So, I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender and adored it; I honestly believe it to be a better show than MLP. And I also watched the first three episodes of The Legend Of Korra a while ago, and loved Korra and Mako and Bolin and the setting, so I decided to share my reactions to it to the rest of the world! My favorite blog on the internet is Mark Watches/Reads, where he does the exact same thing as I will do here; I highly recommend Mark Reads Harry Potter and Mark Watches Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, with that out of the way, shall we begin?

Anyways, we open with an obvious nightmare. We are only on episode 4, guys. Stuff shouldn't get that real yet. Still, it's pretty scary, and pretty insightful onto best character Avatar Korra, who is incredibly reliant on her bending to a far greater degree than Aang ever was. She can't comprehend the idea of not being a bender; it's her entire identity. Aang was the last of a culture, was a goofy kid in an iceberg, was the not so goofy kid who defeated the fire lord; he was many things, and Avatar was only one. Not quite so with Korra.

Then we meet Tarrlock, who OH MY GOSH IT'S THAT GENERAL FROM THE AVATAR STATE I COULD RECOGNIZE THAT VOICE ANYWHERE [EDIT: Apparently I can't because that's not the same guy]. Anyways, unlike that general, this man immediately screams sleaze. Could you at least not slick back your hair so obviously? Meanwhile, Tenzin makes good points about not pissing off all the nonbenders in the city, but Tarrlock is like "lol too busy listening to the sound of all that oiliness dripping from my skin". This could've been an interesting case of moral ambiguity, like one of my favorite characters from the original, Jet, but this guy is way too mustache-twirl-y. But for what he is, he is very good at being a villain supposedly on our hero's side, reminding me heavily of Season 2 A:TLA in a good way.

Amon proves to be a smart villain and realizes how easily he can exploit the task force as evidence of non-bender oppression. This is Azula vs Long Feng all over again. Although his scariness is slightly lessened by the fabulous "Bad Comedian Amon" meme.

So Mako is walking down the street, and then everything changed when the fire nation attacked he almost gets run over by a motorcycle. Ridden by a gorgeous lady. Who is also really rich. Anyone else notice the equalist-esque mask, though? I was expecting that she would be nice and try to help him until she realized he was a bender, but she's all for pro-bending, so nevermind on that. I love how adorkable Mako is here. I was just about ready for him to say "Hi, Mako here." Apparently, some people initially disliked him for his rude behavior towards Korra, but I was never bothered by that. I've always had a thing for jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold characters and for the "responsible one" and for adorkability and Mako is all of those things at once YES.

Time to cut back to Tarrlock and his sleaze-bending! Except he totally gets his chi blocked by Korra. And I honestly expected that he was going to put Korra in a life or death situation where she had to work for him, just like in The Avatar State. What I got was less Avatar State and more Mysterious Mare Do Well, but as we all know, Stellafera is totally down with that.

Cut back again to Mako being Mako and Asami being awesome and breaking stereotypes about rich people left and right. Her relationship with her dad reminds me a lot of Teo and the Mechanist and I really should evaluate this show on its own merits but it seems like I just can't.

Well, except when it comes to Bolin. He's just the best. No wait, Korra is. No wait, Mako is. Oh dang. Anyways, he's just so sweet and is not jealous or anything at anything and just wants Korra to be happeh and is just a winnar. Too bad there ain't much of him this episode.

So, yeah, Tarrlock manipulates Korra, Korra is terrified but goes along with it anyways, gets in over her head, ya de da de da. I feel really bad for her; she could've avoided this if she were better with words and more strong in her convictions. She gets in way over her head in stupid stuff because she cracks under pressure. Poor girl.

Also, WHY DOES EVERYBODY HAVE DEAD PARENTS? I mean, in A:TLA, there was a war, but here, it just seems... excessive? Shoehorned in? I can believe it for Mako and Bolin, I can doubt it understandingly for Amon, but Asami just seems like the average Disney character in terms of parents being dead and not really being affected by it.

AND OH MY GOODNESS THAT SCENE WITH AMON I THOUGHT HE'D TAKE HER BENDING AND WE'D HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON HOLY COW BRB NIGHTMARES FOREVER. And I feel so much for Korra here. I'm just as terrified as her, except that I know this is all fake and she doesn't. It's really thought-provoking to see her so scared.

Random fact: So, like, did anyone else notice how firebending and earthbending almost seem to come more easily to Korra than waterbending? She certainly has a personality to suit them better.