Tumblr crosspost (5 November 2019)
Jul. 1st, 2021 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineI reblogged a post from 2012, in which I was re-watching Episode 4 of B1:
I love that pretty much everybody makes valid points, no matter how misled they are. Korra’s fear leads her to say some pretty sensible things. Amon is horrifying, but his criticisms strike a chord with an apparently shocking number of people (I do not think they are just making their oppression up). And I love Tenzin, and he’s definitely right about not further antagonizing non-benders … but he’s kind of inept at politics and ineffective at getting anything done. Or even getting anything not done. And he doesn’t seem to have any plan for dealing with the Equalist threat himself, he just complains about Tarrlok’s.
Tarrlok is easy to dismiss as just out for power, and while he is definitely eking every scrap of authority he can out of the situation, he’s right that they have to deal with the Equalists, and I think he genuinely opposes them. Though invoking the specter of his own father, Yakone, who has haunted him all his life, while sitting on the council that condemned him, to the son of the man who set Yakone on his twisted path of revenge, while implicitly comparing himself to that man, is … wow. Tarrlok, that’s some commitment to your role. But then, this is the man who deliberately electrocuted himself to make his story more convincing. If he’d been Amon, he totally would have scarred his face for real.
Anyway, his task force is actually pretty effective (and those people were definitely Equalists and not random citizens, as I heard some fans arguing at the time). But it’s also pretty skeevy, especially how he brought Korra into it. (♫ Nobody uses innocent teenage girls like Tarrlok! ♫)
(I really, really wish Korra’s ominous agreement that they make a good team - what seemed to be her starting to fall under Tarrlok’s undoubtedly creeptastic influence - had gone ANYWHERE AT ALL. Are we ever given the slightest idea what happened to turn her completely against him?)
Also, despite having a pretty overwhelming advantage anyway, it’s interesting that Tarrlok is careful to exploit the element of surprise for all it’s worth, too. If there’s anything he can turn to his advantage, he will. That seems very waterbenderish. I like that he’s not just a creepy guy who happens to be a waterbender, but a waterbender (and Water Tribe generally) to his fingertips.
Iroh said way back in Bitter Work that waterbenders use their enemies’ power against them, smoothly turning defense into attack. That’s totally Tarrlok; his entire slippery, maneuvering personality seems to reflect his element. (And Amon even more so. Waterbending villains ftw!) Korra seems to have the soul of an earthbender (which she uses, with fire, much more than her own element - and air’s her opposite, so yeah), though she does have some great waterbending moments.
People complained about how the Yakone/Tarrlok/Noatak backstory was handled, but I really liked how it’s this constant, enigmatic thread running through the rest of the plot. And probably the most compelling aspect of the series, sadly.
Last, it’s awesome that Amon is all political savvy and zen and creepy yellow eyes and such. He’s like the anti-Korra! Except not. (Though lighting or no lighting, I still think they cheated with his appearance here.)
I love that pretty much everybody makes valid points, no matter how misled they are. Korra’s fear leads her to say some pretty sensible things. Amon is horrifying, but his criticisms strike a chord with an apparently shocking number of people (I do not think they are just making their oppression up). And I love Tenzin, and he’s definitely right about not further antagonizing non-benders … but he’s kind of inept at politics and ineffective at getting anything done. Or even getting anything not done. And he doesn’t seem to have any plan for dealing with the Equalist threat himself, he just complains about Tarrlok’s.
Tarrlok is easy to dismiss as just out for power, and while he is definitely eking every scrap of authority he can out of the situation, he’s right that they have to deal with the Equalists, and I think he genuinely opposes them. Though invoking the specter of his own father, Yakone, who has haunted him all his life, while sitting on the council that condemned him, to the son of the man who set Yakone on his twisted path of revenge, while implicitly comparing himself to that man, is … wow. Tarrlok, that’s some commitment to your role. But then, this is the man who deliberately electrocuted himself to make his story more convincing. If he’d been Amon, he totally would have scarred his face for real.
Anyway, his task force is actually pretty effective (and those people were definitely Equalists and not random citizens, as I heard some fans arguing at the time). But it’s also pretty skeevy, especially how he brought Korra into it. (♫ Nobody uses innocent teenage girls like Tarrlok! ♫)
(I really, really wish Korra’s ominous agreement that they make a good team - what seemed to be her starting to fall under Tarrlok’s undoubtedly creeptastic influence - had gone ANYWHERE AT ALL. Are we ever given the slightest idea what happened to turn her completely against him?)
Also, despite having a pretty overwhelming advantage anyway, it’s interesting that Tarrlok is careful to exploit the element of surprise for all it’s worth, too. If there’s anything he can turn to his advantage, he will. That seems very waterbenderish. I like that he’s not just a creepy guy who happens to be a waterbender, but a waterbender (and Water Tribe generally) to his fingertips.
Iroh said way back in Bitter Work that waterbenders use their enemies’ power against them, smoothly turning defense into attack. That’s totally Tarrlok; his entire slippery, maneuvering personality seems to reflect his element. (And Amon even more so. Waterbending villains ftw!) Korra seems to have the soul of an earthbender (which she uses, with fire, much more than her own element - and air’s her opposite, so yeah), though she does have some great waterbending moments.
People complained about how the Yakone/Tarrlok/Noatak backstory was handled, but I really liked how it’s this constant, enigmatic thread running through the rest of the plot. And probably the most compelling aspect of the series, sadly.
Last, it’s awesome that Amon is all political savvy and zen and creepy yellow eyes and such. He’s like the anti-Korra! Except not. (Though lighting or no lighting, I still think they cheated with his appearance here.)