Ibrahim Noir

Legend of Korra

Book 1: Air, Chapter 5

We open on the Fire Ferrets having a grand ol’ time training. The tone is much lighter, establishing this episode as something of a breather after the last two. The tournament is fast approaching and the team has never looked better! Asami comes in to give the team their new Future Industries-approved uniforms and to cozy up with Mako (to Korra’s disgust).

The two head off on a date. Now that he’s alone with Korra, Bolin tries to pick her up for a date but Korra shrugs off his advances.

Ooh. Next time, bro.

In the brothers’ attic, Bolin asks what Mako thinks about Korra as girlfriend material. Mako candidly responds that she’s great, but says it makes more sense for him to go for Asami. Bolin, annoyed, clarifies that he was talking about for himself. Mako then reverses his opinion and tells Bolin Korra is more like a “pal.” He goes on to say it isn’t smart to date a teammate and that it’s better if he keeps his head in the game for the tournament. But Bolin maintains the two are perfect for each other and resolves to ask Korra out.

What’s interesting is that Mako until now didn’t seem oblivious to Korra’s own crush on him, but instead ambivalent towards it. He’s caught onto his brother’s feelings for her and doesn’t want to step on his toes. But now it’s suggested he has feelings for her too but is keeping them repressed for the sake of Bolin and/or Asami and/or the team. This is because we’re setting up a love triangle plot. Woo-hoo.

But just to recap, Bolin likes Korra, Korra likes Mako, Mako may or may not like Korra back, but is coupled with Asami.

And so we have our love…square? The romance in the show’s early seasons is an aspect that even Korra‘s most diehard fans have trouble defending, and time has not been kind to it. It is indeed pretty awful and this isn’t even the worst of it in the series. You’d think that with twelve slated episodes, a forced romantic sub-plot wouldn’t be the best use of time but we are barreling right along. Here we go…

On the island, Korra gets relationship advice from Tenzin’s daughters Jinora and Ikki. It goes as well as you’d expect. Pema then comes in and tells Korra she knows what she’s going through with her woes about competing with another woman…cause she went through the same thing with Tenzin! She says she did nothing for a long time because she was too scared of rejection, but watching her soulmate with the “wrong” woman ate her up so much that she built up the nerve to confess her love to Tenzin. 

“And the rest is history!” as Pema puts it.

Cut to the first night of the tournament. The Fire Ferrets’ chemistry is unmatched and they easily take the opening match. Off in the changing room, Mako excitedly says everyone was “really connecting out there in the ring.” Korra, apparently encouraged by the high of winning and Pema’s story, says she’d like to connect out of the ring too, and not-very-gracefully puts her feelings for Mako out on the table.

[Korra] Look, I really like you and I think we are meant for each other!

(beat)

[Mako] Korra, I’m really sorry, but I just don’t feel the same way about you.

[Korra] Forget I ever said anything…

Asami comes in for more snuggies with Mako, and Bolin decides to shoot another shot with Korra, this time straight-up asking if she wants to go on a date. Korra glumly responds that she doesn’t feel very “date-worthy.”

[Bolin] Are you kidding me? You’re the smartest, funniest, toughest, buffest, talented-est, incrediblest girl in the world!

[Korra] (giggles) You really feel that way about me?

[Bolin] I felt that way since the moment I saw you!

Korra decides she could use some fun and goes off with Bolin. Elsewhere, Mako looks off uneasily while Asami obliviously keeps him wrapped in a victory hug. Could this be jealousy? Regret? Some secret third thing? Does anyone care? I sure don’t. 

Anyway, at a restaurant Korra and Bolin the catch some creepy weirdo named Tahno staring at them.

He’s the waterbender for the Wolfbats, the pro-bending championship’s three-time winning team. Bolin tells Korra not to make eye contact and keep her head down, but clearly he’s forgotten that she’s the Avatar and if someone challenges her she’s gotta remind them that they gotta deal with it!

So after some eye-focused foreplay, Tahno sidles on over with his posse and starts to provoke Korra. He offers to give Korra some “private lessons” and it looks like the two are gonna have a face-off.

Bolin reminds Korra that getting into a fight with Tahno could cost them their spot in the tournament, so Korra summons Naga instead to pop her head in through the window and scare him. He tries to maintain his composure and smugly walks away.

Something mildly interesting is that Tahno derisively calls Korra “uh-vatar”. This is the pronunciation M. Night Shaymalan used in his movie and everyone made fun of him for it, but it is technically the correct pronunciation for the Hindu term.

Bolin, constantly impressed by Korra, calls her “one of a kind.” What follows is a montage of Bolin and Korra having more fun on their date.

I kinda feel bad for Bolin. He feels like he’s won the jackpot, having scored an amazing date with a girl he genuinely likes and has romantic feelings for, but it’s obvious Korra just sees this as a fun time with her friend and a pick-me-up after being rejected by Mako. Korra makes her way back to the arena for the team’s quarterfinal match, and she finds Mako at the front steps. He accusingly asks her what game she’s playing, convinced she’s playing with Bolin’s feelings in a gambit to get back at him. Korra, in response to Mako warning her not to break his brother’s heart, turns the tables on Mako and accuses him of jealousy born out of attraction to her. 

[Korra] Admit it! You like me.

[Mako] No, I’m with Asami.

[Korra] Yeah, but when you’re with her you’re thinking about me, aren’t you?

Jesus Christ, woman.

This is getting troublesome. Korra is backsliding very quickly back into unlikable territory. Korra knows how important Bolin is to Mako and he wouldn’t play about his brother’s feelings. What’s worse is that Korra doesn’t deny that she’s using Bolin, and it’s hard not to see why Mako feels like she is. It’s not like she’s unaware of Bolin’s feelings for her; they’re the exact same feelings she has for Mako! If the roles were flipped and Mako were the one accusing Korra of being attracted to him, he’d be (rightly) criticized for being a chauvinistic pig, no?

The match begins and Korra and Mako’s fight causes the team to lose the synergy they had before. They only just manage to tie because Bolin is the only one with his head on straight. The tie-breaker match is decided when a coin is tossed, and the winning team selects the element used for a one-on-one. The Ferrets win the coin toss and Bolin elects to fight the Boar-Q-Pines’ earthbender. He wins, clinching the match for the Fire Ferrets.

Outside, Mako goes to confront Korra who’s standing outside by herself. He tells her he hasn’t told her how he really feels about her. As much as Korra drives him crazy, he does like her but is confused because of his feelings for Asami.

Ughhhhh….

Mako starts to say he’s really confused but Korra cuts him off with a kiss, and Mako kisses back. As everyone and their dog would’ve predicted, Bolin arrives just in time to witness this. And I’m not sure what the tone of this scene is supposed to be. I think this is supposed to be dramatic, but Bolin runs away ugly-crying in such a cartoonishly exaggerated way that I can’t help but think the animators want us to laugh.

I’m gonna level with you guys: Korra is as self-centered as ever, Mako is a two-timer who’s just betrayed his brother, and Asami is a non-character who only exists to complete the love triangle (as of now anyway). Bolin is the only character I care about in this whole thing, and he’s just gotten his heart torn to shreds. Why is he being treated in such a goofy way? Doesn’t the character deserve more dignity than this? What the hell?

Mako blames Korra for the whole thing (which he’s half-right to do) and storms off. The next morning he finds Bolin at the noodle shop, and it’s played like he’s hungover…from all the noodles. Once again, the whole thing is played for laughs even though Bolin’s been betrayed by his brother and his friend/crush. It’s as if we’re not supposed to take Bolin’s feelings all that seriously because he’s “the funny one.” What’s more is Mako has the gall to be all “I told you so” to Bolin about the dangers of dating a teammate, as if what happened the night before is somehow his fault, even though he himself confessed his feelings for Korra.

Anyway, Mako drags Bolin back to the arena for the team’s semifinal match against the Buzzard Wasps. The team’s synergy is the worst it’s ever been. Highlights include Bolin throwing up his noodles and Korra getting a penalty for unnecessary force. It’s not looking good, and Korra fails to motivate the brothers for one last effort. Bolin hurts his shoulder and he and Mako both fall into the drink. As the two rise back up, Mako reconciles with Bolin and apologizes. It kinda bugs me that Bolin asks Mako if they’re gonna be alright and apologizes when he did nothing wrong, but whatever. I guess the next step would be for Korra to reconcile with both of them just in time for the team to come back together and win the—

Nope, Korra wins the match 1v3, all by herself, with a triple knockout.

Alrighty then.

Korra groups up with the rest of her team, who praise her and thank her for not giving up on them. Korra manages to salvage a friendship with Mako without apologizing for kissing him without his consent behind his girlfriend’s back or leading his brother on. To her credit, she does apologize to Bolin himself while healing his shoulder (with a throwaway line that she learned from Katara). She even acknowledges Asami’s existence for once.

How nice.

The Wolfbats come in and, no hyperbole, win their match in less than thirty seconds off-screen to secure their spot in the finals alongside the Fire Ferrets. The opposing team are carried out on stretchers, hinting at some foul play. End screen.

Yeah, this one is pretty bad guys 💀 And it’s a shame considering how strong the last two episodes were. The writing has our young adult characters all act somehow less mature than the original group of kids to engineer a conflict, only to hurry to resolve it in the same episode. Just compare Katara’s reaction to Aang forcing a kiss on her in “Ember Island Players” compared to Mako’s when Korra does the same to him here. Korra aggressively pursues Mako while he’s in a relationship, while Mako disrespects the relationship he has with his brother and his girlfriend. Korra is also offhandedly nasty to Asami, which is especially awkward considering how the series ends. She’s the real victim of all this, besides Bolin, who the show puts through the wringer and then treats like a joke before wrapping it all up with some quick apologies and what should’ve been a team victory being sealed exclusively by Korra. What we have is an entirely useless plotline that puts all effort to be self-contained, but only putting half effort in resolving it.

Bryke, the benefit of a miniseries is that you don’t need filler. If you insist on having it, you use it to benefit the world and its characters, not to remove any sympathy from them for a borked romance plot. This probably should have been the designated “pro-bending” episode of the season, so we could save time spent on it throughout the rest of Book 1. Try again next week, lads. I’ll see you all when we get back to our regularly-scheduled Equalist plotline in “And the Winner Is…”