The Legend of Korra - Book One: Air

Great episode (1x10). Those equalists always disturb me everytime I see them. And Lin losing her bending makes me think that there's a way to restore it. Unless the show intends to drop the character or make a permanent change, I think she'll be back to her usual self.

He does look older in that pic. He has a young sounding voice, so I thought he was in his teens or slightly older.

 

^Well he's a General, so I doubt he's a teenager.

I did wonder when Zukko's family would make an appearance. I'd assumed (rather unimaginatively) that it'd be in the form of the current Fire Lord.

And yeah, all we need now is a decent of Sokka & Suki to turn up. Who wants to lay odds that the Kyoshi warriors are part of the United Forces military?

 

It's not the real world, so you let stuff like that go.

And thanks for reminding me of Suki. Finding out what happened to her would be nice.

 

^I said I doubt he's a teenager. I didn't say it was impossible. Regardless he doesn't even look like he could be that young at all. I'd say by his face is drawn he's more like early to mid-30's, maybe as much as 40.

Given his name, I'd say for obvious reasons it's a fair bet he's Zukko & Mai's son rather than grandson (unless he'd Iroh III), in which case he'd obviously have to be closer to Tenzin's age. Actually, him being the younger child of Zukko would explain why he's a General and not the Fire Lord...that is assuming Zukko isn't still alive and ruling the Fire Nation.

 

Except that Dante Basco is 36 years old.

I think we're too quick to equate "high-pitched" with "young-sounding." Lots of men continue to have high-pitched voices throughout their lives -- John Fiedler, Michael J. Fox, etc. But other males, including me, develop deep baritone or bass voices while still in high school. The voice you have once you're through puberty is pretty much the voice you'll have for decades thereafter, though it will get rougher and sometimes deeper starting in your 40s or 50s.

Though of course animation casting directors rely on that perception and often cast older people with "young-sounding" voices to play teenagers -- like Basco, David Kaufman, Thom Adcox, Jesse McCartney, and the like. Heck, the actors who play Mako and Bolin are both 38.

 

The Republic City interactive guide on Nick.com confirmed that Zuko is still alive but he abdicated his throne and put his daughter in place as Fire Lord. IIRC Zuko spends his time travelling the world.

 

Fantastic episode. Though last week's episode seemed to move too quickly (like it condensed two or three episodes into one), with this episode I think that Legend of Korra is really starting to hit its stride.

But I have to admit, when Lin landed on the Equalist airship and started to rip it apart, I really wanted to hear her say: "I am the greatest metalbender in the world and don't you ever forget it!"

Cripes, I almost had tears in my eyes thinking how proud Toph would have been.

 

Have we ever seen a metal-bender do any earth-bending? Are they so specialized that they can't even do the normal stuff?

 

Technically metalbending is earthbending. They're not bending the metal itself, but the impurities within it. And Lin has earthbended (earthbent? ) several times, including in this very episode.

 

We saw it in this very episode. When Lin was battling the Equalists on Air Temple Island, she used some earthbending to lift up pieces of the ground.

 

I wonder if an earthbender would be able to bend composite materials like concrete, brick, or macadam? They probably could.

 

I believe it was Bolin who did that part.

 

Thinking some more I think that Iroh is Zuko's grandson. The son of Bumi and Zuko's daughter.

We know that Bumi was considered royalty in the Fire Nation, only royalty has embroidered collars, non-royal military members do not. As well Bumi shares some facial features with Iroh.

 

They do it all the time. The large coin-like discs that earthbenders often utilize, both in the original series and here (such as the discs used in pro bending), are made of clay, like the clay discs used in skeet shooting. That's not so different from brick. And we've repeatedly seen Korra and Bolin create ramps and such out of the modern paved roads of Republic City.

No, I'm referring the part where Lin was battling the Equalists alone, before the airbender kids showed up to save her and well before Korra's team arrived.

 

OK, so out of curiosity; if earthbenders have metalbenders, waterbenders have bloodbenders and firebenders have uh...lightning shooty people (?) what I wonder is the highly specialized form of airbender? Vacuum bending? Condensing air to liquid oxygen bending?

I think you're reading a little too much into that. Traditions of dress can change a lot in 70 years. Perhaps because Zukko formed the naval part of the United Forces military (I'm assuming) they styled the uniform after the royal dress, because they were created by royal decree. Or more likely that's just what the modern fire nation uniforms look like. IIRC the messenger was wearing what looked like an earth kingdom uniform. That collar could simply mean Bumi is also a General in the fire nation contingent, like Iroh. I mean there could hardly be an airbending contingent....though I suppose water tribe would have made more sense.

 

Surely Milo demonstrated this with his fart bending.

 

^

I don't suppose spirit bending could be the ultra version of air bending?

 

Probably not. In most classical elemental schemes (except Chinese), the four physical elements of earth, air, fire, and water are accompanied by a fifth, intangible element of aether, cosmos, spirit, something like that. That's where the word "quintessence" comes from -- it's literally "the fifth element," the ultimate, most sublime constituent (and yes, that's where the movie title comes from too).

So based on that, I'm assuming that spirit-bending is a separate, fifth form of bending. Another thing that makes me suspect it is that Korra is going to have a second season. So far we've had four seasons or "Books" of Avatar-verse shows, each named for the element being learned by the avatar in that season: ATLA Bk. 1 = Water, Bk. 2 = Earth, Bk. 3 = Fire, and TLOK Bk. 1 = Air. So what is TLOK Book 2 going to be called? My guess is "Spirit," and the season will focus on Korra mastering the spiritual side of being the Avatar. Maybe the mystery of Amon's evident spirit-bending ability will lead into story threads for Book 2.

 

The specialized style of Airbending is Sound bending. Airbenders can learn to control the vibrations in the atmosphere and do things like create sonic blasts or cause a structure to vibrate at its resonance frequency, or even cause silence.

 

^Is that just speculation, or did you get it from a behind-the-scenes source?