Like Sokka's bommerang, you knew it'd come backFollow

IGN says they're releasing the finale online now, and it'll air next week. So there shouldn't be four, there should be three? It's a one-hour finale, plus the episode you haven't seen?

Overall it wasn't that bad. SpoilerI'm curious if they'll try for another book? I think it will be odd not having the previous Avatars, but I wonder if now that the spirit word is open 100% that all the past Avatars can exist in spirit form in the human world. No longer have to meditate to commune with them.

The last four episodes had some nice action scenes.

The biggest issue I've seen with Korra was entire storylines being compacted into so few episodes. Avatar was able to have a lot of filler and character development episodes and still progress an overall story. Korra's setting and pace didn't led itself to the same party dynamics of the first, and left everything feeling rushed. It's as if in the beginning they want to progress similar to Avatar, but then realize they don't have enough episodes and blast it all through at the end. Like if in the first series, Aang, Katara, and Sokka went through 10 episodes then in the last 4 episodes met Toph, Zuko, and defeated the Fire Lord.

I don't know if it's the writers, or if Nickelodeon forced them. In one interview for Korra the creators (I think it was them) refused to talk about the Last Airbender movie. I wonder if some negative feelings exist between Nick and the creators of Avatar?

So the Dark Avatar only waterbent, and it turned into an episode of Ultraman. Left open for more episodes, though I don't feel all that compelled to see them. I will, unfortunately, but I don't want to.

The original had a better story, and writing.

Or maybe we just all subconsciously hate female leads. I do have a somewhat cynical point of view when it comes to strong female characters in popular media, though...

Who pissed in your cheerios this morning? The point of my comment had nothing to do with how I viewed strong female leads, but most of the time when I see them in the media I do not think the people who wrote those leads do so out of a genuine interest in portraying strong female characters and more so they can say "See, we have a strong female, we are so cool!". Maybe you completely understood that, maybe you didn't, but I don't see how it justified your little temper tantrum there. The main comment was an off colored joke offering an explanation beyond the bad writing of why we all have an issue with Korra vs Avatar. The small comment was me admitting that sometimes I do hold it against a particular piece of media (but not necessarily in this case).

And no, I don't think the first season had solid writing. It suffered from the same issues that the second season does. Rushed character relationships, rushed storylines, and fast season wrap ups that screamed "oh sh*t, we are out of time"

Edited, Nov 25th 2013 6:03am by TirithRR

Not to anything like the same degree. The first season had a plot that made some kind of sense, better character writing and much better choreography.

Mainly due to it starting out slowly, almost at the pace of the first series. But then it had to rush to finish it. I did not expect the first season to end like it did, I really thought it would carry over to a second seaosn. Then suddenly it was over. A "WTF" moment for me. IMO the ending of the second season was better than the ending of the first. I found the whole SpoilerDark Avatar deal a lot more interesting than the SpoilerSpirit Bender is just a Water Bender who can Bloodbend when ever he wants. What a TWIST!



The next two episodes after that (a one hour special) are probably the best out of the season. I think the action sequences in the later half are pretty good. But everything still moves just as fast and neglects the character development and such that made the first series good. Not to say that the first series was perfect, it had it's rushed relationships, like Princess Yue x Sokka.

Edited, Nov 25th 2013 7:51pm by TirithRR

Korra S1 spent way too much time with vapid pro bending plots, but it finished up nicely. The political elements were good, in that you could see the valid viewpoints and motivations of the equalist supporters. The familial connections of the villains and the associated mixed emotions they caused in the characters were well done (in both Amon's family and Asami's). And the murder/suicide and Korra's possible suicide contemplation made for a mature and fascinating conclusion.

S2 seemed to Spoilerintroduce a lot of stuff that conflicted with, or should have been mentioned, in previous cannon. Like Korra's uncle being the leader of the Nothern Water Tribe. Her father's exile. The existence of the spirit portals.

Much of the plot seemed to be written in "and then this happens" structure (i.e. just sequences of events with tenuous connection).

I didn't like how human/spirit conflict was settled mostly with punching. Aang's visits to the spirit world, or his chats with former avatars, seemed to be more about personal spiritual growth, knowledge, understanding. In Korra, they go to the spirit world and shoot fire at what should be non-corporeal entities.

Korra seems to suck at fighting. She's now 5 years older than Aang was, has had proper training in all elements, yet consistently gets beat in fights. I guess it's good that they don't have her go into Goku avatar state and stomp everyone, but they seemed to make her unnecessarily weak.

And finally, while Avatar has always suffered from some deus ex machina causing the good guys to win, it was never quite so blatant as in the ending of this season. Jinora descended from the sky out of nowhere, exactly like the god descending from the ceiling in a rigging in an ancient Greek play. Where the heck was she, and how did she get Raava back? Pretty lame.

Parts I did really like from S2: the Bolin movie premiere/foiled kidnapping sequence. The stylized animation in the Wan flashback.



Edited, Nov 26th 2013 4:45pm by trickybeck

Yeah, the regular avatar still has to relearn all 4 elements every reincarnation, so it'd make sense that the dark avatar should have to also. I'm glad they maintained that aspect. I still thought Korra should have had an advantage by knowing all 4, but I guess maybe Vaatu was at peak strength at that moment.

Except that they both had a spirit. When Korra should have been winning, she lost. When she should have been losing, she won. Dramatic tension demands it; logic be damned.

They also made the incredibly common era of presenting a karmic universe where they pay lip service to balance, but it's very clear that everyone wants the world to be as lopsided toward the light side as possible.

Korra broke the world by herself almost entirely by herself and fixed it almost entirely by herself. Most everything everyone else did just didn't matter. Unalaq mattered only so far as being the bad guy. I'll give you Jinora as well, but that's it.

Overall a fitting direct to video Disney sequel.