Reviews Westernanimation / The Legend Of Korra

That was not airbending she used to tank the Spirit blast, but Energybending (which Aang DID give her at the end of Season 1, because she used it undo Amon's bloodbending damage, particularly on Lin). The amount of power was simply too much for space-time and did that, because the energy had to go somewhere, and Korra wasn't giving it any choice due to blocking it.

And Opal was not really a jerk imo; she's just not taking crap from anyone, and as clearly shown, is just suffering from a case of anger at Kuvira making her biased. It was her mistake, but it didn't mean Bolin was off the hook either... and besides, when you deal with someone who's done a lot and wants forgiveness, it's natural to not trust them right away, even turn them down initially - we've all done that. It's a reason her character Took a Level in Jerkass example is a Downplayed trope: because it's pretty much justified, even realistic - and she IS a daughter of Beifongs, so how would she not have inner steel?

^What I believe (obviously) about those two specific points

When in either of the two series was it established that Energybending could do that?

Yeah but RISKING YOUR BOYFRIEND AND YOUR LIFE TO SAVE AN ENEMY THAT YOU DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT?! Especially when he was clearly trying to make things up, it also didn't help that everyone treated him like a jerk throughout most of their trip. Yeah its the Beifongs, but STILL.

It's called 'Energybending', for one thing; Earthbending has broad variants in lava and metal, fire has lightning, water has ice and blood, etc... if it can heal the damage from Bloodbending where Waterbending could not, then I'm pretty sure it could do similar things with a spirit vine blast. Korra probably didn't intend it to rip open a spirit portal, but like I said, the energy had to go somewhere and there wasn't much choice for the energy.

And not everything needs to be previously established to be acceptable imo

And if by enemy you mean Zhu Li, pretty sure Opal went after Bolin because he'd proven himself by helping rescue her family, and thus it was her duty to help him out and trust him. Zhu Li being an enemy (as far as she knew) was pretty much irrelevant... also, like I said, when you've done bad stuff and you need to make up for it, it's not uncommon to get heat about it (in fact, it's pretty much the process of how you see if they really mean it or not, even if it isn't perfect). All pretty much realistic I believe, as far as this particular point

Oh man that mecha... Kuvira's real power was being able to summon 25 storey giant robots when it's narratively convenient. I also agree that Opal was kind of a jerk.

I'm not too bothered about the lazer beam because 1)She was in Avatar form and 2)She actively jumped in the way to save Kuvira. If she didn't have that power then she could have just legged it and she'd have probably been fine and Kuvira would have been toast.

And then the spirit portal thing is fine because it's not the spirit-portal part that saved them. That was just an aftermath effect of what had just happened, it's like when the Cherry Blossom's all change colour after you fight the Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 or when the clouds disappear and sun shines after a climatic battle.

And another point I'd like to add: Vaatu had explicitly stated that he ripped open the way to the material world, thus allowing spirits to enter - in simpler words, that he made the spirit portals. Now, Vaatu's main weapon is a highly powered energy beam, while Kuvira had adapted a man-made spirit-vine powered version of the exact same thing (which looked/acted/even sounded like Vaatu's energy beam). And just before Korra Energybent it, the cannon itself had been feeding on ALL the energy from the spirits vines around them, thus amping up it's power a lot.

^The dots add up relatively easy imo

Also, as far as the mecha, they've had mini ones for years now - they could easily adapt a giant one if only they had the amount of materials, and time for it. Well, Kuvira dismantled Zaofu's domes, and otherwise had been reuniting the Earth Empire for three years (no doubt building the framework for the Colossus the old-fashioned way in secret, thus merely adding the exterior from Zaofu's domes)

That's a really good point about Vaatu and the spirit-vines.

...the mecha I'm less convinced by. For me it's less that she could make a giant mecha and more than she could make a giant mecha and nobody, including Bolin and Zhu Li, knew. It's not a small thing to hide. Although to be fair, I completely missed the bit where they use Zao Fu's domes. That does make it feel more plausible actually

Tomwithnonumbers:

Yeah the mecha just plain came out of nowhere in my opinion. I know that they had mini ones for years but I REALLY doubt that a society can advance that fast in three years.

omegafire17:

Well in my opinion the whole Vaatu and Korra turing into big giant Kaiju were both asspulls in the second season. But I guess it makes sense. I know not EVERYTHING has to be established to make sense but sometimes it has to be either implied or outright stated or shown that this is in fact possible.

But still, Aang has NEVER energybent throughout the entire run of his series and neither has Korra who COULD have energybent Vaatu's blasts in Season 2 apparently but decided not to I guess (She had it since Season 1 and we don't see any scenes of her doing it).

^What I meant when I said that they never energybent is that they have never used it as some kind of energy manipulator.

Oh shoot. I missed the part about zao fu's domes. That does make it feel a tiny bit more plasuable actually but like tom said: its not really an easy thing to hide.

I still feel we should have gotten scenes of them making the mecha though.

I might write more of a full review on this, but a few quick points on the pros and cons;

• Re Kuvira and Wu: I think both are rushed but you say that later as well. Not sure how you count it as a pro and con though; unless you mean you like Kuvira as a character but her development was rushed.
• Re: Mech, in Avatar; armies always advanced pretty quickly. I recall the hot air balloons in the original getting put into use by the Fire Nation a lot quicker while the Mechs were established Season 1 which was 3-4 years prior. If I recall Aang doesn't age much at all.
• Re: The asspull: I'm with you on this, but I still think Season 2 is far worse and by this point, it's sort of Avatar tradition to do the impossible in the last episode.
• Re: Prince Wu: I'm half and half with this. He's sort of a comedic character, like Varrik. He couldn't be serious. He doesn't even develop into someone who knows how to take responsibility, just someone mature enough to know he shouldn't. Still, I'd have liked it more if he went for a constitutional monarchy rather than simply stepping down since wow, that's an awful idea in real life for such a large and diverse kingdom to suddenly need an entirely new system of government.

• Re: Opal: This is the main reason I'm making this comment, because Opal doesn't really deserve this. The airbenders are at a village early on which they figure out pretty quickly Kuvira was attacking in order to make them sign up, her family has been taken prisonner by these guys which Bolin was actively supporting and actually acting as a spokesman for them. He even confessed that he was in Kuvira's /inner circle/. Hell, he was wearing this uniform while they took her /entire/ family prisonner and could well have been torturing them, as Opal doesn't know when he defected. Their prison conditions definitely don't look pleasant. This is basically like feeling Nazi Germany without your family, only for your SS boyfriend to arrive a few months later to say that he realized that Hitler guy was bad news after all.

Considering Bolin repeatedly ignored her warnings, "I don't forgive you" is a completely legitimate move on her part and it's pretty understandable if she didn't want to hear his side of the story. He kind ignored her and helped someone capture her entire family.

So, as to the whole rejection of the "Do this and I'll forgive you" angle, it's not like she's blackmailing Bolin to do things on the threat of withholding affection. That isn't a good thing, sure. This is her trust legitimately shattered in him and for damn good reason. So, Bolin offers a gesture which is risky and requires trust on her part but could pay off. Recognizing that Bolin is taking this risk and if it goes off well, she can probably trust him or at least try to? That's pretty reasonable. I mean that she's back with him right afterwards is a bit odd but they probably didn't have the time to show a longer reconciliation so, I'm willing to roll with it.

Over all, I'm honestly surprised Bolin and Varrik got off so easy. I mean, I didn't expect them to spend the rest of the season as PO Ws but I sort of expected them to have to haggle with Bolin's reputation and Varrik's knowledge of schematics to keep out of jail on the grounds of being more useful outside of it.

Fauxlosophe:

Re Kuvira and Wu: Agreed they were both rushed and I do like Kuvira as a character but her development was PAINFULLY (yes painfully) rushed.

The mech: Yeah but that huge one equivalent to a Gundam!? With no scenes of them developing it too?!! (Yeah I'm still pretty bothered by this)

The asspull: Seasons 1, 2 and 4 all had asspulls to be honest. How bad each one was depends on how badly it ruined the plot or characterization (in my opinion). In that case, Season 4 was not as bad as I thought it was and Seasons 1 and 2 (especially this Season) were far worse since it kept me from feeling that she actually developed and that she had progress handed to her. Thank god that Seasons 3 and 4 fixed that.

Prince Wu: Oh god, looking back that is an awful idea. And I know that he's a comedic character, but so was Sokka. He developed in TLA and became a mature individual.

Opal: I guess thats enough to make it a minor flaw but I still feel that they should have made it feel more obvious without it coming off as....well I dunno...jerkish? (Am I explaining this right?) It also doesn't help that we don't really see much of Kuvira torturing prisoners or doing the horrible things that people say of her (except in Zaofu but there really should have been more) which kinda takes off from how threatening she is as a villain....as mentioned by a previous commenter on my liveblog (Man I need to finish that.)

in last air bender near the end of season 1 the fire nation gets ahold of a hot air balloon a few months late rin unvierse they have an entire fleet of metal blimps far more advanced than the original balloon

and kuvira did have varrik working on using spirit vines as a energy source he just stumbled across that it could be used as a weapon kuvira had likely been working on the mech as far back as then

as for the energy bending think korra used the same kind of thing to free the ppl from the spirit vines so it was established