LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-13 AT 06:44 PM (EST)
[sabermetrical correction per Lime2K --G.]>> The
>>Knifehead-to-Leatherback ratio is just way too friggin' high
>>for my liking. It wears me down.
>
>Yeah, you and a lot of people, myself included.
OK. I promise this is the last time I'm going to go into detail about this.* Today I got to thinking: maybe I'm being unfair about this ratio thing. Maybe this is a manifestation of my perceptions over time, the way anecdotal evidence often ends up failing to match the actual statistical outcomes.
So, being trained both as a historian and an engineer, I did the decent thing. First I did some research and then I did some math.
Here is a list of all the significant points I could find, during a review of the first two series of The Legend of Korra, in which Korra notched what I viewed as a success or failure. In fairness, I will admit that some of these are subjective, as are the thresholds above and below which I decided not to count events at all. I left out, for instance, almost everything to do with her decisions regarding her personal life, and included meaningless wins at pro bending, which, in hindsight, I think skewed the numbers for Book 1 a bit to the positive side, but leave it. Book 2 speaks for itself despite that discrepancy.
Book 1: Air
Victorious in her firebending trial (but patronized by the White Lotus Masters)
Victorious against the Triple Threat Triad
Defeated (and humiliated) by the metalbender cops
Defeated by the airbending gates
Defeated by the airbending gates (again)
Victorious (barely) in her first pro bending match
Defeated by Amon's gimps
Victorious against the Equalist Doorman
Played for a sucker by Tarrlok
Defeated by Amon's gimps (again)
Victorious against the Buzzard Wasps (after serially screwing up the entire day, but we'll count it)
Played for a sucker by Tarrlok again and Amon
Defeated by the refs (not really the Wolfbats)
Victorious (sort of) over Lt. Batroc
Defeated by the mecha tanks
Humiliated by Tarrlok
Victorious over some random Equalists
Humiliated by Tarrlok again
Defeated by Tarrlok
Victorious over her captors at the cabin, if you can call being able to run the hell away a victory
Ran away from the Equalist attack on Air Temple Island
Outwitted by Amon
Defeated by Amon
Victorious (not very satisfyingly) over Amon
Wins: 9
Losses: 15
WIN PCT: 9/24 = 37.5%
Book 2: Spirits
Defeated by Unalaq's Reichstag-fire spirit
Played for a sucker by Unalaq
Defeated by more conveniently appearing dark spirits
Played for a sucker by Unalaq (I might as well just make a macro of this line)
Able to open the Southern Spirit Portal (although, should this really be green, considering?)
Played for a sucker by Unalaq
Played for a sucker by Unalaq
Played for a sucker by Unalaq
Ran away from the situation at the South Pole
Ignored by President Raiko
Played for a sucker by Varrick
Betrayed by Mako
Undercut by President Raiko
Defeated by the ocean spirit
Not even in basically three entire episodes
Successfully pacified some spirits
Played for a sucker by Unalaq
Defeated by Unalaq
Undercut by President Raiko again
Defeated by dark spirits again
Unable to prevent Vaatu's escape
Defeated by Vaatu
Defeated by Unalaq
Defeated by Unalaq/Vaatu, until Jinora suddenly shows up and presses the reset button
Victorious over Unalaq/Vaatu, finally
Wins: 3
Losses: 21
WIN PCT: 3/24 = 12.5%
TOTALS SO FAR
Wins: 12
Losses: 36
WIN PCT: 12/48 = 25%
So, well, there are the numbers. You tell me. Is it just me wanting easy mode, or is this show, in fact, fucking brutal to its title character? And the higher win-loss ratio in Book 1 cannot numerically reflect how monumentally unsatisfying most of the wins she eventually managed even were. (She didn't even really beat Amon so much as he ran past her with scissors and she tripped him. That's about as vindicative an experience as beating a speeding ticket on a technicality.) The most satisfying fight she had in the entire first season was her victory over the Equalist Doorman, for Christ's sake, and several of her logged victories were playing a game, and so probably should be weighted downward if I wanted to do the more complicated math involved.
Twelve point five percent. It truly boggles my mind.
And the hell of it is, it wouldn't bother me if the show was just so bad I didn't care what happened in it, but it's beautifully made and its protagonist is one of my favorite fictional characters anywhere, at any time, ever - so it hurts, it genuinely hurts that virtually all they ever show her doing is losing fights, walking into closed doors, checking the wrong box, backing the wrong horse, kissing the wrong man, and shedding tears of pain and humiliation. It hurts and it makes me angry, and that's why I keep banging on about it here, because it makes me feel like I'm being played for a sucker over and over again for being a fan in the first place. Kick the football, Charlie Brown!
--G.
* At least until Book 3 comes along and - I very much fear - shows me I hadn't seen anything yet.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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