Legend of Korra; Book two trailer

[Gregness]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

part of me wonders how much of this was Nickelodeon going
"guys, you really cant have Aang flat out murder a guy, you just cant."

*snip*

If they'd had Aang imprison him without removing his bending they could have hammered home the 'do the right thing, even when it's hard' message a million times better.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Also in my opinion, even the worst episode of Avatar is pretty good. I think the only time I was meh on an episode was The Drill but that was more because they built that episode up so freakin much and it wasn't the strongest episode either. Looking back I still dont hate it. I'd watch them all again given the chance.

Yeah, seconded, I mostly just complain about the end of book 3 as a missed opportunity in an otherwise excellent work.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Gregness

If they'd had Aang imprison him without removing his bending they could have hammered home the 'do the right thing, even when it's hard' message a million times better.

I get what you are saying, cause then "the right thing" would be the harder instead of the easier option. That still wouldn't have fixed the issue of them actually hammering in "sometimes you have to shoulder the burden of responsibility and serve the greater good". Its good and bad, this gave Aang a 'third option' where if he did just lock up Ozai he'd just be running from his responsibility and we also wouldn't have as much closure at the end.

While we are on the topic one issue I did have with Korra was this part
"He took away his bending"
"Impossible only the Avatar has that ability"

With me thinking, how do you know that? Aang was the only person (that they knew of) to do it at all. There was no evidence that it was something no one else could do and even if it was that it was an Avatar ability instead of just Aang's.

[Lumenskir]

I mean, not that the villains getting Freudian excuses in 'The Beach' is the height of television either, but I can see where someone would be willing to argue for it over 'The Great Divide'.

Many, many people would arguehave argued that "The Beach" is a top 10 episode. To me, "The Great Divide's" main failing is that it's an unnecessary diversion. "The Beach" has always felt to me like men in suits using spreadsheets to give the fandom what it knows it wants.

I like Korra personally, I mean yea it wasn't as good as Avatar partly because they were kind of in limbo for awhile and were unsure if they'd get a second season.

Why is this still being tossed around as a justification?

They knew from the very beginning that they had 12 episodes. They were always upfront that the season was going to focus on one Big Bad. It's not like they were flipping a coin after every episode to see if they could get to produce one more. The fact that they weren't locked down for a second season doesn't automatically absolve them if that the 12 episodes they gave us were disappointing.

I mean, how many 12 episode or less animes are there that tell complete, satisfying stories? There are great British series that routinely clock out in the 8-12 range. It's possible to tell something completely, and tell it well, in 12 episodes.

And the fact that they had a Schrodinger Second Season isn't an excuse either. I mean, look at Chuck, or Friday Night Lights, or Buffy, or any other number of shows that were routinely on the bubble and still managed to close off plots and then pick back up later. I mean, ff sake, Star Wars IV was made without a sequel pickup locked down, they managed to do ok.

Still better than most shows I've seen in awhile.

This is less Avatar related and more of a personal grindstone, but if someone says "Here are my gripes with this piece of entertainment" a response of "Well, it's better than crappy things" doesn't really address those concerns. Even being better than 90% of everything else means you're basically at the C-range.

[Azisien]

I was puzzled as to why Korra Book 1 was made so short, but in the same way, that made me do my best to only compare Korra Book 1 to the first half of Avatar Book 1. In that regard, Korra was a vastly superior show, even if the plot was rushed. A few characters hadn't come into their own yet, either, but that's okay, for 12 episodes in. I did not think Avatar hit its stride until Book 2 (or the season finale of Book 1, if I'm splitting hairs). Though once it did, it became awesome incarnate (minus the smallest handful of filler episodes).

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

This is less Avatar related and more of a personal grindstone, but if someone says "Here are my gripes with this piece of entertainment" a response of "Well, it's better than crappy things" doesn't really address those concerns. Even being better than 90% of everything else means you're basically at the C-range.

I meant it was better than what most consider good, that it was still above average. The original show was far above that, it was one of the greatest shows of all time with great pacing, character arcs and a deep narrative. Korra wasn't one of the greatest shows of all time but it was still pretty good and I personally think its in the top 10 for shows made since the original.

[Locke cole]

I'm one of those weird people who will say that Aang learning Spirit bending made sense, as it satisfyingly tied together the Avatar's ancillary powers, like astral projection and the Avatar State/Koizilla. That being said, the way he learned it was definitely rushed.

As for giving Aang an easy way out, I think it totally could have done with more elaboration on the fact that attempting it was hella risky, some time before it was already underway. Emphasize the fact that Aang is choosing a solution that could easily destroy his OWN soul.

[Lumenskir]

I was puzzled as to why Korra Book 1 was made so short, but in the same way, that made me do my best to only compare Korra Book 1 to the first half of Avatar Book 1. In that regard, Korra was a vastly superior show, even if the plot was rushed.

That doesn't really seem like an actual equivalency, outside of length. Like, would you compare a 12 chapter novella to the first 12 chapters of the first book of a trilogy?*

*Keeping in mind that the 12 chapter novella gets the benefit of the author already having experience writing the first three books and not having to explain the basics of the world**

**Originally this was just going to be a specific analogy about George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones, but I wasn't sure if he actually wrote novellas in the GoT universe??

I meant it was better than what most consider good, that it was still above average.

Yeah, I got that, but you do realize that saying "It is better than other shows" as a blanket statement says absolutely nothing about the actual merits of the show, right?

Korra wasn't one of the greatest shows of all time but it was still pretty good and I personally think its in the top 10 for shows made since the original.

This space was originally reserved for me going through the Wikipedia articles for television from 2008-2012 and highlighting all of the great(er) shows, but then stopped when it was just turning into a memorial to how much TV I watch.*

*Fun fact though: In looking through the list, Korra has only a tenuous hold for a spot in the top 9 of American animated shows.

[Azisien]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

That doesn't really seem like an actual equivalency, outside of length. Like, would you compare a 12 chapter novella to the first 12 chapters of the first book of a trilogy?*

It's not the best equivalency in the world, but it's the one I'm running with. Of course Korra should hit the ground running in terms of the world already being fleshed out, and frankly I thought it did. Everything bending/world related was awesome. But Aang and Gang didn't really hit their stride for me inside 12 episodes, so I am okay with not being complete enamoured with Korra and Gang inside 12 episodes. Now, I do like Korra, and I liked Amon (irrelevant regarding book 2 but whatever). The side characters were the weaker ones in my eyes, so hopefully they'll develop more in Book 2 by having some episodes dedicated to them.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

Yeah, I got that, but you do realize that saying "It is better than other shows" as a blanket statement says absolutely nothing about the actual merits of the show, right?

No, no you didn't understand. I am using other works to represent the abstract quality of an audio-visual medium serialized into a 21minute episodic format. By comparing this work to other works using a similar format I am able to succinctly describe my opinion of the shows merits without having to list its objective strengths. I now see that you require me to painstakingly list them, so fine.

The show has excellent world building by drawing analogies to 1920's american culture which was an excellent idea not simply for showing the advances of technology within the show but also the chaotic melting pot of the time which allowed for sharp rise in organized crime.

It did a good job making itself different from the show by having a sharp contrast between the Avatars which the creators did not only for narrative but also simply to explore what can be done with the series. Even with that the series kept good continuity by giving logical consequences of advances made in the show. Two good examples are metalbending and chi blocking.

Now while the narrative was abit convoluted and pacing was not ideal it did make sense, was explained, and properly foreshadowed. Fight scenes were as engaging as ever.

Characters didn't see the satisfactory arc I'd like but they were well defined and like-able.

Most shows dont do these things. Assuming that would imply "other shows make many mistakes that this show doesn't". To make sure that isn't the case again. All of the above, the reverse are issues I usually have with shows. Even more muted character arcs, flat out annoying or pointless characters, poor sense of continuity, lack of long term consequences and the few times parallels are used with real world society its almost always ham-fisted commentary.

To reiterate. In my opinion Legend of Korra is an objectively good show. I'd go into an episode by episode deconstruction but I already got people telling me to get back to Prof Penn so I'll leave it at this

[Lumenskir]

lol