History Recap / TheLegendOfKorraS2E8BeginningsPartTwo

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Wan eventually becomes the first Avatar and defeats Vaatu. It's justified because he's merged with Vaatu's opposite and then gained a further boost from the Harmonic Convergence.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Vaatu pins Wan down against the Spirit Portal to watch Harmonic Convergence happen first-hand. This gives Wan the opportunity to reach out and absorb the energy from the spirit portals, allowing him to permanently fuse with Raava, become the first Avatar, and give himself enough of a boost to seal Vaatu away.

!!Tropes:

* ApocalypseHow: The consequence for the world if Raava losses to Vaatu at Harmonic Convergence. Vaatu will ravage the world in ten thousand years of darkness and, at the very least, humans will likely be completely wiped out.
* TheAtoner: Wan spent the rest of his life trying to make up for freeing Vaatu and creating wide-scale conflict between humans (and the different human factions) and spirits.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: It is implied Vaatu's corruption is this to spirits. When the spirits, led by the Aye-Aye spirit, confront the firebenders destroying their forest, they are initially fine, if angry. Moments later all spirits become corrupted with Wan stepping in to try to stop the fighting. For a moment, the Aye-Aye spirit recovers from the corruption and asks what happened, implying he was not aware of his actions while a dark spirit.

** On the battlefield where Wan passes, there are some of the discs used by Earth Kingdom warriors during the previous series. The season two artbook says this is intended to be the same battlefield Zuko passed through in ''Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZukoAlone''.

* DawnOfAnEra: Wan ushered in the age of bending, in addition to putting an end to a world filled with dangerous spirits where humans had to live on cities sheltered by lion turtles.

* DoomedByCanon: While it was a given that Wan was eventually going to die given his status as the ''first Avatar'', it's still a gut punch that, given the state of how the world was even when Kyoshi and Roku were alive, that Wan was going to fail to maintain balance.

* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: As Raava explains to Wan if Vaatu defeats her at Harmonic Convergence the world will be plunged into ten thousand years of darkness. And while she will eventually regrow from within Vaatu the world, and humans especially, will likely not survive.

* HeavenAbove: The end of the episode sees the god-spirit Raava leave the mouth and fly into the sky upon the death of her first incarnation, Avatar Wan. Since she's going to the body of her next incarnation, you'd think she'd fly left or right into going straight up, but we gotta get across divinity somehow.
* HopeSpot: Wan and Raava temporarily fuse, allowing Wan to harness all four elements at once which seems to work in calming down the spirits and the humans. Unfortunately Wan can't handle Raava being inside of him for to long and ends up collapsing causing, the two factions to get back to killing each other.
* HopeSpringsEternal: The world was far from being in balance when Wan died tragically. However, somewhere among those who would be the Air Nation eventually, a child would be born who would continue what Wan started.
* InHarmonyWithNature: Unsurprisingly, the ancient Airbenders are shown to get along with spirits just fine, and plenty live on the lion turtle with them.
* KickTheDog: After Wan fails to stop his spirit friends from fighting his human friends and brother, Vaatu shows up just to tell him that the humans all died in the battle.
* LamarckWasRight: Now that the Lion Turtles have stopped giving people bending, it seems as if it has become genetic.

** For Wan, it was inspiring people not to accept things as they are, he's started a cycle of conflict between humans who decide to use violence to change things. Before, the turtles kept them protected and isolated.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Vaatu pins Wan down against the Spirit Portal to watch Harmonic Convergence happen first-hand. This gives Wan the opportunity to reach out and absorb the energy from the spirit portals, allowing him to permanently fuse with Raava, become the first Avatar, and give him enough of a boost to seal Vaatu away.
* PowersAsPrograms: Due to the way elemental powers works, Wan is incapable of wielding more than one at a time, instead having to swap them out with Raava's help as necessary. It's only when he fuses with her that he gains the power to wield all four at once, and he gets the Avatar State once their fusion is made permanent.
* TheReveal: The Portals were closed by Wan, in order to create balance in the world and make sure no one could reach Vaatu's jail and should have remained shut.
* SealedEvilInACan: Vaatu is sealed in a tree in the spirit realm, and in turn Wan sealed the portals at the poles to keep humans from ever freeing him.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Raava is not pleased with the thought of working with Wan after he inadvertently unleashed Vaatu into the world and it's only after she realizes that she will need help that she very reluctantly agrees. She eventually changes her mind after seeing how kind Wan is first hand and eventually the two truly become friends.
* ThemeMusicPowerup: The Avatar's leitmotif returns when Wan enters the Avatar State, and defeats Vaatu.
* TheTimeOfMyths: The story takes place in a long time, when humans are hiding of the spirits and live in the cities of the giant lion-turtles, and the wilderness is dominated by the spirits.

->''We are bonded forever.''

Korra, still submerged in the subterranean pool of spirit water, became the topic of discussion as one of the Fire Sages question if she should be pulled up, to which the Shaman responded that she is connecting with her deepest Avatar memories and that she must confront her own past. Korra returned her attention to Wan's story, where he was debating with Raava about humans' interference with spirit matters.

Later, Wan discovered some people with the ability to airbend, and was thrilled to see other humans for the first time in two years. Frightened, the airbenders fled and Wan tried to follow them until he approached a cliff which he could not traverse. He noticed one airbender running toward him, but was surprised when he saw the nomad floating towards a lion turtle that was floating in the air. Wan eventually made his way onto the lion turtle and introduced himself to the Nomads. Vaatu gained control the spirits on the island and began to terrorize the inhabitants, before revealing his presence, which the airbenders questioned due to the absence of Raava. Wan tried to fight off the spirits with firebending, when Raava arrived. After gloating how he would destroy Raava, Vaatu fled with the dark spirits. Confused, the people living atop the air lion turtle asked why the spirits attacked. Wan explained himself and resolved to beat Vaatu by asking the lion turtle to grant him the power of air. Initially, the lion turtle declined but Wan was determined to undo the damage he had done. The lion turtle agreed to grant Raava the ability, who would pass it to Wan when he was ready.

Raava warned Wan that every time Vaatu gained power, her strength waned, and she goes on to say that in one year, the Harmonic Convergence will occur and Vaatu will destroy everything around them. During the next year, Raava helps Wan master firebending and airbending as well as water and earthbending. Near the end of the year, Wan and Raava found a ravaged section of forest; it was discovered that Wan's friends had left their city to create their own but were being attacked by spirits. Wan recognized several of the spirits from the oasis but they were soon corrupted by Vaatu, forcing him to fight them off with Raava. He ultimately fails in the attempt, and all the humans are wiped out by Vaatu's forces.

Raava, in a severely weakened state, asked Wan to travel to the southern portal for the convergence. In the final battle with Vaatu, Wan is severely beaten despite his bending abilities and fusing with Raava. Though her presence puts a great strain on his body, Wan refuses to give up. As the convergence begins, Wan, in a desperate gamble, touches the southern portal, absorbing the energy, permanently merging himself and Raava into one entity, creating the Avatar Spirit. After beating back Vaatu and imprisoning him with all four elements inside a tree, Wan makes it his mission to bring peace to the world while acting as the bridge between spirits and humans to avoid another disaster. To do so, he has all of the spirits leave the material world, and return to the spirit world, at which point he closes the spirit portal to ensure no human would be able to physically enter the Spirit World and free Vaatu.

After this, Korra awakens with her memory intact and the elderly woman asks her who she is. Korra replies that she is the Avatar and knows what must be done. The head sage takes Korra outside to a herd of sky bison that were saved after the Hundred Year War. Korra is gifted one and flies back towards the South Pole with the knowledge that Harmonic Convergence will occur in only a few weeks.

** Wan is initially not match for Vaatu, failing to do any real damage while getting wailed on in return. Once he permanently bonds with Raava, he turns the tables.

* SelfDoomingProphecy: Vaatu claims to Wan as Harmonic Convergence begins that the Era of Raava is over. Vaatu is indeed correct, but unfortunately for him Wan and Raava merge to form the first Avatar, which leads to his defeat, beginning the Era of the Avatar.

--> '''Vaatu''': I lived ten thousand lifetimes before the first of your kind crawled out of the mud! It was I who broke through the divide that separated the plane of spirits from the material world! To hate me is to give me breath. To fight me is to give me strength. Now prepare to face oblivion!

--> '''Wan''': Haven't you heard the legends? I'm not a regular human anymore.

* CurbStompBattle: Humans with fire bending versus a horde of dark spirits. Vaatu comments to Wan the humans had been destroyed, off-screen.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HopeSpot: Wan and Raava temporarily fuse allowing Wan to harness all four elements at once which seems to work in calming down the spirits and the humans. Unfortunately Wan can't handle Raava being inside of him for to long and ends up collapsing causing the two factions to get back to killing each other.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Vaatu pins Wan down against the Spirit Portal to watch Harmonic Convergence happen first hand. This gives Wan the opportunity to reach out and absorb the energy from the spirit portals, allowing him to permanently fuse with Raava, become the first Avatar, and give him enough of a boost to seal Vaatu away.

* TheReveal: The Portals were closed by Wan, in order to create balance in the world and make sure no one could reach Vaatu's jail and should have remained shut.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Aye-Aye calls Wan's friends [[PlayingWithFire fire]]-[[DoubleEntendre tossers]]. A tosser is British slang similar to the word bastard.

* NiceJobFixingItVillian: Vaatu pins Wan down against the Spirit Portal to watch Harmonic Convergence happen first hand. This gives Wan the opportunity to reach out and absorb the energy from the spirit portals, allowing him to permanently fuse with Raava, become the first Avatar, and give him enough of a boost to seal Vaatu away.

* TookALevelInBadass: Wan trains himself to master all four elements, within a year, and gains the ability to stand against god-level spirits. He also becomes a stronger person in general.

** On the battlefield where Wan passes, there are some of the discs used by Earth Kingdom warriors during the previous series.