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.