Korra 4.10

[psocoptera]

WHERE TO START. Suyin vs Kuvira mentor/mentee throwdown. The rumble as they're surrounded which you know means OH SHIT TOPH IN THE HOUSE. Although I am not thrilled with how they chose to present Toph's choice not to fight (her *back*, seriously?) and her comments about Katara, given the Old Masters episode in the original series where 115 year old King Bumi is kicking ass all over the place. (Seriously, Toph, didn't you once argue with Bumi over who was a better bender? You basically just kinda... let him win that, in one way.) I mean, I get that for narrative reasons we don't want to either have Toph lose or have her steal Korra's fight, but... I thought the Old Masters situation of having them fight on a different front was a better way to handle that.

But anyways. Bolin mostly annoyed me in this ep but flat-out asking about Lin's dad was PRICELESS. Canonically not Zuko, I guess, although if I wanted to tinhat I'd point out that she could have been lying. And I like that they didn't say anything about Su's. ::grin:: With Bolin and Opal getting resolved in the 4th last ep here (I want to say "quarterfinals" but that's not quite right), something tells me we're not seeing any more Jinora/Kai, Bolin being a more major character, which... makes me a little sad, but I guess that's what fic is for.

Meanwhile, in Republic City, Mako and Wu delighted the hearts of the Wuko shippers, Korra patched a lingering plot hole, and Asami has now designed a flying mecha suit, so I'm reviving my theory that she's Iron Man rather than Batman.

Also there is now a literal giant can(n)on that shoots holes in things. Ahahahaha. (Strategically, it seems like the cannon being one object is its weakness, and you only need one really good, say, tidal wave, to take it out. (My new theory is that part of how Korra is going to win in the finale is by remembering that she was born Water Tribe. When she fought Kuvira she used a lot of fire and earthbending and I don't think water at all. Kuvira may be unbeatable in her own element, but she has much less experience with any other. I'm sure in the end Korra will also pull out some crazy Avatar-state meta energybending business but I want to see some epic-level water action first.))

Comments

[sildra.livejournal.com]

...there are Wuko shippers?

(I mean, I know, there are shippers for every ship, but.)

I was amazed at how much more powerful Toph was than anyone else on the field of battle. Given that Su was holding her own against Kuvira for a while and Toph was considerably more powerful than Su and Lin combined, I would assume that Toph is also a lot more powerful than Kuvira. Although she might not have as much stamina.

Also I saw someone on Tumblr describe the show's handling of Toph and Lin's relationship as "fumbled at the one yard line" which is pretty much how I felt about it. It was being fairly well done, and then suddenly Toph saves Lin once, and they hug and Toph leaves, the end, and it wasn't satisfying. Nothing with Toph has been as satisfying as it should be considering it's Toph and everything with Toph should be great.

[q10.livejournal.com]

yeah, my reaction at the flying mech suit moment was definitely ‘okay, yeah, Iron Man is still in play as a serious possibility’.

[q10.livejournal.com]

presumably Kuvira can commission a redundant auxiliary cannon. It makes sense that she'd build the one first to confirm it works and be able to demo how badass it is as soon as possible, but as far as we know the actual construction of the thing doesn't take that long, and the second one will presumably go faster since it's just about repeating the process rather than figuring it all out as you go.

i'm sort of hoping that there'll be an epic battle where Korra destroys the one cannon and the the slightly smaller auxiliary cannon is revealed and Kuvira is all ‘you fucking idiot, as long as the technology, or even the awareness of the possibility of the technology, exists, there's no fucking way you can stop it by destroying one machine’, and then that's when we hit the serious energybending big picture solution.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i like the idea that Katara and Zuko (mainly Zuko) are the only members of team Aang who didn't end up being completely terrible parents.

and in connection with that, i like how the reconciliation is less about Lin and Toph actually working through their issues, and more about Lin realizing that Toph is Toph, and being Toph may not translate into being good at parenting, but that, within the parameters of who she is and what she's capable of, she really is doing her best for her family and the world. that is, that there's not so much a real reconciliation where everything gets worked out, as a pragmatic acceptance that sometimes things just are the way they are. i'm not explaining it well, but i really like the idea of Toph being simultaneously the awesomest thing in the universe and a complete failure, and I like the idea of Lin being smart and pragmatic enough to be able to make a kind of peace with that, and leave Toph as a respected, well-intentioned peer who happened to be a terrible mother.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with all of that, but I think Lin should have said some of that rather than hugging Toph. Hugging Toph does not say "pragmatic acceptance and peace" it says "peace and forgiveness and love".

[q10.livejournal.com]

i admit that the comparison with Bumi makes Toph opting out seem a little weird, but I think the whole ‘gotta leave it to the kids’ thing was the line that this series needed to remind us that it really doesn't belong to the old folks and never will.

also, Bumi may never have gotten past being twelve, but it's pretty clear that Toph, in her own kinda dysfunctional way, grew up. so holding her to her petty rivalries from about 74 years ago doesn't seem appropriate.

[q10.livejournal.com]

and how could there not be Wuko shippers?

i mean, i am not among their number, but in spite of his overacted insistence about being after the girls, Wu is almost every kind of urban gay stereotype, and he has this totally unhealthy obsession with keeping Mako (Mako in particular) close at all times, and ... yeah ...

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Also, Toph knows Korra, and Katara knew Korra really well, and Korra has completely different insecurities than Aang did.

Aang's insecurities were mostly that he was needed so much, how could he ever live up to it? How could he ever accomplish the things he needed to accomplish? So the more help from friends the better--the things got accomplished, Aang did what was needed, and he could be satisfied.

Korra's insecurities are the world is moving into a different era, and is she needed at all? Every time someone steps in to help her, that seems to be a blow to her self esteem, which then actively gets in the way of her performing her avatar duties. A slight exception can be made for Team Avatar when they're acting directly under her leadership, but even when they go off on their own and do things, it makes her nervous. Toph or Katara stepping in and helping would make things worse in the long run, insofar as they'd be emotionally incapacitating the Avatar. The only time it makes sense to step in is in situations where she's completely not involved (as in the case of rescuing Su and her family), or if a situation were to arise that Korra truly could not handle--neither personally or as a leader delegating tasks to her friends--that was potentially world-ending.

Also, Toph and Katara were Team Avatar for the previous Avatar; their time is done. Bumi was originally part of Team Avatar for the current Avatar, albeit mostly set aside for a younger crowd and due to his personal responsibilities as king of Omashu. Bumi never got his turn until Aang came back--he'd just been waiting and doing his best to hold what ground he still had.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i think yes to love, but no to forgiveness.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the gesture or how Lin should (or does) feel about it?

[q10.livejournal.com]

and Iroh and Jong Jong and Pindao, even if they were in many cases parental figures to various of the main cast, were still of the same generation as primary big bad Ozai, so this was still very much their business. with Toph vs. Kuvira, there's a clear two-generation separation. Su is clearly well past the point of needing her hand held when taking care of her own family business.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i mean, they may hug, but they still sign off with each other as ‘chief’. i think that that's an important bit of balance.

[q10.livejournal.com]

And Lin and Toph are both, in different ways, profoundly not the kind of people to actually talk things out. If anything, we've seen that they both communicate and achieve emotional clarity mainly by throwing huge rocks at things (cf. Lin vs. Su last book). So I think this is sorta fitting.

[q10.livejournal.com]

the gesture, or how i read the gesture.

i mean, i don't stop hugging beloved immediate family because there is shit i still think they are majorly getting wrong, even if it's stuff that has adversely affected me, or is continuing to do so.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I also suspect (entirely without evidence) that there's a part of the fandom who likes dude pairings and is pleased to have someone the same age as Mako on the show who isn't his brother. I mean, Wuko is not a *big* ship - Korrasami and Makorra are definitely the dominant pairings - but I'm guessing it'll end up about as popular as Bolin/Iroh II, which seems to be a thing that existed and is still going?

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that would be great. I will be very interested in whether Korra actually solves the problem in a permanent technology-negating way or just in a temporary object-destroying way, yes.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's fair. I mean, for me as the audience, it wasn't 74 years ago, but you're right that it's reasonable characterization. I'm not really sure, for myself, how much my love of this show is still a continuation of my love for ATLA vs just for itself. I can't imagine telling someone to watch it and not ATLA, and so many of my big feels about it are still about ATLA (like Jinora looking so much like Aang with her new tattoos, and the Airbenders reborn). But I can't blame them for wanting to try to make it its own thing.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

REALLY good point about Bumi was supposed to be part of Aang's original team. Man, I have feels about that now.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Also a good point about several of the "Old" Masters being more like Ozai-cohort than the previous generation. (Not sure about Jeong Jeong, Pakku I think was definitely a bit older.)

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

Agree, though I feel like in this situation the data point we need is how often Toph and Lin used to hug in the first place. A military handshake seems maybe more in character for both of them.