Video Vednesday: Vlog Review: The Legend of Korra S4E7 "The Reunion"

Sorry this is late everyone. Turns out it's not actually possible to upload a video to YouTube on a shitty Starbucks public connection in the course of a single half-hour lunch break. Lesson learned.

In which I talk about genocidal pie fights. I mean, a bunch of other things, too, but let's face it, you can't talk about genocidal pie fights and expect anyone to remember anything else you said.

Video Vednesday: Vlog Review: The Legend of Korra S4E6 "The Battle of Zaofu"

In which I admit to being really wrong about Zhu Li, talk a little about Kuvira as a mirror of Korra, compare metalbending to bloodbending, and acknowledge how terrifying both airbending and Varrick are.

Video Vednesday: Legend of Korra S4E5 "Enemy at the Gates"

In which I make predictions that are confirmed by the TITLE of the next episode, plus predictions that are proven wrong by the next episode. Also some of why Kuvira is scary, and general ramblings about fascism, imperialism, and bad CG.

As usual, Tumblr folks will need to click through to my main blog to see the video for some absurd reason.

Video Vednesday: Legend of Korra S4E4 "The Calling" Vlog

I typed "The Callening" like four times, I don't know what's wrong with me. Ikki gets an episode, apparently. Was there demand for an Ikkisode? I don't know, I have very little sense of what's going on in any given fandom, even one's I'm theoretically a part of.

MOAR TOPH PLZ.

Video Vednesday: Vlog for The Legend of Korra S4E3 "The Coronation"

And the Korra vlogs continue with episode 3! This is kind of rambly, but I'm mostly rambling about Toph, so it's okay.

(Note for people viewing this through Tumblr: the service I use to repost all my blog posts to Tumblr fubars the video. If you want to watch it, just click the link and go to my main blog.)

Video Vednesday: Vlog: The Legend of Korra S4E02 "Korra Alone"

Patreon backers at $5 or higher get to see these videos weeks in advance, plus like everyone at $2 or higher they get to read The Near-Apocalypse of '09 entries months in advance!

Vlog review of The Legend of Korra, Season 4, Episode 2, "Korra Alone." I talk about structural similarities and references to AtLA episodes "Zuko Alone," "The Storm," and "Appa's Lost Days," how those help set the stage for the return of Toph, and my hopes for a sequence where Zuko, Katara, and Toph fight an entire army to liberate Ba Sing Se.

Video Vednesday: Legend of Korra S4E1 "After All These Years"

The next pony article is done, but since I had this ready to launch, I've decided to hold it until Thursday.

Welcome to a new weekly feature, Video Vednesdays, when I post one of the videos I'm making for my Patreon! For the first dozen-and-a-bit of these videos, that'll be vlog reviews of the final Korra Season!

So, here's my vlog review of The Legend of Korra, Season 4, Episode 1, "After All These Years." I talk about my hopes and concerns for the season, my intense dislike of Mako, and approval of the decision to withhold a certain character until the end of the episode.

Patreon backers get access to these videos as I make them as opposed to as I post them publicly, plus immediate access to The Near Apocalypse of '09!

I'm feeling silly

In the season premier of Doctor Who: The Legend of Korra, "Deep Breath of Fresh Air," the Doctor tries to deal with the spirit vines choking Victorian London, but her loss of connection to her previous lives makes this difficult.

An extremely basic point about American TV surprisingly many people don't seem to get

Now, just to be clear, I am talking about standard commercial television. That means American television that is for-profit and ad-supported--basically everything except premium channels like HBO and not-for-profit channels like PBS and C-SPAN.

And also to be clear, I am not taking a position whether this is right or wrong or good or bad. I am simply pointing out that this is how things currently work, and in fact how they have worked since the beginning of American broadcasting.

Now, this is a really basic and important point, because it is pretty much impossible to understand some decisions networks make without knowing this. Ready?

You are not the customer. You are the product.

The network may get a very tiny amount of money from their share of your cable bill, but the overwhelming majority of their money comes from advertisers. But advertisers don't buy ads from networks, they buy them from ad agencies. What they're paying the network for is your attention.

The business of a network is not to make (or, more likely, commission) and transmit shows. That's a stage in the process. The actual business of the network is to sell your attention to advertisers.

So, once again: you are not the customer. You are the product.

The show is not the product. The show is bait.

And that's why Korra got moved to Friday nights and then pulled off the air.

A Pattern I've Noticed

And by "noticed" I mean "lifted from JesuOtaku's Twitter feed."

The second season of Legend of Korra is actually really entertaining whenever Korra isn't on the screen. Though, honestly, I still think the show would be better if they dropped the whole "avatar" thing and just made it the ongoing adventures of Asami as she pilots her mecha in lone battle against goofy-yet-evil industrialists and war profiteers.

The Tragedy of Korra

The worst thing about how much Legend of Korra is sucking this season is that its plunging ratings won't be blamed on the sub-par writing and reliance on heavily telegraphed, cliche plot "twists." No, anyone who's followed the animation industry knows that the Nickelodeon executives will blame its poor ratings on the gender of the protagonist, and make it that much harder for the next person who wants to make a general-audience show with a woman as the main character.

Predictions: Korra and Fire Emblem

Just want to call a couple of predictions, so there's a record of it.

First, Legend of Korra: Tarloq's ability to control spirits isn't limited to calming them; he's causing the spirit attacks in order to create the panic he needs to seize power. Unlike Amon, however, he genuinely believes in his cause--he really does think the people of the world need his spiritual guidance or they will come to ruin. This is why he thinks he can become a world conqueror despite the relatively small population of the Water Tribe--he is using Korra to give him access to a spirit army. The creation of what amounts to a teleport link between the Northern and Southern tribes also gives him a huge military advantage.

Second, Fire Emblem: Awakening: I know some of you have doubtless already beaten it, so DO NOT TELL ME IF I'M RIGHT, but I'm pretty sure Marth's a time traveler from the future, and the reason other people keep telling me how important it is to build relationships between my characters is because eventually I'm going to either team up with, or have to play as, my current party's children.

Legend of Korra Season 2

Calling it now: Northern Water Tribe is going to start trying to conquer the world in order to bring their spiritual enlightenment to the less-advanced. Because we've already had Earth Kingdom (in the backstory) and Fire Nation conquerors, so it's their turn.

This of course means that when they make a cyberpunk sequel series to Korra in a few years, it'll be the Air Nomads as the villains.