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Legend of Korra Book 3: Change |OT| SCHEDULEBENDING

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Am I the only one who didnt bat an eye at that? I thought it was an interesting plot point.

Well my thing is, we never like got a proper backstory for Unalaq. We just know he always had a "deep connection" with the spirits, even at a young age. But we never got to see what made him become so evil. Because as far as I'm concerned, Unalaq wasn't a person with good intentions that was corrupted and became consumed. He was just an evil bastard.

Now, they could have written a plot where Unalaq joined the Red Lotus at a young age. Bought into their extremist philosophies, which happened to line up with his own on spirituality and the state of the world. But we don't know that. The way it's presented now, Unalaq is a mustache twirling evil person, that happen to use the Red Lotus just so he could fulfill his evil plan. But when it went sideways, he abandoned it and waited for his time to shine years later. (Which on its face, is a pretty convoluted plan. He joins an extremist group, just so he can use them as pawns. It really only would make sense if Unalaq actually believed in their cause, and was heavily influenced by them. But we don't know that. It could easily just be implied, that he was just using them, and tricked Zaheer and the group -- which is what Zaheer says he did. So that implies that Unalaq was never influenced or actually believe in the cause. He just joined them to use them for kidnapping Korra).

The Red Lotus tie in WOULD have worked great, if it was actually worked into his backstory. It would have explained why he eventually got his brother banished from his tribe, and had the hunger to change the world with his new found extremist views. Although it wouldn't explain why he wanted to become the Dark Avatar (which again, is my issue with all of this). We don't really know why Unalaq was evil, or why he wanted to take over the world.
 
Loved the episode had a great mix of action, dialogue and humour. Curious if Jinora's spirit powers somehow tie in to stopping Zaheer. I assume next episode we are going to get some time with Tenzin and the airbenders and they'll somehow tie into the plot.
 
Loved the episode had a great mix of action, dialogue and humour. Curious if Jinora's spirit powers somehow tie in to stopping Zaheer. I assume next episode we are going to get some time with Tenzin and the airbenders and they'll somehow tie into the plot.

Well there is that scene from the first trailer that showed Kai falling off the mountain and he looked like he got blasted off. Maybe the Earth Queen sends her troops to go re-capture the airbenders in the next episode.

Episode 10 slight spoilers
And we know at least Korra and Asami will be in the next episode due to that leaked image of episode 10
.
 
that
Unalaq
tie in felt so forced.

Not to me, and it was actually part of my headcanon leading up to this episode, so I liked that.
I even hoped that perhaps even Amon was part of the Red Lotus also and went his own way after Zaheer and his gang were captured.

And I'm not that surprised by Korra's
newfound ability to enter the spirit world. She broke through that barrier in Book 2 so, just like airbending, she has a much easier time doing it now, and I can image that with the spirit portals open, it is much easier for humans to also travel between worlds like Aiwei, Zaheer, Jinora and Korra are doing. Didn't seem like that much of a big deal to me.
 
You know, with this reveal, Zaheer might be Amon 2.0.
In his own way, he is an equalist as his goals are to disrupt the hierarchy of power that there are in governments. And if he doesn't want things to just order them out by themselves, he's going to have to address bending itself. Now, unlike Amon, he doesn't seem to object to bending, so maybe instead of taking it away from everyone, his goal is to give it to people. Maybe that's why he needs Korra?
 
Well there is that scene from the first trailer that showed Kai falling off the mountain and he looked like he got blasted off. Maybe the Earth Queen sends her troops to go re-capture the airbenders in the next episode.

Episode 10 slight spoilers
And we know at least Korra and Asami will be in the next episode due to that leaked image of episode 10
.

Also, judging from the trailer, Korra and Asami
manage to escape with the help of sandbenders (possibly) as we see them on a sandbender sailship in the desert.

With this episode, almost all footage from the trailer has already appeared. Still five episodes left and we have very little clues as to what will happen. Cool!
 
You know, with this reveal, Zaheer might be Amon 2.0.
In his own way, he is an equalist as his goals are to disrupt the hierarchy of power that there are in governments. And if he doesn't want things to just order them out by themselves, he's going to have to address bending itself. Now, unlike Amon, he doesn't seem to object to bending, so maybe instead of taking it away from everyone, his goal is to give it to people. Maybe that's why he needs Korra?

That would be a really cool plot.
 
Yeah, which means it's probably not gonna happen.

eBhTP28.gif
 
Well my thing is, we never like got a proper backstory for Unalaq. We just know he always had a "deep connection" with the spirits, even at a young age. But we never got to see what made him become so evil. Because as far as I'm concerned, Unalaq wasn't a person with good intentions that was corrupted and became consumed. He was just an evil bastard.

Now, they could have written a plot where Unalaq joined the Red Lotus at a young age. Bought into their extremist philosophies, which happened to line up with his own on spirituality and the state of the world. But we don't know that. The way it's presented now, Unalaq is a mustache twirling evil person, that happen to use the Red Lotus just so he could fulfill his evil plan. But when it went sideways, he abandoned it and waited for his time to shine years later. (Which on its face, is a pretty convoluted plan. He joins an extremist group, just so he can use them as pawns. It really only would make sense if Unalaq actually believed in their cause, and was heavily influenced by them. But we don't know that. It could easily just be implied, that he was just using them, and tricked Zaheer and the group -- which is what Zaheer says he did. So that implies that Unalaq was never influenced or actually believe in the cause. He just joined them to use them for kidnapping Korra).

The Red Lotus tie in WOULD have worked great, if it was actually worked into his backstory. It would have explained why he eventually got his brother banished from his tribe, and had the hunger to change the world with his new found extremist views. Although it wouldn't explain why he wanted to become the Dark Avatar (which again, is my issue with all of this). We don't really know why Unalaq was evil, or why he wanted to take over the world.

Well, Zaheer and Unalaq learned about Vaatu and Raava after they had already joined the Red Lotus. So I guess Unalaq's motivations must have changed after they failed to kidnap Korra.

Also, are we going to get anything on the guy, Jai Bao(sp?) who started the Red Lotus in the first place and Guru Lahima? Seems like there's got to be more to them.
 
Is the episode already out? Nick.com right?

Gonna lube myself up after work and prepare to embrace korra tonight!

Also since this show is digital only now S4 should just go netflix and release everything at once.
 
Well, Zaheer and Unalaq learned about Vaatu and Raava after they had already joined the Red Lotus. So I guess Unalaq's motivations must have changed after they failed to kidnap Korra.

Also, are we going to get anything on the guy, Jai Bao(sp?) who started the Red Lotus in the first place and Guru Lahima? Seems like there's got to be more to them.

Well, that's a great point. I forgot about that. But I still feel like it points to Unalaq always being evil. I dunno. To be clear, I did like the tie in. I just don't know if technically it works? (just because of how unclear and shoddy Unalaq's backstory and motivation was presented).

Oh well. Who cares. I think it was pretty cool that the stories are connected. I just have to accept that there are plot elements in this series that don't feel entirely organic, because it feels like they were written as the show went along.
 
I find it funny that Zaheer and Korra agree
that Unalaq was an asshole.

Yeah that was great right? I just loved that entire scene. Soo good. I definitely feel confident saying this is the best season of the series. Even if the ending is shit, and it all goes down hill from here on out, I preferred the 9 episodes in a row to Book 1 and Book 2. Easily.
 
Well, that's a great point. I forgot about that. But I still feel like it points to Unalaq always being evil. I dunno. To be clear, I did like the tie in. I just don't know if technically it works? (just because of how unclear and shoddy Unalaq's backstory and motivation was presented).

Oh well. Who cares. I think it was pretty cool that the stories are connected. I just have to accept that there are plot elements in this series that don't feel entirely organic, because it feels like they were written as the show went along.
Unalaq connection to Zaheer was also hinted when it was mentioned that he built the ice prison, probably the others too
 
Thanks for putting spoiler tags everyone. I'm at work and can't watch until the evening. Can we enact a rule to keep spoiler tags until maybe 7PM PST or something? Just a suggestion. If not that's cool.
 
Thanks for putting spoiler tags everyone. I'm at work and can't watch until the evening. Can we enact a rule to keep spoiler tags until maybe 7PM PST or something? Just a suggestion. If not that's cool.

No problem. I thought a 24 hour tag policy would be appropriate, but waiting until the normal West coast airing time seems fair.
 
I dunno if I could say I like it better than season 1 yet.

Season 1 had dat tension.
Ok well I feel like I like it better than season 1 so far but I have to wait a while after season 3 ends to really decide
 
One thing I'd really like to see this season is Bolin and Mako actually have one fight where they dont get their asses kicked. Team Avatar(Mako, Bolin and Tenzin anyway) gets their butts handed to them on a very consistent basis meanwhile Korra at the most convenient times will find her inner win button. Id like to see Mako and Bolin hold their own in a fight. Mako wont even lightning bend. Id also like to see Bolin learn something whether Metal, Lava or Sand bending. Preferably Lava bending. The metal city arc for Bolin needs some sort of pay off since they focused so much on him trying to learn metal. They could even explain it saying that Bolin's parents were fire and earth benders so its more natural for him to lava bend than other characters. I wonder if their family will come into the fold again since there seems to be a major battle going down in Back Sing Se. Maybe Mako and Bolin defend their family from the two fronts or the Earth Queen captures them.
 
Korra can travel to the spirit world now too for some reason, so atleast he isn't the only one getting random abilities.

the spirit and the human worlds are connected now. that the portals are open, travel be easy. i was actually expecting more humans to be in the spirit world when they went in... cause their are spirits everywhere in the human world.
 
Thanks for putting spoiler tags everyone. I'm at work and can't watch until the evening. Can we enact a rule to keep spoiler tags until maybe 7PM PST or something? Just a suggestion. If not that's cool.

Well, I'm glad I went back and tagged all my posts. Although one of them was quoted. I think on some level, I kind of figured since these are posted digitally on Friday, the usual rule of "spoilers are okay after an episode is aired" would be in play. The problem is, there isn't a scheduled release with these. So it would mean people would need to avoid the thread all day on Friday, until they watch it (compared to the past, where you could avoid it for 3-5 hours).

the spirit and the human worlds are connected now. that the portals are open, travel be easy. i was actually expecting more humans to be in the spirit world when they went in... cause their are spirits everywhere in the human world.

The portals being open doesn't mean it would be easier to travel there. Physically (if you walked to the portal, sure). But it still takes a lot to be able to remove your spirit from your physical body. It's a pretty rare thing. It's kind of strange how Zaheer can do it with such ease.
 
I still prefer season 1 up to this point, but we're right around the mark season 1 decided to go downhill fast, so fingers crossed.
 
Yessss. That was a great episode. Really glad Zaheer's motivations turned out to be pretty cool. It reminded me of the chaos alignment in SMT haha. The action was fantastic as always.

It was nice to see some group dynamics for once. I wish this show focused more on the Korra, Asami, Bolin and Mako, instead of trying to tie in 100 characters into a 13 episode season.
 
The portals being open doesn't mean it would be easier to travel there. Physically (if you walked to the portal, sure). But it still takes a lot to be able to remove your spirit from your physical body. It's a pretty rare thing. It's kind of strange how Zaheer can do it with such ease.

Zaheer is spiritual, so I can buy him doing it. Aiwei is wierd, but sure why not. And of course, Tenzin should do it no prob- OH WAIT
 
It just feels like Karate Kid 3 syndrome to me. Daniel wins a tournament, a fight for his life, and then a tournament again.

Season 1 you got the anti-establishment bad guy, Season 2 you got the world ending spirit of pure evil, Season 3 you got the
anti-establishment bad guy again. Even if you fail the worst thing that happens is...some bad government guys go down while the nations, essentially, are alright.

It's just about the most boring motivation and plot line for an actiony-kids show you can imagine. Zaheer would be a cool guy and probably get along with boring old Tenzin as long as they
don't talk about politics.
 
One thing I'd really like to see this season is Bolin and Mako actually have one fight where they dont get their asses kicked. Team Avatar(Mako, Bolin and Tenzin anyway) gets their butts handed to them on a very consistent basis meanwhile Korra at the most convenient times will find her inner win button. Id like to see Mako and Bolin hold their own in a fight. Mako wont even lightning bend. Id also like to see Bolin learn something whether Metal, Lava or Sand bending. Preferably Lava bending. The metal city arc for Bolin needs some sort of pay off since they focused so much on him trying to learn metal. They could even explain it saying that Bolin's parents were fire and earth benders so its more natural for him to lava bend than other characters. I wonder if their family will come into the fold again since there seems to be a major battle going down in Back Sing Se. Maybe Mako and Bolin defend their family from the two fronts or the Earth Queen captures them.
I mean they did win the Metal City fight, with Bolin eventually able to snipe Combustion Woman in the forehead.

You're right that it does seem like they are building up Bolin to learn some other kind of bending. They point out his problems with the metal bending and the fact that there's literally nothing he can do against the lava bender guy. It would be disappointing if they just let Bolin sit there and be outclassed by everyone.
 
Zaheer is spiritual, so I can buy him doing it. Aiwei is wierd, but sure why not. And of course, Tenzin should do it no prob- OH WAIT

I suppose.
I just feel like Zaheer has a bit..too many things going right for him though. It's rare to be able to enter the spirit world (via projection), and to see him be able to do that + travel wherever he wants in the spirit world with ease...eh. EH. What isn't this guy good at.

It just feels like Karate Kid 3 syndrome to me. Daniel wins a tournament, a fight for his life, and then a tournament again.

Season 1 you got the anti-establishment bad guy, Season 2 you got the world ending spirit of pure evil, Season 3 you got the
anti-establishment bad guy again. Even if you fail the worst thing that happens is...some bad government guys go down while the nations, essentially, are alright.

It's just about the most boring motivation and plot line for an actiony-kids show you can imagine. Zaheer would be a cool guy and probably get along with boring old Tenzin as long as they
don't talk about politics.

I can see your point. But Amon's plot was about revenge, and wasn't really about anti-establishment (it was a facade). Unalaq was just a crazy psychopath. So at least this feels a bit more tangible. I guess I just wonder what else his motivation could have been, that would have been more satisfying. I mean, if not for the reasons given, and not for revenge, then it would have needed to be some crazy mythology based plot.
 
Well, that's a great point. I forgot about that. But I still feel like it points to Unalaq always being evil. I dunno. To be clear, I did like the tie in. I just don't know if technically it works? (just because of how unclear and shoddy Unalaq's backstory and motivation was presented).

Oh well. Who cares. I think it was pretty cool that the stories are connected. I just have to accept that there are plot elements in this series that don't feel entirely organic, because it feels like they were written as the show went along.

I liked it too, but it does not work.

Mostly because Unalaq had virtually no backstory or a motivation with any degree of nuance.

Getting some now means little because it does not have any future value. It is just trivia at this point.

EH. What isn't this guy good at.

Kidnapping the avatar.
Zuko has a better track record at this point.
 
It just feels like Karate Kid 3 syndrome to me. Daniel wins a tournament, a fight for his life, and then a tournament again.

Season 1 you got the anti-establishment bad guy, Season 2 you got the world ending spirit of pure evil, Season 3 you got the
anti-establishment bad guy again. Even if you fail the worst thing that happens is...some bad government guys go down while the nations, essentially, are alright.

It's just about the most boring motivation and plot line for an actiony-kids show you can imagine. Zaheer would be a cool guy and probably get along with boring old Tenzin as long as they
don't talk about politics.

I can't say I agree. Thus far, Zaheer is easily the most compelling villain they've had. They need to tie Korra's beliefs more to Zaheer's philosophy as an opposition, but it's good.

And I don't know what you mean that they are merely going to target
'bad guy' governments
and stop there. Why would they? They should be going after
all governments and nations
, since it is against their beliefs.
 
I liked it too, but it does not work.

Mostly because Unalaq had virtually no backstory or a motivation with any degree of nuance.

Getting some now means little because it does not have any future value. It is just trivia at this point.

Yeah, totally agree. It's a shame. Because I think had they
made Unalaqs upbringing be about him taking on the extreme views of the Red Lotus, it would have made more sense, and given the character more depth. Unfortunately, it's obvious the Red Lotus were written after Book 2. The same way that the Red Lotus Kidnapping Korra was written after the plot where Korra was mad for being kept hidden.
 
I can't say I agree. Thus far, Zaheer is easily the most compelling villain they've had. They need to tie Korra's beliefs more to Zaheer's philosophy as an opposition, but it's good.

And I don't know what you mean that they are merely going to target
'bad guy' governments
and stop there. Why would they? They should be going after
all governments and nations
, since it is against their beliefs.

He'd essentially make all nations like the air nomads. No centralized single leader. I have a feeling he's going to be talked down by Tenzin some how about how air nomads are peaceful and their way isnt the best way for everybody or something like that.


He's just an air nation fan boy who's taking it too far.

I think it's pretty clear now Lin is in on it now too. Especially with the line about the Earth Queen and the new way.
 
I suppose.
I just feel like Zaheer has a bit..too many things going right for him though. It's rare to be able to enter the spirit world (via projection), and to see him be able to do that + travel wherever he wants in the spirit world with ease...eh. EH. What isn't this guy good at.

At least we know now why he's so good at airbending stuff.

(
...since he was supposed to be Korra's mentor in airbending.
)
 
He'd essentially make all nations like the air nomads. No centralized single leader. I have a feeling he's going to be talked down by Tenzin some how about how air nomads are peaceful and their way isnt the best way for everybody or something like that.


He's just an air nation fan boy who's taking it too far.

I think it's pretty clear now Lin is in on it now too. Especially with the line about the Earth Queen and the new way.

The guy withstood interrogation for 13 years. I don't think he's going to stand down because Tenzin comes down and talks to him. That'd be so stupid.

And for the record, just because various monks consider peace and enlightenment synonymous, there are plenty of different schools that notably don't. I would never expect all air nomads to be peaceful and virtuous, because monks are still people.

Also, Suyin may not like the earth queen, but you shouldn't forget that she too is a leader of a city.
 
I suppose.
I just feel like Zaheer has a bit..too many things going right for him though. It's rare to be able to enter the spirit world (via projection), and to see him be able to do that + travel wherever he wants in the spirit world with ease...eh. EH.at isn't this guy good at.

what do you think hes been doing for 13 years, grooming his hair
 
I thought it was good. I wish they had done something similar with
Amon. You know how Amon's public story was that the spirits had chosen him? It should have been true, and it should have been specifically been Vaatu trying to get rid of bending in the world since that's what caused him to be defeated the last time. Missed opportunity.

Anyway, great episode. It feels good liking Avatar stuff again without reservations.

That's a really good idea. Maybe we could have a remastered director's cut of these 3 stories and tie them together.


You know, with this reveal, Zaheer might be Amon 2.0.
In his own way, he is an equalist as his goals are to disrupt the hierarchy of power that there are in governments. And if he doesn't want things to just order them out by themselves, he's going to have to address bending itself. Now, unlike Amon, he doesn't seem to object to bending, so maybe instead of taking it away from everyone, his goal is to give it to people. Maybe that's why he needs Korra?


Give it to people? No I don't think they are going to do that. What I suspect considering Zaheer's speech is that he is going to try and merge Vatuu and Rama. Someone should send him a memo on why that's not going to work out as well as he hopes.
 
The guy withstood interrogation for 13 years. I don't think he's going to stand down because Tenzin comes down and talks to him. That'd be so stupid.

And for the record, just because various monks consider peace and enlightenment synonymous, there are plenty of different schools that notably don't. I would never expect all air nomads to be peaceful and virtuous, because monks are still people.

Also, Suyin may not like the earth queen, but you shouldn't forget that she too is a leader of a city.

So was Unalaq, and Aiwei kinda was too.

Although the former is probably just a plothole since they're tying Season 2 into 3 now.
 
I hate to nitpick especially when this season and episode was so great but does anyone wonder what is going on with Asami and her company. There was a story arc in S2 with her struggling to run her company and teaming up with Varrick who ends up backstabbing her. In S3 no real mention of her business but she apparently still has plenty of money and resources.
I mean they did win the Metal City fight, with Bolin eventually able to snipe Combustion Woman in the forehead.

You're right that it does seem like they are building up Bolin to learn some other kind of bending. They point out his problems with the metal bending and the fact that there's literally nothing he can do against the lava bender guy. It would be disappointing if they just let Bolin sit there and be outclassed by everyone.
I wouldn't exactly call the metal city fight a victory. It was an at least 10-4 battle, in which they escaped. Id call it a stalemate since they recovered the Avatar but lost the bad guys.
 
So was Unalaq, and Aiwei kinda was too.

Although the former is probably just a plothole since they're tying Season 2 into 3 now.

Both of whom defected, in case you weren't paying attention. Unalaq either pretended or changed his mind at some point. Aiwei wasn't even a leader, just a high ranking official, and a sleeper agent.
 
The guy withstood interrogation for 13 years. I don't think he's going to stand down because Tenzin comes down and talks to him. That'd be so stupid.

plus tenzin managing to actually do something useful would be too out of character

I hate to nitpick especially when this season and episode was so great but does anyone wonder what is going on with Asami and her company. There was a story arc in S2 with her struggling to run her company and teaming up with Varrick who ends up backstabbing her. In S3 no real mention of her business but she apparently still has plenty of money and resources.

asami was generous enough to solve her plot during the off-season so we could focus more on mako and bolin
 
One thing I'd really like to see this season is Bolin and Mako actually have one fight where they dont get their asses kicked. Team Avatar(Mako, Bolin and Tenzin anyway) gets their butts handed to them on a very consistent basis meanwhile Korra at the most convenient times will find her inner win button. Id like to see Mako and Bolin hold their own in a fight. Mako wont even lightning bend. Id also like to see Bolin learn something whether Metal, Lava or Sand bending. Preferably Lava bending. The metal city arc for Bolin needs some sort of pay off since they focused so much on him trying to learn metal. They could even explain it saying that Bolin's parents were fire and earth benders so its more natural for him to lava bend than other characters. I wonder if their family will come into the fold again since there seems to be a major battle going down in Back Sing Se. Maybe Mako and Bolin defend their family from the two fronts or the Earth Queen captures them.

Well it sort of makes sense for them to be loosing considering they are fighting these guys that are supposed to be like "one of a kind" talented benders.

But it would still be great to see them on a more even fight (even if it's 2vs1). At this point what they need is a good ol' anime style power up.

Bolin could learn to metal bend (I agree that his whole metal city arc needs to have a pay off) or something.
And, while it's probably not going to happen, I think it would be interesting if Mako somehow got a few lessons from Zuko
 
The connection with Unalaq felt pretty forced to me, like the writers just wanted to address complaints about him from last season by retroactively giving him a reason to exist, but it doesn't really work or make sense.

Also, how exactly did the Red lotus society find out about Rava and Vaatu? Events that happened 10000 years prior and weren't exactly well documented. I guess spirits could have told them, but you really have to wonder how stupid the society could be to think that letting the embodiment of darkness and evil lose to bring 'balance' would work out well.

On the subject of the Red Lotus, they don't seem to be much of a society. The 4 of Zaheers troop failed in their mission, and then nothing? Where are their leaders? The White Lotus was headed by a host of great masters and supposedly the Red Lotus was an offshoot, yet they have nothing except those 4 and a handful of collaborators around the world? I suppose they may address this in future -
I could honestly see it being revealed that Zaheer and co. are traitors just like Unalaq and the real Red Lotus continue to operate in the shadows.

Regarding Mako and Bolin, it makes sense that they don't really win much; Toph and Katara were both bending prodigies from young ages, whilst Zuko had the training of the best of the Fire Nation. They could handle themselves as well as the Avatar. Mako and Bolin are pro-benders but otherwise there hasn't been a single suggestion that they have any special talent.
Although, regarding the fight in tonight's episode, I can't be the only one who is really annoyed with water bender lady, can I? I assumed bending was supposed to involve some actual bending via the limbs. But she doesn't have limbs, how exactly is she even doing the initial bending to summon her water arms? All of the 4 are kinda bullshit, but she is the worst.
 
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