The Legend of Korra

I hope they'll make a story that explains Suki's fate in the Legend of Korra. They haven't even mentioned her at all in the series, and I would like to know what happened.

This is an even bigger mystery than the whereabouts of Zuko's mom.

I'm still kind of hoping for a story happening in the Northern Water Tribe, see how the Water Twins are handling the governance, perhaps a glimpse of Tui and La.

Also the return of powerful and freaky spirits like Hei Bai, Koh and the Mother of Faces. I find LoK lacking in that department, although if I'm honest, ATLA kind of gave up on these after season 1 too.

Edited by Sannom on Jan 13th 2021 at 9:46:36 PM

The Harmonic Convergence should have been use to bring spirit creatures to Republic City as fellow citizens and not glorified Pokemon. Bring that asshole fox guy back and put him on the council representing the spirits.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

Random observation on Zaheer and Character Alignment: he's an unconventional Chaotic Neutral. Now, this is what the description of Chaotic Neutral says:

Zaheer is possibly one of the few CN characters who's motivated by chaos for the sake of it, who disrupts organisations as part of a campaign of anarchy.

I would be inclined to agree if Zaheer and the Red Lotus didn’t commit copious amounts of murder throughout his run as an agent of chaos.

You could argue that Chaotic Neutral is what he develops into by Book Four, but Zaheer’s methods are pretty evil.

I think Varrick is a better example of Chaotic Neutral. He does terrible things but it’s never really about making people suffer directly. And he goes back and forth between helping people and serving his own agenda.

Remember that time Zaheer unilaterally murdered one of his own men for failing him? Not exactly a CN behavior.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

He does commit several murders, but doesn't do that freely. A Chaotic Evil character should have zero moral qualms. He would have killed every one standing in his way. He didn't kill the White Lotus guards keeping him or his comrades, nor the Earth Queen's guards. Quite the opposite, he insists that the communications officer mustn't be hurt because "he's one of the guy they're trying to liberate". Even while fighting the Air Benders, or the New Team Avatar, he and his own often show restraint and don't use lethal force. Even when they seem ready to use that, there's a lot of difference between killing a helpless individual out of your own initiative, and kill what you consider a stubborn foe who's disturbing your plans too much and leaves you no choice; that counts with the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with Tenzin.

After that, the murder of Aiwei was dictated by necessity, and one could argue that given the traitor he was, Zaheer knew he couldn't trust him for long. I believe that, the mistreatment of innocent Air-Benders (though he only lied about killing them) and his plan to kill the Avatar are the only arguibly Evil deeds from his part.

He does commit desplicable acts, but still has a series of strong moral restraints (if unconventional) and ideals that distance him by a wide margin from a truly evil character.

(In any case it proves how many different interpretations you can get out of a single D&D Character Alignment).

I'd consider combustionbending and lavabending to be pretty fucking lethal force. Failing to kill people is not the same as being unwilling to kill people.

Hey, remember that time when they melted the Air Temple around Team Avatar and Tenzin? Tons of non-lethal lava flooding the halls.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2021 at 1:23:38 AM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Lulz for the non-lethal lava. But even there, Ghazan did at as last resort, and as I said: "there's a lot of difference between killing a helpless individual out of your own initiative, and kill what you consider a stubborn foe who's disturbing your plans too much and leaves you no choice".

These actions of course prove that the Red Lotus is not Chaotic Good, but I think the set of moral restraints and rules they set for themselves makes them too distanced from a Chaotic Evil character.

Chaotic Dicks

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

A Chaotic Evil character should have zero moral qualms.

Nah, you don't need to be 100% Chaotic Evil to still qualify. I'd say Zaheer is further to the side of Chaotic Evil than Chaotic Neutral, though he is still one of the more neutral aligned characters in Chaotic Evil. He's an edge case Chaotic Evil, but I'd say he still qualifies more than he would for Chaotic Neutral.

I actually would say Zaheer and his ilk are Lawful Evil, as oxymoronic as that might sound at first. Remember, the Red Lotus are not anarchists in the sense of “haha I do whatever I want lol so random”. They are *ideological* anarchists, their actions are for a cause, and they adhere to that cause.

Red Lotuses are not the Joker, who uses the “anarchy” label as an excuse to be a dickbag. They sincerely believe in their cause, but at the end of the day, they are still evil people perfectly willing to hurt others to further it.

Edited by Nightwire on Jan 21st 2021 at 7:07:57 AM

No, no you’re definitely on to something there. Lawful Evil is about establishing order and that’s essentially what they’re doing. It’s just that the natural order is disorder.

Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing when writing that post, but I figured that I didn't want to distract from the point of being about morality. They might fit Lawful closer than Chaotic, given that they do have a desired goal in mind of establishing a new world order. They're not just doing random acts of violence.

Yeah, I also was thinking along those lines. Lawful doesn't necessarily mean "Respects governments and obey's authority". It means living one's life in accordance to a code of ethics or set of principles or such. There are rules that you consciously live by. They don't have to be the law of the land (though they typically are); they just have to be rules.

Chaotic characters are impulsive and emotionally-driven. They do whatever feels right and go wherever their hearts take them. They don't typically spend all of their free time meticulously researching ancient sages and then trying to live every waking moment guided by the wisdom and beliefs of those sages.

I definitely get a Lawful Evil vibe from Zaheer; just a different flavor of Lawful Evil from, say, Kuvira.

EDIT: I think Korra herself may actually be a decent example of what makes a Chaotic character. While her role is to be the absolute arbiter between the four nations and the spirit world, it is constantly undermined by her tendency to go off and just do things on a whim.

She tries to play by the book and be calm and civil and reasonable. But it just isn't who she is. Who she is, is the person who solves problems by getting mad and punching them.

Lawful characters make decisions with their head. Chaotic characters make decisions with their heart. Zaheer is the former. Korra is the latter.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 21st 2021 at 9:38:53 AM

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

So, with the Legend of Korra on Netflix, there's inevitably going to be a new generation of shitheads, dirtying the internet with their "subversive" hot-takes and unaware repetitions of past fights as though they're the first ones to come up with such thoughts.

You know, people like me. Yeah, I'm going to start watching it this week.

I actually watched a few episodes when it first aired but only, like, two or three episodes and I never picked it back up. So, uh, the rest of the series will be pretty new to my eyes.

I'll try to give my liveblog of the first couple of episodes (it'll be a scattering of thoughts, nothing too elaborate like Redmess's or Tobias Drake's) in the afternoon as, of this typing, it's a quarter to three in the morning.

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Good Luck with that

Cupcakes are coming, Darling!!

Can’t wait to see what your favorite Book ends up being.

Everyone has different answers these days.

As for the whole "Lawful" and "Chaos" thing...

Zaheer's an orderly disciplined man who wants to overthrow the old world order to grant what he thinks will be true freedom. He's basically applying Lawful means for a Chaotic goal.

Korra's pretty much the opposite, being a more emotionally driven free spirit who fights to maintain balance and keeping things in order. She's a Chaotic individual fighting for Law and Order.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Just thought that Hakoda is the only grandparent whom Tenzin, Bumi and Kya got to know.

On the other hand chaotic also means living with a personal code even if goes against others , that is why the typical "be lawfull or be good" does have chaotic good conotation, zaheer is like that is just his answer is "I will follow my heart and do murder"

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

But he's not just following his heart, as in his own desires. He has a political goal, and he does what he does because he wants it to be achieved.

Sure, but he have goal form on is desire rather than following a goal for duty or something like that, he is not a paladin of a sort, he is a man with a cause, that is pretty chaotic in general.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

Just started this and gotten through the first seven episodes. Given how the owner of Cabbage Corporation's owner was named "Lau Gan-Lan", does that mean "Lau" is the surname of the Cabbage Merchant from the original series?

The funny thing about the Cabbage Merchant is that he is funny so long as he has no name. He is just "the cabbages guy". Even his blood has the legacy of being a joke related to the loss of cabbages.

I am not aware of him having an actual name but it stands to reason that if his son has that last name his might share that much.

Also, I always thought of Zaheer as a bit of Chaotic Stupid. For all his philosophical pondering, he always assumed that no leadership would consolidate into peace without ever questioning the process. Once he sees exactly that happen, he regrets it and thus, helps Korra.

Edited by Aszur on Mar 23rd 2021 at 12:07:50 PM

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes