THE LEGEND OF KORRA First Watch - Day 3 (Patreon)

It feels stupid to be writing about TV right now, but if if you’re looking for little blinding rage / sanity break and what to read about an old TV show, I’m going to continue with The Legend of Korra first watch. But don’t donate here. Please fine a way to support you local bail fund. If can’t find your local one, there are national projects like https://bailproject.org/ and of course local Black Lives Matter https://blacklivesmatter.com/.

If you haven’t read the first couple of days, you can read the thoughts of the first three episodes here and next four here. 

8. When Extremes Meet

The opening of this episode might be my favorite thing the show has done yet. The grand kids meeting Mako and Bolin and Asami reflects the simple joys of seeing established characters all come together. Fittingly, the scenes take their time and trust the audience to enjoy what is seeing. It let’s us get settled and shows all the little building block moments of how these people see each other. And, of course, it offers great lines like Meelo saying, “you’re pretty, can I have some of your hair.”

Sadly, the rest of the episode might be my least favorite thing the show has done yet. It’s not necessarily because it’s a bad episode, it’s more that it exemplifies a lot of the things that I feel have been holding The Legend of Korra back from its potential. 

For instance, I know I’ve been using that word “dramatization” a lot, but I want to clarify what it means. Dramatization has to do seeing the way relationships develop and change on screen, often with direct causation from the story itself. Going back to Avatar, let’s look at Zuko’s late-stage integration into the team. He doesn’t just show up and things are magically fine. We don’t skip the steps of what he has to do in that integration. Instead, Zuko has to dutifully earn the team’s trust moment by moment. And often it isn’t easy, but we see how and why those characters change their minds. And most importantly, it doesn’t hop around and get distracted from that reality being the most present thing in the EMOTIONAL story, even if there are other adventures going on.

I’ve been having real trouble with The Legend of Korra in this regard. Take the opening of this episode: Korra’s confrontation with Tarlokk *feels* sudden for a simple reason. It was way back in episode four that he manipulated her, but the story never really addressed that fact afterwards. In the three episodes after, it never capitalized on the fallout with Tarlokk at all. Because they’re hiding everything in the narrative, it just had to wait (there’s an old writing adage that advises against this: play your cards early, it forces you to come up with new cards).

But now, because the narrative needs to come back to this, so we just begin with Korra talking about how much she hates Tarlokk arguing and, oh yeah, I guess we’re gonna just shift where she’s at emotionally now even though we never tracked this before. Same goes for the fact that Tarlokk knows she’s having trouble air bending. I’m sure there could be some logical explanation for how he knows, but it just feels forced and undramatized. Again, they’re doing all this because convenient way to start this episode, but it makes the narrative feel haphazard. As I keep saying, pushes the audience into a reactive state where we have to go, “Oh okay, I guess this is how she really feels about it right now I guess,” before things just haphazardly shift once again.

Sigh. It’s important because I want people to understand when they say things like this season of Korra is “not as good” as Avatar, it’s precisely this kind of stuff that is the problem. There’s always these little mechanical things that make a story feel “off” or subtly push away a viewer. Sometimes it’s not even about pushing them away. Sometimes it’s about not letting them lean in, not letting them care about something to their maximum potential, which feeds the best possible dramatic results. Because when writing is solid? It makes you emote along side and love something. And when it’s reactive and not grounded and not operating of cause and effect? We don’t connect with it as well. It really is that simple.

Take the teens establish their little Team Avatar Batman Road Crew. Is it a cool neat idea? Of course! We want to have this feeling! But does it come out of absolutely nowhere and have absolutely no established goal and motivation??? Also yes! They literally don’t have a stronger goal that night then some abstract mantra of “save the city.” It feels so so so weird and forced. Part in parcel of a show that is simultaneously in a rush and also totally still hiding its greater narrative.

For another example, take the retroactive (and incredibly convenient) explanation of Korra’s hallucinations. Tenzin is just out of nowhere like, “Hey you been having those flashes? Well now is the part of the story where I can explain them.” Even the manifestation of Aang’s so-called messages feel so much like plot teasing instead of the meaningful “into the past” journeys and conversations with past Avatars that happened in Avatar. I really can’t believe how haphazard it feels.

Oh, and we’ll we’re picking the nits, there’s a lot of people who talk about how the animation style in this show is a step up from Avatar and… I really think the computer generated background work makes it look more clunky and less graceful? And more importantly, I feel like it makes it so less purposeful choices of style are being made? I could get into the nitty gritty and compare to other things, but I’ll save that for another time.

All this being said, the thing that keeps me locked to The Legend of Korra is that the episodes tend to end well. Because at least the reveals *do* make things feel more substantial. The Korra and Tarlokk dual (I keep wanting to write Tarkov or Karloff) is really, really well done and exciting! But even the blood-bending reveal isn’t even really set up (other than a cryptic tease in the flashes). Again. We have to react to it’s sudden appearance. Everything in this show feels like this sudden rush with retroactive explanation. A bunch of wheel-spinning before something cool happens. All part of the way this show keeps you on your heels constantly.

The big question is why?

Why do this when Avatar was so good at functional, straight-forward writing? The answer is obviously that I don’t know. Maybe they just wanted to approach a show differently. That’s fine, but if you do, you really have to know how to do that other kind of show. Truth is that some of the multi-parters in Avatar had some of the least-strong information economy in the show’s run (I would never say bad). And now it’s like they’re trying to write a 12-part serialized episode and clearly struggling with it. 

I know so many people keep saying that this is a problem with having less episodes than Avatar seasons so they “have to cram it in” But that’s not really the way it works. Avatar didn’t do “issue of the week” episodes simply because there were more episodes to fill. They did that because it’s a creative choice. And you can absolutely do them within 12 episodes, too. It’s all about how you build out little moments, create stories within relationships and let a narrative organically evolve. But the path of Korra is all over the place. It’s either teasing, or pushing, or rushing, or establishing a dynamic before destroying or abandoning it. The reason I fear is simple: the desire for the storyteller to “surprise” and keep the audience of off-balance is one of the most problematic you can have (*gestures to 10 years worth of writing about JJ Abrams). 

It’s all a question of focus.

And as this episode ends with what I wish was designated a two-parter, but it’s not because all the episodes are wishy washy in terms of that structural discipline.

But I can still hope for better…

9. Out of The Past

It’s always a lot to live up to when someone names an episode after one of your favorite movies of all time. But the good news is that this episode is thankfully starting to move the narrative into “the clarity zone.” 

Korra’s been captured and is now stuck in a box! Which means she now has to go into her memories, which, despite being something I don’t think was set-up well, at least means we can finally understand what the hell is going on with certain things. Thus, we all get a look at Tarlokk’s past with non-moon blood bending and all the like (BUT I DO NOT LIKE ADULT AANG WITH CHINSTRAP BEARD IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE COOL I DO NOT LIKE IT STOP). And with that we’re like “okay I guess we’re relieved to have some answers.”

The less good news is I sort of don’t care about those answers.

I have to admit that right now the whole “everyone is a son of someone and thats why they can do X” stuff is really… a lot? Like the problem is right now I feel like they’re using the idea of parental inheritance as a mere prop and paper-thin justification for people doing stuff instead of, like, actual exploring of what it’s like to be in the shadow of parentage. Or what it’s like to emotionally inherit those burdens. There’s no real interiority to it. Which is weird because it really seams like they’re positioning the notion of parental inheritance as THE CORE THEME of the show. But they’re only doing it with a lot of artifice. I mean, we’ve only even touched on them a few times with Korra herself. 

So when it comes to Tarlokk, the episode starts by turning heavy into the idea he’s phantom menacing everyone, but it turns out he’s not phantom menacing them! It’s funny, though. Because in some ways it therefore feels like they didn’t turn ENOUGH into him being Amon? The moment Amon shows up doesn’t really feel like this big turn or reveal. It’s more like “oh okay, I guess it’s not him.” And even then, I feel like there must be some way to underwrite the tragedy of Tarlokk in some more humane way. Because in the end, the whole problem is the flashbacks aren’t even about HIM. They’re about his dad. But the narrative acts like just because it was his dad, he is literally the same person. A mere placeholder of past aggressions. And it’s everything I find unsatisfying.

Still, the big lingering question remains: who is Amon?

We don’t know.

We simply have to keep biting…

10. Turning The Tides

We’ll get to the ending in a second.

First, I want to talk about Mako and Asami and love triangles / parallelograms. The reason these dynamics often work in narrative is because they are fun! For they often play off the baseline comedic tension within “safe” dynamics. Sometimes that safety means the audience understanding nothing is really going to happen and the group will still be okay (Avatar was really great at this, the Zuko / Katara / Aang stuff all was handled with a really light touch that let the audience do most of the projection). OR you go all Twilight with that safety and play up the pulpy elements, with all the exaggerated melodrama you can muster. Because that’s also fun.

The problem is when you sort of end up in a realistic middle ground. The interactions between Mako and Asami just sort of outright depict “girl jealousy!” and “guy’s emotional evasiveness!” and it all feels more sad than anything. There’s a kid a tragic sullenness and hurt underwritten to Asami that the show doesn’t really give a lot of space to, only “looks at.” And I genuinely understand that the show is trying to be more adult than Avatar, but we’re still talking about 17 year olds. And the way their story parallels the Lin / Tenzin story with the grownups doesn’t really add any commentary to it right now either. Rather than have any juxtaposition in morality to teach the youngins and grow, it’s sort of just say that those immature things always exist (without any real commentary that that’s what it’s doing). Again… I keep feeling like the show doesn’t really understand itself yet and what it’s really going for. And that makes me sad.

Also, I can’t help but be struck by how heteronormative and gender-normative all this feels. While it sort of feels different in the more role-less dynamics and more ancient culture of Avatar, there’s something about their adulthood and the more modern setting that just highlights the antiquation. Or maybe it shows just how much has changed in last 7 to 8 years?

As for the danger at hand that always comes sweeping in every episode, Amon feels like a Nolan Batman Villain than ever with his attack on the city. The problem is that, just like Bane, his core motivations and personality and even identity remain a mystery for 10 episodes now. We’re still waiting. Again, I feel like this is the baseline problem with these guys not knowing how to do true serialized TV. We keep teasing out the core story, which means EVERYTHING IS THE SAME HIDDEN CONFLICT AND ATTACKS AGAIN AND AGAIN. There’s no real sense of escalation apart from physical scale. I’m just still here, waiting and wondering what I was wondering from the very beginning.

But at least this episode (like most of them) has joys along the way. Lines like, “Stay away from my dad’s ex-girlfriend!” The parking tickets gag! The magnet weapons! The baby coming during the attack because that’s that good spinning plates shit! I also realized how much they’ve differentiating Tenzin’s formal and rigid air bending discipline from Aang’s impromptu chaos (which their kids seemed to have inherited!) Watching them participate in the fight was just joyous.

Then comes the ending which, understandably, is the high water mark of the show. Lin’s heroic last stand to buy them escape was fantastic. It’s not just the grandiosity and beautfy of the action, nor was it the knowing nature of her sacrifice. It was the way the writers built her character in the most functional way out of probably anyone in the show. You look at where she started, how she changed Korra’s mind, and how they all came to the catharsis, and you see th powerful arc of our understanding. It works. To the point that when Meelo says, “That lady is my hero,” it does the most important thing a show can do: you believe it, to. And her sacrifice would be enough for any show to go out on… But then, we cut to fire nation ships coming in…

Hearing Dante’ Basco’s voice made my hair stand on edge. 

You have this moment like “Zuko!?!? ZUKO!?!? THAT CANT BE HES TOO OLD” and then you hear the name General Iroh and put all the pieces together. And look, I realize that I’ve had problems with this show. And I realize that so far, most of the tangible joys of Korra have been about capturing little slivers of magic that have been inherited from the show prior. But I still welled up. And that is certainly a testament to something functionally important. Because hey…

In the end, how could I ever dislike a show fart bending?

Next time, the final two episodes of Book 1!!!

<3HULK