The Legend of Korra: Season 1

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Republic City stands at a crossroads. Seventy years after Avatar Aang ended the Hundred Year War, his successor Korra finds herself facing a threat unlike anything the world has seen before – a charismatic revolutionary who can permanently strip people of their bending abilities.

This debut season of Legend of Korra brilliantly expands the Avatar universe through stunning animation, complex characters, and surprisingly mature themes. While many fans approach Korra with comparisons to The Last Airbender, we explore why this series deserves appreciation on its own merits. The show's gorgeous art-deco inspired visuals and fluid bending choreography represent a significant evolution in animation quality, creating fight scenes that remain breathtaking more than a decade after they first aired.

What sets Legend of Korra apart is its willingness to let its protagonist fail repeatedly. Unlike Aang, who gradually mastered elements throughout his journey, Korra begins proficient in three elements but struggles with the spiritual side of being the Avatar. Her journey isn't about gaining power but understanding its purpose. When Amon successfully strips Korra of her bending abilities, the show makes a bold statement about vulnerability and resilience that resonates far beyond its target audience.

The Equalist movement raises uncomfortable questions about privilege in the Avatar world. Are non-benders truly equal in a society where bending brings immense advantages? Amon's methods are extreme, but his movement's grievances aren't entirely unfounded. This moral complexity elevates the storytelling beyond simple hero-villain dynamics into something more thought-provoking.

Whether you're revisiting Republic City or considering your first journey into Korra's world, this season offers a compelling, self-contained story while setting up threads that will evolve throughout the series. Listen as we break down why Legend of Korra deserves recognition as one of animation's most ambitious achievements – a show that respected its audience enough to tackle complex themes while delivering spectacular entertainment.

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https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is a glorious day, my equalist brothers and
sisters.
Amon has torn down thetyrannical podcasting government
, he has declared podcastingillegal and he has Project
Geekology on the run.
Our great leader has a visionfor the future.
One day soon, podcasting willno longer exist and we will live
in a world where everyone isfinally equal.

(00:22):
The Project Geekology forcesare on their way right now to
try and stop that dream, but wewill prevail.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
My throat hurts now.
I really went all out on thatone.
But, guys, my name is Dakota,I'm one, I'm one third of your
hosts on Project Geekology.
We will not let the equalistprevail this time around.
We we're gonna stop whatevernonsense they got going there.
The podcasting government isnot being overthrown.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
We will take it back um, I'm joined, as always, with
anthony, and this week isepisode 114 and I don't know if
you you got that, but we aregoing to be covering the first
season of Avatar, the Legend ofKorra, and joining us now, as
always, is Rich and I'm veryexcited to be here.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I'm really here to represent a man.
The guy gets screwed over Imean Mako.
I don't understand why he's gotto be so terrible to his
fun-loving brother.
I associate with him so muchand I'm here to defend him on
today's episode.
I am against love triangles andI'm very scared because there

(01:34):
are three of us on this show.
So hopefully, unlike everybodyin the Legend of Korra, we can
stay out of a love triangle.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think we can manage that.
Yeah, actually it's of a lovetrain.
I think we can manage that.
Uh, yeah, actually it's like aa love square for them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it only keeps going as theshow goes on, like.
I don't want to, like you know,start talking spoilers if you
guys haven't seen the furtherseasons.
But, um, yeah, the, the, thelove does not stop there.

(02:05):
But, yeah, we're gonna becovering the first season of
legend of korra, which I'm superexcited about, because, as we
were deciding what we were goingto be covering this this week,
I was already, you know, likeprobably halfway through the
first season of legend of korrabecause I've been doing my
timeline notes on it.

(02:25):
So this gave me the extra pushto just like, uh, do that, um,
and yeah, so now I have, uh, mytimeline notes finished for the
first season of Legend of Korra,so I'm really excited to.
I'm excited for that, yeah, andI'm excited to talk about it
because this is such anincredible first season.
I know a lot of people dislikethis show for random reasons,

(02:46):
but honestly, this first seasonto me is nearly perfect in terms
of the tone and everything, soI'm really excited to talk about
it.
But before we get into any ofthat, let's jump over to Anthony
.
Ask Anthony what he's been upto this past week.
He says he's fallen down thedeep end on something I don't

(03:09):
know what he has not told me yet.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Oh yeah.
So, Dakota, you had talked tous about like you had started
watching, or no, you hadn'tstarted watching Like you've
been watching the White Lotus,so like I finally started to hop
into that, to that rabbit hole.
Okay, yeah, it's a crazy show,yeah it's just, it's interesting

(03:32):
, but but like I mean I'm on thefirst season and I I can I mean
like there's like severalcharacters that are kind of like
ridiculous, uh, but like I canalready tell that like jennifer
coolidge is gonna be like likeshe's kind of crazy a little bit
like from what I've seen so far, but what I what I like about
white lotus is that, um, thereare very few people in any of

(03:57):
the seasons that are genuinelygood people or like people that
you're actually rooting for, andit really like digs into the
hypocrisy that everybody has.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
You know, like, everyone has some sort of
hypocrisy that they add to thethat they bring to the table,
and sometimes that getsexacerbated when, on vacations,
you know that those insecuritiesor those issues that you have,
you bring them with you, orthose issues that you have, you
bring them with you.
And when you have, you know, abunch of those crazy people, it

(04:32):
leads to, you know, some reallytense times and potentially
dangerous times.
So, yeah, that's what I likeabout White Lotus is it's the
most stressful hour oftelevision every week, but it's
so good, it's so fun, uh, andand you, you, anyway, I know,
but what's what's also greatabout is that it's that if you,

(04:53):
you know, jump into the secondseason, it's a completely
different cast.
Um, there are some throughlines, but yeah, it's a yeah
yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
So I, I was like, you know, I had to share this with
you.
You and like a few other peopleI've been like telling me, like
yeah, you need to get in on theshow.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
So it's the HBO show right now yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
So and then also something pretty big as of
recording.
It is Wednesday, march 26th.
Today was my last day at mycurrent job that's what I'm
talking about, bro yeah, I have,um, I have a couple of pto days
, like thankfully, like I stillwork for the same company, so

(05:39):
like that pto all, like you knowit's the same it maintains.
So like technically I'm stilllike you know, with my job, but
not like really with them, likeI did all of my like final life.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
You know fine, I gave them my keys, I gave them you
might as well, you might as wellbe like going to a different
job because even though it'sunder the same company.
You know you're working withentirely different people doing
entirely different thingsexactly.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yeah, I'm going to be working from home, I'm going to
be doing IT instead of, likeyou know, kind of a customer
facing job.
So you know I'm pretty stokedabout that.
But, yeah, no, no, I'm going to, you know, take a few days off
and kind of enjoy this liketransition period.
Happy for you, dude, that'sawesome.

(06:23):
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
Yeah, this like transitionperiod, happy for you, dude,
that's awesome.
Thank you, man.
Thank you, yeah, I'm, I'mpretty, pretty stoked about it,
man, um, oh, I also, I, I Ihaven't bought any of the you
know from the series.
I haven't bought day one fromthem for a long, long time.
But I ended up gettingassassin's creed shadows and I

(06:45):
kind of, you know, I kind ofwanted to get it.
Like you know, it's got thatyou know, the whole japanese and
and like ninja thing going onand I really liked, uh, ghost of
tsushima, although, like I knowthat that one's like more
samurai.
But you get a bit of both.
Like you get uh, samurai andyasuke and then um, and then you
get a ninja and naoe, which islike the female character.

(07:07):
I mean it's pretty cool.
I mean, like it does, there'ssome stuff that that they added.
That's like they have this likebase building mechanic, which
isn't the first in the game, butlike it's really like you can
really like customize it andlike kind of move the buildings
around and change the looks ofthem and stuff.
I've been enjoying it so far.

(07:29):
It's really cool.
The one thing that I'll saythat I don't like about this
game, that these last handful ofAssassin's Creed games have
been doing, is they have thiswhole like rpg element to it.
Like you know, the the enemieshave levels to them and then you

(07:49):
have to have like a strongersword and I just feel like for
this type of game, it justdoesn't really work well for me.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah oh, that's interesting.
So yeah, because the first, thefirst couple I haven't played
in a while uh, assassin's creedgames, but like at least the
first five or six, everyone waskind of like the same level and
it was all about your growingskill that you know.
Right, I affected the game.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think it was around assassin's creed odyssey that
they started to like kind of dothat.
I don't remember if there wasany games before then there
might have been, but like Iremember that one actually
having it in it and it it's likeit almost like kind of takes
away the.
It kind of takes away the whole, like you know, stealth aspect

(08:36):
of it.
Because, like you know, there'senemies that like if they're
like a higher level enemy andlike I have to like get in a few
more hits to like kill them andstuff, but it's like not
because they're like heavilyarmored, like some of them are,
but like some of them are justlike higher level, you know, and
it's just I don't know, it'sweird, but I mean, aside from
that, like I've I've beenenjoying it.

(08:56):
I, I think it's, I think it's apretty fun game.
Um, I'm not super, so I'm notsuper super far into it, I think
.
Think I'm about 10 to 15 hoursinto it.
So it's.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
I want to get it.
Yeah, no, I actually reallywant to get it, especially after
today, because, like or it wasyesterday actually the
Assassin's Creed Twitter accountratioed the heck out of Elon
Musk.
It was brutal.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
I didn't read it, but I heard that they did something
.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Eviscerated.
They eviscerated Musk, anyway.
Yeah, so someone was sayingsomething about a Twitch
streamer named Hasan playingAssassin's Creed the new one and
Elon Musk goes he's a selloutObjectively, he is promoting a
terrible game just for the money, and that tweet got 33,000

(09:54):
likes, but then the Assassin'sCreed account posted is that
what the guy playing your Pathof Exile 2 account told you?
Because I don't know if you hadheard, but he pays people to
play games for him so that heshows up on like the top leaders
leaderboards, like he's.
He's done that for a couplegames, like diablo and all that
that's crazy and that wasrecently found out.
So assassin's creed said is thatwhat the guy playing your path

(10:17):
of exile 2 account told you andlike that that tweet.
So his elon's tweet got 33 000.
Uh, likes the assassin's creedone got 660 000.
So it's, it's by far thebiggest ratio that elon musk has
ever gotten that's crazy yeah,so I'm actually like just like I

(10:38):
like.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Why like I don't like I mean grinding up to
leaderboards.
I mean it's a fun thing, butlike it's no fun in it, like
you're not enjoying the game.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
No, I 100% agree, and basically I think that Elon
Musk just wants to be liked, andI think that's his ultimate
goal in life is to be liked.
But a lot of people dislike himbecause of, you know, he's kind
of weird anyway.
So, yeah, I, I do want to playuh, shadows.
I think that that um actuallydoes look fun.

(11:13):
So, yeah, I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, definitely I would.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I would get into it, you should I don't have a whole
lot that I've been doing thisweek.
Uh, or did you, sorry, did youhave.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Wow.
Thank you, just so you know,for just completely taking over
the second no no I I didn't haveuh, I didn't have anything else
that I wanted to cover anything, so okay, so I'm gonna abscond
with your the rest of your timeum, yeah no, I don't have.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
I don't have much going on this week either.
I feel kind of lame actually.
I'm thinking about, like, whatdid I do?
And the answer is not much.
Yeah, not much, but um, I didgrab, uh, the.
There's a new avatar, the lastairbender comic, which is, you
know, very timely because we'recovering an avatar tv show.
Um, this is not a legend ofkorra comic, though it's.

(12:05):
It's like a continuation of theavatar, the last airbender
storyline called ashes of theacademy, and it's basically um,
in pre in previous avatar comics.
Zuko has found his mother.
After the show has concluded,he finds his mother.
And he show has concluded, hefinds his mother and he also

(12:27):
finds that she's had anotherdaughter with someone else that
she fell in love with.
This daughter is now invitedover to the Fire Nation, now
that she's no longer on the run,zuko's mother, and she joins
the Academy when she turns ofage, like the fire academy.

(12:48):
So it's it kind of goes likeinto like all the like
corruption that was like stillin the fire academy and I
haven't read it yet, but I'mexcited to and it basically
follows zuko and may, as theykind of like, sort of kind of
like rekindle their their lovethere.
Um, and and shows more aboutyou know, like zuko's younger

(13:09):
sister, which is kind of cool,so I'm excited to read that.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Um, it's called ashes of the academy and, yeah, it
just came out this past weekyeah, we definitely need to get
a little bit more of thatinformation because, like,
there's a character that showsup in this season from Zuko's
lineage and it's like, how didhe get to that point?
I mean, we can kind of assumethings, but there's not a

(13:39):
definitive answer yet, correct?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, even I think, after.
Yeah, we still don't know, evengoing past into.
Uh, you know, like the korracomics that come out after the
series takes place, we don'tknow who zuko marries and you
know how that lineage continues.
But um, we can speculate, wecertainly can.

(14:03):
I am going to hand over therest of my time to Rich.
I don't have a lot going onthis week, but maybe Rich did at

(14:26):
the same time.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
So this week was a little heavy with a lot of, I
guess, also self-imposed content.
I so I'm not sure if you twoare familiar with the star trek,
the next generation episodedarmak uh, I have watched it.
I don't remember off the top ofmy head which episode that is so
essentially what happens is thefederation comes into contact
with a race of aliens that havenever been able to communicate

(14:48):
with the Federation before, andthat's because they speak in
meme or, essentially, metaphor,and the problem is is that the
source material that they'rereferencing is unknown to Picard
.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
I forgot about that All right, so OK.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
I know, as an english teacher I love this.
You know, one of my favoritecomics to teach is actually
rocket raccoon, number five, andit's because I think it's
scotty young.
The story is told from thepoint.
So basically there's a campfireand there's these scouts that
are with rocket and and groot,and it's now it's groot's turn

(15:26):
to tell the story and once hestarts telling the story, there
is no dialogue other than I am.
All the city buildings say I amgroot, the, the billboards in
the back I am.
Everything says I am groot, butyou still know what happens by
the end and I just I love thatso, oh, that's really brilliant,
you know I love that.
Eventually, you know, in theepisode the communication does.

(15:48):
Eventually, obviously you know,come you know it's.
It's a start, it's a star treknext generation episode.
You know, the 45 minute runthing where generally you have a
problem and it gets solvedevery week.
So it gets solved.
So I thought that, uh, it'skind of interesting how we we've
kind of especially my- studentsare speaking in memes, you know
, like you just respond with thedog sitting in the little room.

(16:09):
You know this is fine.
Everything's burning you know,okay, yeah they.
They're just constantly usingmemes to respond, so I actually
decided to start using.
I re-watched the episode and Istart using chat gpt to help me
start developing some sort oflesson, uh, that I can actually
try in class.
So since, uh, we have some testprep going on now, but uh my

(16:31):
plan is that when the testing isover, I'm gonna pilot this
crazy episode, this crazy lessonplan of star trek the next
generation and see if I can pulloff a coup next year and get to
teach revenge of the sith andstar trek the next generation in
one calendar year.
Uh, specifically that oneepisode of listen, star trek

(16:51):
listen, or listen, sir, if, if Ihad my druthers, all right, I
wouldn't teach anything else butthese two franchises okay, sure
I think that I can frame thisin the, the, the analysis of
language and how we communicatewith others, and kind of make it
a commentary on the way we'rekind of devolved.

(17:12):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
No, actually, I think that that's a really cool way
to introduce that, because it isthat that episode, thinking
back on it, is ahead of its time.
Ahead of its time, you know,and it's one of those classic
sci-fi stories that, like, it'sjust based on the idea of like
what if we just, you know, onlycommunicate through like memes,
you know, like they didn't havea word for it back then, but

(17:34):
that's exactly what they weretalking about.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, yeah, it's, that's cool and that just makes
my week sound better than itreally is when most of it was
dedicated to playing, uh, majorMLB, mlb, the show and just
opining for by the time.
By the time everyone listens tothis, I will have been happily
watching the Mets start theirseason, hopefully, on a positive

(17:57):
note, and dedicating the restof my life, and really my
happiness, to a roller coasterof inconsequential things that
happen on a baseball field, youknow, perpetrated by people who
don't actually care about me andhave no idea that I exist.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I'm sure someday they'll know.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Go sports.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
I will look.
I will say that like I dounderstand like what it is to
like to experience like a rollercoaster of a team like the.
The Miami heat has been playinglike pretty, like terribly
lately.
But the fact that like they'vekind of seemed to like hit their
stride a little bit and the thefact that they like destroyed
um the warriors, with JimmyButler on it I know I know it's

(18:40):
like really petty to say, butlike you know, with the way in
the fashion that he left, whichpartially I understand, but
partially I'm like bro, like youkind of you know I understand
your beef with that dude.
But what about the rest of theus?
We didn't do that to you, youknow.
Um, so you know the fact thatlike we held him at 11 points
and blew his team out, that wasnice, excellent I'm not even a

(19:02):
basketball fan and I knew thatwas happening, so I'm not a
basketball fan either, and I hadno.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
I still have no idea what's going on dakota's like I
just know it's orange the bet?
Yeah, yeah, I was.
It took me a while to figureout what you what was.
What exactly was orange?
And I'm thinking about themiami heats color?
I mean, there is orange.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
There is.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah, no, I do know the logo, that's definitely.
No.
I'm kidding.
I do love a good basketballgame.
I just don't follow it in theslightest.
I actually do follow baseball.
That's pretty much it, but onlyNew.
York teams, basically that'sthe subconscious move of, you

(19:49):
know, get the cover.
Yeah, you know.
Yankees, dodgers and Mets theclassic trio of New York teams.

Speaker 4 (19:56):
Everyone's a big fan, but yeah, I think I steer us
off the ship every week with thebaseball talk Once the season
starts.
Guys, listen, all right, I willtell you Next week's episode.
You'll hear me talk about myexcitement of going to the first
game at home and then afterthat it'll be old hat.
All right, it'll be everyweekend.

(20:17):
I won't even.
It won't even be a new thing, Iwon't even mention it.
But right now it's just just,it's the excitement that's
building.
Oh, I'm sorry once they startlosing again and I realize that
they're actually the Mets and Ideluded myself I'll fall back.
But this is what it is to be aMets fan your excitement is the

(20:38):
highest before the season starts.
And if you've watched FamilyGuy because damn that show
there's a clip that I hate andfor no reason they had to come
at the mets and it's like allright, it's the first game this
season open a day for the metseason and oh run, and there
goes the season.
And I was sitting there likewhy you gotta do that man, why

(21:00):
do you have to come at?

Speaker 1 (21:01):
us for, like I'm just sitting here watching your show
, but that's yeah that's what itis to be a met fan.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
So yeah, wow, it's like you, you and baseball's
like me and persona man this guywith persona.
Look man and and then like, butlike, I kind of feel your pain
with the whole like mets thing.
You know you're trying to wholeMets thing.
You're trying to get Dakotainto Mets.
I'm trying to get Dakota intoPersona.

(21:27):
He's just very resistant.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
We'll wear him down, guy.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
One of these days.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
I actually do attend more Mets games than Yankee
games, just because one of mybrother-in-law's friends has
season tickets and just he'srich, so he always not his name
is not rich, he has wealth, sohe's always buying us tickets.
But yeah, so I do have a goodtime with that.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
I mean, if you're going to really be a baseball
fan, you can't have such anarrow-minded view, you know
sure baseball you have to kindof accept all sides and that's
exactly what I do.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Um, so even if I'm going to a yankees game and I'm
a yankees fan, if the other teamperforms a play that is
incredible, I'm 100 on board forthat game gotcha yeah, I'm 100
if.
If the other team is playingbetter, good on them.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
They deserve to win you are, that is I.
I would say that's commendable,sir.
I, uh, I would say that I Idevolved slurs uh and uh.
Epithets uh.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
No, not really, but I know, but like I I actually do,
I I actually like get, actuallyget excited when I see a really
good play.
It's great when it's my team,but if it's not my team, I'm
just like I like that guy.
That was pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
You'll see that more often at Citi Field this year, I
think, than you will at yourstadium Reeling him in Dang.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
All right, let's jump into our topic of discussion
for this evening.
Richard is just cracking upover there.
Uh, he's so excited to like.
Uh, make me a mess fan anyway.
Legend of korra guys.
Uh, have you guys seen the showpreviously?

Speaker 3 (23:20):
dakota, dakota, you're asking me the person who
was.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
I was the person I was asking the the room I was
asking the room dude.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
You know how long I was trying to get Dakota to
watch the avatar.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I was like actually, yeah, no, you're right, I I did
slack on the avatar, just likeI'm slacking on persona and the
mats, whatever you know one ofwhat one of these days, um, no,
no, but, um, but yeah, yeah, no,I I watched Korra only so I had
seen the other seasons, likeeventually.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
But I I watched the whole first season, like in its
original run.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay all right, so you, you had seen it before me
then, because at that, at thatpoint I point I wasn't an Avatar
fan until around 2014.
And this came out the yearbefore that.
What were your thoughtsinitially like when you were
seeing it on syndication?

Speaker 3 (24:18):
So I was just happy to see more Avatar stuff.
Happy to see like more avatarstuff.
You know, just being like areally.
You know just being a like amade like a big fan of of the
series.
It didn't really give me thesame vibes and feelings of the
original series, but there's alot that is brought on that I

(24:41):
really like about this, likeabout legend of korra, the
animation is a lot more crisp.
It looks a lot better.
Uh, the movements are reallyfluid, especially with the the
bending.
Not that the original wasn't,but it looks a lot better.
And I like some of theirartistic choices, like the way

(25:02):
that they they like lay out thelandscaping or the like the
landscape.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
It it's almost like a painting.
Right, it's like a painting, itkind of like makes me think of
like.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Oh, they have a bob ross backdrop right there yeah,
I was enjoying that yeah, yeah.
So I I like that, that decision.
But you know I've seen it.
I've seen this first seasonmore than I've seen the other
two seasons.
Like I've seen this firstseason like maybe three, four

(25:31):
times, and then the otherseasons I've seen maybe like
twice, you know.
But you know like, the morethat I've seen it like, the more
I've come to like appreciate ita bit more and to like like
appreciate it, like what it'strying to do and like you know,
even though it's different fromAvatar, the last airbender, I

(25:54):
appreciate like what it'spresenting and what it's trying
to do.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, what I would.
What I would say for me is thatwhile I think Avatar the last
airbender has the overall betterstory in terms of like this is
the beginning of the arc.
He's in an iceberg.
This is the end of the arc.
The 100 year war ends.
That's the story of Avatar theLast Airbender in like 15 words.

(26:19):
With Legend of Korra.
It's seasonal arcs, so thereisn't a real through line from
beginning to end with the fourseasons.
But really I think theindividual seasons are better
than the individual seasons ofavatar the last airbender better

(26:39):
, but the individual season byseason comparisons I think korra
comes out stronger most times.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
Um, I don't know man, book two was good and I'm not
saying it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
I'm not saying it wasn't I, obviously I, I, I love
avatar, but I just, I think thethe concepts that they were
going for are unique enough witheach season.
You know, like having a uniquevillain and, honestly, like
Korra throughout the show hasway more difficulty than Aang

(27:21):
did you know, in terms of, like,the people that she had to
combat than Aang did you know interms of, like, the people that
she had to combat?
So I think that they weren'tdoing anything, they weren't
going easy, like they didn'tchoose the easy path, like it
wasn't a clear successor toAvatar.
They wanted to shake things upand they did it every single
season.
And this this season's like acrazy one, because we have a guy

(27:43):
who's, uh, you know, aman, whois the, the leader of this
equalist movement, who has theability somehow to take people's
bending away permanently.
You know this been able tomanage, and this is terrifying.

(28:07):
And like he can take on groupsof benders at the same time.
You know, like we've neverreally seen that, maybe outside
of Azula, but, yeah, aman was aterrifying foe for, like you
know, korra, who's 16, 17 yearsold.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Right for, like a you know, cora, who's 16, 17 years
old.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
right, there's definitely some like world war
ii, world war ii parallels goingon, which is crazy, because
there's also that during like,uh, you know, the the first, the
first series as well, but likego, go ahead and like where are
you.
What do you mean by like what?
What exactly is a world war WarII parallel?

Speaker 3 (28:42):
So there's a lot of With the whole equalist movement
.
It kind of goes from beingequalist to like complete
eradication, you know in a, in away that is similar to what
like Hitler kind of wanted, youknow, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah

(29:04):
.
And also and also like a lot oflike the, some of like the
grander battles like the, the,the whole fight between the
ships and the airplanes kind ofremind me of pearl harbor okay,
yeah, actually I, I like that.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, you're, you're, you're onto something and like
especially, especially theequalist.
Uh, you know, like usingfear-mongering against benders
to start this panic whichculminates in, you know, not
necessarily genocide, but likebending genocide.
You know like they, they wantto end bending right, right,
it's almost.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, it's like, uh, you know, since, like you know,
bending is it's, it's like youknow, it's a connection between
like the physical plane and likethe spiritual plane within that
universe.
It's like kind of like a like agenocide of like the spirit in
a way, and it's, yeah, it's.

(30:02):
It's definitely interesting and, and I'm on, you know, I
remember like when I first hadseen it, I was like man, like
how is this guy, like you know,how is this guy, using an
ability that only ang can do,you know, and and and, goes to
find out that like this man was,was an imposter the whole time,

(30:24):
I mean he was and and, but healso was just like an incredibly
powerful bender, you know, yeahwell, well imposter, in a sense
that like he was trying to playoff not being a bender and like
right right, he was a bender,the
whole time.
And you know, yeah, also animposter in a sense, that it

(30:45):
made it seem like he had thisability that only the avatar had
, I mean.
But he, which is, I mean, hedoes, like he uses this
incredibly rare way ofbloodbending to sever the
connection between, like theperson, like he kind of like
blocks off, like the chi paths,and so like that's what kind of

(31:08):
makes it hard, or like that'swhat makes it like him able to
actually like stop them frombending, that's what makes it
like him able to actually likestop them from bending, and the
fact that, like he can do it atany time and not in a full moon.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yes, yeah, all right.
So we're talking a lot.
We're going deep into, like,the lore and plot of the show.
We have someone here who hasnot seen the Legend of Korra
prior to this.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yes, rich, jumping over to you yeah, so I entered,
unlike last week when we enteredinto uh, dungeons, dragons I
had no idea what was in for I Iknew more of what I was in for.
Uh, I'd never seen korra, butI've seen enough avatar.
Like it was difficult because Ithink every time that it's been

(31:56):
happening, it's like my familystarts like marathon binge
watching so it's like if Ididn't want to sit and watch
five or four episodes in a row,then I kind of got left behind.
So I know all the characters,uh, I know the broad story beats
.
I uh did cosplay as ih once andlearned a little bit more about
him.
So I went into it knowing thatthis was the kind of spin-off

(32:20):
series of Avatar.
I did have kind of I didn'tlook around the tomatoes or
anything, but I know that my son, charlie, does not like Korra
as much as Avatar, so I justknew that going into it.
Now he's 10, and he probablyfirst watched Avatar when he was

(32:41):
5, and then, I think,re-watched it again in its
entirety when he was 8.
So I don't know if age rangehas to do with it.
So that's kind of going into it, what I kind of had with me, my
baggage or whatever I sooverall, from the beginning to

(33:03):
the, by the end I will say thatI started this first episode of
the second season right, so Iwanted to know more.
So I there are parts that I'menjoying.
I did briefly mention it as ateaser at the beginning, the
love triangle stuff right now is.
So this is.
You know it may be correct meif I'm wrong.

(33:23):
That doesn't happen in avatar,right, there's no uh, there is
hints.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
There's hints that zuko and katara might have
something going on and they theykind of play with that idea a
little bit near the end of theseries.
But there's no love triangle.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Right, right.
It's not like full force in theway that it is in Korra.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I think for me, you know, just just briefly, I'll
let you finish for me with thelove triangle stuff.
I don't even pay any attentionto it because I know it doesn't
matter.
Nobody, nobody that is.
I don't want to spoil it, butlike it's just, like it changes
so much over the course of fourseasons that I don't even pay

(34:17):
attention to like theinterpersonal relationships of
those four characters, as much Ienjoy, you know, their one-off
lines, especially Bolin.
I love Bolin.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
But yeah, it's, yeah, yeah, all right go ahead.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Yeah, I guess I so for me, since I'm only taking in
the first entire season and Idon't remember really any
romantic stuff from what I hadseen from avatar.
I was a little surprised and atfirst I was like, okay, and
you're watching the tournamentand I'm like, oh no, their,
their love spot's gonna causeproblems.
It felt this isn't.
It sounds so weird and I'molder than you guys, but the
show Frasier right, yeah, Iwould physically feel so like

(35:04):
awkward, I don't know what thatthere's a word for that.
I just felt so like the show.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Cringe yes.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Yes, like the show, I would just be cringing.
I just no like a cringewatching and I just couldn't.
And sometimes with the lovestuff it just feels like I'm
watching.
And look, to be fair, I wastalking to jen at work and she
mentioned that it was more alike.
It's more kind of aimed forlike a teenage audience, where
avatar was maybe a youngeraudience so that the love themes

(35:33):
would be more prevalent, andthen that makes sense.
But it's what?
Not what I was expecting.
I was kind of like, uh, I don'tknow, I I don't know how I saw
it going.
Maybe I just didn't see thatthe b plot, because it's, it is
the b plot, right, or maybe eventhe c plot, but it's, it just
comes up.
So uh many you know it's justthe first season that I'm just

(35:57):
like.
You know I don't liketelegraphing.
I guess feelings of discomfortright Of being uncomfortable,
and I went to an old boys'Catholic high school so the
anxiety of dating and seeingpeople in the hallways and the
interaction was not a thing inmy life.

(36:18):
So in my entertainmentsometimes I'm like really I got
to deal with this right now.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
That's okay, yeah, that's interesting.
So I will say, like, justthinking about how teenagers are
, and you put two females andtwo males, you know, together,
there will be something there.
It's always going to happen.
So I get it and that doesn'tmean I like it or anything or

(36:46):
that I'm like, you know, butit's a normal thing for a
teenager to do.
And I think the whole thingwith cora is that um like not
not cora her, but like cora theshow.
Um is that the, the creators,did something interesting where
they aged with their fans, youknow.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
so that that like, that's what I was gonna say, the
thing that that's exactly whatI was going to say to coda.
Um, okay, well, well, they so.
So the thing with cora is thatcora is for the fans of the
original series, but set up in away that anybody can watch it,
you know.
And so where, like you know,avatar, the last airbender was

(37:32):
very, you know, it was moretargeted to the preteen or early
teen audience.
This is more engaged to thelate teens audience.
You know, like, and and youknow there's the awkwardness of,
like those earlier years andthen the awkwardness of those
later years and you know, it'svery much so like prevalent,

(37:54):
like you can, you can see, likehow very different it is.
But the thing is, is that thething that both shows does is
that it doesn't talk down to itsaudience?

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good that's.
That's a good way to put it.
And, yeah, the kids growing upwatching the original Last
Airbender would be in theperfect age bracket to watch the

(38:27):
new Legend of Korra show fiveor six years later.
So I give the show a pass oncertain things the love triangle
stuff and some of the humor.
You know, because a lot of thethemes in this are heavier than
the average theme in, uh, like,generally speaking, um, there
there are huge, you know, likepowerful themes within the the

(38:49):
last airbender, um, that theytouch on.
But they don't.
They do it in a way where it'sit's more cartoony, you know.
So they're able to get away witha bunch of stuff in the last
airbender because, uh, and aimedtowards children, because it's
in a cartoony way and I thinkthat that's part of the genius

(39:10):
of avatar the last airbender youcan incorporate real life
themes or, like you know, likewar themes or terrorist themes
or doing the right thing againstyour family's wishes themes,
stuff like that that you don'tnormally see in a kid's cartoon.
But they can get away with itbecause it's cartoony, it's
funny, it's it's got a lot ofhumor with the Legend of Korra.

(39:30):
They try to do that a littlebit with characters like bolin
and stuff, and I love bolin, buta lot of times it just it's
just comedic irony, you knowlike, for for the sake of it
it's, it's just thrown in there.
So um, and the the themes aremore mature overall in in kra,

(39:55):
so it it feels a little off inthat respect, if that makes
sense so.
I don't know yeah, um, butthat's, that's a fair, fair
critique.
And and yeah that, because itreally starts with uh Bolin
falling, you know, falling forCora, uh, and Cora is falling

(40:17):
for Mako.
So that that's the first lovetriangle.
And then Mako hits or gets hitby uh Asami on her Sato mobile,
and then they fall in love.
So now and then it's back andforth with Cora and you know

(40:39):
Bolin gets hurt along the wayand it's just it's, it is a mess
, yeah, it's, it's, it's justlike it's a, it's a soap opera
for, you know, teenage love.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Bolin is the fourth wheel.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Bolin.
He was the first and the last.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Yeah, here's the thing I could totally accept
that right.
I could deal with just that,that romance storyline, all
right, even though it'sconvoluted and annoying and
cringing, all right, I can dealwith it.
If then you didn't have tenzinbeing like oh well he doesn't

(41:15):
reveal it.
I'm sorry, but Tenzin's wifedoes.
Back in the day, Tenzin wasactually in a similar situation
where he loved two women andthat ends up being the, you know
, the Lin Beifong.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
And then he has to have the awkward moment where
he's basically like I, actuallythat though I, I, I love tenzin,
but tenzin is probably myfavorite character I don't love
that.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
They like in the first season.
I need to find out about two,two similar love triangles.
Like you got 12 episodes.
People like you could have putthat one in season two like I
don't know.
And then even the moment wherehe has to turn to her, uh, and
he says, I think to lynn, he'slike you know, can you stay and
watch over my family, you know,and it's just like such a messed

(42:04):
up moment in my mind.
It's like, hey, you know, couldyou hang out here and watch the
family that I have?
That I could have had with you,but you know you ended up being
single and a career womanbecause I turned you down.
Oh yeah, I have that I couldhave had with you, but you know
you ended up being single and acareer woman because I turned
you down oh yeah, I mean that itit was just.
It is rough because it seemslike that so many of them.

(42:24):
See, this is my problem.
I don't like to see that somany of these characters
motivations are so just tied to,to romantic, their romantic uh,
I want to say something.
They're they're just likeflippantly going back and forth
and it's just the by the whimsof their, of their ever-changing

(42:45):
love, and I think that too manycharacters seem to be impacted
by that during the first seasonI don't disagree with you.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
I I to play devil's advocate.
Avatar as a show, as a, as aseries, you know, as a franchise
, is all about, um, generationaltrauma.
There's a lot ofmulti-generational storytelling,
um, throughout the entirefranchise.
You know like they they'll,they'll have books about avatars

(43:16):
before ang.
You know like they have bookson roku and kiyoshi and yang
chen and it go, and you knowlike that story goes back and
back.
But, um, when it comes to, youknow like, just the
intergenerational storiesbetween like kora and tenzin and
like Tenzin is a generationabove Cora in terms of like,

(43:40):
where she is, um, you know, inin that group of like that age,
age group.
So I I see it just as aparallel storytelling.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
You know where every generation kind of goes through
this and that's what they'reshowing you know, like just
because in ten, sorry, whattenzin is the ang I knows
grandson or son son son, yeah,all right, so it's, it's ang
tenzin and then tenzin's kidsbut the but.

(44:13):
Kora is the avatar, kora is theAvatar.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Korra is the Avatar, so do you know how the Avatar is
passed down to different people?

Speaker 4 (44:27):
I'm going to pretend that I'm the listener who
doesn't know, and maybe youcould tell us, dakota.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Okay, I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
So the Avatar is randomly chosen oh, okay yeah,
so I wasn't sure if it was likethe force where, like they're
strong, like the tenzin, the,the ang dynasty is strong in the
force.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Uh well, at least I would say the the ang dynasty is
strong because he's carrying onthe airbender lineage.
Tenzin and his three kids arethe only airbenders in the world
at that point, so that'ssignificantly more than one.

(45:09):
So when an avatar dies, theavatar cycle begins again.
So it always follows the cycleof the season.
So airbenders are like the fall, waterbenders are like the
winter, earthbenders are likethe spring and firebenders are

(45:30):
like the summer.
So it'll always follow thatorder when it comes to where,
like which nation, the avatar isborn into.
So if ang was born into the airnomad nation, the next avatar,
once ang ends uh is is basicallyreincarnated into the water

(45:51):
tribes.
So um kora, while not directlyrelated to ang, follows that
lineage.
Um, it's a spiritual lineage,not not, not a physical, um, you
know, genetic one which is yousure it's not accidentally like
your grandson?

Speaker 4 (46:09):
uh, somehow, like revealed at the end, she's not a
palpatine.
Are you sure she's?

Speaker 2 (46:15):
she's.
She's not a palpatine, Ipromise you that's weird uh,
what do you guys think about?
Like the, the, the main uh teamavatar.
Like um, divorce yourself fromthe idea of their individual.
You know relationships, butlike what do you think of Korra,

(46:36):
bolin, mako and Asami?
Let's start with Anthony.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
They have good intentions, but they get stopped
a lot.
They get stopped a lot.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
They don't get very far.
I will say like as a team theyare not as productive as ang's
team avatar.
Like they never are, like theywill never.
They will never be the originalteam avatar, but I do love each
and every one of them fordifferent reasons.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
My favorite part was like they're like going onto a
base and like asami's, like whyare there posts, but no, but,
but no fence and they walk likeright through it and they get
electrocuted that's good.
It's like like you know, in away it's like asami, this is
your father's base, like, try tothink like him a little bit,
you know yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Um, who's your favorite character of the four,
or how would you rank them?

Speaker 3 (47:34):
oh, that's tough, and likeability or, like you know,
power it's I mean power.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
It would go avatar and then probably mako and
boleyn.
But yeah what likeability, likewhat, what, what grab what?
Sorry, I keep saying what, um?
What do you gravitate towardsin each character like?
What are the pros and cons ofof them?

Speaker 3 (47:56):
I like I, I like bo lynn a lot, um, as far as like
his likeability, you know he'she's funny and he's like, very,
he's very loyal and, you know,will help out if need be.
But like you know, he know he'sa proficient bender but he's

(48:16):
not a great one, if that makessense, like at least in this
first season.
He gets there, he gets there,you know.
Well, I'm saying like, as faras like in this first season,
like you know, he's proficientenough to, like you know, do pro
bending, but it's not until,like Cora joins that like him

(48:37):
and or her and Mako, kind oflike carry the team a little bit
.
I mean he, he, he does histhing, but like you know, they
weren't, they weren't reallywinning much before Cora, you
know, and right and so.
But, like you know, likability,and you know I love his pet man
yeah, the fire ferret.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
I like that, rich.
What do you think about Bolin?

Speaker 4 (49:06):
my favorite hands down favorite hands down I think
there were actually points.
Let's see first couple episodeswhere I kind of disliked a
number of characters, and Ithink that bullen was kind of
what kept me, kept me, kept mein this you know like I actually

(49:28):
went when they went out on thedate.
When he went, I was like, man,score one for the good guy, I
know.
And then they had a good time.
I was like, oh man, good forhim, for the good guy.
And then they had a good time.
I was like, oh man, good forhim.
So I was super crushed when itturned out that he was just the
rebound guy.
It's not like I had some PTSDcoming up, nothing like that,

(49:51):
nothing at all.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
I agree with you guys .
I think bolin is a fantasticcharacter, um, and he's lovable
like throughout the entireseries, um, and just this first
season.
Yeah, he's a fantasticcharacter.
Uh, I have always like reallyrelated to bolin, not that I'm
like the goofy character per se,but, um, just his, his

(50:19):
joviality I really, I really uhenjoy.
What about mako anthony?

Speaker 3 (50:27):
mako mako's almost like he in a sense like he's
kind of like a typicalfirebender.
In a sense like he's kind oflike a typical firebender.
In a sense he's kind of.
There's this certain distancethat reminds me of early Zuko,

(50:47):
without like yeah, very stoic,almost Right right, without the
anger behind it.
I mean maybe a little bit, butlike you know that there is like
some similarities.
I mean I, I like as far as likebending elements, like I like
him, I just I like fire bending.
I think that fire bending isthe coolest looking element to

(51:10):
me, um, and it I like the factthat they can bend lightning.
I just thought that that waslike one of the coolest like
kind of like sub abilities thatthat, uh, you know, you know how
like each element has like itsability to kind of like you know
it can evolve into somethingelse.

(51:31):
Sure, yeah, um, you know likethat, that's like one of my
favorites and and so, but yeah,with with mako, like he he's,
he's cool, like his character,um, it I guess helps drive some
of the the like interpersonal,like conflicts and stuff.
But I mean he, I I mean he's,he's strong, like he's, he's a

(51:55):
good fighter.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Uh Rich.
What are your thoughts on Mako?

Speaker 4 (51:59):
This guy's like uh, I get real Romeo, romeo and
Juliet vibes.
This guy falls in love so hestarts off Rosalyn and Juliet
and he can't decide which one.
Uh, so you know, he, I.
I wouldn't have characterizedhim as Fire Nation-like just

(52:21):
because of my lack of knowledge.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
I wouldn't have made that assertion.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
But now that you brought it up, Anthony, it does
make sense to me.
Like he was kind of likeneedlessly dismissive of cora
you know especially like, I mean, would he have known that as
the avatar she could wield, youknow, yeah, he had to know that
she could, you know, wield, uh,different.

(52:47):
Uh, you know she could bend, youknow, water and and fire and
earth, right.
So it's like it's so weird thathe seems to be so dismissive of
her, like I'm a pro and it'slike she's the avatar and I
don't know.
But I was like I know I'm notthat informed, but I'm sitting
here, I'm going, I'm pretty surein this world, if, like, the

(53:10):
avatar showed up, you know, andwas like I'm gonna join your
team of, like, basically, avatarskills, but you guys only have
one each and I have like all ofthem, you like you would ask you
, beg for her to be on the teamlike I don't understand it's not
like they were and, likeanthony said earlier, they
weren't like you know.
They weren't going gangbusterswhen, uh, when she wasn't there.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
So I'm just like why we only wanted a winning streak
as soon as she showed up.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
You know that I just that didn't.
That was a little.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Would you say?
Would you say that, like theywere playing, like you know the
Mets before their prioracquisition?

Speaker 4 (53:50):
In my head I said this would be like, you know, if
Lindorindor goes, wait, juansoto.
Why do we need that guy, like Iwas the mvp last year.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
We don't need another guy yeah, you know, and it was
like what?

Speaker 4 (54:04):
are you talking about ?
No, so you know that was alittle bit overstated, but I I
was able to, you know, kind ofdeal with that and it kind of
ties into how I felt about korrabecause, you know, I I did
watch what I did watch a lot ofnaruto with my son and I did see
that you know this, an idea oflike the chosen, one kind of you

(54:24):
know, and we've seen it's atrope right.
The chosen one's a bit cocky andkind of needs to get knocked
down a couple of pegs and uh isyou know, refusing to listen
yeah, I did think it was alittle.
I mean, she goes, like you know, full like rebellious teen,
like really quickly when shegets to tenzin's house you know

(54:45):
like she starts breaking all therules off the bat and it was
just like I.
That's what I said about.
I can't put my finger on it.
Maybe episode four is where Istarted to feel different.
It was towards the maybe end ofthe tournament, but there was a
while where both of them andit's kind of intertwined, both

(55:07):
of them- kind of when you didn'tcare for Mako or Korra Because
they were so tropey to me.
What's weird is Bolin is justas tropey, but I think I like
that.
You know the goofy like yeahsidekick guy like I just love
that so much, that archetype, somuch that I could ignore the
patterns I was seeing develop.
But I will say that by the endall I'd say almost all of the

(55:32):
characters redeemed themselves,with the exception of Misami.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
Dakota.
What are your thoughts on?
Because you've seen Avatar, theLast Airbender and we
understand that that's a majorarc right and part of that major
arcing story is ang learning tobend uh, the different elements

(56:02):
you know, outside of ofairbending.
But cora has like an affinity,like pretty early on, with the
exception of of airbending, youknow what were your thoughts
like kind of coming into that,like, oh, you know we have.
You know she's very young andshe can.
You know she can waterbend,firebend and earthbends, like at

(56:23):
a very young age, younger thaneven ang.
Did you know, even even youngerthan like ang, when he was
first told that he was going tobe the avatar?
You know?

Speaker 2 (56:34):
yeah, so her, her path towards avatar hood is
unusual, like we.
We don't know of another avatarthat learned that they were, uh
, the avatar as early as she did.
She was probably like three orfour at the time when the white
lotus showed up at her doorstepand she was able to bend three

(56:54):
up, three elements.
Uh, it's an interesting thing.
I don't, I don't mind it.
Um, because she is cocky enoughthat if she wanted to, you know
, start moving stuff around, youknow like, and she's, she's, um
, confident enough, and that'sthe thing.

(57:15):
She has a lot of confidence, atleast in the beginning of the
season, um, where she can justkind of do whatever she wants to
do, and even at a young age, Ihave no issues with that.
Obviously she wasn't a masterat those ages.
It took her way later than itshould have normally taken her
to master those three elements.
Because she's 17 by the time.

(57:36):
She's ready to start herairbending training, right?
You?

Speaker 3 (57:41):
know right, like like she she had, she had like the
very like kind of basefoundation there and then like
the training kind of you in hermastery.
Of the other ones, I'm not toosure.

(58:02):
I know that there'spublications out there, but were
there attempts prior to that?
Because she probably what doyou mean?
Attempts prior to that?
At airbending?

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yeah, oh, I don't know.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
So airbending is highlyconnected to spirituality.
Yeah, and throughout the entirefirst season.
She doesn't have any affinityfor that, she has no desire for
it.
Right, it's really not untilthe end.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Yeah, right, like she had to learn how to be like
selfless.
You know, you know you talkabout how she has this cockiness
, this, this confidence, and youknow I think that's.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
That's partially why a lot of people dislike the show
, um, and cora specifically, isbecause she's overconfident,
she's cocky, she stumbles, she'sher own biggest stumbling block
a lot of the times andthroughout the show.
You know I'm not going to getinto it, but like, she gets

(59:12):
knocked down a lot, much morethan any avatar we've ever known
in terms of, you know, like,just being.
You think she's at her lowestwhen she gets her bending taken
away.
No, it goes way lower than that.
You know, like, this show likebeats her to a pulp.
The, the, the writers literallydid not hold back.

(59:34):
They, they give you thegreatest stakes that you will
ever, you can even conceive of,throughout, like, throughout the
show, um, and and they willlike, actually like, use those
stakes to make, uh, you know,definitive changes to the
overall series.
It's it's an incredibly boldchoice of them to do that,

(59:58):
because a lot of people dislikethat choice, you know I don, I
don't personally dislike it.
I think it's really fascinatingwriting and the more I have
watched the series, the more Ihave appreciated like, wow, they
really went for this and I givethem a lot of credit for that.
Um, but you know, overall I Ithink um with cora, even though

(01:00:28):
she's cocky and she what somethere's a line that ang says at
the end of the episode or theend of the season, when she
finally gets to commune with herpast lives, and, um, she
basically, or he, he basically,tells her when you're at your
lowest, that's when the greatestchange happens.
You know, and we see thatthroughout not only this season

(01:00:50):
but, uh, the rest of the show,and I think that that's a really
like.
I think it's a powerful messagebecause a lot of times, like you
know, we get beaten down, weget fired from our jobs.
We, you know, lose a loved one,we, you know, x, y and z, but
sometimes we need those eventsto pick ourselves up and grow.
You know, and I think that thatis the, the humbling thing

(01:01:14):
about the legend of korai isthat, um, this character is
someone who needs to be knockeddown before she realizes.
Oh, oh, I'm not like, I'm notthe biggest and baddest in the
room.
You know like she thinks she is, but she isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
So like apparently it doesn't get any better for her
because because, like isn't thenext avatar?
Like right after her?

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
We we don't know timeline, okay, okay, I was
going to say because isn't itlike a post-apocalyptic world?

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
And it's an earth-bending avatar.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
That is correct.
So if this avatar is afterKorra, it's like what happened?
What happened to the world?

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I have more information on that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
I'm interested to see how that story plays out and
supposedly Korra destroys theworld.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
She is the one who did it, so we don't know what
that story is or how they'regoing to do that.
But anyway, rich, you hadsomething to say.
I was talking about Korra.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
I'm sorry, guys, this is what I bring to the show.
I was was just trying to say sowhat you're saying is that she
gets knocked down but she getsup again.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
She does.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
No, I appreciate that .

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
Yeah, but you know, I just let her down.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
We got ourselves a 90s boy over here I mean, it's
just St Paddy's Day, we justpassed.
I like to have my whiskey drink.

Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
I like a vodka drink.
I like a lager drink.
You know, I like the songs thatremind me of the good times
that's, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
I love it.
Love it um really quick.
Let's talk about amman, theequalis and tarlock.

Speaker 4 (01:02:55):
You know like they swerved me so good.
I was so angry, but then sohappy at the end.
Wait why?

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
all right, what happened so right away?
I mean and I know everyone musthave thought I was so angry,
but then so happy at the end,wait why?
What happened so?

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
right away.
I mean, and I know everyonemust have thought something
right, but is it Tuckman?

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Tarlok, Tarlok right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
So right.
Like you, meet Tarlok and he'sall about the task force or
whatever, and he's trying to getcourt.
He's underhanded and he'ssleazy.
He's a politician and I'msitting there and then uh iman
comes out and I'm like, oh,that's the same guy, right,
that's the guy right, nobody'sever seen them in the same.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Yes, that's what I kept.
I was like until I see them inthe same room.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
And then you know, episode upon episode upon
episode passes, you know, andthen there's that whole sequence
where, uh, tarlak is totallylike, yeah, let's shut down the
finals, we can't do this, it'snot safe.
But then, like, he's convincedto open it up again and I was
like that's when I was like ohno, what a conniver that's iman.
I'm like that's gotta beinteresting.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
I never.
I never made that connectionlike my first time around.
I I probably might have youknow if I had watched it like
now.
But that's interesting, I,that's I like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
I like where your head was at, because that's
clearly what they were, at leasttrying, and then they put up
the same room and I'm like no,but then it's like wait, you
were kind of right, because it'shis brother, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
Like uh I, I, and that's another part of the whole
generational storytelling.
They go back 42 years in theflashbacks to Tarlok and Aman,
or Noatak's father Yakon, andhow he was this great
bloodbender and how that storydevolved into them, and I love

(01:04:41):
that.
He basically put them on thepath to do exactly what both of
them did.
You know, he told them uh,you're gonna avenge me, you're
gonna go back to republic cityand you're gonna like, rule the
city.
And they each and, and he alsosaid, um, and you're gonna
destroy the avatar.
And they both did that to somedegree, but they were doing it
in like opposite ways.

(01:05:02):
You know, like fascinating, I,I, I love, I love that like the
way that storyline ended wasbeautiful, like it was just like
I.
It gives me chills every time.
I even think about it, justbecause, like, how did they do
that?
How did nickelodeon say yes, goahead and uh, show like a
suicide murder on on screen?

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
oh, yeah, yeah, and it's, it's crazy because, like
um you could tell that?

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
it was tasteful you, it, I.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
I don't disagree.
No, it wasn't.
It wasn't like a maliciousthing, it was like this is a,
this is a pity.
You know like we don't deserveto continue.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
Right, right, and like you could tell that no Talk
, like he sensed that that wascoming.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Yeah, yeah, and that's a really good point
actually.
And what's?
You're right, he did sense it,because he's such a good
bloodbender that they said thathe was able to like feel like
what other people were doing,like the he.
That's why he was so goodagainst other benders he was
able to feel their movements andthen uh that, that, that tear

(01:06:12):
that, uh, yeah, you know that heshed, yeah, so ah, such a good
scene, such a good scene.
I it's our, our.
You know our podcast is comingto a close, but I feel like
there's so much I want to saystill.
Um Tenzin uh Aang Sun has sucha fantastic and cool grasp on um

(01:06:34):
airbending.
Like I love the animations of.
Tenzin, yes, the way, the waythat he moves, the way that he
uses airbending.
He has like an airbending wheelthat, like he like, spins
around on and it's so sick.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Yeah, His like movements are very like kind of
Shaolin monk, like you know.
Yeah.
And you know it, it just itlooks so good and that, and that
that's what I was saying about.
Like you know the animation andlike how it looked a lot more
crisp and, like the movements ofthe bending looks really good.

(01:07:09):
Like you know, for a lot ofthem and I love that you know
metal bending is now like a widething now it's a widespread
thing.
yeah, and, like you know, wewitnessed the, you know the, the
initial use of it with tough,yeah, the birth of metal bending
and you know it's cool that shewas like the, the, the one that

(01:07:35):
you know kind of justestablished all of this and I
love the flashback with um, withang and toff, and she and she
calls him twinkle toes and he'slike toff.
I'm 42 years old.
Can we stop with the?
Can we stop with the nicknamesthat?
He's just like not likely orsomething like that.

(01:07:56):
But uh, you know she goesafraid not, yeah, yeah uh, it's
so funny though, because tenzinI can.
I can imagine, uh, tenzin beingvery much so like his father in
the sense of like the airbending, like he's just like super
crazy, super proficient, in away that, like you know, ang was

(01:08:18):
even as like, even as a kid,but like personality wise, like
very different yeah, I, uh, I100 agree with that, I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
last question, before we, you know, close out, like
what was your guys favoritefight scene, specifically like
bender on bender fight scene?
Or or it could be a bender on,like, uh, non-bender fight scene
if you want to include some ofthe mechanical suits and stuff.
There's a lot of reallybeautiful animation when it
comes to the fight scenes andit'd be kind of sad not to talk

(01:08:54):
about it.
Some really juicy fight scenes.

Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
well, you know, when I first saw the uh, the
bloodbending.
It was like they were just likemanipulating, like juicy slim
jims, which was creepy oh, yeah,yeah, it was uh, yeah, but all,
jokes aside, I think myfavorite, at least I.
I guess I'll boil it down to amoment because, as you said,

(01:09:22):
tenzin's family is the lastairbending family, they're told.
You know like get the heck awayfrom here.
You guys need to be safe, andthen, of course, as always
happens, they're immediatelycaptured.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
Uh so that they're on .

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
You know they're about to be, uh, they're about
to have their chi blocked.
And when tenzin gets free, I'mnot to lie to you in that moment
I'm like wait a minute, butIman can just like whisper
bloodbend, and you know, becausehe did it earlier right where
he just I think he kind ofalmost like silently, was able

(01:09:54):
to bloodbend in some way, likehe didn't even need to use well,
I mean, it's always silent likenobody like uses their mouth to
.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
It's always silent Like nobody like uses their
mouth to.
It's not like a wizard wherethey like have to like make an
incantation, it was just that,he.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
It was something about him like that earlier in
the show that Tenzin had.
It was like no match for himand it was knocked out the first
time they squared off againsteach other.
Yeah.
That, like they didn't haveLike something about him being
able to bend faster than tenzinis able to gather the air.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
so when I don't know when he squared off.

Speaker 4 (01:10:27):
I was nervous.
I'm like tenzin, what are youdoing, bro?
Like get your family get outand yeah then, when he kind of
whipped him up and threw him offthe platform, I kind of like
let out like a yelp being likeyeah I know, yeah, that doesn't
happen a lot, like when I'mwatching fight sequences.
You know I'm.
I'm usually like yeah, I know,yeah, that doesn't happen a lot
like when I'm watching fightsequences.
You know I'm.
I'm usually like oh, I knowwho's gonna win and everything

(01:10:47):
but in that moment I was likewait a minute.
This show's been crazy.
Like what if tenzin like diesin front of his family?

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
and that's that's what I love about the show.
Like you don't know what, whatis gonna happen, yeah, and it
always keeps you on your toes.
It's not like the good guys winevery fight.
They don't.
They actually probably win theleast fights.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's whatI'm going to say, I think they
lost most of them.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Anthony, what about you?
What's your favorite fightscene?
I would say probably.
I really like so.
I do like a lot of thebender-on-bender fighting.
But like so I, I do like a lotof like you know, the bender on
bender like fighting, but I feellike the best bender on bender
fighting happens like in otherseasons?
um, not so not necessarily likein this one, but I do like the

(01:11:32):
one where, um, you know you havethem like fighting a lot of the
like uh, the mechs, um, becausethat's where you get a lot of
uh like.
You know how you were talkingabout, how you like the way that
tenzin fought.
You saw a lot of that in inthose fights and so like yeah,
kind of seeing everybody likegoing all out in, like full form

(01:11:55):
in their fights.
It was just like it.
It was like a beautiful sightto me the animation and and the
fluidity of how they looked, andsomething that you brought up
about the fact that they don'thave to use their abilities,
kind of like using it like anincantation.

(01:12:17):
I like that Avatar like Korraand the Last Airbender.
Don't use that trope.
That's used a lot in anime, likeyou know you have like One
Piece where he's like gum gum orlike Naruto where they say you
know fireball jutsu or somethinglike that.
I like that.

(01:12:39):
It's all in the movements youknow.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Yeah, 100% yeah.
I think that that's fantasticBecause it mimics real-world
fight scenes.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
Right, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:12:50):
Yeah.
So my personal favorite fightscene is when Korra leaves her
home late at night to visitTarloch to release her friends
from prison.
That fight scene always likegives me chills, like, because
they, they slow down how youknow.
Like he's throwing ice shardsat her, he she's like rotating

(01:13:13):
the wall behind him, it's.
It's such a visually appealingfight, yeah, that whenever it's
like one of those scenes that Ialways have to like lean forward
when I'm watching you know,like it just it grabs my
attention.
100 and there's so many greatfight scenes throughout this
show.
I, I, I love it, but yeah, this, this one always like stands

(01:13:35):
out to me as like a very stronganimated fight.
Dakota has to like stand upwhile watching that one yeah,
I'm like, I'm like, I'm like thedad who, like, walks into the
room and has to watch like 20minutes of tv standing up, yeah
and like, and then like the, thekids like sit down.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
He's like just doesn't sit down just stands
next to the tv.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
Yeah, that's good, guys.
Any final thoughts?

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
good, solid season season.
And come on, man, it's Avatar.
You know that you're going tohave some really good action in
it.
Hell yeah, brother.

Speaker 4 (01:14:13):
I really enjoyed it.
I don't know, I have to kind ofextrapolate a little bit.
I mean again a little bit of anovice to the world, but the
fact that, like they lost, likebending was taken like I see,
okay, so I, I I had a bending asbeing akin to being a force

(01:14:35):
user, right?
So correct yeah you know, I'mthinking of you know you're not
wrong thinking of remembering,like reading you know so many.
What did I recently that youknow just kind of being
disconnected from the force andhow that like really just
changes the person so much.
So I thought this was going tobe like a huge thing.
That was going to be like youknow something they have to

(01:14:57):
search for for you know they'regoing to kind of keep going.
And so then I was a littleshocked when they kind of were
able to basically fix everyoneby the end of season one.
I was like, oh, I thought thatwas a pretty big thing.
You guys took away the you know, it's like when, when, when?
not at my first, when scarletwitch said no more mutants.
It's not.
Like you know, four monthslater in the comics they're back

(01:15:19):
.
You know it.
You had to give it a while, soI'm guessing something much
bigger must happen, but in myview of things like taking
bending away from someone isginormous, like how can you get
worse than that?
But I guess I'd have to findout right, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
So so the the, the way that amman, and it's a
little bit of like.
What I was saying was that amanwas using blood bending to to
like sever, um, like chiconnections, but like the avatar
, when they do it it's on adeeper level, it's like it's
like a on a spiritual level.

(01:15:59):
You know, um, and it's almostlike when that happens, he's
like drawn.
It's like the essence of likebending is being like kind of
drawn out of them, whereas, likewhen what was what was
happening with amman was like ablock so it was like he snipped
their capillaries that led totheir bending power.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
Yeah, you know, I was at a they.
Oh my gosh, what is it called?
When you said snip, it made methink of the other snip.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
Oh, vasectomies.
Yeah, it was like a bendingvasectomy.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
Speaking of vasectomies.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
why don't you guys snap it to a Slim Jim, which is
our branded sponsor?

Speaker 3 (01:16:46):
No, they didn't sponsor us this week.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
They actually sent a cease and desist.
Actually, they don't wantanything to do with this.

Speaker 4 (01:16:56):
We moved on to Big Boy's Beef Stick.
Big Boy's Beef Stick, thenumber one beef stick of Project
Ecology.

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
So we have to go back to uh, the fajitas and chili
yeah, I was actually at shakeshack the other day, um, and I
had a really juicy burger, andit kind of did remind me that I
would like you, the listener, togive us a really juicy review,
like specifically um, anthony,how many stars do we need?

Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
we need five stars, you know just like at shake
shack.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
It needs to be a juicy five star sandwich I mean,
I mean review, not sandwich andand yeah, uh, please, please,
be sure to send us your thoughtsabout, uh, our show, and you
know where we can go from here.
Do we have any idea what we'redoing next?

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
week.
We do not, do you guys likeBrendan Fraser?

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
I think, yeah, I do.

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
Have you guys ever done the Mummy movies?

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Let's do the Mummy.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
Yeah, we haven't done the Mummy.
That's crazy.
Yeah, we haven't done the Mummy.
Those are fun movies.
I love it, at least the firsttwo.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
I will watch the first two.
I will not watch you know what.
I will watch the third, justfor you guys.
But next week we are coveringthe Mummy.
I'm actually really stokedabout this.
I love that movie.
I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (01:18:21):
I have tricked you guys down a path to Dwayne the
Rock, johnson johnson baby,it'll take a little while he's
not even.

Speaker 3 (01:18:28):
He's not even in the first one, all right we're
stopping at the first one, andthat's it.
We're not.
We're not doing it because theweek after that we're covering
persona and then after thatwe're covering the yankees oh,

(01:18:49):
rich is like I'm not, I'm notgonna be there that week no,
we're just messing here.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
We don't know what we're doing after next week, but
uh, we are excited to cover themummy.
Uh, next week.
Yes, uh, guys, thank you somuch for listening to us here
for our 114th or maybe 115thepisode I actually don't know,
you're right you did check it.
Okay, cool, cool episode 114.
Um, actually really quick, letme double check that.

(01:19:18):
Okay, yeah, it's definitelyepisode 114, guys.
Thank you so much.
Uh, please, if you want tocheck out any of our socials,
you can check us out in our shownotes down below and we will
hear, or you will hear us rathernext week hear that sizzle
goodbye don't snap into a slimjim dig it.

(01:19:40):
Bye guys.