Ambition. It's something that can make you or break you.
And often times it's seen as something that one should be proud of.
It's something that people even admire.
But what happens when your ambitions are self-absorbed and cause more harm than good?
Well in this season I'll be going over how the right intentions can be undone by selfish ambitions
with a little help from the legend of Korra.
Hey what's going on guys? My name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation.
A show where we help you break the chains that are holding you back in your life
by connecting biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get into it.
And before I see it in the comments, yes I know the legend of Korra technically isn't an anime
but just like with The Last Airbender it's close enough right?
I don't think anyone will get too too mad about it.
But anyways, so the verse I'm going to cover for today's episode is James chapter 3 verse 16.
And it says, for where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder in every evil practice.
So essentially what it means is if you're following your own ambition for more or less the wrong reasons, right?
If you're envious, if you're kind of jealous or just not really doing it for the right thing,
then it's going to cause nothing but just chaos and heartache and all these different things.
And it's something that I know I personally have had to deal with and try to get through
and find the real reason why I'm doing these things.
And that's just a journey God has led me on.
And as we'll see in the upcoming weeks for the different characters in Korra, it's a lot of the same thing.
From Korra herself to each of her major villains, they all had the right idea, just the wrong execution
and really they got lost somewhere in the middle.
But first I'm going to give you a quick overview of what the legend of Korra is for those who don't know.
So Legend of Korra was created by Michael Dante DiMartino e Brian Konisko.
Again, I'm butchering these names.
And its original run was from April 14, 2012, all the way through December 19, 2014.
And it takes place about 70 years after the end of The Last Airbender.
So right after Aang defeats Ozai and they live happily ever after, right?
This is about 70 years or so after that.
And so this season I'm going to be kind of breaking down the theme of ambitions and how they can be clouded.
Because like I said earlier, it's easy for us to get lost in what we think we're doing is right
and not really see all the red flags or maybe we are the red flags, right?
And we're just kind of, oh, you know, whatever.
But this is more so like I guess a cautionary tale, as a way I can put it.
And like I said, Korra takes place roughly 70 years after Aang ends the Hundred Year War.
And in the time in between, Aang and Zuko actually found the United Republic of Nations with Republic City being the capital.
And this is a huge landmark for the world because it's really the first time that the nations are coming together for anything.
I mean, because once the Fire Nation started their war campaign 100 years ago, the world's been severely divided.
And the building of Republic City and the United Republic of Nations not only brings the world together,
but also brings about an industrial revolution of sorts with the invention of cars and planes and steam power
and all these things that ultimately are going to help the world.
But that it's not all sunshine and rainbows because with a new creation comes new problems.
And even though this is a new world, it still has the same problems.
And really it kind of just mirrors us here in the real world.
Coming together in peace and harmony is not something that can be easily achieved
because we have different people with different ideas, different backgrounds, all these different things.
We try to mesh them all together.
It doesn't always gel, right?
And so it can be challenging. It can be pretty tough.
And that's something that Cora has to deal with now, right?
Because Aang had his own set of issues that he dealt with as the Avatar.
And ending a war that's been going on for 100 years and after that,
healing the world and also reestablishing his people, the aerodromad culture.
So those were his battles.
But now Cora has her own set that she has to deal with in this new, more modern time that she's living in.
While also trying to live up to the title of being the Avatar.
I mean, coming after someone like Aang, she has some big shoes to fill.
And as we'll see, the pressure really starts getting to her.
But throughout the story of Cora, we see a division among people in a lot of different ways,
from benders and non-benders, the forces of light versus dark, order versus chaos,
and even just the whole concept of balance.
These different arguments, these different battles or ideas and things like that
are really kind of difficult to, I guess, say, pick a side with.
Maybe except for the light versus dark one, right?
But just in general, because you think about conflicts,
it's not always about right versus wrong.
Sometimes, or actually most times, really more about a conflict of ideals.
And one side, well, both sides think that their way is right.
So they're essentially just fighting over who's more right.
And that doesn't really get us anywhere, right?
So it's really weird and kind of interesting in all honesty.
Because me rewatching Cora and stuff for this season,
I noticed a lot of different things that I didn't when I first watched it as a kid.
And just understanding the themes and the concepts and more so the characters.
Because I've noticed that the villains in Cora, though they were bad,
they were right in some form or fashion for the things that they were fighting for.
It really, I don't know, I'm trying to think the best way to put it.
I guess Thanos reminds me of these villains, right?
What he fought for was right.
Just what he did was completely wrong.
But when you look at what they were fighting for and what they wanted to accomplish,
I can't find myself really being angry at them or thinking that they were wrong.
It was just almost like they were misguided and had certain key parts in their lives or whatever had changed.
Then the whole impact they had would have changed as well.
And I think that says a lot for us as well.
The things that we're fighting for, the things that we're trying to accomplish in our lives,
whether it's curing cancer, helping with world hunger, things like that,
it sounds good on paper, but we have to be careful because we don't want to go into the whole,
we need to accomplish this by any means necessary.
Because sometimes we end up harming more people than we help.
And I just know for me when it comes to how I am, trying to do things, trying to accomplish things,
I can easily go down that rabbit hole and just forget about life temporarily.
And now I'm not harming anybody besides myself, right?
Because I'm so focused, so engulfed, so stressed out by these things that I kind of forget to enjoy life a little bit,
to spend time with my family, spend time with my friends and just live.
And for anyone else who's like me, who gets obsessed with these things and who kind of loses their mind,
trust me, you're not alone and it does get better,
but we just have to put forth the effort to make sure that we don't get that far, you know?
But yeah, I mean, that's all I got for you guys on today's episode.
I know it's a little shorter than normal, but I'll make up for it in the upcoming ones, I promise.
And in the whole world of Avatar, something that I love, so I'm really glad I get to do this.
And yeah, I'm really glad you guys get to listen to it, that you guys put up with me.
So if you like this episode, just let me know by leaving a comment or review
and share it with whoever you think really needs to hear this message.
And next week, I'll be going into the mind of Avatar Korra herself
and really breaking down why her ambition of being the Avatar was well-meaning initially,
but it was a little misguided as well.
Trust me, you don't want to miss it.
And always remember, you are the main character of your story,
and that story doesn't end until he says so.
All right, be blessed.