10.05
Limp when wet, aren't we?
Well, this was a 180 from Civil Wars. Cool characters like Lin and General Iroh come back, while a political side is thrown into the conflict between Korra and Unalaq. Plenty of different perspectives are thrown into the fire so don’t we get saddled with teenagers who argue more than they actually bend. I know conflict is the soul of good storytelling, but conflict for conflict’s sake only adds to the tedium instead of avoids it. Thank the Gods that Mako and Korra are split, and I hope to hell there isn’t some subplot that brings them back together. They had no chemistry and did nothing together except add padding and arguing to every scene they were in. You don’t have to be a shipper, or a romantic, or anybody special to realize that relationship did nothing to improve the story. Now with that out of the way, we can focus on how the North vs South debate affects everyone instead of just Korra and Korra’s friends.
The character conflicts throughout these past few episodes have been so tiresome and subtract from what could be an interesting season. Korra’s been so argumentative with every character that you wonder whether her side can ever be considered the right one. She’s essentially the Avatar version of Captain Janeway with her “my way or the high way” routine to everybody including President Raiko. And before you say that there wouldn’t be complaints if she was a man, don’t. Brute force is a vice upon both genders, and any criticism aimed toward Korra can be equally applied if she was a male character. An assertive and violent female lead doesn’t equate to a strong female lead. She’s been stupid by rejecting people who genuinely love her in favor of an uncle she seldom met. She can’t go one second with an opposing force without expressing the desire to tear their throat apart. The writers have forgotten that Korra’s supposed to be the hero of the story. These moments of doubt are supposed to be in-between moments where we know she fights for what’s right, while illustrating why we should root for her cause. The times where Korra comes off as questionable and possibly savage have to be balanced with scenes where she proves to be a good person at heart and earns the title of Avatar. Alas, these moments have been forgotten in favor of a protagonist whose traits would be more at home with Ozai than an Avatar.
But let’s give credit where credit is due. I liked the subplot with Meelo and his horde of lemurs, ending with him realizing that being the alpha male sucked. It would make some neat foreshadowing for the trials a leader takes if the show actually goes that route. And Lin’s return deserves a warm welcome. While Lin may be stern, she has a calm head on her shoulders and knows a bad situation when she sees it. The show seems to handle the adult characters with better care than any of the teenagers, which only furthers how the team has gotten worse as characters without Tenzin guiding them. Varrick may steal every scene he’s in, but he’s not the team support. He can’t be the one who tells them when their ideas might be wrong. Korra and the bunch think that they have the right idea while doing little to bring everyone else’s opinions into the plan. Her idea that she knows what’s best only makes her akin to Unalaq by putting her plans ahead of Republic City’s. She wants a city—that initially had nothing to do with the conflict—to go into a potential war sure to bring costs to all of the participants. And she’s supposed to be the hero?