The Last Airbender thread ***SPOILERS***

[Guyshane]

Oh why she wants Bolin close is pretty simple: He's effectively her kryptonite. All lava benders are essentially the anti-earthbender earthbender since they can change any earth thrown at them into ammo for themselves to use. Add to that the tempature lava reaches and Bolin could probably burn through all her metalbending techniques no problem.

[IslaKariese]

Things are finally looking up for Korra. Toph's still a badass. And Meelo's a little shit, I don't really like what they did with his personality here.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Meelo is literally every 10-year old boy.

[IslaKariese]

Still hate it. It's not impossible for a 10-year-old to not be a little shit. But there's still room for characterization, since he is a kid, after all, so I'll rein in my displeasure.

[eli_gone_crazy]

I think that Meelo is a little boy trying to be heroic. He's discarding the bits of his childhood that he had admired, and, most of all, wants to be different than the rest of his family.

[IslaKariese]

This ep makes my eye twitch. Especially Verrick.

[Pixelmage]

*twitch*

... Poor Communication Kills looms over. It creeps, closer and closer.

Am I the only one not looking forward to next episode? I mean, it's quite clear things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better - we're barely at the start of the season, after all. And I'm not liking the path everything is flowing through.

[IslaKariese]

Is it that you don't like the direction the series is going for meta reasons, or that its just anticipation/dread?

[Pixelmage]

The former, mainly. This is really pushing my Suspension of Disbelief quite hard. Everyone in-universe (the world leaders) was quite "yeap, saw that coming" about Kuvira's stunt. Yet as far as anyone doing anything there appears to be not a single soul with even a sketch of a plan to deal with it.

Sure, find the Avatar. That's one thing, but considering that they had to deal with things for that long without Korra, it'd take a staggering amount of stupidity to simply let it at that. And yet... Where do I even begin? Oh, right, I can't, because no one did anything.

Kuvira is already in siege formation. If anyone were to start thinking about a way to react now, they'd simply not make it in time. Given how deadpan they were when she announced her Empire... Well... Either the scales of morality are tipping in strange ways, or we got ourselves a Plot Hole that's about as wide as a whole city. ¬¬

And now we're bound to having Korra save Kuvira from Su's assassination attempt. Which would lead to Su's defeat and Kuvira having total control over the Earth Empire. All is well and everyone hates everyone else. This by next week's ending.

Follow with Ju Lee pulling off the badass super maid routine and getting Varrik and Bolin out to regroup, possibly after the Death Ray is complete. They then struggle to get the team back together, I mean, not like everyone will be pissed at the Avatar for coming out of the woodwork and ensuring Zhao Fu's fall. Everything is out of whack, and as usual, Villains Act; Heroes React. So the next move is again up to Kuvira, since no one else can agree to anything - wise Bolin not being very effective. Which leaves room for a few moves...

But consider that Kuvira's (stated) goal is to restore the Earth Empire*. After Zhao Fu, only a section of the continent that was formerly entirely Earth domain will be outside her power: Republic City. So, she attacks. Everyone has to sort of begrudgingly cast aside the newborn rifts to try and halt the power craze.

Yes, I reckon that trying to meta-read that far is bound to create a significantly inaccurate picture - and as usual, I actually hope I'm very wrong - but it's not like I have to make any sort of effort to see these pathways, I just see it automagically. .-.

And Opal is angry. I think Opal is nice and the story shouldn't mess with her. >_<

[eli_gone_crazy]

Am I the only person seeing the world war two parallels?

[Guyshane]

Am I the only person seeing the world war two parallels?

You mean the ones they seem to be intentionally playing up? No I see them too.

[narrativedilettante]

Those CG battle suits did not work well with the rest of the animation, I thought.

[Lordxana0]

The former, mainly. This is really pushing my Suspension of Disbelief quite hard. Everyone in-universe (the world leaders) was quite "yeap, saw that coming" about Kuvira's stunt. Yet as far as anyone doing anything there appears to be not a single soul with even a sketch of a plan to deal with it.

Sure, find the Avatar. That's one thing, but considering that they had to deal with things for that long without Korra, it'd take a staggering amount of stupidity to simply let it at that. And yet... Where do I even begin? Oh, right, I can't, because no one did anything.

Kuvira is already in siege formation. If anyone were to start thinking about a way to react now, they'd simply not make it in time. Given how deadpan they were when she announced her Empire... Well... Either the scales of morality are tipping in strange ways, or we got ourselves a Plot Hole that's about as wide as a whole city. ¬¬

I am pretty sure that the world leaders couldn't afford to plan around her sudden heel turn. With the Red Lotus f-ing everything up, and the spirits f-ing everything up, and Amon having started with f-ing everything up the world is probably in quite a bit of chaos. I am guessing the Fire Kingdom probably got the Germany treatment of having to strip down their military after the whole 'take over the world' plot. The Water Tribes have never really had much of a military, at least not a land based one from what we have seen. Air benders are stretched to their limits and don't have much in way of a standing force. Republic Cities forces might be able to do something, but fighting means loses, and war.

They all put their bets on Kuvira and hoped she could do something. Right now I am guessing all they can do from a strategy standpoint is sit back and let the Earth Kingdom drop where it may. Heck if I were a world leader I would let her have it and then open up trades with her in a non hostile way. Its not my peoples problem she is using harsh tactics, and if they can give me those awesome materials then who am I to complain?

[eli_gone_crazy]

I think that the president of republic city was hoping for another puppet king.

[Pixelmage]

I'm pleased to see that my prediction fell completely flat.

This is by far a better development than I expected. That said, things are still hellbound. At least it's not a case of blatant communication drama. Besides...

"Varrik, you're crazy!"

"Of course I am! That's why you hired me in the first place!"

[Guyshane]

*blinks* Did you all just see that finale? I just saw that finale and that was a tour-de-force.

[IslaKariese]

I've fallen short of trying to keep up with this season ever since the first showdown with Kuvira. I've got a lot to catch up on.

[Pixelmage]

Impressive execution and animation; but I can't shake off the feeling that most of the season was kind of rushed overall. Lots of important things happening in quick succession or off screen, like, you know... Giant Robot out of thin air and all. Also, I wonder what should be the name of that ship...

[JRPictures]

Well all in all, I'm pretty damn glad I binged through Avatar and the first two seasons of Korra earlier in the year.

It's been a rocky road but overall Book 4 is great and has a pitch perfect ending to top it off.

I totally thought Korra and Asami would kiss when they faced each other in the Spirit Portal, not gonna lie.

[Pixelmage]

I totally thought Korra and Asami would kiss when they faced each other in the Spirit Portal, not gonna lie.

IT SAILS!

XD

See, my only complaint is not anything related to what they did on the show being bad or anything of the sort, just that even a couple more episodes to show more of the named faces would have been interesting. A few lampshades on how Zhu Lee had openings to sabotage the spirit cannon because Bataar Jr. was not working on it full time because of that tiny side project would have been nice. As would be seeing some of Fire Lord Izumi and Iroh involved in the whole army mobilization effort.

All they did show was great, I just wish they had shown a little more of the side details - It was the final season, after all. No point in saving the guns for next year...

Or is it not over and I didn't get the memo?

[Lordxana0]

I totally thought Korra and Asami would kiss when they faced each other in the Spirit Portal, not gonna lie.

IT SAILS!

XD

See, my only complaint is not anything related to what they did on the show being bad or anything of the sort, just that even a couple more episodes to show more of the named faces would have been interesting. A few lampshades on how Zhu Lee had openings to sabotage the spirit cannon because Bataar Jr. was not working on it full time because of that tiny side project would have been nice. As would be seeing some of Fire Lord Izumi and Iroh involved in the whole army mobilization effort.

All they did show was great, I just wish they had shown a little more of the side details - It was the final season, after all. No point in saving the guns for next year...

Or is it not over and I didn't get the memo?

No its over, but what you say was everything they had left to pump into it. Nick cut the budget big time and basically screwed the show over in the final season. Remember the recap episode? The creators didn't actually want that to be there, they had to do it in order to save money. If this season felt a bit rushed toward the end, its because yeah, it was. Nick has been screwing the show over since it started, and they still ended with a bang. Hats off to 'em.