Okay, I hate to be THAT GUY, but I hated this ending. I've loved basically every moment of Korra up till now. This was just so disappointing. I'm crushed right now.
First off, some plot holes. Yay!
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----SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT----
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1 - How were Tenzin and his family captured? This was never explained. Was Lin's sacrifice pointless then? Oh wait, yes it was, because Korra makes it all better at the end with Avatar magic.
2 - How does Blood-bending remove bending powers? Seriously, how? Explain. Do it now. Do it.
3 - Why was Korra able to Air-bend?
3.1 - She had no aptitude for Air-bending previously. Aang never went from zero to full on bending before with an element he had trouble with. Even when he learned Earth-bending, finally, Toph warned him that he couldn't control it.
3.2 - Why wouldn't Amon's bending removal affect Air-bending? That makes no sense. I thought it severed the connection between bender and elements? Or is it just *some* elements? 3/4? That seems pretty arbitrary.
4 - So Aang has to meet a giant Lion Turtle to get Energy-Bending, but Korra just has to cry. Hmm, okay. So why can Aang pass powers and bending on spiritually? If that was possible, why didn't Roku just give Aang fire-bending through spiritual meetings? It makes sense if she could still bend while in Avatar State. That'd be cool, actually.
5 - Why was Korra able to resist Blood-Bending? Did she like... What did she... Explanation? No? Only Amon has done this before, and that's because he was a Blood-Bender too. No explanation? None? She just does? She's a wizard? Okay.
Okay, so beyond the plot holes, here's the problems I had with it narratively.
1 - EXPOSITION NO JUTSU. Seriously Tarrlok, shut up. Everything important in episode 11, the first half, is flash-back. Geez. Tarrlok just doesn't shut up. And it's not done in a clever way at all. It's just dumped there. We knew absolutely diddly squat about Amon for the entire season and they just drop all this tragic backstory on us now. Very poor foresight.
2 - Makorra. Uggh, I was so dreading this. I like Asami and Bo-Lin a lot. I respect them. But they get shoved aside for the obligatory Makorra romance. And Asami is treated awfully. I actually hate Mako for being so inconsiderate and downright cruel to Asami. He is an awful character. Asami is betrayed by her father and has no one else, and Mako just betrays her too without a second thought. In these last two episodes, he has one line of dialogue with her, and it's basically just him friend-zoning her without having the balls to do it properly.
3 - Asami Vs. Hiroshi. I expected a "final moment of redemption" from Hiroshi as he realized that he should dedicate his life to his living daughter and not his dead wife. Nope. That wouldn't be the only way to go, but a really forced scene that tries to get us to care about two characters with very little development is not better. Especially not when he is about to awkwardly kill her at the end. What? He was going to murder his daughter?! Yeesh.
4 - Korra's plan. "I have some information about Amon," Thinks Korra "I shall use it against him somehow." So she walks right into enemy territory and just blabs the secret to the whole crowd. Subtle. And then she's shocked when they don't believe her. "The cult-like public doesn't believe me when I tell them bad things about their leader? GASP!"
There are so many better ways to utilize the info against Amon. Or hey, stick with the Ambush plan. Have Mako shoot lightning in his back. Problem solved.
5 - Amon's facepaint. Not a big deal, but I lol'd. He brainwashes a city with a scar tattoo.
6 - Iroh and Boomi. Iroh is about 11% as cool as he should be. He had some cool scenes, but mostly he just got his shit wrecked by those Nazi planes. This guy should have shown up three episodes ago. He didn't live up to his introduction at the end of episode 9. And Boomi! I was waiting for this guy as soon as he was mentioned and he gets like, two seconds at the end? Gah!
7 - The bending plot point. I was actually really happy and quite surprised when Korra lost her bending. Oh snap! She's gonna have to deal with this! It'll be so tough and challenging for her character oh look she's better now.
What?! I felt so cheated! Korra losing her bending was such a cheap shock tactic.
Look, I would have loved it if she got up and said "So? You took my bending away, who cares? I'm not the Avatar, but I'm still ME!" or something. That would have tied in with the Equalist plot point and Amon would have been all "Gasp, Bender or not, it's the person that counts!"
But no. She just inexplicably starts Air-bending and then at the end she fixes everyone. Oh, that's something else.
8 - She fixes everyone. Korra gives everybody their bending back. Presumably, anyway. Lin got hers back, rendering her sacrifice, i.e the best moment of the whole series, totally irrelevant and unnecessary. Seriously, Lin gets her bending back and Tenzin is captured anyway. Lin might as well have just arrested Tenzin and sold him to Amon for all the good she did.
Anyway, it's so cheap to just magically restore everyone. I'm fine with happy endings, but maybe don't just make the entire season pointless? This leads to my next gripe...
9 - I guess the moral of the story is... Yay Korra? Avatar: Legend of Aang was about stopping the Fire Nation and it ended with all Nations allied. It was a very happy ending, but things in the world had still changed. There was a point.
Now, Legend of Korra was ending with a large number of Benders de-powered. This could have given some closure to the Equalist sub-plot. Wait, that's not a sub-plot. It is the plot. Of the series. And some benders learning to live as NON-benders would be interesting. There could be a reform int he government. They could realize "Hey, we have all these magical powers and pretty much everyone in the world who matters is a Bender. Maybe they have a point with this Equalism thing?"
But no. Bender supremacy rules! Burn the infidels!
10 - A totally Multi-Dimensional Villain. So, we get a big feed dump of info about Amon and what his true goals are and it's not expanded on at all. He hates benders because his dad did. Actually, he sort of disagreed with his dad. I guess he removes bending from people because he said the Avatar did that and it's the greatest power in the world. So I guess he likes the Avatar? But he sure is mean to Korra. Is he doing this for his dad or not? Why is he doing any of this? Does he actually believe in Equalism? What does getting rid of Bender have to do with anything? Tarrlok said "He blames bending for all that happened to him" - Why?! He uses Blood-Bending regularly. He has no beef with bending. His dad lost his bending by the time he had kids. Why does Amon give a fuck about equalism or bending or the avatar or anything? If he was out to destroy criminal empires or water-benders in a rebellious, adolescent rage against his father that would make sense but this is completely arbitrary. We know exactly the same amount of things about Amon as we did at the Season's opening - He hates Benders and is kind of a douche. Oh well, maybe we'll learn more at another point in ti-
11 - RANDOM SUICIDE! Oh that makes sense. After all, Tarrlok has been looking for redemption the whole time. Wait no, he's been looking for self-gain and power this whole time, he just started seeing the error of his ways like, five minutes ago. Because apparently he hated Korra because his father told him to. I guess. It's cool that they are showing how powerful a parent's influence is, but... Not in a good way. What about his mother? He had one of those, you know. She was around way longer than his dad, and we see Tarrlok reject his dad. But I digress. Why does Tarrlok kill himself and Amon? Why does Amon let it happen? When did Amon stop wanting to live? Is Tarrlok THAT remorseful for all the terrible things he did? I guess he did kill people. Hm, no, he didn't. He did hand Korra over to Amon though. Except she escaped. So, what is he killing himself for? For being immoral and almost doing something bad that one time?
I know this is rambly, but the point is - FORCED DRAMA. So much of it. And it's so weak. And there was even sub-par action. It was a giant yawn-fest, and so disappointing. The fact is, all my favorite characters (Tenzin, Bo-Lin, Asami, LIN <3) were pushed aside for the sake of a stupid romance sub-plot and a desperate attempt to tack on unnecessary depth to the villain. Could you imagine if the second last episode of Legend of Aang was spent with a flash-back telling us how Ozai's mother didn't let him have a dog when he was a kid and for that THE WORLD MUST BURN! That would have been awful. There was enough cool blood-bender legacy stuff with Tarrlok for the complex villains to be done. Amon was creepy and a very believable threat to the avatar. They should just say that the Spirits gave him the Bending-removal power because Benders of the world had become too frivolous with power and it was a warning and maybe not all spirits agree but still it's something to think about okay Benders? Then Korra has a new mission - Bring Equality. Be a bender for everyone, not just those in power.
But nope! Bullshit childhood tragedy that makes no sense. Yay benders. Fuck the commonfolk.
Like I said. Crushed. =[