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[Spark Of Spirit]

I think someone mentioned that it's 12 episodes for the first season and 14 for the second. So 26 episodes total.

I'm excited to learn where they're going to go with this, they must have learned a lot from the original Avatar series.

[gunswordfist]

Uh huh. Filler is Avatar's greatest flaw. Dull female characters is second. Hopefully both will be fixed

[Avaitor]

With a purposefully short run and great focus on a female lead, that seems like the case.

[gunswordfist]

It sure does which is why I am excited

[gunswordfist]

I watched Sozin's Comet twice yesterday on NTN. Love it. I have been noticing that Zuko and the gang never fought together, just him with one or two of them. Seeing the beginning of The Earth King last week makes me wish we got to see Zuko fight in the group like that.I also want to talk more about what I want to see in Korra. Ihope they focus more on form. They focused a little bit too much on doing crazy moves instead of showing real martial arts being incorporated into fights in the later episodes of TLA. Zuko vs Zhao and Toph vs that last guy in The Blind Bandit are good examples of them doing it right. Since Korra will likely be fighting mostly nonbenders, that seems likely.I also hope the fight music is more like the first one used in season 1. That was perfect while I didn't like the fight music that used for most fights after that.

[Pharass]

So, I just watched the trailer for Korra and god damn that was awesome. I seriously can't remember the last time I was this excited about a new show. The "1920's" setting looks really interesting and while I liked some of the female characters in The Last Airbender such as Toph and Azula (the latter, albeit in a "love to hate" way), there's little doubt in my mind that Korra will eclipse them.

Speaking of which, I wonder if Korra is going to end up interacting with her previous incarnations the way Aang did with his?

Finally, I hope that Tenzin will end up being just as great an older, wise mentor-figure as Iroh was.

[gunswordfist]

I've been liking Iroh more and more after watching the last few episodes of Book 2 and 3.

Two days ago, I watched the first two episodes for the first time in years two days ago during the two times Nicktoons Network showed them. I am not sure if I have ever seen the unedited intro. It's interesting but I of course like the one they usually use more.

I forgot how serious Sokka was in these episodes. I actually like Katara in them. She stood up for Aang whenever the rest of the village acted like dicks towards him.

It was nice to hear the first fight music again. It's the best in the series. I got to pay attention to the first time Aang went went into the Avatar State and how the temples didn't light up. I missed it when Katara called Zuko by his name even though she's never seen him before.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So here it is, my top 10 Avatar episodes. (I like to count two parters as a single story, so no individual parts here)

The Boiling Rock
City Of Walls & Secrets
Lake Laogai
Day Of The Black Sun
Siege Of The North
Zuko Alone
The Blue Spirit
Jet
The Blind Bandit
The Desert

Honestly, those ten episodes are enough for me to consider Avatar a great series, but they are some of the best episodes that Nick has ever aired. While the show as a whole has weaknesses, these episodes prove that when it wants to be, Avatar is easily comparable to the classics in its own way.

[Avaitor]

Really good. I might switch "Jet" with "The Storm" and maybe "The Desert" with either "The Chase", but that looks pretty similar to my list.

I'd say that "Zuko Alone" would be my top choice overall. It really contains all the best qualities of the character, and shows just why he's the most interesting on the show.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I was kind of hopping around the series and watching episodes out of order, and those episodes managed to hold up the strongest to me and had the most meat to them. I also really like The Storm and The Chase, (most of season 2 and the second half of 3 have a lot of winners), and The Library almost made my list, too.

The only episodes I dislike are Crossroads Of Destiny (too much deus ex machina involving characters and plot that doesn't really amount to anything), The Great Divide, The Avatar State (too many annoying aspects), and The Beach. I also didn't really like that most of the beginning of season 3 should have occurred much earlier like in season 1 or early season 2, but they weren't anything bad.

[Avaitor]

Those are pretty much the only ones I really dislike too. Season 1 I don't think picks up until they make it to the Water Nation, and season 3 is slow as molasses until "Day of Black Sun".

Everything else is fair game.

[Spark Of Spirit]

You're right about Zuko's character arc. From season 1's premiere up to the Guru, he changed from outright villain to anti-hero and was about to turn into a hero until it was pointlessly derailed until Day Of The Black Sun. Even though I say 'villain', he was never really a 'bad guy' just a soldier doing terrible thing on order without realizing it.

I liked the contrast they made with him and Jet who both came from the same place but from opposite sides of the coin. In many ways, though, Jet was what would have became of Zuko if he continued down the same path and continued to be consumed by his own selfish goals. It was a good story arc in season 2 and ended really well in Lake Laogai and CoW&S when we really learned just how far Jet had fallen and how much Zuko had changed.

That's pretty much why I don't like the finale, to hammer a tired point one last time, which while plot wise felt too convenient how literally nothing went wrong for Azula despite how much she couldn't possibly call, the capper was turning Zuko back into where he was in the first episode as if nothing that happened to this point mattered. Then the first half of season 3 does nothing with him until Day Of The Black Sun (the speech he gave should have been what he said in Crossroads) brings him back to where we left off suddenly.

I also thought his relationship with Mai was really forced considering how he acted so weird around females in season 2, but that actually lead to something in the show's best episode, so I let it slide.

[Avaitor]

Zuko had the right intentions, for the most part, but had a tendency to use the wrong methods to achieve them. Even when he turned "good", that's still true. He could be a really clever guy in some instances, like "The Boiling Rock", but that's few and far in between.

I think all of the times Zuko screwed up, like in "Crossroads of Destiny", can be traced back to his social awkwardness, which in turn can be traced back to his family issues. Those get addressed pretty well throughout, but I felt like by the time he joins the group full time, his character gets white-washed.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, that's why my suggestion of him actually changing sides in Crossroads and still losing would have been far more in character with him. It also would have prevented his "White washing" (I still think he was pretty good in Boiling Rock and Southern Raiders, but he was definitely a bit bland in the finale) and his development into full hero as part of the group would have felt more natural and keeping with the themes. I feel like by season 2's end through him rejoining felt only like a cheap ploy at drama to keep the stakes high, which is only evidenced by how little is done with him after that point until he does join like he should have.

So yeah, squandered opportunity, but at least things end up well for him.

[Rynnec]

Other than Day of Black Sun, I agree with your list Desen. (Something about DoBS just doesn't feel right. The events in and of themselves are good, but I think it's the pacing that kills it for me. Not too sure.)