Reviews WesternAnimation / The Legend Of Korra

Korra learning Metalbending isn't a plot hole. I don't know where you got that implication from on how that's what made her so talented at being able to bend the elements. She was bending three when she was BARELY OLDER than three. Aang was already the youngest recorded Airbending master in history when he was young. The closest thing to what you're getting at was how she was able to access the Avatar State, something I don't actually recall her doing since her connection was severed.

Blood Raw Knuckle:

Ok you got me there. And yes, I do feel that her still having control over the Avatar State is still a Plot Hole.

It's still a very enjoyable series though...its alright.

I really don't agree in terms of being 'far' below, quality-wise, but regardless...

Korra still having control over the Avatar state does makes sense; the Avatar State IS Raava herself, who re-bonded with her (thus Korra still has it). And as far as Unalag's connections, it was foreshadowed, but in a way we didn't see at the time - his ability to manipulate light + darkness via waterbending. A very rare talent that no one else could (or did) claim to do.

As far as one-dimensional/wasted potential/caring about 'barely-fleshed-out' characters, I'm on the opposite spectrum as you; simple as that. But Bolin not evolving beyond comic relief; what is the issue with that? We already know he's competent, just overshined by most everyone (which I don't have a problem with)

Beforehand, I promise I won't go on a tirade like I did on my last one.

Overall, I agree with you, except for 'Lin's back story was alright':

I guess it was alright as far as back stories go, but it seemed kind of cliché and soap opera'y and for the most part it seems really irrelevant to the plot. You could say that it was relevant in that it fleshes out the back story of one of the series' most popular characters, but for the sake of this story she really doesn't function as more than Korra's bodyguard, so besides the obvious service to her fans I don't see why they spent so much time on this. Maybe if she functioned more as a main character instead of a supporting character, I wouldn't mind as much (In fact I came across an interesting post somewhere that posited that if Korra, Tenzin and Lin were all the new team Avatar instead of adding Bolin, Mako and Asami then it would of been a much better show; I'd have to agree with that observation. Tenzin and Lin are much better developed than the other three and would have been interesting to see a Team avatar composed almost exclusively of adults.)

On that note, I completely agree with you on 'How do they expect us to care about relationships with characters that are barely fleshed out?':

I think a major problem with the show overall has been that they added too many new characters and this season just makes it worse. From the way many of them are introduced, from the Metal Clan family, Mako and Bolin's extended family and the Ba Sing Se airship crew, they seem to be characters we're supposed to care about more than the average background character but there's just too many to work with in order to do that.

'The bending battles are better this season':

I guess if you don't count having Zuko getting his behind whooped by the Red Lotus. Like I said before, Zuko's reappearance seemed underwhelming already with how flat his character is portrayed only to have him suffer more badass decay at the hands of this season's equally bland villains (agree with you on that too). Seriously, he didn't get any better at firebending over the years? (you could chalk it up to old age and glacial weather conditions, though that would be a pretty lame cop out if they're going through the trouble of bringing back his character) For all the good he does against the Red Lotus, it seems he's only here for nostalgia's sake and having Iroh reappear AGAIN (to help out Korra with something she could have figured out on her own) doesn't help any.

@Omegafire. 'But Bolin not evolving beyond comic relief, what is the issue with that?'

The issue is that it seems he's a comic relief first and an actual character second. Like I've said before, most of the time he seems to be in a single mood and mindset that makes us think he's just a cardboard cut out saying 'hey, look at me doing crazy things!' (Personally, I think Varrick suffers from this as well).

'needs more foreshadowing':

I'd agree, but I'm not sure the writers had this planned out from that point. I think they're trying to make a fresh start for the series, but I've been seeing a lot of the mistakes they made in previous one's the most notable being abandoned arcs. I was excited to see that they were carrying events over from the previous season with Korra trying to deal with the whole spirit root invasion, but then that got sidelined by the New Airbenders arc which at this point only amounted to increasing the stakes of the arc going on with the Red Lotus. The spirits now are pretty much just apart of the scenery, no longer respectable nature spirits but just some cuddly critters, any potential social commentary with them being reduced to a shopkeeper discriminating against them and shooing them out of the store. The spirit world itself seems to have been degraded to a plot device or tool for the main characters. Overall, the way the episodes are paced seems pretty boring and haphazard with all the backtracking going on (in my opinion the team wasted an entire episode on a 'whodunnit' with that nose piercing guy instead of going after the Red Lotus and letting Lin investigate as her job as a police officer entails). They have added interesting and ingenious plot elements so far, but they can't be expected to hold up when the pacing and characterization is lacking.

I agree that this is the strongest Korra season so far, but with all that's been said in criticism of the show and considering that after this the entire show is 3/4's of the way over with, that just makes me really sad.

A cop-out? How are facts (the reality that nighttime and icy conditions weaken firebending) a cop-out? Plus whether we like it or not, Zuko is well past his prime at that point, so he was at a severe disadvantage power-wise - plus as we've seen, the Red Lotus are extremely competent

It felt perfectly normal the way he went out. Would have it been awesome if he'd done more? Of course, but it was still expected imo

The rest I simply don't see as you do - and even if I did, they wouldn't be issues for me. That is all

Geeze, I swear if Korra fans witnessed the second coming they'd complain about the entrée's. You guys are looking for reasons not to enjoy yourselves. Are you going to say that Avatar contaiend no kind of one-dimensional characters and developed the backstory of every single antagonist and evolved every single character beyond comic relief? And actually that's a flawed comparison, because why the heck is being Avatar the standard to which every show has to meet. The Avengers film had way more problems than this and it didn't stop it being completely amazing. Their villains were non-existent, the plot was about a MacGuffin even the writers couldn't care about, Hawkeye was still completely outclassed by everyone else, the backdoor into the Evil Stick was weaksauce. Things aren't the sum of the flaws.

For that matter why do you need to establish the backstory of every single antagonist. Having a great main villain with a strong but non-fleshed out supporting cast is an absolute time honoured tradition of fiction that allows you to have a great focal point for the conflict and a person to give purpose to all the motivations, whilst still allowing team fights and a greater variety of action scenes. I think it was quite neat how they made each Red Lotus very distinctive through their abilities.

What I'm really saying is that right or wrong, this review feels a bit out of whack. It's less talking about what the show is and what makes it tick and why it works and is amazing (or not if you disagree with it) and more about picking out small little reasons not to give yourself over to it. If the overall picture of Korra wasn't functional that would be important. But if it is functional and creative and exciting, going over whether it's good or bad that Bolin is just a nice guy whose a huge Doofus isn't really useful and gives a distorted picture of the whole

Williamson K:

I agree with most of the things that you said. Although Lin's backstory was nice it doesn't really give new insight into her as a character. Tenzin on the other hand is easily the best character in this series because of how fleshed out he is as a character.

omegafire17:

That's ok. You don't have to agree with everything I said here. I'm just sharing my opinion. But let's be honest here, Bumi in the original series was really old too and he's one of the strongest earthbenders in the series. Unless they say it in the series, then Zuko should have been able to at least take ONE of them down.

Tom With No Numbers:

I never said that you need to establish the backstory of every antagonist. That would take forever. I just feel that the main characters aren't as fleshed out as they could have been. Hell, I thought that the episode "Original Airbenders" in season 3 was a great episode because it was about TENZIN. He is one of the best characters in this series and I thought that this was a fun little episode devoted to him....mostly...but then Kai and Jinora's underdeveloped relationship showed up.....but that's besides the point.

But I don't despise this show. I think it just has a lot of wasted potential. It definitely could have been worse. A lot worse.

Tomwithnonumbers:

'why the heck is being Avatar the standard to which every show has to meet'

It's not. ATLA is the standard to which THIS show, TLOK, is being compared. And for the record, I enjoyed the Avengers just fine without ever once thinking of ATLA. Although many say TLOK was trying to go into a different vein than ATLA (in other words it wasn't trying to be a sequel), that doesn't excuse it from this sort of comparison. It takes place in the same universe and in the same continuity as the original show; for all intents and purposes it IS a sequel and comparing it to the original will be unavoidable.

'You guys are looking for reasons not to enjoy yourselves.'

I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy watching some parts of TLOK, it's just that it grows more difficult to experience enjoyment and awe when we are simultaneously disappointed and underwhelmed. We probably wouldn't feel such conflicting emotions if the show wasn't set on the same stage as ATLA, if it had been in a different universe with a different premise. A movie like the Avengers didn't have an act in it's own universe to follow, so it didn't have as many standards to meet, so we could enjoy it more. But when we are delivered a masterpiece like ATLA and then given a follow up that doesn't perform as well in aspects of pacing, story progression and characters, then it just won't woo us as well as it's predecessor did. We're aren't saying we hate LOK with a fiery passion, just that we're a bit disappointed, but when the subject matter is something as good as Avatar then that feeling of disappointment will inevitably make us a little indignant.

I know this topic well for when I first viewed them, I really liked the Star Wars prequels. At the time I was new to Star Wars and naturally enjoyed what I saw in episodes 1-3 and it came as a shock to me when I learned that a lot of the fandom reviled them. but when I started reading their critiques, watching the originals and viewing the prequels again, I began to see from their point of view. The third time around a lot of episode I really bored me to the point where I just wanted to skip to the end and watch the Darth Maul Light-saber showdown. Now I can still say I enjoyed the prequels and see them for their redeeming qualities, it's just that now I can understand and even sympathize with the fandom's disappointment.

'It's less talking about what the show is and what makes it tick and why it works and is amazing (or not if you disagree with it) and more about picking out small little reasons not to give yourself over to it.'

I don't think you're giving him enough credit. He goes out of his way to differentiate between what he thinks undermines the show as a whole (which I think so far he's done pretty well with) and what his own personal nitpicks are. As for 'not giving myself over to it': I'm happy to keep an open mind, just not one so open that my brains fall out. I'm not turning to the dark side...unless they have cookies. (Oh and if Bolin is supposed to be a main character then it does matter on the whole if they're portraying him as just a big doofus).

@Omegafire

I'm just saying that if they're going to such lengths to bring back Zuko's character then they should have him do at least one awesome thing. He just seems to show up, say hello, get his ass kicked, and say goodbye. The same goes for his Dragon. The only reason he seems to be around is to profile how kickass the new villains are and to placate the fans of the original series.

Overall, I do NOT hate the show. As disappointing as I find it, i'd still rather watch it than most of the other crud on nickelodeon, not to mention the rest of TV (In fact, LOK is the only reason I watch TV anymore). Another thing to keep in mind is that maybe all this arguing we're doing isn't doing the Avatar Universe any favors. As bad as the Star Wars prequels were, they're still moving on with sequels being directed under J.J Abrams that, hopefully, will be a treat for old and new fans alike. Maybe we should try to band together and do the same or our beloved franchise will fall apart and we'll never benefit from a new series that we can all enjoy.

I hardly think it was 'great lengths' to bring Zuko in; all of the supplementary material said he was traveling the world, and thus logically kept up with events. It was simply a realistic extension that he be personally present to deal with the Red Lotus, because he helped put them in prison in the first place.

And yes, Bumi was awesome at that age, but that wouldn't mean that everyone would be that awesome at that age. So therefore, imo, it is not a requirement that Zuko be purely awesome all the time, or that he be incapable of losing - him simply doing his best against them is enough to qualify him for respect, I believe.

And certainly no, I'm not saying this because I believe anyone hates the show. I just don't think events are that troubling; in fact, they're fairly realistic given the situations. I'd like it if Zuko and dragon did awesome things, certainly, but them losing fairly isn't an issue for me - especially since for both of them, the arctic and nighttime did weaken their fire.

This review is full of nitpick, seriously. :/

This review is just a bunch of nitpicking, quite honestly.