You know things are going to get real when you see Lin Beifong waiting at the docks of Republic City. Then a Sokka statue? With a boomerang? Well, I guess a boomerang does always come back! After “Civil Wars,” which was all about set-up, I was eager to see something, well, happen. It did! Now the ball is really rolling. Rolling where I can’t quite say, but we’ve got plots, we’ve got agendas, we’ve got pursuit and enemies and dark spirits. Politicians and crooks, as if that wasn’t the same thing, and the things a Jedi doesn’t crave: Adventure! Excitement! Romance! Lemur training! Well, okay, Yoda didn’t say anything about romance or lemurs but we’ve got it here…or you know, in romance’s case, the lacuna where it should go, anyhow…
What is going on with Bolin? He says he is going to “figure something out,” and yes, please, Bolin, please, figure something out. Bolin is adored by Republic City; he’s genuinely good at playing to them, and maybe that will be the direction he goes…but currently he’s being co-opted by Varrick in a “racebending” metastory. Light skinned guy from a different cultural background dressing up in a mockery of the local fashions? I can’t tell if this is a spoof of Nanook of the North or of Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Eska, meanwhile, is now a “crazy ex” which continues to play the problematic aspects of their relationship for laughs. I do like her messed up eye make-up look, though. Maybe Bolin will have a “thing” with Ginger? Ginger’s only been treated as a prop by the story so far—quite literally objectifying—so it would be cool to see some character there.
Korra and Mako’s breakup is something I’m actually really into. Say what you will about romantic plots and subplots, but at least the friction here isn’t irrational. Since “stop acting irrationally” is what I always find myself saying to fictional characters of all stripes, I’m into it. The tension is real: Mako is pledged to and loyal to Republic City, and Korra is the Avatar. I don’t think she was wrong to circumvent President Raiko or to take sides in the Water Tribe dispute; she’s in a unique position of singular responsibility. She is an outside authority, that is one of the roles of the Avatar.
The conflict between Mako and Korra is the same conflict Korra and General Iroh have, but Korra’s feelings for Mako prevent her from dealing with it as graciously as she did with Iroh II. (The breakup is also explicitly paralleled to Lin and Tenzin’s split, for even more mirroring.) Both have personal and ideological conflicts with Korra’s actions; in the Gaang, everyone was loyal to Aang and each other. Sokka came closest to having outside allegiances, through his father, but those were never at odds with helping the Avatar. Instead, Avatar: the Last Airbender deals explicitly with the Avatar being above and beyond traditional avenues of governance; the battle against Bumi, the trial of Kiyoshi, and fundamentally, the rebellion against the colonialist Fire Nation.
I’ve become increasingly interested in the pacing of The Legend of Korra. By way of comparison to Avatar: the Last Airbender, “Peacekeepers” would still be in the first season. What does that mean to me? Well, a couple of things. We’ve talked about Korra having “cinematic” pacing, with more things left to the audience to fill in the gaps. Rather than show you every answer, they let the viewer piece it together. This can aid in the kinetic storytelling; for instance, the use of viewer assumptions about freedom fighters, protesters, and injustice in order to shorthand a lot of development for the Equalists, really quickly.
Another thing on my mind is Korra’s journey. Aang had a “big bad” during his incarnation; the Fire Nation had put the world out of balance, there was a hundred years of imperialism and war, and Sozin’s Comet was inbound, making the situation with the Fire Lord one of paramount importance. And for villains: Zuko, a proxy of the Fire Lord; Zhao, a proxy of the Fire Lord; Azula, a proxy of the Fire Lord; and eventually, Fire Lord Ozai himself. Korra doesn’t have this “World War” or even a “Cold War” situation; it is as if every one of her fights is with Long Feng and the Dai Lee. Her incarnation seems marked more by individual conflicts, with each conflict having two facets to it. Equalists and bloodbenders, Northern aggression and dark spirits. Is there a broader pattern at work?
Lastly I can’t help but think about parallels; when the Northern Water Tribe armed forces occupied the Southern Water Tribe, I think the first thing that leapt to most people’s minds was the similar animation to the Fire Nation’s invasion and the “then, everything changed…” intro monologue. If I was a Northern Water Tribe navy, trying to conquer the Avatar’s homeland, I would be really paranoid of giant Miyazaki Godzilla, wouldn’t you? Aang already demonstrated that the Avatar can single-handedly wipe out a naval blockade, in the North. The fact that “The Seige of the North” covered episodes 19 and 20 make me wonder if in a few episodes Korra will mirror that display of the Avatar State’s power?
Mordicai Knode thinks that Sokka’s space sword should remain lost until the third series in the Avatar cycle, where it should act as a kind of “sword in the stone.” Find Mordicai on Twitter and Tumblr.
This episode troubled me several times. First it was maintaining Eska as the “crazy ex”, although her reaction to Bolin’s flight could indicate that she did indeed have feelings for him, only being raised by a tyrannical schemer warped her views on how to act on them. I really, really hope the show gives Eska more room to grow.
All the other things were somehow linked to Varrick. He’s been portrayed as a goofy, enthusiastic aid for Korra, but I’m finding his influence on the gang to be rather… toxic. I’m pretty sure it was Varrick who paid the Agni Kai gang to bomb the cultural center, he’s becoming Reobulic City’s Leni Riefenstahl by putting out the first openly propagandistic fiction film, with Bolin and Ginger as the white-washing stars, he’s prompting Asami to become a weapons dealer… and his words “if you can’t make money off war…” really sent shivers down my spine.
He might be a comedic character, but I’m finding him to be very sinister.
@Al-X, I too have bad feelings about Varrick. I’m beginning to think he’s supposed to be sinister. I agree that I think he was involved in the bombing somehow. He’s trying to start a war.
Maybe this will be the season’s twist.
1. Al-X
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2. MandyP12
Oh yeah, I definitely had a note scribbled down: “Hooray! War profiteering!” Though you know, making Asami like, Tony Stark, the ethical innovator, could be an angle…though I think the politics of weapons manufacturing are pretty…rough for even a show like this to tackle. You are probably right that Varrick’s sliding scale of grey might turn out to be the “real” villain all along…or it could illustrate the choices people are forced to make in situations. Remain ideologically pure & be massacred, or sell your soul just to keep the revolution going. I hope the Equalists still have a voice; what do they have to say?
I bet the equalists are thinking “let those stinky waterbenders wipe each other out” :)
Which actually begs the question of the Equalist’s presence outside the elementally unaligned Republic. I wouldn’t think there are Equalists in the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation, given how ensrhined bending is on their cultures.
“I don’t think she was wrong to circumvent President Raiko or to take sides in the Water Tribe dispute; she’s in a unique position of singular responsibility. She is an outside authority, that is one of the roles of the Avatar.”
In principle, yes, that’s a role she has the right to take. The problem is that she’s abusing that role because she doesn’t understand the responsibilities that come with it. She’s using her nominally outside, nonpartisan role as a bully pulpit for advancing an emphatically partisan, one-sided position, rather than an objective vantage for considering all sides and mediating between them. That’s a gross abuse of her office and it’s no doubt what brought down the spirit upon her at the end.
@3: Fingers crossed for Asami Sato, Steampunk Iron Woman.
I’m still waiting for an episode where Korra isn’t either a) bumbling around trying to start a fight with someone, thinking it will solve all the problems, or b) complaining at someone (that she knows she shouldn’t pick a fight with) that her way is the best way (then sometimes starting a fight when they won’t listen).
Giving her weaknesses, character arcs, etc. is fine, but she learned more than this last season. It’s like she got conked on the head and reverted to a pre-S1 mindset again, or like the little toddler from the Pilot grew up and some other imposter did all those things in S1 instead of the one we’re watching now. It’s baffling.
4. Al-X
Well, or the fact that it is enshrined in those nations means that maybe there especially are Equalist sentiments? Oppressive stuff like the Dai Li are a good catalyst for rebellion.
5. ChristopherLBennett
Really? I’m not convinced of that. Yes, Korra is biased & needs to examine her biases, but Unalaq did invade the Southern Water Tribe. They did “start” it, they are the ones being aggressors, & the fact that their political & spiritual leadership says it is by the mandate of heaven doesn’t make it so; Korra could make an argument for balance as it stands, that she’s trying to restore balance to the North & South, by ending the Occupation.
Or anyhow; I think she’s doing the right thing in acting, even if she makes mistakes & does the wrong thing. It is better than letting herself be manipulated into doing nothing.
6. thomstel
Agreed. I’m done with having everything set up against Korra. She’s had a difficult hand dealt to her by the writers, & now I want to see the lessons learned in The Book of Air as the “answer key” to solving the problems in The Book of Spirit.
@7: Just because someone is right about the problem does not mean their preferred solution is correct. Yes, the SWT has legitimate grievances, but Korra is only considering their side, and she’s only interested in considering one possible solution, i.e. a war. An Avatar’s job should be to step back, look at the whole picture, and see if there’s a more peaceful, balanced solution that’s being overlooked.
Korra isn’t thinking like the Avatar here. She’s thinking like a daughter whose parents are in trouble. That’s her only motivating impulse right now — that and her desire for revenge against Unalaq for his betrayal. She’s acting out of personal motivations, and that’s not a good thing when you have the global authority of an Avatar. In Guru Nanak’s terms, her attachments are blinding her.
8. ChristopherLBennett
Oh man I really want to see what is up with the gurus now!
Despite the action, this episode felt way off to me. Yelling Korra, crazy eska, Bolin…Bolin, and bland, bland Asami. Instead of character development we are getting veneer and stand-in. Even the Tenzin part fell flat for me, “alpha lemur,” come on. I liked the hint of sinister in Varick and agree with @1 that he is a likely suspect in the bombing. I thought Makko actually showed some development, which was a pleasant change.
I also find the animation increasingly disturbing. There is a certain crispness to it and a bright color palette, no doubt. But am I alone in feeling that the backgrounds and composition are particularly static and weak? The whole thing feels much less rich than before.
Regarding the Avatar and neutrality, we’ve already seen previous Avatars take very sided and active positions in a conflict, from Kyoshi with her homeland to Roku and Sozin. I don’t buy that the spirits are angry over the Avatar’s role in this.
Finally, I’ve also been nursing a crazy theory for a while now, and thought I’d put it out there. We heard about Koh stealing faces, including a previous Avatar’s partner. But what does it mean to have a “face” “stolen”? Certainly not literally walking around Charlie X style in the real world without a physical face. I’m thinking it has more to do with identity or form. What if Unulaq as a (young?) man was studying the spirit world and encountered Koh, who stole his “face”/identity/form. So there’s my theory: Unulaq is Koh, or a Koh meat puppet, and Koh wants to use the portals to accomplish something as yet unknown, but probably not good. This explains both his knowledge of/power over the spirits and his strange interest in the problem. Crazy, right?
I’m guessing that Korra has been transported to the spirit world where she will learn a bit more about what’s going on.
10. ChrisG
I really like the backgrounds; the prison from the previous episode particularly stood out.
I thought Koh was going to be “behind” Amon in the first season– I thought Amon was gifted by “the spirits,” but that there was no monolithic “The Spirits,” & that the spirit in question was Koh. Once bitten, twice shy, but I can say that I do expect to see Koh in a season called “Spirit” you know?
Either way, I don’t think Unalaq; my theory remains that Korra will heal the rift between brothers & ultimately heal the rift between North & South, through that. Parallels to the bloodbending brothers in The Book of Air, right? Only with a different outcome.
This is the first episode of this season that my wife and I enjoyed. The other thing that threw us off-guard was taking Mako’s side over Korra’s. Talk about a shift! :-P Basically, the characters were acting much more like characters in this and I liked that Mako did have a job to do. I’m still intrigued to see where this season will go, and I’m definitely invested. Still have no idea why they’re spending so much time with Tenzin’s family vacation. Feels like a non-sequiter with the main storyline.
@10. That is…horrifying. If that turns out to be true…damn.
12. hihosilver28
So I’ve been watching Attack on Titan! I’m seven episodes in, so in the middle of Trost. I don’t know how I feel– the titans are creepy weird, & I have a thing for walled cities, as one is central to my RPG setting– ’cause the whole “indecision in the face of anihilation” thing is a bit much for me, & is very much the driving character arc for all the characters, so far. Still, sweet webslinging, too.
@10: “Regarding the Avatar and neutrality, we’ve already seen previous Avatars take very sided and active positions in a conflict, from Kyoshi with her homeland to Roku and Sozin. I don’t buy that the spirits are angry over the Avatar’s role in this.”
Intentions matter. Sometimes intervening on the side of a victimized country is the right thing to do, but Korra isn’t coming at it in those terms. She’s coming at it from a personal place, from anger rather than wise consideration of what the world needs. That’s dangerous because it’s not just about this one situation — it’s about the Avatar’s judgment where future situations are concerned. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is not right, because it can lead to greater wrongs. If Korra keeps going on this path, guided by her anger and bitterness toward Unalaq, how do we know she’ll stop when the Southern Tribe is liberated? She has the power to wipe out the North all by herself. An Avatar motivated by the search for balance and stability in the world would stop fighting once the need to fight was ended. An Avatar driven purely by rage and nationalism could be an unstoppable war machine.
Roku didn’t try to stop Sozin for personal reasons. Just the opposite. Sozin was his friend. But the good of the world required him to intervene. He made the decision that the world needed, not the one that his emotions and family loyalties drove him to. As for Kyoshi, she acted to defend her people against an invader, yes, but she tried to reason with him first, and then she took what was purely a defensive action against him, separating her peninsula from the greater land mass — which led to his accidental death because of his own recklessness, which was not Kyoshi’s intent. She protected her own people, but she could have done the same to protect any people in danger, and she acted with restraint until her hand was forced.
Can’t say I’m overly enjoying any of the subplots expect maybe Tenzin’s. Seriously I feel like if the show focused and either the inter-tribal war and/or the ‘bad’ spirits I’d be much better paced I think. But I’ll keep trucking on, despite be disappointed so far.
@ChristopherLBennett Yeah your argument is at best misguided attempt at peace and at worst literally blaming a single human being (one person!) whose people are the victim from an aggressive imperial show of power for said conflict. The South is pretty much justified in rebellion and Korra is justified to going to a peace rally. I understand your point that the Avatar should mediate between the two tribes but in reality it would never work. A) one tribe vastly outstrips the other in military power and thus would be arguing from a position of power and B) the military power instigated the conflict. So basically they’re holding the south hostage until they get what they want (which happens to be the south), and I doubt any kind of argument would dissuade because they literally hold all the cards in this situation.
In any kind of real world conflict you’d basically be blaming the Dali Lama for not negotiating a peace between the Chinese Gov’t and Tibetan people.
This episode brought something to the fore that I think has been building for a while now. Namely, the place the Avatar holds in a world that is outgrowing the need for one.
We saw some of this last season with Korra and Lin clashing. While she is the Avatar, Korra sort of learned she still had to obey the laws of Republic City, or answer to the police.
In general, all around, as the world of Avatar is in a full blown industrial revolution, with the old ways fading and new ways, such as democracy, the rule of law, and capitolism take hold, the keeper of balance is finding it difficult to understand their place.
During Aang’s time, that Avatar was the literal source of balance, but now, diplomacy and negotiations among politicians have taken hold, more or less pushing the Avatar out of the equation.
As the world continues to advance and become more modern, I find myself wondering where the Avatar will fit in, and how Korra will deal with the reality of the changing nature of the world around her.
14. ChristopherLBennett
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15. BDG91
To be fair, the Dali Lama only very infrequently throws fireballs & activates the full power of the Avatar state*.
(* note: this joke is about The Legend of Korra, not about Buddhists. The use of the term “avatar” shouldn’t be construed as making light of someone’s culture; just of a cartoon.)
@15: Wow, you could not have more completely misunderstood what I’m saying. I’m not “blaming” anyone. I’m not denying that the South is legitimately being victimized. And I’m definitely not saying that an Avatar is never justified in using force. I’m not talking about the morality of war here. That’s a different conversation.
What I’m talking about is Korra’s personal motivations and mental state. The issue isn’t whether the cause she’s advocating for is right. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. The problem is the bullying way she’s trying to put it into effect, seeing her Avatar role as a bludgeon she can use to enforce her will rather than a responsibility to others. As it stands, she can’t be trusted with the power she has. We saw this symbolically in the first episode where she used the Avatar State to win a race — to cheat, to exploit the State selfishly as an advantage over others. The power she has is corrupting her. And that’s clearly the arc she has to go through this season. Last season ended with her gaining the power of a fully realized Avatar, and now it’s going to her head, because she sees only the great power of the Avatar and not the great responsibility that comes with it. Yes, she considers herself responsible for fixing the world’s problems, but part of the responsible use of power is knowing when not to use it — respecting other people’s right to their own power rather than just bulldozing over them when they get in your way.
@16: As democratic institutions evolve and take over the role of maintaining temporal order, I assume the Avatar’s role will shift to focus more on its spiritual aspects — much like the Dalai Lama or the Pope, but for the whole world.
@mordicai
I felt like the indecision was justified when facing the astronomical horror of the titans. I just love the character development and the lack of “Plot Armor” in the show. There are very real costs for the characters, and the development is pretty stellar. That and the 3D Maneuver Gear is just a really slick idea and so much fun to watch. I would watch to the end of the Trost arc, and if it’s still too much at that point, you could stop. Those episodes give a very good idea of what the series is like.
@19 Re: Attack on Titan.
The end of the battle of Trost is precisely where I stopped. The exaggerated intensity of everything made it a little tiring to watch for me, together with the tired old trope of the cool, deadly elite warrior (Levi or Mikasa, take your pick :) ).
I actually really enjoyed this episode. The characters felt a lot more alive and developed and there were a lot of intriguing subplots set up- Varrick & Bolin (lot of great social satire here), the politics, the mysterious terrorists, cop Mako on the case.
Korra’s still being as dense and immature as ever. Her feelings of urgency are understandable, and she’s right that the Unulaq and the North Tribe are clearly in the wrong. But she was foolish to think the United Republic would just leap into fighing in an internal conflice in a separate sovereign nation- Unalaq IS still considered the Chief of both tribes (she’ll need to get stronger evidence on his stealing the throne).
But with her getting spirit-swallowed at the end, I’m hopeful she’ll finally get some self-reflective spirit time and stop being a jerk to anyone who dares to suggest any course of action other than the one she wants.
I love Chris G’s Koh theory. I have no idea if it’ll actually play out that way, but I’ve been dying to see Koh return in a big way. If the “Spirit” season doesn’t involve or mention him at all I shall be quite disappointed.
@18: I don’t think Korra was in the right to try and circumvent the President’s orders, mainly because I thought it would have tilted the balance between benders and non-benders if she had done so. And it’s not a good idea for her to use the Avatar State as a power booster, but I think you’re going a bit too far in your explanation by accusing her of being untrustworthy because she used the AS in a race! Saying that she’s “exploiting” the state “selfishly”? That’s some pretty strong terminology for what happened at a light-hearted air-scooter race.
Also I believe that the spirit’s reasons for taking her have more to do with what’s going on with the “dark spirit” plotline than with Korra’s own impartiality (an impartiality that’s well-founded IMO; the North did attack the South, and you see them doing some pretty atrocious things, like waterbending against children and faking trials). I’m getting the feeling that the true storyline for this season concerns the dark spirits, and the North vs. South war is just a distraction from Unalaq’s true plans.
On another note, I’m so glad that Mako finally gets something to do in this season. I was getting tired of him constantly being on the sidelines. I have hopes that Bolin would get some character development, too. He’s mostly relegated to humourous sideplots that are beginning to get very stale.
16. CainS.Latrani
I think that’s been my principal complaint with the season so far. The storylines that’ve developed don’t really seem to leave room for Korra. It’s a plot that … doesn’t really seem to need the avatar at all.
@22: But this is a story that the show’s creators are telling us, and everything in a story happens for a reason, often to foreshadow later character arcs or plot developments. Korra using the Avatar State for a petty, selfish reason and Tenzin telling her how wrong that was is not some random thing that happened to be going on when the camera crew showed up. It’s something the writers showed us for a purpose. It was our introduction to Korra’s new status quo and thus it was there to tell us something about her and where she is psychologically now, and to foreshadow the issues that would come into play in the season. And it fits the pattern of her subsequent behavior, a pattern showing that she freely uses the power of the Avatar without the discipline and restraint that need to go with it.
And the rise of the dark spirits and the Avatar’s journey are inextricably linked, because the Avatar is the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. Note that every season of both shows so far has been named for the element that the Avatar had to learn to master therein. And that learning process has always tied into the Avatar’s personal growth as well. This season is named “Spirits,” so that’s what Korra has to learn about this year: the spiritual side of being the Avatar and the responsibilities and insights that come with it. We were told from the very first episode of the series that Korra doesn’t “get” the spiritual side of her role, so obviously that’s a major lacuna that needs to be addressed before she can really master what it means to be the Avatar. And without that spiritual grounding, she’s anchorless, a loose cannon with tons of raw power but (to make a martial arts analogy) no firm stance to let her direct it effectively.
@22: Fair point, I guess. I do think that the reason that Korra has been making essentially the same headstrong decisions for the first five episodes so far is to make room for some further development of her character. She does take using her Avatar powers too lightly, but I believe that’s more to teenage immaturity than to “selfishness”, per se. Her desire to help the Southern Water Tribe, while founded on personal reasons, is not “selfish”, to me. She’s just trying to help people who need help.
I still don’t believe that the spirits are personally intervening because they feel Korra herself is getting out of line. The way I see it, Korra isn’t even influencing any major plotpoints at this point. She does mostly try to remain neutral. The peaceful protests were consistent with Avatar-ish duties – no worse than what Kyoshi or Roku or even Aang would have done. The only time I really feel that she stepped out of line is when she tried to cirumvent Raiko. The spirits are angry, but as we saw from the first few episodes, they were already angry even before all this. I don’t think Korra’s immaturity is the root cause for that.
@25: Yes, but she’s trying to help them because they’re her family and friends. What if it were somebody she wasn’t related to that was being invaded? Would she fight equally hard on their behalf? What if the bad guys were her friends or relatives? Think of Avatar Roku when his best friend decided to start conquering the world. There’s a reason why the Avatar needs to be neutral. Because it’s not just about one incident. It’s about a lifetime of decisions about a wide range of different situations. It’s about knowing how to make good decisions and how not to.
And no, the imbalance in the spirit world isn’t exclusively about Korra; it’s about the disruption that the modern age has brought to the world. But she’s the bridge to the spirit world and the fulcrum of the world’s balance. Or she’s supposed to be. But she’s making no effort to resolve the spiritual imbalance and is acting recklessly and shortsightedly with regard to the political imbalance. And she’s alienating people left and right, ignoring the rightful laws of the land, trying to suborn the military to start an unauthorized war, encouraging a corporate baron to become a war profiteer, and doing nothing to help one of her best friends escape an abusive relationship. None of that is helping to improve the balance of the world. She’s doing more harm than good right now, and that’s likely to be exacerbating the spiritual crisis.
@all… I suppose…
While I can see Chrisopher’s point, the bigger question remains.
Does the whole world want the Avatar as its Dali Lama?
At the moment, Korra doesn’t have the patience to really understand the Avatar State. Hence her use of it more as a cudgel than a means of self defense, which is what we saw with Aang.
Likewise, her lack of a spiritual balance within herself, I suspect, prevents her from being able to understand the true nature of the Avatar State.
She’s headstrong, and while that isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, now that she can assume the Avatar State at will, she seems to believe she is ready to be the Avatar, and that everyone should listen to her.
Which, of course, brings me back around to what I was pondering in the first place. What role does the Avatar now play in the world at large? Politicians deal, diplomats negotiate, and business men maneuver. All without regard to the Avatar. They have no interest in what the Avatar has to say, and that isn’t likely to change.
While Korra has a lot to learn, and does not possess Aang’s sense of balance, I think that’s what this season is all about, her finding that balance. Though, with the way things are going in the world at large, I’m wondering just how she will fit in with a world that is rushing headlong into a future where spiritual balance, and the Avatar, are considered trappings of the past.
I think that the whole point of this season thus far is to paint Kora as impetuous, reckless, and riding for a fall. If you’ve ever seen any of Jackie Chan’s early chop-socky movies, for example the original Drunken Master, you can see Korra in the role of the young, impetuous Jackie who believes he’s invincible, he knows better than everybody else, rules were made to be broken, and so on. But about halfway through the movie, the Big Bad beats him up, or kills his family, or whatever, and he realizes he doesn’t know it all after all and gets serious about his training.
The next three episodes might just be that for Korra. If she’s getting swallowed into the spirit world…well, we know that after the next episode is the two-parter exploring the origins of the very first Avatar. Is Korra going to remain stuck in the spirit world all that time? Perhaps gain some insight into what Unalaq actually wants?
It would be an interesting, even daring decision to have that happen. It would mean the story in the real world would have three episodes in which to develop without Korra around. Time for Mako to solve the bombing, and other things to happen. The situation perhaps to get worse, giving Korra more problems to solve when she gets back.
Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the next episode opens with Korra somehow managing to escape the spirit and stay in the real world. She still gets the training in that two-parter, but it comes about in a different way. Oh well, I suppose we’ll see.
First off, I am so glad Korra got swallowed by a spirit. Thank you, now this plot can go somewhere. (Though no meeting the Fire Lord, what teases.)
Mako had his best episode yet. In fact, he seems to be the only one in Team Avatar with a clue.
Varreck turned pretty scary. I am very curious where Asami is going to go with her plot line. Will she happily become Varreck’s weapons dealer? And we find out that Bolin’s plot is still in a downward spiral. Yikes. Last season I thought he was so much better than his brother. Now…not so much. I guess he still has that naivetty that got him snatched by Amon last season. Why isn’t he pro bending anymore? He could join another team. Maybe that would keep him out of trouble.
Is anyone else bothered that Korra is the daughter of the chief? I was much happier when I just though she was a random Southern Water Tribe couple’s daughter.
Also, the whole idea that the NWT and the SWT are one tribe having a civil war really throws me. They have always been separate before. They even had separate representatives on the Republic Counsel. Master Pakku referred to the SWT as the North’s sister tribe.
Some day Korra will be a likable person again. (I liked her in season 1.). Looking forward to that journey starting.
I like the Koh idea.
Before the Fire War strated roughly 200 years back they were one tribe which as I understand it was ruled by the cheif of the water tribe sometime during the war the southern water tribe became their own tribe probably because it was mostly destroyed (Not entirely sure but that’s how I’m seeing it) which is why there calling it a civil war because after the war the southern water tribe was suddenly their own nation officially. I feel like their downplaying bolin a lot in this season I feel that it would have been better if (A) he just works officially as an assistant for assami (B) he ch0se to tell us his reasoning behind working in the movie and doing propoganda because we haven’t heard his opinion all season on what’s going on hes just their for comically effect
I’m afraid I can’t stand it anymore: it’s “Dalai Lama” with another A. The Dali Lama probably does sand painting mandalas with melted pocket-watches in.
I will say that my most favorite portion of this episode was Bolin doing the Usain Bolt pose.
I liked this episode, at least a lot more than the last one. Korra still hasn’t progressed at all and I still doubt they’re going to be able to fix Eska, but the rest I think was good.
Korra blindly supporting the south mainly for personal reasons is very in line with her character, and the fallout with Mako had been announcing itself for a while now. He gets my “favourite character of the episode” btw. I’ve never really been a fan of him really, but here he shines as the only one who really stops to think about the situation instead of blindly rushing in.
I think Varrick is really showing a more sinister site here, and the comment on making profit on war is disturbing, nevertheless very true of course. I hope they explore that further, maybe Asami will realise that selling Mechatanks in a civil war isn’t the most ethically sound thing to do.
I like the idea that Varrick is behind the bombing, and right now it seems the most plausible explanation to me, unless it’s some faction we haven’t really been introduced to yet.
I wonder whether they’re also going to explore the influence of Industry on politics with Varrick. The propaganda film is pointing in that direction.
I don’t think Bolin has found his calling here. He can make the crowd cheer, but he has to fake for that. Every time he’s really talking personally they all just blink. And the movie is obviously nothing more than a big fake.
There is an old roleplaying game, Abberant, where you play superheros, but it is a little bit gritty. The “bad guys” are really more like the “Magneto during his morally grey phase” kind of “bad,” & their whole argument is: “listen, I basically Superman. I am personally about as powerful as…well, a nuclear weapon. So! I declare sovereignty; I’m my own country & also I request that I get a seat on the UN security council.”
Anyhow, just thinking about the Avatar’s role as politics, technology & globalization continue.
@27: “Does the whole world want the Avatar as its Dali Lama?”
I’m not sure it’s a matter of wanting; the Avatar’s role as bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds is a matter of documented reality, not belief. Maybe the relevant question is what the spirits want. We may find out in the next couple of weeks.