History Recap / TheLegendOfKorraS3E10LongLiveTheQueen

* DirtyCoward: Grand Secretariat Gun flees in terror after the Red Lotus defeats the queen's Dai Li guards, ignoring her protests that he should die in defense of her. However, given the way she's treated him, the fact that he's a civilian, and the Red Lotus have already mopped the floor with the queen's most elite soldiers, one can't condemn him too harshly for doing so.

** Zaheer offs the Earth Queen, has Ghazan break down the walls of the city, and tells the people to do as they please. Suddenly bereft any sort of controlling influence and with newfound access to the upper rings of the city, most of the peasants start looting the wealthier areas.

* 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. Asami also talks the guard into chaining her to the wall instead of the ground, allowing her to get free. Averted in regards to Korra, whom they take every precaution with.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The Earth Queen's guards need a refresher course on EvilOverlordList Rule #84 ("I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex." To be fair though, Asami and Korra were the only ladies on board) -- Asami sweet-talks one of them into chaining her to the railing instead of an in uncomfortable position on the floor... and proceeds to rip the railing off the wall. They're a ''lot'' smarter with Korra though.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: It's hard to say if Zaheer ever intended to honor his deal with Hou-Ting (though on the other hand, the Queen never honors ''her'' end of any deal) -- certainly, he would have tried to kill her on general principle eventually, as it is his goal and something he wouldn't pass up -- but as soon as he learns that Korra has escaped custody, he abandons the trade and decides to bring Korra to him by assassinating Hou-Ting.

** The SandWorm-fish-thing, naturally, calls to mind the version from ''{{Dune}}''.

* 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 just happened to the Earth Queen.

* MyopicArchitecture: The Cabbage Corp airship is ''very'' shoddily constructed.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The Earth Queen's guards need a refresher course on EvilOverlordList Rule #84 ("I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.") -- Asami sweet-talks one of them into chaining her to the railing instead of an in uncomfortable position on the floor... and proceeds to rip the railing off the wall.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: It's indeed possible to use airbending to asphyxiate people.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: It's hard to say if Zaheer ever intended to honor his deal with Hou-Ting -- certainly, he would have tried to kill her on general principle eventually -- but as soon as he learns that Korra has escaped custody, he abandons the trade and decides to bring Korra to him by assassinating Hou-Ting.

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

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Earth Kingdom's quick descent 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.

* DirtyCoward: Grand Secretariat Gun flees in terror after the Red Lotus defeats the queen's Dai Li guards, ignoring her protests that he should die in defense of her.

* DirtyCoward: Grand Secretariat Gun flees in terror after the Red Lotus defeats the queen's Dai Li guards, ignoring her protests that he should die in defense of her. Arguable on the "dirty" part though, because, can you really blame him?

* DirtyCoward: Grand Secretariat Gun flees in terror after the Red Lotus defeats the queen's Dai Li guards, ignoring her protests that he should die in defense of her. Can you blame him, though?

** Bolin and Mako are imprisoned in the Earth Queen's dungeons. Mako tells Bolin to metalbend the doors and gets the whole cell block to cheer him on. Bolin digs deep, focuses... and achieves absolutely nothing. You don't instantly gain a very difficult and specialist skill because people believe in you.

* WhamEpisode: We knew Zahir's gang was effective and dangerous, but... damn!

* HypocriticalHumor: Hou-Ting calls Gun a coward for not laying down his life to save her.

* FridgeLogic: How did Naga get back to where they left the Jeeps? Last we saw her at the end of the previous episode, she was captured along with Korra and Asami.
** For that matter, how did the Red Lotus in their Satomobile beat the Earth Queen's airship back to Ba Sing Se? Asami and Korra were captured and on their way before the Red Lotus even left, and the radio call that the airship had crashed in the desert came after the Red Lotus had already had time to meet with the Queen and wait around in the palace.

* TwoOutofThreeAintBad: Ghazan says this after Bolin guesses his history. It's not clear which two of the three Bolin got correct though.

* 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 floor plate to escape from the cell. She even lampshades it by saying "Now that's just shoddy workmanship."
** The Earth Queen's men make absolutely sure Korra can't bend. She's straitjacketed, 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.
** When the Red Lotus hears of Korra's escape from the airship, P'Li immediately knows that the Earth Queen's soldiers will never be able to contain Korra. They got lucky last time because she was busy talking to Zaheer in the Spirit World.

* TooDumbToLive: Yeah, Hou-Ting, it's really a good idea to mouth off to the dangerous benders who just took out your Dai Li like they were common soldiers.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Discussed. Bolin asks Ghazan and Ming-Hua how they managed during their 13-year imprisonment. Ghazan would rename the constellations, while Ming-Hua would mostly make up stories about the guards.