Just to chip in, some of our own ships are comparable to, say, the Trek vessels. The Hindenburg was 239 meters long, meaning it was longer than the TOS Enterprise. The USS Nimitz boasts 333 meters, around the neighborhood of Voyager, and the Mont supercarrier is a whopping 458 meters long, and probably not that much…

I know. That's really the point I want to make though; the sun, which incomprehensibly big to our little minds, is tiny compared to a modest giant like Antares.

I know, right?

I've never run into the earring thing there, but what you're describing is also pretty common in Latin America. My last name in "Chang," and I can't tell you how many times people would quip, "oh, so Jackie Chan is your uncle, right?" or say "Korean, Chinese, Japanese, it's all the same. They're all chino." when I'd…

You beat me too it.

Well. . . and they at least need to lampshade the fact that half of what the "good guys" are doing is, in reality, really awful. Threatening to kill a judge on a hunch until he confesses, among everything else V mentioned.

Except they clearly have money now. They live in an apartment and (evidently) make enough to travel for vacations. Bolin doesn't have to pro-bend, but he loves the attention, while Mako was never in it for the fame.

I wrote a blog post about some of my frustrations about this book, and I'll sum up my main points here:

Amen on Iroh. His character's description begins and ends with "plot service."

This.

Will you stand above me? Look my way, never love me . . .

So long as it doesn't involve birds eating his liver, he's done better than his namesake :p

In other words, "at least the trains run on time"?

Those are good points . . . and clearly Amon was NOT about equality, just about making himself the only bender.

I think you could still explore the popularity of Amon's message after he is defeated. The equalist movement wouldn't just die because he left—though it would lose supporters. You could have the political…

The irony is that today the motive is money rather than a rejection of the Chinese legacy :(

I'd actually leave defeated Amon as is—I loved the ending with him and his brother—but have Korra in Book 2 still without being able to bend anything but Air. She's traumatized by the experience with Amon, perhaps leaving Republic City, while the ex-benders have to deal with the loss of their powers. Korra spends the…

I'm sorry, but the examples of aliens in power sounds a lot like "I'm not racist, I have black friends, but ___"

Again, slavery and genocide seem to trump any good the Empire might have done. Also, there seemed to be a tradition moving up in the ranks because your superior was killed for failure . . .

I'm not sure. The guy's name was Liang Sicheng, but I have no idea what happened to him.

Oh but the communists were worse, at least in SE Asia. The revolutions there were truly horrific.

Indeed. I was a little disappointed that the element was missing with Enemy Unknown, as were the base defenses. Honestly, I enjoyed the base defense more than any other mission type.