List of Changes to Legend of Korra
Jun. 25th, 2012 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weirdletThis is a list of theoretical changes I would make to Legend of Korra, Season 1. It is by no means complete, and specific scene-rewrites are a long way off.
Two options- one, for Mako to be less of an ass. Two, for Mako to act as he does, but have him be called on it, eventually realize that he needs to shape up his attitude, and make adjustments. He’s got reasons for being an ass, but it does not constitute an emergency on anyone else’s part.
More emphasis on the friendship between all the members of Team Avatar- more of them doing stuff together, of them being an actual team outside of pro-bending, investigating the goings-on of Equalists and of occasionally fighting crime. I can see this ending up with Korra and friends getting celebrity reputations in the papers as hell-raising stars, and further genuine annoyance on the part of Lin when they brush with the law. Gives Mako the opportunity for tension over "This tournament is how my brother and I are supposed to survive! How can you endanger that?!" Also gives Sato the opportunity to show some foreshadowing of his big turnaround, talking to Asami about she can choose her own friends, but is running around with these hoodlums really behavior worthy of her or her mother?
Gives a chance to actually have a Team Avatar and show the main characters as friends with a bond worth fighting for, as well as showing how their position is affecting other parts of their lives.
More build-up to the finale, more interaction with young General Iroh to get a feel of what’s happening, him knowing what’s at stake and being a great tactitian and adult leader as well as a badass warrior. Take the awesome, but make it more all-around and believable, have him fulfill a role of competent adult that’s missing with Tenzin captured rather than just have him there for the hadoken quotient.
Also, the hell happened to the majority of the fleet? Have him sound a retreat at least, or show him pissed beyond telling at the destruction and the slaughter of his men.
Asami gets to be badass, a little moreso. She and Korra should bond, actually interact and have a friendship first, that is then strained by the fact that they both want Mako at first sight. Rather, they come to like each other fast and hard despite their both wanting the same thing, and that’s where the tension comes from. Real passion on everyone’s part.
Also, the thing with her dad- have a little more build-up, having Future Industries/Sato having a reputation for providing equal opportunity and a little bit of an ‘when everyone’s super, no one will be’ reservation about some of his inventions. Sato starts out so friendly and goes so batshit- either emphasize the reason for both the batshit and how out of his way he goes to hide it, show how hurt he is as a widower; or emphasize how he might have turned to the cause in its early days as a form of catharsis, believed it when it was believable, but now he’s in way over his head and Amon has dirt on him, perhaps even a threat to Asami.
Amon and Tarlock- need to think more on this. Certainly the reveal finally answered questions, but it also stole a little of Amon’s thunder and didn’t clarify how he got mixed up in or started the Equalist stuff. I still really like the idea of a Koh connection- have it be that Noatauk escaped his father’s influence, raging over both being controlled and being controlled by the weak, wanting to both find his place and punish the world for making him monstrous and confining him by the rules of unworthy people. So he makes his way to the spirit world, and maybe has a little conversation- and Koh has an opportunity to test this generation’s Avatar and punish them if they fail, setting a great upheaval into motion. I kind of think of Koh as someone who sneakily starts shit in order to both entertain himself, to push for change over stasis no matter who it hurts, and in order to show people their true faces. One of those nasty but ambiguous spirits, he serves a purpose.
Have this connection be subtle, alluded to, but something to be explored for later seasons.
At the end, when Korra’s bending cannot be restored, she grieves and gets depressed for a while, not just for herself, but because she cannot help anyone else who was psychically maimed by Amon. After a few months, some meditation, she goes on a spirit quest, going off onto the ice with Naga, a sled and a tent and the intention to keep going until she finds the cracks between the worlds and gets her answers.
On the spirit quest, she finally makes contact with Aang, who talks with her about what it means to be the Avatar, and how perception shapes things. Amon acted evilly and falsely, but the Equalists did have a point- Kyoshi created the Dai Li to protect the culture of Ba Sing Se, but the peasants probably had a damn good reason to revolt to the point where the kingdom was going to tear itself apart. And now, Korra has lost most of her bending abilities- but she is still the young woman who stood in the role of Avatar, who knows people from all over the world, who fought as hard as she could to protect everyone. Can she accept this, live with the scars of her experience but give up selfish attachment and hold to her rock-steady convictions, to hold on to her passionate love for her family and her world and continue to be their protector for as long as she is able to draw breath?
Korra finds that she can, and even if she can’t- she must. Because that is what it means to be the Avatar, and to be her.
And then Aang takes her back, sweeping through generations of the cycle until they meet an Avatar from some few thousand years back. She is Water-tribe, a peacemaker, an innovator- and a blood-bender. It is a tool that can be used for good or ill, she teaches to Korra, and a technique that has many uses to enhance both a warrior and a healer’s abilities. In her time, she used it to pacify warzones without bloodshed, forcing truce and treaties between people whom she simply would not allow to murder each other without talking. She also knows, from consulting with Aang, about the technique the Lion-Turtle had taught, and how Amon might have mimicked its effects with his advanced abilities to play with a body’s chi, through the same pathways of healing, bloodbending, and affecting the spirit via both.
And between the three of them, they manage to come up with a healing technique Korra can try to restore both her bending and that of Amon’s victims. It takes time to accomplish, especially for those whose bloodbending is not nearly as honed and refined (or naturally inclined to be bloodbending as was in Yakone’s line)- but it can be done.
And thus young, brash, badass warrior Korra becomes a spiritually-enlightened Avatar, as well as a healer who has truly earned her miracles and works hard for years to bring them to the rest of the world.
Things to Change in Legend of Korra-
Two options- one, for Mako to be less of an ass. Two, for Mako to act as he does, but have him be called on it, eventually realize that he needs to shape up his attitude, and make adjustments. He’s got reasons for being an ass, but it does not constitute an emergency on anyone else’s part.
More emphasis on the friendship between all the members of Team Avatar- more of them doing stuff together, of them being an actual team outside of pro-bending, investigating the goings-on of Equalists and of occasionally fighting crime. I can see this ending up with Korra and friends getting celebrity reputations in the papers as hell-raising stars, and further genuine annoyance on the part of Lin when they brush with the law. Gives Mako the opportunity for tension over "This tournament is how my brother and I are supposed to survive! How can you endanger that?!" Also gives Sato the opportunity to show some foreshadowing of his big turnaround, talking to Asami about she can choose her own friends, but is running around with these hoodlums really behavior worthy of her or her mother?
Gives a chance to actually have a Team Avatar and show the main characters as friends with a bond worth fighting for, as well as showing how their position is affecting other parts of their lives.
More build-up to the finale, more interaction with young General Iroh to get a feel of what’s happening, him knowing what’s at stake and being a great tactitian and adult leader as well as a badass warrior. Take the awesome, but make it more all-around and believable, have him fulfill a role of competent adult that’s missing with Tenzin captured rather than just have him there for the hadoken quotient.
Also, the hell happened to the majority of the fleet? Have him sound a retreat at least, or show him pissed beyond telling at the destruction and the slaughter of his men.
Asami gets to be badass, a little moreso. She and Korra should bond, actually interact and have a friendship first, that is then strained by the fact that they both want Mako at first sight. Rather, they come to like each other fast and hard despite their both wanting the same thing, and that’s where the tension comes from. Real passion on everyone’s part.
Also, the thing with her dad- have a little more build-up, having Future Industries/Sato having a reputation for providing equal opportunity and a little bit of an ‘when everyone’s super, no one will be’ reservation about some of his inventions. Sato starts out so friendly and goes so batshit- either emphasize the reason for both the batshit and how out of his way he goes to hide it, show how hurt he is as a widower; or emphasize how he might have turned to the cause in its early days as a form of catharsis, believed it when it was believable, but now he’s in way over his head and Amon has dirt on him, perhaps even a threat to Asami.
Amon and Tarlock- need to think more on this. Certainly the reveal finally answered questions, but it also stole a little of Amon’s thunder and didn’t clarify how he got mixed up in or started the Equalist stuff. I still really like the idea of a Koh connection- have it be that Noatauk escaped his father’s influence, raging over both being controlled and being controlled by the weak, wanting to both find his place and punish the world for making him monstrous and confining him by the rules of unworthy people. So he makes his way to the spirit world, and maybe has a little conversation- and Koh has an opportunity to test this generation’s Avatar and punish them if they fail, setting a great upheaval into motion. I kind of think of Koh as someone who sneakily starts shit in order to both entertain himself, to push for change over stasis no matter who it hurts, and in order to show people their true faces. One of those nasty but ambiguous spirits, he serves a purpose.
Have this connection be subtle, alluded to, but something to be explored for later seasons.
At the end, when Korra’s bending cannot be restored, she grieves and gets depressed for a while, not just for herself, but because she cannot help anyone else who was psychically maimed by Amon. After a few months, some meditation, she goes on a spirit quest, going off onto the ice with Naga, a sled and a tent and the intention to keep going until she finds the cracks between the worlds and gets her answers.
On the spirit quest, she finally makes contact with Aang, who talks with her about what it means to be the Avatar, and how perception shapes things. Amon acted evilly and falsely, but the Equalists did have a point- Kyoshi created the Dai Li to protect the culture of Ba Sing Se, but the peasants probably had a damn good reason to revolt to the point where the kingdom was going to tear itself apart. And now, Korra has lost most of her bending abilities- but she is still the young woman who stood in the role of Avatar, who knows people from all over the world, who fought as hard as she could to protect everyone. Can she accept this, live with the scars of her experience but give up selfish attachment and hold to her rock-steady convictions, to hold on to her passionate love for her family and her world and continue to be their protector for as long as she is able to draw breath?
Korra finds that she can, and even if she can’t- she must. Because that is what it means to be the Avatar, and to be her.
And then Aang takes her back, sweeping through generations of the cycle until they meet an Avatar from some few thousand years back. She is Water-tribe, a peacemaker, an innovator- and a blood-bender. It is a tool that can be used for good or ill, she teaches to Korra, and a technique that has many uses to enhance both a warrior and a healer’s abilities. In her time, she used it to pacify warzones without bloodshed, forcing truce and treaties between people whom she simply would not allow to murder each other without talking. She also knows, from consulting with Aang, about the technique the Lion-Turtle had taught, and how Amon might have mimicked its effects with his advanced abilities to play with a body’s chi, through the same pathways of healing, bloodbending, and affecting the spirit via both.
And between the three of them, they manage to come up with a healing technique Korra can try to restore both her bending and that of Amon’s victims. It takes time to accomplish, especially for those whose bloodbending is not nearly as honed and refined (or naturally inclined to be bloodbending as was in Yakone’s line)- but it can be done.
And thus young, brash, badass warrior Korra becomes a spiritually-enlightened Avatar, as well as a healer who has truly earned her miracles and works hard for years to bring them to the rest of the world.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 10:34 pm (UTC)I def thing Asame gets the short end of the stick. The tension with Mako and Korra plus her father being an ass really could have been explored better on a personal level for her.
The ending while great, leaves nothing to anticipate. I would have loved for it to have ended with her NOT getting her bending back (hello premise for next season?).
I also have a hard time with Amon. The reveal def took away some of what made him great. While I loved the story behind him, there needed to be more development. I just can't believe the transition from Noatauk to Among. Def needed more background there.
I want want more Boomy and General Iroh!!!
no subject
Date: 2012-06-25 10:37 pm (UTC)I really don't like that Asami had the potential to be such a badass and well-developed female character, and yet the way she was handled left me feeling that Tahno could easily have taken her place in the gang. That felt unworthy of her.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 02:52 am (UTC)First season, getting to Republic City, finding some of the problems there (crime, poverty, sleazy politicians), and dealing with some of Korra's initial challenges (culture shock for a country girl, finding out the police don't like vigilante heroics, finding that her friends have problems she can't wave a wand or bust a head and fix). Probending, press relations, moonlighting as Batman and finding out about the criminal underworld and what problems benders and nonbenders actually face in Republic city. Film Noir and Roaring 20's. Slowly have the Equalist movement move from posters and protestors to become something dangerous and radical. The Rally ups the ante, and the pro-bending championship/terrorist attack ends the season- Republic city is now at war.
Second season- Tarlock's rising fascism and Amon's apparent ability to get away with terrorist attacks lead to rising tensions in the city, with Korra caught in the middle having to try to keep the peace (and not by punching people). Learn more about the problems on all sides, origins of the Equalists before they became radicals/started calling themselves equalists, maybe a few older masters who try to teach the spiritual traditions of bending as well as the martial. More attempts to learn about Avatar state, contact Aang/gain visions, Meanwhile, things escalate and proceed as they do until the end of the Finale, when Korra loses her bending.
Season three- aftermath and dealing with the consequences, Korra finding out what she's truly made out of aside from bending talent, finding out what the world needs that she can give it, finding out what balance truly means and restoring it- with her friends alongside her and helping her gain perspective. Spirit journey, revelations and finding technique to restore bending optional.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:01 am (UTC)Barring that, don't fix Korra's 'bending in the last two minutes of the show. I seriously thought that was going to be one of the things they dealt with in season two, up until it got fixed. Though I did like how Aang appeared to her.
I wish there had been more Iroh. He was awesome, but he was also pretty much completely out of left field.
Also, someone else should have handled the romance plot. The way Mako behaved towards Asami made me ship Mako/FOREVER ALONE, and I was very disgruntled when he and Korra got all smoochy. Fuck him. You can do better, Korra.
Also, also, I am in total denial over Tarrlok and Amon's exit to the series even while I think it was utterly fantastic and perfect, given everything set up. But, on the other hand, a lot of what we're told in "Skeletons in the Closet" is just... "okay, could we have gotten some signs that Tarrlok did compassion before, uh, him telling us he did?"
Seriously, that is a thing that bugs the crap out of me. Just... some sign of bb!Tarrlok in the adult man so I am not quite so "okay then" about things.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:29 am (UTC)Meanwhile Noatauk is a powerful bender, and hates what he's been forced to become even as he excels and uses it to escape his father's clutches. He's determined to destroy his father's legacy, and the corruption that it seems to bring everywhere. I'm undecided if he's really being a complete hypocrite and just making a power-grab by appropriating a convenient movement, or if he's got a genuine 'destroy bending and none of us will become monsters' thing going on while using any tool he has to hand in order to bring it about.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:40 am (UTC)I tend to prefer the latter interpretation for Amon, in general.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:30 am (UTC)High five! >:D
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 05:10 pm (UTC)So fucking true. Ugh. Mako is a terrible boyfriend and I really hate how the show never calls him on this and just portrays him as a ~Super Special Snowflake~ who's apparently just that awesome. No. I don't think he's a bad character, but I still don't understand why Mako/Korra was the official ship. Like, she seemed put off by his grumpiness, he apologized, she mostly ignored him and then three episodes later he's her One Tru Luv? WTF?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 01:10 am (UTC)Pacing was probably the biggest issue. Honestly, I didn't mind it at first... but now that I look back, there really wasn't much in the way of plot; it kind of lingered in the background while the non-essential (though still enjoyable) fluff took center stage.
Amon as Tarlok's brother... didn't see that one coming, though I suspected Amon was somehow connected to Yakone. It might have been nice to get some kind of explanation as to how his power to take away bending worked; the previous series did a great job describing the origins of the 4 bending abilities, and there were a few fan theories out there. Hm, maybe they'll get into this in the next season?
I wasn't sure whether or not Amon really would take away Korra's bending... but given the resolution to THAT dilemma, I'd rather he didn't. If it was really that important for Korra to lose her bending, she shouldn't get it back so easily.
I've been DYING to see two things happen in this series: Korra interacting with Aang (ala Aang and Roku from the first series), and Korra going into the Avatar State. We finally get to see both, and... it's pleasing to the eye, but brief and lacking in any real substance.
I admit, I like romance, and I always prefer to go with canon romances... but Mako x Korra really wasn't set up well. I almost thought she might get with Bolin, since they had a pretty down-to-earth chemistry and Mako was more focused on his relationship with Asami. Still, I'm not surprised they ended up together... it just would have been nice to see THAT relationship blossom, like we saw with Aang x Katara, or Sokka x Suki.
One last thing - I watched one review of the finale, and that reviewer's biggest complaint was that the show pretty much dropped its theme of benders vs non-benders, whether the latter really IS treated as equally. Going back to Korra losing her bending, it would have been nice to see her bond with Asami, or Lin (post-Equalization) in that context. Being the Avatar means maintaining balance - which includes benders AND non-benders - so it would have been interesting to see this girl, who has been able to bend water, earth, and fire since childhood, build connections with those who have either never had a bending ability, or had one taken away. You know, a "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" sort of thing.
Okay, I'm done! ^^;
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 02:51 am (UTC)For me personally, I think one of the biggest thing I would have changed would be to take the shipping out entirely. First, it's difficult to really cheer for relationships when we barely know the characters as people first. Second, the shipping took up a lot of time that could be better allocated to expanded upon the themes of the show or, as mentioned, getting to know our main characters better. Third, fandom hardly needs canon in order to ship. ;)
I would definitely like to have seen more about the Equalists and their position too, so long as we're expanding on themes. The first few episodes really did present the Republic City benders as corrupt (no non-benders on the council, bending triads, crooked pro-bending matches, the fact that Amon's fake backstory was Mako, Bolin and Asami's literal backstory) but the show stuck to presenting the Equalists as complete villains and Korra never understood their position.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 02:56 am (UTC)Agreed on the shipping.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 03:47 am (UTC)She was never presented as learning anything, really. Thinking about it, the whole thing is very strange. What is the point of a protagonist if not to let the audience explore the world through her eyes? How much would the show have changed if Korra weren't there at all, and we instead viewed the events through the Bending Brothers and Tenzin?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 05:03 pm (UTC)My headcanon is that Tarrlok was lying and switched himself and Noatak in the story-- that Noatak was the younger brother who hated bloodbending and who left because he couldn't deal with it. That he stopped using his own bending because it brought back so many bad memories, and that plus seeing non-benders oppressed on his travels eventually developed into the belief that all bending was monstrous and harmful. That in his travels he learned about chi-blocking and chakras and started taking advantage of those techniques rather than use his own bending. Also, I'd probably have him ACTUALLY get burned by a bully firebender, cementing his hatred of bending further. Because that chain of events makes WAY more sense as far as Amon starting the Equalists.
(Also, I imagine that he probably spent some time in Ba Sing Se-- maybe the University?-- studying the city, its government, and possibly taking lessons in anthropology/sociology, because he is incredibly savvy on how people react and he had to learn that somewhere.)
So then Tarrlok is the cold older brother who maybe doesn't like Yakone's treatment or bloodbending but feels he has a duty to reclaim what the Avatar stole from his father. He makes himself a false identity and goes to Rupublic City and starts playing politics, manipulating people, blackmailing officials and possibly making deals with the less savory types to eventually land himself a seat on the council. I can see Tarrlok having a bit of a Magneto complex and considering benders superior to non-benders and holding a deep contempt for them, but Aang and then Tenzin kept him from really enacting any laws or oppression against them until Amon showed up.
But yeah, overall the story just needed much better pacing and a lot less romance. Also character development, especially for Asami and Bolin, who got shunted off to the side.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 06:40 pm (UTC)Just my two cents on how I would have changed what was presented.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-26 07:53 pm (UTC)Seriously, I'm really hoping fic authors get on this and write a better AU universe where these things make sense, because the poor writing in that finale sapped my enthusiasm for the whole show so badly. D: