just finished this episode. that ending was so fucking terrible i genuinely am not going to keep watching. they give you literally zero reason or incentive to start watching season 2. so i'm not going to

4:39 Improve? He looks frail and grey-haired. The stress and guilt he feels is visibly killing him, the dude is NOT healthy.

the justification I always used for the airbending was that Amon could only take away or block chi being actively used or focused on (still very weak argument) and now Korra can only feel air chi. it makes no sense and that's just what I sell myself for continuity.

"The spirit vines look pretty stable in Earth conditions" hahaha wait until the new avatar series comes out and there's world-ending storms. Toph has books on her desk because she can read the minerals in the ink. Varrick always seemed like a genius from Book 2 because he seems to be based around Nikola Tesla's kind of behavior. Reposting until you read this: Psychic bending works because all movements with your limbs are just electric impulses in your brain telling it to move. Ming-Hua can bend water with her "arms" because they may not be there, but her brain can still send the signals. Real life example! This with spinal cord damage is how Neuralink can cure paralysis because it just bluetooth connects your limbs to your brain without needing your spine to relay the signal. It's also how you control computers with neuralink. Same premise, your brain sends an electric signal and your chi makes the spiritual energy take form into bending elements. So if your brain can still send electric impulses to move limbs that aren't there, it can also send spiritual energy there to bend because the chi is still flowing. Perhaps amputees are bending through their phantom limbs that are still attached to their spirit but not body. Hi I make up lore. Ask me anything.

Still the best patreon read, how much time goes into writing those up?

They are zeppelins.

Kurvira and Sozin share similarities. They both wanted to share what their nation/city had with the rest of the world but instead started a war

Seems like this got released to the public on KZbin before some of the previous episodes?

"1 for like a million" just like americas prison system

Varrick, wealthy capitalist, being brought into the inner circle of the fascist makes perfects sense. It’s pretty much one of the key pillars of fascism

5:30 well Bolin is... doing things with her daughter, so Suyin might hear him out

10:19 no no stop right there.... I'm listening...

Why are fire benders so handcapped

4:14 HIM!

The reason I never believed that kuvira could just be an antagonist and not step into the role of villain, is because what she represents from a political sense in fascism. Which is why she seems so indeering and giving back to the community, episodes earlier. We saw the same thing with the nazis implementing many progressive and populist policies. But that's just how they win over the everyday people, cuz once the regime is in power, it's over for whomever is part of the outgroup. "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Lewis Sinclair

0:16 RARE MOMENT WHEN I CAN USE MY INTERNATIONAL POLITICS DEGREE AND TALK ABOUT AVATAR the definitions of “country” you are applying here are seemingly the same ones we use today, which is known as the Westphalian System. The basic gist of this is that it has two main rules: 1. a “country” is a recognized polity that governs a population within defined borders 2. Countries have exclusive sovereignty over affairs in their borders There are a lot of exceptions but that’s not important. What is important here is that this system has only existed since 1648, and it was not widely accepted until probably mid 1700s. Before then (and even for some time after) it isn’t very strange at all for the crown prince of one nation to also serve in a military for another nation/political entity. Take, for example, the Holy Roman Empire - it contained within it multitudes of small kingdoms and duchies, many of which having their own armies, but occasionally the Empire would muster its own army. There’s also the examples of Knightly Orders, such as the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, which roamed through multiple lands at various times and sometimes acted like the government of that place, but did not claim to own it. Or the example of Swiss Guard being in charge of protecting the Pope, who was obviously not always Swiss and not in Switzerland. Each of these militaries would frequently see their ranks bolstered by people who had some claim of royalty to a different monarchy/dynasty; sometimes by choice, because the person felt like joining that particular group, and sometimes because the person simply had multiple allegiances and this wasn’t that weird. Now, from what we’ve seen, the world of Avatar is demonstrably not a Westphalian System before the start of Korra. This is most evident by the presence of the Air Nomads, who are, well, nomads. As seen in the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels, air nomads really are nomadic, and their governance is still respected even when in other territories, where they frequently run hospitals and humanitarian missions. But by the time of Korra, the idea of exclusive sovereignty within borders has only slightly gotten more prevalent. The land dispute between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom that led to the creation of Republic City could be seen as the first step towards such a system existing, as both governments agreed to let the land be a new entity. But Republic City is clearly not just a country - it seems to fill a role of both country and International police force, as cases like General Iroh show that there’s a degree of overlap sometimes with the 4 nations playing a part in the governance that the United Republic Forces does All of this to say that the nuance here is actually quite accurate to what we’ve seen from the world so far and very interesting from a international politics point of view

If Zhu Li is a reincarnation of Aang that would technically make it the first instance of an Avatar falling in love with a man, at least indirectly

12:03 I am assuming its a joke, but he doesn't actually bend the tree, I think he just does a lil earth explosion at the bottom to knock it over

10:40 my thoughts would be that in last air bender the avater was missing for 100 years. No one alive at the time of aangs return would have ever had an avatar in their lives. The avatar was a mythical legend that would SAVE THE WORLD. In korra, aang was a man, a person. He served on a council and was testimony in a court case. He was the avatar, and the avatar was another person, like everyone else. The avatar isnt special in comparison.

Yeah dude his tone and interest in specificly advanced tech things made me think of him as a scientist

11:05 ....Isn't that Momo?

Has anyone made a wiki keeping track of every special power and trait that the high teir patrons have been assigned

1:22 I have never agreed more with a take on this show.

My main man Varrick single handedly made movers, remote detonated “firebending” and a Julie backpack wingsuit. Varrick was always super intelligent he was just doing weird stuff like making bear suits instead of working on spirit science 😂

5:00 Reformation is not the goal of the prison system. Relocation is. Simply a place to out folk away.

12:45, he's being held like a grumpy cat, lol.

What I never liked about Korra as a series is that it never grows. Aangs avatar series felt like it was growing as the series would progress. Not only in character, but also world-wise. We would explore new conflicts as we would find new groups of people and cultures that were new and had new approaches to things. In Korra this never happens, well, it happens once in the first season when first introduced to the city. Other than that, we are just fighting and discussing about fighting. AND what's worse is that the fighting in Korra becomes stale ever since they introduce pro bending. They are just throwing elements at each other

FIRE 😂

1:00 later in the episode, Su says that Kuvira got some of Zaofu's richest citizens so probably funded by that

Airship is the appropriate label. Since the categories of airship include non-rigid (e.g., blimps) and rigid (e.g., Zeppelins), we can use it without knowing how the Avatar airships are built. But, from memory, we see the airships take damage and lose air without the envelope actually deflating, implying they're rigid airships (and not blimps).

4:14 I mean, if the show hadn't made platinum so fucking abundant or they made an off-hand comment on how it _is_ rare but Asami's dad just happened to own the biggest platinum deposit and mine that was subsequentally shut down by Asami due to human rights concerns, I could see the metal she wears being platinum, making clear who's the leader, making it clear she wants to be empress, etc. etc. Speaking of platinum, I've been thinking for a while and I'll put those thoughts here since higher chances of this getting out there: Platinum being non-bendable while normal metal is bendable *isn't* a cheap cop-out on paper, the writers just didn't use their imagination. I mean think about it. What is it that metalbenders _really_ bend most of the time, the most likely metal you'll probably be deaiing with on a day-to-day basis? That would be steel, right? And how is steel made? By merging *coal* into it. What is it that we are shown the first time the idea of earthbenders not being able to bend metal is explored? *Earthbenders can bend coal.* They're not bending any generic impurities, they're bending what remains of coal in steel. In that sense, it is perfectly logical for a highly refined metal like platinum to be unbendable, since at most it will be alloyed with some other metals for stability. To be fair though, I'm not 100% sure if the writers ever thought of it this way, considering that this good of an explanation didn't make it into the show (maybe the comics? Idk).

I disagree with the "prision improves your body" take whole-heartedly. With Iroh, it was very clearly his own determination and drive that lead to him bulking up, not prison itself. And with Hiroshi, losing weight doesn't equal improving, especially in this case. He was fatter in season one, but that doesn't mean necessarily his body was worse, just that he was fat. His weight loss here paired with the way they draw his face feel much more like he is slightly emaciated or malnourished. It's not that he went "I'm in prison now, time to get lean!" It is the show using his character design to show that he went from a position of abundance to one of lacking. I really don't think that it should be taken as fat=bad and not fat=good here.

Could toph be so good at seismic sense she can sense the ink on pages??

0:43 Good news, Overanalyzing Avatar! You're right not to call those blimps! The difference between blimps, zeppelins, and airships are thus: Blimps are non-rigid balloons, they're floppy until they're inflated; like a pool toy Zeppelins are rigid metal hulls into which a light gas or hot air is pumped; think the Prydwen in fallout 4 or the Hindenburg; with all the armor plating and stuff; the ones shown here look most like Zeppelins. Airships are lighter-than-air vehicles that carry cargo; this includes all blimps and zeppelins. So; overanalyzing avatar; you are, truly, technically correct. (The best kind of correct)

I like to call the blimps "rigid air ships"

The Kuvira wearing metal thing is not that crazy to me. A commander's unit have guns, and they can willingly point and shoot their gun at the commander, but they don't. I kinda see it the same way with her. She has metal armor, but they won't bend it to hurt her because she has the authoritative position that they either fear or respect.

13:37 having Hiroshi get the first move means Asami is welcoming him back as a guest in her life

6:53 uhh, books for the blind? (Mostly likely just a mistake)

07:15 damn her eyes are blue

5:15 1/37

I love drinking gasoline

The big mech at the end of the season is such a cop-out. It is my least favorite thing. I almost prefer S2 over just the giant mech. Plus, when they knocked the building over it, why didn't Bolin just make the building into lava?

Does it feel like the live action version was written by people who watched the original, didn't take it seriously because it was a cartoon, and then went "This silly cartoon stuff is fine but some of these moments are kind of deep or sad if you really think about it. What if we make the live action version show you how deep and sad these moment's actually are? By telling you how sad and deep they are! And you know how Sokka and Katara act immature, silly, and angry sometimes? What if they were real people and just acted normal or sad? If you think about it, they lost their mom in the war so they would be sad! I wonder if the silly cartoon writers ever thought about this stuff? They didn't even realize how messed up this whole premise was! Kids at war!"

6:50 Braille exists in our word, and has for quite some time, I feel braille could exist in this universe and maybe it's full of one liners for toph to remember and use during fights?

5:03 YESSSS YES yes please mr analyze

I feel like any time there has been a period where the old avatar dies and the new avatar is growing/in training during a time of relative peace, it would make sense if people started to feel like the world is less reliant on the avatar, especially in like 70 something AG when they have come that far in technological advancement

commenting under threat of scary, unidentified things

9:50 Yes. She is making her move, and so she needs to discard those disloyal to her true goals. And well, I’d say she messed that up. They think she’s crazy, not evil, she had a chance to exploit their unwillingness to admit to being wrong and missed the shot.

5:12 You're forgetting about the guy that wouldn't fight Hakota because he was working on his anger with his therapist in the boiling rock part 2 prison systom 2 for like a million

Zhu Li using the metal cables and drop kicking another mech was pretty awesome