Avatar:
The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are
both shows that pack a lot of information and action into each episode, so I’ve
decided that I’m not going to write up summaries of each episode because that’s
not what I’m most interested in. If you do want to read synopses, you can find
some good ones here and here. I'm just going to jump into reviewing.
AESTHETICS
The
Legend of Korra is an absolutely gorgeous show. The artwork and the animation never
fails to blow me away. The designs for characters and backgrounds are equally breathtaking,
and all of the characters’ movements are wonderfully expressive. Book 2 of Korra is set to focus heavily on
spirits, and the scenes with the spirits are easily some of the best animation
in the show so far. The spirits’ quick, fluid movements are very effective at depicting
them as strange, otherworldly creatures and were a great addition to the show’s
already impressive action scenes.
As always, the Track Team has
provided a fantastic soundtrack for the show. A lot of the music sounds like it
was reused from the first season, but there were a few tracks that stood out,
like the music that plays in the flashback with Tonraq and a similar song that
plays when Korra enters the South Pole.
PLOT
As of right now, it doesn’t seem
like the plot measures up to the quality of the show’s aesthetics. Book 1 of The Legend of Korra had a number of
problems with its plot: there was a great deal of unnecessary focus on
probending and a love triangle, and the time given to them could have been much
better utilized in other areas; the restoration of Korra’s bending was rushed
and confusing; the Equalists had very valid reasons for their actions
considering the oppression faced by nonbenders, and those issues weren’t
resolved with the defeat of Amon; etc.
That last point was the most egregious problem, and it had very problematic
implications in regards to issues of classism and race. I’m not going to go
into detail on that, because it’s been written about at length by people more
knowledgeable than me. Instead, I’ll just recommend reading this, this, and/or this,
as well as any of the posts here. What I will say is that, unfortunately, it
looks like the problematic elements of the story have been largely abandoned in
Book 2. There was a brief scene in the second episode (The Southern Lights) in
which the acolytes at the Southern Air Temple mistook Kya and Bumi for
servants, not realizing that Aang had children other than Tenzin because they
weren’t airbenders. Kya is actually a waterbender while Bumi is the only
nonbender of the three, but the scene made me think that the issue of nonbender
oppression hasn’t been entirely abandoned. It’s clearly not a priority in Book
2, which is disappointing if unsurprising, so the issues of Book 1 aren’t going
to be resolved any time soon. Still, I can’t help hoping that the problematic
elements of Book 1 will come up again and be addressed in a more effective way.
That said, the plot of Book 2 does look a bit more
promising than that of Book 1, even though it still has its own flaws. I personally
always thought that the spirit world was one of the most interesting elements
of the Avatar world, and I’m looking forward to learning more about it in this
season. The conflicting ideologies regarding the spirits has a lot of
potential, with Tonraq believing that the spirits are something to avoid
entirely and Unalaq placing more importance on the spirits than anything else.
It’s a dynamic that makes a lot of sense when you consider how much Korra has
struggled with her own spirituality, and it looks like this will be a good way
for her to grow as an avatar.
As for the spirits themselves, I have to say that I’m not
entirely sold on the light versus dark aspect that’s been introduced. If you
look at the Avatar world’s mythology that’s already been established, the
light/dark dynamic seems really unnecessary. Before now, the spirits have been
creatures that have humanlike or higher intelligence, and conflicts that arose
with them occurred because they were justifiably angry or because they were
operating with a nonhuman system of morality. Having the spirits turn “dark” is
an awkward, simplistic explanation for something that really didn’t need
explaining. For example, consider Hei
Bai in the first season of Avatar: The
Last Airbender: that was a creature that had different forms when it was
angry and when it was at peace, and the reason for and mode of transformation
was never explained, but the story still made perfect sense in context. In The Legend of Korra, giving the spirits
a “dark” form makes them seem less intelligent and more animalistic and takes
away some of their fairy tale-like mystery.
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| These screenshots are from Piandao.org |
More importantly, Unalaq’s method of dealing with the
spirits is entirely different from the way characters in ATLA interacted with them. In ATLA,
people always simply spoke to spirits the same way they would speak to people.
That’s how Aang protected the townspeople from Hei Bai; he just told the
spirit what it needed to hear. But Unalaq uses some form of bending to directly
control them, which to me seems no different from using bloodbending to control
humans (something that has always been portrayed as evil). Plus, the fact that
Unalaq can do anything to the spirits undermines the whole purpose of having an
avatar in the first place. If any person can learn to control the spirits the
way Unalaq does, why do they need an avatar to act as a bridge between the
human and spirit worlds?
Of course, it’s entirely possible
that this will be cleared up later on in the series. Unalaq is clearly not a
simple protagonist, so maybe his methods of controlling the spirits will be
brought into question later on. There’s also the fact that the first avatar,
Wan, is supposed to play an important role in Book 2, so it’s entirely probable
that everything I’ve said about the spirits will be explained later on, even if
it seems somewhat contradictory at the moment.
CHARACTERS
Our main character has always been headstrong and
confrontational, and she’s gotten a lot of criticism for that around the
fandom. Many fans complain that Korra’s rude, immature, and too quick to pick
fights. Those are fair points, but those are character flaws that are far more
common for male protagonists for female characters, and men can typically do
worse than Korra’s ever done and receive little to no criticism for it. Plus,
it makes sense for Korra to be immature; she’s been very sheltered for her
whole life, having been raised in a White Lotus compound and kept from
exploring the world she lives in. She’s never had the chance to learn about
anything other than her own bending abilities, something that’s particularly
strange considering that avatars are supposed to travel the world to learn to
use their power. I’ve also heard some fans comment that she should be more
mature after having defeated Amon, but I don’t think it’s very surprising that
she hasn’t gained maturity considering that she also hasn’t gained any real
respect, responsibilities, or trust from her mentors (namely, Tenzin and Tonraq).
Plus, it’s also reminiscent of the beginning of the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which it
was revealed that Aang hadn’t learned nearly as much waterbending as he could
have because he was still just a kid who wanted to goof around. It’s a
narrative device to remind viewers that, in spite of any accomplishments, our
protagonist still has a lot of growing to do.
With that said, it’s still true that Korra needs to grow up
a little and especially work on her black-and-white, with-me-or-against-me style
of thinking, but to do that she needs room to grow. Tenzin and Tonraq are so
focused on making sure Korra’s safe and protected that they won’t allow her to
explore the world, experiment, make mistakes, or learn from making
mistakes. Korra’s decision to follow Unalaq’s advice rather than Tenzin’s or
Tonraq’s is going to be a vital one for her development. Some fans have
commented that there’s something of a gender bias here: Korra—a powerful young
woman—has always had older men telling her what to do and how to act, and by
the end of the second episode, it looks like one of the first decisions she’s made
on her own (that is, to follow the advice of a different older man) is going to
turn out to be the wrong decision. I’ve got to disagree with that for a couple
reasons. First, it makes sense that Korra would choose to go along with what
Unalaq tells her because having someone advising her is all she’s ever known,
and running off to act independently wouldn’t have made much sense to her.
Secondly, with the information she had at hand (spirits are attacking, and only
one person is able to have any effect on the spirits), her decision makes far
more sense than any other course of action. Now that it looks like she’s about
to discover that Unalaq’s intentions are less than pure, I’m hoping she’ll get
a chance to strike out on her own and really act independently without relying
too heavily on a mentor figure.
Of course, that’s only one character out of a pretty sizable
cast. I’m sure no one’s surprised that Korra and Mako are still a couple after
all the drama in Book 1. In these two episodes, Korra’s patience with Mako is
pretty short, and they end up arguing in several of their scenes, with Korra
snapping at him and walking off more than once (which is a bit jarring, since
fans of Book 1 are used to Mako being the jerk who makes crappy decisions). A lot
of fans have gotten very frustrated
with Korra about this, but it seems to me that it’s another example of fans
being overcritical of female characters, especially when they also have the
chance to be overprotective of a male character. Really, they both have a hand
in the arguments: Korra has far too little patience (this in regards to Mako as
well as everything else), and Mako is
not that great at socializing (which is consistent with Book 1) and he has no
idea when to offer sympathy and when to offer advice, even when Korra
specifically asks for advice. It shouldn’t be a surprising conflict given their
respective personalities, and it’s pretty realistic besides, but a lot of
people still expect fictional (or even real) women to be sweet and accommodating
100% of the time, and so the blame falls on Korra.
Bolin managed to find himself a girlfriend in the first
episode with, thankfully, no drama whatsoever. Her name is Eska, and she’s a
deadpan, sarcastic, Daria-type – like Mai in ATLA, but more so. So far, I feel like she’s a lot of hostility
softened by a little bit of humor; she’s not funny enough to offset her
meanness. Eska has only been in two episodes, though, so I don’t want to pass
too much judgment just yet. It’s entirely possible that she’ll redeem herself
enough that I’ll think she’s a decent match for a sweet guy like Bolin, who’s
unfairly relegated to background comic relief. Also, I can only hope that Eska
will manage to differentiate herself from her twin, who may as well be the
exact same person.
I was happy to see that Asami’s still going to be an
important character in the show. Now that Book 1’s love triangle is resolved, it
would have been easy to leave her behind in Republic City and keep her out of
Book 2 entirely, but thankfully she’s enough of her own character that she has
plenty to offer the story. Asami is obviously depressed about her father being
arrested and his company’s resulting decline, but she’s stepped up to the
challenge and is working hard to bring the company back to its former glory.
She has a lot of potential as a character, and I really hope we get to see that
play out.
I also need to mention the airbender kids. In Book 1, they
were all cute but unnecessary characters. They continue to be adorable, but it
looks like Jinora will be taking on more of a plot-relevant role. She’s shown
taking an interest in the air temples and their history and implied to have a
spiritual connection to the room containing the statues of past avatars. I don’t
have any real guess as to where that plotline is going except that it will
probably have something to do with the first avatar, Wan. I’m always happy to
see more intelligent and interesting girl characters, though.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I’m
not entirely willing to make a sweeping judgment of the show this early on.
Right now, I definitely don’t think that The
Legend of Korra is as good as Avatar:
The Last Airbender, but I also thought that the first season of ATLA wasn’t as good as the second, and
the third was better than that. The first season of TLOK was deeply flawed (I didn’t go into much detail on the first
season in this review, but its problems are covered by the links I provided in
the “Plot” section), so I was a little bit wary about the start of this season,
but I’m more optimistic about the show’s
potential than I expected to be.
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