Legend of Korra Book 3: There is only darkness.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Legend of Korra Book 3: There is only darkness.

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Sydin posted:

I'm pretty sure the astral projection thing is that. Jinora said that it was combination of high level airbending and some spiritual power, so the implication there is that only an airbender could do it. It makes sense: airbending isn't really offensive by nature so having a specialized form devoted to offense wouldn't make much sense, and the air nomad culture as a whole is all about spirituality and detaching oneself from the world. So being able to detach your own spirit from your body would be the logical culmination.

Also it's not like there aren't other inconsistencies between the elements. Why can firebenders just generate fire when everybody else needs to have some of their element around to bend? Why is waterbending the only art lacking an animal precursor and instead derived from a celestial body? It's not exactly a level field all around.

If astral projection and/or some kind of spirit powers are the super airbending abilities, it makes me wonder what the limits are. So far we've only seen Jinora do it to flit around the spirit realm looking for clues/plot devices, but what if someone like Zaheer could weaponize it? Maybe his plan is to utilize spirit powers to possess Korra or somehow otherwise affect or control her spirit and enact the plan of the Red Lotus?

# ¿ Jul 27, 2014 03:23

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 04:40

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

So, did anyone else think that Su Yin might be part of the Red Lotus? She seemed...a little too outraged after the incursion on Zhao Fu, she was 'interrogated' by a guy who was later proven to be lying and part of the conspiracy, and her decision to send Korra off after the Red Lotus with Team Avatar seems...strange. A lot of her mannerisms seemed too overt during episode 8 to just be coincidence. Su Yin was definitely running around the world during the time when Zaheer and the others would've been starting up, and she's been know to run with criminals before... Just seems a bit suspicious to me.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2014 05:28

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

So, did the Airbenders get away at the end? It seemed like the bison all got scared off, leaving them stranded except for Kai.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 04:14

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Babygravy posted:

Avatar with blade runner elements?

Ok I'm down.

I'd throw some money down in a KickStarter for this. Given that Avatars live for ~150 years, the next reincarnation should be smack dab in a futuristic setting, which opens up all kinds of possibilities (tech vs bending, space travel, etc).

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 17:22

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Wildeyes posted:

The Zaheerforthepeople tumblr leaked (?) a spooky quote from "the journals of Xai Bau" that may relate to what the Red Lotus has in store for Korra, if that interests you

No clue if it's legit or not.

This kind of confirms one of the first things I thought of when it was emphasized how good Zaheer is at spirit stuff; he's either going to try to take over Korra's body and be the chaotic, nation-opposed Avatar that the Red Lotus wants, or straight up exorcise Raava out of Korra and end the influence of the Avatar forever. It could be that Book 3 ends with the Red Lotus succeeding partly, leaving Korra either without powers or exiled to the spirit world, and Book 4 is the culmination of the plot, with Korra having to get more in touch with her spirit side and finding a way back while the rest of Team Korra try to keep the Red Lotus from completely plunging the physical world in chaos.

Siid posted:

Tenzin will finish Jinora's training in the Spirit World.

_{It will work without being able to bend there. Don't question it.}

This is so :unsmith:

that it's terrible to even consider, but it would be an amazing and logical way for the plot to go; Tenzin dies, but maintains his connection to Jinora through her spiritwalking powers, allowing a way for the Airbending forms to be passed down but leaving plenty of space for Jinora to be a new leader for the Air Tribe. I like Tenzin as a character, but given how ruthless they've shown the Red Lotus to be, I can't fathom him living through the season. It just works on too many levels; If Tenzin dies, it means Aang's dream of reviving the air nation failed once and for all. They've been emphasizing a lot that the Avatar can, and often does, fail in their personal goals to protect or shelter any given one nation and that the Avatar has to be okay with the world changing in ways they don't like.

Definitely hyped for the finale though.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Aug 19, 2014

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 00:38

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Who waterbended these tears up here?

Seriously great finale, great cap to the season overall. Really hoping they can keep this level of quality up for season 4, or even maintain the upward trend.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2014 20:58

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

On a second watch, it's cool that they showed Asami getting her shock glove beat down on versus the red lotus guards.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 03:34

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

ImpAtom posted:

railgun brainmagic.

Thread title for Book 4, right here.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 05:25

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Dezinus posted:

- Particularly loved the shot where Korra's dad lunges at Zaheer with the ice shiv. I dunno why. The killing intent was just really clear in his expression and struck me as something not often shown in Avatar/Nickelodeon.

It seems like Korra's dad is one of the few characters allowed to be really brutal and direct with his moves, even in the S2 fight with Unalaq and his fight with Zaheer during the ice prison breakout. All the other waterbenders are generally more deflecting or using water to snare/trap opponents, whereas he just goes for kill shots. Definitely one of the more impressive fighters.

Silynt posted:

My biggest beef with the episode is that, ultimately, why the Red Lotus failed is because they underestimated the Avatar State's power. After they went through all that planning to force her into the change you would think that they would have come up with a means of binding her that would last more than 5 seconds. I mean, she can bend MOUNTAINS in that form, obviously she could pull the base of her bindings out of the wall!

Maybe they didn't realize how much physically stronger the Avatar state makes the Avatar. It's expected that the bending power level will increase, but a teenage girl being able to pull metal chains out of the wall is probably not something they foresaw.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 15:43

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Torquemadras posted:

- I liked how Bolin did lavabending! Ghazan actually created lava, but Bolin never did - he only diverted and hardened whatever magma was sent his way, and in an actual battle, Ghazan still overwhelmed him. Felt quite appropriate actually, that Bolin still wouldn't have everything figured out at that point. Who knows if he even CAN create lava the way Ghazan could. (Also, too bad the fire rock shuriken didn't appear again!)

There is a scene where Bolin creates lava during the fight with Ghazan, although you blink and you miss it. I agree that his fighting style isn't anywhere close to the level of Ghazan, but it seems like the lavabending is more intuitive than most other forms of advanced bending (metal, blood, lightning, flight, etc).

Although I wonder what the rules are for flight; does it really require letting go of all earthly attachments and achieving some kind of "enlightened" state, or is it just something a small percentage of Airbenders can achieve with enough skill and practice? In A:TLA, there were only a few lightining benders (Azula, Iroh, and Ozin), all of whom were very skilled and very strong benders, and even Zuko couldn't lightning bend despite being on a equal level with them due to being unable to be at peace with himself. In LOK, it seems like lightning bending is far more common and doesn't require any kind of philosophical thought or introspection, since they have fire benders using it to generate electricity. So I wonder if Zaheer is just full of poo poo and eventually we might be able to see more airbenders fly, without having to forego connections to other people or things they care about.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2014 23:27

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Big Anime Fan Here posted:

Did the Avatar state go down in power level since Korra lost her connection to all the past Avatars because Ang's final Avatar State form where he's like orbited by all the elements was way more on point than anything Korra ever did. Even before mastering all the elements Ang went Avatar state and fought like an entire army as a big water monster.

As others have pointed out:

1. Korra has always been more of an overwhelming force kind of fighter, with the presence of mind to disable her opponents if the situation calls for it, whereas Aang was very tactical, very precise, and very anti-violence. He never used any more force than he absolutely had to. Korra seems to take after her dad, who has been displayed as a person with no problem throwing as much force as necessary at an opponent to get them down, and then going in directly for a killshot.

2. Korra was literally dying and still managed to take out two high level benders trying to kill her, pursue and attack a third who was using an ability and powerset that literally no one had access to or even thought existed for 1000 years, and then was almost victorious in her goal to put a fist through his face before the poison weakened her too much.

3. She still managed to use firebending to fly pretty well, while also bending entire mountains off the ground to throw around, and throwing water streams hundreds of feet.

I don't think the Avatar state has lost a step, power-level wise.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2014 18:54

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Applewhite posted:

So I only just got caught up (I watched the whole of season 3 in marathon over the past week). First off:
How awesome was this?

I know I'm not the only person who cheered at that part.

Secondly:

I'm kind of wondering where the show can go for the next Avatar incarnation. On the one hand, they could play it safe and have their world stuck in some kind of medival stasis, with the next Avatar living in a steampunk world not much different than Korra's. Personally, though, I think it would be much more daring and awesome to have the series continue to move forward with our world, which would place the next Avatar sometime around their world's Vietnam War (assuming Korra survivies her world's WWI/II equivalents).

How awesome would that be? The Avatar takes on Vietnam. All the social upheval and violence of that era would make for some pretty daring exploration.

Plus, Avatar Korra would be the only accesible precursor to the new Avatar, so her relationship with the new one would be pretty close.

IIRC, Avatars live for 100+ years (Aang being the exception because he burned up 100 years in his ice bubble), so the next Avatar would be pretty far past any kind of mid-20th century conflict analogues, barring Korra dying young, I think.

blurry! posted:

A place where the franchise can go is to bring back the lion turtles. Apparently the lion turtles are very powerful beings concerned mostly with the material realm, and are generally antithetical to spirits. They provided protection on their backs for the humans, and gave them tools to defend themselves against the spirit wilds. The LTs themselves didn't seem to concerned with how this affected the spirits. Additionally, they were a source bending, which is not found anywhere in the spirit world. Rava was even respectful to the Lion Turtles.

Maybe the incursion of the spirit wilds causes them to emerge from wherever the gently caress they've been hanging out.

Down for this. More lion turtles is always cool.

ATP_Power posted:

The correct answer for the next Avatar story is obviously a Spelljammer-esque space opera.

Definitely down for this.

Honestly I don't care where they take it if they somehow get the backing for more seasons or series. Between Amazon, Netflix, Yahoo Streaming, Cartoon Network, etc, there has to be a service out there that sees the potential in the Avatar series and would be willing to throw some money at it.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 21:10

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Whoa.

Air-gliding airbenders?

Earth nation shifting to Metal nation with Kuvira in charge?

Mech fighting?

Bolin being a badass lavabender?

Wasn't expecting a 3 year time jump, but this looks dark and :black101:

as hell. I'm down.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Sep 26, 2014

# ¿ Sep 26, 2014 19:39

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Fixed, sorry about that.

On second watch, it looks like we get to see Zuko's daughter at a meeting with the other nation leaders? Also if the Earth Nation and/or Metal Clan are on the warpath again, I wonder how Korra will handle it as opposed to how Avatar Kyoshi dealt with the same problem.

Korra with short hair looks so much like Opal to me, but maybe it's just do to the fast cuts in the trailer. Also it looks like everyone got a design update except for Bolin and the older folks.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2014 19:53

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 04:40

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

How are they dropping the episodes for this season? Are we getting two per week again?

# ¿ Sep 26, 2014 21:02

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Legend of Korra Book 3: There is only darkness.