Korra finale, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Filler Episodes

[rallamajoop]

Bleh. Wow, was that ever a let down.

Like most of Avatar fandom, I had high hopes for Legend of Korra. Loved the early episodes, but by mid way through, it was becoming hard to ignore the feeling that the writers had gone a little overboard in trimming out the superfluous filler material. The overall impression suggested nothing so much as the experience of watching a full ~26 episode season squeezed down to fit into a mere 12 parts, leaving an awful lot of crucial development of characters, setting and conflict abandoned on the cutting room floor. I'd hoped that if or when I got around to typing up some thoughts on the problem, I'd at least be able to temper it with comment to the effect of, "but hey, they still pulled it all together for an awesome finale!", but alas, the final episodes only compounded the problems a thousand fold.

So it was that in episode 9, we finally learn that the truth behind all those momentary flashes of Aang's memories Korra's been getting all series. And the big revelation is: that Turloch can bloodbend even without the power boost of the full moon because... his dad could. His dad who has never once been mentioned before. Whoo-hoo, I am so glad we spent all series setting up that plot point. It was so important. Especially what with how the Big Bad showed up to effortlessly finish Turloch off in the very next scene. Was it really that important to give Korra her chance to peer through the bars of her cage and proudly declare that she knew who his dad was? Really?

But wait, there's more to this story! In the finale, we learn that the Big Bad himself is none other than Turloch's brother, and a hypocritical bastard of a secret bloodbender himself! So that's the other half of what Aang's spirit was trying to tell her, and there's still every chance for it to matter, right? Wrong! Korra never makes the connection, never catches Amon waterbending - nothing. It's all up to Turloch to spell the whole thing out for her himself in a special detour to the Department of Exposition.

The finale also finds time to introduce us to General Zuko Junior Albus Severus Iroh, a terribly important guy who leaves his fleet in the middle of a firefight to hang out with the Avatar and some kids he doesn't know from Adam; a sewer filled with homeless stoners with their own telegraph operator; and a secret airfield in the mountains where the bad guys have been secretly building secret biplanes in total secret, but which the good guys find by means unspecified roughly as soon as they start looking. When we do get to Korra's final battle against Amon, her 'victory' consists of her surprising him long enough to throw him out a window, then watching as her boyfriend snipes at him until he vanishes off screen. Then someone else kills him somewhere no-one who matters will ever hear about it, and Korra gets to angst about losing her bending for a couple of minutes before magical Avatar stuff fixes everything.

There are good ideas all through the show, and good characters - I liked Tenzin and Lyn especially - and some gorgeously animated fight scenes. But Korra's 'team' never really get to develop beyond being less-emo!Zuko, earthbending!Sokka and RomanticComplication, and their relationships don't go far beyond teen romance cliches. The chance to show the audience around Republic City through Korra's eyes is largely squandered - even the technology is introduced on such an ad-hoc basis that we had no idea the Surprise New Tech in the last episode was meant to be a surprise until someone told us. The question of exactly how much truth there is behind Amon's anti-bender propoganda is left entirely to the audience's imagination, and likewise the question of whether there was any deeper significance to why Korra took so long to master airbending. And with the final battle such a bust, I'm struggling to think of a single clear, significant victory Korra has been allowed to have since way back in episode 2.

Incidentally, was it just us, or was the voice acting from episode 10 onwards all sorta flat? Everything about these episodes felt rushed - like watching the first draft of what would have been a good story crammed into far too little space and rushed out the door to meet a deadline. I really don't think we'll be back for season 2.

Comments

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I felt the same way. The story was lacking heart, probably because the characters it hanged on were on the periphery and only revealed backstory at the end. The group never got its chemistry going. The worldbuilding never set up properly the thematics. To this point I have no idea if we are supposed to think the Equalists have legit griefs that were taken too far, or were just blaming Benders for other problems, or were just jealous. The victory didn't feel earned by the protagonists doing anything different than usual. *sighs*

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

To this point I have no idea if we are supposed to think the Equalists have legit griefs that were taken too far, or were just blaming Benders for other problems, or were just jealous.

Too true. For all that we already had two different Zuko-clones in this series, I feel like we could have really used someone who echoed Zuko's role in the sense of being a sympathetic, well-developed character who starts out on the side of the equalists, but soon finds themselves torn between the two sides as Amon's tactics become more extreme. (Also, she could have been the character who makes friends with Korra and shows her around the city in the early episodes, then gets revealed as an equalist spy with the typical benders-killed-my-parents backstory, then legitimately starts to wonder if she's on the right side AND it would have given us a relationship between two girls that wasn't founded on competition over the same boy - and here I go mentally rewriting a story that disappointed me as usual >.> ).

The victory was so confusingly paced that I spent most of the rest of the episode wondering if that was the climax or whether there was still more to come. The part where Korra lost her bending seemed like such a waste of a defining moment. Post-episode my sister made the point that it would have had far more impact if it had happened earlier, giving more time for the fallout to have impact - and it would have given the perfect moment for Korra to figure out the technique was really just bloodbending on her own steam. There was this beautiful opportunity to have her get herself back on her feet, make her big declaration about the truth, beat Amon with her new airbending - and above all, demonstrate to the world that being the Avatar is about so much more than just having all the magiks. Instead, we get a weak anti-climax and some angst about how her life is over now all she can do is use the single rarest bending ability on the planet. Ugh. Or maybe I've just been watching far too much shounen anime lately. :/ I EXPECT MORE FROM MY EFFING HEROS THAN THIS!

[cheloya.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Pretty much this. Sigh.

[(Anonymous)]

This is all very true, the reason for this was because it was only going to be a 12 episode mini-series. And the animation is all drawing based (which is very time consuming and requires thousands of drawings) so there was only going to be 12 episodes for this reason. By the time they learned they were getting a second season it was to late to go through and change things.

It doesn't change the fact that not everything got answered and relationships felt rushed etc

In saying that, Avatar left a lot of unanswered questions too... Seriously what happened to Zuko's mother????

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Honestly, there is no way in hell 'we were only commissioned for 12 episodes' holds any water as an excuse. If they knew from the start they were going to be so time-limited, why did they insist on including so many plot points and such a large cast? The original first series of Avatar only had Aang, Katara and Sokka as leads, plus Zuko and Iroh, and Zao as the villain. Legend of Korra had Korra, Mako, Bolin, Asami, Tenzin and Lin for a total six main characters, plus Tenzin's family, plus two villains (who ultimately end up taking out each other, in both directions, rather than give the good guys a clear win) - or three if you count Asami's father, all squeezed into half the time. And even with all that to juggle, they go on adding new elements like General Iroh right up to the final scenes. So sure, you can look at the problem as 'they weren't allowed the time to tell the story properly', but either way, it's painfully obvious they were trying to tell a story far too big for the time they told it in.

In saying that, Avatar left a lot of unanswered questions too... Seriously what happened to Zuko's mother????

They've just released some promo stuff for a comic series dealing with that plot point (which TBH I've been expecting ever since that aborted conversation on the subject in Korra episode 1). But you can find niggly unfinished details like that in any story. The issues I had with Korra were that everything was rushed, major plot points were set up and then went nowhere, and Korra never got a definitive victory over either major villain. 'But we never found out [X]' doesn't even compare.

[http://users.livejournal.com/drayke_/]

EARTHBENDING SOKKA IS AWESOME

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, him! What was his name again? Man, you remember the days when he used to get actual scenes and dialogue and stuff? ...Nah, me neither.

[http://users.livejournal.com/drayke_/]

He got all of the lines!








..in our skit

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

only the good ones you might just be confusing him with someone else there.

[http://users.livejournal.com/drayke_/]

Unlikely. Sokka is the best bender.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

...why do I have such a terrible urge to tack "if you know what I mean" on the end of that statement? Better yet, "if you know what I mean, and I hope you do, because I myself have no idea what I think I'm implying here."

[http://users.livejournal.com/drayke_/]

.....yeah okay I meant to add the latter statement, but I was not sure enough even in that.

[http://users.livejournal.com/drayke_/]

"...if you know what I mean. Because that would make one of us that knew."

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering if you had any thoughts on Korra (Hi this is Jill, I'm in Singapore btw :)) since I just finished watching the finale.

LoK started out so promisingly, faltered wildly in the end trying to handle a love triangle and basically put the entire plot worth anything into the last two (three maybe) episodes. I'm... stunned? I mean, these are the guys who did A:TLA, and that was revolutionary in terms of what concepts and plots could be put into a children's series.

I liked Tarlok and Amon's story (rushed as it was), the older generation (Tenzin and Lin yep!) and Asami, but that was really it. I'll probably watch the second season, but I'm expecting nothing from it.

Also I would like Asami to be the equivalent of Iron Man, but that's just me and wishful thinking. Any likelihood of people wanting to do a Korra group anyways?

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Hey there! =D

I'm... stunned? I mean, these are the guys who did A:TLA, and that was revolutionary in terms of what concepts and plots could be put into a children's series.

I know what you mean. My best guess is that it all comes from how A:TLA was three seasons whereas LoK was only originally commissioned as a half-season, and the writers made the mistake of thinking they could cram in just as much story. So they get to episode eight or so, realise they're running out of time and try to fit so much into the final act that half the plot ends up squeezed out around the edges. It's only more frustrating when you know that halfway through the job they got extended to do another 14 episodes, and yet apparently were either too far along with production to rewrite anything to use all that extra space, or they just didn't bother. (Don't even get me started on the love triangle. The enthusiasm these guys have for writing romance far exceeds their skill at pulling it off.)

the older generation (Tenzin and Lin yep!) and Asami

Much agreed on Tenzin and Lin, and we had a chat about Asami last night where we concluded that after Korra, she was probably the best fleshed out of the kids, and the one who had the best established reason to be involved too. It's just poor Mako and Bolin who got the short end of the stick for some reason.

Any likelihood of people wanting to do a Korra group anyways?

velithya cosplayed Korra to Supanova. No idea what people's plans are beyond that, but over here we're already pretty busy plotting crack Tonberry skits and epic One Piece groups. >D