#Mecha-Unavaatu

[i-am-extremely-mad]

Absolutely underestimated or better said, completely ignored parallel in TLOK:

UnaVaatu, misuses mystical and spiritual powers for conquest and destruction:

Kuvira with Mecha-UnaVaatu, misuses science and technology power for conquest and destruction:

Book 4, Episode 6: "The Battle of Zaofu" Varrick: "Funny story, Bolin. I first got the idea for harnessing spirit power when I watched that giant Unalaq-monster attack the city from my jail cell. That giant monster set me free!" [Turns to Bolin with a meaningful look on his face.]

[bestepisode]

Endgame

Bolin, Asami, and Iroh are captured by Hiroshi Sato and the Equalists, but rescued by Naga. While Asami and Bolin fight Hiroshi and his mecha-tanks, Iroh destroys the Equalist bombers. Korra and Mako confront Amon at an Equalist rally, and expose him as a bender. Amon denies it and reveals that he has captured Tenzin and his young family. Korra and Mako free them, but Amon overpowers Mako and Korra, and removes Korra's bending abilities except for her airbending, which she later unlocks and uses against him. Expelled by her, Amon falls into the sea, and his escape unmasks him publicly as a waterbender. He flees Republic City, along with Tarrlok, who later explodes their boat and themselves. At the South Pole, Katara is unable to heal Korra's severance from water, earth, and fire. As Korra sits weeping at a cliff's edge, Aang's spirit fully restores her spiritual connection and bending abilities and Korra enters the Avatar State to restore Beifong's bending abilities. Everyone watches in awe and amazement with Tenzin addressing her as Avatar Korra.

Light in the Dark

Tenzin and his siblings find Korra and her friends wounded and unconscious. Once healed by Kya, Korra states that with Raava gone the cycle is over and she is now likely the last Avatar. Unavaatu attacks Republic City. During the attack, Varrick escapes prison. In the Spirit World, Tenzin leads Korra to the Tree of Time and tells her to meditate within it. As she meditates, Korra unlocks previously untapped spiritual potential and teleports to Republic City to discover a fragment of Raava within Vaatu; the spirits of light and dark cannot exist without each other and one will always regrow from within the other. Jinora's spirit illuminates the fragment, and Korra withdraws Raava and purifies Unavaatu, killing Unalaq and defeating Vaatu. Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, Mako, Bolin, Desna and Eska defend Korra's body from attacking dark spirits. Korra and Raava return and use Harmonic Convergence to re-merge; the Avatar Spirit is reformed, but Korra's link with the previous Avatars appears to remain lost. After deep contemplation, Korra decides to leave the spirit portals open, believing that spirits and humans can find a way to coexist and should be allowed the chance. She also declares the Southern Water Tribe to now be independent from the North as its own state. Korra and Mako end their romantic relationship, but pledge to remain friends. Korra declares that the world has entered into a new age.

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Find the full list of round 2 polls here.

[theinfiknight]

Is it bad that I don’t enjoy legend of Korra that much? I LOVED atla, but the legend of Korra just ain’t it. I don’t like the story in the city, the way the gaang travelled around the world and it had a more old timey vibe just sat right with me. Plus I miss Zuko.....

First of all, you don't have to justify liking our disliking anything. People have different tastes, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You're free to like our dislike whatever you wish, and it isn't 'bad' to do so, it's natural.

And yeah dude different people like different things. There are a lot of things about lok that I didn't like too but personally, for me, the good bits outweighed the bad ones. Maybe that just wasn't the case for you. I didn't like how rushed and meaningless the love triangles felt, or how everyone except aang's kids and red Lotus (and toph, obviously) seemed to have turned bending into just 'water beam fire beam earth beam', and something like lightning bending, which once required total control over one's own chi to perform, pretty much became just a spell slot ability. I didn't like how a fight with as much potential as the unavaatu one ended up as just a power rangers style megazord fist fight instead of what could have been two avatars using all the elements against each other. I didn't like how a concept with as much potential as the fundamental inequality between benders and non benders just stopped being an issue the second it's figurehead was defeated. And of course, they did do the whole gaang dirty. Making toph 'fuck the law' beifong a cop, making Katara 'i will never turn my back on the people that need me' do absolutely nothing during a war between the water tribes, and obviously fucking killing off sokka and Suki, though of course you can't really argue about those cause people dying off is kinda realistic. I just wish they'd kept them alive for the fans though.

There are a lot of less than ideal things I didn't like but the number of things about it that I did like were more, so despite all that I can say that overall I did like the show.

Amon was fantastic as a villain though the way korra beat him did feel a bit cliched, cause she didn't overcome any sort of mental block to unlock Airbending like how aang had to to unlock earthbending, she just kinda got desparate and magically unlocked the ability. Zaheer was also very well done in terms of villains, a really good showcase of why exactly the air nomads had to be so strictly pacifist, and the whole depictions of PTSD and korra having to painfully recover step by step, that hit too close to home. And wan! Holy shit Wan's story so beautifully built off the established Avatar mythos, with a gorgeous animation style, to provide a fitting origin story to the legend of the Avatar. Honestly that was my all time favourite part of lok. The new gang also did have some really fun dynamics, love triangles aside, and korra herself as a character has just so much personality, you can't help liking her. The bits in ba sing se and honestly the entire red Lotus arc, with all the battles and interactions included, the concept of republic city and places like xiaofu, they were all really really cool. And the dynamics between the gang and Aang's kids, and ikki meelo and jinora especially, that was so fun to watch. And Tenzin having to learn the hard way that you cannot mother hen an avatar. Tenzin and korra honestly have one of the best dynamics in either show. And they even recognised the 'spirituality has died and the white Lotus has become just a militia' in universe and had a villain specifically address that.

So yeah that's just what I liked and didn't like about the show, if your opinions are different that's alright! You have every right to them! Don't force yourself if you don't enjoy the show, that's totally alright too. But I can't really tell from the ask whether you finished it or are still watching, since Zuko does return post dark Avatar arc, so if that's the case I would say there are still some really good bits in the next arc plus the deadliest Airbender you've ever seen and the return of combustion bending and also ba sing se and uncle iroh, and after that you have... Well, fascism but with mechas and lasers, but that was still fun to watch too, if a little contrived. But anyhow, it's completely up to you whether you want to watch it or not, either way there's nothing bad about whatever you choose to do

[justteamavatar]

Seeing all those beautiful ATLA funko pops really has me crossing my fingers for a TLOK line up! They could make so many cool pops and key chains like kaiju Korra from book 2, Avatar State Korra, the giant mecha suit, dark Korra (basically her Book 3 look), unavaatu, everyone from the Krew, etc.

Honestly, I would pay so much money for them to do an entire collection of just Asami in all her different outfits. I just want more Asami merchandise in general 😭

[fantastic-nonsense]

Late I know, but your "Remembrances" piece: Mako was never there for Korra The Avatar as Book 2 showed while Asami is/was there for Korra as BOTH exactly like Katara in not only being supportive of the job but taking care of Korra The Person in Ultimatum and caretaking in Venom. Like a superhero's spouse that knows of the double-life, Avatar's lover has to be there for BOTH sides not just one/when it's convenient which is why Makorra would NEVER work and why Korrasami, y'know BALANCE.

Okay…here we go.

First: hell yeah you’re late. Three years late, in fact. I wrote that post in the immediate aftermath of the finale back in 2014. It’s 2017. I haven’t interacted with the LOK fandom in a significant capacity in 2 ½ years, since I finally got tired of all the bullshit and fighting and hate. Second of all: you’re wrong and you should feel bad. Funnily enough, I’ve actually already addressed most of what you’ve said in various other posts that I’ve made. So here’s some links to those posts, and I’m going to give you a condensed response. 

On Asami being there for Korra: I’m just going to copy and paste from another response I did, because it makes my point much better than anything new I could ever write:

Where was Asami during the Water Tribe Civil War? Worrying about her company. Who was Korra being comforted by? Mako (or at least, he was attempting to, before they broke up), Tenzin, and Tonraq. Asami was on-screen with Korra for like two scenes during this timeframe. Asami is there and supportive at the beginning of Korra’s recovery, but then again, so is everyone else. We are given only a TINY glimpse into the beginning of that recovery; we don’t know how that went down. All we know is what happened afterwards. And afterwards, on-screen, Korra spent the majority of her recovery surrounded by her biological family, alone, with Toph, or with Mako. 

Who was there during the culmination of Korra’s mental and emotional recovery arc? Mako, not Asami. Mako was there to support her and be with her during her visit to Zaheer, not Asami. Where was Asami? We don’t know, because she got a grand total of two lines in the whole episode, and both of them were to Varrick. That honor went to Mako. You wanna talk about Asami being there for Korra, how about we talk about the conspicuous lack of being there for Korra in “Beyond the Wilds?”Apparently Asami designing the hummingbird mechas (even though Varrick was around) was more important to Bryke than having Asami be there for Korra…weird, since, you know, these girls got together four episodes later.

On Korra being there for Asami:

By the end of Book 4, Asami has now lost a) her mother, b) her father, c) her boyfriend (twice, both times to Korra), d) her company (though she gained it back through chance and blood, sweat, and tears), e) her home and f) all of the hard work she’s put into the city repairing and improving its infrastructure over the past three years. When does Korra comfort her about any of these things (besides the first time with her father, back in Book 1) before the last two minutes of the finale? 

Korra ‘stealing’ Asami’s boyfriend (and kissing Mako while he was in a relationship with Asami) is quite literally brushed off as “Well Mako.” Korra was busy with the Water Tribe Civil War when Asami was going through all of her company and financial troubles. Who was there for her? Mako and Bolin. Was the fact that the Colossus basically destroyed Republic City and all of the infrastructure that Asami worked so hard on even brought up in conversation? Nope. And Asami’s father merits two lines (“I’m so sorry about your father.” “I don’t think I could have handled losing my father and you in the same day.”) and a hug. Like, I’m sorry, this girl has just lost her father. Why is she even at this wedding? No one would fault her for not showing up. Hiroshi’s funeral isn’t given even a passing mention. It’s implied that the wedding is super soon after the main events of the finale, given that Raiko’s only begun to talk about rebuilding and the city’s still in ruins.

And Mako was legitimately with Korra for every high and low point Korra ever had. Losing her bending? He was there. Getting her bending back? He was there immediately afterwards. Winning the pro-bending tournament? He was right beside her. Fighting Unavaatu? He’s in the Spirit World either distracting Eska and Desna so Korra could focus on Unalaq or protecting Korra’s body from getting killed by corrupted spirits. Taken hostage by the Red Lotus? He’s there leading the charge to rescue her. Confronting Zaheer and working on her mental and spiritual recovery? He’s right there beside her to encourage her or wait outside as she requested. Excepting her ‘Korra Alone’ journey, he was with her the whole way. He was with her as the Avatar and as Korra, and I would love for you to tell me how he wasn’t “there” for Korra in Book 2. 

Like lmao, “like a superhero’s spouse, the Avatar’s lover has to be there for both sides of the person”. Uh…that’s exactly what I was complaining about with that Remembrances post? That Asami WASN’T “there” for Korra as a person? Like…thank you for reiterating my point?

On Asami being Katara and filling Katara’s role: Haha…no. That’s actually the funniest thing I’ve heard in quite a long time. Nah son: Mako is Katara in this scenario, not Asami. ‘Mothering’ the group and all. Mako and Katara is the closest analog between the Gaang and the Krew we have, actually (which is funny, since Mako was originally supposed to be a kind of ‘Zuko-lite’ character). Both are family-oriented characters who essentially act as the parent for their sibling (who fills the comic-relief role) and dedicate their lives to protecting people and the Avatar. Both grow massively as people, carry heirlooms of their dead parents, are bending prodigies, and witnessed a traumatic event at a young age that they carry with them the rest of their life. There’s tons of other parallels I could make too, about their function within their respective groups, but I’m leaving it at that. If Asami has a parallel within ATLA, it would probably be a mix of Suki and Mai, not Katara.

And if you’re going to draw parallels between Katara and Asami based on their ‘caring natures’ and how they were ‘always there for Aang/Korra’, see this post I’ve already made on the subject, where I was asked if Mako going with Korra in “Beyond the Wilds” was basically like LOK’s “The Southern Raiders” episode.

 tl;dr version: 

This is completely different in the case of Beyond the Wilds. Asami does not even have the choice of accompanying Korra. There is no ‘I should stay behind; take Mako with you instead.’ There is no drastic choice between two ideologies for Korra to make. This is a matter of personal healing for Korra due to a traumatizing event done to her person with the intention of hurting and killing her personally. She is going to confront a man who destroyed her, body and spirit. That is an important event. And Asami apparently doesn’t even know about it.

Mako, the man who has seen Korra at both her absolute highest and all of her lowest points, is the one that goes with Korra to confront Zaheer. He plays the role of both Zuko and Aang, by coming with her for support and understanding but also stepping back and trusting her to make her own choices and decisions. Asami may as well be a distant penpal Korra’s never met for all ‘Beyond the Wilds’ and Korra’s spiritual healing arc is concerned. She has no advice, she has no role, and she has no impact on the entire situation.

Also “Avatar’s lover has to be there for BOTH sides not just one/when it’s convenient which is why Makorra would NEVER work and why Korrasami, y'know BALANCE” like no? There is no balance in the Korrasami relationship and they were never really there for each other, and I’m still wondering why the fuck you came into my inbox three years too late with this stupid ask that showed me that you obviously didn’t watch the show, since I can apparently remember events and interactions better three years later than you can?

[i-am-extremely-mad]

Watched Book 1 and Book 2 all the way through again. Soon I will start again with Book 3. The Legend of Korra is practically a masterpiece, especially when you understand what genre the show is, with which themes the show actually deals with and perhaps most importantly the structure of the story.  

Here are again brief instructions and explanations: 

1. TLOK is DieselPunk fantasy (reason why there are cars, airships and RetroFuturistic technologies like Mechas) and main theme is conflict between tradition and progression and what place Korra as a person and Avatar have in this new modern world. 

2. TLOK have two story arcs, Book 1 is more or less self-contained mini series, while Books 2, 3 and 4 were simultaneously in production and make a 3-part story arc that is basically a reverse ATLA story arc. First arc I call "The Equalists arc" while second arc I call "A New Spiritual Age arc". 

Titles of Books aren't random: Book 2: Spirits is dealing with changes between Material and Spirit Worlds, Book 3: Change is dealing with unforeseen good and bad consequences that change caused, and Book 4: Balance, well, to finally find Balance in this new modern, drastically changed world. 

3. Aang fights a super villain, Ozai, who is a firebender, who is horrible to his children (brother and sister), and who uses a cosmic event (Sozin's Comet) to boost his powers to try destroying the world at the END of the story.

Korra fights a super villain, Unalaq, who is a waterbender, who is horrible to his children (brother and sister), and who uses a cosmic event (Harmonic Convergence) to boost his powers to try destroying the world at the BEGINNING of the story. 

4. At the end of ATLA Book 2 the Earth Kingdom has fallen and Aang almost die at the end and Katara take care for his recovery.

At the end of TLOK Book 3 the Earth Kingdom has fallen and Korra almost die at the end and Asami take care for her recovery. 

5. Unalaq misused spiritual and mystical powers for destruction and conquer, Kuvira misused scientific and technological powers for destruction and conquer, and replicate Unalaq/Vaatu powers by making basically Mecha-Unavaatu.

6. Every main villain represents some form of fascism/fascist like ideology: 

Amon and Equalists: non-benders supremacists, 

Unalaq: clero-fascism, 

Red Lotus: (more or less) anarcho-primitivists,

Kuvira: Nazism.

[i-am-extremely-mad]

Started watching The Legend of Korra again. I'm now on the eighth episode of Book 1. This show is great and once again the rewatch only confirmed to me how terribly underrated and misunderstood it is. 

Here are brief instructions and explanations:

1. TLOK is DieselPunk fantasy (reason why there are cars, airships and RetroFuturistic technologies like Mechas) and main theme is conflict between tradition and progression and what place Korra as person and Avatar have in this new modern world.

2. TLOK have two story arcs, Book 1 is more or less self-contained mini series, while Books 2, 3 and 4 were simultaneously in production and make 3-part story arc that is basically reverse ATLA story arc. 

First arc I call "The Equalists arc" while second arc I call "A New Spiritual Age arc".

Titles of Books aren't random: Book 2: Spirits is dealing with changes between Material and Spirit Worlds, Book 3: Change is dealing with unforseen good and bad consequences that change caused, and  Book 4: Balance, well, to finally find Balance in this new modern, drastically changed world.

3. Aang fight super villain, Ozai, who is firebender, who is horrible to his children (brother and sister), and who use cosmic event (Sozin's Comet) to boost his powers to try destroying world at the END of the story.

Korra fight super villain, Unalaq, who is waterbender, who is horrible to his children (brother and sister), and who use cosmic event (Harmonic Convergence) to boost his powers to try destroying world at the BEGINNING of the story.

4. Aang almost die at the end of Book 2 and Katara take care for his recovery.

Korra almost die at the end of Book 3 and Asami take care for her recovery.

5. Unalaq misused spiritual and mystical powers for destruction and conquer, Kuvira misused scientific and technological powers for destruction and conquer, and replicate Unalaq/Vaatu powers by making basically Mecha-Unavaatu.

6. Every main villain represents some form of fascism/fascist like ideology: Amon and Equalists: non-benders supremacists, Unalaq: clero-fascism, Red Lotus: co/nservative "li/bertarianism", Kuvira: Nazism.