Okay, let's do this ****! New post because nobody would notice this if I did it with the same one.
I mean, my god the pacing was still horrible even when they had 2 more episodes to work with. And they dedicated (or waste however you look at it) those 2 episodes to an entirely different character. And somehow HIS STORY was decently paced. All of the pacing problems that plague book 1 still exists in book 2. Too much focus on subplots with the main plot being rushed to conclusion by the end.
I don't even think there really was a main plot? There were three subplots that merged into one at the end. They were kind of randomly thrown together at the end, but they all had similar themes and that's not uncommon for a show to do, to have multiple stories working at the same time with similar elements. There was a lot of character development/world building in the subplots too, and that's definitely just as important as moving the story along (sometimes even more important, imo). I would've been more miffed if they had just forgotten about the rest of the gang while Korra was doing her own thing.
The beginnings episodes were also part of the overarching plot. They weren't just a standalone thing; the ending wouldn't have made sense without them.
The pacing was, overall fine for the amount of episodes they were given to work with. I personally love the fact that there are no filler episodes.
The season finale also falls flat on its face. Korra is, once again, upset that she's "not the Avatar" anymore. We just had her moan about "not being the Avatar" in Book 1.
The creators claimed that Korra grew as a person at the end of Book 1. But the beginning and the climax of Book 2 shown that's not the case. She still rushes in problems, get angry at people when things don't go her way, and is immediately complacent when someone so much as compliments her and tell her she's awesome (and that's the only smart thing Unalaq did as a villain). I mean, people like to say that she's in the right to be mad at her and Tenzin for locking her away from the world. But that doesn't explain why she was *****y to Tenzin before she found out about that. All of that plus the fact that she becomes depressed (yet again) when she's "not the Avatar" anymore. Her hotheadedness is not what makes her a bad character as Raphael, Knuckles, and Rainbow Dash are all great characters. But it really made her character all over the place when the plot demands it. And at the end of the season when she wants to leave the spirit portals open... why? Because Unalaq, the man who tried to destroy the world, said that humans and spirits should exist? From what we've seen of the Spirit World, a lot of spirits don't think highly of humanity. Not to mention the spirits almost wiped out the human race the last time they were on Earth in masses.
Lumping these together because they're the same thing.
This point really kind of offends me, actually. It sounds like you're expecting her to change overnight, and that is
not going to happen. She's maturing, but that doesn't mean she's going to become an entirely new person immediately (nobody would like that if that happened). Some of her decisions were rash, because that's who she is, but she also showed a lot of restraint and responsibility, and I don't think you're giving her nearly enough credit for that.
She didn't whine about not being the avatar, she whined about losing the connection to her past selves, which is a pretty damn big deal and is definitely something worth being frustrated over.
Her character was "all over the place" because she ran into lots of different kinds of situation and she's obviously going do react accordingly (read: differently).
She kept the portals open because she's the avatar, and it's her duty to keep the worlds in balance. What better way to do that then by making them work together? The worlds almost destroyed other,
and then the avatar stopped it from happening.
Huh, how about that?
And Tenzin somehow knows about the Tree of Time. But had no clue that their world's Satan was trapped in it for 10,000 years?
The tree of time has been around for much longer than he was imprisoned in there. Tenzin's information about the spirit world has come entirely from a small sample of people who were able to enter it, including Aang. It's not unreasonable none of them ever came across Vaatu. Especially considering the portals were kind of, forbidden territory, so to speak.
And Jinora somehow finding Raava was a dues ex machina. I read somewhere that it was because she found remnants of Raava in Wan's teacup, but the show doesn't explain that. She just comes out of nowhere and give Titan Korra the light. When you have to read supplementary material to understand a major plot point, that's not good writing.
I agree with this. That was pretty weird. Probably my biggest problem with this season.
Bolin. Man Bolin. There's being the comic relief. And then there's just being sad. People like to claim that Bolin is this show's Sokka. But that's simply not true. When slapstick and wacky situations happened to Sokka, it was mostly due to his own actions. And even then, he had more than humor to contribute to the show. I can't say the same for Bolin. It felt like his character was just.... there to be dragged along and have tomatoes thrown at him. He gets stuck in an abusive relationship that we're suppose to laugh at (if the genders the switch we wouldn't be laughing) Like Korra, his character is also all over the place. He says he has trouble reading people. But that contradicts the fact that he's more social than his brother and that he knew how to keep the crowd's attention in Peacekeepers. And then he's somehow so emotionally childish, he confuses reality and his movie character. Sure he gets a crowning moment of awesome. But he learns nothing after that.
I personally, had no problem with Bolin's comedy.
I think the gender thing is unfair. We were laughing because of the specific situations, how Bolin kind of got himself in that mess in the first place, and his reactions to Eska's behavior. I think, if the genders were switched, you would have to change a couple small elements to make it work as well, but the only people who would be yelling about it being unfair are the crazy feminist extremists and tumblr social justice warriors who already complain about everything anyway.
Reading people is different than being a people person. And more specifically, someone can be the upbeat keep people excited person without being good at emotions deep stuff. They're two different skillsets, and having one doesn't necessarily require the other.
I think the reality/movie character thing was more that he felt they had just good chemistry offscreen that it would naturally translate on screen. Though that's just my interpretation, and you're welcome to think whatever you want of the situation.
Asami.... Ugh. The writers don't know what to do with her anymore honestly. Her own subplot about saving her company was basically hijacked by Mako to give him some relevance after the breakup. And then the return of Teh Love Triangle™ just made her look pathetic.
I somewhat agree with this. I think she reacted well to the situations she was in, but yeah, those situations were super generic and even a little sexist, tbh.
My feeling on love triangles in general have already been made more than clear.
Unalaq..... yeah. What were his motivations for doing the things he did. He's like Amon in a sense you think you're getting a 3 dimensional villain but in the end you get a mustache twirling villain instead. And unlike Amon, Unalaq is not interesting. We never find out why he did the things that he did. We never knew why he wanted to frame his brother. It could be anything ranging from jealously to concern for his nation to wanting revenge for Tonraq stealing his smut. We never know why he sides with Vaatu.
I hate this argument, with a burning passion. It's funny that people get villains who simply want to rule the world COUGH the firelord COUGH COUGH HICCOUGH COUGHITY COUGH COUGH, and that's
completely fine. No questions asked. There is not one batting of an eyelash, but you add a little depth to their motives and suddenly "idk what this villain wants."
Unalaq was actually a more complex character than Amon. Amon was basically the generic "rule the world" trope with a dash of vindictive vigilante trope. Unalaq's motivations were rule the world trope with wanting to change the world (for the better, imo), because he legitimately believed he was doing the right thing. He thought that the world would be better with spirits and humans together, because that's how it was to begin with.
That seems like a fine character to me. Actually, more than fine. Unalaq is one of the most interesting villains I've seen in a while.
Desna and Eska were poorly written as well. Especially Desna. He was nothing more than a prop, honestly. So he shown no concern when his sister was left at the altar? Sure he questions his father from time to time but that leads nowhere. Eska's problem is that she perpetuates the double standard that female abuser/male victim is teh funny. lulz
Okay, are you seriously defending Eska behavior around Bolin? He shouldn't have shown concern for Bolin breaking up with her. That was one of the more rational things he did.
After the twins have spent so much time with their father, they're not going to just up and leave him. They're unwaveringly loyal to him, but that's a believable character trait (stockholm syndrome),
not a mistakes on the writer's part.
And even in death, Aang was dragged through the mud. You mean the guy who values all life play favorites with his kids? If this isn't true, why are Bumi and Kya still holding grudges about it? And if it is true why didn't Katara ever tell Aang that he was playing favorites. And since he's dead, we won't have any proper conclusion to this. This also makes Tenzin looks like he have mental issues if he remembered his siblings being on those field trips despite them never being there. This honestly felt more like forced drama. There could have been another (i.e. better) reason to have the siblings butt heads.
This pisses me off too. Nobody's perfect, parenting is hard and basically everyone ever ****s it up. And everyone, likewise, has issues with their parents. Aang shouldn't be held to higher standards simply because he can talk to spirits and can control multiple elements.
That's all I'm saying on this topic, literally. If you bring it up again I'm ignoring it, because this is just all around a pretty ****ed up argument to make.
Overall I think you're trying to hold avatars up to too high standards, they're really not much different than the normal person.
Which is, ironically, one of the themes present in LoK.
