Avatar: The Last Airbender

Just hang in there for Season 2, it's the only bump on the road as far as quality goes.

Ah, Ok.

Finished Season 1 (or "Book One").

The show isn't bad. I'd say my only criticism is, for the first few episodes, Korra's journey kinda hits the same notes as Aang, before the show eventually establishes its own direction.

Also, Korra doesn't seem to have any filler episodes, so every episode seems to move the story forward, as opposed to just stopping purely to waste time.

Ah, only CBS (really?!), and the Nickelodeon Amazon channel, both of which I don't use, are streaming the full show in the US.

I do want to see someone watch Korra first without watching Aang's story, just to see how much nostalgia blinders could have been in effect for critics.

If I had been watching "Korra" first without having seen "Avatar", when the episode "Out of the Past" comes up, I wouldn't have any clue who Sokka is, as the episode doesn't really fill viewers in as to who he is, or the fact that he's Katara's brother. All that's established is he knows Aang, and fought with him many years ago. That's it.

Admittedly I watched Korra Book 1, and only Book 1, before watching the original show.

(I wasn't able to keep up with the other seasons as they came out.)

My initial thoughts about the first season of Korra was that it was amazing.

After watching the original show however, my views on Korra Book 1 are now that it's still great, but there are significant missed opportunities and plots that could've been done, or carried over to the future Books, but never were realized to their fullest potential.

For me though, Book 1 of Korra is still the best season of the sequel show.

Edited by BrightLight on Jun 30th 2020 at 3:59:54 AM

That’s usually the opinion that I hear when it comes to LOK. When it is compared to the original, it pretty much disappoints. But when it’s compared on its own merits and to its peers, it’s really great.

Korra is by far and away the best action cartoon of the past decade, at least in terms of Western Animation. The only one that kind of comes close is the first (and maybe the second) season of Young Justice.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 7:51:52 AM

There's something odd about how Korra has multiple monumental events over the course of the series but its all kinda consigned to a single season each. Like Avatar basically just dealt with a world war its entire length, this one country trying to take over everyone else.

Korra had a revolutionary who can debend others stirring the non-benders into violent revolution, a Southern Water Tribe civil war with the ringleader trying to summon Satan onto the Earth to become an Avatar, a legendary & apparently wide-spanning terrorist group toppling nations to bring about anarchy, & the formation of an Earth Empire.

And thats ignoring the other big shit like the unity between Earth & the spirit realm, & the mass return of the Airbenders.

Several of the conflicts were brewing before the series, had repercussions that lasted afterwards, and also didn't spend as much time on the details of traveling the world, learning several styles of bending (Korra started with 3, to Aang's 1), and didn't have a Zuko-level deuteragonist. Plus, TLA had Long Feng and Zhao conflicts that each lasted under a season.

I mean, most of those events had pretty direct consequences.

The Equalist movement, which was basically a cult lead by a fraud, disbanded the council and lead to non-bender President Raiko taking over Republic City. Not a bad (or arguably even satisfactory) consequence, but one nonetheless.

The Civil War basically just...ended. Korra separated the tribes again and killed Unalaq, replacing him with Desna and Eska.

Harmonic Convergence directly lead to the Red Lotus’s resurgence, but the Earth Queen was conscripting, kidnapping, torturing, and probably killing her own citizens. Her assassination leads to poverty and Kuvira.

And Kuvira’s Earth Empire movement doesn’t even end when Kuvira steps down.

I guess in a lot of ways, TLOK kind of proves that Iroh was actually right about the Avatar’s intervention being the only way that wars can end somewhat peacefully. While these events lead to more dangerous events, they become way less of a threat after Korra gets involved.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 9:15:00 AM

The reason Korra's seasons seemed self contained for the most part is likely because it had three different end points planned. The only reason seaon 3 ended on a cliffhanger is because they knew 4 was also coming. Had they known they were getting four seasons from the start we may have seen more buildup to things and an ongoing series long story.

Edited by Kostya on Jun 29th 2020 at 12:27:29 PM

Last Airbender also had huge history changing events each season, but they were taking place in the context of a world war which engulfs everything in on itself. Look at our own history six to seven decades after World War II and how many world changing events have happened independent, or seemingly independent, of each other. Heck, we're all enduring one right now.

Korra and Team Avatar handling a global pandemic. How would that turn out?

Though I will grant that a quirk of the world building puts a greater emphasis on events than they might have had in real life. When you only have four five six nation-states making up the entire world, then something happening in any one of them it going to make everyone pay attention.

Not to mention, all of these events had the publicity of involving the most famous and powerful person on Earth: the Avatar.

To be fair, though, the Water Tribe Civil War wasn't on anyone's radar when it was going on and if the other nations actually had gotten involved, the Convergence probably would never have happened. The Equalist movement also didn't really compel any of the other nations to get involved because the United Republic forces and Korra kind of had it handled.

The Red Lotus and Kuvira were a different story, though. One being an extremely dangerous terrorist group that assassinated a world leader and the other being a dictator that openly antagonized the other nations with ethnic cleansing, re-education camps, and weapons of mass destruction. Wow...the plots of Books 3 and 4 were some pretty serious shit.

Also, I think the Korra and friends would be pretty helpless in a pandemic and would probably just be out protecting and supporting the essential workers and healers who would actually be on the front lines. If anything, as a healer, she probably would be leading the revolution for healthcare and calling the world leaders out for their incompetence. She's pretty much for the people.

I'm sorry, is it clear that I love Korra? Because I really love Korra...

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 10:59:30 AM

I don't blame you. I recently realized "Wait, I might need to finish the show, but I think I've found my most complete, ideal fictional character crush in Korra."

Imagine how stressed a real world Avatar would be if they couldn't tackle things one season at a time.
"Avatar, help! We have a race/class-based police state and a plutocracy in country A!" "Avatar, help! We have deforestation and toxic pollution in country B!" "Avatar, help! We have hostile annexations and enforced sterilizations in country C!"

And yes, two of those are exactly who you think they are. The third, pick your poison. I wouldn't blame a real world Avatar for wanting to escape all the challenges they had to face.
Also, holy shit, Aang and Korra both had to deal with almost all those things in one way or another.

At the rate this setting is developing, I wouldn't be surprised if the next Avatar had to deal with global pollution and unsustainable industrialization. Though they'd probably have more support than in the real world, given the existence of Waterbenders at the poles and Airbenders in the skies. Some "Zhao/Kuvira was right" cultists might try to attack the North Pole again.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Jun 29th 2020 at 1:30:07 PM

Yeah, and not for nothing, Aang and Korra were stressed out. PTSD, anxiety attacks, physical therapy, all that jazz. Good thing they had a pretty great support system. Aang also had pretty great publicity on his side (aside from Avatar Day and the Fire Nation) and a pretty straightforward priority that superseded all of the other calamities going on in the world—end this godforsaken war. Korra, on the other hand, had pretty terrible publicity but still had other world leaders and influencers on her side like Suyin, Varrick, Prince Wu, Tenzin, Zuko, and Desna and Eska. And occasionally Raiko.

Also, I think if anyone would have apologists/cults in the new Avatar's world, it would be Amon and Zaheer. Unalaq was a weirdo that almost ended the world and Kuvira's dictatorship would almost certainly not be vindicated by history.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 3:24:42 AM

It still bothers me that the potentially intriguing Water Tribe Civil War plot was abruptly swept under a rug when suddenly it's revealed that there is no reason for the two nations to be fighting 'cause the Northern leader's just a big ol' asshole who made shit up so he could have an excuse to release Spirit Satan and turn into a doomsday Kaiju.

Beginnings is widely hailed as one of the best bits of storytelling in the history of the Avatar franchise, but it also heralded season two's shocking swerve from a complex and interesting civil war story into the stupidest bits of storytelling in the history of the Avatar franchise. Wan's story was beautifully told, but also bad for the overall health of the series. It's a fascinating story in a vacuum that, when slotted into the canon, did more harm than good.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 29th 2020 at 3:36:38 AM

See, I don't agree with that at all. The second part of book two is when things started to pick up for me — Korra mellowed out considerably, Bolin redeemed himself with a big hero moment, the love triangle is resolved in a (mostly) satisfying way — yes, the villain's plan is ridiculous, but it led to a great climax that frankly was way more interesting then the civil war plot, which dragged on for too long and wasn't nearly as well told.

Edit: Also, that twist at the end ended up kicking off the next two seasons, widely considered the best in Korra, so ultimately it was good for the franchise.

Edited by drac0blade on Jun 29th 2020 at 3:20:10 AM

Cultists aren't often the type to lionize people vindicated by history.

But back on the actual characters: Aang and Korra were quite rightly heavily traumatized and it's a wonder they turned out as well as they did, again, thanks in large part to their support systems. Aang was a carefree child thrust into global responsibility before he ran away, and when he emerged, he actually had bad publicity in some places until after "The Storm". Korra had an almost impossible standard to live up to, and still did.

• By the age (16) that Roku found out he was the Avatar, Aang had already gone into a coma, avenged the Moon Spirit, died, rediscovered a lost bending discipline, ended a world war, and found love.
• By the age (approx. 27) Roku finished learning all 4 disciplines of bending, Korra had already been kidnapped, had her bending taken from her, rediscovered a lost bending discipline, repelled multiple existential threats and national crises, reestablished a spiritual connection in the world, found love, and had a professional sports career.

I wonder how much Yangchen did, that Kuruk didn't have anything to worry about.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Jun 29th 2020 at 5:07:14 AM

On a completely different note; Avatar the Musical!

It's actually several projects a bunch of musical theater geeks are working on independently, but with any luck they'll collaborate. Here's the various songs, from Tik Tok:

Uncle, people are staring.

Aang upon waking up.

Zuko's honor.

Secret Tunnel (but not what you think).

O_O "Never in my life have I needed something so much and never knew until I received it." ____________________________________________________________________________

RE:BOOK 2: Yeah for me, Book 2's problem had less to do with the plot and more to do with the characters not really being themselves. Korra unusually angry and antagonistic even before she has a reason to be that way. She lashes out and apologizes so much in this season that it gets pretty ridiculous. And the crazy thing is that she's right about most of the stuff she says. Bolin is reduced to comic relief and gets some of the most problematic storytelling in the franchise. Mako is...Mako and Asami pretty much loses all of her agency. The Civil War plot is interesting and definitely superior to the Spirit stuff but I could probably like Book 2 a lot more if the characters had just been more likable.

Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer has a couple of bad and mediocre seasons, but usually the characters are likable and interesting enough to bear through them (aside from probably Season 7). Luckily, Books 3 and 4 are strong enough to compensate for Book 2's character writing _____________________________________________________________________________

RE: Aang/Korra: Yeah, Aang and Korra had it pretty rough. And in both cases, being the Avatar kind of hit them like a ton of bricks. With Korra she kind ran headfirst into her responsibilities, but it's kind of sad when you think about it because she was somewhat groomed to be the Avatar before she really had the chance to be a child or a teenager. Aang, on the other hand, was literal yanked from his childhood to become a child soldier because Sozin was a monster. And then, he loses everyone he ever loved (other than Appa) and that's only the beginning. And Kyoshi's story is almost just as tragic. Roku, despite the tragedy of his death, was pretty lucky.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 3:56:29 AM

I just watched Secret Tunnel.

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

The only things the next two seasons owe to Beginnings are the worst elements of them.

The main thing that the back half of season two contributed to season three is that it caused a surge of yadda-yadda to whatever the Airbenders back into existence. The reopening of the Spirit Portal turns a bunch of random people into Airbenders because f*ck you, that's why. Which is simultaneously the dumbest and least interesting way you could possibly write Air Nomads back into the setting.

In terms of coherent writing and building future developments off of past plot points, the explanation behind the empowering of the Airbenders falls very much into the realm of "IT WORKS LIKE THAT BECAUSE I F*CKING SAID SO, SHUT UP". It's a yadda-yadda handwave because there's no actual way to tell the story season three wanted to tell that actually makes sense within the established mechanics. Even the ones established in Beginnings.

The Airbenders could have been empowered by a particularly explosive Meelo fart and it would make as much sense.

Other than that, all Beginnings lent to the franchise are the Spirits themselves, who are generally agreed to be some of the shittiest world elements in those seasons. They contribute nothing of value to either season's story, and their stubborn unwillingness to be narratively relevant kinda makes those stories worse.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 29th 2020 at 5:46:56 AM

Man the spirits are such unlikable douchebags.

Like their so petty & rude in a weirdly "human" way.

Edited by slimcoder on Jun 29th 2020 at 4:48:46 AM

They've always been that way.

Hei Bai: Stupid Firebenders burned my forest down. Am I gonna go after them? Nope, I'm just going to torture this innocent village until I can see nuts again.

It’s also kind of the *only* way you can bring them back into the setting.

Divine intervention where the world and all of its cosmic energy basically just hits the reset button and releases an abundance of random energy to random people? I honestly can totally buy it. It definitely could have used a teeny bit more of an explanation but...it’s magic so I really can’t say I hate it. I mean Airbenders are the most spiritual benders and it leads to some pretty great character development for...everyone.

Also yeah, spirits have always been dicks. Koh is a monster, that Iron General in The Rift is an asshole, Hei Bei is a jerk, Wan Shi Tong is the f****** worst, the Swamp itself if that counts is a jerk... Honestly, there are plenty of Spirits that are pretty friendly in LOK. The puppy in Korra Alone, the Spirits in Beginnings except for Wan’s friend (forgot his name), and Furry Foot until Vaatu got a hold of him.

Edited by deuteragonist on Jun 29th 2020 at 5:07:52 AM