It really has taken us a long time to get there! Too often I feel like my defense of Korra (the character and the season) are taken as a sign of blind acceptance of what we've been shown so far, when I'm more than willing to confess that I was deeply dissatisfied with the end of Season 1.

I argued some of this in the comments two weeks ago, though I took a little leave of absence from last week and the events of this week's episode really threw things into a starker perspective. I think that Unalaq is doing very bad things for very good reasons - more and more I'm convinced that the only way to truly…

1) The "we're only halfway done" excuse is going to be valid up until we're on episode 8 of this season. I never claimed that she was supposed to learn any of these lessons over the course of Season 1. I'm willing to believe this season could end up being terrible, at its finale, and I won't be shy about saying so if…

I think that your last comment, the PS, made a good point but sort of missed what I was trying to get at (partly my fault because I wasn't entirely clear). Korra was not eaten by an angry spirit as a direct result of her actions. It was an indirect result, of course, of her running away to solve all her problems on…

I get that last season caused a lot of people to think that this show was just going to let Korra get away with everything and anything at all times, but I really don't understand this sort of reaction from people right now.

I don't — what? Her boyfriend dumped her, she was completely stonewalled by the head of one of the world's five states, and the show's making it pretty clear that none of these things are good things through tone, lighting, framing, and musical cues. In her rush to flee Republic City and Mako to find help in the Fire…

This episode cleared up a few things for me. First, and most obviously, is that we have NO IDEA what's up with the spirits. I wouldn't be surprised if Unalaq was controlling them, but come on - all of the combined Avatar Spirits couldn't calm that spirit down. Including the spirit of the first Avatar! Something's up,…

@avclub-91546109eaf110327d50b0955865712a:disqus , I hope you see this! I think I understood, finally, the misunderstanding that led us to constantly "disagree" with each other. I'm gonna rephrase my original post using a little thought experiment; please bear with me, because I think it'll clear up any confusion:

I'm replying to this, again, and after a few day's time, because as I started thinking about the idea of relative "risk" in reproductive choices ("risk" here being understood as the likelihood of success or failure of producing an airbending child, if one assumes that producing airbending children is a goal that one…

Ugh, I absolutely loved this piece, you make some great points. A lot of those creator clarifications aren't necessary (people can assume them regardless), and after hearing it the way you put it, I absolutely agree that this is so much better. Avatar's always tried to show both sides of a conflict but nevertheless…

While I agree with you, on the other hand, I'd argue that we're already seeing how these issues have been addressed in the series! Bumi might have airbending kids, sure, but as it stands right now his relationship with the air acolytes has been influence in some part by the assumption that (as the child of an…

@avclub-91546109eaf110327d50b0955865712a:disqus , how is that talking in contradictions? As Murc said elsewhere, romance is always on some level transactional. There are a lot of different factors that go into making the choice of a romantic partner. I'm stating that none of those decisions superceded any of the…

And to be honest, that would make the most sense. I'm guessing that the idea of having two Water Tribe reps stemmed initially from the fact that, at the end of the 100 Year War, the two tribes were essentially "separate"; a lack of communication over the course of one hundred years would naturally lead to that. We get…

I have to say, I'm glad that I finally got off my butt and started posting in these comments, because these conversations have been really great at challenging the notions I had that I was pretty confident were right, and helping me refine those assumptions and interpretations.

@avclub-91546109eaf110327d50b0955865712a:disqus - Actually, what I said was that it made sense that Tenzin might marry a nonbender because of these considerations, while simultaneously noting that I didn't want to cast his relationship wtih Pema in any sort of mercenary light because I did believe that his…

I've been giving it some thought (SUPRISE), and I feel the need to change my position on something I've said elsewhere in these comments. I no longer think that Unalaq will be replaced as the Big Bad halfway through this season; I am now confident that, Spirit World shenanigans aside, the Civil War wrap-up will…

Sorry! :P I sort of knew that was a joke (especially given the way that you said "…Hasook?", but one exclamation point wasn't enough to sort of let the world know that I was just using that paragraph as a starting off point. I gotta be less ambiguous.

You're right on this point. I've been arguing elsewhere almost nonstop about coming down one on one side or another about where this "episode's" left us in terms of "Korra's Spiritual Development, Re: The Point of this Series as a Whole", so it's kind of ridiculous that I didn't notice that here. I'll need to be a lot…

Ehh, I'm not sure that I'd be willing to call the gripes "horseshit". The fact of the matter is that the majority of this city was descended from Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens, two populations that have relatively low percentages of benders (at least, very much so with the Earth Kingdom). The government was…

You're right in calling me out on this; materialist wasn't the right word. I suppose what I meant more was that both characters are much less considered with metaphysical issues. Zuko cared about HONOR!!!, family, duty, yes, but that could also be read as status, a yearning for kinship, an inability to see the broader…