Pretentious Reviews - Christmas with the Doctor! - The Christmas Invasion

CHRISTMAS!
CHRISTMASCHRISTMASCHRISTMASCHRISTMAS
 - Crap. I haven't finished my Christmas shopping.
Still... CHRISTMAS!!
And what would Christmas be without a young Smith in an Attic giving a few reviews on Christmas? Exactly the same as every other Christmas, of course! I only started these reviews this year, after all.
Given that this is my first Christmas reviewing stuff, I thought to myself - 'Smith, you really need to give a review on something classic, something regular - something quintessentially British and Christmassy all at once; something bold, iconic, and preferably something that you've already seen so all you need to do is refresh your memory and you'll be able to review it without, you know, paying money for it.' So yeah, Doctor Who Christmas Specials it is.

The Christmas Invasion.

Yes, nitpickers, it's not technically the first - there was another made starring the First Doctor, William Hartnell, early in the show's history. I won't be reviewing that one, since I plan to only do the NuWho episodes and because... Well, I haven't seen it and have no particular interest in trying to find it and watch it.

So The Christmas Invasion starts at the beginning of Season Two of the new series of Doctor Who, or the end of the first depending how you choose to look at it. While I, personally, see it as a bridge between the two series, if I had to pick I'd say it's a part of Season Two as, for me, Eccleston's departure was what marked the definitive end of the First Series. Now this immediately put it in a difficult position; though many people now consider Tennant to have been the greatest Doctor to have graced the show (I don't, if anyone's wondering) that wasn't the feeling we had when we saw him in the Series One finale, The Parting of the Ways. In fact, most people I knew thought he was too young, or too happy, or too effeminate.

Yes, there were people who felt that way.

But looking back at Eccleston's performance, it's easy to see why people were so upset. It bothers me to this day that he left so quickly; I honestly think he'd be remembered as the best by many more than just me had he had a run as long as Tennant's, or even Smith's. Either way, people loved him in Season One, and were reluctant to see him go - meaning Tennant needed to pull something great out of the bag in this episode for the transition to be relatively painless.

The episode begins with the TARDIS pretty much crashing outside the Tyler... er... appartmenthold, I guess, and Mickey and Jackie running out to find a strange man emerge. He angrily goes on about how he needs to tell them something important, when he remembers - 'Merry Christmas!' Then he collapses in front of them.

It's a pretty clever way of showing what the episode will be about - Christmas, and the Doctor being unconscious for about half the episode.

The episode is pretty involved, so I'll try to shorten it as best I can in terms of plot: The people of Britain have sent out a probe to Mars, and it gets picked up by a large alien spaceship. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister (and yes, she actually keeps calling herself that way past the point it's still actually funny) finds herself threatened by these aliens to surrender, or everyone with a certain blood type will step off a roof. See, they become sort of hypnotised and walk up to a roof, where they stand near the edge for a while. It's actually pretty eerie, made worse by the fact that she's constantly trying to get in touch with the man who helped her in an episode in the previous series, The Doctor.

He, meanwhile, is still recovering from the TARDIS radiation stuff he absorbed from Rose at the end of the previous episode and is in no position to help the people of Earth. It turns out he can barely save himself from a killer Christmas tree - and yes, they have one of those and it is so ridiculously brilliant to see.

After Mickey and Rose wander about getting attacked by alien Santas and there's a joke made about a guy Jackie knows (you know what I mean by know, right? You know, knows him? If not, you're probably too young. Ask your parents) having fruit in his dressing gown pocket that the Doctor is wearing while he recovers, the TARDIS, along with Mickey, Rose and an unconscious Doctor are taken to the alien ship, who are revealed to be called the Sycorax. They meet Harriet Jones and some of her staff, who were taken up to the ship to negotiate a surrender of Earth.

Rose steps forward in a painful attempt to imitate the Doctor, using a bunch of stuff he said last series to try and intimidate them, but in a very unintimidating manner and quite frankly, in a way that makes no sense. The Doctor was often able to scare his enemies, but rarely - if ever - to the point that they would back off. He always needed to back up his threats, something Rose definitely cannot do. Assuming she is threatening them - personally, I couldn't really tell what message she was trying to get across, it was all very jumbled and incoherent.

In any case, the leader of the Sycorax laughs and starts talking in his alien language, which they have been using all episode since - with The Doctor out of commission - the TARDIS translator has been inactive meaning we can't understand what it's saying. Personally, I don't know why The Doctor being unconscious has anything to do with whether it functions or not; he's been unconscious before and it still worked fine. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it seems like a bit of a convenience to build up the fact that he has woken up when the Sycorax leader starts speaking English.

As it turns out, all the Doctor needed was a cup of tea to get better, which had been spilled by Jackie in the TARDIS earlier. Ah, British TV, where a brew really does solve all your problems - including extra-terrestrial hostile takeovers. So he's back, and immediately takes charge of the situation, removing the mind control over the people on the roofs, challenging the Sycorax leader to a duel for the planet, and lamenting the fact that he's not ginger.

The Doctor wins the duel - after losing a hand and growing another - but when the Sycorax leader tries to stab him in the back (almost literally) he throws a Satsuma at a conveniently placed switch that causes the floor to open beneath the alien invader, and he plunges to his death.

The time travelling hero then announces to The Sycorax that they are to tell other species and let them know of its riches, people and most importantly - that 'It. Is. Defended'. This draws a concerned look from Harriet Jones, but the Sycorax send them back and retreat. However, before they can get away, Harriet Jones orders a mysterious group known as Torchwood (admittedly not so secret now) to open fire, and they destroy the ship using some sort of weapon that looks alien in nature. The Doctor is livid, and confronts her in a pretty shouty but effective scene in which he threatens her, and she - who has seen how dangerous he is - doesn't bat an eyelid. Until she thinks he has said something to her aide which will bring down her rule as Prime Minister - and she panics.

The episode ends with Rose and The Doctor having Christmas dinner with Jackie and Mickey, before heading back to the TARDIS for more travels, while Harriet Jones' mental health is called into question and it's hinted there will be a vote of no confidence that will remove her of her position.

The Christmas Invasion is pretty good. It's not my favourite of the Christmas Specials, but that is partly down to the fact that - well, it isn't entirely a Christmas special. Sure, the backdrop is Christmas, and the airing date was December 25th, 2005, but it's also an introductory episode for Tennant. And on both ends, it does a decent job.

Part of the problem for the Christmas element is that it's a little too plot driven. A lot is happening, and honestly there isn't much that's heartwarming and fun surrounding the episode aside from the Christmas dinner scene near the end. The whole Torchwood, blood control and blowing up of the Sycorax are a little dark, and while that's fine for a Christmas special to have, it just seems a little out of place in the way that it's done. It certainly doesn't feel very much like the Christmas element is prevalent enough within the actual story for it to feel like it is first and foremost a Christmas Special, since you could very easily remove anything Christmas related and the plot would be just about the same.

As for an introductory episode to a new Doctor, this one takes a pretty bold approach by not actually having him particularly present for about half of the special. These sorts of episodes usually annoy me, but in this case it really works. It piles on the tension, as things get gradually worse and worse and we, the audience, become more and more desperate for the Doctor - any Doctor - to appear and save the day.

The fact that it takes place on the modern Earth scene with characters that we've gotten to know over the past series means we still have a familiar element and aren't scratching are heads and wondering why we should care what's going on, as well as being able to focus almost entirely on the Doctor when he does appear. And, when we finally see the Doctor everyone was so sceptical about, we are relieved, our view of him immediately being a pretty positive one. It's an example of a changeover done right, for the most part - and one which holds up even better when contrasted with the Matt Smith introductory episode (which in my opinion went about introducing the new Doctor in a completely different way that just did not work).

That said, it's a bit heavy handed on the whole thing with him not knowing what sort of person he is. Constant repetitions of 'that's the man I am' got very grating, and I felt like I was being hit over the head with the idea over and over again. Then when I rub my head and groan in pain, they hit me again. It really takes away from the episode, which was otherwise doing an excellent job of introducing a new Doctor to the audience.

The Harriet Jones stuff was some of my favourite elements, going back and watching it, having seen her character arc of sorts come to an end in The Stolen Earth, and I really think she's one of the best supporting characters that wasn't a companion the show has had. I love that she refuses to become dependent on The Doctor in the end, realising that humanity needs to be able to defend itself because he won't always be there to defend them. The way she challenges his authority is fantastic, and she actually brings him up short for possibly the only time in the episode - in fact, he completely ignores her argument and topples her regime. It's a wonderful moment, after seeing him almost dance his way through the whole Sycorax thing with childlike energy until his final speech to them, to have him behaving deadly serious with this woman who he feels betrayed his trust and is in many ways no better than the monsters he fights is a great moment that hammers home the intensity that Tennant would bring to the role.

I actually feel the parts of the episode that don't hold up too well are the bits without The Doctor. On the one hand, I like the risk they took there and I think it had the effect they desired; on the other hand, it means that the first half of the episode can really drag, and at times feels a little incoherent. The stuff with the killer Christmas tree and alien Santas seemed to be nothing more than keeping the main characters that weren't unconscious busy, as I can't remember it actually contributing anything significant to the plot given the amount of time it took up.

The Christmas Invasion was a solid start to Tennant as a Doctor, and a decent first Christmas Special for NuWho that would remain a tradition up to this day, eight years on, that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon (I hope). It may not be my favourite, but it's still pretty good for all that.

I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.

Pretentious reviews: The Fall of Five

Right then. That happened.

Spoilers ahead, ye be warned. As it were.

I remember saying last post that I hoped they brought Sam back, and that they would keep up the good quality of The Rise of Nine. Well, they did the first one. Not so sure about the second...

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. This is my review of The Fall of Five, the last of this series that I'm going to be reviewing for nearly a year now, since that's how long it's going to be before the next book comes out. Which means that this series will become an annual event; at least, in terms of this book series. I'm sure I'll find stuff to occupy my time and write about.

So from where we left off last book, all the main characters - bar Sam - had come together in the enemy Mogadorian base where they had barely fought off the big bad off the series, Setrakus Ra, leader of the Mogadorians. But between then and now, there were a bunch of mini stories released about a young Mogadorian called Adamus, or Adam, who was given the memories of Number One in some sort of sci-fi manner, and at least one of her legacies, terrakinesis. At least, I think that's what it is - as far as I know, he's just made earthquakes. He then switched sides and freed Malcolm Goode, Sam's father. That's all I know about the series as I haven't read them myself, but I was very intrigued by this development and looked forward to seeing this new character in The Fall of Five.

Naturally, when the book opens with Sam getting rescued by Malcolm and Adam, I was thrilled. Then Adam splits off from them to cover their escape, and pretty much disappears until the end. Still, we had Sam back - as a narrator, as well, which was a very welcome addition. The book switches to the Garde, and their viewpoints switch between John and Marina as they basically interact and their characters develop. John and Sarah share a room and bed, but have apparently been very appropriate despite that. Which I find a slight stretch of the imagination and a little nauseating, since this couple is a little heavy on the cutesie as it is without them needing to cuddle every night, but I'm willing to overlook it. It's cool seeing more of Nine and Six, though I wish they had more interaction. As it is, they seem to interact with the other Garde members more than each other, which leads to some fun interactions nevertheless. John and Nine are at peace with each other, it seems - which I like, it's cool seeing the respect and friendship they developed for each other carry over to this book without sacrificing some of the banter between them. I also love how Nine shows off so much to the other Garde, the girls in particular, which is absolutely hilarious since not a one of them is impressed and he doesn't even seem to expect them to be, he's just winding them up.

About the only things that happen for a while seem to be that John is unofficially made leader - which I'd have been annoyed at if we hadn't had the final battle at the end of the final book. John really comes into his own in that, learning to throw fireballs because of his Lumen (the cynic in me rolled my eyes; the kid in me thought 'WOWTHATSFRIGGINAWESOME!!!!!) and keeping a clear head through the fight. I guess his being bland means he's something of an everyman with fewer flaws than the everyman; while it doesn't make for a compelling character in their own right, it makes him a good choice for a leader, as he's competent enough in a fight to command respect, but not such a hotheaded warrior type that he's reckless and insensitive to the others with him. And that brings enough conflict for his character to make him that much more bearable. Speaking of which, Sarah learns to shoot. Still not too bothered about her, but at least she's being pro active.

Five then does something monumentally stupid - before we even meet the guy. He burns a Loric symbol for five as a crop circle, and sends them a message on where to meet him. Personally, I thought it would have been easier if Eight did some sort of chain teleport to his location with Ella using her telepathy and the tablet to guide him from the penthouse (she got that ability at the end of the last book; she also managed to block out Setrakus Ra's power cancel ability in some way) to find Five, but either that wouldn't work or it's too much common sense for the Garde to handle. Anyway, John, Six and Sarah set out to meet Five and bring him back. The love triangle is resolved in a very anticlimactic fashion, with Six agreeing to step aside as she knows John and Sarah are in true love or something stupid, which I'm fine with since I still pair Sam and Six. They find Five, who seems to be a bit of a klutz; the Mogadorians then find them and there's a brief battle that ends with Malcolm and Sam arriving and saving the day.

Yep. Less than halfway through the book and we have all but one of the major players on the good side all together. I never expected that.

I'm of two minds of this; on the one hand, brilliant, we don't have to keep juggling storylines while Sam and his dad search for the Loric. On the other hand, it really makes the meeting with Five seem very anti-climactic. It should have been much bigger than it was, I feel, and is kind of offset by Five being so anti-social, and not in an entertaining or endearing way. In a pretty annoying way, actually. Thankfully, we get a great payoff to this at the end.

In any case, they return to the penthouse. They exchange stories; and we learn that Malcolm was one of several people who greeted the Loric and helped them get set up when they arrived at earth. The others are naturally dead now. As is Pittacus Lore - supposedly. It was meant to be his skeleton in the well, but given the name of the author I will either assume that's a red herring or there's some sort of reincarnation thing about the character. The others are distrustful when he says he and Sam were rescued by a Mogadorian, but he convinces them it's all good. Five turns out to have had a pretty dull life. His cepan died from a disease and he just wandered around a bunch of islands for a while.

Oh, and it turns out, according to Crayton's goodbye letter to Ella, that she is not Number Ten but the great granddaughter of an Elder who started a civil war on Lorien and got kicked off, and she was sent to earth by her father who wanted her safe. Or something.

Anyway, they play a game of capture the flag - yes, really - for training. It's a pretty cool section, with John and Nine leading each team, John leading Six, Five, Bernie Kosar and Sam against Nine, Eight, Marina, Sarah and Ella. The game ends with Nine's team barely winning, and it's pretty cool how close it was and that each member of each team contributes in some way.

There's some romance brewing in the background between Eight and Seven, which is cute enough I guess, and Eight is fairly comical so I don't mind time with him - or Marina, for that matter, who is developing reasonably well as a character. John and Sarah go on a date as well, and run into a couple of Mogadorians who John kills and finds a note on. Ah, and they same romance is dead. Six and Sam almost start a relationship, it seems, though Six is reluctant at first because of their predicament she seems to be won over until Eight teleports into the conversation with news.

They decide to set out for Five's chest, which he buried in a swamp apparently. However, Ella falls into some crazy sleep and John somehow gets sucked in when she touches his hand, and they both go into a coma sort of thing. The remaining Garde members decide to go for the chest while Sam, Sarah and Malcolm stay behind.

At the penthouse, Sam finds out the Mogadorian note John found has their location on it, and mistakenly believes it's his dad that gave him away, possibly as a sleeper agent of sorts. At the same time, he finally receives a call from Adam that his dad had been waiting for all book who warns them that they know where they are. The Mogadorians arrive, and the three humans try to fight them off, Malcolm getting badly wounded and Sarah getting injured.

Meanwhile, the Garde find Five's chest, but he turns around and betrays them, trying to win over Marina and Eight to his cause after subduing Six and Nine. Eight and Marina refuse, and are incapacitated. They try to talk Five around, but it doesn't work partly due to Nine's snarky remarks and partly because he was indoctrinated into the Mogadorian ranks when he was pretty young. They are able to just about overpower Five, but he breaks free and flies at Nine, trying to stab him - when Eight teleports in the way and is stabbed through the heart. This time, legitimately and fully dead.

Yep. They went there.

Marina suddenly develops a legacy that I think is cryokinesis, and takes out one of Five's eyes. She drops an F-bomb (which felt a little forced, but what can you do) and threatens him, as the remaining three get away as the Mogadorians attack, leaving Eights body (frozen) with the enemy.

John has a nightmare in which Ella is Setrakus Ra's heir, Chicago is decimated and the only resistance left are Six and Sam, who are captured. Ella orders their execution and Setrakus Ra cuts off Six's head, to Sam's horror, and John feels the burning sensation on his ankle - waking him up. He is able to fight off some of the Mogadorians in the apartment, but has to make a choice between saving Malcolm from death, or Ella from captivity. He chooses to save Malcolm - and thank heaven for it. After having Sam waiting so long to see his dad, it would have been cruel and cheap for him to have been killed off at the end of the book, particularly since at least one adult has needed to die near the end of each book so far. Ella is captured, Bernie Kosar - who went to the roof of the building to hold off the invaders - has not returned, John knows one of them is dead and that Five has likely betrayed them (having seen Five in the vision working for the Mogadorians). Things look pretty bleak, when Adam finally returns and John accepts his help to win the war.

The end.

It's odd, that this book did nearly everything I wanted it to - more than Rise of Nine, even - and yet it left me feeling a little hollow at the end.

I initially thought that was Eight's death. While he wasn't my favourite character, I still liked the guy and was shocked that they would kill off one of the major players in the series - let alone one of the Garde - like that, particularly so far from the end of the Lorien Legacies run. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that I actually liked it - after all, I'd felt somewhat cheated as they killed off all the important grown ups before they had been around for a full book, but all the people under twenty were completely fine. Killing off a character presumed safe, and one that we'd gotten to know over a fair bit of time and grown to actually like, was a very good move and I appreciate the book for it. I also like the twist of Five being a traitor, and the way it's done actually makes sense - he feels betrayed himself by his own people, who he feels deserted by, whereas the Mogadorians took him in and trained him, and taught him properly, at least in his mind. It also serves to give us a much more complex villain than the one dimensional (at least so far) Setrakus Ra, and the stupid federal agents who really come across as more of a minor annoyance than anything else.

Then I thought it was the ending. After all that time waiting for Adam to appear, and for us to see some really cool dynamics - or at least the start of some - was something I thought we'd be getting in the last tenth of the book. But oh no, instead we get a section devoted to that dead cepan that takes up a full ten per cent of the book - and I got it on Kindle, I know it was exactly a tenth. Why would you do that? Give a major cliffhanger for an ending, leave us assuming we have more to read and then give us a pointless mini episode instead? We don't even know if the stupid pet is alive and that could have been determined with about a page more of the actual story (though I doubt he's dead; we're already on a bum note going into the next book, it's unlikely they'll kick it off with a dead dog to add to that). The ending infuriated me, if only because I expected more.

Then I realised that the real problem was that very little was actually accomplished in this one. Funny, since this is probably the longest synopsis I've actually done since I began these reviews. The thing is, the previous books felt like build up, like we were heading towards a certain point, the pieces coming together and then when they finally do come together, stuff will really begin to happen - and that point was the end of the previous book. It feels like such a step backwards; we have the Loric fighting the enemy in the heart of their base, all coming together and using their powers to combat the leader of the Mogadorians, and then... They go back to Nine's apartment. It takes them a while to actually do anything. They go and get Five, where they pick up Malcolm and Sam too. They go to get Five's chest - which should have been a simple collection, and ended up being the flipping climax of the book. Some stuff is revealed. Comparatively, last book we had one group pretty much travelling the world finding a Garde member then getting back to the other group, that really spent more time bonding and developing character - which still worked - and then it ended with a huge, awesome fight at the end. It felt like the stakes were getting higher, and this one should have really picked up where that left off. But the next time we see the Loric, after they fought their greatest enemy who nearly killed several of them, they're in a penthouse relaxing. It feels so backwards.

More than that, it feels like its trying to focus on all the characters and do them justice; which shouldn't be hard since they're not brilliantly complex and usually, at their deepest, stereotypes with a bit of a twist. Still, to have about ten different characters in the apartment, two of them we've never even met, and develop their characters while at the same time moving the plot along means you need to use more material. A decent job is done on most, though Six gets somewhat glanced over - as does Eight, actually, and considering his death is imminent, it feels like more of an effort should have been made. Even Ella, who seems to have the most to do with the plot (my personal guess is that her great grandfather, or grandfather is Setrakus Ra and the whole thing is a Loric civil war in some way or another) doesn't get much in the way of character development. Nine seems there primarily for other characters, like Five, Marina and occasionally Eight, to bounce off, without getting much focus - though I guess last book gave him plenty. John actually improves, and Sarah too (slightly). Heck, Sam seems to be the main character of this one - why am I complaining? Because I feel like a lot of noise is made, but there's too much time spent debating what they should do, and stretching a story between more characters than this tiny amount of page space can handle effectively.

I like the stuff with the Garde building relationships, but the story really needs to be picking up, and it was much faster when there was a sense of urgency that came with the characters being on the run in the previous two instalments. Hopefully, given the ending to this one, we'll see more of that and we'll get to see some great dynamics between Adam and the other characters. A part of me thinks Malcolm's death would have been interesting, if only because next book, Adam would only have Sam - who had known him about five minutes before they parted ways - to vouch for him, and he'd need to start things completely from scratch. Still, I'm happy how they did it, and the parallels between Adam and Five are awesome - I would love to see them go head-to-head at some point.

So what's there to say about this one? Well, I won't deny it's important to the story. It takes some well-placed risks, introduced some great plot elements and has actually improved on some of the characters. On the other hand, it feels like a lot is crammed in here but not a lot is actually done, and it does suffer from a feeling of going backwards after the last book. I still think Rise of Nine is the best, and this possibly sits alongside or just below The Power of Six. Still above the first, but not the best work.

For all that, looking forward to the next one - whenever it is released - and giving my thoughts to you then. I hope I'm better at this by that point, but if not... Ah, well. In the meantime, well, I'm feeling Christmassy at the moment, for one reason or another. And given the recent Fiftieth Anniversary of Doctor Who... Well, some Christmas special reviews wouldn't go amiss, I'm sure.

I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.

Pretentious reviews: The Rise of Nine

OK. So. One of my favourite characters in this series is not actually in this book. And still, this is my favourite so far.

'The Rise of Nine'. That in itself is probably the coolest title they've done so far; it's much more awesome than 'I am Number Four' and it's less trying-too-hard than 'The Power of Six'. The actual book itself is good as well, at least, as far as this series goes.
We have the book focussing on two particular storylines, mostly: John (Number Four), Nine and Bernie Kosar the shapeshifting dog thing being on the run from Mogadorians and federal agents, while simultaneously figuring out their next move, and Six, Marina (Number Seven), Ella (Number Ten) and Crayton (Ella's mentor thing) searching for another member of the Garde.

John's storyline is far easier to sum up than the other, so I'll do that first: He finds out Sarah may not have actually given him up to the FBI, argues with Nine, goes back to where Nine used to live, fights with him some more, they bond, then they work out where they need to go - by using a tablet he found in Paradise last book to locate the others.

Six and co.'s story is a little more involved. They first go to India, where they meet a bunch of soldiers who take them to someone they believe to be a god, Vishnu. This turns out to be Number Eight, who joins the group, finds his chest thanks to Marina, and takes them to a giant stone in the mountains. While there, Mogadorians attack, and Crayton is killed.
And I totally called it. Grown-ups are like the red shirts of the Lorien Legacy world.
Anyway, the stone allows Eight to teleport them (eventually) to New Mexico. For some reason, Six is separated from them in the teleport. Six manages to get into the Mogadorian base, where she finds Sarah who isn't actually Sarah, but Setrakus Ra, the leader of the Mogadorians shapeshifting into Sarah. Six gets caught and thrown into a cell with the real Sarah who reveals she definitely didn't rat John out. Six escapes and goes and fights Setrakus Ra. Naturally, she gets beaten pretty quickly since Ra is the ultimate boss fight at the end of the game, and our main characters aren't even halfway through the game. They're practically noobs in comparison. She gets turned to stone by a whip (you didn't know whips could do that? Yeah, me neither) and attached to the ceiling. As you do.
Fortunately, John and Nine have arrived in New Mexico and met up with Marina, Eight and Ella, where they proceed to free Sarah and go on to fight a bunch of Mogadorians, John finding he can make fireballs with his lumen powers. They find Six, who turns out to be Ra (you'd think Sarah might have warned them he can shape shift? It's heavily implied he used it to try and make her talk) and he stabs Eight through the chest, fulfilling his death prophesied by wall carving, that was shown in the cave where the big stone was. Because of course, prophecies of doom make a book cool, even when we have no idea where they came from and why they were carved.

Setrakus Ra takes their legacies away, and he and his men start to beat them pretty badly in the fight, until Ella is somehow able to reverse the process and allows them to get their legacies back. Yay, plot convenience! Maybe they'll explain in a later book. Marina heals Eight, John discovers his own powers of healing when Sarah and Ella are injured, and Setrakus Ra escapes. The group vow to win the war, or something, and the book ends.
I
 have to be honest, I looking at that I wouldn't have expected to enjoy the book so much - particularly given the lack of Sam Goode, one of my (at the time I began reading this book) two favourite characters. He makes a brief appearance in a dream sequence John has, but that's about it. I think it helped that Nine is so predominant in this book, and his character is arguably the most interesting and dynamic of the Loric characters. He seems like the stereotypical tough-guy, but the author manages to balance that out with enough explanation on his part as to why he behaves that way, without doing it so often that he loses all credibility as a tough guy.
Marina's almost hero-worship of Six was kind of interesting, and has possibilities, but they seem to focus more on her feelings for Eight - who is himself a decent character in his own right, I guess, but I'd like to see Marina get past her feelings of inadequacy so she can stop going on about it, and having the only reprieve of that being her fancying Eight is not what I had in mind. I'd quite prefer her to move through it, show it develop rather than staying in the same place. Ella is a kid. That seems to be more or less her personality. Moving on. John is still fairly dull, but he seems to be maturing as a character at the very least, and the fact that Six seems to realise that Sarah really loves John hopefully puts an end to that stupid (and pointless) love triangle.

It's odd that I enjoyed the section with John and Nine more than I did the stuff with Six, Seven, Eight and Ten; I guess it's because there was less going on plot wise and fewer characters to take up page space that allowed for greater character development. I still enjoyed the other storyline, and when the two converged was probably the coolest thing I've seen so far in these books.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys anything to do with this series. The dialogue is still clunky, and the narration still lacking - but the action is till awesome, some of the concepts are cool, and a few characters are actually somewhat interesting. I definitely hold that it's the best so far, and while I hope we get to see Sam next book, as long as it keeps being on a similar level of quality as this, or higher, I should be happy. 

Pretentious reviews: The Power of Six

Having been through the high school drama crossed with a sci-fi adventure crossed again with a superhero story that was I Am Number Four, we move on to its sequel, The Power of Six, written by Pittacus Lore, the same guy who wrote the last book.

A note on the author: Pittacus Lore, like several authors of children and teen fantasy books, is a fictional character that exists within the universe of the story (much like such names as Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, of the How to Train Your Dragon series). The actual writers, James Frey and Jobie Hughes, wrote this and the previous book together; however this was the last they both worked on as Hughes left the project and left Frey to continue with the series, apparently due to creative differences in how they wished to continue the series.

The book itself begins with a new character, Marina - Number Seven - as the narrator. Her story is really quite forgettable up until the end, but there are a few things of importance that are shown early on. First, her mentor - or Cepan thing - seems to have somehow forgotten, or blocked Lorien from her mind, won't talk of it and has hidden her chest (full of stuff from Lorien that each of the Nine are given) from her. Instead, she chooses to fully embrace life as a nun or something - since they are staying at a monastery of sorts in Spain. Secondly, Marina seems to have worked out John Smith - now considered a terrorist for blowing school in the battle at the end of the last book - is one of the Garde, and is trying to follow him via internet. Genius planning, right there. Third, we learn that she has the powers of healing, breathing underwater and the standard super strength, super speed and telekinesis. And she has a friend called Hector, who contributes basically nothing to the plot, and a friend called Ella, who contributes a great deal to the plot.
I think the contrast was unintentional.

On John's end, we see him, Six, Sam and Bernie Kosar (who John can speak to thanks to his animal telepathy gained at the end of the last book) running from Homeland Security and the Mogadorians, training in fighting and developing a love triangle. Or square. See, John "loves" Sarah, as established in about half of the first book. Sam likes Six, and Six seems to like Sam. And then for some reason, Six and John start to like each other too. And unnecessary drama ensues, particularly since John is the narrator and feels the need to go on and on about his conflicted feelings. It's particularly annoying, since I prefer Sam as a character to John and Six as a character to Sarah, and think it would just be better if they got together and left Blandy McBlandness with Boring McBoringness in a field somewhere to do bland boring stuff together. And yes, I am fully aware that's a childish way to put it, but frankly it annoys me and it makes me go all infantile when I think about it, so there. Blame the writers, not me. Anyway, John reads a letter from Henri given from him at the end of the last book and learns that Sam's dad was actually helping the Loric, and that's why they went to Paradise in the first place - to find him. John thinks they need to go back to Paradise and find some stuff, which they do. They find a huge skeleton and some stuff in an old well. Then John goes to Sarah, drama ensues when she finds out about Six, and then Homeland Security arrives and takes John and Sam into custody, the implication being that Sarah ratted them out.

John and Sam are pretty quickly broken out by Six, after learning that the feds are working with the Mogs. Typical government, always trying to help aliens take over the planet. And people say an Anarchist society is a bad idea...

Actually, it isn't a bad idea. It's just a paradox and would never work practically, or even theoretically. So it isn't a bad idea, since it isn't a real idea in the first place. But I digress.
John then goes after the Mogadorian hideout in order to get back his chest, which Six lost when Mogadoians attacked while John was being arrested, along with Sam.
Oh, sure, take the human kid with no super powers into the middle of enemy territory, that plan's never gonna backfire on you.

Six, meanwhile, through some convenience of the stuff in John's chest earlier, discovers the location of Marina, who herself has located her own chest at a highly convenient moment that gives her location to the three, and goes off to find her and meet with the other two at a predetermined location.

Marina, meanwhile, is found by the Mogadorians, who kill her Cepan (and I really didn't care) and chase her and Ella to some bloke who she had seen talking to her friend Hector and had assumed was a Mogadorian. But he isn't a Mogadorian, he's actually Loric, and Ella's Cepan. 'But wait,' I don't hear you ask, 'Isn't Ella a bit young to be one of the Nine?' To which I respond. 'How the heck do you know that? I never mentioned her age!' Yeah, she's actually not even in her teens yet. She's actually Number Ten, the Garde who was missing from the ship and arrived with a bunch of chimaera on another, different ship that left after the first. This... was kind of a surprise to me, but well done, I guess. At the very least, I did think nine was an odd number of Garde to send down, so knowing there were meant to be ten instead makes a lot more sense.

Anyway, Six arrives and helps Marina, Ella, and Ella's Garde Crayton fight off the Mogadorians; Hector is killed (after doing pretty much nothing worth mentioning until he kicked the bucket; honestly, sometimes it feels like the adults here are only around to die) and so is a random chimaera that, again, I do not care about. Look, writers, if you want to kill off a bunch of characters, make us actually care about them before you go about it. Don't just kill them off by the bucketload and expect us to get emotional; it's a real case of quality over quantity.

See, Game of Thrones manages to make this work both ways. Know why the Red Wedding was so shocking to fans? Because we actually cared about the characters being butchered in front of us! We spent time with them, got to know them, learnt their flaws and strengths, laughed and maybe got emotional over some of their moments... If you're into that. Not that I am. So yeah, when they died? Pretty horrific. Killing a bunch of minor characters we have no reason to care about except being told our main characters care about them will not provide the emotional impact I'm sure you want to achieve.

Bet this Crayton bloke dies next book. Adults don't seem to be allowed to last a full storyline in this franchise, unless they have pretty much no connection to the plot whatsoever.

Around this time, John and Sam are infiltrating the Mogadorian lair, where they find John's chest and another Loric's chest - but not Six's. Turns out the Mogadorians have captured Nine - who John and Sam rescue. Nine turns out to be friggin' awesome, completely whaling on the Mogadorians as they make their way out. On the downside, Sam gets captured and John is incapacitated when he tries to go back for him. Oh, and the leader of the Mogadorians, some Setrakus Ra chap, arrives on Earth.
The end.

Yeah, this book is a step up from the first, in my opinion. While I am not pleased about the development of the love whatsit stuff, and Marina's storyline feels like a regression back to Four's story in the previous instalment except it drags even more, the other stuff with John, Sam and Six is quite good, and I do like the characters of Six and Sam a lot. I also like Nine, the brief appearance he made in this story sets him higher than everyone bar Six from Marina's storyline, and John's storyline bar Six and Sam. Looking forward to seeing more of this guy, though I'm not happy about them leaving Sam behind. Poor kid didn't even get a proper kiss goodbye from Six - but John did. Yeah, wasn't impressed by that either. It happens just before Sam and John are about to split ways with Six, and it felt completely forced and unnecessary, particularly since she was actually angrier with John than Sam at that point, and claimed to like both of them... Yeah, hated it. Sam's a better character, you blind, crazy lady. Get with the kid and be done with it! Goodness knows, the guy needs something good to happen to him.

Still, highschool drama crap is in the background more than it was last book which is a definite plus, the action is more plentiful and still pretty cool and we get more insight into the lore of this universe (pun unintentional). Overall, I'd rate this one reasonably high, and I'm so far enjoying the series well enough to keep going with these reviews.

I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.

Pretentious Reviews: I Am Number Four

So my Korra reviews kind of failed... At least, they didn't go according to plan.
That being said, I am looking to come back to this far more frequently (I really need to improve my writing ability over this year, if nothing else, and this seems as good a way as any to go about that). So, I decided to look at a series that is aimed at a similar market to Legend of Korra, but is very different in many respects. This, my friends (or enemies, since I'm sure you're reading too and - well, I don't want you to feel left out is all), are the Lorien Legacies.

Now, when I say 'Lorien', I do not mean Lothlorien, the forest where Lady Galadriel lives in Lord of the Rings (for maybe the 0.001% of the population who are nerdy enough to know they share a name and were getting confused by that - and I was one of them, in fairness, which is why I bothered to mention it in the first place). Lorien is the planet where the majority of the characters in this series are from, a much smaller, more beautiful planet than ours that was inhabited by beings called Lorics, who are basically like humans, but way more advanced. And some of them have superpowers. These would be the Garde, protectors of the Loric race. They do one heck of a job of that, of course, because when the book begins the planet of Lorien has been destroyed by an alien race called the Mogadorians, and the few survivors are young Garde and their carers who have been sent to Earth to train and become kickass fighters who will one day return and take back their home planet. Isn't that just the way?

That's the general point where we meet our protagonist, John Smith - the Fourth member of the Garde children sent to Earth. Yeah, there was a charm put on them saying they could only be killed in a certain order, One through to Nine - and with three of them dead by Chapter One, John is the next on the alien hit-list. So what do we get to see through this book? Well, he's a teenage alien who has superpowers, ends up living on a rural town in America somewhere (I'm British, alright? American geography means very little to me), and he spends a lot of time at high school... This is sounding like the early seasons of Smallville, isn't it? And to go with that, there's a stupid romance sub-plot in this book that seems to be the main focus of the book half the time - yeah, still sounds like Smallville. Although in fairness, the town is actually called Paradise, and is apparently situated in Ohio. I think. It's not set in the town of Smallville. 

Not that I have a problem with Smallville. From what I've seen, it's a pretty good take on the character Superman. This book, though, kind of falls apart in a number of the areas it resembles that show. The romance and high school stuff in particular are a complete drag. I'll fill you in, if you don't know. John meets the most amazing girl in the high school, Sarah - and she seems to be the Edward Cullen of females. That is, she seems to be everything a guy should want; she's pretty,  she's smart and she's kind. The problem is, guys don't tend to fall in love with fictional characters in quite the same way girls do, and girls for the most part seem to find her irritating. So I don't think the romance actually ended up pleasing anyone, but at least they tried. Actually, no. They shouldn't have tried, they should have kept the focus on the interesting stuff.

Because there is a lot of interesting stuff to find in this book. John being taught by his protector, Henri, to use the powers he learns and being filled in on the history of Lorien, namely. This stuff tends to be much more interesting, because the alien stuff and the powers is far more unique and creative (if a little indulgent on the writers' parts), and just holds my attention much more than the attempt at romance. It also features some pretty cool action sequences towards the end, when the Mogadorians find John and kill Henri in an explosive battle featuring John's pet chimaera Bernie Kosar (which think is a bit of a dumb name for a dog - seriously, why give a pet two names?), who he finds early in the book and thinks he's just a stray beagle; Sarah, John's aforementioned love interest; Sam, John's best friends who is really into aliens and probably one of the best characters in the series; Mark James, the resident bully and John's rival of sorts who hasn't made another appearance since this book; John and Henri, naturally, and number Six, who appears in all her badass glory outdoing John in terms of cool powers and fighting Mogadorians at just about every turn. They all go up against the Mogadorians, and a bunch of their crazy pet monsters. Wow, that was a long list.

The book ends with them cremating the fallen Henri; Sarah being told to stay in Paradise; John, Six, Sam and Bernie Kosar leaving to... Find the others, I think, and us wondering what on Earth might happen next in this gripping series.

I say 'gripping'. In fairness, it actually is. The book suffers from a lot of stereotypical, bland characterisations, poor dialogue between them and a few moments which make you feel like you're reading a fanfiction of a bunch of superheroes and sci-fi scenarios rolled into one, but in all honesty, I still really enjoy it. I suppose it's something of a guilty pleasure, because I am fully aware that this is not a well-written book, yet at the same time the plot is very intriguing and the concepts are still really cool. And there is a definite feeling of suspense at the end, of wanting to know what will happen to the characters and finding out what is happening to the rest of the Garde, of whom we only get glimpses of.

Overall, I'd say that this book - while not on the level of such series as Harry Potter, or Percy Jackson and the Olympians - is still fairly enjoyable, if you can get over the fact that the writing will occasionally make you cringe so much your face will end up permanently looking like you're sucking on a lemon. If you can, and you enjoy a fair bit of action and alien craziness mashed with superhero powers, give it a go. If not, don't waste money on it, and if you're somewhat intrigued but are sat on the fence as to whether it's worth the money, borrow it from a friend, or from a library. If you have one of them nearby and it stocks the book.

But don't watch the movie. It's stupid.

I'm Smith in the Attic, and this is one of my stories.

Pretentious Reviews: The Legend of Korra, the remainder of Book 1

I know I expected the next episode's review to be out much quicker than the last one, and I mistakenly decided to announce it. In the unlikely event that anyone cares, I apologise; I was very wrong. What I intended to do was watch one episode at a time, review it, then move onto the next one, and repeat the process until I was done with the series. Instead, I found myself saying 'just one more', after each before I got around to doing the review, and before I knew it, I had watched the entire series. By the time I had, I learned that the next series would be coming out in a few weeks, so I decided to wait until closer to then and review the whole of Air, the first book, before starting on my reviews of Spirits, the second book. Completely forgetting that college was starting that same week, and I had a load of stuff to prepare for that, as well as University Open Days, volunteer work in my (sort of former but not quite) youth group, and church on Sunday mornings and my mother's birthday, and a load of stuff on the internet that does a very good job of distracting me from important things. So now I have most of that out of the way (aside from the internet stuff, there's always loads more I have yet to discover on their that could easily distract me), I am ready to just give you my review of the series as a whole.

It turns out that reviewing the series as a whole might be a better way of doing it in the first place; this series is way less episodic than The Legend of Aang/Last Airbender, with a much faster moving plot that moves forward fairly significantly most episodes. This seems to have been done because, in case you hadn't heard, Nickelodeon had only given creators Mike and Bryan twelve episodes to tell the story. While some have praised it for having a more streamlined, fast-paced plot, I personally preferred the slower-moving Legend of Aang. It allowed us to get to know the characters and the world better, and meant that when the finale did roll around some sixty episodes after it began, with everything on the line for both the characters and the world, the stakes were uber-high, the build-up was monumental, and as an audience we loved this explosive, action-packed finale (although the resolution of the conflict was somewhat divisive, I gather). That's not so much the case here.

Don't get me wrong, I still really like the series, I think it has some great characters, a great plot, great design - but the pacing was off, and a few things were thrown into the mix that were unnecessary, and therefore infuriating because of the time constraints and the need to miss out some things I think we'd all have liked to see. As far as unnecessary things go, I'm going to state the obvious - the love triangle. I honestly don't know anyone who thought it was a good idea to incorporate a love triangle into this story, since people are either on Korra's side and wish Asami had never been in the picture, or they are on Asami's side and think Korra is a two-faced whore and Mako is a cheating asshole who deserves death by mau mau. Or they don't care who Mako ends up with and just want to get back to the awesome main plot. I'm in the third camp, although I think there are some middle grounds between the three where a number of fans sit (although admittedly I don't like love triangles in general - it's one of the reasons I can't bring myself to re-watch Phantom of the Opera - which is probably my main reason for disliking that particular side of this show). That said, I do recognise that this isn't the worst love triangle ever made, and it's not totally unbearable to watch. It just comes at the expense of some stuff that would be far more entertaining.
Another unnecessary aspect, which I didn't expect myself to think when I started watching these episodes, was the pro bending. In my previous two reviews, I did state how much I enjoyed the pro bending; however, by the time Amon wrecked the championship final midway through the series, I was more than ready for it to be done. It did have a few good aspects, I will admit - Bolin winning that match for them when Korra and Mako are on bad terms was a great moment for him that showed a much more mature and dependable side than we were used to seeing from him, and I really wish we had seen more moments like that from him throughout the show. Another was when the Council decided to cancel the final in response to Amon's threat, despite Korra's pleas, and then Lin (Lin! YAY!) cuts in and persuades the council not to give in to these threats, and to let it continue. It showcased, yet again, how awesome she is. These two aside, though, it really felt like a bit of a distraction both to Korra and to the plot in general.

As for stuff that I'd have liked to see but weren't, seemingly because of time constraints, was character development - a problem that could have been solved had they included more filler episodes. I think the main sufferers here are Mako and Bolin, who we don't get any development particularly - their only real involvement in the story is because of their friendship with Korra. I'm thinking of doing an article on the two after this. The other characters don't get as much development as I would have liked either; Asami gets a lot of praise from fans for being a brilliant character, and though I did like her, I didn't find her as a character all that memorable - and given her story, it felt like it was a bit of a missed opportunity. Lin is still my favourite character, but I still wish she had gotten more screen time than she did - although the scene between her and Tenzin where she decides to protect his family was one of the best moments in the series, brilliantly subtle in both the animation and voice acting. Tenzin I will admit has turned out pretty well; he does a great job standing in as her father figure in this, and the moment when Korra finally admitted she was scared of Amon worked so well. And his kids grew on me too, though I will admit the comedy fell flat on a few occasions. Fartbending? Really? Oh, and I'd have liked to see more of Iroh. Because one can never have too much Dante Basco.

On the flip side, there were some truly fantastic moments in the show as well. Lin and Tenzin's moments were excellent, as there was clearly a past that the creators managed to speak volumes about without ever using flashbacks, or even having the characters talk about it for very long. The voice acting, animation and the few words spoken on the matter were enough to give a brilliant insight into their past together. The animation itself is absolutely fantastic, even more so than in Legend of Aang, which was itself wonderfully animated in its own right. The voice acting was also great (the episode which had Korra's vision of some of the previous series' cast when they were in their forties was great, Aang's particularly - I could hear their voices in there, but they definitely sounded much older and more mature). The villains were both done wonderfully, and I was honestly moved by their backstory - I swear, it was just one of those things that almost got me as emotional as Iroh the first holding the memorial for his son, or Zuko apologising to that same Iroh near the end of Legend of Aang. Almost, but not quite. Still, it was a pretty good piece of story that was very high on emotion, I have to give the creators credit for that (though I wish they had done it for the more central characters, but they haven't killed those off yet, so there's still time). The tone, particularly of the final few episodes had a very dark feel to them, and not in a we're-trying-to-make-our-story-dark-so-people-think-we're-good-but-we're-really-just-covering-up-our-lack-of-substance sort of way (for an example of such an offender though, I do intend to give my thoughts on Man of Steel at some point). The climax built very nicely, and while I agree with the general consensus that the ending felt a bit rushed, I am aware that the creators weren't given the time they needed and had to try and wrap it up in case they weren't allowed to return. A part of me wonders if they did such a shakey job with the end so the people in charge would say 'alright, here's more time - now go and make a better ending.' If that is the case... Well played Mike and Bryan. You got yourselves two more series. Please try to plug up the holes in this one and give more room for the stuff you have done well. I am fully aware that Legend of Aang was not nearly as good partway through as it is looking back and viewing it as a completed product; thus, I am not going to give it a full on comparison until the whole of Korra is finished. In two years time.

Well, those are my general thoughts on the first series of Legend of Korra - not quite at the same level of its predecessor (yet), but that was just one of the high points for TV of all time in my humble opinion, and trying to meet that may be ultimately futile. For what it was, I really enjoyed it despite its flaws, and am looking forward to where they take the next series.
On a more self-indulgent note, it occurs to me that the past couple of reviews weren't my strong suit, since I struggled to get around to reviewing each episode and gave up altogether. I won't be doing an episode by episode set of reviews for series two, though I may post something with my thoughts on how it's going at the mid-season points and at the end. I also plan to review more than just this series; I have a few other series, a couple of films and even some books in mind for my reviews, so I'll try and keep myself motivated by mixing it up a little more than I have been. Until then, bye. I guess.

Pretentious Reviews: The Legend of Korra season 1 episode 2

Well, I got around to watching the second episode of this series. In my last post I said this series is going for a different feel to The Legend of Aang, and that holds true just as much in the second episode as it did the first.

To begin with we see Korra reading about a pro-bending match (some sort of sport thing involving bending that we'll get to later) and asking Tenzin if she can go and watch. He says no, saying she needs to focus on her training and so on, meaning there's no room for 'distractions'.
OK, I don't want to compare everything to The Legend of Aang, but if the Avatar could go and watch a crappy play about himself barely a few weeks before half the world will be burnt to a crisp, can't Korra go and watch a sport one evening when our main threat has barely been introduced?

Anyway, we then see the two of them discussing her airbending, or lack thereof. I mentioned earlier that I though Korra would struggle with it, and it turns out I was right. Her first lesson has her try to make her way through some spinning boards without touching them and, being as overly forceful as she is, she can't manage it, and is beaten back.

The kids offer very unhelpful advice throughout. I still hate them.

We later see her attempting to airbend on a newspaper article about Lin Bei Fong. Yeah, I found that kinda funny. It's unsuccessful. Korra hears the still non-badass White Lotus members, who are even said to basically be guards making sure she never leaves the island (I swear, Iroh must be turning in his grave they're so pointless) listening to a radio commentary on a pro-bending match, and she secretly listens in. As a side note, the commentator reminded me too much of the radio section in the middle of Meatloaf's 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light'. Yeah, probably not something you want to go for, Nickelodeon. Anyway, Tenzin stops it just as it got towards the end, and exposes Korra, who fairly points out he never said she couldn't listen to a match, just never watch one. So he forbids her from that as well, believing she needs a peaceful environment to learn airbending. This is a stupid idea - Korra has been a fan of pro-bending since she was a kid, apparently, and now she lives just across the way from the stadium of the sport (is there only one in the world? I dunno). I think if anything's going to make her un-peaceful or whatever, it's going to be knowing how close it is and not being able to watch or even listen to a match. It would frustrate me, I know that much.

Korra attempts to meditate, and fails, but is assured by Tenzin that one day it will click. The children attempt to be funny/adorable and fail. They get no such consolation. Korra, in frustration, walks away from her training. She sneaks out when it goes dark and swims all the way to the pro-bending arena, coming into what she thinks is the stadium. An old guy walks in and catches her, but she's saved by a new character, Bolin. I like Bolin, he makes a good first impression by telling the old guy that he and Korra are together in a very cocky manner and immediately backtracks when she says they're more like friends. It's a funny bit of dialogue between the two, and I suspect that Bolin is going to be our comic relief for the series, a bit like Sokka was for Legend of Aang.

He leads Korra into the actual stadium, as she had instead stumbled upon the training area for the pro-benders, and we are introduced to another new character, Mako, who immediately comes off as the 'brooding' character. That is to say, he's an asshole towards Korra. He and Bolin make their way onto the stadium with their teammate, who I don't really remember anything about except that he's the weakest of the three and someone else Mako feels the need to be a douche to.

So it turns out that pro-bending is three benders on each team, a firebender, waterbender and earthbender, the aim of the game being to knock the other team back, and advance when they do so. Whichever team is further forward at the end of the round wins and if they are all knocked out into the water they lose. Mako is shown to be 'cool under fire', although I disagree with the announcer - that is not a style of fighting. It's a mind-set that many people have. There is nothing signature about it. Anyway the 'Fire Ferrets' win the match (Mako and Bolin's team), although the repeated use of the term 'fabulous' by the announcer to describe them and their fighting will never not be funny.
Korra reveals that she's the Avatar to Mako and Bolin, who teaches her some pro-bending moves. Mako still acts like a jerk.

Korra still struggles with her airbending, and ends up blowing up the spinning boards, before telling Tenzin he's a terrible teacher. While this is clearly supposed to be a moment Korra is being out of order, I have to agree; Tenzin is not in the least suited to teaching Korra. He constantly butts heads with her and aggravates her, even though he says she needs to be at peace. Way to send mixed messages, mate.
Tenzin has a rant about her at the dinner table, and asks his daughters to promise him they won't be like that as teenagers. His eldest daughter (the least annoying) brilliantly responds 'I will make no such promises', in a completely deadpan voice. She's getting into my good books now.

Korra returns to the arena and takes the place of the waterbender on the Fire Ferrets team, since he didn't turn up. Mako tells her not to do anything, and she goes on to make several illegal moves. Now, I understand why they did this - to show audiences more of the rules - but you'd think that someone who has been following the game since childhood would know the rules, wouldn't you? Also, why don't the brothers make sure she's aware of the rules before the match? This may just be a nit-pick, but it still bugs me.

Anyway, Korra accidentally shows that she's the Avatar, which Tenzin hear over the radio, and she is only allowed to continue as long as she only bends water. She's knocked off as Tenzin arrives, and he tells her to leave with him. She refuses and continues the match, and is able to help them win by using techniques Tenzin taught her. The two make up after he sees this, and she joins the Fire Ferrets, who are impressed with the job she's done. The episode ends with Korra and Mako gazing in the direction of each other's homes. Hmm, where could this be leading, I wonder?


Looking back, I realise I've been pointing out a number of flaws in this episode. I actually don't think it's that bad, and in truth I tend to forget that it is meant for kids with adults being able to watch it as well. For a second episode, I think it's quite good; it has a lot to recommend and hopefully they'll keep getting better from here.

As characters go, Tenzin and his family still aren't great, but they're getting better. Korra is still excellent; it would have been so easy to make her character annoying by focussing entirely on her flaws and her inability to airbend, but instead they balance it with the awestruck wonder she shows at the pro-bending matches and her interactions with the very likable Bolin. Bolin and Mako are both very different characters; while I like the humorous but cocky Bolin, Mako hasn't done much aside from a few fancy tricks in the pro-bending matches (which is offset by being called one of the 'fabulous bending brothers', which does nothing to help his street-cred). Hopefully he will develop into a more likable or more interesting character; preferably both.

The animation and artwork is still great, even better than Legend of Aang. This is well shown in the pro-bending, both in the grand design of the arena and the individual players themselves, with the movements of each being both different from each other and different to the bending styles of each element outside of it. This really goes a long way towards its presentation as a real sport. It bears a few minor similarities to the earthbending wrestling of season two of the Legend of Aang, and while it's nowhere near as funny as that was, it is much easier to take seriously.

I like the way they focus on two areas: Air Temple Island, for a start, serving as an excellent throwback to the first series with designs similar to the Air Temples, as do the clothes and gliders worn and used by Tenzin's family. The pro-bending arena, in complete contrast, is much more modern, with the lighting, speakers for the announcers, the general feel of the stadium have a very fresh, new feel to them. The two areas are the focus and really serve to show just how far the world has come in the past eighty years, with the Air Temple reminding us of how it was back then and the arena showing us where the world is now, in terms of the technological advancement. I'm absolutely psyched about the possibilities, and hope to get the next episode watched and reviewed much quicker than I have for this.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Episode 1 - Pretentious reviews

In all my years (there are nineteen of them so far), I have never found a kid's TV show that I loved as much as I love Avatar: The Legend of Aang - or Avatar: The Last Airbender, as it's known in the States. I watched the first series as a kid, and some of the second series, before my family lost the channel which aired the show. Naturally, I was disappointed to say the least, but it never occurred to me to find other ways of watching the series until a couple of years ago. I did this out of curiosity more than anything - I wanted to know how the series ended. About one episode back into it, and I was once again that round-faced little kid eagerly waiting for the next episode - only this time I was able to watch the next episode immediately, instead of having to wait a whole week. I watched the remainder of the series in quick succession, finishing it in less than a week, and in all honesty, I think I love it much more now than I did as a child. Probably because I appreciate so much more now, the characters and the writing being chief among them, along with the animation and fast-paced action sequences. I loved it all, and was absolutely stoked to hear that they were releasing a new series, this one titled Avatar: The Legend of Korra. 
 

However, I was still waiting for it to air in the UK by the time the series was over in the US, so eventually I decided to go to the same source that allowed me to watch the remainder of Legend of Aang as quickly as I did, and began watching them.

And does the series live up to it's predecessor's level of brilliance?

 Does it delve into darker, more mature themes than Aang did?

 Is there a character that stands up against the brilliance that is Uncle Iroh? Well, that's more or less what I want to know anyway, so let's dive in.

Warning: From this point on there will be spoilers for both this series and The Legend of Aang. Ye be warned.

 
The show starts with a monologue by a man who reveals himself to be the son of Aang, the last series' protagonist and Avatar, explaining (very briefly) how his father and his father's friends saved the world, and that they built a United Republic of Nations out of the Fire Nation colonies where people could live together in peace. They built a city at the heart of this nation of peace and justice, but since they couldn't get the copyrights to Camelot, they had to name it Republic City. We then learn that Aang has passed away (tissues, please), and that there will be a new Avatar now. We then cut to a group called the Order of the White Lotus, who arrive at a house in the South Pole looking for the new Avatar. For those of you who can remember, the Order of the White Lotus was the group of badass old people who retook the Earth Kingdom Capital Ba Sing Se, which was crawling with Fire Nation soldiers, in less than a day. We are introduced to a little tomboy bending three of the four elements - water, earth and fire. Seeing as this book is called 'Air', it makes sense that she's going to be learning to airbend in this volume. Sure enough, we fast-forward some ten years or so, and find Korra's mastered three of the four elements, but hasn't even started on the fourth and doesn't seem to grasp the spiritual aspects of being the Avatar. Her teachers - one of them being Katarra, our leading lady from The Legend of Aang - decide she is ready to learn these things and so send for Tenzin, Aang and Katarra's son.

 
Wait, what?
 
That's right, Aang and Katarra married between the two series and had three kids, although we only meet the youngest, Tenzin, in this series.
Tenzin brings with him his three children - yes, the teenage girl and twelve year old boy of the last series have grandchildren now - and we come to the most infuriating aspect of this episode. One of the children politely asks Katarra about the cliff-hanger at the end of the last series, regarding Zuko's mother, which I myself have been dying to know the ending to, only to be interrupted by THE MOST OBNOXIOUS LITTLE RAT THAT CALLS ITSELF A CHILD DENYING ME THE ANSWER TO LIFE'S GREATEST - I mean, I was a little cheesed off. Moving on.

Tenzin tells Korra he has to stay at Republic City because things there are - well, bad. Korra suggests she go with him, which makes sense since she needs to learn to airbend and it's sort of her job to keep the peace, so going to Republic City to help out around there would be the smart thing to do. The Order of the White Lotus and Tenzin deny this and tell her to stay put. Needless to say, she doesn't, sneaking out that night after Tenzin leaves and saying farewell to Katarra and her parents - which I may have been moved by if they had more than two lines each in this whole episode. Ten quid says we never see them again, except maybe in a couple of flashbacks. Korra makes her way to Republic City, and before long she finds herself fighting criminals, and then being arrested for causing damage to the street she was fighting on.

 
After seeing a statue of an old friend outside the police station, we are introduced to Lin Bei fong, Toph's daughter, and head of the Republic City police, or whatever they're called. She wants to lock Korra up for the damage, but is stopped by Tenzin, who is able to convince her to let him take her home. On their way, Korra tells Tenzin that she needs to be in Republic City and needs to learn airbending, and he relents, allowing her to stay with him and his family while he teaches her airbending. She is seen telling the people of the city that she is the new Avatar, and we then cut to a scene of a man in a mask saying that Korra's arrival means they need to move their plans forward. Ominous. I think he may be the series' villain.
 
So what do I think of it? Well, as an opening episode, I enjoyed it well enough. It doesn't have the same grand scope as the opening of The Legend of Aang, but I don't think it meant to. I get the feeling this series is going to be a bit more concentrated, probably in Republic City instead of the entire globe, and I'm Ok with that. We've seen the Avatar world before, but this city is a new aspect, with cars and radio; it's a lot more modern than the last series, and I'm curious how new technologies will fit into a world where people can control the elements - will it augment their powers in some way, or will it be used to bring the non-benders up to a similar level of power to benders, like the equalists (who make a brief appearance in this episode) seem to want? 
The animation is gorgeous, I have to say, with Republic City looking huge but very detailed, a truly fantastic piece of work, and the sequences involving the bending looking even more fluid than they did in the previous series meaning that while we didn't get action sequences as spectacular as Aang vs. Ozai, I am very much looking forward to seeing the showdowns towards the end of the series which will hopefully be much bigger in scale.
 
As for the characters... well, that's a tough one. Now I think Korra, so far, is great - the complete opposite of Aang as an Avatar. Aang struggled with both Earthbending and Firebending, the more physical aspects of being the Avatar, but Waterbending, Airbending and the spiritual stuff he nailed without much difficulty. Korra, on the other hand, says that she struggles with the spiritual stuff, and I'm assuming she won't have the easiest time learning to Airbend. It's also great to note that Aang, while goofy and immature at the start of the season, could still be very respectful and contemplative when he needed to. Korra seems to be struggling with this - however, she has no problem leaping into action when the situation demands it (and, on occasion, when it doesn't) which is something Aang found to be his stumbling block on a number of occasions, and was the reason he struggled with Firebending and Earthbending.
 
The other characters are less interesting. Katarra has basically become her grandmother - no, seriously, compare the way they look and speak, it's almost scary. Tenzin just seems to be a grumpy old man who spends a lot of time wagging his finger at Korra, and while I hope the ending of this episode means there will be less of that, I highly doubt it. His kids are infuriating, clearly there for comic relief or cute factor without bringing much of either to the table. Tenzin's wife, whose name I can't remember, was very forgettable so I can't say much about her. The Order of the White Lotus members are a real step down from the badasses we had at the end of the last series, serving as little more than nameless versions of Tenzin assigned to protect her. Lin Bei Fong seems to be the only other decent character beside Korra; the way she pointed out that being the Avatar didn't get you out of trouble was fantastic, saying it had 'diddly squat' to do with her breaking the law. Plus she's Toph's daughter, and that automatically gets her a few points.
Still, it's only one episode in, and I probably haven't seen a lot of the characters yet. For now, it was a very different opening to The Legend of Aang, but I really enjoyed and am looking forward to going over the next one.