Avatar: The Legend of Korra

[Mr. Hakujin]

I can't believe I'm the one defending Mako here to the Jax & Mal led Korra chapter of the Lonelyhearts Club. The whole love triangle thing was really cheezy to me at first. I thought it was going to be played out in a very sit-comish way, but it ended up being handled much more realistically than I anticipated. I don't watch the shows as intently as Jax, so my timeline may be a bit wonky, but here is how I recall/interpreted the Mako/Korra relationship unfolding...

 

 

Mako was resistant to Korra's affections at first b/c he worked and struggled hard to get his team to where it was in Pro-bending. Sure, she was the Avatar and could possibly be an asset to the team, but she wasn't yet THE Avatar. She was cocky and undisciplined in the sport. She also posed a threat to his relationship w/ his brother. Best thing to do was keep it professional.

 

Along comes Asami who is fun, kind, wealthy, hot and wants to be all up in his red scarf. What better way to distract yourself from a potential emotionally and professionally destructive relationship w/ Korra? No brainer.

 

Korra makes it clear she's into Mako and not Bolin. Bros before ho's Avatars. Asami is way cool anyway. Emotions seep out into the pro-bending match and wrecks devastation, just like he feared. All the more reason to stay w/ Asami even though Korra is becoming more awesome.

 

Amon and the Equalists start a war and Mako sees Korra in danger and he can no longer bury his true emotions for Korra as easily. He's not lying to Asami when he says he just feels he has a friendship w/ Korra, he's lying to himself, trying to convince himself. War is on and he is being blatant w/ his emotions for Korra. They kiss. He either can't or doesn't know how to admit his true feelings to Asami, Korra, or himself. Asami knows this and wants/deserves answers, but Mako has a good excuse (yet it's still an excuse) to avoid answering the questions for her or himself in all the war drama going on.

 

Bolin has a short but poignant scene w/ Asami where he reveals that of course he's not really "okay" w/ Mako & Korra being together , but he loves them both and wants them to be happy, so he puts on the happy face. She has a harder time covering up how she's dealing w/ rejection.

 

War ends and Mako finally accepts he's in love w/ Korra. He does apologize to Asami, but Mal & Jax are right here in it's a glossy kind half-hearted one. Asami did deserve a little better there. But he's a teenage dude--what did we expect? A chivalrous and elegant summation of he's emotional strife? Not realistically. He ends things w/ Asami and is ready to fully commit/admit to his feelings for Korra, even when she pushes him away. Three cheers for showing emotional growth in a non-protagonist on a "kids" show!

 

tl;dr

The romantic relationships unfolded in a surprisingly realistic way. Apart from his ending w/ Asami, I think Mako is w/out much if any real fault in regard to his relationship w/ her.

 

Edited June 26, 2012 by Mr. Hakujin

[Reverend Jax]

I didn't fault Mako until the end, when I felt he was clearly hurting Asami. I concede it was a very realistic and mature take on romance, especially for children's TV, that doesn't mean I felt compelled to root for them.

[Lycaon]

Last few episodes were definitely rushed. That should have been at least one episode on its own.

[The NZA]

 

i really don't care if teenagers cheat on each other. i barely care if adults do.

 

i do care when Amon's taken out and shit's tied up alright, and im thinking "okay next season, a weaker Korra will either have to re-learn those techniques or get in touch with the older avatars and get glowy eyes like Aang eventually had, maybe that'll OH SHIT okay it's all back now, and she's fixing people too, okay that was fast"

 

[The NZA]

since you guys (mostly jax) love talking about this show, had to copy a post over from here:

 

 

Okay, I thought that after letting the disappointment of the finale pass, I'd be able to look back on Korra with fondness for the most part, but...it's really bad. My biggest problem is with Korra.

 

She came into this series as a brash, warrior type character, who didn't know much of anything else except bending. When introduced, I thought the season would spend time teaching her spirituality, that bending itself is secondary to the spiritual understanding of bending as a way to keep balance. This progress would develop as her relationship with the nonbending population develops. I thought it was an important starting point that Korra came into this thinking "bending was the greatest thing in the world" because, to fix the imbalance between the benders and nonbenders, she'd have to be able to fully sympathize with nonbenders in a way she can't do when she is thinking less of them for not being able to bend. It seemed unlikely to me that Korra could think of nonbenders equally to benders if she is so in love with the physical side of bending. Learning the spiritual side of bending would not only enable korra to complete her training as the avatar but this would be the point in which she learns the value of nonbenders because spirituality is something ALL people possess (hence the Air Acolytes in Tenzin's Airtemple). With her previous notion of bending being the most important thing in the world, she could find a way to solve the problems of benders vs nonbenders.

 

Instead, Korra, amazingly, learned not a single damn thing in the entire series. Look back in the first episode, and go through the series, all that happens is that Korra goes through a period of self doubt. But she doesn't change in any way. She came into this thinking bending was the best thing ever, and she demonstrated that that is exactly what she still thinks in the finale, because despite unlocking her airbending and spirituality, she was about to kill herself just because she couldn't shoot flames out of her hands anymore.

 

And she never really grows out of the mindset that the avatar isn't really just this superhero who kicks the bad guy's ass. The Avatar's job is to bring balance to the world, and that means solving this imbalance between Benders and nonbenders. But her only priorities, other than romancing Mako and Probending, was to beat up Amon. Throughout the series, she never really paid attention to the idealogical conflict going on, with the one exception of when Tarrlok went crazy and started oppressing people in front of her eyes. And she completely failed in that regard, btw. Lin is the one who got her friends out of jail, and then she tried to go fight Tarrlok (again, stuck in the "beat up the guy making trouble" mindset), in which she lost. As far as we know, that nonbending curfew law may very well still be in effect, since we never saw them repeal it, but korra seemed unconcerned because Amon was still on the loose. Now, amon was the bigger threat at that point, so I will concede that going after him and leaving the politics for later may have been the correct course of action, but it seems to me that Korra never even took it into consideration. I think she just assumed Tenzin would take care of it, and he probably will, but that's suppose to be her job as well. The show even acknowledges that her being so physically oriented this is a problem (Tarrlok pointing out how he and Korra are very similar people in how they force things to go their way when they want), but they never DO anything about it. How can she be an avatar that brings balance to the world when her method of operation is to hit things until they work the way she wants them to?

 

The show really doesn't seem to be aware of extreme lack of development. For example, look at near the end of episode 10 where Tenzin tells korra they need to hide away and think of a plan. Korra, grudgingly, says that he is telling her that they need to be patient, and Tenzin praises her, telling her she is learning. This is baffling because it's obvious that Korra is only submitting to this plan because of his authority, and would much rather NOT be patient. And if you think I'm looking too much into it, just look at Korra's very first speaking scene in the next episode in the next episode where she wants to reveal herself and attack amon like usual because he essentially called her chicken. The show also covers up her lack of development by giving her dues ex machina's like free candy, so she can balance the world without really trying. Have to take care of amon? Here your airbending is suddenly unlocked. Amon's got you in a grip with bloodbending? Hey your strong, you can kick out of it anyway. Lost your bending and you want to kill yourself over it? No worries, you got in touch with your spiritual side, you can have your bending back now. Everyone else still has lost their bending? Here, you have full control of the Avatar State AND can energy bend, something Aang had to work his ass off for, just for free. Isn't she a wonderful avatar, everybody? Look at all she can do!

 

I highly doubt that the writers will take the series this direction, but with how immature Korra is and how she was just made the most powerful person on the planet in the last episode, the most logical sequence of events would be to show how dangerous a teenage girl with the powers of a god with shaky values beyond said physical powers would act. Imagine if Mako decides that another girl has struck his fancy. Korra could very well go on a rampage. She starts chasing down criminals, not caring about collatoral as she viciously attacks criminals in the streets, in the avatar state, with earthquakes and hurricanes and firestorms, causing untold property damage. And who would be able to tell her off if she decides she doesn't want to hear it? After all, the man of her life, mako, has just dumped her for another girl! Her life sucks and she is miserable and....See what I mean? The idea of Korra as the avatar is a frightening one. Having never earned those powers, she never developed the maturity that she needs for me to trust her with them. But they're never going to take the show in this direction because it's clear we're suppose to be cheering for Korra when she got everything at the end.

 

I have other problems, and I do have things I like about this show, but good lord, did they drop the ball with the central storyline.

 

i thought he made some good points, though i don't think Korra went up that hill for anything more than a good cry - her entire identity since childhood had been shattered, but im not sure i buy that she was gonna off herself, Tenzin even made it sound otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

[Reverend Jax]

All excellent points well argued. I'm not sure if I would disagree, but if I did want to disagree, I would say that the reason the Avatar is constantly reborn and has repeatedly relearn all the bending disciplines, instead of being a super-wise immortal being, is that the Avatar cannot keep balance among humans without relating to them, and to do this, the Avatar must be fully human, including being humanly flawed. I hope that future seasons will show more growth from Korra as a character, and I hope that such character growth will make the first season feel like it was necessary in order for that growth to have more meaning. That said, I enjoyed this season immensely, flaws and all, and there were flaws.

[The NZA]

oh yeah, strongly agreed there. bish and mal were just reminding me how much slower book 1 of OG avatar was in comparison - this one was paced so much better.

[IceManML]

_{Wait... how many seasons did the original series have?}

[Lycaon]

Three.

[Maldron]

Also those three were longer.

[Mr. Hakujin]

since you guys (mostly jax) love talking about this show, had to copy a post over from here:

 

 

 

... i don't think Korra went up that hill for anything more than a good cry - her entire identity since childhood had been shattered, but im not sure i buy that she was gonna off herself, Tenzin even made it sound otherwise.

 

Agreed, this guy totally lost me on that theory.

 

 

 

Jax can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not even a thing...

 

 

Korra mentioned aloud to Mako that Amon's scars, including his loss of brows, were make-up. It came off in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

Heh. That was good.

 

 

 

This is supposed to be, what, humorous? How?

[The NZA]

 

i thought he made good points on korra and her lack of development past that bit, though.

 

the eyebrow thing i dunno about, but i was assuming that last one was her making the rounds to give people their powers back? still not hilarious but i figure jax eats whatever he might not see on his avatar forum up, heh

 

[Mr. Hakujin]

Ah! You're probably right in that correlation w/ the "getting on your knees." When I first read it I was just, um, she publicly asks him to get on his knees, an oral sex innuendo? Okay, but it doesn't go anywhere.

 

And I'm right on the eyebrow thing.

[Reverend Jax]

Yeah, whether or not the eyebrow this was just a goof on the creators' part (I doubt it was, they probably paid close attention to the design of the burned face), it can be easily explained away with the make-up explanation. Also, a wizard did it.

 

Yes, the "on your knees" thing was a reference to her making the rounds, giving people their bending back. That said, it wasn't the funniest web comic. There was a funny joke there, but it was poorly delivered.

 

The biggest difference between ATLA and Korra is that the 61-episode long arc allowed ATLA to be very character-driven, and Korra's 12-episode long arc was a conscious choice to create a very story-driven show. By the end of ATLA, almost ever episode had some relevance to the story later on, but not immediately. If you missed ATLA's episode 4, The Warriors of Kyoshi, you wouldn't be lost in episode 5 or 6 or 7. But in episode 25, Sokka and Katara go back to Kyoshi to look for evidence to clear Aang of charges against him in Chin village, and later in episode 32 the Gaang runs into Suki again. If you missed episode 5, The King of Omashu, you won't be lost going into episodes 6 or 7 or 8, but at the beginning of season 2, they mention that they are on their way to Omashu so Aang can learn earthbending from Bumi, and by episode 23, they are back in Omashu and reunite briefly with Bumi. Almost every episode eventually ties back (actually, if you include the most minor of tie-backs, technically every episode ties into the continuity in a later episode), but I would argue that in Korra, if you miss any episode, you are immediately lost in the following episode. Each episode builds on the previous one.

 

Korra's more intense focus on story adds something to the show, but I also think something is lost in character development, something I thought ATLA was in a league of its own with.

[Reverend Jax]

So Korra has been picked up for an additional 26 episodes, not including the 14 they were working on for Book 2, for a total of 52 episodes, at which point the creators plan to end the Korra story. Nickelodeon is calling this 2 seasons of 26 episodes, while the creators are calling these 4 books (12 episodes for book 1, 14 episodes book 2, and 13 episodes for books 3 and 4). The Korra panel at ComicCon is tomorrow, and surely there will be more news coming out of that.

[Mr. Hakujin]

Average of 13 episodes per "book." That sounds right to me--even though we all know the end of S1 was a bit rushed/hurried in certain areas. Looking forward to seeing the inevitable web footage of the Korra panel.

[IceManML]

DirecTV has no viacom at the moment. If I were 10 i'd be cutting myself... Hopefully it won't take a year for these doods to settle this. I'm gonna need a Korra-fix pretty soon after that new season comes in.

[Mr. Hakujin]

Season 2 concept art

 

Looks like a lot of it will take place out of Republic City and in Korra's water tribe home, and it will focus on her family's past. I like the sound of that!

 

Some spoilerish details on Season 2 below...

 

 

Writers and voice actors from Legend of Korra told a packed room at Comic-Con a little bit about what to expect in Book 2: Spirits, the show's second season — and they showed off some absolutely gorgeous concept designs for environments and characters, too. The new season is focused on spirits, and the characters will meet several spirits and even journey into the spirit world. We saw a glimpse of one of the more deadly spirits, which you can see in our gallery below. Korra's guide in this new realm will be, in part, her uncle.

 

The season will delve into her uncle and father's relationship, and fill in some backstory on their connections as well as those between the northern and southern Water Tribes. We'll also see a "journey to a mysterious place," according to the show's producers. You can see glimpses of that mysterious place, which harkens back to the ice ball where Aang was discovered in Avatar. Korra's cousins are also new characters, a pair of "androgynous, creepy twins," according to the writers.

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2012 by Mr. Hakujin

[Reverend Jax]

Yeah. It's called 'Book 2: Spirits' by the way. Some of the concept art and storyboards looked really cool. Plenty of new characters, and it's all looking pretty cool. No word on a release date yet, but don't be surprised if it's mid-2013, or even late-2013.

[Reverend Jax]

So I had read this article, breaking down the various components of The Legend of Korra and pointing out the similarities between various superhero comics and the show, back when it was first published. I wanted to see if other Korra fans familiar with the superheroes in question thought the comparisons were apt. Read the article to see the author's arguments, but essentially, he thinks that the setting, Republic City, is like Gotham City, that the protagonist, Korra, is like Peter Parker, that the antagonist, Amon, is like Dr. Doom, and that the central conflict, the Equalist Anti-bending revolution, is like the mutant/human dynamic in X-Men. I have differing feelings on each of these.

 

The one I agree with the most is the X-Men conflict, and I thought that before I read this article. It's an interesting twist on the conflict though, because those with extraordinary abilities control the power establishment and the "normal humans" are the oppressed group of people. I am not familiar enough with X-men canon to know whether there has ever been a What If comic or alternate timeline where mutants became the politically dominant group and homo sapiens became an oppressed minority. I know there there has at least been one all-mutant separatist nation (Utopia), but I'm not sure if ever in any X-Men story mutants and humans co-existed in one society where humans were the oppressed minority group (not a demographic minority, but a socio-political minority). Anyway, I felt the flipping of the power dynamic made the central conflict feel familiar, yet fresh.

 

The one I agree with the second most is Amon as Dr. Doom. My initial impression was that Amon was more of a Magneto figure, steming from my initial observations on the central conflict being like that in X-Men. Amon was charismatic and iconic enough to build a cult of personality around himself and garner a following of disenfranchised masses that saw him as a savior figure, putting some much of their hopes on his shoulders that,

 

when he was revealed as a fraud, the Equalist movement basically collapsed.

 

That seems more like Magneto to me than Doom (though Doom is the ruler of an entire country, and I'm not as familiar with Doom as I am with Magneto, so maybe this cult of personality thing going on with Amon is just as Doomesque as it is Magnetoesque. That said, there are aspects of his personality, more than just his mask, that make the comparison interesting. I think his characters draws from both characters, though I'm be interested in hearing whether people think he's more one than the other.

 

Then there is Republic City as Gotham City. This seems like a bit of a stretch. they are alike in the sense that both cities have personalities such that the cities are almost characters themselves in the story, and are both riddled with crime problems, particularly organized crime, between competing gangs/triads. In many versions of Batman (like in the Bruce Timm animated series), Gotham's architecture is depicted as heavily art deco, and Korra certainly has a lot of that influence...I'm actually talking myself out of my initial argument that the comparison isn't apt. I don't know, it just doesn't feel like Gotham to me.

 

Then, finally, Korra as Peter Parker. This one seems the most off base to me. Both characters are teenagers when they enter into the role of hero, but their personalities are very different. Korra relishes being the Avatar, unlike her two immediate predecessors, as well as Parker. Parker is more burdened by is power and accompanying responsibility than thrilled by it. Korra is more confrontational than Parker. Korra feels more like Johnny Storm than Peter Parker to me. This one just seems all wrong.

 

Anyone else?

Edited August 7, 2012 by Reverend Jax

[Lipala]

I think I more or less agree with your assessment.

 

Though there were discussions and rumors that Zuko helped establish Republic City with Aang but I'm of the opinion he became a judge so everyone would have to address him as, "you're honor" ^_~

[Reverend Jax]

I think I more or less agree with your assessment.

 

Though there were discussions and rumors that Zuko helped establish Republic City with Aang but I'm of the opinion he became a judge so everyone would have to address him as, "you're honor" ^_~

 

Yes, Zuko did cofound Republic City with Aang. More details on that will probably surface when Part 3 of the graphic novel trilogy, The Promise, is released next month. Also, it has been confirmed that Zuko is still alive, however he retired as Firelord, passing down the crown to his daughter, and he now travels the world as a good will ambassador. His daughter's name has not been confirmed, so the fandom has agreed on calling her Honora until an official name is confirmed.

[The NZA]

the Korra = torch thing works a lot better given how little she seemed to've learned by the finale, for one. its still hard to picture johnny not in a team dynamic though.

[Reverend Jax]

the Korra = torch thing works a lot better given how little she seemed to've learned by the finale, for one. its still hard to picture johnny not in a team dynamic though.

Well, Korra is in Team Avatar 2.0. I agree Johnny Storm isn't a perfect fit, it's just the best one I could come up with that feel better than Parker. Can you think of any other super-powered teenager than fit the personality? There are obviously many teenage X-Men, but many of them are dealing with being hated outsiders. Iceman can be immature and wear his emotions on his sleeve, but that doesn't feel right either. Maybe a Brotherhood teen?

[Maldron]

Edited August 13, 2012 by Maldron