Ibrahim Noir

Legend of Korra

Book 1: Air, Chapter 8

We open on the group ferry-ing over to Air Temple Island, where they’re welcomed by the Airbender kids.

I guess now’s a good time as any to bring it up but…why does Meelo look like that.

Speaking of the little charmer, he precociously remarks on Asami’s beauty and asks for some of her hair. Mako lightheartedly states he has competition. Little does he know that Meelo is a master rizzbender and will absolutely steal your girl if you’re not careful.

There, I made the joke.

While Jinora and Meelo show Mako and Bolin the men’s dormitory, Korra and Ikki lead Asami to her room. On the way, Ikki innocently asks Asami if she knows that Korra likes Mako. Korra’s response is this:

There is a large number of what you might call “meme faces” across Avatar. Shots where characters’ features are drawn in an exaggerated, goofy way for comic effect. It almost feels like a formality to provide examples; if you’ve seen the show, you know what I’m talking about.

I’m about the criticize the face used here and I’m sure there’s a portion of you wondering why. It must sound like I’m being incredibly unfair to Korra and showing blatant bias towards Avatar right now. Korra’s just had her world rocked by a child exposing a truth she would’ve have rather kept secret to the worst possible person. What could be so wrong with this? It’s just a representation of how she feels in the moment.

Well, to draw Korra with an unhinged jaw, impossibly wide eyes, and with photorealistic lightning and explosions in the background, is a clear communication to me that the crew was borderline desperate to have a meme face of their own and pulled out all the stops. It’s the most blatant, try-hardiest attempt at making a meme from the ground up, rather than a funny expression that earns its meme status.

But maybe I’m wrong. How well did they do?

I want you to open a new tab and look up “Korra face meme”. In fact, in the interest of fairness, look up “Korra angry face meme”. You’ll see this face a couple times but far more often you’ll see faces that are much more subdued and in-line with the faces made in Avatar, including the face Korra makes to Lin that I highlighted in the first episode. In fact, Korra makes a much more naturally comedic “shocked” face in this episode, mere seconds after the try-hard one.

You might think that a goofy face is more or less the same as any other, and that’s a fair perspective to have. I think there’s a scale to these things, as I do with most things, and while I couldn’t draw a definitive line, we’ve definitely passed it here to go from “goofy” to “trying way too hard to be.”

With that tangent over, Korra then presents Asami her room. She enters and locks the door on Ikki, evoking a brief fit of rage.

Inside the room, Korra shows Asami around and the two basically ignore the truth bomb Ikki just dropped.

Okay then.

Instead, she apologizes for the room being more rustic than what she’s used to. Asami doesn’t mind, however, as she’s happy to be away from anything that reminds her of her father.

Tenzin comes in and says a new police chief, Saikhan, is being inducted that day and implores Korra to attend the cere,pmy. At the event, Saikhan announces that he’ll be reporting directly to Tarrlok for anything involving the Equalists and that the police will lend any men and resources needed to his task force. Basically, Tarrlok controls the police and Saikhan’s just been placed as his figurehead. His gambit has paid off.

Tenzin confronts Tarrlok over his weaseling and by now Korra’s caught on to his underhandedness too. She tells Tarrlok that there’s no way in hell she’s rejoining his task force and that he needs her more than she needs him. She finishes by saying, “I’m the Avatar.”

Unfazed, Tarrlok delivers a precision strike to Korra’s ego and denounces her as a “half-baked Avatar in-training”. He mockingly asks how much progress she’s made in her airbending and Korra is left to cope and seethe. Tarrlok finally says that if she isn’t going to rejoin his task force, she’d best stay out of his way.

Now that Tarrlok brings it up, we have spent very little time on airbending in the season so far, and we’re more than halfway through. Korra got the hang of the forms all the way back in the second episode, but since then, it’s been kept on the back-burner in favor of the Equalist plotline…and the borked romance. I’m not saying it’s easy to juggle both but that’s the bed the writers have made. “Air” is what the season is named after. And the way they’ll choose to resolve Korra’s conflict with airbending will not be worth it, as we’ll discuss. Episodes like “The Spirit of Competition” are part of the reason I give so little credence to the excuse of Book 1 being written as a miniseries. Even with the time they’re given, they struggle to tell this story in a streamlined manner and stay on task. Even though the show seems aware of the problem here, enough to have a character point out how little progress Korra’s made, nothing is actually going to be done to fix the problem. It’s just so the writers can treat us to Korra having a moping session, which isn’t entertaining or helpful to the plot. She doesn’t even try to meditate on the visions of Aang like Tenzin suggests. She complains about being a spiritual failure, but the only time we’ve seen her try to meditate she gives up after five seconds. What are we meant to think about Korra? Because I don’t think the writers intended for us to think of Korra as a whiner who hardly tries and gives up if she doesn’t succeed right away. Because a character like that is naturally very difficult to get behind and root for.

Anyway, the important thing to take away from the conversation she has with Tenzin is that the visions might be Aang’s spirit trying to tell Korra something and he suggests she meditate on them. As stated, Korra does not do this and has herself a cry before the rest of the gang catches up to her. Korra explains her depression by asking how can she defend the city if she can’t even airbend, calling herself “the worst Avatar ever.”

Aww.

She finishes by saying she feels “alone” which feels like a bit of a non-sequitur but whatever. 

Mako and Bolin remind Korra that Aang hadn’t mastered all the elements when he battled the Fire Nation and he had friends to help him. They say they’ll defend the city together and Bolin, by now pretty much cemented as the group’s imitation of Sokka, declares themselves the “new Team Avatar”.

I think it says something that the scene where Sokka declares the group “Team Avatar” is mostly humorous and inconsequential, stemming from Sokka trying to come up with a name to everyone’s annoyance. This is because the group dynamic had already been firmly established. You already knew they were a team. The name is more of a formality than anything else, which is why the characters just complain to Sokka about how unnecessary it is. And to this day much of the fandom still just calls them the “Gaang.” Meanwhile, Legend of Korra has to say outright that this new group is a “team” because by now you’d be forgiven for forgetting they’re even supposed to be group of friends given how tumultuous many of their individual relationships have been, and Asami had just become a part of it like a day ago.

You know what else the other show didn’t have? Freaking fart jokes.

They wrote this. They drew it. They animated it. And then they left it in the edit. And apparently not a single person throughout this entire process asked, “Why is this necessary?”

I just want to let it sit that Legend of Korra is regularly touted (by the creators and fans) as the mature alternative to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now that show wasn’t above a little toilet humor. There are plenty of references to going potty and there’s a joke where Aang has himself a, uh…squatting session in the Spirit World. But nothing this overt and definitely not fart jokes. This is supposed to be the big moment where the new Team Avatar forms. What business does a joke like this have in this show, much less this scene?

So Team Korra decide to go out and patrol the city…for some reason. Because Naga can’t carry four people, Asami has the team ride in style in a cool Satomobile.

So what exactly are we doing out here? I know the Equalists have pretty much declared war on the city, but surely they wouldn’t conduct their business out in the open, right? What is Team Korra looking for? We find out that Hiroshi had police scanners installed into every one of his cars. The implication is that he did this was to stay off the police’s radar, but this is such a conspicuous feature to add to all your cars that it’s almost impossible to believe no one was suspicious of him from the beginning. Is this even legal? Why would the average person need this? This was written so our heroes could have a convenient means of being able to locate plot, and evidently no one thought about it further than that. Sure enough, a report of a Equalist jailbreak comes in, giving the group a team of bad guys to apprehend so we can have a cool car chase.

How dramatically convenient.

Do you see the cavalcade of clumsy writing we had to go through to get to the car chase the writers wanted? Because they need Team Korra in the city, they wrote them going out on patrol for no particular reason. Because the team needs a reason to be out here, they wrote a sudden Equalist jailbreak. Because they need a way for the team to find out about it, they wrote police scanners in all of the Satomobiles without considering the implications.

🤓☝️ “Well how would you write it, Ibrahim?”

I’ll try not to do this too often cause I’m no script writer, but we can tweak this so it’s a little more natural. You can give the group the stated goal of trying to snuff out the Equalists from underground, since that’s where they usually operate. They could start with the area they took Bolin. It’s not likely they’ll be there again, but the team figures it’s a good place to start. On the way there, they could find Tarrlok’s task force already responding to the jailbreak, prompting Asami to use her super driving skills (and knowledge of the city’s backroads) to catch up to them first. It’s not amazing, and there’s still some convenience involved, but at least this gives the group a reason to be in the city, and for them to roughly be in the same place at the same time as the escaped convicts. And hey, we can still get our chase!

Speaking of our car chase, the sequence features a truck that simply stops in the middle of the intersection for no discernible reason at all. Is it an Equalist truck sent to slow down our heroes?

Nope. Normal guy. So why did he stop? Did he just want to die? Once again the writers took a shortcut to a payoff they wanted. Now we have an obstacle in the way so Korra and Bolin can earthbend a ramp, which is cool to see. What’s so annoying is that there’s a really easy fix for this: simply have the driver be a hapless victim who was knocked off-course by the Equalists…or just make the driver an Equalist as I suggested earlier. We get some more point-and-shoot lightning from Mako and Bolin fires some earth pellets to slow down the motorcyclists. This prompts them to cover the team in smog and turn quickly in an effort to lose them. Asami catches this and has Bolin earthbend a ramp to help her car make the sharp turn. What follows is the team forcing the chi-blockers onto the car and fighting them off, Asami making use of her new Equalist glove. Mako uses lightning again (this time with some windup, which I appreciate) and the team effortlessly detains the Equalists.

Tarrlok’s task force arrives just too late and Korra smugly mocks him for his tardiness. Tarrlok tells Korra off for tearing up the city, which raises an interesting question of what exactly are the consequences of folding the city streets with earthbending. He warns Korra once again to stay out of his way.

The next day at the city council, Tarrlok proposes what is effectively a ban on Equalists. It would make it illegal for anyone to associate with the Equalists and additionally enforce a curfew on all non-benders who are out past nightfall. Tenzin opposes this because it restricts the rights of non-benders, but as you might expect, the other council members side with Tarrlok. Not a single member brings up that the law, on top of being draconian, is completely useless. The law would make it legal for the police to arrest Equalists or Equalist sympathizers. In other words, exactly what they were doing already. This doesn’t make it any easier to snuff out Equalists, since very few are going to broadcast their allegiance to Amon, and the curfew doesn’t solve anything either because the Equalists operate in secret outside of the law already. This literally accomplishes but nothing except alienating the innocent non-benders and putting the city in a state of further unrest.

But the show has dropped the pretense and is now trying to broadcast as loudly as possible that Tarrlok is evil so we need him to do this sort of thing.

That night, Team Korra intercept another police report of Equalists, armed and dangerous, taking to the streets in another part of the city. This time, Bolin calls shotgun. It seems Asami hasn’t forgotten Ikki’s comment earlier, as there’s a shot of her pointedly looking at Mako and Korra getting chummy in the rearview.

The team makes it to the Dragon Flats borough, which has had its power cut off by the police and is currently having the curfew enforced on threat of arrest. They’ve blockaded an angry mob of regular non-benders who are upset at being treated like criminals. It seems all Tarrlok’s new law has accomplished nothing except alienating innocent non-benders and putting the city in a state of further unrest.

Who could have guessed?

A mother behind the blockade begs Korra for help, saying “You’re our Avatar, too.” Korra finds Tarrlok and demands he turn the power back on and leave the people in peace. This is a good mark for her character. Tarrlok ignores her and tells the police to round up all the “Equalists”.

Unreasonable curfews imposed? One group of people singled out by draconian laws? Taking over the police and turning them into personal enforcers? What does this remind you of? Seriously, the Nazi comparison is as blatant as it is tiresome. Tarrlok was always a douchebag but there was always a layer of good intentions, not to mention cunning, that made his actions at least understandable even if he had selfish motives. It made him, dare I say, nuanced. But the show is doing away with any sublety to paint him as so over-the-top and indefensibly evil that it bleeds into our perception of his intelligence. Is he stupid or just insane now? Does he sincerely believe he’s the good guy here? Does he actually care about even being perceived as a hero by the public anymore? I was sure he did.

Tarrlok has the police start lifting the civilians into the air with earth and metalbending, but Korra sets them right back down. In retaliation, Tarrlok arrests Asami for being a non-bender out past curfew, as well as Mako and Bolin(???) Korra, having had enough, lifts up two enormous slabs of earth and aims them at Tarrlok. Tarrlok threatens to arrest her next if she doesn’t drop them and go back to the Air Temple. Korra reluctantly puts them down at Mako’s behest and Korra promises to call Tenzin to bail them out.

Tenzin arrives to assist Korra at the station later that night and immediately requests that Saikhan release Korra’s friends and the innocent non-benders, as they’re still entitled to due process under the law. Saikhan tells him that he needs to take it up with Tarrlok. Korra denounces Saikhan as the “worst chief of police ever” and what follows is a bit from Tenzin I quite like. Tenzin grabs Korra by the shoulder, telling her to calm down and that they just need to be patient. Before leaving though, he quickly turns around and says to Saikhan, “But you really are the worst! …Ever!” It’s dialogue you could pretty much entirely attribute to Katara being Tenzin’s mother. It’s comedic but it’s also nice to see he’s inherited her fire, even if it’s mostly kept underneath his father’s peaceful demeanor.

Korra is not so peaceful, however. Unable to wait till morning, she rides Naga over to City Hall to confront Tarrlok personally. Tarrlok is at work in his office, which is decorated with a large waterfall depicting Tui and La behind his desk. It’s a cool detail that implies every councilman has an office in theme with their represented nation. Anyway, Korra enters through the goddamn window and Tarrlok orders his assistant (the squeaky-voiced fella from “The Voice in the Night”) to leave the two of them alone. Korra accuses Tarrlok of doing exactly what Amon criticizes benders for: using their power to oppress and intimidate people. Tarrlok asks a simple but piercing question in response.

[Tarrlok] And you don’t?

[Korra] Of…of course not!

[Tarrlok] Isn’t that what you came here to do? Intimidate me into releasing your friends?

He’s exactly right, and Korra has no response other than to glare at him. Tarrlok goes on to say that he admires Korra’s willingness to go to extremes to get what she wants, saying they’re not so different in that regard. Korra vehemently refutes they’re anything alike. Tarrlok then offers to release Korra’s friends if she guarantees she’ll come to heel. Korra refuses to become another one of Tarrlok’s pawns and tells him he’s “just as bad as Amon.” Outraged, Tarrlok lashes out and tries to definitely kill her with waterbending. He starts off with a sharp slash that absolutely would have cut Korra in two had she not dodged in time and spam-fires many sharp icicles at her, some of which cut her skin.

Does he have a plan for if he’s discovered to have killed the Avatar…?

It’s a quick and intense fight that showcases a detail I like about Korra. Korra is physically buff and is pretty damn adept at fighting unarmed. With the Avatar being able to bend all four elements, there isn’t much incentive for one to train in unarmed martial combat, but Korra clearly did and she demonstrates a great deal of strength and dexterity throughout the series, showing that her buffness isn’t just a design quirk. I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, but to me, this does not contribute to Korra being an…ary-May ue-Say, because it follows that she’d train to fight this way given her personality. Here she punches through a few of Tarrlok’s icicles before giving up and just earthbending the wall the waterfall is pouring down from.

Tarrlok is thrown through the wall of his office into the main hall.

[Korra] Still think I’m a half-baked Avatar?

With Tarrlok out of water, Korra corners him and approaches with firebending. I guess she’s also definitely trying to kill him at this point. Does she have a plan for if she’s discovered to have killed a councilman…?

We never find out as Tarrlok increduously starts bloodbending her.

[Tarrlok] You’re in my way, Avatar. And you need to be removed.

So Tarrlok is an incredibly skilled waterbending who happens to be able to bloodbend. I’ll admit this was unexpected and it caught me off guard. It’s a bit contrived to have this take place on the night of a full moon, but I’ll allow it.

[Korra] (stuggling) It’s…not a full moon. How…how are you doing this?

Wait, it’s not a full moon? That’s like the one limit bloodbending has because it’s so OP! You have a lot of explaining to do, show.

Tarrlok slams Korra against a pillar to knock her out. While unconscious, Korra has more Yakone visions, this time with Aang, Toph, and Sokka all being subdued and struggling against bloodbending. Korra wakes up tied up in the back of Tarrlok’s Satomobile. Tarrlok tells her to say goodbye to Republic City, as she’ll never see it again. Korra is barely able to let out a breath of fire before he slams the door shut and drives her off into parts unknown.

“When Extremes Meet” highlights a problem with the series thus far, that being the very low amount of focus on airbending. It does nothing to remedy this, despite how dangerously close we’re getting to the end, instead prompting Korra into a mope session in order to springboard the very forced formation of a new “Team Avatar”. A team that is then disbanded as suddenly as it’s created before we can even properly get a sense of what it is. Imagine if the show had ended after this season, as was almost the case at some point. This would be the only episode to feature the “new” Team Avatar being a team, and it only lasts like five minutes, tops. The group remains split up for pretty much the rest of the season. Tarrlok also plummets into cartoonishly evil territory fast in this episode, which is a shame because he’s been a fine secondary antagonist up to this point, honestly. It also continues the show’s merciless attempts to break bending, specifically the bending sub-types. First it was metalbending, the lightningbending, and now bloodbending is on the chopping block. But we’ll delve into that further next time in “Out of the Past”.