Since I have vastly more important and intellectual things to return to, I think I'll stay brief with this particular review.
1. The entire Lemur training business. Tenzin realizes that teaching Meelo to discipline Lemurs and establish his authority over them has a dark side to it. Even though the entire bit is played for laughs, including the line "I think I've created a monster", there's something strangely poignant to this part. Something seems to be coming up in the writing.
2. Korra is acting more and more like Asuka Langley Soryu in her impulsiveness and nastiness. Understood - she believes her family is in grave danger (She doesn't know that they're not - Unalaq plainly states that his brother is not a threat and is to be ignored and Senna was cleared of all charges at the trial) and she has gone from her attempts at neutrality to full-on supporting the Southern Water Tribe. The difficulty of having an Avatar born as a Chieftain's daughter, I know. But her immaturity is starting to grate on me. It grated on other reviewers long before it grated on me, and now her lack of character development and restraint is starting to show. Mako's line "What is it with you and sides?" is spot-on.
Now that I look at the entire Lemur training and the behavior of those conditioned to respect the Avatar unconditionally (pun intended) - General Iroh, in particular, who respects the Avatar and doesn't even think through the consequences of sending the United Republic fleet into a direct battle with the Northern Water tribe - it really seems like the "I created a monster" line fits the Avatar herself, subtly. While Meelo trains Lemurs, Korra is attempting - rather lousily - to train people to obey her, and using her position and her temper to push people into obeying her. She isn't thinking about whether or not she really wants people to be the way they are, or to have interests or missions of their own.
3. President Raiko, thankfully, is handled in a far, far more positive way than I suspected he would be. He would indeed be right to keep the peace in Republic City and he has perfectly good reasons to stay out of the entire battle. So far, he has shown no overt signs of being evil and seems to be doing his job as well as he can. He's not the pleasant sort of person - judging from the way he pushed Lin Beifong to show results - but he is certainly not a "bad guy". He's a man doing his job.
4. Mako is a far better character as a detective than as Korra's boyfriend. That breakup was coming - and I hope it lasts as long as possible because this sort of "relationship" business is a major annoyance. His detective work really looks to be the way forward. Looking forward to see what comes of this. It seems like there's more to the entire situation than meets the eye - which is a very good thing, far better than the disappointing brother vs brother showdown that the past two episodes indicated. (As an aside, they went back to showing mature stuff - another terrorist attack similar to the one Amon used in Episode 6 of Book One. Not what one would expect on a 'kids show'!)
5. Unalaq has been redeemed - he no longer seems to be as straight a villain as he was made out to be. Deska at least is levelheaded - Esna is totally bonkers and shows it.
6. I'm convinced by the ending that the Dark Spirits are after the Avatar. Why else would that one go all the way to Republic City, lurk in her path, and then swallow her? Or was it following the twins over? Its appearance was certainly not expected. Something isn't right up north.
7. Varrick is as hilarious as ever and he's turning out to be a far better character than I thought. The fact that he's so totally amoral makes him even better. He's a wannabe war profiteer and movie-maker, one who plans on using propaganda to fan the flames and cause as much of a mess as possible for profit...but for someone whose actions would otherwise fall into cliched villainy, he is incredibly funny. The thought of movies as propaganda (with Bolin starring in them, no less) is actually pretty frightening once you think about the implications.
8. Bolin is having tiny bits of brilliance in what would otherwise be a really stupid character. They badly need to give him greater depth instead of using him as a full-on comic relief. They did that with Sokka, hopefully they'll do something similar with Bolin.
9. That Dark Spirit swallowed her and didn't calm down - maybe the Dark Spirits want to bring Korra over to the other side? Maybe she'll go into the Avatar state and talk to her past lives while she's inside that thing? Anyway, the next episode's title, "The Sting", suggests a Sting operation, so that leaves me thinking it's going to be a Mako-centric episode that'll have him investigating the truth behind the bombing.
1. The entire Lemur training business. Tenzin realizes that teaching Meelo to discipline Lemurs and establish his authority over them has a dark side to it. Even though the entire bit is played for laughs, including the line "I think I've created a monster", there's something strangely poignant to this part. Something seems to be coming up in the writing.
2. Korra is acting more and more like Asuka Langley Soryu in her impulsiveness and nastiness. Understood - she believes her family is in grave danger (She doesn't know that they're not - Unalaq plainly states that his brother is not a threat and is to be ignored and Senna was cleared of all charges at the trial) and she has gone from her attempts at neutrality to full-on supporting the Southern Water Tribe. The difficulty of having an Avatar born as a Chieftain's daughter, I know. But her immaturity is starting to grate on me. It grated on other reviewers long before it grated on me, and now her lack of character development and restraint is starting to show. Mako's line "What is it with you and sides?" is spot-on.
Now that I look at the entire Lemur training and the behavior of those conditioned to respect the Avatar unconditionally (pun intended) - General Iroh, in particular, who respects the Avatar and doesn't even think through the consequences of sending the United Republic fleet into a direct battle with the Northern Water tribe - it really seems like the "I created a monster" line fits the Avatar herself, subtly. While Meelo trains Lemurs, Korra is attempting - rather lousily - to train people to obey her, and using her position and her temper to push people into obeying her. She isn't thinking about whether or not she really wants people to be the way they are, or to have interests or missions of their own.
3. President Raiko, thankfully, is handled in a far, far more positive way than I suspected he would be. He would indeed be right to keep the peace in Republic City and he has perfectly good reasons to stay out of the entire battle. So far, he has shown no overt signs of being evil and seems to be doing his job as well as he can. He's not the pleasant sort of person - judging from the way he pushed Lin Beifong to show results - but he is certainly not a "bad guy". He's a man doing his job.
4. Mako is a far better character as a detective than as Korra's boyfriend. That breakup was coming - and I hope it lasts as long as possible because this sort of "relationship" business is a major annoyance. His detective work really looks to be the way forward. Looking forward to see what comes of this. It seems like there's more to the entire situation than meets the eye - which is a very good thing, far better than the disappointing brother vs brother showdown that the past two episodes indicated. (As an aside, they went back to showing mature stuff - another terrorist attack similar to the one Amon used in Episode 6 of Book One. Not what one would expect on a 'kids show'!)
5. Unalaq has been redeemed - he no longer seems to be as straight a villain as he was made out to be. Deska at least is levelheaded - Esna is totally bonkers and shows it.
6. I'm convinced by the ending that the Dark Spirits are after the Avatar. Why else would that one go all the way to Republic City, lurk in her path, and then swallow her? Or was it following the twins over? Its appearance was certainly not expected. Something isn't right up north.
7. Varrick is as hilarious as ever and he's turning out to be a far better character than I thought. The fact that he's so totally amoral makes him even better. He's a wannabe war profiteer and movie-maker, one who plans on using propaganda to fan the flames and cause as much of a mess as possible for profit...but for someone whose actions would otherwise fall into cliched villainy, he is incredibly funny. The thought of movies as propaganda (with Bolin starring in them, no less) is actually pretty frightening once you think about the implications.
8. Bolin is having tiny bits of brilliance in what would otherwise be a really stupid character. They badly need to give him greater depth instead of using him as a full-on comic relief. They did that with Sokka, hopefully they'll do something similar with Bolin.
9. That Dark Spirit swallowed her and didn't calm down - maybe the Dark Spirits want to bring Korra over to the other side? Maybe she'll go into the Avatar state and talk to her past lives while she's inside that thing? Anyway, the next episode's title, "The Sting", suggests a Sting operation, so that leaves me thinking it's going to be a Mako-centric episode that'll have him investigating the truth behind the bombing.
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