Ibrahim Noir

Legend of Korra

Book 1: Air, Chapter 4

We open on a nightmare sequence. Korra is attacked in the middle of the night by chi-blockers. She fights back but is overpowered before long. Amon then appears and voices out Korra’s worst fear:

[Amon] After I take your bending away…you will be nothing.

Korra jolts awake but is comforted by Naga. It’s an effective tone-setter for the episode, appropriate given how the last one ended.

We then see Republic City’s government for the first time: The United Republic Council, consisting of 5 representatives of the Four Nations (the Southern and Northern Water Tribes each have their own representative.)

The hell kinda governing body is this? First of all, isn’t this supposed to be a republic? What kind of republic governing model uses non-elected representatives? (And they are non-elected because a democracy isn’t put in place until Book 2.) This model is just asking for corruption. There is one council member who acts as a chairman that can conduct and moderate meetings, and effectively get the final decision on a matter! How is it decided which councilman gets that kind of power over everyone else? If Aang founded the United Republic to allow benders and non-benders to live together in peace, why aren’t there any representatives of the non-bending population on the council?

But even if we accept that this is the structure, the representative-to-population ratio is completely unbalanced. The Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation have the largest populations by far, and yet they each get one vote same as the Water Tribes and especially the Air Nation, which easily has the lowest population of all with one airbender that isn’t a child as well as the Air Acolytes. And now that I mention it, at this time both Water Tribes are effectively under the jurisdiction of the North, and yet they get a vote each! Shouldn’t the Earth Kingdom have a little more influence over what is effectively its own former territory? The United Republic is essentially a fifth nation; shouldn’t there be a representative of the original Fire Nation/Earth Kingdom colonies?

Miniseries or not, this was not thought through at all.

So a meeting is held to discuss the Equalists. The Northern Water Tribe representative, Tarrlok, proposes a task force to seek out Amon and bring him to justice and even volunteers to lead it. Tenzin is fervently against this for reasons that don’t make any sense. He says an “aggressive” move like this will only further the bender/non-bender divide and that Tarrlok is only doing this as a ploy to gain more power. Which…I mean he’s absolutely right because he’s apparently read ahead in the script and knows Tarrlok is a villain, but he doesn’t elaborate on these or, more importantly, propose any alternative solutions…as it stands, Tarrlok is the only one ready to do something so Tenzin doesn’t really have a leg to stand on here. Tarrlok recalls a situation from 42 years back involving a man named Yakone and tells Tenzin that Avatar Aang had no problem facing that situation head-on. Tenzin is angered by the comparison to his father, calling to attention again Tenzin’s own reverence of him and insecurity over being able to live up to his legacy.

All the same though, the other council members vote in favor of Tarrlok’s task force because their only purpose in the plot is to give Tarrlok leverage in furthering his goals. The council makes no sense but it would at least be interesting to see the five members bounce off each other in debates like this, maybe giving us a chance to see the values of their respective nations and how they may mesh or clash with each other. But these meetings are really just head-to-heads between Tenzin and Tarrlok, because the others aren’t so much characters as they are hand-raising robots.

Oh well.

That night on Air Temple Island, Korra is practicing her airbending stances some more. Her radio is hijacked and in comes to voice of Amon. His monologues are just too good to paraphrase.

[Amon] Good evening, my fellow Equalists. This is your leader, Amon. As you have heard, the Republic Council has voted to make me public enemy number one, proving once again that the bending oppressors of this city will stop at nothing to quash our revolution. But we cannot be stopped. Our numbers grow stronger by the day. You no longer have to live in fear. The time has come for benders to experience fear.

During this, there’s an extreme close-up of Korra’s frightened face.

We then cut to the city in the middle of the day(?), Mako’s having a nice lil’ walk when he gets hit by a moped! The owner of the moped apologizes profusely and Mako is about to get angry before seeing that his assailant is, erm…a gorgeous woman?i-blockers. 

This is Asami, and as I touched on last episode, there isn’t a single, better person in the entire city Mako could’ve been hit by in the middle of the street by pure happenstance like this. Asami recognizes Mako from the Fire Ferrets and offers to treat him to dinner to make things up to him. She even offers to get fancy clothes tailored for him!

That night, Tenzin is having dinner with his family when Tarrlok waltzes himself right in to make the moves on Korra (not like that). He immediately turns on the smarm to butter up Korra into joining his task force. Korra…refuses, to the surprise of Tarrlok and Tenzin. She’s evasive on the matter and simply says she wants to focus on her Avatar training. Tarrlok takes his leave but not before promising that he isn’t through trying to sway Korra.

Elsewhere in the city, Mako’s treated to a tailor fashioning him a fancy new look before his date with Asami. The tailor tries to take Mako’s scarf but Mako is adamant that it stays on. We’ll learn why this scarf is so important to Mako pretty soon. During the date, Asami learns that the Fire Ferrets probably won’t be able to perform in the tournament due to their lack of funds, and it’s revealed that Asami is the daughter of Hiroshi Sato, creator of the Future Industries Satomobile!

Wow! What incredible luck!

Bolin arrives on the island and gives Korra a cupcake and a rose as thanks for saving him from Amon. Korra’s reaction is notably subdued and it’s revealed she’s actually been skipping practice. When a messenger of Tarrlok’s arrives with an even more extravagant gift basket to flatter Korra, Bolin asks if he’s bothering her and offers to “talk” to him, which is sweet. Watching again, Bolin in the early season is pretty great. He’s consistently likable (thanks in no small part to P.J. Byrne’s voice acting) and his injection of humor is appropriate for the scenes he’s in, giving levity when it’s needed. And his crush on Korra is very cute. I find myself liking his scenes a lot.

[Bolin] Who’s this Tarrlok guy? Is he bothering you? Huh? Cause I could have a word with him.

[Korra] Heh, no it’s not like that. He’s just some old guy who works with Tenzin on the council.

[Bolin] Oh, good. Good, that sounds better. I like that better.

We then cut to Future Industries, where Mako is meeting with Asami and her father Hiroshi. Hiroshi tells the story of how he too was dirt-poor until he met someone who believed in his Satomobile idea and gave him a small loan of a million dollars to build Future Industries from the ground up.

Oh, and he’s offering to sponsor the Fire Ferrets in the tournament! Woo-hoo! The only catch is the team has to wear the Future Industries logo on their uniform. Mako is obviously ecstatic and readily accepts.

Back on the island, we see that Tarrlok’s gifts have gotten more and more extravagant, to the point where he’s gotten Korra a freakin’ Satomobile. Tenzin finds Korra busying herself with training once more and sits her down for a break. Sensing her restlessness, he tells her he’s glad she turned down Tarrlok’s offer, but wants to make sure she did so for the right reason. He tells her it’s okay to be afraid and invites her to talk to him anytime she needs to, but Korra maintains she’s just focused on airbending.

The scene transitions to Tarrlok’s overworked messenger approaching Korra once again, this time not with gifts, but an invitation: to a gala Tarrlok’s thrown in her honor!

At the party, Tenzin reminds Korra to keep her guard since Tarrlok undoubtedly has an ulterior motive here. She’s introduced to Hiroshi Sato and Mako shows up with Asami on his arm. Korra is dismayed at the sight, especially since she wasn’t told, and the news that the Satos have put them back in the tournament does little to lift her spirits. She also gets hung up on the word “greatness” when Hiroshi excitedly tells her the city expects it from her. We also get another appearance from Lin Beifong, who’s decidedly as mean as ever to Korra when she’s already down.

[Lin] Just because the city’s throwing you this big to-do, don’t think you’re something special. You’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve this.

Damn.

Tarrlok then pushes Korra in front of a bunch of reporters who bombard her questions and accusations about her refusal to join Tarrlok’s task force. Korra’s unable to muster any responses and one reporter pushes her last button by asking if she’s afraid of Amon. Tarrlok’s victory is sealed.

[Korra] I am not afraid of anybody! If the city needs me then…I’ll join Tarrlok’s task force and help fight Amon.

[Tarrlok] There’s your headline folks!

Apprehensive, Korra nevertheless meets with the task force for their first mission: raid an underground chi-blocker training camp. The mission is successful and gets lots of good press, in front of which Korra is emboldened to publicly call out Amon and challenge him to a one-on-one duel!

[Korra] No task force, no chi-blockers, just the two of us tonight at midnight on Avatar Aang Memorial Island. Let’s cut to the chase and settle this thing, if you’re man enough to face me.

Anyway, we cut to Mako and Asami on a nice lil’ romantic carriage ride. Mako explains that his scarf belonged to his father and it’s all he has left of him (think Katara’s necklace without the narrative relevance). Asami snuggles into Mako, making the two an official couple.

So to recap, Mako got free dinner, money for the tournament, and a girlfriend out of this whole thing. The man really hit the jackpot getting hit by that moped!

At the dock, Tenzin tries to tell Korra not to go through with her reckless and dangerous plan, but Korra isn’t backing down. Apparently, even Tarrlok tried to talk her out of it. He assures Tenzin he has police airships at the ready should something go wrong. At the island, Korra waits anxiously for Amon. It’s obvious she’s still scared but is doing this for her own psychological well-being and to prove to herself that she isn’t.

She waits for quite some time until it looks like Amon isn’t gonna show up. Just as Korra is about to leave though, she’s ambushed and immobilized by several chi-blockers before being approached by Amon. In a pretty badass move though (well it was at the time, anyway), he does not take her bending. He says doing so will only make the young Avatar a martyr for everyone to rally behind, but he makes it pretty damn clear that he does intend to take her bending as the last part of his plan before he knocks her out cold. While unconscious, Korra has flashing visions of older Sokka, older Toph, Yakone, and older Aang. Tenzin arrives to see what happened just as Korra comes to, and she finally breaks down sobbing, admitting to Tenzin that she has been terrified and has never known what it’s like to be so helpless.

[Tenzin] Admitting your fears is the first and most difficult step in overcoming them.

This is easily Korra’s best episode so far. I’m pleasantly surprised at the show’s willingness to put her in such a vulnerable position. The ongoing trend to put a stock “strong female character” in the lead is so tiresome among many because so many writers misinterpret “strong” to mean “infallible”, without understanding that watching a character work to overcome their struggles is one of the easiest ways to make an audience connect with them, whatever their gender may be. It’s far easier to sympathize with Korra and root for her here because for once she feels like a character with struggles that she can’t just force into submission or get handed an easy solution for. Book One is really starting to come into its own and I’m ready to go along for the ride.

Now if only we could keep up this kind of storytelling and not get bogged down in pro-bending or a tumorous romantic sub-plot. I guess we’ll find out in “The Spirit of Competition”!