Thanks for the move.

>>Interesting piece of Korra art (apparently a Dark Horse cover)
>
>It's a good illustration, though, and nice to have a
>version of it without all the titles and stuff on it;I'd never seen a
>clean one before.

It's interesting how much better characters often look in artbooks than in their original source material. Obviously, the artist has more time than the animator does. I always thought it was a little jarring, though, to pick up, say, an Akemi Takada artbook from back in the day, and there's the cast of Patlabor or KOR or whatever looking absolutely fabulous done up in watercolor or colored charcoal or whatnot (PJM would know)

Jeanne

	Jeanne Hedge http://www.jhedge.com 1st Courier of the Heavenly Prophets for Tianxia "Never give up, never surrender!"

Indeed - also, the illustrations in artbooks are often by the character designers themselves (I don't see a signature on the Book 3 artbook cover pic, but I think it's probably either Bryan Konietzko or Joaquin Dos Santos). Although that's not a guarantee, and often the Original Designers will go and get experimental on us in ways that the animators wouldn't have. The cover illustrations for the Book 1 artbook and soundtrack are both Konietzko's work, I think, and though beautifully rendered, they're also in a completely different art style from the show itself, which renders Korra so far off-model that she looks like some other character cosplaying as her (especially on the soundtrack cover).

I should note, before Phil gets annoyed with me for complaining about this again, that I'm not calling it out as a mistake; I know full well that the artist did it on purpose as an exercise in working in different art styles, and that as an artist he has the perfect right to do that. I'm just saying that off-model renderings of animation characters bug me, full stop.

(It's a context thing, too. It would probably appeal to me as a demonstration of artistic flexibility inside the book, but on the cover? Isn't the point of the cover to make the product instantly recognizable? 'Cause it's... kind of... not when you do that. If you have to think about what you're looking at and make the connections in the previous paragraph before it makes sense, that's more work than a cover illustration ought to require of the punters. :)

Regardless, Book 3's artbook cover does not have that problem. That's sure Korra, all right. In fact, that's Corwin's second-favorite version of her: Srs Bsns Purposeful Korra. (His first favorite is Playful Fun Times Korra, obviously.) And he still likes her hair that way, so nyah, hair scene haters. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

More that it's an ambivalent thing, both positive and negative. Confronting the "Other" and establishing a rapport is nearly always better than forcefully isolating two groups. Isolation breeds distrust and contempt whenever the two possibly cross paths. Only through dialogue and understanding can there be peace.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart

On the other hand, I like that ragged-costume "characters you know visit the Savage Land" fanart meme as much as the next guy, but having it applied to Republic City itself is a bit much. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

<Shrek> What you're doing is the opposite of helping!

--G.
What? The first one was amazing. I haven't seen any of the other stuff. "Do you know the muffin man?"
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I could produce some platitudes and spew some super-positive BS, if that would make you feel better.

Sometimes this happens. Sometimes shows have characters and/or settings you just can't help but love, but then the show totally goes off the rails somewhere. Characters who won't grow, bad plot, or a surplus of repetition will do that.

Case in point: Evangelion. Another example would be Gundam Seed Destiny, which felt like a bad repeat of the more-enjoyable Gundam Seed. Maybe the Legacy of Korra staff have decided to combine the two experiences by producing a character who won't grow and placing her in repetitive situations.

Nope. She's growing. Boy, has she ever.

--- Philip
(A good driver, though? That's still a work in progress.)

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart

NOTE: That would be us, so I hope not. :) (The TV show is Legend; Legacy is the UF-universe "extension".)

>>have decided to combine the two
>>experiences by producing a character who won't grow and placing her in
>>repetitive situations.
>
>Nope. She's growing.

All right, having seen most of the first two, I suppose I will stipulate to that. Albeit slowly, and with occasional slightly inexplicable retrogressions.

Repetitive situations, though? You're soaking in it!

>(A good driver, though? That's still a work in
>progress.)

(Asami lets her drive in the driveway.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Doh! Right, sorry. You two are doing a great job. As to the cartoon production staff, I can't comment from personal experience, but the description you've given makes their efforts sound... suboptimal, from a story-telling standpoint.

>>Nope. She's growing.

I'll take your word for it - as I said, I've not watched the cartoon.

>
>All right, having seen most of the first two, I suppose I will
>stipulate to that. Albeit slowly, and with occasional slightly
>inexplicable retrogressions.
>
>Repetitive situations, though? You're soaking in it!
>
>>(A good driver, though? That's still a work in
>>progress.)
>
>(Asami lets her drive in the driveway.)

So long as she doesn't park in the parkway.

>
>--G.

The thing is, there are basically two guys running the show. They are fantastic worldbuilders and have created some great characters, but the day-to-day business of writing what happens to those characters... well, I don't think they've really got both hands on that wheel. I find this immensely frustrating, because, well, great characters. But they spent the first twenty-five episodes of the series doing little but abusing them, particularly the amazingly lovable title character (I compiled a score card of the first two seasons elsewhere on this board, at the end of last year's run - it's pretty grim reading), and I can only stand for so much of that.

(This didn't seem to happen as often or to such an extent in the previous series, possibly because Avatar: The Last Airbender had more than just those two guys writing the actual episodes. Or possibly I'm just feeling it more because I'm much fonder of Korra.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I will, because I'm, well, me, have much and more to say about Book 3, but I'd like to note that of the first six episodes, only one is actually written by either Bryan or Mike. And of those six, three were written by Tim Hedrick, who brought us City of Walls and Secrets, Sokka's Master, and The Puppetmaster, among others.

Dude seems to really like doing freaky things with waterbending. That one lady has no arms, yo. You'd think that would inhibit her bending! YOU WOULD BE WRONG.

-Merc
Keep Rat

By a strange coincidence, one of those is my least favorite episode of ATLA. And brought into the canon one of the key things that made it possible for Book 1 of TLOK to be so hateful! Double word score!

--G.
To paraphrase a friend's remark about the zombie apocalypse trope wearing thin, "Bloodbending. Fuck off."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.