Ah, I'm not saying I think forgiveness was the right course of action. I personally am very forgiving of revenge, so of course that colours the way I look at it. ^^;
Yeah, I kind of figured that. I honestly think whether revenge helps you or not depends on what kind of person you are. Life is complicated, and different people need different things to get through life. I really have no idea, but I know that I'm the kind of person who if I ever tried to get back at someone I would immediately regret it, and I see Katara as the same way. Not that I identify with Katara very much, but I don't think that killing her mother's killer would have made her very happy at all.
She's only reached closure in the sense that she knows she has done all she can do. And work from there.
I think this makes sense. I guess I can live with it, but I think this is just a matter of me thinking that this episode could have been done so much better. It's a very strained form of closure in my opinion.
On forgiving Zuko: I thought she did because he was the only one who helped her and apparently understood what she was going through, similar to their discussion in Ba Sing Se and nicely coming full circle.
Meh...I don't think I'll ever completely come to terms with this, mainly because of Zuko's sarcasm and snarkiness towards Aang at the beginning. It seemed like they were dismissing Aang and thus making Zuko look in the wrong from the very beginning. Then there was his "you knew what Katara really needed" at the end really makes me think that Zuko considered Aang to be right and he was wrong. I mean, he practically said it, and it seems wrong for Zuko to gain Katara's forgiveness through a mistake, or at least what he considers to be one.
I'd say Zuko had redeemed himself already by that point, so Katara forgiving him was much more about her journey than his.
That's true, but at the same time hard for me to swallow. I guess her connecting her anger at him with the anger from the loss of her mother is plausible since they were talking about it when she started to trust him, but it just seems ridiculous for him to have to go that far for her to forgive him. Simply Zuko understanding her pain and being on her side doesn't really seem to be enough for her to forgive him in my eyes.
I wanted at least some conversation between them, one that showed Katara that Zuko not only was trying to get her to not hate him but was actually trying to help her. I just felt like even though that was clear, it was only because we know Zuko's a good person, not because the episode itself showed it. It looked like he was just trying to get the last member of the gaang on his side. I really think that one conversation where Zuko helped her come to terms with her mother's death would have fixed this problem.
And I disagree with your comment about Aang's wisdom; to me the point of the episode was actually to show that Aang isn't always right, because Katara not only isn't able to forgive the murderer, but she's also not even sure that not killing him was good or bad. And of course Zuko's "What are you going to do about my father?" and Aang's stricken look fit the same idea. Which is an earlier example of the misdirection that goes on during the finale.
I think Aang was wise and yet at the same time naive in this episode. I don't think they were necessarily saying that he was wrong by Katara finding closure and Zuko saying what he did, but I think they were just trying to show that it wasn't as simple as he made it out to be and it wasn't the only option. In real life, forgiveness is hard, and often it just simply isn't humanly possible. It might be the best option, but still isn't possible. Or is it even the best option at all for different people? Basically I think that they were trying to show that forgiveness is a noble, difficult, and sometimes even naive concept.
I used to be mainly a Zutara shipper, but I really lost most interest in it and all Avatar pairings in the third season up until the Western Air Temple. I fell in love with Toko there ^_^
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Yeah, I kind of figured that. I honestly think whether revenge helps you or not depends on what kind of person you are. Life is complicated, and different people need different things to get through life. I really have no idea, but I know that I'm the kind of person who if I ever tried to get back at someone I would immediately regret it, and I see Katara as the same way. Not that I identify with Katara very much, but I don't think that killing her mother's killer would have made her very happy at all.
She's only reached closure in the sense that she knows she has done all she can do. And work from there.
I think this makes sense. I guess I can live with it, but I think this is just a matter of me thinking that this episode could have been done so much better. It's a very strained form of closure in my opinion.
On forgiving Zuko: I thought she did because he was the only one who helped her and apparently understood what she was going through, similar to their discussion in Ba Sing Se and nicely coming full circle.
Meh...I don't think I'll ever completely come to terms with this, mainly because of Zuko's sarcasm and snarkiness towards Aang at the beginning. It seemed like they were dismissing Aang and thus making Zuko look in the wrong from the very beginning. Then there was his "you knew what Katara really needed" at the end really makes me think that Zuko considered Aang to be right and he was wrong. I mean, he practically said it, and it seems wrong for Zuko to gain Katara's forgiveness through a mistake, or at least what he considers to be one.
I'd say Zuko had redeemed himself already by that point, so Katara forgiving him was much more about her journey than his.
That's true, but at the same time hard for me to swallow. I guess her connecting her anger at him with the anger from the loss of her mother is plausible since they were talking about it when she started to trust him, but it just seems ridiculous for him to have to go that far for her to forgive him. Simply Zuko understanding her pain and being on her side doesn't really seem to be enough for her to forgive him in my eyes.
I wanted at least some conversation between them, one that showed Katara that Zuko not only was trying to get her to not hate him but was actually trying to help her. I just felt like even though that was clear, it was only because we know Zuko's a good person, not because the episode itself showed it. It looked like he was just trying to get the last member of the gaang on his side. I really think that one conversation where Zuko helped her come to terms with her mother's death would have fixed this problem.
And I disagree with your comment about Aang's wisdom; to me the point of the episode was actually to show that Aang isn't always right, because Katara not only isn't able to forgive the murderer, but she's also not even sure that not killing him was good or bad. And of course Zuko's "What are you going to do about my father?" and Aang's stricken look fit the same idea. Which is an earlier example of the misdirection that goes on during the finale.
I think Aang was wise and yet at the same time naive in this episode. I don't think they were necessarily saying that he was wrong by Katara finding closure and Zuko saying what he did, but I think they were just trying to show that it wasn't as simple as he made it out to be and it wasn't the only option. In real life, forgiveness is hard, and often it just simply isn't humanly possible. It might be the best option, but still isn't possible. Or is it even the best option at all for different people? Basically I think that they were trying to show that forgiveness is a noble, difficult, and sometimes even naive concept.
I used to be mainly a Zutara shipper, but I really lost most interest in it and all Avatar pairings in the third season up until the Western Air Temple. I fell in love with Toko there ^_^