Korra ~Book 4~ The Thread

I want an old-school team avatar re-union. That would be great.

I kinda like the weird ambiguity surrounding the villain. Kuvira is being painted as the oppressor but I kinda agree with her point: the earth king is an idiot. Makes it kind of interesting.

This week's episode was pretty great. Meelo is such a little troll. I'm glad Ikki finally got some spotlight, because compared to Jinora and Meelo she barely does anything. She's just kind of... there.

Also glad Korra finally got the rest of the metal out of her body. Now the real good shit can begin.

Meelo is the worst and seemingly exists solely to entertain little children but now that the show is online only he serves no purpose at all.

That is a distinct issue with "the middle child" (even though she really isn't).

This episode was so good. I love how the show is basically explaining what I've been saying all along about the villains of the story. Taking their ideologies to the extreme and thinking that the world doesn't need the Avatar. The Avatar is ETERNAL!

Finally! The explained the purpose of these villains! Awesome episode!

Toph is just so goddamn GANGSTA!

The part everyone is praising this episode for (the villains and what they represented) was like looking at what the earlier seasons could have been. If they didn't stumble as much through the particulars of the plot and characterization throughout the show, it could've been just as great as Last Airbender.

Ikki having a macaroon party with Mario and Luigi was pretty cool. Those dudes knew how to party.

I think that every season fully accomplished what they set out to do, which was to establish villains with extreme ideologies and making them seem like legitimate threats to the Avatar. I will always defend every season of Korra because I think that every season was masterfully done. But this is all subjective, so what you find lacking, I found to be amazingly well written and intelligent.

Episode 5: This was a pretty good episode. I'm glad Bolin has finally seen the truth and is going against Kuvira. Kind of surprised by Zhu Li's betrayal. Maybe she's planning on freeing herself so she can save Varrick later?

Can't wait for next week.

After this episode, I think it's safe to say: Zhu Li is best waifu!

I'm pretty sure she is, nothing indicated that Varrick's last remark was the last straw.

Man, those are some Nazi ass Nazis

I'm so very, VERY happy the writing team is back to their A game. It has been wonderful so far. Also, I had no idea that Zhu Li was such a badass! Very cool!

That robot battle was pretty cool. But I was dead wrong about Varrick's thing being a metaphorical nuke... It's an actual nuke. Thankfully, Asami and Hiroshi will probably invent a countermeasure by the end of the season.

Also, glad we've left behind the questioning phase where no one is willing to believe the bad guy is the bad guy. That stuff tends to frustrate me depending on the execution. At least it was only Bolin, who is an established gullible sap, who was holding the Idiot Ball this time.

I was impressed with how well the CG animation integrated with the 2D characters during the Zhu Li / Bolin fight scene. Usually I've found the CG animation in the series to be lacking polish compared to the 2D stuff but the animation quality was quite good, they could use some better shader work to clash a bit less with the backgrounds though.

I'm fairly certain Zhu Li's betrayal is fake, she would have left Varrick long ago if that is how she really felt about him.Still it was amazing to hear her say "Do the thing". Zelda Williams continues to kill it as Kuvira.

Zhu Li's betrayal is definitely fake. I'll be shocked if it's not an act.

Also I sure hope the villain this season becomes a lot more interesting. So far she barely has a presence. Amon and the Red Lotus demanded your attention, this new girl....really doesn't. Even if she thinks she does.

I thought it was touching Asami could make amends with her father. That wrap up showcases how much time has passed in between the first and last season. I also think its pretty cool how the last season of the original avatar and this season ends with avatar fighting a kingdoms dictator.

Is it necessary to watch Avatar before Korra? Or if I phrased it another way if I disliked Avatar is there a chance of me liking Korra?

I feel like Kuvira hasn't been provided enough opportunities to turn on the charisma. We've seen that she can, but it's difficult to read her as a compelling "people's dictator" when most of the character interaction onscreen involves sparse words and stern threats.

@bocam: The narrative structure of each show is completely different, and the characters are generally more mature in Korra. That said, the attitude/ethos is very similar. You could watch without having seen the original series, but you'd be missing some additional context that would help to clarify the state of the world and its residents (it goes beyond minor references).

I'm loving Book 4 so far, but it's going to take a lot to top the back half of Book 3, which in my opinion is the best stretch the creators have ever been on. I'm including all of AtLA in that sentiment.

My only reservation I have with with Book 4, except for the slow start, is the CG stuff. The antagonists in this season are clearly very machinery focused, and I think the robots look sort of garbage. I hope the action stays mainly bender-based moving forward, because throwing rocks at slow moving, badly integrated CG tanks and robots is way less interesting than the incredibly choreographed fight scenes the animators are capable of.

@bocam: I would say it probably isn't necessary to have watched AtLA, but it definitely helps. A lot of the references and fan service stuff will go over your head. I also think that there definitely is a chance you will enjoy Korra even if you hated AtLA. Last Airbender was a bit more immature, and had much more of a children's adventure, story book structure. Korra is generally much more focused, and goes even deeper into the ideological arguments the first show sets up. It helps that the villains (with the exception of Unalaq) tend to be more rounded and in depth than the Firelord ever was. Also. even though they're clearly villains, the show at least tries to explain their motivations which raises some very interesting personal debates.

I will say though that if what turned you off from AtLA was the juvenile humour, Korra definitely still has some of that in the characters of Bolin and Meelo. The light moments are fewer and further apart than AtLA, but it is still present.

Finally, if you're just about to get into Korra, then here's what to expect in terms of book by book.

Book 1 introduces a really interesting world, and a villain who's cool but ultimately disappointing. The inter-personal dramas of the 4 protagonists is really throw away though.

Book 2 is the most uneven Avatar season ever. It has a couple of episodes that are absolute classics, but the villains are less interesting and the less said about the finale the better. It also looks worse, because Studio Mir (the studio in charge of the show up until Book 2) was replaced for all but 2 or 3 episodes of this season. There is a lot of really good world building in this season though.

Book 3 makes the first uneven seasons worth it, because it's incredible in almost every way. Studio Mir returns, the show is gorgeous throughout the season. The best antagonists of the show are introduced, and the general darker tone is fantastic.

Book 4 is ok so far! I guess! Don't really have much to say. It's a slow start, but we're only 5 episodes in and the stuff they've set up is cool so far.

That depends. What didn't you like about Avatar?

For a lack of a better term, the filler episodes.

Korra has way less of those, mostly out of necessity due to how the series is structured.

I think you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you skipped out on the Last Airbender. While it starts off very lighthearted and "childish" it very VERY quickly evolves into something that is shockingly mature for a show that ran on Nickeldeon. It's very well written, with immensely likable characters that will probably stay in your heart for years to come. By the time the series finale rolled around, I remember my brother and I feeling a huge variety of complex emotions. It was sad, happy, epic, bittersweet etc... It was also one of the most cinematic series finale's that I have ever seen.

Korra picks up right where Avatar left off. The stories are even more complex and deal with really crazy subject matter. But a lot of the cool stuff is seeing how stuff evolved from Aang's time to Korra's time. The significance of certain types of Bending are only explained in Avatar, so you wouldn't understand why certain things are quite as important as they are. Like I said, Korra is a fantastic stand alone show, but you would be doing yourself a disservice not watching the original.

@bocam: Then you might like Korra more since each season is a lot tighter with its narrative. I'm of the opinion that the lack of filler episodes makes Korra a much weaker show in comparison, because most of the best character building moments in Avatar took place in those episodes.

Finally Korra is trying to solve her problems with something other than punching.

Shame she's so obtuse about it all.

Yes, this is a large part of what makes it inferior. There's not enough room to breathe.

Although, I would guess the experience is at least slightly better if you binge through it rather than going season by season.

Wow, the new episodes go up early.

#bodied

#canthandlethemeelo

Varrick is one crazy mofo.

Korra got destroyed, as would be expected considering it's only episode 6. Is her PTSD kicking in when she goes into the Avatar state or is that something different? She's probably going to end up reconnecting with the past Avatars or something.

Can Zaofu really not defend itself in any way? Su had to go with her sons instead of sending a trained group of special agent metal benders? It just seems like a bad setup to be this defenseless bastion of high tech. The thing is, they aren't defenseless. They have soldiers and they have the domes. Only I'm guessing because there wasn't enough time or money, the battle of Zaofu wasn't really a battle. Just a duel.

This sort of thing bothered me as well when Zuko showed up by himself with his dragon. No loyal fire bender soldiers to aid in the mission? It's just strange.

• Kuvira had a way bigger army. Bigger the entirety of Zaofu's population. Including Mechs.
• A small strike team is more efficient at doing stealthy attacks, and it was established that Su's sons were the best Metal Bender in Zaofu last season. They were the ones that trained the Avatar after all.
• Even if they did close the domes, you don't think that Su's old captain of the guard Kuvira would know how to bring them back down, or have any secret ways in and out of the city?

@liquidprince: I'm aware of all of this, but it still doesn't mean that the leader of a city under threat of attack should put themselves at risk instead of preparing for a worst case scenario. Putting up a fight could buy them some time. Republic city must have an army that could mobilize and come to the rescue. Even Zuko and his daughter could be contacted and asked for aid.

Even in reality, from what I've learned about history, there's few times when the little guy went down without a fight.

@aegon: Sending someone else against Kuvira would be useless. Suyin trained her and she knows how capable she is. She wouldn't send in her soldier knowing they would lose. As for fighting, there is no way they could survive long enough for help to arrive, considering that the enemy is literally on Zaofu's doorstep. Aside from that Kuvira has the United Nations in a bind, since Kuvira now controls all the metal mines the other cities need. She threatened them before that if they attacked, they would no longer have access, so we don't even know if Raiko would immediately deploy troops in the first place. We've seen how he is more interested in politics then helping out of kindness. This show is more about the politics, and knowing that, the Fire Nation might not have deployed without a direct request from the Avatar. From the outside it doesn't look like Kuvira is doing anything wrong, so for the Fire Nation to attack would be a matter of international warfare.

If there's one major reason I'm disappointed with Varrick's change of heart, it's that we won't get to see fantasy nukes that are voice-activated with the phrase "Do the thing."

Su going on her own just to get captured seems pretty dumb to me whatever way you cut it, LiquidPrince. It's not exactly out of character, she fought in the finale of last season too, but it's a pretty stupid move when you get fooled by the dictator having a body double and give her all the leverage. I don't mind where it got us in terms of the duel, though. Frankly, my biggest nitpick is that in this asian-inspired fantasy world nobody ever invented a gun barrel for those tanks. It looks pretty dumb when there's a bunch of them together, like in this episode.

Kuvira's little "turn the earth around in a circle"-kick is the coolest move. Can't remember if they've used it before, but I've been wanting for it to happen for a while. Nice to see some jumping into holes-earthbending again too.

@redhotchilimist: she didn't go to get captured. She went to capture Kuvira. Her plan just backfired, and like I said before she wouldn't risk random soldier in her army when she knew that they'd potentially be up against an entire army. I don't understand how this is a thing... It's like if people argued why did Ozai head to Ba Sing Se himself and not just let his army do it. In his case he wanted the power and in Suyin's case she didn't want to put her people in danger.

Kuvira and her army vs Toph? Yes please.

I'm pretty sure the amount of Korrasami fan art is going to multiply by like a thousand after this episode.

Wish I could watch it. I get on the site, it asks for my cable provider, then after I log in I get a "content unavailable" screen...

edit: and now it's working. Yay!

Yeah, it's weird, but refreshing usually solves it.

So it's safe to say the next episode is the final one of the series, right? Because Kuvira DONE FUCKED UP!

Where's a good place to start watching this show?

Season 1:P

I'm still trying to figure out why she's a legend. She's just a big fuck up of an avatar really, and she's suffering because of her mistakes.

What are you even talking about...? She's a legend for one, because she made the decision to leave the spirit portals open connecting humans and spirits together in a way that hadn't been the case since the era of Wan, and in the process she brought back an entire nation of people from the brink of extinction... All the Avatars made mistakes. It's what made them human, rather then some omniscient beings.

I suppose you're right. We'll see how she deals with Kuvira!

@liquidprince said:

I didn't mean she literally went to get captured. I meant that she didn't succeed and was completely fooled by her former subordinate. Ozai isn't a good comparison, I think. I mean, he did send his army there. While powerful, he only left his throne to attack at the very height of his power, along with his army, and when Team Avatar attacked it wasn't a one sided fight for either of them. In this situation, the leader of an army that are helpless to act while she's a hostage went out on her own, screwed up and got captured. I'm not saying it's not in character for her to not want to put her people in danger, but she made a mistake and it was a bad decision that nobody benefited from. It's fine to call that "dumb".

And, at the same time, accept that this is the sort of thing that happens when you want to have action scenes(like an exciting duel) in an action show. I thought it was dumb last episode too when Mako was bad at his job for once(because he was angry at Korra for not sending him letters and fed up with watching Wu) and Wu got kidnapped, but it's all in service of getting a battle on the roof of a train, so it's all good. I'm still allowed to call out characters when they make bad decisions.

It's a multi-part finale from now to episode 14 or whatever. All Toph. They'll change the opening to say "Legend of Toph" and have a cranky old woman standing before Aang's statue. Bit of a surprise, but no complaining from me!

@spraynardtatum: I think Amazon Instant Video lets you stream all of Book One for free.

What an excellent season so far! It's so excited to see this series ending on a strong note, hopefully.

I'm very very very much looking forward to a certain earthbender kicking Kuvira's ass