Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
The Legend of Korra: Season 1
Republic City stands at a crossroads. Seventy years after Avatar Aang ended the Hundred Year War, his successor Korra finds herself facing a threat unlike anything the world has seen before – a charismatic revolutionary who can permanently strip people of their bending abilities.
This debut season of Legend of Korra brilliantly expands the Avatar universe through stunning animation, complex characters, and surprisingly mature themes. While many fans approach Korra with comparisons to The Last Airbender, we explore why this series deserves appreciation on its own merits. The show's gorgeous art-deco inspired visuals and fluid bending choreography represent a significant evolution in animation quality, creating fight scenes that remain breathtaking more than a decade after they first aired.
What sets Legend of Korra apart is its willingness to let its protagonist fail repeatedly. Unlike Aang, who gradually mastered elements throughout his journey, Korra begins proficient in three elements but struggles with the spiritual side of being the Avatar. Her journey isn't about gaining power but understanding its purpose. When Amon successfully strips Korra of her bending abilities, the show makes a bold statement about vulnerability and resilience that resonates far beyond its target audience.
The Equalist movement raises uncomfortable questions about privilege in the Avatar world. Are non-benders truly equal in a society where bending brings immense advantages? Amon's methods are extreme, but his movement's grievances aren't entirely unfounded. This moral complexity elevates the storytelling beyond simple hero-villain dynamics into something more thought-provoking.
Whether you're revisiting Republic City or considering your first journey into Korra's world, this season offers a compelling, self-contained story while setting up threads that will evolve throughout the series. Listen as we break down why Legend of Korra deserves recognition as one of animation's most ambitious achievements – a show that respected its audience enough to tackle complex themes while delivering spectacular entertainment.
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It is a glorious day, my equalist brothers and sisters. Amon has torn down the tyrannical podcasting government, he has declared podcasting illegal and he has Project Geekology on the run. Our great leader has a vision for the future. One day soon, podcasting will no longer exist and we will live in a world where everyone is finally equal. The Project Geekology forces are on their way right now to try and stop that dream, but we will prevail.
Speaker 2:My throat hurts now. I really went all out on that one. But, guys, my name is Dakota, I'm one, I'm one third of your hosts on Project Geekology. We will not let the equalist prevail this time around. We we're gonna stop whatever nonsense they got going there. The podcasting government is not being overthrown.
Speaker 3:We will take it back um, I'm joined, as always, with anthony, and this week is episode 114 and I don't know if you you got that, but we are going to be covering the first season of Avatar, the Legend of Korra, and joining us now, as always, is Rich and I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 4:I'm really here to represent a man. The guy gets screwed over I mean Mako. I don't understand why he's got to be so terrible to his fun-loving brother. I associate with him so much and I'm here to defend him on today's episode. I am against love triangles and I'm very scared because there are three of us on this show. So hopefully, unlike everybody in the Legend of Korra, we can stay out of a love triangle.
Speaker 2:I think we can manage that. Yeah, actually it's of a love train. I think we can manage that. Uh, yeah, actually it's like a a love square for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it only keeps going as the show goes on, like. I don't want to, like you know, start talking spoilers if you guys haven't seen the further seasons. But, um, yeah, the, the, the love does not stop there.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, we're gonna be covering the first season of legend of korra, which I'm super excited about, because, as we were deciding what we were going to be covering this this week, I was already, you know, like probably halfway through the first season of legend of korra because I've been doing my timeline notes on it. So this gave me the extra push to just like, uh, do that, um, and yeah, so now I have, uh, my timeline notes finished for the first season of Legend of Korra, so I'm really excited to. I'm excited for that, yeah, and I'm excited to talk about it because this is such an incredible first season. I know a lot of people dislike this show for random reasons, but honestly, this first season to me is nearly perfect in terms of the tone and everything, so I'm really excited to talk about it. But before we get into any of that, let's jump over to Anthony. Ask Anthony what he's been up to this past week. He says he's fallen down the deep end on something I don't know what he has not told me yet.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. So, Dakota, you had talked to us about like you had started watching, or no, you hadn't started watching Like you've been watching the White Lotus, so like I finally started to hop into that, to that rabbit hole.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, it's a crazy show, yeah it's just, it's interesting, but but like I mean I'm on the first season and I I can I mean like there's like several characters that are kind of like ridiculous, uh, but like I can already tell that like jennifer coolidge is gonna be like like she's kind of crazy a little bit like from what I've seen so far, but what I what I like about white lotus is that, um, there are very few people in any of the seasons that are genuinely good people or like people that you're actually rooting for, and it really like digs into the hypocrisy that everybody has.
Speaker 2:You know, like, everyone has some sort of hypocrisy that they add to the that they bring to the table, and sometimes that gets exacerbated when, on vacations, you know that those insecurities or those issues that you have, you bring them with you, or those issues that you have, you bring them with you. And when you have, you know, a bunch of those crazy people, it leads to, you know, some really tense times and potentially dangerous times. So, yeah, that's what I like about White Lotus is it's the most stressful hour of television every week, but it's so good, it's so fun, uh, and and you, you, anyway, I know, but what's what's also great about is that it's that if you, you know, jump into the second season, it's a completely different cast. Um, there are some through lines, but yeah, it's a yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I, I was like, you know, I had to share this with you. You and like a few other people I've been like telling me, like yeah, you need to get in on the show.
Speaker 2:So it's the HBO show right now yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So and then also something pretty big as of recording. It is Wednesday, march 26th. Today was my last day at my current job that's what I'm talking about, bro yeah, I have, um, I have a couple of pto days, like thankfully, like I still work for the same company, so like that pto all, like you know it's the same it maintains. So like technically I'm still like you know, with my job, but not like really with them, like I did all of my like final life.
Speaker 2:You know fine, I gave them my keys, I gave them you might as well, you might as well be like going to a different job because even though it's under the same company. You know you're working with entirely different people doing entirely different things exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to be working from home, I'm going to be doing IT instead of, like you know, kind of a customer facing job. So you know I'm pretty stoked about that. But, yeah, no, no, I'm going to, you know, take a few days off and kind of enjoy this like transition period. Happy for you, dude, that's awesome. Thank you, man. Thank you. Yeah, this like transition period, happy for you, dude, that's awesome. Thank you, man. Thank you, yeah, I'm, I'm pretty, pretty stoked about it, man, um, oh, I also, I, I I haven't bought any of the you know from the series. I haven't bought day one from them for a long, long time.
Speaker 3:But I ended up getting assassin's creed shadows and I kind of, you know, I kind of wanted to get it. Like you know, it's got that you know, the whole japanese and and like ninja thing going on and I really liked, uh, ghost of tsushima, although, like I know that that one's like more samurai. But you get a bit of both. Like you get uh, samurai and yasuke and then um, and then you get a ninja and naoe, which is like the female character. I mean it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I mean, like it does, there's some stuff that that they added. That's like they have this like base building mechanic, which isn't the first in the game, but like it's really like you can really like customize it and like kind of move the buildings around and change the looks of them and stuff. I've been enjoying it so far. It's really cool. The one thing that I'll say that I don't like about this game, that these last handful of Assassin's Creed games have been doing, is they have this whole like rpg element to it. Like you know, the the enemies have levels to them and then you have to have like a stronger sword and I just feel like for this type of game, it just doesn't really work well for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah oh, that's interesting. So yeah, because the first, the first couple I haven't played in a while uh, assassin's creed games, but like at least the first five or six, everyone was kind of like the same level and it was all about your growing skill that you know. Right, I affected the game.
Speaker 3:I think it was around assassin's creed odyssey that they started to like kind of do that. I don't remember if there was any games before then there might have been, but like I remember that one actually having it in it and it it's like it almost like kind of takes away the. It kind of takes away the whole, like you know, stealth aspect of it. Because, like you know, there's enemies that like if they're like a higher level enemy and like I have to like get in a few more hits to like kill them and stuff, but it's like not because they're like heavily armored, like some of them are, but like some of them are just like higher level, you know, and it's just I don't know, it's weird, but I mean, aside from that, like I've I've been enjoying it. I, I think it's, I think it's a pretty fun game. Um, I'm not super, so I'm not super super far into it, I think. Think I'm about 10 to 15 hours into it. So it's.
Speaker 2:I want to get it. Yeah, no, I actually really want to get it, especially after today, because, like or it was yesterday actually the Assassin's Creed Twitter account ratioed the heck out of Elon Musk. It was brutal.
Speaker 3:I didn't read it, but I heard that they did something.
Speaker 2:Eviscerated. They eviscerated Musk, anyway. Yeah, so someone was saying something about a Twitch streamer named Hasan playing Assassin's Creed the new one and Elon Musk goes he's a sellout Objectively, he is promoting a terrible game just for the money, and that tweet got 33,000 likes, but then the Assassin's Creed account posted is that what the guy playing your Path of Exile 2 account told you? Because I don't know if you had heard, but he pays people to play games for him so that he shows up on like the top leaders leaderboards, like he's. He's done that for a couple games, like diablo and all that that's crazy and that was recently found out.
Speaker 2:So assassin's creed said is that what the guy playing your path of exile 2 account told you and like that that tweet. So his elon's tweet got 33 000. Uh, likes the assassin's creed one got 660 000. So it's, it's by far the biggest ratio that elon musk has ever gotten that's crazy yeah, so I'm actually like just like I like.
Speaker 3:Why like I don't like I mean grinding up to leaderboards. I mean it's a fun thing, but like it's no fun in it, like you're not enjoying the game.
Speaker 2:No, I 100% agree, and basically I think that Elon Musk just wants to be liked, and I think that's his ultimate goal in life is to be liked. But a lot of people dislike him because of, you know, he's kind of weird anyway. So, yeah, I, I do want to play uh, shadows. I think that that um actually does look fun. So, yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely I would.
Speaker 2:I would get into it, you should I don't have a whole lot that I've been doing this week. Uh, or did you, sorry, did you have.
Speaker 3:Wow. Thank you, just so you know, for just completely taking over the second no no I I didn't have uh, I didn't have anything else that I wanted to cover anything, so okay, so I'm gonna abscond with your the rest of your time um, yeah no, I don't have.
Speaker 2:I don't have much going on this week either. I feel kind of lame actually. I'm thinking about, like, what did I do? And the answer is not much. Yeah, not much, but um, I did grab, uh, the.
Speaker 2:There's a new avatar, the last airbender comic, which is, you know, very timely because we're covering an avatar tv show. Um, this is not a legend of korra comic, though it's. It's like a continuation of the avatar, the last airbender storyline called ashes of the academy, and it's basically um, in pre in previous avatar comics. Zuko has found his mother. After the show has concluded, he finds his mother.
Speaker 2:And he show has concluded, he finds his mother and he also finds that she's had another daughter with someone else that she fell in love with. This daughter is now invited over to the Fire Nation, now that she's no longer on the run, zuko's mother, and she joins the Academy when she turns of age, like the fire academy. So it's it kind of goes like into like all the like corruption that was like still in the fire academy and I haven't read it yet, but I'm excited to and it basically follows zuko and may, as they kind of like, sort of kind of like rekindle their their love there. Um, and and shows more about you know, like zuko's younger sister, which is kind of cool, so I'm excited to read that.
Speaker 3:Um, it's called ashes of the academy and, yeah, it just came out this past week yeah, we definitely need to get a little bit more of that information because, like, there's a character that shows up in this season from Zuko's lineage and it's like, how did he get to that point? I mean, we can kind of assume things, but there's not a definitive answer yet, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, even I think, after. Yeah, we still don't know, even going past into. Uh, you know, like the korra comics that come out after the series takes place, we don't know who zuko marries and you know how that lineage continues. But um, we can speculate, we certainly can. I am going to hand over the rest of my time to Rich. I don't have a lot going on this week, but maybe Rich did at the same time.
Speaker 4:So this week was a little heavy with a lot of, I guess, also self-imposed content. I so I'm not sure if you two are familiar with the star trek, the next generation episode darmak uh, I have watched it.
Speaker 4:I don't remember off the top of my head which episode that is so essentially what happens is the federation comes into contact with a race of aliens that have never been able to communicate with the Federation before, and that's because they speak in meme or, essentially, metaphor, and the problem is is that the source material that they're referencing is unknown to Picard.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that All right, so OK.
Speaker 4:I know, as an english teacher I love this. You know, one of my favorite comics to teach is actually rocket raccoon, number five, and it's because I think it's scotty young. The story is told from the point. So basically there's a campfire and there's these scouts that are with rocket and and groot, and it's now it's groot's turn to tell the story and once he starts telling the story, there is no dialogue other than I am. All the city buildings say I am groot, the, the billboards in the back I am. Everything says I am groot, but you still know what happens by the end and I just I love that so, oh, that's really brilliant, you know I love that.
Speaker 4:Eventually, you know, in the episode the communication does. Eventually, obviously you know, come you know it's. It's a start, it's a star trek next generation episode. You know, the 45 minute run thing where generally you have a problem and it gets solved every week. So it gets solved. So I thought that, uh, it's kind of interesting how we we've kind of especially my- students are speaking in memes, you know, like you just respond with the dog sitting in the little room. You know this is fine. Everything's burning you know, okay, yeah they.
Speaker 4:They're just constantly using memes to respond, so I actually decided to start using. I re-watched the episode and I start using chat gpt to help me start developing some sort of lesson, uh, that I can actually try in class.
Speaker 4:So since, uh, we have some test prep going on now, but uh my plan is that when the testing is over, I'm gonna pilot this crazy episode, this crazy lesson plan of star trek the next generation and see if I can pull off a coup next year and get to teach revenge of the sith and star trek the next generation in one calendar year.
Speaker 4:Uh, specifically that one episode of listen, star trek listen, or listen, sir, if, if I had my druthers, all right, I wouldn't teach anything else but these two franchises okay, sure I think that I can frame this in the, the, the analysis of language and how we communicate with others, and kind of make it a commentary on the way we're kind of devolved. I like that.
Speaker 2:No, actually, I think that that's a really cool way to introduce that, because it is that that episode, thinking back on it, is ahead of its time. Ahead of its time, you know, and it's one of those classic sci-fi stories that, like, it's just based on the idea of like what if we just, you know, only communicate through like memes, you know, like they didn't have a word for it back then, but that's exactly what they were talking about.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's, that's cool and that just makes my week sound better than it really is when most of it was dedicated to playing, uh, major MLB, mlb, the show and just opining for by the time. By the time everyone listens to this, I will have been happily watching the Mets start their season, hopefully, on a positive note, and dedicating the rest of my life, and really my happiness, to a roller coaster of inconsequential things that happen on a baseball field, you know, perpetrated by people who don't actually care about me and have no idea that I exist.
Speaker 2:I'm sure someday they'll know.
Speaker 4:Go sports.
Speaker 3:I will look. I will say that like I do understand like what it is to like to experience like a roller coaster of a team like the. The Miami heat has been playing like pretty, like terribly lately. But the fact that like they've kind of seemed to like hit their stride a little bit and the the fact that they like destroyed um the warriors, with Jimmy Butler on it I know I know it's like really petty to say, but like you know, with the way in the fashion that he left, which partially I understand, but partially I'm like bro, like you kind of you know I understand your beef with that dude. But what about the rest of the us? We didn't do that to you, you know. Um, so you know the fact that like we held him at 11 points and blew his team out, that was nice, excellent I'm not even a basketball fan and I knew that was happening, so I'm not a basketball fan either, and I had no.
Speaker 2:I still have no idea what's going on dakota's like I just know it's orange the bet? Yeah, yeah, I was. It took me a while to figure out what you what was. What exactly was orange? And I'm thinking about the miami heats color? I mean, there is orange.
Speaker 4:There is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I do know the logo, that's definitely. No. I'm kidding. I do love a good basketball game. I just don't follow it in the slightest. I actually do follow baseball. That's pretty much it, but only New. York teams, basically that's the subconscious move of, you know, get the cover. Yeah, you know. Yankees, dodgers and Mets the classic trio of New York teams.
Speaker 4:Everyone's a big fan, but yeah, I think I steer us off the ship every week with the baseball talk Once the season starts. Guys, listen, all right, I will tell you Next week's episode. You'll hear me talk about my excitement of going to the first game at home and then after that it'll be old hat. All right, it'll be every weekend. I won't even. It won't even be a new thing, I won't even mention it. But right now it's just just, it's the excitement that's building.
Speaker 4:Oh, I'm sorry once they start losing again and I realize that they're actually the Mets and I deluded myself I'll fall back. But this is what it is to be a Mets fan your excitement is the highest before the season starts. And if you've watched Family Guy because damn that show there's a clip that I hate and for no reason they had to come at the mets and it's like all right, it's the first game this season open a day for the met season and oh run, and there goes the season. And I was sitting there like why you gotta do that man, why do you have to come at?
Speaker 1:us for, like I'm just sitting here watching your show, but that's yeah that's what it is to be a met fan.
Speaker 3:So yeah, wow, it's like you, you and baseball's like me and persona man this guy with persona. Look man and and then like, but like, I kind of feel your pain with the whole like mets thing. You know you're trying to whole Mets thing. You're trying to get Dakota into Mets. I'm trying to get Dakota into Persona. He's just very resistant.
Speaker 4:We'll wear him down, guy.
Speaker 3:One of these days.
Speaker 2:I actually do attend more Mets games than Yankee games, just because one of my brother-in-law's friends has season tickets and just he's rich, so he always not his name is not rich, he has wealth, so he's always buying us tickets. But yeah, so I do have a good time with that.
Speaker 4:I mean, if you're going to really be a baseball fan, you can't have such a narrow-minded view, you know sure baseball you have to kind of accept all sides and that's exactly what I do.
Speaker 2:Um, so even if I'm going to a yankees game and I'm a yankees fan, if the other team performs a play that is incredible, I'm 100 on board for that game gotcha yeah, I'm 100 if. If the other team is playing better, good on them.
Speaker 4:They deserve to win you are, that is I. I would say that's commendable, sir. I, uh, I would say that I I devolved slurs uh and uh. Epithets uh.
Speaker 2:No, not really, but I know, but like I I actually do, I I actually like get, actually get excited when I see a really good play. It's great when it's my team, but if it's not my team, I'm just like I like that guy. That was pretty cool.
Speaker 4:You'll see that more often at Citi Field this year, I think, than you will at your stadium Reeling him in Dang.
Speaker 2:All right, let's jump into our topic of discussion for this evening. Richard is just cracking up over there. Uh, he's so excited to like. Uh, make me a mess fan anyway. Legend of korra guys. Uh, have you guys seen the show previously?
Speaker 3:dakota, dakota, you're asking me the person who was.
Speaker 2:I was the person I was asking the the room I was asking the room dude.
Speaker 3:You know how long I was trying to get Dakota to watch the avatar.
Speaker 2:I was like actually, yeah, no, you're right, I I did slack on the avatar, just like I'm slacking on persona and the mats, whatever you know one of what one of these days, um, no, no, but, um, but yeah, yeah, no, I I watched Korra only so I had seen the other seasons, like eventually.
Speaker 3:But I I watched the whole first season, like in its original run.
Speaker 2:Okay all right, so you, you had seen it before me then, because at that, at that point I point I wasn't an Avatar fan until around 2014. And this came out the year before that. What were your thoughts initially like when you were seeing it on syndication?
Speaker 3:So I was just happy to see more Avatar stuff. Happy to see like more avatar stuff. You know, just being like a really. You know just being a like a made like a big fan of of the series. It didn't really give me the same vibes and feelings of the original series, but there's a lot that is brought on that I really like about this, like about legend of korra, the animation is a lot more crisp. It looks a lot better. Uh, the movements are really fluid, especially with the the bending. Not that the original wasn't, but it looks a lot better. And I like some of their artistic choices, like the way that they they like lay out the landscaping or the like the landscape.
Speaker 2:It it's almost like a painting. Right, it's like a painting, it kind of like makes me think of like.
Speaker 3:Oh, they have a bob ross backdrop right there yeah, I was enjoying that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I I like that, that decision. But you know I've seen it. I've seen this first season more than I've seen the other two seasons. Like I've seen this first season like maybe three, four times, and then the other seasons I've seen maybe like twice, you know. But you know like, the more that I've seen it like, the more I've come to like appreciate it a bit more and to like like appreciate it, like what it's trying to do and like you know, even though it's different from Avatar, the last airbender, I appreciate like what it's presenting and what it's trying to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I would. What I would say for me is that while I think Avatar the last airbender has the overall better story in terms of like this is the beginning of the arc. He's in an iceberg. This is the end of the arc. The 100 year war ends. That's the story of Avatar the Last Airbender in like 15 words. With Legend of Korra. It's seasonal arcs, so there isn't a real through line from beginning to end with the four seasons. But really I think the individual seasons are better than the individual seasons of avatar the last airbender better, but the individual season by season comparisons I think korra comes out stronger most times.
Speaker 3:Um, I don't know man, book two was good and I'm not saying it wasn't.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying it wasn't I, obviously I, I, I love avatar, but I just, I think the the concepts that they were going for are unique enough with each season. You know, like having a unique villain and, honestly, like Korra throughout the show has way more difficulty than Aang did you know, in terms of, like, the people that she had to combat than Aang did you know in terms of, like, the people that she had to combat? So I think that they weren't doing anything, they weren't going easy, like they didn't choose the easy path, like it wasn't a clear successor to Avatar. They wanted to shake things up and they did it every single season.
Speaker 2:And this this season's like a crazy one, because we have a guy who's, uh, you know, aman, who is the, the leader of this equalist movement, who has the ability somehow to take people's bending away permanently. You know this been able to manage, and this is terrifying. And like he can take on groups of benders at the same time. You know, like we've never really seen that, maybe outside of Azula, but, yeah, aman was a terrifying foe for, like you know, korra, who's 16, 17 years old.
Speaker 3:Right for, like a you know, cora, who's 16, 17 years old.
Speaker 2:right, there's definitely some like world war ii, world war ii parallels going on, which is crazy, because there's also that during like, uh, you know, the the first, the first series as well, but like go, go ahead and like where are you. What do you mean by like what? What exactly is a world war War II parallel?
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of With the whole equalist movement. It kind of goes from being equalist to like complete eradication, you know in a, in a way that is similar to what like Hitler kind of wanted, you know, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also and also like a lot of like the, some of like the grander battles like the, the, the whole fight between the ships and the airplanes kind of remind me of pearl harbor okay, yeah, actually I, I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're, you're, you're onto something and like especially, especially the equalist. Uh, you know, like using fear-mongering against benders to start this panic which culminates in, you know, not necessarily genocide, but like bending genocide. You know like they, they want to end bending right, right, it's almost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like, uh, you know, since, like you know, bending is it's, it's like you know, it's a connection between like the physical plane and like the spiritual plane within that universe. It's like kind of like a like a genocide of like the spirit in a way, and it's, yeah, it's. It's definitely interesting and, and I'm on, you know, I remember like when I first had seen it, I was like man, like how is this guy, like you know, how is this guy, using an ability that only ang can do, you know, and and and, goes to find out that like this man was, was an imposter the whole time, I mean he was and and, but he also was just like an incredibly powerful bender, you know, yeah well, well imposter, in a sense that like he was trying to play off not being a bender and like right right, he was a bender, the
Speaker 3:whole time. And you know, yeah, also an imposter in a sense, that it made it seem like he had this ability that only the avatar had, I mean. But he, which is, I mean, he does, like he uses this incredibly rare way of bloodbending to sever the connection between, like the person, like he kind of like blocks off, like the chi paths, and so like that's what kind of makes it hard, or like that's what makes it like him able to actually like stop them from bending, that's what makes it like him able to actually like stop them from bending, and the fact that, like he can do it at any time and not in a full moon.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, all right. So we're talking a lot. We're going deep into, like, the lore and plot of the show. We have someone here who has not seen the Legend of Korra prior to this.
Speaker 4:Yes, rich, jumping over to you yeah, so I entered, unlike last week when we entered into uh, dungeons, dragons I had no idea what was in for I I knew more of what I was in for. Uh, I'd never seen korra, but I've seen enough avatar.
Speaker 4:Like it was difficult because I think every time that it's been happening, it's like my family starts like marathon binge watching so it's like if I didn't want to sit and watch five or four episodes in a row, then I kind of got left behind. So I know all the characters, uh, I know the broad story beats. I uh did cosplay as ih once and learned a little bit more about him. So I went into it knowing that this was the kind of spin-off series of Avatar. I did have kind of I didn't look around the tomatoes or anything, but I know that my son, charlie, does not like Korra as much as Avatar, so I just knew that going into it.
Speaker 4:Now he's 10, and he probably first watched Avatar when he was 5, and then, I think, re-watched it again in its entirety when he was 8. So I don't know if age range has to do with it. So that's kind of going into it, what I kind of had with me, my baggage or whatever I so overall, from the beginning to the, by the end I will say that I started this first episode of the second season right, so I wanted to know more. So I there are parts that I'm enjoying. I did briefly mention it as a teaser at the beginning, the love triangle stuff right now is. So this is. You know it may be correct me if I'm wrong. That doesn't happen in avatar, right, there's no uh, there is hints.
Speaker 2:There's hints that zuko and katara might have something going on and they they kind of play with that idea a little bit near the end of the series. But there's no love triangle.
Speaker 3:Right, right. It's not like full force in the way that it is in Korra.
Speaker 2:I think for me, you know, just just briefly, I'll let you finish for me with the love triangle stuff. I don't even pay any attention to it because I know it doesn't matter. Nobody, nobody that is. I don't want to spoil it, but like it's just, like it changes so much over the course of four seasons that I don't even pay attention to like the interpersonal relationships of those four characters, as much I enjoy, you know, their one-off lines, especially Bolin. I love Bolin.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's, yeah, yeah, all right go ahead.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I guess I so for me, since I'm only taking in the first entire season and I don't remember really any romantic stuff from what I had seen from avatar. I was a little surprised and at first I was like, okay, and you're watching the tournament and I'm like, oh no, their, their love spot's gonna cause problems. It felt this isn't. It sounds so weird and I'm older than you guys, but the show Frasier right, yeah, I would physically feel so like awkward, I don't know what that there's a word for that. I just felt so like the show.
Speaker 3:Cringe yes.
Speaker 4:Yes, like the show, I would just be cringing. I just no like a cringe watching and I just couldn't. And sometimes with the love stuff it just feels like I'm watching. And look, to be fair, I was talking to jen at work and she mentioned that it was more a like. It's more kind of aimed for like a teenage audience, where avatar was maybe a younger audience so that the love themes would be more prevalent, and then that makes sense. But it's what? Not what I was expecting. I was kind of like, uh, I don't know, I I don't know how I saw it going. Maybe I just didn't see that the b plot, because it's, it is the b plot, right, or maybe even the c plot, but it's, it just comes up.
Speaker 4:So uh many you know it's just the first season that I'm just like. You know I don't like telegraphing. I guess feelings of discomfort right Of being uncomfortable, and I went to an old boys' Catholic high school so the anxiety of dating and seeing people in the hallways and the interaction was not a thing in my life. So in my entertainment sometimes I'm like really I got to deal with this right now.
Speaker 2:That's okay, yeah, that's interesting. So I will say, like, just thinking about how teenagers are, and you put two females and two males, you know, together, there will be something there. It's always going to happen. So I get it and that doesn't mean I like it or anything or that I'm like, you know, but it's a normal thing for a teenager to do. And I think the whole thing with cora is that um like not not cora her, but like cora the show. Um is that the, the creators, did something interesting where they aged with their fans, you know.
Speaker 3:so that that like, that's what I was gonna say, the thing that that's exactly what I was going to say to coda. Um, okay, well, well, they so. So the thing with cora is that cora is for the fans of the original series, but set up in a way that anybody can watch it, you know. And so where, like you know, avatar, the last airbender was very, you know, it was more targeted to the preteen or early teen audience. This is more engaged to the late teens audience. You know, like, and and you know there's the awkwardness of, like those earlier years and then the awkwardness of those later years and you know, it's very much so like prevalent, like you can, you can see, like how very different it is. But the thing is, is that the thing that both shows does is that it doesn't talk down to its audience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's a good that's. That's a good way to put it. And, yeah, the kids growing up watching the original Last Airbender would be in the perfect age bracket to watch the new Legend of Korra show five or six years later. So I give the show a pass on certain things the love triangle stuff and some of the humor. You know, because a lot of the themes in this are heavier than the average theme in, uh, like, generally speaking, um, there there are huge, you know, like powerful themes within the the last airbender, um, that they touch on. But they don't. They do it in a way where it's it's more cartoony, you know.
Speaker 2:So they're able to get away with a bunch of stuff in the last airbender because, uh, and aimed towards children, because it's in a cartoony way and I think that that's part of the genius of avatar the last airbender you can incorporate real life themes or, like you know, like war themes or terrorist themes or doing the right thing against your family's wishes themes, stuff like that that you don't normally see in a kid's cartoon. But they can get away with it because it's cartoony, it's funny, it's it's got a lot of humor with the Legend of Korra. They try to do that a little bit with characters like bolin and stuff, and I love bolin, but a lot of times it just it's just comedic irony, you know like, for for the sake of it it's, it's just thrown in there. So um, and the the themes are more mature overall in in kra, so it it feels a little off in that respect, if that makes sense so.
Speaker 2:I don't know yeah, um, but that's, that's a fair, fair critique. And and yeah that, because it really starts with uh Bolin falling, you know, falling for Cora, uh, and Cora is falling for Mako. So that that's the first love triangle. And then Mako hits or gets hit by uh Asami on her Sato mobile, and then they fall in love. So now and then it's back and forth with Cora and you know Bolin gets hurt along the way and it's just it's, it is a mess, yeah, it's, it's, it's just like it's a, it's a soap opera for, you know, teenage love.
Speaker 3:Bolin is the fourth wheel.
Speaker 2:Bolin. He was the first and the last.
Speaker 4:Yeah, here's the thing I could totally accept that right. I could deal with just that, that romance storyline, all right, even though it's convoluted and annoying and cringing, all right, I can deal with it. If then you didn't have tenzin being like oh well he doesn't reveal it. I'm sorry, but Tenzin's wife does. Back in the day, Tenzin was actually in a similar situation where he loved two women and that ends up being the, you know, the Lin Beifong.
Speaker 2:And then he has to have the awkward moment where he's basically like I, actually that though I, I, I love tenzin, but tenzin is probably my favorite character I don't love that.
Speaker 4:They like in the first season. I need to find out about two, two similar love triangles. Like you got 12 episodes. People like you could have put that one in season two like I don't know. And then even the moment where he has to turn to her, uh, and he says, I think to lynn, he's like you know, can you stay and watch over my family, you know, and it's just like such a messed up moment in my mind. It's like, hey, you know, could you hang out here and watch the family that I have? That I could have had with you, but you know you ended up being single and a career woman because I turned you down. Oh yeah, I have that I could have had with you, but you know you ended up being single and a career woman because I turned you down oh yeah, I mean that it it was just.
Speaker 4:It is rough because it seems like that so many of them. See, this is my problem. I don't like to see that so many of these characters motivations are so just tied to, to romantic, their romantic uh, I want to say something. They're they're just like flippantly going back and forth and it's just the by the whims of their, of their ever-changing love, and I think that too many characters seem to be impacted by that during the first season I don't disagree with you.
Speaker 2:I I to play devil's advocate. Avatar as a show, as a, as a series, you know, as a franchise, is all about, um, generational trauma. There's a lot of multi-generational storytelling, um, throughout the entire franchise. You know like they they'll, they'll have books about avatars before ang. You know like they have books on roku and kiyoshi and yang chen and it go, and you know like that story goes back and back. But, um, when it comes to, you know like, just the intergenerational stories between like kora and tenzin and like Tenzin is a generation above Cora in terms of like, where she is, um, you know, in in that group of like that age, age group. So I I see it just as a parallel storytelling.
Speaker 4:You know where every generation kind of goes through this and that's what they're showing you know, like just because in ten, sorry, what tenzin is the ang I knows grandson or son son son, yeah, all right, so it's, it's ang tenzin and then tenzin's kids but the but. Kora is the avatar, kora is the Avatar.
Speaker 2:Korra is the Avatar, so do you know how the Avatar is passed down to different people?
Speaker 4:I'm going to pretend that I'm the listener who doesn't know, and maybe you could tell us, dakota.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:So the Avatar is randomly chosen oh, okay yeah, so I wasn't sure if it was like the force where, like they're strong, like the tenzin, the, the ang dynasty is strong in the force.
Speaker 2:Uh well, at least I would say the the ang dynasty is strong because he's carrying on the airbender lineage. Tenzin and his three kids are the only airbenders in the world at that point, so that's significantly more than one. So when an avatar dies, the avatar cycle begins again. So it always follows the cycle of the season. So airbenders are like the fall, waterbenders are like the winter, earthbenders are like the spring and firebenders are like the summer. So it'll always follow that order when it comes to where, like which nation, the avatar is born into. So if ang was born into the air nomad nation, the next avatar, once ang ends uh is is basically reincarnated into the water tribes. So um kora, while not directly related to ang, follows that lineage. Um, it's a spiritual lineage, not not, not a physical, um, you know, genetic one which is you sure it's not accidentally like your grandson?
Speaker 4:uh, somehow, like revealed at the end, she's not a palpatine. Are you sure she's?
Speaker 2:she's. She's not a palpatine, I promise you that's weird uh, what do you guys think about? Like the, the, the main uh team avatar. Like um, divorce yourself from the idea of their individual. You know relationships, but like what do you think of Korra, bolin, mako and Asami? Let's start with Anthony.
Speaker 3:They have good intentions, but they get stopped a lot. They get stopped a lot.
Speaker 2:They don't get very far. I will say like as a team they are not as productive as ang's team avatar. Like they never are, like they will never. They will never be the original team avatar, but I do love each and every one of them for different reasons.
Speaker 3:My favorite part was like they're like going onto a base and like asami's, like why are there posts, but no, but, but no fence and they walk like right through it and they get electrocuted that's good. It's like like you know, in a way it's like asami, this is your father's base, like, try to think like him a little bit, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, who's your favorite character of the four, or how would you rank them?
Speaker 3:oh, that's tough, and likeability or, like you know, power it's I mean power.
Speaker 2:It would go avatar and then probably mako and boleyn. But yeah what likeability, like what, what, what grab what? Sorry, I keep saying what, um? What do you gravitate towards in each character like? What are the pros and cons of of them?
Speaker 3:I like I, I like bo lynn a lot, um, as far as like his likeability, you know he's he's funny and he's like, very, he's very loyal and, you know, will help out if need be. But like you know, he know he's a proficient bender but he's not a great one, if that makes sense, like at least in this first season. He gets there, he gets there, you know. Well, I'm saying like, as far as like in this first season, like you know, he's proficient enough to, like you know, do pro bending, but it's not until, like Cora joins that like him and or her and Mako, kind of like carry the team a little bit. I mean he, he, he does his thing, but like you know, they weren't, they weren't really winning much before Cora, you know, and right and so. But, like you know, likability, and you know I love his pet man yeah, the fire ferret.
Speaker 2:I like that, rich. What do you think about Bolin?
Speaker 4:my favorite hands down favorite hands down I think there were actually points. Let's see first couple episodes where I kind of disliked a number of characters, and I think that bullen was kind of what kept me, kept me, kept me in this you know like I actually went when they went out on the date.
Speaker 4:When he went, I was like, man, score one for the good guy, I know. And then they had a good time. I was like, oh man, good for him, for the good guy. And then they had a good time. I was like, oh man, good for him. So I was super crushed when it turned out that he was just the rebound guy. It's not like I had some PTSD coming up, nothing like that, nothing at all.
Speaker 2:I agree with you guys. I think bolin is a fantastic character, um, and he's lovable like throughout the entire series, um, and just this first season. Yeah, he's a fantastic character. Uh, I have always like really related to bolin, not that I'm like the goofy character per se, but, um, just his, his joviality I really, I really uh enjoy. What about mako anthony?
Speaker 3:mako mako's almost like he in a sense like he's kind of like a typical firebender. In a sense like he's kind of like a typical firebender. In a sense he's kind of. There's this certain distance that reminds me of early Zuko, without like yeah, very stoic, almost Right right, without the anger behind it. I mean maybe a little bit, but like you know that there is like some similarities.
Speaker 3:I mean I, I like as far as like bending elements, like I like him, I just I like fire bending. I think that fire bending is the coolest looking element to me, um, and it I like the fact that they can bend lightning. I just thought that that was like one of the coolest like kind of like sub abilities that that, uh, you know, you know how like each element has like its ability to kind of like you know it can evolve into something else. Sure, yeah, um, you know like that, that's like one of my favorites and and so, but yeah, with with mako, like he he's, he's cool, like his character, um, it I guess helps drive some of the the like interpersonal, like conflicts and stuff. But I mean he, I I mean he's, he's strong, like he's, he's a good fighter.
Speaker 2:Uh Rich. What are your thoughts on Mako?
Speaker 4:This guy's like uh, I get real Romeo, romeo and Juliet vibes. This guy falls in love so he starts off Rosalyn and Juliet and he can't decide which one. Uh, so you know, he, I. I wouldn't have characterized him as Fire Nation-like just because of my lack of knowledge.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't have made that assertion.
Speaker 4:But now that you brought it up, Anthony, it does make sense to me. Like he was kind of like needlessly dismissive of cora you know especially like, I mean, would he have known that as the avatar she could wield, you know, yeah, he had to know that she could, you know, wield, uh, different.
Speaker 4:Uh, you know she could bend, you know, water and and fire and earth, right. So it's like it's so weird that he seems to be so dismissive of her, like I'm a pro and it's like she's the avatar and I don't know. But I was like I know I'm not that informed, but I'm sitting here, I'm going, I'm pretty sure in this world, if, like, the avatar showed up, you know, and was like I'm gonna join your team of, like, basically, avatar skills, but you guys only have one each and I have like all of them, you like you would ask you, beg for her to be on the team like I don't understand it's not like they were and, like anthony said earlier, they weren't like you know.
Speaker 4:They weren't going gangbusters when, uh, when she wasn't there.
Speaker 2:So I'm just like why we only wanted a winning streak as soon as she showed up.
Speaker 4:You know that I just that didn't. That was a little.
Speaker 3:Would you say? Would you say that, like they were playing, like you know the Mets before their prior acquisition?
Speaker 4:In my head I said this would be like, you know, if Lindorindor goes, wait, juan soto. Why do we need that guy, like I was the mvp last year.
Speaker 2:We don't need another guy yeah, you know, and it was like what?
Speaker 4:are you talking about? No, so you know that was a little bit overstated, but I I was able to, you know, kind of deal with that and it kind of ties into how I felt about korra because, you know, I I did watch what I did watch a lot of naruto with my son and I did see that you know this, an idea of like the chosen, one kind of you know, and we've seen it's a trope right.
Speaker 4:The chosen one's a bit cocky and kind of needs to get knocked down a couple of pegs and uh is you know, refusing to listen yeah, I did think it was a little. I mean, she goes, like you know, full like rebellious teen, like really quickly when she gets to tenzin's house you know like she starts breaking all the rules off the bat and it was just like I.
Speaker 4:That's what I said about. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe episode four is where I started to feel different. It was towards the maybe end of the tournament, but there was a while where both of them and it's kind of intertwined, both of them- kind of when you didn't care for Mako or Korra Because they were so tropey to me. What's weird is Bolin is just as tropey, but I think I like that.
Speaker 4:You know the goofy like yeah sidekick guy like I just love that so much, that archetype, so much that I could ignore the patterns I was seeing develop. But I will say that by the end all I'd say almost all of the characters redeemed themselves, with the exception of Misami.
Speaker 3:Dakota. What are your thoughts on? Because you've seen Avatar, the Last Airbender and we understand that that's a major arc right and part of that major arcing story is ang learning to bend uh, the different elements you know, outside of of airbending. But cora has like an affinity, like pretty early on, with the exception of of airbending, you know what were your thoughts like kind of coming into that, like, oh, you know we have. You know she's very young and she can. You know she can waterbend, firebend and earthbends, like at a very young age, younger than even ang. Did you know, even even younger than like ang, when he was first told that he was going to be the avatar? You know?
Speaker 2:yeah, so her, her path towards avatar hood is unusual, like we. We don't know of another avatar that learned that they were, uh, the avatar as early as she did. She was probably like three or four at the time when the white lotus showed up at her doorstep and she was able to bend three up, three elements. Uh, it's an interesting thing. I don't, I don't mind it. Um, because she is cocky enough that if she wanted to, you know, start moving stuff around, you know like, and she's, she's, um, confident enough, and that's the thing. She has a lot of confidence, at least in the beginning of the season, um, where she can just kind of do whatever she wants to do, and even at a young age, I have no issues with that. Obviously she wasn't a master at those ages. It took her way later than it should have normally taken her to master those three elements. Because she's 17 by the time. She's ready to start her airbending training, right? You?
Speaker 3:know right, like like she she had, she had like the very like kind of base foundation there and then like the training kind of you in her mastery. Of the other ones, I'm not too sure. I know that there's publications out there, but were there attempts prior to that? Because she probably what do you mean? Attempts prior to that? At airbending?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure. So airbending is highly connected to spirituality. Yeah, and throughout the entire first season. She doesn't have any affinity for that, she has no desire for it. Right, it's really not until the end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, like she had to learn how to be like selfless. You know, you know you talk about how she has this cockiness, this, this confidence, and you know I think that's.
Speaker 2:That's partially why a lot of people dislike the show, um, and cora specifically, is because she's overconfident, she's cocky, she stumbles, she's her own biggest stumbling block a lot of the times and throughout the show. You know I'm not going to get into it, but like, she gets knocked down a lot, much more than any avatar we've ever known in terms of, you know, like, just being. You think she's at her lowest when she gets her bending taken away. No, it goes way lower than that. You know, like, this show like beats her to a pulp. The, the, the writers literally did not hold back. They, they give you the greatest stakes that you will ever, you can even conceive of, throughout, like, throughout the show, um, and and they will like, actually like, use those stakes to make, uh, you know, definitive changes to the overall series. It's it's an incredibly bold choice of them to do that, because a lot of people dislike that choice, you know I don, I don't personally dislike it.
Speaker 2:I think it's really fascinating writing and the more I have watched the series, the more I have appreciated like, wow, they really went for this and I give them a lot of credit for that. Um, but you know, overall I I think um with cora, even though she's cocky and she what some there's a line that ang says at the end of the episode or the end of the season, when she finally gets to commune with her past lives, and, um, she basically, or he, he basically, tells her when you're at your lowest, that's when the greatest change happens. You know, and we see that throughout not only this season but, uh, the rest of the show, and I think that that's a really like.
Speaker 2:I think it's a powerful message because a lot of times, like you know, we get beaten down, we get fired from our jobs. We, you know, lose a loved one, we, you know, x, y and z, but sometimes we need those events to pick ourselves up and grow. You know, and I think that that is the, the humbling thing about the legend of korai is that, um, this character is someone who needs to be knocked down before she realizes. Oh, oh, I'm not like, I'm not the biggest and baddest in the room. You know like she thinks she is, but she isn't.
Speaker 3:So like apparently it doesn't get any better for her because because, like isn't the next avatar? Like right after her?
Speaker 2:We we don't know timeline, okay, okay, I was going to say because isn't it like a post-apocalyptic world?
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:And it's an earth-bending avatar.
Speaker 3:That is correct. So if this avatar is after Korra, it's like what happened? What happened to the world?
Speaker 2:I have more information on that.
Speaker 3:I'm interested to see how that story plays out and supposedly Korra destroys the world.
Speaker 2:She is the one who did it, so we don't know what that story is or how they're going to do that. But anyway, rich, you had something to say. I was talking about Korra.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry, guys, this is what I bring to the show. I was was just trying to say so what you're saying is that she gets knocked down but she gets up again.
Speaker 2:She does.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but you know, I just let her down.
Speaker 2:We got ourselves a 90s boy over here I mean, it's just St Paddy's Day, we just passed. I like to have my whiskey drink.
Speaker 4:I like a vodka drink. I like a lager drink. You know, I like the songs that remind me of the good times that's, that's fair.
Speaker 2:I love it. Love it um really quick. Let's talk about amman, the equalis and tarlock.
Speaker 4:You know like they swerved me so good. I was so angry, but then so happy at the end. Wait why?
Speaker 2:all right, what happened so right away? I mean and I know everyone must have thought I was so angry, but then so happy at the end, wait why? What happened so?
Speaker 4:right away. I mean, and I know everyone must have thought something right, but is it Tuckman?
Speaker 2:Tarlok, Tarlok right.
Speaker 4:So right. Like you, meet Tarlok and he's all about the task force or whatever, and he's trying to get court. He's underhanded and he's sleazy. He's a politician and I'm sitting there and then uh iman comes out and I'm like, oh, that's the same guy, right, that's the guy right, nobody's ever seen them in the same.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what I kept. I was like until I see them in the same room.
Speaker 4:And then you know, episode upon episode upon episode passes, you know, and then there's that whole sequence where, uh, tarlak is totally like, yeah, let's shut down the finals, we can't do this, it's not safe. But then, like, he's convinced to open it up again and I was like that's when I was like oh no, what a conniver that's iman. I'm like that's gotta be interesting.
Speaker 2:I never. I never made that connection like my first time around. I I probably might have you know if I had watched it like now. But that's interesting, I, that's I like.
Speaker 4:I like where your head was at, because that's clearly what they were, at least trying, and then they put up the same room and I'm like no, but then it's like wait, you were kind of right, because it's his brother, you know.
Speaker 2:Like uh I, I, and that's another part of the whole generational storytelling. They go back 42 years in the flashbacks to Tarlok and Aman, or Noatak's father Yakon, and how he was this great bloodbender and how that story devolved into them, and I love that. He basically put them on the path to do exactly what both of them did. You know, he told them uh, you're gonna avenge me, you're gonna go back to republic city and you're gonna like, rule the city. And they each and, and he also said, um, and you're gonna destroy the avatar. And they both did that to some degree, but they were doing it in like opposite ways. You know, like fascinating, I, I, I love, I love that like the way that storyline ended was beautiful, like it was just like I. It gives me chills every time. I even think about it, just because, like, how did they do that? How did nickelodeon say yes, go ahead and uh, show like a suicide murder on on screen?
Speaker 3:oh, yeah, yeah, and it's, it's crazy because, like um you could tell that?
Speaker 4:it was tasteful you, it, I.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree. No, it wasn't. It wasn't like a malicious thing, it was like this is a, this is a pity. You know like we don't deserve to continue.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and like you could tell that no Talk, like he sensed that that was coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's a really good point actually. And what's? You're right, he did sense it, because he's such a good bloodbender that they said that he was able to like feel like what other people were doing, like the he. That's why he was so good against other benders he was able to feel their movements and then uh that, that, that tear that, uh, yeah, you know that he shed, yeah, so ah, such a good scene, such a good scene.
Speaker 2:I it's our, our. You know our podcast is coming to a close, but I feel like there's so much I want to say still. Um Tenzin uh Aang Sun has such a fantastic and cool grasp on um airbending. Like I love the animations of. Tenzin, yes, the way, the way that he moves, the way that he uses airbending. He has like an airbending wheel that, like he like, spins around on and it's so sick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, His like movements are very like kind of Shaolin monk, like you know. Yeah. And you know it, it just it looks so good and that, and that that's what I was saying about. Like you know the animation and like how it looked a lot more crisp and, like the movements of the bending looks really good. Like you know, for a lot of them and I love that you know metal bending is now like a wide thing now it's a widespread thing.
Speaker 3:yeah, and, like you know, we witnessed the, you know the, the initial use of it with tough, yeah, the birth of metal bending and you know it's cool that she was like the, the, the one that you know kind of just established all of this and I love the flashback with um, with ang and toff, and she and she calls him twinkle toes and he's like toff. I'm 42 years old. Can we stop with the? Can we stop with the nicknames that? He's just like not likely or something like that. But uh, you know she goes afraid not, yeah, yeah uh, it's so funny though, because tenzin I can.
Speaker 3:I can imagine, uh, tenzin being very much so like his father in the sense of like the airbending, like he's just like super crazy, super proficient, in a way that, like you know, ang was even as like, even as a kid, but like personality wise, like very different yeah, I, uh, I 100 agree with that, I guess.
Speaker 2:last question, before we, you know, close out, like what was your guys favorite fight scene, specifically like bender on bender fight scene? Or or it could be a bender on, like, uh, non-bender fight scene if you want to include some of the mechanical suits and stuff. There's a lot of really beautiful animation when it comes to the fight scenes and it'd be kind of sad not to talk about it. Some really juicy fight scenes.
Speaker 4:well, you know, when I first saw the uh, the bloodbending. It was like they were just like manipulating, like juicy slim jims, which was creepy oh, yeah, yeah, it was uh, yeah, but all, jokes aside, I think my favorite, at least I. I guess I'll boil it down to a moment because, as you said, tenzin's family is the last airbending family, they're told. You know like get the heck away from here. You guys need to be safe, and then, of course, as always happens, they're immediately captured.
Speaker 3:Uh so that they're on.
Speaker 4:You know they're about to be, uh, they're about to have their chi blocked. And when tenzin gets free, I'm not to lie to you in that moment I'm like wait a minute, but Iman can just like whisper bloodbend, and you know, because he did it earlier right where he just I think he kind of almost like silently, was able to bloodbend in some way, like he didn't even need to use well, I mean, it's always silent like nobody like uses their mouth to.
Speaker 2:It's always silent Like nobody like uses their mouth to. It's not like a wizard where they like have to like make an incantation, it was just that, he.
Speaker 4:It was something about him like that earlier in the show that Tenzin had. It was like no match for him and it was knocked out the first time they squared off against each other. Yeah. That, like they didn't have Like something about him being able to bend faster than tenzin is able to gather the air.
Speaker 3:so when I don't know when he squared off.
Speaker 4:I was nervous. I'm like tenzin, what are you doing, bro? Like get your family get out and yeah then, when he kind of whipped him up and threw him off the platform, I kind of like let out like a yelp being like yeah I know, yeah, that doesn't happen a lot, like when I'm watching fight sequences.
Speaker 4:You know I'm. I'm usually like yeah, I know, yeah, that doesn't happen a lot like when I'm watching fight sequences. You know I'm. I'm usually like oh, I know who's gonna win and everything but in that moment I was like wait a minute. This show's been crazy. Like what if tenzin like dies in front of his family?
Speaker 2:and that's that's what I love about the show. Like you don't know what, what is gonna happen, yeah, and it always keeps you on your toes. It's not like the good guys win every fight. They don't. They actually probably win the least fights. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm going to say, I think they lost most of them.
Speaker 3:Anthony, what about you? What's your favorite fight scene? I would say probably. I really like so. I do like a lot of the bender-on-bender fighting. But like so I, I do like a lot of like you know, the bender on bender like fighting, but I feel like the best bender on bender fighting happens like in other seasons?
Speaker 3:um, not so not necessarily like in this one, but I do like the one where, um, you know you have them like fighting a lot of the like uh, the mechs, um, because that's where you get a lot of uh like. You know how you were talking about, how you like the way that tenzin fought. You saw a lot of that in in those fights and so like yeah, kind of seeing everybody like going all out in, like full form in their fights.
Speaker 3:It was just like it. It was like a beautiful sight to me the animation and and the fluidity of how they looked, and something that you brought up about the fact that they don't have to use their abilities, kind of like using it like an incantation. I like that Avatar like Korra and the Last Airbender. Don't use that trope.
Speaker 3:That's used a lot in anime, like you know you have like One Piece where he's like gum gum or like Naruto where they say you know fireball jutsu or something like that. I like that. It's all in the movements you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100% yeah. I think that that's fantastic Because it mimics real-world fight scenes.
Speaker 3:Right, right exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my personal favorite fight scene is when Korra leaves her home late at night to visit Tarloch to release her friends from prison. That fight scene always like gives me chills, like, because they, they slow down how you know. Like he's throwing ice shards at her, he she's like rotating the wall behind him, it's. It's such a visually appealing fight, yeah, that whenever it's like one of those scenes that I always have to like lean forward when I'm watching you know, like it just it grabs my attention. 100 and there's so many great fight scenes throughout this show. I, I, I love it, but yeah, this, this one always like stands out to me as like a very strong animated fight.
Speaker 2:Dakota has to like stand up while watching that one yeah, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like the dad who, like, walks into the room and has to watch like 20 minutes of tv standing up, yeah and like, and then like the, the kids like sit down.
Speaker 3:He's like just doesn't sit down just stands next to the tv.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, guys. Any final thoughts?
Speaker 3:good, solid season season. And come on, man, it's Avatar. You know that you're going to have some really good action in it. Hell yeah, brother.
Speaker 4:I really enjoyed it. I don't know, I have to kind of extrapolate a little bit. I mean again a little bit of a novice to the world, but the fact that, like they lost, like bending was taken like I see, okay, so I, I I had a bending as being akin to being a force user, right? So correct yeah you know, I'm thinking of you know you're not wrong thinking of remembering, like reading you know so many.
Speaker 4:What did I recently that you know just kind of being disconnected from the force and how that like really just changes the person so much. So I thought this was going to be like a huge thing. That was going to be like you know something they have to search for for you know they're going to kind of keep going. And so then I was a little shocked when they kind of were able to basically fix everyone by the end of season one. I was like, oh, I thought that was a pretty big thing. You guys took away the you know, it's like when, when, when?
Speaker 4:not at my first, when scarlet witch said no more mutants. It's not. Like you know, four months later in the comics they're back. You know it. You had to give it a while, so I'm guessing something much bigger must happen, but in my view of things like taking bending away from someone is ginormous, like how can you get worse than that? But I guess I'd have to find out right, yeah, right.
Speaker 3:So so the the, the way that amman, and it's a little bit of like. What I was saying was that aman was using blood bending to to like sever, um, like chi connections, but like the avatar, when they do it it's on a deeper level, it's like it's like a on a spiritual level. You know, um, and it's almost like when that happens, he's like drawn. It's like the essence of like bending is being like kind of drawn out of them, whereas, like when what was what was happening with amman was like a block so it was like he snipped their capillaries that led to their bending power.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I was at a they. Oh my gosh, what is it called? When you said snip, it made me think of the other snip.
Speaker 4:Oh, vasectomies. Yeah, it was like a bending vasectomy.
Speaker 3:Speaking of vasectomies.
Speaker 4:why don't you guys snap it to a Slim Jim, which is our branded sponsor?
Speaker 3:No, they didn't sponsor us this week.
Speaker 2:They actually sent a cease and desist. Actually, they don't want anything to do with this.
Speaker 4:We moved on to Big Boy's Beef Stick. Big Boy's Beef Stick, the number one beef stick of Project Ecology.
Speaker 2:So we have to go back to uh, the fajitas and chili yeah, I was actually at shake shack the other day, um, and I had a really juicy burger, and it kind of did remind me that I would like you, the listener, to give us a really juicy review, like specifically um, anthony, how many stars do we need?
Speaker 3:we need five stars, you know just like at shake shack.
Speaker 2:It needs to be a juicy five star sandwich I mean, I mean review, not sandwich and and yeah, uh, please, please, be sure to send us your thoughts about, uh, our show, and you know where we can go from here. Do we have any idea what we're doing next?
Speaker 4:week. We do not, do you guys like Brendan Fraser?
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, I do.
Speaker 4:Have you guys ever done the Mummy movies?
Speaker 2:Let's do the Mummy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we haven't done the Mummy. That's crazy. Yeah, we haven't done the Mummy. Those are fun movies. I love it, at least the first two.
Speaker 2:I will watch the first two. I will not watch you know what. I will watch the third, just for you guys. But next week we are covering the Mummy. I'm actually really stoked about this. I love that movie. I can't wait.
Speaker 4:I have tricked you guys down a path to Dwayne the Rock, johnson johnson baby, it'll take a little while he's not even.
Speaker 3:He's not even in the first one, all right we're stopping at the first one, and that's it. We're not. We're not doing it because the week after that we're covering persona and then after that we're covering the yankees oh, rich is like I'm not, I'm not gonna be there that week no, we're just messing here.
Speaker 2:We don't know what we're doing after next week, but uh, we are excited to cover the mummy. Uh, next week. Yes, uh, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 114th or maybe 115th episode I actually don't know, you're right you did check it.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, cool episode 114. Um, actually really quick, let me double check that. Okay, yeah, it's definitely episode 114, guys. Thank you so much. Uh, please, if you want to check out any of our socials, you can check us out in our show notes down below and we will hear, or you will hear us rather next week hear that sizzle goodbye don't snap into a slim jim dig it. Bye guys.
