Legend of Korra 1- 3

[crabby_lioness]

We watched the first three episodes of the Legend of Korra.  It's a gripping sequel to Avatar:  The Last Airbender set in a believable world with the creation team's trademark attention to detail.

(I'll assume a familiarity with The Last Airbender in discussing this series.  If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?  It's the best animated series ever.)

70 years have passed since the last series, and we've gone from a feudal world experiencing it's first world war and the first stirrings of industrialization to a full-fledged early Modern metropolis.  While the first series had a world-spanning setting, this series has a cramped, 1920s ambiance with influences ranging from Metropolis to Batman to 1984.

Our young avatar is the hot-headed Korra, a virtuoso of all forms of bending save air-bending who also lacks the spiritual sensitivity expected of the one who must balance the needs of the material world and the needs of the spirit world.  She bullies her way into the home of spiritual and airbending master Tenzin in Republic City for intensive training, but only gains a feel for the art by participating in pro bending matches.  Tenzin, for all of his dignity is written as a stereotypical "clueless sitcom Dad", and it looks like he and Korra will follow a stereotypical path from misunderstanding to enlightenment.  Or will they?

Meanwhile many benders have taken up crime, which in turn has spurred an anti-bending movement led by the mysterious Ammon and his chi-blocking henchmen.  Ammon claims the spirit world is out of balance and that he has been given the power to purge bender of their gifts permanently.  He gives a scary (to benders) demonstration, but I'll point out we didn't get an opportunity to examine any of his victims up close afterwards.

It's clear the benders are used to fighting duels instead of death matches, and Ammon exploits this weakness thoroughly.  If his chi blockers were attacked with death blows they'd have a harder time at it.

According to the rules of fair play mystery we should have already met Ammon's secret identity.  I made nobody happy (including myself) when I pointed out that logically the most likely suspect (high government connections, bender, general build, general voice timber and diction, interest in spirituality, and reticence to harm Korra) was Tenzin.

Or maybe a spirit monster possessing Tenzin.

However it plays out,we're eager to see the next episode.

(And OMG Bo Lin has the cutest boy-face in cartoons.  That is all.)

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

the rules of fair play mystery we should have already met Ammon's secret identity

hm. I hadn't thought about that. Not sure they're playing by those rules, necessarily.

I calculate that in the next episode or two we'll meet at least one female character to be Korra's BFF. The nice thing about actually *trusting* the creators is that I feel confident that other female characters *will* show up, it's not going to be "Korra is so awesome she can be one of the guys!"

[a-g-doren.livejournal.com]

Assuming that the story has three full acts we're still very early in act one so there is still plenty of time to introduce Ammon's alter ego. Though I agree with Crabby Lioness that it will be soon. More speculation on Ammon's alter ego later.

edit---> Crabby what other fandoms do I see you in?

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize it had been extended out to 12 and 14 episodes. The penalty of avoiding spoilers, I suppose.

Crabby what other fandoms do I see you in?

Doctor Who, Torchwood, Merlin, and Marvel Comics. I haven't done much fanac lately; we've moved and are massively renovating a 1920s bungalow.

[a-g-doren.livejournal.com]

I don't know how many episodes it is. I am avoiding all spoilers and all shipping for LoK and pretty much everything these days.

I haven't seen you on any Merlin forums. Must be Doctor Who, I haven't been on any Doctor Who boards or anything recently and I feel like it was a while ago. *shrug*

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

I stopped writing about Merlin at the beginning of the second season when it got silly. I meant to pick it up again during the fourth season, which improved a lot, but I didn't have the time.

I wrote about Doctor Who through the end of Ten's time. No offense to Mr. Smith, but the current production has felt far more superficial. I think I wrote about Gaiman's episode, though.

I wrote about Torchwood until COE.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

From Wikipedia:

Hiroshi Sato (Daniel Dae Kim) is a barrel-chested businessman with a big personality. His family lineage extends back to the first Fire Nation colonists. He initially grew up poor, but developed and mass-produced the "satomobile", the Republic City equivalent of the Model-T. He is also the father of Asami Sato.

Asami Sato (Seychelle Gabriel) is a young non-bender and daughter of Hiroshi Sato. Asami has lived a life of luxury, but despite this, her fancy clothes, and polite manners, she also can be tough. She is an expert driver and isn't afraid to mix it up on the racetrack. Asami has also had the best self-defense training money can buy and is also a big fan of pro-bending and goes to every match.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Bingo! We haven't met them yet, have we?

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

We definitely haven't met her. It's possible Hiroshi is the man who runs the stadium, but that guy appears to be not as rich and to have ties to organized crime.

[topknot-dear.livejournal.com]

BO LIN IS THE CUTEST OF CUTES. I also made the connection with Tenzin. Unfortunately because hes behind a mask we can't even rule out if its him if we see them together, because Ammon could easily have body doubles and voice recordings, etc.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

And there's always the possibility he's a spirit monster who's slipped past the veil after Aang's death.

[a-g-doren.livejournal.com]

Spirit Monster might right, but I feel like its some sort of Karma thing. My lil' sis pointed out that it was Avatar Kiyoshi that created the Dai Li' and you see what a pain they were. The same with fire sages at the temple and Avatar Roku not dealing more decisively with the Fire Lord during his life time.The clues to Ammon, his identity and his ambitions can be found in the things that Aang did and failed to do.

I have a prediction: Ammon will successfully take away Korra's bending and her spiritual journey willbe getting it back.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

IDK Next episode Korra challenges Ammon to a duel. There's a clip from one of the series trailers where Ammon tells Korra, "I'm saving you to until last." That's part of my evidence for it being Tinzin.

She definitely needs to journey to the Spirit World. Ammon's claim that the spirit world gave him his powers can only be validated there.

My theory is that after Aang died but while Korra was still a child there was a great disturbance in the Spirit World. Tinzin tried to correct it and was corrupted.

I love how Korra is everything Aang looking back would have wished he had been. I find myself doing this with My Little Pony. All my life I've been Twilight Sparkle, but watching the show I wish I was Pinkie Pie. :)

[a-g-doren.livejournal.com]

So none of us buys the story about the firebender killing Ammon's parents?

As far as we know chakra blocking is temporary and Ammon claims his actions were permanent. More importantly Ty Lee hit very specific pressure points on the body when she blocked chakras. Ammon's technique for taking away bending was identical to Aang's which the Lion turtle referred to as bending the mind or mindbending. Now the only witnesses to Aang's technique were Suki and Sokka.

Taking away bending seems like something Soka might actually want to study and learn. Perhaps Sokka did learn it, Ammon somehow got the information from him and then killed Soka to keep it secret.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call them "witnesses", they were kinda busy. But everyone had to know that the Phoenix Emperor had lost his juice and be curious about why.