Avatar the Last Airbender 3.21 Sozin's Comet Part 4 Avatar Aang Television 

Ten Thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender’s “Sozin’s Comet”

By | September 18th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back, friends, for our final (!) review of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Since I’ll be covering the entire four-part finale, I decided to split things up into ten facts instead of the usual five. That said, we’ve no time to lose. Sozin’s Comet has arrived.

1. “I can’t just go around wiping out people I don’t like!”

Much of the first part of the finale, “The Phoenix King,” is spent showing some last-minute training exercises and building up Aang’s dilemma over not wanting to kill Ozai. All of his friends think this is the only option, and it fits with each character. In spite of Ozai being his father, Zuko has been raised to think of violence as an acceptable and sometimes necessary solution. Sokka and Suki are both warriors and strategists, so they each see this as the only viable solution. Toph has always been more stubborn and hardcore in her beliefs, so her stance makes sense, and even Katara, who is more in touch with Aang’s emotional dilemma, can’t see any other way to help the world.

So, in part two, “The Old Masters,” Aang turns to his past lives. Here’s the parting advice that each of the past Avatars gives Aang:
Roku: “You must be decisive.”
Kyoshi: “Only justice will bring peace.”
Kuruk: “You must actively shape your own destiny, and the destiny of the world.”
Yangchen: “Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.”

Each of these is fascinating in its own way, for both what they say to Aang as well as what they say about each Avatar. I also appreciate how each piece of advice builds on the last.

Roku has the closest connection to the current world situation. He feels responsible for the initial domino that set the world on its current path. Therefore, his words are the most potent and clear, as he sees them as a chance to help Aang make up for his own mistake.

Kyoshi’s advice is more powerful when taken with her story behind it: she doesn’t see a difference between outright killing Chin the Conqueror, versus letting him fall to his death (she did the latter). She saw his death as a righteous act that was necessary for the safety of the world. Even though she could have stepped out and saved him, she made the decision to NOT act, which is itself a decision.

Kuruk’s quick life story is less affecting since this is his first time speaking on the show, but his final words of advice are my personal favorite. Only the individual can shape their own destiny, and they must do it with purpose. One can not be passive when it comes to building their future, or else that future will never come. For Aang, this doesn’t exactly lead him to a better conclusion on whether or not to kill Ozai, but it does point him towards a “with great power comes great responsibility” sense of duty.

And to tie everything together, Yangchen’s final words specifically mention duty and active decision making. Aang’s reason for calling upon Yangchen made me laugh. He was reluctant to take any advice that went against his deeply held beliefs, and he expected a fellow airbender to give him advice that would adhere to his principles. Instead, her advice was to sacrifice his principles. And with that, he accepted his duty.

2. The Order of the White Lotus appears!

In an incredibly satisfying moment of payoff, we finally see the Order of the White Lotus in action, and… it contains five masters that we’ve met over the course of the show! The group includes Aang’s old friend and earthbender King Bumi (1.05 and 2.03), Aang’s first firebending teacher Jeong Jeong (1.16), Katara’s waterbending master Pakku (1.18-20), Sokka’s swordmaster Piandao (3.04), and, of course, Uncle Iroh.

First off, it’s always a joy to see these side characters again. Second, the payoff to the White Lotus subplot is greatly enhanced knowing that these masters are all working together, especially since we met three of these characters before the first explicit reference to the White Lotus society. Third and my personal favorite, this gives us a chance to catch up with where everyone has been. Bumi was last seen locked up after letting his city get conquered; Jeong Jeong disappeared at the end of his only prior episode; Pakku was last seen heading to the South Pole to reunite with Gran Gran. Their journeys all felt unfinished, so this allowed us to tie the bow on some of those loose threads.

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On that note, the Order of the White Lotus gets one of the four major fight scenes in the latter half of the finale, and their goal is directly related to Iroh’s character arc: to reconquer Ba Sing Se. I talked a lot in season two about the subtleties of Iroh’s arc, how most major developments of his life took place before the show began, and how he was on the “final act” of his life’s journey. He was responsible for parts of the war, most notably the first siege of Ba Sing Se. To reconquer it from the Fire Nation is the most satisfying possible conclusion, allowing him to spiritually redeem himself.

3. “I was never angry with you. I was sad because I was afraid you lost your way.”

During my review of “The Southern Raiders,” I mused about the concept of forgiveness and at what point somebody could no longer be forgiven. Those were Zuko’s thoughts going into his reunion with Iroh: is he past the point of his uncle’s forgiveness? As should surprise nobody, their reunion was a tearjerker and an excellent exploration of the underlying causes behind somebody needing to be forgiven.

Iroh, as it turns out, held no negative feelings of anger towards his nephew. As Iroh said, he was only sad because he thought Zuko had lost his way. Zuko’s response of “I did lose my way” led to one of Iroh’s most powerful lines: “But you found it again.”

Iroh is so beyond the point of holding grudges that his nephew’s betrayal doesn’t even rank as something that needs forgiveness. Instead, he was selflessly hoping for a better spiritual life for his nephew, and the deep sadness came from seeing him regress. Again, this was an unexpected but incredibly satisfying way to finally conclude their seasons-long arc.

4. Azula’s Ascent and Descent.

Where Zuko’s inner life got better, Azula’s got far worse… but not before Azula was appointed as the new Fire Lord! Ozai’s new title was always kind of funny to me, because it’s so narcissistic and unnecessarily bureaucratic. He’s not just the Fire Lord that will rule over the entire world. The title “Fire Lord” is not good enough. He CREATES A NEW TITLE for himself so he can be seen as even further above everybody else. He will be the Phoenix King. And so, Azula will be the new Fire Lord.

It doesn’t take long before this level of power starts going to her head. It’s even more of a shame that this power is given to her so soon after her best friends’ betrayal. Azula’s mental state is befittingly at the lowest we’ve ever seen. She’s banishing everybody in the palace, including her Dai Li bodyguards and her advisors Lo and Li, wildly snipping off parts of her hair, and hallucinating images of her mother. Even given Azula’s tendency towards evil acts, it’s hard not to feel a little pity for her in these moments.

Her descent throughout part three, “Into the Inferno,” ends up giving us some greater insight into her character that we never really got before. Sure, we always knew that her father encouraged and rewarded her quest for power. We also knew that she ruled by fear. But we never got into the deeper reasons of why until she hallucinated her mother. It became pretty clear in that moment that Azula rules by fear because she is unable to accept love. We can then draw a line back to her father for teaching her that love is weakness, and for teaching her that gaining power through fear was the most desirable way to live a life.

It makes me wonder, what would have happened if Azula was born into a different family? As with similar situations throughout the series, Azula’s personality quirks aren’t inherently bad. Her endless perfectionism, ability to analyze people, and desire to please her parents could be put to great use in a different situation. In this situation, however, she was driven towards objectively evil ends.

5. The Strength and Power of 100 Suns.

The first part of the finale reintroduces Sozin’s Comet as the “ticking clock” that we first learned about way back in “Winter Solstice, Part 2: Avatar Roku” (1.08). Back when I covered that episode, I noted how that set up the show for structural success, giving us a definite ending to work towards. The same is true within the structure of the finale. At the start of the episode, we know that there are only three days before the comet arrives, and we know that the climax of the episode will deal with the comet. That allows the audience to eagerly watch as the team finishes up their business in the short time they have before the comet arrives.

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From a military perspective, Ozai’s plan is pretty powerful. If the Earth Kingdom finds power through hope, then the Fire Nation must destroy their hope, and the best way to do that is to burn everything down while they’re at their most powerful.

The depiction of this plan is even more powerful than the concept. A large line of airships cover the continent, each raining down unheard amounts of fire in a powerful, methodical way. The airships move forward so confidently, and the fire is depicted so powerfully as gigantic billowy continuous blasts, and the blowtorch-like sound effects are so strong, that the devastation becomes jaw-dropping. Even Toph feels the burning forest as we see the orange glow pass over her cataracts: “That’s a lot of fire, isn’t it?”

6. The Agni Kai we’ve been waiting for!

The Agni Kai between Zuko and Azula might be my favorite scene in the series. With their firebending at its most powerful, and with Azula wielding the blue fire while Zuko wields the red, the animators play with light in a way we’ve rarely seen before. We’re treated to a number of shots from above the Fire Nation capital that convey the scale of the fight, where we see bursts of blue and red fire that cover blocks. And, most notably, the sound design cuts almost everything to place the slow, moody string arrangement — created just for this scene — up in the front of the mix, with only some light blowtorch sounds underneath. All of this adds up to one of the most unique fight scenes I’ve ever seen.

Of course, things don’t end well. Azula, ever the trickster, shoots lightning at Katara, leading Zuko to jump in and take the blast. It’s a good thing for us, though, as it gives Katara her moment to shine as she ultimately takes down Azula. She lures Azula to a water grate, where she freezes them both, then unfreezes just enough inside the ice that she can chain Azula to the grate. We’ve never seen this technique before, but it’s completely believable because Katara has become so powerful. It’s also, once more, a great conclusion to Katara’s arc, developing from a budding waterbender in the pilot to a true master now.

7. Airship Slice!

Sokka, Suki, and Toph get their featured moments as warriors and strategists atop the line of airships. It’s a fascinating scene to dissect, because the visuals contain large slow-moving machines and no bending, so there’s no immediate or quick-moving action beats like there are in the other three big fights. Instead, the strength of the airship battle is in the pacing through editing. We quickly cut from an overhead view of the airships to a shot of Sokka pulling levers to a reaction shot, then we cut to some of the other battles, and then we go back to the minutia of the airship plan. I even think the airship scenes could be boring if not paced exactly as they are, but given the execution, the scenes are a tense, exciting addition to the episode.

As with the other fight scenes, these give everybody their moment to show off. Sokka gets to be the lead tactician, also showing off his mechanical skills in steering the ship. Toph uses her metalbending to break into an engine room and later permanently turn a rudder, which ends up taking down most of the fleet with an “airship slice!” Suki looks to be gone, until… she ends up saving Sokka and Toph by grabbing onto and steering an airship back to them! Each of these moments shows off the character’s specific skills, and they were all necessary for the plan’s success.

8. Unlocking the Avatar’s true potential.

While everything else is great, Aang vs Ozai was always going to be the main event. The fight during part 3 lets Aang unload all of his training from the series, which also contains one of the most unique settings for a fight in the show. It takes place on the edge of the ocean and atop hundreds of large stone pillars, which means Aang is able to utilize water and earth, and since he can self-generate fire and air, the location means he can use all four types of bending.

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The setting also lets the directors and animators try something that was uncommon for action animation at the time. When the episode was made, the switch to HD and 16×9 was still in progress. Avatar started just before Nickelodeon made the switch, so the entire show is in SD and 4×3, designed to be watched on smaller televisions that didn’t display as much detail. As a result, the action in the show often takes place close to the foreground, and the details of the backgrounds, while beautiful in their own right, usually weren’t important to the action. Here, though, the team chose to use a wide view, with an overhead angle that displays this large detailed setting as a tiny Aang and Ozai bounce and float from pillar to pillar. These techniques have become far more common today by virtue of better television hardware, but the fight still feels breathtakingly more large-scale than any other one in the show.

And then, at the start of part 4, “Avatar Aang,” Aang unlocks his chakras and unleashes the Avatar State. First, I’m glad we first got an entire episode of fighting without the Avatar state, because otherwise Aang’s training throughout the show wouldn’t have meant as much. Next, note how his chakra was unlocked: a rock pushes into Aang’s back, directly on his scar from Azula’s lightning. Part of me feels like this is a deus ex machina, but I also don’t really care in this case, because we understand that Aang’s chakra was blocked when Azula shot him.

Aang’s Avatar State is as devastating as we’d imagine. From this point forward, it’s an all-out assault on Ozai, starting with Aang brutally grabbing Ozai by his long and pointy beard. Befitting for an Avatar, he then creates an orb with concentrated bits of all four elements around him, which he uses to beat down Ozai. It’s all done in a large-scale, deliberately slow but suitably epic fashion, and it’s exactly what we’ve all been waiting for.

9. Deus Ex Machina?

Alright, so everything I’ve said before this has been unabashed praise. This is the one major criticism I have about this finale, and it’s something a lot of people thought. Aang ends up winning by taking away Ozai’s bending with a skill given to him by a giant lion turtle.

It sounds a little ridiculous, and… well, it kind of is! For all that I talk about the show’s structural perfection, I think this is one of the few times the show failed. In my opinion, the only difference between a deus ex machina and a standard plot beat is that the deus ex machina has no build-up. If a ridiculous new power is suddenly introduced right before it is needed, with no other explanation before it is necessary, and especially if it happens at the very end of a story, then it’s a deus ex machina. If that same power was hinted at earlier in the series, or even introduced a few episodes ago, then nobody would call this a deus ex machina.

One could make the argument that the lion turtles were introduced before, most notably when referenced in “The Library” (2.10) or when seen adorning Piandao’s mansion in “Sokka’s Master” (3.04). To that, I say that they were merely shown or briefly mentioned, and never truly developed or explained before it came time to meet the lion turtle and use the power. I can also see the difficulty for the creators of wanting to preserve the secret, because if we knew Aang would have this power, then his moral dilemma from the first half of the finale would not have happened.

Regardless, the “spirit bending” is an awesome scene that must have been very difficult to write and convey to the animators. In fact, the storyboards for this scene (as seen in “The Art of Avatar: The Last Airbender”) are in color, unlike any other storyboards for the show! The scene is all about light: blue versus red, good versus evil. It’s about as black-and-white (er, red-and-blue) as the show gets, but this is the one time where it is warranted. Aang is the figure of good intentions in this show; Ozai is the one character with purely bad intentions.

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10. A New Era of Love and Peace.

Post-fight, Aang quietly and assuredly taps into the Avatar State one more time to gently lift the seas and stop the fires from burning. Even the waterbending motion he makes is gentle and poetic, akin to the seas. Aang is not a man of violence, though he was capable of fighting when necessary. This calm and collected Aang is the Avatar that he will continue to develop into.

The rest of the episode’s scenes are equally as serene: reunions and new status quos all around, set to an absolutely beautiful score that combines many past cues into something even more emotional. Following the fight’s immediate aftermath, note how Aang only has two lines, one that says how he and Zuko are now friends, and one noting how different the world has become since he came out of the iceberg. The rest of his time on screen is as the new, tranquil Avatar, silently existing alongside all that he has helped build and restore. Zuko, then, is the one who gives the big speech about their new era, which itself is symbolic of the new generation coming in to make up for the mistakes of their forefathers (or father, in this case).

Since the majority of the finale had burnt red skies due to the comet, the final shots have pink and purple skies to further place us in a new era. Zuko approaches his father about his mother — his one loose end — and finally Aang and Katara kiss, closing out that one final thread. This is the end. And what an ending it is.

That concludes our coverage of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In case you couldn’t tell, I had a blast covering the show and I hope you had a blast reading along the last two and a half years. I could probably write multiple dissertations on this episode alone, so I’m definitely not done with professional analysis of the show. Follow me on Twitter for the latest, and until then, let’s chat in the comments! Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this journey, and let’s talk about your favorite moments from the show. I’ll see you all around!


//TAGS | 2019 Summer TV Binge | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Nicholas Palmieri

Nick is a South Floridian writer of films, comics, and analyses of films and comics. Flight attendants tend to be misled by his youthful visage. You can try to decipher his out-of-context thoughts over on Twitter at @NPalmieriWrites.

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