The Legend of Korra: Bad Writing Lightning Round
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- I couldn’t fit all of my thoughts into my main Legend of Korra video, so I created this footnote for all of the stuff I had to cut that I still wanted to talk about.
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Small note: lots of people in the comments are pointing out that lavabending makes sense in the same way that waterbenders bending ice makes sense. My counter argument: I didn’t realize lava was just molten rock and they’re right, lavabending does make sense.
With that said, it still feels like spiritually you’re getting very close to earthbenders being able to firebend, but regardless I’m still wrong, sorry about that.
I'm not sure if the icebending is a good argument here. First, LoK explicitly makes a point that Bolin is a lavabender because he's from half-Fire-Nation family and second, ice bending is common because most waterbenders literally live in ice. Icebending is more akin to sandbending than to lavabending.
@@pierwiastekz2935 where does LOK state that you need to part of a partia firebending heritage? Sun and Ghazan were also lavabenders and no such distinction was made. Sun in particular I’m almost 99% sure came from a pure earthbending family since his character story took place before the unification
I always associated Bending styles having overlap as the Natural progression of Bending Combat. You make discoveries by being inspired by other styles through observation and study then see how you can use your known styles to form a viable substitute or solution.
Maybe Earth Benders were afraid of the Rise of Metal Benders becoming a dominant force, they researched known styles to counter Metal Bending and stumbled upon a solution by observing Fire, Combustion and Lightning techniques having better effect against Metal Armor. So they discovered Lava Bending by breaking down the properties of Fire Bending and applying it to Earth Bending.
Like how Iroh used Water Bending Properties to create a Defense against Lightning by noticing Water Bending controls energy (chi) flow which is the same energy source Fire Benders use to generate lightning.
Nope! Stand strong, dude. Lava Bending does not make sense. The man set the rock on fire. How did he generate enough heat to set the rock on fire. How did he generate heat at all?
And we can't say pressure. When Aang compressed rocks, all that pressure just made smaller rocks. I think Lava Bending would just like Mud Bending.
Just like how both Water and Earth benders can bend mud, both Fire and Earth Benders can bend lava if it came down to it.
But! You could leave an Earth Bender and a Water Bender alone in a room with just their respective element, and they won't be able to make mud. Cause that's stupid. They can compress the rock or harden the water as much as they like, but they won't end up with mud.
This guy made lava by straight magic. Not bending. And that was a stupid choice that made literally no sense.
@@Butterism this is just me speculating with no shred of research in the subject, just observation but maybe it has to do with friction?
In the opening scene where we first witnessed LavaBending Ghazan got some Earth and rotated it until it went Molten.
Maybe instead of Pressure, that can be a way to ignite the rocks?
The first time I watched Korra, I actually thought Bolin having lavabanding made surprising amount of sense for this show. He's the son of an Earthbender and a Firebender. That's a mix that would result in lavabending, heck, Roku and Kiyoshi did that in the original show, presumably because they had the ability to bend both those elements. So I didn't mind some unique skills like that developing in the world where the four nations (well, three) mingled together much more after the war, which forced so many people to move their entire lives far from their homes etc.
But of course, if Korra had actually thought those ideas through, the show wouldn't have been so atrocious overall. It would've been so easy, too, to show Bolin, who grew up in a city jungle, with little actual earth to bend around, to be very observant about any and all actual exposed ground around him - especially if he was shown throughout the show, and not just season three, to be completely inept at metalbending, the more accessible material for him. That kind of a character could then be shown realizing that what is rushing at him and his friends is, in fact, boiling hot earth, and saving the day through what's unique about him, much like when Toph invented metalbending. And again, mentioning his parents would've solidified it as a possible, but very conditional new skill.
the original avatar series took really long time in writing before they get in to production. legend of korra's season realese term only took 1 year or even less than that. and it really show how much good writing matters and that it takes time to make it good.
Maybe this whiny guy should learn that and not accuse the working class writers of being lazy.
@@bgvo4373 He never said they're lazy, and understands that end of day they're humans and not everything will workout 100 percent of the times.
But even he can't excuse things that the show had done when it could've been avoided. No matter what was going on behind the scene.
@@bgvo4373 what's this cringe fucking argument? criticizing poor writing is classist? don't appropriate terms you don't understand just because you saw them in a video essay or blog post
Agreed why does no one talk about lightning bending it was such a big thing in the original show but now just f****** anyone can do it
Maybe because things change with time
It was a big thing because the Fire Nation's Royal Family may have been quite secretive about their techniques as a whole. I mean, you wouldn't want people rising up in rebellion and having the ability to freely lightningbend, yea? This is most likely why they killed off the dragons as well; sure, the dragons may have been a unique threat to the Fire Nation by themselves but the Royal Family probably wanted to prevent people from learning firebending from them (it would create a weaker opposition, something that would make it easier to deal with dissenters of the war).
@@endofaneraoutnow3473 I'm sorry but I don't see how super rare skills becoming more accessible with time makes the world any better, especially as it just takes away a lot of the mysticism of it. In all honesty, lightning being more common not only is it very largely insignificant to the plot making it pointless, it could've been used to actually improve Mako, making him learn a special technique or even possess it could've lead to some really nice growth and development.
@@ninjabourne iroh literally said it’s about the negative and positive energies in the air. Not sure how it’s so hard for u to understand lots of peoples can generate lightning.
@@endofaneraoutnow3473 Ok? When were we talking about what Iroh said about lightning? I just said making lightning bending not rare and common makes seeing it being done less special. You totally ignored the point I made and tried to impress by using Avatar Lore nobody brought up to act like those who criticize the show making it common look stupid. That's quite deceitful.
Thank you. I was a fan of Korra at first (came to it late, binged it) but the longer it went and the more I thought about it, the worst it got.
They are in early development of their industrial age, but their tech is too futuristic, even compared to ours in real life... Mech robots that move like people? I thought it was the industrial era? Like they try different dumb stuff every season, nothing works.
Korra, kind of ruined the concept of prodigies that ATLA built up. For generations, each bending had subsets that only the most skilled benders could use, but then Korra came along and then everybody can Lightning bend and Metal bend because of 'progress?' It doesn't fit. Our societies progress techno wise, sometimes even speedily, but bending is not technology, it has been around for millennia and if certain skills are reserved for the most skillful, I see no reason why suddenly a lot of people know how to use them.
Actually. It's possible For Bending to Progress as People understand more about the World and hownit functions and mechanics. People can better Understand how to get things done easily.
Think of Martial arts or Boxing. Because of Advancements in Science and a Better understanding of Body Mechanics, the average Modern boxer can easily defeat Pass Boxing champions from the 1900s thanks to better Nutrition and more Science Based Workout schedules and even techniques refined to better take advantage of better Body Physics.
Bending could see the same thing. Massively improved by better Scientific Knowledge
@silverhawkscape2677 Good point, but I'm not claiming that bending cannot progress, it can, but just because there is progress in understanding doesn't mean that feats reserved for prodigies can be commonized.
Also to your point that an average modern boxer could body a top class boxer from the last century is a clear overstatement.
@@okenwaayomikun assuming they are atleast the same height and weight the modern boxer would definitely win as the modern boxer has better access to nutrition and workouts to enhance hes performance and strength whilst also the knowledge to better their techniques and improve upon their
plus if it comes to it the modern boxer has access to performance enhancment drugs which seals the deal
I think it makes sense that metal bending is as prevalent as it is since toph made a metal bending academy that teaches it to earthbenders after the show, according the comics, aside from that I also don't like the fact lightning generation is as prevalent as it is, sure zuko could have had the techniques been taught but not everyone would know it instantly, after all just because you know how engines work doesn't mean you can build one
Im glad finally is agreeing with me on my Korra opinion. F this show.
And lava bending was between fire and earth according to the atla show writers. And in the chibi series Zuko can lavabend so it is basically a confirmed fire bending technique🤓
All bro said was facts
I disagree with you for lava bending. Lava is not fire and doesn’t have anything to do with fire. It’s molten rock.
yeah its like how Toph can see the Rock within the Metal and is bending that within the metal. Lava Bending is like taking that concept But heating it up or doing something to make it Heat up instantly.
@@The_WIll_OF_D99 how would that make sense if your destroying the original thing, like how would aang bend air if it broke down and became nitrogen? or zuko bend fire if it broke down and became heat? or katara bend water if it became hydrogen? but this is from a science perspective, but if were just looking at atla, it still doesnt make sense but lightning bending doesnt either
@@bullymaguire206heat bending is a thing, sozin did it. Magma bending can be explained by an earthbending knowing to apply pressure to rocks to heat it up since pressure creates heat
@@NeviMaestro You made a good point, but heat bending is a subset of bending only some elite fire benders can do. Lava bending for an Earth bender makes sense if the lava was already existing, but how can Eath benders produce enormous heat to melt up their rock? Also you go about if from the pressure angle, how can they produce that much pressure? Under favourable conditions it takes hundreds of thousands of meters of depth for rock to naturally melt.
@@okenwaayomikun just the same way benders bend anything. Using their chi or what have you to push down on it. It’s not a perfect answer but there are many things about bending that aren’t super logical. Why can firebenders generate lightning when fire and lightning aren’t even really related?
The core arc of season one kept me on the show but, the romance got so insufferable, it made me quit the show twice when it first came out!
The reason the romance in ATLA was brilliantly effective was that, like everything else that was thrown at Aang, he was the underdog. It's like even his personal life mirrored his spiritual destiny; kid couldn't catch a break, and it was an uphill climb until the last minute, literally!
Where as LOK: Gorgeous gal meets pretty-boy and we get stuck with the drama! So what else is new? Spin the bottle, and you land on such "ships" 9 times outta 10. Blech.
Nah, im defending lavabending
lava isnt rocks on fire, its molten rock, it just changes states
if waterbenders can bend vapor and ice, then it makes sense that earthbenders could bend lava
thats like saying ''icebending isnt waterbending!! you're just grabbing some water and cooling it down!!''
I get your point, but it takes enormous amounts of heat to convert rock into lava, the question arises 'How can the Earthbenders generate that much heat?' If they were bending already existing lava, then it is understandable. As for the water benders being able to bend water vapour, they never showed them converting water into vapour, they only showed them bending already existing vapour, and as for ice, water and ice exist at the same temperature, and when it freezes, the temperature difference is not much. Sure it give a hole in the plot but not a giant hole big enough to justify lava bending.
@okenwaayomikun Lava is the liquid state of rock. Ice and rock have different melting points. Waterbenders can also turn water into ice. Where do they get the cold from? Thats going from cool/room temp to subzero instantly! And there is 100% scenes where a waterbender turns water into steam/vapor. When katara uses her pocket water to blow vapor at a fire nation guard inside the blimp, and when she conjures up fog as the painted lady. Firebenders can also bend plasma (lightning), which is dozens of times hotter than fire, so temperature is obviously not the problem. Rock is simply the liquid state of earth, therefore it should be able to be bent and manipulated by earthbenders if they're skilled enough
@@lukefox5271 You're right, but I feel like the issue here isn't the science of bending, really. We're all aware that bending is just the magic system of the Avatar universe at the end of the day. However, I feel like the reason that lightning worked in the original show was because of how it was explained by Iroh. It wasn't something that was able to be done because of some science fiction reason, but because the practitioner was skilled enough to be able to sense and separate the Yin and Yang energies around them.
I believe that the problem with lavabending was that it wasn't actually given an explanation as to why people could do that. Now, let me explain. In ATLA, whenever we're introduced to a new bending sub-skill, we're told by extremely knowledgeable characters why it's possible, and that that sub-skill takes a lot of effort to pull off, training to develop and a great attention to detail.
For bloodbending, we're told by Hama, a waterbending master, about how she had paid attention to the fact that water is life for many living organisms, and used that knowledge to train and develop her skills.
In the case of Metalbending, we're told by Guru Pathik and shown by Toph that if you really pay attention to detail, you can see that not a lot of things are different from each other.
Each of the sub-skills in ATLA had good explanations that were given and shown by characters in-universe, These explanations also made sense within the context of the world. They also had limitations to their power.
Lightning generation required that you either be confident and self assured like Iroh, or a complete sociopath like Ozai or Azula. On top of that, you'd have to be insanely good at normal firebending, having an attention to detail that most people lack. And yet, there was still the risk of being turned into KFC if you didn't do it correctly.
Metalbending required one to be extremely good at normal earthbending , while also having the attention to detail needed to detect the trace amounts of earth in the metal. It also required that the user be in physical contact with the metal (although, that's kind of my own head canon, really, even though Toph bends metal from a few feet away in the airship during the final episodes of ATLA).
Honestly, bloodbending might be the weakest one here when it comes to limitations, because the only real limitation in ATLA was that you absolutely needed the full moon to do it, I guess that's why this limit was made arbitrary in TLoK, and why most people still kind of accepted it.
Now, back to lavabending. We're never really given an explanation as to how it works by anyone in the series. The only people we see doing this in TLoK are Bolin and Ghazan. I get that it's supposed to be super rare for whatever reason, but it doesn't make any sense that there's no bending master that tells us about why this stuff is the way it is. Ghazan was too busy trying to kidnap Korra, and Bolin sure as hell doesn't know because he got his power by magic. There also doesn't seem to be any real limit to its power. Like what exactly is stopping Ghazan from just melting all his enemies? It doesn't really seem to cause him any physical exhaustion to bend the lava or summon really large quantities of it. So, what gives?
It also doesn't really help that the creators/writers said that it was a combination of Firebending and Earthbending, which explained why we only ever saw the Avatar do it.
Well, at least those are just my own problems with lavabending and the other sub-skills in TLoK. I don't know if this makes sense at all, though. It does to me, though.
I made a reply to you earlier about why I think Lavabending doesn't work in The Legend of Korra. However, after thinking about it more, my arguments could have been a lot stronger if I had actually addressed the real issues with it.
The real reason it doesn't work is because it was never established as an extension of normal Earthbending in the original show. Yes, we do see Lava bending in the original show, but we only see it four times. Of those four times, we see only Avatars perform the technique (Season 1, Episode 8; Season 2, Episode 1; Season 2, Episode 5; Season 3, Episode 6). This leads to a reasonable inference that Lava bending is the combination of Fire and Earth bending, and is thus a feat that only the Avatar is capable of performing. This was even reinforced by the writers themselves when they explained it in the Avatar Extras.
You claim that Lava is to Earth what Ice or Mist is to Water, and I get where you're coming from, but that isn't the story we were told. First of all, we never saw Earth benders lava bending in the original show. Hell, we never even saw it until Season 3 of the sequel! This is unlike the multiple occasions we saw Water benders use ice and mist in both the original show and in The Legend of Korra. You can't just come in at the last minute and decide that Earth benders can Lava bend. It doesn't make sense since we have never seen it before up until this point. Again, it doesn't help that they already had an explanation for Lava bending in the original show.
The thing is, in worlds like Avatar, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc, once you introduce something into the story, you cannot just change it later because you feel like it. It becomes an established rule and you have become shackled to that rule. This isn't a bad thing, though. We need these kinds of rules to inform us on what is possible and what is impossible. Because if there were no rules, there wouldn't be stakes.
The existence of Lava bending as shown in The Legend of Korra is extremely overpowered, and raises questions about why we never saw it in the original show or in this one. It's almost as if the writers predicted that we would ask this question, so we got a quick throwaway line that it's a rare skill that only SOME Earth benders have. However, that doesn't make sense if we are to consider it to be an extension of normal Earth bending. It would be like if they told us that only SOME Water benders could bend ice; we know that cannot be the case because we have not seen a Water bender that cannot bend ice. Seriously, the reason we are given in the show for why we hadn't seen it before then is so weak. There's just an arbitrary restriction on who can do it.
In terms of being overpowered, there are seemingly no limits to the amount of lava that one can conjure up. There are no limits to it like how the other sub-skills have (or used to have) limits to them. Ghazan creates enough lava to tear down a portion of the inner walls of Ba Sing Se, completely destroy the Northern Air Temple by himself, and destroy the cave where he fought Bolin and Mako (Korra Season 3, Episode 10; Season 3, Episode 12; Season 3, Episode 13). These are no small feats by any means. It also gets worse when you consider the fact that he doesn't have to bend already-existing lava like what we've previously seen. He creates his own. This is very overpowered and should not exist if we are to have any meaningful stakes.
I don't think Korea was a good show, but in defense of the writers, they were hamstrung by severe production issues. They didn't expect to get 4 seasons the original first seasons itself almost didn't get made. Plus there were issues with broadcasting which I'm sure make justifying future production difficult and budget cuts.
Suffice to say, Korra had a turbulent history and I'm sure all that made writing an ongoing story very difficult. Writing is hard under the best of circumstances, try doing it when you don't even know if your next season will be greenlit and even then you don't know if it will be broadcasted.
This doesn't excuse a bad show or many of the writing choices but it does provide an explanation for some of the issues. For example, the Equalist issue just disappears when season 2 begins because the show didn't expect a season 2. They were so rushed when wrapping everything up because they didn't expect the story to continue. Likewise it's clear there was no overarching plan for Korea the way there was for the Last Airbender. Again, this doesn't excuse all the poor writing choices, but it does at least provide something of an explanation.
Plus, the Last Airbender's head writer Aaron Ehasz didn't return and I'll wager he was extremely instrumental in making the Last Airbender a masterpieces. He likely took the great ideas from Micheal Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and executed them perfectly. Because Korea has good concepts, just but execution. Last Airbender had both and I'll bet this Aaron Ehasz fellow was a key ingredient. So many great shows are only great not because of one genius but because there was the prefect combination of writers who covered each others' faults. Avatar was a fluke in a manner of speaker, it was lightning in a bottle in winters, animation, and distribution.
Please stop using the production issues as an excuse. ATLA had arguably worse and similar production issues and yet they still delivered a masterpiece
If "ignore me I destroy beloved themes" was a show
Overall you made alot of good points in both this and the bigger video. I think alot of stuff could be explained tho if you took it with a grain of salt. Yes, I agree the writing isnt anywhere near as good as ATLA but I still enjoy watching Korra alot. Mainly because it's still the Avatar universe like you said and I DO like alot of characters from Korra.
About the lightning and metalbending, you do have to accept this is set in a future where our past Gaang laid the foundation of these types of bending. Over the years these bending techniques have become more common because of shared knowledge. I think the show really tries to tell us "Hey, we've evolved as humans so now X isnt as rare/hard as X anymore.".
3:30 I disagree here cause he’s not setting them on fire. He’s using pressure and causing the rocks to heat up and melt. Lava is just melted rock. It’s not fire.
I mean earth benders can shape rocks. I don’t like the way they handled it with Colin cause he just does it.
I feel like if we were given a deeper explanation like Toph. I think it would cool.
My only problem with the "water benders can make ice" argument is fact that alot of them can do it and it's really common. Like kinda immediately in ATLA they're doing it. Lava bending isn't shown to be so common especiallyin the orginal series. I wish TLoK explained it more like how Metal bending was done. Just feels like the writers threw it in there "because it was kool" and it is kool, but idk just feels kinda lazy.
The lava stuff actually makes some sense to me. Lava is just molten rock, so it's not too much of a stretch to say you can make lava by agitating earth on a molecular level. It's not setting it on fire so much as microwaving it. Still falls victim to your other point; this stuff should be portrayed as achievable through mastery of the underlying skill, not blind luck of the draw.
I really think the city should have bin an island made by aang to help create unity that way the continuous earth kingdom BS wouldn't happen
Michael Reeves clip got you the sub XD
Lava is molten rock, but if it is not already existing in Lava form it does not make sense for Earth benders to be able to heat it up to thousands of degrees.
I agree with all your takes except for Lavabending. It IS Earthbending. Because it's pressurized rocks. They should have made that more clear and not just give it to Bolin out of thin air.
I agree on some of your points just adding context to these 2.
So progression with time. In the book Toph created a school and she had an act of finding metal benders.
For lava bender those who can, have a parent who is earth bender the other is fire.
Rewatching it now some parts was rush, overall it starts with Korra saying I'm the Avatar. Each Villan takes away stuff that would make her the avatar.
1st Season Bending
2nd Seasoning Rava
3rd Season Her Physical Strength
4th Mental
They could of build more of connecting it but they made her like she forgot what happen in tbe 1st and Second Season to develope her character.
Korrra was meant to be a 1 season so if fhe writers knew and were giving more budjet I believe the story could of been better. Overall a lot of people still enjoyed it.
imo, airbender indeed was a fluke that came from nickelodeon guidelines and strict planning. and even then they kinda fumbled the ending and i do believe atla is overpraised sometimes, especially via the community reading too much into things that were never meant to be as deep as people make it seem.
Thank you for complaining about lava bending it is dumb
No it isn’t, lava is literally molten rock
I’m a minute in and so far all that’s been said are bad takes
Lava bending only makes sense as an avatar ability, being able to mix “fire” and earth to make lava. It makes no sense for an earth bending to be able to control the temperature of the rocks he/she is moving. And no his dad being a fire bender doesn’t justify that, its been EXPLICITLY established no one, OTHER THAN THE AVATAR, can utilize more than one element. There’s actually no argument for lava bending being earth bending. There’s a reason the first time we see it its a FIRE NATION BORN AVATAR. 🤦🏼🤦🏼🤦🏼
Most "Korra" eps were written less logically, skillfully and more cringily stupidly than Aang's OG. Some decent moments of logic, drama and levity... but not many over ALL those episodes. Yeah, the robots were stooooopid. Their maniacal inventor dude was morooooonic. Terrible character mostly. The spirits were introed and handled idiotically. Sigh. I worry about future ATLA content bcuz the requisite talented peeps might not be involved or anywhere in sight...
“Why does this random guy suddenly have powers” you mean the main villain?
“Walking robots is IMPOSSIBLE!!!” Yeah, let me just go firebend up some popcorn so I can finish watching this video full of bad takes.
very valid points but the bending stuff u said just point out that: u didnt understand anything about how bending actually works in the show… you could have read a wiki
Everyone arguing that lavabending directly refutes the “rules” that were set up in the original show hasn’t seen the original show.
There were also no rules set up in the show. We got a look at one story in this world. Why is that ONE story the limit for anything and everything that happens afterwards?
saying that every season has 10 episodes of filler is probally the dumbest thing ive heard
This whining is pathetic.