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I am the solution
The Legend of Korra has just made the jump from fun and impressive to unputdownable, which is a bit of a problem considering the show is still airing and Viking Zen and I just watched the last of the new episodes tonight. The rest of this post is devoted to speculation and squee.
Between the mask we have never seen him without and his claims of support from the spirit world, I would love to discover that Amon made some kind of bargain for his powers with Koh the Face-Stealer, trading his face for the ability to affect a person's bending. I still don't know toward what end; Amon's true motives are as much of a mystery as his identity. (I have my doubts about the firebender took my face story: it is too exactly what a disenfranchised crowd looking for a symbol-story—the Equalists' ichthys is that white-and-red mask—would want to hear.) Nor do I know what stake a spirit, even one as ancient, game-playing, and amoral as Koh, might have in changing the balance of bending in the world. But we know from the previous show that it is possible for an ordinary human to travel into the spirit world (I always hoped we would hear more about Iroh's journey. I still don't know whether it's canon or just fan speculation that it had to do with the death of his son) and I cannot imagine that relations between the two worlds are not going to become a prominent part of the show, considering the recent stress on the difficulties Korra has with the spiritual portion of her duties as Avatar. Mastering the four elements will not be enough to make her a fully realized Avatar. She needs to be a bridge between the two worlds, like Aang before her—he just had the advantages of a monk's training, like an easier time with meditation and openness to his past lives. Korra thinks first in terms of the physical, the here and now, what she should be doing. The show is not arguing against progress: it seems like a significant statement that the original Team Avatar traveled by flying bison, while a present-day attempt to pile onto Naga in the same way ends in a disgruntled polar bear dog collapsing under the weight of four strapping young adults; Asami saves the day and everybody's pride by roaring up in the sleek black satomobile Tarrlok originally tried to bribe Korra with, clearly the Lagonda or Lincoln-Zephyr of its time. (She is the only one of the team who can drive. Motorcycles, roadsters, the steam-powered streetcar in the Equalists' tunnels. Non-benders have always been the innovators of this world—Amon uses electrocution, Hiroshi Sato mecha-tanks to level the playing field against the benders of Republic City. Sokka was mechanically-minded, too.) Asami stepping into shot with her right hand sheathed in an Equalist electro-glove is unequivocally badass. But I think we are meant to start wondering: what does the modern metropolis of Republic City have to say to the spirit world? It's one thing to live in the middle of a bamboo forest out of which a black-and-white spirit might wander either benevolently or in a bad mood depending on how the local environment has been treated. This isn't an old city. Seventy years at most: all skyscrapers and tomorrow (which means different things to different people) and it has no native population. Its past is what was brought to it. We haven't seen any spirits so far in its gutters, its parks, its train tracks. I'd love to. And cities are where you come to reinvent yourself, to become someone else. Korra thought she was coming to Republic City to become an airbender, mission accomplished. It's no accident that while she loses to Tarrlok in a bending battle, it's her finally successful contact with a past life that gives her the information she needs to make sense of his plans. She needs more than that one side of herself. Yes, there are the practical aspects to consider—Korra would have seen Tarrlok coming sooner if she had been able to interpret those hallucinatory flashes as Aang's memories of Yakone, which I imagine must have greater significance than just their application to the bloodbender at hand. But this has never been a universe in which ignoring the spiritual side of things has been a good idea, as the ghost of Admiral Zhao could tell you. The spirit world and history, the roots of things. They are real and extant forces and it is her job.
And it is the Avatar's job to keep the balance of the world, but that is not as straightforward a directive as it sounds. In Aang's time, it meant the elemental balance of the Four Nations. In Korra's time, it is looking as though balance means that which exists—or, right now, doesn't—between benders and non-benders. The Equalists are violent revolutionaries and it is ever more likely that Amon has his own agenda, but the show is very clear that it is not right for non-benders to be treated as second-class citizens, casually preyed on or curfewed like criminals. "You're our Avatar, too!" a woman shouts at Korra from a crowd of supposed Equalist sympathizers, just an ordinary neighborhood of people trying to go home without getting kettled. (To her credit, Korra immediately goes after the councilman in charge of the roundup. It just doesn't work out as planned. She doesn't strategize well; she reaches for a slashing handful of water or a kick of fire before she stops to think. It makes her easy to manipulate.) The message isn't that non-benders should be more polite about securing their rights; it's that Amon is using their justified anger for purposes of his own. Another pair of worlds to bridge.
Briefly, because I have not slept more than four hours the last couple of nights and my brain just quit on me—
I believe it was Alison who theorized first that Amon may not actually be able to remove a person's capacity for bending, but he may be able to neutralize somehow all the ways in which they have learned to use it (after which the psychological devastation of finding themselves stripped of a lifelong skill and the fact that they have been told it's a permanent condition will combine to ensure they never even see if it can be relearned). We know already there's a difference between the two: by virtue of being the Avatar, Korra has the ability to airbend, but she hasn't been able to do anything with it. I find this a tantalizing theory; it would explain why Amon is waiting for Korra to become a fully realized Avatar before confronting her. He can't actually touch her potential for bending. If he only cut off her access to water, fire, and earth, no matter how overwhelmed in the short term, she could still learn to airbend from scratch. Blocked from all four elements in one go, she wouldn't know, quite literally, what to do with herself. It is also possible, of course, that Amon can do exactly what he claims: the chi-bending which Aang learned from the lion-turtle at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender was a lost art, an ancient skill which predated elemental bending. We were led to believe only the Avatar of pure, unbendable spirit could bend another person's energy, but chi-blocking is practiced solely and frequently by non-benders; I wondered initially whether Amon was merely using a more advanced form of the technique. It might still for all I know turn out to be true.
We have seen the crescent moon twice now, once in the design of the pin at Yakone's throat and once in the sky when Tarrlok bloodbent Korra; it made me wonder whether the received wisdom that bloodbending can only be performed at the full moon was merely a case of limited information. The only known bloodbenders of the original series were Katara and Hama, who was driven to the technique by years of brutal captivity—but who's to say it wasn't independently discovered over the centuries by other waterbenders, who linked it to other phases of the moon? Hama herself admitted it was an inevitable conclusion, that the water in living things can be bent as easily as the water in the air or the earth. How many other traditions are out there? (And if a well-known truth about bloodbending is incorrect, then what else don't we know about the ways bending works?) I am still a little sorry this form of bending is being used only for nightmare fuel. It's extreme, it's body horror, and almost every conceivable application could be used to kill someone in another grotesque way, but I had this idea it might come in handy for hospital work.
(I want to know what Amon wants Tarrlok for. He's already taken the man's bending; he's never showed much concern for what happens to the people he's "purified" afterward.)
Are we going to see any more of the world beyond Republic City? The first episode showed us a little of the Southern Water Tribe, which is doing much better than the thin ring of tents and single igloo of the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I know nothing about the current Firelord and that nebbishy Earth King must have reproduced or handed the throne off to a cousin and joined the circus or something. If this season is Air, following the Water, Earth, and Fire of the previous show, then I expect the next season to be Spirit, but I'd like to see what there is of this world, too.
I was glad to hear the radio announcer (Shiro Shinobi, the internet informs me: has his name ever been mentioned on the show?) return as narrator of the newsreel recaps after that one week of blandly ominous PSA Tarrlok; I didn't expect him to have died explicitly on a Nickelodeon show ("You know, it was really unclear"), but I wasn't sure if he would be out of the picture permanently, especially after the destruction of the pro-bending arena. He had better not turn out to be a secret villain, or get killed in some casual, ironic fashion, or any of the things that often happen to minor characters I like. His Hindenburg moment during the Equalist attack was surprisingly poignant for a pee joke.
At one o'clock, I thought I was too tired to write anything. Am I still on New Zealand time?
Between the mask we have never seen him without and his claims of support from the spirit world, I would love to discover that Amon made some kind of bargain for his powers with Koh the Face-Stealer, trading his face for the ability to affect a person's bending. I still don't know toward what end; Amon's true motives are as much of a mystery as his identity. (I have my doubts about the firebender took my face story: it is too exactly what a disenfranchised crowd looking for a symbol-story—the Equalists' ichthys is that white-and-red mask—would want to hear.) Nor do I know what stake a spirit, even one as ancient, game-playing, and amoral as Koh, might have in changing the balance of bending in the world. But we know from the previous show that it is possible for an ordinary human to travel into the spirit world (I always hoped we would hear more about Iroh's journey. I still don't know whether it's canon or just fan speculation that it had to do with the death of his son) and I cannot imagine that relations between the two worlds are not going to become a prominent part of the show, considering the recent stress on the difficulties Korra has with the spiritual portion of her duties as Avatar. Mastering the four elements will not be enough to make her a fully realized Avatar. She needs to be a bridge between the two worlds, like Aang before her—he just had the advantages of a monk's training, like an easier time with meditation and openness to his past lives. Korra thinks first in terms of the physical, the here and now, what she should be doing. The show is not arguing against progress: it seems like a significant statement that the original Team Avatar traveled by flying bison, while a present-day attempt to pile onto Naga in the same way ends in a disgruntled polar bear dog collapsing under the weight of four strapping young adults; Asami saves the day and everybody's pride by roaring up in the sleek black satomobile Tarrlok originally tried to bribe Korra with, clearly the Lagonda or Lincoln-Zephyr of its time. (She is the only one of the team who can drive. Motorcycles, roadsters, the steam-powered streetcar in the Equalists' tunnels. Non-benders have always been the innovators of this world—Amon uses electrocution, Hiroshi Sato mecha-tanks to level the playing field against the benders of Republic City. Sokka was mechanically-minded, too.) Asami stepping into shot with her right hand sheathed in an Equalist electro-glove is unequivocally badass. But I think we are meant to start wondering: what does the modern metropolis of Republic City have to say to the spirit world? It's one thing to live in the middle of a bamboo forest out of which a black-and-white spirit might wander either benevolently or in a bad mood depending on how the local environment has been treated. This isn't an old city. Seventy years at most: all skyscrapers and tomorrow (which means different things to different people) and it has no native population. Its past is what was brought to it. We haven't seen any spirits so far in its gutters, its parks, its train tracks. I'd love to. And cities are where you come to reinvent yourself, to become someone else. Korra thought she was coming to Republic City to become an airbender, mission accomplished. It's no accident that while she loses to Tarrlok in a bending battle, it's her finally successful contact with a past life that gives her the information she needs to make sense of his plans. She needs more than that one side of herself. Yes, there are the practical aspects to consider—Korra would have seen Tarrlok coming sooner if she had been able to interpret those hallucinatory flashes as Aang's memories of Yakone, which I imagine must have greater significance than just their application to the bloodbender at hand. But this has never been a universe in which ignoring the spiritual side of things has been a good idea, as the ghost of Admiral Zhao could tell you. The spirit world and history, the roots of things. They are real and extant forces and it is her job.
And it is the Avatar's job to keep the balance of the world, but that is not as straightforward a directive as it sounds. In Aang's time, it meant the elemental balance of the Four Nations. In Korra's time, it is looking as though balance means that which exists—or, right now, doesn't—between benders and non-benders. The Equalists are violent revolutionaries and it is ever more likely that Amon has his own agenda, but the show is very clear that it is not right for non-benders to be treated as second-class citizens, casually preyed on or curfewed like criminals. "You're our Avatar, too!" a woman shouts at Korra from a crowd of supposed Equalist sympathizers, just an ordinary neighborhood of people trying to go home without getting kettled. (To her credit, Korra immediately goes after the councilman in charge of the roundup. It just doesn't work out as planned. She doesn't strategize well; she reaches for a slashing handful of water or a kick of fire before she stops to think. It makes her easy to manipulate.) The message isn't that non-benders should be more polite about securing their rights; it's that Amon is using their justified anger for purposes of his own. Another pair of worlds to bridge.
Briefly, because I have not slept more than four hours the last couple of nights and my brain just quit on me—
I believe it was Alison who theorized first that Amon may not actually be able to remove a person's capacity for bending, but he may be able to neutralize somehow all the ways in which they have learned to use it (after which the psychological devastation of finding themselves stripped of a lifelong skill and the fact that they have been told it's a permanent condition will combine to ensure they never even see if it can be relearned). We know already there's a difference between the two: by virtue of being the Avatar, Korra has the ability to airbend, but she hasn't been able to do anything with it. I find this a tantalizing theory; it would explain why Amon is waiting for Korra to become a fully realized Avatar before confronting her. He can't actually touch her potential for bending. If he only cut off her access to water, fire, and earth, no matter how overwhelmed in the short term, she could still learn to airbend from scratch. Blocked from all four elements in one go, she wouldn't know, quite literally, what to do with herself. It is also possible, of course, that Amon can do exactly what he claims: the chi-bending which Aang learned from the lion-turtle at the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender was a lost art, an ancient skill which predated elemental bending. We were led to believe only the Avatar of pure, unbendable spirit could bend another person's energy, but chi-blocking is practiced solely and frequently by non-benders; I wondered initially whether Amon was merely using a more advanced form of the technique. It might still for all I know turn out to be true.
We have seen the crescent moon twice now, once in the design of the pin at Yakone's throat and once in the sky when Tarrlok bloodbent Korra; it made me wonder whether the received wisdom that bloodbending can only be performed at the full moon was merely a case of limited information. The only known bloodbenders of the original series were Katara and Hama, who was driven to the technique by years of brutal captivity—but who's to say it wasn't independently discovered over the centuries by other waterbenders, who linked it to other phases of the moon? Hama herself admitted it was an inevitable conclusion, that the water in living things can be bent as easily as the water in the air or the earth. How many other traditions are out there? (And if a well-known truth about bloodbending is incorrect, then what else don't we know about the ways bending works?) I am still a little sorry this form of bending is being used only for nightmare fuel. It's extreme, it's body horror, and almost every conceivable application could be used to kill someone in another grotesque way, but I had this idea it might come in handy for hospital work.
(I want to know what Amon wants Tarrlok for. He's already taken the man's bending; he's never showed much concern for what happens to the people he's "purified" afterward.)
Are we going to see any more of the world beyond Republic City? The first episode showed us a little of the Southern Water Tribe, which is doing much better than the thin ring of tents and single igloo of the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I know nothing about the current Firelord and that nebbishy Earth King must have reproduced or handed the throne off to a cousin and joined the circus or something. If this season is Air, following the Water, Earth, and Fire of the previous show, then I expect the next season to be Spirit, but I'd like to see what there is of this world, too.
I was glad to hear the radio announcer (Shiro Shinobi, the internet informs me: has his name ever been mentioned on the show?) return as narrator of the newsreel recaps after that one week of blandly ominous PSA Tarrlok; I didn't expect him to have died explicitly on a Nickelodeon show ("You know, it was really unclear"), but I wasn't sure if he would be out of the picture permanently, especially after the destruction of the pro-bending arena. He had better not turn out to be a secret villain, or get killed in some casual, ironic fashion, or any of the things that often happen to minor characters I like. His Hindenburg moment during the Equalist attack was surprisingly poignant for a pee joke.
At one o'clock, I thought I was too tired to write anything. Am I still on New Zealand time?
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I actually think this must be where the narrative is going: that Korra will be stripped of her ability to bend the elements she knows, but develop air-bending in the wake of that, and have air-bending unlock her ability to bend water, earth, and fire as well.
I had this idea it might come in handy for hospital work.
I think it would be interesting to see someone explore the corollaries between the Water Tribes' healing abilities and blood-bending. I know the healing is all glowing energy things, but suppose it is, actually, the other side of the coin from bloodbending, and they are two ends to a middle?
I remain deeply frustrated that Katara is nowhere to be found in either the flashbacks or the present-day bloodbending stuff. Why is Sokka in that courtroom and not Katara? Bah. I really wish that she had been there to help take down Yakone.
Also, there's been some fan speculation about the moon and bloodbending -- some people on Tumblr noted that Amon was able to move more easily once he stepped forward into the moonlight, making them wonder if actually Yue's influence in the moon is working against bloodbending. I'm not sure about that, but if true it would be another argument for Spirit intervention in imbalanced mortal affairs.
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I also saw this particular bit of fanfic that I liked the other day: http://imgur.com/Q9Z0c which seemed very in the style of at least the first show (though perhaps not as much in the style of Korra).
My personal theory, given the cyberpunk aspect of the world was that Amon was partially a cyborg (or perhaps even a full tiktok man) - that would explain why he couldn't really be bloodbent the same way a normal person could (he's not your normal giant ugly bag of mostly water).
I do hope they do more with what was going on behind the bloodbending of Yakone and Tarrlok; I would find it more interesting if it was a novel application of bloodbending that they found rather than a novel power. I mean, it's clear that Toph was able to transmit her knowledge of metalbending, so being a superb and special bender doesn't necessarily mean that others can't follow in your footsteps. It's clear in this world that geniuses just exist and are capable of massive leaps forward - and then they're able to continue to improve the world around them (c.f. the technological improvements of the last 70 years!). If you're right that Amon's actions aren't true spiritbending (or that spiritbending is somewhat reversible) it could end up being a fairly poignant way for Tarrlok to perform penance - as the first in a world of bloodbending healers sworn to do no harm and help all (benders and nonbenders alike) who have been hurt.
There really isn't any non-combat based bending, it would be a nice way to take the stuff of nightmares and twist it back around into something positive. Plus it would give Tarrlok more humanity which would be nice and in keeping with the way they've handled most villains over time.
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I've also had the Koh-linked-to-Amon? discussion with some other friends, but your take on it is much better, with the bargaining for power concept.
The one thing I keep wondering about Amon and his actions - Lin's officers were rescued from a prison *after* Amon took their bending. Why? I can't see why Amon would feel they should remain imprisoned after he has "equalized" them. Why have extensive prisons *at all* if you're so confident you've removed your opponents fighting abilities? Unless there's a concern about security of information about the movement, I'm really lost on this one.
I am so eager to see the season finale, whatever it brings. I really do wish we could get a few more episodes detailing things like how the airbender population got started on its recovery, how Toph came to have a daughter, what Zuko and his descendants are doing, etc, though.
After the last episode, one of the things my housemates and I were discussing is how much more plot-driven LoK seems to be, as compared with the original series. We couldn't think of any divergent episodes mainly dedicated to character or world-building, and honestly those were kind of a neat part of the last series. Ah well, I can't really complain!
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O_O
(No brain. No. We do not need to start writing mental fanfic about how he's secretly this badass vigilante zipping around Republic City in secret.)
I strongly suspect that however Amon's doing what he's doing, it is either reversible or circumventible. I could be wrong, of course -- but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he zaps Korra and then we see her overcoming it. Given that the show is making some very clear points about how benders treat non-benders, and Korra is clearly perpetuating some of that problem without realizing, making her live as a non-bender for a while would be very good for opening her eyes.
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Frankly, I wonder what will happen when/if Korra figures out how to spirit-bend to instill or restore bending abilities. Since each Avatar has been about balance, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. What's *also* not beyond the realm of possibility is that the Avatar is actually in two parts, one of which is Amon. I keep thinking back to when Aang was temporarily dead from a well-timed lightning bolt while he was in the Avatar-state. What if a portion of the Avatar essence went off to a new body then?
The announcer is definitely a pro, which is one of the things I enjoy about him. "He's in the booth with me now, folks. I"m not sure if I'll survive this. I'm peeing in my pants."
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Speaking of which, it seems to me that having one's bending taken away has some narrative parallels to rape: it's a physical violation that is also emotionally traumatic, but it doesn't necessarily leave one particularly obviously injured. It's also apparently true that no one knows how to deal with those who have been the victims of this crime - witness Korra's deeply awkward interaction with Tahno. I think we should pay close attention to Lin's interactions with those of her men who have lost their bending. (I wish there were a more convenient verb to describe this thing ...)
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I think that would work brilliantly. We've seen Aang blocked from the Avatar state, but never an Avatar with no bending at all: and especially if this round of balance is between non/benders, it would give Korra a very different perspective than even an Avatar who hadn't been a prodigy like herself.
I know the healing is all glowing energy things, but suppose it is, actually, the other side of the coin from bloodbending, and they are two ends to a middle?
And if the show doesn't go there, I commission you to write the fanfic.
I really wish that she had been there to help take down Yakone.
She is the obvious first-call witness at the trial, yes, and as the only other known practicing bloodbender of her day, the only person who might have been able to hold off Yakone without needing to go into the Avatar state—I'd have called that reason enough to have her on hand during the sentencing. It makes me think that her absence is somehow significant, because the other answer is that she went by the wayside of married-with-children and that seems inconsistent with the writing of the world so far—Toph doesn't seem to have lost an ounce of casual, cheerful toughness with motherhood—but I'm not coming up with any ideas of what she might have been doing. There really is, for me, the increasing sense of an entire history woven behind the events of Korra that no one is quite thinking to look for, and they should. I am just waiting for the revelations to start piling into the light.
some people on Tumblr noted that Amon was able to move more easily once he stepped forward into the moonlight, making them wonder if actually Yue's influence in the moon is working against bloodbending.
Hah. I hadn't noticed that at all. If nothing else, it's more evidence that the full moon is not the only factor.
I'm not sure about that, but if true it would be another argument for Spirit intervention in imbalanced mortal affairs.
I would love if Yue's transformation turned out to have farther-reaching consequences than "The Siege of the North" and one of the best exchanges about romance in the original series. She's been the moon for seventy years. I imagine she's seen a lot.
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Thank you. I just like a well-written otherworld.
My personal theory, given the cyberpunk aspect of the world was that Amon was partially a cyborg (or perhaps even a full tiktok man) - that would explain why he couldn't really be bloodbent the same way a normal person could (he's not your normal giant ugly bag of mostly water).
I considered that, because the tech level in the last few episodes has started to approach science fiction (where previously, no matter how fantastical the applications of bending, we do at least have zeppelins, tasers, subways in our world), but I think I would find it disappointing and even a kind of cop-out; it would reduce the conflict to something like science vs. spirit and the show has never seen those as antithetical forces before. Sokka once invented waterbending-powered submarines.
I mean, it's clear that Toph was able to transmit her knowledge of metalbending, so being a superb and special bender doesn't necessarily mean that others can't follow in your footsteps.
Heh. I can't quote it, because it's on my now-defunct hard drive, but this post originally included a line about how Toph's metalbending was evidently a teachable as well as an inheritable skill; it's a requirement of the police force in Republic City. (We haven't seen anyone but her daughter use the earthsight she learned from the badger-moles, implying it's less easily learned, but it's unclear as yet whether that's a matter of genetics or aptitude and proficiency.)
If you're right that Amon's actions aren't true spiritbending (or that spiritbending is somewhat reversible) it could end up being a fairly poignant way for Tarrlok to perform penance - as the first in a world of bloodbending healers sworn to do no harm and help all (benders and nonbenders alike) who have been hurt.
See remarks to
There really isn't any non-combat based bending,
There are practical applications. Omashu used earthbending to run its famous mail delivery system and Ba Sing Se did the same with its trains; it was never stated outright, but the Fire Nation's technical advances in the original series implied that their metalworking was primarily done by firebenders; Mako has a temp job at the power plant working with lightning. (Which I liked as a casual detail; I'd assumed that the infrastructure of Republic City was a combination of bending and engineering as we know it, and that scene confirmed it.) Waterbending healers are both employed by hospitals and in private practice, because Tahno visits the best he can find after his bending is taken away. But I agree that we have always seen bending treated as a martial art first and whatever else second, and I would like to see more exploration of its other uses.
Plus it would give Tarrlok more humanity which would be nice and in keeping with the way they've handled most villains over time.
Agreed.
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I watch so few shows when they're airing, I don't really have the chance to speculate much in realtime. It's fun!
I've also had the Koh-linked-to-Amon? discussion with some other friends, but your take on it is much better, with the bargaining for power concept.
Hah. Thank you! I'd still like to hear if you have any further theories.
I can't see why Amon would feel they should remain imprisoned after he has "equalized" them. Why have extensive prisons *at all* if you're so confident you've removed your opponents fighting abilities?
Perhaps it's more evidence that Amon's chi-bending is not a permanent effect. You have removed your opponent's fighting abilities, but you need to make sure they're not in an environment where they'd be in any position to regain them?
I really do wish we could get a few more episodes detailing things like how the airbender population got started on its recovery, how Toph came to have a daughter, what Zuko and his descendants are doing, etc, though.
I assume we'll find out at some point, honestly; these sorts of questions can't all be of fan interest only. I'd just rather that point be sooner than later.
After the last episode, one of the things my housemates and I were discussing is how much more plot-driven LoK seems to be, as compared with the original series.
Agreed. It's a much more compressed, much faster-paced show; it's packing an incredible amount of information and action into a bare nine episodes so far (I know the tenth aired this morning, but I won't see it until Alison and I meet next week) and one of the most impressive things about the show is frankly that it doesn't feel thin, that it's possible as a viewer to get enough of a handle on the characters and the world through which they move to have analytical discussions rather than just a breathless Dickensian rush to the next plot twist. I wouldn't mind a little more meandering; some of the show's nicest moments are the offbeat character ones. (Bolin in the seaweed noodle shop.) It is still just very good.
Are there supposed to be only the two seasons?
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Oh, man, that would be adorable.
I could be wrong, of course -- but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he zaps Korra and then we see her overcoming it. Given that the show is making some very clear points about how benders treat non-benders, and Korra is clearly perpetuating some of that problem without realizing, making her live as a non-bender for a while would be very good for opening her eyes.
See discussions above! Strongly agreed.
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I wondered about that at the end of the last show; I expected it to explain where the next generation of airbenders would come from.
I keep thinking back to when Aang was temporarily dead from a well-timed lightning bolt while he was in the Avatar-state. What if a portion of the Avatar essence went off to a new body then?
Amon is being positioned as an anti-Avatar, agreed. I am not sure how I would feel about finding out that he was Aang's gebbeth.
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Right now I am envisioning a firebender who not only knows cold-fire bending, but he has figured out enough of it to be able to warp magnetic impulses and has figured out how to subtly zap impulses in people's heads. It might be too advanced for this particular series, but a sequel series which still has bending might well have the firebender's answer to the bloodbender.
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Interesting. Thank you; I hadn't been thinking about the placement of the hands!
This same friend has a pet theory that what Amon is doing is essentially a long and powerful chi-block, with an effect much like when one of Aang's chakras was blocked in the previous series and he couldn't make himself firebend (I think that was it?).
Aang was unable to enter the Avatar State while his last chakra was blocked; he had been killed by lightning while in the process of unlocking it and consciously controlling the state for the first time. He could still bend all four elements, but the Avatar State remained inaccessible until the lightning-scar at the site of the chakra was reopened in battle with Firelord Ozai, at which point it hurt a lot and everything fell back into place. (It was a nice use of metaphor.) It would make sense for Amon to practice a more comprehensive form of chi-blocking, considering his followers are trained in the more familiar, shorter-duration varieties. Or possible we're making distinctions that don't exist. It's all the same energy, whether it's flowing through people's bodies or the elements around them. That would be interesting.
Speaking of which, it seems to me that having one's bending taken away has some narrative parallels to rape: it's a physical violation that is also emotionally traumatic, but it doesn't necessarily leave one particularly obviously injured.
Yes. It's framed that way, too, in Korra's encounter with Amon on Aang Memorial Island.
I think we should pay close attention to Lin's interactions with those of her men who have lost their bending. (I wish there were a more convenient verb to describe this thing ...)
They are the closest examples to home right now. I fear, of course, that there will be more. (Maybe someone on the show will invent one.)
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We need a lot more information about the past.
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I am really, really itching to see what they name chapter 2, since all prior chapters have been named for an element the avatar is learning during that season, and Korra (assuming she picks up air in the next two episodes) already has learned all the elements. I'm half-arsedly guessing chapter 2 will be "Spirit."
I'm hoping we'll find out that Amon's un-bending trick really is either a more prolonged chi blocking that can be reversed or similar. Due to my investment in this idea, I am a bit suspicious that all evidence I dig up is me trying to make the experiment fit my hypothesis, so to speak.
Following shows real time is great for the discussions and the ability to get involved with a community of folks who are all interested. It is horrible for being on tenterhooks for an age and a half... Ah well, first world problem. :P
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It seems to be the prevailing opinion among almost everyone who's commented on this post. You never know.
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What that makes me wonder, honestly, is not whether Amon is some kind of splinter of Aang, but how much non-benders who train in the martial arts learn of various bending moves; it's not as though they're worthless without the elements behind them.
Right now I am envisioning a firebender who not only knows cold-fire bending, but he has figured out enough of it to be able to warp magnetic impulses and has figured out how to subtly zap impulses in people's heads.
I'm just waiting for Mako's proficiency with lightning to extend to taking on the Equalists' electrified weaponry (which I don't think it quite has, yet). It's all electricity.
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Unless it's seen somehow as cheating (which would make very little sense to me), I am faintly surprised that benders don't train in minimal chi-blocking; it may not be the first line of offense, but it could never hurt in close-quarters work.
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