This is the post wherein I mount a sort of kind of defense of Mako and what the writers are doing with him in this episode.

What was Episode 5 of TLA? Imprisoned? 

Cool bit of trivia: every element has a corresponding season, and in A:TLA, Aang learned each episode during its respective season. Water=Winter, Earth=Spring, Fire=Summer, Air=Fall. The first four episodes of LoK were clearly taking place in mid-late Fall, judging by the color of the leaves.

Agreed. The writers have to let her lose or be vulnerable occasionally or there's no sense of stakes, because the hero can just whomp everything in her path. Even Aang lost a lot of fights, particularly in Book One. (Aang being neutralized by Jet while Katara finishes the fight strikes me as one important example.)…

That's a good point. I think someone made a point a few weeks ago about female action heroes being able to transcend certain tropes more successfully than male heroes, and I see a lot of that going on in Korra. She's allowed to have a whole range of emotions that could be read as out of character or even emasculating…

Agreed. Even though they are based in the same universe, it's probably wrong-headed to try to compare the two shows too much, given that they're attempting to do such different things, but there is no denying that LoK has been revisiting some of the ideas and tropes of the previous series and trying to do something…

Jinora is Kiernan Shipka, better known as Sally Draper from Mad Men. Not sure about Ikki.

Given that these are both fantasy shows, it's probably inevitable that the fandoms would intersect, but it's still amusing when you consider how cynical, gory and boobtastic GoT is versus the earnest kid-friendliness of this show.

I'm just going to remain agnostic on the possible ships for now. I was digging Mako/Korra based on chemistry, but I started to de-cathect last week.

NFET is very secure.

That's interesting, MyParents, because I thought those were PRECISELY the messages the episode was sending.

I took that to mean that his relationship with Asami is just simpler. Mako's defining character traits seem to be pragmatism and a need for control over his life, while Korra kind of drags chaos in her wake, and the two tend to butt heads more often than not. I also completely bought (and sympathized with) his…

YES. I heard it, but I can't remember where it's from either.

Her technique also reminded me a lot of Azula, who used a lot of aerial leaps and spin moves to charge up her attacks.

One of my best male friends growing up did this too. He's straight and married (though, as it turns out, his father is gay). He had a brother, and we would have played the shit out of Korra (like we did with TMNT, etc.) if this had been around when I was a kid. I only suspect that we would have fought over who got to…

I started dipping into the tumblr tags last week just in time to be horrified by all the Asami hate. Then because this week was ridiculously tedious (grade all the things!), I started looking at it again. God help me, it's like a fucking train wreck. I can't look away. So many hilarious gifs. So many unbalanced people.

Too easy. I am ridiculously excited that Korra's a healer, though I don't know why I'm surprised. Of COURSE she is if she grew up with Katara as a mentor.

It was so incredibly satisfying to get a Korra Beatdown moment, the first real one I think we've seen since the premiere (with the possible exception of Wrench Guy at the rally). I loved how the camera followed Mako and Bolin's perspective as that elevator took them up to the arena level to show Korra all, "Bitches, I…

As nervous as I was about it, I was ready for an episode like this. If anything, it really did help clarify how all of these characters relate to each other and bringing the thus-far subtextual shipping drama to the surface. As on-the-nose as it was, I appreciated that moment of clarity about where Mako's head is…

Maybe it's just that I play my cards kind of close to my chest myself and I was raised in a hyper-traditional environment where GIRLS DON'T CALL BOYS EVER, YOU WHORE, but I'm both surprised and relieved by how out in the open all of these characters were with their feelings and how no one was really punished in any…