Before I address anything you quoted the wrong quote. That was my second post responding to Giles, not you. You meant to quote my first post. Sorry, that just bugged me a bit.
ninja51 said:
The dark avatar stuff also seemed really cool to me, it was an actual daunting threat, even if it still wasn't given the setup and care Firelord Ozai's reputation was.
The Dark Avatar stuff was among the stupidest things I've seen in fiction. Yeah, sure, it was daunting, but there was no nuance to it. It was black and white. There's a reason people remember Azula better than they remember Ozai. Ozai worked well for the generic overarching war plot, but it was the horrors of war for the little people, the commitment to strong themes, the characterization, and the details of the adventure that made the old show so strong, not the overarching mission of "Defeat the Fire Lord". Ozai was just there to give a face to the evil, forward Zuko's development, and make for an awesome final fight. Getting back on track, what made the Dark Avatar worse for me was that the people who write terrible
Avatar fan fiction predicted there'd be a Dark Avatar the minute the existence of Vaatu was revealed. Let me repeat: The people who write terrible fan fiction predicted it would happen. That's how badly written it was, even those people saw it coming.
ninja51 said:
I recall in particular an episode in season three where my problems with the writing were on display in full. In the metal clan the scholar who is in with the bad guys has his house searched by Korra and her gang. He's created a fall guy Mako knows isn't guilty but nobody listens for no reason but for drama. So they search the scholars place and the whole scene of them searching was kinda awkward I thought, the animation of it seemed off as they all slowly strolled around in silence, slowly picking up and awkwardly looking over objects, until they stumble on pretty damning evidence of the scholars treachery. The scholar returns, the characters seemingly forget their discovery and have a nice pleasant talk until the scholar just gets away somehow. Then the characters loudly exclaim what we just saw.
This isn't accurate at all. I'm not even sure how you interpreted it this way. I have to assume you either weren't paying much attention or interpreted very differently from how it was displayed, and if it's the latter I can't help you because there's no arguing with subjectivity. The process of these episodes is detailed by the creators and I've read some of the behind the scenes stuff they've made public. The script says that Team Avatar suspects Mako is right. They need proof though, which is why they agree to search the house of Aiwei (the name of the scholar). There was no drama denial. They questioned how it couldn't be the fall guy AT FIRST and then immediately trusted Mako when he suggested it was Aewei. They questioned because the planted evidence seemed obvious and Mako didn't suggest anyone else to be behind the treachery (hard to come over to someone's line of reasoning when they don't suggest alternatives) until Varrick came in and gave him an idea. There was no doubt; it even says this in the script. Even the script disagrees with you on what was meant to be conveyed though you're welcome to point out how from your perspective this wasn't shown very well in the show. I'd link it, but I don't remember where I saw the creators go into detail about this.
As for the scene of them searching being awkward, I thought the animation was just fine. Maybe it was the device you were watching on or maybe you saw something I didn't. You talk about them slowly strolling in silence. Huh? That's a classic trope in detective drama that's been used for decades. The silence stirs up drama, mystery, and a sense of urgency. If you dislike that, then you dislike the thing it's taking influence from, which isn't a problem of course. Different tastes and all that. Besides, it was broken up with comments by Mako and a "funny" (I write this in quotes because it wasn't all that funny) of Bolin forgetting where to put back the pot. You talk about them finding damning evidence and then forgetting their discovery. Huh...again? Like I said, I've read the behind the scenes stuff and even it describes this differently. They act nice, so Aiwei doesn't run off. It has nothing to do with them forgetting their discovery. Notice how nobody takes a sip of the tea he offers because it could be poison. They don't trust him; they're only acting nice, so he doesn't suspect that they're on to him. Notice how the minute he realizes he's found out he summons a metal wall and runs away through his secret passage. If they forgot their discovery why was Aiwei so on edge, enough to run away? Was he paranoid? He doesn't seem like the paranoid type. He could sense they were on to him.
I'm trying to be as nice as I can, but I really don't see how you had such a vastly different interpretation of this one scene, let alone the other scenes you probably have a problem with, from what even the script says was intended to be conveyed.
ninja51 said:
I'd say that's my biggest issue with the writing in Legend of Korra, the characters are more often then not, plain stupid, the dialogue is brutally simplistic and blunt with characters often proclaiming the obvious, and everything seems to be written for kids in the worst way. It's simple, lacking in emotional complexity, and seemingly unaware of what subtly is.
And, my biggest issue with the only evidence you brought up is you seem to have a big misinterpretation of the scene that, like I said, disagrees with the script's cues even. I can't argue with simplistic dialogue as that's another subjective perspective. I can argue with it being written for kids though. Political turmoil, bloodbending torture complete with bone cracking sounds, a murder-suicide, death by airbending suffocation, death by electrocution, and death by suffocated in-your-face combustion explosion tends to not be allowed on "kid's shows". Even ignoring all those scenes, it is a huge disrespect to kids to say a kid's show is a bad show. Kids are a lot smarter than people give them credit for and I'm tired of seeing them treated as a lowest common denominator. When I was a kid I hated that disrespect and kids sure as hell don't deserve it now. Besides, adults write kids show and sneak in mature themes all the time. Kids don't write kids shows.
