Originally posted by NotAllThatEvil
Do you think thry made mako controversial on purpose?
No because if he was supposed to be seen as a morally grey character like, say, Greg House, then they would not see the need to "defend" him on the commentary tracks.
Originally posted by Nephthys
No. They tried to make Zuko 'without the angst' and were surprised when everyone hated him. They send a good part of the commentary defending him.
Honestly if the show did more with Mako's justifiably angsty past he would come off as better.
Originally posted by NotAllThatEvil
Do you think thry made mako controversial on purpose?
He started out pretty cool, I mean, if he didn't have a little brother to take care of he would've become Batman.
I feel like the love-square was only put into the story to cater to the young female audience.
I really hope they improve on Mako's character in the next season. I seriously want a scene where he's on his knees begging for Asami's forgiveness because iirc that part of their relationship never actually got resolved.
The creators stated they are saps for cutesy teen romance. They pulled it off well in TLA but in 12 episodes it was just a mess. But no, they did it for themselves not to shell out for ratings.
But I agree there needs to be like an episode of Mako apologizing to the most selfless character in the series. Unfortunately when numerous fans asked on several writers' tumblr pages they have stated that the half assed apology in the finale was all we're going to get.
Plus, it's not like he was dating her, kissed a girl who was supposed to be her friend, then just decided she didn't deserve to know. And when he was confronted about it, well he wasn't all that sorry.
Bolin is a better fit for Asami anyway, as he'd treat her right. And girls love a guy who can make them laugh.
The Problems with Legend of Korra
Okay, I was messaging a friend over Tumblr and the topic of Legend of Korra came up. I was invited to rant, and rant I did.
I am now embarrassingly proud of this rant, and I want to share it with the world. Not gonna tag it though, I’m not a hater.
Under a Cut because LONG
Legend of Korra was utterly destroyed by 2 things; the ****ing despicable Love Triangle and their utter ruination of the villain as a legitimate philosophical viewpoint.
The first is especially easy to break down; the love shape is built on cliche and circles around a character that could never have supported the swing point position. Mako is a boring character, plain and simple. He’s a respectable guy with a sad past, but that’s it. He has no depth and every action he takes because of his position as swing point only makes him more awful. He goes after Asami out of initial friendly affection and a desperate need for money (and she’s a MUCH more balanced character than he is) while Korra chases after Mako in the most bone-head of bone-head moves. Bolin was just a nice guy who loved Korra, and he got hurt and then BACKED OFF (god he’s such a nice guy, like actually nice aaaauug) and Mako never even properly broke up with Asami onscreen before the final climatic Makorra kiss. Everything about that plotline is awful awkward conflict and it tortures two characters I actually like, Bolin and Asami, for no really good reason. Borra and Masami were fine ships, but they burned because he writers couldn’t get their heads around the fact Makorra was now AWFUL FOR EVERYONE, no matter the original plan or intent.
The villain, however… that’s trickier. His design? Great! His methods? Terrifying! His backstory? Fine. Some people have problems with it, but I think it works. The thing that ruins Amon, destroys him as a credible threat, is one scene in particular. One moment even. The moment he reveals he has no morals and is just using a political platform as a base for an epic scale Power Grab. Except, you know, THE ENTIRE ****ING SHOW UP TO THAT POINT WAS BASICALLY PROVING HIM (and by extension the Equalists) RIGHT. There was a big problem with power abuse! Government was run by benders exclusively and the shit pulled by one Government official in particular could fuel the Equalist Campaign for DECADES to come! And that’s not even bringing the Bender fueled Gang Violence and Corruption and the idolization of a sport that by its very nature is Benders only into it!
There was plenty there! The Equalists were a huge group of angry people and they were angry for good reason! Now all you need to do is carry that over to Amon. Give him ideals! Make him COMPLICATED! Even making using his powers a last resort would have been good! You could still have the same epic duel at the end, just make Amon and actual opposing viewpoint instead of tossing him into the ‘Bad Guy’ Bucket so you can punch him easier!
It’s like they had this great set up where the clearly nutso terrorist group actually had pretty damn solid ground to stand on and realized half way through the finale they couldn’t handle it so they pulled out! Totally killed the legitimacy of everything we’d seen from the Equalists by going ‘Amon actually doesn’t give a damn cause he’s EEEEVIL so it’s cool to take him out with force’ EXCEPT NO! IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY! You can’t TAKE BACK everything you’d been building up to that point by making Amon evil! You’re just trivializing your antagonist and DESTROYING a chance for Korra to confront someone with a POINT! Hell you could still have Korra beat the crap out of him, literally EVERYTHING ELSE about the finale was at least okay. It would have left a bad taste in my mouth and I would have been disappointed but I could have said ‘At least Amon was great’ but I CAN’T BECAUSE HE NEEDED TO BE EVIL INSTEAD OF AN ANTAGONIST.
If Amon had been backed into a corner, if he’d held off before blood-bending them, if he’d honestly believed Bending was poisoning the world and it was his great mission to remove it, THAT. WOULD. HAVE. BEEN. AMAZING. He’s wrong! We know he’s wrong! He’s taking characters and ripping away a huge part of their spirits because of a personal crusade he doesn’t NEED to be evil! Korra could have beaten the crap out of him just fine and we’d root for her! He was ABOUT TO REMOVE AIRBENDING FROM THE WORLD BY SPIRITUALLY RAPING KIDS ON STAGE AT A RALLY WHAT MORE DO YOU *WANT*?!?! But no, evil power-grabber he must be because we don’t want the opposing side to have an actual POINT do we?! That’d be too much for the teens watching this to handle, lets devote some time to the goddamn pissing in my mouth Love Octagon!
Not to mention it kills any chance for solid character development on Korra’s end! Have Korra confront the Equalists with words! Have her admit to the wrongs they’ve endured! Show her learning, show her growing, show her ACTING LIKE AN AVATAR! That’s what we needed! Not conformation it was all okay because Amon was actually a dick the whole time! Arrrrrrgggggg it’s all so damn easy to fix and I cAN’T BECAUSE IT ALREADY CAME OUT AND IT EXISTS.
AND THE WORST PART?! THE GODDAMN WORST PART OF THIS WHOLE THING?!!? THE SCENE THAT RUINS AMON IS ABOUT 5 MINUTES LONG! FIVE! ****ING! *MINUTES*! CHANGE THOSE FIVE MINUTES AND LITERALLY *EVERYTHING ELSE* with Amon in it is great! The final scene he’s in is one of the gutsiest ends to a villain I’ve ever seen and it would have been SO MUCH BETTER IF AMON WAS MORE THAN JUST VAGUELY SYMPATHETIC EVILLLLL AAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhh I need to eat something crunchy
-back with dry honey nut cheerios- -munches-
So! Final notes. The love Triangle was bad. Very bad. But it wasn’t the worst thing. The worst thing was the Final confrontation with Amon. That killed Legend of Korra for me.
Lookit all dis truf.
Originally posted by KingD19
He is. There's nothing wrong with having similar archetypes in both shows, but trying to make an exact duplicate of Zuko and taking away everything that made him cool was a dumb move.
Originally posted by Nephthysso i take it you wont be watching season 2?
The Problems with Legend of KorraOkay, I was messaging a friend over Tumblr and the topic of Legend of Korra came up. I was invited to rant, and rant I did.
I am now embarrassingly proud of this rant, and I want to share it with the world. Not gonna tag it though, I’m not a hater.
Under a Cut because LONG
Legend of Korra was utterly destroyed by 2 things; the ****ing despicable Love Triangle and their utter ruination of the villain as a legitimate philosophical viewpoint.
The first is especially easy to break down; the love shape is built on cliche and circles around a character that could never have supported the swing point position. Mako is a boring character, plain and simple. He’s a respectable guy with a sad past, but that’s it. He has no depth and every action he takes because of his position as swing point only makes him more awful. He goes after Asami out of initial friendly affection and a desperate need for money (and she’s a MUCH more balanced character than he is) while Korra chases after Mako in the most bone-head of bone-head moves. Bolin was just a nice guy who loved Korra, and he got hurt and then BACKED OFF (god he’s such a nice guy, like actually nice aaaauug) and Mako never even properly broke up with Asami onscreen before the final climatic Makorra kiss. Everything about that plotline is awful awkward conflict and it tortures two characters I actually like, Bolin and Asami, for no really good reason. Borra and Masami were fine ships, but they burned because he writers couldn’t get their heads around the fact Makorra was now AWFUL FOR EVERYONE, no matter the original plan or intent.
The villain, however… that’s trickier. His design? Great! His methods? Terrifying! His backstory? Fine. Some people have problems with it, but I think it works. The thing that ruins Amon, destroys him as a credible threat, is one scene in particular. One moment even. The moment he reveals he has no morals and is just using a political platform as a base for an epic scale Power Grab. Except, you know, THE ENTIRE ****ING SHOW UP TO THAT POINT WAS BASICALLY PROVING HIM (and by extension the Equalists) RIGHT. There was a big problem with power abuse! Government was run by benders exclusively and the shit pulled by one Government official in particular could fuel the Equalist Campaign for DECADES to come! And that’s not even bringing the Bender fueled Gang Violence and Corruption and the idolization of a sport that by its very nature is Benders only into it!
There was plenty there! The Equalists were a huge group of angry people and they were angry for good reason! Now all you need to do is carry that over to Amon. Give him ideals! Make him COMPLICATED! Even making using his powers a last resort would have been good! You could still have the same epic duel at the end, just make Amon and actual opposing viewpoint instead of tossing him into the ‘Bad Guy’ Bucket so you can punch him easier!
It’s like they had this great set up where the clearly nutso terrorist group actually had pretty damn solid ground to stand on and realized half way through the finale they couldn’t handle it so they pulled out! Totally killed the legitimacy of everything we’d seen from the Equalists by going ‘Amon actually doesn’t give a damn cause he’s EEEEVIL so it’s cool to take him out with force’ EXCEPT NO! IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY! You can’t TAKE BACK everything you’d been building up to that point by making Amon evil! You’re just trivializing your antagonist and DESTROYING a chance for Korra to confront someone with a POINT! Hell you could still have Korra beat the crap out of him, literally EVERYTHING ELSE about the finale was at least okay. It would have left a bad taste in my mouth and I would have been disappointed but I could have said ‘At least Amon was great’ but I CAN’T BECAUSE HE NEEDED TO BE EVIL INSTEAD OF AN ANTAGONIST.
If Amon had been backed into a corner, if he’d held off before blood-bending them, if he’d honestly believed Bending was poisoning the world and it was his great mission to remove it, THAT. WOULD. HAVE. BEEN. AMAZING. He’s wrong! We know he’s wrong! He’s taking characters and ripping away a huge part of their spirits because of a personal crusade he doesn’t NEED to be evil! Korra could have beaten the crap out of him just fine and we’d root for her! He was ABOUT TO REMOVE AIRBENDING FROM THE WORLD BY SPIRITUALLY RAPING KIDS ON STAGE AT A RALLY WHAT MORE DO YOU *WANT*?!?! But no, evil power-grabber he must be because we don’t want the opposing side to have an actual POINT do we?! That’d be too much for the teens watching this to handle, lets devote some time to the goddamn pissing in my mouth Love Octagon!
Not to mention it kills any chance for solid character development on Korra’s end! Have Korra confront the Equalists with words! Have her admit to the wrongs they’ve endured! Show her learning, show her growing, show her ACTING LIKE AN AVATAR! That’s what we needed! Not conformation it was all okay because Amon was actually a dick the whole time! Arrrrrrgggggg it’s all so damn easy to fix and I cAN’T BECAUSE IT ALREADY CAME OUT AND IT EXISTS.
AND THE WORST PART?! THE GODDAMN WORST PART OF THIS WHOLE THING?!!? THE SCENE THAT RUINS AMON IS ABOUT 5 MINUTES LONG! FIVE! ****ING! *MINUTES*! CHANGE THOSE FIVE MINUTES AND LITERALLY *EVERYTHING ELSE* with Amon in it is great! The final scene he’s in is one of the gutsiest ends to a villain I’ve ever seen and it would have been SO MUCH BETTER IF AMON WAS MORE THAN JUST VAGUELY SYMPATHETIC EVILLLLL AAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhh I need to eat something crunchy
-back with dry honey nut cheerios- -munches-
So! Final notes. The love Triangle was bad. Very bad. But it wasn’t the worst thing. The worst thing was the Final confrontation with Amon. That killed Legend of Korra for me.
Lookit all dis truf.