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]

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.

[talibusorabat]

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.

[loligo]

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!

[talibusorabat]

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.

[iosonochesono]

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.)

[talibusorabat]

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.

[iosonochesono]

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