Lurker > Amenadeel

I wonder if zu li for real betrayed varrick and is gonna work for kuvira or has a plan.

I think kuvira's ego is gonna lead to her hubris. She loves hearing people swear loyalty to her. It would be the best way to manipulate her.

It's really frustrating to see korra massively nerfed like that. Her physical strength was kinda the most she had to offer... raava knows she doesn't have much in the way of ingenuity.

Oh. Ohhhhhh. Now I get all the Asami and Korra shipping that I was aware of before I even knew what avatar was. Was so confused back in season 1 since they were romantic rivals for Mako but as of episode 7 now I get it. I guess it was the only way to keep Asami relevant because honestly as sweet and kind and helpful as she is, she doesn't... add much to the show. The fact that she wasn't a villain really threw me for a while.

I was unsure of kuvira but her threatening an uncharacteristically moral concscious Varrick crosses the moral event horizon for me.

This show keeps making me guess wrong. When toph said there was still metal poison inside Korra I thought she just said that as a placebo and that Korra's recovery was all in her head, she needed to choose to get better. I was half right but it turns out there was leftover metal that Su and Lin missed. Huh.

I kind of thought it was interesting how the show/toph decided to describe the villains of each previous season:

Amon = equality for all

Unalaq = spirits

Zaheer = freedom

I mean... that was an interesting take.

Tenzin sending his kids to find Korra? That's terribly irresponsible what the heck, even if they are air benders. Jinora at best looks as old as Aang was (already too young) and the rest are barely above being toddlers.

They tried to play off ikki being captured as comedic but it was a lot scarier to me.

This president

Holy crap it's toph! Now we've seen all the original gang! Well, the ones still alive.

Cant wait to read those spoilers. Anyway thankfully they didn't spend too much time on her underground fighting ring thing. I guess she still needs to "find herself" or whatever.

Really feel sorry for her. Impatience aside, she's probably been put through the ringer worse than most avatars.

But it's the last season, so if it's going to be a downer ending like the 3 previous seasons I'm gonna be so upset I watched this sequel to avatar.

So... The air nation as basically a team of super heroes that fly around helping people? That's... pretty adorable. Seeing Kai and Opal in their uniform was cute, and I love how Kai seems to have matured and is all hero like now.

Not sure about this kuvira person, I mean is she Gonna be the villain of this season? A conflict between the incompetent Prince wu wanting to be king and her wanting to rule? I wonder if the season's gonna be like real life conflicts of former kings losing the throne to dictators who initially have the support of the people in their attempt to unite the country under their iron fist. And she literally has control of the iron/metal to boot.

Ugh Korra is in an underground fighting ring? So I guess the 3 years does nothing, she'll always be the rash impetuous person no matter what.

Never been a fan of timeskips but I think it may be needed for this show and interested in where it's going to go.

Plus, I don't know what things were like when Korra was first in development but if they only brought back avatar for a 12 episode sequel season that rushed through a lot of things and left it at that with no continuation, they may as well have not brought it back at all. A lot of concepts like bender vs non bender seem to have been dropped but it's an issue with no easy answer or fix.

I get what you guys are saying and can definitely agree that the drill episode in the original series was brilliant for all those reasons you said and more.

I assumed Aang beating yakone was more about his skill in using the avatar state, especially since it took a few seconds to take away his bending compared to when Aang first used it, showing that he's now gained mastery of the skill and all things avatar. It's a powerful state but if the individual doesn't know how to use it property then it's not as useful.

Oh man good point, I would love to see if zaheer can fight through blood bending with all his sage hoopla. Amon would probably take away the bending of the other 3.

Total_Lost2 posted...

Amon would wreck.

Also the biggest nerf for the Avatar was the loss of knowledge of specific bending techniques that was gained over generations of specialist bending. So the new one will probable have a decent waterbending boost, but not yet fire or air.

You think Amon would win? Wasn't he taken out by Korra's gust of wind punch?

Man I really wish I could have seen the villains square off against each other. How would Amon fair against the red lotus, or unalaq. Really wish those bad guys fought each other instead of giving the rest of the world grief

dave_is_slick posted...

I'm sorry what? They are by far the best antagonists in this series since the writers took time to show they're just as human as the protagonists.

Sorry let me clarify, I wasn't sure I liked the red lotus motivation, and I still don't. Character wise I actually wanted to learn a lot more about them, their history, how they formed.

And as I say it I'm realizing one of the many things that makes Korra different from the original. In Korra you don't really get a lot of time with the characters, besides season 2 it's very fast and plot driven. In the original we got all 3 seasons to focus on villains and characters like zuko, 2 full seasons on Azula, etc so you see their background, history and complexity.

Korra's shorter seasons don't give a lot of time for that which is unfortunate. Especially since season 3 is the first time I really wanted to know about the villains, but they're all taken care of and done with by season's end.

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Avatar state got a massive nerf last season tho.

True true these explanations are all making a lot of sense. God I hate that nerf :( . Losing the connection to the past avatars is like basically destroying the series avatar itself! It's no longer avatar.

Wondering if the writers are being intentional. With how the world was changing, especially in season 1 when I first got technology whiplashed by republic city's 1930s aesthetic, my thoughts were "does the world still need an avatar, things are just so different now" and they're almost trying to show that in every season it seems. I dunno, just musing

pegusus123456 posted...

I quite liked the twist in season two where it turns out the comic relief super-capitalist billionaire is also just a piece of shit.

Kinda bit harsh. He's a terrible person, but pos description is reserved for unalaq imo, or yakone. I mean... He does seem like he makes amends here and there doesn't he. He's just greedy/self interested.

And while it was a twist, I thought it was implied to be pretty obvious, I mean he outright states that war is good for business.

Bad_Mojo posted...

The 4v3 fight at the Air Temple is my favorite fight in any format. I don't think I saw you mention P'Li blowing her head off or Zaheer flying or Mako being a Lave Bender. What are your thoughts on those things?

Is that what happened? Just rewatched the scene. I'll admit with everything going on at once I didn't get it. Now I see the black smoke and realize what it implied. At first I thought when Su covered combustion lady's head in metal armor that she would just suffocate to death, but I guess she exploded it and the force was contained so it exploded her? Man bending is no joke, it's so dangerous. I honestly don't understand how fire benders don't give themselves and others 3rd degree burns whenever they bend fire at someone. It's literally fire being hurled at you and hitting your clothes, how is no one burning like the wario land 3 burn animation sprite?

For water lady (who I would have liked to know more about, especially with the loss of her arms) at first I was like "no Mako, why did you follow her into a lake??!!" but then I facepalmed at myself for forgetting about lightning powers and now I'm like why don't they use lightning all the time, it's literally the speed of lightning you can't dodge that. Such a powerful underused move.

Bolin lavabending was cool and a bit more clever considering they kept trying to tease that he'll get metalbending. But still it's like damn they're really going all out with the amount of elements they can bend but I'll just chalk it up to the fact that in a world of spirits and magic, whose to say what the limit is.

Even though when I read the creation of avatar comics, the creators stated and showed that each of the 4 elements were actually tied to real life martial arts like tai chi for waterbending which I thought was so brilliant and made me love the original show even more.

Oh yeah good point. What is this poison, she's like completely sickly and out of commission by the end of the season, can't they just take her to Katara to heal up? Or does magic healing water not work that way.

Ok gonna make a new topic for season 4 but I just really wanna predict what the conflict is gonna be this season. This new tough lady kuvira, wants to unite the earth kingdom, and wants to be their ruler right? And that conflicts with the new incompetent Prince wu being king.

Am I close? I mean, she's literally getting bandits to swear loyalty to her

Can't just leave it like this, gonna watch just the first episode of season 4 and see if things are better.

Timohtep posted...

Not sure if you finished the episode yet, but:

It really is my favorite season. Having it capped off with the raging firebender vs. the graceful lithe airbender in an environment extremely similar to the final confrontation between Aang and Ozai was fantastic. Excellent excellent season, and definitely my favorite of the whole series, TLA included.

Oh My god, right? That's literally what I was thinking of.

Season was amazing but not sure I'm a fan of the red lotus. I mean, to the end they believed in their ideals I guess but even if you topple regimes, it's human nature to build them back up again. How do they not realize this? For all his readings on ancient gurus and unlocking ancient abilities like flying, how Does this simple concept escape them?

Damn. Just... damn.
Almost every season has Korra beaten up worst than the last. And the finale never fills me with much reassurance that things will get better. Now there's not even Aang's spirit to help Korra through this like in season 1.

Just... damn.

Holy crap Korra you're in the avatar state how are you not kicking zaheer's ass yet come on already!

This is making me wonder if airbending really is the most powerful of the bendings like I initially thought

Last episode! Boy even with platinum chains zaheer still underestimated the avatar state. How were they not able to kill a sitting duck.

Oh crap they're attacking the air temple those are kids goddamnit!

Tenzin no!!!! Scared to watch the next episode, please please don't be dead.

They... took down the dai li and earth queen. Shit just got real.

On the one hand, I kind of did want to see the red lotus villains fight the evil queen and take down the dai li agents, whom I've never liked. But on the other hand... ba sing se descending into chaos is no good.

Also explains why they made the queen such an ass, so I guess we wouldn't feel as bad about it when zaheer kills her? Literally choking her to death damn. I wonder what the last thoughts of people like that are.

Hmm good point. Been actually wondering about that and what ravaa's line regarding "10,000 years of darkness" really meant when she told wan humans wouldn't survive it. Is it like literal with no sun, or just that there will be constant fighting and post-apocalyptic war tribes and such until humanity snuffs each other out.

Yeah zaheer said that they were also gonna release vaatu but that unalaq being a dark avatar was never "part of the plan" or whatever. My question is why, I mean won't all humans die if vaatu is released, there's no benefit for them. Chaos and anarchy is one thing but this is ridiculous.

Finally... so what, zaheer and his friends are just a bunch of anarchists? Seems kinda a lame motivation... And I don't see how unalaq was with them, damn dude was an ass from the very beginning and like, no one noticed.

Also what the hell they disposed of the truth seer before even telling us why and how he betrayed suyin and the avatar like that. The way zaheer throws him in the pit makes him seem like a random mook. What, he was just helping Su to build and govern metal city only to betray her at the last minute? It doesn't make sense, it feels like they just needed a way to explain how the red lotus could get into metal city.

... the red lotus? Really?

On the subject of zaheer complaining about the white lotus... You know, its funny. When the series first began back in book one, the white lotus made me apprehensive at first because they looked too cultish with their robes and authoritarian control of Korra in a remote compound. I remember the white lotus from the original series as these bunch of sweet old men who play pai sho and stand up to fight for good when the need arises. Now they seem a lot more bold and controlling.

I don't want to say I agree with zaheer but my first impressions of the white lotus in Korra was one of mistrust before I accepted them.

Oh shit Mako had the same thought!

Oh shit I knew it!!! How could he betray them like that

Phew they thwarted the attackers... For now. I don't know how they escaped, but I'm surprised the villain leader didn't just do that trick when they still actually had the avatar...

Also they're questioning random guards to see if they let the villains in? I don't think it was just some random guard... wait a minute. It couldn't be the so called truth seer could it?

Damn the villains infiltrated the metal city somehow!

What is that lava bender's deal, like is he supposed to be the earth bender of the group or another fire bender like the combustion woman. Is he heating up the rocks to form magma or what exactly.

I'm glad to see more air bison, but I'm curious weren't they wiped out with all the airbenders during the Fire nation attack?

I like tenzin but I'm not sure air nomad way of life is for everyone. It's a hard question, should ancient cultures and traditions die to make way for new ones, or should they be preserved at all costs?

Yay Varrick is back! I can't help but like the guy, anyone else feel the same?

Oh wow that's how Lin got her scar? It's not as anticlimactic as fury's scar in the Mcu, but I was surprised.

Would like to know how her sister got her act together because now it seems like being a reckless law breaker worked out in her favor while Lin has had to deal with stress and borderline ulcers from being responsible her whole life, and is now ultimately jaded.

Okay that metal city episode is amazing. So toph had daughters from 2 different dads who they don't even know, that's... yeah. It's a little unorthodox to say the least.

Lin is being such a hardhead with her sister. Jesus what is her problem. Yelling at her niece? Opal seems so sweet and goodnatured.

Oh my god. At ba sing se. Evil dai li agents, again with this? And an evil queen. Where did her dad go wrong while raising her. Wasn't he that gullible and naive earth king with the bear who didnt seem like a bad person.

You know what I like tenzin's family now. At first I thought the kid might get too annoying but I've actually grown to like them and find the airbender family dynamic quite sweet. I love how bolin describes them.

pegusus123456 posted...

The villain in this season is probably second only to Azula. And he's honestly a fair bit more complex than she is.

That's high praise. The fire woman in the prison for a second almost reminded me of Azula before I realized it was impossible to be her.

Ok wow. I am just devouring these episodes. Now I see why people say season 2 sucks, it's only because season 3 is so goddamn better by comparison. My god the quality jump is sky high.

I don't know who this evil gang of benders is but seeing Fire Lord Zuko with his dragon was splendid.

I don't know why harmonic convergence equals people magically having airbending abilities but I'll go with it for now.

It's funny, last season when they introduced Aang's other kids I was surprised they weren't all airbenders like tenzin. One is a water bender like her mother and bumi isn't even a bender at all. Now it's like the series writers gave him airbending abilities to make up for that. He still had value even if he wasn't an airbender...

Only just started but it's like it's addressing all the problems I was starting to have with the sequel series. For one I was getting tired of the Republic city setting and wanted to see the other places in the world. Now they're going to the earth kingdom and ba sing se!

plot of this season though is gonna be about bringing back the air nation? Hmm I wonder.

also an evil airbender huh? That's new. Heh if they had a violent airbender during the hundreds year war maybe they could have stood up against the Fire nation.

monkmith posted...

do they cut out the bullshit romance? i had to stop watching because the love triangle from the first season got fucking annoying.

Still there, but way less than season 1.

I still find it just bizarre how sexy, rich and amazing Asami has to battle for Mako's affection when she could get any guy she wants.

CableZL posted...

I thought season 2 was the worst of the 4 seasons, mostly because of the time they spent with the amnesia trope.

Er which amnesia trope? You mean the two parter about the first avatar? Because that's like the best 2 episodes of the season.

Tonally a lot of the comedy doesn't work when the characters are a lot older than their first series counterparts, however when the comedy does work it really makes me laugh.

It's a shame Varrick turned out to be a villain because I really ended up liking him as the season went on.

I may not have liked how we got there but I liked the middle part.

All these people saying 2 is the worst season ever are kinda ridiculous, I was frustrated no more than I was in season 1. Well perhaps more in some areas but less in other areas.

Anyway I'm not sure I liked the ending. All the previous Avatars are dead, the link to them gone? We're never gonna see them again? That sucks! It was like they did the plot to last Jedi before last Jedi was a thing (let the past die and all that). When Korra hesitated to close the spirit world I wondered if it was gonna show that Vaatu was gonna be reborn or something from within her and then get out but I guess not.

The dark avatar concept made me think a lot of the whole nega-villains type thing. I still didn't get unalaq at all. Hell I was half expecting Vaatu to laugh at unalaq after he was freed and say "you thought I would ever fuse with a human?" and swat him away or something. But no, I guess he wanted to fuse with a human too!

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense but when it comes to stuff like spirits I give it a pass because they're probably intentionally vague on explaining the rules to how it all works.

I thought spirits were meant to be a metaphor for animals and nature. But I think the contrast of that 1930s esque republic city conflicts with the whole ancient spirit world thing. Also it kinda makes me curious about how the other nations are living.

Still, Korra thinks she knows better than thousands of generations of avatars in keeping the spirit world opened? There's probably a lot of consequences to that. Especially if negative energy turns spirits evil/violent, you know how common that is gonna be?

Well, I'm gonna see if these events are gonna lead into season 3 or are self contained. Interested to see what other kinda villains the show will have.