The Legend Of Korra, I'm the avatar, deal with it!

I'm surprised there isn't a post about this, although our forums are dead and all that jazz.

I've been following the show since it started and look forward to catching it later tonight.

70 years since the events of the first series, The Legend of Korra follows the new avatar, 16 year old Korra from the Southern Water Tribe. I love the contrast between her and Aang's experience. While Aang was more of a thinker and pacifist, Korra is definitely more of a muscle-head who perfers to solve problems by punching them really, really hard.

In the post-war environment, technology has advanced and the world has gotten more cosmopolitan, especially in Republic City where the story is taking place.

I love the direction this series has gone in. A lot of times a popular series (more-so videogames though) will choose to recreate their success by telling the same story with only cosmetic changes. This show feels more like a natural progression, exploring the consequences of the previous series.

Any other viewers out there that still post on the forum?

Gawds yes. I thank the gods that be and were that Nick posts the episodes online.

I like the characters, though I've started equating Mako to Zukho and his brother to Sokka, and that annoys me some. Just a tad oversimilar.

This post has been edited by Manual on May 5 2012, 08:27 PM

I had actually never watched Avatar, and only finished watching it a week or so before The Legend of Korra came out.

I'm actually enjoying both and it's interesting to something that rather stands out in comparison to other North American weekly animated series.

Though it's kinda sad to watch something when most of the characters you loved from the first series are dead. Not even LONG dead, some are recently dead.

This show is the best.

I'm pretty much going to learn how to make leather masks specifically so I can make a really awesome Amon mask for DragonCon.

I can see that, although I didn't pick up on Mako=Zuko until you pointed it out.

I can't argue that their character gesalt isn't very similar, although I do enjoy the way their finer differences play out in unexpected ways (imho) during some episodes.

Most notably, last week's love triangle between Mako, Korra, and Bo. I can establish from that episode that Bo does not do as well with the ladies compared to Sokka; also where Sokka would try to play things cool ... Bo will full on ugly-cry. That scene was amazing.

You should probably watch the original :V

I really should. Now that it's apparently on Netflix I really have no excuse (previous excuse was "But I have to put a DVD in?!").

thank you for bringing that up. I was busting a gut when that scene occurred. I even had to rewind it a few times. Jesus Christ Bo, keep it together.

Best scene so far.

The one major 'thing' that I like about tLA over LoK is the way the 'big bad' interacts with the story. In the last airbender, the big bad was always there, but very much in the background until the end, as more of a nebulous idea than an actual character. In Legend of Korra, the big bad is a character from the get go (and not a well fleshed out character, yet) that has major involvement in the story so far.

I much prefer tLA's approach for an episodic series, especially since Amon is, so far, a crappy character. But...I can see why the writers for LoK decided on this approach given the more limited setting.

Oh yes, one more thing- Fire Ferret > Bat Monkey.

The first season was kind of "eh" to me, but it really picked up at the season finale and found its stride in the subsequent seasons.

I think the pace of Legend of Korra has benefitted from the previous series, as there isn't as much world-building to establish per say.

One thing both series do really well is the fight choreography. Last episode? Damn fun to watch Korra and Lynn duke it out with the Equalists.

This post has been edited by stageninja on May 15 2012, 03:37 PM

That was an awesome fight scene. It was like there was no wasted movement on Lynn's part. This is what happens when you hire professional martial artists to choreograph your fight sequences.

Betting pool on when Korra finally goes glowy?

Grown up Toph on screen for half a second!

Lightning Bending to generate electricity was so my idea

everything about this show is about growth and progress

used to be rare skills (metal/lightning/chi block) are now common which is awesome

I am so loving the interaction of bending with technology

i do wish we see korra all glowy and some spirit world stuff soon though

I really wonder just how common those skills really are. all we get to see is this one city that seems to be at the bleeding edge of technology for their time, but what happens when you leave the city.

You wouldn't have thought there'd be enough people who had achieved inner harmony for them to be a viable generator substitute....

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I haven't been enjoying the fights in this one as much as in the old one. Largely because pro-bending is so... random. There are no visible tactics at play. The two sides just beat on each other until someone screws up.

It's a side quest that had to be run through, once they'd raised it, but at the same time I can't help feeling it's been rather awkwardly crowbarred into the story to provide some fight scenes that, at the end of the day, aren't that engaging. It's long past time to return to the genocidal maniac storyline.

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The latest episode was one of the better ones. Things look to be picking up nicely.

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Lin's my favourite character so far. Kora... is a bit childish. Not too surprising considering her upbringing, mind. Hopefully she'll get over it at a fairly accelerated pace.

This post has been edited by Nem on May 16 2012, 01:34 PM

It does seem like Amon plays out as more of a narrative plot device there to introduce conflict and move the plot along than anything resembling a compelling character at this point.

A good illustration of that to me is when he busts up the pro-bending championship game. While he goes on his Equalist rant the scene quickly shifts to the peril of our heroes. You can still hear what he's saying, but you're really not paying attention. You don't care.

Hopefully, as the series progresses he becomes a more compelling character. Some of the best villians are the ones where you believe their charisma and can see why people follow them (example: when Magneto is written well in X-Men).

So far, I've enjoyed the tension between people who can and cannot bend and the advancement of technology as an interesting hook for conflict, but not interesting antagonists have emerged yet.

Metal bending, and lightning being so common is a little jarring to me. This stuff used to be reserved for the elite and now it's so everyday that you can spend your days making minimum wage generating lightning? Craaaaaazy.

I'm calling it as the season finale episode -- that's when we'll get a more complete picture of those flashbacks of the original series gang that has been illuded to.

I was talking to TheDivineWind yesterday and he made a good point that Korra may have a more difficult time accessing the Avatar state since she seems to have more trouble grasping spiritual efforts.

I'm more concerned what happens afterward. She doesn't have the discipline to control the avatar state. Hell, even Aang could barely control it at first. And he was raised by monks.

Mmm, you'd think that getting into / controlling the avatar state would be the mainstay of their training - considering it's their trump card.

Strong emotions - despair, fear of death - seem to get you into it as well. At least going by Ang's example.

This post has been edited by Nem on May 18 2012, 11:42 AM

Going into the Avatar State at will requires having no attachments and a finely balanced and tuned mind/spirit/body, if we go by the training Ang went through to learn how to do that.

The Avatar State, however, will kick in as a defense mechanism + extreme emotion, which will undoubtedly be how Korra first goes glowy.


My biggest question now is...how did Amon learn Soul Bending?

This post has been edited by Manual on May 18 2012, 06:38 PM

From Zuko's daddy, I imagine. I notice we haven't heard much about that side of the old cast yet....

He has a very special aura about him