The Legend of Korra (potential spoilers within)

[Mirby]

in regards to amon's method of removing bending...

How Amon Removed Bending (It’s a real Chinese technique that many believe in)

When placing his thumb on the center of the forehead, Amon was aiming for the hundred-meetings acupoint (shown above, circled in red). This is a central gateway and nexus for chi. Bending relies on chi flowing through the bender’s body. The idea of this technique is to send chi through the acupoints the wrong way and damage the veins and energy channels. This could be forced with bloodbending. The hundred-meetings acupoint is connected to all the important points through the chi paths, so it is the best spot to cause massive damage.

It is said that a divine doctor can cure internal injuries and restore one’s martial arts power. The injured person could also practice a special, high level skill to regain his inner power. Bryke obviously made the Avatar the parallel to this, as Korra was able to look inside herself to restore her own bending, and she had the ability to restore other’s bending as well.

Interesting, huh?

[DarkeSword]

http://artgerm.deviantart.com/art/Korra-311214718

[RealFolkBlues]

^NICE^

@Mirby: Hell yeah, thanks! That's pretty much what I was thinking. Blood bending assisted dim mok (an esoteric Chinese martial art that translates to the "Death Touch.") Pretty frickin' badass. Remind me never to mess with Sifu Kisu. That guy could kick your ass in like eighty different ways.

[42]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has brought this up yet, the Legend of Korra Comic-con Panel:

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Legend-Korra-Comic-Con-Panel-Liveblog-44591.html

so, there will be 4 books total split over 52 episodes! Books 3 & 4 confirmed! Also, Book 2 will be called "Spirit" and set six months after Book 1.

[EC2151]

I never watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender (my loss I suppose), but I've started up on The Legend of Korra, and right now, 5 episodes in, I'm pretty satisfied at the relatively high quality of animation, voice-acting, and plot development (though if you go on someplace like /co/ it's nothing but bitching about the show), but I'll have to see if it remains so throughout the second half.

I'm digging the badguy thus far. He's a cool cat. Though while I think it's a bit implausible that a bunch of martial artists could seriously challenge a society of magical element-wielding martial artists, I'll allow it for story's sake.

[Phonetic Hero]

I actually just finished the series a week or so ago. It was freaking awesome. I'm anticipating it being something like Young Justice, in that the first season is ridiculously awesome, and you don't expect the second to live up to the first. The second might start off kind of slow and like, "wtf is this?", but I imagine it'll blow your balls off once it gets going (again, like Young Justice)

[The Damned]

I never watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender

Go watch it. It's by the same people and covers some of the stuff and characters you see in Korra.

Also, it's really good.

But don't see that piece of shit live action movie they did. If you've already seen it by now, go back in time and stop yourself from watching it. Even if you have to risk tearing the space-time continuum a new everything by slapping yourself repeatedly, don't let your past self watch it.

[EC2151]

I'm not stupid enough to actually sit down and watch a movie by M. Night Shyamalan.

[KyleJCrb]

I actually just finished the series a week or so ago. It was freaking awesome. I'm anticipating it being something like Young Justice, in that the first season is ridiculously awesome, and you don't expect the second to live up to the first. The second might start off kind of slow and like, "wtf is this?", but I imagine it'll blow your balls off once it gets going (again, like Young Justice)

Also, like Avatar: The Last Airbender. The second season was amazing. Mostly because of Toph, but still.

[Abadoss]

Also, like Avatar: The Last Airbender. The second season was amazing. Mostly because of Toph, but still.

I like Zuko's character arc in season two.

[KyleJCrb]

I like Zuko's character arc in season two.

Yeah, he had a good arc. But dat Toph, man...

[RealFolkBlues]

Lots of truth getting spoken in this thread. That's nice to see.

@Charlemagne: def watch Last Airbender series. 'Tis AMAZING. My vote for like the third best television series EVAR. Serious business. After M*A*S*H and Star Trek: the Next Generation in case you're wondering. And yes, of course, don't watch that godawful live action movie. I hate M. Night Shyamalan so much.

More importantly, WTF! 4 books of Korra!

[ectogemia]

Lots of truth getting spoken in this thread. That's nice to see.

@Charlemagne: def watch Last Airbender series. 'Tis AMAZING. My vote for like the third best television series EVAR. Serious business. After M*A*S*H and Star Trek: the Next Generation in case you're wondering. And yes, of course, don't watch that godawful live action movie. I hate M. Night Shyamalan so much.

More importantly, WTF! 4 books of Korra!

Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of Last Airbender. I kinda thought the first 60% of the series was, put frankly, kiddy and boring. The last third or so of the series was pretty entertaining, though, and the overall impact of the show was satisfying enough. Zuki and Iroh pretty much made the show. Toph, too, I suppose. The rest of the characters... ugh...

Korra, however, has been great from the start. The story is more complex and risky with its characters, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of filler or little mini-adventure subplot business that turned me off to Last Airbender til a little before Book 4.

Just my twopence.

[EC2151]

Just finishing the series, I can see why some opinion has been split (btw i marathoned like half the series because i have nothing to do tonight >.>)

I liked how they wrapped up Tarlokk and Amon's characters, and I think easily they were the most interesting people in the show (though Tarlokk only towards the end stepped out of his "scheming political douche" mold). The adult characters were routinely the most interesting and likable of the bunch. Because Korra was always raging over everything, Bolin was kind of just comic relief, and well you know.

I didn't really like the love-triangle, nor did I really like how everyone but Mako and Korra were pushed to the sidelines (I would have liked a bit more character development, though I understand the constraints the creative team were working under - namely the assumption of 1 season). What I don't understand is that during this potentially dangerous uprising, the rest of the nations didn't get involved sooner. Because it seems like no matter how much support Amon's group had, they were confined to one city, and if all the other nations ganged up on them, it didn't matter how many Power Gloves they had, they were getting boned. Not seeing the grand-strategy there.

I look forward to more, though where the story goes is anyone's guess. I mean, the main badguy is kind of dead. So it's hard to see what exactly the buildup is going to be.

I heard rumors on /co/ (which hates the show so much it's comical) that the next season would be a self-contained story (since the other two books hadn't been cinched yet). I wouldn't honestly mind that approach... one season to really establish character, and then have a huge two-season arc. That'd be nice.

[DarkeSword]

Book 1 was actually designed to be a self-contained story. In its earliest conception, it was intended to something a 12 episode miniseries about Avatar Korra. That was it. The series would have ended with Amon defeated and Korra getting her bending back. Then Nick extended their order to 26 episodes, paving the way for Book 2 (14 eps), so they had to write a new storyline for that as well. Then Nick extended the series for ANOTHER 26 episodes, which means Book 3 and 4 will be about 13 eps each, and possibly more connected.

[RealFolkBlues]

@Ectogemia; yeah, I can respect that opinion. The last third to 40% of the show is where it really grew the beard and got epic, with relatively little "wacky time-wasting nonsense" or kid-oriented stuff. Agreed on Iroh, Zuko, and Toph, as those were probably my three favorite characters from TLA, though I really did end up loving like everyone in the cast. I suppose one reason I feel like I'm still not ready to put Legend of Korra on the same scale as Last Airbender is that I identify more with Aang than with Korra. Just fits my personality more, I guess.

@Charlemagne; I think they made most of the heroes fairly flat since they didn't think they were going to have much time to develop them, but yeah, hopefully that will be rectified over the rest of the series. As for why the United Republics didn't just come in and bash Amon and company in the face, I see two possible explanations; one, the violent part of the uprising only seems to have taken a relatively short period of time before it really got out of hand and the UR did get involved. This makes sense anyway as it seems like something any national or international government wouldn't step into until it was completely evident that the local authorities couldn't sufficiently contain the damage. This leads to my second point, which is that this kind of conflict would not seem to lend itself well to a mass military response. The Equalists are essentially terrorists, and as such, a conventional military would have a very difficult time rooting them out, whereas a small, local, elite force (of which Republic City had three at the time: Lin's metalbenders, the only airbending master in the world, and the freakin' Avatar) should have been the better way to go. Here again, once the Equalists change the game by revolting en masse, all bets are off and shit gets real.

I think this format is going to work great, and I don't know how much work they could have gotten done before they heard the news of getting three more seasons to work with, so I'm really excited to see what they do.

[ectogemia]

I suppose one reason I feel like I'm still not ready to put Legend of Korra on the same scale as Last Airbender is that I identify more with Aang than with Korra. Just fits my personality more, I guess.

I'm not an Aang at all

[RealFolkBlues]

I'm not an Aang at all

Lulz, yeah that would do it. I thought it was pretty funny how much my wife resembles/likes Korra. It definitely helps if you can put yourself in the main character's shoes.

[DJLionheart]

Well, I haven't read through this thread all the way, since I have yet to finish the first season, but I just finished Episode 6 and wanted to pitch in my two cents.

SPOILER

I thought it was freakin' awesome when Korra and Lynn teamed up at the end of the episode. Lynn was like break-dancing while shooting and weaving metal tentacles all over the place! Epic. I'm excited to see how the show develops from here. I've found it pretty enthralling so far.

[The Damned]

Oh my god, when they fight the giant robot in episode 15, you will not believe our eyes what Linn does to it. It's all like "ZZHAAAAAAM!" and then Linn goes "ARRRRRRRRRRRR!" and then Korra manages to push it over and then together they both make it go "RRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM!" and then they stop it from destroying the city.

Best finale EVER.

Oh, and spoilers.

[Mirby]

Oh my god, when they fight the giant robot in episode 15, you will not believe our eyes what Linn does to it. It's all like "ZZHAAAAAAM!" and then Linn goes "ARRRRRRRRRRRR!" and then Korra manages to push it over and then together they both make it go "RRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMM!" and then they stop it from destroying the city.

Best finale EVER.

Oh, and spoilers.

that's only topped in episode 16 when tenzyn linn and kora are devoured by another giant mech and blow it up from the inside

[Thornquist]

Hate to be a negative-nancy here, but I was kinda dissapointed with the finale.

SPOILERS A' PLENTY:

First of I hated the teenage-romance triangle that the show had going. It seemed like Korra only knew that Mako-Edward-Twilight for a couple of days before announcing her deep affections for him. If that had happened to me, I would have slowly backed away & bolted. Atleast The Last Airbender managed to make the romance story slowly develop over time, and not make one of the characters seem like a douche when they finally kissed at the end (cheating? Really?).

Also, how did that Amon guy manage to take away people's bending? Aang had to have a demi-god teach him that stuff - the fact that he was just a bloodbender was disappointing to me.

Not hating, I liked the season except for the love-triangle & finale. Please kill Mako in the next season.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Thornquist

[A14 Headmaster]

I really enjoyed Last Airbender but I have mixed feelings about the new series. From the beginning, we're supposed to accept that within 60-80 years the other nations have forgiven the 100 years of horrible atrocities committed by the Fire Nation... And that by working with them, the world has been catapulted forward technologically and managed to build a city unlike anything seen in the original series. Now, I'm not saying this is an impossibility... but hatred runs deep. In fact, there was an entire episode in the original series focusing on Katara being unable to forgive the man who killed her mother.

The characters were OK... It's not fair to compare Korra to Last Airbender when it's only had a single season to work with. I felt that they really nailed the chemistry between the characters in the original. I also really enjoyed that while Last Airbender had a fairly epic story, the series did not take itself all that seriously.

Additionally, I wasn't the biggest fan of Pro Bending.

[KyleJCrb]

I really enjoyed Last Airbender but I have mixed feelings about the new series. From the beginning, we're supposed to accept that within 60-80 years the other nations have forgiven the 100 years of horrible atrocities committed by the Fire Nation... And that by working with them, the world has been catapulted forward technologically and managed to build a city unlike anything seen in the original series.

Sounds like it mirrors most of the real-life 20th century to me (though I guess no country committed 100 years of horrible atrocities in reality, but still.) I don't think it's that hard of a pill to swallow.

[Mirby]

Sounds like it mirrors most of the real-life 20th century to me (though I guess no country committed 100 years of horrible atrocities in reality, but still.) I don't think it's that hard of a pill to swallow.

Add in that Ozai was responsible for most of those atrocities (and the two Fire Lords before him). When Zuko became Fire Lord, he vowed to clear the Fire Nation's name. It shows some of this in The Promise, and Republic City was founded partially as a result of his actions. Note that there's even a statue of him (I think it's shown in episode 3 of Korra, when Bolin gets kidnapped by Equalists), so that's something too.