Legend of Korra

[sistermagpie]

Can't believe how long it's been since I updated. I've been distracted by a lot of non-fandom things still going on, and spending a lot of time babbling about Mad Men on TWOP-no, not bashing Megan or JP’s teeth! There were times I was overdosing on her a bit and I don't think JP is that strong of an actress, especially relative to the rest of the

Comments

[lolen]

You pretty much wrote what I felt about LOK. Only more articulately. It just didn't work for me. Tarlock/Amon was the most interesting thing about it, I felt. And I would have really liked it if Korra hadn't got her bending back so soon. I actually thought that was how she would end up connecting to her spiritual side. Without bending she'd have to concentrate on that. I figured next season would deal with it. So yeah, the ending was very unsatisfying for me. It was too fast. Everything was too fast. Though, as I understand it the creators were only given a twelve episode run initially. :/

[sistermagpie]

I thought that too, that she'd connect to her spiritual side while having to live without bending. I know it's a different situation than with Zuko, for instance, but he took a long time to really change living in exile. But it was so quick she didn't imo really even experience life as anon-bender (and she was still a bender anyway).

[etrangere]

Yes, I agree with a lot of what you say. Especially of how it was actually Amon and Tarlok's story, and not seeing it from their PoV gutted it; and that Korra's character arc when it comes to learning was wholly unsatisgying because she just went on doing the same thing that didn't work, and then suddenly was rewarded for it.

[sistermagpie]

It's really interesting the more I think about it that Amon and Tarlock turned out to be so central. I'd earlier already said that it seemed like they had the more interesting conflict, and that was before we had their backstory. So we never really saw the two of them interact with their incredibly weird relationship!

[shadydave]

Hi, surfing in from friends of friends list! I enjoyed the series, but was ultimately underwhelmed by it for many of the reasons you just said. I did want to comment on this, though:

Korra's feeling that she needed to confront Amon, otoh, was nothing new. She'd been confronting him all along, hadn't she? Didn't she only still have her bending because Amon let her go or got interrupted one time? She was going off to face him again with the same plan (throw fireballs and rocks at him) with only one possible ending: losing her bending. Faced with a villain who can take over her body and take away her bending, she never wavers much from this instinct.The difference this time is that though her initial plan WAS to physically fight him (...again), she then took the time to hear Tarrlok's story and realized that she had a much better chance of stopping Amon by exposing him, not fighting. When she does confront him, she uses the truth to question his legitimacy and influence his followers -- a much more indirect, defensive, and non-violent (

[sistermagpie]

I had completely forgotten that--you're right, she did wind up doing something she didn't expect. And that was definitely more interesting. Though it did seem a bit convenient that Amon outed himself so obviously once he was thrown into the water since they hadn't originally believed Korra

[t0ra_chan]

Yeah, I totally agree that the ending was terribly disappointing and a huge let down. I already said pretty much all I could think of for now in my own journal.

To address the love triangle to start with I didn't hate Mako--probably because I just didn't care enough to get involved emotionally that much--but why didn't he just date Korra to begin with? The way I remember it--and maybe I'm forgetting something--didn't he turn Korra down originally when she liked him? Did he have a reason for that? Because it seems like he turned her down just to create a love triangle later, and that's annoying. Like, it would have made sense if Mako didn't want to date anyone but then couldn't deny he really liked Korra. But why turn down Korra and then happily go out with Asami when he obviously totally likes Korra the whole time? It was like Asami and Bolin were dragged into this bad situation (with Bolin telling Asami he saw Korra and Mako kiss??) because Mako capriciously told Korra he didn't want to date her when he did. So his finally admitting

[sistermagpie]

I think that's what I was vaguely remembering, that convo where he said it made more sense to date Asami. Because it seemed so obvious that Mako and Korra had chemistry, so I didn't get why he didn't go that way. Even before Korra had admitted her feelings it seemed like there were plenty of signs she liked him. Like...what even makes more sense about Asami? They might as well have made Asami his girlfriend before the show started. That would give him a reason for thinking he should be with her.

[khilari]

I only just finished watching the series and I felt pretty much the same. I liked the way they set up non-benders vs benders, felt the non-benders had a point and wanted the inventions of the equalists to be used more to give more people similar powers to benders as an alternative to taking bending away from those that did have it. Then they didn't really do anything with the deeper reasons for the equalist movement and the revelation that Amon was a bloodbender apparently solved everyone's issues with benders, by showing them they'd been deceived by one when they thought they were fighting against them? I don't know

[sistermagpie]

ETA: I'm a having a hard time putting my thoughts together on this point, but I decided to come back and include it. I felt like because they had a female lead they didn't feel the need to put as much effort into making sure their female characters were developed. Most conflicts between women were over men. Most serious political conflicts were between men.

I totally hadn't thought of that, but I wonder if you've just hit the nail right on the head. Korra the protagonist is supposed to take care of the female pov even though all the conflict is male-centered. It's a big change from the original story where Aang and Zuko being protagonists didn't prevent complex relationships between female characters!

The triangle totally took up too much time. I got the same sense as you, that Mako genuinely liked both girls. So it just seemed pointless to create a love triangle out of it the way they did.

[khilari]

Asami and Korra was the relationship I felt most let down by. They had a moment early on - Korra expresses surprise at Asami's racing since she thought she was "girly" and Asami laughs and tells her the two aren't mutually exclusive, which leads to Korra tentatively trying out a powderpuff in the bathroom. And I thought that sort of addressed something about Korra - her belief that she can't be both tough and "girly", which is connected to her focus on the physical over the spiritual - as well as setting up Asami as a friend who could change her way of looking at things. And, of course, it didn't happen. Even when they formed "Team Avatar" it just felt like Asami was there because she was Mako's girlfriend, she didn't really mean anything to Korra.

[sistermagpie]

Yes! I remember that moment, and now I wonder if they decided it was just about Korra having a love life or being feminine for Mako or something. Yet again, this is the type of thing the original series did really well. Toph and Katara didn't even naturally get along--their personalities clashed. But that just meant they got to know each other and respect each other and dealt with exactly why they clashed. Like Sokka and Aang. Plus there was Azula and her friends--Mai wasn't at all just Zuko's girlfriend. Even Suki wasn't.

It seemed like in this show Asami's moment with the car was just to prove she was a worthy rival for Korra so that Korra would think she would never win Mako or something.