Uncle Iroh was one of my favorite things in ATLA.
Took me forever to finally watch both ATLA & TLOK.
I liked the more feudal setting in the original Avatar better than the 1920’s rip-off in Korra.
I did enjoy both though, Korra dragged a bit more. To be fair, parts of Avatar drag too.
The world building does get kind of fucked up in Korra, too.
I had issues w/ random fire benders, fucking lightning bending to weld or whatever, when teen Zuko, close enough to Mako’s age, couldn’t even bend lightning yet, only redirect it.
Stupid shit like that. Then I wondered about lion turtles vs original bending, dragons, badger moles, etc.
Pretty much all the usual gripes.
The few things that really kind of stuck w/ me that bug, or bother, are “energy bending” vs blood bending, for one thing.
1st, was the lion turtle which Aang learned from in s3, confirmed to have passed “energy bending” to him, or is that term a fandom or ret con, term? Avatar didn’t make it too clear, & I’ve only seen it called that after the fact. I may be remembering incorrectly, too.
Anyhow, if Amon was SO amazing that he could use blood bending to cut off other benders abilities, then it seems to reason that more blood bending should fix it. In other words, water bending.
But no, as Korra gets a visit from spirit Aang in s1 of tlok, & then fixes people. Her Jesus power isn’t explicitly called “energy bending” in the show, either.
Where the fuck did energy bending cone from, as a term? Was it in the ATLA post series comics? (I’ve not read every single one, yet)
An interview w/ the too cocksure writers, responsible for the BS?
Fandom name takeover?
If anyone is sure, I’d be interested. I saw some shit about an energy bending (& other “unknown”) lion fucking turtles, but don’t recall if it was from a crap speculation presented as canon source, or actually for real.
There are quite a few things like channels, “news” groups, etc, online, that pass speculation off as truth, especially surrounding Avatar series’s stuff.
The last thing that bugged me was from either a comment or discussion I saw, re Uncle Iroh, Zuko, & Azula. It said something like, “did Iroh fail Azula?” & referred to the fact that she was 14, & just as much a product of her environment as the 16 year old Zuko. Yet Iroh just writes her off.
Azula did act psychopathic sometimes, if not often. So did Zuko, actually.
Zuko had a character arc & story which was explored. Azula not so much.
As Ozai’s favorite child, she was rewarded for winning, smarts, sneaking, cunning, & separate of this, a prodigy.
Being a prodigy caught her Grandfather & Father’s eyes. Then she was rewarded for her behavior, on top of her skill.
Her Mom gave Zuko extra attention, & this drove Azula to seek Evil Daddy’s approval even more.
It’s all a messed up circle. Zuko had Iroh. Azula had no one like that. She could have accepted Zuko, but not at that teen age, w/ the rivalry they shared.
Zuko had Iroh. Iroh was smart, kind, etc, how could he not see Azula, beneath her environment & what it turned her into, how he did with Zuko?
It’s a mix a nature & nurture, our genetics & experiences, that create us.
It’s too easy to say, “psychopath” about her, write it off. It’s not the whole story.
So, the thing I saw that stayed w/ me, bugged me, to some degree, was, “Did Uncle Iroh fail Azula? Why?” I believe it also posited that it may have been a man, valuing a boy, over a girl. A form of misogyny, not really one anyone can help, as lots of people prefer kids of one sex. It’s common, a dad wanting a son, a mom wanting a girl. Or vice versa.
Or, in Iroh’s case, an uncle whose own son died, so he took Zuko as his surrogate.
As I don’t see Iroh as a “misogynist” or anything. He was my favorite in either series. I doubt it was intentional if it was that way. I think the place I saw this was some dumb, woke article, trying to blame men for everything, which is stupid. There was a truth under all that stupid virtue signaling though. The unconscious (or not) desire I described, above.
Maybe he was behaving that way, subconsciously? Or the writers, I guess. Or they didn’t even think of it? Who knows.
All I know is apparently one of the OG creators supposedly loves Azula…but after thinking about it, it seems like maybe she did get dealt the most shit hand.
I’m hoping we get something good out of the new projects that are said to be in the works.
I’d like to see Azula maybe get a chance at a character arc of growth. I’d love to see her secret society from the comics, animated. Even more, it would be awesome to see her go off to learn from the sun warriors or something cool. I doubt that will ever come to pass, though.
A Kyoshi show would be great. I’d prefer to see some past avatars over a new one, post Korra. I don’t want to see an even more BS “modern era” w/ people bending even stupider shit, like Dr’s blood bending in some horrible Grey’s Anatomy storyline or something equally lame.
