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Probably not story-wise but I imagine animation and visual quality. Studio Pierrot was obviously half-assing it. Or maybe that was their best effort. I haven't watch a show done by them in a long time.
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Aug 23, 2014 02:57
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I like that when Korra was in the Avatar State, the Anti-Gaang are all completely outclassed by her. It's cathartic.
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Aug 23, 2014 02:58
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Seeing a shell-shocked Korra throughout the last act is just so drat hard for me to watch. I'm glad I gave this show another chance, what a great season.
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Aug 23, 2014 02:59
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Wildeyes posted:"The bumpy ride in Book 2"...I haven't really paid much attention to the creators' media comments. Do they acknowledge that fans had a lot of complaints about Book 2? That is the thing about Book 2. Its not offensively bad but pretty much bland as hell. I was having the same thoughts earlier.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:01
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Rand Brittain posted:I think the thing that strikes me most looking back at this season is how completely full of poo poo Zaheer was. I mean—he was completely sincere in his own beliefs and faithful to his four-man band, but for a supposed spiritual leader, every interaction he has with someone outside the Red Lotus is an exercise in bullshit and deceit. He never deals honestly with anybody outside of his fan club. well, I don't think he ever really thought of himself as a ~spiritual leader~ or prophet as such. He was probably self-aware enough to know that he was just an insurrectionist terror-cell leader who happened to be spiritually-motivated.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:04
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hiddenriverninja posted:I like how he just doesn't give a gently caress anymore.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:05
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I still don't get what the point of faking the hostages in the temple was. It didn't get Zaheer any additional leverage and what the hell did he want with a bunch of airbenders after he killed the avatar? Wtf.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:08
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Hauldren Collider posted:I still don't get what the point of faking the hostages in the temple was.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:11
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Did you miss the part of his new world order? He needed a bunch of impressionable minds to shape into.. I dunno. But that was originally the plan with little Korra, and thus having to put her into hiding. It was simply there to show he had hostages that he wasn't going to give up.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:12
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:Well Zaheer couldn't let them go free before he had finished his plans, because otherwise they'd do... exactly what they did. And he also couldn't have said "I moved the Airbenders to a secret Red Lotus base that has many other guards there, most of move would likely not stand up to interrogation the way I did. You can pick them up if you go through the chamber where I'm going to poison the Avatar and end the cycle forever." If he hadn't taken them to the cave, Kai would never have known where he had taken Korra.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:33
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On a second watch, it's cool that they showed Asami getting her shock glove beat down on versus the red lotus guards.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:34
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If that guard voiced by Zelda Williams has any scenes with Zaheer next season, things are gonna be REAL awkward.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:37
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quote:Book 3: If you didn't love or at least really, really like this book, but you love A:TLA, I ask you to watch the original series again with the same critical eye. This was definitely the closest to the TLA, and had a ton of nods to the original series -- right up to and including the end where the big-bad is futilely spouting overblown rhetoric even after being defeated. But even though I enjoyed Book 3, Korra is not as fun as TLA. TLA was always fun and light (except for some tense moments in the finales and a few others here and there). I will say that Book 1 of TLA is noticeably shittier than the other 2. This show either needs to stick to the lighter tone of TLA or go full badass. I'll give the writers points for creative bending this season: Sucking the air out of someone; forcing mercury through someone's skin; someone's head exploded (which, I guess, sort of happened in TLA, but that was more of a cartoony "UH OH!!~~" moment). Oh, and then your protagonist is paralyzed and the last shot of your finale is a close-up of her in tears.. I'm not saying the tone is bad. I like that the show has a darker tone with more mature characters. But you can't have Bolyn making (really bad) jokes and Bumi doing retarded poo poo and the little bald kid eating his snot and THEN have all of the dark poo poo in the same episode. I'm sure that others do not find the contrasting tone as jarring as I do. I really enjoyed this season, despite my complaints. Great fight sequences. Un-l337-Pork fucked around with this message at 03:43 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 03:41
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Rand Brittain posted:I think the thing that strikes me most looking back at this season is how completely full of poo poo Zaheer was. I mean—he was completely sincere in his own beliefs and faithful to his four-man band, but for a supposed spiritual leader, every interaction he has with someone outside the Red Lotus is an exercise in bullshit and deceit. He never deals honestly with anybody outside of his fan club. I think it's interesting how blatantly full of poo poo he was actually. Like he kept rambling about how the natural order was chaos and anarchy, even though the natural order was living on giant god-turtles in bizarre feudal city-states. It actually makes his rants pretty hilarious because it's not even about philosophy he's just flat-out loving wrong. And how he justified his actions by calling it balance or whatever but was perfectly willing to genocide the air nation again and throw the world completely out of balance. Plus the whole hating leaders thing yet ordering his group around constantly. I guess the biggest thing is how contradictory it is to hate people enforcing their will on others and yet think it's totally cool therefore to kill a ton of people and enforce his ideals about anarchy on everyone. I think my favorite thing about him was in how he was kind of half-right in a lot of ways and you can kind of get behind some of the stuff he says, but he was just a huge dick about it with his head so far up his rear end he couldn't even see his own bullshit. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 03:46
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Un-l337-Pork posted:This was definitely the closest to the TLA, and had a ton of nods to the original series -- right up to and including the end where the big-bad is futilely spouting overblown rhetoric even after being defeated. Bolin doesn't always work and Bumi rarely works. But exchanges like "You're a lavabender!" "I know. I just found out." are needed for the show. Not every Sokka line worked for balancing comedy and drama, we just remember the ones that did and sort of put out of our minds the ones that didn't. That bird call poo poo was awful though, I have to say. Also Meelo owns gently caress you I love that kid he just wrecks poo poo. *I think Breaking Bad is absolutely hilarious (intentionally so) but I don't want black comedy anywhere near the Avatar universe except in the most fleeting bursts.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:49
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Un-l337-Pork posted:This show either needs to stick to the lighter tone of TLA or go full badass. I'll give the writers points for creative bending this season: Sucking the air out of someone; forcing mercury through someone's skin; someone's head exploded (which, I guess, sort of happened in TLA, but that was more of a cartoony "UH OH!!~~" moment). Oh, and then your protagonist is paralyzed and the last shot of your finale is a close-up of her in tears.. I'm not saying the tone is bad. I like that the show has a darker tone with more mature characters. But you can't have Bolyn making (really bad) jokes and Bumi doing retarded poo poo and the little bald kid eating his snot and THEN have all of the dark poo poo in the same episode. Yeah the constant LOL SO RANDOM bullshit with Bolin and Bumi really created some mood whiplash. It's often poorly timed. More importantly, it's not necessary. It's possible to do kid-friendly humor that is clever, fits with the tone, and is funny for adults too. Look at A:TLA. Look at Disney or Pixar films. Hell, even early Spongebob had that kind of humor.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:50
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Nephthys posted:I think it's interesting how blatantly full of poo poo he was actually. Like he kept rambling about how the natural order was chaos and anarchy, even though the natural order was living on giant god-turtles in bizarre feudal city-states. It actually makes his rants pretty hilarious because it's not even about philosophy he's just flat-out loving wrong. And how he justified his actions by calling it balance or whatever but was perfectly willing to genocide the air nation again and throw the world completely out of balance. Plus the whole hating leaders thing yet ordering his group around constantly. I guess the biggest thing is how contradictory it is to hate people enforcing their will on others and yet think it's totally cool therefore to kill a ton of people and enforce his ideals about anarchy on everyone. He's basically the Ron Paul of avatar.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:51
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Nephthys posted:I think it's interesting how blatantly full of poo poo he was actually. Like he kept rambling about how the natural order was chaos and anarchy, even though the natural order was living on giant god-turtles in bizarre feudal city-states. It actually makes his rants pretty hilarious because it's not even about philosophy he's just flat-out loving wrong. And how he justified his actions by calling it balance or whatever but was perfectly willing to genocide the air nation again and throw the world completely out of balance. Plus the whole hating leaders thing yet ordering his group around constantly. I guess the biggest thing is how contradictory it is to hate people enforcing their will on others and yet think it's totally cool therefore to kill a ton of people and enforce his ideals about anarchy on everyone. At the same time, he's not totally corrupt or crazy in the same way that Amon or Unalaq were. I do appreciate that he's at least legitimately spiritual in airbending terms: he may be full of poo poo politically, but he also brought back an airbending technique that hadn't been seen in however many years.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:51
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With the comedy aspect I ask you: did you like that Naga/Pabu cutaway? I did, mainly because it was Mako's scarf that they were nearly ripping apart and too me that basically symbolizes his character from the first two books, but I know that's reading way to much into it. Also it was nice to see Grandma one more time before poo poo got irrevocably real.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:52
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I understood it in a "remember these minor characters who we're also fighting for" way, but I didn't find it particularly cute or funny.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:56
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:With the comedy aspect I ask you: did you like that Naga/Pabu cutaway? I did, mainly because it was Mako's scarf that they were nearly ripping apart and too me that basically symbolizes his character from the first two books, but I know that's reading way to much into it. Also it was nice to see Grandma one more time before poo poo got irrevocably real. I loved this cutaway. The tense moment followed by the cut to something irrelevant and silly is a classic storytelling technique that is visible in everything from Shakespeare to Game of Thrones. It works particularly well here because, as you mentioned, it's a symbolic moment too. It also gives the viewer a couple breaths to come to terms with Korra's plan to surrender. Too much drama/action all in a row gets really tiring quickly.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:58
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Un-l337-Pork posted:This was definitely the closest to the TLA, and had a ton of nods to the original series -- right up to and including the end where the big-bad is futilely spouting overblown rhetoric even after being defeated. Nah, I disagree. This is about as dark as I'd like to see it go. I mean they're at the point where they're flat out killing off people onscreen. I think we're at a good place tone-wise.
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Aug 23, 2014 03:58
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The Naga/Pabu cutaway was awkwardly placed (the situation being so dire and all), but the Naga moments in this season were consistently precious, and I won't deny this one was too. 
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Aug 23, 2014 04:00
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That last shot is going to haunt me until season 4. What is she feeling!? How do I interpret this!? The pain of waiting for a new season begins again...
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Aug 23, 2014 04:11
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Valentin posted:At the same time, he's not totally corrupt or crazy in the same way that Amon or Unalaq were. I do appreciate that he's at least legitimately spiritual in airbending terms: he may be full of poo poo politically, but he also brought back an airbending technique that hadn't been seen in however many years. Hell yeah, it was great how logical and understandable his beliefs were even if they were ultimately crap. That scene where he stalls Korra was really effective at making it seem like he had a legitimate point, but was just super extreme about it. Zaheer may have been a self-righteous hypocrite, but he was ultimately simply a dude with different beliefs. He was no megalomaniac or lunatic and that was very refreshing to me.
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Aug 23, 2014 04:12
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Superstring posted:That last shot is going to haunt me until season 4. What is she feeling!? How do I interpret this!? Probably sadness at being so helpless and weak that others have to step up and bear her responsibility of keeping the peace/balance, as well as joy for seeing the Air Nomads flourishing again after nearly 200 years. I really really liked this finale, and seeing Korra in such a state was so jarring, but in a good way. She barely says more than a few sentences but so much is conveyed through her weary and exhausted expression. She's faced so much in so little time and it's finally taking its toll on her. Her visions of the past villains when she was being poisoned was a great callback to just show how much she's had to deal with as the Avatar. MacBook Air Gamer fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 04:16
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I'm so glad that they didn't cop out of any lasting consequences like season one. Now Korra will have to face the most challenging bending of her life: Legbending! 
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Aug 23, 2014 04:28
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I think if they had a show on Adult Swim or something that had the exact same tone as Korra but was able to consistently say 'kill' or 'die' and show a little blood here and there would be a good fit. Like, keep the tone but get rid of a lot of the censorship. Speaking of which, do you think the show moved to digital only because Nick was pissed they loving blew up a lady's head? Oh and Mako killed the other one by electrocuting her. Pretty great.
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Aug 23, 2014 04:42
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Stolen from reddit: The villain for next season:
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Aug 23, 2014 04:45
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could someone quote the post about nickelodeon trying to come up with puns for korra bumps
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Aug 23, 2014 04:48
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raspy trashfucker posted:could someone quote the post about nickelodeon trying to come up with puns for korra bumps
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Aug 23, 2014 04:51
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MacBook Air Gamer posted:Probably sadness at being so helpless and weak that others have to step up and bear her responsibility of keeping the peace/balance, as well as joy for seeing the Air Nomads flourishing again after nearly 200 years. 
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Aug 23, 2014 04:56
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:^The original series writers (TIm Hedrick and Joshua Hamilton) came back in Book 2. Honestly, I re-watched AtLA right before this season started and it only served to highlight how bad Korra is. Even at its best it's just high-budget fanfiction, where superficial style is no substitute for the genuine craftsmanship of the original. Book 1 had some interesting setup for the characters that played with the original series stereotypes and traditions (an earthbender who's lighthearted and open-minded but shirks responsibility, a firebender who's basically Katara 2.0, a waterbender whose passion can tend dangerously towards obsession and single-mindedness, and an airbender who knows all the traditions but is missing the forest for the trees), but they ultimately go nowhere, no one learns anything, and the plot consists of Korra getting her rear end kicked until she magically gets airbending because she wants it really badly. Then everything gets reset because gently caress having any meaningful sacrifice and we all know being the Avatar is about punching really hard and not being a mediator or anything lame like that. Book 2 was an irredeemable clusterfuck full of unlikeable assholes, so it's easier to mention the few parts that weren't poo poo: the Tonraq/Unalaq fight, the avatar Wan two-parter, and Varrick (which was probably a fluke given that in season 3 they had no idea what made him an enjoyable character). Book 3 may actually have been good  (although one should generally wait two or three weeks before saying this). The characters don't overcome their flaws, but they at least acknowledge them and try to mitigate them with the help of their friends. While she's not always good at it, Korra at least tries to resolve situations non-violently. The problem is that the big conflict is once again someone trying to destroy the Avatar, but we haven't really been given any reason to care about the Avatar.AtLA showed us why the world needs (or at least wants) an Avatar. Aang couldn't go two episodes without helping someone, and in doing so went from being viewed as either the world's most dangerous terrorist or the world's dirtiest coward to being able to turn a century of war into a century of peace largely because everyone from peasants to world leaders is in the "I  the Avatar" club. On the other hand, Korra starts out as friends with the world's leaders and viewed at least neutrally, then- Introduces herself by wrecking parts of Republic City - Assaults an anti-bending protester using her bending - Supports Tarrlok in his power grab - Helps her uncle start a civil war between the water tribes - (Unknowingly) helps his evil plot by opening the first portal - Opens the second portal knowing what will happen - Tries to drag a nation against its will into a world war on the advice of her war profiteer friend - Wrecks Republic City with a kaiju battle - Makes vast parts of the city uninhabitable After this, you can kind of see why Raiko kicked her out. Even at her best she's just solving problems that she caused. At the start of the season, it actually looks like she's trying to turn over a new leaf and help people. Then she helps the Earth Queen rob a bunch of peasants  .I'm okay with rooting for the lesser of two evils and I thought the parallels with the original series were interesting from an artistic standpoint, but I really wish this season didn't rub in how obnoxious Team Korra is compared to the Gaang. Misc: - Why is Asami still in this show? - P'Li's death was  precisely because it was offscreen. No TV-Y7 sound or visual they can show is going to be as bad as what you will imagine. It did seem kind of gratuitous though.- I really like Korra being injured at the end. She actually made a sacrifice for the sake of others. Maybe we'll even get to see her resolving conflicts as a mediator next season (we won't!) Microcline fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 04:56
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:Why, so you can post it to 4chan? i've never crossposted anything to 4chan from this thread
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Aug 23, 2014 05:05
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hiddenriverninja posted:I like how he just doesn't give a gently caress anymore. 
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Aug 23, 2014 05:05
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P'Li was the weirdest character to me all season. She was just a prop, really. Hardly ever said a word and just blew things up. Her only purpose other than fighting was to die to make Zaheer stronger.
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Aug 23, 2014 05:05
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AshB posted:P'Li was the weirdest character to me all season. She was just a prop, really. Hardly ever said a word and just blew things up. Her only purpose other than fighting was to die to make Zaheer stronger.
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Aug 23, 2014 05:08
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Her fighting purpose was fairly substantial. Look, these episodes are 20 minutes. You can't give every named character their own personal soliloquy. Some of them are going to be minor. P'Li really wasn't that interesting beyond her ability to wreck poo poo up.
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Aug 23, 2014 05:09
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Microcline posted:Then she helps the Earth Queen rob a bunch of peasants Saying this makes it pretty clear you're looking for things to take badly considering that A) Korra was told she was protecting tax money against bandits and B) once she figured out exactly what was going on she responded badly. achillesforever6 posted:I liked how much taller she was compared to Zaheer, for some reason that made me laugh when they were together in the temple I thought Zaheer having to stand on his toes was a really nice touch honestly. It's very rare to ever show a strong male character having to do something like that. It also subtly underlined his Aang-like qualities. Hauldren Collider posted:Her fighting purpose was fairly substantial. Look, these episodes are 20 minutes. You can't give every named character their own personal soliloquy. Some of them are going to be minor. P'Li really wasn't that interesting beyond her ability to wreck poo poo up. P'li was their biggest gun and a lot of their plans depended on her. Every single time the Red Lotus got into a big situation, P'li was probably the biggest factor to keeping them from being overwhelmed by superior enemy numbers. Lavabending is really powerful but not as straight-up crazy good as railgun brainmagic. That said she was pretty weak as a character for someone who was so important to Zaheer. It really would have helped if she got a little bit of time to herself the way the other members did. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 05:10
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Good finale and good season. I can't wait to see how things go 
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Aug 23, 2014 05:16
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