The Legend of Korra 1x09-1x12

[oyceter]

Bullet points, since I can't think of anything coherent.

1. Mako, you suck. Like, maybe you could officially break up with Asami first before chasing Korra? WTF? Also, since you don't have enough of a personality pre-romance, I am completely confused as to why two awesome ladies want you.


2. Asami is best. Apparently I have a Thing for kickass, non-superpowered women in teams where most people have powers. See also: Natasha Romanoff. I love that they are non-powered and kicking ass ANYWAY.


3. WTF, Tarrlok suddenly changes sides and regrets all his actions? That was completely random. Also, does his and his brother's face structure look like Yakone's post surgery? Because I do not think that is how it works...


4. Also, the attempt at Amon backstory was kind of terrible. If kid!Tarrlok is so sympathetic, why does he become evil Councilor Tarrlok? Also, I still want non-bending Equalists who choose to be Equalists not because of personal tragedy via bending, but because of moral principle.


5. And they sail off into the sunset, except Tarrlok blows them up. Bzuh???


6. Liiiiin!!! I am glad you are mature and awesome. On another note, kind of annoyed that Amon takes away the bending of two of female major characters. At least it is very temporary.


7. Alas, the writers really did not complicate the Equalist movement.


8. Overall, very disappointing.

Comments

[inkstone]

Yeah, the second half of the season was a total mess.

[oyceter]

Sigh. I didn't post for a while because I didn't really know what else to say besides *facepalm*.

[sanguinity]

:: Overall, very disappointing. ::

Pretty much.

Have you seen the essay about having great ideas and still messing up? Does a nice job of describing the disconnect between the first and second halves of the season.

[oyceter]

I haven't! I just. Wargh. I feel some of it was wanting to wrap things up too quickly, some of it was shoehorning in terrible romances (guys: people don't just turn into cardboard cutouts when it comes to romance. People fall in love and have crushes in different ways!). And some of it was just... who knows.

[sanguinity]

Expresses very well so much of my satisfaction with the end of the season: the show we saw in the first half-season is not the show that was resolved in the final half-season. And in the process, we got cheated of so much potential.

How You Can Have a Bunch of Great Ideas But Still Fuck Up

There's a part of me that just wants someone to write the epic S1 hiatus fic already, which would redo, and properly, the last half-season or so, and then goes from there. :-/

[kate_nepveu]

Alas, yes.

[loligo]

My grouchy Lin joins yours in solidarity.

[laceblade]

I WAS READY FOR AN EMO-RIDDEN SECOND SEASON, but signs point to no.

Now, all I want is for Jinora to kick some ass.

[amai_kaminari]

I agree with you completely.

I loved the original A:TLA series. I've also read all the graphic novels which have come out so far. If you haven't read the graphic novels, I recommend them. They cover story arcs that are set after the A:TLA TV series, but before Korra. Also, they actually explain things like how so many earth benders learned to metal bend, and how siblings can be born with different bending elements.

Korra overall was a huge disappointment for me. They tried to squeeze too much into 13 episodes. They should have dropped the whole romance/love triangle angle. The Mako/Korra pairing felt completely forced and it took up too much screen time and detracted from the plot. Also, the whole pro-bending angle took up way too much screen-time in the beginning.

I thought they had an interesting premise. I was excited about the first few episodes because the characters seemed interesting. However, I was disappointed by the poor execution. There was very little character growth from any of the characters. Also, the focus on the love triangle meant that we saw more of mopey lovesick teenager Korra than her growth as an avatar.

The end story was rushed and the plot reveal didn't seem to match up with what we learned about each of the characters. I felt like the character set ups were decent, but then the weird plot turns and contrived love story forced all the characters to be OOC.

[tigerlily]

The way the Equalists were handled was the most disappointing thing. I feared it would end up this way, but I still hoped.