"Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra"

[Crimz]

I have always thought that Korra is not a good water bender, considering it is her "default" bending. Like with Aang he had some serious skills with air bending, but with Korra she seems kind of average at it, but that's just me. Hopefully, I see more this season.

[90'sCartoonMan]

Finally caught up, and I think season three is back on track! Although I liked season two at the time, looking back on it, it didn't feel as momentous as season one. The cast was too disjointed and the battling Waterbender brothers was kind of a rehash from season one and didn't really hit home the fact that this is Korra's family. My favorite episodes may've even been about the first Avatar. Although the last few episodes were good.

And a good lead in to this season! Where I feel A:TLA always had LOK beat was in the simple goal of Aang learning the other three elements and stopping the Fire Nation. Korra had to "maintain balance", which isn't as active a goal. Now, however, we have her kicked out of Republic City and on a diplomatic mission to restore the Air Nomads plus these new villains.

The villains look cool, but man, is this cast bloated. We'll unfortunately be seeing less of Lin (as well as Pema, Kya, Meelo, and Ikki) to make room. I like Mako and Bolin's extended family, not so sure about Kai, but man on MAN is it going to be great to see Zuko again! Do we have confirmation he and Mai got together? Even more characters I want to know about. You know what proves there are too many characters? All the animal sidekicks! Naga, Pabu, Pokey, and that spirit friend of Bumi's...it's insane!

So far I count 3 plots. The search for the new airbenders, the earth queen's coming aggression against Rebublic territory with her airbending army, and the 4 bending criminals, which by nature of each being a different kind of bender do seem to be the anti-Gaang.

I feel like they never really capitalized on the idea of the Triple Thread Triad from season one. But now with these new bending criminals with different takes on bending, they are a Quadruple Threat! And people said an evil Airbender couldn't be done.

And all those years after Aang, it appears Bae Sing Sae is still a terrible, terrible place.

Ba Sing Se has a wall around it to protect evil from the outside, but it also keeps evil on the inside. The Earth King was kind of a joke, it's no surprise his daughter the Earth Queen is a very Queen of Hearts kind of ruler. The Airbender regimen of her army sounds frightening, I wonder how they keep them in line (brainwashing? Kai may go the Jet route after all). It's interesting that the Earth Queen thinks she has a claim to Republic City, I wonder what her relationship is like with the Earth Kingdom representative who was on the council (will we even see that person again? Can't remember if it was a man or a woman).

I have always thought that Korra is not a good water bender, considering it is her "default" bending. Like with Aang he had some serious skills with air bending, but with Korra she seems kind of average at it, but that's just me. Hopefully, I see more this season.

I was just thinking the same thing, especially now that Korra has gotten so good with airbending (even having her own glider), she's been using that a lot more. In season one, outside of Pro Bending, I think she used firebending the most as her offensive tactic, only supplementing it with earthbending. She doesn't carry around a water supply like Katara did (and really, why would she need to?), so that means she only waterbends when there's a body of water nearby. I'd like to see more of it, though, and not as much airbending just because that was Aang's thing.

[Basara]

I have always thought that Korra is not a good water bender, considering it is her "default" bending. Like with Aang he had some serious skills with air bending, but with Korra she seems kind of average at it, but that's just me. Hopefully, I see more this season.

Well, part of this is because of Korra's personality. She thinks and acts like an earth bender most of the time, which is why she had so much trouble learning air bending as this is the bending techinique that is most opposite to her.

We have seen some good water techniques from Korra though. She caught the gang man's water attack and flash froze his face in episode one, she was the water bending member of the Fire Ferrets, which had her win a match by herself and beat Tahno in a straight up water face off, and she learned Unaloq's spirit taming techinique fairly quickly. Also, she held off Desna and Eska fairly well when Unaloq sent them to retreive her and would have kicked their butts if that spirit monster hadn't chosen that moment to attack her. While all this may seem trivial when compared to the water master, Katara, it's still pretty good. It's just that Korra does tend to favor the other bending techniques more than water.

Also remember, Aang wasn't all that impressive with fire bending either. Each Avatar has their own bending preferences.

[sunofdarkchild]

By the end of ATLA Aang had only been learning firebending for a few episodes. His teacher was going away on field trips with Sokka and Katara as well, so he wasn't even using his time as effectively as he should have. In contrast Korra had years of training in waterbending and by now has a lot more training in airbending than Aang had in anything other than airbending at that point.

[Crimz]

On team Avatar there is already a decent fire bender and earth bender, I understand her personality matches these elements more than air and water, but It takes away from Bolin and Mako as well as neglects water bending to me. She should use it more often and it would be good seeing her use water in different way to Katara, more aggressive and different moves. It just feels like team Avatar is missing their water bender (Tenzen and his kids fill the air bender on the team role so far).

[The Red Monk]

On team Avatar there is already a decent fire bender and earth bender, I understand her personality matches these elements more than air and water, but It takes away from Bolin and Mako as well as neglects water bending to me. She should use it more often and it would be good seeing her use water in different way to Katara, more aggressive and different moves. It just feels like team Avatar is missing their water bender (Tenzen and his kids fill the air bender on the team role so far).

The thing is, Mako and Bolin don't really stand out anyway. Mako is a passable fire-bender at best and not much else*, and while Bolin has been gaining some serious earth-bending skills as of recently, neither of them really do those things better than Korra does. At least Asami has the "badass normal" niche to make herself at home with. It would be better if Mako was some kind of prodigy with lightning (generating/redirecting/using it in new ways) and Bolin was even more awesome at earth-bending than Korra, so that they don't seem so completely useless to the Team.

*(well they did try to make him the Smart Guy of the team in Season 2 with the whole Varrick mystery thing, but we know how fandom reacted to that)

[Punisher007]

Mako and Bolin have no reason to be Grade-A benders, at least in this context. They were athletes who used their bending to compete in sports (or to work in a factory in Mako's case). Ther had no real experience with Bending in a true combat scenario. Neither did Korra for that matter, she was sheltered in the South Pole for her entire life and mostly just had sparring matches with people. That's why initially, even two nameless faceless Equalist footsoldiers were able to outfight both Korra and Mako rather easily. It's true that they've been hanging around with the Avatar and that Mako is a cop now, but that's only been going on for a few months.

[JaggedFel]

True Enough we got spoiled in Last Airbender, it was during a time of war and we saw one genius after another among are younger characters.

[The Red Monk]

Mako and Bolin have no reason to be Grade-A benders, at least in this context. They were athletes who used their bending to compete in sports (or to work in a factory in Mako's case). Ther had no real experience with Bending in a true combat scenario. Neither did Korra for that matter, she was sheltered in the South Pole for her entire life and mostly just had sparring matches with people. That's why initially, even two nameless faceless Equalist footsoldiers were able to outfight both Korra and Mako rather easily. It's true that they've been hanging around with the Avatar and that Mako is a cop now, but that's only been going on for a few months.

This would be a good point, except Korra only struggled with that one Equalist mook, and then proceeded to wipe the floor with every subsequent one from there onwards, including the freakin' Lieutenant (as did Asami). Mako and Bolin, on the other hand, continued to have major troubles with ordinary mooks even from then forward that neither Korra nor Asami did. And while pro-bending may not be "real" combat, neither of them need to be so damn incompetent to the extent they were commonly portrayed as. Pro-bending may be a sport, but it is a fighting-oriented sport, which means that Mako and Bolin should be good fighters, at the least. Professional boxing and karate/muay-thai/jujutsu may not be "real" combat but having witnessed the guys doing those things in action, I can guarantee you that they aren't passable amateurs by a long shot.

Anyway, my main point is that Mako and Bolin are so inconsequential as benders right now, that they don't really add anything to current Team Avatar that nobody else can do. Contrast with the original Team Avatar, where Toph is an earth-bending pro, Katara is a water-bending one, Zuko has got the fire-bending covered for the most part, Sokka is the idea guy, and Suki is the badass normal of the team, and fan-fighting extraordinaire. They don't have a niche of their own, unlike the other characters.

[Punisher007]

It's a "fighting-oriented" sport with a ring and very hard and fast rules. So no, it's not even remotely the same as a real combat situation where the only rule is win or die. It does not prepare you to fight a real enemy anymore than playing paintball would prepare you for combat in Afghanistan. Boxing and Muay-thai are pretty much useless if your opponent is going to be stupid enough to oblige you by "fighting fairly." You're fancy fighting techniques will mean exactly jack squat if your enemy shoots you from a distance, or blows you up with a bomb, or uses a tank against you. And Korra is the Avatar, she has certain advantages that they do not possess. She may have been inexperienced in actual combat, but she had proper training by the White Lotus. And quite frankly, it's refreshing that we finally have characters who aren't super-prodigies. Aang just happened to run into Katara, you just so happened to turn out to be the world's greatest Waterbender. He ran into Toph, you just so happened to be the world's greatest Earthbender, and so on. How incredibly convenient for him. Not every character needs to be some kind of prodigy. Having "everyman" characters is actually refreshing, especially since Korra, Asami, and even Jinora do seem to be prodigies.

[JaggedFel]

Not sure Korra is so much a Prodigy, nor Asami. They simply got the best training available because one was the avatar and the other one was super rich. I suppose the same case could be made for Azula and Zuko but Azula as a little girl already came born with unique blue flame and was shown to be pretty beast as a child. Beyond that yeah Aang ran into 2 more prodigies to make his team and an actual genius by utter chance.

[Enigmatic Undead]

Combustion Woman is pretty awesome just like the original.

Nice to see Lin show up (even though she was mean to Naga) and it was good to meet her family. This season is doing a great job with adding to the cast.

I wasn't expecting Varrick to show up out of nowhere.

He sounds too young

That's probably the first time anyone has said that about Henry Rollins' gravely punk rock voice ever.

[JaggedFel]

Ugh why is Zuko so weak? I mean Seriously the Original Order of the White Lotus was old but they still kicked but and yet Zuko gets owned 1 on 1 with a terrorist.
Also not exactly a good showing for anyone against the terrorist leader, I dont care how much of a genius he is but he should not be dominating so easily with a week of actual airbending use.

[Hazard]

Ugh why is Zuko so weak? I mean Seriously the Original Order of the White Lotus was old but they still kicked but and yet Zuko gets owned 1 on 1 with a terrorist.

To be fair, it was the north/south pole at night. Not exactly the best fire-bending conditions.

He did job, but it makes a degree of sense.

Also not exactly a good showing for anyone against the terrorist leader, I dont care how much of a genius he is but he should not be dominating so easily with a week of actual airbending use.

The implication in his case seems to be he was really, really into air bending culture before actually getting the powers. I see it as getting the one power you have been getting ready for all your life.

[The Red Monk]

It's a "fighting-oriented" sport with a ring and very hard and fast rules. So no, it's not even remotely the same as a real combat situation where the only rule is win or die. It does not prepare you to fight a real enemy anymore than playing paintball would prepare you for combat in Afghanistan. Boxing and Muay-thai are pretty much useless if your opponent is going to be stupid enough to oblige you by "fighting fairly." You're fancy fighting techniques will mean exactly jack squat if your enemy shoots you from a distance, or blows you up with a bomb, or uses a tank against you. And Korra is the Avatar, she has certain advantages that they do not possess. She may have been inexperienced in actual combat, but she had proper training by the White Lotus. And quite frankly, it's refreshing that we finally have characters who aren't super-prodigies. Aang just happened to run into Katara, you just so happened to turn out to be the world's greatest Waterbender. He ran into Toph, you just so happened to be the world's greatest Earthbender, and so on. How incredibly convenient for him. Not every character needs to be some kind of prodigy. Having "everyman" characters is actually refreshing, especially since Korra, Asami, and even Jinora do seem to be prodigies.

1) Except actual militaries and police have used paintball to train their soldiers/officers for combat, so clearly it has some degree of utility. And have you ever actually been in a fight with a boxer/martial arts expert? Believe me, having a knife or a gun isn't going to be nearly half as effective as one thinks in such a situation. Fighting discipline developed as a result of repeated training, even in a controlled environment, tends to develop one's senses/spacial awareness/intuition so as to be useful in actually dangerous situations. And while it's difficult to know how much this applies in the Avatar universe seeing as it's not real and we can't do much more beyond take in what's on-screen, it seems much more applicable to fighting that either paintball or boxing do, since bending seems to be the number #1 weapon of choice all around. Plus, Mako and Bolin grew up on the streets - it's a rough existence. And you'd definitely pick up some dirty fighting tricks out there. Either way, they seemed to job a hell of a lot more than seems reasonable.

2) When has Asami been shown to be a prodigy? She's good in a hand-to-hand fight, and handy with technology (oh, and filthy rich, too). Not like Korra, who's the ridiculously talented Avatar, or Jinora who's the ridiculously spiritual airbender. She can be just as easily described as an everywoman, not particularly special, except for being wealthy. Being everymen characters doesn't really nullify my original point, that Mako and Bolin seem to be utterly redundant to Team Avatar, without a niche of their own.

Ugh why is Zuko so weak? I mean Seriously the Original Order of the White Lotus was old but they still kicked but and yet Zuko gets owned 1 on 1 with a terrorist.
Also not exactly a good showing for anyone against the terrorist leader, I dont care how much of a genius he is but he should not be dominating so easily with a week of actual airbending use.

1) Yes, Zuko was ridiculously jobbed in that fight. Tonraq and Kya had a better showing against the leader guy than Zuko had against the earth-bender guy. Seriously, I get that it's supposed to be a running gag that Zuko sucks at everything (even in the original series, literally the only awesome thing he ever did was shooting Ozai's lightning back at him. Oh, and I suppose rescuing Aang from prison counts too), but he's like 90 years old now. Did they really need to keep that up? Why not have him be the last one standing, doing badass fire-bending moves, and then finally get taken down after all the others have been defeated, and the Anti-Team Avatar gangs up on him? And his dragon got KO'd in like one move.

2) Yeah, he seems like the Older Male Airbending version of Azula (who also tended to dominate her opposition to a ridiculous extent). Hell, I actually found it funny that his girlfriend looked a bit like an older version of Azula.