Avatar Legend of Korra

[Crashmaking Zoomatic]

I don't really know how to feel about this finale. It didn't really do anything for me, which is kind of disappointing, and...I dunno'. Giant monsters duking it out in front of the city doesn't really do much for me, ya' know? The finale was just...weird.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

This show...

Spoiler for Finale:

Really is in love with the Deux ex machina way too much. Deux ex Jinora this time around.

Spoiler for finale:

Exactly what I was thinking… No explanation at all for Jinora's powers, nor any attempt to explain? Uh… I was thinking maybe they'd say she inherited part of Rava's spirit from when Aang almost lost the Avatar state or something

Spoiler for buffy the vampire slayer:

(like how there were two slayers in Buffy when she died briefly )

, which would be kinda half assed in and of itself, but instead there's just zero attempt whatsoever to give a reason…

I also really didn't understand the giant blue Korra spirit. At that point, she'd lost her connection to Rava, so what was it that made her so powerful as a spirit that she could do all that? What's stopping anyone else with a strong willpower from jumping into that tree and projecting a massive spirit version of themselves?

I liked it all up until the end… I'm usually not too picky with endings because I know they're hard to do correctly, but this was just too intense with the deus ex machina. Seems like they've gotten more and more fond of it as time went on; started with Aang randomly meeting the lion turtle, which was a minor deus ex machina offender, and has gotten completely out of hand with these Korra finales.

[Vezon]

The finale. I was hoping for hordes of evil spirits attacking the humans. Instead we got a battle of giants. I couldn't help think of that finale battle in some old Transformers anime when Optimus prime vs. unicron became as big as a planet.
Overall I enjoy the one sided battle was, until Jinora interfered.
Series 7.8/10

[VTHokiePride]

I think we all know the best parts of the finale were Bumi's actions in the South Pole

[Dengar]

^QFT

Spoiler for Cos the next poster is right about this:

I enjoyed this series a lot. Yes, the Jinora thing made me go wtf as well, but nothing to be done about that.

Just that, the way this ended, and this is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but they basically pressed a massive reset button here. The world's whole nature has changed, and Korra has lost her reliance on her past lives. What this means is, if another season happens, there is literally no telling what it's going to be about.

I didn't expect them to have the balls to end that relationship. To be honest, it was very distracting. I mean, I kind of like it that there's drama from sources other than the main plot, but it was getting, I dunno... Intrusive at times. If they do end up getting back together in a later season, I hope they won't be dancing around it for a whole season. Better to just have other stuff on everyone's minds and then later on they decide that they've matured enough to get back together.

Speaking of maturing, I like that Korra has finally begun her path to adulthood. She's making her own decisions now, and not on impulse either.

As for why she became a giant awesome, I believe Tenzin made it clear that she was doing that under her own power, and not borrowing from anyone else, at least until Jinora came in and did her wtf thing.

[quigonkenny]

We might want to still keep anything that happened in the last two episodes in spoilers. I know there are a fair number of people outside the US that frequent these forums, and those two episodes are only available on the Nick.com website. I know a lot of times those web-only releases aren't available abroad.

Spoiler for web-only episodes:

As for Jinora, they established that with Raava and Vaatu, no matter which one wins, the other will eventually return. I think what Jinora did was either jumpstart Raava's potential within Vaatu, or maybe she had a piece of Raava in her from the Wan statue incident back at the first Air Temple.

[ellifeedn]

The name of the third book.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

The name of the third book.

Different format, but it makes sense. Plus we have run out of "elemental" titles...

Come to think of it, "Spirits" already bucked the naming format. "Spirit" (no "s") arguably wouldn't have, since we already had the four obvious bending elements (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air) and Spirit in TLA and LOK could just be another word for the one they use for the "fifth element": Energy.

[james0246]

I've long contended that Legend of Korra is a story specifically about Korra (which is kind of duh, but still worth noting), so it should come as no surprise that I am extremely happy with Korra's dramatic character arc across these two seasons. It is rare to see such simple yet evocative and constant development for a character, especially a female character (let alone a female cartoon character ), in fact such development is generally only found in the higher-end cable dramas. When it comes right down to it, these two seasons represented a constant process of evolution for Korra as a character. Her fears and hopes, trials and tribulations, and ultimately her failures and successes were all designed to shape and change her, to mature her in new and interesting ways. And at the root of it all has been the ever present discussion of identity.

Korra has been a character without true purpose. Defining herself entirely by her lineage as an Avatar, Korra in Episode 1 never attempted to define who she was as an individual beyond her powers and abilities as an Avatar. Consequently, her personality is fraught with arrogance, selfishness, pride, and a variety of other negative emotions (not necessarily stemming from being the Avatar, but rather Korra's perception of the Avatar and how she thinks the world should see the Avatar). It is only when she enters Republic City and starts to break free of her "destiny" (by being a regular girl), that she begins to change, and her bad attitude begins to soften. During these two seasons, we've experienced so many amazing failures from Korra, none bigger than the end of Season 2, but it is because of these failures that she is able to learn and strive to change (hopefully for the better), and it is only by truly failing as an Avatar (something Aang also did) that allowed Korra to break free of her misconceptions and find her own voice and her own desires. The ending of season 2 is everything I've ever wanted for her character, and I applaud the creators for creating such a flawed yet inspiring character who can make mistakes (personal or other) yet still grow from them.

Sadly, while Korra's transformations are triumphant and inspiring, most of the other characters suffer from lack of real definition. Tenzin comes off best in this recent season, in fact his storyline, in which he begins to doubt himself as he constantly compares himself to Aang, is very similar to Zuko's from the first series, but unlike Zuko, Tenzin's story never had the time it needed to truly explore Tenzin's doubts and fears concerning his relationship to his father. Time is the critical issue that affects all the character's arcs. Since the creators have decided to mostly limit themselves to one story per season, this has inadvertently cut down on the time required to more fully explore and expand on the various other characters in the series (especially the villains). Tenzin, as I said, is relatively okay (I think his siblings came off decent in this season as well), but Mako is left in the background (though the very mature conclusion to their relationship was quite well done...here's hoping the showrunners don't go back to this romantic well ever again), Bolin and several others are reduced to their simplest base aspects, and many others exist only to be subservient to the plot (Tenzin's wife and kids, etc). And then there is Asami who seems to exist solely to stroke Mako's ego. I applaud Korra's character arc, even it's sillier moments (her brief amnesia, or her constant recklessness), but more time and attention is desperately needed for the other characters.

As for the conclusion to this season, I have many of the same complaints listed across the last page or so (Jinora (though this could be explained by her brief encounter with Wan's statue earlier in the season), strange cosmic energy bending, etc), but much felt like set-up for future episodes, and what was left was quite impressive (even if the constant beautiful fighting got somewhat redundant when shown in back-to-back episodes). Final episodes 90/100. Series, 80/100.

As an aside, can't wait to see the third season "Change". Even more excited that Studio Mir is doing the entire season, and, in fact, they've already got episodes done. Here's hoping the next season will air as early as Summer 2013.

[ellifeedn]

@ James: Summer 2013 already passed, unless you mean 2014.

As for the series as a whole so far, I see great potential as it tries to tell it's own story. It does follow a trend in that it stumbles its feet in the first half, greatly picks up in the second half, and does some weird Deus ex Machina towards the end; hopefully they are planning the third season more carefully. While I don't regard it as highly as the original Avatar series, I think it can proudly stand next to its predecessor.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Awrya

One thing that was left unanswered is why the avatar is reborn into a different nation?
Ratha and thus the avatar being reborn makes sense, but how did they influence which nation they're reborn in? Did Ratha decide this to spread peace and balance to all nations equally?

The order in which the avatar's are born in each nation and learn their bending match the order than Wan got the ability to bend from the Lion Turtles. First Fire, then air, then water, and finally earth.

Originally Posted by VTHokiePride

I think we all know the best parts of the finale were Bumi's actions in the South Pole

eh... while i found that fun, it did greatly disappoint me. I had much higher hopes for Bumi at the beginning of this series. I thought he'd be some kind of crazy skilled non-bender; he would either be the type to come up with the wildest and unorthodox plans, or he'd be the type you just charges in and manages to improvise his way to victory our of shear skill and ingenuity. That's the kind of "wild man" i was hpoing for. Instead, he's really just a bumbling comedic relief who is blessed with good luck. No idea how he got to be a general.

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

Spoiler for web-only episodes:

As for Jinora, they established that with Raava and Vaatu, no matter which one wins, the other will eventually return. I think what Jinora did was either jumpstart Raava's potential within Vaatu, or maybe she had a piece of Raava in her from the Wan statue incident back at the first Air Temple.

Spoiler:

The question is not really so much WHAT Jinora did but HOW she did it. I mean really that just came out of nowhere. Heck it didn't even really add anything to the story... story would have been more or less the same had Korra just found that tiny bit of light herself rather than needing Deus Ex Jinora to do it for her. I was fine with Jinora having a strong affinity to spirits (though i would have appreciated more foreshadowing than just the thing with the statue... like what if in season 1 Jinora was known for having a habit of playing with "imaginary friends"), but what she did in the finale, that took it way too far.

Originally Posted by Dengar

^QFT

Spoiler for Cos the next poster is right about this:

I didn't expect them to have the balls to end that relationship. To be honest, it was very distracting. I mean, I kind of like it that there's drama from sources other than the main plot, but it was getting, I dunno... Intrusive at times. If they do end up getting back together in a later season, I hope they won't be dancing around it for a whole season. Better to just have other stuff on everyone's minds and then later on they decide that they've matured enough to get back together.
.

Spoiler:

No, the the makorra ship needs to stay sunk. Honestly one of the weakest part of this whole series has been the love triangle. It was just so poorly handled. First Mako comes off like a jerk for how he handled moving from Asami to Korra and later he has the gall to give Bolin on break up advice; Then a week after he breaks up with korra he hooks back up with asami; then they mess with us by having korra forget the break up make things more awkward... it also did not help that Mako and Asami had better chemistry than Mako and Korra who lacked decent chemistry. The only positive was how it ended, as that was probably the most mature way to handle it. But i did not enjoy the ride getting there at all; it was annoying to watch. It was just a mess...

[takai]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Spoiler:

No, the the makorra ship needs to stay sunk. Honestly one of the weakest part of this whole series has been the love triangle. It was just so poorly handled. First Mako comes off like a jerk for how he handled moving from Asami to Korra and later he has the gall to give Bolin on break up advice; Then a week after he breaks up with korra he hooks back up with asami; then they mess with us by having korra forget the break up make things more awkward... it also did not help that Mako and Asami had better chemistry than Mako and Korra who lacked decent chemistry. The only positive was how it ended, as that was probably the most mature way to handle it. But i did not enjoy the ride getting there at all; it was annoying to watch. It was just a mess...

Spoiler for Love Interests:

Well, I think the fact that both Korra and Mako practically said to each other "It'll never work between us" solidifies that they will never become a couple again.

Which leads me to wonder, will Korra go the alone route and never have a love interest again? Or will they introduce a new male lead to add to the group? It's hard telling. As for Bolin, I just feel like throughout the two seasons they've said to us "Korra and Bolin will never be a thing".

[Mad Pierrot]

You know what bothered me? Korra conveniently not remembering breaking up with Mako. She remembered everything except that. What was the point? It just felt like the series wanted to shove up the romance even more and make Korra more innocent.

[frubam]

Originally Posted by takai

Spoiler for Love Interests:

Well, I think the fact that both Korra and Mako practically said to each other "It'll never work between us" solidifies that they will never become a couple again.

Which leads me to wonder, will Korra go the alone route and never have a love interest again? Or will they introduce a new male lead to add to the group? It's hard telling. As for Bolin, I just feel like throughout the two seasons they've said to us "Korra and Bolin will never be a thing".

I might be wrong about this, but remember at the end of season 2 of the original, when Aang was trying to...um....master his avatar state I think, and the guy who was teaching him said something like "to obtain enlightenment(i.e. control over the avatar state), you must discard all otherworldly attachments." Then Aang is like "why the heck would I choose that over Katara!?" or whatever. Isn't that what Korra just did when she went into that glowing ball? If that's so, then her feelings shouldn't take priority any longer, right? Or am I misinterpreting something wrong?

[james0246]

Originally Posted by amaterasu4

You know what bothered me? Korra conveniently not remembering breaking up with Mako. She remembered everything except that. What was the point? It just felt like the series wanted to shove up the romance even more and make Korra more innocent.

Honestly, the sequence reminded me of a bad fight mixed with a stupid bender (lol, pun), and then forgetting all about the fight the next day. I don't know if that was the writers intentions, but that is how I viewed the situation. Concurrently, I had no problem with Mako's reaction (who doesn't sometime wish they could take back a bad fight?), and I found his and Bolin's reactions quite funny. Still, amnesia is never a good storyline (unless it is repression).

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by takai

Spoiler for Love Interests:

Which leads me to wonder, will Korra go the alone route and never have a love interest again? Or will they introduce a new male lead to add to the group? It's hard telling. As for Bolin, I just feel like throughout the two seasons they've said to us "Korra and Bolin will never be a thing".

Korra and Bolin had some better chemistry, butit does feel like its too late to put them together. As for another boyfriend; the writers would have to tread very, very carefully. Just inserting a new male character just for the sake of giving korra a love interest could feel very empty; the character needs to be more than just a token boyfriend. Best idea would be to introduce the new male in book 3, but save the possible relationship for book 4... Book 3 would give the new character a chance to establish himself as his own character and allow him to build some chemistry with korra; this would help make them getting together in season 4 feel a bit more natural...

not to mention if they hold off a bit on production of season 4, the writers, if they left themselves some elbow room to work with, could even guage fan reaction to the character to see if the fans WANT him to get together with Korra... if they don't then they can forget about it and nothing will be lost(afterall if they did book 3 well enough, the new character will be a welcomed addition to the cast regardless). Though leaving themselves enough space to do either or, would be a bit tricky and could get screwed up.

Oh idea off the top of my head... make the love interest a spirit. With the melding of human and spirits there are plenty of excuses to add a spirit to the cast and a love story between human and spirit is just weird enough to be interesting if handled well

Though honestly... i don't think i want to see another love story with this series. While it COULD be interesting, the Mako/Asami/Korra love triangle has broken my faith it the writers' ability to make a good love story. I rather have no romance, than a poorly constructed one. Maybe in the next avatar series (assuming there will be another one... which i do hope for)

Originally Posted by james0246

Honestly, the sequence reminded me of a bad fight mixed with a stupid bender (lol, pun), and then forgetting all about the fight the next day. I don't know if that was the writers intentions, but that is how I viewed the situation. Concurrently, I had no problem with Mako's reaction (who doesn't sometime wish they could take back a bad fight?), and I found his and Bolin's reactions quite funny. Still, amnesia is never a good storyline (unless it is repression).

Eh, i felt a big problem came from how Mako hooked back up with Asami... that put him in a no win situtation. If he broke up with korra, he would look like kinda of a jerk since she doesn't understand what went wrong between them... and if he broke up with Asami, he looks like a jerk for essentially treating Asami as a silver medal; his back up girlfriend. No matter what, Mako looks like a jerk

Which is why its such a good thing Korra DID get her memory back, cause then they could have a mutual and mature break up... Mako still looks like a bit of a jerk for how quickly he moved back to Asami after breaking up with korra, but not as much of a jerk if he had to choose in that amnesia situation


Though i wouldn't say amnesia is never good... it CAN be good, its just not easy. It can be a good way to really explore a character and have a character find themself and really get into their head. It just ends up usually being bad, since its often just used as a lazy plot device. Heck, one thing that might have made it a tad bit more interesting is if we started in medias res; We start with the amnesia and then flashback to before the civil war began... atleast then we are left hanging and wondering "what events led to Korra ending up like that"

[ellifeedn]

I can only sigh. I'll wait until they're suppose to come out.

[Vezon]

Originally Posted by ellifeedn

I can only sigh. I'll wait until they're suppose to come out.

Man I was confused. I saw a raw in spanish titled episode 6. Huh? has the season started already.

[DMurphy]

Sucks for the creators that it got leaked.

I've not watched any of the leaked episode, although admittedly not for reasons of moral rectitude so much as 'I want to watch them in English, as I in fact do not speak Spanish'.

[SuitUp]

I do speak spanish (first language), but I absolutely can't stand the spanish dub, and I'll rather wait for the official release because I'm already used to Korra's english voice.