The Legend of Korra

@The Space Jawa,

I would have people generate a thoughtful and carefully considered assessment of the Equalists' goals and political legitimacy based on an understanding of how the fundamental differences of the setting would impact the development of politics, economics and culture in the Avatar world.

If you think that's unreasonable, perhaps it is, but there's really no other way to do it.

Consider the following examples of issues that have defined our own history and how they would change given the existence of special people born with the power to bend one of the four elements.

Economics: The Avatar world has no pretense of one person's labor being of similar value to another person's labor. The existence of a sub-class of people with access to special powers means there is literally a type of person who, purely by accident of birth, is automatically far more economically productive- and therefore more innately valuable- than everyone else. This, by itself, is huge. Changes everything.

Culture and Religion: Bending is an ancient and storied practice of immense cultural significance to the Avatar world. The ability to manipulate the elements is linked with an affinity for spiritual matters. Furthermore, the world's four nations are named after and defined primarily by what element their Benders have access to- to such the extent that the name of the nation (Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom etc.) is nothing more than a combination of that nation's governing style and the element they bend.

Race and Ethnicity: Society in the Avatar world is divided between two types of people with quantifiably different capacities for physical labor. Discrimination based on Bender status is an everyday occurrence by the simple fact that non-Benders are simply not capable of undertaking the same kinds of tasks Benders are capable of doing. This is not something which exists or has existed at any point in Human history in real life.

... and so on and so forth. You're starting to see a pattern, I take it?

Comparison of the Equalist to racist or ethnic-supremacist groups is particularly ironic because non-Benders are arguably, for all intents and purposes, an inferior race when compared with Benders. Indeed, this is the Equalists' entire platform, that Benders are superior through no effort of their own, having simply been born with powers that put them socially far above your average non-Bender.

edited 18th Nov '14 12:37:11 PM by Gault

There's also the fact that there is such a thing as non-bender ghettos. Mind you, this doesn't mean that they are systematically oppressed, but we saw no evidence of analogous bender ghettos, which suggests the poorer non-benders banded together for protection against the triads and other bending criminals.

I don't remember any nonbender ghettos. Do you mean the shops the Triads were extorting in the first episode because I don't recall it ever being mentioned only nonbenders lived there (it also did look as bad as the term ghetto implies).

edited 18th Nov '14 12:48:00 PM by LSBK

I think he's talking about that scene late in season 1 where Tarrlok turns off power to a predominantly non-Bender district and they all come out in protest.

Ah.

Amon is basically Reverse Magneto cosplaying as Doctor Doom.

@ Gault: I think you're overcomplicating what people are going to continue to try to simplify for the sake of quick, real-world references that they already understand.

Bear in mind that whatever else it may be, Legend of Korra is still an animated TV show, meaning that few people are going to have reason or desire to dig into the show and really understand it the way you seem to insist that they do. "a thoughtful and carefully considered assessment" goes way beyond what most people are going to care to take the time to do since Legend of Korra isn't going to affect their life in any real manner - hence why you find them trying to make simple comparisons that line up with movements that they think can reasonably help them better understand the situation.

That's why you have people saying "They're kind of like Communists" or the like, because it makes it far easier to understand who the Equalists are when they're able to take a movement that has so many pieces that are divorced from reality and tie it in to a movement that actually affects the real world that they live in every day.

edited 18th Nov '14 5:25:22 PM by TheSpaceJawa

Is that why you all keep doing that? I thought you people just wanted to let us know you were history majors.

Let's be frank here, Bryke and the rest of the crew don't exist in a vacuum, just as this show doesn't. They've been influenced by things they've seen and heard, which includes political ideas, that inevitably will leak into their writing. The very concept of metatextual analysis rests on this sort of foundation.

Also, I resent that, I'm a psychology major

Fair enough.

I just can't get into the vibe of analyzing Korra on that level. I don't enjoy the show that way. Maybe one day I'll have a political science course and get to see Korra in a new light, but I can't take the show that seriously. Were I to bring up Avatar in regular conversation at work, I wouldn't make those parallels.

I am quite shamelessly in this for the beautiful animation, the Tear Jerker's, the rare Getting Crap Past the Radar moments, closure, and because its the only thing on Nickelodeon with an actual storyline at the moment (well, barring TMNT I suppose).

edited 18th Nov '14 8:32:59 PM by FOFD

Hey, fair enough, everyone enjoys media in different ways. Totally fine there.

Let see:

is clear that byke and the rest use certain grupo as inspration for their chararter but only in the most subtle way so they still have creative freedom(because when you villian is nazi type, there is a few thing you can do).

the fire nation in anag were fire imperialst(based in imperial japan) the equalist are based in one part comunist cells and other part a personality cult of Amon, who have a point(bending give you and advantage and republic city is so depending of bending that it can give you a job) if you want to see it in some way, it like a job thing: if you are really a good actor you can do a lot of money that someone in a more heavy but necesary job

unalaq is spiritual antagonist but his confusing chararter turing into a typical western zealot or satan-like workship

Zaheer and the red lotus is one part cult or secreat sociaty,other part anarchist and "freedom fighters"

Kuvira is more like a savior, a dictator who tell itself "everything is bad and we need a tought but wise hand to guide them" her sucess give her more motivation to continue, including the fact that she "beat" the avatar and take zaofu

Again, is not a complete reference but just enought so peple can see the theme behind it

The potential for this kind of analysis is one of the main things that draw me to this show. That the world of Legend of Korra is sufficiently well-realized to allow for this is a minor miracle in itself, even if it's clear that Bryke are taking only loose inspiration from historical events instead of going whole-hog with it like I'd want.

That's certainly true, I just posit that the implications of the decisions Bryke were influenced to make don't mean quite what they thought they did- though this is simply my personal interpretation, of course.

As much as I dislike the concept of the Death of the Author, I have to admit this situation provides an interesting example of the concept.

@The Space Jawa, I'm willing to give Korra the benefit of the doubt and subject it to this level of analysis precisely because I detest this view that animation is all just shallow and meant for children. The original Last Airbender series has a reputation for subverting that precise expectation. Aang regularly dealt with a lot of very complicated and adult concepts like war, genocide, revenge, corruption and oppression, and this is a large part of why that series is considered so great. I don't think it's that odd to expect Korra to continue that trend.

edited 19th Nov '14 1:58:19 AM by Gault

Wow no new messages in a day. Never seen that in this thread before :P

Bumi sure slimmed down huh? Three years of meditation, morning hikes and vegetarianism apparently keep your tummy flat even with a 60yo metabolism.

It's the wing suits, they're very slimming.

Skintight fabric was invented by Satan to be as unslimming as possible.

Probably less morning hikes and more extensive flying and maybe fighting.

Word from AV Club's Korra reviewer is tomorrow's episode is a Clip Show

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—-

A flashback episode.

Well, we had the Ember Island players last time. Maybe this will resemble that.

I will hate this episode unless they do something really clever with it. Clip Shows are one of my least liked episode types.

edited 20th Nov '14 8:13:09 AM by kostya

There isn't much of the season left, kind of curious they're doing what sounds like premise of a filler. Sure, the third one speeded up spectacularly around the eighth episode.

Korra is probably going to look at the past in order to help her overcome her Heroic BSoD.

Now that I would like, especially if the end involves her confronting Zaheer.