The Legend of Korra

Eh. Some nice character beats for Korra and the whole villain conference call was funny but aside from that its pretty forgettable. Not a bad episode just a dull one with only a few good moments. Still its not the creators fault but another example of Nick screwing this franchise over...again.

@Renewal, all of the benders in the opening did make an appearance. The earthbender was Sud, Roku's earthbending teacher.

Anyway, not a bad episode. The best part was obviously the third with Varrick and Bolin and it felt awkward watching to Mako part.

As someone on reddit said: of all the Legend of Korra episodes I've seen, that was certainly one of them.

Apologies for the Shipping Goggles, but those redditers weren't the only ones who half-expected Asami to follow "The world needs you." with "I need you."

I have to say, this episode is less shippy than I expected. Perhaps the limited budget forced Bryke to cut down on Korrasami teasing.

I actually liked Mako part. We got his point of view and Tu's snarkery. Although the phone call and zombie Amon are unbeatable.

Varrick deserves his own series. Way to make a clip show look so awesome.

And I thought the writers were lazy before. Flashback episodes. -_-

It was that or fire people.

Frankly, I think the Varrick part more than made the episode worth it, all things considered.

Wait, lazy? Say what you will about the plot, but I would never have called the writers of Korra lazy by any means. This might be a bit of a heavy shift in quality, but I feel there's a valid reason, and can't think of other moments where they've been lazy, more so than efficiency would provide.

Okay, if I hear any negative talk towards Bryan and Mike I officially will lose whatever respect I had for anyone in this thread. What they did was beyond amazing way to get back at Nick for the budget cut.

Also if you're familiar with ATLA then you'd know this is no different than Ember Island players. They had four episodes left, and in LOK's case they have five eps left.

Was Ember Island made for reasons forced upon them by Nick?

@The Space Jawa

The Ember Island was still a tremendously lackluster filler. I don't care if it was a way of parodying things it was still shit IMO. That and it was a waste of space in a follow-up to the "Southern Raiders" episode. That ep could've done something to assuage any accusations of the Lion turtle thing being called an Ass Pull.

EDIT:

If you're seriously insisting that you'd fire your employees in their situations I hope for your sake you don't ever own a business man.

edited 21st Nov '14 10:06:01 AM by Couchpotato20

I'm not sure, but Nickelodeon certainly screwed over ATLA when it was airing, too. For example, it didn't air Book 3 for a single year after it was actually animated and put it on TV JUST AS THE BOOK 3 DV Ds were starting to come out.

@Eagal: Bryke didn't really have much choice about this episode. Nick slashed their budget for Book 4 after they'd already committed to making 13 episodes in the season, and Bryke didn't want to fire any of the production team, so they made a Clip Show episode. They are not lazy.

edited 21st Nov '14 10:22:47 AM by higherbrainpattern

@higherbrainpattern

There we go. If anyone says they'd fire workers in here just because of a budget cut I really pray that you don't own a business. Just look at the film Horrible Bosses you'll be no better than those titular bad bosses if you do.

Haven't we all already learned that Eagal likes making inflammatory comments just for the sake of being inflammatory?

edited 21st Nov '14 11:06:27 AM by LSBK

@LSBK

If that's the case I really wish there was an ignore function against posters that cause you irritation.

Separate note:

IIRC there's an LOK abridged series somewhere on youtube I wonder how they're going to do this episode when they get to this season.

That's exactly the vibe I got from it - it's a weird feeling when the writers seem to be abridging their own show within the show. I didn't know the context beforehand, during Shinobi's bit I thought "OK, a clipshow, unusual for Avatar but I suppose it happens in anime" but there were some parts during the evil conference call where I had to remind myself that this was a real episode by the actual writers. It got surreal. Knowing the reasoning though I can see why they did it, but some of the execution was just bizarre.

Well, i just finished watching the episode (it wasn't easy to get to, let me tell you) and frankly, so far, the only part i didn't like was when Mako brought up the reunion he and Korra had before the battle with Unalaq (I might have been able to deal with that if they hadn't shown that scene where everyone was staring, that was always a scene that never left my mind and drove me insane).

But, all in all, it falls into the same category as ATLA's "Ember Island Players"; an episode with an interesting premise, and one that would feel appropriate for the series' final days, but something about it just kept me from watching it as frequently as others (for TEIP, it was that issue with Aang and Katara, for this episode, it was being reminded of the Makorra issues that took place in Book 2)

@Srebak

Eh, I was able to tolerate the Makorra clip show more than Aang and Katara talk in Ember Island players because of Aang's impulsiveness which made me cringe more than when I looked at Makorra. At least with Makorra there are intermission's of lulz.

Also the philosophic moment in "Remembrances" filled the void which I didn't see in Ember Island players.

EDIT:

Or here let me put it in more perspective: There was more respite in "Remembrances" than there was in Ember Island players due to Aang's bellyaching about whether he and Katara were actually an item.

edited 21st Nov '14 10:43:19 AM by Couchpotato20

Eh, that was actually alright, watching it after finding out about the budget thing and thus bearing that in mind. The comments were still pretty funny and Varrik's part was very good.

Oh, Varrick, that was awesome.

You are awesome.

~back from the dead~

While this wasn't as good "The Ember Island Players" or "Tales of Ba Sing Se" in the least, it was still watchable.

It had the two humorous and good parts with Varrick's distortions of "Bolin's Arc" ["Villain Conference" made it worth it], and Mako's failed relationships and the commentary on the side (it does hit a little close to home though , but that'll probably wear off).

However,it also had the very serious and heartwarming part in Korra's arc.

But the first two arcs really showed how far the characters came, withe third being a straight "The Ember Island Players" homage.

It's still the weakest in the season,but it's a marked improvement from the other Books low points.

And now back into inactivity until this month ends ~drops a smoke bomb and vanishes~

But I wonder what would we get if not for the cuts. The same, except all Nuktuk-style? I'm curious if there's a scenario for a never-made episode lying in some drawer right now.

Well, there we go.

• The peanut gallery's comments during Mako's part was great. I get the feeling there was a lot of the fandom's feelings on the matter summed up during it.

• Korra's part was more straightforward, but Tenzin did point out that it's a never ending struggle. Not much to say on that front.

• Bolin's face on Korra's body was a little much. But the evil Conference call rocked. The pic they used of Amon makes me think these guys were throwing a bone to the Comedy Amon Meme, and I'm guessing the shots at Unalaq were another fandom nod.

Nothing special, but watching it won't destroy our souls or anything. It's one of those eps that serves no purpose, but can still be fun on its own merits.

As always, Varrick rocks hard.

Yes, Varrick's part was definitely the best. I love the villain call.

And didn't notice Bolin's face on Korra's spirit body until it got pointed out.

Also, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!"

...in any case, I hope to get back to more new stuff. I really want to see if they have enough for five good last chapters...