Avatar (airbender) fans: Legend of Korra release date!

[samsonlonghair]

ahem
http://www.nick.com/videos/legend-of-korra-videos

[Valkyrie-Favor]

The fight scenes in Korra are pretty lame compared to the ones in Avatar. Even more so in the second season. So far (episode 5) they're all just throwing bolts and rocks back and forth. Avatar's characters all thought tactically, using a wide variety of techniques, technology, and terrain to their advantage based on their element and fighting style. Nothing touches its fight scenes. With Korra it doesn't matter what kind of bender the opponent is. Everything is the same.

[Forlorn Drifter]

The fight scenes in Korra are pretty lame compared to the ones in Avatar. Even more so in the second season. So far (episode 5) they're all just throwing bolts and rocks back and forth. Avatar's characters all thought tactically, using a wide variety of techniques, technology, and terrain to their advantage based on their element and fighting style. Nothing touches its fight scenes. With Korra it doesn't matter what kind of bender the opponent is. Everything is the same.

I agree with this. While I believe Korra is much better from a storytelling and maturity level, I believe Avatar's fight scenes were much better.

[samsonlonghair]

My god, Varrick is such a cool character. He's the best addition to the cast this season. This guy just exhudes charisma, and he's shamelessly nihilistic. Varrick could be the "Bender" of this series.

[Ziggy]

OK, so I wasn't too into this season. That all changed with this last episode. It was amazing.

Not only does it give you the whole backstory for the avatar, but it also explains the plot of the season. Why does Korra's uncle (I'm bad with names) want the Avatar to open access to the spirit world? What was he doing in there? There could only be one answer, he wants to release the evil spirit.

The backstory for how the avatar came to be was awesome in it's own right. Definitely my favorite episode of the Korra series thus far.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Ugh, this series strays further and further from the first Avatar series. It lost a lot of creativity and sensitivity, but I've expected that. Now it's losing its common sense entirely. Fire is being treated exactly like air. Wang throws fire all over a really dense forest and not a single thing starts to burn! He also roasts himself in enclosed spaces but nothing happens to him. It doesn't make any sense visually or mechanically. So incredibly dumb I just had to shake my head. He could have gotten out with a knife or a sharp stick, which I'm sure he must have had from living in the forest...He also seemed to know really important things that were never explained to him or us.

How did he know touching the portal will bond his spirit to the light spirit? Why is it possible for him to learn more than one element when he's not the avatar yet? Because he's different from other humans? If it's being in tune with the spirit world, there are plenty of other humans who can qualify. Is it because he got it from a lionturtle? Could someone else learn more than one if he meets several lionturtles?

I guess this can be handwaved - the good spirit touches him and such - but it still was confusing.

The whole story was more rote than your stereotypical JRPG. The poor thief gets kicked out of his city for committing petty crimes, maybe out of necessity. It's never really explained why he can't work for food. Then he wanders around the world, collecting powers, helping the good spirit defeat the bad one, sealing it away for ten thousand years so the next two sequels can happen. At the end of this series Korra will have to fight the big bad spirit, who is as uninteresting as possible and evil by definition.

I didn't think the Avatar universe needed any kind of backstory. It's fine if we have lionturtles all the way down. If you ask me, this episode was worse than nothing. A regular war like we had in the last series would be a lot more interesting than defeating the latest Chaos Thing. It would be different from "everyone vs the fire nation" too. Both sides use the water element, and the South isn't completely outmatched. I realize we'll still be getting a war, but now it has to share screen time with the JRPG nonsense.

It's still a decent show though, and better than any other Western cartoon on air right now. I think.

[Ziggy]

How did he know touching the portal will bond his spirit to the light spirit?

Who said he knew?

The whole story was more rote than your stereotypical JRPG. The poor thief gets kicked out of his city for committing petty crimes, maybe out of necessity. It's never really explained why he can't work for food. Then he wanders around the world, collecting powers, helping the good spirit defeat the bad one, sealing it away for ten thousand years so the next two sequels can happen.

But they had to fit a pretty massive story in 40-something minutes, I'll give them a break for things that were rushed and maybe not explained well.

As for him being a thief... It's assumed that in the city he's a lower class citizen. The family that he keeps stealing food from, it's kinda hinted that they're hoarding food while others in the city are starving. We have to make certain assumption like, yes, he would work for food if he could.

At the end of this series season Korra will have to fight the big bad spirit

Who said that? Maybe the ending will be her stopping her uncle from releasing it.

[samsonlonghair]

Loved it. I feel like this story about Avatar Wan could be a whole series unto itself. It felt compressed as is, but I'm still happy.

A few thoughts:
The scene introducing Wan stealing bread and running across rooftops reminded me of Disney's Aladdin (1992).

Vattu (sp?) reminds me of Aku from Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack (2001).

I like the Aye-aye whose relationship with Wan is the mirror opposite of Aang's relationship with Momo.

Wan stole fire from the Lion Turtle just as Prometheus stole fire from the gods. The story of Wan follows a classic bildungsroman. This is a very archetypical mythology that borrows lots from different cultures all over the world. You can tell the writers of Avatar are fans of comparative mythology.

[Gunstar Green]

I think the complaints about the realism of the fire usage is Wan's story is a little unfair. The entire thing was stylized and being told more like a legend with the oil-painted backgrounds. It wasn't like we were actually watching a video recording of what happened.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

@Gunstar
I'm comparing it to The Last Airbender, which was just as stylized. Katara screams and cries when she gets a nasty burn. Wang doesn't get a scratch after blasting himself with flames. At this point, a firebending attack looks less dangerous than getting punched. It might have been that way last season too

@Samson
The archetype is the only thing here. I read Theogony last week, though. This story is a little different because the lionturtle didn't really care that his fire was stolen

@Ziggy
Maybe they didn't know.

They didn't have to fit this into 40 minutes. It could have been omitted entirely, because the story doesn't need it. They could have just mentioned the story in passing and have Korra gradually discover everything rather than doing a big 40 minute infodump.

About the Chus - all we know about them is that they're rich and don't like being stolen from. I knew enough to assume that Wang was the good guy, because he was poor and liked to make quips like "I did just steal it!" with a grin on his face.

We'll see what happens later, but I think Korra will end up fighting Vattu. If he never appears, there was no point to this episode anyway. There could have been a completely different, simpler reason for Korra to fight Unoloch and close the portal. After all, the spirits are wrecking everything, just like they did in Wang's time.