Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra

[RobbyBevard]

Fry's dog has lost all its sting ever since Bender's Big Score where they took all the tragedy right out of it. Still a sad ending to the actual episode with the song and all, but... knowing the dog got his full 13 years WITH Fry (well, A Fry) rather than just waiting for him the entire time makes all the difference in the world.

[andre]

Fry's dog has lost all its sting ever since Bender's Big Score where they took all the tragedy right out of it. Still a sad ending to the actual episode with the song and all, but... knowing the dog got his full 13 years WITH Fry (well, A Fry) rather than just waiting for him the entire time makes all the difference in the world.

Well shoot,the moment isn't as sad anymore but I'm happy for the dog I guess. It's funny to think that we're disappointed that the dog's sad moment isn't as sad as we once thought.

[Ubiq]

The business with Fry's dog was retconned.

Also:

[tatermoog]

I hate you.
You just had to go and bring up all of these feelings I have.

Sigh...

Also that moment in Return of the King gets me every time.

I rarely watched Futurama, but the first time that episode came on was right after my mom and I had just had a long argument about whether we needed to put down my dog that had been in the family for twelve years.

When it ended, she just stared at me for a minute then screamed, "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

[Hiroy]

UP
First few minutes.

[Nolus]

UP
First few minutes.

Watched it with my brother. Couldn't show emotions. Maybe I should watch it alone and let the tears flow.

[andre]

UP
First few minutes.

Maybe we need a thread about sad moments, if there isn't one already.

[Nex]

Maybe we need a thread about sad moments, if there isn't one already.

http://apforums.net/showthread.php?t=1405&highlight=Sad+moments

It's 7 years old though XD

[andre]

So I finally finished my second viewing of the series and I gotta say, the second season is by far the best after repeated viewings. The third is probably the weakest, but it has some really strong episodes.

[tatermoog]

So I finally finished my second viewing of the series and I gotta say, the second season is by far the best after repeated viewings. The third is probably the weakest, but it has some really strong episodes.

Not done with mine yet, mainly because the third season's beginning is more terrible than I remembered. I mean, with The Awakening, The Painted Lady, and The Beach, you have three contenders for worst episode in the series in the first five episodes of the season! It does improve pretty substantially about halfway through, but it's a shocker after the quality of the preceding journey.

[Nolus]

I liked those episodes to be honest.

[tatermoog]

The Awakening I dislike because a.) everyone's so incredibly bitchy, b.) Katara having a heart-to-heart with her father while Aang disappears off in the horizon somewhere, and c.) this terrible idea that Aang shouldn't go off on his own, only to have Appa and crew magically appear next to him on the beach in the Fire Nation. The heck?

I didn't hate Painted Lady in the past, but on this viewing, it struck me as representative of everything that's wrong with the third season's first half. It accomplishes nothing, adds no new character to anyone or the setting, and has no b-storyline. It's just another Katara-centric episode where she's completely powerful and right and Sokka has to play as her foil. Bleh.

The Beach is Teenage Angst: The Episode.

[andre]

I agree about the Awakening and the Painted Lady, but I like the Beach.

[Herodadotus]

I enjoyed about half of each of those episodes. Except Painted Lady, I really didn't like that one.

[Nolus]

Looking back, they were pretty weak episodes, but I still don't dislike them. However I can see your points.

[tatermoog]

The Beach at least has some Combustion Man zaniness to balance out the ham-handed humanization of the Azula Gang.

Looking at the list of episodes, I don't like pretty much every other episode for the entire first half of the third season. Awakening/Painted Lady/Beach are 1, 3, and 5, followed by The Runaway and Nightmares and Daydreams at 7 and 9.

[RobbyBevard]

Awakening should have been a two parter. It was trying to cram two episodes of follow up into one episode. The fact that "there were bonus comics that filled in the gaps!" doesn't excuse the fact that an episode of content between seasons was skipped or waved off as fast as possible. (Zuko and Mai dating, the crew taking on a ship, the earth king leaving, Katara's building anger at her father, any suspense about Aang, etc.) Aang waking up to find he's on a fire nation ship is a good cold open, but...

The thing is, those episodes, while not flat out bad and all offering *something*, would have been okay in an overall stronger season. But when entire large plotpoints were completely dropped, (Or brought up without warning like the lion turtle) and the overall ending was rushed and needed another episode or two to breathe... it's just really easy to look back and go "yeah, they could have cut that, that, that and that to make space for something else."

The headband is an easily cuttable episode too, but at least its fun. And Ember Island Players, while a goofy fun recap episode with some fun character bits, also could have been cut.

Compared to setting up the lion turtle, some real time with Zuko and Mai, exploring the air temple, bonding time between Zuko, Suki and the gang (they had to lampshade that Toph had no time with him because she had a waste of an episode earlier... and Suki was basically only with them for the last story in the background) the order of the white lotus, the aftermath of the war, ZUKO'S MOTHER....

[Nex]

I just finished a rewatch recently actually, and I still think season 1 is the weakest. Season 2 is definitely the best. It has the tightest story out of every one of the seasons, and none of the episodes feel superfluous. I also enjoy season 3 more than season 1. While the episodes at the beginning are weaker, they still feel necessary, and once we hit The Avatar and the Firelord and I feel like all the episodes are good from there one out, and the season really picks up steam. Though, the Southern Raiders, does feel kind of shoehorned in, I will admit.

Still season 3 contains two of my absolute favorite episodes in Nightmares and Daydreams and The Ember Island Players, and it has the best fight (and most gorgeous animation) in Zuko v Azula.

[andre]

I loved season 1, every single episode for the most part. Season 3 was just a little meh I guess, but I enjoyed it.

[tatermoog]

I just finished a rewatch recently actually, and I still think season 1 is the weakest. Season 2 is definitely the best. It has the tightest story out of every one of the seasons, and none of the episodes feel superfluous. I also enjoy season 3 more than season 1. While the episodes at the beginning are weaker, they still feel necessary, and once we hit The Avatar and the Firelord and I feel like all the episodes are good from there one out, and the season really picks up steam. Though, the Southern Raiders, does feel kind of shoehorned in, I will admit.

Still season 3 contains two of my absolute favorite episodes in Nightmares and Daydreams and The Ember Island Players

One out of two. We're improving!

, and it has the best fight (and most gorgeous animation) in Zuko v Azula.

Might agree on animation, but it still irks me to no end that Katara finished off that fight.

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Awakening should have been a two parter. It was trying to cram two episodes of follow up into one episode. The fact that "there were bonus comics that filled in the gaps!" doesn't excuse the fact that an episode of content between seasons was skipped or waved off as fast as possible. (Zuko and Mai dating, the crew taking on a ship, the earth king leaving, Katara's building anger at her father, any suspense about Aang, etc.) Aang waking up to find he's on a fire nation ship is a good cold open, but...

I've mentioned this earlier, but the worst idea was letting them get to the Fire Nation so quickly. Book One? Quest to reach Northern Water Tribe and find teacher, with some plot-necessary side-trips (Roku's temple, for example) on the way. Book Two? Trip to Omashu, then to find Earth-Bending Teacher, then to find way to stop Fire Nation, then Ba Sing Se. Book Three? We're there! Let's...putter around a bit!

Just from a simple logic, infiltrating the Fire Nation should have been the most difficult task--just look at how difficult it was when they were trying to reach one temple in the Fire Nation for a day. Instead, they hit right away and then have nowhere to go. Sokka has a "schedule" for reaching the battle area for Day of Black Sun, but there's never any sense that it's very urgent at all. Combustion Man is just a time-waster until they get to actual plot-useful stuff.

The thing is, those episodes, while not flat out bad and all offering *something*, would have been okay in an overall stronger season. But when entire large plotpoints were completely dropped, (Or brought up without warning like the lion turtle) and the overall ending was rushed and needed another episode or two to breathe... it's just really easy to look back and go "yeah, they could have cut that, that, that and that to make space for something else."

I don't know, I agree with this in principle, but most of the filler episodes in Season Three are also less well-written as standalone episodes as filler episodes in Seasons One and Two. The internal logic in The Runaway and The Painted Lady is terrible. Add in the bad placement of some episodes (The Headband really shouldn't be the second ep of the season) and the hammering of themes we already knew (parts of the Fire Nation are bad, other parts not so much) and it's just so much water-treading.

Compared to setting up the lion turtle, some real time with Zuko and Mai, exploring the air temple, bonding time between Zuko, Suki and the gang (they had to lampshade that Toph had no time with him because she had a waste of an episode earlier... and Suki was basically only with them for the last story in the background) the order of the white lotus, the aftermath of the war, ZUKO'S MOTHER....

Toph is surprisingly absent/superficial in most of Season Three overall. And on this watch, I realized that Zuko/Mai might be one of the worst-implemented storylines in the whole series. There's a flashback in Season Two where she seems vaguely infatuated with a younger Zuko, and then they're full-on boyfriend/girlfriend in the first episode back.