Poll: LoK: Best Season?

[SnakeTrousers]

With LoK recently having started on Book 4, now seemed as good a time as any to discuss the previous three seasons and which everyone personally thought was best.

Up until yesterday I probably would have said Book 3, but now that I've started re-watching Book 1 I've changed my mind. Zaheer's more entertaining than Amon, but less compelling. Does that make sense? Because now that I think of it, that's probably a good way to describe the entire season. Less flashy and action-packed than Spirits and Change, yes, but also more competently plotted and paced. The characterization feels more emphasized and consistent and the stakes, while lower, are more personal and thus more involving. Also, I prefer the more obvious 1920's influence on the aesthetics.

 

[Scarim Coral]

To me that would be Book 3: Change-

Book 1 was ok despite it was short and straight to the point (no fillers).

Book 2 was a total mess mainly cos of Korra being immature and keep making the wrong moves eventhought that season did introduse great characters like the twins and Varrick.

Book 3 pretty much fix everything that went wrong with book 2 (Korra being mature and wiser) while still doing the good stuff like introducing good characters like Opal and Zaheer and it did canter to the fans with Zuko and hinting Toph is alived.

 

[laggyteabag]

I would say that Book 1 was my favourite. Mostly down to Amon and dat voice. If you try to forget about the love triangle going on between Korra/ Mako/ Asami/ Bolin, I found it to be really entertaining, especially with the pro-bending parts (even thought they were more filler than anything, but they were fun filler.)

 

[laggyteabag]

SNIP

Uh, that was a mistake, I thought I pressed edit, not quote.

 

[Drummodino]

I can't decide between Air and Change. Change was a stellar return to form after Spirit, it had great villains, the old characters were much better (ie actually exhibited growth), most of the new characters were cool and the fight scenes were among the best in the series (that ending).

However Air introduced Republic City and all the new characters, probending was cool and Amon was a terrific villain. Plus the flashback scene of Aang taking down the bloodbender was pure fan service glory.

I think I'll go with Change purely because it had a stronger ending. They're both far better than Spirit though, that's for sure.

 

[keiththegeek]

For me, if Korra was just a single stand-alone book, Air was definitely very tightly written for what it was. 3 was the best written for it being a series, if that makes any sense...the characters developed from book 2 and continue to grow going into book 4, while book 1 was so tightly wrapped up at the end that book 2 was essentially a soft reboot.

Between those two, it's kinda hard to say. Book 3 was really well written, but so was Book 1, and the only thing that really bogs it down was how they decided to end it. An ambiguous ending would have been a lot better than Aang showing and magically fixing all of your problems. But everything before that works well, for the most part. Then again, book 3 tried to cut down on the relationship BS that was an issue with 2 and the middle part of 1. Hmm, I think I gotta go with 1, if only for Amon and Tarlok.

 

[Best of the 3]

For me Book 3 was the best. Book 1 being second, was a solid start for LoK. A good vilain, did well to introduce new characters as pay nods to the old ones (and other LoA references). Two things annoyed me, the love triangle that I never thought was needed, and the ending. Book 1 for me was like going for a 3 course meal but replaced the desert, the dish that sticks with you at the end, with a quickly rushed out turd. It wasn't great and felt very shoe horned in.

Book 2 was ok at parts. Again the love triangle was there, and the story with the father and uncle got a bit convoluted and Korra didn't seem to learn a lot through this whole ark. I will say though that the spirit world was an interesting place to spend may episodes in, the fights were large and on an entirely new scale, and the episode looking at the first avatar was unique. Still though, the weakest.

Book 3 overall did away with Book 2's problems while keeping many of it's good points. The love triangle wasn't there. The villain was clear with who he was and his goal. The fights were again taken to new heights with stuff such as lava bending, flight and the return of air bending. It was also a lot darker, with the assassination of the Earth kingdom head as well as the potential killing of Korra via mercury. Shit was intense. And overall Korra came out battered. It didn't end with based Avatar Jesus fixing all her problems such as book 1's ending. It felt like this ending would leave lasting effects, and judging from the 1st episode of book 4, it has.

There are probably a bunch more reasons but off the top of my head I think it's book 3 so far that's the best.

 

[balladbird]

mmm... it's VERY hard for me to choose between seasons 1 and 3.

Season 1 had a weak middle, and some insufferable love-triangle nonsense, but a strong villainous ensemble that really tied the drama together at the end.

Season 3 had fewer dips in story quality for me, but the promise of the villains was ultimately never really delivered on, and the climax, while a feast for the eyes, resolved very little, really...


I guess I'll give it to season 3, though, simply because the miracle de-bending cure was a little bit of a mis-step, even if it was necessary.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Definitely Season 3. While 1 is tighter in its storytelling, 3 is bolder, the fights bigger, the characters more interesting, and honestly there isn't an episode in the season I could point to as "the bad episode." They were all consistently pretty good. But frankly, I am just waiting to see if season 4 is going to end up changing my answer and if the next episode title is anything to go on, I am super excited.

https://twitter.com/NickelodeonTV/status/519597252638023681

 

[KazeAizen]

Change by far. Still Korra has been a weird beast of a series because a season 2 let alone 3 wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I was about to say Legacy of Kain doesn't have seasons

 

[jamail77]

HA, nobody has voted for Book 2 yet. VICTORY! I bet this is how Book 2 feels:

Well, my take on this is Amon was good until his character development dropped the ball. The overfocus on bad romance plots and unnecessary pro-bending arcs would have been better spent bringing depth to the legitimacy of the bender/non-bender conflict. If the romance plot was taken out or, at least, cut in half and the pro-bending was also cut in half (better written would have helped too) for the sake of a more complex overall plot, Book 1 might overtake Book 3 for me.

Book 2's main problem was mostly the continuation of the romance a bit and the obvious telegraphing of Unalaq as the villain. Korra dumping Tenzin the way she did was pretty stupid too. Ignoring Wan, Book 1 was better minus the probably even more unsatisfying, incredibly Deus Ex Machina ending. I'm not sure since there's 2 Deus Ex Machinas in Book 2 versus the 1 in Book 1 (unless you count Korra unlocking airbending through the power of friendship), Jinora Ex Machina and Giant Spirra Korra Ex Machina. Kind of gives Book 2 an unfair advantage and yet I still like its ending better! Korra had good moments, but remained decent to me here.

Book 3 was my 'This is good overall' moment. We always had a sense of what these guys were. The only big reveal was that they were more cult like than we initially thought and hence insane. What made Book 3 good really besides the relatively unique villains, in the superpower department at least, was that the main characters were as likable as I wanted them to be and reached where they needed to be in terms of activism and getting their moments. Nobody really got the short end of the stick in this regard. I really grew to like Korra here because she was still her, yet also more mature and calm. I wish the series had started out with her the way Book 3 starts out with her. Sigh, c'est la vie. The fact that the main villains don't drop the ball as hard as Amon is definitely icing on the cake. I was a little disappointed at the political strawman though.

To sum it all up Book 1 had wasted potential, never delving into the oppression themes then really took a dive with that ending. Book 2 was just worse in every way. Korra learns nothing, the villain is very obvious from the start in a bad way (I say in a bad way because Kuvira is currently obvious, but I don't mind the way she is obvious), annoying romance still rears its head, Jinora Ex Machina, Giant Spirit Korra Machina. The only good parts were Wan's story, the spirit world, and the side plots. Book 3 fixes everything with romance side plots that are tolerable and with characters that won't make them annoying and just a better, more personal story. While obvious, I liked how Bolin's metalbending training was just a bait and switch to hit us with him lavabending. Book 3 lacks the impact of Amon, but makes up for it by ending more competently and never really hurting the legitimacy of the villains despite them clearly acting insane.

 

[jamail77]

Season 3 had fewer dips in story quality for me, but the promise of the villains was ultimately never really delivered on, and the climax, while a feast for the eyes, resolved very little, really...

The one thing that annoyed me above all else was when Zuko says how when you put these four people together they could "take down the world". Don't hype up FOUR people like that. Just. Don't.

I guess you could say the climax resolved very little. However, in the context of the Avatar world it was very bold to do what they did to their hero. Sure, other series have done that. Still, sometimes it's enough to do something like that in YOUR fictional world. It's a different dynamic over other series with similar tacklings simply because of the type of world it's happening in.

Plus, I loved how in not even 1/4 of the time that final fight may very well have been equal to the 4 episode longish final fight of the old series [footnote]I say longish because, after all, a good chunk of the time was dedicated to Zuko/Katara vs Azula, Sokka/Toph/Sukki vs airships, and White Lotus vs Fire Nation army stationed at Ba Sing Se[/footnote]. It certainly called back to it. That was the point actually. Bryke (the creators) stated Book 3 would be a lot more like Avatar: The Last Airbender than The Legend of Korra had previously been.