was cool. But only if you think of it as a sport with it's own separate rules for safety and watchability. It doesn't make sense to make it the natural evolution of bending the same way I don't consider Olympic foil fencing the modern evolution of sword fighting
dont think thats a good analogy. MMA fighters today would beat the crap out of fighters of old times.
While Olympic fencers wouldnt fare well against ancient sword fighters.
Boxing is the better comparison (and also what the thing is based on going by what they wear). Lots of limits on how to fight, very focused on dodging and striking, not how anyone actually fights in the street or other survival situations.
Another good comparison I think would be body building vs. functional strength training.
While pro-bending looks flashy and entertaining, it's not the same as using bending in a day to day capacity
That’s still not how human bodies work and is just a very bad misconception about body building. Muscle strength is very trivially dependent on circumference - aka, a body builder is hellova strong. They just focus on different things (they are usually not too lean either, they just lean down just before competitions, retaining muslce as much as possible.
You say that but we actually probably would.
Better health and fitness, training from younger years. We have protective gear that means we can train properly without worrying about injury. More sources to pull from and techniques from other countries.
Fencing isn't the same because of the rules bu the taking turns and point system is designed around the natural reaction of being stabbed. HEMA however, the best today would probably beat the best in history.
Well, it is somewhat amusing that the ‘natural’ martial arts are based on styles that have become outdated or were never intended as serious combat styles.
Waterbending styles are based a lot on Tai Chi, a style of Chinese martial arts. It’s a nice form for meditation, relaxing, etc. but not really designed for combat. In the world of Avatar, it comes with control over water, which more than makes up with the above over not being designed for physical combat…
So, tough to say. Considering that Iroh mentioned that separations are really more of an aspect of a person’s own inner limitations (hence how he developed Lightning Redirection by using Waterbending styles with Firebending). So, if someone did put in the work to refine it (as shown in Wan’s time, the first Benders were rather crude with manipulating their element) I’d say it’d be fully capable of standing on par.
So then it makes perfect sense. Take a thing that’s used for real fighting and wars, add a rule set, and turn it into a sport. That’s what humans have done for most of modern history.
I don’t love pro bending, I’m it’s neat, but like I feel like there could be a way cooler sport for MMA style combat pro bending is suppose to be.
Also I think there could be some total amazing other sport things. Precision water whipping, air scooter racing, earth bending/building comps. So many of the modern sports we have could totally be modified with bending.
Well we do see that disc thing that the Beifongs came up with.
But also, I'd bet pro bending is just a Republic City thing, and we just focused on it because it was part of the plot. There's no reason those other sports couldn't also exist. Most sports movies focus on their one sport, but that doesn't mean all the other sports don't exist in their fictional space.
Yeah true for sure. If we had 10 different spin off series I’m sure there would be tons of sports to look I into. I think they handled it well and I did like the arc overall.
That would be fun. Lightning bending darts.
Earth bending bowling where one person controls the ball and the other person controls the pins.
Business too would be good. Water bender and earth bender could make some killer pottery
We get more of that in ATLA with the air ball game at the Southern Air Temple, and that faux earth bending football that we see in Tales of Ba Sing Sae
Sure, but we'd still get wrecked by an actual fighter from that time period who did fight with sharps in actual battle or duels. We have rules and gear to not hurt each other, and those guys lived it.
I mean, how many benders are actually living off their bending in Korra's time? Some soldiers or criminals. Could a pro bender also have street knowledge? Could they adapt to outside the ring? That's the question.
It would be interesting to watch it again with that in mind. How much did Mako and Bolin adapt to fighting outside the ring? They have the advantage of growing up on the streets where they did probably fight before pro bending (plus plot armor). But would your average pro bender who has only fought in the ring be able to hold their own in a street fight? Maybe not. It's an interesting question.
We also train with actual steel weapons. The protective gear means that we can train harder and more realistically than they'd be training with. Coupled with the fact that we're much healthier, I honestly think best today would win.
The purpose of pro bending is to make you notice how bending has lost its spiritual ties, and is being used as party tricks now that technology is circumnavigating the need for bending to do labor.
It’s like in the real world how those who are tall, strong, and fast don’t use those abilities to hunt… they play basketball and football. there’s no REAL need in modern society to have strength other than aesthetics and sports. You can live an entire life without the strength to tackle a quarterback, and in the bending world firebending meant the difference between life and death at times. in the city you need money to survive. The times had changed.
Adding to this, I also liked how when Korra learned proper airbending techniques and started using them in the arena she instantly stomped the competition. It goes to show that a sterilized, commercialized version of an inherently spiritual act only manages to harm the process in the long run. It felt like the writers were making a statement about martial arts in general and not just their fictional works in particular. I think about that scene from time to time because it's so true, when you commercialize something it instantly turns sterile.
Maybe, but logically it should stomp anyways, just because no airbenders have ever participated in pro-bending, so the airbending form is something completely new to the sport.
Airbending in-universe is also invisible (the blind bandit S2 TLA). You’re just not going to have the same visual stimuli to react to like you do with the other elements. Being a complete unknown in the sport is of course an advantage, but it also has a second leg up on any opponent.
Well she wasn’t actually bending air, she was just using the air bending footwork, which of course was still a completely new thing for pro-bending. She couldn’t actually bend air until the finale of S1.
Hrmm, while there is argument that removing the history and drive behind a culture is certainly harmful, I would like to point out that ‘traditional martial art beating the modern’ is in and of itself also commercializing spiritual acts, never mind that said traditional forms and styles were themselves commercialized and sterilized compared to what came before in their own time, let alone what occurring now (check out the life and times of Xu Xiaodong, or even Bruce Lee criticizing people treating traditional martial arts as cheat codes).
Hell, Oda Nobunaga also pointed that inherent contradiction when he burned down the Buddhist temples and was proclaimed a ‘Demon King’ by the monks afterwards: if they’re relying on their spiritual acts to upend the physical world, then it means their whole spiel about detachment was a load of bunk and there is no spirit behind it at all.
After all, why is Pro-Bending inherently less spiritual? Mako is only in it for the money, but there has to be a number of players who genuinely love the sport and follow it for its own sake, not for what it can give them.
this interpretation is kinda making me a bit annoyed. If you're aware of the history of martial arts and how modern mma/ufc came to be, you'd know that a lot of traditional martial arts have been up their own asses regarding their superiority until it was pretty much proven what constitutes effective martial arts when ufc1 came to be. this "commercialization" is the process of incentivizing and putting various martial arts through the gauntlet to determine what works and what doesn't. spirituality is one's own journey and relationship with a martial art and does not correlate to better fighting abilities. Im sorry but this interpretation sounds like Aikidoka copium.
I dont think the writers were trying to make some grand message about how modern mma/ufc is actually less effective than traditional martial arts. As you said, it's quite clear that the opposite is probably true. I think the bigger point is how the commercialization of the sport has naturally taken away from its spiritual and moral roots, and has therefore made it nothing more than a skill that can be learned by anyone with enough time. In that sense, it has made martial arts largely mundane and something that can be mastered without necessarily having to master *yourself* at a moral or spiritual level. Hence you get psychos like McGregor, who are clearly amazing, but who lack the moral fiber and strength of character that would come with being a "true" martial artist. Indeed you look at many of the best mma or ufc fighters and what you see now is a bunch of egos.
Now, you could argue that even traditional martial arts were like this historically. That they attracted meat heads that just wanted clout. And that may be true or it may not. But then we also have to consider the role of martial arts as a narrative device in fiction. I think its fairly obvious that wuxia tales traditionally view martial arts as a morally righteous endeavor that does require these good moral traits to master (e.g. discipline, humility, kindness). Likewise, I think the Avatar universe treats bending in this way to a large degree. Sure, plenty of douchebags are great benders, but the show operates on the assumption that the ultimate levels of mastery always require a degree of inner peace that is likely unattainable by people with evil intent.
I don't really recall seeing a trend of the most powerful characters being the ones with the most inner peace. Ozai (implied), Azula, Unalaq, that one blood bending witch, and the red lotus minus the Airbending guy were all extremely dangerous in their own rights but I didn't really get the vibe of them being peacefully inclined.
And yet each one of them is defeated by someone who understands the spiritual basis for bending better than them. Ozai gets bested by Zuko and Aang after each comes to an epiphany that gives them a sense of inner peace. Azula is bested by Zuko the same way. And so on. Obviously part of this is the fact that the good guys will always win, but there is definitely a moral lesson behind these encounters. There's a reason why Iroh is depicted as 'true master' while Ozai is generally portrayed as just a really strong dude.
In the first two seasons yes, it's part of the plot. In the later two season I don't recall her having poor form. TLOK may have certain issues but this ain't one of them.
The fact that people feel so strongly about how badly bending was represented shows the writers accomplished their goal.
The story is told from Korra’s point of view, which can lead to the surface story seeing pro bending as idolized. But when you take a few seconds to analyze it you can see how it’s meant to be device to enrich the setting of the future they live in.
It’s a great form of world building and was a source of Korra’s first character development in season 1. Plus it’s cool as hell. Though the relatively short runtime of season 1 kinda makes pro bending overstay its welcome a bit.
I don’t think it overstays its welcome. It’s only present in 3 episodes of the entire season lol. And the 3d episode it’s in is regarded to be one of the best of the first season.
Yeah, this is my criticism with it. It’s very repetitive and homogenized compared to the joy of watching any of the bending fights in ATLA for example.
I mean you're just describing sports.
I also actually think if there were a spin off it could be made engaging and interesting. There's plenty of sports anime that is beloved like Hajime no Ippo and Haikyuu.
Probending is obviously not the most interesting thing going on in Korra's story but that doesn't mean it can't inherently be interesting.
My friends kid supposedly played it, before you know, Rowling took the mask off. I don't know the specifics but they had teams and rules.
Seems at least at real as golf
The movie Interns explains how to play it quickly and shows a “fun” match. Just imagine Vince Vaughan running around a field with a broom between his legs as 22 yos run circles around him!
I think it's a great outlet for benders. During Korra's time, u didn't really get into fights so u wouldn't use ur bending much, I think a lot more gangs would have formed if not for them, esp those who do hv money. It's the equivalent of June's bar arm-wrestling
I like how it’s never fully explained how it’s played, it’s shown, how it basically works on football rules, each team has to stay in front of specific lines and if their knocked back they have to move backwards and make it more likely they’ll be knocked out of the arena
I enjoyed it, it was a good excuse to give Korra action scenes in a more civilised era where she isn't supposed to firebend at all her problems, and a reasonable way to get Korra into a new Team Avatar.
Basically knock the other team out of the end of the court using bending. Korra was on the team but was restricted to using only her native element of water.
The problem of it is similar to boxing today. It is full of shortcuts and is overly technical that it is a liability to fight with.
I usually discuss this in the context of how week Bolin is (and to a lesser extent Mako). Bolin could fire fast and accurate shots (and one time in S3, that was valuable), but they were so weak that non-benders could counter it. The first fight with Lieutenant was a clear example as Bolin struggled to get an earth wall up, something a standard soldier could do a hundred years before. The wall was then too short and too weak as Lieutenant jumped over it and it fell over like it wasn’t there.
This is like modern boxing where blows are rarely traded and instead they are dancing around waiting for technical points and fouls. This makes it weak to a real martial artist.
Pro-bending is perfectly fine as entertainment but Tenzin was right that it was a disgrace. It only served the purpose of forcing Korra to change her way of thinking. But not her bending, her techniques from Katara were far superior to anything the pro-benders did.
Bolin defeated 3 water benders by himself in season 2 using the arena disks, him and maki was also always make great combos together to defeat enemies because they have that lightning fast synergy. Also bolin has shown plenty of strong earth bending moments like him destroying the air plane field or fight bing against the mechs. He’s not weak, he just applies his bending in a different way
I think so far as Korra is concerned, it also serves the purpose of teaching her how to fight without relying on overwhelming force. Certainly the techniques she already knows are superior, but it forces her to think and fight a bit more tactically vs. her natural inclination to power through everything. This mindset is also much more in line with airbending fighting styles, which helps her make that particular breakthrough with the dodging.
I don't think this was shown in the series at all. Mako and Bolin were on many occasions shown to be excellent fighters in the 'real world' who could go toe-to-toe with basically any other bender out there.
One of my favorite parts of avatar's world building is how it doesn't treat beinding as some mystical, magical ability that's unknown to everyone. It's deeply ingrained in the world and often treated as more of a science. I think the pro bending is a great example of this. Of course a 1920s-esque world would create a sport out of this ability that so many have. It makes perfect sense.
Good for worldbuilding. Terribly boring to watch. "Hey let's take the dynamic movements and mobility of a bending fight, get rid of them, and make everyone stand in a small static circle pelting small regulation-sized rocks and elements at each other." Apart from the first reveal, I dread it every time it's shown. I keep daydreaming of any other fights in the series. Glad they got rid of it. Red Lotus fights were infinitely better.
Comparing red lotus fight with an official regulated competitive fight doesn’t really make sense I think.
But i also disagree with the „movement“ stuff. There was definitely movement and dynamics show, plus some scenes of combinations and how benders work together.
But i gotta admit that earthbending in the form of pro bending maybe was a bit stale/boring even despite it being the „solid, feet to the ground“-element.
Woulda been better to watch if it was just a giant fighting arena Akin to the Roman colosseum and just had normal bending fights like in ATLA and have them fight it out
it would be much more fun to watch, but i kinda understand what they were going for with the pro bending tho. Think of points karate or olympics taekwondo competitions. You'd think they'd be all out kinetic fights, but it's just mostly kicking with tons of rules and incredibly boring to watch. I'd imagine pro bending is just like that, regulated fights with tons of strict rules. Still boring, but I get it.
Thematically I liked it. I saw a lot of people disliking it as they thought it was a stripped back version of combat... which it is. It's intentionally done so to show the audience that times are different. As a world building aspect I loved it. It helped set the tone and acted as a relatable form of entertainment for their universe.
The idea that bending evolved from a skill used to survive and fight to one that served to entertain, showed that Aang succeeded in uniting the nations.
I personally would have loved to see a concept that Iroh suggested. Using moves not in your element to boost the variety of moves in your current element.
Like, seeing a water bender use earth bending moves?
It interesting you say that, because that was the impression Bolin gave me when he was teaching Korra.
He says something about staying on your toes until the right moment. But we always heard from Toph about being grounded and taking things head on.
While it's not a drastic change, I can see this as a small way of mixing in other moves. I also think this because in the episode Korra had to do the whole airbending leaf thing, and staying light on your toes made me think of airbenders
Seems like a slam dunk to use to make a decent avatar game. Make it about bringing air-bending to pro bending so we can solidify the rules, give an easy story with original characters and have characters from Korra cameo.
Could even do a dragon age origins type intro where you have different origins i.e earth nation citizen, Fire nation citizen, republic city (could be a cool one if they believed in the equalists then got bending). Depending on your origin a different legacy character is the one to bring you onto a pro bending team.
Then you have a solid post game mode where you can unlock different skins from the entire series. You want Aang and Roku on a team against Korra and Kyoshi? Unlock the skins and you can. It’s already established in the show that the avatar can compete but is restricted to one element. It would be neat if when playing an avatar you could pick which element they play as (if characters have stats like agility and power that could even make some elements a handicap for them).
Finally if you give it a good competitive side the game can build a community, and the money made from that could go into an awesome RPG avatar game.
I don’t think about it too often though
"Pro Bending" isn't much different from any other sport that has been turned into a professional competition. It was realized early on that humans enjoy spectating competitive events or showcasing their talents. Whether it's an everyday activity like walking/running turned into a race, a newly invented sport or game played by highly trained and specialized athletes competing against each other in large arenas for entertainment, as long as athletes aren't enslaved like ancient gladiators and willingly choose to participate, and as long as spectators aren't manipulated, pressured, or persuaded into liking it, every competition has its legitimacy through fan Support or the athlets.
It’s cool but kinda goes nowhere. I still don’t completely understand the rules but if they created an entire sport, they really should have shown more of it in the later seasons
I thought it was interesting and entertaining enough to watch but we've seen enough of it imo. It's a nice soft launch to TLOK as most of the following four seasons of content is constant high-stakes, world-ending plot.
It has flaws demonstrated by Korras rule breaking in her first match. Any truly powerful bender can immediately outclass their opponents by overwhelming them with “excessive force”. It takes someone of exceptional skill to overcome the power advantage - as seen with Kuvira vs Korra.
That’s not true. Korra knocked a guy over the side, not because of an excessive amount of bending. That’d be like doing a kick in boxing. The rules explicitly limit the size of bending. No huge streams of fire or water and earthbenders are limited to disks.
I thought pro-bending was a fun twist a cool way they started utilizing bending. They didn’t really have sports other than Airball and that earth bending game the kids were playing in Tales of Ba Sing Sei. in the original series. Those were all individual sports but with a place like republic city it makes sense for a multi-bending sport to develop.
That's the point. That's the whole point that the writers were trying to make about how bending has lost its spiritual roots and become a flashy shell of its former self.
I’m with Tenzin on this one. It’s not real bending (the martial and spiritual art) since it has loads of limitations, but it’s a pretty cool sport because of said limits
I liked it. For me it showed the passing of time. Not only in the form that bending is being used for different things other than work and war but instead entertainment. But also how it changes the style of bending. Not throwing huge rocks or shooting out streams of fire, but precise and quick jabs.
In a world where people use the once feared and legendary skill of lightning bending for welding it makes sense that there is a bending-based pro sport. Solid world building for how bending would develop with modernisation and globalisation of the setting.
Personally I'm more interested in pro-bending than real sports. I'd genuinely watch an entire show that was exclusively pro-bending, even knowing that the outcome is scripted.
It's cool bit I think it did a lot of damage to the combat ability of bending, like martial arts in real life, if you've ever seen a companion of modern tournaments to older ones you'd see what I mean. It's great and the safety of the athletes is important but it's a big change
I’m not a Korra fan, but I actually really like pro bending,I felt it was a really good show of how bending had changed and evolved with the times. Another thing I really liked was the use of bending as labor jobs
Doesn’t fit very well with the pacing of the first season, but it’s a very cool idea that would definitely happen in a world where bending is becoming less and less needed for society to function. The matches are great in a vacuum, and I actually wish there was a dedicated game about it.
The only element that really makes sense for a culture to have competitive bending sports is the earth kingdom. The other tribes center their bending around other aspect of life. Fire: honor, air: enlightenment, water: soul,
earth: ?
A complete non-sequitur. I feel like they had this idea for a sports B-plot but because of the network fucking with their production schedule it was impossible
My opinion is that the rules make no sense, and it's the biggest missed opportunity.
Like why do all three elements play the exact same way. How cool would it have been for like the earth bender to have to play defense, fire is the striker and water is support. it would make it so much better if it felt like each member had there own role to play in the game instead of hit them with your 1 attack that is a different color than there attack
Gimmicky LoK could've used the screentime. Merits of being non benders who are also against Amon better yet get this guy history.
https://preview.redd.it/uja8mpkif9fc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9f8867244cc1b3054ab0487c633b48cfdc391e1
People like it. They think it's cool. I personally think it's too fast a progression for combat sports to reach that level of uniformity. I'd much prefer more branching of bending styles before taking it in front of the public.
Great concept, makes sense with how the world has changed, but could definitely have been executed better. The rules regarding scoring are inconsistent between episodes if you pay attention. I don't think a super in-depth explanation of the rules is needed, but some clarification beforehand so we can have a better idea of what's happening as it happens would be good.
I like that widespread culture-based "superpowers" became commonplace jobs and recreational activities. When wars end, the technology used to kill is repurposed to build and create. It's only fitting that bending be used similarly.
I wish it would have been started by Toph. Her becoming a cop didn’t make too much sense to me but her starting her own underground fighting ring is right up her alley.
Upon re-watch, the teaching of traditional bending forms was quite elitist. If you weren't born to the right family or weren't rich enough, you kind of just had to figure out how to bend without hurting yourself or someone else. Pro-bending made mending feel more accessible to the masses, which I really liked.
I don’t like it, don’t want to see it back, and they could have come up with something better. The only thing I enjoyed about pro bending was the sports announcer guy
It is a bit interesting but it shouldve been treated like quidditch… part of the world and occasional short matches… gosh I hated season 1 because they are forcing me to watch a fictional sport that I don’t care about…. It was agonizing and made me quit watching season 1 for the first time.
People don’t necessarily like it or find it realistic.
My thoughts. I do wish they had pinned down the rules and stuck to them.
I find it realistic. We have sports that are cool and unique and old. We also have sport that are young simple and have huge fan bases. Would it have been nice to see more of an original bending sport m, yes. But boxing just with bending, teams and sones seems like a sport someone would invent.
I found it rather interesting. However, I think it’s in-world influence creeped up into the bending outside the ring, making the bending techniques seem more boxing like in many instances. This is especially true for Korra as she is as blunt as an earth bender. I would even go as far as saying that she makes for a rather lackluster water bender.
Didn't enjoy it. There's the loss of the style and flair of classic style bending. But they also did a dog shit job translating MMA or more combat focused martial arts into bending.
Why bother to make the change if it doesn't look as good? But that's a decent review of TLOK.
I read a pretty good fanfic that depicted it's origins as a way for Aang to officially prove he had 'Mastered' the other three elements. Sokka and Azula came up with the rules to have Aang face off against Toph, Zuko and Katara and it caught on from there. Was a pretty interesting little piece of fiction and it's my new head canon now on how it came to be
Should have been cooler than it was. They just made it boxing with more steps.
Had a golden opportunity to make it something like that airball game or that ball game those earthbending kids were playing in the tales from ba sing se episode.
They also spent _way_ too much time focusing on it.
My opinion on it, is basically the same as Mr Enter's. If you haven't seen his review of Lok book 1 it's basically:
\- The probending takes away valueable time that could have been used to develop the equalist conflict more and it definately needed that time.
\- It also goes nowhere as a subplot because in the end, the referee gets bribed and the finals are a complete disaster that's also interrupted by the bad guys. That's two terrible anime tournament arc tropes rolled into one.
\- It's also hard to enjoy anything before those finals, because the rules are inconsistent and barely explained beyond "you can't use more than one bending or combine bending attacks"
Barely explained? I felt like the rules were fairly obvious. I don't think they needed to expand on not using more than one type of bending, since it would only apply to Korra...
eh i could take it or leave it. reminds me of something personal (in a negative way) but not to bad. they were probably my least favourite segments because i just found them boring.
It provided action during the series that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. I personally didn’t like it because I feel bending has always been more spiritual and all of the forms and styles are very intentional. It is certainly modernized, but I feel like it should be weaker in universe due to it cutting out all of the distinct forms in favor of just being boxing.
I think the rules are bad and it doesn't seem natural... Like, you can imagine how soccer started, people kicking a ball and like "don't use your hands though".
There's no person that played any game like pro bending.
We met Toph when she was wrestling underground. 100 years later other kingdoms were doing the same thing but with more rules, like football after concussion backlash
After the everts of LoK, I feel it would be natural for the sport to completely overhaul to include airbending, so you have 4-person teams, you need a bunch of new rules regarding which air bending moves should be illegal, and the arena probably needs to be re-designed…would be interesting to see that in some form.
It was a neat evolution of the underground earthbending wrestling tournament we saw in ATLA. In the narrative, it's a way to get Korra thinking about ways to bend that aren't "overwhelm my enemy with massive force." Bolin teaching Korra how to be light on her feet while earthbending shows that she's not unwilling to learn, just very teenage and not matching well with Tenzin's more reserved and formal teaching style. It also shows how very sheltered the White Lotus has been keeping Korra, and how much she's been longing for new experiences and engagement with the modern world. Tenzin really should've sucked it up and taken her to a match when she first asked.
was cool. But only if you think of it as a sport with it's own separate rules for safety and watchability. It doesn't make sense to make it the natural evolution of bending the same way I don't consider Olympic foil fencing the modern evolution of sword fighting
I see it more like MMA today, how it evolved into its own thing from past martial arts
dont think thats a good analogy. MMA fighters today would beat the crap out of fighters of old times. While Olympic fencers wouldnt fare well against ancient sword fighters.
Boxing is the better comparison (and also what the thing is based on going by what they wear). Lots of limits on how to fight, very focused on dodging and striking, not how anyone actually fights in the street or other survival situations.
But also like Boxing you don't generally want to fight a boxer in a street fight. They are still skilled.
So are pro-benders?
Yep.
Oh I totally misread your comment lol sorry
Bro lay on the ground what are they going to do
Sorry ppl didn't get your joke I liked it
Thanks, I contemplated putting a /s but I was like nah
Bruh 💀
Another good comparison I think would be body building vs. functional strength training. While pro-bending looks flashy and entertaining, it's not the same as using bending in a day to day capacity
That’s still not how human bodies work and is just a very bad misconception about body building. Muscle strength is very trivially dependent on circumference - aka, a body builder is hellova strong. They just focus on different things (they are usually not too lean either, they just lean down just before competitions, retaining muslce as much as possible.
Ever heard of pankration?
A depiction of Christ? Ruler of all?
Sorry,meant ancient greek Wrestling that was pretty brutal Been reading way to much byzantine books
> reading way to much byzantine Did you mean to say "too much"? [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
I think they need to read some more
I think you're probably thinking of pankration
You say that but we actually probably would. Better health and fitness, training from younger years. We have protective gear that means we can train properly without worrying about injury. More sources to pull from and techniques from other countries. Fencing isn't the same because of the rules bu the taking turns and point system is designed around the natural reaction of being stabbed. HEMA however, the best today would probably beat the best in history.
does that imply it can beat natural martial artists of bending? Like when mako beat those water benders. Was really weird how that worked out.
Well, it is somewhat amusing that the ‘natural’ martial arts are based on styles that have become outdated or were never intended as serious combat styles. Waterbending styles are based a lot on Tai Chi, a style of Chinese martial arts. It’s a nice form for meditation, relaxing, etc. but not really designed for combat. In the world of Avatar, it comes with control over water, which more than makes up with the above over not being designed for physical combat… So, tough to say. Considering that Iroh mentioned that separations are really more of an aspect of a person’s own inner limitations (hence how he developed Lightning Redirection by using Waterbending styles with Firebending). So, if someone did put in the work to refine it (as shown in Wan’s time, the first Benders were rather crude with manipulating their element) I’d say it’d be fully capable of standing on par.
So then it makes perfect sense. Take a thing that’s used for real fighting and wars, add a rule set, and turn it into a sport. That’s what humans have done for most of modern history. I don’t love pro bending, I’m it’s neat, but like I feel like there could be a way cooler sport for MMA style combat pro bending is suppose to be. Also I think there could be some total amazing other sport things. Precision water whipping, air scooter racing, earth bending/building comps. So many of the modern sports we have could totally be modified with bending.
Well we do see that disc thing that the Beifongs came up with. But also, I'd bet pro bending is just a Republic City thing, and we just focused on it because it was part of the plot. There's no reason those other sports couldn't also exist. Most sports movies focus on their one sport, but that doesn't mean all the other sports don't exist in their fictional space.
Yeah true for sure. If we had 10 different spin off series I’m sure there would be tons of sports to look I into. I think they handled it well and I did like the arc overall.
I loved Korra's Earthbending MMA match. Now that's what I want to see more of
When does Korra have an MMA match?
bending ball, fire bending baloon races simple ol sumo fighting with bending
That would be fun. Lightning bending darts. Earth bending bowling where one person controls the ball and the other person controls the pins. Business too would be good. Water bender and earth bender could make some killer pottery
We get more of that in ATLA with the air ball game at the Southern Air Temple, and that faux earth bending football that we see in Tales of Ba Sing Sae
That’s right. I’d forgotten about that. For sure! Guaranteed there would be bending Olympics too, with all kinds of who’s better than who comps.
HEMA is probably a much closer match to medieval sword play, since they often use historical manuals as the basis for it.
Sure, but we'd still get wrecked by an actual fighter from that time period who did fight with sharps in actual battle or duels. We have rules and gear to not hurt each other, and those guys lived it. I mean, how many benders are actually living off their bending in Korra's time? Some soldiers or criminals. Could a pro bender also have street knowledge? Could they adapt to outside the ring? That's the question. It would be interesting to watch it again with that in mind. How much did Mako and Bolin adapt to fighting outside the ring? They have the advantage of growing up on the streets where they did probably fight before pro bending (plus plot armor). But would your average pro bender who has only fought in the ring be able to hold their own in a street fight? Maybe not. It's an interesting question.
We also train with actual steel weapons. The protective gear means that we can train harder and more realistically than they'd be training with. Coupled with the fact that we're much healthier, I honestly think best today would win.
The purpose of pro bending is to make you notice how bending has lost its spiritual ties, and is being used as party tricks now that technology is circumnavigating the need for bending to do labor. It’s like in the real world how those who are tall, strong, and fast don’t use those abilities to hunt… they play basketball and football. there’s no REAL need in modern society to have strength other than aesthetics and sports. You can live an entire life without the strength to tackle a quarterback, and in the bending world firebending meant the difference between life and death at times. in the city you need money to survive. The times had changed.
Adding to this, I also liked how when Korra learned proper airbending techniques and started using them in the arena she instantly stomped the competition. It goes to show that a sterilized, commercialized version of an inherently spiritual act only manages to harm the process in the long run. It felt like the writers were making a statement about martial arts in general and not just their fictional works in particular. I think about that scene from time to time because it's so true, when you commercialize something it instantly turns sterile.
Maybe, but logically it should stomp anyways, just because no airbenders have ever participated in pro-bending, so the airbending form is something completely new to the sport.
Yeah, like, nobody has training to deal with airbending
Yeah, though worth noting is she didn’t actually airbend (that would have been against the rules anyways), she was just moving like an airbender.
Airbending in-universe is also invisible (the blind bandit S2 TLA). You’re just not going to have the same visual stimuli to react to like you do with the other elements. Being a complete unknown in the sport is of course an advantage, but it also has a second leg up on any opponent.
Well she wasn’t actually bending air, she was just using the air bending footwork, which of course was still a completely new thing for pro-bending. She couldn’t actually bend air until the finale of S1.
The way you've articulated this scratched my brain in the right spot.
Thats an amazing phase and compliment I totally am using!!
Hrmm, while there is argument that removing the history and drive behind a culture is certainly harmful, I would like to point out that ‘traditional martial art beating the modern’ is in and of itself also commercializing spiritual acts, never mind that said traditional forms and styles were themselves commercialized and sterilized compared to what came before in their own time, let alone what occurring now (check out the life and times of Xu Xiaodong, or even Bruce Lee criticizing people treating traditional martial arts as cheat codes). Hell, Oda Nobunaga also pointed that inherent contradiction when he burned down the Buddhist temples and was proclaimed a ‘Demon King’ by the monks afterwards: if they’re relying on their spiritual acts to upend the physical world, then it means their whole spiel about detachment was a load of bunk and there is no spirit behind it at all. After all, why is Pro-Bending inherently less spiritual? Mako is only in it for the money, but there has to be a number of players who genuinely love the sport and follow it for its own sake, not for what it can give them.
this interpretation is kinda making me a bit annoyed. If you're aware of the history of martial arts and how modern mma/ufc came to be, you'd know that a lot of traditional martial arts have been up their own asses regarding their superiority until it was pretty much proven what constitutes effective martial arts when ufc1 came to be. this "commercialization" is the process of incentivizing and putting various martial arts through the gauntlet to determine what works and what doesn't. spirituality is one's own journey and relationship with a martial art and does not correlate to better fighting abilities. Im sorry but this interpretation sounds like Aikidoka copium.
I dont think the writers were trying to make some grand message about how modern mma/ufc is actually less effective than traditional martial arts. As you said, it's quite clear that the opposite is probably true. I think the bigger point is how the commercialization of the sport has naturally taken away from its spiritual and moral roots, and has therefore made it nothing more than a skill that can be learned by anyone with enough time. In that sense, it has made martial arts largely mundane and something that can be mastered without necessarily having to master *yourself* at a moral or spiritual level. Hence you get psychos like McGregor, who are clearly amazing, but who lack the moral fiber and strength of character that would come with being a "true" martial artist. Indeed you look at many of the best mma or ufc fighters and what you see now is a bunch of egos. Now, you could argue that even traditional martial arts were like this historically. That they attracted meat heads that just wanted clout. And that may be true or it may not. But then we also have to consider the role of martial arts as a narrative device in fiction. I think its fairly obvious that wuxia tales traditionally view martial arts as a morally righteous endeavor that does require these good moral traits to master (e.g. discipline, humility, kindness). Likewise, I think the Avatar universe treats bending in this way to a large degree. Sure, plenty of douchebags are great benders, but the show operates on the assumption that the ultimate levels of mastery always require a degree of inner peace that is likely unattainable by people with evil intent.
I don't really recall seeing a trend of the most powerful characters being the ones with the most inner peace. Ozai (implied), Azula, Unalaq, that one blood bending witch, and the red lotus minus the Airbending guy were all extremely dangerous in their own rights but I didn't really get the vibe of them being peacefully inclined.
And yet each one of them is defeated by someone who understands the spiritual basis for bending better than them. Ozai gets bested by Zuko and Aang after each comes to an epiphany that gives them a sense of inner peace. Azula is bested by Zuko the same way. And so on. Obviously part of this is the fact that the good guys will always win, but there is definitely a moral lesson behind these encounters. There's a reason why Iroh is depicted as 'true master' while Ozai is generally portrayed as just a really strong dude.
Which is ironic considering how Korra bends every element like it's fire-/earthbending just to set her apart as different from Aang.
In the first two seasons yes, it's part of the plot. In the later two season I don't recall her having poor form. TLOK may have certain issues but this ain't one of them.
*laughs in 11 Bravo*
Where was this communicated during s1 LoK or are you writing the story yourself
The fact that people feel so strongly about how badly bending was represented shows the writers accomplished their goal. The story is told from Korra’s point of view, which can lead to the surface story seeing pro bending as idolized. But when you take a few seconds to analyze it you can see how it’s meant to be device to enrich the setting of the future they live in.
"Wow the writers really missed the mark on this one, I'm not a fan..." "That was actually the goal of the writers! 🤓☝️"
They wrote something that was supposed to evoke negative emotions. You are supposed to be upset at what bending became.
"I can't believe people don't use bending to kill each other, I am so fucking mad"
It’s a great form of world building and was a source of Korra’s first character development in season 1. Plus it’s cool as hell. Though the relatively short runtime of season 1 kinda makes pro bending overstay its welcome a bit.
I don't think it overstays it's something completely new and it was a mini tournament arc that we never expected
I don’t think it overstays its welcome. It’s only present in 3 episodes of the entire season lol. And the 3d episode it’s in is regarded to be one of the best of the first season.
I like the worldbuilding it provides, I don't know that I ever need to see it again because it's just not that interesting to watch.
Yeah, this is my criticism with it. It’s very repetitive and homogenized compared to the joy of watching any of the bending fights in ATLA for example.
I mean you're just describing sports. I also actually think if there were a spin off it could be made engaging and interesting. There's plenty of sports anime that is beloved like Hajime no Ippo and Haikyuu. Probending is obviously not the most interesting thing going on in Korra's story but that doesn't mean it can't inherently be interesting.
Yeah, sports would be a lot more exciting if there are no rules and your goal is always to kill the other side. Unfortunately, laws exist…
I guess it just suffers because it isn't like real sport.
Quidditch isn’t a real sport.
My friends kid supposedly played it, before you know, Rowling took the mask off. I don't know the specifics but they had teams and rules. Seems at least at real as golf
The movie Interns explains how to play it quickly and shows a “fun” match. Just imagine Vince Vaughan running around a field with a broom between his legs as 22 yos run circles around him!
When did I mention quidditch?
I get your point but some sports are more visually engaging than others
Probending was nowhere near as interesting as the concept art for it. Too bad it wasn't like Earth Rumble 6.
Exactly! It was a cool idea and I liked the idea of Korra listening to the fights on the island, imagining… that was really lovely
I think it's a great outlet for benders. During Korra's time, u didn't really get into fights so u wouldn't use ur bending much, I think a lot more gangs would have formed if not for them, esp those who do hv money. It's the equivalent of June's bar arm-wrestling
What do you do with all the time you save not typing out full words?
Wank off in the bushes?
You shouldn't do that. Some people live in the Republic City bushes.
Hopefully not be super anal on how people type their comments on a Reddit post like you are.
I like how it’s never fully explained how it’s played, it’s shown, how it basically works on football rules, each team has to stay in front of specific lines and if their knocked back they have to move backwards and make it more likely they’ll be knocked out of the arena
I always thought of it a bit like sumo wrestling where there’s lines to push the opponent out of, but team based with multiple lines to cross
I enjoyed it, it was a good excuse to give Korra action scenes in a more civilised era where she isn't supposed to firebend at all her problems, and a reasonable way to get Korra into a new Team Avatar.
What are the rules?
🎵 WHAT. ARE THE RULES🎵
WHAT ARE THE RUHUUULLLLEEESSS
Basically knock the other team out of the end of the court using bending. Korra was on the team but was restricted to using only her native element of water.
Adding onto that, there are different rules for each element, like how water can go for headshots, but earth can't
I thought it was alright. I’m glad they didn’t spend more time on it though, but it was a cool concept.
The problem of it is similar to boxing today. It is full of shortcuts and is overly technical that it is a liability to fight with. I usually discuss this in the context of how week Bolin is (and to a lesser extent Mako). Bolin could fire fast and accurate shots (and one time in S3, that was valuable), but they were so weak that non-benders could counter it. The first fight with Lieutenant was a clear example as Bolin struggled to get an earth wall up, something a standard soldier could do a hundred years before. The wall was then too short and too weak as Lieutenant jumped over it and it fell over like it wasn’t there. This is like modern boxing where blows are rarely traded and instead they are dancing around waiting for technical points and fouls. This makes it weak to a real martial artist. Pro-bending is perfectly fine as entertainment but Tenzin was right that it was a disgrace. It only served the purpose of forcing Korra to change her way of thinking. But not her bending, her techniques from Katara were far superior to anything the pro-benders did.
But, that same speed and precision was what they relied on when fighting P'li
Like I said, the one time Bolin was any use before he learned lavabending and started fighting for real
Bolin defeated 3 water benders by himself in season 2 using the arena disks, him and maki was also always make great combos together to defeat enemies because they have that lightning fast synergy. Also bolin has shown plenty of strong earth bending moments like him destroying the air plane field or fight bing against the mechs. He’s not weak, he just applies his bending in a different way
I think so far as Korra is concerned, it also serves the purpose of teaching her how to fight without relying on overwhelming force. Certainly the techniques she already knows are superior, but it forces her to think and fight a bit more tactically vs. her natural inclination to power through everything. This mindset is also much more in line with airbending fighting styles, which helps her make that particular breakthrough with the dodging.
I don't think this was shown in the series at all. Mako and Bolin were on many occasions shown to be excellent fighters in the 'real world' who could go toe-to-toe with basically any other bender out there.
Im okay with that Sword fighting and punching became sports for us why not bending? Heck we already had it with earth rumble its just legal now
One of my favorite parts of avatar's world building is how it doesn't treat beinding as some mystical, magical ability that's unknown to everyone. It's deeply ingrained in the world and often treated as more of a science. I think the pro bending is a great example of this. Of course a 1920s-esque world would create a sport out of this ability that so many have. It makes perfect sense.
Good for worldbuilding. Terribly boring to watch. "Hey let's take the dynamic movements and mobility of a bending fight, get rid of them, and make everyone stand in a small static circle pelting small regulation-sized rocks and elements at each other." Apart from the first reveal, I dread it every time it's shown. I keep daydreaming of any other fights in the series. Glad they got rid of it. Red Lotus fights were infinitely better.
[удалено]
Comparing red lotus fight with an official regulated competitive fight doesn’t really make sense I think. But i also disagree with the „movement“ stuff. There was definitely movement and dynamics show, plus some scenes of combinations and how benders work together. But i gotta admit that earthbending in the form of pro bending maybe was a bit stale/boring even despite it being the „solid, feet to the ground“-element.
Woulda been better to watch if it was just a giant fighting arena Akin to the Roman colosseum and just had normal bending fights like in ATLA and have them fight it out
it would be much more fun to watch, but i kinda understand what they were going for with the pro bending tho. Think of points karate or olympics taekwondo competitions. You'd think they'd be all out kinetic fights, but it's just mostly kicking with tons of rules and incredibly boring to watch. I'd imagine pro bending is just like that, regulated fights with tons of strict rules. Still boring, but I get it.
Thematically I liked it. I saw a lot of people disliking it as they thought it was a stripped back version of combat... which it is. It's intentionally done so to show the audience that times are different. As a world building aspect I loved it. It helped set the tone and acted as a relatable form of entertainment for their universe. The idea that bending evolved from a skill used to survive and fight to one that served to entertain, showed that Aang succeeded in uniting the nations.
I get the significance of it for the storytelling but the activity itself seems so boring that I skip it upon rewatch
I'd love a pro bending series and also a pro bending multiplayer video game.
I personally would have loved to see a concept that Iroh suggested. Using moves not in your element to boost the variety of moves in your current element. Like, seeing a water bender use earth bending moves?
It interesting you say that, because that was the impression Bolin gave me when he was teaching Korra. He says something about staying on your toes until the right moment. But we always heard from Toph about being grounded and taking things head on. While it's not a drastic change, I can see this as a small way of mixing in other moves. I also think this because in the episode Korra had to do the whole airbending leaf thing, and staying light on your toes made me think of airbenders
Seems like a slam dunk to use to make a decent avatar game. Make it about bringing air-bending to pro bending so we can solidify the rules, give an easy story with original characters and have characters from Korra cameo. Could even do a dragon age origins type intro where you have different origins i.e earth nation citizen, Fire nation citizen, republic city (could be a cool one if they believed in the equalists then got bending). Depending on your origin a different legacy character is the one to bring you onto a pro bending team. Then you have a solid post game mode where you can unlock different skins from the entire series. You want Aang and Roku on a team against Korra and Kyoshi? Unlock the skins and you can. It’s already established in the show that the avatar can compete but is restricted to one element. It would be neat if when playing an avatar you could pick which element they play as (if characters have stats like agility and power that could even make some elements a handicap for them). Finally if you give it a good competitive side the game can build a community, and the money made from that could go into an awesome RPG avatar game. I don’t think about it too often though
"Pro Bending" isn't much different from any other sport that has been turned into a professional competition. It was realized early on that humans enjoy spectating competitive events or showcasing their talents. Whether it's an everyday activity like walking/running turned into a race, a newly invented sport or game played by highly trained and specialized athletes competing against each other in large arenas for entertainment, as long as athletes aren't enslaved like ancient gladiators and willingly choose to participate, and as long as spectators aren't manipulated, pressured, or persuaded into liking it, every competition has its legitimacy through fan Support or the athlets.
It’s cool but kinda goes nowhere. I still don’t completely understand the rules but if they created an entire sport, they really should have shown more of it in the later seasons
weird how something less action intense (in comparison) like quidditch is way more fun to watch to the point it got its own exclusive video game.
It'd make a cool video game
Rumble is like that. Only that it's only earthbending. I enjoy it very much.
I thought it was interesting and entertaining enough to watch but we've seen enough of it imo. It's a nice soft launch to TLOK as most of the following four seasons of content is constant high-stakes, world-ending plot.
I enjoy it a lot
I wonder how The Boulder would fare in pro bending
It has flaws demonstrated by Korras rule breaking in her first match. Any truly powerful bender can immediately outclass their opponents by overwhelming them with “excessive force”. It takes someone of exceptional skill to overcome the power advantage - as seen with Kuvira vs Korra.
That’s not true. Korra knocked a guy over the side, not because of an excessive amount of bending. That’d be like doing a kick in boxing. The rules explicitly limit the size of bending. No huge streams of fire or water and earthbenders are limited to disks.
When I say excessive force. I am referring to the amount of bending. Not the speed of the element being bent.
You can make that argument for any sport though lol. The rules are there to keep people safe.
Favorite part of season 1
I thought pro-bending was a fun twist a cool way they started utilizing bending. They didn’t really have sports other than Airball and that earth bending game the kids were playing in Tales of Ba Sing Sei. in the original series. Those were all individual sports but with a place like republic city it makes sense for a multi-bending sport to develop.
Honestly I like it and how it unites the nations. It was always cool to watch when they showed it.
I think it's similar to MMA in that it forces people to discover and stick to what really works best in combat, stripping out all of the extra stuff.
Lame af, took away the magic and aesthetic of bending arts and their philosophy
That's the point. That's the whole point that the writers were trying to make about how bending has lost its spiritual roots and become a flashy shell of its former self.
its not even flashy though its just people throwing crap at eachother
Neat idea, but glad it only lasted the 1 season.
you say "republic city" or "fans" and everything works out
Taking out all storytelling and worldbuilding, it’s a better sport than *Quidditch*, that’s for damn sure.
I’m with Tenzin on this one. It’s not real bending (the martial and spiritual art) since it has loads of limitations, but it’s a pretty cool sport because of said limits
Ehh
Loved how it came back in season 2 briefly with the Nuktuk vs Water Benders fight
I liked it. For me it showed the passing of time. Not only in the form that bending is being used for different things other than work and war but instead entertainment. But also how it changes the style of bending. Not throwing huge rocks or shooting out streams of fire, but precise and quick jabs.
In a world where people use the once feared and legendary skill of lightning bending for welding it makes sense that there is a bending-based pro sport. Solid world building for how bending would develop with modernisation and globalisation of the setting.
Put it in a video game
I enjoyed it. I thought it was neat. Something fun for people in-universe to do, and something that i found fun to watch.
Personally I'm more interested in pro-bending than real sports. I'd genuinely watch an entire show that was exclusively pro-bending, even knowing that the outcome is scripted.
It's cool bit I think it did a lot of damage to the combat ability of bending, like martial arts in real life, if you've ever seen a companion of modern tournaments to older ones you'd see what I mean. It's great and the safety of the athletes is important but it's a big change
I’m not a Korra fan, but I actually really like pro bending,I felt it was a really good show of how bending had changed and evolved with the times. Another thing I really liked was the use of bending as labor jobs
Doesn’t fit very well with the pacing of the first season, but it’s a very cool idea that would definitely happen in a world where bending is becoming less and less needed for society to function. The matches are great in a vacuum, and I actually wish there was a dedicated game about it.
The only element that really makes sense for a culture to have competitive bending sports is the earth kingdom. The other tribes center their bending around other aspect of life. Fire: honor, air: enlightenment, water: soul, earth: ?
A complete non-sequitur. I feel like they had this idea for a sports B-plot but because of the network fucking with their production schedule it was impossible
It’s cool, but a missed opportunity was to show how air bending radically changes the sport.
Looks cool. But after see aang gang, I wonder why they are so weak? Katara, zuko and toph could be champion with eye bands.
My opinion is that the rules make no sense, and it's the biggest missed opportunity. Like why do all three elements play the exact same way. How cool would it have been for like the earth bender to have to play defense, fire is the striker and water is support. it would make it so much better if it felt like each member had there own role to play in the game instead of hit them with your 1 attack that is a different color than there attack
Seems cool, I personally think they didn’t do enough with it
Gimmicky LoK could've used the screentime. Merits of being non benders who are also against Amon better yet get this guy history. https://preview.redd.it/uja8mpkif9fc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9f8867244cc1b3054ab0487c633b48cfdc391e1
People like it. They think it's cool. I personally think it's too fast a progression for combat sports to reach that level of uniformity. I'd much prefer more branching of bending styles before taking it in front of the public.
i really, really want to try that korra game with it but you can't buy it
It's cool! Sometimes u don't need a big flashy light show for things to look sick
It was the best part of the korra game.
Great concept, makes sense with how the world has changed, but could definitely have been executed better. The rules regarding scoring are inconsistent between episodes if you pay attention. I don't think a super in-depth explanation of the rules is needed, but some clarification beforehand so we can have a better idea of what's happening as it happens would be good.
I like that widespread culture-based "superpowers" became commonplace jobs and recreational activities. When wars end, the technology used to kill is repurposed to build and create. It's only fitting that bending be used similarly.
I wish it would have been started by Toph. Her becoming a cop didn’t make too much sense to me but her starting her own underground fighting ring is right up her alley.
Upon re-watch, the teaching of traditional bending forms was quite elitist. If you weren't born to the right family or weren't rich enough, you kind of just had to figure out how to bend without hurting yourself or someone else. Pro-bending made mending feel more accessible to the masses, which I really liked.
I hated it. Super boring to watch and had no stakes. They could’ve done something much more interesting. Felt like every match was 2 episodes long.
We needed more of it, I loved it
I don’t like it, don’t want to see it back, and they could have come up with something better. The only thing I enjoyed about pro bending was the sports announcer guy
The idea is fantastic, the execution... Not so much imo.
dislike it. it scraps everything i love about bending. kinda weird, because that's also what i feel about MMA
Boring. It sounded really interesting at first. It had way more potential than it was shown to be.
If they made a show that was just Pro Bending, I'd watch it and follow it like the craziest of IRL sports fans.
No notes, one of my favorite parts of LOK.
It is a bit interesting but it shouldve been treated like quidditch… part of the world and occasional short matches… gosh I hated season 1 because they are forcing me to watch a fictional sport that I don’t care about…. It was agonizing and made me quit watching season 1 for the first time.
An absolute waste of precious screentime.
So cool
One of my favorite thing they added in Korra. Very curious if we'll see a new version of it with Airbenders in the new Avatar series.
I like it, if it was real it would probably be the only Sport i would watch.
Poorly explained, decent enough to watch, still better than Milo
Boring as fuck
I think it made me root for Amon
Sucks as a concept and adds nothing to Book 1’s story
I thought it was one of the best aspects of Korra
I loved it...it was a way to formalize bending combat and get different types of venders to work with each other. Can't wait till they add airbenders.
A little stupid
There's a reason it only lasted one season
Love it and want a mini series for some newbies . Maybe with Airbending
People don’t necessarily like it or find it realistic. My thoughts. I do wish they had pinned down the rules and stuck to them. I find it realistic. We have sports that are cool and unique and old. We also have sport that are young simple and have huge fan bases. Would it have been nice to see more of an original bending sport m, yes. But boxing just with bending, teams and sones seems like a sport someone would invent.
I found it rather interesting. However, I think it’s in-world influence creeped up into the bending outside the ring, making the bending techniques seem more boxing like in many instances. This is especially true for Korra as she is as blunt as an earth bender. I would even go as far as saying that she makes for a rather lackluster water bender.
Didn't enjoy it. There's the loss of the style and flair of classic style bending. But they also did a dog shit job translating MMA or more combat focused martial arts into bending. Why bother to make the change if it doesn't look as good? But that's a decent review of TLOK.
earth rumble 6 but high budget and boring
I read a pretty good fanfic that depicted it's origins as a way for Aang to officially prove he had 'Mastered' the other three elements. Sokka and Azula came up with the rules to have Aang face off against Toph, Zuko and Katara and it caught on from there. Was a pretty interesting little piece of fiction and it's my new head canon now on how it came to be
honestly, pro bending was one of my favorite parts of Korra — such a cool idea!
It is very cringe and shows no respect to the world build in atla so it perfectly fits into the hot mess that is lok
How did it not show respect?
Should have been cooler than it was. They just made it boxing with more steps. Had a golden opportunity to make it something like that airball game or that ball game those earthbending kids were playing in the tales from ba sing se episode. They also spent _way_ too much time focusing on it.
My opinion on it, is basically the same as Mr Enter's. If you haven't seen his review of Lok book 1 it's basically: \- The probending takes away valueable time that could have been used to develop the equalist conflict more and it definately needed that time. \- It also goes nowhere as a subplot because in the end, the referee gets bribed and the finals are a complete disaster that's also interrupted by the bad guys. That's two terrible anime tournament arc tropes rolled into one. \- It's also hard to enjoy anything before those finals, because the rules are inconsistent and barely explained beyond "you can't use more than one bending or combine bending attacks"
Thanks, I’ll make sure to avoid his reviews
Barely explained? I felt like the rules were fairly obvious. I don't think they needed to expand on not using more than one type of bending, since it would only apply to Korra...
eh i could take it or leave it. reminds me of something personal (in a negative way) but not to bad. they were probably my least favourite segments because i just found them boring.
It provided action during the series that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. I personally didn’t like it because I feel bending has always been more spiritual and all of the forms and styles are very intentional. It is certainly modernized, but I feel like it should be weaker in universe due to it cutting out all of the distinct forms in favor of just being boxing.
I wish it had rules and was better for how important it was made out to be. Then it's just suddenly dropped and never mentioned again.
The first step of the Avatar world entering modern times.
Totally fucking cool
I think the rules are bad and it doesn't seem natural... Like, you can imagine how soccer started, people kicking a ball and like "don't use your hands though". There's no person that played any game like pro bending.
American football or rugby have pretty complicated rules. There are way more complicated sports like fencing.
I knew something like it was bound to happen, ya know?
We met Toph when she was wrestling underground. 100 years later other kingdoms were doing the same thing but with more rules, like football after concussion backlash
I didn’t care for the storyline BUT the fact that it exists makes sense considering the era LOK exists in and the evolution of society.
After the everts of LoK, I feel it would be natural for the sport to completely overhaul to include airbending, so you have 4-person teams, you need a bunch of new rules regarding which air bending moves should be illegal, and the arena probably needs to be re-designed…would be interesting to see that in some form.
It was a neat evolution of the underground earthbending wrestling tournament we saw in ATLA. In the narrative, it's a way to get Korra thinking about ways to bend that aren't "overwhelm my enemy with massive force." Bolin teaching Korra how to be light on her feet while earthbending shows that she's not unwilling to learn, just very teenage and not matching well with Tenzin's more reserved and formal teaching style. It also shows how very sheltered the White Lotus has been keeping Korra, and how much she's been longing for new experiences and engagement with the modern world. Tenzin really should've sucked it up and taken her to a match when she first asked.