Legend of Korra 1.03 The Revelation Television 

Five Thoughts on The Legend of Korra’s “The Revelation”

By | August 22nd, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Hey, everyone! I hope you’ve had a fun week binge-watching the show now that it’s on Netflix. As for us, we’ll be continuing the same once-a-week in-depth reviews as always. Let’s get into episode three!

1. Shady beginnings.
Since last episode quickly introduced Mako and Bolin, this is the first time we learn about their pasts. It turns out they were mugged by a firebender and orphaned when they were kids, and have been scraping by as street urchins ever since. In that time, the two have formed a close bond, but they also have connections to the shadier elements of Republic City.

I think this background is pretty unique in the Avatar world, and it works on a few levels. For one, the firebenders aren’t seen as “the ultimate enemy” as they were in early Avatar episodes — Mako is a firebender himself, as was one of his parents — but rather, the incident is presented as a random act of violence. I also think it’s great to have characters who exist in grey areas, having been part of gangs and committed crimes, but still painted in a sympathetic light as they were kids who were just trying to survive.

This also makes the pair a great foil for Korra. She even said it herself: “I’ve never really needed money. I’ve always had people taking care of me.” Korra, the ultimate pampered Avatar, is suddenly thrust into this world of grey, befriending people with issues she had never considered.

2. Twists and turns.
The story for this episode starts in one place and ends up going in about a dozen places before reaching the end. At first, it seems like the story is going to be about Mako and Bolin trying to make money. Pretty quickly, it starts turning into a brewing gang war, then twists into a kidnapping investigation, before ending in an anti-bending rally. That’s a lot of places to go in a twenty-minute episode.

And yet, I do feel like it works. The story ends up feeling like a fast-paced detective story, unraveling and twisting before you have a chance to realize where things are headed. It’s certainly a more unfocused plot than any episode of Aang’s adventures, yet the new direction and unending suspense makes sense for Korra.

This direction is not without its flaws, though. At the beginning of the episode, a character is named, given a distinct voice and design, made to seem important, and then never shows up again for the rest of the show. It works for now, but it’s a sign of a potential character overload that will be more prevalent in later episodes.

3. Action like never before!
Finally, for the first time in the show, we get one-on-one, hand-to-hand, hero-versus-villain action. And it’s truly unlike anything Avatar has ever seen!

These scenes really make use of Korra’s 16×9 aspect ratio, giving us widescreen movie-like action. The characters dance upon the moving backgrounds as the “camera” zooms in and out, putting us right in the heat of the action and emulating the action scenes of big-budget live-action movies.

I do feel like, in lesser hands, these techniques could be used as a crutch to make less-interesting action seem more engaging. Here, though, directors Joaquim Dos Santos and Ki Hyun Ryu keep the focus on the martial arts and the character acting, utilizing these new techniques to improve what was already there. Mako is lithe and agile, while Korra is more blunt and direct, and the chi-blocking Equalists bounce around and flail their limbs like… a lizard trying to get used to being in a human body? I dunno, those guys are weird and creepy and I love them.

4. A love triangle is born.
Early in the episode, Mako notes that Bolin has probably gone off to try and woo Korra, after his macking last episode. Not long after, on Mako’s journey with Korra, the two accidentally flirt and start to make deeper connections, falling asleep under a tree together. In other words: let the shipping wars commence.

I don’t really have a preference here, especially knowing the show’s endgame, which I won’t spoil here for those who don’t know. From what we’re given, though, Mako and Korra are a fun pair with enough commonalities to make sense together. Let’s see how they develop.

Continued below

5. The revelation.
In the final act, Korra and Mako attend a rally where a masked figure named Amon preaches against benders, before bringing out some criminal benders and taking their bending away! Amon has a sufficiently creepy, deep voice, with enough calm passion to easily amass followers. His speech is purely emotional, detailing how his family was killed by a bender, and how that therefore makes benders the oppressors whose time “in power” is up.

I love that the emotional element of the speech, the thing that deeply reaches his followers and the thing that is used to justify his heinous extremism, is the same thing that Mako and Bolin have gone through. The difference is all in their perspective on the events: Mako and Bolin see it as random happenstance, while Amon sees it as a reason to take an extreme anti-bending stance.

As Korra and Mako break up the rally, we’re left with a ton of questions. Who is Amon? How deep does this movement go? And how can he possibly have the ability to take away someone’s bending??

What did you think of this episode? Are you a fan of the new directing style in the action scenes? Does Amon seem like a good villain for Korra? What about the budding romances? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll see you all next week!


//TAGS | 2020 Summer TV Binge | Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Legend of Korra

Nicholas Palmieri

Nick is a South Floridian writer of films, comics, and analyses of films and comics. Flight attendants tend to be misled by his youthful visage. You can try to decipher his out-of-context thoughts over on Twitter at @NPalmieriWrites.

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