Avatar: The Last Airbender & Korra (SPOILERS)

[Carlie]

Spoiler: Flirting

 

[Ami]

Spoiler: Just finished season 3 and wow.

That was a pretty gruesome ending with Korra in a wheelchair. I kind of wanted to cry over how she was willing to give up everything and still ends up in a low state after it all. Will be leaving it a few days and then go on a season 4 marathon this weekend/next week with me being off work.

 

[Ami]

Spoiler: Started season 4 sooner than I thought

because I just couldn't wait. Not like that's a spoiler, but still.

Anyway, loved how the season ended on a not-so-sure-everything's-going-to-be-ok note. Glad it continued into this season. Just watched the first two episodes and didn't expect it to jump in time so much. I'm more interested in Korra's problems and I totally squealed, "TOPH!" at the end when she called her Twinkletoes.

Just wow, I always wanted her to appear and now?

 

[Carlie]

This is a really good article.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Link borked?

 

[Lex]

Worked for me? :/

Also I read that article during finale fever.

 

[Ami]

That article nailed everything.

Spoiler: And yes, I've finished season four.

I've seen Korrasami, I've been a fan of them since they met and really saw the attraction somewhere in season three. That final moment was so groundbreaking. What a fantastic way to break the boundaries and end such a brilliant show.

I've definitely been Korrasami'd.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Worked for me? :/

Also I read that article during finale fever.

Working now. Good article.

 

[Carlie]

Spoiler: The Three Amigos

Spoiler: Old Photos

 

[Shademp]

Spoiler: Random thing about season 3

After seeing Carlie's signature gif, I find it funny that Toph mentions acupuncture and then her daughter Lin goes through acupuncture in Book 3 of LoK. Was acupuncture mentioned at ANY other point in ATLA? If not, then I like the acupuncture connection here (whether it was intended or not).

 

[Lex]

And I'm crying again. Cheers Korra fandom :/

 

[Carlie]

I've been watching that video since it was made, still love it. I really love the collective "No, just No." reaction to the possibility of Makorra being brought back from the dead. Then the collective sighs of relief when the scene ends and nothing happens. And obviously the part were everyone completely loses it when Korrasami holds hands is the best.

Btw this is both extremely hilarious in hindsight and foreshadowing (Janet Varney commentary from Book 1):

Janet Varney is Korra's VA Lex.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Finished Book 1 of Korra. It was ok. Interested ta see where Book 2 goes.




X

 

[Ami]

 

[Drax]

Pain...

Spoiler

on the Spirit Plane

Somebody t-shirt that.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I'm actually looking forward to something like that that I can take a little more seriously...
...because this Book was really uneven.

Spoiler

The WWI-steampunk-era setting is interesting, but it just seems to serve as a centralized backdrop that really shutters out the entire rest of the world. Initially the things with Amon were really interesting, but I kinda lost any sense of him being a threat more than just being a plot device.

Tarrlok being his brother but not working in tandem with him intentionally seemed like a BIG stretch, especially since they had a clear connection in their past, and the actions of one always directly fueled the reactions of the other, and I totally didn't buy the, "we became just what our dead dad made us into" at all.

When Amon attacks the pro bending match, I can totally believe that the shock gauntlet people tool out the police in their metal uniforms, but it's hard to believe that there weren't ANY other benders in the stands that would try to fight back. Republic City seems to have a weird sense of how many benders are/aren't in any location at a given time. In ATLA, they always managed to find benders in certain locations to assist them in doing things, but in Korra, they've only really been there as set pieces, and haven't really shown themselves in any capacity aside from being rounded up and eliminated.

Also, Korra learning Air Bending felt like it was treated like Indiana Jones working on Teaching Material. It was just there when it needed to be, and it's talked about as something that occupies time, but it never really seems like it past the very start of things. It really fails the "show don't tell" I mean, even having her running through forms or something for a few seconds in her spare time would've worked, but instead her air bending just seems to emerge through the Deus Ex Machina moment that it needed to.

Speaking of which - The final confrontation with Amon was dick-rippingly frustrating. Mako just tosses him into a pile of boards (and doesn't finish him off), and then they throw the water bender into the fucking ocean (which DID serve to oust him to the public, but was still a fucking stupid idea). Also, there's no explanation for how he managed to capture the Air Bender family other than plot devicing. Also, of the hordes of people that have faced off against him, it really just seemed like they were able to beat him because it was the end of the season, and not because of any REAL development - especially because he's beaten better Air Bender amily, and Korra just manages to pull that out at the last second.

Also, when she did get her bending taken away, I wasn't even REMOTELY concerned because the construction of other people getting it taken before made it obvious that it was gonna get Ctrl+Z'd away relatively soon.


Aaaaaand, aside from Bolin's initial crush on Korra getting knocked down, I think that the whole love triangle nonsense is all really dumb and a waste of time. Here's to hoping for better progression with that sort of shit later on.



tl;dr - If I'm headed into a world of pain, I'm excited because hopefully that means that it'll actually have stakes that I find believable/engaging.

X

 

[Carlie]

Aaaaaand, aside from Bolin's initial crush on Korra getting knocked down, I think that the whole love triangle nonsense is all really dumb and a waste of time. Here's to hoping for better progression with that sort of shit later on.
X

Yeah that's what the entire fandom said in 2012. To call the romantic plot tumor extremely hated would be quite the understatement. The only good thing that came out of it is that it started the Korrasami ship.

Book 2 just sucks man but it does have two of the best episodes ever in the franchise "Beginnings Part 1 & 2". Also Varrick and Chu Li are introduced in Book 2.

Just remember Book 3 is were things get massively better.

 

[trash panda]

Beginnings 1&2 were probably my favorite episodes in the whole Avatar-verse.

 

[ForceStealer]

I HATE the way Korra "gets" airbending. Talk about the total opposite of everything we have been taught about the nature and attitude of airbending.

But then I already disliked that she could bend the other three AS A TODDLER. I mean, come on. I get that you didn't want to repeat the plot of the first show, but there are other, less-dumb ways to do that.

 

[AvecAloes]

I guess her bending as a toddler could be a reason that she's so cocky (at least, I thought she was) and serve as a reason for her difficulties with "getting" airbending, but in that case, I also don't like the way that she finally "got" it. I would have appreciated it more had she had to overcome the block, rather than the block having been forcibly removed. I don't know, seemed like a missed opportunity for some serious character development. But then I guess that would have meant avoiding all of the personality hangup bollocks in the next two seasons oh wait.

I know, I know, some of you think her development was great. I'm not amongst you, haha.

 

[Carlie]

I HATE the way Korra "gets" airbending. Talk about the total opposite of everything we have been taught about the nature and attitude of airbending.

But then I already disliked that she could bend the other three AS A TODDLER. I mean, come on. I get that you didn't want to repeat the plot of the first show, but there are other, less-dumb ways to do that.

Don't even get me started on the part about Korra contemplating committing suicide was rewarded with her unlocking the avatar state because that totally wasn't an ass pull. Neither was Mako, a firebender (and not a particular exceptional one at that) somehow being able to break free of bloodbending.

I guess her bending as a toddler could be a reason that she's so cocky (at least, I thought she was) and serve as a reason for her difficulties with "getting" airbending, but in that case, I also don't like the way that she finally "got" it. I would have appreciated it more had she had to overcome the block, rather than the block having been forcibly removed. I don't know, seemed like a missed opportunity for some serious character development. But then I guess that would have meant avoiding all of the personality hangup bollocks in the next two seasons oh wait.

I know, I know, some of you think her development was great. I'm not amongst you, haha.

Her development pre Beginnings was clumsy at best, she was an asshole and by Book 2 had become almost completely unlikable. Post Beginnings I think Bryke did a massively better job with her development to the point that I actually like her more than Aang.

 

[ForceStealer]

More than Aang? I don't know about that...I don't think it ever recovered that much. Maybe I'm holding the first season and a half against her unfairly, but Aang doesn't have any seasons working against him.

 

[Carlie]

To be honest is in the finale and post ATLA that Aang has lost quite a few points with me. I never thought Aang was ever going to kill Ozai but his reasons for it are rather poor. Best exemplified in his conversation with Avatar Yangchen. Yet he still gets a free pass in the end and didn't learn anything from the situation.

Then there's him severing his connection to Roku because he didn't give him the advice Aang wanted in "The Promise" which also severed his connection to the rest of hi past lives. Though to be honest "The Promise" is just terrible and I rather pretend it never happened.

Then there's his way of dealing with Yakone, turns out shockingly that simply taking someone who is genuinely evil's bending away isn't going to stop them from being a threat. At this point he's not a 12 year old anymore, he's an adult so he really should've known better. Of course he doesn't have to deal with the repercussions of his actions, is Korra that has to.

And finally he just really wasn't a very good dad. Even as a spirit and all 3 of his children are stuck in that fog in the Spirit World he still played parental favoritism.

 

[Lex]

Aang is a very likeable character but I wasn't crazy about him purely because I thought he was outshone by all of his friends (for me anyway). I prefer Katara, Toph, Zuko and Sokka. I can't deny that there's something Korra has that Aang doesn't though.

There's a fire about her that I hate in Books 1 and 2 but started to like in Book 3 and loved in Book 4. Her development in Book 2 was shit (I couldn't even call it development, it's just sheer character regression in my eyes) but in the second half of Book 3 and certainly in Book 4 I finally settled on liking her.

I also liked Mako in the end. Both Mako and Korra seem to stop being assholes at the same time during Book 2 to be honest.

My favourite character from the core people is probably Bolin, which surprises me purely because I found him super annoying at first. Now I love him, I think he's awesome. If I had to pick a favourite "non-main" character, I'd probably go with Su Beifong. I also like all of her kids aside from the evil one

 

[Carlie]

Spoiler: This is 100% me

I may have a problem.