Avatar: The Last Airbender - Fire

In the final season of Avatar, Aang and his posse head for the Fire Nation, intent on bringing down the Fire Lord and his plans for world domination. This is a chance for an exploration of the series' long-running enemy up close, and introduces Team Avatar to the human face of the Fire Nation, both in the form of its civilian populace and through Prince Zuko's eventual face turn to become Aang's firebending master.

As with Earth, Fire becomes yet darker. The planned attack on the Fire Nation is crippled by the fall of Ba Sing Se and the near-mortal wounding of Aang at the end of Book 2. The Fire Lord goes from a brooding presence to an active menace, his monomaniacal drive dominating the series as the Fire Nation gears up for a war of annihilation on the remaining Earth Kingdom cities.

This is a pretty all-action conclusion to the series, maintaining a blistering pace, with more than a third of the running time taken up by three multi-part stories - The Day of Black Sun, The Boiling Rock and Sozin's Comet. In addition, the various characters each get their turn in the spotlight: Sokka in Sokka's Master and The Boiling Rock; Katara in The Puppetmaster and The Southern Raiders; Toph in The Runaway; and Zuko in The Beach.

The ending is a bit of a deus ex machina, but pays off the philosophy which has run through the series. It also features the open appearance of the Order of the White Lotus, a league formed of every kick-arse old person encountered in the course of the series, who essentially retake the largest city in the world with an army of five. All in all, it's been a satisfying run. I look forward to The Legend of Korra coming up on LoveFilm.