A good episode about restrictive societies and freedom of expression!
"It's time to look inward, and begin asking yourself the big questions; who are you? And what do you want?!"- Iroh- The Dragon of the West
Cactus Juice and friendly mushrooms
The buggest, scariest kite that ever flew.
"Instinct is a lie, told by a fearful body"
Fire, Air, Water, Earth. This episode shows the origin of the Dragon Dance, to think that each Avatar has probably done the dragon dance, wo. The place between the spirit and material worls is a Yin Yan symbol! Only once Wan was willing to die to fight Vato did he bind with Rava, sort of like Jesus willingly going to the cross. In the end Wan does die, for whatever reason, with his back on the symbol of the earth kingdom.
Bolin is so much better than Mako in every way, screw you Korra.
Korra seems to have the personality of a fire or earth bender- prizing strength and aggression over focus and creativity. It makes sense that she would befriend fire and earth bending brothers Tenzin pushing her air robes down from her shoulder was a great touch in the beginning, and it paralleled the climax, as in the pro bending arena, Korra was forced to use airbending principles tio win. Still that is the problem, her mind is still directed toward winning personal glory, and her mind is therefore too tethered to her ego to achieve the freedom that is air bending.
The temple itself is the best part of this episode. O, yeah and that moment everyone has been waiting for.
The most significant episodes so far with respect to the spiritual knowledge in this show.
Prince Zuko realizes who he is and starts down the roas of what kind of a Prince he wants to be. He is rejected at the end of this show, which really fits with the theme and shows that it is a long road for Zuko ahead.
Essential Episode for the two lead men of Avatar. 10/10
The evolution in Osami's voice is perfect, especially when she was telling Korra to F off.
Huge spoiler alert in this comment but, and I'm definately not the first person to say this but; I feel like Zaheer tieing Korra up and poisoning her, and indeed all her tramatic experiences with Iman refrences sexual assualt. The way she talks about it afterward "I had no control", obviously strongly suggests. The ritual way in which they do is very real and scary for a kids show.
The best part of this episode is seeing how powerful Korra really is. Her firebending is amazingly strong because she has so much aggression and Zaheer is such a little pest in his fighting style.
I agree with Zaheer, themiddle finger to governments. But killing people is not a revolution; thats the same way those who are in power got there; thats just more of the old world and old way- and it ends up leaving a vaccum of power.
Awesome airbender episode, bison are the original airbenders
Monk Tangzuh fasted for 100 days on whale tail island, getting his nourishment from the universe. I love that story.
Yeah. Lin returns! I really like the idea of this secret conscription thing. I also ke the villian romance between Zaheer and the third eyed giant firebender lady. All of their fighting styles are awesome, I wish they had devoted the first three seasons to these villians and just cut out Iman and Unalaq.
Zaheer is so much better than all the other bad guys in LOK. He is the only bad guy in Avatar that didn't want to take over the world. The taking over the world bit worked great for Firelord Ozi, but not so much in Unalaq ad Iman, I think we were all sick of it by then. Zaheer on the other hand, he wants a new world order but he doesn't want to be king. The way he airbends is so chaotic also; Unalaq was too traditionally good of a waterbender to be interesting to watch and Iman just bloodbends and fake-dodges attacks which is super boring; Zaheer is a bad guy who's fighting style is actually threatening. Oh yeah, and, ZUKO!!!
I love the movers, and Varricks attempt to manipulate the president and the public with his film. So far Varrick is he only good part about an overly quick transition into modernity.
"Thats why I admire you Korra. Your willingness to go to extremes to get what you want." How could that ever be admirable?
Awesome firebending does not disappoint.
This episode parallels season 2, episode "the chase" they actually show that in the "previously" segment. If you are looking for thematic episodes skip this, but if you are into character inclined episodes, watch it. It is basically a reaffirmation for the new season, of a dynamic between Toph and Katara that is contentious, like water eroding away on earth.
Always tear up at Iroh!
I love the fact that they reaffirm the 'afraid of your own power' bit right away. They also renew Zuko's pain by having Azula lie to him in that way. I laughed so hard when Iroh kicked Azula off the boat.
Honestly I think the idea that the Avatar state is a 'defense mechanism' as Roku calls it in this episode, is misleading as far as the way you interpret the lessons of this show. In the last episodes of this season with the Guru that teaches Aang to align his chakras.
I love the fact that a hundred years of historical resentment is upended by one simple lie in this show, and yet the lie ends up bein a good thing. It calls into question whether the ends justifies the means. Telling lies is just a the first level of that concept but it helps to introduce a young audience to that idea. Great capsule episode on how differently cultures can view history and how that cause conflict in the future.
No Zuko :() JET YOU MONSTER!
And so we begin the first of many major Avatar visions. First Aangs visions of the comet, then his visions of Avatar Roku in the Spirit World. Like all myth, such as Homer's Epic's when Athena appears to the hero, so Roku appears to Aang- accept in eastern tradution people worship ancestory and past lives more then the west- so nstead of a God apparing it is a past life.
At the end Avatar Roku destroys the temple to the avatar in the Fire Nation. This makes since most of the fire priests had betrayed him. It was like the Avatar as cutting off a cancer on his legacy- destroying the old age with the temple being a physical manifestation of the Old Age.
Most importantly, this episode helps forces Aang to confront his Avatar. Aang is a airbender, and as such has been content to flit about the world on vacation and run away from his duty- procrastination is a weakness of an airhead- but the Fire of the situation Aang is in will make him stop being an airbending whimp and start being an Avatar. Thank God For Hallucinations.
We begin to see how radically caring Katara is.
And the attention war between Katara and Aang begins. First Katara wouldn't give Aang attention so he got attention from a bunch of Avatar fan girls- then she is jelous of the attention he is getting- how love begins.
Katara- "Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar" Aang "because I never wanted to be."- Typical "refusal of the call. Part of what I like about this series is how many times Aang refuses and fails the Call to Action. Its the same in the Legend of Korra and is more realistic than the usual heroes journey outline.
