Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00:00Okay.
00:00:30Let me just fill you, let me make you dark red and
00:00:58light red.
00:01:01Oh yeah, there we go.
00:01:11Okay.
00:01:14Oh god.
00:01:17That's the dumbest thing.
00:01:21That's the dumbest thing.
00:01:24I don't know what to put.
00:01:26I was thinking like, I was trying to think ahead and working a little blurb for Mako.
00:01:32And the only thing I came up with was fucking Fireman Sans.
00:01:36I wish I could fit it.
00:01:41I fit it in here.
00:01:42It's like Mako, his personality smoldered away.
00:01:47Oh, wait a minute.
00:01:50Queen Bumbler.
00:01:52Oh.
00:01:53Crispin Smolder.
00:01:54Hayden Crispinson.
00:01:55Oh, yeah.
00:01:56Oh, yeah.
00:01:57Oh, yeah.
00:01:58Oh, yeah.
00:01:59Oh, yeah.
00:02:00Oh, yeah.
00:02:01Oh, yeah.
00:02:02Oh, yeah.
00:02:03Oh, yeah.
00:02:04Oh, yeah.
00:02:05Oh, yeah.
00:02:06Oh, yeah.
00:02:07Oh, yeah.
00:02:08Oh, yeah.
00:02:09Oh, yeah.
00:02:10Oh, yeah.
00:02:11Oh, yeah.
00:02:12Oh, yeah.
00:02:13Hayden Crispinson.
00:02:16Oh, no.
00:02:17Crispin Nolan.
00:02:21No, Hayden Crispinson.
00:02:26That's perfect.
00:02:38I think I probably need to watch the show in order to get it better.
00:02:42Mako is like one of those early 2010's smoldering bad boy types.
00:02:48Oh, yeah.
00:02:51Greg said it first, not me.
00:02:54Crispin said...
00:02:57Oh, God, I'm such a...
00:02:59I'm such a dork.
00:03:07Now, it might actually be slightly easier to find a decent sized transparent reference of Asami,
00:03:13because there's more fan art of Asami than there are atoms in the universe.
00:03:34There we go, that'll do.
00:03:37And up for Tesla.
00:03:42What?
00:03:46Too much?
00:03:48Asami is more of like Ford, not Tesla.
00:03:52Oh, that's true.
00:03:54Oh, wait, you meant Nikola Tesla.
00:04:00Sure.
00:04:03Let's go with that.
00:04:05Oh, that's pixelated like crazy.
00:04:10Microwaved Edward.
00:04:23Oh, I caught one.
00:04:26Oh, no, it's too dumb.
00:04:29Oh, I got a bigger one.
00:04:31And the same pose, too. Perfect.
00:04:50I'm tempted to...
00:05:04Tumblr sexy woman.
00:05:05I think we can come up with something a little better than just pretty.
00:05:09Right.
00:05:10She's a fucking engineer.
00:05:20You know what really grinds my gears?
00:05:22What?
00:05:24No, that was it.
00:05:29You know, a double pun to the fact that she's a fucking capitalist,
00:05:34along with being like an engineering superhero.
00:05:49No, I...
00:05:51Shut up.
00:05:57Oh, God.
00:06:00Like, no, no, no, you don't get it.
00:06:03If I could make a slight spelling difference and...
00:06:07No.
00:06:09Oh, yeah, I see it.
00:06:21It's perfect.
00:06:22I'm keeping it.
00:06:34Perfect.
00:06:35No notes.
00:06:47Oh, my God.
00:07:00I'm going to hell.
00:07:02I'm going to hell in a handbasket.
00:07:32Okay, now we need music for them.
00:07:52Would actually help if I opened the right part there.
00:07:54There we go.
00:08:15Again, we can do better than just boiling her down to one thing.
00:08:20I know, it was just more the early 2000s vibes.
00:08:32I'm sorry, I'm stupid.
00:08:35Don't self-deprecate.
00:08:39Oh, wait a minute.
00:08:40Wait.
00:08:49Untitled self-portrait by Will Arnett.
00:08:51Arnett from the Lego movie.
00:08:52I was tempted to go with the 80s remix of Numb.
00:09:00My first thought was...
00:09:01That'll be good.
00:09:03My first thought was the cops theme.
00:09:28I think it fits.
00:09:29Oh, my God.
00:09:31You didn't notice that before?
00:10:00This is where we're going with this.
00:10:31There we go.
00:10:59There we go.
00:11:28There we go.
00:11:57There we go.
00:12:25There we go.
00:12:41Oh, we're resubbing.
00:13:04Thank you for the five gift subs, Catgirl.
00:13:07Oh, wow.
00:13:10Catgirl doing that.
00:13:12Gifted us up to three.
00:13:13We'll go through it.
00:13:14Scottisherlot, Angelsirene, Claryetti, and Alesnerd.
00:13:19Guess who got paid?
00:13:20Oh, wow.
00:13:22Wow.
00:13:38That's just going to be going for a while.
00:13:54Spending bits to see if I can keep the hype train going.
00:14:23The other half of this emote pair.
00:14:43There we go.
00:15:01Now, Mako, I think we settled on Numb.
00:15:04Yes, 80s remix Numb.
00:15:06Yeah.
00:15:10You okay?
00:15:12I'm fine.
00:15:17I'm sorry for self-deprecating earlier.
00:15:19I'm sorry.
00:15:20That's okay.
00:15:26Oh, another way to spend bits now.
00:15:31I wasn't sure how to spend bits before.
00:15:33I was like, is this?
00:15:34I clicked the bits thing in the bottom corner.
00:15:36Is this the only way?
00:15:37Oh, I know.
00:15:38There's also this.
00:15:45Oh, yeah.
00:15:46I actually get one cent for every bit used to cheer directly on my channel.
00:15:49So cheering gives me a dollar.
00:15:53Oh, nice.
00:16:16So now the second time I've used, I've used this, I've used this remix of Numb for a character.
00:16:40It's almost like characters who fit this particular archetype aren't very diverse or interesting.
00:16:45Yeah.
00:16:48It's almost like characters that fit this particular archetype are not especially diverse or interesting.
00:16:53They're made in the bloody factory.
00:16:56Weird Al's hardware store.
00:16:59That's not bad.
00:17:01Oh, fuck.
00:17:02That is.
00:17:03That's pretty good.
00:17:13Ended with him saying automatic circumcisors.
00:17:18Automatic circumcisors.
00:17:19Stand erect.
00:17:20Stereo cells and energizers.
00:17:22Fucking hell.
00:17:42You received a level one hype train emote.
00:17:44Huh.
00:17:50Hey.
00:17:52That's 220 bits.
00:18:07Oh, yeah.
00:18:35Oh, yeah.
00:19:04Oh, yeah.
00:19:32Oh, yeah.
00:20:01Oh, God.
00:20:12That is.
00:20:13That is still way too good.
00:20:17Lightning McQueen.
00:20:35Rumour on the street is that her hands are delicious.
00:20:39She's charming but her exes say she's wicked.
00:20:55It's like the most fucking character ever designed.
00:21:07This is probably the most interesting thing ever done with Mako.
00:21:11Probably.
00:21:17Her personality clearly went to bowling because Mako just has nothing.
00:21:23Despite being a firebender, he has nothing cooking.
00:21:27Now we need music for Asami.
00:21:40No, not that.
00:21:41I know Anna must have something.
00:21:44Oh, wait a minute.
00:21:45Wait a minute.
00:21:46I think I know exactly what.
00:21:51No, Asami's not interesting enough for that.
00:21:54I was going to go with teeth.
00:21:58Huh.
00:22:26I don't know.
00:22:55Well, I mean.
00:23:12Oh, oh, oh, oh, it'd be terrible.
00:23:23Hmm.
00:23:34What are you cooking?
00:23:35What are you cooking?
00:23:36I heard that you are doing to us.
00:23:39All right.
00:23:43I don't know.
00:23:44I just saw the wacky racist thing.
00:23:48One second.
00:23:50I'm going to mute everything so you guys don't hear what I'm doing.
00:24:13Oh, this is terrible.
00:24:22Okay, okay.
00:24:42Okay.
00:25:02Okay.
00:25:25Or whatever.
00:25:26I think I finally figured out how to handle the curse.
00:25:41You're all.
00:25:42You're all never going to forgive me for this.
00:25:51I know you.
00:25:52I know you can't hear it.
00:25:53That's the point.
00:25:54You're not supposed to hear it until I until I subject you all to it.
00:26:23Okay.
00:26:52Like, I'm going to play this and you guys are going to be like, Lily, that is horrible.
00:27:01That is horrible that you would do this, but also it's perfect.
00:27:20What?
00:27:30What?
00:27:38It is not.
00:27:46That is not it.
00:28:16Oops.
00:28:36Me having to, like, fucking edit in, like, mostly silence.
00:29:01All right, here we go.
00:29:11Oh, no.
00:29:23That is horrible.
00:29:24You would do this.
00:29:25Never mind.
00:29:26I love this.
00:29:28Every time you saw, I just grow stronger.
00:29:29I'm for I studied the curse.
00:29:30Never mind.
00:29:31Fuck you, Lily.
00:29:32Perfect.
00:29:33Yes, Lily Orchard.
00:29:34How dare you?
00:29:35Look, somebody said the phrase while I was doing the text.
00:29:36Someone said the phrase Tumblr sexy woman.
00:29:37And then I thought, wait, I know what I have to do.
00:29:38All the all the.
00:29:40Good Lord.
00:29:49All day!
00:29:51🎵 I'm undefeated!
00:29:53🎵 I've become so numb
00:29:55🎵 I can't feel a thing!
00:29:57🎵 How bad can I be?
00:29:59🎵 I'm just building the economy!
00:30:01🎵 I'm just building the economy!
00:30:03🎵 I'm just building the economy!
00:30:05Good lord.
00:30:07My god, that was perfect.
00:30:09My god, that was perfect.
00:30:11My god, that was perfect.
00:30:13My god, that was perfect.
00:30:15Of course it was perfect!
00:30:17Who did this?! Step forward for your punishment!
00:30:19Who did this?! Step forward for your punishment!
00:30:21Who did this?! Step forward for your punishment!
00:30:25Louder, I don't get it.
00:30:27I don't get it.
00:30:29I kind of like it.
00:30:31I kind of like it.
00:30:33The best worst part is, like, the voice fits.
00:30:35The best worst part is, like, the voice fits.
00:30:37It does...
00:30:39It does...
00:30:41For sure...
00:30:43What have you unleashed? Terror!
00:30:45Let it die, let it die, let it shrivel up and die.
00:30:54That's Varric.
00:30:58Yeah. Oh, Varric's definitely in the fucking aware.
00:31:06Let it die, let it die, let it shrivel up and die.
00:31:12Okay, where do we stop on?
00:31:17Let it grow, but every grow is replaced with an entire episode of Legend of Korra.
00:31:25Okay, back to recording.
00:31:32Bolin.
00:31:35Out of everyone in the crew, with the exception of Korra herself, Bolin is actually the best of the bunch.
00:31:40Mostly because he's the only one with a personality.
00:31:44In general, Bolin's always been exceedingly nice, and some people find that boring,
00:31:48but it's hard to get invested in a character who isn't friendly from the start.
00:31:53His brother starts out the show very closed off and standoffish,
00:31:58and as a result, he never really gets past that because he doesn't have a good first impression to build on.
00:32:03Bolin, by comparison, is a lot more charming, and he contrasts Korra very well.
00:32:07Korra is really assertive and enthusiastic, while Bolin is rather laid-back and easygoing.
00:32:11Ironically, we have a waterbender who thinks like a firebender, and an earthbender who thinks like an airbender.
00:32:23This means that unlike the other two, Bolin establishes a much better relationship with Korra almost immediately.
00:32:28Granted, he is trying to date Korra, but that friendliness doesn't vanish when the plot shoots him down.
00:32:33He's just the most well-adjusted person in the cast in season one.
00:32:37And the moment the love spirograph starts, he immediately backs out of it.
00:32:40Which is a shame, because I honestly think Korra would have been better off with Bolin.
00:32:43Which is a shame, because I honestly think Korra would have been better off with Bolin.
00:32:47Siren, door kick in sound.
00:32:49Oh no, they've come to revoke my sapphic license!
00:32:55Oh no, they've come to revoke my sapphic license!
00:32:59Sound of machine gun fire.
00:33:02I mean, come on, look at this.
00:33:04I mean, come on, look at this.
00:33:061-5-8-37.
00:33:08That's so...
00:33:11That's so cute!
00:33:13That's the most adorable thing this franchise has ever had!
00:33:22And the two of them are just really adorable together.
00:33:25There's an entire group of scenes of their date, and it's genuinely some of the most heartwarming material Avatar has ever produced.
00:33:31Find yourself a man who will have a belching contest with you.
00:33:36Unfortunately, this same episode starts the Korra-Asami-Mako love triangle that would persist for about half the fucking show.
00:33:44So both of them actually pull a huge dick move on Bolin when they kiss after their match.
00:33:49And it causes a lot of tension between the three of them.
00:33:51Mako accuses Korra of using Bolin to get back at him, and unfortunately Korra confirms that.
00:33:56It's uncharacteristically mean for a character who was genuinely portrayed as very good-hearted up until this point.
00:34:07But it only takes one more match for the two of them to hash things out, and Bolin's actually pretty good about it since Korra apologizes for messing with him like that.
00:34:16So this arc between the two of them is short, but even when it does get mean-spirited, it's still rather well-written.
00:34:22I like that it doesn't take them half the season for Korra and Bolin to patch things up.
00:34:26I honestly think there was a missed opportunity to not explore this further.
00:34:29The love triangle lasted for two seasons and pissed off the viewers so much that Brike didn't touch it again until the 11th hour when they just decided to make the most popular ship in the fandom, Ganon.
00:34:42Once this ends, Bolin ends up taking a backseat to Korra, Mako, Asami, and the gang's crotch goblins for the rest of the season.
00:34:49The crew in general seems to struggle hard with finding purpose in this season outside of a love triangle and bending fights.
00:35:03And this problem only persists further and further into the series, and I think part of this was making the entire crew at all.
00:35:10The original series just had Aang, Katara, and Sokka in season 1, before picking up Toph halfway through season 2, and then Zuko halfway through season 3.
00:35:20In a rather notable example, both the latecomers didn't have much development after the fact, because Toph was already perfect, and Zuko's arc was drip-fed for the entire series up to this point.
00:35:34Korra crams the entire crew into just a 13-episode season, where it has to share time with a lengthy political subterfuge plot.
00:35:50The excuse is that this was the only season they thought they were going to get, but you know, you didn't need to rebuild Team Avatar exactly as it existed last time.
00:36:02My pitch for an Avatar series in my last Airbender video practically scrapped Team Avatar entirely, and made Team Avatar into just two people, the Avatar and her big sister, precisely because Team Avatar as a concept is stifling.
00:36:14This copy-paste job doesn't fit in the template they're working with, and so they shouldn't have done it.
00:36:30Out of everyone in the cast, Bolin is tied with Korra for the most shafted character in later seasons.
00:36:34After a very strong opening where Bolin ends up being the most well-rounded character in the crew, he gets demoted to comic relief and Rube multiple times.
00:36:41Half of season 2 is devoted to him getting into an abusive relationship with Korra's cousin Eska, a cold and brutal woman who brings her brother with her on double dates, and sees a partner as synonymous with slave.
00:36:55And hey, if that's your thing, more power to you, but the combination of Bolin's very visible distress and every other character practically laughing at his situation is just fucking disgusting.
00:37:11Who texted me?
00:37:16Oh, that was my rent being paid.
00:37:19And when he gets away from Eska, he moves on to starring in weirdly racist propaganda films.
00:37:24Look, I'm well aware that films back in ye olden days wouldn't consider something like hiring people from the ethnicities portrayed on screen, but this was just a few years after Avatar itself got in trouble for doing that, with Water Tribe characters too, so Nuktuk, Hero of the South, is a little on the nose.
00:37:49I don't have much to say about Nuktuk beyond that, it's a Flash Gordon thing, that's it.
00:37:56However, as the season starts wrapping up, Bolin really comes into his own as a character. He's a much more powerful earthbender and still ride or die to help Korra with anything.
00:38:04He's the only one who really resents the fact that Team Avatar has effectively broken up, and when it's time to actually fight, he gives it his all.
00:38:11And as much as Bolin is a rube doing propaganda films for a rich bastard who's staging false flag attacks...
00:38:20He is ultimately doing it for Korra, who needs help protecting her tribe.
00:38:24Which is more than can be said for Mako and Asami.
00:38:27I mean, granted, Asami tries, but we'll get to that.
00:38:32However, in Season 3, the entire crew falls off.
00:38:34Bolin and Ma-
00:38:35I mean, Season 3 in general is just awful.
00:38:38Bolin and Mako get to reunite with their extended family, giving us the sweetest moment in the entire series.
00:38:45Mako gives his scarf to his grandmother.
00:38:50But he also has a minor arc about trying to metalbend alongside Korra and failing to achieve it, before realizing later on that he can actually lava bend.
00:38:58Which honestly is just a cooler technique than metalbending.
00:39:01Sure, metalbending has a lot of beautiful and elegant precision that really gets to be demonstrated in Season 3,
00:39:06largely thanks to one very nice Zaofu guardswoman, who I'm sure will go on to do wonderful, lovely things with the artform.
00:39:15But metalbending's uniqueness has been lost in Korra, becoming just a fancier earthbending,
00:39:19where metalbending in Avatar was a lot more crude and inelegant, and in that way, it was more unique.
00:39:24Lava bending, on the other hand...
00:39:26Ooh, that's beautifully crunchy.
00:39:32...
00:39:35So yeah, I like that Bolin gets the meatier of the specialized bending styles.
00:39:39But after that, he really doesn't do anything. His character just sort of...
00:39:48In Season 4, he ends up joining Kuvira's army, seemingly to help people and to give Korra space to recover.
00:39:53But actually...
00:39:55In Season 4, he ends up joining Kuvira's army, seemingly to help people and to give Korra space to recover,
00:40:00but actually because he's the only member of the cast considered to be stupid enough to fall for Kuvira's bullshit.
00:40:08And that's a bad decision, but Kuvira as a villain was just always a bad decision.
00:40:17Granted, his last really good moment does redeem the rest,
00:40:20and that's when the giant death robot of anti-colonialism is destroyed.
00:40:24And that's when the giant death robot of anti-colonialism is destroyed.
00:40:30...
00:40:35Mako decides...
00:40:37Mako decides to risk himself to destroy the spirit vine core with...
00:40:40Mako decides to risk himself to destroy the spirit vine core with lightning,
00:40:44and him and Bolin share a goodbye hug and say they love each other,
00:40:47and after Mako gets knocked out, Bolin doesn't hesitate to come back to an exploding vine core to get him out.
00:40:52It speaks to an aspect of Bolin's character that I feel goes unappreciated.
00:40:56Bolin would walk into the circles of hell for the people he loves, especially his brother,
00:41:00and he does it repeatedly throughout the series.
00:41:02Bolin isn't a particularly powerful earthbender, not like Toph and not like Korra,
00:41:06but that doesn't stop him from rushing into battles far above his caliber without hesitation.
00:41:12In season 2, both him and Mako take on Unalaq to hold him off so Korra can close the spirit portal,
00:41:17and if it weren't for harmonic convergence happening at that exact moment, they would have succeeded.
00:41:26In season 3, he often has to contend with Ghazan, and in their first fight, he's no match for Ghazan's lava bending,
00:41:35but once he has it, it becomes clear that lava is so dangerous that Ghazan has been able to win by sheer power creep.
00:41:41Against another lava bender, he just can't really hold up, and so he just kills himself.
00:41:48Even when Bolin is up against things so far beyond him that they're terrifying,
00:41:52it doesn't stop him going in to help his friends, especially Korra.
00:41:55It's like the man knows no genuine fear, and I think this goes unappreciated because the show never stops to verbally acknowledge it.
00:42:01Like in the original, everyone believes Katara to be motherly.
00:42:04And why? Because there was a scene where they go,
00:42:07Man, Katara sure is motherly! Doesn't she act motherly? That's not always a bad thing.
00:42:13Like in the original, everyone believes Katara to be motherly.
00:42:16And why? Well, because there's a scene where they go,
00:42:19Man, Katara sure is motherly! Doesn't she act motherly? That's not always a bad thing.
00:42:28And this is often why Katara gets reduced from a very interesting and nuanced character to just...
00:42:33motherly, especially in adaptations.
00:42:35Because the story ground to a halt to talk about sibling enmeshment for a few minutes, and that's what people picked up on.
00:42:40Along the same lines, Bolin often gets reduced to just dumb comic relief,
00:42:51because characters often verbally describe him as a dumb, clumsy idiot.
00:42:55Some rubes stick an arctic hen in his mouth.
00:43:00So because thinking is hard, and it's easier to boil characters down,
00:43:03Bolin is just the silly one, or the dumb one, or the himbo.
00:43:08But he's a lot more than that.
00:43:10His dedication and devotion to his friends are his most admirable traits,
00:43:13and while I'll bang the drum that Bolin and Korra would have been great together,
00:43:18the fact that amidst all the relationship drama of the first two seasons,
00:43:22Bolin and Korra having a very touching and heartfelt makeup scene while still being friends
00:43:26is something we still don't get enough of.
00:43:38I think they really missed an opportunity to make a really good character out of Bolin,
00:43:41and they missed it specifically because they just wanted to make flanderized Sokka.
00:43:46Mako.
00:43:56Okay, be honest with me, does anyone actually like Mako as a character?
00:43:59From the moment he first appeared, he was practically stock anime boy number 77.
00:44:03A brooding, moody little bitch whose voice never broke the same monotone for the entirety of the first season.
00:44:08He was the distillation of a trend for male characters that had been going on for about a decade.
00:44:12He's Attack of the Clones' Anakin.
00:44:15Broody, miserable, always with a permanent scowl,
00:44:18and for some reason the lead female character wants to jump his bones.
00:44:24First impressions are important for a character because you've had the entire production season to refine and work on them,
00:44:29and when your first impression is literally nothing,
00:44:32that doesn't bode well for how you intend the character to play out.
00:44:35Bolin starts out charming and outgoing, and as a result gets to do a lot more as a character.
00:44:41Mako doesn't do anything in season one outside of being fought over by the only two women in the main cast
00:44:46in one of the most soulless love triangles I've ever seen.
00:44:51Usually in lo-
00:44:52Oh fuck, hang on, there's a video about this.
00:44:54That was not the best way to do that.
00:45:24...
00:45:49That's it, that's this whole character.
00:45:54Girls with their breasts.
00:46:25...
00:46:27Usually in love triangles there's at least a conflict,
00:46:29someone stuck in the middle unable to make a decision, but here...
00:46:32and there really isn't.
00:46:35Korra's attracted to Mako... just because?
00:46:38Then Mako gets with Asami, and then he just out of the blue one day has feelings for Korra
00:46:42and ends up stuck deciding between the two.
00:46:44And Mako's relationship with Asami is no better,
00:46:46she runs into him, takes him to dinner, gets him sponsored,
00:46:49and then, I feel so safe with you.
00:46:52When did that happen?!
00:46:58At no point does it feel-
00:47:09At no point does it feel like there's anything ag-
00:47:11At no point does it feel like there's actually anything developing between them,
00:47:14it feels like a Baldur's Gate 3 romance, where out of the blue characters are just like,
00:47:18so I feel like there's been something building between us,
00:47:20and you're like, when the fuck did that happen?!
00:47:32Even something as simple and shallow as,
00:47:34hey, you're hot, wanna go out? would be better than this.
00:47:36Actually, that's exactly the rapport that Bolin has with Korra.
00:47:39Bolin is attracted to her because...
00:47:42well, I mean, fucking look at her.
00:47:44And through that, is invested in spending time with her and getting to know her,
00:47:47and then decides he's gonna ask her out.
00:47:49It's the most natural progression of initial attraction to romance
00:47:52the entire franchise has ever had.
00:47:58Hang on, I gotta play that clip again, because it's so good.
00:48:07Oh, that's not the right drive, it's gonna load for ten minutes now.
00:48:17...
00:48:42Excuse me?
00:48:43Now, which one was it?
00:48:46I think it was the Spirit of Competition.
00:48:55Soda, activate!
00:49:07Look at his fucking Batman eyebrows.
00:49:10Okay, are you ready for the cutest goddamn thing?
00:49:13Yes.
00:49:14Absolutely.
00:49:44Since the moment I saw you.
00:49:46Trust me, I know we're gonna have so much fun together.
00:49:49You know what? I could use some fun.
00:49:52Okay, sure.
00:49:53Yes! Who's the luckiest guy in the world?
00:49:55Right here, Bolin!
00:49:59Oh my god!
00:50:00That was so cute!
00:50:03I wanted to fuck like Jackrabbit.
00:50:05...
00:50:11Sorry, I'm not sure if I misheard you.
00:50:13Did you say you want them to fuck like Jackrabbits?
00:50:15Yeah.
00:50:20I mean, straight to the point, I guess.
00:50:24Like, my god, that is like...
00:50:26I'm so...
00:50:28It's like so...
00:50:30It's so in vogue these days
00:50:32You have characters in a relationship constantly
00:50:34bitching at each other and bickering
00:50:36that when you see two characters act genuinely nice to each other
00:50:39it's like, Jesus Christ!
00:50:41Where has this been all my life?
00:50:46They would just have the most shredded children.
00:50:50They would.
00:50:52Okay.
00:50:57Granted, this was a problem with the original series.
00:50:59The best written relationship in that series was Sokka and Suki
00:51:02and even that felt like it was thrown in there.
00:51:04The two of them are the only ones who are together for most of the show
00:51:07so things have to be done with them other than dancing around each other.
00:51:10Even barely written romance is a lot better
00:51:12when you just get to spend time with it past its point of commencement.
00:51:18But Katara and Aang's relationship came out of nowhere
00:51:21and was barely acknowledged until the last few episodes.
00:51:24The romance in this show just carries this feeling of inevitability
00:51:28and I think that's because the original series had...
00:51:34The romance in Korra just carries this feeling of inevitability
00:51:38and I think that's because the original series had such a vitriolic shipping war
00:51:43that still goes on to this day.
00:51:45Characters don't have to have chemistry for audiences to get invested in them
00:51:49as a relationship.
00:51:50Hell, they barely have to interact.
00:51:54Avatar's fandom has had a 20-year-long shipping war
00:51:57between Katara and Aang and Katara and Zuko
00:52:00in spite of the fact that Katara and Zuko interact for about 35 seconds in total
00:52:04before the southern raiders
00:52:05and Katara only gets on good terms with him two episodes before the finale.
00:52:12This was something that sparked hundreds of thousands of words of discourse.
00:52:17When the show ended with Katara and Aang getting together,
00:52:20people were pissed
00:52:22in spite of the fact that the show was telegraphing this right from season one
00:52:25and people still got angry and were still angry to this day.
00:52:30People are still fighting over A-T-L-A ships.
00:52:33Oh, honey.
00:52:35Honey, honey, honey, honey, honey.
00:52:46This post was from today.
00:52:52Oh, frick, I can't see it.
00:52:56Katara shippers genuinely need to shut the fuck up.
00:53:01This has gotten disgusting.
00:53:14War, war never changes.
00:53:17In spite of the fact that the show was telegraphing that right from season one
00:53:21and people still got angry and are still angry to this day.
00:53:26It got so bad, bad, that to this day,
00:53:29among people who don't ship Zutara,
00:53:31it is everyone's most hated ship
00:53:33entirely because of the fact that its fan base
00:53:36was one of the worst behaved for a very long time.
00:53:39Mako only has one ship,
00:53:41Mako only really shifts when Korra is captured,
00:53:44showing an emphatic desire...
00:53:46Mako's...
00:53:48personality and...
00:53:54Mako's personality and investment in Korra
00:53:56only really shifts when she's captured,
00:53:58showing an emphatic desire to find her
00:54:00that exists solely to fuel this insufferable love triangle
00:54:03because...
00:54:05because...
00:54:07because...
00:54:10because the writers already know
00:54:12that shipping is going to be the most noxious thing...
00:54:15of...
00:54:16is going to be...
00:54:17because the writers already know
00:54:18that shipping is going to be the most noxious part of the damn fan base.
00:54:24And you'd think after getting together in the end
00:54:26that this would all be over,
00:54:27but it seems that Bright is incapable of actually writing relationships.
00:54:30Again, season one was made under the belief
00:54:32that it would be only one,
00:54:34so going into season two,
00:54:35the writers started hitting the reset button immediately.
00:54:39Korra and Mako are constantly at each other's throats
00:54:41in the most contrived ways possible.
00:54:49Men, we don't know what we did.
00:54:51I'm gonna do that edit.
00:54:56Men, we don't know what we did.
00:55:01Nah, I think I'll probably use the...
00:55:09...
00:55:14Hey, Tyler.
00:55:20Hi.
00:55:22Episode brought to you by...
00:55:24Men, we don't know what we did.
00:55:30That'll do.
00:55:34Oh yeah, they did a whole fucking thing here.
00:55:37Don't know what we did, but somehow we did wrong.
00:55:40So every time we screw up, we just sing this stupid song.
00:55:44Yeah, they took that one joke and made a whole song out of it.
00:55:47Isn't that great?
00:55:48Oh, that's brilliant.
00:55:52True masters of the craft.
00:55:54Dedication to their art.
00:55:59It even gets a little gen...
00:56:00It even gets a little trans.
00:56:03Hey.
00:56:04Oh.
00:56:05Yeah, they took that one...
00:56:09Men, we don't know what we did.
00:56:12I'm gonna do that edit.
00:56:20Well, not the right one.
00:56:23And later on, Mako arbitrarily takes stances against anything Korra is doing,
00:56:27rather tokenly as well.
00:56:29He's just made to be this unrelenting douchebag for pretty much no reason.
00:56:33Season 1 Mako certainly was something of a jackass,
00:56:36but I can't see Season 1 Mako taking advantage of someone's amnesia
00:56:40to take back a breakup like an evil inverse Maxwell Sheffield.
00:56:47The love triangle shit comes right back as Korra and Mako break up.
00:56:52The love triangle shit comes right back as Korra and Mako break up.
00:56:55He fucks around with Asami, takes the breakup back when Korra loses her memory,
00:56:58pissing off Asami, and the only satisfying payoff to any of this
00:57:01is that at the end they both break up amicably
00:57:03and pretend like an entire season of bickering and squabbling
00:57:08wasn't absurdly one-sided.
00:57:18The writers just don't seem to know what to do with Mako,
00:57:21and they seemingly make him a cop for no other reason than just...
00:57:24I don't know, was the bad boy to good cop pipeline a thing back then?
00:57:30Other than just...
00:57:32And they seemingly make him a cop for no other reason than just...
00:57:35I don't know, was the bad boy to good cop pipeline a thing back then?
00:57:40I know Garrus was the opposite. He was a bad cop who got even worse.
00:57:44It's like... I know.
00:57:46I mean, I guess there was Garrus Vicarion, but he...
00:57:49I mean, I guess there was Garrus Vicarion, but he was a bad cop who got worse.
00:57:59What exactly is the Venn diagram between people who like smoldering bad boys
00:58:02and people who like cops?
00:58:04Oh, Padme, right. Oh, right, Padme.
00:58:12I mean, he could have been a private eye, he could have been a reporter,
00:58:15he could have kept working blue-collar jobs,
00:58:17he could have become a member of the White Lotus,
00:58:19he could have been anything, but the plot needs to have some mystery
00:58:21regarding Varric and the false flag attacks to solve,
00:58:24and Mako has that sexy detective look,
00:58:26so he's just made a... so he's made a cop just so he can do that
00:58:30while also being stymied by procedure.
00:58:32Because you know what the problem with police is?
00:58:34Too much red tape, that's it.
00:58:40They just threw him wherever he could because...
00:58:42They just threw him wherever they could because...
00:58:44They just threw him wherever he could cause the most crap for other characters.
00:58:47This doesn't improve in Season 3.
00:58:49Sure, he's not as adversarial, but he doesn't do anything more than...
00:58:52But he doesn't do anything other than more cop stuff
00:58:55and electrocuting Ming-Wa, though honestly,
00:58:57most characters were ill-served by Season 3's obsession with the Beifong family.
00:59:04And in Season 4...
00:59:06Fuck, what did he do in Season 4? I can't remember.
00:59:09I think he blew up the giant robot...
00:59:11Oh, right! I think he blew up the giant robot...
00:59:13Oh, right, he's babysitting... oh, right, he's babysitting Prince Wu.
00:59:17Most... most of... oh, right, he's babysitting Prince Wu most of the time.
00:59:21That subplot is so bo... that subplot is so boring,
00:59:24I have to go back and watch it a second time because the first time, it put me to sleep.
00:59:27It doesn't help that the entire plot with Prince Wu
00:59:29completely undermines the show's attempts to make Kuvira into a villain because...
00:59:34I mean, this guy? Really?
00:59:36More on Kuvira and Wu later, but the show is so lacking in things for him to do
00:59:40that he's just demoted to babysitter.
00:59:43Mako's most admirable trait is actually in his backstory
00:59:46because when he and Bolin were orphans on the city streets, he took care of his brother.
00:59:50Now, I love sibling char...
00:59:52Now, I love sibling characters who genuinely and sincerely love and care for their siblings.
00:59:57Siblings having to act as surrogate parents for their siblings
01:00:00is utterly sad and tragic and heartbreaking,
01:00:04but it's a sad and tragic story that I fucking adore.
01:00:15Mako and Bolin's backstory is like ripped right out of a Tabitha Suzuma book.
01:00:19And that actually means Mako suffers from his actually...
01:00:22And that actually means Mako suffers from his actually interesting story
01:00:25happening before the show starts.
01:00:27Reminds me of an old piece of writing advice. I...
01:00:29Reminds me of an old piece of writing advice.
01:00:31Is this the most interesting part of our character's life?
01:00:33And if not, why aren't you showing us that?
01:00:39But the thing is, I really struggled to find an admirable trait for Mako.
01:00:42The lone admirable trait he has is the one he shares with Bolin and gets less real focus.
01:00:47And aside from that, he go...
01:00:48And aside from that, he goes from being an asshole to boring.
01:00:51It's really hard to divorce him from his personality in Season 2
01:00:54because he's such a...
01:00:56dick.
01:00:59Asami.
01:01:01Now, where Bolin starts out as a fun character and stays there
01:01:03while Mako struggles for identity the entire series,
01:01:06Asami is somewhere in the middle.
01:01:07She starts out in the first season with only two traits.
01:01:10Pretty and rich.
01:01:12But then in Season 2, after a lot of hard work...
01:01:14But then in Season 2, after a lot of hard work...
01:01:17But then in Season 2, after a lot of hard work...
01:01:20She's no longer rich.
01:01:23Her sole reason...
01:01:24Her sole reason to...
01:01:25Her sole...
01:01:26Her sole reason to exist is to be an obstacle between Korra and Mako by,
01:01:29well, getting there first.
01:01:31And that's not an uncharitable read of her character.
01:01:33As I said, the first season exists in isolation,
01:01:35as this was supposed to be a miniseries.
01:01:37So in the first season, this is all Asami is.
01:01:41Asami is certainly nice at first,
01:01:43and she and Korra alternate between being weirdly catty with each other.
01:01:47But unfortunately,
01:01:48and unfortunately, Asami is the less reasonable of the two.
01:01:51After Korra is captured by Tarlok,
01:01:53everyone is turning over the city looking for her,
01:01:55but Mako is especially emphatic about it,
01:01:57and this results in Asami getting jealous.
01:02:00This is, quite simply,
01:02:02the worst possible fucking time to do this.
01:02:04It's not even that Mako is in the wrong here.
01:02:06He has the normal reaction to learning one of his best friends is gone,
01:02:10and everyone else is weirdly blasé about it.
01:02:14So to interrupt this as some kind of emotional affair
01:02:16is beyond the scale of unreasonable.
01:02:18You should be just as worried.
01:02:21Never mind the fact that emotional affair is just a fancy way to say
01:02:24having friends.
01:02:27God, imagine the both of them carrying her to the car after...
01:02:30God, God, you know,
01:02:31imagine the both of them carrying her to the car after they find her.
01:02:35That'd be soft as fuck.
01:02:39Yes, Mako does have feelings for Korra,
01:02:41but outside of one rather egregious moment,
01:02:43he's largely dealing with it.
01:02:45But when Mako is putting off red...
01:02:47But when Mako is putting off red flags,
01:02:49Asami is completely ignorant.
01:02:54I'm sorry.
01:02:55When Mako is putting off red flags, Asami is completely ignorant,
01:02:58but when Mako is showing the appropriate emotional response
01:03:00to learning their friend has been kidnapped by a psychopath,
01:03:03she starts getting catty at this point?
01:03:08The Mako-Korra-Asami love triangle with a brief bowl in on the side
01:03:11is universally agreed to be the dumbest thing in the show.
01:03:14They should have picked an angle and stuck with it,
01:03:16but Asami's attitude during and after Korra's kidnapping
01:03:19is just completely fucking unreasonable.
01:03:21Even by character stand...
01:03:22Even by character standards,
01:03:24Asami has so far been characterized as an extremely nice person.
01:03:27There's no situation where she wouldn't recognize
01:03:29that extraordinary circumstances have extraordinary reactions.
01:03:36The fact that it's only Mako who is this concerned
01:03:39is just more weird on top of that.
01:03:41They should all be this concerned.
01:03:43That's their best friend.
01:03:59I don't know, maybe it's because I play too much Baldur's Gate,
01:04:02but it's always rubbed me the wrong way when shows demonstrate
01:04:04concern for a friend in danger to be an inherently romantic reading.
01:04:09But this on top of a love triangle where everyone acts wildly out of character,
01:04:13even Mako, who never shows this energy at all,
01:04:15is just unnecessary.
01:04:16It's not just that love triangles are trite,
01:04:18it's that this show uniquely forces the issue in a way where...
01:04:23There's no Watsonian explanation for this.
01:04:27A common problem with romance as a genre is way too many people
01:04:30view the start of a relationship as the end of the story.
01:04:34The big climactic moment of,
01:04:36I love you, I love you too,
01:04:38and then kiss as the music hits the crescendo,
01:04:40and at that point, where do you go?
01:04:42Meanwhile, an established relationship that continues past that point
01:04:45is more narratively satisfying,
01:04:47but not something that lends itself well to big climactic moments
01:04:50for the orchestra to pop the fuck off.
01:04:53Which is a shame, because I think any of the relationships in this series
01:04:56could have been salvaged by just spending time with them,
01:04:58Bolin and Eska.
01:04:59Okay, well, maybe not that one.
01:05:01Okay, well, maybe not that one.
01:05:04...
01:05:19Asami's story of realizing the truth about her father
01:05:22and having to go against him is actually a lot more interesting,
01:05:24as she's having to go against one of the most ingrained instincts
01:05:27anyone has ever had to deal with.
01:05:29It can be hard to accept that your parent is a bad person.
01:05:31I've watched people struggle with that. The excuses pile up, the reflexive desire to defend someone you love. It's all difficult for people.
01:05:40And Asami has to do the worst possible version of that when she learns her father is a bitter, hateful terrorist.
01:05:46Hiroshi Sato is one of the...
01:05:50Hiroshi Sato was the one time the equalists work, showing the kind of deep personal pain that would be ripe for Aman to exploit.
01:05:58But that really interesting story doesn't get to have the same focus as Asami's place in the love triangle,
01:06:03because of the aforementioned problem of Brike being really, really weird about women.
01:06:08Asami isn't in season to a whole lot. There's a subplot about her trying to get future industries off the ground,
01:06:13but every single avenue she uses to do that just gets no-celled immediately.
01:06:17Selling mechatanks to the Southerners is an interesting development, but her shipments are attacked and stolen.
01:06:23She does a sting and is robbed in the process. She does a sting and she's robbed in the process.
01:06:27Ultimately, it ends up being Varrick. Ultimately, it ends up being Varrick.
01:06:31But now, but how this affects future industries is left up in the air until season three.
01:06:44And this doesn't change in future seasons. Asami's largely on the sidelines, giving the crew expensive equipment.
01:06:50And in season four is the one Korra is writing letters to instead of everyone else.
01:06:54Like Korra's attraction to Mako, her relationship with Asami just popped up out of the blue one day,
01:06:58and that's largely because the ex-
01:07:00and that's largely because the exhaustion with the love triangle in season one led to a lot of people-
01:07:05led a lot of people to ship Korra-Asami.
01:07:08Which was accepted right from the word go as a crack ship, because, I mean, there was no way they would.
01:07:13At least until the 11th hour when Brike went-
01:07:15At least until the 11th hour when Brike went,
01:07:18Hey, let's just do it.
01:07:19And then they did, kind of.
01:07:21There's a lot of myth-making about how Brike was planning this from the start.
01:07:24And Nickelodeon pulled the show from the air-
01:07:26And Nickelodeon pulled the show from air onto streaming because of the LGBT themes,
01:07:30but the show had none.
01:07:33Brike admitted it was a last-minute decision, and if Nickelodeon had such an issue with it,
01:07:37they would have just told them no and not pull some weird passive-aggressive mean girl shit.
01:07:41It was 2013, they wouldn't have faced a lot of backlash for going,
01:07:44Yeah, no, you can't do that.
01:07:49Most of these conspiracy theories break down in the face of simple logic like this.
01:07:53A studio doesn't have to dance around an issue.
01:07:56A studio doesn't have to dance around this issue.
01:07:58If it aired and made it onto the show, the studio signed off on it.
01:08:02Talking about Korra-Asami is difficult because-
01:08:04As-
01:08:05Talking about Korra-Asami is difficult, as it was the first example of LGBT representation in a western cartoon.
01:08:10Well, it wasn't.
01:08:1116 was the first.
01:08:12But it was the first one in an action-adventure series,
01:08:14which are the only ones people care about, apparently.
01:08:16And it paved the way for future shows like Steven Universe and She-Ra to have LGBT rep
01:08:20that was more- that was more openly prominent,
01:08:23which in turn paved the way for The Owl House to have LGBT rep that was good.
01:08:30The fact that it was a trendsetter, or at least is presumed to be a trendsetter,
01:08:34is often used- it's often- it's often used to wallpaper over the fact that it's a nothing burger.
01:08:39They hold hands, walk into the spirit world, and now the show is over.
01:08:42Read the tie-in comics, you filthy peasant.
01:08:44Read the tie-in comics, you filthy peasant.
01:08:47They hold hands, walk into the spirit portal, and now the show is over.
01:08:49Read the tie-in comics, you filthy peasant.
01:08:52It was a pioneer, and like a pioneer, it died on the way, and someone else did it properly.
01:09:00Oh.
01:09:01Read the tie-in comics, you filthy peasant.
01:09:04I love that line.
01:09:06And that's really where Asami's character ends.
01:09:09Hold on.
01:09:10Ah!
01:09:12Shoot.
01:09:13She's one big ship ramming into other ships.
01:09:16She was supposed to be a mole for the Equalist, but Bright liked her so much that they kept her as-
01:09:21but Bright liked her so much they kept her in as an ally.
01:09:23But after that point, there really was nothing to do with her.
01:09:26I'm actually surprised at how much of a non-entity Asami is.
01:09:30She has her little moments where she gets to show how good of an engineer she is,
01:09:33but oftentimes she's just pushed away from the cast, and especially away from battle.
01:09:38As opposed to Sokka, who not only was a part of battle, but often won them.
01:09:51If it seems like I'm hung up on the ro-
01:09:52If it seems like I'm hung up on the romance a lot, that's because they were central to the discussion,
01:09:56and it's not something that the original series was without.
01:09:59Avatar rather notoriously had one of the worst, most violently vitriolic shipping fandoms ever seen.
01:10:05Well, actually, that's not entirely correct,
01:10:07because the actual toxicity came from the fans of a single ship screeching and yelling at everyone else,
01:10:13prompting others to screech and yell back.
01:10:16People often act like everyone in a shipping war is equally toxic,
01:10:19but there's usually one person who started that shit.
01:10:21And like, 90% of Avatar's shipping discourse is just,
01:10:25here's the latest nutball thing Zutara's fanbase said,
01:10:28and Zutara's fanbase acting like they've been subjected to-
01:10:31to actual real-world violence in response.
01:10:33It was like Twitter, but before Twitter.
01:10:46I know when we talk retroactively about shipping wars,
01:10:48we're supposed to paint it as mutual toxicity, but that would be dishonest.
01:10:51I was there, and it was Zutara based entirely on the aesthetic of fire-water-bad-boy-good-girl
01:10:57versus everyone who could fucking read.
01:11:00This is important to bring up, because the moment that stupid love triangle formed,
01:11:03the fanbase revolted and started shipping Kurasami out of the notion of,
01:11:07we are NOT doing this shit again.
01:11:16And because of that, nobody actually expected them to do it,
01:11:18but it became so all-and-consumingly popular,
01:11:21that break just kind of went, fine, whatever.
01:11:25And I truly believe that- and I just-
01:11:27And I truly believe that had it not been a spiteful move by the fanbase,
01:11:33rejecting one of the worst executive decisions Brike had ever made,
01:11:36Kurasami would have never actually happened,
01:11:38because its popularity is the only reason it was ever on Brike's radar at all.
01:11:43So when you think about it, the outright refusal to go-
01:11:45So when you think about it, the outright refusal to go through this shit a second time
01:11:49was the actual trendsetter.
01:11:50So imagine what shipping fandom could do if they directed all that energy spent on genocide apologia
01:11:55and trying to justify incest was instead spent on mathematically formulating
01:11:59the most effective and accurate way to say go fuck yourself to a creator.
01:12:07Oh my god, an hour and a half.
01:12:11Oh jeez.
01:12:13I like how each segment is getting longer and longer.
01:12:18Oh no, no, this is in total.
01:12:21Oh.
01:12:26Trying to justify- wait, what?
01:12:27Oh, you would be surprised- oh yeah, you'd be surprised.
01:12:30There- there are a lot of people who like- who are like-
01:12:35and they don't mean this as like a crack ship,
01:12:37they are serious when they say Zuko and Azula should have gotten together.
01:12:43Oh no.
01:12:55Man.
01:13:02Is this it?
01:13:14This is it!
01:13:19This isn't a hostile takeover, this is a merger.
01:13:22You need me.
01:13:23You need me and I need an answer.
01:13:25Then it's peanut butter group and chocolatey, 50-50.
01:13:28We'll iron out those details later.
01:13:31We got them.
01:13:32The business world was rocked today by the merger of the peanut butter group and chocolatey corp.
01:13:37It's peanut buttery, it's chocolatey, it's going to change everything.
01:13:41We're bullish for Jif PVC!
01:13:43We did it.
01:13:44No, you did it.
01:13:46Ugh.
01:13:51...recording than just talking casually.
01:13:56I don't think I've ever recorded a big video all in one go.
01:14:02Oh yeah, like, god, your front must be exhausted.
01:14:07Yeah, if I tried- if I tried that, it would probably give me.
01:14:11Yeah, and I still have a ways to go.
01:14:16...
01:14:21Yeah, I am officially a third of the way through the script.
01:14:25All right.
01:14:28It's really great progress.
01:14:36Very well done.
01:14:39Bravo, Lily.
01:14:47Because that was like- like a full-on, like a movie length worth of recording.
01:15:06Free vlog to give us all your boots.
01:15:07Free cuddles.
01:15:08Uses unlimited.
01:15:09Expires never.
01:15:10Ah, perfect.
01:15:16...
01:15:23Oh.
01:15:27What?
01:15:29Uh, I'm just gonna send something to Mikayla.
01:15:31You guys aren't allowed to see it, but.
01:15:46...
01:15:57...
01:16:03Oh, I can't stop.
01:16:06It can only predict good things.
01:16:09Either good things or very bad things.
01:16:11I'm not allowed to show the rest of you.
01:16:14Okay.
01:16:15Fair enough.
01:16:16...
01:16:22Mikayla, what time are you heading to bed?
01:16:24I know you got to work tomorrow.
01:16:25...
01:16:28Mikay?
01:16:29Sorry, what?
01:16:30What time are you heading to bed?
01:16:32Um, probably around 9 30.
01:16:39How's the note?
01:16:424 30.
01:16:43Your time, at least.
01:16:45...
01:16:47All right, well.
01:16:48We are, I'm gonna take off.
01:16:49I'm gonna go spend some time with the wife.
01:16:51Uh, thanks for joining me and helping me ring a few more pennies out of basically every project I do.
01:16:59Thanks for joining us, y'all.
01:17:01See y'all.
01:17:02See ya.
01:17:14you