It's Wan (萬).

I think I might have actually preferred to have the second season been the Legend of Wan, as opposed to the Legend of Korra.

 

His name is Wan. He was the first avatar (ie number one ) It also means 10000 in english apparently, and its been about that long since Wan lived. An amusing choice for a name.

Someone on another forum suggested that the second Avatar was probably called Tu.

 

Maybe I'm being influenced by Relic's mega post a while back but maybe Unalaq is interested in the possibility of

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an anti-avatar too

 

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I'm thinking that since Wan and Raava merged in the Harmonic Convergence, Unalaq wants to seperate Korra and Raava in it, kill Korra, and force Raava to merge with him in order to defeat Vaatu and contain him.

Unalaq wants to make himself the Avatar. His every move has been about power before now, and who's more powerful than the goddamn Avatar?

1. Split Raava From Korra, Kill Korra
2. Become Avatar
3. ???
4. Profit/Make yourself god emperor of the world

 

I really liked the animations/pictures of this episode. It strongly resembles traditional Chinese paintings.

 

Wow, what a turnaround. Those last two episodes were amazing, especially compared to how the rest of the season, or even the rest of the entire show, has gone. Hopefully they can end it on a good note after that.

Only issue was that society was remarkably stagnant for all that time. Things didn't seem that different in the Lion Turtle societies than they did at around the time of The Last Airbender, save for the presence of bending. And then technology gets this massive bump in the last few years of the Hundred-Year War and the aftermath. Seems kind of off to me. But I suppose you could explain this by the presence of the Avatar keeping things in stasis (so to speak) somehow, and when the Avatar was gone for a hundred years things were allowed to progress.

Oh, and what about Energybending? I thought that came before bending the elements. No mention of it here. On the other hand they did mention human societies even before the Lion Turtles, maybe it was back then.

 

I dunno. What with the industrial revolutions, our own Earthly civilizations progressed in a very similar manner, despite said progression being several thousand years shorter than the one portrayed in the avatar-verse.

It seems to me like Wan's time is supposed to reflect ancient china sometime before the Shang dynasty came to power in 1600 BC (the architecture wasn't quite right but the whole "we have the weapons, so we have the power" thing is very indicative of a copper/bronze age mindset).

Aang's pre-war life is supposed to reflect a period just before the dawn of an industrial revolution (using an Asian culture as an example: think mid-to-late 1700s Japan). The 100 years war is the transition into a more technologically-driven era (1800s-1900s), and by Korra's story we've arrived at time which corresponds with the jazzy 1920s.

Probably would have made more sense to make it 5000 years between Wan and Korra.... but that would have lacked cool factor, so fuck it.

 

Varric is a remarkable character. He's on our protagonist's side, but also very much dirty - he engages in crimes ranging from bribery to terrorism to war-mongering.

In his own words, "If you can't profit from a war, you can't make money at all".

Nice to see Avatar illustrating moral complexity, and character depth. Just as Unalaq is utterly dangerous yet well-intentioned, Varric aims for the same admirable goal as Korra (liberation of the South) while also resorting to some horrible things.

Refreshing after Amon turned out to be far less interesting than he originally seemed to be.

 

Annnnnnd we're back to crap. "The Guide" was possibly the most forgettable Avatar episode I've ever had the misfortune to see.

 

I don't know; I think this was a definite step up from a few of the earlier episodes.

 

Maybe I missed something but since when can just about anybody enter the spirit world?

 

I haven't watched the latest episode, but didn't Iroh say he entered it in A:TLA? I think any spiritual person can enter.

 

Towards the end, the episode became predictably and pointlessly stupid.

Why did Korra open the Northern Spirit Portal? Why the fuck would she? Aside from the fact that she was bringing on Harmonic Convergence, and risking the utter destruction of humanity (ten thousand years of darkness etc.) - why the hell would Korra believe that Unalaq would keep his promise, and give up his hostage?

It's one thing to be rash, but another to be inordinately, impossibly stupid. The worst part is that it isn't in Korra's personality (from what we've seen in the past season and a half) to give in like that. She's always been headstrong and rash - more likely to fight, rather than negotiate, let alone give in to blackmail. Poor writing has railroaded Korra into doing something horrendously stupid and out of character.

Jinora was the one bright spot in the episode. It's nice to see someone that is clever and brave. Unlike Korra, when she got lost she didn't lose her shit and turn into a baby.

A giant fucking owl swoops down on her, like a bat out of hell? She keeps her cool, to try and bargain with the cranky owl. It also took no small amount of cleverness, to remember the ancient rules of Wan's Library - knowledge in return for knowledge.

And when she was a captive, with her soul being corrupted (or whatever) by Unalaq, she again kept her cool, and showed enormous courage by telling Korra to refuse to open the portal and ruin the whole world.

Perhaps she should be the Avatar.

On a sidenote: seeing Iroh was nice, but all the talk of light and peace was rather forced.

TLDR wall of text coming up:

I take issue with the introduction of the idea that "negative" emotions like fear and anger can turn the spirits into monsters.

Such a portrayal of spirits is inconsistent with what was shown in ATLA. Spirits were like forces of nature, albeit with distinct personalities. They can be malevolent, like Koh - vindictive, if you piss them off (like that Panda spirit thing that Aang had to calm after its forest was desecrated by pollution) - wrathful, like the Ocean spirit avenging the Moon - but they can also be benevolent, like the Moon spirit - or at the very least, they can be transacted with (e.g. Wan Shi Tong, or even Koh) as long as you show proper respect and keep your wits about you.

But above all, the spirits are beyond human comprehension and human concerns - the entire point of spirits is that they are eternal and unchanging aspects. They care little for humans (think of that meditating monkey in ATLA), and intervene little in the human world - they don't care because they are in turn unaffected by the inconsequential actions and fleeting lives of mortals.

Making spirits out as a kind of emotion-sensitive time bomb is utterly inconsistent with spirits as we've been shown in ATLA - as timeless beings as far above human affairs as the moon is above the ground. If negative human emotions could turn spirits into rampaging monsters, then why didn't the genocide of the air nomads, and the destructive 100 year war unleash a horde of raging spirits that killed everyone?

I think this portrayal of spirits cheapens them. It made much more thematic sense to portray them as lesser gods that don't give two fucks about humans. As a flesh-and-bones mortal, you try your best not to offend the spirits, or you get fucked. If you want something from them (e.g. from Koh, from Wan Shi Tong, from the Moon Spirit), you tread very fucking carefully, mind your pleases and thank yous, and make sure you give them the gifts, offerings and respect they want.

The portrayal of spirits as being emotions-sensitive make Unalaq's plan to unite the Spirit and the Physical world look even more fucking stupid - are we going to have Spirits turning evil and killing everyone in sight everytime a little girl gets scared and cries?

 

The episode was fantastic up until the last minute or two, although the quick bit at the end with Korra being guilty and horrified over Jinora and Tenzin's "What happened to my little girl?!" was beautifully done.

As for the emotion-based thing, I offer this rebuttal: They are not affected by the emotions of just any little girl but the Avatar, the vessel of Raava Spirit of Light. And not every spirit is going to be on the same level as the Moon and Ocean or Wan Shi Tong. Likely there are differing levels of spirits, with those not possessing great power themselves being vulnerable to the strong emotions of the two Spirits of Light and Dark. Notice how Wan Shi Tong did not go all dark and ethereal, but maintained his form, as did the Dragon-Bird Spirit. There are Greater Spirits and lesser spirits.

Likely the only reason that Unalaq can manipulate the spirits is because he is the chosen agent of Vaatu. Perhaps it is even a more recent thing, with the opening of the Southern Spirit Portal, growing power of Vaatu, and the oncoming Harmonic Convergence.

 

Last four episodes of the season are up on Nickelodeon's website.

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I wanted Iroh to pop out and punch Korra in the face when she chose not to close the portal. Talk about negative ramifications. I mean... not all the spirits are friendly winged bunny creatures. How many people are going to be killed by that giant spider thing? How many faces stolen by Koh? Also, how many spirits will be harmed by frightened humans?

On the bright side, this makes me almost positive we'll get to see Koh again. Also, I suspect reforging the link to Aang and the rest her past lives is probably going to be the subject of a future book, so that might be cool.

 

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Yeah, that was a bit risky. Still, its not a "now or never" kind of situation. The avatar still exists, which means that if it turns out that coexistence is not possible/preferable, then the portals can still be closed anytime Korra/next avatar wants to.

 

As i was watching I was preparing a stream of consciousness "review" of what happened in teh four parter episode. All I can say after watching is that I loved 75% of the episodes; the filter ep with Bolin saving the president was meh, but athe last three episdoes were awesome as fuck, and I loved every part between Bumi rescuing and Tenzin realizing, that he din;t have to be his father to the twins realizing that they didn't have to be THEIR father and Janora realizing her true potentiial. The battle between the dark and light avatars as dope as fuck.

 

I don't even know where to start. This was a bad ending to what started as - and could have ended as - a good season. Let me list the problems, innumerable though they may be:


1. Korra refused to close the spirit portals. How in the name of fuck did she manage to come to the conclusion that this was a good idea? Did she not remember what happened the last time? When the two worlds were one, the spirit wilds encompassed literally the whole of the physical world.

The spirit wilds are dangerous as nothing else is - where spirits can and will attack you. If you're lucky, they kill you; if you're not, they possess and disfigure/mutilate you. And these aren't even the fucking "evil" spirits - just normal spirits mistrustful of humans, and defending their territory. The few humans who survive are confined to the lion-turtle cities - not by choice, but by necessity. Wan was not killed outright for his rebellion - he was exiled, because that was also as good as a death sentence.

That's not all. If Wan's original home is any indication, these cities were despotic - ruled by the privileged few, and you don't even have to choice of running away. People literally fucking eked a living out of the land by good old hunter-gathering - remember those firebending hunters, who braved the spirit wilds to hunt for their people?

This isn't just sheer stupidity - it's also overwhelming arrogance on Korra's part. She arrogates a right she does not have - to decide, for the world, to merge the spirit and the physical worlds - to impose upon all humanity a new, unfamiliar, indubitably more dangerous way of life.


2. The writers resorted, far too often and far too much - to deus ex machine. We might swallow our disbelief for (say) Bumi's hijinks saving everyone. But are we really supposed to believe that Korra's immaterial spirit, bereft of Raava and the powers of the Avatar, managed to beat Vatu, the much vaunted, much feared Great Spirit of Darkness? This is a dark spirit that's supposed to make Koh shit his pants, and look like the centipede he is. Instead, Korra's disembodied ghost manages to beat him. I like the ironic touch of Unalaq's own spiritbendind abilities used against him, but my unsuspended disbelief makes me choke here.

Jinora's intervention was even stranger - don't get me wrong, I like Jinora as a character, and she's far more interesting, and much more suited to the rule of Heroine than Korra is, but how does one puny prepubescent girl manage to teleport from the spirit world to Republic City, and there (with some glowing ball of light thing) attack/distract the rampaging Vatu/Unalaq when all the military power of Republic City failed to even faze him?


3. I think I object most of all is the inept handling of the idea of heroism. What we have here is a grotesque bowdlerization. After Raava is destroyed, and Korra loses her Avatar powers, Tenzin talks about Korra needing to find her inner Spirit - her inner Strength.

Avatar Wan is held up as an exemplar, a paragon. He succeeds not because he has the incomparable might of the Avatar, but because of who he is as a person. He steals fire from a god, and succeeds due to his daring. He helps the weak and rebels against the despotic Cho Family because he has a keen sense of injustice. He befriends the Spirits because they admire his compassion and love. And finally, he defeats Vatu because of his skill and courage.

Remember, he has to master all four elements on his own - no Avatars before him to hold his hand, and no past skill and power to draw upon, when in the Avatar state and fighting Vatu. No advantages but the ones he makes for himself.

When Tenzin talks about Korra needing to find her inner self, I thought that this would be the path the story was taking. Sadly, it was just Korra gaining unforeshadowed, undefined powers from the magic tree (strange that Vatu couldn't also access this power to escape). No inner strength there - just the power of the Tree of Time.

Korra had it in her to be a great hero - a distinct, refreshing alternative to Aang's philosophy and methods. I had hoped that she would show a bit of what Yang Chen would have been like - decisive, ruthless and more concerned with doing something to help others, than with her own spirituality and keeping her hands clean.

But the show does Korra a great disservice, by making her stupid, rather than decisive; rash, rather than effective; weak, rather relatable.

Raava should have just merged with Jinora at the end - she showed far more courage and wisdom than Korra has.

Avatar: The Legend of Jinora, anyone?

 

@fire: Not everyone will have watched all four episodes, so spoiler that shit.

 

Fire, I really wish you had spoilered your comments. Spoiled the fuck out the story for me. Don't get me wrong, I agree with the points you raised, but I'm pissed that you gave away the plot. I hadn't realized that the last episode was out, so I thought you were making shit up when I read the post.

If you don't know how to put stuff in spoiler tags, here's how:

[SPOILER...]... text... [/SPOILER...]

Just don't put the '...' after the word spoiler. Please use it in the future at appropriate times.