giles said:
jamail77 said:
If the new Air Nation wants to be taken seriously, their first act shouldn't be meddling with the frail, anarchistic Earth Kingdom (they still haven't established a ruler, their actions could easily be viewed as an attempt to gain political power). Their vigilante acts is not so different from Kuvira's actions, albeit Kuvira is more organised to actually get shit done. She wouldn't send 2 young airbenders in training to fight a horde of bandits. I doubt the other nations would just buy into them being good natured.
I dunno maybe it will turn out that the Air Nation act as part of some kind of officially assigned UN task force or something, but right now it just looks like Tenzin making kids play Batman.
What? First off, while they were occasionally referred to as the Air Nation in the old show and here as well, they're not really a nation. They're monks/nomads/whatever. Tenzin evolved their role from that, of course. They clearly have been given a license to do what they're doing. They have been given acknowledgement regardless whether or not it's official. I don't see how they can be viewed as trying to gain political power considering not only how new they are, but also how FEW of them are. There's like what? Dozens of them, maybe? Yeah, that's a great force to seize political control with.
Yes, they're similar to Kuvira, but Kuvira is clearly aggressive about how she goes about things and if you're going to compare them to Kuvira then you can't call them vigilantes. She has sanction to do what she is doing as well.
To call them Batman is ingenuous; even with all the acknowledgement he gets he's got no license to do what he does. Tenzin was REQUESTED for help. It's not like there was an Avatar version of the bat signal that they turned on. The only reason he sent airbenders in training is because the Air Nation is spread so thin or at least that was my interpretation.
giles said:
Opal didn't actually talk with her boyfriend regarding her problems with Kuvira (at least not more than a few sentences) and it's not like they acted like they had that talk in the past either. She bitches at Bolin for "abandoning" the people, who retorts with the good point that they can't do anything because the governor didn't want them there. She LITERALLY pushes him away and turns around, crosses her arms and sulks. What is she, 6? Got no fucking response to that? Oh noes, Kuvira doesn't just randomly hand out help, leave and let everything to go to shit again but instead wants to unite her broken nation, what a monster. After Kuvira makes the contract with the governor and Bolin looks happy, she turns her back on him. How is that not passive aggressive and childish? At this point Kuvira has done nothing wrong (despite the show trying pretty hard to paint the contract as evil) and her method seems more reasonable than the Air Nation's literally failing attempt to help them. Opal just looks like an idiot for being mad at Bolin over this.
Unlike the last point, this is just a matter of difference of opinion. I actually know people classified as inherently passive aggressive. I don't consider Opal passive aggressive in this regard because of my past dealings with passive aggressive people. They hadn't talked in the past because they're separated a lot, I'm guessing. Bolin made a good retort. The problem here is that Bolin knows that Opal just wants him to leave Kuvira. He's not THAT thick. That's why she turns around: She doesn't approve of what he's doing anymore. It's also been made clear that Kuvira's method of uniting while noble is not looked fondly upon. She has been called a conqueror, a person of destruction, and a few other nasty things, all by people who experience the side effects of what she does firsthand or who have witnessed the actual problems she addresses more consistently than she does (She comes in, does what she does, leaves, doesn't stay to get a bigger picture, or at least that is how it comes off to me). As for that scene of Bolin looking happy, she looks at him sadly then walks away. Again, I don't call that passive aggressive. She has made her beefs clear enough. The only reason she isn't more specific is because of how frustrated she is over the whole thing. For me to call her passive aggressive, she would have to be doing NOTHING but the things you are highlighting. At least, she somewhat describes her beefs. That's not true passive aggressiveness to me. Like I said, we're just going to have to agree to disagree here.
giles said:
Kai didn't need to be in that scene. I understand that Opal has the useful side function of establishing that Bolin is no longer attracted to Korra (no more love triangles plz). Kai, however, could easily be replaced by Jinora or another of Tenzin's kids or maybe Bumi. Why do they all need to hang around their family? Kai can't be much older than the kids and he's doing his share. This is what I mean, Kai offers nothing that we didn't already have in abundance thanks to Tenzin having a shitton of kids, except for being Jinora's love interest.
Eh. Fair enough, I guess. I definitely agree with the "no more love triangles" sentiment. Dear god, NO. Just keep the creators away from the serious writing room. They're good world builders and visionaries, but their writing can get very iffy around certain topics, mostly political strawman and romantic stuff. They only wrote 2 of the fan favorite episodes of the old show and 1 of those was written with help from a colleague.
giles said:
Mako was bitching multiple times about his detective job. The problem is that this is ALL I remember him doing. Did he do anything else? Yea, some stuff was tied to the plot about him being a detective, but that seemed more like an attempt to give him something to do. Bolin mentions Mako is sleeping under his desk (when Mako was once again bitching how important working for the police is to him) so I thought it was kinda implied that the job was shitty. Did we ever learn why his police work is relevant to him? He was a criminal first and then he was kind of a professional athelte and now suddenly being in the police is the most important thing ever. I don't get him at all and I don't even care anymore.
Again, difference of opinion is all we have on this point. I don't interpret Mako as constantly bitching. That's more what Zuko does. In Zuko's case, it was central to his character though and written well enough to usually not be annoying. He definitely is the character to give stuff to do, to the point that in Book 2 Lin and the police force had to be dumbed down, so he could have his big detective moment. And, he wasn't even a detective yet! I always got the impression that the job was important because 1) he wants to redeem his criminal past (personal interpretation), 2) wanted to provide for himself and his brother (somewhat implied, mostly personal interpretation), and 3) enjoys it/has more talent for it than other things (actually stated, we see him genuinely happy and figuring out stuff on his own as early as Book 1 with Amon).
Frankly, Mako is the one character to never fully grow on me. Every other character I had problems with has grown on me eventually, which includes Korra, Asami, Bolin, Jinora, Meelo, Lin, everyone really. So, I don't blame you for not caring.