The thing that always struck me with TLoK vs ATLA is that while the Gaang quickly felt like a firm group (and later a family), Korra and... "her associates" never really felt like that they connected all that much and really didn't have much reason to hang out together in later seasons. Like, they were friends out of habit rather than out of conviction.
Asami suffers the worse from it, their really isn’t much of a point of her being around the group after season one. She more or less became a glorified taxi driver for the group.
Yeah, nothing really bonded them together. I am actually shocked as to how they still stayed together. I mean, Korra dated like...every one of them... More shocking is that she had any kind of good relationship with Asami. Korra knew Asami and Mako were dating, she took Mako for herself, then they broke up, she even told Asami what they did together when Asami was still dating Mako...yeah, Asami would just want to be her fucking friend, and for some reason it would even make her lesbo for Korra. I don't like Korra as a person, at all.
Apparently Asami was originally suppose to be a villain in the show. Being a double agent working with the equalist with her father (noticed how convenient it was that she happened to run into Mako who is close to the avatar at that moment), but the creators of the show changed there mind and made her into a main character. In all honesty it felt like she was a disappointment there should’ve been more for Asami because outside of season one she barely has a purpose anymore, she just sort of there for the rest of seasons 2, 3, and 4, basically becoming a glorified taxi driver. That's why I could careless about her romance at the end of the series.
This is exactly what I came on here to say. The love triangle would not have been an issue had they stuck to their original plan of Asami only using Mako and eventually becoming a villain (which would have made her WAY more interesting than what we got). Instead, we got what we got. And unfortunately, they continued the trend of making more bad choices in changing plot lines and character development during production that led to the inconsistency that it is.
I think Asami should've gotten airbending at the start of season 3. It gives her an excuse to hang out with Korra and develop their relationship somewhat as Korra starts to train her, and then opens up a spot on Team Avatar when Asami goes to the Northern Air Temple to train under Tenzin. This leaves a spot to be filled in by... Kuvira! Asami's role in season 3 is largely filled by Kuvira, and Asami and Korra get time to build a relationship and then reflect on it while they're apart. Korra is also now more invested in what happens to Kuvira come season 4. Just my two cents.
The show as a whole could've been better if they simply made each season 20 episodes like with the last airbender. It would've given more time to better develop the characters, their relationship as a team, more interactions with the villains, showed us actual examples of inequality between benders and non benders, etc.
Maybe Nick didn't allow it though, Nick usually puts limit on things like that. If it was not planned from the beginning, it was not going to ever change.
@@jon_ovo3653 Spongebob was a blessing and a curse for Nickelodeon (Mostly a curse these days). When it first came out, it was a great show that many people enjoyed until after season 3. But when Nick realized that Spongebob was cash cow, they decided to milk it at the cost of its quality while other animated shows would either be shoved to the side for airtime or canceled completely. I think you all know the rest. It's actually a miracle that both Avatar shows were able to avoid being cancelled by Nick when you really think about.
Personally I’m mixed on Amon’s ’true’ backstory, honestly it felt more like he had daddy issues then having genuine distaste over bending in general which ruined some of his meance to me. I probably wouldn’t mind it if maybe we got more backstory on it, like in his teenage years he is at Republic city starting a new life but he saw through most of the inequality of non-benders and combine that with his hated of his controlling father it would eventually shaped him into the revolutionary he is set up as. That could've been easily done if you cut out half the pro-bending and love triangle crap.
that is actually pretty good i would have accepted that way more lol. i cant see his daddy issues being legitimate hatred toward bending. cuz he even uses his bloodbending on one of his own who wasnt a bender and didnt even do anything besides question loyalty like amon had no hesitation to destroy that guy looooool. but this would have cleared up a lot. nice point bro
LoK is a lesson on how vision is important for a story. The three subplots in season one don’t communicate with each other even though the gangs could’ve set up the oppression for the equalist arc and have influence in the pro bending. The constant rewriting of the lore rules, as blood bending in daylight, breaks the whole balance of the show, as a blood bender cannot lose a duel (hence why you blocked the ability in the first place). The villains are developed characters and with an ideological background, however their ideologies never are explored deeply and instead just become the most powerful benders of a generation. Zaheer is perhaps the perfect embodiment of this when he literally flies like superman having been an airbender for less than a month. His anarchist ideas are summed up as he doesn’t want any authority and that’s about it. Amon is another example, a great presence, is ruined by being a bender, as his no longer defending an idea that he believes in nor is he doing this for power. It’s like if the pigs in animal farm were altruistic, it breaks the whole message. Amon’s arc is no longer a commentary on how social oppression breeds revolution nor is it a comment on how people take advantage of said conflict to gain power. He becomes someone traumatized, but you didn’t set up him like this for 10 episodes. In the name of the twist you blew the thematic core of his arc. While the show will find its footing in season 3 and become a good show, in the end this looks like a team without someone leading (there’s no credit for head writer in the show, what are the odds). Therefore, it’s a compilation of different ideas on how it ought to be written which not necessarily work together or had someone working in order to fit them together. The saddest part of re-watching is that the show could’ve dodged many of these issues as The Dragon Prince did (while still maintaining the last airbender tone and impact). It makes you wonder who was behind the writing core of the original show.
Plus Amon raises some very interesting points, but then the whole concept is thrown away into the garbage when it's revealed that it was all a ploy, he never cared about non-benders to begin with, he just wanted to untangle his daddy issues.
Having learned more about the history of the Far East, I think they should have modeled Republic City after the Meiji restoration, rather then the roaring 20s. The Meiji restoration is a real life example of distinct Asian culture progressing into a modern nation while keeping a cultural identity of its own. Also, they should have explained that the government of the United Republics are not elected or representative of the people. And the Equalists should have been more built up. Like have them start of a small, well intentioned movement, and Amon could have started out as a weird guy in a mask who showed up at their meetings, saying they weren’t going far enough, eventually radicalizing more and more of the membership, ending with the original moderate leadership being pushed out. Giving the equalists both more history, and Parallels to real live movements. Also, they could have had the cops ignore bender on none bender crimes because they were afraid of getting hurt (this would also happen behind Lin’s back).
Its apparently based on Hong Kong...which I can see as Hong Kong too was a colony within a larger country and it developed faster than the rest of the country.
I really liked your alternative ending for Korra season 1. She could spend the next seasons training her air bending while trying to redefine herself as the Avatar after she lostthe ability to bend the other elements, which could be a big chip on her shoulder that she just has to deal with it, like Aang's loss of his people, for example. It could be a really neat arc
That ending sucks. It would just be rehashing Aang's journey. Plus, it would never happen since she was going to kill herself before she connected with Aang. To Korra, losing her bending was losing her very life, purpose and identity.
Honestly, yeah. Imagine Korra who always had a natural affinity for water, fire, and earth suddenly have them sealed off and she either has to work on relearning bending those elements over the years or has to ask herself "How can I be the Avatar with only air bending?"
I know we all hate pretty much everything in season 2 but one thing I think doesn't get enough hate is killing off the past lives. It's just like when Last Jedi killed Snoke. It wasn't to make the story better it was just done for shock, to make the boring Villains intimidating because they forget to write them interesting, and so Korra wouldn't ask her past lives for help in the other seasons. And they show Won being the last one killed because that's who were sad to see go. Not Roku, Kyoshi, or you know AANG! The Avatar we actually grew up with and liked! If they really had to do it why not make them sacrifice themselves to stop Vaatu forever? Or protect Korra from a final blow so she can live on and kill Vaatu? And now when the next Avatar comes along they won't have any past lives. Which was one of the most interesting things about the Avatar.
This is when you have a writer, that will tell the head creators when something won’t work. LOK the creator surround themselves with “yes men” who never challenged their idea ever.
If anything mastering fire should be the most difficult for a water bender since it's on the opposite side of the cycle. The way that Aang had the most difficulty with earth bending since it was so counter to the free spirited nature of air. But Korra's personality makes her seem way more naturally attuned to earth or fire.
To be more exact the element that cost them the most is the one opposite to their PERSONALITY. To Aang was earth because earth is about taking the problems head on, but his style was more about avoiding them. To korra was air because its philosophy is more about spirituality and patience, the thing she lacks the most XD
8:48 His explanation of earth bending is specific to pro-bending. The sport requires you to stay light on your feet and flexible. Then, as an earth bender, when it’s time to attack, you have to plant yourself and move the rock to hit your opponent. Bolin explains that perfectly
Yup, it seems that this explanation went over the creator's head in thinking that this is how earthbending works in LoK, when really it was just for pro-bending. It's not something to pick apart when there are more glaring issues in the grand scheme of things.
@@15jewjew No offense, but hand-feeding lore is one of the main problems in TLoK. They might as well hand-feed lore to parts relevant to the plot at the moment, but there they decided to stop. It's kinda weird.
@@paunaic5460 Don't remeber them hand feeding. I see more people complaining about things in the show that "wasn't explained" when all you need to do is use basic reading comprehension skills.
Also the show uses a firebender as an excuse for all tragic stories, like what? That's lazy. In the previous show it made sense but in Korra it could be better if they shown more diverse parent murderers, like come on! The only good firebenders in Korra are, what? Mako? The pro bending ones? The rest are bad, and that's not how ATLA portrayed the fire nation. One simple change I would make it would be having fire fighters, imagine how cool would be watching firebenders working together with waterbenders to save lives! Just seeing that would make you think about how peace changed things for the better, and the poetic aspect of a firebender using his power to put out fire instead of creating it. Much more emotional and deep than having a factory where everybody knows lightingbending, that scene didn't work for me. It would be so much better if non benders or even benders discriminated fire nation people and made stereotypical comments, while showing that there are a lot of good firebenders out there that keep trying to get a job or helping people or just find their place on this new world. But then everything changed when the equalists convinced non benders that benders are bad and all that stuff. It would be so much better, you can't just forget the fire nation was at war with everyone for 100 years. Like there are still people making fun of Germans today, I think having the firebenders being the ones being discriminated would be much better, and would make more sense that some of them joined gangs... wait, am I trying to fix a show that ended years ago and didn't care about ATLA unless when it came to fan service? I'm saaaaaad...
The point is that after the war many people will have a bad taste in thier mouths for fire benders, so it's a scapgoat for Amon. For Asami it shows her dads hatred on top of her dating mako. Also, did you watch the show? In season 2 firebenders help Korra, Zuko is there, also general Iroh, and Uncle Iroh.
I actually think it was a good idea. Fire benders, as a nation, were filled with propaganda and let's be honest, the ones with more propaganda were the soldiers and military, which logically would be *most if not all fire benders of the nation. Their loyalty to their idealized fire nation and wish to conquer the inferior nations would not stop just because the Avatar caught their leader. Those sentiments would go down throught their children, and so there could be a genaration of really resentfull fire benders that just think they are superior to everyone. Some of them could very well just murder those they deemed inferior. The thing that I feel is weird is that the hatred that is shown in the series is just towards benders in general? Like, it makes sense that it would be towards FIREBENDERS, the nation that genocided the rest of the world for 100 years, and post-war had a generation of murderes?? They are also the ones that bend what many could assume the most dangerous and destructive element to begin with. Like, how did that become just benders = evil? And even if somehow the hatred towards firebenders with time expanded to hatred towards benders of all types, firebenders would be the primary target, as another comment said "scapegoat" in most arguments and rallies, but they are only talked about to say "yee, they killed my parents". That's so superfical. Just, I don't see a reason to NOT explore that concept. It's so much interesting wasted potential that would've had a much more meaningful emotional impact for the audience, which actually saw the war that directly created such problem.
Mako: Pro-Bending is the one place where benders and non-benders gather in peace. REALLY MAKO? A sport called PRO-BENDING, which can only have BENDERS as players, is a place where benders and non-benders gather to get along? GODS I HATE MAKO! Bolin was alright though.
@@fernandoceli5693 Bolin didn't become an asshole, he just wanted to help the world. In season 4 everyone criticized him for trying to reunite his homeland. If anything, everyone was an asshole to Bolin. In season 2 he was being abused by his over clinging Water tribe princess girlfriend and everyone just laughed at him. All of season 2 he was being abused and Mako and Korra didn't do anything. Mako and Korra are both A holes.
Lightning tennis (redirecting small electric blast) earth soccer (like what we saw in the tale of ba sing se/irohs tale),Water boxing (slapping and dodging water whips etc), actual agni kai’s, Earth rumble 76 (lol), the air ball game from the southern air temple episode, etc. So many possibilities but they chose one of the most boring
I went back and forth on this in my mind, wondering if I should do this... and since noone else has, I guess I'll volunteer. In defence of Mako and his significance in Korra's life, I disagree they had no chemistry. He and Korra were created to be foils for each other - a contrast in personalities, worldviews, upbringing (hell, even their color palettes). Where he thought rationally and out of caution, she acted on pure instinct and was brash most of the time. He was "cool under fire" while she was pretty much the opposite of what a typical waterbender would be like. Yes, she was clearly attracted to Mako for the obvious reasons (he's handsome, he's the star player she was impressed by) BUT, there was also his determination, his street smarts and laser-like focus to make a better life for himself and his brother. I also think another factor that drew Korra to Mako? The fact that he didn't care or was impressed by the fact she was merely the Avatar. In fact, he only really opened up to her when she volunteered to find and rescue Bolin, which allowed him to start trusting her, especially after she kept her promise to him. They learned from each other - Korra was the first person that he let his walls down around, fell for her and realized her importance not only in his life, but to the world at large (which again, is something he appreciated after knowing Korra and slowly seeing her selflessness in play, which would then allow him to want to become a cop in order to protect citizens). Pre-LoK!Mako never would have done this. Korra also learned to strategize and think logically before acting out, something she had long admired in Mako. They became a duo that worked well together, completing where the other had lacked yet also adapting to their newfound strengths. So where it gets rocky? The swift and real backlash to this character that the fandom wanted to shit on, because they didn't relate to the fact that he had to make a choice between two beautiful, capable women and didn't know what the hell to do! Now, I don't think this would have mattered if they decided to end the show at Book 1(their original intention until MONEY came calling to create more storylines) so these creators decide they want to not only remove the romance and break them up in season 2 (forgoing their development in Book 1), but add more drama, add more tension, and revive the love triangle for a hot minute, just for giggles. Where it gets worse.... they decide to find a way to sideline Mako in the last season, removing him from the main storyline (someone they made as one of the main characters) due to said hate, thus derailing his character development with no proper conclusion or meaningful interactions with the only woman he was close to after he almost DIED. She didn't even know what to say to him and honestly, that's poor writing for a couple they deemed to be endgame from the start. So, there's my little essay. I think Mako is a great character and I personally feel sorry for his treatment by the end of the show.
@@paunaic5460 To each his own. I could see the potential of his character and how he could have developed further i.e. If the writers had cared to spend more time developing the group. I believe they intended to show how this orphaned, streetwise, brooding guy who only initially cared about surviving for himself and his brother, ended up becoming someone who would sacrifice himself for saving the city. However, that development wasn't executed throughout the series very well and seemed tacked on as a hasty addition at the end. Almost as if they wanted to show where he is to end up but skipped a whole lot before that, and instead saddled him with a whiny, useless brat of a prince. The sacrifice scene should have had much more weight but as you can see, that doesn't even resonate with fans who are even lukewarm towards Mako. So yes, those writers did him so very dirty.
@@jessicatoussaint9140 To this day, I still am a Makorra shipper and will always be. They are the most developed relationship in the entire show, and it pains me to know it was discarded just to check a box in the end. I no longer trust these "writers" as it shows they're willing to sell out at the expense of their characters.
I agree with all of your points and while I don’t like Korra I can respect aesthetically and how her personality can be enjoyable. Thank you for liking Tenzhin he was the best character to me and always I would say that I wish it was a story of tenzhin and his siblings . While I know that the next series was going to revolve around the next avatar, I would have liked to see how katara and Aang dealt with having their first child not have bending, their daughter being a water bender(which is not as interesting but for aang it just decreased his chances of having a successor), and then finally tenzhin who is the new successor of the air benders who has to deal with the pressure of being the last air bender once his dad dies and then be expected to have more air bender children. This would have been interesting to see as it is implied that while aang loved all his kids he did leave his first kids for tenzhin and that became a big source of controversy for the fans but makes sense why katara doesn’t live in air nomad island where they might have been in before aang passed away or even when this favoritism was noticed by katara. It also makes sense why the three siblings are kinda of awkward to each other when they meet up again. While I know we would never get this closure and it will always be Korra’s story, it would have been nice to get some perspective of what happened before Korra was around to the main cast. And while I know Korra was supposed to be completely without atla(despite the numerous plot points and flashbacks brought from atla’s cast) keeping the previous cast revelant would have made it better in my opinion but also keep the old fans to continue watching and not depend on new watchers who don’t know anything about the atla universe from clicking off entirely. But at least we can all agree that season 1 was ok and season 2 was garbage.
And S3 and 4 were an improvement. Still flawed but still an improvement. Korra actually learns from her mistakes, Lin get some development, the Red Lotus were great villains (who were sadly wasted), Zuko came back and Varrick and Zhu Li got married. And a series about Tenzin and his family would have been better.
I don't like how in Republic City, bending is reduced to just normal fighting. In ATLA, bending is an art but they've just reduced this to kicking and punching.
About the bending in this series. The pro bending looks like a standardized fighting style to accomodate a specific ruleset. Outside the ring at least fron what I saw with earthbending which is basically based in Hung Gar the movements looked authentic. Not knowing if Sifu Kisu had that in mind, the metal bending police officers using iron wires to fight is literally a nod to the highest form taught in Hung Gar which is named Tit Sin Kuen and means "Iron thread fist" and emphacizes to be as fluent and soft as a thread, but hard hitting and rooted like you're made out of iron exaclty when the timing is right. Makes sense considering metal benders are as rare as people truly understanding that concept in any martial art trying to achieve that mastery. Coincidence or not, that part while seeming lame as a concept was a really nice paralell to the martial art it was based on from the first show.
To be completely honest I'm very conflicted about the show. I very much enjoy it overall, I'd even say that I like Korra more than Aang as a character, but some parts and scenes could've been handled better in my opinion. My main issue in book 1 is the love triangle as you pointed out (and the main four friendships in general). I understand how it came to be, but I dislike how they handled it and how much time it consumed. Specifically how it effected Korra's and Asami's friendship. In episode 7 Asami and Korra seem to get along fairly well, but after Korra frames Hiroshi there's a distance built, which further widens when Asami finds out about the kiss. Now my issue is how Bryke reduced them to just that, two people that were around each other because of Mako and the overall plot. They could've shown so much charcter on both sides, if Korra for example still interacted with Asami DESPITE all those things going on. For instances when Mako and Korra were going to Air Temple island in ep. 11, Korra nor Asami wish each other luck or show any friendship, which just falls flat and makes things a bit hard to enjoy. Another thing would be the overall friendship between the four; Korra and Bolin only interact with Asami because of Mako and because the circumstances put them together, but not because they're friends on their own. It would've been nice to see some bonding between Bolin and Asami, Asami and Korra. They could've given them a scene where they all sit around a fire and maybe talk a little about their past or something in that direction. Another thing would be Bolin as a character, I understand that a part of him serves as the comic relief, but overall he feels empty and sort of like a child without the ability to think outside of his childish ways. They should've shown more sides to him. They should've shown more oppression of non-benders, there were a few occasions, but I feel like there should've been more. Another issue for me was how Amon took away bending, I wish they would've specifically explain why and how his technique works and his back story was kinda whack. I also wish they would've touched on how Korra was able to unlock airbending, now this just something that I wish they would've done so that people don't feel like she just randomly did it. I personally think that it makes sense how she was able to do it, but just for the understanding for all, it would've been nice. Then I wanted them to give a better closure for Amon, meaning they should've made the characters know what happend to him or let Korra actually catch him. The last issue is, I feel like they should've let Korra lose her bending without regaining it right after. I guess you can let this one slide through, because they didnt know if they would be renewed, but still. Overall I think some 'mistakes' could've been forgiven, if they had resolved them in the next few seasons, which they partly did, but some things remained flawed.
When i heard there was a sequel coming, i thought that it would be a genuine continuation of the the previous ATLA, but everyone older and that the peace has not arrived YET, and its up to the Aldut Aang and the Group to face off against new threats Welp i was SOOOOOO DEAD WRONG, instead we have Legend of Korra, it's not bad by any mean except for season 2, season 2 can fuck off, season 3 was the only one where i don't have issues, and in season 1 Amon was intresting until they (the writers) fucked amon's character and turn him into a bender, it was super dissapointing, i really wish amon wasn't a bender, and don't get me started on the forced love triangle or how i would call it : Abomination of a love
Honestly I think Amon is kinda overrated. He did not get enough development and his role as leader of the equalosts was wasted potential. Everyone forgets about the equalists after S1. I think people like him because of his voice.
Sorry, I have to disagree . One of the things LOK definitely did better than ATLA is how they wrote their villains. If any villain in the whole Avatar universe didn't get any development it's Ozai. Just my opinion though.
@@ToyCircle rvahse Ozai served his purpose and didnt need to be more than what he was, which was a global threat. The villains in LOK never felt like a global threat born did their actions feel like they had any actual consequences to them. And you cant say Lok dod villains better when none of the villains are better than Azula
@@ToyCircle Well Ozai didn't get much developement because he is the final boss, the whole series is preparing for the fight against him, so his motivations didn't really matter.
The whole reason they did Republic City in addition to wanting to give some closure on the whole "what happened to the Earth Kingdom land that has been conquered by the Fire Nation and what comes of that" which was also explored in "The Promise" Graphic Novel is because they wanted to pick a specific new location they had never been before and stay there because yeah a lot of Legend of Korra was about wanting to differenate itself from The Last Airbender. However yeah that doesn't really work. I totally get wanting Korra to be different then Aang and honestly every Avatar as a different and unique story (actually especially after Kyoshi's novel, Roku's Avatar stint seems pretty boring. Like seems his entire journey was just mastering the elements and being friends with Sozin and then being betrayed by that friend right before he died... seriously what else did Roku have going for him as a character honestly) but you need to make that place really interesting and compelling to want to stay in if we're spending so much time there. That worked in Ba Sing Se for all the various other places and general attitude of the city but that was not the case for Republic City at all. Honestly the whole "equalists not really having much of a point" is much more an issue since we actually now have an example of the series actually being able to really talk and get more into the politics of benders vs non benders with the Imbalance Graphic Novel. Yeah that actually gave more reasons why a place would have such an issue (that place being what ironically grows into Republic City as if the writers were trying to apoligze for not tackling the issue well in the cartoon) and gave more depth and lip service to the issues of rising technology and of bender inequality and of what are the best measures to take that didn't paint the entire thing so black and white. However Legend Of Korra wanted to go with the idea of having a unique big bad in each season (well originally Korra was going to just be one season so they had to defeat the main villain in one season anyway) and didn't really have the time to develop it properly since by the time we finally get past establishing the world of this show we're already a 1/3rd of the way through the season, then we have the terrible love triangle episode, and then we can finally focus back on the story but also have to make it a mystery about Yakone and who Amon is and yeah that totally kills the pacing of the series. Speaking of the love triangle... look the only people who like the love triangle are people who make shipping wars team to tear into one another that were especially more prevalent in the early 2010's with Twilight and Hunger Games having a big focus put on their love triangles. But it was terrible in this show especially because they kept changing certain things about it. Yeah the intent origianlly was for it to end with Korra and Mako (likely because a lot of ATLA wanted Zuko and Katara to be an item and that didn't happen so thought "eh why not do that here with a Southern Water bender with attitude and an angsty fire bender") but there was also supposed to be the reveal that Asami was also going to be an equalist working with her father so Mako having dumped her and not being so into Korra wouldn't of come across as him being a dick but rather rebounding after Asami's portrayal. The team wound up liking Asami too much so changed that but yeah in doing so it makes the love triangle drag on more and especially obnoxious and man outside of people just wanting to see hetero relationships no one liked the ending of season one. Seriously IMHO the only thing that makes the love triangle any sort of interesting is the fact it eventually leads to Korra and Asami as a couple who have way more chemistry and are way better for each other then either of them with Mako and the show showing how terrible their relationship was with Mako and how obnoxious with it compared to their more subtle one growing does work but yeah is a lot of it not worth the effort. IMHO season 2 is even worse in that regard due to it still potetnailly thinking Makorra is a thing for awhile and Korra only having amnesia for the sake of continuing on that stupid plot point but get into that nonsense when you cover that. Season one does have problems and is grating at times but I like you pointing out what does work and how it could of been improved down the road and yeah I feel that the laster seasons do wind up with Korra overall being a good show even with season one ending lousy (again because they thought that was the ending. Imagine if they retooled it realizing they had more and it ended with Korra not getting back her other bending powers and just ending wanting to go on that quest for them thus why her being manipulated by Unalaq in season 2 would actually make a lot more sense and work as a story beat better then what we got here) but still having it's moments. And though season 2 isn't totally horrible for me... there are a lot of things I hate about it and a lot of it I won't defend and man am sure you are going to have a lot to tear into when it comes up so yeah can't wait for that man.
it takes about three generations to weed out original languages and cultures in America it would make sense after 70 years i live in an area of high Bosnian immigration in the 90's , the difference between who was an adult when they came versus who was a child when they came versus first generation born here is quite different.
Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't expand on that with the other elements instead of giving us probending. Earthrumble was still a sport, but each earthbender still had their own distinctive style. Even if they just kept Earthrumble without adding the other elements it would have been better than probending which just felt shoehorned in.
True. She already knows how to earth bend, so his lesson wasn't about that. It was about how to mix in the new (boxing inspired) style into her routine to succeed in the sport. It is a bit of a shame things lean a bit too heavily to making all the old forms adapt into a singular new form instead of more dynamically mixing and matching styles in a Bruce Lee kind of way as they could have done, but it's nowhere near as much of a departure from the mentality of ATLA's view of bending as people tend to complain about.
@@Shalakor exactly hell fighting styles evolve all the time the same should apply with bending since its not the movements that bend rock its you channeling that flow the movements help guide you and help guide that flow Hell while in the avatar state aangs fighting style completely changed
They said that Pro-Bending is the only thin that brings together benders and non-benders, and it's a sport where the only people that have a chance to play it is a especific group of people, is probably the only thing that the show presents where non-benders are actually in "disadvandage"... Idk just saying(?
All sports are like that. The only ones who have a chance are natrually gifted athletes. Just because you train hard enough and dream big enough doesnt mean youll make it into the NFL. Genetics plays a role in your athletic ability so its not equal in the real world either.
Your idea for Korra getting reminds me of when Buffy was stripped of her slayer powers in BTVS. She had to fight and defeat her villain without getting her powers back proving she was just as capable without her slayer powers as she was with them. I wish they'd of done that with Korra instead of her always having everything conveniently handed to her. I also hate how LOK used Korra being traumatized/abused in the place of actual character development. They showed her getting beat down way too much after awhile it became uncomfortable to watch.
I enjoyed mostly everything I just wish The love Triangle was Cut less time focused on (The brothers mostly mako) Needed more episodes 12 felt so small to me...also now my biggest gripe is Amon, I love Amon he was awesome scary and that hand to hand combat skill was badass his backstory could have been better and they could have left him anonymous with just hints of who he could be ...did love he was a blood bender that made him even more scary and proved he didn’t need it to kickass Also from season 1 onward wish it was more concise and I need a Amon prequel ASAP ASAPPPPPPP
I hated Aang as a kid,so I never watched it. But when I watched the Legend of Korra I overcame my hatred for Aang and watched the Last Airbender. Now I love both series,but hot damn romance was never the writer's strong suit!
I'm constantly switch between ATLA being my favorite and LOK being my favorite. ATLA is objectively better, but subjectively I'm always switching between the two. I think its mostly because of Asami. Asami is such a basic character but I love her so much. Idk I guess I'm just as basic.
If your idea of a good show is based on how hot a character is then every show should be your favorite. Because all shows employee hot looking eye candy to get the audience invested.
I think my biggest issue is them struggling to capture the same feeling while being different. They should have gone with just the latter, and just made their own story within the rules the first one set.
And there are people that actually think LoK is better and more mature that Last air bender especially when it comes to relationships and are serious LMAO
Already agree with your title card for this video 😣 the romance in season 1 is the reason I dropped the spin-off completely. I'm thinking of giving it another go after watching your videos about each season tho 😉👍
Started rewatching Korra because of these reviews and man it is hard to watch season 2. Season one, its fine its enjoyable but season 2 really sucks the life out of me
They did. That's what it is and was from the start despite the creators saying "Manhattan in Asia"...that's Hong Kong, figuratively literally. Several of the backgrounds are nearly identical to 1920's Hong Kong. People seem to forget that it had been a British colony for 80 years by then, it's aesthetics and architecture were very Edwardian.
I know Asami was one of the main characters, but even after she became Korra's girlfriend, she still felt like a one-note extra on the same tier as Lin or Genora.
Very nice to find someone who has pretty much the same opinion as me on LoK. There was a lot to brag about, writing issues.. story not making sense but the humor was awesome and I really really loved Korra so much. The struggle of her was really something one could feel while at the same time she portrayed a strong lovable woman. Srsly she's sexy body and soul. But yeah the flaws are serious.. I still never watch the last season when re-watching. Only until she meets Toph so I can have a last laugh.
I get your veiw. Except I can never rewatch the series, bc then I have to get past Mako and Kora's kiss... and I just can't . I can't. It's so awkward!
I hated the forced relationship between Korra and Mako, it was just them trying to have Zuko and katara without the emotional build up. Mako and Asami should gave been the main relationship. Showing a bender and none bender, if they wanted that bender vs none bender thing.
I'm hyped for your S5 She-Ra summary. I honestly want to know what you have to say about it. I for one keep crying out of no-where thinking about it. 🗡
I don't really know how running a TH-cam channel works or how it has deadlines or anything, but typically I'd rather wait a bit longer to see a fully edited video. Not having the visuals was fine, but the audio repetitiveness and blank-outs were confusing. Still really liked the analysis though!
Plus, blood bending completely contradicts how it used to work. Amon and his family can use bloodbending without the full moon and not even using the general water bending motions. I honestly think Amon should’ve been a non bender who could permanently chi block someone’s bending. Maybe his brother could still be a water bender or something.
That's not a contradiction. Everyone was genuinely surprised that they could bloodbend without the full moon. But Yakone's family is an extremely powerful waterbending lineage and that's the only reason why they could bloodbend with their minds. After all, the element of water is the extension of the mind, just like fire is the extension of the soul, air is the extension of the spirit and earth is the extension of the body.
Vetarlit Torf Even so, it feels like a cop out to make Amon more threatening. He was better before the reveal imo. Like he says in the video, it feels like bending is less of martial art form anymore. It felt like Amon and his brother were using blood bending like the force.
@@DetectiveCy By that logic, bending stopped feeling like a martial art when Combustion Man was introduced. And showing that Amon is a unique bloodbender is not a cop out and it wasn't even used to make him threatening at all, because his real power was his cause. The bloodbending was simply what allowed him to replicate Aang's ability to take people's bending.
Vetarlit Torf Combustion man was a different form of fire bending. Fire bending originates from breathing and Sparky Sparky Boom Man simply tattooed his forehead and focused all his shots from his head. For me, it feels like they wanted a blood bending villain and said that he was from a special bloodline to make him blood bend. I agree that his cause was the reason why he was so compelling, as opposed his skills. That’s why I think he would work better with what I suggested earlier.
@@DetectiveCy Yes, and just like Combustion Man, Amon's bloodbending was all about focus and precision. So it's in the same essence. Especially since we actually get to see Amon training and perfecting his bloodbending through discipline while Combustion Man's ability was used for shock value. And like I said, Amon was never presented as a physical threat to Korra. That's not the point of his bloodbending. The point of it was to allow a non-Avatar to permanently sever someone's bending. There's no way a nonbender could do that and that would just raise more questions than it answers like the Holdo maneuver in The Last Jedi and how it made people ask "why hasn't anyone tried this before?" Like I said, Amon's cause is what makes him a threat to Korra and her friends. Which is why it fits well to have Korra defeat him by revealing his deception and thus rendering him powerless. It also gives the viewer the idea that a strong mind is capable of anything whether or not you're a bender.
I'm glad you mentioned how the martial art part of bending was degraded to kickboxing. It's often overlooked, but is one of my big complaints of the show.
This was very cathartic and validating of my own opinions. LOK is heartbreaking because it's almost amazing but keeps falling short. It's a mess with so much potential.
I think although I also hated the random modernity of Republic City, it plays into the disparity seen throughout the series. Just like in our world, they have key areas that receive more resources than the others and move at a different pace than the rest of society. It’s still too stark and annoying for my tastes and could have been better executed so that the point was clear. I appreciate the viewpoint non this and I’m going to have to do a rewatch to really pinpoint my annoyance.
Amon's backstory was a well-executed mistake. He should have been who he said he was. Possibly have made a deal with Koh. Would have been much more interesting. Speaking of interesting, that idea of setting it in Ba Sing Se. I've never heard that idea before and it's kind of amazing.
Jace's Sanctum it wouldnt be good, ba sing se is the type of place that just doesnt change, making it even more boring because as he said most of season 2 of atla is in ba sing se. not to mention what are they going to do really? republic city is new and is way more advanced and remember, ba sing se never changes. republic city being more advanced gives the nonbenders an actual fight because if they didnt have advanced tech they wouldnt be able to do anything at all
@@shrekisthebestfranchiseand5032 It's laughable that you think that they can't do anything without the intense technological access of Republic City. Just because the Earth Kingdom's poverty is a lot more visible, doesn't mean that they can't get the same technology, it's not like it's in an entirely different world, lol. Plus, the ridiculous notion that non-benders can't do anything at all to fight without their tazers and shit is disproven both in ATLA and Korra, with some of the biggest threats in both shows being non-benders using their own skills. Yes, the Equalists had tazers, but they didn't rely on them because they were trained in chi blocking. The tech amplified them in battle, but they were by no means helpless without it. What do you mean what would they do with Ba Sing Se? It's a fascist police state with a rigid class based society. There are literally tons of issues there and things that would make something like the Equalist movement more interesting and morally grey. As Zaheer so expertly demonstrated, it's a city so oppressed that one good push caused the entire nation to collapse into anarchy and citystates. Also what the heck do you mean by "ba sing se is the type of place that just doesnt change". That's ridiculous. Republic City remains mostly the same throughout the show with some minor changes, meanwhile Ba Sing Se is a setting with huge amounts of political unrest that would result in a lot of huge changes.
Jace's Sanctum dude if you think nonbenders are gonna do anything without the mechas and planes youre wrong. amon acknowledges this, technology is levelling the playing ground for nonbenders.
Jesus, you weren't kidding about the bending. Some of the fight choreography in LOK was pretty good but most the bending looked like boxing. In TLAB i could definitely see the differences in stances when fights were taking place.
Also I feel like they dropped the ball with Amon, I mean how interesting would it have been if he was telling the truth, that he was given Energy Bending by the Spirits because so many people were abusing the art of bending itself. I mean after the 100 Year War where Airbending was all but rendered extinct and the Earth Kingdom was nearly destroyed, not to mention now in the current time people were still using their bending to oppress non-benders, the idea that the Spirits would seek to create another equalizer like the Avatar.
Even with the review and ATLA being on Netflix I hope The legend of Korra comes to Netflix too just so I can watch more of Aang, Zuko and everyone else.
I think the biggest issue with S1 of Korra is, we don't really see any inequality between benders and non-benders. If it was clear all benders had good jobs and positions of power, meanwhile, the downtrodden criminals (by necessity) were all non-benders, Amon would have had a point. Imagine: Korra, brash and on a high from going outside for the first time, comes to Republic City. Seeing crime, she intends to solve all problems by punching them in the face. After beating some poor sods after bread to feed their families, she feels upset at how easy it was, and how she is driven out by an angry mob of non-benders. Although it's clear Tenzin is trying, many of the higher-ups in Republic City are benders with lofty ambitions, too interested in the Jewel of the Four Nations to consider the foundations rotting. Season 1 continues as normal, except Amon isn't some big twist villain. He's a bender fighting for equality amongst benders and non-benders. The issue is, he's killing and vandalising his way to it. Long story short, Korra loses her bending and Amon and Tarlok die. Season 1 ends roughly where it does anyway: Korra, on the ice, ready to jump. Instead of Aang appearing and giving her bending back to her, he instead tells her that only through mastering airbending can she hope to fulfil her destiny as the Avatar. Now, Book 2: Spirits begins. Korra, hoping to master airbending, begins prioritising her airbending and spirituality. It is hard at first, but over the season she becomes more measured, resolving more problems with words than fists. She's also torn between Unalaq and Tenzin, her spiritual masters, who want different things from her. The main plot of Raava and Vaatu is used to explore the idea of Yin and Yang, not God vs Satan. Only when both Raava and Vaatu are free and in conflict can the balance be achieved. Perhaps Raava is the spirit of peace, but she is inactive and allows evil to rise. Vaatu, the spirit of conflict, is violent but gets shit done. Only when both inhabit the Avatar, who channels the peace and action, can a balance be achieved. Long story short, we spend a season watching Korra mature and learn airbending (something we never saw in ATLA). She ends the season by defeating Unalaq, absorbing Vaatu, and becoming the truly balanced Avatar. Now, Aang returns and explains how spirit magic restored her bending now she proved herself as the Avatar, bringer of balance, during Harmonic Convergence. With all 4 bending forms, and a new measured, spiritual outlook, Korra is ready for Season 3, the Red Lotus. Her greatest challenge yet. These changes (mainly for S2) solve the biggest issue I have with Korra. That bloody Deus Ex Machina after season 1. Give us the Homecoming arc. "If you're nothing without the suit, you don't deserve it." "If you're nothing without bending, you don't deserve it."
I like your solution to the season 1. If they redid the scene so that Korra just channeled Kyoshi violence while he arrogantly tried to take Mako's bending, I could buy that. I disagree with the setting, though. While RC was designed to be like an Asian Manhattan, Hong Kong and Tokyo (post WW2) are very "Manhattan-y" as well. If they cut the pro-bending (I would not have made the orphans probenders at all) and cut the love triangle, we could have developed the politics of RC more. Perhaps people were promised a 'free land here' but instead moved to a new-world oppressive state. Asami's dad succeeding is NOT good evidence that there's "no oppressive" state, though I know you were talking relative to Ba Sing Se. He was also from the Fire Nation, and it's possible those from the Fire Nation had a distinct leg up over other descendants, particularly over water tribe people. Republic City could have been the "city of false promises."
Just gonna put this here to see if he can change my mind. The main problem with the show was Nick not giving it at least 3 seasons after the mini series success. Because first they had just the mini series, then a second season, then 2 more. And Season 3 and 4 were so much better because they were much more connected to each other than season 1 and 2 where they were meant to be stand alone at first
First, Mako a weakness? What about Asami? That literally just turns into whatever the plots need her to be, s1 Korra needs a love rival Asami is there, new team Avatar need money Asami is there, they need another member Asami is there, need something to get around Asami is there, then in s2 need a connection for Varick to appear Asami is there that apparently besides being a master hand to hand combat, a racer, empathetic, doesn’t hold grudges, is street wise, she is also a genius inventor, mechanic, business genius, in s3 Korra needs someone to hang out because she fucked up thing with both Mako and Bolin (when she used him as rebound guy), so there we go throw Asami there. Don’t mind that during s2 they were barely acquaintances with and then in s4 lets throw Asami as emotional support even thought there are far better people in her life for that job. Like the fuck Asami just is, Bolin at least they gave some flaws and didn’t make him a mary sue like Asami is. But Korra is the worse developed character I’ve ever seen in s1 was fine with her flaws and how she was starting to learn from them, but s2 she became a literal nightmare, then s3 she goes a bit better but doesn’t truly developed until the last 2 episodes and finally for s4 after actually having her face the consequences of her actions and mistakes she grows and turns into what s2 Korra should’ve been. Mako stop being developed after s2, but to be fair at least he got some development and at the correct time.
@@vetarlittorf1807 no it does not. Whenever I see Korra specifically doing any element, she's always punching the air. Each element is supposed to represent a different fighting style. In ATLA you could distinctly see the difference between the styles, but in LOK everything looks the same. Just punching the air.
@@Trecherousbeast No in LOK they use mix martial arts and traditional bending. Besides there is bender who can even punch with bending. Lightning benders, Airbenders(more Airbender than ATLA has), psychic benders, even a lady with no arms for crying out loud. No offense, but did you see the show? Korra has used water whips, waves, fire breath, traditional airbending in seasons 3 and 4 a lot, and some in season 2, Korra know more than just punches. She uses modern and traditional fighting styles.
Thank you for pointing out the fking love triangle bullsh. It completely ruined season 1 for me. But if you ignore it like a grown up, it's great. I love The Legend of Korra
I honestly don't agree with your idea that Korra was selfless when saving Mako from Amon that she was able to airbend. She just throws a bending punch and air came out randomly. Literal Deux Ex Machina. Aka bs
Things in ATLA flowed naturally and everything seemed to make sense while LOK felt like an ambitious fanfic with no proper pacing and trying to focus on too many things
Amon was just such a misplay of what could have been a great villain and payoff My idea for amon (indulge me for a bit) could be to have him not be a bender at all but actually learn from chi blocking and chakra how to take bending away and his push being the empowerment of non-benders by teaching them his technique. Then instead of making his beef be with a fire bender (as per usual), you can still keep his water tribe origins but have it that he was less appreciated in his society cause he couldn't bend and have him be exiled cause his father commits the avatar crime and no one stand up for him cause he was useless to their society, have him travel the world for a while learn his technique and put to use and arrive in republic city with a small movement already built up. Now this also coincides with actually showing non-bender inequality so he has a reason to go whole horse on the equalist, like have it so that bender jobs are more prevalent than jobs non-benders can do causing slums to be mostly the non-bending populace, have the mayor of the city be decided by their strength and ideals having a debate then an agni kai type deal to decide with non-benders always losing at the very end to a bender no matter their skill etc. The crux of changing his motives is at the end having him think he beat korra and that she is weak without her bending, but in the end have him over rely on striping others bending too much and get beaten by korra without her bending showing her capability as a fighter not a bender but have korra also see the point of the equalist and see the inequality and have the season end on the first non-bender mayor being elected and signaling the change and since season 2 is garbage anyway and focuses republic city have both seasons encompass an arc of the avatar fixing the balance as they should and maybe not even have a main season 2 villain just show both sides have there evils and have them see th strengths of both sides maybe even redeem amon at the end of season 2 ad have him join the police force and teach his technique to allow non-benders a place within it as well wraping it up in a nice bow. and make a better way for korra to regain her bending other than just because
Another way to fix the “show don’t tell problem” would be to have the actual non-bender member of team avatar be the Lens into it. Like why make your first season about inequality between benders and non-benders and make your one non-bender friend one of the richest most privileged people in the city?? Her father could still be an entrepreneur inventor still helping Amon. It just lets us have a non-bender that we know that can SHOW us the oppression non-benders face. Make her family one of the ones targeted by bender gangs for money. 🤷🏿♀️
Personally, I like the style of your Stephen Universe videos where you did the sarcastic summary, then the last quarter of the video was talking about your serious thoughs.
I liked it. I hated the fact that there was a different villain every season, the originals never got together, and the family/friendships sucked😑. Toph and Aang would've been phenomenal parents had they not tried to make them seem terrible. Aang would pack every single kid up and take them around the world. Toph would joke with them and also teach them to defend themselves and would teach them to be quick with comebacks😂. Sokka would be a dad of 2 kids and would be great. Lin and Suyin would be honored t have Toph as their mother and best friend. Now, on to Korra and her " friends ". They sucked😤. She dated everyone, they always argued and never really connected emotionally after, they rushed things, Asami was the love interest and getaway driver ( That's it. That's her character😑 ), Korra didn't make sense with half the stuff she was saying, Mako, needed a good slap😤, Bolin, the Twins, Jinora, Kai, Opal, Julie, Ikki, Meelo, Tenzin, Lin, Suyin, and the other Beifongs were phenomenal characters to me. I have more shit that I'm mad about but y'all don't care so I'm gonna go.🚮
The thing that always struck me with TLoK vs ATLA is that while the Gaang quickly felt like a firm group (and later a family), Korra and... "her associates" never really felt like that they connected all that much and really didn't have much reason to hang out together in later seasons. Like, they were friends out of habit rather than out of conviction.
Asami suffers the worse from it, their really isn’t much of a point of her being around the group after season one. She more or less became a glorified taxi driver for the group.
Yeah, nothing really bonded them together. I am actually shocked as to how they still stayed together. I mean, Korra dated like...every one of them...
More shocking is that she had any kind of good relationship with Asami. Korra knew Asami and Mako were dating, she took Mako for herself, then they broke up, she even told Asami what they did together when Asami was still dating Mako...yeah, Asami would just want to be her fucking friend, and for some reason it would even make her lesbo for Korra.
I don't like Korra as a person, at all.
I felt the same way! I thought It was just me.
@@akaiyoru2681
Well to be fair Korra was only acting on Pema's advice.
They didn’t really feel like friends
Apparently Asami was originally suppose to be a villain in the show. Being a double agent working with the equalist with her father (noticed how convenient it was that she happened to run into Mako who is close to the avatar at that moment), but the creators of the show changed there mind and made her into a main character. In all honesty it felt like she was a disappointment there should’ve been more for Asami because outside of season one she barely has a purpose anymore, she just sort of there for the rest of seasons 2, 3, and 4, basically becoming a glorified taxi driver. That's why I could careless about her romance at the end of the series.
Assami and mako are window dressing, assami are a pretyer window dressing but still they are esentialy a waste of space.
Well, at least she is not as useless as Mako.
This is exactly what I came on here to say. The love triangle would not have been an issue had they stuck to their original plan of Asami only using Mako and eventually becoming a villain (which would have made her WAY more interesting than what we got). Instead, we got what we got. And unfortunately, they continued the trend of making more bad choices in changing plot lines and character development during production that led to the inconsistency that it is.
I think Asami should've gotten airbending at the start of season 3. It gives her an excuse to hang out with Korra and develop their relationship somewhat as Korra starts to train her, and then opens up a spot on Team Avatar when Asami goes to the Northern Air Temple to train under Tenzin. This leaves a spot to be filled in by... Kuvira! Asami's role in season 3 is largely filled by Kuvira, and Asami and Korra get time to build a relationship and then reflect on it while they're apart. Korra is also now more invested in what happens to Kuvira come season 4. Just my two cents.
I was really suspicious of her because of how she just happened to meet Mako, it would've probably been more interesting if she were a villan
Tenzin fighting was magical. Like artistical Karate-Yoga.
It's Ba Gua Zhang
Tenzin was graceful and powerful. I always loved watching him
He was taught by Aang. Aang learned to channel his aggression and not let it run loose. Especially evident in how he fought the fire lord.
The show as a whole could've been better if they simply made each season 20 episodes like with the last airbender. It would've given more time to better develop the characters, their relationship as a team, more interactions with the villains, showed us actual examples of inequality between benders and non benders, etc.
Exactly
Maybe Nick didn't allow it though, Nick usually puts limit on things like that. If it was not planned from the beginning, it was not going to ever change.
Pau Naic tbh I hated nick decisions it’s like if I can’t do it fully why should I do it at all fuck those guys
@@jon_ovo3653 Spongebob was a blessing and a curse for Nickelodeon (Mostly a curse these days). When it first came out, it was a great show that many people enjoyed until after season 3. But when Nick realized that Spongebob was cash cow, they decided to milk it at the cost of its quality while other animated shows would either be shoved to the side for airtime or canceled completely. I think you all know the rest. It's actually a miracle that both Avatar shows were able to avoid being cancelled by Nick when you really think about.
Personally I’m mixed on Amon’s ’true’ backstory, honestly it felt more like he had daddy issues then having genuine distaste over bending in general which ruined some of his meance to me. I probably wouldn’t mind it if maybe we got more backstory on it, like in his teenage years he is at Republic city starting a new life but he saw through most of the inequality of non-benders and combine that with his hated of his controlling father it would eventually shaped him into the revolutionary he is set up as. That could've been easily done if you cut out half the pro-bending and love triangle crap.
that is actually pretty good i would have accepted that way more lol. i cant see his daddy issues being legitimate hatred toward bending. cuz he even uses his bloodbending on one of his own who wasnt a bender and didnt even do anything besides question loyalty like amon had no hesitation to destroy that guy looooool. but this would have cleared up a lot. nice point bro
Yeah... If he was a bender who refused to use his bending, that could have been really cool. Heck, Jeong Jeong was half way there!
I’m still confused on how Amon was able to take bending
Amon is like Darth Vader. The more you know about his childhood, the more it hurts his gravitas.
@@theremycrocks6861 I know right how did they get away without explaining that...
“None of the CGI makes me want to vomit”
Did you forget about those goddamn mechs?
There are no mechs in Ba Sing Se
LoK is a lesson on how vision is important for a story. The three subplots in season one don’t communicate with each other even though the gangs could’ve set up the oppression for the equalist arc and have influence in the pro bending. The constant rewriting of the lore rules, as blood bending in daylight, breaks the whole balance of the show, as a blood bender cannot lose a duel (hence why you blocked the ability in the first place).
The villains are developed characters and with an ideological background, however their ideologies never are explored deeply and instead just become the most powerful benders of a generation. Zaheer is perhaps the perfect embodiment of this when he literally flies like superman having been an airbender for less than a month. His anarchist ideas are summed up as he doesn’t want any authority and that’s about it. Amon is another example, a great presence, is ruined by being a bender, as his no longer defending an idea that he believes in nor is he doing this for power. It’s like if the pigs in animal farm were altruistic, it breaks the whole message. Amon’s arc is no longer a commentary on how social oppression breeds revolution nor is it a comment on how people take advantage of said conflict to gain power. He becomes someone traumatized, but you didn’t set up him like this for 10 episodes. In the name of the twist you blew the thematic core of his arc.
While the show will find its footing in season 3 and become a good show, in the end this looks like a team without someone leading (there’s no credit for head writer in the show, what are the odds). Therefore, it’s a compilation of different ideas on how it ought to be written which not necessarily work together or had someone working in order to fit them together. The saddest part of re-watching is that the show could’ve dodged many of these issues as The Dragon Prince did (while still maintaining the last airbender tone and impact). It makes you wonder who was behind the writing core of the original show.
Plus Amon raises some very interesting points, but then the whole concept is thrown away into the garbage when it's revealed that it was all a ploy, he never cared about non-benders to begin with, he just wanted to untangle his daddy issues.
Having learned more about the history of the Far East, I think they should have modeled Republic City after the Meiji restoration, rather then the roaring 20s. The Meiji restoration is a real life example of distinct Asian culture progressing into a modern nation while keeping a cultural identity of its own.
Also, they should have explained that the government of the United Republics are not elected or representative of the people. And the Equalists should have been more built up. Like have them start of a small, well intentioned movement, and Amon could have started out as a weird guy in a mask who showed up at their meetings, saying they weren’t going far enough, eventually radicalizing more and more of the membership, ending with the original moderate leadership being pushed out. Giving the equalists both more history, and Parallels to real live movements. Also, they could have had the cops ignore bender on none bender crimes because they were afraid of getting hurt (this would also happen behind Lin’s back).
Fire Nation is alredy based on Meiji Japan.
They based it on Manhattan, Tianjin, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Its apparently based on Hong Kong...which I can see as Hong Kong too was a colony within a larger country and it developed faster than the rest of the country.
I really liked your alternative ending for Korra season 1. She could spend the next seasons training her air bending while trying to redefine herself as the Avatar after she lostthe ability to bend the other elements, which could be a big chip on her shoulder that she just has to deal with it, like Aang's loss of his people, for example. It could be a really neat arc
That ending sucks. It would just be rehashing Aang's journey. Plus, it would never happen since she was going to kill herself before she connected with Aang. To Korra, losing her bending was losing her very life, purpose and identity.
Honestly, yeah. Imagine Korra who always had a natural affinity for water, fire, and earth suddenly have them sealed off and she either has to work on relearning bending those elements over the years or has to ask herself "How can I be the Avatar with only air bending?"
That whole issue stems from the fact that LoK was originally planned as a 12 episode mini series. So they had to wrap up everything in 12 episodes.
I know we all hate pretty much everything in season 2 but one thing I think doesn't get enough hate is killing off the past lives. It's just like when Last Jedi killed Snoke. It wasn't to make the story better it was just done for shock, to make the boring Villains intimidating because they forget to write them interesting, and so Korra wouldn't ask her past lives for help in the other seasons. And they show Won being the last one killed because that's who were sad to see go. Not Roku, Kyoshi, or you know AANG! The Avatar we actually grew up with and liked! If they really had to do it why not make them sacrifice themselves to stop Vaatu forever? Or protect Korra from a final blow so she can live on and kill Vaatu? And now when the next Avatar comes along they won't have any past lives. Which was one of the most interesting things about the Avatar.
Avatar the Last Airbender, the complete series available on Netflix (sorry I meant for) now
That's cool
Yooo, that’s hype. It’s been a good 5/6 years since I’ve given it a watch.
Fr
no its not:(
I live in europe and still have to wait 😭
I think we can all agree if Aaron Ehasz was head writer, LOK would have been WAY BETTER and a true successor of the Avatar series
This is when you have a writer, that will tell the head creators when something won’t work. LOK the creator surround themselves with “yes men” who never challenged their idea ever.
Aaron ehasz was just a pure legend, LOK would've been alot better
@@lunagrace2872 Sounds exactly like George Lucas.
Brandon Lyon And Halo when 343 took over. Ever franchises I love is being destroyed by idiots. 🤦🏻♀️😢
@@brandonlyon730 to be fair Lucas had a solid idea so much so that the clone wars era is great, his directorial skill is what was lacking.
If anything mastering fire should be the most difficult for a water bender since it's on the opposite side of the cycle. The way that Aang had the most difficulty with earth bending since it was so counter to the free spirited nature of air. But Korra's personality makes her seem way more naturally attuned to earth or fire.
Honestly, I thought it was kind of a neat touch that Korra seemed to default to fire when under pressure.
To be more exact the element that cost them the most is the one opposite to their PERSONALITY.
To Aang was earth because earth is about taking the problems head on, but his style was more about avoiding them.
To korra was air because its philosophy is more about spirituality and patience, the thing she lacks the most XD
@@deficit06 if that was the case the Korra would have trouble bending water since her personality is opposite of a water bender.
@@BabyGirlTiny yeah especially since one thing she struggled with was change
AJ but she was a born water bender so that doesn’t count
you descibing the love triangle takes up more time than the show schould have put into it.
Exactly. In fact, not enough time was even given to flesh out the romantic relationships properly.
I agree about how the LOK group didn't interact enough as a group
8:48 His explanation of earth bending is specific to pro-bending. The sport requires you to stay light on your feet and flexible. Then, as an earth bender, when it’s time to attack, you have to plant yourself and move the rock to hit your opponent. Bolin explains that perfectly
They could've represented the differences between the two more, if it's existence was so important to the season/show universe..
Yup, it seems that this explanation went over the creator's head in thinking that this is how earthbending works in LoK, when really it was just for pro-bending. It's not something to pick apart when there are more glaring issues in the grand scheme of things.
@@unripetheberrby6283 They did show that when Bolin teaches Korra. Writers aren't going to hand feed you lore.
@@15jewjew No offense, but hand-feeding lore is one of the main problems in TLoK. They might as well hand-feed lore to parts relevant to the plot at the moment, but there they decided to stop. It's kinda weird.
@@paunaic5460 Don't remeber them hand feeding. I see more people complaining about things in the show that "wasn't explained" when all you need to do is use basic reading comprehension skills.
Also the show uses a firebender as an excuse for all tragic stories, like what? That's lazy. In the previous show it made sense but in Korra it could be better if they shown more diverse parent murderers, like come on! The only good firebenders in Korra are, what? Mako? The pro bending ones? The rest are bad, and that's not how ATLA portrayed the fire nation. One simple change I would make it would be having fire fighters, imagine how cool would be watching firebenders working together with waterbenders to save lives! Just seeing that would make you think about how peace changed things for the better, and the poetic aspect of a firebender using his power to put out fire instead of creating it.
Much more emotional and deep than having a factory where everybody knows lightingbending, that scene didn't work for me.
It would be so much better if non benders or even benders discriminated fire nation people and made stereotypical comments, while showing that there are a lot of good firebenders out there that keep trying to get a job or helping people or just find their place on this new world. But then everything changed when the equalists convinced non benders that benders are bad and all that stuff.
It would be so much better, you can't just forget the fire nation was at war with everyone for 100 years. Like there are still people making fun of Germans today, I think having the firebenders being the ones being discriminated would be much better, and would make more sense that some of them joined gangs... wait, am I trying to fix a show that ended years ago and didn't care about ATLA unless when it came to fan service?
I'm saaaaaad...
If it means anything, I enjoyed reading this! And this is what should’ve happened!!
@@bluepeach5010 thanks😁
The point is that after the war many people will have a bad taste in thier mouths for fire benders, so it's a scapgoat for Amon. For Asami it shows her dads hatred on top of her dating mako. Also, did you watch the show? In season 2 firebenders help Korra, Zuko is there, also general Iroh, and Uncle Iroh.
I actually think it was a good idea. Fire benders, as a nation, were filled with propaganda and let's be honest, the ones with more propaganda were the soldiers and military, which logically would be *most if not all fire benders of the nation. Their loyalty to their idealized fire nation and wish to conquer the inferior nations would not stop just because the Avatar caught their leader. Those sentiments would go down throught their children, and so there could be a genaration of really resentfull fire benders that just think they are superior to everyone. Some of them could very well just murder those they deemed inferior.
The thing that I feel is weird is that the hatred that is shown in the series is just towards benders in general? Like, it makes sense that it would be towards FIREBENDERS, the nation that genocided the rest of the world for 100 years, and post-war had a generation of murderes?? They are also the ones that bend what many could assume the most dangerous and destructive element to begin with. Like, how did that become just benders = evil? And even if somehow the hatred towards firebenders with time expanded to hatred towards benders of all types, firebenders would be the primary target, as another comment said "scapegoat" in most arguments and rallies, but they are only talked about to say "yee, they killed my parents". That's so superfical.
Just, I don't see a reason to NOT explore that concept. It's so much interesting wasted potential that would've had a much more meaningful emotional impact for the audience, which actually saw the war that directly created such problem.
Ummm are you forgetting about the firebenders that helped Korra when she had amnesia?
Main problem with the series was that it wasn't originally planned to go on for several seasons like Avatar did, thus everything felt rush.
Lok was once planned to be just a mini series
Persoanlly, I would trade all of Korra for a mini series with the older Aang Gaang
Mako: Pro-Bending is the one place where benders and non-benders gather in peace.
REALLY MAKO? A sport called PRO-BENDING, which can only have BENDERS as players, is a place where benders and non-benders gather to get along?
GODS I HATE MAKO! Bolin was alright though.
The quote was that bender and nonbender gather TO WATCH benders beat each other up, in peace. Meaning that non-benders are apart of the audience.
Bolin since season 3 progressively became an asshole for no reason
@@fernandoceli5693 Bolin didn't become an asshole, he just wanted to help the world. In season 4 everyone criticized him for trying to reunite his homeland. If anything, everyone was an asshole to Bolin. In season 2 he was being abused by his over clinging Water tribe princess girlfriend and everyone just laughed at him. All of season 2 he was being abused and Mako and Korra didn't do anything. Mako and Korra are both A holes.
@@colintahbaz1292 Didn't mako tell him to break up with Eska?
Lightning tennis (redirecting small electric blast) earth soccer (like what we saw in the tale of ba sing se/irohs tale),Water boxing (slapping and dodging water whips etc), actual agni kai’s, Earth rumble 76 (lol), the air ball game from the southern air temple episode, etc. So many possibilities but they chose one of the most boring
I went back and forth on this in my mind, wondering if I should do this... and since noone else has, I guess I'll volunteer.
In defence of Mako and his significance in Korra's life, I disagree they had no chemistry. He and Korra were created to be foils for each other - a contrast in personalities, worldviews, upbringing (hell, even their color palettes). Where he thought rationally and out of caution, she acted on pure instinct and was brash most of the time. He was "cool under fire" while she was pretty much the opposite of what a typical waterbender would be like.
Yes, she was clearly attracted to Mako for the obvious reasons (he's handsome, he's the star player she was impressed by) BUT, there was also his determination, his street smarts and laser-like focus to make a better life for himself and his brother. I also think another factor that drew Korra to Mako? The fact that he didn't care or was impressed by the fact she was merely the Avatar. In fact, he only really opened up to her when she volunteered to find and rescue Bolin, which allowed him to start trusting her, especially after she kept her promise to him.
They learned from each other - Korra was the first person that he let his walls down around, fell for her and realized her importance not only in his life, but to the world at large (which again, is something he appreciated after knowing Korra and slowly seeing her selflessness in play, which would then allow him to want to become a cop in order to protect citizens). Pre-LoK!Mako never would have done this. Korra also learned to strategize and think logically before acting out, something she had long admired in Mako. They became a duo that worked well together, completing where the other had lacked yet also adapting to their newfound strengths.
So where it gets rocky? The swift and real backlash to this character that the fandom wanted to shit on, because they didn't relate to the fact that he had to make a choice between two beautiful, capable women and didn't know what the hell to do! Now, I don't think this would have mattered if they decided to end the show at Book 1(their original intention until MONEY came calling to create more storylines) so these creators decide they want to not only remove the romance and break them up in season 2 (forgoing their development in Book 1), but add more drama, add more tension, and revive the love triangle for a hot minute, just for giggles.
Where it gets worse.... they decide to find a way to sideline Mako in the last season, removing him from the main storyline (someone they made as one of the main characters) due to said hate, thus derailing his character development with no proper conclusion or meaningful interactions with the only woman he was close to after he almost DIED. She didn't even know what to say to him and honestly, that's poor writing for a couple they deemed to be endgame from the start.
So, there's my little essay. I think Mako is a great character and I personally feel sorry for his treatment by the end of the show.
I don't feel his character was great at all, but the writing definitely did him dirty a lot.
@@paunaic5460 To each his own. I could see the potential of his character and how he could have developed further i.e. If the writers had cared to spend more time developing the group. I believe they intended to show how this orphaned, streetwise, brooding guy who only initially cared about surviving for himself and his brother, ended up becoming someone who would sacrifice himself for saving the city. However, that development wasn't executed throughout the series very well and seemed tacked on as a hasty addition at the end. Almost as if they wanted to show where he is to end up but skipped a whole lot before that, and instead saddled him with a whiny, useless brat of a prince. The sacrifice scene should have had much more weight but as you can see, that doesn't even resonate with fans who are even lukewarm towards Mako. So yes, those writers did him so very dirty.
@@JonelleKaye Agree 100%.
100% agree. Also I was always more of a Makorra shipper
@@jessicatoussaint9140 To this day, I still am a Makorra shipper and will always be. They are the most developed relationship in the entire show, and it pains me to know it was discarded just to check a box in the end. I no longer trust these "writers" as it shows they're willing to sell out at the expense of their characters.
Korra being thicc has had no effect on the series except for all the rule 34
Enough for me ^^
It allowed Bolin to develop a crush, allowed her to worm into Mako’s mind,
Uhh... what’s the problem with her... having a body type...?
There’s no problem with her body type was he complaining N O.
I agree with all of your points and while I don’t like Korra I can respect aesthetically and how her personality can be enjoyable. Thank you for liking Tenzhin he was the best character to me and always I would say that I wish it was a story of tenzhin and his siblings . While I know that the next series was going to revolve around the next avatar, I would have liked to see how katara and Aang dealt with having their first child not have bending, their daughter being a water bender(which is not as interesting but for aang it just decreased his chances of having a successor), and then finally tenzhin who is the new successor of the air benders who has to deal with the pressure of being the last air bender once his dad dies and then be expected to have more air bender children. This would have been interesting to see as it is implied that while aang loved all his kids he did leave his first kids for tenzhin and that became a big source of controversy for the fans but makes sense why katara doesn’t live in air nomad island where they might have been in before aang passed away or even when this favoritism was noticed by katara. It also makes sense why the three siblings are kinda of awkward to each other when they meet up again. While I know we would never get this closure and it will always be Korra’s story, it would have been nice to get some perspective of what happened before Korra was around to the main cast. And while I know Korra was supposed to be completely without atla(despite the numerous plot points and flashbacks brought from atla’s cast) keeping the previous cast revelant would have made it better in my opinion but also keep the old fans to continue watching and not depend on new watchers who don’t know anything about the atla universe from clicking off entirely. But at least we can all agree that season 1 was ok and season 2 was garbage.
Okay, but who’s reading all of this?💀
Sorry I like to ramble lol 😂
And S3 and 4 were an improvement. Still flawed but still an improvement. Korra actually learns from her mistakes, Lin get some development, the Red Lotus were great villains (who were sadly wasted), Zuko came back and Varrick and Zhu Li got married. And a series about Tenzin and his family would have been better.
I don't like how in Republic City, bending is reduced to just normal fighting. In ATLA, bending is an art but they've just reduced this to kicking and punching.
In the show no spiritual benders existed who used it for basically just fighting, they where just always the weak ones.
Let’s be honest looking back on korra as a whole it really puts into perspective just how amazing last air bender is
Im more pissed they named a soon to be irrelevant cheater after Mako because thats just disrespectful
Facts
It’s so dishonourable and makes me feel bad for hating his character because I loved the voice actor😐
About the bending in this series. The pro bending looks like a standardized fighting style to accomodate a specific ruleset. Outside the ring at least fron what I saw with earthbending which is basically based in Hung Gar the movements looked authentic. Not knowing if Sifu Kisu had that in mind, the metal bending police officers using iron wires to fight is literally a nod to the highest form taught in Hung Gar which is named Tit Sin Kuen and means "Iron thread fist" and emphacizes to be as fluent and soft as a thread, but hard hitting and rooted like you're made out of iron exaclty when the timing is right. Makes sense considering metal benders are as rare as people truly understanding that concept in any martial art trying to achieve that mastery.
Coincidence or not, that part while seeming lame as a concept was a really nice paralell to the martial art it was based on from the first show.
i really like korra as a character, she felt like a real teenager.
Real doesn't mean good character
@@mamasweet6045 The person may still enjoy Korra without her being 'good' though.
@@smokeandmirrors2356 I don't mean the person can't enjoy the character
just saying
@Adrian most of the time it does
Mama Sweet i said i liked her. *i* think she’s a good character and developed really well
To be completely honest I'm very conflicted about the show.
I very much enjoy it overall, I'd even say that I like Korra more than Aang as a character, but some parts and scenes could've been handled better in my opinion.
My main issue in book 1 is the love triangle as you pointed out (and the main four friendships in general). I understand how it came to be, but I dislike how they handled it and how much time it consumed. Specifically how it effected Korra's and Asami's friendship. In episode 7 Asami and Korra seem to get along fairly well, but after Korra frames Hiroshi there's a distance built, which further widens when Asami finds out about the kiss. Now my issue is how Bryke reduced them to just that, two people that were around each other because of Mako and the overall plot. They could've shown so much charcter on both sides, if Korra for example still interacted with Asami DESPITE all those things going on. For instances when Mako and Korra were going to Air Temple island in ep. 11, Korra nor Asami wish each other luck or show any friendship, which just falls flat and makes things a bit hard to enjoy.
Another thing would be the overall friendship between the four; Korra and Bolin only interact with Asami because of Mako and because the circumstances put them together, but not because they're friends on their own. It would've been nice to see some bonding between Bolin and Asami, Asami and Korra. They could've given them a scene where they all sit around a fire and maybe talk a little about their past or something in that direction. Another thing would be Bolin as a character, I understand that a part of him serves as the comic relief, but overall he feels empty and sort of like a child without the ability to think outside of his childish ways. They should've shown more sides to him.
They should've shown more oppression of non-benders, there were a few occasions, but I feel like there should've been more.
Another issue for me was how Amon took away bending, I wish they would've specifically explain why and how his technique works and his back story was kinda whack. I also wish they would've touched on how Korra was able to unlock airbending, now this just something that I wish they would've done so that people don't feel like she just randomly did it. I personally think that it makes sense how she was able to do it, but just for the understanding for all, it would've been nice. Then I wanted them to give a better closure for Amon, meaning they should've made the characters know what happend to him or let Korra actually catch him.
The last issue is, I feel like they should've let Korra lose her bending without regaining it right after. I guess you can let this one slide through, because they didnt know if they would be renewed, but still.
Overall I think some 'mistakes' could've been forgiven, if they had resolved them in the next few seasons, which they partly did, but some things remained flawed.
When i heard there was a sequel coming, i thought that it would be a genuine continuation of the the previous ATLA, but everyone older and that the peace has not arrived YET, and its up to the Aldut Aang and the Group to face off against new threats
Welp i was SOOOOOO DEAD WRONG, instead we have Legend of Korra, it's not bad by any mean except for season 2, season 2 can fuck off, season 3 was the only one where i don't have issues, and in season 1 Amon was intresting until they (the writers) fucked amon's character and turn him into a bender, it was super dissapointing, i really wish amon wasn't a bender, and don't get me started on the forced love triangle or how i would call it : Abomination of a love
I liked Amon being a bender but never really bent unlesss absolutely necessary
Jon_ oVo i think it would have been cool if he had reached a level of spirituality that he was able to take bending away
Honestly I think Amon is kinda overrated. He did not get enough development and his role as leader of the equalosts was wasted potential. Everyone forgets about the equalists after S1. I think people like him because of his voice.
Sorry, I have to disagree . One of the things LOK definitely did better than ATLA is how they wrote their villains. If any villain in the whole Avatar universe didn't get any development it's Ozai. Just my opinion though.
@@ToyCircle rvahse Ozai served his purpose and didnt need to be more than what he was, which was a global threat. The villains in LOK never felt like a global threat born did their actions feel like they had any actual consequences to them. And you cant say Lok dod villains better when none of the villains are better than Azula
@@ToyCircle Ozai is not the villain of ATLA, he's the endboss.
@@ToyCircle Well Ozai didn't get much developement because he is the final boss, the whole series is preparing for the fight against him, so his motivations didn't really matter.
Tayo Jones his voice adds to his charisma, makes him sound menacing and its a part of him. hes a great villain.
The whole reason they did Republic City in addition to wanting to give some closure on the whole "what happened to the Earth Kingdom land that has been conquered by the Fire Nation and what comes of that" which was also explored in "The Promise" Graphic Novel is because they wanted to pick a specific new location they had never been before and stay there because yeah a lot of Legend of Korra was about wanting to differenate itself from The Last Airbender. However yeah that doesn't really work. I totally get wanting Korra to be different then Aang and honestly every Avatar as a different and unique story (actually especially after Kyoshi's novel, Roku's Avatar stint seems pretty boring. Like seems his entire journey was just mastering the elements and being friends with Sozin and then being betrayed by that friend right before he died... seriously what else did Roku have going for him as a character honestly) but you need to make that place really interesting and compelling to want to stay in if we're spending so much time there. That worked in Ba Sing Se for all the various other places and general attitude of the city but that was not the case for Republic City at all.
Honestly the whole "equalists not really having much of a point" is much more an issue since we actually now have an example of the series actually being able to really talk and get more into the politics of benders vs non benders with the Imbalance Graphic Novel. Yeah that actually gave more reasons why a place would have such an issue (that place being what ironically grows into Republic City as if the writers were trying to apoligze for not tackling the issue well in the cartoon) and gave more depth and lip service to the issues of rising technology and of bender inequality and of what are the best measures to take that didn't paint the entire thing so black and white. However Legend Of Korra wanted to go with the idea of having a unique big bad in each season (well originally Korra was going to just be one season so they had to defeat the main villain in one season anyway) and didn't really have the time to develop it properly since by the time we finally get past establishing the world of this show we're already a 1/3rd of the way through the season, then we have the terrible love triangle episode, and then we can finally focus back on the story but also have to make it a mystery about Yakone and who Amon is and yeah that totally kills the pacing of the series.
Speaking of the love triangle... look the only people who like the love triangle are people who make shipping wars team to tear into one another that were especially more prevalent in the early 2010's with Twilight and Hunger Games having a big focus put on their love triangles. But it was terrible in this show especially because they kept changing certain things about it. Yeah the intent origianlly was for it to end with Korra and Mako (likely because a lot of ATLA wanted Zuko and Katara to be an item and that didn't happen so thought "eh why not do that here with a Southern Water bender with attitude and an angsty fire bender") but there was also supposed to be the reveal that Asami was also going to be an equalist working with her father so Mako having dumped her and not being so into Korra wouldn't of come across as him being a dick but rather rebounding after Asami's portrayal. The team wound up liking Asami too much so changed that but yeah in doing so it makes the love triangle drag on more and especially obnoxious and man outside of people just wanting to see hetero relationships no one liked the ending of season one. Seriously IMHO the only thing that makes the love triangle any sort of interesting is the fact it eventually leads to Korra and Asami as a couple who have way more chemistry and are way better for each other then either of them with Mako and the show showing how terrible their relationship was with Mako and how obnoxious with it compared to their more subtle one growing does work but yeah is a lot of it not worth the effort. IMHO season 2 is even worse in that regard due to it still potetnailly thinking Makorra is a thing for awhile and Korra only having amnesia for the sake of continuing on that stupid plot point but get into that nonsense when you cover that.
Season one does have problems and is grating at times but I like you pointing out what does work and how it could of been improved down the road and yeah I feel that the laster seasons do wind up with Korra overall being a good show even with season one ending lousy (again because they thought that was the ending. Imagine if they retooled it realizing they had more and it ended with Korra not getting back her other bending powers and just ending wanting to go on that quest for them thus why her being manipulated by Unalaq in season 2 would actually make a lot more sense and work as a story beat better then what we got here) but still having it's moments. And though season 2 isn't totally horrible for me... there are a lot of things I hate about it and a lot of it I won't defend and man am sure you are going to have a lot to tear into when it comes up so yeah can't wait for that man.
it takes about three generations to weed out original languages and cultures in America it would make sense after 70 years i live in an area of high Bosnian immigration in the 90's , the difference between who was an adult when they came versus who was a child when they came versus first generation born here is quite different.
She-ra season 5 just came out. That's the only thing of note today.
Well og avatar also came out on Saturday
the earthbender WWE in atla absolutely puts pro bending in the dirt
Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't expand on that with the other elements instead of giving us probending. Earthrumble was still a sport, but each earthbender still had their own distinctive style. Even if they just kept Earthrumble without adding the other elements it would have been better than probending which just felt shoehorned in.
He was saying stay light on your feet to dodge until you have to dig in so you can earth bend
True. She already knows how to earth bend, so his lesson wasn't about that. It was about how to mix in the new (boxing inspired) style into her routine to succeed in the sport. It is a bit of a shame things lean a bit too heavily to making all the old forms adapt into a singular new form instead of more dynamically mixing and matching styles in a Bruce Lee kind of way as they could have done, but it's nowhere near as much of a departure from the mentality of ATLA's view of bending as people tend to complain about.
@@Shalakor exactly hell fighting styles evolve all the time the same should apply with bending since its not the movements that bend rock its you channeling that flow the movements help guide you and help guide that flow
Hell while in the avatar state aangs fighting style completely changed
2:35 Am I the only one who still heard Korra saying "I'm the Avatar, you gotta deal with it!" even though he muted it?
I am so looking forward to season five of She-Ra.
They said that Pro-Bending is the only thin that brings together benders and non-benders, and it's a sport where the only people that have a chance to play it is a especific group of people, is probably the only thing that the show presents where non-benders are actually in "disadvandage"... Idk just saying(?
All sports are like that. The only ones who have a chance are natrually gifted athletes. Just because you train hard enough and dream big enough doesnt mean youll make it into the NFL. Genetics plays a role in your athletic ability so its not equal in the real world either.
Your idea for Korra getting reminds me of when Buffy was stripped of her slayer powers in BTVS. She had to fight and defeat her villain without getting her powers back proving she was just as capable without her slayer powers as she was with them. I wish they'd of done that with Korra instead of her always having everything conveniently handed to her. I also hate how LOK used Korra being traumatized/abused in the place of actual character development. They showed her getting beat down way too much after awhile it became uncomfortable to watch.
She-Ra Season 5... Please?
THANK YOU GOOD SIR I DID NOT KNOW THAT WAS OUT!
I was about to ask the same thing
It just came out. Give him time.
It was awesome hope he liked it
23:52
I enjoyed mostly everything I just wish The love Triangle was Cut less time focused on (The brothers mostly mako)
Needed more episodes 12 felt so small to me...also now my biggest gripe is Amon, I love Amon he was awesome scary and that hand to hand combat skill was badass his backstory could have been better and they could have left him anonymous with just hints of who he could be ...did love he was a blood bender that made him even more scary and proved he didn’t need it to kickass
Also from season 1 onward wish it was more concise and I need a Amon prequel ASAP ASAPPPPPPP
I hated Aang as a kid,so I never watched it. But when I watched the Legend of Korra I overcame my hatred for Aang and watched the Last Airbender. Now I love both series,but hot damn romance was never the writer's strong suit!
Only romances I liked were Sokka and Suki and Varrick and Zhu Li.
@@tayojones9460 for me it's those two and then zuko and mai.
The only good part of season 2 was Varrick and Zhu Lee
They were the most consistent characters for the remainder of the series
I'm constantly switch between ATLA being my favorite and LOK being my favorite. ATLA is objectively better, but subjectively I'm always switching between the two.
I think its mostly because of Asami. Asami is such a basic character but I love her so much. Idk I guess I'm just as basic.
Haha I can’t really blame you considering how hot Asami is. 😂😂
If your idea of a good show is based on how hot a character is then every show should be your favorite. Because all shows employee hot looking eye candy to get the audience invested.
I think my biggest issue is them struggling to capture the same feeling while being different. They should have gone with just the latter, and just made their own story within the rules the first one set.
lets pretend the atla movie and season 2 of lok never existed
And season 1 and 4 and maybe 3
What atla movie and tlok series??? Never heard of it
@@nox9749 the legend of korra avatar the last airbender lice action movie
Haniya Peters TLOK and TLA do exist. Honestly I’ve given up on ATLA thanks to you toxic rats. TLA is my favourite movie from now on.
I come from the future to tell you: add to this list the Netflix Live Actionas well lol
And there are people that actually think LoK is better and more mature that Last air bender especially when it comes to relationships and are serious LMAO
GamingSage Well you’re clearly not more mature, so what would you know about being mature?
It’s called having an opinion. People are allowed to have different tastes. And you’re clearly not mature for that Statement
Already agree with your title card for this video 😣 the romance in season 1 is the reason I dropped the spin-off completely. I'm thinking of giving it another go after watching your videos about each season tho 😉👍
Started rewatching Korra because of these reviews and man it is hard to watch season 2. Season one, its fine its enjoyable but season 2 really sucks the life out of me
Why didn't they just make republic city into Hong Kong?
They did. And Shanghai, Tianjin and Manhattan.
Vetarlit Torf
I couldn’t even laugh, I am deceased.😂💀💀
They did. That's what it is and was from the start despite the creators saying "Manhattan in Asia"...that's Hong Kong, figuratively literally. Several of the backgrounds are nearly identical to 1920's Hong Kong. People seem to forget that it had been a British colony for 80 years by then, it's aesthetics and architecture were very Edwardian.
@@gtf234 They could've just said "1920/30's Hong Kong" then right?
@@gtf234 The fact that they called it Manhattan in Asia showed how little they thought things through when it came to the setting.
I know Asami was one of the main characters, but even after she became Korra's girlfriend, she still felt like a one-note extra on the same tier as Lin or Genora.
Lin is more developed than her
Very nice to find someone who has pretty much the same opinion as me on LoK. There was a lot to brag about, writing issues.. story not making sense but the humor was awesome and I really really loved Korra so much. The struggle of her was really something one could feel while at the same time she portrayed a strong lovable woman. Srsly she's sexy body and soul. But yeah the flaws are serious.. I still never watch the last season when re-watching. Only until she meets Toph so I can have a last laugh.
I get your veiw. Except I can never rewatch the series, bc then I have to get past Mako and Kora's kiss... and I just can't . I can't. It's so awkward!
I hated the forced relationship between Korra and Mako, it was just them trying to have Zuko and katara without the emotional build up.
Mako and Asami should gave been the main relationship. Showing a bender and none bender, if they wanted that bender vs none bender thing.
I'm hyped for your S5 She-Ra summary. I honestly want to know what you have to say about it. I for one keep crying out of no-where thinking about it. 🗡
I don't really know how running a TH-cam channel works or how it has deadlines or anything, but typically I'd rather wait a bit longer to see a fully edited video. Not having the visuals was fine, but the audio repetitiveness and blank-outs were confusing. Still really liked the analysis though!
Plus, blood bending completely contradicts how it used to work. Amon and his family can use bloodbending without the full moon and not even using the general water bending motions. I honestly think Amon should’ve been a non bender who could permanently chi block someone’s bending. Maybe his brother could still be a water bender or something.
That's not a contradiction. Everyone was genuinely surprised that they could bloodbend without the full moon. But Yakone's family is an extremely powerful waterbending lineage and that's the only reason why they could bloodbend with their minds. After all, the element of water is the extension of the mind, just like fire is the extension of the soul, air is the extension of the spirit and earth is the extension of the body.
Vetarlit Torf Even so, it feels like a cop out to make Amon more threatening. He was better before the reveal imo. Like he says in the video, it feels like bending is less of martial art form anymore. It felt like Amon and his brother were using blood bending like the force.
@@DetectiveCy By that logic, bending stopped feeling like a martial art when Combustion Man was introduced. And showing that Amon is a unique bloodbender is not a cop out and it wasn't even used to make him threatening at all, because his real power was his cause. The bloodbending was simply what allowed him to replicate Aang's ability to take people's bending.
Vetarlit Torf Combustion man was a different form of fire bending. Fire bending originates from breathing and Sparky Sparky Boom Man simply tattooed his forehead and focused all his shots from his head. For me, it feels like they wanted a blood bending villain and said that he was from a special bloodline to make him blood bend. I agree that his cause was the reason why he was so compelling, as opposed his skills. That’s why I think he would work better with what I suggested earlier.
@@DetectiveCy Yes, and just like Combustion Man, Amon's bloodbending was all about focus and precision. So it's in the same essence. Especially since we actually get to see Amon training and perfecting his bloodbending through discipline while Combustion Man's ability was used for shock value.
And like I said, Amon was never presented as a physical threat to Korra. That's not the point of his bloodbending. The point of it was to allow a non-Avatar to permanently sever someone's bending. There's no way a nonbender could do that and that would just raise more questions than it answers like the Holdo maneuver in The Last Jedi and how it made people ask "why hasn't anyone tried this before?" Like I said, Amon's cause is what makes him a threat to Korra and her friends. Which is why it fits well to have Korra defeat him by revealing his deception and thus rendering him powerless. It also gives the viewer the idea that a strong mind is capable of anything whether or not you're a bender.
I'm glad you mentioned how the martial art part of bending was degraded to kickboxing. It's often overlooked, but is one of my big complaints of the show.
This was very cathartic and validating of my own opinions. LOK is heartbreaking because it's almost amazing but keeps falling short. It's a mess with so much potential.
I haven’t seen the last air bender series, but I saw all of Korra’s, by the way you put things, I’m gonna enjoy the hell out of air bender
Loved this- I hope it’s a series!
I think although I also hated the random modernity of Republic City, it plays into the disparity seen throughout the series. Just like in our world, they have key areas that receive more resources than the others and move at a different pace than the rest of society. It’s still too stark and annoying for my tastes and could have been better executed so that the point was clear. I appreciate the viewpoint non this and I’m going to have to do a rewatch to really pinpoint my annoyance.
Amon's backstory was a well-executed mistake. He should have been who he said he was. Possibly have made a deal with Koh. Would have been much more interesting.
Speaking of interesting, that idea of setting it in Ba Sing Se. I've never heard that idea before and it's kind of amazing.
23:48 This here made me so glad for some reason!
How dare you make me realize how good season 1 would have been if it were set in Ba Sing Se
Jace's Sanctum it wouldnt be good, ba sing se is the type of place that just doesnt change, making it even more boring because as he said most of season 2 of atla is in ba sing se. not to mention what are they going to do really? republic city is new and is way more advanced and remember, ba sing se never changes. republic city being more advanced gives the nonbenders an actual fight because if they didnt have advanced tech they wouldnt be able to do anything at all
@@shrekisthebestfranchiseand5032 It's laughable that you think that they can't do anything without the intense technological access of Republic City. Just because the Earth Kingdom's poverty is a lot more visible, doesn't mean that they can't get the same technology, it's not like it's in an entirely different world, lol. Plus, the ridiculous notion that non-benders can't do anything at all to fight without their tazers and shit is disproven both in ATLA and Korra, with some of the biggest threats in both shows being non-benders using their own skills. Yes, the Equalists had tazers, but they didn't rely on them because they were trained in chi blocking. The tech amplified them in battle, but they were by no means helpless without it.
What do you mean what would they do with Ba Sing Se? It's a fascist police state with a rigid class based society. There are literally tons of issues there and things that would make something like the Equalist movement more interesting and morally grey. As Zaheer so expertly demonstrated, it's a city so oppressed that one good push caused the entire nation to collapse into anarchy and citystates.
Also what the heck do you mean by "ba sing se is the type of place that just doesnt change". That's ridiculous. Republic City remains mostly the same throughout the show with some minor changes, meanwhile Ba Sing Se is a setting with huge amounts of political unrest that would result in a lot of huge changes.
Jace's Sanctum dude if you think nonbenders are gonna do anything without the mechas and planes youre wrong. amon acknowledges this, technology is levelling the playing ground for nonbenders.
Jace's Sanctum ba sing se is RULED BY NONBENDERS.
I loved the pro-bending and I wanted to see so much more of it.
Jesus, you weren't kidding about the bending. Some of the fight choreography in LOK was pretty good but most the bending looked like boxing. In TLAB i could definitely see the differences in stances when fights were taking place.
Also I feel like they dropped the ball with Amon, I mean how interesting would it have been if he was telling the truth, that he was given Energy Bending by the Spirits because so many people were abusing the art of bending itself. I mean after the 100 Year War where Airbending was all but rendered extinct and the Earth Kingdom was nearly destroyed, not to mention now in the current time people were still using their bending to oppress non-benders, the idea that the Spirits would seek to create another equalizer like the Avatar.
Except spirits don't care about the bending arts and him telling the truth would undermine the Hong Xiuquan allegory.
Not very interesting at all, because that would just be a minor variation of what we've already seen with Aang and Ozai.
I agree with the pro-bending thing. I mean just imagine if it was like the Tournament of Elements from Ninjago.
Blessed notification!
Now is my turn to dodge BLUE SHELLS! YAY XD
Thats a very interesting 4 sided triangle you got there , im sure science would love to see this 4 sided triangle you seem to know alot about
100% agree. pretty much my exact thoughts. Thanks for putting it all into words.
“THAT BACK THO!”🔥😵
I agree with 85% of your points. Great video!
I can't believe that they named Mako after the voice actor of Iroh that makes him a shittier character
Why dose this not have more likes 😫😫
I totally agree with you on that setting change from republic city to ba-sing-say (srry don't know how it's spelled)
Ba-sing-se
15jewjew No Ba-Sing-Way 🤣
Even with the review and ATLA being on Netflix I hope The legend of Korra comes to Netflix too just so I can watch more of Aang, Zuko and everyone else.
I think the biggest issue with S1 of Korra is, we don't really see any inequality between benders and non-benders. If it was clear all benders had good jobs and positions of power, meanwhile, the downtrodden criminals (by necessity) were all non-benders, Amon would have had a point.
Imagine: Korra, brash and on a high from going outside for the first time, comes to Republic City. Seeing crime, she intends to solve all problems by punching them in the face. After beating some poor sods after bread to feed their families, she feels upset at how easy it was, and how she is driven out by an angry mob of non-benders.
Although it's clear Tenzin is trying, many of the higher-ups in Republic City are benders with lofty ambitions, too interested in the Jewel of the Four Nations to consider the foundations rotting.
Season 1 continues as normal, except Amon isn't some big twist villain. He's a bender fighting for equality amongst benders and non-benders. The issue is, he's killing and vandalising his way to it.
Long story short, Korra loses her bending and Amon and Tarlok die.
Season 1 ends roughly where it does anyway: Korra, on the ice, ready to jump. Instead of Aang appearing and giving her bending back to her, he instead tells her that only through mastering airbending can she hope to fulfil her destiny as the Avatar.
Now, Book 2: Spirits begins. Korra, hoping to master airbending, begins prioritising her airbending and spirituality. It is hard at first, but over the season she becomes more measured, resolving more problems with words than fists. She's also torn between Unalaq and Tenzin, her spiritual masters, who want different things from her.
The main plot of Raava and Vaatu is used to explore the idea of Yin and Yang, not God vs Satan. Only when both Raava and Vaatu are free and in conflict can the balance be achieved. Perhaps Raava is the spirit of peace, but she is inactive and allows evil to rise. Vaatu, the spirit of conflict, is violent but gets shit done. Only when both inhabit the Avatar, who channels the peace and action, can a balance be achieved.
Long story short, we spend a season watching Korra mature and learn airbending (something we never saw in ATLA). She ends the season by defeating Unalaq, absorbing Vaatu, and becoming the truly balanced Avatar. Now, Aang returns and explains how spirit magic restored her bending now she proved herself as the Avatar, bringer of balance, during Harmonic Convergence.
With all 4 bending forms, and a new measured, spiritual outlook, Korra is ready for Season 3, the Red Lotus. Her greatest challenge yet.
These changes (mainly for S2) solve the biggest issue I have with Korra. That bloody Deus Ex Machina after season 1. Give us the Homecoming arc. "If you're nothing without the suit, you don't deserve it." "If you're nothing without bending, you don't deserve it."
I honestly thought Asami was gonna be a villain, because her interactions with Mako, while they were together, felt so weird and off to me
Please do last season of she-ra
He sad he would. In the last three seconds :D
You're thoughts are brilliant!
Now I feel bad cause I gotta wait for the next video 😭😭😭
I like your solution to the season 1. If they redid the scene so that Korra just channeled Kyoshi violence while he arrogantly tried to take Mako's bending, I could buy that. I disagree with the setting, though.
While RC was designed to be like an Asian Manhattan, Hong Kong and Tokyo (post WW2) are very "Manhattan-y" as well. If they cut the pro-bending (I would not have made the orphans probenders at all) and cut the love triangle, we could have developed the politics of RC more. Perhaps people were promised a 'free land here' but instead moved to a new-world oppressive state. Asami's dad succeeding is NOT good evidence that there's "no oppressive" state, though I know you were talking relative to Ba Sing Se. He was also from the Fire Nation, and it's possible those from the Fire Nation had a distinct leg up over other descendants, particularly over water tribe people. Republic City could have been the "city of false promises."
Just gonna put this here to see if he can change my mind.
The main problem with the show was Nick not giving it at least 3 seasons after the mini series success. Because first they had just the mini series, then a second season, then 2 more. And Season 3 and 4 were so much better because they were much more connected to each other than season 1 and 2 where they were meant to be stand alone at first
First, Mako a weakness? What about Asami? That literally just turns into whatever the plots need her to be, s1 Korra needs a love rival Asami is there, new team Avatar need money Asami is there, they need another member Asami is there, need something to get around Asami is there, then in s2 need a connection for Varick to appear Asami is there that apparently besides being a master hand to hand combat, a racer, empathetic, doesn’t hold grudges, is street wise, she is also a genius inventor, mechanic, business genius, in s3 Korra needs someone to hang out because she fucked up thing with both Mako and Bolin (when she used him as rebound guy), so there we go throw Asami there. Don’t mind that during s2 they were barely acquaintances with and then in s4 lets throw Asami as emotional support even thought there are far better people in her life for that job. Like the fuck Asami just is, Bolin at least they gave some flaws and didn’t make him a mary sue like Asami is. But Korra is the worse developed character I’ve ever seen in s1 was fine with her flaws and how she was starting to learn from them, but s2 she became a literal nightmare, then s3 she goes a bit better but doesn’t truly developed until the last 2 episodes and finally for s4 after actually having her face the consequences of her actions and mistakes she grows and turns into what s2 Korra should’ve been. Mako stop being developed after s2, but to be fair at least he got some development and at the correct time.
I'm so glad someone finally mentioned the bending! Bending in LOK looks so boring!
Even though it looks exactly the same as in ATLA?
@@vetarlittorf1807 no it does not. Whenever I see Korra specifically doing any element, she's always punching the air. Each element is supposed to represent a different fighting style. In ATLA you could distinctly see the difference between the styles, but in LOK everything looks the same. Just punching the air.
@@Trecherousbeast No in LOK they use mix martial arts and traditional bending. Besides there is bender who can even punch with bending. Lightning benders, Airbenders(more Airbender than ATLA has), psychic benders, even a lady with no arms for crying out loud. No offense, but did you see the show? Korra has used water whips, waves, fire breath, traditional airbending in seasons 3 and 4 a lot, and some in season 2, Korra know more than just punches. She uses modern and traditional fighting styles.
Thank you for pointing out the fking love triangle bullsh. It completely ruined season 1 for me. But if you ignore it like a grown up, it's great. I love The Legend of Korra
So we're not gonna talk about how he didn't cut out his retakes in the video? This is like Oblivion all over again
I honestly don't agree with your idea that Korra was selfless when saving Mako from Amon that she was able to airbend. She just throws a bending punch and air came out randomly. Literal Deux Ex Machina. Aka bs
Things in ATLA flowed naturally and everything seemed to make sense while LOK felt like an ambitious fanfic with no proper pacing and trying to focus on too many things
Exactly why Tenzin is my favourite character from TLOK
Amon was just such a misplay of what could have been a great villain and payoff
My idea for amon (indulge me for a bit) could be to have him not be a bender at all but actually learn from chi blocking and chakra how to take bending away and his push being the empowerment of non-benders by teaching them his technique. Then instead of making his beef be with a fire bender (as per usual), you can still keep his water tribe origins but have it that he was less appreciated in his society cause he couldn't bend and have him be exiled cause his father commits the avatar crime and no one stand up for him cause he was useless to their society, have him travel the world for a while learn his technique and put to use and arrive in republic city with a small movement already built up. Now this also coincides with actually showing non-bender inequality so he has a reason to go whole horse on the equalist, like have it so that bender jobs are more prevalent than jobs non-benders can do causing slums to be mostly the non-bending populace, have the mayor of the city be decided by their strength and ideals having a debate then an agni kai type deal to decide with non-benders always losing at the very end to a bender no matter their skill etc. The crux of changing his motives is at the end having him think he beat korra and that she is weak without her bending, but in the end have him over rely on striping others bending too much and get beaten by korra without her bending showing her capability as a fighter not a bender but have korra also see the point of the equalist and see the inequality and have the season end on the first non-bender mayor being elected and signaling the change and since season 2 is garbage anyway and focuses republic city have both seasons encompass an arc of the avatar fixing the balance as they should and maybe not even have a main season 2 villain just show both sides have there evils and have them see th strengths of both sides maybe even redeem amon at the end of season 2 ad have him join the police force and teach his technique to allow non-benders a place within it as well wraping it up in a nice bow.
and make a better way for korra to regain her bending other than just because
Another way to fix the “show don’t tell problem” would be to have the actual non-bender member of team avatar be the Lens into it.
Like why make your first season about inequality between benders and non-benders and make your one non-bender friend one of the richest most privileged people in the city?? Her father could still be an entrepreneur inventor still helping Amon. It just lets us have a non-bender that we know that can SHOW us the oppression non-benders face. Make her family one of the ones targeted by bender gangs for money. 🤷🏿♀️
Speaker ng of playing catch-up: his points about Ba-Sing-Sei and Air Bending are both addressed (by a really good villain) in season 3.
Personally, I like the style of your Stephen Universe videos where you did the sarcastic summary, then the last quarter of the video was talking about your serious thoughs.
I liked it. I hated the fact that there was a different villain every season, the originals never got together, and the family/friendships sucked😑. Toph and Aang would've been phenomenal parents had they not tried to make them seem terrible. Aang would pack every single kid up and take them around the world. Toph would joke with them and also teach them to defend themselves and would teach them to be quick with comebacks😂. Sokka would be a dad of 2 kids and would be great. Lin and Suyin would be honored t have Toph as their mother and best friend. Now, on to Korra and her " friends ". They sucked😤. She dated everyone, they always argued and never really connected emotionally after, they rushed things, Asami was the love interest and getaway driver ( That's it. That's her character😑 ), Korra didn't make sense with half the stuff she was saying, Mako, needed a good slap😤, Bolin, the Twins, Jinora, Kai, Opal, Julie, Ikki, Meelo, Tenzin, Lin, Suyin, and the other Beifongs were phenomenal characters to me. I have more shit that I'm mad about but y'all don't care so I'm gonna go.🚮
Republic City was utter trash o_O
8:18 I said the same thing word for word 2 weeks ago
Holy shit season five is out. Watching that now
5:27 I believe the city they are looking for is named Hong Kong. Also, Ba Sing Se needed another peasant uprising.
Hong Kong is an influence but it definitely is mirror New York more than anything elsr
I keep checking constantly for the final season review of shera 💀💖💀💖
I neeeed ittttt 🧽