Legend of Korra Season 3

[red snow]

I wonder what would happen if grrm were to write the story for the next season of Avatar.

He was a painter..and his favourite colour was red...

Hopefully no flashback episode to Aang and Katara's wedding! Or a return of those twins!

I can imagine the retcon. Tenzin and his wife are killed by Amon and the three kids separated or held by the eqaulisers.

[The Drunkard]

I think the equalists were a valid movement and while their leader turned out to be a sham, the fact he was also a bender should have pissed the followers off more. I don't think Amon could work as a leader any more but I do think the equalists could and should return with a new non-bender leader. Maybe with Varrik pulling the strings and using an actor? He knows how to use the media to manipulate .

The Equalists being valid I completely agree with. Benders being naturally capable of dominating 'normals' is a dangerous* thing, especially since by the start of the series benders are in control of the government and police force. Equalist methods were a bit extreme, but hey, Republic City did change and elect a non-bender president as a result.

Speaking of which, one of the show people said this on his tumblr:

While we’re on the subject of world leaders, I saw a comment on my dashboard after the Barnes & Noble signing from someone who was dissatisfied with the fact that we didn’t continue the Equalist plot in Book 2 and wrote something to the effect that we were just keeping the bending oppressors in power and sweeping the plight of the oppressed non-benders under the rug. This is definitely not the case. Our idea was that the Equalist revolution forced the United Republic Council (Tenzin included) to face the fact that the majority of the population was not being represented. As a result, they disbanded the council and held open elections, and Raiko, a non-bender, was elected as the president of the United Republic. Looking back, I do think we could have made that clearer, but I think we were probably trying not to bog down the premiere episode with what we refer to as stuff that’s getting too “Trade Federation-y,” since there was plenty to pack into that episode as it was.

Seems like the election of the President is meant to be the end of that plot.

I agree. I wouldn't say he's the best, since ATLA was filled to the brim with great villains, but he certainly had the potential to be the best. He did have - without a doubt - the best ending to an arc in the entire series. That was an exceptionally powerful scene and it really felt organic, like it grew out of the story that had been told in the past episodes instead of being a cheap plot twist.

Yeah, I loved his death scene, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of him being a bender. It surprised me a bit that the show could include a murder-suicide though, heh.

What ATLA villains would you consider better, btw?

*Reminds me of the first X-Men film. That politician had a point in wanting mutants registered, given how powerful and potentially dangerous some mutants are.

[Metopheles]

Hopefully no flashback episode to Aang and Katara's wedding! Or a return of those twins!

I can imagine the retcon. Tenzin and his wife are killed by Amon and the three kids separated or held by the eqaulisers.

I may sound like a monster, but I can't stand the kids from Tenzin. They annoyed me so much in the first book. They were okay in the second one.

And when Jinora was about to become Raava, I thought it would really be cool if she stayed as a spirit or something.. sadly not :(

ATLA would have done that.

The Yue scene was so great. They should have done that.

[Metopheles]

I think it would also be lame if suddenly Lion Turtles returned and just gave all the squibs powers and also the non bending parents of benders.

Harry Potter didn't do that, they shouldn't either.

Perhaps have the Filch situation, where they can bend a little bit, but nor really much.

Korra needs Tywin. He would broker political marriages between non benders and benders :lol:

[Veltigar]

Yeah, I loved his death scene, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of him being a bender. It surprised me a bit that the show could include a murder-suicide though, heh.

Well, you know something was fishy with his tale since we never saw his face.

What ATLA villains would you consider better, btw?

Its been a while since the last time I saw ATLA (I'll have to do something about that), so excuse me if I fuck up some name or detail ;)

It probably depends on your definition of villains. Like I think that Zukko was a great villain, eventhough in the end he went over to the good guys. Azula was also great. Psychotic murderer is a hard type of villain to pull off, it veers into silly to easy. With Azula ATLA got it just right, which is really hard to do imo. Than there was Hamma, she wasn't an important villain, but damn she was scary. That was a pretty dark episode for a kids show and her embitterment was very well done.

I would say that those three are on a par with Aman for greatest villain. But they are just the top of the iceberg really. Long Feng, Admiral Zhao, Combustion guy, Jet (initially), they were all great. The impressive thing really is the great variety in ATLA's gallery of villains. They all embody different kinds of evil.

Admiral Zhao represents ruthless ambition and man's disrespect for nature and the spiritual. As said before, Azula stands for the danger of the psychotic, entitled prodigy. Long Feng shows us the dangers of corruption and bureaucracy. Hamma and Jet warn us for the danger of mindless revenge. Combustion man was a Boba Fett type of villain. Koh was the creepy supernatural danger. And Zukko had so many layers you couldn't really peg him down. Although the danger of misguided ambitions and obsessions might be his major trademark.

One of the reasons why Aman is so great, is imo that he isn't just a great villain on his own. He's also a type of villain that we hadn't really met before, which is remarkable given the range of villains in the original series. Aman warns us for the dangers of populism and ideology. And of course the fear of terrorism. His outfit was really brilliant. The mask really evocated the faceless threat of terrorism.

Man, I have been going on much longer than I intended XD This really is a great cartoon.

[Really, the only really disappointing villains were Ozai, Unalak and his twins. Although Unalak and the Twins are a lot worse than Ozai, who's only a bit 'meh' after all thab build up]

I may sound like a monster, but I can't stand the kids from Tenzin. They annoyed me so much in the first book. They were okay in the second one.

And when Jinora was about to become Raava, I thought it would really be cool if she stayed as a spirit or something.. sadly not :(

ATLA would have done that.

The Yue scene was so great. They should have done that.

Not a big fan of Tenzin's children. And I hated the whole Jinora plot line. But not having her die was the right decision. Just copying Yue's faith would have been lame. They shouldn't have written the character the way they did, but if they have to write her this way, than I think this was the most satisfying outcome.

[Metopheles]

I thought Jinora (the spirited girl, that got spirited away) becoming a spirit..huh, all the world plays, but yeah, she would have been a cool choice.

By the way:

IF some insane cool fool would attempt to adapt the series into a real movie (NO, shamalan did not happen! It did not happen), would you prefer some small ageing up, like making Sokka etc around 18 or 20 and the others in proportion, and include more serious outcomes, like extras dying?

I mean not killing of main or major secondaries, but some Dai Li guys or random attackers, instead of keeping them just severely injured?

[red snow]

I don't really see how ageing the characters up and having more death would really improve it. It's a mistake many adaptations and comics make which is "growing up" with the audience.

The show is actually a great example of how you don't need to have lots of death for the stakes and drama to be high. Also when people do die it's a big deal.

If anything Korra is already trying the "everyone is in their late teens/early twenties" as opposed to being teens.

Maybe the third show (if there ever is one) will have uni students struggling with drugs? And in 2050 we'll have one about pensioners.

I agree that Aman's design was great (had a Dr Doom vibe) and it also helped having the mystery behind his identity too. Hopefully the four new villains will be strong ones - their designs are good.

[Metopheles]

drugs :lol:

air bending smoke and water bending alcohol, fire bending joints...earth benders are kinda left out here. They will probably be the nerds. Or mushrooms..

No I think ageing them up a bit so the audience will be larger and the fighting theme and the importance of the kids a bit more logical.

And having extras die is adding to the danger.

Of course the other course would be keeping this really up, the no death thing. It underlines the non violence message of it.

But when Sokka for example gets his fancy sword, it would be weird having him just use it as a club and slap people with it.

But I really tip my hat to the showrunners for being able to make it dangerous and action filled without people really getting hurt..permanently. This is a pretty hard thing to accomplish.

[Veltigar]

If you were to adept ATLA or LoK into live-action more people should die. It's borderline silly sometimes in this series (the plane sequence) but in life-action it would be over-the-top crazy I think.

As to aging up the characters. A couple of years might be a good idea, simply because you would be able to get better actors to play them. It must be a nightmare to adapt ATLA (LoK is easier in that regard) and try and find kids that can act and do all the really physical stuff.

[Metopheles]

I think if something, then GOT proved there are extremely talented young actors around.

I wouldn't necessarily age up Aang, as it is part of his story being 12...but it could be done of course, but having Katara at 16 and Zuko 21 Sokka and Suki 19 or something... around that.

Especially because they are so important political figures.

Sokka leads an army after all and is prince of a tribe, Azula has command over the fire nation invasion in the Earth Kingdom, her friends are super assassins.. that kind of stuff.

[AverageGuy]

earth benders are kinda left out here.

Crystal, man. The next Avatar in the cycle is an Earthbender, and this Avatar is the one who knocks. :pimp:

Seriously, though, count me as another who doesn't care too much about aging up the show. It's a kids' show, they want to keep it safe for the eight-year-olds, that's just part of what the show is.

[red snow]

I think if something, then GOT proved there are extremely talented young actors around.

I wouldn't necessarily age up Aang, as it is part of his story being 12...but it could be done of course, but having Katara at 16 and Zuko 21 Sokka and Suki 19 or something... around that.

Especially because they are so important political figures.

Sokka leads an army after all and is prince of a tribe, Azula has command over the fire nation invasion in the Earth Kingdom, her friends are super assassins.. that kind of stuff.

That's perfectly true but it's a show for kids. It's not that realisitic that kids in Narnia, Harry Potter and the like have the fate of the world in their hands too but kids don't want to watch shows about grown ups making the difference. When you are 8 an 18 year old is an adult.

Plus they did age the cast up for that film (and I vaguely recall folk dying in it) - it didn't help much.

I do agree that it's easier to have young people in animation though because a) you can have adult voice actors and b) you can create a world where it isn't as jarring - it is a lot more obvious in live action if 12 year olds are leading armies and the like.

[Veltigar]

I think if something, then GOT proved there are extremely talented young actors around.

I wouldn't necessarily age up Aang, as it is part of his story being 12...but it could be done of course, but having Katara at 16 and Zuko 21 Sokka and Suki 19 or something... around that.

Especially because they are so important political figures.

Sokka leads an army after all and is prince of a tribe, Azula has command over the fire nation invasion in the Earth Kingdom, her friends are super assassins.. that kind of stuff.

The simple fact that everyone keeps gushing about what marvelous young actors GoT has, should tell you that they are a very, very rare asset.

And If you were to make a movie out of Avatar (and make it more adult, because otherwise why bother doing it) the actors would have an even more difficult task than in GoT. For starters they would need the same acting chops, but on top of that you need to take into account the massive amount of choreography these kids would need to learn. Maise Williams is awesome in her fight scenes, but in an adaptation of ATLA their would be much more of those kind of moves. Furthermore, the kids in ATLA would have a lot more screentime. Finally, they would be frequently acting amongst each other. In GoT they often have an experienced actor like Sean Bean, Charles Dance, etc. to guide the younger actors a bit. In ATLA the kids would act a lot more amongst each other (think Aang and crew).

[BormonReborn]

The only reason I would want to see the characters aged up a bit, would be so the romantic interactions of the characters made a little more sense and would have more appeal. So basically just add a couple of years. Make Aang 14, Katara 16 and Sokka 18.

As for adding Death.... maybe... MAYBE a scene or two. But the thing I liked about the series is that Death was a burden and not something that should be dispensed out. Aang refuses to kill. I am sure that people died within the series (just not shown), but that should have weight on the characters.

[Metopheles]

The only reason I would want to see the characters aged up a bit, would be so the romantic interactions of the characters made a little more sense and would have more appeal. So basically just add a couple of years. Make Aang 14, Katara 16 and Sokka 18.

As for adding Death.... maybe... MAYBE a scene or two. But the thing I liked about the series is that Death was a burden and not something that should be dispensed out. Aang refuses to kill. I am sure that people died within the series (just not shown), but that should have weight on the characters.

So it would be okay if Sokka, the non bender, whose only weapons kinda do kill..would be able to slice their foes?

I mean Aang can blow them away and Katara can freeze them, but Sokka just slapping enemies would be weird in a movie.

Of course I did not mean that there should be deaths in terms of killing of Long Feng when he outlived his usefulness or Zhao.

[SpaceChampion]

An ATLA documentary.

[red snow]

8.

As for adding Death.... maybe... MAYBE a scene or two. But the thing I liked about the series is that Death was a burden and not something that should be dispensed out. Aang refuses to kill. I am sure that people died within the series (just not shown), but that should have weight on the characters.

That's a really good point. It was a large focus of the final season with most of the kids urging Aang to kill while he struggled with the idea. I've no idea whether Korra feels the same way - it seemed like other Avatars weren't as bothered about this,

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

That's a really good point. It was a large focus of the final season with most of the kids urging Aang to kill while he struggled with the idea. I've no idea whether Korra feels the same way - it seemed like other Avatars weren't as bothered about this,

When Korra fought Tarrlock in his office, she was definitely going for the kill shot at the end, also when she shot large jagged shards of ice at Amon.

[red snow]

When Korra fought Tarrlock in his office, she was definitely going for the kill shot at the end, also when she shot large jagged shards of ice at Amon.

Seems like another example of this show being more mature. In many ways it would be a far more suitable show to adapt to film. Then again I'm not so bothered about animation having to become live-action.

[Metopheles]

Aang is so far the only Avatar we know of that is non violent..or against death.

But that has nothing to do with being avatar, it is because he is an air bender and based upon Tibetian Buddhism. So killing anything is out of the question for him. He was a vegetarian, too.

Korra is the complete opposite of that. And also, the water tribe culture is nearly exclusively carnivore, similar to Inuits.

So yeaah..the no kill thing is an airbender thing.

Except for the North Pole episodes, when he definitely killed the invaders, but he felt horrible after it, and probably it was him less and more the water spirit's doing.