The Legend of Korra Series Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

[aceina]

ya know korra just had a crap life all around

As did Asami, in fact given everything that happened over the series she is the only one who suffered as much as Korra. Ignoring everything before the series started, her father turns out to be evil, she loses everything she has by choosing to do the right thing. Her boyfriend starts making the moves on someone else when she needs him most, she learns that he kissed said girl when he was in a relationship with her. And she's nearly killed by her father who she is forced to arrest. And this is just what happens in season 1 I'm not even going to go over everything that happens for the rest of the series cause we would be here all day.

But what makes this so well done is that throughout the series these events aren't just ignored and tossed to the side for either Asami or Korra, instead the writers used it to help further their characters. We see how the events of Air have effected Asami, both personally and financially throughout the rest of the series. Her father's down fall is something that is always brought up and we see the effects it has on Asami, like her not wanting to see Mako in prison because it reminds her of her father being in jail.

Take this in contrast with Mako, his parents being killed right in front of him, by a firebender, when he was a kid is mentioned once during the first season and only effects him in all of one episode, the one where he and Bolin meet the rest of their family and has little to no impact on the plot other then him and Bolin learning something that Korra had already figured out.

Asami's mother being killed is actually relevant not only to the plot but to her character as it serves as the catalyst for her father's fall to the dark side and why them falling apart and later rebuilding their relationship is so important. Mako and Bolin have each other and later they find the rest of their family, Tenzin has his wife and children, Lin has her own family and Korra has her parents. But Asami only had her father and later lost him to and as far as we can see she has no other family members.

This is why I can't wait to see Chuck review more of Korra and her relationship with Asami as well as Asami's character. Just take a look at The Sting, a episode that was, in theory, meant to show off how awesome Mako was but as Chuck pointed out, Asami was the one who came out looking better given her class and badass driving skills.

indeed mako was a really lame character he became passable in book 3 and 4 when they stopped using him as a love interest but he had not real character and they struggled to even make one for him still the weakest as a character of the main cast

hell most of the supporting cast beat him to

hell wu from book4 is a better character as he at least had an actual arc and was funny

[RobbyB1982]

Varrick is clearly the character the writers fell in love with. He really overshadowed most of the cast in season 2, and season 4 him and Juli were given a very disproportionate amount of focus in the finale. (Similarly, Bolin started working once he was paired with him.) I don't mind a secondary character stealing the show, he was great, but... clearly a character that got more love than Mako.

Mako they just never had any idea for except to appease Zutara shippers... except the showrunners never understood WHY people wanted that particular relationship. No, it wasn't just because they wanted the waterbender to end up with the hot firebender, it wasn't quite that shallow. But shallow looks is all Mako and Korra ever got for chemistry.

[aceina]

i honestly never realy liked varrick

[Winter]

Varrick is clearly the character the writers fell in love with. He really overshadowed most of the cast in season 2, and season 4 him and Juli were given a very disproportionate amount of focus in the finale. (Similarly, Bolin started working once he was paired with him.) I don't mind a secondary character stealing the show, he was great, but... clearly a character that got more love than Mako.

Mako they just never had any idea for except to appease Zutara shippers... except the showrunners never understood WHY people wanted that particular relationship. No, it wasn't just because they wanted the waterbender to end up with the hot firebender, it wasn't quite that shallow. But shallow looks is all Mako and Korra ever got for chemistry.

I think Mako started off as one of their favorites given how much they let him get away with. Case in point, whenever fans pointed out how poorly Mako treated Korra or Asami Bryke would always either deflect the question or change the subject to something cool Mako did earlier in the season. However, as the series went on it was clear that they were A) running out of excuses for Mako's poor behavior as they now had him back in a relationship with Asami after only one episode after his breakup with Korra. And B) were likely realizing that being a love interest was all Mako was and had no other traits to fall back on.

I do think they had plans for Mako post Spirits but I think the final nail in the coffin that convinced the writers to pretty much demote Mako to glorified extra was when he got back with Korra after she had forgotten about their fight in Peacekeepers. As I said before Mako pretty much dumps Asami on the spot and takes advantage of Korra's amnesia just so he can have her back. Skipping ahead to Remembrance Mako attempted to justify his actions by saying that "technically" and Asami weren't officially back together which is a excuse so lame that even Wu calls him out on it, which is like Neelix calling someone out on being dead weight.

But back to my point I think this is when the writers all agreed that Mako couldn't be saved, he was going to be kept around likely due to marketing reasons but for the rest of the series he would have the sort of bad luck that would Mako Sokka look like the luckiest man alive and would e more useless then Momo as everything he contributes could have been done by anyone and nothing would have changed.

Take this in contrast with Samantha Nishimura from Tomb Raider. In the first game Sam was written exclusively to be the person Lara had to save and originally she was intended to die. But fans ended up liking her and her relationship with Lara that the ending was changed to where Lara was able to save Sam instead of killing her. And instead of just having her stand around and only be kidnapped all the time the tie-in comics actually spent a good amount of time developing her character and while she was captured a few times she managed to pull her own weight and even helped Lara in her adventures and doing so in such a way that couldn't have been done by Jonah or Reyes.

Now I'm about to get into spoilers for the most resent arc in the TR comics but it does tie-in to my point so just bare with me for a little bit.

Towards the end of the last few issues it was revealed that Himiko, the main antagonist of the first game, had managed to get a piece of her soul into Sam and at least partly possess her. As a result Sam began having violent mood swings and was soon arrested for assaulting someone. The reason this was done was to give Sam a concrete reason to not be involved in the next game Rise of the Tomb Raider though I'm not sure as to why as Sam had become very popular by this point thanks to the comics.

Of course this plot point would have to be addressed and resolved at some point which leads us to the most resent arc of the comics Choice and Sacrifice which deals with Lara trying to free Sam from Himiko once and for all. Now the means they use free Sam is pretty silly as it turns out there is a magic mirror that Himiko used to remove the souls of the priestess she would possess and this same mirror, (which is based on a real artifact that the real Himiko owned call the Wei Mirror) can be used to remove Himiko's soul from Sam's body though there is a risk that it could take Sam's soul with it.

However, the method that is used is what I want to talk about. When Lara brings Sam/Himiko to the mirror Sam and Himiko begin to have a battle of wills and Sam is able to win by first regaining control of herself long enough to stab herself which weakens Himiko's hold on Sam and when Lara begs Sam to open her eyes Sam is able to fight through and look upon the mirror. And in doing so Himiko is drawn out of Sam freeing her from Himiko once and for all.

This helps to show how far Sam has come and how strong she has become. In the first game, much like Lara, Sam was terrified by the situation she found herself in needed to be saved by Lara. As the series went on, however, Sam began to grow as a character, fighting off a would be kidnapper armed with nothing but a cupcake, helped form a plan to save one of their friends by using her carrier as a film maker and a good chunk of her money to get them to Mexico without drawing attention. And finally when she engaged Himiko, who is pretty much a Demigod, in a battle of wills Sam was the one who came out on top and Himiko was the one who was screaming in terror.

This is like when Luke was able to hit his target in A New Hope or when Kirk played a game of chicken with V'ger and V'ger was the one who blinked its the classic David vs. Goliath story and its awesome.

So what we have here is a character who started out as just someone for the hero to save but through the course of the series has become more then that and I hope that she returns in the near future as the Deuteragonist of Tomb Raider.

Mako is the flip side of the coin, he was written to be a love interest and nothing more and instead of trying to give him a true foundation to stand on the writers instead just gave him a bunch of quirks that didn't really amount to anything. Sam had a deep and meaningful relationship with Lara and in the comics she was given a personal journey and flaws to over come and had back on. Mako had to give up his scarf and just another comedic character.

[TGLS]

No, it wasn't just because they wanted the waterbender to end up with the hot firebender, it wasn't quite that shallow.

I know why: the shippers' wanted a steamy romance. He made her dewy with pleasure. She ignited the passion in his heart. He felt a burning desire when she was around. She saw the flicker of desire in his eyes. The ripples between them could not be stilled. When they came together, they were moist...

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week! And I'll have worse puns tomorrow!

[SuccubusYuri]

The impact of the shipping is also lost when Korra's first two dates are literally the first males in her age group she has EVER met. Like, "Oh yeah, Korra...thinkin with her dick there...real...real justified attraction, fellas."

Of course in fridge logic after the fact you could say that's like Bruce Wayne's "three chicks makes me super not gay" in that she was just mimicking what straight people were supposed to do. Even if that wasn't the original plan xD Honestly it makes the relationship work BETTER.

[SuccubusYuri]

ya know korra just had a crap life all around

As did Asami, in fact given everything that happened over the series she is the only one who suffered as much as Korra.

Just remember the meme.

[Deledrius]

The problem with Spirits is again the whole "Nature in 'Balance' is suppose to be peaceful" cept anyone who studies the natural world will tell you otherwise

The Spirits are basically presented as Self Righteous Squatters 'Vaatu opened the portal sure... Why the **** are the rest of you pouring through and beating the crap out of the locals?'

Stop making the Wood elves from Warhammer seem reasonable

Yeah. This is a plot-element and a real-world sentiment that just needs to die.

or get people who actually understand the Buddhist/Shinto/Hindu approach they are going for and not the junk food new age rip off the 70/80s gave birth too

The lion king has better understanding of nature in balance through Mufasa's small spiel about the circle of life!

It's weird (and disappointing-as-usual for Korra), because they almost did a decent-if-cursory job of it by introducing Vaatu and Raava as dueling forces of chaos and order, and it seemed poised to expose the error in the assumption that chaos = bad and order = good. Using the obvious plot device of Wan jumping to quick conclusions and working solely on Raava's one-sided testimony, this felt like the story it was building. But they just ran with that misunderstanding instead and chose it as the foundation. It could have been great, forcing Korra to realize that Wan's assumptions, as well as her own, were incomplete -- especially since she was becoming so obsessed with imposing her own order onto the world around her during Book 2. The real solution to bring Balance to the spirits as well as herself was not "destroying" Vaatu, but taking him inside her along with Raava and truly embracing that Balance.

Even worse was that they brought this lesson back around in Book 4, but because they so thoroughly wrecked the entire notion at the end of Book 2 it was never applied to the situation where her antagonist shows how order taken to an extreme is just as damaging and dangerous.

If there's one common thread for all four stories in Korra, it's the frustrating habit of raising really deep and interesting philosophical points and then completely ignoring them in a way that makes it look like it was an unrealized accident every time. Each Book presents a problem worth examining that will pose a challenge for Korra and her rigid personality, but the plot always takes a hard left and lets her resolve it without ever confronting the core issue the Book began with.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

For what its worth, the Rift comics finally did do something a little more balanced and nuanced with the spirits. I mean, we have an old stick-in-the mud "HUMANS DESTROY EVERYTHING!" purist, but he is balanced with a spirit who has a more understanding approach of humanity and its viritues, and is like, not a sanctimonious vegan eco-terrorist dickface.

Edit: Also thinking, the Moon and Ocean spirits do a fairly good job of being, well, helpful to humanity at large, fairly just in their actions, etc. Although that's damning with faint praise.

[SuccubusYuri]

For what its worth, the Rift comics finally did do something a little more balanced and nuanced with the spirits. I mean, we have an old stick-in-the mud "HUMANS DESTROY EVERYTHING!" purist, but he is balanced with a spirit who has a more understanding approach of humanity and its viritues, and is like, not a sanctimonious vegan eco-terrorist dickface.

Edit: Also thinking, the Moon and Ocean spirits do a fairly good job of being, well, helpful to humanity at large, fairly just in their actions, etc. Although that's damning with faint praise.

Well, Twi, La, and Koh are all so far removed from the way the spirits are characterized come Korra, that lore might as well not exist xD Like, the whole idea of them being foundations for the real world? That's almost contradictory to the way the worlds are divided up in season2.