The new Magic School Bus is not ruining your childhood (but it could)

The trailer for The Magic School Bus Rides Again dropped, you can see it here, and a common sentiment I'm seeing in response is "Netflix has ruined my childhood."  I think this statement requires a lot of unpacking to even get to a point where it is reasonable, and it still doesn't apply to this show anyway.  First off, I get that they mean "ruined a favorite thing from my childhood" not literally "suddenly my childhood, which previously was fairly happy and a decent upbringing, is now one filled with sorrow and abuse."  I get that.  Let's not have the "it's a metaphor" argument.  But I really want to look at what "ruining my childhood" means, because I absolutely think it is possible.  However, what you probably mean is "I was the target audience 20 years ago and now I'm not anymore, and I'm misdirecting my fear of death towards a children's show getting a sequel."  Bam! Children's show to existential crisis in under 160 words, that's gotta be some kind of record, right?

So the first thing you have to overcome in order to ruin something from 20 years ago is the fact that the thing already exists and is unchanged.  Unless you're George Lucas, generally nobody is going back and literally changing the thing, and even then, the original releases of Star Wars still exist and you can still enjoy them.  However, just because the text itself still exists, the subtext can be changed dramatically and this can definitely retroactively ruin things.  But before we get into negative examples, lets look at some positive ones.  How has re-contextualization made things better?

I think the most prominent example in recent pop culture is in Harry Potter, specifically Snape's whole story.  While you could argue that since the whole story was built with Snape's background in mind, it doesn't really apply here, it is a good example of how a more recent work can completely change previous ones.  Before book seven, Snape goes from being a dick to being an outright baddie.  Sure, he's got depth and isn't always on the wrong side of things (he famously did not get along with Umbridge), but all of that seems to stem from his innate dickishness (He doesn't like Umbridge because she took the position he was after).  But after the reveal about how James Potter treated him, what he was doing with Dumbledore, and most importantly, his feelings for Lily Potter, the way Snape treats Harry takes on a whole new dimension.  Snape's actions in the new context change the way we see his every interaction.  Rereading book one is a different experience after that.  This whole idea of re-contextualization is the one argument for how crazy people get about spoilers that I agree with, by the way.  The fact that Character X gets killed in three episodes doesn't change things for me, but the fact that the murderer is a close friend who has been plotting this murder for months does.

So how does this fit in with ruining a childhood?   Well, imagine if Snape's backstory wasn't a key plot point of book seven, but comes out in 20 years in a Harry Potter tie in novel by someone else.  Or worse yet, imagine if that book reveals that Snape never met Lily Potter, but Dumbledore had Gilderoy use his memory magic on Snape to make him think he was in love with her.  Then Dumbledore arranged for Gilderoy to be obliviated too much to cover it up.  Think of how much that changes everything again, and how that changes everything Dumbledore did in the books.  If that's not a character decision you get behind, then yes, you could argue that this book "ruined your childhood."  That totally makes sense to me, I'd probably be pretty angry too.

But to get to that point, a lot of changes happening to Magic School Bus are not this.  For one, Magic School Bus isn't about the story, it's a framing device for teaching kids about science.  The kids aren't really characters, they're just a diverse bunch of kids* meant to give the audience, also kids, someone to identify with and think "I can also learn about science!" and Arnold.  Wishbone never explored the deeper implications of what a world would be like if all dogs are well read, or the inevitable canine uprising once dogs read some Jack London. Because it's not a show about a world in which dogs love literature.  It's a show about literature and exposing children to it that happens to have a dog as a framing device.  Just like the Magic School Bus, a show about science, never really addresses the fact that they live in a world where magic is real.  They do laughingly play off how dangerous, silly the concept is.  Arnold dies because he takes his helmet off in space in like the first episode and is brought back.  This doesn't kick off a PTSD story arch for all the kids in Ms. Frizzle's class, because, and I can't say this enough, it isn't a show about that.

Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that there are people who really treat the show as more akin to "X-Men", "Transformers" and, I don't know, "Game of Thrones" instead of "Mister Rogers", "Wishbone", and "Dora the Explorer".  That these people care deeply about Magic School Bus canon, and whether or not the one kid grew up to be a doctor or something?  I'm having a really hard time putting this lens on, but lets go with it.  How does the new show ruin the original?  A sequel with a different art style doesn't really change anything about the original work, neither does introducing new kids or a new teacher.  That's like saying that somehow "The Batman" cartoon changes how you feel about "Batman: The Animated Series."  The two shows are a world different, and nothing I see in "The Batman" will change how good TAS was.

A big complaint I hear about the show is the new animation style.  I don't think it looks much worse than the original show, just different.  It's the style now.  If you've ever looked at Monet's Water Lilies and wondered "How could something this beautiful cause riots and make people angry," well, now you know.  All the people who grew up on Ruysch's Flowers in a Vase were like "Impressionists are RUINING MY CHILDHOOD.  VAN GOGH ISN"T CANON!!!!111!!!"  If they did a new Wishbone series that was animated instead of live action, or maybe had a different dog (like a Corgi) hosting, would that ruin the original show?  Or would that just be a sequel show?  We can just make new things, even things that are spin offs of old shows, without the old show suddenly being ruined.

They could ruin the original Magic School Bus.  There could be a flashback to how Ms. Frizzle was brought up in a fundamentalist family and denied science before having some sort of turn or whatever.  Some heavy handed attempt to try to give her narrative weight or something.   Or she's a witch, Liz is her familiar and the Bus is a Dark God giving her powers, obviously.  Boy, would that change the original show.  Field trips are less an educational experience and more a crucible to weed out the weak children so only the strongest and smartest are sacrificed to The Nameless Yellow, The Bus of Madness.

My point is that a sequel has a very difficult time ruining the original.  The worst episodes of Star Trek Voyager do not really change my opinion of Next Gen or DS9.  It's when you start messing around with prequels or "X was actually Y the whole time" that things get messy and very different.  Hell, "Battlestar Galactica" managed to have the main twist be "The weird, mystical being that claims to be an angel was a weird, mystical angel the whole time, you just didn't believe me" and people were upset about ruining the show.  So, from watching the Magical School Bus Rides Again trailer, here's what we know: the style is different and the target is a young audience.  It isn't a gritty reboot, it isn't taking a beloved childhood show and trying to target the original audience that is all grown up now.  If you want that, you can watch Michael Bay's "Transformers" and "TMNT" movies, to see how great those things turned out.  It's a sequel to a good kids' show aimed at kids, and a new generation will love them.  You're perfectly fine not liking it, you're well within your rights not to watch, hell, you can even complain about it if it does things poorly.  But don't say it ruined your childhood or the original, because the original still exists and you still have that.  Engage with the new thing in the proper context.  Don't become the "well in my day..." type.   Because as much as you struggle against the current, beating on ceaselessly into the past, you're being carried into a future.  A future where something special and educational for you is being reimagined as something special and educational for the next generation.  We might have a better future than past, celebrate it.


*And lets take a moment to shame all the people out there complaining about how the new show is too diverse and SJW-y.  The original show was just as diverse and that's a good thing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2  was fun, I enjoyed it.It did the things Marvel does well very well, still did all the things that I don't like so much about Marvel, and clocks in at a solid B+ movie. Like most of the recent Marvel movies, it loses me in the third act.  Which is unusually frustrating in this movie because the reasons it loses me are things the movie goes out of it's way to avoid in the first two thirds of the movie.   I'll have a spoiler part of the review at the very end, but keep the rest free.

Random thoughts on Legion

Guess I'm going X-men heavy these two weeks, which is actually pretty good.  The X-men are huge, in comics at least, but they've never been my main thing.  Sure, I like them, I've read some, but keeping up with the X-men is damn near impossible.  There's at least 20 different titles, a convoluted history of alternate timelines, future selves returning, past selves living with their current selves for awhile, constantly changing allegiances, a whole bunch of space stuff, and everybody returning from the dead.  All of this, I think, is part of the make up of Legion. This brief history of how confusing the X-men are is necessary for understanding the show, anyway.  This is going to be a weird review.

Logan review

Logan is exactly the kind of Superhero movie I want more of.  That's not to say it's perfect, but it does so much right that I can easily overlook its flaws.  It is a solid action movie that holds up on it's own, remains internally consistent, and certainly presents a lot of action that is both thrilling and unique.  The characterization is solid, the acting is far better than it needs to be in a movie of this type, and I enjoyed it a lot.  All of this is completely removed from the fact that it ties into the X-men, how it interprets the characters, or any of that.  This movie stands up on its own. If that's all you need and want to avoid some minor spoilers (I'll do my best to keep major points out of this), stop reading now and go see it.  But beyond holding up as a good action movie, the way it ties into other Superhero movies and the way it manages to capture the core of these characters is really amazing.

Blog Update

Hey loyal reader(s?),  Sorry for the month and change of nothing.  I got distracted and put this on hold.  Some things had to get done and others were just things I wanted to do.  I want to write more, it's not like I have a readership base that's demanding content, I'm doing this for me.  But it's also work, like painting my miniatures (Nerd!) or fixing my house, which takes a lot more effort than Mass Effect or catching up on The Adventure Zone.  It's laziness, really, and I know nothing kills a budding journal faster than missing entries.  

So, to stem this tide, I'm going to lay out a schedule for posts.  It's a promise to my reader(s?) and a challenge to me to get things written and get things posted.

Mondays - Starting 5/15, the return of The Legend of Korra, with Jacob! starting with the season 3 premiere.

Thursdays - When Applicable - review of the latest movie/show I saw that I have something to say about.  First post will be this Thursday, 4/27, with my review of Logan.  Timely, I know!  I can't promise more often than that, I don't know how much I'll watch, but I have stuff for at least the next month.

Other sporadic updates will be posted.

Thanks all, I hope I can stick to this.

Jacob

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 25 and 26

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 25 - Darkness Falls
Episode 26 - Light in the Dark

These episodes really nailed it and if I could tell you why, I'd be successful writer.  Today is all about looking at these episodes versus lasts seasons finale and figuring out why this one worked so well despite being things that shouldn't work, while the last season finale didn't work for me, despite being things that should.

The first thing I want to talk about is the portrayal of magic in film, in general, and how it can be very difficult to make something magical dramatic, because it's really hard to relate to.  In a physical contest, establishing dominance is pretty straightforward and immediately makes the stakes understandable and high.  Think of Linda Hamilton standing next to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first Terminator.  Even if the Terminator were not a robot, but just a dude, the size and muscle difference alone immediately makes you view Sarah Connor as the underdog.  Jackie Chan does a similar thing in most of his movies where he starts all of his fights from the ground, with the bad guy standing over him.  Visually, you immediately relate that he has a lot to overcome.  Even if it's not a fight, but just an extraordinary feat, it's easy to relate to, such as in Batman Begins, when Christian Bale has to curl Liam Neeson back onto the glacier.  That just looks painful, physical, and amazing.  Compare that to Professor X in a psychic duel, and it's a guy standing there, staring intently.  It all comes down to the set up and the actors for the viewers to really understand how difficult something is.

I bring this up because psychic battle is pretty much all the finale of season 2 is, compared to season 1 which had a lot more physical fighting.  Sure, they throw elements at each other, but it's easier to follow who is winning and who isn't.  But yet that finale left me bored and disappointed, while this one had me excited, emotional, and invested.

The first thing this season got right, I think, is they gave the consequences more time to breathe.  In season 1, Korra goes from being stripped of her power to developing Airbending in a scene.  In season 2, they devote just as much time solely to the Avatar ancestors being stripped away.  It's a much more powerful scene and not the only consequence of the fight.  They spend a whole episode on developing this failure, so you really feel helpless.

Secondly, there's a lot more going on, but it's all focused around the big giant psychic battle, so you feel the stakes because every character is displaying them.  It isn't just Korra versus Ammon, its the whole gang filling different roles and I'm worried for all of them.  The Aang Gang (what I'm going to call Aang's family from now on) and Mako and Bolin are in a losing battle that you can tell is a last stand.  They're willing to die for whatever Korra is doing, so you know it matters.  Jinora is doing some spiritual stuff that while it really just amounts to glowing lights, had me convinced she was going to die or be trapped in the spirit world or something.  And Korra is a giant fighting another giant.

The third thing is that the ending is way more satisfying than season 1 because Korra actually smites that guy.  Season 1 ended with revealing Ammon as a fraud, but he escapes Korra. Korra doesn't really defeat him so much as drive him off.  Where as here, there is a full on vaporization punch.

Finally, and possibly the biggest, is that things really changed this finale.  That's something that bugs me a lot in so much modern media.  What we often get is a story arc of Status Quo -> Something Bad -> Hero restores Status Quo.  That's how basically every Marvel movie since the Avengers has been, so much modern television (CW superhero shows, I'm looking at you), and the first season of Korra went.  Sure there are little changes, like Korra gained Airbending, but because she is the Avatar, we always knew she would.  But now, Avatarland is open to the Spirit World permanently, and that is a huge and scary change.  Korra appears to have grown as a person, Jinora is some super spiritualist, and who knows what the political fallout of everything is going to be.  I'm really looking forward to the next season.

Stray Observations
1. I lost my notes from when I watched the episodes earlier this week, so none of these this week.  Sorry!

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 23 and 24

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 23 - Night of a Thousand Stars
Episode 24 - Harmonic Convergence

I'm kind of at a loss for what to say about these episodes.  I have a lot of little things to touch on, so today's entry is rather scattered.  They're very exciting, definitely building  towards a cool finale, but they don't really give me a lot more information about anything.  That's not a fault, it's simple story structure.

All the background details need to be in play already for the payoff to work, adding a crucial bit of information now would be cheating.  To keep things Avatar-y, the best analogy I can think of is a Shymalan movie.  The Sixth Sense worked because all the details were already there from that very early shot of Bruce Willis sitting alone with his depressed wife, not talking.  Everything you need to know about the rest of the movie is right there, you just don't have the framework to do that.  The character building and story of that film lead you to the correct interpretation.   It's a lot less stark here, where I don't think there's going to be a sudden twist, but it's still basic structure.  If they reveal now, out of the blue, for instance, that's there's a third major spirit force, it'd feel cheap.

There were some things I looked into because of these episodes.  Varrick really likes false flag operations, for instance.  A False Flag is where you pretend to be your enemy and do something to yourself, so that you get the political backing needed to go to war.  It comes from an old Naval tactic of flying the flag of the wrong nation on your ship to identify yourself as an ally.  Real world examples abound, but also conspiracy theories surround every major attack in the last 200 years.  A Google search lead me to some pretty scary places in just a few links and I'm really not interested in talking about ones that are pretty well established.  It's just depressing and it really doesn't add to the show in anyway.

Bolin's propaganda film is another thing that I thought was interesting, but again, I didn't find a line that really ties in with Korra.   Yes, those kind of serials existed, yes, they are even more ridiculous than portrayed in the show, but they are also, at this point, embarrassingly racist, misogynistic, and not for a good cause.  The film works in the show because Unalaq is literally trying to alter the fabric of reality.  Unalaq claims he's doing it for good reasons, but the show seems pretty clear cut that he's been driven mad by the dark spirit.  I give it credit for making him not evil for evil's sake, but he still is thoroughly corrupted.  Maybe it will surprise me and seasons 3 and 4 are all about adapting to the new spirit infested world, but I seriously doubt it.

Space is really something I get excited about, as most people who know me already know.  So seeing things like the whole solar system is great.  Avatarland is definitely not Earth.  8 major bodies make the syzygy that forms the Harmonic Convergence, although it's possible there are others that are not pictured.  The recent discovery of the Trappist system shows that you can jam a lot of planets into a small place.  I am fairly confident in my understanding of orbital resonance to say that an 8 planet syzygy as shown on the show is impossible in our universe, the system would not be stable and some of the planets would be ejected.  But, this is a magic world, so let's ignore.   The 3rd and 7th planet have rings and they get progressively larger as they get further from the sun.  Or perhaps its a trick of perspective and they're all the same size or something, the angle is not great.  However, that's a very different system from ours.  Also, as there are no rings visible from the ground, we know Avatarland isn't on the 3rd planet.  It does have a moon, though, and my early blog entry where I questioned if the world is round and how gravity might work is answered.  Despite the presence of magic and spirits, gravity appears to be generally the same.

However, unlike last week, where I think looking at how long 10,000 years really is helps to appreciate how long Avatars have existed and how much society must have changed under the guidance of an Avatar, I don't know that looking at the astronomy of Avatarland really helps the show any.  It's a magic, astrological plot point.  I could go off on Pluto's status as a planet or orbital ratios, but it doesn't meet my nebulous criteria of being related to the show.  It's just a thing that is happening.

One theme of this show that I do want to talk a bit is family strife.  I mentioned this towards the end of last season, when Amon and Tarrlok ended up being brothers, but it really continues to be a huge theme.  The brothers Unalaq and Tonlaq are ready to kill each other and I think they only reason they haven't is because this is a kids show.  Unalaq's children, creepy as they may be, are seriously having second thoughts about following him and the show seems to be further exploring the concept of this familial bond being tested.  How far does loyalty to your father go?  Korra had hers tested earlier this season when she sided with Unalaq against Tonlaq,    This theme of internal family fighting pervades everything and I'm not sure how to read it.  Tenzin has a very stable and solid family, his bickering with his siblings is just standard sibling stuff, it isn't anything that's going to lead to conflict.  So what do we make of this?  I don't know, I'm really interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.  Is it just a way to make the drama more intense, personal, and Shakespearean?

Stray Observations

1. I can't decide if I like Ginger or not.  I liked her when she was putting her foot down on Bolin for being a dope, but then she immediately reverses when Bolin is a hero.  
2. The First Lady is named Buttercup?
3. Varrick really gets away with it with everything, doesn't he?  I mean, he's in prison, but it's a palatial cell and he keeps all his comforts and assistant.  Sometimes Avatar just kind of skirts over some really hard hitting commentary, like how rich people never really get punished.
4. Amnesia making the break up go away?  Dammit Mako, Asami is going to be rightfully mad.  I really hope they have a conversation, I hate plot points that revolve around two people simply not having a conversation.  See, Marvel's Civil War (comic or movies).  Mako and Korra really never sat down while on the boat and talked out what she forgot?
5. Korra is the angriest air bender ever.  They're supposed to be all calm and stuff

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 21 and 22

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 21 - The Guide
Episode 22 - A New Spiritual Age

So these episodes maintain the weirdness of the Spirit World, but in the standard animated style.  It's less cool, but still, I really dig the Miyazaki-ness.  Especially the second episode which is all in the Spirit world.  And while I don't have much to say about the real world stuff going on, it is interesting.  I'm really glad that non-Korra characters get focus when Korra isn't around them.  I don't know exactly how Mako, Bolin, and Asami are going to line up with the spiritual war, but I feel like there's a good payoff coming.

However, that's not really the topic of today.  What really jumped out at me with these episodes was the statement (that admittedly they had made before, but it never really clicked), that the first Avatar, Wan, was 10,000 years ago.  Since then, there has been a continuous string of Avatars. That's a big number and I want to put that in perspective.

There are a number of fairly old institutions in the real world.  The first that many probably think of is the Roman Catholic Church, which is definitely old, but exactly how old is a subject of much debate.  It'd be hard to claim that the Christianity that existed before Emperor Constantine was "Roman" in any way, there have been a number of schisms, reformations, splits, and Anti-Popes.  As To try to carve out a direct line of who was the Pope at any given time is never going to be agreed upon by all scholars, but the last time there was an Antipope was 1449.  I think it's fair to say that the modern institution of the Papacy really only dates back to the Council of Trent in 1545, making it less than 500 years old.   However, if we accept the official lineage of the Papacy, and that the institution goes all the way back to St. Peter (who, while the leader of the early Christian Church, was several hundred years removed from anybody being given the title "Pope"), that still puts the Catholic Church at just under 2000 years old and the number of Popes at 266.  So we're one fifth of the way to Avatar Age, and we're already at 266.  As we'll see, though, the number of Popes is pretty high, largely due to them being appointed at an old age and not holding the position for a long time.  Meanwhile, the Avatar is usually "found" at the age of 16, so I'd expect the average life span to be much longer.  Although both positions seem to be risky in regards to war and assassination.

The next oldest institution I can come up with is the Imperial House of Japan.  There is solid evidence of a continuous line all the way back to Emperor Kinmei in 539 AD.  This is the oldest "incontrovertible" organization we can get, historically.  Which means that we can track the 94 Emperors of Japan for the last 1500 years.  It's only a tenth of the way back as the Avatar, but those numbers would imply that there have been about 600 Avatars since Wan.    However, the Imperial House claims that Kinmei was the 29th of his line.  Emperor Sujin is the earliest that has some evidence for, though the actual dates of his reign are unknown and estimates vary by several hundred years.  However, if we give the official story the benefit of the doubt, he came to power in 97 BCE.  But even he isn't the oldest of the Yamato Family, there are 9 who game before him, allegedly.  Again, evidence is in short supply and converting dates to a modern calendar is also not an exact science, so while Emperor Jimmu may or may not have existed, there is also debate over what century he lived in.   However, if we go with the official family tree date, he came to power in 660 BCE, making the Imperial House of Japan 2677 years old, containing 125 Emperors in that time, averaging a reign of 21 years.  But that's still only a fourth of the way to 10,000 years old.  And I think this is our winner, here, for real world, probably true examples.

There are two organizations that I want to mention, even though it's a stretch.  The first is Imperial China.  Traditionally, Imperial China is thought to have started with the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE and go till the Revolution in 1911, putting it at about 2100 years old.  However, this time period was not as stable as the Yamato Dynasty in Japan, there were many civil wars and uprisings and different dynasties.  But, if we want to just get as old as we can, the oldest claims of dynastic rule in China are the Xia dynasty, dates back to 2070 BCE.  It should be noted that there is no evidence that they existed older than 1000 BCE, and they may have been a legend invented to legitimize later dynasties.  This highlights very well the fact that even just 4000 years ago is so colored in myths and mystery.  The last organization is the Freemasons, which some claim practice rituals today that were developed when they built the Great Sphinx of Giza, which was about 2558 BCE, and would put them at 4500 years old.  There is no evidence to support this claim.

So the fact that Avatarland has had one contiguous institution, the Avatar, for 10,000 years, is really incredible.  If we use Japan as an example, we can guess there have been about 500 Avatars in that time.   Culture has evolved in Avatarland from feudal city-states made of what looks like adobe to full on nation states with fairly modern construction.  Technology has gone from pre-bow and arrow to radio, electricity, and airplanes.  Avatarland is, basically, about 80 years behind modern Earth.  But the thing is, they started way ahead of us.

What did Earth look like 10,000 years ago?  In 8000 BCE, glaciers still covered much of northern North America, at least all the way down to Wisconsin and New Hampshire.  England was still connected to mainland Europe and Alaska was connected to Russia.  Civilization was just kicking off.  Agriculture was just starting in certain areas, though most people were still hunter-gatherers.  Sheep were domesticated but cows were not. The whole concept of blades was in the process of being invented.  The largest "city" was likely Mureybet in Syria, with a peak population of 500, though about 1,000 years later, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, would be the first city hit 1,000 people and some argue by 6,500 BCE, it hit 10,000.  During that 1500 year time period, writing and pottery would be invented.  It would be about 1000 years before a permanent settlement existed in Sumer, and another 1000 before Egypt or Babylon were a thing.  It's at this time that human civilization on Earth looked like the civilization depicted as 10,000 year ago Avatarland.  So Avatarland had about a 4,000 year head start on Earth.  It really makes you wonder what happened in all that time.  Yet through it all, there was always an Avatar.

Stray Observations

1. There's a horn or a flute or something played by airbending the air through it instead of blowing it.  This show still surprises me with it's creativity.
2. I would love for somebody knowledgeable in the field to talk to me about the fashion of Avatarland.  I want to comment on how the Southern Water Tribe wears what looks like a Sexy Eskimo Halloween costume, while the Norther Water Tribe has tons of layers and those really weird vest/caplets that actually would be pretty sexy if that was the top.  Anyway, my point is I feel like there is something up with all this, but I don't know enough about it.
3. Tenzin goes from being really understanding and great to a stubborn ass and back again so fast.
4. Lin, you used to be my favorite, what happened to you?  Did you forget that Mako saved your life a bunch?  Did you forget that time you busted him out of jail?  Did Korra steal your memories?
5. A place that feeds off of Korra's emotions is a real horrifying place.
6. 8 planets in their solar system.  
7. I don't bring up the music enough, it really is beautiful and fitting.  

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 19 and 20

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.

Episodes 19 + 20 - Beginnings Parts 1 and 2

So, after an unavoidable delay, I'm back and with two fantastic episodes.  There's so much to talk about I don't know where to start.  We're given a two parter about the origins of the Avatar and I love this stuff.  These episodes were tailor made for me.

First off, I love a good origin story.  That may be surprising to some who have heard my opinion on certain superhero movies (if I have to see Batman's parents get shot one more time...), but it's because those origin stories are so played out.  The new Spider-man movie better not have a whole thing with the radioactive spider, because EVERYBODY KNOWS, seriously.  He's Spider-man, move on to him Spider-manning.  But when it's not horribly saturated into my very soul, an origin story is fantastic.  Dr. Strange was fun because we haven't seen it a thousand times before and also because it's a fun (if very tropey) origin.  It also lends itself well to making the character interesting.  If the main character has to learn how powers work and what they  can and cannot due, that's a character arc that writes itself.  It's probably why so many superhero movies resort to origin stories; it's the easiest self-contained storyline to portray.  I think it's definitely part of the so-called "Superman Problem."  Once he's established as the most powerful hero, where do you go?

But here is where both Avatar shows really shine.  Yes the Avatar is more powerful than anyone else, that's a premise of the show, but every Avatar we meet is flawed and very human.  Aang is a coward, Korra is an entitled brat, and Yuan, who we meet in this episode, is a thief.  He steals firebending from a giant Lion Turtle and goes to live with the forest spirits in the Princess Mononoke-verse.  He's just struggling to survive most of the time, we don't even get a fancy character flaw like "entitled" because his struggles are so primal; food, water, not getting eaten.  This man is not a hero.  It reminded me a lot of Disney's Aladdin, from the giant cat head granting powers to the way Yuan acted.

These episodes answered so many of my questions.  Bending was originally a gift from the powerful Lion Turtles, which are beings the size of cities that are basically really powerful spirits.  It was originally loaned out to people for weeks at a time, but eventually became a gift that is passed down.  I wonder exactly how the terms of this arrangement work, but I feel like genetics is probably the closest way we have to modeling it.  You can't mix them, though, because a normal human can't do it. And that's where we hit the main thing I'm excited about.  We now know the meaning behind the name of the show.   The Avatar can wield all the elements because they are literally an Avatar of the Spirit of Balance in Life.  Is everything explained?  No, but enough is that I'm very happy.  Sometimes you just want the answer to be "magic", making everything rational detracts from the work (see: Midichloreans).  And these two episodes put everything together in a context that is very satisfying and fits the show.  

Lastly, this episode did open up some interesting new questions about the ecology of Avatarland.  First off, we clearly see that there is some sort of global cooling going on.  The North and South Pole in the past have no snow or ice and the water tribe appears to be somewhere tropical.  They still call these areas the "poles" however, so we know this isn't a case like our world, where Antarctica used to be a jungle because it was located tropically.  The fact that the poles are anchored in place by dimensional portals would imply that plate tectonics is probably not a factor in Avatarland.  

Animal populations also would be strange, to us.  I have yet to see any animals that are native to both poles (I also haven't thought to look for it before), but seeing as the spirit portals are right next to each other in the spirit plane and animals wander through them freely, I would guess there is a lot of shared species between the North and South Poles.  What I am left confused with is the status of what constitutes a spirit versus an animal.  One of the talking animals that was definitely exhibiting spirit powers was like a giant Ferret Monkey?  But the Cat-deer (who is my new favorite creature in Avatarland) was definitely just an animal despite hanging out with spirits.  We also know that certain animals, like Air Bison, have a natural ability to manipulate elements, despite being animals.  Although, just about every animal we've run into on the show demonstrates a level of intelligence and a comprehension of human language well beyond even the smartest dog in our world.  These ecological questions will require further study.

Stray Observations:

1. The art style for these episodes was gorgeous.  Truly original and different and I want more like it.
2. I find it interesting how both of non-main character Avatars we've met were Firebenders.  I think the show is making a conscious effort to show that there are balanced, non-crazy Firebenders, despite the fact that they were the bad guys of the first show and have murdered the parents of just about everybody on this one.
3. A lot of fun with the spirits, it's hard to believe this is an American show sometimes.  
4. In all the generations and societal upheaval of the world changing drastically since the first Avatar, the Air nation kept the head tattoos.  I wonder what they mean.

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 17 and 18

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 17 - Peacekeepers
Episode 18 - The Sting

These were some good, solid episodes that featured our heroes attempting to violate the Geneva Convention in a variety of ways and we learn that war profiteering is not as easy as it looks.  I want to stay away from recapping, as I say nearly every week, but I still have to comment on events in the episode and these two episodes really kind of barreled through some major events.  Let's touch on a few.

The biggest is that I still don't understand what the Southern Water Tribe is.  As I said last week, there is definitely a solid, genetic basis for the different Nations.  I'm not advocating that they need to be as separated as they are (and judging by Bolin and Mako, there don't seem to be too many issues with intermingling, it just doesn't happen much), but there are real, definable differences between them.  However, the two water tribes are essentially the same.  So it's really weird how they are handled.

The two tribes interact in very contradictory ways.  People freely move between the two.  Tonlaq, the legitimate heir to leadership of the Northern Water Tribe, is accepted and respected as the leader of the Southern Water Tribe, so there doesn't seem to be any cultural bias against Northerners in the South.  They seem pretty intermingled.  On the other hand, Tonlaq is a criminal in the North and exiled, so he just moves to the South.  And he doesn't change his name or anything.  Sure, his past was hidden from Korra, but it doesn't seem to have been hidden intentionally so much as just something they didn't bring up.  So either the South doesn't recognize the sentence of Exile or Tonlaq was exiled specifically to the South, where he became the leader anyway.  This all seems very strange and to imply that the North and South are two distinct political entities.  However, this also isn't the case, as the North technically rules the South and they have one military between the two of them.   Korra going to the new President for help is rejected because the Republic doesn't want to get involved "in internal matters."  Also, the whole conflict is being described as a civil war.  But, if the North and South really are one entity in the eyes of the Republic, why did they each get a vote when the council existed?  The Southern Water Tribe somehow manages to be both the oppressed minority of the Water Nation, while also being richer, more industrialized, and controlling a disproportionate amount of international political power.

Varrick's propaganda film seems almost unnecessary, because with the exception of the President, everyone is already on the South's side.  Even the police, with the exception of Mako, immediately just assume that the North is responsible for a terrorist attack on the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center.  The very existance of that building, especially considering how large and fancy it was, really make you wonder how the Southern Water Tribe got into this situation in the first place.  This is all ignoring that the richest man in the whole of Avatarland is Varrick, who is a pretty staunch Southern Water Tribe member (primarily because it seems like the loose regulations on business are what allow him to be rich).  And wealth opens so many doors.  Why doesn't Varrick just hire a bunch of mercenaries?  Why all the ruses and the double crosses?

Speaking of double crosses, these episodes left me sorely disappointed in both of my favorite characters.  Linn's great return is marked by her just being angry all the time, with little justification.  I understand Mako is a new police officer and just a beat cop, not a detective, but he was instrumental in uncovering and defeating the Equalist conspiracy, not to mention getting Linn her powers back.  And, as much as I hate to be the one to say it (though am impressed that Korra didn't say it), Korra is the Avatar.  Seriously Linn, why are you suddenly so antagonistic instead of helpful like you were last season?  Mako knows his stuff and has good instincts, I'm pretty sure you said that about him when you busted him out of prison.  Remember that?  You literally broke him out of jail and seem to have completely forgotten.   And Asami, you're way better than this, why are you trying to be a war profiteer?  Maybe the reason your company is failing now is because you're still making anti-Bender tanks for your father's war that isn't going to happen.  Have you considered turning all that power into making something useful?  How about instead of using that technology to fight Benders, use it to make normals into Benders?  Reclaim Equalism as a term describing raising Non-Benders up, not tearing Benders down.   That'd be a great way to use your stuff, not selling tanks to whichever side you like in a civil war.

Which brings me to my last point.  Korra, I get it.  Your brash, entitled, and don't think ahead too much.  You make mistakes, you get tunnel vision, and you're angry because this is war is personal.  But surely even you can understand that what you do in this situation is appeal for popular support, get the Republic on your side, provide aid to the South, and continue with the charge that Unalaq is not the legal ruler, but usurped power from Tonlaq.  What you don't do is try to stage a coup of the entire Republic.  Going behind the President's back and getting General Iroh to help you is straight up treason.  I can't believe Iroh was willing to even entertain the idea, but considering he walked into every Equalist trap, I guess he's not really the brightest Firebender in the Fire Nation.  At this point, I feel like this show is leading to Korra just instilling an Avatocracy and becoming the God-Emperor of Avatar-land.  

Stray Observations 

1. Unalaq doesn't even bat an eye at his daughter saying she has a husband.  There was never a wedding and to my knowledge, Unalaq didn't know anything about this.  What kind of screwed up family is this?
2. Peaceful protests being used as a cover for false flag operations and pinning violent riots on the other political party?  Why you gotta be so topical I can't cover all of it, Korra?
3. Mako returns to my favorite character status, by being the only character in both episodes to not commit war crimes.  Also, him calling out Korra was great. "What is it with you and sides?"
4. Korra, pretty sure going to his place of work and destroying his desk counts as you dumping him, not the other way around.
5. I do like the propaganda film, it's a pretty fun side story.
6. A whole episode without Korra was actually nice because it made me miss Korra.  And while I'm not thrilled at an amnesia plotline, I'm deeply intrigued that for the first time ever, Korra's instinctual response to a threat wasn't Firebending, it was Airbending.  That has to be important, right?

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 15 and 16

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 15 + 16 - Civil Wars Part 1 + 2

I've gotten pretty recappy, which is pretty much the opposite of what I want to do and this blogs mission statement.  There's a lot of reasons for that, the chief is that recaps are easy and take less time or thought.  But that ends now.   It's time to dive deep into Avatarland and this episode is a great place to catch up on that since what happens is very straightforward, the Northern Water Tribe invades the Southern Water Tribe.  A resistance is formed, crushed, and re-established, everybody turns out to be corrupt and Korra realizes that she's very easily manipulated.

This episode raises a lot of questions about the political situation of Avatarland.   We know we have four "nations", the Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, being one Nation with two Tribes.  To keep them allied, we have Republic City and a council of a representative from each nation except Water, which got two.  But more on that later.   The combined Republic has it's own military, which seems to be mostly Firebenders from what I saw.  I do not recall any Water or Earthbending going on when they fought the Equalists.

What I do find very interesting is that the Northern Water Tribe has a significant and advanced military force of its own.  Does this mean that all the Nations have their own military as well?  The Northern Water Tribe invading the South would sort of be the equivalent to the USA sending an occupying force to Puerto Rico or Guam, if I understand the political situation (both the real world and the Avatar land situations) correctly.  I believe the South is not an independent nation, but then why did they have a representative on the Republic Council?  Are they independent or not?

This leads me to my main point, which is The Equalists are totally right.  If we look at the Republic Council as something akin to the United Nations or, probably a better parallel, the European Union, we see a number of issues right away.  If Northern and Southern Tribes, despite being one Nation, though quite different culturally, get two representatives, why don't other Nations split to get more power?  Surely there's enough different Earth or Fire Nation cities where each could claim to be a different tribe and load the council?   Furthermore, we see the standard problem of representation by population versus group.  Is it fair that the considerably smaller Air and Southern Tribe have the same number of votes on the Council as the larger Northern, Fire, and Earth Nations?  This is why the EU has the Parliament and Council after all.  Plus there is the the European Commission which is a different body altogether and tasked with representing Europe as a whole, as opposed to the other two bodies which are supposed to be more in line with the interests of individual member nations.  My point is these sort of Confederation governments are complex and representation is a hard thing to nail down in any circumstances.  And the Republic Council is far from normal because they have Benders and Non-Benders.

Tenzin ends up being the point that really proves the Equalist cause to have legitimate underlying principles.  I didn't really bring this up in the first season because I thought the Air Nation consisted of literally just Tenzin, his wife, and three children.  Representation of the Air Nation's interest would have to fall to an adult and his wife married into the Nation, so it seemed natural that Tenzin would be the representative.  But now that we see Air Temples have been rebuilt and there are plenty of non-Bender citizens at other locations, I cannot help but wonder why any of those people could not be the Council member while Tenzin attends to other duties that are required of him, such as training other Airbenders, a job that Tenzin literally is the only person capable of doing.  It seems it was a requirement that Council members be Benders.  The position is only available to people who are born with a certain trait, so it sounds like the term racist should apply.   But race is really complicated in Avatarland.

See, unlike in the real world, where race is biologically largely irrelevant (some disease susceptibilities is about it, I think), race in Avatarland has some serious implications genetically.  See, Waterbenders have Waterbender children, Firebenders have Firebenders, and so on, while the Avatar is outside of the realm of genetics and firmly in the magic/spiritual side of the world.  Besides the Avatar, there is no known case of multiple style Benders.  We have a limited sample set, but enough to figure out some part of how this works.  Aang and Katara had three children, a Waterbender, an Airbender, and a non-Bender. All of Tenzin's children with a non-Bender are Airbenders.  Katara was born to two non-Bending parents.  Korra's father is a Bender, but not her mother (I assume, I haven't seen her bend)*.  So from this sample set, we can conclude that Bending is probably very similar, genetically, to Blood Type.  I like this analogy because we have positive and negative blood types as a parallel to the specialty Bendings that not every Bender of a type can do (Only some Earthbenders can Metalbend, Fire and Lightningbending, etc). So a non-Bender being a member of a particular nation is still very important because that non-Bender can only have a particular type of Bender child.  So a non-Bender member of the Earth Nation is still a carrier of Earthbending.  So there is a weird intersection of personal identity going on here, where a non-Bender is both definitely a member of a Bending Nation, but also a non-Bender and therefore has more in common, physically, with non-Benders of another Nation.  Hey, my biologist friends out there, could controlled breeding eventually lead to Bending going extinct?  Not that I'd advocate that, just curious.

The term I want to use for discrimination against non-Benders is "ableist."  Bending is a genetic condition, one that is uncommon but not too rare.  But it definitely would change how one views the world and themselves.  So what we have here is essentially the inverse of X-Men, where the powerful mutants are running the government and the normal people have little political representation.  But we also have a situation where people's political and cultural identity is tied to their familial relations to the mutants powertype.   You have a group that is cross-culturally oppressed, to varying degrees, yet that group is a fundamental, yet integral part of society and the perpetuation of that group.  While I see some parallels to Feminism, there is a level of objective capablity that a Bender hsa over a non-Bender which doesn't truly exist between the sexes.  I mean, yes, there are, generally, distinct physical differences between men and women, but I don't believe that compares to the ability to make fireballs with your mind**.  Generally, "ableism" applies to discrimination against people who are handicapped, and that might be a fair designation for a non-Bender.  They are certainly less capable than a Bender.   According to the 2010 US census, about 19% of the US population is classified as handicapped.  That's a significant portion, larger than I expected, but much smaller than I would guess the ratio of Benders to non-Benders is.  For non-Benders to not only be unrepresented, but to be apparently forbidden from being on the Council is a huge problem.  A true Democracy would have the equivalent of the A.D.A. for non-Benders.  And it would certainly allow them representation.

That's why I say the Equalists have a valid cause. That's about 2000 words, so I'll stop here.  But future topics will likely include Bender criminal violence (as that comes up a lot in the show) and further musings on a fair political system for this screwed up world.

Thanks for reading!

*If the show ever mentions that Bolin and Mako have parents from different Nations, that'll support my theory.  If their parents were not one Earth and one Fire Nation, though, then this whole thing is debunked

**For the most part, gender roles in Avatarland seem pretty equal. We see more or less equal distribution between council members, the police, pro-Benders, and the main characters. Pema hasn't really done much beyond be a mom, but I really don't get the impression that's because society is forcing her into that role so much as that's what she really wants to do.

Stray Observations

• Furthering my theory that this show is really meant to be watched how I'm doing it, all the two parters of these season line up.
• Tenzin's family is great.  I mean, they have issues, of course, but they really are fun.  I find myself wanting more of this and less of Korra.
• I brought up before how Tenzin being the second-to-last Airbender must have caused a lot of emotional issues for him and we see them come to bear here.
• "I'm usually the one startin fights," Korra is becoming way more self-aware.  
• "I promise I won't do anything rash" says Korra.  Literally an hour later she's going full Jack Bauer on the equivalent of a Federal Judge.  I don't think anybody in the room believed her though.
• Varick, the rich, southern Tribe, is the most in favor of war to protect his money.  Strong parallels here to the American Revolution, where most of the Founding Fathers were just the wealthiest people in America.
• Baby Airbison are the cutest.

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 13 and 14

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 13 - Rebel Spirit
Episode 14 - The Southern Lights

And so we're back, with Book 2: Spirits.  They open with a big boat being attacked by a phosphorsent squid and I'm excited for the show again.  Even if the show just flounders on finales, if they keep the momentum going like they had in the first 10 episodes of season one, I'll be thrilled.  And the first two episodes of this new season get back on track.

So first off, I have to confess, I remember nothing about spirits in the first show.  A few seconds of Googling shows that Aang had plenty of dealings with them, but I simply don't remember.  I'm avoiding looking up more for fear of spoilers, but boy do these guys look like Miyazaki. They don't quite have that level of cute in a deeply unsettling way that spirits in Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away do, but I feel it has to be intentionally aping that style.  It certainly falls inline with the case that despite being an American production, the show qualifies as an anime.

Instead of going through the episodes chronologically, I want to hit what appear to be the main thrusts of the second season.  Starting with the obvious main plot of Korra's introduction to the spirit world.

The Avatar being the bridge to spirits is new to me, as I said earlier, after a full season where everything was pretty much Steampunk Shadowrun.  They even open with Mako in a really cool motorcycle chase (followed by him giving a super lame one-liner.  SUPER LAAAAME MAKO.  You used to be so cool.) to set up the distinction between the more industrial parts of Avatar-land and the more spiritual parts.  And it's cool, the festival we see is really creative, with cool games and prizes that fit the world so well.  The conflict between Korra's down to earth father, Tonraq, (who apparently has similar temper and lack of foresight issues as Korra) and the more spiritual uncle, Unalaq, is really highlighted well in a number of scenes.  Tonraq shows up for their quest on a snow mobile while Unalaq is on a whooly camel (or something).  It really highlights their differences without saying much.  And it's also nice to see that Tonraq really is a good dad, even if Korra is often too bratty to appreciate it.

Speaking of Korra being bratty, she obviously hasn't learned much from last season.  Her first line is "I'm the Avatar" when Tenzin is scolding her for using her Avatar powers to beat 6 year olds in a game.  Instead of learning humility or respect, I think her take away was "I am unstoppable."   You're too good for her Mako, even in your new, lame, bad one-liner spewing boyfriend role.

Unalaq is pretty obviously a villain from the get-go.  Between his creepy children and spirits attacking, I'm pretty sure he's arranging everything to look good.  Even so, I still didn't see him showing up with an army at the end to occupy the South Pole.  This cliff hanger left me really pumped for the next episode.

We also see a lot more of Aang's descendants.  The Tenzin story is really great and to me, the highlight of these episodes.  His oldest sibling is a sister, Kya, who I think is a water bender?  I haven't seen her bend, but she's definitely water tribe.  She also has a really sweet look going on.  I don't know what it is, but the character design for her is really cool and I hope we see more of her.  Tenzin's brother is fun and silly, but definitely seems to have his heart in the right place.  But it's Tenzin's oldest daughter, Jinora, that really intrigued me.  She starts having visions and weird dreams after seeing the statue room in an Air Bender temple and it's really cool and creepy.  To me, this was more "supernatural" than Korra's storyline with the spirits.  It sounds weird to say that in a setting with bending and spirits, but ultimately spirits are just like weird animals and bending is just a kind of physics.  Visions and prophecy are really much more mystical and I like that.

In another storyline, Asami is in business trouble and goes to a weird Howard Hughes type for help. Unfortunately this was pretty much the whole deal here, I wanted a lot more about her, as she is my favorite, but she didn't go on the journey with them in the second episode, so she's just hanging around South Watertown or whatever they call it.

Overall, these episodes did a great job of moving Korra into a more mystical show while still keeping some of the politics and maneuvering around.  Korra herself is pretty easy to manipulate, mostly because she's pretty young and immature, so that leaves a lot of room for dramatic tension.


Stray Observations;

• While Unalaq's creepy daughter hissing at Bolin is actually a legitimate response, Bolin, those kids are bad news.  I guess The Shining doesn't exist in Avatar-land, because you should be running.
• Speaking of Katara's family, what happened to Sokka?
• The Everstorm, that's such a good name for a thing.
• I know I'm critical of Korra, but she does learn.  After Naga's first freak out, she learns to trust the beardog's instincts.  
• This carnival is so great, the animators must have had a lot of fun coming up with prizes and games.
• "Avatar state is not to be used as a booster rocket" Tenzin, how do you know what a booster rocket is?  Is there a space program in Avatar-land?
• DANCING OTTER PENGUINS!  That is all.
• No Linn :(

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 11 and 12

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 11 - Skeletons in the Closest
Episode 12 - Endgame

I didn't think I'd be writing this, but here I am.  I'm disappointed in the season finale.  All that stuff I wrote last week about it not being a mystery box type show, about how it feels well planned, and how I don't want Ammon to be somebody with a secret identity?  Yep, all of that was the opposite of how the last few episodes turned out.

Again, these two episodes feel like a set, episode 11 is a bunch of flashbacks to set up episode 12.  We find out Ammon is Tarrlok's long lost brother, he's been a Water Bender this whole time, and he removes peoples powers with Blood Bending.  Look, we all knew that Ammon had to be some sort of Bender, but this feels... cheap somehow?  Every antagonist of the season ends up being related, it's too neat.  I'm all for Ammon being a hippocrit, but I don't know, this fell really flat for me.

There's some good character stuff in these episodes.  To get Korra to come out of hiding, for instance, Hiroshi calls Korra chicken.  He's got a pretty solid read on her.  And it almost works, but Mako talks her down.  That's the kind of thing that keeps me coming back to the show.  We have character growth, interaction, and it all fits together.   Of course, then Mako immediately tries to kiss her.  Not cool dude.  There's a time and a place and that is not here or when you're still sort of with Asami?  I don't know what their status is, but I don't think they do either.

Ammon has been a step ahead the whole way, and there's this overconfidence that all the Benders have.  So it's not really surprising to me that Ammon has set a trap involving secret biplanes and bombing runs.   I'm unsure how many people are killed here, but it's definitely a non-zero number, which again, is pretty violent for the age group I feel is the target.  And I do love the biplanes, battleships, and the whole 1930s asthetic.  It's a lot of fun and visually really appealing.  This fight also demonstrates something that I don't think we've seen enough.  Korra, due to her personality, tends to sort of default to Fire Bending, she only really has used Water Bending in the Probending Arena.  I think it makes sense given her character, but it's a very clearly a mistake on her part.  She is a freaking powerful water bender.  I mean like that was seriously scary.  When your solution to airplanes is a 100 foot tall water spout that lifts you into the air so you can spontaneously produce hundred foot tall icebergs in the path of planes, maybe you should use Water Bending a bit more often.  She's never come close to this level of power with Earth or Fire.

The flashbacks to Ammon and Tarrlok's childhood are solid work.  Somehow they keep managing to ramp up the creepy with Blood Bending.  The scene where Ammon makes a pack of wolves dance like puppets is seriously disturbing.   But it also introduces one of my problems with this episode and the next one.  Suddenly we're trying to make "bad fathers" into a major theme.  Ammon and Tarrlok are the way they are because their father forced them to be tools of his vengence.  Asami's father is suddenly revealed to have been largely absentee and that there is a lot more resentment there than we've seen.  It feels like it should have been a running theme the whole season, instead of suddenly strong on us.  It's not a good twist.

The show does have a few good twists though.  The first is that Ammon captured Tenzin and his family.  I was seriously caught off guard by this and it was a wonderful way of raising the stakes.  Then, Ammon takes Korra's Bending, which was a great twist.  Her being helpless in the face of Blood Bending was not unexpected, but Ammon basically winning was really further than I thought they would go.  I didn't know how they would resolve it, and the solution was both clever but also another thing about this episode that really annoyed me.  Korra finally is able to Air Bend, so while Ammon took her bending at that time, since she gains Air Bending after it, she can now do that.  And she does, saves the day, and Ammon runs away.

Look, I like that way of turning around her losing her Bending.  That's cool, that's a great way to do it.  It means only Korra, as the Avatar, could come back from losing it and it's a really nice way of resolving the problem.  My problem is how she gains Air Bending.  This whole season, Tenzin has been telling her Air Bending comes from calm.  It's going with the wind and just sort of refocusing it.  It's based on Tai-Chi.  Korra's problem with Air Bending has always been portrayed as a direct result of her anger and entitlement issues.  She feels she should be able to do it, so she tries to force it, which leads to her not being able to do it, which frustrates her, and makes her less able to do it.  But this episodes shows that the problem was she wasn't desparate enough.  Really?  That's not what we've been saying.  The solution to her Air Bending problem shouldn't have been getting more pissed off because Mako is in trouble; it should have been finding inner peace.

I was super hopeful at the end that this was all set up for Korra having an identity crisis.  Her only being able to Air Bend means she's not the Avatar.  Her whole identity, everything, is based around the fact that she was born the Avatar.  Every episode this season has involved some variation on "You have to do what I say, because I'm the Avatar."  And suddenly, she isn't.  Wouldn't that have been really interesting to explore?  Instead, she gets all her bending back right away.  Maybe it was a moment of growth and season 2 will go more into it, but I was disappointed that this was resolved so quickly.  

And speaking of quick, her and Mako "love" each other already.  Wow, that escalated quickly.

All that said, I am excited for the next season (Book, in Avatar parlance).  I hope my misgivings on these few episodes are either addressed or just a hiccup in an otherwise stellar show.  I can't wait.

Stray Observations:
1. I don't have anything to expound on this with, but that ending with Tarrlok's murder/suicide of his brother Ammon was dark.  And frankly, near perfect.  Wow, I was stunned.
2. Naga is stupid strong, I mean she just rends steel like it's nothing.
3. Iroh can fly?  Apparently he is Iroh-man.
4. Tenzin has a crazy brother, which I look forward too.   More Aang family is great.  Is this guy an Air Bender?  Only time will tell.
5. I kinda hope next season, Asami is the "villain", after the way Mako treated her.  I also hope she kicks all their asses.
6.  Lin gets her powers back, yay!
7.  While I agree with the who Equalist point about not being second class citizens, I don't think they've fully thought through the whole "take away all bending" idea.  Isn't the technology based on bending?  Like power plants are just Fire Benders hitting things with lightning, if you get rid of all of them, how far back are you setting society?

Legend of Korra with Jacob! Episodes 9 and 10

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 9 - Out of the Past
Episode 10 - Turning the Tides

So everything I said last week about how quickly this show moves?  I didn't even know.  These two episodes were insane, going from more personal stuff to a full on war in under 60 minutes.  I wish other shows moved like this.  I think what really helps is the show isn't a Mystery Box type show, it has a story to tell (how Korra became a fully fledged Avatar) and it's going to barrel down that road.  The show isn't constructed around a particular surprise or plot twist, so it has the freedom to have more plot twists and events.  Having watched Westworld in the middle of the last entry and these two episodes, I appreciate that all the more.

After Korra's ill advised attempt on Tarrlok's life, she ends up in a platinum cage while Tarrlok fakes an attack by Equalists to blame her disappearance on.  Tarrlok is great, this is a dude who has it all figured out.  He is cold, smart, and honestly just so satisfying to hate.  The way he plays everybody in the beginning of the episode is fantastic dramatic irony.  However, he doesn't count on one thing; Tenzin being really self aware and smart.  Which is completely in character, but I don't think Tarrlok saw it coming.  See, Tenzin understands that his talents lie in the smoothing things over, diplomatic arena.  Tenzin is the guy you go to if you have a problem with a neighbor's loud music or you need to make a trade deal with another nation.  And sometimes, a situation calls for violence.  Not unmitigated destruction, just focused, targeted, and overwhelming force applied like a scapel.  So Tenzin calls up Lin.

I really like the Tenzin/Lin relationship, and it's explored a lot in these two episodes.  Exes still being close friends is not a common pop culture trope, but Korra handles it really well.  You see why they were together, you see why they aren't anymore, but you see that they still care very deeply for each other.  So when Tenzin says Korra is missing, Lin, who has been boiling over since her SWAT team got captured, essentially declares one woman martial law.  She takes the rest of Team Avatar out of prison because prisons are for people she doesn't have use for.  They track down an Equalist base and rescue the rest of her men and Lin cleans up.  It's here that Tenzin figures out Tarrloks double cross.

Korra not being saved is something I truly appreciate in this show.  Here's a perfect example of how to demonstrate that her friends will do anything to save her, but yet Korra still saves herself.  The team does something, but it was pointed in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, Korra learns to calm down and think.  And her being smart is scary.  She connects with Aang spiritually, figures out that Tarrlok is the son of a former mob boss/antagonist of Aang.  Blood Bending is genetic, which really makes me wonder more about Tenzin's siblings and if any of them are Water Benders.  When the Equalists show up and lobotomize Tarrlok, Korra uses brains and insulation to escape her platinum cage. On top of that, she doesn't fight, she runs.  Which is smart, because she spent several days in a cage or unconscious and has no plan.  I mean, Korra making a tactical withdrawal?  That's real character growth.

There's more love quadrilateral stuff.  Asami continues to see reasons to be jealous in every Mako and Korra interaction, but because Asami is an adult she just calls him out on it.  He says they'll talk about it later, which is understandable consider they are in the middle of a coup.  Asami isn't happy with this, but also seems to put it aside.  Lin and Pema also put aside their differences, because Tenzin has to go to the city council and somebody needs to protect his family, considering his wife, Pema, is going into labor.  As Lin said, they are the last Air Benders and more important than her.  I'm glad somebody finally said it in the show.  Lin, you're my favorite.

So much happens in the next 15 minutes, I don't even know what to talk about.  There's attacks on each of the council members, with only Tenzin escaping, there's a full on fight between Team Avatar and those platinum mechs that pretty much involves Asami kicking all the ass.  A fleet of Equalist zeppelins start bombing the city.  It feels like a season finale, and that's still two episodes away.

There are two things I do want to bring up, though.  The first is the attack on Tenzin's family and my first honest criticism of the show.  So a group of baddies come to the island and Lin is, predictably, wiping the floor with them.  But she eventually gets overwhelmed and is about to lose when the Air Bender kids show up and save the day.  Look, I get it's a show targetting a younger audience and this kind of thing is to be expected.  But so far, Korra has done a really good job of justifying it's "kids save the adults" moments.  And this would have been so easy to justify.  Those kids are literally the only Air Benders left, so the Equalists have no idea how to fight them.  We could have seen how some of the training exercises we've seen those kids do effortlessly (but give Korra so much trouble) are incredibly useful and take these guys down.  Instead, we see the least creative fight so far.  It's just throwing some air around and the little kid is a Fart Bender, I guess.  It's cheap gags and there is no reason these kids, doing exactly what every other person fighting Equalist Ninjas has done and failed, succeed in beating the ninjas.  It was disappointing and honestly beneath this show.

However, the last moments of this show make up for it.  Korra and her gang escape to the sewers while the Air Bender Family and Lin flee on their flying bison, while a bunch of zeppelins give chase.  So naturally, Lin jumps onto the zeppelins and just wrecks them.  It's a great sequence, well written, well acted, and well animated.  Don't fight Magneto from a metal airship.  She gets captured and Amon lobotomizes her, but she's defiant to the end.  I really, really, really hope Korra can give these people their bending back.  But, if she can't, I'm sure Lin is still going to be an ass kicker.  Asami is also not a bender, and she's way better at taking people down than Mako or Bolin, so Lin will probably just wake up pissed off.

Then we cut to the Navy and General Iroh! Who is, I assume, the son or grandson of Iroh from Avatar.  He's also voiced very squeaky.  We'll see in the next episode how I like it, I gather.   But boy, these two episodes were insane.

Favorite moment: When Pema starts going into labor, Pema says "Oh no, the baby's coming" and Tenzin's son (the future serial killer/current Fart Bender) just sticks his face into her belly and screams "NOT NOW BABY."

Stray Observations:

1. I did a bad job taking notes this time because I got too involved.  That's probably a great sign for the quality of the show, but unfortunate for this blog.
2. I like how easily the council people are defeated.  It really shows how Aang changed things to be about diplomacy and the leaders are no longer just the strongest and the meanest.  
3. It was cool to see adult Toph, I liked her a lot in the first show.  
4. What is the limit of a Blood Bender's power? Because it seems like Tarrlok and his father were grabbing like 50 people at a time.
5. Blood Bending remains horrifying.  Legit horrifying.
6. I hope there isn't an Ammon reveal.  I just want him to be some scarred dude who hates benders.  If it turns out he's somebody we know in disguise or something, it'll be kind of a let down.