it's hard to judge considering that Korra has another season. I will say that Last Airbender had a FAR better nemesis. Amon was just a boring, irritating, one-note character with no personality. Even Steven Blum couldn't save that train wreck of a villain (Tarrlok on the other hand was a GREAT character).
Did no one else feel that bending sort of got trivialised in Korra?
For instance take the higher forms, lightning was like this mark of excellence. You see someone shooting lightning from their fingers, you knew they were the dogs bollocks. And you saw someone redirect it... you lost your shit [sub]slight exaggeration[/sub]. In Korra, we see people nutting lightning out like any other move.
The same could be said for blood bending and metalbending... also blood bending can now do what spirit bending does [sub]which I always assumed was a higher form of airbending.[/sub] And making the two antagonists 'always able bloodbenders' kinda ruined the whole point of bloodbending. Nevermind it being able to somehow sever a persons connection to their bending.
Anyway, the point is that there didn't really appear to be any truly impressive benders... but they could all pull off these incredible techniques that took people years to master in the past.
You could probably make an argument that the masters passed down the higher forms to younger and younger students so eventually everyone could do them.
But there still needed to be some sort of distinction between the truly gifted benders and the normal ones.
It just seems a bit cheap that any old Joe can pull off the higher end techniques I suppose.
Well I think that has to do with the setting. With the modern era came more advanced bending. Which makes sense if you think about it. With greater cooperation and no global war, it would be a lot easier to propagate bending teaching.
The last airbender, i can't find myself liking the new Krew as much as the old GAang, Toph's sarcasm, sokkas stupid brilliance, kataras motherly intuition and aang's happy go lucky feel all were interesting, unique, and bounced off each other in an entertaining and educational feel
Korra's group is much more serious, but also feel a tad boring, I like them and some moments they REALLY shine like Bolin's solo smackdown followed by the crying scene, but i cant help but prefer our old heroes
Ozai actually, Azula was a very irritating character that had way too much screen time. She was just too smug and hyper-competent to the point of my disbelief being strained. Ozai at the very least had mad charisma (perhaps due to Mark Hamill) and was deliciously evil.
Personally, that's one thing I like more about this series. The bending is much smaller in scale, but it makes up for it with precision. You don't see people moving mountains or causing tidal waves, but we have waay more lightning-benders, blood-benders, and metal-benders than before.
To me, the action focuses on strategy and technical aptitude rather than brute force and pure talent. Especially with the Pro-Bending Arena, the fights are more about reading the opponent and finding the perfect time to strike than they are about bending skill.
All of which is to be expected seeing as the police really don't like it when benders tear up the city
Abandon4093 said:
Did no one else feel that bending sort of got trivialised in Korra?
The same could be said for blood bending and metalbending... also blood bending can now do what spirit bending does [sub]which I always assumed was a higher form of airbending.[/sub] And making the two antagonists 'always able bloodbenders' kinda ruined the whole point of bloodbending. Nevermind it being able to somehow sever a persons connection to their bending.
I figured that he's using a similar method to chi blocking. I mean if a quick jab to a pressure point can disable bending temporarily, tying it into a knot with your mind can do it for a lot longer.
I think the only reason my answer is The Last Airbender is because it came first, but I'd say both shows are pretty much equal in terms of quality. The Legend of Korra is a tad rushed as others have said, and the writing isn't as clever as it was in The Last Airbender, ex. "Are you calling me a liar?" "I'm calling you an optimist. Same thing basically." I miss little bits of clever humor like that. But Amon is a much more interesting villain than Ozai. (Still waiting to see what happened at the end of Season 1.) The Avatar universe has matured in the best way possible. I love the parallels to a 1920s New York - at first I didn't like pro-bending much but then I realized it's just like old 20s boxing matches and once I got what they were going for, I liked it much more. The parallels to nazism are great too. The animation is better and even more cinematic than in The Last Airbender. All around it's just a freaking great show. I don't think the two really need to be compared. Avatar: The Last Airbender was a masterpiece - but as I said, it came first. Had Korra come first it probably would've been seen as a masterpiece for it's originality. I think if people have something bad to say about The Legend of Korra, it's because that originality has already been spoiled.
Did no one else feel that bending sort of got trivialised in Korra?
For instance take the higher forms, lightning was like this mark of excellence. You see someone shooting lightning from their fingers, you knew they were the dogs bollocks. And you saw someone redirect it... you lost your shit [sub]slight exaggeration[/sub]. In Korra, we see people nutting lightning out like any other move.
The same could be said for blood bending and metalbending... also blood bending can now do what spirit bending does [sub]which I always assumed was a higher form of airbending.[/sub] And making the two antagonists 'always able bloodbenders' kinda ruined the whole point of bloodbending. Nevermind it being able to somehow sever a persons connection to their bending.
Anyway, the point is that there didn't really appear to be any truly impressive benders... but they could all pull off these incredible techniques that took people years to master in the past.
You could probably make an argument that the masters passed down the higher forms to younger and younger students so eventually everyone could do them.
But there still needed to be some sort of distinction between the truly gifted benders and the normal ones.
It just seems a bit cheap that any old Joe can pull off the higher end techniques I suppose.
While I will agree for the most part of that, I will say that the bloodbending didn't get totally trivialized. Two people could do it in the first series, and technically speaking only two could do it in the new one also. Metalbending is a bit more trivialized simply because Toph taught it to her daughter and the task force, so they could be better crime fighters, but then again, she was the only one who learned it in the first series, so it's not hard to see how. Though the lightening is definitely a bit more wide spread than I feel necessary, especially since it really was something special for someone to do that, not to mention it was a devastating attack to use. I can deal with Mako and the general knowing it, but with the people at that power plant, I felt they're making it too easy to do higher-end fire bending. Of course, maybe now since things aren't so militaristic for the fire benders, maybe the technique was able to spread, as the leaders of the fire nation might have tried to keep it more with the higher ups. Maybe there was a reason for it being more trivialized, just to show how the practice became less strict and more people were able to learn it who wouldn't have had the opportunity in the time of the first series.
Another point, maybe the bloodbending never really touched with the spirit bending, but simply blocked up the chi points too much to where the person couldn't bend. It might be that true spirit bending can only take away bending for good, unlike how Korra got hers back and could now restore it to others. That part took a bit more of the threat out of the series for me, it feels now like it will be more like dragonball, where if someone dies, just get the dragonballs. Change die and dragonball with loses their bending and Avatar.
OT: The two, at least to me, feel different, and it's hard to judge which is better. I miss Sokka and Toph, though I feel Bolin carries the Sokka role well enough, but I feel that it's a good thing that they are trying to move away from the original character roles at least a little. I feel too much is stressed on the relationships though. I feel like so much of the relationship development could have gone to characterizing Mako or Bolin a bit more. Korra has a subtle character arc as she becomes more mature and less bullheaded. Tarloc seemed at first two dimensional, but after hearing his backstory, he and Amon both feel a bit more sympathetic, though I feel less so for Amon than Tarloc, especially with his final move at the end of the season. I have decent hopes for the series, that it could become really something, but it needs less relationship development, and more character development, though hopefully with the boy troubles solved, hopefully the relationships can actually be used to help flesh out characters, instead of taking away their time to do so.
All in all, I'm not one for judging one over another, and with there being so many differences, and the series isn't even over yet, I couldn't truly say which I find to be better.
I enjoyed The Last Airbender and I'm currently enjoying The Legend of Korra.
The two are completely different stories that exists in the same word of Avatar, with a major time skip, a slight modernization of the world, and heightening different themes.
Aang is great because he was the goofy, emotional, and surprisingly spiritual kid that was burdened with saving the world and under a lot of pressure in order to prepare for his confrontation with the Fire Lord. Still, this did not hanker his demeanor and allowed him to grow up into an avatar prodigy.
Korra is Aang's successor and a complete contrast to Aang. She is a hot-headed, independent, and headstrong teenager that excels at the physical aspects of bending while vastly lacking in the spirituality department. Even though she never backs down form a fight/challenge, she proves that she has a lot to learn despite having master 3 of the 4 elements as the Avatar.
While TLA was about exploring the world to find suitable bending instructors, learning about the ongoing conflicts and damages the that 100 year has inflicted on the world by the Fire Nation, TLoK focuses more on a single place, Republic City, to explore the changes that have occurred since TLA, as well as new aspects of bending that were not fully explored in TLA.
So both series are very different in a good way, as they form interesting and enjoyable narrative that share the same world without bleeding into each other. I don't believe it's fair to judge TLoK just yet, as we haven't seen the series in its entirety, but what we have seen so far has made a pretty convincing case that TLoK is a great series.
Not really a fair comparison so far, seeing as we've had 1 season of LoK, and 3 full seasons of TLA, but I like both. I think its a nice progression, and I appreciate that the producers are kind of giving something for the older fans who grew up with the original series.
That said I finish with an open invitation to our group. We got links to all the episodes, and could always use new members.
i enjoyed both series just as much, tough korra's final confrontation was in my opinion poorly executed... but hey, it's only season 1... can't wait for season 2
I'm not going to choose, because I enjoyed both immensely.
TLA was a great series, although Book 3 was the weakest, and it had a handful of episodes which were weak.
LOK, while considerably shorter, and only consisting of a single book so far, brought a new level of quality to the series, and created the only villain I have ever truly hated.
Not to mention, it's rare that I find a new, modern animated series not made in Japan that I geek out about as much as I did TLA and LOK.
I really like TLK. The animation style and the setting are really fun to watch, taking bits of the mysticism from TLA and updating them to a early industrial era.
However, TLK also has Mako, who really pisses me off for some reason. It's probably the whole love triangle thing while nothing about Mako seems pleasant enough to warrant a love triangle. Here's to hoping the twist is that Asami and Korra hook up.
That aside, The Last Airbender was just much better paced. You got to know each character and their motivations. It could be a little slow at times, especially in the beginning, but it all served the purpose of building and showing the world, making it seem a lot deeper.
Give it another season and perhaps Korra's characters get more depth and perhaps kill of Mako.
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