A revolutionary whose ideals would result in the crippling of countless innocent people?
Crippling?
Crippling? Did you seriously just call 3/4 of Avatar's universe crippled? (actually I'm guessing on the percentage of benders to non-benders but you get the idea)
No, the dude's sin was a little thing called the Associative Fallacy. He lashed out against not only the bad guys (like the gang leaders/etc), but innocent ones as well. He lumped everyone in an arbitrary group (benders) as Evil (tm). It's the same as any form of prejudice, be it racism, classism, agism, sexism, or what-have-you. Some people he hit deserved it (gang leaders), some didn't at all, others could've use a friggin' time out. He didn't differentiate and instead treated everyone as if they deserved it. Spoilers henceforth:
People who didn't deserve it: Toph's daughter, the policemen, various random civilians.
People who needed a time out: The cheating pro bending team.
The main reason Mask Guy is the same as Corrupt Politician Guy is pointed out nicely by Corrupt Politician Guy rounding up non-benders and throwing them in jail. This is exactly the same attitude as Mask guy (and roughly the same method; removing people's rights and power), just flipped as to who it's directed to. Some people are bad, yes, but you don't hit everyone vaguely associated and ask questions later.
The whole story quite obviously mirrors revolutionary fervor and the horrors it causes. People's desire for vengeance (trumped up as "justice") warps their perception and makes them hate groups of people rather than individuals (and almost certainly related, they come to love groups of people unconditionally as well). What came to my mind was the Reign of Terror and Robespierre from the French revolution, but that sort of shit happens in any violent revolution. The ruling class gets burned at the stake en-masse, whether any individual was directly at fault or not. This being a universe based heavily on asian history and customs, they probably pulled ideas from the various revolutions there (though I dunno which one or ones).
And now that I've seen it all (hey I had all day), my review:
- I really don't like the steampunk setting. It makes sense, as the previous series showed all the beginnings of an industrial revolution, so it's not a canon complaint, but... it's just not as much fun as the pre-industrial one before.
- People were complaining about zero consequence endings from the last series? This one's even worse! It makes sense but I was all prepped for a pyrrhic victory (and maybe some goddamn maturity for Korra) and got cheated out of it.
- Bloodbending translating to soulbending makes zero sense. That is a canon complaint.
- Airbending out of nowhere was an ass pull. Kudos for having it not taken away, though; that was clever.
And good stuff:
- Sokka's got nothing on this series' goofball. I love this guy. Why the fuck was he cheated out of love interest position, again?
- While not as good of characters as the last series, still higher caliber than most stuff. Korra felt kinda unnatural at the start but her characterization solidified nicely in the end into something believable.
- Awesome animation, as usual.
- That I can write a couple paragraphs of analysis for the plot is definitely a point in its favor. Pretty well thought out and rather engaging.
- Minor step up on comedic value from the previous series.
- The hobos are awesome.
- Cabbages callback. The best stupid recurring joke ever recurred.
Ultimately not as good as The Last Airbender, but still better than 90% of all the other cartoons out there.
As a side note, I really felt they missed having what's-her-face-rich-girl call her father out. Yeah there was a fight, but she never really rebuffed any of his arguments. All she needed to do was point out Scarf Guy was not the same person as the firebender who killed her mother, and in fact is an entirely different person, and her father's argument falls completely apart. But she never did that and just called him a bad father because personal attacks are the best comebacks am I right.
As a side side note, much of the drama from people's bending being taken away fell flat for me, since being brought down to normal isn't a humungous horrible thing. I mean, I'm normal and I get along pretty okay. Yeah losing super powers would suck really bad but it's not the end of the world (unless you're the Avatar, in this case, but most people are not). They had to do that rather than killing people because of the target audience and all, but still.
Final side note: Police captain lady would get along great with Batman, I think. They both have grappling hooks and dole out vigilante justice! No seriously several of her scenes really reminded me of Batman as she swung around. That's a good thing, I guess.
There's a question that's been bugging me since before I learnt about the legend of Korra. We know that the world of Avatar has reincarnation, there's only ever one Avatar because the Avatar's powers are connected to their soul, and that soul has to leave the world before it can re-enter it, but does this apply for everyone else too? If you're born a muggle, are you forever doomed to reincarnate as a muggle? It's kind of grim prospect you have to admit.
My theory is that they all get reincarnated much the same as the Avatar does (new lives with completely different personalities, may as well be entirely different people, but are connected somehow). I dunno if bending follows the reincarnation cycle but is probably affected somehow. It's not like all the airbenders of the world are stuck in limbo until that tribe gets repopulated... I hope :X
Author
Topic: Cartoon/Western Animation Thread. (Read 323084 times)