The Legend of Korra

Feh, I'll look through all the old pages later...

Wow I'm liking this book. So much interelemental strife and skilled fighters everywhere...in the real world that'd be very unlikely.

So I'm thinking maybe the Earth Queen is going to chase after Korra? Since she did commit an "act of war". Or maybe she'd just focus on her topiary garden, who knows.

As for the metalbending city, that place is cool. They got so much going on there. And Opal is sweet. So sweet I thought she was evil at first because this show is like that. And Varrick! Always nice having old frenemies around. And Kya is pretty good on her own.

Ah, so much I'd want to talk about but I may have already forgotten it...

It's not that everyone is a skilled fighter, it's that most people Korra interacts with is a skilled fighter, and considering they're either helping her save the world, trying to protect her, or kill her, that makes sense.

Is that a spoiler or are you just assuming gravitybending is going to be a thing.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:41:38 PM by KBSL

I'm just assuming it's going to happen. I believe they said something about giving airbending its own special skill and Zaheer seems to put a lot of emphasis on how Laghima "unlocked the mystery of weightlessness." That sounds like he found some way to manipulate gravity which is pretty different from normal airbending. Personally I'd prefer soundbending since it makes more sense for air to be connected to that but whatever. It would probably lead to some interesting fights.

@KBSL Being the Avatar always gives you close access to masters, law enforcers, and close relatives of the same. It's just surprising how often those related people end up being so important. Like Toph, the little blind girl of a rich family, invents metalbending and has two daughters who are the chief of a police force in one city and the founder of another city. And Aang's kids? Republic City councilman, United Forces commander, and...very skilled waterbender who didn't have much else going for her, but she's still so good at it.

What luck that we get to see these two incarnations of the Avatar with such interesting friends and family members. What if we had just focused on Yangchen and saw her 100 years of peace.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:50:56 PM by Keybreak

One thing people have noticed is that Aang and Korra seem to be the first Avatars to spend a significant amount of time traveling with the same core group of allies. The flashbacks we've seen of Roku and Kyoshi make it seem like they worked alone. I wonder why that is.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:52:26 PM by Kostya

Because kids' shows like to tote the importance of The Power of Friendship and having hope for the future.

If we followed Roku or Kyoshi, then we'd learn the importance of turning on your best friend when he becomes power mad or trying to avoid conflict even when it's staring you in the face. Respectively.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:57:07 PM by Keybreak

Plus Kyoshi was 300 years old or something. Her pals probably died. Her replacement pals too.

Well, i'm in the middle of watching the new episodes and, I gotta say, while certain things in these 2 episodes do seem like things i should like, certain other things feel like they distract me from them.

1. I did find the exposition about Zaheer and his crew interesting, and even mixed that into an idea for a story that i'm trying to write (that was probably the beginning of the end). But that concept, along with the whole "prison break" idea, became impossible for me to completely savor, due to the whole Jinora/Kai thing, which got my mind riled.

2. The following episode is hard for me to enjoy for one main reason: my mind keeps making Mako say and do stupid things, especially in regards to Lin's attitude and Bolin's budding romance with Opal, even though he's barely said anything.

......what....

At least Roku got married. He didn't seem to have (m)any other friends, but at least he was with people.

As for Mako, he's just being his normal uptight self. And Bolin's being his goofy puppy dog self who goes chasing after any girl he finds cute.

Bolin meanwhile could have a chance with Opal. She's not a shallow mover star or crazy ice princess.

Opal seems to like him too. As long as he doesn't act like a dumbass I foresee the two of them getting together by the end of the season.

edit: And then next season we can have Opal trying to sneak into Bolin's room and bumping into Mako.

edited 11th Jul '14 11:03:12 PM by Kostya

Will Bolin also get lei'd?

Jinora said her astral projection was a high level airbending move so that could be what they mean. Personally, I never got exactly why air needed any special subset beyond all the others have it but like you Kostya, I would prefer if it were sound to gravity.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Bolin's too dorky to get laid, Sokka was dorky too, but in a way that I could still image him going all the way. Bolin doesn't have that I don't think.

edited 11th Jul '14 11:07:39 PM by KBSL

I guess air could have both sound and gravity as the special skills. All the other types have two of them.

I think the advanced airbending is just unaided flying. If it still needs -bending tacked onto it then it could be gravitybending.

But gravity is so not air-connected...in fact it's sometimes the total opposite...like air-resistance to things falling to the ground...;p

Since gravity is just the attraction between two bodies, while air is the stuff floating in the atmosphere that people breathe (or can't). And wind is the movement of air caused by...

Uh, weather pressure? I forget.

I think advanced airbending is...astral projection. What Jinora's already doing. Just think about it. "Become untethered," Zaheer says, about Guru Laghima's teachings. One with the void.

....Jinora looks pretty untethered to me, idk.

Maybe it's something more abstract. Zaheer mentioned something about becoming one with the void in the latest episode. It might be that defying gravity is one aspect and it's more about disconnecting yourself from the physical world someone. That sounds more like what Jinora was doing now that I think about it.

Dammit.

edit: Astral Projection doesn't really seem like it's specifically connected to airbending though. That sounds more like it should fall under energybending to me.

edited 11th Jul '14 11:18:03 PM by Kostya

All of the higher ethereal elements get muddled. Airbenders are all so spiritual that they get so close to spiritbending. And then Zaheer reads a poem about the void....

So much of it is just very invisible.

I have a theory about that, actally - getting involved with the Avatar will inevitability change your life. The Avatar is always working to keep balance in the world, which means that whenever a crises comes up, the Avatar will almost certainly be right in the thick of it. And if you're a friend of the Avatar, chances are you'll be right in the thick of it too.

As a result of this, allies of the Avatar tend to grow from the experience and become great themselves. Sokka, Katara, Toph and Zuko all became importaint because they became involved with the Avatar.

Right, because if they didn't, then Sokka and Katara would just be regular Southern Water Tribespeople (or dead after the Fire Nation raided them again), Toph would be the same blind rich girl (who still does pretty cool things in her spare time), and Zuko would still be a banished prince looking for the Avatar.

...or if not for the Avatar at all, then he'd just be banished and alone.

Exactly. This might even be a plot point some time in the future, like maybe someone turns down going with Korra because they like their nice normal lives, and when you're an ally of the Avatar your life will never be normal again.

So finally saw the new episodes. Thoughts as they occured.

• Combustion Man's daughter?
• Seriously how does using fire on a dragon work?
• Well that fight was a let down... Suppose we can't have anyone other than the real heroes putting up a fight.
• Wonder how no one noticed Mako and Bolin's gone.
• Nevermind
• They've given up on Kai, I guess. Or deduced he's been taken.
• It's been 70 years. After the Avatar break in, they must have figured they need somewhere else to hide their shady things. Otherwise anyone who likes history would find it.
• Called it.
• Surely a soldier who doesn't just look out for themselves is a good thing?
• I think they should get a badgermole that knows Morse code anyway.
• Wonder when Sokka died then. Looks like it was in Korra's lifetime.
• These criminals are worse than Amon and Unavaatu?
• No one likes codenames anymore
• The Earth Queen was expecting a bunch of people she kidnapped and imprisoned to be loyal?
• And then she went and trained them.
• Nice to see Bolin being competent. Doesn't happen often enough.
• Looks like all Tenzin had to do to get new Airbenders is rescued them from imprisonment. Maybe they shoudl have set a scam where someone in Team Avatar captured the Airbenders and then Tenzin 'rescued' them and recruited them through gratitude. Or maybe that's a tiny bit amoral.
• Another general note, Korra (the show) has been pretty bad with it's grey villains hasn't it? Maybe Zaheer's group can change that.

• Isn't Korra banned from Republic City? You'd think Lin would know that. Also, you'd think she'd be a better liar.
• If only the Airbender kids could hear the suspicious background music...
• What are the odds the Team will see Toph at some point in the remaining seasons.
• They didn't see the family resemblence?
• Suuubtle Bryke. No chance of Bolin and Opal liking each other.
• Wonder if Opal has any dance training.
• Varrick!
• Remember when Bolin was meant to be a ladies man? How did he manage that again?
• I can't believe I didn't realise he was Zaheer until literally a minute before. I thought it was just some accomplice of theirs.
• Kya lasted longer than Zuko and others put together.
• There has to be something more to the story of Lin's family than just what Soo's saying.

I must say, this is probably the most consistent first five episodes of a Korra season thus far. In the last two, we'd be at "The Spirit of Competition" or "Peacekeepers".

One thing I like about Zaheer & co is that they seem to be the first group of antagonists in an Avatar series that appear to genuinely like and respect one another as friends. I think the closest thing we've had to a group of actual friends as the villains was Azula, Mai and Ty Lee, but with them we knew right off the bat that the latter two only followed Azula out of fear.

edited 12th Jul '14 5:03:19 AM by DrDougsh

Yay Bumi!

The leaf!

So the dragon's name is Druk.

Meelo is growing into more of a tyrant every day now...