The Legend of Korra: Book Two – Spirits |OT| Korra Ain't Number Wan

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Veelk should get a kick out of this:
Perhaps the most apt comparison for The Legend of Korra’s tone is acclaimed series Breaking Bad. The Vince Gilligain series is an immensely dark program that manages to stay watchable through little bits of humor such as Walt and Jesse stealing a barrel of methylamine, Huell and Kuby laying across a pile of Walt’s money, and Walt and Jesse getting stranded in the middle of the desert after a weekend long cook. Through these bits of humor Breaking Bad was able to keep us on board as Walt systematically destroyed his entire life in search of the richest of riches....

The Legend of Korra is unlike any other show on the air and any series that came before it. It truly feels like the first time an animated series has attempted to be something dramatic and dark. That’s not to say every series should act this way, surely similar age-skewing programs like Adventure Time benefit from their lighter tone. But for a series that should have been nothing more than a franchise cash grab, we’ve been given a show that’s never been seen before. We’ve been given the world’s first animated television drama.
Click to expand...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrill...gend-of-korra-created-a-new-television-genre/
 
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
 
Jarmel said:
Veelk should get a kick out of this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrill...gend-of-korra-created-a-new-television-genre/
Click to expand...

Through these moments The Legend of Korra’s able to tell some of the darkest, most mature stories ever committed to screen by an animated program.
Click to expand...

Holy shit.

Oblivion said:
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
Click to expand...

It was less than a minute of screen time and mainly meant for comedy. Definitely enjoyed it.
 
Seriously, the only thing LoK has going for it are it's production values and connection to ATLA.

That's IT.

Nick would've sunk this shit harder than a rock were it not for the success of ATLA.
 
Oblivion said:
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
Click to expand...

Maybe you should watch the episode before you criticize this particular point. It made sense.
 
Jarmel said:
Veelk should get a kick out of this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrill...gend-of-korra-created-a-new-television-genre/
Click to expand...

Holy shit. I kind of want to read the rest of that article just for the WTF factor, but I don't want to give him any hits. :/

Oblivion said:
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
Click to expand...

It was blatant fanservice but the scene wasn't that bad. I kind of wish they hadn't messed with the implication that Zhao died though, since ATLA went through enough contortions to avoid character deaths as it was.
 
That article. I hope he returns to read it in a few years and is embarassed.

mugurumakensei said:
he's right. while we're at it, adventure time is "the wire" of cartoon shows.
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I think Adventure Time does a better job with mature themes than Korra. Not even joking.

Zhao scene was great.
 
Fuck it, I took one for the team. Here's the article in full.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a game changing series for Nickelodeon and for animated series as a whole. It was the first time there was real data to support the claim it wasn’t just kids watching these programs. Not wanting to risk losing its new found audience demo (adults 18-49), Nickelodeon put into production The Legend of Korra. Like any announcement of its type, there were many skeptics who questioned if Korra could recapture the magic of its predecessor. Could The Legend of Korra be as sweet, charming and developed as The Last Airbender? When the series premiered last year we got our answer, but not the one we were expecting. Instead of trying to recapture the sweetness of Last Airbender, Korra took a much riskier, more mature approach to its stories. And through this approach, mainly with the second season, The Legend of Korra accidentally created a whole new genre of television: animated drama.

War profiteering, neutrality tactics, propaganda filmmaking, foreign occupation, the weakened influence of spirituality in an age of modern living, these aren’t chapters in a history book; they’re just some of the themes explored in the second season of The Legend of Korra. Season two was one of the darkest pieces of storytelling this year, taking Empire Strikes Back level arc shifts that see everyone defeated and unsure of a future that isn’t covered in pure darkness. It’s cool. It’s risky. But most of all, it’s revolutionary.

One could point to series over the years that surely skewed upwards in age: Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles and even The Last Airbender itself. All these series contained more mature themes than that of their animated brethren, but none of them ever attempted what Korra has this past year. Even The Last Airbender never went as dark as too allow the bad guy to be victorious. There were absolutely moments of drama within the original series: the fire nation attacking the northern water tribe, Yue sacrificing herself to help win that battle, and Aang facing down Ozai in the series finale. But all these events were sporadic moments of drama within what was a lighter toned series, one similar in tone to that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Legend of Korra on the other hand has flipped the spectrum and is instead a dark show with moments of light humor spread throughout.

Perhaps the most apt comparison for The Legend of Korra’s tone is acclaimed series Breaking Bad. The Vince Gilligain series is an immensely dark program that manages to stay watchable through little bits of humor such as Walt and Jesse stealing a barrel of methylamine, Huell and Kuby laying across a pile of Walt’s money, and Walt and Jesse getting stranded in the middle of the desert after a weekend long cook. Through these bits of humor Breaking Bad was able to keep us on board as Walt systematically destroyed his entire life in search of the richest of riches.


Three Shows That Changed The Way Networks Think About Viewership
Merrill BarrMerrill Barr
Contributor
Thanks to the likes of Bolin, Bumi, Ikki, and Meelo, The Legend of Korra keeps the audience engaged through humor as the world falls into chaos. Some examples that come to mind are Bolin becoming a propaganda movie star while Korra fights to recall her life as the avatar, the gang speeding away from Eska at the end of an episode, and Bumi single-handedly destroying a military camp as Unalaq attempts to free the dark spirit Vatuu from his imprisonment. Through these moments The Legend of Korra’s able to tell some of the darkest, most mature stories ever committed to screen by an animated program. At no point does it pander to its younger audience, nor does it try to be more than it is. Instead, Korra just tries to be good, and succeeds. But by ultimately choosing to be itself, the series has created something wholly unique to the world of television.

The Legend of Korra is unlike any other show on the air and any series that came before it. It truly feels like the first time an animated series has attempted to be something dramatic and dark. That’s not to say every series should act this way, surely similar age-skewing programs like Adventure Time benefit from their lighter tone. But for a series that should have been nothing more than a franchise cash grab, we’ve been given a show that’s never been seen before. We’ve been given the world’s first animated television drama.
Click to expand...

This is the most hyperbolic and wrong article I've had the pleasure of reading.
 
Ok so I finally got to watch the season finale the other night. The animation and the music were all outstanding. Props to the talent at Mir and for Nick forking over the big bucks to make sure this looked good. The bit with Varrick's escape was pretty funny and I feel they did a good job redeeming/finishing Tenzin's character arc. Despite his arc ending in a pretty shitty and unsatisfactory way, Varrick was still one of the best parts of this season and I would welcome him back. Korra as a character was her best all season during these past few episodes though I suppose when you hit rock bottom (pre-Beginnings) you don't have much else where but to go but up. Otherwise, I was consistently asking myself during the episode what/why/how _________ was happening:

-How could Vatu pull Rhaava out of Korra. What part of permanently fused doesn't the show understand? Who thought it was a good idea to cut all previous ties to previous Avatars? That was a big component of the Avatar mythology that's now gone for little to no gain I can see other than "zomg what a tweest" nonsense. Book 3 will have to try REAL hard to make this plot point pay off.

-Since Rhaava can't ever be totally killed, I assume the same of Vatu. But from interviews they are obviously going to completely drop the "Dark Avatar" (bleh) plot point all together. Errrr ok? I feel like this all should have ended differently then.

-What was Unalaq's actual motive in all this? Like, why did he start randomly attacking Republic City after the fusion? Like obviously he was the bad guy from minute one but it seemed early in the season and with "don't believe everything you hear" that there was some sort of justifications for his actions. Nope, just a mustache-twirler and the worst kind at that - no charisma, ham or swag. Just a boring waste of our time :/

-Kaiju battles are sweet and all and it was a cool sequence but like it feels thrown in here for the sake of being thrown in here. What was the point?

-How/why did Bolin develop real feelings of Eska? None of that makes ANY sense. At first I just assumed Bolin was playing along since the show needed some way for the characters to escape imprisonment. Dumb but I could easily write it off. But there is no logic behind Bolin actually liking Eska at all! Dumb to the max. In fact all the romance subplots were dumb to the max in this entire show. I didn't particularly like them in ATLA but they were mostly inoffensive. In this series they are just awful. All of them, all the time :(

-Tenzin sure read a lot of helpful things in a book he never mentioned before. This is a nitpick more than anything since again I thought he did well during most of this finale but it was all rather convenient :P If I were him I don't think I'd encourage Korra to follow her instincts though.

-Jinora. 'nuff said!

-Why did Korra leave the portals open? The vast majority of prolonged interaction between spirits and humans within the naratives of ATLA and LoK have been disasters. Some spirits are friendly but some will rip your face off. "Maybe Unalaq was right?" He made no cogent argument for pretty much anything. He was too busy twirling his imaginary mustache :/

Like overall I was entertained and I'll be back for Book 3 hoping for improvement but every time I try to apply critical thought to this finale or many episodes in this season my head hurts and I start getting a bit mad. Maybe I'm keeping my standards too high or I'm in the wrong frame of mind? There are certainly many shows that are worse. I dunno, I don't mean/want to be a Debbie Downer but I just felt I had to articulate my thoughts.
 
Crocodile said:
-How could Vatu pull Rhaava out of Korra. What part of permanently fused doesn't the show understand? Who thought it was a good idea to cut all previous ties to previous Avatars? That was a big component of the Avatar mythology that's now gone for little to no gain I can see other than "zomg what a tweest" nonsense. Book 3 will have to try REAL hard to make this plot point pay off.
Click to expand...

You must have misunderstood the quote, "WE ARE BONDED FOREVER" from Beginnings, Part 2. Forever means until the plot calls for their separation.

-Since Rhaava can't ever be totally killed, I assume the same of Vatu. But from interviews they are obviously going to completely drop the "Dark Avatar" (bleh) plot point all together. Errrr ok? I feel like this all should have ended differently.
Click to expand...

You would think that since Unalaq is dead that there would be a rebirth cycle if Vaatu works the same way as Rava. But it doesn't. Because.

-What was Unalaq's actual motive in all this? Like, why did he start randomly attacking Republic City after the fusion? Like obviously he was the bad guy from minute one but it seemed early in the season and with "don't believe everything you hear" that there was some sort of justifications for his actions. Nope, just a mustache-twirler and the worst kind at that - no charisma, ham or swag. Just a boring waste of our time :/
Click to expand...

Why did he do what he did? Reasons. EEEEVIL daaaarrrk reasons.

-Kaiju battles are sweet and all and it was a cool sequence but like it feels thrown in here for the sake of being thrown in here. What was the point?
Click to expand...

Because stakes. Literally, that's their reason from an interview with Bryke.

-How/why did Bolin develop real feelings of Eska? None of that makes ANY sense. At first I just assumed Bolin was playing along since the show needed some way for the characters to escape imprisonment. Dumb but I could easily write it off. But there is no logic behind Bolin actually liking Eska at all! Dumb to the max. In fact all the romance subplots were dumb to the max in this entire show. I didn't particularly like them in ATLA but they were mostly inoffensive. In this series they are just awful. All of them, all the time :(
Click to expand...

Love blooms on the battlefield. Hormones? I don't know.

-Tenzin sure read a lot of helpful things in a book he never mentioned before. This is a nitpick more than anything since again I though was did well during most of this finale but it was all rather convenient :P If I were him I don't think I'd encourage Korra to follow her instincts though.
Click to expand...

Yeah if Korra's the worst avatar, he's up there with being one of the worst mentors. How does he know the properties of the Tree of Time anyways since Vaatu's been in there for 10K years? Whatever.

-Jinora. 'nuff said!
Click to expand...

I think you explained as much as the show did there.


-Why did Korra leave the portals open? The vast majority of prolonged interaction between spirits and humans within the naratives of ATLA and LoK have been disasters. Some spirits are friendly but some will rip your face off. Maybe Unalaq was right? He made no cogent argument for pretty much anything. He was too busy twirling his imaginary mustache :/
Click to expand...

That's Korra for ya! Besides, she can just close them anytime she wants to, can't she? It's not a harmonic convergence deal. So whatever.


Like overall I supposed I was entertained and I'll be back for Book 3 hoping for improvement but every time I try to apply critical thought to this finale or many episodes in this season my head hurts and I start getting a bit mad. Maybe I'm keeping my standards too high or I'm in the wrong frame of mind? There are certainly many shows that are worse. I dunno, I don't mean/want to be a Debbie Downer but I just felt I had to articulate my thoughts
Click to expand...

It gets worse the more you think about it. Just stop and move on for your own sanity :)
 
Dominican Power said:
I think this show would of played out a lot more differently if the team knew from the get go that they were producing more than 1 season.
Click to expand...

That excuse was valid for Book One. It's not for Book Two, which got inexplicably worse despite them having more flexibility in terms of character arcs and such.
 
Not reading through the thread (I'm done talking about season 2, at least for a while...), so I don't know if this has been posted - probably was.

WSJ Interview Part 2.

There’s also continuing interest in whomever Korra is dating. Diane Pangilinan ‏@twinklelydy asked “do u have any plans for developing Korra’s love life?”

Konietzko: It seems to me that people are uninterested in that. They get completely angry when we have fun with the teen romance stuff. I don’t know. I’m going to leave that alone.
Click to expand...

He sounds kind of bitter about it, but maybe I'm just reading into it too much.

And also: more Bumi in season 3!

BigBadGiantHand said:
The Legend of Korra: Book Three |OT| Lets Pretend Book Two Didn't Happen, Ok Guys?
Click to expand...

No.

Alienates the people who enjoyed season 2.

EDIT: Wait what? You didn't like the finale? You?

I don't even know what to think anymore. Glad I bailed.
 
Oblivion said:
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
Click to expand...

It was honestly the only callback in the entire series that I enjoyed seeing.
 
Just a reminder to the thread goers here that there are people like myself who loves this show, but doesn't torture themselves by posting in the festering den of negativity that is KorraGAF.
 
Just a reminder that there are those of us who want to be positive and love the show, and that's why we're so hard on it. We give credit where credit is due because we want to see this show succeed, but when it missteps we criticize it in hopes that somehow someway someone catches wind of our opinions, or perhaps more realistically the collective opinion of multiple sites including NeoGAF, Tumblr, Twitter, or whathaveyou, and that it will improve the next season.

No need to act as if criticizing the show should be considered as disgusting.
 
Mariolee said:
Just a reminder that there are those of us who want to be positive and love the show, and that's why we're so hard on it. We give credit where credit is due because we want to see this show succeed, but when it missteps we criticize it in hopes that somehow someway someone catches wind of our opinions, or perhaps more realistically the collective opinion of multiple sites including NeoGAF, Tumblr, Twitter, or whathaveyou, and that it will improve the next season.

No need to act as if criticizing the show should be considered as disgusting.
Click to expand...

This is more towards those here that are absolutely incredulous to see an article praising the show.
 
Satch said:
its not simply praising the show



it is saying things that are objectively incorrect
Click to expand...

Ok, even I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Objectively speaking Korra does deal with all of those topics. Subjectively speaking, it doesn't deal with them as well as it could have.
 
PBalfredo said:
Just a reminder to the thread goers here that there are people like myself who loves this show, but doesn't torture themselves by posting in the festering den of negativity that is KorraGAF.
Click to expand...
I understand the criticisms, but people act like the show killed their dog.
 
Yeah, the hate is going overboard. I always admitted problems with the writing but the show is not horrible or even bad. Hell, it's pretty good compared to a lot of american Animation you can get and personally, I really enjoyed it regardless of it's flaws. Critique is good. Sometimes, writers take note and learn. Simply complaining over and over and over again about the same shit is pointless and damages the thread.

Grakl said:
fixed
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And I have a hard time wrapping my head around things like that. If you find two consecutive seasons of the same show so bad that you want to forget either of them existed, than I really hope you aren't around for season 3 for your own good.
 
PBalfredo said:
Just a reminder to the thread goers here that there are people like myself who loves this show, but doesn't torture themselves by posting in the festering den of negativity that is KorraGAF.
Click to expand...

Same here, I think. I post from time to time because I admit that it's good to hear dissenting views, especially since a lot of the rest of the fandom is sort of blinded by their fanboyism, but overall KorraGAF is pretty ridiculous sometimes with their hate towards Korra.

Book 2, especially the ending, was apparently better enough in some respects for most fans to continue to watch the show, and I'm actually surprised that most reactions to the finale were very positive, even while some admitted that it went a bit over the top the moment UnaVaatu and Korrazilla appeared. But the vast majority of reviews from media outlets, from IGN, to Forbes, AVClub, etc., all gave very positive opiniones about it, even while pointing out the same flaws many here have noticed. The thing is, all of the hate (that really is the word for it) mostly comes from fans of ATLA who are sticking to what the Avatar series was for them, and not what LOK is, and so they hate LOK for not giving them those same feelings.

YES, Korra has flaws that sometimes brings it down to a lower level in quality than ATLA in terms of writing, no doubt. I re-watched half of season 2 and half of season 3 of ATLA three nights ago and barely slept, enjoying it, and I completely agree that much of the same feelings I got from ATLA, I didn't simply get from LOK.

But, LOK hooked me with other moments, for different reasons. I genuinely had dreams about Book 1's mysteries about Amon and fell in love with most of the season. Book 1's finale disappointed also, but that didn't made me hate Korra, and neither did Book 2's ups and downs either.

I don't know, It's just that let myself enjoy the damn thing, honestly, and try to get some perspective about what it is. Even if LOK isn't as incredible as ATLA, it really shouldn't be getting the hate it does from some corners of the fandom like it does here.
 
Ep 10

The spirit world is alright I guess. Nice seeing
Iroh
again.


Nevermind. Korra just got bodied.

Ep 12

Metal Gear Bumi.

Ep 14

Unalok attacking Republic City reminds me of Diamond or Ruby Weapon attacking Midgard in FF7.
 
Oblivion said:
So I heard that for some weird reason
Admiral Zhao
showed up in the season finale? Really? I mean, I enjoyed him as a bad guy well enough, but did anyone ever at any point say to themselves
"man, I wish Admiral Zhao would return one day, maybe in a spinoff series, perhaps?

I'm guessing the answer would be "no".
Click to expand...

There's actually this really great fan comic about Zhao waking up with amnesia in the Water Tribe. I highly recommend reading it, if only for the amazing art

http://noselfcontrol.deviantart.com/art/Water-Tribe-001-69837313
 
Joeytj said:
The thing is, all of the hate (that really is the word for it) mostly comes from fans of ATLA who are sticking to what the Avatar series was for them, and not what LOK is, and so they hate LOK for not giving them those same feelings.
Click to expand...

And I really wish this conspiracy theory that we hate LoK for not being a copy and paste job of TLA would stop. Many fans have written things extensive explanations for why Korra isn't good, either as a successor of TLA or as it's own show. We do give credit where its' due, but the problem is there isn't much due credit to give.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, but stop trying to stop our own outpour of opinions just because they disagree with yours.
 
Veelk said:
And I really wish this conspiracy theory that we hate LoK for not being a copy and paste job of TLA would stop. Many fans have written things extensive explanations for why Korra isn't that good, either as a successor of TLA or as it's own show. We do give credit where its' due, but the problem is there isn't much due credit to give.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, but stop trying to stop our own outpour of opinions just because they disagree with yours.
Click to expand...

So much this. I don't want Korra to be ATLA. I just want it to be good.
 
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