Sunday, December 21, 2014

Last of the Legend of Korra Part 1


Legend of Korra is comming to an end. 

I'm bored, in pain due to TMJ, and don't want to do any creative writing, so I'm going to watch the final two episodes and post what I think while watching them for the first time.

Obviously: SPOILER ALERT! I'M ABOUT TO GO THROUGH THESE TWO EPISODES IN DETAIL, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, GO WATCH IT ONLINE.

Here is the link to watch the whole show.

Let's have some fun!


Episode 12 (SPOILERS - YE HAVE BEEN WARNED):

We begin with the standard 'this is what was happening last episode' with the commentator voice and a black and white 1940s newsreal as usual (always liked this about the show; it really nailed the feel of Republic City), but all of these shots are from the previous episode. Last week Pacific-Rim-Kuvira pretty much just waltzed towards Republic City with a large army of mini-mech and one ridiculously big mech with a giant spirit energy boom-cannon attached to it's arm intent on conquering the last bit of the land required to complete her Earth Empire.



President Raiko orders her to leave ('cause that's going to go well...) and she responds with a curt reply and by demonstrating that the spirit boom-cannon can pretty much obliterate any and all resistance.

President Rieko agrees to surrender... BECAUSE GIANT SPIRIT ENERGY BOOM-CANON.



The crews on those Republic Navy ships somehow mostly survive that btw because...


Anyways, Kuvira sends her soon to be hubby and Beifong's least liked son at this point, Batar, to discuss terms with the President, but Korra has other plans. She, with the aid of her friends, kidnaps Batar and her idea is to threaten him into revealing a weakness in the big mech. This does not go well because Batar is fully in love with Kuvira and the new world order she is trying to build. Knowing this, Korra decides the best way to deal with this situation is to threaten to make sure Batar will never see his love again - she will make it her personal mission to keep them apart. Batar caves and tries to get Kuvira to stand down via the radio. This does not go well. 

She says she loves Batar and points the boom-cannon to where the radio signal is coming from and fires because she is committed to the Empire she's built.

Weeesh! 
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Now we come to the episode:




First impressions of the title: Gorilla fighting a Pacific Rim mecha with bending will happen. And maybe they will loose. I doubt it, but the title does seem to say that the colossus will win somehow. Or maybe they wanted to title it 'Shadow of the Colossus', but couldn't piss off too many people.

Should be fun regardless.

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We open up with Bolin lifting up a wall to escape the ruin of the building. So, I guess Kuvira missed with the boom-cannon? Doesn't matter because P.J. Byrne is talking as Bolin.

Still loving this ESFP character; makes me laugh no matter the situation and look at him being all fabulous-badass to keep a wall up while everybody gets out of the rubble!


AHHH! I LOVE YOU, BOLIN! AHHH!



Heavy discussion on wether or not to fly and live to fight an other day or to take a stand is on the way as Tenzin comes back from scouting their surroundings. I can almost guarantee that Korra's going to want to stay and fight because her personality forbids it. Also, they wouldn't name the episode after the colossus if they weren't going to fight it.

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*Ten seconds later*

YEAH! LET'S FIGHT THE MECH!

Also: Lin Beifong is back with the team so we should be good to kick everyone's ass.





The injured go with Varric and Asami to Asami's office as they try and get the remaining hummer-bird suits (since the explosion aimed at where Batar called on the radio wiped out all the other suits except for the proto-types) and limited shelter in what has clearly now become the main section of the war zone. 

Rest of extended-edition Team Avatar stay to fight the mech.

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.... Or we're cutting the refugees that are still not out of the city - that's fine too.

Pema is doing her best to calm everybody. Prince Wu is turning out not to be the asshole prince, so I guess that's okay. Trains are out since Kuvira's army has destroyed the tracks are out, so he's going to find a solution to get everyone to safety and leaving Pema in charge until he gets back. Good choice.

"I raised Meelo. I can handle anything." Moms are awesome.

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Okay. NOW, we're going to fight the mech!

Cool, they cut to Meelo after his mom talks about him. Good flow.

Paint + balloons against the mech, Meelo? Not sure where he's going with it, but the kid's been less annoying than usual, so let's roll with it.

Crazy-face Meelo wants the paint.

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*Ten seconds later* WINDOWS! Good thought, Meelo! Blind Pacific-Rim-Kuvira with paint balls all over the windows. Doubt it will stop her for long though.

"Geth do not have Windows, Shepard-Commander; they are structural weaknesses."

Oh, they are so going to do the imperial-walker thing from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.


K. Called it. "We've Been JAMMED!"

As if Batar put this into the design. I guess they had the resources and time to put in windshield washing function? 
P.S. Why doesn't Korra just Waterbend the water reservoirs for this? If there's an internal system filled with water, wouldn't that be super useful in fighting it?

Called it! Cool that they add that the whole "Crap! It's made out of platinum" to explain why the metal benders can't just take the mech apart piece by piece.

Lots of airbending to try and push it over with it's legs restrained: doubt this will work.


Oh, that's SO cool! It's the little things that matter sometimes in shows! On uneven ground, Kuvira can move the control platform to adjust for tilt. Which she does in this fight.


Annnnnnd Good Guys Plan doesn't work - as suspected. The metal wire they were using isn't strong enough and doesn't trip up the mech as much as desired before breaking. Kuvira blasts at them once she recovers her mech's footing and knocks everybody away. Kinda knew that was comi- OPAL!!!!!! OMFG, NO!

                                   I think she's still alive though... We're good; crisis averted.


Full retreat is now in effect with all the injured heading back to Asami's office at Future Industries Tower while Lin's gone for help (Wu's not the only one to be doing that, I guess).  

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TO ASAMI'S OFFICE!

Hummingbird suits are still a fail mechanically! And there's a platoon of mini-mechas on the way! 

Time for Varric and Zhu Li to save the day! "Disconnect everything electrical until we get back." Electro-magnetic pulse again then? Varric used that a couple of episodes back, I think.

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Quick pause and pan back into a different part of Asami's Office.

We take a look at Batar who's finally come-to after getting shot at by his one true love. 

Heart to heart with mama Suyin on the way... 

I'm not sure if I like this scene. I really feel for Su because she's trying to keep her family together despite everything, but I have a REALLY hard time feeling bad for Batar Jr. He knew exactly what he was doing and I get that he was blinded by his love for Kuvira and thus couldn't see passed that, but nobody was surprised that she's took a shot at him in that situation (well, the characters were, but I knew it was coming as soon as they cut to Kuvira's reaction on her mech-bridge). She's completely dedicated to the cause of her Empire and her role as the Great Uniter - not sure why he couldn't see that she'd choose that over him - or that every other character couldn't see it. 

I mean, Su's response to him asking the question "why would she (shoot at me)?" is: "I don't know. She's a complicated person..."

Are you for reals, Mama Su? 

You're the one that raised Kuvira! How could you not know how dedicated the woman would become to a cause? I feel like she should have gone more for truth than for comfort in this scene, or maybe a balance between both. More along the lines of: "She's dedicated to her goal, Batar. You knew it. So  did I. Was I surprised in the end that she gave you up for her Empire? Yes, but I can see why she did it now that I think about it. I know that doesn't make it any less harder to accept, but it's the truth, sweetheart." Then, we continue into the whole 'the family will take you back' thing which is okay as far as scenes go.

Meh, anyways. Back on the roof with Varric and Zhu Li!

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Yup, their goal is to create an electromagnetic pulse big enough to effect not just the little mechs but the big one. Seems legit.... :S

(Not really, actually, but it's a TV show where people throw elements at each other; I'll suspend my scientific disbelief.)

During the refit of the electrical tower, Varric tries to open up to tell Zhu Li something important to him about her by telling the story about an ostrich-horse he had when he was a kid and how he took it for granted. Unfortunately, he takes to long to tell it and the mechs show up before he can finish - typical.

The pulse works for the little mechs, but not the big one.

Dominos!


In a rather horribly sad turn of phrase, Varric tells Zhu Li what's become their catch-phrase: "Do the thing!"

But she ends up replying: "I'm afraid there are no more things to do."

Damn. Potent word-bending. It's really hard to kill this big mech.

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Cut back to Asami's office and Batar reveals that the mech runs off an internal spirit-vine power source so it sustains itself without electricity. Cool shit - also sucks for our heroes and Batar adds to his light, hearty mood by saying that the suit is unstoppable. 

Hiroshi Sato, Asami's father who's been in jail since season 1? He doesn't think so. 

Surprise!

Just noticed now that his eyes are SUPER red. Didn't notice that in Season 1.


Asami is surprised to say the least, but there's that old hurt there too.

This is the backup Lin went to go get. She says he can go back to prison once this was all over, but for now they need all the geniuses they can get to stop the mech and Hiroshi does have a plan: "You must act like an infection." He says make a hole in the mech and go at it from the inside. Then kill the power source and the gun. 

It won't be easy though - they still have to fix the hummeringbirds and modify the blow torches into plasma cutters to make a hole in the platinum so there is a huge time constraint. Even if they made the corrections in time, there are only two suits and Kuvira could squash them real easy if she sees them land.

But it's their only chance. Korra suggests that they have to attack in a swarm to cover the people using the suits for it to work. 

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CUT BACK TO PEMA! 

And she's.... singing to the refugees? LOL. She's singing what sounds like a flying-lemer kids song and all the refugees are real tiered of it. It reminds me a little of that scene in Trains, Planes and Automobiles and I guess that's what they were going for.

Just when someone starts to complain and Pema suggests the button game (Button Game?), Prince Wu shows up with Random-Mako-Bolin-Cousin... RIDING GIANT BADGER-MOLES.

WTF? Don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but is Wu seriously this badass now?

This was the help he went to get. They were in the zoo, apparently, and he sung and they liked it. Now he has pet badger-moles. As the original earth-benders (you'll remember that Toph Beifong got taught by these things when she was super young), they can make a tunnel for the last of the refugees to escape. Crazy-smart plan.

Seriously though, Prince Wu is pretty damn cool at this point... Even if his singing could annoying real fast.

I really liked this little scene. It worked well with the flow (we go from Lin revealing her help and then to Wu revealing his help, and there's a interconnectivity with singing throughout the clip) and gives us a good idea at how much Wu has changed since coming to Republic City.

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Cut now to Kuvira looking for the source of the magnetic pulse and directing troop movements via radio. Henchman #1 tells her it came from Future Industries Tower and Kuvira heads in that direction.

Meanwhile, the geniuses are minutes away from making the hummingbirds a go when word reaches the group that Kuvira's on the march towards them. Korra makes a quick plan: they can't kill the Gundam-Kuvira, but they can slow her down long enough for the hummingbirds to get in the air. She consolidates her forces and heads out to slow the march while ordering Asami, Hiroshi, Zhu Li and Varric to meet them on the field as soon as possible. 

This is it! 

Strike a pose ladies and gents! Slow goliath down!


Korra does some Avatar State badassery, including dodging and weaving and throwing pieces of buildings at the mech the size of large cars.




The airbenders are coming in on their suit gliders to try and distract or push the gun arm out of the way.



And Random Meelo distractions... because Meelo.


Hell, they even push a building onto the damn thing to try and stop it.



But nothing is working! She still keeps coming!


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Break in the action to go to see Prince Wu again. He's singing (terribly) as the refugees follow the badger-moles, but then there's trouble! Three mini-mechs have followed them down the tunnels and tell them they are now Earth Empire prisoners. 

Wu tries to convince them to let the people go and take him as a hostage, but the soldiers are having none of it. Wu then sings again (still awfully) and the badger-moles seem to abandon him, or so the soldiers say, but instead they dig a hole and flank the mechs, crushing them under claw.

Wu just... saved the day for these people... again. This time with his terrible singing voice.

"If you don't respect the broche, you don't respect me."
Fun little scene. Really glad it was short though.

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Back in Asami's Office, the hummingbirds are finally a go!

We get a heart-to-heart reconciliation between Asami and her father (which makes me think one of them - probably Hiroshi - is going to die soon, but LoK hasn't done that with a good guy yet - and he is a good guy now - so I doubt it). 



Then we get a proposal! 

I shit you not! Varric full out asks Zhu Li to marry him! AND IT'S AWESOME!

"Will you do the thing with me for the rest of our lives?"



I actually wasn't really okay with this relationship when hints started getting drops about it earlier in the season. I was one of the few people who wanted to believe Zhu Li's 'betrayal' in earlier episodes because he was the very definition of a douchebag to her for a some time. But while Varric has been an asshole for the most part, he's also got a morality to him that I admire now that he's gone through some more character defining moments. He's selfish and naive, but he's learning. And despite him being a jackass, Zhu Li still loves him, so by all means: "Do the thing!"

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They join the battle with the mech using their suits to try and get a spot to cut a hole. No matter how fast they fly, neither of them seem to be able to sit long enough before Kuvira spots them and swats them away. Fortunately, Korra finds enough water to encase the mech in ice and hold it still. 

However, Kuvira is successful enough in defending the mech that she manages to hit the bird piloted by Zhu Li and Varric. They eject to safety, but the bird is toast.

Hiroshi and Asami are now the only bird in the sky. They land on the upper thigh of the mech while Korra's trying to hold it still. Hiroshi is cutting while his daughter watches to lift off in time before Kuvira can get that giant-hand out of its restraints.

It gets tense as Hiroshi tries to make the hole. Asami is watching the mech break free bit by bit and warning her dad that they only have a few moments before they have to lift off to get out of the way in time. 

"DAD! NOW!"

"Goodbye, Asami..."

"DAD!"





HOLY SHIT! THEY JUST LET HIROSHI SATO COMMIT SELF-SACRIFICE!



I mean, after the scene he just had with his daughter before the attack, I kinda expected it, but damn! 

The voice delivery on this is just really good too. I mean, when Seychelle Gabriel, the woman who plays Asami, came on the show, I really didn't think she was all that good. I thought her voice was unique, yes (reminded me of Dante Basco a lot), but really monotone most of the time and didn't really express the emotion we were seeing in the animation unless it was shock (The "They kissed?!" line comes to mind). Also, she was the only connection I knew of to the live-action movie to the show, so I was wary about her performance getting better. However, now I can say with full confidence that she's probably the most improved voice out of the entire cast on LoK. And the end of season 3 and all of season 4 were her best performances. She nailed this scene though. I don't know how many takes it took to get the urgency throughout the attack, but the way her voice breaks when she says "DAD!" before getting launched out the bird is just perfect. Daniel Dae Kim is also excellent although we don't hear much of him until this episode and a few episodes back.

From a character perspective, my first thought was: Why did he need that extra two seconds? Why didn't he eject as well? It happened really fast, so I guess I can't be picky, but I don't know - I feel like he wanted to die a little too much. That he could have saved himself and opened the hole in the mecha. 

Mostly it just sucks for Asami. She just got the father she loved back only to loose him again and this time for good...

Every time Asami gets anything good going for her, stupid crap happens! It's sad!



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Continuing on to the end of this episode, Hiroshi managed to get a hole just in time and now Team Avatar can enter the mech.


It's time to put this metal monster down and face Kuvira! 


Let's get some!


*Episode ends*

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Holy shit, it's already over? *Blinks*

I guess I'll have to watch the next episode.

Last impressions: 

So the colossus did have most of the day, but in the end, this Gundam is going down. My guess is that Korra's going straight to fight Kuvira and that the sibs will divide and conquer the mech's vitals in the next episode. It just makes sense.

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