Ibrahim Noir

Legend of Korra

Book 1: Air, Chapter 12

This is it. The big season finale. This is gonna be a long one guys.

Here we go.

We open on Bolin, Asami, and Iroh making their way to the airfield in the mountains atop Naga. Iroh instructs Bolin to tear up the runway once they arrive.

The three head down, leaving Naga and Pabu behind, and stumble upon some posts standing in the snow. Asami asks, “Why would there be fence-posts, but no fence?”, then, I kid you not, all three of them walk into the invisible electric fence. It’s like a cartoon.

I honestly shouldn’t be surprised that this is how we’re starting the episode. All three of you are so stupid you deserve to be captured.

At the arena, Amon makes an appearance before an enormous crowd. Korra and Mako take their places in the stands while in disguise. Amon tells his fake life story again, mainly as an excuse for Korra to interrupt with “That’s a lie, Amon!” Korra and Mako then unmask themselves before Korra calls Amon by his real name, Noatak. This prompts a close-up to his eye, which narrows slightly. Amon tells his crowd to calm down and listen to what the Avatar has to say.

Korra tells them everything: Amon is a waterbender, he takes away bending with bloodbending, he’s the son of Yakone, and the brother of Tarrlok. I have no idea why Korra would unmask herself before talking to all these people, since she’s the face of the Revolution’s enemy. Regardless, this still stirs the crowd somewhat and even the Lieutenant seems unsettled. But Amon is unfazed.

He removes his mask, and there’s something on display here that I need you all to appreicate.

I’m going to spoil that this is actually makeup. Amon’s face, in reality, is clear of any physical scarring.

Meaning…

This is a man who wears a mask, to conceal his true identity.

Underneath that mask, he wears makeup…to conceal his true identity…more.

I just…

Can you guys imagine Amon constantly applying and re-applying his makeup to layer his disguise like this? What’s more is Amon’s face looks way different from Noatak’s in the flashback. What gives? Did he also get plastic surgery to make his skin white to hide his identity even further? Good god, man. It’s hilarious.

So this causes the crowd to turn on Korra and Mako. Some Equalists show up to apprehend them and Mako suggests they make their escape. But Amon delivers his punchline here. Part of the stage rises to reveal the main event: Tenzin and the airbender kids! It seems that despite Lin’s sacrifice to buy them time, they all got caught anyway…off-screen.

Nice.

Speaking of getting caught, we’re back with Asami and co. who are locked up. Hiroshi appears and tells Asami that he’s sorry it had to come to this, but he hopes she can still “come to her senses” so they can be a family again. Asami is pissed at the notion and says that her mom would hate him for what he’s become. Hiroshi rages and says he’s avenging her death. He also reveals that he intercepted the hobo transmission and that he knows exactly where the rest of the fleet is hiding. He’s having planes sent to destroy it right now.

Dun dun dun!

The group wonders how they’re going to escape. Iroh asks Bolin if he can metalbend, and sulks in frustration when he says no. Of course, Iroh is a firebender and could easily burn through everyone’s rope restraints. He could then melt the bars keeping them trapped. There’s also the detail that the floor is made of earth and Bolin can dig them all out. Don’t believe me that the floor is made of earth? You will.

But if you thought about any of those solutions, you’re clearly overthinking this. Don’t worry, though. The writers came up with something way better.

Naga shows up, appropos of nothing, and breaks the bars altogether with her paws.

How did Naga get past the electric fence, you may wonder?

Shut up, that’s how.

Iroh makes his way onto the one of the planes before it takes off. He does this using firebending to fly before hijacking the plane for himself.

You writers need to be very careful with this, and to be fair, The Last Airbender indulged in this somewhat as well. Ozai and Jeong Jeong flying with the power of the comet is sensible. Azula in “The Boiling Rock” and Iroh here…less so. See, when you open up Avatar’s magic system to streamline mobility, particularly in ways of flight, you open up uncomfortable questions about why people aren’t doing it all the time to get by.

The comics were particularly bad with this. Aang using airbending to fly, Zuko uses firebending to fly, Katara uses waterbending to fly like Frozone, etc.

Anyway, Asami hops into a mecha tank. She says a throwaway line, saying it’s “just like a Future Industries forklift.” This is a silly line that isn’t even necessary. I don’t really need an explanation for why Asami of all people can pilot a mecha tank. Operating vehicles and machinery is like, the one thing about her character. This line instead almost implies it’s as easy as, well, operating a forklift and that anyone can do it.

Back at the arena, Amon announces that he’s going to rid the world of airbending forever. Korra wants to jump in but Mako holds her back, saying Amon is baiting her. Well, yes Mako, but the alternative is letting him de-bend the world’s remaining airbenders. Of course, we now know from Yakone’s story that stripping someone of their bending doesn’t prevent them from passing on the gene, but it would still suck right now. So Mako fires lightning at Amon with no wind-up whatsoever. Then he and Korra do a goofy-looking firebending wall run.

See my mobility tangent above.

Mako fends the Equalists off with firebending while Korra unties Tenzin and the kids. Pema and the baby are in prison so they’re gonna have to bust them out. Korra leads them out a backdoor so Tenzin can take his kids to go rescue their mother. Korra and Mako lead Amon away in the opposite direction, quickly disappearing behind a door. Amon sees the door close just in time, so he enters. Korra is hidden under a table out of sight, but she can see and hear Amon’s footsteps. We see a close-up of Korra looking terrified.

Korra’s inconsistent fear of Amon aside, this scene is tense. I was surprised how quickly I got immersed in the horror movie-like feel, assisted in no small part by the score, which is brilliantly eerie. There’s even a rare well-executed jump scare where Korra breathes the smallest sigh of relief when it seems like she’s in the clear, only for Amon to yank her out of her hiding spot with bloodbending. It works so well because you could easily sigh in relief along with her, only to share her surprise that she was detected.

Mako attacks in retaliation, but Amon force-chokes him as well. He slams them both to the ground, and then walks behind Korra.

He grips her neck.

[Korra] No!  

Amon places his hand on her forehead, and rids the Avatar of her bending.

[Amon] I told you I would destroy you.

Damn.

Before we can absorb this, however, we cut back to Iroh of all characters for a solid minute and a half of him taking out the other planes. He takes one out with lightning (with one wind-up!) and then when his is destroyed, he uses firebending to propel himself to a different one.

This I’m okay with. There’s a meaningful difference between manuevering yourself while falling in mid-air and straight-up flying. But next, Iroh does a fire punch and takes out another plane, something he just accomplished with lightning.

Do you guys see the problem now with making lightning less special? It’s becoming dangerously interchangeable with regular firebending. And the worst of that is yet to come.

Anyway, this is all some flashy firebending and all, but Iroh is basically just Fanservice: The Character. The show spends no time on him as a character and the reason most people will like him will come down to his name and voice actor, and I guess the fact that he can fly around with firebending like Iron Man. To cap it off, the last plane crashes into the giant Amon mask tacked onto the statue of Aang. It’s pretty much undamaged, but it falls off so Dante Bosco can say,

[Iroh] Thanks for looking out for me, Aang.

Back at the airstrip, Bolin is destroying the runways when suddenly three Mecha tanks fire grappling cables at him. Before they can reach him, Naga grabs the cables in her mouth and brings all three mecha-tanks to the ground.

Naga can move several tons worth of metal like it’s nothing.

Sure. Whatever the hell you want at this point, show.

Asami is in the hangar working out her daddy issues by destroying the planes inside with her mecha tank. The daddy in question arrives in a mecha tank of his own, confronting Asami over “aiding the very people who took her mother away.” Asami fires back that there’s no more room left in his heart for love for her mother, as it’s too full of hatred. Hiroshi attacks, knocking Asami down and battering at her cockpit until it breaks open.

[Hiroshi] I see now there is no chance to save you!

(Hiroshi spits a lot when he yells)

Before Hiroshi can finish his daughter, Bolin appears riding on Naga and firing rocks at Hiroshi (confirming that the floor is indeed made out of earth like I said before) while yelling that he’s a horrible father. It’s probably my favorite Bolin moment since he became exclusively the funny guy. He’s coming through for someone he cares about, while finally being able to tell Hiroshi how he feels about him. 

Asami is able to tear the arm off Hiroshi’s mech and overpower him. She hesitates before breaking his cockpit, allowing Hiroshi to fire a cable at her as a distraction and, uh, hop out of his mech and run away…?

My dude, you’re sandwiched between a tank and an earthbender on a polar bear dog. Where exactly do you think you’re going?

Asami firmly voices her realization that Hiroshi is a horrible father. She fires an electrified wire trap at him that zaps him unconscious. She sheds a single tear.

Finally cutting back to Amon, he gloats over his victory. But then the Lieutenant shows up. He saw the bloodbending. He takes off his goggles and smashes them, calling Amon a traitor and yelling that he dedicated his life to him.

As you’d expect, the Lieutenant then does the only thing he’s ever done since the middle of the season: get utterly memed on. Amon bloodbends him and throws him into a wall.

And that’s the end of him. For the rest of not only the season, but the series. So much for that character.

Amon then makes his way to Mako, but he has a surprise waiting for him: lightning. No wind-up whatsoever. In fact, this has to be negative wind-up. Mako can barely move, and I’m expected to believe he can summon lightning?

Okay, fine. Accepting that, Amon is dead, right? Commoditized or not, lightning is still lightning and Mako’s just fired about a gajillion volts into Amon. It’s joever.

Mako scoops up Korra and runs. Korra whispers about her bending being gone, and Mako says they’ll figure it out later after they get out of here.

And then Mako gets bloodbent.

After all the time Avatar spent establishing that getting hit with lightning was basically a death sentence, Legend of Korra reduces it to the same as getting tased with a shock glove. Maybe even less, considering how quickly Amon recovers. It’s the most broken use of lightning in the franchise. No movement and no lethality.

Great stuff once again, lads.

This time, Amon slams Mako into the walls and the ceiling in the hallway. He praises him while he approaches, saying that no one has gotten the jump on him like that, and it’d almost be a shame to take the bending away from someone so talented. He turns around and gets ready to give Mako the razzle-dazzle of a lifetime.

But then! Korra stands up and makes the ultimate snackrifice. She throws a punch and…a gust of air comes out?

What the hell???

[Amon] Impossible!

Damn right it is! You’re the one who took her bending away, Amon! What happened back there? Her ability to bend was removed except a quarter of it? Why? Why would Amon take water, earth, and fire, but leave airbending alone? Because it was the most underdeveloped? How does that make any sense? She couldn’t bend it in that moment, and so what? It just didn’t count? You understand that, being the Avatar, Korra is an airbender even if she can’t airbend, right? Aang was an earthbender before he figured out how to move a rock. Aang was supposed to learn fire last and he still managed to create a flame before he learned how to earthbend because he was always a firebender. Korra always had the capacity to bend air; she just hadn’t figured it out yet.

What do you guys have to say for yourselves?

(From the DVD commentary for this episode)

[Joaquim Dos Santos]: And was there any logic to, I mean, the fact…

[Mike]: No logic!

(Mike and Steve laugh)

[Joaquin]: Well, I mean, (laughs) was-was there a, a-a logical train of thought there that she could do the three elements, but she hadn’t done airbending, so [Amon] was able to kinda block those three elements?

[Bryan]: Yeah, yeah. That was-that was the idea was that the-the chi flowing through her body, which is how a bender in our world is able to manipulate the elements, ’cause there’s like, there’s the lifeforce energy flowing through these pathways in their body, and-and uh, you can use waterbending, you know, they have this skill li-that we see, where, you know, they make it glow and they-they are kind of a… clea-clearing out those pathways with the waterbending and they can open them up so the chi flows better, and so people can be healthier. […] So, that was the idea, and so since she hadn’t opened up that particular chi path, and being the Avatar, she-we figured she’s not a normal, you know, she’s got crazy chi energy flowing, you know? So, he was able to close the ones he could detect, and not the one that she hadn’t even opened up yet. He didn’t-he didn’t feel it.

Ain’t it great when your writing is broken that you need to explain the mechanics of your story after the fact? And even they don’t make sense?

So a bender uses their chi to bend the elements. And Amon is stripping people of their bending by blocking those chi pathways, yeah? Well, even if we accept this explanation, it still doesn’t work. This show is operating under the erroneous logic that the Avatar (or any bender, really) has to “unlock” the different bending types before they even gain the capacity to bend those elements. The implication is that the reason Korra couldn’t airbend before was because it just wasn’t unlocked yet, and now it is. Don’t believe me? Here’s a line from the show.

[Bolin] Hey, at least you unlocked your airbending!

This is nonsense. I need you all to listen to me here: This is nonsense. Go back and watch the original series. Bending is heriditary; you are either born with the capacity to bend, or you’re not. The Avatar is intrinsically a bender of all four elements from the moment they’re born. They don’t just suddenly “become” a waterbender once they bend water for the first time. They don’t just suddenly “become” an airbender once they learn air. Airbending should’ve been sucked out out of Korra along with the rest. It’s impossible for Amon to be able to miss or neglect the chi pathway for airbending if Korra was born with the capacity to airbend. There was no “logical train of thought” here. If Korra has an overflowing amount of “crazy chi energy,” as Bryan says, how could Amon miss 25% of it? You guys didn’t think about this at all, and I’m willing to bet you didn’t care. This makes ANTI-sense.

But hey. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the co-creator of the damn show:

[Mike] No logic!

Some people have theorized that Amon missed because he had never taken an airbender’s bending before, and thus didn’t necessarily know where those pathways were located.

Okay, so uh…what exactly was his plan here?

Was he just going to head back and fiddle around until he got it right on one of them? In front of this ginormous crowd?

I dunno. Maybe you guys should’ve given this plot point a little more thought than none at all?

Now that we’ve explained why this shouldn’t even be possible, let’s get into the airbending itself. Korra hits Amon with a flurry of air punches. Korra spent exactly one (1) episode learning the footwork of airbending, and then nothing for the rest of the season. And now she’s just been handed the ability, without even needing to getting the motions right. These are nothing like airbending moves. It honestly looks like she’s trying to firebend, but air is coming out because nothing else can. This is supposed to be a triumphant moment but it’s broken on every level. Korra hasn’t earned this at all.

[Korra] I…I can airbend? I can airbend!

Yeah…you sure can.

Okay, fine. Korra can airbend. But Amon is still a psychic bloodbender. She definitely still loses here…right?

Well, no she doesn’t.

Amon has Korra in a bloodbending grip, and Korra just…ignores it. Korra overpowers the bloodbending to the point where she raises her arms above her head, raises her foot, and fires off a super air kick that forces Amon out the window.

Alright then.

Amon falls into the bay, and his makeup wears off. And so, because he doesn’t want to drown, he waterbends to save himself. And I don’t mean he uses waterbending to propel himsself to the surface. I mean he creates a whole-ass water cyclone so everyone in the vicinity can see he’s a waterbender. It’s as if he’s legit trying to create the most blatant and noticeable “I am a waterbender” display possible.

Because of this incredibly stupid move, the crowd realizes Korra was telling the truth about Amon, and despite best efforts from Mako, he dives back underwater and swims away.

We then cut to Amon in front of Tarrlok’s prison. He apologizes to his brother for everything, and Tarrlok says that their father was the one who set them on this path. He muses that he should’ve gone with Noatak back when they were children. Noatak invites him to run away with him now, saying they have a chance to start over and that he has no one left in this world.

Cut to the port of the island, where Bolin…actually doesn’t do a funny. Something strange happens. Lin is voicing her anguish over Korra losing her bending, but then Bolin makes a sincere attempt to console her by pointing out that she’s finally “unlocked” her airbending (the quote I cited above). Then everyone glares at him and Mako tells Bolin that this isn’t the time. Then Bolin actually does a funny.

[Bolin] Right, right, I’ll just stand over here. (backs away) Quietly. (puts his hands over his mouth and whispers) In silence.

This was a pretty tone-deaf moment that annoyed me more than it probably should have. The show’s been shameless up to this point about Bolin making jokes during inappropriate moments. Now, the one time it decides to be self-aware about this, it’s during the one time he isn’t doing it…and then it goes ahead and does it anyway. Bolin wasn’t telling a joke; he was trying to point to a silver lining in Korra’s predicament. What is so inappropriate about this? What in the world happened with this script? 

Alas, Korra is still feeling pretty down so Tenzin tries to salvage her feelings by telling her she saved the city; but Korra reminds him that Amon got away.

Then a ship comes by, and Ikki excitedly points out the arrival of “Uncle Bumi”. Tenzin is…less enthusiastic. Bumi lets out an over-the-top “YAAAAAHOOOO!” from the hull of his ship.

I think there’s something amusing in the fact that they thought this was only gonna be one season, so they characterized Bumi as this crazy, wild man for what they thought was going to be his one and only scene, in reference to his namesake, but then had to account for this characterization going forward.

In a much less amusing scene, we see Noatak and Tarrlok on a speedboat out in the open ocean. Noatak exclaims that nothing will be impossible for the two brothers, and Tarrlok seems to agree, simply saying, “Yes, Noatak” while eyeing some shock gloves on the boat. Noatak wistfully remarks that he’s forgotten the sound of his own name while Tarrlok puts one on. Making sure his brother is preoccupied driving the boat, Tarrlok opens the fuel tank and places his gloved hand over it.

[Tarrlok] It will be just like the good old days.

Noatak sheds a single tear as he looks ahead before a single spark ignites the fuel tank.

This is considered one of the most memorable moments of the series because of just how shockingly dark it is. It certainly gave me a pit in my stomach the first time I saw it. And it is incredibly shocking that such a gruesome death could be shown on-screen in a supposed kid’s show. It would be easy to dismiss this as pure shock value, as the show trying to be dark and mature for its own sake. But, as problematic as Noatak’s turned out to be, it’s an abrupt but appropriate end to Tarrlok’s character arc. While Noatak is almost in denial about going back to the “good old days”, Tarrlok knows that there is no going back for the brothers and that both of them have become the monsters they each individually vowed not to be. He was putting an end to the sad story.

There’s also some ambiguity in whether or not Noatak knows what’s about to happen. The tear he sheds could be interpreted as his acknowledgement of the reality and grief over the life he left behind or of oblivious joy over reuniting with his brother and hope that the two can start over. It’s tragic either way.

The scene is certainly macabre, and the imagery and sound design are cool as hell. I just hope this scene is remembered for reasons beyond “Oh my god, they got away with this in a kid’s show?” It stands out as an incredibly solid moment (and one of my personal favorites in the entire series) in an otherwise horrid episode.

The scene then moves to the White Lotus compound in the Southern Water Tribe. Everybody is there to see if Katara can undo Amon’s damage. She opens a door and tells everyone that despite her best efforts, there’s nothing she can do about Korra. That’s surprisingly defeatist for such a hopeful character, to the point that I almost consider it out of character for Katara. Especially because Katara is a bloodbender herself. If Amon used bloodbending to close Korra’s non-air chi pathways, thus denoting a physical block, why can’t Katara re-open them?

Well, you see, there isn’t a full moon. So I guess Korra’s bending is gone forever 😔 Korra comes out and Tenzin tries to reassure her, but Korra isn’t having it. She says things won’t be fine for her ever again.

Mako follows her outside, and Korra tells him to go back to the city. She says she isn’t the Avatar anymore, and so he “doesn’t have to do her any favors.” Mako says he doesn’t care what she is, and explains that he was losing his mind at the thought of not seeing her again when Tarrlok had kidnapped her. It made him realize…he loves her.

Ughhhhh…

Korra says she can’t, and runs off on Naga. Tenzin tells Mako (paraphrasing), “Too soon, bro. Too soon.”

Korra walks to the edge of an ice-cliff overlooking the ocean. A tear rolls down her face and we see it fall into the ocean below. Many fans have interpreted this moment as Korra contemplating suicide. It’s incredibly dark to think that Korra might actually be considering that she should sacrifice herself to give the world a “proper” Avatar again. But considering how much Korra has tied bending to her own sense of self and her idea of being the Avatar, not to mention the final scene with Noatak and Tarrlok, I don’t think the interpretation is too far off. It would be an incredibly daring direction for the show could take, if the network ever allowed the show to commit to it. For now, isolated from the terrible writing leading up to this, it’s pretty solid.

So Korra sits down and has herself a cry. Shortly after, a man in airbender robes that we only see from the torso-down walks over. Korra tells ‘Tenzin’ that she wants to be alone right now. Only it isn’t Tenzin, it’s…Aang?

What is Aang doing here? Is he a force ghost or what?

[Aang] You have finally connected with your spiritual self.

[Korra] How?

[Aang] When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change. (The past Avatars appear behind him)

That is what we in the business call, a load of horse crap 💀 Korra has made no progress spiritually this entire season. The closest she got was meditating on the visions Aang gave her about three episodes ago. And no way it’s because she finally learned how to airbend, either. That wasn’t tied to her “spirituality” whatsoever.

But fine. Since Aang is here, he’ll probably offer Korra some counseling and advice over this change she’ll now have to deal with, and how the hopelessness she feels will pass, and how it could take a long time but she can rise above this and still perform her duty as the Avatar.

…Right?

Instead, Aang puts his thumbs on Korra’s forehead and chest and he glows. The music swells into the Avatar Theme, Korra’s eyes glow and she rises in an airspout.

She then does this.

I’ve gone the whole series without saying it, guys. I just can’t hold it in anymore.

What.

The.

FUCK.

So Aang, despite having no way of physically being here, restores Korra’s bending with energybending? How? How does energybending reverse the effects of a physical block?

This is unacceptably bad writing. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is so stupid. It comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t happen for any reasonable character, plot, or thematic reason. It undermines whatever growth or development Korra made, or could have made following this. And it defeats any sort of tension that comes from Amon’s powers that the entire season had been based around.

This show has beaten us over the head time and time again about how Amon’s de-bending is permanent and could not be un-done. Hell, it could be argued that the character of Tahno was invented to drive this point home. By magically giving Korra the means to make it all go away, it destroys the entire concept and it retroactively ruins any tension related to Korra being captured by him. If Korra had ever gotten her bending taken at any point in the season, all she’d need to do is sit and mope about it until Aang comes and fixes it all for her. She even gets full control over the Avatar State and energybending to boot! Because why not? We already handed Korra airbending. Let’s just give her the full Avatar package! Getting her bending taken has literally put her in a better position than she started. Korra regularly ignores the advice of everyone around her and does whatever the fuck she wants, and yet she gets everything handed to her on a silver platter without working for any of it.

I don’t wanna hear a damn thing about how I “just hate women.” This show hates women. Why the fuck is our “strong female protagonist” sitting and crying until a man shows up to solve all her problems for her with magic bullshit? Great fucking job on that one, lads.

Oh, and did you still feel something over Lin’s sacrifice? Well you can forget that too because Korra restores her bending. Lin threw herself at the Equalists, putting her bending, and possibly her life, on the line to give Tenzin’s family time to escape. Amon offered her a deal to save her bending and she wasn’t even tempted. She willingly gave up her bending to save Tenzin’s family and Korra herself. And now? That entire sequence has been shat on thanks to this ending. Korra just gives Lin her bending back and she lifts a ring of massive rocks conveniently lined up around the fucking temple to prove she’s got her earthbending back.

Wonderful.

Korra kisses Mako and, now that she’s been magically healed, says she loves him too. Tenzin tells her he’s proud of her for receiving powers with no explanation and through no effort of her own or influence from his teachings and finally calls her “Avatar Korra”. The idea that Korra needs to be able to bend to have worth isn’t challenged or even addressed. Never mind as well that, as far as they all know, Amon is still at large. But all’s well that fucking ends well, right? The season ends before it can ruin itself further. Thank you, “Endgame”. Thank you for making the last twelve episodes of this show completely redundant.

Excellent job, lads! That’s two for two! You’ve fumbled the bag on the finale, again! And the best part? You fumbled this finale with the exact same Deus ex Machina you fumbled the last one with! Be proud.

So, yeah, I’m pretty pissed. This episode is really, really terrible. It’s easily the worst episode in the entire season, and is emblematic of flaws that will plague the entire series. It’s kind of amazing how much it ruins in the length of its runtime. And we’re going to talk about all of it.