I have mixed feelings. That are tending to lean toward the worse the more I think about this.

I mean, the finale was alright, but not particularly spectacular?

I actually loved Amon taking away Korra’s building except for her air, but I hated that she got it back so soon?

Korra’s been bending fire, water, and earth since she was really little, so I think it was fitting and actually good for her to deal without them for awhile, and besides, it would give the next season something to start with.

I admit, though, I teared up when Aang appeared ;_;

Now let’s talk about bloodbending.

For one thing, bloodbending as depicted in LoK so far confuses me. Why can it be done without a full moon? How can one use it to take away bending?

I think LoK’s portrayal of bloodbending also takes away from the power of it in ATLA. For one thing, bloodbending in ATLA is clearly coded feminine: it’s discovered by a woman, passed down to another woman, and it can only be done on a full moon (not to mention the “blood” imagery). It’s also presented with a lot of moral ambiguity. Afterall, Hama only discovers it in her desperation and uses it to liberate herself. Now, compare it to LoK, where we’re presented with three male bloodbenders, who are bloodbenders because… their family is super good at it for some unexplained reason? Bloodbending is suddenly stripped of its moral ambiguity and feminine imagery, and it becomes just another hollow weapon of the villains to commit crimes that the protagonists must fight against.

Concerning the Amon reveal, I thought they gave him a decent backstory (in that it made enough sense and was dramatic/entertaining enough), but it wasn’t done as well as it could’ve been (I did really like the scene where Tarrlock detonates the boat, though). I thought the chakra theory that went around tumblr a couple of days ago recently made more sense than the bloodbending and was far more in the spirit of the show. And re: Amon himself, I really liked the last two panels especially from that one theory, with Amon being a creation of the spirit world intended as retribution for the lack of respect that humans pay the spirits and the frivolities of many uses for bending. So Amon exists “merely to remind mortals that bending is not their right by entitlement, but a gift. And gifts that are misused should be taken away.”

That’s another thing I’ve had a problem with LoK so far: where’s the spirit world? I mean, there’s been a little of it, but it was much more prominent in ATLA. LoK seems to put more of a focus on the bending and less of a focus on the spirituality behind bending.

It does kind of feel as if the world of LoK has lost sight of the spirit world, and the idea of the spirits acting in retaliation to this is so perfect ugh why was it not canon?