Legend of Korra Book 3: Bending over Backwards

[John Cribati]

Trailer

There you have it, folks. All aboard the Steam Powered Hype Train.

So… I’m not really excited for the season. I mean, I liked books 1 and 2 well enough, but Bryke have a way of biting off more than they can chew, spitting it out, and trying to present it to us as a cohesive… thing. Let's have a rundown of the trailer:

Spoiler

Show

More airbenders. How? Why? In before Aang/Toph extramarital affair.
Girl who looks suspiciously like Azula who can shoot explodey death beams. Because we need more of the stupidest power in the whole show.
Lin has a sister? Hmm…
Korra learns metalbending because she needs to be more overpowered.
WAIT IS THAT ZUKO? ON A DRAGON? Maybe I’m a little hype for that.
Will Bolin be allowed to be badass for more than, like two minutes?

[ThePhantom]

Okay, someone learned combustion man's techique, pity that no characters knew what actually made him explode.
And the Dai Li are back? I would have thought that with what Aang had to go regarding them that they would have been disbanded.

[Ronnoc]

I'm thinking that the new airbenders exist due to Korra realising that energy bending can grant the elements as well as take them away.

[Metahuman1]

I'm thinking that the new airbenders exist due to Korra realising that energy bending can grant the elements as well as take them away.

That would make sense, I could see that.

I could Also see Aang having done it at some point before he had kids as a "Just in Case/Don't count chickens before there hatched/don't put all the eggs in one basket" kinda thing since he had decades to experiment with energy bending off camera, as well as to potentially have learned the same things Korra did last season about the first Avatar and the origins of Bending via deep meditation/interaction with the spirit world.

Edit:

Also, hell, maybe there were a small number who hid there air bending after the genocide by Sozin and didn't come out of hiding for fear of the world eventually doing it again, even after Avatar Aang won the war.

As for the Dai Li, maybe it's like Hydra and Shield in marvel's cinematic universe. They were taken apart officially, but there members were still alive, and able to talk to one another, sometimes in privet. And decided "screw this disbanded thing, we just won't advertise the same way we use too, or in front of certain people."

[Lord Raziere]

The Trailer as always, convinces me it will be Awesome as always.
Unfortunately, now to wait for the inevitable proclamations that it sucks. ;_;

[cobaltstarfire]

I hope the fact that this is the first season made after having had time to get some feedback will help improve it.

I liked season 1 well enough, but season 2 was in the long run mostly disappointing and all over the place to me.

Hopefully I won't be walking away from this one going "fool me twice, shame on you" cause it looks like it'll be interesting, but so did last seasons trailer.

[Fralex]

Okay, someone learned combustion man's techique, pity that no characters knew what actually made him explode.

I always assumed Combustion Man was just using psychic firebending, in the same way there was psychic bloodbending in Legend of Korra.

[Pokonic]

The Dai Li being revived isn't especially surprising, giving the context of everything. It's unlikely that every member of such a secretive organization could be tracked down, and those who managed to live past the death of Aang and most of those who were involved in taking them down the first time probably took what they got and quietly reformed when the time was right.

[Math_Mage]

I heard the other Airbenders are a consequence of merging the two worlds, but I can't find a good source for it.

[HamHam]

Korra has been pretty bad so far, but it's always had good moments and potential. The possibility remains that the writers will stop being so terrible and it will suddenly be great. But I'm not really optimistic.

[Findpathfencer]

Korra has been pretty bad so far, but it's always had good moments and potential. The possibility remains that the writers will stop being so terrible and it will suddenly be great. But I'm not really optimistic.

Why do you think it's bad?
[i don't mean that's it's good but I want to know for knowledge sake.]

[Kitten Champion]

I'll watch it. While Legend of Korra has serious flaws in character development, pacing, and maintaining a cohesive narrative it never quite entered cringe-worthy unwatchable territory for me. However nonsensically it was achieved, they did make Korra less abrasive, petulant, and thuggish by the end of season 2 and so long as that sticks I'm willing to ignore the problems with how. Perhaps this time they'll learn to focus on what they're doing rather than trying to jam all of their various ideas into one small package, slow down to explore and appreciate the generally interesting themes they do raise, and have a satisfactory conclusion rather than a big epic spectacular one.

[Jayngfet]

A bunch of the episodes have already leaked. From what I've seen it runs down like this:

Spoiler

Show

-In addition to Aang, Toph is also apparently a terrible parent. Say what you like, but it's kind of terrible when literally nobody in the series can have one parental figure who isn't evil or stupid, especially when they're heroes of another series who never really achieved much after.

-The airbenders get handwaved away by "A spirit did it" and that's basically the end of that discussion. Them not having monk training gets used in one gag then handily ignored as Tenzin and co. get pushed off to the side, so that Lin's entire family can be established as a bunch of petty jerks. Some airbender kid is into Jinora, and his personality can be summed up as every swarthy street rat with a heart of gold you've seen in every cartoon before.

-Bolin continues to fail at basically everything. He's the only earthbender who can't metalbend and can't really do anything about it. Of course, Korra picks it up instantly, because of course she does. He's also useless in chase scenes and at this point is wholly subordinate to Mako, who gets to do all of the cool stuff. He's got a bland quirky love interest now, but there isn't all that much to speak of there.

-The villains are basically used as an excuse to retroactively justify a bunch of the obviously bad decisions last chapter, since Zuko shows up for about five minutes to explain how super dangerous they are and how they're the greatest threat out there who fought a bunch of the strongest characters to a standstill, despite never alluding to them once in any episode. Their leader has all the powers of combustion man somehow(this is never alluded to, except for "she just can"), and her team can somehow outfight master benders five to one despite literally being a bunch of cripples with no real training.

-On the plus side, Asami is apparently capable of doing things now, actually contributing in fights and existing as more than a convenient replacement Appa to move the team from place to place.

From an artistic standpoint the studios swapped back and it's incredibly obvious. The backgrounds are done much tighter and things are at a higher quality, though the general direction Nick is giving is one I've always questioned, since digital paintings look nice but don't blend well with an anime art style. You really can tell that it's Studio Mir pulling double duty between this and the boondocks, with some of the expressions being identical in a couple of shots.

It LOOKS pretty, and it's not AS BAD as Book Two, but it's still obvious from a writing standpoint that it's suffering from the exact same issues as before. There's even more needless daddy issues, even more retroactive continuity, even more bizarre romance arcs, and Korra still falls for blindingly obvious lies from villains who never hide how evil they are, because of course she does.

[Math_Mage]

Why do you think it's bad?
[i don't mean that's it's good but I want to know for knowledge sake.]

Odd pacing, missed potential, terribly awkward romances, Mako is a flour sack, Bolin is a brick wall, villains get weird thematically unsatisfying finales.

[MLai]

At this point I've completely lost faith in those 2 lead writers. They're like the Wachowski Brothers who gave us Matrix 1, but then Matrix 2-3, if yanno what I mean.
Don't expect Matrix 1 again. Expect Matrix 3. You'll feel less disappointed.

But I'll still catch every single episode. Why? The Korean animation, ofc. Why else.

[John Cribati]

I don’t have many high hopes for this show. At best, Korra was mediocre. In fact, it was technically more bad than good, it's just the parts that I felt were good were things I place more value on in a story.

[cobaltstarfire]

A bunch of the episodes have already leaked. From what I've seen it runs down like this:

Spoiler

Show

-In addition to Aang, Toph is also apparently a terrible parent. Say what you like, but it's kind of terrible when literally nobody in the series can have one parental figure who isn't evil or stupid, especially when they're heroes of another series who never really achieved much after.

-The airbenders get handwaved away by "A spirit did it" and that's basically the end of that discussion. Them not having monk training gets used in one gag then handily ignored as Tenzin and co. get pushed off to the side, so that Lin's entire family can be established as a bunch of petty jerks. Some airbender kid is into Jinora, and his personality can be summed up as every swarthy street rat with a heart of gold you've seen in every cartoon before.

-Bolin continues to fail at basically everything. He's the only earthbender who can't metalbend and can't really do anything about it. Of course, Korra picks it up instantly, because of course she does. He's also useless in chase scenes and at this point is wholly subordinate to Mako, who gets to do all of the cool stuff. He's got a bland quirky love interest now, but there isn't all that much to speak of there.

-The villains are basically used as an excuse to retroactively justify a bunch of the obviously bad decisions last chapter, since Zuko shows up for about five minutes to explain how super dangerous they are and how they're the greatest threat out there who fought a bunch of the strongest characters to a standstill, despite never alluding to them once in any episode. Their leader has all the powers of combustion man somehow(this is never alluded to, except for "she just can"), and her team can somehow outfight master benders five to one despite literally being a bunch of cripples with no real training.

-On the plus side, Asami is apparently capable of doing things now, actually contributing in fights and existing as more than a convenient replacement Appa to move the team from place to place.

From an artistic standpoint the studios swapped back and it's incredibly obvious. The backgrounds are done much tighter and things are at a higher quality, though the general direction Nick is giving is one I've always questioned, since digital paintings look nice but don't blend well with an anime art style. You really can tell that it's Studio Mir pulling double duty between this and the boondocks, with some of the expressions being identical in a couple of shots.

It LOOKS pretty, and it's not AS BAD as Book Two, but it's still obvious from a writing standpoint that it's suffering from the exact same issues as before. There's even more needless daddy issues, even more retroactive continuity, even more bizarre romance arcs, and Korra still falls for blindingly obvious lies from villains who never hide how evil they are, because of course she does.

In all fairness as far as things just happening without warning, the leaked episodes were 3-6, so the things you say weren't explained or alluded to may have been mentioned in episode 1 or 2 (probably not though, based on how things play out in Korra).

But it sounds like lots of hair brained writing again. It's really disappointing to hear that Bolin is still being played out as a useless idiot, and that there's still weird romance crap.

[HamHam]

Why do you think it's bad?
[i don't mean that's it's good but I want to know for knowledge sake.]

Korra. Attacked. A Judge.

That's not even more than a drop in the ocean of terrible writing that is Korra, but it is to me the epitome of it.

[John Cribati]

Korra. Attacked. A Judge.

That's not even more than a drop in the ocean of terrible writing that is Korra, but it is to me the epitome of it.

To be fair, my problem with that isn't that she does it— it's perfectly in-character for her to do something like that— but that there's no real repercussions for it. Then again, she’s 5he Avatar and can do whatever the hell she wants.

Also I always wonder if Korra would be as poorly-received if she were actually a he. Because a lot of the time, the way Korra acts— calling on Avatar authority to get her way, using violence and the threats thereof to get done what she feels needs to get done— is exactly the way people criticize Aang for not acting.

[Fragenstein]

That would make sense, I could see that.

I could Also see Aang having done it at some point before he had kids as a "Just in Case/Don't count chickens before there hatched/don't put all the eggs in one basket" kinda thing since he had decades to experiment with energy bending off camera, as well as to potentially have learned the same things Korra did last season about the first Avatar and the origins of Bending via deep meditation/interaction with the spirit world.

Edit:

Also, hell, maybe there were a small number who hid there air bending after the genocide by Sozin and didn't come out of hiding for fear of the world eventually doing it again, even after Avatar Aang won the war.

Genocide isn't really that easy. Not when all it really seems to take is growing hair and changing your clothes. Air Benders were supposed to be nomads. They should have been scattered across the known kingdoms. For just a handful to go underground and pass on their genes in secret should have been a given.

It always bugged me that Aang never made a serious attempt at reviving his traditions. He seemed to be very well educated on Air Bender society, more so than I'd expect of the average civics student, but probably matching that of such a highly spiritual people. I'm sure that history was a very serious subject at all of the air temples.

His first duty after the end of the first series should have been a quest to revive his culture. Go out, use those sweet Energy Bending techniques to find people of any nation with the potential to bend air. Ask them if they'd like to help form the backbone of a new nation and then awaken that power in those he found who were willing.

Train up some new gurus, gather up all surviving Air Nomad textbooks, and get things going.

Granted, he had his hands full creating true post-war unity and all, but there should have been some point in his life where it would be considered important.

[Flickerdart]

Also I always wonder if Korra would be as poorly-received if she were actually a he. Because a lot of the time, the way Korra acts— calling on Avatar authority to get her way, using violence and the threats thereof to get done what she feels needs to get done— is exactly the way people criticize Aang for not acting.

Aang was the Avatar during a time of desperate global war and tried to resolve it with childish naiveté. Korra is the Avatar during a time of peace and delicate political balance, and tackles it with punching. It's not that one approach is better than the other, it's that they're both using the wrong tool for the job.

[Ramza00]

Korra. Attacked. A Judge.

That's not even more than a drop in the ocean of terrible writing that is Korra, but it is to me the epitome of it.

The details of Korra are very very bad.

The broad strokes and the themes of Korra though are awesome.

Whether you like korra is whether you prefer how bad the trees are or how awesome the forest is.

-----

Avatar the Last Airbender (The Legend of Aang) is awesome for it got both the details and the themes right. It's humor was great, it had menacing villains, memorable characters and all this work together to tell a greater story.

[Ramza00]

To be fair, my problem with that isn't that she does it— it's perfectly in-character for her to do something like that— but that there's no real repercussions for it. Then again, she’s 5he Avatar and can do whatever the hell she wants.

Also I always wonder if Korra would be as poorly-received if she were actually a he. Because a lot of the time, the way Korra acts— calling on Avatar authority to get her way, using violence and the threats thereof to get done what she feels needs to get done— is exactly the way people criticize Aang for not acting.

You see I actually like that about Korra, she has character flaws, and those character flaws make sense and are a result of also her character strengths.

Same thing with Aang, he had flaws but also those flaws came from his strengths.

Part of the fun of watching Korra is watching the slow moving train wreck that is Korra. But at the same time she is the hero you go, and you fight the current war with the tools you got not the tools you want. Overall I think Korra is doing more good than bad to the world, though sometimes I am not so sure (like I said a slow moving train wreck, you can't pull away, you just have to watch.)

[Jayngfet]

In all fairness as far as things just happening without warning, the leaked episodes were 3-6, so the things you say weren't explained or alluded to may have been mentioned in episode 1 or 2 (probably not though, based on how things play out in Korra).

But it sounds like lots of hair brained writing again. It's really disappointing to hear that Bolin is still being played out as a useless idiot, and that there's still weird romance crap.

No, the villain's only get introduced in about episode three anyway. It's literally just "This woman has special powers, because she does." and then they move along with things. Then at the same time we get another villain, and it's no exagerration to say that it plays out just like it did in the last two seasons. A clearly untrustworthy authority figure goes up to Korra, who trusts her utterly. She demands that Korra fetch her a sack of gold that she "lost", and Korra is already beating people up to take their money before the sentence is done. She only realizes that this may be wrong when another obvious badguy suggests it, and when I say obvious I mean he's literally just a bad guy from Mad Max with Skeletor face paint, but she still sides with him without hesitation. The only real difference is that Asami is apparently somehow friends with her again(or for the first time?) and she also makes the exact same mistakes.

Episodes one and two look like they were mostly just recap and exposition on why there are airbenders and more Zuko stuff, though you can glean that it really is just "a spirit did it" from the conversations beforehand.

[Ramza00]

Question? We know that there were relatively few spirits entering our world for material world and the spirit world were separated during the time of the Avatar. When they did interact it was due to magic (like solstices and equinoxes or meditation) that allowed one to cross over to the spirit world or vice versa.

But why can't humans cross over to the spirit world body and soul without using the spirit portals, or they crossed over prior to the spirit portals being closed?

I ask for possibly there has been hundreds or thousands of airbenders who were stuck in the spirit world when Wan closed the portals. We know Wan is a limited human with limited knowledge when he teamed up with Ravva and Ravva only care and only purpose was stopping Vaatu thus Raava's own knowledge of the spirit world would be limited for she was hyper focused on her struggle with Vaatu that Ravva had no real deep connections with the material or the spirit world.

Allowing the material world and the spirit world to intermingle once again after 10,000 years of separation would bring about quite a bit of change (the name of korra book 3 is change).

[cobaltstarfire]

Episodes one and two look like they were mostly just recap and exposition on why there are airbenders and more Zuko stuff, though you can glean that it really is just "a spirit did it" from the conversations beforehand.

How can you know what one and two had? Were those leaked too and Nickelodeon just didn't catch it? last I had heard it was just 3-6 that leaked and that's it.


It sounds like Korra is as thugish as ever, it's like she maybe learns something at the end of each season, and then forgets it and goes back to being a meat head.

[Reverent-One]

It sounds like Korra is as thugish as ever, it's like she maybe learns something at the end of each season, and then forgets it and goes back to being a meat head.

From the overall summary from someone who posted about the details of each episode on tumblr, they said that Korra is noticably more level-headed and rational.

[Metahuman1]

Fragenstein: Maybe that IS what happened, but cause of all the political stuff he was dealing with after the war and the fact that it would not surprise me in the least if he was having to personally make some concessions in order to keep the water-tribes and earth kingdom leaders from demanding rather vicious reparations of the fire nation above and beyond what was practical/reasonable/physically possible (Think how the Germany got treated after WWI.), that he needed to keep the fact that he'd done this very quite during his life time.

Ok, yes, Korra has had problems. A lot of which reek of executive meddling and mandates and a lot of others feel like "we wrote 20-25 episodes" "great, were giving you a whole twelve episodes. Cut stuff. But not the teen romance, twilight has taught us that that's big business. Or the fight scenes, cause that's bread and butter right there." and all the pacing nightmare THAT could create, particularly if your also not given much of a deadline to do it by.

That said, I honestly think Korra get's more hate then it genuinely deserves. She threatened a Judge. Right after she'd been promised a fair trail for her father and the judge not ten minutes later declared he was to be executed with out producing anything like a reasonable burden of proof for a sentence like that, and then only backed down when someone with serious political clout asked him, and then only as far as "life in a known hell hole prison.". I can think of a LOT of characters in fiction who would have done the same or worse and who are often either praised or looked at as being not bad characters.

Ok, Airbenders and Dai Li are back: We've demonstrated that it's not hard to justify this at ALL.

Accounts say Korra is getting more level headed and less impulsive: Last I checked this is a good thing.

Lin has a sister: Are we certain that's a sister cause she looks darn near just like her. How do we know it's not a spirit who decided "I like this look.". Or something confined to her head while she's sorting through her own issues.

Aang and Katara were lousy parents and this had life long consequences for there kids: That's realism folks, gotta have a little bit of it somewhere. I personally think it's more interesting then they were perfect/near perfect parents myself. Though I grant I am still annoyed that with Sokka as an uncle, Suki as a close family friend if not an aunt, and Mai, Ty Lee and Zuko as friends of the family he didn't pick up more skills and tricks and ability's that would have made him less of a joke.





Now, the art studio has switched back, so, this leaves me with two major questions:

1: Do we know if the executives took the hint form all the hate and rage form the fanbase and the not stellar ratings, and let the writers have proper creative control again?

2: Do we know total number of episodes this is gonna run and if they finally got the hint and went back to the 20 or more eps a season formula?

To me, the answers to these would be far more telling of how excited/worried I should be.

[Jayngfet]

Lin has a sister: Are we certain that's a sister cause she looks darn near just like her. How do we know it's not a spirit who decided "I like this look.". Or something confined to her head while she's sorting through her own issues.

We see flashbacks and get evidence. Lin has a sister that conveniently never got mentioned until now, and that's basically it. Though it looks like they have different fathers, neither of whom were ever in the picture.

[t209]

You know? Maybe the Dragonball Z esque battle in MLP Season 3 finale made me lose interest in Legend of Korra. In addition the lackluster nature when it was released.