Legend of Korra's 'Beginnings' | An Overdue Critique
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- An overdue critique of two of the most beloved episodes of Legend of Korra - and why I don't like them. Thank you to GODLIKE patrons over at / hellofutureme (+Discord community access!)
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![Zaheer: Why kill the Avatar? - video essay [Avatar The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OWcetuR3Jv0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding - the Fire Nation [ The Last Airbender ]](/img/n.gif)
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Couldn’t agree more I don’t like the beggings either.
my big problem is how....EASY all 4 elements came to wan, i woulda done it so that the first firebending avatar could ONLY firebend... and then the next airbender avatar would teach the avatar spirit airbending, then water, and finally earth, that way its earned, and shows that it would normally take a lifetime to really master each element. and it is the power of the legacy of the avatar spirit that makes them able to wield all four.
Hello Future Me goodbye 👋
since you are focused into good stories and good character arks. What are your top 10 most liked stories to read to watch and to learn from? i want to learn writing so I can design great OCs and plot for them as an artist but i always end up finding out how little I know about writing. Any tips were to learn and study from the best?
I don't know if you are reading comments so I will take my chance
When we first met the spirits, I assumed that Wan would fuse with both of them. So the avatar would be the embodiment of balance
That would have been better
Same. I was so upset that they just went “this one good, this one evil” when that spits in the face of everything preached in ATLA
Korra "destroyed" Vaatu, which means he will gradually grow inside Raava, that is, inside the next avatars. At some point an avatar will have both.
@@Ika0713 I personally think that... the idea behind Raava and Vaatu is actually quite nice... it's the execution of them in the story that is kinda flawed. Raava and Vaatu are and should have been portrayed as order and chaos, defined by a foreign sense of morality that was incomprehensible to mortal beings.
Order (Raava) is stable and peaceful... but it is restricting and controlling. Raava could enforce order by enslaving and forcing her way of thinking into all of creation, and it would be good in her eyes, but horrible to the rest of the world. If you really think about the role of the Avatar, it fits into this definition. The Avatar's mission is to preserve the status quo... 4 nations, in a world that doesn't really have a place for big changes. If someone or something threatens that status quo, the Avatar does everything to destroy that agent of change. It is only the chaotic nature of human beings that prevents the Avatar from becoming the ultimate opressing force.. "Submit to the eternal order or be destroyed in elemental fury".
Chaos (Vaatu) is disorder, destruction, war.... but it is also life... That's why Vaatu has that really neat ability to create spirit vines. I actually have developed a whole theory on how Vaatu was the creator of all mortal life, based on a lot of evidence... the northern and southern portals' spirit wilds, the Banyan Grove Tree/Tree of Time and the swamp that covers most of the earth with interconected plan life.... He is an embodiment of things that are bad for us, but is Vaatu evil? NO.
That's not how balance works in many eastern theologies.
Korra: **Leaves Spirit Portal open**
Koh about to steal a whole lotta faces: 🧐
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We're dead.
Koh: ....well this is way too convenient, even for me.
Koh's mom would probably have to say to him.
to be fair to this day i can see no positiv thing in letting this fucking portal open and opening the other one. does this girl even have a brain or know how to use it.
the spirits in ATLA seemed a product of their universe, and they were terrifying at times and genuinely awe inspiring. the spirits in LoK feel like ghibli background characters and are more whimsical in a childlike way than in a fantastical way.
Agreed!
which is ironic since they're trying to make LoK more "mature" and "adult" for the old audience now all grown up.
yee, the more i saw of the spirits in lok the less intrested i got tbh. I wanted to like them, and i don't hate them, but it just felt like something's missing.
also, in ATLA, spirits appear very scarcely and their appearance alway provokes some sort of reflection and change in the main cast. In Korra they kind of become trivial
To me the spirits just look like Pokémon’s that have to mental state of a human and Raava and Vaatu look like Fancy, Glowing Rugs
The thing about Yin-Yang in the Avatarverse is that Tui and La already perfectly embody that philosophy physically and spiritually.
Finally!
Someone said it!
Yin and Yang are not only one thing, are they? Multiple pairs of spirits can be yin-yang esque
I thought it was more Hinduism and not yin-yang. I am talking about Legend of korra not Tui and La.
@@ThomasBomb45 they treated one as simply evil, and that is just piss poor writing. yune was a goddess of war and chaos, but also justified her existence with freedom and transformation. having a foil of 2 entities simply being big bad murder god while the other is super duper good god is bad writing (generally).
@@comyuse9103 I 100% agree that they were written poorly and don't embody yin and yang. I'm just saying that we could have had multiple yin and yang type of spirit pairs. They just wrote this one pooorly
I think my biggest issue with season 2 was that they just spontaneously removed Korra's connection to the past avatars and than just didn't explore the destruction of identity, history and culture and what that meant for the avatar, which imo would have been very in line with the themes of season 3
yeah!
What's even worse is that now the next avatar will only have Korra to go to for avatar advice. I like Korra but she is not a teacher. There should have been a way for her to reconnect with her past lives. If they did it one by one it would have been a great way to tell stories about avatars we haven't seen anything about.
Except they did do that. The loss of the past lives paved the way for character development for Korra, such as letting Korra rely more on her own experience rather than just taking the Avatar for granted.
@@ThexKiidxSausage The only reason people want the past lives back is because they're sentimental. And what makes you think Korra won't be able to give good advises to the next Avatar? She has done a great job as the Avatar and learned a lot. Even Roku, who was objectively a terrible Avatar, was very helpful to Aang.
@Vetarlit Torf I think being sad at the loss of ten thousand years of knowledge is a bit more than sentimentality...
If Wan had fused with both to end their conflict, it also wold have created a narrative symmetry with Aang's resolution of the Hundred Year war by stripping Ozai of his firebending.
It would have represented a third option to taking sides, and taught Korra a lesson about how the Avatar's role is to restore the balance not by crushing and suppressing evildoers, but by changing the game instead.
*^^^ This* 👏 😍 ❤️ 👏
I like this. Conflict resolution doesn't have to mean fighting until one side 'wins', it can also mean compromise.
This resolution could've also possibly played into Korra's personality, considering she's way more chaotic than you'd think the embodiment of peace and light to be like.
Smart comment
Absolutely agree, they could have even partially solved this by having Korra fuse with both spirits. Sure it wouldn't have been as god as your suggestion. But it would have shown that the avatars can grow, that new avatars can improve on and do better than their predecessors.
Making better choices and bringing the world forward by the help of previous avatars and so on, I know she lost connection with the previous avatars, but still.
“It’s like they knew what I wanted and snatched it right out of my hands” pretty much sums up how I feel about Legends of Korra
Agreed😭
Same, I feel like all of the seasons have such good ideas, but then they absolutely fail at deriving anything big from them at the end.
Season two is the only straight up bad season though. Season 1 is flawed but tells a compelling story, and season 3 and 4 are almost as good as the seasons in Avatar.
@@curranfrank2854 season 3 is the worst though
@@luisandrade2254 How so?? Season 3 imo is freaking awesome. Zaheer is such a powerful guy! Love him!
It's interesting to think: the AtLA explanation has a more eastern writing trope of great power through focus and hard work, while in the Korra explanation it goes off the western writing trope of having the great power granted from an outside force. Adding in the stark contrast of the morality of the Spirit realm between the two series and it feels like two very different look at core philosophical takes on the hero story.
Underrated comment. That's a really interesting take
I really like hard work better than natural power. I loved ATLA because even if Aang was a "chosen one", it was more about potential, and the actual power came from hard work
@@unlimon6382 You're forgetting that without the Avatar State, Aang would have lost to Ozai. That isn't power gained through hard work.
@@TheSuperRatt it is, hard work over thousands of lifetimes. It may not be Aang's hard work, but it is still hard work
@@TheSuperRatt aang could have beaten Ozai by redirecting the lightning back at him so he didn’t really need the avatar state
22:37 “Doing something is better than doing nothing”
*King Bumi wants to know your location*
That's quite different though as Bumi was waiting for the right moment, he wasn't just contentedly doing nothing.
@@567secret But that's the point, Bumi knew when to hold back and when to act, Korra frequently causes problems with her recklessness and doesn't ever really seem to get past that.
@@idigamstudios7463 its a joke
@@567secret its a joke
@@ultraghostrider8305 I know it is but it's a joke that highlights gripes I have.
The most relevant critique I have of LoK is that it brings up interesting concepts like war profiteering, anarchy, fascism, etc. but then doesn't answer any of the questions it raises in regards to the world, fictional or not. They answer mysteries with less compelling information and don't answer mysteries that have more compelling answers.
I agree, the main thing that makes me upset about the whole show is that I think about the potential it had but failed to make true time after time no matter how many chances I gave it.
There's also the underlying boring centrist liberal political message; 'wot if good thing but taken too far?!' forced into every season.
Some questions don't have answers or at least not yet.
Especially with the Equalist movement. Every character starts talking about this disparity between Benders and non-Benders that could’ve made for a pretty interesting allegory, except we’re never given any real examples or evidence of it
(SPOILER) It gets worse with kuvira imo. At first it seems like we’re getting a nuanced, morally grey exploration on the effects and philosophy of this new empire, but then she becomes fantasy Hitler and builds a giant robot to destroy the city
@@19peter96 'wot if good thing but taken too far?!' is an important message that many people never seem to comprehend. So as long as their good, I hope for more stories like them.
"I need a drink... A drink of milk, because I don't solve my problems with alcohol."
Literally a year later: * crying on a TWO AND A HALF HOUR RANT with a bottle of Bombay gin on hand about how TERRIBLE The Last Airbender movie was *
_Looks at the bottom of the bottle_ “Hey... I think I found the answers to all my problems!”
Too soft,
too nice.
Not enough Cirticism.
At least the movie was better than korra
@@BargB keep dreaming buddy
@@BargB ur drunk if yu think that
I think it would have been really cool if, like you said, Avatar Wan had achieved some sort of enlightenment to stop Vatu. But instead of merging with Rava and imprisoning Vatu, Wan should have fused with both. This would make the Avatar the embodiment of balance while still allowing for the human struggle of choosing to do the right thing. Rava and Vatu would still ostensibly be at odds with each other while being part of the Avatar and that goes great with the "heart in conflict with itself" point.
Then the writers still could have had a "good vs evil" battle by having Unalaq break the bond between Vatu and Korra and merging with Vatu himself. Boom, Dark Avatar vs Light Avatar but the goal is for Korra to take Vatu back. We even could have explored Korra's interactions with her friends, family, and Republic City at large with her in a true "Lawful Good" character framing. Have her go way over the top enforcing law, order, and righteous good to the point of it becoming a serious problem; have her absolutely whoop some kids for stealing bread or something.
E: well, just watched to the end and saw you came to the same conclusion lol.
The problem is that it's not a battle of good vs evil... neither side is actually evil (even in the series, such a thing was stated)... it was just chaos vs balance... with only one being in control... while the other would still exist....
As Raava said, the problem with chaos was more for humans than it was for the universe... humans NEED balance to survive.... Raava herself stated that it was more bad for humans than actually being bad...
What if, instead of fusing with Vaatu, Unalaq had fused with Raava?
Think about it: Unalaq wants to impose his will on the tribes. That's far closer to what "order" is: one will, one law, preserved forever.
OTOH, Korra's far more about chaos. She's impulsive, hotheaded and clashes with authority constantly. She'd appeal to Vaatu far more.
So the fight to retake Raava is not only about restoring balance and taking down Unalaq, it's about Korra realizing that order and stability, as dull as it seems to her, is just as necessary in the world as chaos and growth. Plus, it works to show that chaos isn't evil just as order isn't good.
Edit: And it would also appeal to Unalaq's self-righteousness, as he might think that fusing with order, the "good" side, he'd be seen as the hero.
@Crazy Hand omg that would be so good
The good v evil shit was a pointless waste of time and led to the brewing civil war between the north and south pole to be completely tossed aside and never properly resolved or even fully explored. That whole conflict was set up perfectly and then nothing. Korra rediscovering her connection to the avatar spirit should have been an awakening moment for how to better solve the conflict, not completely redirected the whole season around a westernized "good vs evil" narrative.
Problem is that Raava should actually represents "light and order" rather than "light and peace"; because the opposite of chaos is order, which, isn't always positive. Both Raava and Vauttu should be shined on a neutral tone of light, like the Greek gods, rivals each other but both essential to the universe. I say the ideas of Yin and Yang is hijacked and largely Christianized in the story, how disappointing! The journey of the first avatar should be focusing on putting Raava and Vautta back together.
Season 4 is them saying "Shit Raava could have been this"
@@TechBlade9000 right lol😂. Especially considering the villain being an militarist dictator who literally OBSESSED with order. Also I have a HUGE problem with Vauttu being destroyed at season 2 finale. They should be bounded back together and bind with the avatar's soul, so that the avatar finally whole, presenting true balance between order and chaos. Which would work better in season 3 and Tpoh's speech that the villains are "out of balance"
@@naturalinstinct4950 This whole season and the rest of the show could've been better and connect better to the ATLA if they flipped the idea. Instead of Korra and all avatars housing Raava, they house both Vaatu and Raava. Unalaq gains knowledge from the Spirit Library to remove them and split the spirits that create balance. Vaatu becomes the spirit of chaos and freedom, inhabits Zaheer. Raava becomes the spirit of order and control, inhabits Kuvira. Korra remains the fulcrum that can balance them and bring them back together, plus the past avatars collectively become their own spirit of balance. Hindsight is 20/20 though
@@javiercox2928 your idea of the avatar holding both Raava and Vauttu its great but remember a human soul cannot permanently bond with either of the spirits without touching the spirit portal during Harmonic Convergence. also if Korra has her avatar spirits completely ripped out of her, where does she even acquire the power to fight off Zaheer and Kuvira if they are respectively fused with Vauttu and Raava? she can't just turn into the huge blue cosmic Korra spirit projection thing whenever she wants, its only limited to the Harmonic Convergence. what about Korra consumes Vauttu in the season 2 finale, in that why she has both of them bonded with her soul, perfectly balanced
I think without season 2 Korra wouldn't get nearly as much hate as it does now. It'd probably be considered ok. Amazing music, good animation and action, some interesting ideas, and a serviceable follow up to avatar. The characters would still be lack luster and plot points being a mixed bag but ultimately we'd say it was a little boring but fine. But no season 2 was such an awful shit show that 75% of people's complaints/ hatred were because of or a result of this season. Spirit portals, bender's origins, Carpet spirits, Aang as a dead beat dad, energy bending are lasers, butchering Yin and Yang, letting spirits into the real world even though spirits could already come and go as they pleased. Hopefully Legend of Genji will be better.
"Why?"
Because writing a resolution to complex issues relevant to the real world is hard. Glowing kaiju spirit battle is easy.
glowing kaiju spirit battle also look real nice
Also if you're facing an extremist political movement, you can solve everything just by beating up its leader.
@@Boredman567 just like in season 1 lol.
If only solving class conflict is ever that easy
Especially since NICK was rushing the series out the door by this time
@Thomas the Dank Engine I've always felt there was more to Revenge Of The Sith than just fighting in my opinion. ☺
You know, Beginnings would have made soooo much more sense if Wan had absorbed Raava AND Vaatu, becoming the incarnation of balance, containing both the spirit of Order and Chaos and thus, the spirit of the World.
Nope that's too complex since it means the Avatar can't be the perfect Raava, because chaos is not good. :/
Seriously, that was a missed opportunity.
I have a love/hate relationship with the beginnings.
What I love:
- we learn why there can’t be a evil avatar (bc the avatar is raava, the spirit of light & order)
- why bending is genetic (bc the power was given to a few & never handed back)
- how the original energy benders (turtles) & human bending are linked (the turtles are the source & they gave aang the ultimate ability that was reserved for them only)
- my head canon: the humans received the energy to bend but perfected their abilities from their ancestors through original benders (dragons, bysons etc.)
- the original source of bending couldn’t be „learning“ it through the original benders because then there would be the question why bending is genetic & cannot just ne learned like the ancestors did
- i genuinely like how the avatar is rather accident than anything
- why the avatar is reborn (because raava wanders)
What I hate
- spirits getting much less mystical, why are they annoying fucking kids all of the sudden?
- vaatu being the bad guy when atla taught us that true harmony is balance
- raava being more of a moral preacher rather than keeper of balance (because sometimes to maintain balance morally grey actions need to be taken, like killing someone who brings imbalance to the world- heck that’s literally what kyoshi did)
I would have loved if Korea took both spirits, claiming that for balance, you need both light and darkness. Creating a true mixture rather than the violent flip-flopping that came before. Vatuus knowledge would also be able to compensate for the broken links and maybe even partially restore them.
@@profwaldone That would've been a better approach, yes.
But bending isn’t 100% genetic is it? Because a bender can be born from non-benders and benders can have a non-bender child. In TLA there’s even twins where one can bed and the other can’t
"we learn why there can’t be a evil avatar (bc the avatar is raava, the spirit of light & order)" Yes, and Vaatu is the spirit of chaos and destruction, so there can be an evil Avatar. Korra's uncle literally becomes one lmfao
@@sachintommy2246 bending can be a recessive trait
The Avatar state in Last Airbender: Spiritual One-For-All
The Avatar state after "Beginnings": *_Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan_*
at least SSB is coherrent with the worldbuilding
And we all know the opinions on Dragon Ball Super....
I also thought of one-for-all lul
No it's mure like UI
Dont you have the droid attack on the wookies to worry about?
I feel like that was every season of legend of Korra. Each season had a great sometimes complex set up but then ends in a simple and mostly unsatisfactory way.
I dunno season 3 ended really great for me because it actually lead to the whole earth kingdom in ruins issue of season 4.
@@azulaeatingmochime2353 Yes they did.
@@azulaeatingmochime2353 maybe not 3 but season one never showed non benders getting oppressed like amon was preaching and season 4 rushed kuvira's ending by giving her an half ass ending that was, oh she's just like korra except she never got the attention she needed. Like since when was that your motivation?
@@grasstastesbad4605 There was the triad shaking down shops in the beginning of the season. And the non-bending curfew later in the season. Also, just the fact that there were no non-benders on the council is an issue.
I agree that it could have used a bit more, especially early on. But it wasn't absent.
@@cadekachelmeier7251
The triads were going against everyone
The curfew only happened as a reaction to the Equalists
There was no non benders at the time but Sokka had been head of the council during Aang's time(and I"m assuming at least the early years of Korra's since he was still alive then)
"Problem that maybe can't be solved by someone having the biggest Nuke"
Damn Tim always has this deep and meaningful quote out on each of his essay, truly word full of wisdom.
What killed this was the old say that lot of writers forget " never explain the magic "
I don't think that's a blanket rule, there are examples where explaining magic does work (Mistborn comes to mind). I think it should be, "never explain the magic when it doesn't need explaining"
We already understood everything we needed to about Bending we didn't have to know about Wan merging with Kite-God and fighting Kite-Satan.
@@judeconnor-macintyre9874 I guess it also served as the origin of the Avatar, but even then I don't think that ever needed explaining. I always assumed the Avatar was the spirit of nature and the planet itself made into a physical manifestation to ensure the world always stays in balance, and existed ever since humans have been able to threaten the balance of the world. Not a giant, glowing, magic talking carpet that had a thing for some pathetic, asshole thief and merged with him into some cosmic abomination.
The Lion Turtle also mentions in the Avatar finale that "Before the Avatar we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves." Which alludes to the fact that there was a time in human history *before* they used any kind of elemental bending, yet in an episode literally titled "Beginnings" we see that immediately being contradicted. Would've liked to have seen that pre-elemental bending society, but I guess that's either been retconned out of existence now or retconned so that the Lion Turtle was talking about an even more ancient-er time waaay before Wan. Either way it's all pretty fucking lame and completely unnecessary, which perfectly describes Korra in a nutshell, honestly.
@@nagger8216 Agreed.
Not a strict rule, look at Hunter x Hunter, where the magic is explained in detail, but it makes the world 100x better. I guess never explain the magic unless you have a damn good explanation.
@@sunny74763 yes that what i mean , you can ofc give answers , but be good on it .
The owl in the library changes his physical state into a contorted evil version of itself like hay-by (dont know how to spell it) and trys to destroy them based on his morality that his knowledge should not be used for gain either good or bad.
He isnt "good" or "evil", i always liked that.
Wasn't the owl's perspective that his knowledge shouldn't be used for the purpose of gaining an advantage in a conflict, rather than that it shouldn't be used for gain in general? It's still a bit blue-and-orange, because he was holding to that principle when the Avatar probably had the moral high ground and giving Aang that information could be seen as rectifying the balance upset by the Fire Nation abusing his knowledge, but I think it is an important distinction.
Agreed, he really isn't evil, he's just following his moral code.
The owl or Wan Shi Tong is probably a really old spirit. To him The 100-year War is probably just another human war, even if he does know about The Air Nomad Genocide.
So for him to tell the humans that they can’t use his knowledge for war, even if he does think they are on the right side makes sense because he is tired of people using knowledge to win wars instead of making new medicine or adopting ancient cultures.
You have to think about it from his point of view. He opened a library to store all of the information in the world that he could find and share with everyone, but then everyone used that information to spread plagues, find new geopolitical vantage points, and even harm his own fellow spirits to dampen the power of any other benders just as General Zhao did.
And when he would ask them why they would do it the humans would just say “I’m on the good side.” What’s worse is that he probably believed the first few and even helped them, turning him into some sort of war criminal.
And maybe the worst part is that the so-called good guys who would use it to save the world would become drunk with power and turn into the very enemies he helped stop.
He decides no more and buries his library deep in the sand with only a tower peeking out in the hopes there might still be some humans left trusting.
Then General Zhao comes along and burns information against the Fire Nation after learning about the a weakness of the water benders to help in the war even though he probably told the owl “I’m just here for the knowledge." Let's not forget that General Zhao was targeting the moon and the ocean spirits, who were spirits just like him. Or that in doing so he was dooming the ENTIRE WORLD. So he was hurting everyone, and Wan Shi Tongs magnificent and beautiful library would be responsible for not just another war but the actual apocalypse. Not exactly the legacy he that he wants.
However Wan Shi Tong still keeps the library open, and one day a group of kids and one actual scholar come. They promise to only be interested in normal information but they use his naive nature to exploit his library just like so many others before them.
To a spirit, human wars are probably irrelevant, they happen over and over that it would probably be pointless to stop them. So it doesn’t matter to the owl if someone is the good guy or not because sooner or later the next bad guy is going to come and it might even be the so-called good guy that was in his library.
I totally get what he was thinking and honestly I didn’t like Sokka or the rest of the gang for lying to his face and stealing the information without any moral thought as to whether or not he could betray Wan Shi Tong's trust.
Not to mention that The Eclipse information was useless, Azula learned about it and prepared countermeasures that actually stripped them of even more resources. So in the end they had to use the original plan of learning all four elements.
As for rectifying the balance, no offense to anyone else but I can imagine a previous earth bender asking Wan Shi Tong for a book on water bending style and then after that a water bender asks for a earth bending style claiming "it's your fault that I lost to that earth bender because you gave him that water bending style book, Wan Shi Tong, you better give me a book on earth bending so I can beat him and his son, you owe me." And then even after that another Earth Bender asks for a water bending style book with the same excuse as the water bender. At that point he's confused as to why the two can't just make up and stop fighting.
See, it never ends, he'd rather just go back to the spirit world and avoid getting involved in any petty human squabbles.
Hei-Bai meaning black-white in chinese
@@Draxynnic I feel like its a case of understanding that the world was imbalanced via the chaos caused by an entire race of people being genocided as well as one nations power overexceeding the others ya dig?
In this case I feel lile owl homie was like, "Well if peanut ears is asking for it, then maybe Karen will go back to normal and stop demanding the kids"
@@franciscoancergomez3949 I don't think them lying to Wan Shi Tong is a bad thing plot wise. I absolutly get wherre the owl is coming from. However, i get where the gaang is coming from aswell. They don't have the privilege to be impartial in the current conflict, they're desperate. It makes sense for them to do anything in their power to get their hands on that information, even if it means lying to, and possibly ruining a relationship with a spirit.
Thats one of the things i like about the spirits tho, how impartial and removed from human conflict they are. They're neutral characters following their own moral code. I like how that breeds the conflict between humans and spirits. Its not a matter of one side is unresonable, both side have very good points, they just have different perspective that are at odds with each other.
..... idk how to end this comment lol, i just found the conflict and moral stanses in the library episode to be facinating. I enjoyed reading your comment and wanted to add something to the discussion ig (also pardon my grammar, im not a native speaker).
i won't lie, when you first said "blue and orange morality," i hadn't heard of the term, and i thought you were just making a joke referencing the colors of aang and ozai's spirits in the finale of atla
wait, that WASN'T what he was referring to???
I thought of the main colours in the Harry Potter movies.. xD Hmm...
Also the colors Aang is wearing on his body.
I thought of Portal
It's a TVTropes term. Blue is "the path of bacon" and orange is "the path of necktie."
I feel like Beginnings also shows the problem that I have with Korra as a whole. For instance, in season 1, Korra has no ability to airbend because she solves her problems with brute force and is unable to connect with the world spiritually. Airbending is all about using finese and cleverness instead of violence and brute force. This was great. This lead room and motivation for character development within Kora, and served as kind of a contrast to Aang's problem throughout his series. However, her problem witth air bending was solved through brute force. She really tried to attack, to bend, and magically air bending started working for her again. She still sued brute froce and was impulusive throughout the series, and the meaning of airbending presented to us with season one was completely undermined. And she acted the exact same way in season 4, showing that she didn't grow at all through the series and instead was just having the same problem repeatedly. This was quiyte unsatisfying to watch for me.
I rarely get to say this, but old MK lore actually pulled this off better with the Realms of Order and Chaos. The realm of chaos is utterly nuts, with anyone and everyone acting to their own whims, regardless of the consequences to themselves or others. The Realm of Order is an entire realm built of pure Authoritarian thinking, where even the slightest deviation from the rules and laws is punished harshly and severely. Its made very clear that neither place is a particularly nice place to live for anyone who doesn't also fall on the same extreme end of the spectrum as those Realms embody
The real evil is Nickelodeon holding this show's music score hostage all these years
Korras score? I honestly never liked the violins much
Yeah, having only Book 1's soundtrack be released on CD is a crime. They should have released the rest of Korra's and ATLA's soundtracks
@@menkirdennis6686 I was a huge fan of the melding of early swing/second line jazz and traditional Chinese instruments. The only major piece of media I've heard that in since LoK was in Crazy Rich Asians
I'm not gonna lie, that line about imagining right at the end of the season someone finally airbending after a long span of cultural rebuilding gave me chills and now I'm upset I won't get to see it.
same!! the episodes he describes would be so much better than the ones canon, and i wish it would've been like that from the beginning. it's not like the canon episodes compared to his imagined ones are bad or horrible, it's just... disappointing.
Yeah it would have been great (I actually started tearing up/sort of crying). I also think it would have been cool if a similar thing had been done with Korra at the end of season 1 where instead of being given back her bending powers she has to re-learn them like the original benders did (from the badgermoles etc), including airbending, which I don't think she ever "mastered" in terms of the spirituality etc? Idk I haven't seen the show in a while. Or have her keep balance without her bending and knowing what it's like not to bend.
And adding to that. Imagine Azir was the one to finally air bend. How emotional and compelling is betrayal would be.
Yep. I'm just gonna believe that storyline is canon now.
What’s even worse is that Korra can give people air bending, she’s an energy bender
You just made me realize the pun behind Wan's name.. I thought you said "The first avatar, avatar one".
The idea of how the air nomads cultures could have been learning from sky bison as a way to help restore their culture, until one of them finally airbends, really gave me goosebumps!
your version of bringing back the air nomads is so beautiful and everything they deserved
I've heard people say that when you try to explain everything in a fictional universe, it feels smaller. I think that's partially what's happening here.
Ghost Yon
Exactly. Don’t explain the magic, at least not like this.
Explaining the magic is fine because if you don't then you leave open questions like why some characters can use the magic and why some don't. Or why some can't use it beyond the writer just not wanting them to.
Honestly, I think you just perfectly summed up the problem with the explanation of the Force in the Star Wars prequels. It doesn’t really need an overly detailed explanation, we just need a quick explanation of how it works.
@@TF2Fan101 The comics explained the force. Not the prequels.
The prequels just explained how characters could use the force and why some characters couldn't.
Why can't droids the force?
Star wars nerds lose their shit at the thought of any droids using the force yet they accept every other thing in the series using it.
buster
Because Droids aren’t living things and are simply manufactured. They’re not organic or living or even completely synthetic, just a bunch of parts put together with a neural drive.
If droids could be Maude to use the force, then the clone wars would have been over with in a week, with droids demolishing everyone.
28:20 The way they handled the reconstitution of the Air Nomads and the return of airbenders annoyed me so much, because I felt they had *already* set up how it might happen in the original series. Namely, the inventor's community that had taken up residence in one of the Air Temples. I expected to see them, as you suggest, learning airbending from the sky bison or some other means growing out of their connection with the element of air that Aang himself remarked that they had. I expected to see that after a few generations, that connection had grown stronger and more profound, leading to the emergence of new airbenders.
I personally liked the way they brought back the air nation, it was like the universe balancing itself.
@@alfreddozier832 but I thought the whole point of the avatar was that he had to restore balance, not the universe? Even taken as some "will of the universe", it has to act through an intermediary
@@peterparker8462 yes, but by opening the spirit portals, Korra did create balance in the world/universe, allowing airbenders to come back. It wasn't necessarily "the universe," but Korra establishing balance to it through the portals that allowed this to happen...
Why not both?
Also how do you know that didn’t happen in the series?
The way you described it especially wan bonding with both raava and vaatu. It’s so eloquently put that I can’t believe this isn’t the cannon
Same
I absolutely love the avatar universe but I’d be lying if I said the beginnings episodes didn’t disappoint me, I couldn’t explain why it felt like it didn’t fit but this video explains it very well
Same. Apparently, the AU has been completely ruined and destroyed, thanks to Bryke.
Raava and Vaatu: *exist*
Tua and Lai: "Are we a joke to you?"
Holy SHIT you're right!!! "Push" and "Pull" work so much better as embodiments of Yin and Yang, and have nothing to do with the tired "Cosmic Good vs Cosmic Evil" schtick. Replacing Raava and Vaatu with Tua and Lai and having both endow Wan with the Avatar State fixes EVERYTHING
@@badluckrabbit it also ties back into the whole north vs south plot somewhat as well.
Lol Yeah true
@@badluckrabbit I would agree if not for both of those entities / deities apparently existing in real life
@@badluckrabbit yeah you are right now that i think about it.
And i liked the "beginnings" episode but i felt it could be different.
it even has a nice excuse for nostalgia pandering by bringing yue (the new moon spirit) bakc into the fold.
also, yeah, i was so done with the "oh the cosmic good spirit looks so stereotypically good while the suppsoedly evil devil spirit looks so stereotypically evil" thing.
outside of Avatar, I would love for once that in one pice of media, the villain was the "deity / god of light" (and humans helping it thinking "light is good, dark is bad") and the good guy is the "deity of darkness".
the closest i have seen something like this was in YuGiOh GX, and even then, they still needed to feature a villain representing "evil darkness" as final boss
I just hate how the legend of korra severed the avatar's connection to past lives. Like is Korra the new "Avatar Wan" since the world is entering a new age?
i would forgive that if next season was about she needed to reconnect with the previous lives as in "finding their spirits"
@@ianr.navahuber2195 Omg that would be so cool! Like her traveling to different places to reconnect with them :O
@@ianr.navahuber2195 That wouldn't make any sense. If Raava can form new connections with spirits then might as well add Iroh to the list. Raava died the link was broken, it's high time we accept it. You can't sign in to a new PC and expect it to have all your saved passwords.
@@BhlackBishop lol people can “accept” whatever they want from fiction or speculate about better narrative pathways. It’s fiction after all not a real world circumstance. It’s not that serious
I like the idea of each harmonic convergence requiring a new cycle
I thought that's what happened
Tim 2020: "I don't solve my problems with alchohol"
Tim 2021: Drowning your PTSD in bombay saphire gin for three hours.
atla the movie will do that to a person.
Too soft,
too nice.
Not enough Cirticism.
@@loturzelrestaurant what the hell is cirticism? Is that supposed to be criticism? Why are you and other people misspelling the same word all the time? Is it a meme? Is it a case of mass copy paste without double checking grammar?
@@alzhanvoidsansado I think the Meme is your b-tchy rudeness, to say it frankly.
That and more.
@@loturzelrestaurant What meme is that?? I've never heard of it and it doesn't come up online. Give me some context on this poor grammar copy paste.
@@alzhanvoidsansado mistyped grammar, chill, everyone makes mistakes.
I do enjoy how well you articulated and explained the faults and merits with Beginnings. You were able to explain it in a way I could not describe. The Avatar was someone trying to find a balance of their actions.
My tribe and culture we learn many lessons from our non-human siblings / relatives. For example Wolf taught us how to hunt and work in groups.
When they talk about learning from the original benders, I literally took that as them learning from Bison, Dragon, Badger-Mole, Moon and Water.
I guess this would be a discussion best for Discord or another platform.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and teaching me something. I am grateful.
"I need a drink... of milk because I don't solve my problems with alcohol." - Tim (2020)
He's a good boy.
To say alcohol is a solution is asinine.
@@NoxideActive or a mormon lol
And here I was going to offer him coffee.
@KaMau Mau actually a modified version of sweat.
I think this is my exact problem with Korra: the universe doesn't feel bigger after Beginnings.
It feels SMALLER. And while having the Air Nation back is nice, it doesn't feel EARNED. I ALWAYS felt that SOMETHING else should've happened to bring them back, but could never figure out what. But you summed it up perfectly. I also never liked that in season 2, they just kept resetting Korra to make mistake, learn from mistake, then make mistake again. she just rushed into shiz with no real thought of the potential consequences even after learning to think things through. With Aang, he CONSTANTLY and CONSISTENTLY grew and changed and LEARNED from his errors. It's what makes him in my opinion, a better Avatar-he made mistakes, but he learned from them, and grew upon them. I think Korra herself is an OK Avatar, but she's not a match for the Airbender.
Book 4 is basically her learning from her mistakes, tho.
@@MrShadowThief but the fact that she wasn't consistent with her growth is what turned off a lot of people with her.
@@HighPhoenix1754 It kind of just started at the end of season 3. She was the exact same in season 2 as in the beginning of season 1.
I found Korra had little to no character arc. She is the same whiny person she was in season one episode one, except now she is gay.
@@HighPhoenix1754 How does that make any sense when she was clearly consistent with her growth? She started off as an impulsive hothead who didn't know the first thing about spirituality, to an ambitious spiritual acolyte, to a patient hero to a spiritually enlightened Avatar.
"The very essence of romance is uncertainty." - Oscar Wilde
Watch more Manga if you think that.
@@loturzelrestaurant you mean anime
@@oldmanlukeskywalker5374 ??
@@loturzelrestaurant anime are the shows
Manga are the comics
Do you understand now?
@@oldmanlukeskywalker5374 Yes,
i know this well.
I read 10000 Manga; which is not just an overexaggereted number with many Zeroes, but literally the thing.
What i dont get is why you tell me this.
I just think they should re write Korra. They’ve formed this new Avatar Studios thing so we have some hope I suppose.
My advice
Make them ashamed enough to do it.
They didn't sound too conscious of their failures.
They should reboot that show
@@lonemotheomatshaba9640 Agreed 👍
Wasn't there literally a temple full of non-bending Air Acolytes studying the ways of the old nomads in season 1?
Yes, Acolytes not benders. All the benders (as far as we know) were killed during the war, but Aang founded the Air Acolytes as a means of preserving the culture. They're basically just hardcore air nation fans.
@@jenniferernst4141 funnily enough he seems to have gotten inspiration from that time in the comics he met a bunch of people absolutely dedicated to studying air nomad culture, but since they couldn't actually talk to any air nomads they were doing everything in a very wrong and disrespectful way. Guess he just figured he'd get ahead of the game and take it into his own hands
@@jenniferernst4141 disgusting airboos
Yes and honestly I feel like Aang (or even Korra, as they both know how to grant bending) should have granted them bending to bring back the airbenders rather than the harmonic convergence nonsense. It would have made so much more SENSE in every possible way.
@@satinsleeves honestly I don't think the Avatar precisely should play god and give who they want bending or remove it. In ATLA it was used as a last ressource, as an alternative to death. In general giving it just because you think it is better, and not the only choice is a bit disrespectful. Airbenders learnt from sky bisons, and bending is about spirit and philosophy too. If there was enough dedication and luck, the air nomads would have gone back on their own, slowly healing the wounds of the past and saving the culture, piece by piece, not just suddenly receiving bending with no training and going to basic courses on how to monk.
Toph's parents were not earthbenders, she had the hability somehow, maybe spirit, maybe luck, maybe philosophy. She trained thanks to badgermoles and became powerful. I believe airbending should have been restored by people passionate about the culture, that connected with the philosophy, and that had the spirit, that something Aang mentioned with the refugees in the temple that learnt how to glide.
Netflix: **looking for ideas for the live action**
Netflix ***whispering***: write that down WRITE THAT DOWN
We hope so!
@@jameshenderson8321 I really hope so
I don't if I'll be more or less angry at Netflix if they plagiarism this this video
I would be so happy if, after the ATLA remake, we get a LoK remake that fixes some of these issues. I love the characters, the world, and so much about LoK but it could have been so much better.
Amen
Last Airbender even on the dichotomy of "Fire Nation/Lord bad " you have this sense of Grey all over and how Aang really struggles with his peaceful nature dealing with even slight conflicts within his friends like with Katara being vengeful or Toph being rash. Fire Nation had good people too and it wasn't black and white. The dark avatar thing is so cliché and handled so bad it just makes everything less interesting.
Right, like there was a clear "good person VS evil person" conflict in Avatar but the show was about seeking *balance* and showing us that EVERYONE has the potential for both good and bad.
Korra on the other hand just tosses that notion so that it can say "Alright so there's a really nice light spirit, and a really mean dark spirit, and there is no balance between the two, the avatar is just the cool lightness person that pushes the darkness back into its corner. Yay!"
It's really lame and uninteresting lol
Your content is fantastic. This explains a lot of the gut reactions I had Korra. I remember really enjoying the civil war section, but on a rewatch I was pissed by how blatantly evil Unalaq was--the interesting tensions just evaporated.
As a fellow fan of Korra, I am glad that I’m not the only person who found that the avatar’s origins took more away from the overall universe/story than in added. Those episodes, in my opinion, stripped away much of the mysticism, vividness, and complexity that the avatar and the spirit world previously had.
Destroying the collective consciousness of all the avatars predating Korra is another huge grievance I have. As you pointed out, the accumulated wisdom/knowledge/experience across all the avatar’s lifetimes is, in large part, what makes the avatar so powerful and compelling. To take that aspect away does a disservice to both The Last Airbender and any future stories that might yet be told.
While on the topic of the avatar’s origins , I always presumed that the avatar was born alongside the manifestation of the physical world as a sort of spirit made mortal. That, or a spiritually enlightened human was granted a great gift after resolving a major conflict between the two worlds. This person was then tasked with maintaining that harmony for all time.
The origin story-which should have been vague or remained a mystery-that the creators went with felt contrived, honestly. It feels like it was made solely to justify the overall story of Korra’s last two seasons. It just doesn’t quite jive for me.
I thought the Avatar was the reincarnation of the Spirit if the Earth and humans, animals, spirits and the Avatar existed all at the same time. The Gods who created them were the Lion Turtles.
Couldn't agree more. I don't know what these writers were thinking but they were way over their heads in season 2. Answering questions that really did not need to be answered. And making "consequences" like opening the portals and destroying the avatar lineage without really feeling like they meant anything.
@@eightRedHerrings I suppose but couldn't she just ask Raava? And wasn't the point of the past lives to offer possible solutions to a problem not solve them? Just my thoughts
@@eightRedHerrings I mean, not really? Korra turns on the Avatar state quite a few times during season 2 before losing the connection to the past Avatars and still gets her butt kicked (mostly against the spirits but also Unalaq). The Avatar state is used in the TLOK more like a short power up than how it worked in The Last Airbender (like when she uses it to win the airbender race), which was something really weird. Also Korra only communicated with Aang like once before she loses the connection, so it barely makes a difference to her in practical terms. She is probably more upset at the fact that she lost the connection than the knowledge/councel she lost, and the Avatar state doens't seem to be any less powerful without the connection. Like at the end of Season 3 she went in full power Avatar state against Zaheer and was still immensely more powerful than him, only failing to beating him because of the poison.
Yes, thank you for your comment! The destruction of the the connection to the past avatars got justified by what Tim explained; as the Avatars not being a culmination of human wisdom but merely a vessel for some higher power we could never understand.
*28:19*
*This was my favorite part of the video. Truly, they could've showed the disciplined people becoming Air Benders. I wanted to see more of the "horrors of genocide", the world suffered through, in the last 100 years. It would have then been so much better than the world pressing the "refresh" button and everything coming back to how it was. This totally takes the value of the genocide and all that Aang suffered through.*
This would only work for air nomads though. And air nomads were the less disciplined, the disciplined people were earth. It would make no sense for the other elements since bending is hereditary unlike personality.
Yup. Imagine a small village of a few hundred people (perhaps including a descendant of the SECRET TUNNEL guy) gathering a bunch of air bender scrolls in a attempt to keep the art alive, learning about their history from old scrolls and legends passed down like Robin Hood or Hansel and Gretel. They get some things right, some wrong, it's not all clear cut.
Imagine the new air nomads are like when Katara was first learning water bending, they're ALL novices. They struggle to fit into the new world order of republic city, they struggle to process the trauma of the air Nomad genocide.
I could picture Zaheer being a "radicalised" air bender who struggles to make peace with the past and instead seeks revenge. The story could also be quite interesting if they showed that Aang didn't punish the fire nation, and they continued to prosper as if nothing happened, similar to how the British brutalised India, but really escaped without any consequences. Surely, the viewers could then sympathise with Zaheer.
@@Ashitaka255 My biggest problem with having this secret society of air benders suddenly showing off is that, how is that aang never found them
We are supposed to believe that aang searched everywhere he could to see if he could find, something, everything left about the air nómads and it's actually show in the series that he kinda did, there are some non air nómads, non benders, that are trying to keep the culture alive living the same way the air nómads lived (just without air powers) and that aang allowed them to live in the air temples so that at least a part of their culture could keep going, it stands to reason that if there were some secret airbenders hiding somewhere in the 70 years between legend of aang and legend of korra aand would have found them even if just by chance
Personaly i think that even if that was the direction the show took people would still not like it because exactly of that "how is that aang spended 70 years searching for some renmants of the air nómads and he didn't found anything and suddenly korra just stumbles into them, OMG this series is shit and it makes aang look like an idiot" or something like that
@@carso1500 in the comics series they literally had the perfect group for this which aang helped mature from a fandom to non-bending cultural inheritors.
This perfectly sums up how I felt after the beginnings episodes. I always liked how mysterious and unknown the avatar world felt with so much beyond our understanding. Sometimes the origin of the magic does not have to be explained and be left as it is because in the case of the avatar it took away so much of what made the world of avatar so interesting and immersive
I agree that sometimes it's more interesting to leave certain things to the audience's imagination since the mystery and intrigue is often more interesting than the answer.
I also agree that the Water Tribe civil war plot had a lot of potential that was really derailed by the cosmic spirit warfare nonsense.
There was an online Avatar game that was similar to the set up to beginnings in Korra and I think they did a better job with it.
Basically after Azula shoots Aang while he's in the Avatar state, his spirit is damaged and therefore must reconnect with the four former avatars before him.
Each one telks Aang a bit about their past along with something to reflect on, like how Kyoshi created the dai lee and why.
When Aang meets the air bender Yang chen, he asks why the Avatar isn't an all powerful spirit that never dies. Yang Chen explains it's important that the Avatar is human so they can experience the joys and struggles of humanity so they can understand it better and will compel them to protect it no matter what.
That line always stuck with me as I found it, compelling.
This was actually a mini series of videos. Ugh I can't remember the name but they are floating online somewhere! I think here on YT somewhere
@@stanleystewart8444 Found it! It was called Escape from the Spirit World.
Technically they're cut scenes from the game. Ince completeing the level you were able to download them. I remember because I played it myself. Shame I couldn't figure out how to download the cut scenes though
I think this is actually canon
@@chinuaalibatya7345 In case you were still wondering, the cutscenes are in fact canon
"In the era before the Avatar... we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves."
-Lion Turtle
Indeed. ..
This was ignored.
I mean they did bend the Energy in themself and people
The Lion Turtle did technically bend their energies because they're part of the creation myth.
TBF the beginnings two parter only portrays, like what, the last 20 years of the era before the avatar? Considering just how long the era before the Avatar might have been, I don't take particular issue with that in and on itself.
There’s always been something about this plotline that didn’t sit right with me and you PERFECTLY summarized it here
"I don't solve problems with alcohol"
*Community asks for an Atla movie rant*
I think LOK had a lot of good pieces but ultimately didn’t really get a good conclusion.
I did enjoy Wan’s story but it was placed wierdly and the Raava-Vaatu duality wasn’t compelling.
The thing is, the series has had a lot of Yin-Yang concept before so why didn’t they do well for Raava and Vaatu. Vaatu is the spirit of Chaos and we’ve seen that Chaos can be good. I’d say the Air Nomads live a Chaotic life with no actual place of residence. Chaos is inherently linked to high levels of freedom and autonomy. Raava is the spirit of Order and we’ve seen from Ba Sing Se that too much order can lead to restricted freedom and misery. The writers should’ve done this duality instead of the Good/Evil duality that’s less compelling.
Blame Nickelodeon for that, under-funding a series people praised and making the creators of LoK live in fear of cancellation.
Also, Yin-Yang is just Good-Evil with more steps.
@@1005rhys Yin-yan is certainly not that
@@1005rhys that is not what made tlok a shitshow lmfao 😂😂😂 what made atla great was its editors and cowriters, which tlok didnt have so no nickelodeon wasnt at fault, it was bryke
not only that, but there is no balance at all, Vaatu is way stronger than Raava when they don´t connect, and is completely useless to the world, if Raava simply Kill Vaatu each time he reborn the world would be much better.
@Kuya Leinad YES!! Thank you! I’m so tired of “Chaos bad Order good” when we clearly see that both of them can produce _both_ good&evil! Book 1 Aang was a perfect example of the carefree/free-spirited “chaos”, but his propensity to evade rather than stand firm caused him to run away from his responsibilities when they needed him most. Meanwhile, the highly ordered Earth Kingdom (both under the Dai Li, and later under Kuvira) showed exactly how “order” could cause equally severe suffering under those it affects.
Maybe they should have left it at “A WIZARD DID IT!”
boy i hope some got fired for that blunder
😂 The alcohol comment at the end when his dissection of The Last Airbender Movie just came out a few days ago! The Irony!
I think that the way you put it at the beginning is perfect. In a vacuum, Beginnings is great both as a story and as a piece of visual media. The problem is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's part of another story and piece of media. One that it doesn't fit well with.
The heart of the Avatar isn’t their powers, it’s their wisdom and humanity, several human lifetimes that converge on one person who will struggle with the world and themselves.
They’re not capital A “Avatars” of all the elements and the spirit world, they’re avatars of humanity, a fragile and conflict-ridden race. Aang struggled to learn the elements but struggled even harder against the world, its people, and ultimately himself. The world of Avatar was written to grow and support these subtleties, to tell a story with a deeper meaning beneath the setpieces and drama.
The world wasn’t built just for massive action scenes to occur and not all conflicts were meant to be resolved so easily *by the writers* . The reason why morally dubious conflicts with no clear cut good and evil sides are so engaging is because we’re human. We know they aren’t.
Agh, Avatar used to be such a good series.
Avatar also means teacher.
that's why I think the only good season of TLOK was season 3, it was far more morally grey.
You mean, that ATLA stopped being a good series?
Eh quit your whining. Korra was fine.
@@ryanmoore6259 man is entitled to having an opinion, and at least he's backing his opinion up with reasons.
I don't hate The legend of Korra, I just strongly dislike Book 2.
bro same. I actually love the worldbuilding and characters, which usually are the central focus of stories. But the themes, I mean, the themes are passable in all the other books. BUt season two is waaaaay too fucked up
I only think book 3 is good. Book 1 and 4 are decent to bad and book 2 was very good up until episode 4 but then got worse than any other book. I still like to watch first 4 over 1 and 4.
@@sunwukong5518 I think book 3 was the best , book 4 was good, book 1 was decent and book 2 was kinda bad but has great episode
The whole story just comes to a grinding halt when it goes to Bolin and his film career. Every time it comes on screen you know there are more important things happening. It’s fine to have comic relief, it was handled masterfully with Sokka in ATLA. But while he made quips he also had character development and learned to become a leader. I just finished book 2 of Korra so I don’t know if the same thing happens with Bolin, but so far he just hasn’t been taken seriously. Him getting his heart crushed by Korra is treated as a joke, like he’s only a punching bag. That’s not a character, it’s just something to make kids laugh.
@@poggers3218 Bolin's filn career was the only thing I outright don't like about book 2. Although it did result in that cool fight in the bending arena.
But still, I was reminded of Book 1 of ATLA, and how everytime Zuko was off screen I wanted them to go back to him.
I honestly would've muched preferred a full show centered around him starting as a little kid. That would be amazing, seeing Azula & Zuko's dynamic with nothing to stand in the way and explored in much further depth.
This was such a good articulation of what I've always felt about season 2.
Before Korra, I always felt that the Avatar Spirit was the Planetary Spirit manifesting itself into human form. Of all the countless spirits it was the one most fascinated by humans, it was the one that felt it could guide humans to be better. And thus - like Tui and La - chose to live in the mortal world very near the beginning, dwelling within one person in each life time from each of the four nations. Remember when we see the Hall of Avatars in the Southern Air Temple, how far up it goes to the point you can't see it, an endless cycle if life, death and rebirth? The planet itself learning what it means to be human.
I always knew something was "off" with this narrative, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I now consider my finger pointed! Thank you for this vid!
Science Druid same here, and for Season 4
Honestly, I just didn't like it because it removed a lot of the mystery of what the Avatar was. I was content with not knowing, especially when my imagination filled in the gaps with something that made this feel pretty underwhelming.
@@stoheha yeah me too I like the concept of avatar being a mystery force of nature kind of thing.... Avatar wan stuff just makes avatar lost it's mystery and turned out that avatar wasn't naturally born, but more like artificially born
Dude I hope ur parents understand this habit of u pointing ur finger ... I suggest u to wash ur hand thoroughly after every pointing session
I felt confused she loses her memory. Like I was missing or misunderstanding something. Turned out they just abandoned the actual story halfway through.
And Im still mad they haphazardly threw Airbenders in and acted like they were in any way culturally representative of the Air Nomads.
ATLA doesn't need a remake, TLOK that needs a serious reboot.
Nah, scrap TLoK.
@@asAbsolute yeah honestly we should just redo it lol with a different avatar
@@asAbsolute Too extreme. It has a lot of good things in it.
@@Mathewrath Agreed. Make no mistake: there is a good story here. It just needs to have the bullshit trimmed off, and then it needs some polish. But I really like a lot of what they set up. They just need better consistency and follow through.
TLOK and the live action adaptation needs to be deleted from our universe. ATLA is all there is
I always think of beginning as the best Avatar fan fiction.
It is the legion part in the title of the series - that is why it fits so poorly. What actually happened we will never know and this was just a piece of in-universe fiction used to explain what the Avatar was doing at the south pole and take attention away from the civil war to the general public who would have been too weirded out by the Avatar being fused with both spirits or something even more unknowable or nuanced happening. You need a battle of good and evil to sell tabloids.
This feels to me like the exact issue that Game of thrones ran into toward the end. They created this beautifully realized world with all sorts of profound mysteries that felt as though they might never even be understood. And then they managed to squander all of it within the span of only a few episodes. Mistakes like these really take away from the grandeur of an entire universe.
I have the same issue with "balance" as u pointed out, in star wars where the balance of the force is supposed to be balance but the focus is always on jedi good, sith bad, thats not balancing of the force
at the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke is kind of left somewhere in the middle. He went against the jedi masters and against the sith lords. He found good in one of the most evil men in the galaxy (who destroyed both the sith and the original jedi) and was left alone to whatever the future brought him. The jedi mistakenly thought that Anakin would destroy the sith and bring forth an age of the Jedi. The sequels made him an exact follow up to the original jedi (some might call "light" or "good" side)and left any sort of balancing to Rey as she is now the chosen one instead of Anakin and balance now means good.
Actually, I like the comparison to Star Wars because although Vaatu is pretty much the Dark Side given a shape and a personality, Star Wars was smart enough to
a) never imply that the Dark Side was anything but an evil, corrupting force that could only bring imbalance and misery.
b) never use the Dark Side in any sort of yin/yang imagery implying an equally important role than the Force.
Balance can be achieved in the Force, but not in the Dark Side. That's why the Jedi can be flawed and sometimes out of balance, but the Sith tend to be very bad people, always power hungry, often sadistic and cruel.
Yeah. Even though Anakin did bring balance to the force. After episode 3 there were 2 Jedi and 2 Sith
No, Balance in Star wars is something different, but rarely properly explained. The conception Lucas had for the force was NOT a Ying-Yang style Light and Dark where you have these two separate but equal forces(heh) that are both natural and necessary.
The phrase 'The Light' is *never* used in the movies until the sequel trilogy.
There is only The Force and it has its Dark Side. I'm not even sure you should really think of the Dark Side as a separate thing - the point is that The Dark Side IS Imbalance. It is being angry, or fearful, or out of control.
To be balanced in the Force doesn't mean having light and dark together and equal. The 'light' side of the Force IS balance.
There is a point nicely made in Clone Wars that the Dark Side exists in everyone, even Yoda, and that meeting it with force (heh...again) only feeds it. Because the Dark Side is your own darker nature - all thsoe impulses that you know are wrong but you feel anyway, that occasional flash of anger at a loved one, the urge to punch a wall when you're upset, or even just your own selfish desires etc etc.
To be balanced in the Force means acknowledged and recognizing those impulses but not allowing them to rule you. It isn't Order vs Chaos, or Serenity vs Passion, it actually IS a good(or arguably neutral) vs evil.
But people keep thinking Grey Jedi should be a thing, when the logical extrapolation of *that* view is 'right, what is my quota for puppy murdering today'
Its actually the opposite thing for TLOK, where it SHOULD have been a ying yang balance but they fucked up and made it good vs evil, in Star Wars its supposed to be good vs evil but people keep fucking up and making it ying yang balance
Except that version of "balance" is the only actually coherent one. If "balance" is between good and evil, why would you ever want balance? In order for "balance" to be a *good* thing, "imbalance" has to be a *bad* thing. Therefore balance = good and imbalance = evil.
The idea of balance between good and evil is nonsense.
And let's be honest, could you really imagine Aang going "well, the worlds too good now, too much peace, better add some more evil to bring balance."
No. Don't be absurd.
You really need to get funded to write your own animated series or comic/manga or something because I was with you the whole 34 minutes and 06 seconds.
I think talking about telling stories and actually telling them are two very different things. That's why he made "On Writing", which is a blueprint, instead of a work that uses those same ideas
@@ofthecaribbean well isn't he writing another book?
@@g.e.e.k_talk4610 Is he?
@@ofthecaribbean He is
@@upg5147 what is it?
The reason I like these 2 episodes, is purely for the history of the past human benders that had to borrow the bending powers from the lion Turtles. I would love for them to do a mini prequel series on either one of the earliest avatars, or even go back further to before the avatars and do a prequel on an important event that took place during the Pre Avatar Era.
I have heard that Faulkner quote in so many video essays that it activates my fight reflex now.
I wish that these episodes were framed as an alternative mythology from a certain group of people instead of the legitimate history that really actually happened. It’s really cool to have lots of mythology and folk lore and incredibly not cool to have facts just laid out unambiguously.
None of this matters, though, cuz I only watch those episodes for Jason Marsden’s voice
I would add to that: Doing that or maybe laying out the already known methods that humans learned bending myths/half truths. Something like "By the time those so called 'ancient' scrolls of yours were written the Dragon Turtles had already faded into myth and legend. Humanity looked to the creatures they lived with, creatures that lived far longer than them, and simply connected the dots. They wrote what they *thought* was the origin of bending."
Something along those lines, instead of making it look like the writers just forgot what was already set in cannon.
Ohhh, the writers should have watched the canyon episode again and then make like 4 different versions of the origin story, leaving the viewer with the choice to piece together their headcanon.
@@remem95 hmmm, now theres an idea.
remem95 I mean that’s what religions are; they’re just different cultures explaining worldly things through supernatural beings/events! I think Avatar does a great job of showing the different ways that the various groups express their spirituality but having diversity in the mythologies would have been really cool! I think even the good vs. evil thing wouldn’t have been that bad if it were about a specific religion as opposed to historical events...
@@remem95 now THAT'S a good idea!!
"I have mastered the elements a thousand times in a thousand lifetimes"
Is completely spoiled in Beginnings. Always bothered me...
Please elaborate.
Avatar Roku says that to Jeong Jeong in Season 1 of TLA. Makes the Avatar cycle much longer than 10,000 years.
@@philter105 Wasn't 10,000 established in ATLA? Then it would be a problem with ATLA's math (just like Azulon's reign, which was said in ATLA to have lasted less than 30 years).
Not that I can think of. The history of the Avatar always seemed longer than 10,000 years to me. Partially because they left it quite vague. Putting a number on it spoils it like Tim says in the vid
@@philter105 Same thing with the statues in Book 1. There was just an unending amount of them lighting up when Aang went Avatar state. We're never supposed to know the exact number, we just know he's been around since the beginning of bending itself.
Never been a big fan of Korra, and Beginnings was always one of my favorite parts. However, I see your point, and this just makes the Legend of Korra even weaker in my opinion
Holy shit you covered so much in 30 mins and summed up wonderfully a lot of my gripes with this season that I couldn’t put into words. I’ve been rewatching LoK for the first time with the last time I saw it, being when it aired. And it’s honestly a struggle to get through season 2. This brings to light so many of the reasons why.
The first half of season 2 feels like the beginning of an entirely different season than what it ended up like there was a lost season that attached itself to season 2 last second
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Written by Aaron Ehasz (head writer)
The Legend of Korra - Written by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko
No wonder the first one is so much better. Aaron Ehasz and his wife were the ones who came up with the world and how everything works.
Very much this
I've always heard this and been conflicted. Mike and Bryan have been very clear about their role in creating this world and so I'm hesitant to give them any less credit than they are due. However, I think it might be fair to say that Aaron and his wife as WRITERS, that being their primary craft, played a critical role in making the ideas behind this world work with actual mechanics (vis a vis lore, power systems, soft magic, etc.) I am a pretty big defender of LOK, I think a lot of the hate is overblown even though there are issues. However, this video does illuminate why LOK didn't 'land' in the same way ATLA did with fans. Everything in LOK starts out with a good idea, but falls flat on the execution. Season 3 is the only exception to that for me, and I'll die on that hill.
Brike, came up with the ideas together. Aaron Ehasz made those ideas work on a storytelling level. That's the difference between ATLA and TLOK
One of the best critiques I've ever heard on Korra.. I love your channel
It's such an incredible thing to find a video that puts into words the thoughts that have been sitting in your head for years.
Here's my headcanon: The version of Wan's story which we see in Beginnings isn't a literal or definitive depiction of those events, but rather a version of them which is comprehendible to Korra at that point in her development.
Between both series we see that each Avatar's understanding of the world, their place within in, and their own abilities, stems from both a synthesis of, and interpretation of, the collective experiences of their current and previous lives. We've also seen that the most recent previous Avatars are the easiest to call forth (Aang for Korra, Roku for Aang, etc.) which implies that lives from further back are harder to access. Therefore, Wan's life is now so distant that it can only be called up in bits and pieces, and in a more abstract way.
If Aang had seen the story of Wan (which he may well have at some point) it would have looked very differently, and reflected his more nuanced understanding of morality and the balance between the physical and spiritual. Korra however is a very concrete, black-and-white kind of person, at least at this point, and so that shades her experience of Wan's life. It also reframes the spiritual matters which have thus far gone over her head as something simple and straightforward; something she can grapple with. The idea of stories being told in multiple ways, and there being elements of truth in each, is something that ATLA dealt with more than once, and applied here it retains the ambiguity of the Avatar's nature and the nature of the spirit world despite what we see in Beginnings.
Of course, this headcanon makes it extremely hard to explain the final giant spirit fight at the end of the season. All I can suggest for that is that the way in which Raava and Vaatu are manifested is dependent upon the understanding(s) of those who call them forth. Korra and Unalaq both have very black-and-white views on morality, and so that is how Raava and Vaatu, manifestations of the essential duality of existence, become simply spirits of good and evil in this instance. There could even be something in this about how didactic worldviews inevitably breed violent conflict, tying it back to the civil war story, although that's even more of a stretch than the rest of this rant.
This interpretation of Beginnings certainly doesn't resolve all of season two's other issues, and was also clearly not the intent of the showrunners, but it is in line with a lot of the themes from ATLA.
I would love if the creators built on this, like the next avatar also has a confrontation with vaatu or something and then they also see wan's story but in a different light
That sounds Very accurate considering she was talking to a spiritual being, to show the actual littoral /literal events to her being may have ultimately been damaging in the long run
@@ron.behiri That would be soooo dope
That is an interesting interpretation. If they hadn't thrown in the bit about Unalaq having set Tonraq up, therefore making him less "someone who cares deeply about the spirits" and more "ambitious hypocrite", then they could have made Unalaq genuinely believe that Vaatu was the good spirit that represented a greater presence of spirits in the world. Would fit better with the later claim that he was a Red Lotus member, too (although I'd admit I'm sceptical of everything Zaheer said in that exchange - Zaheer had pretty much proved by the end of the series that he'd use any lie to get one over on his opponents, so I suspect that Zaheer was just saying whatever he thought would keep Korra in the spirit world long enough for his allies to grab her).
I'm so sorry ,man,..
BUT THEY DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT AT ALL!IT'S JUST A FACT NOW!
This video should be titled “so much less compelling”
I feel like the title he went with was just... so much less compelling.
Tim I really appreciate your channel. It’s helped me through some difficult times. Many blessings to you.
Now that I am listening to this. I am really interested in seeing a rewrite of this in narration form. Really compelling thoughts as always. hope to see more.
Ironically, darkness is way more peaceful than constant bright light.
Which is why yin is the passive force and not yang. Violence is an inherently yang concept but the west doesn't give a shit about what asians actually philosophised about.
@@limazulu6192 why is it often the west this, the west that, you guys have real problems, yeah grasping a concept that is outside of your culture and it's not normaly teached is hard, surprise
@@carso1500 taught and im not just busting the west on these things but everyone who's got little appreciation for the things they talk about especially when it gets on a cultural level. That shit just grinds my gears in general. Now surprise because im neither asian nor have i been taught that shit either. I just know because i cared enough to read about it. But do you know who should care more about it than i do? THE FUCKING JACKASS WHO WROTE AN ENTIRE BOOK ABOUT IT!!! THAT'S LITERALLY THE FIRST THING YOU DO IN THAT PROFESSION AND ITS CALLED RESEARCH!
God i hate bad authors. Like seriously not only does this inform me that he has next to no interest to pay proper tribute to the things he's referencing, he's not even gonna treat his own art with respect. Like why even bother becoming an author in the first place if you're so dispassionate about it you're ok with half assing it?
carso1500 hard to grasp a concept youre not even aware of.
@@carso1500 but acknowledging that you don't fully understand the concept and not seeing yourself entitled to tell it to people is very easy. This isn't someone struggling to fit another perspective to their own thinking the first time they hear about it; it's literally someone saying "I understand this well enough to create a story based on it and tell it to millions of people".
Chemically speaking, alcohol *is* a solution.
Ah haaaaa
Depends on which alcohol though
INDIGO BLUEoO a cold one
Lmao
It rubs me the wrong way when someone plays smartass and says "but technically *technically wrong statement* is correct", especially when it's the same goddamn one over and over again
I think seasons 3 and 4 do a much better job of establishing the chaos v order themes than season 2. The way I see it: Zaheer is a more compelling characterization of Vaatu and Kuvira is a more compelling characterization of Raava. The parallels that could have been drawn...the thematic consistencies this would have established...the what could have been...
This is such a great video! I share a lot of your sentiments toward book 2 of Korra and the Wan story specifically, and you verbalize them so well here! Also think you suggested changes sound a lot more interesting than what we actually got.
“The magic carpets” 🤣🤣 exactly my thoughts when I saw that shit
24:36 You know I think a lot of the problems with Korra is that it raises interesting political and sociological issues but always cops out at the end. Season one raises interesting debates about the bender/non-bender conflict, but focuses so much on the whole pro bending thing that that theme is not allowed to develop further and in the end the antagonist turns out be a hypocrite anyway. Season 2 is obvious. In season 4, my actual favourite season, Kuvira tries to unite the earth kingdom and even though she is taking harsh measures to do so, clearly has* a positive effect on the kingdom. That raises questions about how much interference is required in scenarios like this and what measures should you take to fix a broken nation. All of this is discarded when Kuvira starts doing obviously evil things like building a big ass mecha and trying to take over Republic city.
Movies like Zootopia and Black Panther actually deal with these things much better than Korra even though these movies still may be flawed in some ways. Zootopia is essentially the first season of Korra (replace the predator/non-predator conflict with the bender/non-bender conflict) but is allowed to actually develop the themes to its logical conclusion. Black Panther does not cop out at the end by having the antagonist turn out to be a hypocrite. Killmonger is 100% right and in the end the main characters acknowledge this and promise to change Wakanda by opening it up to the rest of the world instead of keeping it isolated.
Yeah I was sooo disillusioned by the liberal propaganda. And by liberal I mean anti-left. It basically took a bunch of cool leftist theories and practice and then said they were all bad because they made all their leaders ridiculously evil. It was a cheap way to discredit the actual ideas that could have been fleshed out more.
@@sierra750 I am so glad to see someone else talk about this. Zaheer and Amon are both basically right. Zaheer especially is an weird to be potrayed as evil, because we KNOW from the last series that the villages, towns and provinces are basically fine without a central authority, there problem isn't a lack of governance but an imperialist invanding force. Disposing of the Earth Kingdom is the correct thing to do, it only ever makes its citizens lives worse (see "Zuko Alone" or the Queens tax collectors)
I'm not willing to defend Kuvira for even a minute though, the woman is facist.
@@belegl.7721 If you think that Amon is right by bringing equality through force, I'm sorry but you are insane. Even without being a hypocrite he is completely wrong, as he basically strips people away from things that they consider part of their core identity by force. It is a terrible thing to do.
Zaheer is much more complex, but it shows that extremist ideas, even when they look good in paper, always have unforeseen consequences. The same can be said about Kuvira.
Unalaq was the villain that I mostly sympathized with at first, until they brought up the whole Vaatu thing.
@@Lacertos I think the point is that the Equalists have legitimate grievances in Season One - nonbenders ARE treated as second-class citizens and ARE at the mercy of the more powerful benders. Arguably, teaching chi-blocking and developing technology that lessens the advantages of bending are even healthy responses to this. Even Amon removing the bending from people like the crime lord who use their bending to oppress others seems at least a fairly light shade of grey. I mean, Aang the highly pacifistic Avatar did the same thing. Maybe it's not his "right" to do so, but if the correct authorities haven't found a way to stop him, it's hard to blame him for taking action.
There are pieces of a really interesting story about an oppressed class of people taking violent action against a society that won't protect them or respect them, how the situation becomes ever more political and polarized, and keeps constantly escalating each time either side uses force instead of peaceful resolution tactics. Equalist crimes are responded to with basic rights of non-benders being taken away which leads to what are essentially large scale terror attacks. LoK had the chance to (like Black Panther) create a story where the villain is right about something important but wrong in their methods, and this sparks lasting change.
Instead, by focusing on the family drama and cover-up lies of the leaders on both sides of the conflict, LoK has Korra defeat Amon and end the Equalists as an organization without actually dealing with their ideology at all. Amon and Tarlok kill themselves and we never hear another word about non-bender rights. It's kinda-sorta implied by the fact that no one talks about it at ALL that things are better now, but if they are, then how? Did being under non-bender military occupation somehow make all the benders nicer to non-benders? Were there laws passed protecting non-bender rights? Were Amon's actions enough to break the grip of organized crime targeting non-benders on Republic City?
Just like Season 2, Season One sets up a complex, morally grey idealogical conflict, and then late in the season introduces a backstory-related plot that allows the story to be reframed in more black-and-white terms and the villain to be defeated without addressing his original motivations.
@@StarryEyed0590 I understand all that, but I'm addressing Amon as a character, not the background that his actions take place.
You said that Amon took out the bending of the crime lord. It is debatable if justice by its own hands is justice at all, but even if it is, Amon didn't want to take away the bending only of criminals, he used his powers on innocent people as well, that is simply not justifiable.
If he wasn't a dangerous extremist and instead as more Robin Hood or Punisher type of character (that targeted only shit people) maybe he wouldn't be a villain, but it is pointless to discuss this, as the whole season arc would have to be completely different, with different questions asked.
THANK YOU! this is exactly the problem I had with that storyline and I've never been able to put it to words or explain it properly. This is a very very good explanation.
One of my favorite fanfic is basically someone finding vaatu in the spirit world, not knowing who or what he is, and becoming essentially a second avatar to restore the balance that was broken by the original avatar’s existence
Really?! What the story called?
@@HKGC-do6gk “yellow brick road” by Araceil, unfortunately discontinued
@@morganbrandr4228 Aw man! Where is it on?
I love how you just casually come up with REALLY compelling stories, your idea for how airbending could re-emerge is immediately deeply interesting.
"there isnt a good and bad side"
beginnings: "hey here is a story about good and bad sides"
Worldbuilding is such a complex topic. I loved the comments you had on how telling the reader too much can make the world seem just as closed-off as telling them nothing at all. You can watch ATLA and imagine someone sipping a cup of tea at the end of the day in Ba-Sing Se, and you can play Mass Effect and imagine someone getting annoyed at hearing Commander Shepherd's 'Favorite store in the Citadel' line playing over the intercom for the tenth time that minute. It's hard to explain exactly how to strike that balance, but it's absolutely magical when you do.
Thank you for sorting and presenting all the problems I ever had with these episodes!
Way back when this episode aired, I had the same exact thoughts, mostly about the destruction of the morality system of the show, and just the overall "dumbification" of a story that I highly cherished. Thank you for elaborating on these thoughts. Brilliant analysis! Also, heartbreaking, considering it's now canon. :(
We need a BIG REWRITE!
I agree with other commenters that people who hate lok normally hate beginnings too, people who enjoyed the spiritual lessons of atla not just the powers and abilities. You hit the nail on the head for the other stuff though imo.
For me, the morally grey situations were awesome, I remember thinking how terrible it would be to be a non bender in a universe like this, they start that on season 1, gave me high hopes, then make the leader of the movement an evil bloodbender, and forget this very real conflict entirely. This is consistently done. Easy endings. And black and white morality entirely forgetting the meaning behind yin and Yang and how the avatar is balance. Not light alone. That the avatar needs human wisdom from multiple generations, thats how the avatar has wisdom above us mere mortals, because in a way the avatar is just a collection of many many mortals.
I loved just how much Aang struggled to let go of his pacifist nature. He had literal nightmares about Ozai. He consulted the past Avatars but still couldn't let himself become a killer. You could interpret it as moral courage or weakness, but at least could understand that it was real.
It's also an incredible portrayal of contientious objectors. They don't all just do it avoid the draft, some really do believe their pacifist message.
Amon still would have been an interesting villain, if his ability didn't break the pre-established rules (full-moon bloodbending) or was actually explained within the show.
Hiding his bending and actually identifying with people who had suffered at the hands of benders (like he had), being ashamed of his heritage & abilities and only using them to take away bending. He could've really cared about his followers & been really insecure about them finding out, 'cause he didn't want them to hate him. Maybe he'd rather Matyr himself then let that happen?
@@TheMageOfVoid they do explain, the only reason regular water benders need the moon to blood bend wasnt because the moon somehow has something special that allows them to blood bend but because the full moon gives some kind of buff to their abilities that makes them a little more powerful and as such allows them to use blood bending (kinda like how zozins comet allows firebenders to fly just by how powerful their bending becomes), Amon just came from a family or waterbenders that were powerful enough to bloodbend without needing the full moon buff, they are exceptions and the story makes it clear to say that they arent normal for their capabilities to bloodbend outside of the full moon (which imo, doesnt contradicts anything)
I can agree about the second bit, it would be interesting to see some renmants of Amons movement post season 1, some people that even when they learned that their leader was a liar and using them just for personal power still believed in the anti bender movement and were causing trouble, maybe not have them as the main antagonista ñ but definetly as a threat that is still present i think it would have been an interesting move
I do agree, and am often left wondering how this transpires. Clearly the writers had great ideas in each season of blurring the line of right and wrong only to revert back. I wonder if it was conflict between the studio and the writers, but nevertheless it disappoints me.
I love this comment. I also hated that they completely abandoned a genuinely compelling plotline with regard to the non bender revolution. Also the idea that the leader would not have immediately become a martyr and the movement, which was shown to be gaining momentum fast, wouldn’t have swelled even more in the wake of his death baffled me. I was confident that’s what his death was foreshadowing, was *for*.
A couple of month ago I started watching Legend of Korra and my God I had a rough time with it. I even thought of giving it up but that part of me who absolutely loves ATLA kept me going. I wanted it to be good but the first season is atrocious. The characters are empty and two dimensional (especially Bolin and his brother whose name I don't even bloody remember ) It's a shame because they had an incredible villain in the first season - Amon. I loved his philosophy, him as a character and his secret. But it's horrible how they treated him and how he was defeated. And the fact that Korra got her powers back with Aang petting her head.... It was a Disney type of ending - the main antagonist will get everything without sacrifice or hard work. And the same thing happens throughout the whole series - they have great villains but they don't know how to use them properly(well, except her uncle whom I did not like at all). There was a great potential but they fell flat on their faces. However, the final boss battle with Kuvira was pretty darn good and the ending, to me at least, felt quite satisfying. It's obviously nothing compared to the final Agni Kai or Aang vs Ozay but watching all the previous seasons, it was bloody good:).
I wanna say that I'm really really thankful for this analysis. I can finally understand and put into concrete and more detailed concepts as to why I felt so disappointed in the story, and why it made me feel like the Avatar world had been uprooted.
Now for me to.. ramble with my Avatar thoughts:
Even with how they portrayed Wan's story, it would have been cool to see Korra restore order by doing what no one else (besides Unalaq) wanted her to do in the story, and releasing Vaatu herself. This analysis overall really helped me understand why I felt disappointed by the Spirit World within TLOK.
This analysis also makes me imagine different paths they could've taken.. my mind hasn't gone Avatar-theory in a long time.
(Aw nuts! I just saw that you had the merging idea at the end of the video! I'll say it anyway though I suppose.. keep the ramble fresh) It would have also been interesting if.. instead of Wan defeating Vaatu, it was Wan absorbing Vaatu. We unexpectedly learn that the Avatar is two halves, fallible, at conflict within, and endlessly powerful despite the 'evil' or 'good' decisions they choose.
If they took their time more, perhaps didn't have this big battle within the Spirit World right away, but we find out later that Unalaq had absorbed Vaatu.. Throughout a season, both avatars navigating social dynamics and power dynamics until Korra realizes that Unalaq is now her yin-yang counterpart.. Or what if we learned that Vaatu and Raava had once been one? And that their separation over all this time has built too much tension within the Spirit World, effecting the Spirit World regardless of whether or not they were the ultimate beings.
It would at first become a question of if there should be this second avatar, if this puts harmony in jeopardy or helps put balance in place.. because what the show has Shown us (without telling us) is that Korra being the only Avatar was 'not enough'. She restored 'balance' to the Spirit World by destroying its Yin, but the damage had been done, and the spirits now somehow bridged the gap.. but finding balance by bringing Vaatu and Raava back together would have been an explanation for this depressive depiction of Korra's story as the Avatar, and could have brought harmony to her own life as we finish the circle.. and frankly, it would have been a good ending to the Avatar franchise at the time (although now we know that the franchise has Not ended, really happy they didn't completely close the storyline in that way!).
Through what they've shown us, they unintentionally seem to tell us that Raava was needed in the Spirit world, to be alongside Vaatu to maintain a balance. It tells me that the Avatar's duty is even more to the Spirit World than initially depicted, and that perhaps their dynamic may not even be plausible unless they can somehow learn to balance their duty between the physical and spiritual worlds.
There are so many paths they could have done. Korra even could have chosen to vacation in the Spirit World because it was Raava's duty to also oversee this world (since, because of Wan's story, we've been told that Raava and Vaatu are both the Ultimate Powers of the Spirit World). The dynamic that the second season creates makes the Spirit World confusing.
(I would have liked if Vaatu was not only a vengeful, angry spirit, but that he was acting this way in similarity to Hei Bai. He needed Raava back, atleast for a time. Ramble done)
People always jump on me for saying I hate the beginnings episodes. Thank you for explaining why they aren’t good.
I mean that super subjective but alright
@@brya9681 watch the video
@@Kage-jk4pj I did. Watching it doesnt make everyone agree with him like a sheep
Osiris Paradim Well of course everyone’s opinion is their own. I’m just saying thanks for explaining the negative in a comprehensive and clear way.
As a fan of the korra series and the beginnings episodes I respect your opinion
I find actually that those who dislike the Legend Of Korra, they point to how the Avatar Wan episodes have completely retconned the entirety of the bending system
I just thought it was boring.
It wasn't entertaining IMO and it is for the reasons mentioned in the video where it is not as compelling
i just dont consider tlok cannon
@@airpodsmurf6175 LoK was realistically just a shitty fanfic that we can look back at and go "now if we were to make a sequel to AtLA, this is what we shouldn't do"
airpod smurf rude
Great video, I've been trying to put these feelings into a proper cohesive argument for ages and this is perfect