Wow. That was god awful. In every sense of the word, it truly was.
Completely rushed, characters becoming even more unlikeable than they already are, bullcrap explanations for things that are supposed to be important plot points. It's like a bad writers wet dream.
- Seriously, Amon and Tarrlok were brothers the whole time? That's not even a good twist. Not to mention it was given to us with a huge exposition dump with no set up for it whatsoever. It was just "Oh hey, Amon is really my brother and he is a Bloodbender like me"
- Still no credible explanation as to why Amon and Tarrlok can Bloodbend with no full moon. All we got was "They're special, that's why". It basically Amon having the equivalent of psychic powers will a bullcrap explanation behind it. Nor are we told how Bloodbending can take away bending. In the original series, it had no spiritual connection and was just a Waterbender being able bend the water that is found in blood.
- Korra still being able Airbend despite Amon taking away her bending. This was when I just said, "You know what. . . .f*ck it". Simply because Korra couldn't Airbend at the time of her bending being taken away, it meant she could be able to still be able to use it at anytime afterwards. Not to mention the convenient timing of suddenly being able to do so on a dime out of nowhere, when she previously couldn't even produce a fart of air, let alone to cyclones she blasted at Amon.
- KORRA GETTING HER BENDING BACK IN THE FREAKING END ANYWAYS! Why take it away in the first place if you were going to give it back to her not but minutes later?! What sort of tension is that?! It seems like an inconvenience rather than a legitimate threat that "Hey, I might have just lost my bending forever" It was clearly just another fangasm moment to showcase Aang and quite honestly was just lazy writing.
-As far as I am concerned, Mako can go die in a fire. Like seriously. I want to punch both him and Korra in the face. Asami is a trooper for putting up with these two douchenozzles for so long.
- Korra suddenly gaining the Avatar State was rushed as hell and another product of bad writing. Another fangasm bone thrown to the fans wanting to get them to squee at the prospect of Korra going full Avatar. Korra basically had NO connection to the spiritual side of being the Avatar, but simply because she mopes around about losing her bending, it means she has access to it now? Bullcrap!
- Now that I think about it, Korra's plan deserved to fail and I'm glad she had lost her bending for the short period it was gone. "Let's throw caution to the wind simply because I'm tired of Amon making me piss my pants cause I'm so scared of him". In fact, I was cheering for Amon the whole time and I was actively cheering fort Korra to lose. She simply deserved to fail if that's what her thinking was. Although some of my cheering may be attributed to GanXingba's recent Amon videos. Seriously, no one appreciates the guy's jokes.
All in all, I hated much of this episode and at the end I just said "Wow. I really don't like this show now". If this is what everything was leading up to, then I am seriously not a happy camper. It's like entering a costume contest and the winner gets a tetanus shot. All that build up only to deliver something so hastily put together and badly written. I understand that it will never be like the original series, but it managed to completely destroy any hope of me giving it the benefit of the doubt and saying "Maybe it doesn't have to be" because it clearly isn't, and clearly won't ever be.