LGG&F’s Best of New York Comic Con Cosplay

I am bad at doing stuff at conventions. I love the atmosphere, and the opportunity to people-watch and hang out with like-minded nerds, and most of the time things like panels, screenings, and celebrity guests are just icing. I can probably count on two hands all the panels I’ve been to in my con-going life, and that’s out of sixteen conventions.

This lead-up is all an excuse to explain why I don’t have any first-hand news from any NYCC panels or photos of myself with famous guests—we didn’t bother seeking any out.  There were only a few panels that sounded interesting to us, (Marvel in Television, the Firefly panel) but we have tremendously short patience for lines, and in the latter case, only part of our group had seen Firefly and we weren’t going to force them to wait for it without even an interest in it.

There were approximately 116,000 people at NYCC, and we had enough trouble just getting from one place to another in the Javits Center without drowning in Homestucks, let alone finding the rooms where actual panels were happening.

So, rather than a roundup of all the cool nerd news that came out of our gripping journalistic coverage of New York Comic Con, this is going to be a Best Of Cosplay roundup instead. Check out the slideshow or hit the jump for the gallery of our highlights!

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Fan Service: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Fan service in this context, in case you are unaware, is when a TV show or movie pays some sort of tribute to their own fans. My Little Pony does this very frequently. For example, they have made references to bronies in the song ‘Equestria Girls,’ given Derpy Hooves, a speaking role, and actually called her Derpy (which we will come back to), and much more. In addition, the MLP staff has released rumors that some of the background ponies (that bronies love) are going to have bigger parts in the upcoming season.

However, I feel that sometimes the fan service can be too much. Derpy is a great example of this. When she was featured in an episode (see clip below), there was a public outcry from parents of children who watched the show, saying the name Derpy, combined with the voice, was offensive to those with mental issues. In response, her voice was changed to sound, well, less derpy in later recordings. This proceeded to upset all of the bronies who liked Derpy’s original voice and who didn’t believe the name Derpy carried negative connotations in this case. The bronies loved her; they didn’t love laughing at her.

I think MLP went a little too far with the original footage. While I enjoy fan service, it shouldn’t seem like it is coming off at someone else’s expense. The way the scene was originally done, it was easy to take offense at and insulting to those with mental illnesses.  I know that no one meant any harm and MLP writers were only trying to pay homage to their fan base, but from a perspective outside that fan base it just came off as rude.

The instance above was just going a little far. The Legend of Korra, on the other hand, beat the idea of fan service over the head with the voice of General Iroh. He has the same voice actor (Dante Basco) as Zuko, the main firebender from the original Avatar and General Iroh’s grandfather. This was probably done to pay homage to the fans from the original series and pay tribute to the previous series. However, since I literally watched Avatar and then immediately picked up Korra, I knew instantly that General Iroh and Zuko had the EXACT same voice. Not a single difference. For me, having the two characters depicted by the same voice actor would have been enough, but giving them the same voice was overkill. It also made it very difficult to figure out how old General Iroh is (I actually have zero idea). If Basco had changed his voice slightly, I would have 99 problems and Iroh’s voice wouldn’t be one of them. But right now I just have 100 problems.

In short, fan service is awesome in small doses. In big ones, it just makes people upset and sometimes angry.

Nerd News: Double Awesome News Edition!

So San Diego Comic Con is this weekend, so a lot of cool industry news will be breaking in the next two or three days. But here are two of the coolest things I’ve heard so far:

1) Legend of Korra has been officially renewed by Nickelodeon! And not just for a Book Two, but Books Three and Four! That means forty more episodes of Avatar-world awesomeness! (In fairness this isn’t an actual announcement from SDCC but… get over it.)

2) One of the biggest things that sci-fi geeks find themselves having a sad about is the cancellation of Firefly. Well, it’s not coming back, but the cast is getting a double-whammy reunion—they’ll all be together at Comic Con this weekend for the first time since, I believe, the filming of Serenity, AND they’ll be filming an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary called Browncoats Unite that will be airing November 11th on the Science Channel. Yay!

Shiny!

The Finale of Korra

Okay so I know this is way late. So instead of wasting your time further with excuses, let’s talk about the Korra finale double-whammy, “Skeletons in the Closet” and “Endgame”. Spoilers will abound.

In no particular order, my feelings:

I generally want to marry Asami. Or Lin Bei Fong. Or both of them.

The first episode was almost entirely Amon backstory, which was kind of tedious albeit necessary.

LUMPIN’ AVATAR STATE SAVED THE DAY. I FREAKING CALLED IT.  GRAH.

Tarlok pulled through liek woah in the end. I suppose I shall cease calling him Pooplok.

Iroh is, even as Zuko’s grandson, funnily named, although badass. I can’t tell what age he’s supposed to be, though, whether he’s a grownup or closer to Korra’s age.

I want to be friends with Uncle Bumi.

Mako better, better, freaking better have talked to Asami and broke it off offscreen before he went all love-confessiony on Korra. So irritating.

The finale was so, well, final.  And now I hear there’s gonna be a second season anyway—I’m glad about it but they’re going to have to make up an entirely newconflict because they wrapped up literally everything—Amon, Korra’s airbending (a total copout, imho), the relationship beefs, the lost bending of Korra and Lin Bei Fong and everyone else, everyyythinngggg.

Final season one thoughts: I quite liked this show. It had all of the things that I loved about A:tLA but was different enought that it wasn’t a carbon copy. I still am sort of annoyed by Korra because she seems to effortlessly get what she wants all the time.

This season, I like it. Another!

What did you all think?

The Review of Korra: Antepenultimate Edition

Someone somewhere else (maybe Crunchyroll?) used the word antepenultimate (as in before the second to last) to describe the tenth episode of Book One of Legend of Korra, and I thought that was awesome. So here goes:

I feel really bad for Asami. Mako is basically cheating on her, and it’s not like he’s known Korra any longer than he’s known Asami that Korra has some previous claim over him. I don’t like that it’s sort of being played like Asami’s the bad guy and we should feel bad for Mako. No. Mako needs to sack up and stop stringing these girls both along.

I continue to love Lin Bei Fong like burning. Tenzin’s kids are also amazing and ridiculous.

The scene with the council members being attacked confirmed for me that, even when talking and not just blindly agreeing with Tarrlock, they are idiots.

Smackdown of the episode is a tossup between the Airbender kids and Naga laying the beatdown on Mustache Guy. Nevermind, smackdown goes to Lin for destroying one and a half airships singlehandedly. Lin Bei Fong is the queen of my heart.

AAAH HELLO DANTE BASCO- I MEAN , GENERAL IROH, YOU MUST BE ZUKO’S BOY AND AREN’T YOU ADORABLE. (So much for my Mako is Zuko’s long-lost son theory… Also, Zuko has the child-naming imagination of Harry Potter, good goddamn…)

Things that are still a problem: Korra still doesn’t know how to airbend, and she’s no closer than she was in Episode Two.

Who are Mako and Bolin’s parents? Is that important at all? Do they have some secret magical heritage or are they just bog-standard orphans? (No one in fantasy is ever just a bog-standard orphan.)

Did Sokka (and I assume Suki, because in Avatar teen loves are forever loves) have a kid? Why haven’t they made an appearance? Everyone else’s kids have.

Picture is unrelated.

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: I was banking on him being estranged Fire Nation royalty, but Iroh’s appearance has filled our Zuko’s-family quota. Maybe Azula eventually bucked the cray-cray and had a kid? I’m stuck with my energybending cyborg theory.

Wish list for the finale:

• Let there be a season two, and don’t rush all of the plot into the finale. There is no reasonable way that Korra will master airbending in these last two episodes, so don’t focus on that.
• Resolve the relationship stupidity in a way that a) doesn’t estrange Asami, b) gives Mako his due share of the blame, and c) doesn’t spare Korra’s feelings. She has a bit of an internalized I’m-the-Avatar-gimme-gimme sense of entitlement on top of the standard-for-any-crush feeling of no matter how much you like the other woman, the guy would be better with you, and she needs to get over it.
• Let Korra (and Bolin, etc) grow as a character in general. One of the greatest things about the original series was the character depth – Sokka was the goofball, but a brilliant strategist. Katara was the sweet, principled, naive character who bloodbent when she had to. This is what made them interesting. Korra, Bolin, and Mako to a point are all still pretty two-dimensional for me.
• I read a really interesting theory on tumblr: because their energybendings are different, Amon’s is reversible. But only if the blocked bender is confident it can be reversed. The more they panic and are depressed about it, the less able they would be to reverse it. Please to be employing this or some other equally awesome and intricate theory to give Lin her bending back. (I’m sure she’ll still be kickass without it, but whatever.)

 

Avatar: The Review of Korra—The Catch-up Edition

I am so behind on Legend of Korra, you guys, but here I am finally catching up. Let me share my feels with you.

:O <–My face when I realized this stonecold badass was grownup Sokka.

Episode 6: Boy am I glad that they got the relationship drama episode out of the way so that we can move on with our lives. This episode was obnoxiously plotty and I loved it. I was surprised they moved past the pro-bending finals and onto the Amon business so quickly, but hell, they really were asking for him to attack.

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: Still stuck on Son of Cabbages Guy. CABBAGECORP, YOUGAIZ.

Go Team!

Episode 7: Thank you, Avatars past, for allowing Asami to finally be badass. She drives like a boss and has killer karate moves. And with her father’s coming to light as an Amon supporter and her rejection of him, we finally have a cohesive and trusting Team Avatar. Yay! Side notes: New LOK OTP is Korrasami. Dat look on Korra’s face when Asami whipped out her ka-ra-tay. Just sayin’. Also, dear Lin Bei Fong: I love you, never change.

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: Not sure. CEO Cabbages Guy seems more like a backer in the way Hiroshi is (if he’s even involved and wasn’t framed.)

Great face or greatest face?

Episode 8: This episode was filled with some serious McCarthy-level shit. Tarrlock is way out of line. At this point I’m becoming a supporter of the idea of Team Avatar going underground and helping Lin Bei Fong take out Amon. Except for the whole Korra-still-needs-to-learn-airbending thing. That presents a problem. Although with Korra captured and the rest of Team Avatar imprisoned, who knows what is going to happen next? Side note: the personality-less other three council members are starting to grate on my nerves. They always agree with Tarrlock no matter what. Also, Korra is righteously angry all the time. Why hasn’t she gone Avatar-state yet? Maybe next episode.

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: Tarrlock. What better way to turn unaligned non-benders against all benders than to have bender authority figures arbitrarily and indefinitely imprison great swathes of them? Also, this would make it easy for Korra to undermine his follower base in the end—by revealing him to be a bender as well. Or maybe I just hate Tarrlock a lot.

Episode 9: YAY Lin Bei Fong! You are the baddest of badasses. Also,Tarrlock is a skeezy, nastyfaced grossjerk and I’m not sad he can’t bend anymore. I’m proud of Korra for rescuing herself, and for finally getting through to the memories Aang wanted her to see. Also exciting: seeing the grown-up Gaang kicking ass and taking names. Still no Avatar state from Korra, but perhaps she’ll figure out energybending from Aang and fix the borked benders? We’ll see, I guess. Side note: Even all grown up, Sokka still can’t leave his boomerang out of conversation. Also, will we ever find out why Yakon and son can bloodbend all weirdly, or are we just gonna have to assume it’s a bending quirk?

This episode’s Who Is Amon guess: Well, I guess I just hate Tarrlock (nicknames suggested by my brother: Tarrpoop? Pooplock?) a lot because he can’t be Amon. New guess: Amon is a cyborg since the bloodbending only partly affected him. STEAMPUNK (PART-)ROBOT OVERLORD? You decide!

Your thoughts, Korra watchers?

Legend of Korra: Time to let out the drama-llamas…

In the spirit of ladybacula’s MLP reviews, I figured I’d do a weekly LoK review.

So this week’s episode was all about the romance and drama. When this became eminently clear at the beginning of the episode, I was more than a little displeased. What we really need in this groundbreakingly awesome series about a female action hero is obviously a love triangle.

As Mako’s number one fangirl, I can’t fault Korra for crushing on him, and I continue to find Asami annoying and clingy (hopefully she gets some character development soon), so if someone has to get Mako, I’d prefer Korra. But she does obviously get on better with Bolin… Augh, okay I’m not getting into a shipping battle here. More to the point, I’m excited to see what happens in the next episode, whether they switch back to Korra training, Korra fighting Amon, or the Fire Ferrets taking on that asshole from the Wolfbats. And although realism says that awkward relationship awkwardness doesn’t just vanish, I hope that this whole love polygon thing is background radiation for a while.

Putting that aside, though, the episode wasn’t half bad. They learned a lesson about letting drama get in the way of being a team. I just wish they hadn’t paired everyone off so soon.

I’d much prefer this. Not as an OT3, just friends. Although, now that I mention it…

Avatar: The Review of Korra

Hooo boy you guys am I excited. I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the first four episodes of Korra, and I am in such a happy place right now. (A big shout out to my bff Nakura for patiently fielding all my live-tweetesque response texts, which have conveniently allowed me to remember ALL my feels for your perusal.)

HI KORRA I LOVE YOU ALREADY BE MY FRIEND COOL LADY

(Also, this comes at the perfect time, because since MLP ended last week I am fresh out of Saturday cartoons.)

Things I love about this show:

• It’s not trying to be its predecessor. In fact, so far the only remaining living character from the previous series is Katara (WHO IS BECOME GRANGRAN).
• I love Korra. She’s fiery and three-dimensional and impulsive and has got a hell of a temper and an authority problem. She reminds me a lot of Books 2-and-3 Katniss in that she has a lot of noble feelings about how to make the city better and an amazing ability to say just the right thing in press conferences. And best of all, people are talking about Korra in terms of her personality, her abilities, and her choices—NOT her looks.
• The steampunkness of Republic City is awesome and not forced at all. It seems like a very natural progression from the original series’ technology.
• Mako and Bolin are fun—they really strongly remind me of Zuko and Sokka (why mess with a character formula that works?) but not so much that they’re carbon copies. (How are they brothers, by the way, if one’s an Earthbender and one’s a Firebender? How do bender genetics work? Why is no one in Tenzin’s family a Waterbender?)

• I like that the intro now has Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and Korra in it now—a cool nod to Avatars past and present.
• So many nods to fan things and geek things. I mean, Tenzin’s oldest daughter (ALSO MY FAVORITE—she reminds me of Kaede Kaburagi from Tiger & Bunny) straight up asks Katara what happened to Zuko’s mom (and is unfortunately cut off—curse you, writers)! And in the third episode when Korra is harrassing that Equalist, I got serious Monty Python vibes.
  

  Thank you, fanartist, for preemptively illustrating my feels.

Other things I felt:

• Amon needs to suck it up—Zuko was brutally burned all over his face by his own dad, and still sucked it up and became a better person.
• I love the announcer with his super-corny announcer voice.
• The Fire-ferrets’ eye colors all match their bending. So cheesy.
• There’s gotta be a way to fix the taking away of bending. I saw a really well-thought-out explanation of how Amon’s anti-bending is different from Aang’s energybending and therefore reversible on tumblr, which I can link interested parties to.
• I want to know if Toph actually married someone or if Lin Beifong was born out of Earthbending and sheer awesomeness.
• I’m not sure how far I trust Asami. (I’m certainly pleased to have a second main female character even though it seems to foreshadows romantic pairoffs in a way I dislike.) She just seems very snakelike to me.
• Mako’s eyebrows. Can we talk about them? They’re ridiculous.
• I really hope in a ridiculous way that Amon is Son of Cabbages Guy, and he’s trying to get back against benders for generations of lost profit.

There is no connecting thread in this post. I just wanted to get out my thoughts. Have any of our dear readers been following Korra? What do you think?