Legend of Korra: The Beifong Bunch

Mike Hoffman

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Sep 25, 2013
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Legend of Korra: The Beifong Bunch

It's Beifongs saving Beifongs in this perfectly executed episode.

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The Madman

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That fight was fantastic and Kuvira just too damned cool.

Also awww man, the whole 'two weeks till she invades' thing only reminds me that it's two weeks in reality before it's all over. I only just got into the Avatar series, I don't want it ending so soon as well.
 

bliebblob

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I loved the parrot-eel spirit's response to Korra's plee because it touched on a question so few works of fiction ever really consider. Almost always it devolves into a narrative of the good guys being pushed by the bad guys and supposedly having no choice but fighting back, because it's the right thing to do etc. But what is always ignored is that there's no such thing as a fair war and it's not going to be pretty for either side, regardless of who is 'right'.

Though the spirit's response could be interpreted as them simply not caring, it did tangentially touch on all that. Because, at least to me it seemed that way, the spirits didn't leave republic city because they were mad or scared, they just conciously chose not to be involved.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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Loved this episode, and it was also nice to see Prince Wu stepping up in that one scene. Okay, to say it was a baby step would be putting it mildly, but I suppose that's more realistic than him suddenly becoming ultra-altruistic between episodes, and it was still a nice touch regardless. With a few more scenes in that vein over the last few episodes, we might end up with a character beyond just 'comic' relief, who stands ready to be at least a semi-competent leader by the time Kuvira is (presumably) defeated.

I'm glad that the whole Bolin/Opal saga is resolved too, because it was also annoying me. Not just how ham-fisted it's been over the last couple of episodes, but how contrived the whole conflict between them has been all season. As characters, they gel quite well (better than Korra and Mako ever did anyway), but it seemed like, finding themselves at a loss for any other sources of token relationship drama this season, the writers kept manufacturing Opal to be pissed at him for increasingly tangential reasons, and for Bolin to become even dumber than usual at any point where he might have sussed out what was going on before they needed him to, with neither ever actually talking to each-other like real people.

One gripe I have with this episode is the spirits continuing to be oh-so-very-important, yet completely unhelpful whenever they might have the chance to do anything significant in the story. That bird-eel thing spiel about how Korra just wants to use spirits as weapons like Kuvira does really doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The spirits chose to settle heavily in Republic City, and the humans had to make a lot of concessions to accommodate them; and now an external force is threatening them both, the spirits just want to fuck off and leave the humans to their fate? That's bull! Korra's not trying to conscript them to fight for her in a war they have no stake in, she's asking them to help her protect their own home. I guess the spirits only give a damn about protecting and preserving shit (which both Korra and LoA like to lecture their audiences about to no end) when the plot demands they do.
 

ryazoph

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Aang: horrible father

Toph: horrible mother


It's too bad we didn't get to see Toph hold her own against an army of benders, before being forced to retreat since there's too many of them.
 

legend of duty

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ryazoph said:
Aang: horrible father

Toph: horrible mother


It's too bad we didn't get to see Toph hold her own against an army of benders, before being forced to retreat since there's too many of them.
I really wanted to see Toph turn herself into an earth collossus
 

Scarim Coral

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I think the difference that Korra wanted the spirit assistant and the question of them becoming weapons is that the spirits has free will to do so. If they do assist Korra and the humans then they are doing it because they want to while with Unalaq, they became courrupted by Vaatu influences.

Also I can't help to think Prince Wu was right about doing good deed to get the girls since it clearly work out for Bolin (yes I know it's not right in the real world but Opal liked Bolin back due to his selflessness in the episode like risking his life to saved Zhu Li)!

While Toph is funny and awesome and all but it still bother me that she is a bad mother (too casual in the arguement). She could of at least told Lin more about her father.

Also I can't help but think of this when her father is named Kanto (yes I know Kanto does mean something else as the word is similar to a village my parents used to lived in but still)-
http://neodusk.deviantart.com/art/LoK-I-Couldn-t-Resist-498610711

Lastly yeah the fight scene was awesome and Su has a nak for turning metal and putting it around the body parts beside the head (drumdisk).
 

Sniper Team 4

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My favorite part of the fight was the instant armor ability. That was just so cool. They've really stepped up their game with this series and its fights. I'm loving it. Going to be sad when it's over.
 

Scytail

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The poor decisions the writers make the characters in the show make are getting worse and worse.

Why nobody told the most powerful earth bender to, i dont know, seriously damage that giant gun is beyond me. She had to feel that thing fire and punch a hole in a mountain. But I'm sure a finger point and a stern sentence about making metal benders look bad will change Kuvira's heart.

Its great that Republic City has finally decided to react to what Kuvira is doing...by posting guards at the train station?? Talk about too little too late.

Their decision to develop a new and groundbreaking flying suit should even things out. Guessing they'll be able to miraculously develop, test, and produce enough in the two weeks they have till Kuvira shows up, or it will be so uber powerful they'll only need one.
 
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Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
 
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Daystar Clarion said:
Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
So much this. I wanted Toph to either singlehandedly destroy the Sister Ray I mean Junon Cannon I mean spirit vine laser, or tear Kuvira to shreds. Not literally, of course, but strip her of her metal plates and swat aside all her attacks like they're nothing more than pesky flies, then just leave with family and family's boyfriend in tow, leaving her with the knowledge that the only reason she's not being dragged fighting tooth and nail along is because Toph doesn't consider her worth the effort.

...but seriously, that whole spirit vine thing reeked of Mako Reactors cum Huge Materia warheads cum Mako Cannons from the get-go. It's not the most original way to go about things, and you certainly have to ask yourself how and why they have spirit energy-measuring equipment when the first person to start studying them did so mere days/weeks ago, but that's all offset by Bolin slurping down noodles while Lin and her mom hash out their family issues, so I won't complain too much.

I've yet to see a perfect episode from this series, but they're all fine, I suppose. Now all they need to do is make good on all that Korrasami hinting and the entire four-season slog will have been worth it.
 

The Madman

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I must be the only person alive who doesn't have some sort of fascination with Toph. I mean she's entertaining and all, but I wouldn't have wanted her to end the entire series as some people are suggested and I'm glad they resolved her story arc the way they did. She got a moment of badassery and a number of satisfying plot moments without actually stealing the spotlight, that's enough.

As for why Toph didn't take on Kuvira and all her troops? Because Toph is old, that's why. Maybe at her prime she'd have been overpowered and reckless enough to take that challenge, but now she's old and her back hurts and as much as it probably pains her to admit it once the shock of her arrival wore off and Kuvira's troops recovered, she and the rest of the Beifongs might very well have not been able to escape at all. She might not have been a great mother, but it's clear enough that Toph still cares for her family and wouldn't want to put them at risk if she doesn't have to.

The entire reason she's even there to begin with was to rescue her daughter after all, not get involved in a war she's repeatedly said she has no interest in getting involved with.
 

Reasonable Atheist

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I loved the first series so much, and i really really want to like this one too. I have been watching every episode as they come out and I am just getting more and more pissed off. I do not know if I have ever seen a series where the protagonists could easily solve their problems so often and simply don't because that would ruin the story. FFS bolin can lava bend now? nobody else around can do that, what stops him from creating a small pool of lava under the train and just screwing up everything for kuvira? Why does nobody just metal bend kuvira's stupid armor into her chest and kill her? Why don't they just have any generic fire bender shoot a lightning bolt at her and fry her ass? Why does bolin immediately after using an earth bending tunnel to escape and exploding train, completely forget that he can do that and try to pass the earth kingdom wall at the garrison instead of just going under it? Driving me crazy.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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The Madman said:
I must be the only person alive who doesn't have some sort of fascination with Toph. I mean she's entertaining and all, but I wouldn't have wanted her to end the entire series as some people are suggested and I'm glad they resolved her story arc the way they did. She got a moment of badassery and a number of satisfying plot moments without actually stealing the spotlight, that's enough.

As for why Toph didn't take on Kuvira and all her troops? Because Toph is old, that's why. Maybe at her prime she'd have been overpowered and reckless enough to take that challenge, but now she's old and her back hurts and as much as it probably pains her to admit it once the shock of her arrival wore off and Kuvira's troops recovered, she and the rest of the Beifongs might very well have not been able to escape at all. She might not have been a great mother, but it's clear enough that Toph still cares for her family and wouldn't want to put them at risk if she doesn't have to.

The entire reason she's even there to begin with was to rescue her daughter after all, not get involved in a war she's repeatedly said she has no interest in getting involved with.
This. I mean, I do love Toph. She was my favourite character from LoA. However, Korra is it's own damn show with it's own cast of characters, most of whom more than stand up on their own merits. Sure, I'll nit-pick comparisons to the original show like any other fanboy, and the occasional callback is always good. That said, I'll also admit that the absolute worst thing they could have done with Korra is to make it all about the old cast and not give the new blood any room to grow. If they did that, then the overriding impression Korra would leave in the long term would be just "Hey, remember this other show you liked better?"

It's not like Toph didn't kick ass in this episode anyway. The others are all pinned down, and then she knocks about a platoon's worth of Kuvira's troops, mechs and all, on their asses. If people want a reason she didn't go mano y mano with Kuvira, it's because, awesome or not, Toph would probably lose. Part of the reason she was so powerful in the original show, was that only she could metal bend at that time and that gave her an edge. Now, Kuvira likely has a mastery of the ability equal to her own (she's capable of beating her own teacher, after all), and is a lot faster and fitter in the bargain.
 

KazeAizen

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Daystar Clarion said:
Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
Did you not watch the end of the episode? She says exactly why she's not fighting. She isn't in phenomenal shape like Bumi was. She probably would've seriously hurt herself doing something on that scale.
 

happyninja42

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KazeAizen said:
Daystar Clarion said:
Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
Did you not watch the end of the episode? She says exactly why she's not fighting. She isn't in phenomenal shape like Bumi was. She probably would've seriously hurt herself doing something on that scale.
So it's better to leave the uber death ray machine to wreak havoc on the world? I'm pretty sure that Korra and the Korraites are going to risk seriously hurting themselves to stop the weapon when it's inevitably pointed at Republic City at the climax. No reason other than "We can't have Toph be the badass she is, because she will upstage Korra" makes any sense.
 

KazeAizen

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Happyninja42 said:
KazeAizen said:
Daystar Clarion said:
Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
Did you not watch the end of the episode? She says exactly why she's not fighting. She isn't in phenomenal shape like Bumi was. She probably would've seriously hurt herself doing something on that scale.
So it's better to leave the uber death ray machine to wreak havoc on the world? I'm pretty sure that Korra and the Korraites are going to risk seriously hurting themselves to stop the weapon when it's inevitably pointed at Republic City at the climax. No reason other than "We can't have Toph be the badass she is, because she will upstage Korra" makes any sense.
The reason is more like "We can't have Toph be a badass because she is old as hell and might not even be capable of the things she used to be able to do." I mean did you see her? She's frail and hunched over. Bumi was a wall of muscle. Perhaps I phrased it wrong but I thought it was obvious why she didn't take it down. Its not that she would hurt herself, which she would, its also we don't know how much her bending has deteriorated over time. Physically demanding are harder to do as you get older. That is a fact of life. As much as I'd love Peyton Manning to keep throwing the ball and playing for my Broncos I know at best he's got realistically one more season left, two if I'm being generous before he retires. Its because, for Football, he's starting to get old and your body just starts saying "No." after a certain point.

Its the same for Toph and Katara. The only reason Zuko still is in fighting shape despite being older than both of them is because since he retired as Firelord he's been wandering the world and exploring as opposed to Toph and Katara who settled down somewhere. Toph didn't try to damage the canon probably because she couldn't damage it. At least to a point where it would actually matter.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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Happyninja42 said:
KazeAizen said:
Daystar Clarion said:
Kind of a bullshit copout that the greatest earthbender there ever was did nothing more than give the big bad a stern talking to.

Your family is in danger and you choose not to wreck the doomsday rail gun? Yeah a'reet, seems legit.
Did you not watch the end of the episode? She says exactly why she's not fighting. She isn't in phenomenal shape like Bumi was. She probably would've seriously hurt herself doing something on that scale.
So it's better to leave the uber death ray machine to wreak havoc on the world? I'm pretty sure that Korra and the Korraites are going to risk seriously hurting themselves to stop the weapon when it's inevitably pointed at Republic City at the climax. No reason other than "We can't have Toph be the badass she is, because she will upstage Korra" makes any sense.
Well to be fair, Kuvira's forces built the damn thing pretty quick, and destroying it wouldn't destroy the knowledge of how to build it. All it would achieve is Kuvira would probably rock up to Rebublic City with a reinforced version.
 

The Madman

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Reasonable Atheist said:
I loved the first series so much, and i really really want to like this one too. I have been watching every episode as they come out and I am just getting more and more pissed off. I do not know if I have ever seen a series where the protagonists could easily solve their problems so often and simply don't because that would ruin the story. FFS bolin can lava bend now? nobody else around can do that, what stops him from creating a small pool of lava under the train and just screwing up everything for kuvira? Why does nobody just metal bend kuvira's stupid armor into her chest and kill her? Why don't they just have any generic fire bender shoot a lightning bolt at her and fry her ass? Why does bolin immediately after using an earth bending tunnel to escape and exploding train, completely forget that he can do that and try to pass the earth kingdom wall at the garrison instead of just going under it? Driving me crazy.
Fair enough, but that sort of nitpicking can also easily be applied to the original show as well. I mean the entire end of the show pivots on the kinda dumb idea that Aang only won because he got hit in the exact right spot to magically cure his chakra or whatever to conveniently let him go all Avatar at the last moment. That's pretty lame.

Same with the whole moon spirit thing where super conveniently the moon spirit can be reborn in some princess because it healed her or something and blah blah how awfully convenient. And what about that whole fire nation invasion thing, why didn't Aang and his buddies ever ask the water tribe for help instead of just giving up after the Earth Kingdom fell? They have an army too and their leaders are supportive of the Avatar. Meanwhile where even are all the adults throughout this? Other than Iroh it seems every adult in The Last Airbender is either incompetent, evil, irrelevant, or another absentee parent that shows up for one or two episodes before vanishing off screen for one contrived reason or another.

Also I like how the episode after Aang goes through a massive emotional meltdown is followed up by a dance party episode, talk about inconsistency. The entire series was full of filler like that, especially the first season where it seems the creators hadn't yet decided whether they wanted to do a serious story or a silly one. Anyone remember that episode with the canyon? Man that was lame. Oh, and what about that giant drill thing attacking the Earth Kingdom city? The walls are defended by earth bender, why couldn't they just have collapsed the ground under the thing instead of only throwing rocks at it like a bunch of idiots... oh right, because they're adults, naturally it takes a bunch of prepubescent kids to solve this amazingly complex riddle of a drill being defended by a trio of teenage girls.

Speaking of which why the hell are Azula's buddies so damned overpowered? Some sort of fire academy is mentioned so I assume they all studied there together, do they teach all those moves there because if so screw having an army, why doesn't the Fire Kingdom just unleash all the angsty teenage girls on their enemies? They're obviously more capable.

Man, it's like it's a cartoon or something.