Korra book 2- Spirits- trailer and discuss

[Ahriman238]

Wow. I wonder how many problems they've had in the past with kids wielding the personal and political power of the Avatar. So far she's added her unofficial seal of approval to Unalaq's seizing control, threatened and later attacked a judge for ruling against her family, recklessly attack Unalaq without immediately taking him into custody or otherwise decisively ending things. Now she's subtly inflaming tensions by leading the Peace March and blaming the Northerners for the bombing, yelling at the President when he won't rush to war on her say so but tries diplomacy, and going behind his back to get the war going anyways.

In the past the Avatars were not sheltered by the White Lotus and trained by traveling to each different Tribe. We see this with Roku in that A, he finds out when he's an adult. And B, he trains with the masters in their homes and from what we have seen the best benders have the ear of the rules of their respective Kingdoms. So Korra's problem is she's lived only in the Monastery and Republic city. She's not had years of training getting to know the rules of every single kingdom or tribe.

Also she's still using the Avatar state only for power ups rather than as a source of wisdom. When's the last time she's talked with Aang? Oh yeah season 1.

They normally tell the Avatar who s/he is on their 16th Birthday, so it's not like adolescent Avatars are a new problem. Though for most of human history (and certainly the RL counterparts to Avatar cultures) 16 is absolutely adulthood.

[JME2]

My gut is telling me Varrick hired the Agni Kai thugs.

A war is good for him on multiple fronts. He can supply the URN and the South with water material and weapons. It also removes Unalaq and opens the northern market for him.

It would quite the twist if the goofy, eccentric billionaire was ruthless and pragmatic as hell.

And yeah, I'm glad seeing Mako stand up to Korra too. Her handling of the Unalaq crisis, even more than the Equalist crisis, is hjlighting the mistakes the White Lotus made in her training.

She doesn't understand that dragging the other nations into this could trigger another global war and she's wrong as hell.

[JME2]

Also, the animation during the Korra/Twins fight was absolutely gorgeous.

[Steve]

Another piece of evidence indicating Varrick (or at least someone in his organization) in my mind is the radio control the bombers dropped. Who else have we seen with such toys? Asami, maybe, but her motive is weak compared to Varrick.

And it'd add more family issues to this season: we had Korra versus her parents and now her uncle and cousins, Tenzin arguing with his siblings, and then this would most likely provoke Mako and Bolin to fight (Mako going after Bolin's new buddy and boss).

[Guardsman Bass]

Varrick is definitely the top candidate, although I noticed that Mako's comrades at the police department immediately moved to dump his discovery in a drawer. That might not mean anything, though - while it might make you suspect that Varrick's gone friends higher up the food chain, in this case "higher up" means "Lin".

Great points about how dangerous it would be for the Republic City President to endorse the southern Water Tribe rebellion. Korra also didn't really understand why it was such a terrible idea to go behind the President's back to get the military involved - it's a serious breach of civilian control of the Republic City military forces, at a time when the President no doubt needs all the legitimacy he can get because he's the first leader under a new system of government (replacing the old council).

It's rather depressing that Tonraq and Tenzin don't seem to have prepared Korra at all for any kind of leadership role once she became the adult Avatar. Even from Season One, she's had to learn how to deal with political situations the hard way. Tenzin treated her more as a distraction to be managed.

EDIT: Also, I really hope that Unalaq didn't make some "deal" with the dark spirits. He's more interesting as an ambitious, self-righteous power-monger, a guy who genuinely believes that the South needs to be saved from itself and that doing so justifies every bit of wrong behavior that he engages in.

[Steve]

I saw that as veteran cops dismissing the "rookie" out of contempt and/or jealousy, a tried and true (if tired) cop show trope.

[Steve]

Varrick is definitely the top candidate, although I noticed that Mako's comrades at the police department immediately moved to dump his discovery in a drawer. That might not mean anything, though - while it might make you suspect that Varrick's gone friends higher up the food chain, in this case "higher up" means "Lin".

....honestly, that doesn't sound like something Lin would do. Even her "going rogue!" bit from last season was.... messing around in the sewers looking for the Equalists. I don't see her as the type to be okay with planting bombs.

[JME2]

Varrick is definitely the top candidate, although I noticed that Mako's comrades at the police department immediately moved to dump his discovery in a drawer. That might not mean anything, though - while it might make you suspect that Varrick's gone friends higher up the food chain, in this case "higher up" means "Lin".

....honestly, that doesn't sound like something Lin would do. Even her "going rogue!" bit from last season was.... messing around in the sewers looking for the Equalists. I don't see her as the type to be okay with planting bombs.

Yeah, Lin doesn't seem likely.

But we know that Varrick has had business dealings with the RNC government, so he's got to have contacts high up willing to help him.

[Guardsman Bass]

I think you mis-read my point. I was saying that it's probably not the case precisely because "higher-up" means "Lin", and Lin is an extremely unlikely candidate to be involved in a conspiracy to get Republic City in a war over the southern Water Tribe.

[Steve]

I see. I apologize.

[JME2]

Yeah, I misinterpreted too. Sorry.

Steve -- I think you're right about Bolin v. Mako. Family conflict, alongside control, is emerging as another key theme of the season.

[krakonfour]

How often do episodes come out? Every week or two weeks?

[JME2]

Every Friday night.

[mr friendly guy]

Wiki has the release dates for the LoK episodes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Th ... a_episodes

[krakonfour]

Every Friday night.

Thanks.
I find it strange that Korra is able to 'tame the spirits' despite having trained only a few days and never shown doing so.

[JME2]

Every Friday night.

Thanks.
I find it strange that Korra is able to 'tame the spirits' despite having trained only a few days and never shown doing so.

Ah, but she was in the Avatar State when she did it. It's clear somebody somewhere in the cycle had to master or invent the technique -- and I'm guessing this is will drive Korra's subplot for the next little while.

[Ahriman238]

Well, I wouldn't say she has. She seemed to come closer this time, but still ended with an impression of Jonah.

[krakonfour]

Well, I wouldn't say she has. She seemed to come closer this time, but still ended with an impression of Jonah.

I don't understand.

[mr friendly guy]

I think he meant to say an impersonation of Jonah, but he ended up typing impression of Jonah which wouldn't make much sense in this context.

[krakonfour]

Oh yeah, her 'save everyone' aspect can make her be seen as a Jesus-figure.
It's actually the way the show's creators correctly depicted a teenage girl that makes me enjoy her character. All other cartoon girls are over-the-top bimbos or impossibly shy recluses. Nothing normal.

[Titan Uranus]

Jonah was swollowed by either a whale or a large fish in the old hebrew bible, the reference has nothing to do with Jesus.

What suprised me the most about the courtroom scene was that no one even batted an eye at her threatening the judge. Does everyone just accept that she's a childish fool with no censor?

How did no one teach her not to do shit like that in public? I'm fine with her threatening (or killing) the judge in private, they have never presented any of the Avatars save Aang as paragons of pacifist morality.
But really an outburst like that can only hurt her, you'd think that someone would have taught her to hold her toungein such situations.
It would be a good opportunity for character growth if they ever decide to actually grow her character. You don't need to really lengthen her temper, you could just have her show some discipline and tact.

[JME2]

Jonah was swollowed by either a whale or a large fish in the old hebrew bible, the reference has nothing to do with Jesus.

What suprised me the most about the courtroom scene was that no one even batted an eye at her threatening the judge. Does everyone just accept that she's a childish fool with no censor?

How did no one teach her not to do shit like that in public? I'm fine with her threatening (or killing) the judge in private, they have never presented any of the Avatars save Aang as paragons of pacifist morality.
But really an outburst like that can only hurt her, you'd think that someone would have taught her to hold her toungein such situations.
It would be a good opportunity for character growth if they ever decide to actually grow her character. You don't need to really lengthen her temper, you could just have her show some discipline and tact.

This is all one aspect of Book 2 that I'm enjoying. These flaws have all been in place since last year, but the personal nature of the Reunification Crisis is bringing them all out even more than Amon's rampage.

Korra's growth over this season -- and indeed the series -- needs to be less about her bending abilities and more about her emotional and spiritual growth.

Aang had that in the original series. He needed to accept his responsibility as the Avatar and mature in relation to the Hundred Year War. But in a lot of ways it was secondary towards his need to master the elements -- barring instances like his spiritual conflict over taking Ozai's life.

[Steve]

I love having theories confirmed. Though the bit at the end has me itching for next week.

[Grumman]

This was a good episode.
Spoiler

I was honestly expecting Varrik's veneer of ignorance to bite him in the ass when he said he didn't want to know what their plan was, but it makes a lot more sense this way. The revelation with the explosions worked well too, so it was easy to forgive a children's show for following up with the technician to spell it out.

Mako and Asami have far better chemistry than Mako and Korra did, so I'm happy that they get to do things together instead of Korra accusing Mako of treason every time he presents a dissenting opinion.

I didn't like the teaser at the end. Korra does need to become a better Avatar, but I wish they could have created a more natural progression, without relying on amnesia to provide a discontinuity to cover the change.

[Lord Relvenous]

I'm guessing that Varrik is going to end up innocent and this episode is just making him look really bad. We've already had the storyline of "someone close to Avatar turns out to be a bad guy" in this season. I don't think we need another one, but I won't necessarily complain if he is.