Spoiler for season one, perhaps. It's not exactly surprising that an earthbender is a bit stubborn about getting what he wants.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Because seriously. I half expected him to bust out a z-formation series of snaps after that.

-Merc
Keep Rat

"This year's keynote speaker is an audio tape of droning moans leaden with subliminal tips about achieving personal prosperity and how to come clean about the terrible things you have done, you cretin."

I'm not sure those things are necessarily mutually exclusive.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I mean, seriously. He sits there in the dark, in his giant empty throne room, waiting for the naive young nexus of power he manipulated away from her friends and family to come report to him.

I'm surprised he didn't tell Korra that everything was proceeding exactly as he had foreseen it, and then ask her about the situation on the Forest Moon.

-Merc
Keep Rat

"We are at a presumptive war with a projected enemy whom we cannot yet see, or even be certain of, but who are probably bloodthirsty giants."

Yes, well, looking forward to the bottomless pit.

--G.
"The Dark Side of the Force is a route to many powers, some of them considered... fucking weird."
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

Master Iroh explains: "There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang; positive energy and negative energy. Only a select few firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance and in a moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together. You provide release and guidance, creating lightning."

TDTTOE. :)

Of course, it won't actually happen, because bending works differently beyond the veil, but it'd be pretty interesting to see that happen nonetheless. Iunno, maybe I'm just a sucker for great machines powered by a chorus of people.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

Not anymore, it isn't.

Lightningbending, much less metalbending, appears to have been democratized and industrialized by the time of Legend of Korra. Mako can lightningbend. Random Triad bosses can lightningbend. It's so common that power plants offer part-time work to lightningbenders to aim themselves at dynamos in order to generate juice for the city, and there's enough competition for those jobs to keep wages for them rather depressed.

The fanon explanation for this I like best is that lightningbending isn't actually all that HARD, it's just that under the ancien regime the various high-ranking firebenders were sitting on the technique and not teaching it to anyone who wasn't considered worthy; low-ranking soldiers just had to know how to hurl fireballs at their Earth Kingdom counterparts.

There's real-world precedent for that kind of thing; various nations have at times criminalized people who weren't part of the ruling elite from arming themselves with weapons that were considered too good for them (usually swords) while allowing them other forms of armament that weren't considered "noble."

-Merc
Keep Rat

"The Sheriff’s Secret Police said they can bring no charges against The Traveler, as Night Vale recently voted to decriminalize time travel."

...which is completely irrelevant to my point, that being "the creators have thought of it and made it a thing". But thank you for the clarification.

I'm not going to tell you to stop that, I recognize that it's your schtick, but can you maybe dial it back a little before someone murders you in your sleep?

--G.
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--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

-- Anakin Skywalker, Episode II, not really

I've already said what I think he needs to do. Anyway, it wasn't shattered, just dented. That'll buff out. :)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I have to admit that I'm, like, 40% convinced that Bolin is totally, totally gay and simply hasn't realized it yet. It would explain his attempts to woo ladies who are either very obviously not that into him or who radiate "BAD NEWS" to every person in a ten mile radius. Plus his generally high levels of fabulousity.

-Merc
Keep Rat

"Your existence is not impossible, but it’s also not very likely."

In light of the haircut this week...yeah, let's just go with that.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Columbia pilgrim

But still, I mean good god. "You've served your purpose"? Only evil people talk that way, Unalaq! Did you take Evil Overlord Elocution lessons while studying the Senator Palpatine Playbook?

-Merc
Keep Rat

Well, either he's a genuine medieval-Church-style jackbooted zealot ("Kill them all; God will know His own"), or he's playing one as part of a still bigger villain power game. Either way, A) I called it and B) he needs to die in a fire.

Modest Mussorgsky, this show tasks me. I'll give them this, they created a thoroughly investable protagonist. It's uncannily like watching an actual friend fuck up over and over again. :)

--G.
"Turns out that's actually one of my Avatar powers. Bending all four elements; bridge between the spirit and material worlds; choosing the wrong guy."
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

So she's the Prince Zuko of Avatars.

Actually, no fooling, I'd feel better about watching Korra make spectacularly bad personal choices if I thought the show was trying to deliberately build the same narrative around her that ATLA build around the Prince of Bad Decisions. Zuko learning to actually make good choices at least some of the time was painful at times but it was well-executed.

With Korra, I... honestly can't tell. Sometimes the show seems to celebrate or excuse her bad choices in ways that, say, it never celebrated Zuko siding with Princess Crazycakes.

-Merc
Keep Rat

It's just a shame this was a situation where she wasn't supposed to be reasonable.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

One of the issues Korra has is that her progress in "learning from her mistakes" and being able to properly "deal with" social maneuvering is that it seems to be operating on a 'two steps forward, one step back' principle. Praise and support is sucked up almost desperately, but the fuse is still present, and there's only so far she'll take it on the chin before lashing back out.

Keep in mind, by this point, Korra's only been out of the White Lotus compound for almost a year. If she'd been normally socialized from the get-go (which may have been impossible anyway, despite Tonraq and Senna's desire to give her a "normal life", thanks to her knowing she was the avatar -- possibly, it could've been worse!), then she would've had 12+ years of social reaction development that she still hasn't accumulated.

But, she's learning! She's slowly building her support network and peer group, and working on making her own choices, even if they're bad ones... and, well, mistakes are how people learn not to DO that thing again. Sometimes it just takes repeated blows to the head to get it to sink in.

--- Philip
(also, remember, there exists nothing like TV Tropes at that point in the Avatar world. Although Korra is capable of functioning in social environments, she isn't genre savvy since I don't think she was exposed to such genre stuff while growing up. The audience may (and did) immediately peg Unalaq as a villain, but Korra's got to learn it the hard way.)

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"

Much as I would love to cut her some slack, I'm... not convinced a person has to be "genre savvy" to smell what that guy's cooking. Besides, he's from the North. Even without the dubious guidance of web-based genre fandom, she should've figured out by now that those assholes can't be trusted. :)

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

(Fucking Hasook.)

I kept expecting Bolin at some point to say, in his oh-so-chipper voice, something like "Oh hey! Nice to meet you, Chief Unalaq. Hey, aren't you the guy who gave Tarrlok his job? I bet that makes things awkward between you and your niece! A ha ha ha ha! Ooooh, squid on a stick!"

-Merc
Keep Rat

I kept waiting to see if they'd hit all the "totally controlling girlfriend" tropes on their bingo cards by having Eska drag Bolin to an incredibly awkward dinner with her father. But it seems they decided to skip that step and go straight to the forced marriage part of the program.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Columbia pilgrim

I think I've turned a corner in my understanding of Bolin since I realized the other day that he is, in fact, Ray Stantz. Seriously. Any Ray line you can think of? Bolin's the one who would say it. He would let the others talk him into triple-mortgaging his house if he had one. He would warn people not to look at the trap after they'd already had a chance to look at the trap. He would say, "You forget we were present at a vast, unexplained undersea sponge migration!"

Bolin is the one who would think of Mister Stay Puft.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

And also brings me joy because the Ghostbusters are extant in UF and that means Bolin could become some sort of ectoplasm-bender and it would be so awesome and and and

and i think i need to calm down

---
"She's old and lame and barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

Bolin, if he tries to rebuild a classic '59 satomobile, best-case scenario is he ends up with a pile of satomobile parts. Worst-case scenario is that, through a series of highly improbable events, he and Asami end up participating in an illegal street race that eventually becomes an illegal boat race that eventually becomes a high-speed police chase culminating in the both of them being arrested... by Mako.

They won that part they needed, though!

-Merc
Keep Rat

¹1984-2013 dollars conversion. Ray remains extremely lucky Peter didn't deck him on the spot.

N.B. You have your scenarios reversed.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Polychrome

Bolin, if someone asks you if you're a god you say YES!

Eh, that one's a bit of a mismatch. Egon actually has more personality.

--G.
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zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Bolin is Ray, Korra is Peter, Asami is Egon (think about it!) and Tenzin is Winston.

Mako?

Mako can be Jeanine.

-Merc
Keep Rat

As pleasing as it is to consider the scene in which Korra coolly lays the savage burn that is the "food service or housekeeping industries" line on Mako, Janine is far too prominent a role.

No, I'm thinking he's the cop who says, "Ah, some nutcase brought a cougarine to a party and it went berserk."

--G.
or possibly the one who says, "Dropping off."
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

---
"She's old and lame and barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day."
Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

--G.
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

"Your winnings, sir."

"They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on."
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of shelves to put up?

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.