Last episode was probably one of the best in the entirety of LOK, and this is why this episode stands out to me as being particularly mediocre. This episode was all over the place. Kuvira, while she's interesting, she more or less feels like Azula rebooted. The plot twist of her not wanting to give up power felt predictable, and Wu feels like Varrick but with none of the charm and all of the irritation. In all honesty, it seems kind of lazy to me how they seem to be reusing characters under different names; I really would love to see these characters develop their own individual identities rather than being a rehashed version of existing characters.
Anyway, moving on: Wu gets crowned as the king, only for Kuvira to usurp him. Meanwhile, Toph is training Korra. Now, being a major Toph fan, I was over the moon to see her. But, in all honesty, it seems as if her character now is a lot meaner than in ATLA. While younger Toph would regularly poke fun at her friends in all jest and grew to appreciate them more than she'd realise, older Toph feels bitter and a mere caricature of what her character formerly was, and that really made me upset.
Wu's little breakdown in the shopping centre also felt extremely forced, almost as if the show wanted to manufacture drama to fill up the minutes. His character is endlessly pathetic for me, shallow, and watching Mako on my screen is like watching paint dry. His character at this point exists only for the sake of existing and serves no real role in the story, though given Bolin's outburst about him being nothing more than "the butler for a rich snotty kid", even the writers seem to recognise this (and it made for a pretty amusing moment, which I'll give them credit for). Though I'm holding out hope that Wu will become more bearable to watch, the fact remains that his little breakdown was quite possibly one of the most forced scenes I've ever had to watch in my life.
Also, it's becoming tiring just how often Bolin has to play the naive character. Yawn, I've already seen this with Varrick. Can we PLEASE have Bolin develop as a character a bit more? I love him, but he's becoming very one noted and again, this season is only accentuating that fact for me.
Also WHY ARE THE TWINS BACK? They were painfully dull last season, existing only to be the obligatory weird characters, and I really have no desire to see them again. Though, perhaps the show will subvert my expectations and make them good this time. We'll see.
Anyway, that said, this episode wasn't entirely bad. Like I said, watching Bolin and Mako argue was amusing and I'm looking forward to seeing Korra regain control over herself. In no world is this episode worth an 8.5 rating though; I'm genuinely baffled by that figure.
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