#Anti bolin

[likeadragonfruit]

Normally, I would wait until I was finished with a completed series rewatch to talk about a character’s arc. But I had to say something early. As previously stated, I’ve found Bolin far less likable than the first time I watched The Legend of Korra.

When I gave my opinion of Bolin in the book 1 of TLOK round up, I said that Bolin is great at best, but an obnoxious store brand Sokka at worst. But I hit my breaking point with Bolin in book 2.

The issue isn’t that he can be dumb. There are plenty of likable stupid characters in the past. But there’s nothing endearing about it, and actually it’s worse than simply not being endearing. His stupidity is actively used to facilitate absolutely horrible plot lines. 

So, Bolin is supposed to have problems telling differentiating between the fictional roles of the mover, the public personas of actors and actual reality. And that’s used for such great ideas like him kissing Ginger while she’s tied up and without her consent. Or him constantly being confused at her lack genuine positive response.

Does any of this go anywhere? Have him face what he did wrong with the kiss? Tie into the whole identity and true self thing Tenzin goes through, which is supposed to build to the lesson Korra was supposed to take away in the finale? 

Nope, never address the kiss, consent or boundaries? Their last interaction is Ginger deciding she wants to be (seen as being) with him. 

As for the whole fiction and reality thing, the big resolution of that is basically nothing. I mean, Bolin does use his brain cells to save the President and First Lady in a sequence where reality mirrors the mover on screen. But Bolin seems to just ditch the whole thing when President Raiko refuses to mobilize the United Forces, Bolin jokes that he wishes never saved the President. Then he apologizes to Mako and the story pretends basically pretends none of that happened.

And considering in the future, he supports Kuvira, but gee, is completely ignorant of the things she’s doing…

#tlok #tlok rewatch #bolin critical #anti bolin #the reason I don’t count the boleska fiasco as fueled by Bolin’s stupidity #is that was more the writers thinking it would be funny #but boleska is another good demonstration of the problem #if you don’t take the character seriously how can you expect us to?

[wilcze-kudly]

When I said Bopal looks like everyone involved has a gun to their head I mainly mean Opal

Like girl. BLINK TWICE IF U NEED HELP. WHO IS MAKING U DO THIS.

#someone save her #anti bopal #bolin #opal #legend of korra #tlok #the legend of korra #avatar the legend of korra #atlok #lok

[punkeropercyjackson]

Re the fascist/cop post, I'm still pissed about the careers they gave so many characters because a cop doesn't fit any of the cops. Except Lin.

Like Toph, for example. In AtLA, she hates authority so much and in LoK she hates people and the idea of leading them. In the AtLA comics, she's shown to enjoy being the authority in being a teacher or partner in Earthern Fire Industries, but it's repeatedly shown she likes the title over the job. If I were in charge of her adulthood, she'd keep being a teacher, go to the wilderness earlier, or maybe be a politician.

Mako and Bolin have similar reasons for this being stupid. They were orphaned at 8 and 6 respectively and turned to a life of crime to survive for 8-9 years before becoming athletes. They know why most criminals exist, out of desperation. And Bolin is only a cop for like a week because Mako was. I think it would make more sense if Mako either never joined the police or left to be a PI/bodyguard for hire because B4 Mako is best Mako. Similarly, it doesn't make sense for Bolin to join and stay with Kuvira because while he's daft, he's not that daft and I think he'd realize what's up

THEY AIN'T PIGS ATLA WRITERS GET A GRIP!!!!!

#leo-thecactus #pastel punk tag #atla geekery #anti lok #toph beifong #bolin #mako lok #askies

[baku-usagi]

Talking to Co workers about how much I despised legend of Korea reminds me of how much I did love bolin, and how said I was that he was played for a comic only character. The show was honestly such a garbage fire with so much potential. Big sigh

#anti legend of korra #Legend of korra critical #lok bolin #nikki rants

[nerdemic]

i don’t mind the idea of pro-bending but the way it homogenized three of the four bending styles into one “you just throw punches and make the element do things” style is infuriating

#anti-lok #atla #so much potential here #and they just #d'you remember what Bolin's advice to Korra is #cuz I just watched it #and it's so exactly the opposite of everything Toph taught Aang and just #UGH #you gotta be light on your feet #TOPH LITERALLY CALLED AANG TWINKLETOES BECAUSE HE WAS JUST #'light on his toes'

[merinarasauce]

hang on gonna rant abt blorbos for a sec. someone said bopal should be cancelled because they're Too Perfect and got together Too Quickly. to that i say. that's stupid. a) theyre fictional you cant cancel them and b) there should be a critical eye on it for a multitude of much worse reasons such as opal's character arc almost entirely revolving around bolin, opal often leveraging her relationship with bolin to try and get him to do what she wants, bolin's sudden incapability to learn from his mistakes for cheap drama, bolin's loss of both personal accountability and free will, and general incompatibility and lack of chemistry between the characters. in this essay i will

#look im not saying im anti bopal. ship what u want #but i am saying that the writing kinda tanked when it came to this one #lok #bolin lok

[invertedspoon]

that moment when you join a fandom online after years of happily absorbing the media alone and now you have to figure out what tags you have to block after seeing the most downright disgusting takes you've ever seen

#this might have been about LoK because i saw a bolin x wei post and misremembered n thought they were cousins until i started writing this #idk but that person is also anti bolin/opal which is wrong because they are so adorable and sweet in the comics <3 #but still has happened a few times #anyway #super sleepy #sleepy posting

[comradekatara]

What do you think makes the original ATLA so good when practically every subsequent piece of spinoff media ranges from mediocre to downright reactionary? Considering some of the stuff the og creators were responsible for counts among the very worst, I don't think it can be blamed on their lack of involvement. Idk I've always wondered about this because it's so strange. Did ATLA end up being good purely by accident & nobody involved in its creation actually understood what they were doing or what?

lmfao i definitely do think masterpieces can be created purely by accident. not that there aren’t elements of careful deliberation and a lot of collaboration involved, but it really was a lightning in a bottle sort of project. like this is just conjecture bc i haven’t seen any of their other projects but apparently the creator of black sails has made some other, bad shows. or the creators of utena as well. see, even, the stupid lame ass ending to fionna and cake. there’s no guarantee that just because someone (or a creative team) can create a coherent, nuanced work means that they can replicate that success ad infinitum.

i think that where atla truly excels is in its character writing, which is why the fandom (a fundamentally character-focused phenomenon) still endures (not that they really get the characters lmao, but at least we’re all way too deeply attached to them in the first place). and the anti-imperialist politics are almost incidental to the show’s success. i’ve said before that it was much easier for liberals to critique american imperialism during the bush administration, because the invasion of iraq was completely inexcusable, and also very easy to criticize if you dress it up in children’s fantasy and always have the defense of going “no, don’t you see, the fire nation isn’t the us, it’s the prc, it’s imperial japan!! you know, our enemies…!” which a lot of people to this day actually believe — not that there aren’t allusions to other imperialist histories (esp wrt the air nomad genocide), but zuko’s whole speech to ozai in “the day of black sun” is literally a critique regarding what it means to live in the imperial core. it’s a western, american show for americans first and foremost.

…. and then lok was made during the obama administration. neoliberal identity politics abound. and don’t get me wrong, some of those identity politics were a good thing, because i love seeing milves and bisexuals and korra just like. in general. but it’s also a show that fundamentally revolves around capitalism as its central theme without every actually participating in a coherent class critique. the closest we get is mako and bolin visiting their family in the lower ring, which doesn’t count, bc that was established in atla.

however, just because atla endures in our consciousness, and i am truly finding new things to appreciate about it all the time, does not mean that it is without flaws, and so i do think that it’s pretty fair to assume that its success as a work of fiction and a work of art would of course be undermined by the economic forces that demanded it continued to expand its franchise for profit rather than out of any narrative or thematic need to do so. it always comes back to liberalism and capitalism. lol

#bickazer #asks #lok crit #they just need to put their pens down . just stop

[fantastic-nonsense]

☔

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I had to browse through my 30+ WIPs to figure out if there was one I was willing to classify in this category, and...if there was a fic that fits it's a Legend of Korra fic concept I wrote up like 8 or 9 years ago in the immediate aftermath of the series finale. I genuinely don't think I'll ever get to it; not only because I've long since left the LOK fandom and have no real interest in finishing any of my fic ideas that aren't my "Justice for Asami Sato" WIP, but also because it would likely need a whole series of fics to properly explore everything I wanted to cover. I will, however, happily give a detailed outline of what I was planning on doing since I'm never going to get around to it.

Basically, the concept was to completely imagine LOK as the story might have been written if the creative team had known from the beginning that they would have 4 seasons to tell the story of Korra. I was looking at the disjointedness of plot, themes, and character arcs that happened because Bryke originally planned the show as a miniseries and then didn't know how many more seasons they would get...and thinking about how to connect everything together more coherently (within my own preferences and ideas of how things should have been told, of course).

The tl;dr of each fic is as follows:

Book 3��s plot would come first, as it should have in the show: Korra travels to Republic City to learn Airbending from Tenzin, only to find that some spiritual mumbo jumbo has created new Airbenders. Thus, she’ll learn airbending from Tenzin while they’re all on the search for the new airbenders. Meanwhile, the Red Lotus has escaped and is coming after Korra. Ends the same way, with Korra physically incapacitated and suffering from major PTSD

Book 4′s plot would be next: the fall of the Earth Kingdom creates a power vacuum that Kuvira fills. Meanwhile, we watch the season-long restoration of Korra’s physical/mental/spiritual wellbeing. We get the story of Wan and Raava this season, as part of Korra’s recovery arc (so she can discover and restore her bond with the Avatar Spirit).

Book 1 now becomes Book 3: also in the wake of the Red Lotus’s destruction and the tyranny of Kuvira’s Earth Empire, anti-bender sentiment has sprung up around the world. Amon takes advantage of this sentiment within Republic City. Korra, now residing in Republic City, has to deal with the anti-bender revolution as a fully realized Avatar (but one that is still struggling to fully recover from the Red Lotus and is now terrified of losing her bending because of the events of the first two seasons)

Book 2′s dual plot would end the series: Korra has to deal with the Water Tribe Civil War while Harmonic Convergence approaches, which would have had lore drops throughout the show after the ‘Avatar Orgins’ revelations back in the second fic. The series ends with a bang as Korra defeats the spiritual manifestation of darkness and chaos and pledges to lead the world into a new spiritual age. 

A fairly detailed explanation of how I'd planned out this reimagining is below the cut, if you like.

Ask me a question about one of my WIPs!

The first fic ("Air") was going to start out with the re-emergence of the airbenders due to a freak spiritual event; this was going to be the reason Tenzin wouldn't be able to train Korra in airbending at the South Pole compound, as he was focused heavily on recruiting and training new airbenders and wanted to put off training the Avatar for another year or two. Meanwhile, the Red Lotus breaks out of their prisons and starts readying themselves to go kill the Avatar.

Korra would make her way to Republic City to try and reason with Tenzin that he could just train her while looking/training the other airbenders, meet Lin while breaking up a robbery in progress, and escape from the RCPD with the help of Mako and Bolin, two pro-benders who just lost the finals this season (but they’re sure that they’ll come back next year even better). They introduce her to Asami Sato, their sponsor and Mako’s girlfriend. She explains who she is, what she’s doing in Republic City, and what’s going on….and they decide they want to help her. They all end up stowing away on Tenzin's ship along with Lin, who basically designates herself as the Air Family's bodyguard (because god forbid Tenzin go swanning off into the Earth Kingdom without any protection for his small children).

We'd spend most of the fic dealing with the three intersecting plots: 1) Korra struggling to learn Airbending and spiritual direction from Tenzin, 2) Tenzin finding and training the new airbenders+Korra, and 3) the Red Lotus political plot and their attempts to kill Korra (which both fall under the “no more world leaders” heading of their group goals).

Subplots would have been more or less the same subplots as the existing Book 3, with some of the Book 1 issues mixed in: resolving the Lin-Tenzin tension, Tenzin struggling to be a teacher and rebuild the Air Nation, korra struggling to figure out airbending, Mako and Bolin finding their family, and the romance issues (Korra-Mako-Asami with a season-long Masami breakup arc and the Bolin-Opal romance…the Mako-Bolin drama over Korra doesn’t happen because we meet Opal basically right off the bat). Korra still ends up hurt and traumatized at the end of the fic. Despite initiating the Avatar state for the first time while fighting Zaheer, she can no longer connect after the physical and spiritual trauma she suffered, so she stays behind at the South Pole to be healed and further mentored by Katara.

The second fic ("Restoration") would have picked up one year after the first fic ends and covered the basic plot of Book 4 with some of the character arcs that Book 2 dealt with (except better): The fall of the Earth Kingdom created a power vacuum that Kuvira fills. Korra's doing her season-long recovery/spiritual discovery arc while dealing with the threat of Kuvira; we also get the Wan-Raava story here, to properly sow the seeds for the Harmonic Convergence plot later down the road.

Mako and Bolin go back to pro-bending, but both find it unsatisfying after going globetrotting. Mako's single, and Bolin and Opal (who's moved to Air Temple Island to continue her training) are still dating. Asami, who's chafing under the restrictions of being back in Republic City and once again living with her father, joins an underground street racing group as a racer and part-time mechanic; she's super lonely, since Korra is still recovering from what the Red Lotus did to her and (from her father’s POV) she no longer has any ‘socially acceptable’ reason to interact with Bolin and Mako since they’re no longer dating. So all of that happens, culminating with Kuvira's attempted invasion of Republic City. The Krew would reunite to fight her off.

The third fic ("Equality") would have picked up about six months later and reinterpreted the Equalist plot. In the wake of the Red Lotus’s destruction of the Earth Kingdom, the chaos that unfolded afterwards, and Kuvira's attempted invasion of Republic City, anti-bender sentiment has sprung up around the world. Amon takes advantage of this sentiment within Republic City. Korra, now residing full-time in Republic City, has to deal with the anti-bender revolution as an Avatar who is now terrified of losing her bending after fully recovering from what the Red Lotus did to her.

Bolin took a long trip back to the Earth Kingdom with Opal to see Suyin+his family and help stabilize the country a bit, but they're both on their way back to Republic City in the first chapter. Mako has, after bonding with Lin in the first season, joined up with the RCPD to work under her and is working his way up the ladder (hoping to reach ‘detective’ status). He’s still having Issues adjusting, especially without Bolin around. He goes and hangs out on Air Temple Island with Korra when he’s off-duty because people actually seem to like having him around and there’s always something that he can do (and he likes feeling Useful). But lately he's been hearing some concerning stuff at his job about the Equalist movement, and he's got a bad feeling about what it means for Korra and for all benders in Republic City.

So Mako has his police corruption investigation arc. Bolin is trying to figure out what he actually wants to do with his life now that he's not a pro-bender anymore. Asami starts getting suspicious that her father is up to something and decides to take matters into her own hands. And Korra is dealing with the Equalists and how to balance the "you're our Avatar too" undercurrents amongst the non-bending population.

The final fic ("Spirits") would start up about six months after Amon's defeat. Book 2′s dual plot would end the series: Korra has to deal with the Water Tribe Civil War while Harmonic Convergence approaches, which would have had lore drops throughout the series after the ‘Avatar Orgins’ two-parter back in the second fic. The series ends with a bang as Korra defeats the spiritual manifestation of darkness and chaos and pledges to lead the world into a new spiritual age.

Unalaq still sets up and starts the Water Tribe Civil War to gain power, but it’s also in service to creating as chaotic of a world situation as he can before Harmonic Convergence (opening a pathway to Vaatu’s domination over Raava; because the world is a) in chaos and b) out of balance, Vaatu will have an easier time winning the fight against Raava). The Raava-Vaatu fight would also be more explicitly framed as order vs. chaos (not light vs. darkness), which would align it more with how ATLA previously handled the concepts of yin and yang.

I was still working on what everyones' character arcs and struggles would look like in that final fic apart from Korra (who was set up to have the same political figure+spiritual leader balancing act Book 2 tried to pull off), but I know that I was planning to give Asami a Tony Stark arc and let her see the direct consequences of Future Industries’ war profiteering, giving her a reason to completely change the company around to focus on energy, transportation, and entertainment instead of selling tanks and biplanes to the Water Tribes. So...yeah. Those are the basics.

....and all of that and more is sitting in a detailed outline in a doc that I will probably never touch again, so I hope this was a fun glimpse 😭

#ask game #asks #my writing #legend of korra #lok #also I do not say this but endgame ships would have been Makorra+Bopal+Asami/OC #(A girl named Yuki who's one of Mako's civilian friends and I was very dedicated to fleshing out in my notes lmao) #also they're all bi and messy teenagers about it but in like...a funny way and not the super cringe way we got in the show

[rayes-rain]

Guys I figured out why mako's character is so much more bearable and even likeable to me after season 2.

In the first two seasons, mako is framed as a stern, brooding, no-nonsense badboy who is emotionally insensitive to most people and yet manages to pull all the ladies. In fact, later in the series, we are told that mako is still known as a ladies man, despite never having been shown this outside of him stumbling into romances with asami and korra. Due to this tell-don't-show aspect and his anti-charisma, I was left to wonder how he's even so liked by korra and asami and his behaviour towards them makes me resent his character.

This all changes in season 3. We are shown how mako has thrown himself fully into work. He doesn't have a social life. He sleeps under his desk. When he does have to interact with korra and asami he acts extremely awkward.

Him being socially closed off, awkward, and quiet isn't really anything new to his character, but the show at that point had stopped insisting that mako is a broody badboy because of it, that this in and of itself is an attractive quality. His personality is now framed for what it is, a kind of pathetic loner who has to work on building his relationships with everyone outside of his brother. It is framed as something he needs to grow to get better at.

His plotline of being wu's bodyguard also hammers home the comedic potential of stoic mako constantly stumbling into wu's shenanigans and keeping him out of trouble.

I don't care for mako as a brooding love interest, but I love him as the straight man in a comedic duo. First with bolin, then with wu.

#lok #legend of korra #mako #so sorry if you like him in the first two seasons these are just my personal opinions and realizations

[bestepisode]

The top 8 episodes from each season will move on to the next round.

Vote on the second half of the season here!

Episode descriptions are under the cut.

Welcome to Republic City

Seventy years after the events concluding Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang has died and the Order of the White Lotus discovers the new Avatar, Korra, in the Southern Water Tribe. By the age of 17, Korra has mastered the elements of water, earth, and fire, but has not yet been able to airbend. Kept under lock and key by White Lotus for her own protection, she is frustrated by her isolation from the rest of the world, and eagerly anticipates completing her training with Master Tenzin, the son of Katara and Aang, and the only airbending master. However Tenzin also serves on the council of the United Republic (a new fifth nation created by Avatar Aang and Firelord Zuko in the period between the two series) and civil unrest in the capital, Republic City, forces him to postpone her training. Unwilling to live under the strict confines of her life with the White Lotus anymore, Korra absconds from her compound on her massive polar bear-dog Naga and stows away on a vessel bound for Republic City, a bustling and rapidly modernizing capital of world affairs. After a clash with local triads, she is arrested by Lin Beifong, head of Republic City's metalbending police force and the daughter of Toph, until Tenzin bails her out and allows her to stay with him. Meanwhile, antagonist 'Amon' is identified as the leader of the anti-bender "Equalist" movement--the movement's numbers are swiftly swelling due to inequities between benders and non-benders and its extremist militant arm is beginning to kidnap benders whose fates are initially unknown.

A Leaf in the Wind

Frustrated by her continued inability to bend air, Korra visits Republic City's pro-bending arena against Tenzin's wishes. There, she befriends Bolin and Mako, two brothers on the "Fire Ferrets" pro-bending team. Filling in for their absent third member Korra initially suffers due to her inexperience, but wins the match using airbending principles. Tenzin, impressed, allows Korra to stay on the team.

The Revelation

Trying to collect money for their pro-bending fees, Bolin is recruited by the Triple Threat Triads, but they are all abducted by the Equalists. At an Equalist rally, Amon demonstrates his ability to permanently remove the bending powers of the captive gangsters, but Mako and Korra rescue Bolin before Amon can do the same to him.

The Voice in the Night

Republic City Councilman Tarrlok creates a task force to capture Amon, and eventually recruits the reluctant Korra. Mako gains a paramour in Asami Sato, the daughter of industrialist Hiroshi Sato, who sponsors the Fire Ferrets in the competition. After some success on the task force, Korra challenges Amon to a duel. She is ambushed and captured by Equalists, but Amon, not wishing to make her a martyr, does not take away her bending but implies that he will eventually do so. Shortly after, Tenzin finds her, deeply traumatized and terrified as a consequence of the attack.

The Spirit of Competition

Mako courts Hiroshi's daughter, Asami, much to the annoyance of Korra, who spends an evening with Bolin instead. Later, she kisses Mako, upsetting Bolin and the Fire Ferrets' chances in the championship. By the end of the episode, the Fire Ferrets forgive each other and advance to the championship match against the three-time defending champions, the popular and highly arrogant Wolfbats.

And the Winner Is...

Amon threatens to attack the pro-bending arena if the Council does not cancel the championship, but Chief Lin Beifong promises to protect the stadium. The Wolfbats win the match by bribing the referees to ignore foul play. After the match is over, the Equalists, having infiltrated the arena in force, neutralize Chief Beifong's metalbenders using electric gloves, and Amon strips the Wolfbats of their bending abilities before a shocked crowd. Korra and Beifong free themselves and fight the Equalists, but the Equalists escape in an airship and the arena is heavily damaged in the fray.

#the legend of korra #tlok #tlok best episode

[diamondnokouzai]

cause why did we go from "anti bending freak conspiracy" to "propaganda film star plot A, korra spirits plot B" this isnt "team avatar" cause they arent a team. literally varrick just listed off him, mako, asami, and bolin as a "team" and did not mention korra. the avatar. the one that the legend is about.

#.din #.txt

[wilcze-kudly]

Bolin only became interested in Opal after Mako directed him to, which is very in line with the brothers' unhealthy codependent relationship where mako feels the need to micromanage Bolin and his choices because that is what kept them safe and happy. While Bolin feels the need to allow himself to be directed and mold himself into what people want him to be, which is also propagated in his relationship with Opal where their relationship starts to fall apart when he stops behaving like she wishes him to. In this essay i will...

#anti bopal #bolin #mako #opal beifong #legend of korra #tlok #avatar #the legend of korra #avatar the legend of korra #atlok #im sorry bopal shippers ill die on this hill

[lok-repository]

From the purported lok series bible pdf:

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino SERIES OVERVIEW 3/8/10

THE SERIES Unlike “The Last Airbender’s” predetermined 3-season story arc, “The Legend of Korra” is designed to have self-contained, 12-episode seasons. The episodes within each season are continuous and chronicle one adventure in the story of Korra’s life. Each season will have a clear, satisfying conclusion, but will be written in a way that sets up a potential subsequent season.

SEASON ONE – SYNOPSIS

The series begins in the Southern Water Tribe, where 17-year-old Avatar Korra has just completed her mastery of Waterbending. Members of the White Lotus have gathered to escort her safely to Ba Sing Se where she is supposed to begin her Earthbending training. But the headstrong and rebellious Korra dreads being cooped up for years on some remote Earth Kingdom mountaintop. She is eager to get out in the world and start performing her Avatar duties, even though she is untested and not yet spiritually ready.

During her journey to Ba Sing Se, Korra decides to take her destiny into her own hands. Late one night, she sneaks away from her guardians and heads to a place she’s always dreamed of visiting – the United Republic Capital City. Because she’s on a personal quest to become the best bender in the world, Korra is naturally drawn to the place where the best benders in the world compete in the famous arena.

But danger looms.

A mysterious, masked man named Amon targets powerful benders and takes their bending away – permanently. Amon leads a group of chi-blocking revolutionaries who threaten the stability of the city and all the benders living there. Even though she is not a fully realized Avatar, Korra feels it is her duty to remain in the city and lead the fight against this growing anti-bending menace.

But in order to do so, she must accelerate her training. Rather than train each bending art in succession, Korra decides to train them all simultaneously. After scouting potential teachers at the Bending Arena, she recruits the handsome Mako and his younger brother Bolin to be her Fire and Earthbending teachers, respectively. For Airbending, Korra turns to Aang’s son, Tenzin. The middle-aged Airbender doesn’t approve of Korra’s unorthodox training method and is reluctant to teach her. But he soon realizes that the impatient Korra needs his spiritual guidance, and that the citizens of Capital City need their Avatar. When Tenzin agrees to take her on as his student, Korra moves into the nearby Air Temple with him and his family.

But not everyone is happy to have Korra in town.

First, there’s the Chief of the Metalbending cops, Lin Beifong, who doesn’t approve of Korra doling out her own brand of justice. The two headstrong women often come in conflict over who should be the real authority in the city.

Korra also butts heads with Arrlok, the Northern Water Tribe council representative. He is a two-faced politician who sees Korra as a threat to his proNorth agenda. And then there’s Mako’s girlfriend, Asami, who becomes jealous of allmthe time Mako and Korra spend training together.

But the biggest danger comes from Amon and his chi-blockers. When Amon discovers that the Avatar is in the city, he targets her and her friends. But the fearless Korra remains committed to stopping Amon from executing his plan to take out the Republic Council of benders, and ultimately rid the world of the “impurity” of bending.

As the season culminates, Korra gains more skill in Fire and Earthbending. She also begins to uncover the truth behind Amon and his mysterious origins. When they meet in a dramatic showdown, Korra’s courage and strength will be pushed to the limit. Will Korra be able to defeat the elusive and dangerous Amon and save Capital City from being ruled by an anti-bending dictator? Or will Amon succeed in taking her bending away, thus putting an end to the era of the Avatar once and for all?

The future of Capital City, and the world, hang in the balance.

#lok #legend of korra #tlok #the legend of korra #lok series bible

[icanlife]

Might get absolutely destroyed for this but I think Legend of Korra S1E5 (the one everyone hates, but I find extremely enjoyable) had better romantic plotlines than the entirety of Kataang in ATLA.

Both made me feel like I was watching awkward kids stumble through romance but TLOK humanized all the characters through the conflict in a very down-to-earth way.

ATLA was mostly “I have a crush and I blush about it” and then “You are my closest relationship” and then “I kiss you before the heat of battle” and then “We talk about how you’re not ready but I kiss you out of the blue” and finally “Okay the war is over and you’re no longer confused so let’s kiss”

The big help here is probably that TLOK cast is older teenagers, and watching them go through drama feels like the what you heard some of your friend’s friends in high school were going through, while Kataang was children trying to do feelings during wartime. I believed TLOK, while I understood what was going on with Kataang but had no strong reaction.

I’m not anti-Kataang, but I do think the romantic plotline they were given in ATLA didn’t do much for them. It was the very beginning of a relationship that started when they were pretty young, so I was happy for them when we saw their future and it worked out between them (though I didn’t expect otherwise, for a cartoon).

I think it’s also that TLOK lets relationships be messy and casual. It’s generally a more inner-drama and let’s-talk kinda show, so it already has that leg up when it comes to relationships, but it’s also that there’s no idyllic meant-to-be undercurrent, though there’s the idea of it in some characters’ heads.

Generally, I just like Korra S1E5 when some people despise it, as I generally like the more grounded Korra episodes that just couldn’t exist in ALTA. I feel like it shows us a lot of who these new characters are—Korra is naive and aggressive, Mako tries to be mature and levelheaded but doesn’t really know what he wants, Bolin is emotional and a big romantic—while also serving up that hilarious love triangle dramafest (which is infinitely better because of the fact that none of them end up together). I don’t like criticizing ATLA because a lot of people treat it like a perfect paragon, but while I love both shows, I think the writing of romantic relationships is undercooked. I know Aang’s love for Katara is a big deal for his character and the Avatar State, but his strong emotional relationship to her isn’t what I’m talking about when it comes to the writing of their romantic relationship. I’m not saying Korra writes better romances, because this episode basically has no romances, but I’m saying how it covers romance as a concept is much more compelling IMO.

#legend of korra #tlok #korra

[velkynkarma]

I think LOK's issue (or, one of the many) is that it seems to work smoothest when binge watching the seasons (doesn't improve the storytelling, but it IS a binge-watcher season style of storytelling) which is kinda fascinating when it came out just before the major boom in binge-streaming.

also I agree that a longer style would allow us to get and see things like how the water tribes have evolved, the state of fire nation technology and culture, and what everywhere that the gaang visited is like without the war. I remember being most excited to seeing how the world got to grow and heal after the war and then the series never did that.

Yes, and most importantly, bear in mind that the first season of Legend of Korra was supposed to be a stand-alone season. It was intended to be a one-shot series. They did not announce seasons 2-4 were green-lit until season 1 actually had a chance to start pulling in viewers, and for a while it almost didn't happen at all.

But they only had 12 episodes in which to establish an entire new generation, new technology, all of the "what happened after" stuff, establish whole new characters, and tell multiple storylines. Which left us getting Korra's introduction, her entire new friends group, the introductions of Bolin, Mako and Asami, supporting characters like Tenzin and Lin and the airbender family, a whole cultural anti-bending revolution, gang wars, an inner-city war, a whole sport, and a love rectangle shoved into 12 episodes. None of it ever has a chance to really be established, because you ping-pong back and forth between characters and plot points so fast you don't have a chance to. It's a classic case of too much, too fast.

But if the series had 20 episodes, some of this could be expanded on. How about some character development episodes for the brothers or Asami outside of their prescribed roles as "main character's crush," "girl keeping main character's crush from her," and "goofy comedy relief"? How about some episodes of the 4 of them interacting together for a more minor issue, or teaching each other things? How about exploring more of the cross-cultural aspects of the city, with mixed-blood families and all kinds of benders interacting? Build up these character relationships more, and not necessarily in the 'love rectangle' sense of the word. Let them learn things. Let them develop as characters outside the context of the main plot.

And that's not even getting into the stuff people REALLY wanted to see: what happened to their beloved characters from the OLD series!!! Where are Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and Zuko??? What about other side characters????

Bearing in mind the rest of the 3 seasons have to sit on this hastily rushed cram-packed foundation means seasons 2-4 are also on pretty shaky footing. They didn't exactly leave themselves a lot to build on. Most notably with character development--which is again, something I think could really have been solved with a few extra character-centric episodes.

It led to some real problems with pacing and character development. ATLA is centered around Aang's journey to learn all 4 elements, when he's only starting with 1. It gave him 3 seasons to work with and 3 seasons to gradually get stronger. When we first meet Korra, on the other hand, she's already mastered most elements and is an absolute powerhouse. Once she learns Air, there's nowhere for her to really go--which might have been an okay premise in the context of a one-season series, but absolutely meant they ran into a wall with the seasons after.

Korra isn't the only one with this problem either. The writing team obviously wanted a firebender on hand as a starting friend, thus the introduction of Mako. But Mako already starts out (we're told, at least, in the promotional material) as a fire-bending prodigy who is already an expert with lightning. Which is cool until you realize he has nowhere to go, either. Mako never has any physical character development for improvements, and he doesn't have much personality development either, because he was only designed to be "team strong guy and hot dude who the main character crushes on."

At least Bolin got to learn Lava bending...many seasons later.

Korra had potential for sure. There were good concepts in that story. It was just so rushed that it felt like a conveyer belt through Major Plot Points, without really getting a chance to develop any of the characters outside of basic archetypes.

#legend of korra #velkynkarma answers #avatar the last airbender #lok #atla