Thus far in ATLA and LOK, we’ve seen people escape from bloodbending three times - Katara in The Puppetmaster, and both Aang and Amon in Out of the Past. From these times, we can conclude that there are at least two confirmed ways to escape the hold of a bloodbender.

Note: this is written in support of the theory I wrote last night, so it’s probably a good idea to read that first.

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(cont from other ask) Look at this comparison picture and you’ll see my point. (iDOTimgurDOTcom/NTpBM). Lighting Bolt Zolt resembles the criminal in the flashback much more than Tarrlok. Also, from your theory, one chained man isn’t strong enough to bloodbend a whole room, he had help. Now going off this, we have a couple of options. A)The flashbacks are not from 42 years ago and the man in court is Zolt himself. B) The criminal (Maybe Yakone) is Zolt’s father and gang predecessor (cont)

(cont) I think that, since we don’t know for certain if Yakone is the one in the flashbacks, they aren’t from 42 years ago, but rather they deal with Zolt / “his father” / a his gang’s trail. Going off some age math, Aang would have to be in his 50’s or so, and Zolt in his 20’s, which is a stretch, but is still plausible (Aang was visibly wrinkly in his close-up in ep 6). That’s my spin on the flashbacks, but yours is amazing and pretty plausible too. Thanks for reading, despite my long asks.

I’ve been waiting for you to continue this, but I don’t think you have! I’m going to go ahead and answer it now.

You’re absolutely right in that identifying this man as Yakone is a huge assumption at this point. However, from a narrative standpoint, it makes total sense. We learned about Yakone and the fact that he posed a threat to Republic City 42 years ago in the very same episode where Korra’s first flashback happened. What would be the point of hinting at certain past events earlier in the episode and then showing flashbacks to something else entirely without giving any indication of what the flashback is about? That’s cluttered and confusing storytelling.

I’m a little confused about your first sentence: you say the problem is in my comparison of Tarrlok’s and Yakone’s features, but then go on to describe something else entirely. Am I missing something obvious? I’m sorry if I am!

Ooh, thank you for this! I’d heard his name meant something like “blood on the snow”, but I couldn’t find the source, so I didn’t include it.

Hmm! That’s a good question. At this point, I’d say it could go either way. If they DO, they may be falling in line with him so easily out of fear of his abilities and/or retribution from the Red Monsoons. But right now, I think it makes more sense for nobody to know that Tarrlok is Yakone’s son, including the Triad. Tarrlok is trying to grab power for himself. Being the son of a feared criminal and having connections to a gang isn’t going to help him at this point, so he’s keeping it quiet.

Physical similarities are a lot harder to gauge in an animated production! The shape and structure of a character’s facial features change slightly from scene to scene, since different artists are drawing them, and the designs are simplistic enough that EVERYONE looks the same to some extent. A lot of people probably just wrote off any similarity as coincidence. The real kicker comes now that we know both Tarrlok and Yakone were bloodbenders. This was just enough information to really make a connection.

A couple of people have said that, actually, and I think that makes sense! I said it was Katara because I figured it would have to be someone who wasn’t being bloodbent themselves, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be Aang instead. It seemed to me like Aang had been forced to hold still in the middle of reaching out to Yakone, since Yakone was looking at him and laughing. And then when Yakone’s eyes go all funky, it looks like he’s facing forward again.

I love it when people ramble at me! It makes my day. No worries!

As of this morning’s episode, I think I’ve been able to piece together what happened 42 years prior to the events of The Legend of Korra.

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This dude

is not the same person as this dude.

While it’s definitely possible that they’re related (and I’m working on a post about that right now!), Tarrlok is only 37 years old. The flashbacks are almost certainly the events of 42 years ago mentioned in episode 4, and the unknown man is probably Yakone.

I’ve seen a lot of people mix them up! Don’t.

I know I said my ideas were all dried up, but OOPS. I THEORIED ANYWAYS. And it’s a big one.

First of all, I’m going to list all the information we know so far about tomorrow’s episode.

The first clip, where we learn that Team Avatar is patrolling Republic City for Equalists.

The second, where Korra reveals her visions to Tenzin, and he tells her they may be Aang’s way of contacting her.

And two screenshots:

And of course, the title: “When Extremes Meet”.

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