Talk:Avatar/@comment-4662143-20120728031044

Anyone else pissed off over Korra's absolutely cavalier use of the Avatar State in the animatics trailer shown at Comic Con? The more I thought about it, the more infuriated I was.

It all started with the fact that she was just gifted the power by Aang with no effort whatsoever. Aang had to really work to get that power. He had to go through enormous emotional and spiritual development. Especially to open that last chakra. For those of you who aren't familiar with the philosophical underpinnings of the Avatar State, detachment is one of the most difficult aspects of attaining enlightenment in Hinduism and Buddhism. Sages have to go through years of meditation, prayer, and renunciation to get to that stage, and those who have are placid, compassionate, wise, and spiritually and emotionally mature exemplars for the rest of society to follow. Korra hasn't changed one iota since her being given absolute mastery over the Avatar State, and the fact that such an opportunity for growth was squandered in favor of sheer incompetence that sticks out like a sore thumb is just painful to watch. I understand that Aang would have found it a bit easier, but even he was horrified of the power of the Avatar State. He understood it, and treated it with the respect it deserved.

But Korra doesn't even try. She makes virtually zero spiritual progress in twelve episodes; the only incident of note is her being in the metal box, and she doesn't build on that at all. But even that could all be forgiven if she displayed some understanding of the tremendous spiritual achievement that mastering the Avatar State represents, if she had some respect for the fact that she was casually and playfully summoning all of the past lives of the Avatars (and burning up her own life force) when entering the Avatar State. But she doesn't. She doesn't understand the spiritual significance of her bond with the previous Avatars. She shows no consideration of the millions of hours of training and spiritual discipline that her predecessors had to go through so that she could win a measely race. She hasn't mastered her fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusion, or earthly attachment. Indeed, she manifests all of these negative qualities in season 1. She swtiches the Avatar State on and off like a freaking light bulb!

The Avatar State is not a toy, and the fact that she was willing to use it as one shows that she does not deserve that power. No doubt, some of you will excuse this by saying that "she was just playing." Indeed, that is no doubt exactly how Korra will respond to Tenzin's "the Avatar State is not meant to be used as a rocket booster" comment once that episode airs. But this isn't simply about Korra being irresponsible. It's about her complete lack of understanding of what it means to be the Avatar and indeed, the spiritual and attitudinal basis for bending itself, particularly airbending. Has she learned nothing at all from Tenzin? It would appear so, given that, despite her airbending having been blocked by a spiritual impasse, she suddenly is able to airbend, despite making no spiritual progress whatsoever. Ironically, by casually flaunting her powers like this, by showing such a naive attitude towards the tremendous destructive power at her fignertips, she displays the very unconscious bender chauvinism that Amon was fighting against. Amon was clearly disgusted by the fact that benders casually extorted and bullied their fellow nonbending citizens, merely because they had the power to do so. Though Korra wasn't hurting anyone, she displayed the same unscrupulousness. To Korra, she can use the Avatar state however she pleases, to do even something trivial, merely because she has "all the power in the world." Sound familiar?

So Korra has learned nothing from Amon or Tenzin. Her character development was seriously rushed in the season finale, and if things don't pick up in Season 2, if she doesn't at least become more spiritually mature, I'm going to be very pissed off, because Korra will become stale and boring. Hotheadness and rashness becomes boring and indeed, irritating if Korra keeps getting bitten because of it and never learns to change her outlook or behavior in response. It makes her look dull witted and dense. And I don't want to be forced to come to that conclusion, because Korra has so much potential to become more than just an capricious, bumbling teenager, clumsily smashing things with power she doesn't understand and can't control.