Constructive Criticism for Mike and Bryan

[nochenne]

Hi everyone! Quick programming note: the speculation post is coming tomorrow, probably in the early afternoon EST/evening here in Europe, and will be a regular Wednesday thing hereafter, unless the community decides otherwise. Hopefully we'll get some clips before next Wednesday so there will be new stuff to speculate about!

Comments

[evilsherbear]

Positives: Amon feels like a real threat! I was afraid that this series wouldn't be able to deliver on the villain front, and I can tell there's going to be some big revelations with his character. Korra has matured a lot since the series started, and I'm loving the characters, I just wish we got more time with them. Which leads me to the negatives

[nochenne]

Yes, I completely agree about Amon. He's much more threatening than Ozai ever was, and is basically on par with Azula in terms of antagonistic effectiveness, imo. I can't wait to find out what those big revelations about his character are.

The lack of airbending has bothered me, too, but now that everyone has relocated to the island, I'm hoping we'll really get to focus on it. It seems like the perfect time for Korra to make a breakthrough, because it just doesn't make sense to call this Book "Air," and not have her learn airbending by the end of it, and I think she needs time to develop her technique after successfully making a few gusts.

[evilsherbear]

NGL, Steve Blum's voice acting on Amon has really sold me on his character. I love that man's voice.

I love airbending, so after the first two episodes seeing the series take a sharp turn away from it saddened me. Ia, they now have the time to focus on airbending, or they could go the shipping episode route and have it be wacky sitcom "Can they all learn to live together?" story on airbender island. There's 5 episodes left in the season; I can't see them spending more than 2 episodes going into Korra really focusing on airbending, as they have to wrap up the flashbacks AND the equalist storyline AND whatever Tarrlock is up to, as well as making the Krew feel like friends. That's so much to wrap up in such a short time! I'm hoping they can pull it all off.

[wicked_g]

Totally agree in the lack of buildup in relationships-I can buy Mako and Asami, but Korra and Bolin and Mako seem like they're still acquaintances and it's confusing to see them interact so closely at times.

Yeah, and when Mako defended keeping the pro bending finals on, he made it seem like the arena is the only safe place non-benders and benders get together in the city-what else is happening that we're not seeing? All the non-benders we've been meeting (i.e. not Amon and his followers) have been accommodating, so what are we missing? ALSO also, the main non-benders we know are privileged and in high positions in society (Asami, Hyroshi, Pema, Cabbage Corp Man)-they're hardly a good representation for this group of people who feel downtrodden and want equality.

[juel1979]

Totally agree with your pro paragraph there. It's not very subtle, but she's definitely growing as a person and a character, and I think the more that happens, the more like a spiritual avatar she will become and less like a freight train. =P

[nochenne]

I think the animation itself is absolutely gorgeous, but the CGI elements have not been very smoothly inserted. Granted, the CGI stood out even more in ATLA, but it was also used less, so I guess I would say I wish they'd decided not to use CGI at all. My guess is the reason they're doing it in the first place is to speed the animation process along?

[juel1979]

Probably a bit of speed, and from the sounds of it, budget and less animators than previous. I know all of ATLA was US based (at least from my research) which is unusual in and of itself. So much stuff is general shipped to Korea to do.

[nochenne]

I thought they worked with Korean animation studios for ATLA, too? In fact, I think they worked with at least two different ones, and now they're with Studio Mir, where some of those animators have migrated.

[peppersaurus]

Pacing was always the problem for me with this series, and last series. Last series had a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions that hopefully doesn't happen with Korra. So far, everything has been explained and answered, or looks like it's eventually going to be answered (except for how some of the Gaang died, but w/e).

For me, the best thing has been the animation and music. I'm always stunned at how beautiful everything looks, and the Track Team produces some flawless stuff.

For Book Two, I'm really curious as to what the plot is going to be, and hoping it doesn't seemed tacked on or dragged out. Like was mentioned, Book One was meant to be self-contained, so Book Two is just one big question mark. Like, Who's stirring shit now?

[nochenne]

Book Two intrigues me so much because you're right, at this point it is just a giant question mark. Mike says we're going to get a new antagonist, so obviously that's something to wonder about, but I'm also curious about character development and relationships, and where Korra will be in relation to her airbending and spirituality. Since I'm a shipper, I'll use that as an example: say they get Korra and Mako together at the end of Book One, as I'm pretty certain they will (don't ask me how, though, I have no idea). Will they keep them together in Book Two, and have them work through issues as a couple (my preference), or will they break them up, temporarily or otherwise? I'm sure there are other examples that present just as much potential for discussion!

And yes, I'm loving the animation and the music. The Track Team is amazingly talented.

[peppersaurus]

Whoa, I didn't know they said we'd get a new antagonist. I hope it's nothing repetitive, or stale (I'm sick of firebenders always being the bad guys, tbh). It'd be neat if there was something crazy happening in the spirit world. Or if they were somehow merging...IDK!

[lanugi]

Yeah, Bryke said that season 1 would be it's own stand-alone story, so no more Equalist stuff in season 2.

I'd LOVE it if they delved into more spirit stuff. That was one of my favorite things about A:tlA. Maybe she'll have to reconnect with the Spirit World cause people aren't spiritual enough anymore? idk idk

[margerydaw_s2]

I don't really have much to add to what you've already pointed out, but I think this post is really awesome and am excited to see what members have to add.

I'm not too sure how they're going to establish Mako/Korra/Bolin as a team outside the arena.They get accidentally caught up in her avatar business/equalist conflicts while the real team is actually Tenzin/Korra/Lin. That's not necessarily bad, of course. I happen to love it. But if they don't want to go that way, they probably should remember they have less episodes to work with and they have to address this.

[nochenne]

Thank you!

I think having them all live on the Island together will definitely help them grow as a team and as friends. I think it was always their intention to have heavy involvement from Tenzin and Lin, though; I remember that the original design for that first poster at Comic Con included Tenzin and Lin, though they had to cut them later on, and both Tenzin and Lin featured into the presentation of new characters. (It's also interesting me that they didn't mention Asami at all; I get why they might want to do that for plot reasons, but I'm still hesitant to call her the fourth member of Korra's Krew.)

[margerydaw_s2]

Yeah, hopefully the move will serve to bring them closer. I'd love if they could all work together against Amon. Tenzin, Lin, Mako, Bolin, Asami and Korra. I refuse to count Tarrlok in this equation.

[caterfree10]

Mm, one thing that's sticking out to me is the handling of the Equalist conflict. Considering the world Avatar takes place in, I can definitely believe that benders hold a lot of privilege over non-benders, even if we've gotten non-benders who've kicked ass both in the original series and now starting in Korra. The thing is, we haven't really seen a whole lot of this, primarily only that all members of the Republic City Council are benders and that the police force is (for all intents and purposes) an omnipresent force of benders. While we have a little of "the Equalists have a point, but the taking away bending thing is too far" from the informant who told Lin, Korra, and Tenzin about the underground factory, it isn't enough to give the conflict the nuance it needs. I'm hoping the next episodes go into this, but I'm worried, tbh. :/

[houndooms]

IA, they haven't really done a good job showing that nonbenders are, in fact, oppressed. For all we know the council members all being benders is just a coincidence, because we don't know what the prerequisites are for joining. While they did a good job with the Triad in the first episode threatening the shop owner, I feel like that was the only really strong case the Equalists had about benders being oppressive. Attacking a sport just because you don't like it, on the other hand, feels really... immature to me? I mean, if probending was somehow doing harm to nonbenders, I'd love to see it. But if you basically said what Amon said about the probenders about anyone with a natural talent, you'd probably get side-eyed pretty hard.

[juel1979]

A lot of resentment is born in feeling slighted in a way. If Amon turns out to be a bender who wants to be the only one left, it would make sense that he attacks probending if he was never allowed to play (last kid picked syndrome), or just not being a bender in general, who wants to be someone in the spotlight and kinda gets resentful of those who get attention for something he'll never have

[nochenne]

Yeah, all of this. I think Mike and Bryan are pretty good writers, but they do have an issue with telling instead of showing.