Legend of Korra: Beginnings, Parts 1+2

[jimhines]

Legend of Korra
2 x 7: Beginnings, Part 1
2 x 8: Beginnings, Part 2

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): Korra learns about the origins of the first Avatar and realizes what she must do to restore balance to the physical and spirit worlds.

Comments

[snapes_angel]

It was sort of a fun episodic-type construct, wasn't it?

They couldn't follow the exact same formula as for Sozin's Comet. Too formulaic, and the story would falter. As it is, it's formulaic enough, in another direction, in the first few episodes, for the story to flounder at points.

We have the Koi at the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole. I'd assume they're still there, though we haven't seen anything. Then we have the twins - Bolin's "wife" and her brother. And we hae balance/imbalance. In some ways ,the twins are about as unbalanced as you can get. BD Korra's been out of balance, and Mako, in balance.

And Bolin is silly. ;)

[jimhines]

I was wondering about the Koi as well. So much of the imagery and symbolism echoed what we saw there. It made me wonder if the episode(s) were going to do anything explicitly with them.

[snapes_angel]

They do seem rather coy about the Koi.

[tithenai]

While I genuinely enjoyed this episode (with the same provisos about it being functionally a different show with no women in it), I remain frustrated by the light/dark = good/evil construction.

Why is it that Vaatu being free means he can "darken" spirits? Why can't Raava "lighten" spirits in retaliation? If the whole thing is supposed to be that spirits must be BALANCED and that when they go dark they're OUT of balance, there should logically also be spirits that are whacked-out light-wise, that need darkening. Otherwise you're just presuming that "light" is the default setting of spirits and "dark" is them malfunctioning, which is a really tired trope.

But I guess we wouldn't have gotten Raava-in-a-teapot otherwise and goodness knows I thought that was a beautiful image. Blargh.

[jimhines]

It reminds me of the Star Wars prequels and the whole mess about bringing "balance" to the force, which apparently meant wiping out all of the bad guys. That word, I do not think it means what they think it means.

I suppose Raava might be able to "goodify" spirits, but simply chooses not to do so because distorting their nature wouldn't be a good act? I don't know. I'm not inclined to assume the writers have thought it through that much.

And yes. Teapot Raava was gorgeous!

[tsubaki_ny]

I have mixed feelings about the mythology/canon changes. On the one hand, this particular story/minithread/flashback/what have you was *amazing*. (The first time I saw the Dragon Dance, I got fairly verklempt, and even briefly here it was so touching to see it again.) Wan is a strong character and his journey and growth make sense and are a joy to follow

[jimhines]

"It reminds me of my problem with the recent movie "Epic," which I also liked for many things, but not this one -- making rot and decay in a (non-Edenic) forest the equivalent of evil is just plain *wrong*."

I haven't seen Epic yet, though I've been curious about it from the previews.

But yeah, that's just backwards and messed-up :-/

[tsubaki_ny]

I thought "Epic" was a sweet movie that did a lot of things right. And I loved the female characters. But it was based on a book by William Joyce, who also wrote the book that "Rise of the Guardians" was based on, and "Rise" had the same sort of same, exact, verbatim simplistic light/dark duality going on -- "fear" equals evil and must be defeated and stamped out. (Um, no.)

Actually, I think "Epic" did a lot better than "Rise" in that respect -- there is at least a scant bit of lip service paid to the idea of balance, and the king of the mold people has legitimate grief over [very, very mild, first 5 minutes type spoiler] n ybfg puvyq.

[tsubaki_ny]

Jim, have you seen the AtLA episode (2nd season, "Bitter Work") where Iroh teaches Zuko how to redirect lightning? Iroh's speech on what defines each of the four nations and how every characteristic is both connected and vital is one of the most profound things to come out of this franchise.