Legend of Korra season 1 commentary/review
THIS IS NOT A PLOT SUMMARY.
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This an in-depth commentary/review of season 1 of Legend of Korra, with a focus on the last two episodes (i.e., the season finale). I will pre-warn that I cannot help but compare it at times to the original series, Avatar the last Airbender. Spoilers for all of Avatar: The Last Airbender and all of season 1 of Legend of Korra (up through episode 12).
But first, outside the cut, no spoilers:
I rate this series 3.5/5 as of the end of season 1. It is still worth watching, but there were just so many flaws, things that could've been done far better than what we ended up with. We don't know where the series is going, the finale tied up all dangling plot lines (so it seems), and had no cliff-hangers to entice viewers to desperately want to see the next season.
But, well, the action choreography was great. The animation was superb. The integration of CGI with traditional 2D animation was top-notch. The season finale sure had you on the edge of your seat the whole time, even if many nonsensical things happened. That, if nothing else, is better than a lot of series manage to do.
Overall -- The Best Advantage and Biggest Flaw of All
This new series has, in many ways, been both stronger and weaker than the original series.
As far as stronger goes:
The plot and main conflict for Legend of Korra is much more complex than in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar: The Last Airbender's plot was straight-forward and uncomplicated. The Fire Nation was unambiguously bad, and needed to be stopped. That theme persisted throughout every season of the series. The three main baddies, Zhao (season 1), Azula (season 2-3), and Ozai (season 3) were cruel, heartless individuals and that was all there was to it. Azula was the only one shown to have any tiny bit of complexity as to why she was so cruel. But anyway, everything was clear cut. The bad guys were obvious, the good guys were obvious, and the objective was for the good guys to take down the bad guys in some way and put their shenanigans to a stop. Simple. Kid-like. An appropriate plot I suppose for a show aimed at 10-14 year olds. It was still a good series despite the simplistic plot and characters.
Legend of Korra, however, in the first episode, does away with the simplistic villain and plot. The antagonists, who are not necessarily "bad guys", have a valid beef with the denizens of Republic City. Korra nearly exacerbates this feeling of animosity herself in the first 1-2 episodes when she walks by an Equalist shouter and harasses him with bending. Amon, until the season finale, was a very complex villain. He was extremely heavy handed, but with benders sometimes you have to be. Benders are badasses, they can easily take down almost any non-bender. If the benders won't listen to peaceful pleas to treat the non-benders better, then naturally, it is time to use some force. And what is better to get a privileged individual to listen than to remove his privilege? This move certainly made the benders take notice. The goal is to make them realize they are not the only people in the world, and that they DO live very privileged lifestyles. But, as things are wont to do, the goal of getting benders to take notice and do something about the inequality got swept under the rug and the antagonists ran out of control on their power-trip. This whole situation between the two groups put Korra, the penultimate bender, in a tough quandary. She defended the benders multiple times against the Equalists, but she also defended the non-benders at least once against Tarrlok's reverse-heavy-handedness. In a situation like this, when the antagonists are not necessarily the bad guys, and the people on Team Protagonist are not necessarily in the right -- that's a complex plot right there. That's a plot for adults, not kids. This setup gave the series some absolutely amazing potential that was just not present in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I applaud the creators happily for this.
But. As I said earlier, Legend of Korra was also weaker in some ways. Mostly in execution:
Avatar: The Last Airbender established the over-arching plot in exactly the first episode. Each season comprised a major milestone toward the end game of that plot. Plot: Stop the Fire Nation from world domination. Season 1: Save the Northern Water Tribe and defeat Fire Nation General Zhao (success). Season 2: Defend the premiere earth kingdom city of Ba Sing Se (failure, but necessary). Season 3: Defeat Ozai and Azula (success).
But Legend of Korra? Plot: benders are abusing and taking advantage of non-benders. Season 1: Defend Republic City from the equalist non-bender movement and defeat their leader (why? the equalists have an extremely valid point)? Season 2: ??? no idea ??? Defeating Amon, the equalist leader, was never the goal here. The goal was to try and come up with a way for non-benders to have the same rights and privileges as benders without violating the benders at a spiritual level. They could've started by creating a city council seat for a non-bender representative in order to give a voice to the non-benders in terms of public policy. They could create a branch of non-benders in the police force who specifically deal with non-bender criminals. Obviously the non-bending equalist chi-blocker badasses could EASILY fill this role, and perhaps would do so even better than their metal bending counterparts, since they so often defeated the metal bender police during clashes this first season of Korra. To be honest, this series has a plot that is a lot like X-men, but not as well excuted.
Here's kinda how it should've gone, given the same plot presentation. Plot: benders are abusing and taking advantage of non-benders. Season 1: Korra defeats the leader of the violent non-bender group while sacrificing her water/fire/earth bending to do so. However, she finally taps into her airbending after losing her other bending styles. Non-benders now regard Korra as the ultimate bad guy, the penultimate bender in defense of only the benders (even if it's not true). Season 2: Korra struggles with her loss of bending abilities and the nonsensical loss of support among the non-bending public while an organized group of furious benders strike back at the non-benders with a vicious amount of repression and violence. A new water bender joins Team Avatar to make up for Korra's lack of water bending. At the end of the season, Korra, having mastered her air bending, and along with Team Avatar, must defeat the uber badass leader of the benders league. They fail. They lose a member of Team Avatar in the process. Season 3: Korra must search inside herself and get in touch with the spiritual nature of the Avatar to help her find a solution that will redeem her in the eyes of both the benders and non-benders. Korra spends time trying to convince equalist dude and his elite chi-blockers to team up since the chi-blockers have great tactics against benders. Eventually they come to an agreement, and Team Avatar and equalist chi-blocker team go to take down uber badass bender leader. During the series finale, the battle with bender leader, Korra reaches a new low somehow and finally accesses her Avatar state, where the three lost bending abilities are suddenly restored mid-battle. This enables her to finally disable bender leader and take him down. She lets equalist leader decide what to do with him. He has Korra take away the guy's bending, just like Aang did. She then, as the series wraps up, allows former benders to petition for the return of their bending. She also allows non-benders to petition her to activate a bending of their preference inside of them as well. The government of Republic City (and elsewhere) is reorganized to allow the non-benders to have equal say with benders. Council seats involve one air bender, one earth bender, one fire bender, one water bender, and four non-benders. Etc etc. The end.
It doesn't have to be exactly like this to be a good series, but it really needed to have an over-arching plot with things left dangling at the end of the season so that the fans have something to grasp onto that will make them want to watch the next season. They also need some inkling of understanding about where this story is going. Korra needs to have a bad time at the end of Season 2 in order to make Season 3's resolution spectacular. The original series did this and it worked really well. But they've left nothing, no clues as to what the hell the rest of this series is going to be about. I'm sure they can come up with something if they try hard enough, but they've closed off pretty much every avenue established in season 1 that they could've used to create a lot of tension and drama.
Our lowest low should be at the end of season 2!
It would seem more appropriate to call this a series finale. :(
Drilling Down to Specific Flaws
In the key first episode we are presented with a cocky, conceited, and unsympathetic main character. Korra comes blasting in like she's better than everyone and immediately the audience is turned off to her. A memorable example of this is when she destroys Tenzin's ancient air bending training device in a burst of rage. And then, AND THEN, when he tells her how old it is she grumps off to wallow in self-pity leaving everyone else to clean it up and repair it. It would've been much better for her character to suck it up and help them fix what she destroyed, effectively admitting that what she did was wrong. But in the first handful of episodes, she is too conceited to do the right thing.
Aang, on the other hand, was afraid, unsure, confused, and absolutely sympathetic from the get-go. That is key to pulling in an audience. Your main character has to be sympathetic and likable, and they have to be so in the FIRST EPISODE. If you blow your intro, it is very unlikely that people will stick around to see more. I have to wonder if Legend of Korra gained any new viewers that weren't fans of the original series who knew it would be good despite the annoying main character?
Fortunately, about 3-4 episodes in, Korra gets knocked down a few pegs. You can't be cocky and overconfident if you can't back it up. And so the next largely annoying thing about the series is just that. Korra is the only one in the world who can bend more than one element, and she has mastered 3 by the time we meet her in episode 1. She has been training for bending and combat her entire life, at least since she was about 6 years old (estimation based on the flashback). So why then is she constantly getting her ass kicked by everyone else who only has one bending style at their disposal or none? Aang had only airbending in the first season (for the most part) and he was nearly impossible to capture and/or defeat. Korra is constantly getting defeated. I don't like this. She is the avatar, the master of 3 bending styles, and she has backstory to support her competence in them. There should be very few people able to defeat her, and none of those people should be peons like the equalist mooks or the standard police force metalbender. It should take nearly an army to bring her down, or an extremely competent main antagonist, not 3 unnamed guys in every other episode.
Another thing that they totally screwed up, that they also screwed up in the original series, was the romantic subplot. Mako/Korra/Asami/sorta-Bolin. Korra and Bolin were never right together, even from the beginning, so it is good that didn't work out. It's because Bolin seems too much like Sokka, who was the brother to Katara, who seems a lot like Korra. Brother-like and sister-like do not make for a good romance. Korra and Mako seemed ok together until Asami came along. Once Asami was in the picture, Asami and Mako now had by far the best chemistry. Mako obviously gained respect for Korra and cared about her as a friend over the course of season 1, but the two just never had nearly the chemistry that Mako and Asami did. And so now in the season finale, Mako dumps Asami in the rudest possible way to be with Korra, who now seems totally wrong for him? Ugh. First thing Mako needs to do next season, on screen, is to apologize profusely to Asami and to throw himself at her mercy for being such a dick to her. He needs to redeem his character somehow for all the terrible things he's done.
But, this isn't unique to Legend of Korra. The original series failed on this point too. Katara and Aang felt like they had a mother-son relationship. They had absolutely no chemistry. Katara treated Aang like a child the whole 3-season series, and suddenly we're expected to believe that Aang and Katara get together? Meanwhile, Katara and Zuko had a ton of chemistry, but they pair him off with a personality-less barely-main-character? I didn't dislike Mai, but she and Zuko didn't really have any chemistry. They were never shown together really. They didn't have time to build up any sort of relationship. So it seems the creators are pretty decent at generating chemistry between characters they never intend to get together.
Next up. We meet General Iroh who looks like he's 30 but sounds like he's 12? Seriously, I cringe every time I hear his voice because his character design does not at all match his voice (I have nothing against Zuko's voice actor, but he is an inappropriate choice for someone older than about 18). A minor point, but I don't like that Iroh mentioned his grandpa (Zuko) when talking about stuff in the season finale. It seemed like an unnecessary wink-wink back to the first series. It just made me roll my eyes. We already knew he was Zuko's grandson and is being voiced by Zuko's voice actor, we didn't need to have it smacked into our faces.
I saw this online, and it sums up the odd voice casting decision for Iroh:
So where was Katara during the flashbacks of Yakone's trial? Everyone else was there -- Aang, Sokka, Toph. She was not involved in this pivotal scene that sparked so much anguish 40ish years later? Once again Katara gets the shaft!
Why can so many people use lightning bending when it was supposed to be one of the hardest things to master (via the first series)? I'll give the blood bending thing a pass since they did mention that Yakone was the most powerful blood bender of his time or somesuch. And on that note, why can't Korra: a) blood bend, b) lightning bend, c) metal bend? I mean if everyone else can, seems like she should be able to do so as well (she can obviously use the water bending healing techniques)!
Stupid Things Gets a Section All Its Own
My first comment: please don't make characters do incredibly stupid things just for the sake of moving the plot along. Take the time and energy to generate a real, believable reason for something to happen. Stupidity by the characters just makes the writers look stupid.
So!
Why, if they thought it was weird seeing fence posts with no fence, did they keep running? Why weren't the earth benders knocking over the damn mechs? Why wasn't Tenzin knocking over the mechs with airbending whirlwinds? Why aren't the earth benders able to insulate the electricity used by the equalists - metal benders are earth benders too. Why don't the benders do anything sensible when General Iroh's fleet is attacked? Why doesn't Mako, whom it has been shown can lightning bend, use lightning bending all the time in combat if it is supposedly so much more effective (Azula used nothing but lightning bending, and she was the most badass fire bender of her time)? Why doesn't (or can't) Mako redirect the equalists' electricity with his lightning bending? Case in point -- Zuko couldn't lightning bend, but he could at least redirect lightning by the end of the series. Original series Iroh was shown to be able to redirect electricity a number of times as well.
Why does the city council listen to Tarrlok when he's obviously being an asshole with his proposals? I mean he's totally pulling a Palpatine, but in a way more obvious way. Why does Korra feel she can't refuse Tarrlok's bullshit if she's standing in front of other people while she can easily refuse when they're alone?
Why didn't Amon take Korra's bending away in ep 3 or 4 when he had the chance? He was all "you get to be last! hurrrrr" But then it was like what, two weeks later(?), when he finally did do it? Except, of course, it ended up backfiring since Korra now knew what she was up against and was way more prepared for the fight. It was an attempt, I guess, to scare some humility into Korra to make her more likable. But they could've managed that without making Amon look like a typical stupid bad guy who shoves away advantages and plays the pipe organ.
How in the hell did Tenzin get captured? Pretty much everyone who I've talked to and who has reviewed the finale has griped about this. If babies notice there's something wrong about this, then you shouldn't've done it, writers! Tenzin was flying away to places unknown, and the airships were shown to have turned back due to Lin's sacrifice. Tenzin and company were long gone. The equalists had no idea where he was going, and I'm not even sure Korra did either. So not only how did they intercept them when they had no one following them, but how did they manage to capture them and so easily, when just last episode the Tenzin kids defeated a large group of equalists (with Lin's help)! They may not have had Lin to help this time but they did have Tenzin! It shouldn't have been possible!
This is the biggest red flag in the entire season! It makes no sense!
Which, anyway, raises the question: why are the equalists any good at fighting airbenders at all? They have NEVER fought air benders because the only airbenders are Tenzin and his family. They have no experience against them. Meanwhile, Tenzin has experience under his belt fighting all sorts of benders since there are plenty of the other types of benders in the world. Tenzin should be even harder to defeat than Korra. Especially given air bending's natural inclination to not be restrained in any way. So, like Korra, why the hell is it so easy to defeat Tenzin? He shouldn't need anything like the avatar state (which Aang used to his advantage a number of times) to wipe the floor with just about anyone.
The Tarrlok / Amon Issue
I was a little disappointed that Tarrlok was just some random made up for this series after all the previous-series main characters are so tied-in with the protagonists. It felt a little cheap. Either tie way in with the previous series and make both the good guys and bad guys related to those from the previous, or break ties with the previous series almost completely.
Also disappointing: Amon is Tarrlok's long lost brother? Geez, I was angling for someone related to Azula/Ozai, both of whom were alive at the end of the original series and whom now had a bone to pick with people. Especially with Ozai having had his bending taken away by Aang, and Azula being extremely loyal to Ozai. It would've made complete sense for Ozai to have started a movement against benders after his bending was taken away by the penultimate bender, the Avatar.
Or, at least, maybe Tenzin's non-bending brother Bumi. Maybe they didn't realize that Bumi did have bending capabilities -- he could bend the spirit and take bending away, but that was all he could do. And maybe he didn't realize he could do this until way later; in his 30s or something. At this point he'd sure have reason to be bitter what with his siblings getting all the glory being the bending children of the Avatar. Especially considering what a privileged society the society of benders is. But nope, they didn't do that either. Even that would've been more interesting than "yet another son of Yakone."
Despite all this, one of the better scenes in the season finale was Tarrlok and his brother riding off on the boat together at the end. (I think it was silly that Amon turned tail and ran, but if he had to have done that, then this was a reasonable end to him) Anyway, the scene was nice and emotional, and a good way to send off a disturbed child who redeemed himself in the end (Tarrlok), and to put a final end to Amon and his shenanigans. It illustrated the folly of their choices and their father. It also allowed the brothers to be together as brothers one last time. It allowed them both to acknowledge and accept a final consequence for their actions. This was a perfect end to the season. Closure here with the main antagonists, and then some other stuff should've been left dangling (Korra's lost bending, her inability to get in touch with her spiritual side, the romantic subplot, Lin's lost bending, etc).
Only two more points about this scene with Tarrlok and Noatak: 1) they didn't show the body so there is a chance one or both did not die from this explosion (and if this is the case, I am going to be so pissed), 2) who was around to see this happen? No one's going to know that Amon is actually dead and gone (assuming he actually is). Team Avatar had better spend the rest of the series looking for Amon behind every corner because there were no witnesses to see this, so they have no idea that Tarrlok took himself and his brother down in the end!
Things Wrong With the Ending
1. Mako + Korra - Asami was way too rushed. Mako and Korra have no chemistry (anymore). Mako has not been portrayed as the type to jerk girls around, yet he has done so at least twice now. Asami got royally shafted and Mako couldn't even give her any sort of excuse at all. He should've been honest with her to give her some closure because she is his friend and he cares about her even if he isn't in love with her. She is going through a tough time with her only living parent; she doesn't need Mako's insensitive douchebaggery on top of it right now. And anyway, should Korra really want to be with someone who has been known to cheat on his girlfriends in the past? I would've felt better had Korra realized she was over Mako (before his awkward love declaration) and had gone to tell him this on her own terms. I want Korra to be the captain of her own life; I don't want her simply reacting to others. At this point I think General Iroh would be a much better match for Korra; she helps him loosen up and he helps her learn some restraint. They would be good for each other.
This image of Tenzin's wife Pema sums up the Mako/Asami/Korra cluster-f!ck quite nicely:
2. Korra should NOT lose and regain her bending in the same. damn. episode. They should've had her bending taken away and left it dangling to the next season at the very least.
3. Korra should not figure out her air bending in the same episode she figures out the spiritual side of the Avatar. Those are both HUGE things for her and she deserves to have, at the very least, an entire episode dedicated to each. I would've preferred an entire SEASON dedicated to each. This season she should've finally learned how to touch her airbending (not master it, but to touch it). And they should've left it at that. Next season they should've had her work on mastering her air bending. For the series finale, she should finally figure out her spiritual side right at the end. Once she figures it out at the end of the series, she is able to restore bending to everyone who has lost it, like Lin. It would've had much more impact. I should mention that Aang struggled with his Avatar state stuff so much over so many episodes. This Avatar state stuff in Legend of Korra was just way too rushed and crammed together with other big stuff happening to have the significant emotional impact that it needed to.
4. So Korra unlocks her air bending. LAME. Why? Because she did absolutely nothing to earn it. She was shown in the first couple of episodes trying to do the things Tenzin was telling her but with very little patience and absolutely no success. Since she joined the Fire Ferrets pro-bending team, she has shirked her on-screen air bending training. Never again was she shown to be practicing air bending, trying to connect with that aspect of herself. And suddenly she finds it when Mako's fire bending is about to be nuked? Emotional outbursts have absolutely nothing to do with the tranquility and calmness of learning to air bend. It's pretty much the opposite of the air bending philosophy. Aang struggled with learning earth bending over several episodes. I specifically remember Toph laughing her ass off at him failing miserably in an episode dedicated to him trying to learn it. Korra struggled with air bending in a few scenes over a couple of episodes but then pretty much gave up on it. She should not be rewarded for giving up. She should not get a freebie pass because she gets emotional over some guy. She needed to essentially understand and come to terms with the philosophical nature of air bending before she could connect with it, and anguish at Mako has nothing to do with that. Furthermore, just because she tapped it finally does not mean she should be any good at it. She had an incredible amount of control over it while fighting Amon there at the end. That is like insult to injury right there. Getting something she didn't earn and automatically being good at it without any training. LAME. I MAY give this lameness a pass if at the beginning of the next season she finds she can hardly use air bending at all and needs actual, real training in it before she can use it passably. If this happens, I can accept the fact that in the season 1 finale she got assistance from her Avatar side without precisely tapping into the Avatar state, solely for the purpose of defeating Amon.
5. Lin should've had to live without her earth bending for at least a season. Giving it back practically the next episode makes her sacrifice pointless. I am extremely disappointed by this. Her scene of dismantling the airships to save Tenzin was so spectacular and moving, that to crush it with such bullshit is extremely disappointing.
6. Why didn't Korra and Mako free Tarrlok ? With his bending gone, what was he going to do exactly? Korra and Mako went STRAIGHT to the rally and announced everything that Tarrlok had told them in front of everyone so there was no way Amon wasn't going to know that Tarrlok had talked to them. After all, Amon knew that Tarrlok was the only one who knew the things that Korra et al were saying at the rally. If Tarrlok wanted to wait for his brother's return, he should've just said that. It was just a stupid comment/scene. It didn't add anything, it took screen time away for other more interesting things, and managed to make the characters look even stupider (as if they needed that).
7. Korra's comment at the end about "I'm not the Avatar anymore *whine*" is just totally stupid. It makes her sound like she's throwing a temper tantrum. Again, she's been trained as the Avatar since she was a kid. She knows what the Avatar is. The Avatar is the person who houses the connection between the physical world and the spirit world. Being able to tap into all bending styles is just a side effect of that. Even if she can't bend, she is still the Avatar because she has that spiritual side of her that no one else in the world has. And no one can take that aspect away from her. She is the Avatar and will be the Avatar until the day she dies no matter what happens. That is the long and short of it. She should know this. What an immature outburst, Korra. Real dumb.
8. Why the assumption that what Korra and Mako are announcing at the rally is lies if Amon appears to have a burned face? He could still be everything Korra says and have been burned in combat with a fire bender later. Or, you know, it could've been faked up makeup... like it was. That was a really stupid audience reaction for something that was so easily explainable.
9. Korra needs to be touching the avatar state to resist the blood bending. Aang needed it, and she obviously can't blood bend herself, so she should need it too.
10. How did Tenzin and his family get captured after they had very obviously escaped? This is so incredibly asinine that it really belongs under the heading of "stupidity". To wit: see the "Stupid Things" section for further details on this one.
11. Earth benders and water benders could've made the attack on the naval fleet trivial. Airplanes slamming into walls of water or stone are going to be stopped quick as hell. Metal benders could've torn up the missiles and torpedos. Water benders could've filtered the mines from the water near the ships. Metal benders could've flung the mines up at the airplanes! This is not rocket science, guys! This was all stupid stupid stupid stuff that trained benders should easily be able to figure out. And we know there aren't just fire benders on those ships. Just what exactly was everyone doing? Was Iroh the only one creative enough to think of an effective tactic, even if he had the wrong bending element to really effectively address the issues? Korra also should've done more, since she is VERY strong in water bending and has at least mastered her earth bending. Meanwhile, what was Mako doing during this scene? Standing on the beach watching?
12. A little more generically -- you don't resolve your romantic tension at the end of a season. You leave it dangling in the worst state imaginable and then resolve it at the beginning of the next season. You only tie it up at the end of a season if it is also the end of the series (the final episode).
13. I know it's a kid's show, but I am really disappointed that Asami didn't take down her dad in the end there. He was unredeemable, and she knew it, and it would've meant some closure for her character. And look at Tarrlok -- his dad had his bending taken away and was sent to jail and he still escaped and created havoc. This is just asking for trouble later.
14. Seriously, what is this facial reconstructive surgery BS? That's about as far out in left field as you can get for a setting such as this. Did he use facebenders? I mean, c'mon. This society is not technically advanced enough for this to be possible.
15. So just what exactly is the rest of the series going to be about now that they've tied everything up all nice and neat? What conflict is there going to be? Are they going to drop the whole equalist thing or expand on it? What does Korra really have left to learn/understand about her Avatar nature? This felt more like a series finale than a season finale. If it was an issue of funding, they should've made two finale episodes: one that wraps things up completely that they air if they have no funding for next season, and another one that they instead air if they do get funding that wraps up a couple plot points and opens 2-3 new ones and leaves at least half the established plot stuff dangling. As it is, they aired a "series finale" style episode which leaves nothing enticing for viewers to want to watch the next season. I'll watch it just because it's a series set in Avatar-world. But they really need to do better than this to generate the large following that the original series had.
Other
1. Can Korra now give bending to people who never had bending? This would be a totally different way to equalize the populace.
2. I am fine with Amon being a bender. I suspected from episode 1 that he would be. The equalists have a good cause I think but are going about it the wrong way. To have them betrayed in such a huge way by their leader may help them rethink their approach and goals. It will be, for their side, a season of growth so that they can figure out what is really the best approach to solving their problems.
Although really, what did they think Amon was doing anyway? Spirit bending, like Aang did? Chi-blocking has never been shown to be this powerful, and if it is beyond what normal chi-blockers can do (if only one guy can do it), then it is likely something else. Something supernatural. Like bending. It still requires bending to remove another's bending. See: Aang. Be less dumb, guys!
3. Via Tarrlok's backstory, we know that a bender who's had his bending removed by the Avatar can still pass his bending on to future children. This is pretty much the only interesting thing to have come out of Tarrlok's family/backstory, but it is a very interesting tidbit nonetheless.
4. I like the nice contrast with the original series where the bad guys were firebenders, and this season of Korra, the bad guys ended up being water benders. (I don't really consider the equalists to be bad guys per se... at the moment)
5. Do Tarrlok or Amon have kids? In this season they are ages 37 and 40 respectively, which means they've had plenty of time to have kids. If either has, it's possible the powerful blood bending has been passed on to someone not yet shown on-screen who can take up Amon's reins in season 2+. Since we're going with the theme of passing "things" on between generations, this would make sense. However, if we want to carry on the "sins of the father do not necessarily pass on to the son" adage from the original series (Ozai/Zuko), then maybe this child joins Team Avatar as their dedicated water bender instead.
The Good
One of the things I like most about this series is that they dare to have a female main character. And this, after releasing only one toy of Katara and none of Toph for the original series. What a crock. And here Katara was in pretty much every episode and was the narrator for the entire series. Why o why you hate girls so much? But, well, yay. They could've made Korra's personality less annoying at the beginning, though. (I will say I'm glad she's confident and willful, but I do NOT like that she has absolutely no humility or respect for others)
Another thing I just LOVE is that Korra's character design includes ass-kicking MUSCLES. Ain't no twiggy arms for our ass-kicking heroine. Thank god for this. I have no words to explain how happy I am to see this one little detail in her character design.
MUSCLES!
General Iroh, so far, has been an awesome character. He had some of the best scenes in the season finale; was creative, determined, and absolutely honorable. He essentially sacrificed himself to defend his men in the fleet. He had no idea that Korra would be there to save him, so he lucked out. It didn't make his near-sacrifice any less awe-inspiring.
I already mentioned outside the cut how the animation is gorgeous, the action/fighting choreography is spectacular, and the integration of CG and traditional 2D animation is top-notch. The music, also, is well done, and is well-used at points throughout the series. A big example of everything coming together perfectly is a very iconic avatar-sounding song playing in the background while Lin dismantles the equalist ship knowing that she is going to be caught and is going to lose her bending. It was an incredibly moving scene. Probably the best scene in the entire series so far. If you can bring your audience to tears, you have done your job well. That is a scene well-worthy of tears.
And the last big thing regarding Lin Beifong. She is a spectacular role model for young girls even more so than Korra. Ever notice that the ugliest dudes can be successful politicians whose actions are the only things people speak of, but people like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are constantly having their appearances critiqued and commented about in the news as if it were somehow relevant to being a successful politician? This is the world we live in. Yet, in avatar world, there is one Lin Beifong. She is all of:
- A female character, who is
- Ugly
- Old
- Has a scarred face
- with a grouchy and abrasive personality
Yet we see her act with the most heroic selflessness of anyone in the entire series so far. She is strong and competent. She runs her police benders with efficiency and strictness and honor. And her actions are those of a person who does the right thing, not because she is doing it for the love of a boy or some such useless nonsense, but simply because it is the right thing to do. She sacrifices, knowingly, a huge part of herself to save the family of a person with whom she has a static-y relationship because it is simply the right thing to do. In a word, she is awe-inspiring. And everyone, all of the fans love her despite her being all of those negative things I listed above. People have even generated porn of her. Porn! Of an old, ugly woman! I'm a bit shocked by that, but then again this is the internet were're talking about here. Still, it says a lot about how she blows those female stereotypes away allowing someone who is for all intents and purposes unappealing to be elevated to such a high degree. I'm surprised that such a mediocre series could (accidentally) create such a spectacular character. Thank god for Toph, the most shafted character in the entire first series. Without her and her non-existent love-life and lack of a wrap-up in the series finale, we would have no Lin.
Lin, we love you so much!
-+-
This an in-depth commentary/review of season 1 of Legend of Korra, with a focus on the last two episodes (i.e., the season finale). I will pre-warn that I cannot help but compare it at times to the original series, Avatar the last Airbender. Spoilers for all of Avatar: The Last Airbender and all of season 1 of Legend of Korra (up through episode 12).
But first, outside the cut, no spoilers:
I rate this series 3.5/5 as of the end of season 1. It is still worth watching, but there were just so many flaws, things that could've been done far better than what we ended up with. We don't know where the series is going, the finale tied up all dangling plot lines (so it seems), and had no cliff-hangers to entice viewers to desperately want to see the next season.
But, well, the action choreography was great. The animation was superb. The integration of CGI with traditional 2D animation was top-notch. The season finale sure had you on the edge of your seat the whole time, even if many nonsensical things happened. That, if nothing else, is better than a lot of series manage to do.
Overall -- The Best Advantage and Biggest Flaw of All
This new series has, in many ways, been both stronger and weaker than the original series.
As far as stronger goes:
The plot and main conflict for Legend of Korra is much more complex than in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar: The Last Airbender's plot was straight-forward and uncomplicated. The Fire Nation was unambiguously bad, and needed to be stopped. That theme persisted throughout every season of the series. The three main baddies, Zhao (season 1), Azula (season 2-3), and Ozai (season 3) were cruel, heartless individuals and that was all there was to it. Azula was the only one shown to have any tiny bit of complexity as to why she was so cruel. But anyway, everything was clear cut. The bad guys were obvious, the good guys were obvious, and the objective was for the good guys to take down the bad guys in some way and put their shenanigans to a stop. Simple. Kid-like. An appropriate plot I suppose for a show aimed at 10-14 year olds. It was still a good series despite the simplistic plot and characters.
Legend of Korra, however, in the first episode, does away with the simplistic villain and plot. The antagonists, who are not necessarily "bad guys", have a valid beef with the denizens of Republic City. Korra nearly exacerbates this feeling of animosity herself in the first 1-2 episodes when she walks by an Equalist shouter and harasses him with bending. Amon, until the season finale, was a very complex villain. He was extremely heavy handed, but with benders sometimes you have to be. Benders are badasses, they can easily take down almost any non-bender. If the benders won't listen to peaceful pleas to treat the non-benders better, then naturally, it is time to use some force. And what is better to get a privileged individual to listen than to remove his privilege? This move certainly made the benders take notice. The goal is to make them realize they are not the only people in the world, and that they DO live very privileged lifestyles. But, as things are wont to do, the goal of getting benders to take notice and do something about the inequality got swept under the rug and the antagonists ran out of control on their power-trip. This whole situation between the two groups put Korra, the penultimate bender, in a tough quandary. She defended the benders multiple times against the Equalists, but she also defended the non-benders at least once against Tarrlok's reverse-heavy-handedness. In a situation like this, when the antagonists are not necessarily the bad guys, and the people on Team Protagonist are not necessarily in the right -- that's a complex plot right there. That's a plot for adults, not kids. This setup gave the series some absolutely amazing potential that was just not present in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I applaud the creators happily for this.
But. As I said earlier, Legend of Korra was also weaker in some ways. Mostly in execution:
Avatar: The Last Airbender established the over-arching plot in exactly the first episode. Each season comprised a major milestone toward the end game of that plot. Plot: Stop the Fire Nation from world domination. Season 1: Save the Northern Water Tribe and defeat Fire Nation General Zhao (success). Season 2: Defend the premiere earth kingdom city of Ba Sing Se (failure, but necessary). Season 3: Defeat Ozai and Azula (success).
But Legend of Korra? Plot: benders are abusing and taking advantage of non-benders. Season 1: Defend Republic City from the equalist non-bender movement and defeat their leader (why? the equalists have an extremely valid point)? Season 2: ??? no idea ??? Defeating Amon, the equalist leader, was never the goal here. The goal was to try and come up with a way for non-benders to have the same rights and privileges as benders without violating the benders at a spiritual level. They could've started by creating a city council seat for a non-bender representative in order to give a voice to the non-benders in terms of public policy. They could create a branch of non-benders in the police force who specifically deal with non-bender criminals. Obviously the non-bending equalist chi-blocker badasses could EASILY fill this role, and perhaps would do so even better than their metal bending counterparts, since they so often defeated the metal bender police during clashes this first season of Korra. To be honest, this series has a plot that is a lot like X-men, but not as well excuted.
Here's kinda how it should've gone, given the same plot presentation. Plot: benders are abusing and taking advantage of non-benders. Season 1: Korra defeats the leader of the violent non-bender group while sacrificing her water/fire/earth bending to do so. However, she finally taps into her airbending after losing her other bending styles. Non-benders now regard Korra as the ultimate bad guy, the penultimate bender in defense of only the benders (even if it's not true). Season 2: Korra struggles with her loss of bending abilities and the nonsensical loss of support among the non-bending public while an organized group of furious benders strike back at the non-benders with a vicious amount of repression and violence. A new water bender joins Team Avatar to make up for Korra's lack of water bending. At the end of the season, Korra, having mastered her air bending, and along with Team Avatar, must defeat the uber badass leader of the benders league. They fail. They lose a member of Team Avatar in the process. Season 3: Korra must search inside herself and get in touch with the spiritual nature of the Avatar to help her find a solution that will redeem her in the eyes of both the benders and non-benders. Korra spends time trying to convince equalist dude and his elite chi-blockers to team up since the chi-blockers have great tactics against benders. Eventually they come to an agreement, and Team Avatar and equalist chi-blocker team go to take down uber badass bender leader. During the series finale, the battle with bender leader, Korra reaches a new low somehow and finally accesses her Avatar state, where the three lost bending abilities are suddenly restored mid-battle. This enables her to finally disable bender leader and take him down. She lets equalist leader decide what to do with him. He has Korra take away the guy's bending, just like Aang did. She then, as the series wraps up, allows former benders to petition for the return of their bending. She also allows non-benders to petition her to activate a bending of their preference inside of them as well. The government of Republic City (and elsewhere) is reorganized to allow the non-benders to have equal say with benders. Council seats involve one air bender, one earth bender, one fire bender, one water bender, and four non-benders. Etc etc. The end.
It doesn't have to be exactly like this to be a good series, but it really needed to have an over-arching plot with things left dangling at the end of the season so that the fans have something to grasp onto that will make them want to watch the next season. They also need some inkling of understanding about where this story is going. Korra needs to have a bad time at the end of Season 2 in order to make Season 3's resolution spectacular. The original series did this and it worked really well. But they've left nothing, no clues as to what the hell the rest of this series is going to be about. I'm sure they can come up with something if they try hard enough, but they've closed off pretty much every avenue established in season 1 that they could've used to create a lot of tension and drama.
Our lowest low should be at the end of season 2!
It would seem more appropriate to call this a series finale. :(
Drilling Down to Specific Flaws
In the key first episode we are presented with a cocky, conceited, and unsympathetic main character. Korra comes blasting in like she's better than everyone and immediately the audience is turned off to her. A memorable example of this is when she destroys Tenzin's ancient air bending training device in a burst of rage. And then, AND THEN, when he tells her how old it is she grumps off to wallow in self-pity leaving everyone else to clean it up and repair it. It would've been much better for her character to suck it up and help them fix what she destroyed, effectively admitting that what she did was wrong. But in the first handful of episodes, she is too conceited to do the right thing.
Aang, on the other hand, was afraid, unsure, confused, and absolutely sympathetic from the get-go. That is key to pulling in an audience. Your main character has to be sympathetic and likable, and they have to be so in the FIRST EPISODE. If you blow your intro, it is very unlikely that people will stick around to see more. I have to wonder if Legend of Korra gained any new viewers that weren't fans of the original series who knew it would be good despite the annoying main character?
Fortunately, about 3-4 episodes in, Korra gets knocked down a few pegs. You can't be cocky and overconfident if you can't back it up. And so the next largely annoying thing about the series is just that. Korra is the only one in the world who can bend more than one element, and she has mastered 3 by the time we meet her in episode 1. She has been training for bending and combat her entire life, at least since she was about 6 years old (estimation based on the flashback). So why then is she constantly getting her ass kicked by everyone else who only has one bending style at their disposal or none? Aang had only airbending in the first season (for the most part) and he was nearly impossible to capture and/or defeat. Korra is constantly getting defeated. I don't like this. She is the avatar, the master of 3 bending styles, and she has backstory to support her competence in them. There should be very few people able to defeat her, and none of those people should be peons like the equalist mooks or the standard police force metalbender. It should take nearly an army to bring her down, or an extremely competent main antagonist, not 3 unnamed guys in every other episode.
Another thing that they totally screwed up, that they also screwed up in the original series, was the romantic subplot. Mako/Korra/Asami/sorta-Bolin. Korra and Bolin were never right together, even from the beginning, so it is good that didn't work out. It's because Bolin seems too much like Sokka, who was the brother to Katara, who seems a lot like Korra. Brother-like and sister-like do not make for a good romance. Korra and Mako seemed ok together until Asami came along. Once Asami was in the picture, Asami and Mako now had by far the best chemistry. Mako obviously gained respect for Korra and cared about her as a friend over the course of season 1, but the two just never had nearly the chemistry that Mako and Asami did. And so now in the season finale, Mako dumps Asami in the rudest possible way to be with Korra, who now seems totally wrong for him? Ugh. First thing Mako needs to do next season, on screen, is to apologize profusely to Asami and to throw himself at her mercy for being such a dick to her. He needs to redeem his character somehow for all the terrible things he's done.
But, this isn't unique to Legend of Korra. The original series failed on this point too. Katara and Aang felt like they had a mother-son relationship. They had absolutely no chemistry. Katara treated Aang like a child the whole 3-season series, and suddenly we're expected to believe that Aang and Katara get together? Meanwhile, Katara and Zuko had a ton of chemistry, but they pair him off with a personality-less barely-main-character? I didn't dislike Mai, but she and Zuko didn't really have any chemistry. They were never shown together really. They didn't have time to build up any sort of relationship. So it seems the creators are pretty decent at generating chemistry between characters they never intend to get together.
Next up. We meet General Iroh who looks like he's 30 but sounds like he's 12? Seriously, I cringe every time I hear his voice because his character design does not at all match his voice (I have nothing against Zuko's voice actor, but he is an inappropriate choice for someone older than about 18). A minor point, but I don't like that Iroh mentioned his grandpa (Zuko) when talking about stuff in the season finale. It seemed like an unnecessary wink-wink back to the first series. It just made me roll my eyes. We already knew he was Zuko's grandson and is being voiced by Zuko's voice actor, we didn't need to have it smacked into our faces.
I saw this online, and it sums up the odd voice casting decision for Iroh:
So where was Katara during the flashbacks of Yakone's trial? Everyone else was there -- Aang, Sokka, Toph. She was not involved in this pivotal scene that sparked so much anguish 40ish years later? Once again Katara gets the shaft!
Why can so many people use lightning bending when it was supposed to be one of the hardest things to master (via the first series)? I'll give the blood bending thing a pass since they did mention that Yakone was the most powerful blood bender of his time or somesuch. And on that note, why can't Korra: a) blood bend, b) lightning bend, c) metal bend? I mean if everyone else can, seems like she should be able to do so as well (she can obviously use the water bending healing techniques)!
Stupid Things Gets a Section All Its Own
My first comment: please don't make characters do incredibly stupid things just for the sake of moving the plot along. Take the time and energy to generate a real, believable reason for something to happen. Stupidity by the characters just makes the writers look stupid.
So!
Why, if they thought it was weird seeing fence posts with no fence, did they keep running? Why weren't the earth benders knocking over the damn mechs? Why wasn't Tenzin knocking over the mechs with airbending whirlwinds? Why aren't the earth benders able to insulate the electricity used by the equalists - metal benders are earth benders too. Why don't the benders do anything sensible when General Iroh's fleet is attacked? Why doesn't Mako, whom it has been shown can lightning bend, use lightning bending all the time in combat if it is supposedly so much more effective (Azula used nothing but lightning bending, and she was the most badass fire bender of her time)? Why doesn't (or can't) Mako redirect the equalists' electricity with his lightning bending? Case in point -- Zuko couldn't lightning bend, but he could at least redirect lightning by the end of the series. Original series Iroh was shown to be able to redirect electricity a number of times as well.
Why does the city council listen to Tarrlok when he's obviously being an asshole with his proposals? I mean he's totally pulling a Palpatine, but in a way more obvious way. Why does Korra feel she can't refuse Tarrlok's bullshit if she's standing in front of other people while she can easily refuse when they're alone?
Why didn't Amon take Korra's bending away in ep 3 or 4 when he had the chance? He was all "you get to be last! hurrrrr" But then it was like what, two weeks later(?), when he finally did do it? Except, of course, it ended up backfiring since Korra now knew what she was up against and was way more prepared for the fight. It was an attempt, I guess, to scare some humility into Korra to make her more likable. But they could've managed that without making Amon look like a typical stupid bad guy who shoves away advantages and plays the pipe organ.
How in the hell did Tenzin get captured? Pretty much everyone who I've talked to and who has reviewed the finale has griped about this. If babies notice there's something wrong about this, then you shouldn't've done it, writers! Tenzin was flying away to places unknown, and the airships were shown to have turned back due to Lin's sacrifice. Tenzin and company were long gone. The equalists had no idea where he was going, and I'm not even sure Korra did either. So not only how did they intercept them when they had no one following them, but how did they manage to capture them and so easily, when just last episode the Tenzin kids defeated a large group of equalists (with Lin's help)! They may not have had Lin to help this time but they did have Tenzin! It shouldn't have been possible!
This is the biggest red flag in the entire season! It makes no sense!
Which, anyway, raises the question: why are the equalists any good at fighting airbenders at all? They have NEVER fought air benders because the only airbenders are Tenzin and his family. They have no experience against them. Meanwhile, Tenzin has experience under his belt fighting all sorts of benders since there are plenty of the other types of benders in the world. Tenzin should be even harder to defeat than Korra. Especially given air bending's natural inclination to not be restrained in any way. So, like Korra, why the hell is it so easy to defeat Tenzin? He shouldn't need anything like the avatar state (which Aang used to his advantage a number of times) to wipe the floor with just about anyone.
The Tarrlok / Amon Issue
I was a little disappointed that Tarrlok was just some random made up for this series after all the previous-series main characters are so tied-in with the protagonists. It felt a little cheap. Either tie way in with the previous series and make both the good guys and bad guys related to those from the previous, or break ties with the previous series almost completely.
Also disappointing: Amon is Tarrlok's long lost brother? Geez, I was angling for someone related to Azula/Ozai, both of whom were alive at the end of the original series and whom now had a bone to pick with people. Especially with Ozai having had his bending taken away by Aang, and Azula being extremely loyal to Ozai. It would've made complete sense for Ozai to have started a movement against benders after his bending was taken away by the penultimate bender, the Avatar.
Or, at least, maybe Tenzin's non-bending brother Bumi. Maybe they didn't realize that Bumi did have bending capabilities -- he could bend the spirit and take bending away, but that was all he could do. And maybe he didn't realize he could do this until way later; in his 30s or something. At this point he'd sure have reason to be bitter what with his siblings getting all the glory being the bending children of the Avatar. Especially considering what a privileged society the society of benders is. But nope, they didn't do that either. Even that would've been more interesting than "yet another son of Yakone."
Despite all this, one of the better scenes in the season finale was Tarrlok and his brother riding off on the boat together at the end. (I think it was silly that Amon turned tail and ran, but if he had to have done that, then this was a reasonable end to him) Anyway, the scene was nice and emotional, and a good way to send off a disturbed child who redeemed himself in the end (Tarrlok), and to put a final end to Amon and his shenanigans. It illustrated the folly of their choices and their father. It also allowed the brothers to be together as brothers one last time. It allowed them both to acknowledge and accept a final consequence for their actions. This was a perfect end to the season. Closure here with the main antagonists, and then some other stuff should've been left dangling (Korra's lost bending, her inability to get in touch with her spiritual side, the romantic subplot, Lin's lost bending, etc).
Only two more points about this scene with Tarrlok and Noatak: 1) they didn't show the body so there is a chance one or both did not die from this explosion (and if this is the case, I am going to be so pissed), 2) who was around to see this happen? No one's going to know that Amon is actually dead and gone (assuming he actually is). Team Avatar had better spend the rest of the series looking for Amon behind every corner because there were no witnesses to see this, so they have no idea that Tarrlok took himself and his brother down in the end!
Things Wrong With the Ending
1. Mako + Korra - Asami was way too rushed. Mako and Korra have no chemistry (anymore). Mako has not been portrayed as the type to jerk girls around, yet he has done so at least twice now. Asami got royally shafted and Mako couldn't even give her any sort of excuse at all. He should've been honest with her to give her some closure because she is his friend and he cares about her even if he isn't in love with her. She is going through a tough time with her only living parent; she doesn't need Mako's insensitive douchebaggery on top of it right now. And anyway, should Korra really want to be with someone who has been known to cheat on his girlfriends in the past? I would've felt better had Korra realized she was over Mako (before his awkward love declaration) and had gone to tell him this on her own terms. I want Korra to be the captain of her own life; I don't want her simply reacting to others. At this point I think General Iroh would be a much better match for Korra; she helps him loosen up and he helps her learn some restraint. They would be good for each other.
This image of Tenzin's wife Pema sums up the Mako/Asami/Korra cluster-f!ck quite nicely:
2. Korra should NOT lose and regain her bending in the same. damn. episode. They should've had her bending taken away and left it dangling to the next season at the very least.
3. Korra should not figure out her air bending in the same episode she figures out the spiritual side of the Avatar. Those are both HUGE things for her and she deserves to have, at the very least, an entire episode dedicated to each. I would've preferred an entire SEASON dedicated to each. This season she should've finally learned how to touch her airbending (not master it, but to touch it). And they should've left it at that. Next season they should've had her work on mastering her air bending. For the series finale, she should finally figure out her spiritual side right at the end. Once she figures it out at the end of the series, she is able to restore bending to everyone who has lost it, like Lin. It would've had much more impact. I should mention that Aang struggled with his Avatar state stuff so much over so many episodes. This Avatar state stuff in Legend of Korra was just way too rushed and crammed together with other big stuff happening to have the significant emotional impact that it needed to.
4. So Korra unlocks her air bending. LAME. Why? Because she did absolutely nothing to earn it. She was shown in the first couple of episodes trying to do the things Tenzin was telling her but with very little patience and absolutely no success. Since she joined the Fire Ferrets pro-bending team, she has shirked her on-screen air bending training. Never again was she shown to be practicing air bending, trying to connect with that aspect of herself. And suddenly she finds it when Mako's fire bending is about to be nuked? Emotional outbursts have absolutely nothing to do with the tranquility and calmness of learning to air bend. It's pretty much the opposite of the air bending philosophy. Aang struggled with learning earth bending over several episodes. I specifically remember Toph laughing her ass off at him failing miserably in an episode dedicated to him trying to learn it. Korra struggled with air bending in a few scenes over a couple of episodes but then pretty much gave up on it. She should not be rewarded for giving up. She should not get a freebie pass because she gets emotional over some guy. She needed to essentially understand and come to terms with the philosophical nature of air bending before she could connect with it, and anguish at Mako has nothing to do with that. Furthermore, just because she tapped it finally does not mean she should be any good at it. She had an incredible amount of control over it while fighting Amon there at the end. That is like insult to injury right there. Getting something she didn't earn and automatically being good at it without any training. LAME. I MAY give this lameness a pass if at the beginning of the next season she finds she can hardly use air bending at all and needs actual, real training in it before she can use it passably. If this happens, I can accept the fact that in the season 1 finale she got assistance from her Avatar side without precisely tapping into the Avatar state, solely for the purpose of defeating Amon.
5. Lin should've had to live without her earth bending for at least a season. Giving it back practically the next episode makes her sacrifice pointless. I am extremely disappointed by this. Her scene of dismantling the airships to save Tenzin was so spectacular and moving, that to crush it with such bullshit is extremely disappointing.
6. Why didn't Korra and Mako free Tarrlok ? With his bending gone, what was he going to do exactly? Korra and Mako went STRAIGHT to the rally and announced everything that Tarrlok had told them in front of everyone so there was no way Amon wasn't going to know that Tarrlok had talked to them. After all, Amon knew that Tarrlok was the only one who knew the things that Korra et al were saying at the rally. If Tarrlok wanted to wait for his brother's return, he should've just said that. It was just a stupid comment/scene. It didn't add anything, it took screen time away for other more interesting things, and managed to make the characters look even stupider (as if they needed that).
7. Korra's comment at the end about "I'm not the Avatar anymore *whine*" is just totally stupid. It makes her sound like she's throwing a temper tantrum. Again, she's been trained as the Avatar since she was a kid. She knows what the Avatar is. The Avatar is the person who houses the connection between the physical world and the spirit world. Being able to tap into all bending styles is just a side effect of that. Even if she can't bend, she is still the Avatar because she has that spiritual side of her that no one else in the world has. And no one can take that aspect away from her. She is the Avatar and will be the Avatar until the day she dies no matter what happens. That is the long and short of it. She should know this. What an immature outburst, Korra. Real dumb.
8. Why the assumption that what Korra and Mako are announcing at the rally is lies if Amon appears to have a burned face? He could still be everything Korra says and have been burned in combat with a fire bender later. Or, you know, it could've been faked up makeup... like it was. That was a really stupid audience reaction for something that was so easily explainable.
9. Korra needs to be touching the avatar state to resist the blood bending. Aang needed it, and she obviously can't blood bend herself, so she should need it too.
10. How did Tenzin and his family get captured after they had very obviously escaped? This is so incredibly asinine that it really belongs under the heading of "stupidity". To wit: see the "Stupid Things" section for further details on this one.
11. Earth benders and water benders could've made the attack on the naval fleet trivial. Airplanes slamming into walls of water or stone are going to be stopped quick as hell. Metal benders could've torn up the missiles and torpedos. Water benders could've filtered the mines from the water near the ships. Metal benders could've flung the mines up at the airplanes! This is not rocket science, guys! This was all stupid stupid stupid stuff that trained benders should easily be able to figure out. And we know there aren't just fire benders on those ships. Just what exactly was everyone doing? Was Iroh the only one creative enough to think of an effective tactic, even if he had the wrong bending element to really effectively address the issues? Korra also should've done more, since she is VERY strong in water bending and has at least mastered her earth bending. Meanwhile, what was Mako doing during this scene? Standing on the beach watching?
12. A little more generically -- you don't resolve your romantic tension at the end of a season. You leave it dangling in the worst state imaginable and then resolve it at the beginning of the next season. You only tie it up at the end of a season if it is also the end of the series (the final episode).
13. I know it's a kid's show, but I am really disappointed that Asami didn't take down her dad in the end there. He was unredeemable, and she knew it, and it would've meant some closure for her character. And look at Tarrlok -- his dad had his bending taken away and was sent to jail and he still escaped and created havoc. This is just asking for trouble later.
14. Seriously, what is this facial reconstructive surgery BS? That's about as far out in left field as you can get for a setting such as this. Did he use facebenders? I mean, c'mon. This society is not technically advanced enough for this to be possible.
15. So just what exactly is the rest of the series going to be about now that they've tied everything up all nice and neat? What conflict is there going to be? Are they going to drop the whole equalist thing or expand on it? What does Korra really have left to learn/understand about her Avatar nature? This felt more like a series finale than a season finale. If it was an issue of funding, they should've made two finale episodes: one that wraps things up completely that they air if they have no funding for next season, and another one that they instead air if they do get funding that wraps up a couple plot points and opens 2-3 new ones and leaves at least half the established plot stuff dangling. As it is, they aired a "series finale" style episode which leaves nothing enticing for viewers to want to watch the next season. I'll watch it just because it's a series set in Avatar-world. But they really need to do better than this to generate the large following that the original series had.
Other
1. Can Korra now give bending to people who never had bending? This would be a totally different way to equalize the populace.
2. I am fine with Amon being a bender. I suspected from episode 1 that he would be. The equalists have a good cause I think but are going about it the wrong way. To have them betrayed in such a huge way by their leader may help them rethink their approach and goals. It will be, for their side, a season of growth so that they can figure out what is really the best approach to solving their problems.
Although really, what did they think Amon was doing anyway? Spirit bending, like Aang did? Chi-blocking has never been shown to be this powerful, and if it is beyond what normal chi-blockers can do (if only one guy can do it), then it is likely something else. Something supernatural. Like bending. It still requires bending to remove another's bending. See: Aang. Be less dumb, guys!
3. Via Tarrlok's backstory, we know that a bender who's had his bending removed by the Avatar can still pass his bending on to future children. This is pretty much the only interesting thing to have come out of Tarrlok's family/backstory, but it is a very interesting tidbit nonetheless.
4. I like the nice contrast with the original series where the bad guys were firebenders, and this season of Korra, the bad guys ended up being water benders. (I don't really consider the equalists to be bad guys per se... at the moment)
5. Do Tarrlok or Amon have kids? In this season they are ages 37 and 40 respectively, which means they've had plenty of time to have kids. If either has, it's possible the powerful blood bending has been passed on to someone not yet shown on-screen who can take up Amon's reins in season 2+. Since we're going with the theme of passing "things" on between generations, this would make sense. However, if we want to carry on the "sins of the father do not necessarily pass on to the son" adage from the original series (Ozai/Zuko), then maybe this child joins Team Avatar as their dedicated water bender instead.
The Good
One of the things I like most about this series is that they dare to have a female main character. And this, after releasing only one toy of Katara and none of Toph for the original series. What a crock. And here Katara was in pretty much every episode and was the narrator for the entire series. Why o why you hate girls so much? But, well, yay. They could've made Korra's personality less annoying at the beginning, though. (I will say I'm glad she's confident and willful, but I do NOT like that she has absolutely no humility or respect for others)
Another thing I just LOVE is that Korra's character design includes ass-kicking MUSCLES. Ain't no twiggy arms for our ass-kicking heroine. Thank god for this. I have no words to explain how happy I am to see this one little detail in her character design.
MUSCLES!
General Iroh, so far, has been an awesome character. He had some of the best scenes in the season finale; was creative, determined, and absolutely honorable. He essentially sacrificed himself to defend his men in the fleet. He had no idea that Korra would be there to save him, so he lucked out. It didn't make his near-sacrifice any less awe-inspiring.
I already mentioned outside the cut how the animation is gorgeous, the action/fighting choreography is spectacular, and the integration of CG and traditional 2D animation is top-notch. The music, also, is well done, and is well-used at points throughout the series. A big example of everything coming together perfectly is a very iconic avatar-sounding song playing in the background while Lin dismantles the equalist ship knowing that she is going to be caught and is going to lose her bending. It was an incredibly moving scene. Probably the best scene in the entire series so far. If you can bring your audience to tears, you have done your job well. That is a scene well-worthy of tears.
And the last big thing regarding Lin Beifong. She is a spectacular role model for young girls even more so than Korra. Ever notice that the ugliest dudes can be successful politicians whose actions are the only things people speak of, but people like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are constantly having their appearances critiqued and commented about in the news as if it were somehow relevant to being a successful politician? This is the world we live in. Yet, in avatar world, there is one Lin Beifong. She is all of:
- A female character, who is
- Ugly
- Old
- Has a scarred face
- with a grouchy and abrasive personality
Yet we see her act with the most heroic selflessness of anyone in the entire series so far. She is strong and competent. She runs her police benders with efficiency and strictness and honor. And her actions are those of a person who does the right thing, not because she is doing it for the love of a boy or some such useless nonsense, but simply because it is the right thing to do. She sacrifices, knowingly, a huge part of herself to save the family of a person with whom she has a static-y relationship because it is simply the right thing to do. In a word, she is awe-inspiring. And everyone, all of the fans love her despite her being all of those negative things I listed above. People have even generated porn of her. Porn! Of an old, ugly woman! I'm a bit shocked by that, but then again this is the internet were're talking about here. Still, it says a lot about how she blows those female stereotypes away allowing someone who is for all intents and purposes unappealing to be elevated to such a high degree. I'm surprised that such a mediocre series could (accidentally) create such a spectacular character. Thank god for Toph, the most shafted character in the entire first series. Without her and her non-existent love-life and lack of a wrap-up in the series finale, we would have no Lin.
Lin, we love you so much!