Discussion Headscratchers / TheLegendOfKorra

• A big has been made of how fast Korra has learned to bend the elements, how she takes problems head on as opposed to Aang and how she loves to fight. She's supposed to be a prodigy at the physical and martial sides of her duties... Yet so far I am seriously unimpressed. Not going all out against the cops in the first episode I can understand. But in the second her performance in the pro-bending match was woeful considering she was using her own element and wasn't fighting against master benders or greater odds. The third episode was even worse: Korra gets her butt kicked one on one by a lone chi-bender who handles her easily and only doesn't capture her for Amon because Nagga saved her. In the forth coming episode in looks like she gets whooped by Amon himself this time. I know he's the big bad and all but Aang never really struggled with Zuko and he was able to fight Azula at least equally from the start. Korra's performance in bending outside of the first episode has been pretty pathetic. The same applies to Mako and exspecially Bolin. Compared to Zuko and Toph their abilities are anemic at best. The way that stun-prod dude handled them was a total curb stomping. I really don't see Aang suffering these kinds of beatdowns.
  • Korra is a "prodigy" because her bending is powerful, but as has been sad, she lacks control, doesn't worry about strategy (leaving that up to others), and has trouble with the spiritual side of bending. Also, pro-bending isn't really fighting, it's a sport. The goal isn't to defeat your opponent with all your power, it's to defeat them by the rules (and yes, Mike and Bryan did make rules for it). As for the chi blockers, Korra was trained all her life to fight benders, with both her and her opponents being able to use their abilities until one of them (she) overpowers the other. But with chi blockers take away her only means of fighting, and have likely been trained for a long time in the ways of how to fight benders and render them powerless. Later, when she's aware of their abilities, she's much more competent.
  • Added to this, Korra's been trained in old-style bending, by sparring with old-style benders. She's never been in a real combat situation, and she's not at all used to the fighting styles that seem to be prevalent in Republic City. Remember Bolin's advice to her in the second episode—she has good power, but she's a sitting duck because she's using old-style Earthbending.
    
    As for electro-prod guy, you've got a trained, capable assassin taking on a couple of sports jocks. It shouldn't be at all surprising that he kicks their asses.
  • I'd also like to add something I noticed about Bending. With one or two exceptions I've seen, Bending is almost always ranged attacks. Once someone gets close, you're kinda screwed. I'd liken it to someone with a knife having an extreme advantage on someone with a gun if and only if they manage to close the distance before the gun goes off, and that's pretty much what the Chi-Blockers did. There's also the fact that Chi Blockers don't just take bending away, they also temporarily restrict movement. So, when you add all of it up: Korra isn't trained to Fight Chi Blockers. The Chi Blockers have a great advantage in close quarters. if they even manage to hit you, you're mobility promptly becomes shit so you can't fight conventionally. All things considered, Korra and Mako can count themselves lucky they didn't die in that fight.
  • Also, Aang didn't like to fight. He avoided conflict whenever possible, preferring to talk/work things out without the violence. This showed that you didn't have to beat the everloving crap out of someone in order to resolve conflict, which is often the stronger/most moral thing to do, even in real life. Korra doesn't get that. As stated above, she uses brute force...er, bending...in order to solve everything. This, as in real life, is not the best problem solving method and can even make things worse between the parties. Once she gets peaceful negotiating, her fighting (when all else fails) will be even more badass.
  • They've all been Worfed. During the first fight with the chi-blockers, Korra matched her opponent in speed until he (she? Friggin' masks) needed to block her chi. Then, she makes a big swinging motion with her arm that gets dodged (still reasonable, at this point). Then, she doesn't follow it up. She just holds her fist in the air like an attacker in an American Kenpo technique line, while Mook A put half of a dozen hits on her arm. The worst part though is when the mook attacks her leg. In order to do so, he dodges another attack from Korra, then bends over and starts chain-punching. Consider the position. He is kneeling, eyes on a low target (which is to say, head bowed), throwing strikes that don't have a whole lot of force behind them. Korra doesn't need to be a fighting prodigy to turn and drop the hammer on him. Given the skill she showed against that giant with the wrench later in the same episode, this is a bit unbelievable. With the chi-blockers, Bryke wanted to introduce them as a terrifying enemy, not unlike how they introduced Ozai's Angels in the original. Korra will catch up.
  • I don't think the Chi Blocking techniques are supposed to be happening in real time like that. More likely, time slowed down for our benefit while the chi blockers did their thing. Korra isn't actually just standing there, it's artistic license so we can see what's happening.
  • You're forgetting that this is the first time Korra encounters Chi Blockers. As in, she didn't even know they existed. She's just discovered there's people agile enough not only to counter her bending but also to disable it? I'm actually surprised she didn't freak out. And remember that even the Gaang had problems with Ty Lee the first time they encountered her. I'm sure she'll get better with time. As for Mako And Bolin, I think that's precisely the point, to remark how different they are to the previous generation. They are not supposed to be expies, nor personality or power wise. They aren't the Fire Prince or a girl who learnt her moves from the original benders and can feel the vibrations of the earth. They are just two street urchins who have tried to make their best with whatever they've got. I think it's pretty unfair and pointless to compare them to Zuko and Toph. They're just different.
  • This is nothing new, it pretty much sums up what the previous poster said. When fighting someone you ideally want to be too far outside their range or too far inside their reach for them to hit you which works as the advantage of the Chi-Blockers; Bending only seems effective at a range since if you attack an enemy who's too close you might deal damage to yourself. Chi-blockers, we've seen, are very fast and would probably be able to get inside the radius where bending would be disadvantageous to the Bender with minimal damage. Under regular circumstances this wouldn't be a problem since benders seem to prefer to stand at a distance and open fire and Non-Benders are too afraid to attack them they would never have been taught to fight an opponent at close range.
    • I don't think that Mako or Korra sucking holds water, but I will not say the same about Bolin. Surely this pro-bending episode helped, but this is also a modern and less-powerful form of bending compared to traditional, and even then he has proven to be a Butt-Monkey quite akin to at least one James Bondage situation. Outside that one duel where he got to show his skill, Bolin really hasn't stepped up to the plate like his brother has save as a comic relief. What possible advantage does he add to Team Korra?
    • This may be deliberate. I am under the impression that Bolin is supposed to be more childish and delicate than the Avatar and his brother. Not to mention, who was the Earthbender we saw the most in the original series? Toph. Since we are used to one of the best Earthbenders of all times, that invented her own fighting style, he seems even weaker. Hopefully Character Development will mend this.
  • It's not that they "suck" its that they're not used to real fighting. All of these characters are children of peacetime and they aren't trained to beat people in really, desperate, life-or-death combat. They're also fighting completely different enemies than the Gaang was. The Fire Nation army was made of normal soldiers or firebenders all with little to no experience with fighting benders. The chi-blockers are using a style designed to defeat benders and have tons of exposure to benders.
    • I support this in particular. The circumstances as they're presented this time around are vastly different in comparison to those presented to the Gaang. With the exception of a scant few (most prominently Ty Lee, Mai, and Jet) they fought benders (be it general mooks or the occasional elite force) almost exclusively, and they got to fight without the worry of watching for collateral damage; not to mention that Aang specifically had the advantage of being the sole master of a bending art no one had seen since the Air Nomad Genocide. And of course, considering it was wartime, they were prepared to kill if it came to it. As noted, Korra and her boys are stuck in a revolution during postwar peacetime, in a place chock full of civilians with loads of opportunity for collateral; and their primary opponents have been tailor made to fight them. If you single each one out even; Korra herself could probably handle herself decently well if she had a chance to really let loose (which is unlikely in this situation) but even then chi-blockers are something she was totally unfamiliar with, while Mako and Bolin although skilled benders- it's important to remember that they're skilled athletic benders not combat/warrior benders they both have options they could use but seemingly forget to and fight like they would in the ring (take Mako for example, he can throw lightning; and he never once considers to use it). No no, they don't suck, they're just ill prepared, for now.
  • It's not that Korra and her friends suck at fighting; it's that the bad guys don't, which is almost unheard of in fiction. The story takes place on a smaller scale, with fewer mooks. If they were just as inept as the rank-and-file Fire Nation soldiers in the original series, there wouldn't be much tension, would there?
• Plus, it makes it more entertaining that the protagonists are struggling. They can't win all the time.

There's more than a whiff of Mugglecentrism to the idea that non-benders are 'normal.' Even in Avatar universe's pre-history, people still bent energy, only it was within each other rather than external elements. Bending is older than dirt. Saying that either benders or non-benders are the default state of humanity is unfair to perspective of people in-universe. We in the real world may not be able to bend, but their world has always had that ability. The sole exception I can think of would be prior to Omashu's founding, and that only applies to earthbenders. We don't know what went on with the other nations, or how abrupt the transition from energybending to elemental bending was. Even given that, modern elemental bending is interwoven into the fabric of global civilization and the various cultures.

• Because of mugglcentrism; most fantasy works portray magic as the minority, therefore this notion is translated into the Avatarverse. There's also the implication that benders are the minority everywhere but in regards to the Air Nomads, though since it is tied to spirituality, it can work both ways.

But am I only person who thinks the antagonists are too effective? The heroes have virtually zero victories under their belts. That just makes this series too depressing and leaves me wonder why the good guys are even bothering at all.

• It's going to be hard to get a satisfying defeat for such a powerful enemy in three episodes. I really hope that either Amon or Tarlock lasts into season 2.
• Y'know that's kind of the point. Strong enemies who never seem to lose or back down is completely normal in fiction. The good guys bothering to stop them is the reason they're good guys. There's only twelve episodes and with such a restricted setting, conflicted characters and enemies at two fronts it's going to take a lot for the heroes to win. Anyway, the next episode implies Korra is going to work past her inner demons which would even the playing field a tad bit more.
• This is a short series. Thus, you can't have the plot structure of the original series where the balances of power and individual antagonists change several times over. Rather, you need to build up to a single, major confrontation in a three-act structure, much like a movie. We've had the buildup episodes in which the setting, the protagonists and the antagonists were introduced, and we've now moved to the greatest peril stage where the protagonists are brought down by the overwhelming enemy. From the structure so far I'd predict that the last three episodes will start feature Team Avatar starting to win, as they now know the full extent of the enemy's power, and may be able to play Tarrlok and Amon against each other, to boot.
  • I'd like to point out Legend of Korra originally had 12 episodes, then it got 14 more in production, along with option to renew for a 2nd season. But beside that, just look at this series: the co-creators have made virtually every moment awesome/heartwarming/funny/give us nightmares, and snuck some pretty dark stuff in, including an actual terrorist attack. This series is in good hands, and likely won't disappoint many, no matter what happens.
    • Just a little thing: the 14 more episodes are the 2nd season. This season's storyline will be completed in 12 episodes. Thus, it only has a single, tight storyarc, rather than the numerous overlapping arcs and standalone episodes of the original series. That's why the first third was devoted to introducing the setting and characters, the second third to the bad guys winning, and the final third presumably for the decisive battles where the good guys will ultimately triumph.

People are saying that this is extremely darker than ATLA but how is this true? ATLA had murder, genocide, concentration camps, class separation, and torture. Korra really hasnt had any of this.

• ...Are you not paying attention to the show?
• Read the Radar and Nightmare Fuel pages. You have gang crime, racism, fanaticism, elements of facism, political corruption, terrorism, murder (everyone's parents being killed by firebenders), torture (if you count bloodbending, seeing as how lifting someone with by their body fluids is essentially crucifixion), people being electricuted all the time (which could also count as torture), kidnapping, and tons of rape/executions metaphors. That dark enough for you?
  • You also have the heroes implied to be killing people. We see them landing some really serious blows on the Mooks, and we don't see them getting up from them. They're just thrown off-screen or have a Gory Discression Shot.
  • The Finale takes the cake: Yakone forcing his sons, Tarlokk and Noatok (Amon) to learn bloodbending and Tarlokk killing himself and his brother in a firey explosion.
• Even if ATLA had all those things, the Gaang also had some breathing room for Filler that allowed them to be light-hearted kids. The closest thing like that we have in Korra is the very worst parts of being a teenager.
  • Yeah. ATLA quite a few BreatherEpisodes to lighten the mood, but LOK one; after the first two episodes, every episode but The Spirit of Competition was one Wham Episode after another.

I hated that finale; it's just brought up questions filled with mass amounts of Fridge Logic:

Why didn't they explain how Korra unlocked airbending? Why didn't Iroh and Korra bother saving anyone else from the ships? Why where there so many equalist planes simply sitting in the hangar and not participating in the attack? Above all, what was Amon's actual objective? What, was he doing all this For the Evulz? Or because he wanted to destroy the Avatar? Or for equality? Tarrlok mentions he wanted fair treatment for all even as a kid; so if he believed in equality, why not explain that to the lieutenant? If he didn't care about the Equalist movement then why not just take way Korra's bending way back in Ep.4?

While we're at it, how did Amon suffer so fucking much Badass Decay in the span of twenty minutes? Why didn't he just tell people his REAL story? The most manipulative Magnificent Bastard of a villain we've ever seen in animation, and he couldn't turn an abusive, bloodbending crime boss of a father into a sob story? Why make up shit about firebender-killed-my-parents that doesn't even hold a candle to the truth? Wouldn't a bender fighting for non-benders draw even more support? Why does he let his brother out of jail after calling him "a failure" and leaving him with his abusive father years ago? If the argument is that he felt genuine remorse, then where the hell did THAT come from? We don't see him regretting his actions, just the fact that his bending was exposed. Why wasn't he mad at his brother for revealing his origin story to Korra? How did a guy this smart not make the connection that only Tarrlok could have told Korra those things?

What happens to the Equalist movement now? In the finale there are large crowds of normal people are applauding and cheering Amon and his guys: Why? because they had a point. For the past ten episodes it's clearly shown that there actually is discrimination against non-benders, which is why the equalists have so much support. After building this up so far, they brought a brand new identity smack out of nowhere to take the blame, made him a hypocrite, defeated him without addressing the larger issue at hand, and then promptly hit the Reset Button by giving Korra Energybending. What happened to the equalists and their supporters? Did they just stop believing in equality and surrender?

• Yikes, lotsa questions! I’ll preface this with that I’ll try to answer some, but this seems to be more a rant than a YMMV, so whatevs. A lot of your questions begin with “why didn’t they explain” when I think Bryke probably assumed one could figure it out. Korra unlocked her airbending because she literally had nothing left, she was just that desperate. Why didn’t they rescue others from the ships? Korra can only carry so many people at one time. For all we know, she might have gone back after she got Iroh to shore and saved others, or other Waterbenders were already doing so. Amon’s planes: The planes were going to be used later. As far as the Equalists knew, they’ve won. Why have EVERYTHING out at once when you’ve already got control? What did Amon want? Amon’s objective was to create Equality by ridding benders of their abilities. Obviously. Like, seriously. The equalists who equalize people. Duh. You could argue that since Tarrlok says he enjoyed the power there was a certain level of doing it just for power, as well. Amon didn’t explain it to the lieutenant because his whole shtick was “Benders are bad and bending is bad.” Imagine a politician telling his followers, “Hey, guys, guns are bad, and I’m going to get rid of guns by shooting everyone who uses them.” That would not make one popular. The next few questions can be answered the same way. It doesn’t matter what his story is, no people who hate Benders would follow a Bender, regardless of their backstory. At the very least, not enough to form a terrorist organization. As for Tarrlok, notice that Amon says, “I’m sorry for what I HAD to do to you.” He’s not sorry he took his bending, cos he still thinks that’s necessary or at least admirable, but he’s sorry he ran off on him and hurt him when they were young. He clearly loved his brother – arguably, his brother is his whole reason for being an Equalist, because he doesn’t want anyone to hurt anyone the way he hurt Tarrlok when he bloodbent him. As for figuring out who told Korra the story, he did make the connection. It’s just too late to do anything about it, he’s ruined. Why bother getting pissed at him? He’s gotta be ridiculously emotionally strained at this point. He probably just too tired for anger. As for Equalism: Why does everyone assume Equalism is dead? It’s not, I’m willing to bet. It’s just been rid of a leader whose motto was “Benders are bad, get rid of them,” so he can (hopefully) be replaced with a leader whose motto is “Some Benders are bad, let’s live in peace with the good ones.” The fact that (WITH A WHOLE SEASON STILL LEFT) they didn’t spell it out for you in giant print doesn’t mean it’s not there.
  • Good answers, but I think your preface was right. This is just angry bashing of the show and subjective negative opinions sprinkled with rhetorical questions, not a true headscratcher. To the OP: pick a specific question for your headscratcher, don't just rail on completely subjective matters which will just spiral out of control and make this page even longer than it already is.
  • Nope, not buying it. That's kinda like Voldemort trying to fix his soul by feeling genuine remorse. And it came right the fuck outta nowhere. Especially so if Amon's objective was really wanting to equalize the world - someone that dedicated in his belief wouldn't just up and decide "okay, I've been beaten, so I'll abandon my cause and regret everything that I've ever worked for." No matter what. The ending made it look like he didn't even care about the Equalist movement. And if that was the case, then he has/had no real objective; and the whole season's plot falls apart. And he just decides to, what, forgive the person who was responsible for all this, his "weak" brother?
    • First off, probably a poor comparision with Voldemort since Amon has a more complex past. He had affection for his brother and probably regretted some things he did to him. He abandoned his cause because he has lost it and sees nothing for him. . He probably managed to salvage his affection for his brother and hoped that his brother reciprocate the sentiment. If anything, Amon's extent of remorse is kept ambiguous. Did Amon know of the murder-suicide about to come? Did Amon accept it conciously? Unanswered.
• Amon knows how politics work. He can't risk arousing his opponents so he waits to take Korra's bending away. He waits for scandals to appear with the Wolfbats and Tarrlok to gain power. And once he has that power, he can safetly move onto other targets without awaiting scandals.
  • He depends on support for power, thus why he searches for justification to debend others to gain support. And ultimately, a scandal ends his power because it takes away the people who trusted him.
• If anything a sob story that clarifies the (ex)Waterbender Yukone as the abusive father would probably sound less symathetic than a sob story about a boy whose (non-Benders) parents were murdered by Firebenders, and not to mention it could attract suspicions about his (phony) energybending power. And just because some events occur does not mean it has to be shown, it can be inferred. It is inferred that Amon felt remorse to an extent for Tarrlok once his power started crumbling. Even if his brother did ruin his plans, he saw Tarrlok as his last remaining human connection and perhaps attempted to atone for his past treatment of him. But whether he was conscious about Tarrlok's final deed and his actual extent of remorse are left ambiguous to the viewers. Even after all that was unmasked, Amon/Naotak dies a mysterious character as appropriate.
  • No way. Here: which version sounds more plausible, believable and more likely to gain support: A) "My Mommee and Daddee were killed by a firebender so the Spirits came down from heaven and gave me this power!" (remember that this version already had viewers calling out the story as a possible bogus) OR, B) "My father was an abusive fuck of a bloodbender and the most ruthless criminal your city ever saw; He tried to make me and my brother follow his footsteps, but I fought him and ran away; I recognize that benders are oppressing the non-bender population, and I believe that this new power I've discovered within myself has been granted to me for a reason - to help create equality in the world." You're telling me someone as cunning, manipulative, charismatic, and Dangerously Genre-Savvy as Amon couldn't sell that? Didn't even think of that? Didn't realize that someday this would become his downfall? That is a very hard pill to swallow.
    • First of all, Amon's story sounded bogus to the viewers, because they knew Amon was the bad guy. An Equalist who believed in Amon's cause would have had no reason to disbelieve his backstory. He had to use the Spirits as an explanation why he had special powers, because he couldn't have revealed to the Equalists that he was a bloodbender. Even if he himself did believe bending was bad, no way a bunch people who thought benders were abusing their powers would have followed a powerful bender, especially one that practices the most abusive form of bending ever known... Also, since the end result of the Equalist mission would've been that no one else has bending except Amon himself, the Equalists would have suspected Amon was merely using them to become an unopposable tyrant, one who could rule with his bloodbending with no other bender left to fight him. As for the firebender story, Amon had to come up with some explanation why he was wearing a mask, because otherwise Tarrlok would've recognized him and would've revealed his true identity. Since he had to wear the mask anyway, it made sense to come up with a story that would both justify it and get his anti-bender agenda more sympathy. True, if someone revealed who he really was, that would be his downfall, but the only one who could do that was Tarrlok, and Amon (correctly) guessed Tarrlok would never think the leader of an anti-bender movement was his long lost bloodbender brother. Tarrlok didn't guess Amon was Noatak until after he had debent and kidnapped him. Keeping Tarrlok alive was Amon's only real mistake, because if he had killed Tarrlok there and then, no one could've exposed him. Amon probably had planned to execute Tarrlok, but when the moment came, he couldn't bring himself to do it. So you could say his love for his brother was ultimately his downfall.
      • See below.
• His sob story would be nonsense. Who would fall for it? "What? You want to end up as the sole bender in the world!? Yeah, that sounds awesome!"
  • The same people who would fall for "the spirits chose me instead of the Avatar to bring balance." He didn't have to reveal his bloodbending abilities, just the de-bending and waterbending. Which means If he succeeds, he's just ONE bender against the whole world (and an army of chi-blockers he helped train). Hardly an unstoppable tyrant.
    • Nevertheless, Amon had to make a choice to either, A) reveal himself to be a bender and trust he could still lead a movement of people who dislike benders, or, B) make up a story of him being a non-bender who was gifted by the Spirits. Remember, at the time when he made this choice he had no way of knowing option A would work, and if it didn't, he couldn't have just changed to plan B, his whole mission would've then been ruined. So it makes sense he would choose the plan he knew would have a better chance of succeeding, even if it wasn't foolproof. To use a real-life analogy, do you think a white person could successfully lead a Black Power movement, even if he told everyone he felt the utmost sympathy for the plight of black people?
    • It's not necessarily about power, it's about trust. His actions, sparing no benders from purification, show that he trusted none of them to keep their power in check. It was safer to simply eliminate it. He even accused the avatar of being party to corruption, and that's the one bender the people should trust. By his own definition, he is untrustworthy.
    • Look at it this way: what seems to be the cause of a large portion of anti-bending sentiment? Large organized crime rings of benders using their powers for personal gain. Who was the person most famous and feared for doing that, who was so powerful that only the Avatar himself could stop him? Yakkonne. No way are anti-benders going to follow the son of the guy who basically started Republic City's fine, longstanding tradition of bending Triads, especially when said son is using the exact same extremely powerful and abusive form of bending that made said bastard father such a terror.
• As for running to his brother, he failed in his quest and has to eat crow. His brother is probably the only person who wouldn't throw it in his face. And he called his brother weak when they were kids, I can't imagine he would hold a 20 year grudge against a 10 year old who was too scared to run away from home. As for not being angry, I get the feeling he cares more about his brother than he does about the movement or his followers, he threw the lieutenant around like garbage and didn't seem the least bit sorry about lying too him.
  • If he cares more about his brother than the movement, then why take his bending away? Alternatively if he cares more about the movement than Tarrlok then why just give up the fight? It doesn't hold water.
    • 1. He took his bending away so he wouldn't be a nuisance. It's not like bending is necessary like food and water, it may be arrogant to believe so, but I think he thinks Tarrlok is, more or less, fine. 2. Because he lost and he just came off as a creepy bender who wanted to rule the city and possibly the world. The movement, which depended on trust, is lost (to him, anyway) so he may as well salvage something out of it, which was his brother.
    • Isn't it possible that he cared about both the movement AND his brother? Humans aren't one-note creatures; they have many emotions and beliefs, and many can be contradicting yet still understandable.
  • For one thing, there's a second season with 14 episodes just poised to answer lingering questions (and if not, fan theories are required). And also, if Amon told his real story involving the fact that he was a waterbending/bloodbender... people would have left on the spot: his "Revolution" depended on a NON-bender leading non-benders; anything else wouldn't have met with any real belief. Also, he didn't really care about the Equalists; he just wanted his power. And 'forgiving' his brother... those bonds go much deeper than you seem to think, and he geniunely cared for brother, even after his Start of Darkness.
    • And also... saying it came outta nowhere isn't exactly a good mindset to react to things. Sudden twists/turns are what make good stories, like this series. Plus, the remorse/Voldemort thing was legit.

[[folder: Why couldn't they plan for one more episode to resolve the ending better?]] In addition to the above headscratcher of Korra becoming spiritually realized, it felt like they ran out of screen time towards the end. Korra was supposed to end with only one season and production had gone very far down the line before Season 2 was planned. For 10.5/12 episodes they had let the villain win, and more than 1 episode's worth of screen time went into Amon's backstory and even his defeat was rushed. They didn't even have time to explain how they captured Tenzin and family. Rather than a big fight between Korra and Amon + Mooks, they had Amon facing Mako and Korra alone and being exposed by making two major mistakes, instantly undoing all his plans. Now they hardly had 1/3rd of an episode left to resolve the Love Triangle, restore Korra's bending, make her a fully realized avatar, connect with Aang, and explain how the whole thing worked out, so something had to go, unfortunately it was a major plot point. Just one more episode would have really provided that space to wrap things up properly.

Which makes you wonder just how the mechanics of production run...at what stage exactly do they decide how many episodes they want in a season, and whether Season 2 will at least provide any proper explanation.

• The creators of the show really don't have a lot of control over these kinds of things.

In fact, what was the real point of the bender/nonbender conflict, and the removal of people's bending? A HUGE deal is made of Amon being able to remove bending, and many scenes are built on the tension arising from that. (Lin losing her bending, anyone?)

But in the finale, we find out that Amon is just an power-hungry, especially talented bloodbender, with knowledge of how to block the chakras associated with the art of bending. He escapes Korra at the end, only to die by fratricide, and Korra now knows how to "fix" everyone who was depowered by Amon.

So I ask: What was the point of the entire conflict? Anyone (like Lin) who lost their bending can just get it returned to them, the bender/nonbender conflict takes a backseat to Korra's character development so we have no idea what became of the rebellion, (I'd assume animosity and holdouts; there's no way such a major conflict was dropped in a day.) and nearly anything that happened during the series can be reversed.

• I'm not really sure what you're asking. In the same vein, what's the point of any story? In-universe, it wasn't known that bending can be returned. Also, wait for the second season. Yes, Amon isn't going to return, but that doesn't mean that suddenly everything is sunny and peachy again. Also, there is some additional moral conflict: who "deserves" to have their bending returned? What about Lightning Bolt Zold and the other Triple Threats? And keep in mind that there wasn't supposed to be a second season, it was supposed to be a mini-series. I suppose that if they had known there would be a continuation, they probably would have kept the "regaining their bending" part for that. As it is, though, would you really have expected the series to end on a bleak note? For example, Korra jumping off the cliff so that a new Avatar can be born?
• Amon did serve a purpose; he was the driving force behind the events that developed Korra's character.
• I agree with the person above me, but I do agree with the OP. Amon didn't seem to leave a lasting impression after everything was reset in the ending, but we'll have to wait until season 2 to see what kind of effect Amon really did have. Though since it was supposed to have only one season, things would have been very unclear if we didn't have another season to develop that.
• I'm a tad bit confused. Since the season ended away from the city, how do we know everything was reset? Until the next season it's kind of impossible to say the revolution just ended, the lieutenant proves there are people who truly believe in the Equalist's revolution.

Why did the series have such a heavy emphasis on the romantic subplot? Yes, they are teenagers, and sometimes teenagers fall in love, but the way the relationships were handled left a lot of questions.

• Korra and Mako: how did THAT happen?
  • When Korra first sneaked into the Pro-Bending Arena, the only thing she seemed to be in love with was the sport, and she had a mutual respect for the Fire Ferrets for being, well... good. Mako was indifferent to her presence (maybe even downright annoyed, as he saw her as one of Bolin's "fangirls") until he learned of her status as the Avatar, and even then they couldn't say two words without exchanging three insults. So why, in "The Spirit of Competition", do all of these romantic feelings come out of left field?
    • ESPECIALLY while Mako was in a relationship with Asami?
    • He rejected her at first, but Korra's unsettling aggression ("Every time you're with her, you're thinking of me, aren't you?") and the impromptu kiss snowballed this into a pretty unnatural relationship.

• Korra and Bolin: where did it go?
  • Bolin seemed to display outright interest in Korra from the moment they met (or perhaps he was just being the lady's man promised to us in his bio), and even asked Mako what he thought of Korra as girlfriend material (for Bolin). At the end of "The Spirit of Competition", Korra and Bolin pretty much reached amends and remained good friends. Why didn't we see more of that friendship?
    • Because destined-boyfriend Mako was set up to be the one most concerned for Korra. It's not like Tenzin or Lin or Bolin or even Asami were worried as well...

• Mako and Asami: what was the point?
  • Other than tying Hiroshi (and by extension, Amon and the Equalists) with the Fire Ferrets, the relationship had very little purpose and caused a lot of unnecessary drama in the group. Asami could have joined as a relationship-free nonbender and nothing would have changed, plot-wise.
    • This looks like a case of lazy writing: DiMartino and Konietzko wanted to make Asami a member of Team Avatar, and to them pairing her with Mako seems to have felt like the easiest way to do that, even though they knew Mako would ultimately end up with Korra. Apparently in the Avatar world you can't make new friends unless, A) you're doing bending battles with them, or B) they're romantically involved with a friend of yours. It seems like the writers couldn't figure out some other way to introduce Asami, so they had to use a pointless romance subplot. And the pointless jealousy subplot had to follow from there, since they couldn't just make Mako switch from Asami to Korra without any repercussions, as that would've made Asami look overtly cold and Mako look like a Karma Houdini. If the writers had figured out a non-romantic way to get Asami join Team Avatar, the time saved from not having the pointless Love Triangle could’ve been used for more plot-relevant characterization.
  • Speaking of the girl: poor Asami! On top of having to fight against her father, she had to deal with a boyfriend who couldn't get his act together and apparently had no qualms about openly showing displays of affection in front of his girlfriend. Justified break up warning was justified.
    • Their farewell in the finale was not a very clear indicator of whether or not they broke up. Mako, on the other hand, went on to declare his love (?!) for Korra once her status of Avatar was restored. This troper thinks Mako is a gold digger of sorts...
      • Someone on tumblr has noticed the Unfortunate Implications in that regard: Mako is first dismissive of Korra, but not anymore when he finds out that she is the Avatar. However, turns out she's not a fully realised Avatar yet; she can't airbend. Enter Asami Sato, one of the richest girls in the city, who instantly grabs Mako's attention. When does his interest in her fade? When her father turns out to be evil and she goes to live with the others, obviously unable to use all the resources she used to have. And now that Korra is a fully realised Avatar, bam, Asami is forgotten and Korra is his forever-girl.
• Well, how much stuff can you pack something that's virtually a 6 hr long movie (take out the commercial breaks and it's around 4.5 hours), it's that uncomfortable middle ground between a movie and a full series. 12 episodes with (no plans for season 2 at the time) it's just not the same as 61 is it? Hopefully we will have the love square back in Season 2. If Mako's anything to go by, it's not too far fetched.
  • Gods I hope not. There are a lot more interesting things they can do with the series than go back and forth on who dates whom, and I for one hope that the series finale is where they leave it alone as far as Mako and Korra's relationship is concerned.