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No. 106542
Part 2/2.
------------------------------- Amon, Tarrlok and Yakone -------------------------------
-Turns out Tarrlok was still relevant after all, the Yakone flashbacks were more important than they initially seemed, and there was a reason (other than Gaang fanservice) why we got to see those scenes. Things tied together. That's very good and I'm happy about that.
-...but I still can't help feeling a bit disappointed by Yakone. When it was first mentioned that Yakone did something bad that forced Aang to do something drastic, I thought Yakone might've killed someone and Aang was forced to compromise on his pacifist beliefs. But turns out Yakone just grabbed Sokka and Toph and tossed them into the ground, and Aang was forced to do the same trick he already did with Ozai. I'm not saying I want things to be grimdark, and I was terrified about the possibility that Sokka or Toph might've been killed that day. I was relieved they weren't... but I couldn't help feeling slightly let-down when we saw the full flashbacks and nothing too dangerous happened.
-The question about who Amon is was the mystery that kept him interesting. People came up with lots of theories that sounded exciting, and once it was revealed that he can fight off bloodbending, it seemed there might be something utterly supernatural about him. Some of the theories I really liked were that he was some kind of "chi-sponge" who actually stole people's bending for himself to use (which would explain his ability to counter bloodbending), or he was involved with the owl spirit from that hidden library (that owl had a grudge against humans and especially the avatar, after all), or maybe he was some kind of being formed from the restless souls who died in the 100-year war. If spirits were really involved, that would be some scary shit... Korra would have to find a supernatural, angry being, and she'd be the underdog due to being just a mortal human. Plus, she has struggles with the spiritual side of bending. But once we discovered who exactly Amon is, the speculation time was over, Amon became flesh and blood, and he lost some of his charm. But on the other hand, if Amon's identity had been kept as a mystery, that would've been unsatisfying and maddening as well.
-Either way, I feel like the revelation of Amon and Tarrlok being brothers was the worst possible Amon revelation they could've possibly thought of. This means that Amon's abilities were handwaved with that same Sokka speech that was used to explain away the abilities of Yakone and Tarrlok. Also, there are lots of great stories where the hero meets some kind of twisted version of himself; a villainous counterpart who makes the hero question himself. But this was a story where the hero looks on as two brothers are pitted against one another in that kind of fashion. The main conflict is between these two brothers, their similarities and differences. Korra is just witnessing this conflict from the sidelines and she's not involved in this personal squabble. Korra is supposed to be our protagonist and things are supposed to be centered around her. If Amon and Tarrlok were unrelated to one another and didn't have a personal connection, Korra would by default have the center focus and she'd be the one who needs to find balance between the two extremes. But no; this is a story about two brothers and their father's past sins, and Korra's just some clueless teen who's watching it happen. Amon and Tarrlok overshadow Korra, and I don't know how to fix that without taking away the plotpoint of them being brothers.
-That flashback about the brothers was a somewhat long and awkward infodump. Also, it would've been better if we had heard Amon himself explain his motivations and goals; hear it from the original source rather than second-hand.
-Yakone escaped the jail just like that, and oh, then he got plastic surgery. These explanations felt kinda cheap. And if Yakone really was so important and dangerous back then, shouldn't somebody have maybe mentioned earlier about him breaking out of jail and disappearing off the face of the earth? Why wasn't this important enough to mention if we knew Yakone's son was running around somewhere?
-What did Amon and Tarrlok want, exactly? What were their motivations and goals? Both brothers seemed to have some kind of dislike of their father's plans, yet both still settled for Republic City and attempted to grab power there. Were Amon's plans affected in any way by the fact that Tarrlok was a councilman in RC? Did Amon plan to eventually get to Tarrlok and talk with him? Did he feel responsibility over his brother's political moves, and did he want to stop that crap? Did he want to find a way to reconnect with his brother? Or did he plan to de-bend his brother from the very start? Why did he think his brother would forgive him, and why did he come get him when it appeared he didn't talk about everything with him before? And Amon really was serious about equalist agenda after all? If so, what happened during all those years he was away from home but wasn't involved with the equalists yet? What did he do during these decades? What happened to him, and why did he come to hate bending despite being a bender himself? Is it all because of Yakone, or what had he been up to for all those years? This is yet another reason why we needed to hear it from Amon himself.
-Turns out Amon planned to remove benders from the world by poking everyone in the forehead, one after one. He didn't have a masterplan that would take care of the matter in one go. I had assumed there was some kind of spiritual trick, but no. Like, maybe provoking the avatar into Avatar State and de-bending her would cut the link between the mankind and their spirituality? Maybe Amon knew this due to a spirit whispering advice to him?. - He had implied it was somehow crucial to his plans that he gets to de-bend Korra at a certain kind of timing. Also, as we see from the matter of Amon himself, de-bent people can still have bending children. Amon never had a chance of winning this war, and he lacked a masterplan. This was a disappointing discovery; Amon had seemed so calculating, intelligent and prepared for anything throughout the season, but turns out his plan sucked and he was no threat in the long run.
-The scar being fake was a disappointment. Amon was only a liar after all, and his movement disintegrated due to that discovery. Why didn't he just tattoo it? Or maybe he could've gotten into a fight with some random firebender, and maybe he decided to use the scar to form a fake backstory in order to gain sympathy? Or maybe he was nuts enough to self-inflict it on his face to appear convincing? That would show crazy commitment to the movement. But the best option would've been if he was telling the truth about his family and the spirits... that would've made the conflict really freaking tense. Also, did he put make-up on his face every day just in case someone demands to see his face? Fake scar just seems so inconvenient.
-I felt like the murder-suicide was a little out-of-place for this particular story. I mean, it would have been a perfect and fitting scene if this was a movie like The Usual Suspects, Memento or The Se7en. If this were a movie aimed for adults, a movie that's allowed to end on an uncomfortable, unhappy note, a movie where bad guys can get away with the stuff they do... yeah, that would've been a great ending for our brothers. But since this is a Saturday morning cartoon, I feel like it didn't fit the tone. I felt it was utterly disappointing that 1) Amon and Tarrlok escaped the heroes, 2) one of the brothers ended the conflict by killing both of them and 3) none of the heroes were around to contribute or witness it. For all Korra knows, Amon and Tarrlok left to do more villainy elsewhere, or maybe they'll return to Republic City once they're ready. The protagonists are unaware of our villains' fate, and it's unsatisfying. Again, this whole conflict revolved around the brothers and was resolved by one of them, whereas the so-called protagonists remained off-stage.
-If the brother dynamic is kept, Tarrlok needs more focus earlier in the season. Also, there seriously needs to be a big showdown between Korra, Tarrlok and Amon. Since all the drama is between the brothers, the brief scene in the little cabin is not enough. These two need to deal with their differences, and Korra needs to be around to see it, and very possibly ally herself with one of them. She needs to be the one to resolve the conflict somehow, because she's supposed to be the hero of this story.
-So basically I'd just make sure to introduce Tarrlok as early as possible, keep him relevant throughout the series, and scrap everything between episodes 8 and 12 and completely change everything. I'd like to keep the idea of the Krew getting imprisoned and Lin busting them out so we get a fugitive subplot, and I would like to have some kind of Tarrlok vs. Korra fight where Korra's trashing Tarrlok until he uses bloodbending. But everything else IMO needs to be re-thought. The roles, motivations and goals of Amon and Tarrlok need to be kept in mind, and they need to act in a logical way.
-Someone on /co/ suggested that the story would actually make more sense if the personalities of the brothers were switched. What if Amon was the emotional, sensitive kid while Tarrlok was the cold, distant one? Tarrlok would stay with Yakone and grow power-hungry like his father, whereas Amon would be horrified by the concept of bloodbending and he would leave. Maybe he'd settle down and have a family. But one day he ends up in a situation where he has to protect himself by bloodbending some firebender. That bender gathers up his gang in revenge, they kill Amon's family and scar him. Amon would in his grief come to the conclusion that all bending is evil; he had tried to escape his heritage, and he only tried to protect himself, but all he got was pain. So, he learns a way to use bloodbending for blocking chakras and spends some years travelling the world and de-bending outlaws, until he settles for Republic City.
------------------------------- Spirituality and bending -------------------------------
-Sokka's speech discussing how some people are freaks with crazy powers was supposed to handwave the abilities of Amon and Tarrlok. Turns out all the fans were over-analyzing things and Sokka's speech was supposed to explain everything. Sure, we got the flashback that explained how the brothers slowly learned to grow more powerful, and that was very good... but the mechanics of some of this stuff still needed more explanation, IMO. For instance:
-Bloodbending being able to block people from bending. So apparently Amon actually does something physical to people's bodies, rather than something affecting their psychic/spiritual side? How did he even find out that this was possible? Did he do some kinds of horrifying experiments, or did he learn from some book/person? Again, Amon needed to talk about this... or we needed to get Korra in contact with Aang, and Aang needed to explain what was going on. A lot of fans came up with theories about blocking chakras, and I feel like Aang should've talked about this to Korra. Also, we've talked earlier about how to make de-bending more scary. One idea was that Amon might be using a flawed method that does some kind of internal damage to your body. Since he uses bloodbending, I feel like there's even more reason to use the idea of his de-bending actually hurting more than just people's feelings. Also, I kinda thought Amon just severs people's connection to bending completely. But apparently he can't remove bending if a person is capable of it but hasn't learned it yet (see: Korra's airbending not getting removed). That was a little odd, and I would've liked an explanation of it.
-Korra finally figured out airbending and avatar state. That's good. She figured things out really freaking late and with no build-up. That's bad. And important things happening in the very last second was no good, either. I would prefer if Korra had lost her bending in like, episode 11 or something. She gets in utter despair for a while and wants to give up, but maybe her friends encourage her, or she finds the inner resolve in herself. She meditates successfully, talks with spirit Aang, and Aang explains her how Amon's bloodbending works. He tells her she's still the avatar and she must keep fighting, so she does. I would also hope that there had been some kinds of themes earlier throughout the season; benders and non-benders should be equal people, bending isn't what your world should revolve around, and you can still be a person without it. You can still continue the fight, and you shouldn't just give up all hope like a pussy. Korra possibly even contemplating suicide in the end didn't feel right. Besides, she still had one element for herself while lots of others had none. She had a loving family and friends to support her. Things weren't really that hopeless.
-I was upset about Korra just giving up so easily. Another thing I was upset about was that Aang resolved her problems and gave her bending back. I feel like Korra herself should've been able to fight through her situation and solve her problems on her own. This was supposed to be "Legend of Korra" instead of "Legend of Aang", after all. It's no good how Aang just hands out everything to her. What if Roku had done the same thing in AtLA? It's such an anti-climax.
-What about all the "be the leaf" stuff? I really wanted to see Korra embracing her spiritual side, thinking like an airbender, avoiding fights and using her wits to get through situations. Losing her other elements might've made her think before acting which could help her unlocking airbending. I wish there was more build-up here. Even in the finale, Korra continued to be a punch-happy meathead who got herself into fights without thinking. She started the series with the opinion that bending is the coolest thing ever, and she ended the series on the same note. She didn't learn anything.
-Korra and Lin getting their bending back. This felt like a bit of a cop-out, especially because it happened so very late. It was in fact so late that I actually thought they were gonna go out with a downer ending. That would've been a brave choice, but on the other hand, we already had a lot of downer endings during the season and I think we needed a happy one for a change. Still, Lin's sacrifice kinda got cheapened by Tenzin getting caught (she lost all for nothing), and the ending of the finale cheapened it even more (she actually didn't lose anything after all). Yeah, I like happy endings and all, but... I dunno. Apparently Korra had the power to change things back to normal all along, and Amon was never actually a threat. All tension got deflated from the story in hindsight.
-Basically, I feel that Korra should've lost her bending way earlier and she should've found the mental resolve to fight through her despair. She should've figured out the avatar state and airbending earlier, as well as discussions with your past selves. Then she should regain all her bending like maybe halfway through episode 12 so the audience has time to accept that fact and become comfortable with it. The ending should be more relaxed, wrapping shit up. And I feel like since we had Tarrlok's position in the council and the councilmen being such assholes earlier in the season, there needs to be some kind of resolution to the corruption issue. Like, Korra holding a speech to the citizens of RC and talking about how to make future better for both benders and non-benders. I guess it might be a bit of a re-hash of Zuko's speech in AtLA, but I still feel it's needed. Also, there could possibly be some very short sequel hook scene for the second season.
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