Avatar: The Last Airbender & Legend of Korra

[stika]

So who here watches/watched these shows? I was a huge fan of the first one and the Legend of Korra, while not as good, it was still pretty good too.

Thoughts on the show? Strongpoints, weakpoints, meh points?


I'll just say this right now: I hated the ending for both shows

[KatieHal]

I'm a fan!

And share almost entirely your opinions. I really liked how Avatar ended, but Korra's first season could've had a much stronger end. I get the impression they quickly tied everything up because they maybe weren't sure they'd get another season.

[stika]

I didn't like Avatar's ending either, mostly because I felt it was a cop out

[spoiler]I mean, Aang was discussing whether or not it was right to take the life of a human being if in the long run it would end up saving more lives. It's a good philosophical question with no answer being inherently "right" or "wrong". But instead we got a giant sea turtle that came out of nowhere and gave Aang the magical power of plot convenience. [/spoiler]

[KatieHal]

[spoiler]Oh, yeah, that. Okay, yeah, the giant sea turtle wasn't great. But I do think Aang finding a third option was pretty cool, and that they held off on revealing that he had learned to bend energy, essentially, was well-done. It would've been cooler if he'd learned it by talking to other past Avatars or if there were some more foreshadowing of the giant sea turtle.[/spoiler]

[stika]

[spoiler]Yeah that makes sense [/spoiler]

As for the Legend of Korra:

[Spoiler]My problem was that they had set up a great story regarding social inequalities. In the show, men and women are not born equal, those with bending powers have an edge over those without, so it makes sense that regular humans felt like second class citizens. What bothers me is that none of these issues were fixed in the ending, just because Aamon was a bender does not mean that the problems aren't there (they clearly were and still are). Heck I still think that it's rather silly how quickly Aamon's followers turned against him just because he's a bender. Using a real world example, che guevara was a communist, but he came from a wealthy family of merchants, which only made his fellow soldiers respect him even more, so I don't think Aamon's followers would just turn on him as they did. Sure, some would, but not all.

In the end, all Korra did was give a nice speech that fixed none of the underlying issues[/spoiler]

your thoughts? 

[KatieHal]

[spoiler]Yeah--I mean, in the immediate aftermath, I can see them turning on him, especially given that he runs off like that. He didn't just lie about being a bender, he also fabricated stories to manipulate them. But yes, his underlying points were true, there was and still is an inequality issue. Since AFAIK they do have a second season, I hope that's addressed.

I liked how Aamon died, that was unexpected and kind of awesome for it. I would've liked him to survive and continue as a threat, but I'm cool with that ending.

What dissatisfied me the most was how quickly Korra's problem of having her bending taken away was solved. Both in her suddenly gaining access to her air bending, and then getting all of it back. Having her learn how to turn it back on (and learning so through calming down enough to use air bending) would have been a great season-long arc, and addressed the inequality issue at the same time.

Also, I don't think the love triangle was played out very well in the end. I would have preferred seeing Mako stay with Asami, because they made sense as a couple, and have Korra either find someone else or come to see Bolin as a possible romantic interest. [/spoiler]

[stika]

[spoiler]Is it me, or did Mako actually FORGET to break up with Asami before getting with Korra? Man, not even  a waiting period? That's pretty cold[/spoiler]

[KatieHal]

Yeah, kinda!

[br305893]

Watched Airbender every so often. Never watched The Legend of Korra though.

[stika]

Legend of Korra is faster, which is both a good and a bad thing

[HitBattousai]

The biggest issue I have with Legend of Korra is the romance angle of the show is poorly done.  I thought the story was on par with the previous series, and the action sequences(which were great in Avatar: The Last Airbender to begin with), were mindblowing in Legend of Korra.  Character-wise, I like Aang and co more than the Korra crew, but we haven't had as much time with them yet so it's a bit unfair.  Honestly, as things stand Tenzin and Lin are cooler characters than most of Korra's crew with the possible exception of the comic relief in Bolin.

Primarily, I'm hoping for more flashback stuff in the next season of Korra that fleshes out some of the missing pieces from the original series.  They did a little in Season One of Korra, but only enough to tie into the main storyline of the season.

[stika]

So Has anyone watched Season 2 yet? So far I'm liking it better than the disappointing Season 1.

The pacing was a lot more even this time around, old characters have more time to develop while introducing new characters that are actually interesting.

Has anyone else watched it?

[HitBattousai]

Yeah, I've been keeping up with Season 2.  I agree that it's an improvement from Season 1 so far, the character development is better, the pacing is better, and the expansion of the Avatar mythos is nice.  The weakest part of the show is again, the romance angle between Korra/Mako/Azumi.  Also, with the exception of Bolin, who provides the comic relief well, that core group is still very bland compared to the original Avatar team, especially Mako.  Tenzin's family is way more interesting and it's nice that we're getting more of that.

[HitBattousai]

For reference you can catch the Season 2 Finale episodes ahead of time on http://www.nick.com and browsing to the Korra section.  I would say the season as a whole was better than Season 1, though the ending has an element that somewhat concerns me as to something I want to see down the line.  It also has a somewhat deus ex machina factor.  Again, I feel the original series is stronger in characters and story, but this is a very good show nonetheless, and the improvement gives me hope for the future.