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Rincewind posted:Yeah, even if Katara taught her to bloodbend, only Yakone and his kids could do it all the time. I legit forgot about that limitation. A:tLA seems so long ago.
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Jul 12, 2014 23:48
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I shall consider it a wasted opportunity of Equalist-level proportions if this scene doesn't occur somehow 
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Jul 12, 2014 23:51
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I feel like Korra isn't going to be duped too easily anymore. After Varrick and various waterbenders turning on her, I don't expect her to be too trusting. She was quick to call the Earth Queen on her poo poo, and didn't listen to Lin or Tenzin's suggestion that she get somewhere safe. She also didn't take poo poo in Republic City either. I feel like she's becoming a strong and independent young woman, which considering she's saved a city twice, saved the world, and is the freakin' Avatar makes a lot of sense. The first two seasons had people taking advantage of Korra's youth and inexperience, now I feel like she knows what's up and is ready to handle things. With this being the case, an elite group of superbenders is actually a very good villain for the season, representing a challenge to her physical/bending abilities (which she's always had confidence in, deservedly so having generally only lost to being vastly outnumbered or straight up hacks like bloodbending) now that she seems to have found her place and role in the world.
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Jul 12, 2014 23:51
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The major thing with Lin's sister is that Lin isn't avoiding her because she knows her sister is Secretly Evil or whatever. Lin just genuinely has serious family issues with her but we're not given even the smallest indication that Lin doesn't trust her sister. She just dislikes her. So even though there's not an unreasonable chance she isn't a nice as she appears, Korra has no reason to doubt her because even the most negative member of the team when it comes to her doesn't find her dangerous. (And Lin finds everything dangerous.)
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Jul 12, 2014 23:56
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ImpAtom posted:The major thing with Lin's sister is that Lin isn't avoiding her because she knows her sister is Secretly Evil or whatever. Lin just genuinely has serious family issues with her but we're not given even the smallest indication that Lin doesn't trust her sister. She just dislikes her. So even though there's not an unreasonable chance she isn't a nice as she appears, Korra has no reason to doubt her because even the most negative member of the team when it comes to her doesn't find her dangerous. (And Lin finds everything dangerous.) Seriously, If Lin didn't deep down trust her sister no loving way would she have let the Avatar who is being hunted go out by herself, while she stayed behind.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:18
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There's certainly no reason to believe Su isn't trustworthy or that Zaofu isn't safe. With only 13 episodes, they may not consider it a priority to follow up on the possibility that there's an unexamined human cost to Zaofu's seeming perfection. Twice they pointed out that the city welcomes even former criminals. Maybe Ghazan, the evil earthbender, will make an appearance, like how Zaheer infiltrated the air temple.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:30
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Welcoming reformed baddies is easy when you can use EBing for truth detecting. e: Then again Azula was really good at lying so whatever.
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Jul 13, 2014 01:49
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PhazonLink posted:Welcoming reformed baddies is easy when you can use EBing for truth detecting. It also wouldn't work if they legitimately believed they were telling the truth. I mean Varrick probably believes literally every thing he says even if it is hypocritical or wrong.
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Jul 13, 2014 01:58
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The only real hint we've gotten so far the Su is more a little off is how she quickly and rather forcefully shut down any notion of Korra taking her daughter away for training, and while Korra threw in the "I guess I could teach her the basics here" quip, Su obviously meant she wanted Opal's whole training to be done at home. Granted at this point I'm pretty sure that's just more the flip side of her 'family is everything' mentality. Su can take it so far it becomes a fault.
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Jul 13, 2014 02:04
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I really enjoyed these last two episodes, quite possibly more than anything in season 1. The bending fights are fantastic, and I'm really interested in where they're going with these villains. What a difference it makes when a show's villains are interesting and not, say, Unalaq. Ditto to whoever praised Zaheer's voice acting, he is perfect. Like I expected when I saw the trailer, female characters seem way more prominent than they were last season...among several other welcome changes. Why the hell doesn't the Nick website have season 3 streaming? Really trying to support this show, with how badly it's being treated by the network, but they're not giving me many options. Wildeyes fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 05:21
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Sydin posted:The only real hint we've gotten so far the Su is more a little off is how she quickly and rather forcefully shut down any notion of Korra taking her daughter away for training, and while Korra threw in the "I guess I could teach her the basics here" quip, Su obviously meant she wanted Opal's whole training to be done at home. Granted at this point I'm pretty sure that's just more the flip side of her 'family is everything' mentality. Su can take it so far it becomes a fault. Even then, it's not necessarily Secret Evil. They had a conversation about how one of the mistakes Toph made was giving her family too much freedom/not enough attention and it seems like the response there was Lin not wanting kids at all and Su doing everything she can to give her kids attention and keep them with her.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:24
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Sydin posted:The only real hint we've gotten so far the Su is more a little off is how she quickly and rather forcefully shut down any notion of Korra taking her daughter away for training, and while Korra threw in the "I guess I could teach her the basics here" quip, Su obviously meant she wanted Opal's whole training to be done at home. Granted at this point I'm pretty sure that's just more the flip side of her 'family is everything' mentality. Su can take it so far it becomes a fault. I dunno, a mother not wanting her only daughter, who is still a teenager, to go off away from home and family to the far side of the world, is a pretty reasonable human reaction, not a villainous act.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:31
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Fried Chicken posted:I dunno, a mother not wanting her only daughter, who is still a teenager, to go off away from home and family to the far side of the world, is a pretty reasonable human reaction, not a villainous act. It is reasonable, but it is also representative of her perspective on the strife between herself, Lin, and Toph.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:33
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I really don't think they're going to make one of Toph's daughters evil. I'm not especially worried about it.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:59
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Last night I caught up on Sylvia Chan's new book on Dowager Empress Cixi, on whom the Earth Queen is quite clearly based. She's been mostly misunderstood by historians (which is explained in the book) but new documentation is giving her a makeover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Dowager_Cixi Dowager Empress Cixi (1835 – 1908) was a Manchu woman born in the late Ching (Manchu dyansty) who was chosen as concubine to Tongzhi but was raised in status almost equal to the actual empress when she produced his only son. She outlived four emperors - her father-in-law, her husband, her son, and her stepson - and she ruled behind the throne for long periods during the reigns of the last two. Even though she did not have a strong education, she became a sophisticated diplomat and reformer. During her day she was mostly extremely popular for being a strong and competent ruler when the emperors were very weak in personality. She lived during a long period of decay and destruction of the Chinese empire. She was raised during the Opium Wars, when Britain forced China to open trade with the west. Over time more sovereignty was conceded. She attempted to modernize the army to keep up the arms race with Meiji Japan, which was rapidly becoming a major naval power and invaded Korea, which at the time was under Chinese rule. Since she couldn't actually rule, court etiquette forced her into retirement when her son and then her stepson came of age, which were disastrous periods for Chinese history. The traditional political forces in the Forbidden City shut down her reform programs, and China was completely unprepared for the war with Japan in 1894. Each war caused the loss of territory with tremendous financial hardships forced on the loser. China was in debt when the Western powers who had traditionally respected her decided to take chunks out of China's shorelines and Russia demanded a railroad and more control over Manchuria. Intelligent nobles basically begged for her to come back into power, but it was already too late. Frustration with outside forces and loss of Chinese dignity lead to the Boxer Rebellion, which was poorly equipped and only succeeded in losing more territory and rights to foreign powers. She attempted more reforms, and continued that program until her death in 1908, when she named Puyi emperor. The Ching dynasty was overthrown almost immediately after her death. Fun facts: - Cixi was for the modernization of China, especially its military. She introduced the first railroad, telegraph lines, and electricity. She bought the first gun ships and would have spent more money had she had complete power over the government. She changed the educational system to teach modern subjects instead of exclusively teaching Chinese classics. She learned English. She discouraged corruption. - She was an especially talented leader, negotiating China's way out of several disasters or at least limiting their scope. She preferred winning over political enemies over punishing them, though she did inflict revenge on people. She had very few people actually executed; she thought it was in bad taste. She maintained good relationships with foreign envoys (despite not being allowed to see them until very late) and sent out the first Chinese diplomatic missions to Europe and the United States. She accepted criticisms from censors and rarely punished them. - People were either terrified of her or loved her; she loved to laugh and was generally a very amicable person when not in an official meeting. She outlawed various barbaric practices, including foot binding. - She did love nature and gardens, which was difficult for her since most of her life she was not allowed to leave the Forbidden City. When foreign forces burned down the Summer Palace during her husband's reign, she spent a good portion of her life trying to restore them, for which she was criticized, as it was a major expenditure and possibly the only time she used corrupt methods to get the money she needed. Today it is still considered the gem of the tour of the Forbidden City. - She loved birds and animals. On her birthday she would buy 10,00 captive birds and set them free. She ended the habit of breeding undersized "sleeve" dogs which were malformed so they could be carried around in clothing and promoted healthier breeds. She also loved Chinese Opera, essentially making into the form it is today at the Peking Opera House. She even wrote operas herself. - In public she wore a Manchu headdress which was in fact very heavy; in private she was allowed to remove her jewels to lighten the load. So yeah, tons and tons of parallels. Until the 1980's she was a villain of Chinese history, responsible for the decay of the empire, but a lot of the historical documents from her time were written by her enemies (failed assassins like Kang the Silver Fox) and she did not respond because explaining the situation would have caused scandals. For the Earth Queen to be upset about loss of land to the United Republic and conspiring to develop new military technology makes complete sense to me. dj_clawson fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 07:02
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Wildeyes posted:I really enjoyed these last two episodes, quite possibly more than anything in season 1. The bending fights are fantastic, and I'm really interested in where they're going with these villains. What a difference it makes when a show's villains are interesting and not, say, Unalaq. Ditto to whoever praised Zaheer's voice acting, he is perfect. Since the thing they use to track TV ratings doesn't count streaming or DVR (because it is behind the time and refuses to change)They need to get people to actually watch the show on tv when it airs. Remember they pushed everything forward because of the leaks and that screwed up advertising majorly. I mean no way they weren't going to do some big revel at Comic-Con later this month.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:24
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AshB posted:I really don't think they're going to make one of Toph's daughters evil. I'm not especially worried about it. Of course she's not evil. But there's more to seeming utopias than the goodwill of their leaders. Art deco was the art style of optimism, of faith in progress, of embracing Change - and the city drawn in that style embodies those ideals. It's a place for people to put their pasts behind them and look to the future. Of course, it won't be that easy (we're only on episode 5). Varrick is there and that oily rascal hasn't changed one bit. Korra's mission is the gathering of airbenders, and that's as much reviving something old as creating something new. Most pressingly - the villains come from the past, and the solution to the mystery of their motives will be found there. Su created a little world where there's only the future. The strife between her and Lin has its roots in the past, and Su thinks by letting go of the past she can find peace. Letting go of the past is the one thing Lin can't do, however. Korra must, of course, bring harmony to the half-sisters, and that means restoring balance between the past and the future. The past has already resisted her; why shouldn't the future also?
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Jul 13, 2014 07:26
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Bongo Bill posted:Zaofu's gleaming art deco lotus design is spectacular and it reminds me of Metropolis in a big way. Keeping guys like Varrick and that "truth-seer" Aiwei around makes me wonder what other sinister secrets are under that utopia. Considering the series' track records on utopias, I think there's a 100% chance that if there's not a huge problem with the city now, there's going to be one within 3 episodes. Also, Kya losing to a guy who's been airbending for 3 weeks when she was raised with Tenzin? She must genuinely suck as a bender.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:31
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Here guys have some fun pics I dug up from Bryan's blog. D'awww dat Bolin.   Ryu, the Korean staffer who the goonbender was based on. EDIT: Aang hit his growth spurt:  
ShadowCatboy fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 07:33
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dj_clawson posted:Also, Kya losing to a guy who's been airbending for 3 weeks when she was raised with Tenzin? She must genuinely suck as a bender. They said Zaheer was a match for nearly any bender even when he didn't have any bending. His airbending is rudimentary but he's still got regular martial arts. I thought Kya put on a performance worthy of her mother. It's just hard to stop an airbender from flying away.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:38
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Bongo Bill posted:They said Zaheer was a match for nearly any bender even when he didn't have any bending. His airbending is rudimentary but he's still got regular martial arts. I thought Kya put on a performance worthy of her mother. It's just hard to stop an airbender from flying away. Also since it's unlikely that Zaheer was able to get a hold of air nomad literature while in prison, he must have been a student of their history and philosophy long before he ever got airbending. Sure it's not the traditional style, but Zaheer combining his extensive knowledge of airbender teachings with his own well developed martial arts puts him miles ahead of other new airbenders. Not to mention if he really did study airbender teachings beforehand, he probably had some time in prison to learn to apply the theory to reality before making his escape.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:46
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This man must be brought to justice.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:48
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dj_clawson posted:Last night I caught up on Sylvia Chan's new book on Dowager Empress Cixi, on whom the Earth Queen is quite clearly based. She's been mostly misunderstood by historians (which is explained in the book) but new documentation is giving her a makeover.
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Jul 13, 2014 08:18
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Sydin posted:Also since it's unlikely that Zaheer was able to get a hold of air nomad literature while in prison, he must have been a student of their history and philosophy long before he ever got airbending. Sure it's not the traditional style, but Zaheer combining his extensive knowledge of airbender teachings with his own well developed martial arts puts him miles ahead of other new airbenders. Not to mention if he really did study airbender teachings beforehand, he probably had some time in prison to learn to apply the theory to reality before making his escape. My current hypothesis is that Zaheer is a descendant of the original Air Nomads who fled into the Earth Kingdom 170 years ago, as are all the other new Airbenders popping up everywhere. Harmonic convergence just reawakened their latent Airbending abilities.
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Jul 13, 2014 08:25
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This season is really great, and I say that as a critic of the first two seasons. What's good? -Varied bender-on-bender fights. Season 1 was lacking a ton of that. Season 2 was almost entirely against waterbenders. Cool fights are why we get in the door for this show, -Better worldbuilding and travel. Republic City was beautifully designed but not nearly interesting enough to carry an entire season on its own. They have an enormous fantastical world to play around in, staying in one place was dumb. 1930s Hong Kong will never be as awe-inspiring as the Northern Water Tribe, Ba Sing Se or the new metal city. -A better scope of myth. Season 1 should not be considered a "legend," Korra defeated what was at best a small, localized rebellion run by a crazy person. Season 2 was vastly better at this. This is about the same, maybe a bit less so far. -No filler so far. Probending was pointless to spend that much time on. Much of what Tenzin was doing in season 2 was irrelevant to the bigger plot. -Better, and better-established villains. The sympathy for Amon's rebellion was very tell-not-show. Eska and Desna were never credible threats. Tonraq was ok but Insane Supervillian Evil. These new villains, while not established in motivation yet, feel actually threatening (which Amon at least had) and are given a lot of screen time. -No bad teen relationship drama yet. -More Lin, who is a good genesis for conflict in the happy-family group without villains or teen relationship drama. -The animation and art direction are stellar. The bad is comparatively little stuff. Milo is still a dumb character designed to appeal to literal infants. Bolin is still largely useless to the plot compared with Sokka. The bending still feels a lot less "epic" than it was in the original series, although this has also improved. 2 1/2 seasons in we haven't seen a glimpse of s Fire Nstion city. For as long as we had to wait to see Zuko I was expecting him to be an Ozai-level superbadass, but in this he chucks two small fire blasts and then gets KOd. All in all, a great improvement from last season, which was a great improvement as well.
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Jul 13, 2014 09:09
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This show makes me realise how sick I am of TV that relies on villains that all hate each other or are constantly trying to backstab each other. Zaheer and co legit seem like buddies, and it's a joy to watch.
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Jul 13, 2014 12:12
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Tezzor posted:For as long as we had to wait to see Zuko I was expecting him to be an Ozai-level superbadass, but in this he chucks two small fire blasts and then gets KOd. Considering the fact that he must be around 90, that's pretty badass.
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Jul 13, 2014 12:18
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Nichael posted:Considering the fact that he must be around 90, that's pretty badass. Not even close. Bumi was well over 100 in the original series and only Toph could match him in earthbending. Like somebody said earlier, one of the great things about the original series was that old people were almost always total badasses.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:46
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Nichael posted:Considering the fact that he must be around 90, that's pretty badass. I don't know, it's pretty underwhelming compared to old dudes like Bumi from the original series who were still kicking extreme levels of rear end while being ancient. If Toph shows up, she better be like Bumi. Old as crap, but still able to destroy anyone with just her face.
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Jul 13, 2014 13:47
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In a mirror to TLA, Korra and Team Avatar lead a coup of the Earth Kingdom, and Toph returns to kick the Earth Queen's rear end. 
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Jul 13, 2014 14:03
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Darth Nat posted:I don't know, it's pretty underwhelming compared to old dudes like Bumi from the original series who were still kicking extreme levels of rear end while being ancient. As I said before, Zuko was never really that impressive as a bender. He got clowned in the first episode and by the last season he was either hiring Combustion Man or working in tandem with other characters to be effective. He was better than the rank-and-file but he was probably the worst Major Character Bender in the show. Which sounds worse than it is when you consider pretty much every other major bender was some kind of super-prodigy. Even with the required Old Man Boost, he probably isn't going to be pulling off crazy super-poo poo like even his Uncle did. However he seems to be a pretty drat effective leader and has managed to avoid killing/maiming a whole bunch of people which puts him one up on his grandfather, father, and sister. Toph however is a fan favorite and if she shows up it is going to be to drop a mountain on someone. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 14:12
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Wildeyes posted:Why the hell doesn't the Nick website have season 3 streaming? Really trying to support this show, with how badly it's being treated by the network, but they're not giving me many options. They even specifically brag about how the show can't be seen online during the ad breaks? Marketing fail on their behalf.
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Jul 13, 2014 14:50
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Tezzor posted:-No bad teen relationship drama yet. Considering how much time some of the boys and girls in this show spend blushing at each other, I'd be amazed if there aren't at least a few episodes packed with it. But as long as Korra or Asami don't get back together with Mako, it's fine.
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Jul 13, 2014 15:39
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ImpAtom posted:As I said before, Zuko was never really that impressive as a bender. He got clowned in the first episode and by the last season he was either hiring Combustion Man or working in tandem with other characters to be effective. He was better than the rank-and-file but he was probably the worst Major Character Bender in the show. Which sounds worse than it is when you consider pretty much every other major bender was some kind of super-prodigy. Even with the required Old Man Boost, he probably isn't going to be pulling off crazy super-poo poo like even his Uncle did. However he seems to be a pretty drat effective leader and has managed to avoid killing/maiming a whole bunch of people which puts him one up on his grandfather, father, and sister. Eh? Zuko and Katara were pretty much equal in terms of bending and fighting ability. Water just leads itself to more impressive looking feats when a large chunk of the series takes place around large quantities of it(Snow/Ocean/Random Rivers).
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Jul 13, 2014 16:29
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Tezzor posted:The bad is comparatively little stuff. Milo is still a dumb character designed to appeal to literal infants. Bolin is still largely useless to the plot compared with Sokka. The bending still feels a lot less "epic" than it was in the original series, although this has also improved. 2 1/2 seasons in we haven't seen a glimpse of s Fire Nstion city. For as long as we had to wait to see Zuko I was expecting him to be an Ozai-level superbadass, but in this he chucks two small fire blasts and then gets KOd. Milo gets exactly enough screen time to still be funny without getting old, and Bolin has already been more useful in combat than Sokka ever was and I get the feeling his B-Plot with Opal is going to end up going somewhere. A lot of the "epic" bending I remember in the original series was at the end of the original series, so we've got a while to compare. Everybody else has touched on Zuko, he was always pretty crap and seems to have focused on his strengths instead, namely being an effective leader.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:32
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Dexo posted:Zuko and Katara were pretty much equal in terms of bending and fighting ability. Zuko was raised as a soldier and Firebender and given personal instruction by his talented uncle Iroh. Katara was an untrained and uneducated waterbender who was discouraged from using her powers. I think it's fairly safe to say that Katara's rate of growth and displayed talent pretty much dwarfs Zuko's considering that in less than a year she went from complete novice to seemingly a master-level talent.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:34
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ImpAtom posted:As I said before, Zuko was never really that impressive as a bender. He got clowned in the first episode and by the last season he was either hiring Combustion Man or working in tandem with other characters to be effective. He was better than the rank-and-file but he was probably the worst Major Character Bender in the show. Which sounds worse than it is when you consider pretty much every other major bender was some kind of super-prodigy. Even with the required Old Man Boost, he probably isn't going to be pulling off crazy super-poo poo like even his Uncle did. However he seems to be a pretty drat effective leader and has managed to avoid killing/maiming a whole bunch of people which puts him one up on his grandfather, father, and sister. Also he's 90 and bad at bending.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:38
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ImpAtom posted:Zuko was raised as a soldier and Firebender and given personal instruction by his talented uncle Iroh. Katara was an untrained and uneducated waterbender who was discouraged from using her powers. I think it's fairly safe to say that Katara's rate of growth and displayed talent pretty much dwarfs Zuko's considering that in less than a year she went from complete novice to seemingly a master-level talent. Her rate of growth was impressive, but throughout the entire series baring when she was superpowered by the moon, Zuko would consistently either beat or at worse draw her. Katara caught up with him quickly but she never surpassed him.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:41
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Dexo posted:Her rate of growth was impressive, but throughout the entire series baring when she was superpowered by the moon, Zuko would consistently either beat or at worse draw her. She didn't have many fights with Zuko but she had fights with other characters and demonstrated a level of skill comparable with the Avatar and "literally redefines bending she's so good at it" Toph. By the time we get to Korra she's recognized as the "best in the world." Also she instantly is able to grasp and even counter Bloodbending which is itself an advanced and difficult to learn waterbending technique. If you honestly chart Katara's growth over the course of the series it's absolutely absurd and probably more a side effect of the short timeframe than anything else. Although her brother basically pulls the same stuff with becoming a master swordsman basically overnight so maybe her entire family are just super-talented geniuses and Aang's genes watered it down. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 16:48
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Comparing Zuko to Bumi isn't entirely fair. Earthbending is all about being stubborn and unmovable. For all of Bumi's amazing bending, we never really see him have to perform many feats of athleticism: he can just plant his feet and bend. This is a much more conducive style to old age than fire bending, which is fast and high energy with lots of quick, crisp movement. Also they were fighting in the middle of the arctic, which considering we know very cold environments make firebending borderline impossible, put Zuko at a huge disadvantage. Honestly Zuko's whole plan was kind of dumb. He grabbed three waterbenders and then sat around outside freezing until the villains showed up. No attempt to secure the prison more, no attempt to head them off before they got close to the prison, no additional backup from the apparent swarm of White Lotus mooks he's got lying around.
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Jul 13, 2014 16:55
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