LEGEND OF KORRA First Watch - Day 2! (Patreon)

Continuing on with The Legend of Korra first watch! 

You can read the thoughts of the first three episodes here.

4. The Voice In The Night

I said last time that I really liked the idea of a bad guy who could strike at Korra’s fears. She’s trained in this vacuum her whole life and her first big fight isn’t just a test, it’s a threat to her entire being. But something still feels a little off and I’m honestly trying to put my finger on it. Part of me feels like they are still trying to find her character, and it doubles down on difficulty because she’s a character who doesn’t know who she is yet either. As such, she’s always reacting in many different directions. And as the saying goes, you don’t know someone until you know what they want. But at least in this episode we can understand what she DOESN’T want.

Because it’s also the dramatized character through-line we’ve seen for Korra yet. We see she’s afraid. We see her not admit she’s afraid. We see her run away from the challenge she fears. We see her denial, which forces her to try and engage and compensate by being brash. We see that work horribly. Thus, we see her finally admit to what was bothering her all along. And from a place of therapeutic understanding, I love that Tenzin called the effect of all of this being “out of balance.” Just another way it showcases the show’s sense of maturity. And even if certain words ring clunky, they’re at least properly dramatized.

Still, delights abound. I love the old timey music in this world, the phonographs, the muckracking press. It threads the perfect needle of feeling modern to Avatar world and yet retro to us. The three grandkids continue to be the best thing that’s ever happened. But I really want more form… Tenzin’s wife? That fact I can’t remember her name and she’s in the background in pregnant is not exactly a good sign. OOoh! Also! I totally didn’t recognize JK simmons voice as Tenzin!!! That’s amazing!!!!

But one of the things that throws me is how quickly time movies IN EPISODE. Because Avatar episodes were often heavily constrained adventures taking place in real-ish time (with the jumps happening between episodes). Now it’s moving in story. Take the arrival of Asami (I saw the movie’s meta casting, to my delight). At first I’m so into it because it’s THAT GOOD YA shit, and I liked seeing Mako vulnerable! But I was amazed how quickly it moved into their steady dating and comfort period. It’s fascinating, because I see this show doing this kind of jumping a lot. They’re skipping so many parts of the potential conflict and I’m not sure how I feel about yet?

Also: we’ve now really met Tarrlok and his smarmy, manipulative Paul-Reiser-in-Aliens-ness just comes through immediately. It’s like we know, hey, something offs about this dunderbutt! I mean, immediate suspicions tell us HE’S the big bad, because, hey if the bad character is in a mask, you’ve either already met him, or haven’t met them at all. No one say who he is, obviously, I’m just putting this here now. Or the whole thing could just be a feint!

The last thing I’ll mention is the win-loss that comes with a character telling the audience they’ll “save [the hero] for last” because sure, it gets at the logic side of “why don’t they just kill them now” and shows Korra can lose. But it also genuinely take away that palpable sense of danger it renders the story into something that feels more like a game. And worse, it can make the audience feel teased instead of outright invested from a lasting consequence. Honestly, it ties into the idea that I’m also worried about Korra’s flashbacks that pop in her dream, which is clearly one of those ways of “showing” critical story information without actually showing it all… God… Writing is tricky. In an effort to do something different, sometimes writers will be more convoluted, but mistake that for more intricate. I hope it all threads nicely.

Still, time to march on!

5. The Spirit of Competition

The most interesting thing about Legend of Korra so far is that it is unafraid to be messy. But there is a difference between dramatizing messy things and being A MESS. I am honestly still having trouble with the pace of the show. The plots and emotions move and ricochet so fast that it’s sort of hard to get comfortable with established dynamics. Where Avatar set up our core travelers and made them slowly evolve over the course of episodic adventures (where the people they met along the way would have the big changes within a given episode), this show is dealing with a singular location and larger drama. And it’s really moving fast. Sometimes, like, THE OC-level-fast.

There’s also some problems of “tell don’t show.” The opening narration says Korra “only eyes for mako!” But dramatically speaking? That’s not quite how it’s been dramatized. While there’s certainly been moments, she’s waffled more. And there’s been something also a bit wonky about what Korra really wants or doesn’t want in a given moment.

Let’s put it like this. When we REALLY understand a character and where their headspace is at, we understand what they are thinking before they even react. And that’s usually where the heart of drama exists! Especially when it comes to emotions and yearning and so much more. As a viewer, you get to lean into the moment and emote alongside them! But instead I feel like I’m spending so much time missing that moment and instead reading her reaction and being like “oh okay, I guess that’s where she’s at.” I understand that part of this is her character dynamics. She’s impetuous! And taciturn! And very 17! But that just means being in her head space is as important as ever.

Especially when we’re trying to navigate really complex minefield topics like “the girlfriend zone” and women being competitive and pitted against each other for male affection. But at least the love parallelogram of all this plays out pretty quickly, and mostly to a point. From the way the air-bending grandkids paint a picture of operatic love (“then she jumped into a volcano, it was so romantic”) and then get all those troubling notions out of the way really quickly. Feelings are hurt. People make bad choices. There are tears. And there’s sort of this feeling in the air of the writing that’s like “let’s get all this out of the way now so this group can be a unit.” Which I can appreciate by episode’s end.

Again, more tangible delights. I immediately hate Tahno and his dumb emo haircutz and also recognized Rami Malek’s voice immeidately! I also love Bolin being unafraid to cry! There’s something steadying about the brothers being steady and having so much history that I really like, too.

But it’s one of those episodes where I can also sense more coming…

6. And The Winner Is…

Okay we have the first GREAT fight in the show.

I mean, holy moly. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to see some high-stakes, non-sport bending, but seeing Lin and Korra fight together was genuinely enthralling and the action was so inventive (fun note: I keep writing Katara when I mean Korra. I’m sorry, old habits die hard). 

But this is my favorite episode so far across the board. The story does that classic bait and switch where you see the bad cheating team win and we hate them for it, but then they have to pay a price so dear that we feel so bad for them anyway (and one that could have happened to our heroes). 

Meanwhile Tarrlok is so obviously a manipulative piece of shit that I can’t tell if this is one of those situations where the writers are leaning TOO far into him being the big bad so we fall for the purposeful feint, or it’s just dutifully storytelling to create a justified reason. Either way, I’ll take any bit of clarity in this show I can get when it comes to who these people really are.

So I’m guessing we’ll get into this over the course of the season, but this whole “equalist” business is precarious because it’s loaded in terms of how we think about modern politics / socialism / totalitarianism / fascism, etc. and how they project themselves through that lens. I mean, there’s something gross and uber-mensch-y about chosen ones with magic powers, just as there’s something gross in saying people are evil if they find that gross? There’s something so dangerous about painting “equality” as troubling so let’s just say I’m watching this with baited breath. I also get I could talk about the promethean myth, but it’s one of thoss things where the metaphors don’t exactly work w/ modern day parallel. 

Honestly, right now there’s a lot of comparisons I could make in lots of directions but the show hasn’t really “said” anything yet, morally speaking, on this subject. We sort of have to see what’s really behind all this to make that call… I’m both worried and yet optimistic it might be handled OK… I hope.

Things I love this episode: the Korra / ferret fan girl and cosplayers. The wolfbats entrance. I love that you can kindhear the boring, repititive part of his speech as they escape, which feels like a fun in joke.

Things I’m not loving: whatever these weird flashbacks Korra is getting when knocked out. I imagine there’s some purpose to why it’s happening, but right now it’s just one of those things where they’re teasing details through obfuscation instead of subtly layering them into the existing drama. It always feels like narrative hiding to me instead of straight storytelling.

Anyway. Onward!

7. The Aftermath

Cabbage Corp!?!?!?!? Bahahahahah.

As far as in-joke payoffs go I like it. I also like the episode, more or less. The big to do is of course the Sato family drama and revealing that this titan of industry isn’t having any of this bending shit either. The various unveiling goes back and forth a bunch and I’m honestly still having trouble writing the dramatic mechanisms of the show. It almost feels like they’re more interested in keeping me off balance than just leaning in certain directions,, but sometimes it feels like they’re also leaning TOO HARD when it’s clear. I guess it’s weird cause Avatar always seemed so utterly in control of that stuff. 

Also, the “my wife murdered by benders” thing feels a little pat, but I like the idea that LOTS of people in on the bad guy plan because it makes it feel like a richer tapestry and there’s lots to overcome around them. Like it’s not just directly pointing at ONE DUDE, but a whole modern system.

Still, so much of this episode is really about the effect on Asami. Once again, I’m really wanting dynamics of this show to settle with main characters and maybe this will be part of that? Korra starts a lot of this episode seemingly in that “I’m not friends with other girls!” social thing that can happen, or judging Asami all wrong. Unfortunately, a lot of it is still posturing surface details. Luckily, in the end, it’s not that Asami can race cars and be k e w l t o o - it’s that she’s a human being with loss and devotion and openness to change. I want to see the person she is, really.

Heh heh.

 Cabbage Corp.

<3 HULK