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justanotherthrowaway1950 · 1 month ago

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A Review of Chronicles of the Avatar

Intro

People have spent a lot of time over the years analyzing ATLA, Korra, and their respective comics and lore books. ATLA and Korra, the latter to a lesser extent, have been praised countless times over for their worldbuilding, complex characters, and portrayal of complex topics such as abuse, genocide, colonization, and mental health issues in a manner digestable by children and tweens.

Meanwhile, ATLA and Korra’s extended universe material have faced extensive criticism for failing to build upon the best parts of their shows at best, and retroactively harming them at worst. Moreover, fans often wish that the shows and their extended lore had an older intended audience so they could be more explicit.

However, there has been a relative lack of analysis of the Chronicles of the Avatar, an ongoing anthology series meant to elaborate on the lives of past Avatars. Which is a shame since, beyond the fact that there is a lot to analyze, good and bad, they also have a higher age rating, allowing them to be more explicit than either show or their extended material.

Kyoshi Novels

If the goal of the Kyoshi novels is to explain how Kyoshi became the ruthless pursuer of justice still feared and revered centuries after her death, then they succeeded wildly at that. Seeing Kyoshi go from orphan to servant to a wanted person and criminal on the run to an unsure Avatar struggling to engage in politics to a prideful Avatar who forgoes politics is a fascinating and highly enjoyable journey, especially since it is paired with extensive inner monologues showing Kyoshi’s ever changing morals.

Or more specifically, her transformation from a straight-laced, law abiding citizen who would never take a life to someone obsessed with revenge and has no qualms about murder as far as she is concerned, and then her subsequent struggle to reconcile who she was with who she is now after all the tragedies she experienced and having Avatarhood foisted upon her before reconciling the two by willing to kill only when someone has shown themselves to be irredeemable or unable to be reasoned with.

I enjoyed how the Kyoshi novels’ worldbuilding, or more specifically, how it expanded upon the politics of the four nations and what is possible with bending in a believable manner and without retconning much, if anything at all.

For example, why is the Earth Kingdom state as seen in Aang and Korra’s time so weak and corrupt? It’s because the Earth Kingdom is so large that, in an era lacking quick means of travel or mass communication, it makes it hard for the state to extend its power. Therefore, governors and sages are able to exercise wide discretion with little to no practical supervision, often for the worst.

How and why was the Fire Nation Royal Family able to centralize power in the Fire Lord mantle, leading to Sozin being able to unilaterally declare war on the world and have the Fire Nation support him whole-heartedly? Well, between Avatar Stezo’s reforms that stopped the Fire Nation from splintering into the Fire Islands again, the ongoing clashes between the Royal Family and Fire Nation noble clans, and the Camellia-Peony War, Fire Lord Zoryu decided to engage in a multi-generation plan to crush the clans and centralize power in the Fire Lord.

Is it possible for benders to use their elements to stay in the air beyond air spouts and fire propulsion? Yes, see dust-stepping, mist-stepping, and jet-stepping. If so, then how come we don’t see benders in ATLA and Korra spam such a technique? Because, beyond the fact that the technique is only known to members of the Flying Opera Company, the precision requirements make it so that most benders can’t do it on top of it being highly impractical for militaries and militias to teach on a mass scale.

Why is Yun able to credibly engage an Avatar capable of bending all four elements in combat, albeit one who hasn’t mastered all four elements? Because he is an Earthbending prodigy with GOAT levels of precision and assassin training who eventually fuses with a spirit who at its peak was able to clash with a fully-realized Avatar and almost win, warping the Spirit World in the process.

I could go on, but the point is that the Kyoshi novels’ worldbuilding fits in seamlessly with previously established lore and doesn’t require any headcanoning on the part of the reader to explain, something that must have been very hard to accomplish considering the amount of content the franchise had already produced at the time of the novels’ publishing.

And even when the Kyoshi novels do engage in retcons, not only are they logical, but they also enhance the themes and messages present in ATLA and Korra as well.

For example, one of the main themes in Korra is that there is no good or bad Avatar, only Wan’s eternally reincarnating soul trying its best to rectify the fallout from the many mistakes he made during his life. This, even though Kuruk tells Aang in ATLA that he was a bad Avatar because he went with the flow and falled to be decisive.

However, we learn in The Shadow of Kyoshi (“Shadow”) that if Kuruk was a failed Avatar, it was only due to having to deal with the dark spirits created by Yangchen favoring humans over spirits basically on his own due to not wanting to ruin Yangchen’s legacy, which isn’t as spotless as most people in- or out-universe believed it to be.

I loved how the Kyoshi novels played with the concept of a fallen Team Avatar, or more specifically, showing the havoc an Avatar’s untimely passing can have on their companions. For example, seeing the toll killing scores of pirates in order to protect Earth Kingdomers, in the process sacrificing his mental and spiritual health, as well his relationship with his fellow Air Nomads, had on Kelsang is gut wrenching because you know for a fact that could have been averted if Kuruk hadn’t died.

Finally, I liked the nuance given to the various fallen heroes, as well as the depth present in all the villains.

Was Jianzhu always a power-hungry man who would have fallen so long as Kuruk died before he did and was in position to train his successor? Or was he a good man who cracked due to feeling guilty for failing Kuruk as far as he knew, his desire to honor Kuruk’s last request, and the pressure caused by the Earth Kingdom’s and his failure to identify Kyoshi?

Was Yun a good man who broke after suffering several, life-altering, traumatic events in rapid succession? Or was he an entitled, cock-sure boy who only believed in his professed values so long as he was the Avatar and wrongly decided to make his problems the world’s problem instead of focusing his rage at the man responsible for deceiving him?

Was Zoryu a good man who was forced to become a machiavellian of the highest order to avert a bloody civil war? Or was he always like that and only needed sufficient justification to show his true colors?

Why is Xu An Ping such a megalomaniac freak? Well, anyone with the ability to kill someone with a power so rare that it was considered a myth just by pointing at them would more likely than not develop a god complex.

Why was Captain Li a corrupt police officer? Because his gambling debts made him susceptible to bribery.

Why is Chaejin so hell-bent on taking the throne from Zoryu, even if it means inciting a bloody civil war? Because he essentially wants to get back at his father, who acknowledged him, only to do everything in his power to exclude him from their family.

I could go on, but the point is that even the most irrational, vile villains in the Kyoshi novels have motivations that go beyond liking evil and/or doing evil for the lols. And while I do agree that the distinct lack of villains that do evil just because is a bad trend, Avatar for the most part has always had villains that do evil beyond liking it and/or for the lols, a trend I am glad the Kyoshi novels continued.

However, despite all the good things about them, there are four things that keep the Kyoshi novels from being perfect in my opinion.

First, the lack of POV chapters focusing on Rangi, as well the lack of inner dialogues by Rangi, and more generally, how she is basically the perfect Avatar companion and love interest.

I understand that there is only so much time and page space available, and that if you give every slightly important character a decent amount of focus, the work will become bloated and lack focus. But Rangi isn’t just any character, she is Kyoshi’s best friend, lover, and firebending sifu.

I would have loved a chapter or two focusing on her and her thoughts dealing with stuff like her, a law abiding citizen, becoming a criminal due to her duty to Kyoshi or her time in the Northern Pole as Hei-Ran was receiving treatment. I think it would have made her a much more realized character.

Likewise I wish Rangi and Kyoshi would have had more, longer-lasting, and deeper conflicts with each other.

For someone who was raised to be a model, law abiding citizen and bodyguard meant to help the Avatar undertake the traditional journey to becoming a fully realized Avatar, it is odd that, beyond a couple of arguments, Rangi readily goes along with Kyoshi’s decisions and quickly reconciles with her whenever they have disagreements and/or wronged each other.

Even after learning Hei-Ran had planned to sacrifice herself to Yun in order to help Kyoshi apprehend him and Kyoshi didn’t push back, the most Rangi does is yell at Kyoshi and tell her their friendship and relationship is over before essentially telling her she forgives her by making noodles for her.

I understand Rangi’s unyielding devotion to the Avatar and Kyoshi is supposed to be one of her key character traits, but I think one of the more interesting parts about Avatar is seeing an Avatar’s relationship with their companions develop through the highs and lows they experience together. Even Asami Sato, who in later seasons of Korra doesn’t really push back against Korra’s ideas or have true interpersonal conflict with Korra, had real, lasting interpersonal conflict with Korra in the form of the Mako-Asami-Korra love triangle.

An Avatar-Avatar’s Companion relationship without real, interpersonal conflict is boring, and I think the Kyoshi novels are less for it, even though I like Kyoshi and Rangi’s characters, as well as their friendship and romantic relationship.

Second, the relative lack of interconnectedness between The Rise of Kyoshi (“Rise”) and Shadow, or more specifically, how Shadow moved on from Tagaka and the Fifth Nation threat and basically doesn’t have the Flying Opera Company in it until the climactic fight and epilogue.

In regards to Tagaka and the Fifth Nation, while I understand that they were crushed by Kyoshi and Jianzhu in Rise, with the former getting transported to Lake Laogai the last time she is mentioned, it was off-putting that a group of antagonists that had been a central focus of the first fifth to third of Rise and was treated as a threat on par with the daofei lacked any real follow up in Shadow.

While I don’t think it would have been a good writing choice to have Tagaka escape the Earth King’s custody or have the Fifth Nation be active antagonists again in Shadow, I wish we got proper follow up on them, like Kyoshi meeting with the Earth King’s forces and making sure Tagaka is properly secured and unable to communicate with the remnants of the Fifth Nation, or Kyoshi hunting down remnants of the Fifth Nation like she does with daofei.

Third, Kyoshi’s relatively quick rise in power, or more specifically, how she was in the span of a month and some change able to use the Avatar State at will and not be a complete liability when it comes to bending, and within a year, able to become a decent bender in all four elements.

I understand that having Kyoshi take longer to be able to use the Avatar State and become competent at bending would have ruined the pacing of both books. Moreover, beyond the fact that the muscle memory and instincts that come from her past lives gives her a leg up when it comes to learning the elements, that her constantly being in life-or-death fights accelerated her bending development and Lao Ge was the perfect spiritual guru for her.

But it was off-putting to me that, despite essentially only spending a month with bending masters and a spiritual guru and reading scrolls whenever she was in Yoyoka, she was able to become so competent. Personally, while her rate of development in Rise can be overlooked, her rate of development in Shadow is jarring.

I wish we had gotten a blurb or two saying that Kyoshi actively sought out and received training from bending masters during the time skip, and that Lao Ge continued to visit her in secret to help her spiritual development.

Finally, I think Yun’s heel-face turn is too quick. Even though he went through a trauma conga line that would have broken the vast majority of people, I feel we were missing a few steps between him being angry at his current lot in life and for being lied to for so long and him slaughtering innocent people.

This is because I never got the impression that pre-Father Glowworm Yun was the type of person who would discard his professed and practiced values if he wasn’t the Avatar or endured great suffering.

Yun becoming an omnicidal maniac, in my opinion, would have come across better if he was seen slowly but surely going from killing very deserving targets to less and less deserving targets before he is shown killing innocents. It would have made Kyoshi’s realization that Yun won’t stop his quest for vengeance until he has painted the planet red hit much harder in my opinion.

But to make it clear, these are minor nitpicks. Despite the flaws I mentioned, I think the Kyoshi novels are well-written novels that expand the universe in a logical and consistent manner and do justice to Kyoshi’s character.

Yangchen Novels

Outside of a long unplayable flash game that most people have never heard of, Yangchen only had two appearance before her novels: a brief appearance in ATLA in which she tells Aang to sacrifice his spiritual needs because of his duty to the world and a couple of panels in The Rift in which she explains the backstory of the main (physical) antagonist of the story and tells Aang needs to do to stop his return.

Yet, despite not having much to build off of, the Yangchen novels manage to extrapolate a 3-D, fully realized character that credibly explores what an Air Nomad Avatar looks like when they are one of many airbenders, and not the last airbender.

If Korra’s story is about a warrior in an era that needs a spiritual leader and diplomat, and Aang’s story is about a spiritual leader and diplomat in an era that needs a warrior, then Yangchen’s story is about a spiritually-inclined Avatar in an era that needs a politician and spymaster.

Hence, why the Yangchen novels take the form of a political spy thriller, a risky choice considering political spy thrillers are harder to write than coming of age stories, the form all other Avatar stories have taken, because the characters in such stories are only as smart as the author(s), though thankfully, F.C. Yee was more than up to task. The way he was able to analyze the Cohong system and the Cold War and use them to mold a believable work of historical fantasy with convincing politics is nothing short of amazing.

Personally, Noehi telling Yangchen that unless there was a spiritual problem, the Bin-Er shangs were uninterested in her proposals for socioeconomic reform was a highlight since it showed the limits of the Avatar’s ability to rely on their martial prowess or spiritual authority to enact change.

I think his choice to make the White Lotus into a morally grey organization that doesn’t fully trust the Avatar and is ok with manipulating world leaders and war so long as their definition of balance is upheld was an inspired one.

This is because the White Lotus up to the Yangchen novels’ publishing had been portrayed as a hands off organization that only intervenes during moments of great importance (ATLA), a transnational NGO (Korra), or an organization that helps the Avatar in non-overt ways (Kyoshi novels), but in all cases, always having the best interests of the Avatar and the world at heart. It was interesting to see the White Lotus be more than neutral or overtly good wise men and women.

I also enjoyed the fact that they learned from not giving Rangi any chapters focused on her and gave Kavik several chapters focused on him. I think doing so allowed the Yangchen novels to show his inner life, and therefore gave his relationships weight that was lacking with Rangi in the Kyoshi novels.

And I really enjoyed the antagonists, especially Kaylaan and Chaisee, who are in my Top 5 favorite villains in the franchise.

Kaylaan is an excellent deconstruction of Water Tribesmen values and waterbending ethos. Or more specifically, how devotion towards one’s family can be twisted to justify great evil, as well as how adherence to waterbending’s guiding principle of going with the flow can be used to facilitate such evil.

In fact, I think Kaylaan’s encounter with Kavik in Joundri in which he effortlessly exploits Kavik’s devotion to family to turn him into a double agent is a Top 3 villain moment in the franchise surpassed only by Azula forcing Long Feng to submit to her and Azula electrocuting Aang in the Avatar State.

Meanwhile, Chaisee’s affable exterior combined with her callous, cold-hearted depravity and genuine love and devotion towards her family leads to one of the most nuanced and layered villains in the entire franchise.

I liked how F.C. Yee was able to give readers a wide variety of antagonists that challenged the heroes physically (ex. the four named combustion benders), mentally (ex. Chaisee and Feishan), and sometimes both (ex. Kaylann).

I also liked how F.C. Yee was able to walk the line of having the antagonists’ motivations appear to be logical and sometimes rooted in higher ideals and principles while making it clear that at the end of the day they were motivated by some combination of greed, fear, wraith, paranoia, and boundless ambition.

However, despite all the good things about them, there are two things that keep the Yangchen novels from being perfect in my opinion. Namely, the slow and somewhat disjointed start to The Dawn of Yangchen (“Dawn”) and Kavik’s betrayal being treated too lightly.

In regards to Dawn starting slowly, I understand that introducing readers to Kavik and the events leading to Yangchen coercing Kavik into becoming an asset/companion of hers are important considering Kavik is the deuteragonist of both Yangchen novels, but I wish Dawn explained the current political status quo earlier.

Maybe it is poor reading skills on my part, but it was annoying to keep hearing references to the politics in Bin-Er and the other shang cities without proper context until Henshe gives Yangchen, and by proxy the audience, an exposition dump during the rough mid-way point of Dawn. In my opinion, Dawn would have been a much easier read if the exposition dump happened during the beginning of the book.

In regards to Kavik’s betrayal being treated too lightly, it is less how Kavik feels about it and how Yangchen’s other companions react, and more about how Yangchen extends him way too much grace in her inner monologues in my opinion.

I understand that Yangchen did coerce Kavik into joining her team, and it is in Yangchen’s nature to be forgiving and understanding, especially since she tries to adhere to her people’s teachings despite her Avatarhood.

But I wish Yangchen’s inner dialogue had expressed more anger and trust issues towards Kavik, someone who expressed the desire to be a true Avatar’s companion instead of just an asset before his betrayal, before he allowed himself to get stabbed and threw away any possible reconciliation with his brother for the world’s and hers sake.

Remember, Kavik’s betrayal didn’t just result in combustionbending being unleashed on the world, it led to a chain of events that resulted in Yangchen getted banished from the Northern Air Temple, Nujian’s death, and a world war almost breaking out. Yangchen’s relative lack of anger and trust issues towards Kavik is jarring considering the fallout of his betrayal.

But to make it clear, these are minor nitpicks. Despite the flaws I mentioned, I think the Yangchen novels are well-written novels that expand the universe in a logical and consistent manner, respect the intelligence of its readers, and do an amazing job of fleshing out a character that was essentially a blank slate.

Reckoning of Roku

I understand what Randy Ribay was trying to do.

Show how difficult it must have been for Roku, a spoiled sweet nobleman who grew up friends with the Fire Nation Crown Prince, to adjust to not only his Avatar training, but also having to think of himself as the Avatar first, and Fire National second.

Lay the seeds of how Sozin, a man who grew up in peaceful times, would become the man who started a global war of genocide and conquest on top of being a persecutor of homosexuals.

Explain how Gyatso and Roku became friends while also building off the implication that Gyatso was a bit of an iconoclast.

Moreover, I understand that writing this novel must have been much more difficult than either the Kyoshi or Yangchen novels because we already know the broad strokes of Roku and Sozin’s lives.

But with that being said, I think the novel not only falls at the tasks it sets out to achieve, but also creates several plot holes in ATLA on top aggravating some of the franchise’s worst aspects. This is due to its hamfisted delivery, reliance on cheap call backs and forwards to ATLA, inability to think through the implications of what is being portrayed and/or implied, and unwillingness to allow anything of substance to occur.

For example, the way Sozin’s corruption arc, or lack thereof, is portrayed. Sozin is 16 during the vast majority of the novel. By the end of the main story, basically every important character sans Roku, from Dalisay to Kozaru to Malaya to Gyatso, can sense that he will be a terrible tyrant. In fact, Sozin is so obviously evil that Malaya decides to kill Sozin or die trying, even though she only heard of him a couple of days ago and physically interacted with him for a couple of hours at best.

While I understand someone like Sozin had to have had several red flags growing up, it’s so unsubtle that it retroactively makes Roku worse for not realizing sooner that Sozin is a terrible person capable of unreal depravity. Especially since, in the event that Gyatso interacts with Sozin further and remains in-line with his presented characterization, he will not only press the issue with Roku, but also force him to choose between their friendship and his friendship with Sozin. This even though we know the Roku-Sozin friendship falls apart for different reasons and Gyatso and Roku remain steadfast friends for life and beyond.

And speaking of Gyatso, he is less of a character and more of a perfect manic pixie guy whose purpose in the story is make Roku and Malaya into better people, make hollow allusions to his final fate, and recognize and call out evil to his companions way before anyone else does. Gyatso lacks any flaws beyond the fact that he struggles with his grief and attachment to his late, older biological sister, and even then, he quickly overcomes them by talking about her to Malaya.

This is why, for example, the novel’s attempt to derive pathos from Gyatso’s grief, as well as use it to develop the Roku-Gyatso relationship by having them bond over their grief for their lost siblings, fails. Gyatso is not allowed to be anything other than morally righteous and flawless, or truly struggle; even Roku feels resentment towards his parents for essentially wishing he drowned instead of Yasu and wonders if Sozin is truly his friend or if he is Yasu’s replacement goldfish.

In fact, the problem with Gyatso extends to the Air Nomads as a whole, who are portrayed as always being in the right and never really having any real flaws. The closest they come to getting criticized is when Roku points out to Gyatso it's odd that they segregate their temples and that their pacifism is as much of a choice as choosing to fight. But even then, Gyatso fails to truly acknowledge the merits of Roku’s points before their argument is interrupted and never revisited.

After seeing Air Nomads like Tenzin, Jinpa, Kelsang, and Yangchen who struggle to not only uphold their people’s values, but also with their numerous flaws and failures, it is disheartening to see Gyatso and the Air Nomads of this era as they are portrayed in this novel have any complexity and nuance stripped from them. Even Aang, who at times comes off as a perfect manic pixie guy, has flaws and struggles, such as his jealousy, laziness, and his tendency to prioritize his happiness and joy over his duty to the world.

Examples of the novel’s reliance on cheap call backs and forwards include, but are not limited to, Gyatso having a vision of his final fate unprompted, repeatedly having Roku trip, only to have Sozin keep him from falling, and Gyatso apparently being the one to invent the phrase, “Flamey-O, Hotman!” and have it adopted by the Fire Nation by the time Aang visits Kuzon in the Fire Nation in Dragon Days.

I like call backs and forwards, but there is a difference between having them come about naturally, and them being the equivalent of dangling keys in front of a baby. The call backs and forwards in the novel unfortunately fall into the latter category, with the last example being particularly egregious since it makes the world much smaller.

In fact, Gyatso apparently being the one to invent the phrase, “Flamey-O, Hotman!” ties into my point about the novel not thinking through the implications of what is being portrayed and/or implied.

For example, before the novel was released, ATLA and its related comics implied that blue fire and iridescent (rainbow) fire were the product of genetics, skill, and, in the later’s case, spiritual enlightenment, and not an indicator of raw power because that would mean Azula and Zuko, especially Azula since she constantly generates blue fire, are the strongest firebenders in ATLA, and not the older members of the Royal Family and possibly Jeong Jeong like the show implies and various word of god statements explicitly state.

However, by making it so that Roku and Sozin can only generate blue fire while receiving a spirit amp, with the former only being able to produce iridescent fire after charging his flames, despite being amped hundreds to thousands of times, it retroactively upscales Azula, Zuko, and everyone they fight.

Another example is Sozin finding Wan Shi Tong’s library and being granted access to it. Why would someone who is obsessed with power, firebending, and proving himself to his father, not return to the library and digest all of the relevant firebending knowledge contained in the books and scrolls he found? Well, the novel doesn’t answer this, even though it raised this question by having Sozin find it in the first place.

Likewise, an additional, related example is how Wan Shi Tong’s library is responsible for Sozin learning to harness the power of The Great Comet.

In ATLA, there is no prior knowledge needed to use the Great Comet to enhance your firebending. So long as you can firebend, it will be amplified. This in combination with the fact that the Twin Suns Festival mentioned in the Kyoshi novels implies that the Fire Nation always knew about the power boost the Great Comet gave. It just took until Sozin for the Fire Nation state to be willing to weaponize it.

But The Reckoning of Roku (“Reckoning”) changes this by saying there is specific knowledge needed to be able to harass the power of the Great Comet, knowledge that the Fire Nation state did not have until Sozin. This explanation is incongruent with what is presented in ATLA and was implied in prior established lore.

A final example of the novel’s inability to think things through is how it portrays the natives of Lambak Island. Or more specifically, how people like Amihan and Ulo are portrayed as being evil for being willing to murder outsiders to protect their home and clan.

It would be one thing if the Western Kingdom Trading Company party and Sozin’s party came to the island solely to explore it and learn. But not only did both parties come to the island to exploit it, with the Western Kingdom Trading Company party’s guards eventually destroying the Lambak clan’s village after repeatedly being shown mercy by Malaya, the novel ends with Sozin exploiting the villagers to extract their spirit touched ore with no guarantee that he won’t rescind their special status once he ascends to the throne and becomes overtly antagonistic to Roku.

I don’t know if it was intentional, but the treatment of Lambak Island resembles the thought process of people who try to contact Northern Sentient Island without authorization, as well as the comments hurling hate towards the natives when they invariably kill would-be intruders. I don’t understand why a franchise that prides itself on its progressiveness would fail to see the resemblance. Though to be fair, the concept of leaving land and/or people alone is something the franchise has always struggled with (ex. “The Mechanist” and The Rift.), so maybe it is less the fault of Reckoning and more a franchise original sin.

Finally, in regards to allowing nothing of substance to occur, despite all of the events that occur in the novel, the only things of consequence that occurs that is directly tied to the island that is the focus of the book is that it becomes a special territory of the Fire Nation and is having it’s special ore mined with the implication that it is part of the reason why the Fire Nation has such an industrial advantage over the other nations during the Hundred Year War.

Roku connecting with Kyoshi and unlocking airbending and earthbending, Gyatso reconnecting with his airbending, and Roku and Sozin starting to drift apart did not specifically need Lambak Island. And despite all the time and focus spent on Yungib’s cave, in the end it doesn't matter since it was destroyed and Yungib is unlikely to ever exert such influence in the human world again.

Again, I understand that writing this novel must be hard considering we already know so much about Roku and Sozin. And I don’t think self-contained stories in and of themselves are bad.

But I think in this instance Reckoning being a mostly self-contained story is a bad writing choice because of how much time was spent on Yungib’s cave and Lambak Island. The time that was spent exploring the island, the island’s natives, and Yungib’s cave could have been better spent, for example, fleshing out Sozin’s corruption arc.

However, that being said, there were a few things I liked about the novel.

First, I enjoyed how the novel fleshed out the details of Fire Nation society, finally confirming that there is a Royal Academy for Boys, giving details about the burial practices of Fire Nationals, going into detail on how the Fire Nation identifies the Avatar, and confirming the common headcanon that non-benders can not assume the Fire Lord mantle.

Second, I actually enjoyed Kyoshi’s ending. I know a lot of fans were upset to learn that Kyoshi’s immorality had caused her to stop caring about the inherent value of life, but I always thought that was her natural endpoint considering it is a common trope for immortals to seek death after realizing they are losing respect for life, if they haven’t already. I enjoyed seeing Sister Disha and the Air Nomads essentially force Kyoshi to realize that she had lost the humanity the Avatar needs, and therefore willingly reincarnate.

Finally, I enjoyed the portrayal of Sozin’s relationship with his father, as well as his misogyny. I think the best parts of the novel are those that show how Fire Lord Taiso’s constant emotional abuse, bias against the other nations and their citizens, and reminders that he would disinherit Sozin if not for Zeisan being a non-bender influences Sozin. This is because, in my opinion, they do a better job of planting the seeds of Sozin’s downfall than other characters being able to sense he is a tyrant to be and vocalizing their hunch.

Likewise, I like the nuanced portrayal of Sozin’s misogyny in which he more than willing to use intelligent, martially inclined women for his benefit while at the same time not wanting them to get too big for their britches because it allows you to see where his descendents’ misogyny comes from, and more broadly, why gender relations in the Fire Nation during Aang’s era looks the way it does. This all while avoiding being hamfisted.

That being said, the few good things that Reckoning does not save it from being an aggressively mediocre novel at best, and actively harmful towards the franchise at worst. I hope Awakening of Roku (“Awakening”) learns from the mistakes of Reckoning and builds upon the good parts of Reckoning so that Roku can finally have the novel he deserves to have.

Final Rankings and Conclusion

Overall, I think the first four novels in the Chronicles of the Avatar are a more than worthy addition to the franchise, capable of standing on their own feet regardless if the reader has watched ATLA and/or Korra or read their associated extended universe material, and enhances them upon subsequent rewatches and re-readings. At worst, they are on par with ATLA S1, and at best, they surpass it, though they fail to reach the heights of ATLA S3, let alone ATLA S2, which I consider to be the best canon works in the franchise.

Meanwhile, I think Reckoning at best fails to add anything to the franchise, and at worst actively detracts from it due to its hamfisted delivery, reliance on cheap call backs and forwards to ATLA, inability to think through the implications of what is being portrayed and/or implied, and unwillingness to allow anything of substance to occur. While I don’t think the novel reaches the nadirs that Ruins of the Empire does, which is the worst released canon Avatar material in my opinion, I think it is on par with the Gene Luen Yang post-war ATLA comics at best. And sadly, I don’t think Awakening will improve subsequent readings of Reckoning considering Reckoning is a mostly self-contained story and it is unlikely Lambak Island will be revisited in any significant manner.

Therefore, I highly recommend reading the first four novels, especially if you are a dedicated Avatar fan, while I recommend reading Reckoning only if you are a die-hard Avatar fan who must read everything that comes out of the universe, regardless of quality, or someone who engages in powerscaling.

#rise of kyoshi #shadow of kyoshi #dawn of yangchen #legacy of yangchen #reckoning of roku #chronicles of the avatar #chronicles of the avatar meta #justanotherthrowaway1950meta

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