The legend of Korra

[Scowling Dragon]

Then Nickelodeon are idiots. How long did Kim Possible run again?

5 years.


Im not THAT harsh on the story, but it just feels so loose. Its possible to have a satisfying ending to a season whilst leaving a few loose ends.

Heck the ORIGINAL show ended with Zuko asking about his mom and stuff.

Too much filler for a season that needs to be very tight.

[Math_Mage]

I take everything people who suggest show rewrites say with a pinch of salt. It's easy to be a critic, actually writing something is a different matter entirely, especially when you have a dozen things such as deadlines or executive pressure hanging over your head. Also, hindsight is always 20/20.

Add a pinch of salt, you're still a few cups short of the sodium chloride intake necessary to ingest Legend of Korra unaltered. There's easy criticism, and then there's everything that just went miserably wrong in the execution of Korra.

[Brother Oni]

You're asking someone on the Internet to choose between being more like Firefly and being less like Firefly. Really, what answer do you expect to get?

Fair enough.

That said, there's always the opportunity to redo a rushed story via a reboot (Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 for example, or Rebuild of Evangelion).

But in all seriousness, LoK wasn't a story. It was a storyboard that someone decided to animate without fleshing it out because they "didn't have time" to do it properly. So yes, I prefer an unfinished story to an outline.

While I do agree that LoK was rushed, particularly towards the end, I enjoyed the series for what it was. They've made a few mis-steps, hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes and improve in the second season.

Altering my question slightly and taking a more literal definition of outline, suppose they managed to par down and refine the extraneous story elements of LoK, but at the expense of animation quality, thus the later episodes ended up like the latter half of the TV series of Shin Seiki Evangelion or Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo - would that be acceptable?

[MLai]

The 2 main writers of the Avatar-verse are chokers. They always start off great, and carry through with some really memorable and masterful strokes. But always, at the very end, they choke. Happened in ATLA too.

That blog was right, and offered great insight in how season 1 should have ended. I still think Amon should have been a spirit-bender, because even if only restricting his bloodbending to blocking off bending chakras, that's still a betrayal of his absolutist convictions. And he deserves to be a flawless paragon of the ideals he espouse.

The ending should indeed have Amon and Korra ending their showdown as a public spectacle. At this point, half the city is watching them duke it out, the other half listening to the account on news radio.

Amon's rebellion has been foiled. The police has the area cordoned off; win or lose Amon is finished. But that was just the physical battle. The Equalist movement isn't some alien invasion; they are themselves the citizens of the city. You can kill Amon, you can throw him in jail, but if the idea is not defeated then nothing is truly accomplished. The writers obviously want Amon to be V. So do it!

Amon, from start to end, should use absolutely no bending. And because of that, Korra would gain the upper hand. She would torture him with bending, surrounding Amon with an encroaching ring of fire, trying to force him to abandon his vows and save himself with bending whether it be water or blood. Amon, to her frustration, is ready to martyr himself on the proverbial stake before he submits in the battle of ideals.

At this point, first a child, then a citizen, then a cacophony of voices would rise. "Avatar, stop it!" Only then does Korra realize with horror what she was about to do. She relents, and the fires die, but it seems she has already lost the battle of ideals. Or has she?

She walks up to Amon, her guard completely down, and tells Amon to take away her bending! Amon remarks that she finally sees his righteousness, that the Avatarhood is dead. No, answers Korra. She is the Avatar, not her powers. And allowing Amon to take her powers will be her first step towards proving him wrong.

[Scowling Dragon]

That blog was right, and offered great insight in how season 1 should have ended. I still think Amon should have been a spirit-bender, because even if only restricting his bloodbending to blocking off bending chakras, that's still a betrayal of his absolutist convictions. And he deserves to be a flawless paragon of the ideals he espouse.

No. he does not "Deserve" it. It allows for alternate interpretations of the character. Maybe he truly does believe in what he is teaching, and then there is the whole thing of "The greater good".

Saying that it "MUST" have been made that way is a major no, in my book.

The ending should indeed have Amon and Korra ending their showdown as a public spectacle. At this point, half the city is watching them duke it out, the other half listening to the account on news radio.

Why?

Amon's rebellion has been foiled. The police has the area cordoned off; win or lose Amon is finished. But that was just the physical battle. The Equalist movement isn't some alien invasion; they are themselves the citizens of the city. You can kill Amon, you can throw him in jail, but if the idea is not defeated then nothing is truly accomplished. The writers obviously want Amon to be V. So do it!

The repercussions could still be felt in later seasons.

Amon, from start to end, should use absolutely no bending. And because of that, Korra would gain the upper hand. She would torture him with bending, surrounding Amon with an encroaching ring of fire, trying to force him to abandon his vows and save himself with bending whether it be water or blood. Amon, to her frustration, is ready to martyr himself on the proverbial stake before he submits in the battle of ideals.

So we make Korra a torturer? OK, I think your outright looking at a different tone type in a story.

She walks up to Amon, her guard completely down, and tells Amon to take away her bending! Amon remarks that she finally sees his righteousness, that the Avatarhood is dead. No, answers Korra. She is the Avatar, not her powers. And allowing Amon to take her powers will be her first step towards proving him wrong.

This is utter rubbish. Its transformation of simple bullheadedness, into mad crazyness. A disregard of characterization.

Him taking her powers does nothing and merely says "Yo the avatar is in on this- Everybody else surrender".

Great. Now the avatar can't do anything to help anybody. With the Powers that where bestowed to actually help them bring balance. Whoopedy doo.

I find these series of reviews work much better then the blog.

[MLai]

No. he does not "Deserve" it. It allows for alternate interpretations of the character. Maybe he truly does believe in what he is teaching, and then there is the whole thing of "The greater good".

I'm tired of antagonists being painted as villains in order to make it clear which side the audience should root for. The target audience may be teens, but they can take it. I was watching a show with moral ambiguity when I was in kindergarten (the show's protag was the Dragon of the Big Bad).
Maybe Amon doesn't "deserve" it, but the audience does.

Why?

Don't omnislash me. By this one word it's obvious you didn't even read my entire post before you starting handing out your opinions.
I don't even know if you read the blog. Maybe you did, but you probably skimmed through it otherwise you wouldn't need explanations on my in-between reasonings.

The repercussions could still be felt in later seasons.

Did you even think about that before you typed it? I mean, with how "cleanly" season 1 ended, and knowing Korra goes to the North/South Pole at the start of season 2 for some Spirit Action... do you really think so?

So we make Korra a torturer? OK, I think your outright looking at a different tone type in a story.

Right... because Korra absolutely never went overboard with her kung fu during the show. This girl delights in fighting. If Amon pushes her to the breaking point, if the fate of the entire city hangs in the balance, you think she won't resort to what she does best?
She's not trying to cook him, she's trying to make him waterbend water or bloodbend her. She absolutely does not consider his cause to be righteous, therefore it cannot be genuine, therefore she cannot fathom that he'd be willing to suffer for it, much less die for it.
And yes, I'm looking at a different tone type. A story of moral ambiguity. A story which initially gives you a protagonist you think you're supposed to root for like a fanboy, but in the end makes you think hard about your preconceptions.
And yet, unlike Spec Ops The Line, even at that point you will not consider Korra to be a villain or unlikeable. It merely destroys your preconceptions.

This is utter rubbish. Its transformation of simple bullheadedness, into mad crazyness. A disregard of characterization.

You completely do not understand why she might do something like that. Atm I'm not going to explain it to you.

Him taking her powers does nothing and merely says "Yo the avatar is in on this- Everybody else surrender".
Great. Now the avatar can't do anything to help anybody. With the Powers that where bestowed to actually help them bring balance. Whoopedy doo.

Wrong. And wrong. See above.
If no one else can see my reasoning either, or thinks it's schlok reasoning, then I'll explain.

I find these series of reviews work much better then the blog.

Will read, gonna take a computer break atm.

[Kato]

Hm... well, why the proposed ending has some charm to it i's still flawed.

The idea of a more public spectacle seems like a good idea and even Amon refusing to use bending to the point of martyrdom. (Actually, I really hated they didn't do something like that)

Even Korra... I wouldn't say torture. Yeah, I can see her losing her cool and trying to force him to use reveal himself but torture is too strong a word, at least that.

What I really don't like is the last part. Korra realizing her mistake is one thing but the short dialogue doesn't work. Korra wouldn't be that easily willing to give up her powers, (nor was she mature enough to see what you make her out to soo, in my opinion) nor would Amon jump to the conclusion it would be anything but a trick or something. Nothing about that scene says "Korra realizes Amon is right" or "Korra realizes the Avatar is more than hir powers".

Don't ask me how I'd end it right now but this doesn't work for me either.

[Sith_Happens]

I still think Amon should have been a spirit-bender, because even if only restricting his bloodbending to blocking off bending chakras, that's still a betrayal of his absolutist convictions. And he deserves to be a flawless paragon of the ideals he espouse.

Um, no. You ever seen Serenity? The way I see it, Amon was like the Operative. He (IMO) did truly believe in what he was doing, but he wasn't going to let his ends get in the way of his means, and was simply willing to accept that in a way he was anathema to his own cause.

And on the ending, the only part I think really needed to be done differently was the "suddenly, Aang." Now, I don't think that the answer was "epic, derivative journey to relearn everything/undo the block." Because what it still comes down to is that the first season was designed to stand alone. What they could have done was make it clear that, while she doesn't get her bending back on screen, there is a way and she knows what it is, even if it might take some work.

Or, if they really wanted to tie it up then and there, a fairly plausible resolution would have been for Korra to realize "Hey, maybe instead of using healing techniques, Katara could bloodbend me back," and have it work, maybe with a little meditating-mojo for that extra push.

[Soras Teva Gee]

And on the ending, the only part I think really needed to be done differently was the "suddenly, Aang."

Frankly to me not doing that would be needless. Because it was long established the previous Avatar acts as mentor to the next one.... and oh wait what could Aang do again?

Now maybe it could be introduced differently, like have Tenzin and Korra ask themselves whether Aang (and thus by extension Korra) could do that when speaking about other victims of Amon. In an earlier episode.

[Tengu_temp]

Add a pinch of salt, you're still a few cups short of the sodium chloride intake necessary to ingest Legend of Korra unaltered. There's easy criticism, and then there's everything that just went miserably wrong in the execution of Korra.

Maybe for you. I admit Korra was a flawed show, but I still enjoyed watching it a lot - and so did many people who are complaining right now, in fact. And seriously, saying that Korra went miserably wrong just makes you sound unaware how much crap there is on the TV. Watch some of the **** that's there, either from kids' shows or just shows in general. You're seriously comparing Korra to that?

[endoperez]

So you don't consider Korra's entire firebending graduation test as proof? (I referred to it in that thread too.)

I'm afraid I don't remember that; however, I'm also not interested in recreating that argument.

You could make a case for it, actually. Consider how easily Jet, a skilled martial artist but non-bender, died to a single blunt earthbending attack. While we see Toph manhandling earthbenders like punting ragdolls in her intro episode, and they're all none the worse afterwards.

I gave it as an example of a theory I personally find ridiculous, and this just goes on to prove our opinions on this differ radically. So much, in fact, that I'm not interested in it.

1. Fire resistance does not mean "hur hur I no sell explosions."
2. She's an Earth Kingdom woman.

I was listing these in reference to the discussion where Toph's feet burning was mentioned.

I just remembered another relevant example:
In the Fire Temple, Avatar Roku possessing Aang was able to firebend quite precisely, blasting Zhao + cronies away, leaving chained Katara+Sokka unharmed and burning said chain away...

[JadedDM]

I'd be really interested in seeing sources for these claims.

Bullcrap. Having a female lead would only attract more girls to the audience.

This isn't the 1950s.

How about here?

"Some Nickelodeon executives were worried, says Konietzko, about backing an animated action show with a female lead character. Conventional TV wisdom has it that girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won't watch shows about girls.

During test screenings, though, boys said they didn't care that Korra was a girl. They just said she was awesome."

[Math_Mage]

Maybe for you. I admit Korra was a flawed show, but I still enjoyed watching it a lot - and so did many people who are complaining right now, in fact. And seriously, saying that Korra went miserably wrong just makes you sound unaware how much crap there is on the TV. Watch some of the **** that's there, either from kids' shows or just shows in general. You're seriously comparing Korra to that?

I enjoyed getting my fix of Jedi action in the Star Wars prequels. There are plenty of movies out there worse than the Star Wars prequels, too. But we say George Lucas got the prequels miserably wrong because there was so much potential to be gloriously right that doesn't exist with a movie like, say, Sharktopus.

So no, I'm not comparing Korra to other TV shows, good or bad; I'm comparing the quality of Korra's setup to the quality of Korra's execution. The original series establishes a high-quality broad setting, and Republic City is amazing. Each of the characters are well-conceived and -introduced, and several narrative threads are developed that could weave together into a complex and meaningful story. But each of the characters turns one-dimensional and falls off of his/her arc, the story threads get tangled up in bad pacing and terribly written romance, and in a rush to tie off all those threads the writers abandon any semblance of narrative depth.

We're left asking, "What if?" What if Mako and Bolin were defined as characters beyond their relationship with Korra (a complaint usually leveled at female characters in stories with a male lead)? What if there was a voice, any voice, among the protagonists expressing ambivalence towards Amon's philosophy and goals? What if Korra had a visible arc of either Airbending training, spiritual development, or social perspective (e.g. grappling with Amon's ideas rather than just his minions)? What if the story's potentially morally complex antagonists (Tarrlok and Amon) hadn't been reduced to frauds; or what if we hadn't glossed over the fact that Amon's true backstory is just as valid a motivation as his cover story? What if we saw a perspective from the lower levels of the Equalist movement more complex than the protester in episode 1? What if we saw a bender, any bender, who continued to function without their bending, forcing Korra and us to question the assumption that losing bending is the end of the world? What if the last episode never happened?

Don't tell me this couldn't have been accomplished in a kid's show. The original series did most of this. Korra was set up to do most of this. They just didn't do it. That's why I'm disappointed.

And yes, they only had 12 episodes to work with (grrr Nickelodeon execs why you so bloody stupid grrr). Which is why they should create a season-sized story arc within the broader story they're trying to tell. That, or tell a story that fits in a season, with a few loose ends that could lead into the Equalist arc. This story doesn't fit, and trying to cram it all in sapped it of substance.

[Brother Oni]

I'm tired of antagonists being painted as villains in order to make it clear which side the audience should root for. The target audience may be teens, but they can take it.

In your opinion they could. In the opinion of people who make the decisions (censors and TV executives), they couldn't.

The simple answer to that - you should become a TV censor or network executive and get the programming you want to watch made.

I was watching a show with moral ambiguity when I was in kindergarten (the show's protag was the Dragon of the Big Bad).

You are aware that cultural mores and values change with time? You only have to look at the way Disney tries to pretend Song of the South doesn't exist any more.

I was watching an old Tom and Jerry, where Jerry smashes then threatens Tom with a broken bottle. You simply don't see that sort of thing these days on children's shows.

On a separate note, personally I don't think this level of violence is harmful - it's perfectly clear the violence is cartoon-ish and Tom isn't permanently injured.
My wife, mother and mother-in-law disagree with me however, so the children aren't allowed to watch old school Tom and Jerry. New Tom and Jerry isn't worthy of the name.

[Morty]

Math Mage keeps saying all the things I'm thinking. Personally, my biggest disappointment with Legend of Korra was the utter ruination of Amon's character and the Equalist movement being reduced to a complete joke.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Math Mage keeps saying all the things I'm thinking. Personally, my biggest disappointment with Legend of Korra was the utter ruination of Amon's character and the Equalist movement being reduced to a complete joke.

Well the problem such as with this is if you judge reality against the bar of what you "imagine it could have been" reality will almost always loose to the imagination.

Its human nature, we believe we can imagine perfection but don't have as easy a time with flaws. Part of why they are you know flaws, they don't align with our tastes and preferences. And well, at the end of the day other people are not mind readers.

This is not to say that LoK is without problems. But its very very easy to rants that because they didn't do X its a horrible terrible waste of damn time or whatever hyperbole the nerdrage can concoct.

[The LOBster]

I personally think Korra's follwing seasons will be better... Hopefully.

Of course, I think the main thing that dragged down season one was the romance and Mako, who's easily the most unlikeable character Bryke have come up with. When he's competing with two abusive dads, a megalomaniacal politician and a smug general, and he's STILL less likeable, you know a character's awful. He feels like an attempt to make Zuko again without realizing what made Zuko's character interesting and likeable.

[Morty]

Well the problem such as with this is if you judge reality against the bar of what you "imagine it could have been" reality will almost always loose to the imagination.

Its human nature, we believe we can imagine perfection but don't have as easy a time with flaws. Part of why they are you know flaws, they don't align with our tastes and preferences. And well, at the end of the day other people are not mind readers.

This is not to say that LoK is without problems. But its very very easy to rants that because they didn't do X its a horrible terrible waste of damn time or whatever hyperbole the nerdrage can concoct.

It's not about what I imagined or what could have happened. Amon turned out to be a character with nonsensical motivations and stupid backstory who was also ultimately defeated by his own stupidity despite being portrayed as highly intelligent until that point. The Equalists were rendered completely pointless and we didn't even find out what happened to them. You don't need to put them against some impossible, perfect ideal to realize that. But thanks for implying my complaints are nerdrage caused by my idealized version of the plot not happening.

[BRC]

It's not about what I imagined or what could have happened. Amon turned out to be a character with nonsensical motivations and stupid backstory who was also ultimately defeated by his own stupidity despite being portrayed as highly intelligent until that point. The Equalists were rendered completely pointless and we didn't even find out what happened to them. You don't need to put them against some impossible, perfect ideal to realize that. But thanks for implying my complaints are nerdrage caused by my idealized version of the plot not happening.

Eh, Amon's motivations were perfectly logical as far as things go.
It WAS pretty stupid how quickly he started doing a bunch of highly visible bending. I mean, it makes sense that he might resort to bloodbending when backed into a corner by the Avatar, but when she knocks him into the water his first instinct was to pull up a giant cyclone thing.
I mean come on, he MUST know how to swim. He could have just tread water, then said "Hey, Highly Loyal Army, The Avatar is down to one element that she only figured out how to do like a minute ago, can you restrain her please".

[Douglas]

I mean come on, he MUST know how to swim. He could have just tread water, then said "Hey, Highly Loyal Army, The Avatar is down to one element that she only figured out how to do like a minute ago, can you restrain her please".

By the time he recovered enough to do anything at all, he was well on his way to drowning. I don't think he had enough breath left to last the time it would take to get to the surface without bending, and being underwater with little or no held breath is not exactly conducive to strategic thinking.

Plus, the fake scar was gone either way.

Using water soluble inks for the scar was pretty dumb, though. All I can come up with for that one is a combination of arrogance and not bothering to think about that detail. I suppose he could have hired someone to make the scar and left the implementation details to the guy doing it, maybe ending up not even knowing that water could wash it off, but it's still kinda weak.

[Morty]

Eh, Amon's motivations were perfectly logical as far as things go.

I think there's a huge leap of logic between "my father was a gigantic douchebag" and "I want to wipe out all bending forever".

It WAS pretty stupid how quickly he started doing a bunch of highly visible bending. I mean, it makes sense that he might resort to bloodbending when backed into a corner by the Avatar, but when she knocks him into the water his first instinct was to pull up a giant cyclone thing.

Not only that; why on Earth did he bloodbend Korra and Mako? Couldn't he, I don't know, fight them like he fought Lightning Bolt Zolt? Even if he couldn't defeat them, he could definetly last long enough for his troops to arrive. And the Lieutenant did arrive in time to see Amon bloodbend.

I mean come on, he MUST know how to swim. He could have just tread water, then said "Hey, Highly Loyal Army, The Avatar is down to one element that she only figured out how to do like a minute ago, can you restrain her please".

Precisely.

[Soras Teva Gee]

By the time he recovered enough to do anything at all, he was well on his way to drowning. I don't think he had enough breath left to last the time it would take to get to the surface without bending, and being underwater with little or no held breath is not exactly conducive to strategic thinking.

Plus, the fake scar was gone either way.

Using water soluble inks for the scar was pretty dumb, though. All I can come up with for that one is a combination of arrogance and not bothering to think about that detail. I suppose he could have hired someone to make the scar and left the implementation details to the guy doing it, maybe ending up not even knowing that water could wash it off, but it's still kinda weak.

I think the panic bending goes is one of the subtler cues about Amon's hypocrisy. At the end of the day he doesn't practice what he preaches, and in a moment of panic he'll jump to bending.

And if he was a true believer he would have arranged for a real scar. We know he knew some wilderness survival from camping with papa.

Beyond that well the difference between water soluable cosmetics and not is getting more then a little nitpicky. Wouldn't people the be asking why it didn't wash off? Because right or wrong you don't think about make-up standing up to water, as a rule of drama if nothing else. Its not like they introduced a minor plot point about Cabbage Corp's Wondrous Waterproof Cosmetics line.

And if he was truly stupid he'd just have had the mask alone, so let's get some points. (You just know the Equalists were always making jokes about the Amon taking for-ever every morning in the bathroom while he touched that up)

[BRC]

By the time he recovered enough to do anything at all, he was well on his way to drowning. I don't think he had enough breath left to last the time it would take to get to the surface without bending, and being underwater with little or no held breath is not exactly conducive to strategic thinking.

Bending is Physical. If he had time to create a gigantic cyclone, he had time to swim, or at least do some more subtle bending to reach the surface. He could have just pushed himself up without being too visible about it.

He didn't just push himself up to the surface, he whipped up a massive cyclone to suspend himself above the water.

I think there's a huge leap of logic between "my father was a gigantic douchebag" and "I want to wipe out all bending forever".

It's a huge leap of logic, but one can reasonably follow from the other. Tarrlok was a teen when his brother ran away. The Avatar Wiki puts him at age 37. That's at least two decades for Noatak's hatred of his father to turn into a hatred of all bending.

[Morty]

It's a huge leap of logic, but one can reasonably follow from the other. Tarrlok was a teen when his brother ran away. The Avatar Wiki puts him at age 37. That's at least two decades for Noatak's hatred of his father to turn into a hatred of all bending.

I suppose so, but it sure would have been nice to get at least a glimpse of his thought process.

[Math_Mage]

Well the problem such as with this is if you judge reality against the bar of what you "imagine it could have been" reality will almost always loose to the imagination.

Its human nature, we believe we can imagine perfection but don't have as easy a time with flaws. Part of why they are you know flaws, they don't align with our tastes and preferences. And well, at the end of the day other people are not mind readers.

This is not to say that LoK is without problems. But its very very easy to rants that because they didn't do X its a horrible terrible waste of damn time or whatever hyperbole the nerdrage can concoct.

It's also very easy to dismiss any criticism in that manner. Rather than throwing generalities around, it's more instructive to examine whether this particular case fits those generalities. How far-fetched are the could-have-beens? How much would they have improved the show? How damaged was the show without them? Do the could-have-beens represent needless complexity, or fundamental narrative completeness, or something in between?

If you look at my previous post, it's fairly clear what the situation here is. Legend of Korra had great action, a great setting, a clear conflict, and multiple layers of storytelling--in these respects it was a good show. Where the show falls down is on the quality of each layer of storytelling, on character depth, on pacing, and on sustaining the conflict's moral and philosophical meaning.

Despite your appeal to tastes and preferences, these are not subjective flaws. They do not exist only because fans construct hypotheticals that they think would be better; rather, the flaws themselves inspired fans to imagine such hypotheticals. After all, those hypotheticals are largely open-ended questions about what might have happened in the absence of some glaring flaw.

I personally think Korra's follwing seasons will be better... Hopefully.

Of course, I think the main thing that dragged down season one was the romance and Mako, who's easily the most unlikeable character Bryke have come up with. When he's competing with two abusive dads, a megalomaniacal politician and a smug general, and he's STILL less likeable, you know a character's awful. He feels like an attempt to make Zuko again without realizing what made Zuko's character interesting and likeable.

Perhaps a more illuminating way of putting it is that Mako is an attempt to import Zuko's awkward romance without importing the character depth that made the awkwardness charming.

I suppose so, but it sure would have been nice to get at least a glimpse of his thought process.

Beyond that, it would have been nice to illustrate actual tension between benders and non-benders beyond what was manufactured by Yakone's two kids and Sato's personal grudge. Again, we get told such things happen--Amon says as much when he takes out Bending gangsters. This is where characters like Mako, Bolin, and Gommu could have been invaluable: they're all street folk who grew up in the city's underbelly. Their experiences, connections, and viewpoints could have greatly contributed to this aspect of the story. They could have shown us the travails of the common citizen of Republic City. But instead Mako and Bolin are relegated to suitors, and Gommu turns out to live in some kind of underground noble savage society. Just another thread left dangling.

Another way this could have happened is if we had seen such tensions outside Republic City, beyond the sphere of influence of Noatok and Tarrlok and Sato. Then it would be clear that they are products, not engineers, of the conflict between benders and non-benders. But that's a much more tenuous idea; there aren't ready examples of how it could be unlocked in the show.

[Douglas]

Bending is Physical. If he had time to create a gigantic cyclone, he had time to swim, or at least do some more subtle bending to reach the surface. He could have just pushed himself up without being too visible about it.

He didn't just push himself up to the surface, he whipped up a massive cyclone to suspend himself above the water.

A gigantic cyclone gets him to the surface - and breathable air - in a second or so, maybe less. Swimming would have taken much longer, and subtle bending would have both been slower (not as slow as swimming, but still slower by a substantial margin) and required a lot of finesse at a moment when gasping for breath was likely the only thought on his mind.

It's a huge leap of logic, but one can reasonably follow from the other. Tarrlok was a teen when his brother ran away. The Avatar Wiki puts him at age 37. That's at least two decades for Noatak's hatred of his father to turn into a hatred of all bending.

I think there was also a hefty dose of Noatok trying to prove his father right after all, that bloodbending is the most powerful thing in the world, even more than the Avatar.

At his core, I think Noatok was power hungry and ambitious, and he viewed other benders - and the Avatar in particular - as his primary rivals and obstacles. Thus, the Equalist movement was perfectly suited for him to hijack because it was targeted on his self-proclaimed enemies.

[Morty]

[...] Sato's personal grudge [...]

I agree with the rest of your post, so I'll just take this opportunity to note that this one part almost had me bang my head against the wall. Couldn't they seriously have come up with a more original cause of Sato's anti-bender sentiments? Nah, who cares, his wife was just killed by A. Firebender. It's like they were doing this on purpose.

At his core, I think Noatok was power hungry and ambitious, and he viewed other benders - and the Avatar in particular - as his primary rivals and obstacles. Thus, the Equalist movement was perfectly suited for him to hijack because it was targeted on his self-proclaimed enemies.

Which changes him from an interesting antagonist whose ideas might have a point behind them and who exemplifies a social injustice inherent in a setting with powered individuals into... yet another power-hungry bender. Yep.

[Math_Mage]

A gigantic cyclone gets him to the surface - and breathable air - in a second or so, maybe less. Swimming would have taken much longer, and subtle bending would have both been slower (not as slow as swimming, but still slower by a substantial margin) and required a lot of finesse at a moment when gasping for breath was likely the only thought on his mind.

I think this debate is getting a little too low-level. It might be more useful to ask, why write the scene so that Amon gets knocked out and has to use waterbending to surface in the first place? Would the story have ended better if he hadn't been exposed?

I think there was also a hefty dose of Noatok trying to prove his father right after all, that bloodbending is the most powerful thing in the world, even more than the Avatar.

At his core, I think Noatok was power hungry and ambitious, and he viewed other benders - and the Avatar in particular - as his primary rivals and obstacles. Thus, the Equalist movement was perfectly suited for him to hijack because it was targeted on his self-proclaimed enemies.

This is one of those statements that is probably true, but should have received more narrative support from the story if it is.

[Soras Teva Gee]

It's also very easy to dismiss any criticism in that manner. Rather than throwing generalities around, it's more instructive to examine whether this particular case fits those generalities. How far-fetched are the could-have-beens? How much would they have improved the show? How damaged was the show without them? Do the could-have-beens represent needless complexity, or fundamental narrative completeness, or something in between?

Indeed and this one fits does fit better then most. Because there are enough elements to say that the season of LoK was supposed to be a big arc story in 12 parts so all those parts have to fit together. LoK is an odd case where the whole is less then the sum of its parts, most of the episodes work on their own and the fundamental design of everything is very well put together.

The difference I think is that rather then what could have been the question is: What did the story need to work?

Which lends itself to certain conclusions. I think that setting aside, the true core of the story is not unique or odd, it's heroic fiction with Korra as the hero. So given a limited amount of time the focus needs to be on Korra at the foremost. Getting who she is established, what her life is, and what she needs to due to overcome the challenge the plot will present her with.

And given the amount of time anything added means something else has to be cut, zero sum game and all.

I can ostensibly like some more detail on Amon as the problem in the show... but the story needs learning-to-airbend more then that since that's what is used to overcome the problem. So between the two the one orient on Korra is far and away more important.

And I also don't think there's all that much to cut. The love triangle nonsense is an easy one but only gives you so much and I dispute how much else there is. Something like pro-bending for example needs to be there to give Korra a life. I guess maybe we could slice out the Sato subplot, but then it starts to really put Asami on thin grounds for being there which raises the issue of the hero group being all benders. So to me plenty of things like really diving into the social conditions of Republic City, have to be put by the wayside.

Korra doesn't need to refute Amon and the Equalist as much as she needs to give them a beat down. Refuting them or exploring if they have fair points could say wait until the next part when say "benders as the problem" can take center stage to an Avatar who's completed her skill set and now can focus on wisdom and being a leader.

Perhaps a more illuminating way of putting it is that Mako is an attempt to import Zuko's awkward romance without importing the character depth that made the awkwardness charming.

Seems pretty evident the whole thing is pandering to Zutara fans to me. Oh sorry not the first cycle but how about the next one, can't object to that can you?

Given that in the first episode the creators took the time to troll about Zuko's mom it suddenly makes the whole love triangle make a lot of sense as another way to jerk around the fans expectations.

Not hard to see why it fell flat either from this point of view. Interacting with your fanbase is one thing, but when the tail starts to wag the dog its generally problematic.

They could go there, I've no objection to the couple per say. But there just isn't room in the story for a complete romance. If its not the main damn plot it seems to go better as a slow burn kinda thing just as a general rule.

[GloatingSwine]

I personally think Korra's follwing seasons will be better... Hopefully.

Of course, I think the main thing that dragged down season one was the romance and Mako, who's easily the most unlikeable character Bryke have come up with. When he's competing with two abusive dads, a megalomaniacal politician and a smug general, and he's STILL less likeable, you know a character's awful. He feels like an attempt to make Zuko again without realizing what made Zuko's character interesting and likeable.

The problem with Mako isn't that he's unlikable, the problem is that there's nothing there to like.

Bolin gets a little bit of aborted character development when he goes off to work for the triad, but it just turns into an excuse for peril. Otherwise he's just "the funny one" and nothing else (and half the time they draw him as if he's fat, when clearly he's not, just built like a heavyweight boxer).

Mako doesn't even get that, he just kind of exists, there's nothing to him.

He is, ironically, just like most female charaters in the majority of media. His job is to look pretty and be the prize for the main character at the end. He gets to hold few to no opinions; his goals, if any, are secondary and frivolous compared to the Important Business of the main character; and he only gets to "win" in as much as he supports the main character in their more important victory.

It's a bum note for Avatar, which was really good at having well rounded characters of both genders.