Agreed. This show is pretty poorly written at times but I wouldn't say its terrible. Its just painfully average. Could have been so much better dammit!
I think that's the biggest sin of this show. It had so many ideas, it could have been so grand, but when time looks back on it, they won't hate it, they won't love it, they'll just say..."Meh."
Saying Book 3 finale had "Lolpoisonbending" doesn't make sense.
Did you somehow forget how she was even poisoned in the first place?
Guess I'll be the guy to do it, since these particular points were either addressed in-series, or had precedence in the previous one:
- "Badguy debended Korra? Lolenergybending."
First, Amon did not debend Korra. He used bloodbending to block her chakra, similar to how Azula's lightningbending temporarily blocked Aang's, which prevented him from entering the Avatar State.
Also note the location of the chakra point Amon used: the forehead. If you rewatch "The Guru" episode in ATLA ("Book 2: Earth"), Guru Patnhik specifically said that chakra point dealt with "illusion". See the significance there? Aang recognized it for what it was and removed it for her.
- "Vaatu's about to win? Loljinorabending."
This is the only one that's sorta legit, but entirely without precedent either. Jinora's significance as a spiritual medium was established early in "Book 2: Spirits" and she was the one Iroh gave the Avatar's teapot too - which contained a part of Raava.
You and others may not have liked the way they did it, but Bryke gave themselves an out.
- "Korra's been poisoned? Lolpoisonbending."
You mean, metalbending, don't you? 'cuz that was how Zaheer had her poisoned - by having mercury bent directly into Korra's bloodstream. So if metalbending could be used to put it in, it stood to reason that it could be removed the same way.
- "This show was pretty poorly written at times, but I wouldn't say it's terrible. It's just painfully average."
I coulda done without one, or two parts, but it was never so bad that I'd ever consider it poorly written. For the most part, I enjoyed it and even consider it (marginally) superior to the original.
- The villains, initially established as morally grey with compelling points, very quickly take a hard swerve into one dimensionality as they show their blatant hypocrisy and just start to kick puppies for the sole purpose of establishing that, yes, they are evil MWAHAHAHAHAHA so that Korra has an excuse to solve the problem by punching it (which she rarely actually does, as Deus ex Machina is employed to solve that problem). Speaking of which...Deus ex Machina, a tradition started by, though narrowly avoided in, the original series finale, Avatar: The Last Airbender (it fit every criteria except solving an unsolvable problem), is heavily employed in resolving most of the major problems. Bad guy debended Korra?Lolenergybending. Vaatu's about to win? Loljinorabending.Season 1 is chock full-o-relationship drama as Mako, Korra and Asami triangrelate (yeah, something tells me you're the only one in that trio that won't end up with someone Mako XD), eating up screentime that could have been better served (for example) showing the non-bender oppression that Amon is always harping about.Korra is like fugu fish. If properly prepared it could have been good stuff. Unfortunately, the chefs had the manual dexterity of a runaway freight train and we all died from tetrodotoxin poisoning.C for effort, A+ for concept. F- for execution.
Agreed. To me the creators ended up being a huge Broken Pedestal ever since they had crossed the Moral Event Horizon by creating a pure garbage called ''Endgame".
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Mediocre.
Not to say that Legend of Korra was necessarily a bad show. There's no such thing as bad shows. Just bad writers. And nowhere has it been more obvious than here.
The Legend of Korra is a shining monument that shall be shown to future generations as the epitome of lazy writing and wasted potential.
The main character, Korra is a complicated character, but very little attempt is made to display this fact for the first two seasons, during which violent and egocentric. She gets better in season 2 (better late than never I guess). Too bad the same can't be said for her enemies.
The villains, initially established as morally grey with compelling points, very quickly take a hard swerve into one dimensionality as they show their blatant hypocrisy and just start to kick puppies for the sole purpose of establishing that, yes, they are evil MWAHAHAHAHAHA so that Korra has an excuse to solve the problem by punching it (which she rarely actually does, as Deus ex Machina is employed to solve that problem). Speaking of which...
Deus ex Machina, a tradition started by, though narrowly avoided in, the original series finale, Avatar: The Last Airbender (it fit every criteria except solving an unsolvable problem), is heavily employed in resolving most of the major problems. Bad guy debended Korra? Lolenergybending. Vaatu's about to win? Loljinorabending. Korra's been poisoned? Lolpoisonbending.
Season 1 is chock full-o-relationship drama as Mako, Korra and Asami triangrelate (yeah, something tells me you're the only one in that trio that won't end up with someone Mako XD), eating up screentime that could have been better served (for example) showing the non-bender oppression that Amon is always harping about.
Also, Dante Basco makes no effort to use a different voice for Iroh II!
Korra is like fugu fish. If properly prepared it could have been good stuff. Unfortunately, the chefs had the manual dexterity of a runaway freight train and we all died from tetrodotoxin poisoning.
C for effort, A+ for concept. F- for execution. I'll be generous and say that averages out to a D. Heck, make it a D+. Sequel series need not apply. Thank you, come again.