This episode was quite different from what I'm used to getting from Korra.
For one, it had way more talking than a regular Korra episode. Which, unfortunately, brought out the worst from the new animation studio. Compared to even the previous two episodes, this one just looked bad. Even during the most intense of arguments, the characters' mouth flaps are the only things moving. Kya talks like she's raging mad throughout much of this episode but her inflections don't fit her movements. There are very few action scenes in this episode, but when they do show up they feel rather choppy and pasted-on. It seems like Pierrot animated this episode with the same mindset they have when making a Naruto filler episode.
But as weak as the talking looked, it was very powerful to the ears. Specifically, I need to talk about the interactions between Bumi, Kya and Tenzin. From what I saw of Bumi and Kya from the press releases prior to the new season, I thought they were simply going to form a goofy little power trio with Tenzin, with Tenzin as the serious one, Bumi as the stupid one and Kya as the jerky one. Well, turns out Bumi and Kya absolutely hate Tenzin's guts, constantly picking on him for having been the center of his father's attention. Yeah, that's another thing I definitely wasn't expecting: Aang was a bad dad who, for the good of the future, completely neglected two of his kids and possibly his wife so Tenzin, the one airbender, could become fit to represent the entire element.
What I love about this development is that it adds to Aang as a character rather than contributing to the notion that after saving the world once he was forever a flawless legend as Korra's flashbacks in Book 1 did. Aang had to make hard choices for the sake of the world and had a ton riding him, being the last airbender and all, that it's only natural he did at least one thing that could be considered "bad". He could've completely dedicated himself to repopulating the world with airbenders, letting women volunteer to get impregnated by him so that there could be several airbenders wandering around in the next few decades, starting their own families and reviving an entire civilization. This might've been good for the world. But obviously, Aang was too human to do something like this, so he just put all of his love and focus into the one airbender that was truly his. Aang loved his people, loved the world and loved Tenzin; unfortunately, this combination left his other two children unhappy. Aang's neglect wasn't right, but the fact that the writers actually acknowledged the fact that under the mixture of his duty to the world and his love for his people, he couldn't do absolutely everything right, is amazing. This is how you handle the passing of large amounts of time in fiction, people: You don't say "Happily Ever After" and simply throw in statues of the hero post-timeskip to show that, yes, he was a great guy when he grew up too.
Back to Bumi, Kya and Tenzin: Their argument that stemmed from this revelation to the viewers (and apparently it was news to Tenzin, too) was something unlike I'd ever seen on television before. This specifically became so after Kya dropped a bomb: "I was the only one there for mom when dad died and you were nowhere!" In any other dramatic little episode of any other show, Tenzin would've just made a mad/sad face and stormed off. But nope, instead he goes "You spent your whole life wandering around the earth bringing nothing to anyone while me and Bumi were working our asses off for the sake of others. You just used dad's death as an easy opportunity to settle down without feeling like you were a complete waste of life!" Wow. Now these guys are siblings. They've got decades and decades of pent-up contempt for each other to the point where they've pretty much planned exactly how to reply to every argument and don't shy away from saying awful, awful things when the time comes. They all see the evil in each other more than anybody else does. And that's what makes their dynamic more interesting than, say, Zuko and Azula's or Iroh and Ozai's. There is no good one and no bad one, but their willful ignorance of each other's feelings as a result of all the hurt that came from in between the cracks of their parents' love causes conflict. They're not rivals nor on opposing sides; they're just family. Raw, bitter family.
Oh yeah, Korra was in this episode too. Her relationship with her father is handled extremely well. In this episode, she desperately wants to trust in her father and know he wouldn't try to hurt Unalaq and a start a war, but simply can't as a result of all the lies he made her live with throughout her life. She's troubled by the fact instead of him making sure she doesn't do anything brash and stupid like always, she has to make sure he doesn't do anything brash and stupid instead. For once in her life, she's truly on her own, and it's hard. When she finally receives the ultimate assurance that her dad isn't who he used to be, she just falls apart in relief. I love the "fathers mean a whole lot to their children no matter what the circumstances are" theme this season has been holding up. Bumi, Kya and Tenzin's contempt for each other is based on the role their father had to play to the world and Tenzin. Desna and Eska are emotionless and non-understanding of human nature as a result of their father's seriousness and lack of trust in others. And of course, Korra, after being holed up for years by her father, now can't go on with the notion that he's not trustworthy. Once again, this stuff is interesting because nobody is straight-up evil (sorry Ozai, you're just not believable). It's simply that people make mistakes, and those mistakes have consequences.
So while this may have been the worst-looking Korra episode yet, it was also the most relatable and touching. I'm interested in seeing how far the show goes with the fatherhood theme.
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