Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 3 and 4

I watched the original Avatar: The Last Airbender some time ago and I remember the basics of the world, but not a lot of specifics.  However, I remember liking it very much, so I thought I’d watch the follow up series.  Please no spoilers for this show, but if I’m forgetting something from the original series, feel free to remind me.  I will be spoiling episodes as I go along, naturally, so consider yourself warned.

Episode 3 - The Revelation
Episode 4 - The Voice in the Night

While the first two episodes were solid, these too really pulled me in.  And while I'll admit to having misjudged Tenzin in my last review, I am further in my conviction that Korra has some serious entitlement issues.  However, I am also convinced that the show wants me to feel this way.  The show opens with Korra complaining about having to get up for practice with the pro-Bending team (called the Fire Ferrets, after the team mascot Pabu, who is a Fire Ferret, which is Avatarland for Red Panda).  It's just like Korra, she bullies her way onto the team and then complains about practice.

Anyway, the rest of the team are brothers Mako (the dreamboat) and Bolin (the idiot).  The three of them need to come up with 30,000 money units (I forgot the currency) to enter the championship tournament, which leads to my favorite exchange of these two episodes:

Bolin: Do you have a secret Avatar bank account?

Korra: I got nothing. I've never really needed money, I've always had people taking care of me

Mako: Then I wouldn't say you have nothing

Aww snap!  Mako and Bolin's parents were murdered in front of them by a Fire Bending mugger when they were children and they've spent the time since then scrapping together enough money to do things like get enough dirt to eat or buy diptheria medicine.  Korra is at least self aware enough not to argue back that sometimes she had to have chocolate sauce on her ice cream when she wanted hot fudge.

To make the money, Bolin takes a job from Shady Shin, which is totally not sketchy.  Bolin and Pabu go off and work some "security," and mobsters in this world seem really chill with their hired muscle bringing pets with them.  I'm trying not to get too recappy in these, instead I want them to be mostly reactions, but that's hard to do.  Anyway, things go bad and they get kidnapped by steampunk motorcycle riding ninjas who look like they're from the Court of Owls.

What follows is an awesome fight, the kind of fight I wanted Pro-Bending to be. Mako and Korra show up on the Polar Dog and fight the ninjas.  It seems weird to me, but totally in character, that Korra, despite being a Water Bender by birth/upbringing, immediately goes to Fire Bending as a default reaction.  She's a bit of a hot head and boy does she channel that.

Anyway, the Ninjas wipe the floor with them, despite not being Benders, and hit them with some pressure point stuff that temporarily blocks their ability to Bend.  This is my jam guys.  Like straight up, chi blocking kung fu.

I have to say, I really like the Equalist plotline, because these guys are not wrong.  They're non-Benders who talk about how they're second class citizens and they want equality.   There also seems to be a completely legitimate wing that's just a political movement.  The fact that Amon (voiced by Steve Blum, of Cowboy Bebop fame) and his two chief lieutenants (voiced by Lance Henriksen, of Aliens, and Clancy Brown, of everything really) are basically the terrorist wing of this movement doesn't negate the legitmate grevances aired against Benders.  Also Amon's family was killed by a Fire Bender who also burned Amon's face off.  Turns out, Amon has developed a technique where he basically lobotimizes you with his chi and you're not a Bender anymore.  This stuff gets dark.

The next episode picks up right after this and things just get worse.  We finally meet the city council, which has five members, who I initially thought were one of each Bender and a non-Bender, but turns out that since Water Benders live at the poles, they get two votes.  Equalists are not wrong, guys, non-Benders do not count.   Anyway, there's some political manuevering and because Korra is basically Marty McFly, she can't back down when somebody said she's scared of Amon.  Despite her being obviously terrified of Amon.  So she ends up on a task force to capture Amon.  And it's awesome.  These swat guys have great body armor, the police chief Linn is the baddest of the bad, and they do a really great bending sequence.  Korra calls out Amon publically for a duel, but of course Amon shows up with like 50 of his ninjas, because he's the bad guy.  Come on Korra, you should have seen this coming.  There's the usual "I don't want to kill you/take your Bending" bad guy stuff while Korra is helpless, and the ninjas all vanish.  Tenzin shows up and is actually a really great dad.  I mean, I know he's not her dad, but man, I like Tenzin now.  Korra has a total breakdown, which is fair.

But all of this pales to Mako's adventure.  Because Mako really is just, like, the MAN.  The only way he'd be any better is if he were voiced by Nathan Fillion.  He has the best day.  He gets hit by a moped driven by an incredibly hot woman who feels bad, so she takes him on the perfect date.  First, go to a tailor to get a new, custom suit, then a fancy restaurant, then a personal tour of her fathers state of the art automobile factory.  I thought Mako was the best, but Asami steals the title.  She knows how to treat a hot guy she accidentally ran over with her moped.  And Asami handles Korra really well, trying very hard to be nice and friendly when Korra is obviously super jealous. Also, her father, a wealthy industrialist, agrees to sponsor the team into the championships.  I mean, is Mako the just the luckiest guy who witnessed his parents' brutal murder as a child or what?   Seriously, though, it smells of a setup to me and I worry that Asami is going to turn out to be an Equalist spy.

Stray Observations -

1. I love the 1930s serial bit they use for recaps.
2. Mako gets a job generating electricity at a power plant, so Lightning Bending turns out to be a subset of Fire Bending.  
3. Korra bends steam, and since she's still not able to Air Bend, steam must be part of Water.
4. Shady Shin.  I love that name.
5. Korra has some serious PTSD, but Bolin, who was literally on a stage about to be used as an example of Amon's lobotomy technique, seems pretty ok?
6. Trying to decide if Bolin or Korra are worse at having a crush on a person. Whatever, I really have no ground to criticize here. 
7. Shady Shin gets a second call out.
8. I didn't talk too much about the council here, but I can tell I'm going to like these parts
9. Also, the mystery pregnant lady is definitely Tenzin's wife, not daughter.  I think Tenzin is younger than I thought.

Reader Response!

By request, I've been asked to put up a question or a puzzle in each entry and I love that idea.  This week: make a case for which kind of Bender can bend Paper.  Or is Paper like anti-bending armor?  Tell me what you think!