Fridge Brilliance / The Legend of Korra

Fridge Brilliance for The Legend of Korra. Fridge Horror can be found here.

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General

• The Books are following the Avatar Cycle in some manner, either by title or by theme. So far, it's been Water -> Earth -> Fire -> Air -> Water -> Earth, but the final Book, Balance, breaks the trend.
  • The original series had Water, Earth, and Fire as its first three Book titles. These Books refer to Aang learning the respective element and the settings were also mainly based around those elements (Water with the Water Tribes, Earth with the Earth Kingdom, and Fire with the Fire Nation).
  • Korra has Air, Spirits, Change, and Balance as its four Book titles. Only the first Book continues the first series nomenclature with the elements, but the last three are still important aspects for an Avatar to uphold.
    • Book 1: Air, is next in the cycle, and Korra spends the Book learning about airbending and finally being able to do it by the end. It also takes place in Republic City, a city where people of all nations, benders or otherwise, are free to live, and Air is the element of freedom.
    • Book 2: Spirits, is not named after an element in the cycle. But, the Avatar is a human fused with the mighty Spirit Raava, and the Avatar is supposed to be the bridge between the humans and the Spirits. Relating it back to the elements, the setting is mostly involved with Water Tribe conflict, and Korra learns to use an advanced Waterbending technique to calm Spirits. So essentially, this Book is about Water, which comes after Air in the cycle.
    • Book 3: Change, is not named after an element in the cycle either. However, the Avatar must deal with many changes: the changes in their life after realizing they are the Avatar, the changes in how people will treat them, and so on. To keep the elemental cycle going, the setting is mostly involved with the Earth Kingdom, and Korra learns to use an advanced Earthbending technique, namely Metalbending. This continues the cycle as Earth comes after Water in the cycle.
    • Book 4: Balance, also is not named after an element in the cycle. Although, maintaining balance in the world is the Avatar's job, keeping peace and order wherever there is discord. The setting and plot are mainly Earth nation based, and is the only Book to not continue the cycle. One could say that despite being named Balance, the theme of the cycle was thrown out of Balance. Then again, one could say the book is in the spirit of the Air Nomads, peace, balance, personal sacrifice, enlightenment, and overcoming personal demons.
• So far, each new skill Korra has learned in the Books help her out in the finale in some way.
  • In Book 1, Korra learns Airbending, and just before Amon thinks he has her cornered, she airbends him out of a window.
  • In Book 2, Korra learns how to purify Spirits, which is what she uses to defeat Vaatu after saving Raava.
  • In Book 3, Korra learns Metalbending. At the end of Book 3, she's not the one to use it, instead, it's used to help her: Su metalbends the poison out of Korra. However, it is a skill that Korra makes use of many times during Book 4, such as, metalbending the remaining poison in her body, saving Prince Wu, and defeating Kuvira.
  • In Book 4, Korra uses Energybending to rescue people trapped in the Spirit World. In the finale, she bends the energy of the overloaded Spirit Vine blast itself to save herself and Kuvira.
• Korra was designed to be the complete opposite of Aang, and there are many things that set the two apart, though there are also some similarities.
  • The obvious physical traits: Aang has lighter skin than Korra, is a twelve year old boy, while Korra has brown skin, and is a twenty one year old woman (seventeen at the start of the series). Also, the physical traits of their lovers: Katara has darker skin than Aang's, while Mako and eventually Asami have lighter skin than Korra's.
  • Aang became an Airbending Master at a young age, but had difficulty mastering the other elements, at first. Meanwhile, Korra mastered Waterbending, Firebending, and Earthbending pretty easily, but struggled with Airbending.
  • Aang's top antagonists are Firebenders, like Azula and Ozai, while Korra's top antagonists are the opposite, as she has faced Waterbenders like Tarrlok, Amon, and Unalaq.
  • Aang faces a consistent antagonist, Firelord Ozai, while Korra faces many - Amon, Unalaq/Vaatu, Zaheer, and Kuvira. Also, while Ozai wasn't given much characterization, Korra's enemies each had legitimate reasons for their antagonism that made them more believable.
  • The last Book of the original series ended with Aang taking someone's bending away, while the first Book of this series ended with Korra giving back someone's ability to bend.
  • Emotional maturity is necessary for an Avatar to handle their job, and that is why they are normally informed of their identity when they turn sixteen. Aang was told he was the Avatar at the age of twelve and could not handle it, and the result was the Hundred Year War. Korra learned that she was the Avatar when she was four years old, and grew up believing that being the Avatar is her defining trait. When that status was threatened, she became suicidal.
  • Aang is a native Airbender, and Air is the element of freedom. His major task as the Avatar was to restore freedom to a subjugated world that had nearly lost his native element entirely. Korra is a native Waterbender, and Water is the element of change. She had to guide people through a world facing major political and technological upheavals. This culminated in Harmonic Convergence, where she chose to leave the Spirit Portals open, bringing about a major change to the world that hasn't been seen since the start of the Avatar cycle.
  • Aang only had eyes for his forever girl, Katara, while Korra got together with all of her teammates at some point, in some way or another. Asami is who Korra ultimately ended up with.
  • Aang was raised by monks, making him a compassionate, peaceful, diplomatic Martial Pacifist who was opposed to taking any lives for any reason. He ultimately had to reconcile his pacifist views with the reality of facing Ozai and become confrontational. Meanwhile, Korra was raised to fight ever since she was a child, and adopted a confrontational, sometimes violent attitude. She initially used force to deal with threats, which was something she had to deal with to bring balance to Republic City. She ultimately learned to be more compassionate, even going as far as saving the life of the tyrannical Kuvira from an overloaded Spirit Vine blast.
  • Aang was a free spirit and was more spiritual, while Korra was at first, brash and confrontational, doing well with the physical side of bending but not so well with the spiritual side.
  • Aang was reluctant and afraid to use Firebending after he accidentally hurt Katara, while Korra uses it as often as she can as her go-to element, at least until she learns Airbending.
  • Aang had a year to master the elements to hopefully stop Ozai before Sozin's Comet allowed him to burn down everything, while Korra trained in a time of peace, and was in no rush to master the elements.
  • Aang traveled the world by the age of twelve, while Korra was confined in a compound, locked away from the world, and did not leave until she was seventeen.
  • This post Aang's story (Avatar: the Last Airbender) was about a regular human being learning how to be The Chosen One; Korra's story (The Legend of Korra) is about The Chosen One learning how to be a regular human being.
  • Aang's closest friends were technically nobility: Katara and Sokka were the children of Hakoda, Chief of the Southern Water Tribe; Toph was a member of the Beifong family, a revered Earth Kingdom noble family; Bumi was King of Omashu; and Zuko was a Prince of the Fire Nation turned Fire Lord at the end of the Hundred Year War. Korra's closest friends were of non noble status: Mako and Bolin were Street Urchins turned Pro-Benders looking for money, ending with Mako becoming a detective and Bolin a marriage officiant (among many other jobs including mover-star); Asami, wasn't from a noble family, but her family was rich and upper class. However, unlike Aang, Korra herself is technically nobility; being the niece of the leader of the water tribe (and arguably the daughter of the rightful ruler), and later on the daughter of the new leader of the Southern Water Tribe.
  • Aang's parents and father figure died prior to the series, making him an orphan, but his closest friends all had at least one parent during the series; Korra's parents are still alive come the series finale, but her closest friends' parents are dead or jailed (in Asami's case), making them orphans. By the series finale, Asami's father dies pulling a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In the opening of the Avatar: The Last Airbender, the other benders are (relatively speaking) normal people with only one bending element; For the opening of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, the other benders are other Avatars, and thus have relatively not normal people who could bend more than one element.
  • Look at the title for Aang and Korra's series — For the former, it's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and for the latter, it's "Avatar: The Legend of Korra". In Aang's it only addresses him being The Last of His Kind; in Korra's it states her name.
  • Aang and his friends were each born from one nation; Korra and her team were of mixed ancestry.
  • Aang traveled with all of his bending teachers, except Gyatso (his Airbending teacher); Korra only had adventures with her Airbending teacher (Tenzin), while she was only trained by her other teachers, except she did form a tight bond with Katara (her waterbending teacher).
• Korra and her chakras.
• Just think about it: Zuko passed the position of Fire Lord along to his daughter, and is now traveling the world as an ambassador for peace... Zuko's been covering for Aang while Katara was training the new Avatar! Makes perfect sense, as he knows better than anyone how the century-long war originally began as soon as Roku was out of the way.
• Zuko ironically takes after his father; he has more important things to worry about than the Fire Nation. It could also be a deliberate callback and contrast with his father. He gives up his title as Fire Lord and passes it onto his daughter, but unlike Ozai, he does it the right way, for the right reasons. As someone listed somewhere else, he similarly succeeds in sharing Fire Nation technology and prosperity with the world, just as Sozin claimed to have wanted to do, but again does it the right way and for the right reasons.
• Even though Korra and her friends have been in EXTREME danger several times, she has never entered the Avatar state. There are a number of possible explanations.
  • She has been described several times as having difficulty with the spiritual side of being the Avatar, and therefore has far more difficulty contacting or using knowledge from "past lives".
  • Aang went into the Avatar State a ton of times in the original series. Well he was from the spiritual nation. As his opposite, it makes sense that Korra has trouble with spirituality; it also fits into the magic vs. science theme of the show. Also, Korra's lack of spirituality may be a cause of her airbending difficulties.
  • Amon's chi blocking and electric tasers are good enough to block the Avatar state from kicking in. As if Amon needed to be even more terrifying.
  • Her personality may also be a factor. Korra's a very tough fighter and so her Unstoppable Rage threshold would be much higher than Aang's.
  • The Avatar state also kicked in very often for Aang in Season 1 because for most of the series Air was the only element he could handle, and very often he was thrown in places where it wouldn't work. After he began to learn the other elements, the only instances where it reflexively kicked in was when he suffered a Heroic BSoD, and when his chi block was broken at a point where he was helpless against Ozai. As the Avatar masters the elements and becomes more powerful, their dependency on the Avatar state progressively reduces. Which would explain the avatar state doesn't trigger readily for Korra.
  • Someone mentioned the Chakras playing a role in this series. If that is the case, then the moment Korra opened the first Chakra, she would have been locked out of the Avatar state until she was done opening ALL of them. Which makes a lot of sense when you consider the circumstances under which Korra finally tapped into the Avatar state; it's been strongly implied that she was considering suicide while standing on that cliff after being de-bended. In The Last Airbender, the guru tells Aang that the last chakra is opened by letting go of all worldly attachments, and this seems to happen for Korra on the cliff, marked by Aang's appearance. She was willing to give her own life so that the Avatar Cycle could continue, giving up her 'earthly attachment' of being the Avatar. In doing so, she gained access to the previous Avatar incarnations (which Aang had locked in one of the Interquel comics), finally realizes that being the Avatar is NOT the only thing that defines her, and that realization opens her up to the cosmic energy of the universe, letting her regain her bending via the Avatar State.
• Many fans asked themselves how technology could have progressed so substantially between A:TLA and Korra.
  • Considering that with the formation of the Republic and founding of Republic City benders of all stripes now live and work together, it'd stand to reason that they'd be able to manage together things that they would have never managed to when separate. Not only that, but with the discovery of a whole new Bending discipline (Metalbending), the widespread learning of an obscure one (Lightningbending), and the rediscovery of a lost one (Airbending), there were many new ways in which Bending could now benefit mankind that were not available before. And this is without even pointing out that if we parallel it with Real Life, the 1920's could not be more different to the 1850's, with a similarly immense leap in technology.
  • The Fire Nation was already fairly advanced compared to other nations (tanks, drills battleships...) During an era of peace the funding for military research would go towards more practical areas benefiting all the nations. I'd say going from advanced military battleships and enormous mechanized drills to cars and motorcycles isn't that big of a jump.
  • Note that some of the technology are directly based on ones seen in the previous series; the cars use an obviously scaled down, refined engine and frame of the Fire Nation Tanks, and the electric plant that Mako briefly worked at is shown to be using Benders with Lightning in a similar way as the Fire Nation's boiler engines used firebenders. And the police's Airships are a direct descendant of the Fire Nation Warships. Even the Cannons on the United Republic Warships are based on the fire catapults of the old Fire Nation navy while propulsion seems to be based around the Water Tribe's various methods. Much of this wouldn't even need research funding if you remember the amount of stuff Sokka and the Mechanist were able to come up (and refine) alone, let alone with the backing of the entire Fire Nation's best and brightest helping with the engineering.
  • In the end, the technology advanced the same way the Industrial Revolution happened: the right economic conditions presented themselves. Both in real life many of the technologies involved already existed for a long time (the earliest recorded steam engine dates to the first century AD, about eighteen centuries before the Industrial Revolution this technology symbolizes), but the Industrial Revolution couldn't happen until Britain had, at the same time, excess manpower and food, trained managers and entrepeneurs, a capillar network of transport paths to move raw materials and finished products cheaply, raw materials, cheap energy sources, political stability, a legal system that supported business, and enough capital to invest. In the Avatar world the Fire Nation already had everything but the raw materials before the war and started it specifically to take over Earth Kingdom lands where they could mine them, the war took away the financial capital, manpower, and political stability while developing the road networks on a global scale (the Fire Nation needed them to move their troops), and when Aang ended the war he freed those elements at the same time the Earth Kingdom also had the technologies (thanks to the Mechanist) and the managers (from the demobilized officers), so the moment he managed to set up a lasting peace and political stability (that likely involved exporting raw materials from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation) their own Industrial Revolution happened and technological development accelerated.
• While it's immediately evident that they're trying to tell a story about Korra that's very different from Aang's, it seems almost as if the idea of the Avatar's job of "restoring balance" is getting lost. The elements are balanced, that isn't the real problem. But then you realize, the Avatar's job is to "maintain balance" in general, not "maintain balance between the elements." Korra's job isn't to restore balance between the four elements, it's to restore balance between innovation and tradition as the old comes into conflict with the new, and beyond that to restore balance between bender and non-benders.
• The advertising campaign is called "Korra Nation." As in Coronation.
• Why is the Order of the White Lotus going to such extremes to protect and keep an eye on Korra? Because Aang remembered what happened last time—it's mentioned repeatedly that keeping Korra in the compound is based on Aang's orders to keep his reincarnation safe. Or they completely misunderstood it. Note that they were living in an era of peace. Aang wanted them to take care of Korra and keep her safe, but it looks more like they've been holding a fugitive for years under house arrest, with the result she doesn't even know how to buy food. That was not how the previous Avatars were trained. The White Lotus has shown quite some Badass Decay since ATLA and an inability to understand what Korra really needs (those are some Ditzy guards), something that Katara understands very well.
• During Book 3, when Tonraq explains that Zaheer and his cronies, an evil offshoot of the White Lotus, tried to take Korra when she was a little girl. Explains their paranoia just a bit.
• The Uniqueness Decay seen with lightning bending is fully justified if you think about it. In the original series, the three users of it weren't just any random Firebenders. No, they were all members of the Fire Nation royal family. Sure, the rarity of the technique may have been partially because of it being difficult, but it also makes sense that the Fire Lord, having a cult of personality based on what a badass fire bender he is, would want the best powers kept to himself.
• The detail above about lightning bending can also be said of Metalbending. If you notice, metalbending isn't nearly as common in Korra as lightning bending. The latter can be used by menial laborers, and indeed, Mako probably didn't have much of an education in firebending considering his background. Yet the only metalbenders are the police. Why? Simple. Metalbending was thought impossible for thousands of years until Toph invented it during the Season 2 finale, and I think it's safe to say that at least some earthbender tried during that time. Toph had a very unique style of Earthbending, on top of being extraordinarily powerful. To learn metalbending, in other words, your average earthbender would need to relearn bending entirely. Since only Toph knew it at first, it wouldn't be terribly difficult for her to make sure that the knowledge remains the domain of the police force.
• Amon represents exactly what Republic City desperately needs—a melding of ancient spirituality and modern technology. The Equalists use motorcycles, Satomobiles, and zeppelins; they practice the art of chi-blocking while wearing gas masks and listen to the radio. If it wasn't for his Fantastic Racism against benders, Amon might have been able to bring harmony to the city.
• In some respects, Amon is his own version of the Avatar. He has his own vision of what a balanced world should look like (ie a world without benders). How's that for the central theme of the old traditions in conflict with a new era?
• We can all tell that the Aang statue is a Shout-Out to the Statue of Liberty. But for Bonus points look at the symbol on his staff - the symbol of air. Air is the element of freedom.
• At first glance, it can seem as though the father/daughter like bond that's formed between Korra and Tenzin is happening a little fast. But then you have to consider that all the years that Korra's been in that training camp, Katara's been there with her. So every time Tenzin and his family has gone to see his mother, they've probably visited with Korra at the same time, watching her grow up, being part of her life and vice versa. Look at the way Tenzin's children greet Korra at the dock near the end of the first episode, it's a lot like how kids might welcome their favorite older cousin. Also, Korra is the reincarnation of his father, their grandfather. This comes straight out of the original series. "Some friendships are so strong they transcend lifetimes."
• The first avatar series was aimed at kids around twelve, Aang's age, now in legend of Korra the avatar is a teenager that's because all the old avatar fans are teenagers now. After the Time Skip between Seasons 3 and 4, the Avatar is now an adult in her early 20s, like many fans of the original show.
• Airbending is all about freedom of movement. Korra's been forced to stay at the compound her entire life. No wonder she's terrible at it. She actually said something along those lines in "A Leaf In The Wind"
  Korra: You're telling me to embrace freedom but you won't even let me listen to the radio? And forget about leaving this island.
• Amon. Just everything about him. The more you dig into his name and character, you find bulbs lighting up wherever you look.
  • For starters, read all about the Egyptian god Amun and how he rose to deity status. In particular this - "...As the Egyptians considered themselves oppressed during the period of the Hyksos rule, the victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshiped Amun, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate. Consequently, Amun was viewed as upholding the rights of justice for the poor..." That's all.
  • This is rather subtle. Read about this particular character called Thoth-Amon. Not only is there is quite some influence of Lovecraft there, but Thoth-Amon as a villain has some unusual heroic characteristics. No wonder Amon is such a creepy villain...his character probably takes some inspiration from Cosmic Horror Story, the way he just seems to defy the effects of bending on him isn't normal.
  • Amon is also the name of one of 72 demons listed in ancient manuscripts, and occasionally viewed as a Prince of Hell. Of Wrath (albeit a very Tranquil Fury kind).
  • Amon is also the name of one of the most sadistic Nazi Commandants Amon Goeth.
  • The place in the back of the neck where Amon briefly touched at least one of his victims is called (well, can be romanized as) Amon.
  • There's much more on the Avatar Wiki's page on Amon.
• Pro-bending:
  • Why doesn't pro bending conform to a traditional martial art the way standard bending does (i.e. waterbending = tai chi, earthbending = hung gar, etc.)? Because it's based on boxing. It also reflects in-universe differences between war and fighting in the area. For example pro-earthbenders can't defend themselves by creating walls from the ground, but also only need to attack individuals, not Fire-nation tanks or formations. Thus it makes sense for them to adopt a style that sacrifices power for speed.
  • The rules seem to only accommodate the three elements outside of Air. While the practical reasoning is that there isn't enough Airbenders in the world to actually participate (no team member can compete on multiple teams, and only one Airbender in the world is even at the legal age), it becomes fridge brilliance that Airbenders would not compete in Pro-Bending. Air Nomad teachings emphasis non-combat moves, especially avoidance and redirection rather than even defensive moves. No wonder Tenzin disapproves of pro-bending, it goes against his father's teachings.
  • Tenzin's dislike of "Pro-Bending" is an exact parallel of the dislike a real martial artist feels for "Tricking". It's a bastardization of centuries of refined discipline into something that's just acrobatics, and not really useful.
  • Airbending may also never make it into Probending, because you cannot see air being bent. Tahno's cheating was very hard to regulate and he was using visible water combined with rock chunks. Imagine how hard it is to prove that an unscrupulous airbender was forcibly suffocating his opponents during a match, let alone what offensive moves would be deemed legal for an airbender to use. On top of that, it could easily be used to knock someone out of the ring with little more than a relatively weak air blast.
• A little something about the character of Shiro Shinobi. It says in his bio that he's a non-bender who did in depth reporting on the Triads. Considering that background, he is probably extremely familiar with the dark side of bending, having spent years reporting on the worst that could happen. Yet what does he do when he retires from that? He becomes an announcer for a sport that, as Amon said "glorifies bending". Think of what that says about his character that he would want to have anything to do with benders after some of the things he's probably seen.
• The families of Mako/Bolin, Amon, and Asami/Hiroshi being killed by firebenders. Is it Fantastic Racism, as noted in the Fridge Horror section below? Possibly, but there's another thing to consider here: As the Hundred-Year-War ended 70 years ago, we learned that not everyone in the fire nation supported the war, and they did try to rebuild the world in the time afterward. However, there had to be at least some people who agreed with the war, for whatever reason. And when it ended, they couldn't have been happy. Moreover, look a little more closely at the stories: Mako and Bolin's parents, and Asami's mother, were killed in the course of robberies. More likely, lingering resentment from the whole "take over the world" thing meant that in the new world order, a lot of people weren't willing to give work to people from the Fire Nation, which is what drove them to crime and desperation.
• Lin Beifong's style of metalbending initially seems purely Rule of Cool when they already have decent cars and trucks. Then you remember Toph's inability to sense things not on the ground. You suddenly imagine a mother-daughter team of "I'll go low, you go high" where no matter what level a criminal's on, he's screwed.
• Why are the Equalist and metalbender mooks so much more effective than the average Fire Nation soldier from the original series? Because they're all volunteers. The Fire Nation was conducting a global war of conquest and had, by mid Season 3, grossly overextended itself to the point where they seriously considered deploying their Home Guard abroad in order to put down continent-wide rebellions. The Fire Nation was basically scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel. In contrast, both the Equalists and the Republic City police force chose to join and stick with their respective causes even though they could easily hop on the next steamer out of the country, so the average mook quality is higher. Also consider that the Hundred Year War wasn't likely started by a nation indoctrinated by their corrupt leader, but a smaller portion of gung-ho believers and a larger portion of conscripted soldiers. Sozin, by way of nature and intent, applied enormous pressure on his own people; obey him and you shall be spared. Defy him and you have proven yourself disloyal to the Fire Nation.
• Republic City is THE place to be for anybody who has skill. Any skilled bender has pro-bending, the metalbending academy, places that will teach you to lightning bend, everything you need to prosper. Non-benders have the advanced tech to improve their lives and plenty of non-bending related areas such as Sato industries to try to prosper. Both teams have the cream of the crop of the entire world to pick their mooks from.
• At first glance, it seems the reason the Equalists primarily use nonfatal forms of attack like chi-blocking and taser-type weaponry is because a Nickelodeon show isn't supposed to show people getting killed onscreen. However, in this case, it also serves Amon's cause; his goons can incapacitate resistance without inviting the level of public outcry that might result if they actually killed, say, police officers and radio announcers.
• Pro-bending is a major sport now. But take a look almost seventy years ago, to that day when the three students of Toph Beifong metal bent discs to knock out the three rival Firebending pupils. That's where it all began...
  • Earth Rumble 6 might also be a predecessor.
• Amon's bloodbending could be seen as an analogy to lobotomy, if you REALLY think about it.
• Amon's mask covers his face (obviously), but Ozai's face was also masked in the first two books, though this was just by shadow and camera-angles. Seeing as Amon is much more active than his Big Bad predecessor, it would make sense for the creators to give him a more practical way of hiding his face: the mask. So Bryke seem to like hiding their main antagonists' faces, it's a running-theme! It turns out Noatak has quite a resemblance to Tarrlok, so he would have to hide his face. Not to mention it would be very obvious he was Water Tribe. Also, Tarrlok would have probably recognized him, even though it had been years since the two last saw each other. Amon was forced to wear the mask so that Tarrlok wouldn't blow his cover and reveal him to be a bloodbender.
• Look at the past few Avatars and their abilities. Roku, a firebender, was best at firebending, and had the most trouble learning to bend water (fire's natural opposite). Aang, an airbender, was best at airbending, and had the most trouble learning to bend earth (air's natural opposite). Korra, a waterbender, is best at firebending, and has the most trouble learning to bend air. Wait, what? But then, remember that the Avatar is all about balance, and with the airbenders all but wiped out, the balance would be off. This could easily manifest in her powers. Of course, Aang and Roku were raised for most of their younger lives without knowing they were the Avatar. Obviously they grew up with only one element, and grew to embody the philosophy of that form of bending. Korra, however, knew from the age of four that she could bend multiple elements, and was raised among waterbenders, earthbenders, and firebenders, so she never really grew into the waterbending philosophy.
  • Furthermore, before the Hundred Year's War, the separations between nations were very clear. After the war ended, there was more interaction and exchange of ideas between people of those nations, as shown through the members of the Krew with mixed heritage. Avatars don't struggle most with the element opposite of the nation their born with, but with the element most opposite to their personality; it's just that previous Avatars had personalities mostly shaped by their nation's ideals, while Korra was, again, raised by people from all nations.
  • Despite being born a waterbender, Korra's personality is more like an earthbender, which contributes more to her extreme difficulties airbending in Book 4. One can say that this is due to Korra being raised in a world where waterbenders, earthbenders, and firebenders could more easily interact with one another. But another thing to consider all together is that Korra is very similar to Toph. As girls, they were both raised in nearly complete isolation under constant supervision due to a justifiable fear that they could be captured or kidnapped due to an extremely noticable facet about their lifestyles that made them different from others. Toph's parents feared that her blindness hindered her, while Korra's parents obvioulsy gave birth to the Avatar of the next generation. Both Korra and Toph demonstrated prodiguous levels of skill in regards to their elemental prowess. Toph, despite being blind, invented metalbending. Korra, at the age of four, became skilled in waterbending, earthbending, and firebending. So it would make sense that Korra struggles more with airbending because her entire life experience has been limited to life in near isolation, similar to how Toph was raised as a child. This also supports the fact that Korra prefers to use firebending more than waterbending. With an Earthbender mentality, Korra prefers to use the firebending as that happens to be the first element any Earthbending Avatar would learn outside of Earthbending.
• The Order of the White Lotus went from Badass Grandpas to what they are in Korra's day because in the original series, we followed the Grand Masters of the Order, not the average members. There were lots of White Lotus members even before, but they were mostly offscreen.
• The revelation that both Amon and Tarrlok are sons of Yakone echoes the pattern established in ATLA regarding the Avatar Cycle: that the first major challenge of every new Avatar is to deal with the unexpected/unintended consequences of the actions of the previous Avatar.
  • On the regards of how Avatars from further back can create problems for modern avatars (see Kyoshi and the Dai-Li and accidentally causing the Fire Lord to accumulate more internal power for themselves), the issues of the White Louts compound on Korra's growth can be traced to Roku not stopping the 100 years war. Wih how much damage the South took, the native methods of finding an Avatar were likely lost (their counterpart to the Avatar toys of the monks and the geomancy the Earth Kingdom uses, plus what method the Fire Sages use). They had to do it differently or they'd never find Korra unless she found them.
• The apparent focus of the early episodes on the malfeasances of firebenders, wherein everyone-and-their-mother's tragic backstories seem to involve evil acts by firebenders, serves as misdirection, when the ultimate villains turn out to be waterbenders.
• On the subject of the Avatar State and Energybending:
  • For a spiritually immature (not fully realized) Avatar, the Avatar state acts as their defense mechanism by offering the spiritual link-up to the power, knowledge and skill of all the past Avatars and the Avatar Spirit. But there's more. If you observe closely, Aang goes into the Avatar State to energybend Ozai, Yakone and then Korra. As Aang energybends Korra, you can see him and all the past Avatars go into the Avatar state, following which at the physical level we see Korra go into it, her bending is restored and she too has obtained the ability to energybend in the Avatar State. This means that true energybending is something only the Avatar can do, but more importantly the Avatar state even has defense and offense capabilities on the spiritual side via energybending just in case the Avatar's physical connections to the elements were broken, or if someone's bending had to be removed or restored. This is Batman levels of Crazy-Prepared.
  • This goes even further when you realize that the original Avatar, Avatar Wan, could not bend more than one element at a time and required Raava to hold the other three while not in use. The reason why only the Avatar can restore or take away bending is because a portion of Raava's powers allow the Avatar to do so. It also explains the Lion Turtle's warning to Aang; if his will is not strong enough, his spirit will be consumed and Raava will die. If that were to happen then it would be another 10,000 years before a new avatar could arise (if at all, since Raava would reconstitute in Vaatu, who was imprisoned, and neither of them would be in a position to free themselves).
• Speaking of which, it seems very prudent that Energybending by the Avatar requires the use of the Avatar state. It would be impossible to overcome the spiritual power of a thousand fully realized Avatars and a spiritual force of nature acting through them.
• Now that we know that Amon is the greatest bloodbender who ever lived, his ability to dodge and resist powerful bending attacks, even lightning at close range suddenly seems to have an explanation. He's been using some very stealthy bloodbending to assist him in fights. He weakens his opponents' attacks and ensure that their aim is no longer accurate, allowing him to dodge it almost everything they throw at him. That would require extensive knowledge of bending styles, which also explains why he was curb stomped by airbending. He has never seen the sole Airbending master's moves. The Equalists' fighting style also has a Logical Weakness against airbending. Air is invisible and certain Airbending moves are not like blasts of fire or lightning that can be aimed away from target.
• Airbending is the most effective bending art against chi-blocking because it's no slouch when it comes to close quarters fighting. They're all about evading and using momentum to repel enemies. If you watch Aang and Zuko's earlier fights in the original series, Aang often tries to circle away from Zuko at a close distance, facing his back to easily avoid oncoming attacks since Zuko has to turn around.
• An Avatar in the Avatar State is basically immune to the effects of bloodbending. Amon can walk off those same effects without too much effort. This is further proof of Amon's desire to replace the Avatar as the world's savior, by neutralizing bending in almost the same way the Avatar does (and it lent credence to the then-popular WMG that Amon was Aang). It is also subtle Foreshadowing to the fact that Amon is a bloodbender. The Avatar State simply canceled out the effects of bloodbending; Amon had to work through it for a second. Watch closely in "The Puppetmaster." Katara overcame another bloodbender by using her own bloodbending skill to slowly reclaim her own body, in much the same way Amon had to do when Tarrlok attacked him.
• The chakra symbolism is everywhere in this show, right from bending techniques, to Character Development, spiritual connections, gambits, politics, reveals and even Love Triangles. Look for it and you'll see there's much more to Korra's story than what meets the eye.
  • Amon touches the light and sound chakras and bloodbends at those points? What do those chakras deal with? Truth, lies, insight and illusion. Very subtle foreshadowing to who he is. Also which are the chakras used to restore bending - the same.
  • Which are the chakras that come below them in the body - Air, Fire, Water and Earth chakras - the 4 bending elements. Which chakra is opened by love? The Air Chakra. How did Korra learn to airbend? Whenever Mako was in trouble.
  • In yoga, the chakras go in the order from the most physical to the most subtle and cosmic. Which means that air would be the most subtle and spiritual of all 4 elements and earth the most physical. Aang is an airbender. Korra's personality is just the opposite, closer to earth.
• If the Avatarverse is progressing approximately parallel to our world, unless Korra dies very, very young the next Avatar will most likely live in what would best be described as Modern Day. Perhaps Korra herself would live to the Modern Day, seeing as most Avatars (and indeed, many powerful benders) live to be centenarians at the least when not killed violently. The next Avatar could possibly be born into a futuristic world.
• Amon's mask has a red circle on the forehead, the same place he touches his victims to take away their bending. The color of the circle is a subtle hint to what he's actually doing.
• The double-meaning of pro-bending. Not just professional bending, but also for bending.
• Remember Sozin's original reasoning for the Fire Nation's imperialism, namely that because they have such great technology and advancements, that they should share it with the world. Now take a look at the Republic, which unites the four nations and has them work together to use the best each nation can offer. In the end, Sozin's plans did happen, but through convincing the nations to work together rather than forcing them to serve under the Fire Nation.
• In his dying days, Sozin regretted what he'd done. Zuko made Sozin's dream and his latter wish come true posthumously by cleansing the sins Sozin had brought onto the royal family.
• The consistent title of this show is The Legend of Korra, as a natural follow-up to Avatar: The Legend of Aang, the title that the original series was given in the UK. Why was that the title in the UK? Because "bender", which gets thrown around a lot in this series, is also British slang for homosexual. Suddenly, it looks a whole lot like the title was also a covert allusion to the inherent bigotry of the Equalist movement.
• Mako being a cop confused people when one would think the better candidate would be Bolin, seeing as the police forces can also Earthbend like Bolin, as well as Metalbend. But Mako is actually the better choice. As we saw in The Revelation, he knows how to get information, he's got experience fighting benders (pro-bending) and nonbenders (the Equalists), and he essentially raised his brother on the streets, which makes him an excellent candidate.
  • It would also solve the Unfortunate Implications of a metalbender only police force in a city where people from all nations are supposed to be together. This also acts as good publicity for firebenders in general, as they are still feeling the heat from the Hundred Year War, and by now are essentially stereotyped as lowlife criminals.
  • It also makes sense that this happened after Amon wiped out the bending of the previous police. Suddenly, a major city is left with no law enforcement, because none of them can do their job without bending. A more diverse police force, with fire-, water-, and non-benders in addition to metalbenders, would most likely become a top priority, to ensure it doesn't happen again.
    • While it's possible that Korra restored the bending of at least some of the police force off-screen, like she did for Lin, it still makes sense that this incident would make the police force want to have some more diversity. People would still likely expect earth/metalbenders, and other bending styles (even non-benders, who, as a plus, would be immune to Amon's tactics if anything like that happened again) could help catch criminals by surprise.
  • Not only this, but it also plugs another hole. Amon built the Equalists around the idea of fighting Metalbender cops and we saw very few non-Metalbenders (the only ones that come to mind are Tarrlok's own taskforce, who were probably his own goons anyways). By diversifying the arsenal, it becomes harder to counter the Republic City police forces. There may be some 'caste' evolving out of it due to utility (IE, Metalbenders are more rapid response while a Waterbender might hang in a support role), it would be no different than specialists in a modern military. The only difference is things are inherit traits rather than trained, etc.
  • Also Mako is resistant to electrical attack as shown against the mechas in Turning the Tides. This gives him a major advantage against glove mooks and the mechas the metalbenders were were being curb-stomped by.
• Mako and Korra leaving the Fire Ferrets, can be traced back to their relationship. Mako likely left first because of his new job which he is presumably paid well for. He never truly cared about pro-bending and only took it so seriously because of the tournament and its winnings. A second reason being his relationship with Korra. Mid-way through the first book we saw how disastrous it was for the Ferrets when romance came into play, so he left to avoid complicating things with her. Korra, perhaps, simply missed Mako at practices and quickly dropped pro-bending because she couldn't get used to not having him around. Makes more sense with the six month gap and that the newer Ferrets seem completely novice, so they couldn't have joined immediately.
• Tenzin broke off his relationship with Lin because the latter did not want children. Jinora, his eldest child, is only 10. Korra, who was born at the time Aang died, is 16. This means that for 6 years Tenzin was the only airbender in the world. If Tenzin broke off from Lin because of disagreements with having a child, it's unlikely that after getting together with Pema would cause him to put it off for more than 6 years. Tenzin did it to avoid his father's title of "Last Airbender", both out of duty and of loneliness. He could never have ended up with Lin, because it was his duty to restore the Air Nomads, so not having children was not an option for him.
• Korra's circumstances make her the perfect Avatar to represent Republic City. Not only because she started out fully able to bend the three most common elements (Earth, Fire, Water), but because of her status as an immigrant. Just like any growing city, Republic City is bound to have a large population of immigrants, in fact a lot of the problems in the city are those which are common to other immigrant stories. On a more symbolic level, Korra learning to deal with the issues facing Republic City also represents the Avatar world in general learning to deal with the new reality that the city (and the United Republic) represent.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's explained you are supposed to master an element before moving on to the next one. Before Aang truly mastered waterbending he had begun practicing firebending and earthbending. Could this help to explain why Korra's personality is so different from what we would expect of a waterbender? If the manner in which you master the elements affects your immediate reincarnation it makes sense. If the way you mastered the elements truly had no effect I doubt the Avatar would be expected to learn it in the specific order they are required.
• Crossing with Fridge Horror, there's yet another reason as to why Amon's solar mask symbolism makes sense. It's implied he's creating mild strokes. Thus, sunstroke...
• On Mako's personality: He's overprotective with few social skills, a sad childhood and some angsty tendencies. Who else spent their first season making poor decisions? The guy Mako is sort of based on: our beloved Prince Zuko. Hopefully, Mako will also "redeem himself" (more in the eyes of the fandom) in later seasons.
• Despite being the oldest, Tonraq visibly looks the like the younger brother between him and Unalaq, while the other has lines that make him look older. Why is that? Because Unalaq had two tribes to govern, children to care for (albeit poorly), and was constantly improving his spiritual connection. And while discovering that your only child is the Avatar could be nerve wrecking, Tonraq had the support of Senna and the White Lotus to keep her safe.
• At the start of Book 2, it was revealed that the whole compound was Tenzin and Tonraq's idea. Just a justification because Aang would never order something so freedom-killing like that or a way to make Tonraq and Tenzin seem less friendly so Korra falls to Unalaq for a bit, right? Consider that Tonraq has had to fight Unalaq over it for years and that Unalaq's plan was to use Korra as a method to bring the spirituality back to the Southern Water Tribe. And a SWT Avatar would be perfect for the job, because that would literally be the literal messiah bringing the lost sheep back to the flock, one who sprang from their own number. Suddenly, for all the harm it did, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea because a manipulated Avatar is all around bad, possibly worse than a dead/missing one like Roku and Aang were, respectively, leading to the 100 Years War.
• The title of the show, the Legend Of Korra. The 'Legend' part might seem a bit out of place at first, but the season two episodes Beginnings Parts 1 & 2 show that Korra is the first Avatar since Wan himself to witness the return of Vaatu, the chaos spirit who only appears once every ten-thousand years. Seeing as the last time Vaatu appeared actually resulted in the Avatar Spirit itself, this alone would be impressive and would perhaps warrant an actual legend. Add to this how Bryke said there would be a new villain every season for two more seasons following this one, meaning that Korra will defeat or somehow prevent Vaatu from crossing over into the human world. Seeing as Korra is the first and only Avatar to not only meet the chaos spirit itself but manage to best it as well as continue doing more amazing things until series end, this would definitely be deserving of a legend. While not presently, Korra's endeavors are destined to become a legend in future generations.
• If the portals didn't reopen during Avatar Aang's temporary death, and the Avatar is the only one who can reopen them, it stands to reason that the Avatar's permanent death would end the cycle of Harmonic Convergence, and the spirit of darkness would be trapped in the spirit world forever. If the bad guys had won in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the world would still have been safe from the really, really bad guy. This perspective potentially justifies the Fire Nation's psychotic hatred of the Avatar.
• Korra shares certain character traits with the previous Avatar that came from the Water Tribes, Avatar Kuruk. Kuruk came after Avatar Yangchen, an Avatar that had ended a great war, so he grew up in a time of peace. As a result, he had a brash and arrogant personality and he spent his days showing off rather than being true to his Avatar duties. And it was not until an experience involving the Spirit World that he started to take his responsibilities as the Avatar more seriously.
  • The Shadow of Kyoshi actually expands the parallels a lot: Kuruk was actually very busy dealing with Dark Spirits and his early death came as a result of immense spiritual damage fighting them caused. Kuruk's hedoinism was partially a coping mechanism. Korra was fortunate enough to not only be born in a time where there was an easier way to deal with Dark Spirits, but was public about it to get help and sympathy for her plights.
• Eska is the only known female from the Northern Water Tribe to practice combat waterbending. On the surface, there are two obvious explanations for this: either Eska got special permission because she's the chief's daughter, or the sexist rules were changed because of Katara and Pakku. There's a third possibility: the rules are still as sexist as ever, and Eska got no special treatment. She just attended the boys-only training sessions by impersonating Desna. They probably took turns attending the lessons, and teaching each other. This partly explains why they bend in perfect synchrony: it's not just twin telepathy, they literally learned bending from each other.
• The Fatal Flaws of 3/4ths of the new Team Avatar aren't just coincidences:
  • Korra's biggest character flaw is her confrontational nature coupled with immaturity. Why? She was raised in the compound all her life, hardly interacting with anyone her age. Heck, her only friend was a polar-bear dog. Plus, throughout her stay at the said compound she was trained in her three elements. In other words, she was taught to fight and fighting became her way to solve most problems. And without forming proper social interactions in her early life she didn't know how to handle sensitive matters.
  • Bolin's biggest character flaw is his overly trusting nature. Mako constantly shielded him from the hardships of life, always wanting to protect him (basically a deconstruction of Big Brother Instinct). Because of that Bolin never really dealt with shady people in his life.
  • Mako's biggest character flaw is his inability to make a sound decision and commit to it. At first, this is frustrating, but what else is to be expected from an Expy of Zuko, who spent nearly that whole series jumping sides? Plus, unlike Bolin, Mako isn't as in touch with his feelings. This can be traced back to Mako and Bolin's days on the streets. Mako explicitly stated to Korra he had to do whatever it took to survive and keep his brother safe. And Mako's previous involvement with the Triads meant that he had to be a lot tougher than he was actually feeling, meaning he had to control and hide his emotions. So, when it came to putting other people's feelings into consideration, Mako is somewhat dense.
• In Book 2, the southern spirit portal is blue, while the northern is yellow/orange, Raava's and Vaatu's colors respectively^note the later's eye and prison, both glowing in amber for some reason. In Chinese thought, guess which direction belongs to Yin (dark) and Yang (light).
• For a few episodes in Book 2, it looks like Lin has caught the Idiot Ball and won't let it go. She doubts everything Mako tells her about Varrick being the the bad guy and, quite frankly, appears to have some kind of grudge against him. Now, let's examine the situation more closely. The obvious reason is that Mako is a rookie, being a police officer for less than 6 months. Ha may have street smarts, since he was a Street Urchin and a triad Mook, but that does not mean he's a competent detective. However, there are a few more reasons for Lin's behaviour.
  • First, the only time Mako are Lin are shown working together is in "Out of the Past". In that episode he displays both Cowboy Cop tendencies and a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique to get information. He shows the same traits in "The Sting".
  • Second, he was a very famous pro-bending star and the Avatar's boyfriend to boot. As such, he's been on the spotlight for quite a long time. But cops are not featured in the paper every other day. He might be trying to rectify the situation by accusing a prominent businessman.
  • Third, Varrick appears to have no motive. He's from the Southern Water Tribe; what reason could he have to cause a civil war between his country and the Northern Water Tribe?
  • Then, there's his very public breakup with Korra. I know, seems irrelevant, right? Consider this: Mako may be "cool under fire", but he's still a teenager. What's the best way to get back at Korra for their breakup? Simple: accuse Varrick of terrorism. Korra swears by Varrick and thinks of him as her greatest ally in Republic City.
  • Adding to the above that all the evidence he presented was circumstantial at best, since anyone could have gotten the explosives, it's no wonder Lin doesn't believe him.
• Change is not the only theme prevalent in Book 3: choice is. In fact, the two are closely tied together and is evident in the first five episodes of the season. Korra and Tenzin don't receive their first true batch of Air Nomad initiates until they are capable of giving them the freedom to choose becoming Air Nomads or not, especially telling as all of their volunteers were previously conscripted by the Earth Queen as a part of her airbending army. The conclusion reflects their initial attempts to recruit, which was usually attempted by aggressively persuading airbenders into joining them (and in one case, trying to force a very stubborn Basement-Dweller out of his own house). The beginnings of the Beifong family subplot also show this secondary theme of choice. Toph was a hands-off parent, allowing her daughters to choose their own lifestyles, but it resulted in two daughters competing for her affection and allegedly no satisfaction with how they turned out. This dynamic is important, as the choices Suyin and Lin made both led to choices that affected who they are: Suyin becomes an innovator after traveling the world and living all kinds of lifestyles, eventually founding a city built on a foundation of freedom of creative expression and innovation; Lin follows in her mother's footsteps and becomes an esteemed, tough-as-nails Chief of Police. However their choice, to act for their mother instead of for themselves, is what leads to stagnant or negative change. Suyin becomes just like her grandparents, subtly shown by her response to Opal leaving Zaofu. Everything her daughter needs is in the city—home—which is the same excuse Toph's parents gave for keeping Toph at home. Lin, conversely, became a reflection of her mother, but on her way to doing so she became a cold, hostile individual who threatens to push away the people she cares about (in fact, her desire to prove herself to her mother is probably what drove her and Tenzin apart when they were a couple). Choice is necessary for change, and the freedom to choose as well as making the right (or wrong) choice can affect how one changes.
• In his debut Zaheer warns the White Lotus guards against the dangers of taking things at face-value. Once he shaves his head and beard, Zaheer looks very thuggish◊; nothing like the philosophical badass we know him to be. And that same 'philosophical' aspect to the character is subverted when the sheer brutality of his methods comes to light when he commits regicide, effectively causing Ba Sing Se to collapse within hours, and then when he attacks the Northern Air Temple. This isn't some abstract intellectual exercise or merely quoting ancient gurus, he has every intention of bringing about violent anarchy, and (potentially) the means to achieve it.
• In WuXing, the Wood element is associated with anger and violence. Vaatu is associated with anger and violence. Guess what he can do.
• Unalaq had the beginning of Book 2 planned ever since Korra was discovered to be the Avatar. When the Red Lotus members Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan planned to kidnap Korra, Unalaq sold them out to reveal the danger Korra was in. He then fed the idea of isolating her to Tenzin and Tonraq in such a fashion as to make them think it was their idea; he hoped that whenever Korra discovered that two of the people who would be closest to her had plotted to lock her away for her whole life, he'd be able to step in and offer her more freedom. When she accepted, he could freely indoctrinate her with the ideals of the Red Lotus.
• The Red Lotus is a secret society that branched off of the Order of the White Lotus. Not once has the Red Lotus been referred to as an Order, no Order of the Red Lotus, they are simply the Red Lotus. They're trying to abolish all order in the world anyway, so it makes sense not to call themselves that.
• Why would members of the Order of the White Lotus break off to form an anarchist alternative? Simple, their governments have heavily failed them. The Fire Lord for the past few generations have tried to conquer the world. The Earth Kingdom has been ruled by ineffectual or tyrannical monarchs puppeted by sinister Dai Li. The Water Tribes had sexist traditions or had no means to defend their population from aggression. The Air Nomads had been massacred. The last group might have had the most influence on the Red Lotus, a nation with leaders but little formal government (that we can see) was the most harmonious and probably saintly in the eyes of the average Red Lotus mook. Even the great experiment of the heroes who ended the Hundred Year War had devolved into anti-Bender sentiment with Benders being seen (and resented) as a privileged class. All this is the responsibility of the Avatar. The balance of the world is on the shoulders of a single person who may or may not be ready for it. Little wonder that the Red Lotus grew into what it has become.
• Asami comments on how the tanks work just like a Future Industries Forklift. Any more proof needed that most of Future industries' workers were the Equalist mooks? It also means Hiroshi had a way to train his mooks in piloting the mechatanks. Just assign them as forklift operators and let them go at it.
• That last image of Northern Water Tribe military ships entering the harbours of the Southern Water Tribe in 'Rebel Spirits'. It's a direct parallel to how the Fire Nation ships first appeared over a hundred and seventy years ago. It gets even better in the Book 2 finale; the Dark Avatar (a water tribe nobleman) takes the form of a giant spirit attacking a city which is defended by a fleet commanded by a Fire Nation commander and member of the royal family. Remember how Book One of ATLA ended with Aang defending the Northern Water Tribe in the form of a giant water spirit from an invading Fire Nation army led by a fire nation noble? Remember how the spirit he was subbing in for was replaced by a water tribe princess?
• While Varrick doesn't elaborate, he hints at having an abusive waterbender as an ex. Unlike Bolin, Varrick is not a bender. And he admits part of the reason his ship is so fast, and has a plane, is in case he ever ends up in a similar situation again and needs to run like hell. The benefits of having a small speedboat - none of the trouble with takeoff room, or with running out of fuel in the middle of the ocean - are counteracted by the threat of being run down by a maniacal waterbender in his case.
• Stopping an Eldritch Abomination who represents pure evil and chaos? Only requires a few minutes of Avatar State fun when it's the first time trying it. Getting people to stop mistreating each other? Can't be done, even when you have vast power and many of them worship you. Humans Are the Real Monsters indeed.
• A blogger summed up something very important to keep in mind about Raava here. Raava was missing for 100 years while protecting Aang as it got closer to the Harmonic Convergence. When she and Aang finally get around to taking care of the world, his entire culture is dead and the world is at war. This is why Aang was so destructive when he first started using the Avatar State before he mastered it: Raava wasn't just pissed at how out of control the world had gotten, she felt responsible for it as well especially as the Harmonic Convergence drew near. And she will fix it, pacifism be damned. On that note, it explains why Aang becomes so violent against Ozai in the finale despite being able to control the Avatar State at that point; Raava's definitely Good Is Not Nice when something is threatening the balance of the world, and now the source of the world's troubles is right there.
• Korra's fear has been foreshadowed as her fatal flaw, way back in episode 4 of Book One: look at how drastic the lengths she went just to try and overcome her fear of Amon. Now, in the Spirit World, where one's emotions run the gamut of the one's, and the world's, state, Korra's fear overwhelms her and she inadvertently takes the appearance of herself at her most vulnerable: childhood. Now, I know what you're thinking, we're talking about the girl who could bend 3 of the 4 elements at a young age, but also consider that at that young age Korra had been groomed to believe that her sheltering was for her own protection, and that she had no friends. It was the age in which she was the most impressionable, that idea that someone—or some people—were out to get her for just being the Avatar is what leads her into thinking that her bending is equal to her self-worth; without her bending, she is defenceless and worthless. Alternatively, she was reverting to the age she was before she was able to bend (ie, a little younger than she was in her first appearance). Being completely without her bending for the first time since then (she had her airbending after Amon de-bent her), made her revert to a helpless child.
• Lots of the attendees at Jinora's ceremony are wearing green clothes, which means they're Earth Kingdom refugees. Earlier in the season, most Earth Kingdom airbenders didn't come because they had lives at home. With the Earth Kingdom collapsing into chaos, these people likely don't have anywhere else to go.
• Zuko is hunting down Zaheer. But why him, an old man? Because he was able to hunt down Aang from the South Pole all the way to the North Pole. He's far more experienced at chasing down Airbenders than Zaheer is at being an Airbender...
• It's been stated over and over again in that the Air Nomads were the most spiritual nation. This reflects in both of the sub-skills in airbending: Astral Projection and Flight. Jinora could project her spirit because of her affinity with spirits and Zaheer could fly because he let go of his earthly tethers. Air is the element of freedom. Both of the sub-skills also follow that theme. Jinora, as a spirit, is free from her physical constraints (body) and Zaheer can fly so he's free from the earth in a way.
• Most people noted that it's almost impossible for Zaheer to have learned Airbending that fast, but note his style; it's basically firebending with air currents. His girlfriend is a firebender and when he had hair he looked like he could have been a Fire National. He's had bending training before from the closest style that can approximate Airbending. It's also why his style is much more confrontational than the other Airbenders of the series.
• King Bumi and the original Iroh, Aang's friend and Zuko's uncle respectively, worked and fought together as Grand Masters of the White Lotus. Aang and Zuko first fought each other, but ultimately fought together to stop the century long war brought upon by the Fire Lord. And 70 years later, Commander Bumi and General Iroh, Aang's son and Zuko's grandson respectively, worked and fought together in the army of the United Forces. Perhaps some friendships really do last more than one lifetime.
• None of the personalities of Aang and Katara's children are a coincidence; they're all a perfect reflection of their respective childhoods and their role in the family. Bumi is an eccentric, Attention Whore level daredevil because that's the only thing that stops you from being overlooked in a family chalk full of uber benders. Kya ended up as the Team Mom due to her older brother's unwillingness to act his age. Tenzin is The Stoic because he's felt pressured to be the flawless representation of the entire Air Nomad culture ever since he was small.
• Opal would actually be a great Air Nomad. Not only does she have the skills of airbending, but she follows the teachings: She has expressed a desire to see the world outside of Zaofu (love/desire of freedom). Opal stopped an escalating fight between her mother and aunt, followed by calling them out for wanting to hurt each other, even though they're sisters (Nonviolent character). And finally, Opal immediately forgave Lin after the latter's lashing out the previous night (Showing forgiveness).
• All of Korra's main antagonists (Noatak, Unalaq, Zaheer, Kuvira), except for Vaatu have six letters in their names.
• Zaheer and the Red Lotus wrought chaos upon the Earth Kingdom, leading to a Change in how things ran, with bandits running amok. Kuvira and her army seek to restore order and Balance out the Earth Kingdom after its fall.
• The swamp is retroactively brilliant when you compare it to the north and south poles. All three are near water tribes, connect to the spirit realm, and have connections to a vast tree connected to everything. This is why Korra travels here in Korra Alone: she was drawn to the opposite counterpart of the Tree of Time.
• This time period of the world of Avatar is parallel to the early twentieth century in the real world for more reasons than just technology. That time period saw a lot of social movements that gained steam as moral alternatives to Monarchies, Empires and Democracies, movements paralleled by the antagonists of Books One and Three. Socialism, based around the idea of removing social classes and putting everyone on even ground, making them all equal, matches the Equalists. The Red Lotus champions Anarchy, the idea that Government stands in the way of peace, and that removing it is the best path for the world. There's one other major movement that made waves on earth until certain infamous parties took it way too far. Fascism. One guess who's going to start pushing for that in Book Four. If you want to take it even more loosely, the early 20th century involved several Civil Wars which resulted from or involved groups associated with those alternative philosophies. It was also a period where in some places there was a rise in spiritualism or occultism.
• Suyin and Kuvira's relationship is fairly similar to that of Roku and Sozin. Both Sozin and Kuvira wanted to unite their nation and make it unstoppable, and found themselves in conflict with the person they thought shared their beliefs, who wasn't so crazy about the imperialistic bent of their actions. It even started out the same way, with Kuvira and Sozin proposing that they'd share the technologies of their respective states with the world, and being angered at Suyin/Roku's disagreement. And just as Sozin was too scared of Roku to start the war until after he died, Kuvira wouldn't attack Zaofu until she had full control of the Earth Kingdom, and even tried to kill the Avatar before she did.
• A little bit of Fridge Humor. Look at the shape of the badges of the Republic city police. It's the shape of Toph's hair seen from the front!
• Izumi staunchly refused to get involved with the war with Kuvira. However, look at the grander scale of the antagonists through Legend of Korra. Water bender, water bender, air bender and earth bender. Even looking into greater groups as opposed to just the primary antagonists, the only fire bender antagonists you have are P'li and some Triad goons and mooks. In short, the Fire Nation DIDN'T attack this time.
• Korra is almost certainly a relative of Yue. Leadership of the Northern Water Tribe is hereditary (or as part of marriage to a member of the chief's family), and Korra's father was directly in line for it. Yue didn't live long enough to have children, but she probably had siblings or a cousin that Korra descends directly from. This makes yet another contrast to Aang — he had absolutely no ties left to his friends and family aside from Appa. All Korra needs to do to find family is to look up at the moon!
• No matter the time at which it is visited, the sky around the Spirit Portals and the Tree of Time seems to be in a state of perpetual golden twilight. As it is the ancient battleground between Light and Darkness, this makes perfect sense.
• Korra and Asami's friendship. Korra represents the spiritual, traditional side of the world; Asami symbolizes the modern, technological side. Their friendship shows how both side, while vastly different, can learn to peacefully coexist with each other. It goes even further than that. As one fan pointed out their color schemes (blue/white for Korra, red/black for Asami) directly parallel to Raava and Vaatu. And by the end of the series, they're an Official Couple, perfectly underscoring the idea of 'Balance'.
• After the Grand Finale, a lot of little moments that were too subtle to even be put on Ship Tease become clearly intentional.
  • Asami's excessive flirty hair flipping in Book 3, in addition to the number of times she was showing off for Korra's benefit (who tries to look badass when opening a door?), make more sense in hindsight. Likewise, in Book 4, there are a number of times where Korra goes out of her way to make sure Asami is fine, while paying less attention to the others.
  • The displays also continue when they're away from each other. Look at Asami's face◊ when she takes down the Red Lotus Mook. Not once has she worn an expression of such sheer fury, inside or outside of combat. Seeing as she's attacking the organization who violently kidnapped the girl she's fallen in love with, this makes sense.
  • On a similar note, take a look at Asami's face and posture in contrast to Mako's◊ when Korra is near death in her father's arm after the effects of the poison. Asami is damn near heartbroken, which makes a lot of sense considering her line in the series finale of not knowing what she might have done if she lost Korra.
  • Likewise, after Kuvira kills Hiroshi in front of Asami Korra looks noticeably more enraged then she did before. Consider everything that Kuvira has done, conquering Zaofu, almost killing Korra, creating concentration camps and now attacking Republic City. But now Kuvira has indirectly hurt the woman that Korra loves by killing the last of her family. For Korra, Kuvira is no longer just a dictator, she is now someone who must pay for what she has done, and come hell or high water, Korra will make her pay.
  • Asami and Korra's first in-person greeting post timeskip in book 4 begins with Asami complimenting Korra's new appearance (and Korra promptly blushing).
  • The end of book 3 has Asami seemingly playing the role of Korra's sole caretaker in her time of need. The beginning of Book 4 even shows that Asami was willing to go with Korra back home during the timeskip.
  • In book 4 a small mini-plot develops around the fact that Asami was the only person Korra wrote back to over the 3 year timeskip.
• Love Triangle and Generation Xerox:
  • The Love Triangle between Korra/Mako/Asami is actually an echo of Lin/Tenzin/Pema, as well as an illustration of the difference between First and Second Love. For Korra/Mako and Tenzin/Lin (or at least what we can infer from the latter couple), First Love is a tempestuous and passionate experience, but one that is also prone to hurt feelings, endless bickering and a tendency to burn out quickly. Second Love (Korra/Asami, Tenzin/Pema) comes after a period of growth and maturity, and is based on compatibility, shared interests, and meaningful time spent together (more Birds of a Feather than Opposites Attract). It may not sound as exciting, but ultimately it's the surest way of attaining long-term happiness. With so much media extolling the ideal of having only One True Love forever and ever, it's an important lesson that your First Love can be exciting and important and worth treasuring, but your Second will ultimately be the one you spend the rest of your life with.
  • Additionally, from both an outside and in-universe perspective, First Love couples seem the most obvious (Lin/Tenzin being children of the Gaang and a Childhood Friend Romance, Makorra being Zutara 2.0/a sports romance,) that the same passion ultimately becomes its own worst enemy in the long run while Second Love couples seem unlikely/implausible (Pema not having any special background or being another Spin-Offspring to instead be a simple housewife that just wants one non-bender kid that DOESN'T air-blast her in the face while Asami being a girl that was technically Korra's romantic rival over Mako and whose romantic gestures would fly under the radar of a hetero lens as simply friendship) has much greater compatibility due to only being a foil in having traits their loved one lacks. Prime examples of both was “Original Airbenders” where if Lin was switched in for Pema, she'd not only agree with Bumi's aggressive approach, but insist he wasn't going hard enough instead of calmly defuse the situation. Aside from tech skills and feminine wiles, Mako in Asami's place during “Long Live the Queen” would either have both point the finger after crashing the airship, if not argue all the way back to Ba Sing Se while still restrained, but either way they would be unconstructively argue as always.
• Why does Korrasami (Korra/Asami) becomes canon and not Makorra (Mako/Korra), or even, Borra (Bolin/Korra)? Now, why all of them love and care for Korra deeply, but each (subconsciously) view her as only one part of her entire self: Bolin goes to fanboy mode when he finds out Korra is the Avatar and often thinks of her as such (i.e. in Korra Alone he refers to her as "dearest Avatar Korra"). Mako only viewed her as Korra the person (i.e. in the Season 1 finale he states, "I don't care if you're the Avatar"). Like Katara, and all other loves from the Avatar's lives, one must be able to love both parts of the said Avatar. Asami saw Korra as a person, but she also saw her as the Avatar; she realized her importance to the world {i.e. Rememberances has her retelling all of the good things she's done as the Avatar) and also emphasized Korra's own presence was personally important to her (i.e. The Last Stand has her confess she would have no idea what would she would've done if Korra hadn't made it.)
• This post describes how Mai, Katara, and Asami help figure out the problems of their respective loves: Zuko, Aang, and Korra.
• Each Avatar started as exactly what the world didn't need at the time. Wan was a thief when the world needed a hero, Roku was a friend when the world needed an authority figure, Aang was a mediator when the world needed a warrior, and Korra was a superhero when the world needed a diplomat. All of them grew into what the world needed them to be—except Roku, who caused the Hundred Year War because he simply couldn't bring himself to turn into a true authority figure and force his friend to back down from his insane ambitions.
• Each main antagonist represents a different political Ideology.
  • Amon and the Equalists is Communism.
  • Unalaq is Theocracy/Religious Fundamentalism.
  • Varrick is Capitalism.
  • President Raiko is Isolationism.
  • The Earth Queen is Monarchism.
  • Zaheer and the Red Lotus is Anarchism.
  • Kuvira and the Earth Empire is Nationalism/Pan-Nationalism and fascism.
• Now if we sort them in order of affability and watch their ultimate fate we get an interesting political commentary:
  • Vaatu and Unalaq are an Always Chaotic Evil force that plans to engulf the world in eternal darkness that had to be destroyed.
  • The Earth Queen is an evil, petty and useless ruler that ends up being killed by the first person that refused to acknowledge her sovereign right.
  • Amon is revealed to be a hypocrite and a part of the problem he claims to fight against.
  • Kuvira is forcibly brought down, but doesn't stop until she is shown compassion and shown the errors of her otherwise well-meaning ways, after which she willingly surrenders with hints of a future reformation (see Germany and Japan after WWII).
  • The Red Lotus is a friendly, well-meaning bunch, whose misguided ideals plunge the world into even more chaos.
  • Varrick develops a conscience (on his own, mind you) and gets to join the Good Guys.
    • But only after being forced out of a leadership role and into a supporting another leader.
• From another point of view...
  • Amon and the Equalists are little more than "Eat the haves" violent thugs, whose leader's charisma and orratory skills essentially were used to create persecution where none exists. All they leave is words and people irreversibly dirtied by association with them.
  • Tarrlok (who wasn't in the above) represents in essence, Totalitarianism, He uses the (admittedly real) threat of the Equalists to gather power for himself. In the end, he kills himself, after everything he's built up falls apart. He has no ideology beyond power, and leaves nothing behind of it, but his abuses do motivate Republic City to become more of a democracy, rather than relying on a council of unelected officials.
  • Unalaq reveals himself to be a fundamentalist madman whose lack of concern for the physical world and religious extremism leads him to attempt to outright mass-terror attacks and while the damage he does is lasting, yet his actions still indelibly mark a shift towards spirituality, not because he actually converted anyone, but simply because the fallout of his actions left no other choice.
  • Varrick, is greedy. He wants money and he is willing to start a war to get it. But when faced with the very real threat of weapons of mass destruction, and the genuine evil of many of the other antagonists, he shows himself to be a lighter shade, and even continues to be a major player in the world after the series ends.
  • The Earth Queen is a hardline traditionalist and a born-to-power autocrat with very little talent in ruling and extravagant tastes. She does nothing but run her nation into the ground, even as she refuses to modernize, and is eventually overthrown and killed, her poor rule excaberating the problems caused by...
  • Zaheer and the Red Lotus are Anarchists. They simply want to tear down the structures of power everyone has built up, as well as the traditions of the past. In doing so, they throw an entire nation into a long-lasting anarchic spiral that leads not to the orderless society they wished to bring forth, but only brought about lawless roving bands of bandits, and their antithesis.
  • Kuvira, said Antithesis, and her Earth Empire, are extremist imperialists whose ideology is based on avenging percieved historical slights, and who rises to power in an era of unrest by promising security in return for loyalty. While her ethnic pan-nationalist actions, such as waging wars to "reclaim their land" and the extermination via forced labor of non-earth kingdom peoples are horrific, she does indeed bring order back to the Kingdom, and is ultimately redeemed, if still imprisoned and punished for her crimes.
    • All in all, only Kuvira and Varrick have their ideologies atleast partially affirmed, and the changes enacted by their ideologies continue to affect the world because of the positive things their movements did, the latter much more than the former. While Kuvira's Pan-nationalism was a step too far, pride in, and attempting to help one's country and countrymen in a time of crisis (Patriotism) as well as Varrick's technological developments and spread of new ideas and wealth driven by the goal of acquiring capital, just ones that carry risks when taken too far, whereas Communism, Totalitarianism, Theocracism, Tradionalism, and Anarchism are purely destructive and negative forces that must be overcome, rather than incorporated. Combined with the slow shift towards Democracy, the world of Avatar is moving towards what's essentially free, democratic, and capitalist nation-states in peaceful relationship with eachother.
• Bolin becoming a soldier at first seems odd, but if you alter the context slightly it makes sense. Korra, for all intents and purposes, was a dead Avatar. She was in no shape to do anything to help a world sliding to chaos. What did Zuko, whom Bolin is an avowed fanboy of, do after Aang's death? Started wandering the world as an ambassador, which essentially meant covering for Aang. Bolin was doing just that: stepping in to cover for Korra while she recovered, acting as a soldier in Kuvira's army as a method of doing so because that was the big problem of the day. The same can be said for Asami and Mako - Mako (intended) to focus on his RCPD work, to keep Republic City intact, but ended up bodyguarding Wu. Asami used Future Industries to not only rebuild Republic City around the vines as Korra had hoped to do, but used its influence to establish a rail network necessary to get supplies to the Earth Kingdom's states who desperately needed them. In essence, Korra's friends careers were them in their own way trying to cover for Korra while she healed.
  • Also, Bolin is a member of the Earth Kingdom and in a relationship with the daughter of the head of one of it's prominant and before Book 4 started, only functioning nations (he didn't have a personal stake in the Kuvira drama and probably had no knowledge of it when he signed up). No wonder he'd take an interest in "fixing" the earth kingdom.
• The start of Korra and Asami's friendship begins with Asami apologizing to Korra for something she didn't necessarily need to apologize for (i.e. kissing Mako when he and Korra were already broken up). The start of Korra and Asami's relationship begins with Korra apologizing to Asami for something she didn't necessarily need to apologize for (i.e. Korra being away for three years due to the heavy trauma and severe depression at the hands of Zaheer).
• Korra's physical trauma and Asami's emotional trauma mirror each other:
  • Book 1 — Something is severed from what is most important; Korra loses her bending and Asami loses her relationship with her father.
  • Book 2 — Loses connection to family, the past, and yourself; Korra loses her connection to her past lives and Asami loses her company (which was all that was left of her and her family and past).
  • Book 3 — Being poisoned: Korra literally (because of the Red Lotus) and Asami through multiple lies and betrayals from people she truly trusted over and over again (i.e. her father, Varrick, and Mako).
  • Book 4 — They become an Official Couple, and they find exactly what they need; Korra finds someone who will care for her when she's in pain no matter how bad it is and will never hurt her and Asami found someone who will always love her and never leave her unlike everything else.
• On a first watch, Lin's animosity to Korra in Book 1 can feel strange and unearned, especially her saying Korra doesn't deserve the respect she's being shown at a party. Then in Book 3, we learn that Korra couldn't have been reminding her more of Suyin if she tried, with her busting up Republic City and then expecting to get away with it just because of who she was.
• Fans have been complaining about how the bending is "weak" compared to the original series, but it makes sense because the people has adapted to use bending in an industrial and precise manner with more refined techniques, and has grown less spiritually inclined, as opposed to the original series where bending is all about the wild, destructive raw power seen as "magic".
• This post discusses how Zhu Li/Varrick parallel Korra/Asami in almost every way. For example, Zhu Li/Varrick are a comedic couple of secondary characters. While Korra/Asami are a dramatic couple, consisting of the main protagonist and another main character, who becomes something of the deuteragonist by the series finale.
• Minor brilliance regarding the past three Avatars and Korra. In the opening sequence, it shows the past three Avatars and Korra. Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. Notice that the Earth and Water Avatars were female, and that Fire and Air were male. Earth and Water are feminine elements, and Air and Fire are masculine.
• Why does Meelo become such a brat and Ikki lose her Genki Girl/Motor Mouth tendencies in Book 4? For Meelo, in the previous book, he, along with his sisters, were tasked with becoming teachers to the New Air Nation. Having such a big and huge role in one's life can sometime increase their ego. As for Ikki, someone so young becoming a teacher could also lead to them gaining a sense of maturity and stopping their childish actions in order to help their new students.
• A young, talented female bender who has some connection to Aang, Katara, and Tenzin is nearly killed by a member of the Red Lotus, who used a unique technique in order to do so. Is this description of Jinora in Book 2, when she was nearly killed by Unalaq's spiritbending technique or is it about Korra in Book 3, when she was nearly suffocated by Zaheer's airbending?
• There is an added brilliant layer to why Korra's near-death experience at the hands of Zaheer haunts her — if an Avatar dies while in the Avatar State, the whole cycle will be broken. She was in the Avatar State when she was dying, and it's been established that she had some insecurities about being the Avatar, afraid of failing. In other words, Korra believes that she nearly failed the world because her enemy almost destroyed the cycle that helped keep the world safe and in balance.
• All of the LOK villains have ironic deaths/defeats:
  • Amon/Noatak — Amon wanted to use Hiroshi's inventions as weapons to rise to power. And what happened? Tarrlok used one of Hiroshi's inventions to kill him (as well as himself).
  • Unalaq — Unalaq taught Korra how to do the weird glowing spinning light thing that defeats dark spirits. And what happened? Korra used that on Unalaq and ended up defeating him.
  • The Red Lotus:
    • P'li's greatest weapon was being able to shoot energy beams. And what happened? Her energy beam rebounded off of the metal and her head exploded.
    • Ming-Hua's unique waterbending was using the water as arms. And what happened? Mako used his lightning on them, that killed her.
    • Ghazan was a lavabender. And what happened? He died (by his own doing) by falling into lava.
    • Zaheer forced Korra into the Avatar State. And what happened? She was powerful enough to defeat him.
  • Kuvira would have been killed by her own weapon (the spirit energy cannon) if Korra hadn't saved her!
• This post shows strong parallels between Makorra (Mako/Korra) and Boleska (Bolin/Eska) in Book 2:
  • The way Bolin describes his relationship with Eska is similar to Mako and Korra; they met and there was attraction, but… compatibility maybe wasn’t as strong as they thought.
  • A tough break-up.
  • The boys then get kissy with someone else who play supportive elements in their current jobs. (Both affairs are kind of… weird, unresolved and are brushed aside).
  • Boys having trouble telling the girl they want a break up.
  • In the heat of the battle there’s a few moments that suggest that both relationships could work.
  • But afterward they decide that while they’ll always care for each other, splitting up is for the better.
• With our world's history of firearms, it might seem weird that no one, not even the Equalists, have developed firearms. Think about it. Here is a weapon that could allow even non-benders to counter bending powers, and simple to train with that it makes chi-blocking outdated. That is until realize the advantages bending has over firearms. Firebenders can simply heat up the gunpowder and/or bullet, making firearm users walking bombs. Waterbenders can foul up firearm components, and ruin gunpowder. Air benders can sense vibrations in the air, and enough wind resistance to ruin a shot. Earthbenders are the worst as they can make walls and armor out of the earth for protection. Even worse, Metal benders could easily disable a fire arm. Its no wonder firearms have not appeared, bending is just too good.
• The story of Wan, and of people getting bending from the Lion Turtles, doesn't actually retcon the original series' explanation. While everyone is aware of what the last Lion Turtle said, "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves," few realise that it was being literal. "We bent the energy within ourselves." The Lion Turtle never actually said anything about whether humans were energybenders, just that Lion Turtles were energybenders, which is how they granted bending powers to the humans. And this is why it doesn't retcon the original series: During the era before the Avatar, people never learned to bend; they were given the skill, and instinctual knowledge of how to use it. The first people that actually learned to bend, instead of relying on knowledge granted by the Lion Turtles, did indeed learn from the dragons, sky bisons, moon, and badger moles. This would also be in the era of the Avatar, after people left the cities; as they left and married, their children gained the ability to bend, but not the instinctual knowledge. As such, these children had to learn for themselves, and their parents didn't know how to teach them; this required them to turn to nature for guidance.
  • Except this leads to another problem (read: headache) of why then each of the Wan-era Lion Turtles are element-themed beyond being proto-nations rather than general-looking as the one Aang met. As the Ass Pull page mentions, even if this was contemplated since the beginning, it's badly implemented, so it's the precursor to Jinora in Book 2 all over again.
• In the first episode, Katara detects that Pema's unborn child will be a powerful airbender. Why would she have learned this skill? Her first child was a non-bender and her second child was a waterbender. With it looking like there wouldn't be another generation of airbenders, it's quite possible that Katara learned this skill to confirm at the earliest opportunity that their third child, Tenzin, would indeed be an airbender.
• Why is it so important that Zuko abdicated to his daughter and became an ambassador for peace? For the last hundred years before Zuko's rule, Fire Lords Sozin, Azulon, that and Ozai had waged a genocidal war of conquest and became increasingly authoritarian and power hungry. By abdicating to his daughter, Zuko broke the cycle, and by becoming an ambassador for peace, he rejected the warmongering of his ancestors.'
• It also makes sense that Zuko is the only one of Aang & Co. that had one child. Given the sibling issues between both his dad and Iroh (like dad trying to usurp Iroh's place in line) and him and Azula, he probably wanted to avoid anything like it at all costs while trying to fix his family's mistakes. Having one child meant he could hyper-focus on Izumi's future as both as her dad and her mentor. He was simultaneously Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting and making sure she was properly ready to take his place. Since he succeded with her, she could have two kids of her own without any sort of baggage.
• All known Avatars before Korra have left some kind of trouble that their predecessors had to deal with, but Korra not only cleaned up Aang's mess (the class warfare between Benders and non-Benders) but also managed to keep any trouble from becoming something her own successor would have to deal with... Because where the previous Avatars ended up focusing on something the mess their successors would have to deal with started up somewhere else, but in the new interconnected society all the troubles are in some way connected to Republic City, right where Korra resides, so she can intervene before the troubles can become too serious (with one, the contention for the throne between Kuvira and Prince Wu, starting out somewhere else before coming right there).
  • Part of why Korra succeeded is that Aang helped out: he's in part responsible for the creation of the Republic and resided there, so he could play a part in mitigating the class warfare. He still failed in that regard, as Yakone got away and his son would start the Equalist movement, but the Equalists had to wait for his death before they could become an issue.
• Zaheer breaks out the other three members of the Red Lotus in order of whom is the easiest to free.
  • Ghazan was imprisoned on a boat at sea. All it took to free him was Zaheer tossing a few rocks into his cell. There was also plenty of open space for an airbender to take advantage of.
  • Ming-Hua was imprisoned above a volcano, depriving her of water. Zaheer and Ghazan provide her with water from a barrel. Since airbending requires one to be quick on their feet, Zaheer would also need someone else to carry the barrel for him while he fought off the guards and Earthbenders like Ghazan tend to be the muscle of their groups. Plus, Ghazan would be surrounded by plenty of earth and molten rock to use.
  • P'Li's prison is the icy tundras of the North Pole, the opposite of Ming-Hua's prison. As Ming-Hua is a Waterbender, she is the perfect individual to free P'Li.
• Zaheer's allies die in reverse order of how they are freed. P'Li is the last to be freed and the first to die. This is followed by Ming-Hua and then Ghazan.

Book One

Welcome to Republic City

• Upon a closer look, it seems odd that Katara and Korra would be taken by surprise when Tenzin mentioned he was only staying for the night, considering that he'd brought his whole family. Then one recalls that his children are the only other airbenders in the world, so he would have taken them to join Korra in training. On a related note, since Aang was the last airbender, and his son the only Airbending Master (after Aang's death), every Airbender in the entire Avatarverse is now related not only to Aang, but also to Katara, Sokka, Tenzin, Jinora, etc. (you get the idea.)
  • Except those granted Airbending by Harmonic Convergence.
• How is it that Korra could already bend three elements as a child when previous Avatars never knew what they were until they were told? After the war of the last series, there has been concerted effort on the part of the nations to draw together. One's nation of origin is no longer the absolute identity marker that it once was. Why shouldn't a bending child think "Hey, what if I'm the new Avatar?" and try their hand at other elements? It was still a stroke of luck that she discovered correct techniques for bending them without formal training, but then Katara also started bending without formal training. And like tiny!Korra, she only evinced very rough ability to start with.
• Korra and Aang both started their adventures by running away from home, but where Aang was running away from his destiny as the Avatar, Korra was running towards it, leaving so she could learn the final element. Korra is supposed to be Aang's complete opposite, and this illustrates that wonderfully, especially as it's much more subtle than the obvious personality differences.
• Pema mentions that she wishes for her unborn child to be a non-bender like her, so that at least one other member of her family would be a non-bender, subtly and gently foreshadowing the bender/non-bender conflict that will drive the plot to come. It also serves on second viewing as a means of hinting at just how serious and ingrained the problem is likely to be. Even in a loving, harmonious family, all of whose members of solidly among the heroes of the story, there is still an undercurrent of this conflict.
• Katara understands very well what Korra really needs, because in personality they are very similar. Having taught Korra for many years, Katara's own character must have had a huge influence on Korra. Both of them also taught themselves quite a bit of bending before they found a teacher as well. Oh yeah, Korra's a chip off the old block all right.
• Look at just how huge Republic City has become in just seventy years time, with many buildings being skyscrapers. Now that metalbending is commonplace, reinforced concrete and steel would have easily taken over as the choice of building construction. Rebar fabrication would be particularly simple with metalbending. Foundations would be no problem with Earthbending. Lightning bending could be used for welding. The fire nation had enough technical expertise to build a freaking Tunnel Boring machine the size of a small town! In Republic City, technology sharing would allow the combination of elements to do far more than what they could do alone. Road laying would be a piece of cake. We can go on and on as to just how bending centered the industry of the city might be, but it's clear that the bending arts must have given the industry a huge head start.
• The importance of bending in the everyday fabric of Republic City life would have likely increased the prestige and privileges afforded to benders in the city, accentuating the inequality between benders and non-benders, and sowing the seeds of discontent among non-benders that later allows Amon to gather such a large following.
  • However, if Mako and Bolin are anything to go by, there must be a lot of benders below the poverty line as well. Only while non-benders had to make do with small jobs like selling groceries, or living on the streets, the benders with the help of their abilities could form criminal gangs like the Triads, further widening the bender-non bender divide.
  • And in other way, this would have definitely helped Sato and the poor Cabbage Merchant. Benders have the "technical skills" for the job, but the guy who can figure out how to harness the skill to get the business rolling and build an empire out of it, that takes something else. As Sato puts it, he had the ideas and the business sense to make them work. So the city might have an extreme wealth divide between non-benders - a few rich guys at the top, and a huge number near rock bottom. This also makes sense given the 1920s feel of the show. What kind of social unrest did the 1920s see? The rise of communist protests in the face of wealth inequality. Much like the Equalist rallies.

A Leaf in the Wind

• Why was Korra so sloppy during her first Pro-Bending match even though Bolin had trained a bit with her? Besides not knowing any of the rules, Bolin taught her Earthbending techniques, not Waterbending (which she had to use).
• The scene where Korra reveals to Bolin she is the Avatar seems to be a commentary on people being quick to judge mixed-race people as belonging to one group instead of both. The irony here is that Bolin is himself mixed.
• Korra initially has trouble with moving like an airbender, as she tends to charge in headfirst and rely mostly on her strength to force things to dodge her. After she watches the match, and sees modern techniques for the first time, she is highly impressed, and gets help from Bolin. He teaches her how to be light on her feet, to not be so solid, and basically shows her the advantages of being able to react quickly and being able to dodge as opposed to planting herself to the ground and leaving herself open. Like Iroh figured out how to redirect lightning by watching waterbending, Korra figured out how to move like an airbender at least partially based on learning from an earthbender. The fact that both sets of elements are considered opposites probably helps, as it makes the benders look at things from a whole new perspective. Tenzin isn't the only one who "taught (Korra) those moves" when she starts moving like an airbender. As said in the episode, "Bolin's got some moves."
• Korra is strong, but lacks restraint. Pro-bending, with its rules and regulations, is all about restraint while also be mindful of the goal to win. Also, now that she's on a team, and it isn't just her training, she has all the more reason to learn and practice her control. Also, this is a perfect opportunity of her to learn how to be a team player, which can be handy once her team is established a few episodes later, hone rudimentary skills as a diplomat, and reinforce empathy.
• Why does Tenzin change his mind about Korra's pro-bending so quickly? He shows the wisdom of a master airbender, when he encounters strong resistance, he changes his approach.
• When Korra is trying to airbend at a photograph of Lin, she is inadvertently demonstrating precisely why she has so much trouble with it. Aggression is exactly the wrong sort of motivation for airbending, and Korra's aggressive personality is exactly why she can't grasp its principles.
• At the start of the episode, when explaining how she's never been able to Airbend, Korra is wearing the sleeves of her air nomad clothing rolled up. Now while simply seems to be a bit of rebelliousness on her part, you have to remember that Korra has spent most of her life living in the South Pole. Not only must Republic City's climate (during the day) feel really warm to her, but she most likely enjoys being able to go out without having to wear clothes that cover her up.

The Revelation

• Lightningbending:
  • Lightningbending is more common now? Well, Iroh seems to have made great leaps in HIS lightning bending by taking inspiration from the other bending disciplines. And since Republic City is a melting pot of the four nations and their cultures, it's likely that this free exchange of information between the bending arts has aided the spread of more specific and unusual forms of bending. It's like an industrial revolution for bending!
  • Alternatively, if Zuko went on to teach what he learned about the original source of firebending, then perhaps modern firebenders have an easier time using lightning because they are able to get into the proper mindset more readily. In other words, lightningbending was not as quite hard as benders of the old series thought, but rather the perversion of firebending into a rage-fueled art prevented most firebenders from being able to bend while simultaneously freeing themselves of emotion, which lightning bending requires.
• Amon's tragic backstory:
  • If he really is lying for propaganda purposes, why does he claim that a firebender killed his parents instead of a water- or earthbender? Because not only is the mental image of a fatal firebending attack that much more viscerally horrible than anything the other two can produce, but it plays on any lingering hatred people may still have toward the Fire Nation for the Hundred Years' War.
  • A man scarred by a Firebender who rebels against an oppressive authority. He's drawing parallels between himself and Zuko, who is easily the most successful and well-known "rebel" in the world's history. Along those lines, it wouldn't be surprising if by this point there are stories about Zuko's exploits as the Blue Spirit, and the mask could also be an homage to that.
• The Equalists have all been kicking bender ass rather easily. This makes sense as they are all trained specifically to take down benders, while the benders themselves, especially due to modernizing times, aren't all just focused on combat. This even makes sense for pro-Benders, pro-Benders fight at a distance and only focus on pushing back their opponents. Once a chi-blocker gets close...
• Lightning Bolt Zolt runs the only pan-elemental Triad gang in the city, with other triads favoring specific elements and fighting turf wars against each other. So when Amon de-bends Zolt, he isn't just decapitating a major crime syndicate. He's depriving the criminal underworld of the only figure who has proven he can unite the various bending factions under one banner, leaving the Equalists to face a fractured underworld opposition. Furthermore, by removing a major organization, he's creating the perfect situation for the other triads to make a grab for the Triple Threats' territory, sparking a turf war between the triads that will weaken them, keep the police occupied and create more reason for non-benders to join the Equalists when there's open bender-on-bender fighting in the streets.
• The brothers were rather easily taken out the Equalists lieutenant. Some have said this shows off their weakness in bending outside the ring, but if you think about it, they were hardly in top form. Mako, in addition to being worried about Bolin for a whole night and day, had been awake and searching for his brother all of the previous night, and had the fight with the chi-blockers, which probably led to a weakened state. Bolin had been kidnapped, presumably after a fight with the Equalists, and had been held captive for at least a night and a day. The conditions in which he was held are unknown, but we can assume that, at the very least, the Equalists kept their captives bound and chi-blocked. Both brothers would have been exhausted, emotionally and physically, so it's really no wonder they were taken out so quickly. The Lieutenant also had the advantage of the fight being in an alley. This makes it much harder for the brothers to dodge and easier for him to administer his finishing move by pinning them against the wall.
• It seems rather convenient that Bolin is the last one in the lineup, until you realize the first one is a notorious criminal. As he's the first demonstration, the crowd is likely to give immediate support, and likely to get more supportive as the demonstration continues with the other criminals. By the time they get to Bolin, the crowd's probably so riled up that they don't have the sympathy that they would have had earlier for a poor, wide-eyed, and obviously frightened teenaged boy. This could also explain why they skip the sobbing man in the line-up after Zolt. The guy is obviously terrified, and could garner some sympathy from the audience because he would seem more humanized by his fright, and fighting him would make Amon appear cowardly.
• When Korra sees Amon debend Lightning Bolt Zolt, she's terrified at the prospect of having the same done to her, and rightly so. But there's another subtle layer to her fear: Firebending is her natural/default choice of bending, and she'd just watched another firebender lose his ability right in front of her.
• Why did Mako and Bolin run numbers and do "stuff" for the Triple Threats out of all the triad outfits in the city? Because they're Republic City's only pan-elemental triad. Each brother bends a different element, meaning none of the other triads would employ both of them, and if they each worked for a different triad then they might find themselves on opposite sides of a turf war.
• Other than 'fairness', why did Amon give Lightning Bolt Zolt the chance to defend himself? Because he knew Zolt would demonstrate his bending before it got shut down, proving to the crowd that both Zolt and Amon's de-bending power were the real deal.
• Mako and Bolin both get quick jobs in their efforts to make money for the tournament. Bolin's gang security job is one they come to him for likely because he is a bender, while Mako's electric plant job is impossible to do as a non-bender. Clearly, they took the most well-paying jobs they could...What would two non-benders do in their places? Make less money, or not get employed at all (and certainly not be pro-benders to start with). It's a subtle way the show is saying that the Equalists do have a point.
• Amon says that every war in every era started because of benders, however this isn't true. Does anyone remember the story of Omashu? Both villages were at war and none of them had benders. In fact, Oma stopped the war by using her earthbending. And Amon is a hypocrite because he, a non-bender, is starting a war against benders because they apparently start all wars.
• Mako gets a job at a power plant but he's only seen there once. Well, he spent two nights and a day looking for Bolin, so it possible that he got fired for skipping work.
• You need multiple copies of the equalist flyer to realize the backs form a map to their hidden base. A casual observer would pick up only one and probably forget about it, and since the police aren't after the equalists yet, they're not going to care about it. People who are already invested in the equalist movement would be more likely to put the pieces of the map together because they would be the only ones who pay enough attention to notice the pattern. And it's not so cryptic that someone who believes in the cause but isn't in the network can't find it.

The Voice in the Night

• Why is Korra so terrified of Amon and his Mooks being able to circumvent her bending? Well, consider how Korra has been a bending prodigy since a very young age, having already attained mastery of three elements during childhood. This has caused and reinforced a pretty high level of confidence, hence her cocky attitude. Now here comes along a group who can take the source of her confidence away, with a leader who can apparently do it permanently. The very prospect of losing her bending would be absolutely mind-shattering. Remember that Korra was raised in an isolated arena by the White Lotus, with no friend of her age, no social life to talk about, nothing to do or learn other than bending arts, no money, no means to sustain herself. Just like Amon told her in her nightmare at the beginning of episode four, if you take Korra's bending away, she has NOTHING left. And she found out she was the Avatar when she was four years old. Bending has been her whole identity for as long as she can remember. Maybe there was a reason they used to keep the Avatar a secret until s/he was sixteen...
• If Amon's power really is Energybending, then waging psychological warfare against Korra before having their decisive showdown makes perfect sense. Energybending is a contest of willpower, and a sufficiently spiritually strong target could turn it against Amon (something that nearly happened to Aang against Ozai when he used it). Which is already pretty bad for Korra since she is lacking in the spiritual aspect of being the Avatar. And the reason Amon is able to energybend modern benders' bending away so easily is because modern benders are turning away from the spiritual element of bending.
• In this episode Korra deals with Fear. In "Spirit of the Competition," Korra deals with Love and Grief. Is she unlocking the chakras with these experiences? So maybe these seemingly filler episodes aren't fillers and all, and Korra is going though a character arc that will allow her to master the spiritual side of bending. Yuans to noodles, that is probably one reason for the Avatar to travel the world to train, so he or she can feel these feelings and then better work on opening the chakras.
• Korra challenging Amon to a duel:
  • Why does she seem to grab the Idiot Ball when she challenges Amon to a one-on-one duel? Because in the previous episode she witnessed him giving Lightning Bolt Zolt and the other Triple Threats a chance to duel him and save their bending. Prior to his ambushing of her at the episode's climax, Korra has every reason to think of Amon as having a twisted sense of Honor Before Reason. It's only after the ambush that Korra learns, rather than being honorable, Amon gave those gangsters a chance to duel out of a sense of showmanship and PR savvy—the same reasons he doesn't take her bending away that night.
  • Maybe it's something different. As we see Korra take off to meet Amon, we hear Tarrlok tell Tenzin that he has officers ready to run and help Korra if anything goes wrong. Amon, being the savvy Manipulative Bastard he is, he probably knew that the council wouldn't keep their part of the deal. To sum it up, Amon didn't feel obligated to follow the one-on-one part of the challenge because the city didn't follow it either, even though Korra herself did.
  • Possibly a bit of Fridge Horror: Note how it's possible that Amon had operatives throughout Republic City's communications that allowed him to cut down telephone wires almost instantaneously? He used those same connections to inform him of Tarrlok's dirty trick.
• Why doesn't Amon take away Korra's bending? Sure, he says it's so she doesn't become a martyr to benders, but let's face it, Korra's hasn't exactly got everyone on her side. Why not just get rid of her now so she can't cause anymore trouble for them? Think about the only other known energybender; the Avatar. Amon sees himself as a new type of Avatar. And in what cases did the Avatar end a war where a group of people were bullying and oppressing others by making their hot-headed leader with an affinity for fire powerless through energybending? Aang vs. Ozai. Leaving Korra for last is rife with symbolism that fits perfectly into Equalist propaganda.
• The Voice in the Night throws in another blink-and-you-miss-it hint about Amon that you can only really catch after finishing the finale. Think back to Out of the Past, and how Korra's visions were a not so subtle hint from Aang about Tarrlok's identity as both a bloodbender and Yakone's son. Now look back at the end of The Voice in the Night, where Korra gets an extremely short flashback from Yakone's trial (before we really knew who he was). Seeing as Korra had just been confronted by a certain other son of Yakone/bloodbender, it's entirely possible that this was Aang's way of dropping a hint about who Amon is, and just what Korra's up against.
• Tarrlok brings up Aang stopping Yakkone at the very beginning of the episode as an example of using force to stop a dangerous threat. Tenzin insists this incident was completely different from what was going on with Amon. While Tenzin is right that oppressing the Equalists is different from stopping one bad actor, he ends up being wrong that they are completely different, since Amon is using the same power Yakkone did, just in a different way. And it makes sense why Tarrlok would pull out this parallel, not only to get one over on Tenzin, but because he heard the story repeatedly from Yakkone, his father.

The Spirit of Competition

• Korra is somewhat reconnecting with her Water Tribe roots. The Water tribe cuisine reminds her of home, she continues waterbending at tournaments as always, and even shows that she is a healer. This is in contrast to her usual hot-tempered firebending and illustrate her Character Development as a less heated person.
• There is a double meaning behind the episode's title. It not only begins the Tournament Arc for Pro-Bending, but it also centres around the Love Dodecahedron between Korra, Mako, Asami, and Bolin.
• A minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing: The Buzzard Wasp's firebender wears a topknot.

And the Winner Is...

• The Wolfbats won the championship three times in a row. After winning the fourth, their bending is taken away and cannot compete anymore. It was practically foreshadowing.
• Shiro Shinobi's continued narrating during the attack.
  • He was on live radio to the whole city. They likely heard him being attacked, after hearing his terror and him summing up the devastation. If Shiro is a non-bender, then that could have been a calculated move, to show that the Equalists will attack non-benders too and that they're not the Well-Intentioned Extremist types, but make them out as an evil organization to the public.
  • Perhaps that explains why part of his name means "ninja". He supports the art of bending and dislikes the Equalists methods to the point where he'll take being electrocuted to deliver a message about their questionable methods.
  • Even better, he used to be a reporter who covered the Triads before becoming an announcer. Intense action is something he's used to, so he wouldn't be phased when Amon attacked.
  • That experience makes his line about wetting himself even better. Not only is he telling his audience, bender and nonbender alike, that Amon's forces are the scary, awful bad guys, he's saying that they're worse than the triad criminals he used to cover. Convincing anyone who heard that and is familiar with Shiro's background that the Equalists are heroes is going to be a hard sell.
• Look at Amon's first victim during The Revelation, Now look at who he goes after first in this episode. Notice what they have in common? They're both firebenders.
• The way Amon is creating A God Am I aura in Magnificent Bastard fashion, he's clearly the Avatar Universe's version of the Antichrist, directly opposing the Avatar. And both characters were inspired from Gods in different cultures. Enough said.
• The Satos were briefly shown attending the match in a private box. The next episode casts this in an interesting light. Maybe Hiroshi took that as an opportunity to help supply the attack. More importantly and more likely, he knew Asami would be attending the match and would fight back, especially if the Fire Ferrets had won and her boyfriend was being purified in front of her. An Equalist locking the Satos in was probably one of the first things to happen during the attack.
• Tenzin says that Lin and Aang "got along famously". Notice that most of Lin's moves involve being in the air.
  • Additionally it's a known fact that Lin never knew her father, and we assume that Aang was close to the Beifong family, allowing for the assumption that Lin and Tenzin were a childhood romance, then it is possible that Lin may have seen Aang as a Father Figure.
• While Amon is making his escape, Korra creates a water twister that randomly collapses. Later, in Skeletons in the Closet, she is able to make another one no problem. Why? Because Amon is a waterbender—he messed up Korra's water twister to keep her from following him.
• Another potential explanation for the failed water twister; look at the way the scene plays out. First we have a shot of Korra ascending to follow Amon, then she gets a look of doubt on her face, THEN her twister collapses. Why is that? Well, let's think about it: Korra's a headstrong, "look before you leap" kind of gal, we've seen that numerous times. When she jumps out into the water she almost immediately decides to chase after Amon rather than stopping to consider the ramifications: two episodes ago this was the man who had her on her knees, helpless, and told her that he was going to destroy her when the time was right. This encounter terrified and traumatized her so deeply that she breaks down sobbing in Tenzin's arms soon after. Her water twister breaking apart isn't Amon messing with her via waterbending: it's her own doubt eating away at her as she realizes "wait a minute, am I nuts?" Which makes Lin's save a moment later even more awesome when you consider the subtext: She's not just helping Korra reach Amon, she's giving her the backbone to face him. You can almost hear her saying "Quit wussing out and go knock that stupid mask off his stupid face."
• The Wolfbats cheating; just them being a bunch of Jerkasses, right? Certainly by the end that's true, but refs have different levels of tolerance for certain low end and judgment call based fouls. Mako just automatically assumed the refs were bought off, but the Fire Ferrets are a rookie team while the Wolfbats were veterans. The Wolfbats might of begun the game just testing the waters like pros to see what flies and what doesn't with the particular ref in the game. Note that Shiro Shinobi doesn't call it cheating until they start escalating to icing, rocks in the water, etc., implying that there's a certain level of give in major matches to make them more exciting. The thing is, the ref never drew a line. Why? Who knows, but the end result was the Wolfbats realizing they could do their full arsenal of dirty tricks and proving themselves to be the bullies Amon calls all benders. Perfect targets to debend publically after they cheated their way to victory against the also popular Fire Ferrets.

The Aftermath

• There are a couple of stealth call backs in this episode dealing with metal-bending. Remember that Toph invented metal-bending by bending impurities left after refining the metal of her time. She was able to do this by 'seeing' the impurities. Lin finds the tunnel by using the exact same 'sense', because you have to be able to use that sense to metal-bend in the first place! At the same time, the reason Lin couldn't metal-bend the hidden factory gate or the anti-bending tanks is because the metal is pure - there are no impurities to bend (or at least so little even she can't spot it) because technology has made refining so good! Sato says that they can't bend it because it is platinum and platinum is especially pure. This is a neat little metallurgical reference since it is possible to find chunks of absolutely pure platinum in nature. Excellent use of Magic A Is Magic A.
• More on platinum: Since the Avatar world is so dependent on bending, rather than science, they probably have no clue about platinum's greatest weakness- it is a metal and a powerful catalyst, making it vulnerable to electricity and intense temperatures (the suit won't melt, but the pilot has no protection against the heat), and it will catalyze the combustion of volatile fuels and nitrogen oxides. You throw gasoline on that thing and it bursts into flames, and firebending can re-direct the flames to do more damage.
• To add to the Platinum points, it must be noted that Platinum is a major industrial catalyst for all sorts of processes, and it's mainly used in the Catalytic converters found in engine exhaust systems, as well as catalytic reforming to produce high octane gasoline - cue the Satomobile. It suddenly strikes you that given how abundant Platinum is in the Avatar-verse, catalytic converters and industrial catalysts could have already been invented by that time and Sato could have gotten the idea for using the Platinum to make his mechs. It gives an excuse for him ordering the kind of supplies he would need to make that many mechs. Also fairly strong magnets could be made out of a platinum-cobalt alloy, though to go as far as how they worked in Episode 10 would require some Artistic License.
• Asami says that her father had her take martial arts so she could protect herself. Makes sense given what happened to his wife. Further, depending on how far back his alliances go, he may have been preparing her to become an equalist chi blocker.
• The Chakras, my word, the Chakras! This series is playing out the awakening of the chakras as it progresses.
  • Korra has dealt with fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies and probably illusion with each successive episode apart from learning Freedom of spirit since her years at the South Pole. Now she's almost ready to master the spiritual side of being the Avatar. Only one more chakra to go.
  • It makes sense why she couldn't master the spiritual side easily. She was locked up in a cozy, cocooned world and had none of the life changing experiences or the kind of training that Aang received. But now it looks like all that might just be about to change.
  • Especially since the whole point of the Avatar Cycle is giving the planet's spirit a chance to experience life from a mortal perspective. Locking it up in a compound was detrimental to what the Avatar spirit wanted/needed.
  • The final chakra? Unlocked by letting go of worldly attachments. For Aang, it was his fondness for Katara. For Korra? She was so wrapped up in being the Avatar, that she could have very well been contemplating suicide when looking over that cliff. When she decided against it, when she decided to go on living despite being a broken Avatar, BAM, last chakra opened.
  • I disagree. There's absolutely no indication she was opening her last chakra; she hadn't let go of any worldly attachments, nor did she demonstrate any display of spiritual energy until Aang showed up. She was really just opening her Air Chakra. This is shown in multiple ways: She finally airbends purely out of love and concern for Mako, putting any grief she may have felt aside to do it. Later on, as she's grieving about the loss of her bending, Aang appears (another indication of the air chakra) and helps her get over her grief by returning her bending to her. She then sees Mako and demonstrates her love for him. Further, she clearly only unlocked the thought chakra at the end of Book 2, given that we see the same spiritual plane that Aang visited during his attempts at unlocking his own, followed by a massive display of cosmic energy in the form of her spiritual projection.
• The Lieutenant wiped the floor with Bolin and Mako and is evenly matched with Korra, but Asami manages to take him out in a matter of seconds. Why? Because she's been trained in hand-to-hand combat almost her entire life. Benders usually fight from a distance, which is why the Equalists have quite an advantage over them once they get in their personal space. Regular kung fu was also very effective against the Chi Blockers' close quarters combat in the previous series itself - observe how Sokka and Suki managed to dodge or block Ty Lee's attacks. Then there's the fact that the Equalists were trained to fight benders, not other non-benders.
• Notice the way that the metalbender cops move into the room when investigating Sato's secret lair? Notice how they sweep the room visually, covering each other's blind spots with their stance ready to metalbend at an instants notice? They're basically using SWAT tactics, except with bending.
• Notice how Lin Beifong turns her steel cables into a type of wrist daggers to tear through the cockpit of one of the mecha? That weapon is very similar to an Indian dagger known as the Katara.
• In terms of sheer offensive/defensive power, the mechs seem laughably inferior to a coordinated group of benders. It's hard to believe that the mechs could stand up to any of the serious bending seen in ATLA, especially earth and water (tip them, impale them, bury them, or just plain crush them). The thing is, they don't have to. They will be fighting mainly in the city, where opposing benders have to restrain themselves, lest they cause collateral damage. Plus large-scale combat bending probably hasn't seen much use and is probably frowned upon in the aftermath of the 100-year war. The Mechs reflect Amon's penchant for creating win-win situations. As seen in the episode, they are excellent for subduing benders, even masters like Lin and Tenzin. They also look impressive and threatening, which is always good. But they also employ 'clean' weapons that cause little to no collateral damage. Last but not least, if benders go all-out against these machines, they probably will end up damaging the city / hurting civilians, which only fuels Amon's propaganda machine.
• Asami goes against her father to protect her friends and do what's right. So in other words, she's believing in her beliefs as much as her father believes in his. Not only does she parallel Zuko in defying her father to follow the Avatar, she also shocks him with lightning before she leaves, just as Zuko did.
• The Mecha Tanks being Human shaped is beneficial as a PR move. If it were a regular tank it would just look like more violence and aggression, while a human-shaped tank would more resemble someone defending themselves. More importantly, non-humanoid tanks are not new technology in the Avatar—who was the last one to use them, after all?
• Hiroshi has two taser gloves, and offers Asami the right one. He's asking her to be his right hand.

When Extremes Meet

• Tarrlok's ability to bloodbend suits his personality very well.
• Tarrlok's decision to put the non-benders in a curfew at first might be just a case of pure irrational paranoia and What the Hell (supposed to be a) Hero?, since it obviously will further attract Equalists sympathy and possibly more of the Equalists attacks. But Tarrlok was not shown to be an idiot, he obviously knew what the result would be, the only explanation is that he wanted it to happen. Why? Because Tarrlok's a bloodbender, if Amon ever decided to face Tarrlok, then it will be a very short fight. Amon may be able to dodge lightning, but he can't dodge that. Tarrlok already have the full force of metalbenders and his own task force, and he calculated (wrongly) the Avatar will too since he has her friends. He might be a corrupt, arrogant, bribing, rude political extremist, but he still wants those Equalists taken out. Tarrlok already has a large influence on the council, if he just wanted more power he'd take Tenzin out. And the next episode, HE FACES AMON! too bad Amon actually can resist bloodbending, which would make it a good example of a Batman Gambit gone wrong.
• In general, Tarrlok's fighting style seems custom-built to take out Equalists. He starts the fight by covering himself in a sphere of water that would stop chi-blockers and redirect electrical attacks, then shoots a stream of ice shards too closely spaced to dodge and too wide to sidestep. The blood bending is just the cherry on top.
• Yakone's neck clasp/button/thingie is a crescent Moon, one the exact same shape as the Moon seen over Republic City in the episode's closing shot. That symbol ties together Yakone and Tarrlok because they are both bloodbenders who can bend at times besides a full moon, in addition to being father and son.
• Tarrlok choosing attempt to put Korra on a bus instead of just killing her seems silly, and perhaps Executive Meddling due to it being nominally a kid's show. However, it actually makes sense: Kill her, and she'll reincarnate in some random earthbender anywhere in the world. Imprisoning her somewhere isn't perfect, but at least she'll be a known variable in a known location. This also implies Tarrlok is playing the long game, if the ten to sixteen years it would take for the next Avatar to grow up isn't enough time for his plans to come to fruition. In fact, the reincarnation issue is exactly why Ozai wanted Aang captured alive in the original series; if he had died he would have been reincarnated as a waterbender and they would have had to start the search all over again.
• Korra was very much like Avatar Kyoshi when it comes to raw power and cracking the whip to extreme levels. No wonder air is her opposite. It also gives another Fridge Brilliance to the original series. Kyoshi has fans as her special weapon (instead something more of earthbending), to give a tribute to airbending as her greatest obstacle in training. Another thing is while she said that she did not stand down from Chin the Conqueror, she moved away her home from Chin's army instead of just destroying them. While she did kill Chin in the process, she technically ran away from battle. The airbending, with her fans, while moving the island is a nice visual touch. They also share the same temperament as the Choleric too. All Korra needs to do is mature more in personality and Kyoshi would approve of her as a fitting Avatar.
• In the chase of the Equalists, the chi-blockers easily defeat Bolin and almost got Mako. So why didn't they improve much in fighting unlike Korra? Unlike her, they haven't been joining in much of the Equalist investigations and they are more skilled in pro-bending style of bending while Korra has been involved since the attack, even getting some dodging skills thanks to airbending practice (even with no air produced yet). If they weren't imprisoned with Asami, they should seriously do some level-grinding.
• Early in the episode, the Krew capture an Equalist truck and escaped fugitives, and she takes the time to crack a remark how Tarrlok's task force was late. If one considers that Asami noted the police channels were installed in Satomobiles, it wasn't that the task force was inefficient, but that the Equalists they are tracking down were hearing in on their commands and evading them every turn.
• How many questions did Ikki Motor Mouth to Katara in the first episode? Five. How many questions did Bolin Motor Mouth to Ikki? Five. Clearly Ikki is as quick witted in her answers as her questions.
• In his conversation with Korra, Tarrlok speaks of their shared willingness to go to extremes. We see this character trait recur again in the finale: murder-suicide to stop Amon permanently is quite extreme indeed, but he did warn us...

Out Of The Past

• Tenzin's exasperated statement, "Being the Avatar isn't all about fighting. When will you ever learn?" way back in Episode 2 is practically foreshadowing to this moment. When Korra realizes she can no longer fight her way out of the box, that's when she starts to look beyond it and connect with Aang and the spiritual side. She thinks everything can be solved with fighting. When it can't, then she shows that she does in fact have considerable spiritual ability, on par with Aang in ATLA season 3. She isn't spiritually weak by any means, it's just that she's too proud and thinks she doesn't need it. It appears Tenzin's spiritual training was hardly a waste of time. It did sink in once life handed her a big Wham. Also her motive behind meditating was to ask Aang to suggest a way out of the box. She was thinking her way out of the box.
• Mako's reaction to Korra's kidnapping:
  • His intense care for Korra, while sweet, is a bit jarring considering Asami is right there. Why is he oblivious to her feelings now? Then you think about it: when Hiroshi offered to sponsor the Fire Ferrets, Mako was glad about this, and probably stayed with Asami partially to please her father (or so he thought). In other words, Mako's relationship with Asami might merely be Friends with Benefits in a way, even if it's unconscious on his part.
  • Mako is an orphan and only has one family member, his brother. Bolin has probably had many close calls himself. Mako is more emotional about Korra's disappearance because he can't bear to lose anyone close to him. Bolin was likely young when their parents died and probably doesn't remember the event much. Part of it was also guilt. Mako said that they'd support her with helping Republic City, they end up in jail and she's been taken by Tarrlok. He probably felt that if he'd been there Korra would still be safe.
  • Further food for thought: since Mako had to take care of his brother since they were young, he had to be tough and strong... so in other words, not very good with emotions, and leds to easily being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And because he's so awkward with normal emotions, the workings of a relationship are even worse for him... and even worse, as part of that, he's unaware of the side-effects of his actions, including in "Turning the Tides".
  • Also, the fact that he was Promoted to Parent for Bolin, he may not act like that because he has feelings for her, it may probably because seeing her hurt activates his Bolin-raising Mama Bear instincts.
  • He is also more cynical and pessimistic than most of the Krew. He might have thought of the worst-case scenario immediately, and then Korra showed up barely conscious on Naga, half-frozen and covered in cuts. Without the experience and maturity of Lin, he couldn't keep his emotions in check.
• Tarrlok seems dependent on a Healer for his wounds despite being an expert Waterbender. He may have been using the fact he was being healed to play up his injuries and further project his supposed powerlessness in the situation. Not to mention that as of 70 years ago, it was traditional in the Northern Water Tribe for male waterbenders to learn combat techniques and women to learn healing techniques. Katara broke through that glass ceiling, but it isn't unreasonable to think that there might still be some amount of schism between the two disciplines; at least to the point that most waterbenders would specialize in one over the other.
• It is rather strange that Lin had almost no trouble breaking the team out of prison, but you have to remember two things: She knows how the system works and knows how to deal with things and it is implied she is adored and respected by her subordinates. They are perfectly fine turning a blind eye for her.
• How are Yakone and Tarrlok able to knock people unconscious with bloodbending with a few hand movements? They are shifting the blood at fast enough speeds to raise it and then drop it so the victims are instantly hit unconscious with such a drop in blood pressure. Bending got scientific! Cutting off blood flow to the brain will cause someone to pass out within thirteen seconds. Conversely, it takes quite a bit of effort to kill someone this way, as you have to keep the brain deprived of oxygen for at least five minutes for brain damage to set in.
• Korra manages to access Aang's memories, and promptly uses heretofore undisplayed Guile Hero skills. Tenzin was correct on how easy it gets once it clicks.
• Tarrlok is a waterbender with an obsession with furthering his evil father's plans by social manipulation. He's an Evil Counterpart to Zuko, who was, as a teenager, a firebender with daddy issues who was trying to redeem himself via brute force. Zuko was bad and turned good, Tarrlok was ostensibly good and became actually publicly bad. So what does that make Amon? Mysterious, wears dark clothes, closed off, good at public speaking, charismatic, not able to bend—holy crap, he's the anti-Aang.
• Yakone's trial scene. Take a look at who're the members of the City Council. Sokka, for the Southern Water Tribe and an Air Acolyte for the Air Nomads, both non-benders. So there was non-bender representation for Republic City in the past which ensured everything was well. Tenzin and Aang of course would care about the normal folk, but leaving them aside, ever since Aang and then Sokka passed away, there have been no non-benders on the board to represent the City and that's probably what gave Tarrlok his breakthrough. Every since then, only Tenzin has been around who would care about the welfare of the non-benders and Tarrlok has always ensured he is powerless to achieve anything in the Council's decision. Which explains one of the reasons why Republic City has fallen so far out of balance since the Gaang's time.
• On both occasions where he removed a villain's bending, Aang has used the power of the Avatar state to overwhelm the opponent (it kicked in when he was about to be overcome by Ozai's spirit and against Yakone, you can see the glow as he energybends). It may be that Aang wants Korra to know about Energybending and how the enormous power of the Avatar State can help her out. It's foreshadowing to the moment where Amon will attempt to take away Korra's bending and it might be the solution to stop his energy from disabling hers and reverse it, possibly purifying or destroying Amon instead.
• It seems that Amon's "No Martyr" policy wasn't just an excuse to not kill of Korra. You'll realize he didn't go after Tarrlok until after he became a public enemy. Word of Tarrlok's treachery would have easily reached Amon after the crew attacked the Equalist base.
• There's been a great deal of audience discussion over the differences between how Aang and Amon remove people's bending, but others have brought up the possibility that it's just a coincidence. How can the show's creator's address this without specifically calling attention to it? By showing Aang and Amon de-bending a powerful bender in the same episode. They're even under near-identical circumstances, taking out a powerful bloodbender who had just disabled their allies.
• Aang was unable to resist Yakone's bloodbending until the Avatar state killed in, at which point he threw it off completely. Amon was able to resist it, but was clearly pushing hard against it the whole time.
• As before, Aang enters the Avatar state and touches chakras on the forehead and heart. Amon engages in no light show, and touches chakras on the forehead and back of the neck (the Amon chakra). Demonstrating this difference in a single episode makes it very clear that it is intentional on the creators' part, without calling attention to it in dialogue. It also means that Korra is the only person who has seen both Aang and Amon remove someone's bending, putting her in a position to realize there is a difference.
• It seems odd that Amon decides to carry freshly de-bended Tarrlok away himself while his flunkies retrieve Korra, though the audience has seen that taking someone's bending doesn't noticeably slow him down, and he's well aware that Korra won't just passively let herself be taken, he even warns them about it. Couldn't he just let one of the unnamed chi-blockers stow Tarrlok away? But in the finale we see that he's Tarrlok's brother and he does still care for him. Plus, his flunkies had just been bloodbent and bloodbenders are seen as horrifying even by people who don't hate benders in general; they might have 'accidentally' dropped Tarrlok or something.
• When Tarrlok is outed as a bloodbender, his first instinct is to flee to start a new life. That's exactly what his father, Yakone, did decades prior. He already knew that that strategy would work.
• The name of the episode is Fridge Brilliance, and a huge hint about Amon's identity to boot. Before the finale, most people would just assume that "Out of the Past" refers to Korra's visions of her past life through Aang, and Tarrlok connection to Yakone. However, now that we know Amon and Tarrlok are brothers, the title takes on an entirely new meaning. It was referring not only to Korra's visions of Aang, but to Tarrlok and Noatak/Amon's first meeting in 20-odd years. Especially poignant when you remember that Tarrlok believed that Noatak had perished in the snowstorm back when they were children.
• Tarrlok tells Amon, "You fool! You've never seen bending like mine!", before trying to bloodbend him. But in fact, Amon/Noatak has specifically mastered this type of bending and being Tarrlok's brother and training partner, he knows better than anybody about Tarrlok's abilities. Just how much stronger Amon was can be seen when he overcame it with just psychic bloodbending alone.
• Also in that same episode, Sokka's statement that he's seen people with rare and unique bending abilities is Foreshadowing the whole nature of Amon's mysterious capabilities as well, apart from the obvious connection to Tarrlok's.
• In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, you can actually see Amon waterbending the snow that's in the air surrounding him as a result of Korra's attack; as he bursts through it, you can see small ripples, as if it were bent out of the way. He knew that with everyone elses' vision obscured, nobody would see him do it.

Turning the Tides

• The fight between the Equalists and Tenzin's kids:
  • While it may seem surprising how the Equalists are taken down so easily by Tenzin's kids, it becomes immediately clear of just how much of an advantage airbending has over them. Their close range combat styles, their gas attacks and their weapons are totally useless if you just blow them away from you, and an air spout can just throw them around like a tornado. Did we mention that Airbenders are very good at dodging and can still do moves with their hands tied? While the Equalists optimized their combat styles to take advantages of the weaknesses in the bending styles of the other 3 elements, they probably never had much of any chance at seeing airbending styles of combat. All one has to do is blast them into something hard because there is only so much punishment a human body can take. As Tenzin shows, a very powerful blast of air can send even a Mecha Tank flying over the roof if you hit it hard enough. The Airball (introduced way back in ATLA Episode 3) could knock down multiple opponents at lightning speed.
  • Even the Equalists' planes could crash if one just cut the airflow over the wings. You actually wonder just what the airbenders could unleash if they weren't trained to hold back and fight defensively. That air slice move can cut rocks and split a buzzard wasp (or even a person) clean in two!
  • Plus the fact that Airbenders can quickly get away on their flying bison, which themselves can pack a wallop. Or they could outrun their opponent and jump over impossible heights that could get anyone else killed.
  • This also directly extends from the particular advantages Korra gained by using the airbending movements had in Pro-bending.
  • Furthermore, it's simple logic: Not only have the Equalists all trained on how to fight Firebenders, Earthbenders, and Waterbenders, but not Airbenders, but most of the people they've captured have been teenagers and adults. But right now there are a grand total of four living Airbenders (possibly five now), three of which are children. Sounds like the Equalists didn't have their guards up.
  • Regular pro-bending matches at the very least, would give specific insight as to how Earth, Water and Firebenders fight. Not to mention there are dozens if not hundreds of masters of each style around the world. Airbending? One master in the entire world, and zero pro bending representation. They may have a vague idea of their strengths, but knowing specifically how to handle them is a whole other can of worms. This is likely also why Amon could lock Korra out of the other three elements, but not air. He doesn't know what he needs to hit to take out an Airbender's abilities...which adds some Fridge Horror to what may have happened to the first of the Airbenders Amon would have tried to shut down, too.
  • Also, with Fire, Earth, and Waterbending, they could see what was coming and dodge. Air is invisible. We can only see it because we're the audience, and it's more visually interesting for us to see the wind. Also, without the visual cue, most of what the airbenders do would look silly.
• Why is Tenzin the only council member they failed to capture? Airbending naturally counters their acrobatics and close range attacks, as well as their projectiles. Notice he also stood the longest against the Mechatanks back when they first appeared.
• While it's quite clear that Lin has gone beyond her anger at being dumped by Tenzin, her last act of badassery as a bender just shows who she is under her tough exterior. She looks at Pema, the frightened kids and her newborn baby and then makes the decision to go for the Heroic Sacrifice. It was not just I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, but she also cared as much for Pema and the kids as she did for Tenzin. Before that you see the way she appreciated their Curb-Stomp Battle against the Equalist mooks, she was proud of them. It shows you just how much Character Development she's been through since that one time when she tried throwing Pema in jail.
• And what about her remaining Defiant to the End against Amon? She'd rather die or lose her bending rather than betray Korra. You also see how far her relationship with Korra has come along since the first Episode.
• Equalist vehicles:
  • Now the Equalists have their own airships, and in the finale they have biplanes with bombs. It seems rather impossible that they should have a small nation's worth of firepower at their disposal, but if Sato's wealthy enough to process platinum like steel and built the police airships, it's not so surprising, especially when you consider that he might be spending his entire fortune only to avenge his wife.
  • But then comes the question of how do they build things as big as an airship in a city without it being noticed? Answer: They don't. The most likely solution is that they have a base up in the mountains far away from the city where they build all the stuff and launch from the high ground. The airships back in ATLA could cross continents, so they can be built very far away indeed. It also might explain how the Equalists found Tarrlok so fast. More than one villain sees the advantage of the the mountains. As for shipping parts, etc...we can easily see how many non-benders are on Amon's side - there are insiders practically everywhere in the city's industry. And it's certain that raw materials are shipped in from outside for manufacturing within the city. So put up a plant far away from the city and the cops and there you are. They've had the time between Aang's death and Korra's arrival to establish themselves and it's all the time they need.
  • The simplest explanation is often the correct one. It's likely that Republic City had those vehicles for their own defense force or some such thing, and when Amon took control of the city he gained access to those weapons. Republic City is home to Future Industries, after all, they could have been working on a new type of sleek and fast airship.
• Pema's Oh, Crap! face. Funny as it was, she was indirectly the cause for Mako and Asami's little talk there. In the seconds between Asami's little quip, and when she nervously exits, she might be slowly putting the pieces together: that these are Korra's friends' she gave advice on a Love Triangle, and this couple in front of her is having an issue. So when she pulled her Oh, Crap! face, she probably realized she indirectly made things worse. Another addition is that she was in a heated love triangle herself and knew what was about to unfold. Although, she could have stayed around and consult the two.
• Remember how, back in Episode 1, Pema mentioned that she wanted her new baby to be like her, a non-bender? Rohan's eyes hint this may be so. Alone among the four children, he shares the same eye color as Pema.
• Tenzin dodging the three Equalist electrical weapons aimed at him. Beard senses tingling or not, he is an Airbending master: he sensed the disturbance in the air when they fired, barely allowing him to dodge.
• Asami's statement about still liking Korra and keeping the blame squarely on Mako for the mess of the Love Triangle isn't merely to avoid being (further) seen as The Scrappy to the audience. Bear in mind, Asami has to know by now that Korra's lived most of her life in seclusion so the nuance of romance is all new to her yet Mako actually should know better and is virtually taking advantage of a girl that's been consistently Innocently Insensitive.

Skeletons In The Closet

• The transition from the end of Sato’s speech (and his statement that the world will finally be equal without bending) to the slums beneath the city highlight the hypocrisy of the equalist movement. They may be targeting one form of inequality, but others that affect people more broadly will Still be present, since neither side seems to be willing to discuss the poverty, etc. that forced so many people, benders and non-benders, to live on the streets. This is somewhat reinforced by Sato and his economic status
• Bolin says that Gommu cooks the finest street gruel he'd ever tasted, which might have been a Overly Narrow Superlative from somebody who didn't spend their childhood struggling for survival on the streets.
• Why was Amon able to resist Tarrlok's bloodbending? The same reason as the original series: Amon/Noatak was a bloodbender just like Tarrlok, only more powerful.
• Why would Korra's visions about Tarrlok being a bloodbender kick in several times when Amon attacked Korra, and why Tarrlok when Amon is a more dangerous? Of course now it makes sense Aang was not just warning about Tarrlok being a bloodbender; it was about Amon, also son of Yakone, too.
• Look at the spots that Amon touches when he takes someone's bending. Amon uses his bloodbending to block the Sound and Light charkas.
• How was Hiroshi Sato able to create all these airplanes and blimps under the nose of the United Republic Council's eye? Well, who's to say they didn't know. Who makes the police blimps? Future Industries. So, Hiroshi could just have brought them to the Council and billed them as updated versions of the current blimps, modernised and newly refurbished. In which case, if he got a government contract, the zeppelins night have well been paid for by the United Republic Council from taxpayer's money, under the impression that they would replace the current police airships.
• It's not too hard to understand how Amon's bloodbending works. Waterbending Healing repairs and restores damaged tissues and chi paths in the body. Amon uses bloodbending to destroy the chi paths, or worse, some sort of brain damage. It explains why his victims are left so weak and depressed.
• Now we know why the Yakone flashbacks kept coming whenever Korra was beaten by either Amon or Tarrlok. Aang wanted her to understand the truth about both of them.
• It might seem strange at first that Noatak and Tarrlok are given so much character development in this episode only to die by Murder-Suicide in the next episode. If you think about it, though, their development is just as much a part of Korra's story as it is theirs — they weren't created as separate individuals, but variations on a theme. All three have unique bending abilities that they're raised to believe gives them purpose, and each attempts to define themselves as a savior figure — Korra as the Avatar, Tarrlok as a Councilman, and Noatak as Amon. All three attempt to become Republic City's savior using force, all three grow desperate and reckless when that identity is threatened, and all three are forced into drastic changes when those identities are stripped from them. Unfortunately for Tarrlok and Noatak, those changes lead only to suicide and death, whereas Korra is able to cope with her despair and finally understand what her Avatar identity means.
• In Tarrlok's flashback, we hear Noatok/Amon tells his father "You keep saying that bloodbending is the most powerful thing in the world, but it's not; the Avatar is." Boy does this come back to bite him.
• The episode contains two moments that history buffs will probably recognize easily.
  • The United Forces expected the Equalists to attack with technologies and techniques they could expect and easily counter, including the airships and mecha-tanks. Yet the aircraft essentially wiped the floor with the UF ships and annihilated them. This mirrors the attack on Pearl Harbor, since the United States had not expected such an attack on their most heavily garrisoned naval base in the Pacific against what was presumed to be the strongest class, the battleship, utilizing tactics only used sparingly before. In both cases, the paradigm of warfare had shifted. After Pearl Harbor, the realization finally hit the military that the carrier, not the battleship, would decide the future of warfare. For the Krew it shows that technology has fully reached the even keel against benders, even a fleet full of professional soldiers.
  • Overlaps with Fridge Horror, we see a long train of benders being lined up on Air Temple Island to be "cleansed". In many of history's violent revolutions, it isn't uncommon for political and military enemies of the new regime to be similarly lined up and "cleansed". Amon took away their bending, while our history's revolutionaries preferred to use 9mm rounds.

Endgame

• The Lieutenant began to suspect Amon when Korra called him out as a bloodbender and followed him to find out the truth. He must have realized it could be true since he saw Amon resisting Tarrlok's bloodbending and knew that was the only way it could be done. And why Tarrlok had been kept as Amon's special prisoner.
• Remember when Amon said he would "destroy" Korra? While at first it seems like a case of Never Say "Die", this episode reveals it was his Exact Words. When Korra and Mako attempt to reveal Amon's identity as a Bloodbender to undermine his reputation, he completely reversed the situation with his fake scars, turning the entire audience (assumed to be the vast majority of the city's non-benders) against her. He later proceeds to take her bending away, which at this point leaves her with nothing. She has no powers, no reputation, and - under the assumption that he's just won - no hope. He well and truly destroyed the Avatar. Until Korra gains her Airbending and outs him as the liar.
• Korra airbending:
  • Why was Korra able to airbend, even after Amon had taken away her bending? Amon takes his victims bending away by physical means (bloodbending). As air is the most spiritual of all the bending elements, Korra's airbending potential was not affected by Amon's block.
  • Or it was a case where she turned to her spiritual side in another moment of helplessness. While she was not as realized as Aang that she could energybend her connections to all 4 elements, it was still enough to restore her connection to air, which was the most spiritual of the elements and which was spiritually the "nearest" within reach. Had Korra been a fully realized Avatar, she could have undone Amon's bloodbending completely with the Avatar State.
  • The most plausible reason is the chakras. She was able to airbend when Mako was in danger of losing his bending. Which is the chakra that is opened by love? THE AIR CHAKRA, located in the heart. The first 3 chakras deal with Earth, Water and Fire respectively. When this chakra opened, it gave Korra her spiritual connection to the air element, and that did the trick. Her love for Mako opened her chakra and allowed her to overcome any feelings of grief (which blocks the air chakra) she may have been experiencing.
  • How did Aang get the grip of Earthbending? He was forced to hold his ground and force the moose-lion head on to save Sokka, who would have been killed if he had dodged on that run. He overcame his fear (which blocks the earth chakra) with a need for survival (which the earth chakra deals with). Now that he's got the attitude, he has no more issues with it. How did Korra get the grip over Airbending? When Mako was in danger. It really doesn't take that long to get the hang of it. Seeing a loved one in danger is one of the most powerful triggers that removes all physical and psychological limits that the brain imposes on the body for its safety.
  • Or even simpler than that, Amon never took away her airbending in the first place. Why? Because he couldn't! He had never debent an airbender before; He never got the chance to take away Tenzin and his family's. and probably assumed that it was no different from the other elements. He was wrong.
  • Word of God said Amon's debending technique was in fact "Chi-severing". That offers a new, entirely plausible explanation for Korra's Airbending. Amon couldn't sever an "unactivated" chi line. Assuming every bender has 1 chi line corresponding with their element, when their bending abilities manifest, their chi-line is "activated" and strengthened through training. There are 4 different Chi lines within the Avatar allowing them to bend all four elements. Because of emotional turmoil, Korra had never airbent before, therefore, her Air chi-line was not activated. When her other chi lines were severed, most of her energy was forced into the remaining chi line: air.
• Korra's initial airbending attacks seem wild and forceful at first, that's because she's using airbending like her now-lost bending styles, with attacks taken from both water and firebending.
• Why does airbending seem to be the most effective element to use against bloodbending? Because it is the opposite of bloodbending. Air is freedom, and what is bloodbending if not enslavement?
• Why did Amon just wear makeup to look like he was scarred? Because that way he can just wash it off and move about unnoticed. If he had surgery, he'd attract too much attention. It explains how he could appear out of nowhere in Episode 6
• Meta example of Fridge Brilliance. The resolve of the finale almost seemed too easy Amon and Tarrlok are dead, Korra learns to airbend, gets her own bending back as well as the ability to return everyone else's bending. The exceedingly happy ending really is a good idea, that way the series isn't forced to end on a cliffhanger if Nickelodeon decides not to go forward with the next season.
• Mako tells Korra he realized he loved her when they were looking for her back in Out of the Past. which easily explains his seemingly strange behaviour since the episode.
• How did Amon take away bending? Bloodbending. How did Yakone try to kill Aang? Bloodbending. How did Aang overcome Yakone? The Avatar State. How did Korra get her bending back? The Avatar State. That vision wasn't just a warning, it was also the solution.
• Amon/Noatak's single tear just 2 seconds before the boat blew up and Tarrlok's statement that "It will be just like the good old days...". He probably knew his brother was lying because there was no way that they could go back to the way they were before, and it makes you wonder if he knew what was coming.
• Tarrlok blowing up the boat was shocking, but then you realize he figured Noatak's statement was exactly a repeat cut of what his father did. Besides, all of Tarrlok's hopes are now destroyed. So on one hand, he got even with his brother and on the other hand, he made sure that that Yakhone's bloodbending legacy would never be passed on to anyone, ever.
• The ending.
  • It seems overly rushed. Aang almost becomes the Deus ex Machina when he suddenly appears and claims that Korra has connected to her spiritual side out of the blue, before restoring Korra's bending and making her a fully realized Avatar by completing the connection with all her past lives and activating the Avatar State. But when you think of it, there's a LOT that's happened in Korra's spiritual development leading up to this point. Korra's been trying to train spiritually for years and was trained by Tenzin for quite a while, and it was beginning to work very well. Her abilities at the end of Episode 9 was already on par with Aang in season 3 of ATLA. Also Korra's style and personality are like that of Earth, stubborn and unyielding. It's only when she's totally put into a situation where her current approach cannot work, does she suddenly get the hold of airbending and is able to connect with Aang's visions. That is saying a lot about chakras at work in her spiritual and airbending blocks. That's the key to explaining how the ending turned out the way it did. Korra's hitting the absolute low was the final turning point, but there was a lot of spiritual development that had happened up to that point.
  • The Earth Chakra was opened when Korra learnt to face her fear of dealing with Amon. The Water Chakra was opened when she was able to overcome her guilt when she got over the love triangle by forgiveness and got them through into the final, though it might have even happened before that when she got the knack of the airbending movements. The Fire Chakra was opened up when she reconciled with Tenzin over her shame of not being able to airbend or being spiritually weak, and when she finally connected with Aang. The Air Chakra was obviously opened by love, and I mean Mako. The Sound Chakra was opened when she understood Tarrlok and Amon's true identities, and Amon building his whole movement on lying over his backstory. The Hiroshi Sato reveal also definitely had something to do with it. The light Chakra was probably opened somewhere between Korra realizing that she could still airbend and Amon's makeup job and waterbending powers exposed. The air chakra was probably fully open in that moment where Mako was about to lose his bending, which is why she could Airbend. Finally the last chakra was unblocked when she was planning to leave everyone and told Mako to leave her for good, despite the fact that both truly loved each other by this point - probably she was contemplating suicide, now that she could no longer do her job as the Avatar and called Aang, likely with the intention of taking her away to the spirit world, which is when she gave up attachment. That's when all her chakras were open and her spiritual connection became truly complete. While it's difficult to often pinpoint the incident as the cause of opening her chakras, it's clear that following Character Development Korra already very spiritual by the end and had successfully opened all her chakras allowed her to master the Avatar state. All that was now needed was a little help from Aang to energybend her broken connections.
  • This also makes sense why Korra never went into the Avatar State despite being in danger so often. She had already begun to open her chakras, and until all the chakras were opened, she couldn't enter it.
  • This also suggests that Korra's restrained and cocooned upbringing in that South Pole fortress also caused the spiritual block in her owing to insufficient Character Development. Katara knew this, the White Lotus didn't. Tenzin figured it out after Korra's first pro-bending match that her spirit really needs freedom to grow.
  • Aang's statement that in her lowest moments, she was open to the greatest change, was just summing up the way she had unknowingly more and more spiritual by life experience. Aang's energybending was the last piece of the puzzle. Now Korra having lost her connection to 3 elements is totally helpless to solve things by her usual badassery and so has had to let go of her pride, the reason for her spiritual block. All this time she had been feeling that she never needed the spiritual side because she had been so badass, but now she had been humbled and her spirit was malleable to Aang's energybending. All that was left for Aang to do was to energybend Korra to restore her bending.
  • It makes more Fridge Brilliance. Becoming a fully realized Avatar involves mastering both the physical and spiritual sides of bending. The two of them are related and influence each other. Aang could bend with his chakras closed. He was wounded by lightning, and while he could still bend all the elements, he had lost his spiritual connection to all but 4 of his past lives and the Avatar State. He regained it by a purely physical means of having his blocked chi paths opened up by a sharp rock, which spiritually unblocked him. Throughout the series there has been quite a connection between Energybending and the Avatar State, with Aang using the Avatar State to debend Ozai and Yakone. He was shown to have mastered the Avatar State after he had successfully energybended Ozai. Korra on the other hand, as the opposite of Aang, lost her connection to the physical side of bending, but by that point her chakras were open, she had completely mastered the spiritual side and connected with the spirits of the past Avatars, thus allowing her to master the Avatar State. Aang then uses the Avatar State to energybend Korra at a spiritual level, restoring her physical connection to her elements, making Korra a fully realized Avatar.
  • It's already been noted by a lot of fans before that the plot is symbolic of how the chakras are opened, by dealing with fear, guilt, shame, grief (and love), truth and lies, illusion and attachment. Aang's chakras were blocked by all his experiences and the fact that he had responded in the manner that would lock them up. Korra on the other hand face similar situations but responded in the way that would open them. Maybe the writers know that ATLA fans aren't morons and don't feel the need to spell out the beautiful symbolism behind the plot, which would cheapen the effect.
  • Her last chakra, the Thought Chakra, doesn't actually seem to have been opened at this point, but rather when she meditated in the Tree of Time.
  • Letting Korra unlock the Avatar State this early plays into her main struggle throughout the rest of the series. The biggest question Korra faces, as the series continues, is the question of whether or not the Avatar is needed at all. By having her have access to the Avatar State, she (and the audience) have to face problems that simply going into it can't solve. In fact, it's a straight-up liability in Book 3's finalé since if she dies to the Red Lotus' poison while in the Avatar State, the Avatar cycle is ended forever.
• How did Amon find Korra and bloodbend her out even though she was well hidden, and at the one moment where she let down her guard, but not Mako? This man is the greatest bloodbender who ever lived. That particular feat suggests that all his years of bloodbending has given him a "blood sense" like Toph's seismic sense. Similar to Toph, that give him an advantage in predicting his opponent's moves, by sensing their muscular movements, and do some stealthy bloodbending to ensure they can't hit him. It would also explain his power. He has extensive knowledge of chi blocking. He could sever the chi paths in a bender by sensing where the chi is flowing using this ability and then destroy those chi paths. He'd need the sense because bloodbending at this level would need surgical precision. What's more interesting is that this would also explain how Korra could still airbend. Every element has its own chakra and set of chi paths. Amon has never had any experience debending an airbender, so he might not know exactly where the air paths were. After using his technique he would have detected zero chi flow and concluded that he had beaten Korra. Since Korra's chi paths connected to the Air Chakra were not active, he couldn't sense them, so he would never know the difference. But then her Air Chakra opened (it's opened by love), and she could airbend with her still intact air paths.
• Based on the chakra theories and how Amon missed out taking Korra's airbending, it's likely every element has its own separate network of chi paths connected to its respective Chakra. Genetics would determine which element would be active in a bender, but only the Avatar can use all the chakras. In particular, the chi path connecting all the chakras is what allows the Avatar to use the Avatar state. The bending mechanism could be that cosmic energy from the top chakra comes down to the lower chakras dealing with the elements. Opening the chakras in general allows a person like the Guru to connect with the spiritual side and in particular allows the Avatar to take control over the Avatar state.
• Aang's statement that Korra becomes open to change when she hits her lowest points pretty much sums up how she got the grip over spirituality and airbending. Korra's very first lines in Season 1 suggests that her ego was far too high above the balance point and it was totally fueled by the fact that she was Avatar. Throughout the series, she's increasingly being brought down to earth and becomes more and more spiritual. What's notable is that when she is helpless and cannot fight her way out does she end up connecting with spirituality and Aang. However, it's only when she hits her absolute low, with her very identity as the Avatar being broken and she realizes that she is truly no different from any other bender is her pride finally shattered, and then she turns spiritual. Doesn't it remind you of a certain Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha after that one moment where he realized that he too was not above death, old age and suffering? Also, it's Truth in Television. A lot of people who went spiritual have a devastating blow in their lives acting as the turning point. Sometimes it really takes just one, powerful Wham moment.
• Korra doesn't really seem to be that bad at spirituality. Whenever she really wants to contact Aang, or gets desperate enough, her blocks are gone and she is able to contact Aang or get the hold of Airbending moves quite easily. So it was all probably down to a big ego. Like Tenzin said, it takes a while, but the teachings do sink in.
• Back in the Aftermath, Amon de-bended the Wolf-Bats at the Pro-bending stadium; when Korra ran into Tahno at the police station, he explained that he'd been to the best healers in the city but no one could find a way to give him back his bending. Now, at the end of the show, he tries to de-bend Tenzin and the airbabies at the Pro-bending stadium. Following that, Korra loses her bending too; she goes to Katara, the greatest and most famous healer in the world, but Katara can't help her. That's some great Foreshadowing.
• Way back in episode 2 "A Leaf in the Wind" Tenzin told Korra, "Being the Avatar isn't all about fighting." And this is very true. When Korra finally Airbends and knocks Amon back she isn't doing to fight him but protect Mako, the man she loves, from being harmed by Amon. And protecting people is what the Avatar's duty.
• Had Korra's "instincts" not told her to go after Amon personally, Tenzin and his children might have lost their Bending. That gut feeling wasn't random; it was probably Aang nudging her to go save his son and grandchildren.
• Back in Episode 2, Korra got the hang of the airbending movements when she was totally cornered and her skill with the other 3 elements was no longer helping. In the finale, she gets the hang of airbending after losing the connection to the other 3 elements and in a most desperate moment to save Mako. It was really Foreshadowing.
• Naga comes in with a Big Damn Heroes moment, saving Asami, Bolin and Iroh, but what about the electric fence that stopped the latter? How did Naga get through? Rather simple: using her super strength, she crashed one of the posts, creating an opening in the fence. And she might have even seen her friends get electrocuted, as staying up there didn't mean she couldn't watch from above.
• In their final confrontation, Korra actually does through willpower what Amon could only fake: she overcomes bloodbending.
• Once Amon is defeated by Korra's airbending and thrown out a window, his mask falls into the ocean, thus signifying that Noatak's Amon persona is gone. This ties in with the divine symbolism of his mask's color scheme and design. His divinity was just a mask; now it's removed.
• There's a very, very good reason why Amon was revealed to be a bender the entire time. That reason is because the Equalists, like Amon himself, were Hypocrites. The entire Equalist movement was flawed and hypocritical in every way possible. The movement was about making people "equal" and to stop oppression of the non-benders. Instead, what we saw, if anyone fell asleep during Hiroshi's speech to the people in Republic City Park, was that in the end, they ended up being oppressive towards benders, to the point of out-right banning bending in public and capturing and imprisoning benders, and any non-bender related to them. Their movement, symbolized by the Chinese character which means either "peace" or "equal" was neither of these. They attacked innocent civilians at the Pro-Bending Arena, including non-bender Shiro Shinobi, bombed half of the city and probably killed lots of people in their final attack on Republic City. Not to mention the actual psychological factor of removing one's bending or the impact it would've had on innocent benders (children included) and non-benders who have bender siblings/parents/children/relatives and how that would've affected them. The fact of the whole matter is that Noatak/Amon and the Equalists themselves were not what they were preaching, they were just as bad, if not worse as the institution they fought against. Noatak's revelation as being a bender only cements the whole hypocritical elements (no pun intended) of the Equalist movement. Sure, there is oppression against non-benders, but the way that the Equalists handled the situation was wrong, just as wrong as the very system they were against in the first place.
• More Fridge Brilliance on the finale: Korra is supposed to be the opposite of Aang, and various elements of the show reflect that, as has already been pointed out. Another thing that makes Aang and Korra opposites? Aang's series ended with him learning to take bending away. Korra's series ended (remember that the first season was created with the intent of being the only season; the creators didn't know if they'd get more) with her learning to give bending back.
• The Equalists had control of Republic City But then, everything changed when the Fire Nation led the attack.
• How exactly does Korra learn airbending suddenly? Some have suggested that it's her air chakra, but there's never been any specific connection between chakras and the element to be bent (Aang, for example, doesn't learn firebending because he overcomes the shame of what he did to Katara). So why does Korra learn airbending? Because of the nature of why Korra couldn't airbend and her lack of spirituality.
  Bending was her life; she took pride in being a powerful bender and the Avatar. Her pride is bound in her bending. For Korra, her spirit and body are one and the same. But an airbender must free their spirit from their body. Air is the the most ephemeral element; it cannot be held within the body for too long or you die. Aang even talked about how great Air Nomad monks detached themselves from the world to achieve freedom. Korra's spirit, her self-worth, was always attached to her body via her bending, so she could never learn airbending.
  When Amon took her bending, he broke her body and therefore her spirit. But when Korra found the will to keep fighting, she finally separated her now weak body from her strong spirit. And therefore achieved the freedom she needed to airbend.
• Remember the "you're oppressing yourself" incident? It's a dumb argument in context, but it actually sums up Amon/Noatak pretty well.
• Going all the way back to "Voice in the Night", when Korra regains consciousness after being attacked and gets a brief vision of the past via Aang, she sees Tenzin running towards her and mistakes him for Aang. What happens near the end of this episode when Korra is finally visited by the spirit of Aang? She mistakes him for Tenzin. Could be a case of subtle Foreshadowing, if you squint; though it isn't too far of a stretch to believe that Korra subconsciously associated the two of them and that her growing bond with Tenzin helped her finally reach Aang and the spirit world.
• When Mako makes his long-awaited Love Confession to Korra, it does absolutely nothing to shake her out of her Heroic BSoD. It takes the actual restoration of her bending to get better, and it's only after that when she admits her own feelings and delivers The Big Damn Kiss. While it may seem heartwarming at a glance, the scene implies that Korra and Mako do not share as deep a connection as they think they do and foreshadows that they will not be the Official Couple.
• Within the traditional seven elements of Chinese mysticism water is the medium by which energy is absorbed and dissipated. So it is not all that farfetched for a skilled water bender to be able to manipulate someones chi in similar vein as Chi blocking or energy building.

Book Two

Rebel Spirit

• At first, it looked like Tonraq's sudden jerk-ish behavior could be written up as Characterization Marches On, but keep in mind that most of his Book 1 behavior was before Amon temporarily debended Korra. The reason he is acting overprotective now is because of what happened, paranoid something worse can happen. Senna likely convinced him to let Korra go to Republic City in the first place (citing Tenzin's home as a reason not to worry), so Tonraq bid farewell to his daughter. Then they start hearing more about this Equalist trouble brewing in the city, and that Korra is very involved with it (note, however, that the first time was largely unintentional as it all hinged on Bolin making a wrong decision at an even worse time. And then Amon successfully invades and takes over and Korra is forced to go into hiding. Tenzin attempts to flee with his family, but are caught, and Lin gets debended. The White Lotus sentries become quickly incapacitated, and with that, there is no one to call. Tonraq would have no idea what has become of his daughter. Then the next time he sees her she's lost 3 of her 4 bending abilities and is emotionally broken to the point of reaching her "lowest point". His protectiveness was already stated in that he allowed (read: arranged) Korra to live in a compound, away from home and sheltered from the rest of the world. After the events of Book 1, this protectiveness was taken up to eleven. Add in his brother's insistence on interjecting himself into Korra's Avatar training and you have a man whose world is falling apart because he's losing the trust and favour of his only daughter.
• The title "Rebel Spirit" has a double meaning. The first, and most obvious refers to the Dark Spirits Korra faces, a deviation from the oft depicted/interpreted behaviour of spirits in the Avatarverse; Dark Spirits are clearly stated as an anomaly. The second meaning describes an individual who is free-spirited, one who deviates from the norm—or establishment. From here it takes on several interpretations in the context of the Water Tribe: it can either mean the Southern Water Tribe, a whole nation of "rebel spirits" who sought their own independence from the Northern Water Tribe. It could also refer to Korra, who deviates from the tradition of Avatar training by cutting Tenzin off despite having incomplete training in her airbending and choosing to pass him over for her uncle for the sake of her spiritual training. Through tradition, one would expect an equal contribution of both styles instead of one particular preference. The third meaning refers to the Northern Water Tribe in that it rebels against the current establishment by seeking to "unite" both tribes under one banner... or subjugate the insurgents that broke the old order in the first place.
• Tenzin's anger at Korra for abusing her Avatar State for recreation is very understandable considering Aang's early death was caused by being in the Avatar State for a whole century.
  • Likewise, Korra's use of the Avatar State is very understandable – she just gained a connection to her past lives, and who's her most recent past life? The inventor of the Air Scooter, grandfather of the people she's racing against, and a very firm believer in the idea that kids should be kids and that even the Avatar should have a little fun sometimes. Of course Aang wants to come out to play, even if it's only for a few seconds. It might be another case of subtle O.O.C. Is Serious Business, at least on Korra's end.
• Korra's lack of respect for the Avatar State has a few different meanings:
  • One thing that's easy to forget is that Korra is still just a 17-year-old girl, and one that doesn't have fully developed social skills due to spending most of her life in a training compound. She uses the Avatar State in the most mundane ways because she wants to show off to her friends or play with Tenzin's kids. This gets shown as a negative in later episodes where her childish attitude and bad responses to stress comes back to bite her.
  • Most Avatars have only just now started their bending training, but she's already achieved Fully Realized status and is currently the most powerful being in the world. She gets humbled in this very episode once she encounters the titular Rogue Spirit who is able to give her trouble despite all her strength.
  • As an Avatar who lives in an era of peace, she doesn't need to worry about getting sniped in battle like Aang did. Tenzin, as Aang's son, knows that this is a dangerous mindset but can't really convey it to her in a way that she'd be able to relate too. Korra learns it herself when she goes off alone and almost gets killed due to carelessness.
  • Korra's honestly just enjoying ultimate power because she feels she's reached the end of her journey and is free to relax. She's defeated a powerful bloodbending terrorist, saved Republic City and unlocked airbending all within a few months. She's already performed a feat similar to Aang (albeit on a much smaller scale) and prevented a massive race war. Part of her entire story arc for this season is learning that unlike Aang, she's not a one and done Avatar and there's much more to do and learn.

Southern Lights

• Korra's journey as the new Avatar is supposed to contrast Aang's. In this episode, we get another one: The banished prince. Both Korra and Aang are relatives to a banished prince (Zuko is a spiritual descendant, Tonraq is Korra's father), they are heirs to their own nation, their younger sibling is a prodigy, and they are Hot-Blooded.
• Unalaq's invasion of the South is a terrible idea that can only lead to a civil war, the beginning of which is show in the next two episodes. Which makes perfect sense: Unalaq is trying to free Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos. A war between the North and South Water Tribes will disrupt whatever balance the world has, especially if more nations involve themselves in order to help end it.

Civil War, Part 1

• It was already fairly obvious to many that Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin each resemble Katara, Sokka, and Aang respectively, but that was merely superficial (status as bender/non-bender)—at first. In episode 3 it becomes pretty stated just how much the kids resemble their elders, to the point that their influence has shaped their personalities, role in their family, and their stance on life. Kya, like Katara, values familial duty. She is responsible and willing to make sacrifices for the sake of her family, but the stress causes her to lash out the first sign of irresponsibility and immaturity, which do not help in keeping order. Bumi, like Sokka, values leadership, and both take on the role of a leader. Leadership, in his eyes, equates to responsibility, but the stress of being Over Shadowed By Awesome causes him to have a cynical point-of-view and may lead to him behaving in such a way that he comes off as immature and irresponsible, even if it's just hiding how much he hates being normal. Aang and Tenzin share the duty to their culture: reviving it takes top priority as they are the Last Airbenders. It is how they see themselves taking responsibility, and for Tenzin specifically it acts as a way of honouring Aang. His steadfast duty, however, conflicts with his familial responsibilities, causing him to grow distant from his family. Much like his father (which was out-and-out stated in the episode).
  • Going off that, let's look at how much Kya resembles Aang. Who's the hippie who travels around the world? That's right, Kya. And who's the one most frequently expressing frustration with her father and brothers? Oh yeah, Kya. Probably because Kya is, like Aang, a nomad at heart. Despite being a waterbender, she no doubt wanted to be more involved in Air Nomad culture (and may have been until Tenzin was old enough to understand it all or finally started showing signs of being an airbender). Kya wanted a connection with the parent she felt she most resembled, and that just makes her resentment of Tenzin so much more understandable.
  • Kya was scolding Bumi for acting like he was as strong as any bender (and claiming he's not). Bumi was the only non-bender in the family so he could've very easily been the black sheep and just wanted to feel as important as any other bender.
• Compare and contrast Korra's fight against the Southern kidnappers with her Book One confrontation with the Triple Threats. Both involve Korra interrupting a criminal act being carried out by several adult men. Both involve brief, spectacular takedowns, and both culminate in Korra making their getaway vehicle crash. However, whereas Book One Korra is eager for a fight, relies a great deal on brute force and causes copious property damage, her older self attempts to resolve the situation nonviolently, makes brilliant use of her environment and Lightning Bruiser skills (even displaying Equalist-style Airplane Arms while running), and only tears down a single banner in the process. Korra may still be somewhat Hot-Blooded and reckless, but it is clear that she has learned from her experiences.
  • Though in all fairness, she thought that one of them was her father. That and the fact that they were no doubt some of her neighbors would also go a long way into explaining why she held back so much.
• The fact that Aang wasn't the best father makes perfect sense. Aang never had parents. He was raised in a monastery, probably under the expectation that he would grow up to be a monk, and probably wasn't expecting to ever be a father. All the children of his culture seemed to be raised communally, anyway. So, from what we've seen of it, parenthood wasn't something the Air Nomads were very familiar with themselves. The closest thing he had to a parent was Gyatso, and Gyatso wasn't seen to juggle attention with anyone else. So Aang was never taught parenting, never experienced it, and the nearest thing he had to a parent didn't show him how to be one to multiple people.
  • As the season also goes into how Tenzin feels he can't compare to his father, this does lead to a fridge heartwarming bit. Aang didn't have any idea of how to be a father beyond taking from Gyatso (a fatherly mentor), and Aang did expand from that (we do have his interactions with Kya coming out from the comics after all). Tenzin took that and became a good father to his own kids, no different from any other parent we see whose a good one. Tenzin surpassed his father in being a father, and it is not hard to imagine Aang being proud of that fact.

Civil War, Part 2

• Eska and Desna's elitism towards Korra makes a lot more sense when one realizes that their father Unalaq is jealous of Tonraq for being first in line to be Chief (enough to set him up to be disowned) and being the Avatar's father. The venom has to show up somewhere.
• At first it seems that Ikki forgiving her siblings so easily was just something that kids do. However, that is one of the principle teachings of the Air Nomads: Forgiveness.
• Bumi proves yet again that he is like is Uncle Sokka. Bumi talking to the statue of his father and his words that are the words of a "Well Done, Son" Guy, are parallel to Sokka's own "Well Done, Son" Guy situation.
• A lot of people were disturbed by Korra threatening to feed a man to Naga because he had sentenced her father to life in prison after trying to sentence him to death. But look at Aang after Appa was kidnapped. Now, replace Aang's Airbender upbringing with four more years and a dose of teen rage hormones, and replace Appa with a human. Suddenly, Korra doesn't seem so different from Aang.

The Peacekeepers

• Mako and Korra's break up actually makes a fair bit of sense. The catalyst for the breakup was that Mako acknowledged that his duties as a cop need to come before Korra even if he loves her. Back in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang was able to open his final chakra by 'letting go', as in putting his duties as the Avatar before Katara. It's another layer of how Korra is Aang's opposite, and with a twist to boot. This time, it's not the Avatar who needs to make the choice, but their significant other and thus putting Korra on the receiving end.
• President Raiko offhandedly noted Mako's talents at busting Triad members. Sounds like another thing with Mako having grinding his badassery, right? Keep in mind that as someone who did Triad work and having street smart on people who have good ears, he knows about the Triads and can counter them.
• More Fridge Silliness than anything else, but still amusing enough to be worth mentioning. Lin's unusual swear word, "flamey-o", was invented by Aang as Fire Nation slang. Now why would an Earth Kingdom woman use a Fire Nation colloquialism? Of course, you could attribute it to the cultural melting pot that is Republic City. On the other hand, perhaps it's a Shout-Out to the conclusion of Colin Heck's rant: Lin's father is Azula.
  • She "got along famously" with Aang. She probably picked it up from him.
• Bolin starring as Nuktuk can be seen as a Take That! to The Last Airbender, which sparked a bit of an outrage in the fanbase for casting white actors as natives of the Southern Water Tribe.
• Only Mako wants to investigate to see if it really wasn't the Northern Water Tribe behind the bombing. So it seems like the Republic City police department doesn't do much deeper investigation into crimes. No wonder they had three significant Triads, and the Equalists were able to get so entrenched.
• Iroh being much more willing than Mako to go against Raiko's orders makes sense when you consider their backstories. Iroh knows from his own ancestors that leaders are not infallible and can make poor decisions, so he's likely attempting to avoid their mistakes by prioritizing saving innocent lives over Just Following Orders. Mako, on the other hand, hasn't had much stability in his life for a long time, so once he gets a steady job where he feels like he belongs, he's reluctant to lose it.

The Sting

• Why didn't Korra restore the bending of the Triad gangsters? It's not because Korra wouldn't re-bend criminals on principle, but because they would have to come forward to her to receive treatment — at which point they would most likely also be arrested for their crimes. Not all would want to take the risk of being recognized when they come to her, especially since she would most likely cooperate closely with the police to control the massive operation.
• When Korra wakes up on the beach she uses airbending to defend herself. Typically Korra would attack with fire or waterbending but with her memory gone she may be defaulting to the element of choice for the previous Avatar, Aang.
• Mako remarks how he hates Lu and Gang's mustaches. Lu and Gang are corrupt cops based on the styles of 1970s TV police detectives with the Asian equivalent of a Porn Stache. However the spend a lot of time touching their mustaches this episode. Why? Because they're mustache twirling villains.
• Why was Bolin so flippant to his brother? He's been pretty kindhearted in the past. At the start of the season, we saw that he didn't feel like Mako was supporting him (since there was lots of offscreen time in between seasons, we don't know if this is a justified belief or not), and he's enjoying returning the favor to Mako. Also, Varrick's been doing everything he can to feed Bolin's ego this season. Remember, to a guy like Bolin who has been the Butt-Monkey and Always Second Best, having Varrick supporting him would mean a lot, making him easy to manipulate.
• Meta-example: Ping's twelve toes are most likely a reference to Toph's scenes last season where she was modeled with six-fingered hands.
• Mako willing to help Asami after outing Korra last episode seems contradictory when taken at face value. However, helping her is in fact related to his police business whether or not if it's "off the book." Korra's case was a tad different.

Beginnings

• The episodes concerning Wan are done in the art style of the ancient guó huà paintings (those classic old Chinese-style paintings) rather than the crisp and clear artwork with 3D elements used for the modern times in previous episodes:
  • This makes for thematic brilliance given its 10,000 year ago.
  • This also makes sense when you realize it's Wan recounting these stories to Korra; the only visual media he would have known would be those old-style paintings, that's the only way he knew how to convey visuals to her.
• The fact that Raava fuses with Wan to become the Avatar spirit explains why killing the Avatar in the avatar state would end the cycle: Raava is the cause of the Avatar's ability to be born again and she's exposed when the Avatar is in the avatar state.
• It makes perfect sense as to why the Air Nomads were the only nation in which all the people were airbenders. Word of God stated it was because they had the strongest spiritual connection—and they have that strong connection because they lived in harmony with actual spirits. And what's with airbender tattoos being arrows? Check them out in Beginnings, they clearly resemble Raava's shape. They seem to be especially connected to her as well.
• Why was Fire the first element the first Avatar learned? It's a reference to Prometheus; the Theft of Fire. Fire is also the element that produces light on its own, making it symbolic of the dawn. Finally, parallel to the real world, creating and controlling fire is one of the most important key turning points in the evolution of man itself and allowed it to spread into places it never could before. Just to drive the point home, Wan steals fire from a divine being for the benefit of fellow humans. And like Prometheus, he is later forgiven by said being.
• How each Avatar learned each of the elements is because of Wan learned: First he learned fire, then air, water, and earth. The cycle of the seasons and the cycle of the Avatar.
• Why does each Avatar have a spirit animal? Because the first Avatar, Wan, met his animal guide in the Spirit Forests of his hometown.
• Even though people were given the elements by the Lion Turtles they still had to master them from the dragons, Sky Bisons, The Moon, and the Badgermoles.
• The Lionturtle being able to give Aang energybending makes more sense now. Originally the Lionturtles just let humans borrow the powers. It wasn't till Wan that they let the humans keep them. What they know how to give, they also know how to take away.
• The Avatar Cycle is Wan/Raava's eternal cycle of rebirth and reincarnation to maintain balance in a world that they are responsible (through meddling/failure) for unbalancing. It is an eternal mission of atonement. Counts as fridge horror.
• Both Raava and Vaatu have eye like symbols that are very prominent in their heads. Given their symmetrical shape and location, they're referencing the Ajna chakra.
• The Avatar has always been the most powerful bender alive. Bending is known to be powered by chi, which is life energy. Seeing as the Avatar Spirit is actually the fusion of Raava and a human spirit, with Raava being a spirit of life and order, no wonder the Avatar is always so powerful. The Avatar is the spirit of Life.
• The importance of what Aang and Zuko accomplished by founding Republic City has taken on a whole new level of meaning in light of "Beginnings". Avatar Wan and Raava spent his entire life trying to bring balance and peace between the bending peoples that had lived generations thinking they were the only people on earth, separated on the backs of Lion Turtles like they were before. He didn't live long enough to succeed, but the Avatar cycle was started as a way to continue that mission. Now, the four nations did at one time before Aang and Roku know peace between them, but they were still separate, still isolating themselves from each other, just in a different and more subtle way. But now, thanks to Aang and the whole Gaang, there is Republic City, the one place in the whole world were the four nations are living together.
• Raava's colors are white and blue. Vaatu's colors are black and orange. That's symbolic enough in its own right, what with Orange/Blue Contrast and Light versus Dark. Now think back to the Energybending struggle during The Last Airbender's Grand Finale: Aang's soul was represented by blue, and Ozai's by orange. And what are the Order of the White Lotus' colors? Blue and white. And remember when Ozai announced his new title as the Phoenix King, where he covered the Fire Nation's red-and-black flags with the flags of the Phoenix Kingdom...flags that were orange and black.
• Wan started the chain of the Avatars when he stole fire from the Lion Turtle and used it to attack the Chou palace. His friends would later cause a war between the spirits and humans with fire. A Call-Back to this famous line in the first series, "Everything change when the Fire Nation attacked."
• It's fitting that the first Avatar was a Firebender. He ignited a new era and the Avatar cycle like a fire. Even more so now that the first Dark Avatar is a waterbender, emphasizing both Vaatu's role as Raava's opposite and the Dark Avatar's intention of putting out Wan's fire.
• This answers a glaring meta-question: "Why is the Avatar called the Avatar? It doesn't make sense - an "avatar" is the human incarnation of a god... but The Avatar in Legend of Aang/Korra aren't." Well... actually, they are; The Avatar is the human incarnation of Raava, the Spirit of Light, through her merging with Wan's soul. The full, proper title of each Avatar would be "The Avatar of Raava," but over time - at least ten thousand years, that is - the person started simply being called "The Avatar" for convenience since only one such entity incarnate existed, and humanity gradually forgot the origin of the name after that. It also explains how each Avatar can actually BE the Avatar and have different lives/reincarnations while having vastly different personalities: While the Avatar Spirit—that is, Raava herself—remains eternal and unchanging, the soul of the human "container" changes with each incarnation. This is why the Avatar has to connect to the Avatar Spirit to speak to their previous lives.
• Temporary spirit possession creates weird hybrid creatures. This seems odd...until you realize that most of the animals on this planet are weird hybrid creatures.
• In the online special Escape from the Spirit World, Avatar Yangchen explains to Aang that the Avatar needs to be born a human and experience all of their emotions to better understand them and value their lives. Raava, revealed here to be the Avatar Spirit, originally thought very little of humans, viewing them as nothing more than selfish and cowardly savages. Her time spent with the more noble Wan changed her opinion for the better, and her continued experiences from reincarnating as different humans since merging with him continue to remind her how valuable human life is.
• The first reincarnation of Wan would be born to the Air Nomads. Within the story, this is mostly because Wan just happened to come across the Air Nomads first and gain airbending directly after fire, but it manages to be a very fortuitous occurrence. Aside from Raava, nobody in the world knew that the Avatar would be reincarnated, not even Wan. The Air Nomads are the most spiritually connected nation in the world, shown to coexist with spirits even before they left their Lion Turtle. They're probably the nation best equipped to help the next Avatar understand their role.
• Wan having to learn all but his native element (fire) in about a year could be a deliberate reference to the fact that Avatar Aang, who would suceed Wan nearly 10,000 years later, had to do the same before Sozin's Comet returned. Looks like Roku was being literal when he said to Aang "For you have done it before."

The Guide

• Jinora being Korra's guide makes sense:
  • She has studied the spiritual arts, has a natural spirit connection, and the emotional maturity to be one.
  • Also, she completes what Tenzin and Unalaq couldn't: unlike the two men, she had the natural connection, was never under the impression that only she knew what was best for Korra, and (unlike Unalaq) never had any sinister motives behind her choice to be the guide.
  • Not to mention the fact that she's not restricted by duties as much as Tenzin is, because, like Korra and Tonraq, he is far too bound to the physical world to be able to leave it.
  • Then, there's Jinora's strong resemblance to her grandfather and being a child prodigy like him. For the second one, in the first season episode, "Leaf In The Wind", Jinora was able to cross the spinning gates with the same movements that Aang did in the first series. In other words, it's like a Female Aang is teaching the new Avatar.
• Why does Kya suggest Jinora is Korra's Spirit Guide? Well, it wasn't just Kya's perceptiveness and Jinora actually showing her spirit friends, and the special niece/aunt bond. It was also because Kya didn't want Jinora to have the same experience she had: Not knowing or missing out on her destiny.
• One of the many customs of the Air Nomads, as well as a key part in Airbending was redirection. In this episode, Tenzin did a negative version of it. Every time he tried to get himself and Korra into the Spirit World and it ended in failure, he redirected the blame to someone else: Meelo, Kya, and Korra, respectively. All to evade the fact that Tenzin has never been in the Spirit World.
• Jinora telling Tenzin that she was just playing with "imaginary friends" is actually a pretty clever move. As we the viewers can see, Jinora was playing with spirits, but not many other people can see spirits, except for a few people.

A New Spiritual Age

• At the start of the episode, Kya states that Bumi is better equipped for survival because of his "positive attitude". ^note I would've said "acute intellect and catlike reflexes", but whatever. As it turns out, positivity is exactly how Korra conquers her hardships in the Spirit World.
• Why is Wan Shi Tong helping Unalaq despite the fact that he's going to free Vaatu, who spells doom for human and spirit alike? As we saw with his ignorance concerning radios, he's not as omniscient as he'd like to think he is. Chances are he's simply forgotten or lost the information about what Vaatu is capable of, and Unalaq's charm and respectful, spiritual nature convinced him that whatever he was up to, it'd be good for the spirit world.
  • Alternatively, Unalaq may be influencing Wan Shi Tong using a more subtle variation on his spirit control technique. Basically a Jedi mind trick.
• Korra easily transforms the Dark Spirits that confront her on her way up to the dragon-bird's nest, and it's because she has taken on the form and mentality of a young child. Young children don't over-complicate matters and they are also symbolic of innocence, hope, and light, which is the very essence that helps heal the Spirit World from Vaatu's darkness.
• The dragon-bird:
  • It does not turn Dark like the other spirits present when Unalaq appears and takes control of the situation, partly because of its being a phoenix-like, which is often represented in literature as incorruptible (and in the case of some lore, "their song is said to strike fear into the hearts of the impure and courage into those who are pure of heart."), as well as its having been touched by the light in Korra's heart, which is clearly stated as the only thing needed to heal the darkness in the Spirit World and the material.
  • It's also based on the Fenghuang, the chinese "phoenix", which represents light and virtue, but is Yin by nature. It's very likely that corrupting it simply doesn't work, because it is a figure of perfect balance.
  • The four phoenix-thingies combined together to make a greater, brighter being. This is both symbolic of the Avatar - four elements combined into a divine being of light -, but also recalls China's four divine beasts.
• Iroh:
  • He is is wearing the Earth Kingdom clothes from his decision to reside in Ba Sing Se. Why? Because he is enlightened. To explain, being a tea shop owner was Iroh's dream. He never considered himself the genius strategist or "the Dragon of the West", he simply was Iroh the tea shop owner and lover of tea. In other words, he became enlightened when he enjoyed the simple things and not the material things.
  • One of the effects of enlightenment is to break one's cycle of reincarnation? The creators of the series are infamous for having done their research on the relevant cultures so yes, enlightenment is very likely a factor in Iroh's appearance in the spirit world.
  • On that note, why is Uncle the only one of the deceased members of the original Avatar cast that we get to see post-mortem, besides Aang? He shows up to guide Korra when she's lost and alone...but also Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya, and it's implied that he's been hanging out in the spirit realm for a long time. Is he just there to help the children and successors of his old friends? Or is he in the process of becoming (or is already) the Avatar-verse's answer to a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who sacrifices themselves and works to help others end their own cycle of suffering? If anyone would be up to the job, it's Uncle Iroh.
  • At one point he tells Korra, "Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else." Iroh spent many years helping Zuko recover from his abusive father and sister, and it's been heavily implied in the previous series that his relationship with his nephew helped Iroh cope with the death of his own son.
• One of the many problems in Book 2 is how modern technology and spirituality aren't compatible with each other. Unalaq (spirituality) and Varrick (technology) represent both of the opposing sides. There's also the fact that Korra has tried going to one side, and ending up only causing more trouble.

Night of a Thousand Stars

• Bolin's spoilers of his mover is a lot like the show. Pabu is seemingly killed but comes back to life. Raava would also be seemingly killed, but is brought back to life.
  • Also, Pabu comes back to life in the mover when the polarity of the planet is shifted by a doomsday device. Now, How do the airbenders come back in book three, again?
• The henchman giving up Varrick's name so easily seems like either a cop-out or pure cowardice, but consider what he said immediately after — "Don't hurt me, Nuktuk!" Varrick's propaganda was so effective that even his own henchmen bought into Nuktuk's larger-than-life story, to the point where they feared Bolin like they would fear Superman. Varrick was effectively Hoist by His Own Petard.
• Bolin's saving the president must be even more impressive in-universe, if you think about it. We're never told how much the public knows about his participation in destroying the Equalist plans, but that aside, he's the odd-one-out of the Fire Ferrets, compared to the "cool-under-fire" Mako and the Avatar. He led the team during their worst period, and made some movers, but that aside, what does the public know about him? Not much. So all of a sudden, this bizarre yet endearingly dumb earthbender is suddenly taking on several opponents at once with ease like... well, like a mover character. No wonder the audience are so caught up in what he does. Which might also be why Varrick didn't flee sooner. He wanted to see what happened as well.
• The scene where Mako lies to Korra about the breakup is likely the main reason the two never get back together. In addition to the two always arguing before and after they became a couple, Mako has, unintentionally, taken advantage of Korra after she had clearly suffered a traumatic event. Add to the fact that Mako had chosen his job over Korra and had begun to restart his relationship with Asami, which, (as Bolin pointed out), was after he broke up with Korra only a week ago, this likely was the final hint that Korra needed to see that they weren't going to ever make it as a couple. Likewise, this also ruined any further chances with Asami. While not a good decision, Mako was clearly afraid of breaking Korra's heart all over again if he said how the fight they had WAS that bad and less so trying to "take advantage of her." That said, this does show us how him and Korra wouldn't make a good couple because of how he's afraid of conflict only to create it anyways.

Darkness Falls

• A minor one regarding Bolin and Eska. At the beginning of Book 2, Eska seems to have a delusional notion that they are a couple, and Bolin sort of goes along with it out of fear/necessity without ever really dissuading her. Later, he 'fakes' being in love with her so she'll release him in the penultimate episode of the season but it is heavily implied that he actually had some feelings for her. It was kind of odd, considering how obviously repulsed Bolin was by Eska. But wait...didn't Bolin have a delusional notion that he was dating Ginger? A person who never really dissuaded him, and in fact kept it up once he got more successful? Who went along with it out of necessity? Suddenly his revelation that he might have feelings for Eska makes more sense. While she's not a sympathetic character, he still experienced almost exactly what she went through and how she felt. So maybe his feelings for her stem from sympathy.
• When Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin encounter Zhao in the fog of lost souls, Zhao mistakes Tenzin for a fully-grown Aang. Last Zhao knew, Aang was being protected by a waterbending girl and her non-bender older brother. And who should pull Zhao off Tenzin but non-bender Bumi and waterbender Kya, both dressed in water tribe clothes?
• Zhao being dragged into the spirit world through the water by La might seem out of the blue, until you remember that Koh did the same thing to Ummi, the wife of Avatar Kuruk.
• The mushroom that they passed by repeatedly informed them that they did so after getting information letting it know that that was unintentional. It's a Giant Mushroom, and maybe it's friendly.
• Consider what Kya said when she stared to succumb. "You can't tie me down?" It is possible that Tenzin accidentally triggered her when he literally tied her to him and Bumi to keep them from getting separated.
• Fridge Heartwarming; Tenzin, Kya and Bumi clearly recognized Iroh, which suggests that he probably lived probably into their mid childhood at least.

Light in the Dark

• The Dark Avatar would attack on Republic City:
  • When you stop to consider that city is a melting pot of all four nations, where benders and non-benders are living harmoniously thanks to the past Avatar. Choosing that as the first place to attack makes PERFECT sense.
  • An alternate explanation: Unalaq is shown to be disappointed with how the world has lost most of its spirituality (as shown in his speech to the Southern Water Tribe at the season's beginning). It's possible that he believes that the advancement of technology, as well as the creation of the United Republic, is an offense to the balance of the world (recall how Roku told Sozin that the Four Nations should be just that—- Four). Given that, it would make sense that he would start ushering in his new world order by obliterating Republic City: it stands for everything that he sees wrong in the modern era.
• The fact that Korra is the opposite of Aang is hammered into the wall in this episode. Aang lost his connection to the Avatar in Season 2 and regained it in the nick of time to Curb stomp Ozai utterly using the Avatar state. Korra on the other hand gained her connection in Season 1 and lost it at the end and defeats Unalaq+Vaatu with the spiritual support of her friends and the strength of her own spirit.
• When the Dark Spirits attack the Tree of Time, the camera sweeps past Mako, Tenzin, Kya and Bolin forming a defensive line. Fire, Air, Water, Earth. The Avatar Cycle is everywhere.
• Granted, it's a stretch, but still. Take a look at this remarkable image. The spiral pattern of statues in the Southern Air Temple in The Last Airbender leaves room for two more statues. Korra really is the conclusion of the first Avatar Cycle.
• When Unalaq becomes the Dark Avatar, if you look closely, he only seems to be using Waterbending techniques. He's the Dark Avatar, right? He should be able to use all four bending styles. However, while Wan was able to control all four elements with Raava, he was only able to do so by gaining the elements from the Lion Turtles. Unalaq may have been the equivalent of a Dark Avatar spiritually, but physically, he's still just a waterbender right off-the-bat.
• Doubles as Fridge Horror. Korra was able to use the Tree of Time to be a match for Unalaq and Vaatu, even with Raava being pretty much gone. Why hasn't Vaatu been using the Tree of Time for ten thousand years in that same way? Well, he can't use bending like humans can, but who says he hasn't? While Vaatu was in there, humans were fighting each other for centuries, despite the fact that Raava was living with them and many of them either worshipped her every word or at least respected her power. As harmonic convergence approached, spirits began turning dark. Vaatu's prison wasn't as secure as Wan thought it was. With Vaatu out of the picture until next Harmonic Convergence (fridge horror), the next ten thousand years might be much smoother sailing for the world.
• When Korra decides that Unalaq had a point that spirits and humans can co-exist, it fits within the whole "Find Light in Darkness" theme. Realizing that there may be a positive thing to learn from the villain is exactly the light in the dark. Furthermore, this would also stay true to the Guru Pathik's theme of "separation is an illusion."
• Korra and Jinora's Eleventh Hour Superpowers seem like they come out of left field, but consider this: it is the first time in 10'000 years that both spirit portals have been opened, their respective connections to the spiritual world has become stronger as a result. For Jinora, Harmonic Convergence granted her light powers equal to the light spirit due to her ancestry (being the granddaughter of Aang) while for Korra, she was able to soulbend within the Tree of Time to take on Unavaatu because of the strength of her spirit. Neither occurs after this point, although they also foreshadow the pairs other strengths: Jinora's astral projection and Korra's energybending.
• As demonstrated when Korra was in the Tree of Time and accessed the same astral plane that Aang did over 70 years earlier, she was unlocking her final chakra, the Thought Chakra. Although she didn't have the Avatar State to be boosted by it, she made use of it by letting go of earthly attachments (in a quite literal sense too, given that she released her spirit from her body in order to fight Unalaq), which allowed her to access cosmic energy. And thanks to Harmonic Convergence, this ability was boosted and allowed her to spirit form to grow to massive heights and strength.

Book Three

A Breath of Fresh Air

• At the beginning, why is Bumju running away from Bumi and luring him out onto an unstable branch? It seems like he's doing it for no reason but perhaps the real reason is that Bumju can sense that Bumi is now an airbender and is putting him in a situation where his abilities would first appear.
• Bumi's claim that his airbending only manifests when his life is in danger makes sense, as airbending is a defensive element.
• Having spirits (who are less than friendly most of the time) and very stubborn vines all over should be devastating to a city's economy. It's no wonder, even in the face of the apocalypse being halted, that people are so mad and frustrated. This is more than just inconvenience the human population is facing, their entire livelihoods are being threatened. People also tend to dislike large changes and this is a huge adjustment. How would New York react to such changes during the roaring '20s?
• That porcupine-resembling spirit was pretty angry and annoyed. Which is not out of place concerning most spirits. But we have to realize that the spirits are going through what the human public are facing as well. They're just as frustrated with the circumstances and adjustments.
• At first glance, it seems far-fetched that citizens of Republic City would be so angry at Korra for failing to remove the vines. But it has also been established that the city had a numerous anti-bender movement. It stands to reason that this sentiment would not simply wither and die after Amon was exposed, and would likely add to the frustration at what was the result of actions of benders.
• Zaheer was able to pick up and use airbending in actual combat incredibly quickly. But the first thing he talks about onscreen is the poetry of an ancient airbending guru. And his fighting style seems to be very acrobatic to begin with. Zaheer has probably studied airbending and Air Nomad culture extensively, and thus has a good understanding of airbending theory.
  • Another point to note is that his style is somewhat atypical of what we see from traditionally trained airbenders, using swift, decisive attacks — rather like firebending, which makes sense when you remember that P'Li is herself a firebender.
  • Zaheer probably studied airbending specifically in preparation for his attempted kidnapping of Korra years ago; he knew he'd have to go through Tenzin to get to her, and wanted to know as much as possible about fighting against the world's least common bending style.

Rebirth of a Nation

• Why does Jinora get to go with Korra, Tenzin, and the others to look for new airbenders? She's Korra spiritual guide/teacher. Should Korra need advice on how to deal with spiritual matters, she would not only need Tenzin's input, but also Jinora's.
• The order in which Zaheer frees his comrades makes a lot of sense. Working backwards from his girlfriend P'Li, he would need the help of a Waterbender since P'Li is stuck in a frozen Water Tribe prison, while a Waterbender could take full advantage of the environment. A Waterbender like Ming Hua perhaps, except she's stuck inside a volcano. But with a lot of earth and lava around, Zaheer rescues Ghazan first, the team's Earthbender who can lavabend.
• Ghazan liquefying solid rock into magma, something only fully-realized Avatars have been able to do. How does he do it? Well, at the core, when something heats up, this is the result of its molecules vibrating at increasing speeds - Ghazan forces the rocks' molecular structure to vibrate rapidly, heating them up to magma temperature... then he simply Earthbends the superheated rock. Also, waterbenders can change liquid water to solid ice and back at will. Lavabending isn't so far-fetched when you consider Ghazan's doing the same thing, just with rock.
• "Together, they could take down the entire world", said by Lord Zuko. Referring to what had been (at the time), one non-bender, a lava-bender, a psychic waterbender, and a combustion bender - extravagant praise indeed. However, even not knowing their true intentions, it was a clear Foreshadowing of the Red Lotus being anarchists. Many simply took it for the usual context - destruction - when all along it literally was 'take down the entire (civilized) world'.
• While Korra tossing Mako around is quite hilarious, especially after Mako's treatment of Korra and Asami, this is also a subtle hint that Korra likes Asami. The way she glances at Asami when she is toying with Mako makes it look as if she is showing off to Asami, and Asami approves.
• Why is Bolin so quick to adopt Kai? He mentions in the previous episode how much he loves being part of family, and with Mako always at the police station, Korra and Asami doing their own thing, and Eska out of his life it makes sense he'd feel a little isolated. Makes it even more heartwarming when he and Mako find their family the next episode. Also, Kai is an orphaned Street Urchin trying to survive which probably reminds Bolin of himself.
  • And why did Korra agree to help him? Well before everything with Ravaa, as we saw in Beginnings, Wan was just a thief and a hustler, in the right circumstances he became a great man, so she likely believed he could be the same.

The Earth Queen

• P'Li mentions having been locked up for thirteen years. That time-frame would explain why they had to be stored in Tailor Made Prisons instead of being de-bended (which at that point could only be done by the then-deceased Aang).
• The Earth Queen's extreme dislike of animals might be related, one way or another, to her disdain for her father Kuei, what with his adoration for his pet bear. At the very least, their differing attitudes towards animals wouldn't have made matters easier between them.
• Why is the Earth Queen not as nice as her father? A major Aesop throughout the series is that children don't have to be like their parents or follow their same path. The Earth Queen is representative of how the Aesop can go horribly right.

In Harm's Way

• A close-up shot◊ in Zaheer's first appearance shows that he has green eyes, but his preference for wearing muted colors makes his eyes look Airbender grey more often than not.
• The Earth Queen's hatred of animals is because she's allergic to them. Thus, she uses her allergies of animals to justify cruelty against them.
• The resolution of the Ba Sing Se airbenders subplot is a perfectly roundabout conclusion. The Earth Queen's conscription of the Ba Sing Se airbenders reflected at an extreme what Korra and Tenzin were initially doing, though not outright realizing it: they were trying to force people to become Air Nomads without respect to their opinion on the matter. The only difference is they didn't kidnap them like the Dai Li did. Without having to say as such (which is usually the case for storylines using roundabout methods to tell the moral of the tale), "In Harm's Way" had Team Avatar reach the correct conclusion, and rewarding them with a whole batch of volunteers.
  • Also, air represents freedom in the Avatarverse. Team Avatar freed the airbenders from the Earth Queen and later gave them the freedom to choose their own destiny. That might have something to do with why all of them were so willing to join the Air Nomads.
• There are many parallels between the Earth Queen and many real life governments from history:
  • The Earth Kingdom as a whole seems to be clinging to a social model (feudalism and monarchy) which one could argue was starting to get obsolete back in the original series. During the modern era, many cultures (some of them Asian) also tried this. The result in both cases is a state which becomes weaker and weaker. China was subjected to humiliation by Western imperial powers, and the Earth Kingdom hasn't been relevant to Korra until she needed to find possible citizens of the Air Nation there. Also, the Dai Li are far less powerful in Korra's day than they were when they fought Aang.
  • Mako and Bolin's grandmother reveres a portrait of the Earth Queen, and many other Earth Kingdom peasants do as well. Worship of leaders (especially leaders who lack power on the global stage) has happened throughout history, and still goes on today occasionally.
• The Earth Queen obviously has an agenda of kidnapping airbenders into her army. She made it clear she doesn't recognize the United Republic of Nations, and only seeing it as stolen Earth Kingdom land. Thus, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that she wants to create an airbender regiment to take over the United Republic of Nations and annex it back to the Earth Kingdom. The Air Nomads had no military, but Airbending nonetheless has offensive potential. Given how long airbending characters lasted against bending or nonbending enemies, the Earth Queen figures that no opponent would stand a chance against a whole group of airbending soldiers.
  • The idea however, is doomed to fail the moment you see how the airbenders were trained by the Dai Li. You'll notice that they're not training them to move fluidly and lightly, like airbenders, they're training them to just stand rooted in place and send out big blasts of air, as if they were Earthbenders chucking rocks. The polar opposites of the two bending styles strikes again. Only Kai was able to properly handle the training, as he spent his life as a thief and would have subconsciously emphasised dodging over blocking, like an airbender. This also emphasises the difference between the bending that is given straight from the Lion Turtles and the bending taught by the animal masters and the moon during "Beginnings".
• The people who are said to have thwarted the Red Lotus' attempt to kidnap Korra are Tonraq, Tenzin, Zuko and... Sokka? Wait, what? How would Sokka have survived against the kind of bending those four were capable of?... Oh, right, Zaheer wasn't a bender at the time.

The Metal Clan

• The poem Zaheer reads in the episode is exactly what Jinora demonstrated in the previous episode.
• Toph's two statues and two daughters.
• What appointments did Toph go on? Blind dates!
• Lin and Suyin never knowing their biological fathers adds another layer on why Lin and Aang "got along famously". She probably saw him as a Parental Substitute. Lin has the same hairstyle (at least in terms of bangs) as Katara. If she was dating Tenzin and close to Aang it makes sense that she would spend a lot of time with Katara. Also, Lin is big on duty and protection, just like Katara.
• Why was Kya able to give Zaheer such a fight? Aside from being the daughter of the Avatar, her father and brother were master airbenders. One would imagine they had probably sparred at some point, so Kya knew how to fight an airbender, unlike most of the world.
• The airbender in the Beifong family is Opal. The majority of the world's opal comes from Australia, a country whose indigenous population are still recovering from the wrongs inflicted by colonialism, making it an appropriate name for someone who would go on to be an Air Nomad, part of a culture being restored after its near-extermination by a colonialist power. Opal is also the only member of Suyin's family to have a straightforwardly English name rather than Chinese or Mongolian, and she's the one with the radically different set of talents.
• Notice how Zaofu's protective hulls look like petals? They are specifically lotus petals, open during the day. What does the given name of the original metalbender, Toph Beifong mean? Expanding lotus. Suyin not only made a city based on the art her mother invented and set her as an example for all, she even designed the city to honour her! Not to mention the 'fu' in Zaofu is a homonym to the second character of Toph's name in its Chinese transliteration (芙, or fú, meaning 'lotus' in Toph's name and 阜, fu, meaning 'abundant' or 'mound', in Zaofu's.)
• The title doesn't only refer to the people of Zaofu, it also refers to Lin, Suyin and Toph.
• It’s said that Lin and Suyin haven’t spoken in thirty years, not that they haven’t seen each other. Presumably, both sisters would have attended Aang and Sokka’s funerals so they likely did see each other in those instances.

Old Wounds

• Notice the types of rocks Lin and Suyin were about to throw at each other before Opal stopped the fight: Lin had a concrete, perfect shaped piece use for stairs, Suyin grabbed a random, new rock with rough edges. This display matches their personality types: Lin is all about order and stability, while Suyin is all about freedom and newer things.
• Suyin wipes the floor with Lin, who we've seen is a total badass. Not only was Lin recovering from acupuncture, but they fought in Su's sculpture garden. Su knew the terrain and every bendable object there! Had Lin been in better health and in a more neutral area she probably would have done better against Suyin; whether Suyin could actually beat Lin in a fair fight is up in the air. Still, Lin knows how to take abuse and keep coming.
• In her stress-and-acupuncture-induced haze, Lin briefly hallucinates young Suyin in Korra's place. A talented, headstrong young bender who feels exempt from the rules, caring little for the trouble she causes along the way? Up until now, we've all assumed that Lin's original animosity towards Korra was because of her attitude and her connection to Tenzin. What if Korra had also reminded Lin of her little sister? Note that the very first time Lin and Korra met, Korra had just been brought to the police station for destruction of civic property, and expected Lin to let her off the hook based on her birth status and her connection to Lin's mother. Given Su's bitter history with her sister, it's easy in hindsight to see how much Korra got off on the wrong foot in dealing with Lin.
• Which point was punctured when Lin had her visions? The back of the forehead, which corresponds to the chakra of light, responsible for insight.
• It would appear that Lin has probably had a very lonely and unsatisfying life, having apparently never had good relationships with her mother or sister, losing Tenzin to the much younger Pema due to Lin not wanting a family (among other things), and getting absolutely nothing in return for all her hard work. Is it any wonder that she tends to be a grumpy person?
• Looking back at this episode, and the above comment about Guru Laghima's poem. Not only does the poem explain Jinora's Astral Projection power, but it also explains how Zaheer found out at the end of the episode that Korra is in Zaofu.
• Opal "really knows how to sneak up on someone," startling Bolin. Why? She's a natural airbender - of course she'd be light on her feet.
• Toph really did face an impossible situation: If she had arrested Suyin, it would feel like the ultimate betrayal between a parent and child. However, if she hadn't (and since she didn't) arrested her, then Lin would have felt somewhat betrayed. Why, you may ask? Because Suyin injured, albeit accidentally, Lin. So, Lin became a victim of her sister's crime in a way.
  • On top of that, if Toph had really went through with the arrest, outside of solitary confinement (which is even worse for a girl like Suyin) or a separate cell (which will make Toph undergo even more accusations of Nepotism), she will be putting her daughter at the mercy of the very criminals she arrested.
• Whiles it's not the smartest decision she could have made, Toph banishing Suyin instead of throwing her in prison has some reason to it. From what's seen when we visit the prisons in Book 1, when Lin is releasing the imprisoned Team Avatar members, and in Book 2, when Bolin visits Mako in jail with the supervision of a metal-bending officer, Republic City's prison cells, or at least the more secure ones reserved for benders, can only be opened and closed via Metalbending, something Suyin, as her daughter, is clearly well-versed in. Not only would Suyin have possibly broken out of her cell anyway, but there's the very real possibility that Suyin could have released her "friends" or other prisoners, and a bunch of criminals would have suddenly been back on the streets under her supervision. Sure, she could have sought a solution that didn't make Suyin appear as a Karma Houdini and piss off a recently scarred Lin, but she at least had good reason to think twice about simply locking her up.
• P'li shaving the sides of her head while keeping the rest of her hair long enough to braid makes a lot of sense for someone whose power depends on maintaining a clear line of fire; when you can shoot explosions out of your forehead it's a very good idea to keep your hair out of your face.
• Aiwei is the one to send Lin to relax and get acupuncture, right after Lin says that she wants to check every inch of Zaofu to make sure it's secure. While Aiwei is correct that she was working too hard and needed to look after her health, "The Terror Within" reveals that he had an ulterior motive to suggest this — to distract Lin and ensure the Red Lotus could get into the city to capture Korra when the time was right.

Original Airbenders

• You know the brilliance of this title? The original airbenders were Flying Sky Bison. In this episode, Jinora and Kai get captured by thugs planning to poach them. And are later saved by Tenzin, Bumi, and the new airbenders. In other words, the new saved the old.
• There's also the whole thing with the bald head giving people an advantage over a sneak attack...remember how many times Aang was able to quickly react to people in the original show? This explains it; he was taught this technique at a young age. And also explains the more pacifistic idea of the Air Nomads; they don't need to instigate a fight when they can just sense a threat and quickly resolve it. The Fire Nation likely just found ways to take them all out by using the expanding heat to trick this skill.

The Terror Within

• Zaofu's security guard holding their own against Zaheer and co. compared to the White Lotus shows the effects of living in a city where one's skills can be developed to the fullest, which includes fighting against intruders.
• Why would Aiwei frame such an unsuspicious guard out of all the people he could have chosen? Because he's the first guard interviewed after there's talk of someone a "little higher up" committing the crime. His original plan was probably to just let everyone assume the Red Lotus got in without a guard's help, but he adjusted his plan when they started getting closer to him. He then led everyone to the guard's house and planted the clues while they were searching.
• At first, Bolin thinking Aiwei has the ability to becomes invisible is just his naiveté and usual comic relief moment, but take a moment to think about the things Bolin has seen: A combustion-bender who can actually curve her blasts. An earthbender who can lavabend, which is a skill that only an Avatar is capable of. A powerful airbending master who's neither Korra nor Tenzin. And an armless woman who uses water to fight and makes it look easy. After meeting such unique and amazing benders, Bolin also may believe how there are countless people with other special skills, like the power of invisibility.
  • Could even be an Airbender technique, as flight is a trick they can use. So they could possibly bend the air around them to make light reflect in a way. Who knows, a lot of unique styles have been made.
  • Also, even Aiwei's has a unique lie-sensing ability actually means he fits in perfectly with the M.O. of the other unique members of the Red Lotus.
• At the end of the battle, Zaheer creates an instant smokescreen to escape. Yet at the beginning he needed time to create it. The lava hadn't generated enough smoke yet.

The Stakeout

• Pai Sho:
  • At first, it seems like the entire Pai Sho game between Bolin and Asami is simply filler. But remember that originally, Pai Sho was the way that White Lotus members would use to identify one another. In the rule book, it talks about how throughout the centuries there have been variations of the game of Pai Sho. That's a reference to the differences between the Red and White Lotus organizations. So when Bolin tells Korra she needs to standardize the rules of Pai Sho, he's unintentionally telling her to work out the differences between the Red and White Lotus.
  • It also exhibits the long-term viability of both chaos and order: Bolin's fast-and-loose street style never stood a chance against Asami's more methodical and nuanced style.
  • The scene also explains why Iroh's Pai Sho games resemble Mahjong, while the game Asami and Bolin are playing seems to work more like Shogi: a wide variety of different rules exist for the game.
• The Red Lotus are anarchists, just as the Equalists were communists. Both ideologies were quite popular in the 1920's, and both had very dangerous followers.
• Unalaq having discovered the ability to manipulate light and darkness with waterbending makes a lot of sense in retrospect, given that he was once part of the Red Lotus, whose main shtick has been its individual members' unique bending abilities.
• It always seemed a little odd that Zaheer knew Korra was in Zaofu just by meditating, this episode explains it. He and Aiwei met in the Spirit World and he told Zaheer where Korra was.
• There's a reason why Zaheer studied as hard as he did in Air Nomad culture and technique. Their plan was to steal baby Korra to train her as their own, and you can't be a fully realized Avatar with just three elements.
• Remember the Red Lotus's goal to abolish all governments? The Air Nomads being, well... nomads, they obviously don't have a true government of their own. No wonder Zaheer was so drawn to their culture.

Long Live The Queen

• It's revealed that Pabu and Naga weren't captured when Korra and Asami were taken to the Earth Queen. Since she's allergic to animals, there's no point in capturing the Avatar's animals— all she'd want is the Avatar herself.
• The title "Long Live The Queen" foreshadows Hou-Ting's death, as "Long live the queen/king" is what you say when announcing the death of a monarch, specifically in reference to the ascension of the new monarch who takes the throne immediately upon the death of his/her predecessor. A dark irony exists in that there is no sign of a succession process here, and if there was, Zaheer would presumably take steps to prevent it.
• One of the Earth Queen's soldiers half-dryly states to Korra that he essentially can't exactly forbid air to her. This is a comedic quip, but it foreshadows how Zaheer assassinates Hou-Ting.
• The modern Dai Li getting curbstomped by Mako and Bolin is easily explainable by the pro-bending style being more responsive than their telegraphing earthbending style. as Bolin explained when he first met Korra. Conversely, them losing to the Red Lotus seems like simple Worf Effect until you realize that compared to their predecessors actively maintaining the stepford status quo with Joo-Dees, Manchurian Agents and keeping the Fire Nation out, these guys have been glorified bodyguards to the queen no different than the OWL sentries until the new airbenders popped up and they weren't even subtle about it. A common fruit vendor like Tu knew about the abductions as common knowledge and the other prisoners with Mako and Bolin were apparently weak non-benders that would be easy-pickings to capture. In short, they've grown complacent obeying the queen against a wider World of Badass.
  • Furthermore, the Dai Li were certainly legitimate threats in the previous generation, able to give some serious pause to both Team Avatar and the Freedom Fighters and even almost taking down Toph, a contender for the best Earthbender in history, but the emphasis is on the word "were". The previous generation of the Dai Li grew up in a period of war and were undoubtedly selected from the best, most ruthless, patriotic, and undoubtedly battle-hardened field agents the Earth Kingdom had to offer who can be presumed to be either ex-military or the most competent police who themselves may have had to defend against the Fire Nation's invasions. As such, it is likely the average Dai Li member in ATLA was a significantly better fighter than the average member in LoK, as that generation hasn't known war.

The Ultimatum

• Bumi clinging to Ghazan's back is him fighting pragmatically, but it's also a pretty smart maneuver. During the fight, Ghazan kept sending lava at him, so he goes to the least likely place Ghazan will lavabend on, himself.
  • ...But Ghazan winds up doing just that two episodes later.
• Why did Zaheer continually run away from Tenzin during his entire fight? Multiple reasons:
  • His acknowledgement of Tenzin as an airbending master implies that he knew that Tenzin was already a superior bender.
  • Airbenders have an inherent advantage in combat due to the fact that their fighting style is obscure to the majority of the population ever since the Air Nomad genocide. This is displayed when he fought against the three of them. Couple that with the fact that he had Bumi and Kya backing him up. Had he not separated Tenzin from his siblings, they would've had a significantly higher chance of winning.
  • Not only is Airbending an obscure art to fight against, but Tenzin knows how to fight against another airbender: He in all likelihood sparred with his father Aang during his training. No wonder Tenzin had the definitive upper hand when it was just him versus Zaheer.
  • He lured him out to an open area. An area in which P'li had a very clear shot of him.
• How come P'li couldn't hit any of the new Nomads while they were fleeing? She wasn't trying to. For the most part, it appears that the Red Lotus avoid conflict whenever possible. They only retaliate to attacks against them; hence why she shot down Kai. Additionally, they would be citizens in the eyes of the Red Lotus, the kind of people that they believe they are liberating from a potentially oppressive government. Finally, if they had been harmed, that may hurt any argument they'd have for Korra to comply with them.

Enter The Void

• We finally find out what it means to "enter the void", as Zaheer loses P'Li. She was his earthly tether, his main emotional attachment. Once she was gone, he had to let go, and he achieved enlightenment and weightlessness. It's also a Call-Back to Book 2 of the original series, the airbender had to deal with the possibility of losing his girlfriend and he unlocks a greater power within himself. The first time he touches the ground afterwards was when he had to think about P'Li again. People who experience grief often explain a "hollowing" or feeling of emptiness within themselves. Many lose their ability to perceive things previously relevant to their lives as important anymore. Zaheer thus "entered the void" from emotional loss.
• Zaheer's reciting Guru Laghima's "enter the void" speech and then P'Li comes. He recites it again when P'Li dies and gains the ability to fly. The scene with Zaheer and P'Li was heartwarming, giving us information on her past, and foreshadowing all rolled into one. There's also the symbolism that the illuminated window of "enlightenment" which shines down upon where Zaheer is meditating is eclipsed by P'Li's arrival in that chamber. She stands between him and the void... and once she dies, he is able to enter that state.
• Bolin's lavabending ability makes a lot of sense:
  • For one, he's the product of a mixed marriage, an Earth Kingdom father and a Fire Nation mother, just like how lava is earth and fire mixed together.
  • Plus Lava's only molten rock, so an earthbender should be able to bend it, but since the only people who used it are the Avatar (using earthbending and firebending together) and Ghazan (a unique bender, ancestry unknown), Bolin's the first normal earthbender who actually tried it. It connects to Zaheer's earlier speech about you shouldn't be restricted by your earlier perceptions.
  • Character-wise, Bolin and Ghazan are rather similar; they both have personalities can be considered rather like water, being rather laidback and having a "go with the flow" kind of disposition. During their first interaction with one another, they have a very casual and even cordial conversation with one another and display none of the confrontational or headstrong manners typically characterized by their native element. Just like the versatile nature of water, being able to transition from liquid, solid, and vapor, Ghazan and Bolin's flexible and supple nature is why lavabending is so much more accessible and easier for them to grasp.
• The main advantage that Bolin had in learning lavabending was probably his pro-bending experience, which required him to train alongside other types of benders. Lavabending acts like waterbending, so working alongside water benders would have let them observe their forms and see them change the state of a solid to a liquid, which is what lavabending does. By contrast, Mako's firebending is mostly composed of blasts of flame, which doesn't teach anything useful for lavabending.
• Bolin wanted to metalbend so he could be like his hero Toph. If he can teach other people to lavabend, then he can follow in her footsteps in teaching earthbenders a new kind of bending.
• Bolin's ability to lavabend makes sense when contrasted with his inability to metalbend. Metal is a more solid form of earth that has less overall earth in it while lava is a less solid form of earth that has more overall earth in it. Metalbending is done by focusing on the trace amounts of earth that can be found in metal which would be difficult for someone like Bolin while lavabending is done by liquefying earth and moving it like water which would come easier to a more laid back person like Bolin.
  • Not only that, look at his parentage, a father from the Earth Kingdom and a mother from the Fire Nation. What is the element that is usually derived from combining these two elements? Lava.
• When Bolin, Asami, Tenzin and Mako are fleeing the Northern Air Temple as it collapses, they find a hidden stairway beneath the floor that allows them to escape. Now, where before have we seen such a hidden passage in the Northern Air Temple? It's likely that the passage is the same one used by the firebenders to meet with the Mechanist! Talk about a Chekhov's Gun!
• Zaheer's recitation of the "enter the void" speech preceding the romantic scene he shares with P'Li, coupled with his ability to do so after P'Li's death, comes across in hindsight as though he at first was trying to force his enlightenment. Furthermore, mastering the Avatar State and unlocking flight both seem to require a similar condition, letting go of all earthly attachments, yet unlike Zaheer, Avatars such as Aang, Korra, and Roku have been able to fulfill this condition without losing their love interests. In fact, they've even been seen tapping into the power of the Avatar State to protect said love interests. Using Zaheer's own words from his first appearance, they were able to get past the limiting perception that "clearing one's mind" from earthly attachments such as love literally meant a loveless existence, achieving the pure task-minded focus needed to control the Avatar State. Despite all his knowledge, Zaheer may not have been as spiritually strong and free as he believed himself to be, as he still relied on this perception.
• "New growth (Zaheer's new ability of flight) cannot exist without first the destruction of the old (The death of P'Li)".
• Some viewers have pointed out that Zaheer continually overlooked all the damage and pain his flavor of anarchy would cause in the short form. With this episode, we see that Zaheer has been cutting his ties to the material world, with the end result that he is no longer grounded. He doesn't really realize how bad his actions will make life for the common man because he can no longer see from their perspective any better than a rich emperor could. This combined with the above bullets on "entering the void" is also a dark reflection of what Aang could've become had he continued to interpret "letting go of all earthly attachments" the way he initially thought Pathik was telling him in regards to moving forward to master the Avatar State. Knowing of Raava's initial disdain for humans before merging with Wan and becoming the Avatar Spirit, that particular notion becomes even less appealing and Roku's retelling of his story becomes even more important for subtly rousing Aang out of that mindset.
• Just before Korra leaves the airship to give herself to the Red Lotus, a hidden Ship Tease moment between both her and Asami is stealthily put in there. While she is hugged by everyone in Team Avatar, with Mako getting the most dramatic one (to illustrate how he's finally gotten over his awkwardness around her), it's notable that Asami is the first one she turns to and hugs. Not only that, but Korra and Asami are the only ones who hug each other simultaneously. Korra had to initiate the one she had with Mako, and Bolin took her by surprise from behind. They're also the only ones to exchange lines. The girls are perfectly in sync and their feelings are mutual.
• Zaheer's ability to fly as a sign of airbending mastery. Now, what did the original airbenders, the sky bison do all the time?

Venom of the Red Lotus

• The reasons why the Red Lotus want to end the Avatar cycle are given a brilliant in-depth explanation here.
• The title of this episode is significant not only because of the actual venom used in the attempt to kill Korra, but also because of this whole ordeal effects on her afterward. She's incapacitated and emotionally broken by the end, probably truly feeling like a worthless and useless Avatar. In other words, some actual venom may have nearly killed her, but dealing with all this is what truly poisoned her spirit.
• Ghazan was rather quick to mentally break down in his fight against the brothers, but there's a reason for it. A few episodes ago he alluded to the fact that he might have a thing for Ming Hua. When Mako joins the fight against him, he realizes that Ming Hua is gone. He would rather die with the woman he loved.
• By this episode, the four central Red Lotus members who set themselves free with their special bending met their defeat because of their special bending. The tragic irony can summed up here.
• Ikki at one point asks Jinora if Korra is going to save them, but Jinora calmly states that they're going have to rescue themselves. This is a clever foreshadowing using dialogue of Tenzin's speech at Jinora's ceremony that the Air Nomads will help bring peace to all nations during Korra's recovery.
• Pure metals can't be bent, which is why metalbending is useless on platinum. Why then, was Suyin able to extract the mercury from Korra to save her life? Answer: Because while metallic mercury is a pure metal, organic mercury is not. Mercury bonds to organic molecules readily, which is what makes it poisonous.
• "New growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old". The two picture of Jinora and Korra with the quote matches perfectly with the overall theme of Book 3. Sad as it is with Korra's emotional and physical breakdown, she's also the Avatar, a being that has existed for over thousands of years and therefore the "old". The emerging airbenders that have not been around for almost two centuries, will now (temporarily) take her place in maintaining peace and so they are the "new".
• The order of how Zaheer and his friends broke out of their own prisons (Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li) is the reverse order of how each one was defeated: P'Li, Ming-Hua, Ghazan and finally Zaheer.
• In the previous episode, in order to learn how to fly, Zaheer has to let go of his emotional attachments, he seems to do so and so he learns how to fly. In this episode he refuses to let go of his plan to get rid of the Avatar even when all signs point to it's failure and a tornado is dragging him down. When he finally does try to let go the chain around Korra's wrist wraps around his ankle and drags him down faster where his body gets encased in stone. See he failed to realize that malice is just as much of an attachment as love is, and his malice led to him literally being tethered to the Earth!
• Korra's seemingly depressed broken state makes sense. It's standard human reaction to go silent after suffering major bodily damage like say breaking your leg. Similarly, this can also apply to traumatizing experiences on a mental level. Furthermore, all through her life, her defining trait is that she was the Avatar. That is the single hub she has built herself around. The point of conflict throughout the series is villains who believe the Avatar is no longer a necessary thing, rapidly fired back at her in her poison-induced hallucinations. She has endured attack after attack on her very identity, but when Tenzin — in an act of true kindness and reassurance, of course — tells her that the new Air Nomads will be filling her role until she recovers, maintaining balance and fighting injustice, he is inadvertently confirming in her mind what they have been saying all along. She, as the Avatar, is not needed.
  • On top of that, there is also one more reason for Korra's depression if the metallic poison is indeed mercury. One of the known aftereffects of mercury poisoning is depression.
• At the end of the first season Avatar Aang said, "When we're at our lowest point, we're most open to change." It foreshadows the changes that Korra will go through following Book Three's finale since she has hit her lowest point.
• Why wasn't Zaheer executed when it's been demonstrated that he's now more dangerous than ever before rather than simply placed back in a new prison where he can't use his powers? Besides the fact that it's Nickelodeon show and they can't have the good guys intentionally kill a man in cold blood (self-defense is another thing), there is a in-universe reason. It's unknown how many members and sympathizers the Red Lotus has, and the heroes can't afford to make Zaheer a martyr. This is also why he and his inner circle were imprisoned in the first place; gain information while discrediting them in their cells.
  • What's more; this entire thing makes Zaheer exactly like Ozai. While he fought to dismantle an empire as opposed to expanding one like Ozai did, he turned out to be just as much the out-of-touch villain with a dangerous following as the Phoenix King was and had to be handled the exact same way for both TV-rating and in-universe reasons. In fact, the entire final battle mirrors that of Ozai and Aang. An Avatar versus the leader of a villainous group, an Airbender versus a flying Firebender. It's even featured in the same rock pillar type of landscape as the original fight, it occurred because of the fall of Ba Sing Se, and the Avatar entered the Avatar State because of an injury (poison in Korra's case, while Aang hit a rock that unlocked his chakra). The only differences is that a lot of the themes are reversed; Zaheer is the calm Airbender while Korra is the raging Fire(and Earth)bender and despite this, Zaheer still held the upper hand most of the time. What's different is that neither combatants won alone; Korra was helped by the combined might of the new Air Nation. This neatly sums up the theme of the season; Korra tried to end it like The Last Airbender, but instead Jinora (a breakout character) was the one who ended it. The old must make way for the new for change to occur.
• A subtle one with the fight between Ming Hua and Mako: when Iroh was teaching Zuko how to redirect lightning, he made an important note of how Zuko must redirect the lightning through his arm, into his stomach and out the other arm, avoiding the heart. Because Ming Hua is a waterbender (and thus never had to redirect lightning), the lightning went straight from her "arms" and through to her chest and heart. For bonus points, it was Mako, named after Iroh's original voice actor, who did her in.
• The surprising amount of green in the audience at Jinora's induction ceremony indicates that they're all Earth Kingdom citizens. Note the one with the white hair sitting in front of everyone; it's Yin. Now take a good look at everyone; they're not only displaced citizens, but they're all family of Bolin and Mako. Note that they're all sitting in front, alongside Ikki and Meelo. They're held in the same respect as Tenzin's own family, likely in honor of what Mako and Bolin did for them.
• Look at the way the air bison fly. They normally airbend with their tails, and they can also airbend with their breath, but when flying they usually don't do any of that. They just seem weightless (this is especially clear in Original Airbenders when the baby bison first start to fly), but can control direction with their thoughts; they only use their tails in combat or to boost their speed, especially during takeoff. Now look at the way Zaheer flies. It's much the same way. He mostly doesn't use regular airbending, except to attack and for a few times to boost speed or to catch himself when he's almost about to fall. Original Airbenders indeed.
• In other sources, one of the final tests to earn Airbending mastery is to create a new airbending technique. It's surmised Aang's was the Air Scooter, and Tenzin's was the Air Cycle. What was Jinora's? A giant whirlwind fueled by group airbending.
• The Red Lotus who were the reason for Korra's isolation have now become the source of Korra's broken spirit at the end.
• How did Lin, Su, and the others manage to find the airbenders so quickly? Seismic sense.
• When Su is drawing the poison out of Korra look carefully at Asami. Out of all the members of Team Avatar, Asami looks the most devastated, even more so than Mako, Korra's ex-boyfriend. This is likely the moment when Asami realized that she was in love with Korra. This is further backed up by the next scene, while helping Korra get dressed Asami holds Korra's hand and tells her that she is there for her should she need to talk. The closeup of two characters holding hands has almost always been used to imply a romantic connection between the two characters. However, instead of acting on this, like Mako did in Book 1, Asami decides not to tell Korra about her feelings for her and instead just let her know that she is there for her no matter what.
• The same chains that Zaheer used to imprison Korra are later used by Korra to drag him down to earth and defeat him which leads to him becoming a prisoner again to pay for his crimes.
• When Jinora reveals her mastery tattoos, she bears a near-identical resemblance to her Grandfather, Avatar Aang. This fits with the general theme of Book 3, Change. By resembling her grandfather, who represents the old, she represents the new era that is beginning.
• Whether intentional the location Korra is imprisoned in evokes a key point in Aang's journey, the location of the fight in Crossroads of Destiny. Both locations were underground caves, with green crystals emerging from the area. Interestingly the ordeals Aang and Korra go through have a symmetry; Aang is shot by lightning and either killed or brought very close to death, similar to how Korra suffers through the mercury poisoning. In addition they both suffer changes as a result of the ordeal that remain for much of the next series. Both of them suffer angst from their ordeal and the way it affects their role as the Avatar, although Aang gets over it more quickly, while they are also physically limited, Aang looses his ability to go into the avatar state, Korra is weakened by remaining poison, and in this case it's Korra who recovers first, removing the poison mid season, as opposed to Aang regaining the avatar state in the finale. In addition they go through changes in apperence, Aang loses his original outfit, which he never regains, and winds up growing his hair out until mid season, where he shaves his head again, while Korra cuts her hair short, a style she keeps for the rest of the show, while for most of her appearances in early season 4 she wears earth kingdom clothing instead of her usual outfit. It is an interesting parallel.

Book Four

After All These Years

• Opal's line about the "airbenders being spread pretty thin" is a clever Call-Back to how the Air Nomads (prior to Sozin's attack) had the smallest population of the four nations. Even though Tenzin stated that the Air Nation would fulfill Korra's duties to help the Earth Nation, it proves that despite good intentions and fighting abilities, if you lack the numbers and power, you will not be able to fulfill such a large goal.
• Korra for the first three seasons had been undergoing clear character development, but the trauma at the end of Season 3 was severe enough that she's gone in reverse; while she once defined herself only as the Avatar, she seems like she is now running away from being the Avatar, or at least trying to discover who she would be if she weren't.
• Korra's response to the owner of underground ring about what happened to the Avatar: "I wouldn't know." Well, Korra doesn't know. What did happen to her? Where's the Korra that arrived fresh off the boat in Republic City and stopped a robbery? That became the first Avatar of the new age? That restored the Air Nation? Easy. Every enemy she faced broke down a part of her confidence. Amon: her confidence in her ability. Unalaq: her confidence in her choices. Zaheer: her confidence in her purpose. All traits that were tied closely to her perceived identity as the Avatar, which was the core of her development for, well, 12 years of her life. Who is she? In parallel to Aang's entire arc, his had him finding his strength, but Korra's? Korra's isn't finding her strength. It's finding herself.
• Why does Korra decide to go to the Earth Kingdom? Well, as stated above, Korra is trying to find herself. She would easily be recognized in both Water Tribes, Republic City, and the new Air Nation (the last one especially, because she considers Tenzin's family her family). As of right now, the Earth Kingdom is still in disarray and it's the biggest nation in the world. Korra can go anywhere in the nation without being recognized.
• Why is Mako the one stuck babysitting Prince Wu? Well, he helped take down Amon and the Equalists, fought in the spirit world against Unalaq, and single-handedly defeated Ming-Hua, one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Not to mention, Mako is extremely loyal, trustworthy, and disciplined. He's one of the best bodyguards a future monarch could ask for. But it goes further than that. His association with Korra, who is recognized as the world's savior, would greatly help Wu establish his rule ("I have allies in the Avatar's inner circle."). Mako has close ties to the new Air Nation, is a personal friend of the CEO of Future Industries, and his brother is in Kuvira's army protecting the Earth Kingdom countryside from bandits. Heck, Mako himself ought to be pretty famous by now for all his world-saving deeds. Those must be the "diplomatic reasons" Lin mentions Raiko having for making Mako go to Ba Sing Se.
• Why do Opal and Kai feel ineffective in the first episode, after Book 3 could have been titled "Why airbenders are scary powerful"? Prior to this season, Airbending was incredibly obscure, and there was exactly one person alive who knew how to fight another airbender. With 3 years of airbenders working across the globe, the style has become more mainstream and other benders are starting to learn and develop counters, just like they would have the other three styles.
• Why was that bandit who stole the food supplies from Kai and Opal so skilled at sliding down and swinging off ziplines in the air? This post shows that the bandit was most likely one of Kuvira's fellow Zaofu metalbenders, having both been previously seen back in "The Metal Clan." It also strengthens the possibility that Kuvira sent him and other bandits to steal any food for the village, so that they would then have no other choice but to join her.
• Why is Kai and Jinora's long-distance relationship going so swimmingly? Might have something to do with Jinora's astral projection. She can talk to him whenever she needs to without any obstructions!
• When it becomes clear that Korra never was at Air Temple Island in the six months she claimed she was, Tonraq has a rather subdued reaction. Dull Surprise, or did he always have suspicions since she left Naga behind?
• Varrick working with Kuvira makes an alarming amount of sense after seeing her methods. Varrick's company absorbed Future Industries when it was at its weakest and Asami was desperate after he orchestrated her near-bankruptcy. Kuvira uses the threat of the bandits to coerce states into joining her coalition. And considering the above comment about her possibly ordering the theft of those supplies...someone's been getting advice on strategy.
• Kuvira not including the Air Temples in her plans makes sense given her Pragmatic Villainy. They are the only other force acting to bring stability to the Earth Nation and unlike Kuvira are doing this essentially out of altruism. Antagonizing a group of volunteers that have greater moral motivations would be unwise to say the least. Plus, she uses a lot of rhetoric in advancing her cause. Her claim to Republic City is that it was historical Earth Kingdom territory, which is a true, if outdated sentiment. However, the Air Temples were never considered Earth Kingdom territory.
• This episode continues to hint that Asami is in love with Korra. Note how Asami says that she can't wait to see Korra again after all these years. While she is happy to see Mako again is looking forward to catching up with Bolin, it's Korra's return that she is looking forward to the most. Her tone softens and she looks off to the side and smiles at the thought. And later when Tonraq says that Korra had left the Southern Water Tribe six months ago, look at Asami's expression, she looks down right heart broken. It helps to show how much Asami loves Korra that her arrival filled her with joy and her disappearance seems to break her heart.
  • In contrast Mako seems far less interested in Korra's return than Asami does, when he speaks of her return he says it no differently then when he talks about Bolin coming in for the coronation. And later when he learns that Korra had left the Southern Water Tribe six months ago, his expression is less heartbroken and more confused in contrast with Asami. This helps show that while Mako is cares for Korra and is concerned for her well being, he doesn't really seem to have any romantic feelings for Korra anymore.

Korra Alone

• Korra's Important Haircut has a lot of symbolic meaning, but it also has a practical side: Korra's default fashion style is pro-athlete, and any female athlete (especially a martial artist) knows that long, loose hair is a liability. Therefore it needs to be kept up or kept short. Korra's previous hairstyle with the two ponytails in front, not just the blue ties, give away that she is from the Water Tribe. They might even give away that she's Southern Water Tribe, which would make it a lot easier to recognize her. (This is assuming that those two tails were an homage to Katara's original hairstyle.) For her cover, she had the option of changing the style to wearing one tail or braid or bun instead of three, or cutting her hair short. Maybe she has an aversion to showing off her ears?
• Going further, Korra's character design up till Season Four was that of a Boisterous Bruiser with a body to match (Heroic Build, large breasts, Amazonian Beauty). After the Time Skip, Korra is noticeably more slender - while still in decent shape with a swimmer's build, it's pretty obvious she lost the mass which defined the physical strength she was obviously proud of (like the blue 'sleeves' on her arms, which cover up how much smaller they actually are). This is partially due to the long recovery time after the battle with the Red Lotus in the previous season, but there is another reason — muscle atrophy is a side effect of mercury poisoning.
• Korra's clothes change to Earth Kingdom colors and style. This implies the earth chakra, which deals with fear and survival. Those are the basic necessities Korra deal with during the episodes where she wears those clothes. It is also the first chakra — Korra has been reduced to the very basics of survival and struggles to regain her former standing.
• Why would Toph stay in the swamp for a longer amount of time, despite being stated, that she was Walking the Earth. Because this swamp has a particular trait, explained way back in season 2 of the original series: It shows you visions — including auditory ones — of people you've lost, people you've loved. She wants to hear the voices of her old friends again!
• Why does Korra write to Asami of all people, why not to Mako or Bolin. Well, Mako is her ex-boyfriend and while they did have feelings for each other, Korra never fully trusted Mako after he "betrayed" by siding with the President over her Tribe. While Bolin is someone who would listen to her, he is not the most mature person in the world and learning that one of his best friends is suffering like this could unintentionally hurt him and that is something Korra would never want to do. Asami, however, has always been there for Korra. She was willing to illegally smuggle weapons to the Southern Water Tribe to help in their war against the North. She turned against her own father to save Korra and her friends, when she asked for help to go attack the South and stop Vaatu Asami was the first to volunteer to help. And finally, calling back to the ending of the last season, Asami was the one who took care of Korra and told her that she was there for her should she need to talk. Given that Korra states in her letter that she has tried multiple times to write Asami a letter it is likely that during the three years away, Korra figured out that Asami was in love with her and has started to realize herself that she is in love with Asami. The idea that Korra had a Love Epiphany regarding her feelings for Asami is further supported by Korra's voice actress Janet Varney who stated she believes Korra realized she missed Asami the most.
  • Also, listen to the contents of the letters we get to hear from Mako, Bolin, and Asami. Mako still seems awkward, and he starts off describing the weather. Bolin's is dramatic and full of Purple Prose, since he's just excited to have a pen pal. Asami's is the only one that seems to flow naturally, and she's the only one (from what we hear) to ask how Korra is doing, hinting that she and Korra have a deeper connection than the others.
• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang first saw Toph in a vision in the swamps. A century later, and Korra finds Toph living in the exact same swamp Aang saw her vision. Given that in the relevant AtlA-episode it was mentioned that as the Avatar, Aang might be picking up a vision of the future instead, this might be partially why he got that particular vision; it wasn't just informing him of his meeting Toph, but of his successor meeting her 70 years later.
• Also worth noting: the spirits (via the tornado) led Aang to the swamp and to Toph, and 70 years later, did the same for Korra.

The Coronation

• During the ceremony, Wu gives Kuvira the Kyoshi Medal of Freedom as thanks to her services. Kuvira establishes her dictatorship by creating the Earth Empire and then crushes the medal, previously mentioned as a symbol of freedom. Said medal is named for Avatar Kyoshi, who stopped a tyrannical warlord who was trying to conquer the Earth Kingdom during her stint as the Avatar. Seems fitting that it's broken by Kuvira, who is up to this point successfully conquering the Earth Kingdom.
  • It's also symbolic in the fact that the medal is named for an Avatar. By crushing the medal, she's signifying that she will crush anyone who stands in her way, even the Avatar.
• Bolin:
  • When Bolin expresses reservations about Kuvira's aggressive behaviour during the coronation, she makes big efforts to convince him to stick with her anyway, going as far as explicitly lying to him (she tells him the last thing she wants is conflict when the very next scene she hints to Suyin she intends to attack Zaofu). Those efforts from her part take all their meaning when you remember Bolin currently is the world's only Lavabender; she has a Person of Mass Destruction on her side and she doesn't want to lose his support.
  • She would want to keep Bolin around in order to make the Republic City takeover go more smoothly. Bolin is already well known as a Pro-Bender, Mover Star and presumably as a friend of the Avatar. A large amount of the city would listen to him if he were to promote joining Kuvira over remaining independent. Especially considering the damage Unalaq inflicted on the city could have been mitigated if they'd listen to the Nuktuk Movers sooner.
• Note the way Kuvira addresses Bolin by name several times through her speech to him, a Truth in Television technique for gaining somebody's trust.
• Why is Toph able to dodge Korra's airbending and waterbending. She was best friends with Aang (airbending master) and Katara (waterbending master) and fought alongside them. She also for some time, took up residence with swampbenders. Toph now knows how both bending types work.
• It seems a bit strange that Tonraq, Tenzin, Suyin, Eska and Densa, and Izumi (Zuko's daughter and current Fire Lord) would just sit there and let Kuvira usurp Wu rather than arrest her. Except doing so could be counted as an official declaration of war, which could potentially lead to another 100 year war, one that would involve all four nations.
• The revelation that Korra still has some of the poison in her body gives a much more straight-forward explanation as to why she can't enter the Avatar state or contact Raava. Given how harmful even a small amount of mercury is to the human body, it's likely that Korra can't use her Spirit powers because Raava is currently using those powers to keep Korra alive.

The Calling

• Toph saying she likes Meelo is really brilliant when you compare the two, especially Meelo's personality in Book 4: Both have strict, in-your-face style of training new people. They have poor manners, to the point that Meelo weaponizes his farts. And, they can be blunt and abrasive, even just plain rude to their family and friends.
• The Airbabies have shown how they parallel Tenzin (Jinora), Kya (Ikki), and Bumi (Meelo). Jinora is the most mature, spiritual one who's too caught up in her duties to give proper attention to her siblings, especially Ikki. Ikki is the exasperated middle child, forced to deal with one sibling who she (Ikki) thinks is being an Insufferable Genius, while the other one is just being bratty and unreasonable. Meelo is the most immature and rash one who tries (and fails) to do dangerous stunts in order to look impressive, without thinking about the consequences.
• When Jinora meditates and tries to find Korra by recognizing her spiritual energy, it doesn't work, and they end up getting her probable location from two Earth Empire soldiers. Why did Jinora fail? Because ever since Venom of the Red Lotus, Korra and Raava have been disconnected, which likely altered Korra's spirit so it was unrecognizable to Jinora.
• Toph getting Korra to metalbend the poison out of her body is a brilliant way to give Korra some spiritual growth. All her life she has, unconsciously, relied on others. Whether she was dealing with dangerous enemies or just struggling to accept her faults and fears, someone was always there to help with the "heavy-lifting": Tenzin, Mako, Jinora... Not this time. Toph offers advice and insight on her problem, but not much else; Korra has to do the real work alone.
• At the first glance, Toph's words - "Sounds like you're carrying around your former enemies" - seem to be related to Korra's visions of Amon, Unalaq, Vaatu and Red Lotus. What isn't so obvious at first is that Toph just stated the exact reason for the Avatar Spirit Projection ("Second Korra") to appear - while under the effects of mercury, Korra had to fight entering the Avatar State, making the very essence of Avatar-ness her enemy!
• Toph truly comes full circle in her interactions with Korra in comparison to Aang, not just in callbacks to The Last Airbender but in her teaching methods as well. As previously mentioned on this page, Toph makes Korra do the real work. This is exactly how she taught Aang to earthbend. The bigger problems that really prevented Aang and Korra from fulfilling their Avatar duties were mental and emotional. Aang could not earthbend because he couldn't get into the mindset of an earthbender, despite fulfilling the required physical components. Korra is a fully realized Avatar capable of bending all four elements but she cannot perform her role because of her fears and anxieties. The metal poison factors into Korra's condition, but she physically resists removing the poison because of her attachment to the past. Toph knows that Aang and Korra have "the right stuff" physically, but that she can't adjust their mental state. So what does Toph do? She steps back. She shows the two Avatars what needs to be done and makes them figure it out for themselves. Then, she leans in and gives them one final push. This reflects Toph's philosophy from The Last Airbender of waiting and listening. It also reflects her lesson to Aang of delivering weak multiple blows and a strong finishing blow.
• Toph draws many parallels to Bumi (the original one); both are Master Earthbenders without peer in their time, are old and brash, and have gone a long time since they first met the Avatar (although Toph only technically met Korra by knowing her past incarnation). Both also use trickster mentor methods to train their pupil and, through their training, gave the Avatar insight into something they have not considered before. Toph even managed to echo Bumi's earthbending style by being almost completely immobile while still kicking Korra's ass (Bumi was able to escape from his metal prison by bending with just his face).
• Toph lives in a muddy swamp but her hair is pure white, her clothes perfectly clean. Greatest Earthbender in all of existence, remember?
  • She can also just bend any dirt or mud off of her if she chooses, in lieu of a bath.

Enemy at the Gates

• In a brief shot where we see the Beifong family, we see that Huan has a new hairstyle where he has a green streak in his hair. Varrick's been in Zaofu for a while, he most likely brought and sold some Varri-dye while he was there.
• Hiroshi has aged a surprising amount in the less-than four years he has been in prison, but this is understandable if one assumes he is as sorry for his actions as he seems to be. Constant stress can cause one to seem to age more rapidly, and if he has been battling intense guilt and self-hatred all this time, then that may account for his appearance.
• Baatar Jr. is patterning after his mother. Child of highly successful parent who grew up in an environment where they were encouraged to pursue their own interests. Initially felt pressured to live up to parental legacy and follow in their footsteps, but ended up rebelling in the opposite direction. Eventually fell in with the wrong crowd and betrayed their family through that affiliation, harming the well-being of the entire family and leaving them estranged. The one difference is that Su was generally aligned with lawlessness and wandering adrift, while Baatar is just the opposite — authority and the establishment of order.
• The Kuvira/Korra parallels are coming along steadily. Both were bending prodigies, taken in and trained by masters from childhood. Both were given the task — one way or another — to end violence and preserve order, and both Jumped at the Call. Both have — or had — a Hot-Blooded streak and are unafraid to get their hands dirty to accomplish what they think is right. Wiping the floor with a group of unsuspecting criminals during her debut: Korra with the Triple Threats, or Kuvira with the Earth Kingdom bandits? Threatening a defenseless old man with death unless he gives in to her demands: Korra with Judge Hotah, or Kuvira with the Governor of Yai? Holding somebody in a Neck Lift because they won't give her what she wants: Korra with the Equalist protester, or Kuvira with Varrick?
• Conscience:
  • Varrick's sudden bout of conscience ties in very well with his characterization. As a former Corrupt Corporate Executive and the fact he only thinks about himself (with the possible exceptions of Bolin and Zhu Li), he would care about being on the train to new technologies in order to profit off of them. A new technology to create unlimited energy? Loads of money! A superweapon? Very little actual money out of it, loss of possible future resources to use, and possible injury to himself.
  • Incidentally, the fact that he mistakes Bolin's voice for the voice of his conscience could be more than just a throwaway gag. Varrick liked Bolin from the very start, and with the two of them in Kuvira's army, it's safe to assume that they've been working together for quite some time. Given Bolin's comments, it seems that he joined Kuvira specifically to help make the Earth Kingdom a better place. Small wonder that Varrick is associating his voice with "doing the right thing".
• The spirit vines were made from Vaatu's energy, so naturally, when one of them overloads, it does so with the color and sound of one of his energy blasts.
• Look at the positions of Kuvira, Baatar Jr., and Bolin when the latter was getting promoted. Kuvira is in the light, but the Baatar Jr. and Bolin are in the dark.
• In addition to reintroducing Hiroshi to the viewer, who will become important in the series finally, the episode also continues to develop the relationship between Korra and Asami. After speaking to her father and trying to process her feelings for him out where does Asami go to think? Her office at Future Industries, the Sato mansion, both of which are places she may go to think and also have a strong ties to her father. But instead Asami goes to Avatar Korra Park where Korra's statue is located. It is more then likely that Asami goes to the park to be closer to Korra which implies that Asami is love with Korra thus setting up her future relationship with her at the end of the series.
• The flashbacks show a key warning sign from Kuvira from the start: when she talks to Su, she mentions Zaofu serving as a beacon of modern progress, and suggests that they share their progress with the rest of the Earth kingdom: the exact philosiphy used by Sozin to justify the Fire Nation's war.

Battle of Zaofu

• Varrick's plan was heavily reliant on knowing what everyone else would do.
  • First he makes it so that the guard that should have been assisting him chickens out and gets Bolin to help instead.
  • Next he works with Baatar Jr while at the same time sabotaging it under the ramblings of a crazy scientist.
  • Finally, he reveals that when the job is done, he installed a timer to detonate the bomb, and for redundancy installed a dead man's switch to remotely detonate if necessary.
• Huan's "You're crushing my individuality!" quote when he is arrested by Baatar Jr. actually has a deeper meaning. It represents how Kuvira will eventually crush everyone's individuality, and make everyone conform to her standards, like many dictators throughout history.
• Symbolism and mysterious trauma/spiritual business aside, Korra seeing her Enemy Without in Kuvira makes a deal of meta sense as well. Up to that point in the battle, the audience has always seen Kuvira either calm and in control or murderous and in control. Hurled across the field by Avatar State airbending, she was at her most vulnerable, yet we didn't get to see her facial expression. This helps keep Kuvira, her innermost motivations and personality, more of a mystery.
• Korra being frightened by the sight of her dark self in Kuvira emphasizes the true antagonist of this season: Her post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Why did Kuvira want to fight Korra one-on-one, when Suyin's assassination attempt already gave her a pretext to take Zaofu? Even going so far as to say that she could go into the Avatar State if she wanted? It wasn't just theatrics. In the finale, during the explanation of Kuvira's Freudian Excuse, one of the reasons she gave for becoming the Great Uniter was "You [Korra] were gone!" The Avatar, the one person that the whole world turned to whenever it was thrown into chaos, had been knocked out of commission at the same time the Earth Kingdom was thrown into anarchy. Unlike, Suyin's simple refusal to lead the Earth Kingdom out of chaos, though, Kuvira knew that Korra had been poisoned, so she offered the Avatar a chance to be the hero that the Earth Kingdom/Empire needed. She probably knew that she couldn't actually beat a fully-realized Avatar in single combat, so the fact that she did told her that Korra was still incapable of protecting her people, and that her own course was still necessary.

Reunion

• Mako/Asami/Korra:
  • While it won't settle anything, from a writing and shipping perspective the episode did brilliantly to support Korra's relationship with both Asami and Mako without blatantly favoring either. Korra doesn't intentionally meet and hug Asami first, it was just how it worked out as Mako was getting the table for them. She hugs them both an equal number of times, both Mako and Asami have problems with Korra leaving for three years, and Korra gives both a reaction at different points that could be construed easily as "shippy." Its even led to increased support among fans for the so-called "Makorrasami."
  • In the light of the finale, the way Korra reacts to their arguments neatly sums up their relationships. Korra accidentally causes the argument with Asami by being concerned with Asami's reconciliation with her father and is quick to apologize for it. Mako and Korra argue over how trustworthy Korra's intuition is over saving Wu and both are quick to blame each other over it. It reminds the audience that Korra and Mako broke up because of how quickly they got into arguments with each other while foreshadowing how Korra and Asami get together: Korra apologizes to Asami for being gone for 3 years and comforts Asami over her father's death.
  • Throughout the rescue we see that Korra and Asami are working in perfect sync without so much as a word, while Mako is a step behind the two. While chasing down Wu's kidnappers both girls ignore Mako while not even questioning what the other has planned. When they find the truck Asami pulls the car close enough to the edge of the road so Korra can jump on top of said truck. When Team Avatar get on the train that Korra says is holding Wu, Mako doubts her abilities and voices his concerns, being rather critical of Korra, while Asami shows no sign of doubting and just continues to search the train while Mako and Korra begin to argue with one another. This is a problem Mako and Korra had in the past and continues to show why they broke up, while simultaneously showing how well Korra and Asami work together.
  • Note how Korra hugs Asami to how she hugs Mako. With Asami the hug is very intimate with the Korra firmly embracing Asami, the same goes for her. In contrast she gently hugs Mako while keeping him at slight distance. Again this is a subtle clue to Korra & Asami's growing relationship while also showing that Mako is now just a close friend to Korra.
• Kuvira, Baatar Jr., and their army are harvesting spirit vines from, and in doing so, are in the process of destroying the Swamp, which presently is home to the most powerful earthbender in existence, as well as the original metalbender, who is presently connected to everything that happens in the Swamp. In short, Kuvira and her army are in for a butt-kicking.
• Korra stopping Wu from entering the group hug with a nonviolent Offhand Backhand is a funny gag in its own right, but can also be indicative of her improved ability at sensing people.
• Korra is much more blunt in her denial of Prince Wu's come-ons than Asami. This could just be seen as differences in their personality, but also says some things about their relative social positions. Asami is nouveau riche sure, but both her father and her former business partner are convicted criminals, and Wu is the heir presumptive of the entire Earth Kingdom. Asami might not be able to afford blowing off such a well positioned prospective customer so openly. Korra, on the other hand, in addition to being the Avatar (and thus not accountable to taking guff from just about anybody if she feels like it), she is also of roughly the same social standing as Wu, with her father being chief of the Southern Water Tribe, and has no need to play nice in the current political climate.
• When Bolin, Varrick and the escaped prisoners are trying to pass the border, Bolin mention they're from camp 14. Camp 14 is named after the infamous North Korean Kaechon internment camp where prisoners are judged "unredeemable" by the government. They are sentenced to hard labour, torture, starvation and other horrors 'til death, with no possible release. Ever. May count as Fridge Horror when you realize what Kuvira's "hard truths" are really about...
• The scene where Asami yells at Korra, the first and only time she does so, was seen by many fans as forced and didn't fit the character. However, as one fan pointed out, Asami is has her own issues which are more then likely being further complicated by her romantic feelings for Korra.

Remembrances

• While it may be accused of many things, the episode proves to be an effective way of voicing the canon perspectives of the writers on various things that were often misunderstood by viewers or unclear to them in earlier seasons of the show, in particular why Mako acted the way he did. In this way it helps give him much-needed character development. And much like Ember Island Players in the previous series, the episode allows them to poke fun at both themselves and fans.
• Asami brought Korra a cup of tea because she "thought [Korra] might be cold". This despite the fact that Korra is an airbender, a firebender and a native of the South Pole. Whether it was platonic or romantic, it's pretty clear that the tea was simply pretext to come over and talk.
• Korra's narration of her own flashback segment to Asami is less As You Know than it might seem at first glance. When Korra confronted Amon for the last time, Asami was at the Equalist airbase, taking down her father. During Harmonic Convergence, she was taking care of Tonraq. This may well be one of the first times Korra has talked about the fights and associated traumas with Asami.
• The "Terror Square's" treatment of Unalaq. He's more than just an uninteresting, unintelligent nuisance. Amon resents him for being a tyrannical bender, Vaatu is just using him like the tool he is, and Zaheer hates him for what he sees as a betrayal of the Red Lotus. Why shouldn't they exclude him from their conference call?
• Varrick's very amusing segment where he tells the story of Bolin (which is basically the story of Korra and her enemies in place of Bolin) is not only hilarious, but it also comes off as a Take That! to Nickelodeon who would thrive on stories like this, especially with a male lead.
• During Varrick's "retelling" why was Unalaq the "uncool one" of Korra's past villains and had the actor from the Nuktuk movers, instead of the real Unalaq? It's a deliberate shout out or call back to how many views thought of Unalaq as the most stereotyped villain that Korra had to face, making him the least favorite. Which adds even more brilliance as to why the actor from the Nuktuk movers is there—because he was a stereotypical villain in the movers.
• There's also a pretty good In-Universe reason why Varrick constantly makes Unalaq look like crap in his mover, Unalaq is the only bad guy the Krew have faced that Varrick has a grudge against. After all Unalaq starting the Civil War in the first place caused Varricks businesses to be disrupted which ultimately lead to him going to prison after trying to cause an international incident. Add to the fact that the whole reason he made the original propaganda movers was to discredit Unalaq then it's pretty easy to see that Varrick hates the guy and has no problem speaking bad about him even after he died.
• Bolin points out that Varrick never explained what happened to Zombie Amon. Well, none of the good guys were there when the real Amon died, so for all they know, he might still be out there.
  • But suppose someone DID find out that Amon is dead. If that's the case, then making him a zombie is Varrick's excuse at explaining how he can be part of events that occured after he died.

Beyond The Wilds

• Look at◊ the resemblance◊ between Opal and Suyin's poses. Like mother, like daughter, eh?
• If you notice, Korra's energybending of the pod has both the golden glow of her spirit healing waterbending technique and the exact same movements (touching the object while in the Avatar State) as her opening the spirit portals. It truly goes full circle, doesn't it?
• Raava explains that Korra is at her most powerful in the Spirit World, where "all spiritual energy is". In other words, she could pretty much have Reality Warper powers there, since everything is spiritual energy in the Spirit World. Truly goes to show that all bending is connected indeed.
• It's probably a bit more literal than Toph and Tenzin had intended with their advice, but Korra does indeed learn from her past enemy in order to better prepare herself for her future conflicts.
• The memory of Zaheer blocking Korra makes sense when compared to other antagonists she has faced. Amon and Unalaq both died as a direct result of their own actions which would give Korra some sense of closure as she could see that they paid a karmic debt. Zaheer is still alive which means Korra wouldn't get that kind of closure with him.
  • On top of that, why Zaheer's attempt on her life is the one blocking her connection rather than Amon or Vaatu's is because when placed in chronological order, each subsequent attempt takes away what worked for the previous issue:
    • Amon's taking away of bending can be solved by entering the Avatar State and connecting with the past lives. Vaatu puts a stop to that by destroying the connection to the past lives and killing Raava.
    • The Avatar spirit in turn can be brought back if Raava could be restored and fused during Harmonic Convergence. Zaheer killing Korra in the Avatar State would kill both human and spirit at the same time, ending the Avatar cycle for good. This also brings up another point as to why Zaheer's attempt would be the most traumatic. If he had succeeded, there is no way to fix or salvage the situation unlike with the previous two.
• Zaheer's survival:
  • Zaheer still being alive could be considered karmic. The other villains were also Well Intentioned Extremists but they let their vices rule them while in pursuit of their goals. Amon was bigoted, Unalaq was power hungry, and Kuvira is a Control Freak, with all three being Hypocrites to boot. Zaheer on the other hand was only a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely wanted to give freedom to all people and never went back on that belief. He still committed horrendous crimes but this kind of sincere dedication likely led the universe to think that losing his friends was punishment enough.
  • Alternatively, Zaheer's survival could just as easily be thought of as A Fate Worse Than Death, given his Anti-Villain / Well-Intentioned Extremist status. All of his friends are dead and they failed in their primary mission (ending the Avatar cycle). Not only that, but his one great achievement for his cause and ideology, Killing the Earth Queen, has backfired completely and utterly with an even worse tyrant now controlling the Earth Kingdom, meaning that his friends and the love of his life all died for nothing. And even the one fringe benefit he gained from all this (the power of Flight), he can't even use now.
• Zaheer's Tailor-Made Prison. Everything about it meant to specifically ensure he can't escape like he did last time, by overpowering the guards and flying away. Everything is behind multiple redundant layers of metal- or earth-bending, which Zaheer can't use by himself. The only way out is up, but through an elevator with no controls too heavy for airbending to lift. There are no keys for him to steal, to the point that his chains appear to be permanently fixed to his body. The only sources of light are glowing crystals, which can't be put out using airbending. Even his new look reflects this: before becoming an airbender Zaheer was a master of conventional combat, so the guards are probably reluctant to let him near a razor.
• Season 4 has forgiveness as a major theme. Asami makes an effort to forgive Hiroshi, Mako forgave Bolin, but when Korra went to see Zaheer, she makes no attempt to forgive him. Instead, Zaheer helped Korra realize she had to forgive someone else. Who? Herself.
• Whatever their ulterior motives were, Amon and Unalaq did achieve their goals. There's a nonbender president and less discrimination, and people have learned to live with the spirits. Zaheer, on the other hand, fell to Pyrrhic Victory when his actions only lead to more oppression, hence why he's still alive and has to live with the guilt while the other two died not knowing they succeeded. Given that Kuvira's accomplished her goal of a united Earth Kingdom, one wonders if the pattern will continue.
• Back in Book Three, Kuvira, as a Zaofu guard, helped Korra against Zaheer. Now, Zaheer helps Korra against Kuvira. Truly, we have come full circle.
• Wu's question if Kuvira has any allergies at first may seem like just a little gag at Wu's silly characteristics. However, if you remember that during the time period this is based off of, biological weapons were being tested a lot. If they could harness allergens into a weapon, they could destroy Kuvira's army. So Wu's line is actually pretty genius.
• When Korra confronts Zaheer, she only brings Mako along with her. Since Asami is busy preparing the defenses in Republic City, it gives an opportunity to show how their relationship has improved since the break up:
  • In Remembrances, Mako explains that even after the break up, Korra is still a positive influence on him and this is when he realizes that he doesn't give the opportunity to allow himself trust Korra even though she knows what she is doing so when he offers to join Korra in confronting Zaheer, she makes a firm decline. He accepts it without arguing and did not attempt to sneak in and follow her, a huge contrast to him arguing with Korra in the past since he knows this is her battle alone. After she returns, Mako is finally able to be at peace with what he did during the breakup and thus, his platonic relationship with Korra becomes a lot stronger than his past romance with her.
  • In Korra's side, she has stated multiple times the reason she didn't reveal her fears to Mako or Bolin is because she felt the brothers would not understand. When Korra told Mako to stay behind when she faces Zaheer with him silently agreeing, she realizes that Mako indeed understands her situation and decision. Thus, this allows Korra to finally open up to Mako on how afraid she was during the three years of recovery, the only other person she told willingly without any reason at the time was her eventual girlfriend Asami, showing how much she values Mako as a close friend.
• At the end of Book Three, Jinora saved Korra's life from the Big Bad of that season. Three years later, Korra finally overcomes her fears and returns the favor by saving Jinora's life, along with the lives of other airbenders, and Republic City Citizens that were in danger because of the actions of Book Four's Big Bad.

Operation Beifong

• Baatar Jr, the man who was completely gung-ho about the idea of taking his hometown by force, panics at the sight of Opal in the town about to be obliterated by the spirit cannon. This change of attitude makes a great deal of sense. During their confrontations, Baatar treats Opal far more kindly than his parents and brothers, and from what we've seen of him, part of what drove him to Kuvira's side seems to have been a constant sense of being overshadowed by the rest of his family. With his mother the matriarch of Zaofu, his father a highly accomplished architect and his brothers superb metalbenders with additional talents, it seems logical for him to have a special sort of kinship with his (until recently) nonbender little sister.
• Suyin bending that metal plate into armor seems a bit strange considering that she's up against a metalbender, but previously that scrap was able to block Kuvira's metal shards. So, yes, having armor runs the risk of it being used against her (shown near the end of their fight), but it also provided a decent defense against Kuvira's attacks. There's also the fact that, unlike Varrick, Suyin herself is a metalbender. It's likely easier to control metal on your own body than metal on someone else's.
• Kuvira reacts to Zhu Li's treachery with cold outrage and extremely harsh retribution, just as she did when Bolin, Varrick and Zhu Li deserted. Back in Book Three, Suyin reacted with uncharacteristic fury and aggression when it became apparent that a Zaofu citizen had aided the Red Lotus, and she bears an extremely deep grudge against Kuvira. No matter how they've grown apart, it's apparent that the former pupil and mentor have at least one thing very much in common: their hatred of betrayal.
• The design of Baatar Jr.'s Wave-Motion Gun is actually has a real-world counterpart: the Schwerer Gustav railroad gun◊. Given that Kuvira's Earth Empire is the Avatar equivalent of Nazi Germany, the fact her super-weapon based off of a Nazi artillery piece makes a whole lot of sense. Plus, the real-world issues with such a massive weapon - particularly setting up the elaborate tracks to move it to the front - are a whole lot less applicable with a metalbending army.
• For all Zhu Li's cleverness, keeping the incriminating pin on her person seems like a pretty stupid thing to do. However, given the intense scrutiny the entire cannon's mechanism underwent — along with Baatar personally checking components - it seems very likely that the only opportunity Zhu Li had was somewhere right before the actual test. Leaving such an important part lying around where somebody might find it would be a very bad idea, and it seems unlikely that she'd have the opportunity to sneak away and stash it somewhere.
• Although it has been seen before, it is even more evident here compared to Kuvira and Toph how aerodynamic Suyin and Lin's earth/metalbending is. This can be explained by the fact that they probably learned many techniques growing up with Aang and Tenzin and adapting to be different from Toph (who has to be on the ground), but their fathers (especially Suyin's) may have also been descended from airbenders, which is why it makes so much sense that Opal is an airbender.
• Many fans were quick to discredit Toph's claim that she and Katara are less capable of fighting due to their ages, and refer to the elders (Uncle Iroh, King Bumi, Pakku) as a counter-argument. However, the latter group were a secret society dedicated to preserving the balance of the world during a time of war, whereas the last seventy years have been mostly peaceful, so it would make sense that the aging protagonists from the previous series would be less capable during these decades of peace. There's also the fact that Toph is around eighty-five years old at the moment, a good decade or two older than most of the White Lotus masters likely were at the time - long enough for old age to really start taking its toll. (Bumi, of course, is an exception).
• The long-awaited reveal of Lin's father might seem trollishly anti-climatic, but there is one thing to remember. Toph summarized the events of The Last Airbender's Grand Finale with only a couple of bland sentences. Following that logic, talking about Kanto as "a nice guy, but things didn't really work out," translates into one hell of a love story.

Kuvira's Gambit

• Korra using an old-fashioned staff-glider instead of having an airbending flight suit of her own during the commando mission is a tad disappointing (if only because it robs us of the sight of Korra in a skin-tight suit). However, it does make sense; she has had no experience with the suits - she hasn't been back long enough - and potentially wobbling and tumbling through the air is not desirable during a stealth mission of utmost importance.
• Nobody, in-universe or out, expected a 25 story tall robot to show up out of nowhere, but the Colossus is likely the reason why Zaofu's metal domes were dismantled — all that metal had to come from somewhere.
• The Colossus is a callback; the Fire Nation did much the same thing, making fully metal flying airships after getting hold of a single hot air balloon (the gap between foreshadowing and implementation was simply farther apart than here).
• Fridge Heartwarming, in a particularly dark and twisted sort of way: Kuvira's final words to her fiancé were "I love you, Baatar," not "I'm sorry" or something of the sort. Had it not been for Mako, Baatar's kidnappers would probably never even have seen the blast coming. It's quite possible she was trying to kill them before anybody realized what was happening, sparing Baatar's heart, if not his life.
• Kuvira really was between a rock and a hard place with Baatar taken hostage:
  • She, and the Earth Empire, had gone through quite some trouble to take the United Republic. There had been a grandiose speech on how the Republic "belonged" to the Empire. They had marched to Republic City's doorstep with an army and a practically unstoppable superweapon. The President himself surrendered without a fight. And now, with the Republic practically conquered, how in the world would Kuvira justify to her troops and Empire just packing up and leaving to spare a single soldier's life? From a military leader's point of view, firing on the factory was practically the only option.
  • Baatar admitted being close to the Avatar and co., which includes Varrick, Zhu Li, Tenzin, Suyin and Asami, all of them high-value targets. She wasn't lying when she said ''Republic City'' wasn't worth their union. And it isn't a quick and easy choice, you can she's actually mulling it over all through Baatar's speech. Thing is, as noted in Fridge Horror below, killing Korra would mean the next Avatar would be born in the Earth Empire under Kuvira's control, killing Varrick, Zhu Li and Asami would cripple Raiko's war scientists and prevent Varrick and Zhu Li from reverse-engineering spirit vine technology, and killing Tenzin and Suyin would leave the Air Nation leaderless and destroy Zaofu's former leadership. Strategy-wise, sacrificing Baatar meant winning the war, increasing the Earth Empire's power(through a reborn Tykebomb Avatar) and defanging all opposition, a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Chains of Commanding are heavy, even for the Great Uniter.
  • Kuvira talked herself into a corner. She's been bragging about beating Korra at Zaofu even though she was this close to being turned into a smear on the ground by Avatar State!Korra. Kuvira isn't stupid, she probably figured that something was hindering her. After all, if Korra really was weak like Kuvira said at the time, Amon would have debended or even killed Korra, never mind what Vaatu or Zaheer would do. The thing is, leaders who rely on a cult of personality like Kuvira have to back up their words with something. They can't afford to have hot air. Kuvira knows how easy it is to destroy a reputation - one bad fight when out of your prime and you get a Shocking Defeat Legacy that no one lets you forget and the loser has to fight tooth and nail to prove it was just a fluke. If Kuvira backed down - even if it was a case of Negative Jing the same way Aang convinced Omashu's resistance to retreat, regroup, and fight back from a position of strength - it would still damage Kuvira's credibility as a threat. And since she relies on a cult of personality, that kind of threat is much greater to her than it is to Korra. Korra doesn't command a massive military and isn't ruling territory that was only a few years ago in total anarchy. Kuvira does.
• Kuvira controls the Colossus mecha from the head, using metalbending to manipulate trackballs that control the machine's movements. The Colossus is a gigantic army-crushing force of destruction. So not only can it be seen as similar to Unavaatu, but it can also be seen as closer to the time when Aang and the ocean spirit fused together to form a giant water spirit, where Aang bent the water from within the creation to wipe out armies in a similar fashion.
• Raiko's surrender. At first, it seems like he's just being a Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey. However, he doesn't surrender until after Kuvira basically wiped out the United Republic Navy... the same way Vaatu wiped most of them out. Korra's not the only one who could be suffering flashbacks. But unlike Vaatu, Kuvira can at least be reasoned with. By surrendering, he has the opportunity to talk Kuvira into more favorable terms for Republic City and with an evacuation already under way he has the opportunity to avoid the camp issue and give Kuvira what she wants without any more loss of life. This also nicely explains why he's so adamant about weaponizing the vines: He remembers the kind of power that happened last time and doesn't want to be unprepared this time.
• If Vaatu's claim that he divided the spiritual and material realms is true, and if it is also true that the roots of the Tree of Time bind the two realms together, it would imply that the Banyan Grove Tree is the physical world counterpart of the Tree of Time and that that is the point where Vaatu separated the two realms. The two trees could very well be one. You may now contemplate the implied horror of Kuvira harvesting the vines until there is nothing left and what that could mean for the two realms.

Day of the Colossus

• As this post points out, Varrick used a ring instead of a betrothal necklace as per Water Tribe tradition. By proposing to Zhu Li using her traditions, Varrick was showing that he considered her an equal instead of just his subordinate.
• When trying to explain his feelings to Zhu Li, Varrick brings up the story of him having an ostrich-horse named Mrs Beaks when he was a kid. As this post shows, back in the first episode of Book 2, Varrick's first mover that he shows to Bolin is of an ostrich-horse. Could the first mover that Varrick ever filmed be of his beloved Mrs Beaks?
• Hiroshi's idea on how to take down the Colossus — act "like an infection" — calls back to his days as an Equalist, if you think about it. Like any revolutionary movement, the Equalists built their strength working from the bottom up until they had means to attempt a takeover. This way of thinking did not have to come to him out of nowhere.
• This episode gives a more pragmatic reason for Kuvira avoiding a fight with the Airbenders than simply maintaining a good image earlier in the season. They provide a vital role in slowing down the Colossus, which can do little more than try to swat at them or shoot at them with the cannon, which proves very ineffective. Not to mention the fact that her army would likely lose in a head on fight against them.
• At first, it would appear Meelo is just being playful and reckless when he was making faces on the Colossus windows. However, in The Last Stand, Colossus is shown strong enough to rip off its own cannon arm. What Meelo was really doing is trying to smash the Colossus head with its own hand. Meelo shows off his intellect once again.
• Given how Zhu Li always seems to know what Varrick is talking about when he tells her to "do the thing", maybe it's not that far-fetched that Zhu Li pictured their engagement involving fighting a killer machine.
• When Kuvira identified Future Industries Tower as the source of the EMP, why didn't she fire on it with the spirit cannon superweapon instead of marching towards it with the Colossus? The cannon's clearly a long-range weapon, and the Colossus's spirit energy engine is impervious to electromagnetic interference… except for the cannon itself, which has electronic components. Baatar Jr. pulled what looked like a silicon chip board from the cannon's system in "Operation Beifong," and such a delicate component would likely be vulnerable to an EMP. The spirit cannon probably needed time to come back online, so Kuvira decided to take a more direct approach to solving the problem, and by the time the weapon came back online again, she had other problems.

The Last Stand

• Korra Vs. Kuvira, Round 2:
  • There were a number of factors that went into play towards Korra giving Kuvira a much more difficult battle. For one, even though the control room had much more metal available for Kuvira to use, it was also a much more constricted space than the open field they previously fought on. Kuvira had less room to maneuver and dodge Korra's attacks. Also, in the field, Kuvira utilized a move that twisted the ground below Korra's feet, disrupting her combat and allowing Kuvira the opportunity to strike back. The second time around, Kuvira did not have this available to her. Add in a few extra weeks of practice, confidence and spiritual building, and Korra was able to gain the upper-hand in the fight this time.
  • Within the time shown with the two fighting, if you count the wrestling move Korra pulled on Kuvira, Korra landed five direct hits, while Kuvira could only land two. By the end of the battle, Kuvira was using a desperation move just to keep Korra away from her. After the explosion, Kuvira was knocked out, and Korra stayed on her feet. Kuvira used a cheap shot on Korra, and limped away clutching her chest, likely with broken bones. Korra was probably just bruised. Once Kuvira pulled the lever on the spirit cannon, Korra went into full Avatar mode, deflecting it away and creating a spirit portal.
  • Finally, within the spirit portal, Korra was able to bring Kuvira to her senses. Four points for Kuvira:
    • 1. Kuvira lost the physical confrontation between the two. When Kuvira woke up in Korra's arms in the Spirit Portal, she was fearful of Korra which indicated she understood Korra was the stronger one.
    • 2. She realized that Korra was not going to fall out of the Avatar state, unlike last time.
    • 3. Kuvira's silver tongue was rendered moot against Korra's strengthened diplomatic skills.
    • 4. If it wasn't for the explosion, Kuvira could had possibly fought until she died. Kuvira saw that Korra could turn her into a stain if she wanted, but Korra was not willing to kill her. Basically, Korra needed to wipe the floor with her in order for Kuvira to realize her mistakes.
• The Spirit Portal:
  • In Book 2, Vaatu claims he was the one who created the polar spirit portals, allowing spirits to run amok in the human world. He may embody disorder, but he apparently wasn't lying on that point. Raava and Vaatu are each powerful enough to tear holes between realities on their own. So it was Raava, bending the energy from Vaatu's spirit vines, who created the third spirit portal—a much more accessible portal than the ones at the poles, which will allow humans and spirits to interact much more easily, rather than simply giving spirits free run of the human world, while humans have to lead three-day expeditions to get to the spirit world.
  • Furthermore, the spirit portal is golden — Raava's color — but the initial, massive blast of spirit energy that opens it is Vaatu's purple. It mirrors their own relationship: one is born out of the opposite other.
  • The formation of the third portal also sheds new light on the Dark Avatar's intentions when he covered Republic City in spirit vines. The vines weren't meant to tear the city apart or even blow it up. They were meant to open a new portal. Unalaq sought the unification of the two worlds. Vaatu sought chaos and destruction. The new portal would have easily facilitated both.
• Compassion:
  • Korra realizes that she had to undergo suffering in order to learn compassion for others. Not only does this fit into Buddhist tradition to cement her spiritual growth, but also ties into the Dark Korra apparitions: The form it took was when she was at her most brutal and cruel, unable to feel compassion for a foe. Dark Korra always appeared when Korra felt alone and disconnected from others, or when she ignored the impulse for mercy — but was driven off when Korra was in trusted company, and never appeared when she was protecting others. Though Korra reconnected with Raava in "Beyond the Wilds" and occasionally used it for brief attack boosts, she only demonstrated her complete control over the Avatar State when she saved Kuvira by getting in the way of a spirit energy blast, in the ultimate display of empathy.
  • Korra getting together with Asami is part of this theme of compassion. Season 3 ended with a broken Korra receiving comfort by Asami. Season 4 ends with Korra comforting Asami over the death of her father, showing how far Korra has come. Their relationship starts only after Korra is finally able to return the favor.
• Regaining Confidence: This episode made it clear that Korra had regained her confidence that the previous Big Bads had damaged.
  • Her abilities: Korra was sure she could defeat Kuvira this time, and she was successful. Additionally, she was able to make use of the Avatar State to save someone's life. Not to mention, by stopping Kuvira's weapon from going too far out of control, she also saved the lives of everyone else who was still in Republic City at the very least.
  • Her decisions: Korra chose to save Kuvira's life and talk her into surrendering after they were in the Spirit World. It ended up being the right choice that allowed the conflict come to an end without any additional violence.
  • Her purpose: After defeating Kuvira and reconnecting with her friends, Korra knows she has a purpose and a future. It acts as a reconstruction of the Jumped at the Call trope because she is happily ready and willing to continue her duties as the Avatar. This is indicated by her promise to help Prince Wu reform the Earth Kingdom's government along with telling Tenzin she feels like she has only just begun and she wants to learn and do more.
• Korra managing to stop Kuvira's weapon from destroying what is left of Republic City which resulted in the creation of a new Spirit Portal more or less confirms Zaheer's belief that Korra's power is limitless.
• Bolin bringing a magma shuriken with him while he's infiltrating the mecha-giant is very good foresight on his part. There's no earth to bend or change into lava and he can't metalbend either. It's his only available weapon while he's inside, and one that's particularly difficult for another earthbender to turn against him. It's also a fun and possibly unintentional Call-Back to Ghazan's magma shuriken from his debut in Book 3, or even to the earth disks from the pro-bending matches in Book 1.
• The Avatar, with a Southern Tribe waterbender and a non-bending inventor heading for a light in the sky. A:TLA began with Katara and Sokka fishing as they found Aang and LOK ended with Korra and Asami walking into the spirit portal. And as it was in A:TLA, the final word of spoken dialogue was "perfect".
• Kuvira switches hands a few times while holding her stomach injury. When you remember how she fell against that railing on the way down, the fact one of Korra's attacks hit her in the stomach area, coupled with the fall off the spirit cannon, it becomes obvious that she's broken a hell of a lot of ribs, and probably not on just one side.
• Kuvira's Parental Abandonment issues add a new level to her interactions with others. Her extreme hostility to people when they do something that might imply anything other than absolute obedience comes from her seeing them as abandoning the Earth Nation. It also shows why she was willing to kill Baatar Jr. despite her own feelings for him. She didn't want to abandon the Earth Nation for her own whims.
• Kuvira's obsession with stabilizing the Earth Nation provides a rationale to the Fantastic Racism towards those with Fire Nation and Water Nation heritage if you consider the recent history of both. The Fire Nation was responsible for the Hundred Year War, which had a severe effect on the Earth Nation in the final year of the war, while the Water Tribe civil war would be perceived by an outsider such as Kuvira as being at the very least linked to return of the Avatar universe's equivalent of the devil, if not a direct cause of it. It would also explain why she mostly left the Air Nation alone considering that they are largely pacifistic, not to mention to few in number to be an overall threat to her plans.
• The significance of Varrick and Zhu Li's full names. Blackstone also references the Space Sword.
• Suyin continuing her harsh attitude towards a remorseful Kuvira is somewhat jarring, particularly when compared to her mildness towards Baatar Jr. However, think back to what happened in "Enemy at the Gates". Rather than expressing any anger or resentment towards Bolin, who was passionately advocating the Earth Empire's policy, Suyin directed her ire towards Kuvira herself, (rightly) accusing her of manipulating him. To Suyin, Baatar is little more than another victim of Kuvira's machinations. Additionally, keep in mind that Suyin did not witness anything of Kuvira's Heel Realization. Realistically, simply apologizing for all the suffering you caused - particularly towards a once-beloved parental figure whom you betrayed - is not enough to get you forgiven.
• One of the main points of Book 2's finale was how you can find something good in bad times or people, which back then was Korra admitting that as horrible as he was, Unalaq had a point and decided to leave the spirit portals open. This comes right back into play here, albeit in a separate way; the reality breaking explosion of the Colossus, the ultimate war machine and the result and bearer of many harsh actions, creates a new spirit portal and creates a new age for humans and spirits.
• Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding is heartwarming on its own, but it gets even better when you remember that by Book 4, Varrick is The Friend Nobody Likes for just about all of Republic City. While he was pardoned for political reasons, he was still not liked or fully trusted by the heroes, the government, and likely a good chunk of the population. Despite that, he still managed to get a good crowd over for the wedding, meaning he may have very well redeemed himself in the eyes of Republic City.
• Mako knew about Korra and Asami. His last line to Korra (promising he'll always have her back, no matter what) sounds a lot like either an old flame promising he won't get in the way of a new relationship or someone from a slightly homophobic society assuring their friend they don't care about that (though we don't actually know how the Avatarverse views homosexuality). Further, earlier in season 4 he was the first one to notice that something was up with Korra and Asami (he asks "What's up with you two?" when they're flirting in Reunion), and is clearly a little bewildered at what's going on. It seems like he figured it out on his own at some point, and this was his way of telling Korra "Go get 'er." He is, after all, a detective.
• Korra and Asami has a private one-to-one talk to the backdrop of purple mountains. If you know what the bisexual pride flag◊ looks like, then you will realize the shades of purple used are the same as the flag. What cements the bisexual theme even further is when Korra and Asami walks towards the portal, the avian-faced eel spirit makes a reappearance again, and guess what his colors are! The spirit's body waves above Korra and Asami like flag as if to make it more obvious, yet subtle way that they are in a relationship together!
• At the end of Book 4, Bolin becomes a marriage officiant. First, it actually makes sense given how he has an In Love with Love attitude and his past troubles in love would allow him to help others in his similar position. Second, throughout the series, Bolin (along with Mako) has a deep love for family bonds, and marriage officiants basically bring two families together. Third, it gives him what his former jobs gave him:
  • Pro-Bender: He only did this with his brother in order to make money as kids; people get married nearly all the time, so money won't be a problem.
  • Mover Star: Inspiration to others; marriage officiants, if indirectly, inspire others not to give up on love.
  • Soldier: Desire to help people and finding his calling; He helps bring two people together, and therefore, bringing together two families.
• It also makes sense that Bolin was chosen to speak at the wedding, if one pays attention during certain moments throughout the season they'll notice that as simple minded and childish as he comes off, he has a pretty good way with words. Listen to the voice over of his letter to Korra, or the speech about fixing his and Opal's relationship that got cut off by Lin, that's some pretty colorful language for someone who never went to school.
  • It's also worth noting that other than Zhu Li herself, Bolin is the closest friend Varrick has, even if it is a very weird Vitriolic Best Buds friendship.
• Back in Book Two, Iroh told Korra that: "in the spirit world, your emotions become your reality," in an attempt to show her that her tantrum was having an adverse effect on the environment around her. Now just imagine how incredible the place is going to be when it responds to Korra's emotions while she explores the place with Asami...
• There's some more link that could be made about Iroh's meeting with Korra. He tells her way back in Book 2: "Even in the material world, you will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see." ... "Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems, is to help someone else." Then look at Korra and Asami's relationship growing through Book 3 and 4. Both went through dark and harsh times, Asami lost about anything she had, her father imprisoned and a relationship that failed with Mako. Korra's identity as the Avatar was challenged and she went through a very dark moment after her battle with Zaheer. Korra was afraid and as Toph pointed out, she didn't want to recover, echoing Iroh's about seeking darkness. Yet, Asami was always there to help her, always there to support her and always kind to her, despite her own pain. In the very end, after forgiving her father, he sacrificed himself to protect her from Kuvira, leaving Asami with nothing. But not losing Korra, it kept her from being truly broken. Repeating Iroh's statements, Asami found in Korra her light in the dark.
• This finale is more or less the opposite of the previous finale. While Korra needed help defeating Zaheer in the previous season due to the poisoning she was suffering from, she was able to fight Kuvira personally and get her to surrendered on her own. Additionally, while other characters had to save her life, she was the one that saved everyone else's lives when she stopped Kuvira's spirit weapon from destroying everything and creating the new spirit portal. Most importantly, the previous finale ended with Korra crying and a bittersweet feeling since she was unsure if the Avatar still had a place in the world while in this finale Korra is hopeful for the future again and she plans on doing learning and doing more as the Avatar as well as finding happiness with Asami who constantly supported her.
• This finale more or less signified the ultimate failure and defeat of the Red Lotus. While their actions ruined Korra's life, she was eventually able to recover and move onward. Additionally, their actions are the reason why Kuvira was able to come to power, and Korra was the one who was able to eventually bring an end to Kuvira's reign. Despite the Red Lotus' attempts to begin a new age, destroy the Avatar, and stating the Avatar is not needed anymore, Korra along with her friends are the ones that clean up the mess they left behind. Additionally, Korra made it clear that the Avatar is here to stay, she still has a role to play, and Korra along with her friends will be ushering in the new era not the Red Lotus nor Kuvira.

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