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nebroadweThis week on The Legend of Korra ... another show I like fridges a female character. Sigh.
I was mildly spoiled for this week's big reveal by the MTV interview with P.J. Byrne, voice of Bolin, whose lede ran something like, "This week, Korra discovers that someone close to her is not all s/he seems to be!" With a cast this small, that limits the options; I concluded it was Hiroshi Sato by process of elimination and was pleased to be proved right (mostly because that meant it wasn't Asami, as some of the more ship-nuts elements of the fandom were insisting -- on which see below). His motive, however -- honestly, I was hoping for something that grew more out of his bootstrap history than that tired "You people took my beloved from me!" crap. Why couldn't it have been about the way he wasn't taken seriously by the bending elite on his way up or how they threw up roadblocks to his career at every turn or how he wants everyone to have the chance to better themselves that he did, without bending giving a specious advantage to some? (In that context, I'd have accepted a bitter "And what good is bending, in the end? Not even the finest waterbender in the city could prevent my wife from dying!" line.) The man's partially based on Henry Ford, after all, whose anti-Semitism arose from his conviction that a Jewish banking conspiracy was attempting to control the world, not a personal attack. And does everyone need a loved one killed by firebenders in his/her backstory? Sloppy writing, that.
Korra also jumps rather quickly to the conclusion that Hiroshi is guilty -- I'd have preferred her to be more uncertain about it, particularly after Mako calls her out, since there's been no explicit build-up to make his potential guilt a shadow on the viewer's opinion of him. (The Equalists' use of mass-produced high-tech gadgetry is the only hint we get, unless I've missed something. I suppose there weren't enough spare minutes to show him, I dunno, being a little bit more vocal about Republic City as a place where even non-benders can work their way up. I wonder if the production team had some trouble thinking in terms of a twelve-episode arc rather than twenty-six; the big plot notes are there, but sometimes the connective tissue is a little thin, so that things feel slightly rushed or are left hanging. Toza and Butakha, for instance, are both introduced as though they were going to be featured supporting players, but neither has had a thing to do yet.) That said, though, it was fun watching Korra connect with Asami on the racetrack (I see a car chase in our future!), battle giant mecha (whee!) and, with a bit of a twinge, tell Mako to comfort his girlfriend, now her friend, too. It's also nice to see that Asami has a skill set to contribute to Team Avatar, rather like Suki in the previous series; hurray for Avatar's female characters generally being strong-and: strong and tomboyish (Korra), strong and elegant (Asami), strong and gruff (Lin), strong and maternal (Pema), strong and studious (Jinora) … And hoo boy, what fun to see Tenzin get his moment to shine in combat, just as Lin Bei Fong did last week. Whatever shortcomings this story may have on the narrative front I tend to forgive for the duration of any action scene. And for any scene in which Bolin is being goofy -- Byrne manages to make him sound so innocently fun-loving you can't fault him for driving the Sato house's staff crazy. He's not being mean about it; he's having the time of his life, but you get the impression that he can do that pretty much anywhere. (Cf. his ability to pack up and move on from the arena attic.) And he can still make Korra laugh. (Also, fluffy Pabu. D'aww.)
Still looking forward to next week, because I know that once the production staff gets all its ducks in a row, the resulting grand finale is going to blow my doors off ...
ETA: A colloquial analysis with pictures of the ship-nuttery WRT Asami and why it's problematic.
I was mildly spoiled for this week's big reveal by the MTV interview with P.J. Byrne, voice of Bolin, whose lede ran something like, "This week, Korra discovers that someone close to her is not all s/he seems to be!" With a cast this small, that limits the options; I concluded it was Hiroshi Sato by process of elimination and was pleased to be proved right (mostly because that meant it wasn't Asami, as some of the more ship-nuts elements of the fandom were insisting -- on which see below). His motive, however -- honestly, I was hoping for something that grew more out of his bootstrap history than that tired "You people took my beloved from me!" crap. Why couldn't it have been about the way he wasn't taken seriously by the bending elite on his way up or how they threw up roadblocks to his career at every turn or how he wants everyone to have the chance to better themselves that he did, without bending giving a specious advantage to some? (In that context, I'd have accepted a bitter "And what good is bending, in the end? Not even the finest waterbender in the city could prevent my wife from dying!" line.) The man's partially based on Henry Ford, after all, whose anti-Semitism arose from his conviction that a Jewish banking conspiracy was attempting to control the world, not a personal attack. And does everyone need a loved one killed by firebenders in his/her backstory? Sloppy writing, that.
Korra also jumps rather quickly to the conclusion that Hiroshi is guilty -- I'd have preferred her to be more uncertain about it, particularly after Mako calls her out, since there's been no explicit build-up to make his potential guilt a shadow on the viewer's opinion of him. (The Equalists' use of mass-produced high-tech gadgetry is the only hint we get, unless I've missed something. I suppose there weren't enough spare minutes to show him, I dunno, being a little bit more vocal about Republic City as a place where even non-benders can work their way up. I wonder if the production team had some trouble thinking in terms of a twelve-episode arc rather than twenty-six; the big plot notes are there, but sometimes the connective tissue is a little thin, so that things feel slightly rushed or are left hanging. Toza and Butakha, for instance, are both introduced as though they were going to be featured supporting players, but neither has had a thing to do yet.) That said, though, it was fun watching Korra connect with Asami on the racetrack (I see a car chase in our future!), battle giant mecha (whee!) and, with a bit of a twinge, tell Mako to comfort his girlfriend, now her friend, too. It's also nice to see that Asami has a skill set to contribute to Team Avatar, rather like Suki in the previous series; hurray for Avatar's female characters generally being strong-and: strong and tomboyish (Korra), strong and elegant (Asami), strong and gruff (Lin), strong and maternal (Pema), strong and studious (Jinora) … And hoo boy, what fun to see Tenzin get his moment to shine in combat, just as Lin Bei Fong did last week. Whatever shortcomings this story may have on the narrative front I tend to forgive for the duration of any action scene. And for any scene in which Bolin is being goofy -- Byrne manages to make him sound so innocently fun-loving you can't fault him for driving the Sato house's staff crazy. He's not being mean about it; he's having the time of his life, but you get the impression that he can do that pretty much anywhere. (Cf. his ability to pack up and move on from the arena attic.) And he can still make Korra laugh. (Also, fluffy Pabu. D'aww.)
Still looking forward to next week, because I know that once the production staff gets all its ducks in a row, the resulting grand finale is going to blow my doors off ...
ETA: A colloquial analysis with pictures of the ship-nuttery WRT Asami and why it's problematic.
