u/Ok_Combination_1037

Just saw a post asking "Is Zuko the weakest bender on Team Avatar?" I audibly gasped when reading it

"Of course not, it's Zuko, he's a firebending menace." was my gut reaction. Until I thought about it, and realized that it's true, Zuko's bending proficiency is probably the worst out of the 4 in Team Avatar.

Despite training more than anyone else in the show, his bending while great, still isn't the best. Meanwhile, Katara pretty much mastered waterbending from nothing in a couple of months. It led me to wonder "what's the difference between them? Why is Katara naturally more gifted than Zuko despite his genes being logically optimal for it?".

Then I realized something. Katara is a natural-born fighter, Zuko is not. Katara's not hot-headed like Korra and Zuko himself, but she is clearly just inclined to battle for justice. She is naturally protective, empathetic and caring, and willing to fight for it.

Zuko was not born to be a fighter I think. His kindness and empathy as a child is borderline miraculous under his family conditions, especially compared to Azula. Of course Ursa nurturing him to be kind and gentle has a lot to do with it, but the extra care Ursa shows to him compared to Azula is because of his nature in the first place. What's interesting is that while also has a strong sense of justice like Katara, it seems he has a level of pacifism and conflict aversion that she just doesn't. He stands up for people, but he's not naturally inclined to fight (at least as a child)

Zuko's conflict is so interesting because he's constantly fighting against his nature. He's good forcing himself to be evil. I know the fact that "Zuko is actually weak" is hampered to us during the show. His speech to unconscious Aang at the North, the flashbacks to his childhood with Azula outperforming him. But I never really internalized how he is just not built for this, how naturally gentle and kind Zuko is. It juxtaposes well with so many characters, like Katara I mentioned earlier. Iroh, who I could be wrong about but seems to be a case of learned kindness rather than natural (his son's death seems to have sent him on a journey of spirituality). Azula, who unfortunately never truly learnt kindness, (she either just wasn't naturally inclined to it, or her prodigal nature led Ozai to snuff out any gentleness from a very young age).

This natural kindness angle also contextualizes his obsession with honour. Clearly, neither Ozai nor Ursa indoctrinated him in the ways of "honour", instead favouring "strength" and "kindness" respectively. So where does this honour come from? An expression of both: The kindness he naturally evoked, which was protected and nurtured by Ursa, and the strength and resilience Ozai attempted to nurture in him. I think it's his inner self's way of expressing compassion without immediately being flagged as weakness. That's what I think Zuko's obsession with honour is.

I just think it's fascinating to write a villain turned hero this way. Not just a "evil guy who learns to be good", but a subversively good guy whose natural goodness is constantly leaking out.

I don't know if I sound crazy for complaining about this, but Netflix Avatar is a bit too brutal sometimes in my opinion. They take advantage of their 13+ rating to full effect, even when it's not necessary. There's a lot more explicit death, which sometimes works, but sometimes feels overly bleak. I feel this the most with Azula. I always felt uneasy at her Season 1 scene of leading the Fire Nation rebels into Ozai's slaughter, but here they just crank it up tenfold.

1. She kills people when she doesn't need to. Am I wrong in feeling that having Azula kill people left and right diminishes the tragedy of her character later on? I can't feel any empathy for this version of Azula, despite her upbringing.
2. The upscaling of her power raises some questions, with her being able to one-shot kill an entire room of Earth Kingdom generals.
3. In the original, she takes over through fear and wit. Here, she literally just brute-forces her way into power. Her wit began and ended at manipulating Long Feng into getting her in the room.

But I am also aware that Nickelodeon Azula would also do these things, and would be willing to kill to get her way. So my feelings on this matter may not be entirely logical, what do you guys think?

Best

1. Hive/Alveus - This unsettling, all-powerful force is played to perfection by Ward's actor. His sway is one of the best versions of mind-control/mind-manipulation I've seen. More than that though, I appreciate the layers they give to him, the reveal that he is seeking connection
2. The Clairvoyant/John Garrett - I really loved his character. He's someone so evil but you just can't hate him. Bill Paxton's performance is a highlight.
3. Grant Ward - A somewhat inconsistent character, but I really like the route they took him. He betrayed them so thoroughly that the team never forgives him and curses his name long after he's gone.
4. Raina - The actress really sells the job, and her motivations are really interesting compared to most of the other villains.
5. Calvin Zabo - Honestly the best performance of the show. Ruthless killer and a caring father, both hilarious and tragic.
6. Gideon Malick - Interesting motivation compared to most of Hydra. The shift to make Season 3 Hydra all about worship/faith in a Hydra God rather than the usual world domination was so refreshing
7. Sarge (until Pachakutiq takes over) - Having a lifelike Coulson portray an evil murderer was fun. I love the slow build to understand him and his motivations. I just hate that they sort of throw all that away and essentially says "Oh yeah this Sarge guy, he doesn't really exist"

Worst

1. Eli Morrow - He is just such a useless character,and the twist makes no sense at all. Interesting power and that's it.
2. Hale - They tried with Hale, they tried to make her interesting, and she was. But in giving her this heightened self-awareness compared to most Hydra bosses, she now seems like an idiot for doing all this evil stuff, turning her daughter into a Quake-obsessed killer then acting shocked.
3. Izel and the non-corporeal beings - Izel's actress does a good job, but her motivation is lacking. Pachakutiq ruined Sarge's character.
4. Sibyl and the Chronicom hunters - They serve as a good threat, and some of the actors do good, like that one Chronicom that posseses the cop. But they are just so uninteresting and uncharacteristically hostile, despite having the tools to time travel.
5. Jiaying and Gordon - Their turn at the end of Season 2 is just so sudden. Them suddenly becoming the uncaring, inhuman-supremacist final bosses that need to be killed just doesn't jive well with literally everything they did before the twist.

At first, it's framed that she was corrupted by the Darkhold. But then it's revealed that it was all Radcliffe's doing. It's then implied that he himself was corrupted by the glance he took at the Darkhold. But then, it's portrayed that Radcliffe is the slightly more sympathetic villain who doesn't want to hurt anyone, whilst AIDA is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals.

Then AIDA betrays Radcliffe, supposedly for his own good. Up till this, despite the constant reveals, it still makes sense.

But then we get to the Framework arc. And now suddenly, AIDA is resentful towards Radcliffe, claiming she was used like a slave. And now, she also suddenly wants to become human and experience human emotions. This dissatisfaction with her purpose was never foreshadowed in the real world.

The jump from the AIDA we see in the real world, and the ruthless tyrant Madame Hydra, went pretty unexplained, to the point that I thought these were 2 different characters (especially since for some reason, AIDA can't just respawn/regenerate when Daisy damages her in the Framework).

I like her final arc though, of having to go through all the stages of human emotions, and Fitz's rejection making her sadistic. So her beginning and end I really enjoy, but the middle part is kind of confusing.

Edit: Also, she had 100 win conditions in the Framework arc. She is the architect of the Framework, and could definitely just change stuff. The reasoning they give is "unless someone is a threat to the Framework, she can't kill them", but that shouldn't stop her from resetting the Framework (which we've seen doesn't kill people who are inside it) and just making some universal changes to where she wins and achieves Project Looking Glass. The Framework is her world, it's hard to believe she doesn't have full control.

As heartfelt as his conclusion was in Season 3, I still hate that they used him as a plot device then killed him off.

I can't see the point of his arc other than to drama farm with May and add unnecessary tragedy to an already tragic season. Like how contrived is it that not only does he happen to be an Inhuman, but his transformation is essentially just getting an alternate personality who is murderous and destined to take over permanently?

What a cruel fate. And they don't even use this as a commentary on Terrigenesis or Andrew's character or May's character, he just accidentally becomes an Inhuman and is then fated to die and become an Inhuman-killing machine? Literally no other Inhuman has gotten this short-end of the stick with regards to their fate.

The newest episode highlighted why the existence of Vought Rising is already undercutting Soldier Boy's arc this season for prequel setup.

I almost like what they're doing with him. The final line of "I love her more, and she would've wanted this" was brilliant. I prefer this motivation to him suddenly starting to actually like Homelander as a son, and it adds a bit of depth to SB's character. Seeing SB simp so hard that he forgoes his own ambitions is interesting, and a good character moment. The problem is:

1. No build-up at all. Yes, they've told us that SB and Stormfront were a thing, but we haven't seen his love for Stormfront at all, or why? They've hinted at it, but they're saving everything for Vought Rising. This sucks since Soldier Boy is a character who is constantly driven by his own principles. The deconstruction of his character insecurities through his past relationships had potential, but again, we don't know Quinn, or Bombsight, or Liberty.

2. Stormfront was a Nazi psychopath, and their refusal to have Soldier Boy acknowledge that, nor commit to Soldier Boy's own psychopathy, leaves his goals in a weird unexplained grey area. In general, the refusal to explore Soldier Boy's morality is annoying. Especially since they also fail to explore whether SB actually wants the same supe supremacy society Homelander does, because we know from Season 3 that he thinks he's a good guy and does not want to harm innocent people.

The fact that his heelturn comes from his underdeveloped love for a Nazi, that's the problem. They portray both HL and SB's love for Stormfront as genuine, but it doesn't feel satisfying as a bonding tool given Stormfront's character.

I've always considered the Butterfly Miraculous to be really overpowered for no reason, but at least it has its limits. It can give another person powers, but it seems it has to align with their current goal/motivation, i.e. you can't choose to give anyone "time travel" or "mind control". They also have to consent to being Butterflied, so if they don't want it, there's nothing you can do.

Meanwhile, with the Peacock, it seems you can create a being who can do whatever you want to serve your purposes. Red Moon, Strikeback, Ladybug, and a bunch that I'm forgetting, their powers are just completely broken, and they were just created like that.

Not to mention, being able to create life itself is an insane power in and of itself. Life that does not disappear even after you detransform.

There's also no reason to believe they can't make multiple Sentimonsters at once, given multiple Sentimonsters coexist during the course of the story (you know who).

The villains heavily underutilitized it, and there's no excuse, especially Shadow Moth in Season 4, after it was fully repaired.

First thing to note is they state that the Kwamis are genderless, but they use gendered pronouns, which apparently can differ depending on the dub?

But what's really interesting is the voice actors they choose. Nooroo and Duusu use male pronouns, despite having very female voices (Duusu especially). And Trixx has a very female voice in the English dub, but is apparently male (I discovered this today when watching Chained Titans in French dub, noticing Trixx sounds very male. Turns out Trixx is male).

Female voice actors voicing male characters is not uncommon at all (Ash Ketchum, Naruto, etc.) but it's very noticeable here, especially given kwamis' appearances aren't very gendered, so the voice is the main thing we go off of. Not a problem, just an interesting situation.

Noelle realizes/accepts her love for Asta in the Spade Kingdom arc, after which there's a time skip of 1.5 years I believe.

Then, Lucius happens, after which there's another time skip of at least 1 year.

Noelle (and Mimosa) took like 3 years...to START going after Asta. She spent 3 years not confessing her love that was built up throughout the series.

Why does he side with Homelander? Why sell out Firecracker? I'm not saying he definitely wouldn't do these things, but their insistence on not letting us in Soldier Boy's mind leaves me confused. It makes it seem like he goes from very overtly plotting against Homelander, and very clearly not supporting his actions or his plans, to saving his life out of "fatherly love".

On one hand, Soldier Boy probably isn't down for the "underhanded" betrayal tactics that Mister Marathon's gang did to Homelander, akin to what Payback did to him. But now he seems to actually care about Homelander, which seemingly came out of nowhere.

Could be a personal thing, because I've always wanted a Soldier Boy redemption arc, I think it would be very interesting, plus he's already very likable. So to have him reject the perfect opportunity to take out Homelander, it seems from now on Soldier Boy is officially team Homelander, which disappoints me since their bond is non-existent.

If you're gonna go this route, give them a scene like Butcher and Soldier Boy had in Season 3, show them creating some form of twisted bond, or maybe even a genuine bond.

Say what you want about Gabe, but at least we knew him. He was an actual character. We had actual scenes with him. Yeah Lila's cooler than Gabe, and she's smarter than Gabe, but it's been 10 years, and we still know nothing about her. Just that she's seemingly pure evil.

I get it, her whole character is built around the whole "you'll know nothing about me". But where's the good in that? Yes I am curious about her, and she does still have massive potential, but 10 years? Come on.

I would've had her backstory and motivations slowly be revealed over the course of Gabe's arc, and then have her be the villain of this saga. The show needs to stop farming mystery to keep people engaged. Instead, we're giving her the Season 1 Gabe treatment, and I'm sure we'll slowly reveal aspects of her character over 4+ seasons of turtle-paced plot.