Korra book 2 episodes 10-14 (season finale)

[psocoptera]

WOW, the second half of this season was better than the first half. Seriously, wow. I loved the finale; I had my hand over my mouth saying "oh my god, oh my god" when Vaatu was destroying the past incarnations, and when Jinora showed up to save the day I cried, and Korra cupping her into her giant hands to take her home was just, OH, WOW, KORRA, that is the Korra I have always wanted to see and love, so powerful, so amazing, taking care of her people.

Really the only thing I didn't like was the resurgence of the "dudes are too scared to be honest because OMG ladiez are crazy violent" thing. Ugh, I just really do not care for this presentation of romantic relationships where someone feels that physical threat from their partner, NOT OKAY. However I did like that both couples managed to end things on a respectful note.

I have a million ideas for stories now - actually what I kind of want to do is just write the episode summaries for my fantasy seasons 3 and 4... we'll see.

Comments

[q10.livejournal.com]

i have many unanswered questions, such as:

- i understand how being able to cross physically into the spirit world just by walking there is a big deal for humans, but weren't spirits already going back and forth with ease? what exactly is the difference for them now?

- what happened to Vaatu anyway? we just got reminded that neither he nor Raava can be fully and permanently destroyed, so what's up? did he somehow get really destroyed? is he inside RaavaKora now? the people demand answers!

- is Korra still the last avatar, or did re-merging with Raava restart the cycle?

- what difference in tech development caused this world to move straight to talkies without having a silent film era?

- when do we get to see Zhu Li get seriously ‘cold heartless war machine’ onscreen? when?!

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

These are excellent questions!

- *Were* spirits already going back and forth with ease? Maybe I'm forgetting something but I feel like we saw: dark spirits that were implied to have been brought over somehow by Unalaq, and spirits near the Eastern Air Temple which was a spiritually significant site. On ATLA we saw Hei Bai, who could come and go from the spirit world and take humans back and forth with him, but who was (I think) bound to his forest. I'm thinking spirits previously had to have some kind of anchor or focus in the physical world, a person or a place, and now they'll have more freedom.

- Vaatu is wherever Raava was before Jinora went to get her.

- I think the implication was that re-merging has restarted the cycle, and Korra is now the First Avatar of the new lineage.

- I got nothing on silent film.

- Zhu Li goes full war machine when somebody very stupidly backs her into a corner. The Joo Dees are really pretty benevolent as long as they think they have the upper hand. Threaten them with a loss of control and OH SHIT. (Second half of my fantasy season 3...) (Relatedly, do we know whether Lin has Toph's lie-detecting ability? I think we saw her do the seismic mapping in season one...)

[q10.livejournal.com]

- also Wan Shi Tong and his foxy minions, and the painted lady, and depending on how you count it the moon and sea fish ... and the Eastern Air Temple spirits were crossing between because we saw them in the physical world and then we saw them again when Korra and Jinora crossed over. and there are maybe other spirits in some canon comics that i'm not going to say more about.

- that's a little vague and unsettling.

- that's what i thought too, but it seems like somebody in-world should be on that, research-wise.

- i guess we need to allow for this to be a show that's nominally accessible to children who can't read intertitles in real time. also the intertitles would be in chinese which would present its own difficulties. anyway i'm willing to give them a pass because the Nuktuk movie stuff (minus the painful Bolin/Ginger stuff) was pretty much the only good thing they did with Bolin all season. i kinda adored that movie premier bending arena fight out of all proportion with what would legitimately make sense.

- Toph's lie-detecting ability is one of those things that was more plot trouble than it was worth and that is best ignored. in-world, i think that we should assume that Lin has Toph's seismic sense, but that, because she isn't using it all the time (i think she had to close her eyes and focus when she used it) she's not as well-attuned or practiced and can't use it for things like lie-detection. it's like, if you know somebody's tells you can read them visually, but that doesn't meant that just because you have good eyesight you can read somebody's tells - you have to have spent a lot of time looking for it and figuring out what they are.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thanks re comics - I think I never even finished reading the Promise arc, let alone the second arc, but I still might at some point...

I think Tui and La are only ever seen in the North Pole spirit oasis except during the eclipse when Aang merges into that big stompy water thing, but Wan Shi Tong is a fair point. Okay, I think I can't actually make this make sense. Unalaq also tells Korra she needs to open the southern portal to restore spiritual balance, which the North has as demonstrated by the auroras, and when Korra opens the portal it creates auroras or whatever it is at the south, but then she still has to open the northern portal, so auroras aren't just a sign of opened portals... I dunno.

The movie premier fight was *awesome*, I really love stuff like that.

The Bolin/Ginger stuff gets a little less painful when you think that Ginger is initially trying to not get attached to Bolin because Zhu Li's plan is to martyr him to fake Northerners. Once Zhu Li decides he's more of an asset if they can keep him and manipulate him Ginger switches gears with the goal of eventually running him the way Zhu Li handles Varrick.

[q10.livejournal.com]

also re relationships - i really really liked the way Mako and Korra reach the point of 'we are into each other and care about each others but we need to admit that our dynamic as a couple is terrible and just cut our losses'. i feel like that is a narrative thing that doesn't get shown enough. i prettymuch hated everything leading up to it. i mean, they needed to show both of them behaving badly in order to make that conclusion believable, but still, gods...