Wow, it took forever for my Legend of Korra Bluray to ship, but it’s finally here.  It couldn’t play in VLC right out of the box, so I had to rip its AACS protection out before I could play it.  I did have another player that could read it, but screencapping was disabled, so… yeah, fuck protection.

Anyway, we start off being told that Aang is dead.

Yay!

But, well, it’s been a long time since the events of The Last Airbender, and the original cast has become legend.

So, naturally, the Avatar cycle follows, and a new Avatar is born as a Waterbender.  That Waterbender is Korra.

Korra is a natural at bending and masters Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending offscreen.  But she has no talent for Airbending or the Spirit World, but her final master, Tenzin (also the son of Aang and Katara), is an expert of both, and her other bending masters agree he should train Korra as soon as possible.

We’re introduced to Tenzin’s kinda hot pregnant wife, his frightening abomination of a son Meelo, his bratty younger daughter Ikki, and sweet, glorious bookworm Jinora, who is officially the best thing to come from Aang.

Oh, and we find out Aang and Katara have two other children named Kya (pronounced “Kaya” for some reason… thank you, subtitles) and Bumi.  Yeah, naming one of your kids after a man you once told Toph was “a crazy king” makes perfect sense.  Though understandable if he’s anything like Meelo.  Dun dun dun…

Anyway, Tenzin can’t stay to train Korra because he has duties in Republic City.  It takes entirely too long before Korra outright says she could just move to Republic City and train there, but she can’t because she’s supposed to be kept safe in the Southern Water Tribe because some BS about Aang’s orders.  I mean jeez, Aang traveled all over the world to learn all four bending types, just as Roku did, but he doesn’t want Korra (technically, HIMSELF) leaving her home?  Aang’s a dick.  I mean, he always was a dick, but one would think he would grow out of it.

Predictably, Korra sneaks a ride to Republic City along with her Polarbear-Dog, Naga.

 

Republic City is… yeah, pretty much Chicago x New York x Shanghai.

Korra has no idea how to behave in the big city because she’s been isolated pretty much all her life thanks to that dick Aang.  So she pretty much acts like a tourist / bum, at least until she gets to Tenzin.

While wandering around Not!CentralPark, Korra does one of the worst things anyone can do: get involved in politics.

The Equalist demonstrator talks about a non-bender movement to overthrow the benders in power, and he kinda makes a good point, at least as best as we can tell.  We really don’t know just how much the benders are keeping the non-benders down in Republic City, and it doesn’t take much to realize they can and have abused this power in the past.  My mind immediately goes back to Zuko Alone, where Zuko, who is a pretty skilled melee fighter, cleans house until he kinda gets beat down by some mediocre Earthbender, and the only way to even the odds is for Zuko to Firebend.  But I’ll go right ahead and spoil the next few episodes: The Equalists are pretty much just painted as butthurt terrorists, and the world would be better if they just shut up and admit benders are awesome.

To further show that the Equalists kinda HAVE A FUCKING POINT, a non-bending shopkeeper is extorted by a Firebending gang that’s pretty much like the mafia, except they’re called one of the Triads.

So, Korra enacts justice, gets arrested by the peacekeeping Metalbenders of the city (yeah, there are loads of Metalbenders now, and they’re the police force… led by Toph’s daughter, Lin Beifong… who utterly lacks Toph’s… uh, everything), and gets chewed out by Tenzin, who wants her gone, except then he relents and decides to let her stay.

Shortly after, Korra has a press conference, because those things happen now.

And if it wasn’t already obvious, we establish Amon, leader of the Equalists, as our primary antagonist.

Next episode, we have Korra starting out her new life at Air Temple Island, the small island that Tenzin lives in, just outside Republic City.

To start off her Airbending training, Korra is told to undergo an ancient exercise where she has to dance through several spinning panels like a leaf in the wind.

Korra decides fuck all this training that I ran away from home specifically for… imma go watch Blitzball.  Er, I mean “Pro Bending,” a popular sport in which two teams of three, consisting of one Waterbender, one Earthbender, and one Firebender, battle for territory over three rounds.  She sneaks into the arena and gets picked up by one of the players, Bolin.  But the player she’s most interested in is Bolin’s brother, Mako.

It really bugged me who Mako reminded me of until it finally clicked.

It turns out that having fun doesn’t equate to accomplishing any substantial training, and Korra’s repeated failure at her Airbending training finally causes her to snap.

So she heads back to the Pro-Bending arena and learns that the Fire Ferrets (Bolin and Mako’s team) are down one player and face forfeiture.  To save the team, Korra enters as their third.

Korra sucks at Pro-Bending and outs herself as the Avatar after she illegally Earthbends as a Waterbender (though it hadn’t become an official rule until just then…).  Tenzin finds out and comes to the arena, where they have a fight.  Korra stays behind to finish her crappy game, and all of a sudden, her Airbending training starts to click, and she dodges all of the opponents’ attacks, delivers a counterattack, and wins the game.

The episode closes with a not-very-subtle hinting that Korra and Mako secretly like each other.

Next episode, the Fire Ferrets have qualified for an upcoming tournament, but they don’t have the money for the reward pot.

Mako gets a job for the extra money while Bolin turns to street begging, followed by mob work.

When Bolin doesn’t return, Mako seeks Korra’s help in tracking him down.  They eventually do find him just in time to fail in preventing his capture by Equalists, who all seem to have Ty Lee’s ability to temporarily block bending.  Korra follows her only lead (the demonstrator at the park) and, while she and Mako wait, they decide to pose for a DeviantArt image.

The guy shows up and they interrogate him, but get nowhere.  They DO however find out that the fliers he’s been passing out each have a piece of a map, and the completed puzzle shows the location of their upcoming rally.

It seems the Equalists have gathered the leaders of Republic City’s biggest gangs who have been abusing their bending to bully non-benders in their inane grab for territory.  To punish them, Amon… probably could have easily executed them, but instead chooses to show off his ability to SEAL BENDING AWAY PERMANENTLY.  He does this similar to how Aang sealed away Firelord Ozai’s bending, but without the glowy lights.

Bolin was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he naturally gets rescued before his bending is taken away, but I have to say… once again the Equalists have a bloody point.  These gangs are nothing but criminals and bullies, and their leaders have been made impotent without resorting to killing them.  If it hadn’t been for the fact that they captured Bolin, necessitating our heroes to rescue him, this would have been nothing but good for the city, and the Equalists look like heroes, or at worst, vigilantes.

Oh, I should mention that we hear what is allegedly Amon’s backstory: his parents were killed by a Firebender, and his face was disfigured in the attack, forcing him to wear a mask.  Since then, he has been on a crusade against the benders and their injustices.

That’s right, our black-clad masked villain lost both his parents to a criminal, and he strikes fear in the hearts of people with elemental powers throughout the city while he himself has no such powers.

Do you REALLY expect me to root AGAINST Batman?

So yeah, like I said, Korra and Mako save Bolin, but not before having their asses handed to them by Amon’s top henchman… the impossible lovechild of Mr. Big and Batroc the Leaper.

I’m sure the Batroc reference can easily be understood by a quick Google Images search, but since Mr. Big is a bit more obscure…

 

Anyway, Korra tells Tenzin that Amon has the ability to seal away bending, and Tenzin believes her, establishing Amon as a major threat.  What with him being an anti-bending genocidal pacifist.

In the next episode, Korra has nightmares of Amon but tries to repress her fear of him.  Also, obligatory city council meeting.

Turns out, Republic City is run by five councilmen who each represent a nation.  Presumably, Northern Water Tribe, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Southern Water Tribe, and Air Nomad.  It’s… kinda weird how Water Tribe gets to have two reps while there’s no independent locally-elected non-bending-affiliated rep.

The Northern Water Tribe rep, Tarrlok, wants to head up a task force dedicated to destroying Amon and his Equalists.  He also looks weirdly villainous for no real reason.  Also, the members of the council who aren’t Tenzin all have a tendency to vote exactly the way Tarrlok does.  I guess they don’t have strong enough characters to have opinions.

And since I’m not entirely sure when I should point this out, I’ll get this out of the way: Tarrlok has a habit of coming up with plans that are guaranteed to turn public opinion TOWARDS Amon and the Equalists, to the point where if he isn’t completely inept, he has to be conspiring with Amon.

Elsewhere, Mako gets run over by a beautiful girl and they kinda hit it off.  Weird.

Turns out, Asami’s father is the owner of Future Industries and the inventor of Sato-mobiles… y’know, those steam car thingies.  And he wants to be sponsor for the Fire Ferrets, which Mako agrees to.  So it looks like the Fire Ferrets are going to the tournament!

Meanwhile, Korra turns down Tarrlok’s request to have her join his crusade against Amon… unbeknownst to Tarrlok, because she’s scared shitless of Amon.  But then he tricks her into joining by having her mobbed by reporters, and she becomes a regular Elliot Ness and REALLY gets into the job… then goes overboard and challenges Amon to a duel.  Just Amon and Korra, one on one, no tricks.

Amon agrees.

Amon easily could have ended Korra here, but instead he just taunts her.  Tenzin comes to save her (and completely misses Amon), and Korra finally admits her fears to Tenzin.

Next episode… Korra’s character takes a complete dive, as it’s a full episode about her being in love with Mako, getting rejected because he’s in a relationship with Asami (but still kinda still likes Korra), and she briefly dates Bolin before blowing that relationship up by kissing Mako.  And their Pro-bending  games suffer, but they still advance in the tournament.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the entire episode.

Uh… here’s Jinora!

One of the interesting things we learn in this episode is that Tenzin used to be in love with another woman before his wife confessed her feelings, and he went for her instead.

Tenzin’s character just keeps getting better and better.

Also, awesome announcer dude.

Oh, and we’re introduced to the reigning champions of Pro-bending, led by Tahno, AKA the rapist from so many different hentai.

As my last cap of this episode, her’s a ref penalizing Korra for a foul.

And I think this episode is when we learn that Mako and Bolin’s parents were killed by a Firebender.  Is it the same Firebender that killed Amon’s parents?  Is Mako Amon?  Wait, that doesn’t make sense… they’re actually seen in the same room at the same time…

In the next episode, it’s the finals.

Prior to the big game, Amon threatened that the Pro-bending final will be the last Pro-bending game ever, and he plans to… well, do SOMETHING during the game.  Korra and Lin Beifong both fight to let the game go on as planned, and Tarrlok, dick that he is, only agrees because Lin will take responsibility for whatever success or failure her force has in protecting the arena.

Anyway, the Fire Ferrets lose because the champs cheated all night long and paid off the refs.

During their celebration, Equalist plants in the audience bring out some new toys: bending-suppressing gloves possibly designed by Tony Stark.

Amon seals away Tahno’s bending and insults the audience for cheering a team that resorted to dirty tricks to win… Again, he fucking has a point.

Because he’s BATMAN.

Korra also gets… tied up along with her team members, and she goes into AVATAR STATE… by which I mean has what appear to be flashbacks to before she was born.  I mean, Avatar State?  Pfft.  What good would that do?

So, the arena is destroyed and Amon escapes.

Next episode. Lin is on a warpath, following leads and busting down Equalist sympathizers.

Oh, and since Mako and Bolin lived in the arena, they’re now living in the Sato mansion.

At the Sato mansion, Korra overhears a phone conversation and thinks Asami’s father may be connected with the Equalists.  It also turns out that his wife died by Firebenders when one of those stupid gangs robbed his home.  It’s at this point I wonder why there isn’t more anger against Firebenders or crime in general rather than ALL BENDERS.

But ol’ Sato claims this is just a misunderstanding… until Korra gets a lead about a factory hidden beneath the Sato mansion… which turns out to really exist after Lin senses it with…

So yes, Sato is making weapons for the Equalists… including what appear to be pilotable robots!

Sato reveals his true colors and also that he led Lin and Korra down there to ambush them, but Mako and Bolin arrive to help.  Sato urges his daughter to join him, but, surprisingly, Asami defies her design and turns against her father.  For love and goodness, I guess.

But Sato escapes, and the rest of the gang (including Asami) move to Air Temple Island.

Phew, that’s the end of disc 1.  I’ll probably get around to watching disc 2 after the next Sailor Moon Crystal episode.

Overall, fun series with better flow than Last Airbender, but the fact that it all takes place in Republic City kinda makes it feel like a waste of the background artists’ talents.  I would LOVE to see some of the old landscapes from the other kingdoms done by the artists behind Korra, because it’s drop-dead gorgeous all around.

Korra’s a far better protagonist than Aang ever was, though she isn’t without her faults.  Like being a strong female lead until her primary source of drama became her weird crush-thing with Mako.

I’m still not quite sure I like Republic City.  I don’t appreciate how a franchise steeped with inspiration from multiple Asian cultures turned the focal setting into a mishmash of uniquely American locales and eras.  Not saying it’s bad… it’s just weird.

Because it all takes place in Republic City, it also seems like the world-building is at a stand-still after a couple of episodes.  Most of it was pretty much spent on the rules of Pro-bending, which, I must admit, is a well-designed sport.

I think the biggest fault is that it completely fails at showing the legitimacy of anti-bending resentment.  Yes, I often mentioned how the Equalists have a point, but we never really see just what the public response is to this inequality or the non-crime ways benders keep non-benders down.  It’s like there’s no real discussion at play; we’re just supposed to accept that benders are great and Equalists are wrong.  Hopefully this actually gets addressed later on, but for now it bugs me a lot.