Maybe I'm expecting too much...
Hey, Legend of Korra, some tips because I care about you:
1) Knock it off with the love triangles. I'm not even joking. It was bad enough when Bolin and Mako were fighting over Korra, but at least that was resolved quickly and without destroying the brothers' relationship OR making Korra a "prize" for either one of them. The passive aggressive shit going on between Korra and Asami over Mako, though, has got to go. And now you have Pema and Lin pulling passive aggressive shit because of a love triangle more than a decade in the past? That is just sickening. Knock it off.
2) You know what else is a played-out trope? Having the show's pregnant character explain away a sudden and clearly excruciating pain as a "kick," only to then go into labour at the most inopportune moment in the story. Knock it off.
3) The dialogue in this show sucks. There. I said it. I've just passed the halfway mark on my TLA rewatch, and that show had amazing dialogue that never felt cliched. The TLA dialogue was often up there with a Whedon show, in terms of thoughtful and innovative uses of words. LoK's dialogue is closer to something you would hear in a SyFy original movie, but LoK doesn't even have the self awareness to know that the characters are speaking garbage. Bryke, I really respect your vision and your world building, but it is patently obvious that you need help from the Ehaszes et al if you want your characters to feel like real people instead of cardboard cutouts in their serious moments. I mean, really. "It all makes sense, now. That's how Tarrlok was able to blood-bend us without a full moon"? Knock it off.
4) "Stay away from my dad's ex-girlfriend!" Excuse me? Jinora, honey, you know I love you, but WTF was that line? Knock it off.
4a) So, we're expected to believe that the cloudbabies just defeated a whole group of the people Korra and her friends have spent nine episodes battling largely unsuccessfully? Forgive me if I come across as a bit SKEPTICAL.
5) Seriously, though, I don't ever again want to see Korra or Asami either one looking at the other with Mako while making Jealous Angsty Face.
KNOCK. IT. OFF.
And here's a free tip for Nickelodeon: I'm really freakin' sick of that commercial where you show how popular LoK is by having actors read inane internet comments about the show, not least because you decided it was representative of the fanbase to have two apparently male voices - one reading a comment speculating on a plot element and the other essentially congratulating the show for living up to his expectations - bookending an apparently female voice reading, "Bolin makes me lol." It is true that the plot speculation was vague and completely impossible to support at this point in the series (much less when the promo started running after only a couple of episodes had aired), and I understand that Nickelodeon is a network geared primarily at pre-adolescents, so inane internet comments are probably an effective way of advertising. I wouldn't be bringing this up if I were simply annoyed because it's an annoying commercial, though. Do you see what you did there? You are advertising a show headlining a strong, capable teenage hero who happens to be a young woman by having young men engage with the plot and validate the show's existence, and a young woman giggling over one of the male supporting characters. No. Nope. Not okay.
Now, all of that having been said, I do need to acknowledge that Naga is a-flipping-mazing. You can keep your air bison; I want a polar bear dog, thank you.
...and the last thirty seconds of this episode saved me from emotionally abandoning this show, which I was on the verge of doing until that point. DYING. I AM DYING.
First, AN ACTUAL SACRIFICE. YES. SHIT IS NOW REAL.
Then JEFF BENNETTTTT. THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO GRACE US WITH YOUR AMAZINGNESS, EVEN AFTER YOUR ORIGINAL ROLE WAS BASICALLY WRITTEN OUT. JEFFREYYYYYYYYY, I WANT YOU TO BE IN EVERYTHING.
And then the flailing and crying and voiceless screaming began, because, while I might be really irritated with a lot of things I KNOW they could be doing better because I've seen them do it before, I am still at heart just like every other TLA/LoK fan in the universe. To that end, AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!1!ONETHOUSANDONEHUNDREDELEVEN!!
1) Knock it off with the love triangles. I'm not even joking. It was bad enough when Bolin and Mako were fighting over Korra, but at least that was resolved quickly and without destroying the brothers' relationship OR making Korra a "prize" for either one of them. The passive aggressive shit going on between Korra and Asami over Mako, though, has got to go. And now you have Pema and Lin pulling passive aggressive shit because of a love triangle more than a decade in the past? That is just sickening. Knock it off.
2) You know what else is a played-out trope? Having the show's pregnant character explain away a sudden and clearly excruciating pain as a "kick," only to then go into labour at the most inopportune moment in the story. Knock it off.
3) The dialogue in this show sucks. There. I said it. I've just passed the halfway mark on my TLA rewatch, and that show had amazing dialogue that never felt cliched. The TLA dialogue was often up there with a Whedon show, in terms of thoughtful and innovative uses of words. LoK's dialogue is closer to something you would hear in a SyFy original movie, but LoK doesn't even have the self awareness to know that the characters are speaking garbage. Bryke, I really respect your vision and your world building, but it is patently obvious that you need help from the Ehaszes et al if you want your characters to feel like real people instead of cardboard cutouts in their serious moments. I mean, really. "It all makes sense, now. That's how Tarrlok was able to blood-bend us without a full moon"? Knock it off.
4) "Stay away from my dad's ex-girlfriend!" Excuse me? Jinora, honey, you know I love you, but WTF was that line? Knock it off.
4a) So, we're expected to believe that the cloudbabies just defeated a whole group of the people Korra and her friends have spent nine episodes battling largely unsuccessfully? Forgive me if I come across as a bit SKEPTICAL.
5) Seriously, though, I don't ever again want to see Korra or Asami either one looking at the other with Mako while making Jealous Angsty Face.
KNOCK. IT. OFF.
And here's a free tip for Nickelodeon: I'm really freakin' sick of that commercial where you show how popular LoK is by having actors read inane internet comments about the show, not least because you decided it was representative of the fanbase to have two apparently male voices - one reading a comment speculating on a plot element and the other essentially congratulating the show for living up to his expectations - bookending an apparently female voice reading, "Bolin makes me lol." It is true that the plot speculation was vague and completely impossible to support at this point in the series (much less when the promo started running after only a couple of episodes had aired), and I understand that Nickelodeon is a network geared primarily at pre-adolescents, so inane internet comments are probably an effective way of advertising. I wouldn't be bringing this up if I were simply annoyed because it's an annoying commercial, though. Do you see what you did there? You are advertising a show headlining a strong, capable teenage hero who happens to be a young woman by having young men engage with the plot and validate the show's existence, and a young woman giggling over one of the male supporting characters. No. Nope. Not okay.
Now, all of that having been said, I do need to acknowledge that Naga is a-flipping-mazing. You can keep your air bison; I want a polar bear dog, thank you.
...and the last thirty seconds of this episode saved me from emotionally abandoning this show, which I was on the verge of doing until that point. DYING. I AM DYING.
First, AN ACTUAL SACRIFICE. YES. SHIT IS NOW REAL.
Then JEFF BENNETTTTT. THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO GRACE US WITH YOUR AMAZINGNESS, EVEN AFTER YOUR ORIGINAL ROLE WAS BASICALLY WRITTEN OUT. JEFFREYYYYYYYYY, I WANT YOU TO BE IN EVERYTHING.
And then the flailing and crying and voiceless screaming began, because, while I might be really irritated with a lot of things I KNOW they could be doing better because I've seen them do it before, I am still at heart just like every other TLA/LoK fan in the universe. To that end, AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!1!ONETHOUSANDONEHUNDREDELEVEN!!