Legend of Korra Book 3

[ZeldaGirl]

^Did you happen to see the most recent episode?

[spoiler]The battle between Kuvira and Korra was painful to watch, but in a good way. Also, I love Kuvira.[/spoiler]

I think it's always interesting to see how they animate Korra fighting. She's not a particularly clever bender like Aang, and she tends to rely a lot on brute force. The action scenes in Book 4, episode 6 really highlight this.

And let's talk about how excellent Varrick is. Always.

[The Missing Link]

Book 4 is really awesome and in line with Book 3. It's good to see them really tying all of these small arcs together into one final season.

Also Varrick/Bolin is so awesome. These last few episodes really sell the episode. But please...

[spoiler]More Bopal plz.[/spoiler]

[ZeldaGirl]

Also Varrick/Bolin is so awesome.

This. Eps 5 and 6 were just so good, and they brought it over the top. I mean

[spoiler]the bomb/train scene was one of the best scenes of the entire series. Not just for it's comedy, either (though "He Varrick'd himself because some girl Zhu Li'd him" is the single best line evar), but because it balanced the comedy with genuine dramatic tension and the plot point sets up so much of the rest of the series.[/spoiler]

And I will say, though Book 2 wasn't my favorite, I think it gets a lot stronger when taken together with 3 and 4. They all have really been building toward a cohesive storyline, and it definitely feels like AtlA again.

[Deepfake]

^ The storyline is coming together swimmingly, except Korra losing a fight to one better-than-average metal bender and using just about no strategy kind of obviously points toward a rushed build-up for me. Kuvira hasn't been built up enough to justify that turn of events, no matter how out of shape Korra might be. You've got two subordinate air-benders mostly holding off an entire army in comparison, literally right next to her. Similarily, you've got expert metal benders like Suyin being pinned up in metal of all things, which is the kind of an irrational thing that they've been avoiding ever since the Last Avatar. I know the idea is that if they can't move their body they can't do the forms of their art, but if they managed to do so they're also effectively encased in an armory. If it weren't for Varrick's story line, I'd have been very disappointed with how little justification most of this has had.

Anyway, I'd guess they're trying to build up to a big come-back, although it'd be kind of against writer logic for them not to use Toph in some way.

[The Missing Link]

^ I'm not going to lie that that bit was a little illogical, especially since it takes an entire mess of airbenders (albeit novice airbenders) to take down Zaheer in S3E13... and suddenly two airbenders (albeit one a master) can hold off an entire mess of earthbenders in S4E6.

It's a little furthermore weird that in Avatar S3E20, Toph crafted metal armor for herself while in the airships, and she could move around just fine in that as a result of metalbending. It's hard to say if Suyin is unable to do this because she's not as good as Toph (Toph claims so) or if it's made out of an unbendable metal (a la platinum from Korra S3E12) or if it's just a writer's lapse, but it would be one of the first ones; they were ever so careful so far to make sure earthbenders aren't placed where earth is.

[Booyakasha]

Still haven't watched any of LoK. I should get on that. Like, for as much as I enjoyed the M Night Shyamalan movie, I bet I'd like the animated series based on it very nearly as much.

[Deepfake]

Just finished "Kuvira's Gambit" and I enjoyed it, although kind of amazed that they went and subverted the clash of an army (except I know they had funding cut this season). Still, giant mecha suit is pretty cool.

I'm guessing Varrick will build another EMP at some point to disable it, like he did a few episodes back.

[ZeldaGirl]

^That's one of my thoughts, too. Though, really, at this point I feel like anything could happen. I was not expecting that ending at all.

[ZeldaGirl]

*flail flail flail flail flail flail*

THE SERIES FINALE

GAH

[spoiler]I could make a bunch of comments about Zhu-Li and Varrick doing the thing, or lightning-bending, but really I'm all here for the Korrasami[/spoiler]

[Deepfake]

Yeah, that was pretty amazing. I don't think it topped season 3, but they did a great job with all of the characters and it was very compelling. Wish Korra got the chance to go all godmode like Aang did at the end of Last Airbender, but it was still brilliant.

[ZeldaGirl]

Although I will say the battle between Kuvira and Korra was incredible. I finally felt like Korra became a graceful, intelligent bender. I loved watching it.

[The Missing Link]

There were so many shoutouts in the finale that it really was brilliant.

[spoiler]
Bolin becomes a smart person again.
FFFFFFF Bolin officiates a wedding. Best the thing ever!
Mako actually gets a moment where he's not a one-dimensional character.
Varrick and Zhu Li fffffffffffffffff
Meelo didn't fart once AND had a good idea WUT
Kuvira was a good villain omg.
I still am in awe that Bryke did Korrasami. In awe. Such a ballsy move.
[/spoiler]

[Kil'jaeden]

[spoiler]I honestly found the 5 minutes at the end worth staying for more than the big titanium plated mech battle. They called us mad, but who is laughing now? Vindication at last.[/spoiler]

[Apollo the Just]

OK I haven't seen any LOK since the crap 1st season finale and the terrible writing in the first 2 episodes of the next season. But.

Hearing about [spoiler]KORRASAMI WHAT??? OH MY GOD?????/////[/spoiler] is so fantastic that I might have to watch the whole thing.

Seriously. The love plot in the first season was garbage. This makes up for everything.

[Kil'jaeden]

I cannot tell what is so awful about season one and two that it gets that many complaints. Maybe I am just not that picky. The only thing that annoyed me was fear that pro-bending might be the staple of the series.

[Apollo the Just]

My biggest issue with the end of season 1 was that they failed to actually address the genuine oppression felt by non-benders and just considered the issue solved by offing Amon.

If they actually address this in later seasons, then my absolute bad. It just seemed like they weren't gonna talk about it anymore, and had moved on to other things.

[[Also, the love triangle sub-plot was stupid, and the characters became 2-dimensionalized compared to how they seemed at the beginning; at least in that season. Bolin was nothing more than comic relief at this point.]]

[Kil'jaeden]

They actually do address it. The council representing each nation of benders is dissolved, and a president is elected. He is not a bender, and looks somewhat like Sun Yat Sen. He is there for the rest of the series, so that would solve one problem.

Besides that, we have a tour of other early 20th century ideologies to go through. The Equalists are like communists, so later you get anarchists and fascists. Literally, in both cases.

[Apollo the Just]

OK, I'm glad to hear that they do bring back the issue. Thanks.

[The Missing Link]

A lot of what happens in S1 and S2 eventually comes back around and becomes relevant in later seasons. Really it does. While at first it seems that S1 and S2 are little vignettes in the Avatar world, it's actually part of a much greater story, especially if you consider all of the foreshadowing involved as you follow each character's individual arc.

You really should see the comparisons that people make both between AtLA and LoK as well as season-to-season. It's pretty amazing.[DOUBLEPOST=1419295100,1419295015][/DOUBLEPOST]===

That said, I think S1 and S2 do suffer a little bit because I think the vision was strong, but Bryke had to learn to tell their story without a little extra filler to really flesh out the world. AtLA is filled with filler and one-off episodes, whereas LoK has to be on target and on point to completely flesh out each mini-series in just 13 or so episodes.

But once you get to S3 and S4, they hit it out of the park.

[Deepfake]

^ Season 3 was really great, everything after was unnecessary but pretty good. Season 2 was abyssmal, though. Part of the problem with that was the lack of diversity in setting. It did all turn out for the better afterward, though.