For someone who happens to have a show named after her, Korra sure doesn’t get much screen time in the premiere of the new season of The Legend of Korra! Doesn’t bother me none, personally; I’ve always like the without-the-Doctor Doctor Who episodes, myself. Still, can I tell you something? I’m well ready for this depressing plot line to come to an end already. Really, I hope the whole recovery story arc runs on an accelerated track. I’ve had enough emo Korra in this series; I’m ready for no-holds-barred, cage-match, all-or-nothing Korra to come back.
I think Korra’s ready, too. She’s brawl-bending, putting her in the underdog role that Bolin and Mako were in as pro-benders in season one, and they’re the authority figures with government ties; how the tables have turned. We’ve had three years of lapsed time, so I think it is possible. Plus…perfect opportunity for Korra to be taken under Toph’s wing as a mentor, just sayin’.
I hope they don’t Godwin Kuvira. Avatar: the Last Airbender had a tendency to show the three dimensions of their villains, and thus the character portraits we remember of them are humanizing. Azula at the beach, Azula having a mental breakdown—not at her best, not at her worst, but as her more characterized. Old enemies could be turned to new allies, but even if they stayed enemies, or stayed neutral, their essential self is what we remember. The exception is Ozai, because the monstrousness of his deeds and ideology outweigh any meager time he had on screen.
I sort of feel like The Legend of Korra’s villains have been the opposite of both those examples. We got the characterization upfront and the villainy later, when it came to Tarrlok and Unalaq, in the form of betrayal. Again with Zaheer we got noble rhetoric and only dubious antagonism—violently overthrowing an unjust empire is as ambiguous as it gets—before he went full heel turn. Amon is another exception, but frankly Amon’s actions outweigh Amon’s backstory and exposition at least seven-fold, for me.
What I want for Kuvira is something better. I want the Avatar: the Last Airbender treatment. With her prodigious talents and taste for politics, she could easily be this season’s “Azula,” but I want them to tweak it: make Kuvira a necessary evil. If you read my recent review of The Emerald Spire, the first Pathfinder megadungeon, you’ll know my favorite alignment is Lawful Evil. It has conflict built into it! Perfect storytelling engine. Really I want her to be badass anti-hero. I want her to have her own agenda—order in the Earth Kingdom—and to oppose any more queens and puppet princes. I want her to have her own ideas about how far is too far and I want her to not give a damn what the Avatar thinks as an authority figure…but to care about Korra’s counsel as a spiritual leader. I want her to be her own faction; Lady Eboshi or Princess Kushana.
Sometimes enemy, sometimes ally, always her own person. I don’t want her to end up as a plain old “bad guy.” I want her cast as someone making hard choices. Does she only care about your province for the ore? Yes! Because she’s trying to run a country in the middle of a period of anarchy. She’s governing, yes she only cares about the trade route, the strategic ground, the precious resource. Those are things government needs to address. Does she employee bandits to act as the “bad cop” so she can roll in and solve the problem? Probably! I just want the story to give her depth and backstory and motivation. But yes, of course she’s going to decide that Republic City has to be “reclaimed” to re-unite the entire Earth Kingdom, that’s the obvious direction for the story to take; I just hope it has a less obvious conclusion.
I’m really happy with the conceit of turning the Air Nomads into world traveling problem-solvers in the Avatar’s absence. It gives them a reason to resume being nomadic, which is a clever flourish, but their low numbers and inexperience means it stretches them thin. As with Lawful Evil antagonists, a noble underdog plot like this can generate its own stories. Collaborate with the quasi-legitimate warlord, or be destroyed without their help. Attempt a hail Mary longshot to go it alone, and either failure or success will spawn new ideas… and cool fight scenes like the bison back brawl with the Point Break ending.
I do have one complaint though! Meelo’s “Meelo the Boy versus Meelo the Man” vignette was cute but something—someone—felt like they were missing. Do Opal or Kai start with a “J” and end in “-inora”? No? Then shut up and have Jinora do something more than smile when she hears Korra is coming back! Which of course, is something that holds true about Korra in this episode as well…
Before I go, let’s talk for a minute about how everyone looks. Which is to say, to recall the days of Iroh II, congratulations on your faces, everybody. and the costume design? The way the patagial wings on the Air Nation uniforms fold up like Star Trek movie uniforms fold over? The evolution of Lin Beifong’s weaponized metalbender armor taken to the extreme of a high speed ammo feed, Mako’s green collar…every little detail is just so. The fact that everything has changed so much is a testament to the characters original designs; change the outfits, the hair, and we still know who Korra and crew at a glance. Those changes tell a story in and of themselves; three years have gone by and Team Avatar has, excuse the pun, changed.
I’m guessing next episode is Korra’s flashback episode, complete with rehabilitation and a Battlestar Galactica grooming montage; fingers crossed that it ends on an up note! Hopefully Korra isn’t in the Earth Kingdom aimlessly, but is in fact entering the world of underground bending as part of her own, personal agenda to seek out Toph as a master?
Mordicai Knode hopes the traffic at Nick.com is proving that Nickelodeon should continue pushing the Avatar-verse…or that they’ll let it go. Find Mordicai on Tumblr or Twitter.
The thing with Kuvira, is that she’s REALLY invested in Su’s ideology, that shared prosperity prevents obstacles, and allows people to achieve their full potential, which is what Kuvira wants for EVERYONE.
So I completely see that she started on this path for good reasons.
What she has failed to learn, is that kind of utopia, is only possible on a small scale, entered voluntarily. Seriously, if anyone found that life in Zaofu wasn’t for them, they’d probably leave, and Su would let them, because it’d be anti-thetical to her to force them to stay.
So Kuvira, meeting a natural resistance to her ideas, is instead enforcing them through violence. Including, instigating the bandit attacks herself, to give a villain for her to rescue the states from.
Brilliant stuff. We’ve gone from Communism, to Theocracy, to Anarchy to Fascism! YAY!
And yes, that maturity in style now is awesome. And they keep teasing my Korrasami heart! I mean, Asami, now big to do business woman, still eats and hangs out on Air Tenple Island everyday? Or only on “Korra’s Coming Day!”? I hope Asami likes her hair!
1. Aeryl
I don’t know if I buy your axioms– that it has to be small scale– but I think the “voluntarily” is very intersting…because, well, who has a voluntary say in their social contract? That’s not how government works because it is not how government CAN work; you can’t defect, though you can leave. I hope it is a more complex picture than black & white.
Also…now that it is all internet, maybe Korrasami just got more likely?
Did anyone else notice that w/ Metal bending there was “Magnatism” as well?? Or was it just holding the metal down w/ effort? I do not think there was conscious thought there like bending, I think it was magnitized.
@3, Varrick started using magnets last season, while in Zaofu
@2, To do economic equality on the scale such as Zaofu, where no one HAS to work, everyone can pursue their “dream” yes, it can only be done on that small a scale. Which isn’t to say we couldn’t(and shouldn’t try to achieve) have more economic justice in our current system, but I don’t see any daytraders making a go of it in Zaofu, do you?
@3 If you’re talking about the bandits who Kuvira attached to the railway, I assumed that she melded the handcuffs to the track. Metalbending the way it’s done in Zaofu is very fluid, almost like waterbending (earth + water = metal, fire + water = lightning redirection, wonder what air + water is?).
Which kind of leads me to one of my…eh, I dunno if “criticisms” is correct, but thoughts about all of LoK. In ATLA, the “advanced” bending was very PHYSICAL. Bloodbending, lightningbending, and lightning redirection were distinct physical movements. Remember how when we were waiting on the last few episodes, how we knew Katara would be bloodbending bc the trailer showed her doing those motions?
In LoK, advanced bending seems more magical than martial. It’s about mental effort and discipline, not specific martial forms. The lavabending especially, Bolin didn’t have to learn a specific form, he just DID it. Now, I’m sure the animators did their homework and his motions really were distinct from his earth bending; I wouldn’t be qualified to really comment on that. I’m just talking about from a narrative point of view.
And I’m not saying it’s bad. After 70 years, it makes sense that bending theory has advanced, especially since “psychic bending” is becoming a thing. It’s just interesting to observe.
@5 I guess I feel like bending is something which is part natural talent and part learned skill. Like, on the most basic level, you either can bend or you can’t, so clearly there is an element of “You’ve either got it or you ain’t” involved, and that seems to be true for the more advanced bending forms too. Bolin’s inability to metalbend is a good example – he’s awesomely powerful and he can learn all the forms, but he just can’t do it.
It makes me wonder how kids first find out that they can bend, and how that happens. Like, do parents teach their kids the forms first in the hope they have the talent, or does it just happen spontaneously one day, and then learning the forms helps you channel and control it. If the latter, that would be analogous with Bolin finding out he can lavabend spontenously, and then – presumably – having unlocked the ability, he’d then have to learn how to perfect and control it.
That moment when you realize Korra has never defeated any of the main villains of each book was shocking to discover. I hope Korra makes a comeback and rises from the ashes to defeat Kuvira. If she is indeed, the villain of this season.
3. Lancer
I definitely caught that I wondered the same thing!
4. Aeryl
I’m not sure I accept the small scale thing as an article of faith; heck, people said the same thing about democracy…
My excitement for this show really knows no bounds, so I tend to watch the whole thing through rose colored glasses. Yeah, it’s not AVATAR but I think you make some great points as to how they could capture that same essense but still keep it Korra.
What I’m interested in seeing play out is Kuvira (the bully) vs. Prince Wu (the douchebag) and how two not great choices are presented. I hope it doesn’t ultimately come down to Korra choosing a side as Avatar to make the final choice, but we will see!
@8, Yes, but you’ve had that whole “control the means of production and generation of wealth” on a large scale, and plain old human avarice tends to get in the way.
5. SunDriedRainbow
&
6. Grim Wolf
Talent was always part of it, along with technique; I don’t think Bolin’s thing was out of nowhere. He WAS practicing trying to extend his bending all season…but failed at being a metalbender. Maybe I’m just welcoming of narrative conventions even at the expense of plausibility: Bolin was practicing all season, then Bolin got a new ability, seems legit to m.
As to your question, it’s a good one; I’m guessing that it probably depends on the parents? Or the culture; the old Air Nomads probably taught you the forms & practices just anyhow. See also, the Air Acolytes, & whatever Zaheer’s backstory is…
7. KTheLastMan
I mean, I’ve been saying since Book Two that I think Korra will unite Raava & Vaatu inside of her as a yin-yang avatar spirit. Maybe NOBODY gets defeated at the end of this book? Maybe it ends with Korra being like “nope, sorry, here’s the deal, you don’t get Republic City but I won’t go Epic Korra Avatar Power on you; I reject that as a solution. You will go back to the Earth Kingdom & have an election, which you’ll win by a landslide, & then you will be President Kuvira, & you will accept President Raiko as an equal & RC as a sovereign state, like Hong Kong.”
I don’t have a problem with Kivura being this season’s heavy because the way they are setting her up. She is the ‘Helping others… by any means necessary’ type (one all too familiar in the real world). She is also setting herself up as the ‘man on the white horse.’ like Caesar or Napoleon.
Going back to AtLA, how what was the impetus for the Fire Nation war? Simple… they wanted to bring order to the world, or their version therof.
Also, they are showing her position to be reasonable. She is effective. She is doing things. And she has the facts on the ground, unlike the theoretical and (regrettably) rightful monarch.
As long as she doesn’t metaphorically twirl her moustache before the climax, I will be OK with her as the antagonist.
My main complaint is how annoying Wu comes off. Yes, I don’t want this shallow jerk to rule, but do the writers have to make it so blatant? At least give him some small virtues.
Re: magnetism bending
I genuinely don’t think that Kuvira was “magnetism bending” in the train attack. I just thought she was metal bending in general. What would Magnetism add to an ability to metal bend? You can already manipulate metal to do pretty much whatever you want…I find it hard to believe that “magnetism bending” would add anyhing.
I have every confidence that Kuvira will be a complex villain. The only complaints about the villains in Korra that I have is that since they’re only there for 1 season they don’t have enough time to fully flesh them out. But I think that the ideals they have are way more complex than anything in A:TLA. Well, the only complaint other than Unalaq…who was just terrible.
I have a general question for everyone here. Does anyone know if Konietzko/Dimartino are doing any upcoming interviews and where? I’ve been dying to have someone ask them if A:TLA will ever get an HD upgrade to Blu-Ray. We’ve seen some classic animes get the update (Cowboy Bebop, Ranma 1/2), so I think it should be possible. But no interviewer has ever asked them this, and it’s been gnawing at me. Especially since the DVD transfers are absolutely awful.
Both TLAB and TLOK both really succeed when they handle very adult, quasi-historical issues and ideologies in a way I never thought I would be able to see on a channel like Nickelodeon.
Kuvira strikes me as very much an analogue of Chiang Kai-shek. I’m interested to see if her organization will mirror/parody the Kuomintang in much the same way that Amon and his Equalists used Maoist and Marxist rhetoric and propaganda. Also excited to see how the Avatar-universe’s Waring States period will turn out. Like Mordecai, I’m expecting this season to end with Kuvira’s irredentist ambitions on Republic City.
With regards to Bolin lava bending without learning forms I believe when Iroh was teaching Zuko to redirect lighting he said something along the lines of “you can practice this motion to help form the idea” I always assumed that the forms were never strickly necessary but help your concentration, like throwing fireballs in the Wheel of Time. Although I suppose since they have the whole chockras and chi stuff there could be some phisical element to manipulating your chi.
It seems like lava bending shouldn’t necessarily require different forms and motions, since you are still manipulating the same substance, just changing it’s physical state between liquid and solid. This is a basic level thing in waterbending, but earth requires more energy to go between liquid and solid than water does. Rather than a totally different technique, lava bending is probably more a matter of just having more raw power, or else better fine control. It doesn’t seem too out there than Bolin can find out he is capable of it just by being in a high stress situation and believing in himself.