Augh! Right in the feels!
May. 19th, 2012 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mercy_angel_09Today's Korra was pretty intense. Intense like, ZOMG WTF BRYAN AND MIKE DO YOU HATE US OR SOMETHING?!!!!! MY FEEEEEEEEEEEEELS! /flails and then dies of feels overload
I think that we're finally going to get some character development for Asami, which is good. I was rather "meh" about her because she didn't really get a lot of screen time except to serve as a Deus ex Machina to allow the Fire Ferrets to advance into the Pro-Bending championship tournament and serve as Korra's romantic rival for Mako.
And now we get an episode where we get more info about Asami's background and what kind of person she is. And she is awesome.
The season half way through (*sniffle*), things are getting more serious and it's becoming increasingly apparent that whatever the Equalists are doing, there's more to their agenda than meets the eye. And while they have a valid point in that there are benders that abuse their abilities, their insistence on black and white morality (benders are evil, non-benders are good) ultimate pits them at odd with how the world is set up. (See previous Korra related posts about how there is no good or evil, merely balance and imbalance.) Something that I think the Equalists blatantly ignore is that there is no rhyme or reason as to why a person can bend - genetics help, as does spirituality, but it's been shown that two non-benders can produce a bender (Toph's parents aren't benders, for example, and neither were Katara's parents) and that two benders had produce a non-bending child (Master Piandao and Bumi - Katara and Aang's son not the crazy king of Omashu - are two prime examples). There is no logical way that Amon can wipe out bending - unless he kills EVERYONE.
I've been wondering about Amon's back story as well. I don't buy the whole, "A firebender murdered my parents and then blew off my face," excuse. Mainly because it sounds like, well, an excuse. He wears a mask, obviously, because it works with the story but it also makes him more menacing. One of the few things that Hitchcock understood about suspense was that what you didn't see was more scary than what you did see. Human minds are amazing, but they're also terrifying in their capacity to build things up into ridiculous notions that are completely false. By making sure that he doesn't have a face, Amon can build himself up to be whatever he wants to be. If he wants people to see him as some poor innocent that got their face blasted off by a firebender as a child, he can do that and no one will question it.
Of course it's worth noting that I'm a fairly open minded individual and I don't discount any possibility for being too far out there. Which led me to wonder if maybe that Amon was Koh in human form, messing with the Avatar for shits and giggles, and seeing if he can just mess with the world a bit as well. We all know that Koh isn't the biggest fan of the Avatar after the whole Kuruk thing, so it really wouldn't surprise me if Koh was somehow behind Amon even if he isn't. Obviously the world has developed to need bending to coexist with non-bending, and while maybe Koh would whisper in Amon's ear and tell him that bending is no longer needed, the rest of the Spirit World is going, "Um, oh hell no. Bending has to stay in order to maintain balance."Personally I see Yue as being very angry that Amon would dare to speak for the Spirit World when he is obviously not the Avatar. "Oh HELL no. I knew the Avatar. You are not the Avatar. You're not even Avatar-like. You are a jealous little pissant who needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP."
That said, I've been enjoying the progress of the show. It's obviously aimed at a slightly older audience - if the darker themes of terrorism and sort-of-rape were any indication. This is also reflected in the fact that relationships - while present in the original series - take up a significant amount of time. With Korra being 17 and never having friends her own age before, interpersonal relationships are a very big part of her development as a character. She doesn't know how to act around people her own age (like the Bros and Asami) and is unsure how to navigate her growing feelings for Mako. I think it's worth pointing out that most Avatars traveled the world to master their bending, while Korra spent thirteen years sequestered in a compound with no one but Katara and the rest of the White Lotus to keep her company. I'm sure she saw Katara's children and grandchildren from time to time (arguably you see this reflected in Korra's relationship with the Cloudbabies) and so while she's had some experiences with people her own age, they were probably more like family (as their grandfather reincarnated was there anything else she could be?). And of course Korra's ability to relate to The People is important as the Avatar.
I suppose the one thing that I really want to see in this series is for someone to point out to Amon that just because he took away their bending, bad people are not going to stop being bad. They'll find new techniques to terrorize the population and assert their supposed authority, and in the end he'll have accomplished nothing.
I think that we're finally going to get some character development for Asami, which is good. I was rather "meh" about her because she didn't really get a lot of screen time except to serve as a Deus ex Machina to allow the Fire Ferrets to advance into the Pro-Bending championship tournament and serve as Korra's romantic rival for Mako.
And now we get an episode where we get more info about Asami's background and what kind of person she is. And she is awesome.
The season half way through (*sniffle*), things are getting more serious and it's becoming increasingly apparent that whatever the Equalists are doing, there's more to their agenda than meets the eye. And while they have a valid point in that there are benders that abuse their abilities, their insistence on black and white morality (benders are evil, non-benders are good) ultimate pits them at odd with how the world is set up. (See previous Korra related posts about how there is no good or evil, merely balance and imbalance.) Something that I think the Equalists blatantly ignore is that there is no rhyme or reason as to why a person can bend - genetics help, as does spirituality, but it's been shown that two non-benders can produce a bender (Toph's parents aren't benders, for example, and neither were Katara's parents) and that two benders had produce a non-bending child (Master Piandao and Bumi - Katara and Aang's son not the crazy king of Omashu - are two prime examples). There is no logical way that Amon can wipe out bending - unless he kills EVERYONE.
I've been wondering about Amon's back story as well. I don't buy the whole, "A firebender murdered my parents and then blew off my face," excuse. Mainly because it sounds like, well, an excuse. He wears a mask, obviously, because it works with the story but it also makes him more menacing. One of the few things that Hitchcock understood about suspense was that what you didn't see was more scary than what you did see. Human minds are amazing, but they're also terrifying in their capacity to build things up into ridiculous notions that are completely false. By making sure that he doesn't have a face, Amon can build himself up to be whatever he wants to be. If he wants people to see him as some poor innocent that got their face blasted off by a firebender as a child, he can do that and no one will question it.
Of course it's worth noting that I'm a fairly open minded individual and I don't discount any possibility for being too far out there. Which led me to wonder if maybe that Amon was Koh in human form, messing with the Avatar for shits and giggles, and seeing if he can just mess with the world a bit as well. We all know that Koh isn't the biggest fan of the Avatar after the whole Kuruk thing, so it really wouldn't surprise me if Koh was somehow behind Amon even if he isn't. Obviously the world has developed to need bending to coexist with non-bending, and while maybe Koh would whisper in Amon's ear and tell him that bending is no longer needed, the rest of the Spirit World is going, "Um, oh hell no. Bending has to stay in order to maintain balance."
That said, I've been enjoying the progress of the show. It's obviously aimed at a slightly older audience - if the darker themes of terrorism and sort-of-rape were any indication. This is also reflected in the fact that relationships - while present in the original series - take up a significant amount of time. With Korra being 17 and never having friends her own age before, interpersonal relationships are a very big part of her development as a character. She doesn't know how to act around people her own age (like the Bros and Asami) and is unsure how to navigate her growing feelings for Mako. I think it's worth pointing out that most Avatars traveled the world to master their bending, while Korra spent thirteen years sequestered in a compound with no one but Katara and the rest of the White Lotus to keep her company. I'm sure she saw Katara's children and grandchildren from time to time (arguably you see this reflected in Korra's relationship with the Cloudbabies) and so while she's had some experiences with people her own age, they were probably more like family (as their grandfather reincarnated was there anything else she could be?). And of course Korra's ability to relate to The People is important as the Avatar.
I suppose the one thing that I really want to see in this series is for someone to point out to Amon that just because he took away their bending, bad people are not going to stop being bad. They'll find new techniques to terrorize the population and assert their supposed authority, and in the end he'll have accomplished nothing.
