I know I have been away for a long time and I'm sorry for this, but life has been chaotic (mostly in a good way, thankfully) and it has been hard for me to keep up with everything, but at last, I'm back. I'm back with a review of one more of ATLA's comic book series, and this time it's "North and South".
***NON-SPOILER SECTION***
I finished reading these just yesterday and I wanted to lay down my thoughts as quickly as possible, as they are fresh in my mind. To me, these three comic books were a tad underwhelming compared to the others in the series, but not entirely disappointing. The first two parts, in particular, were a bit boring to me, but luckily the third part is where the story picks up and finally gets more interesting. The pacing was a little weird for me, because, as I mentioned, the first two parts were slow and kind of boring and the build-up only starts halfway through Part II and it's slow, while Part III feels much faster and more interesting. As a result, the first two parts feel boring, while the last part - even though it is much faster and more exciting to read - feels crammed, as it's full of all the major events and information.
This time, the story focuses on the South Pole, Katara, and her family for the most part. It deals with pretty much the same themes as some of the previous installations: tradition vs modernization, and keeping up with the times while maintaining a distinct cultural identity and connection with your past/history. As a consequence, there aren't many new things to explore there that haven't already been explored and this resulted in the whole thing feeling kind of repetitive. It makes sense both as a character and thematically that Katara would go through something similar to Aang and it also makes sense worldbuilding-wise since this is a changing world and everyone in it will be involved sooner or later. However, having already seen it a couple of times in the same universe before as a theme, it's unavoidable that it would feel repetitive.
***SPOILER SECTION***
It was great that in this trilogy we got to see some of the real Sokka again, his cleverness, his wit, and his insight, not just the funny, goofy side that we saw in the previous comic books and which was disappointing. Sokka in the original series was an amazing character; he wasn't just funny, he was insightful, creative, and resourceful, and he was deep and multi-dimensional. The comic books used him for comic relief a bit more than they should, ignoring all of his other great qualities. He may be goofy and playful, but he's also mature. Luckily, in this one we got to see more of him; I love how he deals with changes, how he views the future and the world, how he keeps an open mind and how he is able to get these things through to Katara, as well. He not only consoles and comforts her, but he also helps her see and understand, without being afraid to be honest with her. He speaks sense, he is the voice of reason, but, in this case, he's also the voice of emotions and empathy, as he's able to understand their father's feelings more quickly and better.
It was nice to see Katara and Sokka dealing with their father and his new relationship with another woman, such a long time after their mother's death. It was interesting to see how each of them views the matter differently and why. What was more important though, was that even though they approached it differently, both of them still reached acceptance in the end and dealt with their feelings. It was also nice to see Katara deal with her feelings about her mother. While we see her talk about her mother multiple times in the series, I don't think that we've ever seen her have closure with this open wound as we did in the final part of this trilogy. The final scene, where Katara speaks to her mom's grave was very emotional and touching and brought tears to my eyes.
I loved seeing Zuko's progress; how he's evolved not only as a bender but also as a character and a leader of his people. His role in this trilogy is small, it was, however, great to see him again.
Gilak was a thoroughly nasty and horrible villain, he really made me hate him. Even though he was disgusting, and I didn't feel sad about his death, I thought his story was indeed tragic.
The ending was wholesome and sweet, as it gets the message of unity and friendship across very nicely. The image of all these different people from different places just sitting together and eating food from their homeland was all that was needed. It was a satisfying conclusion to the story and a good pay-off for the build-up.
***OVERALL THOUGHTS AND RATING***
So, overall, I thought that even though this trilogy was a bit underwhelming compared to the rest of the comic books, it was still a good installation and I liked it. I rated Part I 3/5*, and it was my lowest rating of the three since it was the one I liked the least. Then I gave Part II 4/5*, because it picked up and was more enjoyable. I also gave Part III 4/5*, because, even though I liked it more than Part II, it still didn't quite reach 5* for me. So, overall, I'd say it's like a 3,5/5*. Now, is the slow build-up worth it? Is the end satisfying enough? Of course, it is. This is still quite an enjoyable read and has all these ATLA traits that we already know and have grown to love, even if it's not as great as the rest.
Thanks for reading!
_front_cover%2C_first_edition.jpg)
