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Someone elsewhere pointed out that ** spoiler omitted **
I said that, aloud, to the folks watching the episode with me.
Actually what I did was more like shout "HE'S PROMETHEUS! LOOK! HE'S STEALING THE FIRE TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER FOR MAN! HE'S FRICKIN' PROMETHEUS!"
Scared my cat in the doing, but it was worth it.
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So, I'm glad that they're following through with Jenora and her seeing the Wan statue come to life at the beginning of the season. Although, it feels like they're going to rush the ending like they did last season. I really hope this one is stretched out to at least 15 to 20 episodes. I really love the show and want to see greater plot/character development.
It's 14 episodes this season (one this week and then two one-hour specials to cap it off in the two following weeks).
Err, no. That was maybe the case for the first season, but they are assured to get two more seasons of 12 episodes each. In fact, those two seasons are already in production, with book three being in animation and for season four they are already doing the voicework.
As for why they are doing the shorter story arcs, beats me.
In case any of you aren't aware, the last 4 episodes of Season 2 are up on Nickelodeon.com
Night of a Thousand Stars
Harmonic Convergance
Darkness Falls
Light in the Dark
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Finale spoilers:
What happened was that Raava was dispersed by Unavatuu and Jinora gathered her remnants together, put them into Unavatuu and thus allowed Kaiyukorra to take those remnants out of Unavatuu (whose contact with Raava restored her to full existance). Which Korra had tried earlier, but which had failed then, because Raava's spirit was still dispersed at that point.
What the hell was the point of that giant blue Korra? Tree of Time, what? What was Jinora doing there at the final battle? Why didn't Bolin just earthbend a wall around the portal?
I do think that it sets up a potentially interesting Book 3 with the collision of post-industrial humans and spirits. Maybe technology will give humans enough of an edge to not get the world taken away from them by free roaming spirits like last time the portal was open. We are going to be needing more Varrik and Bumi no matter what though.
Am I the only one who wants to see what happens in 10,000 years when Vaatu reemerges from his defeat for the next Harmonic Convergence?
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Am I the only one who wants to see what happens in 10,000 years when Vaatu reemerges from his defeat for the next Harmonic Convergence?
Based on the rapid advancement of technology from Last Airbender to Korra, it'll probably be Airbenders... IN SPAAAAACE!
Finale spoilers:
** spoiler omitted **
See, I caught that the moment Jinora said:
Because Raava was the only Light Spirit to be specifically called out by that title. All Spirits are their own thing. You can have a "type" of spirit, like, Spirit Foxes are Spirit Foxes, or you can have specifically named Spirits - Koh The Face Stealer is Koh The Face Stealer. There aren't any other Face Stealers out there. So, since Raava was"Raava The Light Spirit." That made her unique. Dark Avatar Unalaq-sum-Vaatu (Or Unavaatu as you put it), turned Raava into just so many pieces, and these new glowing butterfly spirits that suddenly made themselves all sorts of friendly with Jinora stood out to me as pretty clearly some manner of rescue measure.
Really my only with the finale was that Jinora gave all the credit to Korra, but then I realized, of course she did. She's Jinora. That's who she is.
Spoiler:Why didn't Bolin just earthbend a wall around the portal?
I was pretty much thinking the exact same thing, but I imagine the results would have been little changed regardless - the story wouldn't reach the obvious climax if it didn't.
Spoiler:Am I the only one who wants to see what happens in 10,000 years when Vaatu reemerges from his defeat for the next Harmonic Convergence?
You are not. I imagine that could be a nice place to put the next series after Korra, though, so it's not something that'll be tackled any time soon.
We are going to be needing more Varrik and Bumi no matter what though.
Absolutely.
** spoiler omitted **Finale spoilers:
** spoiler omitted **
Gyatso? The Air Master Monk? Or the guy who walked him through the Chakras?
Downloaded the finale last night but have not watched it yet.
I appreciate the usage of spoiler tags!
Thanks!
I think you guys and gals have raised some valid critical points. Korra, for instance, just isn't as likable as a central character, and Bolin as comic relief HAS been a bit tiresome.
On the other hand, here at Jones central it's the ONE show that wife, husband and two teenagers all actually look forward to watching together. Despite some gripes, we really quite enjoy it. My wife was even running a sort of combo Avatar/ Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood game world for a while that was one heckuva cool campaign.
We are going to be needing more Varrik and Bumi no matter what though.Absolutely.Varrik needs to be somehow promoted to being the main or at least a more prominent antagonist. This last season he was an order of magnitude better than the BBEG.
Ok, I think I've given it enough time so as to avoid spoilering anything for anyone. [Edit] On second thought, I'm just going to spoiler the whole post.
The whole plot with Mako was already weak enough as it was, with the Police Force from the first season being reduced to seeming idiots. Chief Bei Fong especially.
I mean, Lynn Bei Fong is the daughter of Toph Bei Fong, aka, the Blind Bandit, aka, "Miss-sees-with-her-feet". Toph could tell when people were lying (except Azula, but that's the exception), and I seriously doubt Toph didn't teach her daughter to do the same. There is no reason for Lynn to have not known Mako was telling the truth, or that her two 'lead detectives' were both blithering idiots.
Mako isn't just any ordinary cop either. He's a hero from the Amon Uprising, a personal friend of the Avatar, and seems to be doing well as a cop. He was one of the most influential people in the Amon conflict, and was crucial in the defeat of Amon, which lead to Lynn Bei Fong getting her bending back. She owes him a debt she can never repay, just as she does Korra.
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The whole thing with Jinora was just... dumb, in my opinion. The very definition of deux ex machine, I really thought Jinora's actions weakened the story, instead of enhancing it.
She just 'instantly' knows where Raava is, can manifest herself in the physical world without needing to leave the Spirit World, and can then re-enter the Spirit World all on her own. Even the most powerful spirits have to use the portals to enter/exit the Spirit World, with rare exceptions (Hey-bai, the Black and White Spirit). Why Jinora can, makes no sense, except the writers needed some deus ex to solve the problem.
It doesn't help that no one even bothered asking, "Jinora, how hell did you do that?" They just ignored the whole thing, smiled, and waved.
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The Assault on the Spirit Portal was, in my opinion, dumb. They already knew that Tonraq was likely heavily guarding the Southern Portal... so why not go to the Northern one?
Plus, if Bumi's assault on the portal meant that all of his fantastic stories are true, then he defines the saying, "better lucky than good" and I don't like that. It means Bumi didn't become a general of the republic through brilliant strategy or unparalleled skill, he just lucked his way through everything.
Also, how the hell did Tonraq get so many Mecha-tanks unless he was working with Varrick? Based off what we saw in the beginning, no one was buying anything from Future Industries because of Hiroshi's involvement with Amon. Chalk it up to more hand-waving on the part of the writers.
To top it off, the soldiers of the Water Tribe knew that Tonraq was controlling dark spirtis. I find it hard to believe that they would wouldn't have problems with the fact that Tonraq was tampering with the energy of spirits and defying the Avatar. Sure, they could be brainwashed into following Tonraq, or actually believe what he says, but I doubt that he was so able to brainwash and control such a large number of troops like what was used to invade the Southern Tribe.
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I mentioned this to a friend when we were discussing the revelations about Wan and the beginnings of the Avatar State. Vaatu and Raava were equally matched before Wan interfered, and then Vaatu escaped and travelled around the world corrupting as many spirits as he could. Every time a spirit was corrupted, Vaatu grew in strength, and Raava diminished.
When Wan and Raava defeated Vaatu, he himself was diminished and sealed inside the tree. For 10,000 years Vaatu and his power was sealed away. Yet when he emerges, he was just as powerful as he was when he fought Wan and Raava 10,000 years previous. While Tonraq could have corrupted some spirits, this is true, he couldn't have corrupted enough in so short amount of time to give Vaatu the power equal to what he had 10,000 years previous. If you recall, Wan and Raava travelled for a year before Harmonic Convergence and Vaatu corrupted many, many spirits in this time.
This is just another plot point the writers ignored, which happened a lot this season.
I also can't help but think of how... weak Korra was compared to Aang. Korra had all the training and time to master her abilities, while Aang had only master Air and Water, and needed to work on his Earth and Fire by the time he confronted Ozai. Ozai, by the way, was greatly amplified in power by Sozin's Comet.
Tonraq had no such amplification, and Korra had mastered Water, Earth and Fire, while also possessing the Avatar Spirit, and Tonraq was almost too much for. And this was all before merging with Vaatu to become a Dark Avatar.
It's also worth noting that Wan and Raava trained for a year, working with each other and merging their energies on multiple occasions before they were bonded. The first time they merged completely, Wan was nearly killed. But of course, Tonraq didn't have these problems.
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So Korra gets her butt kicked, and Raava is forcefully removed from body. Raava is then pounded, and pounded until 'killed' by Vaatu. Which is odd because both spirits cannot be killed as they are polar opposites. As long as there is dark, there is light, and vice versa.
But of course Jinora manages to, almost instantly, re-gather Raava's spiritual shards, reform her, and then save the day by giving Korra Raava's power back.
Jinora was nothing more than a deus ex machina, and I think it was lazy writing on the part of the creators. They did the same thing with Aang with Energy Bending, but that pales in comparison to the introduction of Jinora as this Angel from Heaven.
Now, apparently, the connection with the past lives of the Avatars has been cut off or destroyed. This is odd as Raava wasn't really killed (just scattered) so it should remain.
Aang was killed in the Avatar State (which ends the cycle) but didn't lose his connection to his past lives. Hopefully, they are merely 'lost' not destroyed and next season Korra will recover her past lives. Otherwise my opinion of The Legend of Korra will take a serious nose dive. Considering I'm already highly annoyed with the second season, and certain aspects of the first season, this doesn't bode well for my future viewing of this show.
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Now, the whole 'Kaiju-Korra' thing I thought was stupid, but also made me secretly hopeful for the return of the Past Lives.
First of all, Korra just 'instantly' learns how to do this, despite having serious problems with meditation and spirituality her entire life, she has no problem connecting with her 'Cosmic Being'. Aang, who is far more spiritual than Korra, had trouble doing this, but Korra was able to do it at a moments notice. Deus Ex Machina strikes again!
As for why it gives me hope? Korra managed to connect with her Avatar Spirit (the giant cosmic being) and fight Vaatu.
When Aang lost connection to his Avatar Spirit, he lost connection to that Cosmic Power inside, but retained connection to his past lives. Eventually, he regained his connection, and all was well.
Korra, lost connection to her past lives, but retained the connection to the Cosmic Power.
It's important to note that Korra is supposed to be sort of an 'Opposite' of Aang. Where Aang was mostly calm, collected, and spiritual, Korra is brash, impulsive and physical. Korra mastered Fire, Earth and Water, and had to learn Air, while Aang mastered Air, and had to learn Fire, Earth and Water.
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I can safely say that I was highly disappointed with the ending of season 2. But that's not much, considering I was very disappointed with the entirety of season 2 as it was. The best part of Season 2, in my opinion, was the revelation and backstory of Wan, Raava and Vaatu.
I felt there was a lot of plot holes through out Season 2 that the writers deliberately ignored, hoping no one would spot them. I felt the multiple plotlines hampered the writing of the entire season, and it made it hard for me to enjoy this series.
With the exception of the Wan episodes, I never came back from an episode thinking "that was an awesome episode, can't wait for more" like I did with Avatar the Last Airbender, or with the first season of The Legend of Korra.
My only real disappointments with the first season of Korra, was the rapid advancement of technology, and the rushed ending. The technology was just a minor issue, and I can understand the rushed ending, so those negatives hardly touch on how good the first season was. Amon was an amazing and terrifying villain, far more so than Tonraq or Ozai were, despite the fact that both of Tonraq and Ozai were more dangerous and their plots had far more deadly repercussions for the world.
That's some of my thoughts on this season and the finale. I hope next season is better and wraps up some of the issues with this season.
To be fair... in reply to Tels...
** spoiler omitted **
Remember, Aang was also capable of the tremor-sense ability, they just didn't animate him using it all the time. When Aang was fighting Ozai, just before he used energy bending, Aang had his back turned but senses Ozai's movements through the tremor-sense. This would hint that, once learned, the tremor-sense ability is 'always on'.
Considering the only person in the series able to 'lie' while Toph was nearby was also insane, I think that Toph's ability was a bit more accurate than the modern polygraph. While it's true that people can be brainwashed to believe something to be true (a.k.a. Jet) can trigger false positives, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. I would hazard a guess that Lynn would use her abilities as a starting point, not the basis of her case.
As for Aang and Korra, while Korra had Tenzin (who was less than knowledgeable in spiritual matters) and Unalaq, Aang was raised by Air benders and Monk Gyasto in particular. Aang had his teachers since he was born. Everything Tenzin knew about the spirit world, Aang taught him.
In addition, in order for Aang to master the Avatar state, he had to go through that whole Chakra Unlocking process with Guru Pahtik, something Korra, I think, would have difficulty with. But Korra didn't have to do this, whether it was hand waived or the writers, or forgotten, we see Korra using the Avatar State like a toy to win a race with the Air Scooter.
Aang did have trouble with his Avatar State. Up until Aang met Guru Pahtik, Aang had very little control over the Avatar State. He had to undergo the meditation process to unblock his 7 Chakras so he could control the Avatar State. Korra never went through this process, and I doubt Tenzin could have walked her through it during the '6 Months Later' part between Season 1 and Season 2.
The only thing I can possibly think of to allow Korra to do this without having to undergo the same training Aang did, is that Korra had her bending taken away. It was mentioned by Katara that the bloodbending had severed the connection to the Chi Pathways (Chakras) and she couldn't heal them. Aang restoring the pathways might have also unlocked the 7 Chakras, just as Aang did with Guru Pahtik.
But personally? I think that the writers just hand waived the whole Chakra part and didn't want to deal with it. They did that a lot through out the whole second season.
@Freehold DM:
While there were two different studios used to animate the second season, the writing team was the same through out the second season. Season two was written by Tim Hedrick, Joshua Hamilton and Michael Dante DiMartino; Tim wrote Episodes 1, 5, 8, 10 and 12, Joshua wrote Episodes 2, 6, 9, 11, and 13, while Michael wrote Episodes 3, 4, 7 and 14. Colin Heck and Ian Graham directed Season 2, with Colin directing Episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 while Ian directed Episodes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14.
Every episode of the first Season was written by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, while every episode was directed by Joaquim Dos Santos and Ki Hyun Ryu.
I think it's odd that Bryan seems to have had little to do with the second season, and that the second season was written and directed by different people than the first season was. The first season was very good, in my opinion, almost equal to that of the original series.
** spoiler omitted **...To be fair... in reply to Tels...
** spoiler omitted **
Could this then be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth? I maintain my earlier comment regarding pages. It really felt like a potluck of episodes, with only a thin thread connecting them in some cases.
Cool, can't wait for this one.
Could stuff in a trailer count as spoilers? Cause I'm pretty sure that trailer was rife with them, especially with note able characters from The Last Airbender being shown. But regardless it looks like it'll be awesome.
Ooooh...Zuko...fighting...lots of fighting...evil explodey eye ball thingy girl...
Well, if you haven't heard, NickMexico accidentally released episodes 3-6 on their website. Lots of people downloaded/watched them, so if you do a little searching, you can find tons of screen shots and summaries for those episodes.
I've read them (and I wish I hadn't) and let me tell you, it's fixing to be a bad ass season. From what little I know already, 'Change' is an appropriate name for this season. However, in the summaries, I've spotted a few plot holes that I'm hoping are due to mistranslation (the episodes leaked were in Spanish) or because we don't know everything yet.
Book 3 trailer
OMFG, this look awesome. oO
In addition, in order for Aang to master the Avatar state, he had to go through that whole Chakra Unlocking process with Guru Pahtik, something Korra, I think, would have difficulty with. But Korra didn't have to do this, whether it was hand waived or the writers, or forgotten, we see Korra using the Avatar State like a toy to win a race with the Air Scooter.
Aang did have trouble with his Avatar State. Up until Aang met Guru Pahtik, Aang had very little control over the Avatar State. He had to undergo the meditation process to unblock his 7 Chakras so he could control the Avatar State. Korra never went through this process, and I doubt Tenzin could have walked her through it during the '6 Months Later' part between Season 1 and Season 2.
I think it's more of a matter that each Avatar has to go their own particular road. I suspect that the paths of both Avatars, of every Avatar is unique. Avatar Wan for instance didn't go through any particular period of enlightenment or despair before he mastered his gifts.
Keep in mind that of all the Avatars we know of.. Aang was the youngest and least mature when he came into his own. He first became the Avatar when he was 12..... at least six years younger than any other we know of.
I'm not so sure about that though. There is the concept of being a 'fully realized Avatar' that crops up through out the first series, which is simply having control over the Avatar state.
My understanding, based off the first series, is that part of the Avatar's training, is simply learning how to control the Avatar state. I suspect the writers just 'handwaived' it during the 6-months later bit.
As for Wan, he was a bit different. For one, he could actually communicate with Raava and was trained how to control his powers by the Spirits themselves. He spent considerable time interacting with, talking, and learning from spirits, so him being able to control the Avatar spirit doesn't surprise me at all.
Over-all I felt the second season of Korra suffered from the 'bigger is better' mentality that results in a lot of Hollywood movies and sequels sucking so much. Each villain that has emerged in the Avatar series so far, has been, fundamentally, worse than the one before.
Ozai was, essentially, a warmongering tyrant bent on dictorial control of the entire planet and mass genocide. Truly an seriously evil guy, but ultimately, probably the least threatening of the three.
Amon (Noatak) was bent on wiping out bending completely. If he had succeeded, it would have sent the entire world back into a war, except this time it would be Benders vs Non-Benders and there would be massive deaths on both sides. I expect that the creators would have ended up with Hiroshi also creating the atom-bomb (in addition to inventing the car, plane and mech-tank).
Unalaq was basically bent on the end of life as we know it on the planet. Plunging the world and spirits into an era of darkness in which the spirits would turn violent and kill the humans. I think that this kind of event is what resulted in the humans living on the backs of the lion-turtles in the first place; at some point, Vaatu won and plunged the world in darkness and humanity sought the sanctuary provided by the lion-turtles. Once Wan helped defeat Vaatu, the lion-turtles sensed that humanity could now live without their protection, and retreated from the world.
Each villain has been progressively more destructive, in a spiritual balance sense, than the one before. Each villain had to be 'bigger and badder' than the one before.
I can't wait, season 3 starts this Friday, with two(maybe three) new episodes.
Who wants someone who doesn't have angst or emotional problems? That's boring. If I wanted to watch a show about perfectly emotionally adjusted people I'd watch...well nothing. I don't think that show exists.
My guess though is that it'd be Star Trek and the entire cast would be Vulcans.
~shocked look~ So you are saying that my life is a TV show. ~grumbles~ Well, THAT explains a lot. I need to have a talk with the writers.
Season pass not available on iTunes :(
I liked the episodes I saw so far of season 3. I feel like they've got the show on an even keel now, with 3 baddies instead of one BBEG, but it remains to be seen how things develop, if in the end this season will also feel rushed.
I'd refrain from talking about the episodes outside of spoilers for a good week or so please. I already know whats in them, but others might be waiting on it.
[Edit] Book 3: Change thread.