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LOK: Remembrances Review

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Hey everyone. Welcome to the review of the next episode of Korra, and...huh. Didn’t expect this to happen.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, we’ve had a recap episode. The bane of many anime fans and the quick way out for animators to save a bit of money. I was initially annoyed by this, but doing some research I later found out that this was down to Nickelodeon slashing down funding of one episodes amount.

So once again we have Nickelodeon to blame for this shows problems...on three children. One, two, three:

FUCK NICKELODEON!

With that aptly said, how does the actual episode hold up? Let’s find out in this...quite shorter than usual review!




Mako Training Wu

After my complaint about last episode not progressing Wu in the slightest, many were quick to mention that Mako would be training Wu in how to defend himself. I was curious...but I kinda knew they were gonna play it more for laughs than anything. My hope was though that it would finally get the ball rolling on Wu growing as a character.

Turns out though it was all just set up for a recap session, so unfortunately my complaints haven’t been resolved.

The clock’s ticking guys. Either do something interesting with him or just shoot him out of a cannon. At least then he’d end on an entertaining note.

Mako’s Recap

That said, the recap with Mako was actually pretty good.

Taking a page from this franchises last recap episode The Ember Island Players, this episode was not afraid to poke fun at some of the shows flaws. Case in point Mako reminiscing about his past romance with Korra and Asami is constantly interrupted by Wu and Mako’s family pointing out how silly the whole affair was, and it was often times quite funny. In fact it’s so far the only time I’ve genuinely enjoyed Wu’s presence in something this season.

Once again the creators show a perfect willingness to admit and mock their past missteps, and I truly respect them for that, especially when they make some great jokes about it!



Korra’s Recap

This one however...isn’t so good.

Okay, so the set up this time is that Korra is still troubled by her place in the world and she’s thinking back to all of her conflicts with her enemies. She goes into quite a lot of detail as if she was explaining it all to someone who didn’t know any of this...

...But she’s explaining all this to Asami. Someone who knows all this and doesn’t need the long winded explanations.

Sorry but the setup here just isn’t very good. Again it’s an unfortunate position the creators were put in and they had to work it in somehow...but it still feels incredibly out of place. That said it does improve when Tenzin joins the conversation because instead of explaining every detail Tenzin simply gives Korra and impassioned speech whilst the clips play. This bit was much better handled because it didn’t feel out of place. It was even a bit heartwarming as it showed just how much she has changed from how she was in Book One.

Again though, I’m worried Korra’s final comment about ‘always being there to keep balance to the world’ may feel a bit disingenuous if she starts moping and doubting herself again next episode. That’s a very ‘wait and see’ thing though.

Varrick’s Recap

This one though...makes up for all this and then more!

Oh god, that was utterly hilarious! Where the last two recaps were primarily focused with recapping the series, this one just throws that out of the window and decides to just have fun with it, and who better than Varrick and Bolin?

The whole thing is told through Varrick’s on-the-spot making up narration and uses clips from the show in a messy, non-linear order. It again shows the hyperactive imagination of Varrick who understands how to wow a crowd and get their attention. Hell if you wanna go there it’s slightly commentarial about how people will prefer an entertaining but inaccurate version of a real life event over the true version in films.

The best part? The Amon/Unalaq/Vaatu/Zaheer phone call. I was just guffawing at that bit. It’s just such a great image seeing these four very threatening villains be reduced to jokes like this, and again the creators show a willingness to mock past mistakes. Everyone knows that Unalaq was a boring ass villain, so they naturally make him the unpopular one of the group! It’s just perfect.

Best part of the episode by far. Probably the funniest moment in the entire series.



Overall

Sorry for the brevity on this one guys, but what is there left to say? It was a recap episode...a very funny and creative one, but a recap episode all the same. The story hasn’t been progressed in any single way and it can be ultimately ignored if someone binge watches this series. In the end the best I can say is that despite this I still managed to enjoy it and have a damn good laugh, which is a shit ton more effort than most recap episodes.

I guess if anything I’m glad they did it this week, because I’ve got Dragon Age: Inquisition by my side and I’m Loving the shit out of it, so good timing on their part. With that, all I can say is stay tuned for next week where we have an actual episode to review!
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The-Crimson-X's avatar
I actually have to say this made it into my top ten for the sheer fact of Zombie Amon...