Legend of Korra Book 4: Balance |OT| A Feast of Crows

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Desire to see Toph treat Su and Lin like kids and teach them earthbending from the basics rising.

Definitely setting up for a
temporarily blind Korra vs. Kuvira
fight. I crave for this.

Kuvira blinds Korra with one of her metal bondage thingies. Jokes on her, though, because Korra has Toph training under her belt.
 
Finally a chance to post.

So.....

Toph. For a long time, we've had our suspicions that the writers think of the characters as off from how they were actually written in the show. Toph may or may not be an addition to that evidence. People have talked about how she seemed to have a much more mellow personality as an adult, but reverted to her child personality in her old age. But not exactly. I mean, she was always direct, but she was never this much of a troll. She never physically abused Aang or any of her friends on a regular basis, which is how she's generally interacting with Korra, even doing things like shoving a rock in her face when she tried to hug her. The difference I suppose would lie in the question of what the authors intended. If this is supposed to be Toph from her childhood, then they got it wrong. But I think it's intentionally a caricature of Toph in her young age, given her other adjusrments, like how she now prefers to be connected to people via the earth rather than actual interaction. It's up in the air, I guess, and it's not like the creators are going to come out and say "Yes, we wrote toph just as she was in TLA", so I'm willing to accept this Hyper Troll Toph.

The other thing is that I am iffy on when they make bending THIS powerful. This has been more of a thing with LoK, starting with Unalaq being able to control 50 people without so much as lifting a finger or the full moon. TLA had some of this too, and it was annoying then as well. Like, even if Toph has such super senses that she is able to detect people walking around literally hundreds of miles away, how the fuck does she distinguish all that noise? Or detect metals at a molecular level? It boggles the mind and there is no narrative purpose to it except to impress the audience by showing "look how badass this character has gotten!" It's just an annoying trope that hurts the world, because it's unrealistic that you'd have characters that are essentially WMDs walking around without people being freaked the fuck out.

Right. On the actual story, one other alteration of Toph is that she (probably) is trying to teach Korra a lesson indirectly. Something that's not usually her style. I mean, if Toph is as powerful as she says she is, then she can get that metal out of Korra whether she's relaxing or not. Obviously, that kind of thing would hurt like a BITCH, but she could do it. So I'm guessing she's just doing this as a way to teach korra a lesson instead of healing her physically like normal.

To the surprise of actually no one, Kuvira has now essentially been villainized. Even the main argument of Bolin isn't that Kuvira is a positive force, but more to the effect that she is a lesser evil than Wu would be. What is unbelievable, however, is that she somehow got away with insulting and declaring intent to usurp the throne on live TV during the coronation of Wu and just...walked off. Like, wtf? I realize they set up the situation to be as close to believable as possible by having Kuvira be the hero with Wu being a loser in the eyes of the Earth population. But why wouldn't he immediately order the guards to arrest her? Because "Um, hey guys, don't you think that was a bit harsh" is NOT the proportionate response to what Kuvira just pulled. Everyone's acting like she just made a mildly inappropriate comment. The woman just openly declared treason on the crown on live TV during the coronation ceremony. I literally cannot imagine any royalty, however much of a wimp, just taking that. The only reason I can think of is that they wanted her to have a badass speech without her usurping the throne at this point in the plot. Because the way I imagine the scene would have worked out realistically is that Wu would order her arrest, and the guards would refuse on the grounds that she's a hero (Which would be a pretty awesome callback to how Azula took away the Dai Li from Long Feng).

Also, Wu is gay for Mako, right? Everyone can see that? It's not just me?
 
So was the show acknowledging the internet when they threw in that 'worst avatar ever' line from toph?

Bolin needs to buy 100 fireflakes
tumblr_m7azsa707L1rnde1eo1_250.gif
 
Finally a chance to post.

So.....

Toph. For a long time, we've had our suspicions that the writers think of the characters as off from how they were actually written in the show. Toph may or may not be an addition to that evidence. People have talked about how she seemed to have a much more mellow personality as an adult, but reverted to her child personality in her old age. But not exactly. I mean, she was always direct, but she was never this much of a troll. She never physically abused Aang or any of her friends on a regular basis, which is how she's generally interacting with Korra, even doing things like shoving a rock in her face when she tried to hug her. The difference I suppose would lie in the question of what the authors intended. If this is supposed to be Toph from her childhood, then they got it wrong. But I think it's intentionally a caricature of Toph in her young age, given her other adjusrments, like how she now prefers to be connected to people via the earth rather than actual interaction. It's up in the air, I guess, and it's not like the creators are going to come out and say "Yes, we wrote toph just as she was in TLA", so I'm willing to accept this Hyper Troll Toph.

The other thing is that I am iffy on when they make bending THIS powerful. This has been more of a thing with LoK, starting with Unalaq being able to control 50 people without so much as lifting a finger or the full moon. TLA had some of this too, and it was annoying then as well. Like, even if Toph has such super senses that she is able to detect people walking around literally hundreds of miles away, how the fuck does she distinguish all that noise? Or detect metals at a molecular level? It boggles the mind and there is no narrative purpose to it except to impress the audience by showing "look how badass this character has gotten!" It's just an annoying trope that hurts the world, because it's unrealistic that you'd have characters that are essentially WMDs walking around without people being freaked the fuck out.

Right. On the actual story, one other alteration of Toph is that she (probably) is trying to teach Korra a lesson indirectly. Something that's not usually her style. I mean, if Toph is as powerful as she says she is, then she can get that metal out of Korra whether she's relaxing or not. Obviously, that kind of thing would hurt like a BITCH, but she could do it. So I'm guessing she's just doing this as a way to teach korra a lesson instead of healing her physically like normal.

To the surprise of actually no one, Kuvira has now essentially been villainized. Even the main argument of Bolin isn't that Kuvira is a positive force, but more to the effect that she is a lesser evil than Wu would be. What is unbelievable, however, is that she somehow got away with insulting and declaring intent to usurp the throne on live TV during the coronation of Wu and just...walked off. Like, wtf? I realize they set up the situation to be as close to believable as possible by having Kuvira be the hero with Wu being a loser in the eyes of the Earth population. But why wouldn't he immediately order the guards to arrest her? Because "Um, hey guys, don't you think that was a bit harsh" is NOT the proportionate response to what Kuvira just pulled. Everyone's acting like she just made a mildly inappropriate comment. The woman just openly declared treason on the crown on live TV during the coronation ceremony. I literally cannot imagine any royalty, however much of a wimp, just taking that. The only reason I can think of is that they wanted her to have a badass speech without her usurping the throne at this point in the plot. Because the way I imagine the scene would have worked out realistically is that Wu would order her arrest, and the guards would refuse on the grounds that she's a hero (Which would be a pretty awesome callback to how Azula took away the Dai Li from Long Feng).

Also, Wu is gay for Mako, right? Everyone can see that? It's not just me?

I guess it's hard to say since we only had brief moments of police chief Toph. But at least visually I found her personality to be different then older Toph. She was still direct, but she seemed a bit more dignified in how she carried herself. And in her scenes with her daughters I just didn't get anywhere near the same personality as we got here. At least to me, older Toph was supposed to be more like ATLA Toph, even down to her clothes. Im not saying it was 1:1 the same Toph, but I think the desired effect was to get something similar Toph of ATLA for fan service purposes.

I guess for me, it's just strange because every single character we've seen from ATLA has changed quite a bit in their older age. Or had some tweaks. Which makes sense because as people get older they change. So Police Chief Toph kind of reminded me of those changes. But older Toph much more reminded me of the unrefined and bratty Toph of ATLA even if you could argue her approach to things have changed. IMO the overall effect was closer to ATLA Toph (compared to police chief Toph).

I agree with you that Toph wouldn't teach someone something indirectly. But she would force someone to learn on their own, and give them a cold shoulder. She wasn't forgiving to Aang during his training episode. She didn't care if he got hurt or kept failing. So maybe that is what they were attempting here?
 
Also, Kuvira is the stronger metalbender for now, so she would probably just halt Korra's attempt at crushing before it happened.
 
Kuvira blinds Korra with one of her metal bondage thingies. Jokes on her, though, because Korra has Toph training under her belt.

I need your sense of humor.

Kuvira is extremely likable but she comes off as egotistical(?) I think. The writers are treading on thin line here. I think they can still make Kuvira come off as a morally grey character but the writing quality of characters,while probably better than anything I can write, is still not up to that level and cannot pull it off I think.

I really think Wu is basically Bolin 2.0. Personally, he's amusing and the bromance between him and Mako is better than the Makora romance. His voice actor portrayed his character very well though.

Toph is a bit on the levels of a really pessimistic person who illustrates her behavior with sarcastic wit. Also isolation from people tends to mess up your mind after a while so any regrets she may have had when leaving her occupation may have developed into cynicism over time.
 
GoT book 5 spoiler:
inb4 Toph takes away Korra's eyesight to train her like the kindly man did to Arya.

I doubt many people have the power to do that. The human rib cage is pretty durable and this is a universe where people people regularly get hit by high velocity boulders without injury.
At least Korra can metalbend-punch her from a distance or throw her away if she needs to.
 
Speaking of Kuvira are we assuming that the moments where she speaks softly off the cuff to her comrades is 100% fake? That she's just manipulating people? Or is that her personality? I kind of hate those evil moments like when the camera pans to her grinning or having an evil look. Or that "I always get what I want line". So uh is she evil evil and that's the real her? Anything else is fake?
 
Toph was always crazy OP. And it makes complete sense as well. Bending is established as being something you have to understand and connect with on a spiritual and cultural level as much as being talented at it, and Toph has the means for a better understanding of Earthbending than anyone. She learned it from the very first Earthbenders, and her blindness and ability to be totally aware of her surroundings is the quintessential attribute of Earthbending. Lin may have the ability to see with Earthbending as well from season 1, but Toph sees that way 100% of the time. Bending is part of her. So naturally she would be the most powerful Earthbender there is (and probably the most powerful bender in the show period).

Certainly looking that way.

Would have liked to see her in her prime.

Probably Platinum armor? irrc Metalbending doesn't work on pure metals?

I think they can but only by the best metalbenders which is why Toph can fully remove the metal inside Korra while her daughter could not.

Wouldn't be surprised if Kuvira's armor has a metal only she can bend.

Speaking of Kuvira are we assuming that the moments where she speaks softly off the cuff to her comrades is 100% fake? That she's just manipulating people? Or is that her personality? I kind of hate those evil moments like when the camera pans to her grinning or having an evil look. Or that "I always get what I want line". So uh is she evil evil and that's the real her? Anything else is fake?

She's like Azula but without the crazy*.

*Need to wait until she's beaten to verify.
 
Speaking of Kuvira are we assuming that the moments where she speaks softly off the cuff to her comrades is 100% fake? That she's just manipulating people? Or is that her personality? I kind of hate those evil moments like when the camera pans to her grinning or having an evil look. Or that "I always get what I want line". So uh is she evil evil and that's the real her? Anything else is fake?

The " I always get what I want" line made me cringe.

Reminds me too much of Unalaq.
 
So, uh, Toph is friggin' overpowered.

She can see everything everywhere.

Everything.

She managed to beat Korra with almost zero movement whatsoever. (She maybe stepped like, once.)

To top it all off, this isn't even Toph in her prime.

I'm betting that Toph at her absolute best may have been friggin' powerful. Not quite a planet-buster yet, but probably one of the strongest characters in the entire show. She probably could've taken the entire Earth Kingdom and flipped it upside down on a whim.
 
Also, Kuvira is the stronger metalbender for now, so she would probably just halt Korra's attempt at crushing before it happened.
Toph can totally trash her, but she would probably vanish like Yoda, so Luke had to deal with Darth Vader himself.

Speaking of Kuvira are we assuming that the moments where she speaks softly off the cuff to her comrades is 100% fake? That she's just manipulating people? Or is that her personality? I kind of hate those evil moments like when the camera pans to her grinning or having an evil look. Or that "I always get what I want line". So uh is she evil evil and that's the real her? Anything else is fake?
And it's only the third episode, doesn't bode well.
 
I feel Korra v Kuvira will be like the Bruce v Bain Dark Knight Rises arc. First fight I think Kuvira is going to spar with her, and basically fuck her up in front of her army on some " this isn't even my full potential"
 
But Korra can metalbend.

This logic. It hurts. My dream battle is not gonna happen. I was hyping for a blind Korra vs. Kuvira because of how Kuvira's character seems to enjoy dominating people and people suddenly deprived of a sense(s) have a sense of helplessness which further feeds into her desire to dominate. Then temporarily blind Korra would one up her like a boss.

Anyways, for the whole Toph = OP thing, then Season 1 Yakone must have been an UBER tier then with an extreme amount of luck if he managed to constrain her. :P

So, like can Toph make earth clones of herself to fight while she sits back and relax?
 
What right does the avatar actually have to interfere with the inner politics in the earth kingdom? Only power and if Korra walzes in with her might to bring her own opinion upon the earth kingdom, then she is no tad better that Kuvira.

The Avatar has ever right in the world. Its literally how that world works. Particularly if Kuvira starts concur people people that don't want to be ruled by her.
 
So, uh, Toph is friggin' overpowered.

She can see everything everywhere.

Everything.

She managed to beat Korra with almost zero movement whatsoever. (She maybe stepped like, once.)

To top it all off, this isn't even Toph in her prime.

I'm betting that Toph at her absolute best may have been friggin' powerful. Not quite a planet-buster yet, but probably one of the strongest characters in the entire show. She probably could've taken the entire Earth Kingdom and flipped it upside down on a whim.

They spent the first half of season 2 of ATLA establishing that this is how Earthbending style works, lol. Hold your ground, move the world around you, not your body.
 
This logic. It hurts. My dream battle is not gonna happen.

Anyways, for the whole Toph = OP thing, then Season 1 Yakone must have been an UBER tier then with an extreme amount of luck if he managed to constrain her. :P
Any-time blood bending is super OP, you need avatar state or something that doesn't have blood to beat him, like controlled dark spirits or Kaiju spirits, Toa Tak you can post the gif again now.
 
The Avatar has ever right in the world. Its literally how that world works. Particularly if Kuvira starts concur people people that don't want to be ruled by her.

The thing about this is, she actually has supporters who don't want another idiot member of the royal family. They already had a King and Queen who didn't give a shit
 
Calling it, Kuvira will somehow harness an avatar-state like power by absorbing a bunch of spirits after this.
Kuvira is going to try and harness the power of spirits but the experiment goes horribly wrong. Kuvira turns into a spirit and is sent to the beginning of time and she eventually turns into Raava.
 
They spent the first half of season 2 of ATLA establishing that this is how Earthbending style works, lol. Hold your ground, move the world around you, not your body.

Except that every time someone earthbends in either series they're making a movement. A step, a hand gesture, whatever.

My point is that against Korra, Toph made maybe one movement overall and still did all that earthbending. She basically just dodged, blinked, and then she was sliding around like Iceman.
 
Kuvira is going to try and harness the power of spirits but the experiment goes horribly wrong. Kuvira turns into a spirit and is sent to the beginning of time and she eventually turns into Raava.
That's why Kuvira-avatar spirit lured Korra away from Republic City, so Kuvira could do the experiment (again) and go wrong (again), without Korra's interference, in order to close the time loop.
 
shouldn't the face stealing dude from the first series be able to wander around wherever now that the worlds are connected? did they forget about him? he was great.

old toph kind of sucks.
 
Quick update on my health problems:

I'm going to finish my treatment. I got a lot of support from WhereAreMahDragonz and she convinced me to get help. So I'm seeing a therapist to help with my emotional health during this time. And I've also hired someone to come to my place (a health worker to help me with my physical tasks). So a lot of my problems are now being addressed.

I haven't felt this good in an entire year. I'm 100% confident I will beat this disease! I can't thank WhereAreMahDragonz enough and everyone else in this thread (especially those like Kinvara and Toa TAK for checking up on me). Sorry for interrupting the episode talk. Just figured I would let you all know I'm going to make it to the end of this show and much long after! :)

Yay! That's the spirit. Go, Azula!

At the expense of sounding "ageist", I know quite a few older people in my family that have basically reverted to a more "child-like innocence" as they've continued to age. Probably comes with the lack of pressure and what not. I thought Toph would be more serious also, but honestly it makes more sense for her to revert to who she really was after being in isolation for years.

I also can confirm this. My grandpa still acts like he's 5.

Speaking of Kuvira are we assuming that the moments where she speaks softly off the cuff to her comrades is 100% fake? That she's just manipulating people? Or is that her personality? I kind of hate those evil moments like when the camera pans to her grinning or having an evil look. Or that "I always get what I want line". So uh is she evil evil and that's the real her? Anything else is fake?

She's arrogant. She thinks she's know what's best for the Earth Empire and no one has posed a serious threat to her. I don't she ends up being "defeated" but she will definitely be humbled in some way.

Korra will eventually come in and establish that neither Kuvira and Wu are what the people need and help the Earth Kingdom form a new government- hence the title of the series.
 
Wu here is over-the-top idiotic. Nobody in aristocracy could be that stupid. It was handled so well in ATLA. Zuko's charachter had such a good balance of his difficulties in dealing with duty, royalty, succession, honor.
but what about the Earth Emperor that had the bear? He was pretty stupid. You even see a stuffed version of it at the photo booth.

I won't be surprised if Wu doesn't win back the Earth Kingdom or if he does it is just as a figurehead with voted in politicians like with England. Republic city went from ambassadors to a president so this makes sense to me. The Earth Kingdom is too big for just one ruler.
 
shouldn't the face stealing dude from the first series be able to wander around wherever now that the worlds are connected? did they forget about him? he was great.

old toph kind of sucks.
Yeah nothing really limiting the spirits from wandering around outside of the spirit world now. The Korra game that comes out next week kinda deals with an evil spirit who uses the open portals as opportunity to leave the spirit world and cause a whole bunch of issues for Korra.
Can't Iroh just walk out? They didn't really think that through.

Zuko could also go visit him now that he knows about Iroh.
 
Wu here is over-the-top idiotic. Nobody in aristocracy could be that stupid. It was handled so well in ATLA. Zuko's charachter had such a good balance of his difficulties in dealing with duty, royalty, succession, honor.

Why not? In fact, I'd say it's more likely for an aristocrat to be incompetent/stupid as they never had to work for their position.It makes them complacent.
 
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