AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Yeah, people keep saying 'baw baw mako is zuko butt clench' but they're really wrong. Like, he's kind of cold towards Korra, but that wears off, and he's actually kinda cute sometimes.

i honestly like his first impressions better than i liked zuko's first impressions but then again, one of them was a villain

I think a lot of Mako being cold towards Korra at first was because he met her right before a pro-bending match. Maybe he was nervous and anxious about the match and that make him irritable. Plus, he thought Korra was just one of Bolin's 'crazy fangirls' at first. He warmed up a bit afterwards, but by then Korra didn't like him much so she percieved most of his actions as cold and uncaring.

Korra: "What does it take to impress this guy?!"
Mako: "What? I said 'not bad'."

And of course Korra's rude/exasperated attitude made Mako upset so he decided to leave.

So now we're seeing how Mako acts normally, around other people. Not a lot of angst and not a lot of people hating, just a kid who's pretty calm and cool-headed and had sad life on the streets with the responsibility of caring for his little brother.

Yes, exactly. Which is why sometimes I want to stretch out people's cheeks when they say he's a carbon copy of Zuko.

Zuko couldn't bend lightning, JEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!

I don't think he's much like Zuko at all. Zuko was a dude with some heavy duty angst because of how his father treated him, how his sister treated him and what happened to his mother. Mako has none of that baggage and his default mode seems to be big brother leaderish guy. I 'm curious if that will lead to some sort of big conflict with Korra at some point.

good, good
tumblr seems to have a dearth of bolin/korra art
which makes me sad

I'm not sure how it all fits together yet, but I feel like Amon is pulling way more strings than is obvious right now. Somehow, both Sato and Tarrlock have something happening to them behind the scenes.

My glob, I cannot wait for the next episode.

Someone else came up with this theory but I'll post it here for you guys.

What if Amon is holding out on fighting Korra because he wants to wait for her to unlock all her chakras, then kill her in the avatar state and stop the cycle of the avatar?

and I'd like to reply with the gif that someone replied to the original theory with

The problem here, really
Is that I don't know who to root for.

Yeah, Korra is supposed to be the hero, but is she really?

She's done nothing but prove the anti-benders right. She's used her powers SEVERAL times to abuse and threaten the anti-benders, often times with them doing nothing but speaking. I mean, Amon's no good guy, but at least he's got a goal that's easy to get behind. Stop the benders from abusing and threatening the non-benders. (He's going a bit too far with that, but...) Which is EXACTLY WHAT KORRA IS DOING. Korra is abusing the FUCK out of her status as the Avatar to do basically whatever she wants, and nobody can really say anything, because she's the fucking Avatar. Tenzin busts her out of any trouble she gets into, waving around the Avatar flag, and it just makes Korra feel like an antagonist, one who never gets in trouble for the bad things that she does at all. It's less the Ultimate Good versus the Ultimate Evil and more of an Anti-Hero and a Well Intentioned Extremist. I like that a series is doing that. I legitimately feel like rooting for the "Bad Guy" from time to time. (And not just because he's Tom.)

I'll bet that comes seriously into play later.

Would be a kickass ending to the chapter to have Korra lose Republic City to the Anti-Benders because she went out of her way almost to prove them right. The rest of the series is spent with her slowly learning the spiritual side of all the forms of bending, and coming back to bring the city to it's original ideal, a middle-ground for everyone.

It's not like most of the benders are actively oppressing the non-benders though, it's just that society has grown to favor benders. So I wouldn't argue that korra is a bad guy or whatever.

in before this turns into an actual social justice argument

I don't really remember Korra abusing her power to get what she wants in the TWO episodes that have been shown. The one distinguishing quality I get from Korra is her sense of curiosity and exploration. She was locked up at the South Pole most of her life, and this sheltering led to a sense of wanderlust. In this essence she is a lot like Aang. Where she differs is her attitude. She is very headstrong in her belief that she can do anything herself once she focuses enough, which leads to her difficulty learning the freespirited style of airbending. Her hard-headedness also brings a sense of justice, probably helped along by her White Lotus teachers. She is the Avatar, she has the power to bring balance to the earth, and she should right any wrongs she sees. However, this does not make her braggadocios, rather it tempers her will towards a single point, adding to the hard head mentality.

While her actions have come to prove the anti-benders right in some regard, that does not justify the actions of Amon. His goal is a world without bending, with him as the ruler of this world. Through his preachings of liberations he brings a form of tyranny to benders, turning the tables in such a way that would unbalance the Earth and lead to more fighting. Korra fights against the Liberators not because she is pro bending (and honestly if you could control one of the four elements you would be pro bending), but because Amon is instilling a sense of chaos, which the Avatar is spiritually bound to fight. Overall, you should be rooting for Korra, not because you like her character, but because she fights against chaos and oppression.

To be fair, most of the trouble Korra's gotten into was because either A. Tenzin was oppressing her, or B. she accidentally destroyed a bunch of buildings trying to keep the Triple Threat Triad from terrorizing the townfolk. The former case isn't exactly the best excuse, but the second one is somewhat justifiable. And she seems to be learning from her mistakes and is keeping out of trouble that she has control over. (The only reason she challenged Amon was due to pressure from the town)