u/Aspirationally_Lazy

I’ve always found Kyoshi’s inability to bend small things to be really interesting.

It’s not really shown to be a matter of skill or power. She just can’t do it without her fans. I’ve always taken this to be essentially a disability and it really adds a layer of intrigue to her character. It would’ve been fairly easy for Yee to have just made her learn how to do it without her fans and not need them anymore but I think it’s a better direction to just say that for whatever reason she just can’t do it without her fans and that’s okay. Obviously even without her fans she is still plenty capable.

The franchise has always done disability representation well imo and I think Kyoshi is just another example of that even if the disability isn’t really a real life experience anyone has.

I would like to preface this by saying I do overall enjoy the new frontier for what it is. Javi is a genuinely likable character and a worthy addition to Clem and Lee. The opening to the first episode is incredible and immediately has you invested in whatever is gonna happen next. I always liked the Kate/Javi romance, their chemistry together works really well. Some of the themes are well done “legacy is all we’ll leave beind.” And while I don’t love the way the season 2 endings are kind of just discarded I get that there wasn’t really a better way to do it. But with that said I have serious issues with this season.

1. As much as Javi is likable, I think that’s also kind of his problem. He really doesn’t show much in the way of flaws. We are TOLD that he was an irresponsible selfish idiot who gambled his way out of a rich career in baseball, but at no point in this season do we ever actually see the immature, selfish, irresponsible guy that we’re told about. From the very start he comes off as extremely mature, selfless, and responsible albeit a bit goofy. And that makes it hard to really believe in his growth because you don’t ever actually see any growth. Honestly it’s hard to believe the man we see ever would’ve thrown away his career gambling in the way he did. It would have been good to see a Javi in flashbacks that actually was a bit self centered and immature. Simply saying that he was at some point isn’t very effective to me.

2. David is another victim of tell don’t show unfortunately. But kinda the opposite of Javi. We see all of his flaws. But we never really see much of a decent person under them. We are TOLD that he would never go for the raiding on other communities, but nothing about his character otherwise suggested that would be the case. If he was willing to send a teenage girl into the wilderness alone just for taking supplies, that would mean to me he would prioritize the needs of his people above all else. So why would he oppose the raiding if the community needed it to survive? It felt like that whole aspect of his character existed solely to redeem how much of a dick he is in the eyes of the player and create a conflict between him and Joan for the sake of the plot. It would have been nice to actually be shown his noble side. To see qualities in him that would inform the eventual revelation that he absolutely had no part of the raids and would never have supported them. That way you actually can feel a sense of loyalty to him and see a good person under all the flaws. As it stands he’s just a giant tool with serious anger problems who just happened to randomly develop values that seem to oppose the value system he otherwise held solely for the sake of driving the plot forward.

I liked the aspect of his character that gets expanded on in episode 5 about how he views himself only as a soldier who just can’t manage the other parts of his life. But then when he is dying he gives a speech about how losing his family made him lose himself. And while that speech was performed really great by the actor and was generally well written, it just felt so out of place with David’s actual arc. He went from “I was never meant to be a family man and just belong in the army” to “when I lost my family I was completely lost on who I was meant to be” in the span of like an hour of gameplay. Just felt like his characterization was all over the place.

3. Joan is a terrible villain. When Carver throws Reggie off the building, it makes perfect sense for his character. You can completely buy that he would do something like that and that he’d subsequently view it as objectively right and that made him rather compelling. But Joan’s actions just don’t make any logical sense towards the end. The random hatred she has for David is completely out of the blue. It’s almost implied that she’s always hated him but like… why? What did David do that made her hate him so much? And hanging him in front of the whole town? Why would the town go along with that? Why was the whole security force seemingly ready to immediately kill David? I know David is kind of a dick but there is never really a reason given as to how the whole NF turned on him so quickly. It’s one thing to take him out of power but they were all ready to just watch Joan kill him, like do they not have any sense of loyalty to him at all?

Even worse, her forcing Javi to choose who dies is just nonsense. It wasn’t informed by her character at all. It was nothing more than the developers wanting to add a crazy choice to the game. And even even worse was her then killing the opposite person. Like literally WHY, what did that accomplish for her? I get the point is she’s supposed to be going mad with power but I just don’t find that to be a particularly convincing characterization. Her actions weren’t informed by her character. It was just the writers trying to make the plot happen. She’s supposed to be someone who genuinely just wants what’s best for her people, but by the end she’s just “crazy evil woman who wants to torture everyone for fun”. It’s almost like they were trying to imply that somehow David was keeping her in check the whole time but that’s never actually shown at all. She just completely loses any sense of logic the second David is out of the way but like what did she want? Power? She literally already had power lmfao

4. Speaking of characters doing shit to drive the plot forward, “life is precious, then how come you shot conrad”… easily the DUMBEST line in the entire franchise.
   It doesn’t even logically make sense. Javi tells Gabe that Gabe’s life is important and Gabe replies oh yeah then why did you kill Conrad? WHAT?! Those two points are related in any way at all. If anything the fact he killed Conrad REINFORCES his point that Gabe’s life is important because he did it to save Gabe.

The line is there solely to have Gabe expose Javi. Granted, I can kinda get behind the idea that Gabe is enough of a moronic twat to have decided ahead of time he was gonna tell everyone the second Javi mildly pushed back against him, but still it could’ve been done infinitely better. And honestly Gabe as a whole is just a worthless character. I don’t buy his growth in the final episode at all. Dude goes from insanely obnoxious and angsty to “you’re the best uncle Javi, let’s take care of dad” with literally no justification. At what point did Javi and Gabe grow their relationship between Gabe exposing him in episode 4 and then being on the roof in episode 5 that he suddenly thinks Javi is the perfect role model for him?

5. It really felt like a lot of the actual New Frontier was badly underdeveloped. There’s a lot of stuff that’s hinted at but never really expanded on.

“The politics here can get a little tricky”
“I would’ve been here sooner but I had to take care of… something”
“For now, David, I want to ask you some questions”

None of that is ever brought up again or explained in any real way. It’s like there was supposed to be a whole other subplot about the politics of Richmond that would’ve expanded on the conflict between David and Joan and maybe justified David’s characterization better but maybe they just cut that out.

It just feels like theres too much tell don’t show and mischaracterizations throughout for this season to really be on par with the others. I’m sure the behind the scenes issues caused a lot of these problems.

If there is a bright spot, it’s Clem. I really liked the characterization of the teen girl who has just lost all hope and is just mad at the world and wants to get away from everything. And the way the hope returns int the last few episodes when she learns AJ is alive leads to a shift in her tone and behavior that is subtle and well executed. I also just really like her role her as just a passerby who happens to get mixed up in Javi’s family business. It’s interesting to see our Clem almost from an outside perspective. And it sets up nicely for the final season which thankfully is significantly better than this season.

Okay rant over. I do like the new frontier. I just know there’s a much better version of this story that could have and should have been made.

Aang: what if the avatar was a pacifist in an era of war

Yangchen: what if the avatar was too empathetic for her own good

Kuruk: what if the avatar was too selfless for his own good

Roku: what if the avatar was a moron

Kyoshi: what if the avatar had deeply rooted childhood trauma

Korra: what if the avatar was saddled with the pressure and responsibility of being the avatar from a very young age before she could ever develop any sense of identity for herself leading her to take on way more than she can handle in an attempt to live up to the expectations the previous avatar set for her which subsequently leads her to crumble under that pressure and fall into a deep depression and identity crisis

Szeto: what if the avatar was a nerd

I know people have said the immortality technique is unique to earthbending, not sure if that’s actually true because I can’t remember if the books ever really said that, but I wonder if it would have been possible for her to have mastered it to the extent should use it on others.

In my headcanon she would have used it on Rangi for a while as they got old and kept Rangi alive for a bit, but I think eventually Rangi would have just been ready to move on.

I think there’s a lot of potential with Kyoshi as a character in her later years to flesh out exactly what her life became as everyone around her began moving on while she stayed. To see her slowly lose connection to the world around her and see the world slowly see her as an almost mythical figure. 230 years is a crazy long time. George Washington was President 230 years ago. Imagine being born and the avatar is 100 years old and then you live to be 100 and she’s still the avatar.

Xu: makes Rangi cry, Kyoshi immediately kills him.

Jianzhu: threatens to cut Rangi’s throat, Kyoshi immediately kills him

Yun: stabs Rangi, Kyoshi immediately kills him.

In short; kyoshi is pretty chill, but if you mess with Rangi there will be nowhere for you to hide

One of the more annoying tropes that is just everywhere in movies, shows, etc… is a character being hit over the head and then going unconscious until the plot needs them awake. Then they just wake up and maybe have like mild dizziness.

Like this trope is used in media that’s supposed to be realistic. I don’t understand why this completely nonsensical myth has become so pervasive in media. I get it’s convenient for the plot but that’s just not at all how being knocked out works. You might be unconscious for a few seconds but it doesn’t last. And if it does last, you’re not just gonna wake up with mild discomfort. Like that is SIGNIFICANT brain damage if you are genuinely out for an extended time. I’d like writers to work a little harder at realism rather than defaulting to this silly unrealistic trope.

Same goes for someone being choked out. Once they release the pressure the oxygen returns and you’ll be conscious again fairly quickly. And if you aren’t then you’re probably dying and need immediate medical attention.

What if Aang never had any children, and then harmonic convergence didn’t restore the airbenders. Then what would happen the next time the avatar cycle reached Air? Would it just skip and move on to water? Would the cycle be broken?