30:20 To be honest, of the many reasons I don't like Legend of Korra is how they retconned the Air Nomads being gone. Yes, the things you said are true, but I was still majorly disappointed in how they handled it. They broke the "status quo" of the first show in several key ways (and while I consider the first Avatar backstory the best pair of episodes in the whole LoK series, that doesn't really mean much in grand scale of things; the Lion Turtles did not make nearly as much sense as the show pretends them to), one of which was literally breaking Korra's connection to ALL of the past Avatars!! And for what?? It was really not worth it. Sure it seems "cool" to bring the airbenders back, but they were ALREADY back through Tenzin's line! Why did you magically make them reappear en masse? And then - do basically nothing with them? It was so frustrating. LoK had so much potential, but there was no "destination" or final goal, and it shows. Opening the spirit portals should not have brought airbending back, end of story. It made no sense and it was not handled in an interestig way. I have a feeling the only reason it happened at all is for the show to have an excuse to have an airbender as a villain.
First off, they didn't magically appear out of nowhere. It was a direct result of Korra strengthening the connection to the Spirit World, and the ATLA creators confirmed spirtuality as the source of their bending specifically, hence why they're the only all bender nation. Secondly, the Lion Turtles didn't break the cycle, they just invented bending. The cycle was broken by Unalaq and I don't see it as any different from Azula almost doing the same with Aang. The difference is Unalaq was being way more thorough going after the spirit directly and not just killing his niece.
@@calebgoodman3028 "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements but the energy within ourselves". This MIGHT be taken as an excuse to make "Dragon Turtles gave humans elemental bending via energy bending", but originally, this sounded like simply "We Lion Turtles are older than bending, so naturally we have power over it". The thing is, I am 100% sure that the idea of Avatar Wan getting bending from Lion Turtles came AFTER the first season of Korra, just like the stuff with airbenders and spirit world. It simply doesn't.... fit with how things work in the first Avatar series. It's not completely contradictory, but it just doesn't feel right - like trying to connect puzzple pieces together that are ALMOST right, except not. Spirits became much less like "mystical spirit" and more like weird pokemon. The spirit world itself is now a dimension completely like Earth except some weird timey-wobbly physics apply from time time time, like Kora turning a kid for...some reason?? Or the mist of lost souls. ...That place out of all of spirit world in Korra felt like from the original series', actually. My point is, the first Avatar series' "spirit stuff" felt completely different, and the unsaid lore painted a completely different picture than the one we got in Legend of Korra. You can say it all makes sense, but for the lack of better word to use, the "vibe" is off. Also - why did Korra decide to leave the portals open in the end?? That actually made no sense. At no point in the story we were told that closing the portals and separating the realms was bad. It's not like the spirits couldn't come over before. They were just limited in their influence. Which is good in my opinion, since spirits are super chaotic and their morals seem completely disconnected from humanity! Why did Korra open the front door for them and invite them over like it's not a bit deal?! That always felt super irresponsible to me.
@@blueteller I can definitely see where you're coming from. Book 2 definitely had the worst writing issues out of the four. Nickelodeon extending what was originally meant to be a single season miniseries didn't help matters. Book 3 and 4 were pretty good together but the fact they were planned after the show was extended a second time gave this weird disconnect where you have a decent complete story, another complete story with a lot of things that raises questions as much as it answers, then a third longer story with a plot change halfway through Wizard of Oz book style.
@@calebgoodman3028 Yeah, I think you hit the issue right on the head. The main problem is how disconnected a lot of stuff feels because of the poor writing and planning issues. No I don't blame the creators for having a hard time, I'm sure they did their best with what they had at the time. But having an idea of direction - before seasons 3 & 4 that is - would have been a good idea. They tried to make the Korra series a completely new thing, but unfortunately that meant they abandoned most of what made the first Avatar show so effective. Grand war adventure with a final boss? Replaced by the villain of the week stirring trouble. Avatar learning the 4 elements? Replaced by OP Avatar who masters everything in an instant (including airbending; Korra did master it the moment she unlocked it). Lowkey romantic plotlies? Make it the major plot, except it keeps undercutting itself and they let the fandom decide in the end (which is ALWAYS a horrible idea!!!). Et cetera. There were things that I liked, like Tenzin and Lin, but most of the time I questioned why they didn't simply stick to what they already have: the status quo of the 16-year-old Avatar traveling the world and mastering bending while trying to maintain balance in the world. It could basically write itself.
Great video! Rebel Moon wasn't that terrible, but was more like a long episode of a series than a movie
That's definitely a good way to describe it.
30:20 To be honest, of the many reasons I don't like Legend of Korra is how they retconned the Air Nomads being gone. Yes, the things you said are true, but I was still majorly disappointed in how they handled it. They broke the "status quo" of the first show in several key ways (and while I consider the first Avatar backstory the best pair of episodes in the whole LoK series, that doesn't really mean much in grand scale of things; the Lion Turtles did not make nearly as much sense as the show pretends them to), one of which was literally breaking Korra's connection to ALL of the past Avatars!! And for what?? It was really not worth it.
Sure it seems "cool" to bring the airbenders back, but they were ALREADY back through Tenzin's line! Why did you magically make them reappear en masse? And then - do basically nothing with them? It was so frustrating. LoK had so much potential, but there was no "destination" or final goal, and it shows. Opening the spirit portals should not have brought airbending back, end of story. It made no sense and it was not handled in an interestig way. I have a feeling the only reason it happened at all is for the show to have an excuse to have an airbender as a villain.
First off, they didn't magically appear out of nowhere. It was a direct result of Korra strengthening the connection to the Spirit World, and the ATLA creators confirmed spirtuality as the source of their bending specifically, hence why they're the only all bender nation. Secondly, the Lion Turtles didn't break the cycle, they just invented bending. The cycle was broken by Unalaq and I don't see it as any different from Azula almost doing the same with Aang. The difference is Unalaq was being way more thorough going after the spirit directly and not just killing his niece.
@@calebgoodman3028 "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements but the energy within ourselves". This MIGHT be taken as an excuse to make "Dragon Turtles gave humans elemental bending via energy bending", but originally, this sounded like simply "We Lion Turtles are older than bending, so naturally we have power over it". The thing is, I am 100% sure that the idea of Avatar Wan getting bending from Lion Turtles came AFTER the first season of Korra, just like the stuff with airbenders and spirit world. It simply doesn't.... fit with how things work in the first Avatar series. It's not completely contradictory, but it just doesn't feel right - like trying to connect puzzple pieces together that are ALMOST right, except not. Spirits became much less like "mystical spirit" and more like weird pokemon. The spirit world itself is now a dimension completely like Earth except some weird timey-wobbly physics apply from time time time, like Kora turning a kid for...some reason?? Or the mist of lost souls. ...That place out of all of spirit world in Korra felt like from the original series', actually.
My point is, the first Avatar series' "spirit stuff" felt completely different, and the unsaid lore painted a completely different picture than the one we got in Legend of Korra. You can say it all makes sense, but for the lack of better word to use, the "vibe" is off. Also - why did Korra decide to leave the portals open in the end?? That actually made no sense. At no point in the story we were told that closing the portals and separating the realms was bad. It's not like the spirits couldn't come over before. They were just limited in their influence. Which is good in my opinion, since spirits are super chaotic and their morals seem completely disconnected from humanity! Why did Korra open the front door for them and invite them over like it's not a bit deal?! That always felt super irresponsible to me.
@@blueteller I can definitely see where you're coming from. Book 2 definitely had the worst writing issues out of the four. Nickelodeon extending what was originally meant to be a single season miniseries didn't help matters. Book 3 and 4 were pretty good together but the fact they were planned after the show was extended a second time gave this weird disconnect where you have a decent complete story, another complete story with a lot of things that raises questions as much as it answers, then a third longer story with a plot change halfway through Wizard of Oz book style.
@@calebgoodman3028 Yeah, I think you hit the issue right on the head. The main problem is how disconnected a lot of stuff feels because of the poor writing and planning issues. No I don't blame the creators for having a hard time, I'm sure they did their best with what they had at the time. But having an idea of direction - before seasons 3 & 4 that is - would have been a good idea. They tried to make the Korra series a completely new thing, but unfortunately that meant they abandoned most of what made the first Avatar show so effective.
Grand war adventure with a final boss? Replaced by the villain of the week stirring trouble. Avatar learning the 4 elements? Replaced by OP Avatar who masters everything in an instant (including airbending; Korra did master it the moment she unlocked it). Lowkey romantic plotlies? Make it the major plot, except it keeps undercutting itself and they let the fandom decide in the end (which is ALWAYS a horrible idea!!!). Et cetera. There were things that I liked, like Tenzin and Lin, but most of the time I questioned why they didn't simply stick to what they already have: the status quo of the 16-year-old Avatar traveling the world and mastering bending while trying to maintain balance in the world. It could basically write itself.