Legend of Korra: Chapters 13 and 14

[jimhines]

Legend of Korra
2 x 13: Darkness Falls
2 x 14: Light in the Dark

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Spoilers Ahead…

Comments

[akiko]

What I wanted to happen with Jinora (because it would have been narratively interesting) was this: in order to save Raava, she had to merge with her, then merge with Korra. (Which, yes, involves girl sacrificing herself blah blah, but the effects that would have on the other characters, Pema and Tenzin especially ...) There's precedent for that with Yue back in ATLA book 1.

[jimhines]

I was wondering if they were going to go that route. Overall, I'm glad they didn't. While it definitely would have been interesting and powerful, the girl-sacrificing-herself bit wouldn't have worked for me. I'd want to see a lot more setup for something like that.

[akiko]

Yeah, it would have to have shown Jinora realizing that the way to save the Avatar was to become the avatar spirit, and now that I think about it more, it could have been even more interesting if Jinora refused. One thing a friend of mine said recently has stuck with me: the writers of Korra have never taken the narratively dangerous route, the one with real consequences, and when they did (the end of S1), they fixed it before it *could* have consequences. There aren't any real stakes for any of the characters.

(He quipped... wait, this might be a spoiler. Have you gotten to the middle of ATLA season 3 yet?)

[jimhines]

We're roughly halfway through. We just watched "The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion."

ETA: And yes. Legend of Korra has felt noticeably "safer" from a storytelling perspective.

Relationships

[coffeedaiv]

I think what Bryan Konietzko is referring to is the fanfic community pairing characters, and being unhappy about defined pairings. Which... even as I say that, I cannot imagine you are not aware of the greater Fanfic community, so I feel a bit silly to bring it up.

In any case, I tend to agree with you, and i like your assessments and reviews.

Re: Relationships

[jimhines]

Oh, definitely. I've seen a lot of emotion and investment in MaKorra, over Bolin and Asami, and many more. (I still think Korra + Asami would be awesome.) And he's right that people can get really, really into their preferred pairings.

But I don't think that's where most of the unhappiness was coming from with regards to the ongoing romance and relationship in this season and last.

Of course, as with so many things, I could be wrong :-)

Re: Relationships

[tsubaki_ny]

I would not inflict any of the other three on poor Asami. These people need to discover the value of alone time.

And I really wish showrunners in general would learn to pay less attention to their fanfic. I am very pro fanfic, but I have not seen any instances where showrunners actually addressing fanfic trends in their official plot has been anything but detrimental and flow-disruptive, if not outright petty.

[a4nightblade]

Seems like Asami was the one who lost most this season. She's still coming to grips with her father's imprisonment, her business is severely damaged because of Varrick's betrayal, she got put to one side (again) by Korra and her weird amnesia...and she's pretty much back to where she started at S2E1. If I was her, I don't think I'd be wanting to know Korra and her me-me! attitude. I dunno, I don't feel like the AvaKorra learned much at all from her ordeal IMO...and it will probably spark up the Equalist cause again by creating more turmoil around the world.

[jimhines]

I get the feeling the writers didn't really know what to do with Asami this season ... that she was basically just a leftover from season one. And that's a shame.

[allbluedreams]

Honestly, I think this season is the victim of time crunch. It's not an excuse, but they had YEARS to iron out the wrinkles of Korra's first season, they had months this time around, and it showed.
This story was way too epic to be told in fourteen episodes, particularly when half of the time is wasted on Bumi, Bolin and Varrick, all of whom contributed SQUAT to the story.
Bumi as Anti-Tenzin is a fascinating foil and all, but he does not deserve nearly the screen time he got. Bolin is... comic relief only, and not even GOOD comic relief. Varrick? Imagine the story if there WAS no Varrick, perhaps to be replaced by an Asami who realizes 'hey, I've got cash, resources, and facilities. What CAN'T I do?'
Just my two cents. Looking forward to next season,and the righting of the ship as it were.

[lone_wolf_lupa]

Out of curiosity, do you intend to review Korra Season 3 now that it's all out? I for one can attest that it's much, much better than Season 2.

[jimhines]

I don't know. We've watched most of it, and I'm still having trouble really feeling the magic. Between that and a lack of time, I'm not sure what I'll end up doing.