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Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something.
And yes, I did watch the first series. I don't feel it's very appropriate or mature to respond to posts of people getting confused because of the shows rushed pace with "lol you didnt watch the first show or something"
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On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something.
Sure, I agree with you. Do you know the difference between this, and your last post? This one isn't fought with blatant attacks on the elements of the show, but a very clear logical explanation of your (subjective) likes! You put down on any of the spiritual aspects of the show, coming off as a person who only enjoys explosions and boobs.(If you are, more power to you!)
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On June 25 2012 11:59 Belgo wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 11:53 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:On June 25 2012 11:40 Candadar wrote:
Well that was....underwhelming.
The slow mo was overdone to hell. The storytelling was rushed up the ass and what we did get was very poorly written and was abrupt. The premise was fucking amazing and I'm more disappointed than anything that they couldn't have explored this world much more. This premise had me more interested than the original, but they just played it so fucking horribly. The twists were stupid as I'm sure many of you are reading.
But what most fucking annoyed me was how they treated the Avatar state like a fucking cameo for the last 3 minutes of the SERIES just so that she could go "OH YEAH IM AN AVATAR LOL HERES YOUR POWERS BACK NOW". Yeah yeah she had the physical side and not the spiritual or some bullshit, but still. I kept forgetting she was the freaking avatar, and every time shit was getting bad I was just waiting for her to go avatar mode. Especially in that last fight but it was just airbending out of nowhere.
And how are there only like...4 airbenders, 3 of which are children in the entire world at this point.
It was just generally rushed and poorly written. The only redeeming characters were honestly the 3 kids and Linn. I also felt they spent WAY too much time on romance and shit. I felt like I was watching a 13 year old girl romance novel interpreted into a Nick television series when I had to watch the girls have their little "OMG HES SO CUUUUTE :3 DO I LOVE HIM OR DO I NOT OH GOD IM SO FUCKING TSUNDERE FOR THIS GUY" sessions every 5 minutes.
Perhaps it's something of an impossibility to ask for something to live up to what was the gem that was the first and second Avatar seasons. However, I just feel like this was just very screwed up and plenty of people are just going to justify it being a "miniseries" or something. It's honestly a shame because as I said, this premise of anti-benders rising up was fucking amazing and I honestly felt the most compelled to like this show during the earlier parts of the season around these guys.
EDIT: And yes, I know Korra was contemplating suicide and it was 2deep4u and shit and Aang came and was like "yo you connected gj" and shit. That still doesn't make it feel any less cheap for me.
Avatar has always been, to me, a series that was born on the wrong channel. Not to mention ever since I've started watching other HBO shows and the like, I can't help but feel that ANY show that doesn't get a full hour can't properly develop a story without feeling incredibly rushed. But, kids show. What can I do. I can't really address any of your opinions if you understood her growing/unlocking the 7 chakras throughout the show and you still think it was cheap, besides reminding you that it is a 12 episode series. A mini-series. A 12 episode series can't be as grand as the 55 or so something episode series TLA was. And how are there only like...4 airbenders, 3 of which are children in the entire world at this point. Seriously? Did you even watch TLA? If you understand that TLA is about "The Last Airbender" and that LoK has The Last Airbender's son with 3 children in it, you should understand why there are only 4 airbenders... Like Belgo, I think you didn't truly understand enough of the show. However, I just feel like this was just very screwed up and plenty of people are just going to justify it being a "miniseries" or something. So are you implying that you think a 3 episode series should be able to accomplish as much as TLA had? This has to be the second or third time we have both said the same thing mere second apart from each other! And on the airbender part. Aang was THE LAST airbender. (again, did you even watch the first sereis?) Now, in order for benders to be born, you must have that nation's blood in you (Air nomads). So, when Aang and katara settled down, they spit out three children, one being a bender. Now, a thing about airbenders, all air nomads are benders. Period. The life they live is 100% spiritual, which goes along with the art that airbending is based on. So, we have Tenzin, who was born with the ability to airbend AND also choose to live the traditional life and have his children grown up in said life. That is why there is only 4 airbenders. (You can be born from two bending parents and not have any, or one of your parents abilitys, much like all genes)
haha, nice 
On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something.
And yes, I did watch the first series. I don't feel it's very appropriate or mature to respond to posts of people getting confused because of the shows rushed pace with "lol you didnt watch the first show or something"
Ok now you are making up a bunch of shit and/or exaggerating so I don't really see a point to reading the rest of your post.
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
This does not address that you didn't seem to understand why there's only 4 airbenders.
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Who are you responding to. And what do you mean flip around? It supports the same viewpoint, which is a viewpoint against yours, which says the show was basically bad.
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On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second episode or something.
This pretty much sums up my feelings.
The story was good, but the pacing was off. Given how little episodes they gave the first season, I'd say they did a good job with it. However, it needed to be like 3x as long (at least) to be comparable to TLA. I said last time that it needed to be 8 or 10 episodes longer like Book 3 of TLA, but I take that back. We knew who the bad guys were and what the end goal was from the beginning of book 1. They spent 60 ish episodes (maybe 40 to 50 if we exclude fillers) to develop each character and finally bring down the bad guy in the first series. They spent at MOST 1/4 that time for LoK, which is pretty much the root of every problem with this series.
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On June 25 2012 12:05 Belgo wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something. Sure, I agree with you. Do you know the difference between this, and your last post? This one isn't fought with blatant attacks on the elements of the show, but a very clear logical explanation of your (subjective) likes! You put down on any of the spiritual aspects of the show, coming off as a person who only enjoys explosions and boobs.(If you are, more power to you!)
....So if I attack this series' elemental ideas I suddenly hate the 'spiritual' aspect and come off as a person who only enjoys explosions and boobs?
Are you fucking serious?
It must be nice being able to take everyone who disagrees with you and putting them in a nice little category so that you won't have to take the time to approach what they're trying to say. I stand by everything I initially said. My first post was a clear and logical explanation of why I did not like this series just as much as that post was. Except what I posted that time couldn't just be blown off with a simple "2deep4u" or "you clearly didnt watch the first series so I dont have to respond!"
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On June 25 2012 12:05 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 11:59 Belgo wrote:On June 25 2012 11:53 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:On June 25 2012 11:40 Candadar wrote:
Well that was....underwhelming.
The slow mo was overdone to hell. The storytelling was rushed up the ass and what we did get was very poorly written and was abrupt. The premise was fucking amazing and I'm more disappointed than anything that they couldn't have explored this world much more. This premise had me more interested than the original, but they just played it so fucking horribly. The twists were stupid as I'm sure many of you are reading.
But what most fucking annoyed me was how they treated the Avatar state like a fucking cameo for the last 3 minutes of the SERIES just so that she could go "OH YEAH IM AN AVATAR LOL HERES YOUR POWERS BACK NOW". Yeah yeah she had the physical side and not the spiritual or some bullshit, but still. I kept forgetting she was the freaking avatar, and every time shit was getting bad I was just waiting for her to go avatar mode. Especially in that last fight but it was just airbending out of nowhere.
And how are there only like...4 airbenders, 3 of which are children in the entire world at this point.
It was just generally rushed and poorly written. The only redeeming characters were honestly the 3 kids and Linn. I also felt they spent WAY too much time on romance and shit. I felt like I was watching a 13 year old girl romance novel interpreted into a Nick television series when I had to watch the girls have their little "OMG HES SO CUUUUTE :3 DO I LOVE HIM OR DO I NOT OH GOD IM SO FUCKING TSUNDERE FOR THIS GUY" sessions every 5 minutes.
Perhaps it's something of an impossibility to ask for something to live up to what was the gem that was the first and second Avatar seasons. However, I just feel like this was just very screwed up and plenty of people are just going to justify it being a "miniseries" or something. It's honestly a shame because as I said, this premise of anti-benders rising up was fucking amazing and I honestly felt the most compelled to like this show during the earlier parts of the season around these guys.
EDIT: And yes, I know Korra was contemplating suicide and it was 2deep4u and shit and Aang came and was like "yo you connected gj" and shit. That still doesn't make it feel any less cheap for me.
Avatar has always been, to me, a series that was born on the wrong channel. Not to mention ever since I've started watching other HBO shows and the like, I can't help but feel that ANY show that doesn't get a full hour can't properly develop a story without feeling incredibly rushed. But, kids show. What can I do. I can't really address any of your opinions if you understood her growing/unlocking the 7 chakras throughout the show and you still think it was cheap, besides reminding you that it is a 12 episode series. A mini-series. A 12 episode series can't be as grand as the 55 or so something episode series TLA was. And how are there only like...4 airbenders, 3 of which are children in the entire world at this point. Seriously? Did you even watch TLA? If you understand that TLA is about "The Last Airbender" and that LoK has The Last Airbender's son with 3 children in it, you should understand why there are only 4 airbenders... Like Belgo, I think you didn't truly understand enough of the show. However, I just feel like this was just very screwed up and plenty of people are just going to justify it being a "miniseries" or something. So are you implying that you think a 3 episode series should be able to accomplish as much as TLA had? This has to be the second or third time we have both said the same thing mere second apart from each other! And on the airbender part. Aang was THE LAST airbender. (again, did you even watch the first sereis?) Now, in order for benders to be born, you must have that nation's blood in you (Air nomads). So, when Aang and katara settled down, they spit out three children, one being a bender. Now, a thing about airbenders, all air nomads are benders. Period. The life they live is 100% spiritual, which goes along with the art that airbending is based on. So, we have Tenzin, who was born with the ability to airbend AND also choose to live the traditional life and have his children grown up in said life. That is why there is only 4 airbenders. (You can be born from two bending parents and not have any, or one of your parents abilitys, much like all genes) haha, nice Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something.
And yes, I did watch the first series. I don't feel it's very appropriate or mature to respond to posts of people getting confused because of the shows rushed pace with "lol you didnt watch the first show or something" Ok now you are making up a bunch of shit and/or exaggerating so I don't really see a point to reading the rest of your post. This does not address that you didn't seem to understand why there's only 4 airbenders. Show nested quote +First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!" Who are you responding to. And what do you mean flip around? It supports the same viewpoint, which is a viewpoint against yours, which says the show was basically bad.
It's always fun when someone tries to discredit you without even taking the time to read the persons points.
But do please continue. I'm clearly a baboon who hates the spirit of this show and did not understand its deep and philosophical story who only enjoys boobs and explosions and did not watch the first series because I feel the characters were very poorly handled, the situation was very poorly handled, the plot twists were fucking horrendously handled, everything was rushed and I feel like it needed at least double the amount of episodes over two seasons to do this premise which had so much promise correctly.
The show wasn't off. The pacing was off. We had no time to connect with the characters or soak in the world.
EDIT: But I'd be a damn fool to expect anything to live up to the original Avatar, as I said. It was a kids show that somehow turned out to be something fucking awesome. I still stand by that Avatar was a series born on the wrong channel however. I feel like it could be so much more if it didn't have to be 10 year old friendly =/
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On June 25 2012 12:13 Candadar wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 12:05 Belgo wrote:On June 25 2012 11:59 Candadar wrote:
Sigh
Just as I expected the second I hit that submit button. People coming in going
"NO IT WAS JUST TOO DEEP FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND"
First you say it was a super deep emotional philosophical rollercoaster, and then you flip around and go "It was a miniseries! So any criticism that can't be directly responded with "2deep4u" will be responded with by that!"
Yes, that's exactly what I said. It was a 12 episode series and not 55. I'm disappointed this was just a miniseries and was not more thoroughly explored since it was a very interesting and original premise, and something I've been wanting to see for a long time. What would happen if the 'normal' people rose up. It was very rushed because it was a miniseries and they just glanced over very important concepts and threw shit in just to get it in. If this even was split into two separate series and just took some time for some more appropriate pacing this would have been a million times better imo.
The writing or characters were not even necessarily bad. We just had NO TIME to understand them, connect with them, or for the writers to explore them and their personalities. Aangs and Kataras romance was drawn out over dozens of episodes, Korra got her first kiss in like, the second or third episode or something. Sure, I agree with you. Do you know the difference between this, and your last post? This one isn't fought with blatant attacks on the elements of the show, but a very clear logical explanation of your (subjective) likes! You put down on any of the spiritual aspects of the show, coming off as a person who only enjoys explosions and boobs.(If you are, more power to you!) ....So if I attack this series' elemental ideas I suddenly hate the 'spiritual' aspect and come off as a person who only enjoys explosions and boobs? Are you fucking serious? It must be nice being able to take everyone who disagrees with you and putting them in a nice little category so that you won't have to take the time to approach what they're trying to say. I stand by everything I initially said. My first post was a clear and logical explanation of why I did not like this series just as much as that post was. Except what I posted that time couldn't just be blown off with a simple "2deep4u" or "you clearly didnt watch the first series so I dont have to respond!" :|
Actually no. That is why I said (subjective) and this:
On June 25 2012 11:53 Belgo wrote:
If you can't come to appreciate the philosophical ideals of the show, then you will always come to these conclusions. And, if you think the 1st and 2nd seasons of avatar where the best, then they only shines the light on what you enjoy. Not saying that what you enjoy is a problem, because it's nothing anyone else can control, but perhaps you should just stay away from the show.
Simply meaning, there some people who are not into/like the spiritual stuff. This is not ones fault, it is purely subjective and only subject to change if the person with said beliefs want to. I am not putting anyone into a box since we are all human. (Unless you are a very smart lion). Your first post came off as such since there is no tone in text. And, if I read it, it could be taken a myriad of ways, compared to someone else!
I did not mean it as an insult and I am sorry if it came off that way. ^^
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But I never said I did not like the spiritual stuff. I LOVE it, that's why I loved the original series so much.
They handled it like shit in this series is my fucking issue here. It seemed more tacked on than anything.
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On June 25 2012 12:24 Candadar wrote:
But I never said I did not like the spiritual stuff. I LOVE it, that's why I loved the original series so much.
They handled it like shit in this series is my fucking issue here. It seemed more tacked on than anything.
You may not have said it, but it came across as such!
I don't think they handles it like shit. If you take away the short run time for the first book problems, it feels in line with the world. No long are you in a Asian fantasy world, but in a very, comparability, realistic 1920's San Francisco. So, instead of giant, kind of dbz like fights happening, most of the fights had to be realized in a much smaller area. (streets, inside, or an arena) The same could be said with the music, making a similar parallel from the first series to korra.
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Soooo, is the 10th episode the finale? Kind of a shitty ending for a finale.
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Favorite character = amon. So awesome
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Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts:
- Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2.
- Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally.
- The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney....
- Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi.
- A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too).
- Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting.
- Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens.
- Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written.
- Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes.
- No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out.
Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway.
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I don't really understand why rushing is bad in all circumstances. Anyone who has read Macbeth, and knows the works of Shakespeare well enough, knows that sometimes this forceful, quick push in stories hastens the work a little. It adequately fits into the idea that this entire story started with Korra's dynamic shift from being basically a sheltered princess into a leader caught in the middle of a war over the course about 4-5-6 episodes.
Korra's not a spiritual person, and hardly has the patience or attitude to seek a slow, peaceful, deep resolution to the conflict. In most occasions, she goes in with fire in hand and fights. There are obviously a lot of areas to explore in this plot (the other nations? Tenzin's brother? How did Amon take the bending away?), but too much would feel forced. It would hardly be any better than the story being too slim, so I guess a middle ground is at the very least acceptable.
The only thing that I truly didn't like were the characters. Though this problem could have been remedied with time, they just felt so one-dimmensional. The stubborn firebrand (who must overcome her problems, as a main character), the cheerful fool, the responsible badass, and the skillful other (normally of considerable variety, such as being a non-bender in this case). The animals kinda pissed me off, too, as they seemed to be just obvious attempts at mimicing the previously loved Appa and Momo.
And the love stories are only an extension of this... Last minute switch? Two characters comepletely alone at the end, with one being dumped in the last 2 minutes? Tenzin being stolen from Lin? Lin protecting Tenzin's wife as she gives birth to his son like 30 feet away? What Nickeleodon show is this o.O
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wow bittman im a fan of the post you just made!
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On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:
Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts:
- Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2.
- Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally.
- The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney....
- Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi.
- A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too).
- Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting.
- Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens.
- Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written.
- Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes.
- No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out.
Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway.
I agree I didn't really realize it but they did go from having things being grey to black and white. That is a bit of lost potential (depending on what kind of story you want).
However if they were to keep it grey through the rest of the series (or for Amon and Korra to be both white, AKA almost flawless and are both good causes), and have them both have rights and wrongs, how would they resolve it?
If I'm wrong or someone has a remote idea how they could accomplish such a story and keep it Y7, please enlighten me. If anyone knows Code Geass, or Death Note, those are both stories where the protagonists/antagonists have different views on what's "right" and "wrong". Both sides also do "rights" and "wrongs". Neither side is truly black or white. However, since both sides believe in their causes, violence ensues, and one side comes out on top -- forcefully.
So for an action show like LoK, how would they resolve the ending without making younger viewers confused about the show's messages/themes? If both Amon/Korra were kept to have differing but legit causes (Amon is an extremist taking everyone's bending away to punish the fewer criminals and Korra doesn't think that's fair) and Korra forcefully won, then OK, you could say that the show encourages Korra's view more. But Amon's view isn't shown to be black neither, right?
I guess I'm saying is that, for a show that a lot of younger kids are going to watch, they need to make one side "more black" to give a clearer, happier ending.
(Btw a "wrong" that Korra may be committing is going against "democracy", AKA if most peoples' opinions think that bending is unfair and should be gone -- of course though, we don't know how many non-benders there are exactly nor how many may have continued to join Amon's cause, bender or non-bender, if his campaign kept running
Another "wrong" is simply abusing her power as the Avatar, and this was laid out very well with the Korra/Tarrlok stuff. What is "right" in the world? Is the Avatar something you should worship and obey because of some divine nature, or is it because they are so powerful? If the society rejects obedience to the Avatar, is it still right for the Avatar to still do what he/she wants?).
So to put it shortly, if the show kept both opposing sides of the story in equal light, but Korra's cause wins, then wouldn't the show be encouraging people to abuse power to get what you want?
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On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:
Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts:
- Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2.
Somewhat agree with you. Agree that they certainly wrapped it up nicely. Disagree in that i'm interested to see where they take the story next. But with the way they handled the republic city saga, i'm skeptical on anything else having substance to it. There were no other antagonists introduced during the first story, no hint of strife in the outside world (i'm assuming the naval fleet was just on patrol, or not stationed at republic city. A big assumption, but they gave nothing else regarding this). Atleast in TLA the series had a running theme with traveling to republic city and defeating the fire nation.
- Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally.
For me, a lot of the history and techniques just kind of lined up with evolution occuring. Take the multitude of metal benders and lightning benders. Tenzin and his family being captured came out of nowhere, but somehow didn't bother me all that much. The Amon Tarlok story didn't feel all that rushed to me and made sense. I may be wrong, but even from the start i figured amon was a bender, (and then a blood bender once they introduced it), and that he was simply blocking chakras to take away bending.
- The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney....
Agreed. But alas, such is teenage love. Atleast Korra was strong and stopped chasing Mako after he initially chose Asami. I didn't feel it added anything special to the show though.
- Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi.
Well, we got another season incoming
- A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too).
Agreed. Though a small voice inside always kept nagging that with the evolution and widespread knowledge of bending techniques benders really shouldn't be having such a big problem with chi blockers.
- Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting.
Agreed
- Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens.
Agreed! I was so pumped at first as everything was developing in the first few episodes. It had such potential as you could see how Tarlock was using fear to manipulate laws and the masses to pass laws in favor of giving him more power. And then twisting Korra to due his bidding like with the charity/gala he put on for her knowing that the reporters would goad her into doing what he wished. WOW.
- Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written.
No complaints here. Would've liked to see a little more pro bending matches, but i was satisfied
- Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes.
Notsureifsrs
- No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out.
AGREED! Korra had it way easy compared to Aang. She had what, like 2 instances of meditating, ONLY! Then she drops to a low supposed low point (during which the whole time i'm thinking, um, hello, meditate, and go talk to some spirits) I agree with the guy above who complained about that.
Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway.
Responses in bold. Overall i'm satisfied and curious to see what happens next. But at the same time, there was a running theme throughout TLA (republic city, fire nation), and here, nothing. I honestly have no clue what the next chapters are going to be about. Here's to hoping for the best!
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On June 25 2012 13:33 travis wrote:
wow bittman im a fan of the post you just made!
<3
On June 25 2012 13:52 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:+ Show Spoiler [My Stuff] +Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts:
- Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2.
- Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally.
- The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney....
- Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi.
- A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too).
- Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting.
- Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens.
- Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written.
- Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes.
- No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out.
Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway. I agree I didn't really realize it but they did go from having things being grey to black and white. That is a bit of lost potential (depending on what kind of story you want). However if they were to keep it grey through the rest of the series (or for Amon and Korra to be both white, AKA almost flawless and are both good causes), and have them both have rights and wrongs, how would they resolve it? If I'm wrong or someone has a remote idea how they could accomplish such a story and keep it Y7, please enlighten me. If anyone knows Code Geass, or Death Note, those are both stories where the protagonists/antagonists have different views on what's "right" and "wrong". Both sides also do "rights" and "wrongs". Neither side is truly black or white. However, since both sides believe in their causes, violence ensues, and one side comes out on top -- forcefully. So for an action show like LoK, how would they resolve the ending without making younger viewers confused about the show's messages/themes? If both Amon/Korra were kept to have differing but legit causes (Amon is an extremist taking everyone's bending away to punish the fewer criminals and Korra doesn't think that's fair) and Korra forcefully won, then OK, you could say that the show encourages Korra's view more. But Amon's view isn't shown to be black neither, right? I guess I'm saying is that, for a show that a lot of younger kids are going to watch, they need to make one side "more black" to give a clearer, happier ending. (Btw a "wrong" that Korra may be committing is going against "democracy", AKA if most peoples' opinions think that bending is unfair and should be gone -- of course though, we don't know how many non-benders there are exactly nor how many may have continued to join Amon's cause, bender or non-bender, if his campaign kept running Another "wrong" is simply abusing her power as the Avatar, and this was laid out very well with the Korra/Tarrlok stuff. What is "right" in the world? Is the Avatar something you should worship and obey because of some divine nature, or is it because they are so powerful? If the society rejects obedience to the Avatar, is it still right for the Avatar to still do what he/she wants?). So to put it shortly, if the show kept both opposing sides of the story in equal light, but Korra's cause wins, then wouldn't the show be encouraging people to abuse power to get what you want?
Ok a lot in here, so I'll work through your post with my thoughts in steps. I.e. I like dot points.
1) There are plenty of resolution paths, and you did reference some stories that have hit the same conundrum and done the wrong thing. Death Note and Code Geass are great stories until their "second halves" where suddenly the writer realises he has to end this somehow. Their issue is not that the question the anti-hero-protagonist raises is wrong, but rather their solutions involve a lot of obviously adult themes. Basically, each looks to create the perfect world and that seems to only be viable with a lot of death. Often unnecessary death too in both of those shows. Sort of became death for deaths sake at a point. Which leads us to:
2) How can they do this for a childrens/teenagers show. Well death is an easy solution from a writing perspective. "A is bad, better get rid of him permanently. Death is permanent!" Simply, the equalist movement, though a rebellion of force, is a valid political notion in the world and setting of Avatar. Rather than confusing the themes there is the potential that the show has highlighted the wrong themes for the audience. Ask a child if the equalists are good or bad and I'm sure there's only one answer. They almost hit on it by having the lieutenant rebel, but beyond him other equalists were faceless or actually just insane. Give the bad guys a more human face. People understood Zuko and a lot of fire nation players, even though they had always been the bad guys.
3) Of course it needs to end in a fight, which is where it can get hard. But I think the Amon thing sort of worked out well, instead though I would have liked to see the lieutenant play a larger role in Amon's downfall. Or perhaps Korra met some equalists she liked, causing this inner clash. Not too deep a theme for Avatar which already introduced characters like Jet.
4) Would have also liked to see Korra represent the non-benders more. She did it in Tarrlok's face once, but then these people got forgotten. Oh well.
5) So yeah, I know where you're getting at, and I do think the equalists still should be painted in a more grey area light. However it would have been nice to keep some more grey, instead it was almost like they painted it black (Amon + Sato) and killed the grey (lieutenant). Fundamentally the equalists are wrong and bad from the perspective of removing the culture, utility and awesome of bending. So paint someone white in this grey.
On June 25 2012 14:12 Spacekyod wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:+ Show Spoiler [My stuff] +Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts: - Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2. + Show Spoiler [My stuff] +Somewhat agree with you. Agree that they certainly wrapped it up nicely. Disagree in that i'm interested to see where they take the story next. But with the way they handled the republic city saga, i'm skeptical on anything else having substance to it. There were no other antagonists introduced during the first story, no hint of strife in the outside world (i'm assuming the naval fleet was just on patrol, or not stationed at republic city. A big assumption, but they gave nothing else regarding this). Atleast in TLA the series had a running theme with traveling to republic city and defeating the fire nation. - Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally. - The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney.... - Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi. - A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too). - Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting. - Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens. - Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written. - Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes. - No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out. Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway. Responses in bold. Overall i'm satisfied and curious to see what happens next. But at the same time, there was a running theme throughout TLA (republic city, fire nation), and here, nothing. I honestly have no clue what the next chapters are going to be about. Here's to hoping for the best!
More dot points~
1) I actually have no issue with abundance of metal and lighting bending. And though, as you pointed out, people can make leaps of judgement and imagination to fill in the blanks, things were just unclear and could have been better laid out in plot. Like instead of making it look like Tenzin and family had perfectly escaped, they could have even spent 5 seconds showing a tracking device. Probably too advanced, but here's an example of how TLA did it: Zuko appears at Western Air Temple post black sun. Fortunately before this, the audience was shown that Zuko was in a war balloon following. Ta-da~ 5 seconds. 10 maybe for facial expression and panning the camera.
2) I know there's another season coming...I'm fearful =S
3) Tarrlok was such a shrewd politician, and yeah he was actually potentially one of the more exciting players in the series. And then he went and attacked Korra. He could have literally just turned her out of his office, but whatever. And then he suicides.
In a kids show mind you. Thelma and Louise is elementary school literature nowdays.
4) SUPER SERIOUS! Meelo and Bolin vs Wild would be great. Something along those lines.
5) Haha yeah, Korra's "low point" is bending getting taken away. Hey darling. Lose everyone you know because you were in a 100 year coma. Bah, women. (j/k =D)
6) Yeah and here's actually the big thing. Now until episode 12 I was looking forward to Season 2. Then it wrapped up perfectly, and now season 2 can ONLY be tacked on. TLA, and in fact almost every running series ever, will end a season with dangers and progression still being known. I mean the Death Star may be destroyed, but the Empire is still out there and Darth Vader survived. Bam! Nicely concluded victory AND a universe to explore. Amon dies. Tarrlok dies. Lieutenant does a Combustion Man. Korra declares love. Korra masters all the things. Major plot points yet to be developed = 0.
Hopefully nothing in this seems bitter, tone is hard in the interwebz. I like LoK, but it's definitely completed and I won't like season 2. If it starts a season 2 it'll be a trainwreck that has a response something like Code Geass season 2. That is:
"Oh hey a new episode. Oh did they just. Oh. Ohhhh. Ohhhh nooooo. I can't look away."
Oh man Code Geass season 2 was so funny to watch. Like a JCVD movie.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the series until the very last few minutes. Personally I would have preferred a very brief air bending revelation followed by Avatar Rape Mode for the first time when Amon was trying to take her bending however I did not mind the minute or two or "what the fuck did I just watch, fucking hate this show" and then Aang walking up behind her and giving it back :D. I did however think think it arguable the relationship was forced, but regardless I did not like the relationship nor did I like how it ended. With Aang/Katara it was like one of the biggest highlights of the series that they did end up together (if they left it in a questionable manner where it wasn't certain what happened OR if they made it clear Aang didn't end up with Katara I would have flipped shit) but at the end of this I was disappointed and felt it cheapened the whole series.
WTB more.
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On June 25 2012 14:52 bittman wrote:Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 13:33 travis wrote:
wow bittman im a fan of the post you just made! <3 Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 13:52 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:+ Show Spoiler [My Stuff] +Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts:
- Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2.
- Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally.
- The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney....
- Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi.
- A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too).
- Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting.
- Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens.
- Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written.
- Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes.
- No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out.
Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway. I agree I didn't really realize it but they did go from having things being grey to black and white. That is a bit of lost potential (depending on what kind of story you want). However if they were to keep it grey through the rest of the series (or for Amon and Korra to be both white, AKA almost flawless and are both good causes), and have them both have rights and wrongs, how would they resolve it? If I'm wrong or someone has a remote idea how they could accomplish such a story and keep it Y7, please enlighten me. If anyone knows Code Geass, or Death Note, those are both stories where the protagonists/antagonists have different views on what's "right" and "wrong". Both sides also do "rights" and "wrongs". Neither side is truly black or white. However, since both sides believe in their causes, violence ensues, and one side comes out on top -- forcefully. So for an action show like LoK, how would they resolve the ending without making younger viewers confused about the show's messages/themes? If both Amon/Korra were kept to have differing but legit causes (Amon is an extremist taking everyone's bending away to punish the fewer criminals and Korra doesn't think that's fair) and Korra forcefully won, then OK, you could say that the show encourages Korra's view more. But Amon's view isn't shown to be black neither, right? I guess I'm saying is that, for a show that a lot of younger kids are going to watch, they need to make one side "more black" to give a clearer, happier ending. (Btw a "wrong" that Korra may be committing is going against "democracy", AKA if most peoples' opinions think that bending is unfair and should be gone -- of course though, we don't know how many non-benders there are exactly nor how many may have continued to join Amon's cause, bender or non-bender, if his campaign kept running Another "wrong" is simply abusing her power as the Avatar, and this was laid out very well with the Korra/Tarrlok stuff. What is "right" in the world? Is the Avatar something you should worship and obey because of some divine nature, or is it because they are so powerful? If the society rejects obedience to the Avatar, is it still right for the Avatar to still do what he/she wants?). So to put it shortly, if the show kept both opposing sides of the story in equal light, but Korra's cause wins, then wouldn't the show be encouraging people to abuse power to get what you want? Ok a lot in here, so I'll work through your post with my thoughts in steps. I.e. I like dot points. 1) There are plenty of resolution paths, and you did reference some stories that have hit the same conundrum and done the wrong thing. Death Note and Code Geass are great stories until their "second halves" where suddenly the writer realises he has to end this somehow. Their issue is not that the question the anti-hero-protagonist raises is wrong, but rather their solutions involve a lot of obviously adult themes. Basically, each looks to create the perfect world and that seems to only be viable with a lot of death. Often unnecessary death too in both of those shows. Sort of became death for deaths sake at a point. Which leads us to: 2) How can they do this for a childrens/teenagers show. Well death is an easy solution from a writing perspective. "A is bad, better get rid of him permanently. Death is permanent!" Simply, the equalist movement, though a rebellion of force, is a valid political notion in the world and setting of Avatar. Rather than confusing the themes there is the potential that the show has highlighted the wrong themes for the audience. Ask a child if the equalists are good or bad and I'm sure there's only one answer. They almost hit on it by having the lieutenant rebel, but beyond him other equalists were faceless or actually just insane. Give the bad guys a more human face. People understood Zuko and a lot of fire nation players, even though they had always been the bad guys. 3) Of course it needs to end in a fight, which is where it can get hard. But I think the Amon thing sort of worked out well, instead though I would have liked to see the lieutenant play a larger role in Amon's downfall. Or perhaps Korra met some equalists she liked, causing this inner clash. Not too deep a theme for Avatar which already introduced characters like Jet. 4) Would have also liked to see Korra represent the non-benders more. She did it in Tarrlok's face once, but then these people got forgotten. Oh well. 5) So yeah, I know where you're getting at, and I do think the equalists still should be painted in a more grey area light. However it would have been nice to keep some more grey, instead it was almost like they painted it black (Amon + Sato) and killed the grey (lieutenant). Fundamentally the equalists are wrong and bad from the perspective of removing the culture, utility and awesome of bending. So paint someone white in this grey. Show nested quote +On June 25 2012 14:12 Spacekyod wrote:On June 25 2012 13:13 bittman wrote:+ Show Spoiler [My stuff] +Ok just watched the end of the series, so here's my thoughts: - Legend of Korra is over. For me, I actually don't want to see another episode of it. It wrapped up nicely, anything else is just tacked on and I'll have almost 0 interest in it. So I hope they're actually not making a season 2. + Show Spoiler [My stuff] +Somewhat agree with you. Agree that they certainly wrapped it up nicely. Disagree in that i'm interested to see where they take the story next. But with the way they handled the republic city saga, i'm skeptical on anything else having substance to it. There were no other antagonists introduced during the first story, no hint of strife in the outside world (i'm assuming the naval fleet was just on patrol, or not stationed at republic city. A big assumption, but they gave nothing else regarding this). Atleast in TLA the series had a running theme with traveling to republic city and defeating the fire nation. - Overall, it was ok. There is a lot of story elements I don't get, and a lot of history and technique that's just plain missing or unexplained. Suddenly Tenzin is captured. Amon and Tarlok get a nice 20 years of unknown history that's probably just as interesting as making wolves dance. How does bloodbending take away bending? Be nice to fill in the audience on some things occasionally. - The love elements were silly, I was ok with it early on because you know, teenagers can be awkward. But that jump to love was very....Disney.... - Hi Iroh. Hi Bumi. Bye Iroh. Bye Bumi. - A lot of the fights were pretty cool, especially when they involved chi blockers. Though the scale of bending was definitely down this series (well it's hard to chi block against a wall of fire) it did make for some good to watch fights that just weren't super-over-the-top like TLA (which is fun too). - Production wise, I freaking love LoK. It's sooo pretty, nice soundtrack, fairly smooth character animations and generally good voice acting. - Story, ehhhh. They did the pokemon black and white thing. "Let's approach a real dramatic issue within the context of the world! Now let's cheapen out at the end by making the leader actually a really bad dude and the movement will resolve itself in the background!" Yeaaah, if they do something else in the Avatar world in the future (or a season 2...) I would like to see the equalist as a political party to represent the valid concerns of non-bending citizens. - Character development was meh. Korra developed, sort of. If it wasn't for her Disney princess romance I think I'd be pretty happy with her as a well rounded character. The Asami v Sato was also a good development in the story. Maybe Tenzin and Lin were rounded off well enough too, but the rest of the characters were fairly averagely written. - Except Bolin and Meelo. They need their own show. The Legend of AwesomeDudes. - No real spiritual stuff =( Aang was pretty spiritual, still went through a bunch of solstices and chakras and enormous emotional lows to work things out. Overall: it's not TLA, I wasn't thinking it would be given it would only be approximately half the size, but seeing how the first season wrapped up I'm ok with this being a nice 12 episode series. For 12 episodes we got to see a lot of interesting things in great production value. And I'm a big fan of production value. Have issues with the script, but if you asked me how to better structure a 12 episode series I would probably scratch my head anyway. Responses in bold. Overall i'm satisfied and curious to see what happens next. But at the same time, there was a running theme throughout TLA (republic city, fire nation), and here, nothing. I honestly have no clue what the next chapters are going to be about. Here's to hoping for the best! More dot points~ 1) I actually have no issue with abundance of metal and lighting bending. And though, as you pointed out, people can make leaps of judgement and imagination to fill in the blanks, things were just unclear and could have been better laid out in plot. Like instead of making it look like Tenzin and family had perfectly escaped, they could have even spent 5 seconds showing a tracking device. Probably too advanced, but here's an example of how TLA did it: Zuko appears at Western Air Temple post black sun. Fortunately before this, the audience was shown that Zuko was in a war balloon following. Ta-da~ 5 seconds. 10 maybe for facial expression and panning the camera. 2) I know there's another season coming...I'm fearful =S 3) Tarrlok was such a shrewd politician, and yeah he was actually potentially one of the more exciting players in the series. And then he went and attacked Korra. He could have literally just turned her out of his office, but whatever. And then he suicides. In a kids show mind you. Thelma and Louise is elementary school literature nowdays. 4) SUPER SERIOUS! Meelo and Bolin vs Wild would be great. Something along those lines. 5) Haha yeah, Korra's "low point" is bending getting taken away. Hey darling. Lose everyone you know because you were in a 100 year coma. Bah, women. (j/k =D) 6) Yeah and here's actually the big thing. Now until episode 12 I was looking forward to Season 2. Then it wrapped up perfectly, and now season 2 can ONLY be tacked on. TLA, and in fact almost every running series ever, will end a season with dangers and progression still being known. I mean the Death Star may be destroyed, but the Empire is still out there and Darth Vader survived. Bam! Nicely concluded victory AND a universe to explore. Amon dies. Tarrlok dies. Lieutenant does a Combustion Man. Korra declares love. Korra masters all the things. Major plot points yet to be developed = 0. Hopefully nothing in this seems bitter, tone is hard in the interwebz. I like LoK, but it's definitely completed and I won't like season 2. If it starts a season 2 it'll be a trainwreck that has a response something like Code Geass season 2. That is: "Oh hey a new episode. Oh did they just. Oh. Ohhhh. Ohhhh nooooo. I can't look away." Oh man Code Geass season 2 was so funny to watch. Like a JCVD movie.
Thanks for responding. Interesting idea, on making different bodies of the Equalists different colors. Now that you mention it, they could have done a lot more with the Lieutenant. But it is a 12 episode series only, so I'm very satisfied. I'm sure the writers would have been able to handle a 20-26 episode season, so I wonder why they either decided to or were forced to not make it too long.
I actually like them not explaining how they got captured though. It was implied they simply overlooked it or something and they were captured somehow. Vague yes, but it makes the scene seeing them tied up more dramatic and suspenseful. I found it effective. If they showed something following or tracking them or what was going to capture them, then we would know something the heroes wouldn't. That would cause the scene to not be a surprise anymore, instead giving the scene hinting that they were going to be captured a negative feeling "Oh, darn it...'
I don't think the latter is the way they wanted it :S. Well anyways, I liked it the way it was I guess.
Also I agree they could have explained more things in the series. But the series was only 12 episodes, and they even shortened the opening down after the first episode or so, and in some episodes the credits play during the last scene. So really they already crammed those 12 episodes up. So I'm not complaining is what I'm saying, I guess. I think they left the stuff about energybending/bloodbending and taking/giving bending away/back ambigious on purpose because it didn't make perfect sense if they tried to explain it (since chakra/chi isn't actually "real"). Again, I think younger kids would have been fine with it. For maturer audiences, they'd probably look it up on the internet and formulate their own theories and such, and be satisfied that way. Since they are such great writers, I think they might have thought something like that, to be able to fit in as much as possible. I don't want to doubt them, that they would overlook such a seemingly good idea to explain what's going on in more detail.
Btw who doesn't love that low [brass? + suspended cymbal?] sound whenever something scary comes out? For example whenever it shows Amon, it would have that low, powerful, ringing sound. SO EFFECTIVE LOL. They used it during the fights too. I didn't really notice it before until now, when I rewatched some parts of the finale X)
And of course, I thought the music was very very good. Helped make some crowning moments of awesome.
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