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Old 10-26-2014, 11:08 AM   #626
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>Loki

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Korra had been with Toph for minimum several days. Is it really so hard to believe that maybe Korra told her about Zaheer, Amon and Unaalaq? I mean, at the very least one would expect the topic of "hey why do you have poison metal inside you?" to get some discussion.

A scene showing us that conversation would be boring as hell because it would just be recapping shit we already know for like five minutes, but it seems likely it would've happened at some point.
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Old 10-26-2014, 07:30 PM   #627
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>Concept
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Well, considering how unsociable Toph was, I don't even think that would have happened. And even if it did, why would Korra describe her whole three seasons worth of adventures rather than just saying "Zahir and the Red Lotus tried to kill me with it in the Avatar State."

But yeah, I reviewed episode 3 and Toph is in fact a terrible person that is completely ignoring the troubles around her.


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I didn't expect Korra to remove the poison during the scene in the swamp, but I was hoping she would have a revelation. Perhaps I'm comparing it too much to the scene from Empire, but the whole scene honestly felt like Korra should have learned something as she was confronted with her past. Instead, it was the exact same scene we saw from the previous episodes where Korra saw a ghost and ran away.

In episode 2, Korra saw her Avatar State ghost in Republic City. What did she do? She ran away. To me, this was symbolic of Korra running away from her responsibilities. Her fears and doubts about being the Avatar. She couldn't even stop two simple bandits. Being put back into a life threatening situation like that of her three previous antagonists and unsure of herself, she chose to run away.

Episode 3 showed an even more insecure Korra. She was not just losing, she was losing to an old woman. And her mental doubts were what kept her physical ailments going. She wasn't ready to be the Avatar. She was still afraid. She subconsciously didn't want the metal poison removed because she wasn't ready to be the Avatar again.

And what happened in episode 4. More being afraid. More running away. Then Toph says "Stop being afraid" and Korra touches a tree and reunites with the children. Now she's ready to be a Green Lantern and save the universe!

With minor changes to a few scenes would have made this whole episode better.

Jinora and the kids could have said "We need you Korra! Kuvira is conquering the Earth Kingdom." Then we could have Korra look down and turn away, she still doubts herself. Toph then walks over and in a caring motherly fashion holds Korra's hand and says, "The world needs you Twinkletoes." Then the kids put their hands together over hers and says, "And your friends (and the Air Nation) will be here to help you." Then maybe some spirits like the one that impersonated the puppy comes over and shit. Korra is moved to tears and they wash away her doubts and fears.

Then we cut to the scene with the metal poison removal. Toph tells her to remove the poison herself. Korra begins, but feels the pain and sees a scene with Zahir (or anyone of her villains really). Toph tells her that fights over. Korra looks up and doesn't see Toph or the kids, she sees her Avatar State Ghost. But instead of fighting it, it helps her up and they begin to move in unison. As the metal poison leaves her body, the ghost fades away/merges with Korra. All the poison is removed and the ghost is gone. Korra is back to 100%.

Can I have an Emmy now?

The problem with the episode wasn't really any one scene being terrible, but that it was all pointless. Nothing happened which showed any growth for Korra. Nothing to show she got over her anxieties and apprehension about being the Avatar again. Korra's issues were all brushed over with a simple talk with Toph, touching a tree and some fancy lights, and meeting with the children.
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Old 10-26-2014, 08:30 PM   #628
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>Loki
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Okay, fair point.
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Old 10-26-2014, 09:05 PM   #629
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I think this all ties into how TLA was just so much more memorable than anything we've seen in Korra. The plot's nice, the action's good, the visuals beautiful, but we're missing so many character moments. These characters don't seem to have much of an internal conflict like Aang or Zuko did. And that's why this arc in particular is so disappointing, because it had the potential to be Korra's moment. Aang spent three seasons going from the kid who ran away from being the Avatar to standing, waiting for the Fire Lord to come and fight him. He never wanted to be the Avatar, but he grew to accept his responsibility despite this.

But what does Korra have? This recovery? It could've been something. They were so goddamn close with it too, and Toph saying "well maybe you don't want to get better" really hit it on the head. It felt like this was going to be a thing and it was going to be a good well done thing, and Korra facing her fears would lead to a moment where she matures as a person and character and releases the metal from inside her... and it just becomes underwhelming and keys exactly what this show is missing compared to its predecessor.
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Old 11-09-2014, 12:55 PM   #630
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Looks like we never discussed Episode 05. And I had half a mind not to bother with discussing 06 either. I think it's human nature to dislike discussing the same thing at great length over and over and over again, and unfortunately I'm currently tugged three (and sometimes four) different ways now for Korra discussion: a friend IRL, a friend out of state who I talk with by telephone, friends on Skype, and then our thread-based chats here.

But I dunno. I don't like seeing the thread be dead like this. Especially not when Season 4's been as decent to great as it's been. So ... even though this will mark the fourth time this weekend I've talked about it -.-, some thoughts on the latest Korra. Don't make me regret wasting the next thirty minutes.

The Legend of Korra Book 4 Episode 06:

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This was one of my favorite episodes of the six we've had so far. Possibly my #1 favorite. Hard to say, not going to sweat the details for now. Suffice to say that I thought it was great. The episode wasn't perfect, but I feel like it earned at least an 8/10 in the areas of animation, script, voice acting, directing, and editing.

Kuvira: One of the things I liked the most about the episode was the lead-in to Korra's duel with Kuvira. I've felt that the show has been making Kuvira out to be much more of a cartoon villain than Amon or Zaheer were, perhaps not quite as bad as Unalaq but still in his camp rather than in theirs. And I don't think Episode 06 undid that feeling for me. But what it did do was offer Kuvira something that was decidedly non-cartoon villain.

"Let it be known that I would never ask any of you to do something I was not willing to do myself." Kuvira informs her army that she doesn't want to put their lives in jeopardy when there is another way for her to achieve her aims, one which places the entire risk on herself and none on them. And she goes for it. She offers Korra a deal, terms for a one-on-one fight: (paraquoting from memory) "if you win, I will take my troops and leave. And we can even discuss the future of the Earth Empire together. But if I win, I want you to leave the Earth Kingdom and never return. I don't want to ever see you again."

I liked this because it gave us a reason (our best yet) to believe that troops would want to follow Kuvira. She's been set up as the story arc's Cao Cao but had until now lacked all of Cao's charisma and appeal to men of valor. All she had going for her was "I can gud metalbend" and "I scares the cheeftains into obey me. :3" She didn't feel like the sort of person necessary for an army of that size to side with her over siding with the Avatar. And that was important considering:
  • Amon's cult had several hundred (maybe a thousand or two at the most) followers that we saw, and he seemed much less villainous than Kuvira.
  • Zaheer's cult had only a dozen or so followers, and he likewise seemed less villainous than Kuvira.
  • And Unalaq, who felt cartoonishly villainous just like Kuvira, only enjoyed the support of (at his apex) the North Pole; then just his two children and Vaatu; and finally no one other than Vaatu.
But with Episode 06, Kuvira gained at least a little of what Cao and other charismatic villains have had. And I'm grateful for that. I hope we'll only continue to see more, though I'm not holding my breath given the ending scene of the episode (which again felt loltastically tyrannical) as well as all the stuff that came before.

Varrick: I enjoyed the scenes with Varrick and Bolin perhaps more than any other scenes in the episode. While the WW2 parallels are starting to become suffocating -- Kuvira's fiancé's line about how a scientist's duty is to follow his research to whatever ends it may take him echoed Oppenheimer pretty loudly, with Varrick representing those nuclear scientists who were opposed to the weaponization of uranium -- I still enjoyed the scenes on the train car and afterwards.

When Bolin questioned how Zhu Li could have put up working for Varrick all this time, I couldn't help but to smile and think to myself, "It's love! Love'd do it!"

I liked the permutation that the writers ended up going with for Varrick's plan:
  • Did he really make a bomb? Yes.
  • Does the bomb work as intended? Yes.
  • Does he really have a remote detonator? Probably not. Because ...
  • Did he engineer a way to disarm the bomb? No.
I considered lots of possibilities but ended up going with a Yes, Yes, No, and Yes to the above list, so getting that final No was a nice little surprise. Though finally, there's ...
  • Did he intend to die? Yes. No. Maybe? Probably not.
I liked how the writing here was just vague enough to allow people their pet interpretations. Did Varrick deliberately place Bolin in a harrowing position HOPING that it would get the young bender to think of a way to get them out of there? Or did Varrick genuinely intend to die there, with no hopes pinned on Bolin whatsoever? It's a little hard to say. He offers just enough dialogue and just enough emotion both before and after the detonation to support either theory. In this particular setup, I liked this. Personally, I'd go with the idea that Varrick did not have a death wish and that, whether or not he believed he would be dying there, he was very much grateful to Bolin for finding a way for them to both survive. This in turn, to me at least, would support the "he wanted to force Bolin to think of something" theory ever so slightly.

Zhu Li: So, I think it's pretty obvious at this point to every adult watching that Zhu Li is on our side still. The way the writing and camera angles work in Zhu Li's scenes are both so typical of the "we want you to think she's defected but LOL NOPE SHE HASN'T! " mode of storytelling. I mean, the entire setup is just asking for Zhu Li to be on our side still: she works the operation from the inside, she pretends to be loyal to Kuvira, and she sabotages the weapon such that, when it's time to reveal her true colors, it's far too late for Kuvira and her jerk fiancé to do anything to stop it.

I will be very surprised if Zhu Li is revealed to be a genuine defector.

Bolin: I'm grateful that he didn't get sent to the re-education camp. I've had enough of brainwashing in Avatar: the Last Airbender to last me a franchise lifetime. I really don't want the writers wasting precious episodes on having Bolin be brainwashed by Big Brother only for the heroes to snap him out of it in the end. The outcome is inevitable in a story like this one which makes the diversion an utter waste of everyone's time. It's an even bigger waste of our time when you consider the large role it played in Season 2 of the original series. I'm just very, very glad to see Bolin and Varrick off that train. Please let's not bring up the re-education camp again. If that's how Bolin and Varrick end up wasting the rest of their time in this season -- landing at the camp, pretending to be dupes, and helping to liberate the brainwashed prisoners -- I'll be sorely disappointed.

Opal: A friend of mine in town had nothing but negative things to say about Opal. I dunno. I'm more split on her myself.

I'm disappointed that Opal treated her oath to the Air Nomads so lightly. If I had been in Jinora's or Tenzin's position and had heard Opal saying something like that, I wonder if I would have asked her to pack her bags right then and there if that's how she feels about it. Oaths aren't made to be broken. When you take an oath, your expectation should be that you are going to uphold it even when the going gets tough. So for her to treat the oath as something that she'll only respect when it's convenient for her to do so ... well, that's no oath at all, Opal.

But at the same time, I also sympathize with her. I understand that this is her own family we're talking about here, mother and father and brothers, who are about to be put to the sword if someone doesn't do something to save them. I can forgive her her personal attachments, especially since she is still so young and her teachers are not that experienced in teaching other people how to become ideal Air Nomads.

The painting scene: I enjoyed the writers poking fun at modern art types, placing far too much value on creativity and not enough value on technical skill. Ikki's garbage Crayola crayons-esque painting gets a 9/10 from Su's son whereas Meelo's exquisite portrait gets a 3/10 and accusations of being "pedestrian."

Korra: I enjoyed the fight. The outcome was obvious per the requirements of the plot: Korra couldn't possibly defeat Kuvira here, and thus we needed some way for her to lose. Most of my friends have expressed disappointment in Korra's visions still haunting her, but I guess I'm more neutral about it. I don't like it but I don't necessarily dislike it either. We'll see what the writers do with it.

I did like that when Korra entered the Avatar state she was pretty much nothing more than a Korra who had used Bulk Up once. That was nice. That was pretty much exactly what I would have wanted to see from the writers. I was worried that they were going to conveniently forget that Season 2 ever happened rather than owning their mess and that we were going to see a return of epic bending from A:tLA, the formation of an enormous fish avatar (S1) or a tornado that goes to the heavens (S2) or moving continents (Kyoshi flashbacks). We had none of that. We had two students of airbending produce a big-ass tornado, sure, but as far as Korra making her own, all she had was a tiny little twister that picked her up maybe 20 feet off the ground. She was at her strongest in the Avatar state, yes, but she was a far cry from what the Avatar state used to be capable of producing. That was nice. Thank you, writers, for your consistency and for not abandoning your past.

It will be interesting to see how the writers can legitimize Korra's continued pursuit of Kuvira when Korra agreed to Kuvira's terms in front of Kuvira's entire army and the terms were clear: if you lose, get the hell out of the former Earth Kingdom and never return.

I could probably say more than this but forgive me if my brain's a bit fried from discussing this episode four times in less than 48 hours. Hopefully this is enough to get some conversation going.
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Old 11-11-2014, 06:57 AM   #631
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Replying to something Talon said;

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I don't think Korra's weakened Avatar State as compared to Aang is so much a consequence of Korra Book 2 as it is just what the writers have done with it in Korra. Even before she lost the connection to her past lives Avatar State Korra was kicked around by several individual dark spirits and by Unavaatu, who had no past lives and only one element. She spent a good portion of Book 2 trying to rally armies to fight the Northerners when the Avatar State we saw in AtLA could've pretty much cleared their army out by itself. Tbh I think the writers just couldn't work out how to make a plot that couldn't be solved in five minutes with controlled access to the AtLA power Avatar State.

I'm pretty bored of this season myself. Like, it's better than the bad bits of S1 and S2 but not a patch on last season. Find Kuvira pretty bland. The scenes with Varrick and Bolin were great though. Respect for Varrick definitely up.
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Old 11-11-2014, 12:49 PM   #632
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I've always liked Varrick.

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And with this season, they've only made his character better. Not only does he have the insane quirkiness of before, but also shows real emotion, and has had a lot of character development (dare I say it) reminiscent of Sokka. Not to that level, obviously, but it really reminds me of him how he's grown from this big goofball to a big smart goofball.
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Old 11-15-2014, 02:02 PM   #633
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S4E7 The Reunion

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I’ll admit, the storylines in this episode were quite inconsequential but this episode had enough highlights to win me over. IGN have rated this the lowest episode of the season, but I disagree. It wasn’t epic - however it was fun to watch and not nearly as frustrating as last week’s. I don’t really feel like leaving a full review, so can I just jump straight to the elephant rat in the room here?



"Loving the hair"



"What's going on with you two?"


I’ve never been a fan of shipping. The way shippers can take something completely out of context to conform to their distorted perception has always bothered me. And that’s why I’m so worried that I’m becoming one of them Did anyone else find the interaction with these two sort of flirty? Or was it just an exchange between best friends? These questions are not rhetorical, I need to know if I’m being biased because I want a same-sex relationship to be ‘sort of’ canon in children’s media. Even if they keep it to interactions like this and confirm the relationship off-screen, this would still do leaps and bounds for LGBT acceptance. Avatar have always been known for pushing boundaries in TV with a number of deaths and spiritual undertones, so I don’t think this is something they would be against doing. After the unpopularity of KorraxMako pairing, KorraxAsami became the most popular fan ship. Could this be the writers giving fans what they want, even just through subtext?

I’m also loving Varrick and Bolin this season. Varrick is fast becoming my favourite character. Setting up an EMP to shut down those mechas was awesome, I almost feel like Sokka is back. Bolin has always felt like a spare part on team avatar. His fighting style was limited to punching blocks of earth forward that the opponent would usually evade or overpower. Now he’s learned lavabending he’s been really kicking ass without being overpowered (he’s still not on Ghazan’s level). At first I was against Lavabending Bolin, but I’m glad he’s finally useful.

I’ll admit I was more hyped last season thanks to the fantastic roster of villains, but it looks like things are about to get interesting with Kuvira attacking the swamp. I really hope Toph doesn’t get the same depowering as Korra when she inevitably faces off against Kuvira. I can understand that we need to set her up as a huge threat, but Toph is the greatest Earthbender OF ALL TIME. Even in her old age she should be able to take down Kuvira, even if she’s then overwhelmed by the force of a whole army.
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Old 11-15-2014, 09:47 PM   #634
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You're not the only one, Emp. Multiple reviewers have pointed out the subtext in the Asami/Korra dynamic in this episode, ranging from their compliments, to their small fight, to their later reconciliation. Especially Korra's semi-bashful look when Asami compliments her, and the way that Asami looks pointedly in another direction when Mako asks what on earth is going on. While I doubt that Nick would ever make Korasami canon, the fact that they're willing to even put in subtext is bold. Good on them. Whether it's romantic or platonic, the Korra/Asami relationship is probably my favourite dynamic out of the all the dynamics within the Korra Krew. Their ability to laugh about Mako (lol, poor Mako) and be great foils & friends was one of the best parts of Book 3, and I'm glad that the writers are continuing that thread in Book 4 by making Asami the only person Korra trusted enough to write letters to.

Also, Bolin and Varrick are the funniest duo. Great contrasts and foils to each other, and I loved that Varrick created that EMP and that Bolin then proved his badass-ery and his compassion by returning for the fugitives. Varrick teaches Bolin how to think on his feet, and Bolin shows Varrick how to care about other people. It was nice character-building episode for both of them.
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Old 11-21-2014, 06:19 AM   #635
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>Make Book 4 13 episodes instead of 12
>Waste an episode on a clip show

There is no reason to watch episode 8, don't waste your time. It is neither entertaining not plot relevant in any way.
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Old 11-21-2014, 06:42 AM   #636
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Is it an "Ember Island Players" sort of clip show or a "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" sort of clip show? The answer should probably be in a spoiler box.
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Old 11-21-2014, 07:14 AM   #637
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Se4Ep8:
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I feel like Ember Island Players used the backdrop of the recap to actually make some progress in personal storyline. This episode does not do that. No progress is made, nothing meaningful happens, it is entirely recapping the past three seasons.

We get a recap of Mako's love life, then a recap of the major villains, then a five minute long Nuktuk joke. It does have one brief exchange that'll please KorrAsami shippers though. Varrick is at least kind of amusing I guess?
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Old 11-21-2014, 08:13 AM   #638
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That's really disappointing to hear. :\ Had been looking forward to watching the episode the past two days. Oh well.
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Old 11-21-2014, 08:18 AM   #639
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I'm probably being overly harsh; whilst it had no bearing on the plot which was the major source of my frustrations, it does have some nice/comedic moments. Take it as you will.

I expect that, like Ember Island Players, this is designed to lead us into the finale. I just don't think it does as good a job as EIP did.
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Old 11-21-2014, 02:43 PM   #640
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That was kinda bullshit. Except for the Bolin part. That was pretty great, very much in the vein of Ember Island Players.
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Old 11-21-2014, 03:23 PM   #641
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I wish it didn't rely so much on recycled footage. It truly felt like something made by fans and the origional voice actors.
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Old 11-21-2014, 05:56 PM   #642
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Sometime around a year and a half ago we were similarly duped on a large scale. We got the news from the higher-ups that our Book 4 budget was getting slashed, almost to the tune of an entire episode’s budget. We had two options: 1) let go a significant number of crew members several weeks early, or 2) make a clips episode. We never considered the first option. We weren’t going to do that to our crew, and even if we were callous enough to do so, we never would have been able to finish the season without them.
Well. Okay then, we know who to blame. They still could've made it a bit more entertaining but still. Way to go Nickelodeon.
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Old 11-21-2014, 06:35 PM   #643
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The Legend of Korra Book 4 Episode 07:

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This post is going to be super brief since the episode aired a week ago and I already discussed it with AK2 back then. (EDIT: Oh, Talon ...)

Korra and Asami: the episode teases that they may be (or will soon become) a couple. While I found it amusing, I didn't freak out about it as negatively as the homophobic pole or as positively as the LGBT pole. Frankly, I expect nothing to come of it but think the writers are just having fun teasing shippers. Guess we'll have to wait and see. At the end of the day, I would reject the argument that either Korra or Asami are lesbians though: given their sincere romantic feelings for Mako (coupled with desire to kiss him on the lips many a time), I don't feel comfortable writing these girls off as confused lesbians. To me, they've gotta be bi if they're going to be interested in same-sex love at all.

Varrick and Bolin: they were probably the highlight of the episode for me. But first ... I tend to admire the writers for owning their Season 2 canon even when it sucks, so vice versa I'm kinda sore over their wanton disdain for the canon of Varrick as a scumbag villain in Season 2. Like, it's like we're all being asked to please, please ignore what he did to Asami and to just pretend like he's the same ol' Varrick we had in S2E01 thru S2E03. A lovable schemer who has a heart of gold. And the thing is, I do like this Varrick! I just ... it feels like cheating to me, that's all. Not owning what they did with Varrick in Season 2 just feels like big, stinky cheating.

Anyway. Bolin. Varrick. I enjoyed the part where they tripped the snare mere steps ahead of where they had stopped walking. I enjoyed their teaming up with the refugees and/or escaped prisoners. And I especially loved the bit at the end with the boat. I remarked on this to AK2: in 99.9% of kids shows, this is the part where the heroes inexplicably bid farewell to their new friends JUST BECAUSE, even though it makes absolutely no sense to do so since there is strength in numbers and since they haven't yet reached their fork in the road that would take them separate ways. So I loved, loved, loved how the writers tease the separation (what with Varrick's remarks about the boat looking like it'd sink) ... and then they have Bolin pipe up that, no in fact, our heroes will accompany the refugees since, hey, they're all heading the same way anyway and there's strength in numbers. THANK YOU!

Wu and Mako: The writers have taken the playful piss out of royalty and politicians a lot in Korra, so I actually enjoyed the 180° here where they invite the audience to side with Mako when Mako insults Wu and requests that he escort himself to the bathroom for a change ... only for Wu to lo and behold get waylaid by Earth Kingdom terrorists / Earth Empire supporters. The writers effectively broadcast to both Mako (in universe) and to viewers (out of universe) that when you are a bodyguard, yes, it may look like you're doing a lot of stupid hand-holding and that absolutely nothing ever goes wrong ... but that's because you're always around, dumdum. And that the moment you take your eyes off of a high-profile political figure or celebrity, crazy people and/or criminally-minded people are going to take action against them. Yes, you've never once seen Wu get attacked by anyone when you've taken him to the bathroom, Mako: and that's because any of the potential times an attack might have happened, the agents called it off because they saw that you were there.


The Legend of Korra Book 4 Episode 08:

Spoiler: show
As was warned, this episode was a clip show episode. Dividing it into its three thirds ...

Wu and Mako: Prince Wu's commentary was mildly amusing at first but soon got stale. I did like the non-clip show aspect to it though where we got to see Mako trying to help toughen Wu up and Wu being on board with it. While Wu may never be a bender, he can at least learn some martial arts and/or swordsmanship or gunmanship to help better take care of himself. While I was horrified at the start of Season 4 by the prospect of Mako being whisked away to the Earth Kingdom to slave away for Prince Wu for the rest of his days, now that the prince has been enlightened about the way the world really is (and his real place in it), I am warming up to the buddy duo of these two. I really hope to see Mako and Wu become lifelong friends, and I'm even warming up to the idea of Mako returning to the Earth Kingdom with Wu to indeed serve as his bodyguard and/or advisor. We'll see.

Korra, Asami, and Tenzin: This for me was probably the weakest of the three flashback segments. I honestly don't have much to say here.

Bolin and Varrick: Hands down the best part of the episode and entirely attributable to Varrick. (Even Bolin's best lines were only made possible because he had Varrick to play off of.) While the clip show aspect of the episode reached its apex of pitifulness here (the four-way phone call between the previous seasons' villains), the playfulness of the Korra team also hit its apex here. John Michael Higgins (voice of Varrick) was brilliant here as were the writers who equipped Higgins with his lines. The part where Varrick insulted the swami who couldn't levitate was possibly the funniest thing in the season we've had yet, and there were many other great lines out of Varrick that had me smiling on the outside and laughing on the inside.

I might have had a lot more negative things to say about the fact that the episode was a clip show, but Stealthy's latest post arrived in between when I started watching and when I started writing this post. His news definitely makes me sympathetic towards the Korra team. I find it much more easy to forgive what has happened -- a clip show episode despite an already short season -- knowing that they didn't want for this to happen either but that it had to because they found their budget had been slashed. At the end of the day, S4E08 is still heaps better than what happened with Kare Kano Episode 19. (Click here to start from the beginning, but click here and/or skip to 4m55s if you can't wait.) I will forever, forever, forever associate Kare Kano Episode 19 with what happens when your budget runs out before you finish a series.

Last edited by Talon87; 11-21-2014 at 06:40 PM.
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Old 11-22-2014, 03:08 PM   #644
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And once again the popular TV network screws over the producers in the middle of their efforts without telling them! Come on, Nick, I thought you were better than CN, but now you're on their level. If they're a failing asset in your eyes, go ahead, cut their budget, but at least check with the producers to make sure that you're not screwing them over by doing so.
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Old 11-26-2014, 05:26 PM   #645
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I'm watching through AtLA again. I'm just up to "The Great Divide", which is one of two episodes I remember not really enjoying (the other being "The Fortuneteller"). I've already really enjoyed "The King of Omashu" and the "Winter Solstice" two parter, and am massively looking forward to "The Blue Spirit", "The Deserter" and the finale two parter. And that's just in Book 1, imo the weakest of the three.
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Old 11-27-2014, 06:12 AM   #646
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I'm watching through AtLA again. I'm just up to "The Great Divide", which is one of two episodes I remember not really enjoying (the other being "The Fortuneteller"). I've already really enjoyed "The King of Omashu" and the "Winter Solstice" two parter, and am massively looking forward to "The Blue Spirit", "The Deserter" and the finale two parter. And that's just in Book 1, imo the weakest of the three.
The last three episodes for Book 2 still rank up there as some of my favourite episodes of any show of any medium. The ending of Book 2 was shocking, and Azula's takeover of Ba Sing Se still sends shiver down my spine.
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Old 12-05-2014, 09:04 AM   #647
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The Legend of Korra Book 4 Episode 09:

Spoiler: show
Once again, being super busy and discussing Korra with other friends via other means of communication sees me neglecting to reply to this thread. Well, that and a generally disappointing lack of feedback on anything I might have to say. But whatever. Let's get a few things said about this one before moving on to 10.

As I put it to AK2, this episode felt like it contained a lot of good material but that said good material was crammed into too small a space. "It felt rushed." I said then that I believed it was probably because it literally was rushed, in that much of this material was probably meant to originally show up in 08 but that it didn't get to because lol clip show episode because lol funder pulling funding. And I still feel this way now. While the material was good, there was so much of it and in such rapid fire succession that it made the episode hard to enjoy at times.

The Republic City council scene: This scene was pretty decent. While her lines felt a touch too hammy, I mostly enjoyed Fire Lord Izumi. Her character presented an interesting duality to the problem of dealing with a militant tyrant, one that needed some revisiting after the WW2-heavy allegory of Book 4 thus far:
  • WW2: we tend to make fun of the Neville Chamberlains who take Hitler at his word, etc etc, and allowed Hitler to take over so much of Europe before the world decided that enough was enough
  • W. Bush Iraq: we tend to ridicule preemptive strikes as foolhardy, costly, and warmongering; we bring up lines like "weapons of mass destruction" in both ridicule and condemnation of such individuals who suggest that it's better to hit the enemy preemptively rather than waiting for him to bring the fight to us first
An earlier season of Korra -- if memory serves, it was Book 2, but I can't remember the specifics of how/why it would have been -- had an awful lot of parallels with the W. Bush-era American invasion of Iraq, parallels that I remember us bringing up here on UPN in conversation. Then along comes Book 4 and we all start noticing the obvious parallels with World War 2. The Hitler character, the Chamberlain character, the nuclear bomb analogue, so on and so forth. But I haven't really seen anyone -- not on UPN, not in my IRL talks, not anywhere -- synthesizing the two conversations into one. And I think that's precisely what the writers of Korra intend for us to do by the end of this series -- per the season's name of "Balance," they want us to realize that sometimes the truth lies somewhere in between two sides' extreme positions. How do we rationalize our ridicule of both the Bush-era preemptive strikes and the Weimar-era passivity? More importantly, how do we deal with characters like Kuvira in real life? It may be presumptive of a team of children's cartoon show writers to think that they can answer a question that heads of state, think tanks, and philosophers have been struggling with for centuries, but that doesn't mean that they aren't allowed their voice nor that I'm disinterested in what they have to say. On the contrary, I look forward to seeing how they will end this season now that it has become all the more clear that they don't want us treating Book 4 as the "lol let's all pretend to be Winston Churchill and point at Neville Chamberlain and laugh" season.

The spirit vines that attacked innocent citizens: Didn't really think too much about this subplot. The one thing I'll say in passing is that I wondered aloud to AK2 if perhaps this is how Kuvira will meet her grim end -- being snagged by a spirit vine, dragged into a spirit cocoon, and left there for God knows how long.

Jinora: I'm proud of the writers for not pretending that Book 2 didn't happen but at the same time I'm frustrated when they do inevitably go and revive Book 2 plot devices. Here we have Casper Jinora the Friendly Ghost once again, leaving her body to go and communicate to Korra that there's trouble. It's really a Catch-22 for the writers, so meh, I'm willing to quickly move past this one if it was meant to satisfy a Jinora the Friendly Ghost quota and we're not going to see it come up ever again.

Zaheer: Well this was an interesting surprise. I sure didn't expect us to see Zaheer again outside of flashbacks. Part of me wonders to what degree it was pre-planned (since it seems like Book 4 was already written before Book 3 even began airing) and to what degree it was done in response to the popularity of Zaheer amongst fans.

One thing that surprised me about this scene was Zaheer's apparent sincerity in wanting to help Korra out. In any other cartoon, this is the sort of scene where the villain tricks the hero into letting their guard down, teams up with them for a bit, and then once the villain has achieved his/her objectives he/she takes the opportunity to backstab the hero. And indeed, we almost had it! When Zaheer leads Korra into the Spirit World and then promptly gates out of there, I thought to myself, "Well shit. This is it then. Korra, get out before he kills you!" I assumed that Zaheer's intention had been to get Korra into the Spirit World -- such that her body was in a defenseless, comatose state -- and to then return to the physical world where he could easily use his airbending mastery to asphyxiate her. But that didn't happen. Similarly, before they even arrived, I had half expected Zaheer to attempt to dump Korra into the Fog of Lost Souls, just as he did with Aiwei in Book 3. But nope: rather than escort Korra to her death, Zaheer escorted Korra to an innocuous field.

Raava's return: Easily the most rushed element of the episode. This was something that had been hinted at happening since the first episode of the season, but I had not expected it to go down like this. Way too fast, way too sudden. Its arrival caught me off guard and as soon as it arrived it was over. Raava had maybe like ten seconds of dialogue and that was it. Korra and Raava put together talked for like thirty seconds. This was not the reunion I had had in mind. And I very much doubt it's what the writers wanted either. *sigh @ budget cuts*

Opal: The subplot with Opal wanting to rescue her family, even if it violates the will of the Republic City council and threatens to instigate a war between nations, is one of the episode's more subdued subplots in presentation yet interesting in potential. Kuvira could rather easily choose to interpret Opal's actions as acts of war by both Republic City and the Air Nomad society. If she wanted to, she could play the very victim that the Republic City elders were planning to play should Kuvira have struck them first. "I didn't want to attack anybody outside the Earth Empire, but I swore that we would defend our borders. And agents of the Air Nomads and Republic City have {blah blah blah}. Therefore, they have informally declared war against the Earth Empire. And so I will formally return the favor." As history is written after all is said and done, it'll be interesting to see how history looks back on Lin and Opal should they end up sparking a war between Kuvira's Earth Empire and the rest of the world.

Bolin's scenes with Opal were generally entertaining but lacked the comedy punch that I think was intended.

I like that the writers have stayed true to what Pabu is all about. I was worried that they were going to accidentally upgrade him from his primitive mind to a somewhat more sapient one (translation: that they'd write him like Momo), but the picnic scene amongst others did a good job of allaying those fears.

Opal sure does know how to manipulate her man. ^^;
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Old 12-05-2014, 10:46 AM   #648
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The Legend of Korra Book 4 Episode 10:

Spoiler: show
This episode was entertaining from start to finish. It also felt like a good ol' Avatar: the Last Airbender episode. If the next three episodes feel the same as this one felt, then we're in for a good sendoff to the franchise.

Zhu Li's loyalties: I hadn't expected this to be revealed as early as it was. I had expected it to be something which would be revealed in the first half of a series finale two-parter, with Kuvira/Baatar, Jr. attempting to fire the weapon, it backfiring, Kuvira/Baatar, Jr. wheeling 'round on Zhu Li, and Zhu Li revealing that she has always ever been loyal to Varrick.

I didn't mind it except for one thorn: Toph's line. The "She's lying!" line was really unnecessary. Uncalled for, even. Yes, I realize that they end up working it into the plot later (with Toph's and Bolin's conversation pertaining to Zhu Li), but if you go back to the storyboarding level, I feel like the team made a mistake in giving Toph this line. Viewers old enough or intelligent enough to have figured this out already on their own don't need such an insulting handout, but more importantly the viewers too young or too unintelligent to have figured it out were robbed of an opportunity for a dramatic plot twist. Why reveal Zhu Li's loyalties via a throwaway line from Toph? Why not reveal them in the moment where Kuvira pulls the machine part from Zhu Li's inner pocket?

Aside from that, it was done well.

The prison break scene: This was fine. Only complaint would be the comic relief scene where Baatar, Sr. refused to escape. Aside from that, I enjoyed it.

Toph: Her arrival was much appreciated. She was fun from pretty much start to finish. And I continue to admire how the writers wrote the evolution of the girl we knew in the original series. She doesn't feel like a carbon copy of that girl, and she doesn't feel like a total stranger either. She feels like what I really would expect to get if you took the girl we knew and aged her by decades' worth of life experiences, particularly having lived the life of a metropolitan chief of police.

The campfire dinner scene was interesting. I could have sworn that either I read online or else someone told me that the writers had confirmed that they were never going to tell us the identities of Lin's and Su's fathers. And yet here we are, Book 4 Episode 10, with Toph revealing that Lin's father is a man named Kanto. This name doesn't match either of the two leading candidates (Sokka from the original series and Satoru from the comics), and of course it begs such questions as, "Who is Kanto?", "Is Toph lying?", and so on.

I enjoyed the fact that the writers demonstrate that Toph, even in her old age, is still the greatest earthbender that ever was. Where the other benders could only assemble or disassemble huge slabs of rock at a time, Toph was able to send a tidal wave through the ground -- and not just any tidal wave, but a selective one, knocking every down while leaving the heroes alone!

Baatar, Jr.: Given that he wanted to stop the test the moment he saw that Opal was there, this suggests that while he's okay with imprisoning his own family, he isn't okay with Kuvira executing them. (Or maybe at the very least he has a soft spot for Opal, who knows. *shrug*) This feels like the sort of plot development intended to redeem Baatar, Jr.: if I had to guess, Kuvira is going to be the only villain left by the end of the series, with everyone else (even Baatar, Jr.) on the same side as the Avatar. Cartoonish but meh. We'll have fun with it.

Korra and the Spirits: This was fine too. I liked how the writers are able to keep separate the idea of how humans view the world vs. how spirits do. Because, like, to a human it's pretty darn obvious that what Korra says is true about the spirits needing to help out in defending their (new) home. But the way the spirits see it, I suppose, they can easily shrug off territorial holdings since such concepts are likely unnatural to them. Obviously they would prioritize their own lives (especially when they are such long-lived entities) over human lines drawn in the sand.

I expect the spirits to end up coming around and helping Korra out in the end, so we'll have to stay tuned to find out why it is that they do that.

Prince Wu: Mako pretty much nailed it. ^^; While I appreciate that he's a comic relief character, I reaaaaaaaally wish that the writers would provide him with more sincere growth as a person. His scene this episode felt like a regression to Episode 01 Prince Wu. Even if I don't expect him to be the brightest man in his kingdom, I sure as hell expect him to care the most about his subjects' welfare. If such cares are insincere, superficial, or circumstantial, then he isn't really suited to rule the Earth Kingdom.

Bolin's love of Toph: I'd forgotten that Toph was such a big hero of Bolin's. It was good to see their interactions but overall I felt disappointed for Bolin that Toph wasn't more approving in the end. I had really hoped that she'd have been more interested in his lavabending then, "Huh. That's rare. Maybe you are okay grandson-in-law material." ^^;

Using earthbending to see hundreds of meters away: So ... question, writers. Why is it that the heroes can use that power to spy enemies but the enemies never use it to identify that the heroes have broken in in the first place? ^^; Seems like a plot hole if you ask me. Kuvira should have been more than well aware, after performing a sweep of the perimeter on her weapon's grand unveiling, that there were trespassers.
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Old 12-06-2014, 10:33 AM   #649
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I got about ten minutes into the film and just could not watch anymore.
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Old 12-07-2014, 09:13 AM   #650
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