But Barbara Streisand's feelings!

You do it, and I'll make a documentary of you doing it.

But Cruella never got a coat made of Dalmatians! Continuity error!

I just realized that was a joke about the various exterminators that always come in during the opening credits.

Well that's why it's good- we know where it's going, but the show still manages to put orient us to the perspective of someone who doesn't- we understand why Bolin doesn't just say "fuck this shit" the minute he hears about the camps, because just hearing about them from a third party is always going be more ambiguous…

I liked how they did the parallel stories about parents disappointing their children (or surrogate children). Credit to Oliver for pointing out that parallel, which I didn't think of until he mentioned it.

Boo to Zhuvira! Zhuvarrick 4eva!

I dunno, even with the presence of reeducation camps, Bolin makes some good points. It's also difficult to fully condemn Kuvira's actions, as she's obviously making the modern-day China, which, whatever its flaws, has increased the standard of living for its average citizen faster than pretty much any other country in…

I think it was a good idea, for reasons I outlined below. Short version: by having Opal tell us about them as she's telling Bolin, we're not thinking "aaah, quit being so thick, Bolin!" Instead, we're identifying with Bolin's predicament. Imagine if, in Book 2, we didn't get all the cutaways to Unalak doing evil…

Hey, for all we know, the reeducation camps could brainwash people AND teach the brainwashed people new trade skills to survive in the Earth Kingdom's newly-industrialized society. Shades of grey, you know.

Buy my Fallout character's get-rich-quick book, Bullets Weigh Nothing, As Do Hundreds of Thousands of Bottlecaps.

I think the show did a good job couching Varrick's conscience in self-interest. He's not just worried about people- he's worried what will happen if someone else gets the tech, and knows that if he pursues his research, he'll increase the odds of that happening.

So my stupid election job has me coming to these reviews late, so I'll just put up the smaller moments in this episode that really showed an extra layer of thought, even beyond what I'd expect from the Avatar crew at this point:

Civ 4 Complete Edition or GTFO.

One was famous for being the easiest way to get 1000 Achievement Points on the Xbox; it took all of 10 seconds to earn all the Achievements.

"Did that rapper just tell someone to run naked through a field of dicks?" - me, listening to this album.

For a second I thought that was an actual anagram, and was sad when it was not. Here are some real anagrams of "Reince Priebus:"

I dunno, I think if she was lip-syncing, they'd have made it so her flow doesn't become noticeably quieter near the end of her verses as she runs out of breath.

Haha! Cherry.

I remember all of those songs, though being in high school helped.