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[Peanutbutter]

That was a great two-part episode. The art and storyboards were wonderful. I didn't like Rava at first, but she grew on me. That spirit voiced by Jason Marsden was fun. And Wan himself was a tremedous character. In just two episodes we got to see a whole range to his personality. The final battle with Vattu was nicely done. It just sucks we won't get to see what kind of impact this while thing had on Korra until next week. I still don't hate Korra, but she can't be the same short-tempered teenager she's been all season. Hopefully things will be different like this for the rest of the season. If she doesn't change at all, then I'M going to get angry.


Shame that GregX gave up just before this, I really think he'd have enjoyed both parts. But he's already been pestered enough by people asking about Korra so I'm not going to bug him.

[gunswordfist]

...Jason Marsden....small world! Over the last two days I was wondering if he voiced Speedy from Batman TBATB since I recognized his name from Static Shock. (he did)

[gunswordfist]

What was the deal with the statue in the Air Temple?

I thought that would lead to Ikki helping Korra meet the First Avatar, like Shadow said, but I guess not...

[gunswordfist]

Unalaq makes for a boring villain

So were Ozai and Amon, for that matter.

Korra's annoying

Agreed.

Bolin's subplot with Eska might be the stupidest thing this show has done

Disagree on this bit, here. I actually find it legitimately funny. Bolin was WAY worse in season 1, while we're on the subject. I mean, on top of not being funny, he had no other purpose besides being the comic relief (and one who wasn't even very funny, at that). At least in this season he has a legitimate role, by being the main group's connection to Varrick.

Ozai was not a boring villain. Mark Hamill played the hell out of that role. Amon and Unalaq are boring but in Amon's defense, how he was made sense. He was supposed to be a serious character and a very intimidating main villain for Korra. It would be kind of hard to take a villain that is probably based off of Hitler seriously if he started cracking jokes at his rallies.

Unalaq has no excuse though. His role could range from being very goofy if they did it right. Instead he is as dry as a rock.

Bolin WAS funny in season 1. What the hell are you talking about? He was not funny when whatshername pushed him around. All her scenes are the opposite of funny. Bolin wasn't funny this season until he started doing those propaganda films. Before that he was either being bullied by Eska or running from her. Again, not funny.

Like someone said before (Shadow?), I wish Bolin became a cop instead of Mako. When his voice actor said Bolin would get some development this season I assumed he would become a metalbending cop under Lin's wing.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The biggest problem with Bolin is that he has no proper place in the story. It's like they just want a jokey character that has no chance of development so they have a dedicated comedy machine. It's funny too, because the "jokey" character in the first series was actually at his best when he wasn't a punching bag for jokes.

Mako just has no real character. No one to fault there except the writers.

[Peanutbutter]

The biggest problem with Bolin is that he has no proper place in the story. It's like they just want a jokey character that has no chance of development so they have a dedicated comedy machine. It's funny too, because the "jokey" character in the first series was actually at his best when he wasn't a punching bag for jokes.

Mako just has no real character. No one to fault there except the writers.

Mako actually has developed recently. He's become a detective, but unfortunately for him, his leads haven't been enough to convince Lin.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I just went back to the beginning of the thread and- wow, a lot of opinions were different back then.

The biggest problem with Bolin is that he has no proper place in the story. It's like they just want a jokey character that has no chance of development so they have a dedicated comedy machine. It's funny too, because the "jokey" character in the first series was actually at his best when he wasn't a punching bag for jokes.

Mako just has no real character. No one to fault there except the writers.

Mako actually has developed recently. He's become a detective, but unfortunately for him, his leads haven't been enough to convince Lin.

I honestly don't think having a job is enough. He doesn't really act any different and is still very bland. He's not on the level of KORRA SMASH but I think they could do more with him.

[Avaitor]

Do you guys think we should change the title? We haven't been talking about TLA itself for a while now.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Like title it the general Avatar series thread? I'm fine with that.

[Avaitor]

Done

[The Shadow Gentleman]

The biggest problem with Bolin is that he has no proper place in the story. It's like they just want a jokey character that has no chance of development so they have a dedicated comedy machine. It's funny too, because the "jokey" character in the first series was actually at his best when he wasn't a punching bag for jokes.

Sokka got good development and contributed to the team as well. Bolin's...just kind of there.

Mako just has no real character. No one to fault there except the writers.

To be fair, he did kind of have something going on in the first few episodes of Book 1 with his "whole grew-up-on-the-streets-raising-his-brother" thing. Now he's just the Avatars boyfriend and the only intelligent cop in the city.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ozai was not a boring villain. Mark Hamill played the hell out of that role.

That's not even a counter-argument at all. Just because Mark Hamil did the voice for a role doesn't make the character any better written. His motives are as 1-diemensional as you can get, and the guy doesn't even have much personality to him. There are no layers to his character and he is literally only there to be the big bad guy for Aang to face. If you disagree with this, offer up examples as to why, instead of just hiding behind the fact that he had a celebrity doing his voice.

I've never agreed with your judgement of villains, anyways, though. I remember you said that Shishio from RK was just a power-hungry villain, yet you never even stopped to analyze the finer-points of his character and what he represented. Like, the fact that he was written as an extreme Darwinist-type figure in his attitude towards life, and the whole theme of his character was a guy who was really a relic of the past. He represented the resistance to change when things were shifting into the more peaceful Meiji era, and while he hid behind his ideals, Watsuki was also smart enough to add in the subtlety that the guy was also just really pissed off that the government used him for their own personal interests and then tossed him aside when they were done with him....by burning him alive. So that right there gives him way more than enough motive to want revenge and to overthrow the current government of that era.

What can you say about Ozai other than the fact that his motive is basically nothing more than: He's the fire lord; two fire lords before him set out to conquer the other nations and basically rule the world; so, he's just doing the same thing that they were. They don't even go into how he related to his own father or grandfather, and how much he was influenced by them or not. He's a boring villain, in my book.

Amon and Unalaq are boring but in Amon's defense, how he was made sense. He was supposed to be a serious character and a very intimidating main villain for Korra. It would be kind of hard to take a villain that is probably based off of Hitler seriously if he started cracking jokes at his rallies.

Unalaq has no excuse though. His role could range from being very goofy if they did it right. Instead he is as dry as a rock.

I never argued that either of them were good villains. I merely pointed out that people are using some awkward double-standards by pretending that Ozai was any better, and I clearly stated my reasons why. Even though I don't find her likable (which is kind of the point), Azula is basically the best-written Avatar villain. You actually find that her motive makes more sense since the show actually makes it clear that she took a lot of influence from her father since she felt so distant from her mother (who she believes loved Zuko more, while hating her). She's also shown to not just be powerful, but also clever, and uses her wit to her advantage just as much as her talent in firebending. That's a villain that I'd expect you to argue in favor of if you were trying to explain why TLA is better than LoK. I would actually agree with that point.

Bolin WAS funny in season 1. What the hell are you talking about?

He just acted stupid, got himself in trouble, and was barely of any use to the rest of the group. Is being an idiot all it takes for you to find a character funny?....Actually, on second thought, I think I just answered my own question there.

He was not funny when whatshername pushed him around. All her scenes are the opposite of funny.

Yeah....brilliant argument there, GSF. Just say that something is the opposite of something else to make your point.

Anyways, I already explained why I thought his scenes with Eska were funny in an earlier post, so just go read that if you want to know my opinion on the matter. I'm not going to really argue about something as subjective as comedy, but I do stand by my opinion that Bolin in season 1 was the worst character in the history of Avatar. Actually, I still stand by the opinion that he's the worst character in the entire series. I just found his scenes slightly more tolerable in the beginning of this season. He got horrible in episode 6 when he was being a dick to Mako for no reason other than soaking up his current pseudo-fame and glory.

Before that he was either being bullied by Eska or running from her. Again, not funny.

Because getting pushed around and bullied by gangsters is so much funnier.

Like someone said before (Shadow?), I wish Bolin became a cop instead of Mako.

I believe I said that. I even once suggested to ShadowGentleman in a PM, IIRC, that it would be great for his character if he joined the police and learned metal-ending from Lin; and I said that prior to the start of this season.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And that spinoff comic The Search gives Ozai no layers. He psychologically abuses Ursa while threatening to murder his children, neither for any decent reason. Any time he's in that comic is just a reminder of how evil is he instead of portraying him as a human being. It really made that "Ozai shouldn't be killed because he's human like us" thing in Sozin's Comet feel a bit hollow in retrospect.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And that spinoff comic The Search gives Ozai no layers. He psychologically abuses Ursa while threatening to murder his children, neither for any decent reason. Any time he's in that comic is just a reminder of how evil is he instead of portraying him as a human being. It really made that "Ozai shouldn't be killed because he's human like us" thing in Sozin's Comet feel a bit hollow in retrospect.

Well, more specifically he only threatens to murder Zuko (which is kind of explained, at least), but while a motive is presented, there is no exploration on how Ozai deals with that motive. There is no insight into his character about whether he's conflicted with what he learns about Zuko and his mother. It gives him a "potential" reason to hate Zuko, but we learn nothing about the psychology of his character other than that he'll just jump at the opportunity to be the biggest ass-hole that he can possibly be (and this time he has no Mark Hamil to back him up). Ozai is very much a villain for the sake of being a villain. For the show, it works well enough, and we have Azula to really fill in the spot of being the legitimately threatening villain who's also interesting to analyze psychologically (while Ozai is just the less interesting "final boss" character to have an epic battle with in the finale). In the comics, when they strip that stuff away and focus on just Ozai alone, the only thing we understand better about him is just how shallow of a character he really is.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And it just came off as a huge letdown, since I remember reading an interview where the creators talked about how Ozai's good point was that he genuinely loved Ursa. Then the comic comes along, and it was like, "No, forced unhappy marriage for the sake of eugenics." In the wake of villains who had personalities and pieces that made you understand where they were coming from, that was jarring seeing Ozai be so one-note. He wasn't a villain you loved to hate like Xanatos or something, he was someone you simply hated because he was hogging screentime from more interesting characters.