The implications of Unalaq wanting Korra to open both spirit portals... before the Harmonic Convergence... oh my.

I'm just glad that we're getting a totally acceptable big bad. 

Okay, I need to let loose some steam. New episode spoilers ahead!

Aang's death makes so much sense now. If he didn't die, he'd have been pretty old when all this happened. If he died later, Korra would have been too young to handle this. Also, there's something to be said for a water bender being the Avatar the second time around, when it was a fire bender the first.

The Lion Turtle giving Aang energy bending isn't a cheap plot device now! It's part of the lore of the Lion Turtle! YES! THANK YOU! (Also, did we see that Lion Turtle again at the end of the episode?)

The Avatar's origins are a lot more humble than I expected. Who knew that stealing fire bending to get some food for people could set you on a path to becoming the physical embodiment of balance?

Unalaq must know about Vaatu; that explains why he emerged from the portal. Is he going to bond with Vaatu, like how Wan bonded with Raava? If not, will Korra be the last Avatar? Is the Avatar's existence throwing the world out of balance, because there is not a "dark avatar" to counter it? How did Unalaq even learn about all of this anyway?

Wan's death scene was really sad. I actually felt sad. And I knew him for less than an hour. Great stuff.

The art style was beautiful. Loved it.

The statue that Jinora saw was of Wan and Raava.

Wait, so the fire sages were raising air bison during the hundred year war? That explains why they still exist, but... why did they do that? I know that originally, there was resistance to the fire lord, but by Aang's time, most of them were pretty subservient. I guess it had just become an ingrained habit (also, why would you kill off a bunch of creatures that probably like you...). Did they sneak them away, or ask for them?

This episode was great! That epic battle against Vaatu had me on the edge of my seat! My gosh it was awesome! The ending almost made me cry...I'm not afraid to admit that.

What an episode, this guy agrees, he gave the special a perfect score. He also asked about Unalaq, what do you think he's up to with Vaatu?

http://twodashstash.com/2013/10/legend-of-korra-beginnings-review/

They were fantastic episodes, quick question though was the spirit that named wan stinky the same spirit that told Aang to go away when he ventured into the spirit world, and was attacked by panda when he was rude to Aang? It's a nice touch if so.

Though I do fear we are back to Korra now, these episodes further highlighted that she's not the best protagonist and neither are her supplementary characters (except Tenzin).

@ insomniac the lion turtle told Aang that in the era before bending the elements humans bent the energy within themselves, which we never saw here, so I personally consider the energy bending cheap in both seasons.

Though I do agree with the principle of energy bending existing. I just had a thought though we were told on several occasions that humans learnt bending from other sources namely the moon, dragons, sky bison and badger moles. We can either consider this a retcon or a genuine expansion of this universes intrinsic lore.

Just finished watching the beginnings two parter episodes, and have to admit it is by far my favourite episode of the Legend of Korra saga and ironically it involves not Korra but the first avatar Wan.

It has to be one of the most epic origins stories I have seen to date, at least I found it to be very cool, and that ending really made me feel bad for Wan a character that I had just met.

Overall I give it a 10/10!

One thing I didn't understand was that by imprisoning Vatuu did Wan succeed in preventing the conversions ?
Or for it to happen the north and south pole have to be unlock which is what Unalaq is doing.

I think the conversion was the fight itself if irc not 100% sure, if it is Wan won the fight so good remains for 10,000 years which ends and coincides with korra's era now.

My theory is that the seal so to speak is weakening and he is influencing Unalaq, who deep down to some degree sees the world as needing reset.

He said "we" bent the energy within ourselves. We probably menaing the Lion Turtles. And they stopped doing that after the avatar came into being, because they weren't needed to protect humans from spirits anymore. Regardless, while you could say that it pushed the problem back (aka, Lion Turtles OP, nerf plz), at least the Lion Turtles have done this kind of thing before and so it's not out of the blue that one could give Aang energy bending.

I think that it fits in with what we know. Wan learned firebending from the dragon still. Before, he was just sort of flinging fire around willy-nilly. He didn't learn the proper bending technique until the dragon taught him. We saw this contrast after he learns from the dragon and meets the hunters, whom he has no troubles getting rid of. I think that this could hold true with the other elements as well. The Lion Turtles gave people the ability to bend, but they still had to learn how to control the power. It's a bit of a workaround, but... eh.

Yeah the Lion Turtles were one of my big beefs in this. We heard from multiple people in TLA say that bending was learned from the animals of the world (moles for Earthbenders, dragons for Firebenders) and yet here the Lion Turtles gave everyone bending. What's up with that?

I'm sure that after the lion turtles left, humans had to learn bending from other sources. And even when the lion turtles gaves humans bending, there didn't seem to be any mastery, which was also likely learned from the animals. These episodes show Wan learning the Dragon Dance, as an example.