Legend Of Korra: Will It Bend!

[DeltaEmil]

I kinda doubt it, since it was established that chi-blocking was being spread by the Kyoshi Warriors and since Aang probably had political power for all but the last 17 years and Zuko even beyond that, I don't see them crushing a school of martial arts.

What we also know is that chi-blocking can also be used against non-benders to paralyze them.

[Flickerdart]

So new episode

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Ehh, pretty dull episode until the last 5 minutes. Seems more focus was being put on replacing the love triangle with a love conga-line. Dull. They even introduced female-girl with a cheesy slow-motion hair toss.

Anyway there were a few good bids. The Tarlock guy was amusingly like a normal politician, and his interaction with the "precocious" daughter of Tenzin was hilarious. "Why do you smell like a girl? You're weird!" Hilarious, and immediately reminded me of "perfume boy" from my college years.

Also, anyone else think it's weird that Mako's dad gave him a scarf that must have been twice as big as he was tall at the time. And that cars get an avatar-ed name: Satomobile, but moped is just a moped.

Anyway, it started getting interesting once Korra joined the task force. But really, Korra, you're a complete moron. There's being a bit rash and hotheaded and setting up yourself to be in a position were you can get ambushed without support and lose everything. I was glad that Amon was smart enough to take advantage of that, and at least he had a reason for giving up the chance to destroy his opponent, I'm not sure I agree with his reasoning since I think the situation presented makes the loss on Korra's head as long as they could cover up the evidence so it looks like an actual fair fight. But hey, maybe they couldn't. And also, Korra having to say that she was outsmarted and brushed off by Amon may help to not make her a martyr when he inevitably destroys her. Making the opponent look a fool is a decent strategy.

Though it did give us a montage, and now I'm really curious what was happening. Geez show, just tell me what happened to Sokka, Toph, and Aang already.

On characters

Korra: Disappointed this episode, stupid Korra, stupid. Though I admit that the development of her bluster to cover up her fears and insecurities is nice, and offers a different reaction to
Bolin: So it seems that he's being set up to be the funny/weird one, but honestly so far he hasn't really impressed me.
Mako: Ehh, he's still morose and broody. I actually like serious characters so that's fine. But so far his development is: likes a rich girl, and is focused on some sport. I can make some fun of Zuko for starting the series as a whiny failure, but at least he had a goal I could appreciate.
Female-girl: Ehh, no discernible interesting personality, seems her only purpose is to increase romantic tension, not much to go on.
Tenzin: The voice of reason. The scene with him and Korra at the very end was very well done. I'm really liking this character. Which is a bit surprising since he's essentially in the same position in the story as Iroh who is a tough act to follow.
Tenzin's kids: They're awesome.
Tarlock: I like him as a character, could be interesting to see what his end goals are, since I doubt that he's as straightforward as gaining notoriety with a strike force.

Next episode preview:
More sports... ugh.

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I dunno, Tenzin fails to be as good as Iroh, in my eyes. Instead of being genuinely useful he's just prattling on about balance, and he's yet to show that he's really a "master" Airbender. They definitely play the same role, though - in which case, I guess that makes Korra Zuko, rather than Aang.

[John Cribati]

Mako: Ehh, he's still morose and broody. I actually like serious characters so that's fine. But so far his development is: likes a rich girl, and is focused on some sport. I can make some fun of Zuko for starting the series as a whiny failure, but at least he had a goal I could appreciate.

You seemed to have missed the fact that this "sport" is practically the only thing keeping him and his brother off the streets.

[Dienekes]

You seemed to have missed the fact that this "sport" is practically the only thing keeping him and his brother off the streets.

Except he makes good bucks by being a normal worker in the electric mill or whatever it was.

This may just be me, but I have a total of 0 pity for people who struggle making a life work doing something I find useless when they can easily get a job doing something else. Sports players, artists, musicians, and other entertainers can try to make a living off that, sure, but when if you don't make it get a real job. You know, like every other bugger in the world. You are not special. If your venture living off of being a player does not work, get another job, like a million other people have.

Also at Flickerdart.

Yeah Iroh>>>Tenzin, no argument there. But I like Tenzin all the same.

[Morty]

I kinda doubt it, since it was established that chi-blocking was being spread by the Kyoshi Warriors and since Aang probably had political power for all but the last 17 years and Zuko even beyond that, I don't see them crushing a school of martial arts.

Yeah, I can't see banning chi blocking flying under Aang's supervision either. Maybe the reason is that noone thought of it, because the Metalbenders and regular police were deemed to be enough.
Also, comparing anyone to Iroh isn't really fair because, well, he was Iroh.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Perhaps chi blocking itself is an illegal technique, it would make sense for the bending elite to actively discourage such an ability.

Given that its loosely implied the entire council is staffed by benders and how easily they were manipulated on their fear of it being taken away....

[Xondoure]

Im putting money on satos benefactor turning out to be or be close to amon

I was chanting Amon's name throughout that whole scene.

[endoperez]

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I dunno, Tenzin fails to be as good as Iroh, in my eyes. Instead of being genuinely useful he's just prattling on about balance, and he's yet to show that he's really a "master" Airbender. They definitely play the same role, though - in which case, I guess that makes Korra Zuko, rather than Aang.

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Well, think back to Last Airbender season 1. Iroh was an old man who mentored Zuko, drank tea, played games, said "patience, Prince Zuko" a lot, and doing very little bending altogether. It wasn't until he was captured by the earthbenders (episode 7 I think) that we heard and were shown that he is also a great warrior.

Legend of Korra has tighter schedule, so I'm hoping we'll see him doing something impressive in episode 4 or 5.

[Illieas]

watch the episode

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I was right they have it out for non-benders. they apparently can throw you into jail for association. something they have failed to do for the triads.

speculation i will place is Tarlok is working with the triads.

new girl is nice. she is non bender with dad with a mysterious benefactor.
masami is new ship that just parked in front of makorra.
my hope for her is that she we the voice of the oppressed non benders.
maybe a be a reverse zuko!

lastly what happened to tarlok's blimps? it is island they have no water benders. it would have been the best trap to pull. they are stuck on an island with no way out but via boat or plane perfect to pincer in a take the wanted man in custody

[pffh]

watch the episode

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I was right they have it out for non-benders. they apparently can throw you into jail for association. something they have failed to do for the triads.

speculation i will place is Tarlok is working with the triads.

new girl is nice. she is non bender with dad with a mysterious benefactor.
masami is new ship that just parked in front of makorra.
my hope for her is that she we the voice of the oppressed non benders.
maybe a be a reverse zuko!

lastly what happened to tarlok's blimps? it is island they have no water benders. it would have been the best trap to pull. they are stuck on an island with no way out but via boat or plane perfect to pincer in a take the wanted man in custody

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I don't think she is in any position to be the voice of oppressed anything considering she is the daughter of the richest man in Republic City and probably one of the richest people in the world.

If anything Sato is living proof that non-benders aren't directly oppressed by benders.

[WitchSlayer]

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Betting that Asami will probably be a bad guy. Putting it out there now. Everything about her seems too convenient and too femme fatale in nature.

[Madara]

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new girl is nice. she is non bender with dad with a mysterious benefactor.

I heard it as someone gave him money to start out with, but not that he has a continued backer. Plus I think it fits Sokka the most.

[Gnomish Wanderer]

The only way Tenzin and Iroh are connected is they are wise mentors to a main character. That doesn't exactly make them that similar, there are a lot of ways to use a wise mentor character. I don't see why we're comparing them.

I can't help but feel this episode went by faster than the previous ones. I can't wait until next week.

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I think it was a cheap ploy of Amon to bring his goons to their private fight. Korra should've brought a cameraman with her at least to avoid this sort of thing. He should have come alone if all he wanted to do was tell her 'We'll fight later.'

I can't see the new girl being evil, she seems way too sweet to suddenly be a villain.

[Lord Raziere]

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Betting that Asami will probably be a bad guy. Putting it out there now. Everything about her seems too convenient and too femme fatale in nature.

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I'm betting she won't. She genuinely seems like a nice person, sometimes good things just happen man. If Sato or Asami had any connection to Amon, they wouldn't have sponsored a bending team, and for some reason I don't see them having any reason to be villainous, they are already pretty successful with an invention that is used in everyones lives.

Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe, and Asami could just be a genuinely nice rich girl who is a fan of pro-bending.

and if Asami has been introduced as some sort of "competition" for Korra as some sort of love interest or whatever….I would consider that a stupid move.

I mean really, not every blessing needs to be a curse in disguise, this is just normal social connections at work- you get friendly with the right people and they can help you in many ways that others can't. I don't see anything out of the ordinary with acquiring a sponsor like this. or a girlfriend.

Really, I'd just prefer it if this development was just things going right for a change, no strings attached.

[dehro]

I'm starting to think we're all a bunch of cynical morons who shouldn't be watching this cartoon
we see double faced enemies hiding behind every character and we're applying genre savvyness to suck the fun out of watching the show (I'm doing it too..). yes, some of the characters will fall short when the day comes to prove their mettle, and some will in fact actually be in cahoots with Amon, or be him directly.. but I have the feeling that the majority of characters will prove to be exactly what they portray..starting with opportunistic and perfumed politicians, to name just one. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to genuinely care for the good of the people, next to his own career.

[Jaros]

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Welp. Tarlock is evil.

I wonder whether he's regular-politician-evil, crime-syndicate-evil or Amon-evil though...

[Fjolnir]

Honestly the former "public enemy #1" that Aang took care of probably has more to do with Amon than any of the characters introduced now. If he was a person who was energybent out of his bending sometime close to Aang's death he could easily be wearing this mask and playing everyone for fools...

[Hiro Protagonest]

This may just be me, but I have a total of 0 pity for people who struggle making a life work doing something I find useless when they can easily get a job doing something else. Sports players, artists, musicians, and other entertainers can try to make a living off that, sure, but when if you don't make it get a real job. You know, like every other bugger in the world. You are not special. If your venture living off of being a player does not work, get another job, like a million other people have.

You have just earned my enmity. Why? Because my dad is a musician. Sure, he's a music/band teacher, but he still makes his living off his musical skill. The only reason he didn't become a professional musician for a living is because he didn't want to, since it's harder to have a life like that.

And you say that nobody is special (well, you implied it, by telling everyone who reads your post that they aren't special). So what about Albert Einstein? He thought outside the box, and that made him special. And Mozart? He was a musical prodigy, but terrible at most other things, he had to be different.

Plus, people who live off entertainment include those who make movies, shows, books, video games, tabletop RPGs, music... including our very own Rich Burlew.

[Dienekes]

You have just earned my enmity. Why? Because my dad is a musician. Sure, he's a music/band teacher, but he still makes his living off his musical skill. The only reason he didn't become a professional musician for a living is because he didn't want to, since it's harder to have a life like that.

That's fine, I earn a lot of folks enmity. But your dad took a job as a teacher to pay the bills. I have no qualms with him. Now, if he didn't take the job, tried to be a musician and failed and complained there was no way for him to make money then I would have no pity for him or the troubles in his life. Life is unfortunately about making compromises, and when you suffer for your art because you do not want (not can't but won't) get a job to pay the bills is stupid in the extreme.

And you say that nobody is special (well, you implied it, by telling everyone who reads your post that they aren't special). So what about Albert Einstein? He thought outside the box, and that made him special. And Mozart? He was a musical prodigy, but terrible at most other things, he had to be different.

Plus, people who live off entertainment include those who make movies, shows, books, video games, tabletop RPGs, music... including our very own Rich Burlew.

Einstein got a job as a clerk and quite a few other things to pay the bills. He was practical, he got a job. Mozart was born into a fairly wealthy family (and somehow managed to spend everything he earned outrageously) and turned down jobs that would have tripled his salary, so no, not much pity there either. Hell there was a remarkably talented man, whose entire monetary problems were self inflicted. This guy couldn't hold onto money if his life depended on it.

What I'm not saying is never try to reach your dreams of being an entertainer. But if you have no money coming in, no means to support yourself, and you can quite easily get a well-paying job and choose not to take it? Yeah, no, you're a moron, no matter how talented you are.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

So...did anyone else think something was up when Korra

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had that flashback? I mean... I know that everyone here thinks that Aang fought Amon or something. But something in the way the camera zoomed into both Amon's eyes and Aang's just confirms for me my old theory:

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Amon is Aang. Somehow he was resurrected and is now not the Avatar nor a Bender (due to the Avatar spirit going to the next person in the cycle). He still has Energybending, it was mentioned that only Aang ever managed to Energybend after his fight with Ozai (though Tenzen could be wrong), can commune with spirits (unconfirmed), and hides his face because otherwise people would recognize him. He's gone evil with the loss of his bending and/or he's reached the point where he realizes how inherently unfair bending is and how corrupt some of it's practitioners are.

Although I'm also willing to entertain the idea that Tenzen is secretly Amon. Hate me if you will, I'll still be here to cry "Called it!" when the reveal happens.

[Brother Oni]

Given that its loosely implied the entire council is staffed by benders and how easily they were manipulated on their fear of it being taken away....

Huh. So I apparently was on the right track of answer, but not quite the right reason.

This may just be me, but I have a total of 0 pity for people who struggle making a life work doing something I find useless when they can easily get a job doing something else.

I suspect it's just you in that because their life's work is useless to you, it's apparently of no value to anyone.

By absurd extension of that logic, because someone's life work on ovarian cancer is useless to you, it has no merit and they should go work on some other more universal treatable cancer.
If you want something less argumentative than cancer, how about breast implants or feminine hygiene product design?

Just because you find it useless, doesn't mean it's useless to everybody - take a look at Korra. Since there's no war going on, pro-bending is the closest she's going to get to really putting her bending skills through anything resembling a real situation, unless she goes bandit/rebel hunting and you can bet that multiple organisations (eg the White Lotus, Tenzin, Katara and the other Avatar searchers for starters) will conspire to stop her doing that.

This is not to mention the prosperity, prestige and enjoyment the sport brings to Republic City and its citizens.

[Hiro Protagonest]

So...did anyone else think something was up when Korra

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had that flashback? I mean... I know that everyone here thinks that Aang fought Amon or something. But something in the way the camera zoomed into both Amon's eyes and Aang's just confirms for me my old theory:



Although I'm also willing to entertain the idea that Tenzen is secretly Amon. Hate me if you will, I'll still be here to cry "Called it!" when the reveal happens.

You seriously believe that Amon is Aang. Because of eye color.

Half the Fire Nation has golden eyes.

I believe there are two laws of the Avaterverse that are part of the very foundation of existence.
1. Time travel is impossible.
2. Resurrection, of any sort, is impossible.
Even if that's false, he's like, the ultimate pacifist, and will not stir a civil war under any circumstances.

[Ashen Lilies]

I think that rule applies a lot more broadly than just hitting people with mopeds.

Anyone else get the subconscious vibe that she was evil though? The too convenient meet-cute, the slow motion hair, the chi blocker color scheme, the fac that she looks like Lust from FMA...

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The friend who I watched the episode with was screaming that she was 'obviously evil' every time Asami appeared on screen, but I suspect that was mostly because she was treading all over her Makorra ship. I was too busy giggling incoherently like a schoolgirl at the sheer silliness of it to care.

[Lord Raziere]

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The friend who I watched the episode with was screaming that she was 'obviously evil' every time Asami appeared on screen, but I suspect that was mostly because she was treading all over her Makorra ship. I was too busy giggling incoherently like a schoolgirl at the sheer silliness of it to care.

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Or perhaps the show is intentionally playing the genre-saavy's audiences expectations, making her look like the ""obviously evil" pretending to be a sweet girl" stereotype, when really she is just a sweet girl and when you find out that she is just a sweet girl, you'll all smack your heads at the obvious and curse yourself for not just using Occam's Razor.

A twist, in that it never was a twist. I'd really prefer it if Asami was good. there just doesn't seem to be any reason to my limited, only-episode-4 point of view, to make her so.

Councilman Korlic/Korlak/whatever, on the other hand is so obviously friggin evil, that the only way he could become more so, is if he made and started walking around with a sign reading in capital letters: "HI. I'M A CORRUPT EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATIVE POLITICIAN, HOW MAY I MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE TODAY?"

[Brother Oni]

I believe there are two laws of the Avaterverse that are part of the very foundation of existence.
1. Time travel is impossible.
2. Resurrection, of any sort, is impossible.

1: Well backwards timetravel is impossible. We've seen Aang throw himself into the future quite effectively.

2: Doesn't Avatar reincarnation kind of break this one since the current reincarnation can get advice from past selves?

Hmm. I think this level of idiocy means I need to go to bed.

[Dienekes]

suspect it's just you in that because their life's work is useless to you, it's apparently of no value to anyone.

By absurd extension of that logic, because someone's life work on ovarian cancer is useless to you, it has no merit and they should go work on some other more universal treatable cancer.
If you want something less argumentative than cancer, how about breast implants or feminine hygiene product design?

I do love reducto ad absurdum, it's fun. But that's not exactly what I meant.

Having a hobby, and/or trying to live off of that hobby is a fine and fair way to make a living. However if that hobby should prove to be non-sustainable as a means for a career and you could quite easily make a living with a normal career and yet you choose to keep plugging away at the hobby until you have literally 0 options left, why should I care? You had the opportunity to make a living. That is more opportunity than a lot of people in this world get, if I'm gonna pity someone it's going to be one of them.

Just because you find it useless, doesn't mean it's useless to everybody - take a look at Korra. Since there's no war going on, pro-bending is the closest she's going to get to really putting her bending skills through anything resembling a real situation, unless she goes bandit/rebel hunting and you can bet that multiple organisations (eg the White Lotus, Tenzin, Katara and the other Avatar searchers for starters) will conspire to stop her doing that.

I'm not saying that Korra shouldn't pro-bend. Despite my absolute hatred of watching sports, I really enjoy playing a few of them (american football and boxing mostly). And if I was in the Avatarverse and a bender you better believe I would play this game. Saying I believe people should be realistic about how they make money does not mean I don't want folks to make it in the entertainment field. I enjoy music as much as the next guy, and while I believe a relatively small subset of entertainers are ridiculously overpaid in this day and age, but that's another matter.

But if you're a fantastic singer and want to make it as such, but run out of money and choose not to get a job as let's say waitress to make ends meat even when the job is offered to you then why should I care about your money problems? You had the solution right in front of you the entire time.

This gets to Mako's situation. Personally I don't care that his goal is to win a sports championship. While trying to win a championship is a completely reasonable motivation, personally I find it a very boring one. As far as character motivations go, it's one step more boring than trying to fix the world one homeless person at a time, and one step less boring than trying to find romance. Now I won't say that no one can enjoy these motivations, but I personally do not.

Now to defend this motivation it was brought up that pro-bending was Mako's only means of sustaining himself and his brother. But that is proven blatantly false. In fact 2 episodes ago it was shown that he makes more money working for 1 day as a lightning man than he had for a whole week of training for pro-bending and his winnings from the game. So since he can sustain himself rather easily as a lightning-o-mancer why should I feel sorry for him for being broke? He has the solution for his money problems right in front of his nose. Of course, now he has all the money he needs, and good for him, that was lucky. But it's stupid to rely on luck to keep yourself going. Hell, that was Nero's economic plan: strike gold somehow.

[Hiro Protagonest]

1: Well backwards timetravel is impossible. We've seen Aang throw himself into the future quite effectively.

That's called temporal stasis.

Besides, we all travel into the future. At a ratio of 1:1.

2: Doesn't Avatar reincarnation kind of break this one since the current reincarnation can get advice from past selves?

It's not resurrection, because it's a different body, with none of the memories. The avatar spirit is like an exaltation. Maybe it would be better if I said "true resurrection".

Also, this brings up the fact that if Aang were really, truly resurrected, he would still have airbending. Losing the avatar spirit just means losing the other three types.

Hmm. I think this level of idiocy means I need to go to bed.

You are getting very, very sleepy...

[Ninjadeadbeard]

You seriously believe that Amon is Aang. Because of eye color.

Stupider theories have been proven true. My theory is too stupid not to be true!

Edit: I also said it might be

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Tenzen

[Flickerdart]

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Although I'm also willing to entertain the idea that Tenzen is secretly Amon. Hate me if you will, I'll still be here to cry "Called it!" when the reveal happens.

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Brilliant. He was the only one to speak out against the taskforce, was the first one to get to Korra on the island, is an Energyb- oh.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

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Brilliant. He was the only one to speak out against the taskforce, was the first one to get to Korra on the island, is an Energyb- oh.

Crazy theories: 1
Everyone else: a billion!