Welcome back for this week’s Legend of Korra review! This week sees us firmly enter the “middle” section of the show’s inaugural season, for better or for worse. Let’s dive in!
1. Previously on Korra: ROMANCE.
On most shows, the “previously on” segment recaps either the most important parts of the prior episodes, or the parts most relevant to the current episode. This one focuses on the romance: Bolin likes Korra, who likes Mako, who is dating Asami and is also Bolin’s brother. It’s a classic love triangle, which is quickly made visual with the three-headed huddle in one of the episode’s opening shots.
This episode is completely about the love triangle. Even the closest thing this episode has to a subplot, the pro-bending matches, end up being an extension of the love triangle story (as I’ll discuss below). I don’t think this is bad in theory — I love a good romance story — but I think there are some weak points in execution that make this my least-favorite episode of Korra’s Book 1.
2. Bolin x Korra.
In an subconscious retaliation against Mako for dating Asami, Korra finally decides to date Bolin. (God, what a sentence.) I appreciate the motivations here, as it shows how stupid these teenagers’ decisions are. I also appreciate the way the show depicts Korra and Bolin’s date: they have a fun night out, but the genuine affection flows in only one direction, from Bolin to Korra.
It constantly feels like Bolin is going out of his way to justify the two going out together. Every time he finds some shallow thing they have in common, he plays that up as a reason they make sense as a couple. But even with that, the two are on completely different planes of existence. Korra lives her life in a grounded and forward-moving way, while Bolin is constantly up in the clouds of his self-delusions. These scenes really work to show how incompatible the two are.
3. “Haven’t you hurt me enough, woman?!”
Honestly, Bolin gets downright groan-worthy in this episode. The scene where he brings flowers to Korra just as Korra and Mako kiss? Okay, so that part wasn’t exactly groan-worthy because of Bolin’s actions, but let it be known that I did groan OUT LOUD. As I said earlier, a love triangle isn’t necessarily a bad idea for a story; the execution is just too melodramatic, and it didn’t need a whole episode to itself.
4. Pro-bending, part deux.
Something I did really appreciate about this episode was the way it brought back pro-bending and used it to enhance the primary story of the episode. Just as the earlier pro-bending episode used the sport to show Korra’s acceptance of airbending movements, this episode used it to show the state of the team, either working in-sync or not, based on the status of their personal issues. Simple? Yes. Seen it before? Sure. But for me, it worked.
I also love that this episode didn’t explain pro-bending any more than last time. As with the first outing, we were thrown right into the ring as the announcer shouted what we should or shouldn’t be excited about. We even got a few new twists that we didn’t see last time, like the one-on-one fight and the “yellow fan,” which I’d assume is like a yellow card except for the fact that I do not know one thing about a single sport.
5. Tahno and the Wolfbats!
In this episode, we meet a new player who seems to be the new big bad: Tahno, pro-bending master and all-around bad-boy, voiced by none other than… Rami Malek? This was a few years before his breakthrough role in Mr. Robot, so it’s fun to see what kinds of roles he was given back then, especially since this is SO far from the type of thing I’m used to seeing from him.
Tahno doesn’t get too much development here, just coming across as a nefarious, smooth-talking, generally menacing dude. He has no issues with going right up to Korra to intimidate her (which doesn’t work, naturally).
As the episode ends, his pro-bending team, the Wolfbats, finish their semifinals match in record time… meaning the Fire Ferrets will have to face them next time! What a cliffhanger, folks!
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Alright, now that that one’s out of the way, I’m excited for things to heat back up next week. What did you think of the episode? Do you agree with my critiques? Do you actually like Bolin and Korra together, for some reason? Let me know in the comments!
