Avatar Legend of Korra

[creb]

Lame finale.

Asami being put in path for Sokka 2.0. Lame.

Mako all lovey-dovey with Korra. Minutes after being lovey-dovey with Asami. So lame.

Korra getting her powers back just like that. Lame. Sure, it'd have been very predictable for season two to have been spent on her journey to regain her powers, but it would have also brought back some of the greatness of the Last Airbender, in bringing some adventure back to this series.

Amon having such a trite reason for all he did. Lame.

Amon's fire scars being nothing but paint. Lam...lol...e.

What looks essentially like complete closure? Lame, since it means they're going to have to come up with something completely out of thin air for season two, thereby breaking the sense of continuity that was so great between seasons of the Last Airbender. What villian will terrorize Republic City next? Are they gonna somehow twist prohibition into the story in some way?

I said it after episode 10, but gosh, it was even worse with a full two episodes. Zuko's VA as General Iroh's VA was possibly the worst casting decision I have ever witnessed. Double lame.

Overall, Korra was a decent series, despite the rather poor culmination of season one. Visually looked better than Airbender. I'm also a sucker for the whole 1920s vibe, and it's great to see Korra as a dark-skinned, female heroine full of muscle and vigor, as they could easily have modeled her after someone like Asami to boost ratings. But, it's far less ambitious, and it showed.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Katara HATED bloodbending and never wanted to use it. It stands to reason that she would have never explored the possibilities; unlike Amon. Furthermore she outlawed bloodbending; that alone would tell waterbenders around the world that it is possible to bend blood... all it takes is for a sink minded water bender to actually try it... And in Yakone's case, his bloodline just happened to be VERY strong when it came to bending.

Remember "The Southern Water Raiders"? She didn't seem to hate it much then, quickly using it. And the fact that other people know about it, strikes me as something odd, too. The way they set it up in the series, they made it seem like Hama was the only one who knew, and thus why she wanted to pass it along to someone else. If Katara didn't want any other bloodbenders... why even make such a proclamation? "Oh, and guys, don't make nuclear weapons. Oops, did I just tell everyone that it was possible to make nuclear weapons? Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut."

I will grant the possibility that someone else could stumble upon it, however unlikely the original series made it seem. But in that case, it should be a fairly well known bending style as of the first series, like lightning is to firebenders.

And even if you ignore all that... we were repeatedly told that it was impossible to blood bend without a full moon. It's like they tell us only the avatar can master all bending styles... and then suddenly having a pair of nobodies who can do the same. It breaks the established narrative. They could have explained it so much better, if spirits were involved somehow, which would have made vastly more sense (and give us a reason as to why Korra wasn't very good at the spiritual stuff).

The air planes were plenty believable. If you look at the history of cars, you could say that the cars that existed in this series were the same kind as you would have seen in the 1910's which is when we had WWI, which is where we first saw bi-planes being used for combat... And those meches were rather simple... i mean picture a WWI tank, only built in the shape of a human and with a grapping hook instead of a gun. I mean the legs did not move, they were just standing on treads, and the arms have a very limited rang of movement; The only reason WE never built such a thing is because it isn't as practical as a tank (one good cannon shot and that thing will fall over). I'm not even sure if the electric weapons are that farfetched when you consider that Tesla was trying to develop electric weapons back in the early 1900's; though it might be a tad much for them to have made them so portable. So frankly, it does not really go beyond my suspension of disbelief.

Airplanes, I'd probably buy. Just that he made such effective bombers in such a short time. Literally days, maybe a week at most. It took us many years to go from gliders to powered military aircraft (look at the difference between WW1 and WW2 aircraft).

But as you said, the mecha tanks weren't practical, when compared with regular tanks. I could buy the regular tanks in the first series, since they were firebender powered and made sense. The caterpillar tanks and submarines were rather brilliant, too.

But part of my problem with them, is that they can quite easily be knocked over by a simple earthbending move... which Korra and the Earthbenders failed to do in their first meeting. It really reeks of the writers doing a bad job trying to make these things threatening. "Oooh, mecha!"

Lastly, sure, we had electricity back then. But there is a big difference between electricity, and having small enough batteries to produce the charge needed to lay someone out. I don't buy the tech level being that good. At the very least, it's a copout to try and make the bad guys more of a threat

God forbid we have a surprise twist and some tension.

There are surprise twists. And then there are asspulls. You're confusing the two. Even twists have some foreshadowing; in fact, a twist makes you look back and go "Huh, yeah, it all fits, but I just didn't see it quite that way."

The writers needed hostages to force Korra to fight. And so they provided some. I'm just surprised they didn't add Katara and her kids to the hostage roster. How would he have kidnapped them? Does it matter? We don't need to explain anything!

Maybe by itself, I might not have minded, but there were just too many things that broke the bounds of disbelief. It's bad writing, plain and simple.

There have been times when Aang was beaten or captured where the avatar state was not triggered... the same holds true for Korra; merely being beaten by Amon was not enough to trigger the defense. We have also seen that the avatar state CAN be triggered by distress as Aang was triggered when he found out the air monks were killed and when he thought Katara was buried.

And that's just it... Aang went in and out of the state many times. Sure, it wasn't activated all the time, but it at least went off. Korra didn't go into it once, despite being in similar situations. We were told over and over that it was a defense mechanism, although it could late be controlled. It was something conveniently ignored, because the writers couldn't make it work with their story.

Ask yourself if this is the road you want them to go down. For if they do a third series, and start ignoring even more of the lore, when suddenly other people can bend multiple elements, and they are using interstellar space ships with 1960's tech.

And as a fic writer, I'd love to be able to get away with this stuff. I'd love to write "and then the villain suddenly has a death ray that was never mentioned previously!" and follow that up "but suddenly our hero has a death ray reflection shield that was never mentioned before" and then "but the villain suddenly reveals that he holds all the loved ones of the hero captive as hostage, despite them being scattered across the world 5 minutes ago!"

It would be damn easy to write that way, without worrying about setting things up. Unfortunately, my readers wouldn't let me get away with it. They'd call it for the BS that it is.

Also if we look too Aang's earth bending, we know that unlocking your most difficult art sometimes does not come from training but by entering a a certain emotional state. In Aang's case, it was learning to have guts and stand firm in face of great danger... In Korra's case it was desperation to save Mako when she had no other bending to fight with... Also she did throw a punch when she threw that first air attack at amon.

Pardon the pun, but you're really bending to make that connection. Aang was told, and shown, how to earthbend. His problem was his attitude, being able to stand firm. Once he did that, and assumed the stance he was taught, it worked. Korra's airbending came from literally nowhere. It would have made far more sense for her to enter the avatar state and airbend. That would have made sense.

That would be out of character for Koh... Koh told Aang that he does not hold grudges, especially not against the future reincarnations of the avatar; he understands that the new avatars are not responsible for what the previous avatars have done.

Unless he was lying, or Aang did something in the previous time period to anger him. Anyway, it was just a random thought, in order to get the spirits involved somehow, which would account for the OP bloodbending and the mask. Don't have to use Koh; there are plenty of spirits, after all.

Originally Posted by james0246

To be fair, Korra had already spent 10 or so years learning all the elements sans Air, and then she has spent the series learning the movements for Air but not the ability to control the element. So, it is not like she suddenly gained the ability with no training. She had the training, just not the 'will'.

She was bending those three elements at age... 4? 5? A friend of mine pointed this out to me, as a point of disgust on his part. I can see his point, but I just consider it to be part of Korra's unique charm. I suspect other avatars in the past were able to do some multiple bending at a young age.

But as was said above, I can't compare it with Aang's earth bending(or energy bending), because of the clear difference. Aang had to learn to "stand his ground" which he did with the bullmoose. What was Korra's problem? It was never said, other than it just wasn't clicking for her. To me, this was a failing on the part of the writing, to more clearly elucidate as to what Korra's problem was. If they could have done that, and then set up a situation where Korra was forced to overcome her mental block like Aang did, it wouldn't have felt like it came out of nowhere.

[orion]

Originally Posted by creb

Asami being put in path for Sokka 2.0. Lame.

Mako all lovey-dovey with Korra. Minutes after being lovey-dovey with Asami. So lame.

Asami was the lame one for sticking it out for so long. If a guy is by your bed all night, that means something. The look on his face said it all.

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Ugh, Asami deserves love but pushing her to the lesser Brother would be a mistake and make her a brother hopper. It would also give justification to hate Asami since if she dated Bolin it would always be "I'm only dating him to get back at you Mako" no matter what happens and Bolin would always be "Second Best that is only with her because the best is with another". Best to avoid that fully and let Bolin get with a new character in Book 2.

Totally agree.

Technically, Asami is not needed anymore if they leave Republic City in Book 2. Now that the couple is established, 3 is a crowd. Bolin needs to find learn metal bending and find a nice chi bender to hang with so we have 2 couples for Book 2.And since Mako impressed Amon, we need to see more skills from the guy.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

But as was said above, I can't compare it with Aang's earth bending(or energy bending), because of the clear difference. Aang had to learn to "stand his ground" which he did with the bullmoose. What was Korra's problem? It was never said, other than it just wasn't clicking for her. To me, this was a failing on the part of the writing, to more clearly elucidate as to what Korra's problem was. If they could have done that, and then set up a situation where Korra was forced to overcome her mental block like Aang did, it wouldn't have felt like it came out of nowhere.

They did set it up. Korra in the very beginning didn't think that she needed air bending to be the Avatar. She was good with the other 3. Then came a probending match and she needed it to help them win. This is a similar situation. Amon took all her bending away and she really needed something to save Mako and her air bending kicked in full force as it was the only thing left.

[james0246]

^Don't mistake my words. Korra had the techniques to utilize air bending. She trained for it. But, she lacked the fundamental qualities required to actual bend Air, and, truthfully, I do not think she was ever shown actually gaining the traits needed to utilize Air.

Air, by its very nature, is free, and Korra, in a nice dramatic turn, was constantly plagued by her insecurities throughout the series. I liked this. I liked that her fears were (undoubtedly) the root of her inability to be bend air. Sadly, she never really got over her fears, so I am unclear how she was able to bend air (a slight argument could be made that she survived her greatest fear, so she could finally break through her mental block and air bend).

Again, her bending air is fine on a theoretical level. She has the training, just not the 'will'.

(That being said, I find many of your other critiques are far closer to nitpicking rather than true criticism. The technology of the series can't be questioned too far, especially since it is unknown how long these various death machines had been under production, and there basic design is well within the pseudo steam punk vibe the creators were going for, so I generally disagree with your incredulous response. And, while I was a long time supporter of Koh as well, blood bending is a sufficient answer considering the massive control it has over the body (additionally, as Sokka said in his brief appreance (and I'm paraphrasing), "if you can accept that a fire bender can shoot fire from his forehead at will, then why couldn't a water bender learn to blood bend without the moon?"). As for Tenzin and his family...well Republic city is Aang's city, and Amon and his brother have partially targeted the city because of that, so targeting Tenzin is natural. And, considering that he and his family represent the last of the airbenders, their death would have been a monstrous blow to the world's morale. So, it makes sense (to me at least) that Tenzin would have been public enemy number 2, and this is partially confirmed during the initial invasion as Amon sends multiple mechas and ships simply to capture Tenzin and his family.)

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Remember "The Southern Water Raiders"? She didn't seem to hate it much then, quickly using it.

That's because she was really, really, really overly emotional and no longer thinking like her normal self... kind of like how someone who would never harm a fly, might be driven to kill if you do something to anger them in a way they never felt before. Hell that was the whole POINT of that event, to show that Katara's anger over the loss of her mother had given her a thirst for vengeance that was causing her to act against her principles. She was acting out of pure rage.

And the fact that other people know about it, strikes me as something odd, too. The way they set it up in the series, they made it seem like Hama was the only one who knew, and thus why she wanted to pass it along to someone else. If Katara didn't want any other bloodbenders... why even make such a proclamation? "Oh, and guys, don't make nuclear weapons. Oops, did I just tell everyone that it was possible to make nuclear weapons? Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut."

in history groups of people who never interacted can easily make similar developments... when it comes down to it, the ONLY requirement for one to begin the recreation of bloodbending is for one skilled waterbending to think "isn't there water in blood?"

in fact, if the villagers knew how hama was abducting poeple (which would be a requirement if they wanted to keep her locked up since they would have to know to avoid her cell during the full moon), then its easy to believe that the rumors of bloodbending would slowly spread from there.

I will grant the possibility that someone else could stumble upon it, however unlikely the original series made it seem. But in that case, it should be a fairly well known bending style as of the first series, like lightning is to firebenders.

Which is why Katara saw fit to outlaw bloodbending... its not well known because it is universally outlawed, and only criminals would ever attempt to recreate the technique assuming they have the patience, talent and discipline to figure it out.

In the end, katara had a choice... try to keep in a secret and risk the technique being recreated in an unprepared world, or allow word to spread, but prepare the world to counter it should it pop up

Hell its even possibly that over the 30 years since the first series (it was outlawed when yakone was around), some other waterbender somewhere already figured it out, or stories of bloodbending had already slipped. Thus given Katara reason to act instead of trying to keep a secret that was no longer secret

And even if you ignore all that... we were repeatedly told that it was impossible to blood bend without a full moon. It's like they tell us only the avatar can master all bending styles... and then suddenly having a pair of nobodies who can do the same. It breaks the established narrative. They could have explained it so much better, if spirits were involved somehow, which would have made vastly more sense (and give us a reason as to why Korra wasn't very good at the spiritual stuff).

As sokka pointed out, there was once a time when people did not believe metal bending was possible... toph proved them wrong. There was a time when people did not believe Blood bending was possible, but Hama proved them wrong. Most would not think it possible to channel firebending through your mind, but then we have combustion man. I'd probably say that there was probably a time when lightning was not considered possible either. We are dealing with a world that evolves with time, and as such new discovers pop up.

Airplanes, I'd probably buy. Just that he made such effective bombers in such a short time. Literally days, maybe a week at most. It took us many years to go from gliders to powered military aircraft (look at the difference between WW1 and WW2 aircraft).

Only if you assume Sato has only been developping these plane in these past few weeks... Sato has been yearning for this day for years and could have easily been developing all of his weapons for years.

But as you said, the mecha tanks weren't practical, when compared with regular tanks. I could buy the regular tanks in the first series, since they were firebender powered and made sense. The caterpillar tanks and submarines were rather brilliant, too.

But part of my problem with them, is that they can quite easily be knocked over by a simple earthbending move... which Korra and the Earthbenders failed to do in their first meeting. It really reeks of the writers doing a bad job trying to make these things threatening. "Oooh, mecha!"

I see i thought your only problem was the impossibility of the tech. Yes i agree they are very impractical weapons, but the same can be said about most EVERY mech in fiction... kinda of pointless to complain about this one use of mechs if you don't complain about everything else

There are surprise twists. And then there are asspulls. You're confusing the two. Even twists have some foreshadowing; in fact, a twist makes you look back and go "Huh, yeah, it all fits, but I just didn't see it quite that way."

The writers needed hostages to force Korra to fight. And so they provided some. I'm just surprised they didn't add Katara and her kids to the hostage roster. How would he have kidnapped them? Does it matter? We don't need to explain anything!

They did foreshadow it... In the previous episode it seemed clear that Amon was specifically aiming for the last airbenders and Lin even emphasized that point... Getting rid of them would end airbending and that was the fear. So its not that shocking to find out that amon managed to track them down and capture them...

If they took it a step furthar and actually showed the equalists knocking on their door, then it wouldn't be much of a twist since the idea that they were captured after that would be EXTREMELY predictable. The best kind of foreshadowing is the subtle kind, not the painfully obvious.

And that's just it... Aang went in and out of the state many times. Sure, it wasn't activated all the time, but it at least went off. Korra didn't go into it once, despite being in similar situations. We were told over and over that it was a defense mechanism, although it could late be controlled. It was something conveniently ignored, because the writers couldn't make it work with their story.

How many times did aang go into the state when his life was in danger? For instance, when he was captured by General Zhao, he did not go into the state and had to be saved by Zuko. The defence mechanism only triggers when DEATH is imminent... and frankly, Amon nor tarlok ever actually attempted to kill korra; just ruin her life

As for the emotional trigger... again, this only occurred when Aang either knew about someone who had died (monk gyasto), or when he thought someone he cared about was about to die (Katara getting buried)... This actually fits with the idea of an avatar realizing their power by being at their lowest point.

In korra's case, we have to consider the concept of "a fate worst than death" and for Korra that was loosing her bending... Korra was utterly and emotionally destroy and that was enough to trigger her spiritual connection.

Ask yourself if this is the road you want them to go down. For if they do a third series, and start ignoring even more of the lore, when suddenly other people can bend multiple elements, and they are using interstellar space ships with 1960's tech.

Actually i'm assuming the next jump would go as far as the present time... though i would be more interested for them to do some prequels and show us the adventures of the previous avatars.

Pardon the pun, but you're really bending to make that connection. Aang was told, and shown, how to earthbend. His problem was his attitude, being able to stand firm. Once he did that, and assumed the stance he was taught, it worked. Korra's airbending came from literally nowhere. It would have made far more sense for her to enter the avatar state and airbend. That would have made sense.

Stance are not as important as you think when you consider the fact that ANY body movement can become a trigger for bending... recall Katara in epsidoe 1 of the first series; she had plenty of trouble dealing with her water bending and yet it was when she got emotional and started waving her arms around that she destroyed an iceberg (with the breaks matching her arm movements)...

Korra got overly emotional over Mako, threw out her fist, possibly in a futile attempt to throw a fire ball, and ended up throwing air instead. And just as Aang could easily earth bend after he did it once, she found herself able to throw out crude blasts of air


we saw in the previous series that bending is not limited to forms and stance as the emtoional state is also a factor and one that ingores the need for forms and stances... those forms and stance are only key for learning to accurately control that power, instead of just randomly throwing attacks

Originally Posted by orion

Technically, Asami is not needed anymore if they leave Republic City in Book 2. Now that the couple is established, 3 is a crowd. Bolin needs to find learn metal bending and find a nice chi bender to hang with so we have 2 couples for Book 2.And since Mako impressed Amon, we need to see more skills from the guy.

Maybe, but you can also point out that she also has nothing waiting for her in Republic city; when it comes down to it, team avatar are STILL her closet friends. So if they leave the city, then what exactly is to keep her in republic city? I guess she could run her dad's company, she enjoyed cars afterall, but that's assuming the company will even continue without her father who was the brains of the operation...

[orion]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Maybe, but you can also point out that she also has nothing waiting for her in Republic city; when it comes down to it, team avatar are STILL her closet friends. So if they leave the city, then what exactly is to keep her in republic city? I guess she could run her dad's company, she enjoyed cars afterall, but that's assuming the company will even continue without her father who was the brains of the operation...

Now, girls don't operate that way. It's going to be awkward with her around now that we have the couple. The couple needs room to develop and can't if there is an ex with them. It's best that she starts over. She should have money left if the city doesn't sue the pants off her company.

Besides she's not on the official website banner so hopefully we can find a nice chi bender for Bolin and drop the excess baggage.

[Destined_Fate]

I'm pretty sure they broke up, even if they didn't say it. Asami saw how Mako reacted to Korra, she couldn't even bring herself to kiss him anymore. Sure he still cares about her but those feelings are no matter romantic since he finally realized that he does truly love Korra and that staying with Asami would only continue to hurt all 3 of them. Besides, they totally needed a happy lovey-dovey ending for Korra. Remember that this is a show for kids, making the ending sad and not with the main couple would be horrible to them.

Anyway, I fully expect Team Avatar, Asami too, to return even after leaving Republic City. Maybe she'll leave for a time or join up later after venting over what happened with her Father and her relationship with Mako. Remember that Asami never once blamed Korra and actually got along well with her.

As for the Airbending... Korra did well but it's obvious she's nowhere near Aang's level which is to be expected since even with training this was her first time actually air bending.

[Guardian Enzo]

There was no special effort to end the first two seasons of the original series with super-happy conclusions. They were cliffhangers, if anything.

[DragoonKain3]

Absolutely awesome IMO...

..EXCEPT for the way they dealt with Masami. "I still care about you" is supposed to be the break up line? PUH-leeze. I started as a MaKorra supporter, but now I think Mako is a TOTAL douchebag that I think Korra is too good for him. I guess it's true that one should be careful what you should wish for...

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Ugh, Asami deserves love but pushing her to the lesser Brother would be a mistake and make her a brother hopper.

Who says it has to be the little brother? I smell the next wife of the future Fire Lord *cough*AsamIroh*cough*

[Destined_Fate]

The difference is that TLAB was always planned for 4 books. Korra initially was only planned for 1.

Well, I'm sure they can't resist the urge to bring Iroh II for Book 2 in a larger role. I wouldn't mind seeing Asami fall for him though he seems too serious to notice if someone's into him. Even the bending championship cheater may appear again since Korra can now restore his bending.

[fanty]

Well, Legend of Korra was an okay enough show, I guess, but it's sad how they've squandered the potential it had by shoehorning in a badly-written romance and topping it with a very lackluster finale. I didn't have much problem with the pacing so far, I like fast pacing, but these last two episodes were simply rushed. Everything fell flat, and all the asspulls didn't help either. 6.5/10

[Golos]

Originally Posted by aliasxn

For a good part of the series Aang only really used one element but he still kicked major ass. Korra can already use 3 and a half but she still ends up knocked out every other fight...

Aang greatly benefited from the fact that nobody was used to fighting (master) airbenders.
Korra, on the other hand, does not have this big advantage against her opponents. The Equalists were trained to fight earth-,fire- and waterbenders, and bloodbending is just overpowered.

Originally Posted by aliasxn

Also, this series suffers from a serious lack of Toph, she was awesome.

I fail to see how that brat was better than Lin Bei Fong.

[kitten320]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Was their anything unbelievable about his fall? His airforce was grounded, and the leadership of the equalists was destroyed and his exposure ruined their moral. How could he possibly be expected to hold the city when his followers will no longer listen to him and he no longer as the weapons to use against Bumi's fleet? And i would say his end was totally epic and dark

His air force got taken out too quickly, they should have been expecting attack.
I know that would happen but it is stupid. So what if Amon was a bender? He was fully on non benders side. Seeing bender fighting against benders should strengthen their believes instead. Amon should have retreated for time being. He was good with words so he could get power back eventually.

What I meant by losong is how easily he got pushed around here. Till now no one could even touch him and now he gets thrown around. He got electrocuted by weak Mako and thrown out of the window by Korra who doesn't even know how to use air properly.
I know there was surprise factor and all but with his skills it shouldn't have ended like this.

Recall Aang's learning of earth bending... at first he could not move a pebble, but once he did it ONCE he was able to do it repeatedly. And Korra showed no real expertise as all she was doing was throwing out random burst of air; She wasn't exactly pulling off tornado's or aan'gs air scooter technique

He actually trained and fire took him 3 seasons. While Korra spent 2 episodes training and then totally forgot about it before pulling air out of her ass.
Aang kept working on his skills while Korra abandoned them.

Aang started the series with only ONE element, while Korra started out with three... and Aang picked up each element fairly quickly when he started learning. He outshined katara when she started teaching him, and even when he had trouble with earth bending, he STILL manage to get it in like a day.

Hell even energy bending was something that Aang learned literally overnight. No training required, he just needed to have the knowledge imparted to him... And the avtar state allows an avatar to access the knowledge all of her past selves, so it only makes sense that she would be able to tap into aang's knowledge of energy bending.

Katara was a noob just like him, Aang outsmarting her was not a surprise since being a prodigy does increase the pace.

Aang spent 3 seasons until he got to the point of learning energy bending. Previous Avatars did not out loud tell him how to do everything in 1 episode right at the start. They guided him to the right places before he learned stuff while here everything was done for Korra.

With such treatment she can be called a spoiled brat.

Her character lost all possible development in season 2. The way she cried after losing her bending... would she keep sulking? If yes, she would be an ass since everyone else lost all kind of bending while she still has air.
No? Then how would she deal with it? Would she try to find the way to get bending back?

That's how it went with Aang, he discovered thing while traveling. Korra got everything handed on a silver plate.

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Ugh, Asami deserves love but pushing her to the lesser Brother would be a mistake and make her a brother hopper. It would also give justification to hate Asami since if she dated Bolin it would always be "I'm only dating him to get back at you Mako" no matter what happens and Bolin would always be "Second Best that is only with her because the best is with another". Best to avoid that fully and let Bolin get with a new character in Book 2.

Depends on how they handle it. If they get together right from the beginning then yeh it will suck. But if they will be oblivious to each other and then it just builds up, I see nothing wrong.
Asami had fallen for Mako just like Korra after watching games. She mostly fell for his looks and skills what can't be called real love.
Here, if she comes to know Bolin then she will fall for him and not for his shell and it will be real. It won't be second best. Just because Bolin and Mako are related shouldn't play any role.

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

Anyway, I fully expect Team Avatar, Asami too, to return even after leaving Republic City. Maybe she'll leave for a time or join up later after venting over what happened with her Father and her relationship with Mako. Remember that Asami never once blamed Korra and actually got along well with her.

Same, I do expect them to separate for some time, to let things settle down since Asami will be busy with fathers business. But her coming back is a given since no matter what happened they are her friends. And as you said, she never held it against Korra.

[Kirarakim]

Korra did not train air for only 2 episodes, she was training throughout the series, it just happened off screen. She mentioned she had been in Republic City for months, all that time she was training with Tenzin.


As for training in the original series, people must have short memories. It was the exact same thing in Avatar. We would see Aang training for an episode or two and then the next episode he would have pretty much mastered the element. Because just like in Korra the actual training was happening off screen.


I thought the Korra finale was pretty weak overall too but I think people are being a bit nitpicky in this case.

Also I definitely hope Asami comes back in the next season, I really like her. Personally I wouldn't mind if both Korra & Asami ditched Mako.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by orion

They did set it up. Korra in the very beginning didn't think that she needed air bending to be the Avatar. She was good with the other 3. Then came a probending match and she needed it to help them win. This is a similar situation. Amon took all her bending away and she really needed something to save Mako and her air bending kicked in full force as it was the only thing left.

She said she didn't need airbending because she couldn't do it. And that was something she actually got over, once she calmed down. She went right back to the training.

Originally Posted by james0246

^Don't mistake my words. Korra had the techniques to utilize air bending. She trained for it. But, she lacked the fundamental qualities required to actual bend Air, and, truthfully, I do not think she was ever shown actually gaining the traits needed to utilize Air.

Air, by its very nature, is free, and Korra, in a nice dramatic turn, was constantly plagued by her insecurities throughout the series. I liked this. I liked that her fears were (undoubtedly) the root of her inability to be bend air. Sadly, she never really got over her fears, so I am unclear how she was able to bend air (a slight argument could be made that she survived her greatest fear, so she could finally break through her mental block and air bend).

I didn't really see many insecurities. In fact, the first few times we saw Korra, she was very self-confident. I believe we even got a "woohoo!" a few times there in the first episode. She was very self-assured. She recognized she had problems with the spiritual stuff and airbending, but that's why she was so eager to train with Tenzin and learn it. Sure, a bit later when she was continually frustrated by her lack of ability to airbend, she was upset. But we were never really shown why she was having issues with it. I actually argued against a friend of mine, who kept calling BS on the airbending thing, when comparing it with Aang's earthbending block. I was trying to argue that it wasn't an issue, while he said it was. I eventually was forced to change my mind and agree.

(That being said, I find many of your other critiques are far closer to nitpicking rather than true criticism.

Let me pose these related questions to you: If they suddenly show in season 2, a number of people who can bend multiple, if not all, elements, will you have any problem with this? How about if they never really explain well how that happened? Is it alright to set up canon, just to ignore it later? Is that really just a nitpick, or lazy writing?

(additionally, as Sokka said in his brief appreance (and I'm paraphrasing), "if you can accept that a fire bender can shoot fire from his forehead at will, then why couldn't a water bender learn to blood bend without the moon?").

Because the former was never said to be impossible.

As for Tenzin and his family, yes, I agree they would have been targets. That's why we were shown that two airships were sent after them... which Lin took down. I'm not saying it's bad, per se, so much as lazy writing. Like I said, I'd love to, in my fanfiction, just have things happen without setting them up. It would make writing soooo much easier. Why should I need to explain anything? I'll just do what I want, and let the audience come up with their own ideas.

Originally Posted by Slayerx

That's because she was really, really, really overly emotional and no longer thinking like her normal self... kind of like how someone who would never harm a fly, might be driven to kill if you do something to anger them in a way they never felt before. Hell that was the whole POINT of that event, to show that Katara's anger over the loss of her mother had given her a thirst for vengeance that was causing her to act against her principles. She was acting out of pure rage.

in history groups of people who never interacted can easily make similar developments... when it comes down to it, the ONLY requirement for one to begin the recreation of bloodbending is for one skilled waterbending to think "isn't there water in blood?"

in fact, if the villagers knew how hama was abducting poeple (which would be a requirement if they wanted to keep her locked up since they would have to know to avoid her cell during the full moon), then its easy to believe that the rumors of bloodbending would slowly spread from there.

Which is why Katara saw fit to outlaw bloodbending... its not well known because it is universally outlawed, and only criminals would ever attempt to recreate the technique assuming they have the patience, talent and discipline to figure it out.

In the end, katara had a choice... try to keep in a secret and risk the technique being recreated in an unprepared world, or allow word to spread, but prepare the world to counter it should it pop up

Hell its even possibly that over the 30 years since the first series (it was outlawed when yakone was around), some other waterbender somewhere already figured it out, or stories of bloodbending had already slipped. Thus given Katara reason to act instead of trying to keep a secret that was no longer secret

Do you see what you're doing? Rather than quote from the show itself, you have formed reasons in your mind on what you *think* happened, and trying to treat that as fact. We don't know. It goes back to lazy writing, and that if you want to establish something, you have to, you know, establish it.

I often see this attitude, and it's fascinating. That, in order to defend something, someone will make up a bunch of reasons that aren't actually in the show or series itself. As an author, I'd actually love that. Why write out details myself, when I can just rely on my audience to make them up for me?

As sokka pointed out, there was once a time when people did not believe metal bending was possible... toph proved them wrong. There was a time when people did not believe Blood bending was possible, but Hama proved them wrong. Most would not think it possible to channel firebending through your mind, but then we have combustion man. I'd probably say that there was probably a time when lightning was not considered possible either. We are dealing with a world that evolves with time, and as such new discovers pop up.

Your analogies aren't the same.

The writers set up metal bending rather well, when they had a voiceover of the guru that metal is merely refined earth. And Toph's unique abilities allowed her to sense the particles of earth in there, and bend it. That's good writing. Which brings up another point of bad writing when they introduced platinum in Korra, which they supposedly couldn't bend. Why not? Platinum is metal, too!

They never said combustion man's abilities were impossible, and bending has always required a mental component (witness Aan's earthbending learning).

The problem they set up with blood bending, is that waterbenders just don't have that kind of power to bloodbend, except when strengthened under a full moon. Maybe Yakone was the strongest water bender there ever was, but they never established that.

Look, I'm not against blood-bending, per se. I'm saying that their implementation was sloppy and lazy. If you're going to ignore canon, you better have a damn good reason. That's what this all boils down to: good reasons. It's why you have to make up reasons in your mind, because you can't point to them in the show.

I see i thought your only problem was the impossibility of the tech. Yes i agree they are very impractical weapons, but the same can be said about most EVERY mech in fiction... kinda of pointless to complain about this one use of mechs if you don't complain about everything else

I'll drop my complaints against the mecha, mostly. I only brought them up because I found their implementation clunky, and if that was the only problem with the show, I'd let it pass (seriously, did the writers never learn in school that platinum is metal?).

But mecha are not, in and of themselves, impractical. In the Gundam series, they are very practical and useful; much more agile than tanks or fighters. So my issue with these was that they were impractical for the setting they were placed in.

Like most everything else, the writers tried to build them up as a threat, but in order to do that, they had to dumb down the heroes and ignore basic physics and geology.

If they took it a step furthar and actually showed the equalists knocking on their door, then it wouldn't be much of a twist since the idea that they were captured after that would be EXTREMELY predictable. The best kind of foreshadowing is the subtle kind, not the painfully obvious.

Actually, all they would have needed was to have Amon say "It's okay, they only think they are getting away; I know exactly where they are headed." That's it. That's how I would have done it. And then when I revealed them as hostages, perhaps a short explanation and flashback from Amon: "I knew they'd go to 'this particular island' and had an ambush waiting. I plan for every contingency."

As for the emotional trigger... again, this only occurred when Aang either knew about someone who had died (monk gyasto), or when he thought someone he cared about was about to die (Katara getting buried)... This actually fits with the idea of an avatar realizing their power by being at their lowest point.

Emotional trigger... such as when the avatar realizes something horrible has happened/about to happen to someone they care about? Naw, the state wouldn't trigger then. Whether about a guy or a bison.

Stance are not as important as you think when you consider the fact that ANY body movement can become a trigger for bending... recall Katara in epsidoe 1 of the first series; she had plenty of trouble dealing with her water bending and yet it was when she got emotional and started waving her arms around that she destroyed an iceberg (with the breaks matching her arm movements)...

So... body movement isn't important, except when it is? I poke a little bit of fun, but stance is the same thing as body movement. Well, both are needed, because they are interrelated. And we are shown time and time again in the first series, how much movement is required to bend. Pay attention to the detail sometime, because they put a LOT of work into it. For instance, lightning is called up using the same motions, no matter who is tossing it around.

Maybe there are people who are satisfied by making up reasons in their own mind to account for things a show doesn't do a good job establishing. I'm not one of those. And I've said before, there is some amount of lazy writing and bad plot points I am capable of letting pass... but do it too often, and it passes my threshold, and then I unload on every single one.

And what kills me, is that there are many ways to resolve all these issues, that you and everyone else have come up with suggestions for, that would have taken all of 5 minutes to do. If a writer can't take 5 minutes to fix glaring issues, that's just lazy.

Canon? Lore? Who needs those things anymore?

[kitten320]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Also I definitely hope Asami comes back in the next season, I really like her. Personally I wouldn't mind if both Korra & Asami ditched Mako.

Amen to that.

[Blaat]

I thought the episode ended three minutes too late.

[Diveman]

Good ending to the (1st season?) but the kiss and declaration between Mako and Korra was a bit unnecessary IMO. They should have saved that for another season.

[Kirarakim]

For the record a lot of the complete resolution to the story was because Korra was only supposed to be a 12 episode mini-series.

It was only after this season was already completed by Bryke that Nick approved a 2nd season. They also asked for something like 24 where each season has a separate story unlike the original Avatar.

That doesn't excuse some of the sloppy writing we saw in the finale, because even as a stand alone story Korra's ending was pretty weak, but it does explain why things were all tied up at the end.

[james0246]

Honestly, besides the pulpy ending and overall bad pacing, my biggest complaint in the last episode was Iroh the Seconds ability to fly a plane. Where did that come from? You can't just sit in a plane and know how to fly.