Legend of Korra
Apr. 20th, 2015 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackAfter Season 1 of Korra, I was unsure, but was recommended to give the second half of season 2 ago because it picked up a lot. I'm exactly half-way and I think I can see how that's going.
The first half was mixed. It was hilarious in places, and all the call-backs to parent-generation politics, in the water tribe and in Aang's children, were great.
But there was forced-relationship-played-for-laughs which was ugh :(
And the politics was all huh? Like, if you described it to someone it would all make perfect sense. A and B are strong-willed and inexperienced so they like each other but are upset with each other and don't talk. A, B and C are impatient with D and ignore them. A is somewhat inexperienced and believes all this "uniting the tribe for everyone's good" and "don't take sides" stuff and totally misses the guy invading your homeland is the bad guy. That's all really realistic! But on screen it just stands out as "huh"? You never SEE someone's motivation for acting high-handedly, it always feels tacked-on even when it ought to feel natural.
And to a lesser extent the same with the world-building -- I'm constantly being surprised by the number of high-court judges or soldiers or police a given society can support, and I don't care if the numbers make sense, as long they look like they fit and don't feel like they're constantly changing the plot under you.
And the old-school tv/radio recaps at the start of each episode are amazing, they really add to the episode even when you already know what happened.
But ooh, when it starts on the spirit-world stuff, that's really really good.
ETA: I also enjoyed Jim Hines' watch-through where he blogged the episodes as he saw them for the first time. I'm glad someone agrees the episode where everyone is stupid, and the characters are all assholes, for no reason is not the high point! http://jimhines.livejournal.com/tag/korra
The first half was mixed. It was hilarious in places, and all the call-backs to parent-generation politics, in the water tribe and in Aang's children, were great.
But there was forced-relationship-played-for-laughs which was ugh :(
And the politics was all huh? Like, if you described it to someone it would all make perfect sense. A and B are strong-willed and inexperienced so they like each other but are upset with each other and don't talk. A, B and C are impatient with D and ignore them. A is somewhat inexperienced and believes all this "uniting the tribe for everyone's good" and "don't take sides" stuff and totally misses the guy invading your homeland is the bad guy. That's all really realistic! But on screen it just stands out as "huh"? You never SEE someone's motivation for acting high-handedly, it always feels tacked-on even when it ought to feel natural.
And to a lesser extent the same with the world-building -- I'm constantly being surprised by the number of high-court judges or soldiers or police a given society can support, and I don't care if the numbers make sense, as long they look like they fit and don't feel like they're constantly changing the plot under you.
And the old-school tv/radio recaps at the start of each episode are amazing, they really add to the episode even when you already know what happened.
But ooh, when it starts on the spirit-world stuff, that's really really good.
ETA: I also enjoyed Jim Hines' watch-through where he blogged the episodes as he saw them for the first time. I'm glad someone agrees the episode where everyone is stupid, and the characters are all assholes, for no reason is not the high point! http://jimhines.livejournal.com/tag/korra
no subject
Date: 2015-04-20 08:08 pm (UTC)I consider the politics of the show as a whole to be extremely dodgy up until partway through s4 (at which point it's just ABLEISM HO and some of the prior horror is mitigated a bit).
tl;dr UGH they didn't retain the dude who 1. introduced the dangerous ladies 2. gently suggested they get rid of the sexism 3. etc in A:tLA, and it really shows.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-20 09:33 pm (UTC)They were the people who were generally a mark of quality when watching tLA, IIRC.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-21 10:53 am (UTC)Oh good. And yes, so sad at all the random sexism, it makes sense if that's what happened :(