I think perhaps I'm not communicating my real critique, here.
First of all, I don't consider this point a real complaint. I'm just pointing out an inconsistency between the themes of The Promise and what the overall situation turns out to be when factoring in other works, plus snarking about the excuse that Gene Yang used to link back to The Promise (got to sell those books to newcomers somehow) and set up Zuko's character motivation to become a better Fire Lord by sorting out his family. As a plot point, it's functional, but I think that not a lot of thought was put into it.
Second, I'm not at all criticizing the system of government of the UR, at any point in the timeline. Yeah, the system is shown to not really be working in Korra's time, but it's just as easy to blame rampant corruption and/or incompetence. (Also, bad writing.)
I'm just pointing out how it looks. The system of government for the colonies when owned by the Fire Nation is an appointed Governor from the homeland who runs the each city-state supplemented by a military force that belongs to the Fire Lord. The system of government for the colonies in Korra's time is... a team of appointed co-Governors from the various other nations who run the only city-state we see and are supplemented by a military force that belongs to and is shared by the other nations. It's literally the same form of government, just with red replaced by a rainbow.
When I think of more complicated systems of government, I'm not comparing democracy versus republic versus dictatorship versus whatever. I'm talking about something like the United States has with both federal and state levels, and each has executive, legislative, and judicial branches that check and balance each other. That's exotic and complicated. I'm talking about something like Britain, where the monarchs have bartered their power with a more mundane government (with that more mundane government having pretty much all the power these days). That's an interesting mix of old and new. I'm talking something... adult. For all that The Promise made a big deal that something new was needed for the colonies, the end result seems to be recycling what it already had, with the only change being a recognition of the multiculturalism of the colonial people.
So, it just seems odd that The Search shows some kind of old, renowned expert on various systems of government to advise people, yet when Yakone was put on trial in Korra's cartoon, his fate is decided by the same council that made the day-to-day governing decisions. They couldn't at least learn about and implement a fancy judicial system? It would have been just as easy to show the gAang learning about basic diplomatic skills, and Zuko taking his little family fixation out of that, rather than claiming that they're learning the ins and outs of government.
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Date: 2013-04-08 02:58 am (UTC)First of all, I don't consider this point a real complaint. I'm just pointing out an inconsistency between the themes of The Promise and what the overall situation turns out to be when factoring in other works, plus snarking about the excuse that Gene Yang used to link back to The Promise (got to sell those books to newcomers somehow) and set up Zuko's character motivation to become a better Fire Lord by sorting out his family. As a plot point, it's functional, but I think that not a lot of thought was put into it.
Second, I'm not at all criticizing the system of government of the UR, at any point in the timeline. Yeah, the system is shown to not really be working in Korra's time, but it's just as easy to blame rampant corruption and/or incompetence. (Also, bad writing.)
I'm just pointing out how it looks. The system of government for the colonies when owned by the Fire Nation is an appointed Governor from the homeland who runs the each city-state supplemented by a military force that belongs to the Fire Lord. The system of government for the colonies in Korra's time is... a team of appointed co-Governors from the various other nations who run the only city-state we see and are supplemented by a military force that belongs to and is shared by the other nations. It's literally the same form of government, just with red replaced by a rainbow.
When I think of more complicated systems of government, I'm not comparing democracy versus republic versus dictatorship versus whatever. I'm talking about something like the United States has with both federal and state levels, and each has executive, legislative, and judicial branches that check and balance each other. That's exotic and complicated. I'm talking about something like Britain, where the monarchs have bartered their power with a more mundane government (with that more mundane government having pretty much all the power these days). That's an interesting mix of old and new. I'm talking something... adult. For all that The Promise made a big deal that something new was needed for the colonies, the end result seems to be recycling what it already had, with the only change being a recognition of the multiculturalism of the colonial people.
So, it just seems odd that The Search shows some kind of old, renowned expert on various systems of government to advise people, yet when Yakone was put on trial in Korra's cartoon, his fate is decided by the same council that made the day-to-day governing decisions. They couldn't at least learn about and implement a fancy judicial system? It would have been just as easy to show the gAang learning about basic diplomatic skills, and Zuko taking his little family fixation out of that, rather than claiming that they're learning the ins and outs of government.