Legend of Korra Book 2: Spirits

Gilthwixt · September 21, 2013 08:18 AM

foolishBolin and Eska are the only thing keeping this season bearable IMO. They offset the Korra angst.

[spoiler]Thank god she made up with her parents, I can't stop cringing at how whiny she's been. All though Unalaq arresting them is pretty fucking stupid IMO. It's not going to win Korra or the Souther tribesman over to his side considering no one would believe they had anything to do with the uprising.

Also, if Tonraq wasn't part of the uprising to begin with I'm surprised they didn't just kill Unalaq right off the bat.[/spoiler]

rtil · September 21, 2013 09:52 AM

Quote from: Gilthwixt on September 21, 2013 08:18 AM
foolishBolin and Eska are the only thing keeping this season bearable IMO. They offset the Korra angst.

[spoiler]Thank god she made up with her parents, I can't stop cringing at how whiny she's been. All though Unalaq arresting them is pretty fucking stupid IMO. It's not going to win Korra or the Souther tribesman over to his side considering no one would believe they had anything to do with the uprising.

Also, if Tonraq wasn't part of the uprising to begin with I'm surprised they didn't just kill Unalaq right off the bat.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]this is probably unalaq's next attempt to try and convince korra that her father is working against her or something, honestly i think it's a stupid move on his part if he wants to stay in korra's favors, but he must have another card up his sleeve.

my best guess is that he is setting up to frame korra's father with a skewed jury/evidence in court to make it look like he was lying to korra (which korra may believe since he lied about the past), because obviously unalaq wanted him and the others dead. so since he can't do that (probably have tonraq killed and make it look like an accident/rebel attack), he will use the court to get what he wants instead.
[/spoiler]

dilly · September 24, 2013 09:31 PM

[spoiler]I agree about wanting to know about aang. It may be due to the fact that aang knew tenzin would be the first generation of airbenders, so he found it his duty to know of their history. it's unfortunate that aang's other kids never got to have that kind of relationship with their dad.

I'd kind of like a history or lesson of how genes decide what type of bender you are if you are one from the start. I know there is fan theories on this, but when there's known information that that the air nomads were all benders due to the high percentage of spirituality within their people, why were aang and katara's first two children a nonbender and a water bender?[/spoiler]

rtil · September 24, 2013 09:57 PM

maybe it's because katara wasn't an air bender

rtil · September 28, 2013 11:02 AM

fucking called it. even though the episode was extremely predictable i still enjoyed it. sometimes i wish they didn't spell everything out so plainly for the audience. but it's ok. korra is acting a lot more likable now.

dilly · September 28, 2013 05:50 PM

yeah i agree, this was the first time i actually went "yeah you go girl"

i feel like this episode was the turning point for me to continue watching. it had a great balance of drama and comedy

[spoiler]it'll be interesting to see how korra combats the spirits since unalaq most likely won't help her now. also I kind of can't wait for a korra/tenzin reunion.[/spoiler]

Gilthwixt · September 28, 2013 06:31 PM

As long as Unalaq doesn't turn out to have some crazy ability to summon and/or manipulate spirits, I guess I'm okay with the plot, just wish they didn't basically rehash Amon/Tarlok.

[spoiler]I find myself enjoying Tenzin's story arc more than expected. Also, since the plan seems to involve getting the republic of nations involved, we can expect to see more of General Iroh II, but I wonder if we'll finally meet Zuko's daughter.[/spoiler]

rtil · September 28, 2013 09:26 PM

[spoiler]also wondering if we'll see zuko as well since he's confirmed to be alive[/spoiler]

Gilthwixt · September 29, 2013 03:23 AM

Quote from: rtil on September 28, 2013 09:26 PM
[spoiler]also wondering if we'll see zuko as well since he's confirmed to be alive[/spoiler]

Oh right, forgot about that.

[spoiler]You know, I'd love to see how Katara and Zuko act around one another at their current age. If they ever mellowed out or they're still snarky. Hell, I think it'd be pretty funny for Bryke to troll the shit out of the Zutara shippers and imply there was/could be an affair between them now that both of them are widowed, then brutally shoot it down or interrupt it with Ikki like they did with the Zuko's mom question, leaving it ambiguous[/spoiler]

Gilthwixt · October 5, 2013 02:56 PM

[spoiler]Motherfuckers teased us, thinking we'd see Zuko and his daughter by the end of the episode or the beginning of the next, and then suddenly Krakken. Also, despite her making some progress last episode she totally regresses back again. It's like her character growth is stunted, ffs. [/spoiler]

rtil · October 13, 2013 11:41 AM

[spoilerimg]http://i.imgur.com/ZxoUnm8.png[/spoilerimg]
[spoiler]i like how they solved korra's bitchmode problem by giving her amnesia. now she actually has to re-learn what it means to be the avatar.

and i still love varrick as a character. i had a feeling that he would wind up being the "bad" guy, he obviously has had a vested interest in war profiteering ever since he decided to create his propaganda film. now sabotaging future industries to get a cut of the profits is something else. he's a mustache-twirler no doubt but i think he's written really well.
[/spoiler]

dilly · October 14, 2013 02:28 AM

[spoiler]korra having amnesia is the best thing to have happen to LoK.[/spoiler]

rtil · October 14, 2013 02:33 AM

Quote from: dilly on October 14, 2013 02:28 AM
[spoiler]korra having amnesia is the best thing to have happen to LoK.[/spoiler]

i agree

Gilthwixt · November 9, 2013 05:25 AM

Well that was unexpected.

[spoiler]Dat Iroh. I really didn't expect to see him again, kind of funny that he's essentially attained Nirvana through making tea. I don't know about you guys but somehow it feels like everything this season has more or less rewritten all of the rules about spirits and the spirit world. For example it seems really odd that the Owl Librarian would side with Unalokk, as he is incredibly distrusting of humans and would probably notice the 'evil 'effect Unalokk has on nearby spirits. The whole Vatu thing seems completely out of left field and is kind of cheesy, in the sense that Avatar villains have always been grounded in reality with human flaws and moral ambiguities. And the thing about lion turtles giving bending to people directly contradicts both the origin stories of bending (badger moles, air bison, the moon and the sun/dragons respectively) and the quote from Book 3 in ATLA that went "in the time before the avatar, we bent spirits not elements".[/spoiler]

rtil · November 13, 2013 06:48 AM

Quote from: Gilthwixt on November 9, 2013 05:25 AM
Well that was unexpected.

[spoiler]Dat Iroh. I really didn't expect to see him again, kind of funny that he's essentially attained Nirvana through making tea. I don't know about you guys but somehow it feels like everything this season has more or less rewritten all of the rules about spirits and the spirit world. For example it seems really odd that the Owl Librarian would side with Unalokk, as he is incredibly distrusting of humans and would probably notice the 'evil 'effect Unalokk has on nearby spirits. The whole Vatu thing seems completely out of left field and is kind of cheesy, in the sense that Avatar villains have always been grounded in reality with human flaws and moral ambiguities. And the thing about lion turtles giving bending to people directly contradicts both the origin stories of bending (badger moles, air bison, the moon and the sun/dragons respectively) and the quote from Book 3 in ATLA that went "in the time before the avatar, we bent spirits not elements".[/spoiler]

[spoiler]it is possible that there is more to the story than that, that benders had a story even before the origin of Wan , as in tandem with human history the kind of technology and settlements they had to have preceded at least a millennium of human development. it is also probably true that in ATLA they weren't really thinking much of this story and had none of it planned whatsoever, in which case i think it is acceptable to do some minor retcons in order to tell a larger story that was barely ever touched on/not the point of the original series.

there is also more we don't know about what Unalaq is doing and he's obviously been to the spirit world before, when i do not know - otherwise how could he possibly be working with, much less know of Vatu?[/spoiler]

dilly · November 13, 2013 02:38 PM

[spoiler]maybe the legends of the original benders being the first benders were created to better understand why people became benders in the first place, kind of like its own religion. that way, it's more meaningful to say the elements were shown through nature rather than "I stole them from a lion turtle no take backs"[/spoiler]

rtil · November 13, 2013 10:25 PM

<flee> a wizard did it

dilly · November 15, 2013 04:18 PM

spooky!

rtil · November 16, 2013 06:10 AM

well, book 2 is over . what did you guys think of the ending?
[spoiler]one thing is for sure - we got the amazing battle that season 1 never really had. i always thought the final battle between amon and team korra was very stunted. animation was incredible all four episodes, definitely got better as the season went on.

i think it goes without saying that the season improved dramatically following korra's amnesia. she is now a truly realized avatar, and she's a lot more likable. i'm also very glad that mako and korra are permanently broken up. she's right, they just don't work together. and asami deserves it after being pushed around so much.

the finale felt a little dbz-ish to me, and i'd love to know what jenora was actually doing in the spirit world to get rava back. i also wish they would have explained more about how unalaq was planning all of this - surely he didn't know who vatu was before he opened the spirit portal. does this mean his intentions were originally less.. evil? did he met vatu and explore the spirit world between the time korra opened the portal and when his plans commenced? none of this is really clear.

despite these things i think everything was tied up pretty nicely. everything that bothered me about the main characters is settled now, and everyone had their time on-screen to do what they needed to do. i'm still a little shocked at chief bei fong's lack of foresight with her crooked detectives, and asami got shafted for so long, but in the end they still got resolved properly.

i thought that korra connecting to the energy of the "cosmos" and whatnot was a little vague and cornball, but i get what they were trying to do. i think the biggest problem is that we never saw korra grow up, so when we see her connec to her true self, we only know a part of her. everything about her past we are only told about. so when we see aang become a fully realized avatar in ATLA, i feel like it has more impact because we spent so much more time with him. i get that they have to condense everything down, but because of that it doesn't have as much of an effect.

still, it was a really impactful ending and the animation was superb. overall i'd give season two 4/5 stars. a slow start, but a knock-out ending.[/spoiler]
now we wait for s3! wonder what that will be about. i wonder if they'll resolve the [spoiler]connection to past avatars being broken[/spoiler]

Gilthwixt · November 16, 2013 01:56 PM

You covered a lot of what I wanted to say. The animation and action were top notch, but the writing was kind of wonky.

[spoiler]Parts I liked:
-Varrick's entire arc
-Admiral Zhao's cameo
-Bolin finally being useful/awesome
-The idea of a Dark Avatar and it being Unalaq's motivation (which was unclear until now)
-Korra and Mako splitting for good
-Korra with her hair down most of the finale (Hhhhhhnnnnnnnnnngggggg)

Parts that were weak:
-Nobody, from Lin to Bolin, considering Mako might have actually been right this whole time
-President Raiko holding his troops at Republic City when he could have made all the difference in preventing Unalaq's victory at the South Pole in the first place
-Unalaq not killing Korra and crew when he had them captured (Ozai would've had none of that shit)
-Korra still having all her bending despite Rava being "destroyed" (how does that work, exactly?)
-COSMIC ENERGY
-Spirit Kaiju Battles (seriously?)
-Deus ex Jinora doing whatever it was that she did

and the whole Vatu thing in general, but you've already heard those complaints. Varrick was a much more interesting villain/character and I'm looking forward to what he'll be up to in Season 3.

Edit: Also, somehow I doubt that Mako and Korra are really over over. The team seems really into the romantic subplots and I don't see them introducing a new love interest for Korra unless it's one of Zuko's other grandkids or something. I mean I'd be perfectly cool with Korra just focusing on being the Avatar but you know they're just going to throw her back at Mako.[/spoiler]