Legend of Korra: finale spoilers

[ArmsAreLoud]

Really? I agree about Nick, but CN? I feel pretty good about them these days, what with Adventure Time and all. If they made a more serious "prime time" show like Avatar I think it'd do well and have to deal with a bit less in the way of censoring. Maybe there's some crap I don't know, though.

The What Was Missing fiasco is still a thing that happened but I have a hard time blaming CN for that because their assumptions about what the backlash would be were pretty much spot on.

[Torquemadras Trump]

And there we go. Went on an Avatar watching spree, with the finale at the end. It's much more rewarding to watch it all back to back!

And heeeeeere some thoughts on the whole thing. Spoilered because I can.

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- You can already tell that absolutely every scene involving Bumi and Tenzin will be gold. GOLD

- Iroh II versus Pearl Harbour HELL YEAH. I loved that being a General of the United Forces means you get to punch rockets.

- I'm a little disappointed that Korra got over her airbending block once Mako got threatened; I would've preferred that to be the result of her character development - she HAS been getting lessons in patience and dealing with her emotions, and there WAS a change, but it didn't connect that well with the scene. Oh well, still nice. Also made up for by 1) crazy AIR FISTS 2) ricocheting Amon 3) that air blast kick Aang does in the intro showing up again.

- I'm gotta admit this: I absolutely loved everything involving Amon and Tarrlok. I really disliked the whole spirit stuff, because there was no trace of it at all, felt like it would come out of nowhere. Bloodbending makes perfect sense. I mean, super-dodging everything by subtly bloodbending your opponent's movements, how cool is that? Also, insanely rewarding to see people suckerpunch bloodbenders in various ways.

- The facepaint thing was a nice way of showing just how much of a fakey faking fake faker Amon really is, but, seriously... facepaint? And his lip looked seriously messed up too, was that paint too? I actually expected him to have deliberately scarred himself, being the glorious deranged nutjob that he is. At least the waterbending KINDA made sense - he not only looked extremly angry, it also looked like he was about to drown. Guess someone's FINALLY lost his cool.

- Also surprised how Tarrlok turned out. I thought he'd be part of the overall conflict, benders vs. non-benders, but turns out the show wasn't about that - it's about two guys defying their insane father, but becoming what they hate nonetheless. I REALLY wish there had been another episode between 11 and 12, just to let that sink in. Tarrlok is now officially my favorite character of the show. The scene in the boat is incredible. Amon proclaiming "we can do anything together", but you see his tears because now he KNOWS what he became... woah. Haunting.

- Also, murder-suicide. AHAHAHAHAHAHA
Man, to be a fly on the wall when the Nick people heard of that. Seriously, if anything, this show convinced me that the Nick people are super awesome dudes who really want to make a great show. I'll even forgive them the Spongebob ads if they continue giving the creators that much leeway.
It also helps that the whole scene was pulled off magnificently. I love it.

- Disappointed that the airbenders got caught anyway, though. I don't mind that they did, I just expected a scene for that...

- The Lieutenant was great in the end. Poor guy can't catch a break, and surprisingly enough, he seemed to genuinly believe in their cause. I really hope he shows up in Season 2 again, if only to give proper closure to the Equalists. In fact, I really hope that what people expected THIS season - the whole inequality problem - gets a proper treatment next time. In this season, it was pointed out several times that Amon was using an existing fear for his own means, without actually helping it in any way (as was Tarrlok, for that matter); which is alright, I think, since the whole inequality thing was rather subdued anyway, and people were REALLY straining to read those issues into it. But it's still there, and I'd love to see it get a proper treatment later down the road.

- I'm surprised how little the love dodecahedron bothered me. I mean, okay, it's a little romance, but it's not obnoxious. Only Asami didn't really get any closure on that front. Hm.

- Would've been interesting to have Korra's bending be gone in the next season still, but what we got was nice as well. No better time to have Aang finally show up. I'm satisfied (I'll even forgive the cheesy kiss scene because, what the hell, it fits). Also, holy hell suicide implications. :O

To sum up:

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Beautiful animation, MANY awesome action scenes, the usual characters continue to entertain (Bolin. Tenzin. Tarrlok. MEELO.), surprisingly well-done scenes and backstory for Tarrlok & Amon, and Korra taking action for once.
But also a bit awkward romance, Asami being forgotten, airbender abduction out of nowhere and a not all that satisfying airbending breakthrough for Korra.

I guess the worst part of it all is, once again, the wait...

[Triangle Man]

Wow, so we got a short discussion based on my rather flippant post there?

...Okay, that was a little thoughtless of me. I will say that just because you don't care doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. Although 'quality' is always more important than 'quantity', it would be nice to see media not take such a limited view of who can take on a main protagonist role (or otherwise, I guess).

In any case, I figure that Korea was handled excellently in this particular program.

[Kuraimano]

Just finished watching these two episodes... they were awesome, just as any other previous episode. Except it wasn't supposed to be any other episode, but rather a finale. So I guess I'm a bit disappointed?

I skimmed through 3 or 4 of these latest pages of discussion and I guess this is what it's already been discussed but I'll throw in my impressions anyway.

Spoilered because I'm not sure if it's ok not to.

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Plot was too much simplified!

I understand that one of the show's strongest points is the awesome in its simplicity, but yeah. Too much. Remember a lot of pages ago in this very thread where I compared this to Pokèmon Black/White where in the end, the villain didn't really want to free Pokèmon from humans but actually it was just an excuse to keep all the power for himself and after that the notion of "maybe Pokèmon are not ok with all this" was never ever mentioned again? And I said "Hopefully the resolution of this anti-bender thing won't be that crappy"?

Yeah, instead this was quite a similar case.

Then of course, animation explosions and fights are all awesome, but I expected a bit more, at least for the finale. I know this show is kinda always in between two kinds of fan, which would be children and grown ups... sometimes it seems to go towards the formers, sometimes towards the latters. Honestly I felt that Legend of Korra was a bit more oriented on the grown ups... not because of republic city and very minor political things involved, not because the characters were older than the ones in Avatar, not even because of the violence, the theme of revolution or the mroe frequent romance or whatever, but mostly because I noticed there were a lot more dramatic moments than in the original one. Seriously, episodes seem to almost always end in a sad way or was it just me?

So I expected that, if they had to choose between something more appealing for the kids (read: simpler) and something for, you know, "us" slightly more demanding public, I thought they would go with the second. I mean sheesh, after such a simple resolution they put a (to me) seemingly random x2 Murder-Suicide Blowup Combo. I mean, ok... that was a bit random. Speaking of random, as someone already said, the sudden "I can airbend" was totally against the point of... anything. Maybe it's a way to reveal that airbending was actually immune to this technique (hoping it wasn't a "because she's the Avatar yo" thing) but even with that, airbending was supposed to be about calm and realization, two things that definitely did not stop from not happening especially during that tense fight. Couldn't they just make her suddenly calm down and THEN airbend? Still sudden and too simplistic but much more coherent, would have added 10 seconds to the episodes.

The final scene was also the biggest example of deus ex machina ever. She kinda got what she wanted... by not doing anything? And then she gets her happy ending kthxbye.

Speaking of her happy ending, I didn't mind how the romance was handled at all because I know that's just how Avatar rolls, I mean in Avatar the romance was like... one episode in which is implied Aang likes Katara, one episode about the firebenders partying at the seaside, and a final kiss. So yeah, they even did too much.

[ArmsAreLoud]

If she went into the Avatar State I would have been able to buy her being able to bend because the Avatar State had already been shown as immune to blood bending.

When they said that that was how Amon worked that is what I thought was going to happen.

[Darlos9D]

The What Was Missing fiasco is still a thing that happened but I have a hard time blaming CN for that because their assumptions about what the backlash would be were pretty much spot on.

And they still rerun that episode too. Seen it twice on CN. They very easily could have never shown it again.

Ah well. Taken altogether, cartoons ARE slowly but surely progressing in a good direction. And it feels somewhat in tune with current US social issues. I just hope we don't fall backwards at any point, on any front.

EDIT: My sister tells me they fucked over the new Thundercats by delaying half the show and jerking around its timeslot. And then after it inevitably lost viewers because of that they were like "oh it's not popular enough so no second season."

Sigh. Corporations.

[Triangle Man]

Wait, what is this 'What Was Missing' thing that happened?

[ArmsAreLoud]

What Was Missing had some very obvious lesbian implications going on between Marceline and Bubblegum. CN was able to feign ignorance until one of the guys at Frederator posted a video asking fans if they think those two should be a couple. CN took down the video and Marceline and Bubblegum never spoke to each other on screen again.

[kaoticAntagonist]

What Was Missing had some very obvious lesbian implications going on between Marceline and Bubblegum. CN was able to feign ignorance until one of the guys at Frederator posted a video asking fans if they think those two should be a couple. CN took down the video and Marceline and Bubblegum never spoke to each other on screen again.

And I still can't see it.

I need to work on my parsing relationships from songs and shirts abilities.

[Darlos9D]

And I still can't see it.

I need to work on my parsing relationships from songs and shirts abilities.

I think it was the Frederator thing that pushed it over the edge.

I have to reiterate though: they still rerun this episode. I don't even

wow off topic we are. Back to Avatar.

[Milskidasith]

Rerunning the episode... doesn't matter? The incident wasn't about subtext (there's far, far more obvious homosexual subtext in plenty of popular shows, spongebob being the obvious example), it was about the fact that a second person group both A: made the subtext into "text" and B: made it seem like fan input would decide (by asking the fans if they should stay a couple).

[Denim]

Really? I agree about Nick, but CN? I feel pretty good about them these days, what with Adventure Time and all. If they made a more serious "prime time" show like Avatar I think it'd do well and have to deal with a bit less in the way of censoring. Maybe there's some crap I don't know, though.

Well, with CN I would mostly stop the show Annoying Orange and give Thundercats much better viewing times.

But really, it's to stop Annoying Orange.

[Dmatix]

Hey guys, look what Penny Arcade made:

[kaoticAntagonist]

But really, it's to stop Annoying Orange.

I watched an episode of that show and I don't think its that bad.

If they cut the annoying orange and maybe gave it a different animating style I would probably watch it.

[Darlos9D]

Hey guys, look what Penny Arcade made:

This sadly overlooks the Tenchi Solution.

[Triangle Man]

So this was an Adventure Time thing?

Shit, getting crap past the radar means that you aren't supposed to call attention to it!

...I should probably give Adventure Time another spin, too.

And what's the Tenchi Solution?

[Dmatix]

So this was an Adventure Time thing?

Shit, getting crap past the radar means that you aren't supposed to call attention to it!

...I should probably give Adventure Time another spin, too.

And what's the Tenchi Solution?

This should clear things up: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...TenchiSolution

[Darlos9D]

So this was an Adventure Time thing?

Shit, getting crap past the radar means that you aren't supposed to call attention to it!

...I should probably give Adventure Time another spin, too.

And what's the Tenchi Solution?

Basically, going the polyamorous route. Of course, there's no way a children's... hell, even a lot of adult entertainment would go that route. Not in a manner that would paint it as a totally rational and normal thing, anyway.

But really, here we've got 3 fairly cool capable people who, love triangle drama aside, seem capable of all getting along with each other really well, up to and including a deeply affectionate level. Part of my brain just says "why the fuck not." It's something I've been thinking a lot about recently. (in life and entertainment in general, not LoK specifically) Of course that would require a certain... regard between Korra and Asami and oh god stop it brain.

Funny thing is, more polyamorousness in fiction would actually KILL a lot of "cheap" easy-to-write drama (everybody loves romantic geometry wrought with jealousy and people having to "choose," right?), and that'd make things hard for writers. Aw.

[Milskidasith]

Also, just a pet peeve:

Stop calling the whole harbor fight "Pearl harbour." Just because there are planes and ships in the same scene does not make it remotely identical. Pearl harbor was a surprise offensive by the bombers. This was a (not surprise) attack by the ships with the bombers being used for defense. There are plenty of other reasons they aren't at all similar, but the fact that one was an surprise attack and one was an island defense should be enough to make the comparisons fairly silly beyond "Bombers fighting ships" which happened all through World War II.

[Darlos9D]

Also, just a pet peeve:

Stop calling the whole harbor fight "Pearl harbour." Just because there are planes and ships in the same scene does not make it remotely identical. Pearl harbor was a surprise offensive by the bombers. This was a (not surprise) attack by the ships with the bombers being used for defense. There are plenty of other reasons they aren't at all similar, but the fact that one was an surprise attack and one was an island defense should be enough to make the comparisons fairly silly beyond "Bombers fighting ships" which happened all through World War II.

Sorry, people aren't very creative.

[Milskidasith]

Sorry, people aren't very creative.

Yeah, but it's like calling Tarlok's murder-suicide Hiroshima because they both had mushroom clouds.

[Darlos9D]

Yeah, but it's like calling Tarlok's murder-suicide Hiroshima because they both had mushroom clouds.

Case in point.

[Varkarrus]

guys guys I think Tahno will join up with the Korrang
because then they'd have one of every bender plus a non-bender, now that Korra is an airbender. Though I guess it doesn't count because she was born a waterbender.

[Drillgorg]

guys guys I think Tahno will join up with the Korrang
because then they'd have one of every bender plus a non-bender, now that Korra is an airbender. Though I guess it doesn't count because she was born a waterbender.

How will I choose between IrohxAsami and TahnoxAsami then??? I do hope that Tahno is like Jet and becomes relevant again later.

[kd7sov]

Thoughts on the go!

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00:57 This would be the tyrannical bending government that persecutes people for having abilities, and stations mechatanks on every corner to watch over you with glowing red eyes? No, wait...

01:12 But some, of course, are more equal than others.

01:51 Really? Never would've guessed.

02:50 See, Asami? Pabu likes it!

... We're never going to get anywhere if I can't go a minute without pausing to say something here.

03:20 ... ... ... ... ... Seriously, Mako? Seriously? You're really anti-good at relationship, aren't you?

04:55 Those ships don't look like a very practical design. Two parallel hulls, connected only above the decks? I'm no engineer, but it doesn't seem all that great.

06:22 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... WHAT.

Airplanes? Seriously, airplanes? They look, to my inexpert eye, like the kind of airplanes we had circa World War I. Which was some fifteen years after the Wright Brothers' first flight. Fifteen years of multiple entities directly competing with each other for faster/better/lighter planes. Bending cannot plausibly be involved here, given Hiroshi's particular druthers, so either SOMEONE's rather blatantly cheating, or Sato's been playing the game far, far longer than has been implied.

07:26 They actually use pro-bending discs as battleship earthbender ammo?

07:54 DO THE WINDY THING DO THE WINDY THING

08:56 So let me get this straight. You're the Avatar, probably the most powerful single bender in the world. Your native element is water. You're in the water, in-and-around a battle involving ships. Oodles of people are falling or being flung from their ships into the water, and you do bending to save them. Then you physically swim over and grab the ships' commander as if you had no bending whatsoever.

You know what, I move for a recall. Let's vote this Avatar out and get a better one.

11:15 Poor Asami. Maybe you should hook up with someone else. That wise and noble hobo, perhaps.

14:15 Your word against his. That would explain the bloodbending resistance - previously demonstrated only by the Avatar State and another bloodbender - but Amon did specifically tell his followers that he and his family weren't benders. He told them what they wanted to hear, you're telling Korra what she wants to hear...

16:42 ...what.

20:24 Two completely unconnected statements. Try again.

22:14 That doesn't make any sense.

24:49 That's not how electric fences work. You fail. To set up something like that you need some manner of tripwire or laser, plus the ability to project electricity.

27:15 MetalbendyLin in... call it T-minus 2:30. Alternately: TOPH.

29:21 Someone already did that. It didn't take. > Korra: DO THE WINDY THING DO THE WINDY THING

33:44 ... ... ... ...Oh, look it's time for the Ridiculously Oversized Fistfight (or whatever kind they end up emulating). Five yuans says Asami wins by mechatanking bending-reminiscent moves, despite that not making a lot of sense.

36:15 Right. Best bet for restoration (of an Avatar, at least) is at an Avatar place. Crescent Island Temple, or maybe the Spirit Oasis... or Aang-Statue Island.

36:50 Gratifying as that is to see... THAT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Also I don't think that's anything like the right form for such a result.

37:03 You airbend like a firebender. Those aren't the avoid-and-evade air forms.

37:49 ...paint. He wore paint on his face all this time just in case he was unmasked. There's Crazy Prepared, and then there's Idiot Ball.

44:35 That's an interesting conceit, if it's true: that she can only otherbend when in the Avatar State. We'll have to see.

Ah. Guess not.

You know, that still makes no sense.

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In order for bloodbending to be able to remove bending, there must necessarily be a physical structure in the brain that controls bending, which I would expect the healers to be able to find and maybe even fix. And if there is such a structure, it should control all bending, or else one element. It makes no sense whatsoever for Amon to be able to remove three of Korra's elements in the first sweep but not the fourth.