ayries:

There’s a common sentiment that seems to be going around that it’s totally fine/not worthy of criticism that LoK was badly paced and over-cluttered in some people’s opinion, because: “It was only 12 episodes, what did you expect?”

Well, fandom, that’s bullshit. I live in the UK, and as is often joked about, we very commonly have tiny series when it comes to TV. One of my favourite shows, Luther, had a six episode first series and a FOUR episode second series. Sherlock BBC, a very popular show, has three (an hour and a half long, admittedly) episodes a series! A Canadian show I recently finished, for that matter, called Slings and Arrows? Three series with only eighteen episodes overall.

And let’s not even get started on anime, where twelve/thirteen episode series are hardly uncommon. Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Mononoke. There’s a lot more, but those are the critically-acclaimed ones coming to mind.

You know how they did it? They didn’t try and stuff a twenty episode plot into twelve episodes.

Legend of Korra could EASILY have been made better by simply paring down the plot. Cut the pro-bending plot if necessary. Lessen the shipping plot; make it simple, gradual Makorra instead of Makorra/Masami/Borra/whatever the fuck that whole pentagon was. Combine Tarrlok and Amon’s plots more thoroughly. Whatever was necessary. Hell, once the second series was picked up? Transfer some of the plot points to that series if possible.

A lot of people are saying ‘well, it’s half the length of ATLA series one, of course it couldn’t match the scope of it!’. But here’s the thing: nobody is saying it had to be the scope of ATLA. They’re saying that if it can’t match that scope then trying was a bad idea. I didn’t want LoK to be more ‘epic’. I wanted it to be more streamlined and complete, as opposed to what felt half-finished and rushed to me,

The idea that four hours of screentime isn’t enough to make a plot make sense and feel well-structured is absurd. The average film is only two hours long, more or less. Two films’ worth of time is enough to make a solid, well-paced plot work.

So no. LoK being a mere twelve episodes long does not mean that it’s OK that there were some pacing issues, or that the resolution was, to many, unsatisfying. If you can’t tell a story in twelve episodes, then don’t. Pick another story. You tailor the story to the time you have to tell it in! That’s just simple writing 101, and I think that the real issue here is just that it tried to be ATLA in the wrong timescale.

(And you know, even if it WAS somehow inevitable that a twelve episode series would be rushed, that wouldn’t stop it being flawed. It would simply mean that it was flawed for reasons beyond the creator’s control. But knowing that wouldn’t make it any more enjoyable, right? ‘It’s not their fault it was flawed’ does not equal ‘and therefore it wasn’t flawed so stop saying it was’.)

Now, I’m not saying everyone has to think it was rushed in the first place. If you liked it, fine! Have fun! But don’t act like you have some ultimate catch-all to criticise anyone who DIDN’T like it when you point out it was ‘only’ twelve episodes long, mmkay?

I liked the finale and didn’t mind the pacing of the series too much and this is still stuff everyone should know.

Knowing how to fit your story into the time given you, and how to cut it down into only enough pieces that you can tell it well, is just good storytelling. 

And again, I actually really liked the finale. I didn’t think it was any more rushed than the final ten minutes of AtlA oh my god saying this is going to get me slaughtered isn’t it

(via von-questenberg)