Current Events > Oh wow, korra season 3 is starting to impress me early. Spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

I don't think humans would all die if Vaatu is released, it'd just suck for a while. If your goal is to create a "society" without leaders where only the strong thrive, a spiritual apocalypse is a good way of doing that.

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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.

pegusus123456 posted...

Not TC, but I'm watching Season 4 now. I saw a lot of people blasting this season too, but I'm loving it four episodes in.

Honestly the only downside is you can definitely see where they skimped on budget with the backgrounds and some of the fight scenes. LOK has some of the best Western animated fight scenes I've seen. In season 3 they really upped their game

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deanshow posted...

Honestly the only downside is you can definitely see where they skimped on budget with the backgrounds and some of the fight scenes. LOK has some of the best Western animated fight scenes I've seen. In season 3 they really upped their game

Yeah, none of the fight scenes are as hype as some of the ones in S3. And I definitely feel like we missed an episode of backstory on the antagonist, probably where that clip show was.

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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.

It turns out the Air Nomads were pacifist for a good reason <_<

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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.

Tenzin vs Zaheer show the difference between someone who studied it for life and someone who hasn't...

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Amenadeel posted...

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.

We've always wondered if airbenders could do that. Never thought we'd get an answer. Then not only do we get an answer, they show us everything. That is why I personally say this is the best season of Avatar, not just Korra.

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Total_Lost2 posted...

Tenzin vs Zaheer show the difference between someone who studied it for life and someone who hasn't...

Yeah, I know some people complained about Zaheer suddenly being an expert, but that showed that he isn't. He mostly just uses it to augment his martial arts.

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Amenadeel posted...

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

I agree. After Bolin far more often than not failed to fill Sokka's (understandably) massive shoes in the comic-relief-with-bucketloads-of-heart-and-smarts department, Varrick was a welcome addition to the show. I'm glad they finally bumped him up to secondary character level in S4, and he managed to make even the woeful clip episode worth watching.

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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.

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

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

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.

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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.

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?

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

Amenadeel posted...

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?

*Mild nonspecific spoilers* the counter-productive results of Zaheer and the Red Lotus' actions are touched on in Book 4.

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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?

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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

Amenadeel posted...

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

Too be fair...She was poisoned with mercury

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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.

Not sure how healing water deals with any bacterial infections, but I'm pretty sure you can't heal poisons or toxins away.

Amenadeel posted...

but not sure I'm a fan of the red lotus.

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.

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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.

Amenadeel posted...

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

Avatar state got a massive nerf last season tho.

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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.

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

I so badly need my Earth Avatar show, and I'm pretty sure we're going to get it now that Netflix is putting out a lot more content in the universe.

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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.

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

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.

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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?

No, just blown back out of a window. Recovered quite quickly afterwards, similar to him being blasted by lightning.

In fact any real fight he wasn't even touched.

Also bloodbending is overpowered, so I'd favour him over any "regular" person in the series, including Ozai (though mayby not under the Comet, which might give him enough power boost to power through it). Unalaq might have a chance as a waterbender, depending on how much he knows about bloodbending. Unavaatu would beat anybody in the series outside of the Avatar.

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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.

Avatar state got nerfed and Korra was poisoned (lethal amounts of mercury in her bloodstream) while trying to fight.

Those are the reasons why she was having a hard time against Zaheer.

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As much as I love Avatar: TLA, it's hard to deny that there was too much reliance on deus ex spiritpowers to get our heroes out of tough situations (this is why The Drill remains one of my favorite TLA episodes: Team Avatar won the day based on their own abilities and ingenuity).

Point being, things like the Avatar State needed a nerf in LoK because it wouldn't have fit the more realistic tone. This is now a world, for instance, where characters who fall ten feet need an air cushion to protect themselves, whereas in TLA, Zuko spends five full seconds airborne, smacks down face-first on stone pavement, and shakes it off (Korra falls from a similar height during the climax in S3 and spends six months paralyzed from the waist down as a result.) Both series are at their best when characters have to fight and struggle through situations through their own ability and resolve, not from mystical outside help. In fact, I've often argued that one of the reasons LoK Book 2 falls flat at the finish line is that it takes a hard turn back into spirity deus ex territory, and because the show had been largely absent of that up to that point, it feels that much more jarring and disappointing.

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^I'll offer an alternative explanation. The Avatar State as it was in TLA would have trivialized most of the struggles Korra goes through. TLA spent an entire episode (literally called The Avatar State) to explain that he can't control it and thus can't use it to solve any problem. And even then, he still uses it to solve most of the bigger problems.

TLOK has a similar justification in season one. She learns most of the elements rather easily, but she can't connect to the spiritual side until the finale. That's probably where they shot themselves in the foot a little. Season one was made under the impression that there wasn't going to be a second one. As such, it ends with Korra as a fully-realized Avatar with access to all of the skills it took Aang three seasons to acquire...and then they have to write out three more seasons. I think it's telling that the first season portrays the Avatar State just as powerfully as it was in TLA (Aang uses it to blank-face Yakone's bloodbending).

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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.

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.