Episode Synopsis (Some Spoilers):
Episode 1: "Rebel Spirit"
Six months after the end of Book One: Air, Korra has mastered airbending, Mako works as a policeman and is up for a promotion as detective, Bolin fares poorly in pro-bending with the new "Fire Ferrets", and Asami tries to keep Future Industries afloat by venturing to the south to plan business with Varrick. With Tenzin, the friends visit Korra's and Tenzin's family in the Southern Water Tribe. After Korra's uncle and tribal chief Unalaq easily repels an angry spirit's attack, Korra chooses him instead of Tenzin as her spiritual teacher.Episode 2: "The Southern Lights"
Unalaq, Korra and her friends travel to the South Pole, where Korra's dad Tonraq journeys along but is sent back by Korra because of the uproar of spirits when hes around. she opens a portal to the spirit world to release the spirits and the Southern Lights. Learning that her father was banished from the Northern Water Tribe for the destruction of an ancient forest and with Tenzin, responsible for her seclusion in her youth, she orders him to leave her. Returning from the pole, Korra's party witnesses an invasion of the South by Northern Water Tribe troops. Meanwhile, Tenzin and his family arrive at the Southern Air Temple, where Jinora is drawn to the statues of the earlier Avatars and a strange wooden Avatar statue is revealed.New Voice actors cast for Book Two: Spirits include:
Grey DeLisle, the voice actress of Princess Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender, as the character "The Dark Spirit", as well as a younger version of an established character, and another role
Lisa Edelstein as Kya, Tenzin's elder sister, the only daughter and waterbender of Aang and Katara.
John Michael Higgins as Varrick, an eccentric businessman
Adrian LaTourelle as Unalaq, Korra's uncle and chief of both Water Tribes
Aaron Himelstein as Desna, Korra’s cousin
Aubrey Plaza as Eska, Desna's fraternal twin and Korra's other cousin
James Remar as Tonraq, Korra's father. Remar replaces Carlos Alazraqui, who voiced Tonraq in "Welcome to Republic City".
Richard Riehle as Bumi, Tenzin’s brother, the elder son of Aang and Katara.
Steven Yeun as Wan, the first Avatar
Alyson Stoner announced in January 2013 on her website that she would voice the character "Opal" in The Legend of Korra, without specifying in which book.
The Verdict:
Boy, they weren't kidding when the producers were saying in an interview that the spirits were going to look awesome -- if I may add, eerie and epicly awesome indeed.
The Spirit World was something that was briefly explored in Avatar: The Last Airbender and it was one aspect that I personally wish they spent more time exploring. Now it seems like this entire season will be devoted to the Avatar and her connection as the middleground between the spiritual and physical realms. I don't have a problem with that at all. Maybe we will finally get an answer to the question of how and why the Avatar(s) was created in this season.
"Rebel Spirit" starts off with a high-speed chase through Republic City as Mako debuts in his new role on the police force, putting on an impressive display of firebending. I was sad at the lack of my personal favorite character from Book One: Air, Lin Beifong but I have hope that she will appear later in this season. They still have a bit of room to explore with her and Tenzin's previous romantic history. Speaking of Tenzin, I can't believe that he is trying to act like Korra is in no position to protect herself when the previous Avatar, Tenzin's own father, Aang could barely use all four elements outside of the Avatar state. C'mon dude, cut the girl a break. She did defeat Amon after all.
I felt the scene with Bolin's impromptu designation as Asami's assistant was a bit rushed as while viewers were graced with the introduction to the rather weird businessman, named Varrick, it just seemed rather odd that Asami would drag Bolin into the mix. How is she coping with her father being in jail? How is she dealing with Mako dumping her in favor of Korra? I guess these are more questions that are going to be explored throughout this season. It just felt rather awkward that Korra and Tenzin's family didn't seem to offer her an invitation to the festival like the rest of their friends. Call me nuts, but I have a feeling that they are going to dump Asami into Bolin's arms as his permanent girlfriend by the time this season is over with.
The bulk of the episode is spent with introducing Korra's family members, notably re-introducing Korra's father, Tonraq, and establishing her uncle, Unalaq, and two cousins, Eska and Desna, as the creepy extended family. I'm sure everyone has that one family member they are embarrassed to introduce people to, and well, Eska and Desna take the cake on that role here. Maybe it's my gut instinct on all things of fantasy, but these newcomers seem too shady to be trusted. I do feel that Korra's father and Tenzin are being a bit too over-protective of Korra than is needed. She has already proven herself capable of responsibility - asking for a bit of breathing room (and faith in her abilities) isn't too much.
I do have to agree with Tenzin's concern about Korra's recklessness with the Avatar State though. Has she not been briefed on that yet? If you are killed while in the Avatar State, all connections to the Avatar's past lives are lost forever - meaning it's not something to be toying around with.
When Team Avatar (minus Asami) took on the rogue spirit, I was quickly reminded why I love the fight sequences in this series. Korra's animation doesn't skip a beat here as the rogue spirit shakes off their offense like a force of nature until Unalaq calms its spirit with his spiritual prowess. At first glance, I thought that was a new type of bending, much like Amon's "ability" to strip away bender's bending powers away. Hopefully, Unalaq can shed some light on what exactly he is doing to calm the rogue spirits.
This episode ends with Korra taking Unalaq up on his offer to be her new teacher and figuratively kicking Tenzin to the curb. I can't blame Korra for that decision - her normal methods proved useless against the spirit. She is going to need to have an ace in her back pocket if she hopes to be able to defeat this type of adversary in the future.
Lisa Edelstein voicing Tenzin's sister, Kya, was better than I expected as her and Bumi (voiced by Richard Riehle) as they both have a natural fit as Tenzin's siblings and contrast to his uptight behavior. For those who don't know, Tenzin is voiced by J.K. Simmons (widely known as J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man live-action films by Sam Raimi and the Ultimate Marvel Animated Universe currently on Disney XD). I'm hoping having his siblings around will loosen Tenzin up for he can finally relax with the new baby as part of his family. I'm anxious to see how this goes throughout the course of this season.
"The Southern Lights" continued Korra's journey to hopefully calm the rogue spirits rampaging through the Southern Water Tribe as Tenzin's family (accompanied by Kya and Bumi) started their vacation to the various Air Temples.
After Tonraq's history lesson and confession about being the one who ordered Korra's "restrictions" I don't blame her reaction. At the same time, it played her right into Unalaq's welcoming arms. As we saw at the end of the episode, Unalaq has other motives in mind than just the balance of the spiritual and physical worlds. It looks like he wants complete domination over the Southern Water Tribe.
Speaking of relationship problems, I'm glad they already got the awkward adjustment phase of the new couple out of the way. Mako found himself in the middle of Korra's family dispute as Korra constantly chewed him out for picking sides. Fortunately, Korra's hotheaded-nature didn't blind her for long as she saw the error of her ways by the end of this episode. Is it just me, but Mako (voiced by David Faustino) is starting to channel his inner Bud Bundy more and more in this series?
Book Two: Spirits' two episode premiere set the stage on what is the come for this season and I definitely can't wait to see how this is going to play out. In terms of quality for the premiere, I really can't complain as Nickelodeon gave fans more than enough to enjoy here and speculate on for in anticipation for the rest of the season. I'm giving this premiere a 4 out of 5.
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