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First Bass posted:The show is good again! All the not-shitposters can come out now and post about how much they love Book 3 of the Legend of Korra! Please, before this thread is cemented in a death spiral of loathing and cynicism and we're never allowed to post about Avatar again! There's not really any point in it. A few weeks from now everyone will be talking about how lovely it is. v  v I mean look at the first few pages of this thread. Most of the remaining posters are people who hate the show and just want to post about how much they hate it, so why not let them?meristem posted:Huh. As a childfree person (also without nieces/nephews close by), I'd love to have some opinions to what extent this is even anymore a show for children/teens. It's perfectly fine for kids. A lot of people underestimate how much kids can take but there are a ton of kid's shows which get pretty dark or scary or even have lasting consequences. If you mean how popular it is, I don't know, but my little sister really likes it and so do her friends. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 12:32 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 12:26
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Supercar Gautier posted:The idea of a goony shut-in learning to open up and change for the better wouldn't be a bad character arc, but he'd have to be written more charitably to begin with, not entirely as a broad gag. Tenzin was literally raised his entire life with this expectation and idea foisted upon him as the centerpiece of his entire life. He is not the best at thinking outside of that.
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Jun 28, 2014 23:52
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Supercar Gautier posted:I can understand why he'd fall into that line of thinking, but I think the appropriate reaction would be for him to smarten up and realize that the new air culture won't replicate the old one-- not just dress up his sales pitch. I don't think it's really a case of 'smarten up' in this case. It is literally the core of his life. For it to be smartening up he would have to view it as "the art of Airbender" instead of "Airbending culture" and he has always had trouble with that. It was the core of his problem with Korra in the first season even, where he could only approach her from the perspective of someone who views the Airbender culture as 100% intertwined with Airbending. This is the same guy who gave up what seemed to be a pretty strong relationship because he felt his duty to his culture came before his personal feelings. He isn't going to leap on that particular train unless he's dragged kicking and screaming.
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Jun 29, 2014 00:17
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Captain Oblivious posted:At the same time, haven't we been doing this exact same dance with Tenzin for two seasons now Tenzin is not doing exactly the same thing. The first season was him dealing with a new Avatar in the wake of his father being the Avatar. The second season was about his family. The third season looks to be about him having to come to terms with the Airbender culture vs the new Airbenders. They are rooted in the same place of "Tenzin is extremely traditionalist and bound by his responsibilities and legacy" but that is a central point of his character. Once he gets over that his character arc is complete. I mean Zuko spend the entire TLA struggling with the conflict between his childhood lessons and honor and his own desires and he struggled with that even despite having personal or philosophical discoveries about himself. Tenzin is not as well handled as Zuko but his central conflict is (and will remain) the conflict between what he was raised to believe and the reality of the world, because that is his character arc and even at the end of his character arc he probably still is going to be a stuffy and traditional old man, just a better rounded and more flexible one. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 04:31
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AshB posted:Y'know, I was watching clips of the Book 2 finale, and it was jarring just how unimpressive all the bending is in this series compared to A:TLA. Most of it is just blasting stuff with fire or air, lobbing rocks at people, or whipping them with water. This is like Green Lantern making nothing but green bubbles all the god drat time. Except there are plenty of other examples of that not happening and also plenty examples of those sorts of things happening in TLA. "blasting stuff with fire" in particular is like 90% of what the Fire Nation does in the original.
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Jun 29, 2014 04:38
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AshB posted:When does Legend of Korra have something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnFNjLnVVJw I'm honestly curious because I don't remember anything that creative. I would say the assault on the Bending Arena in Season 1, just off the top of my head. it isn't as good as that scene (few fights are) but it's a creative and well-scripted fight. There are a lot of really good and interesting fight scenes in Korra. A lot of the "they're not as creative" stuff seems to come more from the fact that they're using a different flavor of martial arts for the basis and so the moves are less ornate and flowing and more like MMA. (Mixed with, yes, some genuinely bad animation and scenes.) There are tons of times where bending is used creatively and in unique ways in both shows. There are also a lot of times where the protagonists or villains just use 'basic' attacks. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 04:54
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pentyne posted:On that note, are there any population numbers for Republic City? It must've been pretty high otherwise why wouldn't the Earth nation just invade and take over? Take a look at the Fire Nation on the map and you'll get your answer clear as day. They're not even subtle about it.
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Jun 29, 2014 05:12
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Superstring posted:I kinda liked the short Korra vs Tarrlok fight as far as creative new techniques goes. Hopefully the four super villains this season have some good showings. A lot of the Waterbender fights are pretty good in terms of that, even if it's just a lot of constant state-shifting. Firebending is less exciting but Firebending is always kind of the least exciting art. It is almost always fire-fueled kung fu more than unique manipulation of the state, especially since Firebending comes from inside instead of an outside source and there are very rarely open fires around to manipulate (unless you're M. Night Shyamalan, of course.) Airbending has some cool and creative moves, although its biggest problem is largely that the only skilled airbender isn't much of a fighter so we don't get to see them much. Since Aang was the lead in TLA, we got more straight action from him. Earthbending probably got the biggest downgrade in that everyone is more careful about destroying the area around them for the most part so Metalbending and low-impact moves get a bigger emphasis than the giant crazy earth-destroying moves, but there is still a lot of creativity in how those moves are used. (Aside from Bolin who is extremely extremely conservative as far as Earthbenders go, which is understandable from a character perspective but kinda dull.)
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Jun 29, 2014 05:31
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Aces High posted:speaking of Katara, where is she any ways? Bumi made a comment about how she would be proud to know there's another Airbender in the family but we haven't seen hide, nor hair from her since the end of Season 1. We didn't see her during the civil war, which you'd think would be important to her seeing as she also has ties to both the North and South tribes now. Katara showed up multiple times in Season 2, what the hell are you talking about? Season 2 literally opened with Katara inviting her entire family to the festival. She was the one keeping Jinora's body alive after her soul got kidnapped.
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Jun 29, 2014 05:50
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It is a children's show at the end of the day. No matter what, the kid gloves are never coming off. They may stretch their limit sometimes but it is a Nick show.
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Jun 29, 2014 06:02
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Nobody count's Wan's anything as part of Season 2, cause the rest of season 2 is kinda crap. Hell, the way they actually got to Wan's story was probably the lowest point in the series with amnesia out of nowhere. Are you serious? "This doesn't count as part of Season 2 despite being part of Season 2 because I said so!"
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Jun 29, 2014 18:40
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SatansBestBuddy posted:It's just easier to say "Season 2 was crap" than "Season 2 was crap excluding Wan's story, which was awesome". Here is a quote from you from the start of last season quote:Just checked out the first two episodes. It's about on par with the first season, that is to say, a really strong start even if it is a bit rushed. So an excellent two episodes. This is the kind of poo poo I mean when I say this stuff is getting tiring. The hatred for the show isn't just predicated on disliking it, it's on retroactive claiming that it is the Worst Thing Ever and that no part of it had any redeeming value even when you admitted to enjoying episodes. Instead of just being able to go "last season was disappointing" it is "last season had literally no good parts and the easiest argument to make for it having good parts must not count!" The show unarguably has problems, and a lot of them, and there's nothing wrong with discussing those problems. What's god damned tedious is being hyperbolicly negative about everything in the show. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 18:53
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e X posted:^^: Dude, if 10 out of 12 episodes are bad, with the sole exception of those that were not directly connected to the story of season 2 and animated by a different studio, it is perfectly valid to exclude them when talking about season 2 in general. The two episodes mentioned in that quote were the first two episodes of the season, not the Wan episodes. And the Wan episodes are directly connected with the story. They literally set up the entire second half of the season and everything that goes with it.
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Jun 29, 2014 19:01
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X_Toad posted:I think the worst offender for me is the threat of the Dark Spirits in the first part of the Book : not only does it "disappear" completely after Beginnings, but to add insult to injury, it's that very threat that launches the two-parter! Uh, the Dark Spirits remain around for the entire second half and a big part of the final climactic fight is against them.
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Jun 29, 2014 19:50
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X_Toad posted:No, they don't. They're reduced to Unalaq's foot soldiers. Before that, they were a completely different problem, and Unalaq's position as the only guy with the knowledge necessary to deal with them was interesting. They are exactly the same problem they were before. Spirits are turning dark and need to be purified. The only thing that changed is we had a straight-up explanation for why. They did not suddenly vanish from the plot and the danger they represent is kept throughout the entire ending until it is bookended by Korra literally purifying the source. It is not a particularly well-executed plot but claiming it vanished is straight-up wrong.
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Jun 29, 2014 20:00
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X_Toad posted:Are you kidding? They're not "a threat" after Beginnings. When they were being created randomly by the actions of mankind and the general imbalance of the world, then they were a threat. That plotline just drops after Beginnings and they just become an extension of Unalaq's threat. What are you even talking about? No, none of that drops. Literally all of it is traced back to the Vaatu thing and how Vaatu builds up the negative aspects of the world. It is straight-up embodied in Wan's story where Wan's friend-spirits get into a fight with humans that could have been resolved by the Avatar except Vaatu's influence corrupts it beyond saving. It is the exact same problem from start to finish. I mean it sounds like you're angry the plot didn't go in a different direction but that isn't the same as the plot being dropped.
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Jun 29, 2014 20:11
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The Taint Reaper posted:I think you should equate Season 1 and Season 2 to OG Avatar Season 1 because they're around 20 something episodes. I don't think it was that many. It was a 10,000 year cycle and most Avatars seemed to live a hell of a lot longer than Aang did. Kyoshi was something like 230 when she died. Even if we assume a few Avatars hit the ground early (like Roku and Aang), we're probably looking at ~100 tops for each culture, and with Air Benders in particular they probably lost most of it when the Fire Nation wrecked their poo poo
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Jun 29, 2014 20:26
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X_Toad posted:If they were under Vaatu's control, explain to me why one tried to kill the Avatar, who was vital to Vaatu's and Unalaq's plans? The Dark Spirits are not all under Vaatu's control at the start. Again, remember the Wan thing? What Vaatu does is amplify the negative emotions already present. The dark spirits we see show up are spirits who are incredibly pissed off. Remember the entire thing with child Korra in the spirit world? The dark spirits are spirits being heavily influenced by negative emotions. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 20:30
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Squall posted:Honestly, the only parts of Book 2 that were poo poo was the Adventures of Mako/Bolin/Asami/Lin in Republic City. That was pretty drat bad. The main plot was a bit disappointing but was still decent, and it picked up quite a lot after the Wan episodes. Yeah, I think Season 2 would be looked on less angrily if not for basically the entire Republic City arc which was just a real mess.
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Jun 29, 2014 20:41
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BrianWilly posted:One thing I did notice, though...when that guy on the bridge in the first episode said that he didn't want to be an airbender and begged Korra to "make it stop," and Korra said that she couldn't? Weeeelllll....technically, she could. She can take his bending away pretty easily, really. She doesn't have access to her past lives' memories anymore, so unless she learned specifically how to do that from Aang (as opposed to just seeing him do it), she doesn't have the knowledge of how to do it. Also it is a massive risk to the Avatar spirit to do that which seems like a poor thing to do when you could talk the guy down instead.
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Jun 29, 2014 23:38
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AshB posted:She was able to restore people's bending on her own in Republic City after Amon took it away. It stands to reason she could take people's bending away too. You're right, my mistake.
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Jun 30, 2014 00:10
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Sydin posted:I'm still hoping we get a more interesting explanation about why air bending is showing up in random people beyond "Harmonic Convergence". Up until now we've had no evidence that the power to gift humans with the elements is outside the domain of the lion turtles. Honestly I was wondering if the lion turtles were going to come back (they left because Wan separated humans and spirits, but now Korra's collided them back together) but they obviously can't be trolling around giving out airbending without anybody noticing, so it has to be something else. I sort of suspect it is going to be connected to lineage somehow. The Airbender villain clearly had knowledge of Airbender 'children stories' despite not being an Airbender himself and Bumi is pretty obvious in that regard. There might be another excuse for it but it could just be that something 'jumpstarted' the latent Airbenderness that these people had but didn't have access to.
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Jun 30, 2014 01:18
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Nichael posted:I don't quite get how or why this show is seemingly doing poorly ratings wise. What happened? I get that the timeslot change didn't help from season one to two, but did it really impact that much? The timeslots are moved around constantly, double-episodes are shown with poor marketing, episodes are leaked online well in advance, episodes are also freely available online shortly after airing, and the show also has problems. It's not a good combo. Literally the only reason I knew the new episodes were airing was because I went looking for information on the Platinum game.
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Jun 30, 2014 01:22
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dj_clawson posted:On Tenzin and airbending: I know this had to had to happen the way it did for plot/character reasons, but Tenzin really could have sold airbending school much better. Tenzin legitimately thinks all the things he mentioned are great. He is legitimately confused why you wouldn't want an Air Bison as a best friend.
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Jun 30, 2014 01:26
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DrSunshine posted:A man from the crowd shouts "Hey! That's offensive! Some of my best friends are firebenders!" Only three of them murdered someone's parents!
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Jun 30, 2014 06:10
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I'm not sure how I feel about Kai yet. It depends on when he goes, but I don't dislike him that much. He's sort of hilariously shameless which I appreciate but he could easily wander off into annoying-town real quickly.
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Jun 30, 2014 20:58
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:I get the feeling getting thrown in prison training camp will be his wake up call. Just a thought. A wake up call does not preclude him getting annoying as hell.
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Jun 30, 2014 21:28
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It is pretty likely that it is not a 1-for-1 reference to any particular place but rather a combination of various sources.
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Jul 1, 2014 07:42
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thexerox123 posted:Um. The first time that the Avatar state was explained to Aang says otherwise: Except that is shown false both in TLA (where the Avatar State could be unavailable but Aang still was able to talk to his past lives) and in Korra (where we see Wan use it, without the benefit of any past lives.) As established, it is two things: Using the power of Raava and accessing the skills and knowledge of previous Avatars. Korra can do the former but not the latter. She's effectively in the same position Wan was. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 06:28
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dj_clawson posted:Because the world-building was incredibly consistent in ATLA but is not in ALOK. This isn't particularly contradictory, no. The Avatar Spirit was a thing since ATLA and it was different from the power of the past lives.
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Jul 3, 2014 06:55
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dj_clawson posted:I meant it more in general. For example; "People can only bloodbend during the full moon." "Oh look here are some people who can do it anytime and we're not going to explain it." None of this is true. Combustion Man in the original series was able to violate the rules and bend in his own unique way. Bumi also was able to bend when his entire body except his head was bound. Not to mention things like Toph shattering the "you can't bend metal" rule. Aang was able to talk to his past lives even when his chakra was blocked and he couldn't access the Avatar State or Avatar Spirit. The rules in the Avatar universe are pretty explicitly "these are the way things are as we understand them now" as opposed to being hard and fast unbreakable rules. Multiple characters in the original show approached problems from a different angle and came up with something that changed the world or the view of the world. Rules in the Avatar world are made to be broken or ideas challenged. Characters explicitly (even in TLA) have an imperfect view of the world and do not 100% understand everything. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 07:03
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With regards to the "things advance" this: I'm rereading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy right now. The titular guide is presented in-book as this staggeringly advanced piece of technology that is utterly incomprehensible and in-depth and full of details. However the actual descriptions of the guide mean it is actually significantly weaker and smaller than any modern tablet and with less storage space to boot. Obviously Mystical Kung Fu is different from the advance of technology but even that is addressed in-series. Iroh was able to create a new technique (lightning redirection) because he studied the techniques of the Waterbenders. With the different cultures mingling after 100 years of brutal war, there's room for these things to change. thexerox123 posted:Except they're also re-airing those first three tomorrow, and Book 4 is already well into production. Considering the trend towards binge-watching nowadays, I'd say it seems more like another reaction to the internet leaks instead of any real sort of gently caress-this-show burnoff. I would suspect that whatever they're getting from the series, it isn't what they originally intended. Nick's execs flat-out said they were hoping for a show to replace Spongebob as their core merchandising/toyseller and neither Avatar show as particularly successful there. (Although you can argue that is due to poor marketing as much as anything.) I wonder if they're trying to rush to DVD because they're seeing more of a profit from than than television airings.
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Jul 3, 2014 18:10
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Also Lightning, as we see, has a non-combat purpose. When Lightning-bending is used as a source of power you can drat well bet people figured out how to teach people how to do it.
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Jul 4, 2014 04:02
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Unless it is directly mentioned in the series, I wouldn't assume anything from the comic is canon even if the developers are connected to it.
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Jul 7, 2014 02:09
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Syrant posted:So how many episodes have been aired officially? I'm not sure if I missed one or not. 3. There will be 2 a week from here on out.
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Jul 7, 2014 02:41
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If you don't want to watch the show, don't watch it. Going "I don't want to want this show and don't want to want this show but I'm going to MAKE myself watch this show" is dumb.
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Jul 8, 2014 07:02
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McCheese posted:Did harmonic convergence just effect Republic City or what? The rest of the world seems pretty free of giant spirit whales and stuff. The spirits are mostly gathered in Republic City because of the vines.
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Jul 12, 2014 02:01
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Toph is otherwise the only major character not to show and her family is being given a big push this season. The odds of her showing up are tremendous. I get the feeling we're going to build up a small stable of Characters Of the Week like Kai and Opal who will show up again during what will probably be a major assault on the Northern Air Temple by the villains. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 05:47
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Aces High posted:I'm sorry that sounds kind of bitter but watching all of these characters that have been labelled as "the best benders of their generation" being punked by what should be emaciated prisoners that have not been able to exercise their powers for years just feels really stupid and poorly thought out. None of the people beaten so far have been the best bender of their generation. Zuko specifically was less talented than his father and sister but more stable. The most impressive thing he did was the Last Agni-Kai and even that was largely builds on Azula going loving nuts. Zuko was always the least talented member of his family when it came to bending and probably the least talented of the bend-capable Gaang members. (And seemingly Sokka was crazy-super talented at swordplay, it just never really was important.) Hell, as Fire Lord Zuko said himself, he hired someone like these guys to take out Aang and friends before. Tarlock and the Twins are both talented but we're not told they are super god-tier talented like Toph or Katara. As far as 'they should be emaciated prisoners," we saw at least one of them exercising regularly and this is not a show which is strongly based around realistic physical states. It is a show where a ten year old pacifist used magic powers to put himself in cryo-stasis, awoke without trouble and was able to masterfully kung-fu fight trained soldiers. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 06:31
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Jackard posted:I can understand defeating Kaya, who had no competent support, but there's no way Zaheer can beat Tenzin at his own game. Zaheer probably can't beat Tenzin in straight-up airbending but Zaheer was considered a high-class danger who needed to be locked in an ocean prison before he was a Bender. I mean, maybe he was the Sokka of the team and mostly there for boomerangs and planning, but even that would be pretty drat deadly when mixed with a high-level talent for Airbending.
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Jul 12, 2014 06:48
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