Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

I'm two eps behind, and I don't miss the show. That is a bummer considering I found season 1 of Korra absolutely captivating.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Good point. Six episodes in and nothing yet.

Stories feel a bit disconnected, Korra was out for basically the entire episode and appears she will have her own story there while Tenzin and his family has theirs along with everyone in the city as another. Seems the overall story should be better connected.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

And that's a huge problem. Having disparate stories is fine but there's not cohesion. The kid training the lemurs? Even if they end up using that in an action sequence during the season finale, who gives a fuck? Tenzin, Boomy, and the sister (I forgot her name) have daddy issues? So what?

Also, what became of the civil war? Wasn't that Korra's reason for going to Republic City? Other than Aubrey Plaza's character showing up to attack Korra (which led to the tired amnesia plot), it's as if that civil war never began.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

The side stories are not horrible as their own thing yet as part of the series they feel too random. This episode bypassed Tenzin and family along with Korra overall yet had that random side story with Bolin stuffed along with the main one for this episode. Doing a little extra elsewhere would have make a bit more sense than that.

As for the civil war, it must be on hold for a few days. Hopefully they can bring the stories together soon,

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Two-parter tonight, and apparently the beginning of a hiatus. Maybe they'll tie together some plot threads and keep me interested in coming back.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Hopefully the hiatus means the rest of the season hasn't been fully recorded and/or animated so that they can work on fixing everything they've done wrong thus far. I can reluctantly live with the shitty episodes thus far if they make sure to go all out during the remaining half of the season.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

What a fantastic episode! Who would have guessed that the key to making this show worthwhile again was to push the protagonist (and all the supporting characters) aside in order to tell a compelling story they should have tackled far earlier in the season.

The balancing act of humor and drama was flawlessly executed, unlike the disjointed and unfocused mess the season until tonight has been.

It's refreshing to see this show back on track but it's sad that despite having appeared for the first time in this very episode, Wan is a far better developed character than Korra.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Yeah, I loved this one! Very cool backstory and Wan was a compelling character. It'd be great if they did an entire series with him.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Great episode, almost makes up for what has thus far been a lackluster season.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

You are aware on how animation works, right? A few weeks hiatus couldn't possibly be a correcting of the ship. Shit, they're working on Book 3 now. All of Book 2 is in the can.

At least after the next episode we're back to the original animation studio, the one that did these two episodes. Because man, the animation of last night's episode was spot on.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Yeah, I am. I was just hoping there was still time for a course correction, as unlikely as it would be.

That's good news because the team involved in this two parter did a fantastic job. I love that the artwork resembled classic Chinese paintings.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

I really enjoyed seeing the story if the first Avatar, well done.

Also glad this and another show are not dragging out their amnesia stories.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Add me to the chorus of those who dug the look back at Wan. Steven Yeun was great in the role.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

And the show is back to being tonally inconsistent. :(

And Asami and Bolin are being world-class morons.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Don't forget Beifong. How she doesn't see those two cops are either incompetent or on the take (or both) is beyond me? At least this time her actions made sense since she couldn't very well ignore evidence.

That said, I'm sure Varrick is just an idiot and not an evil mastermind. They actually subtly hinted at his genuine stupidity when he was going to intentionally step back on the hot coals after Mako left his office.

I'm willing to forgive the tonal shifts to some extent, what's bothering me now is that the show is dragging its feet like crazy. Korra has to go into the Spirit World, I get it, this isn't The Wire, get the plot in motion!

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

i think she is playing along to give them enough rope to hang themselves, and reveal a larger plot.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

I hope you're right but nothing thus far seems to even remotely suggest that.

But if we actually move the plot along, how will we have time for the "hilarious" moment when Tenzin's family found out he'd never been in the Spirit World? That's comedy gold people! :rolleyes:

That said, Korra's recap of everything that had happened until last episode was genuinely funny.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

What a fantastic episode this week. The pacing and balancing act between humor and seriousness was all top notch. Hopefully the next episode is more of the same. My only gripe was the "do what I say in exchange for your friend's life" cliché followed by a convenient last minute rescue. Other than that, a wonderful episode.

The directors, storyboard artists, and design guys obviously like cutting loose with the Spirit World stuff. Digging the callbacks to the original series too. RIP Mako. Wish Netflix would put the original series back up, the bastards.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Yeah, they went all out for this episode. I really wish the entire season was this good but at the very least it seems the season is going to end strong.

I noticed that Amazon Prime has the original series up. I may revisit it once this season is over.

Yeah, great cliffhanger, now that plot is FINALLY getting into motion, the season is kicking into gear. Shame it's so late, hopefully at least some of the pieces they took forever to get into place will be of some use. I should sign up for Prime and Hulu and just jump into streaming with both feet.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Wow. Wan Shi Tong straight up murdered Professor Zei when he sunk the library into the sand. Here I thought Zei just wandered around soaking up knowledge till his dying day. Which I guess is true if you count his dying day seconds after Aang.

I was so glad to see Iroh. That's what this show is missing. They need to get Old Man Zuko to play that role that Uncle Iroh played in passing down timely advice. It would make Korra much less of an annoying character who constantly just tries to solve her problems by punching them.

Re: The Legend of Korra - Book 2: Spirits
 

Given his corpse was slumped alongside some books, I think the implication is that he died reading rather than when the library sank into the sand.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...s_skeleton.png

I agree but, sadly, doubt that will ever happen. Back when the show was first announced (when it was merely supposed to be an 8 or 10 episode mini-series), the writers had proudly announced that Korra was going to be headstrong and aggressive. Because I guess a strong female lead needs to be as dumb as a bag of hammers. :rolleyes:

I'm okay with her being different from Aang. Heck, look at Wan. He was practically the anti-Aang yet they managed to make him compelling and someone willing to learn. Korra just continues making the same retarded mistakes. For a show called "The Legend of Korra", they seem to be telling the story of the least exemplary Avatar. Even if she defeats Vaatu, I don't see why any future Avatar would aspire to live up to her example.