WaterBending101

Avatar Kuruk:  Failure or Retcon?

WARNING:  Minor Spoilers for the Kyoshi Novels.  

Avatar Kuruk was the Water Tribe Avatar before Korra and is considered by many to be a failure of an Avatar.  He was brash and was more interested in personal pleasure than keeping balance.  

The recent Kyoshi novels explain that Kuruk wasn’t a failure.  Rather, he spent his life fighting dark spirits which most people were unaware of.  The Kyoshi novels suggest that he was a good avatar even though public opinion was very much against him.  

However, this new information feels like a retcon to me for one specific reason:  

Everything we know about Kuruk doesn’t come from a third party account, it comes from Kuruk himself.  

Other than the novels, our info on Kuruk comes from the season 2 “Escape from the Spirit World” game, and the episode 319.  Kuruk himself recounts that he wasn’t the best Avatar and spent most of his time goofing off.  

However, if Kuruk wanted to explain he wasn’t a complete failure, then he had apple time to do so.  Plus, as our main source of info he had full controlled how the fans viewed him.  

I do not think the dark spirits were an original part of his character.  I think it was a much later addition after dark spirits were introduced in Korra.  I believe this retcon existed because Bryke didn’t want fans to think Kuruk was a total failure.  

But a retcon is still a retcon.  

And not all Avatars did a good job.  

AIR BENDING PAMPHLET

Now we have one for each element.  

Just finished version 3.0 of my Avatar Sub-Element chart. It's come a long way since version 1.

Avatar: Is Roku to blame for the War?

When something goes wrong in the world, people have a tendency to blame others; especially those in power.  In the United States for example, it's very common for people to blame the president for current problems, regardless on whether or not he/ she has any actual control over the problem.  

Likewise, people in the world of ATLA tend to blame the Avatar when something goes wrong.

The fire nation attacks; blame the Avatar.

People get hurt in a war; blame the Avatar.

Can't solve your own problems; blame the Avatar.

The Avatar's mission is to bring balance to the world.  However, the Avatar did not create the world's problems, and is ultimately not responsible for the actions of other people.

Like the janitor for the world, the Avatar cleans up messes and helps bring order to the world, but more often than not the janitor is blamed for the mess existing in the first place.  The irony is that if people cleaned up their own messes, there would be no need of a Janitor.

This brings me to the subject of Avatar Roku.  Many Avatar fans blame Roku for the 100 yr war, and Roku even blames himself.  

But is it really Roku's fault?  

Roku grew up in the Fire Nation with his best friend Sozin, eventually finding out he was the Avatar, and traveling across the world.  When Roku returned to the Fire Nation, Sozin told Roku his plans for world conquest which Roku immediately rejected.  Later, Sozin invaded Earth Kingdom territory for which Roku confronted and defeated Sozin.  Roku had given Sozin two warnings, and there would not be a third.  However, as soon as Roku died, Sozin renewed his plans for global domination.

Although fans and Roku himself blame him for the war, I can not fault him.  Roku saw a problem and did something about it.  He was decisive.   

Just because his wasn't able to prevent a war, doesn't mean he caused the War nor is he responsible for the actions of other.  (Sozin's an adult.  And can be responsible for his own actions.) 

Roku's actions were natural and reasonable.  Plus, most people don't think of murder as their first solution to everything.

(Seriously, execution isn't the only way to solve problems.)

On a similar note, companies do "preventative measures" to keep people safe.  However, people will still get hurt because no rules or regulations can protect stupid people from themselves.

The Avatar isn't some perfect person who can perfectly solve every problem.  (Say that 5 times fast).  They are a human being who is doing the best they can.  

ATLA Creators Leave NETFLIX Project:  And I’m not worried.

This might be a Very Unpopular Opinion, but I'm not overly worried about the creators leaving the Netflix Avatar the last Airbender remake.

Let me explain:   Despite how much Mike and Bryan are praised, they didn't come up with everything good in ATLA.  Like any project, they worked with a team and other team member contributed many things that fans love about the show.  Good team member act as "checks and balances" to prevent personal biases from taking over, and to yield a better product.  

Mike and Bryan made ATLA but they also made Legend of Korra.  They made Korra without their full team and LoK wasn't as good.  Because Mike and Bryan didn't have their full team, many of their biases didn't get ironed out of the final product.  And because they were more in control, their inadequacies shone through.  Thus, Korra's quality suffered because the creators aren't perfect, and they didn't have others to balance them.  

Therefore, I'm not overly worried to see Mike and Bryan go because they aren't the source of all goodness.   Just like with J. K. Rowling, maybe it's time for someone else to nurture the franchise.  

I’ve long wanted to make a fusion of the three legendary beasts (Raikou, Entei, & Suicune) which I refer to as “the fourth beast”.  He is heavily inspired by the mythical “Pixiu” from China.  The Pixiu is a god of wealth, which goes nicely with Pokemon “Gold” and “Silver”.  

As you can see I used elements from each of the three beast:

Raikou:  I kept much of Raikou’s face along with his stripes.  

Entei:  I kept Entei’s cheeks and repurposed with back spikes into the wings of a Pixiu.  

Suicune:  I repurposed Suicune’s horns to resemble that of an Chinese dragon.  Suicune’s spots combine with Raikou’s stripes to form rosettes.  And lastly, Suicune’s ribbon tail gets turned into long Chinese dragon whiskers.  (Which isn’t shown here)

(Ironically, every time I look at the drawing on the far right, I think of a water dragon.)

“The fourth beast” represents the steam from the Burned tower as the fire went out.  Thus his typing is Fire/Water.  On his back is a cumulus cloud for fair weather, but it can easily grow into a cumulonimbus.  

Posters for the Earth Kingdom and such.  

I wanted to create a simple symbol for metal, like the circle for the earth kingdom, and I’m pretty satisfied with the result.  

Before you watch “The Legend of Korra”

Before you guys watch Korra you should know a few things, or maybe you've already started.  Don't worry, this is spoiler free.  

Avatar and legend of Korra are made by different people.  Yes, the "creators" worked on both shows, but surprisingly few others did.  If you look at the head crews of both shows, you'll notice they are very different.  

Why this matters is because Korra is a very different show from Avatar, by virtue of being made by different people.  A number of things from the original show get retconned, and some characters even get different personalities.  This is because there are different people that are making the show, and this is their interpretation.  

This issue isn't unique to Korra,  many shows/movies/series change when they get a new director, producer, or if they're bought by a different company.  (Like how StarWars was bought by Disney.)  Some of these changes you might like; others you might not.  Just don't feel you have to blindly accept whatever happens. 

Like a Gaggle of Geese, I wonder what a group of Zukos would be called?

An Honor of Zukos?

The meeting of the Zukos

zuko们的会面

Toph vs Ty Li We’ve never really had a full battle between these two.  But I’m pretty sure who would win.   Toph   Unless Ty Li got her by suprise.