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The Legend of Korra: Book 4 |OT2| ALL HAIL THE GREAT UNITER

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Afrocious

Member
You know how DBZ got DBZ Kai (and prior to that, that brilliant edit on Youtube made by that one guy who got shafted because DBZ Kai came about)? Basically, DBZ Kai cut out all the filler and condensed every DBZ saga.

I wonder if Korra could get that same treatment. Like someone could get all four books and meticulously go through each one and edit out anything extraneous. I'd like to see how that looks.
 

360pages

Member
You know how DBZ got DBZ Kai (and prior to that, that brilliant edit on Youtube made by that one guy who got shafted because DBZ Kai came about)? Basically, DBZ Kai cut out all the filler and condensed every DBZ saga.

I wonder if Korra could get that same treatment. Like someone could get all four books and meticulously go through each one and edit out anything extraneous. I'd like to see how that looks.

I think what people forget about DBZ Kai, is that it also cut a lot of important character moments. Like Gohan's entire training arc for Vegeta and Nappa, or Vegeta deciding not to give up on becoming a Super Sayian.

Also Korra has the problem of misued time rather than filler.
 

DedValve

Banned
You know how DBZ got DBZ Kai (and prior to that, that brilliant edit on Youtube made by that one guy who got shafted because DBZ Kai came about)? Basically, DBZ Kai cut out all the filler and condensed every DBZ saga.

I wonder if Korra could get that same treatment. Like someone could get all four books and meticulously go through each one and edit out anything extraneous. I'd like to see how that looks.

DBZ Kai cut down on Filler. Korra would need to be retold and re-animated completely with several book plots shifting in order to become something other than wasted potential.

How can you cut down on a show whose biggest problem is that they didn't have enough time to tell a story as it is?
 

Afrocious

Member
I think what people forget about DBZ Kai, is that it also cut a lot of important character moments. Like Gohan's entire training arc for Vegeta and Nappa, or Vegeta deciding not to give up on becoming a Super Sayian.

Also Korra has the problem of misued time rather than filler.

It's true that if you did cut out every time Meelo speaks or get rid of any moment Bolin interacts with Eska, it would be optimal to have scenes that develop team Avatar as friends and characters. However, I do think Korra does have a filler problem, which itself is a problem of horribly used crunch time.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out why we had scenes like those above that lasted as long as they did. Hell, in Book 4, I remember cringing when Wu started talking in that meeting with that terrible plan of his. Of course it was supposed to be a joke, but we got the punchline seconds ago.
 

Mononoke

Banned
Nah, I'll be damned if Bryke could pull off a betrayal like that. You'd be giving them too much credit. I'm being gracious with Nihilus, who's easy to see as an antagonist.



I feel her resolution with Kuvira wasn't an end to a personal arc of Korra's within Book 4, but within her personal arc of the whole story. Her compassion made sense to me because Zaheer put her in a position where she had to genuinely question why her enemies did what they did, and Toph's whole purpose besides fanservice was to be Yoda and guide her to understand this.

By letting Kuvira live, Korra allowed herself the agency and control she felt she had lost and honestly never had throughout the entire show. Case in point: even though she outright stated she kicked Amon's butt in Book 2, her vision of him in Book 3 along with the other past antagonists genuinely did frighten her.

As far as portraying this, I felt there was a lot of talking about it as opposed to seeing Korra deal with it outside of her PTSD. That itself, IMO, is lazy.

I mean I guess. But that's not really how story works. You really need some kind of arc or follow through. So while yeah, I can step back and say, okay Korra has learned compassion. Fine. That's great. As an overall character/series plot point, that shows she's grown.

But when you have like NOTHING really building up to that. At best, you have her questioning why others are doing this to her (what you pointed out). But there still was never like, a moment where she questioned these things (in the sense of, having an issue of forgiving. Her issue was accepting her abuse, accepting it happened to her, and then moving past it. That was the crux of her entire dilemma. NOT that she couldn't forgive the people that did these things to her. At least, that's how the story was shown to the audience. If that was not the intention, I feel they did a bad job communicating it. But to me, the plot was about accepting the bad things that happened to her, and also struggling to find her relevancy because of these bad things were a reflection of the overall world finding less of a role for her. So it was more a personal struggle to find her own self and role. And letting go of the bad things people did to her).

So while I can agree with what you are saying about it being a positive plot point that does reflect on Korra overall. It doesn't work for me, when I feel the finale itself really didn't do anything with the character or story. I felt the finale itself, was lacking resolution, pay off etc. It was lacking it from a season point of view (the season arc). And it was lacking it in terms of, any plot from the overall series (and how the character got to this point) being brought to a close.

Yes, that moment was great. But it wasn't a band-aid fix all, for everything else.

EDIT: This post was kind of sloppy. I guess my issue with the suffer for compassion line, is that they didn't really build up to it in Book 4 (and I don't really think it was built up anywhere tbh. But that's just me). But I suppose while I think it's a great moment, I still take issue with the writers not dealing with Korras other arcs, or having that kind of pay off. Because while yeah this moment was nice, I think it does lose some of the emotional impact, when you don't have that journey that supports it. Of course, if you think the overall series supports this moment, then you probably loved it more.
 
You know how DBZ got DBZ Kai (and prior to that, that brilliant edit on Youtube made by that one guy who got shafted because DBZ Kai came about)? Basically, DBZ Kai cut out all the filler and condensed every DBZ saga.

I wonder if Korra could get that same treatment. Like someone could get all four books and meticulously go through each one and edit out anything extraneous. I'd like to see how that looks.
In all honesty I think Korra could actually use some filler. Just the characters going shopping as actual friends would probably make them a lot more likeable as well.
 
The Legend of Korra Book 4: I Guess

I knew I shouldn't have looked at the thread.

I ended up loving the finale like after multiple watches. By the third time, I really quite enjoyed the finale a lot. But it was just such a bad ending in terms of the overall series. I even think it as a bad ending for the season (because of that disconnect from the plot. But to be fair, the season really didn't want to build up a plot. So it was an issue that compiled on).
The finale is fine, just not for the end of an entire series. It's a shame that it's what we're going to have to live with, an ending that really doesn't have much of anything to do with the rest of the series, no matter how progressive it is. I wish they had more like Korra's conversation with Tenzin.
 

Afrocious

Member
I mean I guess. But that's not really how story works. You really need some kind of arc or follow through. So while yeah, I can step back and say, okay Korra has learned compassion. Fine. That's great. As an overall character/series plot point, that shows she's grown.

But when you have like NOTHING really building up to that. At best, you have her questioning why others are doing this to her (what you pointed out). But there still was never like, a moment where she questioned these things (in the sense of, having an issue of forgiving. Her issue was accepting her abuse, accepting it happened to her, and then moving past it. That was the crux of her entire dilemma. NOT that she couldn't forgive the people that did these things to her. At least, that's how the story was shown to the audience. If that was not the intention, I feel they did a bad job communicating it. But to me, the plot was about accepting the bad things that happened to her, and also struggling to find her relevancy because of these bad things were a reflection of the overall world finding less of a role for her. So it was more a personal struggle to find her own self and role. And letting go of the bad things people did to her).

So while I can agree with what you are saying about it being a positive plot point that does reflect on Korra overall. It doesn't work for me, when I feel the finale itself really didn't do anything with the character or story. I felt the finale itself, was lacking resolution, pay off etc. It was lacking it from a season point of view (the season arc). And it was lacking it in terms of, any plot from the overall series (and how the character got to this point) being brought to a close.

Yes, that moment was great. But it wasn't a band-aid fix all, for everything else.

EDIT: This post was kind of sloppy. I guess my issue with the suffer for compassion line, is that they didn't really build up to it in Book 4 (and I don't really think it was built up anywhere tbh. But that's just me). But I suppose while I think it's a great moment, I still take issue with the writers not dealing with Korras other arcs, or having that kind of pay off. Because while yeah this moment was nice, I think it does lose some of the emotional impact, when you don't have that journey that supports it. Of course, if you think the overall series supports this moment, then you probably loved it more.

The overall series supports the moment I think, but I think it's fine to pick it apart since it wasn't executed well enough. It would've even been nice if we got a scene when Korra was traveling, she had to reason with a criminal who kept committing the same offense. Just something the viewer can trace back and see a connection.

Or even at least having Korra admit Kuvira is similar to her sometime before this final fight. I know exactly what you mean and it's a valid criticism.

In LoK, the show is more about the resolution than the journey, when it should be the other way around. The journey to Korrasami is muddled with shit director choices that require incredible picking apart for some (and for others, Bryke's own words) but we end up with a great resolution for it. Same thing with everything else in the series, the two deus ex machina's in Book 1 and 2, to Book 3's character suicide of Kaveer and his awful plan of trying to kill Korra in the Avatar state, to Book 4's resolution between Korra and Kuvira (and as I mentioned earlier, Korra and Asami).

In all honesty I think Korra could actually use some filler. Just the characters going shopping as actual friends would probably make them a lot more likeable as well.

You know, I'll just wait for the Korra Citadel DLC that takes place before the fight with the mecha.

There will be a party and Korra will have implied sex with Asami.

Korra and Asami will be looking at Naga who will represent the Normandy.

Asami will be holding Korra's hand. "Here I was thinking I'd head off to school to become an engineer. Never did I think I'd travel the world, and actually help save it." She sighs. "We had a good run."

Korra looks at Naga who's sleeping. "The best." Both of them walk out of the scene, being the last ever scene we have produced for Korra.

This song is playing and I'm crying my fucking eyes out.
 
It's so weird, every other season worked better as a series finale than this season, it really feels like they ran out of steam and just "ended it".

Korra ended on a big giant MEH for me, no sad empty feeling that it's all over, not angry over a shitty ending(as an episode itself it was pretty good) just straight up meh.
 

Magwik

Banned
Season 2 really should have been the end game. Maybe not Unalaq but the idea of a dark avatar and someone that rivals Korra in every way possible should be how the show ended, especially with the spirit portals opening up. But should have is like the motto of the show now.
 

Afrocious

Member
Season 2 really should have been the end game. Maybe not Unalaq but the idea of a dark avatar and someone that rivals Korra in every way possible should be how the show ended, especially with the spirit portals opening up. But should have is like the motto of the show now.

I would like to write about this and I agree.
 
Season 2 really should have been the end game. Maybe not Unalaq but the idea of a dark avatar and someone that rivals Korra in every way possible should be how the show ended, especially with the spirit portals opening up. But should have is like the motto of the show now.

Yea, as much as I liked Zaheer and his crew, season 2 felt a lot like an ending in terms of scale and Korra coming into her own as the avatar.
 

Afrocious

Member
Can you folks give the context to this picture? This is damn hilarious and found it earlier in the thread.

MtnwZQj.jpg
 

CDiggity

Member
If I have learned anything, especially from the comics, it is that relationships outside of the one involving the main character are unstable. Therefore, there still lies a chance should a Korra comic be made, that something happens to Bolin/Opal and Opal actually becomes evil.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
So you are the one. Great job man. It's incredible. By far the best Avatar bet (besides Satch with Makorra which is also delicious. Muahhaha).

Thank you, but I gotta give credit to Atravller for making it transparent.

But yes, the image was too perfect to pass up.
 

Mononoke

Banned
Season 2 really should have been the end game. Maybe not Unalaq but the idea of a dark avatar and someone that rivals Korra in every way possible should be how the show ended, especially with the spirit portals opening up. But should have is like the motto of the show now.

Should have went:

Book 1 > Book 3 > Book 4 > Book 2

Tying Amon's plot with social inequality with Zaheer's political philosophy, and then Kuvira's power grab when the Kingdom was in disarray, would have been a great 1-2-3 punch.

Then as Korra is broken and doesn't know what her relevancy is anymore, we go into the back story of Avatar Wan (why the avatar exists, why it always needs to exist)...and Harmonic Convergence being the final conflict that only the Avatar could have dealt with. I mean the shit practically writes itself. Instead of the half baked, scattershot final arc we got with Korra and her personal story, imagine that being tied into the Origin of the Avatar. Imagine, broken Korra from Book 3's finale (her being destroyed, and so hurt). And that eventually building up into her discovering herself again with the origin of the Avatar.

It would have been powerful as fuck.
 

Magwik

Banned
Should have went:

Book 1 > Book 3 > Book 4 > Book 2

Tying Amon's plot with social inequality with Zaheer's political philosophy, and then Kuvira's power grab when the Kingdom was in disarray, would have been a great 1-2-3 punch.

Then as Korra is broken and doesn't know what her relevancy is anymore, we go into the back story of Avatar Wan (why the avatar exists, why it always needs to exist)...and Harmonic Convergence being the final conflict that only the Avatar could have dealt with. I mean the shit practically writes itself. Instead of the half baked, scattershot final arc we got with Korra and her personal story, imagine that being tied into the Origin of the Avatar. Imagine, broken Korra from Book 3's finale (her being destroyed, and so hurt). And that eventually building up into her discovering herself again with the origin of the Avatar.

It would have been powerful as fuck.
Look at that, we just did a better job than the writers
 

Mononoke

Banned
Look at that, we just did a better job than the writers

lol. It always blows my mind that, these writing rooms don't have like someone looking at the overall context of what is being written, and making suggestions. I mean, sometimes it seems so damn obvious. I think back to a show like Dexter. I know in film, this is what a script editor does. I guess in TV that is what the showrunners job is.

But damn. They need to start hiring like ONE outside person to sit in, and then be like NO NO NO.

I think every writer should ask this of themselves: Doe what I'm writing now tie into what has been written before it. Does the themes/characters plot, connect to what has already been written. If the answer is no, or if you are unsure, then you need to scrap the idea, or seriously try to work on it until it does. I feel that more writers need this perspective. The best shows IMO (like the Wire, Breaking Bad), seem to be able to do this. They really make sure all plot arcs have a follow through. That everything either directly connects to what came before it, it works well with it.

This show felt so disconnected.
 

Luigi87

Member
Should have went:

Book 1 > Book 3 > Book 4 > Book 2

Tying Amon's plot with social inequality with Zaheer's political philosophy, and then Kuvira's power grab when the Kingdom was in disarray, would have been a great 1-2-3 punch.

Then as Korra is broken and doesn't know what her relevancy is anymore, we go into the back story of Avatar Wan (why the avatar exists, why it always needs to exist)...and Harmonic Convergence being the final conflict that only the Avatar could have dealt with. I mean the shit practically writes itself. Instead of the half baked, scattershot final arc we got with Korra and her personal story, imagine that being tied into the Origin of the Avatar. Imagine, broken Korra from Book 3's finale (her being destroyed, and so hurt). And that eventually building up into her discovering herself again with the origin of the Avatar.

It would have been powerful as fuck.

That... Would have actually been really fantastic.
Considering the utilization of opening the spirit portals never really seemed quite as important as it should have been in Books 3 & 4 (aside from the spirit vines, but that isn't really too necessary), the portals remaining closed to allow for the order of events as you specified would work really well.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
I think at this point, KorraGAF is talented enough just to re-write the show and kickstart Studio Mir to redo a bunch of it.
 

CDiggity

Member
It's a good structure, but the biggest problem with putting Book 2 last is the reemergence of the airbenders due to harmonic convergence. Zaheer would not have airbending, and the plot couldn't happen.
 

Mononoke

Banned
I like harmonic convergence where it was. I wouldn't change any of the chronology per se.

Doesn't really make sense where it was though. In terms of the overall plot structure. You don't have the climax of an overall series in the middle of the story.

It's a good structure, but the biggest problem with putting Book 2 last is the reemergence of the airbenders due to harmonic convergence. Zaheer would not have airbending, and the plot couldn't happen.

Yeah, it would definitely have to be re-worked. The re-emergence of air benders would not be able to exist. So things would need to be re-written. I was just saying as basic ideas IMO this would work the best. You could argue that Zaheer being an air bender is what made him great. That's the ONLY thing that I think is problematic about this structure.

But I could do without the air benders. Especially since the writers didn't really tie into Korra's overall legacy the way they implied they were (the way Korra said it was going to. She said it was going to be her purpose, but then she quickly went away from it).
 

Toa TAK

Banned
It's a good structure, but the biggest problem with putting Book 2 last is the reemergence of the airbenders due to harmonic convergence. Zaheer would not have airbending, and the plot couldn't happen.

Shit, well, we can make up something as equally contrived as what the show already did, I'm sure.
 

DedValve

Banned
Opening the spirit portals was a waste. The only relevant thing to come out of it was a WMD in book 4.

Spirit vines where dropped TWICE. Once in Book 3 and then again in Book 4. Spirits never even show up again after abandoning the city, there was never any real relevancy to them except the spirit wilds. We probably saw less spirits as the portals opened and they had less impact than in Aangs time.

Spirit portals should have been end game. Then keep the final scene where Korra and Asami venture into the portals to see the damage thats been done or some shit like that for maximum emotional punching.
 

Trey

Member
Doesn't really make sense where it was though. In terms of the overall plot structure. You don't have the climax of an overall series in the middle of the story.

It's not the climax of the overall series. It's simply the event that had the highest stakes on the world.
 

Afrocious

Member
Doesn't really make sense where it was though. In terms of the overall plot structure. You don't have the climax of an overall series in the middle of the story.

Exactly. I can see book 2 being the conclusion of LoK as well as a successful follow up of our introduction to the Avatar series in ATLA.
 

Mononoke

Banned
As much as I liked the air nation plot, it wasn't really that fleshed out. Like, I really was hoping it would be a big purpose for Korra. But she really only went to search for them for like 5 episodes then bounced. It was then Tenzin that basically took it on (and the air nation stuff got pushed to the back).

So I don't feel the air nation stuff really materialized in a way that was entirely meaningful. I still love it in terms of the lore. And it did provide us some truly great moments. But in the end, I truly felt it was disconnected from Korra's story. And that's because the writers wanted it to be a personal story (and not a mythology driven story).

That is why I argue, the structure I've presented makes more sense. Because it gives Korra's emotional story something to build up to.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Also, in our rewrite, can we make the Spirits cool again like they were in ATLA? I was originally off put by them when I saw Book 2. I was like, why are they all so generic looking and small?
As much as I liked the air nation plot, it wasn't really that fleshed out. Like, I really was hoping it would be a big purpose for Korra. But she really only went to search for them for like 5 episodes then bounced. It was then Tenzin that basically took it on (and the air nation stuff got pushed to the back).

So I don't feel the air nation stuff really materialized in a way that was entirely meaningful. I still love it in terms of the lore. And it did provide us some truly great moments. But in the end, I truly felt it was disconnected from Korra's story. And that's because the writers wanted it to be a personal story (and not a mythology driven story).

That is why I argue, the structure I've presented makes more sense. Because it gives Korra's emotional story something to build up to.

The Air Nation once Tenzin took it on should've been equal to that of Remember the Titans/The Dirty Dozen type of deal where you've got a bunch of strangers from different lands being kinda forced to come together to revitalize a lost culture and civilization. What I LOVED about Book 4's finale was how they were all working together in unison. That was excellent and should've been the end of their rocky road to becoming a group of people, to be Airbenders. Book 3's stuff of them coming to terms with each other and the practices of the culture was great, but I don't totally get the jump from "finally uniting to stop Zaheer" to "now we protect the world without issue".

That fucking 3 year time jump.
 

Mononoke

Banned
It's not the climax of the overall series. It's simply the event that had the highest stakes on the world.

Re-read what you just said. lol

It totally is the climax of the series. The MOST IMPORTANT plot with the most stakes. Not to mention, it completely defined Korra and what the Avatar cycle was. It wasn't just a big event that impacted the entire world, it was probably the most profound personal story arc for Korra (and it had no business being in the middle of the show, especially the way Book 3 to 4 ended up being).

It completely was the climax in every sense of the word.

Out of all the stuff we disagree on, I find your defense of this really baffling to be quite honest. :p
 

DedValve

Banned
It's not the climax of the overall series. It's simply the event that had the highest stakes on the world.

...how is that not the climax? It had the origins of the avatar, the mystery of the spirits, an entire new era and a dark avatar that can match korra in power.

How do you continue from that? Well by ignoring pretty much all repercussions of it like Book 3 and 4 did of course.
 

Mononoke

Banned
...how is that not the climax? It had the origins of the avatar, the mystery of the spirits, an entire new era and a dark avatar that can match korra in power.

How do you continue from that? Well by ignoring pretty much all repercussions of it like Book 3 and 4 did of course.

Yep. We entered a new age, and yet we really didn't see much of the new age. So many people complained how, we didn't really get a true sense of Harmonic Convergence's effects. And that's because it was the climax. :p
 

Afrocious

Member
Also, in our rewrite, can we make the Spirits cool again like they were in ATLA? I was originally off put by them when I saw Book 2. I was like, why are they all so generic looking and small?

They were made to mimic something we'd see in a Miyazaki film.

Which is fine and dandy, but spirits actually had some sort of relevance throughout the entire series of ATLA, which kinda culminated to the deus ex machina lion turtle at the end.

Remember that panda bear? I wanted something like that. Or Face-Stealer Ko.
 

Mononoke

Banned
Would you guys get rid of Unalaq? I find him to be a boring character (design wise). But I think the family connection to Korra, and the religious plot....

I think there could have been something there had they properly fleshed him out.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
They were made to mimic something we'd see in a Miyazaki film.

Which is fine and dandy, but spirits actually had some sort of relevance throughout the entire series of ATLA, which kinda culminated to the deus ex machina lion turtle at the end.

Remember that panda bear? I wanted something like that. Or Face-Stealer Ko.

Ugh, yeah, I remember that from the commentary (I think, I do remember them saying that somewhere).

But as for the rest? I agree. None of the spirits felt like they had any importance or were as defined as the ones we encountered in ATLA. Excluding Ravaa and Vatuu, of couse.
Would you guys get rid of Unalaq? I find him to be a boring character (design wise). But I think the family connection to Korra, and the religious plot....

I think there could have been something there had they properly fleshed him out.

You and I already talked about this though XBL, and I'll reiterate again saying that he has MASSIVE potential to mimic religious fundamentalists with good intentions in the real world (like how Bryke has been trying to do with other villains, matching them up with real world counterparts).

Unalaq is actually, again, worse than Kuvira in that he is also MASSIVELY wasted as a character. He's Korra's fucking Uncle. I'd hate to fight my great uncle. So should Korra.
 
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