Awesome / The Shadow of Kyoshi

• The second chapter (and the first one featuring Kyoshi's POV) provides one hell of an Establishing Character Moment for Avatar Kyoshi, when she travels to Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring to deal with Mok and the remnants of the Yellow Necks:
  • Despite finding herself surrounded by two dozen armed criminals at one point, Kyoshi is completely unfazed, and orders all of the gathered outlaws to turn themselves in at the nearest magistrate's office. When they predictably refuse, Kyoshi asks if this is all of them, calmly explaining that she doesn't want to have to check the hideout for stragglers later on.
  • This prompts them to charge her...at which point Kyoshi draws a single one of her fans, noting that using them both would be overdoing it. Cut to a scene of Kyoshi stepping over a load of groaning outlaws.
• The entire Flying Opera Company coming to Kyoshi's aid during her fight with Yun.
• Though Zoryu calls her bluff, she gives one hell of a Badass Boast to him in a threat to get him to call off the Fire Nation civil war.
  Kyoshi: I care more for his (imposter Yun's) life than I do for yours right now. Let me make myself perfectly clear. You live on top of what I control. Your islands are surrounded by my waves. You fill your very lungs at my discretion. So if I hear any news about "Yun" being executed, you will truly learn what it's like when the spirits forsake you in the face of the elements.
  • What makes it even cooler is that when Zoryu does seem to be considering killing off the Saowon in the epilogue, cue Lao Ge showing up and casually admitting Zoryu is only alive because he (Lao Ge) was told to give Zoryu a message, not a death penalty. Heck, his own Badass Boast about her is the page quote for the book!
    "My friend is not a diplomat. She is the failure of diplomacy. She is the breakdown of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her."
• Though it was a heavy loss, her victory over Yun with a witty one liner before she freezes his innards, killing him instantly.
  Kyoshi: I'm sorry for saying you had to live with your pain. Because you won't.
  • The one and only time Yun assumes a typical Earthbending stance throughout the entire fight, he utilizes Jianzhu's style of Earthbending to devastating effect, demolishing the Avatar's mansion and devastating the surrounding landscape. Yun may not be the Avatar, but his mastery of Earthbending cannot be understated.
    • Just Yun in his final battle, really. He not only willingly fights a young Avatar who can now bend all four elements, but also four of her friends, each of whom is at least a competent bender of one of each of the four elements (Kirima is a waterbender, Wong an earthbender, Rangi a firebender, and Jinpa an airbender, acting as support to grab people to safety on his bison). And how does that turn out? He takes everyone who isn't Kyoshi out of the fight by inflicting serious injuries (he might have even killed Rangi were it not for Kyoshi's healing), finds time to toy with and humiliate Kyoshi and Rangi, and dodged attacks where they really mattered. He only loses the fight when Kyoshi baits him with words to get close enough for her to touch him and freeze his heart and lungs solid. To reiterate: this young man armed only with earthbending fought five other people with the advantage of having all four elements on him two times over...and almost won. Really makes you wonder why Yun was so upset at not being the Avatar when he could do all of that considering that Kyoshi herself, an Avatar from the Earth Kingdom, can't even master her own native element well.
  Yun: The earth is my element. I just let other people borrow it sometimes.''
  • Really, the entirety of Yun’s fight with Father Glowworm counts. From him unleashing his Earthbending against the spirit to carefully managing what injuries he would receive to successfully turning the tables on Glowworm and eating him. He even had the wherewithal to check himself for poisoning afterwards. Jianzhu may have been a terrible person, but he knew how to teach a person to be an Avatar.
• Kyoshi reviving Rangi at the end of the book.