Hapuriainen's Legend of Korra watching diary

After watching Avatar the Last Airbender in its 61-episode-long glory and enjoying it very much it was of course natural to watch the short sequel. Or I heard it gets more episodes, but as of now it's only 12 which shouldn't take too long to watch. So I'll have to tone down the pace a bit from that of Avatar's, since a watching diary with only two entries would be pretty pointless.

All screen shots from AvatarSpirit.net.

Jul 28, 2012

Episodes 1-2

Not as hyped as with Avatar, but that was to be expected since this is a sequel where my beloved characters are either dead or in the background or just missing while I should learn to get interested in the new ones instead. Not that the Legend of Korra has done anything wrong either yet; I'd probably be a lot more interested if I had never seen Avatar before.

The world building is as good as it was with Avatar. I like the new more modern setting and how the world has changed but how it's still recognisable as the old one from Avatar. The Avatar's role was funny too; she was like a celebrity, but her participating in a sports event only raised minor interest instead of everyone going "OMG THE MYTHOLOGICAL SPIRIT PERSON AVATAR HAS APPEARED!!!11!".

So far, my favourite character has to be Tenzin. He is more moe than Kotetsu from Tiger and Bunny~~~ I also liked his kids, they weren't particularly annoying or eat too much screen time.

Korra herself doesn't interest me much. This type of characters... just aren't my thing. But I still take an impatient, immature, selfish and arrogant character over a super mature and calm besserwisser one any day, she has a lot of room for character development that has a good chance to be enjoyable to watch. And she is also delightfully different from Aang so at least I won't have to watch the same thing again. And it's nice how she starts the series knowing all the three elements Aang learned during his story; it sets her apart from Aang and it's not like I was particularly interested in seeing waterbending lessons again, while studying airbending is a new thing.

Korra gets no bonus points for her pet since I'm not a dog person. But it's not like I hate dogs either, and the animal is polar bear enough so hopefully I can treat it the same way as Appa.

The series starts with the pretty boring "country idiot messes up the traffic in a big city" thing, but due to the high production values it was at least fun to watch. And that introduces us to Toph's daughter who is quite not Toph but still awesome enough to be my second favourite character.

In the world where different benders live together Pro-bending was believable, though it can't compete with the awesomeness in the Blind Bandit episode. That was serious business; no protective gear or rules about where you stand, they just hurled huge boulders at each other! And threw participants to the walls!

So far I like the Nice Guy Bolin. On the other hand I have little interest in Mako, he's the wangsty brooding fangilr magnet Zuko without the woobie part. He must SUFFER to get me interested.

Loved the trolling about Zuko's mother. While I of course wouldn't mind finding out about her I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about it as apparently the rest of the fandom seems to be, so teasing about it amused me greatly.

I have heard that Korra spends too much time on teenager wangst and pairing drama. I hope it's just exaggerating, so far it hasn't been too bad.

Aug 1, 2012

Episodes 3-4

Now I've managed to slow down the pace quite a bit. In the days of AtLA I watched an entire season in the time the four first episodes as Korra have taken... Sadly I am nowhere as excited about Korra as what I was about Avatar. Korra hasn't really done anything wrong, it just... hasn't managed to get my attention.

Baaaw, Tenzin's opening narration changed! Okay, the previous one was pretty long and this focuses more on the heroine of this story, but I still liked the "sadly his time came to an end, but seasons and avatar cycle etc".

Asami... I'm fine with her. But her character desing bores me, it's just... somehow bland. The likes of Korra and Tenzin clearly dress like fantasy characters in a different world from ours, but Asami sticks out by having a relatively normal outfit. Or outfits, she got four in her debut episode! I'll allow that to compensate for the general boringness of her character design.

Speaking of clothes, Korra's party dress was really nice. But I hate her limited wardrobe; she sleeps in the same clothes? And she even wears shoes when sleeping in a bed? I was fine with the Gaang wearing the same thing since they were traveling, so obviously they couldn't drag a huge wardrobe with them. But Korra is located in the same place, so I'd be pleased to see some variety (in her "normal" clothes, not special ones for pro-bending or undercover missions).

Not interested in pro-bending. Sports bore me so I hope there won't be too much drama about doing well in a sports event.

Mako doesn't interest me much either, though he managed to gather a bit more sympathy by not being a jerk all the time. But he has to make more funny faces for me to improve my opinion from "a brooding pretty boy fangirls want to see".

The new team pet also makes its appearance. At least it's cute, and I hope the creators treat it as well as Momo (=it gets as little importance as possible), so hopefully I'll be able to deal with it. And the "Pabulous" pun I see everywhere is funny.

The pairing drama has begun. Am I supposed to go all *SQUEEEEE* from Korra and Mako's sleeping scene? All it caused was slight annoyance since I felt it was just there to keep the pairing tards who started shipping Korra/Mako before the series even began interested.

The ending of the fourth episode raised my interest slightly, I like Korra a lot more now that she's shown a weaker side. And Tenzin was there, I'm sure that was a large factor in my enjoyement.

Aug 5, 2012

Episodes 5-6

Continuing with the slow pace. I just found out that the series is shorter than I thought. What, only four episodes left?

Episode five was pure zzz to me. Teenage pairing drama and sports? Great, just what I wanted to see! So Korra likes Mako who is dating Asami and therefore can't like Korra but still kinda likes her anyway, and Asami likes Mako and Bolin likes Korra and thennnn Bolin conveniently appears just the moment Korra and Mako kiss! Yeeaaah! The only thing missing was Asami witnessing the kiss as well and deciding to hook up with Bolin instead. Luckily they managed to settle their drama llama by the end of the episode, but to my annoyance this'll probably still continue later because we haven't seen Asami's take on Mako's sudden... affair?

And as if the MakorraMasamiBorra pairing drama wasn't enough, now we have to throw Tenzin and Lin into the mix as well! Just what I wanted to see! ...not. But hopefully they managed to solve the issue as well (?) so we can get over with it.

And since I really couldn't care less about sports I really couldn't get interested in whether they make it to the next round of the tournament, or whatever it was. Though I have to say that I did get a little bit hyped when Korra saved them by hanging on the edge of the platform and throwing Mako back, I have to give the show some credit for getting me show some interest in a sports match.

Tenzin's kids continue to amuse me. I hope the next plot twist won't be "Jinora and Ikki fall for the same guy! Love doctor Korra gives advice!" though.

Slightly disappointed that Korra's breakdown from the fourth episode was pretty much forgotten. But I guess that since it's such a short series there's not much time for her to keep moping about it.

Aug 12, 2012

Episodes 7-8

Pace has slowed down even more, but I was on a trip and stuff like that. And the series indeed is 12 episodes and not 10 like I thought last time. It's my picture resource AvatarSpirit.net's fault, they only had screen shots up to episode ten and that confused me! But since I now have a much more positive attitude towards the series I'm glad that there's more episodes than just two left now. I wonder where I'll get the pics for the last two episodes though...

Now that it's been a while since I finished the original series its glory has diminished a bit, and I can see more clearly that it was not all rainbows and sunshine. I'm fairly sure that I should have waited a bit longer before starting Korra so I would have been able to be more positive towards it from the start instead of thinking how Zuko and Aang from last week's episodes aren't present any more. I still like the original series more though, but whether it's the change in my attitude or an improvement in Korra's writing (I'm betting it's the first one) I have started getting a bit hyped on Korra's story.

The pets have reveived surprisingly little screen time. That is very good, I can even say I like them since they aren't stealing the spotlight with stupid quirks all the time.

Tenzin is still my favourite character, with Lin being the second favourite. I'm a bit conflicted because of course I want to see my favourite characters being the most awesome things ever, but at the same time I know I ought to support the main characters' struggle as well. As much as I love Tenzin it would be a bit lame if Korra won't get the spotlight at the most important moments (and on her own, without my beloved Tenzin's or anyone else's help).

Out of the teens my favourite is, surprisingly, Asami. Luckily we are in the 21st century where a character can be feminine without having boys and makeup her only defining thing. And I like how she as the non-bender of the team manages to be useful without it feeling like the writers specifically wrote the situation so that she wouldn't be overshadowed by the magical people. But since the point of the fights in this season is the non-bender bad guys can be a considerable threat to the benders it shouldn't have been that surprising... I like Mako a bit more now that we've seen him more doing non-serious stuff. Bolin on the other hand hasn't been that impressive, he mostly bores me. It feels a bit like he was trying to be Sokka v.2 but not succeeding at it.

Korra has gained more sympathy from me by SUFFERING. I'll rather have the angst about being a fail Avatar and not learning airbending than angst about her crush dating someone else.

Korra not being able to airbend at all kind of surprised me. Either it wasn't as good storytelling as it could have been, or I've managed to miss a lot regarding her training. I remember that at first she had serious trouble with it, but at the end of episode two her training got a more positive turn when she learned ~to move like an airbender~ or whatever it was at the pro-bending match. The positive turn made me think she had actually understood something about airbending and had been making process, but now we're told she can't do anything. Did I miss it when she continuously keeps failing at everything in her airbending training, or did they just not show it?

I don't think I've written much (or at all) about the villain and the main plot. That is... a neutral sign. There's nothing gone horribly wrong that'd require ranting, but at the same time the pairingz and other stuff has kept me a bit distracted. The only thing that has raised more thoughts is obviously Amon's identity, but even that hasn't gotten too much focus from me since uh, it's such a short series that I could have finished it in like five hours if I had wanted and found out right away, so why waste brains for thinking about that (I'm starting to see one reason why I haven't been able to enjoy the series...)? Amon could be the waterbender politician (Tarlak? How do you spell his name?), but that'd be a bit too obvious. I'm betting it's a new character. But anyway, main plot is doing fine. Now with Korra being captured I'm actually quite interested in what will happen to her.

It is not a good thing for the series though if my favourite thing about it is (still) the little flashbacks of the old Gaang that only take a few seconds. I wanna see Zuko!

Aug 15, 2012

Episodes 9-10

The plot thickens and my interest grows, and I managed to be enough hyped to watch two episodes in one go. Or I would have watched them all, but let's remain in the good two-episodes-in-one-entry pace since.

The Lin/Tenzin drama gets a payoff. Lin dealing with the situation was my favourite thing in these episodes, and it's sad their tense relationship was introduced in the same episode that otherwise was full of the teenagers' pairing drama so I hated it from the start. But since the adults are now dealing with their relationships in a way that it's interesting to me to watch I could even stomach the Makorra/Masami drama without much irritation.

It's extremely surprising how Tenzin's kids not only manage to not annoy me, but actually be likable characters. I didn't even have trouble with them engaging in fight, though it would have been preferable if there had been less enemies. Now it's a bit silly how supposedly elite mooks got owned by a buch of kid- wait, how old was the old Gaang? Well they were older than Ikki and definitely older than Meelo anyway.

Speaking roles for the old Gaang was much appreciated. Sokka~~~~ And Toph still uses the nickname I didn't exactly like when they were kids, but now it sounds so stupid that I can deal with it easier.

Linnnnn loses her bending! As much as I love seeing her being awesome I hope she doesn't get it back. I like real sacrifices on the heroes' part, not just some "ohhh pity them now! Just kidding, they got their skillz back after all tee hee hee!" baiting.

General Iroh makes an appearance! I had become aware of his existence via Avatar Wikia before I even started Korra episode 1, but I don't think that it would have been too difficult to figure out ~who~ he is without being spoiled anyway. Usually I don't really pay attention to voice acting but this time! His voice sounded so familiar that I got suspicious! And I had to check Wikia! And I was right, it was Zuko's voice! ...it sounds weirdly high for an older character.

Now I have out-used my screen shot resource. Where shall I find pictures for the final entry?

Aug 18, 2012

Episodes 11-12

Okay, now I am done. Somehow I had gotten the picture that the ending would be a massive trainwreck so I guess you could say I was pleasantly surprised. But I assume it's just that since I've cared very little about this series compared to AtLA that less-than-stellar ending didn't manage to move me much either...

(Since AvatarSpirit.net only has screen shots up to episode 10 I'll have to settle with what I can find on google. pfft!)

I liked uncle Bumi in his two-second screentime glory. Iroh II didn't do all that much, but I assume they'll have more screen time in the next seaso- book and their appearance in this book was just fanservice.

The new characters who weren't Lin or Tenzin&Family didn't manage to impress me that much. I thought I'd like Bolin a lot more, but somehow it felt like he... just was there. He had a few funny moments, but other than that he... uh, fought with some bad guy mooks in scenes that could have easily been cut or altered to not include him? Even Asami had the drama with her father. Sure Bolin was in that fight as well, but of course the fight was more for Asami since it was her dad. By the way I really thought the daddy would get a change of heart and destroy Amon's stuff at a critical moment, but I guess that'll be in the next season then.

Mako and Makorra were so meh that even Kataang interested me more. Ummmm, I might have been able to notice their romance even if it wasn't rubbed on my face like every time they were on screen at the same time. Was I supposed to be all 'awwwww' when Mako turned out to be watching Korra getting her bending back?

I belong to the crowd that didn't find Korra getting her bending back awesome development. Sure, it looked cool, but it felt like a total deus ex machina. Aang just... appears and solves everything, and we lose the feeling of sacrifice. Did she get the Avatar state too? And on top of that she also gains the ability to restore other people's bending as well! I hear the creators didn't know that they'd get more episodes so that explains this a bit, but still doesn't excuse the random happy-happy ending to me.

Also, I didn't like how the... theme? regarding Korra's lost bending was handled. Okay, it's perfectly understandable that Korra is upset for losing the ability to bend three elements. What bothers me is how the show backs up this point; she's totally broken without her bending so she must get it back right away, her life would be HORRIBLE if she doesn't! Besides, plenty of characters are just fine even if they can't bend any element, but Korra can't be happy if she only has one element (and whatever spiritual stuff being the avatar includes), she needs all four!

To me, Korra spending the next book (or the rest of the series) as a limited Avatar would have been a more interesting take on the Avatar legacy. And then she could have learned to energybend her bending back herself instead of getting it as a gift she earned because... uh, she was hearbroken?

At least playing the Avatar the Last Airbender theme during the ending was nice.

Amon (whose real name I can't remember) and Tarlak's (whose name I still can't spell) back story was good and I liked their final boat scene. But who will be the villain in the new episodes?

But anyway, I'm still interested enough to wait for more Korra episodes. If the book is called "Spirits" maybe the face stealer dude will reappear? And most importantly, Zuko, I heard word of god says he's still alive and kicking.