I’m incredibly impressed with this season of The Legend of Korra. No more shaky footing, no more “well, lets see how it plays out,” none of that, no doubt, no wait-and-see, just constant high-quality action. If you have friends who drifted away from the show, or if you are that friend? Grab them (or yourself) by the scruff of the neck and drag them back. I admit, I’m a little worried about Nickelodeon’s commitment; this “let’s air two episodes at a time” doesn’t strike me as a good sign. The show is firing on all cylinders, but I’m worried it will be too late for some of the fans… so trust me, Book Three: Change is pure perfection. “Old Wounds” and “Original Airbenders” really continue the tradition at the heart of what made Avatar: The Last Airbender so great: focusing on character conflict and growth.
The last two episodes were about “family” generally, but these two drill down to focusing on siblings. “Old Wounds” is spun around the axis of Toph’s daughters, Lin and Su Yin; “Original Airbenders” is centered on Aang and Katara’s sons, Tenzin and Bumi. It is a pair of character portraits that showcase the similarities and differences between the two; they may both be the strict and straight-laced type on the surface, but those exteriors arise from entirely different places and motives.
We see, in a nutshell, why Lin and Tenzin wouldn’t work; their baggage looks similar, but they just don’t match. Both are trying to live up to what they think their parents would have wanted, but Lin is doing it in isolation while Tenzin is creating his own conflicts. Or well, they were; thanks to the miracles of flashback acupuncture and long distance radio, they’re working on it. (On a personal note, I’ve been struggling with insomnia since I had shoulder surgery, and watching Lin suffer when she left acupuncture “halfway” really hit me with it’s portrayal of dissociative suffering.)
Those are by no means the only relationships on display. Bolin gets richly deserved screen time— I assume I will get Asami next, right?— and it illustrates something I’m really enjoying about this season: the commitment to the idea of change. Bolin is afraid of failing to metalbend, but he gets over it. Bolin has a history of being involved with emotionally unavailable women, now he actually tries being in a healthy, communicative relationship. Still, it is the part with Korra giving Tenzin good advice that really gets me. Oh my gosh, Korra, you learned to be wise! Tenzin taught you to be wise and now you are giving him good advice—this really matters to me. Their relationship was the core of the first season of the show, ever since “A Voice in the Night.” Watching it develop and deepen is viscerally pleasing.
Sometimes I think Tenzin might be my favorite character, but then I remember Jinora. She’s up there with Azula for me, now. Oh Jinora, lashing out with her completely reasonable teenage rebellion. That’s what really sold “Original Airbenders” for me; it hearkened back to Avatar: The Last Airbender’s episodic nature, in which sometimes you meet villains and then you just deal with the bad guys. No over-wrought “oh no, and Jinora is gone and everyone hates Kai!” manufactured melodrama. The dramatic instincts of this season are really on point; they hurdle pitfalls and push the narrative in interesting directions. Will Su Yin and the Metal Clan have a heel turn? At this point I’m honestly not sure, and that is exciting!
Speaking of Jinora, we see Zaheer deep in meditation, before finally announcing that he knows where the Avatar is. You know what that means: that guy can astral project. And you know what that means, maybe, if we’re lucky? That he’ll have a fight with Jinora in the spirit world. Which I would dearly like to see, because I imagine it going something like this: “You think I’m afraid of you, Zaheer? Just because you are a dangerous criminal? Zaheer, that’s back in the physical world. We are on my turf, where I’ve struggled with the spirits of darkness and memory, where I’ve walked among heroes and gods. You should be running.” Otherwise, the villains motives or agenda are still opaque. They want to assassinate the president (actually I think the term they use is “take out,” there could still be ambiguity), but that’s such a “big idea” that it hardly reveals anything about their intentions.
We also see Ghazan doing more lavabending. I just like keeping track of the evolving science of bending…like for instance, metalbending. Korra picks it up in a snap. That was interesting to me; I almost thought that the show might go with “well, the Avatar can bend all the elements, but only members of the four nations can master the esoteric disciplines.“ Oh, wait, but we see Aang lightningbend, don’t we? Well, that answers that. I wonder if there really are four elements, or if that is just the paradigm— in the truest sense of the word, for you philosophy nerds, both Kuhn’s paradigm and Lakatos’ “research program”— being used by the people of the world? I mentioned in the comments last week that if there we get a show about the next Avatar cycle I half-expect them to switch to a Wu Xing five elements system, especially as metalbending becomes more prominent with the rise of industry.
Did someone say industry? Varrick’s magnet suit was wonderful. There are a lot of other little jokes that really tickled me. Pabu being venomous. Bolin’s rant about ”future mustaches.“ Having the former Air Acolyte turned Air Nomad be named Otaku is a fun piece of word play, and so is the Konietzko smoothie. Excuse me, sorry, I mean kale-nuts-co. The guy with the shaved head going Neo on the net? I clapped with glee. There is a cameo by “young old Toph,” adult Toph; that and Su Yin’s use of the present tense make me think she’s alive and Lin is going to go find her, and then we’ll see…old old Toph. The American Ninja Gladiator obstacle course, the little fur of the bison rustler’s cape; these episodes are dense with detail, and they don’t need to wave their arms around to call your attention to it. That’s just plain old good storytelling.
Mordicai Knode is feeling the vibe of these Hayao-Miyazaki-by-way-of-Lisa-Frank so hard. You can find him on Twitter and Tumblr.
I’m really hoping that is Chekhov’s mag-suit.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong–was the voice actress for Young Suyin the same actress that played Toph in the original series? She sounded so pleasantly familiar.
And speaking of pleasant things–the composer is going above any beyond for this season. The score’s theme for the Metal Clan is captivating and grand! Just like the Ba Sing Se theme a few episodes back.
On Toph: yeah they’ve confirmed she’s alive, on the airship en route to Su’s city. Bolin gets really excited about seeing her, but apparently she’s “traveling the world”.
Personally I love how they keep saying it is the safest place in the world. With Zaheer finding Korra, you just know things are about to go down.
2. SerDragonReborn
Well “spotted” SerDragon, according to the wiki, you’re right! Jessie Flower.
And young Lin was played by Grey DeLisle (Azula, Ming-Hua)! Or Grey DeLisle-Griffin, as she’s now billed.
“They want to assassinate the president (actually I think the term they use is “take out,” there could still be ambiguity)”
So… you… think they want to go on a date with the president…?
I was surprised by the statement that Korra was the first metalbending avatar. I thought that was something we’d seen Aang do somewhere along the line. Surely Toph would’ve been willing to teach him; why would he have been unable to do it? Maybe it’s that “one in a hundred earthbenders” thing. And IIRC, earth was the hardest element for him to master, because it was the most opposite to his native element (his resistance to firebending was more out of fear).
First thing I have to say:
Oh my god, how cute are these baby sky bisons!! :D
I agree that these episodes, like the ones before them were top-notch in quality, it’s sad that the so far best season gets the lowest views due to those leaks…
However, there’s one issue that’s bothering me a bit: The episodes are really good as of themselves. When looking at the whole book, it’s just as good so far, but I’m starting to get worried because we’ve already seen more than half of book 3, yet we still know next to nothing about the antagonists, who have so much promise.
It’s not too late yet, but I think it’s high time for us to learn about their goals if they’re supposed to be more than just generic villains.
This is probably my biggest gripe with LoK as whole: It set out to be a darker, more morally grey version of AtlA. Essential for that are good villains that are more than simply evil. Amon started out greatly, but making him a bloodbender solely after personal revenge diminished that imho. With Unalaq it was even worse, in the first few episodes he was wise and you couldn’t be sure if he was actually on the wrong side… but then he fused with the spirit of ultimate evil, which was pretty lame.
We know almost nothing yet about Zaheer, so I guess that’s already a change from the first two books. Let’s hope that means he’ll have an interesting motivation as well.
So far, the best theory I’ve heard is that he has taken the air nomad ideology of freedom to its extreme and wants to throw the world into anarchy, which means all leaders have to be overthrown, including the avatar. The kidnapping would be to get her under controlled conditions, then try to force her into the avatar state and kill her to end the cycle
3. jaredwcooper
Yeah, just based on the Beifong’s tantrum it is a cool venue for a fight– much like the arena was in season one!
5. ChristopherLBennett
Well I more meant, they could kidnap the president & be like “the powers that be are lying, we aren’t crooks, we tried to help the Avatar stop the White Lotus from taking over the planet!” or something. Just leaving the possibility open though you know me; I ALWAYS overthink stuff.
6. Jineapple
Anarchist Zaheer is a great pitch!
I don’t mind Unalaq going Full Disney Villain, since he’d been sort of creepy all over, anyhow. Amon, I agree, they mis-handled; the idea of Amon is way better than the reality. Which makes me think, hey, there could totally be another, legit Amon. In a lot of ways I can’t help but see Unalaq as the “What If?” season two conclusion for Amon, if they had risked leaving him alive rather than gone with I’m On a Boat.
With Zaheer and gang focusing on the President, and Korra, there’s only one thing that makes sense right now.
They are working for the Earth Queen.
That aside, watching Lin and Su have their touching throwdown was beautiful. I’ve always loved the fight coreography on this show, but wow, they really stepped it up a notch with those two.
Somebody tell me again about how it’s hard to animate women?
Stupid question – when is this show on? I cannot find it at all on my cable provider.
The voice acting is great in this show, but sometimes it’s a bit subtle. Did you notice that Lin’s voice was different after the fight with Su-Yin? A whole lot less bitter—like she’d somehow worked a lot of repressed anger out of her system over the course of the fight. It’s going to be interesting to see if she keeps it up.
I’m a bit amused that discussion elsewhere has centered around “OMIGOD I can’t believe she ATE Bosco!” (I personally suspect it’s just a wild rumor the guy was repeating, but who knows?) I’ll bet Bryan and Kevin get asked about that a lot at their ComicCon panel.
@5. ChristopherLBennett
Remember that earth was the hardest for Aang to bend, too; given how hard it was for him to learn it, trying to metalbend was probably way out of his realm. Lightning redirection was much more natural for him.
With one scene about the Earth Queen’s exotic tastes and even the mere rumor of a horrible thing she did to a beloved sidekick–coming from a guy wearing a baby bison fur coat–the Earth Queen has become one of the most hated antagonist in the entire franchise. Someone compared her to Dolores Umbridge, which is saying quite a lot in terms of villainy.
9. LadyBelaine
8pm (EST) Fridays on Nickelodeon. For some ridiculous reason they aren’t showing it online a few days after airing; a lot of people are turning to other means to get the episodes if they can’t record or watch them normally.
Nick is really being terrible to LoK; 2 eps at a time and no real advertising.
I’m loving this season so much more than season 2 and I actually like season 2!
@6,7
I take umbrage that you believe Amon was mishandled! He was a great villain, even after the reveal. Hell you could say that made him even a deeper and complex person. Not only does he view his bending as a curse, and I think he truly believe bending was the cause of all terrible things, but his big ‘for the greater good’ argument is based in the personal–that’s human as fuck. Plus we got that Godfather-like ending.
I think the bigger failing of season 1 was not the tragic hypocrisy of Amon but rather team Avatars general disinterest in attempt to engage Amon’s argument. That made Amon’s grivances seem petty rather than important (and lets be honest he had many, many good points).
@BDG: Hmm, good point. I’m personally a sucker for all stories that deal with the societal problem of some people having special powers (X-Men, Dragon Age etc.) so I guess I was just disappointed that this wasn’t really pursued further after the reveal that Amon’s really a bender. So that was a letdown for me. And no mention of the equalists in the following seasons either :/
@8: But how would working for the earth queen fit together with their ideology? Can’t remember the exact wording, but Zaheer is after some kind of new world order. Making the URN Earth Kingdom territory again is hardly that…
@12 BDG:
That’s actully a common pattern for both villains so far; they have both had good points and Team Avatar made their grievances seem petty.
Amon truly beleived in equality and that bending was a curse, because his father’s discovery of his and Tarrlok’s bending abilities ruined his family. His point about benders and non-benders also seemed to have had some truth in it, as the latter didn’t seem to be present in the higher echelons of Republic City society. In fact, one of the first things that happened after Amon’s failed revolution was the dissolution of the council and the election of a non-bender president.
Unalaq is a bit harder to justify because he is esstentially a zealot. However, his beliefs in the need to enhance spirituality and re-establish proper human-spirit relations were hardly bad in themselves. In the end, Korra actually decides that he was right about Wan and subsequent Avatars being wrong about keeping the portals closed.
In both cases it is the extremes the anatgonists used which hurt their arguments. Amon decided that all bending had to be removed rather than establishing a system in which benders and non-benders would be treated equally and without prejudice. Unalaq decided that his privileged position among spirits meant that he and he alone needed to lead the new world he envisaged, rather than convince averyone around him by way of good argument. That led him to be power-hungry and ally himself with Vaatu, just because he stood against what Raava and Wan did so long ago.
Team Avatar never really saw past the extreme method and did not engage with the valid arguments and issues raised. Both Amon and Unalaq were reduced to villains to be taken down (even if the latter practically did do it to himself). Ironically, their greviances were only addressed following their defeat.
@13
I’m not entirely certain yet how they fit together, but so far, they do seem to be on the same page. I suspect for the Earth Queen it’s less about a new world order than it is getting what she feels is hers back, and punishing those responsible, while Zaheer and crew are… ya know… I’m not entirely sure what they are after.
Still, the Earth Queen blames the Avatar, and it’s the only connection the two groups of villians have so far. Why else would Zaheer and gang want to try to ‘take out’ President Reiko, if not for something connected to the Earth Queen?
Jinora needed a personal connection to find Korra and Kai by astrally projecting, what connection does Zaheer have?
Best part? When Jinora mentions Kai to Tenzin in their fight over the tattoos, Kai slides behind another bender. Hilarious.
Second best part, was when Bumi’s leading them in the attack on the bison rustlers, and one of the benders lampshades “But we haven’t been training for long!” When was the last time you saw that mentioned in a military movie about the raw recruits doing an unbelievable mission?
I really liked that they found way for Lin to work out her issues without having to do something OOC like talk to Korra about them(though notice, that Korra’s the one to catch her when she passes out after the fight? Balancing the world, one person at a time). And that for all our suspicions about something nefarious behind Zao Fu, it’s exactly what it appeared to be on the surface.
“You’re the Avatar, why don’t you do it?”
Varrick as Tony Stark.
And Tenzin needs to GTFO his “Jinora’s not ready for her tattoos” thing, because she’s as old as Aang was, and he had his.
@16: True, but Aang was raised by monks, not by his own parents. Parents tend to see things differently.
This show is great with the little comedy beats. Like Zhu Li’s body language when Varrick says she’s going to clean up the mess he made. Priceless.
//I admit, I’m a little worried about Nickelodeon’s commitment; this “let’s air two episodes at a time” doesn’t strike me as a good sign.//
Wasn’t part of this due to the first 3(?) episodes being leaked/released early – so they wanted people to have legit sources instead of turning to the internet?
@19: Stormy
The rush to air Book 3 and the scheduling does seem to be due to the leaks, but it’s the worst course of action they could have taken. There was practically no marketing and no build-up; realisitically, hardly anyone who watches Korra watches Nick’s other shows and quite a few would not have known that Book 3 was even in production without following its creators’ social media. The ratings have suffered as a result.
The best course of action would have probably been to stick to their guns, make sure no more leaks occur and go ahead as planned. Their presence at Comic-Con seems to indicate that they were planning on making some announcements there, and it would have been a great way to market the series to a wider audience. What’s left to discuss and market now that we’re already more than hal-way through Book 3?
; realisitically, hardly anyone who watches Korra watches Nick’s other shows
Just because all the people you know who watch are adults, doesn’t mean that we are the majority audience. My daughter and her friends are Korra fanatics, and they watch all of Nick’s other stuff, Sam & Cat, reruns of iCarly and Victoroious, Zoey 101, Sanjay & Craig, TMNT and endless reruns of Fairly Oddparents.
@20 On the other hand, it seems like binge-watching is the new hotness these days. So maybe they just want to get it out there as fast as possible so people can binge?
…though if that’s the case, it’s rather odd they’re no longer streaming it on Nick the day after it airs. How is binge watching supposed to help Nick if people can’t get the episodes legally?
I didn’t read the post because I haven’t seen the episode yet either. (Grrr.) We canceled our satellite earlier this year, confident because Nick was so excited about having Korra episodes promptly on their website last season. Now we’re 4 episodes behind (was visiting family with cable for the first 3) and getting grouchy – I’d even consider paying Amazon prices for the season if they’d put them there, but last I saw it was still just the first 3 episodes. They’re really making no sense this season.
XBox Video has them I do believe.
@@@@@ 21 Aeryl: Fair enough. I admit it’s somewhat hard to appreciate the other demographics unless you’re in contact with them. It’s great to see Korra attract younger audiences too; if the advertising – as lukewarm as it is – managed to reach them on time, that’s one small point in Nick’s favour, then.
(By the way, now that you mention it, I watch TMNT too! Such a fun show full of nostalgic Easter eggs and a great show in its own right.)
@@@@@ 22: It could be, but the way Nick have handled things so far seems to be solely a reaction to the leaks. Their advertising even mentions watching episodes which ‘you can’t see online’ (the promo for episodes 6 and 7, for instance). Moreover, the series has never been shown to interested parties when detailing upcoming shows in events like Nickelodeon Upfront 2014, and then, all of a sudden, we get a trailer after one was created using leaked episodes and the show starts airing a bit more than a week later? It’s too much of a coincidence.
@6
We know almost nothing yet about Zaheer, so I guess that’s already a
change from the first two books. Let’s hope that means he’ll have an
interesting motivation as well.
On a related note, I found it strange that Zaheer was locked up in that isolated, mountaintop prison. The rest of his crew were already bad ass benders, but he only got air bending recently. The guards seemed scared, or at least wary, of the others but they were pretty contemptuous of Zaheer. So why the high security?
Nick is allegedly going to stop airing episodes now.
UGH
@26, Obviously Zaheer has abilities beyond airbending, but we don’t know what they are yet. Like I said, Jinora had to have a connection with people to find them via spirit projection, what connection does Zaheer have?
@27: Episode 8 is supposed to air tomorrow as scheduled, but not episode 9 or any of the rest. Bryan Konietzko has posted that there are plans to release the last 5 episodes digitally, details to be revealed at San Diego Comic-Con (which has just begun).
Which really fucking sucks. I have a crappy computer at home, I don’t want to watch the amazing animation on a tiny screen, I pay for cable so I can watch Nick, give it to me on Nick on my nice tv.
On the one hand, I really don’t see why they have to pull it mid-season. Sure, the ratings weren’t great, but no show is going to have great ratings on a friday evening, so why not just let it finish?
On the other hand, I kind of like this, because the digital release might mean I can actually legally get the episodes here in Germany instead of having to pirate them. (I heard Amazon is going to have it, so if I’m lucky, they’ll have it here as well)
@mordicai
You going to have a post regarding the absurdity that is Nickelodeon?
Seriously, it is utterly ridiculous. They do not care about the show in the least. Of course it’s getting terrible ratings! That’s what happens when you don’t advertise the return of a show and put it in a Friday death slot instead of the Saturday morning slot you used when the show was pulling in great numbers in it’s first season.
Konietzko and DiMartino seem really upset by all of this too. Nick is becoming the new Fox. Seriously. I remember all of last season when they kept switching the airdates and times on the fans, basically making it near impossible to actually try to follow the show and watch it live.
@31: Actually FOX generally treats its genre shows a lot better than this these days. In the past couple of years, ABC, The CW, and possibly NBC have cancelled more genre shows than FOX has.
And Nick has always been pretty random and arbitrary with its show scheduling. Remember how part of Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s third season came out on DVD before it debuted on television? That’s how severely their broadcast was delayed. And I’ve known other instances of them abruptly rescheduling shows or failing to provide any public notice of new episodes so that I missed them. I’ve never been able to make sense of their random approach to scheduling. So this isn’t “the new FOX,” it’s the same old Nick.
Anyway, Korra Nation reports that the remaining episodes will be released once a week on Nick.com and other online platforms starting August 1, so we won’t have long to wait. And the first five episodes are now up on Nick.com; hopefully the middle three will join them soon. No word yet on a possible platform or schedule for Book 4.
@ChristopherLBennet
That’s true…though I wasn’t watching Avatar at the time. I only caught up on dvd in 2009 or so. Still…it’s astonishing how poorly they are treating the show. I firmly believe that if they had given Book 2 & 3 the support and time slot they gave to Book 1 that they would have very similar if not better ratings than Book 1. It’s embarassing.
Also, they didn’t have the episodes on their site as of yesterday, so this is new. I hope that they still release Book 4 as it’s heavy into production right now. It would make me very angry if that was not the case.
@33: Yes, Korra Nation reported the posting of the episodes just minutes before I passed it along.
And there has been an announcement confirming that Book 4 will be completed and released, though we don’t yet know where and when. Maybe there will be more info at the Korra panel at Comic-Con tomorrow.
I still can’t believe they are pulling it from TV.
I know…it’s heartbreaking how little faith they have in the show.
I’ll be on pins and needles until we get some hard facts (hopefully) at the panel tomorrow.