Not to be negative but…
Does anyone feel like we are missing key information from the finale?
Why don’t we know how Amon took people’s bending away? We assumed that it was energy bending, but how did he learn that? Not from his father, or he would have had his sons restore his own bending. It’s doubtful he went to the spirit world and found a lion turtle willing to teach him. Also, I don’t buy the explanation that he uses blood bending. For all its creepiness blood bending is still just water bending. Basically it’s the water equivalent to metal bending. Energy bending seems to be much less about the physical and more about the link to the spiritual. i.e a completely different thing. The real problem here isn’t even the viability of the canon story, its the fact that we don’t have a canon story. Amon’s backstory perhaps explained his motive and made him more sympathetic, but really didn’t answer that many questions. And since he is presumably dead, it is unlikely we will get these answers next season since there will be a new villain.
Finally, this may be unpopular but I thought it was a cop out to have anyone but Korra get their bending back. Yes, I’m happy for them. Especially Lin. But this kind of waters down their sacrifice. The idea of having something so intimate stolen from you creates extreme pathos. For example, almost everyone felt something for Tahno when he ran into Korra after losing his bending. Arguably, that’s what made him a multidimensional character rather than just a minor antagonist. We likely won’t feel these emotions from rewatching this scene since we know Korra will just fix it in a few episodes. That’s unfortunate. Also, I still maintain that a non-bending Lin would have done wonders for the reconciliation process.
I don’t want things to be unnecessarily sad, but wars have casualties. Watching characters deal with these casualties is what makes war stories so poignant. If you are going to use extreme loss give the audience feelings, don’t just undo everything you’ve set up to make it a happy ending. I know its a cartoon, but come on.
