The holidays are almost here
A week into December, and it finally feels like winter! By which I mean it's hovering around the 40s, which is more seasonal than 60-70s. It might've even flurried last night, if you can believe that.
Less fortunate news, one of my main computers at school died last week on account of one of my hard drives malfunctioning. IT people have had it for about a week now to see if they can't rescue them, but haven't heard anything yet. Worst case scenario, I lose a lot of stuff that was on those hard drives. Which may not be that bad, since I think most of the important stuff is backed up/on other computers, but it's really irritating to lose entire libraries of downloaded papers and all the handy miscellaneous things. Bleh.
Is it's just me but it seriously seems like there's not enough time in a day cause I try to get one thing done and next thing I know it's midnight already. Gah.
Otherwise, the holiday season is here in full, people are putting up lights/decorations, new year's almost here and more importantly, break! Related, received a gorgeous card and cookies (already gone oops) from grendelity earlier this week. Also ended up covered in glitter and snowflakes from same card. Lost Girl is back in for it's last season, which I'm kind of sad to see go. Alongside Legend of Korra, that makes for two shows on the roster finishing up for good so maybe time to go looking for new things. Also, a hello to claudiapriscus and lackadaisy! Uh, not much to say except that I basically use the same username everywhere.
Now here, have some extensive thoughts on Legend of Korra.
[Spoilers obviously, and more talk of PTSD]
Not much to say for Rememberances- they made the best of a really bad situation. Mako's segment was pretty gratifying if only because everyone else called him out for that awful mess of relationships in Book 1 and 2. Bolin's segment was admittedly funny, mostly due to Varrick's spin on the story. Also, none of the other villains like Unalaq. Korra's part was pretty eh- I feel like they were trying to communicate that Korra was still struggling with coming back to civilization, her identity outside of the Avatar, etc, which they sorta kinda did but not really well?
Korra's section does make a lot more sense when you consider that it's pretty obvious that eps 8-9 were meant to be a two part arc about Korra's final steps in recovering. Which would've been really excellent, because ep 9 does feel like it was more than a little rushed.
And wrt ep 9, okay. I have a lot to say about ep 9 cause it's more or less likely the final step in Korra's journey of recovery, so yeah.
One of the difference between The Last Airbender and LoK is that TLA is more about the world, the concept of the Avatar and devoted a lot of time to building up the world, which it did a pretty spectacular job with. Since everything's been built up, Korra gets the bonus of building off that to make Legend of Korra more about Korra than anything else, and how Korra's dealing with really heavy responsibilities that come with being the Avatar (afaik, Aang only had to deal with Ozai and Yakone and those were black and white). TLA also stuck much more to the Epic Hero Story, whereas LoK has a lot more elements of what you'd find in a modern drama.
The whole point I'm getting at is that this season is taking a really good look at Korra, both in the aftermath of a lot of trauma and how she's overcoming/coming to terms with it in order to get back to being a whole person again. One thing that it's done a magnificent job with is in establishing that Korra's recovery isn't an easy or fast journey, that it won't take magical moment for everything to be alright, and it's translated into a prolonged journey for Korra to heal across the season.
Also, if anyone at all has any doubts that Korra's suffering/recovering from anything but PTSD, this ep pretty all but says it.
Anyhow.
The point of this season's been all about Korra's very real struggle to heal and move on after she's nearly died (not counting having her bending taken away/almost driven to suicide, almost letting humanity be destroyed, and having ten thousand years of previous lives destroyed). Learning to deal and move past traumatic events is hard.
So it's a pretty apt observation that no one around Korra thinks she's capable anymore, and it is a tricky place to be in. She feels ready enough to take things on, she feels like she should feel better- no matter how she paints it, she isn't there yet. She's gotten further from where she was at the start, that's true. It doesn't mean that she's back to her old self, which presents a fault in Korra's mentality. When you go through any experience, it leaves marks on you for better or worse. You're never quite the same person you were before; the larger the magnitude what you go through, the less likely you're going to come out looking like the same person you were. In the case of everything's that's happened to Korra, I don't think that there's any way she could come out as the same person, no matter how hard she tries. It's pretty apparent early on when she first tries to go back to the way she used to be after her therapy with Katara, but that turns out pretty badly.
She's spends a lot of the early parts of the season and the six months prior distancing herself from...well, herself and her role as the Avatar. Korra's basically running away and it keeps her down- see in the case of hallucination!Korra, where it's literally old!Korra vs present!Korra. She's eaten away by doubts, both internal and external, so Korra has to work to build herself back up over the season. This ep kind of works like a culmination of her journey- she's at the point where she has to confront what happened to her, even though she's been trying to do anything but that.
Aside, Tenzin's commentary/concern for Korra is kind of heartbreaking, with the idea that he feels Korra isn't really 100% back yet and wondering if she's quite up for the task. I do think his paternalistic behavior is grounded from very real concerns because he's such a mentor/parental figure for Korra that he worries she's still not doing well, might get hurt again or relapse to a point of no return. He's trying to help by giving her more time and space, but Tenzin's not always the one to know what Korra needs. It also illustrates the tricky territory that's navigated with someone's who's recovering/suffering from something that resembles depression- people from the outside (friends, parents, etc) try to help the best they can, but sometimes just end up complicating things. Which isn't to say that Tenzin and co. or anyone else in that position are at fault, only that it's something that's difficult to work through.
It isn't to say that Tenzin's attempts to help aren't useless. Katara did what she could to help with her physical therapy and started her off on the road to recovery. After that, Toph enters the picture. Toph gives Korra space to rehabilitate, insight into what's going on and guidance to confront the fact that she's afraid and motivation to finally remove the remaining mercury. Korra's friends and Tenzin provide the environment to reconnect to the wider world at large, both on a personal level and as the Avatar.
It's a slow and steady process of healing, of restitution and rebuilding, so Korra can reach point where she's able to face Zaheer. I'd be willing to say that facing Zaheer at any other point in time wouldn't have helped Korra at all- it might've been detrimental, if anything. Seeing Zaheer at this point is a logical step- it provides a way of coming to terms with her trauma/reassuring herself that he has no power anymore. And it does, sorta.
A thing to note about Zaheer- he occupies a strange space in the gallery of villains. Partly because while all of them are extremists in some way or another, he's not insane or beyond reason. He doesn't want to rule the world, gain power for himself or have a conventional personal agenda- he's got an idea of what the world should look like, and tried to go about achieving it. Whether or not that's selfish of him to attempt to enforce his worldview on others is debatable, but he does rank as the more civil/reasonable of the antagonists on the show. Also unlike Amon and Unalaq, Zaheer has the dubious honor of living past what he sets in motion to see how the world pans out. Ironically, he also spectacularly fails in achieving his goal post defeat- Amon's revolution spurred on a democratic reformation of the United Republic with representation for nonbenders, the spirit portals were left open as Unalaq wanted to usher in a new age of spirituality but Zaheer? He killed the Earth Queen, started up his utopian anarchist uprising...and then a military dictator seized power control of the Earth Kingdom. Oh, he also failed to kill Korra, lost his lover, his teammates/friends, and exposed the secret society that he belonged to.
I don't think that's Zaheer's wanted, and he's had a long three years in solitary confinement locked in a mountain to reflect, which explains his willingness to help Korra.
Of course, that doesn't mean he shouldn't be locked up in a prison in chains or isn't responsible for what's happened to Korra. He just gets the 'not nearly as much as a jerk as you could've been' award. Trust isn't forgiveness.
Korra's idea of confronting Zaheer in chains as a means to resolving her emotional and mental pain isn't a bad idea- it's pointedly cathartic. It's saying that it doesn't have power over her anymore, but saying something has no power over you is very different from dealing with it once you reach a certain point. The main problem with Korra's approach to the matter is something that Zaheer hedges on- I don't think that he's the actual problem that she's been wrestling with. Yes, Zaheer is to blame- he almost killed her, after all. Zaheer says that Korra blaming him is a crutch- there's truth to the statement. Zaheer is entirely responsible for what's happened to her and the resulting problems that plague, but she survived the attack, recovered from the physical injuries and removed the remaining poison. No matter how much she tries to tell herself, the issue she's dealing with isn't Zaheer himself- it's a fear of the unknown and dying, a belief that she's somehow lesser than what she used to be, and trying to put what's happened to her out of her mind instead of dealing with it.
It's almost impossible to move on with the present when you're stuck reliving the past, which is where Korra's been up to this point. She's still plagued by flashbacks because she hasn't dealt with the underlying fear and doubts there, and it's at that point that it becomes up to Korra to decide how far she's going to go. And it all begins with a very simple, clear cut solution- she did almost die, but she didn't. It doesn't sound like a huge mental jump, cause it isn't. What's important is that it's true and gives Korra the anchor to hold onto when she breaks through the block.
I really do like that the entire climax revolves around not forgetting about a traumatic event that's happened, but accepting it to be able to move past it. Things like that stay with you. They don't go away, they stick around, and forgetting is putting it out of mind so that they aren't really dealt with and hover in the back. It's by accepting it for what it is, you're able to take back a degree of control- you're not avoiding it anymore, you're not trying to repress it and you recognize it for what it is. You're able to move on. The act of forgetting doesn't make it go away or remove its power over you. Well, that isn't true- forgetting can help, in some cases. For Korra, it doesn't- it simply puts it into the back of her mind and nags and pulls at her and gives her a sense of security, yes. She's safe again, but it also means that she's actively unable to return to her duties and it isn't real security- she's jumpy and scared and harboring doubts and phantoms and maybe they're not readily apparent all the time, but she's effectively walking on a very thin line. What happened with Kuvira is a perfect example- she's going into a fight blind.
A lot of media tends to take the latter option to handwave why a character wouldn't really be changed by what they've gone through, why the resultant mess wouldn't be dealt with, and emphasizes the idea that to return to being whole, you have to become the person you were before the event. Except you're not. That in particular is something I think Korra's painfully aware of- she sees her mental and emotional scars as ruining her and responsible for making people doubt her. But that's entirely the point of what reliving Zaheer's attack is to point out to her- scars are not the same as injuries. Scars are what's left after the injury, and bearing them changes you. But scars are not injuries- scars are the what remains, a sign that you've made it past the injury and survived even though they stay with you. Scars are not injuries that hold you back- scars are healing, scars are a part of you and what makes you whole again after injury.
It's that realization that really lets Korra finally come to terms with the attack, and become a whole person.
tl;dr- I'M REALLY GRATIFIED AT HOW KORRA'S ARC HAS BEEN HANDLED AND I REALLY LOVE IT.
Less fortunate news, one of my main computers at school died last week on account of one of my hard drives malfunctioning. IT people have had it for about a week now to see if they can't rescue them, but haven't heard anything yet. Worst case scenario, I lose a lot of stuff that was on those hard drives. Which may not be that bad, since I think most of the important stuff is backed up/on other computers, but it's really irritating to lose entire libraries of downloaded papers and all the handy miscellaneous things. Bleh.
Is it's just me but it seriously seems like there's not enough time in a day cause I try to get one thing done and next thing I know it's midnight already. Gah.
Otherwise, the holiday season is here in full, people are putting up lights/decorations, new year's almost here and more importantly, break! Related, received a gorgeous card and cookies (already gone oops) from grendelity earlier this week. Also ended up covered in glitter and snowflakes from same card. Lost Girl is back in for it's last season, which I'm kind of sad to see go. Alongside Legend of Korra, that makes for two shows on the roster finishing up for good so maybe time to go looking for new things. Also, a hello to claudiapriscus and lackadaisy! Uh, not much to say except that I basically use the same username everywhere.
Now here, have some extensive thoughts on Legend of Korra.
[Spoilers obviously, and more talk of PTSD]
Not much to say for Rememberances- they made the best of a really bad situation. Mako's segment was pretty gratifying if only because everyone else called him out for that awful mess of relationships in Book 1 and 2. Bolin's segment was admittedly funny, mostly due to Varrick's spin on the story. Also, none of the other villains like Unalaq. Korra's part was pretty eh- I feel like they were trying to communicate that Korra was still struggling with coming back to civilization, her identity outside of the Avatar, etc, which they sorta kinda did but not really well?
Korra's section does make a lot more sense when you consider that it's pretty obvious that eps 8-9 were meant to be a two part arc about Korra's final steps in recovering. Which would've been really excellent, because ep 9 does feel like it was more than a little rushed.
And wrt ep 9, okay. I have a lot to say about ep 9 cause it's more or less likely the final step in Korra's journey of recovery, so yeah.
One of the difference between The Last Airbender and LoK is that TLA is more about the world, the concept of the Avatar and devoted a lot of time to building up the world, which it did a pretty spectacular job with. Since everything's been built up, Korra gets the bonus of building off that to make Legend of Korra more about Korra than anything else, and how Korra's dealing with really heavy responsibilities that come with being the Avatar (afaik, Aang only had to deal with Ozai and Yakone and those were black and white). TLA also stuck much more to the Epic Hero Story, whereas LoK has a lot more elements of what you'd find in a modern drama.
The whole point I'm getting at is that this season is taking a really good look at Korra, both in the aftermath of a lot of trauma and how she's overcoming/coming to terms with it in order to get back to being a whole person again. One thing that it's done a magnificent job with is in establishing that Korra's recovery isn't an easy or fast journey, that it won't take magical moment for everything to be alright, and it's translated into a prolonged journey for Korra to heal across the season.
Also, if anyone at all has any doubts that Korra's suffering/recovering from anything but PTSD, this ep pretty all but says it.
Anyhow.
The point of this season's been all about Korra's very real struggle to heal and move on after she's nearly died (not counting having her bending taken away/almost driven to suicide, almost letting humanity be destroyed, and having ten thousand years of previous lives destroyed). Learning to deal and move past traumatic events is hard.
So it's a pretty apt observation that no one around Korra thinks she's capable anymore, and it is a tricky place to be in. She feels ready enough to take things on, she feels like she should feel better- no matter how she paints it, she isn't there yet. She's gotten further from where she was at the start, that's true. It doesn't mean that she's back to her old self, which presents a fault in Korra's mentality. When you go through any experience, it leaves marks on you for better or worse. You're never quite the same person you were before; the larger the magnitude what you go through, the less likely you're going to come out looking like the same person you were. In the case of everything's that's happened to Korra, I don't think that there's any way she could come out as the same person, no matter how hard she tries. It's pretty apparent early on when she first tries to go back to the way she used to be after her therapy with Katara, but that turns out pretty badly.
She's spends a lot of the early parts of the season and the six months prior distancing herself from...well, herself and her role as the Avatar. Korra's basically running away and it keeps her down- see in the case of hallucination!Korra, where it's literally old!Korra vs present!Korra. She's eaten away by doubts, both internal and external, so Korra has to work to build herself back up over the season. This ep kind of works like a culmination of her journey- she's at the point where she has to confront what happened to her, even though she's been trying to do anything but that.
Aside, Tenzin's commentary/concern for Korra is kind of heartbreaking, with the idea that he feels Korra isn't really 100% back yet and wondering if she's quite up for the task. I do think his paternalistic behavior is grounded from very real concerns because he's such a mentor/parental figure for Korra that he worries she's still not doing well, might get hurt again or relapse to a point of no return. He's trying to help by giving her more time and space, but Tenzin's not always the one to know what Korra needs. It also illustrates the tricky territory that's navigated with someone's who's recovering/suffering from something that resembles depression- people from the outside (friends, parents, etc) try to help the best they can, but sometimes just end up complicating things. Which isn't to say that Tenzin and co. or anyone else in that position are at fault, only that it's something that's difficult to work through.
It isn't to say that Tenzin's attempts to help aren't useless. Katara did what she could to help with her physical therapy and started her off on the road to recovery. After that, Toph enters the picture. Toph gives Korra space to rehabilitate, insight into what's going on and guidance to confront the fact that she's afraid and motivation to finally remove the remaining mercury. Korra's friends and Tenzin provide the environment to reconnect to the wider world at large, both on a personal level and as the Avatar.
It's a slow and steady process of healing, of restitution and rebuilding, so Korra can reach point where she's able to face Zaheer. I'd be willing to say that facing Zaheer at any other point in time wouldn't have helped Korra at all- it might've been detrimental, if anything. Seeing Zaheer at this point is a logical step- it provides a way of coming to terms with her trauma/reassuring herself that he has no power anymore. And it does, sorta.
A thing to note about Zaheer- he occupies a strange space in the gallery of villains. Partly because while all of them are extremists in some way or another, he's not insane or beyond reason. He doesn't want to rule the world, gain power for himself or have a conventional personal agenda- he's got an idea of what the world should look like, and tried to go about achieving it. Whether or not that's selfish of him to attempt to enforce his worldview on others is debatable, but he does rank as the more civil/reasonable of the antagonists on the show. Also unlike Amon and Unalaq, Zaheer has the dubious honor of living past what he sets in motion to see how the world pans out. Ironically, he also spectacularly fails in achieving his goal post defeat- Amon's revolution spurred on a democratic reformation of the United Republic with representation for nonbenders, the spirit portals were left open as Unalaq wanted to usher in a new age of spirituality but Zaheer? He killed the Earth Queen, started up his utopian anarchist uprising...and then a military dictator seized power control of the Earth Kingdom. Oh, he also failed to kill Korra, lost his lover, his teammates/friends, and exposed the secret society that he belonged to.
I don't think that's Zaheer's wanted, and he's had a long three years in solitary confinement locked in a mountain to reflect, which explains his willingness to help Korra.
Of course, that doesn't mean he shouldn't be locked up in a prison in chains or isn't responsible for what's happened to Korra. He just gets the 'not nearly as much as a jerk as you could've been' award. Trust isn't forgiveness.
Korra's idea of confronting Zaheer in chains as a means to resolving her emotional and mental pain isn't a bad idea- it's pointedly cathartic. It's saying that it doesn't have power over her anymore, but saying something has no power over you is very different from dealing with it once you reach a certain point. The main problem with Korra's approach to the matter is something that Zaheer hedges on- I don't think that he's the actual problem that she's been wrestling with. Yes, Zaheer is to blame- he almost killed her, after all. Zaheer says that Korra blaming him is a crutch- there's truth to the statement. Zaheer is entirely responsible for what's happened to her and the resulting problems that plague, but she survived the attack, recovered from the physical injuries and removed the remaining poison. No matter how much she tries to tell herself, the issue she's dealing with isn't Zaheer himself- it's a fear of the unknown and dying, a belief that she's somehow lesser than what she used to be, and trying to put what's happened to her out of her mind instead of dealing with it.
It's almost impossible to move on with the present when you're stuck reliving the past, which is where Korra's been up to this point. She's still plagued by flashbacks because she hasn't dealt with the underlying fear and doubts there, and it's at that point that it becomes up to Korra to decide how far she's going to go. And it all begins with a very simple, clear cut solution- she did almost die, but she didn't. It doesn't sound like a huge mental jump, cause it isn't. What's important is that it's true and gives Korra the anchor to hold onto when she breaks through the block.
I really do like that the entire climax revolves around not forgetting about a traumatic event that's happened, but accepting it to be able to move past it. Things like that stay with you. They don't go away, they stick around, and forgetting is putting it out of mind so that they aren't really dealt with and hover in the back. It's by accepting it for what it is, you're able to take back a degree of control- you're not avoiding it anymore, you're not trying to repress it and you recognize it for what it is. You're able to move on. The act of forgetting doesn't make it go away or remove its power over you. Well, that isn't true- forgetting can help, in some cases. For Korra, it doesn't- it simply puts it into the back of her mind and nags and pulls at her and gives her a sense of security, yes. She's safe again, but it also means that she's actively unable to return to her duties and it isn't real security- she's jumpy and scared and harboring doubts and phantoms and maybe they're not readily apparent all the time, but she's effectively walking on a very thin line. What happened with Kuvira is a perfect example- she's going into a fight blind.
A lot of media tends to take the latter option to handwave why a character wouldn't really be changed by what they've gone through, why the resultant mess wouldn't be dealt with, and emphasizes the idea that to return to being whole, you have to become the person you were before the event. Except you're not. That in particular is something I think Korra's painfully aware of- she sees her mental and emotional scars as ruining her and responsible for making people doubt her. But that's entirely the point of what reliving Zaheer's attack is to point out to her- scars are not the same as injuries. Scars are what's left after the injury, and bearing them changes you. But scars are not injuries- scars are the what remains, a sign that you've made it past the injury and survived even though they stay with you. Scars are not injuries that hold you back- scars are healing, scars are a part of you and what makes you whole again after injury.
It's that realization that really lets Korra finally come to terms with the attack, and become a whole person.
tl;dr- I'M REALLY GRATIFIED AT HOW KORRA'S ARC HAS BEEN HANDLED AND I REALLY LOVE IT.