Korra, feeds someone to a dog in this episode. TWO EPISODES AHEAD ON PATREON: / overanalyzing Korra also. #korra #avatarthelastairbender #thelegendofkorra #avatar
I wish that the Netflix adaptation will be a good viewing experience and explores the source material in a faithful and interesting way. You now have me to thank if it actually happens
@@billythekid22220Of course there’s a statue commemorating the dude who ended a 100-year war. What, you think people would listen if Aang was like “Wait don’t build that please”?
@@cradiculousWouldn't say that's nesserally laugthing at his suffuring, It's more so a joke about how " hey man that's just life" less so "lol this guys girl turned into the moon that's hilarious"
The thing with Sokka is Aunt Wu's prophecy, on the trajectory he was walking, his life would be short and full of misery, most of it self inflicted. She told him that not as a fortune teller, not as someone who could set his destiny, but as an old woman who can recognize destructive cycles. A bit later in that season we get his dealings with the mechanist where he's validated as smart, Bato telling him how much he's grown, and finally his dealings in the north where he is seen not just as a kid, but as an adult worthy of praise and respect from their chief, a man that trusts him to guard his daughter personally. Once he gets that validation, a lot of the Sokka jokes shift from "This kid is trying to assert that he deserves respect" into "This guy is funny and is telling his own jokes" We see him shift slowly away from being the but of the joke to the court jester, willing to say the things no one else can in a way that won't offend people. Sokka's humor gets a full character ark. Bolin gets a new character every season.
I’d add as well that Sokka’s experiences actually changed him, helped him mature, being somewhat the only man in his village at a young age, the humbling he gets from Suki, the loss of Yue. That’s just book 1, furthermore unlike Bolin Sokka was not only the comedic relief for most of that book but also came up with some of the most ingenious moments like the helping to invent the war-balloon. Bolin finds out his love interest cheated on him with his brother, 3 episodes later it’s trivial. He’s just there for comedic relief (often misses seeing as it feels forced) and that’s it.
The scene at 12:50 makes me chuckle because imagine you’ve just heard over the radio that the Avatar is coming for you. She’s on a plane with two friends and is coming to bust her dad out of prison. You’d expect her to maybe dive bomb onto the deck and then she and her pals are going to kick your ass. But then her plane just? crashes into the ocean? for no reason? If you weren’t outside and didn’t see her jump, you’d assume the Avatar just died right then and there.
For those who are interest, the character who has taken out the most people in a single move is Katara taking out 54 people when she tsunami'd her way through the army of (52) dai lee agents plus zuko and azula during the underground fight in Crossroads of destiny. Aang has a record of 36 people from the episode the Avatar State when he took out general Fung and his men when he almost killed katara. Sokka's highest number was in Sozin's Commit pt.4 when he dropped all all the crew members from the bomb bay of the airship. Toph's record is 14 when she overturned the ground under the earth Kingdom soldiers feet in the Earth King, and Appa has a record of 12 from when he rams through Long Fang and the Dai Lee agents in Lake Laogai whem he reunites with Aang.
wait... what about aang during the seige of the northern water tribe? or do you not consider the giant fish monster to be one move, but multiple moves in a big water-mech suit? And then do you consider sokka's AIRSHIP SLIIICEE to be one move? Cuz now i wanna go back and count how many ships their 1 took out...
@@stupidbroadHonestly that's where my mind went too when thinking about highest takedown count. Had to have been hundreds of soldiers incapacitated or killed from that.
I'd like to think Sokka was the one who made Aang's statue. Aang tried to tell him it was too big, and Sokka, being Sokka made it even bigger and Aang didn't have the heart to tell him.
I assume it was made after Aang died as a memorial. The thing is so huge it also would have been very expensive. So to me the analogue would be Statue of Liberty being gifted by France, so in this case it would be Zuko and Firenation gifting it. They already have a tradition of big statues anyway and huge statue of Aang does serve as a reminder of the war and serve also to remind people that the avatar and fire lord both support the independence of the former Fire Nation colonies.
@sarasamaletdin4574 This is even better, than my headcanon. Imagine if Zuko melted down the Ozai statue Omashu and used the same metal for Aang's statue. So Zuko would literally have destroyed Ozai's shadow over of the Earth Kingdom and replaced it with Aang's symbol.
Sokka: "C'mon Aang, people likes big things. Like big meals or big words." Aang: "I don't know, isn't it a bit too much? I mean, it feels a bit overwhelming." Sokka: "Are you kidding? You were the one who managed to take down Ozai and end a 100 year war. Tell me how many people has ever stopped a 100 years long war by beating a firelord?" Aang: "I guess I can see the logic behind it."
What makes Sokka so effective as the comic relief of the group without diminishing his impact as a character is that the comedy surrounding him plays directly into the aspects of his character that make him so interesting in the first place. Comedic situations naturally arise around Sokka due to his stubborness and his ego, and its funny to see him get his comeuppance as a result. These are important and fleshed out aspects of Sokka's character which tie into his past, motivations, and character arcs. In contrast, what does any of this say about Bolin? He's an impossibly stupid pushover? With some reaching you can say he's kind and often takes the easiest route through social situations to not step on toes, but then they have him act like his brain is full of sawdust in ways that obviously annoy or inconvenience everyone around him. He's not earth bending Sokka, he's earth bending Patrick Star
Korra really doesn't actively do anything in the plot for this part of the season. Her being a dumbass causes the plot, but then everything just happens TO her. She doesn't even figure out Unalaq is manipulating everything, she just gets told that he is, is angry about it, and then doesn't even seem to really get that he is a manipulator
I wanted to argue that Korra interrogating the Judge is your typical action movie scene, but then I realized that the Judge tells that without being asked.
@@Limrasson (Threating to kill the JUDGE in a TRIAL would have and should have gotten her ass arrested on the spot and she should be right alongside the men on death row. )
12:54 Yeah how did that plane explode, it clearly didn’t have any engines since Korra and Mako are powering it with firebending. It’s literally all spectacle
Nah, it clearly has an engine, you can hear it rumbling before they start using the fire bending. The fire bending is just to give it an extra boost (even though that makes no sense because their entire body would be pushed back in the opposite direction). But even with an engine, it really shouldn't have an explosion even remotely that big.
@@Jotari I've seen a fair few plane crash videos in my time and I don't think that explosion was entirely unrealistic. Plane fuel is highly flammable and when a plane crashes there's usually a huge fireball as all the fuel spills and ignites. It's all fire and no force. If the plane was loaded with fuel for some reason or had any kind of explosive payload on board (I don't remember this show well enough to know if these planes had droppable explosives) then I can believe that explosion.
The judge is voiced by Tom Kane, who voices Admiral Yularen in the Clone Wars tv show. Dee Bradley Baker (the voice of the clones in that same show) voices Naga, Appa, Momo and probably several other animals. He plays Tarrlock, and even has a few lines in ATLA as the head of the Terra Team, and the firebender that tells that one admiral that the other admiral is on leave lol
About Bolin, I don't think we can compare the role between the shows. In "the last Airbender", it follows quite well the _"Five-Man Band"_ formula. Aang is the Hero/Leader, Katara/Sokka takes turn as the Lancer, Toph is the Big Guy, Katara is the Chick (morale compass + love interest), Sokka is the Smart Guy, and Zuko is the 6th Ranger. We could argue that Momo and Appa are respectively the Tag-Along Kid and the Team Pet. (Well, Zuko could be the Lancer too sometimes). In "the Legend of Korra", there is no such strict role. Bolin is neither the Hero, the Leader, the Lancer, the Big Guy, the Chick, the Smart Guy nor the 6th Ranger. It fit the Tag-Along Kid tough, which is often the younger immature brother which leads to comical moments. In short: Bolin isn't Sokka. *Bolin is Momo.*
I’ve always seen Bolin(at least in theory) as the heart(or chick) of the band. He is way more emotional than any of the other members of the korps and even though he doesn’t take the “caretaker” role that is often associated with the heart, I think his naïveté and well-meaning-ness strongly place him in this category. I’ve always seen the korps as: - korra: leader/powerhouse - mako: lancer/powerhouse - bolin: heart - asami: smart guy But hey, tropes aren’t immutable and it all comes down to personal interpretation and it’s true that bolin is characterized as particularly childish.
I kind of saw it as a rolling list of Lancers. First Sokka is the main foil for Aang, but as they grow closer as friends, Toph is introduced to bring some friction back in. Then near the end, we've got Zuko still being edgy as ever to be the final lancer. I just really wish we got more time with Aang and Zuko interacting together. It's one episode where they're on the same side, then Sokka and Katara get their turn, and it's off to the finale.
Also re: Bolin, can we all just be honest here? For a show made this recently, seeing a TEXTBOOK ABUSIVD RELATIONSHIP played 100% for laughs b/c "haha men can't be victims" is insanely uncomfortable & probably the single-most "problematic" thing in either series... Hope OA addresses that aspect directly as well. "I'm physically & socially afraid to break-up with my s/o" is way too real to be funny.
I thought it was kinda funny at first--bc bolin just kinda threw himself at eska out of naivety--but after bolin said eska literally threatened to kill him if he upset her / tried to dump her I couldn't rlly laugh at it anymore. and it doesn't help that his brother and friends don't care abt the situation either
@@hilgigas09 atleast Varrick and Suyin have some redeeming qualities, Eska is just like "nope, you do something stupid, i'll just off you" Varrick is questionable at best, but in general he does the right thing, like in this season he goes against Unalak which is kinda a good thing. next season is when he teams up with kuvera, which is ... not good, but then he sabotages the cannon atleast, so he still tries to make amends, he also actually loving his partner is a nice touch, she is extremely loyal and although he sounds like a douche, I think it's more for a show, kinda like Cid from OG FF7, where Cid constantly yells at Shera, but he likes her and she likes him.
@@DarkDyllon Those redeeming qualities are the problem, both lack empathy and go unpunished because they're wealthy and charismatic. Varrick tried to assassinate two heads of state, nearly killed a third, armed the Triads, planned on selling weapons to both sides of the conflict, built the superweapon in the first place and escaped prison. Suyin, heiress to the wealthiest family full stop, got away with robbing a bank while her cohorts did prison time. She also used to be a pirate and talks about it with no shame. Aang, a penniless monk, got arrested and was about to be boiled in oil because his past life might have killed a guy 300 yrs. ago.
0:29 What if Normal Animals aren't an anomaly in this Universe, it's just that they're hunted so often that you barely see any. I mean they would be easier to hunt. I feel like catching and eating a Reindeer is easier than catching and eating a Sky Bison.
@@TheRichardson711 over time, yeah. but what if those animals were created last harmonic convergence, 10,000 years ago? 10,000 years isn't that long ecologically, so plenty of normal animals could still be around.
I mean, he got Tonraq banished when he was still pretty young, Is it possible that the thrill of getting what he wanted made him slip a bit of information, that or the judge is actually a competent (albeit corrupt) agent of the law and could pick up his motives somewhere between then and then
10:41 The fact he said this twice and isn't corrected despite Korra no longer being the "#1 Unalaq Superfan", implies Bryke thought this was true somehow What did they THINK the Avatar's job is supposed to be?
Bryke are weird liberals. ATLA didn't show this because the central conceit of liberalism is that violent social change is only acceptable in past tense. Many liberal democracies are established in bloody insurrections, and much social change requires violent protest. But while liberals often come around to accepting these tactics as necessary in the past, they always oppose them in the present. ATLA is in the vague past, so violent insurrection against Fire Nation imperialism is framed as acceptable. LOK is close enough to the present that the same violence used by the Gaang in ATLA is framed as unconscionable when done in LOK. The only acceptable violence we see in Korra is done by cops on behalf of the state. There may be a couple counterexamples but I think I'm mostly right. Liberalism is the dominant ideologies, so a lot of liberals will read this comment and be defensive. I'm an american, so my examples might be America-centric. Most Americans think the Boston tea party, John Brown's raid at Harpers ferry, and (post George Floyd) slave uprisings were justified. But similar actions undertaken today would be labelled violent extremism, and liberals alive at the time largely didn't support these radical actions until years later. Similarly, anti-Nazi resistance groups blew up trains and carried out political assassinations, and if antifascist activists did this today, they would probably be condemned. Ireland venerates Pierce and Connolly, but the Easter Rising was opposed by most Irish liberals when it happened. Even Martin Luther King Jr. never gained widespread liberal support during his lifetime because his tactics, while non-violent, were seen as too disruptive. Liberals would argue that the past had greater/more overt injustice, and this greater injustice justified more overt resistance. This is at least has the appearance of a logically consistent position, but The Legend of Korra actually does a really good job of showing how dumb it is, albeit unintentionally. Kuvira and Unalaq are as bad as Ozai and Chin the Conqueror, and the authorities are shown to be unable to handle these threats, but Korra (both the character and the show) is hamstringed by this liberal idea of leaving things to "proper authorities" and generally proposing reformist solutions. At the beginning, Korra's central point as propaganda is that reform simply works. Non-benders face systemic discrimination? Elect a non bender president, problem solved. It gets a lot messier in the later seasons, because it just obviously wouldn't work. I think it's fairly obvious that the USA electing Barack Obama didn't solve systemic racism. It tries to come back in season 4 with the Earth Republic, but to the show's credit, it's more nuanced (iirc, I haven't watched it in a while.) Still, before I end this essay of a comment, I would be remiss not to point out that of the four ideologies given send-ups in Korra, fascism is the one portrayed with the most sympathy. This is troubling but it makes sense because, of the four ideologies portrayed, fascism is the one that has the most in common with liberalism. That will probably seem like a hot take to my fellow Americans who think of liberalism as anything left of Pinochet, but compared to socialism and anarchism, the differences between liberalism and fascism are mostly in degree and not in kind. Liberals and fascists both want the means of production be owned by capitalists, liberals and fascists both want there to be a police state with a monopoly on violence. Liberals just want a more polite police state, and nicer capitalists (until there's some kind of crisis). All this to say, the Red Lotus did nothing wrong.
I think it's just worded a bit poorly. Maybe even intentionally worded poorly. It's expected that the Avatar not take personal attachment into account when doing their job, and Unalaq is trying to imply that Korra is only on the side of the south because it's her family's home. (I just realized the unintended implications of there being a civil war, and the good guys siding with the south.) It's like when Roku refused to kill Sozin. If it was anyone other than his best friend, he wouldn't have any issue. But because of that worldly connection, he showed mercy and the world suffered for it.
@@Syndie77-gk4xkbased take also to add - ATLA may seem "progressive" because liberalism is generally progressive when opposed to tyrannical monarchy i.e. Ozai, so the writers' liberalism isn't as jarring in that show. It does however become that in Korra, when set against modernist ideologies of anarchism/communism/fascism, neither of which are well understood by the writers, therefore the characters that represent them are very shallow, their critiques of those ideas are very shallow and their liberal bias is fully visible
Fun fact: In the German dub, the judge has the voice of Iroh from the the last airbender, but Iroh in LOK has a different voice than in ATLA. I have no idea why they did that, but hey, at least I got a comment idea from it.
Kinda reminds me how in the Dutch dub of Aang, Hakoda suddenly changes voice actor for one line. It didn't help that that voice was way more high pitched than his usual voice.
I would’ve loved if Bolin’s overarching character arc was about him starting as a superficial city boy to actually becoming this wise spiritual master. Have him kinda be the example of how bending’s taken for granted in this time period, and have his journey be about discovering the spiritual side of bending and the different cultures. So when he learns lavabending, it’s because he’s advanced as a person *and* bender.
12:21 That's a lot of fire, but Mako and Korra are only providing horizontal acceleration. If they have to directly push against gravity without having an aerodynamic craft to stand on I'd say they'd have a harder time.
He looks to be a young adult or teenager in the statue though. Not the bearded middle-aged man he was when he died. Maybe it could be a statue of the moment Republic city was founded, which we see in the comics was when Aang swore to stay in Cranefish town to protect it from bending supremacists.
Just gonna add that a biplane would not cartwheel upon impact with the water, the wooden and canvas airframe would just instantly shatter. The oil tank might rupture and the resulting oil slick on the water surface may catch fire, but it could not explode with the force seen in the show.
One thing that really annoys me about the Ikki plotline is that we didn't ever see her siblings treat her poorly save for a single line of Jinora rightly pointing out that Ikki doesn't like reading. And then she stomps off for a full day in a temper tantrum and when she finally gets home, she's off the hook completely.
That's bad but my personal biggest problem is that all of the screen time they give Ikki and Meelo should have been given to Jinora since she plays such a huge role later on in the season. It's like the writers forgot how to setup a character arc, something that the OG show did better than...literally every other show in western animation.
@@tariqthomas9090 And the thing of it is, you could have combined those elements. Drop the stupid Bolin-Eska plotline and flesh out the Air Family more. You could have had Jinora looking at some relics or the Avatar statues and Ikki barges in being a bit of a brat and Jinora snaps at her, especially if something gets knocked over or broken, and Ikki runs off crying. Then you have the plot of a sibling being left out or put down and it still ties into Jinora's arc of playing such a huge role, since you lay the foundation here as a proper interest as opposed to a single question of "Who's this strange Avatar?"
@@jordancampbell8597 It's so frustrating really. I wanted this show to be great. It had so much potential. So many good ideas. And you can't even argue that Nickelodeon caused all the issues by never guaranteeing more seasons or never giving the show enough time within the season to flesh things out because so much screen time time that could have been used to make the good plot lines stronger and more developed instead went into out these awful plot lines that make the show worse with their inclusion.
@@ddchrw While that's true--notice how Ikki drops her grudge immediately--we never saw the argument that started it in the first place and Pema lets her off the hook completely despite her actions. Suppose Ikki had gotten hurt or eaten something that made her sick? Nobody knew where she was and nobody would have been able to help her.
Korra: “I can’t start a war against corrupt government because meanie spirits and balance ):” Kyoshi, seeing the earth queen and Chyn the Conqueror: “So anyway, I started bending.”
@@maskofthedragon I mean, yeah. But using her own argument here. I’d also point out that the North has essentially invaded the South at this point anyway.
Fire benders most likely don't fly very often because it's largely a waste of energy on flat ground. Only avatars and comet enhanced fire benders have flown during combat. Being agile is far more efficient.
this episode was actually the last of korra I watched (as it premiered) before dropping it. idk how much the scheduling played a part in this but I distinctly remember after this one I was like "yknow what? I'm not invested in any of this". didn't finish until yrs later
The thing about Sokka is that he was originally supposed to be a super serious, angry, sexist character from start to end, but the voice actor had so much fun with his lines they gave him more and more comic relief parts. That's why he's actually well rounded when most comic relief characters aren't.
Do you have a source? It's hard to imagine they had no development for one of our main characters throughout the whole show, I'd love to hear more about it
That just doesn’t make sense. Voice work would be done way after atoryboarding and Sokka’s character development is a pretty big driving force for a lot of episodes, including the finale. They’d have to redo a ton of the story if that’s true.
@@HackersRUs On Sokka's wikiwand it states that he was a more minor character but Jack DeSena brought so much energy to the role they expanded. That's more of what I mean, not necessarily that he "had no development."
I remember ripping out my hairs at the latter few episodes, it all felt like there was no logic, like they sat down and figured out the story beats without thinking about the characters/world making sense
It would be nice if Bolin at some point grew a spine and stood up to his "girlfriend", then she could reflect upon how she treated him and apologized, then both could grow from the experience, leaving each other on good terms, setting Bolin up for his boost in self esteem that he would get in the next season. It would have been a good lesson in how to handle relationships, and a good change on how Korra handles her relationships. Bolin is the more emotional of the group, and showing that he had better emotional intelligence then the rest of the group could set him as the rock of the group, pun intended.
Katara also took out most of the Dai Lee and both Azula and Zuko with a tidal wave when Azula shot Aang with lightning. Not sure how many people that was, but it was definitely more than 10, at least.
I feel like Ang didn't request that statue. Everyone in republic city was probably so thankful for him defeating the fire nation that they made that giant statue to commemorate him.
1:32 THANK YOU This is probably my favourite line from Korra, and I honestly think it competes with my fave one-limers from atla, but nobody i know ever acknowledges it 😂 I feel very vindicated rn lmao
So fun fan theory. Aang's statue is metal. Toph being the greatest Earth bender in the world quite possibly made that statue, maybe even as an honor to him after he died.
2:15 I think this touches on how Bryke wants to include spiritual elements but don't know how to handle them beyond a Christian framework, like Unaloq mentions fasting during the solstice, basically "saying grace" before dinner and the monastic airbenders being the exemplars of spirituality as opposed to recognizing spirituality one can practice in all walks of life. These are things Bryke associates with spiritual-mindedness and thus uses them to emphasize that aspect, but this makes for a confusing and severely undercooked part of the worldbuilding as you don't really know what the various peoples' cultural and spiritual philosophies are actually about.
>monastic airbenders being the exemplars of spirituality This is not Christian ideal, you are able to practice Christianity in all walks of life and not even in height of Middle Ages when Catholicism was at its most powerful was it seen that monks and nuns had to be more spiritual than all the others. It was their sacrifice in hard work, simple life, prayer and working for communities with copying books and charity that was admired. Spiritualism has always been more admired in the East, expecially with Buddhism. Christianity is practical in many ways and about philosophy and how to use them to improve the world you are now and prepare for the next. Not to detach yourself and think life as a circle.
The statue was actually canonically a gift from the people of republic city because Aang essentially founded it. He actually didn’t like it if I recall because it was too big
13:12 What about kyoshi using hurricane wind to blow away a whole army? However if you’re willing to count destruction of vehicles I have one input… *AIRSHIP SLICE!!*
Man I found your channel like a month ago and have been no stop watching. I really like avatar and just finished it for the 100th time and your videos are just amazing
Hey man. Just wanted to say I"m super happy you decided to do Korra. Now that we're well into it. You're doing great and keeping the magic up that made Overanalyzing ATA great.
My sister said she can't watch any star wars media in polish because wyenever she hears obi wan she thinks of warik (they have the same VA in polish dubs)
Airball seems to have actual depth compared to Pro-Bending. And the rules of "get ball in hole" would be really easy to understand. Players would not only have to learn to manipulate the ball but also to keep their balance as well. I know that TLoK couldn't make it a key plot point with only 5 airbenders in the show, but to completely ignore it seems like a huge waste.
@@TheNeighborhood-bg1erit’s a boring and unimaginative use of the magics/martial art system the avatar universe has, and we’re shown that other, more creative and actually interesting sports do exist in their universe. Pro bending sucks, and that’s an actual fair complaint
The northern trial system is one step from Chin village in the 'even worse' direction. Even in Chin village, the defendants got to actually defend themselves and the biased judge-prosecutor at least didn't *also* decide the punishment.
It kind of freaks me out: I randomly remembered that skit earlier and I've had the "all hail to the milkman" song stuck in my head all day, just to sit down and see a reference to it in this of all things.
12:10 if you look at how she moves the the ships out of the way, the reason she wanted a plane that would elevate her high above the ships instead of gliding across the top of the water is obvious. SHE'S USING THE WAIST HIGH WIVE! Just like the one time Katara used it in ship to ship combat, it's strength is proportional to your height above the water. Though this one doesn't seem to have as much strength as Katara's, probably something to do with Korra's lack of skill with the technique.
Ikki's blessing before food doesn't have to be directed towards a deity. Buddhism, which the Air Nation is based on, does not revere a particular deity, but focuses on gaining consciousness through awareness and part of that is taking a moment before eating and saying some kind of prayer or mantra.
9:52 You know, a tribe of Fire Nation barbarians in the north makes sense if you think that they're the survivors of Zhao's invasion fleet who made a settlement after waiting too long for rescue.
