The whole episode seemed rushed. I suspect it felt this way because there's a lot of separate plots going on, so they can't devote much time to each of them.

Maybe they should have focused more on the problems in the Water Tribe and less on Tenzin's problems (both have a different tone, so they don't work well together).

>>114167
This is a bit different from Tarrlok in that the whole spiritual well-being of the world -- especially Korra's tribe -- is actually a big deal and legitimate problem. Yeah, we don't know if Unalaq is actually causing it or just taking advantage of the chaos to further his own agenda, but something is still pissing spirits off and that's a whole other level. And of course, because it looks like when Korra isn't training the OWL didn't teach her jack shit, she doesn't really know how to handle the situation.

>>114175

Funny, when I was watching it, the episode felt like it dragged on longer due to a lot of the dialogue going on. So I would say it felt the opposite of rushed.

>>114177
Tarlokk had a legitimate concern too, the equalists were terrorists blowing shit up. That didn't make declaring martial law any better then and it doesn't make it any better now.

Seriously, the two situations so far are so stupidly similar and Korra seems just as inept dealing with it as she did back then as she does now.

>>114132
As Tenzin was also the youngest it's possible that Aang was busy when Bumi and Kya were born but his workload decreased around the time Tenzin was born, which resulted in him being able to spend more time with Tenzin than his other children. This is more likely to be true if there's a large age difference between these children.

>>114178
It felt rushed because it went from:

- Military occupation
- Korra meets with Southern Water tribe leaders
- Korra meets with Northern Water tribe leaders
- Korra tries to be neutral and everyone hates her
- Korra goes home
- Korra goes out for a meal
- Korra talks to her mother
- Korra goes to see Unalaq
- Korra foils a kidnapping
- Korra's parents get arrested

It just felt like everything escalated very quickly without really exploring the problems in more detail.

>>114181
I don't get this calling Korra inept or stupid stuff came from, she's obviously not on Unalaq's side anymore. The whole thing lasted one episode. She was even having doubts about what he was doing since the end of the last episode.

It was the same thing with Tarrlok, she only stayed on the task force for one episode and the next time she got to talk to him she was well more aware the guy was a sleazeball.

Did anyone else have a hard time understanding what Eska was saying during that bit where Bolin was pulling Desna and her in the carriage?

>>114185
E: “I will hate to leave this quaint tribe.”
D: “Is that true, Eska?”
E: “Of course not, Desna. I will not be sad at all. I hold immense dislike for the south.”

(Eska begins laughing like a nutcase. Desna joins in with a higher-pitched nutty laugh.)

E: “Bolin! Laugh at my humorous quip!”
B: “Yes, dear.”

(Bolin begins laughing.)

B: “So, so funny.”

(Pabu squeaks.)

>>114187
Much appreciated, thanks.

>>114187
Man Bolin just has no testicles at all

>>114189
And that laugh…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_JZjHghE80

>>114189
Its the fear and she does show some slight affection to him. Time to call in some of that Cactus Juice, get her nice and loose. Eska getting tripping balls hammered now that I'd like to see. Either she becomes full cackling mad villain or she becomes more open emotionally. Either is good for me.

>>114141
His secretary pays everyone off with company funds.

>>114192

I think the twins are growing on me.

>>114135
I thought Jinora was acting pretty weird during that part, like apparently not knowing who her own sister is.

That was just Jinora making a silly attempt to cover her ass because she knew she was going to get in trouble, same as Meelo. She is still just a little girl, after all.

>>114142
Yeah, I'm actually liking Mako again now. Probably because now that the relationship is set up, he's more than just something for Korra to obtain. He's more like he was in the opening episodes of the first season, for which I'm thankful.

I still prefer the early Mako/Asami dynamic, though.

I kind of got the impression that Bumi's personality might have been partially based on him feeling he had to overcompensate in order to be seen as being at the same level as his siblings.

Like the guy is a respected military leader already, Iroh II established this, but he seems to exaggerate on top of that as he's kind of had a lot to live up to, not just in terms of his siblings but also in terms of who his parents are too.

I thought that Korra's attitude was on the whole understandable. Both Tenzin and her dad weren't exactly that honest with her, leading to her being more open to manipulation from her uncle, who in the very least kept the facade of respecting her.

Even though she kind of partially went along with him due to him framing his demands in a reasonable way, even at the end of season two she was displaying doubt as to whether it was really a good idea.

Curious to how the Tenzin and his siblings subplot would go, 'cause although I do agree that maybe Aang flat out expressing favouritism towards Tenzin maybe a touch out of character... people can change a lot when they grow up. I mean, Tenzin is meant to be in his fifties, meaning that Aang must have been in his thirties/late twenties when he and Katara had him, and it would have been a bit weird if Aang didn't undergo any character development from his pre-teen years through to being an adult.

That said, Aang not being absoluately perfect might be something that I'm okay with, as it shows that he's human and thus open to faults. I'd imagine they'd probably reveal that Tenzin didn't actually get preferential treatment, just that Aang was harder on him in different ways due to the expectations he had for him.

Or maybe he was actually taking Tenzin on deep, spiritual journeys and kept getting distracted by things from his childhood, I dunno.

>>114220

Well his first child is a non bender and then his second was a water bender so he probably reserved to being The Last and then Tenzin came and he had a successor. Also I can see Aang communicating the whole Last Airbender thing and Tenzin taking it kinda wrong and turning into a uber stern character about it all. Weight or no weight that personality trait has cause a hell lot of friction. Hope he comes to understand that at some point.

>>114220
His mother was a master waterbender, probably regarded as one of the strongest in the world. His father was the fucking Avatar and not only that the last airbender who desperately needed to repopulate his race.

Having to live up to those sort of expectation must have been absolutely back-breaking.

Really it's surprising that Bumi ended up as well adjusted and good humoured as he did, 'cause he REALLY could have come off as incredibly bitter, rather than just feeling kind of excluded from a lot of stuff.

It is interesting though how they turned out.
- Bumi seemed to (at least subconsciously) overcompensate to make up for his lack of bending.
- Tenzin took the role he had as the de facto head of an entire culture so seriously he became the polar opposite of his father (or at least, when he's in humble mode he's very similar to Aang when he did the same).
- While with Kya, rather than trying to define herself in terms of what her parents or siblings had accomplished, she apparently tried to define herself as her own person... and is subsequencely called out for her seeming lack of direction, as a waterbender she didn't really have the problems or responsibilities that Bumi and Tenzin had to deal with.

It's like I can see why they ended up so different, despite their parents, and it's not really anyone's fault that they might have ended up they way they did, it's just their parents cast long shadows...

>>114220
I doubt Aang was actively going all Dursley Family on Bumi and Kya, he probably would have spoiled the fuck out of them when they first came along.

But when Tenzin came along he had a shit ton to do to prepare a little boy for the only possible candidate for carrying on an entire culture. They couldn't exactly hire a goddamn tutor to help him learn Airbending and I doubt at the time the Airaboos were in a good position to teach him about how the culture worked

Aang's kids are a pretty standard model for a three child family. The eldest tries the hardest at goals because he has to be an example to the little siblings, the middle kid is a little more aimless because she was caught between the split attention paid to the eldest and the baby.

Tenzin is the only deviation because instead of being the babied child who is the most laid back, he's the one who inherited such a massive responsibility the other two can never come within a mile of claiming they had it tougher.

>>114223
I want that to come out and for his grief over that burden responsibility to bring them to some understanding. Hell they are the children of the saviors of the world that is already a fucking burden double upon that rebuilding a line and upholding a legacy.

I tend to agree with the idea that Tenzin had an enormous amount of pressure on him growing up. Think about it, there was a time in his life where he was the last Air Bender, this must have been an incredible burden on him until he had kids who also turned out to be Air Benders.
One thing I do kind of fear about Bumi and Kya's respective adulthoods is that they don't seem to have any kids themselves. Does this kind of irk anyone else?

>>114230
Bum and Kya don't seem to be the kind of people to settle down and have children.

>>114231
Bumi might, but it seems like Kya is an old maid who would rather live with her mother than start her own family.

Are we sure that her necklace isn't a betrothal necklace of any kind?

>>114233
It looks like it could be half of one. Could be an indication that she's a widow.

>>114233
Possibly. Although I wonder if writing Bumi and Kya as childless is just a lazy way to avoid having to make more characters. I kid, of course.
If they do have adult-age offspring I love to find out that one of them popped out an Air Bender.

>>114233
It's certainly possible. Since i'm going to assume she was raised in the SWT, it's possible that it's just viewed as a necklace. The whole betrothed thing might just be a NWT thing unless SWT picked it up.

>>114236
>Although I wonder if writing Bumi and Kya as childless is just a lazy way to avoid having to make more characters.
Honestly, I wouldn't blame them if some characters didn't have kids (like potentially Sokka) just on the basis of they didn't want to create new characters who would inevitably have to show up because they're related to the gaang.

It's like Schrodinger's Cat but with kids, they exist and don't exist at the same time.

Though I wonder if they'd ever pull a Lu Ten again and someone DID have a kid who ended up dying relatively young.

>>114233
It's certainly possible. Since i'm going to assume she was raised in the SWT, it's possible that it's just viewed as a necklace. The whole betrothed thing might just be a NWT thing unless SWT picked it up.

>>114236
Ones a Wild Air Nomad Bounty Hunter

>>114240
The other's a calm-minded healer.

They fight crime.

>>114240
>>114241
You got the money part right.

>>114250
Did these people like sleep through English class or something?

>>114253
They're speaking Angrish, on the basis that spelling and punctuation, much like logic, common sense, and coherent thought, don't matter if you're offended and emotional enough.

So I thought Kya was the oldest, as this chart seems to indicate. What happened? Did they change it? It seemed to work better the other way, IMO.

>>114264
I think at the point in time when that family tree was made, they hadn't decided on the order yet, besides from Tenzin being the youngest. I do agree that it makes more sense for Bumi to be the middle child, though - if the three were fairly close in age, I can see Sokka taking Bumi under wing, which combined with Aang's mercurial personality would certainly explain a lot about Bumi's approach to life.

>>114267
>I can see Sokka taking Bumi under wing, which combined with Aang's mercurial personality would certainly explain a lot about Bumi's approach to life.

New head canon, thank you. Uncle Sokka is the best, I would love to see something like that in a flashback.

Did this episode feel super slow to anyone else? I mean, look at how much plot and character development a single episode of ATLA was able to convey. Now compare that with everything that happened here. Where did it all go? I just want something to happen, instead of teasing that something might happen eventually.

>>114264
Does Bumi look a lot different here than in the show to anyone else? His skin is much lighter in the show, and I think his face is a bit rounder.

>>114285
It felt slow but I felt like it carried a lot more character development than your average ATLA episode (save for some examples).

>>114285
Slow, no, but the pacing was as bad as it has been since the beginning. They don't know how to make this show flow in a way that seems effortless, that kind of Cowboy Bebop feeling.

>>114285
Bumi has been land bound for about six months so yea his tan faded and he got fatter not being on ship. If he has to be Ackbar for the SWT Rebel forces then he'd turn back into the leaner weathered version. I've really no complaints if this turns into Avatar Wars.

>>114233
I looked closely at her necklace and it looked like there was a plain, heart-shaped metal attached to it. No water tribe design or anything. I think she’s just wearing it like a hippie kind of thing.

>>114233 >>114235 >>114298

It really looks like a betrothal necklace--either the trend caught on in the South and Kya's necklace is their version, or the design in the North has moved on from a round medallion to a crescent moon (which is also a water tribe symbol).

If she is a widow it would give an extra layer of meaning as to why she decided to drop everything and move back to the South with Katara after Aang died, and why she's so resentful of her brothers for not being there for their mom when it happened. Her brothers haven't had a spouse die on them, they don't understand the pain Kya or Katara have gone through.

It is also possible that Kya and/or Bumi have adult children, who don't really need to make an appearance in the show because they are 30 and have their own lives and maybe kids to attend to. Tenzin is the youngest at 51, remember.

>>114285
Yeah, compared to an episode like The Blue Spirit, it really feels like nothing happened in this one.

That said, I wouldn't mind a slower episode so much if the progression of the plot didn't feel so... unsurprising, I guess is the word? I get that Tenzin, Bumi and Kya have issues. And I get that the North and South are on the brink of civil war. But I feel like I already knew all that since the preview of the last episode pretty much.

I'd still say the pacing has improved since season one.

It could go either way whether the SWT had an engagement necklace tradition, given Katara's reaction back in "The Waterbending Master". The important exchange is...

* * *

KATARA: Thanks for the lesson.

YUGODA: So, who's the lucky boy?

KATARA: Huh?

YUGODA (pointing at her neck): Your betrothal necklace. You're getting married, right?

KATARA (smiling): No, I don't think I'm ready for that yet. My grandmother gave my mother this necklace, and my mother passed it down to me.

* * *

You could read that two ways: Katara is surprised that the necklace means anything at all, or Katara is clarifying that it's an old engagement necklace that's now just a family heirloom. (Korra, for her part, seems to at least know the basics of the tradition -- she tells Bolin that men are supposed to be the ones giving them, not receiving them.)

Although I think it'd tie in nicely with Unalaq's general complaint about the SWT losing touch with tradition if the engagement necklace isn't so much of a thing anymore. Senna, for instance, doesn't wear one, despite (presumably) being married to Tonraq.

Kya's a generation or two behind Senna, so perhaps it's an outdated tradition in the South. One younger people either don't do, or just that the women accept engagement necklaces but don't actually wear them continually.

>>114584
I didn't notice Senna wasn't wearing one, kind of odd considering her husband would have been chief of the NWT if Unalaq hadn't fucked it up. Tonraq must have abandoned those traditions to assimilate better into the South? Or something?

The betrothal necklace Eska gave to Bolin was an extreme example, but since it was still recognised as such, that still proves that not all necklaces must look exactly like Katara's. Furthermore, the important part of the necklace which designates it as a betrothal seems to be the dark fabric band, not the decorations. So just by looking at it, Kya is definitely wearing one, and it wasn't passed down to her by Katara.

We also know that, because Katara's grandmother decided to pass it down, it probably wasn't a tradition in the South when she was young. If it is now, it must have been introduced by Northern immigrants to helped to rebuild the South after the war. Since Senna isn't wearing one though I think this is unlikely and the South still doesn't give a fuck about necklaces.

Given all this, it's extremely likely Kya was married (or at least engaged) to a man from the North. I wonder where he is now?

>>114592
I'm betting that in Korra's time, particularly in the South, it's just something you can do if you want to. Maybe when Senna and Tonraq were dating she mentioned not wanting a necklace or something.