Korra Discussion Post: 'The Revelation'

[whitelotusmods]

This is a post where you can discuss this week's episode* and link to your own reaction posts.

Spoilers for the series up until 1x03 below.

*(eeee I still can't over the fact that there are going to be new episodes every week now I am so excited. :D)

Comments

[iosonochesono]

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. :/