You took a long time to post after your previous post from a couple of weeks ago, it shows you took time...
I don't really understand what your talking about. I made a post on page 7, but this new post wasn't in reply to anything in particular. It was basically a new conversation starter.
I agree with a lot of the criticism about pacing, the lack of character developments, and the rushed romanced plot, but I am very much convinced that it was a result of the writers not adapting to the 12 episode format too well, and the new mini-series about Mako and Bolin's youth is proof that these characters DO have a lot of thought and story behind them. I had no problem with pro-bending, but I can see how it kind of seems like a nuisance in a 12 episode series. It's a shame that Bryan and Mike weren't able to take into account the fact that they would have 56 episodes to develop the Korra and Mako relationship at a more realistic pace, but you are also forgetting that, well, teenage romance sometimes really are like that.
My criticisms aren't with the pacing, largely. That's fine. It's the actual content that I am criticizing. And getting 3 5 minute episodes telling Mako's and Bolin's backstory (in which the first piece of information is basically spent telling us things we already know), is not what I would call having a lot of thought put into them.
But look, most of your complaints are basically "Korra isn't Aang, and I loved Aang, and why can't every Avatar be like Aang?" You even believe that, for some reason, Tenzin is supposed to be a replacement for Iroh. Yes, they share similar traits and functions in the narrative, but Tenzin, IMO, wasn't meant to be the same type of mentor as Iroh. In fact, the creators have said repeatedly (especially in the Blu-Ray commentaries) that the whole series is purposely very different from ATLA in every respect, even in the type of journey the hero will take. Korra isn't Aang, not every Avatar is a wise young Buddhist monk. Korra has a LOT of fans, especially female, precisely because she is very much a teenage girl that just happens to love her powers, and is frustrated that she's been locked-up and over protected throughout her life. It is a VERY different problem and a whole other story from ATLA, and yeah, It might not appeal to some of the mostly male fans of Aang's personality and journey, but that's just the way it is. Korra isn't Aang.
First off, this just shows to me that you haven't read my post. Never once did I ever say that Korra had to be like Aang. The only comparison to Aang I brought up is that the universe bends over backwards for Korra whenever she is unhappy and that it did not do so for Aang. And that's because it's bad storytelling. The universe shouldn't bend over for any character arbitrarily, what happens should be justified within the narrative. Korra getting what she wants because she's sad isn't adequate justification, especially when it didn't work like that for Aang who is her equivelent.
I don't resent Korra in any way for having the personality that she does. By all means, she CAN be in love with being the avatar and love fighting and be immature. That's all fine. What the problem is that those things are flaws and Korra should be developed out of these things, learn better. Aang had flaws too, the biggest of which is that he wanted to avoid his responsibilities as an avatar, because he wanted to be a kid and have fun. And the result of that negligence was that he lost his people to a genocide and now is faced with fixing the world by fighting back against the fire nation. Throughout the series, Aang matures and learns to take his avatar responsibilities seriously and as he matures, he gains more powers as the avatar. Because that's how being the avatar works. He needed to understand the culture of the Earth Kingdom, to face a problem directly and confidently, before he could earthbend. He needed to understand spirituality before he could connect to his avatar state. Korra, on the other hand, thinks being an avatar is just being a superhero, you go punch out the bad guy and go home. She jumps into that lifestyle without properly understanding what it is. She is completely linked to the external practices of bending, none of the spiritual side. This attitude and lack of wisdom is something that would hamper her capability of fulfilling her duties. But that's not how it's portrayed within the series at all. Her idea that being the avatar just means punching out the bad guy isn't deconstructed to make way for a better understanding, it's enforced, especially by the ending. She gained all her powers, while learning nothing. That's not at all what it means to be the avatar. That she never learns this is why she can't be a good avatar and why the story was executed so poorly. It's contradicting everything TLA taught us without adequate reason to. Lack of internal consistency is bad storytelling.
So no, my problem is not that "it's different". Asami is probably the shows equivelent of Toph, but despite that she is VERY different from her, she fills that role well. While disadvantaged, she has her own unique powers (MONEY!) and uses her cleverness to beat opponents that should outmatch her and has the determination to free herself from her parent's control. That's basically Toph, yet completely different with a completely different personality and arc.
That's my problem. Other characters don't fill their roles well. I don't care that Tenzin isn't a jolly fat man, I care that he doesn't dispense any spiritual wisdom beyond "shut up and meditate", which is what he is suppose to do as the mentor figure, especailly to the avatar who is trying to learn airbending. While Uncle was constantly trying to instill lessons into Zuko, Tenzin was completely clueless how to help Korra, so he just taught her physical positions of airbending when that's the least important thing for her to learn. If that's the 'difference' you were criticising me for attacking, I say it should be attacked. The teacher of the avatar should not be this incompetent. The avatar should not be rewarded for ignorance.
*sigh* no. While it's true that each Book is intended to be a mostly self-contained story, the Book 2: Episode 1 recap of the ending of Book 1, did give hints that they will continue to develop Republic City's problems, and how even the Spirit World ties together with the current problems between nations. One of the hints is the fact that they disbanded the Council and now a non-bender President was elected, and the show's producers went out of their way to show the President and his wife, meaning that he could be an important character later on.
BUT yeah, overall, LOK will not be ONE grand epic story like ATLA (well, at least, as far as we now). We've known that since the start.
Oh yes, that's fantastic. The conflict that should have been center stage is resolved offscreen between seasons. If Korra has nothing to do it with it, then that'll just be the cherry on top of Korra being a shit avatar. And it doesn't change that we were given no real evidence that there is a stark inequality like amon described, which is the actual problem with the conflict.
A story doesn't need to be a grand epic to be well written. Korra, thus far, has not been well written.
Yeah, I keep bringing this up, but most of the people who have a problem with Korra "getting everything for no effort at all" are fans of ATLA's epic journey format, because I haven't seen that complaint come from non-ATLA familiar fans of Korra. People who haven't seen ALTA usually don't complain about how "she gets everything", and enjoy the show because of what it is, a show about a powerful teenage girl who is learning to be more patient and better fit the role she is destined to hold, and don't hate it because of what it isn't.
Then those people haven't been paying attention, because you can see that she learns nothing yet gets everything anyway without watching TLA. At best, they just accept it because they don't know how spirituality has been established in the universe and how Korra's stuff directly contradicts it, but even then, there are dues ex machinas.
