Legend of Korra, philosophy, and the dialectic of punching things and not punching things

[owlectomy]

One of the reasons that Avatar worked so well for me was that, over the course of the show, it did a really good job with making a case for non-attachment -- and especially, tying that to Aang's playfulness, his essential lightness. Zuko fixates on his honor. Katara fixates on her own seriousness of purpose, and being the Gaang's mom. Sokka fixates on food and material comfort. Aang, too, is not immune from getting in over his head with attachment -- I'm thinking particularly of the episode where they're on Kyoshi Island and everyone is so impressed with him being the avatar and it goes to his head -- but it's no coincidence that he's an air-bender, someone who can ride around on a little ball of spinning air.

There's a template that you see in a lot of children's shows, and Avatar uses it well. You have a character who's facing some external problem, and they try to fix it, but they can't fix it, because of some character flaw or blind spot. Something happens that allows the character to get the insight or courage or compassion to overcome that, and they can fix the problem. What makes Avatar different from the usual run of kids shows is that you see a consistent philosophy throughout the whole series -- if you try to hold on too hard to something, you will lose. If you have the courage to let it go, you will win. The things that we care about most can be the things that hold us back.

There's a lot that makes Korra different. Aang starts as a very young, untrained avatar who's being chased and persecuted by a whole army; Korra starts as a nearly-grown, mostly-trained avatar in a time of peace. She doesn't have to hide and run like Aang does. That's part of the reason you don't get those slightly filler-ish episodes that Avatar has. Another part is that the series is that much shorter. But a lot of it has to do with Korra's essential character. She's not somebody who's even capable of running and hiding. The plot of the series develops so quickly and intensely because she's someone who meets with conflict and responds by punching back, recklessly, foolishly.

Take the first episode, when she first comes to Republic City. She sees anti-bending protesters; she insists on mouthing off about how wrong they are. She sees a shopkeeper getting threatened by gangsters; she defends the shopkeeper, but in the process ends up torching a whole city block. She's the sort of person who can't help but escalate a situation. I was looking for a dialectic in this series like the one between attachment and non-attachment. I think it's there, but I think it's a lot more subtle. Korra -- ironically, perhaps, since she's a water-bender -- needs to learn to flow. But at the same time, it feels as if her inability to be patient and back down from a conflict is a good thing, like a forest fire that burns away the dead wood and lets new things grow. How long would the conflict between benders and non-benders have festered away if Korra hadn't started forcing the confrontation? So, it's not a matter of patience being better than conflict, or vice versa; it's only a matter of balance.

That said, Korra desperately needs to learn that you can't just keep punching back, and I was pretty disappointed with the way that was handled.

In the episode where Amon captures her and she's in the little box and she meditates... that was too easy. I don't know how you make that interesting to eight-year-olds and people who don't have a pre-existing interest in Buddhist philosophy, but I would've liked to see them drag it out a little more to make it realistic. Korra tries to meditate, suddenly her nose gets incredibly itchy. She sits there for thirty seconds and she's like "Come on, it MUST have been fifteen minutes by now, right? I can go now?"

That's a fairly minor thing.

But, that last episode.

I had problems with Korra learning airbending in the midst of being angry and punching stuff. Aang has to overcome a lot, emotionally, spiritually, to learn fire-bending; it should have been the same for Korra. She should have to step away, a little, from who she's always been.

And her spiritual crisis about losing her bending lasts for ONE MINUTE. If it were me in charge, I would've dragged it out to a whole episode. I think -- Korra has a lot to learn about patience, and about going along with the current of life instead of always struggling against it. She has a lot to learn about air and water. Let her grieve for what she used to have. Let her begin to accept all that she's lost. Let her start to solve problems without beating them until they're forced to give way.

It's a great show. I love Korra as a character, I love her physical presence, I love Tenzin and Pema and the kids and the animal sidekicks and Bolin and Asami and Lin Bei Fong. And I know it's a lot to ask from a children's cartoon to give me something philosophical to chew on! But Avatar managed it, and so I'm going to keep holding out hope that Korra is going to live up to that.