Too Many Fillers?

[Liamane]

I've been talking with B.B. recently, and we've been discussing a lot about Avatar and all of its minor loose ends. Some episodes, like The Painted Lady, The Runaway, and The Puppetmaster, just to name a few, were just pointless, imo.

I mean, The Painted Lady was just a needless filler that served no purpose. As for The Runaway, the only point it made was that Toph was able to contact her parents, but still, we heard nothing more of that. The Puppetmaster only aided the episode The Southern Raiders, and we didn't really need that episode either. We know Katara's mother was killed, and we sympathize, whatever, but what about Zuko's mom? Her fate is totally unknown.

Like, does anyone else agree, or am I just going mental?

[wiiboy]

I kind of agree with somebody who was discussing Book 3 on 4chan. I kind of wanted more fillers towards the end. Expressibly if Zuko joined up with the gaang, because it just didn't feel like he was "in" with them. Perhaps if The Day of Black Sun came earlier, there would have been time for Zuko and the rest of the gaang.

TL:DR, I wanted more fillers.

[Liamane]

Well, I wanted to know what the hell happened to Zuko's mom, that's what I want. You can only have so many fillers before saying, "So, how does this pertain to the ending?" Seriously, plenty of the episodes from Season Three didn't even help conclude the show whatsoever. Like, little questions are still left unanswered, and for Bryan and Mike to claim that Aang and Zuko's story are over is really a stupid move.

[wiiboy]

Then connect in more ways then you think. However it probably would have been better to have The Day of Black Sun early on to give Zuko more time with the Gaang. How other some people dislike the whole Katara/Aang thing, not talking about Zutarians.

All of the fillers had connections, even if people are too blind to see them. There was a lot to accomplish in these episodes, which is why the only real fillers you see are at the beginning of the season with, The Painted Lady, The Headband, and Sokka's Master. Let the last one did connect a small bit.

The Avatar and The Firelord, wasn't really a filler as it was basically a foreshadowing to the finale at the very end. As you said in the other thing, the irony that things happen again.

The only real season that might be considered nothing but fillers will be Book 1: Water. With episodes like, The Great Divide, not to mention others didn't really connect. Yet others such as, Jet, and The Fortuneteller, where really just foreshadowing episodes.

As for Zuko and his mother. There was originally a scene about this however Mike or Bryan decided to pull it. Luckily the sketch will be included with the Book 3 Fire boxset. Hopefully the rumors of a Zuko miniseries is true.

[Liamane]

How exactly did The Painted Lady contribute to the ending? As far as I can see, Katara, Aang, and the others helped people sort out their problems, much like Season One episodes. And if you think Sokka's Master only had a little to contribute to the finale, you're greatly mistaken. Even though the White Lotus Society had minimal impact in the ending, Sokka's Master reignited the group's existence.

We could have lived without The Avatar and The Firelord, regardless of its twist or future reference. I mean, in the end, Zuko overcomes all of his evil, despite having two friends turned rivals in his bloodline. Nevertheless, we really didn't need to know oodles about Sozin. He started a war, and a comet's named after him. That's all I need to know to get the point across that he was a baddie.

I can see Season One as a predominant season of fillers even though they resurrected characters that were deemed useless in the end. Aside from the midly tasteless fanservice, was there a point in bringing back certain characters? I think not. Then again, as typical television goes, the first season of a show is often filter ridden, but in such a way Bryan and Mike executed it toward the end, there was little to no point.

In other words, all great television shows have filters to some extent, but ultimately, Avatar has way too many.

[wiiboy]

Firstly, I said, The Painted Lady was no doubt a filler. Which is why I said all of Book 3's fillers were seen at the beginning. If you take away some of the other episodes, you'll have way too little information. A good story, hell even a good mythology requires foreshadowing which was basically, The Avatar and The Firelord, and beyond other things. If one simply goes by generic information of a character, you're not really getting the whole story now are you?

Also, Sozin wasn't a "baddie" as you called it. He differently wasn't as bad as his son or grandson. The only thing bad he did was starting a war under the impersonation that he was doing something good. It's not like he was going to take out a group of people the way Earth dictators such as Hitler did. The second "evil" thing was betraying his friend. It's important to know everything about a story then just generic information.

[Liamane]

I have to disagree. First off, Sozin allowed and oversaw his best friend's death, and he had an unquenchable greed to extend his glorious empire beyond the ends of the world. Last time I saw it, world domination is considered pretty damn evil. Also, from my understanding, he did, in fact, eliminate an entire group of people, the Air Nomads. It was under Sozin's rule, not Azulon's, that all of Aang's people were murdered in the mass genocide.

And trust me, I can live without plenty of the earlier episodes of Season Three.

[wiiboy]

O rly? There has been rulers such as Sozin in history I am sure of it. If you say Hitler, then I will hitu. <--- See what I did there? Napoleon expanded his empire and he wasn't evil. Napoleon was a grand ruler, not like Hitler. Tired of people comparing the two when they obvious need to learn moar.

Plus Sozin probably grew very old, probably regretted his decision about leaving Roku to die. However he probably seen enough of his war to know what he did. Then again what is evil and how do you rank it on a scale? <--- See what I did again? In the end Sozin is not as evil enough as Hitler or even Jim Jones. He never manipulated others to do his bidding, he was just a ruler with a dream.

History has already seen enough of this.

[Beebs]

Go away, troll.

Anyway, I agree Lia, Avatar's main issue is that fact that it throws a lot of pointless fillers in our face, Painted Lady being the worst, imo. They should focus more on the main plot; if they had they might've actually wrapped up the series effectively.

[Liamane]

Sept 19, 2008 16:48:27 GMT -6 @wiiboy said:

Plus Sozin probably grew very old, probably regretted his decision about leaving Roku to die.

Well, just twelve years after Roku's death, Sozin ordered his soldiers to kill the potential Avatar, thus eliminating an entire race of people. Oh, he really regretted his actions. And look at what you said, he didn't have to manipulate anyone, he already had the highest authority of power. Besides, why are you putting historical power heads in this? We're talking about Avatar, by the way.

[ROKUFANG]

Yeah, there were fillers. But I don't think too many?

I think they were in a good balance, they were useful for things such as character development at least, even if they didn't move along the main narrative.

I think the worst was The Great Divide though.

[Liamane]

I still think The Painted Lady did the series no justice. There was nothing in there, and there wasn't even evidence of character development. The guy with the multiple personalities was just annoying, and Katara's "epic" struggle was almost awkward. I had a better taste for The Great Divide than The Painted Lady.

[ROKUFANG]

lol. I wouldn't go that far, but neither were the series best!

But yeah, that guy was annoying.

[Liamane]

I would beat him with his own pimp. XDD But like, seriously, once my mind is set on something, I'm not going let it go easily... Just like Zutara. I really, really disliked that episode.

[Beebs]

The Great Divide at least kept me entertained, while as Painted Lady made me want to stop watching Book 3 altogether, but luckily it started to get better after that. The former mentioned episode has a really unfair rep, imo.

But to me, I don't mind fillers, they're generally a fun thing to watch, especially for shows whose mythology you aren't entirely familiar with. Take X-files for example. In my top 5 shows of all time, and it primarily consists of fillers, but the big difference is this show had 9 seasons and 2 films (an possibly more to come) to explain its story and wrap things up. For a show that was only planned to have 3 seasons, they wasted way too much time on fillers.

And I think what's worst about this is the fact that they didn't serve a purpose in the overall story. If X-files had been all main plot episodes, they would tire out the whole alien plot way too fast. It's used to keep a balance and keep people interested and entertained. Now Avatar doesn't even have this issue. There is an endless amount of things that could've been tied into these fillers episodes. Azula & the Firettes (xDDD) were the only real thing that satisfied the need for an overall plot during the beginning of Book 2 and even Book 3.
EDIT: Combustion man was a pathetic attempt at this, but it was an attempt to add to the show none the less.

Too much time was spent on pointless and often cliched storylines that don't even add to the growth of characters or plot-lines. Essentially all of Book 1 was like this, but the good thing is that they essentially solved the problem in Book 2, which generally had an excellent balance of filler and plot. Book 3, however, seemed to break the great method from the last season for me.

So I think that while Book 2 did a fairly good job at keeping the balance, Book 1 and even Book 3 could've cut down most of the time spent on fillers to actually add more depth to story.

[Yuko]

Meh, I do think they should have added less fillers, but most of them I liked. I have have to disagree with Lia. I Like the Painted Lady more than The Great Divide, mostly for personal Katara loving reasons. xDD

[Liamane]

Katara can go eat my panties. XDD I don't understand why everyone puts down The Great Divide, I got a chuckle or two out of it, at least. On the other hand, The Painted Lady failed to make me even flinch.

[Yuko]

I don't remember it that great, but it happens to be one of my least favorite episodes. I'm not saying its the worst, (I disliked the Zuko episode. xP) but it was one of my least favorite.

[Liamane]

The Zuko Alone episode? Meh, it was alright. It at least opened Zuko up, allowing character development and all that lovey dovey sort of thing. Sure, it was a filler, but it contributed to the ending in general. I think it even made me like Zuko a little more. XDDD