Thoughts on Legend of Korra

[jimhines]

We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could

Comments

[jimhines]

Flailing is welcome. One of the things I love about blogging is being able to geek out about stuff with other people :-)

Is it Bei Fong instead of Beifong? I've seen it both ways. The website has Beifong.

[alecaustin]

It's often a question of what Romanization conventions you're using (since a lot of characters in Korra/Avatar have names that are explicitly derived from Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and the like).

The general western tendency is to elide two-or-more-character names (e.g. Bei Fong) into single words (e.g. Beifong), but it always makes me twitch a little when I see it. Part of that is personal bias, and part of it is knowing that kind of elision can introduce ambiguity as to what the original characters were - "Xian", for example, could have been "Xi An" or the single character "Xian".

[jimhines]

That doesn't surprise me at all. Airbending in particular keeps reminding me of tai chi.

[jadedissola]

*puts on nerd hat* Actually the waterbending is based on Tai Chi (it's really easier to see the technique in Book One in TLA as Aang is learning how to waterbend alongside Katara in the first episodes). Airbending is based on Baguazhang.

(And I'll stop myself from commenting and squeeing all over this post since I could talk about both series all day long since they're just so amazing.)

[huit]

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. *cough* haha, it really is a great show.

Do you think you will continue to review episodes as they come out/as you watch them? Or (more likely) every few episodes?

I hope you don't mind a bit of exposition from me, but I think this is sort of relevant and not totally obvious from the show: Metalbending is actually a very specialized, and very difficult form of earthbending. In the original series, only firebenders could refine and manipulate metal. There are actually other specialized variants some of the other elements too, like the lightning for firebenders.

[jimhines]

I poked around on Google and Wikipedia, and had come across that factoid about metalbending. (Signs I'm getting into a new fandom -- lots of time spent on Wikipedia and elsewhere.) It's one of those things that's cool to know, but that I don't think is necessary to the story, so I'm glad they didn't stop the story to explain it. (And Jim starts writing run-ons again...)

I hadn't considered reviewing the episodes. Hm. I'm hesitant because I know I'd be missing some things, due to being a newbie. Let me think about that.

[lissibith]

Butting in, but I think your being a newbie could make your reviews interesting as compared to some of the others out there. Most people reviewing it have the background of having watched A:TLA, but that also means that they have specific knowledge and expectations of what's possible or likely that a newcomer starting with Korra wouldn't have. I'd personally be interested to see, like here, how the world of Korra reads to a person who doesn't have those expectations

[dejadrew]

Seconding Lissibith. I'd also be curious to know what someone thinks who is coming to the world fresh. I'm constantly comparing old to new, fangirling over references, cackling at in-jokes, and trying not to mentally refer to the brothers as "New Zuko and New Sokka." It'd be neat to know what this looks like to someone who ISN'T doing all that.

[theferrett]

What *I* really liked about Tahno was that he became sympathetic because of what happened to him, but he still remained an asshole. The reasons he wants revenge will not be the Avatar's, and that's a delightful juxtaposition of character.

[theferrett]

Oh. And the original Avatar is even better, maybe. The first episodes are much weaker, but the overall storyline? One of the best on television ever.

[jimhines]

This was also cool. He became sympathetic, but his core character/personality was unchanged.

[jadedissola]

Honestly, there isn't a whole lot of information you're missing because you didn't watch TLA. The world Aang enters into is very different from the one Korra lives in now. This by no means is me saying not to watch TLA, and in fact I think you must watch it if only because it is an amazing series with many, many positive attributes you don't get in most children's animation. Plus, they handled some pretty heavy subjects (like war, child abuse, and even genocide) while still keeping it kid-friendly and not talking down to the audience or glorifying it

[jimhines]

That's a good point, and I can't help wondering if they would have gone there had Korra been male. While it was handled much better than normal, I suspect it probably wouldn't have been there at all, or at least not in the same way, with a male protag.

"I'd also love to see a lead character who is queer without the fact s/he is queer being treated as unusual or abnormal..."

Yes.

[jadedissola]

Yeah, the cynic in me thinks if this were The Legend of Mako (or even Bolin), we wouldn't have this pressing need to pair off the main character right away. It could be argued that in the first episode, Aang sees Katara and is obviously getting butterflies, but that relationship takes three seasons to really develop.

It's a form of sexism, though I don't believe it's intentional on the creators' and writers' parts. More that it's considered a given that lead females need a strong male pairing. Even Buffy had Angel followed by Riley, who after he lost his super solider mojo eventually couldn't cope with Buffy being so strong.

[akiko]

Korra's 5 years older than Aang, so maybe she's just more aware of those sorts of feelings. And (straight) boys of a similar age would be like, ooh, pretty girl, I'm gonna ask her out. (Though I agree, it's a fairly trite thing to do. I think Bolin is SO adorable though.)