The Legend of Korra: The Voice in the Night   Rewatch 
January 9, 2016 1:05 PM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe

Korra is recruited to join Councilman Tarrlok's task force, which seeks to rid the city of Equalists by force.

This episode brings in the following:
  • The Republic City Council is made up of an airbender, two waterbenders, a firebender, and an earthbender. Note what's missing.
  • Tarrlok wants to start a task force to stop Amon, and, of course, he will be in charge. And he really wants Korra to join him.
  • 42 years ago, there was someone named Yakone causing trouble in Republic City and Aang stopped him.
  • Amon likes giving threats via pirate radio.
  • Introducing Asami Sato, who likes hitting boys with her scooter and then doing amazing hair flips. She is the daughter of "the most successful industrial captain of Republic City".
  • Kwon's Cuisine is a fancy restaurant in Republic City. Rich girls can not only make next-day reservations, but also get the maitre'd to give their date fancy clothes.
  • Hiroshi Sato started out from nearly nothing, and is more than happy to sponsor the Fire Ferrets.
  • Tarrlok is the king of ostentatious gifting. ("Out of the way, Daddy! We're driving here!" "Beep! Beep!") But fancy gift-giving isn't the way to get Korra to join things. Instead, it's having journalists call her chicken.
  • Mako wears his red scarf because it was his father's, and he feels like it keeps him safe.
  • Avatar Aang Island doesn't just hold a giant statue of Aang. It also has a giant clock too.
  • Something happened in the past. Something with Sokka, Toph, and Aang. Korra's getting flashbacks, but she doesn't know what they mean.
And in "I've heard that voice before":
  • Seychelle Gabriel may be Asami Sato now, but she was in the Movie That Dares Not Speak Its Name as Princess Yue.
  • Daniel Dae Kim is that mighty fine man from Lost, Hawaii 5-0, and much more (including General Fong in "The Avatar State"), but here he's Hiroshi Sato.
And you might not recognise the voice, because he's speaking human words, but Tarrlok is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who has been Appa, Momo, Pabu, Naga, Oogi, and a billion other creatures and people.
posted by Katemonkey (11 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Amon is definitely creepier in this. That scene on Avatar Aang Island? With all his Equalists and their glowing red eyes, the talking about martyrdom and destroying her? Damn, that's incredibly well done.

I feel like this is the first time Korra's actually been scared of, well, anything. And it's no wonder it's messing her up so much, almost all her life, she's been told she's the most important bender out there, and without her bending, what is she? Is she anything at all?

But enough serious stuff. This brings in ASAMI. Asami of the amazing hair flip and the total lack of helmet hair. Oh, Asami, you ran over Mako and ran over my heart.

And as a random aside, In Kwon's, it actually looks like Mako and Asami are sitting in the exact same place that Mako, Wu, Asami, and Korra sit in three books later.

I also love the formal party wear everyone is wearing at Tarrlok's party (except for Lin - yeah, Lin, you go on with your "fuck you, I work" attitude). And that Tenzin and Pema both thought it'd be a fantastic idea to bring the kids. Is that an utter troll to Tarrlok? "Yeah, we're coming to your party, yep, fun, here are our terrible children!"
posted by Katemonkey at 1:11 PM on January 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


The scarf stays.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:52 PM on January 9, 2016


The Republic City Council is made up of an airbender, two waterbenders, a firebender, and an earthbender. Note what's missing.

This has always driven me nuts. How the hell are you going to build an effective form of governance by ignoring the majority of your population, while effectively giving one dude and his family 25% of the vote?
posted by Itaxpica at 3:42 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


ASAMI OF THE MAGNIFICENT RITA HAYWORTH-INSPIRED HAIR ♥ ♥ ♥ Her first meetings with the rest of the Krew are interesting to watch not just in light of later developments but the original plan for her (spoilers for the entire series).

Both Asami and Korra seem to have developed much more between season 1 and 4 than Mako and Bolin, but it's possible I am just biased against Mako and Bolin -- I mean, I don't dislike either of them, but of the show's eventually extensive main cast I find them the least interesting, probably because they are such obvious attempts at Zuko and Sokka 2.0.

I like to think that Sokka was the one who gave Hiroshi his initial loan. He seems the type.

Amon's "the reason I'm not removing an obvious major obstacle right now" villain speech is one of the very few I've heard that makes some amount of sense. He doesn't just want to take away people's bending, he wants to break them first -- and given the obvious economic and social fallout, society as a whole. Tying into the whole "every Korra faces wants to destroy society and rebuild it in their image" thing.

Tenzin is a really great mentor to Korra in this episode and the one previous. He doesn't disbelieve her account for a second, he tries to protect her from Tarrlok's manipulations while still letting her make her own choices... okay, he probably should have anticipated the press conference mess. But the way he talks Korra through her fears and supports her... I love their relationship so much.

Re: formalwear, I love that the airbender kids' formal gear is basically just a cape thrown over their normal clothes. Practical.

What is with all the evil firebenders in people's backstories this season? I kept expecting there to be some kind of link between them but there never was.

I feel weirdly uncomfortable thinking that Tarrlok has a sexy voice now that I know he's also Appa.
posted by bettafish at 3:43 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


This has always driven me nuts. How the hell are you going to build an effective form of governance by ignoring the majority of your population, while effectively giving one dude and his family 25% of the vote?

Yeah, the City Council is a bending oligarchy in all but name, and that part of the Equalists' complaints is legit. I do kinda wonder what shifted between Councilman Sokka's era and now -- heck, even in ATLA, I don't remember any strong correlation between bending and leadership outside of the Fire Nation, and that... really doesn't seem like a value Fire Lord "lucky to be born" Zuko would want to imPort.

Also, I know there's no pro-bending this episode but I have been sitting on this truly magical fic rec for months:
How It's Done, by ryfkah. Ten years before Legend of Korra, Toph really wants to try this pro-bending thing.
posted by bettafish at 3:56 PM on January 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


I was seriously expecting that by the end of the episode, we’d discover Asami was some sort of villain who “ran into” Mako on purpose as part of an evil scheme.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:48 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I suppose the Southern Water Tribe council member might be a non-bender, but with the way the Fire Nation council member was talking, it didn't sound like they had nonbenders.

And why are they all dressed in traditional other nation clothing anyway? Does that mean that they're from those nations too? Are there no native-born United Republic people who could be council members? I'm guessing that, when they started the country, that it made sense to have a council made up of all the different nations, but it's been decades now. Along with non-benders, it should be all local people too.

I know that this is all resolved between Book 1 and Book 2, and resolved quite well, but it's just frustrating right now. Where is my The Birth of a Nation: The History of the United Republic?
posted by Katemonkey at 4:32 AM on January 10, 2016


Also, it's entirely Mako's fault he got run over. He didn't look both ways before rushing towards the tram.

Too busy making sure he looked too good.
posted by Katemonkey at 4:37 AM on January 10, 2016


It was totally Mako's fault! I'm all for pedestrian right-of-way but he stepped right into ongoing traffic without looking from behind a blind spot where Asami wouldn't be able to see him. But of course Asami is a class act and assumes responsibility anyway.

And why are they all dressed in traditional other nation clothing anyway? Does that mean that they're from those nations too? Are there no native-born United Republic people who could be council members? I'm guessing that, when they started the country, that it made sense to have a council made up of all the different nations, but it's been decades now. Along with non-benders, it should be all local people too.

I was going to point out that even in Republic City's blended environs there are lots of people who stick to dressing in the colors of their heritage (e.g. Asami Sato), but according to the Avatar wiki they really are non-elected representatives from the established nations (plus the Air Acolytes/Nation, which arguably makes Tenzin at least a local).

This... kind of makes sense as a holdover past its due date if we see the baby Republic as an experimental free-for-all zone with the purpose of the council to hold each other in check as much as govern, but... in the post-ATLA comics, the Republic is in the process of coming to fruition out of the Fire Nation's Earth Kingdom colonies, which with Zuko and Aang's help assert themselves as (semi-)autonomous and start electing coalition governments made up of locals of both Earth and Fire nation heritage. So I'm not sure how we get from one to the other.
posted by bettafish at 8:38 AM on January 10, 2016


Something happened in the past. Something with Sokka, Toph, and Aang. Korra's getting flashbacks, but she doesn't know what they mean.

Thanks, I couldn't figure out who everyone was, aged as they were. I'll re-watch that and pause to see everyone in more detail.


Itaxpica: This has always driven me nuts. How the hell are you going to build an effective form of governance by ignoring the majority of your population, while effectively giving one dude and his family 25% of the vote?

To quote a sarcastic Chief Justice Kennedy: "a state is always more efficient if it can suppress speech." Effective governance and everyone having a voice or actively participating in government aren't the same thing. The most efficient would be an altruistic, omnipotent god-emperor, with an altruistic, informed queen or king coming in second. People are jerks to each-other, and often don't act in their own best self-interest.


bettafish: What is with all the evil firebenders in people's backstories this season? I kept expecting there to be some kind of link between them but there never was.

I was first going to say they were former Fire Nation soldiers who are out of a job in peacetime, but I realize the war is long over, so I'll say they're fire benders whose family was supported by people in the Fire Nation Army, and have since turned to thuggery, as that was their family image ("my father was a Fire Nation soldier, as was his father, as was his father, so what do I do?")

I feel weirdly uncomfortable thinking that Tarrlok has a sexy voice now that I know he's also Appa.

I hope that someone has taken his animal voice acting and redubbed various Tarrlok scenes with his animal sounds. Because that would amuse me.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:41 AM on January 15, 2016


Tarrlok is Creepy McCreepersons. He is just creepy enough to possibly be Amon himself. And by accosting Korra long after the midnight deadline, he would have had ample opportunity to cover his tracks. Creepy. Appa, how could you?
posted by jillithd at 2:17 PM on March 25, 2016


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