Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 5 and 6

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 5 - The Spirit of Competition
Episode 6 - And the Winner is...

I feel like last week I got way too recappy.  If you want to know what happened in the episode, watch the episode!  The show is really great and this week cemented that for me.  I'm also seeing that this episodes pair off really well.  The first two were both needed to set up the show, the second set of two were basically a two parter, and these two are a complete story as well.  I wonder if the show is written in hour chunks and then split up a bit for broadcast.

I like Pro-Bending now, because I get it. It really is a sport, not a martial art.  Seeing a bunch of matches with penalties called got me behind it. I realize my complaints before were akin to saying "Why doesn't the first baseman just hold the runner down until the ball is caught."  I don't get how the scoring works yet, but I do like that there is blatant corruption in the sport.  I was surprised that our heroes lose because the referees just straight up refuse to be fair.  For a kids show, that's not exactly the kind of life lesson I expected. It makes it feel real, but it's also a perfect metaphor for how Benders behave in society, a metaphor that is not missed when Amon shows up and ruins everyone's day. I'll cut the show a lot of slack for how much things that would work as subtext are just plainly spoken, seeing as the target audience is probably 12-year-olds.  

The love quadrilateral heats up.  I just feel sorry for everyone involved, it's not going to end well.  I feel bad for Bolin, because the whole time he's out with Korra, he's too oblivious to see that she's just hanging out, not going out, with him.  I feel bad for Mako, because he seems legit torn between Korra and Asami, which isn't a nice place to be.  I mean, he's kind of a jerk, but while he has some feelings for Korra, he's being really clear that he's made a choice and he is not stringing her along (though I worry that will change).  I feel really bad for Asami, because she has no idea any of this is going on and is inevitably going to be heartbroken (unless she's a spy playing them all).  I feel the least bad for Korra, because Mako was pretty upfront with her and she totally was trying to manipulate him by going out with Bolin. Come on Korra, I'm trying so hard to like you and you're just not giving me anything.  Though being bad at romance is a lot more relatable than being a spoiled Chosen One.   It's just a nasty nest of teenage hormones and drama.   The highlight for me was when the rival pro-bending team interrupts Bolin and Korra's non-date and Korra doesn't rise to the bait.  Like she totally doesn't explode, I really thought she was going to beat that guy up and instead she just lets her riding Polar Bear Dog growl at him.  Is this character growth already?   Well done, Korra, there's hope for you yet.  Also, while it's played as kind of "Look at this buffon, he's all bluster," the fact that the rival team backs down when confronted with an angry Polar Bear Dog seems pretty much the senisble reaction.  The thing is as big as a car!

We also got more political maneuvering and more Lin, who is rapidly becoming my favorite character.  She's just a straight up, no nonsense badass with a job to do.   Also, I am further confused by Tenzin's age, because Linn (his ex) seems to be about the age I originally thought Tenzin was (late 40ish, probably 50s) while his wife, Pema, looks much younger.  Maybe Lin dyes her hair white, I don't know.  Anyway, while the council, which seems to consist of Tenzin, the ever sensible, Tarrlok, the powerhungry northern Water guy, and the three other dudes who do whatever Tarrlok tells them to do, are all talking about how best to negotiate with terrorists, Lin steps up and says "we don't negotiate with terrorists"  Then Tarrlok maneuvers her into saying "I will personally guaranty everyone's safety at the stadium."   I smell a rat.

Now, look, I have a lot of sympathy for the Equalist cause.  Non-benders don't have political representation, they seem to get murdered by benders a lot, and the statement that every war has been about bending seems to have a lot of truth to it.   But all that said, Amon is straight up a bad guy.  He shows up at the end of the championship game, lobotomizes the winning team, blows up the field and leaves like half of his men to die.  He's cold.

And you know what, Korra really steps up.  I mean, she gets her ass handed to her, but she doesn't even hesitate to jump into the frey and go after Amon in a pretty great kung fu battle.  I mean, it's everything I want in an Avatar fight plus zeppelins.  If you've met me, then you probably know that zeppelins are my favorite thing ever.   And this is kung fu with people swinging from zeppelins.  Not only that, but I'm fairly certain she straight up killed some henchmen.  I won't call it murder because they a did just blow up a stadium, but for a kid's show, they really aren't pulling their punches.
Alas, the combined might of Korra just doing something instead of whining and Lin swinging around kicking ass doesn't win the day.  They end up beaten, with a ton of police zeppelins destroyed. Like 10 zeppelins, and those things can't be cheap. Things are not looking good.

Favorite quote, from a member of the reigning Pro-Bending Champions:
"If you'd like to learn how a real pro bends, I'll give you private lessons."  Dude, are you hitting on the Avatar or trying to taunt her?

Stray observations:

1. "She couldn't be with her true love.  So she rode a dragon into battle, burned down the whole country, and then jumped into a volcano.  Sooo romantic" This may be an American show, but they really have a handle of how Asian fairy tales work.  
2. Amon has a ton of people working with him. Like seriously, there must have been literally hundreds of agents for his plan to work
3. Not enough Asami in these episodes, she's just there to make Korra angry and I wish she had more to do than that
4. Lin is what would happen if Batman Beyond's Barbara Gordon got bitten by a radioactive spider... somebody call Bruce Timm RIGHT NOW, this has to happen
5. Also, anybody going to tell me how Lin got those scars?
6. Pabu, the Fire Ferret, is a badass who saves everyone else through the power of chewing