I agree with this review except that I don't think it was ever an Even Better Sequel even in the first half (why people jumped to this conclusion after like the first two episodes is beyond me), and Amon wasn't a Boring Invincible Villain at all. Well, at least not the "boring" part.
What? It was so much greyer in the first half,no character was left out.
And as for Amon,he had very little personality,..he was just ridiculously good,for a while he just kept letting them go.Tarrlok was more than that. It took until the finale to figure out what the hell was up with Amon.Ozai was more interesting than Amon even,how the hell does that work when Amon explicitly had Daddy Issues and it was just implied with Ozai?
But just the first half of the show (6 episodes) starting out better than how the first half of Avatar started out was nowhere near enough reason to claim that this show was already an Even Better Sequel to an epic show that had three seasons and 61 episodes!
And I disagree that Ozai was more interesting than Amon. That Amon was a total mystery was the whole point, and part of what made him intriguing to watch. And we saw Amon in action a heck of alot more than we did Ozai, and even when he was telling lies or half truths, Amon had more dimension to his character. Not saying Ozai was a bad villain, but he was primarily a Generic Doomsday Villain. Whereas Amon was a Magnificent Bastard Knight Templar Diabolical Mastermind, which to me, is much more entertaining.
I'm gonna have to agree to disagree with that.
Yeah Amon had more dimension,but who says dimension is always better than flat? I'm sorry but Amon just like this show was overhyped and it was expected to do a lot,Ozai wasn't.Ozai didn't need too much and he served his purpose well,and then Gene Yang shed even more light in the The Promise. Amon being so mysterious makes a viewer want to know nearly everything all the more,and it seemed like Bryke was about to do that with the backstory.
But it left out Amon deciding the wardrobe choice or learning the technique,very integral parts,not to mention we still don't know if he isn't in it for the power to beat the Avatar? That would eliminate him being a Knight Templar
And actually Ozai is a Complete Monster Social Darwinist and a Large Ham,which far more entertaining than trying figure out someone who is too mysterious.
And Tarrlok fits your description of Amon better and he was clear cut about it.
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Book 1: Part Even Better Sequel, Part Decent
The Legend of Korra
Book 1: Air
Voices of: Janet Varney,JK Simmons, Mindy Sterling, Steve Blum, David Faustino, PJ Byrne, Seychelle Gabrielle, and Dee Bradley Baker
Grade: B+
Avatar The Last Airbender might very well have been the greatest cartoon every created,it was phenomenal,and in a way it's not too different from Star Wars in that once a continuation was announced,...people would go crazy and have massive expectations that couldn't possibly be delivered. And just like how Star Wars went from multiple writers and directors to just George Lucas,so did the Ava-verse go from many writers to just Michael Dante Di Martino and Bryan Konietzko and likewise the Protection From Editors has taken a toll
It's not apparent in the first half which actually starts off better than ATLA did,the characters are immediately likable and complex,the antagonists are effective and quite clever and seemingly have a point about the oppression of non-benders. The humor takes a bit of a more "anything for a laugh" approach,but most of the jokes are very nicely placed. No character was put out of focus and they all each got one episode to nicely develop. The pro-bending was a nice break,maybe a little long but was a great balance out. The only thing wrong with this half is the one episode where the creators decided to Troll everyone and make an episode entirely on pairings.
Sadly this episode only foreshadowed the mess to come,in which they decided to make decided to pull another Katara and derail the character closest to earth,they put one character out of focus and made him the secondary comic relief,who was the first? A four year old with his tookus and Sesquidilian Loqaciousness. The antagonists never developed enough,nor did the what they stood for,making them a straw movement and the leader a Boring Invincible Villain. They took a break and developed the Smug Snake into a better villain,....until he got shafted.This was the half that couldn't decide on being plot based or character based,the small moments that were clear were pure gold though,and every character in the Love Triangle really developed through the roof. Spirituality kinda fell though,so this ended up being imbalanced.
The atmosphere remained awe-inspiring,the flashbacks were nicely put to use,it's not ATLA but it's no waste of time either.