Now that Part 2 of the Civil Wars is out, I'm going to put down what I like and what I don't like. SPOILERS, of course.
Deska and Esna are two characters I'm not exactly fond of, and I'm especially unhappy with how Bolin got tangled up with Esna. It's as though they exist to make him a butt-monkey. Anyway, we get to see Esna's sheer craziness by the end. She wants Bolin as her lover, alive or dead. If Esna was a guy and Bolin was a girl, this relationship would be sickening to its core. Male-on-female abuse is prevalent in modern society and it is most certainly NOT a laughing matter. Female-on-male abuse, while much rarer, shouldn't be played for laughs just because of the gender reversal. Abuse of any sort in any gender combination (M-F, M-M, F-M, F-F) is despicable, and I hope that Esna gets it from Bolin later.
Unalaq is more like Fire Lord Ozai than anyone else, a younger brother seeking to usurp chieftainship from his elder brother. Now that judge Hotak revealed that Unalaq paid the barbarians to attack the Northern Water Tribe and then hide in the Spirit Forest so that Tonraq could get banished, this character goes straight into Ozai territory. The only thing redeeming about him is that he seems to have a genuine spiritual side and something like a genuine desire to redeem the south spiritually - but even this seems dubious now. The writers had better play up his good qualities and come up with an explanation for Unalaq's behavior beyond mere jealousy (The judge may have misunderstood what was going on). Unalaq's warning that Dark Spirits will destroy the South if Korra decides to start a Civil War suggests that Unalaq really has the Spirits on his side this time, and it makes me wonder if there really is something going on here. I'd much rather see an angry Spirit pull of a Xanatos Gambit using Unalaq (and the much-missed Amon) than have it turn out to be brother versus brother again.
Ikki ran away and cuddled a bunch of baby Sky Bisons - at least there was nothing ominous going on there! The family aesop is getting hammered a bit too hard here.
Varrick hiding in the Platypus Bear along with Zhu Li was hilarious. It also shows that Eska, Desna and all the Northern Tribe soldiers seriously lack an imagination. Going about from room to room, who wouldn't notice the huge stuffed Platypus Bear with enough room to hide two people in it? The guy has a yacht powerful enough to outrun a loony waterbending teenager, and he has a biplane with folding wings (superb detail on that!). That's neat - but he forgot to put a catapult to launch the darn thing!
Overall, this episode was a downer, because it tarnished a pretty interesting villain. The beauty of Season 1's Amon was that he was a villain who had a point, a villain whose agenda you could actually understand and support. He was actually sincere in his belief that people had to be treated fairly - even if it meant taking their bending away in the most ghastly manner possible. And he had a certain coolness to him that made you look forward to his next appearance. Unalaq started out looking like a more complex character, but now looks like he's degrading into a simple villain. This is not good.
Deska and Esna are two characters I'm not exactly fond of, and I'm especially unhappy with how Bolin got tangled up with Esna. It's as though they exist to make him a butt-monkey. Anyway, we get to see Esna's sheer craziness by the end. She wants Bolin as her lover, alive or dead. If Esna was a guy and Bolin was a girl, this relationship would be sickening to its core. Male-on-female abuse is prevalent in modern society and it is most certainly NOT a laughing matter. Female-on-male abuse, while much rarer, shouldn't be played for laughs just because of the gender reversal. Abuse of any sort in any gender combination (M-F, M-M, F-M, F-F) is despicable, and I hope that Esna gets it from Bolin later.
Unalaq is more like Fire Lord Ozai than anyone else, a younger brother seeking to usurp chieftainship from his elder brother. Now that judge Hotak revealed that Unalaq paid the barbarians to attack the Northern Water Tribe and then hide in the Spirit Forest so that Tonraq could get banished, this character goes straight into Ozai territory. The only thing redeeming about him is that he seems to have a genuine spiritual side and something like a genuine desire to redeem the south spiritually - but even this seems dubious now. The writers had better play up his good qualities and come up with an explanation for Unalaq's behavior beyond mere jealousy (The judge may have misunderstood what was going on). Unalaq's warning that Dark Spirits will destroy the South if Korra decides to start a Civil War suggests that Unalaq really has the Spirits on his side this time, and it makes me wonder if there really is something going on here. I'd much rather see an angry Spirit pull of a Xanatos Gambit using Unalaq (and the much-missed Amon) than have it turn out to be brother versus brother again.
Ikki ran away and cuddled a bunch of baby Sky Bisons - at least there was nothing ominous going on there! The family aesop is getting hammered a bit too hard here.
Varrick hiding in the Platypus Bear along with Zhu Li was hilarious. It also shows that Eska, Desna and all the Northern Tribe soldiers seriously lack an imagination. Going about from room to room, who wouldn't notice the huge stuffed Platypus Bear with enough room to hide two people in it? The guy has a yacht powerful enough to outrun a loony waterbending teenager, and he has a biplane with folding wings (superb detail on that!). That's neat - but he forgot to put a catapult to launch the darn thing!
Overall, this episode was a downer, because it tarnished a pretty interesting villain. The beauty of Season 1's Amon was that he was a villain who had a point, a villain whose agenda you could actually understand and support. He was actually sincere in his belief that people had to be treated fairly - even if it meant taking their bending away in the most ghastly manner possible. And he had a certain coolness to him that made you look forward to his next appearance. Unalaq started out looking like a more complex character, but now looks like he's degrading into a simple villain. This is not good.
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