History Recap / TheLegendOfKorraS3E10LongLiveTheQueen

* AlasPoorVillain: Despite the Earth Queen being a thoroughly unpleasant person, her sheer helplessness while being suffocated by Zaheer makes it easy to feel some pity for her.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Earth Kingdom's quick decent into chaos after the elimination of a tyrant is very similar to many real life events when an oppressive regime is brought down suddenly. Specifically the fall of the Russian and Chinese monarchies.

* CurbStompBattle: The Red Lotus shows how dangerous they are once again, by easily defeating the Dai Li, and never even taking a scratch.

** The Earth Queen's men make absolutely sure Korra can't bend. She's straightjacked, strapped to a dolly, the dolly is chained to the wall with multiple locks, and she has a face plate preventing any breath-based bending. Even though they can't deprive her of air to bend and don't know she can bend metal, neither matters because she's incapable of bending either with such restraints.

** Zaheer's speech to the queen rather conspicuously avoids mentioning death in the finale sentence.

* CoincidentalBroadcast: Just as Tonraq asks Korra if she heard about what happened to the Earth Queen the news comes on the radio and reports about what happened to the Earth Queen.

* CurbStompBattle: The Red Lotus shows how dangerous they are by easily defeating the Dai Li, never even taking a scratch.

* CurbStompBattle[=/=]TheWorfEffect: The Red Lotus shows how dangerous they are by easily defeating the Dai Li when outnumbered two to one.

* GenreSavvy: Asami knows that the airship was a cheap Cabbage Corp imitation of the Future Industries design and is able to easily break off a handle bar railing she was chained to, as well as pry up a metal plated floor board to escape from the cell. She even lampshades it by saying "Now that's just shoddy workmanship." The Earth Queen's men, meanwhile, are smart enough to make sure Korra is incapable of moving so she can't bend and keep her from any material she could bend, save air. Although they've got her mouth & nose covered with a face plate, so she can't use her mouth or nose to Airbend. They don't know she's a metalbender, but their restraints make sure she can't exploit it.

** Averted in that Ming-Hua mentions that she'd kill for some rain, she meant it metaphorically. But [[AxCrazy but judging by her character, she meant literally as well.]]

** Zaheer points out to the Earth Queen that holding the Avatar captive would get the other nations on her back.

* TheWorfEffect: Zaheer and his crew take out the ''[[EliteMooks Dai Li]]''.

* YankTheDogsChain: Throughout the episode, Mako tries to encourage Bolin to metalbend the cell bars to set them free. At the end, Bolin redoubled his efforts and all the cell doors but theirs spring open. Bolin is initially proud of himself, but Mako points out that it wasn't Bolin that opened them.

'''Zaheer:''' Maybe I forgot to mention something to you. [[PreMortemOneLiner I don't believe in queen.]]

News of the Avatar's escape reaches Ba Sing Se. With their deal falling through, the Red Lotus go for a secondary objective - assassination of the Earth Queen. The Dai Li are no match for the Red Lotus, and Zaheer asphyxiates the queen with his airbending. Zaheer announces his deed to the city as Gazaan tears down the wall of the lower ring. The revolt has begun!

Korra, Asami, and the airship crew make it to the Misty Palms Oasis. They run into Lin, Tonrak, and Zuko in a bar. They catch up on the grim news, and the episodes ends.

** Korra is all trussed up Hannibal-style.

* NeverSayDie: They don't outright say that the Earth Queen was killed, but rather "taken down". Nevertheless, they make it pretty clear that it's the permanent kind of "taken down".

** Korra is still trussed up Hannibal-style.

* GenreSavvy: Asami knows that the airship was a cheap Cabbage Corp imitation of the Future Industries design and is able to easily break off a handle bar railing she was chained to, as well as pry up a metal plated floor board to escape from the cell. She even lampshades it by saying "Now that's just shoddy workmanship." The Earth Queen's men, meanwhile, are smart enough to make sure Korra is incapable of moving so she can't bend and keep her from any material she could bend, save air. They don't know she's a metalbender, but their restraints make sure she can't exploit it.

* WrenchWench: Asami more than proves her skill in this field during the episode, first managing to get the airship running again then forging a makeshift sandsailer out of scrap metal.

** The Earth Kingdom soldiers go to great lengths to restrain Korra, but only make a minimla effort to restrain Asami since she's a non-bender. This naturally backfires.

* GenreBlind: Asami is able to convince the guard that chaining her to a railing instead of the floor wont cause any harm.
* GenreSavvy: Asami knows that the airship was a cheap Cabbage Corp imitation of The Future Industries design and is able to easily break off a handle bar railing she was chained to, as well as pry up a metal plated floor board to escape from the cell. She even lampshades it by saying "Now that's just shoddy workmanship." The Earth Queen's men meanwhile are smart enough to bind Korra in a straight jacket, and strap her to a table so she cant use bending to escape. She's got a face plate covering her mouth so that she can't even use her mouth to airbend.
** Korra tries to trick the guard whom Asami was able to trick into chaining her to a handle bar railing instead of to the floor, into getting her some water. The guard shoots her down and tells her not to ask for fire or earth for good measure.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Korra and Asami take out their guard with the classic "prisoner is sick" ploy. In a bit of a variation, Asami has actually already escaped the cell. She just needed the distraction so she could knock out the guard when he looked through the slot. Averted, however - besides Asami tricking the same guard into cuffing her to a weak pole on the wall, they were otherwise pretty competent, being careful to thoroughly restrain Korra and keep her away from anything she can bend (save air).

* HookHand: The airship captain reveals that his right hand has been replaced by a hook at the end of the episode, when he finally takes his arms out of his pockets.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: The airship captain declares this after everything's said and done.

* MythologyGag: Apparently there's a Fort Bosco in the Earth Kingdom.
* NeverSayDie: They don't outright say that the Earth Queen was killed, but rather "taken down". Nevertheless, they make it pretty clear that it's the permanent kind of "taken down". And even if it wasn't the case, the rioters and looters that invaded the palace at the end would have taken care of that anyways.

* ShoutOut: An expert in building vehicles is part of a group stranded in the desert, and is able to put together a crude new transportation out of their old one that lasts just long enough to get them to safety. It's basically a WholePlotReference to ''TheFlightOfThePhoenix''.
** Korra being bound in a straight jacket and strapped and locked to a table with a face plate covering her mouth and nose is an obvious reference to [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter.]]

* NeverSayDie: They don't outright say that the Earth Queen was killed, but rather "taken down". Nevertheless, they make it pretty clear that it's the permanent kind of "taken down."

* GenreSavvy: Asami knows that the airship was a cheap Cabbage Corp imitation of The Future Industries design and is able to easily break off a handle bar railing she was chained to, as well as pry up a metal plated floor board to escape from the cell. She even lampshades it by saying "Now that's just shoddy workmanship." The Earth Queen's men meanwhile are smart enough to bind Korra in a straight jacket, and strap her to a table so she cant use bending to escape. Shes even got a face plate covering her mouth so she cant even use her mouth to airbend.

** Korra tries to trick the guard whom Asami was able to trick into chaining her to a handle bar railing instead of to the floor, into getting her some water. The guard shoots her down and tells her not to ask for fire or earth for good measure

** Korra being bound in a straight jacket and strapped and locked to a table with a face plate covering her mouth and nose is an obvious reference to HannibalLecter

* GenreBlind: Asami is able to convince the guard that chaining her to a railinginstead if the floor wont cause any harm.

* EvilPowerVacuum: With the tyrannical Earth Queen dead, citizens from the upper, middle and lower rings begin turning on each other. In fact Korra notes this is what Zaheer wanted, and was only just the beginning.

* EvilPowerVaccum: With the tyrannical Earth Queen dead, citizens from the upper, middle and lower rings begin turning on each other. In fact Korra notes this is what Zaheer wanted, and was only just the beginning.