Welcome back for our final Book One review of The Legend of Korra! The war is at its climax, so let’s get into it!
1. General Iroh shines!
After his exciting, fan-pleasing introduction last episode, General Iroh gets a bunch of scenes to shine in these two final episodes. He seems to be proficient at anything and everything: he’s a bomb-punching, navy-commanding, airship-hijacking, all-around military man. It’s a bit weird to hear the exact same Dante Basco voice that he used for Zuko, but hey, it’s still fun.
And that’s about all it is. This is the finale, so there’s no time to fully develop a new character. However, as the source of some grand widescreen finale action, I can’t complain about General Iroh.
2. Tarrlok and Noatak.
In a particularly dark story, we learn about how Tarrlok and his brother Noatak, now Amon, were forced by their father, the murderous Yakone, to learn bloodbending as children. We then see how this split the family apart. It is a sad story, as Korra notes. It’s also a bit of a boring story and a huge exposition dump that takes up a quarter of ‘Skeletons in the Closet.’
The scenes are also highly melodramatic, which this show usually avoids, and for good reason. The melodrama in the OG bloodbending episode of Avatar made sense in the context of that horror-tinged episode. But using the melodrama of “the dark art” at this point in the season’s larger arc didn’t work as well for me.
Maybe I’m in the minority there. I haven’t heard any strong opinions about these scenes either way. I’m curious to hear your thoughts in the comments.
3. “The revolution is built on a lie.”
The most interesting thematic aspect of these episodes was the idea that the entire anti-bending revolution was built on a lie: Amon is actually a waterbender. And his followers aren’t crazy about that fact once it’s revealed. The most tragic reaction belongs to Mustache Guy, the Lieutenant of the Equalists and Amon’s second-in-command. You can hear his confusion as he approaches Amon, now questioning his allegiance after having wasted a large portion of his life on a lie. It doesn’t get any happier when Amon bloodbends him and tosses him aside like a dirty old ragdoll.
I appreciate how “the revolution is a lie” isn’t just a plot contrivance. It’s a legitimate phenomenon that happens in real life. Once an idea is hatched, though, and once its followers run with it, it takes on a life of its own, separate from the idea’s founder. So, is this truly the end for the Equalists? The anti-bending sentiments will likely live on with some followers, regardless of the revelations about Amon. And I suppose, if real life is any indication, this philosophy will go under the radar for a while until a new leader eventually pops up.
4. A bit of redemption for Asami and Bolin.
I’ve been wanting to say this for a while but could never find the proper place. Asami and Bolin did very, very little over the final five episodes of this season. Bolin was only ever used for quick (though effective) jokes, and Asami was similarly used for small passive-aggressive moments in a love triangle that nobody wanted. In this episode, they both get a nice climactic action beatt: Asami straps into a mech and fights her father, with Bolin coming in for a last-minute earthbending save. This effectively tragic and exciting scene isn’t enough to excuse the characters’ past underutilization, but it is enough to remind us why we love them.
5. Tragedy times four.
In addition to the tragedies of Asami and Mustache Guy, Tarrlok and Noatak reach a tragic end themselves. As they ride away on a boat towards an uncertain future, an emotionless Tarrlok activates an electric gauntlet over the gas tank, killing both himself and his brother in the explosion. The scene is just as harrowing and powerful today, and it’s still wild to me that Nickelodeon broadcast this murder-suicide scene on a Saturday morning (remember all those memes about the obnoxious Spongebob bumper that would pop up at the worst possible moments?).
And not to be outdone, in an equally tragic scene, Korra goes through a deep reckoning herself once Amon takes away her bending (except her newly acquired airbending, for some unexplained reason). She even walks up to the edge of a cliff and watches a tear fall down the steep expanse, which many fans interpret as suicidal ideation. She trained her whole life to be the Avatar. Without her bending, she feels that she has nothing.
At least Korra’s tragedy ends positively: Just as she lets her tears fall, Aang shows up. She’s finally connected with her spiritual self! She regains her bending along with the ability to restore the bending of others, and the season ends on a final positive note.
It was getting mighty dark there, so I’m glad things ended like this. At the same time, I wonder if things would have ended differently if the show wasn’t originally going to end here. Without spoiling too much, Korra ends in a similarly dark place in a later season, which was done so the creators could spend the following season building her back up. It could have been interesting to start that journey now. Still, I’m happy with this ending.
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Overall, this season was a little uneven, but it was also great fun and a fantastic addition to the Avatar world. I had a great time writing about it, and I hope you enjoyed yourself as well. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next summer for Book Two!
