Pretty much the only complaint I have is regarding the pro-bending sequences. It has an awesome presentation, wonderful narration, and so on; but I'm not sure how I feel about benders "running out of juice". Each round is only three minutes, and (I'd have to check, but am fairly sure) we've seen fights with untrained benders going on for longer.
But that's such a minor nitpick.
Yeah, don't firebenders, earthbenders and waterbenders all fight in full-blown sieges throughout the course of the original? Not to mention people who power boats or tanks, and so forth.
In any case, it could probably be chalked up to these guys being bigger wusses than soldiers trained for a century-long war, I suppose, but it did bother me.
I want to see someone from the East(?) Air Temple who is descended from an air nomad, and is a bender, but is not of the monk temperament at all.
"Be the leaf? I am the wind!" Kind of dealy. (Note: Yes, I do have his entire backstory in my head, because work is fucking boring)
Yeah, a badass KILLKILLKILL Airbender would be pretty awesome. I'm sure this has been discussed to death a thousand times, but Aang's claim that he didn't ever kill anybody is so patently absurd. Airbenders have the potential to be badass ruthless killers; it'd be interesting to see one who was.
I never really considered it before, but how did Air nomadism work? DId they just rotate between each of the temples (and go on crazy adventures whilst travelling)?
Would explain why Aang knew so much of the world and each of the temple locations I guess.
Seems like the temples acted as centers for learning, retirement, and (presumably) the occasional break for the rest of the nomads that traveled.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Most people with magical superpowers across many works and genres have the potential to be ruthless killers, but oftentimes aren't. I don't know, I've always found that line of thought silly, simply because people live and die based on what kind of story you want to tell, not how powerful the characters are.
Firebenders could obviously roast you alive, while earthbenders could emtomb you in the ground beneath your feet, waterbenders could rip the water out of your body, and airbenders could do the same with the air in your lungs. I probably wouldn't watch that show, if it existed, however. Keep your grimdark out of my multi-demographic appeal children's show, I thank you very much!
Most people with magical superpowers across many works and genres have the potential to be ruthless killers, but oftentimes aren't. I don't know, I've always found that line of thought silly, simply because people live and die based on what kind of story you want to tell, not how powerful the characters are.
Firebenders could obviously roast you alive, while earthbenders could emtomb you in the ground beneath your feet, waterbenders could rip the water out of your body, and airbenders could do the same with the air in your lungs. I probably wouldn't watch that show, if it existed, however. Keep your grimdark out of my multi-demographic appeal children's show, I thank you very much!
Oh, I'm not talking about an Airbender killing people in horrible ways; it'd just be cool to see one who really enjoyed messing people up with air powers, as they typically appear to be rather restrained and conflict-averse.
I really don't get how fire bending at these games works. It's not like hitting someone with water or earth.
that's definitely a suspend your disbelief moment
it's a kid's show!
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Like in a lot of anime, fire/laser/beam attacks tend to just be "force" effects that push you back, rather than burn you/put a hole through you/disintegrate you.
Like in a lot of anime, fire/laser/beam attacks tend to just be "force" effects that push you back, rather than burn you/put a hole through you/disintegrate you.
Yup. The fact that fire/lightning attacks blow huge holes in solid stone but don't rip apart soft human flesh is really all the evidence that's needed for this.
I really do like Avatar's approach to combining "anime" and more realistic styles; the exaggerated nature of anime fights (normal humans flying through stone walls and surviving, jumping twenty feet in the air, etc) make for some pretty visually gorgeous fight sequences, and equally, I appreciate that they don't use the over-the-top anime effects in character interactions, for the most part. It's a nice balance.
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I want to see someone from the East(?) Air Temple who is descended from an air nomad, and is a bender, but is not of the monk temperament at all.
"Be the leaf? I am the wind!" Kind of dealy. (Note: Yes, I do have his entire backstory in my head, because work is fucking boring)
Yeah, a badass KILLKILLKILL Airbender would be pretty awesome. I'm sure this has been discussed to death a thousand times, but Aang's claim that he didn't ever kill anybody is so patently absurd. Airbenders have the potential to be badass ruthless killers; it'd be interesting to see one who was.
I didn't mean it like that, but more... assertive. Be the storm, rather than the breeze.
Like in a lot of anime, fire/laser/beam attacks tend to just be "force" effects that push you back, rather than burn you/put a hole through you/disintegrate you.
Yup. The fact that fire/lightning attacks blow huge holes in solid stone but don't rip apart soft human flesh is really all the evidence that's needed for this.
It's probably frowned upon to roast another person. Maybe they just heat the air and get more pressure into the blast than heat. And those suits are probably pretty insulated.
Which leads into the "Losing their juice" thing. That's gotta be really, really hot!
Firebenders getting tired was always a thing in the original. If you watch Season 1 Zuko or Zhao you'll see they start getting exhausted pretty quick.
As to the other elements, I'm willing to concede that the difference in fighting style requires much more energy to sustain (consider Toph's fighting style vs. Bolin's, Bolin is jumping around all over the place compared to her) and that leads to them getting tired more quickly. Also, each of these rounds is presumably 3 minutes. That's a lot of sustained bending, and if you consider that most fights in ATLA only lasted a couple of minutes, it makes sense that the benders would be getting tired by round 3.
you might not be exhausted after just a minute or two of sustained action but you're likely going to be significantly more tired than someone who's been on the defensive
Besides the good admiral, when did they kill anyone? Ohwait, didn't Aang kill one of those giant bees? I guess that makes two.
RE losing their juice: I think the only thing that makes it questionable is how much they over-sold it in the animation. They were kicking all of the asses and then it was like someone cut the power on their bending.
In general fire bending not being as lethal as it should be is just something you have to suspend your disbelief on, but pro bending has very specific rules. Your goal is to create force, and fire can definitely create force (eg: opening a door to a room that's on fire can send you flying). Insulted outfits combined with the fire benders (presumably) focusing on creating a forceful blast rather than a "burn you to death" blast works for me. I would imagine actually burning someone to death would constitute a loss for your team.
This can also explain why they get tired relatively fast, as he showed Korra they don't bend like a regular bender, they have a very specific, ultra controlled style (and move around a lot more than a legion of earth benders hurling siege rocks, for example). The pro benders primary attribute wouldn't actually be bending ability, as Korra demonstrated raw power doesn't get you anywhere.
What I mean is it seems like in this universe it's easier for an earth bender to throw a car sized rock across the room than it is for them to do something extremely precise.
Firebenders getting tired was always a thing in the original. If you watch Season 1 Zuko or Zhao you'll see they start getting exhausted pretty quick.
As to the other elements, I'm willing to concede that the difference in fighting style requires much more energy to sustain (consider Toph's fighting style vs. Bolin's, Bolin is jumping around all over the place compared to her) and that leads to them getting tired more quickly. Also, each of these rounds is presumably 3 minutes. That's a lot of sustained bending, and if you consider that most fights in ATLA only lasted a couple of minutes, it makes sense that the benders would be getting tired by round 3.
Also almost all the sustained fights in TLA were by people who were generally some of the greatest benders in the world
Besides the good admiral, when did they kill anyone? Ohwait, didn't Aang kill one of those giant bees? I guess that makes two.
RE losing their juice: I think the only thing that makes it questionable is how much they over-sold it in the animation. They were kicking all of the asses and then it was like someone cut the power on their bending.
I'd have to rewatch, but I distinctly recall, among other examples, Katara knocking men off of like a fifty-foot-tall wall/cliff, and Aang puncturing war balloons with crew aboard. Unless the crew had an escape mechanism, which is quite possible. There's also Sparky Sparky Boom Man. Again, these are just off the top of my head, and I may have missed certain details about those scenes.
There's also no way Aang didn't kill a hefty amount of Fire Nation soldiers in giant sea monster form. Dude sliced right through the bridge superstructure of a ship and buried people in tidal waves.
We've certainly had THAT conversation. Just some points from my camp: The number of people explicitly killed can be counted on one hand. The number of people who might have been killed if camera time weren't spent showing they were okay (or who were almost certainly killed, but are then showed to merely be wounded) is non-trivial. It is a children's show.
Besides the good admiral, when did they kill anyone? Ohwait, didn't Aang kill one of those giant bees? I guess that makes two.
RE losing their juice: I think the only thing that makes it questionable is how much they over-sold it in the animation. They were kicking all of the asses and then it was like someone cut the power on their bending.
I'd have to rewatch, but I distinctly recall, among other examples, Katara knocking men off of like a fifty-foot-tall wall/cliff, and Aang puncturing war balloons with crew aboard. Unless the crew had an escape mechanism, which is quite possible. There's also Sparky Sparky Boom Man. Again, these are just off the top of my head, and I may have missed certain details about those scenes.
There's also no way Aang didn't kill a hefty amount of Fire Nation soldiers in giant sea monster form. Dude sliced right through the bridge superstructure of a ship and buried people in tidal waves.
Also almost all the sustained fights in TLA were by people who were generally some of the greatest benders in the world
This is very true, but they were also kids. Still, I suppose the mystic component might matter more than the physical component.
I'm excited to have some bender protagonists who aren't masters of the art; that should be an interesting change.
You can add in all the fire nation air ships in the finale, too. But I always just assumed it was A-Team style destruction.
And speaking of more aggressive bending styles, one thing that always kinda bothered me (a little) was that Katara never went back to blood bending even though both Azula and Ozai for that matter would have been completely defenseless against it. I mean, I understand why they didn't go down that route. It's basically a win-button. But then they shouldn't have ever introduced the idea in the first place.
Katara does go back to bloodbending when they're chasing down her mother's killer, if I recall correctly.
She couldn't bloodbend against Azula or Ozai because it wasn't the full moon, and even if she could have, there's ample reason for her not to bloodbend; it goes against her morals. Same reason Aang didn't just up and kill Ozai when he easily could have. She only does it against the person she thinks is her mother's killer because she was so incredibly angry and vengeful; her emotion temporarily overpowers her moral judgement.
Bloodbending serves as a good bit of character development for Katara. I quite enjoyed its little arc, myself.
In the pro-bending matches, we're, presumably, watching groups of benders that have all been training for the sport. If any of us were to get into a fight with a pro-boxer, he'd most likely beat the crap out of us without so much as breaking a sweat. Match him up against another pro in his class and now that same boxer will be exhausted after going a few rounds.
In the pro-bending matches, we're, presumably, watching groups of benders that have all been training for the sport. If any of us were to get into a fight with a pro-boxer, he'd most likely beat the crap out of us without so much as breaking a sweat. Match him up against another pro in his class and now that same boxer will be exhausted after going a few rounds.
You also have to view it from their standpoint re:energy conservation. They have three minute rounds, so it plays to their advantage to try to overexert themselves as much as possible to finish off the other team before the round finishes. In a real battle you are going to try to be as conservative as possible so as outlast the other side, but if you have a set time limit then the best strategy is generally to throw everything you have as fast as possible.
Like in a lot of anime, fire/laser/beam attacks tend to just be "force" effects that push you back, rather than burn you/put a hole through you/disintegrate you.
So, like Avatar: The Last Airbender then?
I mean, seriously, what I saw of the show could accurately be described as this. Especially when following what I'm sure were the protagonists.
How many specialized types of bending have been shown? I recall bloodbending, metalbending, and I suppose lightning for firebending. Did Aang ever show some similar suped up version of airbending? I'm not even sure what form it could take. Mini-tornadoes or the ability to create a vacuum bubble, maybe.
Since Tenzin is the only airbending master in the world Korra probably should've began her airbending training much sooner. What if Tenzin dies unexpectedly?
How many specialized types of bending have been shown? I recall bloodbending, metalbending, and I suppose lightning for firebending. Did Aang ever show some similar suped up version of airbending? I'm not even sure what form it could take. Mini-tornadoes or the ability to create a vacuum bubble, maybe.
Sandbending(Technically Earthbending, but a specialized one that acts more like a mix of air and earth bending) and Plantbending(like bloodbending, but with plants. The Swampbenders)
Then there's of course the Energybending thing, but that's not a specialized one under another discipline per se, more of a special one by itself.
How many specialized types of bending have been shown? I recall bloodbending, metalbending, and I suppose lightning for firebending. Did Aang ever show some similar suped up version of airbending? I'm not even sure what form it could take. Mini-tornadoes or the ability to create a vacuum bubble, maybe.
The bubble they found him in, in the very first episode perhaps? Suspended animation type thing?
Since Tenzin is the only airbending master in the world Korra probably should've began her airbending training much sooner. What if Tenzin dies unexpectedly?
I don't know if the Avatar has to learn them in the right order, but the first series mentioned it would be very difficult to master the elements out of order. (That order being: Air -> Water - > Earth - > Fire - > Air - > Water etc...)
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Since Tenzin is the only airbending master in the world Korra probably should've began her airbending training much sooner. What if Tenzin dies unexpectedly?
I don't know if the Avatar has to learn them in the right order, but the first series mentioned it would be very difficult to master the elements out of order. (That order being: Air -> Water - > Earth - > Fire - > Air - > Water etc...)
I don't know if that's necessarily true. They tried to teach him Firebending right away (which failed way more due to Aang being in a kids mentality at the time than him not being good at it) with no real compunctions about the normal order.
How many specialized types of bending have been shown? I recall bloodbending, metalbending, and I suppose lightning for firebending. Did Aang ever show some similar suped up version of airbending? I'm not even sure what form it could take. Mini-tornadoes or the ability to create a vacuum bubble, maybe.
The bubble they found him in, in the very first episode perhaps? Suspended animation type thing?
Since Tenzin is the only airbending master in the world Korra probably should've began her airbending training much sooner. What if Tenzin dies unexpectedly?
I don't know if the Avatar has to learn them in the right order, but the first series mentioned it would be very difficult to master the elements out of order. (That order being: Air -> Water - > Earth - > Fire - > Air - > Water etc...)
I don't know if that's necessarily true. They tried to teach him Firebending right away (which failed way more due to Aang being in a kids mentality at the time than him not being good at it) with no real compunctions about the normal order.
Except that the firebending master guy told him it was a bad idea (because of it being out of order), and when he did it he failed (spiritually, emotionally, etc) pretty heavily. So while it's not impossible necessarily to learn them out of order, you aren't supposed to.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I thought it was more a case of it being super easy to master their natural affinity element, and then that element's 'neighbour' - and then it'd be a leap to do the 3rd element, and hard as hell to do the opposite to their natural element. Of course, Korra totally defies this, so...
I thought it was more a case of it being super easy to master their natural affinity element, and then that element's 'neighbour' - and then it'd be a leap to do the 3rd element, and hard as hell to do the opposite to their natural element. Of course, Korra totally defies this, so...
She further along in her training than Aang, but she still obviously has trouble with airbending. The children are able to handle the exercises with more ease than her.
I thought it was more a case of it being super easy to master their natural affinity element, and then that element's 'neighbour' - and then it'd be a leap to do the 3rd element, and hard as hell to do the opposite to their natural element. Of course, Korra totally defies this, so...
She further along in her training than Aang, but she still obviously has trouble with airbending. The children are able to handle the exercises with more ease than her.
I think it used to be that the Avatar would have the most difficulty with the element that's two steps away from their "native" element (the firebending Avatar had problems with water, after all), but that got changed for Korra.
Which is fine with me since we never got to see air training in the first series, and what we saw in the second episode was aces.
Avatars don't have native elements. They're raised in territories that favor one element over all the others but they're supposed to be capable at everything.
Avatars don't have native elements. They're raised in territories that favor one element over all the others but they're supposed to be capable at everything.
Well, that's what I meant for this comparison. Avatars used to have difficulty with the elements two steps removed from the element of the territory they're raised in, but Korra's blown that out of the water.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Avatars don't have native elements. They're raised in territories that favor one element over all the others but they're supposed to be capable at everything.
Sure they do; they're born into one, otherwise there wouldn't be a noticeable cycle. So Aang was an airbender first, Korra is a waterbender first.
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Yeah, don't firebenders, earthbenders and waterbenders all fight in full-blown sieges throughout the course of the original? Not to mention people who power boats or tanks, and so forth.
In any case, it could probably be chalked up to these guys being bigger wusses than soldiers trained for a century-long war, I suppose, but it did bother me.
Yeah, a badass KILLKILLKILL Airbender would be pretty awesome. I'm sure this has been discussed to death a thousand times, but Aang's claim that he didn't ever kill anybody is so patently absurd. Airbenders have the potential to be badass ruthless killers; it'd be interesting to see one who was.
Seems like the temples acted as centers for learning, retirement, and (presumably) the occasional break for the rest of the nomads that traveled.
Firebenders could obviously roast you alive, while earthbenders could emtomb you in the ground beneath your feet, waterbenders could rip the water out of your body, and airbenders could do the same with the air in your lungs. I probably wouldn't watch that show, if it existed, however. Keep your grimdark out of my multi-demographic appeal children's show, I thank you very much!
Oh, I'm not talking about an Airbender killing people in horrible ways; it'd just be cool to see one who really enjoyed messing people up with air powers, as they typically appear to be rather restrained and conflict-averse.
Team Avatar does kill a lot of people, though.
that's definitely a suspend your disbelief moment
it's a kid's show!
Yup. The fact that fire/lightning attacks blow huge holes in solid stone but don't rip apart soft human flesh is really all the evidence that's needed for this.
I really do like Avatar's approach to combining "anime" and more realistic styles; the exaggerated nature of anime fights (normal humans flying through stone walls and surviving, jumping twenty feet in the air, etc) make for some pretty visually gorgeous fight sequences, and equally, I appreciate that they don't use the over-the-top anime effects in character interactions, for the most part. It's a nice balance.
I didn't mean it like that, but more... assertive. Be the storm, rather than the breeze.
It's probably frowned upon to roast another person. Maybe they just heat the air and get more pressure into the blast than heat. And those suits are probably pretty insulated.
Which leads into the "Losing their juice" thing. That's gotta be really, really hot!
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As to the other elements, I'm willing to concede that the difference in fighting style requires much more energy to sustain (consider Toph's fighting style vs. Bolin's, Bolin is jumping around all over the place compared to her) and that leads to them getting tired more quickly. Also, each of these rounds is presumably 3 minutes. That's a lot of sustained bending, and if you consider that most fights in ATLA only lasted a couple of minutes, it makes sense that the benders would be getting tired by round 3.
Besides the good admiral, when did they kill anyone? Ohwait, didn't Aang kill one of those giant bees? I guess that makes two.
RE losing their juice: I think the only thing that makes it questionable is how much they over-sold it in the animation. They were kicking all of the asses and then it was like someone cut the power on their bending.
This can also explain why they get tired relatively fast, as he showed Korra they don't bend like a regular bender, they have a very specific, ultra controlled style (and move around a lot more than a legion of earth benders hurling siege rocks, for example). The pro benders primary attribute wouldn't actually be bending ability, as Korra demonstrated raw power doesn't get you anywhere.
What I mean is it seems like in this universe it's easier for an earth bender to throw a car sized rock across the room than it is for them to do something extremely precise.
Also almost all the sustained fights in TLA were by people who were generally some of the greatest benders in the world
I'd have to rewatch, but I distinctly recall, among other examples, Katara knocking men off of like a fifty-foot-tall wall/cliff, and Aang puncturing war balloons with crew aboard. Unless the crew had an escape mechanism, which is quite possible. There's also Sparky Sparky Boom Man. Again, these are just off the top of my head, and I may have missed certain details about those scenes.
There's also no way Aang didn't kill a hefty amount of Fire Nation soldiers in giant sea monster form. Dude sliced right through the bridge superstructure of a ship and buried people in tidal waves.
This is very true, but they were also kids. Still, I suppose the mystic component might matter more than the physical component.
I'm excited to have some bender protagonists who aren't masters of the art; that should be an interesting change.
You can add in all the fire nation air ships in the finale, too. But I always just assumed it was A-Team style destruction.
And speaking of more aggressive bending styles, one thing that always kinda bothered me (a little) was that Katara never went back to blood bending even though both Azula and Ozai for that matter would have been completely defenseless against it. I mean, I understand why they didn't go down that route. It's basically a win-button. But then they shouldn't have ever introduced the idea in the first place.
She couldn't bloodbend against Azula or Ozai because it wasn't the full moon, and even if she could have, there's ample reason for her not to bloodbend; it goes against her morals. Same reason Aang didn't just up and kill Ozai when he easily could have. She only does it against the person she thinks is her mother's killer because she was so incredibly angry and vengeful; her emotion temporarily overpowers her moral judgement.
Bloodbending serves as a good bit of character development for Katara. I quite enjoyed its little arc, myself.
You also have to view it from their standpoint re:energy conservation. They have three minute rounds, so it plays to their advantage to try to overexert themselves as much as possible to finish off the other team before the round finishes. In a real battle you are going to try to be as conservative as possible so as outlast the other side, but if you have a set time limit then the best strategy is generally to throw everything you have as fast as possible.
So, like Avatar: The Last Airbender then?
I mean, seriously, what I saw of the show could accurately be described as this. Especially when following what I'm sure were the protagonists.
Sandbending(Technically Earthbending, but a specialized one that acts more like a mix of air and earth bending) and Plantbending(like bloodbending, but with plants. The Swampbenders)
Then there's of course the Energybending thing, but that's not a specialized one under another discipline per se, more of a special one by itself.
The bubble they found him in, in the very first episode perhaps? Suspended animation type thing?
I don't know if the Avatar has to learn them in the right order, but the first series mentioned it would be very difficult to master the elements out of order. (That order being: Air -> Water - > Earth - > Fire - > Air - > Water etc...)
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I don't know if that's necessarily true. They tried to teach him Firebending right away (which failed way more due to Aang being in a kids mentality at the time than him not being good at it) with no real compunctions about the normal order.
Suspended in ice.
Except that the firebending master guy told him it was a bad idea (because of it being out of order), and when he did it he failed (spiritually, emotionally, etc) pretty heavily. So while it's not impossible necessarily to learn them out of order, you aren't supposed to.
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She further along in her training than Aang, but she still obviously has trouble with airbending. The children are able to handle the exercises with more ease than her.
I think it used to be that the Avatar would have the most difficulty with the element that's two steps away from their "native" element (the firebending Avatar had problems with water, after all), but that got changed for Korra.
Which is fine with me since we never got to see air training in the first series, and what we saw in the second episode was aces.
Well, that's what I meant for this comparison. Avatars used to have difficulty with the elements two steps removed from the element of the territory they're raised in, but Korra's blown that out of the water.
Sure they do; they're born into one, otherwise there wouldn't be a noticeable cycle. So Aang was an airbender first, Korra is a waterbender first.
http://korra-gifs.tumblr.com/post/20076298397/tenzin-hello-mother-i-cant-tell-you-how-happy-i
I strongly suspect the creators or at least someone on the creative staff has young kids like these.