That's the conclusion others have reached as well. The power of bending came from the Lion Turtles, while the technique came from animals and the Moon. This makes sense anyway since bending is not teachable, you're either born with the capacity or you're not, and the capacity to do so had to come from somewhere.

Unalaq had better have a more complex motive than "I'm under Vaatu's influence and want to destroy the world!" That's all i have to say.

Awesome. Fantastic. Breathtaking. Marvelous. Outstanding. Masterful. That's all I have to say.

Also, there was an off-screen human slaughter! That is not Nickelodeon material!

I need it to be more complex because the alternative is electronics being thrown at the wall and I can't afford that.  I don't remain all that hopeful though, Unalaq is from the North I believe and I think thats the portal Vaatu used.  Please let it be a coincidence.

The other bone of contention i have here is that Korra needs to learn a lesson this time. If they rush into this Vaatu-Raava conflict too fast, they could sweep aside development.

Yeah. This kind of shit belongs on-screen. Amon is dissapoint.

About Unalaq's motive: I think he was deceived just like Wan and believes that Korra is actually carrying the evil spirit within her. Would be justified in his eyes, since the dark spirits always surround her and she's completely incapable of bending them.

One of the best episodes in the whole series and I mean both of them combined.
I don't think Unalaq is under Vatuu's influence, why would he spirit bend or whatever it's called the evil spirits? Or even know how to do it.

Or we could go for a Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn-style "Light != Good" twist, to where Vaatu's chaos is a necessary balance or something.

You are completely right buy again I remain pessimistic.  Personally she seems to have regressed for me.  Far too obsessed with the ideal the avatar represents as opposed to the role it represents and must carry out.  She royally annoyed me on the boat when speaking to Mako.  I'm paraphrasing but she was practically whining about the lack of respect she receives while saying something along the lines of "don't people remember I'm the one that defeated Amon".

My jaw dropped as all she really did was take away his support, not that the writers have bothered to show us the reprecussions of the humans being manipulated by Amon.

I want to be proven wrong as her character has potential, failing that a season of Wan would be terrific.  Were these episodes written by different people?

Nice Fire Emblem reference, but Raava already said she can't "kill" Vaatu because they must live together in the world. the best that can happen is a world of peace or chaos for 10,000 years until they come back. At least that's how I interpreted it.

I am actually a bit confused on that myself :P
But when the conversion started we did see some sort of planetary alignment happening.

How cool would it be if Unolaq turns out as the big bad, meaning he is doing these things for his own purpose and without the influence of Vatuu, because as we have seen he is a very traditional man, who wants people to keep their traditions alive and respect them and the spirits. As a whole he seems to have taken a sort of twisted path from Wans teachings, after all Wan did fail his mission and has been failing his mission for a lot of life times now ... it's actually quite a sad existence that of the Avatar :(

And how uncool was it that the humans killed all the Lion turtles ... I mean they basically sheltered and protected humanity from the spirit marshes, talk about ungrateful!