I'm probably the only person who hates Book 3

[Morning-After-Will]

So don't get me wrong: The Legend of Korra has been absolutely fantastic to watch. I was a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender when it first debuted years ago, so when Korra debuted, I was skeptical at first. I gave it a shot and Book 1 proved to be a very interesting new take on the Avatar universe. I liked the 1920s atmosphere that Republic City gave, the interesting new technological developments, and the plot with Amon. Granted, I thought that the whole "Korra learns airbending by losing her other bending abilities" followed by "Aang restores her other bending" was a bit convenient, but Book 1 was a lot of fun to watch.

That leads up to Book 2. HOLY CHRIST ON A CRACKER!!! Book 2 was absolutely fantastic!!! Where do I begin?! The return of spirits to the world? The origin of the Avatar explained through the telling of Wan's story? Any scene with Ravaa? This book had it all. On top of that, we saw Korra get hit with some really heavy issues that heavily impact her as the Avatar. Looking her connection with Ravaa and all of her past Avatar lives was a HUGE plot point in the series. One of her biggest strengths lost forever. Her entire identity was now out of her own grasp. On top of that, the rise of the dark avatar also raised an interesting new concept to the world: will a dark avatar begin a cycle in the way that the avatar had life cycles? It was great to watch this book and get a sense of some amazing new concepts to play around with in book 3.

Only problem was that instead of maybe addressing some of the major plot points explored in book 2, book 3... s**t the bed. Here's what I mean.

1) Hey, remember Korra having her connection to her past lives severed? Are we ever going to address if there is any way for her to restore that? Maybe by traveling through that nifty new spirit world they have access to now, or maybe by doing ANYTHING with the Tree of Time? Guess not.
2) On the topic of spirits, remember how they JUST CAME BACK INTO THE WORLD?! I guess we'll just accept that rather than try to see how that affects the world. Oh what's that? We saw some of that in Republic City? Yes, for half an episode, then Korra got exiled. That was smart, exile the only protector of the city who has actually been effective.
3) This next part is conflicting for me. The return of the air nomads: in theory, I do like this idea. With the opening of the spirit world, I can accept that airbending might return to the world.. However, for this to be brought back right as spirits return to the world AND Korra loses her connection to her past lives? Way to introduce a major plot point just to overshadow the other two major plot points introduced just last season. So glad the writers of this series have ADD.
4) Zaheer and the Red Lotus... way to shoe horn in a new villain. I honestly I didn't like these guys at all. A group of benders who are super powerful and can outclass just about everyone they fight just appearing out of nowhere... who are apparently part of the same group Unaloq was in... I'm sorry why didn't he free them in Book 2 to help his plan if they were all on the same team? He could've done so covertly, at least in P'Li's case. She WAS right in the south pole after all!!!
5) The lead into Book 4. Oh, what's that? We need an excuse for Korra to not be up to snuff? That excuse is going to be Zaheer's metal poison which apparently Toph's daughters aren't good enough to remove entirely from Korra? Yea, that makes total sense. The daughters of the greatest Earth/Metalbender alive can't fully cure Korra. Yea, that makes total sense. On top of that, let's say we removed book 3 altogether and skipped from book 2 to book 4. "But random-man-will" you say stupidly, "Book 3 established that Korra was in pain from the poison and not up to snuff." Yea, but that also could've been achieved by her being forcably separated from Ravaa back in Book 2. "But random-man-will" you say stupidlier, "Even if you use the separation from Ravaa to explain her not being up to snuff, how could you then have her be traumatized?" Gee, I don't know, maybe by having her feel betrayed by her uncle and, AS THE AVATAR, UPSET ABOUT LOSING HER CONNECTION WITH HER PAST LIVES AND BEING AFRAID BECAUSE NOW, IT'S ALL ON HER!!! She no longer has any guidance whatsoever!!! She has to do it all on her own!!! How is that not traumatic to her?! Isn't that enough for her to have the PSTD flashbacks that the creators are using as part of the excuse to keep her out of commission?!

Basically, Book 3 sucks, it completely ignores major issues brought up in Book 1 and Book 2, and doesn't do the show any favors aside from acting as an unnecessary filler arc.

[Zhro]

random-man-will

1) Hey, remember Korra having her connection to her past lives severed? Are we ever going to address if there is any way for her to restore that? Maybe by traveling through that nifty new spirit world they have access to now, or maybe by doing ANYTHING with the Tree of Time? Guess not.
2) On the topic of spirits, remember how they JUST CAME BACK INTO THE WORLD?! I guess we'll just accept that rather than try to see how that affects the world. Oh what's that? We saw some of that in Republic City? Yes, for half an episode, then Korra got exiled. That was smart, exile the only protector of the city who has actually been effective.
3) This next part is conflicting for me. The return of the air nomads: in theory, I do like this idea. With the opening of the spirit world, I can accept that airbending might return to the world.. However, for this to be brought back right as spirits return to the world AND Korra loses her connection to her past lives? Way to introduce a major plot point just to overshadow the other two major plot points introduced just last season. So glad the writers of this series have ADD.
4) Zaheer and the Red Lotus... way to shoe horn in a new villain. I honestly I didn't like these guys at all. A group of benders who are super powerful and can outclass just about everyone they fight just appearing out of nowhere... who are apparently part of the same group Unaloq was in... I'm sorry why didn't he free them in Book 2 to help his plan if they were all on the same team? He could've done so covertly, at least in P'Li's case. She WAS right in the south pole after all!!!
5) The lead into Book 4. Oh, what's that? We need an excuse for Korra to not be up to snuff? That excuse is going to be Zaheer's metal poison which apparently Toph's daughters aren't good enough to remove entirely from Korra? Yea, that makes total sense. The daughters of the greatest Earth/Metalbender alive can't fully cure Korra. Yea, that makes total sense. On top of that, let's say we removed book 3 altogether and skipped from book 2 to book 4. "But random-man-will" you say stupidly, "Book 3 established that Korra was in pain from the poison and not up to snuff." Yea, but that also could've been achieved by her being forcably separated from Ravaa back in Book 2. "But random-man-will" you say stupidlier, "Even if you use the separation from Ravaa to explain her not being up to snuff, how could you then have her be traumatized?" Gee, I don't know, maybe by having her feel betrayed by her uncle and, AS THE AVATAR, UPSET ABOUT LOSING HER CONNECTION WITH HER PAST LIVES AND BEING AFRAID BECAUSE NOW, IT'S ALL ON HER!!! She no longer has any guidance whatsoever!!! She has to do it all on her own!!! How is that not traumatic to her?! Isn't that enough for her to have the PSTD flashbacks that the creators are using as part of the excuse to keep her out of commission?!

Basically, Book 3 sucks, it completely ignores major issues brought up in Book 1 and Book 2, and doesn't do the show any favors aside from acting as an unnecessary filler arc.

Heh to me all the seasons weren't that great.
1) There is no way to restore the connection. Her past lives and memories were tied with the original Raava which is now dead. Right now she is connected with the 2nd Raava which was inside Vatuu. It's the ying yang kinda thing, a piece of Raava is in Vatuu and vice versa. Now she has the avatar poweres (cosmic energy, 4 elements) but no connection to he past lives.

2) I think they made it quite clear that she was exiled to cover the mayor's a**. He's using her as a scapegoat. I do agree that they should look into it more though... The spirits in Republic City come from the vines so what about the north and south pole? They have portals open. They really should have looked into it a bit more.

3) Eh, spirits in the world was a S2 problem, lost connection was as well. Just to be clear this is season 3 not season 2.5. New season, new problems.

4) Yeah they were kind "Mary-sued" in weren't they? But it does explain why Korra was completely locked up with guard patrols and everything in S1. Also Unaloq didn't let them out because he kinda betrayed them and I doubt they'd want to help him.

5) The problems you described would be more mental problems than physical. The mercury poison is a physical problem that won't be solved by "the power of friendship". As for the disconnection with Raava being the reason for her feeling bad it wouldn't make sense since the effects should have been immediate and the writers wrote themselves into a wall when Korra just went giant kaiju fighting with Unaloq. As for the trauma she was never very spiritual in the first place and barely ever consulted with her past lives, not sure why that would traumatize her so badly. Also Toph kinda mentioned in the recent episode that her daughters were never that good with metalbending.
So basically S3 had this.
-Physical reason for her disability. (Mercury still in her system)
-Mental reason for her trauma (Someone actually trying to kill her and and almost succeeding, plus dealing with the whole "power I cannot control" spiel what with the avatar state Korra following her around)


It's not a filler arc it's just another arc, one that you don't like.
If it was a filler arc we'd have S5 Beach party where everyone has a fun time at the beach, maybe at ember island and watch some plays.

[Morning-After-Will]

Trolten

Yea, I guess. I just don't get it, you know? Like, I DID enjoy watching Book 3 if I put myself in the mindset of it being its own standalone season, but when I thought of it as the following season to the first two books, it just fell apart. I'm not saying that Book 3 couldn't have its own plot, villains, etc., but what annoys the hell out of me is how it ignores every single major plot point of the first two seasons.

1) I get what you're saying about the whole "Raava died and was reborn so the connection was severed", but I don't totally buy the whole "The connection is severed forever." That would mean that even though the Avatar can die but then be reborn and see his/her past lives, that Raava can't do the same. Let's think about this for a second. Raava was alive that entire time, supposedly, even when the current avatar died. I say supposedly because, when one avatar dies to become the next, how do we know that Raava doesn't die and become reborn with them? If that's how it happens, then the memories survive even when Raava dies and is reborn. Now, let's say when an avatar dies and is reborn, Raava doesn't die. In that case, all the past lives are basically recorded within Raava. So, how come when Raava died and was reborn and went back into Korra that she couldn't pull back memories of her past self from Korra in the same way? It seems to me that their relationship is symbiotic and that the new Raava could easily retrieve her memories of her past life from Korra if she tried. Hell, if not directly from Korra, make her go to the Tree of Time and use that as a catalyst or something. Part of being the Avatar was having the past lives as a reference. Just because Korra wasn't using that ability doesn't mean they should just scrap it.

2) Yea, that's true, but it just seems too convenient of an excuse for Korra to have to leave Republic City again. Like, in Book 2, she left because her family and homeland was at war with her uncle. She had legitimate reasons for leaving Republic City. Yet in Book 3, she's basically forced out immediately and spends even more time away from the City than she did in Book 2, where being away from RC made more sense for her character. Just seems like sloppy writing.

3) True, but just because it's a new season doesn't mean that they can ignore the problem. It was a MAJOR plot point in Book 2, yet in Book 3, not even a year later really, everyone is just like "Eh, okay, this is perfectly normal." Again, just seems like sloppy writing.

4) Once again, just seems like sloppy writing. I don't even mind them being powerful benders, it just seems like they were too perfect. Like Zaheer had JUST GOTTEN his airbending powers, yet he was THE BEST AIRBENDER EVER!!! He just got his powers and completely outclassed his guards? I'm sorry, I call bullshit, that is ridiculous. He had NO TRAINING IN AIRBENDING!!! On top of that, despite never having had previous airbending experience, he JUST HAPPENED to study that Guru guy and learn to actually fly?

Let me repeat this: ZAHEER, A NON-BENDER FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, GAINS AIRBENDING AND THEN THE ABILITY TO FLY, A POWER THE MOST POWERFUL AIRBENDERS INCLUDING AVATARS NEVER HAD, ALL WITHIN THE TIME FRAME OF A MONTH OF TWO!!!!!

******** bullshit.

5) Being severed from Raava isn't a "power of friendship" fix either. The writers could've had fun with this. For example, maybe Korra has to re-train her bending because after being severed from Raava, maybe she firebends when she tries to airbend. Maybe she slowly starts losing her bending due to the severance and has to figure out how to fix that problem. But someone tried to kill her so she has PTSD? I'm sorry, where was that when Amon tried destroying her? He was no less successful than Zaheer in fighting the Avatar. Hell, he took her bending!!! Why was that not traumatic to her?! On top of that, someone not being as good at metal bending as Toph is like saying that an eighth degree blackbelt isn't as good a fighter as Bruce Lee: yes, it's technically true, but who gives a ********, they're still fantastic. Lin was the biggest bad a** on Republic City's police force, was seen taking on numerous foes and beating them in every season, and even took down an airship by herself. Su founded her own city, built it out of metal, trained herown security force, taught metal bending, and even had her own metalbending acrobats. These are the two metalbenders that aren't good at metalbending? I call nonsense.

In all honesty, I think the writers ******** up with the ordering of the books. I think that book 3 should've come before book 2, reverse the order of them. Think about it: Korra just finished dealing with Amon, the leader of the non-bender equalist movement. Good juxtaposition would be having Zaheer and his team show up. "But why now?" Simple: Korra's actions in Republic City could have just reached the prison areas where the White Lotus guard Zaheer and his team. Hearing about Korra, they decide to try to go after her again. Perfect timing. We go through Book 3, Korra beats Zaheer and his team, and then Unalok, hearing that Zaheer and his colleagues are beaten, makes his move then.

[Zhro]

random-man-will

Trolten

Yea, I guess. I just don't get it, you know? Like, I DID enjoy watching Book 3 if I put myself in the mindset of it being its own standalone season, but when I thought of it as the following season to the first two books, it just fell apart. I'm not saying that Book 3 couldn't have its own plot, villains, etc., but what annoys the hell out of me is how it ignores every single major plot point of the first two seasons.

1) I get what you're saying about the whole "Raava died and was reborn so the connection was severed", but I don't totally buy the whole "The connection is severed forever." That would mean that even though the Avatar can die but then be reborn and see his/her past lives, that Raava can't do the same. Let's think about this for a second. Raava was alive that entire time, supposedly, even when the current avatar died. I say supposedly because, when one avatar dies to become the next, how do we know that Raava doesn't die and become reborn with them? If that's how it happens, then the memories survive even when Raava dies and is reborn. Now, let's say when an avatar dies and is reborn, Raava doesn't die. In that case, all the past lives are basically recorded within Raava. So, how come when Raava died and was reborn and went back into Korra that she couldn't pull back memories of her past self from Korra in the same way? It seems to me that their relationship is symbiotic and that the new Raava could easily retrieve her memories of her past life from Korra if she tried. Hell, if not directly from Korra, make her go to the Tree of Time and use that as a catalyst or something. Part of being the Avatar was having the past lives as a reference. Just because Korra wasn't using that ability doesn't mean they should just scrap it.

2) Yea, that's true, but it just seems too convenient of an excuse for Korra to have to leave Republic City again. Like, in Book 2, she left because her family and homeland was at war with her uncle. She had legitimate reasons for leaving Republic City. Yet in Book 3, she's basically forced out immediately and spends even more time away from the City than she did in Book 2, where being away from RC made more sense for her character. Just seems like sloppy writing.

3) True, but just because it's a new season doesn't mean that they can ignore the problem. It was a MAJOR plot point in Book 2, yet in Book 3, not even a year later really, everyone is just like "Eh, okay, this is perfectly normal." Again, just seems like sloppy writing.

4) Once again, just seems like sloppy writing. I don't even mind them being powerful benders, it just seems like they were too perfect. Like Zaheer had JUST GOTTEN his airbending powers, yet he was THE BEST AIRBENDER EVER!!! He just got his powers and completely outclassed his guards? I'm sorry, I call bullshit, that is ridiculous. He had NO TRAINING IN AIRBENDING!!! On top of that, despite never having had previous airbending experience, he JUST HAPPENED to study that Guru guy and learn to actually fly?

Let me repeat this: ZAHEER, A NON-BENDER FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, GAINS AIRBENDING AND THEN THE ABILITY TO FLY, A POWER THE MOST POWERFUL AIRBENDERS INCLUDING AVATARS NEVER HAD, ALL WITHIN THE TIME FRAME OF A MONTH OF TWO!!!!!

******** bullshit.

5) Being severed from Raava isn't a "power of friendship" fix either. The writers could've had fun with this. For example, maybe Korra has to re-train her bending because after being severed from Raava, maybe she firebends when she tries to airbend. Maybe she slowly starts losing her bending due to the severance and has to figure out how to fix that problem. But someone tried to kill her so she has PTSD? I'm sorry, where was that when Amon tried destroying her? He was no less successful than Zaheer in fighting the Avatar. Hell, he took her bending!!! Why was that not traumatic to her?! On top of that, someone not being as good at metal bending as Toph is like saying that an eighth degree blackbelt isn't as good a fighter as Bruce Lee: yes, it's technically true, but who gives a ********, they're still fantastic. Lin was the biggest bad a** on Republic City's police force, was seen taking on numerous foes and beating them in every season, and even took down an airship by herself. Su founded her own city, built it out of metal, trained herown security force, taught metal bending, and even had her own metalbending acrobats. These are the two metalbenders that aren't good at metalbending? I call nonsense.

In all honesty, I think the writers ******** up with the ordering of the books. I think that book 3 should've come before book 2, reverse the order of them. Think about it: Korra just finished dealing with Amon, the leader of the non-bender equalist movement. Good juxtaposition would be having Zaheer and his team show up. "But why now?" Simple: Korra's actions in Republic City could have just reached the prison areas where the White Lotus guard Zaheer and his team. Hearing about Korra, they decide to try to go after her again. Perfect timing. We go through Book 3, Korra beats Zaheer and his team, and then Unalok, hearing that Zaheer and his colleagues are beaten, makes his move then.

1) Raava survives when the avatar dies.

When Wan died you can see Raava leaving his body, going to the next avatar. The original Raava is dead, this new Raava originated from Vaatu. I mentioned this is my previous post.

2) Well you can't exactly stay somewhere no one wants you haha. Plus she had to set out and find the new airbenders, that seems kinda important.

3) Yeah I guess, personally I think the writers of Korra are pretty sloppy in general, maybe I've gotten used to it...

4) He might of just been a big fan of airbending through Guru Laghima. He seems to really agree with Laghima's though process what with the whole "Only through tearing down the old system can we begin a new" spiel or something along those lines. I agree with you though, it was pretty goddamn bullshit how strong they were. I mean come on a 2v4+dragon in the north pole and the 4+dragon lost? what the hell. (I didn't count the earthbender guy, I think he was just in the car the whole time.)

5) Yeah but she has Raava2 so she shouldn't have those problems. Amon never tried to kill Korra, he wanted to 'destroy' the Avatar by taking away her bending. It's not that Toph said they weren't good compared to her, just that they never really got it. Lin and Sue may do amazing things but they are bending metal in it's solid form and into large shapes. Lin uses whip type things and Sue has those weird plates, neither have any experience with the human anatomy and bending liquid metal. Just because it's metal doesn't make it easy, remember how Toph had trouble with sandbending in "The Library"?

Iunno, wouldn't explain how Zaheer got Airbending, remember. Pre-Season 3 the only airbenders were the descendants of Aang.

[Morning-After-Will]

Trolten

Those are all perfectly valid points. I'll reply to them again as numbered.

1) I missed that initially, thank you for clarifying. My issue here is that when Korra receives the reborn Raava, why can't Raava restore her own memories by merging with Korra? Korra had both old and new Raava merged into her in Book 2. Seems like if the Avatar can die and be reborn and recall all past lives from Raava, than Raava can die and be reborn and recall all her past knowledge by merging with the same Avatar (Raava 1 removed from Korra and killed, Raava 2 born, merges with Korra, retrieves memories and such). This just really bugs me.

2) True, but if they switched the chronology of books two and three, just have Korra leave because she's trying to avoid Zaheer's group and they figure leaving Republic City would be a smart idea. Problem solved, makes more sense, accomplishes the same goal, and opens up the audience to want to know why Zaheer and his group are chasing Korra.

3) I know. It's a shame. It annoys the piss out of me and I can't do anything about it.

4) There's a difference between being a fan and being the best airbender ever. Zaheer had just acquired his powers. There is no reason he should've instantly mastered airbending. I read on one forum that "Oh, Zaheer practiced a martial art that imitated airbending and that's why he was so good." He was locked away for thirteen years. You know what happens to someone who is a blackbelt in karate and then just doesn't practice for a decade? They suck at it again. I also don't buy the entire "He practiced a martial art that was exactly like airbending but without the airbending part".

5) True, she had Raava 2, but it doesn't mean that just by fixing one problem that all other problems are fixed as well. Plus, I still think the whole "Oh they couldn't get out all of the poison" excuse is nonsense. If you're an earthbender and want to bend a rock, you bend the entire rock. You don't have to be the best earth bender ever to bend a single rock. It seems like once you become a metal bender, you can bend metal as long as it isn't platinum.

Also, if youput Book 3 in front of Book 2, don't make Zaheer an airbender. Just have him be a really skilled fighter, a non-bender. That seems like a good way to handle his character. Hell, have him quote the guru anyway, even with not being an airbender. That could give him motivation to go after Tenzin as well, makes Zaheer seem like both a nutjob AND a fantastic new villain!!!

[DrunkBlackDocta]

Rather than actually being upset with book 3 it sounds more like you're just upset with what book 3 didn't touch upon.

1) it's being covered in book 4, no real reason to be upset with that. Personally I would've been upset if the issue was tackled easily then and there in the entire season. Instead we see a good helping of "what does Korra do without it now?"

2) The return of spirits was hardly the concern of Republic City. It was the presence of the Vines...which appeared before Korra had made the decision to leave the portals open and before spirits even began to inhabit them really. Though I will say that could have been handled a bit better, I'm not really mad about how it was handed overall since we did see other places receiving the spirits rather well aside from the city.

3) See..maybe I could agree with you if the return of spirits had marked for some kind of huge shift in the way of living, but it's not as if spirits were regularly being polluted with dark energies and going on rampages. I would have probably seen it as them milking the hell out of a possible subplot to touch upon life with spirits if they pose no threat. I also don't see where they ignored Korra's disconnection to her past lives. considering a lot of the season pertained to her gaining her own footing and establishing herself as an full blown avatar and not one who can only rely on the help of her past to make her decisions, all the way to the end.

4) Just appear out of nowhere? Isn't that essentially how Amon and Unalaq were introduced? Also, why would Unalaq free them if his entire purpose in season 2 was to become a dark Avatar? Whereas the Red Lotus was about freedom from the avatar?

5) Yes...the poison is why she isn't up to snuff. Is that difficult to believe? It did happen last season. You know, the part at the end where she has some crazy vision and cringes in pain as it takes affect? So lost on what you were trying to complain about with this bit.

As for her daughters not bending the poison out properly....If Kya can be a crap waterbender when Katara is a beast, it's not hard to believe that Lin and Su aren't on Toph's level. At all.

Also, how would her mere separation be the sheer reason as to why she can no longer fight properly?

But still you have the right to not like season 3, I just don't think you've got the best of reasons.
Also, book 2 was terrible. Overly verbose dialogue layered with a sleepily executed side-plot involving Varrick fueling a war. Add to that an irrationally bitchy Korra who practically abuses the Avatar state, the God damned most annoying love triangle ever, a perpetually useless Bolin, and don't forget the utmost contradictory villain ever...
Nope. I had to regularly smack my friends awake for the entire 1st half of the season. It picks up with the Wan backstory, but the 1st half ruined all of its potential.

[Morning-After-Will]

DrunkBlackDocta

Perhaps. You aren't exactly wrong, but I'm not just upset about Book 3 for what it didn't cover, I'm upset with it for how it covered what it did. For example, when Korra went into the spirit world to look for Zaheer and found Iroh instead, she mentions that she can't connect with her past lives, namely Aang, and how she feels alone. At this point, Iroh tells her to consult Zuko since Zuko and Aang had become good friends and Zuko knew Aang well. Okay, that's not a bad way to handle Korra's lack of knowledge. So what does she do in a few years when Zuko, Katara, etc. are all dead? Who does she consult then to find out about Aang? What if she needs Roku's guidance? What then? It's things like that, which gloss over major issues, that annoy me with Book 3.

1) I'm happy that they'll address this in Book 4, but why make the audience wait an entire book to find out about it? Seems silly to do this, since it makes Book 3 nothing more than a filler arc in regards to the major plot points the first two books introduced. Also, I would've loved if the events of Book 3 happened before the events of Book 2.

2) How is the return o the spirits not a concern in Republic City? Last time humans and spirits shared the world, they fought each other constantly. In Wan's story line, the humans who got fire bending fought with the spirits until they were all dead. They're gone for ten thousand years and then suddenly re-appear and no one is going to give a s**t? That just seems too convenient. (Also, spirits gone for ten thousand years and cause conflict? Are Korra and her friends the five teenagers with attitude needed to stop them? Sorry, couldn't resist.)

3) Actually, the return of spirits wouldn't be milking the plot point. Look at it this way: the last time they were on the earth, they dominated it. The world was theirs. Ten thousand years go by, the world is much more developed, humans have a better grasp of it. With so many human cities, it's possible to see spirits trying to assimilate peacefully as a viable plot point and maybe, just maybe, having some humans not be content with it, Instead, spirits return and everyone on the planet is just a-okay with it. I'm sorry, that just seems rushed/forced. As far as ignoring Korra's disconnect with her past lives, the only time they mention it is when she speaks to Iroh in the spirit world, and that reference to it felt like a gratuitous "Oh hey, we addressed it, subplot done with" type way. They just removed one of the Avatar's biggest powers, one that only the Avatar can ever use, and it's addressed next season, several episodes in, for twenty seconds? I'm not satisfied with that.

4) Not exactly. Amon was already at work in Republic City when Korra first arrives. One of the first things she sees is an Equalist rally. Korra is the one who stumbles into his territory, not the other way around. As far as Unalok is concerned, he does come out of left field compared to Amon, but even he has some better connection than Zaheer's group. He's Korra's Uncle, for starters. He's also in charge of the northern water tribe, whereas Korra's family is from the southern water tribe. They at least have a family connection. However tenuous Unalok's connection to Korra's story is, it isn't nearly as flimsy as Zaheer's "I just got airbending and I'm an instant master at airbending and I want to beat the Avatar" deal.

5) I'm not in disbelief that the poison could affect Korra in that way, not in the least. What I don't like about it is why they have to use poison as the reason she's in that condition. She's the first Avatar since Wan who was ever severed from Raava. How couldn't that act as something that would mess with Korra physically, mentally, etc? That seems like something that could affect her in a very significant manner. In the first two books alone, Korra has both had her bending removed by Amon and Raava removed by Unalok/Vaatu. Can the writers really not play around with that in any way whatsoever where they need poisoning by Zaheer to be Korra's traumatic event? Hell, having her bending removed by Amon could be mentally traumatic for her: she learned that just because she's the avatar and learned elemental bending doesn't mean that she is invincible, and having Raava removed from her and killed could physically affect her in some way. Why couldn't the writers work with that in some way? It doesn't make sense.

Also, the whole "They're not Toph so they suck at metal bending" doesn't really seem legit other than a reason for the poison to still be an issue, hence why I'm not able to accept it so easily.

I'm not going to sit here and say that Book two was not without its flaws, but I like the fact that it addressed important factors in the world of "Avatar" that otherwise never really got explained. Let's be honest: Aang was quite a spiritual Avatar, and spent a lot of time getting advice from his past lives. However, Aang doesn't spent that much time in the spirit world. We get glimpses here and there, but for the Avatar, the bridge between worlds, to barely spend any time there means that we never get to see a very big part of the Avatar world. Sure, we get glimpses, such as when he deals with Koh the Facestealer, but other than that the plot in TLA revolves mostly aound ending the war with the fire nation. Now, there is nothing wrong with that: delving too much into the spirit world didn't make sense while trying to stop a world war, but it just meant that when Korra's story began involving spirits that we now have a chance to actually do something with this other major factor in that world and yet, in Book 3, they choose to completely ignore it to focus on an assassin quartet. On top of that, Book one definitely felt rushed as well. Granted, I know that Book 1 was supposed to be a single, stand alone series until more episodes were ordered so in order to accommodate that they needed to make rushed changes. It happens and I don't hold that against a show for the network to just order more episodes out of the blue and force the writers to make a bunch of quick changes to handle it (Digimon Adventure is a great example of this). Granted, there were still cringe worthy moments in Book 1 where I couldn't even look at the screen (such as Tenzin's kids saving Lin from the Equalists, including Milo fartbending on the bad guys... ugh that was just outright awful).

My issue, however, isn't with how the story is being told in each book. My issue is the STORY being told in each book. In Books 1, 2, and 4 (4 so far I should say), the story being told seems good. Book 3 was just... it felt tacked on, like it didn't really relate. Here's what I mean.

Book 1: Kora leaves her home in the south pole to go to Republic City and begin training in Airbending with Tenzin, the only known airbending master alive. Okay, great motivation for her to go there: Tenzin lives in RC and can't really leave to go train Korra in the SP. When she arives, she encounters the Equalists and their leader Amon and needs to help defeat the man able to remove people's bending powers.

Book 2: With a major festival uniting both water tribes, tensions arise between the due to cultural differences. Korra, having family in both Northern and Southern tribes, wants to keep the peace. When she learns that her uncle, leader of the Northern tribe, doesn't seek a peaceful relationship with the Southern Tribe and seeks to unleash a powerful evil spirit, Korra needs to stop him

Book 4: After the death of the Earth Queen, a young Earthbender has been unifying the Earth Kingdom to keep it from falling into civil war. Upon the coronation of the young Earthbender seizes power for herself. With tensions running high in the Earth Kingdom, something must be done before the nation enters civil war, or worse, world war

Finally...

Book 3: A group of people who have never been referenced before suddenly break out of prison. During a time where people are gaining airbending powers, one of the prisoners suddenly becomes an airbending master for no reason. They then set out to kill the Avatar like they had tried to do over a decade earlier, except the last time they did that they tried to capture her to train her and were stopped by Tonrok, Zuko, Sokka, and other benders who, for some reason, can't stop them despite the fact that these prisoners have spent over a decade in prisons where they couldn't exercise or train or improve their skills... apparently not even a dragon can stop them from freeing P'Li... and for some reason when these people tried to capture/kill the Avatar as a young child the world leaders didn't think to kill these dangerous criminals but rather imprison them... and two of them can take on four very powerful benders and a dragon and win... and they wanted to capture and train the Avatar as a kid, but as an adult they want to outright kill her in her Avatar state so that she will never come back, meaning that there is no explanation for why they wanted to capture and train her... and in the end, they just trap Zaheer in rocks and Korra doesn't remove his airbending...

That's how Book 3 felt to me. The plot as disjointed, seemed to have a million tangents they wanted to touch on but just didn't have time to do so, and touched on the plot points they did by ignoring major aspects from the previous two books, such as, oh I don't know, Korra, like Aang, is the Avatar, so if she removes Zaheer's bending at the end of Book 3, they might save them trouble down the road if he should ever escape prison again.

[noonenoone111]

In regards to Su not having 'been able' to remove all the metal from Korra's body, hmm well I still have my suspicions of her. From the two times I saw that episode, it appeared to me that Su was a bit hesitant to take the poison out of Korra. Now that there still being some left in her I feel that Su deliberately left some to further mess up Korra even if just by means of slowing her down a bit.

[Baada]

1. Korra's problem has never been ignored. It has been addressed several times that Korra's lack of connection to her past lives is a problem. She went to Zuko for guidance because she did not have Aang. Because this situation has never happened before, there is no known path for Korra to restore this connection - to do so she would probably have to go on some crazy spirit quest. For the duration of book 3, she had far more important things with which to be concerned. Additionally, Korra is not the most "spiritual" avatar, so she has not been (perhaps indicative of her maturity) as aggressive about spiritual connections and pursuits as Aang or Wan were. There's still all of book 4 to answer the question of whether or not she can ever restore the avatar connection. Did it need to happen in book 3? Just because it is not a major plot point does not mean it is not a plot point, or that it was dropped entirely.

Korra's duty is in the mortal world, since that's where most human-spirit interaction is taking place. A trip to the spirit world seems like a holiday rather than what she needs to deal with at the moment. The Tree of Time is a powerful tool that any person or avatar should know better than to abuse. The Tree of Time is not a plotpoint or a playground for the plot. Further, Korra has returned to the tree in season 4. It is not forgotten.

If you want to talk about dropped plot points, book 1 was exactly that. The problem facing the avatar was introduced to us as the conflict and inequality of benders vs non-benders. The writers completely dropped the ball on the whole point of that season by focusing and teenage romances, and undermining the significance of their villains by making Amon a bender, and by completely failing to address the inequalities of Republic City. The whole movement supposedly just disbands because Amon, a fake, was defeated - but throughout the season we saw plenty of instances were their concerns for the safety and well being of non-benders were real. Did that ever get resolved or properly addressed by the Avatar? Nope. I have trouble understanding how you can tout the unresolved issues at the end of book 2, which still have potential to be resolved, but think the writing of book 1 was great. neutral

2. At first I agreed with you that the writers were ditching the issue of the spirits in the mortal world after the first few episodes of season 3; but as the season went on it became clear that while there has been a growing pains period, the spirits have not, or have not yet, created such a fuss that required the Avatar to deal with them. Basically they have been a non-issue so far in the scheme of things; and we have seen that they are mostly benevolent. Probably in the future Korra, and avatars succeeding her, will have to deal with the problems arising from the open portals, just as Avatar Wan once did. But at the moment things are new and relatively stable, and the writers did a pretty good job of demonstrating such. We saw plenty of characters cooperating and living in harmony with spirits. And by book 4 we see Republic City is starting to get the hang of all the spirit vines.

3. The Airbender return did overshadow Korra's connection problem and the spirits returning, for reasons I've already stated (Korra doesn't have time/skill to solve her problem - if she even can - at the moment, and the spirits turned out to be a non-issue compared to the Red Lotus), but also because for mortals their return is a huge deal. It effects people most directly because suddenly family members and others find they have bending abilities of a nearly extinct group of people, who were basically legends and more tangible to human history than the spirits have been in 1000s of years. Anyway, besides that, it seems like rather than bad writing you're just disappointed that the writers chose to focus on one major plotline, rather than the two you preferred. Which is perfectly fine, I feel this way about a lot of things, but I wouldn't call it bad writing.

4. It is a bit odd that Unalaq didn't try to free the other Red Lotus members, but there are plenty of plausible explanations for this. It could be he thought Zaheer would overshadow him, and wanted glory for himself. Also, at the time, he was first concerned with Korra opening the portals - he didn't need the rest of the Red Lotus to influence her to do so. Freeing them would only raise alarm for all of Korra's security detail and distract from his first goal with her, which was opening the portals.

5. Book 4 has routinely demonstrated that Korra is pretending her problems are simply physical, but it has shown repeatedly that her issues are actually mental and she's in denial. Her flashbacks of Zaheer attempting to kill her are evidence of this. Toph is unable and unwilling to cure Korra because of this. Her daughters may not have been able to do a thorough physical job, but that is only an added issue to Korra's real problem, which is PTSD. Korra has traced all of her traumas back to a single moment - nearly being killed by Zaheer, but her issues - treacherous uncle, death of Ravaa, lack of guidance from past lives (she's running blind), feelings of insignificance and ineptitude as the avatar, and inability to defeat Zaheer alone - have never been ignored. They may not have been highlighted as much as some would like, but they have not been ignored, and it's pretty clear what is holding her back. For goodness sake, she keeps fighting a spiritual representation of herself. I think that's pretty clear. At no point this season have the writers chalked everything up to remnants of poison in her body - the only person who has done that is Korra, and in a single episode in which she is wrongly convinced removing them will solve all her problems.

Book 3 is hardly filler. It is a new plotline that chose to deal with stuff you apparently weren't that interested in.

Overall it seems like you are upset because the writers haven't chosen to explore the things you wished, rather than because the writers are doing a poor job since book 3. I actually think the first 2 books were an absolute mess, Avatar Wan being the exception - and 2nd half of season 2 was alright as well. The characters were annoying, routinely acting stupid (I could never understand how it took Korra so long to "get it" with Unalaq once his army showed up), full of miracle cures (bending restored!) and completely failed to address the problem the avatar actually needed to solve in season 1 - which was to bring balance between benders and non-benders. No one says you have to like book 3, but I hardly think the problem is that the writing is a s**t-show.

[Morning-After-Will]

CelestialChild

In fairness, I have never said that Book 1 was great. This was my take on Book 1 from the first post.

Quote:

I was a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender when it first debuted years ago, so when Korra debuted, I was skeptical at first. I gave it a shot and Book 1 proved to be a very interesting new take on the Avatar universe. I liked the 1920s atmosphere that Republic City gave, the interesting new technological developments, and the plot with Amon. Granted, I thought that the whole "Korra learns airbending by losing her other bending abilities" followed by "Aang restores her other bending" was a bit convenient, but Book 1 was a lot of fun to watch.

I liked Book 1 for what it did right, which was introduce an interesting new setting and an interesting new villain. Being the first new series, they were going to stumble. From minor issues such as Milo "fartbending" to defeat enemies in a very cringeworthy manner to major issues such as how the issue of equality between benders and nonbenders was just dropped, Book 1 made a LOT of mistakes. I'm not denying that whatsoever. I am willing to cut the writers some slack with it since, when they made Book 1, it was supposed to be a standalone season its own series in one season and then end. When more episodes were ordered, however, it continued, and the writers had to change things around to accommodate future seasons. This is the same thing that happened with Digimon Adventure, which is what I mentioned in my last post.

1) My issue isn't what they're covering in Book 4, it's what they didn't cover in Book 3. Yea, part of this is personal "I want to know what happens", but I think it's a bit sloppy to bring up some major plot points at the end of one season and then either ignore them or skim over them the very next season. It goes back to what you said about Book 2 dropping the issue of bender vs nonbender rights in Book 1. I don't exactly disagree with you on this either that maybe they should've addressed it to some degree. I have an issue with things being introduced and then just sitting and collecting dust in favor of introducing more ideas.

2) Again, my issue isn't what they're doing in Book 4, but what they didn't do in Book 3. Yes, in Book 4, Republic City seems to be harmoniously coexisting between humans and spirits. However, in Book 3, there were obvious problems going on in the city. What happened initially? Korra tried dealing with the problem: fixing the vines, trying to get humans and spirits to live together. What happened then? The President arbitrarily decides to kick her out of the city. Now not only can Korra not deal with the immediate fallout from Book 2, but she's now free to do whatever the writers want her to do with the new villains in Book 3 who just show up out of nowhere.

3) Again, I'll refer to my first post.

Quote:

This next part is conflicting for me. The return of the air nomads: in theory, I do like this idea. With the opening of the spirit world, I can accept that airbending might return to the world.. However, for this to be brought back right as spirits return to the world AND Korra loses her connection to her past lives? Way to introduce a major plot point just to overshadow the other two major plot points introduced just last season. So glad the writers of this series have ADD.

I'm not opposed to airbenders returning to the world. I like the idea that opening the spirit world had a direct affect on their return to the world. What I don't like is how it overshadowed her issue of losing her past lives, especially since it seems that the only reason why it overshadows it is so that she can't talk to Aang for advice. Really, would communicating to him be so bad? First, Aang was only a kid when he was frozen in ice, so even though he is THE airbending authority closest to Korra, there's no reason she would solely rely on his advice (Aang asked former airbending avatars for help about how he should handle the fire lord). Second, the writers opened the spirit world AND removed Korra's major link to her spiritual side. This seems like the sort of ability she'd need to use to handle any potential new issues with her actions, but instead, her actions of opening the spirit portals are treated like they have no consequences allowing her to be free to just handle the new villains of Book 3. Finally, Korra, who is always being told that she's too impatient, too stubborn, that she doesn't meditate or focus enough (according to Tenzin), has been growing over the seasons. She may still be a bit stubborn and arrogant but she's been maturing over the seasons. Suddenly, her ability to connect to her past lives, one of the biggest rewards of her working and growing more patient and spiritual, is taken away and she's supposed to just do whatever now? I'm sorry, that just seems... sloppy to me.

4) Yea, that part just didn't make sense to me. I understand that, just as the White Lotus appeared to help maintain balance in the world, help the Avatar, and help defeat the fire nation during the war, the Red Lotus arose when they felt the White Lotus was neglecting their duty in the world. However, it still doesn't make that much sense to me.

5) Yea, that's true, but my issue is that Zaheer wasn't the first person to try to kill Korra. If they're going for traumatic experiences, how is Zaheer trying to kill her more traumatic than her own family trying to use/betray/kill her or having her light spirit removed from her and killed, making her feel as though that as the Avatar, she's completely failed?

Believe me, by no means do I think Book 1 or Book 2 are perfect. I just think they did a better job at telling their stories than Book 3. I also feel that if Book 3's plot was moved to occur between Book 1 and Book 2 that its events would've made more sense. Hell, all you'd have to do is keep the spirits out of Book 3 and say that the President asked Korra to leave Republic City for the time being due to tensions between benders and nonbenders and how having her around (being the one who defeated the leader of what nonbenders saw as their equality movement) wouldn't help the situation. That makes more sense than "Hey, we never dealt with spirits before, but Korra gtfo of our city" excuse. Then, go from Zaheer's imprisonment to Unalok's entrance by revealing that, due to being part of the Red Lotus who betrayed Zaheer's group, he comes around once he hears of that group's demise (hence why he stayed guarded up in the Northern Water Tribe). It just seems like the plot would make more sense if ordered that way.

[Klaark]

Season 2 was fantastic, but season 3 s**t the bed?

Yeah, you might be a minority there.

Although season 2 does get beat up an awful lot. I, for one, enjoyed it. More than season 1, despite that one being technically better.

[Morning-After-Will]

Klaark

Season 2 was fantastic, but season 3 s**t the bed?

Yeah, you might be a minority there.

Although season 2 does get beat up an awful lot. I, for one, enjoyed it. More than season 1, despite that one being technically better.

I'll admit, I might be overly critical of Book 3. I will also admit that when watching it, if I ignored its place in the timeline compared to the first two books, I did enjoy it, though what annoyed me were a lot of the things they figured that viewers would take for granted. Like, Zaheer, who just got airbending, is an airbending master, the super secret prisons that even Desna and Eska mentioned were conveniently too secret, the fact that people just seem to ignore the spirits re-entering the world when the last time humans and spirits lived in the world together they constantly fought each other. It just seemed a bit sloppy to me.

GRANTED: I get the feeling that there were some issues with the fact that Book 3 got moved from a television release to an online release. Such a transition cannot be easy on the staff, so I'm not about to just ignore that fact entirely. Yea, I'm in the minority here, and that's fine.

Yea, Book 1 had a lot of problems. I give Book 1 the benefit of the doubt because of how the entire Korra series went from a one season, 13 episode series to a four season, 52 episode series: the writers had to make room in Book 1 to allow for Books 2 3 and 4. I've heard a lot of criticism about Book 2, some founded, some unfounded. I like Book 2 because of the decisions they made with trying to explain the origin of the Avatar more with Wan's story, with bringing back the spirits, with attempting to introduce a Dark Avatar (and likewise the question of if Dark Avatars will now exist in a cycle the way the current Avatar does since Neither Raava or Vaatu can ever truly die). It took risks with plot elements in order to try to tell a good story, so I'm willing to give leniency for when Book 2 fell short (granted, not total leniency, there were some issues with Book 2 I didn't enjoy).

[TheKamra]

The fact alone that you think season 2 is good is the reason why you think 3 was bad.

They are polar opposites, and you were in the vast minority for liking season 2.

Season 3 was the writers' apology for season 2.

[Morning-After-Will]

Hearts_Are_Cold

The fact alone that you think season 2 is good is the reason why you think 3 was bad.

They are polar opposites, and you were in the vast minority for liking season 2.

Season 3 was the writers' apology for season 2.

And that's fine. I knew that I was in the minority with my opinion here. I also acknowledge that despite the things I liked about Book 2 that there were bad things about it too. My issue is how Book 3 doesn't address things brought up in Book 2, and I'm not talking about issues like "Did Sokka have kids" which would in no relevant way affect the plot. I'm asking "Hey, how come Book 3 isn't addressing the Avatar losing one of her biggest advantages in favor of bringing in a villain from left field" and "How did Zaheer who just got airbending suddenly become the best airbending master ever" and "When Korra was a kid Zaheer wanted to capture her, but now that she's grown he wants to kill her for what reason now?"

I'm not upset if people liked Book 3. I don't care if people hated Books 1 and 2. I just had issues with how Book 3 handled things in the series, such as someone who was imprisoned for 13 years completely chained up so that muscle atrophy was inevitable could take on two powerful benders and a dragon and win. That's all I'm saying.

((I was tempted to ask if Book 4 was going to be the apology for Book 3, but I'd rather just have a discussion instead of a flame war.))

[TheKamra]

random-man-will

Korra's connection to her past lives was not something she used very much beforehand, honestly.

Hell, the first time she ever even used it was at the end of book 1.

So her losing her connection to her past lives really didn't have as heavy an affect on her as, say, losing Earth, Fire, and Water bending in book 1.

Nor does it have as heavy an affect as being nearly murdered and having the avatar cycle ended, as happened in book 3.

Losing connection to the past lives would've been detrimental for Aang, who was extremely spiritual and often consulted his past lives. But Korra just didn't have that spirituality or connection.

Zaheer was obsessed with airbender philosophy and culture. I think it's safe to say he may have thumbed through a bending scroll or two in his time. Maybe even practiced to see if there was anything he could glean from it to apply to his non-bender fight style. Besides, if you watch him airbending versus Tenzin, he was hardly using proper forms by comparison. He was playing on pure, raw force, with proper strategy occasionally peppered throughout.

And besides, as far as actual threat in bending, Zaheer was maybe the slipperiest, but hardly the biggest threat of his squad, who were all monstrously powerful benders that had had their powers for a lifetime. And one might think that perhaps Zaheer was a solid fighter beforehand. Why would these powerful benders chose a nonbender to lead them if he didn't have something to back it up.

And as far as why change his mind on wanting to capture Korra: simple. Kids can be molded, shaped, brainwashed to accept his philosophy. Adults/teens? Not so much. In which case she's an obstacle.