1002 replies to this topic

[Fliss]

Wow --Click here to view--

That episode was intense! Definitely one of my favorites. Poor Korra finally had a team to rely on and they were already taken away. Wow the whole episode had me on the edge of my seat. The action was fantastic, but I also loved those little romantic tension scenes between Asami/Mako/Korra. Can't wait to see how that plays out.

[sushi.]

Why can't just Beifong use her seismic sense/lie detector to one of the captured equalists for information? Don't say they're expert-liars like Azula, or that Toph's 50'year old daughter can't do that.

I wonder how Tarrlok will explain the f**cked up battle area and Korra's disappereance to Tenzin. God, I love him, he's the best she's got!

[Nee-sama]

I think this link is working. episode 8 Terrible quality tho, the HD version isn't out yet.

[Gravenimage]

I think this link is working. episode 8 Terrible quality tho, the HD version isn't out yet.

Thank you so much!

OMG! --Click here to view--

The end made me cry what is Korra going to do? I hate to wait until next week.

[Chew]

GAH MY FEELS, MY FEELS~~

Argh --Click here to view--

My feels are going crazy. I feel so bad for Korra. Her friends got arrested and now she's all alone in the back of a truck going who knows where. My feels were going crazy. But now I'm really curious about Tarrlok- I mean even just as Korra said, it wasn't even a full moon and he was bloodbending! Gah too many feels

Edited by Pikachew, 03 June 2012 - 12:47 AM.

[chouzu_tao]

Wow... so I finally caught up on the show. IT'S SOOOOO GOOD!

I love the premise of this 2nd series. Even though we're presented with physically embodiments of it, the villain is more so an idea than a single person, the enemy is that of prejudice. And as daunting as Aang's task was, Korra's will be that much more difficult in that it's not something that one can Avatar state and defeat. All the past incarnations of the Avatar seem to settle things with force, and even though they each would have had to deal with the aftermath of those decisions from a conversation standpoint, I don't think Korra can force the anti-benders to stop feeling prejudice and prejudiced against with a display of power such as splitting the continent in half and moving the bending half somewhere else (not to knock on Kiyoshi). If anything, more force will have the opposite effect. Unfortunately for poor Korra, there's also the added difficulty of all the political BS, which plays a much more intricate role in this series than in S1. I'm so excited to see Korra grow in the coming episodes. She'll need to do a lot of it in order to gain the wisdom, not bending, needed to save the world from this spreading venom. @legendofkorra

Thoughts on this week's episode --Click here to view--

!!!!!! He's able to blood bend without the full moon and what's worse, it looks like he used it to his advantage against the previous generation. What happened to them? And how did Tarrlok wind up in office if he was so evil?

Thoughts on Amon: Maybe Aang's soul was split during the re-incarnation process? Maybe Tarrlok too? Does blood-bending explain Tarrlok's power over the other councilors? Probably not, all shots in the dark here, but interesting to share.

I should've did what I had been planning to do and wait until the entire season was out then catch up... now I'm stuck doing the waiting game. Poo.

[Dragunov]

So many things going on!

[sushi.]

birdbrainblue.tumblr.com/post/24281699688/an-analysis-of-the-flashbacks

[chouzu_tao]

birdbrainblue.tumblr.com/post/24281699688/an-analysis-of-the-flashbacks

Very interesting post.

spoiler --Click here to view--

I had overlooked the fact that... duh, Tarrlok can't be that guy in the flash back. What if both Tarrlok and Amon are brothers and Amon was born without bending abilities. Probably too far.

[CloudMountainJuror]

Best episode yet. A huge improvement over last week. HUGE.

Bonus: this episode also inspired me to actually have my first Korra-related sig. That's how good it was.

Edited by zacrathedemon5, 05 June 2012 - 09:01 AM.

[FullmetalNinja25]

This technically has nothing to do with the show but I created Korra in WWE '12 and thought I'd show it off in this thread. What do you guys think? Hope this isn't Spam.

 Photo_00014.jpg   36.85KB   31 downloads

[Gravenimage]

This technically has nothing to do with the show but I created Korra in WWE '12 and thought I'd show it off in this thread. What do you guys think? Hope this isn't Spam.

 Photo_00014.jpg   36.85KB   31 downloads

Lol Korra's owning She-Hulk.

[sushi.]

Clip from episode 9: Find the avatar!
Dunno how to post a video, but here's a funny clip. Yeah, I literally laughed because of that Tarrlok guy. Don't think Tenzin will believe him completely, but whatevs

wonder what Amon has to say

Edit; come to think of it..how did Tarrlok get those fancy equalist weapons? If he is cooperating with them, it would be to take Korra down, and then turn against eachother.

Edited by sushi., 05 June 2012 - 09:24 PM.

[krisk]

fakecut; zac-replies; off-topic --Click here to view--

Krisk, I really want to respond to your post. I really, really do.

lmao okay
also aw thank you for comforting the emotional female. don't worry, onii-san! as long as you REALLY REALLY want to reply, it's all alright. <3

But I honestly think that I just pulled the first "tl;dr" of my life. I'm not joking. I'll see if I can come back to it later, but I just can't read all of that right now. I don't know why. I honestly don't. x_x

300 words is considered tl;dr? really? haha omg



w/e if you'd rather i be needlessly insipid to coddle you then lemme know, here i'll presume as much and go ahead and rephrase so i can be blessed by your reply (i'll even bold it, broseph):

alta > lok? in comparison, how?
(context:
you stated that lok wasn't "living up" to atla, I wanted you to expand on this conclusion)

short enough sweetness?

tl;dr (thank god for tl;dr on a DISCUSSION board, amirite?)
zac, reply to what I asked or ignore it completely - don't passive-aggressively insinuate that i'm far too verbose to be treated appropriately in a discussion. kinda rude, n'est-ce pas? oh btw thanks for wasting posting space; next time just send me a pm telling me you don't want to reply. that post didn't further discussion and was off-topic; all you did was say you couldn't say what you "wanted" to say because of what i said. d-d-d-derp

Gawd, I love it when you post, krisk. You always make the most lovely, wonderful points and have actually helped me see certain things about the plot/characters that I didn't catch on my first watch of an ep

hey thanks! i'm glad they're helping you. i know i've gotten tons of help too.

Why can't just Beifong use her seismic sense/lie detector to one of the captured equalists for information? Don't say they're expert-liars like Azula, or that Toph's 50'year old daughter can't do that.

Toph was god-mode - she's the only one who can utilize earthsense to detect lies. Furthermore, having the ability doesn't ensure lie-detection; Lin used it in that scene to detect remnants of earth from the metal material of the workshop, and not, on the otherhand, find out that the lead itself was fake - which in turn lead to them being there in the first place (aka a trap)

this all has me believing she's simply incapable.

also if Lin could, she'd lose all semblence of personal character. Things would come so easy for her that it would be difficult to suspend disbelief. The daughter of a prodigy who inhereted everything? Lin would be severly less badass after having been gifted everything from Toph. You can call it plot-armor if you want, but I just can't get behind Toph's off-spring being outright clones of her.

that said, I guess I just really believe that Toph died before Lin was old enough to learn perfected earthsense. Either she wasn't alive to teach her or she just wasn't around enough, having been pre-occupied with the Metalbending forces.

Wow... so I finally caught up on the show. IT'S SOOOOO GOOD!

I love the premise of this 2nd series. Even though we're presented with physically embodiments of it, the villain is more so an idea than a single person, the enemy is that of prejudice. And as daunting as Aang's task was, Korra's will be that much more difficult in that it's not something that one can Avatar state and defeat. All the past incarnations of the Avatar seem to settle things with force, and even though they each would have had to deal with the aftermath of those decisions from a conversation standpoint, I don't think Korra can force the anti-benders to stop feeling prejudice and prejudiced against with a display of power such as splitting the continent in half and moving the bending half somewhere else (not to knock on Kiyoshi). If anything, more force will have the opposite effect. Unfortunately for poor Korra, there's also the added difficulty of all the political BS, which plays a much more intricate role in this series than in S1. I'm so excited to see Korra grow in the coming episodes. She'll need to do a lot of it in order to gain the wisdom, not bending, needed to save the world from this spreading venom.

re: Avatar solutions
you know, if you intentionally included Aang into your "aftermath of decisions" senario, I'd like to prod you to help me out here, chou-chou!

in terms of consequential factors in societal ethics and with Aang's punishment for Ozai in mind, do you think that the death sentence even exists in the Avatar-verse? I'm thinking that it either does and is assigned just as usual (like in ours) with spiritbending being the absolute above-all-authority last resort OR it doesn't exist and spiritbending is the alternative as the capital punishment.

some people have mentioned that Aang's ability wasn't known by the general public, so that would debase my theory that Aang used it as aforementioned - however I'm having trouble buying that. Aang doesn't seem the type to acknowledge the precaution in hiding the fact. Not to mention Zuko himself might have been so concentrated (and desperate) on saving the Fire Nation that he didn't even humor hiding it from his people, despite the potential complications it promised being public knowledge (as demonstrated by Amon).

and I say this because I feel like Aang's decision to spiritbend - instead of kill - Ozai may have caused a heavy undercurrent of conflict in the bending vs. non-bending populace, which may even be treated as a consequential factor that lead to this inequality we see now in Republic City. I can't help but to treat spiritbending as some kind of inhumane and dangerous punishment, something that caused more harm than good. Am I being bias in suggesting that Aang shouldn't have spiritbent Ozai because he inadvertedly acknowledged the existence of a Bending Evil? I'm not positive on what I'm insinuating, but I can't shake the feeling: if Aang had killed Ozai, we may have avoided the creation of two evils (i.e., instead of a sole all-encompassing Human Evil, we now have a Non-Bending Evil and a Bending Evil). Someone blow holes in my theory pls.


re: Korra
so much yesss.
I'm seriously feeling for Korra; she's pushed down over and over again, pummeled by the truth with no way to defend herself or fight, except in a way she's incapable of doing.

It's tough, hell nigh impossible to forcefully become the antithesis of yourself all for such daunting responsibilities, especially under the circumstances Korra is. She's used to going around, shoving situations until they're shaped into representations of her goals - but now, with the overall conflict that's against her, she's powerless. Tarrlok, while a gigantic buttmunch, was completely right in what he said; Korra is like him in getting what she wants (although Korra's justifiable in her goals, because they're ultimately for the greater good). It's the harsh unavoidable truth, and he really doesn't pull any punches. Korra = Amon = Tarrlok = Extremists, apt title bryke well done

Not to mention the fact that she's utterly alone. No one's helping her, and she's fighting to do the right thing all for Republic City, all for non-benders and benders alike, all for the Legacy she's branded with. I totally agree, she'll have to tread the road she's never walked before, and has avoided till now. The past incarnations will help, but I'm really hoping Bryke will surprise me in the finale by not resorting to the Avatar Wonderball of Elements to fix everything.

If how they're building Korra's frustration and utter morose disposition is a consistent presence in the last 3 episodes, I'll sustain hope that Korra will defeat the main antagonist having not devolved into shooting fire/water/rocks everywhere, and instead doing something very...subtle. If they do this, Korra may very well take a spot in my top characters for A+ character development list.

(Although I hate to say it, since Nick ordered a second season, I think they changed up the last episode into a cliffhanger sort a deal and we'll see a fully actualized Korra in Book 2 - but idk.)


re: venom
I'm probably miscontruing what you said, but the incapacitation of first the source of the venom then the removal of said venom is more what Korra's goal should be built around, not stopping the expansion of it. The venom is already prevalent and heavily influential - it runs strong in this time-period's veins, in Republic City's roots; her getting rid of a revolution that's ultimately trying to accomplish what she should be pursuing is kind of counter-productive, if not useless. I mean, Amon's idealism obviously holds value. He's right in wanting some sort of change. He wants a revolution, however drastic it is - I don't blame him, and I sympathize with that mindset.

That said, if Korra wants to do what she's destined to do, she has to find the answer in the values Amon is pursuing and apply it appropriately where she has to. Kind of like, cutting the snake's head off, sucking the venom out and then utilizing that? i.e., Korra needs to play doctor and produce an antivenom and use it as an antidote? oh boy let's see here.

an alternative look at the main conflict:
bitten victim - Republic City (which is a centralized representation of the world in S1)
snake head - Tarrlok
snake's body - Tarrlok's power-sources (e.g., the Council; the law; equalist scapegoat)
venom - oppression; racism; prejudice; socioeconomic inequality; fear; etc
antivenom - equality; balance in power placement; deterioration of fear; etc
antidote - revolution

i'm kind of liking this simplification of the main conflict of lok. although.. it may be oversimplified, now that i think about it. oh well, snake allegories are cool bahaha

!!!!!! He's able to blood bend without the full moon and what's worse, it looks like he used it to his advantage against the previous generation. What happened to them? And how did Tarrlok wind up in office if he was so evil?

Thoughts on Amon: Maybe Aang's soul was split during the re-incarnation process? Maybe Tarrlok too? Does blood-bending explain Tarrlok's power over the other councilors? Probably not, all shots in the dark here, but interesting to share.

I know omg

I'd seriously die of happiness if the Red Monsoons are what everyone is predicting them to be - a bunch of Disregard Full Moon-Bloodbend Errybody sadists. And if Yakone is the leader of these guys, oh maaaan, Aang I'd be so disappointed if you didn't Kyoshi them (which judging by history repeating itself in Tarrlok, I doubt he did, meh).

And haaa, it's because he's so evil that he's in office.

re: thoughts
Nope, those shots are pretty legit but I think with the short of amount of time Bryke had, they couldn't attempt such a narrative manuever. It'd be kinda sweet if Koh was involved, but the way I'm seeing things I don't think we'll have a Spirit's full involvement gasp-reveal in the final moments here. For instance, Bryke could have it be revealed that (specifically, how you talked about "Aang's soul") Aang overexerted himself before his death somehow, allowing Koh to slip in and manipulate the transference of the Avatar Spirit to "punish" the mortal world. This in turn gave him a window to impliment himself into a human vessel (Amon) and/or have Korra's spirituality suffer (no air) from the Avatar Spirit being passed on "tainted"

LoK thus far has relied on a very realistic framework; falling/rising action is produced moreso from words than actions. And for the show to suddenly start directing it's attention towards the spiritual portion of the lore is kind of jarring, to be honest. No idea if they'll stay consistent with the conflict-tone from the previous episodes (though I am hoping they do). That said, I'm pretty sure Korra is so overpowered because of her personality, which corresponds directly with her "failing" at all things Avatar (it's tougher for her because she has the power, but not the spirit her job demands) - not because of some foul play by the gods. Koh's involvment in Korra's lack of spirituality wouldn't seem to fit in this aforementioned tone. Regardless, whatever it does come down to, I hope they don't make Korra into some super chill monk - we've been there, and done that to hell.

and lol, I heard about that - Tarrlok bloodbending the Councilors hands up, but I really doubt it. I think he's good at what he does (no moon and all) but he'd seriously be god-mode if he could bloodbend without doing the forms required. (I think by this point, Katara is the only one who'd be able to do it sans the appropriate forms.) But damn, it'd be crazy if it was true (and kinda disappointing, like really? This is our Council? A bunch of losers who don't even protest in being violated like that, lmao)

What if both Tarrlok and Amon are brothers and Amon was born without bending abilities. Probably too far.

No bub, I was thinking the same thing. I like this theory and I'm totally about to fully support it.

Tarrlok and Amon are brothers, Yakone is their father.

Yakone - the crazy, extremist bloodbending leader of the Red Monsoons.
Tarrlok - daddy's favorite, showed heavy negative extremist tendencies. A nod to Azula's legacy, was granted the promise of leading the RM Triads.
Amon - born without bending, abused by his father, was powerless in stopping Yakone wreak havoc; aspiring leader, shares extremist tactics like his brother, wants to prevent people "like him" to meet the fate many met by his father and/or brother

Would explain why Tarrlok responded so intensely at being compared to his bro. I'm getting very Azula-y vibes from him and his disgusted aversion to what he preceives is weakness.

Also, I like the prediction that Amon will play the part of Korra's "enemy of her enemy" and ultimately bite the bullet by helping her in the finale. I know Bryke allued to him being "definitely evil", but I wouldn't past them trolling for tweest-effect in the finale where Amon ends up dying for his cause regardless, in some way.

Edit; come to think of it..how did Tarrlok get those fancy equalist weapons? If he is cooperating with them, it would be to take Korra down, and then turn against eachother.

Tarrlok has arrested battle-ready Equalists (with his task-force prior to this episode, and then with the police force in bulk). Pretty sure the majority, if not all, Equalists come standard with the gear Tarrlok used to leave "evidence."


---
and quick before ep09 comes out tmw (or in like, 7 hours oop) an open-letter to bryke! (it's filled with shipping disappointment, ugh)

Dear Bryke, --Click here to view--

You're perfect with this show but GODDAMN are you sh**ting it up with your romance. I swear, i had the the lowest expectations for the romance and they're looking to be true after E08.

E05 had me hopeful; you got rid of one potential ship and expanded on another, but now jfc. You'll utterly destroy an awesome character and an amazing potential character+character sismance for ONE endgame ~twu lub? are you serious? Asami is great, she's a classy hbic tactician master who drives one-handed AND had to deal with her dad being an apologist for a terrorist. not to mention the fact that she's deflected the natural response to hold some prejudice against benders (fire in particular) for what happened to her mother.

and.. you're just willing to completely ruin her by shoving Makorra onto the mix? Korra deserves what she wants, Asami deserves what she wants BUT by this point Mr. Mako doesn't deserve either of them.

bryke, don't make these two fight over this inconsistent broken asshat of a character. We were THIS close to getting our sismance, and now if EP09 plays out as I think it will, Asami will suffer and Mako will get everything

please kyoshi, have EP09 not make Asami the victim,
potential VA spot-now? hopeful,
krisk

ps,
if you want to make korrasami endgame, i'd totally owe you BIG

pps,
can't wait for the Linzen power half hour hnngh ty

ppps,
inb4 gravenimage asks for a dl link

tiny update:
- added episode titles for the rest of S01 (iirc confirmed by nick)
- added info for ep10, aka kittenjustgotreal.gif
- bracing for kitten that will be the finale

[alexander]

Krisk, I have to disagree, Korra is not utterly alone, remember in EP8, Korra was in all her lonesome sobbing when the crew showed up to lift her spirits? As long as those 3 are there she is not all alone. And also, let's give some credit to old man Tenzin, eh?

And about the shippings...

... --Click here to view--

So much truth in all you said. Korra and Asami are just too good and hawt for Mako. That guy get's more attention then he deserves. So, at least for me, Makorra is dead, while Masami still holding on a straw due to relationship obligations, otherwise, it would be dead as well. But we all know how is going to end, hummm?

[Gravenimage]

Just watched the latest episode and....

Nice. --Click here to view--

Tarlok had it coming for being such a bastard I'm actually happy Amon took his bending away. I lol at the Makorra fan service it makes me wonder it's going to be Makorra and probably Bosami in the end. There's going to be a one hour season finale (not happy it's too soon). Oh well looking forward to that.

[rikakim94]

I'am i the only one thats disappointed in the makorra development recently?

How can mako act like jerk towards asami. I really bad for both bolin and asami they both got one sided romance.

The only thing that was watchable in episode 9 was aangs flashback and the korra searching.

Hopefully in the creators of avatar will fix mako's character cause he really needs one at this point of the show.

[chouzu_tao]

Why can't just Beifong use her seismic sense/lie detector to one of the captured equalists for information? Don't say they're expert-liars like Azula, or that Toph's 50'year old daughter can't do that.

I agree with krisk. I don't believe she has learned this ability. Toph perfected it because she couldn't see. Aang was able to do it once against Ozai after he avatar stated/zen-mastered. Also, this technique is not 100% accurate. During the fire nation invasion during the eclipse when Toph and Sokka confronted Azula, the flaming dame proved she could beat the test. Just like a normal lie detector if someone can condition themselves to believe something enough they can cheat on the test.

First off, HI! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you in a thread.

re: Avatar solutions
in terms of consequential factors in societal ethics and with Aang's punishment for Ozai in mind, do you think that the death sentence even exists in the Avatar-verse? I'm thinking that it either does and is assigned just as usual (like in ours) with spiritbending being the absolute above-all-authority last resort OR it doesn't exist and spiritbending is the alternative as the capital punishment.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

I apologize. I miss-represented the matter I was trying to convey. I didn’t mean consequence in terms of a justice-system overseen by an existing government, but more so the punishment doled out by the Avatar. You do bring up an interesting observation. In the entirety of the first series, while we see that there are supermax facilities for war captives, there doesn’t seem to ever be any mention of capital punishment. Nor any signs that it exists. Whether this was a side-effect of A.T.L.A. being a show on a children’s network or the show was designed with this form of thinking for the governments represented I’m not sure. I’m inclined to think the first reason influenced the second. Even with the Fire nation it seems Ozai would rather keep his captives alive so that once he became overlord, he’d still have the same number of people to oversee. But this is simply conjecture and is off-set by the fact that he was going to fly around the entire world burning everything in its path (which would include innocent people and probably future subjects). But the question is do I think the death sentence exists as a justice-system given penalty in their world. Yes, I do. But as with any monarchial society in our history, death was probably doled out based on what the King-figure decreed. In this case Zuko probably took the “high road” and decided to keep his father alive in order to a) get info on his mama (which I’m still upset was simply dangled in front of us here) and b) to represent a new way of doing things, a more merciful one; a regime opposite that which his father’s ways represented. This also seems to clue to the fact that Ozai probs had people “capped in the a”.

some people have mentioned that Aang's ability wasn't known by the general public, so that would debase my theory that Aang used it as aforementioned - however I'm having trouble buying that. Aang doesn't seem the type to acknowledge the precaution in hiding the fact. Not to mention Zuko himself might have been so concentrated (and desperate) on saving the Fire Nation that he didn't even humor hiding it from his people, despite the potential complications it promised being public knowledge (as demonstrated by Amon).

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

Now that you mention it, no one other than Tenzin (and probably the cast from series one) seemed to know about this technique. Aang seems to be a very forthcoming person and probably did tell the adults (Katara’s father/ the White Lotus gang) about this and it may have been them who deemed the subject too controversial to make public. But also keep in mind, I don't think Aang felt the need to say "We won! I defeated the fire lord. Oh, BTW I spirit-bended him if anyone even wants to know how I did it." Honestly, I don't think there was a need to explain how, people were probably okay with the fact that he was defeated and started the process of healing and rebuilding. If anyone other than those close to Aang found out it was probably simply through word of mouth if Ozai didn't have enough pride left to hide the fact that he was emasculated. I’ll have to go back and see if there are hints that anyone other than Tenzin and the Anti-Benders knew that sprit-bending existed.

and I say this because I feel like Aang's decision to spiritbend - instead of kill - Ozai may have caused a heavy undercurrent of conflict in the bending vs. non-bending populace, which may even be treated as a consequential factor that lead to this inequality we see now in Republic City. I can't help but to treat spiritbending as some kind of inhumane and dangerous punishment, something that caused more harm than good. Am I being bias in suggesting that Aang shouldn't have spiritbent Ozai because he inadvertedly acknowledged the existence of a Bending Evil? I'm not positive on what I'm insinuating, but I can't shake the feeling: if Aang had killed Ozai, we may have avoided the creation of two evils (i.e., instead of a sole all-encompassing Human Evil, we now have a Non-Bending Evil and a Bending Evil). Someone blow holes in my theory pls.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

Again, based on the fact that the general populace had no previous knowledge of spirit-bending I’m doubtful that the anti-bending movement came as a result of Aang’s decision to spirit-bend Ozai instead of killing him.

While I can see how spirit-bending could lead to greater unrest between benders and non-benders, I believe that it is only now adding fuel to the fire, as a tool for equality in the eyes of non-benders and as a reason to hate non-benders on the side of bender extremists. And though we didn’t see any hints of it in series one, I’m sure the superiority complex that the bad benders had, as well as the fear/hatred of said benders on the anti-bender side was already present. But the anti-benders probably pointed most of their attention and hatred towards the fire nation who seemed to impose their superiority on everything; they were busy fighting and being oppressed by a common enemy.

It is interesting to note though that while many of the prejudices that exist in our society came or come from something new, different or not frequently experienced, that the prejudice in the series comes from something that has always been. Throughout it's history, in all locations of the world, it seems there have always been benders and non-benders living together. For this reason I believe that the folks of the anti-bending sentiment were in the minority, and it was actually the war against the fire nation, compounded on top of all the previous wars and not the discovery of spirit-bending by Aang that spread the prejudice. This is further exacerbated now when Amon appears and gives it focus, a weapon and a means to spread. Even Amon mentions that they are going to spread from Republic city, so it seems that we’re more seeing a beginning to the movement with Amon preying on the fears of non-benders to increase his army than something that came to a fever-pitch as a result of Aang's spirit-bending.

There is so much to discuss on this topic. Especially since I just remembered that there seemed to be a district for non-benders. Was this something that was declared by the council? Were they forced to live in this area or is this just something that naturally happened? If it naturally happened, was it because of an anti-bender mentality? It’s the scene where non-benders are being round up after they turn off the power in one of the districts that houses non-benders.

On the subject of the severity of spirit-bending as compared to death… It is a difficult subject. The first thing I could think of that parallels such an act would be if a serial rapist was turned into a eunuch. You would take away the source of his ability to harm another through the means he has done so repeatedly but even then this is not a direct comparison to spirit-bending as nothing was done to Ozai’s physical body. The subject is as tough to discern the morales and ethics of the death penalty. Which begs the question: who has the right to do it? But it seems in the world of the Avatar, the Avatar is given carte blanche to be the judge. I’m surprised there isn’t a movement against the Avatar itself. I myself believe it was justified and was the best possible solution given the situation and short time to accomplish the defeat of the fire nation.

re: Korra
Not to mention the fact that she's utterly alone. No one's helping her, and she's fighting to do the right thing all for Republic City, all for non-benders and benders alike, all for the Legacy she's branded with. I totally agree, she'll have to tread the road she's never walked before, and has avoided till now. The past incarnations will help, but I'm really hoping Bryke will surprise me in the finale by not resorting to the Avatar Wonderball of Elements to fix everything.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

I don’t believe that Korra is alone, but I believe she has a smaller supporting cast and a foe that has no physical body nor clear path to defeating, but currently Aang’s friends were miles closer to one another than Korra is with team phoenix. She barely knows them and because of the baggage that comes with their age they’re less open with one another.

I do agree that Korra’s action for curing the prejudice should not be a physical one. And though it won’t be the main antagonist, there probably will be a physical nemesis that she has to Avatar state out of the way.

If how they're building Korra's frustration and utter morose disposition is a consistent presence in the last 3 episodes, I'll sustain hope that Korra will defeat the main antagonist having not devolved into shooting fire/water/rocks everywhere, and instead doing something very...subtle. If they do this, Korra may very well take a spot in my top characters for A+ character development list.

(Although I hate to say it, since Nick ordered a second season, I think they changed up the last episode into a cliffhanger sort a deal and we'll see a fully actualized Korra in Book 2 - but idk.)

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

I am optimistic of this outcome as the writers of the show so far have never missed the mark, and I’d actually be glad if they took the second series to help Korra develop into the great person she’ll have to be in order to overcome prejudice. I’d be a little perplexed and agitated if her character growth was near completion by the first season’s end.

re: venom
I'm probably miscontruing what you said, but the incapacitation of first the source of the venom then the removal of said venom is more what Korra's goal should be built around, not stopping the expansion of it. The venom is already prevalent and heavily influential - it runs strong in this time-period's veins, in Republic City's roots; her getting rid of a revolution that's ultimately trying to accomplish what she should be pursuing is kind of counter-productive, if not useless. I mean, Amon's idealism obviously holds value. He's right in wanting some sort of change. He wants a revolution, however drastic it is - I don't blame him, and I sympathize with that mindset.

That said, if Korra wants to do what she's destined to do, she has to find the answer in the values Amon is pursuing and apply it appropriately where she has to. Kind of like, cutting the snake's head off, sucking the venom out and then utilizing that? i.e., Korra needs to play doctor and produce an antivenom and use it as an antidote? oh boy let's see here.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

Lol. You got a lot of info out of my general last sentence there. I had to go back to see what you were referring to. I believe Korra’s task will be to allay the fears/anger of anti-benders/benders. To show them that their generalization that all (non)benders are bad and must be spirit-bended or imprisoned is not right. And while you’re correct that the snake’s head needs to be cut off, it will start with her changing how both anti-benders and benders who feel superior to non-benders perceive one another. In sucking the venom out you’re still preventing it’s spread throughout the system.

I’m a little confused by what you mean in Korra applying Amon’s values where needed. I think the general idea of Amon, that of change and equality, which he uses to mask his agenda of revenge and ignorant generalization of benders, is what Korra needs to administer not Amon’s specific idealisms, values or judgment.

re: thoughts
Nope, those shots are pretty legit but I think with the short of amount of time Bryke had, they couldn't attempt such a narrative manuever. It'd be kinda sweet if Koh was involved, but the way I'm seeing things I don't think we'll have a Spirit's full involvement gasp-reveal in the final moments here. For instance, Bryke could have it be revealed that (specifically, how you talked about "Aang's soul") Aang overexerted himself before his death somehow, allowing Koh to slip in and manipulate the transference of the Avatar Spirit to "punish" the mortal world. This in turn gave him a window to impliment himself into a human vessel (Amon) and/or have Korra's spirituality suffer (no air) from the Avatar Spirit being passed on "tainted"

LoK thus far has relied on a very realistic framework; falling/rising action is produced moreso from words than actions. And for the show to suddenly start directing it's attention towards the spiritual portion of the lore is kind of jarring, to be honest. No idea if they'll stay consistent with the conflict-tone from the previous episodes (though I am hoping they do). That said, I'm pretty sure Korra is so overpowered because of her personality, which corresponds directly with her "failing" at all things Avatar (it's tougher for her because she has the power, but not the spirit her job demands) - not because of some foul play by the gods. Koh's involvment in Korra's lack of spirituality wouldn't seem to fit in this aforementioned tone. Regardless, whatever it does come down to, I hope they don't make Korra into some super chill monk - we've been there, and done that to hell.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

I hadn’t even thought of Koh! I do believe if they went this route it wouldn’t be all that jarring. Especially in a linear plot format. We all know from season one that the Avatar has ties to the spiritual world. And they’d have a lot of next season to explore this concept. It may be more jarring if this were a lone series onto itself, but it has the backdrop of the first series and the established laws of the Avatar to allow for the spirit-world to play a role in the story. And since the society/time period is based off of a Chinese one, I don’t see it being so much of a stretch since spirituality is usually portrayed as being a part of Chinese culture.

and lol, I heard about that - Tarrlok bloodbending the Councilors hands up, but I really doubt it. I think he's good at what he does (no moon and all) but he'd seriously be god-mode if he could bloodbend without doing the forms required. (I think by this point, Katara is the only one who'd be able to do it sans the appropriate forms.) But damn, it'd be crazy if it was true (and kinda disappointing, like really? This is our Council? A bunch of losers who don't even protest in being violated like that, lmao)

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

LOL. I can’t tell if that was sarcasm as even without the blood-bending playing a role in it they’re already a bunch of loser in being a bunch of yes-men. So I wouldn’t put it passed them to be so terrified of Tarrlok’s blood-bending abilities that they decided to go with what he wants. Which begs the question… are these elected officials? Dear god, I hope they weren’t appointed by Aang. If so, bad Aang! Bad! You know what you did. But I agree. Tarrlok’s character would be diminished of he weren’t just partially right in everything that he said.

No bub, I was thinking the same thing. I like this theory and I'm totally about to fully support it.

Also, I like the prediction that Amon will play the part of Korra's "enemy of her enemy" and ultimately bite the bullet by helping her in the finale. I know Bryke allued to him being "definitely evil", but I wouldn't past them trolling for tweest-effect in the finale where Amon ends up dying for his cause regardless, in some way.

Chou's thoughts --Click here to view--

This could also work towards him going down the path of Zuko too… where he realizes he was wrong. This would help with the Avatar’s task of alleviating anti-bender sentiments. In cases of prejudice, the best way of winning is to get them to see that their extreme way of thinking is wrong and making an ally out of said enemy.

As far as shipping goes, I was actually hoping to have a strong female character that isn’t attached to any form of romance, girl or boy alike. I want it to pass the Bechdel test. And while I do think that Mako is an asshat I can understand his difficulty in deciding between the two. Korra for me anyday, but I can see Asami's allure. But I mean... COME ON! That's not fair! And while Mako's a jerk let's not forget that he grows up to voice uncle Iroh! Ba-dum ch! See what I did there? :runs away:

[sushi.]

I agree with krisk. I don't believe she has learned this ability.

Azula is a little special though. But I thought you had to learn seismic sense to sense the earth particles in metal. And Aang also trained with seismic sense.

[sardns]

I'am i the only one thats disappointed in the makorra development recently?

How can mako act like jerk towards asami. I really bad for both bolin and asami they both got one sided romance.

The only thing that was watchable in episode 9 was aangs flashback and the korra searching.

Hopefully in the creators of avatar will fix mako's character cause he really needs one at this point of the show.

I'm not happy with it either. Korra did the wrong thing by kissing him, but she backed off after that. Mako needs to freaking make up his mind before he makes a bigger ass of himself.