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.