The Legend of Korra "Kuvira's Gambit" Talkback [12/12/2014]

[ShadowBeast]

Which makes sense, seeing how martial-arts became obsolete with the invention of guns

Which made me glad that the original series took place in the time it did instead of the futuristic time the creators originally intended.

 

[Lerkero]

That's the problem I have with Korra, though. While technology is helpful, being able to manipulate nature while fighting could still be quite useful.

A martial artist would easily lose against someone with a gun, but the martial artist would be even more dangerous with a gun AND fighting skill. A lot of the battles in Korra seemed less connected to the elements and styles, but there were still some good moments.

 

[webmonkey44]

im fine with this development. also having bending change with times im fine with as there is alot less reason to be a master level bender unless your really into that and master level skills like lightning and metal bending are far more common in commoners. there is no traditional guns nor are they putting them in. Im just suprised they did make the weapon a bomb instead for some nuke symbolism.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

To be fair the lack of action is more an issue with this season then with the previous ones where we did have a lot more fight scenes and we did see far more bending battles. And honestly the only thing I think was lesser was really the power and force behind the attacks, something that was sacrificed in order to make the combat speedier. Seriously, go back and compare the battles between Avatar and Korra again. Yeah maybe the characters aren't quite as ferocious with their attacks but they move at a far speedier and swifter way which at times can make the action even more engaging. Even if say Ozai vs Aang had more overly impressive abilities being used, the speed of the fighters and of the camera and the clashes made Korra vs Zaheer IMHO a far more rewatchable and interesting battle. I guess it is kind of weird there seems like a power decrease over time but the styles are still different and the action is still good but in a different way. And honestly I kind of prefer the fights that do showcase the speed over the strength as it leads to more interesting match ups. That's a personal preference but it's not just the characters decreasing over the years without gaining anything from it.

 

[Aldrius]

Yeah the bending has been pretty weak in this series, maybe it's from everyone starting to rely more on technology.
I remember how the creators talked about the bending being based on martial arts and some character's being of specific ones like Toph's bending being Mantis Style.
With this series we don't really get that much.

Eh, we still see it.

I'm no expert, so I can't name it exactly, but Lin and Su certainly have two VERY distinct styles of earth and metal bending. Lin's a cagefighter, Su's a dancer. Kuvira has her own style of earth/metal bending too. As do Bolin and the Twins. Then Ghazan was a lavabender. So there's that. Toph's style hasn't really changed.

The show's had exactly three major firebending characters (Mako, Zuko, Iroh and P'li, if you can even count the latter two, I guess Korra as well). So i don't know if there's a lot of room for distinction there. Zuko bends pretty much as he always has, Mako is just kind of a typical firebender (same as Bolin really).

Airbending I think you can see a distinct difference in style between Jinora, Opal, Zaheer and Tenzin... well and obviously with Meelo (the less said about that the better, I can't believe that's still a thing...).

Waterbending. Again, certainly different styles. Tonraq fights like a warrior He uses water like a tomahawk or an axe. Unalaq uses water as an extension of his body and moves in tandem with it. Desna and Eska have their own style certainly. Kind of difficult to put my finger on it, though. Ming Hua was obviously really different. Tarrloq and Amon... I can't remember now.

Certainly, though at least as far as distinction, I think there is a lot of room to see how different benders bend. It's just there's less of them, there's less opportunities for them to show off, and we're dealing with a humongous cast. I think certainly in season 1 it could easily be said that in terms of scope, the bending was less impressive.

Every single firebender seemed incapable of throwing a ball of fire. (Seriously, in season 1 most of the firebenders just punch and kick with fire on their limbs, it's kinda lame). The Earthbenders moved the earth really slowly and purposefully whereas in Last Airbender you'd see a lot more dynamic earth movement, and earthbending was much more aggressive. Waterbending we just didn't really see much except in pro-bending (which is intentionally very restrained and tactical).

In season 2 that changed majorly, though. Unalaq, Tonraq, Desna, Eska, all were incredibly skilled benders with large scale water-based attacks. Season 3 introduced us to the Red Lotus, who were all INCREDIBLY powerful benders. And gave Kya and Tenzin a good showing in their fights. The sort of earth bending style of 'throw up a wall, hide behind it' was retired and we got to see the whole Beifong family in action.

I think overall the bending in Korra's been pretty impressive, it's just we've never gotten to see a really strong firebender in action. Fire is used by Korra, but most just intermittently with air and water used as projectiles. The closest was Iroh's battle with those fighter pilots in season 1, which legitimately was pretty impressive, but Iroh's been such a nothing fanservice character it's really been hard to be invested even in his few brief appearances.