Time for Another Speculation Post!
~THE MIDSEASON EDITION~
Part One: What We Have Left to See
We're halfway through the season already, guys! And as has already been pointed out in the comments, we're going into the second half almost completely blind. Let's recap what we have left to see from the trailers, courtesy of this tumblr post:
- Korra breathing fire
- Korra firebending in an unknown location
- Tenzin doing some heavy-duty airbending in what is presumably a fight
- The Krew plus Asami attempting to ride Naga together before she throws them all off (if anyone knows of a better-quality vid of this, please let me know!)
- The second pencil test in this video, of Lin Bei Fong earthbending
- This line test of Korra sparring (?) against Mako and Bolin
And while these storyboards from Bryan's Tumblr are explicitly from Book Two and not the rest of this season, they might give us some indication of how Book One ends:
(Let me know if I missed anything!)
Part Two: What's Up with the Satos?
Yesterday, someone on Tumblr with superhuman eyes noticed this little gem:
I don't know about you guys, but it looks to me like Amon's hideout may be inside Future Industries. This seems consistent with some of the other unseen shots - namely, Korra appears to be breathing fire in front of a Satomobile, not to mention some of those exteriors of Future Industries in the "Welcome to Republic City" game were hella creepy. I don't want to jump to conclusions, because we don't yet have a plausible explanation as to why Hiroshi would be supporting Amon, but here is some possible evidence that he is:
- Hiroshi is Republic City's most renowned innovator, and he became famous for mass-producing the Satomobile so that every citizen might be able to have one. The equalists' electrocution gloves seemed pretty high-tech to me, and Amon's dialogue about everyone "having the power of a chi-blocker" or something to that effect stood out to me. Could Hiroshi be behind the invention and the distribution of the gloves?
- Hiroshi is basically an expy of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company and famous for revolutionizing the assembly-line production of automobiles. What you may not know is that Ford was also a noted anti-Semite. It's not much to go on, but I wonder if Hiroshi has some prejudices of his own.
- People have noticed that Amon seems to have blueprints for a mecha hanging up in his lair. It's possible Hiroshi is also behind those.
- To me, it's telling that we didn't see Hiroshi or Asami during the chaos after the match in the most recent episode.
- This is debatable, but the importance Hiroshi placed on the Fire Ferrets wearing his logo, and the convenience with which the sponsorship came about in the first place are both highly suspicious.
- Bryan mentioned on his Tumblr that we met some "vital" characters in "The Voice in the Night." That was the episode we met Hiroshi, Asami, and Tarrlok. Hmm.
The biggest problem with this theory is that, as I mentioned, Hiroshi doesn't have a motive for supporting Amon. We know he's a non-bender, and his wife died when Asami was young, which could be connected to some anti-bender sentiment if Asami's mother met with a similar fate to Mako and Bolin's parents. I suspect that if Hiroshi really is giving Amon financial and technological resources, we'll be getting some clues as to why soon enough.
As for Asami, the longer she goes without significant character development, the more suspicious I am of her. At this point, I would not be at all surprised if she turns out to be a secret equalist. However, if she is working for Amon, I will be disappointed if she's just doing it for the evulz. I'm a big Makorra shipper and I don't particularly like Mako and Asami together, but I want Mako to actively choose Korra rather than just go to her because Asami ~betrayed~ him. I trust Mike and Bryan when it comes to character development, so I don't think this is likely to happen, but I am worried about how flat Asami is so far. If she is an equalist spy, I'd love it if she were conflicted about it. On a semi-related note, apparently Seychelle Gabriel has tweeted about doing some voice work for Asami in season two - does anyone have a link/source for this?
Part Three: Other Unanswered Questions
The most pressing, of course, is just what are those visions Korra keeps having about? What happened with Yakone 42 years ago? Will Korra finally meet up with Spirit Guide!Aang to discuss it?
- When/how will Korra airbend?
- What's ahead for Mako and Bolin now that the tournament is over and they didn't get the winnings?
- Will the brothers be forced to move out of the arena after Amon's attack (though it looked like their place was all right)/because of financial difficulties? Do you see them moving to Air Temple Island?
- What about their fighting skills? As awesome as they are in the ring, they've been pretty useless against the equalists thus far. Will Korra/some of the old masters be helping them learn traditional bending techniques?
- Will we see old!Zuko, his daughter, Kya, and Bumi? Will we see Katara again?
- When will Pema have her baby?
- Will we get any flashbacks to Korra, the brothers, or Asami's childhoods?
- Will Lin face serious repercussions for agreeing to take responsibility for the arena's security and then failing to stop Amon?
- On the shipping front, how will Mako and Asami's relationship pan out? Has Bolin gotten over his crush on Korra? And what about Korra and Mako?
- What is Tarrlok's deal? Is he just your typical opportunistic politician, or is there something more sinister to him?
- Is Amon really energybending? If not, what is he doing? And what is his eventual plan?
- What about Avatar State!Korra?
- Anything else you'd like to bring up?
That's all I've got. Speculate away, my pretties!
Part One: What We Have Left to See
We're halfway through the season already, guys! And as has already been pointed out in the comments, we're going into the second half almost completely blind. Let's recap what we have left to see from the trailers, courtesy of this tumblr post:
- Korra breathing fire
- Korra firebending in an unknown location
- Tenzin doing some heavy-duty airbending in what is presumably a fight
Click to view- The Krew plus Asami attempting to ride Naga together before she throws them all off (if anyone knows of a better-quality vid of this, please let me know!)
- The second pencil test in this video, of Lin Bei Fong earthbending
- This line test of Korra sparring (?) against Mako and Bolin
And while these storyboards from Bryan's Tumblr are explicitly from Book Two and not the rest of this season, they might give us some indication of how Book One ends:
(Let me know if I missed anything!)
Part Two: What's Up with the Satos?
Yesterday, someone on Tumblr with superhuman eyes noticed this little gem:
I don't know about you guys, but it looks to me like Amon's hideout may be inside Future Industries. This seems consistent with some of the other unseen shots - namely, Korra appears to be breathing fire in front of a Satomobile, not to mention some of those exteriors of Future Industries in the "Welcome to Republic City" game were hella creepy. I don't want to jump to conclusions, because we don't yet have a plausible explanation as to why Hiroshi would be supporting Amon, but here is some possible evidence that he is:
- Hiroshi is Republic City's most renowned innovator, and he became famous for mass-producing the Satomobile so that every citizen might be able to have one. The equalists' electrocution gloves seemed pretty high-tech to me, and Amon's dialogue about everyone "having the power of a chi-blocker" or something to that effect stood out to me. Could Hiroshi be behind the invention and the distribution of the gloves?
- Hiroshi is basically an expy of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company and famous for revolutionizing the assembly-line production of automobiles. What you may not know is that Ford was also a noted anti-Semite. It's not much to go on, but I wonder if Hiroshi has some prejudices of his own.
- People have noticed that Amon seems to have blueprints for a mecha hanging up in his lair. It's possible Hiroshi is also behind those.
- To me, it's telling that we didn't see Hiroshi or Asami during the chaos after the match in the most recent episode.
- This is debatable, but the importance Hiroshi placed on the Fire Ferrets wearing his logo, and the convenience with which the sponsorship came about in the first place are both highly suspicious.
- Bryan mentioned on his Tumblr that we met some "vital" characters in "The Voice in the Night." That was the episode we met Hiroshi, Asami, and Tarrlok. Hmm.
The biggest problem with this theory is that, as I mentioned, Hiroshi doesn't have a motive for supporting Amon. We know he's a non-bender, and his wife died when Asami was young, which could be connected to some anti-bender sentiment if Asami's mother met with a similar fate to Mako and Bolin's parents. I suspect that if Hiroshi really is giving Amon financial and technological resources, we'll be getting some clues as to why soon enough.
As for Asami, the longer she goes without significant character development, the more suspicious I am of her. At this point, I would not be at all surprised if she turns out to be a secret equalist. However, if she is working for Amon, I will be disappointed if she's just doing it for the evulz. I'm a big Makorra shipper and I don't particularly like Mako and Asami together, but I want Mako to actively choose Korra rather than just go to her because Asami ~betrayed~ him. I trust Mike and Bryan when it comes to character development, so I don't think this is likely to happen, but I am worried about how flat Asami is so far. If she is an equalist spy, I'd love it if she were conflicted about it. On a semi-related note, apparently Seychelle Gabriel has tweeted about doing some voice work for Asami in season two - does anyone have a link/source for this?
Part Three: Other Unanswered Questions
The most pressing, of course, is just what are those visions Korra keeps having about? What happened with Yakone 42 years ago? Will Korra finally meet up with Spirit Guide!Aang to discuss it?
- When/how will Korra airbend?
- What's ahead for Mako and Bolin now that the tournament is over and they didn't get the winnings?
- Will the brothers be forced to move out of the arena after Amon's attack (though it looked like their place was all right)/because of financial difficulties? Do you see them moving to Air Temple Island?
- What about their fighting skills? As awesome as they are in the ring, they've been pretty useless against the equalists thus far. Will Korra/some of the old masters be helping them learn traditional bending techniques?
- Will we see old!Zuko, his daughter, Kya, and Bumi? Will we see Katara again?
- When will Pema have her baby?
- Will we get any flashbacks to Korra, the brothers, or Asami's childhoods?
- Will Lin face serious repercussions for agreeing to take responsibility for the arena's security and then failing to stop Amon?
- On the shipping front, how will Mako and Asami's relationship pan out? Has Bolin gotten over his crush on Korra? And what about Korra and Mako?
- What is Tarrlok's deal? Is he just your typical opportunistic politician, or is there something more sinister to him?
- Is Amon really energybending? If not, what is he doing? And what is his eventual plan?
- What about Avatar State!Korra?
- Anything else you'd like to bring up?
That's all I've got. Speculate away, my pretties!