Legend of Korra

**Personamanx** · 05-07-2012, 04:27 PM

Good news. The episode isn't nearly as terrible on the second view.

**Cassandra** · 05-07-2012, 05:33 PM

I must admit I really loved this episode. I personally don't think the relationships are moving too fast, mostly because I'm over t.v. shows stringing me along with relationships that 'may happen' and then when the characters finally get together, the show ends. (As much as I love the show Castle, there is only so many seasons you can dangle the 'will these characters get together?' carrot in-front of my face before I just don't care any more.) There are so many great stories that can be told with people in relationships, I blame Disney Princess movies for the idea that when characters get together 'they live happily ever after, the end.'

I see a lot of interesting character development and drama coming out of the Korra x Mako and Mako x Asami thing and I don't think that characters dating is the character-developmental dead-end that many people seem to think that it is. While Korra and Mako are now both aware of each other's feelings I doubt either party will act on them (past that kiss) for awhile. Mako isn't the sort of guy to just dump Asami and start dating Korra, her Father is sponsoring their team and even he knows it will look very suss if he suddenly drops her. It will seem like he was using her and I think he's more conscious of her feelings than that. I also think that Korra has some personal growth to do before she'll let herself have a proper relationship. As JBK405 pointed out; Korra isn't really 'aware' of herself right now, all her life I doubt she's felt like much else than 'the avatar.' But now she's finding that people are wanting to be friends with her for who she is, and liking her for her personality and not just her abilities.

Also I foresee the war against the benders really coming in between any sort of relationship, like the way the Fire Nation war did with Aang and Katara.

**JBK405** · 05-07-2012, 06:41 PM

For me it's not that I want the relationship to culminate right when the show ends (I dislike that as much as you do), it's just that people don't move this fast (At least, not like this). Relationships, even when one participant has feelings for somebody else, take time to build. People have multiple dates, building up bonds over time as they integrate each other into their lives. Asami and Mako seem to become "an item" after one evening together.

I'd just want it to be paced a little slower, take one or two more episodes so that the characters (and us) can START a relationship and not just be IN a relationship.

I'm also hoping that, ultimately, Korra and Mako DON'T become a couple. Not because I'm shipping Korra/Bolin (Although I do love Bolin) but, in the same vein that "happy ever after" is a cheap cop-out and an over-done cliche, so is teen love. Sometimes a crush is just a crush, not destiny, and once you're in a relationship they tend to build their own momentum, and not all are founded on passion or that immediate 'spark' (Sometimes 'like' grows to 'love'). I'd love for the two of them to have this little flirting thing continue for a few episodes and then realize that, even if they did have that spark originally, it's transfered to Mako and Asami or Korra and whoever her love interest becomes. Maybe she won't even get a love interest a all, it could be that this is one of the first series where the protagonist is perfectly content to go through this coflict alone.

**Hugin** · 05-07-2012, 10:42 PM

How fast is it, though? We had 3 matches during the latest ep. That's probably over a week. They mentioned at the start she'd made it to several back-to-back practices, so that's another week. The ep before that had Korra missing several practices. That means Mako and Asami have probably been dating for nearly a month. Korra's likely known him and Bolin for ~2 months. They could be clearer with just how much time is passing, but I wouldn't say that's too fast. Not when I remember people meeting, dating, falling in lust with each other, and breaking up in less than a fortnight back when I was in high school.

**Cassandra** · 05-07-2012, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by JBK405

For me it's not that I want the relationship to culminate right when the show ends (I dislike that as much as you do), it's just that people don't move this fast (At least, not like this). Relationships, even when one participant has feelings for somebody else, take time to build. People have multiple dates, building up bonds over time as they integrate each other into their lives. Asami and Mako seem to become "an item" after one evening together.

My husband and I moved that fast. He was actually my room-mate, we kinda knew each-other and ended up moving-in together due to a random sequence of circumstances and after 2 weeks of being room-mates we became a couple. 6 years later and we're still happily married. Not every relationship is conventional, or so cut-and-dried. Yes it took time for us to build on our relationship to get the place we are now but we recognized our feelings for one another and acknowledged them very early on.

Also Avatar, the Last Airbender does have a habit of just having characters 'in a relationship.' At the start of season (two or three..? I can't remember) We see Zuko and Mai suddenly kissing, having been in a relationship that we didn't see anything of until right that second. They had many trials as a couple after that even though the creators of a show suddenly threw them together. (Also, I know they weren't 'suddenly' thrown together since there were hints of Mai liking Zuko before that, but we didn't see a date, or a confession or anything. Suddenly they were a couple.)

**JBK405** · 05-08-2012, 06:16 AM

Yes, but you took two weeks, the impression I got from this episode was that it's been three or four days. Thinking back, Hugin's probably correct that it has been longer, that there's been dating and time that we haven't seen, but that could have been better portrayed for the audience (Sometimes we miss these things).

**JBK405** · 05-12-2012, 07:48 AM

So.....better and @#$%ing better!

I think the old relationship between Tenzin and Lin isn't really a surprise, but I loved how they worked it in (Particularly building off Pema's explanation last episode). The Wolf Bats cheating was so perfectly obnoxious (Like I said, every cliche they can think up in all its glory) and the match itself was riveting ("Chump").

The invasion of the Equalists was pretty exceptional, they really cut out all the stops there. It was imposing, I began to get nervous myself (Although I think the announcer is my new favorite character. Man has the cajones of a bull to keep narrating while he wets himself), and that last fight....words fail (But the stadium did evacuate pretty fast).

This shit just got real.