Sydin posted:

Avatar state Aang also laid out Ozai like a total chump, despite Ozai easily being one of the strongest benders in the world at time time, and also working with super enhanced bending as a result of the comet.

You just can't have your main character walking around with that level of power, because if you did there would be no story.

Sydin posted:

But yeah, my point is that if you're going to have something like the avatar state, you have to either contrive reasons that it can't be used, or massively scale up the power of the antagonists, because otherwise it becomes an instant-win button that destroys the narrative.

Torquemadras posted:

I must admit, I have no idea what they mean either... Please explaaaaaiiiin

Vincent posted:

The Bolin/Varrick parts, sure. Korra getting punked once again by the big baddie is really stupid now.
Remember in TLAB when the Avatar state really meant something and made people go "holy poo poo!"? In TLoK, not so much.

Baron Bifford posted:

I think one of the big flaws of the Avatar shows, including TLA, is that the use of the Avatar state has been proscribed through plot devices. Aang and Korra are always stricken with some malady that prevents them from going super-Avatar at will.

Rincewind posted:

Korra was totally successful in finding and rescuing Prince Wu, though? They never would have even gotten to the train station if it weren't for her spooky Avatar spirit powers!

RareAcumen posted:

SpiderHyphenMan posted:

Okay, whatever problems I've had with Prince Wu were completely forgiven with the line "I'm not like you, Mako. I wasn't raised by a pack of cops in the woods."
Amazing.

Also I don't think we're getting the romance plot return. Mike and Bryan have said they know people don't like what they do with it, and there's nothing in Mako's voice that suggests anything but total acceptance.

VanSandman posted:

I just hope Mako gets to lead the musical number "I'll Make a Man out of Wu."

Rosalind posted:

Whether you think Korra and Asami have a thing or not, this scene was ridiculously cute:

Hauldren Collider posted:

Sometimes I wonder if the korra asami lesbo people have never had an actual best friend before. So far it's the only explanation I can come up with.

Pomp posted:

"Oh, is this your roommate?" - Literally every straight person when they meet a lesbian's girlfriend

RareAcumen posted:

"Wow, I didn't know you were French!"

Pomp posted:

"Oh, is this your roommate?" - Literally every straight person when they meet a lesbian's girlfriend

ShadowCatboy posted:

Also fun observation: When Bolin is escorting the escaped prisoners past the checkpoint, he mentions that they escaped from "Camp 14."

This should set off red flags for anyone who keeps up with North Korean politics. "Camp 14" is also the informal name for a reeducation camp there, the Kaechon Political Prison Camp. This site is a hardcore political prison for supposed traitors to the DPRK: imprisonment is for life, and not only are the accused "traitors" convicted, so are their relatives down to the third generation. Some grimdark stuff for those interested:

*Prisoners are given only 100 to 200 grams of corn gruel per day, keeping the prison population at starvation levels.
*The only source of protein for prisoners is rats and other vermin.
*Obedient prisoners are given "reward marriages," where the guards select the spouses.
*Children born into the camp remain prisoners for life, and are given no knowledge of the outside world.
*Children have been beaten to death for picking berries.
*There exists only one known escapee who had been born in a North Korean prison camp, Shin Dong-Hyuk, whose testimony is told in a book, "Escape from Camp 14." He'd never been taught basic human mores like compassion, mercy, or forgiveness, and was so brainwashed that he'd turned in his own brother and mother for attempting to escape. He watched their execution himself, and at the time was glad to see them die. Since his escape he describes himself as "an animal learning to become a human," and experiences severe PTSD and regret for what he'd been conditioned to do to survive.

Honestly, this might just be a subtle hint for how truly brutal a dictator Kuvira is.

Pomp posted:

Whenever I hear about the poo poo that goes on in prison camps it feels like my brain is actively trying to reject that I'm not reading fiction.

Deakul posted:

You're pretty dumb, tbh.

quote:

You really can't appreciate the fact that she's an extremely inexperienced Avatar who got her poo poo pushed in and was also horribly tortured? It's going to take a very long time for her to recover from it mentally and physically.

enraged_camel posted:

She spent the last three years "recovering."

And "horribly tortured" basically amounts to being chained up and fed poison. It may have been painful but how much more painful could it have been compared to all the blows she has taken in the countless fights she has been in by now? She got hit by fire, ice, rocks, wind, metal, lava, had her limbs forcefully controlled by bloodbenders, had her bending ability taken away, had her connection to past avatars brutally severed... and she recovered just fine. Now we're supposed to ignore all that and believe a bit of poison should cause 3+ years of trauma?

enraged_camel posted:

gently caress you.


She spent the last three years "recovering."

And "horribly tortured" basically amounts to being chained up and fed poison. It may have been painful but how much more painful could it have been compared to all the blows she has taken in the countless fights she has been in by now? She got hit by fire, ice, rocks, wind, metal, lava, had her limbs forcefully controlled by bloodbenders, had her bending ability taken away, had her connection to past avatars brutally severed... and she recovered just fine. Now we're supposed to ignore all that and believe a bit of poison should cause 3+ years of trauma?

ImpAtom posted:

Uh, it was a 'bit of poison' that literally almost killed her and left her wheelchair bound and unable to walk, after which she had to endure painful physical rehabilitation that took years and involved the help of the most talented magical healer in the world. So, uh, yes. You are supposed to believe that is because that is what happened. I mean I don't know how the show can make this any clearer considering it dedicated multiple episodes to it and specifically showed this.

Pomp posted:

It's PTSD, genius.

Superstring posted:

Yep. You're pretty dumb, tbh.

enraged_camel posted:

So why are we supposed to believe that a bit of metal-poison is different?

enraged_camel posted:

If it is PTSD what was the reason behind Toph revealing that she still had some poison in her? And then we went through the "she looks cured, but wait she isn't!" roller-coaster.

ImpAtom posted:

Yes? Like, this is the basic logic that literally all fictional writing is based on. The metal-poison was introduced, explained, emphasized onscreen and given weight by the storytelling. That is exactly how this works in all fictional writing, not just Korra.


The reason was emphasizing that Korra's healing was not complete either physically or mentally despite the fact that she'd had the poisoned removed and had been to a healer. It was to emphasize that there was lasting damage to her that couldn't just be fixed with a pep talk or magic water but is instead something she will have to overcome on her own.

enraged_camel posted:

I get all that! What I'm saying is that it's both bad, lazy writing and makes for an incredibly boring season. If it wasn't for Boulin and Varrick I think most people would have lost interest at this point.

enraged_camel posted:

I get all that! What I'm saying is that it's both bad, lazy writing and makes for an incredibly boring season. If it wasn't for Boulin and Varrick I think most people would have lost interest at this point.

HoneyBoy posted:

Here's a good thing about the show.

ShadowCatboy posted:

To get back to this for a moment, I really do think that Bryke are hinting that Korra and Asami do have a mutual attraction to one another. And honestly, I really think it's nice. Not because I'm looking for weird kinky stuff: it's just a small but substantial step in saying "Hey, it's perfectly fine for people of the same gender to love each other."

Doubt it'll manifest explicitly, and honestly I hope it doesn't because it'd be a little out of left field. But it's still an adorable and super sweet moment and a very encouraging sign that the insidious homosexual agenda is getting its claws into the minds of the next generation.

Hiss.