Korra got sonned by the spirits... another L.
Bone Bender
Superstar
Su was fukking badass. Awesome fight scene. I loved when she bended that metal into armor.
Toph showed that if she were 10 years younger or at least motivated she woulda given Kuvira that work.
Toph showed that if she were 10 years younger or at least motivated she woulda given Kuvira that work.
Yeah I think I remember Toph doing it during Sozin's comet.
It's a shame this universe is ending
In all fairness, there will probably still be comics coming out for a while.
There's a comic series scheduled to come out next year that takes place a few years after A:TLA ended. From what I understand it's going to focus on some people in the fire nation rebelling against Zuko's leadership. The "New Ozai Society". And there will supposedly be at least one more comic series after that.
But yeah, I'll miss this series.
FakeCaringGawd
Pro
When Kuvira was twirling that pin 
Thought of that scene in Xmen: First Class where Magneto moved the quarter through dudes head
We can only imagine if this wasn't a kids show
Thought of that scene in Xmen: First Class where Magneto moved the quarter through dudes head
We can only imagine if this wasn't a kids show
Toph came through and took out erebody in one big swoop. 
Kuvira ain't even buck.But the Su vs Kuvira fight was dope.
We should get an earthbending avatar before the series is ended. Only seems right.
found this earlier and meant to post it but forgot. good read
Violence, Power, Control, and Korra
I’ve spent a whole lot of keystrokes on this blog talking about the theme of identity in The Legend of Korra, mainly in terms of Korra herself and her two villainous mirrors. In doing so, however, I’ve sort of shortchanged a second main theme of the series — control — which is probably a bad thing because the two themes actually come together in some interesting ways.
Let’s start out with Korra’s childhood. We see Korra taking charge of who she is right from the very beginning — she’s the Avatar, and you gotta deal with it! Because of that, ironically, she’s taken to live in the Order of the White Lotus’ compound, where her life is strictly controlled. For the time being, she’s willing to deal with that because her goals align with those of the White Lotus; while she’s there Korra can learn to fight and be the Avatar, and when she’s kicking around her training partners and being the Avatar, the power that she wields makes it seem more like she’s in control of her life. Power, violence and control kind of become conflated in Korra’s mind because of this; she often focuses on one in response to a lack in the other(s).
One might begin to think she likes beating people up… ;)
Almost as soon as the show begins, however, it becomes quite obvious that Korra doesn’t really have much control over her life. Tenzin decides not to stay at the South Pole to train Korra; all of a sudden, being stuck in the compound is keeping Korra from what she wants. Korra honestly can’t deal with this, so she runs away and heads off to Republic City to convince Tenzin to train her there.
In Republic City, however, everything conspires to keep Korra from being in control, and she stubbornly insists on taking her sense of agency back by force every time (to generally-poor results). She can’t get food without money; so she goes and gets her own by fishing in the park, only to get chased out by the security guard. The protester threatens her identity as a bender; she threatens him physically, and she ends up getting chased off by an angry crowd. She tries to get back in control by taking out bad guys — using physical violence against others to make herself feel better — but gets arrested for it; she resists arrest, but gets taken in anyway.
And that’s how things generally go for her in the city. Tenzin eventually gives in and lets her start her airbending training, but that just leaves Korra feeling even less in control because she’s so bad at it. Frustrating her further is the fact that her typical method of succeeding through brute force (and giving up when that doesn’t work) ranges from useless to actively destructive — one of the best demonstrations of this is when Korra insists that she must be doing something wrong in meditation practice and decides to leave before it’s over. Korra’s literally incapable of doing nothing, and refuses to give up control; she lashes out with violence, she yells at Tenzin and blames him for her failure, and she eventually runs away to the probending arena against his wishes.
Korra’s experience in Republic City summed up in one picture.
Probending actually functions as an outlet for Korra to retake control of her life in a lot of ways throughout the series, though not quite so much when she first joins the team. In fact, it’s only when her intentional efforts fail and she starts acting instinctively that she gets the airbending movements down and is able to save the game.
As you can see, even in the first two episodes, there’s this major theme of control — both losing control and being desperate to regain it, and surrendering control in order to airbend. But it’s The Revelation where things really start to get interesting, because Amon is Korra’s fear of losing control incarnate. Amon can take away Korra’s bending, which is the core of Korra’s identity, and because of that he can take away her will to fight, leaving her terrified and powerless. Korra hates this so much that she refuses to accept that it’s happening. First, she lies (to herself and everyone else) about being too focused on her airbending to worry about Amon. Tarrlok, master manipulator that he is, repeatedly forces the issue, which frustrates Korra to the point that she kicks around his unfortunate lackey (there’s that retaking-control-through-violence thing again) and finally ends up acting rashly and challenging Amon to a duel to prove (to herself and everyone else) that she isn’t too scared to face down Amon if that’s what the city needs the Avatar to do.
Amon is very hands-on when it comes to intimidation.
This, of course, doesn’t turn out very well. If there’s one person more invested in control than Korra and Tarrlok, it’s Amon; he doesn’t just show Korra up in a one-on-one fight, but instead pulls off a massive power-play, personally intimidating her while she’s tied up in the middle of a circle of his followers, unable to move or even look away. And then he knocks her out, and she instinctively connects to her spiritual side and is given guidance from Aang for the first time ever. Korra’s ability to act spiritually is, like her ability to move like an airbender, connected to a lack of conscious thought.
Korra’s had about enough of that, though, breaks away from her obligation to the city completely, and focuses on probending, where she really can be in control of her life. And it all goes well, until her love-live turns to chaos and it starts affecting the team’s performance. Korra’s frustrations eventually bubble up as violence again — she bounces around an opponent player for no reason whatsoever and attacks the referee who penalized her for it. But, in the end, she’s able to set her feelings over the romantic debacle aside and pulls off a hat-trick victory because of it.
Blatant abuse of power always makes my bad days a little more bearable…
That doesn’t mean she isn’t up for a little confidence boost by taking down Tahno a peg or two, though. He’s already tried to bait her once during the tournament, and she’s very much up for getting him back for that. As usual, her sense of control ends up compromised — the Wolfbats are allowed to blatantly cheat, but Mako tells her she can’t cheat right back, as much as she really wishes she could. Never one to let something like that go, Korra takes it out on him by utterly dominating him in the tie-breaker and looking exceedingly smug about it (the girl definitely takes a certain satisfaction in overkill).
Of course, the Wolfbats win anyway through cheating, the Equalists attack the arena and Korra is knocked out before she can interfere. Again, Aang is able to get through to her while her conscious mind isn’t in control… and again, as soon as she gets the chance, she chooses to reestablish her own agency by rushing off after Amon and beating up Equalists. There’s a bit of a weird hiccup here with Korra losing control over her water tornado — maybe it’s an attempt by Amon to throw her off? — but she ends up on the roof anyway with Lin’s help, throws around a bunch of Amon’s guys, and kicks his Lieutenant off the side in a glorious display of her power. Eventually, however, the glass rooftop and her sense of control simultaneously shatter, and she ends up falling through the glass, forcing her to rely on Lin to catch her once again.
Days like this, it seems like the universe almost wants you to fail.
After that failure, Korra’s up for showing she can be useful; she offers Mako and Bolin a place to stay (which fails), goes to the police station to help out there, and presses almost too hard on some suspicions she has about Hiroshi based on some rather flimsy evidence. Fortunately, she’s right; unfortunately, the Equalists were ready for that and draw the police force she’s working with into a trap. Korra’s rendered powerless again as the raid attempt falls apart around her; both she and her allies need to be carried out. Surprisingly, she actually gives up a certain measure of control for once by telling Mako that Asami needs him and he should stand by her side. When it comes down to it, Korra really can put others first, though her personality can’t have made that particular act easy.
Watch it, bub. Don’t make me wipe that smug smirk off your pretty face.
Which is why it probably shouldn’t be all too surprising that one of the first things we see Korra do after she gets her friends settled onto Air Temple Island is to try to put Tarrlok in his place the next time he mentions his taskforce. Of course, he has serious issues of his own in terms of needing to be in control and far more practice in verbally tearing people down, so she doesn’t come off well for the exchange. As soon as she stops feeling sorry for herself, though, she bounces right back with another attempt to regain power over her life, hunting down Equalists with her friends, showing Tarrlok up in front of the media, and gloating. Tarrlok responds with a power grab, Korra calls him out, he arrests her friends, she physically threatens him in front of the entire police force; in the end, she’s forced to give in and leave to avoid even worse consequences.
This, of course, utterly infuriates her. She harasses the chief of police with a blatant and quite patronizing invasion of personal space when he won’t help her out, but it isn’t very effective and Tenzin tells her she’d be better off waiting until morning so he can call Tarrlok out politically. Unsurprisingly, she finds herself completely incapable of following through on this and she takes off for the council building in the middle of the night to intimidate Tarrlok himself into letting her friends go.
I came here in a sleeveless shirt in the middle of a blizzard. You don’t want to mess with me.
It’s interesting to note that Korra stages her entrance to look as powerful as possible, dramatically throwing open the window and knocking over all of Tarrlok’s papers with the wind from the blizzard outside. He’s spot-on when he says she meant to intimidate him; she might have started out with verbal persuasion (albeit particularly aggressive verbal persuasion), but showing up the way she did spoke volumes about her willingness to use force in and of itself. And honestly, given how quick she’s been to mistreat his underlings so far, she might have even been waiting for him to give her an opportunity to attack so she doesn’t have to be the “bad guy.”
Thankfully for Korra, he proves easier to bait than she is, so the ensuing fight technically isn’t her responsibility. She’s too angry to stop herself when Tarrlok appears subdued, though, and not only continues to attack after apparently disarming him, but also does so in a way that implies she’s more interested in showing him just how powerful she really is than in finishing the fight. Notably, she doesn’t just try to attack someone who’s apparently defenseless without realizing what she’s doing — she escalates the fight three times after he’s been separated from his element, first destroying the balcony to knock him to the ground, then destroying the floor of the council chamber with an earthbending-assisted landing for no good reason, and finishing by charging at him with fire. The second of those, at least, has no purpose at all besides terrifying him with the scale of her power. Given that, there’s no way Korra’s blind to him backing away in terror — she’s actively seeking out that response. And then, when he’s sufficiently scared, she mocks him for his helplessness and tries to set him on fire. There’s some legitimately nasty stuff going on inside her mind at that point, and it all comes down to her frustration at the powerlessness and lack of control she’s been forced to deal with, both with Tarrlok and in general.
I wouldn’t scramble away in terror if I were you… it’ll just encourage her.
Tarrlok, of course, has a trump card in bloodbending, which is the most direct form of control any bender can have over another person. He throws Korra into a wall to knock her unconscious, once again triggering a vision from Aang when she is least in control, and ties her up; as soon as she regains consciousness, however, she’s right back to attempting to take back control with violence. She breathes fire in Tarrlok’s face, screams in frustration, beats her fists against the metal box she’s stuck in even though it’s pointless, and is apparently so impossible to handle using normal means that Tarrlok ends up untying her and carrying her down to the box he plans to stick her in with the most thorough bloodbending hold seen in the entire series. As Tarrlok attempts to retake control of his own rapidly-disintegrating life with bloodbending, however, Korra realizes that shouting and hitting stuff isn’t working and surrenders control, finally meditating properly to seek advice from Aang.
Even when she’s meditating, Korra still looks a bit agitated.
And she’s rewarded for this with the first proper spiritual communication she’s ever had. Korra sees the entire Yakone flashback all at once, is able to figure out how Tarrlok relates to it all on her own… and promptly uses that to try to take control back from him, looking exceedingly smug when she finds out his own life has been falling apart while he was away. When that doesn’t work, she falls back on her old standbys — hitting things and yelling. All things considered, she might not have lasted long, but it wasn’t bad as a first attempt.
I’ve spent a whole lot of keystrokes on this blog talking about the theme of identity in The Legend of Korra, mainly in terms of Korra herself and her two villainous mirrors. In doing so, however, I’ve sort of shortchanged a second main theme of the series — control — which is probably a bad thing because the two themes actually come together in some interesting ways.
Let’s start out with Korra’s childhood. We see Korra taking charge of who she is right from the very beginning — she’s the Avatar, and you gotta deal with it! Because of that, ironically, she’s taken to live in the Order of the White Lotus’ compound, where her life is strictly controlled. For the time being, she’s willing to deal with that because her goals align with those of the White Lotus; while she’s there Korra can learn to fight and be the Avatar, and when she’s kicking around her training partners and being the Avatar, the power that she wields makes it seem more like she’s in control of her life. Power, violence and control kind of become conflated in Korra’s mind because of this; she often focuses on one in response to a lack in the other(s).
One might begin to think she likes beating people up… ;)
Almost as soon as the show begins, however, it becomes quite obvious that Korra doesn’t really have much control over her life. Tenzin decides not to stay at the South Pole to train Korra; all of a sudden, being stuck in the compound is keeping Korra from what she wants. Korra honestly can’t deal with this, so she runs away and heads off to Republic City to convince Tenzin to train her there.
In Republic City, however, everything conspires to keep Korra from being in control, and she stubbornly insists on taking her sense of agency back by force every time (to generally-poor results). She can’t get food without money; so she goes and gets her own by fishing in the park, only to get chased out by the security guard. The protester threatens her identity as a bender; she threatens him physically, and she ends up getting chased off by an angry crowd. She tries to get back in control by taking out bad guys — using physical violence against others to make herself feel better — but gets arrested for it; she resists arrest, but gets taken in anyway.
And that’s how things generally go for her in the city. Tenzin eventually gives in and lets her start her airbending training, but that just leaves Korra feeling even less in control because she’s so bad at it. Frustrating her further is the fact that her typical method of succeeding through brute force (and giving up when that doesn’t work) ranges from useless to actively destructive — one of the best demonstrations of this is when Korra insists that she must be doing something wrong in meditation practice and decides to leave before it’s over. Korra’s literally incapable of doing nothing, and refuses to give up control; she lashes out with violence, she yells at Tenzin and blames him for her failure, and she eventually runs away to the probending arena against his wishes.
Korra’s experience in Republic City summed up in one picture.
Probending actually functions as an outlet for Korra to retake control of her life in a lot of ways throughout the series, though not quite so much when she first joins the team. In fact, it’s only when her intentional efforts fail and she starts acting instinctively that she gets the airbending movements down and is able to save the game.
As you can see, even in the first two episodes, there’s this major theme of control — both losing control and being desperate to regain it, and surrendering control in order to airbend. But it’s The Revelation where things really start to get interesting, because Amon is Korra’s fear of losing control incarnate. Amon can take away Korra’s bending, which is the core of Korra’s identity, and because of that he can take away her will to fight, leaving her terrified and powerless. Korra hates this so much that she refuses to accept that it’s happening. First, she lies (to herself and everyone else) about being too focused on her airbending to worry about Amon. Tarrlok, master manipulator that he is, repeatedly forces the issue, which frustrates Korra to the point that she kicks around his unfortunate lackey (there’s that retaking-control-through-violence thing again) and finally ends up acting rashly and challenging Amon to a duel to prove (to herself and everyone else) that she isn’t too scared to face down Amon if that’s what the city needs the Avatar to do.
Amon is very hands-on when it comes to intimidation.
This, of course, doesn’t turn out very well. If there’s one person more invested in control than Korra and Tarrlok, it’s Amon; he doesn’t just show Korra up in a one-on-one fight, but instead pulls off a massive power-play, personally intimidating her while she’s tied up in the middle of a circle of his followers, unable to move or even look away. And then he knocks her out, and she instinctively connects to her spiritual side and is given guidance from Aang for the first time ever. Korra’s ability to act spiritually is, like her ability to move like an airbender, connected to a lack of conscious thought.
Korra’s had about enough of that, though, breaks away from her obligation to the city completely, and focuses on probending, where she really can be in control of her life. And it all goes well, until her love-live turns to chaos and it starts affecting the team’s performance. Korra’s frustrations eventually bubble up as violence again — she bounces around an opponent player for no reason whatsoever and attacks the referee who penalized her for it. But, in the end, she’s able to set her feelings over the romantic debacle aside and pulls off a hat-trick victory because of it.
Blatant abuse of power always makes my bad days a little more bearable…
That doesn’t mean she isn’t up for a little confidence boost by taking down Tahno a peg or two, though. He’s already tried to bait her once during the tournament, and she’s very much up for getting him back for that. As usual, her sense of control ends up compromised — the Wolfbats are allowed to blatantly cheat, but Mako tells her she can’t cheat right back, as much as she really wishes she could. Never one to let something like that go, Korra takes it out on him by utterly dominating him in the tie-breaker and looking exceedingly smug about it (the girl definitely takes a certain satisfaction in overkill).
Of course, the Wolfbats win anyway through cheating, the Equalists attack the arena and Korra is knocked out before she can interfere. Again, Aang is able to get through to her while her conscious mind isn’t in control… and again, as soon as she gets the chance, she chooses to reestablish her own agency by rushing off after Amon and beating up Equalists. There’s a bit of a weird hiccup here with Korra losing control over her water tornado — maybe it’s an attempt by Amon to throw her off? — but she ends up on the roof anyway with Lin’s help, throws around a bunch of Amon’s guys, and kicks his Lieutenant off the side in a glorious display of her power. Eventually, however, the glass rooftop and her sense of control simultaneously shatter, and she ends up falling through the glass, forcing her to rely on Lin to catch her once again.
Days like this, it seems like the universe almost wants you to fail.
After that failure, Korra’s up for showing she can be useful; she offers Mako and Bolin a place to stay (which fails), goes to the police station to help out there, and presses almost too hard on some suspicions she has about Hiroshi based on some rather flimsy evidence. Fortunately, she’s right; unfortunately, the Equalists were ready for that and draw the police force she’s working with into a trap. Korra’s rendered powerless again as the raid attempt falls apart around her; both she and her allies need to be carried out. Surprisingly, she actually gives up a certain measure of control for once by telling Mako that Asami needs him and he should stand by her side. When it comes down to it, Korra really can put others first, though her personality can’t have made that particular act easy.
Watch it, bub. Don’t make me wipe that smug smirk off your pretty face.
Which is why it probably shouldn’t be all too surprising that one of the first things we see Korra do after she gets her friends settled onto Air Temple Island is to try to put Tarrlok in his place the next time he mentions his taskforce. Of course, he has serious issues of his own in terms of needing to be in control and far more practice in verbally tearing people down, so she doesn’t come off well for the exchange. As soon as she stops feeling sorry for herself, though, she bounces right back with another attempt to regain power over her life, hunting down Equalists with her friends, showing Tarrlok up in front of the media, and gloating. Tarrlok responds with a power grab, Korra calls him out, he arrests her friends, she physically threatens him in front of the entire police force; in the end, she’s forced to give in and leave to avoid even worse consequences.
This, of course, utterly infuriates her. She harasses the chief of police with a blatant and quite patronizing invasion of personal space when he won’t help her out, but it isn’t very effective and Tenzin tells her she’d be better off waiting until morning so he can call Tarrlok out politically. Unsurprisingly, she finds herself completely incapable of following through on this and she takes off for the council building in the middle of the night to intimidate Tarrlok himself into letting her friends go.
I came here in a sleeveless shirt in the middle of a blizzard. You don’t want to mess with me.
It’s interesting to note that Korra stages her entrance to look as powerful as possible, dramatically throwing open the window and knocking over all of Tarrlok’s papers with the wind from the blizzard outside. He’s spot-on when he says she meant to intimidate him; she might have started out with verbal persuasion (albeit particularly aggressive verbal persuasion), but showing up the way she did spoke volumes about her willingness to use force in and of itself. And honestly, given how quick she’s been to mistreat his underlings so far, she might have even been waiting for him to give her an opportunity to attack so she doesn’t have to be the “bad guy.”
Thankfully for Korra, he proves easier to bait than she is, so the ensuing fight technically isn’t her responsibility. She’s too angry to stop herself when Tarrlok appears subdued, though, and not only continues to attack after apparently disarming him, but also does so in a way that implies she’s more interested in showing him just how powerful she really is than in finishing the fight. Notably, she doesn’t just try to attack someone who’s apparently defenseless without realizing what she’s doing — she escalates the fight three times after he’s been separated from his element, first destroying the balcony to knock him to the ground, then destroying the floor of the council chamber with an earthbending-assisted landing for no good reason, and finishing by charging at him with fire. The second of those, at least, has no purpose at all besides terrifying him with the scale of her power. Given that, there’s no way Korra’s blind to him backing away in terror — she’s actively seeking out that response. And then, when he’s sufficiently scared, she mocks him for his helplessness and tries to set him on fire. There’s some legitimately nasty stuff going on inside her mind at that point, and it all comes down to her frustration at the powerlessness and lack of control she’s been forced to deal with, both with Tarrlok and in general.
I wouldn’t scramble away in terror if I were you… it’ll just encourage her.
Tarrlok, of course, has a trump card in bloodbending, which is the most direct form of control any bender can have over another person. He throws Korra into a wall to knock her unconscious, once again triggering a vision from Aang when she is least in control, and ties her up; as soon as she regains consciousness, however, she’s right back to attempting to take back control with violence. She breathes fire in Tarrlok’s face, screams in frustration, beats her fists against the metal box she’s stuck in even though it’s pointless, and is apparently so impossible to handle using normal means that Tarrlok ends up untying her and carrying her down to the box he plans to stick her in with the most thorough bloodbending hold seen in the entire series. As Tarrlok attempts to retake control of his own rapidly-disintegrating life with bloodbending, however, Korra realizes that shouting and hitting stuff isn’t working and surrenders control, finally meditating properly to seek advice from Aang.
Even when she’s meditating, Korra still looks a bit agitated.
And she’s rewarded for this with the first proper spiritual communication she’s ever had. Korra sees the entire Yakone flashback all at once, is able to figure out how Tarrlok relates to it all on her own… and promptly uses that to try to take control back from him, looking exceedingly smug when she finds out his own life has been falling apart while he was away. When that doesn’t work, she falls back on her old standbys — hitting things and yelling. All things considered, she might not have lasted long, but it wasn’t bad as a first attempt.
2nd part
The next thing she knows, Amon has taken Tarrlok’s bending and is ordering his Lieutenant to electrocute the metal box she’s in to move her easier. Korra wants none of that, though, and pulls off a clever trick to escape, knocking the Equalists aside for just long enough to take off instead of fighting them head-on. She can’t resist taking a shot at Amon himself with some deadly-looking icicles, but they fall short in another odd is-he-waterbending? moment and she cuts her losses and takes off. She’s not in control and she knows it, so she focuses her efforts on getting away rather than getting back at the ones responsible; while she does manage to escape Amon, she ends the episode in the worst state we’ve seen her in so far.
Korra recovers quickly but doesn’t really get to do very much for a while. She and her friends help rescue Tenzin, but there’s not all that much she can do when the entire city is falling apart around her and Air Temple Island is being invaded. She’s told by Tenzin to lay low and wait for reinforcements, and she doesn’t have much of a choice but to listen to that advice, even if she doesn’t like it.
Korra really wants to beat someone up right now. It doesn’t really matter who.
And so, of course, the next time we see her, she’s already procured some Equalist outfits for herself and Mako and she’s all too eager to go up and knock some heads. As soon as she realizes that the United Forces fleet is under attack, she’s right out there helping to defend it (which fails) and, even when given a task that could significantly help out the second round of reinforcements, she’s more interested in striking directly at Amon himself because not knowing whether she’s going to be hunted down or not is impossible for her to accept.
The way that plays out isn’t anything like she expected, though. Her initial plan to ambush Amon turns into a plan to expose him after she finds Tarrlok in the attic and learns his story, which then falls apart and turns into a series of instinctive, completely-by-ear decisions that wind up exposing Amon and unlocking her airbending at the expense of the rest of her bending. Given the connection between Korra’s nascent spirituality and her increasing powerlessness, it’s not hard to imagine that her sudden ability to airbend might have something to do with her utter lack of control in that situation; the attempt to attack Amon that turned into her first air punch was so instinctual that it wouldn’t have even done anything if she couldn’t airbend. (Another way to look at it is to consider that she might not even be trying to retake control for herself anymore, but acting purely out of concern for Mako, and that act of selflessness helped to trigger her airbending ability)
In any case, once Amon falls into the water, loses the mask, and runs away as Noatak, there isn’t much Korra can do. Her sense of control is completely shattered; Amon escaped, she lost her bending, and Katara’s telling her that there’s nothing that can be done to restore it.
So, Korra does the only thing she’s still able to do — she rejects the support of everyone who cares about her, telling them that they don’t need to do her any favors. She runs away to be alone, so she won’t have to look so weak in front of them. And then she walks out to the edge of a cliff, so close that her tears fall over the side.
This shot clearly isn’t framed this way just so we can appreciate the scenery.
Korra’s thoughts at this moment are a constant source of controversy in the fandom. Was she planning to jump? Was she just sad?
If you consider Korra’s tendency to go to extremes to regain power over her life, it’s easy to see the motivation for the former. Korra feels weak, helpless, useless. She thinks she’s a burden to the people who care about her, and possibly even a burden to the world as a failed Avatar. In a twisted, messed-up sense, Korra might even see choosing death as a way to end her story on her own terms, the very last thing she’s capable of controlling about her life, and the last thing she can do for the world as the Avatar.
And then, before anything can happen, she abandons that thought, sits down, and cries. If jumping off a cliff is Korra’s last desperate attempt at control, then sitting down and realizing she can’t do it is surrender. And, with that in mind, Aang’s appearance really shouldn’t be all that surprising — he does, after all, show up every time Korra’s not too busy fighting to stay in control.
Korra not actively pushing him away is probably the closest Aang’s going to get to an invitation from his successor.
Korra’s sudden ability to use the Avatar State shouldn’t be all that surprising, either. If the Avatar State works by the Avatar getting literally possessed by the combined power and personalities of all of their past lives, it’s only logical that the Avatar would need to give up a certain degree of control for it to take over. Aang, as an Air Nomad, is completely used to surrendering control, so the Avatar State is able to work through him pretty much any time he needs it (with the side-effect being that, until he learns to temper that surrender with willpower, it’s a completely uncontrollable force of nature). Korra, who is constitutionally unable to surrender control to the needed degree for the longest time, is conversely unable to go into the Avatar State at all, no matter how much she needs it (but, once she finally understands how to do it, she’s able to tame it immediately).
Avatar State Korra is significantly calmer than her status quo, actually.
In conclusion, Korra’s spiritual arc is one of learning to give up control. This is something she’s incredibly resistant to, to the point that it almost seems like she’s learning nothing in that regard throughout the entirety of the show. But that seems to be kind of the point — Korra’s desperate need for control is something so deeply ingrained in her that it takes the loss of her identity and the destruction of her life as she knows it to fully surrender. And that, I think, is why it’s so easy to see the ending as “too easy” — surrendering control tends to look like a lack of effort from the outside, something that’s obviously not particularly difficult. For Korra, however, it’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to do, and overcoming it to even the slightest degree is a bigger obstacle than Amon himself.
In the end, it almost seems like Korra’s barely taken her first steps in that regard. The animatic from Book 2 shows Korra using the Avatar State to cheat in a race with the air kids — she still hates losing so much that she’ll use her phenomenal cosmic powers against a bunch of pre-teens. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t learn anything, just that she’s got a long way to go before she’s a fully realized individual.
Korra recovers quickly but doesn’t really get to do very much for a while. She and her friends help rescue Tenzin, but there’s not all that much she can do when the entire city is falling apart around her and Air Temple Island is being invaded. She’s told by Tenzin to lay low and wait for reinforcements, and she doesn’t have much of a choice but to listen to that advice, even if she doesn’t like it.
Korra really wants to beat someone up right now. It doesn’t really matter who.
And so, of course, the next time we see her, she’s already procured some Equalist outfits for herself and Mako and she’s all too eager to go up and knock some heads. As soon as she realizes that the United Forces fleet is under attack, she’s right out there helping to defend it (which fails) and, even when given a task that could significantly help out the second round of reinforcements, she’s more interested in striking directly at Amon himself because not knowing whether she’s going to be hunted down or not is impossible for her to accept.
The way that plays out isn’t anything like she expected, though. Her initial plan to ambush Amon turns into a plan to expose him after she finds Tarrlok in the attic and learns his story, which then falls apart and turns into a series of instinctive, completely-by-ear decisions that wind up exposing Amon and unlocking her airbending at the expense of the rest of her bending. Given the connection between Korra’s nascent spirituality and her increasing powerlessness, it’s not hard to imagine that her sudden ability to airbend might have something to do with her utter lack of control in that situation; the attempt to attack Amon that turned into her first air punch was so instinctual that it wouldn’t have even done anything if she couldn’t airbend. (Another way to look at it is to consider that she might not even be trying to retake control for herself anymore, but acting purely out of concern for Mako, and that act of selflessness helped to trigger her airbending ability)
In any case, once Amon falls into the water, loses the mask, and runs away as Noatak, there isn’t much Korra can do. Her sense of control is completely shattered; Amon escaped, she lost her bending, and Katara’s telling her that there’s nothing that can be done to restore it.
So, Korra does the only thing she’s still able to do — she rejects the support of everyone who cares about her, telling them that they don’t need to do her any favors. She runs away to be alone, so she won’t have to look so weak in front of them. And then she walks out to the edge of a cliff, so close that her tears fall over the side.
This shot clearly isn’t framed this way just so we can appreciate the scenery.
Korra’s thoughts at this moment are a constant source of controversy in the fandom. Was she planning to jump? Was she just sad?
If you consider Korra’s tendency to go to extremes to regain power over her life, it’s easy to see the motivation for the former. Korra feels weak, helpless, useless. She thinks she’s a burden to the people who care about her, and possibly even a burden to the world as a failed Avatar. In a twisted, messed-up sense, Korra might even see choosing death as a way to end her story on her own terms, the very last thing she’s capable of controlling about her life, and the last thing she can do for the world as the Avatar.
And then, before anything can happen, she abandons that thought, sits down, and cries. If jumping off a cliff is Korra’s last desperate attempt at control, then sitting down and realizing she can’t do it is surrender. And, with that in mind, Aang’s appearance really shouldn’t be all that surprising — he does, after all, show up every time Korra’s not too busy fighting to stay in control.
Korra not actively pushing him away is probably the closest Aang’s going to get to an invitation from his successor.
Korra’s sudden ability to use the Avatar State shouldn’t be all that surprising, either. If the Avatar State works by the Avatar getting literally possessed by the combined power and personalities of all of their past lives, it’s only logical that the Avatar would need to give up a certain degree of control for it to take over. Aang, as an Air Nomad, is completely used to surrendering control, so the Avatar State is able to work through him pretty much any time he needs it (with the side-effect being that, until he learns to temper that surrender with willpower, it’s a completely uncontrollable force of nature). Korra, who is constitutionally unable to surrender control to the needed degree for the longest time, is conversely unable to go into the Avatar State at all, no matter how much she needs it (but, once she finally understands how to do it, she’s able to tame it immediately).
Avatar State Korra is significantly calmer than her status quo, actually.
In conclusion, Korra’s spiritual arc is one of learning to give up control. This is something she’s incredibly resistant to, to the point that it almost seems like she’s learning nothing in that regard throughout the entirety of the show. But that seems to be kind of the point — Korra’s desperate need for control is something so deeply ingrained in her that it takes the loss of her identity and the destruction of her life as she knows it to fully surrender. And that, I think, is why it’s so easy to see the ending as “too easy” — surrendering control tends to look like a lack of effort from the outside, something that’s obviously not particularly difficult. For Korra, however, it’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to do, and overcoming it to even the slightest degree is a bigger obstacle than Amon himself.
In the end, it almost seems like Korra’s barely taken her first steps in that regard. The animatic from Book 2 shows Korra using the Avatar State to cheat in a race with the air kids — she still hates losing so much that she’ll use her phenomenal cosmic powers against a bunch of pre-teens. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t learn anything, just that she’s got a long way to go before she’s a fully realized individual.
MrFantastic
Pro
But the Su vs Kuvira fight was dope.
We should get an earthbending avatar before the series is ended. Only seems right.
I would love to see an Avatar from each group...to see how they handle conflict would be cool
Reid2Achieve
Superstar
I wish they showed more fire nation...
I'm not ready for this series to end.
I'm not ready for this series to end.
I agree...it kind of sucks that we haven't see the Fire Nation at ALL in LoK. And we've barely even seen the Firelord.
Now I know they probably didn't want to focus on the Fire Nation since they had so much focus in A:TLA...but still, it wouldn't hurt to at least give them a little shine.
fire nation is probably the dopest one in my book, them and the air nomads.. too bad the cycle calls for an earthbender next cuz roku was aiiiiiight
Reid2Achieve
Superstar
Kyoshi (earth nation origin)) was dat bish...7 ft tall, making islands, and living 230 years and shytTook Roku like 20 years to become a fully realized Avatar and ultimately didn't do shyt noteworthy until his afterlife
SN: Anyone wonder why his dragon never grabbed him from out of that smoke, instead of just curling up and dying with him?
yeahisaidit
All Star
I don't think Roku could've been saved from the volcano. Things were out of control after he saved the Firelord.
Took Roku like 20 years to become a fully realized Avatar and ultimately didn't do shyt noteworthy until his afterlife
SN: Anyone wonder why his dragon never grabbed him from out of that smoke, instead of just curling up and dying with him?
Rigby.
The #1 Rated Mixtape of all Time
I really wanted to see Tora fight Kuvira
Pretty amazing Kuvira is able to use metalbending better than the Beifong family
Pretty amazing Kuvira is able to use metalbending better than the Beifong family
Rigby.
The #1 Rated Mixtape of all Time
I think Kuvira is better with Earthbending and it's subcategories than Zaheer is with air. Zaheer just had the spiritual advantage over Kuvira.