Pre-finale Korra thoughts

[dolorosa_12]

So, I sat down to write about Korra on my Wordpress blog, and a couple of thousand words tumbled out. Not particularly complimentary words, either. I should say that while I'm frustrated with the writing, I don't hate the series, and have been enjoying watching it. My overwhelming emotion is frustration. Because, having seen ATLA, I know it could've been so much better.

I really didn’t want to be that fan. You know, the one taking creators of a spin-off to task because the spin-off is nothing like its parent text. But the problem is not so much that Korra isn’t ATLA but rather that Korra lacks the ingredients that made ATLA so successful. As I see it, ATLA’s quality rested on the interplay of four elements (see what I did there?). These were:
1. A cast of rounded, complex, human characters whose actions made sense in relation to their characterisation, who changed over the course of the series and who drew us into their world;
2. A completely three-dimensional, endlessly fascinating setting that reflected the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of the people who lived in it;
3. An engaging narrative which kept you watching and kept surprising you; and
4. Themes and real-world analogies that resonated but could be interpreted in multiple ways and on multiple levels.

Korra lacks all of these things.

I would really love to hear the opinions of people here who are Korra or ATLA fans. You can post either here or on the blog itself. Just a warning - I'm going out to yoga class in about an hour and won't be back online after that until tomorrow morning, so don't expect any replies until at least then.

Comments

[elizabethtastic.livejournal.com]

See, I was wondering if I had the parallels right! I had almost forgotten about the Chinese Communist movement (which is a shame on my part, since it was a big part of my Political Ideologies class). Thanks for reminding me! And yeah, I've always been uneasy about the way the Communist movement is portrayed in popular culture, too. Both Russia and China for a long time never really had a middle class, I don't think---you were either on the rich spectrum of society or you were on the poor end of society. And since the wealthy oftentimes kept the privileges of of being rich to themselves, the poor were often exploited, so their outrage wasn't uncalled for, they did so for legitimate reasons.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, yes, the Communist movement was definitely more complicated than just very poor people wanting to grab everything the rich had for themselves (and Anastasia has often bothered me for that reason, too :)).