Spoiler warning ahead of time, as this is a long post and spoilers are scattered throughout.
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SPOILER TALK FOR LEGEND OF KORRA
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SPOILER TALK FOR LEGEND OF KORRA
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NoX 9 said:
I really adored the villain in the first season. Amon was an utter badass with a suitably evil scheme
Honestly, all of the villains thus far have been suitably well-defined, including the second season ones that people apparently don't like. What they lacked, though, was that all-encompassing menace that you could only achieve by slowly expanding upon their characters throughout the seasons (a la Ozai and Azula). It would have made for some interesting conflicts of interest, too. Unalaq freeing the four assassins in order to help him take control of the South in exchange for the Avatar's head; Amon taking on Unalaq as part of his crusade against benders; when whatshisface-dark-spirit-lord is freed, the four assassins turn on Unalaq in order to gain its powers; Amon attempts to seal said whatshisface's power and/or merges with it... The stories they could have told would have been really interesting stuff.
The humor is very hit-and-miss (not unlike TLA), but sometimes it gets downright uncomfortable, for me anyway. They tried a few jokes that clearly were supposed to be funny, but mostly came off as meanspirited and awkward. And that fucking love triangle... GAWD!
Most of them I found to be a quick pander to the younger, regular Nick crowd, and I can forgive that for the most part. Sometimes they were awkward, like you said, in that they do weird things to the characterization. Bolin's character is especially rife with this, but he also seems to get the most good jokes, too, so you take the good with the bad, I suppose.
As for the love triangle, I again think that if they'd just let it progress naturally over a longer period of time, it would have made for more interesting watching than it was. All three are enjoyable enough characters (though the scales tip waaaaaay in Asami's direction, with Korra and Mako coming in distant second and third, respectively) that they could make a triangle work given enough space.
The biggest letdown by far is the very end of the last episode, where they COMPLETELY toss out a really great idea for a second season with the cheapest and most illsuited copout I can remember. Not a fan X3.
Agreed; I think many fans are of this opinion. Though to be fair, it was made pretty obvious from the very get-go that Amon's "spirit bending" wasn't actually spirit bending. That Korra would eventually break out of it was a given, but the way in which it happened was the major letdown. Korra should have taken the initiative and worked to regain her bending by diving back into her training and mastering herself as the Avatar, not have it restored to her via deus ex machina.
Season 2 had some really neat ideas, and I absolutely loved the kind of flashback thing to the first Avatar. I would actually have liked for the show just to be about him! Haven't seen 3, I hear it's a step up from the other two.
That's one of the things I dislike about this new series. It relies overmuch on poorly-framed flashbacks. You don't just get flashbacks in this show, you get flashback DUMPS. The series is designed to throw as much information at you as it can without taking time to let that information sink in. Which is why, for the umpteenth time, I think the show would be greatly improved by having more episodes each season.
Compare the First Avatar flashbacks to, say, Aang's various flashbacks to his previous life/lives. The former takes place within the span of just a few episodes (two, I think...). Aang's, on the other hand, are all contextualized by the present-day situation he finds himself in: his flashbacks of Bumi happen in Omashu, he fixates on the memory of running away into a storm WHILE he's in a storm, his flashbacks to Roku happen when he needs the late Avatar's advice, etc. Even Zuko's flashbacks are framed in similar ways, as are the rest of the characters'.
And Season 3 is more of the same, in my opinion. Lots of rushed storytelling, Bolin gets another superficially interesting love interest instead of developing his relationship with Asami (Bosami 4 life yo), spectacularly-choreographed and -animated action sequences that aren't very memorable otherwise, and oddly enough, Tenzin turns from a sometimes overbearing wise airbending teacher to an inept and all too easily flustered teacher. But Lin's backstory finally gets some payoff, and we learn about Toph finally, and Bolin's bending finally takes a step forward and he gets to take the spotlight away from his much less interesting brother.
Henkie36 said:
but there was also stuff like pro-bending, which was a complete waste of time until Amon shows up at the arena.
I actually quite liked the pro-bending. It's a quick and effective way to illustrate how different this Avatar world is from the previous Avatar world. It's a world-building mechanic.
Season two had a lot of good ideas, but the execution just wasn't very good. Trying to get spiritual balance back? Great. Telling us the origins of the Avatar? Great. Creating a Dark Avatar? Sure, I can go with it. But the villain is boring, Korra is either useless or just a *****, they're still keeping the love triangle going, and around the middle the plot just grinds down to a halt. If they cut out something like, three episodes between the first two and Beginnings, I think it would have been a lot better.
1.) The spiritual balance bit was, again, a good premise that didn't execute quite as well as it could have. Instead of the spirits being, y'know, spirits, they eventually just deteriorated into either more monsters to fight or cute anime mascot pets.
2.) I'm not so sure if the origins of the Avatar was something that needed to be told, or even SHOULD have been told. The mystery surrounding it, as well as the seeming timelessness of it, is what makes it such an interesting piece of the Avatar world. That said, what they did with it - especially the art style used, that was top freakin' notch - was top grade.
3.) Dark Avatar, boo.
4.) Speaking of Korra, and getting back to the spiritual balance thing, it's no surprise that she would choose to keep the gateway between worlds open. She would be that dumb.
Season three is looking a lot better so far. Even thought not that much has happened yet, it does feel a lot more like a show I want to keep watching for what it is, not for it's heritage. For me, that's good enough.
Lin's beef with her entire family could have been really great stuff. (Korra calling her a "bitter, lonely woman" really grinds my gears because it speaks more about how inept Korra is as not just the Avatar, but as a person in general than it does about Lin, but anyway.) But no, they resolve it within just a few episodes, and... argh. It's like, what is there to look forward to now? Zaheer and the other villains have barely gotten any screen time (and yet fans are slobbering over them for who knows why). Zuko was a throwaway cameo. The effects of Harmonic Convergence have been completely set aside. Tenzin is fighting against his own characterization (though not by much, and the rise of his children as teachers in their own right is a nice few leaps in the right direction).
Gra;skdsdfasdfasd. Now I'm just ranting. And for all that ranting, it irritates me that the conclusion I always arrive at is "It's stumbling in its execution, but its tackling of many, many major sociopolitical subjects makes it still one of the best shows on TV right now."
Because seriously, it still is. It stretches itself thin at times, but the sheer audacity of trying to cover a subject like the struggle between adhering to the positive values of tradition and allowing room for and recognizing when to change is something most TV shows, much less Nickelodeon shows, don't even bother to cover. Then you add in the political conducts and misconducts that lead to civil and international war, the merits and faults of a citizen-run nation, the delegation of first- and second-class citizenship based solely on birth and the societal consequences thereof... Man, I like this show more now that I've had a chance to write all that.
So heck, forget all the trash talk. Keep on trucking, Legend of Korra.
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And now, for a complete change of topic: NARUTO!!!
...except all I really have to say is that I enjoy the fanfiction that comes from it more than the show itself. I actually stopped watching the show a looooooong time ago (around the time of Sasuke's exodus from Konoha), but I've kept up with the story in broad strokes, and while I can't blame Kishimoto for dragging the series on for so long - mangaka don't often see fortune or steady work - I can't say it's very interesting, either.
Stripping away all the excesses the series has had to pile onto itself, the characters and world are all interesting enough to form the backdrop for a variety of stories. I've read everything from pure fluff to ninja-themed kink to sweeping epics, and all of them do interesting things with the same core group of characters.
So... yeah. That's what I have to say about that, I guess. Interesting characters, interesting world, no qualms with the guy for dragging it out this long, but no interest in the series proper whatsoever.
