I've decided to do a retrospective of The Legend of Korra chunk-by-chunk, because it's such an amazing series, but also because it was such a frustratingly mediocre one at first. I remember when the series was first being released and every week felt like Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap - you know someone is murdering someone, but you can't figure out how or who. Every episode felt like what you wanted, but also what you didn't want, and the fandom went crazy trying to justify or neutralize X point of view. The truth, if we're honest, is that the first two seasons had only two writers (the creators) doing the whole thing, when its predecessor, and Seasons 3 and 4 had the whole team that made the franchise flow together. With just two writers, they were able to get big chunks of it right, and the world was as exciting and magical as ever, but the big chunks of mediocrity hurt that much more. It hurts most of all to see potential wasted, certainly more than to see something that just isn't good. And hence, the mixed bag but still beloved series we got. I'll break it down chunk by chunk.
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Legend of Korra - Episodes 1-4
I'll say this - the first four episodes are golden. The two-parter opening is everything you could want from the successor to Avatar: The Last Airbender; the characters have grown up, the world has matured, their accomplishments are honored and treasured, the old problems no longer exist. The past show isn't ignored, but it doesn't take center stage. It's honored, it's respected, and present in a way that understands that the next generation has to take charge, and that the passing of the torch is a joyful thing. Beautiful.
A small plot point nitpick - the only one for these episodes, really. I've always thought it was a little silly that Avatar Aang and Katara only ever had three kids, only one of whom was an airbender, when the whole point of the last series was that Aang was the last one and would have to repopulate them himself. And even laying aside the unfair and pushy genetic imperative that they're under no obligation to overcommit to, Aang and Katara are the most cuddly couple in animation, just went through their equivalent of World War II, and are both deeply nurturing people who play with babies and teach little kids. You're telling me they only had three of them?! They can't even justify it with issues of Katara's health, 'cause we know their world has pretty awesome waterbending healthcare, and we never even hear in passing of a woman dying in childbirth. We see a childbirth taking place in a cave, and she still turns out fine! The issue of them having three kids like a generic midde-class home is a storytelling decision made so there's only one person Korra can learn airbending from, and it was probably made pretty early in the process so they could strap down the story. And that's fine. But I think it's a little silly.
Nitpick aside, this is a great batch of episodes. The new cast is wonderful - Tenzin feels legit, Bolin and Mako are fun and new, Asami is elegant and fills a good role. The villain is great - like its predecessor, Amon comes across with real menace and a nuanced opponent to the main cast. Like the Fire Nation tried to make everything Fire Nation instead of letting people be distinct, Amon wants everyone to be non-bender instead of letting people be who they are. And he feels very different, too. He's a guerilla, not an overlord. He's a close-up fighter, not a fire-blaster. And his ability to remove bending feels genuinely menacing instead of just a little brush-up. It's almost too good, because the explanation reached for it (which feels like it was thought of after the fact) ends up detracting from his coolness with its mundane nature. But for now, he's awesome, and I love it. There's also the fact that his propaganda and appearance draws a lot from communist imagery of the time, especially Chairman Mao, another proponent of "equality". It's the kind of semi-historical allusion/artistic reference point that the original did so well, and part of why people remember it so fondly! It's not just raising a moral question, it's using actual history to say, 'hey, a version of this really happened, and you oughta think about what that means.' Great.
There's not really much to say, except to give this a ringing endorsement, so I'll leave it all here and move on to the next batch! :)
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