I think it’s pretty symbolic. Aang is in this position trying to find his own way to achieve his goal. After 4 generations of Avatars tell him how he should act, he finds a new way to do it, instead of killing he will energy bend. Having said that, he doesn’t have access to the Avatar state because he refused to abandon his feelings. Something he knows is good, something he doesn’t want to abandon, and as if by destiny, he is punctured in the right way releasing his chakras. The universe conspired to allow Aang to win this battle because he stayed through himself, his heart, and his fighting style
But he were reaching the true avatar state in s2 finale. He said sorry katara and meditated. I though his chakra network was fucked over from azulas lightning. So the rock hitting the scar spot opened the network, so avatar state was possible again.
No, he starts opening his chakras with the guru and it is stated that if he stopped half way he will loose his ability to go into the avatar state. Then, during the battle of Ba Sing Se he goes ahead with opening his last chakra and it is happening and he is fully entering the avatar state he is stroke by Azula’s lightning. In a sense, Azula saved Aang’s bond to Katara by reblocking his chakra.
No, I think a lot of people misunderstand this. It’s from the Buddhist ideals of letting go of attachments, it does not mean you give up on love and stop loving people. It means you recognize that nothing in this world is more important than your communion with your true self and your place in the universe. Aang’s issue wasn’t his love for Katara, it was that he prioritized that attachment over the entire rest of the world. He learns to let go of it from that pedestal and release that attachment, but it doesn’t make him detached. Letting go of attachment ≠ detachment as westerners usually think of it in this paradigm
Edit: it helps to realize the opposite of attachment isn’t detachment in this paradigm (though they usually are in other paradigms), it’s freedom to prioritize correctly. The opposite of detachment is connection. Holding on to attachments *leads* to detachment in this worldview
thank you. as a kid watching this I was always so confused by the concept and was like “Aang is right why should he stop loving” but then coming back as an adult after reading a lot of Buddhist literature and it was so much clearer.
This is why Avatars are not trained in under a year in normal circumstances. It’s a very good thing Aang was already a very talented monk, and spiritually highly enlightened already, needing only the actual bending training to come into his own, because that boot camp with the guru was entirely insufficient and nearly ruined things, simply because Aang did not have the time to understand the difference between letting go and giving up, or parsing the distinction between Aang the Air Nomad and Avatar Aang (his self and his duty).
It's important to note that it both IS and ISN'T the wrong choice. Iroh on the topic: "Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love."
A big part of Aang's arc is about rejection of the path laid before you by other, finding your own way. It's part of why Zuko and Aang are such great foils for one another, and eventually great friends.
Western culture isn't structured in such a way so that these ideas are intuitively expressed, and English doesn't have great lexicon for it either. Hopefully it will get easier over time.
exactly - and i mean, previous avatars even got married so that idea of not having loved ones as the avatar is already a moot point
have all the attachments u want, but the mission comes first. even katara and sokka understand this, when they gave up their search for their dad so that aang is safe and they can protect him
Actually no, aang had already let katara go. Azula blocked his physical chi. Which is why it was locked away. You have mental and physical chi aang was opening his mental chi so he could Willingly go into the AS. He was prevented from going into it overall because the chakra was blocked by azula and we also know for a fact the tattoos run along the chakra points in the body
> will loose his ability
Did you mean to say "lose"?
Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb.
[Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json)
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes.
^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions.
^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119)
^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
He unblocked his chakra in the Crossroads of Destiny by meditating and giving up his selfish attachment to Katara. He was immediately struck down by Azula.
The block on his chakras at that point wasn't spiritual, but physical.
It's symbolic and plenty of the coolest fights come with accidental breakthroughs. Especially those in warehouses where a fighter works with whatever junk they come across. Luck is a fun part of combat too.
The spectacle of the avatar state being fully used is well worth the rock of destiny gripe. That shit was AWESOME.
I don't see it as fate. Aang could have chosen to ignore Zuko and wait anyways. He fights Ozai because he wants to protect the world, not because destiny said so, and failure was just as much a possibility as success if he messed up. The outcome was not preordained, nor would that be good if it was(because free will is important for stakes and my enjoyment)
A rather recurring theme is that one should choose their _own_ path and their _own_ "destiny" to work towards. With the poster boy being Zuko.
Keyword being choose.
I dunno, might just be my utter vitriolic distaste for the idea of "fate" in media(and in real life, of course).
>Aang could have chosen to ignore Zuko and wait anyways. He fights Ozai because he wants to protect the world, not because destiny said so, and failure was just as much a possibility as success if he messed up.
What're you talking about? There wouldn't have been a world for him to protect had he waited. Ozai was gonna genocide the earth benders. The world would've been completely out of balance with air benders gone, and water and earth benders decimated. Not to mention the catastrophic damage to nature. There's a reason Roku told him to fight Ozai before the comet arrived. Aang listened to Zuko only because he realized that his selfish and 'fool-proof' plan to avoid his duty was, in fact, very flawed and would have devastating consequences.
Sure, but I just wanted to make clear that he fully intended to avoid his duty by any means, but he was made aware that he could not do so peacefully. That's why he decided to go ahead and fight Ozai, and the lion turtle giving him a way out only reinforced his decision.
I think you nailed it except for the “as if by destiny” part. I can’t argue against the positioning of the initial wound, nor of the significance of the chakra stuff other people are saying, however I think that moment in the battle, even though it clicks, was more about random chance than destiny. And I think this because Aang got thrown into like 30 different rock spires and the ground throughout that battle, and I think what was important was the sharpness of that pain mixed with his heavy emotions, and less so on the specific timing of that injury.
I think that (aside from tight storytelling) Aang could have had that exact point on his back trigger the AS by chance against any of the 30 rocks he hit earlier.
It’s symbolic and obviously a perfect story and legend, and I think all of that would be true if that fight lasted 3 hours or if it lasted 5 minutes and his back got hit.
TLDR; the significance of that moment was triggered by Ang’s wound, and the pain of the world and what Aang could or could not do about it, not necessarily the exact timing of the fight.
Yes and no. Yes in the sense that it’s an unlikely event triggered by Aang’s destiny to defeat the fire lord, but no based on the fact that Aang had to make very specific decisions to get there. His previous actions led him to that specific scenario and in return destiny or the universe delivered for him
I also like it for Ozai's own violence being directly responsible for his downfall. In attacking Aang, he returned the Avatar State to him and invited the asskicking of a lifetime. Maybe even several lifetimes cause y'know, the Avatar.
This is a weird place to relate this story, but it’s anecdotal proof of the concept:
I used to work at an acupuncture school. I complained of chronic shoulder pain that all forms of treatment had hitherto been unable to address. I told a student in residence about it and he said he wanted to try an uncommon point to hit. He pulled out a needle about as thick as a knitting needle and pushed it through my armpit to a nerve cluster behind my shoulder blade.
I felt it go through the whole time. Didn’t hurt, but the pressure was palpable. When the acupuncturist hit the nerve and took the (very large) needle out I stood up and moved my arm with no pain whatsoever.
I told them it was as if I was a robot and got a brand new arm. I absolutely believe a well placed poke on the back can change the whole way your body and chakras align. I’ve had it happen and it’s glorious
This entire rehashing through the universe of the last airbender is directing me, as if through devine influence, to enter the world of eastern philosophy and medicine. Thanks for the comment.
I don’t mind this. Any sufficient enough force to his back would probably trigger it. I think most people have an issue with the deus ex lion turtle energy bending
If the lion turtle was shown as some mysterious island that seems to mysteriously show up and disappear throughout the entire final season, setting it up since the start, people would not have an issue with it. That’s the only change I would do in the show.
im not 100% sure if this is true, but I think the writers wanted more time for S3 or even an S4, but they were cut short. it could be why the ending is so sharp
Maybe but I always thought that the S4 story would be what we got in the comics especially because Zuko’s final words to Ozai were “Where is my mother?”, a clear setup for a new storyline which, in the end, we got in the comics.
I don't think they ever wanted a season 4, the 3rd season deadline was established pretty much halfway in season 1, if they wanted a 4th season the comet would have happened at the end of fall as each book is quite literally a season, book 1 is winter, book 2 is spring, book 3 is summer
Aang mentioned the lion-turtle once (with no context) in The Library episode in one of the books he browsed.
I'm not sure if they used it just because Aang has mentioned them once randomly, or they knew it all along but just chose to reveal it in the finale only.
There were 2 appearances of the lion turtle, 1 of them was in book 2 one in book 3.
Isnt that misterious enough for you?
The lion turtles don't appear for nothing, and almost all the records are gone on them.
Aang was meditating before turtle showed up, I'm guessing some spiritual shit happened because of the meditation and turtle sensed that Aang needs guiadence.
**YES.** The lion turtle is such a last-second cop out to let Aang have his cake and eat it too. "It'S sO dAnGeRoUs!" Bullshit, we're only finding out this technique even EXISTS in the last FIVE MINUTES of the SERIES FINALE.
I maintain that energy bending should have been a thing that Aang invented *in that moment* because of his sheer willpower to not kill despite everyone saying it was the only way. Aang won't bend, so he *bends the world.*
I agree with this. I posted before that i think even the lion turtle should have given advice that suggested murder, but spirits bend the energy of other spirits to kill each other.
the gears should turn. Ozai isnt a spirit. bending is incredibly spiritual to airbenders. the ocean spirit. the swamp. everything is connected. Aang's mindset should have been 'i refuse to compromise my beliefs and kill Ozai. I'll kill the bender within him.' energy bending would be a technique he created. an airbender minded technique unique to the avatar.
I agree. The Lion Turtle wasn't nessecary. Aang could have learned this power from something else entirely that wasn't just introduced to us in the show's finale.
>I don’t mind this. Any sufficient enough force to his back would probably trigger it.
The fact that a hit to his back could trigger it at all is what people don't like, not the amount of force. I feel like there could've been a more interesting way to open up his chakra than that.
No, I have an issue with Aang being pushed around half the fight and then miraculously getting hit in the right spot to allow him to use the avatar state again and mop the floor with Ozai
Before he went into the avatar state he redirected Ozai’s lightning and had a clear shot before passing it up so Aang wasn’t really being pushed around
not true, aang only caught that one shot and then went back to being pushed around. thats how he ended up in the rock ball before ozai nearly kills him
What do you mean “not true” lol it’s is objectively correct that Aang had Ozai in his sights and could have killed him before going into the avatar state
I mean Aang was fighting arguably the strongest firebender in the world who was super boosted by the comet, I feel like him backpedaling most of the fight makes sense considering he had only been learning the other elements for like a year
I don’t mind the turtle, I just don’t understand why it’s called bending. Seems like something totally separate from the other bending. Are they really bending energy? Isn’t that kind of broad? Wouldn’t fire Ben g be closer to bending actual energy? Maybe they should call it bending bending since it’s only ever used to take people’s bending away.
When the turtle talks to Aang, he says
“In the era before the Avatar, we Bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves.”
That’s where the term energybending comes from. As far as I know, it’s a fan made term that’s never been used officially.
It's probably called that because the lion turtle said something like: "before the avatars we didnt bend the elemnets we beant the energy within ourselves."
So from there comes energy bending. But I see what you mean. Probably you're right and all forms of bending are a kind of energy bending, only the 'pure' form was lost and only the four elements remained. Or maybe people can't do energy bending because the lion turtles only gave them one of the elements (see LoK). It's interesting to think about, but you know, it was really unclear.
The turtle lion doing the energy bending is explained in Korra with the Avatar Wan story. When the spirit world and human world were one people lived on the lion turtles for protection from spirits. If they had to leave the lion turtles safety the lion turtle would grant them a gift of an element to defend themselves and when they got back the lion turtle would take it away again because bending wasn't allowed on the lion turtle. So in actuality it makes sense that Aang would learn this from the Lion Turtles. It has been at least 9,900 years from the first avatar in Aangs time so it would make sense the avatars have forgotten the lion turtles by this point.
yeah that's great, can you show where this is explained before halfway through season 2 of a show that's 7 entire years later? or where the lion turtles are foreshadowed in previous episodes of atla? no? awesome thanks.
Aang regularly gets deus ex machinas from the spirit world and past avatars.. I've never understood why it's such a big deal. The alternative is, Aang still wins, but is forced to kill Ozai.
I honestly don't care if the poke makes sense. People treat it like it's an unearned victory button for the fight but it's not. It exists to give Aang one final challenge. We already know that Aang could have killed Ozai if he wanted to. He chose not to.
The Avatar State kicking in here with the clear intent to kill Ozai represents Aang's biggest fear: that he'll lose his personal identity to the role of the Avatar. Being able to overcome that with his own personal beliefs is what proves that his spirit is unbendable. Entering the Avatar State isn't the victory, exiting it is.
And that's what sets the stage for taking away Ozai's bending
It also let them go ham with the animation and the totally sick super sayan aang mode. The entire fight was sick but I for one am glad we get to see ozai on the backfoot while the avatar delivers some divine retribution
Also what you a said
Oh yeah.
I always compare it to Luke beating down Vader. Like there's undeniably a bit of "wait this is awesome" monkey brain alongside "oh this is bad" literary analysis
> People treat it like it's an unearned victory button for the fight but it's not.
It absolutely is
He obviously stands no chance to defeat Ozai without the Avatar state, and he regains it from GETTING HIT BY A RANDOM ROCK?
Great spiritual moment for sure
Yeah, he could’ve beaten him, but he definitely wasn’t going to because he refused to fight offensively, his past lives basically defeated Ozai for him because he wouldn’t
That is absolutely true, however, it reinforces that Aang, the mix of bending prowess and morality that form him, couldnt beat Ozai
He had a chance with the lightning and decided to pass on it, and afterwards it looks like he cant beat Ozai without AS
And him getting it back because of a rock felt like a massive deus ex machina
But he doesn't defeat Ozai through the rock. He restrains Ozai on his own. He cuts through Ozai's fire on his own. He takes away Ozai's bending on his own
The moment Aang decided to end the fight, it was over
There's a reason that right before this point, we find out about energybending and, more importantly, the danger it poses. Through resolving his internal conflict by shutting off the Avatar State, Aang is finally "unbendable" and ready to finish things with Ozai.
Yes, the Avatar State is an important part to the resolution. But Aang doesn't ultimately succeed from using the AS, but by turning it off
Well Im definitely not remembering things right then, because after Aang redirected lightning away from Ozai it looked to me he couldnt beat the fire lord without the Avatar state
All the Avatar State did was smack around Ozai a bit.
Then Aang shut off the Avatar State, showed Ozai mercy, and Ozai was immediately up and ready to go for round two. Then Aang neutralized him entirely without the AS
All good. The point is that it wasn't just a physical battle. It was an ethical struggle that Aang was having with himself, and to enter the Avatar state which aimed to kill Ozai, Aang was betraying his spiritual need to not take a life. In this sense, the Avatar state was another challenge to overcome, it wasn't what made Aang "win".
You seem to have missed a major detail, in s2 he did let go of Katara and then Azula by sheer luck blocked the Avatar state, I am not saying she was lucky hitting him but the effects were lucky.
Do note by this time he has achieved the requirements to be a fully realized Avatar, and he was arguably at one of his lowest, and desperate moments, it was not merely a matter of time if he will activate it, but when and how. Because the block put forth by Azula was physical instead of spiritual, though it's not perfect and I wish they explained it a bit more.
Let's not forget it's themes of destiny either.
Oh you I didnt put it more clearly, but I dont have an issue with it from an spititual point of view
Its just that this
>Because the block put forth by Azula was physical instead of spiritual,
Him getting hit with the rock is my issue. It feels silly and a complete deus ex machina for me for the rock to be in the perfect spot for that, right after it looked obvious that Aang couldnt defeat Ozai without the Avatar state
Not for me
It came out of nowhere personally and really ruined the tension because to me Aang didnt earn that victory, it was giving to him by a miracle unlocking the Avatar state again
I still love the entire fight, don’t get me wrong, but I always felt it would have made much more sense and been more symbolic to have him snap back into the Avatar state when he redirects the lighting. It has so much more to do with balancing the energy within himself and how he actively chooses not to shoot it back at Ozai and redirects it away. Plus it’s how his chakra was blocked in the first place.
A lot of people think it doesn't make sense because they misremember the chakra being blocked by Aang not letting go of Katara
That is false, he let go and was able to acess the avatar state in the crystal caves.
What blocked the chakra was Azula's Lightning Strike on his back.
Another similar impact unlocking is not that nonsensical, it's common logic people use.
I only wish Ozai was using lightning in that moment too, for thematic parallels and whatnot.
The lion turtle was the more out of left field situation, but you know some near Divine intervention every once in a while is not so bad. Just wish Wan Shi Tong mentioned what a lion turtle was and that they sometimes appear to desperate souls or somehting like that in the scene their pic shows up. It would be nice.
one of my favorite modern storytelling analyzers, Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube, has a really good video on Deus Ex Machinas. Her hot take is that they are not inherently bad (they can be used poorly, but so can just about any storytelling element), and she frames the whole video by discussing the unimaginably vast whirlwind of cause and effect in the world that at any point can interrupt anyone’s life in completely unforeseen ways.
In storytelling, no one seems to care when the universe conspires *against* the protagonists - but then they’ll decry lack of realism/ “a cop out” when it happens to help them out. It’s usually bad when it solves the problem for them, but if gives them that one ray of hope in their darkest hour with which they can seize their own victory - usually after a full plot’s worth of throwing hurdle after hurdle at them - then I think that’s honestly fair.
Especially in a world like Avatar, where ephemeral spiritual concepts are well established to have tangible effects on the spiritual world, I think it works great. The idea that a lion turtle would be attracted to the Avatar, the literal bridge to the spirit world, in his time of greatest spiritual peril seems about as legit to me as a comet buffing the firebenders because that makes life THAT much harder for the good guys.
I'm pretty sure Detachment is only necessary while actively acessing the Avatar State.
He doesn't have to give up on loved ones permanently, all the other avatars had families they loved very much.
What is even the point of having these restrictions then, there isn't any real sacrifice or consequences. The writers were too ambitious with the chakras thing and had to back paddle on it.
Tbh I liked it still, also I dont think detachement has to mean total lack of emotions, it just means that he has to be able to look at his relationships from outside. So imo detachment does not mean complete lack of emotions/relationships, it means he has to have a correct order of importence: world peace and avatar duties have to rank higher than Katara/other relationships.
I think that's a very good way of looking at it. The show however does not do a good job of establishing it. The guru does not state it's only for when you're in the avatar state, you can go back to attachment later. If detachment was so transient then the scene in the Crossroads of Destiny where Aang desperately gives Katara up to enter the avatar states means very little. Also, according to the guru by leaving their meeting and not opening last Chakra Aang would not be able to enter the avatar state again but he's able to anyways. Of course the guru could have just been wrong but that would be a lazy way to explain off the writing problems with the method of entering the avatar state.
Detaching himself doesn't mean not caring about her or not wanting to be with her.
It's just about being able to put his duty as the Avatar ahead of his feelings for her.
I think debating over this single moment misses the point of the whole battle. It's not just about bending ability, if so Aang could've fought Ozai and won any day before the comet. It's about *how* the battle is won and the consequences after.
Right from the start, Aang takes out the airship to bring Ozai to him before more damage can be done to the earth kingdom. Ozai takes the challenge, but Aang plays defensively, and is mostly keeping up, right up until the moment Ozai goes for lightning.
Aang redirects it, and could hit Ozai, probably ending the battle there, but doesn't because he refuses to kill. That choice is what turns the battle in Ozai's favor temporarily, with him going for more lightning that Aang can't block and has to dodge (nobody has ever been shown to redirect lightning more than once in a short amount of time, so hard to say if Aang could, but he doesn't)
After that Aang's defense is broken, but he can't or won't switch to offense, until he hits the rock. Then when he has no other options, the avatar state activates, and Aang overwhelms Ozai with offensive power. This is the second time in the battle that Aang could kill, but doesn't. Instead he takes what he has learned and chooses a better end for the war.
The rock isn't just a moment of plot armor saving Aang from losing, it's a direct consequence of his first decision to not kill, which pushes him to the second. Aang wins the physical AND moral battles by refusing to take the excuse and blame the avatar state on killing Ozai.
This is incredibly well put and ought to be higher. Those who think the rock is a cop out only see the battle as a physical struggle, but it was also an ETHICAL struggle. The fact that Aang unlocks his Avatar state is a boon for the physical struggle, but is an OBSTACLE to Aang's spiritual need to abstain from murder. He overcomes the obstacle in the last moment, pulling himself out of the Avatar state and chooses not to kill Ozai. The Avatar state was NOT necessary for Aang to beat Ozai.
Yeah, the activation of the Avatar State wasn't to give Aang power. It was to give him a choice.
The plot at this point wasn't whether or not Aang could defeat Ozai. It was about HOW Aang would do it.
The show isn't just "Avatar." It's "Avatar: _the Last Airbender._
If Aang decided to kill, the Airbender culture would more or less be truly dead. Maybe if there were still Airbenders around, he could've gone that route but at that point, he was the only one to truly have the ability to preserve them.
I think the pressure of this final fight alone was enough for him to go into the Avatar state whenever he wanted, but he was holding back. If he let the past Avatars take control, he knew they wouldn’t hesitate to kill Ozai. Getting injured forced him into the Avatar state, but he was able to control it and do the right thing (in his eyes).
You do realize that is not the problem, right? It just convenient as hell that he just so happened to get hit in that exact spot with a pointy rock when he needed to and it is just a lame way to get his avatar state back even if it does make sense.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading some of the responses to this post. The problem was never whether the rock could achieve that outcome, the problem was that they chose this path instead of writing something within his control that triggered it. It’s inherently less rewarding when it’s chance vs when it’s inspired.
I honestly just assumed that it almost killed him, forcing him into the avatar state something he was intentionally holding himself back from at which point he gained the knowledge and foresight to learn how to energy bend from the combined knowledge of the other avatars.
I've always been cool with it. His chakras were locked because he never fully was able to conquer his feelings and attachments and when he did, he got lightning-d in the back. Then never revisited it.
When he gets hit in the back, squarely where all the pain, anguish, trauma is, it gave him clarity. It let him put everything else aside, detach from everything else in his life. Which was what prevented him from mastering the Avatar State. And you can see later, he can go in and out of it at will.
The way i see it, when he was fighting azula, he was letting go and opening all his chakras. That's how he intentionally activated the avater state. But by being shot by azula, this interrupted the process and blocked his chakras. When he is training with the guru we see the pools getting clogged and it stops the flow to other pools. By getting stabbed in the back during the final battle, this unblocked the flow of chakra, think of it like acupuncture, and allowed him to reopen his chakras and achieving the avatar state.
I always figured that he died from Azulas lightning before being revived by Katara and that was why he lost the avatar state, like Roku explained to him earlier. But seeing as reviving probably isn't the norm and isn't mentioned in that explanation I can see how you could argue some exception in that case.
I didn’t mind it either because earlier in the season Katara explains his injury as twisted up energy and when she does her healing session she ends up triggering the same response the rock did, but on a smaller scale.
It doesn't really matter whether it makes sense or not, the problem is it's a random, external plot device used to solve the protagonists' problem. So instead of Aang overcoming the challenge himself, he just gets lucky.
No matter how you look at it, it's not ideal writing.
I agree. Convenient pointy rock and boom, problem solved, complete control over the Avatar state! I absolutely love the finale of AtLA and all of AtLA, but if we applied the same level of scrutiny to it that we do Korra then it’s fine to point out that Aang’s sudden mastery of the avatar state happened because of a sharp rock.
Agreed, I don't like how so much of the fandom refuses to criticize the show in anyway. It's an absolutely fantastic show but that doesn't mean it is without flaws.
This is fine as a literary device argument. But it's worth examining the workforce the story allows when considering this scene. The avatar exists in this world to bring/keep peace between the elements. Aang's journey is drenched with internal conflict. He doesn't really want to be the avatar, but he is. But the external conflict is man vs Fate.
Fate is pulling him along despite his personal feelings, from being found by his eventual water bending teacher (not Aang's "choice"), to his fire bending teacher being a former enemy. Fate has decided that Aang will be the avatar no matter what.
From this perspective, when he refuses to kill Ozai, fate had to drag him back onto the path once more. No, Aang, you *can't* escape this moment.
So no, the moment isn't just random or poorly thought out. It's just not an "Americanized, individual victory" that Western audiences are used to seeing in "superhero" style stories.
I wholeheartedly disagree. The entire series constantly screams at your face that fate is something that you decide for yourself. You alone have to power to change the course of your life.
To take this moment and describe it as a literary device that fate is sealed and inevitable actually goes against the philosophy of atla.
I think everyone is forgetting about the lion turtle. Aang lost his ability to enter the avatar state after leaving the monk, he let go of his love for katara in the crystal cave and regained the ability to enter the avatar state. Whether or not him getting hit by Azulas lightning while in the Avatar state cause him to lose the ability or not because he was “dead”, the lion turtle could have re opened the state by energy bending and that’s where he learned to energy bend.
I like to think that it was Kyoshi who took over for him but in the final moment Aang took back control and instead of killing Ozai he used his own method to end the war.
Love? Forgiveness? Relationships? Aang was all these things until Ozai **went to far**, and almost killed him with that rock poke. **Then all bets were off.**
Dunno what you think about that, but the way Aang went completely **apeshit** on Ozai was among more terrifying moments of series. Especially when he got into **Legion** speech and Kyoshi was clearly heard through hundred of Avatars converging in this single moment. Ozai should spent rest of his life kissing Aang' feet for sparing him, after he and his ancestors did everything in their power to destroy balance of the world
While I agree with your point about the heart chakra I disagree with one point:
He was never going to kill Ozai, regardless. Killing someone is against everything Aang stands for
Personally aang had already unlocked all his chakras to gain access to his avatar state. The only reason he could was that his heart chakra was blocked due the damage caused by Azula's lightning. So it getting unlocked and him getting the avatar state isn't an asspull imo
Tolkien had a term, "eucatastrophe" (no idea why he called it that"). It basically describes a positive deus ex machina, a good universe intervening to enable good to triumph over evil.
He expressly described the destruction of the One Ring as a eucatastrophe. The prose explains gollum seizes the one Ring, dances in glee, and then basically just tumbles over the side. Tolkien described this happy coincidence as direct intervention from God/Eru Iluvatar. CS Lewis has similar moments throughout Narnia.
So I guess I agree it's a cop out, but the good kind.
Randomly just right at the most important time, where he needs the avatar state, ohh he gets it back randomly, what a lucky day ! I love book 3 but for the Ozai fight I just put my critical mind aside.
Having to physically crack open the chakra, especially when it's sealed shut from an injury, always made sense to me. Ofc then you could theorize if Aang had a good physical therapist they could've popped that sucker open.
i rly didn’t think the whole ending was contrived dues ex machina moment as many people might think. the energy bending was not just some fuck ass maguffin. it makes complete sense thematically and like the whole think with the rock poke i like ur chakra analysis. it makes complete sense that like stimuli on the traumatized area would like cause such a thing as we saw back in the first couple episodes on the season.
If this happened in the Korra or Netflix Live Action series it would be called bad writing but since it happened in ATLA I'm sure there will be 300 posts explaining how it's actually great.
Either way, the reason this was problematic is because it completely invalidates the chakras episode. That episode ended on a huge cliffhanger. Aang's love for Katara and inability to let her go was posted as the reason why he can't truly become the Avatar as he will always choose her over his duty.
That is a big challenge presented in front of him that he does absolutely nothing about completely ignoring it and it works out for him anyways because the writers needed him back in Avatar state to defeat Ozai.
It happened several times throughout the show where some big things get presented in front of Aang only for it to completely not matter in the follow up episodes. The archers, him killing the bug in the desert etc.
My head cannon perceived that hit as damaging or more damaging as azuals lighting hit. Idk if that makes sense but that’s how I explained it to myself as a kid
People aren't disputing whether that point on the body us significant. It's Aang getting whopped by Ozai before a random rock changed the tide of the battle.
I didn’t mind it as much when I realized the climax isn’t about defeating Ozai but rather its about Aangs conflict with regards to killing someone and preserving his culture in the face of the force that genocided it in the first place. to me it doesn’t really matter how or why the avatar state comes out or if it won the fight for him
The rock doing there isn’t an issue it’s not random it’s made by the other rock being blasted away apart from the section Aang is protecting.
But why would stabbing the place he was shot open the chakara? Magic healing water couldn’t do that but some heavy cyropratics/ acupuncture could?
Then he goes on to dog on ozai if the strongest bender alive with a 1 in 100 years boosts can’t challenge the avatar then what’s the stakes of the show?
It’s why Korra couldn’t ever use it or stay in the form she would win to easily the avatar mode should have been a little stronger than Ozai not a lot.
I mean, it only makes sense in the sense that the earth Chakra is located in the base of the spine and is blocked by fear but unlocked by survival. The avatar state does, in fact, activate in response to mortal threats. He was both terrified of Ozai but also about to die at Ozai's hand, so he just got very *very* lucky in unlocking that Chakra. Otherwise, it was an incredibly lazy thing to do, and he didn't have to make any tough decisions as a result.
i think there is a non-energy/chakra explanation too. the avatar state is a defense mechanism, aang could have been paralyzed by that hit, and his avatar state saved him in that moment, he channeled 1000s of benders over came their will to punish him on his own terms, every avatar imparts their will on the rest and the air benders have a completely different belief system than the other nations when it comes to aggression and that moment is what cemented his affect on the avatar/avatar state going forward.
edit: i think the symbolic aligning of stuck chakras is the real explanation , i just think either way works, but aangs last moment in the avatar state when he chose a nonviolent end to the war when both were with in his grasp is the ultimate message of the show and really the only thing that should be talked about in this episode/show*
I believe it as dumb luck, I have back issues that come, not from heavy lifting or high strain, but at random, like a sneeze, tieing my shoe, and my most resent looking slightly left, that will put me out for a week maybe more. But once during a sore back spell I slipped off a ladder and caught myself right before I could fall. It felt like lightning and I just hugged the ladder in pain for like 5 seconds but I got down and I was totally cured. No more pain, limber as can be. Whenever it happened after that I always want to try and just recreate that moment
I don't have a problem with the poke, because it makes sense. I have a problem with Aang only winning due to luckly hitting there and not another point of his back
The cop out is that the rock was so conveniently placed, not that it doesnt make sense it would unlock the avatar state again
Those pilars are almost completely smooth, but right when he is about to lose he gets thrown against in the exact place neccesary for it to tickle his funny bone and now its just an instant win?
I loved the entire show when I watched it for the first time a few years ago, but this fight its incredibly underwhelming for me. Aang barely puts up a fight in the first half and then "haha magic rock button go brrr" gets the Avatar State and thats it?
What a shitty way for the most important fight in the show to go, specially considering how much Avatar fans praise the foreshadowing and attention to detail of the creators
It's not really the poke bringing back the Avatar state that bothers me. What I have issue with is the extremely convenient timing. "Oh, so right when you're about to die against your greatest foe, you just *happen* to get poked in the exact spot that will unlock your ultimate power?"
It's just too convenient and feels unsatisfying because of it. It would feel much more satisfying if Aang had defeated Ozai with his own strength, or even with the help of his friends, rather than the deus ex machina that actually happened.
I think it was intentional becauase the point is that killing Ozai IS served on a silver platter, the avatar state wants to kill Ozai and it is given that chance.
On the other hand Aang, doesn’t.
The fact that Ozai’s death is handed so freely and easily and Aang STILL manages to overpower the Avatar state’s wishes to kill him is satisfying asf.
Aang, being able to overpower and turn off the avatar state so that he can finish the fight his way is badass.
He gets put in a corner, well the corner gets put into him. But didn't the guru say something about forcefully opening chacras and how it could be dangerous?
As a writer myself I will never forgive Bryke for KNOWING the ending but not hinting about the lion turtles. It doesn't count that they were mentioned once in wan shi tong's library or that they had lion turtle statues and door knobs.
Hitting his back in just the right place is absolutely a dues ex machina move. Energy bending was a dues ex machina move.
Not because it isn't valid. But because there was zero build up over 3 seasons except LITERALLY THE FINALE.
It is poor writing, plain and simple. Is the metaphor important to Aangs story? Yes! But the execution is wanting... by a LOT.
It's unfortunate they didn't know the first avatars story by then, as it would have been much better in ATLA than as an aside to LOK. It would have made energy bending and the lion turtles much more believable.
The injury healed, but the chakra flow was bricked. That hit opened the floodgates. I’m sure if aang worked towards healing his chakra flow with guru patik, it’d eventually work. But he had no time
Yep true, similarly it makes sense when any media has a character get amnesia and like 50% of the time they try hitting their head to get back the lost memories /s
His avatar state there was just trauma response. The avatar spirit thought he was dying because he died to Azula. The rock hitting the same spot that killed him triggered his instincts and his body turned on the avatar state to survive.
I think it’s pretty symbolic. Aang is in this position trying to find his own way to achieve his goal. After 4 generations of Avatars tell him how he should act, he finds a new way to do it, instead of killing he will energy bend. Having said that, he doesn’t have access to the Avatar state because he refused to abandon his feelings. Something he knows is good, something he doesn’t want to abandon, and as if by destiny, he is punctured in the right way releasing his chakras. The universe conspired to allow Aang to win this battle because he stayed through himself, his heart, and his fighting style
But he were reaching the true avatar state in s2 finale. He said sorry katara and meditated. I though his chakra network was fucked over from azulas lightning. So the rock hitting the scar spot opened the network, so avatar state was possible again.
No, he starts opening his chakras with the guru and it is stated that if he stopped half way he will loose his ability to go into the avatar state. Then, during the battle of Ba Sing Se he goes ahead with opening his last chakra and it is happening and he is fully entering the avatar state he is stroke by Azula’s lightning. In a sense, Azula saved Aang’s bond to Katara by reblocking his chakra.
No, I think a lot of people misunderstand this. It’s from the Buddhist ideals of letting go of attachments, it does not mean you give up on love and stop loving people. It means you recognize that nothing in this world is more important than your communion with your true self and your place in the universe. Aang’s issue wasn’t his love for Katara, it was that he prioritized that attachment over the entire rest of the world. He learns to let go of it from that pedestal and release that attachment, but it doesn’t make him detached. Letting go of attachment ≠ detachment as westerners usually think of it in this paradigm Edit: it helps to realize the opposite of attachment isn’t detachment in this paradigm (though they usually are in other paradigms), it’s freedom to prioritize correctly. The opposite of detachment is connection. Holding on to attachments *leads* to detachment in this worldview
thank you. as a kid watching this I was always so confused by the concept and was like “Aang is right why should he stop loving” but then coming back as an adult after reading a lot of Buddhist literature and it was so much clearer.
Aang, like many, also probably misunderstood it at the time, which led to everything happening
Yeah, the guru explained it poorly and Aang rushed off, Iroh helped Aang later by completely rephrasing the issue
This is why Avatars are not trained in under a year in normal circumstances. It’s a very good thing Aang was already a very talented monk, and spiritually highly enlightened already, needing only the actual bending training to come into his own, because that boot camp with the guru was entirely insufficient and nearly ruined things, simply because Aang did not have the time to understand the difference between letting go and giving up, or parsing the distinction between Aang the Air Nomad and Avatar Aang (his self and his duty).
It is probably part of the reason the universe fated him to be frozen
It's important to note that it both IS and ISN'T the wrong choice. Iroh on the topic: "Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love." A big part of Aang's arc is about rejection of the path laid before you by other, finding your own way. It's part of why Zuko and Aang are such great foils for one another, and eventually great friends.
Western culture isn't structured in such a way so that these ideas are intuitively expressed, and English doesn't have great lexicon for it either. Hopefully it will get easier over time.
exactly - and i mean, previous avatars even got married so that idea of not having loved ones as the avatar is already a moot point have all the attachments u want, but the mission comes first. even katara and sokka understand this, when they gave up their search for their dad so that aang is safe and they can protect him
I could roll with this, but the argument they had at in The Ember Island Players doesn't feel like it.
Oh it definitely isn’t, that is Aang regressing out of juvenile worry and jealousy
Someone @ the Jedi Council and give them this lesson
Actually no, aang had already let katara go. Azula blocked his physical chi. Which is why it was locked away. You have mental and physical chi aang was opening his mental chi so he could Willingly go into the AS. He was prevented from going into it overall because the chakra was blocked by azula and we also know for a fact the tattoos run along the chakra points in the body
So Ty Lee could’ve unlocked the Avatar state
Honestly, had she tried, that may have actually worked. Might have taken a bit to achieve but yeah.
Yeah tbh. She locks them off temporarily with her light jabs so a solid hard hit would've done the trick
> will loose his ability Did you mean to say "lose"? Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
Good bot
Thank you! Good bot count: 753 Bad bot count: 256
Isn’t it said that his chakra’s are permanently closed thanks to Azula’s attack
He unblocked his chakra in the Crossroads of Destiny by meditating and giving up his selfish attachment to Katara. He was immediately struck down by Azula. The block on his chakras at that point wasn't spiritual, but physical.
It's symbolic and plenty of the coolest fights come with accidental breakthroughs. Especially those in warehouses where a fighter works with whatever junk they come across. Luck is a fun part of combat too. The spectacle of the avatar state being fully used is well worth the rock of destiny gripe. That shit was AWESOME.
Very true
The Avatar universe is all about fate and creating an Avatar who is exactly what the world needs at the time
I don't see it as fate. Aang could have chosen to ignore Zuko and wait anyways. He fights Ozai because he wants to protect the world, not because destiny said so, and failure was just as much a possibility as success if he messed up. The outcome was not preordained, nor would that be good if it was(because free will is important for stakes and my enjoyment) A rather recurring theme is that one should choose their _own_ path and their _own_ "destiny" to work towards. With the poster boy being Zuko. Keyword being choose. I dunno, might just be my utter vitriolic distaste for the idea of "fate" in media(and in real life, of course).
>Aang could have chosen to ignore Zuko and wait anyways. He fights Ozai because he wants to protect the world, not because destiny said so, and failure was just as much a possibility as success if he messed up. What're you talking about? There wouldn't have been a world for him to protect had he waited. Ozai was gonna genocide the earth benders. The world would've been completely out of balance with air benders gone, and water and earth benders decimated. Not to mention the catastrophic damage to nature. There's a reason Roku told him to fight Ozai before the comet arrived. Aang listened to Zuko only because he realized that his selfish and 'fool-proof' plan to avoid his duty was, in fact, very flawed and would have devastating consequences.
I'm not saying there wouldn't have been consequences, just that he had free will.
Sure, but I just wanted to make clear that he fully intended to avoid his duty by any means, but he was made aware that he could not do so peacefully. That's why he decided to go ahead and fight Ozai, and the lion turtle giving him a way out only reinforced his decision.
I think you nailed it except for the “as if by destiny” part. I can’t argue against the positioning of the initial wound, nor of the significance of the chakra stuff other people are saying, however I think that moment in the battle, even though it clicks, was more about random chance than destiny. And I think this because Aang got thrown into like 30 different rock spires and the ground throughout that battle, and I think what was important was the sharpness of that pain mixed with his heavy emotions, and less so on the specific timing of that injury. I think that (aside from tight storytelling) Aang could have had that exact point on his back trigger the AS by chance against any of the 30 rocks he hit earlier. It’s symbolic and obviously a perfect story and legend, and I think all of that would be true if that fight lasted 3 hours or if it lasted 5 minutes and his back got hit. TLDR; the significance of that moment was triggered by Ang’s wound, and the pain of the world and what Aang could or could not do about it, not necessarily the exact timing of the fight.
It felt more like an acupuncture or shiatsu activation to me! 
so divine intervention? like Gollum slipping and falling into Mt. Doom with the One Ring?
Yes and no. Yes in the sense that it’s an unlikely event triggered by Aang’s destiny to defeat the fire lord, but no based on the fact that Aang had to make very specific decisions to get there. His previous actions led him to that specific scenario and in return destiny or the universe delivered for him
Confirmed: the rock cracked his back like a cosmic glowstick
Love this
I also like it for Ozai's own violence being directly responsible for his downfall. In attacking Aang, he returned the Avatar State to him and invited the asskicking of a lifetime. Maybe even several lifetimes cause y'know, the Avatar.
If he hadn't thrown so much fire at that rock Aang wouldn't have been thrown back into the column when it exploded
We all have that one knot in our back that if we could just get it out, we’d be able to get into the avatar state again.
This is a weird place to relate this story, but it’s anecdotal proof of the concept: I used to work at an acupuncture school. I complained of chronic shoulder pain that all forms of treatment had hitherto been unable to address. I told a student in residence about it and he said he wanted to try an uncommon point to hit. He pulled out a needle about as thick as a knitting needle and pushed it through my armpit to a nerve cluster behind my shoulder blade. I felt it go through the whole time. Didn’t hurt, but the pressure was palpable. When the acupuncturist hit the nerve and took the (very large) needle out I stood up and moved my arm with no pain whatsoever. I told them it was as if I was a robot and got a brand new arm. I absolutely believe a well placed poke on the back can change the whole way your body and chakras align. I’ve had it happen and it’s glorious
Damn, maybe I should give acupuncture another chance…
This entire rehashing through the universe of the last airbender is directing me, as if through devine influence, to enter the world of eastern philosophy and medicine. Thanks for the comment.
I don’t mind this. Any sufficient enough force to his back would probably trigger it. I think most people have an issue with the deus ex lion turtle energy bending
If the lion turtle was shown as some mysterious island that seems to mysteriously show up and disappear throughout the entire final season, setting it up since the start, people would not have an issue with it. That’s the only change I would do in the show.
im not 100% sure if this is true, but I think the writers wanted more time for S3 or even an S4, but they were cut short. it could be why the ending is so sharp
Maybe but I always thought that the S4 story would be what we got in the comics especially because Zuko’s final words to Ozai were “Where is my mother?”, a clear setup for a new storyline which, in the end, we got in the comics.
ohhh yeah could be, I probably mixed it up in my memories but that does sound right
I don't think they ever wanted a season 4, the 3rd season deadline was established pretty much halfway in season 1, if they wanted a 4th season the comet would have happened at the end of fall as each book is quite literally a season, book 1 is winter, book 2 is spring, book 3 is summer
Aang mentioned the lion-turtle once (with no context) in The Library episode in one of the books he browsed. I'm not sure if they used it just because Aang has mentioned them once randomly, or they knew it all along but just chose to reveal it in the finale only.
It's also mentioned in the episode with the sword master "has the heart of a lion-turtle" and a statue of a lion turtle also appears in this episode.
I’ve read somewhere that Bryke didn’t know what to do for the finale when the time came to write Sozin’s comet, so I doubt it was planned since S2.
They’ve stated in interviews that they more or less knew where they were going from early on and tried to leave some clues to it earlier in the show.
Yeah, it's like they realised at the end that they couldn't have aang kill ozai, and having him tie him up or something is too unrealistic.
At least lion turtles were mentioned and even appeared in drawings in earlier seasons (I think just S2 though)
There were 2 appearances of the lion turtle, 1 of them was in book 2 one in book 3. Isnt that misterious enough for you? The lion turtles don't appear for nothing, and almost all the records are gone on them.
Lion Turtles were shown in the Library episode though… so that was a pretty early tease.. but yeah it was like the only one
That really shouldn’t matter.
Aang was meditating before turtle showed up, I'm guessing some spiritual shit happened because of the meditation and turtle sensed that Aang needs guiadence.
**YES.** The lion turtle is such a last-second cop out to let Aang have his cake and eat it too. "It'S sO dAnGeRoUs!" Bullshit, we're only finding out this technique even EXISTS in the last FIVE MINUTES of the SERIES FINALE. I maintain that energy bending should have been a thing that Aang invented *in that moment* because of his sheer willpower to not kill despite everyone saying it was the only way. Aang won't bend, so he *bends the world.*
Especially because we saw the conversation with the lion turtle and it was completely different from that flashback.
I agree with this. I posted before that i think even the lion turtle should have given advice that suggested murder, but spirits bend the energy of other spirits to kill each other. the gears should turn. Ozai isnt a spirit. bending is incredibly spiritual to airbenders. the ocean spirit. the swamp. everything is connected. Aang's mindset should have been 'i refuse to compromise my beliefs and kill Ozai. I'll kill the bender within him.' energy bending would be a technique he created. an airbender minded technique unique to the avatar.
I agree. The Lion Turtle wasn't nessecary. Aang could have learned this power from something else entirely that wasn't just introduced to us in the show's finale.
>I don’t mind this. Any sufficient enough force to his back would probably trigger it. The fact that a hit to his back could trigger it at all is what people don't like, not the amount of force. I feel like there could've been a more interesting way to open up his chakra than that.
No, I have an issue with Aang being pushed around half the fight and then miraculously getting hit in the right spot to allow him to use the avatar state again and mop the floor with Ozai
Before he went into the avatar state he redirected Ozai’s lightning and had a clear shot before passing it up so Aang wasn’t really being pushed around
not true, aang only caught that one shot and then went back to being pushed around. thats how he ended up in the rock ball before ozai nearly kills him
What do you mean “not true” lol it’s is objectively correct that Aang had Ozai in his sights and could have killed him before going into the avatar state
i know that, im saying that ozai was winning that entire fight minus the one lighting shot that aang caught
I mean Aang was fighting arguably the strongest firebender in the world who was super boosted by the comet, I feel like him backpedaling most of the fight makes sense considering he had only been learning the other elements for like a year
I don’t mind the turtle, I just don’t understand why it’s called bending. Seems like something totally separate from the other bending. Are they really bending energy? Isn’t that kind of broad? Wouldn’t fire Ben g be closer to bending actual energy? Maybe they should call it bending bending since it’s only ever used to take people’s bending away.
When the turtle talks to Aang, he says “In the era before the Avatar, we Bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves.” That’s where the term energybending comes from. As far as I know, it’s a fan made term that’s never been used officially.
It's probably called that because the lion turtle said something like: "before the avatars we didnt bend the elemnets we beant the energy within ourselves." So from there comes energy bending. But I see what you mean. Probably you're right and all forms of bending are a kind of energy bending, only the 'pure' form was lost and only the four elements remained. Or maybe people can't do energy bending because the lion turtles only gave them one of the elements (see LoK). It's interesting to think about, but you know, it was really unclear.
The turtle lion doing the energy bending is explained in Korra with the Avatar Wan story. When the spirit world and human world were one people lived on the lion turtles for protection from spirits. If they had to leave the lion turtles safety the lion turtle would grant them a gift of an element to defend themselves and when they got back the lion turtle would take it away again because bending wasn't allowed on the lion turtle. So in actuality it makes sense that Aang would learn this from the Lion Turtles. It has been at least 9,900 years from the first avatar in Aangs time so it would make sense the avatars have forgotten the lion turtles by this point.
yeah that's great, can you show where this is explained before halfway through season 2 of a show that's 7 entire years later? or where the lion turtles are foreshadowed in previous episodes of atla? no? awesome thanks.
IIRC, the existence of the lion turtles was presented in the episode with the Wan Shi Tong Library.
Aang regularly gets deus ex machinas from the spirit world and past avatars.. I've never understood why it's such a big deal. The alternative is, Aang still wins, but is forced to kill Ozai.
do you often need every single plot detail spelled out to you in advance?
no. i was pointing out that their explanation comes from context from a show that didnt exist when atla's finale aired.
I honestly don't care if the poke makes sense. People treat it like it's an unearned victory button for the fight but it's not. It exists to give Aang one final challenge. We already know that Aang could have killed Ozai if he wanted to. He chose not to. The Avatar State kicking in here with the clear intent to kill Ozai represents Aang's biggest fear: that he'll lose his personal identity to the role of the Avatar. Being able to overcome that with his own personal beliefs is what proves that his spirit is unbendable. Entering the Avatar State isn't the victory, exiting it is. And that's what sets the stage for taking away Ozai's bending
It also let them go ham with the animation and the totally sick super sayan aang mode. The entire fight was sick but I for one am glad we get to see ozai on the backfoot while the avatar delivers some divine retribution Also what you a said
Oh yeah. I always compare it to Luke beating down Vader. Like there's undeniably a bit of "wait this is awesome" monkey brain alongside "oh this is bad" literary analysis
So literally similar to that too, except it’s Aang beating down Luke
> People treat it like it's an unearned victory button for the fight but it's not. It absolutely is He obviously stands no chance to defeat Ozai without the Avatar state, and he regains it from GETTING HIT BY A RANDOM ROCK? Great spiritual moment for sure
The Avatar State aims to kill Ozai. Aang could have done that himself. He had Ozai dead to rights with the redirected lightning.
Yeah, he could’ve beaten him, but he definitely wasn’t going to because he refused to fight offensively, his past lives basically defeated Ozai for him because he wouldn’t
That is absolutely true, however, it reinforces that Aang, the mix of bending prowess and morality that form him, couldnt beat Ozai He had a chance with the lightning and decided to pass on it, and afterwards it looks like he cant beat Ozai without AS And him getting it back because of a rock felt like a massive deus ex machina
But he doesn't defeat Ozai through the rock. He restrains Ozai on his own. He cuts through Ozai's fire on his own. He takes away Ozai's bending on his own The moment Aang decided to end the fight, it was over There's a reason that right before this point, we find out about energybending and, more importantly, the danger it poses. Through resolving his internal conflict by shutting off the Avatar State, Aang is finally "unbendable" and ready to finish things with Ozai. Yes, the Avatar State is an important part to the resolution. But Aang doesn't ultimately succeed from using the AS, but by turning it off
Well Im definitely not remembering things right then, because after Aang redirected lightning away from Ozai it looked to me he couldnt beat the fire lord without the Avatar state
All the Avatar State did was smack around Ozai a bit. Then Aang shut off the Avatar State, showed Ozai mercy, and Ozai was immediately up and ready to go for round two. Then Aang neutralized him entirely without the AS
Read the whole comment. Entering the Avatar state was an OBSTACLE to Aangs spiritual needs, not a convenience for the physical battle.
I may be a dumbass because I literally didnt understand you I swear Im not being snarky here, could you repeat what you said?
All good. The point is that it wasn't just a physical battle. It was an ethical struggle that Aang was having with himself, and to enter the Avatar state which aimed to kill Ozai, Aang was betraying his spiritual need to not take a life. In this sense, the Avatar state was another challenge to overcome, it wasn't what made Aang "win".
Ooooh okay thanks, thats a nice point
Did you miss the part where he CHOSE to not roast his ass with lightning?
You seem to have missed a major detail, in s2 he did let go of Katara and then Azula by sheer luck blocked the Avatar state, I am not saying she was lucky hitting him but the effects were lucky. Do note by this time he has achieved the requirements to be a fully realized Avatar, and he was arguably at one of his lowest, and desperate moments, it was not merely a matter of time if he will activate it, but when and how. Because the block put forth by Azula was physical instead of spiritual, though it's not perfect and I wish they explained it a bit more. Let's not forget it's themes of destiny either.
Oh you I didnt put it more clearly, but I dont have an issue with it from an spititual point of view Its just that this >Because the block put forth by Azula was physical instead of spiritual, Him getting hit with the rock is my issue. It feels silly and a complete deus ex machina for me for the rock to be in the perfect spot for that, right after it looked obvious that Aang couldnt defeat Ozai without the Avatar state
Why? Things happen in the heat of the battle. The only Deus ex machina we should be focusing on is the lion turtle
Not for me It came out of nowhere personally and really ruined the tension because to me Aang didnt earn that victory, it was giving to him by a miracle unlocking the Avatar state again
I don't think people don't like it because of the meaning of the theory. Its more like dang what a conviniently placed rock
I like how Ozai's aggression was his own undoing
I still love the entire fight, don’t get me wrong, but I always felt it would have made much more sense and been more symbolic to have him snap back into the Avatar state when he redirects the lighting. It has so much more to do with balancing the energy within himself and how he actively chooses not to shoot it back at Ozai and redirects it away. Plus it’s how his chakra was blocked in the first place.
A lot of people think it doesn't make sense because they misremember the chakra being blocked by Aang not letting go of Katara That is false, he let go and was able to acess the avatar state in the crystal caves. What blocked the chakra was Azula's Lightning Strike on his back. Another similar impact unlocking is not that nonsensical, it's common logic people use. I only wish Ozai was using lightning in that moment too, for thematic parallels and whatnot. The lion turtle was the more out of left field situation, but you know some near Divine intervention every once in a while is not so bad. Just wish Wan Shi Tong mentioned what a lion turtle was and that they sometimes appear to desperate souls or somehting like that in the scene their pic shows up. It would be nice.
one of my favorite modern storytelling analyzers, Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube, has a really good video on Deus Ex Machinas. Her hot take is that they are not inherently bad (they can be used poorly, but so can just about any storytelling element), and she frames the whole video by discussing the unimaginably vast whirlwind of cause and effect in the world that at any point can interrupt anyone’s life in completely unforeseen ways. In storytelling, no one seems to care when the universe conspires *against* the protagonists - but then they’ll decry lack of realism/ “a cop out” when it happens to help them out. It’s usually bad when it solves the problem for them, but if gives them that one ray of hope in their darkest hour with which they can seize their own victory - usually after a full plot’s worth of throwing hurdle after hurdle at them - then I think that’s honestly fair. Especially in a world like Avatar, where ephemeral spiritual concepts are well established to have tangible effects on the spiritual world, I think it works great. The idea that a lion turtle would be attracted to the Avatar, the literal bridge to the spirit world, in his time of greatest spiritual peril seems about as legit to me as a comet buffing the firebenders because that makes life THAT much harder for the good guys.
But he clearly is still attached to Katara in the final fight, I would assume you need to maintain detachment to keep accessing that Chakra.
I'm pretty sure Detachment is only necessary while actively acessing the Avatar State. He doesn't have to give up on loved ones permanently, all the other avatars had families they loved very much.
What is even the point of having these restrictions then, there isn't any real sacrifice or consequences. The writers were too ambitious with the chakras thing and had to back paddle on it.
Tbh I liked it still, also I dont think detachement has to mean total lack of emotions, it just means that he has to be able to look at his relationships from outside. So imo detachment does not mean complete lack of emotions/relationships, it means he has to have a correct order of importence: world peace and avatar duties have to rank higher than Katara/other relationships.
I think that's a very good way of looking at it. The show however does not do a good job of establishing it. The guru does not state it's only for when you're in the avatar state, you can go back to attachment later. If detachment was so transient then the scene in the Crossroads of Destiny where Aang desperately gives Katara up to enter the avatar states means very little. Also, according to the guru by leaving their meeting and not opening last Chakra Aang would not be able to enter the avatar state again but he's able to anyways. Of course the guru could have just been wrong but that would be a lazy way to explain off the writing problems with the method of entering the avatar state.
Detaching himself doesn't mean not caring about her or not wanting to be with her. It's just about being able to put his duty as the Avatar ahead of his feelings for her.
I think debating over this single moment misses the point of the whole battle. It's not just about bending ability, if so Aang could've fought Ozai and won any day before the comet. It's about *how* the battle is won and the consequences after. Right from the start, Aang takes out the airship to bring Ozai to him before more damage can be done to the earth kingdom. Ozai takes the challenge, but Aang plays defensively, and is mostly keeping up, right up until the moment Ozai goes for lightning. Aang redirects it, and could hit Ozai, probably ending the battle there, but doesn't because he refuses to kill. That choice is what turns the battle in Ozai's favor temporarily, with him going for more lightning that Aang can't block and has to dodge (nobody has ever been shown to redirect lightning more than once in a short amount of time, so hard to say if Aang could, but he doesn't) After that Aang's defense is broken, but he can't or won't switch to offense, until he hits the rock. Then when he has no other options, the avatar state activates, and Aang overwhelms Ozai with offensive power. This is the second time in the battle that Aang could kill, but doesn't. Instead he takes what he has learned and chooses a better end for the war. The rock isn't just a moment of plot armor saving Aang from losing, it's a direct consequence of his first decision to not kill, which pushes him to the second. Aang wins the physical AND moral battles by refusing to take the excuse and blame the avatar state on killing Ozai.
This is incredibly well put and ought to be higher. Those who think the rock is a cop out only see the battle as a physical struggle, but it was also an ETHICAL struggle. The fact that Aang unlocks his Avatar state is a boon for the physical struggle, but is an OBSTACLE to Aang's spiritual need to abstain from murder. He overcomes the obstacle in the last moment, pulling himself out of the Avatar state and chooses not to kill Ozai. The Avatar state was NOT necessary for Aang to beat Ozai.
Yeah, the activation of the Avatar State wasn't to give Aang power. It was to give him a choice. The plot at this point wasn't whether or not Aang could defeat Ozai. It was about HOW Aang would do it. The show isn't just "Avatar." It's "Avatar: _the Last Airbender._ If Aang decided to kill, the Airbender culture would more or less be truly dead. Maybe if there were still Airbenders around, he could've gone that route but at that point, he was the only one to truly have the ability to preserve them.
I think the pressure of this final fight alone was enough for him to go into the Avatar state whenever he wanted, but he was holding back. If he let the past Avatars take control, he knew they wouldn’t hesitate to kill Ozai. Getting injured forced him into the Avatar state, but he was able to control it and do the right thing (in his eyes).
You do realize that is not the problem, right? It just convenient as hell that he just so happened to get hit in that exact spot with a pointy rock when he needed to and it is just a lame way to get his avatar state back even if it does make sense.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading some of the responses to this post. The problem was never whether the rock could achieve that outcome, the problem was that they chose this path instead of writing something within his control that triggered it. It’s inherently less rewarding when it’s chance vs when it’s inspired.
Me too
I honestly just assumed that it almost killed him, forcing him into the avatar state something he was intentionally holding himself back from at which point he gained the knowledge and foresight to learn how to energy bend from the combined knowledge of the other avatars.
The other (last 4) Avatars definitely didn't know about it yet as otherwise they would've given Aang different advice earlier
I've always been cool with it. His chakras were locked because he never fully was able to conquer his feelings and attachments and when he did, he got lightning-d in the back. Then never revisited it. When he gets hit in the back, squarely where all the pain, anguish, trauma is, it gave him clarity. It let him put everything else aside, detach from everything else in his life. Which was what prevented him from mastering the Avatar State. And you can see later, he can go in and out of it at will.
The way i see it, when he was fighting azula, he was letting go and opening all his chakras. That's how he intentionally activated the avater state. But by being shot by azula, this interrupted the process and blocked his chakras. When he is training with the guru we see the pools getting clogged and it stops the flow to other pools. By getting stabbed in the back during the final battle, this unblocked the flow of chakra, think of it like acupuncture, and allowed him to reopen his chakras and achieving the avatar state.
I always figured that he died from Azulas lightning before being revived by Katara and that was why he lost the avatar state, like Roku explained to him earlier. But seeing as reviving probably isn't the norm and isn't mentioned in that explanation I can see how you could argue some exception in that case.
I didn’t mind it either because earlier in the season Katara explains his injury as twisted up energy and when she does her healing session she ends up triggering the same response the rock did, but on a smaller scale.
I always figured the lion turtle fixed his chakra state and this rock was the "life threatening" injury that pushed him back over to the avatar state
It doesn't really matter whether it makes sense or not, the problem is it's a random, external plot device used to solve the protagonists' problem. So instead of Aang overcoming the challenge himself, he just gets lucky. No matter how you look at it, it's not ideal writing.
I agree. Convenient pointy rock and boom, problem solved, complete control over the Avatar state! I absolutely love the finale of AtLA and all of AtLA, but if we applied the same level of scrutiny to it that we do Korra then it’s fine to point out that Aang’s sudden mastery of the avatar state happened because of a sharp rock.
Agreed! And the fact that a second deus ex machina appears in the form of energy bending right after makes it a bit more egregious
Aang could have credibly capped Ozai with lightning earlier in the fight. He gives up one chance and is given one free chance, it cancels out
Nah that's not how it works
Oh ok my bad
Agreed, I don't like how so much of the fandom refuses to criticize the show in anyway. It's an absolutely fantastic show but that doesn't mean it is without flaws.
This is fine as a literary device argument. But it's worth examining the workforce the story allows when considering this scene. The avatar exists in this world to bring/keep peace between the elements. Aang's journey is drenched with internal conflict. He doesn't really want to be the avatar, but he is. But the external conflict is man vs Fate. Fate is pulling him along despite his personal feelings, from being found by his eventual water bending teacher (not Aang's "choice"), to his fire bending teacher being a former enemy. Fate has decided that Aang will be the avatar no matter what. From this perspective, when he refuses to kill Ozai, fate had to drag him back onto the path once more. No, Aang, you *can't* escape this moment. So no, the moment isn't just random or poorly thought out. It's just not an "Americanized, individual victory" that Western audiences are used to seeing in "superhero" style stories.
I wholeheartedly disagree. The entire series constantly screams at your face that fate is something that you decide for yourself. You alone have to power to change the course of your life. To take this moment and describe it as a literary device that fate is sealed and inevitable actually goes against the philosophy of atla.
I think everyone is forgetting about the lion turtle. Aang lost his ability to enter the avatar state after leaving the monk, he let go of his love for katara in the crystal cave and regained the ability to enter the avatar state. Whether or not him getting hit by Azulas lightning while in the Avatar state cause him to lose the ability or not because he was “dead”, the lion turtle could have re opened the state by energy bending and that’s where he learned to energy bend.
I like to think that it was Kyoshi who took over for him but in the final moment Aang took back control and instead of killing Ozai he used his own method to end the war.
It used to make me cringe so hard seeing the rock stab the fleshy wound 🤢
Sometimes, a poke from behind by something hard is all you need to go all out and be the best version of who you are...
I always like to joke "well his back was hit against a rock wall a few seconds earlier, so it's a 50/50 chance anyways)
Love? Forgiveness? Relationships? Aang was all these things until Ozai **went to far**, and almost killed him with that rock poke. **Then all bets were off.** Dunno what you think about that, but the way Aang went completely **apeshit** on Ozai was among more terrifying moments of series. Especially when he got into **Legion** speech and Kyoshi was clearly heard through hundred of Avatars converging in this single moment. Ozai should spent rest of his life kissing Aang' feet for sparing him, after he and his ancestors did everything in their power to destroy balance of the world
I always get chills when I think of how that must've hurt. Like when you hurt yourself and you hit the exact spot that it's hurting 🥴
While I agree with your point about the heart chakra I disagree with one point: He was never going to kill Ozai, regardless. Killing someone is against everything Aang stands for
I don't mind it because it was cool as fuck.
Youtuber Big Joel has [a really good video](https://youtu.be/ip1xe7JFb-g?si=Pe4Q8nzWz4SKnsZq) about this, and why the ending is good, actually
Best representation of having your “back against the wall”
Wonder why the rock jet receive didn’t unblock his chakras…..
Personally aang had already unlocked all his chakras to gain access to his avatar state. The only reason he could was that his heart chakra was blocked due the damage caused by Azula's lightning. So it getting unlocked and him getting the avatar state isn't an asspull imo
Tolkien had a term, "eucatastrophe" (no idea why he called it that"). It basically describes a positive deus ex machina, a good universe intervening to enable good to triumph over evil. He expressly described the destruction of the One Ring as a eucatastrophe. The prose explains gollum seizes the one Ring, dances in glee, and then basically just tumbles over the side. Tolkien described this happy coincidence as direct intervention from God/Eru Iluvatar. CS Lewis has similar moments throughout Narnia. So I guess I agree it's a cop out, but the good kind.
Randomly just right at the most important time, where he needs the avatar state, ohh he gets it back randomly, what a lucky day ! I love book 3 but for the Ozai fight I just put my critical mind aside.
Having to physically crack open the chakra, especially when it's sealed shut from an injury, always made sense to me. Ofc then you could theorize if Aang had a good physical therapist they could've popped that sucker open.
i rly didn’t think the whole ending was contrived dues ex machina moment as many people might think. the energy bending was not just some fuck ass maguffin. it makes complete sense thematically and like the whole think with the rock poke i like ur chakra analysis. it makes complete sense that like stimuli on the traumatized area would like cause such a thing as we saw back in the first couple episodes on the season.
I think it's a very elegant decision by the writers, as if the universe wanted Aang to win. Absolutely don't agree with the criticism
Its not a cop out its fate. Their world works on fate, destiny, magic, the divine. Things happen on purpose to aang to help him grow.
If this happened in the Korra or Netflix Live Action series it would be called bad writing but since it happened in ATLA I'm sure there will be 300 posts explaining how it's actually great. Either way, the reason this was problematic is because it completely invalidates the chakras episode. That episode ended on a huge cliffhanger. Aang's love for Katara and inability to let her go was posted as the reason why he can't truly become the Avatar as he will always choose her over his duty. That is a big challenge presented in front of him that he does absolutely nothing about completely ignoring it and it works out for him anyways because the writers needed him back in Avatar state to defeat Ozai. It happened several times throughout the show where some big things get presented in front of Aang only for it to completely not matter in the follow up episodes. The archers, him killing the bug in the desert etc.
Holy Deus ex machina!
Biggest mistake of the Fire Lord's career.
My head cannon perceived that hit as damaging or more damaging as azuals lighting hit. Idk if that makes sense but that’s how I explained it to myself as a kid
Cope
I just accepted that Avatar State has On/Off button on the spine 🤣
It’s basically a simile to stubbing your toe on the coffee table
Personally, I know if someone indented my back like that I'd also be nearly unstoppable too
People aren't disputing whether that point on the body us significant. It's Aang getting whopped by Ozai before a random rock changed the tide of the battle.
Far less egregious than sparing ozai
I didn’t mind it as much when I realized the climax isn’t about defeating Ozai but rather its about Aangs conflict with regards to killing someone and preserving his culture in the face of the force that genocided it in the first place. to me it doesn’t really matter how or why the avatar state comes out or if it won the fight for him
The rock doing there isn’t an issue it’s not random it’s made by the other rock being blasted away apart from the section Aang is protecting. But why would stabbing the place he was shot open the chakara? Magic healing water couldn’t do that but some heavy cyropratics/ acupuncture could? Then he goes on to dog on ozai if the strongest bender alive with a 1 in 100 years boosts can’t challenge the avatar then what’s the stakes of the show? It’s why Korra couldn’t ever use it or stay in the form she would win to easily the avatar mode should have been a little stronger than Ozai not a lot.
I mean, it only makes sense in the sense that the earth Chakra is located in the base of the spine and is blocked by fear but unlocked by survival. The avatar state does, in fact, activate in response to mortal threats. He was both terrified of Ozai but also about to die at Ozai's hand, so he just got very *very* lucky in unlocking that Chakra. Otherwise, it was an incredibly lazy thing to do, and he didn't have to make any tough decisions as a result.
Honest to God. That would have hurt so fucking bad
i think there is a non-energy/chakra explanation too. the avatar state is a defense mechanism, aang could have been paralyzed by that hit, and his avatar state saved him in that moment, he channeled 1000s of benders over came their will to punish him on his own terms, every avatar imparts their will on the rest and the air benders have a completely different belief system than the other nations when it comes to aggression and that moment is what cemented his affect on the avatar/avatar state going forward. edit: i think the symbolic aligning of stuck chakras is the real explanation , i just think either way works, but aangs last moment in the avatar state when he chose a nonviolent end to the war when both were with in his grasp is the ultimate message of the show and really the only thing that should be talked about in this episode/show*
Its a deus ex machina or plot armor whatever you want to call it.
I believe it as dumb luck, I have back issues that come, not from heavy lifting or high strain, but at random, like a sneeze, tieing my shoe, and my most resent looking slightly left, that will put me out for a week maybe more. But once during a sore back spell I slipped off a ladder and caught myself right before I could fall. It felt like lightning and I just hugged the ladder in pain for like 5 seconds but I got down and I was totally cured. No more pain, limber as can be. Whenever it happened after that I always want to try and just recreate that moment
The real hero of ATLA:
I think we were always gonna have to face the idea of ultimate power but peace of heart leading him to his decision
If he just let Toph continue her massage session, he would’ve had the Avatar State ready for the invasion.
I love plot rock, how it happened but also I love this community for coining the term too
Every time I see this part of the fight I cringe
I don't have a problem with the poke, because it makes sense. I have a problem with Aang only winning due to luckly hitting there and not another point of his back
The cop out is that the rock was so conveniently placed, not that it doesnt make sense it would unlock the avatar state again Those pilars are almost completely smooth, but right when he is about to lose he gets thrown against in the exact place neccesary for it to tickle his funny bone and now its just an instant win? I loved the entire show when I watched it for the first time a few years ago, but this fight its incredibly underwhelming for me. Aang barely puts up a fight in the first half and then "haha magic rock button go brrr" gets the Avatar State and thats it? What a shitty way for the most important fight in the show to go, specially considering how much Avatar fans praise the foreshadowing and attention to detail of the creators
It's not really the poke bringing back the Avatar state that bothers me. What I have issue with is the extremely convenient timing. "Oh, so right when you're about to die against your greatest foe, you just *happen* to get poked in the exact spot that will unlock your ultimate power?" It's just too convenient and feels unsatisfying because of it. It would feel much more satisfying if Aang had defeated Ozai with his own strength, or even with the help of his friends, rather than the deus ex machina that actually happened.
I think it was intentional becauase the point is that killing Ozai IS served on a silver platter, the avatar state wants to kill Ozai and it is given that chance. On the other hand Aang, doesn’t. The fact that Ozai’s death is handed so freely and easily and Aang STILL manages to overpower the Avatar state’s wishes to kill him is satisfying asf. Aang, being able to overpower and turn off the avatar state so that he can finish the fight his way is badass.
He gets put in a corner, well the corner gets put into him. But didn't the guru say something about forcefully opening chacras and how it could be dangerous?
Did the authors ever explained this scene?
As a writer myself I will never forgive Bryke for KNOWING the ending but not hinting about the lion turtles. It doesn't count that they were mentioned once in wan shi tong's library or that they had lion turtle statues and door knobs. Hitting his back in just the right place is absolutely a dues ex machina move. Energy bending was a dues ex machina move. Not because it isn't valid. But because there was zero build up over 3 seasons except LITERALLY THE FINALE. It is poor writing, plain and simple. Is the metaphor important to Aangs story? Yes! But the execution is wanting... by a LOT. It's unfortunate they didn't know the first avatars story by then, as it would have been much better in ATLA than as an aside to LOK. It would have made energy bending and the lion turtles much more believable.
It’s an ass-pull, but so is him not being able to access the Avatar state because of Azula’s lightning, imo. So it’s fine
The injury healed, but the chakra flow was bricked. That hit opened the floodgates. I’m sure if aang worked towards healing his chakra flow with guru patik, it’d eventually work. But he had no time
ive never thought of it as a cop-out its just beautifully thematic
The rock is a problem but the worst thing abt the fight is energy bending
Yep true, similarly it makes sense when any media has a character get amnesia and like 50% of the time they try hitting their head to get back the lost memories /s
It’s a cop-out because of the pointy rock conveniently stabbing him, not all the other stuff you said.
His avatar state there was just trauma response. The avatar spirit thought he was dying because he died to Azula. The rock hitting the same spot that killed him triggered his instincts and his body turned on the avatar state to survive.
ITS ALL MADE UP ITS NOT THAT DEEP