THE LEGEND OF KORRA - Season 4 - Episodes 1-2 (Patreon)

Time for the final season! Maybe we’ll get something a little “balanced,” eh? Eh? Get it? Cause the season is called Balance? Anyway, check out all my recaps of the previous seasons under this tag. 

1. AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

I gotta say it’s genuinely fun to be coming into a season of The Legend of Korra with zero expectations. That’s because after the somewhat alarming experience with the first two seasons, they followed it up with such a rousing third season, complete with a surprisingly emotional finale. This wasn’t just a complete realization of the show’s potential, it actually gave me everything l feel like I could want out of this show. Which means anything else is the proverbial icing on the cake. Besides, what would even come next? I imagined that this season would address the fallout of Korra’s devastating injury, but as for all the other places it would go, I could not even imagine.

Which is probably why I audibly gasped, like, five times watching this first episode.

Not because they were some deep upheaval or reversal to the show’s lore. It was because the episode was so good at finding all these little meaningful status changes in the passage of time (which if you think about it is what Korra *IS* on the whole). And here, the idea of moving the story forward a whole three years seems to be an inspired one, especially because every one has been off on their own adventures.

Asami is helping rebuild New Republic City with her thriving company. Mako is saddled with meaningless guard duty for the snotty Prince Yu, who happens to be the new Earth King in waiting (complete with an upcoming coronation). Meanwhile, Bolin is working to restore order to the earth kingdom by serving under Kuvira: a person we were technically / awkwardly introduced to at the end of last season! Remember? It was so jarring and forced I was like “this is really weird.” Anyway, now Kuvira seems to have a big, ominous role where she’s trying to be rebuild the earth kingdom by putting it all under her control. The story also demonstrates that she’s a truly bad ass metal fighter, taking out a horde of bandits all my her lonesome.  

But what I like most about this first episode is that it’s just coming at her characterization honestly so far. They’re not hiding her nefarious side. There’s no mustache twirling “whooooo me?!?!” designed to clearly bait the audience with a cryptic tease. Nor any of the other problems that haunted villains in first few seasons. Kuvira’s not even really being treated as a “bad guy,” in the traditional sense. It’s just showing that she has the capacity for forthright menace, manipulation, and control in a way that is plain to see. Thus we can be certain that this “great uniter” is surely going to crash against the naivety of Prince Yu.

Better yet, Kuvira’s aims bring us front and center into a conflict Kai and Opal. Because it turns out the air benders are now kind of like the new nomadic world emergency dispatcher types? I hesitate to use the words “police” because they’re not so much policing as they are swooping into tough situations where requested (also, ACAB). They are also now dressed in these weirdly form-fitting clothes that feel a little… snug? I mean, for this show at least. Also, everyone is older now! Kai is apparently dating Jinora outright! And better yet, for the first time Opal has real interiority in this episode. She carries the weariness of long distance dating with Bolin. She also openly combats his “roll along with everything” instincts and wants him to stand up for his values against Kuvira. Which is really a good starting place for the central conflict.

Honestly, before I started this I couldn’t imagine the season’s first episode focusing on Kuvira, Kai, and Opal, but there’s something to that inclination. The world of this show is now bigger and allows for this ensemble-esque way of jumping around the world, catching up with all these characters we’ve established. I genuinely want to give them the time to explore. But as the episode does just that, it’s also inviting the obvious question… Where is Korra? 

Well, turns out she’s not only still recovering, she’s gone AWOL from the southern water tribe. But soon we get our answer: we cut to her currently fighting in an Earth Kingdom combat ring and she’s losing badly. After the match, someone almost recognizes her, but thinks it couldn’t possibly be Korra (especially after that performance). They ask: “whatever happened to the avatar, anyway?”
 

Korra: “I wouldn’t know.”

… Ooh this gonna be good isn’t it?

BEST JOKES / RANDOM THOUGHTS

-The show has always been great at animating character posture and making slight changes to the character models, but here is absolutely no exception. Just stellar aesthetic work that conveys a lot about character, etc.

-For some reason this week’s opening recap absolutely captured the “Springfield is a city on the grow!” energy.

-Meelo thinking himself an adult now is hopefully going to be good (though I gotta point something out in retrospect, he shows us a drawing here that’s childish, but then shows an AWESOME drawing in a few episodes and it feels like an inconsistency!)

-But more than that, I really like how much this episode just feels more grown up in general. It feels like the maturity of the characters is setting in across the board.

-Re: Baatar Jr - I have no idea what this brother betrayal thing is and I even though I watched season three, like, a few weeks ago. Am I missing something? Or is this all just poorly-explained so far and probably going to be explained via retcon later?

-Honestly, I also feel some alarm bells going off because the Kuvira stuff because while presented clearly, it’s also coming off a little forced. The show can be good at people, but so bad at expressing politics, so I’m a little worried about the intersection here. Especially coming after the heights of Zaheer. 

Anyway! Moving on!

2. KORRA ALONE

So! When you name an episode of your show as a direct reference to one of the best episodes of your previous show (that would be “Zuko Alone”), know that you are effectively calling your shot… Luckily, the episode delivers and then some. 

But first a little story time. Back in high school l I was really good at running and I was on a track team that was also, like historically good. But I came out as a freshman and made varsity. It felt great! Like I could really turn this into something! And I continued to get better for a couple of years with no real obstacles… Then I started getting hurt my junior year. It wasn’t even that serious. Just some basic Patellofemoral syndrome that was becoming your tendonitis. But suddenly everything that was once easy for me was hard. Worse, the injury required some of patience of “taking six weeks off and building back strength.” I not only didn’t want to disappoint my coach, but I had absolutely no patience at that age. I just wanted the healing part to be over. So I constantly tried to push through it instead of taking time off. I just so desperately wanted to get myself back to where I was. But the harder I pushed for temporary moments? The more I hurt my knee long term. Soon it morphed into full bursitis and then I got severe damage to the sciatic and tibial nerves. I was stuck being a shadow of my former self. I got distant and trapped in a cycle of frustration. And to be honest, I’ve never actually recovered to this day. If I had to listened to my doctor and actually let myself have the time to heal? Then it could have been okay. But instead I was always getting ahead of myself.

And we know who else is always getting ahead of herself….

Yes, I told that story because this episode portrays the trials of Korra’s injury with devastating accuracy. She’s not used to anything being this hard. And every time she fails it makes her feel futile for even trying. I could not even imagine the trials of paralysis. But, of course, her particular injury is about much more than mere physicality because the episode is a real exploration of trauma, too. Her battle with Zaheer was the fight of her life. Because unlike seasons past, she didn’t go into deus ex machina god mode. Instead, she nearly lost in a way that felt REAL. Thus she keeps replaying the moment of the air getting sucked out of her lungs, along with the aching poison in her veins. It all lingers in way that nothing has before. And it’s resulted not just in a moment weakness, but a life of seeming weakness. No wonder she just keeps going right back to that moment of devastation in her mind. 

Katara describes this feeling of triggering panic attacks so acutely, “your body thinks you’re still in danger, but you’re safe here.” But that’s the thing. It’s so hard to tell your body not to feel something it’s truly feeling, especially when you see the trauma everywhere you go. Now it’s all given rise to depression, as Korra utterly pulls away from the world. She’s constantly tired and exhausted. She reads letters from her friends, but instead of making her feel loved, they just highlight the feelings of difference between them, thus making her feel more alone. Korra falls into full on anhedonia with the inability to connect.

Everyone from the outside does their best. I love that expression of the push / pull of concern from her mother where she tells Korra that they’ve tried to give “as much space as you needed. But we’re worried.” Korra understands, but of course their worry just feels like more weight on her shoulders.This interaction also makes me feel like I’ve genuinely empathized with her family for the first time. Nothing about their interactions feels performative here, just nuanced and real. But perhaps this just highlights such the difference of relationship quality when there’s something really going on within Korra herself. The show is finally going INWARD with their main character in a way that feels dramatized and organic. Which of course gives rise to a pertinent question…

Why did it take so long? 

Any answer I offer is blind speculation, but I think I can wager a guess. From everything I’ve seen from behind the scenes, the creators of the show are pretty similar to Aang. For instance, I remember watching videos of Brian and Michael videotaping fight sequences in their writers room to send the animators. You could see this goofy, kid-like enthusiasm in every thing htey did. I think they innately understood Aang’s carefree, excitable nature, but could also get into his head in a way that felt personal. And from the beginning of The Legend of Korra, they’ve had a much harder time of doing that. Don’t get wrong, I think they know what they LIKED about Korra, from her enjoyable stubbornness, to her awkward socializing, to her abrupt posturing. But getting inside her psychology was always a little harder. But now, finally, it feels like they found a kind of vulnerability that doesn’t just feel performative or convenient, but something completely in line with her characterization and dramatic arc of the story.

Even when Korra makes big physical breakthroughs, it doesn’t fix the last traumatic damage to her mind. She’s still not “herself.” Thus, she keeps running, keeps going off on her journey alone, and keeps getting her ass handed to her so easily from others. She wrestles with this limitation, but in a way where she doesn’t want expectations of the past, nor to be recognized. Which is part of why secretly she tries all the tricks from the past that worked before (if not even a little conveniently). Meaning she goes back to familiar locations, to the tree of time, to the spirits themselves, but they all just end up feeling like relics of a world now gone.  

What I love is how this captures something so simple, yet hard to accept: the thing she is after really is gone. Korra keeps worrying “I’ll never fully recover” but that’s the thing, you never “recover” from trauma in a way that allows you to go backwards. You have to simply accept that things will never be the same. You have to accept that you are going to have to change your life and how you come at your problems. When Korra’s parents tell her “not worry about the future,” what they’re really saying is to accept the reality that she might not have the future she thinks she will, which is to say the future her old self imagined.

There’s an image near the end of the episode that strikes at all of this so beautifully. It’s when Korra tries getting away from her shadow self, to safety at the top of the tree. She gets so close! And then.. ends up falling down, getting smushed into the mud and back into “poison” of the ground. The image actually reminded me of something to do with Tarot cards. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start trying to sell you on the merits of astrology. The truth is that I only love Tarot because it’s great at using common storytelling tropes / visual symbolism to discuss your life in metaphorical terms. It’s just a tool of analysis, and from my story-loving perspective, a damn useful one. 

Anyway, there’s a card called “The Tower”

What it often represents is the structure of your life. The proverbial home you built. Your foundation. All the things that hold you up and keep you safe. But when you actually look at the art on The Tower, you see that the tower is being destroyed by lightning and two people falling all the way to the ground. There are many who consider it a “bad card” for obvious reasons, but with Tarot there really aren’t bad cards. It’s more about illustrating the nature of the pain you are experiencing. Meaning the tower is about time of great upheaval in the structure of your life, often when you lose home, your relationships, or your sense of self. But the whole point of the card is that even though you have fallen out of your tower and crashed to the mud, you’re still alive. Everything you thought kept you safe may be gone, but this is the place where you can truly accept that you’ve fallen all the way down. You’re back to primordial ooze. But that also means this is the place you can begin again. I mean there’s a reason the old woman tells a waking Korra that she literally “found you passed out in the mud.” And there’s a reason we immediately sense that this can be Korra’s turning point.

Because it just so happens, that old woman is Toph.

Fucking A.

BEST JOKES / RANDOM THOUGHTS

-I really love Korra’s redesign. Also, if you watch Korra fight with “herself,” it’s so amazing to see all the little details of how Korra’s shadow self uses her familiar fighting style and the new Korra has adopted a new skittish, defensive style. I know I don’t spend a lot of time analyzing this kind of stuff in comparison to the writing of the show, but they’re so so so good at it. Hell, you could teach a whole animation class on this stuff (and people do!).

-Wait, was the old photographer man on the beach a call back to the guy who went nuts for the spinny thing in the original Avatar? Is that we had that picture???

-Wait wait , old Katara is voiced by Eva Marie Saint? Did i forget that?

-That big toe moment is just a hyper-overt Kill Bill reference, ain’t it?

-Follow the white… doggie.

-Man, Toph is throwing out some real chillin’ in the swamp of Dagobah vibes.

-As this incredible episode closed I saw it was written by Michael DiMartino and it really clarified the flip-side to a lot of my earlier conjecture. Yes, this episode is yet another a big journey that is right his wheelhouse, but it’s his best work with interiority, and maybe the best episode of the entire series. Which is also a continual reminder that whenever we see credits we have to remind ourselves (me especially) time and time again not to get so bogged down in who’s behind what problematic inclinations. In the end, there is the collective execution of good ideas. That and that alone.

I’m actually going to wrap this one up here. Not only because I went pretty deep on that episode, but because I feel like the next chunk of episodes work as their own (somewhat problematic) unit. 

But what a solid start.

<3HULK