I can’t believe no one has mentioned the absolute best joke in the series yet. As it clearly states in his page on the AvatarWiki, and as you can see at about the 15 minute mark of the most recent episode…
Meelo is a fart bender! That’s genius! Somewhere in the Spirit World, Aang is laughing his ass off and trying to figure out how to do it.
If by best you mean worst, yes. The reason I like Avatar is because it’s usually above that sort of rubbish.
It would have been a joke worthy of a slight smirk if had been a half-second throwaway joke in a filler episode with Aang, but I find Meelo so annoying, and fart jokes so unfunny, that I kind of rolled my eyes at the whole endeavor.
It worked with me precisely because it wasn’t in a filler. Goofy jokes, like that one, like the zipper one, work because they are placed where tension/anxiety has built up.
Like with earth bending, with goofy jokes timing is everything …
Anyone who hates Meelo hates fun.
Much like an actual fart, I think we were all trying to act like it never happened.
Oh, come on. Sure it’s completely low-brow, and I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t enjoy a spin-off series based entirely around fart-bending, but as a one-off joke it’s just plain funny. Avatar may be a thousand times better than your average animated series, but it is on Nickelodeon, and I have to believe that its intended audience is kids at least as much as adults. And if there’s one universal truth, it’s that kids love fart jokes.
And besides - if Meelo can learn to bend the farts that are still inside other peoples’ butts, he can become a real match for even the most accomplished blood-bender. 
T’hell with that…what if he thinks to bring along a flame source while he fartbends? :eek:
Thinking about the season Finale tomorrow I had a thought, and if they pull it I will be so pissed.
The Avatar conclusion showed that spirit bending is a battle of wills. If she gets her ass subdued, but out spirit bends Amon because she is just so darn spunky, that would be such a pathetic cop out. They can’t be that cheesy, can they?
God I hope not, BUT Korra seems to be a very unspiritual Avatar.(but strangely she seems to have manifested her powers early 
) They have even mentioned this in the show itself numerous times, it makes me wonder if this was foreshadowing or something.
I wonder if they will reveal who or what is behind the mask in the finale, I hope so as there is only so far that can go. It will probably just leave us with more questions;)
Totally wild assed guessing below:
The Avatar cycle got fracked up somehow in Aang’s go round.
Well, that was interesting. I thought the first 50 minutes of the hour were very good.
Then It got pretty Deus ex Machina, unsatifying resolution. And left next season really unclear.
Well, part of the problem is that they’d started out with a plan to only have one season, then, when most of their work was done, Nick said that they’d like a second season as well. I’ve got some gripes about the finale, but not that the first season is self-contained.
I know nothing about the behind the scenes stuff, BUT I do know they talked about two seasons more than a year before the first ep aired. If I had to guess, I would say either they were unsure of a second season or got a firm no. Unless someone has info that a S2 is absolutely on.
On to the finale, well none of my wild ass guesses were correct.
My only complaint is that the first episode should have opened mysteriously in media res, with us having no clue WTF is going on. Two young waterbenders being trained in blood bending? One named Yakone and one named Tarlock, so a Yakone flashback eh? End the episode with Yakone Jr putting on the mask :eek:
But I didn’t really care for Amon’s identity,or even reason for wearing the damn mask if he was using heavy fake scar makeup anyway. Why not have Korra go Avatar state during the finale fight?
Anyway I can’t complain about leaving left hanging I guess.
Huh. Thought they had the perfect setup for next season:
I guess the only reason to look forward to the next season is to see how Mako breaks up with Asumithat two timing git…
Well , that is where my last ten minutes objections come from. She doesn’t have to learn anything. Once Aang showed up and flipped the light-switch to turn everything back on, and she learned how to do the same, the entire threat of the premise is retroactively shown to be inconsequential and pointless. There wasn’t a danger at all.
Like I said IF I find out they had no choice because a second season wasn’t coming, I’ll be fine with what we got.
Otherwise W_T_F seriously I was going to complain before I wanted to see more of Amon’s movement and why an average person would support it, there were lots of things not fully explored and I was ok with that assuming there was a whole season coming up that had to be filled and they were saving it for then.
As far as “WTH, everything resolved? In 10 minutes!?”…agree. I was dizzy. As far as I know there is a second season coming, but there’s nothing left for it to be about. This ep looked like they thought there was a second season but it was canceled during ep 10, so they finished up all loose ends, done.
OK, so what’s left that might get filled out next season (if and when):
hmm Tough choice. The chick who is an unstable force of power, or the hotter chick who is possibly now the richest and be running the most influential company in the world.
Poor Bolin, gets nothing but a ferret, Maybe the plot next year will be him going Heathcliff and scheming to bring them all down.
You know, I was thinking…
I was disappointed in the ending of the season. Korra didn’t really “earn” that ending. Just poof there’s Aang: “congrats, Korra! You’re spiritual! Nice job, and here’s a big Undo button for your grand prize. Oh, and by the way, you’re now an Airbending Master, on your first day of Airbending!” Really unsatisfying. I thought the finale up to that point was pretty good, I’m just frustrated that it ended so quickly with little satisfying resolution of the story arcs.
But anyway – IF there is another season – it might be cool that Korra is a full Avatar at the beginning and through the whole season… We’ve never had an ongoing story where the Avatar is the Avatar, just flashbacks from the past Avatars, and the current might-be-Avatar-someday of that story. Aang had to pay for all the f-ups of Roku, and his story was only resolved when he became the Avatar. Why do that again? This season resolved the same way, but the next season can explore further what an Avatar can or can’t do, and how the Avatar helps the world (or screws things up, see: Roku).
Also: god, why did they waste our time with Pro Bending, and why couldn’t they have taken those two mostly-pro-bending episodes and given us a longer, better resolution? Gah.