Avatar Legend Of Korra Thread

I've been watching Korra, and damn it feels bad when there's so much unexplained shit that pops up that flat out makes no sense.

So, there's the S2 Korra plotline where the first avatar learns all the elements and eventually fuses with the spirit of light or something. I get people hate on this arc, but I didn't think that was so bad even if it was out of nowhere. What I hated is that near the end of the series, a dude fuses with the dark spirit... and just instantly becomes an Avatar completely in control of all 4 elements. What? The first Avatar had to go through all kinds of shit to learn the elements, and the fusion with the light spirit just gave them the "avatar state", basically. The dark spirit just magically skips all that and grants mastery of all elements?

It feels like they said
"OK, we want an avatar vs avatar finale to S2, how do we get there?"
"Oh, just have the dark spirit grant all elements"
"But that's not what happened in the origin story we used 5 episodes back, it makes no sense!"
"Who cares, nobody is going to fact check this shit, just don't mention it in-series and have the villain just gain all elements!"

Is there ANY excuse for it, or is it plain lazy writing?

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>What I hated is that near the end of the series, a dude fuses with the dark spirit... and just instantly becomes an Avatar completely in control of all 4 elements.
This is wrong, though. Unavaatu could only waterbend. Rewatch the episode. He might get some weird Vaatu-based powers, but the only bending he can do is the Waterbending he already knew.

It's lazy.

He clearly bends earth though, and closes Korra in a fissure. Is that not earthbending?

Did Unalaq ever use anything besides water bending? Despite calling himself the "Dark Avatar" (which is all kinds of retarded, mind you), I only remember him using the "Dark Avatar" powers to grow giant. He never actually used fire, earth or air bending.

I still can't believe he called himself the Dark Avatar unironically.

They were at the South pole. That was snow and ice. Waterbending.

Oh shit that makes sense then, I'm retarded. I heard him shill himself as "dark avatar" and then when he started bending the ground I didn't even think about what it was made of.

I AM THE DARK AVATAR AND EVEN THOUGH I AM DOING WHAT I THINK IS BEST FOR THE WORLD I WILL TALK AS IF I KNOW IM PURE EVIL AND DAAAARK!

I'm ashamed that "dark avatar" and "harmonic convergence" are phrases I now know.

Ya its lazy writing. The light spirit specifically states that she will hold onto the power to bend three of the four elements because humans can only hold one type of bending at a time. Then when their souls fuse the avatar can use all four types of bending at once.

Unless at some point before his prison the dark spirit tricked at least 3 lion turtles to give him bending powers The villain should never of been able to use all types of bending.

The plot hole inside a plot hole is that The villain is instantly proficient at bending the 3 elements not native to him. There was always a learning process. (except Korra she get to learn 3 elements at birth, because power creep)

It's so silly they gave Korra 3 elements at birth too, they could have easily given her the plotline of "she chose the right toys!" followed by her moving pebbles around, and then a cut to her firebending exam to show she was finishing her 3rd element. If Aang could master 3 elements in under a year, I don't see why they would feel the need to start Korra out with 3 as a toddler. Was it just to make that DEAL WITH IT joke?

I hated that they brought Iroh back. Fucking why? They gave him an amazing tribute with the next generation general Iroh, and then they just go "haha, the original is still alive too, he's fucking around in the spirit world".

Rate the Korra seasons best to worst?

1 > 3 > 4 > 2

I always wanted to see Unalaq fucking Korra in her butthole after her defeat.

Because Bryke, left to their own devices, are hacks.

Switch 3 and 1 and I agree.

3>1>2=4. I actually liked 2 because of Beginnings and the kaiju battle, however unreasonable, was pretty dope. It got messed up when Jinora came out of nowhere and saved Korra.

Lion Turtles were a mistake

1>3>4=2 for me personally.

3 > 4 > 1 > 2

1 was alright, until they really shat the bed with the ending. 2 was just awful. 3 was surprisingly okay, and the only one with a decent ending. 4 was mostly forgettable. The ending with the mecha was pretty dumb, but nothing as egregious as 1 and 2.

>1 was alright, until they really shat the bed with the ending
Which part did you dislike? The bloodbending reveal? The "he's related to the other bloodbender and also a major criminal from the past" part? The "she can airbend now for some reason" part? The "she can give bending back now because Aang" part?

...I'll show myself out.

I'm not a fan of any those things, but my my main issue is they completely failed to address the central conflict of the season. The concept of non-benders being oppressed isn't explored, or if their grievances are even legitimate. Korra's perspective on Amon's ideology isn't explored. Amon's ideology is never seriously examined in any way. I could go more into it, but I have to go to work now, sorry.

yea...once the face paint washed off the whole disenfranchised non-bender politics was just kinda swept under the rug, wasn't it?

How did they get away with it

Yeah well what would happen if it was found out that Trump is an illegal Mexican?

I just finished the original series for the first time and really enjoyed it. Enjoyed it enough to go and read all the comics they've released so far. Is Legend of Korra worth the watch? It seems like it got a mixed reception.

Yes, it's worth the watch, as one of the few cartoons that tells a few good season-long stories with a mix of good serious fights scenes and good comedy.

No, it's not as good as the original series.

You need to understand going into it that it WILL pander to the original series at many points, to a degree that can be annoying since you don't have the nostalgia for the series that many people did when Korra was originally airing. You also need to understand it adds to and changes canon in many ways, BUT not in ways that are insane to imagine. For example, in the original series Toph develops metal bending. In Korra, we see other new techniques that popped up in the many years between the two series. It also gives some controversial backstory to the universe that many fans of the original disagree with, many people liked the simple "oh people just learned firebending from dragons naturally and that's it" of the original series, but Korra eventually tries to add deeper lore to things like that, in ways the original series never implied. If you're capable of appreciating the original series and Korra as 2 separate series, you should enjoy Korra at many points. If you're going to get upset over small changes to canon and seeing the characters from the original series grown up or dead, maybe skip it completely.

It was more meant to juxtapose how well she synced with the other elements so air would be so embarrassing for her to have a block in. Plus, Aang didn't master 3 elements. He semi-mastered one and got decent at two.

I've tried watching this series three times now. ATLA is my favorite cartoon of all time.

Attempt 1: On release. Made it through Season 1 then put it down.
Attempt 2: Made it through Season 2.
Attempt 3: Made it almost through Season 1.

It's just so terrible. I hate every part of it. Should I push through and finish it? It feels like it's just crapping on ATLA.

If you hate it just stop trying. If you don't enjoy it for what it is why bother? It's not going to give you a reward for finishing it.

People tend to think season 3 is the best and people tend to like 1 as well, if you seriously hated all of 1 and 2 I doubt the series has anything to offer for you.

It's worth a watch. I hated a lot about it but it was enjoyable enough, it has good bits and it's fun to gripe about. Like Season 4 is a tire fire as far as writing goes but it's just fun to watch Kuvira strut. Or to count how many times series-wide that Korra and her friends job until the mandatory season finale win. Or just all the damn plot holes. It's like a master course in hack writing.

It front loads the worst stuff though, no need to force it if pushing through Season 2 feels awful. Everybody praises Season 3 but quite frankly S3 has terrible writing too, it just has a COOL villain squad. Not well written(in fact they purposefully avoid explaining anything about them!), they're just fun to watch at times. Which is about par for the course with Korra.

Look. If you want to know what's wrong with LoK, just look up E;R on YouTube. He does a fairly good job of explaining its issues in a fun way. Well I thought so.

Though broadly speaking, LoK is bad because it undoes all the interesting stuff from TLA. Its a wierd fanfiction esque retcon...

It had potential....and then decided to destroy that potential.

Korra and her friends jobs so much in this series that it's actually comical. I was cracking up when her friends just run straight into an electrical fence.

1>4>3>2

1 did great worldbuilding. probending was legit. amon taking away bending was great. the whole civil rights of benders vs nonbenders played out well. the love interest triangle was annoying though.

4 was good. kuvira was a good villain. the mechs were really cool.

3 had lavabending, zaheer was an idiot for thinking the whole "anarchy is the best form of government" idea tho.

2 i really cant remember anything from 2. vatuu? ravi? idk.

Er well they've probably never seen an invisible electric fence thing before, idk how the Equalists even made it but whatever.

>99005314

He didn't have all 4 elements. He only had water. He never uses anything else.

1 >>2=4

even if I like some of the art for beginnings, it ruins the avatar concept completely
people argue that Korra grew as a character & started thinking shit through in season 3. those people are called liars. even still, at least Zaheer was a better villain than Kuvira & whathisname from season 2. Amon was the only villain I'd call great

Korra left this chad for a brooding boring twink

Goodbye Korra

This was so fuckin childish and pseudo-edgy. Seriously, that's the kind of moment that makes me think LoK was a fanfiction (or something seriously inspired by a fanfiction) instead of a real sequel...That's also why I cannot consider it canon. I know it's supposed to be, but it's just too dumb. A bit like the new Star Wars. We got the same "syndrom", the same level of poorly written fanfiction bullshit

>or is it plain lazy writing?
It is since it's basically fanfiction

Get aay ith hat?

Oh fuck my keyboard.

Get away with what?

You should give it a try. I thought S1 was okay and flat out gave up at S2, it's terrible. Apparently it gets better but never great so I will never finish the series, I just wound up disliking all the characters but the fights were still cool and don't regret watching S1 at least.

>The "she can airbend now for some reason" part?
Gonna go with this as the absolute worst part of Book 1. It was so completely retarded.

More importantly, why did we never get to see Korra naked while Aang and friends got naked all the time?

>Aang and friends got naked all the time
What?

...

Korra is garbage. Without Aaron Ehasz it turned into feminist, SJW propaganda.
Such a great design wasted though...

There are a number of scenes with them bathing or sleeping in underwear. I mean, they don't do it in every chapter, but they do it enough to make it quite a contrast to how Korra is always with pants and shirt on.

>feminist, SJW propaganda
What the hell? How? By having the MC be a woman who thinks she's strong and independent but constantly fucks up instead?

by having a MC who's a complete cunt that undergoes almost zero character development and stumbles into solutions for her problems either through someone else's effort or deus ex machina that the audience is supposed to care about solely because she's a brown woman, and also apparently a lesbian when it's convenient for marketing purposes.

this. Where is my Korra in a two piece bikini?
More than sjw shit I consider it more of bad writing on Bryke's part. That is until the surprise lesbian ending

So she's an attractive woman with a shitty personality that has everything handed to her. Sounds pretty realistic to me, and it's something feminists would resent.
She wasn't a lesbian, she only dated a guy in the show.

They didn't make her a lesbian until the very last moment of the last episode. Pretty shit timing if they did it for marketing purposes.

user...
did you finish Korra?
youtube.com/watch?v=uWBbMZykTus

Two people holding hands for a few seconds is an extremely small amount of evidence - if Bryke hadn't confirmed it online a few days later, and if the comics never happened, people would still be arguing that it wasn't supposed to be romantic.

Is totally correct, the only person Korra was shown dating in the show was Mako.

meant to tag

>2 girls walk into a portal together
>they're retroactively lesbians
It's barely hinted at, and the fact that the creators had to make a blog post to announce it just confirms how it wasn't even present in the show.

How about you try thinking before parroting bullshit.

Watch the video again and listen to the music being played. Compare it to this
youtube.com/watch?v=DTTsY8fw37w
You seriously think there are no romantic undertones? You have got to be baiting, because you can't be this much of an idiot.
The people denying the lesbian shit were stupid or in denial. You don't don't stare into your friends eyes like you want to bone them, then precede to go on "vacation" together.

Everyone who wasn't dumb knew it was gay
>Oh look at those two FRIENDS holding hands like a couple FRIENDS while they go on their FRIENDLY 1-on-1 vacation
really? Even before the finale I thought they were being pretty fucking gay together.

>just confirms how it wasn't even present in the show.

and yet the creators felt it necessary to come forth and officially announce it just to make sure people got it. why? pandering. which was the original point.

Holy shit, are you hearing yourself right now? Fucking pathetic

>talking about points while completely missing one

Stop moving goalposts. We weren't arguing about whether or not it was pandering it was, I don't think that anyone can convincingly argue otherwise, we were arguing about whether or not Korra was demonstrably a lesbian in the show. Which she was not.

>Holy shit, are you hearing yourself right now? Fucking pathetic
Explain
I'm
Because anyone who saw that scene and didn't immediately think "fuck that's gay" is actually retarded.

that's my entire point though. they make her a lesbian as a last ditch effort at the latest point in the story that they possibly could to get people to give a shit about her as a character because they utterly failed to do it across 4 fucking seasons of actual plot and development.

>oh wow, our character is absolute garbage. i know! let's make her a lesbian at the very last moment just so we can at least say that we had a strong gay woman of color on our show for social brownie points! that way she can't be criticized without people coming out of the woodwork to say that you just hate her because she's brown/a woman/a lesbian

Of course it was meant to have a romantic tone, I will not deny that.
You however, seem to misunderstand the point you are arguing against, here Korra was not even hinted to be into women until the last minutes of the show. Korra was, until the aftermath of the party, totally straight as far as the audience was concerned.

Why would they do that? Korra had already fulfilled its four-season order. They weren't getting a fifth, hell Nick tried to screw them out of the fourth. They knew that it was teh functional end of Korra. No one with any grasp of Network politics - which Bryke most certainly DO - would attempt to save a show at the last moment of its last season.

She's in lesbian with Asami specifically, not women in general.

What you are saying is that she is bi.

That, and how this writer treats its "Themes".

We got one communist villain, who was everything communism is. A hypocritical high-class cunt fooling a non-oppressed caste into thinking the existence of "Higher-class" people inherently oppresses them and justifies revolution.

Just fucking think about it for a second, every financially powerful person we saw in Republic City was a nonbender, the bending triads don't count because criminality=/=the system, and the "Oppressed" Equalists had the resources to have a giant Amon mask made so they could hang it on an Aang statue during their armed violent terrorist coup to make a statement.

People buttmad because of the "Cop-Out" are just mad their tard-ideology got the worst treatment in the show.

Then there's what the writers THINK is a "Theocracy" villain, a generic saturday morning cartoon villain whose plan might as well have been pushing ice into the earth's core to freeze the world for all the logic it had behind it. SJWs are theocrats. You could call Team Plasma theocrats, even though they're led by a power-mad tyrant who wants to easily conquer a demilitarized and disarmed populace. Calling Unalaq a theocratic villain is an insult to villains.

1/2

Unalaq wasn't theocratic, he was Autocratic.

I find it pretty funny how the creators wanted to be all "progressive" yet they didn't even have the balls to make the relationship upgrade unambiguous. They didn't need a blog post about how "Kataang is canon", they made it evident with the ending. They wanted the progressive brownie points without actually taking the risk. Didn't even have the balls to make them kiss.

You two, stop that. Korra was straight until the writers decided to pander to the Korrasami crowd, in the literal final moments of the show, so the show's financial bottom line can't be hurt by parental boycotts but its sequel comic potential can be sustained indefinitely by the retarded ever-panderable LGBTQAlphabet soup.
2/2

Then we've got the moment where the show jumped the shark. Well, another one. They jump a shark every season, and every few episodes in this shitty show, but S3/4 is where it got worse. In a season that threw "And then randos got the airbending mutation on the spot" out there for the fandom pandering points, we then got a bigger piece of pandering, the Bootleg Akatsuki, starring an evil petty manchild whose retarded ideology is only even remotely justified because the Earth Queen is an unrealistically cuntish bitch who ate the previous king's bear. The next level of pandering, that's all S3 and S4 are. And if S3 was written competently, it would have INSTEAD been about Korra getting her shit together and dethroning a more realistic Earth Queen like a hero while trying to stop the other villain from doing the same.

S4? How do you top the bullshit that is someone becoming a better at airbender than Avatar Aang instantly, and becoming able to kick Korra's ass after less than a few weeks of practice? Simple, you make it """Deeper""".

Behold, a "Fasist" villain who brought stability to her country and then started doing random retarded villain things so she can resemble real-world fascist dictators, even though they make no sense in-universe, like concentration camps for fire and waterbenders. The writers gave the OC-makers of their fandom a blank cheque with "Evil White Lotus who actually have infinite guards resources and goons, and probably also assassins", and then the allout bullshitfest that is "Fashy waifu and her nuclear laserbeam-arm giga-gundams made from more platinum than what exists on this planet".

>and also apparently a lesbian when it's convenient for marketing purposes.
>my entire point
ok

It's pathetic because you're trying to put yourself above others for noticing the hints, when the creators had to flat out confirm it outside the show.

Nigger, Mr House from Fallout New Vegas is Autocratic.

Unalaq wanted to fuse with le dark spirit and become le dark avatar who rules le dark world full of darkness and chaos and dark spirits being evil because he's evil like that.

Compare that to Mr House, a "Villain" who simultaneously represents the many good and bad points of the old world in ways the NCR can and can't.

user, networks have something called censors. I guarantee you that, if they were capable of doing it, Bryke would have made the relationship much more overt. The censors decided that that would have been too risky a move, and made it so that the show went as far as it could, while maintaining plausible deniability

Yeah I am above those idiots that needed the confirmation. But that isn't saying much.

Read your post again.
>Unalaq wanted to fuse with le dark spirit and become le dark avatar who rules le dark world full of darkness
Yeah, as the sole ruler he would have been the definition of an autocrat.

I don't understand why you are bringing Mr. House into this debate. Yes he was an autocrat, but Autocracy can take many forms. The only thing necessary to fulfill the definition is that all are under one single, all-powerful, ruler

And now you understand why you're pathetic.

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about if you think Amon is a communist. I think communism is the worst ideology of the 19th century but even I can recognize that the equalists have nothing to do with Marxist theory.

The issue with Unalaq was it was like the writers bailed on his motivation the very next episode.
First he's talking about how by opening the portals he will make the world as it should be, and by fusing with Vaatu and becoming the Dark Avatar to oppose the Avatar is balance. That sort of makes sense, light and dark in equal measure, a light avatar vs dark avatar, so yes it would be "balance", showing Unalaq is some well meaning extremist.
But then by the time of next episode he's gone full evil ham and being evil just for the sake of it.

There's nothing pathetic about pointing out obvious facts.

It doesn't matter why we got what we got. Nick were constantly causing problems with development but that doesn't excuse how shit the series was. You're also assuming that's the case. Bryke have never said or even implied that Nick pushed back against a kiss. Apparently, they didn't even storyboard and animate the last scene until the last second, much of the crew didn't even know it existed, and it wasn't playing on TV so there isn't much reason for Nick to care. And even then you can transfer the criticism to nick who were progressive enough to allow the implication but not an explicit upgrade.

This bugged me so much too, I mean, Amon's message is right, even if he was using it to manipulate people.

If you are born a bender, you are just born with an advantage that non-benders will never have, at the very least there are careers that only benders are capable of doing, so you just have less choice of what you can do in life if you aren't a bender. They don't really explore that idea, or the idea of "Just because someone is born with more capabilities than you, you don't get the right to take them away", it's just all gone once Amon is revealed.

>just to elevate yourself above those who can't see the obvious
Yes there is.

The finale did air on tv live, though

It's not just me. Anyone else who didn't need to have their hand held to understand that it was indeed gay is also superior, in this regard.

It's bad and I hated it, but you kind of have to watch it, it's like watching the Star Wars prequels. You know that they are bad, and retarded, but just watching them are fun to see how badly the writing is fucked up and complaining about them on the internet is endless fun.

Korra is a series of bad stories, the lore is ruined with retarded additions, they dumbify the concepts of bending and suck all the spirituality out of the series, but it's just so retarded that you have to see it.

A kiss would've been too soon. They're just starting out, a little loving hand-holding is more fitting. Until the shit comics came out and made it seem like they were a couple for months already.

At 9pm on Nicktoons with abysmal numbers.

"Mixed" is putting it generously. The reception I've seen on Sup Forums ranges from mediocre to hated. The Star Wars prequels are a good comparison, although the prequels are closer to bad in an entertaining way while Korra is just bad.

fucking pleb, that's the difference between Korra (poor written) & Fallout New Vegas (well written).

LoK is hated on Sup Forums, worshiped on tumblr, and liked on reddit. Critics liked it (except the second season that was rightly panned) but most of its audience dropped it. I'd called that reception pretty mixed.

You read my posts again and remind yourself what an Autocrat is.

Pro tip: More than what the saturday morning cartoon villain Unalaq is. You could call him a Tyrant or any other bad word, but calling him an Autocrat is retarded. Dark spirits aren't people he wants to import into his country to help him get voted into power, they're corrupt spirits that act evil and chaotic because they need someone to waterdance them back into lightness.

I said mixed because just from the responses to my question so far, it seems that the opinions vary wildly. There are some of you who say that of course parts of it are bad, but on the whole, it was enjoyable. There are some who like the combat and thought that it was fine, and then others who say the bending was ruined. I understand that last one isn't necessarily about the same thing, but for someone who is just trying to understand whether or not it really is worth the heartbreak of watching a sequel squander what was good about the original, it's important to understand how that all works out. I think my point is that I want to know if its worth it, excluding shitpost potential, if the decent/good parts are worth the bad parts and the stuff that ruins the original. This is something that is going to vary wildly for many people. I think I'm most likely going to turn up like because I know what I liked about the original and it's all the parts they ruined in Korra, according to the responses, but I still want to experience the epilogue so to speak. I don't buy arguments that justify watching an addition to a series just because the "fun" of watching what was great get undermined and how they did it. To me, those sort of tests are superfluous. I'd rather watch it on its own merits.

In that case, a better question to ask is if the pros outweight the cons so to speak. I am capable of separating Korra from the original. I want to know if it is worth it. I hope that gets across whatever I'm trying to say, thanks for all the responses.

>if the pros outweight the cons
It depends on whether or not you like rule 34 and if you're a dense nostalgiafag

>rule 34
nah
>dense nostalgiafag
I just finished the original for the first time

As I said in my post, it's not a good series. It's Prequel tier, the thing you loved about TLA probably aren't in here. It starts out promising but it does everything wrong to make the series engaging that TLA did right, the characters are boring with no chemistry or real reason to stick to each other, the locations are boring with 90% of it set in 1 (initially interesting) place, the bending is dumbed down to dumb kickboxing elemental blasts at each other (and I also hated what they did with lightning + metal bending), the stories aren't interesting, or at best are only interesting on their surface and are resolved really poorly and the whole spirituality aspect of TLA is completely excised, at best replaced with a wacky children's fun world of goofy spirits.

It has some good points like the third season, and the fights are usually neat, but outside of that there's really little for me to recommend unless you want to sit through it because of how much you find yourself hating it.

The worst thing Korra ever did was PRO BENDING.