Legend of Korra; Book two trailer

[Kyanbu The Legend]

New episode.

Mako gets closer to solving this mystery, but hits a wall after discovering that our lovable Varrick was the one behind the bombing.

Also it seems Korra has amnesia now.

[Aerozord]

My only issue with the last few episodes is Lin seems very out of character. Either something is up or, just bad writing in my opinion

[Sithdarth]

Soooo much awesome exposition. The origin of the avatar was actually pretty well done and if you payed attention there were explanations for a lot of little things. For example, the avatar cycle of Fire to Air to Water to Earth makes complete sense now and while there might be some seasonal symbolism to it there is a much deeper symbolism in terms of Wan's journey.

[Aerozord]

My only complaint is I think this could have been an awesome series in and of itself.

Something also just occurred to me. Wan was killed in battle, how freakin epic would that fight had to have been?

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

My only complaint is I think this could have been an awesome series in and of itself.

Something also just occurred to me. Wan was killed in battle, how freakin epic would that fight had to have been?

Or at the very least, it could have been an animated movie. Though this flash back will probably be as long as one.

[Sithdarth]

I mean they left a lot not done. I suppose they could go back and revisit it as a movie (I'd totally watch it) if they felt like it. Though they probably won't.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Wow it's amazing how it only took one episode for Bulin to completely redeem himself. Also this season is almost over now with only a few episodes left.

And Varrick knows how to lose in style, I'll give him that. XD

[Aerozord]

actually the finale is up on their website if you dont feel like waiting.

Also, turns out there is such a thing as Hell in Avatar

[Lumenskir]

So my plan this season was to wait until it was all over and then just mainline it, since I heard enough "It's better if you watch it not as spread" defenses of LoK book 1. So I did that yesterday. (with a little help from the 1.5x speed feature on my video player).

I think I'm just out on Avatar now. I might return someday, but I'll have to watch AtLA Book 2 a whole bunch before my general Avatar acceptance reservoirs are restored.

I didn't really take notes throughout since after the first four episodes I wanted to get through them all as fast as possible, but as general thoughts go:

-I kept out of most of the Avatar chat here and elsewhere, but they went off-model for a while there in the beginning, right? I'm pretty sure Asami didn't have a nose for like three episodes, and once I noticed no one was blinking it was all I could see.

-How frustrating that during the interminable Aang's Kidz on Vacay sections, the writers quickly and efficiently set up two interesting contrasts (Aang's unloved siblings v. Bendings) and then proceeded to do jack with them for the rest of the season. I almost prefer it when the mediocrity is consistent throughout, don't taunt me with that fact that you could be doing so much more if you actually put in any effort.

-Aubrey Plaza is a Prince of the Earth and should be in the top 4 of everyone's Hollywood Girlfriend laminated list. This show made me realize that while she can elevate gold writing into canon-worthy entertainment, she can't do shit with shit.

-They tried so hard to make Bolin into Sokka it hurt. And while every ensemble show can find a place for a The Dumb Guy in the mix, Bolin went way past that into "Wait, did Bolin suffer serious head trauma, I am seriously concerned he might not be well." levels of stupidity.

-Glad they managed to sneak in some quarter-hearted love triangle shenanigans there, that's how you know you've got authentic LoK. Quick solve amnesia was a nice garnish.

-So after they tried to make a 'complicated' villain in Amon and succeeded in making everyone unsure what his actual motivation was (He's a Communist leader who really does fight for the actual plight of the non-benders! No, he's a Hitler analog trying to get mob power and doesn't believe what he says since there is no non-bender struggle!), they went back to generic formula with Unalok. Kudos for not going with the "Order v. Chaos" dynamic and explicitly saying over and over that Vata represented Darkness and that his influence on other spirits was bad, I guess, although Unalok's motivation is basically "Unleash 10,000 years of Darkness because ???" At least there isn't room for disagreement.

-Was the too extended Varrick subplot supposed to be like a "Kids First Primer on Propaganda's Evils" thing? Cuz, uh, if you wanted to show how propaganda can dehumanize the Other, maaaaaybe hash together a villain with at least some humanizing qualities. I don't expect a Inglourious Basterd's level treatment, but the cartoonish Unalok of the mover was a saint compared to the guy who sacrificed his children in his quest to throw two entire worlds into Darkness for no reason.

-Avatar world is round? I always assumed it was flat.

-What Forever War is going on? I mean, I assume there's a Forever War somewhere, otherwise Asami's reasons for not converting her factories to produce literally anything other than gigantic war machines makes no sense.

-That Iroh appearance was so painful. I could barely even see it through the "This nostalgia will definitely get them back on our side!"-flopsweat staining the cells.

-You know that episode of the Simpsons where Homer gets super smart by taking a crayon out of his brain, but eventually they have to put it back in, and there's that sequence where after every tap in he says progressively stupider things until they hit a sweet spot? I'm trying to figure out how many extra taps it would take to get to that "Jinora is Spirit World Jesus" deus ex machina.

-I'm not opposed to Giant Kaiju fights. And that fight fight could've been really, really cool if it involved bending scaled up to the level of kaiju—tidal waves, tornados, shifting tectonic plates, pulling down stars. Instead...lasers.

-I understand that there's a technical reason they can't make the entire plane out of the black box. What's the reason for not making the entire season out of Wan?

[Aerozord]

I don't think Vatu was evil personified as much as conflict vs order. Also that Wan's solution was not objectively good. Up until Aang the solution to the fighting was some rather hard lined segregation. Everyone with differing ideologies (the four nations) are to be separated into their little areas and never allowed to move beyond them. Same going for the spirits.

While technically keeping two people that are fighting in separate rooms is "peaceful" its not really solving underlining issues. Lets keep in mind that in Aang's time racism, classism, and prejudice was very much a thing.

So Korra's solution, hey lets give the whole integration and cooperation thing a try. Yea it will be harder, but long term things will be better.