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ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Are you mocking me?

Two Tone Shoes posted:

A bit of competence from the protagonists and the same ending of one episode not being used for the very next episode. Imagine if Korra went avatar state to cleanup a dramatic fight then used it again, only it was even bigger, in a similar situation in the very next episode. It's basically what they did with the equalists here.

The protagonists have shown a lot of competence though. That's part of what sells the villains as effective. Every time they've won it is because of surprise and guile and in unequal odds. The endings of the two episodes aren't at all similar aside from "this is an Equalist victory." It didn't use similar structure either time. Hell, one of the biggest things that happened here was Asami turning against her father, which doesn't remotely have an equivalent in the Pro-Bending fight.

How would you have ended this episode? What would have come across as competent to you without undermining what occurred in it?

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Death Bot
Mar 4, 2007

Binary killing machines, turning 1 into 0 since 0011000100111001 0011011100110110

Honestly this kind of pacing feels more appropriate for a movie. The main characters haven't really had a win against the antagonists in a while yet, and while that can be okay for half an hour in a movie that isn't usually good for a half season (nearly two months!) of a television show.

I just wanna see cool benders do cool things, dang.


ImpAtom posted:

How would you have ended this episode? What would have come across as competent to you without undermining what occurred in it?

It wouldn't have been too hard to have some sort of situation where the Metalbenders apprehend someone to find more information, or the protagonists winning a skirmish and not finding any leads. We understand that the characters do need to be on the back foot at this point in the story in order to have a realization -> comeback kind of scenario, but they're lost basically encounter that they've had so far.

Death Bot fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 03:20

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009


ImpAtom posted:

The protagonists have shown a lot of competence though. That's part of what sells the villains as effective. Every time they've won it is because of surprise and guile and in unequal odds. The endings of the two episodes aren't at all similar aside from "this is an Equalist victory." It didn't use similar structure either time. Hell, one of the biggest things that happened here was Asami turning against her father, which doesn't remotely have an equivalent in the Pro-Bending fight.

How would you have ended this episode? What would have come across as competent to you without undermining what occurred in it?

I have no problems with the episode as an isolated thing. I just had severe deja vu where the ending of last episode was "Equalists set a clever trap and defeat our heroes using superior technology" and the ending of this one was "Equalists set a clever trap and defeat our heroes using superior technology." While the character development was different (last episode was Lin coming around to Korra, this episode was establishing Asami and Korra coming around to her), the story progression was practically identical. We even got Lin looking angry and dejected about their loss and how her super special cops got beat.

I am not a professional writer and the "How would you do it better?" point doesn't really have bearing. I felt like it was a nicely used mechanic the first time which downgraded to mildly annoying the second.


Death Bot posted:

Honestly this kind of pacing feels more appropriate for a movie. The main characters haven't really had a win against the antagonists in a while yet, and while that can be okay for half an hour in a movie that isn't usually good for a half season (nearly two months!) of a television show.

I just wanna see cool benders do cool things, dang.

This guy gets it.

Two Tone Shoes fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 03:27

Mazerunner
Apr 22, 2010

Flipping the Fuck Out


Two Tone Shoes posted:

You are seriously not grasping my point. I get why they're winning. I'm saying it's over halfway through the first season and every fight is a resounding and enormous loss for the team and we've had to explain why that's totally okay everytime and it's getting annoying to me.

The last 5 minutes of the last episode, the climax of the whole bit was the Equalists unveiling dangerous new technology that took our crew by surprise and handed them a sour loss. They reused the exact same thing again as the climax of this episode with the exact same ending. It even ended with an Electric Baton mook getting his rear end beat before people ran away.

You're acting like I'm questioning why they're winning, but I'm not. I'm just unenthusiastic about the exact same thing happening in back to back episodes.

What about when Korra and Mako infiltrated an Equalist rally and escaped with Bolin? Or Tenzin'sTarlokk's raid on the Equalist training facility?

And there hasn't been anymore foreshadowing about what's behind Amon's mask than there was with why Ozai was always cloaked in shadow. A lot of people following along then made the same argument- that if it's hidden, there must be something worth hiding, with the big money on a scar like Zuko's. Except there wasn't and that was much more interesting.

Same deal here. Maybe there is some big twist about who Amon really is, but how would that fit thematically? To me, Amon's message is much more meaningful if he is telling (mostly) the truth, and he stands on his own as a character and villain much better without shoehorning in Aang or Sokka or trying to make ~*drama*~ with Tenzin's brother or something.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Are you mocking me?

Death Bot posted:

Honestly this kind of pacing feels more appropriate for a movie. The main characters haven't really had a win against the antagonists in a while yet, and while that can be okay for half an hour in a movie that isn't usually good for a half season (nearly two months!) of a television show.

I just wanna see cool benders do cool things, dang.

Yeah, but they're very very clearly going for "this is not a problem you can punch." Korra's character is strong physically but weak spiritually, and she tends to resort to solving her problems by hitting things. Much like how Aang simply can't run away from his problems/deflect them in the original show, Korra is being put in a position where victory can't come from her running in and beating up the bad guys.

So for a victory to occur and not undermine what they're doing, Korra has to win a victory that involves more than just punching dudes in the face. The structure is such that a 'punching dudes in the face' victory probably isn't a good thing. (Such as why the Equalist Raid that Korra is part of doesn't come across as victory, because it's Korra punching things.)

For Aang, becoming willing to fight was part of his character growth. Korra is set up to be Aang's exact opposite in almost every way and that includes her character growth being "find a solution that doesn't involve fighting." Which is going to almost certainly happen, but it happening at the mid-point of the seasons has things happen a bit too quickly. Instead, we're seeing Korra take small steps towards maturity. (i.e: working with Asami instead of being bitter and angry about her.) The 'victories' we're getting are parts where Korra does something besides get angry or upset and punch things.

ImpAtom fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 03:22

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010

AFTERNOON!!!

IT'STIMEFORENGLISHYESITIS


BigBoss posted:

The elevators are kind of like a funicular. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular

I think there's also one in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I'm fairly certain there was one in Halo 2 and the Fallout: New Vegas Lonesome Road DLC as well.

Two Tone Shoes posted:

I think the face behind the mask will be more tied to the flashbacks than a pet theory of it being someone we already know. I was just contending that it is very important WHO Amon is, even if the reason why isn't revealed completely yet.

Perhaps, but I personally hope that his face is never revealed. Regardless, I'm sure that however they decide to pull it off, it'll be worth watching.

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009


Mazerunner posted:

What about when Korra and Mako infiltrated an Equalist rally and escaped with Bolin? Or Tenzin'sTarlokk's raid on the Equalist training facility?

And there hasn't been anymore foreshadowing about what's behind Amon's mask than there was with why Ozai was always cloaked in shadow. A lot of people following along then made the same argument- that if it's hidden, there must be something worth hiding, with the big money on a scar like Zuko's. Except there wasn't and that was much more interesting.

Same deal here. Maybe there is some big twist about who Amon really is, but how would that fit thematically? To me, Amon's message is much more meaningful if he is telling (mostly) the truth, and he stands on his own as a character and villain much better without shoehorning in Aang or Sokka or trying to make ~*drama*~ with Tenzin's brother or something.

The first was hardly a victory, Amon literally let them get away because he's anti-bending Xanatos. Second one is fair but came in the same episode where Korra got surprised, beaten, and had her ego destroyed in the ending.

Also there hasn't been foreshadowing about what's behind Amon's mask? You mean besides where he gives a questionable story to a giant crowd about what's behind his mask, and where Korra has frightening dreams about what's behind his mask?

Also why do you go straight back to shoehorning in past characters. I've already specifically stated that I don't think that's what's going to happen and that it's not even my point if it was. Just that saying "What's behind Amon's mask isn't important," is wrong.

Mazerunner
Apr 22, 2010

Flipping the Fuck Out


Two Tone Shoes posted:

The first was hardly a victory, Amon literally let them get away because he's anti-bending Xanatos. Second one is fair but came in the same episode where Korra got surprised, beaten, and had her ego destroyed in the ending.

Also there hasn't been foreshadowing about what's behind Amon's mask? You mean besides where he gives a questionable story to a giant crowd about what's behind his mask, and where Korra has frightening dreams about what's behind his mask?

Also why do you go straight back to shoehorning in past characters. I've already specifically stated that I don't think that's what's going to happen and that it's not even my point if it was. Just that saying "What's behind Amon's mask isn't important," is wrong.

Woops, I got you confused with the Elmer Fudd guy who brought up the Amon is Aang theory, so sorry about that.

raditts
Feb 21, 2001

The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Two Tone Shoes posted:

I said they've won every single engagement that's happened in the show thus far and made our cast of super competent badasses look like mooks everytime. I didn't say they had to lose easily, just that not watching the protagonists be unconscious a lot is getting repetitive. This time the 3 biggest badass protagonists got beat by a rich guy and henchmen a through j and got beat handily.

Well, if you think about it, it is an interesting thematic reversal from TLA where our ragtag group of heroes won pretty consistently. It doesn't seem that ridiculous when the underdogs are the guys you're rooting for. I mean, it is kind of made out that the Equalists have superior numbers on their side, but you could argue a "from my point of view it's the Jedi Benders that are evil!" type situation.

Two Tone Shoes
Jan 2, 2009


Maybe I'm just less favorable to depressing losses of the dudes I'm rooting for. Like I said it was still a good episode, I just had one major peeve with it and now I'm sullying the entire series or something because I don't think it's perfect.

qbert
Oct 23, 2003

It's both thrilling and terrifying.

Baron Bifford posted:

I was stunned that they investigate Sato on such flimsy pretexts. An ambiguous conversation on the phone and Korra thinks "Equalists"? Sato allows the police to turn his factories inside out without a warrant?

This is a fantasy nation, not America. The whole city government is a council of 5 dudes. Best not to think too much into warrants and judicial process and such.

Fake edit: Sato gave them his permission to check all his factories.

Death Bot
Mar 4, 2007

Binary killing machines, turning 1 into 0 since 0011000100111001 0011011100110110

ImpAtom posted:

Yeah, but they're very very clearly going for "this is not a problem you can punch." Korra's character is strong physically but weak spiritually, and she tends to resort to solving her problems by hitting things. Much like how Aang simply can't run away from his problems/deflect them in the original show, Korra is being put in a position where victory can't come from her running in and beating up the bad guys.

I definitely agree with basically everything you're saying, but due to the fact that this pacing is spread out over a television season it's just a little slow for me. In TLA, the whole pacifist aspect of Aang wasn't even really played up as a major plot point until halfway through the third season (as far as I remember) with him not wanting to kill the Fire Lord. Even in the episodes where this was brought up, it wasn't usually the center of the episode.

In Korra, however, the central plot dominates a lot of the airtime, with the different locale set-pieces and episodic story elements generally being removed. This means that the character development that would usually be happening in small bits and pieces over a season are instead a large part of the actual show, and as such the glacial speed of this development is extremely apparent.

I think I got off to a little bit of a tangent but the main point I'm trying to make is that in Korra these particular losses against the antagonists are that much painful because they're all that's happening, compared to TLA where the closest equivalent was the Earth Kingdom secret police which was over a few spread out episodes, and the Fire Lord escaping, again only spread out over a few episodes with a prison break sequence in between.

mistaya
Oct 18, 2006

SORA DONALD GOOFY!

Lin is the best. Straight up wolverine stabbing that mech in the face. And Tenzin finally did some airbending! Yay! (He was not the leaf at the end there though.)

You'd think that the metalbenders would be decent earthbenders, since metalbending is an advanced form. I don't want all metalbending all the time. I hope going OUTSIDE the LAW means more traditional battle-bending.

I think the heroes are due for a win, hopefully they get one next episode. Bolin continues to be the best comic relief. Hand puppeting poor Tenzin's unconscious body was even better than talking-Pabu.

Aurubin
Mar 17, 2011

A smug, enlightened bastard

While I imagine it frees them up to concentrate on the wonderful character animations, I do miss the transient nature of the first series. I miss all the new architectural motifs, whereas Republic City is essentially 1920's Hong Kong.

Maxwell Adams
Oct 21, 2000

T E E F S

This episode totally shot down my pet theory. I thought that Amon actually didn't have the power to remove a person's bending ability, and he was getting his support from organized crime. Amon's targets for dramatic de-bending would always be heavily involved in crime, and they would all just pretend to have their bending taken away to promote the cause.

Classtoise
Feb 11, 2008

Classy Tortoise Chap

Phil Resch posted:

It's wishful thinking. I just replayed that part, and he says "Not even your renowned mother could bend a metal so pure."

Yeah. If Toph were still alive and she heard someone doubt her power, I'm pretty sure the entire complex would "spontaneously" cave in.

Also, I like that I was right about Asami. "She only likes him cuz she's secretly evil" just felt like such a cheap cliched plot point, and I'm glad we avoided it.

raditts
Feb 21, 2001

The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Maxwell Adams posted:

This episode totally shot down my pet theory. I thought that Amon actually didn't have the power to remove a person's bending ability, and he was getting his support from organized crime. Amon's targets for dramatic de-bending would always be heavily involved in crime, and they would all just pretend to have their bending taken away to promote the cause.

Yeah, I was hanging onto that theory too, despite it being less plausible as time went by.

seravid
Apr 21, 2010

Let me tell you of the world I used to know


You'd think criminal benders would want to keep the population docile, what could they possibly gain by helping foment a violent revolution against themselves?

Bocc Kob
Oct 26, 2010


Two Tone Shoes posted:

You do not mask someone and make that mask incredibly important if you do not intend for the removal of the mask to be equally important. I think it'd be a little too simple if Amon is just Amon and his entire story at the rally is true and he's just SOME GUY who got wronged by a (fire)bender and SPIRITS decided that sucked.

I think it'd be cooler if Amon really were just "some guy". Like Amon is a fictional character the Equalist leadership made to be their face, so if he ever got defeated or captured, another Amon pops up to take his place and the movement doesn't crumble without him.

But since he has mysterious powers and with the importance they place on legacies, it probably will be a dude tied to some past event in some way.

M. Propagandalf
Aug 9, 2008


GenericOverusedName posted:

Her talk about going outside the law is making me think that she's going all The Phantom on us, and I personally cannot loving wait for that.

There's a lot of potential for Lin to go down a vicious downward spiral, especially if she discovers her officers were de-bended (which I imagine they will be).

Looks like the original speculation that Asami paid off the refs was off. Either it was just rigged to begin with, or Amon did it in order to avoid being forced into martyring Korra and being a jerk to the team that played fair.

The relationship breakdowns with the declaration of war has been well played - it's nice seeing how Amon's dramatic appeal of "us vs them" is filtering out people who want a more peaceful approach to non-bender equality, culminating in the break with the Sato family.

Cicero
Dec 17, 2003

Jumpjet, melta, jumpjet. Repeat for ten minutes or until victory is assured.

Lin's arm spike impaling of the mech was a great double reference to FMA and X-Men.

randombattle
Oct 16, 2008

This hand of mine shines and roars! It's bright cry tells me to grasp victory!



M. Propagandalf posted:

There's a lot of potential for Lin to go down a vicious downward spiral, especially if she discovers her officers were de-bended (which I imagine they will be).

Looks like the original speculation that Asami paid off the refs was off. Either it was just rigged to begin with, or Amon did it in order to avoid being forced into martyring Korra and being a jerk to the team that played fair.

Lin isn't gonna have some horrible downward spiral. She is gonna go all Batman on the Equalists and take them down using less than legal tactics.

I'm not sure why people keep thinking outside parties bribed the judges in the final match. If the Wolf Bats didn't bribe them how did they know that they could cheat and get away with it. It makes no sense at all to think they have been cheating the whole time and just hoping random people pay off the judges in their favor that's just ridiculous. It's perfectly reasonable and makes way more sense to say that yes the slimy and rich team defending their title bribed the judges with the money that they clearly have rather then saying that Amon bribed the judges and somehow the Wolf Bats knew but didn't mention that to Korra or anyone later.

Je suis fatigue
May 5, 2009

Amazing! It's a double J.O.!


randombattle posted:

I'm not sure why people keep thinking outside parties bribed the judges in the final match. If the Wolf Bats didn't bribe them how did they know that they could cheat and get away with it. It makes no sense at all to think they have been cheating the whole time and just hoping random people pay off the judges in their favor that's just ridiculous. It's perfectly reasonable and makes way more sense to say that yes the slimy and rich team defending their title bribed the judges with the money that they clearly have rather then saying that Amon bribed the judges and somehow the Wolf Bats knew but didn't mention that to Korra or anyone later.
Is it that far of a stretch that someone could have told them the ref was bought?

randombattle
Oct 16, 2008

This hand of mine shines and roars! It's bright cry tells me to grasp victory!



Je suis fatigue posted:

Is it that far of a stretch that someone could have told them the ref was bought?

Yes because they would mention that in one of the many times they were interviewed and when Tano said for Korra to go get Amon for him.

BrianWilly
Apr 24, 2007


randombattle posted:

Lin isn't gonna have some horrible downward spiral. She is gonna go all Batman on the Equalists and take them down using less than legal tactics.
I dunno about that. I mean, yes, she's definitely going to turn into Batman, that part's true, but I don't think Tenzin would look so apprehensive and bothered by her decision if we're meant to think that this is going to lead to good things for Lin. Also you have to take into account the message it would send to the show's target demographic if a police officer quits her job and starts breaking laws and it's somehow depicted as a good thing.

The impression I got was that, without Lin leading the police, Tarrlok is going to make a giant mess of things and make the city's problems worse and worse.

raditts
Feb 21, 2001

The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

M. Propagandalf posted:

Looks like the original speculation that Asami paid off the refs was off. Either it was just rigged to begin with, or Amon did it in order to avoid being forced into martyring Korra and being a jerk to the team that played fair.

Why couldn't it have been Hiroshi? It seems a lot more logical that he was the briber, especially given this last episode.

randombattle posted:

I'm not sure why people keep thinking outside parties bribed the judges in the final match. If the Wolf Bats didn't bribe them how did they know that they could cheat and get away with it. It makes no sense at all to think they have been cheating the whole time and just hoping random people pay off the judges in their favor that's just ridiculous. It's perfectly reasonable and makes way more sense to say that yes the slimy and rich team defending their title bribed the judges with the money that they clearly have rather then saying that Amon bribed the judges and somehow the Wolf Bats knew but didn't mention that to Korra or anyone later.

Because Amon's whole theatrical appearance depended on the Wolfbats winning, and if they'd been cheating all along, the announcer wouldn't have made as big a deal of it.

raditts fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 06:53

blurry!
Jun 14, 2006

Sorry for Party Flocking


I don't mind being proven wrong that Asami is on Team Korra's side. However, gotta agree that everyone getting killed by firebenders seems to be getting cheaper.

It seems that the biggest problem with Republic City is that criminal benders run rampant underneath the bending establishment. Evidently warrants aren't really needed, so what's stopped the government from shutting down the Triads? Apparently they're running around doing their dirty business in broad daylight, including murder. Maybe bender privilege manifests itself by weak prosecution of bender-on-non crime. If Sato, a man of huge wealth and power, didn't see justice served for his wife's murder for one reason or another, then his righteous indignation is justified. However, if they caught the bender responsible, and he was justly tried and found guilty of his crime, then Sato doesn't exactly have a point.

The message of the Equalists needs to run deeper than "a bender did a bad thing to me, therefore all benders are bad". If the Equalists are simply the equivalent to racists, then I'm going to be really disappointed. Because that would be a really weird message to send. Honestly, it'd be like those times that White Christian Heterosexual Males go on about how oppressed they are because all these minorities want equal pay and treatment. Benders have power both physical, political and economical, I hope some instance of systematic oppression is given soon.

I really hope this doesn't turn into that. Please let there be some validity to the Equalist movement, but have it be corrupted by hate and anger.

DivisionPost
Jun 28, 2006

Human beings in the mire
What's a mire to a King?
What's a King to a God?
What's a God to a nonbeliever
Who don't believe in anything?


So I meant to schedule this for 8 AM tomorrow and make it look like I had a life but oh well. My review of the latest episode.

Just to keep some discussion/viewpoint-sharing in the thread and not be a complete hit-whore, it was a solid episode that really could have been better if there was a little more time to develop Hiroshi's character before his heel turn. I get the inherent problem with that when you've only got twelve episodes and it's not really that important in the grand scheme to get to know him, but as a result these huge developments in the story feel rather slight. As I said in the review, it feels more like I watched a really good filler episode as opposed to a "poo poo just got REAL" episode.

BrianWilly
Apr 24, 2007


Something to keep in mind was that, in addition to the bit about benders murdering his wife, Hiroshi also mentioned that they "ruined the world." It still falls in line with Amon's argument about benders being the cause of all of the world's ills.

There is a fundamental inequality at play here; benders fight wars with other benders, they build nations that are empowered by bending, and when something goes wrong, they send benders to bend the problem away. Whether or not a non-bender's general quality of life is unbalanced, their given role in the natural constitution of the world is very finite.

I would be shocked if these things aren't explored more thoroughly as the show goes on.

DivisionPost
Jun 28, 2006

Human beings in the mire
What's a mire to a King?
What's a King to a God?
What's a God to a nonbeliever
Who don't believe in anything?


BrianWilly posted:

Something to keep in mind was that, in addition to the bit about benders murdering his wife, Hiroshi also mentioned that they "ruined the world." It still falls in line with Amon's argument about benders being the cause of all of the world's ills.

There is a fundamental inequality at play here; benders fight wars with other benders, they build nations that are empowered by bending, and when something goes wrong, they send benders to bend the problem away. Whether or not a non-bender's general quality of life is unbalanced, their given role in the natural constitution of the world is very finite.

I would be shocked if these things aren't explored more thoroughly as the show goes on.

Very fair, but when you've got three separate "firebenders murdered my family" sob stories it tends to be a sticking point. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a method behind the madness here, but until we wait for that to be revealed, it feels kind of cheap.

Classtoise
Feb 11, 2008

Classy Tortoise Chap

randombattle posted:

Yes because they would mention that in one of the many times they were interviewed and when Tano said for Korra to go get Amon for him.

Wait, why would they admit to being bought off?

Also, why the gently caress wouldn't Tahno want Korra to get Amon for him just because someone else bankrolled their teams cheating? It's not like he would KNOW Amon did it.

Captain Capacitor
Jan 20, 2008

The code you say?


DivisionPost posted:

"firebenders murdered my family"

Just goes to show that Daniel Dae Kim is typecast in all the best ways

Solenna
Jun 5, 2003

...what

Little things I've been noticing about this show that I like: Bolin's pretty drat swole, despite being a comic relief character. Korra doesn't wear makeup but Asami does instead of them both defaulting to is a girl: wears lipstick like a lot of shows. Korra still isn't thrilled Mako's with Asami but she's accepting their relationship. I actually felt bad for Tahno, even his hair deflated in defeat.

I would like to see more water bending though, it's being wildly underutilized especially now that the pro-bending is over and Korra isn't forced to use it. Ice and water whips would be great against giant robots!

Awesomonster
Feb 26, 2008

Because there's always an ending.


The thing about the multiple "firebenders killed my loved ones" back stories is that the writers seem way too savvy to not have there be something more to it than that. I refuse to believe that its just weak writing or a coincidence on a show where everything else is so tightly written and thought out. I'm gonna have (potentially naive) confidence in the writers that they have a reason for just about everybody to have had family killed by firebenders instead of just an easy Tragic Backstory out, mainly because it'd be exceptionally dumb if that turned out to be the case.

tsob
Sep 26, 2006

Chalalala~


qbert posted:

I'm really loving the moral ambiguity of this new series, or at the very least giving all the villains sympathetic motivations.

I may be alone on this, but I actually feel Korra is worse about this than the original show. The original show the villains had pretty obviously evil motives, but a lot of the antagonistic characters were potrayed sympathetically and were given some depth. In Korra, it's the opposite: their apparent reasons for villainy are sympathetic, but none of the actual characters are. There isn't one named antagonist that you have any reason to care for. Even after this episode. It's hard to feel sympathy for Sato given that as soon as he was called on his support of the Equalist movement he fell back on racist remarks and propoganda, while his entire reason for supporting them appears to be personal revenge.

Additionally, while the Equalist's cause might be more sympathetic on the surface, there's been nothing to really say how sympathetic it is. Sure, life is probably harder for the average non-bender compared to the average bender and the government should probably be doing more to off sit that, but the only actual issues that have shown up so far are the city being run by unelected people and lack of warrants. There's not one concrete showing of institutionalized preferential treatment, just some incidental things like firebenders having the oppurtunity for one more low paying job than a non-bender in the power plant and criminals being dicks. Something they'd do regardless, just with different weapons. And honestly, I think that's better than potraying the council as uniformly racist fucks preying on the innocent non-benders, who are left no option but to revolt because the entire system has been set up specifically to screw them over since it adds more moral ambiguity to me to have Amon riling up the populace of the city using rhetoric and showmanship against a lazy government. This only works if the Equalists are shown to be human as well though, and that's hard to do when all of them wear masks. Which means the show is possibly going to end up with the worst of both methods: faceless, unsympathetic villains and a simple cause - given the lack of clear inequality when the season about social inequality is already more than halfway done.

Personally, I wish Asami had turned out to know what her dad was doing and have worked for the Equalists but disagreed with them because she found their methods, cult of personality and desire to attack all benders reprehensible, causing her to rebel against her father and join the Krew after the end of the last episode. It'd give a good oppurtunity to explore the actual issues the Equalits have problems with, how to fix them and humanize the Equalist ranks. Sadly, even the one defector shown in the episode turned out to by lying.

I guess it's just preference, but I'd prefer human characters in an inhuman cause to inhuman characters in a human cause.

tsob fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 09:33

Jadeilyn
Nov 20, 2004


mistaya posted:

Lin is the best. Straight up wolverine stabbing that mech in the face. And Tenzin finally did some airbending! Yay! (He was not the leaf at the end there though.)

You'd think that the metalbenders would be decent earthbenders, since metalbending is an advanced form. I don't want all metalbending all the time. I hope going OUTSIDE the LAW means more traditional battle-bending.

I think the heroes are due for a win, hopefully they get one next episode. Bolin continues to be the best comic relief. Hand puppeting poor Tenzin's unconscious body was even better than talking-Pabu.

I think that the metalbending cops stick to using their own metal because it's usually effective and far less destructive than tearing up buildings and roads. It's similar to how the Dai Li generally used their stone fists - both were employed forces working in highly developed areas where they couldn't cause property damage without consequences.

I'm hopeful that we will see Tenzin kick rear end more. Even in the 30 or so seconds we saw him fight in the episode he showed off some awesome new moves.

kater
Nov 16, 2010


I felt so bad for the metalcops, even before Lin rocked the blood oath. They were just dudes, fighting a bunch of goddamn mechas. When they were wearily canvasing the garage and then fell in line to march down... it was pretty drat epic. And then assholes Bolin and That Other Guy just picked up the main characters instead of them...

I also kinda sorta think Amon is full of poo poo. In that he can't actually lock away anyone's powers. Who's he done it to so far? A bunch of loving criminals and hooligans. Sure, we got to see Tahno make one hell of an OhGod face, but he's just a really good actor!

FronzelNeekburm
Jun 1, 2001

STOP, MORTTIME


Acebuckeye13 posted:

I'm fairly certain there was one in Halo 2 and the Fallout: New Vegas Lonesome Road DLC as well.
And Half-Life.

blurry! posted:

Evidently warrants aren't really needed, so what's stopped the government from shutting down the Triads? Apparently they're running around doing their dirty business in broad daylight, including murder. Maybe bender privilege manifests itself by weak prosecution of bender-on-non crime.
I'm more inclined to believe the police just can't handle that level of crime. If the gangs are as widespread as we've seen so far, there might not be enough cops to take them down. Or if Lin doesn't see the problem, some of her cops may be on the take. Or as the first episode suggests, while hunting down Amon might not require a warrant, Lin insists on doing everything else by the book. She might not want the mob bosses to weasel their way out of conviction (although that's a small consolation to the people they extort).

FronzelNeekburm fucked around with this message at May 20, 2012 around 10:31

Dauntasa
Apr 17, 2011

Hey Dauntasa,
where's my million dollars in Nigerian gold?


Awesomonster posted:

The thing about the multiple "firebenders killed my loved ones" back stories is that the writers seem way too savvy to not have there be something more to it than that. I refuse to believe that its just weak writing or a coincidence on a show where everything else is so tightly written and thought out. I'm gonna have (potentially naive) confidence in the writers that they have a reason for just about everybody to have had family killed by firebenders instead of just an easy Tragic Backstory out, mainly because it'd be exceptionally dumb if that turned out to be the case.

I bet that Yakon guy was a firebender who went around murdering people's parents and stuff.

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Darth Walrus
Feb 13, 2012


It's worth remembering that Lin resigning isn't really her choice. She openly admits that Tarrlok's going to have her hide over the disaster the Sato raid turned into (especially after the similar debacle at the pro-bending arena), so going all vigilante is just her way of saying 'yeah, I'll try not to let that slow me down'.

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