Analysis Is Magic
Monday, October 14, 2013
The Tragedy of Korra
The worst thing about how much Legend of Korra is sucking this season is that its plunging ratings won't be blamed on the sub-par writing and reliance on heavily telegraphed, cliche plot "twists." No, anyone who's followed the animation industry knows that the Nickelodeon executives will blame its poor ratings on the gender of the protagonist, and make it that much harder for the next person who wants to make a general-audience show with a woman as the main character.
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I share your seething frustration.
ReplyDeleteI actually kinda still like the show, but even I see that coming.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they'll be able to point to the ratings over the initial run and claim that something else changed. I mean, even the lizard-brained TV network execs are more likely to think that there's been some kind of alteration between seasons.
I wasn't expecting Goofy Cave Johnson to be evil... ;_;
ReplyDeleteBut otherwise, yeah. I completely agree with you. Everything feels so ham-handed and spelled out. And it's not just the twists (although I do agree that Unalaq's mustache-twirling evil and Korra and Mako's breakup were stupidly predictable); all the emotional drama is being spoon-fed to us like we're a bunch of four-year-olds. Of course Boomi is compensating for his lack of bending. We figured that out just fine; you didn't need to explicitly tell us. Yes, Bo-Lin feels unimportant next to his more skilled brother. Tell us that through how they act, not what they say to each other.
I mean, I may just be wearing rose-tinted glasses, but the original was at least a little more subtle than this, right? Like the stuff with Toph's family, or Sokka's own sense of inadequacy. There were times where it spelled stuff out ("I'm angry at myself!), but at the same time, everything had more gravity than this does. Do you know what I mean?