it.

It is also in this episode that Mai and Zuko's love story reaches what I consider to be its pinnacle, and Azula's luck begins to run out. At one point during the proceedings, Zuko is recognized and captured. To make a bad situation even worse, the warden of the Boiling Rock is Mai's uncle, and he's none too pleased with the boy who broke his niece's heart, so he calls her in to give her first shot before Zuko is sent to the Firelord.

Zuko is able to escape in the general chaos of the jailbreak (not without some regret), and – along with the other rescuers and rescuees – flees in one of the gondolas over the lake. Azula and Ty Lee pursue, but then jump to the other gondola when the prison guards start to cut the cable.

At which point Mai intervenes and takes out several dozen guards, including firebenders, in order to give them a chance to escape.

The result is this scene:

Azula: I never expected this from you. (Cut to a side view of Mai. Cut to Ty Lee who is clasping her hands, staring at Mai and back at Azula with a frightened look. Cut back to Azula.) The thing I don't understand is why. (lifts her head up) Why would you do it You know the consequences. (Azula lowers her head down and glares at Mai. Cut back to a side view of the scene. Cut back to Mai.)

Mai: I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. (cut back to Azula) I love Zuko more than I fear you. (Azula's face scrunches up in fury.)

Azula: No, you miscalculated! You should have feared me more!

(Cut to Azula she gets into a firebending stance. Cut to Mai who brings up her stiletto. Her weapon glints under the sunlight. Cut back to Azula who begins to strike but Ty Lee comes into screen, jabbing her back with a series of punches. Cut to Mai who looks stunned. Cut to Azula who gasps and falls to the ground to reveal Ty Lee who looks on. Ty Lee runs to Mai.)

Ty Lee: Come on, let's get out of here! (She tries to drag Mai away but guards surround them.)

Azula: (glares at them furiously) You're both fools.

(Boots come into screen as the guards help her up. Cut back to Mai and Ty Lee who are captured by the guards.)

Guard: What shall we do with them, princess?

Azula: Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again. And let them rot.

Classic evil overlord mistake. They always assume that the power of fear to control is absolute, and they always end up pushing too far, demanding that one thing that their follower will overcome their fear to refuse. Remember, kids: Machiavelli said it was better to be feared than loved (if you couldn't be both), but it's important to avoid being hated.

As for Mai, she's rescued the handsome prince from certain death and been cast into durance vile for it, but you know how that story ends. Don't you worry about her.

The Southern Raiders – The culmination of Katara's personal story arc. From the very first episode, one of the defining facts of Katara's life has been the death of her mother: it piled responsibility and grief on the giggling, snowball-throwing little girl we meet in this episode; it turned her into the protective, surrogate-motherly figure we know; and it made the war – and her rage – against the Fire Nation personal.

Now, with a member of the Fire Nation royal family in the party, she can track down the one who did it. And she's not the helpless little girl she was anymore…

On a lighter note, this is the second episode where they show (without even bothering to sneak it in this time) teenage sexuality at its awkward, embarrassing, silly, affectionate, honest, healthy best. Zuko goes to Sokka's tent to ask him some questions and (after passing a noticeably nervous Suki on the way), finds Sokka in his underclothes with a rose in his teeth. After (just after) Zuko leaves, Sokka starts calling out the tent door for Suki…and the next time we see him, he's fiddling with a necklace made of flowers.

Yep. The boy got lei'd.

Sozin's Comet Part 2: The Old Masters – Awww, maaaannn…

As much as I love this episode – and I really, really do, it's one of my favorites – it really lays bare some of the series' biggest screw-ups from a feminist perspective.

Aang spends most of this episode quite literally talking to himself. That is, he contacts the spirits of past Avatars (his own past lives) to try and learn how he can defeat Ozai without having to kill him. As he does so, we're reminded that there are two patterns to the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation: 1) the Avatar is born in a different Nation each time, in the sequence Air-Water-Earth-Fire; and 2) the Avatar is born the opposite sex from the last lifetime each time…except that pattern was broken so that both Aang and Roku could be male.

Could the creators just not picture Aang's Merlin without a long white beard? I wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly it, because none of the other Avatars – i.e. the ones who aren't Aang's spirit-mentor – manifest as any older than solidly mature adults (though exactly how old that might be for the ridiculously long-lived Kyoshi is questionable), while Roku is your standard Old Master. Not that this lets them off the hook at all. By all rights, Aang's spirit-mentor should have been a regal, mature woman of the Fire Nation.

The other problem is much simpler. We finally meet the Grandmasters of the Order of the White Lotus…and they're all old men. The fact that they're all characters we met over the course of the series only makes it worse (much as we love them all…well, most), in the sense that it reminds us that all of their teachers have been old men (except for Hama, and that turned out real well). Since no less than three of them are Fire Nation, there's no excuse: at least one woman should be there, doing the Jackie Robinson thing, opening the door for Our Heroines fifty years down the line and pissing off Pakku in the process.

And no, the presence of Ms. Black Leather the Bounty Hunter doesn't make up for it.

Also, there's an interesting detail in the scene where they're all sitting around eating breakfast with Iroh. I'm not sure what to make of it. Suki and Katara are sitting with their knees under them (kneeling and sitting back on their feet, really), while all of the males are sitting…I hate to say "Indian-style", but I'm sure you'll all know what I mean, and maybe someone can give me a better name for it. Anyway – my best guess? It's about keeping their legs together. On the other hand, Toph is sitting like the boys. Would that be because she's too young to worry about "modesty" traditions for older girls (seems unlikely – during the beach party in the last episode, we could see that she was at least starting to develop a little), or is it because she's defied enough social conventions already that she's damn well not going to sit in a less-comfortable position so the boys don't have to think about her ladybits?

Sozin's Comet Part 3 – In this episode, we're reminded that – for all her power, all her skill, all her precision, all her viciousness and hunger for power – Azula is still just a 14-year-old girl who's all alone in the world. After Mai and Ty Lee finally reached their breaking point and turned against her, she had exactly one person left in the world that she loved and trusted (as much as she can love or trust anyone). Then that person demonstrated what he thought of her by making her Firelord (which she's surprised about – he's young and in perfectly good health, after all – but not "this-has-never-been-done-before" amazed)– a good thing in and of itself, except that he goes on to declare himself king of the world, which makes her new title entirely hollow and pointless (it doesn't help that said hollow and pointless position involves sitting at home and doing nothing, instead of being out in the action where she's always thrived – The Yellow Wallpaper, anyone?).

In other words, she's spent her whole life being the perfect daughter to her father, and it suddenly becomes clear that she's nothing but a tool to him. In a frenzy of paranoia, she banishes everyone but the actual officials required to crown her, and she's left conjuring up hallucinations of her mother just to hear someone say "I love you". Of all the characters you never thought you'd feel sorry for, Azula has to top the list, but they pull it off. She breaks your heart.

It's later on in this episode where Azula has her final showdown with her brother: an Agni Kai for the Fire Nation throne.

Now, there was a discussion in the comments for my very first post in this series that revealed this fight to be a touch controversial, but I believe it worked out exactly as it had to for no less than five reasons:

1) Politically, an official Agni Kai legitimizes Zuko's claim on the Fire Nation throne in a way that Plan A – invade the coronation with the help of an enemy national and kill the chosen Firelord-appointee in front of the Fire Sages themselves (i.e. "A brother killing a sister to grab power") – simply wouldn't have. He was willing to go with Plan A if he had no other options, but this saves a lot of trouble further down the line.

2) Zuko may have broken free of the abusive father who was the ultimate author of all his problems, but he still has some family issues to settle. Azula has been his nemesis throughout the series – throughout his entire life, really – and both he and the plot need some resolution for that. And while he's the one who ends up in a smoking heap on the ground, he still beats her: not only was she clearly on the ropes before she cheated, but by any imaginable rules of dueling, that cheating (attacking his second just to throw him off-balance) is so egregious as to count as forfeiture. She threw away the duel and the Firelordship because she just couldn't imagine losing to dear old Zuko.

3) Like Zuko, Katara absolutely had to fight Azula. For one thing, it would have been terribly anticlimactic if she ended the series and her personal war without a final showdown against a worthy opponent. For another, it was necessary thematically. Aang and Ozai might be flesh and blood, but they're still so far above anybody else in the history of this planet – in terms of both personal power and importance – that they're effectively gods fighting for the fate of the world. They fight a solitary, titan's battle, but that battle is also reflected among mortals. Ozai has a female champion in the field, so she must be met and overcome by Aang's.

4) Katara is the character who had the best chance of defeating Azula in a non-lethal manner. Even if you leave aside the fact that this is a kids' show and Azula is still a 14-year-old girl, it probably wouldn't be the best thing for Zuko's mental health to take part in killing his sister.

5) None of these resolutions (except maybe #4, and even that's iffy with Zuko throwing comet-enhanced fire around) could be achieved in anything but fair, one-on-one fights. The two of them could have defeated Azula handily if they'd ganged up, but it wouldn't have sat well with the people of the Fire Nation (especially if they'd done so after she issued her challenge), it wouldn't have proven anything for Zuko, and it would have undermined Katara's "champion" status. The best way to arrange those one-on-one fights is to have Azula do exactly what she did. Zuko accepting her challenge was in no way a sign of disrespect to Katara: a political savant he is not, but he had to be aware of point 1. What's more, he saw enough weakness that he believed he had a chance to defeat Azula without endangering anyone else – hard to pass up for a martyr like him, but also a sign that he didn't choose to go it alone lightly. If Azula had still been at her peak, he would have called upon Katara's help. At that point, winning was more important than politics or ego.

For her part, Katara had always been there as his second, so she backed his play until Azula gave up on dueling and started in on the random, berserk destruction. That's when the can of whoopass came out.

Sozin's Comet Part 4: Avatar Aang – The finale. The Gaang win their assorted battles – no, I won't go into more detail – and then we're on to our happy ending. There's a lot of good stuff here: Suki resumes command of the Kyoshi warriors (whom Ty Lee has joined) rather than, say, returning to the South Pole with Sokka (for his part, he's glad to see her back in uniform – quite a change). Mai (released from prison now that Ozai and Azula are no longer running the show) lets Zuko know that she still quite likes him, but he'll end up on the wrong end of a knife if she ever gets a stinking "Dear Jane" letter from him again.

All very good stuff. Getting paired off isn't the automatic happy ending for everyone, and even those who get it as part of the package retain their power and autonomy. But.

I like the fact that Aang and Katara get together. I really do. Makes me mist up a little, to tell the truth. They even handled it right, letting her make the first move since she'd expressed confusion and reluctance in earlier episodes. They stick the landing just fine; problem is that the routine wasn't very good. They clearly took it for granted that the kids would end up together, and forgot to include…y'know…a love story. Oh sure, we saw Aang yearning for Katara all the time, but Katara's relationship with him was mostly the same combination of sisterly/motherly/friendly that she showed everyone else, with only a few hints that she might be interested in him romantically. The fact that they handled the two secondary love stories so well – showing Mai and Zuko growing together and overcoming the personal problems that created a barrier to their relationship, or Sokka and Suki (whose problems were mostly external) enjoying each other's company and doing fun (or dangerous) things together – just makes the perfunctory nature of Kataang look even worse.

Still, I'll forgive a lot for a good ending, and this is definitely that.

Thanks for following me this far, y'all. I'll be around.