I just finished the first season, having never seen it before. Overall I like it, but I also don't... entirely see what's so special about it. But I'm assuming it will get there, overall - it's far from the only show of its ilk to have a slow start.
Main Character Power Rankings
Zuko
Iroh
Sokka
Katara
Appa
That irritating monkey bat
Aang
Book 1 starts "okay" and builds to "pretty solid."
Book 2 drops from 1's finale's heights a bit for the first few episodes, then ramps HARD to pretty damn excellent.
Book 3 drops from 2's finale to "really good" then quickly ramps back up to its peak and basically stays there.
Ending season one with "yeah, this is pretty okay, I get why people like it" was where I was at. It ended up being one of my favorite animated shows.
Other than Aang sounding a bit rough in the first few episodes, they really hit it outta the park WRT the voice actors on this show, huh
In the commentary tracks for the first season, the voice director said that the kids all got to record together for most if not all of the episodes. All of them got to find their footing together and learn how to bounce off one another pretty well even if they weren't in the same room when they were recording like they were in later seasons.
Also Melon Lord is the best character, don't @ me.
Other than Aang sounding a bit rough in the first few episodes, they really hit it outta the park WRT the voice actors on this show, huh
In the commentary tracks for the first season, the voice director said that the kids all got to record together for most if not all of the episodes. All of them got to find their footing together and learn how to bounce off one another pretty well even if they weren't in the same room when they were recording like they were in later seasons.
Also Melon Lord is the best character, don't @ me.
Other than Aang sounding a bit rough in the first few episodes, they really hit it outta the park WRT the voice actors on this show, huh
In the commentary tracks for the first season, the voice director said that the kids all got to record together for most if not all of the episodes. All of them got to find their footing together and learn how to bounce off one another pretty well even if they weren't in the same room when they were recording like they were in later seasons.
Also Melon Lord is the best character, don't @ me.
You forgot Wang Fire
Wang Fire is not a character. Wang Fire is a legend.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+6
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
We finished up ATLA last month and have moved onto Korra
It's better than I remembered
A lot of the problem with korra was pacing, iirc, which is kinda alleviated by binging.
I also really liked the theme that came out that all of them just kinda hung on to this thing they did when they were 15, and whoops! That's not going to be a sound foundation for anything.
I really like Korra for just having the world advance technologically.
I'm too used to fantasy staying in the middle ages for thousands of years, so the sword of your fathers fathers fathers fathers father is still useful today, and way better than the swords they make these days because the craft hasn't advanced at all in the last millennium. Nope, they have cars and robots now.
A hypothetical third series about the next earthbender avatar would be full present-day tech, and the firebender avatar would be actual sci-fi.
A hypothetical third series about the next earthbender avatar would be full present-day tech, and the firebender avatar would be actual sci-fi.
I said it once and I’ll say it again: Ghost in the Avatar.
The Avatar is very literally full of ghosts, yes.
Not after Korra, book 2...
That'd make a third series even funnier. The new Avatar tries to get the wisdom of all their past lives, but they only get one response.
"Have you tried attacking? That was my main thing."
I really like Korra for just having the world advance technologically.
I'm too used to fantasy staying in the middle ages for thousands of years, so the sword of your fathers fathers fathers fathers father is still useful today, and way better than the swords they make these days because the craft hasn't advanced at all in the last millennium. Nope, they have cars and robots now.
A hypothetical third series about the next earthbender avatar would be full present-day tech, and the firebender avatar would be actual sci-fi.
I saw some fanart a few weeks ago on Reddit of the next Avatar from the Earth Kingdom and he had a motorcycle with a metal body and smoothed out rocks for wheels.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Korra Book 2 can be tough to get through, and has a fairly silly climax - they had a very rushed production and it shows. It is also super heckin' important and you can't skip it, unfortunately!
It is definitely worth it for Books 3 & 4 which are the strongest of either show, IMO.
Korra Book 2 can be tough to get through, and has a fairly silly climax - they had a very rushed production and it shows. It is also super heckin' important and you can't skip it, unfortunately!
It is definitely worth it for Books 3 & 4 which are the strongest of either show, IMO.
Book 2 spoilers:
I'm the same spirit mushroom cracks me up everytime.
+5
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JimothyNot in front of the foxhe's with the owlRegistered Userregular
I overall prefer ATLA as a whole, but if I were to rank the seasons, it’s pretty mixed:
ATLA Book 2
Korra Book 3
ATLA Book 3
Korra Book 4
ATLA Book 1
Korra Book 1
Korra Book 2*
Mainly I think the more the show delves into the politics of its world, the better it is. It’s not an accident that my top two seasons heavily feature Ba Sing Se
*Beginnings by itself is up there with the best stuff they’ve ever done. Shame it’s not by itself though
I was very much not a fan of the twist at the end of Book 1 and dropped Korra. Then I heard Book 2 was worse, so I just read the synopsis for Books 3 and 4 because fuck if I'm gonna slog through a whole season to get to the stuff I might like.
Back when ATLA was still airing brand new, I was taking lessons at a Wing Chun school, and our sifu got kind of grouchy that all his 20-something college age students wouldn't shut up about a kids cartoon. This was an old Hawaiian guy who'd had like a 30 year career in the navy before retiring, and taught martial arts as a way to keep an element of discipline in his life, or so it was my impression. (This was NOT the same guy that I've talked about before that I learned Fake Kendo from when I was in high school in Florida, I learned from that experience to check certifications.)
Anyway, he was like "Be careful what martial arts media you consume, you may get flawed ideas of what's possible and let it influence your training." So one of the students showed him the scene
where Aang and Zuko fight on the rim of the well, in the episode where June first appears
and he was like "Oh. Yeah. Ok. What's it called again?" Then that halloween his grandkids came by dressed as Sokka, Katara and baby Appa and it was the cutest damn thing, but I'm gonna guess they probably found the show on their own before their grandpa came around on it.
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
Korra ended up very, very good, but it'll always feel incomplete in that it never really addresses the elephant in the room.
Namely that almost across the board, the villains are right.
Amon is correct that non-benders are treated as second class citizens.
Unalaq is correct that the spirits being shut off from the world was a net negative.
Zaheer is correct about the corruption of the upper class and monarchy, with lack of accountability.
Kuvira is correct that the lack of stability in leadership is causing common suffering.
The show never addresses this. It turns their zealotry up to 11, allowing there to be a "villain" to be beaten, and thus everything is "fixed" (even though it flows from one spawning the next). It doesn't ruminate on the fact that it wasn't the ideas which were bad, but the zealotry.
Like, the subtext is there, but and even if it's aged up from the first show, it's still a kids show: sometimes it helps to hang a lampshade on the light to make sure everyone gets it's a light
Korra ended up very, very good, but it'll always feel incomplete in that it never really addresses the elephant in the room.
Namely that almost across the board, the villains are right.
Amon is correct that non-benders are treated as second class citizens.
Unalaq is correct that the spirits being shut off from the world was a net negative.
Zaheer is correct about the corruption of the upper class and monarchy, with lack of accountability.
Kuvira is correct that the lack of stability in leadership is causing common suffering.
The show never addresses this. It turns their zealotry up to 11, allowing there to be a "villain" to be beaten, and thus everything is "fixed" (even though it flows from one spawning the next). It doesn't ruminate on the fact that it wasn't the ideas which were bad, but the zealotry.
Like, the subtext is there, but and even if it's aged up from the first show, it's still a kids show: sometimes it helps to hang a lampshade on the light to make sure everyone gets it's a light
Something I had hoped for but never happened was having a non-bender on the city council... and it being Moustache Lieutenant from Amon's outfit.
Korra ended up very, very good, but it'll always feel incomplete in that it never really addresses the elephant in the room.
Namely that almost across the board, the villains are right.
Amon is correct that non-benders are treated as second class citizens.
Unalaq is correct that the spirits being shut off from the world was a net negative.
Zaheer is correct about the corruption of the upper class and monarchy, with lack of accountability.
Kuvira is correct that the lack of stability in leadership is causing common suffering.
The show never addresses this. It turns their zealotry up to 11, allowing there to be a "villain" to be beaten, and thus everything is "fixed" (even though it flows from one spawning the next). It doesn't ruminate on the fact that it wasn't the ideas which were bad, but the zealotry.
Like, the subtext is there, but and even if it's aged up from the first show, it's still a kids show: sometimes it helps to hang a lampshade on the light to make sure everyone gets it's a light
It’s been quite a while, but I seem to remember this mostly being addressed:
The episode where Korra visits Zaheer in prison/the Spirit World, right? Don’t they ruminate on the idea that all of Korra’s villains had a point, but they were out of balance and it contaminated their methods?I seem to remember them specifically calling out that theme
That said, I did think it was a major misstep to let the non bender tensions fade into the background/get swept under the rug by having a nonbending president. Felt like that should have been a recurring thing throughout the series, even if the ultimate resolution is “we don’t know how to resolve this, this is gonna still be a problem for future generations, huh”
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Is Korra streaming anywhere?
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Korra ended up very, very good, but it'll always feel incomplete in that it never really addresses the elephant in the room.
Namely that almost across the board, the villains are right.
Amon is correct that non-benders are treated as second class citizens.
Unalaq is correct that the spirits being shut off from the world was a net negative.
Zaheer is correct about the corruption of the upper class and monarchy, with lack of accountability.
Kuvira is correct that the lack of stability in leadership is causing common suffering.
The show never addresses this. It turns their zealotry up to 11, allowing there to be a "villain" to be beaten, and thus everything is "fixed" (even though it flows from one spawning the next). It doesn't ruminate on the fact that it wasn't the ideas which were bad, but the zealotry.
Like, the subtext is there, but and even if it's aged up from the first show, it's still a kids show: sometimes it helps to hang a lampshade on the light to make sure everyone gets it's a light
It’s been quite a while, but I seem to remember this mostly being addressed:
The episode where Korra visits Zaheer in prison/the Spirit World, right? Don’t they ruminate on the idea that all of Korra’s villains had a point, but they were out of balance and it contaminated their methods?I seem to remember them specifically calling out that theme
That said, I did think it was a major misstep to let the non bender tensions fade into the background/get swept under the rug by having a nonbending president. Felt like that should have been a recurring thing throughout the series, even if the ultimate resolution is “we don’t know how to resolve this, this is gonna still be a problem for future generations, huh”
IIRC it's somewhat split between when Korra meets Toph and when she goes to see Zaheer again. Toph points out how what each villain wanted wasn't inherently wrong, they took their ideologies too far. I think what causes Zaheer to come around is that he sees and admits he's responsible for creating the situation that allowed Kuvira to come to power.
In so far as bender/non-bender tensions. Yeah it was mostly done away with after the new President. Although one way to read the tension between him and Korra is this issue croping up again, though I don't think either actually says it out loud.
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
You probably thought that because
Jennifer Hale also voices Avatar Kyoshi, who Suki is basically cosplaying for most of the series
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
You probably thought that because
Jennifer Hale also voices Avatar Kyoshi, who Suki is basically cosplaying for most of the series
Avatar Kiyoshi! Defend yourself on charges of murdering Chin the Great!
*mystical wooshing*
Avatar Kiyoshi here. Yeah I killed him. He sucked! So what? Wanna fight about it?
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
You probably thought that because
Jennifer Hale also voices Avatar Kyoshi, who Suki is basically cosplaying for most of the series
Avatar Kiyoshi! Defend yourself on charges of murdering Chan the Great!
*mystical wooshing*
Avatar Kiyoshi here. Yeah I killed him. He sucked! So what? Wanna fight about it?
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I especially like how
Aang asks her later and is all “yeah but you didn’t really kill him he fell”
And Kyoshi is all
“Boy, if he didn’t fall I’d have pushed him”
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
You probably thought that because
Jennifer Hale also voices Avatar Kyoshi, who Suki is basically cosplaying for most of the series
Avatar Kiyoshi! Defend yourself on charges of murdering Chan the Great!
*mystical wooshing*
Avatar Kiyoshi here. Yeah I killed him. He sucked! So what? Wanna fight about it?
To be completely fair, Kiyoshi may have split the land but Chin died because he was a dumbass who decided to stand on an unstable cliff edge to yell at her while she was leaving.
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JimothyNot in front of the foxhe's with the owlRegistered Userregular
One thing I always thought was very neat
spoilers for both shows
was following up on both "Aang first sees Toph as a vision in the swamp while being told that time is an illusion" and "the kids learn the story of Roku/Sozin and Toph wonders aloud if friendships can transcend lifetimes" with "Aang's next incarnation befriends Toph in the swamp"
They've been pretty upfront that they weren't like, planning out to Korra while making ATLA, but it must've been satisfying to be prepping the latter seasons of Korra and realize how good of a setup that was
Looking up info about that episode, I had no idea June was voiced by Jennifer Hale. I thought she and Suki shared a voice actress for some reason. I'll have to find some clips of both of them to compare.
You probably thought that because
Jennifer Hale also voices Avatar Kyoshi, who Suki is basically cosplaying for most of the series
Avatar Kiyoshi! Defend yourself on charges of murdering Chan the Great!
*mystical wooshing*
Avatar Kiyoshi here. Yeah I killed him. He sucked! So what? Wanna fight about it?
To be completely fair, Kiyoshi may have split the land but Chin died because he was a dumbass who decided to stand on an unstable cliff edge to yell at her while she was leaving.
Posts
It's pretty great watching their opinion of Zuko change between start:
and end:
Book 1 starts "okay" and builds to "pretty solid."
Book 2 drops from 1's finale's heights a bit for the first few episodes, then ramps HARD to pretty damn excellent.
Book 3 drops from 2's finale to "really good" then quickly ramps back up to its peak and basically stays there.
Ending season one with "yeah, this is pretty okay, I get why people like it" was where I was at. It ended up being one of my favorite animated shows.
I love that they know exactly what their type is, that their friends know it too, and that from that they guessed dead on who Prince Zuko is.
Also Melon Lord is the best character, don't @ me.
@Sorce
A lot of the problem with korra was pacing, iirc, which is kinda alleviated by binging.
I also really liked the theme that came out that all of them just kinda hung on to this thing they did when they were 15, and whoops! That's not going to be a sound foundation for anything.
I'm too used to fantasy staying in the middle ages for thousands of years, so the sword of your fathers fathers fathers fathers father is still useful today, and way better than the swords they make these days because the craft hasn't advanced at all in the last millennium. Nope, they have cars and robots now.
A hypothetical third series about the next earthbender avatar would be full present-day tech, and the firebender avatar would be actual sci-fi.
I said it once and I’ll say it again: Ghost in the Avatar.
The Avatar is very literally full of ghosts, yes.
"Have you tried attacking? That was my main thing."
I saw some fanart a few weeks ago on Reddit of the next Avatar from the Earth Kingdom and he had a motorcycle with a metal body and smoothed out rocks for wheels.
Coran Attack!
It is definitely worth it for Books 3 & 4 which are the strongest of either show, IMO.
Book 2 spoilers:
ATLA Book 2
Korra Book 3
ATLA Book 3
Korra Book 4
ATLA Book 1
Korra Book 1
Korra Book 2*
Mainly I think the more the show delves into the politics of its world, the better it is. It’s not an accident that my top two seasons heavily feature Ba Sing Se
*Beginnings by itself is up there with the best stuff they’ve ever done. Shame it’s not by itself though
Anyway, he was like "Be careful what martial arts media you consume, you may get flawed ideas of what's possible and let it influence your training." So one of the students showed him the scene
and he was like "Oh. Yeah. Ok. What's it called again?" Then that halloween his grandkids came by dressed as Sokka, Katara and baby Appa and it was the cutest damn thing, but I'm gonna guess they probably found the show on their own before their grandpa came around on it.
Book 1 of Korra is decent
Book 2 is rough
Book 3 is great
Book 4 is my favourite season of Avatar there is
Amon is correct that non-benders are treated as second class citizens.
Unalaq is correct that the spirits being shut off from the world was a net negative.
Zaheer is correct about the corruption of the upper class and monarchy, with lack of accountability.
Kuvira is correct that the lack of stability in leadership is causing common suffering.
The show never addresses this. It turns their zealotry up to 11, allowing there to be a "villain" to be beaten, and thus everything is "fixed" (even though it flows from one spawning the next). It doesn't ruminate on the fact that it wasn't the ideas which were bad, but the zealotry.
Like, the subtext is there, but and even if it's aged up from the first show, it's still a kids show: sometimes it helps to hang a lampshade on the light to make sure everyone gets it's a light
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
It’s been quite a while, but I seem to remember this mostly being addressed:
That said, I did think it was a major misstep to let the non bender tensions fade into the background/get swept under the rug by having a nonbending president. Felt like that should have been a recurring thing throughout the series, even if the ultimate resolution is “we don’t know how to resolve this, this is gonna still be a problem for future generations, huh”
In so far as bender/non-bender tensions. Yeah it was mostly done away with after the new President. Although one way to read the tension between him and Korra is this issue croping up again, though I don't think either actually says it out loud.
I think it’s on Amazon Prime (at least some of the seasons)
Coran Attack!
Falling so slow
Like little tiny shells
Drifting in the foam
Little soldier boy
Come marching home
Brave soldier
Comes marching
Home
You probably thought that because
God fucking damnit. Still gets me.
*mystical wooshing*
Avatar Kiyoshi here. Yeah I killed him. He sucked! So what? Wanna fight about it?
And Kyoshi is all
“Boy, if he didn’t fall I’d have pushed him”
spoilers for both shows
They've been pretty upfront that they weren't like, planning out to Korra while making ATLA, but it must've been satisfying to be prepping the latter seasons of Korra and realize how good of a setup that was