Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 117

Cool Stuff Friday

If all goes well, I’m still sleeping right now, after getting up to try to see Comet Lovejoy. (Since it sounds like Comet ISON may not have survived its close encounter with the sun )

Anyway, here – have some links of fun and niftiness!

Nadya Vessey’s Prosthetic Mermaid Tail, Courtesy of Weta Workshop.
Cats vs. Fruit.
Dogs that Forgot How to Dog. (Because I’ve shared a lot of cat stuff, and figured I should throw the dog-lovers a bone.)
Check out this photo of Comet ISON, by Damian Peach.
Fox diving into the snow, from photographer Richard Peters.
Finally, Shawn Snyder built LEGO Borg.

Velveteen vs. the Multiverse, by Seanan McGuire

When I was at Windycon a few weeks back, the convention was kind enough to give me a copy of Seanan McGuire‘s collection Velveteen vs. the Multiverse [ISFiC Press].

I wrote the introduction to the first Velveteen collection, Velveteen vs. the Junior Super Patriots, so I was very thankful (do you see what I did there?) to get my hands on book two. In this book, bunny-eared superheroine Velveteen, with the power to animate toys, continues her battle against the the forces of the Super Patriots, Inc.

I emailed Seanan after I finished reading the collection, telling her she was awesome, and that I was honored to be her friend. She wrote back to say thank you, but that she wasn’t sure what about her silly superhero stories had inspired such a response.

That’s a fair question, and it’s taken me a few days to try to put it into words. Because sure, there’s a fair amount of silliness going on in these stories. There’s a superhero who’s basically a Disney princess come to life. There are Velveteen’s green plastic army men shooting tiny plastic bullets at bad guys. There’s a whole story about getting trapped in a typical horror flick.

But despite the silliness, the characters are always treated with respect. They feel like real people, even when they’re flung into rather odd or absurd situations. Their struggles and their love and their pain are real, and you very quickly start to care about them all. I think that’s one of Seanan’s superpowers.

There’s more going on here, though. These stories, this book, felt … unfiltered in a way most books don’t. It felt like Seanan McGuire had written these stories purely for the fun and joy and love of it. Knowing her as a friend, I could see her shamelessly indulging her love of parallel universes and toys and twisted holidays and fairy tales and horror films and so much more, and it works. This collection is an invitation to join Seanan in celebrating everything she loves.

Now sure, if you don’t like the same things she does, then the stories may not work for you. No book works for everyone, after all. And not everyone has the same tolerance for the fun/silly factor in stories.

But I like it. I like the random-but-carefully-thought-out superpowers combined with the all-too-real corporate overlords of the Super Patriots, Inc. I like that she never forgets that all victories come with a cost. I like that the individual, mostly-standalone stories don’t feel repetitive. I like the character revelations we get in this book.

I liked the first collection, but by the end of this one, I felt like Seanan had accomplished something magical.

The Velveteen stories are also available online if you want to check them out before you buy. The first nine are listed on her website. All of them are tagged on her LiveJournal.

Go forth and read and buy. For justice!

Retitling My Books

I’m thinking I should take a lesson from the Internet and promote my books under different titles to try to attract more attention. What do you think? Would you buy any of the following?

The Goblin Series:

Goblin Quest This Goblin Went Face-to-Face with a Dragon. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
Goblin Hero 13 Amazing Facts About Goblin Magic
Goblin War What the Government Doesn’t Want You to Know About Talking Trees

The Princess Series:

The Stepsister Scheme Why Your Stepsisters Should Scare Your More Than Terrorists
The Mermaid’s Madness 8 Lies About Mermaids That Everyone Believes Are True
Red Hood’s Revenge Wolf Hunt Goes Horribly Wrong
The Snow Queen’s Shadow The Top 10 Ways Snow Can Kill You

Magic ex Libris

Libriomancer One Librarian’s Secret Trick for Destroying Sparkling Vampires
Codex Born Nature-Loving Bodyguard Shares Six Ways to Kill a Man with a Toothpick
Unbound This Tale of a 500-Year Love Affair Will Make You Weep

The sad thing is that it was slightly easier to come up with the joke titles than it’s been thinking of the real ones :-/

Legend of Korra: Chapters 13 and 14

Legend of Korra

2 x 13: Darkness Falls

2 x 14: Light in the Dark

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Spoilers Ahead…

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): Korra cannot prevent Vaatu and Unalaq from merging and forming the Dark Avatar, and the two Avatars subsequently lock into a battle for the fate of the world. Vaatu manages to extract Raava from Korra’s body, and destroys the Light Spirit, effectively severing Raava’s connection to the past Avatars. Meanwhile in the Spirit World, Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin manage to track down and save Jinora’s spirit from the Fog of Lost Souls. However, before they can return, Jinora senses that Korra is in trouble and leaves her family in order to help.

Tenzin urges Korra to connect with her own spirit in order to defeat Unalaq. While meditating in the Tree of Time, she manages to tap into the energy of the universe and astrally projects herself, instigating a fight with Unalaq at Republic City. After an intervention by Jinora’s spirit, who brings Raava’s residual light back into the world and illuminates her within the Dark Avatar, Korra manages to extract Raava from him, before using his own purification technique to dissipate the Dark Avatar Spirit. She returns to the Spirit World, where she uses the last energy of the Harmonic Convergence to permanently merge with Raava again, though the connection to the past Avatars cannot be restored. Korra leaves both spirit portals open, ushering the world into a new era where spirits and mankind can coexist.

[image error]

Bonus points to everyone who gets the Voltron reference in that pic…

Jinora: I said last week, “In my dream world, the finale is all about Jinora, who rescues herself (instead of being turned into a convenient hostage, one who’s lost any agency she used to have in the story), and then shows up to kick Unalaq’s ass with her natural spiritbending abilities.” Okay, so it didn’t work out exactly like that, but Jinora still played a pivotal role in helping Korra beat UnaVaatu. I’m not entirely sure how that worked, but it was nifty, and I’m really hoping we see more of her character and development in book three.

UnaVaatu: Light and dark can’t exist without each other. So, um, what exactly happened to Unalaq and Vaatu at the end there? Is nobody the slightest bit worried or curious?

Raava: I liked that the last of Raava survived within Vaatu himself. Which makes me wonder if the last of Vaatu now exists within Raava, and by extension, within Korra. That could make for some interesting future stories. Does Korra have the potential power of both spirits within her now?

Change: Book three of Legend of Korra will be titled “Change,” and I think that works. Korra has lost her connection to her previous lives, and the spirit and human worlds are once again joined the way they were 10,000 years ago. I’ll give the show props for taking some risks with the ending, and being willing to shake up the status quo. We’ve seen how much the world has changed since Aang’s time; I’m actually looking forward to seeing how the return of the spirits affects things.

And yes, watching all of Korra’s past lives vanish in flames … how do the kids say it these days? It gave me ALL THE FEELS. Also, knocking down Aang’s statue? Not cool, UnaVaatu. Not cool.

Asami: Also known as Sir Not Appearing in This Film. Sigh. Come on, writers! How awesome would it have been to see Asami show up in that final battle, piloting a big ol’ Jaeger?

Korra: From a storytelling perspective, I thought Korra’s despair when she thought she was the last Avatar, followed by the revelation that she was also the first of a new chain of Avatars, worked well. But I’m still left wondering what it was I just saw. We had a series of battles between Korra and Unalaq, which she finally won … but why did she win? What did she learn? How did she change and grow as a character? Where did the strength to win really come from? It was just fight-lose, fight-lose, fight-lose, fight-win-yay!

I wish we had gotten more of Tenzin teaching her to get in touch with her own spirit, to let herself be who she truly was … and more of Jinora and what she brought to the party … things we could have spent more time on with earlier episodes. At the same time, Korra was changed at the end. She was calm and mature about breaking up with Mako. She trusted her own instincts about the spirit gates. I guess at this point I just hope the writers don’t lose that growth when they start book three.

Romantic Triangle: This seems to be done for the moment. Good. And I really hope Mako and Asami don’t get back together again. She deserves better than to keep being his second choice.

In an interview, Bryan Konietzko (one of the creators) said:

They get completely angry when we have fun with the teen romance stuff … Fans are more interested in imagining relationships between a myriad of pairings. But they’re profoundly disinterested in seeing any of those things manifest themselves on the show. So who knows, whatever. Mike and I as writers, we wrote it the way we found it to be entertaining, and that struck a chord with some, but maybe not with some others.

I think he’s missing the point. It’s not that people are anti-relationship or anti-romance. It’s that people get frustrated when it’s done badly. What Konietzko describes as “having fun” with teen romance comes off as shallow and painful and manipulative, whether it’s Bolin’s assault on Ginger or Korra’s violent blow-up at the police station. There was so little genuine affection or love this season. I’d be happy to see relationships in Book Three, but I’d like them to be done well.

Bolin: Wait, now he loves Eska? Oy.

In some ways, I kind of liked seeing both of them admit there was some real feeling beneath their ridiculous played-for-laughs relationship. If they had gone there from the beginning, that might even have been a relationship I could get behind. Instead, I’m left thinking Bolin’s an idiot, and Eska and Desna are still a bit too sociopathic for my liking.

Tenzin: I was happy for him and where he ended up at the end of this season. After trying so hard to be his father, it’s his knowledge and study that allows him to find and rescue Jinora.

Varrick: Oh look, he and Zhu Li escaped from prison. Yawn.

Book Two was probably the rockiest season of Avatar/Korra I’ve seen. There were some awesome episodes (Beginnings) and some great moments, but there were so many problems, too. Hollow characterization. Ridiculous and offensive treatment of female characters. Uneven pacing.

It sounds like books three and four are both planned out. I’ll definitely be watching, but while I’ll be hoping for awesomeness, my expectations are significantly lower

Cool Stuff Friday

First off, a self-promo link. For any SFWA members who might be interested, I’ve posted a copy of my story “Stranger vs. the Malevolent Malignancy” in the SFWA Forums. This is the superhero-with-cancer story I’ve spoken about.

Now, on to this week’s links:

Cats in sinks.
Glorious Saturn. And You, Too. An amazing high-res photo of Saturn. (Link from Jay Lake.)
Aurora and Unusual Clouds over Iceland. (Another nifty pic I found on Jay’s blog…)
More cats!
Lion cub playing in leaves.
The Hungry Games: Catching Fur. Sesame Street does a Hunger Games: Catching Fire parody.
Photos of Comet ISON. I need to haul out my telescope and camera!
Finally, the folks at Bright Bricks built a giant snowglobe and filled it with a LEGO London. Click for more pics.

Legend of Korra: Chapters 11 and 12

Legend of Korra

2 x 11: Night of a Thousand Stars

2 x 12: Harmonic Convergence

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): At the South Pole, Tonraq and his rebels are defeated by Unalaq and his forces. Meanwhile, in Republic City, Bolin prevents four waterbenders from kidnapping President Raiko and his wife. After a brief battle, the earthbender forces one of the man to reveal Varrick as the mastermind behind it all, leading to his arrest. With Mako’s allegations proven correct, he is released from prison. Korra and Tenzin and his family return to Republic City to gather reinforcements to travel South in order to stop Unalaq from freeing Vaatu and destroying the world. When Raiko refuses to send the United Forces, Mako, Bolin, and Asami accompany them instead on Varrick’s battleship.

After leaving Jinora’s spiritless body in Katara’s care, Korra and her friends attempt to break through the Northern defenses in order to reach the Southern spirit portal. Although initially unsuccessful, they manage to enter the Spirit World, where Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin leave to find Jinora’s spirit, while Mako and Bolin hold back Unalaq in order to give Korra the time to close the portal. However, when Harmonic Convergence starts, Korra had not yet managed to close the portal and Vaatu manages to break free from his prison inside the Tree of time.

Where do I even start?

Bumi – The original Bumi was goofy and fun, but also clever and far more devious than most people realized. This Bumi is … dammit, I’ve tried to defend him. I’m done now. He was a United Forces commander, and he’s all but useless in planning an attack. He took out Unalaq’s camp by accident. Bumi is the Mister Magoo of the Avatar world.
Ginger – Just what Legend of Korra needed, an attractive female character to bring out Bolin’s creeper side who then got to be the trophy reward for Bolin’s heroism. Don’t get me wrong, I liked seeing Bolin rip off his sleeves and Earthbend the snot out of some bad guys. But here’s an idea … what if we treated women as real people instead of one-dimensional prizes for the men?
Lin Beifong – Or whoever that character is. It’s certainly not the Lin Beifong from season one. It’s a good thing there’s not an ongoing trend of weakening or sidelining female characters, or pushing them into secondary roles, or else I might start to get annoyed. Oh, wait…
Zhu Li – Another woman who exists only for a man, to the point that she goes to jail with him so she can continue to serve him. Seriously, what the hell?
Asami – I want Asami to have a show of her own, free of Mako, free of clumsy romantic drama, and free of writers who have so little idea what to do with her character. Asami is a badass. I want her to pilot one of her company’s mechs right out of the screen to forcefully remind the writers of that fact.

I really want to care about this show, dammit!

These two episodes made me realize how little emotional investment I have in any of these characters or anything that happens, and I hate that. I almost cared when I thought Unalaq had actually killed Tonraq, but of course, he wasn’t really dead. Just beat up enough for the story to move on.

We’re about 1/3 through watching Book Three of Avatar: The Last Airbender here, and the contrast is painful. In TLA, I care about the heroes. I care about the villains. I care about secondary characters I thought were just throwaway villains, and then they come back and grow and change and die heroically. I care about the history, the pain of a century of war and loss, the personal struggles, the failures and the victories.

Legend of Korra feels like the outline of a story. They’ve given us all of the plot beats, but haven’t taken the time to really develop the story. The characters are just pieces on a board, moving through their assigned spots because that’s what the outline says they’re supposed to do. I’m trying to think of one episode where a character did anything truly unexpected or unpredictable, or where there even seemed to be any real conflict about their choice.

Tomorrow’s finale .

In my dream world, the finale is all about Jinora, who rescues herself (instead of being turned into a convenient hostage, one who’s lost any agency she used to have in the story), and then shows up to kick Unalaq’s ass with her natural spiritbending abilities. See, I actually care about Jinora — seeing her loneliness, her moments of vulnerability and uncertainty combined with her determination to help Korra get into the spirit world, made her feel more real. She’s one of the few characters I still care about in this season, and I want to see her continue to come into her own strength and power.

Ooh, I just had a thought. What if Jinora escaped and made her way to the twins. What if she was the one who persuaded Eska and Desna to turn against their Dark Avatar father? I could see Jinora getting through to them where Korra couldn’t, and that’s a team I’d love to watch in action.

Beyond that, I don’t know. I’ve seen a few spoilers already. Mostly this season — with a few exceptions — just makes me feel depressed.

WFC Harassment Roundup

The World Fantasy Convention was held earlier this month. I wasn’t able to attend this year.

Let me repeat that. I wasn’t at WFC this year. What follows is based on online announcements from the con itself, a screenshot or two, and various blog posts and discussions. My main goal here is signal-boosting and hopefully helping more people to understand that this stuff matters. And also to vent my own frustrations…

This year’s WFC had problems. From accessibility trouble to the great fee-charging kaffeeklatch SNAFU and so much more. One of many concerns raised before the con was the lack of a sexual harassment policy. Their website originally said only:

“World Fantasy Convention 2013, as with any other predominantly adult gathering, will have a number of rules and regulations for the safety of attendees. These will be clearly stated in our Programme Guide, which will be given to each attendee when they register. In the meantime, we refer you to the UK’s Protection from Harassment Act 1997.” (Source)

This was tucked away in the FAQs, by the way.

A comment in the WFC Facebook group suggested people shouldn’t worry, because “…it is extremely unusual for this kind of behavior to take place at a World Fantasy Convention, as it is largely a professional-oriented event.” (Source)

[image error]

In fairness, this comment doesn’t appear to have come directly from the convention board, but it does seem to capture their general attitude that we don’t have to worry about that sort of thing because we’re so professional!

Which is probably why someone programmed the following snarky announcement on the display boards in the lobby on Sunday morning:

“It’s Sunday. No one has lost their badge and no one has been harassed.” (Source)

[image error]

That would have been a dickish thing to write even if it had been true. As should surprise nobody with half a brain, it was blatantly false.

“Myself and a friend were harassed on the Saturday night. We immediately put in a formal report with one of the red coats (the volunteer con staff)…” (Source)
“Two of my friends were harassed by a drunk man on Saturday night, making them feel incredibly uncomfortable. They compared notes and realized they should report it, and I helped them find someone to speak to. The organisers responded very well and quickly by taking down the information, but then the person in question was not, as far as they know, removed.” (Source)
“…it became clear that, despite protests to the contrary, people were being harassed in the bars by other con-goers. I was witness to two such incidents and heard about a third from one of the victims, who had put in a formal complaint.” (Source)

Afterward, the convention sent out a follow-up report which acknowledged:

“Regrettably, we learned of one small harassment incident that occurred on the Saturday night when an extremely drunken fan made a nuisance of himself in the hotel Lobby. Unfortunately, he was not reported to either of the professional Security guards who were on duty at the time or any member of the con committee. As a result, by the time we had found out about the incident and ascertained the details, the individual concerned (who was not attending the Awards Banquet) had apparently already left the convention. The person affected did not wish to pursue the matter with either the hotel or the police and, for legal reasons, we cannot publicly identify the individual responsible. However, after full consultation with the Hilton management and our Security team, we have passed the name of the nuisance-maker on to the organisers of next year’s World Fantasy Convention, who will decide on any appropriate action to take.” (Source)

Alex Dally Macfarlane does a nice job of shredding this one. Laura Lam also wrote a follow-up about this. If you’re not going to click over and read their takedowns, let me sum up.

What a bunch of minimizing, factually inaccurate, victim-blaming bullshit.

[image error]

Cheryl Morgan has a post breaking down, to the best of her knowledge, who is responsible for the problems that plagued this years WFC:

“So my view on this complex mess is as follows. Steve Jones and his co-chairs are directly responsible for how the convention was run. The World Fantasy Board is responsible for having granted the convention to Jones in the first place (and they have enough experience of his behavior to have known what to expect). The Board is also responsible in that it has the power to set policy regarding how the convention should be run, and to select groups to run future conventions wisely.” (Source)

I don’t know how many people were sexually harassed at World Fantasy Con, nor do I know how many harassers there were. I do know that multiple instances have been publicly reported. I also know that these things tend to be under-reported, especially when an organization makes it clear they’re not really interested in taking such reports seriously, as this year’s WFC did from day one.

Here are a few tips for anyone who wants to run a convention that actually gives a damn about its members:

Sexual harassment is a real thing, no matter how much you might want to shove your head in the sand and pretend otherwise. Create and publish a damn policy. Here are some links to sample policies you can use.
Don’t use your public announcements board for passive-aggressive, shamelessly self-congratulatory lies.
When someone reports having been harassed, you can worry about putting a stop to the harassment, or you can worry about minimizing things and covering your own ass. One of these options makes you an asshole. Choose the other one.
Educate yourself so you don’t make asinine assumptions, like “professional” events being free of sexual harassment.

Any questions?

Home and Cosplay Pics

Got home from ICON late on Sunday. We lost power at the house a few hours later. Yesterday was blackout day. Around bedtime, we got the animals to heated homes, loaded the kids into the van, and headed over to my father-in-laws’ house for the night. Approximately 30 seconds after we settled in there, we discovered that the power was back on at our house.

So I’m behind on pretty much everything.

I will say I had a blast at ICON. Thank you to everyone who worked to make the con happen, and to the delightful guests of honor – it was a pleasure getting to hang out with you all!

Also, check out the pics from Windycon, including my Charlie Brown: Monster Hunter costume Huge thanks to Ken Beach and Bruce Medic, the two photographers who worked the con. They also took a few shots of me and Jackson together, which was awesome.

I’ve posted three of their pictures below, or you can see everything at http://www.squirrelsnest.org/windycon/.

 

 

ICON Schedule

This afternoon I’m flying down to Iowa to be Toastmaster at ICON 38. Which means I get to introduce and interview and generally hang out with their long list of guests of honor:

Hugo and Nebula winning author Nancy Kress
Hugo and World Fantasy Award winning editor Ellen Datlow
Writer Jack Skillingstead
Artist, Author and founder of ICON Joe Haldeman
Editor and Mommy of ICON Gay Haldeman
Author, Nebula and Hugo nominee and Co-Founder of ICON Gregory Frost
Fan Guest of Honor Steven Keith Tait

Any suggestions for questions I should ask, or particularly juicy stories I should share during opening ceremonies?

Here’s my schedule for the weekend, assuming nothing changes:

Thursday

6:30 pm: Group Booksigning at Barnes & Noble

Friday

1 – 5 pm: DreamCon
7 pm: Opening Ceremonies

Saturday

9 – 10 am: Martial Arts in SF (Elm)
3 – 4 pm: Fandom 101 (Elm) – Tentative
4:30 pm: Guest of Honor Speeches/Interviews (Rosewood)
6 pm: Art/Benefit Auction (Elm)
10:30 pm: Bulwer-Lytton/Vogan Poetry (Waterloo)

Sunday

9 am: Benefactor Brunch
Noon: Reading (Dogwood)

Looking forward to seeing at least a few of you there!

Legend of Korra: A New Spiritual Age

Legend of Korra

2 x 10: A New Spiritual Age

Full episodes available at Nick.com.

Episode Summary (from the Avatar Wiki): After successfully arriving in the Spirit World, Korra and Jinora get separated. Jinora ends up at Wan Shi Tong’s Library, where she is captured by Unalaq. Korra finds herself in a dark forest as a four-year-old, where she encounters Iroh’s spirit. With the help of the former Fire Nation general, she helps a lost dragon bird spirit, who in turn helps her to find the spirit portals. There, she is forced by her uncle to open the northern portal, lest he destroy Jinora’s soul.

The Good: Iroh!!! Spirit Iroh, but still! Even without having seen all of book three of Avatar: TLA, and thus not knowing what ultimately happened to him, it was most excellent to see him again.

“My teapot!” -Young Korra, recognizing the teapot the original Avatar used to carry Raava.

Jinora is a spiritual badass. What I’d really like to see is Korra fighting Vaatu while Jinora and her dragonfly bunnies kick Unalaq’s butt.

Fox librarian!

The ending: “Korra, what happened to my little girl?” Korra’s reaction as she tries to hold it together. It was an emotional punch that felt earned, unlike much of what we’ve seen so far this season.

Several people have pointed out the influence of Alice in Wonderland, from the dragonfly-bunny spirit Furry Foot (the white rabbit) to Korra shrinking to a younger age to the tea party. Which I suppose would make Iroh the Mad Hatter? Hm … not sure that piece holds, but it was a nifty blending of influences.

The animation was lovely as well.

The Bad: Bumi … several people have commented on the one-dimensionality of his character, and while I think we’ve seen hints of depth, his part in this episode was flat and a bit painful. There are ways to use humor to ease pain and fear; Bumi was just being an insensitive twit. Sigh.

Did Korra really lose her temper and try to bend at the meerkat spirits? Have you learned nothing, Avatar?

The ending, with Unalaq capturing Jinora and holding her hostage to force Korra to open the second spirit portal, felt … a little too predictable. It worked, and it was effective in moving the plot along, but I guess I wanted something more interesting and unexpected.

Wan Shi Tong trusts Unalaq. Why? I get that the spirit has some ill-will toward the Avatar after Team Aang broke their vow about not using knowledge from the library for violent ends. But what has Unalaq done to earn his trust? He’s “darkening” spirits right in front of Wan Shi Tong, and certainly seems plenty violent, which I thought the spirit wasn’t into. I’ve seen a suggestion that perhaps Wan Shi Tong is the twins’ mother, which would tie in with our thoughts about the twins being not quite human. But I’m dubious. Wan Shi Tong seems to have been firmly established as a he, and while I think it would be an awesome revelation, I doubt the show is willing to genderbend like that. (Though, with him being a spirit, I can’t think of any reason why not!)

The I’m Not Sure Yet: Korra taking on the form of her four-year-old self in the spirit world. It was cute, and it made it easier to accept her raw, unguarded emotions: fear, anger, hope, happiness, etc. It let her be vulnerable, and I think it was that vulnerability that helped her to learn and grow. In that regard, having her symbolically return to being a child worked well, and presented her as shedding the cynicism and anger that keep getting in her way.

At the same time, I wish she could have met Iroh and learned these lessons as her teenaged self. I might be overthinking it, but it felt like they almost had to reboot her character from age four in order to get her to the place she needed to be. It felt like a cheat. I wanted to see older-Korra struggle and learn and grow.

Other Thoughts: The next episode is supposed to focus on Bolin et al. back in the city. I’m … not exactly looking forward to this. I really hope they surprise me with something good, though. But, much like the spirits, the storylines aren’t in balance. Korra is off battling for the fate of the spiritual and mortal worlds. The rest of “Team” Avatar is dealing with a civil war that’s been off-screen and barely mentioned for a while now, and a war profiteer. Vaarick’s slimy, but it’s not on the same scale.

There’s been a pretty simplistic approach to good and evil, light and dark. So what’s Wan Shi Tong? He doesn’t look like a dark spirit. But he’s not exactly all sweetness and light. The whole light vs. dark thing isn’t really good vs. evil. It feels more like freedom vs. mindless rage. Or free will vs. enslavement to Vaatu, or infection by his power? I’m not sure exactly, but I wish the show would spend a little more time on what exactly is happening to the “dark” spirits.

Finally, I’ve been watching more episodes of Avatar, and I’m struck at the contrast when it comes to that sense of team and family. I think that was one of the core strengths of the original series, and Legend of Korra just doesn’t have it