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Post by Paraiba Ocean on Jun 23, 2012 14:05:02 GMT -5
Agree as well. I found Amon's entire backstory very flimsy. I was really hoping for some sort of spirit world connection. :/ but I guess we don't always get what we want lol.
Personally I think Bryke do a great job at exposition, rising action, and climax but they tend to disappoint when it comes to falling action and resolution. They keep things too vague, ie, Amon using bloodbending to do something that blocks Korra's bending in some way that's never explained.
Relationships/romance are another thing they're weak at, bah. :/ I think that Mako and Asami's ending relationship was very cordial but idk, "I care about you," was not a lot of closure.
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Post by Nashk Tategami on Jun 24, 2012 1:16:10 GMT -5
I don't know how to feel now. Watching the series finale.... I just feel so disappointed. Its a bit hard organizing my thoughts right now but I will try to be as clear as I can.
I still feel Amon is the greatest villain the Avatar universe has ever known, but I can't help but feel his entire backstory was made up during writing and dumped on us at the end just so they would have an explanation. (Probably not true, just how it feels.)
His backstory is compelling enough, but the rather expositiony nature (OH HAI TARRLOCK, YOUR STILL RELEVANT) and little to no development of Amon until the end... AS the main villain and the driving force behind most of the series Amon just feels woefully underdeveloped. We learn little of him, the equalists, the equalists capabilities (and the behind the scenes of their capabilities) until either the very end, or never at all.
I also didn't like how he was defeated. It just felt off. I can understand and like the method of his defeat, using his lies and hubris to turn the equalists against him... But he hits water after all that, and he suddenly loses his cool?
Tarrlocks entire story seems irrelevent, with his bit as Amon's brother coming out of the left field and feels like a clumsy attempt to make him matter to the story. The same with Yakone. Yakone and Tarrlock were made to explain Amon's ability... But that doesn't work since we still have no idea how Amon took away bending!
Then the love triangle still acts as a cancer to the story, taking up precious time and feeling rather awkward and cringe-worthy (imo of course) to the very end. Hard to care about the love struggles when two out of three ends of the triangle have little to no character development. Asami still not evolving or changing throughout the entire season, and mako becoming almost hilariously shoehorned into a love interest for Korra.
Then deus ex machina approach to giving Korra bending. Turns out the secret to mastering Air Bending, an art that requires a free mind, focus, and spiritual quiet, is to having your shallow love interest about to lose his bending. Which while we are on the topic, we also have no idea why amon only locked three of the bending arts, which again ties into how the hell Amon was locking bending in the first place.
Then comes the other deus ex machina, with Aang and the other avatars suddenly appearing. Turns out mastering the spirituality in the avatar verse simply means contemplating suicide. Aang then gives Korra back bending, somehow... Even though Amon supposedly was using an entirely different method to take bending.
I'm sorry if my post is a mess, but I am having trouble even processing the end of the season. The series has so much potential, and I felt the first season squandered a good portion of it.
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Post by Paraiba Ocean on Jun 24, 2012 1:46:39 GMT -5
I agree. I feel like there was a lot of information we had shoved down our throats at the end and Bryke got to the last two episode and were like, "holy flying lemurs we have all this resolution we need to work in," and that's what got us here.
Personally, I wanted Amon to be kind of like the Joker; it's kinda creepy that he has no background, no family, no nothing - he's just this random guy leading a whole bunch of people in a revolution. Tarrlok and Yakone are very haphazard and just thrown in their for convenience and I still feel 0 for Tarrlok because I don't see how he went from "never bloodbending again" to bloodbending dbag #2 of the year. I was more ticked at people saying he had ~redeemed~ himself; gtfo he didn't.
bah the love triangle, so many things should have been done differently. I like Makorra as an idea but the way Bryke wrote it was just crummy.
THANK YOU though. I don't get why 3/4 elements were cut off. It makes no sense. And I don't even see how his bloodbending was severing the connection. It just made no sense, but yet again, Bryke gives a semi vague reason for why something is the way it is and even worse, they cram a lot of "plot resolution" in the span of about 5 minutes. From the moment Korra got to the South Pole, everything was on cruise control for cramming as much plot solutions as possible. My mind was overloaded.
Personally I feel like "it's only 12 episodes" is a weak excuse. If Bryke wanted more time to explore these side plots (love triangle, Tarrlok, etc) they should have accepted Nick's offer to extend the season. Since they declined, it was their responsibility to filter out what wasn't relevant to the story. I feel 0 sympathy for them because they shot themselves in the foot if they felt like they didn't have enough time to accomplish everything they wanted to. Don't bite off more than you can chew when it comes to plot writing - especially when you're writing for an actual audience.
Too many of us are left standing here trying to figure out wtf just happened
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asian malaysian
Avatar Kyoshi
Let me hear you say this ship is bananas! B-A-NA-N-A-S!
Posts: 1,308
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Post by asian malaysian on Jun 24, 2012 2:33:21 GMT -5
It just couldnt be done in 12 episodes. LOK is 26 episodes, not 12. Once Nick got them to do 26, they should have filled in all the gaps and added depth to all the outstanding issues people have raised in this thread (make Bolin more than the new Sokka, fill in Mako's and Bolin's backstories, make the relationships between Korra, Asami, and Mako deeper and more believable). And how long exactly were the rest of the episodes greenlit after the 12 episode miniseries? They were probably already starting on post production on the last episodes of the first 12 by the time the number crunchers at Nick decided that theyd seen enough togreen light for the rest of the episodes. We know from the Bryke interviews how long it takes and how many steps are involved in making each episode. You cant just redo it all at a drop of a hat. If it had been treated as a full fledged series from the start with at least 20 episodes per season instead of this disjointed 12 episode "season", they would have the place to build in those back stories. Guys, lets be honest. This was what we wanted: It just couldnt be done in 12 episodes. I honestly doubt Bryke is capable of this when writing on their own, regardless of how many episodes there were. They'd need a team for this. Theyve always had a team of writers behind them. I think if they had been given half the budget and support M Night had been given, they could have done it.
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Post by deerwolc on Jun 24, 2012 6:04:17 GMT -5
There were a lot of things this series that were questionable as to why they were included or why they happened, but I believe that Korra still being able to airbend could make sense. I accept that what I am about to write is only theory and the writers should have given us a proper explanation, but this is how I see it.
Assuming that Amon manipulates the chakra system, or chi system or whatever spirituality mechanism corresponds to bending, he has never de-bended an airbender before. He must have had plenty of practice on benders of the other elements to see what exactly works and what doesn't. His mistake was to assume that by sealing the other three elements from Korra that her airbending would be sealed as well. Assuming (again!) that each element has a different spiritual link or chi path or whatever to block, all Amon did was block the other three elements and tried to block airbending, but failed. He didn't know what would work.
Using the above logic, I would also like to believe that he would have failed to block the airbending from Tenzin and is family if he had tried to (a twist that I quite like the sound of).
As previously acknowledged, this is speculation, but I do believe that Amon not taking Korra's airbending is one of the lesser plot holes in this series. Korra magically learning to airbend on the spot however...
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Post by Nashk Tategami on Jun 24, 2012 13:19:26 GMT -5
Deerwolc, that is making a lot of assumptions about Amon's ability that we just have no information on. Without knowing how he blocked bending, we have no way of knowing why Korra was able to airbend while her other elements were sealed.
Which leads into another problem of the show, leaving us scratching our head while things are happening in front of us.
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Post by Paraiba Ocean on Jun 24, 2012 13:34:17 GMT -5
One of my objections is Tenzin's family getting captured... it's like they were captured/revealed for shock value and to up the ante for Korra and Mako when they confronted Amon at the rally. I thought they got away; how did they even get captured? Not to mention it makes Lin's sacrifice completely for nothing
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Post by deerwolc on Jun 25, 2012 4:45:18 GMT -5
Nashk Tategami, I completely understand that I am making baseless assumptions as to the details of Amon's abilities. I suppose that my point was that, overall, this plot hole could (and should!) have been explained relatively easily. All Aang had to do was tell Korra what he did to fix her bending rather than just magically energybend her abilities back. Regardless, I do totally agree with you. There are a lot of moments in this series where things just aren't explained properly. I was just trying to make the point that, in my book at least, Korra still being to airbend was less of a plot hole than some of the others in the show.
Paraiba Ocean, I actually quite liked that they had captured Tenzin and his family (well, liked is the wrong word as I love those characters and don't want to see them in peril, but I couldn't think of a better way to put it). If they had shown them getting captured then the impact of them being there would have been greatly reduced and them being there is when I really started to care about that scene. I don't fear for Korra as, well, she's the Avatar and I don't really care for Mako as he hasn't given me a reason to. I really do care for the Tenzin, Pema and the kids though so them being there to up the ante was a plus in my opinion.
Lin's sacrifice was still just as poignant as, there and then, it really made her character that bit deeper, stronger and just dang awesome. Not only that but by making it seem as though Tenzin had escaped, she helped to set up one of the best twists in the series so far! That's how I see it anyway.
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Post by Paraiba Ocean on Jun 25, 2012 10:47:09 GMT -5
I agree that okay, they didn't need to show the actual capture because it does reduce the shock value but it doesn't make sense. idk, it was kind of a, "Wait, Lin tore up the air ships... how did the Equalists get them ;;" moment for me, but whatever.
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Post by anitajob on Jun 30, 2012 12:02:30 GMT -5
By not focusing on character development, season one ended with Korra defeating Amon out of sheer dumb luck rather than through struggle and personal growth.
I suspect season two won't be that great either. No urgency in fighting a bad guy, a million and one plot wholes to fill (Zuko's mom, etc.), and the fact that the voice-acting is mostly done before season one finished and fans could give their feedback.
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