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?