Legend of Korra, S2E1-2
Sep. 15th, 2013 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
opusculasedfera...that was underwhelming.
Not really impressed with anything much in this new episode. Way to totally fail to deal with all the problems you left us with at the end of last season! I guess that thing where masses of people were ready to incite revolution based on structural equalities just went away because a single leader was a liar. That seems plausible.
I get that this was set up for everything else, but maybe the writers just need to accept that sometimes they don't have time for all this plot and they have to come up with a more straightforward one. Is that a thing they can do? Signs point to no!
Also, super gross gender relations on all fronts. Nooooot happy about Mako and Korra dating. Seriously, they couldn't have one scene where they did anything other than fight stupidly? Or make up in ways that were totally unjustified by everything else? Why do they keep pretending that there's no ground between "you should do X!" and "I support any decision you choose to make!" that might contain, say, reasonable discussion of the options in order to assist one another, without pushing any particular option too hard?
The whole point of Avatar has always been that it's about compromise. The Avatar isn't supposed to defeat all the spirits, but to make sure that people live in harmony with them. They don't fully support a side in a war, but attempt to broker peace. Why on earth can't Korra have multiple teachers? Aang had multiple teachers. The whole point of the Avatar is that they have multiple teachers! Sure, that's not really a martial arts thing and if you only dabble in like 16 different styles, the serious practitioners of any one of them won't take you seriously, but that's completely counter to the whole Avatar thing.
Similarly, all Korra has to do is touch a button and fix whatever was wrong with that forest? I get that this is step one of her uncle's dumbshit plan to take over the Water Tribe, but can we please have a single scene where Korra has to work for something? She spent more time learning the rules of pro-bending than she has actually training or even being implied to train her other bending/Avatar skills. When did she learn Unaloq's (sp?) musical water spirit peace technique?
I want to be interested in all the new world-building they dumped on our heads, because it could be interesting, but I'm wary at this point because I don't trust them to actually use it for anything except set dressing. Certainly no attempts to deal with the implications they've laid out themselves. Also uncomfortable that Korra is now Water Tribe royalty. The Avatar is always going to be special because of their skill, but maybe we could try to pretend that they come from all parts of society? Just maybe?
So, can we have a season of Asami's biplane adventures? I would infinitely rather watch Asami's biplane adventures. Someone should come talk to me about Asami and Korra flying away from all the nonsense to go do useful things together.
Not really impressed with anything much in this new episode. Way to totally fail to deal with all the problems you left us with at the end of last season! I guess that thing where masses of people were ready to incite revolution based on structural equalities just went away because a single leader was a liar. That seems plausible.
I get that this was set up for everything else, but maybe the writers just need to accept that sometimes they don't have time for all this plot and they have to come up with a more straightforward one. Is that a thing they can do? Signs point to no!
Also, super gross gender relations on all fronts. Nooooot happy about Mako and Korra dating. Seriously, they couldn't have one scene where they did anything other than fight stupidly? Or make up in ways that were totally unjustified by everything else? Why do they keep pretending that there's no ground between "you should do X!" and "I support any decision you choose to make!" that might contain, say, reasonable discussion of the options in order to assist one another, without pushing any particular option too hard?
The whole point of Avatar has always been that it's about compromise. The Avatar isn't supposed to defeat all the spirits, but to make sure that people live in harmony with them. They don't fully support a side in a war, but attempt to broker peace. Why on earth can't Korra have multiple teachers? Aang had multiple teachers. The whole point of the Avatar is that they have multiple teachers! Sure, that's not really a martial arts thing and if you only dabble in like 16 different styles, the serious practitioners of any one of them won't take you seriously, but that's completely counter to the whole Avatar thing.
Similarly, all Korra has to do is touch a button and fix whatever was wrong with that forest? I get that this is step one of her uncle's dumbshit plan to take over the Water Tribe, but can we please have a single scene where Korra has to work for something? She spent more time learning the rules of pro-bending than she has actually training or even being implied to train her other bending/Avatar skills. When did she learn Unaloq's (sp?) musical water spirit peace technique?
I want to be interested in all the new world-building they dumped on our heads, because it could be interesting, but I'm wary at this point because I don't trust them to actually use it for anything except set dressing. Certainly no attempts to deal with the implications they've laid out themselves. Also uncomfortable that Korra is now Water Tribe royalty. The Avatar is always going to be special because of their skill, but maybe we could try to pretend that they come from all parts of society? Just maybe?
So, can we have a season of Asami's biplane adventures? I would infinitely rather watch Asami's biplane adventures. Someone should come talk to me about Asami and Korra flying away from all the nonsense to go do useful things together.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-15 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-15 06:27 pm (UTC)Or anything where we got a lot more Jinora doing things and a lot less adult men moping about their families. That is not what I want from my teenage girl heroine shows, TPTB!
no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 09:55 am (UTC)Here, on the trip to the north pole, we had three sets of siblings, and Korra, and nothing was explored at all. It was just the most pedestrian interactions between the lot of them. I didn't see much difference in the way Korra was bouncing off her father from the way she was bouncing off Tenzin, for example, only, come on, he's her father! That cannot be the same relationship as she has with a teacher she's known for a few months!
(I actually like seeing more of Korra's parents - that she didn't spontaneously emerge from nowhere the way Aang kinda did - but yeah, it's annoying that they're royalty all of a sudden.)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 01:02 pm (UTC)It's like they think we've forgotten who everyone is since last season and they need to keep reminding us of the broadest outlines. Tenzin's a stick-in-the-mud! Korra doesn't want people to tell her what to do! Bolin likes women! I get that it's a kids' show, but I don't remember AtLA being this bad about it.
I like the idea of Korra's parents showing up, but the execution is leaving me cold. She already has a Tenzin to complain is stifling her. It would honestly make more sense as a plot if Unaloq and her dad were just the two leaders of the Water Tribes and were competing over her as a political tool, and then her actual parents could be some other people she just wants to spend time with at the festival rather than getting drawn into all these politics. (Bonus points of that idea: less Mako time, because we'd need to add in more of her actually spending time with her parents, plus Korra resenting being a political pawn, but also feeling bad that she hasn't been involved enough in spirit issues when that's kind of her job would be a new dynamic!)