THE LEGEND OF KORRA - Season 3 Final Episodes! (Patreon)

Season One - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 / Season One Finale 

Season Two - Part 1  - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 / Season Two Finale 

Season Three - Part 1 - Part 2 

Onto the finale!

10. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

This one pulled a great hoodwink.

But first, let’s talk about “fun complications” episodes. Because when the time comes to plot a season of television, you are faced with a pressing central question: how do you keep tension and interest over the course of each episode? Now, when a lot of people start writing they errantly take the central conflict and try to “spread it out.” Which means they they try to hide critical information / plot block, tease ideas in away that piques curiosity but not clear rooting interest, and create endless “big” confrontations where the good guy and bad guy meet then slink away because you can’t have it actually change things until the climax. 

Which is all problematic because it means you only had one idea for a central conflict and had no real idea how to change and bend it through many episodes. For an example of show that does this, there’s Stranger Things (which has a lot I like, too) and also the first two seasons of The Legend of Korra. But for good plotting, you need to create new conflicts with smaller goals that operate within the story so that you can tell a story that actually changes the wants / needs of the conflict. Things that reshape the character dynamics and move the story in new directions! Thus far, this season has been so so so much better at doing this. And this episode is no exception as they dig into “fun complications” episode.

What is that exactly? Well, it’s when the main conflict gets diverted in a way that puts the story in new spiraling directions. To wit, I mentioned at the end of the last recaps that the adventure was coming back together at Ba Sing Se. But there’s the wrinkle: Zaheer and his villain group have captured Bolin and Mako and so, they have come to make a bargain with the queen: Zaheer wants the Avatar. He KNOWS The Queen has the Avatar captured (and being delivered as we speak). And Zaheer will make a bargain and tell The Queen where her stolen air benders are. It some ways this feels like a classic “villain team up moment,” but there’s complications because 1) the queen is evil and 2) because Korra and Asami ain’t gonna go down easy.

Speaking of which, I love the little model design of Korra in her Hannibal Lecter restraints. But turns out Asami gets to do something helpful, too because she understands the design of her opponents’ shoddily made airship! She breaks her restraints and helps the two of them get one over on the guards. But in the battle there’s a fun wrinkle: Korra damages the airship and they crash land in the middle of the desert! Complete with a giant monster stalking them from the dunes! Now, the two sides that were just fighting each other now have to work together to survive. This is great conflict stuff and plays out with some fun laughs. But they try working together uneasily, they fix the airship and then CRONCH, the giant Dune-esque sandworm attacks and they have to do it again. This time for real and build a sand sailor, which leads to nice little escape scene and eventual catharsis between the two sides. As B story adventures go? It’s done really, really well.

But even better, the story of Korra escaping directly effects the A adventure. Because it quickly brings to light the fact that the queen isn’t going to honor her deal with Zaheer. And because she looks down on everyone, she totally doesn’t understand the dude she just messed with. Thus Zaheer turns the tide immediately. He and his villain team take out her guard so swiftly. But that’s also when you realize something huge: OH, this is not JUST the fun complications. The whole time this conflict has been heading toward something bigger and deeper, which backs up the entire thematic point of his villainy. 

The second they go after The Queen and start the Red Lotus revolution I was like, “OH, OF COURSE, DUH!” which is what all great reveals should do. And the actual assassination scene of Zaheer using air bending to asphyxiate her is probably one of the more terrifying moments in the Avatar-verse (along with the first episode of blood bending / Azula’s general malice). It really hit me on a visceral level. But there’s something else here that really hit me, too: the solidification that what makes Zaheer compelling is how much we understand him. 

When Zaheer takes this revolutionary action, it is not something done with mustache twirling relish, nor is it some bad spirit manipulating him. We now know what Zaheer cares and doesn’t care about. We have the motive now established in the last episode and it’s perfectly timed for his move against the queen. We are dramatizing his want. And as we see Zaheer tear down the rings and class structure of Ba Sing Se in this truly revolutionary way, we come to the crux of his characterization. And when it comes to the villains of the Avatar-verse, I can only think… 

“By jove it’s been awhile!”

BEST JOKES / RANDOM THOUGHTS

-I realized a funny thing. Now that I’m just super into the plot and rhythm of the show, I realized I don’t really like the opening newsreels, because for the first time I feel like it sets off the tone? It weirdly made more sense for the modern bent and plot convolution of seasons past, but here I just want be in the moment (and the writing is so sharp we don’t even need them).

-Bolin: “I appreciate it Mako… and fellow prisoner man.”

-Zaheer gets a joke! “I just need to make an announcement to the entire city!… How do I do that?” Maybe it wasn’t even meant as a joke, but it’s still funny.

-Re: Bolin Metal bending. I sense this is going somewhere and I really hope they do whatever it is right. But it also invites the question. In real life, what makes it so we can do a thing we couldn’t do before? What makes that click moment happen? I’m nervous because Korra always seems to skip that important moment because it’s never attaching them to real psychological understanding. But now that this season is actually working? The stakes are high!

-NAGA jumping on Lin, ooooh a good call back to their little love / hate relationship!

-During the sand worm escape I almost thought we were gonna get a Jonah and the whale moment.

-Little dumb thing, but you only get two “this is only the beginning”s in a season, come on! You literally said that, like, two episodes ago!

Anyways, *presses play excitedly*

11. THE ULTIMATUM

Ba Sing Se has fallen. Now, you could worry this was going to be some kind of comment on rioting and those who participate in it, but instead it’s just sort of just displaying it? The show does not want to put a heavy touch on any political leaning and seems much more comfortable making jokes. Still, the problem of watching a thing made even in 2014 is that with 2020 eyes the notion of “looters” is such a loaded word, especially when comes racial language and who gets criticized for it and those who do not. The truth is, we were having those conversations back in 2014, just as we have been since the damn 1960’s. But whatever insight the show could put into the notion of “rioting is the language of the unheard,” they’re just NOT COMFORTABLE really getting into any of it. So instead, you more have to look at specific characters.

For example, the grandma’s conservatism and longing devotion to the queen. Again, here’s it’s done laughs but there’s also something that evokes the problem of being the old, indoctrinated family member. I also feel like it’s hard to put a finger on what they’re after given the hyper specificity of different political situations. Like, if this was a parable to the USSR it would be different than a parable to Germany, which is different than Venezuela, which is different than the age of Trumpism. But again, they’re not trying to turn it into a parable, which works to its strength AND failure. Again, it’s mostly just going for the joke. And the revolution really only works in small plot terms, it that it serves to get Mako and Bolin to round up their extended family and get them to safety, which in this case is Metal City.

Meanwhile in the B plot, Korra is the object of ultimatum: “turn yourself in and we’ll let the air benders go.” This is, sort of a non starter though, especially on the plot level because her decision doesn’t even get resolved within the episode. Korra goes to hunt for Zaheer in dream world and runs into Iroh again and he says, “in the spirit world, you always find something you didn’t know you were looking for” and they have a little talk. But the answers doesn’t really give an answer. Korra then takes the whole thing to have an impetus to have a conversation with Zuko and just gets a similar non-answer. Both times Korra is like “this is great, thanks!” and I can’t believe the episode doesn’t underline the key point here? Because it’s not only that Korra does NOT have all the answers, it’s the fact that sometimes there ISN’T a good answer. But instead they just come so close to saying that right, but ultimately it becomes wishy washy delay stuff that isn’t accurately reflected in the episode itself.

What the episode does best, however, is the big confrontation in the Northern Air Temple. This is also where the season structure is critical. You saw the new air benders come together once in a small stakes way, now when they REALLY have to come together, you actually believe what they can do and it makes the battle feel earned and competitive. And dammit, there’s few creative teams that are so good at doing battles like this. It’s got objectives and reversals and all the good stuff we talked about before. But it’s dramatic too. I love the way they animate the edge of her water with the ice and make it feel dangerous. I love Bumi being outmatched and resorting to wrestling and biting. I love Tenzin’s entire resolute, yet somber attitude throughout all of it.

And ultimately it’s so compelling because they are dramatizing the “tragic arc” of battle. Kai does the brave distraction because he’s always been brave, but never had something else he cared for. And it all leads to a hell of an “all is lost moment” of Kai getting hit AND the air bison running away without them. You see the pain of both Jinora’s face as both ahppen. And it leads to the moment of Tenzin finally only being overmatched by the FOUR villains at once. Which all leads to the dark moment of panning away as the audience realizes they’re basically going to torture him (at least as much as a nickelodeon show would allow). But in doing so, it evokes that sometimes there’s more power in what we DON’T show. They all lost the battle. But by sheer luck, Kai has survived and gets away… and as he sails off on his little bison, we cut to black, and we know what he represents…

The hint of hope.

RANDOM THOUGHTS / BEST JOKES

-Grandma: “You are are very muscular for a woman!” Korra: “Thanks? You too?”

-Bolin: “I don’t see any “up” button! I see levers and switches and- oh there it is.”

-Lin: “Good, you guys aren’t dead!” Love how funny Lin is getting.

-Grandma: “And I’m going to take a nap!”

-Oh and just a little note I really like how the animated the boredom of long journeys on the airship. Small thing, but done really well!

Onto the final two!

12. ENTER THE VOID

“Guess he doesn’t need a ride.”

With that, I was hit: OF COURSE Zaheer has learned to fucking fly! Ha! Man, THIS kind of moment is what they’re so much better at this season. Remember, how last season I literally talked about the way story reveals need to work? That you can’t just cryptically tease the thing you’re going to do twelve times and be like “NEVER MIND THAT, DON’T LOOK AT THAT HAND!” You have to have someone lay the idea in more sneaky-like, just as Zaheer did with his little history speeches. And then, just like the magician, you make them pay attention to something else, totally distracting with the other hand, what with all the action of the story and what not, and then bam! Of course! It’s such a rad moment. 

Better yet, it feels like a motivated character moment. Because it wasn’t some lore mumbo jumbo like we got with Vaatu and the spirit stuff. It made sense with the established rules and Zaheer’s ability to finally let go of the one thing he cared about on earth (though I will say, the way tall lady boom boom’s death was animated made it so I wasn’t quite sure had died in that moment? But I realize it’s sometimes one of the tricky things when you cant actually show death in your kids show). There’s also something to the humanity of Zaheer’s depiction here. He didn’t kill her on purpose to transcend to power like a cartoon evil guy. He stayed loyal to her. And even after she died, he’s not driven by revenge. It more becomes this dire moment, quickly turned into this weird gift of letting go into zen-like malice and it’s all part of what makes Zaheer a compelling villain. The keep him human, but in this really interesting, non-obvious way.

Anyway, let’s go back a bit to how we go there. For the initial moment where Korra gives herself up is interesting because it’s part of the problem with the wishy-washy stuff I mentioned about her non “decision” in last episode, specifically in that it should have been decided at the end of the last one. BUT! I will say, I like the way the actually hand-off goes. It feels intense and stakes-y. Though I will say, I wish we got one little bit of WHY the bad guys double crossed them in that moment? I know that may seem like trying to retroactively explain, but we’ve gotten so much dialogue about the villains’ “honorable intentions” that I wanted something about how it’s too risky to let air benders after them? Something? I dunno. It’s not really a big deal, but the quick betrayal felt a little off. Perhaps I’m overthinking it because the episode still totally works. 

That said, it’s also an episode that doesn’t have a ton more to dig into, as it’s largely setting up the finale. But it sure does leave us with a hell of an image. Because the sight of the Northern Air temple breaking down into the nothing? With the magma almost swallowing it whole? It’s really affecting. Not just because it’s been a meaningful location this season (and in seasons past), but because we’ve come to see this location much the way that Tenzin does. We see that the walls of history that have been on the edge of falling down, something capable of getting lost to the winds forever. But this viewpoint also adds to the belief that preserving the future means holding on to the past so tightly. But often it’s the opposite. The way forward is always in embracing the new. But to achieve that kind of real change, you need to learn the lesson just like Zaheer does. 

Because the biggest change often comes when we’re forced to let go.

RANDOM THOUGHTS / BEST MOMENTS

-Isn’t platinum a super soft metal and you can like bend it with NON avatar strength? Am I crazy?

-The hardest I laughed yet was just some pitch perfect delivery: Mako: “You’re a lava bender! Bolin: [very serious]: “I know… I just found out.” Better yet this is another example of a great reveal that was set-up so deftly with a bait and switch. They lean so hard into the metal bender thing, that OF COURSE his unique ability was right in the place he was never looking. Which totally fits into his change in personality this season, too.

-I was wondering what the “caw caw!” callback would be. It’s not exactly inspired, but I always appreciate when the callbacks are there as opposed to left hanging.

-Ahhh, the shoehorned cameo moment! You may notice the weird beat in this episode when Kuvira, the captain has these very strained moments with Korra’s Dad and Suyin - and as an audience member you’re like, “uh, wait what the hell was that?” But in reality it’s just one of those production things where they wanted to give a totally cool person a speaking role (in this case Zelda Williams), but just never found something more integral to the story. More hilariously, by hovering on the moment it unfortunately make it seem like Korra’s dad and her are gonna hook up. Overall I’m for it.

-Am I cold hearted for bristling when Tenzin called Oogie “old friend” ??? I was like “NOT THAT OLD!” It’s been, like, a year? I think it’s still fallout from them just quickly creating an Appa replacement last season without any real storifying behind it. To wit, they did such a better job with the lil bison this season and earning that affection we have for them.

-I love the great beat with Mako appreciating Kai when he comes back to help them and Kai saying he deserved the earlier criticism. It’s the sign of a good arc being ingrained in relationships. After all, what was the thing Kai could never do at the start of the season? Stick his neck out for others. What could he do now? Stick his neck out. Good stuff.

-Also I’m going to note it here because the final recap doesn’t do a jokes section, but did we never get a callback to Korra finally being able to metal bend? I feel like that set-up got dropped? Am I wrong?

-Korra: “You killed my father!” The writers have it so she’s always yelling in these kind of moments and I totally get it. But part of me wants tears from Korra in this moment, a more personal and softer: “you… you killed my dad.” Because we get that vulnerability from her so dang rarely. Besides, the whole point of these death fake outs anyway is to make the character feel sad and get us to empathize with them, you know? Also I feel like Korra actually needs to lose something (edit note: I swear I wrote all this before the finale)

-As I’m numbering this recap I was like, wait did I miss an episode? Nope! But I hope the fact that this season is 13 episodes really helps put to bed the theory that previous seasons “need more episodes” to tell those stories. Because they don’t. Here, with one less, this season felt bigger and full and well-paced storytelling and they even took great time for character building stops and had “the fun episode” along the way. Again, it’s NEVER the episode number. It’s the know-how and the purpose. And this season they’ve really brought it.

Now let’s see if they brought it to the finale :)

13. VENOM OF THE RED LOTUS

*Slow clap*

The finale is just spectacular. Everything crests and collides in these little neat ways. But rather than summarize on a plot level (especially for what amounts to yet another big fight), let’s talk about each character and the way it adds up to a catharsis for the season, even if some of those moments are smaller than others. Starting with…

Bolin - They were finally were like “okay, let’s not just have him be the joke machine this season!” And thus Bolin got wants, needs, and some personal growth, all addressed within family history and new love interest! And proof in the pudding is that by making him real, he also delivered the funniest lines he’s had in the show yet. As for the finale, not only does his lava bending showdown / rematch work so well, but holy shit the gag of Bolin throwing Opal’s mom out of the way so that HE could hug her is so outrageously good. I actually rewound it. The one thing I’ll say for Korra is that even when the show wasn’t working, they are SO GOOD AT THIS kind of gag. But when the show IS working on a foundational level? It makes these kinds of gags downright heart warming.

Mako and Asami - Don’t worry, I’m not grouping them because they’re together again! Ha. It’s just they remain the two “least figured out” characters in the show. But I will say that the strength of this season is they at least learned what NOT to do with them, especially in the context of each other. Starting with the fact they are no longer saddling Asami with love lorn looks and instead making her a good friend to Korra who was even right there in the end. Same goes for not putting Mako and his obstinate ways at the center of a plot line, nor love triangle. In the end, it was him mostly learning to be along for the ride. But he still got a big moment in the finale with the lightning reversal against water lady, which was downright inspired. For both, I’ll take it! Now hoping for something deeper and more personal with each!

Lin and Suyin - They ultimately landed on the sentiment they needed to, and please understand, I very much like these characters! But I want to *love them.* The thing is that takes much more exacting work, and this is the one relationship that suffered from inexactitude. I’ve covered most of the reasons why, but even in the finale they hit a couple needed beats in a middling way. For instance, there’s this unspoken rule of writing that having a character say “I love you” onscreen is almost always unsatisfying. And thus you have to find the way to say the thing that means I love you instead. Usually it’s something built from the established language of the characters (of which there is plenty of fodder and opportunities for set-ups, I would have had it be something their mom never did for instance).

But there’s a bigger missed opportunity here, too. Which is the decision to have Suyin get the poison out of Korra BY HERSELF, and it really should have taken BOTH of them metal bending and working as a team to get it out of her. It’s just one of those obvious symbolism / harmony things that would make that important moment much more meaningful. Hell, you could have incorporated water in the poison removal, too (which gets dad involved) and whatever other properties to just amp that moment up a bit. Because we also want that save to be part of people who have a stronger personal history and connection to Korra. Instead it’s just Suyin for some reason. But even with all that, it’s okay. I like the plot line. I just wanted to love it.

Zaheer - So here’s the thing about Henry Rollins. Obviously, he’s not a classically trained actor. Hell, sometimes his delivery cane even fall flat. But what he is outrageously good at is maintaining the tenor of his voice. One which somehow strikes this combination of gravely calm, and intense, and yet always with this zen-like even keel. Meaning he is such an integral part of what makes Zaheer work so well. In trademark fashion, The Legend of Korra is not really interested in picking a part a sociological construct of anarchy, it’s interested in the people. And what I like about the finale is there’s something actually hit up upon here when it comes to Zaheer’s motives. Sure, he talks a lot about kings and queens, but when he says he wants for himself and others “to be free,” the thing Zaheer really wants is not to give a shit about anyone. Look no further than his flying transcendence of after his GF dies. There’s something really telling about that and his grand cynicism of “entering the void.” He calls this freedom. Really it’s not giving a shit about others and their suffering. It’s even calling that suffering part of the “natural” order. And when it comes to the way that villains get their just desserts, we get Bolin’s “put a sock in it moment” which gets him to finally stop droning on. I mean, as audience member, I like his droning, but that’s part of the fun of what makes it work.

Tenzin - This was a lovely subtle one. Because Tenzin is the control freak, the one obsessed with the past and shouldering the load of history. He puts pressure on himself to guide everything that happens. So ultimately it wasn’t a grand test of his might, but a test of how much he can let go. How much he can let his temples fall and his own young family do the fighting for him. It is the understanding that he saves the air nation not with his actions, but in letting others take up the mantle, ultimately leading to beautiful moment his daughter…

Jinora - We’ve been putting emphasis on Jinora for two seasons now and I feel like it’s finally crested into such a sly, beautifully little character arc. I’ll be honest last season she felt like a bit of a non-starter for me, as Jinora was just sort of magic girl who can do spirits cuz reasons. It’s like the show understood the idea “this character SHOULD be more important, but we’re not sure why.” But this season totally gets the why, for it’s not that she’s the dramatic contradiction for Tenzin, it’s that she’s what saves him and helps him grow. For Jinora’s maturity and know how is so at the root of Tenzin’s letting go. 

And in the finale? She is the inception point, the one who has the idea to get everyone working together to make the tornado, which is a HUGELY cathartic thing to watch because it is is the culmination of the entire season’s plot and purpose. She even gets a nice moment reuniting with Kai that’s totally handled with cute grace and affection. So when season can ends on the note of her becoming a master and getting her tattoos? Hot damn, I love it. Particularly the way it just arrives at that moment with Tenzin’s emotional speech. It’s just amazing cathartic stuff… 

Which finally takes us to the one person who had trouble celebrating that moment…

Korra - And so we come to it.

Sometimes, emotional arcs can hit you in a surprising way. Because for a long time, this show has had a bit of a “main character problem.” Which means that even though Korra is basically the engine of all the plot and action in the show, they’ve often missed the mark when it comes to her arcs and characterization. Still, I at least commended this season for learning how to make her funnier and get into some of her interiority better when it comes to big decisions (or at least tracking it better). But its here in the finale that we finally tap into something bigger. And it certainly helps that the first part of her “end boss fight” is a mental battle.

Now, it’s probably a bad sign for those last two seasons that I completely forgot “the avatar state” is the time where the Avatar can actually die / not be reincarnated. Here, the notion that Zaheer is going to draw it out of Korra with poison while she’s chained up? Then just kill her? Well, it’s a damn good one, because it inverts the audience’s rooting desire. For so long this show has treated the avatar state as some “god mode” cheat code and it rarely makes the fights a a challenge. But here the idea that we root for is for it “not to happen,” which then allows us to go into Korra’s mind for the interior battle, to the villains that previously haunted her, to Vaatu and the like. And it invites the sweaty, pain ridden nightmare.

Within this, there’s something deeply empathetic about when we see Korra animated “off model.” To be clear, a huge part of this is because Korra’s normal character model is fantastic. The imposing stature, the forward-facing posture, the hands on hips, and even the two fun little side pony tail thingies. She’s someone who puts up a big front and backs it up. But when that front gets ruffled? Or when she really gets really de-powered? The difference really hits us. Here in the finale, we see her see her strung up, disheveled, and weak beyond weak. It’s the most concrete and affecting way of seeing her vulnerable, at least in the tangible surface way.

And that difference is what’s so compelling when Korra finds the strength to fight back. Here it happens not “just because” its time for the narrative to do that, nor because some lip service nonsense. It’s actually a great reversal moment where Korra used her smarts for a reversal right when they think they have her. And then Korra goes HARD when she gets her opening. I love the Johnny Storm action and how it totally reflects her rage mode stubbornness. It’s also what makes her such a good visual counter point to the airbending of Zaheer, as if this entire fight is weirdly the inverse of the Aang / Firelord battle. Watching them zoom around in flight is downright breathtaking (it’s what I’ve really wanted from a lot of Superman battles). And right at the moment where we think Korra’s going to be killed just like the queen, just at the edge of defeat, Jinora and the air benders come to her rescue, and TOGETEHR they chain his foot (aka UN-free him, get it?) and smack him down with an amazing crescendo. It feels a fitting climax to the story, but…

The season saves it’s best scene for last. 

I’ve turned the “Who is Avatar Korra?” question into an ongoing rhetorical one, chiefly because she doesn’t really have that critical definition and big change at her. Sure, the narrative throws big bads and the weight of the world on her, but a lot of her “frailty” has been poorly-executed lip service or quick fake-out moments. So even though I have a lot of empathy and rooting interest in Korra, she still suffers a crushing lack of interior definition. Even as a character on paper, she’s a water bender, but often strikes me more as earth, just as the fires reflect her rage, etc (to compare, Aang was the airbender through and through). But there’s walls and denial with Korra, too. Something that is exacerbated by the fact her defining attribute is that she’s, well, stubborn. She’s not letting things in. 

Which is why the ending of this is so powerful. 

I was literally just talking about the power of seeing her weakened last episode. But this is something else. Seeing Korra in the wheelchair with her pained, hollow eyes feels so different. There’s something about her little ceremonial hat which somehow feels sad. But it’s not just sad. It’s that “off button” that the those with depression can recognize in a second. She’s been struck deeply by these events. Not just because the battle has really, truly seemed to hurt her in a way that the narrative offers no magic fix for, but because Korra’s lost a piece of herself somehow. Maybe it’s even the idea of strong, unbeatable herself. There is a cost to this whole Avatar thing that is really starting to hit her. And again, if change is about letting go, the problem is she’s letting go of something she doesn’t even quite understand. Thus, she can’t break through.

And as everyone else sits and watches from afar, they tiptoe around that problem. They either speculate with fear (like the president) or do their best to help. Asami reassures that she’s there if Korra wants to open. Tenzin commends her bravery. And Meelo wanting to have a fun ride in her wheelchair is one of those kid-like acts of kindness that are so touching, but it only highlight sthe cavernous difference between their young enthusiasm and the heart of our pain. So Korra can only just keep looking out with that 1000 yard stare. For when people are kind to us, it only highlights our inability to connect back. We are locked in bound in our own head. And when I talk about arcs, I talk about a central question…

What is it the thing they do at the end they couldn’t do at the end?

For Korra, the girl who could bend the elements, who could leap up mountains, withstand poison, turn back the tides of chaos, and vanquish the spirits of darkness… In the end, she did the one she was never brave enough to do before.

She cried.

<3HULK