Avatar: The Legend of Korra

**Dantrag** · 2012-05-21 10:48

That and none of the benders we've seen are soldiers. Almost every single bender in Last Airbender were warriors. Veteran warriors at that.

**Eurell** · 2012-05-21 10:57

Originally Posted by Dantrag

That and none of the benders we've seen are soldiers. Almost every single bender in Last Airbender were warriors. Veteran warriors at that.

Except for the main heroes funny enough lol. But the point does still stand, especially since they were trained by masters and shit.

But yeah, pretty much everything ziero said are my feelings on it. When the benders are on the offensive, and know wtf is up before a fight, they kick ass. The task force was wrecking the equalists.

**Ragnus** · 2012-05-21 11:00

Well, equalists in training. Tarlok only really owned that one guy because he got the drop on him.

**Eurell** · 2012-05-21 11:10

Yeah, but I don't think that was their only attack. It was just the only one shown to us. Didn't they do some spinning newspaper or announcer thing talking about them doing more raids?

**Ziero** · 2012-05-21 11:51

Yea, they were raiding lots of Equalist training camps, and Korra went along for a few of them not just the one we saw actually happen on screen. It was insinuated she was with them for at least a week or more.

**silverdragontyr** · 2012-05-21 18:53

For the very few times we've seen Tenzin fight he has kicked ass until getting hit by cheap attacks. Lin made it sound like she purposely held back for sake of retaining law after last episode. I think future episodes are going to show the benders we know can fight really going full scale soon. I never understood saying benders are weak considering we've seen equalists train day and night for the sole purpose of battling benders, not just martial arts. Regardless I am looking forward to what will happen.

**Akiyama** · 2012-05-21 19:41

Originally Posted by warc

Benders are useless. For no reason really. Tenzin had potential and it started out cool but again was beaten quite handily by Equalists. I don't think we'll see Korra's avatar state til she learns spiritual aspects of bending, which she apparently lacks.

You're dumb. You do realize in every case where we've seen Tenzin 'beaten easily' it's been due to an ambush, right? Even the main Gaang from the first season got 'beaten easily' in an ambush situation. :<

Honestly, and after reading the other posts.. yeah, it's pretty much agreed that the benders losing fights has more to do with them being jumped/sneak-attacked more than them 'sucking'..

and yeah, we won't see bending to the scale of the first series due to the fact that things are.. more calm in this time in comparison to seventy years previous.

Looking forward to Bat-Lin, though.

**xElipsis** · 2012-05-21 22:18

Finally got around to seeing the newest episode. Really enjoyed seeing Tenzin in action.

Spoiler: show

**Silenka** · 2012-05-22 00:56

Something I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is that it is probably very easy to accidentally used deadly force while bending in a fight. If bending has been reduced to a sport/martial arts training without any real combat experience, it's probably a lot harder to know how much force to use to incapacitate but not kill a person. Korra and the other non-soldier benders are never trying to kill their opponents, only drive them off or incapacitate them, which may make them hold back more when it comes time for a real fight.

There are a lot of bending moves, I imagine, that work just like certain moves in real martial arts: you practice them, but if you ever actually used them against someone it would just kill them outright or seriously injure them. The TLA group had a lot of experience with how much force they should use (and only sometimes had problems using too much or too little, like Aang's first jaunt into firebending) but because bending isn't really used in Korra's time outside pro-bending or laborious work, both of which have built-in power restraints (mana? and a long workday respectively), I can see how it might be difficult to control one's own bending against another human being.

**Eurell** · 2012-05-22 05:26

I think you might be looking too far into things lol. Korra doesn't seem like she's too worried if people die, as shown when she threw those equalists off their ropes going into their airships at the probending attack. Lin doesn't seem to give a shit either, she was jamming those metal spikes right at the pilot of that giant robot last episode.

Tenzin is probably the only one that really gives a shit about killing people, just like aang in the first series. Noone cared about killing people then either, they may have not tried to kill people, but if it happened i don't think anyone cared except for aang.

**Ziero** · 2012-05-22 07:49

Unless they specifically say they're trying to hold back, I think all the fan based explanations for them "being weaker" is just fan speculation for the benders not living up to their expectations. Really, the only reason the bending as a whole seems less impressive is because they've never had a full on fight to really show it off. Most fights end really quick from cheap shots and sneak attacks, which is how guerrilla warfare works. There's also the fact that outside of the Pro-Bending matches, we haven't seen a Bender v Bender fight which is usually where the most impressive stuff happened from the first show. There hasn't been any counter bending or redirection or "Bender spam" battles, it's all Benders attack, Equalists evade and hit them from behind. But I think the biggest reason the Bending has seemed so "less impressive" this time around is because we're only at the seventh episode of a show that's currently been extended to being two full seasons long. The show has literally just started and this conflict has only really begun, as the story progresses and new villains start revealing themselves (amon is only supposed to be a short term enemy) the battles will grow larger and more epic just like they did in the first season.

And again, we will NEVER see Firebending on the scale of the series finale of the original show. That stuff was suped up beyond reason due to Souzin's comet, something that won't come around again for another 30 years.

**warc** · 2012-05-24 01:12

Originally Posted by Akiyama

You're dumb.

Nou.

**euph** · 2012-05-24 03:04

amazing, stealing that for my sig

**Akiyama** · 2012-05-24 11:17

Originally Posted by xElipsis

Finally got around to seeing the newest episode. Really enjoyed seeing Tenzin in action.

Spoiler: show

Not sure if it's been confirmed fake yet or not.. but it certainly feels like it'll be fake. Then again.. who really knows for now.

Originally Posted by warc

Nou.

Lol. Apologies for playing the 'You're dumb' card. That was silly of me. :< Just.. I choose to not agree with your theory of benders basically being neutered.

But honestly, as far as the benders getting 'outmatched' every fight.. I think it's just the writers way of making sure the Equalists even have a chance. Make situations where benders are always at the disadvantage, and give the Equalists forms to 'equal' themselves to a bender. Otherwise, Benders would just faceroll everything and it wouldn't be much of a war.

**Qeomash** · 2012-05-24 14:58

Yeah, we're honestly overthinking how bad the benders are doing in fights right now. If benders fought as well as they really can, we would have a Korra TV special instead of a series.

It all boils down to:

Spoiler: show

Also, it's likely for making the "F*CK YEAH!" moments bigger when some bending badassery finally happens.

**Sunrider** · 2012-05-24 16:46

I think all the proposed arguments have some manner or relevance. Consider The Last Airbender; Ty Lee was a thorn in the Gaang's side, and we'd consider the lot of them to be pretty hardcore benders. Assuming each of these Equalists is at least as good as she was, there's no reason they wouldn't be as troublesome. This is in addition to their use of circumspect guerrilla tactics. Even the most combat-experienced benders we've seen thus far (specifically the police force) haven't been entirely prepared for what the Equalists have thrown at them (taser-fists), while the other examples were gangsters used to victimizing non-benders or kids still yet inexperienced with combat scenarios.

And, of course, plot devices: metalbenders unable to manipulate platinum just seems silly to me (maybe setting up for Lin to do the "impossible" in the future), and the benders failing to use obvious strategies (Korra and Lin putting sinkholes under those mechs' feet, for example).

**Athas** · 2012-05-24 20:10

Originally Posted by Sunrider

And, of course, plot devices: metalbenders unable to manipulate platinum just seems silly to me (maybe setting up for Lin to do the "impossible" in the future), and the benders failing to use obvious strategies (Korra and Lin putting sinkholes under those mechs' feet, for example).

Why so? Metal bending was just manipulating earthen impurities in the metal. If a metal was refined enough, it would make sense that it wouldn't be bendable.

**Salodin** · 2012-05-24 20:46

Bending the earth under their feet still stands though, bolin even does it to escape. I mean, these are small grievances, but its small things like this that kinda take away from the atmosphere for me.

**zoobernut** · 2012-05-26 13:03

Is there no new episode this week? Avatar just came on for me and it is the very first episode...

**Caiyuo** · 2012-05-26 13:05

Didn't recall seeing anything about it, but yeah, for whatever reason the new episode is next Saturday.

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