So... when is Legend of Korra going to start being good?
It seems weird to me that a series advertised as "super tight and way more mature" ends up less nuanced than the original series that was proudly aimed at the 7-year-old demographic.
Remember in A:tLA, when we always saw things from the point of view of the villainous Fire Nation as well as the protagonists? From episode one, we were inside Zuko's head as much as Aang, Katara, and Sokka's. Even while Zuko was technically the bad guy, his crew never seemed like bad people. I was genuinely distressed when I realized they all probably perished in the battle at the North Pole.
Granted, Zuko did come around to the good guy's side, and it was telegraphed as such from the beginning, but it took quite a while and we still got a lot from the POV of less virtuous Fire Nation citizens such as Zhao and Azula.
Contrast with LoK, which has never had so much as a single line acknowledging that the Equalists have a pretty good point. The entire crime syndicate? Benders. The entire police force? Benders. The entire ruling council? Benders. (And let us marvel at the Air Nomads, of whom there are precisely four, meriting a seat on the council, while the entire non-bender population goes completely unrepresented. Hell, the Water Tribes get two council seats, one for each Pole!) Even low-wage factory jobs are bender-exclusive, if Mako's brief stint as a professional lightningbender is any indication. Don't forget the Equalist protester predicting Korra would silence him, and her going on to literally smash his megaphone to smithereens without being called on it. Also: the learning of chi-blocking, literally the only defense non-benders have against benders, is apparently enough to call down the wrath of a special task force on a person.
With 7 out of 12 episodes down, we are more than halfway through the series without even a single line admitting that while the Equalists' methods are fucked up and unfair, their complaints are completely valid.
Also, why is it always firebenders that make trouble? (Killed Mako's parents; killed Asami's mom; killed Amon's dad, assuming he's not a huge lying liarpants who lies, which tbh is a pretty big assumption. But how many firebenders turn murderous that he can make such a claim without being questioned? Just how common is "death by firebender" in Republic City?)
I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for LoK to live up to the hype. And while the animation and setting are fucking gorgeous, the dialogue is basic at best and the morality is so black and white you could throw hooves on it and call it a zebra. There is not a single character on this show who can be called three-dimensional by any stretch of the imagination.
In conclusion, to date, Legend of Korra has been as predictable and plodding as that other Avatar. And that's terrible.
Remember in A:tLA, when we always saw things from the point of view of the villainous Fire Nation as well as the protagonists? From episode one, we were inside Zuko's head as much as Aang, Katara, and Sokka's. Even while Zuko was technically the bad guy, his crew never seemed like bad people. I was genuinely distressed when I realized they all probably perished in the battle at the North Pole.
Granted, Zuko did come around to the good guy's side, and it was telegraphed as such from the beginning, but it took quite a while and we still got a lot from the POV of less virtuous Fire Nation citizens such as Zhao and Azula.
Contrast with LoK, which has never had so much as a single line acknowledging that the Equalists have a pretty good point. The entire crime syndicate? Benders. The entire police force? Benders. The entire ruling council? Benders. (And let us marvel at the Air Nomads, of whom there are precisely four, meriting a seat on the council, while the entire non-bender population goes completely unrepresented. Hell, the Water Tribes get two council seats, one for each Pole!) Even low-wage factory jobs are bender-exclusive, if Mako's brief stint as a professional lightningbender is any indication. Don't forget the Equalist protester predicting Korra would silence him, and her going on to literally smash his megaphone to smithereens without being called on it. Also: the learning of chi-blocking, literally the only defense non-benders have against benders, is apparently enough to call down the wrath of a special task force on a person.
With 7 out of 12 episodes down, we are more than halfway through the series without even a single line admitting that while the Equalists' methods are fucked up and unfair, their complaints are completely valid.
Also, why is it always firebenders that make trouble? (Killed Mako's parents; killed Asami's mom; killed Amon's dad, assuming he's not a huge lying liarpants who lies, which tbh is a pretty big assumption. But how many firebenders turn murderous that he can make such a claim without being questioned? Just how common is "death by firebender" in Republic City?)
I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for LoK to live up to the hype. And while the animation and setting are fucking gorgeous, the dialogue is basic at best and the morality is so black and white you could throw hooves on it and call it a zebra. There is not a single character on this show who can be called three-dimensional by any stretch of the imagination.
In conclusion, to date, Legend of Korra has been as predictable and plodding as that other Avatar. And that's terrible.
