Poll: Last Airbender or Legend of Korra

[eventhorizon525]

Did no one else feel that bending sort of got trivialised in Korra?

Spoiler: may bring up a few korra spoilers

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.

Spoiler: I figured...

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.

Spoiler: The way I see it...

I kind of agree, but I think it goes a little further. I think he used his blood bending to not only do some kind of chi blocking, but some kind of chakra blocking. Amon always used the forehead as his contact point, where the light chakra is located. I figure that he uses his bending to block the chakra and so disrupt people's ability to bend.

Though I'm kind of disappointed that they just said "yeah, it was blood bending, deal with it" with no explanation. The last two episodes felt very rushed in terms of just explaining everything away.

The thing is

Spoiler

Shouldn't they just be able to meditate and unblock it if that was the case?

The avatar clearly isn't the only one who can unlock chackras... you don't even have to be a bender to do it. Look at the guru from the first season.

Spoiler: See...

The light chakra deals with insight and is blocked by illusion. Perhaps while Amon merely did an advanced form of chi blocking by blocking the chakra, the benders did the rest by buying into the illusion. So, Amon says, I'm going to take away your bending. He blocks the chakra and the bender immediately tries to bend. When they can't they thus buy into the illusion and fully block off the chakra themselves. And because they have bought into the illusion, they wouldn't have the insight needed to meditate on it and unblock the chakra. But I dunno, that's just a theory I had about half way through the series.

Spoiler

As much as I actually like that theory, the one thing that still bugs me about the blood bending -> removing bending stuff is Korra replaces it with spirit bending. So either blood bending is allowed to tread into spirit bending's "area of effect" or vice versa.

In other news, I wish to second all the comments about how benders seem to make a lot worse choices with their bending in LoK. Lin and the general are the only 2 characters that seem to be inventive with their abilities (most of her metal bending later in the series, and the various stuff during the battle respectively). This could be a byproduct of the fact they both deal with combat situations more often given their job, but I don't get the feeling the people making the show thought that through.

The amount of (imo) bad choices the main characters do with bending not only makes the chi blocking look more impressive on average, but also makes the times the main characters do show some inventive bending seem out of place. For example when

Spoiler

Korra and Mako are getting on the stage, they use fire to support them as they run along the wall. Given how little they did stuff like that before, it seemed weird they both had the same thought immediately.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I like Korra, she is a good character. But all in all LEgend of Korrah ave been poorly paced and well from the looks of it I have no idea what season 2 will bring (do we even know there will be one?)

I also feel Legend of Korra has lost a bit of the first shows charm of being "Kung Fu with elements". Setting it in a big turn of last century city isn't a bad idea, loads of Kung Fu movies have that setting... but there isn't enough feeling of martial arts in Korra imo.

 

[bakan]

'The last Airbender' is the better series for me, as in Korra the bending got far too trivialized and the pacing is kinda off.

 

[bliebblob]

That's like choosing between chocolat and sugar...

If you'd put a gun to my head though, I'd say Korra because it seems to be aimed at a slightly older target audience. Last airbender also mucked around for a pretty long time introducing characters and the world and explaining bending. Only halfway into the second season (book 2: earth) did the political chessgames really come into play. Before that it was usually just: Aang enters town and sees war screwed it over -> Aang helps town -> Aang moves on.
While in Korra they did pretty much te same thing everyone praises the avengers for doing: they don't bother re-explaining bloodbending or mindbending or any of that. They just assume you know and jump right into the story.

Also: steampunk <3

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

All I know is that Legend of Korra has given the world Lin Beifong and therefore has nothing to answer for. Plus I like Korra a lot more than Aang, even though I think she should have launched Mako off a fucking bridge by episode 8 or so.

 

[Simskiller]

*digs in tumblr*

Spoiler: How book one Air should of ended

And comments on that:


hamburgerjack:

"You still have Air."

"But, but I?m the Avatar!"

"Learn the other again. You can still learn them. Although, you are the world's first Southern Water Tribe Air Bender. 8D"

"...that's... not funny."

"Wanna see a trick? *air marble*"

AANG. BEST AVATAR. WORST AVATAR?


mesmerizedish:
Aang so precious =>


upsettingshorts:


I agree with the sentiment but let?s be frank here.

Any rewrites of Legend of Korra are going to have to start at page one of the script of the fucking pilot. Way too much simply went wrong.


ipgd:

yes christ

this would?ve been a perfect setup for a second season but no

deus ex bullfuckery

 

[Snowbell]

I'm freaking terrified of bald people (not by choice) so it has made my attempts to watch the show rather difficult so far

 

[Nerexor]

Tough call. I'm going to say that in terms of first seasons they're pretty close. And then I remembered how badass the end of season 1 of TLA was, the giant war in the north, the moon spirit angle, and the end of Zhao were all brilliantly done, while Amon's deal felt a bit rushed and sloppy.

That said I liked Amon as a villain more than any of the TLA villains. He had the kind of charisma that Ozai had down cold, but was also actually brilliant at planning ahead. He actually gave the impression of being highly competent. Unlike Azula who was all "look at me I'm totally crazy" and Ozai being all "I'm going to burn the whole f***ing world"[footnote]Some men just want to see the world burn.[/footnote] Amon had an interesting agenda even if his reasons did turn out to be a bit cliche at the the end.

Also, in a random tangent, the Olde Timey announcer always cracked me up. "He is about to electrocute me, I am literally peeing my pants right now *ZAPPPPP*" It was also a pretty creative way to tie in the kind of early new york feel with the episode recaps, rather than the same old "previously... on Avatar"

I think I enjoyed the atmostphere and setting of Legend of Korra more than TLAs village of the week deal, but the confrontations in TLA were just so much more epic in scale that it seems hard to compare Legend of Korra to it. Im going to withold judgment until I see season 2 of Korra though.

 

[Sneezeguard]

Personally I feel a lot of people on this thread are comparing the shows wrong.

Too many people are comparing seasons 1-3 of Last airbender to Korra when I think that really we should be comparing season 1 of last airbender to season 1 of Korra

And I think that season one of Korra is better than season one of air bender.

 

[CheesyGrin1992]

Did no one else feel that bending sort of got trivialised in Korra?

Spoiler: may bring up a few korra spoilers

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.

Spoiler: I figured...

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.

Spoiler: The way I see it...

I kind of agree, but I think it goes a little further. I think he used his blood bending to not only do some kind of chi blocking, but some kind of chakra blocking. Amon always used the forehead as his contact point, where the light chakra is located. I figure that he uses his bending to block the chakra and so disrupt people's ability to bend.

Though I'm kind of disappointed that they just said "yeah, it was blood bending, deal with it" with no explanation. The last two episodes felt very rushed in terms of just explaining everything away.

The thing is

Spoiler

Shouldn't they just be able to meditate and unblock it if that was the case?

The avatar clearly isn't the only one who can unlock chackras... you don't even have to be a bender to do it. Look at the guru from the first season.

Spoiler: See...

The light chakra deals with insight and is blocked by illusion. Perhaps while Amon merely did an advanced form of chi blocking by blocking the chakra, the benders did the rest by buying into the illusion. So, Amon says, I'm going to take away your bending. He blocks the chakra and the bender immediately tries to bend. When they can't they thus buy into the illusion and fully block off the chakra themselves. And because they have bought into the illusion, they wouldn't have the insight needed to meditate on it and unblock the chakra. But I dunno, that's just a theory I had about half way through the series.

That makes sense, but as Eventhorizon said

Spoiler

the fact that Aang gave korra her bending back and she intern gave it back to the other benders. That would mean either bloodbending does the same thing as spirit bending, or the avatar can bloodbend.

It just doesn't make much sense to the canon we've been given beforehand.

I thought that Amon was going to have been someone that Aang had spirit bended, and in doing so he'd left a path to spirit bending in him accidentally.

Yeah, I know. As I said, I first thought out that theory about halfway through the series. In a way, I really wasn't happy with the season finale, since it threw so many new things into the mix in so short a time without justifying them or without any build up to them, like the whole

Spoiler: yeah.

Bloodbending being use to block other bending as well as Amon's whole background story

Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the rest of the season, more so than the first season of Last Airbender. The finale was just so disappointing and felt so rushed.

 

[subtlefuge]

Legend of Korra has not had as gripping individual episodes for me yet. However, Crossroads of Destiny and Day of the Black Sun were much later in Airbender's run, so who knows how I'll answer this later.

Also, a single setting provides such great differences as opposed to world traveling, that it's hard to even compare the two shows.

 

[green gear]

i just wish LOK had 20 episodes in its frist season rather than 12

 

[Mikeyfell]

LoK isn't even done yet, but I still think TLA is going to be better over all.

LoK has already done some confusing stuff, The best part about TLA was the simplicity. It was almost elegant in the way that everything got folded in to everything else. There wasn't an episode that didn't contribute to the weight of the plot.

LoK was good but the villain had an unclear motivation, and they played around with "how bending works" a lot with out ever telling us exactly what they were doing.
If I had to guess I'd say that bending is genetic and Amon's blood bending was actually gene bending, but it's still weird.

 

[lord.jeff]

Legend of Korra got up and running a lot faster the The Last Airbender, though the fact that most the world was already established helped with that, so I'll say that Korra was better till the season finale which was the weakest episodes of either series.

Spoiler

everything just happened to fast and way the conveniently:

going from revolution to full scale war over one episode

Tarrlok being Amon's brother

Amon being a bender, I figured that might happen

Korra getting her airbending at just the right moment

Amon deciding to pull off the flashiest waterbending move he could think of because he fell in the water.

And of course Korra learning spirit bending and negating the whole threat of the season

 

[Krion_Vark]

If I'm comparing the first season of The Last Airbender to The Legend of Korra then the latter is not just better, its better by far.

I agree with you on this part but the Pacing on Korra was just a huge mess. While each season had its own running mission it introduced things and then pretty much wrapped them up within an episode or two. Bringing back a few in other seasons/episodes for the Last Airbender. EVERY character that was introduced in Korra played a bigger role IMMEDIATELY save for ONE character. And by introduced I mean given a name/more than 10 seconds of screen time.

Also don't get me started on the last 5 minutes of Korra (Oh the irony of that statement. seeing as how i didnt get angry for the last 5 minutes of Mass Effect)

 

[Krion_Vark]

Legend of Korra has not had as gripping individual episodes for me yet. However, Crossroads of Destiny and Day of the Black Sun were much later in Airbender's run, so who knows how I'll answer this later.

Also, a single setting provides such great differences as opposed to world traveling, that it's hard to even compare the two shows.

It has been confirmed that there will be only 2 seasons of The Legend of Korra. Which actually makes me very disappointed with how this season went.

 

[Navvan]

Spoiler: You know, after thinking about it for a while

I'm not sure it is lightning they're using. In the first series even the most powerful fire benders had to really put the effort in to do lightning and it wasn't just a tiny bolt of electricity like it is in Korra. It was a massive stream of craelwing and lashing lightning. And if it hit someone it killed them, the only reason Aang survived at the end of the second season was because or the special water.

And my beef with blood bending is that those 3 characters could do it at any time. If they can do it without a full moon why can't all the very powerful waterbenders? And why wasn't their waterbending more noticeably impressive than anyone else's. Surely something like that isn't just a technique people can learn. But an extension of raw power.

Still, there was just a complete lack of truly impressive benders. Even the ones doing the impressive techniques seemed rather dull in comparison the feats accomplished in the first series.

Both Tarlok and Noatok were powerful water benders and masters. Tarlok out performed Korra in water bending and presumably Amon was an even better water bender. However that doesn't really matter because whats important in all forms of bending, including Bloodbending, is to know the technique. Katara always had the raw power/potential to water bend like she does later in the series. It isn't until she finds a scroll and later a teacher that she's actually able to do anything impressive with it. Bloodbending is taboo and thus no one (except criminals) put any time into learning and advancing it. Yakone just so happened to experiment with it and find a way to do it outside a full moon and passed it on to his children. Presumably anyone could do the same if they had the stomach and skill for it.

As for the electricity it stands to reason that the technique is going to be more powerful the more powerful the bender using it is. The basis for the technique is to separate charges and allow them to flow together which in theory isn't that hard to understand and just requires self control and a clear focus. Where the power comes in is how much of that charge you are able to safely separate and utilize. Thus even a powerful bender like Zuko couldn't seperate the charge because he lacked the focus and control, but a presumably less powerful bender (Mako) can do so because he has plenty of focus and control. However because he's a less powerful bender than say Azula the actual attack is less devastating.

I agree the fights of this series haven't really had the kick that TLA had. In TLA it felt that there was style and technique behind the fighters and the fight dynamics were fluid. In TLK it just feels like they are thrashing around throwing elements around hoping to hit something. There are a few exceptions of course in both series, but in general that is the feeling I get.

 

[senordesol]

I had a HUGE problem with the finale...every thing was just so...convenient.

Spoiler

Korra got airbending not through any personal struggle or triumph on her part but because all other bending was taken away? Okay...that could be cool if she had to live with just being an airbender for a while.

But no. She sat on a cliff and cried about it, then her problem was fixed FOR her.

And then that BS with Asami? They spent the last three episodes building up her resentment of Korra (and, by extension, Mako) only to do NOTHING with it? She doesn't even get Mako in the end? Dafuq?

Also...Amon -the 'master' strategist- breaks discipline at the most critical time to reveal himself as a complete and total fraud to everyone? And what exactly was his plan to begin with? If he was born AFTER his father got his bending taken away, that means that conceivably, if any former bender has a baby; that baby can be a bender too. And since he can't exactly teach any of the people on his staff to 'bend block' as it were, it renders his whole goal utterly pointless within a few decades no matter what the Avatar does.

Hugely disappointing after such a promising start.

 

[guise709]

TLA has an interesting story, but the writing isn't all that impressive. Korra has its awkward beats, but it ain't as bad as TLA.

Only taking the first seasons in consideration I found Korra to be better.