Seriously, he does Taskmaster voice!! 
Damn, Blum is good!!!
Again, heās the best, and the Peopleās Champ.
You probably watch a Blum show at least once a week, and Iām talking pre-Toonami.
Yea Blum is gdlk.
Hell, heās so gdlk, he deserves his own thread.
Yeah, Blum is the Champ!!
And oh after watching Curleh Moustache 4 tourney last night and hearing Yipes godlike commentary, Iām calling Blumās Taskmasterā¦La Parka!!
(Long ass post forthcoming after this. Letās see if I can keep it under 20,000 characters. Probably not.)
For now, just going to reply to Saitsu mainly with regards to āfillerā.
Well, that and post this since I keep forgetting and I canāt remember if it was posted before since itās already 4 years old:
[media=youtube]k-eWsMMJwZ4[/media]
As specs said, thatās not all filler. Thereās no way in hell that a third of the entire series is āfillerā considering that you listed 19 episodes. (Also, I more than most are aware that people bitch just to bitch, especially since I had to work retail for a while.)
While itās rather debatable what counts as āfillerā since thereās really no hard and fast line if youāre not actively adapting something, usually a manga into a serial anime, I think thereās a general consensus that episodes are āfillerā if they both do not advance the plot, even in if itās just the overall narrative through world-building (like The Headband), and do not sufficiently advance the characters (in ways that are actually referenced later). Thatās still a pretty dicey definition that I just came up with on the fly, though itās not like I expected us to agree what was filler in the first place.
(Hell, I donāt agree with specs about Tales of Ba Sing Se not being filler, especially since I remember most people in here saying they didnāt like that episode and felt almost everyone was out of character when it aired, with the only āgoodā part being Irohās and the dedication to Mako.)
For me, of the episodes you listed, from what I remember (and what you described), Iād divide them like this:
Counter List
[details=Spoiler]Filler:
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The Great Divide: Yes, I was aware that even the creators hate this episode; itās rather obvious.
-
The Fortuneteller: I actually really liked this episode, but, itās not like it told us anything we didnāt already know, i.e. Aang is really powerful even outside of the Avatar State and he & Katara are going to get together at the end.
-
The Swamp: This is one of the ones that could go either way, but plantbendersādespite the fact that they make Waterbending even more bustedāand the World Tree arenāt ever really referenced again IIRC, soā¦
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Tales of Ba Sing Se: See above parenthetical.
-
The Painted Lady: This wasnāt really needed, especially since I vaguely remember it coming right after The Headband, which basically served the same purpose on a non-environmental level.
-
The Ember Island Players: As utterly hilarious as the episode was and useful for a final psych-out with the way the play ended (and as oddly foretelling as it was with regards to the horrible movie), it was ultimately a recap episode and those are (almost) never necessary. Still, this is probably the best recap episode in anything ever.
Not Filler:
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Imprisoned: No way this is filler since it gave us the first taste of what actually happens to the Earth Kingdom people who didnāt have Bumi to protect them or werenāt āfortunateā enough to be in Ba Sing Se (and potentially be turned into Ju Dis). It also introduced us to Haru (?), who shows up later; well, at least a version of him shows up later, since Mirror Universe Haru isnāt fooling anyone about being evil with that facial hair.
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The Storm: Shows us important Royal Fire Family backstory among other things. No way filler. Next.
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The Deserter: Also no way this is filler given all thatās revealed. It shows that Waterbending can heal, that Aang already has the potential for Firebending but is still too immature at the present & the dangers that go with that, that there are other philosophies & uses to Firebending beyond āDESTRUCTION!ā and that General Zhao, who is arguably the Big Bad of Season 1 even over Zuko, has a notable weakness. It also introduces us to Jeong Jeong and we all know how excellent Jeong Jeong is.
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The Northern Air Temple: As you said, the machinistās war balloon shows up later in Season 3 as an important plot points as do at least a couple of characters here.
-
The Cave of Two Lovers: While I still find it kinda dumb that the āsecretā of the cave was just letting the lights go out (even if itās highly possible those huge Earthbending badgers might wreck your shit or even outright kill you), it developed a few things and it showed the Gaang getting to their next location with some minor world-building. Arguably borderline on not being filler, though.
-
Appaās Lost Days: Yeah, this masquerades as filler, but it actually fills in things more than most episodes despite probably having the least amount of dialogue of any episode due to the main character being Appa. Also, it might have been the first time we saw Long Feng being openly āevilā/antagonistic/scheming. I canāt really remember.
-
The Headband: As you state, this brings us the (first) background of the Fire Nationās people, including their most impressionable people (read: children), and shows us some of the necessary aspects of their century-long war, like the revisionist history and the militarized schooling. Also, WANG FIRE! (I still canāt believe they let them get away with that. Then again, they got away with whatās basically peyote.)
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Sokkaās Master: A necessary level up for Sokka, even after he became Wang Fire! Also, his master shows up with later during the series finale with the other four badass old men who basically liberate Ba Sing Se single-handedly and it was nice to see non-benders still be able to be extremely dangerous outside of Ty Lee (and Mai, when she bothers to try).
-
The Beach: Despite all the (jailbait) fanservice and the overall hilarious of the tone the episode, it was completely necessary given that it gives important backstory and characterization with Zuko & Azula. Without this episode, Azulaās breakdown during and after Ty Lee and Maiās betrayal in The Boiling Rock would seem like it comes out of fucking nowhere for the most part.
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The Avatar and the Firelord: Completely necessary as part of Zukoās redemption and Aangās searching for another solution than just killing Firelord Ozai. (Thanks, Kiyoshi.)
-
Nightmare and Daydreams: As with the episode above, part of Aang looking for solutions on how to deal with Firelord Ozai & trying to get over the fear of having to face him in general and part of Zukoās road to redemption.
Could Go Either Way Since I Donāt Actually Remember This Episode:
-
Avatar Day: See above.
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The Runaway: I vaguely remember this having characterization even beyond what you said, but Iād be lying if I said I really remembered this episode beyond Toph making a blind joke or two.[/details]
Now, with that opinion said, letās get back to why this initially came up: Given you posted 19 entire episodes, which is 7 more entire episodes than Legend of Korra has even had so far, what exactly do you think Legend of Korra should have cut to give background?
I guess I could sort of see them cutting the whole Tarrlok task force episode or at least condensing it, but other than thatā¦
Alright, youāre right, I fucked up.
People who admit when theyāre wrong make me man moist.
My man moisture is getting blood bent.
Fuckers.
(ā¦Gods damn it but I make way too many omissions when it comes to typos.)
So, having checked back 12 pages, Iāve discovered that the three page gap where I didnāt really comment on anything is pretty much entirely taken up by Subt-Lās WMG āWho is Amonā theories, which obviously donāt need to be replied to given we know who Amon is by now.
As such, I donāt think I really even have a ābigā post I can do considering past that itās mostly a bunch of gifsāthanks again, Rockāand episode reactions that I probably already answered.
Yay! Yet another disappointing anticlimax where I donāt have to do anything! I feel like all those years of reading 8-bit Theater have finally payed off!
(Mind you, I say this as someone who still likes 8-Bit Theater.)
That said, I figure as long this thread still has a bit of breath left before going into a (man moist) coma for how long it takes for Season 2 to come out (a year?), we should all give Tanion āpropsā for being the only one to call Amon being a bloodbender almost a month ago:
Technically white shadow too, I suppose, given he said something similar soon after Tanionās post. But, meh, no one needs to praise second placeā¦
Regardless, it was amusing being reminded how wrong I was about Amon being related to Ty Lee. Oh well. I at least fixed all of the typos since every post I made in the last 12 pages.
Now off to write terrible fan fiction about Season 2!
So nick renewed avatar for 26 more episodes, so we have a full 52 episode order and 40 more episodes of korra. http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/07/11/legend-of-korra-second-season/
Hoā¦lyā¦shitā¦
My first though, awesome. Second thoughtā¦how the hell are they gonna fill out 3 more seasons? Iām guessing the creators REALLY wished they wouldāve been told about this sooner.
Thats what Im thinking right now, as excited as I am for 40 more episodes of korra, the writers are gonna earn my eternal respect if they can keep up the level of quality through 3 more seasons. This is exactly what happened to justice league, and it showed in the final season(imo at least). Had they known they prolly wouldnāt have rapped everything up so nicely this season, hopefully, at the very least they knew about this before they finished writing book 2.
Plus, Korraās already a full fledged Avatar. Theyād have to go REALLY political to take some air out from under her. Otherwise, idk whatās gonna take her. The most broken ability so far in Yakone Family Bloodbending, is nullified by the Avatar State.
At the very least, maybe this means they can go and do a Spirit World Arc. The one place she really could get screwed. Maybe get some backstory on Irohās trip there too.
I hope they can keep their writing quality at tip top shape with all these unexpected episodes. I liked how fast this season moved since they had to wrap it all up in 12 episodes. Also it seemed they were able go dedicate a nice amount of budget per episode. I just hope this can continue.
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Well donāt forget, just because korra learnt how to airbend doesnāt mean she is a fully realized avatar, she is still severely lacking spiritually and she might not even be able to go in and out of the avatar state at will(just cause aang unlocked it for her doesnāt mean she has full control over it). Plus there are probably other aspects of being an avatar that the writers were unable to touch on during the original run that they might delve into now. They did say in an interview a while back that they have a ton of stories ready incase nick ask for more seasons so thats always good to know.
I just hope this doesnāt end up like the first 3 star wars movies. I wanna watch the final episode of korra with a bitter sweet tear in my eye as opposed to a scowl on my face.
Hereās hopin for more Iroh Man.
I honestly wouldāve liked it that they planned for Korra to be that long from the beginning, that way the whole Revolution dilemma couldāve been āfleshedā out more and side characters would get more development with āfillerā episodes. Here are some of my (somewhat crappy) ideas.
-Delve into Makoās and Bolinās childhood and how their parents were killed in an episode where the two remember their parents on the anniversary of their deaths or something among those lines. Could also serve as a sort of ābond strengtheningā episode.
-Another similar episode with the loss of Hiroshiās wife/Asamiās mother and reinforce Hiroshiās hatred with Benders. Could also give us insight on how Asami was in her childhood and how she is so good at hand to hand combat.
-Give us insight on the specific reasons why the members of the Equalists and their supporters personally hate benders. This could simply be accomplished with Korra exploring through town and see for herself why her kind is hated so much, an example being a non-bender losing his job to a bender and now he canāt support his family/a non bender getting threatened by a bender/etc. I find it weird how the supporters were just blindly following Amon without having their reasons be explored.
-Some āfillerā episodes involving Republic Cityās gang and organized crime dilemma would be nice. Would be a good opportunity for āNeo Team Avatarā to get some more action in and to also delve more into the gang problem.
-A sort of ālevel upā episode where Mako, Bolin and Asami try to meditate and train Tenzin and his family despite not being able to Airbend.
-On the same note, I would like to see Bolin learn from Lin and to an extent, Mako learn from Iroh.
Iām sure we all would have liked for it to be planned that way, but they didnāt have that kind of approval so they did the right thing and planned for the time they had.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
yeah in a perfect world, they would have had a full 52 episodes to work with from day one to flesh out everything and pace it perfectly. Reality is that Nick SHOCKINGLY did something right and gave the team a chance to keep a quality show going despite them only planning for a mini series. Iām sure theyāre kinda scrambling now to come up with something but itās not too bad. we still will need to wrap up the rest of the story as it is so they have some time to come up with more story to tell.
itās not like weāre out of material. thereās a LOT to work with.
GIVE ME MY FACESTEALER