Kicking off my first post here with a bang. The Legend of Korra is the biggest Western Animation series in some time, and it lives up to the hype as a series with extraordinary writing, high production values, spectacular animation and even more spectacular world-building. I'm no Avatard, but I recognize epic world building where it goes. Anyway, here is my own "Rampant Speculation" about the Legend of Korra in the style of the Halo and Marathon Story Pages.
Special thanks go to Avatar Annotated for giving me some ideas here.
1. I second Avatar Annotated's assessment of the Southern Lights in that episode. There is clearly more to the lights than meets the eye. Especially since there had been an episode in the North Pole in the original series and nothing of the sort had been seen even in mid-winter, and the North Pole Spirit Oasis is a known area with the Moon and Ocean spirits going about in a circle. That forest is probably not what it is made out to be. Could it be the Avatar world's equivalent to the Earth's north and south magnetic poles, rather than the physical north and south poles? After all, the Aurora Borealis and its rarer counterpart, the Aurora Australis, are caused by the interaction of charged particles drawn in by Earth's magnetic field and slammed into the upper atmosphere. Having a spiritual equivalent for magnetism in the Avatar-verse would make sense.
2. That statue glows with the same golden light as the spirits, not with the blue-white light associated with the Avatars. Is that the statue of the first Avatar, Avatar Wan? Is that the statue of the Fire Nation Avatar that succeeds him? (More on that later) Or is that an Avatar at all? The golden glow and the wooden statue suggest something like an oddball. Since one of the themes that this show talks about is the balance of Light and Dark in every person, could this person be an Avatar who suffered from an imbalance of Light and Dark and failed in his purpose?
3. As noted, the markings on the Avatar statue resemble the markings on the Dark Spirits. And there's the perfectly good question of why the Dark Spirits would attack someone trying to help them out. Either the Dark Spirits are being extremely silly or they're not on the Avatar's side at all (as ATLA Annotated suggests). The latter interpretation seems to be better. Korra seem to be a pretty frequent target of all the Dark Spirit attacks, and even when they're stealing supplies or sabotaging snowmobiles they seem to be making the time to single her out for attacks. The very first of the monstrosities grabs her by the wrists and holds her, and the one Korra tries to calm with waterbending (unsuccessfully) seems willing to eat her. They certainly don't want that portal to be opened.
4. That Avatar - now, I'd understand having water swirl around a Dark Spirit to calm it down, but why the hell is it swirling around an Avatar??? And why does the Avatar's statue have those Dark Spirit markings? And why does it glow with the very same golden light that the Dark Spirits glow with when they vanish? Seems like someone wanted to calm down that particular Avatar and put him/her into balance, not the other way around! That being said, the Dark Spirits seem to be connected to this particular Avatar - which suggests that this Avatar isn't exactly good in the normal sense. An Avatar equivalent of Fire Lord Ozai, throwing the world out of balance? Hmmm..... or is that even an Avatar in the first place? Jinora asks "What Avatar is that?" but that doesn't mean that the statue in the Avatar room really is an Avatar...does it? Avatar or not, something very creepy and very wrong went on with this person.
5. Those Dark Spirits have a visible Owl/Serpent theme going on. As noted for Wan Shi Tong, the spirit librarian who takes an Owl form (regular) and a Serpent form (when enraged), the Owl is the western symbol of knowledge, and the Serpent is the eastern one. The Dark Spirits mostly have serpent-like heads and owl-like facial markings - all symbolic of knowledge. So these spirits possibly represent knowledge that has been corrupted, or perverted? Knowledge out of balance?
That raises the possibility that there were originally meant to be two Avatars in a sense. The Avatar functions as more than the incarnated Spirit of the Earth (He was supposed to be so in the original series bible, but this information was deleted and never made it into the final print : perhaps the writers had second thoughts about this long ago?) - the Avatar is also the bridge between the physical and spirit worlds, natural and supernatural. Avatar Wan seems to have brawled with spirits before using his bending abilities. He says "I'll show how how I became the Avatar" - which ties in with the Lion Turtle's explanation at the end of TLA that humans once used to bend the energy within themselves rather than bend the elements. Not only is energybending the exclusive domain of the Avatar, it also seems connected with the Spirits - and it seems likely that Wan became the Earth Spirit, just as Yue became the Moon, in order to handle the imbalance between the natural and spirit worlds. There might have been a 'reciprocal' Avatar, a powerful spirit taking on human form, as to form a second bridge between the human and spirit worlds. Ironically, this would make the Avatar an 'ascended' human, as opposed to the meaning of the word, 'descent', implying a descended Spirit or God.
So what is the Avatar, actually? An ascended human or a descended god? The latter explanation never officially became Word of God - so the first possibility is indeed open.
6. It is known that the first Avatar after Wan was a Firebender. When Korra finally goes into the Avatar state to open the Spirit Portal, the pulse that opens the Portal is one of fire (plainly). That would mean that firebending (the opposite element to water) was needed to open the Portal, which would be exceedingly odd - unless that Spirit Portal was sealed up by a Firebender in the first place and needed firebending of a specific sort to open it. It gives rise to the impression that the statue that lights up belonged to a Firebender - but then again, it might not even be an Avatar.
It's worth noting that the statue is missing its lower arms, making it look incomplete. It's also made of wood - it's probably carved out of a single tree. Its proportions seem androgynous - it's hard to tell for certain if that's a man or a woman. Why is it incomplete? Or did someone get rid of its arms?
7. Old Wan Shi Tong looks to be coming back in Owl form. His name translates into "The one who knows ten thousand things" but it might also mean "The one who knows Wan" - assuming that Wan, the first Avatar, has his name translated into Ten Thousand. Wan Shi Tong probably knows a whole lot more than we think - although that's no surprise for an all-knowing spirit librarian.
Special thanks go to Avatar Annotated for giving me some ideas here.
1. I second Avatar Annotated's assessment of the Southern Lights in that episode. There is clearly more to the lights than meets the eye. Especially since there had been an episode in the North Pole in the original series and nothing of the sort had been seen even in mid-winter, and the North Pole Spirit Oasis is a known area with the Moon and Ocean spirits going about in a circle. That forest is probably not what it is made out to be. Could it be the Avatar world's equivalent to the Earth's north and south magnetic poles, rather than the physical north and south poles? After all, the Aurora Borealis and its rarer counterpart, the Aurora Australis, are caused by the interaction of charged particles drawn in by Earth's magnetic field and slammed into the upper atmosphere. Having a spiritual equivalent for magnetism in the Avatar-verse would make sense.
2. That statue glows with the same golden light as the spirits, not with the blue-white light associated with the Avatars. Is that the statue of the first Avatar, Avatar Wan? Is that the statue of the Fire Nation Avatar that succeeds him? (More on that later) Or is that an Avatar at all? The golden glow and the wooden statue suggest something like an oddball. Since one of the themes that this show talks about is the balance of Light and Dark in every person, could this person be an Avatar who suffered from an imbalance of Light and Dark and failed in his purpose?
3. As noted, the markings on the Avatar statue resemble the markings on the Dark Spirits. And there's the perfectly good question of why the Dark Spirits would attack someone trying to help them out. Either the Dark Spirits are being extremely silly or they're not on the Avatar's side at all (as ATLA Annotated suggests). The latter interpretation seems to be better. Korra seem to be a pretty frequent target of all the Dark Spirit attacks, and even when they're stealing supplies or sabotaging snowmobiles they seem to be making the time to single her out for attacks. The very first of the monstrosities grabs her by the wrists and holds her, and the one Korra tries to calm with waterbending (unsuccessfully) seems willing to eat her. They certainly don't want that portal to be opened.
4. That Avatar - now, I'd understand having water swirl around a Dark Spirit to calm it down, but why the hell is it swirling around an Avatar??? And why does the Avatar's statue have those Dark Spirit markings? And why does it glow with the very same golden light that the Dark Spirits glow with when they vanish? Seems like someone wanted to calm down that particular Avatar and put him/her into balance, not the other way around! That being said, the Dark Spirits seem to be connected to this particular Avatar - which suggests that this Avatar isn't exactly good in the normal sense. An Avatar equivalent of Fire Lord Ozai, throwing the world out of balance? Hmmm..... or is that even an Avatar in the first place? Jinora asks "What Avatar is that?" but that doesn't mean that the statue in the Avatar room really is an Avatar...does it? Avatar or not, something very creepy and very wrong went on with this person.
5. Those Dark Spirits have a visible Owl/Serpent theme going on. As noted for Wan Shi Tong, the spirit librarian who takes an Owl form (regular) and a Serpent form (when enraged), the Owl is the western symbol of knowledge, and the Serpent is the eastern one. The Dark Spirits mostly have serpent-like heads and owl-like facial markings - all symbolic of knowledge. So these spirits possibly represent knowledge that has been corrupted, or perverted? Knowledge out of balance?
That raises the possibility that there were originally meant to be two Avatars in a sense. The Avatar functions as more than the incarnated Spirit of the Earth (He was supposed to be so in the original series bible, but this information was deleted and never made it into the final print : perhaps the writers had second thoughts about this long ago?) - the Avatar is also the bridge between the physical and spirit worlds, natural and supernatural. Avatar Wan seems to have brawled with spirits before using his bending abilities. He says "I'll show how how I became the Avatar" - which ties in with the Lion Turtle's explanation at the end of TLA that humans once used to bend the energy within themselves rather than bend the elements. Not only is energybending the exclusive domain of the Avatar, it also seems connected with the Spirits - and it seems likely that Wan became the Earth Spirit, just as Yue became the Moon, in order to handle the imbalance between the natural and spirit worlds. There might have been a 'reciprocal' Avatar, a powerful spirit taking on human form, as to form a second bridge between the human and spirit worlds. Ironically, this would make the Avatar an 'ascended' human, as opposed to the meaning of the word, 'descent', implying a descended Spirit or God.
So what is the Avatar, actually? An ascended human or a descended god? The latter explanation never officially became Word of God - so the first possibility is indeed open.
6. It is known that the first Avatar after Wan was a Firebender. When Korra finally goes into the Avatar state to open the Spirit Portal, the pulse that opens the Portal is one of fire (plainly). That would mean that firebending (the opposite element to water) was needed to open the Portal, which would be exceedingly odd - unless that Spirit Portal was sealed up by a Firebender in the first place and needed firebending of a specific sort to open it. It gives rise to the impression that the statue that lights up belonged to a Firebender - but then again, it might not even be an Avatar.
It's worth noting that the statue is missing its lower arms, making it look incomplete. It's also made of wood - it's probably carved out of a single tree. Its proportions seem androgynous - it's hard to tell for certain if that's a man or a woman. Why is it incomplete? Or did someone get rid of its arms?
7. Old Wan Shi Tong looks to be coming back in Owl form. His name translates into "The one who knows ten thousand things" but it might also mean "The one who knows Wan" - assuming that Wan, the first Avatar, has his name translated into Ten Thousand. Wan Shi Tong probably knows a whole lot more than we think - although that's no surprise for an all-knowing spirit librarian.
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