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These 3 episodes were actually really good. It helps that they required less set up for this plot line since it's a direct continuation from the previous one. I'm feeling optimistic about this season, but I also liked the last half of book 2 so I had less reservations going in than others. I'm liking where they're going with Korra's character. She's always going to be brash, stubborn, and hot headed, but she's really making an effort to listen and try for some patience. She and Tenzin already have a nice continuation from their growth in the last half of book 2 where they realized they couldn't be Aang, and that they should instead be their own people. Now they're in a situation where they can't rely on Aang's wisdom or experience and will have to step up on their own. I saw someone online mention that ATLA was about a person learning to be the chosen one whereas LoK is about the chosen one learning to be a person. Comparing the ATLA finale and the finale of Korra book 2, I can definitely see this. Aang goes into his final battle without the Avatar State and struggles with upholding his own morals and those of his dead culture. He is then gifted a chosen-one power that he can use against Ozai. Korra goes into the fight against Unaloq fully powered and is actually winning before her power is taken from her. She has to look inward and use her own inner strength (amplified by spiritual mumbojumbo) to defeat Unaloq and get the Avatar spirit back. I'm going to guess that choosing to reconnect with Raava is meant to be the moment that Korra truly becomes the Avatar. What I'm really surprised about is how much I'm enjoying both Mako and Bolin this time around. It's nice to see them actually act as brothers, and meeting their family was sweet. Mako actually seems to work better as an ex than as Korra or Asami's love interest; the dynamic is certainly more interesting. I'm already digging the Korra-Asami dynamic; it's closer to what I thought Korra and Mako were going to have when the show first started and Mako was still the "cool under fire" guy. The villains look awesome, so hopefully they actually live up to their potential. ROSS MY SALAD posted:So why does Zuko have a dragon now I'm guessing it hatched from that golden egg relic he and Aang found at the Sun Warrior temple?
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Jun 28, 2014 21:04
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Fried Chicken posted:I always like the sequences of the brothers fighting, they make a point to show them working as a team rather than two people fighting alongside one another. In that sequence Mako makes them dodge to the left, which is right where Bolin's shot goes as he leaps over Mako. I'd bet the reason these fights are always so short is because scripting something like this is more involved, but they are always worth seeing. Agreed. I'm really enjoying their brotherly dynamic in general this season. They've had more brother-moments in these last 5 episodes than in all of the past two books. I've gotta respect Bryke for being willing to show their previous heroes' failings as parents. It's realistic that Aang's duties as the Avatar would take him away from his family, and it's totally in character that Toph would give her kids too much freedom and not enough structure. I assume Zaheer's goal on the island (if Korra wasn't there) was figuring out that astral projection technique to track her down. That locket said something like "Let go of the Earth, enter the void, and become the wind." Sounds like what Jinora did, and her projecting and finding Kai seems to be a set up to explain how the villains will find Korra.
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Jul 12, 2014 21:58
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Ferrinus posted:Not so! The comet agni kai was his most memorable defeat of Azula, but he actually drove her off in an earlier episode involving blimps or something, dealing what would have been a death blow if not for Azula suddenly pulling out the Iron Man boot jets trick. It's not like going out of her mind Azula was noticeably worse at fighting, either. Azula was starting to slip by that episode too, but Zuko's Sun Warrior firebending definitely gave him a boost both in power and in confidence. It'd have been nice to see one fight with them both at full potential; Azula would still probably win, but I think Zuko would hold his own. And there's no way Zuko's only getting a short cameo, he'll definitely be back again in Korra to show off something neat. I'm holding out for lightningbending; he should have the mental clarity for it now. Honestly, I kind of like the idea of old Zuko not being exceptionally badass at firebending; it'd show he had more concern in running his country and raising his family than in honing his fighting skills. Edit: VVVVVV He's talking about the fight at the start of the Southern Raiders. i hate meatloaf fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 16:52
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Book 3's been on a roll so far; hopefully the keep it going through the finale. We now know that the villains (Red Lotus) want to assassinate President Raiko, so maybe they're anarchists? Zaheer is pretty hardcore into Airbender philosophy and air is the element of freedom. They tried to kidnap Korra when she was a kid. As the Avatar she's kind of the ultimate authority figure in the world who was going to be raised under the Order of the White Lotus - an ancient and powerful organization. Then there's the Earth Queen being a tyrant and Suyin thinking the monarchy is outdated. We don't know much about them yet, but I just really like these villains. They're cool and have some great chemistry, and I love how they had Ming Hua drive the getaway van with her water arms. P'Li has some rad loving hair now. I hope they stick around for book 4. These two episodes were great to pair together. Lin and Tenzin are so alike: stubborn, by the book, and resistant to change. They both have rebellious siblings that annoy them; however Suyin appears to have grown up and matured whereas Bumi's still petulant and manchildish. It's fun to see how different they get over their sibling problems. Tenzin does the Aang thing and ends up talking to Bumi whereas Lin pulls a Toph and gets in a big fight with her sister before working stuff out. Edit: With so many characters moved up to the Northern Airtemple, will the Earth Queen try to take it and reclaim her airbenders? She did consider taking them an act of war, and now they've stopped her trappers. i hate meatloaf fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Jul 19, 2014 |
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Jul 19, 2014 18:51
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hiddenriverninja posted:Is Red Lotus the official name for their group? Looks like it. Some tumblr people found the name buried in Nick's file name for a picture of them. I'm always amazed by internet nerds' ability to CSI the poo poo out tiny media releases.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:10
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hiddenriverninja posted:Also Korra is much more levelheaded, even moreso than Tenzin. Also they realized that no one gives a poo poo about the love triangle, and that Mako is a much better character when they don't try to shove his greatness down our throats. Nick is absolutely incompetent. They moved LoK into several terrible timeslots last season, gave us no updates on book 3 while it was finished enough to get foreign dubs and leaked online, then aired half the season after a week's notice with barely any advertising, had a week hiatus immediately after it started, and had no online viewing options at the start when LoK did fantastic numbers on iTunes the past two books. What the gently caress did they think was going to happen?
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Jul 24, 2014 03:30
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MrSlam posted:I just hope the powers-that-be look at this as a sign of bad decision making on the corporate end as opposed to a drop in quality in the show. This is the television industry; they'll just decide that female lead action cartoons don't work. Or maybe they're banking on the fan outrage boosting ratings once it's shown again on TV this fall. 
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Jul 24, 2014 03:40
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MrSlam posted:As poo poo as the animation might be only a handful of kids are going to notice, and if they stopped watching because of that then chances are they stopped watching Nickelodeon after the Spongebob movie. Even some of the older fans probably didn't notice or care. Some of my friends barely noticed the drop in animation until I pointed it out to them. I'm sure Korra lost viewers because of the letdown of the book 1 finale and the drop in quality for the first half of book 2, but I really doubt it's the main reason. Most people I talk to about Korra off the internet are pretty positive about it overall.
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Jul 24, 2014 04:35
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:Episodes will start online next Friday. August 22 is the two-part Book 3 finale. From posts of someone at the panel, Nick originally planned this season to be online only because the digital views for Korra have far outmatched the TV ones. After the leaks they must have just freaked out. I don't get why they didn't just announce a TV marathon of books 1 and/or 2 over the course of 2/3 weeks (2 episodes a night or so) to give them time to set up online viewing of the whole thing.
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Jul 25, 2014 19:45
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thexerox123 posted:No, tomorrow night. And not on TV, but online only. Noon EST actually.
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Aug 1, 2014 03:25
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Now that we know Unaloq was part of the Red Lotus, people are theorizing that Amon was a member as well. The Red Lotus's goal appears to be destroying the current world order and returning to the world of 10,000 years ago. Removing bending could have been the first stage of the plan to bring back Vaatu, reconnect the worlds, and split Raava from Korra. They did say Book 2 came about from stuff they couldn't fit into Book 1. The main problem I see with this is that so far all of the confirmed RL members have been benders, and I can't see them wanting to lose that. Perhaps he was meant to only take it from the unworthy or something but, like Unaloq, let his desires cloud his mission. We never got any reason for why Amon had a red dot on his mask, so it could reference the red lotus symbol - there is a red dot in the center? That's definitely a reach, but hey. This episode Zaheer gave us the name of the Red Lotus's founder/leader. I bet he's going to be the villain of book 4. While it wouldn't fix all the problems of the first two books, having it so that each book's villains are part of the same organization would make the show work better on rewatch.
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Aug 3, 2014 09:21
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ShadowCatboy posted:In Beijing opera, a mask with a red pearl on the forehead represents initiation into the Buddhist monkhood, and can be seen as representing spiritual connections. That's cool to know! Amon and the Equalists didn't seem that spiritual, but there's got to be a reason Mike and Bryan gave him that specific mask. It could just show initiation into the Equalist movement (with Amon implying some grander spirituality to it), but the Equalists never went into spirit stuff. Amon could have been subtly showing his initiation into The Red Lotus, which is a spiritual organization. Kegslayer posted:Laghima, the airbender, that Zaheer keeps quoting isn't the founder of the Red Lotus or even still alive given that the Red Lotus is a recent society and Tenzin has a locket with Laghima's picture on it stored with other airbending artifacts. Not Laghima, he said someone (Zhai Bei or something) founded the Red Lotus sometime after the 100 years war. Your idea for the end of book 3 would be a great way to get Zuko's daughter + family involved in book 4. ATLA had the Avatar defeat the Firelord, LoK could have the Avatar fight to reinstate the Firelord. I'm guessing book 3 ends with a multi-faction battle, and the TRL takes advantage of the chaos to enact that plan. The Earth Queen's captured Korra, would likely move to take back the Airbenders, and has stated she sees The United Republic's lands as her own. Suyin wants the EQ gone, may have ties with TRL, and would move to protect her daughter at the Airtemple. Depending on what the EQ does Republic City and possibly the FN and/or Water Tribes could get involved. Team Avatar may end up forging a temporary alliance with TRL to fight the EQ, which they would also take advantage of.
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Aug 3, 2014 21:11
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drat, this show is getting brutal! I was seriously worried Kya or Bumi were going to die right in the middle of those fights. And Jesus, that ending with Tenzin up against the wall.  We'll have to see next episode if they beat him to death. I'd assume not since keeping him alive as a hostage would be a better decision, but dude's going to be hosed up. I love just how effective these villains work as a team. Individually they're impressive, but together they are absolutely insane.Shout out to Bumi leaping on Ghazan and biting him. He's a ridiculous manchild, but the dude's effective in his own way. I love that he's not above dirty fighting when he's outmached. I don't know if they'll be moving to the Fire Nation for the finale. The RL is in an isolated location with a whole host of hostages they just beat down; seems like a good advantage. However, they may not want to stay in one place since the world could gather forces to go against them. Maybe the big showdown between Korra and the 4 will be in the NAT while the leader of the Red Lotus makes his move on the Firelord setting up book 4's conflict?
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Aug 15, 2014 18:51
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Genocyber posted:She was voiced by Zelda Williams, so she got extra screentime. She was also in previous episodes but just wasn't focused on. Holy poo poo, this finale was loving awesome and completely brutal! I'm sad to see P'Li, Ming Hua, and Ghazan go, but at least they went out totally hardcore. I'd imagine they all feel the way Ghazan did about dying rather than going back to prison, so Zaheer really got the worst out of them all. I wonder what warlord P'Li was saved from. I'd assumed she was from the Firenation, so if there's warlords there maybe it isn't that stable. But she could just as easily be from the United Republic or elsewhere; the Earth Kingdom was unstable enough to have warlords running around (and even more now). I like how much the big airbending techniques contrasted. Zaheer's interpretation of Airbending philosophy got all his friends imprisoned and later killed, and he achieved his ultimate technique by letting go of his girlfriend after he got her killed. Jinora rallied together all the airbenders to combine their power, saved her friend, and beat Zaheer. Zaheer also works as a kind of dark mirror to Tenzin; his spiritual mastery of Airbending is what Tenzin always felt he should have but could never achieve because of his duty to his family and rebuilding his culture. Jinora succeeding where her father couldn't isn't a failure on Tenzin's part at all; it's his greatest success. He's sacrificed his own spiritual enlightenment so that his daughter and future airbenders can achieve theirs. Tenzin really is the best.  I'm so pumped to see where they take Korra next. She's in a dark place, and it's going to be great to see her rise from the ashes. At the risk of sounding all tumblr, I'm totally on board with Korra/Asami now. Also Zaheer standing on tiptoes to kiss P'Li was  as all hell.
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Aug 24, 2014 20:13
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Kimmalah posted:I think they basically took Sokka, divided up his comic relief and his knack for mechanical devices to give us Bolin and Asami. But at least Bolin is getting some small bits of character development while Asami just comes in when they need a spot weld or shock glove. Asami is also LoK's Suki. She's got a cool design and does cool stuff, but she's a bit too well rounded a person to be an exceptionally interesting character on her own. Her flaws (too trusting and a being a little too dependent on others emotionally) either aren't that fascinating to watch or they just fumbled them. She and Korra have had a great dynamic this book, but it's too bad it took so long to get to it. I like Asami, but I hope they do more with her character in book 4 - though the big storyline with her father in book 1 would have been the place to do it. Hopefully she visits him in prison or something. You know, having Hiroshi get airbending would be a fun way to tie book 1 into the rest, and it would be fitting for the man who hated benders to become one.
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Aug 28, 2014 18:11
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According to IGN, Book 4 will air in Australia in January or February. A fall release in the US seems too soon, so maybe they're doing a worldwide release early next year.
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Aug 29, 2014 14:08
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PiedPiper posted:See, if they'd introduced Korra as bisexual or lesbian from the start or given some indications of it, I would think 'Well, maybe they will do something interesting about it'. I wouldn't be opposed to it, I'd be willing to give it a chance. BUT introducing LGBT theme after THREE whole seasons in what I assume will be the last season is entirely out of place. This is not a change that is required to drive the plot or the character arc, it is the change that some marginal percent of fandom is dreaming about, that's all. LoK's a coming of age story. It's not at all uncommon for someone Korra's age to realize they're gay or bi at that point. Plus, Korra's had 3 seasons; that is in no way 80 years worth of comic backstory. LoK also had enough of an issue getting to air with just a female lead. If they intend for her to be bi/gay, there's no way Nick was going to let them do that in the first season. Nick is a lot more likely to let it happen in the last season if they decide to go that way. It's still a long shot. I'd guess that if LoK does a gay relationship, it'll be between two secondary characters instead of the leads.
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Aug 30, 2014 18:01
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Well wrap it up ya'll, all this girly romance discussion is giving goons cooties.
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Aug 30, 2014 18:28
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I honestly don't think they're going the Korra/Asami route, but drat you guys are over complicating the whole idea. They wouldn't need to draw out anything. Just show their friendship building for a bit, then have a scene where they realize there's more to it. Anyway, I hope we get to see some killer lightning bending next book. It's fire's time to shine again, and Korra learning to lightning bend could help get her out of her funk. The circular motions of lightning bending always reminded me of airbending. It'd be cool to see an airbending inspired firebender spinning lightning bolts around. i hate meatloaf fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 21:45
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Pau posted:So um... I really like this show and all. For ATLA you could maybe show them a couple great stand-alone episodes like The Blue Spirit or The Blind Bandit. That way they know how good the show can get as they struggle through the first half of book 1. I always warned my friends that it takes a bit for ATLA to find it's footing. You could also have them skip some of the more kiddy episodes of book 1 and fill them in on any characters who they'll have missed. They could probably get away with just watching the first 3 episodes, the winter-solstace two parter (or at least part 2), The Waterbending Scroll, Jet, The Storm, and everything after that.
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Aug 30, 2014 22:12
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:Don't show them the Blue Spirit on its own! That is awful advice. That moment where Aang asks Zuko if maybe they could have been friends too is meaningless without the past 12 episodes, especially The Storm, building up their animosity. The Blue Spirit is the first full episode I watched and it got me into the rest of the show. Yeah it works better if you know the characters, but it's the best episode in book 1 for showing off the excellent fight choreography and animation.
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Aug 30, 2014 22:34
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DrSunshine posted:This is pretty much my feeling on it. I think that having it be set ~10,000 years prior would work really well, far distanced enough from the events of ATLA and Korra that "prequelitis" doesn't really factor into things, aside from the audience knowing, generally, that certain events would happen far into that world's future. It'd be a fantastic time to show some of the earliest ideas of what an Avatar should do would be in the process of being worked out. I definitely agree with this, although I'd go with a few Avatars down the line from Wan when people have started to forget his time and legacy. That way we'll get a totally fresh time period, and several Avatar backstories to delve into. It'd be cool to see more ancient Avatar cultures like the Sun Warriors or the time of Oma and Shu, and maybe the Avatar could run into Guru Laghima. Kind of related: in the Wan flashback he rode his catdeer to the various lion turtles, which would imply they're on the same landmass. What if to stop the fighting between people of different elements, some Avatar pulled a Kyoshi and split up the Avatar world to what we know it as?
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Sep 3, 2014 06:04
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CeallaSo posted:What happened to Zuko's mom? Oh, she went back to her mysterious home village to meet her old flame, and she gave up her face and the memory of her children to a spirit so that she could start over. I'm all for trying to start anew after being married to a tyrant like Ozai, but there's no way in hell a mother who cares as much about her children as Ursa is shown to would just choose to forget them. I disagree on The Search. Gene Yang said in an interview that the comics are supposed to focus on the main five characters, so Ursa's storyline is meant to reflect Zuko's current arc. The events of the last year, especially those of The Promise, have put a ton of strain on Zuko. In The Search he gets a chance to leave responsibility and the throne behind, and he seriously considers it. Ursa did what he wants to do - run away and start anew, but by the end of the story what she left behind crashes back into her new life. The Search is about Zuko realizing he can't leave the throne because he can never really escape it, and he has responsibility to those he cares about. On Ursa's character, she escapes an abusive relationship with a monster and had no hope of ever seeing her kids again. I can see someone in that position wanting to get rid of the pain. It was a bad decision in a moment of weakness, but it's understandable. The difficulty of making that choice would have come across better in animation though. The comics have their flaws, but as with everything else the internet greatly exaggerates them. Most of the complaints I've seen online are from people mad that the comics invalidate their fanfics. They're at least worth picking up for the artwork - the coloring in The Search is superb.
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Sep 4, 2014 19:13
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Je suis fatigue posted:That's a part of what I really liked about season 3, it had a bigger focus on the female characters. Asami in the Korra plot instead of Bolin or Mako, Korra and Lin, the Beifong family drama, Jinora growing up. I don't really remember what Mako even did in season 3 except be a fire bender that shot fire at bad guys (not that I'm complaining). That was a huge improvement. Korra should have met Asami on her own at the start of the series instead of her being introduced as Mako's girlfriend. Aang's group consisted of his friends: he was found by Katara and Sokka, he insisted on Toph as a teacher, and he decided to let Zuko in. It's Team Avatar not Team Mako.  In this book, Mako was handled wonderfully. Outside of the love triangle, his major problem in the first two was how much they tried to force him as a cool character. This time they just let him work naturally. He had his place to shine without overtaking plots, no one was written badly just to make him look better, and he and Bolin felt like brothers again. While pretty minor, his interactions with Kai helped flesh out his own backstory. It's amazing just how much better Lin's flaws were presented this book as well. In book 2 she had the same problem of being stubborn and rigid, but it was absolutely frustrating to watch. This season however, her storyline was topnotch.
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Sep 5, 2014 03:34
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thexerox123 posted:I still haven't given up hope that the Fire Sage from Beginnings was actually Azula. I do like this theory; it'd be a nice redemption path for her. It'd be oddly fitting for her to follow the Iroh path of the fallen war "hero" who lives a quiet life helping others. On the other hand if Azula shows up in Korra, I'd want her to still be kind of an rear end in a top hat. I also prefer the idea of her being Zuko's advisor or head of FN national security or something. She was more Zuko's antagonist than Aangs, so her possibly redemption should center around her relationship with her family and friends.
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Sep 18, 2014 16:58
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Glad we're finally getting a trailer. I'd say I'm surprised it's coming out so late but ya know Nickelodean.Aces High posted:whenever I see things like this I just imagine some It was actually a pretty interesting post about color theory and lighting. Some people still got mad about it though lol. Aang's probably brighter than Tenzin because LoK's color palette is more subdued. Adult Aang in LoK looks about on par with Tenzin's skin tone.
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Sep 26, 2014 06:35
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gently caress sitting at their computer mumbling "trap sprung". I mean I sure didn't need to see a palette swatch confirming that Katara and Kya do have the same skin tones, Kya just always looked like Katara. However I did find it weird how none of the kids were as bright as Aang.
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^^^Bryan seemed more concerned about people flaming fanartists rather than people being mad at him.Wildeyes posted:Yeah, I really don't think the average person has much of a grasp of color theory and how markedly different the color of the same object can look when placed in different lighting, when juxtaposed with a different color, etc. Just do a google search for someone like Zoe Saldana -- even in untouched photos, her skin tone seems to run the gamut. Man, even a lot of artists don't have the best grasp on color theory. That poo poo's hard and takes a lot of study and observation. Avatar's always had the best trailers, and I think a lot of the LoK Book 2 trailer came from the good half of the season, so that helped. It looks like this one will drop while I'm at work. 
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Sep 26, 2014 18:53
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Hell yeah! Looks awesome, and posted right before I need to go to work! So Kuvira pretty much confirmed for villain? Holy poo poo Toph, and hell yeah Zhu Li in a mechatank!
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Sep 26, 2014 19:42
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