The Legend of Korra: "The Voice in the Night" (Episode 4)

As always, this will be a spoiler-filled review, so read with your hands over your eyes if you're worried about that sort of thing.  Looks like Nick just posted the episode today, so you can check that out, and then make your way back here to read the review.

Have you ever had a day where nothing seemed to go your way?  You got dressed down at the job, sat in traffic for an hour, and when you got home, you find out that you forgot to put the chicken in the refrigerator, so now the entire place stinks?  Korra can relate.  She's not sleeping well because she's been terrified ever since she saw Amon remove someone's ability to bend.  She's being harassed/manipulated into SWAT-style police duty by a prominent councilman, and her beau shows up at a party in her honor with another woman on his arm--a beautiful, feminine, daughter of a captain of industry.  The writers pile up Korra's jealousy on top of her insecurity on top of her outright fear, until she finally breaks at the end and has her catharsis.

"The Voice in the Night" hits on three major plotlines: The first deals in political matters, and coincides with the reveal of the first of two new characters, Councilman Tarrlok.  The representative to Republic City from the Northern Water Tribe, Tarrlok is ambitious, shrewd, and a bit of a dandy.  He proposes that removing Amon (whom Tarrlok has designated as Public Enemy No. 1) and his chi-blocking posse should be the job of a special task force, which he will lead.  Tenzin gives us our first cue on how to read Tarrlok's character when the pair disagree about the wisdom of creating this task force, calling it "another one of your [Tarrlok's] ploys to gain power," which implies that this isn't the first time Tenzin's seen his ambition go unchecked (I personally hope that Tenzin will put him in check physically at some point in this series).  Our second cue comes from Ikki, Tenzin's younger daughter, who essentially calls Tarrlok out for being a dandy.  "Why do you have three ponytails?  And why do you smell like a lady?  You're weird."  Tenzin's wife, Pema, also seems displeased to see Tarrlok in her home (though that may have more to do with the fact that he interrupts the family's dinner).  I get an idea that there aren't a lot of fans of Tarrlok among the people who know him.  The third cue we get to Tarrlok's personality is shown through his actions, at first trying to flatter the Avatar, then attempting to bribe her, and finally using the press to manipulate her into joining his task force.  Tarrlok is clearly not a character that Avatar Korra should be trusting, nor is he someone that we should trust.  Why Tarrlok wishes so desperately for the Avatar to be a member of his special paramilitary group is not clear right now (though it could just be a desire to legitimize his somewhat distasteful commando raids to the public), but many online have speculated that there is a link between Tarrlok and Amon, and, indeed, they both deal in rhetorical absolutes like they were currency.  I've read some opinions that say there's no way Tarrlok is unaware of how his raids are being perceived by the (especially non-bending) public, and that serves as proof that he is linked up with Amon.  I think, however, that this could just be an incident that the creators are using to try to drum up some viewer sympathy to the Equalists' cause.

The episode takes a left turn after the Tenzin scene (and a moment where Korra begins to sweat profusely while listening to an Amon PSA over the radio), and we're thrown headlong into "The Crazy, Romantic Escapades of Mako."  To sum up briefly, Mako gets hit by a moped, which was being driven by a girl named Asami.  Asami is a pro bending fan, and also the daughter of Hiroshi Sato, the inventor of the Satomobile (automobile) and one of the richest men in the Avatar universe.  So, the two hit it off, and Asami gets her dad to pay the entrance fee for the Fire Ferrets so that they can enter the pro bending championship tournament.  And now, they're romantically involved.  You might be able to tell from my tone, but I wasn't really crazy about this section of the story. It doesn't tie in to the (much more compelling) main themes of the episode, and its purpose relative to Korra and the story in general is to A.) Solve that MacGuffin about the tournament entrance fee from last week, and B.) Pile up on top of Korra's already-terrible day.  It's possible (and I would argue likely; viewers have already pegged her as an equalist, due to her moped goggles) that Asami Sato will develop into an important character later on in the series, but right now, her inclusion is more intrusive and extraneous.  Also, Mako seems very bland to me at this point in the series.  If the creators are trying to make him into the next Zuko, they've got their work cut out for them.

The final, over-arching plotline for this episode, deals with Korra's fear of Amon, and how that reflects her self-image.  The episode begins with Korra having a nightmare about Amon and his people breaking in through her bedroom window, tying her down, and she wakes up just as Amon's open hand moves toward her forehead.  Avatars seem to have a lot of nightmares, and they're usually fraught with meaning (Toph's tiny bladder notwithstanding).  This one, in fact, foreshadows a confrontation that Korra will have at the end of the episode.  Korra has been completely cowed by Amon's display of his "power," to the point that the only action she takes in any given day is practicing her airbending forms.  She is no longer the headstrong, boisterous personality that wants all that the city has to offer.  And when Korra participates in and contributes to Tarrlok's raid, she gets some of that swagger back.

In a blustering move, partly from overconfidence gained from the raid, partly out of a desire to mask her fear, Korra challenges Amon to a duel.  Her naïvetè in believing that Amon would play by the rules she sets reminds us of how inexperienced she still is.  Of course, several hours after the fight was supposed to take place, Amon ambushes Korra, with a host of his chi-blocking subordinates, and the lighting in this sequence is phenomenal.  Like, jaw-dropping.  Korra does a spin-kick out of the harnesses that bind her legs, and the fire that she produces is all that lights the scene.  As the fire from her kick fades, the light dims, until we're left with just an orange glow in the goggles of the chi-blockers.  Amon tells Korra that their fight must be delayed, because he will not make her a martyr for the bending cause, and then he hits her on the neck, triggering a flashback from Aang's past.  More on that in a moment.  When she comes to, Tenzin is running toward her, and she confesses that she's been terrified ever since she first saw Amon's power in action.

As I noted last week, it is interesting to recall that Aang understood, without any guidance, that a part of his duties was to bring the Spirit World into harmony with the world of the living.  In "Avatar Day," we also see Aang standing trial to clear the name of the Avatar, because he realizes that, in order to restore the world to balance, people have to be able to trust him as an icon.  Korra has none of these preconceptions.  For her, being the Avatar is solely and explicitly tied to bending strength and skill.  If she was to lose that bending capability, which everyone in her life up to this point has praised (and, really, is also the source of her livelihood; as she noted in "The Revelation," she doesn't really have anything.  People take care of her because she's the Avatar), she would lose the biggest part of her identity.  This week's episode is the first step toward her discovering that being the Avatar is more than fighting.

Now, about that flashback.  One of the great questions that it raises is: How did Korra see the flashback at all?  In the first episode, we were told that she has devoted very little time to her spiritual side.  Unless her airbending training has changed that, she should not be able to access her past lives.  As for the flashback itself, we get a fair amount of fan service with a shot of grown-up Sokka, grown-up Toph, and two different takes with grown-up Aang in them (the second of which is pictured at the top of this article).  The first one involves Aang standing in City Hall, interrogating someone who we have all taken to be "Yakone," a man that, Tarrlok tells us earlier in the episode, Aang had to "take care of" in the past.  The second scene, I think we can all assume, is showing how Aang "took care of" Yakone.

A lot of people are speculating that Yakone is going to tie in to Amon in some way.  I don't think that will be the case.  I think the main reason to introduce Yakone to Korra at this point is to make her aware of the things she will be expected to do as the Avatar; to let her know what the stakes are in this game she's playing.  But also, this Yakone incident, and the seriousness with which the Avatar universe is taking Amon's bending removal abilities, makes me feel like the writers are trying to posthumously add some gravitas to Aang's character, and 'redeem' him in our eyes.  Although he chose to remove Fire Lord Ozai's bending instead of killing him; this series is telling us that, number one, Aang became capable of killing (we think) when he had to, and, number two, that removing a person's ability to bend is a bigger deal than we thought it was.

Now, my overall opinions, in easily-digestible chunks:

• The art is still a highlight on the show.  Of course, the two screenshots above bear out what I mean, but so many of the settings look like they could be paintings.
• Despite my whining about Mako and Asami above, I still really love Korra, Bolin, and Tenzin.  Korra and Tenzin's interactions have given The Legend of Korra its heart, and Bolin's thoughtfulness and sincerity make him easy to root for.  I love the little detail of the cupcake he brings to Korra being wrapped up in a plastic sandwich bag, as though he bought it from a bake sale.  You know he spent his own money on that.
• I wish the plotlines would stay a little more focused.  The "we gotta get money for pro bending" plot from last week and the Asami/Mako plot this week did not appreciably add to the series, and I worry that, in a twelve-episode season, they're wasting my time.
• The series is also unraveling a lot of threads, muddying up the story, without giving very much resolution to the audience.  I find myself wishing for a narrative structure that's a bit more traditional.

And to end out this week, I have TWO crackpot theories for your assimilation and appraisal:

Crackpot-theory-of-the-week #1:  Asami, an equalist (or just a sympathizer) will either die or win Mako over to the equalist cause by some other means.  Korra will have to fight Mako.

Crackpot-theory-of-the-week #2:  Bolin, feeling slighted and belittled by everyone he holds dear, will go rogue, and Korra will have to hunt him down.

Wow.  I've written term papers that were shorter than this!  Thanks for making it all the way through, and I'll see you next week for "The Spirit of Competition".

Also, for anyone interested, there's a review of the latest episode every Saturday at The AV Club.  The reason I mention it is that there's usually a pretty great discussion that goes on in the comments after the review.  It's one of the most intelligent discussions of the Avatar universe I've read on the internet.  See if you can tell which commenter I am.

All images are the property of Nickelodeon, Inc., Bryan Konietzko, and Mike DiMartino.  All rights reserved.

The Scam of College Textbooks

Well, recently I decided that I would go back to University to try to pick up some new skills.  So, of course, this means that I get the unbridled pleasure of paying extravagant, unseemly amounts for some books that I will use for three months, and then never crack the covers of again.

It used to be that this wasn't as flagrantly offensive a practice, since you used to be able to buy a textbook used, for a more reasonable price, and then resell it after the semester was over, recouping some of your loss.  Well, I don't know if the video game industry nudged the textbook industry, or vice-versa, but it seems that now, textbook publishers have started including one-time use codes that unlock online components of the textbook.  These codes are included if you buy the book new, but if you buy it used, the online code has already been used up by someone else.  The previous owner's work and records are imprinted to that code.  You've got to buy another.

I understand the desire to increase book sales, and I understand that publishers (both of video games and of textbooks... well, really of anything) do not profit from second-hand sales of their products.  And I understand that the online components are not always vital to the usage of the book.  A professor can choose to ignore it completely, focusing only on the text.  But are struggling college students, most of whom are already massively in debt, really a good target for Harcourt to try to bilk a few extra dollars out of?

And really, does this do them that much good?  I used to automatically order my books from the University Bookstore every year, so that they would be waiting for me in a box when I arrived on campus.  I would mark that they should pull used books wherever they could, and if none were available, to box up a new copy for me.  Now, however, I plan to take a more wait-and-see approach to buying textbooks.  I am going to attend class for a couple of days and see how vital the text is.  Many times I have bought a textbook and then never opened it, still managing to pass the class with high marks.  With new books now being the only option, I am less likely to be willing to take such a risk, especially with the knowledge that, after I purchase one of these new textbooks, it is essentially worthless for purposes of resale.

The Legend of Korra: "The Revelation" (Episode 3)

After last week's rousing spike in readership (according to Google's analytics, I scored seventeen page views, of which probably only ten were me!  Another fun fact:  My top referral site is not Google, or any other search engine.  It's a malware site.  In Russia.), I thought I might make a weekly habit of reviewing the newest episode of The Legend of Korra.  I think I may even have enough crackpot theories to sustain the entire season.  So hopefully my virus-bearing comrades will bear with me long enough to make this a viable feature.  I will try to post each new review on Monday, but no promises.

By the way, I'm going to go ahead and assume you've already seen "The Revelation".  There's going to be discussion of plot points from the episode from here on.  You've been warned. (And why haven't you watched it yet?  It's available at Nick's website right now!)

So, without further eloquence, my review of "The Revelation"

This is really Amon's episode.  It's his true introduction to the viewing audience--and even seems like it might be his introduction to his followers in Republic City, since he begins his speech with his life's story (more on that in a minute).  Steve Blum really shines in this role.  I thought sometimes his voice-over of Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop) could tend toward being overdramatic, but that same tendency works wonderfully for Amon, who is the Avatar world's version of a cult evangelist.  He would want his words to be dramatic, commanding, and ominous to galvanize his supporters.  I think the mask really sells it, too.  To hear Blum's lines coming out of the unmoving mouth of Amon's creepy-looking mask adds a sense of mysticism to the character (which he is obviously trying to capitalize on, with the titular "Revelation" of his ability to remove a person's bending).

So what have we found out about Amon?  He claims (and I think it's important that his word is all we've been given, so far) that he's the son of non-bending farm folk who get killed by a firebender extortionist.  He says that the firebender also burned off his face, necessitating the mask.  Now, the way this background is delivered seems a little too on-the-nose to be true, or at least to be the whole story.  Just from having watched the previous series, that doesn't seem to be the way that Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino go about their narrative business.  Katara doesn't reveal that her mother was killed by firebenders in her second line in the series.  Zuko's tragedy is only hinted at until Iroh gives us narration over flashbacks.  I believe even Jet is given some flashbacks.

Amon goes on to say that the spirits are disappointed in the Avatar, and that they have chosen him to restore balance to the world, by taking away people's ability to bend.  A lot of furor (well, furor might be too strong a word) has grown within the Avatar viewing community, because the way Amon takes people's bending away looks different from when Aang bent Fire Lord Ozai's energy.  But after watching the episode again, I realized that Amon never claims to be able to energybend.  He announces only that he has been given the power to take away a person's bending... permanently.  Of course, the conclusion that we have all jumped to, as viewers of the Avatar: the Last Airbender (spoiler alert: Aang wins!), is that he is using energybending, since that is the only technique that we have been shown that takes away a person's bending... permanently.  But I have a feeling that, if Bryan and Mike had wanted us to believe definitively that Amon is an energybender, they would have written the "Lightning Bolt Zolt" sequence (I love his New York/New Jersey accent, by the way) to be identical to the energybending sequence shown in A:tLA--you know, big glowing lights, touching the heart and the forehead (Amon does forehead and back-of-the-neck).  I think they want us to have some questions about the veracity of Amon's claims.  It's also interesting to note that Amon has yellow eyes, meaning that he has some Fire Nation lineage in his blood at some point.  The tactics that his thugs use are also pretty brutal.  Electrified billy clubs, abductions... who knows what those chi blockers were going to do to Korra and Mako if Naga had not worked her way free?

A lot of the rest of the episode is primarily world-building, so I'll just hit some of the high points:

• Although it only struck me after repeated viewings, one thing that the first three episodes have all alluded to is the fact that there's a lot of corruption in Republic City.  I don't think it's something to which the creators are trying to draw a lot of attention, but aside from the obvious references to extortion and gangs, we've got an exploitative president of pro bending, street urchins selling information for cash, and even a police chief who releases a prisoner due to political pressure (though there were extenuating circumstances).  This is not a nice place that Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko have created.
• Thus far, Bolin is the most genuinely touching and human character that the show has drawn.  Bolin's dejection (pictured above) when Mako dismisses his idea to make money for the tournament (have his pet fire ferret, Pabu, perform circus tricks) is quite authentic and quite sympathetic.  Being a younger brother to three siblings myself, I gave him a silent "aww" when he replies: "I was being serious."  This idea of sibling rivalry is new, and I think fertile, ground for the Avatar universe to explore.  I also look forward to learning more about the brothers' criminal past.
• The art remains stellar.  Amber tones cast a dirty, but also nostalgic, pall over the city, which fits beautifully with the era that the series is trying to evoke.  By contrast, all the scenes drawn on Air Temple Island are sharp and vividly-colored, showing how remote from the city and its concerns Tenzin really is.
• I do worry that the series is jumping into the main conflict a bit too quickly.  I still don't have a great feel for Korra and how capable she is at various aspects of being the Avatar.  For all her supposed skill and talent, it seems like she's getting beaten up pretty regularly.  Also, as I mentioned previously, I'm not seeing very many high-level bending moves, making me think that the duel with Amon that the next episode is promising will not have very high stakes for the show.  Nothing is going to change as a result of Korra fighting Amon in the fourth episode.
• Side note: why do some of the people in Republic City (and in the Avatar universe in general, I guess) have last names (Hiroshi Sato, Toph and Lin Beifong) and some don't?  At first, I thought maybe it was just an Earth Kingdom thing (Long Feng also has one, obviously), but Bumi, Haru, Earth King Kuei, and everyone from any other nation only has one.  What decides whether or not a character gets a last name?

Crackpot Theory of the Week:  Amon's bending-block-that-may-or-may-not-be-energybending is a hoax.  The Triple Threat Triads were in on it and acting the part.  Look a how closely Lightning Bolt Zolt's act mirrors the way Fire Lord Ozai reacted after Aang took his bending away.  It's almost like he studied it, so that he would know how to act when his bending was supposedly taken away.  Bolin was told about the job, but after seeing Amon's act, thought it was legitimate.  Amon will use Korra's fear of him taking away her bending to trigger the Avatar State (remember, it's a defense mechanism), which will decimate part of Republic City and leave a power vacuum that Amon will exploit.

One more note: Having watched the entire run of Avatar: the Last Airbender, beginning-to-end, in about the space of a week, I was not bothered by the last-episode reveal of the energybending as a potential solution to Aang's problem.  Now, watching The Legend of Korra as a weekly serial, I can see why a lot of fans called energybending a deus ex machina.  The worlds are so tightly built that fans all over are brewing up theories about who Amon really is, whether or not he can really energybend, whether or not Korra can go into the Avatar State, etc.  I would be really disappointed if, for example, Korra was able to go in and out of the Avatar State at will and use that to defeat Amon.  It hasn't been supported by the show.  It reminds me of how the experience of watching television has changed in the past ten years.

All images are the property of Nickelodeon, Inc., Bryan Konietzko, and Mike DiMartino.  All rights reserved.

Why I Stopped Using Fitocracy (and what could get me to go back)

I received an invitation to join Fitocracy from a friend on November 1st, 2011.  At the time, I thought it would be a fun way to compete with him and to keep me on my fitness goals.  However, as you can see in the image above, I lasted all of twenty-three days as a Fitocracy user.  I was keeping pace fairly well with my friend, amassing points at a pretty good clip, so why give up?  What drove me away from Fitocracy?  It wasn't that I stopped working out; I kept going to the gym every other day, and have, for the past month, been working out five days a week.

So where did Fitocracy lose me?  I've come up with three major points that turned me away from the service, and hopefully, a couple of fixes that would make me take a second look:

1.) Exercises are not well-defined.

Let me explain this one a bit further.  I used to do a certain set of exercises every time I went to the gym (I still do, but now they're different exercises.  More on that in a while).  So the first day I used Fitocracy to punch in my workout, this is what I came up against:

Now what in Jablonski's name is a Dragon Flag?  Or a Flat Frog Raise?  Don't Know?  Well, how about if we look at that... Oh, right.  "No description available".  Sadly, I came up against this same phrase more often than not when trying to figure out the terms Fitocracy was using to describe my workout.  Most of the time, I tried to find something that sounded close enough to what I was doing, and just went with that.  Was I cheating on my workout?  Probably, but it wasn't really my fault.  Users shouldn't be forced to cheat because they can't figure out the terminology that your interface uses.

How can we solve this?

Combine the terminology with graphical representations of each exercise.  Use graphics to help users narrow down what they've been doing.  For example, if I want to enter that I've performed a stability ball exercise, I should be able to click on a picture of somebody on a stability ball.  From there, I can choose between a picture of a person sitting on a stability ball, a person lying on his back on a stability ball, on his stomach, etc., and so on until I've narrowed down what exercise I actually just did.  Now, I might not need to do this for every exercise I perform.  I'm pretty sure that when I perform squats, I can punch in the word "squats" and get to the exercise I'm looking for.  Ever been to a self-check lane at the grocery store?  Ever tried to buy produce there?  You can either go through menus to narrow down what you're trying to buy, or you can punch in the four-digit code that is directly descriptive of that type of produce.  The customer is free to use whichever method is most comfortable for him or her.  The same should be true for Fitocracy.  If they want to encourage inexperienced users to exercise, they should not make the use of technical language so prohibitive.

2.) Having to enter your workout into the website is tedious.

Although this might seem similar to the prior point (and I admit, trying to figure out those terms is tedious, too), the idea here is more general.  Even if I knew exactly what to call each exercise I perform, having to write down everything I've done, then bring those notes back home and enter them into Fitocracy's website is just about the last thing that I want to do when I am worn out from an hour-and-a-half workout.  Then, as time passes, I just forget.  That was how I fell off the Fitocracy wagon in the first place.  I missed putting in one workout, then was faced with trying to remember what I had done two workouts in a row (at the time, I was only entering my max-out week weight totals, not reps or sets, into my iPod's notepad.  Two days later, I would have had no idea what I had done).  Eventually, I just fell so far behind that I decided to forget it.

How can we solve this?

Well, some work has been done on this front already.  I received an e-mail recently from Fitocracy to notify me that they had put out an app for iOS devices.  Presumably, I could open up the app while at the gym, enter in my workout while I'm doing it, and be done with it.  Using this would eliminate the need for me to record exercises once at the gym, then again when I return home.  However, unless the app works offline, it will still be of no use to me.  I do not use an iPhone, or a smartphone of any kind.  I use an iPod, and the community gym that I use offers no WiFi service.  Furthermore, even if I did own a smartphone, I have found that I usually get very poor cell phone reception within the facilities.  So, what would be useful to me is if there was a function whereby I could enter my workout into the app while offline, and it would automatically update my profile on the website when I came into a WiFi hotspot.

3.) Fitocracy is not very much fun.

The entire idea of Fitocracy is to make working out into a game.  The idea that the company was going for was probably something like Farmville, where time spent in-game fulfilling tedious tasks earns a player more experience, which can be used to upgrade his or her farm.  However, there's no real point or reward for earning points/leveling-up on Fitocracy.  It is probably a more accurate to compare Fitocracy to Xbox Live's system of achievements/Gamerscore.  You earn experience/points, and then get to show off to everyone how many points you've earned.  The reason this works for Microsoft and does not for Fitocracy is twofold.  Number one, Microsoft does not need to make the experience of playing video games fun.  Playing video games is already fun.  Fitocracy, on the other hand, needs to entice its users to exercise, because exercising is not already fun.  Number two, Xbox Live automatically enters your achievements into your profile when you earn them in a game.  You don't have to go to Microsoft's website and type in your achievements, one-by-one, in order to raise your Gamerscore.  You don't have to do anything.  It's just a neat little side benefit to an already robust service.  As outlined above, such is not the case on Fitocracy.

How can we solve this?

dualshockers.com

I just squatted 500.  Where's my fairy wand??

I saved this point for last, because the problem is a little more complex, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure that I have one idea to solve it.  The point is, levels need to mean something beyond themselves.  I don't care if Fitocracy commissions a simple RPG/PvP fighter where techniques can be bought with experience, or if they create avatars with customization options available based on experience or levels (something akin to what Tekken games have done since Tekken 5)

The problem then becomes the issue of people cheating in order to procure more items, greater strength, or whatever the rewards end up being.  When asking people to self-report their progress, there always has to be an element of trust involved.  Fitocracy feels like they can trust people to be honest right now, because there's really no incentive to be dishonest in their current system.  But there's also no incentive to achieve anything in their current system.  It seems like customizable avatars would carry the least risk of system abuse (who would really care what their avatar looked like if they were not engaged with the system?).  But in the future, it would really be ideal if equipment were built with sensors and microchips, to where someone would be able to scan a QR code or something like that into the Fitocracy app, and the sensors would be able to tell how many reps the user is doing, how much weight he or she is lifting, and even scan the motion to be able to tell what kind of exercise the user is performing with free weights.  Then, cheating might be less of a worry, and some real rewards might be possible.  It might even make for a marketing point for a professional health club: "At Gold's Gym, we offer Fitocracy integration."

There are tons of other things that Fitocracy could implement that would make the experience more useful: I would love a set of workout plans that were tailored to my exercise goals.  When I decided to change my workout schedule from three days to five, I skimmed the internet, trying to find a good five-day workout plan.  It would have been marvelous to be able to go to Fitocracy, enter my fitness goals, and have them come up with a set of exercises (with explanations) that I could have done to reach them.  Demonstrations would also be really nice.  I had to visit several different websites before I had a good handle on what each exercise in my workout plan was supposed to look like.  It would be very convenient to have one website with video demonstrations and step-by-step instructions for all the exercises they list.

Congratulations!  You made it to the end of this blog post.  I am summarily bumping everyone who read the entire post to level two.  Just report below whether or not you read the entire thing, and I will raise your reader-level in my mind.  Tell all your friends.

The Baboon King of Japan

I was coming back from Japan, watching Drive on the screen embedded in the headrest of the seat in front of me.  It was a fair movie, but I was distracted looking at a Japanese girl a row ahead of me diagonally.  She had already watched all of the movies that the plane offered in Japanese, so she turned on The Lion King (no disrespect--I had already watched it earlier).  I noticed she was fast-forwarding through about 80% of the movie.  She let it go through the first song, then fast-forwarded to "I Just Can't Wait to be King," and so on to all the songs.  Until she stopped it at the part where Rafiki, the baboon, catches Simba's scent on the wind.  She got to that part, and reversed the movie so that she could see all of it.  Then she stopped it again, when Rafiki meets up with Simba and smacks him on the head.  This girl was watching the songs... and all the parts with the baboon.

lionking.org

I sat there and pondered for a while.  The songs, I could understand.  She probably knew them already, and I admit, I have no idea what the lyrics are in some of the Japanese songs that I enjoy.  But why, of all the characters, did she pick Rafiki, the baboon?  It's not like he's easier to understand than Jonathan Taylor Thomas, or has a more pleasant voice than James Earl Jones.  So, why?

The only thing that I can come up with is that maybe Rafiki is a thing in Japan.  I never heard anything to lead me to believe that such is the case, but what else is there?  Anyone with any theories is more than welcome to plunk them down below.

The Legend of Korra

As a huge Avatar: the Last Airbender fan, I feel like I should probably put forth some opinions on the new series, The Legend of Korra.  First of all, the artwork is beautiful.  I feel like we're really in for another visual treat with the new series.  With a bigger budget, I think that Bryan and Mike will really be able to make The Legend of Korra a showpiece for Nickelodeon.  If you haven't already, it's worth your time to head over to Korra Nation and take a look at some of the concept artwork that has been produced for the show.

Korra Nation

Concept art for Republic City at night

       

Beyond that, one of the things that really has me excited about The Legend of Korra is the way that the character of the Avatar is being evolved.  Think about this: Aang's most pressing task was to learn to bend all four elements so that he could become more physically powerful than Fire Lord Ozai, enabling him to defeat the Fire Lord in battle and put the Fire Nation in its place.  Everyone looked to the Avatar to end the Hundred-Years War with his might.

Well, Korra has might.  She's got it in spades.  But what is that going to do for her?  What is the public expecting the Avatar to be in the new age?  I feel like one of the statements that the first two episodes made is that there's no place for bending violence in this new world outside of an MMA-style sport.  Korra is going to find that the technical aspects of learning to bend all four elements, and the physical result of using them, are not going to be that useful outside of Pro Bending.  What will be useful (and I think the series is foreshadowing this) is the insight into each of the bending nations (which comprise the population of Republic City) that her studies will give her.

I think the show is going to be much more interested in the Avatar as a political figure, whose primary task is to unify the people with a positive message (contrasting with Amon), rather than as a highly-skilled fighter.  That's why we haven't seen her do any really complicated bending moves, like the Octopus Form, or the Rockalanche (oh, The Boulder...*sigh*), or those cool fire whips that Zuko pulls out at the end of the second season.  I doubt if moves like those were even taught to Korra, because they're just not that important anymore.

In a side-note, on one hand, I'm glad that they made Korra naturally adept at the three styles of bending that Aang had to learn (though I am curious about why it took her twelve years to learn them, given that she was a capable water-, fire-, and earthbender when she was about five), so that we don't have to sit through them again, but on the other hand, I would have been interested to see how Korra reacted differently to the training than Aang did.  It might have helped us to contrast the two Avatars.

Side note #2: I really hope the show ventures beyond Republic City at least a couple of times, so that we get to see whether the rest of the world (Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation Capital, etc.) has also progressed and is as multicultural and bend-less as Republic City.