Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 2 — Earth Review
During the the past two weeks, I’ve managed to finish the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought I’d take a moment to talk about my thoughts. This will be a shorter blog entry, but I wanted to try to slowly get back on schedule for my blogging.
Favorite Character – Toth
Again, I must emphasize that I’ve seen many of these episodes before (but not all of them). In season 2, we get introduced to Toth and she (spoilers) joins the group. I’ve always liked Toth’s character. While the biting sarcasm sometimes grates, she is always such a “can do” character who refuses to let herself give up because of her “blindness.” She’s a character who has adapted to a new way of seeing and goes about her life, once she joins the group, with a pluckiness that is at once normal and inspiring. It also helps that her humor, while sometimes course, is also funny. There are times where she rivals Sokka for the title of top “funny” character. However, her determination is also a match for Aang’s and Katara’s when she’s truly focused. I also like the way the voice actor portrays her voice–it is very distinctive and can go from “rough” to “sweet” in a heartbeat.
Much Darker in Tone
I didn’t always enjoy Season 2, however, as the story has a much darker tone. Many of the stories are not resolved happily and it deals with some of the baser emotions of the characters, especially in the Oppa storyline. Anger, rage, regret, and recrimination are all a part of the season, and while I expect that from Prince Zuko’s storyline, the fact that it also happens inside the storyline of the protagonists make this season feel much less joyful and happy than the first season.
I understand why this is, deepening of the conflict and all, but there’s something almost dour in the storyline when you see Sokka as the “level-headed” person of the group while everyone else is dealing with their own version of the ever darkening events of the story. I have to say, I was mightily glad when the season finale came around, not because of the ultimate resolution of the season’s story arc, but for a chance a eliminating some of the unrelenting gloom that had settled over the storyline during Season 2.
More and Less (Story Arcs vs Episodic)
I think, for me, much of my dissatisfaction came from the fact that there were more story arcs in Season 2 than in Season 1. Season 1 felt more episodic and more liberating. I understand that in Season 1, Aang was still “running away” from his responsibilities and wanting to have fun above all, but in Season 2, they show him coming to understand his purpose as the Avatar, and the conflicts that he must face. However, my point is that they used more stories that referred back to previous stories in order to do this and if you liked those stories, then it was great, but if you didn’t like the stories, it made the season seem to drag on. For example, I didn’t particularly care for the Oppa storyline, especially since Oppa had been shown earlier to be canny and smart in terms of evading hunters (the Swamp hunters). I know why the creators did it–to show how much Oppa meant to Aang and to show various (hitherto unseen) facets of Aang’s personality–it just felt a bit manipulative (but this is from hindsight).
Overall Rating: B
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I’m giving it a 4/5 rating (or B = Above Average). I probably would give the storytelling/storyline a 3.5 stars or C+. but I like Toth so much as a character and as an addition to the team, that I feel the bump is justified. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this season. It’s just that I enjoyed it less than Season 1, mostly because of the darker tone that happened because of the story choices made by the writers and because of the multi-story arcs that those storylines were told in. Had there been a few more one-off episodes, I think this might have a stronger season for me, but the introduction of Toth’s character and her subsequent joining of the “team” really made up for a lot of the storytelling deficiencies that I felt Season 2 had overall.
Sidney
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