I enjoyed this episode. If I had to rank them so far, I think it would go 1 > 3 > 4 > 2, but 2 and 4 might swap positions and there's a solid point out of ten gap between #2 in the list and #3 in the list.
Friends worried that I would hate this episode since it focused heavily on Tenzin's bratty kids. And indeed I
was a little scared when the episode first started. But it didn't take long for me to enjoy the episode.
Timeskip Meelo is a little too forced, just like his pre-timeskip counterpart, but he's a lot more tolerable. I actually quite enjoyed both his scene with the Earth Kingdom girl as well as his later scene with the poisonous and/or rotten berries. The latter was especially humorous for showing off just
ugly this poor kid is!
^^; Good
God was he horrifying with that sickly smile with the purple-stained teeth!
Timeskip Jinora isn't that different from her former self. She seems a little "maturer" and "calmer," I guess, but it's subtle. She's still the anointed Savior of the Air Nomads that no one wanted but what can you do? *shrug* At least the episode was kind enough to show us that Jinora isn't
always God's gift to humanity. I hated her role in Book 2, and so no offense to the poor girl but I enjoyed Book 4 exploring the imperfections of her technique. I suppose the writers realized just how stupid-powerful Book 2 Jinora's Avatar-tracking powers were and decided they'd need to make up a canon excuse for how/why Jinora might not always be able to locate the Avatar. Having Korra go to the swamp, and arguing that the swamp is rich in spiritual energy, seems to have been the writers' ticket to how they could have their "The Avatar has gone missing and no one knows where she is" cake and eat it too.
Timeskip Ikki was the star of the first half of the episode for sure. Jinora's been made out to be the leader of the children, the veteran, the most experienced, and the most naturally gifted. That places her on viewers' radars. Then there's Meelo, who for much of his existence has basically been the Obnoxious Eyesore: ugly as sin, constant fart jokes and other dumb 5-year old humor, Meelo's been the sort of character you just can't ignore even if you want to. So that left Ikki being the forgettable one. Middle child, no spectacular powers like Jinora, no noteworthy personality quirks like Meelo has, Ikki's just kind of ...
been.
Her one big scene came in Book 2 with the running-away-from-home-and-living-in-a-cave-with-the-sky-bison scene, but aside from that she's been pretty unimportant. So it was a nice little gift from the writers to allow her to be the heroine who saves the day here.
I liked the part where they found the vendor with Aang's and Korra's photographs.
I liked how Ikki managed to handle the two buffoons all on her own. I disliked how Jinora and Meelo ruined it but whatever.
I disliked that the two buffoons were such cartoonish buffoons. It was especially ridiculous when the dumber of the two began to untie Ikki
in order to help her locate the Avatar. Untying her because she's smooth talked you over, okay, fine, I'll roll with it. It's points in Ikki's book. But doing it with the stated intention of helping her locate the Avatar ... when she hasn't persuaded you to betray Kuvira yet ... and when you were
just. saying. that the return of the Avatar would likely get in Kuvira's way ... it was just dumb.
The second half of the episode felt like the more enjoyable half, but I think it balanced the best parts of the episode against the worst parts.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire episode, possibly my #1 favorite, was when Toph is telling Korra at the banyan tree that she needs to reconnect with the people she loves and the people who love her ... and then Korra sees the kids ... and then the kids come flying to Korra, going "KORRA!
" ... and Korra just starts to weep with joy. That was not only touching but a really solid reminder that Tenzin's kids aren't just "my friend's kids" or "my mentor's family" or something: they are
her family. It's easy for me as a viewer to see a greater disconnect between Korra and the kids than I think the writers intended, and this scene does a good job of (re-)establishing that Korra feels truly adopted into Tenzin's family at this point in the story.
A scene I was more neutral towards was the obvious
Empire Strikes Back homage in the swamp. Toph tells Korra to go out to the swamp, Korra goes out, she rounds a corner, and the next thing she knows she's facing Amon, then Unalaq, then Zaheer. It was a clear nod to Luke's similar scene on Dagobah, and it's for that reason that I simultaneously liked it and disliked it. Liked it because who doesn't like Star Wars, disliked it because it's distracting in its unoriginality.
Another great scene, probably my #2 favorite in the episode, was where Toph tells Korra about some of her past adventures with the Avatar. (Paraphrased) "What's there to tell? The Avatar was whiny, I threw some rocks at him, and Sokka fell in a hole." Then "We were on a blimp, it was hot, and there was a lion-turtle." So great.
I remarked to AK2 last night though that this scene really reminded me just how amazing the original series was, just how much Korra has both been different from it and been inferior to it. I feel like we don't
have episodes like the Sokka-falls-into-a-hole episode or the Fire-Nation-vacation-island episode in
Korra. And that we don't have scenes like Iroh's memorial to Lu Ten on the hilltop in Ba Sing Se or like Uncle Iroh's scene with the bounty hnnter who had the shrew.
Korra just feels so much less quotable than A:tLA, so much less citable, so much less ...
memorable, I guess you could say. ^^; It's tried hard to tell a great set of stories, but I feel like the writers forgot what made A:tLA so magical. Where is our "Zuko Alone" moment? Where is Zuko on top of that mountain in the lightning storm, howling with rage and frustration? I can't think of anything in
Korra that is remotely close. I can list of climactic plot points ("Remember that time when Zaheer's girlfriend's head got blown off?") but they're not the same type of scenes as what I'm describing here, as what Toph is hilariously condensing down to their barebones TV Guide formulae.
Probably my least favorite part of the episode: Korra's swift recovery.
NOTHING HAPPENED between last week and this week that would have explained why Korra could successfully rid herself of the poison now but couldn't before. Like, the
ONLY THING was her moment at the banyan tree with the kids. Is that really all she needed to be able to heal herself?
Seriously!? Give me a break. She didn't even realize that she had poison still left inside of her. Neither did Su or Lin! We're supposed to believe that Korra can perform surgery on her own body -- an amazing feat for any physician -- when she can't even locate the poison? I was not only hoping but I was really
expecting Toph to teach Korra how to become a master metalbender, such that Korra could go head-to-head with Kuvira. Instead, all we got was some fun Toph cameo time and then that was it: all of the potential for epic storytelling you left us with at the end of Book 3,
wasted.
Just wasted.
Finally, ending on a high note: the theme of the book. "Balance." I enjoyed how the writers explored the fact that all three of Korra's nemeses so far have been men blinded by their honestly pretty decent ideals. Okay, fine: Unalaq, ridiculously cartoon villain that he was, might have been a stretch.
("Unalaq wanted to return the spirits to our world." Man if that one didn't stand out from the other two. ^^; Poor writers!) But the other two were very obvious. "Amon wanted equality for all." Yup, pretty hard to argue against that or how good the ideal sounds on paper. "And Zaheer wanted freedom." Again, pretty hard to argue that point. But the writers explore, via Toph, that these three men's ideals became poisonous because of the extreme lengths to which they took them. Amon, in his pursuit of equality, was basically going around blinding and deafening everybody so that no one born deaf or blind has to feel left out. ^^;; Horrific. And Zaheer, in his pursuit of "freedom," was pretty much a radical anarchist. I liked how the writers, via Toph, encourage Korra to accept that these men were not purely evil. (Although that Unalaq ... ;roll
That they had some good ideas and some good intentions behind their actions. That Korra shouldn't just dismiss everything they stood for as being "evil," that she should learn to separate what was good from what wasn't. Essentially, it's like the Oracle of Delphi said:
"nothing in excess." Or as Aristotle rephrased it:
"everything in moderation." Freedom is good!
Just don't go crazy anarchical. ^^; Equality is good!
Just don't go around crippling people. O-o Spirits are good!
Just don't go merging with Spirit Satan like the Disney's
Aladdin's Jafar character you were.
("Now
I shall be the all-powerful genie!
") And similarly uniting the Earth Kingdom will be argued as "good" (though I don't really understand how we can argue the inherent goodness of something like specific national borders, but whatever) but uniting it under a banner of tyranny will of course be argued as bad. "We don't want anarchy, but we don't want a dictatorship either. Let's seek out a working middle ground." What the middle ground will be remains to be seen. Good Guy Monarchy with Prince Wu on the throne but, having been wizened by his eye-opening experiences this year, he will be a good ruler who surrounds himself with capable ministers? Democracy because LOL American Writing Team who will never miss an opportunity to plug the supremacy of democracy? Other? We'll just have to wait and see.