The Legend of Korra: When Extremes Meet Rewatch
February 7, 2016 3:36 AM - Season 1, Episode 8 - Subscribe
Korra faces off with Councilman Tarrlok as Equalist activity continues to rise in Republic City.
This episode brings in the following:
This episode brings in the following:
- There might be a regular Air Temple Island ferry, but Asami, Bolin, and Mako arrive by a sailboat that resembles a Chinese Junk.
- Fire ferrets are arboreal mammals common to the bamboo forests of the Central Earth Kingdom. (Thank you, Jinora!)
- Air acolytes are tireless workers, apparently. Or maybe Asami just doesn't know how to complement the help.
- Meelo wants some of Asami's hair. Yeah, we'll just let that slide.
- Air Temple Island is an all-vegetarian island. Guests do not have to wear acolyte robes but also do not get their own sky bison.
- Ikki knows exactly how many trees are on the island. 10,552.
- There's a men's dormitory and a women's dormitory and they're on opposite sides of the island.
- Ikki reveals to Asami that Korra likes Mako.
- Saikhan is the new chief of police for Republic City, replacing Lin Beifong.
- Saikhan also puts Tarrlok in charge of fighting the Equalists. The police force is entirely behind him and will do all his work.
- Korra is not returning to Tarrlok's task force.
- Korra's memorised most of the forms, but she's still not actually bending the air.
- Korra's also never been able to get in touch with her past lives, but she's been having weird hallucinations recently.
- Pabu likes the taste of human tears. Again, we're letting that slide.
- Asami's decided that if her dad was going to make Equalist weapons, she's going to use them to fight Equalists (and look good doing it).
- Team Avatar is taking on the Equalists! In Asami's roadster!
- Hiroshi put police scanners into all of his cars. Which is handy when they're fighting a prison break from Equalists.
- Earthbenders are very good for creating quick road ramps to launch cars off of.
- Tarrlok has decided that even more laws need to be in place to segregate nonbenders from benders. Because that'll work out.
- So unsurprisingly, they're protesting. And ask for Korra's help because "you're our avatar too."
- Metal benders can use police barricades to capture people and then lift up piles of earth to keep them captured.
- Asami is arrested for being a nonbender out after curfew. And Bolin and Mako are arrested for protesting this arrest.
- Equalist suspects are "detained indefinitely" and will only be released when Councilman Tarrlok says so.
- Tarrlok has a giant water wall behind his desk with a giant stone relief of Tui and La behind it. The water does come in handy when he has to fight Korra (and, likewise, the stone relief comes in handy when she fights back).
- Tarrlok can blood bend. Wait, let me repeat that. TARRLOK CAN BLOOD BEND OUTSIDE OF A FULL MOON.
- When you've decided that Korra is a "half-baked avatar in training", I guess it's totally cool to kidnap her.
Korra Season 1 is not without its flaws, but the animation just might be the best that has been made for television ever. And since the trend now is for lo-fi animation in the style of Adventure Time, Korra just might be a peak that will never be surpassed.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:23 AM on February 7, 2016
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:23 AM on February 7, 2016
Ikki reveals to Asami that Korra likes Mako.
BEST REACTION EVER (followed by a great second place "catty" (?) reaction from Ikki)
Meelo wants some of Asami's hair. Yeah, we'll just let that slide.
Eh, he's a little boy, and little boys are weird, mostly because they haven't learned social norms. Now, if he's asking for girls' hair 5 to 10 years from now, he's totally a creeper.
Pabu likes the taste of human tears. Again, we're letting that slide.
I saw that he was 1) trying to comfort her, 2) helped her hide her crying, and 3) might like mildly salty water.
Team Avatar is taking on the Equalists! In Asami's roadster!
I like to think of it as the AvatarMobile.
Tarrlok has decided that even more laws need to be in place to segregate nonbenders from benders. Because that'll work out.
Up to this episode, I was sure he was in cahoots with Amon for some larger goal, but his reaction to Korra's line "You're doing exactly what Amon says is wrong with benders" got a serious rise out of him.
So unsurprisingly, they're protesting. And ask for Korra's help because "you're our avatar too."
Again, I thought Tarrlok had a bigger plan for turning the people against Korra, but this episode showed that this is not the case either. Curiouser and curiouser.
Equalist suspects are "detained indefinitely" and will only be released when Councilman Tarrlok says so.
This felt like shades of Gitmo Lite - "we'll hold you until we know you're not a threat, but if we think you're a threat but we can't prove it, we'll keep holding you indefinitely."
Korra Season 1 is not without its flaws, but the animation just might be the best that has been made for television ever.
And the backgrounds, oh the backgrounds. It's all so gorgeous!
posted by filthy light thief at 8:22 AM on February 8, 2016
BEST REACTION EVER (followed by a great second place "catty" (?) reaction from Ikki)
Meelo wants some of Asami's hair. Yeah, we'll just let that slide.
Eh, he's a little boy, and little boys are weird, mostly because they haven't learned social norms. Now, if he's asking for girls' hair 5 to 10 years from now, he's totally a creeper.
Pabu likes the taste of human tears. Again, we're letting that slide.
I saw that he was 1) trying to comfort her, 2) helped her hide her crying, and 3) might like mildly salty water.
Team Avatar is taking on the Equalists! In Asami's roadster!
I like to think of it as the AvatarMobile.
Tarrlok has decided that even more laws need to be in place to segregate nonbenders from benders. Because that'll work out.
Up to this episode, I was sure he was in cahoots with Amon for some larger goal, but his reaction to Korra's line "You're doing exactly what Amon says is wrong with benders" got a serious rise out of him.
So unsurprisingly, they're protesting. And ask for Korra's help because "you're our avatar too."
Again, I thought Tarrlok had a bigger plan for turning the people against Korra, but this episode showed that this is not the case either. Curiouser and curiouser.
Equalist suspects are "detained indefinitely" and will only be released when Councilman Tarrlok says so.
This felt like shades of Gitmo Lite - "we'll hold you until we know you're not a threat, but if we think you're a threat but we can't prove it, we'll keep holding you indefinitely."
Korra Season 1 is not without its flaws, but the animation just might be the best that has been made for television ever.
And the backgrounds, oh the backgrounds. It's all so gorgeous!
posted by filthy light thief at 8:22 AM on February 8, 2016
I don't remember individual Korra eps the way I do ATLA ones, so I forgot this was one of my favorites of the season until I was most of the way through it. It starts off with all this cute friendship bonding stuff but the atmosphere is literally thick with tension and the zippy action scene of Team Avatar, working together at last! And then it all falls apart and it's so messy and morally fraught and whoa waterbender vs waterbender HOLY SHIT TARRLOK WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT
If we're picking favorite shots, mine is Korra confronting Tarrlok. The sleek, carefully controlled power of the waterfall behind Tarrlok's desk, the snowstorm blowing in through the window behind Korra -- ugh, so good.
Asami is seriously the MVP of that chase scene -- she's the driver, the strategist, AND effective muscle, yikes.
About Republic City politics: I think the central problem the show has is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too -- institutional oppression against non-benders exists, but the main cast are generally laudable people who are not part of the problem. Although the government response to the Equalists is clearly oppressive, whatever it was doing before to provoke support among non-benders for the Equalist movement is kind of sketchy background detail because it doesn't affect the characters we're following around until plot kicks in.
At most you can argue that pro-bending gives Mako and Bolin a slim chance of escaping poverty that non-benders can't access, but they're still being exploited by various rich people for cheap labor and entertainment and needed monetary support from a patron to keep playing. Asami never mentions non-bender discrimination until the previous episode. Meanwhile we're expected to believe that the existing government is and has been oppressive for some considerable time, while also admiring one-fifth of the oligarchy and the chief of police as part of our cast of heroes.
Don't get me wrong, I love Lin and Tenzin, but if we take Amon's claims as stemming at least in part from legitimate grievances, then surely they bear some of the responsibility, right?
Sidebar: I don't see Aang's dilemma in the comics as being a non-bender vs. bender thing, but the problem of cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation, with the survival of his culture at stake. While it's not as big a plotline as the anti-bender thing, the fine nuances feel a lot more thought through, which makes sense considering that Gene Yang would have personal experience of the issue the way Bryke would not for the kind of systemic oppression they're trying to present.
posted by bettafish at 6:35 PM on February 9, 2016
If we're picking favorite shots, mine is Korra confronting Tarrlok. The sleek, carefully controlled power of the waterfall behind Tarrlok's desk, the snowstorm blowing in through the window behind Korra -- ugh, so good.
Asami is seriously the MVP of that chase scene -- she's the driver, the strategist, AND effective muscle, yikes.
About Republic City politics: I think the central problem the show has is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too -- institutional oppression against non-benders exists, but the main cast are generally laudable people who are not part of the problem. Although the government response to the Equalists is clearly oppressive, whatever it was doing before to provoke support among non-benders for the Equalist movement is kind of sketchy background detail because it doesn't affect the characters we're following around until plot kicks in.
At most you can argue that pro-bending gives Mako and Bolin a slim chance of escaping poverty that non-benders can't access, but they're still being exploited by various rich people for cheap labor and entertainment and needed monetary support from a patron to keep playing. Asami never mentions non-bender discrimination until the previous episode. Meanwhile we're expected to believe that the existing government is and has been oppressive for some considerable time, while also admiring one-fifth of the oligarchy and the chief of police as part of our cast of heroes.
Don't get me wrong, I love Lin and Tenzin, but if we take Amon's claims as stemming at least in part from legitimate grievances, then surely they bear some of the responsibility, right?
Sidebar: I don't see Aang's dilemma in the comics as being a non-bender vs. bender thing, but the problem of cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation, with the survival of his culture at stake. While it's not as big a plotline as the anti-bender thing, the fine nuances feel a lot more thought through, which makes sense considering that Gene Yang would have personal experience of the issue the way Bryke would not for the kind of systemic oppression they're trying to present.
posted by bettafish at 6:35 PM on February 9, 2016
This felt so Trump-y. *shivers*
I love Asami's sweet roadster. That is crime fighting in style! And the earth bending for ramps and the curve to turn - sweet!
What is Tarrlok's game?! Did a non-bender kill his wife/parent years ago, a la Asami, so he has a vendetta against them? I was expecting Korra to break out the blood bending - she WAS trained by Katara - but Tarrlok as a blood bender, especially with no full moon, was surprising. Is that how he's got so many people to unquestioningly agree to his ideas?
Korra can't just go into the Avatar state -even if she could - and bully away the police who are detaining the non-benders. It would not solve the actual problem.
*sigh*
You've got yourself into a tough one, Korra.
posted by jillithd at 3:45 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
I love Asami's sweet roadster. That is crime fighting in style! And the earth bending for ramps and the curve to turn - sweet!
What is Tarrlok's game?! Did a non-bender kill his wife/parent years ago, a la Asami, so he has a vendetta against them? I was expecting Korra to break out the blood bending - she WAS trained by Katara - but Tarrlok as a blood bender, especially with no full moon, was surprising. Is that how he's got so many people to unquestioningly agree to his ideas?
Korra can't just go into the Avatar state -even if she could - and bully away the police who are detaining the non-benders. It would not solve the actual problem.
*sigh*
You've got yourself into a tough one, Korra.
posted by jillithd at 3:45 PM on March 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
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But we need stuff going down. We need to drive home that this non-bender discrimination is so deeply entwined in Republic City culture that they can set up a curfew and turn off the power and arrest people indefinitely and the only people protesting are non-benders. What the fuck, man.
Was this simmering in the background during Avatar Aang's time and then came out once he and Sokka were gone? How did things get so messed up in Republic City in less than two decades?
I want to believe that Aang wouldn't let such discrimination fester (especially since the comics have a regular plot line of him learning how to work with nonbenders who want to study the Air Nomad ways - and that's when he's a teenager, he obviously knew what to do as an adult, because now there are air acolytes everywhere). But could it just be that he didn't know how bad it was? Was he so busy with his family and his son and preserving Air Nomad history that he completely ignored what was happening in the rest of the city? How did they let him do that? What was Toph doing? What about Sokka? Didn't Sokka ever notice?
God, okay, no, I can't end this on a downer about how fucked up Republic City is. Instead, I will focus again on Team Avatar and their snazzy car. Yes. That's better. Or how about Jinora's knowledge of fire ferrets? Or Ikki being able to count EVERY tree on the island?
(I'm ignoring Meelo, because he's just a creepy little monster.)
Also, the best shot? This one of Korra and Mako in the side mirror while Asami narrows her eyes. Yesssssssss.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:37 AM on February 7, 2016 [3 favorites]