LogFAQs > #944084960

#5: Sozins Comet - Part 3 - Into the Inferno (3.20):

The penultimate episode of the show, and the first half of the show's ending. As second to last entry, it needs to be about the bad guy winning.

One weakness about ATLA is that it didn't seem to have a lot of time to develop its main Antagonist, Ozai, instead to focus on his right-hand woman, Azula. Ozai is a pretty flat character. We know he's a psychopath and he wants to rule the world, but not much more.

This episode doesn't do much to develop Ozai's character, but it does a lot to sell him as a villain. Let's be clear: Aang doesn't stand a chance. He makes an epic entry into the battle by standing on a mountain and silently challenging Ozai to come at him, but ultimately, when the two clash, Ozai just wipes the floor with him. The Sozin comet is certainly helping, but what we are watching here is the most gifted firebender of the series. He can do everything with fire and it takes Aang his full mastery of all four elements just to stay alive. Barely. It's a simple thing, but watching a long montage of Ozai terrorizing Aang is just so fun.

Of course, since this is the end, we have a bunch of other final plot thread to do. First, Zuko must defeat Azula to take over the throne and force the war to end. Azula, meanwhile, is not taking well her father's refusal to let her join in his world conqueror, and still haven't recovered by Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal, so she lashes at all of her servants in an asuming way. Then Zuko finally arrives, realizes she is not at her best, and challenges her to an Agni Kai. It seems the plan is going to work and Zuko does very well, but of course, Azula won't play fair. She attacks Katara who is just watching, which causes Zuko to jump to protect her, getting badly burned in the process. Now it's up to Katara to save the day.

Next, we have Sokka, Toph and Suki, who are tasked with arguably the most important job, destroy the FN's genocide machines. Sokka comes up with one his best plans: infiltrate an airship, fake a birthday party announcement to make the crew leave (I felt bad for the guy who was actually having a birthday, lol), and ram the airship into the others, a plan so crazy it... almost works.

Finally, we have arguably the best bit of the episode, which is White Lotus pwnage. If you thought Bumi retaking his city was cool, the entire squad of old masters retaking Ba Sing Se is just amazing. They should have sent those guys to fight Ozai instead of Aang! Bonus points to Iroh FINALLY conquering Ba Sing Se, though against the FN this time.

It's the first part of two, so nothing gets resolved (except the White Lotus part, arguably). But it's really good action from start to end, especially the main fight. They needed to sell Ozai as a threat and manage to do in a single episode after neglecting it for the entire show. Good job.