white_lotus | Korra Discussion Post: 'The Revelation'

I . . . I am kind of on the side of the equalists, here? :hangs head:. I mean, when their plan is "take the criminal gangs who have been making people's life miserable and take away their power to do it--then let them go alive and in good physical health," well, this is not an evil plan, is what I'm saying. This is basically Aang vs. Ozai on a smaller scale.

But Amon's goal and plan isn't to just take away bending from criminals and bad guys, he wants to take bending away from everyone even those like Mako and Bolin who have suffered at the hands of benders. The reason he started with the gangs is a strategic one to wheel in people who may not be totally on board with stripping every bender of their bending right off the bat. It's smart. It gives them the appearance of having the moral high ground but the question is do they really have that high ground? And does taking away everyone's bending necessarily fix the problems and imbalance that exist in Republic City, or could it possibly make things worse?

But I think this is what the show is going to deal with and what Korra is going to have to figure out.

Like

monalisaofpasta said, Amon isn't distinguishing at all between crime leaders and kids orphaned by bender violence themselves just trying to get by. Starting with people who have a lot of animosity in the community is strategic.

(That said, it seems stupid to throw in some nobody kid within the first ten to put on display because Bolin and Mako are orphans with parents killed by firebenders... But I guess they wouldn't have had much of a story or reason for Korra to see an Equalist rally otherwise. I mean, it might have been more interesting if she had actually snuck off to listen to a meeting to try and find out what they were all angry about and had developed some empathy for the Equalist's movement in the process and y'know... complicated her feelings as an Avatar, made her want to find someone to answer her questions and maybe consult past Avatars. They could have made this an episode where Korra really wants and needs her spiritual side to be more developed so she can delve into this stuff.)

Edited 2012-04-21 23:12 (UTC)

I assumed they had just picked up whatever benders were hanging around with the Triad and this included Bolin, who the crowd is probably pretty willing to condemn on the grounds of having worked for the Triad at all. So his own sad backstory doesn't matter much as the crowd won't hear it. I agree that Korra sneaking in developing empathy would have been more interesting, but I would have found it implausible at this stage. She's still so incredibly straightforward, I can't see her not just showing up AS the Avatar to shout them down if she didn't have to be circumspect about the hostage. So it worked for me, though I think we'll need to see more of what you're talking about in later eps.

I assume it was more that they just took whoever was there, and I doubt that any of them actually knew his backstory? He was just a bender with them so it was assumed that he worked with them and thus he is put up there.

Like the above said, I don't think that plot would be believable at this stage, hopefully Korra will develop more and to deal with that later. (Like I assume she will.)

So, I was off the mark about Amon, but I was eerily close about taking bending away. Wow. Part of me wonders what spirits Amon consulted and if Ozai might be one of those (angry) spirits? He'd have reason to be angry with Aang for all eternity.

And yeah, I sympathize with a lot of the Equalists here. Amon is evil, no doubt, but I can't blame them for wanting benders to suffer, or to be put on equal footing. Republic City has become unbalanced and it favors benders (though not all benders have it easy; we saw today how Mako and Bolin are getting screwed by their promoter and they're orphans thanks to a fire bending mugger).

Korra has a huge mess to sort out, and she's going to have to fight uphill to regain the trust of non-benders while trying to battle Amon.

Yeah, my thought also is, "Korra's got her work cut out for her." This is gonna be a huge job to fix.

I sort of question whether he really consulted any spirits or if that is something he is claiming to sort of raise himself to the level of monarch/messiah/deity in this Equalist circle to take advantage of everyone's problems for his own benefit later.

But then I can't exactly explain him successfully taking away someone's bending permanently.

Based on how benders are treating non-benders, I really wish Korra would go on a spirit journey and find out how Aang feels about this or the idea of taking bending away, particularly in situations where someone commits acts of violence toward non-benders. I mean, what if this was a can of worms Aang opened at some point before he died? I mean, giving someone an idea of how he might have taken Ozai's bending permanently, or even directly thought it should be a skill developed to counteract violent criminals?

Obviously I'm reaching there, but it'd be interesting.

The idea of taking away someone's bending coming from Aang and Ozai's fight makes a lot of sense to me, frankly. It seems sort of resonant? We've seen some of the other innovations of Aang and co. being way more commonplace in this modern society. Metalbending was Toph's invention, but there are lots of them in Republic City, and lightning seems to be a common part of firebending whereas Zuko didn't know about it IIRC and Iroh was pretty clear that not everyone could do it. I guess if bloodbending shows up as a relatively commonplace medical tool we'll know for sure? And it would all fit pretty well with the stuff we've seen about how bending and modernity are pretty great, but can be turned to worse ends: metalbending is cool, but the police state that uses it a LOT seems not entirely positive and any random criminal being able to lightningbend seems worrying.

Yeah, exactly. Good intentions and all, but maybe problems in practice that need to be considered as well.

I loved the world-building detail of Mako's job at the power-plant. With lightning-benders, who needs generators? Clean electricity!

... HMMMMM. I love the worldbuilding and all the glimpses of life in the city, but I am fairly uncomfortable with how the conflict has been presented so far. I'm not even asking for a major revision to the basic setup, but there are a lot of little tweaks that could have been made to this episode that would've left me with less discomfort in its black-and-white morality -- the Equalist in the park being less buffoonish and more sympathetic to the kids' plight, the Equalist ninjas in the fight scenes being a little more individual and less of Teh Evil, Bolin actually going ahead and losing his powers rather than being saved at the last minute ...

I know we're only three episodes in, and there is still plenty of scope for the situation to be given more nuance (which is what I'm hoping for and, tentatively, expecting). But the black-and-white way that it's been presented so far is leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. I'm bothered by the lack of a middle ground -- I wish that we had some non-benders in the main cast, or at least one character who is sympathetic to the Equalist point of view without being a frothing revolutionary who is merely attempting to replace one form of prejudice with another. I'm bothered by the way the show seems to be openly equating "trying to make things more equal for everyone" with "hurting and taking things away from people in the privileged class". (I'm not even saying that this isn't a danger! Inequality draws fanaticism, after all ... It's just that the series seems to be jumping straight to the most extreme case, where calling for equality equals violently taking things away from people, and I'm not really comfortable with that ...) And the fact that Bolin losing his bending ability is a horrible fate to be avoided at all costs unintentionally(?) underscores the point the Equalists are making, that the benders represent a privileged class who enjoy special benefits that most people in the city don't. Yet the Equalists' fanaticism about their cause, and their willingness to hurt people, make it impossible to sympathize with them ...

(Also, I gotta say, after the previous series did such a lovely job of deconstructing the deformed/scarred = evil trope, I am not at all pleased that LoK seems to be playing it straight with Amon!)

But it's still early days yet. I'm enjoying the show and I don't want to judge it too harshly with only three episodes to go by! I'm just hoping for a lot more nuance later on.

Edited 2012-04-21 21:53 (UTC)

More thoughts since I'm still thinking *g* -- I think a big part of the problem I'm having with the show so far is that its basic desire for "shiny pretty fun" is in danger of colliding in a head-on trainwreck with the serious themes that it's trying to address. And I'm totally enjoying the shiny-pretty! A:TLA has always been a sort of superhero show, where everyone has their own unique powers, and they use them to fight bad guys. It's bright sparkly fun, and it really is fun!

But in order for that to work, everyone has to have powers, and there have to be bad guys to fight, and this is fitting very awkwardly with the darker, more morally ambiguous, more real-world-oriented storyline that the new series is trying to tell, if that makes any sense ...

I'm strongly expecting for it to turn out that Amon is neither scarred nor a nonbender (especially the first part)--though I'd actually love it if they were like "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! YOU'RE [X CHARACTER]" and he takes off his mask and actually he's just a scarred guy you dicks. We'll see.

I have the same reservations and the same kind of cautious "hmm! I think this will go good places but...what if it...doesn't" as you, overall, though!

Same here. Considering the first series, I find it really hard to believe that Bryke would leave the central conflict of the story THIS black and white. Even with the Evil Imperialist Fire Nation, they made sure to demonstrate that the soldiers were all just people doing their jobs. I would be seriously be surprised if they didn't flesh out the Equalist movement.

Plus, Amon's story is just SO CONVENIENT. I can't buy it.

... I don't think the episode was very black-and-white at all, actually. I have a lot of empathy toward the Equalists' plight. The benders see them as terrorists, they think of themselves as freedom fighters... And there's some argument for both, and people in power have questionable respect for their own authority and have questionable agendas. (For instance... I sort of find Toph's daughter suspicious. I find some of the actions the White Lotus group has taken to protect Korra suspicious. There are a lot of things benders are doing these three episodes where I'm thinking, "Geez guys, what the shit?" and like maybe the power has gone to their heads... And until someone has reason to want to change, they're not going to notice - for benders, why would they want things to change? Things are awesome for benders in this world.)

Seems pretty normal, actually. I think eventually there will be sympathy to the problem presented by the Equalists - Korra is angry because she takes it as a personal criticism, being the Avatar, but they had just been talking about Bolin and Mako's past and there is a parallel with Amon's story as a family of poor non-benders. Katara and Tenzin could totally tell Korra stories of damage benders have done to their people in the past. There is, once she gets past the criticism, real truth that benders have been behind every war in history of this world. (Much like class, religion, and others in our own.)

I also disagree about it being bad they presented it as a horrible tragedy if Bolin had lost his bending ability, but that's because of context: Bolin's a poor orphaned kid and he relies on his bending to compete, make a living. Bending for him is a life-sustaining practice, and he did nothing wrong so the idea of making it so he 'couldn't hurt anyone else' was completely non-applicable to his situation, and taking his powers away without his consent would have been horrible since he hadn't actually been abusing his powers. They didn't exactly care to run in to save any of the more notable gang leaders, or even negatively question taking their abilities away. I have more problems with Katara's general attitude of "Bending's awesome get out of my way" - I mean earlier in the episode she's willing to beat up a pamphlet distributor. Why would he know anything? You don't exactly give top secret information about organizations to people trying to rally an audience for an event. I mean, not because they're stupid or anything - but because obviously they can encounter the most harassment and bullying. Which unfortunately was what he got - she was terrible to him considering it was unlikely he knew anything more than he needed to know to hand out pamphlets... Which is basically what he explained at the end, after she roughed him up. :/

I do agree that it would be nice if they ended up having some non-bending main cast, because right now all they have is Tenzin's wife and she doesn't play a huge role. I sort of wonder if some people from the Equalist group will defect later, much like Zuko, when they are faced with how much more complicated things are. I feel like we will totally get complicated characters from the Equalists sooner or later. All we're seeing right now are the muscle and pamphlet distributors alongside a power hungry leader (which isn't at all uncommon) so... I would be very surprised if it doesn't end up coming up. This is just the third episode.

*nods* I don't disagree with this, I just think ... it's not that the seeds of a more nuanced view aren't there, it's that I feel as if the show right now is slanting heavily towards wanting us to empathize with Korra and see her POV as correct, which is made much easier because all the Equalists we've seen so far have been violent revolutionaries or buffoons. And they could easily have made it a bit more nuanced by making the Equalists a bit more nuanced. For example, in the scene in the park where Korra questions the guy -- I did feel that her approach was heavy-handed and borderline bullying, but she's also scared for her friend and the Equalist is being an ass to her, and IIRC (I've only watched the episode once) she didn't actually attack him until he sneered at her and refused to help her. So ... basically this is exactly the sort of behavior (on Korra's part) that has bred resentment among the non-benders in the city, but the instigator was the non-bender yanking her chain.

I really do think that the show is intentionally presenting Korra as a little bit of a bully in the way she uses her powers, or at least unaware of the power differential (in terms of both physical power and political power) between herself and other people, and that part of her character growth is going to be learning to get past that. I just think that I'd feel a little more confident that we are actually meant to see her this way if the other side weren't presented in such an uncompromisingly negative way, so that Korra's actions are largely justified.

However, I do think some important groundwork was laid in this episode with Mako pointing out that she's always had things given to her and never had to go hungry (even though her life admittedly hasn't been a bed of roses either).

They didn't exactly care to run in to save any of the more notable gang leaders, or even negatively question taking their abilities away.

Well, but I kinda had a problem with that too, actually? I hope I can explain this so that I don't come across as a total hypocrite, but as with the guy in the park and the beatdown that he got from Korra, here again I'm getting a slightly uncomfortable undertone of "bad people deserve what happens to them". Korra and Mako rescue Bolin because they care about him, but Korra doesn't have any way to know if the other gang members (well, aside from the gang leader) are in the same situation as Bolin: street kids who joined the gang because they didn't have any other way to make money. And what Amon is doing to them is just as wrong as what he's doing to Bolin (and I do have a huge problem with it -- I certainly don't mean to say that I think Amon is justified in his actions; he's basically appointed himself judge, jury and executioner). We (the audience) care about Bolin and want to see him rescued, but Korra and Mako aren't exerting themselves to rescue the others from Amon's vigilante justice.

The city as it currently stands is dysfunctional enough that Amon's vigilantism is actually (to an extent) justified -- certainly the authorities aren't doing anything about the gangs, while Amon is -- but then the one sympathetic character in the gang gets rescued, so we (the audience) don't have to deal with the consequences of what Amon is doing through the lens of someone we care about; like the characters, we can view it from a comfortable distance ...

so we (the audience) don't have to deal with the consequences of what Amon is doing through the lens of someone we care about; like the characters, we can view it from a comfortable distance ...

I don't know. If the episodes were longer, maybe, and not geared towards kids, maybe, but I feel like taking away Mako & Bolin's ability to participate in the pro-bending tournament would be too much for 12 22-minute episodes to handle. You'd either have to add in another bender character, or you'd have to show how Mako & Bolin deal with being evicted, jobless, and having to rebuild their lives yet again. Which would be really interesting, but I don't think you could have both that storyline and the Equalist storyline in just twelve episodes and do either of them justice.

I also feel like having that happen right after we find out about the boys being orphans and what they've had to do to survive on the streets would push the show too far into really depressing territory. Bolin is a great big golden retriever of love... there's only so much I can watch him suffer while still being entertained. >.>;;;

Heh, yeah - I don't mean to be Squeeharsh McBuzzkill here, and I do think that a lot of my reaction to the show are simply things that it's not going to be able to deliver in a half-hour kids' show. High expectations much, self?

That said, I think most of my dissatisfaction comes down to being unhappy with how the central conflict is being handled (most of the rest of it is more along the lines of "wouldn't it be cool if ...?"). I agree with your comment above that it probably won't stay this black and white, and it is possible that it's only being set up so black and white at the beginning to make it more shocking for Korra when the rug is pulled out from under her feet. And I do love the shiny, squeeful, kids-throwing-fireballs-around aspects of the show, too! I just wish they were giving us a little more nuance in the Equalists' point of view, but perhaps that is still to come.

Dude, I would totally want to be Squeeharsh McBuzzkill for the NAME ALONE.

But yeah, I feel you. I do think the story they want to tell would have been better served with a 24 episode season rather than a 12 episode season. The pacing feels SO FAST to me, and not in a fun way.

Not that the episodes aren't fun, because I'm totally along for the ride. It's mostly after the episode ends that I'm like "...wait. But where's...what...that went fast." I had the same issue with The Promise. The pace in the first book moved so quickly, I barely had time to breathe, much less truly connect with what the characters were feeling.

But I do believe more nuance for the Equalists is to come. If only because I have to. XD

IDK, maybe if I was a kid I'd view it differently, but as an adult I sort of agree with the first comment - I'm actually feeling way more sympathy for the Equalists than for Korra and her friends. I can understand wanting to be snide when you have what seems a police force that doesn't want people to get involved with the gangsters. I can understand not trusting benders when they don't seem to give a crap about your life on either side, gangster or law enforcement/government. And I think if you have people abusing their bending power, taking it away as Aang did with Ozai is more or less justified, because they are harming other people. It's not a "bad people deserve what happen to them" stance, but "Your right to swing your fist ends at the start of my nose" deal. And I am pretty sure all three of those characters were some form of gang-member higher-up, not like Bolin. Aside from their clothes (a HUGE status mark in the 20s/30s era and I imagine meant to portray the same point here) I am pretty sure in the beginning he basically introduced the first three of them as people the non-benders were likely to know?

Like I admit, there could be more nuance, and it would be better if there were more episodes, but so far I'm actually pretty impressed for what has been pushed into three episodes. And I think (especially for kids) there should be some distance initially because you're right - for the younger audience, they haven't really gotten to empathize that much with non-benders except for when those gang leaders threatened a shop-keeper. But that said, they have definitely got a background for saying, "Hey, benders can be pretty shitty people too" - especially assuming most people are building on from A: TLA and the Fire Nation war. Mako and Bolin, Katara, theoretically Amon, and most people attending those meetings... There's something more than just "Those people are jealous" going on, and I feel like part of Korra's job as an Avatar is going to be addressing that (or they wouldn't have made it a conflict from episode one.)

I do agree with your assessment of Amon (judge, jury, executioner) and I don't think Amon should be the one making those decisions, but I don't think Amon is supposed to be 'a good guy.' But he is taking advantage of a real problem, and his theoretical real solution could, in theory, be applied to better the public (bending and non-bending alike.) That's not why he's doing it, I don't think, but I also don't think most of the Equalist's point or even the solution itself is bad. Maybe they should focus on rehabilitation before taking bending powers away, but the idea itself seems... A lot better than a lot of our own justice systems today, tbh. Like "Oh, you can't firebend anyone's face anymore, have a nice day."

I don't think I would have been happy if a character that's relied on their bending so much and has lost so much lost their bending powers right away; they really need more peripheral/nearly core characters in this show, but it's hard to get that by episode three. And I like Korra but even with that guy being a jerk... Even by episode three, she's seen some evidence that benders can suck for people and he might have reason to automatically be suspicious of her. She is kinda really bullying. And like I said, it was a silly thing to do because who expects a pamphlet person to know anything of value since they're the most likely to be hassled? I didn't really think all things considered his reactions were that unreasonable at all so much as, "I know, we'll bully the man and use bending on him to intimidating! SUPER EFFECTIVE." as opposed to just taking one of the pamphlets and leaving. I seriously thought when she approached that that would be the only sensible thing to want to do. :/

1. Mako is Batman. He and Korra are going to have to share the Batcave.

2. I think that Korra's wakeup call was partly just seeing how many nonbenders don't like benders--the sense that people have a real anger and it's not just one or two folks with sour grapes about bending being the "coolest thing ever."

3. I am looking forward to more stuff and more discussion in-canon about benders and nonbenders--we've only had an hour and a half of canon so far! I'm pretty sure things are going to get more fleshed out as time goes on. Remember, at this point in the first series we hadn't even met Suki yet, much less Toph! There's still a lot of time to introduce new people and new ideas.

4. I would also not be surprised if Aman turned out to not have any facial scarring. I would not be surprised if his whole schtick was a lie. But how cool was that lightning backpack his lieutenant had? Seriously, that was awesome.

5. It's interesting that benders are both a privileged class and apparently a source of cheap fuel/labor. Mako's lightning-bending job certainly didn't look high-status to me, despite how bending nets him fame in the ring. Sure, it's a job that only benders can do, but it's obvious that there's still a class issue that goes beyond bending/nonbending in the city.

I would not be surprised if his whole schtick was a lie.

I am hoping his whole schtick is a lie. It's just too perfect; my bullshit alarm is going crazy.

Sure, it's a job that only benders can do, but it's obvious that there's still a class issue that goes beyond bending/nonbending in the city.

I wonder if there are other low-status jobs that only waterbenders or earthbenders can do, or if that's unique to firebenders, since the Fire Nation was the most industrialized of all the four nations.

:: I wonder if there are other low-status jobs that only waterbenders or earthbenders can do, or if that's unique to firebenders, since the Fire Nation was the most industrialized of all the four nations. ::

Remember the earthbenders who moved the trains in Ba Sing Se? And there was similar stuff going on in the Northern Water Tribe. I've long had the impression that benders are more like engineers/mechanics/technologists/construction workers in this universe. People who build and run the infrastructure. Even what the benders did in wartime had a lot to do with that engineering/mechanic role: the big advantage in having benders around was in what they permitted in the way of war engines.

Against that background, the Mechanist was a little odd (a nonbender inventor-technologist!) and it makes the Satomobiles very interesting. (They don't need benders to make them go! Anyone can use them! I'm dying to know who Sato was.)

In fact, I kinda wonder whether that kind of bender-free tech is one of the things that make the Equalist movement possible: it's theoretically possible now for society to get by without benders.

(Or so they think. It's usually harder than that to just wholesale remove a sector of technology like that.)

I would not be surprised if his whole schtick was a lie.

Hmm... here's the flash of speculation I just had, while tucking my kids into bed: what if there really was a man named Amon who had had those experiences, and in his despair he asked the spirit world for help... and ended up being possessed by a malevolent spirit. Maybe even Koh the Face-Stealer -- maybe he wears the mask not because he's scarred, but because his face keeps changing!

I don't know... the mention of spirits just seemed important to me, plus there's the fact that Korra has said that she's pretty clueless when it comes to the spiritual aspect of being the Avatar. She wouldn't necessarily sense that she was in the presence of a spirit or anything.

Oooooooooooh.

I like this idea.

It also could possibly explain why he can do things nobody other than the Avatar could do in the past, if he's actually a spirit himself.

Edited 2012-04-22 17:13 (UTC)

I don't know -- I'm not really comfortable with the idea of the main villain being someone not human. There's already a strong tendency to demonize our enemies, see them as something other than human: monsters, animals, evil incarnate. For me, one of the big strengths of the first series was how it did not take the humanity away from its villains. Zhao, Azula, Ozai - they did terrible things, but they were still human.

I could see Amon making a deal with a malevolent spirit -- perhaps even sharing his body for the sake of getting power -- but I would still want Amon the human being to be the driving force, the one making the decisions, the one choosing to do cruel things.

Well, here's more of my crazy theory that I developed last night: what if the rapid industrialization of the past decades has thrown the human and the spirit world out of balance? Remember how angry Hei Bai was about the forest fire that destroyed his grove? Presumably the kind of mining and logging it would take to build a place like Republic City has never been seen in their world before -- and the spirits may see the benders as being at fault, since it seems like a lot of the tech in their world is based directly or indirectly on bending powers, not our science.

So spirit intervention here might be more like "justifiably pissed off" than "evil incarnate". (And it seems like spirits don't handle anger very productively, to say the least.) Koh has intervened in our world before, when he stole Ummi because he thought Kuruk was a crappy Avatar. And I need to watch the ep again, but didn't Amon say that the fire bender "stole my family from me, and even stole my face"? That seems like a weird way for the writers to phrase things, unless they're foreshadowing the Face-Stealer.

Just a theory, though!

A large part of Hei Bai's problem was he couldn't communicate with the humans, so there was no possibility of "HOW DARE YOU DESTORY MY FOREST?" "It wasn't us! It was the Fire Nation! Here, let's help you replant it." So he communicated his anger the only way he could -- through violence.

It's definitely an interesting theory - rather like Princess Mononoke, and would tie in nicely with Korra not being very spiritual. His speech didn't make me think of Koh -- it struck me more as poetic emphasis -- but I can see it now, especially with how he reaches for Korra's face in some of the previews. I'd still prefer him being human, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out either way.

Yeah but are any of the spirits actually evil in Avatar? Generally they all have some sort of real, necessary function and need some sort of balance. It's not exactly a war zone, but something's wrong.

(My stories were all things like Animorphs growing up so while none of them were technically human none of them were pure evil, either - not even the Yeerks, nor were all people good and could easily be drawn to bad decisions, such as David. Whereas we saw how much the characters were set up to believe propaganda about their enemies.)

I don't mean to say that if he's a spirit, he's pure evil (though I think Koh comes close, from a human perspective). My concern is that if he's a villain like Zhao or Ozai, who did terrible things and we were not encouraged to feel sympathy for (unlike Azula, who was made sympathetic by glimpses into her emotional frailties), and then it turns out he's a malevolent spirit, it creates this kind of distance between what he does and what human beings are capable of doing, in the same way that we separate ourselves from murderers and other people who do horrific things by calling them "monsters."

If it turns out he's sympathetic - like, if his story about his family is actually true and not the propaganda bullshit I think it is - then I'm not bothered by Amon being a spirit. But if he ends up being both unsympathetic and nonhuman, I would be uncomfortable.

Well, whether or not he's a spirit I don't think will create much involvement with whether or not he's sympathetic. I think it's likely (human or not) that Amon himself will be basically unsympathetic and without mercy, but chances are someone relatively close to him in the movement won't be.

Statistically leaders and people seeking power are more likely to be sociopaths (or at least, near it) so I could handle him rolling either way to be honest. As long as the people within the movements don't turn out black-and-white in good/evil setup? I'm basically fine. I feel like some people close to the old gaang might turn out to be bad guys, so :S

I was reminded of Koh the face stealer during Amon's spiel too. I like your idea about his reason for wearing a mask!

:: 1. Mako is Batman. He and Korra are going to have to share the Batcave. ::

Hah! I'm thinking that Korra doesn't share all that considerately. Who's Alfred? Tenzin?

:: But how cool was that lightning backpack his lieutenant had? Seriously, that was awesome. ::

Want. Want want want.

I find it a little odd that this was the third episode -- it felt like something that would be placed midway through the season, rather than right at the beginning.

I'm also sad that we haven't seen more of Chief Bei Fong. (If she doesn't show up in episode 4, there will be tears.) But I really love the dynamic between the trio, and how Mako & Bolin's personalities were fleshed out. Korra's nicknames for Mako. XD Makes me wish Toph was around to school her in the proper way to give someone an irritating name.

Hello, first time commenter here. I just finished watching the 3rd episode a minute ago and wanted to talk about it with someone, but the people I usually watch this show with aren't caught up yet.

I suppose my theory isn't so much a theory as the Quibblery meanderings of a heliopath-colored brain, but I think it's likely that Amon is going to turn out to be somehow closely connected to Fire Lord Ozai. I know, I know--"What fresh nonsense is *this*!" I hear you cry derisively. However, his comments about being scarred reminded me a little of Zuko and technically he *is* the first person we've seen who had his bending powers taken away, meaning that he had firsthand knowledge about how to do it. Obviously Ozai (probably) can't still be alive at this point, but I think it's telling that the thug who supposedly attacked Amon's family and Mako's were both firebenders. And it's the sort of thing I would expect Ozai to do--he's angry at the Avatar for taking his powers away, so he gets revenge by turning the non-benders against him. So...that's my theory. I actually hope I'm wrong because it would really suck to have called the big secret in the third episode.

Oooh, that's a good one. It would definitely explain why Amon's real goal/grudge seems to be against the Avatar and not all benders in general. (His "I will destroy you" just sounds so very personal to me.)

Have you ever seen the tv miniseries "The 10th Kingdom"? The Queen in that is one of my personal favorite villains and she's another one who is technically working in the service of another character, but operates totally independently from them in her own right.* Her character was really compelling and sympathetic, I hope this guy is just as interesting!

*I'll refrain from linking to the entry of The Dragon on Tv Tropes.org for the sake of everyone's sanity.

I saw it aaaaages ago; afraid I don't remember much of it.

Oooh, maybe somehow Ozai taught Amon how to take away someone's bending so that he could get revenge, and then Amon was like "You know, with this I could totally TAKE OVER THE WORLD MWAHAHAHAHHAA."

Or something. Less black-hat, moustache-twirling than that.

Yeah, Amon being a student of Ozai was generally what I had in mind. He must have some reason to sympathize with Ozai and his cause though. Ozai's fond of giving people scars, isn't he? He and the Joker should hang out.

My favorite part of the episode was the fight at the end with the equalists, Bolin, Korra and Mako.

I really liked how they showed that Mako and Bolin's training in the ring made them great contenders, but not great street-brawlers. Showing Bolin throwing those little round blocks was a great way to show that they both think in terms of the ring, not in terms of fighting.

I also really liked how Korra's skills translated exactly over to life or death combat, and how it shows us that she thinks in different ways from Mako and Bolin because flipping over to an alley fight didn't phase her at all.

Yeah I think they need to be taking lessons from her as well lol.

I love that icon.

...but they grew up on the street. Shouldn't they be better street-brawlers than Korra?

"...but they grew up on the street. Shouldn't they be better street-brawlers than Korra?"

I guess to clarify, what I meant by "street-brawls" was "fights were hurting or killing the other person is assumed to be one of the likely option." :)

At least from what we've seen so far, there's not much sign (in my opinion) that either Mako or Bolin were either seeking out those kinds of fights or training for 'em. Mako said that he 'ran numbers' (aka not fighting) for the Triads. Bolin did the absolute worst out of the three of them in the street fight and he's younger than Mako, so we may be seeing signs that Mako deliberately did his best to keep his brother out of any kind of physical fights.

Plus, we don't know when they got off the streets and into the gym. If they didn't have any bending instruction before they got off the streets, I could see both Mako and Bolin not knowing how to use their bending in an alley fight. They might be good at a non-bending fist-fight against other non-trained people, but neither of them have any reason (or probably even the ability to dedicate the time or energy) to have gone through the training program that Korra did - namely, what looks like intensive, continual training for incapacitate-or-kill fighting against other benders.

That kind of training doesn't really result in being able to make money unless Mako and Bolin were acting as enforcers, and from what we've seen, Mako made a strong effort to not do that kind of thing himself, and keep Bolin from doing that kind of thing.

I am having thoughts on this! :)

Korra Discussion Post: 'The Revelation'

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I have a theory (it could be bunnies)!

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Re: I have a theory (it could be bunnies)!

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Fighting vs. Pro Bending

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Re: Fighting vs. Pro Bending

Re: Fighting vs. Pro Bending