The Last Agni Kai: Best Animated Fight Ever?

the Agni Kai-enhanced comet in the ending of Avatar The Last Airbender is... well, technically speaking, it ends with a third party takedown rather than an outright victory, but on the other hand it's the most beautiful and emotionally resonant

fight

, believe. I have seen it before and in this video we are going to talk about why. Spoiler ending is one of the reasons. My name is Jill Bearup and stage combat, that is, pretending to

fight

on stage and on screen, is a hobby of mine, so I'm always willing to ask "what can you learn from a character's fighting style?" discussion about whether that character is played by a real-life human being or

animated

.

To clarify before

ever

yone jumps into the comments section too late, Agni Kai will most likely end the moment Azula tries to shoot Katara with lightning. I couldn't find anything in the dueling code that specifically said that if you hurt a bystander, you lose the duel, how

ever

it was considered extremely dishonorable to do so. Involving a third party in a one-on-one honor duel really is a big no-no, you'd think she'd be a bad person or something, but we'll get to that in a bit. I love how they use the unexpectedness of the ending to drive home the show's themes of love, friends, and choices. let's talk about some of the other reasons, like how amazing it looks, the colors are gorgeous, the contrasting blue and orange fire explosions are not only beautiful and distinctive in the red saturated landscape, they are really easy to read compared to the average firebending and what We read from their comparative size and ferocity to anything we've seen before: a) comets make firebenders awesome and b) Zuko is now a match for Azula.

From the point of view of a martial arts technique, the style of firebending that seems to be preferred by the royal family in the Fire Nation is much broader, fluid and beautiful than the style used by ordinary Firebenders or garden, so it looks great from that perspective to most who aren't. The real firebenders we see have a much broader focus on their horse stance and fire with their kicks and punches, which definitely makes sense for people who would often fight as part of a small group or in military formation, in Contrast with Zhao, for example, who Solo rarely uses his feet for firebending. in fact in his Agni Kai with Zuko I don't think I saw him use a kick even once.

And while Zuko and Azula's firebending style is much flashier than the average firebender, it's still different for each of them and very indicative of the characters, which is good because it's not how it looks or how sounds which makes this fight so emotionally resonant. It's the backstory that has gotten us to this point and the way the fight helps hammer that home. Azula's style is very elegant and up to this point she has always been very precise, she has her two finger firebending and her lightning generation, and she is a perfectionist. Her firebending may still be powerful and effective, but it is no longer balanced.

Her style doesn't require a wide, grounding stance like an earthbender or even a normal firebender would, but to be so agile and agile you have to be balanced, you have to be centered. You and her don't, and it's honestly no surprise that she faces Zuko alone after having spent the time before his coronation banishing everyone who does anything wrong and also people who haven't done anything wrong and are worried about her. her breakdown proper begins a few episodes earlier, when Mai and then Ty Lee turn on her and that moment in prison has broken something very fundamental in Azula in a final straw in the way her father only cared about how she reflected on him, her mother was unable to stop Ozai's twisting of her personality and then to save Zuko's life, her mother had to abandon them both at a young age.

Azula is tragic, complex, horrible, and sympathetic, and she is one of my favorite villains for these reasons. . She tries so hard to be perfect, but in the end even perfection isn't enough because there was no one in her life who really cared about her as a person and not just as someone who could help them or make them look good. Her mother had to leave her father, well, yes, Zuko at least had a fight, but Azula had no one, yes, I don't count those two. her friends finally choose Zuko in Mai's case or Mai in Ty Lee's case over her and that broke her and there is no one who can love her and face her except Zuko because he loves her even when he knows she needs do it. being defeated, this is another reason why it is so moving and why it sounds like it sounds the fire is silent the music is not climactic it is all sadness and strings it is not a victory it is a tragedy caused by Ozai by Azulon by Sozin.

Aang and Ozai's fight is dramatic and eventually at least somewhat triumphant, but it's sad that it didn't have to be that way and at least one of the participants regrets that and the other participant, lest we forget, is at most 15 years. Zuko has to defeat Azula, he has to take the throne, he has to restore the honor of the Fire Nation and now he can, but he is not happy that he can finally surpass his sister because Zuko is the character who grows the most throughout the series. Aang Katara Toph Sokka everyone grows and changes and matures throughout the series but Zuko is the only one who does a complete 180 or possibly that should be a 540 because it's more of a 180 than a 180 but for real this time?

No matter, Zuko has found peace with who he is and what his destiny is and it shows in how he fights. The first time we see Azula and Zuko get involved we play to Azula's strengths, she is fast, agile, precise, lets Zuko attack, counters with little apparent effort and then goes at him with the lightning bolt which Iroh has to redirect back to Zuko. . himself trying to attack her, but she is better than him, she would never have worked when Zuko fought in the first Agni Kai we see in the series. Iroh tells him to break her root, but that wouldn't really work against Azula's style.

She is also everywhere. We go back to these two fights in the final showdown, this time Zuko puts down roots and Azula can't break him, that doesn't mean he never moves, I mean he does his signature breakdancing spinning kick that we saw in his Agni Kai with Zhao and in Several other times throughout the series and of course there are the moves reminiscent of the dancing dragon, but while Azula is as maneuverable as ever, Zuko is stable. Everything she has done has led to her now going to the warriors of the Sun and understanding fire as the Sun within you; shedding the shame of having been burned, dishonored and disowned by his own father; find his uncle again; and understand Azula's tragedy.

He knows her, sees what has happened to her, feels sorry for her, and now he can defeat her. It's a contrast to the first time we see Zuko and Azula fight instead of Zuko exhausting himself trying to hit Azula, it's the other way around and of course for a punch the ko finishing move no longer works here, does it? No? What's happening today? Are you afraid to redirect it? Usually, of course, Azula then changes the rules the first time we see Zuko and Azula fight, it's Iroh who redirects the lightning to save Zuko's life. This time it is Zuko who redirects the beam, although not so efficiently to save Katara, putting all that aside for a moment.

If you hurt a third party, that's probably an instant disqualification. Here we emphasize how little Azula thinks of people who are not her. Azula sees people because her father has told him to see people as things that can be used and then discarded. Zuko knows that he cannot defeat Azula alone and that is why he brings Katara, who is her friend, whose trust, forgiveness and respect she has. friendship gained, don't you love it?, but then when he sees his sister, he realizes that something has changed and, instead of teaming up with Katara to defeat Azula, he accepts the Agni Kai because he knows that this time he can defeat it "and this way no one else will get hurt" CAUTION!

Katara is there with Zuko because they are friends because they understand that they are more likely to beat Azula as a team and this is shown by Zuko saving Katara from the lightning bolt but then Katara also saves Zuko. not to mention that technically speaking it is Katara who defeats Azula. We see the same ferocity and comet-powered firebending turn against someone who has no enhanced powers at the moment and it's close, it's very close, but in the end Azula is defeated with the power and precision we've come to expect from the master. Katara and so on.

Azula is beaten and broken and crying and it breaks your heart because how many chances did she have to be normal? Zuko breaks up with her father but her father already broke up with Azula. In the end it's teamwork that beats Azula, it's friendship, it's compassion and it's all there in that final fight, a great fight and a great spectacle if you're interested in analyzing movie fights. Then I can direct you to my other videos. Thanks to my sponsors, as always, thank you all for watching and I'll see you next time.