So to finally actually get this blog off the ground, I’ve decided to do a running review of a tv show. I came to that idea awhile ago, but reviews of other shows I watch regularly never really seemed to work for me. Probably because new shows are on their schedule, but older shows on streaming services are on mine. So we’re doing Legend of Korra, two episodes at a time. Am I putting way too much thought into a kids show? Yes, certainly. 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.
Episode 1 - Welcome to Republic City
Episode 2 - Leaf in the Wind
First of all, Korra writers, “Leaf in the wind”? Really? Too soon people. Too soon.
I feel I need to be upfront and open with a bombshell. I don’t like Korra very much. I’m definitely intrigued by the show, but the character Korra is entitled and unlikeable. She seems to throw tantrums a lot and literally told the police they can’t arrest her because “do you know who I am?” And when she gets frustrated and destroys the training panel thing in the Air Temple, I just thought to myself how much of an entitled, uncaring brat she is.
Now, I get it, a lot of this is because of how she’s been brought up. Raising the Avatar in a secluded compound where the masters of the various Benders come to her seems like a really bad way to do it. First off, you run into the problem that you hit right away with Tenzin, that the masters are busy people and need to do things that master Benders do. Secondly, you’re really robbing the Avatar of an opportunity for growth and education. This doesn’t seem like the world of Aang, where there was a genocide to try to kill him. Korra is safe in this world, the Avatar is a celebrity, not the target of assassination (although I’m sure that will change with the Equalist plotline). She should have visited all the great cities, every nation, been in every grand library and travel to study with the masters. And instead she’s been basically cooped up and forced to process all this information without any application of it.
One of the things I remember liking so much about the Avatar was how your bending influenced how you thought and approached problems. And while they still have that here, it seems that exposing to Korra to all of these different environments would go a long way towards providing her with the tools to process these different points of view and philosophies.
I do appreciate that Korra is older in this show. I mean, she’s probably 16-18, almost certainly under 20, but she’s not Aang’s 10 or 11. It means she’s an adult(ish) and so at least that makes her deciding to participate in pro-Bending a choice made by an adult and not just a spoiled child throwing a tantrum. I could look past those part if she wasn’t constantly destroying this in fits of petulance. Also, it means that when the show invariably turns to romance, it won’t be as uncomfortable as some of the stuff in the first series was. So that’s cool. So is the Polar Bear Dog, but Avatar always had cool animals (if I see a wolf-spider though, I’m out).
Tenzin, meanwhile, doesn’t seem like an Air Bender. He seems way too stubborn and stuck up. But at the end of the first episode, it clicked for me. At some point, he was talking about how he needed to see his father’s dream through for Republic City, and I realized how screwed up he must be. I mean, think of the pressures on him. He is the son of the Avatar, which means it probably didn’t take much for him to always feel a huge burden and overshadowed. Also, since Aang technically really isn’t an Air Bender anymore, Tenzin is the last Air Bender as well, and the responsibility of repopulating the Air Nation is on him. I’m also confused if the pregnant lady is his wife or his daughter, she seems really young. I really thought she was Tenzin’s daughter and the three children were Tenzin’s grandchildren until one of them called him dad.
This brings me to my next question, which is how does this bending work, genetically. Katara’s older brother in the first show was not a Bender, but she was, so it’s obviously not guaranteed that all siblings will be Benders. I don’t know if Katara’s parents were Benders. But Katara and Aang had at least one Bender child (they mentioned he has a sister, I think, so they have more children) who was an Air Bender who appears to have three children, all of whom are also Air Benders. I haven’t seen any other Air Benders, so that could be it? But then we meet the two brothers on the pro-bending team, Mako and other guy, who are brothers but one is a Fire Bender and the other is an Earth Bender. Are their parents one of each? Please, animated children show, I want more genetics. Presented in Punnett squares, if possible.
That brings me to Pro-Bending. I love so much about the idea, but the execution falls flat. The idea behind it is great. Of course you’d have a sport based around bending. The fact that they dress up like American Gladiators only makes it cooler. But it’s ends up just being dodgeball. They stand and throw balls of their element at each other until somebody falls over. This could be so cool. Giant tentacles of water rising out of the water trying to grab them, the ground rippling as the Earth Benders send waves down the playing field, a giant tiger made of fire pouncing on opponents, that sort of thing. Instead they just toss balls at each other. Hopefully it picks up. At least it’s not a sport centered around a single character who just has to do one thing to win the whole game.
Some stray observations -
- Katara and Korra’s parents send her off with their blessing, but don’t think to give her money or supplies? I mean, Korra looked like she didn’t even know what money was
- The Metal Bending cops are basically the dudes from Attack on Titan
- The love triangle setup is so obvious, but it’s a kids show, so I’ll let it slide.
- Seriously though, why does everybody, including the radio announcer, fan over the one guy (I forgot his name), when Mako is obviously cooler, better, and more aloof, thereby making him the obvious favorite?
- If I were Korra, I’d just make an Earth boat and then Water Bend a wave to surf around at like 60 miles per hour, but I guess she just likes swimming?
- Metal Benders, are they a new thing, or are they just a subset of Earth Benders like Blood Benders are a subset of Water Benders?
- Do Air Benders only bend air, or any gas? Can Water Benders bend vegetable oil? Water Benders can make ice, can they make steam? If they do, can Air Benders take control of it? Could an Air Bender just do the Haber Process at will, thereby solving all food problems for the various nations? How about making liquid hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel?
- Are there other Benders? Like Plant Benders? Light Benders? Cat Benders?
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