Avatar

[Peanutbutter]

Varrick is awesome, and should have been on this show sooner. As for Korra, she's still being hot-tempered and brash, but I don't consider her terrible. She's betrayed by her uncle and her parents' lives are still on the line. Another reason I don't hate Korra is because Tenzin, her father, that council leader, and now even Mako have called her out on her actions. We're not supposed to be on her side with her approach to the civil war. I think possibly as indicated by the ending tonight, Korra's finally diving into the Spirit World where she'll learn about the Avatar State and gain some needed development.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This episode did feel a bit too cluttered with all of the plot points going on, but on the other hand, it's good to see it finally moving at a faster pace. I think breaking up with Korra is easily the least bland thing that Mako has done in this series, so far.

On the whole, I'm actually liking where the story of this season is going. As usual, the one thing constantly getting worse is Korra herself. I can maybe forgive the writing IF it ultimately builds up to something tragic happening to Korra or her family in order to give her a huge sense of regret from failing to live up to her responsibilities as the Avatar, and a tough experience that she must learn from. Unless they actually go that route, though, I really can't stand this character anymore.

Also, did anyone catch General Iroh mentioning that the current Fire Lord is his grandfather? Given his age, it would make sense if a certain character fit the bill for that role. So does this mean that Zuko is still alive and kicking in Korra's time?

[Dr. Insomniac]

For a change of pace, I'll put the episode blog on this thread.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Also, did anyone catch General Iroh mentioning that the current Fire Lord is his grandfather? Given his age, it would make sense if a certain character fit the bill for that role. So does this mean that Zuko is still alive and kicking in Korra's time?

Yeah, Konieztko and DiMartino have said Zuko's still alive, but he retired from being the Fire Lord, let his daughter take the mantle, and now travels around the world as an ambassador for peace. I'm hoping we'll see him again one of these days.

[Pharass]

Varrick is by far my favorite new character of the season and I really hope it doesn't turn out that he had something to do with the bombing.
All in all, I quite enjoyed the latest episode, it was great seeing Lin and Iroh again and I loved Lin's deadpan "thanks for starting a war" line.
Add me to the list of people who hope we get to see Zuko make an appearance in the show.

[Peanutbutter]

Tonight's episode was mostly good. I didn't quite want Varrick to be a villain, but if that was a taste of things to come from him, I may be in favor of it. I'm guessing he might have been the one to frame Korra's parents after all. Korra has amnesia, that may be a bit of a cliche but no way that lasts after she goes into the Spirit World.


I'm liking what they've done with Mako in the last two episodes. He's finally gotten his own arc that isn't tethered to Korra. As for the kiss, I'm not taking any stock into that kiss with Asami yet. Its been a while since I watched the first season, I don't even know if we saw which one of them ended it last season. If they have them get back together but don't make it a love triangle with Korra, I'm okay with it. But it would be unnecessary to pull that all over again. That was the one part of last season's ending I won't defend.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Mako is a cop, and Asami's mother was killed my Triads, so why are they hiring them?

[Peanutbutter]

Desperate times, desperate measures. I don't know if they were actually going to give the Triads what they wanted.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Going straight from your brother to known criminals is a bit of a stretch, though.

Still, a pretty okay episode. I'm interested to see where they'll go with Korra's amnesia, since I think the next episode is where they're supposted to introduce that whole "First Avatar" thing.

[Peanutbutter]

It may be, but he did try with the Police first, at least. Like I said, I'm glad they're doing something with his character finally. I like him as a detective, I hope it sticks even if he gets thrown off the force. I'm glad that only Asami sided with him too. I don't hate or love Mako, but his character has needed to be taken down a few pegs so I liked that he was opposed by those two cops as well as Baifong. Asami got to look awesome in this episode as well.


Bolin, while pushy this week, I'll take him as an arrogant actor than an abused boyfriend. They could still do even better with him, but at least his acting scenes were hilarious.


Hopefully, I"m right about Korra getting serious development soon. I'm sorry that GregX isn't enjoying this season anymore, it is understandable with her attitude up to now. I honestly don't think Korra is a lost cause though, I honestly think her getting called by so many different people suggest to me that the creators and or writers don't want us to side with her because they're planning a notable change in her. A change that may be realized after next week. Here's hoping for it at least.

[Nel_Annette]

Yeah, I've been holding out hope that Korra's attitude isn't bad writing so much as it is the writer's setting her up for a big fall and some character development. Problem is they've been dragging it out a bit long. I'm a bit iffy on the amnesia thing, but we'll see.

I love that Mako's actually becoming interesting, and I love that Varrick's a villain as well. Everyone keeps complaining about it but I think a villain character with his personality is really cool.

[Peanutbutter]

^ I agree. I wasn't down with Varrick being evil, but his being coy won me over. And now I'm hoping he'll be the main villain somehow. Unalaq could still turn out better than he seems depending on what his motives are, but at least we have one great villain to fall back on. 


As for Korra, on any other show most people would be on her side and anyone speaking out against her would be portrayed as wrong, but that isn't what's happened. A major reason why I haven't minded her temper (other than its justified to an extent) is because she's been given consequences for it. She's not with Mako anymore, she doesn't have Tenzin to give her guidance, her attempt to go behind the president's back failed; and she is alone now on some monastery island without her memory for the moment. I would be irritated myself if Korra were fighting it out with the Northern Tribe whole-hog right now, but the exact opposite has happened. Which is why I think for at least right now Bryan and Mike deserve the benefit of the doubt.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As someone who's actually been defending this season because I don't think it's really as bad as people say, this is the first episode that really didn't do anything for me. Yes, Mako was in the right, here, but it felt like they made Lin and Asami dumber just to make Mako seem "relatively" smart. I'm also REALLY starting to hate Bolin (again). I mean, really, you're going to take him in THAT overused cartoon show cliche angle?

On the (possible) bright side, Korra losing her memory could represent giving her a fresh, clean new slate to start from. Maybe her character can actually finally LEARN something now.

Really, there are actually many potentially awesome directions that this season could go in even from this point, but the writers seem to be dodging those possibilities at every turn in order to go the more predictable route. I really hope that this builds up to something that's a worthy pay-off, but now I'm really starting to doubt it more and more.

[Peanutbutter]

I really don't see how Lin or Asami were being dumb. From Lin's perspective, there wasn't enough evidence for her to side with Mako.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Lin would normally be much sharper and realize that those other two cops are clearly corrupt, and were most likely bought off. Not only that, but even if Mako didn't have direct evidence, he had a clear lead that made sense, especially since if they did look into it and found evidence, it would have made sense given the witness's description of how they were attacked.

As for Asami, being that she was raised as the daughter of someone heavily involved in the business world, she should have been able to put the pieces together herself and see that Varrick's offer to invest in her company at precisely the right time (after she had pretty much lost everything) was incredibly suspicious. There's also the fact that pretty much everyone (especially Korra) have completely ignored Mako's claim that it was firebenders that were behind the attack in the previous episode. Sure, he doesn't have hard evidence, but do these people seriously think Mako would just make all of this shit up for no reason? You would think that one of them would at least want to look into it.