Reviews with content warning for Torture - Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Legacy of Yangchen

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Legacy of Yangchen by F.C. Yee

15 reviews

pandacosm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It's a relief to finally get an Avatar novel by F. C. Yee that has a

real happy ending and where friends actually stay loyal and play important parts in the final climactic battle

. I have to admit, reading the prior books partly ruined the mood for me all the way through because

I kept on expecting betrayals or a tainted, Pyrrhic victory, so the highs of the book couldn't be enjoyed

. And this book still has points that I consider unnecessarily dark for the Avatarverse, like

literally having a tortured child kill a sky bison and then die himself. Yeah, that happened

. It was an interesting book. I'm relieved this is the end of the series.

Content Warnings

sfstefanie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Backdrop of Plutocratic rise, discussions of morality

Content Warnings

luciferlibrarian_93's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

4.25 ⭐️ this was so much better than the first Yangchen book!! She’s out here playing 3D Chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

Content Warnings

fantasy_voyager98's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

kappafrog's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

Like the first book, Yangchen was great in this. I love what Yee has done with her character. This book felt more balanced between Kavik and Yangchen - I wasn't as annoyed when the POV switched to him. I also enjoyed the greater variety in settings in this book. Bin-Er never gave me a lot of rich visuals, but Taku and the other settings in this book did. I do think this book struggled a bit more with the plot than the previous one though. There were more plot holes and contrivances. People were constantly sharing only partial truths, and the timeline kept jumping around, so between those two I ended up having a hard time keeping up with the reality of the situation. By the end of the book, I felt there were a few parts where I'd never quite understood who knew what and when. Yee tried to pack a LOT into this book, and some things felt pretty rushed. For example,

Kavik discovering Yangchen's abuse of the the Spirit Oasis drug was never brought up again, and not a lot of time was spent on Nujian's death.

Overall though, this was a rich episode in the Avatar world that I'm glad I spent some time in.

Content Warnings

twistedflower2357's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really really loved this book and couldn't put it down. I'll try not to rehash things I said in my previous review for The Dawn of Yangchen, because I think The Legacy of Yangchen shares or exceeds everything I had to praise about its predecessor. Both Yangchen and Kavik are increased in their complexity, their characterization now even more intrinsically tied to the plot. The way FC Yee poises Chaisee and Kalyaan as Yangchen and Kavik's dark foils, respectively, allows us to really dig into the heart of our protagonists and what drives them. More than ever, Yangchen has to grapple with her humanity and the eternal psychological horror of being the Avatar, condemned to regret mistake after mistake after mistake. Her and Kavik have beautiful arcs and their relationship with each other is even more compelling than it was in the first book.

The worldbuilding is rich, the prose filled with clever in-universe koans, and the limits of bending possibilities are explored with clever, horrifying detail without feeling too permissive (it's easy to get caught up in questions like "can earthbenders bend glass" and "can airbenders bend the air from someone's lungs" without regarding the actual implications these abilities would have on the world). This time, I felt much more favorably towards FC Yee's apparent habit of withholding information from the audience until a later point and layering flashbacks during the finale to reveal information non-chronologically. The pacing flowed better and I enjoyed the feeling of having the rug pulled from under me.

The greatest issue I had with the book is perhaps the most spoiler-ific one.

It hurts my heart to say, but I didn't feel like we had enough time to sit with Nujian's death. The pace was so breakneck that it almost felt like a plotpoint left by the wayside, happening for no real reason other than to pile onto the cosmic horrors Yangchen must face as the Avatar. I just wish we could have explored Yangchen's grief across a longer timeframe; there are a few pages of the simply gut-wrenching immediate aftermath from her perspective, a single flashback later on, and little beyond that. Another small issue I had was with "Team Avatar"'s acceptance of Kavik in the end. The huddling scene itself was lovely, but I was disappointed that Jujinta, Tayagum, and Akuudan's forgiveness was given like a joke. I think this conflict was deserving of a serious resolution.

But these are, however, relatively minor problems I have. I think the strengths of this book, and this series as a whole, far outshine these issues for me. This is definitely a book I recommend diving into.

Content Warnings

yellowvans's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book develops on the themes of the first book in such a sublime way & ramps up the schemes and plot twists from the previous installment in such a satisfying and well written manner. expands on yangchen’s feelings and disposition towards being the avatar in such an interesting and nuanced way. presents such a fascinating relationship between kavik and kalyaan (very interesting family dynamics in general). commentary on the nature of mercy and forgiveness and repentance and punishment and duty and loyalty and other such fucked up shit. contains one of two believable straight relationships in anything avatar related

and they never even formally get together.

actually fucking insane

Content Warnings

emla_format's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

An absolutely brutal exploration of all the different ways love and loyalty permeates and sways our decisions. The tapestries weaved in the second half of Yangchen and co.’s quest are vibrant and complicated, filled with triumphs and hard hits, and horrors previously unknown to the Avatar-verse. Yee’s Avatar Chronicles are significantly more mature and involved than the source material, while still maintaining the original awe and charm that made so many of us fall in love with the world in the first place. TLoY invites readers to explore one of the oldest quandaries humanity faces: how far are you willing to go for your family? Your friends? Your allies? And, most importantly, your world?

Content Warnings

billyjepma's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A very solid step-up from the first book. It takes the relatively lacking stakes and character dynamics of the last one and successfully elevates them to the level of the thematic and narrative material around them. I love how these books are leaning even harder into the political undertones of the animated series by prominently featuring marginalized characters in leading roles, avoiding easy cliches, and consistently casting the government, authorities, and the rich as antagonists. And they’re not shallow antagonists, either. The villains aren’t as compelling as in the Kyoshi books, but they’re still effective and have complicated believable motivations. I also like how the conflict requires intellectual fortitude over “let’s see who the better fighter is.” I’ll continue to read as many of these as they put out.

Content Warnings

doodeedoda's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

More...