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[Moving Images] Avatar: TLA / Legend of Korra General

Last posted May 11, 2015 at 02:43PM EDT. Added Mar 20, 2012 at 11:11PM EDT
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Question. Why did Aang show up in his 40's? Kyoshi showed up during her best moment. Avatar Roku revealed himself to Aang at the same age as he died (which can be considered his best moment cuz he was battling a friggin volcano.) I think it's safe to assume the Avatar's spirit stays in its golden years. Shouldn't Aang be 12 when he shows himself to Korra because Battling Ozai was probably the best moment of his life?

Last edited Jul 05, 2012 at 02:37PM EDT

Teh Brawler wrote:

Who told them the boat exploded? Tarrlok and Noatak both got away without being followed, otherwise they would be in a maximum security prison by now, or worse, have their bending taken away (Korra might let Tarrlok slip for the bit about Amon's true identity though.)

Ricenburg wrote:

Question. Why did Aang show up in his 40's? Kyoshi showed up during her best moment. Avatar Roku revealed himself to Aang at the same age as he died (which can be considered his best moment cuz he was battling a friggin volcano.) I think it's safe to assume the Avatar's spirit stays in its golden years. Shouldn't Aang be 12 when he shows himself to Korra because Battling Ozai was probably the best moment of his life?

Well, its just an assumption that they reveled themselves at the best times in their lives. The animators probably just wanted all kinds of different looking avatars instead of just a bunch of old people, but then again, the creators tend not to put stuff in the show 'just because'. It could have more to do with wisdom. Roku finally realized his mistake and became fully aware of what he was supposed to do( kill his best friend) when sozin let him die. Kyoshi was very decisive and fully ready to do what ever it took to protect the greater good at a younger age than roku and that's why she appears younger. Aang may have ended the 100 year war, but in the promise, he still lacked decisiveness and was still a little kid. He was a wise kid, but he obvoiusly had a lot more to learn still. In Korras flashback, we see a more mature Aang that doesn't hesitate to take action. It's just a theory.

Last edited Jul 05, 2012 at 03:45PM EDT

Teh Brawler wrote:

Now I wanna see a promo with a whole crowd of Amons.

"We are Amon."

"We are Legion."

"Amon does not forgive, Amon does not forget."

"Expect us."

Last edited Jul 05, 2012 at 05:04PM EDT

Ricenburg wrote:

Who told them the boat exploded? Tarrlok and Noatak both got away without being followed, otherwise they would be in a maximum security prison by now, or worse, have their bending taken away (Korra might let Tarrlok slip for the bit about Amon's true identity though.)

You're assuming no time has passed between seasons and that it would be impossible to find the wreckage.

Last edited Jul 05, 2012 at 05:58PM EDT

Teh Brawler wrote:

I just shat my pants D:

As for why Aang was shown in his 40's, I have a feeling the Avatars get to decide in what state they are shown in, so some of them want to be shown as old men and women while others will want to show themselves closer to their middle ages. Just a theory of mine though xP This makes me wonder what Korra will look like when she is older.

Teh Brawler wrote:

You're assuming no time has passed between seasons and that it would be impossible to find the wreckage.

Well I actually do think it would be impossible to find the wreckage. I doubt it'd be easy to find proof that they died on a boat in the middle of the ocean that no one even knew was there. I bet it's gonna go like that time when they didn't even explain how the equalists were able to capture Tenzin and his family.

Crimson Locks wrote:

I just shat my pants D:

As for why Aang was shown in his 40's, I have a feeling the Avatars get to decide in what state they are shown in, so some of them want to be shown as old men and women while others will want to show themselves closer to their middle ages. Just a theory of mine though xP This makes me wonder what Korra will look like when she is older.

that's plausible, but if I was able to get the chance to pick whatever age I should be, I'd pick being a 10-year old right away. They probably can't do that though, because they might have to at least pick an age where they already mastered all elements. One things for sure, I would NOT want to be an old man if I get the shot to reappear in the real world again.

Sorry to bring up something from last page, but on the topic of the post-Amon Equalist Movement: My legit guess is for the Lt. to represent people looking for better treatment of non-benders w/o violence and more harmonious living. My second guess is for the idea of comic enemies, mainly the one guy who yelled a lot at Korra in the start. He'd be like a crazy conspiracist saying loopy ideas about the government, the Avatar and bending, etc.
Also, I want Tahno to join Team "Uh-vatar".

Teh Brawler wrote:

Guys, I think you're forgetting, revolutions don't just go away. Korra's still got to deal with everyone else in the equalist movement, and I guarantee you that they've found a new leader, my guess being the luitenant.

The whole revolution thing felt a little strange to me because two most powerful companies in the Republic City, Cabbage Corp and Future Industries are run by non benders (I suppose there aren't cabbage benders).

The only places that seemed to be "bender only" were the government and mafia.

Last edited Jul 06, 2012 at 06:19AM EDT

Hey folks,

Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Legend of Korra and it gave me a lot to think about. Figured I might as well throw my thoughts on here. Prepare for some tl;dr, and there will be spoilers.

As a fan of Last Airbender, I was very glad to hear about the new series. The world of Avatar is so big and dynamic that it would have been disappointing just to end it with Aang. I was very impressed that the show's writers were willing to take the risks that they did, I.E. abandoning the original series' characters for completely new ones and taking on a drastically new setting. Korra looked to be avoiding the problems that most spinoffs have, namely appealing too much to fanservice and growing stale becaue of it, and was shaping up to be a very promising heir to Airbender. Well, now I've watched the first season, and while Legend of Korra was not a terrible show, I don't think it came close to living up to its predecessor. Behind the sheen of all its novelty and its gorgeous art style, LoK had a lot of problems, some big and some small, which led to what I think was a less than spectacular product. I will try articulate what I thought were the two major flaws in this series.

Poor characters and character development-Along with its fantastic narrative, the thing about Airbender that was so exemplar was its rich characters. The major characters were well fleshed out and developed and the minor characters were quirky and memorable. The cast of LoK in contrast I found to be rather cliche and forgettable. There were a couple of painfully obvious attempts to import some of the character types that worked so well in Airbender. Bolin and Mako were shameless copies of Sokka and Zuko respectively, which I found distasteful. The minor characters didn’t come across as quirky and lovable, but as patronizing and annoying. These characters and their interactions just didn’t seem genuine to me, it all stank of trying too hard. With the exceptions of Tenzin and Lin, I really didn’t care for any of LoK’s cast.

The real problem for Korra however isn’t that its characters were rather boring and unlikeable to me, it’s that at times they were completely non-functional. A story is composed of characters having wants and desires and then acting on them in a string of events that makes sense. There would be times in Korra where a character would act in ways which they had no reason to. I found the entire love story to be completely abominable with Korra, Mako, and Asami plainly just going through the motions.

Even worse however was how our main villain seemed to act without any motivation to do so. This weirdo in the mask was very intriguing when he first appeared, and we all wanted to know who he was, what he had against benders, and how the hell he was able to take their bending away. While I was less than enamored with Amon’s origin story and his bloodbending skill being the source of his power, the real problem is that his motivations are never properly explained. Ok, so he had a prick for a dad, and apparently he likes things being equal because Tarrlok said so and…? This is not a satisfying explanation for why someone who is themselves a bender would be so passionate about getting rid of benders. It’s too bad, because they probably could have weaved a really interesting character motivation if they just took the time to.

Thematically Unsatisfying-Another great strength of Airbender was how they weaved a compelling, interesting, and unexpected narrative. The endings of season 2 and 3 were both narrative strokes of genius, being novel while still following from earlier themes. If you can create a story that both follows logically and is unexpected, then congratulations, you’ve just discovered literary gold.

The thing about Korra is that even though they still have the interesting and unexpected plot twists, they don’t really…work. It doesn’t feel like we have in any way really built up to these dramatic climaxes throughout the rest of the story, it feels like we kind of just stumbled into it randomly. So Korra has her bending taken away and is pretty much shit out of luck until BAM, she learns how to airbend. That’s a freaking awesome idea, it’s the best idea they had in the entire series, but they just didn’t execute it right. How does Korra watching Mako about to get destroyed by Amon in any way cause her to “get” airbending? Which one of the air nomad’s lessons does she finally understand as she is being gripped by furious passion? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s thematically unsatisfying.

The two other moments where I thought this happened were when Tarrlok kills himself and Amon and where Korra miraculously has her bending restored. Tarrlok killing himself and his brother not only seems rather out of character, it just doesn’t seem like the natural ending to these brothers and their tale, it doesn’t follow from their history together. Korra having her bending restored is an example of Deus ex Machina if there has ever been one, she does not have to struggle to have it restored, it just is. The latter I felt was really a shame, they could have done a lot of interesting things with the just airbender Korra trying to come to grips with her loss of the other elements.

So those were my two main gripes with Legend of Korra, and as you may have noticed, they’re really kind of the same complaint. The reason why I think Legend of Korra is only mediocre is because its characters have failed to act in a way that I found dramatically compelling. Stories are about people and what they’re doing, I’m interested in watching people interact and tracking their growth. If you don’t give me that, then not all the kickass animation and fight scenes in the world is going to make me give a damn.

tl;dr: I wasn't that crazy about Legend of Korra because I found the characters to be unlikeable and the storyline didn't really make sense.

Korra predictions anyone?

What will happen in season two of korra…if there is one? They killed off amon already, but those pictures posted above make it seem like "Amon" cant die.

"You cannot kill an idea, Avatar Korra."

So do you think that he will reappear in the next season, or not? I cant really see logic in that happening, unless there are other bloodbenders that will take his place.

They could also add an entirely different antagonist into the series, maybe one who is a true equalist, with no bending? Perhaps the leautenant would take over. Show me some ideas!

Fifths wrote:

Hey folks,

Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Legend of Korra and it gave me a lot to think about. Figured I might as well throw my thoughts on here. Prepare for some tl;dr, and there will be spoilers.

As a fan of Last Airbender, I was very glad to hear about the new series. The world of Avatar is so big and dynamic that it would have been disappointing just to end it with Aang. I was very impressed that the show's writers were willing to take the risks that they did, I.E. abandoning the original series' characters for completely new ones and taking on a drastically new setting. Korra looked to be avoiding the problems that most spinoffs have, namely appealing too much to fanservice and growing stale becaue of it, and was shaping up to be a very promising heir to Airbender. Well, now I've watched the first season, and while Legend of Korra was not a terrible show, I don't think it came close to living up to its predecessor. Behind the sheen of all its novelty and its gorgeous art style, LoK had a lot of problems, some big and some small, which led to what I think was a less than spectacular product. I will try articulate what I thought were the two major flaws in this series.

Poor characters and character development-Along with its fantastic narrative, the thing about Airbender that was so exemplar was its rich characters. The major characters were well fleshed out and developed and the minor characters were quirky and memorable. The cast of LoK in contrast I found to be rather cliche and forgettable. There were a couple of painfully obvious attempts to import some of the character types that worked so well in Airbender. Bolin and Mako were shameless copies of Sokka and Zuko respectively, which I found distasteful. The minor characters didn’t come across as quirky and lovable, but as patronizing and annoying. These characters and their interactions just didn’t seem genuine to me, it all stank of trying too hard. With the exceptions of Tenzin and Lin, I really didn’t care for any of LoK’s cast.

The real problem for Korra however isn’t that its characters were rather boring and unlikeable to me, it’s that at times they were completely non-functional. A story is composed of characters having wants and desires and then acting on them in a string of events that makes sense. There would be times in Korra where a character would act in ways which they had no reason to. I found the entire love story to be completely abominable with Korra, Mako, and Asami plainly just going through the motions.

Even worse however was how our main villain seemed to act without any motivation to do so. This weirdo in the mask was very intriguing when he first appeared, and we all wanted to know who he was, what he had against benders, and how the hell he was able to take their bending away. While I was less than enamored with Amon’s origin story and his bloodbending skill being the source of his power, the real problem is that his motivations are never properly explained. Ok, so he had a prick for a dad, and apparently he likes things being equal because Tarrlok said so and…? This is not a satisfying explanation for why someone who is themselves a bender would be so passionate about getting rid of benders. It’s too bad, because they probably could have weaved a really interesting character motivation if they just took the time to.

Thematically Unsatisfying-Another great strength of Airbender was how they weaved a compelling, interesting, and unexpected narrative. The endings of season 2 and 3 were both narrative strokes of genius, being novel while still following from earlier themes. If you can create a story that both follows logically and is unexpected, then congratulations, you’ve just discovered literary gold.

The thing about Korra is that even though they still have the interesting and unexpected plot twists, they don’t really…work. It doesn’t feel like we have in any way really built up to these dramatic climaxes throughout the rest of the story, it feels like we kind of just stumbled into it randomly. So Korra has her bending taken away and is pretty much shit out of luck until BAM, she learns how to airbend. That’s a freaking awesome idea, it’s the best idea they had in the entire series, but they just didn’t execute it right. How does Korra watching Mako about to get destroyed by Amon in any way cause her to “get” airbending? Which one of the air nomad’s lessons does she finally understand as she is being gripped by furious passion? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s thematically unsatisfying.

The two other moments where I thought this happened were when Tarrlok kills himself and Amon and where Korra miraculously has her bending restored. Tarrlok killing himself and his brother not only seems rather out of character, it just doesn’t seem like the natural ending to these brothers and their tale, it doesn’t follow from their history together. Korra having her bending restored is an example of Deus ex Machina if there has ever been one, she does not have to struggle to have it restored, it just is. The latter I felt was really a shame, they could have done a lot of interesting things with the just airbender Korra trying to come to grips with her loss of the other elements.

So those were my two main gripes with Legend of Korra, and as you may have noticed, they’re really kind of the same complaint. The reason why I think Legend of Korra is only mediocre is because its characters have failed to act in a way that I found dramatically compelling. Stories are about people and what they’re doing, I’m interested in watching people interact and tracking their growth. If you don’t give me that, then not all the kickass animation and fight scenes in the world is going to make me give a damn.

tl;dr: I wasn't that crazy about Legend of Korra because I found the characters to be unlikeable and the storyline didn't really make sense.

@Fridge Logic

Fair enough. I didn't think it would be kind to burst in saying "Hey guise, just finished watching your show, thought it kind of sucked l0l0l0l" Thought I should at least give some reasons why I thought what I thought.

Fifths wrote:

@Fridge Logic

Fair enough. I didn't think it would be kind to burst in saying "Hey guise, just finished watching your show, thought it kind of sucked l0l0l0l" Thought I should at least give some reasons why I thought what I thought.

IT DOESN'T MATTER YOU ARE EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THIS FANDOM

TAKE YOUR SHIPS AND GET OUT OF HERE

I am AHO Right? wrote:

Sorry to bring up something from last page, but on the topic of the post-Amon Equalist Movement: My legit guess is for the Lt. to represent people looking for better treatment of non-benders w/o violence and more harmonious living. My second guess is for the idea of comic enemies, mainly the one guy who yelled a lot at Korra in the start. He'd be like a crazy conspiracist saying loopy ideas about the government, the Avatar and bending, etc.
Also, I want Tahno to join Team "Uh-vatar".

This, all of this. It would be awesome to see Equalists trying to reach equality peacefully, with Lt. to represent them, cus honestly I think Lt. is a good guy deep down.
And seeing Tahno again would make me so happy, something about his amazing jerkyness just makes me wanna see more of him (though he might not be as much of a jerk if he comes back). I think I like him so much because he looks a lot like Alex from A Clockwork Orange

I can't stop laughing at "Uh-vatar" for some reason xD

@Fifths
While it was a bit long, I can appreciate a long post like that as long as there is some actual substance to it and you didn't just say "LOL KORRA SUCKS" for 20 paragraphs. While I do agree with you that the whole romance aspect was just awful and unnecessary, I will have to disagree with you on almost every other point you made. I thought the main characters, while obviously being similar to the main characters from the past series, were still very entertaining and felt more like re-imaginings of the past characters rather than just plain copies. There were some things in the story that didn't make sense, and I will agree with you that Korra suddenly gaining airbending was one of them, but the boat scene and Korra regaining her bending were not those scenes. Tarrlok had gone through a lot of character development, and carried a lot of regret. He obviously did not want more bad things to happen, which might have if he had continued following Noatok, and so it made sense for him to kill him and his brother. The last scene with Korra regaining her bending could have easily been put under Deus Ex Machina, but it doesn't fit there. It makes sense that an Avatar would be able to restore bending as well as take it away.

Also, I think you might be looking at Last Airbender through rose colored shades. I recently rewatched the entire series, and while it is a magnificent work, it still had its problems as well

But I'm gonna stop here before my post gets too long (too late)

> says legend of korra sucks
>is a brony

JK. Thank you for your opinion fifths. Even though I disagree with most of your points, I respect your opinion. Now leave before I fucking rip out your heart and beat your face in

@crimsonlocks

"Also, I think you might be looking at Last Airbender through rose colored shades. I recently rewatched the entire series, and while it is a magnificent work, it still had its problems as well"

This. I loved the first series as well, but it did have its problems also.

Fifths wrote:

Hey folks,

Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Legend of Korra and it gave me a lot to think about. Figured I might as well throw my thoughts on here. Prepare for some tl;dr, and there will be spoilers.

As a fan of Last Airbender, I was very glad to hear about the new series. The world of Avatar is so big and dynamic that it would have been disappointing just to end it with Aang. I was very impressed that the show's writers were willing to take the risks that they did, I.E. abandoning the original series' characters for completely new ones and taking on a drastically new setting. Korra looked to be avoiding the problems that most spinoffs have, namely appealing too much to fanservice and growing stale becaue of it, and was shaping up to be a very promising heir to Airbender. Well, now I've watched the first season, and while Legend of Korra was not a terrible show, I don't think it came close to living up to its predecessor. Behind the sheen of all its novelty and its gorgeous art style, LoK had a lot of problems, some big and some small, which led to what I think was a less than spectacular product. I will try articulate what I thought were the two major flaws in this series.

Poor characters and character development-Along with its fantastic narrative, the thing about Airbender that was so exemplar was its rich characters. The major characters were well fleshed out and developed and the minor characters were quirky and memorable. The cast of LoK in contrast I found to be rather cliche and forgettable. There were a couple of painfully obvious attempts to import some of the character types that worked so well in Airbender. Bolin and Mako were shameless copies of Sokka and Zuko respectively, which I found distasteful. The minor characters didn’t come across as quirky and lovable, but as patronizing and annoying. These characters and their interactions just didn’t seem genuine to me, it all stank of trying too hard. With the exceptions of Tenzin and Lin, I really didn’t care for any of LoK’s cast.

The real problem for Korra however isn’t that its characters were rather boring and unlikeable to me, it’s that at times they were completely non-functional. A story is composed of characters having wants and desires and then acting on them in a string of events that makes sense. There would be times in Korra where a character would act in ways which they had no reason to. I found the entire love story to be completely abominable with Korra, Mako, and Asami plainly just going through the motions.

Even worse however was how our main villain seemed to act without any motivation to do so. This weirdo in the mask was very intriguing when he first appeared, and we all wanted to know who he was, what he had against benders, and how the hell he was able to take their bending away. While I was less than enamored with Amon’s origin story and his bloodbending skill being the source of his power, the real problem is that his motivations are never properly explained. Ok, so he had a prick for a dad, and apparently he likes things being equal because Tarrlok said so and…? This is not a satisfying explanation for why someone who is themselves a bender would be so passionate about getting rid of benders. It’s too bad, because they probably could have weaved a really interesting character motivation if they just took the time to.

Thematically Unsatisfying-Another great strength of Airbender was how they weaved a compelling, interesting, and unexpected narrative. The endings of season 2 and 3 were both narrative strokes of genius, being novel while still following from earlier themes. If you can create a story that both follows logically and is unexpected, then congratulations, you’ve just discovered literary gold.

The thing about Korra is that even though they still have the interesting and unexpected plot twists, they don’t really…work. It doesn’t feel like we have in any way really built up to these dramatic climaxes throughout the rest of the story, it feels like we kind of just stumbled into it randomly. So Korra has her bending taken away and is pretty much shit out of luck until BAM, she learns how to airbend. That’s a freaking awesome idea, it’s the best idea they had in the entire series, but they just didn’t execute it right. How does Korra watching Mako about to get destroyed by Amon in any way cause her to “get” airbending? Which one of the air nomad’s lessons does she finally understand as she is being gripped by furious passion? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s thematically unsatisfying.

The two other moments where I thought this happened were when Tarrlok kills himself and Amon and where Korra miraculously has her bending restored. Tarrlok killing himself and his brother not only seems rather out of character, it just doesn’t seem like the natural ending to these brothers and their tale, it doesn’t follow from their history together. Korra having her bending restored is an example of Deus ex Machina if there has ever been one, she does not have to struggle to have it restored, it just is. The latter I felt was really a shame, they could have done a lot of interesting things with the just airbender Korra trying to come to grips with her loss of the other elements.

So those were my two main gripes with Legend of Korra, and as you may have noticed, they’re really kind of the same complaint. The reason why I think Legend of Korra is only mediocre is because its characters have failed to act in a way that I found dramatically compelling. Stories are about people and what they’re doing, I’m interested in watching people interact and tracking their growth. If you don’t give me that, then not all the kickass animation and fight scenes in the world is going to make me give a damn.

tl;dr: I wasn't that crazy about Legend of Korra because I found the characters to be unlikeable and the storyline didn't really make sense.


Seriously, though, what the hell. you took up the entire screen. (Though I suppose I can't talk… EDIT: Then again, I didn't use text to do it…)
About the explosion: It is not OOC, just look at all the other guys who had or were about to have their bending taken away. I can assure you, at least some of them were contemplating suicide, and when Tarrlok did that, he was both commiting suicide and murdering his culprit. Y'know what they say, Revenge's a bitch.
About your acclaimed "Deus ex Machina": Were you paying any attention at all during that scene? Did you not hear the "We are most open when we are at our lowest point" or something? If you think that's a Deus ex Machina, you should really see the sequel to just about any other blockbuster film ever conceived.
But I see your points to an extent, And I do like the original series better.

Last edited Jul 06, 2012 at 01:17PM EDT

@Crimsonlocks

While Tarrlok killing his brother wasn't completely out of his character, I still didn't feel like it was dramatically satisfying. I don't know, we just learned that these two characters were related in the last episode and I just didn't feel much tension between them.

As far as Korra getting her abilities back, again it's not so much that it doesn't make sense as it isn't dramatically satisfying. I just felt it all happened way too quickly without enough leadup. Like I said, I was also really disappointed that they weren't going to explore the whole "Korra with only airbending" idea. I thought that presented a lot of opprotunity for character development and they just squandered it.

And ya, you're probably right about the rose colored shades. If I watched the season 2 ending today, I would probably be very cross considering Zuko's siding with Azula after he underwent this huge character metamorphisis.

@Dac

You know, I was thinking about that, why I consider mlp good and not Korra when mlp has a lot more inconsistencies of character and story. I guess I just had higher standards for a show like Legend of Korra.

Last edited Jul 06, 2012 at 01:27PM EDT

Fridge wrote:

Hey Fifths:

I didn't ready any of that.

We don't do incredibly long diatribes like in the Pony thread. Keep it short and sweet.

This thread is for discussion. I see no problem whatsoever with someone making a long post about LoK if that's how they want to express their opinion. If Fifths wants to make a long post, which respects people's opinions and can actually generate discussion, why can't he?

To be honest, I don't care much about what happened to Zuko´s mom, there are too many clues in the show.

I want to know more about the story of Iroh´s trip to the Spirit World

@Fifths

Amon's family was effectively destroyed by bending; the thing is that once his father had his bending taken away he did become a better person and lived happily with his family until his kids turned out to be benders, that's when he was overwhelmed by thoughts of revenge. His kids had to train for hours in bitter cold and then torture each other (and all sorts of other things) once they got a hang of bloodbending.

For Amon, having to run away after a pretty violet fight with his father after living through all of the above was a good enough reason to hate bending imho.

This is kind of ironic because bending created him.

As for Korra learning air bending, she learnt it because she let go of her hate and thought of someone other than herself for once. Basically, she thought solely of saving Mako and not of somehow injuring/killing Amon. She sort of did the same during her first pro-bending match. This links with all of the peace-loving air bending stuff. I might be wrong though, that's just an impression I got.

Edit: Woah! I got 1337th post! Yay.

Last edited Jul 06, 2012 at 04:18PM EDT

Fifths wrote:

@Fridge Logic

Fair enough. I didn't think it would be kind to burst in saying "Hey guise, just finished watching your show, thought it kind of sucked l0l0l0l" Thought I should at least give some reasons why I thought what I thought.

Not a problem. I appreciate your attempt to communicate your thoughts intelligently.

RF: If he's going to take an entire page to say what he wants to say, it's going to be too much to digest. I value efficiency in discussion.

Fridge wrote:

Not a problem. I appreciate your attempt to communicate your thoughts intelligently.

RF: If he's going to take an entire page to say what he wants to say, it's going to be too much to digest. I value efficiency in discussion.

Then why did you speak as if it was a rule that people can only make their posts short here? If that's your opinion, I respect it, but the way you addressed fifths made it seem like that was all of our opinions, which it is not.

Last edited Jul 06, 2012 at 06:21PM EDT

Piano wrote:

Then why did you speak as if it was a rule that people can only make their posts short here? If that's your opinion, I respect it, but the way you addressed fifths made it seem like that was all of our opinions, which it is not.

Well then I apologize. I should've put it differently.

Fifths wrote:

Hey folks,

Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Legend of Korra and it gave me a lot to think about. Figured I might as well throw my thoughts on here. Prepare for some tl;dr, and there will be spoilers.

As a fan of Last Airbender, I was very glad to hear about the new series. The world of Avatar is so big and dynamic that it would have been disappointing just to end it with Aang. I was very impressed that the show's writers were willing to take the risks that they did, I.E. abandoning the original series' characters for completely new ones and taking on a drastically new setting. Korra looked to be avoiding the problems that most spinoffs have, namely appealing too much to fanservice and growing stale becaue of it, and was shaping up to be a very promising heir to Airbender. Well, now I've watched the first season, and while Legend of Korra was not a terrible show, I don't think it came close to living up to its predecessor. Behind the sheen of all its novelty and its gorgeous art style, LoK had a lot of problems, some big and some small, which led to what I think was a less than spectacular product. I will try articulate what I thought were the two major flaws in this series.

Poor characters and character development-Along with its fantastic narrative, the thing about Airbender that was so exemplar was its rich characters. The major characters were well fleshed out and developed and the minor characters were quirky and memorable. The cast of LoK in contrast I found to be rather cliche and forgettable. There were a couple of painfully obvious attempts to import some of the character types that worked so well in Airbender. Bolin and Mako were shameless copies of Sokka and Zuko respectively, which I found distasteful. The minor characters didn’t come across as quirky and lovable, but as patronizing and annoying. These characters and their interactions just didn’t seem genuine to me, it all stank of trying too hard. With the exceptions of Tenzin and Lin, I really didn’t care for any of LoK’s cast.

The real problem for Korra however isn’t that its characters were rather boring and unlikeable to me, it’s that at times they were completely non-functional. A story is composed of characters having wants and desires and then acting on them in a string of events that makes sense. There would be times in Korra where a character would act in ways which they had no reason to. I found the entire love story to be completely abominable with Korra, Mako, and Asami plainly just going through the motions.

Even worse however was how our main villain seemed to act without any motivation to do so. This weirdo in the mask was very intriguing when he first appeared, and we all wanted to know who he was, what he had against benders, and how the hell he was able to take their bending away. While I was less than enamored with Amon’s origin story and his bloodbending skill being the source of his power, the real problem is that his motivations are never properly explained. Ok, so he had a prick for a dad, and apparently he likes things being equal because Tarrlok said so and…? This is not a satisfying explanation for why someone who is themselves a bender would be so passionate about getting rid of benders. It’s too bad, because they probably could have weaved a really interesting character motivation if they just took the time to.

Thematically Unsatisfying-Another great strength of Airbender was how they weaved a compelling, interesting, and unexpected narrative. The endings of season 2 and 3 were both narrative strokes of genius, being novel while still following from earlier themes. If you can create a story that both follows logically and is unexpected, then congratulations, you’ve just discovered literary gold.

The thing about Korra is that even though they still have the interesting and unexpected plot twists, they don’t really…work. It doesn’t feel like we have in any way really built up to these dramatic climaxes throughout the rest of the story, it feels like we kind of just stumbled into it randomly. So Korra has her bending taken away and is pretty much shit out of luck until BAM, she learns how to airbend. That’s a freaking awesome idea, it’s the best idea they had in the entire series, but they just didn’t execute it right. How does Korra watching Mako about to get destroyed by Amon in any way cause her to “get” airbending? Which one of the air nomad’s lessons does she finally understand as she is being gripped by furious passion? It doesn’t make sense, and it’s thematically unsatisfying.

The two other moments where I thought this happened were when Tarrlok kills himself and Amon and where Korra miraculously has her bending restored. Tarrlok killing himself and his brother not only seems rather out of character, it just doesn’t seem like the natural ending to these brothers and their tale, it doesn’t follow from their history together. Korra having her bending restored is an example of Deus ex Machina if there has ever been one, she does not have to struggle to have it restored, it just is. The latter I felt was really a shame, they could have done a lot of interesting things with the just airbender Korra trying to come to grips with her loss of the other elements.

So those were my two main gripes with Legend of Korra, and as you may have noticed, they’re really kind of the same complaint. The reason why I think Legend of Korra is only mediocre is because its characters have failed to act in a way that I found dramatically compelling. Stories are about people and what they’re doing, I’m interested in watching people interact and tracking their growth. If you don’t give me that, then not all the kickass animation and fight scenes in the world is going to make me give a damn.

tl;dr: I wasn't that crazy about Legend of Korra because I found the characters to be unlikeable and the storyline didn't really make sense.

okay

@Fifths (I'm not even gonna quote that cuz that is some ludicrously long shit right there.)

I kinda agree with you at some points there, but you were going overboard calling it mediocre. I also felt that it didn't exceed my expectations much, and that it didn't top its predecessor, but it is NOT mediocre. Mako and Bolin aren't shameless copies. They tweaked them enough to be at least somewhat different, but they definitely feel as if they were cut from the same cloth. Bolin was trying too hard to be the comic relief, I hardly laughed at his antics, but I was actually impressed with Mako, once I heard he was the new Zuko, I expected him to be brooding and honor-obsessed. He wasn't, okay maybe he was, but not as much. We see him smile and have a good time every now and then, something Zuko almost never did. I wouldn't go as far as to call the characterization poor, because if it were, then what would that make the other shows almost nonexistent on the internet like Johnny Test or Fanboy and Chum Chum?

Also, while the finale of Korra ended with a Deus Ex Machina, I'd like to point out that so did The Last Airbender, even more so actually. We all knew that Korra will have to come in contact with Aang someway somehow, but who would've thought that that Lion Turtle at the library that showed up for a few measly seconds all the way back in season 2 in The Last Airbender will actually be crucial to the story? It was too vague, its appearance in the finale is undoubtedly a Deus Ex Machina.

Lastly, I would like to remind you that the show ain't over yet. This is just the first season. I think it's too soon to be making comparisons with it's predecessor. Unlike MLP, The Legend of Korra and The Last Airbender aren't the kind of shows you can enjoy even if you only watch one episode. I certainly didn't know what to think of The Last Airbender when I saw one episode, it was only at the finale of season one when I realized it was an amazing cartoon. What we should be comparing is The Legend of Korra's season 1 to The Last Airbender's.

Overall, what I'm trying to say is calling the show mediocre is going overboard. Compared to the other cartoons out there, this show is one of the great ones (if not the best.)

Skeletor-sm

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