Cultural differences

Aside from the romance.

There was a huge lack of cohesion. A lot of important things in the show weren’t allowed to grow beyond their one episode. Sure, the plot was moving forward fast, but the characters and themes were constantly stagnating.

Example from the first episode, we see Korra learn that the big city isn’t that great and perfect. We see her talk with a hobo, deal with the triads and the police. We expect this to be a theme, a theme of class conflict, of the poorer side of the golden coin, but nothing was done with it. The scene was only used to introduce characters. Same with Amon’s revolution. We expected a gray moral conflict, especially since Amon was going after bad benders at first and Korra IS privileged. But this conflict is never acknowledged and the whole thing was just a way of introducing a villain.

Another example is Tenzin’s dislike of pro-bending, a small thing, but a great way to show Tenzin’s conservative side, which we expected to clash with Korra’s. And it did. For just that episode. There wasn’t really any tension between them after that. This is a very short series and its every scene is supposed to be relevant, but it’s not. There’s a ton of other examples like that, an issue is hinted at, but not expanded upon or connected to a previous one.

For example, the brothers’ past got mentioned once and that was it. Why couldn’t they have connected it to the equalist movement, drawing parallels and showing that both groups can both be hurt by evil people? They did that brilliantly in Avatar with Aang and Zuko. Or Korra’s fear, why couldn’t they connect that with some other fears and insecurities she feels? Yes, she’s afraid of Amon, but her fear comes from a different source and it shows how important bending is to her identity. But this is never explored and her fear seems like a fear any other person has of a threatening, unreachable individual.

So yeah, cohesion. Definitively hoping there’ll be more of it next season. I still love Korra and see a lot of potential in it.

So apparently people are complaining about characters being “whitewashed”?

Jesus Christ, people…

First off, we’ve already seen Bumi in the show and he’s definitively not white. They probably made the skin lighter in the concept art so that the details would be more noticeable. Don’t get me wrong, I will be disappointed if Bumi turns out white, but that will be more out of continuity failure than “OMG racism how dare they!!”.

Second, are we forgetting the main freakin’ character is dark skinned? It seems like the second people see the slightest chance of screaming “Racism!” they completely forget anything else and lose their ability to draw logical conclusions. Gee guys, I’m sure the creators of the show with two dark-skinned main characters and another show with a dark-skinned protagonist are secretly racists. I mean, it’s not like they’d white-wash the main character if they couldn’t handle dark skin, right?

Which brings me to the third point; it’s really no wonder there’s a lack of black main characters in the media, since the moment you put them in you’re basically putting yourself under a giant magnifying glass, having to think of pleasing all the activists instead of just telling a good story. Black characters can’t be treated as normal characters, but always as tools for activism. Just look at Princess and the frog, people were desperately trying to see racism in it even before the movie came out. Disney has lots of characters of different races, but hey, they weren’t black so that doesn’t count.

Personally, I didn’t even notice there are characters of different races while watching Korra. My subconsciousness registered it, but me, nope, didn’t care. Not until I saw people drawing all the attention they can to it, forcibly trying to make all the creative decisions lead to racism.

Korra’s parents will have a major role in season 2! Woohoo!

I feel kinda dumb for caring so much about characters with maybe half a minute of screentime, but they were just adorable and I guess I’m happy to see a hero’s parents have a bigger role for once. I mean, most parents in fiction are either dead, divorced, missing, away or otherwise unavailable. Sometimes they turn out to be another superhero or a secret member of some organization or some other shocking reveal, but you rarely get parents who are normal people but also aware of and supportive of their child’s duty to the world.

I think the reason I’m interested in those two is because I find it fun to see how having the most powerful person in the world would reflect on the pair. Imagine Senna, a mere country girl who might have dreamed of adventures but later just accepted her simple, not-special life and suddenly she has to deal with raising the avatar. Or Tonraq trying to understand he had to let Korra go for the sake of greater good, despite his protective instincts (come on, a guy that well built has to be a little protective).

Which is probably why I’ll be a little disappointed when we don’t get any development with them, but that’s ok since this isn’t a story about them. I would read a fanfic though

Well, I think Bryke has shown us that while they’re not good at writing romance (at least in Korra, I liked it in Avatar with much less useless focus), they’re great at writing family relations. This is a rare show where I feel everyone has an equal chance to be a badass, regardless of whether they’re a kid or an old person. Actually, it’s a rare animated show which I feel doesn’t discriminate based on age. There are kids, there are young adults, babies, middle aged people and GASP there are actually romances between older people that aren’t treated with total disgust and older people who aren’t made fun of for being old. Not even once!

Also, Bumi looks like he’ll be tons of fun.

If there’s anything I hate more than bad endings, it’s even worse fan ideas about what should’ve happened instead. Apparently, some people were hoping that Korra would not get her bending back and would either have to relearn the elements or accept that she’s not the avatar and learn humility. I don’t like the finale nor the bending refund, but this stupid development frustrates me even more.

First, I’ll focus on the idea that she should’ve learned the elements again, one that doesn’t fit at all into the story because Amon takes bending away forever, which was pretty much the reason the idea was terrifying to benders. He doesn’t restart your skills, he destroys any hope you’d have of learning them again. But I digress.

Why, pray tell, would she need to learn the elements AGAIN? She has spent all her life learning and being brilliant at bending. What would she gain by doing it all over again, except amusing the audience who can’t accept that the protagonist did cool stuff off screen?

That’s the biggest reason why the idea of her learning the elements again is utterly idiotic: she has nothing to gain by re-learning what she’s already learned and excels at. She has already earned her bending. Just because she didn’t earn it on screen doesn’t mean anything, the experience has obviously shaped her as a person and an avatar. She has to learn what she didn’t earn: the spiritual side of bending and complete herself as a person. From the start they established this as her goal, but I guess the audience can’t handle character growth that isn’t flashy and full of action. Her losing her bending would switch the focus from learning just the spiritual side to learning the physical side again, which she already KNOWS. This is like showing a painting, your life’s work, to someone who then shreds it to pieces because they didn’t watch you paint it. Would you be happy to go back to painting the same picture, especially if you still have to start painting another, even harder picture? Do you think Korra would? Do you think the season would end with an excited: “Alright! Let’s go learn the elements, ALL OVER AGAIN!”

But from a storytelling pov, here’s why the idea fails so hard: Establish the goal of learning the spiritual side of bending -> Conclude the plot with her losing bending. Does this look like a satisfying conclusion to you or a step back from where she was at the beginning?

Oh, also the fact that she did nothing to warrant losing bending. Losing something can be a great catalyst but this loss would not resolve any emotional struggle she’s been having, nor make her think differently. Sure, she would have to fight like an airbender from now on, but that’s not real character development, it’s a fictional mental set you’re expected to adapt with the element, rather than a way of learning through experience and consequences (which is what character development is about). Korra would have no choice but to start thinking like an airbender, rather than willingly make herself learn to adapt it to her existing personality. When Aang had to learn earthbending, he had to make himself stop running and stand his ground. His character development came from when he overcame this on his own, not from him learning earthbending (which is just part of the plot).

Get rid of your nostalgia and learn to see this series for what it is: A story about an already knowledgeable avatar with different issues to face, NOT a kid’s journey to learn the elements. We’ve already seen Aang learn the elements. Why do you want to focus so much on that again when we could focus on a new story, especially with only 14 episodes?

As for losing bending forever, what would she learn, what kind of character development would she have if she lost three elements she’s been learning to bend her whole life and which she loves bending and was left with one element that she doesn’t like at all? She knows airbending now and we’ve already seen her struggle with it. Why would we want to conclude this struggle by destroying all her skills and leaving her with only one that she finally got (meaning that it offers no further conflict or struggle to understand. Not that we need that, because the creators already addressed this)? I guess that would be a reward for finally unlocking airbending. It’d be too easy for her to be so powerful, let’s just take all the previous elements away so that the fights would be easier to write. Why would you even want this for a character who’s shown nothing but passion towards bending and respect towards non-benders?

As for people saying Korra is arrogant, no, she isn’t. She’s a little used to attention and she’s very confident, but it’s not like she doesn’t have a reason to be. It’s a normal, realistic dose of arrogance when you are the best (she’s the freakin’ avatar, a child prodigy). She gets frustrated when she’s not good at something, and who doesn’t, but she’s willing to learn. She studied probending and she studies airbending. Bad arrogance is when you make others feel bad by setting yourself above them or when you far overrate your abilities. Besides, „arrogance“ is only a small part of her personality and it’s never been shown as something problematic that had to be solved dramatically.

„But she would have to learn that she’s still worth something even without her bending!“ First of all, that would be really, REALLY cheesy. Second, avatar is a huge title and its strength comes from the unity of four elements, not to mention that it’s that unity which makes the avatar valuable across all four nations. Why would we ignore this huge important role so we could focus on her accepting herself as a nonbender/airbender, when that’s not what she is nor what her life is about. („lol see audience? You’re still special even if you don’t have superpowers! Don’t feel bad, we apologize for making characters more awesome than you!“) She IS the avatar! That’s part of her identity, it’s why we follow her rather than some random bender. We watch a movie about a boxer because that’s their life. We watch a movie about an intellectual because that’s their life. Why is it so bad to devote your life to something you love? Because the audience can’t relate to it? I don’t want to see Korra accept herself as a lesser person than she could be. I want her to strive to be the best at what she’s good at and use that for the good of society.

Maybe I should break your 9 fingers so you could learn to appreciate your pinky.

Really disappointing. Here’s why:

*Juvenile handling of really important problems. Why did all those people believe they were unequal? Did they change their mind (if anything, they’ll hate benders even more now that Amon turned out to be one)? What is inequality exactly? When do you go from a supporter to an extremist? How do you live with a whole class of people who are naturally privileged? How do you stop them from abusing their abilities? Should the talented minority adapt to the majority’s level or vice versa (No child left behind, anyone?)? I know this is a “kids” show but they could’ve made these problems complex and still make a fun, action-packed series. I’m not saying the discrimination had to be real, but that some of the dilemmas could’ve at least been hinted at. I didn’t watch Korra for a generic villain showdown, I watched it for the fascinating world and its problems. But obviously I thought about this world and its implications a lot more than the creators did.

*Korra’s character development was atrocious. There’s a whole bunch of bender-haters who deserved to get an explanation why being a non-bender isn’t a bad thing. When a group believes they’re unequal, you don’t solve that problem with fighting the leader, you solve it by discussing whether they really are unequal or they’re just overreacting or unreasonable. Besides, they should’ve continued with developing her emotional responses to the crisis, something I thought they started with ep 4. Not only fear, but having her doubt bender privilege or her position as the avatar, the object of hatred for non-benders, even if she’d get it together afterwards. The action conflict should’ve been with Amon and Tarrlok, the extremists, but her spiritual and emotional development should’ve come from understanding her position in such world and dealing with people who feel like they’re mistreated. In the end she just had to learn patience, to wait before blindly rushing into the fight, ruining everything? She did that with Tahno!

*Awful, awful romance which was not only unnecessary, but also kept ruining the characters. The first season should’ve been dedicated to Team Avatar developing as a team. These are people that fight, play and spend time together. They deserved more time to develop as friends and get used to eachother’s differences, like the Gaang did. Instead, we get this really forced romance that not only felt pointless, but also ruined the whole group dynamic. I wish that Asami and Korra could’ve been friends, but when someone takes your boyfriend away from you, your relations become a little strained. Same goes for Bolin and his brother. Bolin and Korra’s relationship too, I mean the guy was supposedly in love with her and then acted like nothing happened? With so much contrived romantic drama, it’s hard to see any deep friendships forming within the group, unless they want to give everyone amnesia like they did with Bolin.

*Mako. I really don’t understand why he started dating Asami while he was in love with Korra and not only that, but Asami had to confront him about the kiss and he still tried to snake his way out of apologizing and admitting he was a jerk. How long would this two-timing go on if Bolin hadn’t spilled the beans? He doesn’t seem to have any clear personality either, he’s pretty much defined by Korra. His first appearance, he’s a jerk, his next, he loves his brother, next he’s crushing on Asami, next he’s a jealous two-timer and from then on he’s relegated to Korra’s love interest. His mean behavior towards Korra is inexcusable and his complete lack of remorse because of what he did is disgusting and immature. In fact, the only one to whom he was disrespectful was Korra! Did Bryke notice that girls don’t like nice considerate guys like Aang so they decided to use this complete douche? Korra couldn’t rely on him for emotional support, because he was pretty much a jerk to her most of the time. Just because Mako got into MamaMako mode for an episode doesn’t mean anything. Korra won’t be kidnapped all her life and relationships aren’t made by someone being worried about you when your life is in danger.

*Bolin, for whom I feared would never grow beyond his comic relief position the second I saw him, ended up not only doing that, but also lacking so much screentime you feel like they have one of the airbender kids with them.

*The finale makes no sense and doesn’t explain ANYTHING. How did Yakone know how to bloodbend without the full moon? If you establish the rule that you can’t do this, you should explain why you can break it. How could bloodbending remove bending? How did Amon survive not one, but TWO lightnings, one of which was from up close? Why did Korra suddenly know how to airbend? They kept adding shocks and surprises without bothering to explain them. It’s not really a plot twist if it makes no sense in the given plot. Why did someone as smart as Amon get out of the water in such a flashy way? It would be much easier to just make a bubble around yourself. How did his make-up do that to his lip and remove his eyebrows? Did he apply this make-up every day in case someone took off his mask? Seems like a lot of unnecessary work for a face that will stay covered up. I actually thought Amon burned his face for real, it would show how far he’s willing to go for this whole anti-bending revolution. What was that “plan” where he was “saving Korra for last”? Why didn’t he just deal with her before? He had no reason not to. And why the hell were his hands white?

*I was never a fan of “I’m related to…” plot twists, it just seems cliche and predictable. I really hoped they would have two bad guys who became bad through different means or because they were both so power hungry. Making it all about revenge is just such a boring motive. They could’ve built on Amon’s wish for equality, turning it into an obsessive, unreasonable need. What do we even know about Amon? Why did he do all this? We never really got an answer about his motives. How could he become so spiteful towards all bending when he was only exposed to waterbending and when he’s such a powerful trained bender himself (rather than a reluctant one)? Why did he hate bending so much? He lived in an icy village in the middle of nowhere where he was exposed to waterbending of all things (a healing art), and only to bloodbending from his nonbending father. If everyone was using bloodbending on eachother maybe I could undertand his spite, but this way it seems like a big jump from that to someone who wants to get rid of bending because all of it is evil. Why did he and Tarrlok blow themselves up? They finally met again after all those years and they had a chance to start anew. What was the point, other than giving Korra a reason not to be a killer?

*Korra’s plan was pretty dumb. Hey, let me, the representative of all bending, the ultimate bender, tell you that your anti-bending leader is lying to you (without having any proof btw). She should’ve kept that mask and accuse Amon as an anonymous equalist, would’ve been much more effective and clever.

*Everyone getting their bending back seemed way too easy. I guess it makes sense that the avatar could fix what a fraud did, but I was really hoping they’d have the guts to make it permanent.

…is that the issues presented in it aren’t easily transferred to real life. I think it’s what produces such a controversy over Amon’s actions among the fandom. Normally you’d have really thinly veiled Nazism/Communism/slavery/racism etc. and with that an automatic solution (or rather a history lesson) which people can rally behind. Just replace the swastika! But in Korra, we’re dealing with a world truly different from our own, a world shaped by bending. It really makes you consider things differently, it forces you to empathize with people inherently different from us and try to apply our morals and rights to their world. Some people are trying hard to see certain aspects as mere metaphors (the inequality, loss of bending, bending itself), but I think what makes these so fascinating is exactly the fact that their value is based on human reactions, rather than parallels to real life events. Personally, I much prefer that kind of conflict than the ones that merely copy problems we’ve had in the past.

Considering that this is animation which is much better for actions than talking, and that Amon did stray from any rightful path he might have followed, the plot will probably be solved with a big final fight. And I’m alright with that, what matters is that the show got people talking.

Great episode once again, really did a good job rising the tension for the finale. They finally took the fight outside and truly involved the whole city. It’s a very different atmosphere than it was in the past episode, where it felt more one-on-one.

Here are my other thoughts:

*Mako, I don’t know what to think of you, but it was about time you finally got caught. Also, Pema’s “Better get outta here FAST” face is priceless.

*Can we finally get a real explanation why Tarrlok and Yakone are able to bloodbend without a full moon? One that is less circular?

*Asami is a really capable fighter and even though she’s a really nice girl, it’s good to see her showing more negative emotions such as anger (not that it isn’t completely justified).

*I kinda wish Korra was still lacking one of her arm warmers. I don’t know where she got another one exactly like that. I think it would be a nice detail. I mean, she left it back there. It isn’t exactly gonna respawn.

*Wow, I completely forgot about the car.

*I know giving birth is a natural part of life, but I’m glad they didn’t do a long awkward birthing scene.

*Those kids better get their master tattoos fast!

*I felt we saw a lot of different places in this episode, more than before. A lot of different backgrounds and areas of already known locations.

*Why, Bryke? Why did you do this to my favorite character? HWAIIII?!!

*I’m conflicted about getting a new character right in the last episode…

*Still wondering about that one cop who still has his bending.

For 7 episodes I was convinced Korra was a big, tall girl, taller than average. I got the impression that she looked tough and she had her size to back it up. It wasn’t until I saw her next to Asami that I noticed she isn’t tall at all. My impression after that was “Small, but spunky”, but I actually have no idea if she really is short or if everyone is just freakin’ tall.

First off, let me say I have no idea what happened overnight, but my little comic got an insane amount of attention (from 3 likes to over 8000. I was like “Did some superstar reblog my drawing or something?”). I’m so glad you guys liked it, I intend to do a few more comics in a similar vein.

Second, I put in “I know bending is not genetic” merely to avoid hardcore fans correcting me (and to make sure people get what the joke is about). The result was the same: people telling me that bending IS genetic. While I personally like to think of it as a genetic thing, the creators stated that it’s not, that it’s, from what I figured, more like a talent or a cultural thing (it’s in an interview with them somewhere). Just because it’s not genetic doesn’t mean different benders sprout out at random. Language isn’t genetic, but you don’t get random people over the globe speaking random languages. So the whole “water tribe doesn’t produce firebenders, ergo, genetics!” argument is moot.

So let’s cut the whole debate, please? Cuz’ I’d rather read funny comments than people repeating one thing over and over again.

I was worried this episode wouldn’t live up to the last one, but damn, it did. Once again they threw in a shocker right near the end. I was literally at the edge of my seat when I saw Amon, because I was expecting Korra’s buddies and a smooth rescue ending. And then when Amon didn’t fall down with his assistants, man, I felt my jaw drop! We even saw him struggle against bloodbending, which was actually the first time we saw Amon weakened and ironically, it only made him more threatening.

I have to say, the series did a fantastic job juggling two bad guys at once while keeping them on completely opposite sides. This not only added more variety to the conflict than ten bad guys can in normal cartoons, but it also put Korra at odds with the “good” side as well. We didn’t get a world where everyone is useless aside from the main character, an all too frequent occurrence, but a world that doesn’t solve everything because it’s conflicted and manipulated. The dichotomic villains were a fantastic way of showing that, our side or theirs, if you go to extremes and stop being a reasonable person, you become a villain.

I still get surprised at how fast the plot is moving forward. I think I finally got used to the pace and I’m actually glad they didn’t unnecessarily stall with Tarrlok’s secret getting out and made the Krew waste an episode piecing together something relatively simple. Bam, kidnapping secret out, BAM bloodbending secret out. So many things happen every episode.

One of my favorite things about Korra is the facial expressions and in this episode, I especially liked Korra’s reactions near the end. When she burned those Equalists, she didn’t have the usual aggressive expression one has when they’re on the offensive, she was scared, just looking for the fastest way to escape. She was even more scared when she came face to face with Amon. She didn’t even try to fight him, she just tried to buy herself time to get away the second she noticed him move towards her. I’m glad her fear from episode 4 is still there.

This isn’t related to this episode, but I like how they established the limitations of the Avatar status. Growing up in a village where everyone knows eachother, I imagine Korra probably got a lot of special treatment, but when she moved to the city where everyone is more-or-less on their own, she was surprised to find that not everyone falls to their knees just because the Avatar is in the house. She is the Avatar and that (and Tenzin) allows her to pull some strings, but at the same time, her role and accomplishments are very undefined. The people know she’s supposed to have a big role at some point, but they also expect her to prove herself.

On the bad side, Mako and Bolin continue to be pretty flat as characters. It’s unfortunate because they really had potential to be good characters and have a good relationship with Korra. Mako isn’t acting like he likes both girls at once, he’s acting like he has a Korra-Asami switch and can only pay attention to one of them at a time. And Bolin is acting like he never liked Korra in the first place. All other relationships are well developed, but the romance? Sigh.

I wonder what happened to that one officer who was guarding Mako and Bolin…