Korras Growth

Korra’s Growth

Korra’s growth, at least for me, is the highlight of the Legend of Korra. She starts out incredibly brash, over confident, headstrong, and stubborn. She pays for these characteristics time and time again throughout the series and it is through these consequences that Korra is able to grow into the understanding and empathetic avatar of the series finale. “No good deed goes unpunished, no act of charity goes unresented.” This seems to be the template for Korra’s trials and tribulations because no matter how hard she tries to help she is always met with criticism and anger. Time and time again she is told that the world would be better off without her and that balance would be achieved with her gone. She begins to doubt whether being the avatar even matters and she has to discover herself and her place in the world to come to her own conclusion. She must accept the past and learn from it to move forward and become the avatar that the world and the people need and to create true balance within the world.

 Korra’s journey is the exact opposite of Aang’s in that his was about coming to identify himself as the avatar whereas Korra’s is about learning to identify herself separate from the avatar. Aang was allowed to be a child and person first before he discovered he was the avatar which lead to his ability to connect with other people, including his enemies even at the beginning of the series. Korra, on the other hand, was immediately thrust into the identity of the avatar so she based her entire being and self worth on being the avatar. She was put on this pedestal right away and didn’t have the chance to develop as a person outside of that identity which lead to her struggle to connect with other people, especially her enemies. 

Korra starts out overconfident in her still developing abilities, but actually grows to underestimate her abilities after being torn down by her enemies. This leads to humbling her and causes her to rebuild her self-esteem based on who she is and not what she is to the world. This mirrors her growth from trying to force change to mediating and refraining from fighting until necessary and being a conduit for change, which leads to balance. She goes through a pacifistic maturation. Korra’s confidence is broken down over the course of the first three seasons and is built back up through her self actualization making her confidence non-toxic to social, societal, and confrontational situations. Because Korra understands herself and her powers she is able to use them to be an effective force for change and balance.

In Defense of the Legend of Korra’s Power Crawl

People seem to take problem with the power crawl within the legend of Korra claiming that she breaks the previously established power ceiling within the series, but that isn’t really the case. The power crawl isn’t like the last airbenders where Aang is trying to build physical strength. Korra’s journey is about self discovery and gaining spiritual strength. In the finale of Avatar the last airbender energy bending is established to exist within the universe with the ability to take away and give bending. Though since it was introduced in the finale it wasn’t able to be expanded upon. The Legend of Korra expands on it and makes it the focal point of the power crawl. 

When Korra is first introduced it is firmly established that she excels at the physical side of bending, but struggles with the spiritual side. She starts the series at the bottom in spiritual development and connection to the world around her. The growth of her spiritual connection is directly linked to her growth of understanding of herself and connection to the world. She connects to her past lives at the end of the first season after finally getting to go out in the world after being secluded all her early life. In the second season she manages to journey to the spirit world and learn of her connection to it. The third season shows how accustomed and comfortable she has grown with it and Raava and ends with her hitting a physical, spiritual, and mental block. This block spurs on her journey of self discovery which leads to an expansion on her ability to energy bend, makes her more in tune with Raava and the world, and she becomes her most powerful within the spirit world. It is her increased spiritual growth that makes her able to overcome her enemies namely Unalaq, Vaatu, and Kuvira. Not becoming a more physically imposing avatar. This power crawl, sans the giant energy projection at the end of season 2, is done well and shows a power crawl that actually makes the main character more pacifistic and mirrors her growth as a person. Making her more powerful, but less likely to use that power unless absolutely necessary.

People tend to focus on the brute force end when it comes to power crawl, which if looking at that Korra ends the first season at the strongest she will ever be physically, but power crawl doesn’t have to be about brute strength as explained above. That’s why I think a lot of people miss the real power crawl within the Legend of Korra.

deetheteadrinkingdragon: This parallel wounded me deeply. Okay I’ve been wanting to talk about this since season 3 dropped. Rayla in the first set of pictures looks determined and is smirking at the very real possibility she could die. It doesn’t phase her. She thinks that if she dies right then and there she would redeem herself and make up for her parent’s mistakes. And in the bottom photos she looks so sad. Rayla doesn’t want to die in the second set of photos, but can’t break away from the mistakes her parents made to live her own life. It’s tragic.

This parallel wounded me deeply. 

A Silent Voice - Portraying Isolation

A silent voice does an excellent job of portraying the different types of isolation the two lead characters experience. It is masterfully shown in these two shots.

The scene in Shouya’s apartment perfectly displays his self isolation. He is in his empty room in a fetal position. The choice of having him be in his room during this scene is important because a person’s bedroom is typically a place where people go to be alone and relax  and there is also the fact that he doesn’t own anything and it is empty showing that he isn’t here to relax or escape but to be alone. There is also the choice of his body position which seems like he is curling in on himself. He is hiding himself from the world and not letting them see the whole picture. Sound is also present in the scene with the scratching of his foot and neck seeming loud in the silence of his room. This is all in direct opposition to Shouko’s scene where it cuts from the noise of the fireworks festival to the dead silence that she experiences. In Shouko’s scene she is standing in an upright position that portrays an openness to the world and yet there are no other people in the shot showing that she is open with the world and trying to connect with others whereas others won’t try to connect with her and come into her world despite her efforts. Her isolation is shown to be through the others rejecting her instead of Shouya’s rejection of others and it isn’t until the scene on the bridge, which is used as their “spot” throughout the film, near the end where they finally find their voices and come to a true understanding of each other that they are both able to truly find a way out of their isolation. Shouya gets the world to open up to Shouko and Shouko gets Shouya to open up to the world. If the isolation they felt wasn’t shown so clearly in these scenes it wouldn’t be as powerful when their respective isolation is finally broken through.

             There are many scenes portraying the respective isolation of these characters but these directly juxtapose each other in the blatant comparison it draws to the way the characters are isolated and why each character is able to draw the other into the first steps outside of their isolation. It is because each individual understand a different type of isolation, self isolation and forced isolation. Shouko gets Shouya to open up to the world because of her understanding of the desire for human interaction and the world to open up to her. Shouya gets the world to open up to Shouko through his work to hear her voice and make up for the actions that started his own self isolation. Their respective journeys come full circle and thus create a new path where both are taking steps out of their isolation and to a new beginning.

Joker-a Master of Perspective

Joker uses perspective to enhance the movie storytelling perspective. It is a story about the descent of a man giving into his darker desires. This is typically seen as a tragic tale, but the music and camera shots portray it as the opposite. It feels like a man going from despair to hope. 

The music in the opening shot is called “Hoyt’s Office” and it has a sinister and foreboding feel to it whereas the music at the end of the film called “Call Me Joker” is much more hopeful and delicate, the music is softer and more personal instead of the sharp low tones of the beginning. The shot choice also changes the perspective of scenes that should be dark like when Arthur kills his mother Arthur sits next to the window which bathes the shot in light and creates an uplifting atmosphere and the lens reflects light which gives the shot a dreamy look like Arthur enjoys his choice and has finally fulfilled one of his wildest dreams. The final shots of him in the asylum are again bathed in light with minimal sound and the actions are happening slower than normal giving it that dream like feel to it once again. The final shot I’ll talk about is when Joker is dancing on the car during the riot. He is the center of the frame once again and everything around him seems to fade away. This is emphasized by the shots at a superior angle where only Joker and the sky are in shot with everyone else just out of view and the wide angle view when everyone else is in shot but the noise they would have been making is overtaken by the score. He is finally “seen” by people. He has become the center of this revolution and the world can finally see his solo performance.

The perspective is also in use when it comes to the fact that Arthur is made to clearly be an unreliable narrator in the film which can bring many interpretations of the events that unfold. Until the first time Arthur gives into his darker desires most of the abuse he endures is physical. Once he kills the three men on the subway the abuse shifts to emotional with his mother and then once he kills her it becomes verbal until he kills Murray and then he becomes the Joker and the movie ends with Arthur feeling free and not hesitating to give into his desires. This can be seen as the journey of how much Arthur can justify his actions. With each killing he is able to justify his actions with less and less provocation. At the beginning he shot the men in self defense and by the end he was killing people because he deemed it “what they deserve”. (This was also seen when he killed Randall when Randall came over to try and comfort him about his mother’s death and he kills him because of what Randall did at the beginning of the movie. Now that Arthur has made it this far in his descent he sees nothing wrong with killing Randall when earlier he held himself back.) Because of how the abuse seems to shift to allow Arthur to justify his actions it can lead to questions on if the abuse was really like the way it was portrayed or if it had been warped in some way due to Arthur’s perception. (This is just a single possibility that is left up to the viewer’s interpretation)

Joker is incredibly interesting in its use of film making techniques and how it uses all of the facets of the audio visual medium to convey its story. I was left fascinated in how well made it was with a great performance by Joaquin Phoenix, masterful cinematography and directing, and an emotive score. The film and superhero nerd in me loved every second of it.

Spiderman Far From Home Spoiler Review

I can honestly say I came out of this movie pleasantly surprised. The movie was much better than the trailers made it out to be. I have always preferred spiderman as a solo hero and this was a welcome return to that. I wasn’t sure what to expect because so little of the movie was shown in the trailers, but they managed to stick the landing and check off just about every box I would want for a spiderman movie. 

Tom Holland was amazing as Peter Parker and his classmates were really funny and endearing. I especially like how they handled “the blip” situation and addressed the fallout of Infinity War and Endgame without letting it overtake the film. The only real problem I had with Homecoming, that Peter was getting too much from Iron man instead of making his own things, was remedied with this film by having Peter create his own suit and showing off his intelligence in action. The high school relationship drama was much better this time around with Peter and MJ as well as Ned and Betty. Peter and MJ had actual conversations that showed that they played well off each other and were really just teenagers trying to navigate their feelings for each other and it was done really well. Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio was perfect. I found Mysterio to be an interesting villain and thought Jake Gyllenhaal brought a charisma to the part that only he could achieve. Mysterio has always been more of a supporting villain to a bigger threat so the fact that they managed to make him stand on his own and play off Peter so well was a welcome change. The cast overall was fantastic and I don’t think there was any character I disliked.

This film had Peter truly becoming Spiderman. It put him in a place where he needed to grow up, become independent, and get out of iron man and the rest of the avengers shadows. He couldn’t be the kid who ran into situations he wasn’t prepared for without a plan and he had to start making things for himself. The scene where he breaks down at Happy because of the pressure and the pedestal he had Tony on was where the film really kicked it into high gear. It was moment after moment of Peter being the Spiderman we know and love. I loved that they had Peter make his own suit and I think I felt his achievements in the final fight to be more earned because of that, he had to create gadgets specifically to counter Mysterio himself. The fights with mysterio were some of the most interesting and inventive of any hero-villain solo movie battles. Both character’s were made to pull out their entire arsenals to take down the other. When Peter finally used his spider sense to take down mysterio I was practically cheering. 

This movie was a really enjoyable solo hero film and I would recommend it to anyone. It is visually stunning while also being really character centric. Spiderman is hands down my favorite hero and I felt that this film did this adaptation of him justice. I do still wish marvel would stop pretending Uncle Ben didn’t exist, but I’m glad they did address his guilt over not being able to prevent Tony’s death and the pressure he feels to live up to the expectations he places on himself. I also had a problem with the lack of focus on Peter and May’s personal problems because May doesn’t really have a job and neither does Peter so how is Peter going on this school trip? I also wish that they hadn’t had as much school scenes because it took away from Peter’s personal struggles with Tony’s death and Mysterio. They are working hard to show Peter’s growth as Spiderman and I appreciate they aren’t rushing it. This film is a good addition to the spiderman franchise and is a really fun and worthwhile watch.