Ibrahim Noir

Legend of Korra

Book 1: Air, Chapter 2

This is The Legend of Korra‘s shortened intro in its entirety:

[Tenzin] Earth. Fire. Air. Water. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world.

Well…it’s certainly straightforward and adaptable.

Also rather than using straight clips, Korra‘s “Previously On” has radio broadcaster Shiro Shinobi give a recap over grainy, sepia-toned footage to give it that extra 1920’s flavor. Make of it what you will.

The episode opens with Korra on Air Temple Island with Tenzin. Her first day of airbender training is about to begin! She’s reading about a pro-bending match from the previous night in a newspaper. It’s been Korra’s dream to see a match in person and she asks Tenzin if they can go to the arena that night. Tenzin is not a fan. He says dismissively,

[Tenzin] That sport is nothing but a mockery of the noble tradition of bending.

He tells Korra he believes a quiet, calm environment free from distractions is just what Korra needs for airbending training. He’s even enlisted White Lotus sentries to keep an eye on things around the island. Korra’s not pleased about this. Understandable, since the parameters set so far aren’t all that different from the compound. But she nontheless defers to Tenzin.

We cut to the two walking underneath a wooden shed. Overhead, a ring-tailed lemur soars by…because I guess Aang found a healthy herd of those too. 

And I suppose that’s it then. We have more bison, and we have more lemurs. I suppose we can only be thankful the show has the restraint not to just give a bunch of random people airbending for no reason.

Tenzin tells Korra to be patient with airbending since the Avatar usually has difficulty learning the element opposite to their personality, citing earthbending for Aang as an example. I still think it’s odd that Korra is a native waterbender whose core personality is apparently aligned with earth, but we don’t need to go over all that again.

The two make it up some stairs to Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo standing in front of a circle filled with several wooden gates. In a nice addition to the lore, we get our first look at airbender training. Tenzin uses airbending to spin the gates in place and explains that the purpose of the exercise is to weave through them without touching them. There’s a neat animated bit where he lets a leaf flow through the gates and tells Korra that she needs to be like the leaf in order to learn the fundamental airbending principles of being able to go with the flow and pivot in the face of resistance.

Korra, seemingly ignoring everything Tenzin just said and even Jinora’s demonstration, runs headfirst into the gates. I’m not even being facetious; she runs directly into the first gate.

Korra gets BTFO’d by the gates and they knock her on her ass twice, effectively ending the lesson.

That night, Korra tries to thrust her arms out (at a newspaper with a picture of Lin Beifong on it) but can’t even produce a wisp of air. She overhears the White Lotus listening to a pro-bending match on the radio, and hops on a roof to listen in. Tenzin comes in and reminds Korra that he doesn’t want her listening to any distractions. I think Tenzin is kinda unreasonable here. I get Korra should be training but she should at least be allowed to listen to pro-bending secondhand, surely?

The next day has the group engaged in meditation training. Korra tries for about five seconds before giving up. She then mocks Tenzin’s use of the word “freedom”, saying it’s ironic since he’s restricted her from listening to the radio, let alone leave the island. It’s getting harder to sympathize with Korra by the minute. I get that she’s being kept away from the city and this frustrates her, but she doesn’t seem all that interested to learn anything while she’s here. I don’t get the sense that she tried with the movement exercise. And now the task is to sit and do nothing, and she doesn’t even seem to want to give it a chance. She ran away from her home to come here and learn airbending with Tenzin, but so far all she’s done is ignore his teachings, try do things her way, and get frustrated when it doesn’t work.

That night, Korra ignores Tenzin’s orders to stay on the island and sneaks off to the pro-bending arena. Naturally, Korra is an excellent swimmer. She sneaks around a bit and finds herself in a pro-bending gym. The owner of the gym, Toza, finds her and chews her out for sneaking in without paying. Korra is again surprised to learn that things cost money…but fortunately for her, a pro-bender walks in just then and bails her out by saying he’s with her. This is Bolin, the earthbender for the Fire Ferrets and one of the new main characters for this series. It’s lucky for Korra that Bolin walked by when he did instead of earlier or later and that it was Bolin and not anyone else, or she probably would’ve been kicked right out!

Snarking aside, I do appreciate the way Bolin is introduced to the audience. Once again, a lot is communicated through the way the character is animated. Bolin is just passing through, does a double-take when he sees Korra, slicks back his hair, and puts on a heroic stride as he struts on over to help her. Right off the bat we learn that Bolin is a bit of a charmer and is clearly smitten by Korra, but he moves in to help her because he’s also a genuinely nice guy. It’s funny and quickly endears Bolin to the viewer.

Anyway, Bolin likes Korra enough to take her to the participant’s booth where he introduces her to his brother and teammate, Mako. Mako is a firebender and is actually named after the late actor Makoto Iwamatsu, who died while he was voicing Uncle Iroh in the original series.

Mako is standoffish towards Korra, with the implication being that Bolin brings fan girls to the booth regularly and it’s something he’s annoyed by, and…

Wait a minute.

Why is it that no one knows who Korra is? Wasn’t there a live broadcast over radio that the Avatar was staying in Republic City? I understand that not everyone might have attended/listened to the event but surely the news would have spread via word-of-mouth? So much of this episode’s events is predicated on no one knowing who the Avatar is. We could’ve avoided the misunderstanding at the gym and the contrivance of Bolin coming in to save Korra.

Anyway, the Fire Ferrets are an up-and-coming team made up of Mako, Bolin, and some third guy who acts as the team’s waterbender. He gets almost no characterization because he won’t be relevant soon.

We get our first look at pro-bending. Thankfully, the show does a decent job communicating the rules of the game without explaining to the viewer outright. Basically, there are three players to a team. The trio uses water, earth, and firebending to gain as much territory within the ring as possible within the allotted time, or knock the opposing players out the back of the ring. Pro-bending gets a lot of focus in this season and I’m not sure why. It’s a fine addition to Republic City’s culture and the writers have done a good job filling in the mechanics, but the matches themselves have next to no relevance to the plot. It’s like Quidditch in that way.

So the Fire Ferrets end up on the ropes but Mako comes through at the last minute and wins the match for the Ferrets, putting them in the championship tournament. Mako, still standoffish towards Korra, rips into the waterbender guy for almost costing them the match, causing him to storm out of the room…and out of the show. Bolin offers to teach Korra some moves and it leads to an exchange I kinda like. Bolin says he’s not sure how his earthbending will translate to Korra’s waterbending. Korra tells him she’s actually an earthbender, to mess with him, and Bolin becomes embarrassed and apologizes for assuming based on her water tribe clothes. Most people in this universe wear the clothes, or at least colors, of their native tribe. The Avatar in particular always sports a garb from the nation they’re from. So I imagine it’s not uncommon for someone to make a mistake like that, and the embarrassment that can come from accidentally assuming someone’s nationality is very relatable as a social faux pas in our own world. Korra then clarifies that she is indeed a waterbender too, as well as a firebender.

[Mako] You’re the Avatar…and I’m an idiot.

[Korra] Both are true.

[Bolin] No…way. (to Mako, shielding his face from Korra and pointing to her, whispering) The. Avatar!

In the gym, Korra practices throwing earth discs with Bolin’s direction. It doesn’t take long for Korra to adapt to the quick one-two’s suited for pro-bending. I think this is meant to make a point that Korra learns best in an environment suited for her, but she’s not really learning anything here, she’s just making a slight adjustment to her earthbending. But maybe this is the point because Korra is clearly internalizing that this is what’s best for her training rather than airbending, as we’ll see. Mako is still standoffish and takes off for the night to Korra’s disappointment. It’s revealed that the brothers live in the upstairs part of the arena.

Korra goes back to bending with Bolin and the scene transitions to Korra back at the gates, which she’s still bad at. This time, Korra gets so angry that she destroys the 2000-year-old airbending relic (likely the last of its kind) with firebending.

This causes Tenzin to finally reach his wit’s end.

[Tenzin] That was a two-thousand-year-old historical treasure! What…what is wrong with you!?

Korra responds to Tenzin, in front of his children,

[Korra] Maybe the problem isn’t me! Maybe the reason I haven’t learned airbending yet is because you’re a terrible teacher!

To add insult to injury, Meelo calls Tenzin a terrible teacher too and emulates Korra’s rampage.

However you may feel about Korra at this point, I think it’s fair to say that Tenzin is the most sympathetic character in the show so far. He’s a husband and father who has to live with the responsibility of rebuilding the Air culture after his father’s death. And he’s been nothing but patient with Korra, who’s somehow more bratty than not only the 12-year-old Aang, but also his own children. Korra repeatedly ignores his advice to do whatever she wants and is now trying to blame him for her own failures, even going as far as to destroy a remnant of the Air Nomad culture. She’s going have to do a lot of work to earn a viewer’s favor after this. Her list of negative traits is getting longer by the minute.

After this scene is another joke I like. Tenzin tells his daughters to promise that they won’t become as much a headache as Korra is when they become teenagers. Jinora barely raises her head out of a book she’s reading to deliver dryly, “I will make no such promises.”

We’re back in the pro-bending arena where Korra finds Mako and Bolin dejected before the match because waterbender guy is a no-show. If it’s not obvious, the writers are setting up for Korra to take his spot on the team, which she does to Mako’s objection.

Korra is allowed to participate in a qualifying championship match despite being a last-minute addition, not knowing the rules of the game, and being the Avatar. This somehow doesn’t get the team disqualified despite the fact that they tried to sneak this little detail past the referee and get caught when Korra at one point uses earthbending to block a hit.

Okie dokie.

Korra gets knocked overboard and finds herself at the feet of…Tenzin. He overheard the match and went to go get Korra himself. As you can imagine, he isn’t happy. We then get this gem from Korra,

[Tenzin] Once again, you have flagrantly disobeyed my orders. You were to stay on the island! Let’s go.

[Korra] No! I’m kinda in the middle of something.

[Tenzin] I have tried my very best to get through to you by being gentle and patient, but clearly the only thing you respond to is force! So I am ordering you to come back to the temple right now! 

[Korra] Why? So I can sit around and meditate about how bad I am at airbending? You know, I’m beginning to think there’s a reason I haven’t been able to learn it! Because maybe, I don’t even need it! 

Sorry, I laughed.

Korra tells Tenzin that what she needs to learn is here: modern styles of fighting. Tenzin tells her that being the Avatar isn’t all about fighting, and she ignores him to go back to the match. Tenzin is about to leave before he witnesses something truly special. Korra is going 1v3 against the opposing team…and she perfects the airbending movement to dodge their attacks! She adopts the stance and swiftly dodges in the face of resistance. How about that? It turns out all Korra needed to learn the methods of airbending was the sport that involves aggressively throwing the elements at each other…in other words, the polar opposite of airbending! Tenzin, the airbending master, is just an old fuddy-duddy who’s needs to get with the times. He should’ve just let Korra teach herself, really.

So Korra helps the Fire Ferrets steal the win, and Bob’s your uncle, it’s done! Korra goes back to the island and deigns to extend an olive branch and apologize to Tenzin.

It’s a start.

The browbeaten Tenzin apologizes to her too for losing his patience even though it was entirely justified, and on rewatch, I noticed the Air Acolytes actually putting together new gates to replace the ones Korra destroyed. I’m honestly thankful for that detail because I missed it before and I thought this whole time that that was a piece of airbending history gone forever.

Korra doesn’t complain about her ineptitude after this, so I guess she’s well on her way to learning to airbend. I’m sure we can expect a natural progression to her training, culminating in a satisfying conclusion to this step in her Avatar journey. I can’t wait.

Notably, there’s no mention of the bender/non-bender conflict or the Equalists in this episode. I guess that’ll have to wait for next episode in “The Revelation”!