Television Avatar: Legend of Korra

I'm not being harsh, I'm being honest. I still loved Book 1 of Legend of Korra, but I was in denial with how well it was handled until some time after it was done. And I already know about the time constraints, as I pointed out.

 

That and Spirit bending. Now that she knows some of the basics about returning it and taking it away, It might be a whole new ball park for her. No one can teach her so she will need to master the techniques all on her own which can be stressful. Now that I think about it... maybe Aang was not the first to learn it. The Avatar state is accessing the abilities and strengths from past Avatars if I am not mistaken. Would this not be a form of spirit bending? Taking the spirits of old and applying them to present state. Your eyes and mouth (and tattoos oddly enough) all glow with an energy similar in appearance to the energy bending used against Ozai and the others in LoK. It would just be a different way of bending the spirits. Just a hypothesis that may or may not be true at all.

 

bumping since it's back

Spoiler: Book 2: Episode 3 -- Civil Wars Part I

I feel like this should have been two episodes instead of one. With both the Korra/Unalaq thing and the Cloudbaby angst, there was a lot happening and a lot left to wonder about. I feel like we could have gotten an episode devoted to Tenzin and them and the actual Civil Wars Part I going to Korra. Having them both together like this was quite a bit of content -- which I mean, DiMartino had written this episode and him/Bryan had written the season/series finale for ATLA, so that definitely explains it lol.

On the episode though, thank god Korra and Tonraq made up. I felt so sad when her mother came to her to beg her to think this through, and then when they all group hugged. And hopefully she'll realize she needs to reevaluate her blind faith in Unalaq since he arrested her parents (who did absolutely nothing). On Unalaq, he's definitely the antagonist, but I don't think he's a villain. His wish to unify the Water Tribes seems really genuine, and he does seem to care about everyone's wellbeing, even if he is overzealous.

CLOUDBABIES THO. I refuse to believe Aang purposefully neglected Kya and Bumi. There is no way the kid who cried about a baby completely unrelated to him being born and giving up cosmic power for the girl he loved would consciously be a terrible parent. If anything, it's very likely because Tenzin is the only other Airbender aside from him and he needed to train him extensively to make sure the Air Nomad culture was preserved. Plus with building up Republic City and training all of the Air Acolytes in the culture as well (who I presume are inhabiting all the Air Temples) on top of Avatar duties, it wouldn't be far fetched to say he was just too divided to really spend the quality time with Kya and Bumi that they wanted/they saw Tenzin getting. It also seems to be the root cause of Tenzin being SUPERSRS ALL TIME, since he's more or less convinced he's the sole inheritor of Aang's cultural legacy, though Bumi/Kya/Airbabies/Korra are too. And those fun trips might have been Aang's way of getting Tenzin to loosen up a little I guess. Idk, I'm sad that Bumi and especially Kya seem almost resentful of him, but I really love this family drama.

(Aang/Katara need to appear and set things straight with some flashbacks to Adult Kataang and their babies 8DDDDDDDDDDD)


Other noteworthy subjects:

where the hell is ikki?
ESKA AND DESNA'S FUCKING LAUGHS OH MY GOD
bolin went in on mako with that relationship comment and i am sad there was no asami mention there >:L (mako and asami were shown together in the trailers though so it's inevitable)
varrick being serious is kind of weird
The Southern Water Tribe grew a lot. I almost thought they were in Republic City with that Bolin/Desna/Eska scene for a moment.

PSYCHED FOR CIVIL WARS PART II even though these both would probably be better split into four episodes.

 

I'm actually glad they put the two stories in the same episode. Helps keep density in the plot, making the world feel more realistic because things are happening at inconvenient times.

 

Apparently, the finale's going to be put up on Nick tonight along with the hour long premiere of episodes 11 & 12 on television, so that's four episodes and the conclusion to Book 2 of Korra today. Dayum.

Spoiler: ENDGAME

I am glad that we're getting a conclusion to the Republic City subplot. I liked it towards the beginning, but the minute Vaatu stepped on stage, it seemed pretty irrelevant in comparison, lol. Apparently the ending is gonna be Bolin centric, so looking forward to see what BoBo does (while I still pray for an Asami centric episode in the next season).

Also, what do you guys think is gonna happen to resolve all this? Personally can't really see Korra destroying Vaatu (he'd just bust outta some later Avatar's chest if the whole "the loser will grow inside the winner" dealio still applies. I'm thinking she might fuse him to the Avatar Spirit as well, and keep both darkness and light under check. And apparently Grey Delisle is supposed to voice act for "The Dark Spirit," which idk who that could be (VAATU MAYBE POSSESING JINORA AND HER KICKING HIM OUT OMGGGGG).

I also want Tenzin/Kya/Bumi to kick Unalaq's ass. Or talk to their daddy. Both would be excellent.

Romance wise, all I have to say is that if we get left with Korra or Asami angsting Imma be mad.

 

That's nice for me. I quit watching after the fourth episode (I think), but at some point I decided I would watch it all after the season was over. Nice to know I won't have to wait for months or however long.

 

So now that Book 2 is done, some thoughts

Spoiler

MAN was this season just completely hit and miss, with good ideas and badly missed opportunities.

The spirit prison thing was brilliant...but then we get something about Kya having some interesting backstory, which is just completely ignored.

Then we go to Lin Beifong...WHAT? Did they just COMPLETELY FORGET how to write this character? She went from a badass with interesting history with Tenzin who did a lot of stuff in the first Book...to nearly a cameo role, and whenever we see her, her personality is basically "FUCK MAKO HE'S JUST A BEATCOP IDIOT...OH WAIT MAKO WAS RIGHT SHE KNEW THAT ALL ALONG GUYS"

Korra...yeah, half the series I didn't give a shit about her because of being just straight up unrelatable. Luckily, she gained an actual character after Beginnings, and she turned out to be...alright. I especially like that she actually chose to go against what all of the previous Avatars would have chosen, instead deciding to keep the Spirit World gate thing open. Kudos for that...not sure how good that is.

BOLIN GETS COOL FINALLY. Too bad the writers can't decide if he's in a couple with Eska or the redhead or what, but it was really neat seeing him and Eska reunite. Just wish it had more to it.

Mako I'm not sure entirely how I feel about him. But I am glad he actually went through with his breakup with Korra. The two don't seem like a good fit so far, but maybe its just because both of them have felt bland to me.

Unalaq seemed really neat to me at first because I thought he'd have some unique motivations and plots...but he lost all personality towards the ending. Still, I did like his idea of merging the Spirit World with the Physical World.

Tenzin probably was my favorite character this Book. Him having to accept that he can't be Korra's spirit guide was well done (for this series), and his family were quite interesting. I loved just about any scene with Bumi, since he was so lively and...not boring.

Varrick was...neat. He was a lot more enjoyable though near the beginning of the Book, because when he did that villain plot...thing, I just didn't understand him, but I loved his escape at the finale, even if it was just a cliffhanger really.

The final battle between giant Korra and Vaatulaq though...it left me confused. The final battle ends up almost like a Godzilla wrestling match of sorts. Really think it could have been done better, but it wasn't terrible. Just awkward.

There's probably more I could say, but I can't think it up right now. Overall, Book 2 started off with GREAT potential, but I can't say it didn't let me down.

 

I really just want this Book to be good throughout. Book One and Book Two both have been pretty disappointing, with really promising beginnings and then botched finales, annoying relationships, a general lack of good pacing, and some just over all confusing decisions (Book Two final battle, anyone?)

But I do like how different this Book is looking from the previous two, and it reminds me quite a bit of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, at least in tone.

 

That's what I'm hoping for as well. Amon fell apart from his initial appearance to the end, and Unalaq...it just felt like we didn't learn anything substantial about him; why/how did Vaatu contact him, where did he learn to be as spiritual as he was, and so on. He had the vibe of a well intentioned zealot at the beginning, but by the end he was just entirely morally wrong. I'm hoping that they do take time to explore the characters, their relationships, motivations, and all that.

With the ATLA vibes it's giving off, I'm cautiously optimistic it will at least be better than the previous Books. People have been saying LOK should move on from the ATLA vibe and be more mature/whatever (an argument I never got because ATLA was very mature underneath some of the goofier aspects), but I think returning to their roots in some respects should be productive in helping to solidify LOK more and bringing it up closer to being what it should be as a proper successor to ATLA.

Also THANK GOD IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S NOT A WATERBENDER FOR MAIN ANTAGONIST AGAIN.

 

Oh man this is really upsetting news but apparently Episodes 3-6 were leaked in Spanish. I had just found out about the trailer and to hear about a four episode leak like that I just... I don't understand how people are jumping in and watching it when they have no idea what happened episodes one and two.

 

I love that show. I think they were actually really accurate w/ the looks of the charecters as far as children go.

Let's just hope they won't try to make it out of a movie.

:)

 

COMING NEXT FRIDAY AT 7 PM EST

MY BODY IS READY
except for the part where it comes on at the same time as Girl Meets World ;~~~~~~~~~~~;

 

Just finished book 2 today..all I can say is that I ship boleska so much ;_; I hope book 3 is as good as book 2

 

book 3 releases on friday right? I've been searching it up and there are people talking about how it's not going to financially beneficial for the animators of Korra then there are others talking about how the release date should have been for fall but it's starting this friday right?

 

Yeah, it does.

From my understanding of it, people are afraid it won't be financially beneficial due to how fast it's releasing with very little advertising beforehand. With Book 1 and even Book 2 of Korra, there were adverts for weeks in advance about it coming on and letting everyone know about the date. This time, they only dropped the release date last week, and it's very likely not many people who don't follow every bit of news will know it's on and may miss it, which could lead to a poor viewer count for that night (which is 3 episodes, essentially a near quarter of the season).

The time slot is also an issue. Book 2 had a similar timeslot and brought in lower viewer count than Book 1 did back during the 11 AM on Saturday timeslot (also because some people dropped it but that's a different subject lol). The Friday night timeslot is kind of a graveyard spot, as other primetime shows come on at that time and also people win general typically use Friday nights as a get out and party night.

The weird thing is Nick doesn't account for people watching Korra via their streams of the show as much, which is absurd considering the heavy rise of streaming in the last few years with Netflix and other such programs. There are people who are interested in the show, but would rather wait till the season's done so they can plow through it, and Nick just doesn't take those figures into account nearly as much as they do people watching it on their televisions.