Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 7 and 8

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 7 - The Aftermath
Episode 8 - When Extremes Meet

So I didn't expect how hard this would be.  See, I'm really enjoying the show, but I don't want to publish one of these three times a day, so I'm forced to throttle my consumption of the episodes.  I'm a binger by nature, but doing it this way forces me to be considerate about the show.  I could write something about episodic television, and probably will, but that's not for here.  Onward!

One thing about this show that I really like is how much happens while still maintaining world building.  While some of the plot points are a little heavy handed and juvenile, I feel like the show really changes every episode.  Relationships rise and fall over a single episode.  Burned bridges stay burned, the status quo is constantly changing.  I think that's why I liked the first wave of Marvel movies better than the second and it's definitely something I loved about earlier season of Arrow.  I hope this show can maintain that momentum, because it can't be easy to constantly be flipping things.

Case in point, in the first episode of this week, we learn it was Asami's father that was the Equalist, because, yet again, a Fire Bender crook murdered his wife (that's 3 incidents involving 4 major characters of Fire Bender murder).  Asami's response to this is great, and we finally see her true character.  She sucker punches his dad, says something to the effect of "Sorry Dad, I'm not down with murder" and takes him down along with Lance Henricksen in like 3 seconds.  I knew she was too cool to be the traitor.  And with that, we've established a lot about her in just a few episodes..  We knew that she was smart and rich.  Now we know she's got backbone and a code.  It was her mother that got murdered by a Bender, but she's still going to be a good person.

And despite being just 7 episodes in, we're already seeing a major shift in power dynamics.  Asami is no longer super rich.  Now Korra is the one helping out and Asami is the one who is jealous.  Though let's be real, Korra was petulant and snide when Asami was being nice.  Asami is a pretty gracious guest despite being completely out of her element.  She even manages to pull off the "I'll just pack a few things" and ends up with a mound of suitcases gag while still being less entitled than Korra.

Lin continues to be my favorite.  She resigns from the police force, officially because she got a bunch of officers captured and Asami's father get away.  But she then vows to seek her own justice "Outside the law".   Just the best.  But with her out of the way, Councilman Tarrlok steps up and puts somebody in charge of the police that seems to be basically his lacky.  Korra tries to call him out on it, but turns it all into being about her. She's the Avatar, so she's a big deal.  Tarrlok rightfully puts her in her place, pointing out that she's just the Avatar in training.  So naturally Korra throws a fit because, gosh darn it, air bending is hard.  Oh no, Korra might actually have to do something difficult once in her life.

I will say this about Korra, while she is a rage monster who as far as I can remember has only made one good decision on the entire show, her bad decisions are often pretty awesome.  I always knew that wizards in the 1930s has untapped potential, but watching a chase between motorcycle riding ninjas and a 1930s style roadster with element slinging people in the back was just about the coolest thing I've seen all week.  There's awesome use of powers, but it's still Asami, the non-bender, who cleans up.  And this wasn't even the best fight of the episode, which comes when Korra just attacks Tarrlok in the capitol building.  Because Korra never met a problem that couldn't be solved through intimidation and punching.  Again, Tarrlok calls her out on this and he's not wrong.  But he's also not a misguided councilman trying to gain power, he is evil.  And a Bloodbender, which goes really poorly for Korra.  Seriously, of all the things on Avatar, Bloodbending is the most horrifying.  She literally becomes a puppet.  Korra has some sort of vision (I think it was a courtroom with an old Aang in it and people being upset) and is put in the back of a truck and sent somewhere.

While I give Korra a lot of crap for being young, impulsive, and really egotistical, I want to make it clear that this isn't a criticism of the show.  She acts in a relatable and consistent way and the show is constantly showing us how she's mishandling the situation.

On top of that, the whole non-Bender curfew/indefinite detention plotline (man a lot happens in an episode in this show) really surprises me.  Legend of Korra hits on political topics strongly for a kids show, and frankly, I think it's handling the whole freedom versus security debate better than Winter Soldier did.   And now to force myself to wait for the next two.

Stray Observations:

1. Apparently Metal Bending doesn't work on pure platinum.  So there is a non-bendable substance.
2. Look, I like Pabu, but stop calling him a Fire Ferret.  He is a Red Panda.  Not just in look, but there was literally a short description of his species and I swear they were just reading the wikipedia entry on Red Pandas.  
3.  "You're pretty, can I have some of your hair?"  I'm calling it now, Tenzin's 5-year old (ish?) son is a serial killer.
4. Although Asami's hair is amazing, I have to admit.  It's always perfect, even during a car chase in a convertable.  Is she a Hair Bender?
5. Korra calls people "knuckleheads."  So she does have some redeeming qualities.
6. This is a show that appreciates a well timed fart joke and I respect that.