Heretical Thought
So I've recently been thinking, and have come to a rather shocking conclusion.
Now before people tar and feather me, lemmie clarify, then you can tar and feather me.
First I like them.
Second, in a 'real' movie I wouldn't, since Avatar fans would be one of my biggest draws and cutting two characters like that would insure every one of them would hate it.
Third, they wouldn't actually be cut, so much as considered for cutting
The essential problem is that any movie has about a two hour run-time, max. Korra's twelve episodes come to about 4 hours, to half needs to be cut out. And if I were going to point to the single strongest story Korra has, it would be the dynamics between Korra and Amon. And in this the brother's aren't (yet at least) essential to the story. Which isn't to say the tournament isn't fun, it is, and for a series it provides a nice change of pace from the darker Amon story. But for a movie, it's a much less powerful story.
Yes Bolin's kidnapping was the imperious for Korra finding the rally, but it was the trigger, others could be found. Such as Korra deciding to help clean up crime, single handily assaulting the triple threat HQ (you know she would). And finding them gone being taken. Que her infiltrating to find out what's going on. Now maybe they are going to play really, really important rolls later, but it's just an interesting thought.
The other weird thought this prompted was why I was willing to consider cutting Mako/Bolin here, when I also considered how I would do a ATLA movie and never even considered cutting Katara and Sokka, and I think it comes down to a few things. First, the show hasn't run as long, so their really essential moments haven't come into play. Secondly, Korra is more distant from them, residing on air temple island, that means that she actually has a long term cast (Tenzin & family) to talk to and play off of, while the original Avatar's more mobile style meant that he wouldn't have anyone but a succession of one-shot characters.
Finally I think it comes down to the way that the format allows certain stories to both play out longer and more directly connect. For most of Avatar, especially the first season and third season, it had a largely episodic feel. Things developed, and people changed, but each time they were in a new place with new people, allowing a degree of 'reset button'. By contrast Korra's single city story means the place doesn't get reset, as such there is a tighter focus on longer running arcs. The consequence of this is how the arcs play out. Both Avatar and Korra had stories that focused on certain characters, but with Avatar, most of these were a single episode, and the next episode would focus on someone else, however, with Korra each story tends to run longer, and thus Amon episodes will focus on the Amon/Korra/Tenzin dynamic, while tournament ones on the Korra/Bolin/Mako, others will guest star, but arn't as essential.
Now before people tar and feather me, lemmie clarify, then you can tar and feather me.
First I like them.
Second, in a 'real' movie I wouldn't, since Avatar fans would be one of my biggest draws and cutting two characters like that would insure every one of them would hate it.
Third, they wouldn't actually be cut, so much as considered for cutting
The essential problem is that any movie has about a two hour run-time, max. Korra's twelve episodes come to about 4 hours, to half needs to be cut out. And if I were going to point to the single strongest story Korra has, it would be the dynamics between Korra and Amon. And in this the brother's aren't (yet at least) essential to the story. Which isn't to say the tournament isn't fun, it is, and for a series it provides a nice change of pace from the darker Amon story. But for a movie, it's a much less powerful story.
Yes Bolin's kidnapping was the imperious for Korra finding the rally, but it was the trigger, others could be found. Such as Korra deciding to help clean up crime, single handily assaulting the triple threat HQ (you know she would). And finding them gone being taken. Que her infiltrating to find out what's going on. Now maybe they are going to play really, really important rolls later, but it's just an interesting thought.
The other weird thought this prompted was why I was willing to consider cutting Mako/Bolin here, when I also considered how I would do a ATLA movie and never even considered cutting Katara and Sokka, and I think it comes down to a few things. First, the show hasn't run as long, so their really essential moments haven't come into play. Secondly, Korra is more distant from them, residing on air temple island, that means that she actually has a long term cast (Tenzin & family) to talk to and play off of, while the original Avatar's more mobile style meant that he wouldn't have anyone but a succession of one-shot characters.
Finally I think it comes down to the way that the format allows certain stories to both play out longer and more directly connect. For most of Avatar, especially the first season and third season, it had a largely episodic feel. Things developed, and people changed, but each time they were in a new place with new people, allowing a degree of 'reset button'. By contrast Korra's single city story means the place doesn't get reset, as such there is a tighter focus on longer running arcs. The consequence of this is how the arcs play out. Both Avatar and Korra had stories that focused on certain characters, but with Avatar, most of these were a single episode, and the next episode would focus on someone else, however, with Korra each story tends to run longer, and thus Amon episodes will focus on the Amon/Korra/Tenzin dynamic, while tournament ones on the Korra/Bolin/Mako, others will guest star, but arn't as essential.