#wish me luck with book 3

[likeadragonfruit]

Much like last book, anything that doesn’t get its own dedicated post is going into this brain dump post.

Big Picture

Overall flow

This book was a slog from the jump, mainly because how it ended made the prospect of 14 episodes building to that finale daunting

In retrospect, with the entire season finshed, I can say the first six episodes, despite their flaws are “better.” Even though I had such a difficult time watching those on a consistent basis.

I better understand why the “Beginnings” two parter is such a breath of fresh air on the whole for so many people. Even if it does introduce Vaatu, and with him begin the slide in story quality.

But really, there was a precipitous drop in the last two episodes of the book.

Also remember how I said this show had a cast size management problem? Well here’s where it starts worsening. We drop Tarrlok, Amon and Hiroshi… but keep Korra and the rest of the Krew, Tenzin and his family and Lin. Then add Korra’s family, expand Tenzin’s family with Kya II and Bumi II, plus Varrick…

Korra’s spirituality arc:

I- don’t have much to say here

I thought I would, but I don’t

There’s remarkably little to say

Which is odd for an arc that’s supposed to be about rounding out Korra’s knowledge and understanding of spirits and spirituality 

Themes:

The big thing that jumps at me is identity, which Tenzin embodied well. Shame more of that didn’t completely trickle down to Korra

Character opinions

Korra: I’m kind of frustrated and underwhelmed, but less with Korra herself and more how her arc has been handled, and going to be handled going forward 

Mako: I came into this season expecting to hate Mako more than I did in book 1, but that didn’t happen. He, his romance subplots not withstanding, was fine. In fact, his police work storyline was a relative bright spot.

Bolin: frustrates me immensely. Had a good moment or two in this season, but at this point I despise how he’s written.

Asami: she has some good moments, but she’s hurt by barely getting anything to do. In a sense, she’s the Krew’s Toph in terms of having no arc

Tenzin: I’m a little stuck for what to say, here. I guess I don’t hate what they did with him? He does bring up the question of how airbending and spirituality work, but that’s another story.

Bumi II: I don’t hate him, but I don’t particularly like him either. 

Kya II: favorite new addition this season. She doesn’t get too much to do, but she more often than not holds the familial brain cell

Lin: poor Lin. She spends most of the season playing disbelieving boss for Mako’s Cassandra storyline. I still love you tho

Tonraq: meh. 

Unalaq: an absolute mess, but could’ve worked with a clearer sense of where they were going

Eska: don’t hate her but don’t care for her either. She did present a contrast for some franchise weirdness, though.

Desna: I was surprised by how much I liked him. Probably helps that he’s not weighed down by a terrible romance subplot like his sister

Varrick: he’s absolutely awful, amoral businessman and thrives in the role of self-interested schemer who helps when it’s to his benefit

Shipping

sigh yeah, I’m dedicating a section to the messes this time

Even if I wasn’t big on Makorra, the way it’s handled is such a mixed bag. On one hand, when their break up happens mid season, I could see where both of them were coming from. But there are several points of their relationship that feel like they’re written with this air of “women, amirite?” When Mako is having difficulty understanding what Korra wants or needs at the moment

And that’s before getting to the whole amnesia element… 😒

But then I’m not really against or for Masami. They can be cute together, but the way the decided to have them get back together, kinda, felt weird. Then they torpedo that too…

Do I have to comment on Boleska? It was bad, just bad. Made worse by trying to have Bolin get back together with her at the end of the season.

Looking at Varrick and Zhu Li’s dynamic in book 2, and looking forward to the finale, they’re really going to try to pass this off as romance?

Stray observations

Asami and Bolin are actually a good duo and them hanging out before Bolin got swallowed by his dumb plots for the season was nice

Despite generally not caring for the Beginnings two-parter, I did come to find myself coming around on them. I still didn’t think it was a necessary story but it’s well told for what it is.

Also there’s something about Raava saying “we will be together for all of your lifetimes” that just hits 

In “The Guide,” Tenzin brags about the garden at the Eastern Air Temple being the very one that Aang trained with Guru Pathik in. So that’s apparently public knowledge? Oh okay

Why is Unalaq working for Vaatu?

(No really, why is Unalaq working for Vaatu?!)

Despite all my grievances with Bolin’s handling for the book, there’s something wonderfully poetic about Varrick’s plan unraveling due to that “knucklehead earthbender” he underestimated 

At the end of the season, the level of detail for my notes plummeted. Around “Darkness Falls.” I basically gave up.

But I also find it interesting that there’s the decision at the end of whether or not to leave the spirit portals, when Korra is presented with an opportunity to that no other Avatar was: to stop being the Avatar. But there’s not even a debate there, she just wants to reunite with Raava and try to regain her connection to her past lives.

Mind, the “leave the spirit portals open” idea has a lot of ways that it should backfire

The franchise never going to get to deal with the can of worms that Korra’s successor 10,000 years in the future will have both Raava and Vaatu inside them, will it?

From what time I’ve read, this was the most hellish season of either show to finish. It took from May 2011 for the writing process to begin to November 11, 2013 to finish mixing the final episode, which then aired 11 days later. 

And on a personal note, gathering my thoughts on this season was much harder than with the first.

It’s been like pulling teeth to try say what I wanted to about this

Now onto book 3 😬

#the legend of Korra #tlok #TLOK rewatch #book 2 spirits #wish me luck with book 3

[quiddling]

i am literally on my HANDS and KNEES for u n. sewell

#i really am kicking my legs and giggling #replayed book 1&2 NOW ONTO BOOK 3 WISH ME LUCK #my art #andrew kingston #twc #wayhaven detective #original character #the wayhaven chronicles #digital art #drawing #art #fan art #procreate #oc #interactive fiction #wayhaven chronicles #choice of games #nat sewell #natalie sewell #twc nat #N sewell #twc n #twc n sewell

[stazvlt]

The boy in Aviator Jacket

#nico di angelo #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #digital drawing #artists on tumblr #digital art #fanart #i'm rereading all of the books rn #including trial of apollo #wish me luck #also nico bby my favorite <3

[gender-trash]

i think i made a post several months ago like "this is the year i finally finish reading the dark forest" --

right, backing up a bit. i bought the three-body problem (paperback) from the mit coop at the beginning of campus preview weekend 2016 and hauled it around campus everywhere in my silly little blue messenger bag i thought would Finally make me Look Cool[^1], but unfortunately it happened to rain a lot that weekend and my cheap shitty messenger bag was NOT waterproofed so not only did the book get wet and wrinkly and need to be squarshed flat again, the fore-edge is to this day stained with blue dye. but i read it and loved it and then bought the dark forest (paperback) at the coop as my Post-Finals Book Treatsie sometime in freshman year, and proceeded to NOT read it until i'd well and truly forgotten what happened in book 1. at which point i was like "hm i'd better reread three-body problem! guess i'll start that on the plane home"

longtime followers may remember the events of summer 2017, which i shan't recapitulate here; suffice it to say i didn't get a lot of reading done outside of the absolute baseline comfort rereading-every-diana-wynne-jones-book-for-the-twentieth-time, and shortly before my surgery this year i pulled three-body problem off my shelf and realized that 1) there was a bookmark 1/4 of the way through it 2) it was my fucking boarding pass from my may 2017 flight home, which really carbon-dates the last time i touched it. ANYWAY i finished it, went "cool! i will definitely read dark forest immediately!" and then......... read the first fiftyish pages and stopped, leaving it to languish on the pile AGAIN

BUT TODAY I FINISHED READING IT FOR REAL and now i have that good good scifi book hangover where i'm just kind of. staring at the wall thinking about it. might fuck around and blorbify luo ji and/or zhang beihai idk

[^1]: with time i've accepted that i'm never going to look cool, except maybe to a highly specific audience that can appreciate my rare vintage robotics startup t-shirts, and also that this particular bag was definitely not large enough for how bad i always overpack

#the trashcan speaks #i also had a little deal with myself that i couldn't buy book 3 until i finished book 2 #and i have now triumphantly ordered it #sadly not from the coop though. oh well #the new coop location has like jack shit for a fiction section anyway iirc ://// #that was my emotional support post-finals book treatsie source... #anyway please wish me luck in successfully finishing death's end sometime before 2030

[princessofxianle]

The amount of happiness I get just by looking at tgcf content is unreal like I'll just look at a snip of XL from the manhua itself...

...and im just like 😇😇😇 for the rest of the day because I LOVE HIM

But you add HC to the mix...

...and I think I might OD on dopamine cause brain.exe has stopped working

#hualian is just 😊😊😊 #this story is like a drug #anyway... #imma go read now #bout to start book 3 wish me luck #tgcf #xie lian #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #hua cheng #hualian

[stoertebeker]

Yeah the La sociedad de la nieve movie is insanely good but now that I'm finally reading the book. I'm experiencing emotions previously unknown to man

#it's one thing watching a good movie adaptation. it's something else reading the words of the survivors themselves #mostly I'd really need my father to read it because he's soo convinced of that whole »people become savages in survival situations« thing #which just! isn't true!! look what those boys did up there! look how they survived! #but yeah. will never happen because the book isn't translated into German </3 #anway forcing myself to go on a walk now to retrieve some part of my sanity wish me luck #⚓

[bvnnyblood]

my sweet little sister is going through her first breakup and oh my goodness i had no idea that the human body could produce this much tears and rage dear god

#wish her and me luck #we’re making a burn book rn <3 #we’re also watching a bunch of y2k movies and booing whenever people kiss it’s going great #well she’s booing and i’m taking shots of monster but same difference right? #she also said that she wants to watch schlatt with me to help her feel better i’m crying

[laczki]

.

#im going to finish reading heroes of olympus after 3 years of not interacting with the fandom or books wish me luck 🤞 #and its all because of pjo show #¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[werewolf-transgenderism]

downloading an ebook of the riverside chaucer to my ipad because the physical copy is simply better suited to its current job as a doorstop

#that thing hurts my hands to read from and it's so huge it doesn't even fit in my book stand that I use to avoid the hand hurty #although the ebook is also taking thirty years to download because this motherfucker is 1500 pages of tiny tiny print #wish me luck as I once again return to my most hated medieval author <3

[90selderichhorror]

Wish me luck guys I'm visiting family I haven't seen in 3 years, mentally preparing myself for shitty politics and constant questions about how college is going

#do i even use my talking tag atp #anyway theyre floridians #so yeah #wish me luck #brought the picture of dorian gray so if that get used against me in trial laugh about it with mw #there is no cis or het way to be really into that book #i am rambling bc its almost 3:30 and the ampunt of sleep ive gotten is not enough

[cerbreus]

like, it’s not final til it’s finalized and i’m in the chair getting it done lbr, but i just heard back from one of the artists i put an inquiry in for my sleeve and she’s interested! :’) genuinely so excited to get it started, even if it’s quite a few months off.

#fourth inquiry is the charm i guess! #i still haven't even heard back from the other 3 #2 just ghosted after the initial response and closed up books #one is pretty notoriously bad at getting back to people it took 10 months for her to even respond for the stomach tat #in all honesty if it all goes smoothly i might ask this artist if she'd like to do the matching left sleeve down the road :') #i've been wanting sleeve tattoos for SOOOO long like lifelong goal for me #it's finally happening!! #my stuff #wish me luck for the 5 hr sessions hope they're super manageable for me #even if they're not i'll tough it out regardless but still wish me the luck

[mikecrewsteacup]

i am finally ALMOST in the last week of my semester, so i can finally get back to all my hobbies that require brainpower in 7-8 business days..... well in that + some recovery time

i have unresponded-to messages and memes and tagged things that i genuinely cannot wait to get back to, but they're all probably going to wait until after i've hit "submit" on my last final bc boy has this past academic year been a rough one

#have not had a substantial break since last may and i tell you hwat it has done me no favors #i mean i've learned calculus and advanced statistics in 12 months but emotionally i am in shambles #academically i have 3 more enormous assignments and finals to turn in #one of which is only available during a 24 hour period during the one day a week i have off with my spouse #so even any celebrations of being at the end has to wait til afterwards for me and i'm dying but also relieved #the last time i had a 24 hour-access final i nearly passed on so wish me luck i'll see you all on the other side with more memes and fun #(in case anyone is wondering in what world a final is open book and available for 24 hours and still hard) #(i present to you: grad school for a subspecialty of applied statistics and making full multi-page document reports) #(can't remember the last time i had a homework or a final that was shorter tan 10 pages altho to be fair code just runs long)

[likeadragonfruit]

I’m surprised that I don’t have as much to go over in separate posts this time. So it’s roundup/brain dump time for book 3. Also yeah it’s been a few months haha 😅

Big Picture

Overall flow

This is the best season so far. I’ve even seen people say this is better than ATLA, and I don’t know that I’d go that far, but this is probably the most watchable it’s been so far. (And watchability isn’t damning with faint praise, Law and Order built an empire on being watchable.)

It does a decent job picking things up from the previous season and moving forward from there, especially considering how much book 2 looked like it was setting up a series finale.

But that cast size problem? Getting worse. We’re now up to Korra and the rest of Krew, Tenzin and his family (including his siblings still), Lin, Korra’s family (minus Unalaq), and adding in Lin’s family, airbenders (most prominently Kai) and the Red Lotus members

Also, the trend of breaking Korra in some way at the end of each season  continues, expect this is the one without a hasty recovery

Korra and the airbenders

It’s the event that shapes the whole season: new airbenders emerging post-harmonic convergence

And it’s ambiguous exactly what happened but Tenzin (acting as an authorial mouthpiece) attributes it to Korra

So the point is consequences? She (supposedly) created a bunch of airbenders but also kickstarted the Red Lotus plot via Zaheer’s escape

Which later almost kills her, except for the other airbenders who prevent Zaheer from escaping

Anyway, the way this plot is introduced initially bothered me a lot, but since it’s what the season revolves around, I kind of had to deal with it regardless.

Politics:

The politics of moderation reign once more

“(Bad) monarchs are bad, but so is anarchy” is a take I suppose

It’s kind of weak with the Red Lotus being more straw man anarchists than anything

Character opinions

Korra: I’m actually a little bothered by how little I have to say about her currently.

Mako: as said previously, I didn’t hate him and he’s even better now that they’ve freed him from the love triangle. But they’ve also been quarantining him with Bolin.

Bolin: oh Bolin, you’d be so good if you were good. He’s more tolerable this season at moments, and so obnoxious at others still. (Yes I’m ignoring last season.) Ultimately I still landed on not liking him.

Asami: she still isn’t getting storylines, but she’s basically the best supporting player there is. She works well with any character you pair her off with.

Tenzin: pass

Jinora: pass

Kya: oh you get to do so little this season, but I still love you.

Bumi: was alright this season.

Kai: a pretty classic jerk with heart of gold, but the classics are classics because they work.

Hou Ting: pass

Lin: I was actually a bit conflicted because the whole “being forced to interact with Suyin” thing during her mini arc was not a good look on her.

Suyin: so for her all her faults, I actually kinda like her, and it’s hard to explain. The best way I can think of is she scratches the part of my brain that’s a fan of Gon Freeces. And put in a way comprehensible to non-HxH fans, it’s that her selfish and hypocrisy reminds me of other characters where those flaws were critical to their arcs, even though I already know this series will never call Suyin on it, really.

Opal: the only of Suyin’s kids worth mentioning this season. 

Zaheer: he gets talks up a lot as he franchise’s best villain but meh. 

Ghazan: I want to come up with more, but basically I like him, for the little we get

Ming-Hua: see Ghazan

P’li: better than the last combustion bender we got. But most of the positive things I could say are either design or action related. She just got so little to do character wise compared to the rest. 

Shipping

yeah, still keeping this section

Korrasami: well they’ve spent more time together this season. As far as build up, umm…

Jinora/Kai: they’re cute, puppy love

Zaheer/P’li: meh

Bopal: love/hate relationship here. Sometimes I’m just like, “ugh, no, run Opal.” Others, it scratches that “aww dorks in love” part of my brain. But ultimately “girl, run” is winning. (You can do better, Opal!)

Stray observations

This season, having been ordered at the same time as season 4 is clearly setting up things that will come back in the next season. Are they the best use of these connections? Umm…

It’s odd seeing Kuvira this season as a dancer in her (background) introduction and for the rest of the season as the guard captain Lin and Suyin bark orders at, save her saving Tonraq’s life. It’s also a shame since so much more could be done with her and better set up the next season

Why is spirit projection an airbender technique? Because Jinora is an airbender, therefore it must be a form of airbending somehow?

You know, I actually really like the Mako detective moments. While I wouldn’t say I’d like a spin off, an au fic would work

If I had a nickel for every time a villain threatened to or tried to wipe out the airbenders/airbending, I’d have three nickels…

In the “Enter the Void,” Grey’s Ming-Hua starts slipping more into her Azula voice

Okay fuck Bolin for this moment

8 years later and I still vibe with Ghazan’s death over prison attitude

It’s been a very different experience watching book 3 like this, even more so than book 1 and 2. 8 years ago, I was watching books 3 and 4 during a stressful time in my life and didn’t necessarily mind all the details then

And with that, we’re in the homestretch. Just book 4 left now…

#the legend of Korra #tlok #TLOK rewatch #book 3 change #wish me luck with book 4

[rustinged]

wishes for myself are: wake up and not immediately go on my phone. in the mornings, I’d like to read, go for a walk and have a small breakfast. I’m already at 1/3 with having breakfast

#ahhh in order to not go back to sleep when I have smth to do I go on my phone but tomorrow I don’t have to get out of the house until 3 so #perhaps I’ll try tomorrow #read my book to stay awake -> get up and eat breakfast -> go for walk #all before hmmmmmmm 10-11 let’s say #I get up around 7-8 these days #wish me luck💪🏽

[bellflower-goat]

>:l

#I wanted to see some stuff bout the book n just looked for the name in tags #There is so much fuckin x reader stuff <:] #I think I am not really ready for that shit h.c has made too comfy w how stuff is done there #why would ya put that in the main tagssss <:] #I wanna keep looking but ik I'll end up pissed cause I haven't seen the mi. #the movie n. Like I wanna see if there is a fa.ndom n if there's like drawi.ngs of the kids #But I remembered that 1.- mi.ss p looks different in the movie. So so damn different #And that 2.im pretty sure all of the kids have different designs n just. <:] #welp wish me luck I gotta check but before that im blocking like 10 variations of the x rder shit #And I might be wrong abt how the movie is! I just don't really have the time or energy to see how it's made #maybe when i see it I'll like it n say wow it really is good! But since they even changed the damn #lo.ve inte.rest I'm just :l abt it. Cause why that girl??? She's a dam kid in the book!! She has fun n has #her little tiara n all! What says 'roma.ntic i.nterest abt that?? #idk I'm salty abt that #That's like. All ik abt the movie n that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth #Edit ohohohooooooo there slore of em??? O thought there were only like 3! Hm this might have been worth it. #n just for the record I don't got anything against those x rder stuff it's just a tad bit annoying having to scroll tru all that when #It don't even have a readmore or something like that #This is all just me sayin my thoughts n I don't mean I'll by any of it

[megagrind]

Ive made it to book 7 of my Michael vey re-read and have confirmed that book 8 is available at every Barnes and noble in the area.

Im going to become ungovernable

#I can FEEL myself getting stronger #if you thought I was a wreck when the shattered castle released just you wait #im going to explode #I have this HUGE pitch due next Friday that I’ve barely started and im so worried because all I can think about is this fucking series #actually I take back everything I said there shouldn’t be more Tourette’s rep in sci fi fantasy #it makes me too powerful and unable to function and frankly I’m too busy to be put in a predicament like this #(I say as I work on my sci fi fantasy pitch with TS rep) #ANYWAY #it’s midnight and I can’t go to bed I underestimate how fuck batshit hard act 3 of book 6 goes #still reeling #wish me luck