Legend of Korra "And The Winner Is..." Talkback

[Steve]

Crossposted from SDN.

Six episodes in and we had the major status quo changer everyone expected. The Pro Bending Tournament was crashed... but only after Jerkface Tahno and his team beat Korra and the Ferrets through hideously-blatant cheating that everyone present, including the announcer, notices. (Shades of the corruption in boxing with fixed fights....)

And by doing so they play right into Amon's hands, as he gets to claim moral superiority for depowering dishonest bullying thugs instead of hard-working impoverished brothers and the Avatar. It makes his argument even stronger; the Pro Bending competitions are blatantly corrupt and promote bullying bastards as their champions, just as benders bully non-benders, just as the city's political system is clearly weighted toward benders. It was a magnificent propaganda coup that will terrorize those opposed to Amon and uplift those who cheer for him. Amon seems to have a good grip on how the city's leaders operate. The Council nearly shut down the match - even Tarrlok agreeing - and doesn't only when Lin insists the metalbenders can protect the match (nobody knowing just how technologically sophisticated the Equalists are - they smuggle electric shock gauntlets into the arena). Now the Metalbender police force looks like putzes and all the city seems helpless before the Equalists. Speculation when the show was released seems to be matching Amon's argument; Technology is leveling the playing field between bender and non-bender while the political systems of the world are still geared toward the old status quo of benders being looked upon as leaders.

Oh, and, Korra figured it out just as we did; Lin was indeed the girlfriend Tenzin left to marry Pema, and Lin has a grudge. "Mister Heartbreaker" indeed. 8)

Fighting side by side may be breaking the ice between Lin and Korra, and Lin gave up her hot pursuit to save Korra from that nasty fall when the arena roof caved in.

A hearty cheer for Pabu the rope-cutter. 8) We get more flashback bits now, including apparently the unknown Yakone and Aang fighting with someone.

And frankly... can we please stop with the "Korra is weaker than Aang" talk? Aang mainly has Korra on one front: Airbending, the element he mastered first and the element she is to master last. Korra beat asshole Tahno one-on-one and handled multiple Chi-blockers plus Amon's lieutenant (not entirely together, but Lin was getting shocked a few times and was just helping Korra tilt the inverse square law enough that she didn't get overwhelmed). She also had the presence of mind to thwart the round one knockout by grabbing Mako and pulling him back up into the ring. If there's any real difference in their skill it's simply that by the end of the last series Aang had graduated from what a friend of mine calls the "Dear School of Combat" while Korra is just now attending it.

One final note. Tarrlok supporting shutting the finals down might be because he had an idea on how it'd go if Amon crashed them successfully... or it might've been so he could pull Korra back into his task force and continue trying to win her confidence (and, perhaps, pull her away from Tenzin?). Just as much, Lin's proposal changing his mind might have been another political calculation on the part of Tarrlok; if Lin succeeds, the bending tourney is over and he gets Korra back anyway and Amon is given a defeat, while if she fails... well, that's plenty of ammunition for him to make political moves, and I think we'll see something from him next week in that vein. I wonder if he'll even get Lin replaced as Chief of Police...

Anyway, all in all an awesome episode, marking the midpoint of Book 1 (IIRC they are 13 apiece) with next week's episode, which I'm greatly looking forward to.

[Charon]

I found the episode fascinating and with every episode I am turning to one conclusion more and more.

Amon is right.

Ok, don't get me wrong, he's going to extremes and the extermination of the Benders of the world is not the answer. But the Avatar World is clearly a world set up with Benders meant to be on the top of it (For admittedly reasonable reasons). But that does lead to terrible class disparity and a sense that benders can "get away" with a lot. Hell, I'm pretty certain that the City Council is made up completely by benders. The main arm of the police force is likewise made up of benders, and most of their strike forces are made up of benders (Though we do see a few non-benders, they seem to be beat cops).

Things need to change, and eventually, hopefully, the Avatar and her team will realize that. Beating Amon is not going to solve the problem, they need a grand societal shift.

[Batman]

I think a lot of the 'Korra is weaker than Aang' is tied to us seeing him going Avatar state, where he is pretty scary. Outside the Avatar state my bet would actually be on Korra for brute force. Aang could probably avoid her for a good length of time thanks to knowing airbending up the wazoo but overpower her? No way. Katara and Toph routinely handed him his ass during training and Zuko didn't only because he lost the focus for his firebending (and Aang wasn't all that hot on it initially either).
So ProBending is even more like Professional Wrestling than I initially thought as blatant rules violations get blithely overlooked (a pity-I thought I had finally figured out the rules, sort of).

Pabu is shaping up to be the Momo of Korra.

I'm not entirely sure the whole thing worked out so well as a publicity stunt for Amon. Sure, he showed that benders can be assholes that cheat, but people have known that for practically forever. Benders are, afterall, humans and guess what, we act like that. He at the same time showed that essentially, everybody not playing along with his plans would be dealt with in a similar matter.

Also, we so far don't know for sure he can actually take away bending permanently (as opposed to simply blocking it for a while, which incidentally would work splendidly as an alternative explanation for why he didn't do it to Korra).

[frigidmagi]

I'm gonna have to point out that politically, no power isn't always on the benders side. The Earth King? A non-bender. Most of the Earth Kingdom cities? Ruled by non-bending elders. Toph's super rich and political powerful family? Non-benders expect for Toph. The water tribes? Both chiefs we saw were non-benders. The only place where being a bender was required to rule that we saw was... The Fire Nation.

Additionally, the richest person we've seen Saito? Not a bender. Nor his daughter, while the brothers are living in an attic. In fact we see a higher number of poor benders then we do rich ones. Fuck most of the shop keepers and middle class people we've met are non-benders. So economically, we've seen the same thing, being a bender doesn't seem to give you much advantage.

Now military wise? Yes, being a bender does seem to ensure perks. Every general and special ops person we've seen in a military or police force was a bender. But if they answer to non-bender royalty and politicians is this really a bender power structure?


Also Korra hasn't done the impressive level shit that Aang has done... You know like go head to head with a volcano and win? She can, I mean she is the Avatar and frankly is a better bender, she learned 3 elements when she was a child for Christ sakes! But Aang has shown more raw power (to be fair, he had 3 seasons to strut and she's had 6 episodes. I am content to wait for at least season 2 or so before I really make my judgement).

[Charon]

I'm gonna have to point out that politically, no power isn't always on the benders side. The Earth King? A non-bender. Most of the Earth Kingdom cities? Ruled by non-bending elders. Toph's super rich and political powerful family? Non-benders expect for Toph. The water tribes? Both chiefs we saw were non-benders. The only place where being a bender was required to rule that we saw was... The Fire Nation.

You mean the utterly ineffective Earth King who didn't even know there was a war that had been going on for 100 years because his Vizier who was a bender had kept this information from him? Not the best example. The other ones though, there is a mixture of benders and non-benders, I will grant you that one. I'll deal with the Toph example in the next paragraph.

Additionally, the richest person we've seen Saito? Not a bender. Nor his daughter, while the brothers are living in an attic. In fact we see a higher number of poor benders then we do rich ones. Fuck most of the shop keepers and middle class people we've met are non-benders. So economically, we've seen the same thing, being a bender doesn't seem to give you much advantage.

Even in our own world, the best place for the non-royalty/non-powerful to gain some influence has been in economics. So I don't see economics as a sign that the world is not controlled by benders. I would say that, actually, the lack of benders in economics actually proves the class disparity as well. I don't think we've met a poor bender yet (save for those who chose an aesthetic lifestyle).

Now military wise? Yes, being a bender does seem to ensure perks. Every general and special ops person we've seen in a military or police force was a bender. But if they answer to non-bender royalty and politicians is this really a bender power structure?

That's the thing, we aren't certain they aren't answering to non-bender royalty/politicians, especially in Republic City. Admittedly, we've only seen two of the council throwing around bending powers, but I don't think we've seen anything to suggest they aren't benders either, and from Amon's speeches (admittedly, probably biased) it doesn't seem like there are any non-benders on the council.

Also Korra hasn't done the impressive level shit that Aang has done... You know like go head to head with a volcano and win? She can, I mean she is the Avatar and frankly is a better bender, she learned 3 elements when she was a child for Christ sakes! But Aang has shown more raw power (to be fair, he had 3 seasons to strut and she's had 6 episodes. I am content to wait for at least season 2 or so before I really make my judgement).

I generally concur. She's shown better small-scale control and power than Aang usually did, but she has yet to really cut loose and do large scale stuff (though, to be fair, she hasn't needed to stop a volcano). I think most importantly so far, we haven't seen her go into the Avatar state at all, which might show her lack of spiritual connection.

[frigidmagi]

You mean the utterly ineffective Earth King who didn't even know there was a war that had been going on for 100 years because his Vizier who was a bender had kept this information from him? Not the best example. The other ones though, there is a mixture of benders and non-benders, I will grant you that one. I'll deal with the Toph example in the next paragraph.

Yeah the one who was able to overthrow the Dai Li with a word. The one who had powerful Earth bending generals at his beck and call. The one who's puppeting wasn't based on non-bender verus bender but on the fact that his vizer controlled all the information. This suggest that former Earth Kings were very much in power and likely non-benders as well. Hell, the Earth King during Kyoshi's time was a non-bender and a absolute Monarch. It took the Avatar siding with a massive peasant revolt to curb his power. The warlord she confronted? No evidence of bending powers, rather the opposite as a competent bender would have been able to save himself. What we're shown in the series is that non-benders come into power in all walks of life fairly regularly and no one considers that odd.

I would say that, actually, the lack of benders in economics actually proves the class disparity as well. I don't think we've met a poor bender yet (save for those who chose an aesthetic lifestyle).

Mako and Bolin aren't poor? They don't start this as orphans who had to work the streets to survive? You think those lighting benders we saw shooting into batteries are among the rich and powerful or the working class? You know forced to sell their bending expertise to eat? Consider that the richest people we see tend to be non-benders in both series. The fact is that you'll find each economic and political class to be a mix of benders and non-benders. That doesn't suggest a world where benders have power.

Additionally, if being a bender is a ticket to wealth and power, why are there street level bending thugs? Street level thugs are in it for the money, if they can make more money by going legit, they tend to do so. If it was easier to be legit and wealthy, then most of them would do that and we wouldn't have bender crime problems. Rather, we would have non-bender crime problems because they're shut out of power... Which we have seen none of!

That's the thing, we aren't certain they aren't answering to non-bender royalty/politicians, especially in Republic City.

Here's the thing, Republic City's government is appointed by the outside powers. The Earth guy? Appointed by the Earth Kingdom, quite likely by a non-bending Earth King. That shifty water bending politico? Appointed by non-bending water tribe chiefs. Now we know Zuko's daughter rules the Fire Nation and she can bend, so the Fire person, appointed by a bender.

If I was in Republic City, my argument wouldn't be about benders, it would be that our city government is run by appointees of foreign powers and therefore not being run for the benefit of it's citizens. Indeed the guy who is most concerned with the average citizen is Tenzin, the only dude on the council who is actually from the city. Even then he's at best a remote benevolent presence not a strong advocate.

It is more likely that the council is neglectful of the average citizen of Republic City (this is held out by Mako and Bolin's experiences in their childhood) concentrating on gaining personal advantage and advantage for their home government. This has led to resentment and knowledge that things aren't right. Amon is scape goating the benders because they are visible, the average person thinks of them has having advantage and benders are one of the main pillars holding up the government anyways in the form of the metal benders.

Outside of the Fire Nation, we have seen no requirements to be a bender to wield economic or political power. In fact we have seen a large collection of non-benders doing so with no problems being accorded to them for it. There are no remarks or even a belief that powerful non-benders are raising above themselves. If there is such a thing then the Avatar series has failed to show it us. As such I must rule that Amon is not addressing a legit complaint but targeting a highly visible minority in order to grease his own power grab from a government that has failed to address it's citizens needs and wants due to foreign domination. Ironically, this makes the Hitler comparisons all the more apt.

[LadyTevar]

What scared me was the police vehicles and boats in the harbour all on fire. This means Amon had someone in or on the water to take them out.